In the late morning of March 17 at St. Scholastica Monastery, Benet Hall – our assisted living area – hosted the Ceili (pronounced kA-lee) Band. They consist of three musicians/singers: Terrance (Terry) Smith, the leader, Tim Jenkins, and Paul Brock. They were there to provide music and song entertainment in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. As is highly appropriate in a monastery, the trio of musicians began with a hymn, “Be Thou My Vision.” Terry told us that this was a very old Irish song, many centuries old.
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me save that thou art;
Thou my best thought by day and by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
The trio played and the Sisters sang all the verses with them.
Sisters who live in Benet Hall, and other Sisters of the Community, students from The College of St. Scholastica (who said they were in a Celtic dance class), and others enjoyed a party’s worth of Ceili (kA-lee) music with fiddle, guitar, harmonica, bohrain (bow-run) – a Celtic drum, an Irish tin whistle, voices, Irish songs, and Irish jigs.
The trio’s very fine fiddler was Tim and the expert with the bohrain was Paul. Paul’s wife Jane added an a feminine voice when needed.
The time went too quickly, being lively, fun, and enjoyable. Ah, you should wish you could’ve been there!
