BLESSED GENNARO SARNELLI
JUNE 2019
NATIVE AMERICAN AND CATHOLIC CONVERT: NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
CATHOLIC GRANDPARENTS ASSOCIATION
Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic
NOTRE DAME WILL LIVE AGAIN
SERVANT OF OUR LADY
ST ALPHONSUS' DEVOTION TO THE MOTHER OF THE LORD
PRAYING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE LOST A CHILD
SHOWING COMPASSION FOR THOSE WHO GRIEVE
www.redcoms.org Redemptorist-Communications @RedComsIreland �2.50 �2.00
Redemptorist Solemn Novenas
to Our Mother of Perpetual Help June 2019 Esker Novena
Tuesday June 4 - Wednesday June 12, 2019 Daily Sessions:
Novena times for Sunday June 9:
8.00am, 10.00am, 4.00pm, 6.00pm, 8.00pm & 10.00pm 8.00am, 10.00am, 12.00noon, 4.30pm, 6.00pm & 8.00pm Preachers: Brendan Callanan CSsR, Gerard Moloney CSsR, Denis Luddy CSsR & Clare Gilmore Confessions will be heard before and after each session of the Solemn Novena, with the exception of Sunday. Blessing of Babies & Children will take place after each Mass on Sunday June 9. Novena session for the Sick & the Infirm: Saturday, June 8 at 12 noon
Ballinasloe Novena
Tuesday June 4 - Wednesday June 12, 2019 Daily Sessions:
7.30am, 10.00am, 8.00pm
Novena times for Saturday June 8:
7.30am, 10.00am, 7.00pm
Preachers: Brian Nolan CSsR & Derek Meskell CSsR Rite of Reconciliation: Monday June 10, at all sessions. Blessing of Babies & Children will take place after 12 noon Mass on Sunday June 9 Novena session for the Sick & the Infirm: Thursday, June 6 at 4.00pm
Limerick Novena
Friday June 14 - Saturday June 22, 2019 Daily Sessions (including Sunday):
7.00am, 8.00am, 10.00am, 11.30am, 1.10pm, 4.30pm, 6.00pm, 7.30pm, 9.00pm, 10.30pm Preachers: Adrian Egan CSsR, Laurence Gallagher CSsR, Michael Kelleher CSsR, Helena Connolly and Neil Foley Novena session for the Sick and the Infirm: Saturday, June 21 at 11.30am Reconciliation Services Tuesday June 18: 8:00am, 11:30am, 4:30pm,7:30pm, 9:00pm Mass 7:00am,10:00am, 1:10pm, 6:00pm, 10:30pm Blessing of babies & young children - Sunday June 16 at 4.30pm. Celebration for First Communion classes - Monday, June 17 at 11.30am
The solemn novena will stream live on the internet. Go to www.novena.ie
Clonard Novena
Wednesday June 19 - Thursday June 27, 2019 Daily Sessions:
6.45am, 8.15am, 9.30am, 11.00am, 12.45pm, 4.30pm, 6.00pm, 7.30pm, 9.00pm, 10.30pm (The Candlelight Session - except Saturday & Sunday) Novena times for Saturday & Sunday, June 22 and 23
6.45am, 8.15am, 9.30am, 11.00am, 12.45pm, 3.00pm, 4.30pm 6.00pm, 7.30pm Preachers: Kieran Brady CSsR, Brendan Keane CSsR, Denis Luddy CSsR and Gerry Moloney CSsR Novena Session with Sign Language each day at 11.00am Novena session for the Sick & the Infirm: Saturday, June 16, at 11.00am, 12.45pm & 3.00pm Blessing of babies & young children - Sunday June 23 at 3.00pm without Mass Special Youth session with Mass on Sunday June 23 at 7.30pm The Sacrament of Reconciliation (No Masses) will be celebrated on Friday, June 21 at 9.30am, 4.30pm, 6.00pm and 9.00pm Ministers from other Christian Churches - Monday June 24 at all sessions
For more information/to see the novena go to: www.clonard.com
IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES 12 NOTRE DAME WILL LIVE AGAIN The great Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was struck by fire in Holy Week. Many of its treasures have been destroyed, but this is not the first time that it has been damaged only to rise again. By Fr Brendan McConvery CSsR
20 SERVANT OF OUR LADY The Solemn Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help will be celebrated in many Redemptorist churches this month. The roots of the novena are to be sought in the personal devotion of the founder of the Redemptorists to the Mother of the Lord. By Fr Dennis Billy CSsR
24 MOBILISING WISE WITNESSES TO FAITH
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Grandparents increasingly play a role in the lives of their grandchildren. For many it is a unique opportunity to encourage the little ones in the practice of the faith. By Susan Gately
28 NICHOLAS BLACK ELK He fought in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 and was wounded at the Massacre of Wounded Knee in 1890. Nicholas Black Elk became a Catholic and a spiritual leader of his people whose cause for canonisation has been opened. By Mike Daley
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33 PRAYING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE LOST A CHILD Losing a child for a few minutes stirs up compassion for parents who have lost children through accidents or illness or just losing touch over the years. By Jim Deeds
OPINION
REGULARS
11 BRENDAN McCONVERY
36 A SON IN PLACE OF A SON
31 CARMEL WYNNE
In the heartbreak and sadness of human life, there are unexpected moments that are truly full of grace and remain graven in our memories. By Fr Stan Mellett CSsR
44 PETER McVERRY SJ
04 REALITY BITES 07 POPE MONITOR 08 SAINT OF THE MONTH 09 REFLECTIONS 37 PRAYER CORNER 40 TRÓCAIRE 42 UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 45 GOD’S WORD
19 JIM DEEDS
REALITY BITES MASSACRE OF CHRISTIAN CHURCH-GOERS SRI LANKA
CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION
time, another bomb exploded during a service at an evangelical Zion Church in Batticaolo, on Sri Lanka’s east coast. One of the churches bombed was the Church of St Anthony, one of the oldest and best known churches in the country and a designated national shrine. The first church on
the site was erected when the island was under Dutch colonial rule and Catholicism was strictly controlled. Pews were shattered in the explosion and blood was spattered on several statutes and other furnishings of the church. All further Easter Masses were cancelled in Colombo. The explosions at the churches were followed by others at three luxury hotels. More than 70 per cent of Sri Lanka’s population are Buddhists: another 13 per cent are Hindus and 10 per cent are Muslims. Fewer than 8 per cent are Christians. Catholics who constitute 1.5 million of the population are the largest Christian group. The Islamic State eventually claimed responsibility for the attack, although the Sri Lankan government also has serious questions to answer. It was warned by the security agency of a friendly government that such an attack was likely, but the information was not passed on to the appropriate authorities for action to be taken. According to the Sri Lankan government, most of the attackers were well educated and middle class. British authorities confirmed that one of the suspects, Abdul Latif Jamil Mohammed, had studied in England and had done further post-graduate work in Australia before returning to his native Sri Lanka.
