August messenger 2018

MESSENGER THE SACRED HEART

AUGUST 2018 I €1.75 / £1.60

THE POPE IS COMING

SJ, BISHOP OF RAPHOE I ALAN MCGUCKIAN JOHN O’MAHONY, SENATOR I IRISH TIMES JOURNALIST I JOE HUMPHREYS, I REVEREND RUTH PATTERSON RE:LINK: ST COLUMBAN I WILL FLANAGAN

CONTENTS 17

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FROM THE EDITOR Donal Neary SJ

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DAILY OFFERING Pope’s Intention

6POPE’S INTENTION FAMILY IS A TREASURE Patricia Higgins

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14 MASTERPIECES OF

Kevin Hargaden

ECO TIPS CHRISTIAN ART

THE TWO TRINITIES Eileen Kane

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THE POPE IS COMING

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Alan McGuckian SJ John O’Mahony Joe Humphreys Dr Ruth Patterson

Brenda Drumm

20 PLACES OF WORSHIP

FAMILY MEETING WITH POPE FRANCIS

10 THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PSALMS OF THANKSGIVING Martin Hogan

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ST JOHN VIANNEY CHURCH, ARDLEA Christopher Moriarty

SELLING TO THE YOUNG

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CHURCH OF THE FUTURE Debbie Moore-Boland

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WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES

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RE:LINK

ST COLUMBAN

Will Flanagan, Guest Writer

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WHY DID GOD LET THIS HAPPEN? John Scally

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33 GARDENING

ADVENTUROUS AUGUST Ciaran Burke

36 THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING LETTERS

37 THANKSGIVING STORY THE ENERGY OF THANKS

Brendan McManus SJ

38 COOKERY

THE LAST SALAD DAYS OF SUMMER Marie McGuirk

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Tom Cox

CROSSWORDS YOUNG READERS’ PAGES

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RECOMMENDED BOOKS

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WHY MIGRANTS? Alan Hilliard

48 IN THE MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS

ANTONIA BRENNER John Murray

RECEIVING WITH GRACE

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FINDING GOD IN A LEAF Brian Grogan SJ

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CALENDAR

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REFLECTION COVER PHOTOGRAPH

Pope Francis salutes faithful as he leaves the parish church of San Paolo della Croce, in Corviale neighborhood, Rome, April 2018.

Photograph © Alessandra Tarantino/AP/ REX/Shutterstock

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S

ome years ago a group of three young Jesuit priests gave twice-weekly school retreats in Tabor House, Dublin. As time went on, they invited others onto their team: some lay people, men and women, married and single; some young and some that bit older and, of course, religious sisters. Comparing retreats, they agreed that their diversity brought relevance and immediacy to the young people in their different situations of relationships and of faith.

It was the beginning of a ministry in the Church which would be collaborative, calling on the baptismal graces of each participant. It was the beginnings in retreat work of what Pope Francis calls the ‘synodal Church’.

Synod is a term for walking together. In the preparations for the forthcoming Synod of Bishops on Young People (see Gerard Gallagher, ‘Youth Synod’, May 2018 Messenger) a meeting with Pope Francis of 300 young people in Rome took place in March last. This meeting signalled his hope for a wide involvement in the preparation for the synod, as was the case in the last Synod on the Family, when people worldwide were sur-

FROM THE EDITOR

veyed in deliberations about marriage and family.

The final statements of a synod are the result of this preparation and of communal discernment, and may involve compromise on non-essential issues. This is the way forward for the Church, different from pronouncements that come only from on high.

Some of the main issues yet to be faced include the place of women within the Church – both in ministry, and in the process of decision-making in the parish, the diocese and the Roman curia. Another is the challenge to priesthood with the diminishing number of priests in many parts of the world. We hope that parishes and dioceses may follow this method of planning and discernment on these and other issues.

In welcoming Pope Francis, I welcome this new look on the Church of over 2000 years. As Jesus told Mary of Magdala to announce his resurrection to the apostles, he calls on us now to be a Church which respects, includes and involves all its members in sharing our call as ‘missionary disciples.’

Donal Neary SJ

Coming Next Month: As of September, The Sacred Heart Messenger will publish a simple guide to reading Pope Francis’ new letter, ‘The Call to Holiness’, described as his most important work so far. It will be presented monthly by Fr Alan Hilliard.

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DAILY OFFERING Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER

UNIVERSAL: THE TREASURE OF FAMILIES

THE SACRED HEART MESSENGER incorporating the Pope’s Worldwide Network of Prayer (Apostleship of Prayer).

ADDRESS: Messenger Publications 37 Lower Leeson Street Dublin D02 W938 Ireland Phone: 00 353 1 676 7491 or 00 353 1 7758524 Email: sales@messenger.ie Website: www.messenger.ie

That any far-reaching decisions of economists and politicians may protect the family as one of the treasures of humanity

BUSINESS LETTERS TO: THE MANAGER

MORNING PRAYER

LAYOUT: Messenger Publications Design Department

Heavenly Father, I start out this day in your presence. May your Spirit guide me in the simple and small things of today, even doing that which will go unnoticed for your glory.

Grant me the grace to live the gospel with my whole heart, my whole soul, my whole mind and my whole strength. I offer you this day for the Pope’s monthly intentions.

Our Father...

NIGHT PRAYER

At the close of this day, I take a few minutes to review my many actions. Was I faithful to God in all things? Did I treat others with respect? Heal my heart, Lord, and fill me with a renewed vigour to follow the path you have set out before me. Our Father...

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POPE’S INTENTION

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The World Meeting of Families takes place in Dublin this month, continuing Pope Francis’ emphasis on the importance of family. PATRICIA HIGGINS, who works in the charity sector and is a mother of three, shares some thoughts on the Pope’s description of the family as a treasure of humanity.

FAMILY IS A TREASURE

Pope’s Intention: that any far-reaching decisions of economists and politicians may protect the family as one of the treasures of humanity.

‘What are you two laughing about? I know you are up to something…’

My mum was half laughing as she asked this of her sister and a friend.

It was the day after my brother, the youngest in our family, had died, and the two women had been whispering conspiratorially at our kitchen sink.

My brother was just six-and-a-half and had died after a short illness.

I remember the conversation clearly – at nearly ten years old, this was my first time to be right in the middle of a wake. I had expected the atmosphere to be unremittingly sombre, so this almost light-hearted banter came as bit of a surprise.

We found out the next day, after his funeral, what they’d been planning. My aunt and my mum’s longtime friend had arranged for the grave to be lined with daffodils.

Her friend’s teenage son had used a ladder to put dozens of daffodils into the wall of the grave all the way down on all four sides, and had placed a spray of daffodils at the bottom.

When I was asked to write something about ‘why family is a treasure’, this was one of the first stories that

came to mind. Family members, together with close friends, had worked in unison to cushion one of the hardest parts of a devastatingly sad time; to provide hope in the darkest of dark spaces.

Families can also magnify joyful occasions. The birth of a new baby is often an event celebrated throughout a wider family network. It is really special to see parents, brothers, sisters engage with and delight in a precious new arrival. The presence of my extended family at my wedding, meeting with and spending time with my friends and new inlaws, hugely added to the sense of joy I had about it all.

Families, of all types, can be a treasure in that they share the pain or increase the joy of major life moments and allow for deep connections in ordinary daily life. To borrow from Cardinal Cupich’s reflections on Amoris Laetitia – the Pope’s recent teaching on the family – ‘family is a privileged place chosen by God to reveal how he relates to us as humans.’

For some, the treasure of family can be difficult to find. Family can be

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POPE’S INTENTION

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Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock

elusive, both meeting a partner with whom to start a family, and beginning a family once you have one.

Pope Francis does well to highlight in Amoris Laetitia the importance of wider families and encouraging an understanding of family that values and includes those beyond the immediate nuclear family, including grandparents, aunts and uncles and others close to the family.

And what about the stress of family life, how does that fit into the image as treasure? As a mum of three young kids, it can sometimes feel that there are seemingly infinite demands for attention and

engagement. The competition for our limited parental attention can cause many rows. There’s some comfort in knowing this is true in every family.

There’s real comfort too in seeing that in one of Jesus’ most powerful stories, The Prodigal Son, he was fully aware of the jealousies stirred up when one child was seen to get more than the other. While these are difficult and painful emotions to negotiate there is a need to find a way to always begin again. This can be a very challenging aspect of family life but is a key part, I believe, of what makes it a treasure.

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FEATURE

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BRENDA DRUMM, the media and communications manager for the World Meeting of Families 2018, reflects on this month’s papal visit to Ireland. She recalls the personal way in which Pope Francis has been involved in preparing for the World Meeting of Families.

FAMILY MEETING WITH POPE FRANCIS

I had the great honour of being in St Peter’s Square with my family at the very moment that the Pope announced that he intends to come to Dublin for the World Meeting of Families.

My family was one of two who had been asked to present the official WMOF2018 Icon of the Holy Family to Pope Francis at his weekly general audience on 21 March.

There had been months of speculation about whether Pope Francis would come to Dublin for the WMOF2018. We had been expecting a short statement to be issued by the Vatican Press Office at some stage in the spring, which would announce the Holy Father’s brief itinerary for Dublin.

Pope Francis had other plans, however!

That did not surprise me at all as everything about this particular World Meeting of Families has had

the personal touch of Pope Francis. It was the Holy Father himself who personally chose Ireland as the venue for the ninth World Meeting of Families. Pope Francis also gave us the theme ‘The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World’ on which to base our reflections both in the run up to the event and at the event itself. He has given us Amoris Laetitia as the key document on which to base the programme and all the elements of the WMOF2018.

Now that we know he will be with us this month, the conversation has naturally moved on to what this will mean for the faithful, for families and young people, for the Church and for the Irish people. Where will he go and what will he say while he is here?

