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Celebrating Nine Years of
The Celtic Eucharist at All Saints Parish
WELCOME to the Celtic Spirituality page
Here you will find information about the Celtic Holy Eucharist at All
Saints Parish
and learn about the Celtic spiritual tradition.
Celtic Holy Eucharist
(Communion Service with Celtic music and prayers)
is celebrated every Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
and every Wednesday at 6:15 p.m.
ALL ARE WELCOME!
Celtic Potluck! The next potluck social hour is May 10 after the 5:00 pm
service. Please bring something to share. For information, contact Jane at 617-713-0303.
Features of Celtic Christianity:
Love of nature and a passion for the wild and elemental as a reminder
of God's gift.
Love and respect for art and poetry.
Love and respect for the great stories and "higher learning"
Sense of God and the saints as a continuing, personal, helpful presence.
Theologically orthodox, yet with heavy emphasis on the Trinity, and
a love and respect for Mary, the Incarnation of Christ, and Liturgy.
Thin boundaries between the sacred and the secular.
Unique Church structure: there were originally no towns, just nomadic
settlements, hence the church was more monastic rather than diocesan,
resulting in quite independent rules and liturgies.
Ireland was very isolated; it was hard to impose outside central Roman
authority.
Influenced much by middle-eastern and Coptic monasticism.
Used the ancient calendar system for celebrating Easter and Lent.
Abbots had more power than the bishops.
Monasteries were often huge theocratic villages often associated with
a clan with the same kinship ties, along with slaves, freemen, celibate
monks, married clergy, professed lay people, men and women living side
by side.
While some monasteries were in isolated places, many more were at
the crossroads of provincial territories.
Women had more equal footing in ancient Irish law, thus had more equal
say in church government.
Developed the idea of having a "soul friend" (anmchara)
to help in spiritual direction.
Invented personal confession.
Oral word-based culture; most of the people were illiterate but had
great memorization skills. They loved to hear great stories.
A sense of closeness and immanence between the natural and supernatural.
Features of Celtic Christianity: