Morning Prayer in the Celtic Tradition

Good morning on this last day of April –
a very changeable month of cold and drought and finally refreshing rain.

Today we pray in the Celtic tradition drawing on prayers from David Adam.

This new day you give me from your great eternity. This new day now enfold me in your loving hold.
God be in me this day, God ever with me stay. God be in the night, keep us by thy light.
God be in my heart. God abide, never depart.

This prayer tradition is as old as Christianity in this land
It is a way of inviting God into all our activity and seeking to become aware of God in everyday events.
Our mission is not to bring Christ to others but to discover he is there and to reveal his presence.
Here is how we encounter God – by living a life that is open and receptive, that makes room for Christ.

A reading from John’s First Letter:

Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

1 John 4:11–16

Thanks be to you for the gifts you give each day, each night, on land and sea; each weather, fair, wild or calm –
for your eye to keep from harm; for each hour, its ebb, its flow; for your arm around me so.
For each gift, thanks be to thee. The best gift is yourself to me.
Glory to God on earth peace: Let this song never cease!

As I arise this morn, Christ in me be born.
When I wash my face, bless me with your grace.
When I comb my hair, keep me from despair.
When I put on my clothes, your presence, Lord, disclose.
Glory to God on earth peace: Let this song never cease!

The Celtic tradition puts us within the very heart of God during all the mundane and glorious patterns that life creates.
We are reminded that we are temporary guests on this earth
and must hold tight to the opportunities for abiding in love that we encounter on the way.

I give my hands to you Lord, I offer the work I do.
I give my thoughts to you Lord, I give my plans to you.
Give your hands to me, Lord, let your love set me free.
Keep me close to you Lord, keep me close to you.

For people who do not know this love, who are alive in loneliness
We pray for them today.

For people burdened with stress at work and care at home
We pray for them today.

For people who suffer illness or disease in body or mind
We pray for them today.

For people we know but cannot see or touch or hold in love
We pray for them today.

For people who live in poverty, injustice, oppression or despair
We pray for them today.

Christ, move in and out, over and under, weaving your presence in their lives.

Amen

This day closes another chapter in the story of a world shocked by pandemic,
removed from the orderliness of routine time.
We who live in the love of God are the ones who can make a future different from the past.

May the strength of God pilot us. May the power of God preserve us.
May the wisdom of God instruct us. May the hand of God protect us.
May the way of God direct us. May the shield of God defend us.
May the host of God guard us against the snares of the evil one and the temptations of this world.
May Christ be with us, Christ above us, Christ in us, Christ before us.
May thy salvation, O Lord, be always ours this day and for evermore.

St Patrick, 373 CE

Let us venture out into this new day full of the love of God!

Cheryl Montgomery