Friday, November 03, 2006
Friday Coffeehouse: Carmina GadelicaI am always excited to find new prayers, because as a mother I am conatantly in search of appropriate and simple ones for my own children. I hope to some day hang a few little prayers around the house for them to read.
Carmina Gadelica, by Alexander Carmichael, is a wonderful compilation of prayers, hymns, poetry, incantations and more from the Celtic lands. Alexander Carmichael, a Scottsman from the late 19th century, collected these amidst his travels throughout the Scottish Highlands.
Among the prayers of Carmina Gadelica are some refreshingly simple prayers which, to me, are an example in words of what our constant spirit of prayer should be throughout the day: prayers which are not a foreign way of speaking, but a way that is natural, free, real.
"But for those of us who yearn for a rebirth of Christian culture, on whatever scale, books like Carmina Gadelica can offer a taste of wholeness, where God is seen in all..." ~Daniel Nichols, of Eighth Day Icons and the Caelum et Terra journals, wrote about the book in one of his reviews.
Below are just a couple of the prayers in this rich, thick book which I particularly love. I wish I could share more of them, but alas- my own copy of this beloved book is still in a box somewhere amidst our pile of belongings from Ohio.
Morning Prayer:
God to enfold me,
God to surround me,
God in my speaking,
God in my thinking.
God in my sleeping,
God in my waking,
God in my watching,
God in my hoping.
God in my life,
God in my lips,
God in my hands,
God in my heart.
God in my sufficing,
God in my slumber,
God in mine ever-living soul,
God in mine eternity.
**********
Sleep Consecrations:
I lie down this night with God,
And God will lie down with me;
I lie down this night with Christ,
And Christ will lie down with me;
I lie down this night with the Spirit,
And the Spirit will lie down with me;
God and Christ and the Spirit
Be lying down with me.
**********
I lie down tonight
With fairMary and with her Son,
With pure-white Michael,
And with Bride beneath her mantle.
I lie down with God,
And God will lie down with me,
I will not lie down with Satan,
Nor shall Satan lie down with me.
O god of the poor,
Help me this night....
**********
~Sia, Vancouver, WA
Labels: Books Music Culture
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