God circle us (c) Christine Sine
I posted this prayer to the Light for the Journey page on Facebook yesterday. Like all circling prayers it has been extremely popular.
Circling prayers are an important part of Celtic Christianity. Some help us to visualize the attributes of God we want lodged in our hearts and the antithesis of these we want to fling from us – “keep peace within and hate without”. Others, like the one I wrote above are a more general expression of our desires for a God embraced life. Like everyone else, I love prayers like this that give me a sense of God’s encompassing love, the understanding that we sit in the midst of God’s embrace and I hope you do too. They are also some of the easiest and most comforting prayers to write. So why not give it a go – don’t just read and enjoy the prayer above – write your own and add it as a comment at the bottom of this post.
4 comments
Certainly was popular. We tried using the Northumbria community compline in our homegroup. We used this prayer and one other I copied form your FB page as part of this. These and a couple of Iona chants were so popular everyone wants to so it all again. Thankyou for the resource.
Thanks Neil, Good to know that people not only appreciate but use these prayes.
Holy One, encircle us
Surround us to the left and to the right
Above, below, in front of and behind us
But do not follow for we may not lead
Do not precede us for we may not follow
But walk beside us
To protect us from hate and permeate love
To strengthen us for the journey
To support us as we travel, witnessing to Your compassion
Let Your embrace help us to embrace all
Let Your support and strength give us courage
Let Your encircling show that You include all, reject none
But circle all who seek Your comfort so that we may give it.
Let your encirclement show to all and to each
The shining splendor of Your love
The shining splendor of Your everlasting peace
Beautiful – thank you for sharing this. Circling prayers are a wonderful blessing to both write and share.