As I write this there are still a lot of unknowns about the papal itinerary, but my instinct is that he will spend his time here with families and at the margins. These are places that he

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Photograph © Kelleher Photography/Shutterstock

FEATURE

Crowds of people arrive on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Center City Philadelphia to see Pope Francis at the World Meeting of Families on September 26, 2015

devotes a lot of his time and energy to, and where he always seems to be most at ease.

As a mum of two – a daughter who is aged twenty-one and a son who is aged thirteen – I have found myself answering more questions about this pope from my kids than I did about any other pope. That might be because they are older and are at the debating stage about all sorts of topics and themes including their faith. It might also be because they know he is coming to Ireland.

I think there’s more to it. There is something about Pope Francis! He has a way with words, with people, with children, with youth and he gets family life! He absolutely gets the realities of family life today and the fact that sometimes plates can fly!

He understands that as families we are all doing our best for each other and for our children on a day-to-day basis. He also understands that most families are not perfect.

I think that Pope Francis will challenge all of us by what he says and what he does when he is with is. I don’t mean this negatively – I think he will positively challenge us as parents. I think he will encourage and inspire us in how we might better transmit the beauty of the faith to our children and within our families.

Our family is one of many ordinary families who are looking forward with great hope and joy to the visit of Pope Francis and to experiencing the many graces that this pope of the family will bring with him when he comes.

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THE BOOK OF PSALMS

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Continuing his series on The Book of Psalms MARTIN HOGAN of St John the Baptist parish, Dublin, discusses psalms of thanksgiving; he explores how these psalms weld the experience of life and death together in interesting and dynamic ways.

PSALMS OF THANKSGIVING There are about thirteen psalms of individual thanksgiving in the Psalter, including Psalm 30, 34, 41, 66, 92, 111, 116, 118 and 138. Psalms of thanksgiving can be understood as the reverse side of psalms of petition.

At the end of the psalms of petition, the psalmist often made a vow to praise God if God delivered them.

The psalms of thanksgiving represent the keeping of that vow; they are prayed by those who in times of distress have tasted the goodness of God. They express a movement that has taken place in the life of the psalmist from the experience of chaos to the experience of new life-giving order. The psalm of thanksgiving is the joyful song of one who knows what it means to have been rescued from the depths of distress.

The original setting of these thanksgiving psalms seems to have been the worship of the community.

In the presence of his fellow worshippers, the psalmist tells his story of how God delivered him, and he invites them to join him in giving thanks and praise to God. These psalms have their own literary shape.

There is an opening declaration where the psalmist declares the purpose for giving thanks and praise to God. This is followed by the

invitation to those present to join with him in thanking God. The third element is the psalmist’s story in which he gives the reason why God should be thanked. The psalmist’s story tends to have three moments in it, a situation of distress, a cry to God out of such distress and God’s act of deliverance from the distress. These psalms relate the entire drama of faith from need and petition through rescue and finally to gratitude. Because this story is told in the presence of other worshippers, it has the character of a confession or a declaration. It is a public testimony of how the psalmist has experienced God at work in their life. The psalm concludes with a final declaration of praise and thanksgiving.

Psalm 30 is a good example of this kind of psalm. The above pattern can easily be identified here. The psalmist declares the purpose for giving thanks to God (Ps.30:1–3). There follows the invitation to thanksgiving to those present (Ps.30:4–5) and the main body of the psalm where the psalmist tells the story which gives the reason for the thanksgiving (Ps.30:6–10). The experience which gave rise to this prayer is one of transformation, expressed in a variety of metaphors (Ps.30:1–3). It is an

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THE BOOK OF PSALMS

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Jesus Cervantes / Shutterstock

experience of being rescued, healed, raised up and restored to life. The language suggests that the transformation was from a severe sickness, almost death, to renewed health. The psalmist invites the whole community to celebrate this transformed state (Ps.30:4–5). The story the psalmist tells begins at a time when all seemed well, when life seemed secure (Ps.30:6–7). Then, suddenly, everything changed (Ps.30:7) and the psalmist was plunged into a crisis.

The psalmist’s prayer out of that darkness was filled with passion and intensity (Ps.30:8–10). Clearly, death presented itself as a real possibility.

The prospect of death was not one that the poet relished. It was understood as a state in which God could

not be praised. The Lord, therefore, has a vested interest in keeping the psalmist alive. His cry from the depths was heard, as the psalmist triumphantly proclaims (Ps.30:11–12).

The image of the Lord taking off and putting on clothing suggest a total transformation of the psalmist’s condition. This transformed situation evokes praise and thanks to God. However, this is not a restoration to the situation before the experience of distress and rescue. It is not simply a return to the beginning of the story.

The psalmist can no longer live as they did when they could say, ‘I shall never be moved’. The psalmist has come to know the fragile nature of life, but, more importantly, has come to know God in a new way, as one

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THE BOOK OF PSALMS

12 whose ‘favour is for a lifetime’. This whole experience has been for the psalmist a moment of new growth.

In this psalm, death is spoken of metaphorically as a going down, as a descent. Rescue from death is spoken of as an ascent, a going up, a being raised. The poet can speak figuratively of a whole experience as one of descent and ascent. The psalmist has been rescued from some severe illness.

Yet, the psalmist can address God as one who has raised them alive from the dead. This suggests a very dynamic view of death. Death is not seen simply as a moment at the end of one’s life. Rather, death is

a power which can be experienced throughout life. Death works its power in the midst of life. It is a power constantly reaching out to take hold of the living. Serious illness is one manifestation of the power of death in the present moment. God is experienced as one who holds that power at bay, who rescues from that power. A lack of a very developed understanding of the afterlife within Israel meant that this earthly life was taken very seriously. If God was to show himself as one who delivers from death, he had to do so here and now. The psalmist could not transfer the saving action of God to a state beyond death.

SERIOUS ILLNESS IS ONE MANIFESTATION OF THE POWER OF DEATH IN THE PRESENT MOMENT.

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FEATURE

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SOME ECO TIPS TURN YOUR THERMOSTAT DOWN BY TWO DEGREES

Ensure your walls, roof and water tank are well insulated RUN DISHWASHER AND WASHING MACHINE ON FULL LOAD ONLY

Take a shower instead of a bath. Use a low-flow showerhead TURN OFF TV, COMPUTER, LIGHTS AND SO ON WHEN NOT IN USE

Choose energy-efficient appliances & use energy-efficient lightbulbs COMPOST FRUIT AND VEG PEELINGS AND GARDEN WASTE. IT’S EASY!

Walk, cycle and use public transport or carpool where possible BUY RECYCLED PAPER PRODUCTS AND USE BOTH SIDES OF THE PAPER

Buy minimally-packaged products. Bring your own cloth shopping bag and refuse unnecessary bags over the counter BUY LOCALLY GROWN FOOD. EVEN BETTER, GROW YOUR OWN FOOD!

Use a fuel-efficient car, check tyre pressure regularly and get your car regularly serviced PICK UP A PIECE OF LITTER EVERY DAY

Buy eco-friendly cleaning materials. Most supermarkets sell a good range: soap, washing-up liquid, washing powder, toilet and general cleaners.

Better still: clean the old-fashioned way, using household basics. You can clean almost anything with lemon, baking soda and vinegar FOR SPARKLING WINDOWS, ALL YOU NEED IS A BOTTLE OF VINEGAR AND SOME OLD NEWSPAPERS!

Courtesy of ecocongregation Ireland

www.ecocongregation Ireland

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MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTIAN ART

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EILEEN KANE tenderly takes apart the portrayal of the holy family in Murillo’s The Two Trinities, expertly contrasting it with Murillo’s painting The Holy Family, which was featured in January’s Messenger.

THE HOLY FAMILY or THE TWO TRINITIES

© National Gallery of Irealnd

by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617/18–82)

The ‘Dublin’ Holy Family by Murillo, from our January issue of The Sacred Heat Messenger

This year, in fact this month of August, the World Meeting of Families takes place in Ireland, so our thoughts turn again, as they did in January, to that model of all families, the Holy Family of Nazareth. Once more, we are looking at a painting by the Spanish master, Murillo, this time in the London National Gallery.

The London Holy Family is

noticeably different from our January painting. For one thing, it is not a ‘snapshot’ of family life but has extra depths of meaning which we are invited to ponder.

The scene refers unmistakeably to the finding of the child Jesus in the Temple at Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph occupy the lower part of the composition, with Jesus standing between them. With his right hand, Jesus grasps the fingers of Mary’s right hand, while his left is trustingly placed on the palm of the hand that Joseph holds out to him. He is a young boy, no longer a baby, and we could well imagine him becoming separated from Mary and Joseph, staying behind to listen to the teachers in the temple, and ask them questions. Mary is seated close to him, at his right. She looks up at him, gently, tenderly but seriously. Her open left hand makes a questioning gesture, suggesting that she is waiting for an answer from him to a question she has just asked.

For three days, she and Joseph have been anxiously searching for him everywhere in Jerusalem. Why has he done this? Jesus pauses before replying. Looking up to heaven, he

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MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTIAN ART

© National Gallery of London

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The ‘London’ Holy Family

sees his heavenly Father, his hand on the globe of the world, surrounded by angels, appearing in a blaze of glory. Above his own head, hovers a dove, representing the Holy Spirit.

‘Did you not know’, comes his

reply, ‘that I must be busy about my Father’s affairs?’

The entire Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is present here. Reading the picture vertically, we see Jesus, son of God on earth, God the Father

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MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTIAN ART

16 in heaven, and, between them, the Holy Spirit. Reading it horizontally, we see that Jesus stands at the centre of another grouping of three – the three members of the Holy Family – and so we are prompted to think of the Holy Family as a kind of earthly trinity, with Jesus the link between the two entities. Hence the title by which Murillo’s painting is also known – The Two Trinities.

