From birth to death, from dawn to dusk, from the dark of winter to the light of midsummer, for the Celtic peoples praying was part of the pattern of life. The lay prayers of household and farm and workplace were handed down from generation to generation in oral tradition.

At the end of the nineteenth century, linguistic scholar and poet Alexander Carmichael collected and translated prayers from the highlands and islands of Scotland

Esther de Waal has brought together some of the most significant of these poems, blessings, prayers, and songs that enable us to touch the vivid sense of the presence of God that marks Celtic spirituality.

As we, too, enter into this way of praying, we find the three members of the Trinity, the saints, and the angels, alongside us from the first light of day until the coining of dusk, from the moment of our birth until we rest at death in the arms of God who has walked alongside us throughout our life.