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The Sacred Heart

THE PROSPECT OF DYING Michael Paul Gallagher SJ THE GOSPEL AS TOLD BY A GRANDMOTHER! THE RENEWAL OF FAITH Gerry O’Hanlon SJ

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EDITORIAL JOHN LOOBY SJ

Impractical Saints A short while ago I baptised three children. Their mothers were sisters which made it a lovely family event with many children present. Afterwards, a lady who had been there remarked that I had been so very sincere, as if I believed in what I was saying. That incident came back to me recently when we at Messenger published a book about saints by Fr John Murray.

Readers of the Messenger know he writes an article on saints every month. His saints have not been canonised – and many may never be – but they have in common that they lived lives of heroic virtue. They were very human; in most cases quite ordinary people, but in their time and at that place, they in their faith and all sincerity stepped out of the crowd and faced suffering, often death. In their sincerity they were nothing short of heroic. We do not believe they could have done what they did without God being with them and sustaining them.

Just because there are people who do not believe in God, it does not mean that God stops believing in them. Saints always surprise us, just as Christ’s death on the cross surprised us, and his resurrection surprised us, and made us think again about what life is about. Saints always surprise us, but they pose a particular problem for those who refuse to believe in God. How

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can human beings give and not count the cost as they did? It is because God believes in people that Fr Murray’s saints were able to make present, in their time, the ideals and the spirit of the Gospel.

I’ll take only one example: the Trappist monks of Algeria who were martyred. They lived in a small remote Muslim village shortly after the war for independence. They lived a simple life in prayer and study, growing their own food and integrating into the life of the village. It was to the monk who was a doctor the villagers came when they were ill and wanted advice. But the country was not at peace and insurgents raided the villages and threatened the monks with death if they did not leave. The monks discussed their alternatives. They were all afraid, but after prayer decided to stay with the villagers. In an early morning attack the terrorists took most of the monks captive – two slipped under their beds and were not discovered. The others were later decapitated.

They could have escaped the suffering, but they didn’t. Many will say – and many did say – that they were not practical.

One of the monks hearing such a comment replied that they were indeed impractical, just as Calvary was impractical.

CONTENTS The Sacred Heart Messenger is an official publication of the Apostleship of Prayer ADDRESS: Messenger Publications 37 Lower Leeson Street Dublin 2 Ireland Phone: 01 676 7491 (or 00 353 1 676 7491) Fax: 01 6767493 (or 00 353 1 6767493) E-Mail: sales@messenger.ie Website: www.messenger.ie Articles to: THE EDITOR Business Letters to: THE MANAGER Cheques payable to: THE SECRETARY EDITOR: John Looby SJ LAYOUT: Messenger Publications Design Department

Pope’s Intentions 4 Gerry O’Hanlon SJ

Gospel According to Mark 7 Carmel McCarthy RSM Passive in Poverty 10 Paul Andrews SJ

Masterpieces of Christian Art 13 Eileen Kane

Fragments 16 Michael Paul Gallagher SJ

Film Review: Song of the Sea 17 Brendan Staunton SJ

Dublin’s Historic Churches 20 Christopher Moriarty

Gospel as told by a Grandmother 23 Sr Susan SMSM

Finding God in All Things 24 Brian Grogan SJ Daily Offering 27

Prayer Calendar 28

Gardening 31 Helen Dillon A Toddler and the Grand National 33 Fiona Sherlock

Our Readers Write 36

Adult Crossword 40

NIHIL OBSTAT: Noel Barber SJ, Censor Deputatus

Cooking 38 Marie McGuirk

IMPRIMI POTEST: + Diarmuid Archbishop of Dublin

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Young Readers’ Pages 41

The Prospect of Dying 44 Michael Paul Gallagher SJ

Splendours of the Faith 48 Ray Moloney SJ

In the Master’s Footsteps 50 John Murray PP

Cora’s Shed 53 Georgina Downes

Fragments 56 Michael Paul Gallagher SJ

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POPE’S INTENTIONS GERRY O’HANLON SJ

The Renewal of Faith PRAYING WITH THE POPE

That we may be open to personal encounter and dialogue with all, even those whose convictions differ from our own.

One of the most striking features of the papacy of Francis is its dialogical character. Time and again he has emphasised the need for open discussion and debate, for real and not just token consultation, both within the church and in wider political, social and cultural circles. And, within the church, he has ‘walked the walk’ in this respect – see, for example, his way of governing with a council of Cardinals, and, above all, the 2014 Synod of Bishops, which will convene again for a second session in the autumn of 2015.

For many this new stress on dialogue is like a breath of fresh air and they are excited by the opportunities it opens up. Others, however, are not so sure. They are alarmed at what may seem like a lack of certainty, suspicious that an agenda for change is being pushed which will lead to the overturning of cherished truths. How are we to judge the value of this new approach?

It’s useful, first, to note the dialogical nature of the way of proceeding of Jesus himself.

Think of his parables and his discussion with the disciples about

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their meaning; basic questions like ‘who do they say that I am?’; the long chapter in John outlining the dialogue between the Samaritan woman and Jesus.

There is something inherently human about this way of acting – we live in relationship, we learn from each other. This is why Plato favoured the Socratic method of dialogue and Thomas Aquinas structured one of his main works around a methodology of question and answer, of discussion and dispute. Quite simply, it is human, whether within families, religious communities, or the wider public forum, to come to a deeper understanding of truth through the give and take of shared wisdom – and sometimes even ignorance!

Pope Paul VI understood this well and in his first Encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam (1964), influenced by the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber (mediated to Paul by his Catholic philosopher friend Jean Guitton), he gave a prominent place to the notion of dialogue in a way that is reckoned to have significantly reinforced the dialogical character of the Second Vatican Council.

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What is perhaps different about the modern emphasis on dialogue is that it has become more egalitarian and mutual, and that it is a defining aspect of contemporary culture. We have departed substantially from the model of a one-sided teaching ‘from the top’, with obedient and docile learners. People now – starting with children from a young age in families and in school – expect that their voices will be listened to, they want a share in the forming of wisdom and policy, they expect decisions from either civil or ecclesiastical authorities to be well informed and grounded, and to be explained with respect for intelligence.

Not that this was entirely lacking before – we tend, for example, to underplay the humanity of Jesus himself, and to think in terms of him being a teacher exclusively, but let’s not forget that (being human!) he was also a learner – from Mary, Joseph and the surrounding community, and perhaps even from the likes of the Syrophoenecian woman (Mk: 7, 25-30) and others.

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There are deep theological reasons why this new approach may be welcomed as positive.

With baptism we are each of us given the promise of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and as a People of God we are gifted as a group with a certain ‘supernatural sense of faith’ which gives us ‘a nose’ for what it true and what is right. Francis frequently refers to this ‘sense of the faithful’, which was well articulated in Vatican II and has been treated positively by a recent document from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. This means, in effect, that there is a real value to Christian experience, to the lived wisdom acquired through life by ordinary, good Catholics and Christians, and this lived experience needs to be taken into account in the formation of Church teaching and in testing (through ‘reception’ by the faithful) whether a particular teaching is well grounded.

None of this need lead to any disrespect for the Magisterium of the Church, nor to a kind of narcissistic mé-féinism, which

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In time … all this may well lead to a change in some current teaching that has not been wellreceived by the faithful over a considerable period of time.”

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is self-indulgent and avoids the challenge of the gospel to live authentically and not self-indulgently. Rather, at its best, it respects human and Christian adulthood and the fact that life is a journey towards mystery, not a simple copying down and imitation of black and white patterns and rules. It will require that we learn a little more about our faith, and, in particular, that not all that is taught by the Magisterium is taught with equal certainty or is equally central. In time – as happened in the past with, for example, the change from teaching that the wife must always obey the husband towards a more reciprocal understanding of the marital relationship – all this may well lead to a change in some current teaching that has not been well-received by the faithful over a considerable period of time.

One of the great contributions of Francis to his promotion of this culture of dialogue is his grasp of the gift of discernment, inviting us to approach change in a serene way, aware of our own inflexibilities and temptations (to the ‘right’ and the ‘left’!).

This new development in the church is surely to be welcomed.

God as Trinity, as love, constituted by relationship and dialogue, is at the source and end of our life. And today’s signs of the times, understood in particular by young people, have dialogue at their centre. We are all called to play our part.

Pray for the Catholic Church.

Lk. 16:1-8 First Friday: 6 November ................................................................. ................................................................. ................................................................. ................................................................. ................................................................. ............................................................... ................................................................. ................................................................. .................................................................

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PRAYING WITH MARK’S GOSPEL CARMEL McCARTHY RSM

The Gentile Woman Mark 7:24-30 Set aside some time to read about this encounter, which is unusual in many ways. First, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you read the gospel text and accompanying notes below. Note how Mark presents the person of Jesus in this passage and how he and the woman interact. Then, read the gospel passage again, this time slowly and prayerfully. Give yourself time to respond to its images and mood, pausing where you feel invited.

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Rising up from there he set off for the territory of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, yet he was unable to hide. But a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth. She begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, ‘Let the children be satisfied first. For it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’ ‘Sir’, she replied, ‘even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.’ Then he said to her, ‘For saying this, you may go – the demon has gone out of your daughter.’ When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

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NOTES ON MARK 7:24-30 Two preliminary comments: (i) It is significant that the other character in this story is a woman. All through Mark’s gospel, Jesus’ male disciples are portrayed as slow in understanding. By contrast, it is the women who are often depicted as perceptive and true disciples. (ii) This encounter symbolises Jesus turning from the Jewish world to that of the Gentiles. The receptiveness of this Gentile woman to the Jewish Messiah sharply

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contrasts with the inflexibility of Jewish legalism described in the paragraphs immediately preceding this story. from there: Mark presents this encounter as a transition between the two feeding stories, first for Jews (6:30-34), which we explored last month, and then for Gentiles (8:1-10). At the heart of this story are the metaphors of ‘bread’ and ‘crumbs’.

Tyre: Predominantly Gentile, Tyre was an important coastal trade centre in first- century Lebanon.

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It is Mark’s way of presenting the mystery of Jesus, whose true identity cannot be grasped until after his death and resurrection.”