Analysis, of the Norm and Its Implementation by Some Particular Churches. Most recently he has been chancellor of the Archdiocese of Dublin. He was a member of the delegation representing the hierarchy for the negotiation and implementation of new civil marriage legislation introduced in the Republic of Ireland in 2007, and led the working group that reviewed pastoral guidelines on church marriage.
Fr Fintan Gavin
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Explosions at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka killed more than 290 people and injured more than 500 on Easter Sunday. Shortly before 9am, explosions were detonated during Easter Mass at Catholic churches in the capital, Colombo, and in Negombo, a city 20 miles to its north. At the same
NEW BISHOP CORK
DUB GOES TO CORK
Pope Francis has appointed Fr Fintan Gavin, a priest of the archdiocese of Dublin, as Bishop of Cork and Ross. Bishop Gavin was born in Dublin on New Year’s Day 1966 and ordained for the Archdiocese in 1991. Following studies in Clonliffe, he did his doctorate in Canon Law at the Gregorian in Rome, specialising in marriage law and writing his doctoral dissertation on Pastoral Care in Marriage Preparation (Canon.1063): History, REALITY JUNE 2019
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ADULT BAPTISM NUMBERS INCREASE
TEN-YEAR SUSPENSION FOR SUPERIOR CHILE
EUROPE
CATHOLICS ARE A-GROWING
According to figures released recently, 4,069 adults were baptised in France last Easter having undergone the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). Ten years ago, the number was 2,557. There has been a progressive increase over the last decade. The increase has been particularly marked from 2013 onwards. Three quarters of those who received the sacrament this year were under 40 years of age: almost 50 per cent of the total were between 25 and 40. The majority were women (65 per cent). About 40 per cent could be categorised as workers, 15 per cent students and 17 per cent belonged to the professional classes. While 55 per cent say they came from a Christian but non-practising background, 23 per cent had no religion and 6 per cent were Muslim. Paris, with 1447 candidates, had the highest number of new Christians. About 80 per cent were accompanied on their journey to the font by lay people, 15 per cent by priests or deacons, and 4 per cent by religious The Scottish church also recorded an increase in adult baptisms. More than 250 adults were
welcomed into the Catholic Church this Easter. Some 75 people became Catholics through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in Glasgow Archdiocese, 53 in St Andrews & Edinburgh, 60 in Motherwell, 21 in Paisley, 14 in Galloway, 10 in Argyll and the Isles, five in Dunkeld, and 18 in the Aberdeen Diocese. One of the new converts was a fourth-year medical student in Glasgow, who had rejected religion at the age of 11. He says he became a "devout atheist", following the well-known writer Richard Dawkins. Through the internet, he and some of his friends found their way into the church. Books by Christian authors such as CS Lewis and Chesterton also played their part, as did popular modern speakers including Canadian academic Jordan Peterson. Another young convert was a student of medieval and biblical studies at St Andrews University. Raised in an atheist family, an illness at age 19 made her consider religious faith. She found her way to a women’s group studying St John’s Gospel.’ “It was what I was looking for,” she said.
PERPETUAL PROHIBITION
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has banned a Legionaries of Christ priest from publicly exercising his priestly ministry for 10 years after he was convicted in Chile of sexually abusing a young girl. Seventy-threeyear-old Fr John O'Reilly was born in Ireland and convicted in Chile in 2014 and sentenced to four years of "supervised liberty". On the completion of the sentence, he was told to leave the country, or to face deportation. He then moved to Rome, where he still lives, according to the Legionaries. In accordance with canon law, he also underwent a trial by a tribunal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which found him guilty of child sexual abuse. In addition to suspension from ministry, the tribunal imposed "the perpetual obligation to establish residency outside Latin America and the perpetual prohibition of voluntary contact with minors", as well as recommending he seek "psychological and spiritual accompaniment".
Fr John O'Reilly
continued on page 6
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REALITY BITES ON-CAMPUS EVANGELISM The millennial generation is regarded as the most religiously detached group in the United States. Over a third of millennials in the United States claim to be religiously unaffiliated, and the figure is rising. A group known as the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) is working actively, however, in the evangelisation of the university campus. The movement began about 20 years ago when two male and two female students began working as Catholic missionaries at Benedictine College and the University of Northern Colorado. As students, they had seen the decline in Catholic practice among their peers and wanted to promote an attractive version of Catholicism. Imitating the strategy of evangelical groups, they began holding Bible studies on campuses and building friendships with students. FOCUS partners with
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Catholic centres on campuses and recruits college students to become missionaries after graduation. Each missionary spends two years on a campus, working with students in promoting Catholicism. Many of the college students they reach out to describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious” or having no religion. They present Catholicism
as relevant and “cool”, hosting parties that are popular on college campuses, but also inviting students to come to prayer meetings, Bible study and to attend Mass. At present they number over 600 missionaries on 137 campuses in 38 US states and in four international locations, including Dublin. For information go to www.focus.org
CATECHISM LANGUAGE UNFORTUNATE
WEDDING BANQUET WITH A DIFFERENCE
Cardinal Joseph Tobin CSsR, the Archbishop of Newark, speaking in a television interview, has described the language used by the Catechism of the Catholic Church to describe homosexual acts as “very unfortunate”, adding that he hopes the Catechism will use different language in its discussion Cardinal Joe Tobin CSsR of homosexuality. “The Church, I think,” said Cardinal Tobin,” is having its own conversation about what our faith has us do and say with people in relationships that are same-sex. What should be without debate is that we are called to welcome them.” During the interview, Cardinal Tobin was also asked about the approach of the US bishops to immigration. He replied that “humanity has to be recognised. It doesn’t mean that we don’t control our borders. Sure, every nation does. But we do it in a comprehensive manner that respects also the human dignity of people who are fleeing scenes of great violence.” On his own archdiocesan investigation into the sexual abuse and coercion perpetrated by his predecessor in Newark, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, he said that he is still speaking with “the Attorney General and the authorities of the state of New Jersey. I would like to get it out as soon as possible.”
Ana Paula Meriguete and Victor Ribeiro got married in their local Catholic church where they are members of the choir. After the ceremony, they received their guests in a brief reception. The real celebration was yet to come, but instead of a typical wedding banquet, the young couple decided to offer a meal for poor children and their families in the coastal city of Guarapari, Brazil. One hundred and sixty guests attended the party. “We decided to feed those who really need it, because our family members have what they need,” said the groom, a physical education teacher. “There’s nothing wrong with having a wedding banquet; it’s a worthy celebration, but we just couldn’t do it.” The newlyweds said they were inspired by a popular Brazilian hymn they sang in the choir. One verse, inspired by Jesus’ parable of the great banquet, says: “If you want to hold my dinner, don’t invite friends, brothers, and others. Go out to the streets in search of those who cannot pay you back, and your actions will be remembered by God.”
