An Irish Easter Prayer

One of the good things about Easter’s forty days is that, even in the sixth week, it is still not too late for me to recommend this post by Maolsheachlann O Ceallaigh, the ‘Irish Papist’, though I had meant to do so much sooner than this…

‘Amen’ is my hearty response to all the prayers, but one set of petitions in particular I would like to reproduce and make my own (my own prayer, that is, as opposed to my own blog-post!):

I pray that the arts, entertainments and manners of our society will reflect more gentleness, idealism, chivalry, respect and wonder. I pray especially that childhood innocence will be protected and valued, in this era when there are so many forces ranged against it. I pray, too, that our societies will come to have a greater honour and esteem for old age.

These words particular resonate with me, and I echo them fervently.  It seems to occur to people so rarely to express a wish for such things, perhaps because they often seem so remote in our brash era, or maybe even because of fear of being shouted down by the very coarseness in question, that I sometimes feel quite alone in believing that they should be upheld.  Whenever I am reminded that in truth I am far from alone, I feel a surge of hope.

Since I am recommending that particular post, I might as well recommend the whole ‘Irish Papist’ blog (hopefully without damaging its reputation too much!).  Recommending a blog, as opposed to a book, for example, is actually more difficult than it might sound: it is surprisingly easy to misread blogs and writers, which can change in character and flavour in unforeseen ways.  Still, of all the blogs I read, even the most regular, this has been my favourite for some time, because its articles are thoughtful, uplifting and principled, though never gratuitously confrontational.  Maolsheachlann O Ceallaigh is a writer and university library assistant in Dublin, and has plenty of opportunity to observe the pageant of life — from an Irish perspective, which is interesting for me, writing in Britain — and from a Christian perspective, with misgivings about modernity, but not without a good deal of hope and joy.   It is certainly a Catholic blog, but serves less to comment specifically on matters Catholic than to house a Catholic writer’s all-purpose, all-subject journal.

What is more is that, every so often, new metrical verse is posted — a thing almost unthinkable in the twenty-first century!  Thank goodness somebody is keeping the flame alight.