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wanted no one to know: This is not intended as portraying Jesus’ personality. It is Mark’s way of presenting the mystery of Jesus, whose true identity cannot be grasped until after his death and resurrection. he was unable to hide: It was impossible to prevent the dynamic energy of Jesus from shining through. a woman: Here, as in 5:25-34 (woman with a haemorrhage), we find Jesus in dialogue with a woman. an unclean spirit: Unclean here refers to ritual impurity. From a Jewish perspective, the woman herself is also a source of ritual defilement because she is a Gentile. heard about him: The Jesus phenomenon simply could not be kept under wraps. fell at his feet: Like the woman with a haemorrhage, she gives expression to her recognition of Jesus’ power. a Syrophoenician by birth: Tyre and Sidon were key Phoenician trading cities in the Roman province of Syria.

She begged him: As a mother she seeks every possible means to alleviate her child’s suffering.

‘Let the children be satisfied’: Clearly a reference to the Jewish belief of being the ‘children of God’. Early Christianity believed that Jesus’ mission was first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. The dialogue in this encounter points towards an internal boundary between Jew and Gentile that was a live issue

for Mark’s community. first: This word is crucial in understanding the dialogue now unfolding. The first half of v. 27 concerns the feeding of the children (Jews). The Gentiles (dogs) will be fed, but not before the Jews (children). The second half of v. 27 indicates a situation in which the children’s bread must not to be thrown to the dogs (Gentiles). ‘the children’s bread’: Bread is used symbolically here, and links both backwards to the feeding on Jewish territory, and forward to the feeding on Gentile territory. ‘dogs’: In a context where dogs were semi-wild scavengers and never household pets, this crude metaphor for Gentiles was insulting. There really is no way of softening Jesus’ words, which are unexpected, seeing that he is now in Gentile territory. ‘even the dogs eat the children’s scraps’: This brave woman responds, not to the insulting term, but to the time frame implied in the sharing of bread at the children’s table. Instead of waiting till the ‘Jewish’ children have been replenished, she asks if she cannot already in the here and now receive some nourishment in the form of the children’s ‘crumbs’. These crumbs are allusions to the leftover fragments with which both feeding narratives end.

Taking up Jesus’ metaphor, and not questioning its truth, she simply indicates that, when the ‘children’ have been fed, cannot

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the ‘dogs’ hope to receive a share too? Two remarkable things now unfold: Mark presents Jesus as (i) shifting his position in response to her reply, and as (ii) learning from a Gentile woman about inclusive community and table fellowship.

‘For saying this, you may go’: Thus, responding to her faith and insight, Jesus assures her that her daughter has been healed. The basic storyline is resumed, the demonic power is expelled from the girl, thereby symbolising that God’s power will not be constrained by Jewish/Gentile tensions.

SUGGESTIONS FOR PRAYING WITH MARK 7:24-30 Modern readers will find Jesus’ words in this short narrative somewhat abrupt. He appears not to want to help, even though the earlier healing of Jairus’ daughter has shown that he can heal at a distance. He uses language that could be seen as racist, but then seems to change his mind on the basis of the woman’s robust

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rejoinder. This dialogue can be best understood against the background of first-century tensions in the early Christian faith communities. Although it does not explicitly mention the word faith, Mark relates this story to highlight for his community – and for us – the importance of persistent faith, and the need to overcome boundaries that needlessly separate us. No less than in Jesus’ time, we too encounter tensions that challenge us regarding the quality of our faith in God as revealed in Jesus. Reflecting on the ups and downs of life, you might explore what part faith has played and continues to play in your personal journey into God.

CONCLUDING PRAYER Most loving God, Free me from all internal boundaries that restrict my capacity to love.

Open my heart to others, as I pray for courage to trust you at all times.

Amen.

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WORDS OF WISDOM PAUL ANDREWS SJ

Passive in Poverty

Nick qualified well for the title of deprived or marginalised.

Aged 16, he had dropped out of school and lived in a corporation flat with an unemployed, abusive father and a depressed mother – they were not married and both drank too heavily. Nick himself was on the edge of crime but had never actually been charged. He had little prospect of getting a job: a bad address, no family backing, minimal skills, and nobody to give him a good reference.

It is not a rare picture in our bigger towns. What is especially saddening is the fact that it is so hard to help Nick out of his plight, and it is a plight that goes on from generation to generation. When our Lord said The poor you have always with you, he was pointing to the difficulty of changing patterns of living, especially the patterns of those who have been a long time at the bottom of the heap.

Writers like Jerome Bruner, who wrote a study called Poverty and Childhood, show what happens to families that have drifted down the economic heap as Nick’s did. One result is passivity, the inability to plan things or start things of their own accord. People who have been at the receiving end of society’s kicks, feel that they have no prospect of carrying through

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plans of their own. They opt for survival, living from minute to minute. Children who grow up in this sort of poverty often live from hand to mouth. At the start of each day, nobody knows who in the house is going to get up, much less who is going to plan a meal. Food is not bought for the rest of the day or the rest of the week. What is spent on food is badly spent, on fast food which is expensive and with little nourishment. From an early age children learn to fend for themselves, and live from minute to minute and day to day.

For children like this, school is baffling. All education demands the postponement of satisfactions. You work hard at learning letters because it will help you to read, and reading will help you to acquire other more difficult knowledge, which in turn will lead on to further education.

It is all an investment in the future. But Nick’s habits and philosophy of life had no place for postponing satisfactions. He was a survivor, used to reading a situation rapidly and managing to get through it, whatever the consequences for the future.

However, along with these habits, he had one asset, an attachment to his mother which reflected her love of him. No matter how unhelpful her habits, she still wanted the best for her

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son, and part of her knew that he would never escape from the poverty trap except through school. So she wanted him to do well at school, and the one motivation he had to work at school was to please his mother.

That carried him through primary school, where the teacher was a sort of mother figure. But in secondary school, with a number of different teachers and harder work, he lost heart and dropped out.

This story is not just about Nick. It is about the many good people who worked to help him. In spite of his difficulties, sensible help was given. In the parish where Nick lived (though he had not seen much of the church since his Confirmation), there was a social service centre.

An enterprising director wanted to lift this centre above the level of just handing out cash or other

goodies to the needy. He knew the dangers of a dependency culture, and saw some families go through three generations without ever producing a wage-earner.

So in addition to maintaining help for the unavoidably dependent, he decided to offer skills in computer work to those who had dropped out of school. A parish worker asked a computer company could they help, and they donated eight new machines. The local FAS director identified two young people who would be able to teach basic computer skills. The Centre gathered a class of young people who still had enough hope and enterprise to try learning something new. Classes were started. Within a year, two of the class had landed reasonable jobs.

What happened next is less

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From an early age children learn to fend for themselves, and live from minute to minute and day to day.�

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Here was the one thing in their lives they had succeeded in, and half the world was taking credit for it.”

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heartening. A local politician started telling people that it was his agitation on behalf of the marginalised that got this good scheme off the ground, implying that the other side would have done nothing for them.

The parish priest announced the successes from the altar.

The FAS director added the story to his CV with a view to his next job. The two FAS teachers had it firmly on their CVs. The Director of the social service centre claimed it as justifying his policy. The parish worker who had begged the computers was basking in his bit of glory. So was the manager of the computer firm who had given the eight computers. The parents of the two successful job-finders boasted to friends of their children’s achievements.

When Nick and Fiona (the two young people who had found

employment) heard of all this credit-taking, they were outraged. Here was the one thing in their lives they had succeeded in, and half the world was taking credit for it. They themselves were just hoping from week to week that they would keep their jobs.

It is a major success to break a pattern of unemployment in a family. The story was a genuine success. Of course it depended on many people, even more than those mentioned here. But those who claimed the credit, from PP to politicians, seemed to have forgotten our Lord’s warning to the Pharisees: Do not parade your good works. Do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Otherwise, when you reach the seat of judgement, you may hear the Lord say: You have received your reward.

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MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTIAN ART EILEEN KANE

The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria ‘CORREGGIO’ (ANTONIO ALLEGRI) (c.1489–1534) All attention in this painting is focused on the hands that are at the centre of the composition, and the heart of the picture’s subject-matter. The hands are those of the three people who are most prominent in the scene – the Virgin Mary, the child Jesus, seated on her knees, at the left, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, at the right. The fourth figure, looking on from the right of the group and concentrating, like the others, on the hands, is Saint Sebastian.

Most visible is the hand of Saint Catherine. It is resting on the palm of Mary’s left hand, of which we can see the thumb and the tips of the out-stretched fingers. Then, there are the four fingers of the left hand of Jesus, who has singled out the ring finger of Catherine’s right hand, and is holding it straight.

Instinctively, we look for his own right hand, and notice that, between his thumb and index-finger, he is holding a golden ring, which his mother is encouraging him to slip onto Catherine’s finger. The ring is a wedding-ring, the symbol of marriage; and the marriage, here, is the mystical marriage, between Catherine and Jesus.

The topic of the Church itself as the bride of Christ is rooted in biblical texts and occurs frequently in theological and devotional literature, but there are also a number of individual saints, including some of the early Christian martyrs, of whom it is said that they were wedded to Christ, in a mystical way. The 14th century Saint Catherine of Siena had a mystical experience in prayer, which she revealed to her confessor, in which she received from Christ a wedding ring, visible only to herself, as a sign of her espousal to him. In the case of some other, earlier saints, of whom not many facts have been recorded in writing, or are known for certain, the belief in their mystical marriage is a matter of tradition, and reflects belief in their profound holiness and closeness to Christ.

The 4th century martyr, Catherine of Alexandria, is one of those.

Catherine of Alexandria is believed to have been the daughter of a king, and also very learned, having studied in the famous schools of ancient Alexandria. Probably, what people remember most about her is her martyrdom – how an attempt was made first to

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torture and kill her by crushing her body between two spiked wheels. When that attempt failed, she was beheaded with a sword. In this painting, Correggio has depicted her as a very beautiful young woman, poised, of modest demeanour, and sumptuously dressed, as a princess might be, in goldcoloured garments. Her left hand rests on part of a broken wheel with a spike in it, and also touches the hilt of a sword.

Behind her, the 3rd to 4th century soldier-saint, Sebastian, holds in his hand three arrows, a reminder of the manner of his own martyrdom.

What is so compellingly beautiful about this painting is the softness of the modelling of the figures. In both flesh-tones and draperies, Correggio has blended the colours in such a way that there are no sharp contours, no sudden contrasts.

The posture and gestures of the figures, and the flowing lines of the draperies, are gentle and elegant, creating an atmosphere that is charming, relaxed and delightful. To this atmosphere, the quietly smiling faces and the concentration of the child Jesus make an essential contribution.

