The Celtic Way of Prayer: The Recovery of the Religious Imagination - Softcover

ESTHER DE WAAL

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340651660 ISBN 13: 9780340651667

Publisher: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 1996

Synopsis

Esther de Waal, one of Celtic Christianity's preeminent scholars, shows how this tradition of worship draws on both the pre-Christian past and on the fullness of the Gospel. It is also an enlightening glimpse at the history, folklore, and liturgy of the Celtic people.Esther de Waal introduces readers to monastic prayer and praise (the foundation stone of Celtic Christianity), early Irish litanies, medieval Welsh praise poems, and the wealth of blessings derived from an oral tradition that made prayer a part of daily life. Through this invigorating book, readers enter a world in which ritual and rhythm, nature and seasons, images and symbols play an essential role. A welcome contrast to modern worship, Celtic prayer is liberating and, like a living spring, forever fresh.

About this title

From the Publisher

To explore and recover the Celtic roots of Christianity is to reclaim a forgotten heritage, one that will deepen and enrich our vision of the Christian faith. This book shows how the Celtic way of prayer draws on both the pre-Christian past and on the fullness of the Gospel. Also woven into the book is the liturgy, folklore, and history of the Celtic people. Here is prayer with the whole of one's self.

Esther de Waal introduces the reader to monastic prayer and praise (the foundation stone of Celtic Christianity), to early Irish litanies, to medieval Welsh praise poems, to the wealth of blessings that come from the oral tradition that made praying a part of daily living. We discover that this is not a dead tradition but a living spring, ancient and yet always new.

From the Back Cover

"In what will undoubtedly be a classic on Celtic spirituality and prayer, Esther de Waal leads her readers to a rediscovery of the beauty and richness of the Celtic way of life."
--Rosemary Rader, OSB

"What Esther has written is superb, because the combination of Esther's own spirituality and early Celtic spirituality is bound to be superb...I have read every word slowly, carefully, enjoying, being nourished. It isn't just that Celtic spirituality with its loving immediacy is appealing, it is that it is necessary at this time of violence and indifference and greed in the Western world. It can, indeed, be our salvation."
--Madeleine L'Engle

"Esther de Waal's unique contribution to Celtic Christian studies is that she is never outside her subject. Her constant ability to apply the life of those earlier centuries to her own devotional life makes it possible for those of us who read her to encounter those people in such a way that their Christian journey can become food and drink for us in the hunger and thirst of our own century."
--Herbert O'Driscoll, author of A Doorway in Time

"A rich tapestry of learning, personal experience of prayer, empathy with monastic endeavor and a real understanding of what inspiration is needed by so many of the laity also in their journey of Christian prayer today."
--Patrick Barry, OSB, Abbot of Ampleforth Abbey

Edition details

• Publisher: HODDER AND STOUGHTON
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0340651660
• ISBN 13: 9780340651667
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 197