REALITY JUNE 2019
N E WS
POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS PAPAL GRAMMAR LESSON
POPE FRANCIS KISSES FEET AS PEACE GESTURE
The eight celebrity participants of a BBC ‘reality television’ programme, Pilgrimage: The Road to Rome, who walked part of the Via Francigena, the ancient pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome, had a brief private audience with Pope Francis, which was broadcast as part of the final programme during Holy Week. Only one of the eight, the Irish singer Dana, was a practising Catholic. Another of the participants, comedian Stephen K. Amos, was reluctant to meet the pope. “I said I’d only go if we can ask questions. The producers asked, ‘well, what sort of questions, as we don’t want to spark a diplomatic incident.’ So, we gave in some questions and the answer came back from the Vatican that the pPope will answer any questions that you have,” Amos said. During the audience, he told Pope Francis, “As a gay man, I don’t feel accepted.” Answering through an interpreter, the pope replied: “Giving more importance to the adjective rather than the noun, this is not good. We are all human beings and have dignity. It does not matter who you are or how you live your life, you do not lose your dignity. There are people that prefer to select or discard people because of the adjective – these people don’t have a human heart.” Speaking later, Amos said he was “blindsided” by the response, which he called “quite magnificent. He didn’t shut anybody down, he was very clear in what we said about all being God’s children, all the things you don’t normally hear. So, I was in full respect of the man. I had already planned what I would do if he had said something I didn’t agree with or that would add more shame on people’s lives. I would have respectfully excused myself. I couldn’t live with myself otherwise.”
At the end of a spiritual retreat for the political leaders of warring factions in South Sudan, Pope Francis knelt and kissed their feet, begging them to give peace a chance and to be worthy “fathers of the nation”. “As a brother, I ask you to remain in peace. I ask you from my heart, let’s go forward. There will be many problems, but do not be afraid,” he told the leaders, speaking without a text at the end of the meeting. The two-day retreat, April 10-11, was held in Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where the pope lives. The retreat was the idea of Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, who attended the final part of the gathering. He and Pope Francis have been supporting the peace efforts of the South Sudan Council of Churches. Pope Francis said that they hope to visit South Sudan together when there is peace. Taking part in the retreat were South Sudanese president Salva Kiir and four of the nation’s five designated vice presidents: Riek Machar, James Wani Igga, Taban Deng Gai and Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabior: all of them are Christians belonging to different churches.
CELTIC SHIRT FOR POPE FRANCIS Pope Francis was presented with a custom-made Celtic shirt at his weekly general audience on April 3 by Glasgow grandmother, Elaine Faulds. She said her seven-year-old grandson Kian saved up his pocket money to buy the pope his jersey. “It was just wonderful,” Elaine said. “I handed [the shirt] over to a guard who gave it to the Pope and he said, ‘God bless you and God bless the child.’" Kian asked his gran if she thinks the pope will wear his new shirt. “I said to him maybe he’s a wee bit old to play football now, but maybe he will when he’s watching a game on the telly.” She was part of a group of Lourdes workers from Glasgow who enjoyed meeting the pope. “One of the other ladies gave him a bottle of good whisky and he smiled,” she said.
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REDEMPTORIST SAINT OF THE MONTH BLESSED GENNARO SARNELLI 1702-1744
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Gennaro Sarnelli was a founding member of the Redemptorists. He had been a friend of Alphonsus de Liguori, who was his senior by six years. They were both devout young Catholic men of the minor nobility, who came to the priesthood after short but successful legal careers. They probably first met in the Hospital for the Incurables, caring for the victims of syphilis. The hospital was like a magnet for Naples’ Catholic elite: they supported it financially and volunteered their services there. Many of the confraternities committed their members to regular service in the hospital. Alphonsus writes that Sarnelli had an "incredible" love of the sick and wore himself out "trying to lessen both their physical and spiritual misery", begging on their behalf and making up food baskets for them. After abandoning promising legal careers within a few years of one another, the two men begun studies for the priesthood and joined other zealous young clerics who felt at home among the poor who were often involved in petty crime and prone to drink and gambling. Gennaro and Alphonsus gathered these men for prayer and religious instruction. As the men did not feel welcome in the city’s churches, they met out of doors or in a barber’s shop. The sessions were lively, with the men frequently interrupting the talks with questions and comments, and became known as the 'Evening Chapels'. They were also learning their trade on the ground as members of the Congregation of the Apostolic Missions. Some of the most zealous and learned of the Neapolitan clergy formed a loosely-knit community, committed to preaching parish missions. A holiday in the mountains near Amalfi convinced Alphonsus that the rural poor were even more abandoned. In 1732, with a handful of companions, he founded what would become the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. He was joined the following year by Gennaro but ill-health forced him to return to Naples. Gennaro maintained an abiding interest in the poor of Naples. He spent the remainder of his life there with a brother for company in a poor apartment in the city. The growing population of Naples brought with it an increase in poverty. Children were the most vulnerable victims. Gennaro visited sick children in hospital and gathered poor working children for religious instruction. He prepared them for confession and Holy Communion, but he also prepared meals for them himself. Vulnerable too were poor women, especially those driven into prostitution. Sarnelli was one of the first to see the connection between poverty and prostitution. He believed prostitution was a form of degradation and exploitation. He realised that social attitudes towards prostitution would have to change. Many theologians believed prostitution was socially necessary. Sarnelli set out to change this attitude. Under his influence, Alphonsus abandoned the traditional attitude to prostitution. He was ‘doing theology from the ground up’, allowing moral theology to be shaped by the insights of pastoral practice. Despite threats to his life from pimps, Gennaro pressed the government to enforce the legal prohibition of prostitution. Gentle in his dealings with individual women, his legal training disposed him towards advocating severe measures, including segregating women who would not give up the sex trade in ghettoes. Gennaro Sarnelli was in many ways an untypical Redemptorist, but he represents a current that has never been completely absent from Redemptorist life. It is present in St Clement Hofbauer’s work with orphans in Warsaw and Vienna, in the work of St John Neumann and Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos among the poor immigrants in America, or Peter Donder’s pastoral care of lepers and slaves in colonial Dutch Guyana. Blessed Gennaro Sarnelli’s feast is kept in Redemptorist churches on June 30. Seamus Enright CSsR REALITY JUNE 2019
Reality Volume 84. No. 5 June 2019 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960 Published by The Irish Redemptorists, St Joseph's Monastery, St Alphonsus Road, Dundalk County Louth A91 F3FC Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)
Editor Brendan McConvery CSsR editor@redcoms.org Design & Layout David Mc Namara CSsR Sales & Marketing Claire Carmichael ccarmichael@redcoms.org Accounts Dearbhla Cooney accounts@redcoms.org Printed by Nicholson & Bass, Belfast Photo Credits Shutterstock, Catholic News Agency, Trócaire,
REALITY SUBSCRIPTIONS Through a promoter (Ireland only) €20 or £18 Annual Subscription by post: Ireland €25 or £20 UK £30 Europe €40 Rest of the world €50 Please send all payments to: Redemptorist Communications, St Joseph's Monastery, St Alphonsus Road, Dundalk County Louth A91 F3FC ADVERTISING Whilst we take every care to ensure the accuracy and validity of adverts placed in Reality, the information contained in adverts does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Redemptorist Communications. You are therefore advised to verify the accuracy and validity of any information contained in adverts before entering into any commitment based upon them. When you have finished with this magazine, please pass it on or recycle it. Thank you.