The composition, too, is most skilfully arranged. On a canvas that is slightly taller (105 cms) than it is wide (102 cms), Correggio has placed the hands, not exactly in the centre, either horizontally or vertically.

They are just below the centre, from top to bottom, and just

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past the centre, looking from left to right. This has had the effect of moving the whole group of figures towards the right, giving space, at the left side, for a glimpse of wooded landscape and, in the centre background, for a continuation of the landscape towards the distant horizon. Correggio has used those two spaces in the background to depict, as if seen at a great distance, the martyrdom of the two saints, Catherine and Sebastian. In the centre is Catherine. We can just see her, a small figure dressed in white, kneeling on the ground while behind her a soldier wields a sword. At the left, on a slightly larger scale, is Sebastian. He is tied to a tree or possibly a column and, below him, a group of soldiers are aiming their arrows to shoot him.

Antonio Allegri, known usually by the name of the town – Correggio, in northern Italy – in which he was born, is one of the great artists of the ‘High Renaissance’. His life-span – c1489–1534 – coincides with the years in which Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), in Milan, Michelangelo (1475–1564) and Raphael (1483–1520) in Rome, and Titian (c.1485–1576) in Venice, were producing some of their greatest works. In fact, there are influences from all of these artists, whom he very probably met, but whose paintings he certainly knew, in his own work. He worked, for the most part, in the city of Parma

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where he painted in fresco the interiors, notably the domes, of two important churches, including the cathedral of the Assumption. His skill and inventiveness in arranging great numbers of figures, as well as his use of colour, in those works, and in a number of large altarpieces, earned him much admiration not only in his own day, but in the next two centuries, when many of

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his compositions influenced successive generations of artists.

His career was relatively short, for he died aged only about forty-five, but he left behind him quite a large output which included paintings on nonreligious subjects as well as some masterpieces, large and small, of Christian art.

The feastday of Saint Catherine of Alexandria is kept on November 25th.

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Fragment s

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by

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Michael Paul Gallagher SJ

The Daily Revolut ion of Prayer

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Prayer is ordinary and extraordinary. Its routine aspects can make me forget the unreality of it. It is unreal in terms of my usual sense of reality – my world of practical externals and human contacts. And when I enter that cave of silence, I encounter a larger Reality. Divine Reality encounters me. In faith I find myself with Christ before the Father. When grace comes and my heart is ready, I know God beyond all ordinary knowing. Yes, prayer is a bewildering mixture of presence and absence. Common sense is overturned. Planning is dismantled. I am led ‘by the hand out of the village’.

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FILM REVIEW BRENDAN STAUNTON SJ

The Song of the Sea Directed by Tomm Moore I 94 mins I 2015

‘The loveliest film I’ve seen in ages... it made me shiver... this bewitching Oscar-nominated, exquisite hand-drawn Irish animation weaves together Irish folklore and Celtic magic’. So wrote the critic Wendy Ide in The Times.

Lovely to hear an Irish film praised so enthusiastically. At the heart of the film is Ben and his younger sister Saoirse, whose very name – meaning ‘freedom’ – is a big clue to the plot.

She is mute, and their mother disappeared after her birth. Ben blames his mute sister for this.

But, like her mother, she is a selkie – half woman, half seal – but Ben doesn’t know this yet.

His father, a lonely lighthouse keeper on an isolated island, is too heartbroken to help Ben heal the loss of his mother, not to mention the intrusion of his sister, who cannot or will not speak to him. Will his resentment be resolved? And how?

The children’s granny (in the beginning so bossy and dogmatic, ‘I know what’s good for you’, but by the end we know her gruffness is a mask for a kindly disposition) takes them

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The visuals are stunningly beautiful, echoing many styles from cave paintings to modern abstraction, with flowing colour and brilliant drawing.”

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away to her Dublin home. Ben and Saoirse begin a journey to find their half-woman, half-seal mother. The odyssey also aims at finding Saoirse’s voice.

On her sixth birthday, Saoirse finds a shell horn, whose magic properties lead to a white fur coat that turns her into a seal.

They encounter legendary figures like Mac Lir, the sea god, who has been turned to stone. (echoes here not only of Irish legends and myths but also of CS Lewis’s Narnia books, so resonant for kids and adults, like this film.)

When Saoirse is captured by baddy owls, the fairies lead Ben to the house of a witch, Macha, who is turning Saoirse into stone. Will Ben rescue her? Will Macha have a change of heart?

The visuals are stunningly beautiful, echoing many styles from cave paintings to modern abstraction, with flowing colour and brilliant drawing. The workshop in Kilkenny can be proud of this production. This is a film that makes you proud to be Irish, although there is an international dimension to the production team of eleven people.

Back to the plot. Do they return to the island? Will Saoirse recover her voice, and sing her song to awaken the fairies?

After Ben realises his sister is a selkie, does their long-lost mother return, and does all end happily with a family reunion?

Will they all come back to

earth? That’s what we have to ask leaving the cinema, after this magical mystery tour of Irish mythology and history.

There are many references and quotes from other films, which went over my head as I haven’t seen Moore’s previous animations, or those of the Japanese director who inspires him.

To the foreground in this film is the idea of the sanctity of nature. This is captured by the reverential, haunting music and the lively voice performances

by Brendan Gleeson, Pat Short, and Lucy O’Connell, who is particularly good. This is a wonderful film for kids and adults; I now can’t wait to watch Moore’s previous film on the Book of Kells. 2D animation is alive and well, and living in Ireland, not just from Pixar and Disney.

Only one quibble: I felt a twinge of resistance to a nostalgic tone and mood. The film opens with a quote from Yeats, and his ‘Romantic Ireland is dead and gone’ haunts the script. Nostalgia for an Ireland dead and gone is an unhealthy longing for a lost golden age.

Paradise lost and found is a theme as old as poetry, but this subtext or undercurrent doesn’t spoil the enjoyment of this spellbinding film.

Wendy Ide concludes her review by writing that everything in this film ‘coalesces to perfection’.

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Redemption Road

Brendan McManus Struggling to come to terms with his brother’s suicide, Jesuit priest Brendan McManus decides to walk the Camino de Santiago.

€15.99

The Great Reformer

Austen Ivereigh This biography of Pope Francis describes how this revolutionary thinker became who he is, and how he will use the power of his position to challenge and redirect the Catholic Church. €25.50

Cry of Wonder

Gerard W Hughes In Cry of Wonder, Gerard W Hughes, author of God of Surprises, encourages readers to explore their own human experience, the unique doorway opening each of us out into the mystery of our present existence. €17.99

Praying with Ignatius of Loyola

Jacqueline Syrup Bergan, Sr Marie Schwan CSJ Integrating the life of Ignatius with principles of spirituality, and offering an entry point for the reader through quotations and prayer inspired by Ignatius. €12.50

Walk With Me Into The Light

Margaret T Naughton Practical, thoughtful and empathetic, this is a book for both the bereaved, and for those who walk with them along the difficult road to acceptance. €3.99

Jesus: An Historical Approximation

Jose Antonia Pagola This controversial biblical rereading of the life of Jesus has become a bestseller. €43.00

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DUBLIN’S HISTORIC CHURCHES CHRISTOPHER MORIARTY

The Oratory of the Sacred Heart, Dun Laoghaire

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Dublin’s smallest church is unique in more ways than anyone would care to count.

Conceived as a simple oratory to commemorate local lads who died in France in the opening years of the First World War, it was transformed into an exquisite work of art by an almost unknown painter and musician. Considered to be at risk from the elements, the little oratory now stands within a larger building, commissioned specially to protect it. Usually closed to the public, it opens to visitors as part of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown’s ‘Summer of Heritage’ programme.

A little bit of mystery surrounds the origins of the building. Books and articles about it say that ‘a town in France’ presented a statue of the Sacred Heart to the Christian Brothers School as a thanksoffering for the boys who fought to protect them. Not one of the writers gives the name of the town. Whatever the facts, the statue did arrive in Ireland after the war. The neighbouring Dominican nuns decided to give it a home on their property and had the tiny oratory built.

The delightfully simple structure, measuring just 6 metres long by 2.5 metres

wide, was built in 1919 in the garden of the convent on Library Road. The six nuns who established it in the Famine year 1847 belonged to an enclosed order and their duties included providing education for girls.

Their school was a great success and the community expanded from the classical mansion into a very large institutional building.

The oratory was placed in the convent garden, a little way off from the main block.

Later in the 19th century, the Dominicans were a thriving order in control of many schools.

A little girl called Lily Lynch went first to their college in Eccles Street and later to the Dun Laoghaire establishment.

She had been born in 1874 in Middle Abbey Street where her father Thomas Joseph Lynch lived and worked. He was a very talented artist who specialised in the creation of illuminated addresses for presentation to important people. Based on the style of the Book of Kells and other manuscripts of the Celtic Church, he developed a style of his own and was regarded as one of the leaders of the profession.

Lily learned the art from her father and showed an equal talent in painting, besides

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developing as a musician.

Tragically her mother died when she was quite young and her father some years later, when Lily was sixteen. Far from becoming a dependent orphan, the teenager took over the firm and kept it going until the studio was destroyed in a fire.

That was the end of her public life. In 1896 she returned to the convent in Dun Laoghaire and entered the enclosed order. In addition to her strictly religious duties, she taught music and art in the college so that her teaching skills and talent were fully employed.

Much would change in 1919 when the plain and simple little oratory was built and the Sacred Heart statue placed above the altar, where it stands to this day. Sister Mary Concepta, as she was now known, was asked to decorate the niche behind the statue. The result was so beautiful that the nuns decided she should paint all the walls and the ceiling. This great work began in 1920 and continued until Sister Concepta’s health

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began to fail sixteen years later.

By then she had completed the walls and embarked on the ceiling. Although unfinished, it is pleasing to look at and, anyway, the walls hold the eye of the visitor to such a degree that a fairly plain ceiling is no great drawback.

Influenced in particular by the Book of Kells, the walls are covered with a medley of abstract or highly stylised designs, including human f igures, a riot of interlacing birds, beasts and serpents and a zoo of highly original creatures. The colours on the lower parts of the wall are subdued but increase in brilliance as the eye rises, reaching a peak in the brilliant rainbow colours of the wonderful birds that guard the door. The details are full of charm, all of the creatures so familiar from the Book of Kells being endowed with friendly, smiling faces.

