My kitchen is in a pre-Christmas mess, of course, having had a breakfast of fried goetta and eggs, but the most important preparations for Christmas are in their finishing moments. The homilies for the 3:30 p.m. and for Midnight Mass have pretty well come together – and I have rehearsed the new chants of the Masses of Christmas. The homily has a better chance of coming off well than the chanting does, but whatever.
So, in an inbetween moment, I tweeted Lisa Kelly, my favorite singer in Celtic Woman: How about a Christmas Eve RT for the “only priest you know who is on Twitter?” (When I saw Lisa in Atlanta after the concert-taping of their new “Believe” show – I have a photo on my phone to prove it – she met me with, “Father Rob, the only priest I know who is on Twitter.”) Don’t you know, minutes later Lisa re-tweeted to her 5, 678 followers a “Merry Christmas” to me. The tweet was a treat!
On March 24, Celtic Woman will be in Cincinnati. Tickets are available now only by way of a donation to our WCET-PBS station. I did some serious Christmas shopping through CET. My friends Sue and Paul, my friend Aimee, and my two sisters and their husbands will be enjoying the show with me.
Unfortunately, but happily, Lisa Kelly will not be with Celtic Woman at the March show. She will be staying home in Ireland to have her fourth child. Good for her and her husband, Scott. At Midnight Mass tonight I will remember the “six” of them. Perhaps remembering them at “the children’s Mass” would be more appropriate.
On my way back from a trip to the Holy Land in June with a group of teachers from the schools of our Archdiocese, I might be making a side trip to Dublin for the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress, in order to concelebrate with the Latin Patriarch and a few of his priests from the Holy Land – and maybe my priest friend from Booterstown parish. Hmmm … I wonder when Lisa’s baby will be born and baptized.
You can find some lovely “Celtic Woman” Christmas music on iTunes. Their new “Believe” CD and DVD is available now from both Amazon and Barnes and Noble, for release at the end of January. And don’t forget, Dan Virzi and WCET has tickets available for the concert. You won’t be disappointed.
With Open Doors 
Hi, Father:
Just wondering if you are aware that after Lisa left Celtic Woman, she moved to Peachtree, Georgia, USA, where she runs a voice academy for girls. And I guess Chloe Agnew spends some time there after she too left CW. Chloe was with Lisa on stage at a recent concert.
I recently played Chloe’s recording of “The Prayer” as a homily illustration at the liturgy in which I baptized a beautiful baby girl also named Chloe… My favorite CW recording is their rendering of “Amazing Grace” on the Songs From the Heart album, which Lisa opens after the pipers’ introduction. I am very distantly related to John Newton, who wrote the words of “Amazing Grace” over 200 years ago.
Merry Christmas 2014.
Roger Newton, pastor emeritus, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod
Roger – It is good to know that fans of Lisa Kelly cross denominational lines. Let’s see which of us can be the first to get her to sing “live” in our church. Maybe more properly we should not be so selfish, but rather try to get her to sing in the church of the other – in which case, may you win! – Rob Waller