It’s well-known that the depth of Celtic spirituality was seemingly greater than today. In the main we’re encouraged to think at ‘surface level’ only – a bit like Paul in the Book being told that too much learning has sent him mad.

I love words. One of my favourite words is: anamnesis.

Nothing to do with amnesia, though it is to do with memory. It’s about ritual and its benefits.

In the Book, referring to the Last Supper ritual, we’re told, ‘Do this in remembrance of me…’ – that ‘remembering’ is anamnesis.

In its weakest sense, and common today, it is merely remembering an act, and carrying it on in the absence of the originator. It’s a looking back along that distant horizontal time-line.

There’s more for those who want to go deeper, and who really want to benefit.

In its deepest, purist sense anamnesis has a vertical connection. It (ritual) ‘lifts’ us off the normal time-line, and upward to the higher realm. Not just an act, but a participation; not with an absent host but one who is ever-present; not looking back in time, but living in continual ‘nowness” of the event; not earthly, but cosmic.