{"id":5523,"date":"2022-12-12T08:52:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T08:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/?p=5523"},"modified":"2022-12-05T23:51:32","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T23:51:32","slug":"an-old-celtic-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/12\/an-old-celtic-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"An Old Celtic Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a general prayer from Douglas Hyde’s book, The Religious Songs of Connacht<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. He attributes it to a man named Michael Picoid. It was originally written in Latin. You can read my thoughts below.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Douglas Hyde, Irish politician, head of state and Irish language activist, circa 1940. Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n


I believe in Thee ; strengthen my belief. I trust in Thee ; confirm my trust. I love Thee ; double my love. 
I repent that I angered Thee, Increase my repentance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I adore Thee as first-beginning of my life. I desire Thee as my last end. I give thanks to Thee as my ever-helper. I call upon Thee as my strong-defender. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fill Thou my heart with awe without despair ;
With hope, without over-confidence ;
With piety without infatuation.
And with joy without excess.
My God ! consent to guide me by Thy wisdom;
To constrain me by Thy right ;
To comfort me by Thy mercy ;
And to protect me by Thy power.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"\/<\/a>
The church at Saul, County Down, Northern Ireland. Photo by Cindy Thomson<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I hallow all my thoughts, words, deeds and sufferings to Thee
So that from hence-forward I may think on Thee,
May converse of Thee, may labour for Thee,
And may suffer for Thee.
O God ! I ask that Thy will be done,
Because it is Thy will,
And in the way Thou willest.
I beseech of Thee enlighten my understanding,
Wash my will, cleanse my body, hallow my soul
My God, give me strength
So that I may make expiation for my misdeeds,
So that I may win victory over my temptations,
So that I may right my strong evil-inclinations,
And so that I may practise the virtues
That are suitable to my state of life. 
Fill my heart with affection for Thy goodness,
With hatred of my faults, with love for my neighbours,
And with contempt for the world.
That I may remember, O God, To be submissive to my superiors, To be at one with my inferiors, Faithful to my friends And charitable to my enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~There is much more to this prayer. I’m skipping a few stanzas.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May I never forget To put heed in my prayers,Moderation in my ways,Earnestess in my care,And persevereness in the things I put before me.
~Skipping a bit more<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, may it be thy will To grant repentance to every sinner, Constant forward progress to the righteous,Peace to the living, And everlasting happiness to the faithful who have died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ask of Thee, O Lord, to grant all this Through the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ,Through the intercession of Our Blessed Lady, And of all saints, And through the will of our Holy Mother the Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

~I could have skipped the last couple of lines, since they are decidedly Catholic
and I’m not, but that’s how the prayer was said, and I have great respect for that.
You, of course, may pray the prayer however you see fit.

I love the honesty in this prayer, the desire to be better, the pleading with God.
I’d love to hear your reaction.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a general prayer from Douglas Hyde’s book, The Religious Songs of Connacht. He attributes it to a man named Michael Picoid. It was originally written in Latin. You can read my thoughts below. I believe in Thee ; strengthen my belief. I trust in Thee ; confirm my trust. I love Thee ; double my love. I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[383],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5523"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5529,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523\/revisions\/5529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}