Commissioning

     The apex of our American invasion week came on Saturday, October 24th. A couple of celebrations converged together on that weekend and the parish had a blowout celebration. The evening began with the normally scheduled Saturday vigil Mass, which is the one where we are in charge of the music. For this Mass though, the parish was celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Clonard Folk Group and so all past members of the group were invited back to join with the current group in providing music for this Mass. The folk group is a dedicated group of singers and musicians who provide music for the 11:15 mass on Sunday mornings. They use everything from traditional hymnody and Irish "folk tunes" to recent compositions from Marty Haugen and our very own Cookie! It has been a great pleasure of ours to sing with this group since we arrived and to help with the planning of these masses, so it was an even greater pleasure to share this evening with them. Our commissioning and their 30th anniversary, all rolled into one massive liturgy (pun fully and unabashedly intended).

     Because this was both an anniversary and a commissioning, invites were extended to clergy from throughout the diocese as well as people connected to the liturgical scene in Ferns. The Mass was celebrated by the Most Rev. Denis Brennan, Bishop of Ferns, who just the day before had blessed our home. There were also six priests concelebrating, a choir of about 30 (including 2 of our guests), and one of the largest congregations we've seen since arriving here! The music stretched out over the 30 year history of the folk group, pulling from the early days of the group and from the more recent pieces that are used. The choir sounded amazing, there were all four parts present, and the congregation was singing along (not something we're used to over here). It was a great celebration of the ministry that this group of talented musicians has cultivated for three decades, and we are proud to be members of this beautiful tradition at Clonard.
     Following the homily (which was also amazing), we proceeded with the actual commissioning of the three of us and our mission here in Ireland. The Bishop invited us to come forward and then Mr. and Mrs. Calcutt came forward as the officers of 'The House of Bridget Inc.' to offer testimony to the Bishop of our willingness and ability to serve the Church in Ireland. The part that I loved the most was their testimony that the hardships we faced in coming over only served to make this program all the stronger and toughened our resolve to carry out this mission. Bishop Denis then asked Fr. Denis if the parish was willing to take us on and support us in our mission. (What would have happened if he said no? We'd already been here two months!) The questions that Bishop Denis asked were not just of a liturgical and musical nature, but also that the parish would help to actually immerse us in the culture of this place so that we can better serve the people of Wexford and the Irish as a whole. It was a subtle and powerful reminder that we are not here to just come in and take over like Americans are sometimes want to do. Instead, just as we discussed when we formed in the spring, we are here to meet the Irish where they are and then to guide them to a fuller understanding and appreciation of the Church through music, liturgy, and friendship. Upon receiving the parish's consent, the Bishop then asked us if we were willing and ready to take on this responsibility. I would like to share with you all the promise that we made in front of God, the Bishop, and our family and friends:

I promise to offer my time, talents, and skill, for the enhancement of sacred music and liturgy,
in the parish community of Clonard, for the good of all God's people and to the Glory of God.

Having made this promise, the Bishop blessed us and our mission, sending us out to serve the people of this parish, the Diocese of Ferns, and the Church in Ireland. We were then presented with a beautiful copy of the Book of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. This is one of seven volumes that are being put out by St. John's College in Minnesota and they are the new "St. John's Bible". It is a truly amazing project and we are grateful to the parish for presenting us with this volume, which now occupies a spot in our prayer room at our house.

     I'm getting very good at epicly long blog posts, so I should probably wrap this one up soon. The rest of the Mass was fairly normal, although the parish also had the Bishop bless two new stained glass windows "since he was here already." These windows commemorate the Wexford martyrs, a group of fishermen and bakers who were killed for refusing to sign an oath recognizing the British monarch as the head of the church. They are very beautiful windows and depict the martyrs as butterflies and doves, two Christian symbols for eternity. Following the mass there was a reception in the community centre with tea and biscuits, as well as a cake for both the folk group and ourselves. It was a great way to wrap up the evening and say thank you to everyone who has made our first few months here so much easier.
     Now the evening didn't entirely end there. It was after all, still the Opera festival, and during the festival they have a series of singing competitions called "Singing Pubs" which are held all throughout the town at the various pubs. Saturday just happened to be the night for Simon's Place, our establishment of choice and so following the reception we headed down for some good times at Simon's. It was insanely crowded and I spent most of the night standing in the entryway blocking access through that door (the bouncer was appreciative because he didn't want anyone going in that door anyway!) The singing was great, we were able to spend some quality pub time with the Calcutts and the London crew, and we even kept tabs on the ND-BC game on Mr. Calcutt's blackberry. Once we knew the final score of that, it was a celebratory round of Guinness, and then back home for the night. I want to personally thank Mr. and Mrs. Calcutt, Cookie and Mrs. Cookie, Hayley, Steph, Claire, and Dan for coming and sharing various parts of the week with us. You all contributed in such distinct ways to making this one of the greatest weeks, not only of my time in Ireland but in recent memory. And now that we're official...Clonard is stuck with us. What a beautiful relationship we have begun, may it continue to grow and bear fruit for many years to come.

