Where Three Streams Meet: Celtic Spirituality.
Author: O DUINN, Sean.
Dublin: Columba Press, 2000. 336 pages. Paperback.
“While much has been written and said in recent years about Celtic Spirituality, scholars have long been sceptical about the subject. How can we speak of Celtic Spirituality when virtually all of the sources are from the Christian, post-Celtic era? Furthermore, how can we speak with certainty about what elements of the early history of Ireland are truly Celtic? What about the builders of the great megalithic tombs, for example?
Sean O Duinn OSB is very conscious of the need to return to the original texts, to examine the sources closely and always to bear in mind the impact of each of these three distinct streams in our inheritance — the megalithic, the Celtic and the Christian.
In Part 1 he outlines what is known about the Celts, their lifestyle, their customs and their beliefs, and in Part 2 he shows how some major themes from the Celtic heritage interface with the Easter Mystery of the Christian tradition.
In Part 3 he presents various aspects of Celtic piety — traditional Irish folk prayers, Irish monasticism, intercession for the dead, the spirituality of Gaelic Scotland. Finally, in Part 4, he draws together the Celtic year, with its great feasts of Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasa, and the Christian liturgical year which also follows the cycle of nature. The potential for enrichment and development of spirituality and the worship of God becomes clear.
Sean O Duinn, a monk of Glenstal Abbey, lectures on Irish Heritage Studies in Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. He is author of Orthai Cosanta sa Chraifeacht Cheilteach, a work of research on the Celtic protection-prayer tradition, and his doctoral thesis was on the Rites of Brigid, the Goddess and Saint.”
ISBN: 1856072886