A Scotch Blessing

Iona Abbey, Iona, Scotland

While on pilgrimage to Iona, Scotland, I found a small book of Celtic Blessings. The beautiful thing about Celtic Christianity is that there are blessings for all sorts of things. Prayers to remind us of the ordinariness and dailiness of our faith. Prayers for lighting fires, for cooking, for farming, for harvesting, for sleeping and for rising. Alas, I found no prayer or blessing for the drinking of Scotch, something we found our pilgrimage group doing every night. So I wrote my own. Based on the traditional Celtic Blessing, may it remind you of the sacredness of sharing a dram.

A Scotch Blessing

May the peat rise to meet you;

May the esters ever be in your nostrils;

May the proof warm your face;

The barley flourish within your fields,

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the glencairn of his hand.