Celtic Retreat on the Festival of Lughnasa

I've been graciously invited to lead an August 7th Celtic mini-retreat at All Saints Episcopal, Brookline, MA. All Saints has a 5 pm Saturday Celtic Mass adapted from the liturgies of Iona Island and many other sources, and they often sponsor special events at feasts or Saints Days like this.

Facebook event and press release are below. I may also do some live-blogging from Ireland for the next few weeks if the computers like me.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115089441871627
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All Saints Parish is sponsoring a retreat on “The Celtic Festival of Lughnasa” on Saturday, August 7, 3:00 - 4:30 pm. The retreat will be led by Harvard Divinity School graduate Kieran Conroy, who will share the history and themes of Lughnasa and its sister-celebrations in Scotland and other places of Celtic influence. His presentation will be illustrated with photographs from his trip to Ireland where he researched Celtic festivals, folklore, shrines, and holy places.

The ancient Irish festival of Lughnasa is one of the important “quarter feasts” celebrated with parallels among many Celtic peoples since ancient times. Like other pre-Christian holidays, the coming of Christianity seems to have transformed rather than destroyed these ancient festivals of the Gaelic people. Lughnasa marks the beginning of the harvest in Ireland, and had many beautiful customs and traditions that continued in interesting forms into our own time.

Kieran Conroy will also describe other important folk-holidays among traditional Celtic communities, particularly where Christianity harmonized with ancient customs and beliefs. He will share photographs and artifacts from his research on important religious sites in Ireland. He will lead participants in exploring how Lughnasa might inform our Christian spirituality today.

All are invited to the retreat at 3:00 pm and to the Celtic Holy Eucharist at 5:00 pm, where the preacher will be Kieran Conroy. There is no fee, but voluntary donations will be accepted. Following the service all are invited to the Celtic potluck appetizer social hour at 6:00 pm. Please bring a dish to share. Kieran Conroy suggests that people bring foods associated with Lughnasa, such as potato, fish, chicken, cabbage, berries and Irish bacon dishes or other family favorites that honor the spirit of generosity and sharing.

All Saints Parish is located at 1773 Beacon Street (corner of Dean Road) in Brookline.

For more information, contact All Saints Parish at 617-738-1810 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 617-738-1810 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or office@allsaintsbrookline.org or www.allsaintsbrookline.org.

(a slightly delayed) Beltane Prayer All Families in the Gulf

I started this a few weeks ago, wanted to share but delayed by papers, one of which included it. The paper was meant to demonstrate ways these traditions can inspire worship today... also dealt with some of the imperfections of the Carmina text which I won't get into here. Please enjoy!
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May 1st is Celebrated as Beltane, the Celtic holiday others people know as May Day. This day is a traditional “new fire” festival in both Scotland and Ireland, and especially associated with hills such as Tara, or more local bonfires celebrating the new year's fertility and life. Its one of many indigenous traditions from this part of the world that continued with the coming of Christianity, and I was blessed to read some beautiful descriptions from the Carmina Gadelica, a work that tried to preserve many of these traditions from the highlands of Scotland in the 19th Century.* I celebrated it privately at sundown the eve before, the traditional start of a new day by both Celtic and Jewish reckonings.

I chose a secluded rock outcropping in a local forest, overlooking a lovely lake. I had studied the Carmina Gadelica as well as older traditions, and was especially moved by his descriptions of bho baile gu beinn, the day of migrating that appeared on or near Beltane too. On this day, Catholics and Protestants in highland families would move from townland to moorland, leaving homesteads and winter barns to reach the summer pastures with their flocks. I was profoundly moved, as a scholar of indigenous traditions here to see how close their pastoral cycles were to the hunting and gathering of the local Wampanoag peoples, who maintained summer and winter homes in sites suited to their needs—indeed I had just been blessed to help some Native friends at the college erect one of these homes, a "Wetu" in Harvard yard. In these customs I saw a shared closeness to the land and sustenance we are so lacking today.

The migration to the hills was not a chore, but a chance for the entire community celebrate, reunite and lead even their animals in a special procession. They offer prayers, safeguarding their herds and the whole community with caim, or encircling prayers of protection (God before me, God behind me, etc.). These Christian prayers combined with the older Beltane ritual itself, passing one's flocks and, sometimes people between two fires for special protection and purification. As I read one particular Blessing recorded by Carmichael, I was deeply moved by the prayers of loving protection for family, house and animals, in the coming year. I'll quote a little here.

