Celtic Spirituality

I just completed two days of Celtic Spirituality Classes. What a gift!! It began with a trip to Glendalough. St. Kevin developed this as a monastery in the mid 600’s. The Celtic people were country folk not accustomed or inclined to “city” life. They did eventually gather in small communities which the early Celtic saints like Patrick and Kevin developed quite successfully into types of monastic communities. The monks and the lay folks worked together and these became the basis of what we would term as “parish” or even “diocese” today. The Abbot (not the bishop) was the leader and head of the monastery. The gospel and basic tenants of Christianity were studied and learned and applied to everyday life.

The early Irish were very creation centered people. They saw God in all of creation around them. When St. Patrick used the shamrock to enlighten them on the trinity, they understood and accepted that. The Celtic cross has a circle around the center. This circle represents all creation or the “sun.” They saw the connection between Jesus’ redemption and the God of creation. This was indeed learning based on the culture of the time. Patrick and the early missionaries were experts at evangelization. I think we have a lot to learn and need to work on understanding our current culture and bring the Gospel message. It’s called a process of “enculturation.”

One of my goals when I return is to do a process of evaluation and enculturation to see if we can be more effective in transmitting the gospel message to the people we work with in Fond du Lac.