Celtic forms of prayer ruin me, in their poetry and wisdom and truth and simplicity.
Here’s one that I will pray as the blessing over a party that we’re having today at our house:
I saw a stranger yestereen,
I put food in the eating place
drink in the drinking place
music in the listening place
and in the sacred names of the Holy Trinity,
he blessed my house,
my cattle and my dear ones,
and the lark sang her song
often, often, often
goes the Christ in a strangers guise,
often, often, often
goes the Christ in the strangers guise.
Lovely, no?
The Celts who first prayed this prayer realized that the presence of God wasn’t a distant and abstract thing. God could be noticed in the everyday – in the wind and waves, the storm and sea. In friends and visitors alike.
And the voice of God just might be the lark’s song.
pat loughery 
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