Morning Prayer from Carmina Gadelica

“'There were many sad things done then, for those were the days of foolish doings and of foolish people. Perhaps, on the day of the Lord, when they came out of church, if indeed they went into church, the young men would go to throw the stone, or to toss the cabar, or to play shinty, or to run races, or to race horses on the strand, the young maidens looking on the while, ay, and the old men and women.' 'And have you no music, no singing, no dancing now at your marriages?' 'May the Possessor keep you! I see that you are a stranger in Lewis, or you would not ask such a question,' the woman exclaimed with grief and surprise in her tone. 'It is long since we abandoned those foolish ways in Ness, and, indeed, throughout Lewis. In my young days there was hardly a house in Ness in which there was not one or two or three who could play the pipe, or the fiddle, or the trump. And I have heard it said that there were men, and women too, who could play things they called harps, and lyres, and bellow-pipes, but I do not know what those things were.'”

Alexander Carmichael

URNUIGH MADUINN AING dhut losda Criosda, Thug mis a nios o 'n oidhche 'n raoir Chon solas soillse an la 'n diugh, Chon sonas siorruidh a chosnadh dha m"' anam, An cion na fal a dhoirt thu dhomli. Cliu dhut fein a Dhe gu brath, An sgath gach agh a bhairig thu orni— Mo bhiadh, mo bhriathar, mo ghnionih, mo chail, 'S tha mi griosad ort Mo dhion bho^n olc. Mo dhion bho lochd. Mo shian an nochd "S mi iosal bochd, O Dhia nam bochd ! O Chriosd nan lot! Thoir ciall dhomh 'n cois do ghrais. Gun coraich an Ti Naomha mi. Gun comhnaich air niuir ''s air tir mi, 'S gun treoraich o ir gu ir mi Chon sith na Cathair Shiorruiche, Sith na Cathair Shiorruiche!			MORNING PRAYER Thanks be to Thee, Jesus Christ, Who brought'st me up from last night, To the gladsome light of this day, To win everlasting life for my soul, Through the blood Thou didst shed for me. Praise be to Thee, O God, for ever. For the blessings Thou didst bestow on me- My food, my speech, my work, my health. And I beseech Thee To shield me from sin. To shield me from ill, To sain me this night, And I low and poor, O God of the poor ! O Christ of the wounds ! Give me wisdom along with Thy grace. May the Holy One claim me, And protect me on sea and on land. And lead me on from step to step, To the peace of the Everlasting City, The peace of the Everlasting City !