Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Holy Rover

Home
New Visions
A Pilgrimage to St. Patrick’s Day–Part 2, Blessings

A Pilgrimage to St. Patrick’s Day–Part 2, Blessings

Last updated on: March 6, 2016 at 9:17 pm by Lori Erickson

A Pilgrimage to St. Patrick’s Day–Part 2, Blessings 2016-03-06T21:17:29-06:00 Lori Erickson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

vtg-old-irish-blessing-framed-sampler-needlepoint-cross-stitch-may-road-rise-up-a8d936dfa4da4bd7007db51932de4471

image from Wikimedia Commons

You know those Irish blessings that get needle-pointed? The ones about the road rising up to meet you and the wind being at your back?

They’re actually part of an ancient tradition in Celtic Christianity, the practice of honoring and reinforcing the sacredness of life through words.

The early Irish Christians believed that even the simplest and most commonplace of human actions should be invested with ritual and prayer. There were invocations for such seemingly mundane activities as greeting the rising sun, covering the fire at night, and getting ready for sleep.

For example, here’s a prayer calling upon angels and saints to help with the tending of cattle:

Come, Brendan, from the ocean,
Come, Ternan, most potent of men,
Come, Michael valiant, down
And propitiate to me the cow of my joy.
Ho my heifer, ho heifer of my love,
Ho my heifer, ho heifer of my love.
My beloved heifer, choice cow of every shieling,
For the sake of the High King take to thy calf.

This tradition of blessing and invocations lived on for many centuries in Ireland and Scotland. We’re fortunate to know about these oral Celtic prayers because of the work of folklorist Alexander Carmichael, who in the 19th century collected them in his Carmina Gadelica.

An emphasis on blessings and benedictions was also part of the earlier, pre-Christian Celtic world. Ian Bradley writes in Colonies of Heaven: Celtic Models for Today’s Church:

The Celts had a very strong sense of the almost physical power of the spoken word both to heal and to harm. The Irish file (poet) was thought to have two compartments in his tongue, one for honey and the other for poison. This was one of the main reasons why the Celts were so reluctant to write things down and maintained an almost exclusively oral tradition … With the coming of Christianity, this belief in the force of the spoken word and its ability to work an almost tangible effect for good or ill was not extinguished but simply integrated into the new belief system.

image from Wikimedia Commons

And so a Celtic blessing was not a mere pleasantry: its words had the ability to channel divine grace. Other equally powerful prayers, known as breastplates or loricas, could cast a circle of protection against evil.

The well-known hymn St. Patrick’s Breastplate illustrates this long Celtic tradition. Its opening words are an incantation: “I bind unto myself today.” It then calls upon many powers for protection, including the doctrine of the Trinity, Christ’s baptism and resurrection, and sun, moon, and wind.

To be honest, this hymn has never been one of my favorites–it’s so darn hard to sing–but having this perspective on its words gives me a greater appreciation for it. Here’s a contemporary rendition of part of the hymn, the verses invoking Christ’s presence:

All of this gives one a different perspective on all those needle-pointed Irish blessings, doesn’t it?

Previous Post

February 23, 2016

A Pilgrimage to St. Patrick's Day--Part 1, Celtic Christianity

Next Post

March 6, 2016 A Pilgrimage to St. Patrick's Day--Part 3, The Book of Kells

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Aging & Spirituality Amish Anabaptists Animals Apocalypse Archeological sites Art and Spirituality Awards Belgian Holy Sites birds Blessings Books Buddhism Business & Spirituality Callings Cats Celtic Cemeteries Children Christianity church Colorado Creation Death Desert Spirituality Easter Economics Education & Spirituality Egypt Episcopal Church Faith Fear Films First Nations Food Forgiveness Germany God Good & Evil Good Friday Grace Gratitude Happiness Healing Hildegard of Bingen Hinduism History Holy Rover blog Holy Sites Holy Week Horses Iceland Illness Images of God Indigenous Spiritualilty Interfaith Interfaith Dialogue Iowa Islam Israel Japan Judaism LDS Church Lent Machu Picchu Martin Luther Media Meditation Monasteries Museums Music Music and Spirituality Musings Mysticism Native American Nature New Age New Zealand Norse History/Culture/Spirituality Orthodox Paradox Paranormal Peru Philosophy Pilgrimage Poetry Politics Pop Culture Pilgrimage Sites Prayers sermons Silence Social Media Spiritual writers Spirituality and Food Spirituality and Social Media Stone Circles Thomas Merton Turkey Uncategorized Unconventional Holy Sites Utopian communities Videos Virgin Mary Wicca Work World War I Writing Zen

Select a Month August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In which garden did Jesus pray before His arrest?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Golgotha Gethsemane Eden Paradise