Spirituality

Spirituality is an awareness that we long to reach a dimension beyond ourselves. It’s a search for union with that Holy Mystery we call God…a mystery we believe was revealed in all creation, but especially in Jesus. Our spiritual search is rooted in the Gospel. There we find the words that speak to us of God’s justice, forgiveness and inclusive love. There we find the compassion and courage of Jesus to be one with the poor, the suffering and the oppressed. As Sisters of St. Joseph, we try to look at our fragile, broken world through the lens of the Gospel. Through communal prayer...personal contemplation...interaction and ministry, we commit ourselves to live and work to bring all into union with God and one another.

July 15, 2010.

Celtic Spirituality

by Joan Heptig, CSJ.

One of the underlying realities of life is the unity that binds each of us to all other beings in this vast universe, linked in life as well as death, in wholeness as well as fragmentation.

Embodying this unifying vision is an ancient spirituality traced to the Celtic people of Wales,Scotland and Ireland, that embraced the community of all beings as a tapestry woven of many threads, a mosaic created of many tiles, a symphony born of many notes and movements.

Originally a nature religion, Celtic spirituality embraced wholeheartedly the message of Christianity even seeing Christ as the great Druid over all. Through pilgrimage, learning, the arts, community, equality and prayer the Celtic people enfleshed an astonishing belief of Christianity: the "imago Dei" the image of God within all creation.
They did this in the daily work and play of their lives tilling fields, baking bread, teaching, weaving cloth, birthing animals, telling stories, singing songs, making love, making peace, forgiving wrongs, smooring the night fire, intoning prayers that accompanied every daily action they undertook. It is in the Carmina Gadelica a massive collection of oral prayers gathered over a lifetime by Alexander Carmichael, that we have the privilege of glimpsing this way of life.

Even as terrorism, famine and persecution haunted them throughout the centuries, the Celts were never ultimately destroyed. In the midst of unrelenting trials they held fast to their twin books of Revelation: the Bible and creation. Meeting the goodness, grace and salvation of God through the goodness, grace and saving power at the heart of existence, the Celtic people endured with steadfast courage.

A kind of perfect reconciliation exists to this day between Celtic spirituality and the world as we know it. It is in the daily moments of our lives that we encounter the astounding mystery and meaning of God made flesh in our midst.

Resources:

Listening for the Heartbeat of God, J. Philip Newell, Paulist Press, 1997
The Music of What Happens, John J. O"Riordain, St. Mary’s Press, 1996
Every Earthly Blessing, Esther de Wall, Morehouse Publishing, 1999
The Celtic Way of Prayer, Esther de Wall, Doubleday, 1997

Spiritual Articles

Below are articles on spirituality you may find enlightening.

These will change regularly according to the liturgical season.