Bless, O Threefold true and bountiful,
Myself, my spouse and my children,
My tender children an their beloved mother at their head.
On the fragrant plain, on the gay mountain sheiling,
On the fragrant plain, on the gay mountain sheiling,

Everything within my dwelling or my possession,
All kine and crops, all flocks and corn,
From Hallow Eve to Beltane Eve,
With goodly progress and gentle blessing,
From sea to sea, and every river mouth,
From wave to wave, and base of waterfall.

Be the Three Persons taking possession of all to me belonging,
Be the sure Trinity protecting me in truth;
Oh! Satisfy my soul in the words of Paul,
And shield my loved ones beneath the wing of Thy glory,
Shield my loved ones beneath the wing of Thy glory.

Bless everything and every one,
Of this little household by my side;
Place the cross of Christ on us with the power of love,
Till we see the land of joy,
Till we see the land of joy.

What time the kine shall forsake the stalls,
What time the sheep shall forsake the folds,
What time the goats shall ascend the the mount of mist,
May the tending of the Triune follow them,
May the tending of the Triune follow them,

Thou Being who didst create me at the beginning,
Listen and attend me as I bend knee to Thee,
Morning and evening as is becoming in me,
In Thine own presence, O God of life,
In thine own presence, O God of life.

I read the prayer twice, once in English and once in a painful Gaelic attempt (I am trying to learn a little Irish!) I asked my ancestors' forgiveness for in advance, while lighting a very tiny, symbolic fire. I used a Pascal candle from an Easter vigil fire service, remembering Patrick's famous fire-challenge to an Irish king-at the time a religious conflict, but in my practice a harmony—I, as a Christian celebrate Easter first as it is my hope in the bursting of God's Life into the world, healing all pain, sorrow and sin in the end. But Easter hope does not conflict with continuing to honor the memories of my ancestors and rhythms of this world, in light of that hope.

I was especially moved by the loving care the farmer spoke for his animals, worrying after them nearly as his own family as mothers and young went off to the high, misty places. This was not some overly romantic, unrealistic love of nature since, of course the farmer would also eat some of these animals in the coming year. But it seemed a genuine, deeper love of the world and relationships with one's ecology, seen also in Native traditions which hunt animals, but also deeply respect them. Celtic peoples do not have a monopoly on this closeness, though we certainly lack it in our cold, industrial society, causing so much pain.

As I closed my little ritual, my heart especially ached for the Gulf Coast, where I had just learned dolphins were calving and sea turtle nests, too lay right in the line of the horrific oil spill our own broken human nature had created. I offered a final prayer, as the sun slipped below the horizon for those families, and all human families too for protection in that “high, misty place” in our time. The last three verses spoke esspecially deeply to me, as I prayed to God for our world in an uncertain future. (I'll add them in Gaelic in a few):


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* Alexander Carmichael, a native-born highlander Scot gathered stories, prayers and poems for decades. Many have been used by people interested in Celtic spirituality, including the Iona community, though one has to be careful of the way he was known romanticize or simplify some things. Still, his work saved many beautiful traditions being pushed out by the forces of his time and I'm grateful for them.

St. Patrick's Day Book Review: Liz Babbs' "Celtic Treasure"

A very blessed Fhéile Pádraig (Feast of Patrick) to all! Author, performer and retreat-leader Liz Babbs was kind enough to share a copy of her book (Celtic Treasure: Unearthing the Riches of Celtic Spirituality) if I'd write a review of it by Ireland's highest holiday, so here goes!

It so happens I'm studying Celtic Christianity formally this semester, so while much of the background is familiar its been a real delight to have Liz's book brings it to live with breathtaking images of the Irish, Scottish and British landscapes and sacred sites her sources evoke. The book seems crafted to pay tribute to those two ancient Irish specialties, the breathtaking manuscript tradition that preserved so much of Europe's literature, and wild, bold journeys of the spirit into the wildest and windiest places on Earth.

Babbs' little book carefully reads like a pilgrimage in fact, through both time and space as she covers topics such as the great Celtic saints, prayer and solitude, God and Creation, and hospitality. It is full of story, history and ancient verses that have made their way down to us, and combines a simple accessibility with a careful treatment of what scholars know of these times -- making it an enjoyable, but authentic window into Celtic Christian traditions. She intersperses the text with her own poetry, evocative scripture and more recent poets as well, really giving one a sense of being immersed in a full "Communion" of spiritual voices. Its a lovely book for daily devotion, for Celtic worship groups or anyone simply wanting to learn more about this fascinating spiritual tradition.

You can find out more about Liz at her blog, or go to her website for information on her book:
http://celtictreasure.blogspot.com/
http://www.lizbabbs.com/