"God be with thee in every pass,
Jesus be with thee on every hill,
Spirit be with thee on every stream,
Headland and ridge and lawn;
Each sea and land, each moor and meadow,
Each lying down, each rising up,
In the trough of the waves, on the crest of the billows,
Each step of the journey thou goest."
~Carmina Gadelica

I had held off for some time in purchasing the book Carmina Gadelica. This large anthology of poems and prayers from the Gaelic oral tradition is the most comprehensive ever collected. The writings came from communities all over the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The volume represents words shared or performed at evening gatherings, ceilidhs, and were passed down from generation to generation. They were compiled by Alexander Carmichael(1832-1912). I could hold off no longer and the book arrived in the mail this week.

The pages are filled with blessings for looms,baptisms,hunting, fishing, meals,sheep & cattle. It represents prayers spoken for the beginning and the ending of days. Sprinkled throughout are prayers for milking and the growing of gardens and their harvest. The poems are full of the lore of those who lived close to the land and saw the presence of the Sacred in the moving of, not only the seasons, the ocean and the sky, but the very movements of ordinary tasks of daily life. Each movement was blessed and honored for its holiness. The prayers also represent the pre-Christian understanding of the Holy One and the later layering on of their love of Christ brought to the beautiful, yet often desolate, landscape by the Roman church.

Most Westerners have learned to limit their blessing to Sundays and special days…..birthdays, anniversaries,weddings, funerals. We rarely think of blessing the path we wake up to take each morning or even less the work we are about to do that day. I had a friend once whose mother blessed him with holy water on the first day of school which, when he told the story, most people laughed and thought odd. And yet what parent wouldn't love to have the thought, or courage, to do something similar?

These ancient wise ones knew the gift of honoring the Sacred that walks with us in each step, that hovers in each breath. They prayed God's blessing on the animals that gave them milk, that became their food. They saw the sacredness of the wool that moved from sheep to warp and loom giving them warmth in cold, wet winters. As they rose and rekindled the fire that warmed their hearth, they asked God's blessing on their home and all that would transpire there that day. They claimed the Spirit's presence that travels with each of us in the moments, the days, the years of this pilgrim life.

The words may be ancient but the wisdom still rings true. Wherever your path takes you this day, may the blessing of God be with you at every pass.