Scarcely had the St Mungo Festival finished when we had another celebration to mark.  As we have done for over 25 years, we have marked the Celtic Connections Festival with a Mass at St Aloysius’

Even the Glasgow weather doesn’t daunt a piper

church in Garnethill, to celebrate our Celtic spiritual roots.

Over the years many musicians and choirs have joined in the celebration, and representatives of the Irish and Gaelic community have taken part. At the core have been the St Mungo Singers, the choir from St Mungo’s church in Alloa (including  cantor for the Mass Elise Young) and an expanding group of musicians who have morphed into the St Mungo Ensemble.

This year the Mass took place on 26 January, a couple of days after Storm Eowyn, and inevitably the aftereffects of that storm and the disruption to travel affected attendance but there was a lovely atmosphere in the church and the singers and musicians were clearly enjoying the Mass.  Outside the church, piper Callum played to welcome the congregation and was not put off by the rain.

Parish priest, Fr Gerard Mitchell was the main concelebrant and was joined by Fr Griffiths and Fr Sulik of the Jesuit community at St Aloysius, and Mgr Gerry Fitzpatrick.  A splash of beauty and colour was added to the celebration by the vestments worn by the concelebrants which had been produced by the Sacred Threads embroiderers.

A view of the beautiful vestments embroidered by Sacred Threads as the concelebrants reach the sanctuary

In his homily, Mgr Gerry reflected on the theme of thanksgiving which had been the theme of the readings particularly that from the Book of Nehemiah where the people were so glad to be back in Jerusalem and the reading from the Law was a reminder to them of who they were.

The Celtic Connections Festival started in 1993, and this Mass a few years later, as an opportunity to celebrate and be thankful for our heritage and the Celtic culture we shared with the Irish, Scots, Welsh, Cornish, Bretons and others.

This year there were also additional things to be thankful for; the history of our city which was celebrating 850 years of being a Bishop’s Burgh; the Holy Year which gives00 us a celebration of a fresh start in our lives, and finally the marking of the 1700th anniversary of the great Council of Nicaea.  We should be glad for all the blessings we receive and we should be ready to share with others -God is good!

The liturgy was filled with music, much of which was from the Celtic tradition  both old and new, finishing with  I cannot tell to the tune of the Londonderry Air, as well as the sung Creed and Eucharistic Prayer.

The community of St Aloysius then invited everyone to join them for refreshments in the Ogilvie Centre which gave people a chance to chat and catch up before heading home.