NeuroDivine

I have not written very much here lately. The past few weeks have included illness, hospital, difficult dialysis sessions and the slow, uneven work of recovery. There have been words in my mind, but not always enough strength to gather them into something worth publishing.

Perhaps that is why this feels especially precious.

Today, on St Ciarán’s Day, my hymn for St Ciarán will be sung in Temple Connor at Clonmacnoise, led by my friend Fr Philip McKinley. The hymn can be found in A Living Cloud of Irish Witnesses, my collection of hymns celebrating the saints of Ireland.

It will be sung to Kingsfold, using a recording of the tune played on the violin. I originally imagined the hymn to Clonmel, which remains my own preference, but Kingsfold also carries the words well. Its quiet, pilgrim character should be rather beautiful within that ancient place.

The recording has only three verses, while the hymn has four, so I suggested omitting the third verse. It may not be the complete hymn, but the hymn will be sung—and that is the important thing.

There is something deeply moving about a hymn finding its way to the place and the saint who inspired it. Clonmacnoise is not merely an evocative background for Christian history. It is a place shaped by centuries of prayer, learning, pilgrimage, burial and remembrance. To have words I have written added, however briefly and modestly, to the worship offered there feels like a small act of homecoming.

It also reminds me that our words sometimes continue their pilgrimage when we cannot. During a period when my own world has been constrained by illness and treatment, this hymn has travelled without me. It has been received by another person, prepared for worship and entrusted to other voices.

Perhaps that is part of the strange grace of writing hymns. Once written and shared, they no longer belong entirely to the writer. They become prayers in other mouths, words carried on different tunes, and companions to people we may never meet.

For now, I am simply grateful: grateful to Philip for choosing the hymn, grateful that it will be sung in Temple Connor on St Ciarán’s Day, and grateful that, even during a time when I have not been well enough to write very much, something I wrote earlier is still making its way into the world.

The hymn ends with this prayer:

O Trinity of boundless love,
Whose breath renews the plain,
Restore your Church in every age
And make us whole again.
As Ciarán walked with steadfast heart
Beside the Shannon’s flow,
So guide our steps in faithful joy
Wherever we may go.