The six windows needed attention outside the skills of Sister Concepta. But she was able to arrange with the Harry Clarke Studios to create

“

Much would change in 1919 when the plain and simple little oratory was built and the Sacred Heart statue placed above the altar…”

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designs to fill them.

These centre on the Holy Family. She also succeeded in finding people to pay for them and their names are included in the windows. The borders of the windows were clearly influenced by her designs. When she retired in 1936, therefore, walls and windows were complete and the ceiling, though unfinished, was acceptable.

Only the concrete floor remained untouched. In 1958 Sister M Theodora, at the suggestion of the archaeologist Etienne Rynne, provided a parquet covering for it, based on the design of the shrine of St Patrick’s bell. Sister Theodora also made the carpet for the

altar space.

The Dominican convent faded away in the 1990s and was replaced by a shopping centre – but the Oratory in its garden remained in place. It was isolated and vulnerable and the final phase was brought about in the 1990s when the architect Conor Moran of the Office of Public Works designed the wonderful outer shell that protects the Oratory itself and provides seating and a lecture room for visitors.

Known to far too few people and no longer used for formal worship, the Oratory remains a place for inspiration and for loving remembrance of the young men who died and of the unique talents both of Sister Concepta Lynch and the un-named monks of the Celtic Church of long ago.

Bequest Please remember in your will

‘I give and bequeath to The Sacred Heart Messenger, 37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland the sum of €__________ for the general charitable purposes in Ireland of the said Charity. The receipt of the said Charity shall be sufficient evidence of payment of the said sum.’

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The Gospel as Told by a Grandmother

I first

by

Sister Susan SMSM

saw Him when I brought my little grand-daughter to be blessed. It was a hot day; there were crowds of people. I could see that the guys Jesus hung around with were getting tired and upset. When they saw us women carrying our kids and grand-kids up so Jesus could bless and put His hands on them, it was the last straw! Those guys didn’t have time for mothers, grandmothers and kids with running noses. They started pushing us away. I wasn’t upset; we women were always being pushed around.

Then suddenly I heard Jesus speak. It was the first time I had ever got close enough to hear His voice. What a beautiful deep voice! He spoke with authority and told His friends to stop pushing us around, that He wanted to see our kids!

So there we were in front of Him, and then something unusual happened. All our children reached towards Jesus as if He were their Mother. He laughed and His eyes were like those of a CHILD!

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FINDING GOD IN ALL THINGS BRIAN GROGAN SJ

Informal Prayer

This article is an extract from the new edition of the book Finding God in All Things by Brian Grogan SJ

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Informal prayer goes hand in hand with a spirituality that seeks to find God in all things.

Formal prayer occurs when I set aside quality time for my encounter with God, while informal prayer occurs when I am busy about other things but take a moment to bring God in.

I prayed this morning before I opened up my computer, asking God to help me to write something useful. But while actually writing I am not consciously thinking of God. Yet ideas come into my head, and let’s suppose they are good ideas. If I believe that all good things come from God, then can’t I say that helpful ideas come from the Good Spirit?

That brings God alarmingly close! James Joyce, who was not famous for religious practice, says that the Holy Ghost is in the ink bottle! I believe that God is endlessly working in my life at every moment, shaping me and helping me in all sorts of ways.

I can catch on more and more to the hints of God’s loving care of me: then all of life becomes matter for prayer.

A GRATEFUL HEART As do most people, I find it easy to see God in the beauty of

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nature, and at least sometimes I speak to God about it, with gratitude and praise. For St Ignatius, gratitude should become central in our lives, as we learn to savour the goodness of God. For him, ingratitude was the greatest of sins, and he knew a variety of sins: he tells us that he took three days to make his confession after his conversion!

He offers three hints on how we can cultivate a grateful heart.

Firstly, he says, be grateful to God for creation. Most of us find this easy to do, when we move beyond taking created things for granted. Creation is the monstrance of God. The word monstrance means ‘pointing to’ and a monstrance is used to hold the sacred Host when it is exposed on Catholic altars.

The radiance of the monstrance draws the eye toward the treasure at the centre. The beauty of nature can do this for us. As the Jesuit poet Hopkins puts it, ‘Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty, back to God, beauty’s self and beauty’s giver’.

Storms, earthquakes and tsunamis spoil the perfect picture, of course. Our planet labours and undergoes startling upsets. Creation ‘groans in

www.messenger.ie labour pains’ as St Paul says (Rom 8:22). But then he adds that we do the same, so we can learn to be patient with Mother Earth and with ourselves. For those who can see, there is a beauty in the imperfection of things, which is deeper than surface beauty. Witness the beauty in the struggle of a sick child or of a recovering alcoholic, in tears of repentance or in the repose of death.

Next, says Ignatius, I am called to be grateful for my redemption – for the fact that God should leave the world of the divine to rescue me in my distress. Why should anyone love me at all, and why should I be infinitely loved by the Son of God, even unto death? Ignatius fell in love with the Jesus of the gospels who sacrificed his life for him in his wretchedness. For Ignatius, as for Pope Francis, the history of human life is a history of the mercy of God. God remains faithful in loving and serving me, and invites me then to loving service of my fellow-sinners. An exclamation of grateful wonder is called forth in me for all of this. The illogical jump in the line, ‘I was helpless, so God saved me’ (Psalm 116:6) has always appealed to me.

Why should I be saved when helpless? But God does that, and I grow in gratitude to him.

Lastly, says our guide, Ignatius, I can be grateful for my particular gifts, my uniqueness, those special ways in which

divine providence blesses me.

Sometimes with glad surprise I catch God in the act of looking after me, as when I bump into someone helpful to me, or when things work out well, but usually it is only by reflection that I see.

Then I find myself saying in surprise to God, ‘Why are you so good to me? Why do you save me from all sorts of trouble, and why do you set up so many good things for me?’

PRAY AT ALL TIMES! Jesus asks us to be alert and to pray at all times (Lk 21:36).

My life can be a living prayer, because Ignatian spirituality guides us into seeing that real Christian living is an open communication with God about all that goes on. I can chat with God about literally anything.

Our agenda is my life in all its bits and bobs. We are friends, and he is intensely interested in whatever goes on for me.

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“

I can chat with God about literally anything.

Our agenda is my life in all its bits and bobs.”

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Finding God In All Things

by Brian Grogan SJ Phone 01-6767491 or order online at: www.messenger.ie €7.99

I NOVEMBER 2015

SUGGESTED EXERCISE G Can prayer be simpler than this dialogue in its three moments?

G (Morning) ‘Good morning, God!’ G ‘Good morning, my beloved…’

G ‘God, I come to you to take your touch before I begin my day. Bless me as I go!’

G ‘I will indeed! I have been watching over you as you slept, and now I will be with you however the day works out.’

G (Some hours later...) ‘Hello again, God!’ G ‘Thanks for getting in touch.

I’ve been with you, helping you. I’m the wind beneath your wings as the song has it.’

G (Later again...) ‘Good evening, God! I’m tired, but before I sleep I want to thank you for the day.’

G ‘Hi, my beloved. Yes, it’s been quite a day for you, but you did your best and made some good things happen. Notice the small things. For instance, each time you smiled at someone, their world brightened up a bit. And you kept going even when you were under pressure. Now be nice to yourself and relax: I’ll sort out any mistakes you made.

Sleep well!’

G ‘Thanks so much for everything.

See you in the morning!’

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Available from www.messenger.ie

or email sales@messenger.ie or phone Vera on 353 1 6767491

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I NOVEMBER 2015

DAILY offering Lord, as we meet in prayer and in the Eucharist, help us to see that our bitterness is forgotten, our discord is resolved and our sins are forgiven.

Pope’s Intentions

And I pray with Mary and the whole Church for the Pope’s Intentions this month:

Universal: Dialogue

That we may be open to personal encounter and dialogue with all, even those whose convictions differ from our own.

Evangelisation: Pastors

That pastors of the Church, with profound love for their flocks, may accompany them and enliven their hope.

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POPE’S INTENTIONS Universal That we may be open to personal encounter and dialogue with all, even those whose convictions differ from our own.

For Evangelisation That pastors of the Church, with profound love for their flocks, may accompany them and enliven their hope.

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

All Saints

Commemoration of The Faithful Departed

St Martin de Porres, R.

Our final home is in heaven.

Mt.5:1-12

Death is a dawn, not a sunset.

Lk.14:15-24

Thank God for the gift of faith.

Lk.14:15-24

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

St Leo the Great, P.D.

God loves a generous heart.

Mk.12:38-44

Pray for renewal in the Church.

Jn.2:13-22

There is joy in service.

Lk.17:7-10

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

St Margaret of Scotland

St Elizabeth of Hungary, R.

1

=

8

2 9

10

15 16 17

‘My words will not pass away.’

Mk.13:24-32

Christ the King

Jesus hears our cries for Welcome Jesus into your help. heart.

Lk.18:35-43 Lk.19:1-10 St Columban, Ab. (I). St St Andrew Dung-Lac, Pr. & Comps. Mm. Clement 1, P.M.

22 23 24

Listen to Jesus’s words.

Jn.18:33-37

Give from your heart.

Lk.21:1-4

First Sunday of Advent

St Andrew, Ap.

Prepare yourself for his coming.

Lk.21:25-28, 34-36

Follow Jesus.

Mt.4:18-22

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3

Pray for the victims of violence.

Lk.21:5-11

NOVEMBER 2015 WEDNESDAY THURSDAY St Charles Borromeo, B.

4

The life of a disciple is difficult.

Lk.14:25-33

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FRIDAY

SATURDAY

All Saints of Ireland

St Willibrord, B.

6

u

Now is the time to repent. Pray for the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Lk.15:1-10 Lk.16:1-8

St Martin of Tours, B.

St Josaphat, B.M.

Thank God for his gifts to you.

Lk.17:11-19 Ded. of Basilicas of Ss Peter and Paul. App.

‘The kingdom of God is among you.’

Lk.17:20-25

Lord open our eyes.

Lk.19:11-28

Pray for peace in the world.

Lk.19:41-44

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No servant can serve two masters.

Lk.16:9-15

St Laurence O’Toole, B.

11 12 13 14

You know not the day nor Do not lose heart in prayer. the hour.

Lk.18:1-8 Lk.17:26-37

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

18 19 20 21

Mary, bring us to Jesus.

Lk.20:27-40

St Fergal, B. Miss.

25 26 27 28

Profess your faith openly. Lord, protect us from harm.