That is not all. In the composition, because he wanted to give him special prominence as the centre of the ‘Two Trinities’, Murillo placed Jesus on a higher level than Mary and Joseph. But we also note that he shows Jesus standing on a stone that has been cut and shaped by stone-masons. In front of it is another stone, rough and irregular. Behind Mary’s shoulder we can make out an architectural detail, suggesting a formal building like the Temple at Jerusalem. The reference is therefore to the words of Psalm 117, ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner-stone . . .’

(Ps.117:22). According to Luke’s Gospel (Lk.20:17), Jesus, preaching in the Temple, used those words about himself, indicating that he would be rejected by the religious leaders, and foretelling his own death and resurrection.

All these layers of meaning are skilfully combined into a composition that has both stability – the group of the Holy Family – and movement.

See how the figures in the upper part swirl from top-right to the left, downwards in an arc, then diagonally to the right, in a movement that

gives importance to St Joseph, whose foot, firmly planted on the ground, brings it to a close.

The Two Trinities also differs from the Dublin Holy Family in its style of painting, especially in the use of colour. In The Two Trinities, the colours are lighter and less sharply contrasted. The lighting, too, has a certain misty quality, described as vaporoso, typical of Murillo’s late work. The date of this painting is not certain but it was probably painted in the last years of Murillo’s life, in Cadiz, and, given its size – more than nine feet high by more than six feet wide (293 x 207 cm) – it may have been intended as an altarpiece.

There is a particular affinity between Murillo’s painting and some of what Pope Francis has written in the document on Love in the Family Amoris Laetitia, or ‘The Joy of Love’. For instance, Pope Francis writes about the quality – he calls it the ‘virtue’ – of tenderness, which should characterise the love we show to one another, within the family. In Murillo’s painting, the tender love of Mary and Joseph for the Christ child entrusted to them, is abundantly clear. Pope Francis refers also to the Holy Trinity – ‘the mystery from which all true love flows’ – as a ‘communion of love’, and of the human family as ‘its living reflection’. On the topic of prayer in family life, Pope Francis refers to ‘the various expressions of popular piety’ as being ‘a treasure of spirituality for many families’.

Undoubtedly, Murillo’s painting, The Two Trinities, is one such treasure – a visual one.

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FEATURE

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Continuing from our series on Pope Francis’ visit in the July Messenger BISHOP ALAN MCGUCKIAN, Senator JOHN O’MAHONY, JOE HUMPHREYS and REVD RUTH PATTERSON share their thoughts on, and hopes for, the visit of Pope Francis.

THE POPE IS COMING

ALAN MCGUCKIAN SJ BISHOP OF RAPHOE For me Pope Francis’s visit represents a call to conversion: ‘I invite all Christians, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; no one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”’.

I have a sense that Francis lives this personal encounter every day and he makes it look very attractive.

Pope Francis has called on all Catholics to look on the world with a ‘contemplative gaze’. He was specifically thinking of the enormous crisis facing the world with countless

millions of migrants and refugees seeking a new life free from oppression and poverty. If people looked on migrants with a contemplative gaze, Francis says, they would see not a threat to be avoided or shunned but an ‘opportunity to build peace’. Looking on the world in this new way – essentially seeing it with Christ’s eyes – transforms threats into opportunities.

In Ireland right now so many things appear to us as threats. The erosion of a traditional Catholic Christian worldview in our national culture is a threat to believers. Brexit may pose a huge threat to Ireland. On the world stage, climate change results in more people being driven to seek a better

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FEATURE

18 life in the developed world. When Francis is in Ireland I want him to teach us to look on everything with that ‘contemplative gaze’.

Bishop Alan McGuckian SJ Bishop Alan, a native of Cloghmills, Co Antrim, is the bishop of Raphoe in the Republic of Ireland.

visit to Northern Ireland.

The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland needs a lot of healing following all the scandals in past decades and Pope Francis has the ability to set that process in motion. Of course it will be challenging, but I have always maintained that the bigger the challenge the bigger the opportunity for success.

John O’Mahony is an Irish Fine Gael politician and former football manager who has served as a Senator since April 2016, upon being nominated by the Taoiseach. He served as a Teachta Dála for the Mayo constituency from 2007 to 2016.

SENATOR JOHN O’MAHONY I very much welcome the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland this month.

Since his election as pope, he has demonstrated a wonderful quality of compassion and understanding of all sectors of society, religious and secular. He reaches out to all, irrespective of their status, and particularly to the vulnerable and poor.

He is needed now more than ever to help to unite and promote family and community working together.

During his visit I would like to see him address the issue of the priests who have been silenced in the Irish Catholic Church even though they are supported by many in their own communities.

I would hope that his itinerary will include a visit to the Marian Shrine in Knock. It should also include a

JOE HUMPHREYS I admire Pope Francis’s humanity and especially his emphasis on mercy but the one message I hope he conveys on his trip to Ireland, above all, is the need for a secular state. ‘A state should be secular’, he declared in an oft-cited interview in the French journal La Croix in 2016, because ‘confessional states end up badly’.

Catholic bishops and clergy have been slow to accept this insight and instead conflate secularism

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with anti-religious sentiment. Pope Francis, to my reading, has rightly identified the main threat to the Catholic Church is not secularism but relativism – the idea that there are no moral truths.

Relativism has the effect of ‘anaesthetising the conscience’, Francis has said. By developing this theme, he will find common ground with non-Catholics, including secular humanists and atheists who are sympathetic to Christian ethics (of which I’d count myself as one). Finding that common ground is essential because the world’s greatest challenges – gross inequality, financial recklessness and environmental destruction included – call for a response that transcends borders, party politics and religious affiliations.

Joe Humphreys is a journalist with The Irish Times, for which he produces the weekly ‘Unthinkable’ philosophy column, and is the author of a number of books, including ‘God’s Entrepreneurs: How Irish Missionaries Tried to Change the World’.

REVD RUTH PATTERSON Pope Francis’ purpose in coming to Ireland is to highlight the importance of family life. While the obvious focus will be on the preciousness of and potential within the nuclear family, there are also other ‘families.’ One of those is the family of the Church, of those who are, or should be, joyful good news-bearers. Too often in Ireland this ‘family’ has been torn apart by arguments, mistrust, insecurity, power and control. The ecumenical movement

has become tired and joyless and, to many, irrelevant. My hope for the visit of Pope Francis is that he might impart to all of us his conviction that ‘unity is more than blind uniformity’, but is rather what he refers to as a reconciled diversity, implying walking together, praying and working together, and together seeking unity in the truth. The call is to become in ourselves a bridge over the troubled waters of centuries, so that we might ‘look to the past with gratitude, live the present with passion and embrace the future with hope.’

Restoration Ministries, celebrating thirty years of Restoration through Friendship is trying, along with many others, to live out the challenge of Pope Francis. Our conviction is that everyone can be a bridge in their family, their workplace, their Church.

Let’s do it!

In 1976 Ruth became the first woman to be ordained as a minister in Ireland. Since 1988 she has been Director of Restoration Ministries, a non-denominational, Christian organisation committed to peace and reconciliation based in Northern Ireland.

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PLACES OF WORSHIP

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CHRISTOPHER MORIARTY explores the Church of St John Vianney, Ardlea. He reminds us of the humble life of the church’s namesake, called the ‘patron of priests’. This month marks two hundred years since St John Vianney was made parish priest of Ars, France.

ST JOHN VIANNEY CHURCH, ARDLEA The 1960s marked a turnaround in the lives of the people of Ireland. The decline of the population through emigration ceased and the economy took a turn for the better. At the same time the numbers of people living in the suburbs of Dublin increased dramatically. This led to overcrowding in the existing churches and the need for many more. Many of the existing parishes became over-populated, and were subdivided. Some of the new churches followed traditional styles, others were entirely modern and highly original.

One such church was the Church of St John Vianney in the newlydesignated north city parish of Ardlea, which in 1965 was separated from Coolock-Artane. It is remarkable for its minimalist design: a single storey building of concrete and glass with a low-pitched roof. Having neither steeple nor tower, it is inconspicuous and virtually hidden from view by the surrounding houses.

The narrow entrance from the Ardlea Road leads to a sanctuary of green lawns and young trees where the surrounding houses shut out the sound of the traffic outside.

The door of the church opens through a porch in which a large

foundation stone with letters of gold tells that the work began in 1968, and that the stone was blessed and put in place by ‘Excellentissimus Ioannes Carolus McQuaid Archiepiscopus Dublinensis Hiberniae Primas’.

Archbishop McQuaid had served for twenty-eight years at the time and was responsible for the building of many churches.

The interior of the church repeats the simplicity of the outside. The nave is an open rectangle and the sanctuary is a continuation of it, distinguished only by red-carpeted steps ascending towards the reredos.

This bears a large crucifix and the sanctuary wall is decorated with a design of two fishes and an anchor.

Both the ambo and the altar are of polished black marble. The ambo is decorated with the symbols of the four evangelists: St Matthew’s man or angel, St Mark’s lion, the ox of St Luke and the eagle of St John. The altar has a chalice surmounted by the Lamb of God. Contrasting with the austerity of the architecture are the brilliant stained glass windows, the work of the Dublin-based artist Patrick Muldowney, a graduate of the National College of Art and Design.

The windows are tall and narrow and

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PLACES OF WORSHIP

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mostly arranged in pairs between the side chapels and flanking one of the Stations, themselves relief sculptures. A number of them are life-size figures, others more or less abstract scenes from the Scriptures with subjects very rarely shown in Irish churches.

