Siobhán de Paor - A Wholey Mass

Siobhán's is co-founder of an Irish language revival effort called Wild Irish Retreat. Having been raised at the radical fringes of Catholicism; her spiritual education deepened within the Buddhist and Hindu traditions during a three years sabbatical in India and Nepal.  Returning to Ireland, she became a celebrant of the fire festivals of the Roth Cheilteach; our indigenous calendar. She then became a celebrant for rites of passage such as weddings and namings.  This re-imagining of the sacraments has now expanded into a revival of an early Christian Church within our contemporary gnosis and the reclamation of the most frequent and familiar ritual: Mass.

Siobhán current mission is the reclamation and articulation of a national spiritual tradition which is a synthesis of our early pagan and Christian roots within contemporary gnosis, as we collectively evolve from parishoner to priest.  This involves the reclamation of rituals and prayer that were co-opted by the Catholic Corporation. At the John Moriarty festival this year, she said her first Mass with herbs as a eucharist in a holy communion with nature.

A Wholey Mass is a reclamation of this ritual to it pre-Catholic indigenous roots with plant as eucharist and water as blood. We will penetrate these symbols to make a holy communion with our Earth Mother and Solar Father. We will create a living liturgy with ourselves as their child, chalice and channel.  

‍

‍