Lk.21:12-19 Lk.21:20-28

‘My words will not pass away’.

Lk.21:29-33

Be vigilant at all times.

Lk.21:34-36

u First Friday = Holy Day of Obligation

St Colman, B.

Visit a Church and pray.

Lk.19:45-48

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I NOVEMBER 2015

St Joseph’s PENNY

DINNER FUND

Help to supply

DAILY DINNERS to the poor at home and overseas

All donations will be gratefully acknowledged and should be sent to: SAINT JOSEPH’S PENNY DINNER FUND c/o Fr Paul Farquharson SJ St Francis Xavier’s Gardiner Street, Dublin 1 D01 TX23

VISIT OUR NEW WEBSITE! Prayers ~ Books Devotion to the Sacred Heart Novenas ~ Back Issues And lots more information about your favourite magazine.

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Many thanks to all of you who sent money during the past year.

Your contribution is greatly appreciated.

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GARDENING HELEN DILLON The Dillon Garden, 45 Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

Open Sundays only (2-6) in April, May, June and September and every day in March, July and August (2-6).

www.dillongarden.com

I was just looking at my rooted rose cuttings, taken last August, thinking how lovely it is to think about roses in gloomy November. Even if you don’t know a rose from a dandelion, one of the first things to learn about roses is how to take cuttings.

Roses are never propagated professionally this way, because the young plants are comparatively slow to mature. But what can you do if your grandmother grows beautiful old roses but nobody can remember their names so you can’t order them from a nursery? Or your friend wants to give you her favourite rose but neither of you know its name? Your only solution is to root cuttings from the old plants.

One way of doing it is by rooting hardwood cuttings: In early autumn mature side shoots of wood are cut about 30cm long,

cutting the base a quarter of an inch below the bottom leaf.

Snap off thorns and most of the leaves except the top three or four. In a shady part of the garden dig a V-shaped trench about a spade’s depth and put sand in the bottom. Place cuttings firmly about 15-20cm apart, fill in trench, tread down firmly. These should root in fifteen months.

But I find it easier and quicker to make ‘soft’ cuttings of young wood that has just finished flowering – these can be taken any time in the growing season, about 15-20cm long, immediately after petal drop. Prepare a small pot – maximum 5cm diameter – with a mix of peat and sharp sand. Insert cutting firmly around 5cm deep. Water.

Put pot in zipped polythene bag and zip up, trying not to let the leaves touch plastic. Put

Rose ‘Madame Pereire’

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“

I used to have at least sixty different roses here, but about ten years ago I decided to give up any that were especially prone to blackspot.”

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pot somewhere bright, but with no direct sun or wind. Do not disturb for at least six weeks.

I used to have at least sixty different roses here, but about ten years ago I decided to give up any that were especially prone to blackspot (a self-descriptive fungus which gets worse as summer progresses and causes the leaves to drop). You are meant to spend most of summer hunting round under the plants, picking up the blackspotty leaves to prevent the fungus spreading (not the best exercise for bad backs). I remember lovely pink ‘New Dawn’ used to be leafless

by August and thus was the first to go. From then on I stopped spraying the remaining roses.

But last year the blackspot was so depressingly bad that I now spray 4 times a year with Roseclear, which is very effective, only spraying late in the evening when there’s no wind and the bees have gone to bed.

Now to mention some of my absolute favourite roses, which survived the purge, beginning with the excellent ‘Florence Mary Morse’. I don’t even like this brilliant red rose, but my goodness, it is a wonderful plant, which flowers flat out all summer, with barely a week off duty. This was my gardening hero Christopher Lloyd’s mother’s favourite rose, and I can quite see why. Up to 2 metres tall, this is known as a ‘pillar’ rose, and I think it’s so good I have four plants round the garden.

One of the most beautiful is

‘Madame Isaac Pereire’ which has exquisite petal formation, very typical of the old roses, in soft magenta. Apparently it will grow facing any aspect.

‘Blush Noisette’ is especially good because it has an amazing first blooming, followed on by more flowers (which are in clusters of very pale pink with a lovely scent) through until September – worth half a day of dead-heading after the first flush. Although it sounds like a French rose, in fact it was bred by a Mr Noisette in the early 19th century in South Carolina. Rose, ‘James Galway’, is a robust but not too tall climber on our south wall – I love the warm pink petals tightly furled around each other and its excellent repeat flowering. Other well-liked roses here include: ‘Perle d’Or’, ‘Dublin Bay’, ‘Madame Caroline Testout’, ‘Canary Bird’, ‘Buff Beauty’ and the excellent pink ‘Bonica’.

If you have a very small garden you can always find space for a rose by buying an old fashioned metal dustbin (in Dublin try Churchtown Stores, Churchtown). You need five 5cm drainage holes in the base and 10cm of drainage material on top of them. Fill with a good, rich, soilbased mix plus rose fertiliser or: fish, blood and bone, chicken pellet manure, seaweed fertiliser, and plant your rose. We have three Rose ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ in metal dustbins, which have a wonderful scent and bloom twice each summer.

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SPECIAL FEATURE FIONA SHERLOCK

A Toddler and the Grand National

The bookies was dark and noisy as my grandmother led me in, the gold on her wrist as yellow as Spanish Armada treasure.

The cigarette smoke whirled around my little blonde curls.

It was lunchtime on my second birthday, and the 145th Aintree Grand National was just about to be run.

My grandmother hoisted me onto her shoulder and I swirled my chubby fingers in circles around her scalp. With my fist wrapped around her pearls for comfort, she jostled mud-encrusted farmers, florists and the priest to mark her betting slip.

Up to the dim booth and the

slack-jawed shop girl; the money passed hands.

From the vantage of my booster seat on the way home, Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, twinkled at me from her plastic cover that hung from the mirror.

Reaching through time feels thicker than the soupy visions from a dream. Most people can’t recall a memory before they are three years old. This day is superimposed with the memory of every other Grand National day as a little girl in a small Irish town. But this is my birthday – it’s special!

The red Volkswagen Golf shudders and vibrates across

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“

Near visible sound waves bounced from the TV to the wall.

A big, black square box.”

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the cattle grid. At the back door I am handed over to my mother, the sleeves of her Lady Di inspired blouse billowing with the smell of Dune perfume. A dab of non-stick lipstick catches the crown of my head, before she pulls a paper cone hat over my head, elastic snapping on my cheek and entwining in my hair.

My grandmother hands her a betting slip from Hackett’s bookmakers and gives her a wink, ‘The odds are getting shorter, you did well to get it at 16/1,’ Granny tells my mum.

Sleeves, jumpers and shoulder pads were my demesne, a little empress bobbing up to the world of the Grown Ups. Bowls of Jelly Babies and two child cousins signal it is also my birthday party, with sponge cake and candles. Happy Birthday, and smiles from my aunts, bespectacled like the soap actresses they watch.

There’s clapping and singing, and squishy red jelly through my fingers. If Spitting Image could be privately commissioned, it’s how I picture us. Parents wound up ahead of the National, kids foaming at the mouth with sugar and coke. I escape from sight, and clamber on the spindly chair. Seeking the admiration of my cousins, I leap into the air and crash into the hard parquet floor.

Two split shins later I have a face puffed with the melancholy of a fallen baby, back on my mother’s soothing lap. Sugar has exhausted the adrenal glands of

my cousins and they slump waiting for someone, anyone, the binman, to take them home.

The grownups grow as quiet as the children and nail-biting habits are revisited.

I’m now on the floor, as they are off. Scratchy wool slows down my movements, a tweed outfit bought by a gregarious family friend at Cheltenham weeks earlier. Who buys tweed suits for toddlers?

Near visible sound waves bounced from the TV to the wall.

A big, black square box. Pressing my finger into the race the green, red and blue dots squish before I am hauled back onto my mother’s padded shoulder.

It’s Becher’s Brook and why are they all so excited? Gentle touches of my mother’s scrunchie get me nowhere, loud shouts and hair tugs are now required.

They don’t listen, my parents are shouting, my father standing on an upturned bin. The biscuit tin is halfway out an open window. This is serious. Very serious. My grandfather is banging his stick and grandmother can’t look. Under normal circumstances, in such stressful situations she would naturally find herself saying the Rosary, but something seems wrong about that today. Two crooked neighbours cough and splutter and spill their tea and make signs of the cross. This is Ireland – and we’re still Catholic.

This is the 1991 Seagram Grand National, Haughey is Taoiseach and mothers still

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smoke Rothmans at creches. The French and English meet each other in the Channel Tunnel and the IRA have bombed 10 Downing Street, Paddington and Victoria stations. This year, Seagram is the horsey to win.

Not that I remember of course.

Two-year-olds don’t remember their second birthdays or corrupt politicians. No, we need some solid facts that a baby can’t hold onto.

And so it went. At five, I had a new brother, who got the tweed jacket and the going was good.

I walked into the bookies, as if I was born on the carpet and wrapped in the Racing Post.

Underage gambling commonplace, even amusing for the punters, I place my first bet. I laugh at my brother’s ignorance as he sits and stares from the pram, clutching a Cabbage Patch doll.

‘It’s the Grand Nashol,’ I tell him, sticking out my tongue ‘I have a tip’.

Now I am twenty-six and old

I NOVEMBER 2015

enough to notice the weight of lost bets; a sort of Brigadoon descends upon me for the Grand National. A world of possibility, the currency is winks and nods in shadowy bookmakers. It is not one singular experience, like meeting one’s first love or visiting the Louvre. It is the experience of a lifetime, as my life is punctuated by the world’s greatest horse race at Aintree.

Next April I will turn 27, and as ever, the Grand National will be run. My parents have divorced, my grandfather has died and my little brother will not talk to me – but the National will be the same experience. Although next year, I’ll bet through an app, view the thirty fences in high definition, and converse using a hashtag.

A Toddler and the Grand National was awarded the overall prize in the 2016 Wills Writing Awards for Fine Writing (fact or fiction) on a horseracing theme.

It is as factual as a toddler’s memory could be. First published in the Racing Post on April 20th, 2015.

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Our Readers Write in Praise and Thanksgiving All thanksgivings sent to us are remembered in our Friday Mass each week. A promise to publish a thanksgiving is amply fulfilled by sending it to us.

RECENT FAVOURS Dear Father, I promised to thank the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Anthony and all the saints for all the favours received over many years, especially recently regarding a hospital appointment, safety in the car, in my house and outdoors.

