And yes, “Canticle” was based on the tune for the “Star of the County Down,” with new lyrics by Rory Cooney.

My favorite songs are “O Holy Night” “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” “The Rebel Jesus” and “Canticle…”. The one thing about “Canticle…” though is that i cannot disassociate the tune with “Star of the County Down”, a song that i heard hundreds of times growing up, since that’s where I’m from. Anyway, thank you so much for the music, and Peace and blessings to you and your loved ones.

I admit the cheesiness of “Prince of Peace.” Absolutely.

The Jesus not eating meat thing was a reference to a body of writing that makes that claim, connecting Jesus with the Essene community. Although I’m vegetarian I actually don’t buy it; I do think Jesus ate meat but the lyric fit in with what I was trying to do. I tend to play with biblical images in my songs a bit, and that’s what I was up to.

The song writing on the “Prince of Peace”…well, I found it a little cheesy. Tell my niece? Cows bow down? his disciples got pissed? He’s a pac-if-ist? I cringed. I think you had particular messages you wanted to push, but you forced the rhymes to include them instead of letting the music and rhythm dictate what direction you took the song. Granted, I’m no song writer but that’s what it seemed to me.

Also, why did Jesus not eat meat?