Aliens in This World

So how not to disappoint the masses of non-churchgoers who somehow don’t get the news that St. Patrick’s Day doesn’t get celebrated during Lent?

I think we need DARK PENITENTIAL CELTIC MUSIC. Oh, yeah. Because though we Celts love to party, we also love to feel sorry for ourselv… our sins, I mean! Our sins! So the daily Mass folks and the parochial schoolkids and the folks who don’t normally go to church — of course they really want to cry like babies! How else will they know it’s almost Good Friday! So make them cry!

In a restrained, non-theatrical way, of course. (*cough*)

Seriously, though, I do think that if you can put in some music from Celtic sources, it’s likely to soothe people a bit who are mad at themselves for not remembering, or at the Church for moving the feast. Also, they’ll maybe learn something about the other side of a Celtic and Catholic identity — that it’s not all about drinking and dancing and having a good time. It’s also the land of saints and scholars, ascetics and mystics, and where people have never been afraid to get down on their knees and beg God for mercy.

The entrance antiphon is “Defend me, Lord, from all my foes”. Singing the antiphon and psalm would be very cool, especially if you were a schola using some of the old Irish or Scottish chant tunes. But if not, there’s always “Deus Meus, Adiuva Me”, which has text in Latin and Irish by Abbot Maol Iosa O’Brolchain. The tune you normally hear is very simple and easy to learn; it was apparently written by one Oliver Hynes in 1977.

Communion: “Sancti, Venite”. It’s one of the most ancient hymns of the Church, and very likely was written by St. Sechnall, one of St. Patrick’s most well-known disciples (also allegedly one of the poetic family called Ua Bhaird or Ward). You can sing it in Latin to what’s probably the original tune, in Fortescue’s translation to the same tune, or you can use Neale’s translation to an entirely different tune. But the original tune is incredibly catchy and super-easy to learn. It was used during Communion back in the early Middle Ages, according to the Bangor Antiphonary and other sources, which include an elaborate explanation as to why they sang it.) I recommend it highly, and wonder where it was all my life.