We have moved to our new permanent home! Redemptorist Communications St Joseph's Monastery, St Alphonsus Road Dundalk, County Louth A�� F�FC
REFLECTIONS “Catholic” is not a dirty word! MICHEL AUPETIT, ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS
The compulsion to do good is an innate American trait. Only North Americans seem to believe that they always should, may, and actually can, choose somebody with whom to share their blessings. Ultimately this attitude leads to bombing people into the acceptance of gifts. IVAN ILLICH
We all know that the earth can produce enough food, and more than enough food, to feed everyone on earth. We have famine in the midst of plenty because we have devised a way of living that keeps the food supply away from those who need it. Famine is not a shortage of food: it is a shortage of justice. HERBERT MCCABE OP
The only way to change things, is through dialogue which makes room for the Holy Spirit to work in human history. FR ALEC REID CSsR
To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless. GK CHESTERTON
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Unseen in the background, Fate was quietly slipping lead into the boxing-glove.
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER
PG WOODHOUSE
There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can’t think of them at the moment.
I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.
PAUL THEROUX
The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.
A bugler sounded the Last Post. Heartbreak made audible. NUALA O FAOLAIN
If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. C S LEWIS
Courage is found in unlikely places. J. R. R. TOLKIEN
CHARLES DICKENS
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
When I was being brought up, we weren't allowed to wallow in self-pity, which was a thoroughly good thing. We were all fine and healthy because that was what we were told to be. MAEVE BINCHY
The Catholic writer, in so far as he has the mind of the Church, will feel life from the standpoint of the central Christian mystery; that it has, for all its horror, been found by God to be worth dying for.
The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: if you pursue happiness you'll never find it. CP SNOW
More tears are shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures.
ST TERESA OF AVILA
EARL WARREN
FLANNERY O’CONNOR
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From Redemptorist Communications
UNITY PILGRIM The life of Fr Gerry Reynolds CSsR
When Limerick-born Redemptorist priest Fr Gerry Reynolds first arrived in Belfast in August 1983, it was to a city starkly divided by conflict and violence. His instinct to reach out to those who were suffering, on both sides of the community, would develop into a lifelong devotion to the cause of peace and Christian unity. Through the friendships of the Cornerstone Community and the Clonard-Fitzroy Fellowship, his involvement in secret talks with republican and loyalist paramilitary groups, and the setting up of the ‘Unity Pilgrims’, Gerry would play a crucial role in the Northern Ireland peace process. He believed the church could be ‘God’s peace process in human history’, and that dialogue and friendship would open hearts to the mutual understanding and trust that are the foundations of true peace. Above all, Gerry was a pilgrim, struggling in his faith, journeying with his sisters and brothers, and always striving towards the goal of Christian unity, one small step at a time. This book draws on Gerry’s own words and writings, and the recollections of his family and friends, to uncover the story of this gentle priest, pilgrim and peacemaker.
€13.95 £12.95 plus p&p
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EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR
REBUILDING FAITH FROM THE RUINS
I
was closing my laptop at the end of a day’s work on the Monday of Holy Week when I saw a news item that the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was on fire. I first visited it as a 20-year-old, trying to improve my French for the BA due the following year. Over the years, I have returned. I usually joined the surging tidal wave of tourists to get in, but in a Parisian summer, the Blessed Sacrament chapel was a quiet and cool refuge from the clammy heat. Sunday mornings were my favourite time. The sung Office of Lauds was followed by Mass in which the congregation of Parisian regulars and visitors joined at full voice in one of the traditional Latin Gregorian Masses. The Creed sung in such an international setting was truly a celebration of universal faith in ‘unam, sanctam, Catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam.” Other visits over the years convinced me that, whatever their faults, few can do liturgy as well as the French. If France was, as she claimed to be, the eldest daughter of the Catholic Church, she was often a recalcitrant one. From my French Redemptorist brethren I soon learned subtle differences between croyant (believer), practiquant (practising Catholic), Messe allisant (Sunday Mass-goer) and militant (very active and committed) unknown to us in Ireland in those days. You could of course double the classification by simply by adding the word non to each of them. A recent survey (2016) estimates that while more than half of the population of France is likely to describe themselves as Catholic, 45 per cent of them attend church for family occasions like weddings or funerals. A further 26 per cent go to Mass for the great feasts like Christmas and Easter or All Souls. For the remainder, 14 per cent would describe themselves as 'conciliar Catholics' and have a high rate of practice, with a political orientation towards the centre or moderate left. Seven per cent describe themselves as committed but are more conservative both in social and liturgical terms, leaning towards the traditional Latin Mass and often with some sympathy for the right wing.
A further 4 per cent find their spiritual home in the new religious movements such as the charismatic renewal. They have little contact with their parish and tend to be socially very conservative. Irish surveys of religious practice have never gone into this kind of detail, but chances are we are probably quite similar. In the few days following the news of the disaster, what struck me most was how deeply Notre Dame and its story was graven deep in the French heart and mind. Non-practiquants and even noncroyants were in tears at the loss. Young people gathered to sing hymns or to walk in procession praying the Rosary. Some people said that the feelings the loss of the cathedral stirred in them jolted them to reconsider the importance of the faith they thought they had left behind but whose vestiges still remained. The first pictures of the interior of the cathedral captured both the spirit of Holy Week and the devastation of what had taken place. It depicted the figure of Mary, the grieving mother seated with the body of her Son across her knees at the foot of the large goldencoloured cross still in its place over the high altar. God does not live in dwellings made by human hands. Irish Catholics can claim few buildings as old as Notre Dame, and none of them occupy the same place in our memories. The reminders of our faith are more likely to be the "bare ruined choirs" of the monasteries devastated at the Reformation, or Mass-rocks on hill sides or still older holy wells. Yet a great church is a place where God’s people assemble, where the story is told, and the bread of life is broken. What will be the long-term impact of the fire of Notre Dame on the life of the French Catholic Church? It has committed itself to rebuilding this great monument of faith. Rebuilding it not simply restoration. I suspect that the rebuilt Notre Dame will be a place better adapted to the celebration of the liturgy of Vatican II, but it will still be a holy place. The poet TS Eliot described visiting a small country church that was among his holy places, and reminded himself:
You are not here to verify, Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity Or carry report. You are here to kneel Where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more Than an order of words, the conscious occupation Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying. And what the dead had no speech for, when living, They can tell you, being dead: the communication Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living. Most of us know places where "prayer has been valid". They may have little outward beauty, but prayerfulness hangs in the air like the perfume of incense from morning’s liturgy. May the beauty of our communal worship and the intensity of our private devotions ensure that the perfume does not grow stale.