Trusting Dear Jesus, you will keep me and mine safe and well and healthy – my most grateful thanks again.

Anon LIFE CHANGING INTENTIONS Dear Reverend Father, I am writing this thanksgiving and would greatly appreciate if you would publish it as I promised Our Lord and Our Lady to do so if received. Between today and yesterday I have received three intentions, which were all very important to my life, and two of which will certainly have the possibility of changing my life for the better.

They are all works in progress, but to have gotten this far would not have been possible without the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Blessed Lady his mother.

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I am truly grateful and I shout from the rooftops ‘Praise be to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and Honour to Our Blessed Lady’ or ‘Sacred Heart of Jesus I Place all my Trust in Thee’.

Anon

FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART I promised my dear friend St Martin I would put pen to paper in thanksgiving if everything went well for me after my operation. As usual he didn’t let me down. He has been my friend (with many others) for all of my life. This is just to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

MS HELP FOR ALL MY SONS Dear Father I had promised a letter of thanksgiving if my prayers were answered and now I am writing to thank the Sacred Heart, Our Lady, St Anthony and all the angels and saints.

I have prayed continuously over the years for help and have received it with thanks. One particular problem, which I didn’t think could be resolved, has been. Through prayer and God’s

www.messenger.ie help my prayers were answered.

I am so grateful for all the help I have received.

I thank God for our health and our three sons’ health. I have a son just finished college and I pray he gets a job he will be happy in, and another son is preparing for exams so please God help them both.

God grant me continued faith.

Sacred Heart of Jesus I place all my trust in you.

Grateful wife and mother

BEST FRIEND’S DAUGHTER Dear Father I want to publish my heartfelt thanks to the Sacred Heart for many favours and requests and the blessings granted to me and all my family. In times of anxiety and sickness I always say ‘Oh Sacred Heart of Jesus I place all my trust in thee.’

I am praying to the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the moment for my best friend’s daughter who is having chemo treatment, so please God she will be cancer free at the end of the treatment.

A sincere and grateful reader LONG OVERDUE THANKS Dear Father, I wish to thank the Sacred Heart, Our Lady, St Joseph and St Anthony for many favours down the years. These thanksgivings are long overdue and at this time I

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am now asking the Sacred Heart for another favour and I know he won’t let me down. Sacred Heart of Jesus I Place all my Trust in Thee.

Long overdue thanks, A sinner

JOB FOR MY DAUGHTER Dear Father, I wish to thank the Sacred Heart and Our Lady for all favours received in the past and present, the most recent being a new position in employment for my daughter.

I made a Novena to the Sacred Heart and he answered my prayers.

I promised to publish my most sincere thanks ‘O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I Place All my Trust in Thee and will always be devoted to you’.

Grateful mother, Tipperary KEEPING MY PROMISE Dear Father, Please publish this letter in The Sacred Heart Messenger and help me keep my promise. I asked for a favour a short time ago. I was worried about a family member. The Sacred Heart never fails. I promised to write a letter of thanks to be published in The Sacred Heart Messenger, so please help me keep my promise.

Mayo Reader

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COOKING MARIE McGUIRK

Pre-Christmas Recipes Now that November is here perhaps we think more often of our loved ones who have passed on and the traditions they left behind with us. My grandmother and my mother always started the preparations for Christmas at this time of year, so this month my recipes have Christmas celebrations in mind! All recipes can be frozen.

CARROT, CRANBERRY AND SEED MUFFINS

5 fl oz/ 150ml sunflower oil 6 oz/ 150g fine ground wholemeal ½ tsp bread soda sieved 1 tsp baking powder 4 oz/ 100g grated raw carrot 4 oz/ 100g soft brown sugar 2 eggs 2 oz/ 50g dried cranberries 1 oz/ 25g sultanas 2 oz/ 50g mixed seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, linseed, poppy)

METHOD

n Whisk the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy. n Gradually pour in the oil and continue to beat. n Add the flour alternately with the fruit and grated carrot. n Spoon the mixture into muffin cases and bake for 20 mins at 200°C/400°F/ Gas 6-7.

Sprinkle a few extra seeds on top if desired.

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CHESTNUT AND CRANBERRY STUFFING ROLL

Olive oil 1 small onion diced finely 1 cooking apple grated or finely chopped 1 lb/ 500g sausage meat 4 oz/ 100g chopped cooked chestnuts (or any favourite nut) 2-3 tbsps chopped parsley, sage and thyme mixed 1 egg 4 oz/ 200g breadcrumbs 3 oz/ 75g dried cranberries Approx 12 streaky rashers Butter

METHOD

n Heat a little oil in a pan and fry the onion until softened.

Place in a bowl and cool slightly. n Add the chopped apples, sausage meat, chestnuts, herbs, egg and breadcrumbs.

Mix thoroughly. n Butter a sheet of tinfoil and overlap the rashers on the foil. n Spoon the stuffing over the rashers leaving a border of 3cm or 1 inch. Scatter over the cranberries and push into the stuffing. Season. n Tuck the bacon over the stuffing at the edge and using the foil to help, roll the stuffing into a log shape. n Place the foil-wrapped log on a roasting tray and bake in a

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pre-heated oven for 45 mins.

(170°C/ 340°F/ Gas 5) n After 45 mins unwrap the foil, drain off any juices, and cook for a further 15 mins.

The roll can be made and frozen raw for up to one month. It can also be made and cooked the day before and reheated for 30 mins on Christmas day. Use all the stuffing on Christmas day and do not reheat a second time.

LUXURY MINCEMEAT

4 oz/ 125g each sultanas, raisins, currants, ready to eat chopped figs, ready to eat chopped dates 6 oz/ 175g muscovado sugar 2½ oz/ 75g butter

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1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground nutmeg 1 tsp ground cloves 1 lb/ 400g peeled cored and grated cooking apples ¼ pt/ 140ml cider Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon 2 tbsps golden syrup 2 tbsps brandy 2 tbsps sherry 2 oz/ 60g chopped nuts

METHOD

n Place cider in a saucepan and bring to boil. Add everything except the brandy, sherry and nuts. n Cover and simmer gently for 20 mins until all the liquid has been absorbed. n Cool and then stir in the spirits and nuts. n Freeze and use when desired.

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The prize is €100 for the first correct solution opened. Judge’s decision is final.

ENTRIES MUST REACH US BEFORE THE 24th OF THE MONTH.

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Send to: Adult Crossword 511, Messenger Publications, 37 Lr Leeson St, Dublin 2, Ireland

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ACROSS 1. Beast briefly acknowledged in jail I left (6) 4. Said it was very old initially and frozen (6) 10. Pound Dawn waved throughout (2,3,4) 11. Unruly Neil included fellow who was mischievous (5) 12. Soldiers raced to gulf in SE Italy (7) 13. Told there’s some connection (7) 14. Alternative group had strange respect for regalia (3,3,7) 16. Flower female campers to lie on? (5,8) 21. Some unpleasant, bearded insect-eater (7) 22. Cold wind from Washington or the Rockies (7) 24. Get up, I’m leaving dramatically initially the organisation (5) 25. Skill in performing capital punishment?

(9) 26. One deity entered Pennsylvania building (6) 27. Lady from the bush (6)

DOWN 1. They leave the trip first being self- confident and cheerful (6) 2. Seat of learning? (5) 3. Added an alteration to supplements (7) 5. Partly coincide with more than one circuit (7) 6. Serve yourself and pay cashier here at Recife, a novelty (9) 7. Strip from France that’s flesh-coloured (6) 8. Without restrictions in wrestling presumably (2,5,6) 9. A Parisian legal case perhaps editor concluded was new (13) 15. Large and thin sort of article that’s genuine (4,5) 17. Bore gave in (7) 18. Resort has landing-place below rocky height (7) 19. What to do with receiver when one has emotional problem (4,2) 20. Medal’s age? (6) 23. Believer lost his head during armed hold-up (5)

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Name: ______________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________

Send to: November Crossword, Messenger Publications, 37 Lr Leeson St, Dublin 2, Ireland

ACROSS 1. Little lies (4) 5. Two thirds of seven across (5) 6. Don’t do this to your toast (4) 7. Quantity eggs might come in (5) 10. Part of your eye (4) 13. A way to cover a wall (4) 14. A boys name (5) 15. Little device that stores music (4) 16. Religious system followed by Muslims (5) 17. A sharp side of a surface, or a member of U2 (4)

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CHILDREN’S CROSSWORD: WIN €30!

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DOWN 1. Material or cloth (6) 2. City in Germany (6) 3. Pretty important on a plane (5) 4. One of the first great inventions (5) 8. Sealed (6) 9. Something you’ll never find in a haystack (6) 11. __ chicken (5) 12. Energy from the sun (5)

AUGUST CROSSWORD SOLUTIONS & WINNERS ADULT CROSSWORD

ACROSS: 1.Caddish; 5.Quids in 9 Hair; 10.Insensible; 12.Lingerie; 13.Retype; 14.Bewilderment; 17.Free-standing; 21.Necked; 23.Birthday; 24.Clay-pigeon; 25.Rapt; 26.Leakage; 27.Seizure.

DOWN: 2.Ataxia; 3.Dirigible; 4.Skid row; 6.Unnerve; 7.Drift; 8.Ill-spent; 11.Spelling-bee; 15.Megahertz; 16.Trueblue; 18.Tedding; 19 In range; 20.Jasper; 22 Kayak.

ADULT CROSSWORD WINNER: Mary Dowling, Phibsboro, Dublin 7

CHILDREN’S CROSSWORD

ACROSS: 1. 1.Bear; 5.Beans; 6.Kale; 7.Hippo; 10.Raze; 13.City; 14.Yield; 15.Knot; 16.Alley; 17.Scar.

DOWN: 1.Bakery; 2.Ablaze; 3.Relic; 4.Inept; 8.Picnic; 9.Oyster; 11.Aisle; 12.Elder.

CHILDREN’S CROSSWORD WINNER: Kate Geraghty, Arklow, Co Wicklow.

COMPETITION WINNERS: Sinéad Cuggy, Dublin 15; Áine Dickson, Co Meath; Ruth Dennigan, Co Roscommon.

