The Heart of Fire, an Imbolc Prayer Based upon the Sacred Heart

Imbolc is a time of quiet celebration.  It is the letdown holiday after the bright flair of Yule and the importance of Samhain and the ancestors.  In my family Imbolc is a time for staying home, doing crafts, and keeping the hearth fire lit, whether it’s kept in a fireplace, on an altar with candles, or using twinkle lights.

Imbolc is often a celebration of family love, though often pagans shy away from talking about it, not wanting to make it seem like just some expansion of Valentines Day.  Imbolc is about the fire, and the hearth, and that means it’s about tending family, faithfulness, patience, and love.  I was called to explore that idea in my own personal meditations and came upon the prayer to the Sacred Heart. In many of my improvised guided meditations and invocations I use the metaphor of the inner hearth fire, that fire that lives in your heart and connects us all, it’s only a tiny step to move into the idea of the Sacred Heart, seen again and again in mythology.

This isn’t my first filk of a Catholic prayer. I did the Lord’s Prayer as a prayer to the earth as well. I find there is a deep resonance in those words, because we have heard them so often.  There are grooves in our culture where those words dwell.  I find that basing the occasional prayer on those previous prayers feels good to me. It creates a continuity. We know that when Christianity came to Ireland there was a mingling of religions.  The myths that we have came from the monks writing them down in order to preserve their own indigenous culture.  There is an inescapable interplay between European mythology and Christianity.  This is one of the ways that I have worked on moving back and forth between those two worlds, attempting to mend my own cloth of theology using words as my thread.

I recommend lighting a fire or a candle and then reciting this prayer near Imbolc or at any time you’d like to connect to the sacred flame.  If you’d like a few other ideas about fire goddesses and ways to honor them near Imbolc, here’s another post I wrote on the topic. St. Brighid and St. Agnes have both come up in my researches about fire goddesses and the hearth and the heart is a powerful symbol of love, connection and passion. These symbolic systems blend together to make a powerful way to connect with the archtypes love and healing.

In these times unrest and fear, it is good to take comfort in warmth and love. Our spiritual connections come in many forms. May this prayer help you remember your own spiritual connections. Take some time to pray or meditate it can make all the difference.

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