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Imagination Thrives
Sacred Spaces: Stations on a Celtic Way
by Margaret Silf
Paraclete Press (U.S.); Lion Publishing (U.K.); 192 pages
Reviewed by Mary C. Earle
In beautifully evocative prose, filled with imagery of landscape and journey, Margaret Silf invites the reader to engage the imagination spiritually.
Sacred Spaces is clearly informed by the author's own Ignatian practice; each chapter offers metaphors for the human journey, metaphors drawn from the landscape of her own Celtic terrain. Her attention to these “inscapes,” as the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins called them, guides the reader through various stages in the life journey. Silf's poetic style often led me to simply put down the book and ponder a phrase or a word picture that triggered something in my own memory. This is a book intended to be savored and prayed with; this is a book that encourages journaling and reflection.
The stations along the Celtic way include the infinite knot, the high cross, hilltops, wells, groves and springs, crossing places, and boundaries. My own travels to Wales, Scotland, and Ireland came to mind frequently as I made my way through these chapters. Yet the reader does not need to know those countries in order to discover the riches of this text. Silf leads the reader to inner connections, to deepening perception and to widening compassion.
While this book certainly focuses on the personal journey, the author continually connects the personal with the larger web of the human family, the creation, the whole cosmos. In this way, the book reflects a Trinitarian awareness that perceives that all is in relation, all is connected.
Each chapter also includes some imaginative renderings of scriptural narratives. I found some of these to be helpful and others less so. That said, the weaving of the scriptural stories with the meditative exercises provides the reader with a discerning guide for exploring the Way of Christ. The author invites us to know both the scriptural narratives and ourselves in a new way, so that there might be renewed possibility for connection, hope, and restoration of human community.
Sacred Spaces is truly faithful to the tradition of Celtic Christian spirituality. Incarnational to the core, the Celtic tradition has historically emphasized the webs of relationship that make the many into one, and the common Source from which all that is created comes. In addition, the oral tradition is dear to the Celtic cultures, and Silf's renditions of the scriptural narratives evoke something of the bardic practice. The stories are lively re-presentations of the written texts, rather than flat renderings.
Throughout this work, imagination thrives -- the author’s and the reader’s. This is a work which, in the words of C. S. Lewis, invites us to allow our imaginations to be baptized. Our inner springs, inner groves, inner causeways and islands all come into focus, mediating meaning and direction, intimating Presence in the midst of the most ordinary of circumstances, drawing us into deeper relationship with God in Christ and with one another.
Mary C. Earle is a writer and Episcopal priest who leads retreats, teaches and facilitates workshops. Her particular interests are in spiritual direction, contemplative prayer and interfaith dialogue. She co-authored Praying with the Celtic Saints, and her poetry has appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies. Her poetry accompanies the ballads of Covita Moroney on the new CD, “Sophia’s Table.” Mary is adjunct faculty in spirituality at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas and assistant rector at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, San Antonio. Currently she is writing about spiritual practices for use during illness.
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