Brendan McConvery CSsR Editor
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C OVE R STO RY
NOTRE DAME WILL LIVE AGAIN
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THE GREAT CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE DAME DE PARIS WAS STRUCK BY FIRE ON APRIL 15 LAST. MANY OF ITS TREASURES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED OR DAMAGED BEYOND REPAIR. IT IS NOT THE FIRST TIME THAT IT HAS BEEN DAMAGED. BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR
REALITY JUNE 2019
The
Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris stands on a small island in the River Seine called the Île de la Cité . It is attached by a bridge to an even smaller island, the Île St Louis. It is believed that these two islands were inhabited by the Gauls, the original Celtic inhabitants. The islands later became part of the Roman settlement of Lutetia that eventually became the city of Paris. A temple to the Roman god Jupiter originally stood near where the cathedral now stands. It was followed by a
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succession of Christian churches following the evangelisation of the region. CONSTRUCTED WITH CARE In 1160, the Bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully demolished the existing Romanesque cathedral and replaced it with a larger building in the new Gothic style, which had become increasingly popular in France and elsewhere in Europe. The foundation stone was laid in 1163. It was built in several stages, each stage allowing more of the building
to be used for worship. It would be more than 200 years before it could be declared completed in 1345. Despite its importance as the cathedral church of the French capital, Notre Dame did not rank first among French churches. The Archbishop of Lyons, the oldest centre of Christianity in what is now France, has traditionally been given first place among the bishops as 'Primate of the Gauls' (the ancient Celtic inhabitants), and his cathedral is the mother church of France. The Cathedral of
Rheims was the place where the kings of France were crowned, and they were usually buried in the Basilica of St Denis, about ten kilometres from the centre of Paris. The only person to be crowned in Notre Dame was Napoleon. Having forced Pope Pius VII to come to Paris for the ceremony, Napoleon took the crown from the altar and crowned himself and the Empress Josephine. Notre Dame’s neighbour on the Île de la Cité, the Sainte-Chapelle was originally the private chapel of the royal palace. It was
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Coronation of Emperor Napoleon I and Empress Josephine in Notre Dame de Paris, December 2, 1804, a painting by Jacques-Louis David and Georges Rouget, 1805
relics in the collection, one was believed to be the Crown of Thorns worn by Jesus during his Passion. When the chapel was secularised and taken over by French State during the revolution, the relics were dispersed, and the golden reliquaries that housed them were melted down. Some, including the Crown of Thorns, were rescued and were brought to Notre Dame after its restoration.
keeping with the classical taste of the age, the sanctuary was re-arranged and largely rebuilt in marble. A notable victim of changing taste
The only person to be crowned in Notre Dame was Napoleon
Arrival to Paris of the young duke Louis II with Notre Dame in the background. Miniature from Chroniques de Jean Froissart, 1475
built to house the relics that the devout King Louis IX, later canonised, brought back from the crusades in 1239. It took a much shorter time to build than Notre Dame, and its magnificent stained glass has made it a jewel of French medieval art. Among the REALITY JUNE 2019
ICONOCLASTS AND MODERNISERS During the wars of religion in the 16th century, Notre Dame was attacked by the French Protestants, the Huguenots, who objected to the religious images displayed on the external walls of the cathedral. Several of them were badly defaced in the protest. Changing fashions in art and architecture, especially in the 18th century, led to medieval art being considered as primitive or lacking in taste. As a result, many ancient statues were removed from the church and destroyed. In
was the great collection of medieval stained glass dating from the cathedral’s foundation in the 12th and 13th century. On the pretext of admitting more light to the church, many of these were removed and replaced with clear glass. THE REVOLUTION Worse was to come. The French Revolution had begun as a protest against the entrenched rights of the monarchy and aristocracy that united the middle classes, including many of the clergy. Shortly after the proclamation of the First Republic in 1792, the revolution degenerated into what became known as the Reign of Terror. In addition to the execution of the royal family, between June 1793 and
the end of July 1794, more than 16,000 people were condemned to death throughout the country, including many priests and religious. A characteristic of the Reign of Terror was its radical rejection of religion, and the church's close alliance with the aristocracy. Every trace of religion was officially removed from society. Even the calendar was radically changed to a ten-day week with new names for the months and days. The extremist revolutionary movement was determined to stamp out Christianity and replace it with a 'Cult of Reason'. This was inaugurated with a 'Festival of Reason' celebrated in November 1793 in former churches, now designated as 'temples of reason'. The most important of these was Notre Dame. An altar to Liberty was erected, and an actress, designated as the Goddess of Reason, was led to her place in the sanctuary. This artificial religion was not destined to survive for too long. It was soon replaced by
the Cult of the Supreme Being, proposed by one of the revolutionary leaders. It survived no longer than the Cult of Reason. When Robespierre was guillotined by his former revolutionary colleagues, all trace of his new religion disappeared. The cathedral was now turned into a warehouse. The new rising power was the Corsican military officer Napoleon Boneparte who in time became emperor of France. He had little time for any religion, including the artificial cults of the revolutionaries, but he sought a settlement with the Catholic Church. As a result, Notre Dame was handed back to the church in 1802. RESTORATION The decade of the Terror had left a mark on Notre Dame. Most of the statues that ornamented its external walls had been defaced and the contents had been looted. By a strange coincidence, in the same year
The Bohemian, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, with Notre Dame in the background, 1890.
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Interior of Notre Dame, 1670
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features were the tall slender spire destroyed in the recent fire, and many of the famous ‘gargoyles’ or sculpted mythical creatures. Although there were some threats to attack Notre Dame during the Commune of 1870, it has remained much as Violet-le-Duc and his craft-workers left it. There have been some internal re-organisations, associated with the liturgical renewal of Vatican II.
In the same year as the cathedral was restored to Catholic worship, a boy was born who would turn around the fortunes of the dilapidated building. His name was Victor Hugo 16
Portrait of Queen Marie Thérèse of France, as patron of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, by Charles Beaubrun and Henri Beaubrun circa 1670
as the cathedral was restored to Catholic worship, a boy was born who would turn around the fortunes of the dilapidated building. His name was Victor Hugo, and he turned out to be a very successful writer. Written when he was only 29, his novel Notre Dame de Paris had extraordinary success, not just in France but in other European countries where it soon circulated in translation (and later as a film). It tells the story of Quasimodo, the 15th century hunchback bell-ringer of REALITY JUNE 2019
the cathedral. The novel’s success attracted tourists to Notre Dame. King Louis Philippe ordered it to be restored in 1848. The commission was given to two architects, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. They organised a team of sculptors, glass-makers and other craftsmen. Where possible, they restored the existing work but they also created new material using models from the same period. The restoration took 25 years. Its best-known
WELCOMING ALL Notre Dame has been a place of welcome for most of its lifetime. Each year, an estimated 13 million people visit it, or 300,00 each day, from all faiths or none. Some come to admire the beauty of its stained glass or to walk around a building that has been on this spot for 850 years. Catholics come to offer their homage to the Mother of God and light a candle. Notre Dame provides superb liturgy, especially on Sunday, but every evening,
there is sung vespers and Mass. For many it is an unforgettable experience of faith. Some of the visitors are like a rather lonely young man of 18 called Paul Claudel. Bored and looking for something to do, he attended midnight Mass at Notre Dame in 1886. Raised a Catholic, he had been an unbeliever since his early teens. That Christmas day, he recalled later, "was the gloomiest winter day and the darkest rainy afternoon over Paris�. Still bored, he returned to the cathedral for Vespers. Till the end of his life, he remembered exactly where he stood– near “the second pillar at the entrance to the choir, to the right, on the side of the sacristy" near the statue of the Mother and Child. "Then occurred the event which dominates my entire life," he wrote. "In an instant, my heart was touched, and I believed. I believed with such a strength of adherence, with such an uplifting of my entire being, with such powerful conviction, with such a certainty leaving no room for any kind of doubt, that
Notre Dame, and St Michael bridge, 1890
since then all the books, all the arguments, all the incidents and accidents of a busy life have been unable to shake my faith, nor indeed to affect it in any way." Paul went on to become a diplomat and one of the leading poets of his time whose writing was saturated by the
intensity of his faith. His faith story is part of the story of Notre Dame, and there are many others like his. Brendan McConvery CSsR is a former lecturer in biblical studies. He is currently editor of Reality.
