The Story Behind Celtic Glory and a little about Kathy Laity

Ancient Paths: The present day travels of one Christian’s experience of seeking ancient paths with Jesus. It all started with this scripture which the Holy Spirit whispered to me.

This is what the Lord says:

‘Stand at the crossroads and look;

ask for the ancient paths,

ask where the good way is, and walk in it,

and you will find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16

The scholars call it hagiography – stories lost in the mists of time where facts and myths merge. But nevertheless, I hear the Lord whisper to me, ‘Tell the stories of my friends’ and I know instantly He is referring to the Celtic saints; men and women who spread Christianity across the British Isles and beyond.

But where to start when facts cannot be verified, and details are vague? Perhaps with how my own story is beginning to merge with theirs; not just the Christian Celtic saints but also other Christians who have gone ahead of me.

I invite you to join me on this journey. 

To this point I’ve only shared these ‘pearls’ with my intimate ones. 

For to me, these experiences are ‘pearls of great price’; not up for analytical discussion but holy, reverent and awe-filled encounters with the usually unseen, supernatural spiritual realms of God….but maybe it’s time to step out and trust you. Why? Because I think many of you are also longing for reality with God, a deep encounter which will impact your lives, to know He loves you and cares greatly for you. There are places where it is easier to meet with God. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know. In the Bible such places were Bethel and Jerusalem. Today, I’ve found it in places where the ancient Celtic saints lived and worshipped. Perhaps our modern terminology is ‘ancient wells’ in the Spirit. The Celtic Christians called them, ‘thin places’ because they could sense heaven touching earth. 

In these ‘thin places’ I believe there is a legacy which God wants to release to us today. I’ve nearly always seen angels guarding these places, guarding the deposit in the Spirit realm which exists in these holy sites. I know that God wants to re-open these ancient wells. Oddly, the pagans are drawn to such places, possibly aware that there is power there or perhaps because the enemy wants to keep these ancient wells capped and closed. But God doesn’t! He wants people to know about them, to be aware that they can access heaven in these places. And this is the purpose of Celtic Glory – to encourage you to seek out these ancient portals of Spiritual reality and encounter God in whatever way He wants to engage with you. It’s not about being weird or odd but about engaging with the Living God, Jesus Christ in power and life-changing encounters – even though some of these challenge our rational minds, but then so do the visions prophets had in the Bible! 

So…..deep breath…for….here it starts, our pilgrimage together. 

But maybe I need to tell you who I am, so that you can trust the person behind the stories. 

A Little About Me 

My name is Kathy Laity and I’m happily married to my second husband Philip, after being widowed suddenly in my thirties. We live in Cornwall on the SW tip of the UK. My first husband was Geoff and he was killed 12 days after his 40th birthday in a road accident. Out of that tragedy came my first book, ‘Inside Grief’ which has helped countless people walk through and out the other side of grief for a loved one. (I’ve also written five other books).

I became a Christian in my teens, not having grown up in a Christian home. It changed my life as I fell deeply in love with Jesus. He led me into Missions for nearly six years with Geoff before we moved to settle in the West Country of the UK. A decade followed of deep challenges to our faith: death, poverty, isolation, unemployment, cancer scares, ill health, miscarriages and infertility which left us childless. It all culminated in Geoff’s death. 

During these years of hardship, I clung to God in prayer, in worship, in devotion, often pulling aside in secret places to seek Him. I distinctly remember one time when visiting Cornwall whilst driving the coast road between Newlyn and Mousehole, looking across at St Michael’s Mount and wondering why nobody was telling the story of the Celtic saints. I was riveted by the little I knew but it was just a fleeting thought. In 1995 I had a video style vision which lasted over two days, where God took me back to the times of the Celtic Christians and I saw all the Celtic nations of the UK lit up and emblazoned with holy fire around their coastlines. From this I started visiting Brecon (and you can read about the vision in the section entitled Celtic Fire of Glory), to pray and intercede.  I never realised that over 20 years later I would be embarking on this commission from God. Up until then, over those 25 years or so, it had been a private time of praying around the country as God led. But now it's time to share their amazing lives and example, as well as seeing their Spiritual heritage impact us today. My emphasis is predominantly Cornwall, UK but I have on occasion been led to other sites and these are also included where appropriate.

I thought I was writing another book. For three and a half years I was travelling, researching, compiling my encounters, and trying to bring it all together. Even before that I was visiting many of the ancient places such as Iona and Lindisfarne without realising that they would be part of this project. Then the lockdown for Covid19 in 2020  happened and God whispered, ‘It’s a website not a book!’ And suddenly it all made sense. This journey is not complete. There are always new places to discover, more encounters to experience, more hope to share…..

and so the journey will continue!

I hope you’ll be part of that adventure and share with me what encounters you have with God at these ancient Celtic wells. Please use the contact form to write to me. Some of them I would like to include in the website as it grows.

 Solitude with God

 At heart

I am one

Who seeks the silent

The solitary

The open expanses

Of uplands and moors

Of mountains and skies

Of river banks

And wooded valleys

Where sounds of men

Are muted or silenced

And creation calls

In the fullness of God’s glory

Magnifying the artistic hand

That first fashioned it

Here I walk often

Alone with God

And my dog

Praying

Meditating

Singing

Glorying in the beauty

Minute or vast

That points to the One

Who has captured my heart

For over 40 years

And in these places of solitude

Often by-passed or forgotten

In today’s frenetic age

Extraordinary things happen

Perhaps I’ll tell you about them

Perhaps I’ll savour some and hold them to my heart

I love to pray in forgotten places

Or when others have left and

The buildings return to silent murmur

Of wind or age

I find myself kneeling

Worshipping in heart and spirit

Crying out to the One I love

Sometimes He summons me

To these places

Sometimes I seek them out

Sometimes I just stumble into them

 And extraordinary things happen

Am I hesitant in telling you? 

Perhaps I am.