The Passion is represented in small scenes in which the Last Supper is symbolised with just two figures: Christ holding a chalice and a piece of bread seated beside the apostle John. The crucifixion shows Christ on the cross, above the Virgin and St John. The same window has panels of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Above these three is the dove representing the Holy Spirit and below them the sacrificial Lamb of God. The full size figures include an image of St Brigid, accompanied by a sheepdog and a deer. This window is paired with one of Noah’s Flood. It is in two parts: the lower has stylised animals on a red background. The

upper shows a storm-tossed ship underneath a rainbow . Below the ship are the words from Genesis promising the covenant between God and the earth. Other Old Testament stories illustrated are those of the baby Moses amongst the bulrushes by the Nile and of Moses the leader holding the tablets with the Ten Commandments. At the base of one window is a little scene of the Liffey in the centre of Dublin with its bridges, churches and stately buildings.

This very remarkable church is dedicated to Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney. Born in France in 1786 he was canonised in 1925 and has been known since then as St John Vianney.

His parents clung to their faith at a time of religious persecution. The restoration of religious freedom under Napoleon in 1802 allowed him to fulfil his ambition of studying for the priesthood. He found the academic side almost beyond his mental powers, but his profound faith and

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PLACES OF WORSHIP

22 amazing charisma marked him out as a force beyond all normal reckoning.

Two hundred years ago, in August 1818, he was appointed parish priest of Ars, a small though historic village in the south-west of France. His interpretation of the teaching of Christ was extreme and this led to his treating his own body with the utmost severity and demanding strict adherence to a spiritual life on the part of his parishioners. For himself this involved a single meal a day, consisting mainly of bread and potatoes, frequent fasting and a work-load of parochial duties far beyond the normal run.

Above all, his grace as a confessor and preacher led to his reputation spreading far beyond his remote

village community. People made long pilgrimages to receive his blessing. Miracles of healing and transformed lives occurred from time to time. Jealousy and suspicion amongst his fellow-priests eventually turned to respect. Miracles continued after his death and his shrine at Ars has become a centre of pilgrimage, claiming visits of about half a million people a year.

Pope Benedict declared him ‘Universal Patron of Priests’.

The little church on Ardlea Road will remember the bicentenary of his appointment as parish priest of Ars with a novena in August and next year will celebrate its own fiftieth anniversary.

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 Mass is offered especially for them, that they may have eternal rest with the Lord, and that their families and friends may be consoled in their loss. www.messenger.ie

FEATURE

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KEVIN HARGADEN, of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, offers a timely warning regarding the power of advertising to influence our young people, and the increase in exposure in an ad-saturated culture. He points out that adults are not immune either to marketing magic!

Suzanne Tucker / Shutterstock & Illustratorkris / Shutterstock

SELLING TO THE YOUNG

The Jesuits are famous for allegedly claiming: ‘Give us a child for the first seven years and we will give you the adult.’ There is no evidence that St Ignatius Loyola or any Jesuit ever said this, rather it was a joke told at the expense of the Society of Jesus by the famous French sceptic, Voltaire. Yet, doesn’t our childhood have a formative effect on our lives?

In the circle of parents and family, teachers, coaches and pastors it is unlikely we would think of marketing executives as highly influencing our children.

Yet, a 2014 study showed that

children aged between two and eleven were, on average, exposed to over 25,000 advertisements in any given year, and they suck in as much information during the ad break as they do from Blue Planet or Ireland’s Fittest Family. They visit sites online, which are laced with sophisticated advertising. Even in the computer games that they play, product placement can feature so that as they pretend to be their favourite footballer or a soldier saving the world from aliens, they are learning to love Nike products or to long to drive an Audi.

Emily Hill is a theologian based

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FEATURE

24 at the University of Aberdeen. Her research explores how Christians can respond to an age where we are drowning in advertising. ‘Over time you can see that what would have been out of place in marketing, eventually becomes normal. We used to think we would never have marketing in our home, just out in public.

Now we have ads served to us all day, every day on our phones and we have barely noticed that change occurring.’ When children are the target for such ubiquitous marketing, parents and guardians must be alert.

There are attempts afoot to limit the effect advertising can have over young people. Last year, the HSE, in conjunction with major food companies and advertising firms, launched a voluntary code of practice that regulates the marketing of foods considered unhealthy.

What this means in practice is that we will no longer find billboards depicting fast food outside schools, or tv ads for chocolates aired during the broadcasting of cartoons. Such steps seem sensible and beyond reproach. It does not go so far as the Scandinavian countries however, who have strict statutory regulation of advertising. All advertising to children has been banned in Sweden since 1991. They justify their decision by pointing to a large body of evidence that shows children, especially young children, do not have the media

understanding to tell the difference between the promises made in an ad and the reality. Many Irish parents would probably welcome such a ban if it meant an end to the pestering that follows when a child becomes convinced that they need a particular toy as if their life depended on it.

There is, however, a risk in thinking this way. It is right and proper to seek to protect young people, but in framing the conversation in this fashion we are discouraged from self-awareness.

Are adults all that more immune to the marketing magic? We fancy ourselves invincible to influence by advertising. The reality is that the problem that afflicts children, extends to adults. Some research suggests that older adults, who came to the internet later, are especially susceptible to social media-based marketing. This is one of the dynamics behind the ‘fake news’ phenomenon that has seen a rise in extremist politics across the Western world.

As we seek to protect children from exploitation, we should be alert to our own manipulation.

A child does not have the capacity to question advertisements but as adults, we often do not take the time to question them. Regulation has a part to play in halting the worst excesses of our ad-saturated culture, but we all must be alert to how easily we can be influenced.

AS WE SEEK TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM EXPLOITATION, WE SHOULD BE ALERT TO OUR OWN MANIPULATION.

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FEATURE

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DEBBIE MOORE-BORLAND reflects on her ministry, touching on the positive and negative aspects of Church life as she has seen it lived, and offering a promising future where we risk, in the words of Pope Francis, ‘the culture of encounter’.

CHURCH OF THE FUTURE AlexanderTrou / Shutterstock

POSITIVES: I have found working as part of a team with like-minded people to be challenging and life-giving. The gospels tell us that Jesus gathered, welcomed and met people where they were in their lives. My experience of working with young people was an education. I listened to their questions, and the questions they were asking varied from work and relationship interests to the really big ones around the existence of God. They lived all of their questions with a deep honesty. Their sense of social justice, once awakened, is huge and becomes a great part of their lives.

Enthusiasm and curiosity appear to be hallmarks of the deepening faith of young people.

NEGATIVES: Unfortunately, I have seen negativity during my years in my ministry. As a woman and a lay person, I have experienced exclusion and abuse of power and control. When it comes to

decision-making, I believe it is very difficult to be heard. Many women in ministry, even those with valuable theological credentials, appear to be silenced in practice.

THE FUTURE: The Church is a community of faithful people who try to live out of gospel values. This means being inclusive, doing our best to be welcoming, truly welcoming and non-judgmental.

It means having respect for diversity of cultures and belief systems. Life as it is lived today appears normal and usual for the young people we spoke of and yet can appear very strange and different to the more mature among us. We are all created in the image and likeness of God (Gen.1:27). Pope Francis asks us to believe that each one of us is unconditionally loved by God. He tells us that ‘today either we take the risk of dialogue, we risk the culture of encounter, or we all fall; this is the path that will bear fruit’.

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re:link

August’18

27

Resource for Religion Studies

relink.messenger.ie

St Columban

In this month’s RE:Link, guest contributor WILL FLANAGAN, who teaches RE at Loreto Abbey in Dalkey, gives us a great introduction to St Columban.

When we look around our world today and we are bombarded with images of popstars, movie stars and sports stars, it is easy to get sucked into the belief that these people are of supreme importance. Have you ever stopped to think whether it is likely that we will still be humming Ed Sheeran songs in a thousand years time? Have you ever wondered will people still be queuing up to see old Jennifer Lawrence movies well into the next century? Is it likely that legions of fans will still marvel at the goals scored by Ronaldo or Drogba in 2118? The answer to these questions is probably no!

So we must ask ourselves what is it about certain individuals that makes them stand the test of time? Why is it that some people last longer in our

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© Girl Grace / Shutterstock

© Janaka Dharmasena / Shutterstock

minds and in our history than others?

Is it because of their great achievements? Their great hope in the face of despair? Is it because they irrevocably changed our world for the better? The answer to these questions is probably yes! In this month’s RE: Link we will explore the life of an extraordinary man. A man who changed our world for the better. A man who would go on to be known simply as Columban.St Columban was born in approximately 540 AD. The things we know about him were written by biographers after his death. The earliest biographer we know of who wrote about Columban was a monk named Jonas. He tells us many interesting things about Columban. He tells us that he was born in Leinster, Ireland, perhaps somewhere around the Carlow or Wicklow area. Jonas tells us the remarkable story of the birth of Columban. Before he was born, Columban’s mother had a dream that a beautiful and dazzling ray of sunshine shone out from her to fill the whole world with its magnificent light. This was the first indication that the child she was about to give birth to would be special. As a result of this story, the pictures that we have today of Columban often show him in sunshine or have the sun’s rays emanating from him.

Columban proved to be a very clever young boy who had a happy childhood. However, as the years passed, he felt a strong urge to learn and discover more. When he was a young man, he set off to Lough Erne where he entered a monastery on Cleenish Island. The island today, as then, was known for its outstanding beauty and abundance of wildlife.

The monastery was set up by a holy man named Sinell. While there, Columban learned about God’s love.

He studied Scripture and he learned Latin, the language of the Christian Church at that time. Columban was a remarkable student, he was incredibly intelligent and quick to learn.

Columban enjoyed life in the monastery and decided that he himself wanted to follow in the footsteps of the great men who were teaching him so he decided to become a monk. Once the decision was made, Columban travelled north to Bangor Monastery on Belfast Lough in Northern Ireland.

The rules here were strict and life was simple. Bread and © Rainer Lesniewski water along with some vegetables / Shutterstock made up the daily meals. Life was hard for the monks of Bangor Monastery. The monks lived in huts of wood. They worked, fasted

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Lough Erne

© Dmitrijs Kaminskis / Shutterstock

and remained silent for long periods of time. Prolonged periods of prayer were an important part of life.