Conscience: Writings from “Moral Theology” by Saint Alphonsus Translated by Raphael Gallagher, CSsR 276-page softcover
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COM M E N T WITH EYES WIDE OPEN JIM DEEDS
OVERPLAYING OUR WORRIES
MEETING A FRIENDLY POLICEMAN WHILE BUSKING HELPED ME TO PUT MY CARES IN THEIR PLACE. When I left school, I went to university... for a while. I say, "for a while" because even with the best will in the world, it just wasn't the right time for me and I ended up leaving the course I had started. I was young and on the dole. It was 1991 and there weren't many jobs about for me, so I fell back on one of the few life skills I had developed– playing music. I'd played guitar for a couple of years by that time and had become good enough to be able to carry a tune. So I decided that I would go busking in Belfast city centre to supplement the very generous benefit the government gave me each week (Does sarcasm work in writing?) One thing that happened to buskers quite a bit back then was being moved on by the police. Often, a police officer would ask if I had a busking licence (which I didn't). In fact, I'm not sure if such a licence even existed. If it did, I had no idea where to get one and no inclination to do so anyhow. Upon being told that I didn't have said licence, the officer would say "you'll have to move on", or something similar. And off I'd move... to another busking spot. One day, I was busking and singing a song called, 'Johnny B. Goode' by Chuck Berry. I was singing my heart out– I love rock and roll! About mid-way through the second verse, I saw a police patrol come round the corner. In those days in Belfast, police walked about in fours I seem to remember. I looked
the other way for a second and hoped they would pay me no attention. After a few more lines of the song, I turned my head back again and to my disappointment saw that one of the policemen had fixed me in his gaze, had broken away from his colleagues and was coming towards me. My heart sank. I was going to be moved on. I had been making a few pounds and having great fun. And now it was over. If I did not find another good spot, then I'd have to go home. I sang on, but my voice began to lack the enthusiasm it had had only a second before. In ways I was already on the bus home. The officer came closer. Closer. Closer, until he was right beside me. He learned towards me as I sang on as best I could and to my surprise said out of the corner of his mouth: ‘'What's the chords of that song? I've always wanted to play it."
"A-D-E," I said, a little unsure of what I was hearing, but with a smile beginning to form on my lips. "Thanks," he said and winked at me, re-joining his colleagues and walking off. My relief enabled me to relax and to figuratively get off the bus home and be present to the moment and the music. My voice strengthened and I got back into the joy of the music. My negative prediction of being moved on proved to be inaccurate and unhelpful. I'm reminded of that story because it sums up how I can be a lot of the time– I often predict how a situation will work out or how someone will behave way before anything even happens. And when I do this, I often predict the worst possible outcome– like that day busking. I judged how the police officer would react to me and I had myself moved on
and my day ruined; when in fact if I had stayed in the moment I wouldn't have had to worry. I could have enjoyed my song and still had the nice exchange with the police officer. I'm not saying all situations work out well. Of course that's not possible. But I wonder if we all looked at our lives would we recognise that we all do, at times, worry needlessly because we rush to judgement or predict outcomes. I think Jesus knew that this is how we can all be. He had a few words that he often spoke to people that would be of immense help to us in situations where we are worried or predicting the worst outcome. Those words were, "peace be with you". Indeed, we Catholics have enshrined Jesus' desire for us to experience peace into the words of our Mass– “Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your Apostles: Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will.” It strikes me that faith is another key word in that phrase from Mass. So, why not make a decision right now to practise staying in the present moment and in faith allow the peace of the Lord to wash over us. Doing so we could let whatever comes at us to simply be what it is. We might be pleasantly surprised. I'm off to play 'Johnny B. Goode'! Belfast man Jim Deeds is a poet, author, pastoral worker and retreat-giver working across Ireland.
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F E AT U R E
THE SOLEMN NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP WILL BE CELEBRATED IN MOST REDEMPTORIST CHURCHES THIS MONTH. AN IMPORTANT ROOT OF THIS NOVENA WAS THE DEVOTION OF THE FOUNDER OF THE REDEMPTORISTS TO THE MOTHER OF THE LORD.
ST ALPHONSUS MARIA DE LIGUORI
Servant of Our Lady
BY DENNIS J. BILLY CSsR
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Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (16961787), Doctor of the Church, patron saint of confessors and moral theologians, founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, accomplished poet and artist, known by the church as the most zealous doctor and by many as a great doctor of prayer, had a deep, passionate and loving devotion to Our Blessed Mother. His love for Mary permeates his entire approach to the spiritual life, as is manifest in The Glories of Mary (1750), his classic commentary on the Salve Regina, which is arguably one of the greatest works of Catholic devotion to Mary ever written. Mary, for Alphonsus, was a true servant of the Lord: those who love him love her and serve him by serving her. To be a disciple of Christ meant having a deep and lasting love for his mother. The words of Pope Francis would strike a chord deep within Alphonsus’ heart and resonate throughout his being: “The Christian without Mary is an orphan.” LOOKING TO MARY Alphonsus’ devotion to Mary was not some addition on the outskirts of his Catholic faith, but a central feature of his understanding of the work of redemption wrought by God in the person of Jesus Christ. His stalwart defence and active promotion of the doctrine of Mary’s Immaculate Conception a full century before it was declared a solemn dogma of the faith,
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Our Mother of Good Counsel at the Augustinian church, Genazzano, Italy
and in a period of church history when socalled 'enlightened' thinkers looked upon it as an affront to human reason, bears testimony to this simple truth. Christ’s redeeming love, Alphonsus believed, kept Mary free from original sin from the very moment of her conception. This special privilege was granted her on account of her unique role in the mystery of our redemption. Her humble fiat to the angel’s message, he maintained, enabled her to conceive by the Holy Spirit and give birth to our Redeemer. It was through her that Jesus entered our world, and it is through her that we gain access to his redeeming graces. Alphonsus’ love for Mary permeated not only his thought, but also the way he understood it to be related to action in the world. His
devotion to Mary under the title 'Our Lady of Good Counsel' shows that he viewed her as someone he could turn to for guidance in living the Christian life. He believed and acted
Alphonsus' devotion to Mary under the title 'Our Lady of Good Counsel' shows that he viewed her as someone he could turn to for guidance in living the Christian life on this truth because he knew that, as Jesus’ first and closest disciple, she would never do anything other than dispense the rich graces of her Son’s redemptive work in a way that would draw others closer to him. To seek Mary’s counsel, in his mind, was a way of living in humble imitation of her Son, who learned how to pray on his mother’s knee and who listened to others not only with his ears but in the depths of his heart.
