16  November 2025

‘More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold …’ sings the Psalmist. When we visited Dublin a  decade or more ago, we queued up to see the Book of Kells. There were so many others interested in treasuring this illuminated manuscript that a person was paid to regulate the crowds.

By contrast, when we went to the Irish Academy to see the Cathac, we couldn’t find it. There were people in the Academy studying and others cataloguing books. Everyone was quietly going about their business. There was nothing to tell us where St. Columba’s hand-written copy of the Psalms was to be found.

Eventually, I asked a member of staff. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘it’s over there in that glass case. Just pull off the dust cover and have a look!’ As easy and as insignificant as that. Pulling back the cover, we saw the saint’s own beautiful if not ministerial handwriting. ‘More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold.’

Here the Word was being treasured in silence and in secrecy but available for all the world to see. And although it was much older than the book of Kells and most likely to have been copied by St. Columba, there was no cost to see it, read it, treasure it. And no razzmatazz to disturb our peace.