Pre-St. Paddy's Day and Some Celtic Magic

Much will be made in the days to come about the need to move the celebration of St. Patrick's Day to avoid having it fall in Holy Week this year. Even in Ireland, the bishops have moved the celebration to Saturday, March 15 and many of the great celebrations in the US are being moved as well.

The decision seems to vary a good deal. New York's magnificent St. Patrick's Day parade will take place on the 17th (the Monday of Holy Week) and will begin with a "Solemn Pontifical Mass" at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Here in Colorado Springs, I've been told by my ecclesial informants that the Church won't be officially celebrating St. Patricks at all this year because St. Joseph's Day takes liturgical precedence. Not that I expect a single bar in the city to take note.

In any case, I thought I'd begin the St. Paddy's blogging early - partly because I'm home and able to do so and I'll be traveling again this weekend. And partly because I wanted to post this last year but couldn't figure out how to do so in time.

There are those wonderful moments when something that transcends skill happens, when what you are offering connects with the heart and soul of people in a way that goes beyond the ordinary and everyone present is electrified. And the only word you can use to describe the experience is magic.

We have certainly seen those moments a number of times on the road over the year - when what God does through the little you have to offer completely transcends anything you could hope or imagine.

And of course, the dream of artists to create such a moment through their art can look and feel similar.

Which is why I'm posting this somewhat grainy video of the original Riverdance performance at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. We must remember this performance was an "interval act" - not part of the contest itself. But it didn't matter. These seven minutes changed the course of Irish dance and launched a thousand tapping feet all over the world.

Watch the response of the audience at the end. Magic. Watch the faces of the lead dancers (Michael Flatly and Jean Butler) at the end. They have the look of someone who is just beginning to take in what has just happened: that the magical moment they have dreamed of creating for years, that has kept them going through all those endless years of practice, work, and sacrifice, is now.

Happy Pre-St. Patrick's Day!