CHAPTER 3

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WORD SEARCH

W U P W J A M E S T G Q

L L A I E A C M C H W C

V U Y W L R M D X A V N

F L T S K I D E Z D J S

Y G O W F K H N S D D A

V V O X Z A Z P A A V M

W E H T T A M F X E S O

D V S A D U J X A U Q H

K H D F Z N H K L S N T

Y I S S I M O N N H O J

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HOW MANY APOSTLES CAN YOU FIND IN THIS WORDSEARCH? Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Thaddaeus, Simon, Judas

K B A R T H O L O M E W

Today a man knocked on my door and

L R E T E P N O M I S N

asked for a small donation to the local swimming pool. I gave him a glass of water.

Q: What squeaks while fighting crime?

A: Miami Mice.

Q: What’s small, furry and brilliant at sword fights?

A: A Mouseketeer.

by Ciarán Bartlett

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SCARED

Twanky and the little boy were staring at each other, like living statues.

The boy moved first, unafraid and held out his bar of chocolate to Twanky. Twanky saw this as a good sign of friendship, he knew the boy wasn’t going to shout or bolt downstairs. He reached out, taking the chocolate.

It was one with coconut on the inside. They were Hassie’s favourite, he used to say the coconut reminded him of the summer he haunted in Jamaica. Twanky spun around towards the bookcase and said, ‘Here Hassie, look at what we got!’

Hassie swept into life and zoomed through the air, slapping Twanky on the nose and swiping the chocolate bar off him, before returning to the bookcase as fast as a rocket. The boy finally spoke.

‘Wh- wh- what was that?’

‘Oh that,’ said Twanky, ‘that’s my mate Hassie. He’s a ghost.’

‘A ghost!?’

‘Yeah, but don’t take that rudeness personally, he doesn’t do well around people.’

The boy’s jaw nearly hit the floor.

He couldn’t believe his eyes. ‘Well, if

NOVEMBER CHILDREN’S COMPETITION: DRAW OR PAINT A PICTURE AND WIN €30 THE BEST 3 ENTRIES EACH RECEIVE A PRIZE OF €30

TOPIC: Your Favourite Place.

November Competitions, Young Readers’ Pages, The Sacred Heart Messenger, 37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland, or your scanned entries by email to competitions@messenger.ie *Remember: entries for all competitions – including the crossword – must reach us no later than 24th of the Month.

Please remember to include your age.

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DYCATS

he’s a ghost, what are you?’

‘I’m a fluff monster. What are you?’

‘I’m Finn.’

‘Like a talking fish fin?’

‘No,’ he said laughing, ‘I’m just a boy called Finn.’

‘Right you are, sir.’ Twanky shook Finn’s hand, which looked tiny compared to his own. ‘Hassie, get out here and bring the lemonade, we have a guest.’

Hassie had gobbled half of the chocolate. He burped and threw the rest of it back out into the room from the bookcase. Twanky was disgusted. He picked up the chocolate and handed it to Finn. ‘Two seconds,’ he said, walking over to the bookcase.

He whispered. ‘Hassie, get out here.’

‘No way!’ came the reply.

‘Get out here now, or you can find yourself a new best friend.’

About five seconds later, Hassie appeared, whizzing under a load of old boxes in the corner and

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reappearing with a bottle of lemonade in his misty ghostly hands.

‘Here,’ he said handing Finn the bottle. Finn took it, opened it and had a swig, passing it on to Twanky who slurped half the lemonade in one gulp. Finn belched and then Twanky let a burp out of him that would have woken the dead.

The three of them laughed. Hassie was still frightened. Finn could see it.

‘So you’re afraid of people?’

‘So!’ Hassie was huffing. ‘He’s afraid of the dark,’ he growled pointing at Twanky, who looked sulky now.

Finn burst out laughing. ‘What a couple of scaredycats! I’m not afraid of anything.’

Hassie smirked. ‘We can call you Fearless Finn then.’ They all laughed.

Finn smiled. ‘Wow! A haunted

house. This is pretty cool.’

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SPECIAL FEATURE MICHAEL PAUL GALLAGHER SJ

The Prospect of Dying

“

Even for someone without a religious faith, it is possible to find quiet strength as death approaches.”

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‘Let the shortness of life teach us wisdom’ says Psalm 89. Dr Johnston famously commented that death concentrates the mind wonderfully, adding, with typical common sense, that a good life prepares us for a happy death.

When you find out that death may come soon, it simplifies the focus of the heart. But if, in spite of human weakness, you have tried to live generously, death can often be faced with surprising calm.

Of course there will be some struggle of body and of spirit.

There can be shock and anger.

Everyone likes to control their life but now I enter a time where control will not work any more.

As death comes closer, there will be moments of lonely emptiness and of physical dependence on others. The habit of self-sufficiency, so deeply rooted in each person, will fail. So I will need something larger and deeper.

Even for someone without a religious faith, it is possible to find quiet strength as death approaches. If you have lived small forms of dying down the years, this letting go will not be totally unfamiliar. Whenever the ego learns self-giving, or experiences love, the muscles of self-surrender have been exercised. In this way you have become used to dying before death itself comes.

The French writer, Albert Camus,

himself an unbeliever, wrote about a capacity to transcend tragedy: In the midst of tears, I found within me an invincible smile.

In the midst of chaos, I found within me an invincible calm.

In the midst of winter, I found within me an invincible summer.

If we can learn to die long before we face death, with faith these transformations become part of a divine drama. The biggest difference is that I am no longer alone. Listen to St Paul: ‘even though the outer body is wasting away’ (2 Cor. 4: 16), ‘I know in whom I place my trust’ (2 Tim. 1: 12): ‘He loved me and gave himself for me’ (Gal. 2: 20). Does this sense of being accompanied by Christ make human anguish easier to bear?

Not always. Faith does not suppress physical pain or a sense of helplessness. But even in times of fragility faith offers a promise from God: even when you pass through fire, fear not for I am with you (Is. 43: 2, 5).

The key Christian reality has not been mentioned yet: obviously the Resurrection of Jesus is our crucial source of new courage before death. The philosopher Wittgenstein put it well: ‘it is love that believes the Resurrection’. Belief in the Resurrec-

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tion involves more than accepting a unique physical event. The Resurrection of Jesus is God’s love-pledge to us. It opens a totally different perspective on life and death, revealing a God of life who is always an enemy of death. It offers an explosive new image of who we are and where we are going. We are not made for the finality of death but for the fullness of life, here and hereafter. The poet Hopkins captured the revolution of the Resurrection in these complex lines: Away grief’s gasping, joyless days, dejection.

Across my foundering deck shone A beacon, an eternal beam…

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In a flash, at a trumpet crash, I am all at once what Christ is, since he was what I am, and This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal diamond, Is immortal diamond.

These lines evoke an end to mourning or panic, as on a sinking ship, and the experience of a light that changes who I am. If Christ became one of us, and if we now share in his resurrection, then we are no longer fragile, useless selves, where humanity seems almost a joke. We are ‘immortal diamond’, treasures of beauty for all eternity.

For St John’s Gospel eternity has already begun here. He stresses again and again ‘whoever believes has eternal life’ (Jn.

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6: 47). To believe in Christ and to try to live like him becomes a ‘fountain of water welling up to eternal life’ (Jn. 4: 14). The seeds of eternity are already present, burgeoning, giving fruit, and all this is made concrete when we live with love: ‘We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love’ (1 Jn. 3: 14). ‘Of his fullness we have all received’ (Jn. 1: 16). What God is doing in me here and now, if I receive the gift, is initiating me into a fullness that continues beyond death. The movement towards heaven is already happening.

All that may seem too spiritual when someone is faced with a daily decline of energy. Yet this music of faith can be heard even in dark times. When I am close

NEW!

to death there may be weakness and distress, but I hope to have the freedom to surrender into the hands of God, so that dying can be a prayerful letting go.

There may be unresolved hurts or unfulfilled hopes, or worries about those left behind. But gratitude and peace come from having made a difference to some people during your life.

And above all from trusting that the Risen Lord will now carry you across the dark threshold.

The outer process of dying may be frightening, but do I really want to stay here forever? If I listen to my heart, I know I am made for more life than I can yet imagine. When God’s promise overcomes my fears, what St Paul calls the ‘last enemy’ becomes an unexpected friend.

Gospel Reflections for sundays of year C: LUKE Donal Neary SJ is formerly Parish Priest at St Francis Xavier’s, Gardiner Street, Dublin, and chaplain at Mater Dei Institute of Education. Fr Neary has drawn on his long experience of pastoral work in Dublin to put together these reflections. They are designed to help people better understand the gospel reading, to perhaps reflect on the reading during the week before or after Mass. This book also provides a valuable aid to clergy in perparing their weekly homily, helping to ground it in the living human experience.

To purchase go online to www.messenger.ie or phone Vera on 01.6767491. 64 pages / €9.99

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CALENDAR & AOP 2016

2016 Sacred Heart Calendar 2016 Living Prayer: Apostleship of Prayer Following the success of last year’s editions, we have sourced more beautiful photos of Pope Francis to feature for 2016.

Sacred Heart Calendar 2016

Pope’s Intentions Principal feast days of the year Brief thought for the day based on the gospel reading

Living Prayer: Apostleship of Prayer

Introduction to the Apostleship of Prayer Forms of the Daily Offering A monthly reflection on the Pope’s Intentions The liturgical calendar for each month The gospel reading for each day

CALENDAR: Price €2.50/£2.20 (€1.05 P&P) LIVING PRAYER: Price €1.90/£1.70 (€0.90 P&P) SPECIAL OFFER: BUY BOTH FOR €3.50/£3.00 (€1.50 P&P) Please make cheque/postal order payable to Messenger Publications Please send me _________ copies of 2016 Sacred Heart Calendar Please send me _________ copies of 2016 Living Prayer Please send me _________ Special Offer(s) (1 x Calendar PLUS 1 x Living Prayer)

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SPLENDOURS OF THE FAITH RAY MOLONEY SJ

Corpus Christi

This article is the fifth in a series which will go through some of the main truths of the faith, seeing how they reveal to us the wonders of God’s love and compassion.

5

“

What is supremely real and true in the whole range of human loving is the intensity and depth of Christ’s love for his Church.”

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The feast of Corpus Christi has long been one of the best loved among the various feasts of the Church. It is focussed on that sacrament, which contains what has been called ‘the Church’s greatest treasure’, namely the sacrament which is Christ himself, our Passover and living bread. Commonly we call the Blessed Sacrament the sacrament of love. There is a truth in this familiar phrase, which people outside the Church can never really understand the way we do. It is a truth so profound that the faithful can hold it in their hearts without necessarily being able to put it into words.