Mary, for Alphonsus and as the Salve Regina affirms, truly is “our life, our sweetness, and our hope.” She has what we long for and hope one day to fully possess. She alone has experienced the fullness of redemption and represents the realisation of our deepest yearnings. She alone brings out the full meaning of the motto Alphonsus gave to his fledging religious congregation, the Redemptorists: Copiosa apud Eum Redemptio (“With Him is plentiful Redemption,” Psalm 130: 7). Because of her humble fiat, she was privileged to receive the first fruits of this redemption. Because of that same fiat, she was also allowed to distribute the fruits of her Son’s redeeming grace to all who looked to him as “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). “To Jesus through Mary,” Alphonsus liked to say. Mary does nothing else, but lead others to her son, for she knows that with him alone can one find, as she did, the fullness of redemption.
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If Mary, as the Salve Regina tells us, is both the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Mercy, then Alphonsus would affirm time and again throughout his writings a sentiment made famous more than a century later by St Therese of Lisieux (1873-97) – that she is “more Mother than Queen”. His works are full of examples of how Mary came to the aid of her sons and daughters in times of dire need. For him, Mary’s compassionate and active love for her children was a hallmark of her role in God’s redemptive plan for humanity. She took to heart her Son’s dying words from the cross: “Woman, there is your son … There is your mother” (John 19:26-27). On account of these words, it was entirely fitting and to be expected that her sons and daughters would turn to her for help. ALPHONSUS’ MARIAN SPIRITUALITY Mary plays a prominent role in Alphonsus’ overall spiritual outlook. To see this, we must understand that his writings immerse us in
a spirituality that seeks to pattern the lives of all believers after the Gospel narrative of Jesus’ incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection. According to this narrative, Jesus entered our world in the mystery of the Incarnation, gave himself to us in his public ministry and the mystery of his passion and death, became nourishment for us in the mystery of the Eucharist, and remains a source of hope for us through the mystery of his resurrection and ascension. For Alphonsus, this narrative evokes from us a similar response. Like Jesus, we too are called to enter the world of those around us, give ourselves to them in a life of service, nourish them, and become for them a source of hope. Alphonsus summarises the movement of this Gospel narrative in four key words: crib, cross, sacrament, and Mary, who according to Catholic belief is the only person, other than her Son, who has experienced the fullness of the resurrected life.
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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day, and follow in my steps” (Luke 9:23-24). What are the marks of a true servant of Mary? In the first place, Alphonsus maintains, we must intend to change our lives and desire never to offend God again. That is to say, we must dedicate ourselves to walking the path of radical conversion. Doing so entails recognising our faults and failings before God, seeking forgiveness, doing penance for our sins, and praying constantly for the grace to persevere in the walk of discipleship. In the second place, he goes on to say, we must seek Mary’s protection by prayers and other acts of devotion. For him, such devotion could take on any number of forms: reciting a daily rosary, venerating a sacred image or icon of her, doing spiritual reading about her, praying and fasting on the vigils of her feast days, singing hymns in her honour, making novenas – to name but a few. Of all such devotions, Alphonsus says, “that which is most pleasing to her consists in having frequent recourse to her and in frequently asking her to obtain for you the divine graces.” Mary, in other words, wants us to turn to her so that she can cast her loving, compassionate gaze upon us and distribute among us the graces of her, and our, Redeeming Lord.
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Mary’s constant occupation in heaven consists in asking mercy for the miserable Madonna by Alphonsus de Liguori
TRUE SERVANTS OF MARY “A true servant of Mary,” Alphonsus says, "cannot be lost.” This is so because Mary’s intercessory powers with her Son are second to no one. We can turn to her in times of need and ask her to plead for us on our behalf, because we know that she has Our Lord’s ear and that he will listen to her just as he listened to and fulfilled her request at the wedding of Cana (John 2:1-11). “Mary’s constant occupation in heaven,” Alphonsus claims, “consists in asking mercy for the miserable.” Jesus, he affirms, “has constituted Mary the universal advocate of all.” If all of us, even those with the hardest of hearts, REALITY JUNE 2019
would look to Mary with a firm purpose to amend our lives, then none of us would be lost. True servants of Mary look to her, because she has her eyes fixed firmly on her Son. She is the humble handmaiden of the Lord who leads us along the way of her Son. If that road appears at times like a long winding path, we must remember that Jesus’ closest disciples, among whom Mary, his Mother, holds a central place, have traveled it before us. Her true servants follow her in her following of the Lord. With Mary, they take to heart the Lord’s words to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to be my follower must deny his very self, take up his cross each
CONCLUSION Alphonsus was a true servant of Mary. He learned much from her and did much to honour her. He preached popular sermons about her that were easy to understand. He authored books and treatises about her special role in the work of redemption. He defended her against those who belittled or downplayed that role. He wrote and recited poetry in her honour. He composed hymns that venerated her and sang her praises. He even painted portraits of her to help both himself and others envision her compassionate, merciful face. He had a special place in his heart for her and believed that she had a special place for him in
in 1865, Pius IX gave orders to have the Mother of Perpetual Help returned to its original location where the Church of St Alphonsus is now built
hers – as she does for each of us. His devotion to Mary drew him not away from her Son, but closer to him. Although they lived centuries apart, both he and Jesus looked to Mary as their loving and compassionate mother. They do so even now.
From their places in heaven, Alphonsus and his Redeeming Lord look down on each of us, peer into our hearts, ponder our needs, then turn to their loving mother, Mary, listen to her, talk with her – and beckon us to do the same.
Dennis J. Billy CSsR a native of Staten Island, is a member of the Baltimore Province of the Redemptorists. He is Karl Rahner Professor of Catholic Theology at Graduate Theological Foundation. He has a particular interest in the writings of St Alphonsus, and his books include With Open Heart: Spiritual Direction in the Alphonsian Tradition
FROM REDEMPTORIST COMMUNICATIONS
MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP Reflections on an Icon
The icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help is probably the best known of all the images of our Blessed Lady.
