A Prayer by St. Columba

Here’s an ancient and brief prayer from the Celtic saint, Columba (also known as Columcille). He, along with St. Kentigern (Mungo) were responsible for bringing Christianity to all of Scotland in the 6th century.

Be thou a bright flame before me,
be thou a guiding star above me,
be thou a smooth path below me,
be thou a kindly shepherd behind me,
today, tonight and forever.

                     —Attributed to St. Columba (521-597 AD)

This is a wonderfully simple but deep prayer, and one that is worthy of memorizing to repeat whenever you feel like it. It’s parallelism allows for easy remembrance. Spend a few minutes memorizing this, and then offer it daily. 

feel free to leave comments below, or on our prayer board.