Good Craic...

     One of my personal highlights from the week that was, was the dinner which was held on Friday night at the home of Fr. Denis. The evening began at our home where our community, our guests, members of the parish, and the Most Rev. Denis Brennan (our local bishop) gathered for a house blessing. Bishop Denis began the brief service by asking God to bless the house and then Mrs. Calcutt gave a short reading. Bishop Denis also invoked the patronage of St. Brigid and blessed the house with holy water. One of the lines in the blessing which struck me the most was when the bishop asked God to bless "the family which occupies it [the house]." We always talk about the Notre Dame family, and the Folk Choir family, but here we are as the Teach Bhride family. We live, we eat, we pray, we argue, we laugh, and we love together, just as any family does. We are not a "traditional" family, but we are a family none the less and it was great to hear those words used by the bishop. The blessing was followed by the obligatory pictures outside with everyone who was in attendance.

     Following the blessing we all traveled down the road to Fr. Denis' house where we were joined by some other members of the parish, a few local priests, and representatives of the parish Folk group. Fr. Denis had gone to great lengths to ensure that the Americans and the Irish were mixed in together, even going so far as to make name plates and assign seats for the dinner. Carolyn and I were seated with Fr. Aodhan, one of the priests assigned to the downtown parishes and Fr. John-Paul, the director of catechetics for the diocese. Fr. John-Paul was the one who guided us on our trip up to Dublin to visit the ND kids. Dinner was an amazing event, with a salad, soup, three different options for the main course, tons of sides, and some great dessert to finish it off. Most of the food was also homemade by Fr. Denis and his staff chef Carolyn [not our Carolyn, their Carolyn]. The food was amazing and the wine flowed freely, usually poured by one priest or another who was up making the rounds with the bottles. The conversation was great as well, Fr. Aodhan is a chaplain for one of the secondary schools in Wexford and so we talked about his work there and how we might become involved in those places. Mid-way through the meal three more folks joined us, friends from Notre Dame who are in the London program this fall and decided to spend the last weekend of their fall break in Wexford. After quick reunions they settled in for their dinner, which they claimed was the best food they had eaten since arriving in the Isles last month.
     Dinner was followed by a few speeches, first from Fr. Denis, as the official welcome to us and to all of the Americans who were over visiting. He was followed by Bishop Denis, a man who every time he speaks I am enthralled by what he says. Requests have been made for hard copies of his homilies, which we hope to receive at some point this year. Then it was time for the Americans to be put on the spot. Mrs. Calcutt got up and gave a brief word of thanks on behalf of the corporation and everyone backing this project, touching on some of the difficulties in getting this off the ground but reveling in now seeing the great works coming out of it.  Madam House Director followed with a few words of thanks for all of the support we have received from both sides of the pond in the last few months. It was amazing to be sitting in a room with people who we have known for years and people we have just met, all of whom are dedicated to seeing this project work. We've received so much support from the people back in the States, but we've also received so much support from the pastoral staff and parishioners of this, our new home.
     With dinner and the speeches done, the three of us and the Folk group members had to run off to the parish for our weekly rehearsal, which was larger than normal due to the large liturgy that would happen the next night. Not only were we being commissioned by the Bishop, but the Folk group was celebrating 30 years of ministry in the parish, and we were dedicating two new stained glass windows which had been made for the church. The rehearsal was great, but back at Fr. Denis' the party had gone on without us. By the time we returned the party had moved into the sitting room where a "session" or sing-along was in full swing. There were guitars, a few whistles, a mandolin, even an accordion, as well as the combined voices of the Irish hosts and the American guests. We sat in that room for hours, going back and forth from genre to genre. There were plenty of American favorites from John Denver, Bob Dylan, and others. Fr. Denis whipped out a few of his classics, including the rebel songs which talk about the Wexford rebellion of 1798. We even had a rousing rendition of "How Much is that Doggy in the Window."
     By the end of the night we all were pretty tired and it was time to head off to bed. The session had capped off a great day for everyone. We introduced our American friends to the ways of the Irish, we had a lot of singing, and eating, and drinking. It was a night filled with good craic, the Wexford term for having a great time. These two groups of people whom we have come to love were finally joining together and experiencing each other as we experience them. For us, this week was when we officially stopped being visitors and started being people who live here and work here. We hosted people, we showed them around the town which we now call home, we took people to our favorite pub and to our favorite coffee houses. And in many ways that night of good craic in Fr. Denis' sitting room solidified the relationship between the Americans of Teach Bhride and the Irish of Teach Bhride. We all know each other now, everyone has talked face to face, we can have a better understanding of where everyone is coming from in this project. And I think because of that we have made this project all the stronger for the future. We are no longer a loose group of people who are trying to make something work, we are two unified groups on either side of the Atlantic who know that this project is worth the effort and will yield amazing fruit in the years ahead.