After some time, Columban felt that God was calling him to do more. He felt a strong urge to leave Bangor and travel to a different place. Columban asked the abbot of the monastery if he could travel to another place and spread the word and the love of God in other lands. Abbot Comgall agreed and Columban along with twelve other monks set sail in a small boat for a destination that was, as yet, unknown to them. Leaving like this was a big decision for © Aleksey Stemmer / Shutterstock Columban, knowing that, if he left the country with his companions, he was likely to never return to Ireland again.

When Columban and his followers arrived in Brittany, Northern France, they set up a very simple base for themselves. Word soon spread to the locals, of a group of holy men who had landed, and Columban attracted a lot of interest. He soon discovered that the local people in Brittany were not religious but, upon hearing what he had to say, many soon returned to their faith. The king of the region of France where Columban landed, King Sigebert, soon heard of this intrepid group and was so impressed

Brittany

29

by them that he pleaded with them to stay in his kingdom. He offered them the ruins of an old Roman fort in the forest of Vosges.

The fort was perfect for the simple life that Columban and his followers wanted to live. Before long they had many men wanting to join them so Columban began searching for a larger monastery. He found another old Roman fort near a hot spring in Luxeuil. In 590AD Columban established his new monastery there and it flourished. It became known as one of the greatest schools and places of worship in Europe. In the space of only twenty years this monastery in the north of France produced twenty-one recognised saints. To this day, the site at Luxeuil is used as a college.Over time the tide of popularity turned against Columban and his followers. Columban did not like the way the nobles were living and he told them to change their ways and to live a more moral life. He, along with the other Irish monks, was taken to prison in the nearby town of Besancon. They remained there for a short time before they went into exile down the River Loire to the port in the small French town of Nantes. © Altitude Drone / Shutterstock

Nantes www.messenger.ie

30 Columban was devastated to leave behind the monasteries he had spent twenty hard years building. In Nantes, soldiers planned to put Columban and his followers on a boat back to Ireland, but a storm broke out and the captain was afraid to sail. As the soldiers had returned to their base, Columban and his followers were free again.

With this new-found freedom Columban would undertake his longest journey yet, to a small town in Italy called Bobbio. When Columban arrived in Bobbio, the king there granted him permission to build a monastery. In Bobbio, Columban built what was arguably his finest monastery. It survived until the French Revolution, with its library of rare and antique books becoming one of the most valuable libraries in all of Europe.

© Andrea Delbo / Shutterstock

Bobbio St Columban died on the 23rd of November 615AD. The writer Jonas tells us that Columban spent one year in Bobbio prior to his death.

According to tradition, Columban died in prayer and solitude in one of the high rocky caves overlooking the river Bobbio. He died as he had lived much of his life in the service and worship of God.

C ompetition !

What did Pope Francis mean when he said, “There is no app for happiness”?

Send your entry via email to relink@messenger.ie or post to RE:LINK, The Sacred Heart Messenger, 37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2.

Please include your name, age & school.

Closing date: 24th of the month.

Winner receives a voucher wor th €40!

MARCH 2018 RE:LINK WINNER:

Rachel O’Donovan Maria Immaculata Community College, Co Cork

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FEATURE

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Regular contributor JOHN SCALLY tells us of a time when Pope Francis was challenged by the question of a young Filipino girl.

A.PAES / Shutterstock

WHY DID GOD LET THIS HAPPEN?

Pope Francis visits Rio de Janeiro during World Youth Day 2013.

Around the country the excitement is mounting for the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families this month. Pope Francis recently emphasised that we are not living in an era of change but in a change of era. He has suggested that our best response to this new era is to adopt humility, selflessness and beatitude, features which tell us that we must not be obsessed with power. Instead he seeks a ‘restless’ Church that looks after ‘the abandoned, the forgotten and the imperfect’. Reform of the Church does not end in a plan to change structures,

but instead it involves grafting ourselves to Christ, leaving ourselves to be guided by the Spirit so that all will be possible with creativity.

Pope Francis was challenged to tease out the implications of this reflection. On a stage in front of 30,000 people on his trip to the Philippines in January 2015 at a gathering for Filipino youth, Glyzelle Palomar, twelve, approached the Holy Father, with tears toppling in steady streams down her cheeks. She told him that her life had been spent foraging for food in rubbish dumps, and sleeping outside on cardboard

FEATURE

32 mats. ‘Why did God let this happen to us?’ she asked, covering her face as she sobbed.

Pope Francis cast aside his prepared text and responded with a forty-minute reflection on the nature of suffering. ‘The nucleus of your question almost doesn’t have a reply.

Only when we too can cry about the things you said are we able to come close to replying to that question. Why did children suffer so much? Why do children suffer?’

He went on to add: ‘Certain realities in life we only see through eyes that are cleansed through our tears. …

Let us not forget this lesson, the great question of why so many children suffer, and the response we can make today is, let us learn, really learn, how to really weep, how to cry’ It was telling that Pope Francis chose Lampedusa as the destination of his first pastoral visit outside Rome. This tiny Mediterranean island is the prime European entry point for migrants but many die on the way or drown in the high seas. With typical sense of symbolism he cast a wreath of white and yellow flowers into the waters outside the main port, dignifying the discarded lives and drawing attention to their unmarked deaths.

The first Latin American Pope, on returning to Latin America, spoke during the World Youth Day cele-

brations in Rio de Janeiro, where he did the unthinkable and caused many Brazilians to fall in love with an Argentinian as he spoke about the centrality of the cross: ‘On the Cross, Jesus is united with every person who suffers from hunger in a world which, on the other hand, permits itself the luxury of throwing away tons of food every day; on the Cross, Jesus is united to the many mothers and fathers who suffer as they see their children become victims of drug-induced euphoria; on the Cross, Jesus is united with those who are persecuted for their religion, for their beliefs, or simply for the colour of their skin; on the Cross, Jesus is united with so many young people who have lost faith in the Church, or even in God, because of the counter-witness of Christians and ministers of the Gospel.’

In Pope Francis’ dream all that has divided people will merge, compassion will be wedded to power, softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind, all will share equally in the earth’s abundance, all will care for the sick and the weak and the old, all will nourish the young and all will cherish life’s creatures and misery, child suffering and child labour will be no more. Glyzelle’s challenging question to Pope Francis will at last have been adequately answered.

‘WHY DID GOD LET THIS HAPPEN TO US?’ SHE ASKED, COVERING HER FACE AS SHE SOBBED. POPE FRANCIS CAST ASIDE HIS PREPARED TEXT…

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GARDENING

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Regular contributor CIARAN BURKE highlights the garden as both haven and heaven. In August, many of us go on holiday, and he encourages us to think of the wild and exotic flora we might see, and which might make a home in our own garden.

ADVENTUROUS AUGUST

S. Officinalus

August is a time when many people take their annual holidays, perhaps a trip across the island to visit a relative, or a flight across the globe to adventure on another continent. Our gardens are left to fend for themselves, and the help of friends and children is enlisted to help water the pots and hanging baskets.

As we wander on our summer excursions, we can take an opportu-

nity to admire the plants that grow in the wild, some of which may also be cherished amongst gardeners as garden plants. I have fond memories of stumbling upon wild flowers both at home and abroad. Every time I see a Burnett flowering I am transported back to an August afternoon on Lough Conn.

I consulted my old and slightly battered copy of Webb’s Irish Flora.

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GARDENING

34 This versatile and showy genus of plants has two Irish natives amongst its members. The salad burnet, S. minor, which is small and not very attractive, although useful as a salad ingredient, and the taller more showy greater burnet, S. officinalis.

According to the old book, S. officinalis is not widely encountered, populations are confined to the north east of the island and also the shores of Lough Cullin and Lough Conn, in my county of residence at the time, Co. Mayo. Lough Conn attracts visitors for fishing and I would guess not so many plant hunters. On a cloudy August afternoon we set off to see if we could encounter, the greater burnet, S. officinalis, growing and flowering in its native habitat.

Our searches at a few places on Lough Cullin gave us no reward. We continued our search at Lough Conn, both lakes are separated by only a narrow strip of land. At our first Lough Conn stop we drove down a bumpy gravel road with a healthy sward of grass along the centre.

We hopped out and strolled across the pebble-covered beach, past purple loosestrife and knapweeds flowering along the shore. We ventured into some sparse woodland, here native species of willow, ash and alder grew between stones. The water lapped the shore peacefully and a breeze made a lively yet soothing rustle with the leaves. The world was peace around me, then the silence was broken, a triumphant shout from Hanna, my wife, the greater burnet had been found!

It is not often that you encounter a fashionable herbaceous perennial that is a native to these shores.

Sanguisorba officinalis bears its tight clustered flowers in dense dark purple spikes on top of wiry swaying stems. Its appeal is simple and seductive, possessing an elegant reserved charm. The increasing popularity of the genus amongst gardeners reflects tastes of our time.

The burnets are perfect for placing in naturalistic planting schemes, prairie planting and floral meadows where structure and texture matter more than flamboyance and brash colours.

In our own garden we grow quite a few species and hybrids. Earlier in the summer S. tenuifolia ‘Alba’ entertained us with its swaying displays of flowery haze. Now the pink fluffy heads of S. obtusa swing lightly in the breeze, while the even fluffier S. hakuasanensis var. japonica, which we brought from a nursery in Finland a couple of years ago, shimmers its stamens along an erect infloresence. In the garden there is the cool S. ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’, and in a raised bed the carpeting green mound of S. ‘Tanna’ has been flowering for a couple of months, its flowers like a cloud of purple bumble bees. Burnets, the greater burnet and many others are just, great!

