Would anybody out there be able to point me toward a prayer in Irish that I could say at my Lodge's March meeting? We traditionally have a St. Patrick's Day theme, so a prayer in Irish would be appropriate and I know the members would be gratified for the experience. (My Irish may suck, but I'm not a bad mimic of speech and I'm sure I could at least read it with a modicum of accuracy.)

My only limitation would be that it would have to be "non-sectarian," if you will. This organization requires belief in God, but we welcome all believers, whether Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Theist, Bah'ai, you name it, and to that end it's considered rather bad form to invoke the name of Jesus, Buddha, Mohamed, a saint, etc. (A blanket reference to "God" is preferred in the interest of making everybody feel as equally welcome as possible).

Many thanks.

I'm after getting my ashes there and thinking back to the songs that were sung, there were none that didn't mention íosa or a christian reference.

The priest sang every song through sign language as a lady sang and another lady played the harp which was good dar liomsa.

Also remember that ecumenism was not looked at as a good thing or and end toward which one should strive in Patrick's day.

The one prayer I can think of that was attributed to hime, St. Patrick's Breastplate begins every line with "Christ."

Thanks. Ecumenism is indispensable to this organization, so to that end I'll just go with Psalm 133, which also has special significance for us and, luckily for me, turned out to be available online:


Féach, nach maith agus nach aoibhinn é go mbeadh bráithre ina gcónaí le chéile!

Mar uinnimint a doirteadh ar an gceann, agus a shil ar an bhféasóg a shil anuas ar fhéasóg Árón, go himeall a fhallainge.

Is cosúil le drúcht Hearmón é agus é ag titim anuas ar Shliabh Shíón. Is ann a thug an Tiarna beannacht, agus beatha go brách.

---

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;

As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

My only limitation would be that it would have to be "non-sectarian," if you will. This organization requires belief in God, but we welcome all believers, whether Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Theist, Bah'ai, you name it, and to that end it's considered rather bad form to invoke the name of Jesus, Buddha, Mohamed, a saint, etc. (A blanket reference to "God" is preferred in the interest of making everybody feel as equally welcome as possible).


Sounds like AA. Why not use the serenity prayer? It shouldn't be too hard to translate.

If you check irishgaelictranslator.com I'm sure it's already up there somewhere.

Also, there's the whole 'may the road rise to meet you' blessing, although better for a closing than an opening.

A Phádraig, it's actually a Masonic Lodge, not a 12-Step program.

Actually, I should just contact the Grand Lodge of Ireland... it was pretty stupid of me not to have thought of that to begin with.

Also Antaine, that classic Irish blessing is indeed a good idea for a closing benediction, as you suggest. Thanks.

A Dhomhnall,

Despite the admonition regarding "...write or endite, stamp or stain...etc" most Masonic jurisdictions (sp?) have books that are used to keep the lodges uniform in the craft. None that I have seen are in "plain text" however. Some are fully encoded while others are plain text except for the specifically Masonic language and that is either encoded or abbreviated so that the uninitiated would have a very difficult (if not impossible) time deciphering the phrases. I would recommend finding one of these books (Grand Lodge is a good place to start) and using one of the many prayers contained therein.


Le meas,

James