A Staff to the Pilgrim Gabriel Rochelle Christian Book Review

A Staff to the Pilgrim
Gabriel Cooper Rochelle, author

A Staff to the Pilgrim
Meditations on the Way with Nine Celtic Saints
Gabriel Cooper Rochelle, author

Emmaus PA: Golden Alley Press, 2016
xxiv, 207 pages

A book review by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com.

Recommended Book

     Having appreciated Fr. Gabriel Rochelle’s podcasts on Ancient Faith Radio for several years, and knowing of his interest in Christianity as practiced in Celtic society, his recently published book, A Staff to the Pilgrim: Meditations on the Ways with Nine Celtic Saints, was of interest to me. 

     In general, when reviewing a book, my goal is to answer two questions. First: Did the author fulfill the intended purpose for which the book was written?  Second: Did I benefit personally from reading its contents? 

     One of my greatest appreciations of Fr. Gabriel is his manner of speaking on an equal footing with his audience and not as someone who has insights unique to his ministerial calling.  The meditations in this book invite the reader to look, think, and consider possibilities for their own spiritual journey without demand or insistence on compliance. 

     Fr. Rochelle has divided the book into nine sections, each including a Celtic saint to whom is ascribed, as he names them, a virtue.  The saints and virtues, in order are, St. Ita: simplicity, St. Cuthbert: silence, St. Melangell: solitude, St. Gwenfrewi: stones, St. Hilda: spirit, St. Aidan: supplication, St. Brigid: spiritual friendship, St. Brendan: sent, and St. David: sanctity.  Each unit contains a short biography of the saint, a tropar (see below), discussion of the virtue, followed by several meditations, or devotional readings. 

Note:  I believe it essential to remember how much the author is enamored with anything Celtic. Truly, I mention with all due respect to the author that the tradition of hymnody among the Welsh does not excel above all others.

Note: Many Christians will ask what a tropar is: 

Troparion (also tropar; plural troparia) is a type of hymn in Byzantine music, in the Orthodox Church and other Eastern Christian churches. It is a short hymn of one stanza, or one of a series of stanzas; this may carry the further connotation of a hymn interpolated between psalm verses. (Link to source: OrthodoxWiki)

Summary

     I found the meditations to be good reading, sometimes motivating, sometimes finding a new perspective on spiritual life that I will think about applying to my own. I often failed to find connections between subject matter included in each unit and that this is the case Fr. Rochelle alluded to in his Introduction. 

     The title, AStaff to the Pilgrim, confused me until I read the notes at the end of the book where it is explained as coming from a poem in the Carmina Gadelica, a work on which Fr. Rochelle spoke extensively through his podcasts.  The staff, being a support as the pilgrim walks, is something that helps us along our faith journey and that, perhaps, is where the purpose of the book rests.  

     For Christians who understand the necessity of nurturing the spiritual life to become ever more Christ-like, A Staff to the Pilgrim may be a book for you.