Most of our garden plants have their origins in the wild, the majority of course are from abroad. In our gardens we welcome all, from across the continents, where exotics mingle with native species too. Our gardens are indeed both a haven and a heaven.

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Prepare your children & grandchildren for the arrival of

pope francis!

HARDBACK â‚Ź14.99 www.messenger.iewww.messenger.ieTel: 01 7758522

THANKSGIVING LETTERS

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Every month we publish a selection of thanksgiving letters from our readers. Please be assured that receipt of a letter is fulfilment of a promise to publish. A longer ‘letter’ – a story of thanksgiving – is on the facing page, and our readers are invited to submit their own ‘A Kindness I’ll never Forget’.

MEDICATION AND OTHER PROBLEMS Dear Sacred Heart of Jesus, Prayer can move mountains.

This is a letter of thanksgiving for the countless favours received over many, many years.

Once again I am asking the Sacred Heart of Jesus for help. I need help to recover from a damaged liver caused by medication and other problems, and I pray also that my daughter will be able to get a loan, so that she can afford a home for herself. She is a single parent doing her best to be a good mother and to provide for my beautiful granddaughter. I pray that my granddaughter can make new friends at school, as she hasn’t been treated very well there in the past.

Again, a big big thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and his Blessed Mother Mary for all the help received.

I used to be a promoter of The Messenger and am still able to buy it in our local bookshop. I am delighted to get it every month.

A very grateful mother, and grandmother. Mayo

LOST FATHER

you so much for his peaceful death, which we had prayed for. Help mam to cope and not be too lonely, that she will find something to help her deal with his passing.

Thank you that Sean is well again after an awful few days of sickness.

Please God you will look after us and give us good health from here on.

That I will get good clean scan result, and get back to full health. That everything around work will go okay.

For all the family coming and going, and for Sean taking his confirmation, and also for Dara and Rosa.

For Bernard’s health and safety on the road, and that he will see fit to make progress with the house. That I will cope and be calm.

Thank you for an eventful month.

Anon

KEEP HIM SAFE Dear Sacred Heart, My brother has recently opened up to me about being gay. I ask the Sacred Heart to guide him through the coming years, and keep him safe in a world that might be very critical of him. I love him very much, and want only what is best for him.

A loving sister

Dear Sacred Heart, We have lost our father but we thank

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THANKSGIVING STORY

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BRENDAN McMANUS SJ reflects on a time when he learned something about the nature of gratitude. He encourages us to think about those things in our lives we are grateful for.

THE ENERGY OF THANKS The day I limped out of the hospital without the cast was a great joy, I was free again to rejoin the walking world!

I remember that evening walking a few hundred metres down a country lane in Fermanagh: I could smell the flowers, I never felt so alive or so grateful. I had been given another chance, a chance to really live and appreciate life for all that it offers; If I had not fallen I would have taken things for granted, gone on with my busy life and never realised simple basic pleasures. Just to be alive is such a gift, to be able to walk is a real blessing, to be healthy is a gift to be treasured. Like St Ignatius, God speaks to my heart and guides my actions. I have never felt so grateful.

St Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises asks us to remember all the good things God has done for us first, and then consider how we would live in gratitude. This simple

step has us review how God has been present to us. It then transforms the way we look at the world and treat others.

To be grateful, look at: n The fact that I am alive means I have been given a gift by God. n The abilities that I have, intelligence, freedom, creativity, are gifts to me. n God holds me in being and is always communicating with me. n My job is to listen to that inner voice. n God is always waiting to give me a second chance.

Imagine all that God has done for you. Everything that we have has been given to us to use for praising God and reverencing others and creation. God shows love for you in concrete deeds and actions, blessing us even in our illness, blindness and weakness (Spiritual Exercises 230).

Have you something you are grateful for? Write to us about it for our ‘A Kindness I’ll Never Forget’ series at Sacred Heart Messenger, 37 Lr Leeson St, Dublin 2 or email k.kiernan@messenger.ie. There is a token of forty euro for each kindness published. www.messenger.ie

COOKERY

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For August MARIE McGUIRK offers us a masterclass on cooking for one during the Summer. She presents two delightful salads, as well as savoury pinwheels that go perfectly with midday tea!

THE LAST SALAD DAYS OF SUMMER CHICKEN SALAD

(1 Portion) 1 cooked chicken portion 1 stick of celery chopped 2 spring onions chopped ½ red apple chopped 8 grapes halved and deseeded ½ oz chopped walnuts Low fat mayonnaise to bind Natural yoghurt Lettuce leaves washed and ried Chopped parsley to garnish

METHOD

n Remove the skin from chicken and slice into strips. Place in a bowl and then add the celery, spring onions, apple and grapes. n Thin out 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise with a little natural yoghurt and add to salad. Toss together and season with some black pepper. n Arrange the lettuce on a serving plate and pile the salad on top.

Sprinkle over the chopped walnuts.

SALMON SALAD WITH A YOUGURT AND MAYONNAISE DRESSING (1 Portion) 150g/6oz fresh salmon fillet 1 small avocado ¼ cucumber 2–3 leaves of lettuce shredded or a handful of mixed leaves 1 tablespoon chopped mint

1 tablespoon oil 1 tablespoon natural yogurt 1 dessertspoon mayonnaise Chopped parsley or chives to serve and a wedge of lemon

METHOD

n Heat a fry pan and oil the fish lightly on both sides. Cook the fish for approx. 3 mins on each side depending on how thick your fillet is. n Allow fish to rest in pan with heat off while you prepare salad. n Cut avocado in half remove stone and skin and slice. n Thinly slice cucumber and mix with the lettuce. Mix the mint, oil, yogurt and mayonnaise together and toss the salad lightly in this dressing n Place on a serving plate and arrange the avocado slices on top.

Flake the salmon and sprinkle it over the salad and serve at once garnished with parsley or chives and lemon wedge.

SAVOURY PINWHEELS

1lb self-raising flour Pinch of salt 1 tablespoon olive oil Approx. 150ml fresh milk 200g/8oz washed baby spinach shredded 200g/8oz grated cheddar cheese

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COOKERY

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100g sundried tomatoes in oil chopped 2 shallots finely chopped Extra oil to brush over top Sesame seeds to finish

METHOD

n Preheat oven to 200°C Gas 6–7 n Sieve the flour into a bowl and add the salt and mix. n Make a well in the centre and add the oil and milk. Mix to a soft elastic dough and turn out onto a floured surface. n Roll out the dough into a rectangle about ¼ inch thick and place on a piece of greaseproof or parchment paper. Brush lightly with a little

olive oil. n Mix the shredded spinach, the cheese, the tomatoes and the shallots and sprinkle the mixture evenly over the dough. n Press the filling down well onto the dough and using the parchment paper to help, roll up like a swiss roll. n Cut the dough into slices about ¾ inch deep and place on a greased tray. Brush each slice with a little oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds. n Bake in a preheated oven for 15–20 mins. n Perfect for picnics or serve hot for a light tea dish.

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The prize is €100 for the first correct solution opened.

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WIN €100! ADULT CROSSWORD Send to: Adult Crossword 808, Messenger Publications, 37 Lr Leeson St, Dublin 2, Ireland

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Address: ___________________________________________

Name: ____________________________________________

40

ACROSS 1 Solid apprentice pronouncedly icy (5) 4 Two catches used by angler (4-4) 8 Most blows come with it (10,4) 10 So so spicy very quickly (4,1,4) 11 Come to the point (5) 12 Cash collector (4) 13 Where to find garden by railway in the Midlands (8) 17 Rover to observe duty on a ship (8) 18 Drop round for pudding (4) 22 Crew recklessly capture ruined ship (5) 24 Sense smaller portion is bland (9) 25 Facing, with less feeling, one’s counterpart (8,6) 26 Way cockney would harness horse to vehicle in swindle (6-2) 27 The Parisian protected Edward in the city (5)

DOWN 1 Catch one object of assistant navigator (7) 2 Wish someone in the theatre good luck - or serious injury? (5,1,3) 3 A tax credit first on neckwear (6) 4 Dirty fly hit out (6) 5 Contains remarkable endorsement (8) 6 Gun with zero setting (8) 7 Freely admit liability (3,2) 9 Somewhat meagre yesterday and gloomy (4) 14 Possible to find small amount before island uprising (9) 15 Jo back to replace foot and knee covering (8) 16 This cost upset those North of the Border (8) 17 Section inside Wyoming covered with moisture (4) 19 Initially old-fashioned types are vague (2,5) 20 One strips reflectively in a dream? (6) 21 What follows as a result of a film perhaps (6) 23 Divorcee Patrick, one living abroad (5)

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CROSSWORDS

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CHILDREN’S CROSSWORD: WIN €30!

MAY CROSSWORD SOLUTIONS AND WINNERS OF ALL COMPETITIONS WILL APPEAR IN THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF THE SACRED HEART MESSENGER Name: ______________________________________________________________ Age:________ Address: ________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Send to: AUGUST Children’s Crossword, Messenger Publications, 37 Lr Leeson St, Dublin 2, Ireland, by 24th of the month.

ACROSS 1 A place you might find a bear (4) 3 A small, circular bit of metal that apparently makes the world go round (4) 7 What you should be getting at school (9) 8 You can put it on almost anything, and it stays there! (7) 12 According to scientists, the universe won’t stop doing this (9) 14 A very bossy man, in a crown (4) 15 Slippery, sometimes electric, for some reason British people eat them (4)

DOWN 1 A person in a white hat who cooks for you (4) 2 Sometimes to jump, sometimes a place you keep your treasures (5) 4 How the French say yes (3) 5 Nada, nichts! (4) 6 From here you can yell ‘Romeo, O Romeo’ but trust me, no Romeos appear (7) 9 The best of the best (5) 10 Sharp part of a bird (4) 11 Long periods of time (4)

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Sarah’sWordsearch

N O I T A U C E P S

P P J N T P N E N P

O Y H J H S C T R N

H T W O N I O E M E

S W S D T M P C U Y

I Y N I A A E G I P

B T M H R G O L L A

H L C B A L R E A Z

C A L T O H N A D N

R S I R L D C N P V

A O R D I I Y U W H

N P I Y R Y C J E Z

Y S L J J D V W G Y

V I V M P B B T W L

T D B L D Y Y Z K B

In his article on ‘Why Migrants?’ Alan Hilliard talked about the focus Pope Francis has on the lives of migrants. Can you find these words taken from that article?