A GREAT MYSTERY The origin of this teaching lies in that ‘great mystery’ of which St Paul speaks (Eph. 5:32). Christ loves the faithful, and always will. He does so with a love which St Paul compares to that of a bridegroom for his bride.

Those outside the Church might regard this as a far-fetched comparison. That young men love their brides – with varying degrees of intensity – is a reality of life. St Paul’s comparison will seem to outsiders as nothing

more than a flight of fancy from the real. In fact the true situation is the other way round.

What is supremely real and true in the whole range of human loving is the intensity and depth of Christ’s love for his Church. So real is this that He, a divine person, emptied himself on the cross out of love for this human bride of His. Indeed the love that young people have for one another on their wedding day can only be a pale imitation of the love in the divine heart of Jesus for His Bride, the Church.

THE SACRAMENT OF LOVE What we have here has been described as ‘the greatest love-story ever told’. Jesus loves his faithful people, and they love him, and furthermore, in this mysterious interchange between Lover and Beloved, our Lord has given us in the Blessed Eucharist an extension of His love, its symbol, its nourishment and the pledge of our love of neighbour.

This is the great secret at the centre of Catholic faith from time immemorial. Those outside never really appreciate its meaning and its depth. At the time of the Reformation,

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and for some time afterwards, those opposed to our Catholic ways often tried to do away with this belief, but all in vain.

Our ancestors always knew in their heart of hearts that in this sacrament they had a treasure for which there was no substitute, and many gave their lives in its defence. This rich history is part of the background for our celebration of this feast today. In the new liturgy it is referred to as the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ.

TEACHING OF THE CHURCH Over the centuries the feast and the devotion it celebrates have been especially favoured by the official teaching of the Church,

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from the Council of Trent to the Second Vatican Council. Up to our own time there have been several significant papal encyclicals on the subject, not least the final encyclical of John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2003).

According to the Council of Trent, the dominant theme of this feast is one of thanksgiving.

The council decreed that on this day the faithful ‘should manifest their gratitude and appreciation towards Our Lord and Saviour for such an ineffable and utterly divine gift, by which the victory of his death and his triumph are made present.’ These words of the Council have lost nothing of their relevance from that time to this.

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IN HIS MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS JOHN MURRAY PP

St Columban: The White Dove

“

…he received the inspiration to reverse the missionary venture of Patrick and carry the faith back to Europe.”

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A Church is strong even if it seems poor in outward appearance. It is strong when it begins to look outside itself, to share its blessings, its concern for others. A Church is weaker when it tries – perhaps unconsciously – to preserve itself, to maintain its position, even to protect its privileges. The first Church – the apostles in the upper room after the death of Jesus, trying perhaps to protect themselves – needed to be blown out by the power of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost day.

Within a generation of St Patrick (432–461) the Church in Ireland was firmly established.

Thousands converted to the new fledgling faith. Kings and chieftains and their people were enthusiastic in their following. Monasteries began to be formed all over the land and justifiably for centuries Ireland was called ‘the island of saints and scholars.’

Within a short time missionaries began to spread throughout the British Isles and on to the continent of Europe. Irish monks played a major part in stabilising the primitive civilisation of the continent, which was constantly under threat from the various pagan tribes (the Vandals, the Huns, the Goths). The monasteries became a safe haven for

learning and culture though often too an attraction for the marauding invaders.

One of the greatest of these missionaries was Columbanus who was born around 530 to a prosperous family in Leinster.

His mother prior to his birth had a premonition that the child she would bear would be ‘a remarkable genius’. What mother doesn’t have secret dreams about her children? His background enabled him to be well educated and trained in the various disciplines of the age – grammar, rhetoric, geometry and of course the Sacred Scriptures.

Perhaps his family had worldly dreams for him but like the great St Benedict before him, Columbanus eschewed the attractions and temptations he saw all around and fled to a monastery – first to Cluaninis in Lough Erne and then to Bangor on the Northern arm of County Down.

There he lived for many years, a diligent and zealous monk until – when 40 and in the year 585 – he received the inspiration to reverse the missionary venture of Patrick and carry the faith back to Europe. With twelve companions – and the blessing of the great abbot Comgall – he sailed for Gaul (modern France) and set up a monastery in Burgundy,

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which quickly attracted such large numbers that he had to establish several other monasteries in the area.

These monastic communities remained under Columbanus’ authority and attracted many who wished to join the rule and many others who simply came on pilgrimage. Columbanus, or Columban as he was better known, himself always sought greater solitude, spending periods of time in a hermitage.

Often he would withdraw to a cave several miles away accompanied only by a single companion who acted as a messenger to the other monks and to the outside world.

If you are following the Gospel, people will either join you or persecute you. Columban knew both aspects. Despite a

growing popularity with many young people who were attracted by the radical simplicity of his lifestyle, Columban came in for criticism from some of the local bishops who disagreed with Columban’s dating of the season of Lent and Easter; they also felt his spirituality was too severe.

In time the more benign rule of Benedict would prevail for most religious life. That is another story.

In this disagreement with the bishops it was about influence and Columban was bound to lose – he was after all the outsider. His words in a letter are particularly poignant – ‘I came as a poor stranger into these parts for the cause of Christ, our Saviour. One thing alone I ask of you, holy Fathers, permit me to live in silence in these forests,

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Hermitage of Saint Columban, Rovereto, province of Trentino-Alto Adiges, Bolzano, Italy

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near the bones of seventeen of my brethren now dead.’

He also ran foul of the local royal family. When the King, Theuderic of Burgundy, began living with a mistress, Columban refused to baptise the sons who were born to the union. Strangely, like the bible story of Herod and John the Baptist before him, Theuderic liked to come and listen to Columban but it was the king’s grandmother who schemed to have Columban removed from the area. In 610 he was taken to Nantes – along with the other native Irish monks – under armed escort there to await a ship to return him to Ireland.

A storm prevented the ship from setting out and Columban with his remaining monks somehow ‘escaped’ and sailed up the Rhine, hoping to settle in the area around Lake Constance. Sadly there too he encountered opposition and decided to cross the Alps into

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Italy. Europe’s current indifference and hostility to the faith is nothing new! The preacher is always reminded of Paul’s words to his young charge Timothy: ‘preach the gospel in season and out of season, welcome or unwelcome.’ (2 Tim 4:2) Columban remained undaunted. He shook the dust off his feet and moved on. Everywhere he established new settlements and places of prayer and study.

Finally he arrived and settled in Bobbio in Northern Italy.

Columban’s time in Bobbio was to be short – he died in 615.

However, as elsewhere, it was to be full and eventful. In contrast to Burgundy, he was warmly welcomed by the local royalty.

The Queen Theodelinda played an important part in restoring Nicene Christianity against the prevailing heresy of Arianism, which though defeated in 325 at the great Council of Nicaea had never gone away. She engaged Columban with his wisdom and learning in this enterprise. It is a testimony to the saint’s influence that fourteen centuries later there are at least 34 parishes in the greater area, which are called by his name. Almost a century ago, the great St Columban Missionary Society was founded by Edward Galvin and John Blowick to bring the gospel to the nations of the world.

This year as we celebrate a special anniversary of Columban’s death may we allow the Holy Spirit to blow us out of our ‘upper rooms’.

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NEW SERIAL STORY GEORGINA DOWNES

Cora’s Shed

For Cora, the longer summer evenings mean escape from the confines of the house. As soon as the cuckoo arrives, she can steal away outside among the grass and the trees. She finds winters difficult, the monotony broken only by the festivities of Christmas. But May is here. The air has softened.

Cora’s little wooden shed overlooks the river and nestles above a small, sandy bay, dug out by Sean from the riverbank when the children were small. If the weather is warm, she might step, bare-footed, along its gravelly shore and splash her

toes in the water. Tonight, she strolls down from the house and sits alone in one of the old armchairs, closes her eyes and listens to the dusk chorus.

Cora lights a candle to ward off the insects that swarm around the shed. She was never bitten as a child when she and her brothers spent evenings fishing, boating, catching tadpoles, or perhaps she just never noticed.

She will see her children again soon. In two weeks, her eldest, Catriona, will arrive with her new fiancé and Cora will throw a party. She reaches down to a

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hard-back notebook on the floor.

Its pages are filled with recipes.

She leaves the notebook here because this is where she comes to think and make lists, and right now she needs to draft a menu.

Lamb? Mexican? Halibut? she strikes a line through them all and twiddles the pen between her fingers. Jazz drifts out from the portable radio. Impatiently, Cora changes the station... she could never understand the appeal of jazz. Sean is probably listening. He loves jazz. As darkness lands, the air grows cooler and she gathers up her things – her cardigan, glasses, phone, and heads back to the house.

Finding her way is easy; the path is well-worn.

The kitchen light is on, but the room is empty. She calls out for Sean but there’s no reply. Quietly, she goes to the bedroom and shuts the door.

She knows Sean won’t come in.

It had been so silly, so trivial. A few months ago, when dealing

with a complicated case in town, Sean had arrived home very late. Because he hadn’t wanted to turn the light on, he’d tripped over something on the floor. Groggy and startled, she complained crossly, ignoring the fact he had actually hurt himself. They argued and she retreated into herself, hoping he would come and find her there, but he had gone to the spare room instead. She knew she was wrong, unforgivably badtempered. One night had turned into a week, and a week into a seemingly endless cycle. Her faults were peccadillos accepted by her father and brothers all her life. They had indulged her sulky moods and known just how to cajole her out of them. It was a game. But now she was grown and Sean had never learnt the rules and she didn’t know how to stop playing.

Tonight, the moon is bright, and the curtains remain open, a habit she formed in girlhood.

In Loving Memory

The names sent to us of all those who have died are entered on our

List of the Dead.

They are placed on the Sacred Heart Altar in our oratory and remain there for two months. Every Wednesday a Mass is offered specially for them, that they may have eternal rest with the Lord, and that their families and friends may be consoled in their loss.

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Fragment s by

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Michael Paul Gallagher SJ

Morning St upor

Psalm 90 recognises a series of daily spiritual dangers, including a ‘noonday devil’. Yes, there is a dip in energy when forgetfulness can take over. I would add another: the first minutes after waking.

I rarely find God easily at this stage. Even if I start some prayer in my head, I get lost and wander around in blankness. Perhaps we wake up as atheists and only gradually climb into faith. For me that possibility comes after the routine of washing, dressing and so on, when I can sit down and relish the gift of this new day. Morning stupor gives way to morning wonder.

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