I would suggest that you would need to stick to the basics, which is morning prayer, evening prayer and night prayer. Put short interjections of prayers in when you can, or you can use the Jesus Prayer (Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me) as a continuing prayer. I stick to a monastic time table so I am up by 5:30am doing morning prayer and then will start my day. I am at the Church at about 8am and I will do interjections of prayer throughout the day, mostly liturgy of the hours, the daily hours take 15 min. Usually in bed around midnight.
The only binding hour under Columcille was interestingly Night Prayer. Otherwise, monks were expected to do their own private prayers throughout the day. Celtic Morning and Evening Prayer were considered community events since Mass was only on Sunday, but if you were un-able to make it for some reason then you were okay. The Celtic rules were less practical than the Benedictines, as they focused more on achieving spiritual ascension and attainment of the heavenly light. Spiritual Discipline was done with your Anam-Chara, or Soul Friend (Spiritual Director) who would give you more intense practices to do so that you could tame the more intense passions.
At the end of the day, I come home about 4-5pm and meet up with my wife so that we can do evening prayer together. I researched and studied the ancient rules and guidelines of the chief Saints of the Celtic Isles and am working on finishing a Celtic Prayer book. Currently, the service takes about 45 min. It consists of three to eight Psalms, a reading from scripture, several prayers and hymns, and then ends with either the Lorica of St. Patrick (Morning Prayer) or the Creed (Evening Prayer). If you do all the hours its about 2.5-3 hours worth of prayer.
Your career would classify as your manual labor because it provides for the community of your family, and your own needs. It would be suggested you get involved in a catechetical ministry at the Church to fulflll needs of neighbor rule, especially since your already a teacher.
If you work at a Catholic School, then wearing a habit is not a big deal. Most if not ALL Catholic Schools I know of don’t have a problem with habits, as long as an Ordinary knows about your community and that you have a letter from a superior (still working on the Ordinary). If you work at a SECULAR school, then I would suggest you stick with normal clothes, but wear a white shirt with some small sign on your devotion to the rule. I will wear a white button down with a Celtic High Cross necklace on me as a sign of my living the rule when I’m out with my wife. The habit really should be worn only when working in the Apostolate ministry of the community, which the one I’m forming is Catechetical.
One last thing, being a disciple of St. Columba (Columcille) is more than just praying liturgy of the hours and wearing a piece of clothing, its a mindset. The Columcillian disciple has to form themself in the ancient ideas of the fathers. This is something that has to be taught mostly by witnessing it in its fullness. Like S. Padraig (Patrick) the highest pinnacle of Celtic Spirituality is the moment when you have the presence of God within you, when your heart is the very cell of your life and you are just a pilgrim walking in the world spreading God’s love and mercy by his incarnation. Its that moment when you can look at a leaf and see the Trinity and see creation as a sacrament in of itself. That’s what formation is for though