Photography Chalice Preparation Disposal Speculation Homeland

Archbishop Eucharist Symbolic Splendid Ideologues Social

Who owns which kite?

page 43

6

5 6 5

3

4

3 2

2

2 5

1

3

6 6

2

5

Sarah’s Numbers Complete the grid so that each row, each column and each 3x2 box has the numbers 1-6

Poetry Competition Win €30!!

Test your talents and submit your own poem for a chance to

WIN €30!

This month’s poem should be written on the theme of:-

TRAVEL

Competition Information: Please include your name, age and address with your entry and send to: JUNE Competition, Young Readers’ Pages, The Sacred Heart Messenger, 37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland OR by email to competitions@messenger.ie by the 24th of the month.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

44

Messenger Publications are delighted to present a round-up of our most recent Bestsellers. These are highly recommended titles which have proved very popular with our readers.

BESTSELLER ROUND-UP

I am Infinitely Loved 31 Daily Meditations Brian Grogan SJ €4.95 Booklet

Sacred Space: A Little Book of Encouragement The Irish Jesuits, edited

by Vinita Hampton Wright €9.95 Paperback

Seventy short chapters to comfort us with God’s presence in the midst of life’s challenges and to remind us that Jesus journeys with us step-by-step.

Each entry is given a descriptive title so that readers can easily find the encouragement they need.

Each piece of scripture is a divine love-note in which God is trying to get across to you the great truth that you are endlessly loved. To discover this to be true for yourself is to find the treasure hidden in the field of your heart.

Finding God in the Mess Meditations for Mindful Living Jim Deeds & Brendan McManus SJ €9.95

Wisdom at the Crossroads: The Life and Thought of Michael Paul Gallagher SJ Thomas G Casey SJ €12.95 Paperback

This study illuminates Fr Michael Paul’s rare gift of helping people to move from a detached consideration of faith to an awareness of what is deepest in their own hearts, for it is from that hidden layer of wonder that he believed the journey of faith could unfold.

These meditations can be used by readers as a daily prayer source, for morning, daytime or evening prayer.

They are also ideal for parish groups who might read a reflection and then come together for discussion.

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FEATURE

45

Frequent contributor to The Messenger ALAN HILLIARD asks as to why Pope Francis has chosen to focus so much of his papacy on the issues of migrants; he finds his answer in his own experiences of immigrants to Ireland, and in the heart of God.

Š Gregorio Borgia/AP/REX/Shutterstock

WHY MIGRANTS?

Pope Francis, during a visit to the island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, celebrates Mass with a chalice made from recycled wood from broken migrant boats.

The chalice that Pope Francis elevates in this photograph was made from the timbers of a migrant boat by a carpenter who lives on

the island of Lampedusa. Frustrated by the deaths of people who sought safety on this little island in the middle of the Mediterranean,

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FEATURE

46 Franceo Tuccio, carved this chalice leaving the stark nail for all to see.

There are many chalices that Pope Francis could have used for the Eucharistic celebration on the island in July 2013, but he chose this one as it is richly symbolic. Like the Church, the chalice and its timbers carry our broken humanity.

Preparations for the visit of Pope Francis have been underway in Ireland for many months. The people of Lampedusa received ten days’ notice of Pope Francis’ visit to their island. The altar, lectern and other altar pieces were salvaged from the nearby boat graveyard. They had little choice as the small island which is seven miles long by two miles wide has few resources at its disposal to make splendid altar pieces.

The visit spoke volumes about Pope Francis’ pontificate. He bypassed, even ignored the normal protocols of recently elected popes and the dogma of papal advisors, and journeyed not just to the edge of the world but to where humanity was falling off the world.

We might speculate that Pope Francis chooses the topic of migrants because he and his family were migrants from Italy to South America. He would have experienced the longing for the homeland among his own, the severing of primary relation-

ships that are never replaced even though you meet great friends, and the constant fear that there is nothing or nobody to fall back on when things go wrong.

We might further speculate that Pope Francis focuses on the plight of migrants because he stood among the poorest of the poor in Argentina. The slums and favelas are populated by people from rural areas and neighbouring countries. They migrated to the cities in search of hope, but found economic and social despair fuelled by government and gangs.

When he was appointed archbishop of Buenos Aries in 1998 he increased the number of priests assigned to these areas from eight to twenty five. His support for his curas villeros (slum priests) was inspirational. Reading about his ministry and leadership one gets the feeling that this ministry helped the Church of Jesus Christ to be honest. As archbishop he prayed at the shrine of one priest who was assassinated: ‘Let us pray for Fr Carlos’s assassins, and the ideologues that lay behind it, but also for the complicit silence of most of society and of the Church.’

I remember that when I worked with immigrants to Ireland I learned a lot from them. In particular I learned a lot about what was wrong with Ireland: lack of opportunity,

WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE PLIGHT OF MIGRANTS TODAY YOU SEE WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR WORLD AND THE LIST IS GETTING LONGER AND LONGER.

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FEATURE

47

political and parochial polarisation, greed, tribalism, pride, ignorance and inequality. When you look at the lives of migrants today you see what is wrong with our world and the list is getting longer and longer. As he presents the world and his Church with the migrant, the refugee, the trafficked person, the unaccompanied minor and the asylum seeker, Pope Francis is asking us to be honest with ourselves and to seek a better world for all. He reminds us that we are not mere social workers, we are people of faith and people of faith are asked to create a world pleasing to God not just pleasing to our needs. As the late Peter Sutherland remarked during his address at the 2012 Eucharistic Congress migrants and migration provides us

with ‘a pathway out of our isolation and selfishness’.

However, when I contemplate the photograph of Pope Francis lifting the chalice at the Lampedusa Mass I realise that no one knows if the timber from which this chalice was hewn brought people to shore or seabed. The chalice represents the journey towards salvation for us all.

There is certainly the ultimate salvation that the Risen Lord has won for us, but that same Lord insists that we give our fellow brothers and sisters a break and not just a mention. And if we are fortunate and honest we will meet him among them. I don’t claim to know the mind, heart and soul of the Pope, but I think his mission to migrants stems from the heart of the God he meets in prayer.

D on ation s gratef ully r ecei v ed For the spread of devotion to the love of God in the Sacred Heart and other Messenger charities.

For the work of the Jesuit Mission in ASSAM, NORTH INDIA, for the payment of teachers’ salaries in the new Jesuit third-level college at Tezpur.

St Joseph’s Penny Dinners, c/o St Francis Xavier’s, Gardiner St, funding food for the hungry in Ireland and abroad.

For the promotion of The Sacred Heart Messenger.

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IN THE MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS

48

FR JOHN MURRAY, parish priest of Downpatrick, tells us about the extraordinary life of one Mary Clarke. Born to Hollywood wealth, and a mother of eight children over two marriages, she became Sister Antonia Brenner, also known as ‘La Mama’ to prisoners she visited in Mexico.

SISTER ANTONIA BRENNER Can you imagine a Catholic woman, twice married and twice divorced, with eight children by two different men, becoming a nun and then founding a religious order? And can you imagine her being invited to present the gifts at the offertory during a celebration of Mass by Pope St John Paul II? It may sound unlikely but it happened. The story of Mary Clarke is a beautiful reminder that heaven is also for those who have made mistakes, or perhaps it would be truer to say that heaven is especially for those who have made mistakes. As a wise man once said, ‘A saint is a sinner who never stops trying’.

Mary grew up in an environment far removed from where she ended her life. Born in Beverly Hills, California, she grew up surrounded by the glitz and glamour of showbiz and Hollywood. The stars of the time were frequent visitors to the Clarke household: William Powell, Hedy Lamarr and John Barrymore, to name but a few. Yet, despite his success and riches, Mary’s father, Joe, taught his three children to be generous and kind to those who were less fortunate. It rubbed off on Mary, though not immediately.

Beautiful and rich, Mary was an

attractive ‘catch’ for some men, and so she ended up, all too soon at the age of eighteen, in marriage. She had three children but the marriage proved difficult and ended in divorce. Later, she married again in a civil ceremony in Las Vegas. This marriage too was to end in divorce but not before Mary had given birth to five more children.

It often happens that someone comes along at important moments in life to provide a helping hand or suggest a way forward. Mary met a priest, Fr Henry Vetter, who got her involved in the delivery of food, clothing and medicine to the prisoners of La Mesa in Tijuana, just south of the Mexican border. She threw herself into this work, perhaps remembering the values her father had taught her as she grew up. After a while, she received a contract to sell soft drinks to the prisoners, the proceeds of which she used to bail out low-level offenders.

Over the next ten years, Mary began to travel from her home to the prison, bringing not just supplies of food and clothing but more importantly a listening ear and a large amount of love. The prisoners started to look forward to her visits, and they began to christen her affectionately

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IN THE MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS

© LENNY IGNELZI/AP/REX/Shutterstock

49

Sister Antonia Brenner, aged 79, embraces Eloisa Mendoza Peregrina, who suffers from leprosy, at the Casa Campos de San Miguel, Mexico, in 2005. Casa Campos de San Miguel is the home for the Eudist Servants of the Eleventh Hour, the Catholic religious order of nuns founded by Brenner, and also serves as a shelter for former female inmates and cancer patients.

