The Pattern of Our Days: Worship in the Celtic Tradition from the Iona Community
The ecumenical Iona community worships in the ancient Celtic tradition, while imbuing their prayers with a contemporary commitment to peace, justice, and the rediscovery of an integrated spirituality. The Pattern of Our Days is a collection of Iona’s actual liturgies, litanies, responses, and meditations. Like all their prayers, these are honest, earthy, and original. They can be used as is by both individuals or groups, adapted, or tapped for ideas for other acts of worship. Believing that no part of life is beyond the reach of faith, these prayers and liturgies emphasize the whole person praying with both intellect and senses. The material draws deeply from Celtic and Benedictine traditions, as well as the Liturgy of the Hours, but also seeks to actively include all as part of a worldwide church. The wide-ranging themes covered by the prayers and liturgies include pilgrimage, healing, witness, dissent, sanctuary, forgiveness, thanksgiving, cursings, blessings, and more. Designed to encourage creativity in worship, this book is a unique resource for parishes, liturgy-planning committees, small faith groups, and religious communities. It’s also inspirational reading for the individual seeker, those interested in monasticism, and those drawn to Celtic spirituality–whether their own roots lie there or not.
Customer Review: Great Worship resource
This is a wonderful collection of prayers from the Iona Community.The book offers a few pastoral liturgies, but is predominately a collection of prayers that can be included in worship services. I found the book a creative resource to include in Iona liturgies that can be purchased from the Community as well as various worship services written by J. Philip Newell. Combining “Celtic Prayers” from Iona by J.Philip Newell with “The Pattern of Our Days” provides creative daily prayer services.
Customer Review: Contemporary Protestant Iona
The Pattern of Our Days: Worship in the Celtic Tradition from the Iona CommunityI was disappointed with this book because I was expecting to learn about Celtic Christianity and worship as practised at Iona by the early monastic community; rather, this works arises in a contemporary community at Iona. This community is Protestant and (somewhat) New Age, not that I am unsympathetic to such practices as acceptance, even embrace, of other religious traditions, or a view of creation and humanity as innately good. Some of the practises or prayers strike me as simple-minded rather than simple (unadorned) and self-conscious rather than humble. These might be minor quibbles and if one is seeking a prayers and practices based upon a modern interpretation of Christianity with some reference to earlier Celtic beliefs, this is a worthwhile book. But, if one interested in the growth of Celtic Christianity from the indigenous religion, in the worldview of the Celts, in the differences between Celtic and Roman Catholicism, and in how reference to Celtic Christianity might give us a more metaphorical, less legalistic view of Christianity, then I would recommend other works, such as Celtic Christianity: A Sacred Tradition, A Vision of Hope by Timothy Joyce. My one star evaluation is based on the above; were I looking for such a work I would probably give it four stars.
