The Drop of the Spirit: Celtic blessing, sung at Mull Monastery of All Celtic Saints

'The Drop of the Spirit' is a prayer of blessing recorded at Mull Monastery, the Monastery of All Celtic Saints on the Isle of Mull.

T H E T E X T is inspired from an old Celtic prayer from the Hebrides, said by a mother over her new-born child. Expressions like 'the Drop of the Spirit' and 'the Sign of the Son on your forehead' are endearing ways of remembering the 'seal of the Spirit' made in the sign of the Cross over the child during the Sacrament of Chrismation. This Scottish prayer for children is prayer of blessing that can be used over anyone in danger or in need of God's protection.

The text as used in this video was composed at the Monastery and it is included in the 'Shape of Christ: Blessings from the Celtic Isles'. The booklet is available from:

https://shop.mullmonastery.com/product-category/books/

T H E M U S I C is based on a tune that came by inverting the melody of the last blessing in the Collection (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDtzt10gxuU), which is based on the Parting Glass.

We decided to create this correspondence between the first and last prayers of the Booklet in order to hold its content within mirrored wings as it were.

So the melody goes up instead of down, and down instead of up, a bit like Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt, a much more sophisticated composition of course, where a tune is played, then a mirrored version of the tune is played.

Again as in the last melody, we tried to use a 3/4 time whenever the Trinity or ‘perfect One of Love’ is mentioned.

(Our gratitude to Caroline for arranging the music. May our work together bring a drop of peace, love and healing into the world.)

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This is the first time we are not using our own original images. For these Friday sung blessings, we'll use stock landscape videos, because I have neither the skill, nor the time nor the equipment to film such beautiful images.

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Fr Seraphim Aldea: 'we had this image of a man alone in the boat, praying and working at the same time. He would be entirely focused on prayer for a while, but then his attention would again turn to work. Even then, however, the words of his prayer would continue to resonate in his heart, like a sweet, haunting tune one keeps humming, without even realising it. And I was very keen to use a lullaby, if at all possible, because God's love for us can only be compared to the love of a mother for her child. Besides, this entire Booklet is a collection of blessings, and this is what God and a mother instinctively do: they bless the new life, they pour Love over their children. We wanted this sense of prayer seeping in and taking over, continuing in one's heart long after the actual words of prayer have been uttered - like a humm, like the waves.

A gift from Mull Monastery for this sad, frightened world, which God SO loved that He gave Himself for us'.

Видео The Drop of the Spirit: Celtic blessing, sung at Mull Monastery of All Celtic Saints канала Mull Monastery