‘La Mama’. The warden eventually gave her permission to stay overnight in the prison and provided her with accommodation.

By this time her own children were grown up and looking after themselves. Mary had been a good mother, and she made sure that her prison visits did not lead her to neglect them in any way. Now she felt a new calling – a vocation to be mother to a different group of people, many of whom had never known the affection and care of a mother.

At this point Mary went to her local bishop, Leo Maher, who was based in San Diego in California. He was fully aware of what was happening in his diocese and beyond, and he knew her story. Having heard Mary’s plan, Bishop Leo allowed her to start

a new religious order. It would be for women who were forty-five years old or more, whose concern would be for the less fortunate in society and those suffering from addiction. Mary also received the blessing of the bishop of Tijuana where the prison was situated.

By this time Mother Antonia – the name she took in religion – sold her house and belongings and moved into La Mesa prison. From now on her home was to be a cell in the women’s section of the compound, measuring three by three metres.

She would live in this prison cell like any other inmate, having only cold water and eating prison food.

She allowed herself a crucifix on the wall, as well as a Bible and a Spanish dictionary. ‘It’s different to

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IN THE MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS

50 live among people than it is to visit them,’ she said ‘I have to be here with them in the middle of the night in case someone gets stabbed or has appendicitis.’

‘La Mama’ now moved freely among the prisoners, many of whom had been convicted for murder and drug crimes. Rapists, prostitutes and thieves were also present in the prison population. Antonia happily walked with them all, listening to them, touching a cheek here or a shoulder there, holding the hand of a man while he was dying. On one occasion, she even managed to stop a prison riot. She truly saw the face of Christ in every person she met, extending God’s mercy to those men and women who had made lots of

Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

Jn 14:27

First Friday: 1st June 2018 ................................................................ ................................................................ ................................................................ ................................................................ ................................................................

mistakes and who feared that no one would ever forgive them.

‘Pleasure depends on where you are, who you are with, what you are eating,’ she once said in a newspaper interview, ‘happiness is different.

Happiness does not depend on where you are. I live in prison. And I have not had a day of depression in twenty-five years. I have a reason for my being.’

Mother Antonia died in October 2013, aged eighty-six, at the headquarters of the religious order she had founded, the Sisters of the Eleventh Hour of St John Eudes.

How aptly named was her order, for Antonia knew that not every member of the family makes it to the table on time!

Petitions may be sent to us on this form, or on any piece of paper.

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FEATURE

51

FR TOM COX, parish priest in Clonmacnoise, wonders if we are sometimes too proud to receive.

Lighthunter / Shutterstock

RECEIVING WITH GRACE

They tell of one good Longford lady whose generosity was legendary.

Somebody decided to try and do something nice for her in gratitude but she was having none of it. The frustrated giver then exclaimed: ‘Mary Ann you’re a fierce woman to give but you’re a horrid mane (sic) receiver.’ It sounds better with a Midlands accent, especially pronouncing ‘mean’ as mane . . .

For some, it is easier to give than to receive, be it kindness or money.

Yet, it is hard to receive love, to receive forgiveness and to receive help. When we are open to it, we can be very touched and warmed at the experience of receiving.

Some of us, feeling cornered by the endless demands of others, might be sceptical of this. After all ‘nobody gives to me – I’m always the one who has to give to others.’ It is possible, however, that we don’t give off the

signals of being open to receive.

Sometimes, such as when we are in hospital, it is not until we have to receive the most intimate care from strangers that we are able to loosen our grip on our own independence.

These moments of hardship, however, can actually be moments of grace. They can help us to become open to receiving from others.

In Western cultures, do we so much emphasise our independence that it gets way out of proportion?

We need each other, we are totally interdependent. Our ancestors put it better ‘ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine’ (we live in one another’s shadow).

At times we are called to receive with grace, and it is a beautiful thing to allow an opportunity to someone who wants to give.

It blesses both the giver and receiver.

FEATURE

52

An edited excerpt from BRIAN GROGAN SJ’s book on the mysticism of Laudato Si’ and the Pope’s message for us about the earth; The Mysticism of Laudato Si’ is forthcoming from Messenger Publications in Autumn 2018.

FINDING GOD IN A LEAF Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’ on Care for Our Common Home makes painful reading. It challenges us to change our flawed attitudes to the earth, and such change is hard.

Behind the tough news is a mysticism, a faith-filled way of looking at creation with ever-deeper love. In these pages we will explore first the beauty of creation as hinted at in Laudato Si’, and then the challenges presented to us because of our disfiguring of it. The Pope’s challenges, when read against the backdrop of our new appreciation of the earth’s beauty, will be charged with new urgency.

The Pope says, ‘It is our humble conviction that the divine and the human meet in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God’s creation, in the last speck of dust of our planet’ (9).

This faith-insight changes everything! Every molecule of creation is sacred. See a plant, a bird, a carrot, a drop of water, a speck of dust in this way and you will begin to see the world as God sees it.

Keep coming back to the Pope’s statement: take it in as best you can.

Share your reflections with others and notice how your heart begins to soften with appreciation and concern

for the small things of the earth.

God is the God of small things, and you meet God in them as well as in the Church, the sacraments, the Bible, the Christian community and the poor. This is what it means to be prayerful, to see all creation with eyes of wonder. Ask St Francis of Assisi or St Ignatius to share with you their way of seeing the world, or recall someone who has already introduced you to the mystery in every created thing.

The poet William Blake wrote: ‘If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is, infinite’. We need to pray for fresh eyes, and then, like him, we will be able ‘to see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of our hands, and eternity in an hour.’

THE CARESS OF GOD The more we come to love nature in all its detail, the more we will want to care for it, because we care for the things we love. Here’s a poet’s vision of a single flower – a narcissus – coming into bloom: When from a world of mosses and of ferns At last the narcissus lifted a tuft of five-pointed stars

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FEATURE

Photo © Liam O’Connell SJ

53

Kirkjufell volcano on the coast of Snaefellsnes peninsula in Iceland.

And dangled them in the atmosphere, Then every molecule of creation jumped and clapped its hands: God is born.

– D H Lawrence.

The whole of this poem is worth reading. When you next look at a flower, try to imagine the excitement of creation. Every molecule does jump and dance because there is no such thing as ‘inanimate matter’.

St Thomas Aquinas states serenely that all things desire God. They are on the move, striving, though in a different way to us, to realise their potential. Nature has its intentions and achievements. For nature, every day is a birth-day, a day of revelation. Watch nature coming alive on a Spring morning!

The Pope says, ‘Each creature has its own purpose. None is superfluous. The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, God’s boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God’ (84).

For the believer, everything in nature is a love-note from God! God is not impersonal but rather the great lover who chooses to create in order to convey ‘boundless affection’ for us. Sky, light, clouds, living things – the delicacy of the flower, the play of the wind on your cheek – these are the caresses of God. God is very close indeed: the big secret is that we walk the world of the divine all the time. Allow yourself to experience some of those caresses today!

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AUGUST 2018

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It is wonderful for us to be here

St Pontian Pp Mt

I am the bread of life

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

21

20 St Augustine Bp Dr M

26

27

Jn 6: 60-69

Mt 23: 13-22

Lord who shall we Alas for you blind go to? guides

Mt 23: 23-26

28

Justice, mercy, good faith

Mt 19: 23-30

St Monica Mw M

Mt 19: 16-22

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jn 6: 51-58

The last will be first

Give your money to the poor

19

My flesh is real food

Mt 18 1-5. 10.12-14

St Pius X Pp M

Mt 17: 22-27

St Bernard Ab Dr M

14

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jn 6: 41-51

Become like Little children

St Maximilian Mary Kolbe P Mt M

Mt 14: 22-36

A great sadness came over them

13

Mk 9: 2-10

7

Lord save me

St Sixtus II Pp Mt & Co Mts

TUESDAY

I will raise him up

12

Jn 6: 24-35

6

Transfiguration of the Lord

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

5

MONDAY

SUNDAY

15

22

29

9

Mk 6: 17-29

3

17

24

23

30

Ss Margaret Clitherow, Anne Line,

Mt 22: 1-14

Mt 24: 42-51

31

Mt 25: 1-13

Go out and meet the bridegroom

St Aidan B & Ss of Lindisfarne

Jn 1: 45-51

How do you know me?

St Bartholomew Ap

Many are called

18

Mt 17: 14-20

11

Take pity on my son

St Clare V Rf M

Mt 14: 1-12

The king was distressed

4

St John Mary Vianney P M

SATURDAY

25

Mt 23: 1-12

You are all siblings

St Louis of France Mm

A man must cling Do not stop the children coming to to his wife me. Mt 19: 13-15 Mt 19: 3-12

Our Lady of Knock

Jn 12: 24-26

10

We would like to see Jesus

St Lawrence D Mt

Mt 13: 54-58

They were astonished

u

FRIDAY

St Rose of Lima V

Mt 18: 21 – 19: 1

Forgive from your heart

16

St Nathy B St Stephen of Hungary Mm

Mt 16: 13-23

You are the Christ

St Teresa Benedicta V Mt

Mt 13: 47-53

I want the head of Margaret Ward, V M Stay awake John on a plate

Passion of John the Baptist

Mt 20: 1-16

Why be envious?

Our Lady Queen of Heaven

Lk 1: 39-56

My spirit exults In God

=

Assumption of the BVM

Mt 15: 21-28

8

Take pity on me

St Dominic P Rf

Mt 13: 44-46

2

Separate the good from the bad

The hidden treasure

1

St Peter Julian Eymard P

St Alphonsus Liguori Bp Rf Dr M

WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

AUGUST 2018

u First Friday = Holy Day of Obligation

May we take time to notice in our Summer time-out the shades of colour, the feel of textures and the simple beauty of something ordinary.

Text: Donal Neary SJ; Photograph: Liam O’Connell SJ ISSN 1649-4450

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