Elizabeth Recommends

A Book of Celtic Prayers and a Book of Meditations

Don't we all want to begin this month with more peace and serenity? May I recommend two books that will help us achieve this?

First, there is the beautiful little book by Philip Newell called Celtic Benediction: Morning and Night Prayers. So beautifully illustrated that you are blessed if you only look at the pictures and illustrations, this short collection has some of the most beautiful Celtic prayers you will find anywhere. I love Celtic prayers because they are so "earthy," so related to life as I live it every day. There's one ancient Celtic prayer about the land that illustrates how the early Irish (and other Celt groups) prayed about everything:

Facing the south for warmth A little stream across its ground A choice plot with abundant boundaries Which would be good for every plant... I will go out to sow the seed, In name of God who gave it growth...

Start and end your day this month with Celtic Benediction, and you will experience a difference, I predict, in the rest of each 24-hour period.

A second recommendation for this month: Peg Streep and Claudia Sargent's beautiful book Spiritual Illuminations: Meditations for Inner Growth. Claudia painted the pictures and Peg edited the collection. This is also a book that will inspire you if you only look at it. But to read the contents which are grouped into categories like Gathering, Meditation, Renewal, and Harmony is to find words that lift and bless. The book contains a range of writers: e. e. cummings, Rilke, Martin Buber, Ann Morrow Lindbergh, Dag Hammarskjold, St. Teresa of Avila, Khandogya-Upanishad, Edith Wharton, Tewe Song, as well as selections from the Bible.