Beacon Broadside

by Suzanne Strempek Shea

Want to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in an authentic manner, but without having to pay ever-rising trans-Atlantic airfares or swallow a startling dollar-to-euro exchange? Skip the trip to Ireland and stay stateside for a journey to All Saints Parish in Brookline, Massachusetts.

After all, a holy day is what the holiday is first and foremost. St. Patrick’s Day parades now meander down the lanes even of Ireland’s smallest villages, and Dublin’s to-do now rivals New York City’s or Boston’s, but until recent years St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland was a day off for church and family. Prior to your pub visit, or post-parade, consider a visit to this 111-year-old Anglican church, which holds a Celtic Eucharist service each Wednesday and Saturday evening.

It’s offered as part of a Celtic spirituality focus that began in 1989 at All Saints, a stately Protestant church located down the hill from the birthplace of this country’s only Catholic president. “Celtic worship seeks to heal the wounds of centuries,” All Saints Rector David A. Killian writes in the 20-page black-on-gray liturgy booklet. “Celtic Spirituality is committed to caring for the earth, promoting equality between men and women, securing justice and freedom for all, and working for peace in the world."

And it of course commemorates St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, who
rocketed from toiling as a teenage slave in Britain to establishing in
Ireland a powerful church that shaped the culture in ways that, for
better and for worse, still reverberate. His delivery of Catholicism in
450 AD is considered history’s only bloodless conversion of a country– if you leave out the fact that in the process Patrick stabbed King
Aenghus in the foot with his crosier, receiving no complaint because
the victim believed impalation to be part of ceremony.

Beginning with the lighting of three candles, the liturgy has the greeting- readings- sermon- Eucharist- meditation- dismissal bones of most
Protestant services and all Catholic Masses. The language is what
struck me during my visit. Anyone familiar with traditional Irish
prayers or poetry, or the modern- day- yet- ancient musings of bestselling
Irish philosopher John O’Donohue, will recognize Celtic lyricism and
the references to the natural world in even the absolution given by
Pastor David after the congregation makes a group confession: "You have
lowered the canopy of night and its gentle shadows cover us with your
peace. May the dews of heaven heal our wounds and wash the tears from
our eyes. And may the burning light of Christ banish forever the
darkness from our souls, that we may be at peace."

Not often
does pub music waft down the aisle of a church, but considering the
theme of the service I guess it’s not too shocking to hear "The Star of
County Down." The folk tune shares the same music as some old English
and American hymns, but it was the contemporary rocking and racing
version mumbled by the brilliant Shane McGowan that sprang to my mind,
rather than the one that gently glides from the cello, flute and guitar
trio at the rear of the sanctuary. As an added touch of authenticity, a
bodhran kept beat.

I was one of 25 worshippers– all white
except for an Asian man– the lot of us dressed in casual layers that
included a nod to the holiday in a trio of green shirts, one green
boutonnière and a pair of shamrock antennae. Together, we prayed and
reflected and sang, including the concluding hymn translated from Irish
and known by several names, among them "St. Patrick’s Breastplate" due
to the protection so much of the prayer seeks at this or any time of
year:

Christ be with me,  Christ within me,
Christ behind me,
Christ before me,
Christ beside me,  Christ to win me,
Christ to
comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above,
Christ in
quiet, Christ in danger
Christ in hearts of all that love me
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger

Suzanne Strempek Shea,winner of the 2000 New England
Book Award for Fiction, is the author of five novels, Selling the Lite of Heaven, Hoopi Shoopi Donna, Lily of the Valley, Around Again
, and Becoming Finola, and the memoirs Songs from a
Lead-Lined Room, and Shelf Life. Her next book, Sundays in America, from which she adapted this post, will be released by Beacon Press this coming
Easter. She lives
in Bondsville, Massachusetts, and sells books at Edwards Books in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Read the other posts in the Sundays in America series: Barack Obama’s Church | Christmas Eve in Bethlehem