Bishop Ricken is feeling holy

Dec 4, 2014 at 1:22 pm

With all of the commercialized distractions that accompany the season of Advent, what’s a Catholic to do to stay focused?

Bishop David Ricken, a somewhat accomplished singer who is remembered by Green Bay Catholics for singing his rendition of Bobby Bare’s “Drop Kick Me Jesus” during the homily of his installation Mass on Aug. 28, 2008, has just the answer.

During Mass at St. Joseph Chapel on the diocesan grounds Dec. 3 (and at a few other recent events) Bishop Ricken shared a musical way for people of faith to keep Christ in Christmas.

“Have you ever had one of those songs that come into your head?” asked Bishop Ricken. “Well, I have those quite a bit. You just can’t get rid of them. I think they call them memes.”

One song that Bishop Ricken said comes to him often is the 1966 Simon and Garfunkel song, “The 59th Street Bridge Song,” better known as “Feelin’ Groovy.”

“That’s one of those (songs) that keeps pestering me all of the time,” he said. “So I try to take that song and change the words.”

He decided to turn it into a tune that helps him focus on Advent.

“I was thinking, ‘If we applied that song to Advent, maybe it could go something like this:

‘Slow down, you move too fast. You’ve got to make this Advent last.
‘Just tripping down those rosary beads. Praying along and feeling holy.
‘Da-da da-da da da da, feeling holy. Da-da da-da da da da, feeling holy.'”

Bishop Ricken’s Advent song got quite a few laughs. And it wasn’t a surprise to hear people around the Chancery humming the catchy tune.

Here is an audio clip of Bishop Ricken singing “Feeling Holy.”

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