Hymnody
-
Singing Psalm 98 in an Irish Key
“Sing to the Lord a new song…” Psalm 98 is not shy. It is tidal. It calls rivers to clap their hands and hills to sing for joy. It insists that creation itself is caught up in praise—not as backdrop, but as choir. In the Anglican tradition, Psalm 98 can be used at Evensong as… Continue reading
AnglicanTradition, AutisticFaith, bible, CantateDomino, Christianity, ChurchOfIreland, ContemplativePrayer, Evensong, Faith, god, Hymnody, IrishAnglicanVoice, IrishHymnody, IrishSpirituality, jesus, LiturgicalReflection, NeurodivergentFaith, NeuroDivine, NewHymn, PoetryOfPlace, Prayer, Psalm98, QuietMoments, Routine, SacredSpaces, ScriptureAndStillness, Spirituality, SpiritualJourney -
Writing a Hymn—and Learning Stabilitas Overnight
This hymn didn’t emerge in a chapel. It came overnight. In silence. In storm. In the unbuilt monastery of the mind. “Wild winds rise fierce across the plain,My refuge be.” The imagery came quickly. But the deeper formation came slowly—as most Benedictine things do. I’m part of a Benedictine community without walls. We are dispersed… Continue reading
AnglicanTradition, AutisticFaith, BenedictineSpirituality, Christianity, ChurchOfIreland, ContemplativePrayer, Faith, Hymnody, IrishSpirituality, LiturgicalReflection, NeurodivergentFaith, NeuroDivine, PoetryOfPlace, Prayer, Psalm54, QuietMoments, RuleOfStBenedict, SacredRoutine, SacredSpaces, Spirituality -
Unknown Paths, Rising Hills: Writing a Hymn for the Second Sunday in Lent (Year A)
The readings for the Second Sunday in Lent (Year A) always feel like they are about movement—not certainty, not arrival, but movement. In Genesis 12:1–4a, Abram is called to leave what is known and step toward a promise he cannot yet see. Psalm 121 lifts our eyes to the hills—not as escape, but as a… Continue reading
-
Divinity in Difference: The Window That Says What We’ve Been Trying to Say
Every now and then, an image comes along that says in colour and light what pages of writing have been circling for years. This stained-glass window feels like that. It gathers the heart of NeuroDivine—the essays, the fiction, the hymns, the poetry—and holds them up to the light with one steady claim: Difference is not… Continue reading
ActuallyAutistic, AuthenticSelf, Autism, AutisticFaith, BenedictineSpirituality, CelticChristianity, Christianity, ChristInTheEveryday, ChronicIllness, ChronicIllnessFaith, ContemplativePrayer, Faith, FaithInTheEveryday, FindingConnection, Hymnody, InclusiveChurch, IrishAnglicanVoice, IrishHymnody, IrishSpirituality, LiturgicalReflection, ModernMonasticism, MonasticWisdom, NeurodivergentFaith, NeuroDivine, PoetryOfPlace, QuietMoments, Routine, RuleOfStBenedict, SacredRoutine, SacredSpaces, Spirituality, SpiritualJourney -
The Pharmacy of Praise
This morning I wrote a hymn about pill boxes and blister packs—about Sundays spent sorting seven small doorways for the week ahead. It’s personal. Andrew and I both live by the rhythm of medicines, colours divided into morning and evening, lids clicked shut in quiet preparation. Sorting tablets isn’t a small thing in our house;… Continue reading
-
God’s Whiskered Rogues
This hymn was born from a passing glimpse on Facebook—a brief mention of otters warming St Kevin as he stood in the icy waters of Glendalough. The image lingered. It was easy to picture the bold little creatures of the river: curious, bright-eyed, unafraid. Not solemn attendants, but playful companions. Not tame, but gloriously themselves.… Continue reading
-
The Knot of Grace: A Lorica for the Wired Mind
I wrote the hymn in English first. It came out of lived places. Hospital corridors. Strip lighting. The hum of machines. Motorways. Rain over stone. The strange ache of being surrounded and alone. It wasn’t theory. It was my nervous system on paper. There are days when my brain feels like too much input and… Continue reading
AutisticFaith, BookOfKells, CelticChristianity, Christianity, ChronicIllnessFaith, ChurchOfIreland, CodexCenannensis, ContemplativePrayer, Faith, FaithInTheWard, Hymnody, HymnWriting, HyperfocusAsPrayer, IrishHymnody, IrishSpirituality, IslandFaith, jesus, LatinPoetry, Lorica, MetreMatters, NeurodivergentChristians, NeurodivergentFaith, NeuroDivine, PatternAndPeace, PatternAndPraise, Prayer, PrayerAndPattern, QuietMoments, SacredLanguage, SacredRoutine, SacredSpaces, SacredStructure, SkelligMichael, Slemish, Spirituality, TranslatingFaith, WiredForWorship, WritingProcess -
Across the bog and standing stone
Inspired by the Bible Gateway Verse of the Day — “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18, Authorised Version. This hymn sets that promise within the ancient landscape of Celtic faith. Across bog and… Continue reading
-
In the Thin Place of Forty Days
Rooted in the landscape, spirituality, and imaginative tradition of the Irish midlands, the text interweaves the great biblical “forty” journeys—the flood, the exodus, Sinai, the wilderness, and the risen Christ’s forty days—with the sacred geography of Kildare and its surrounding boglands. Drawing on Celtic Christian imagery and the rhythms of creation, it invites worshippers to… Continue reading
AnglicanCommunion, AnglicanTradition, bible, BiblicalRoots, Christianity, ChurchOfIreland, Contemplation, ContemplativePractice, ContemplativePrayer, CreativeSpirituality, DivineLight, Eucharist, Faith, FaithAndHistory, god, GodsCreation, Hymnody, HymnWriting, Ireland, IrishAnglicanVoice, IrishHymnody, IrishLandscape, IrishReflection, IrishSpirituality, jesus, Kildare, Lent, Lent2026, LiturgicalReflection, ModernMonasticism, NeuroDivine, NewHymn, NewHymns, NewSong, Pilgrimage, PoetryOfPlace, QuietMoments, QuietWitness, SacredPerception, SacredSpaces, Sanctity, ScriptureAndSilence, ScriptureAndStillness, Spirituality, SpiritualJourney, SpiritualReflection, ThinPlaces, ThresholdOfGrace -
Ash, Attention, and the God Who Breathes: Writing This Hymn for Ash Wednesday
I wrote this hymn for Ash Wednesday out of a neurodivergent way of praying. For many of us, faith does not begin in abstraction. It begins in texture. In the grit of ash against skin. In the sound of a river looping the same bend again and again. In the stillness of a heron that… Continue reading
NeuroDivine 