This hymn, written by Liam Lawton to celebrate the 1400 anniversary of the death of St. Columban offers students an opportunity to discover the immense wealth of heritage Ireland can be proud of, in the area of Mission.
Celebrating St. Columban – Article in The Irish Catholic
Log onto the Columban Fathers Website, where students can learn a little about St. Columban. They can also listen to the hymn by clicking the link here. This PowerPoint – High is the Heaven, offering images of Irish Missionaries in a variety of locations abroad, will run during the performance at the Emmanuel Concerts.
Some of the images in the PowerPoint above have been supplied by Fr. Sean McDonagh, a Columban Missionary, who has spent many years overseas working with many of the world’s poorest and bringing the compassion and love of God to them in their need. Fr. Sean is also well-known for his writings on the Care for the Earth.
Not only is this year an opportunity to celebrate the life of St. Columban, as it is also the Year for Consecrated Life.
Below you will find a number of items to introduce this topic to your students:
The excellent ‘Lifers’ documentary was aired on RTE in recent months, see information about the documentary here.
This Info Page that could be used to introduce students to the Year of Consecrated Life, and here you can view some ideas as to how students could celebrate this special year, by reaching out to those who can best relate the founding vision of their school.
For further discovery about why Ireland is known as the Land of Saints and Scholars, this link shows a variety of information about many Irish Saints to choose from, including:
