With St. Patrick’s Day this past Tuesday, I wanted to share some aspects of Celtic Spirituality which has its roots in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. It has both influenced and challenged the traditions and theology of Scottish Presbyterianism.
An important concept of Celtic Spirituality is that of “thin spaces.” Places in the natural world can be sacred. There are specific locations where people have been especially drawn to and have experienced a strong emotional response. Some describe this strong reaction as feeling the presence of God or the Holy Spirit. These are thin spaces where the landscape can become a place of theophany or divine manifestation.
For me such places are the mountains of North Carolina and the mountainous topography of the U.S. Southwest. These pictures are from our recent trip to Arizona where we spent some time in Sedona, considered a “thin space” in both the secular and religious worlds. You may feel drawn to Lake Michigan, or the plains of middle America, or the coast of Florida. These might be places where you have felt especially drawn to or felt the presence of God.
And, how have you been called to respond to these “thin spaces?” In the Celtic tradition, creation offers its own form of praise to God. Author Mary Earle offers this description in 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred:
The sea, the sky, the trees, the animals, the stars – all these are seen to be continually speaking the praise of God, but without human speech. It is the vocation of the whole creation to praise God, not only in song and poetry, but also in living creativity within the divine design and pattern. We can never exhaust our praise, nor can we ever capture the fullness of God’s presence and gift in our prayer.
To experience the landscape as theophany is to take seriously the way the divine can be revealed through nature. It means we can join with all of creation in singing God’s praise. We can find such language in Psalm 8:
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are humans that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?Yet you have made them a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Amen!
Pastor Beth