In this beautiful booklet, Fr George Wadding CSsR leads us into meditation on the various messages contained in the icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help and suggests a simple prayer after each meditation. Read each meditation slowly and in an atmosphere of prayer. You will find yourself drawn closer and closer to the hearts of Jesus and Mary. Contact: Redemptorist Communications, St Joseph’s Monastery, Dundalk A91 F3FC Tel: 01-4922488
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G OD 'S S U R P R I S E S II
s e s s e n t i w e s i w h t i g a n f i s o i t l i Mob CATHOLIC GRANDPARENTS ASSOCIATION
24 GRANDPARENTS INCREASINGLY PLAY A ROLE IN THE LIVES OF THEIR GRANDCHILDREN. FOR MANY IT IS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO ENCOURAGE THE LITTLE ONES IN THE PRACTICE OF THE FAITH. BY SUSAN GATELY
When
a young Irish grandmother asked Our Lady what present she would like on her birthday, little did she think that Mary’s answer would lead to the blossoming of an international association highlighting the irreplaceable vocation of grandparents in passing on the faith. On September 8, 2000, Our Lady’s birthday, Catherine Wiley
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from Mayo, sat in the beautiful Slipper Chapel in Walsingham, Norfolk, where she lived. “I was wondering what I could give Our Lady for her birthday. What would Jesus and her parents have given her?” The idea came to her that a pilgrimage for grandparents to the Marian
shrine on the feast day of Our Lady’s mother and father, Saints Joachim and Anne, “wouldn’t just please her, it would delight her”. Such a pilgrimage would also honour and thank
grandparents for everything they do. EXPANSION At the time Catherine and her husband Stewart were running a
A joyful group of 5,000 grandparents and children thronged the basilica. The following year that number doubled
large company providing day and residential camps for children in the UK. Establishing the first pilgrimage in 2002, Catherine put all her business skills to work. Fro m Walsin g ham, th e Grandparents Pilgrimage spread to Ireland, with Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam leading the first annual National Grandparents Pilgrimage to Knock in 2007. “I remember I didn’t sleep the night before wondering if anybody would turn up,” Catherine recalls. Instead a joyful group of 5,000 grandparents and children thronged the basilica. The following year that number doubled. “After the first pilgrimage people were saying ‘It’s not enough. We need formation, a structure, a way to help and support each other’,” she recounts, and so the Catholic Grandparents Association was born, complete with its own prayer composed by Pope Benedict XVI. VOCATION OF GRANDPARENTS At the heart of the association is a rediscovery: the vocation of grandparents to pass on the faith. “You do this by being yourself,” Catherine explains, “A loving grandparent can just about do anything. You don’t need to be a theologian. There’s not a grandparent alive who doesn’t know how to read a Bible
Catherine and Stewart Wiley with Cardinal O'Farrell
story or explain the Mass.” Throu gh major church events like the International Eucharistic Congress (2012) and the World Meetings of Families
Outdoor procession pilgrimage
in Philadelphia (2015), the association took off, spreading across the world. Growing organically, groups sprouted in parishes – meeting, sharing
faith and supporting each other. Its members proudly wore their distinctive green sashes which gave them an identity and attracted notice. “They are worth their weight in gold,” says Catherine. Today the association is registered in 27 countries. The role of grandparents has perhaps never been so vital as now. In many families, both parents are working and of necessity they rely on grandparents to bridge the childcare gap. Life is harder than it was, says Catherine, with divorce and blended families of four, six and even eight grandparents. Many children reject their parents' faith, many grandchildren are not baptised. “In the Association you discover that you are not unique.” WHAT GRANDPARENTS WANT Grandparents have a different agenda to parents. “When I was
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G OD 'S S U R P R I S E S II
a parent, I wanted things like a good education and wonderful marriages for my children,” says Catherine. “It’s when you are older and wiser that you realise how important faith is. As grandparents we have no agenda. We just want the best for our grandchildren – for them to be good, moral human beings knowing the difference between right and wrong.”
Their regular meetings begin with the Grandparent’s Prayer, followed by updating and planning for events like the pilgrimage to Knock. Each year they celebrate the feast of Sts Joachim and Anne on July 26, and before Christmas, they have introduced ‘Bambinelli Sunday’ where children bring the figure of Jesus from their home crib for blessing at Mass. As in
We just want the best for our grandchildren – for them to be good, moral human beings knowing the difference between right and wrong
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Mary Cotter from Dublin, 60 years married to Sean, with six grandchildren, got involved in the association in 2012. “It made me aware that I had a responsibility, a vocation not only to help my children and grandchildren, but to encourage others to do the same,” she says.
other branches, invited speakers give catechesis or talks about pertinent issues. SUPPORTING NEW GRANDPARENTS Over the years Mary has seen her branch get smaller as people aged. The demographic of the
Children with plackards at the Knock pilgrimage
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Navan Road parish is mainly elderly people and young families. Mary and others now promote the association in growth areas of Dublin like Swords and Tallaght where ‘youthful’ grandparents can continue the work. Every branch is different, she says. “We have to be creative to help people develop their own ways, once the values don’t change.” Peter Tiernan, a long-time member from Dublin, says the association has given him a
Archbishop Neary, Catherine and grandparents at pilgrimage
acknowl e dge d and have ownership for things in the parish and are not just a cog in the wheel making everything go round. The Association is an instrument to expedite this.” As founder, her life’s work continues to b e urging grandparents to intentionally pass on the faith. “There are particular times like Baptisms, Confirmations, Holy Communions, deaths and marriages when you can exert very serious influence which is always for the good.”
sense of support. “It is not easy to find groups of people with similar philosophies. That sense of solidarity is badly needed.” Betty Murphy in Carlow learnt to pray “with her grandchildren”. Three of them live next door and each day come in to say morning prayers with her before leaving for school. Two are now altar servers. Her branch is active in the local schools where they teach the Rosary to fourth class and like in many other schools, celebrate Grandparents Day. “It’s
had a tremendous effect.” Internationally the association continues to spread, most recently to Croatia . But for Catherine, its greatest achievement has been creating awareness in the church of the invaluable contribution of grandparents to its ministry. Going forward she sees this mission embedded in the heart of the church, with grandparents involved in pastoral plans at diocesan level, “where they are catechised, resourced,
Even so, transmitting faith to her own ten grandchildren remains a challenge. “I pass on my love, tolerance and mercy,” she says while praying for them each day, believing that the seeds of faith planted in childhood go deep, and will bloom.
Sue Gately is the author of God’s Surprises – the New Movements in the Church, published by Veritas. She is a regular contributor to Reality.
Grandparents procession at the Knock pilgrimage
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NICHOLAS
American Catholic Converts
BLACK ELK
HE FOUGHT IN THE BATTLE OF LITTLE BIGHORN IN 1876 AND WAS WOUNDED AT THE MASSACRE OF WOUNDED KNEE IN 1890. NICHOLAS BLACK ELK BECAME A CATHOLIC AND A SPIRITUAL LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE WHOSE CAUSE FOR CANONISATION HAS BEEN OPENED. BY MIKE DALEY
Sadly, 28
like most Catholics and Americans, my direct experience with Native Americans is rather limited. Books and films have been valuable and informative but lacking in personal connection. Through it all one distinct image from my childhood remains though. It comes from a public service announcement from the 1970s. In it a Native American is paddling down a river. The water is pure and the landscape is pristine. Eventually, as he continues, however, more and more trash is found in the water. Continuing on, the river empties into a port surrounded by polluting industry and deafening noise. Exiting the water, he pulls his canoe onto a river bank strewn with litter. Up the bank is a busyexpressway.Apassengerinacarisseenthrowing trash out the window. The ad ends, poignantly and prophetically, with the admonishment to “KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL” and a tear coming from an eye of the Native American. FIGHT FOR IDENTITY At first glance, one may be surprised at any Native American’s openness to Christianity. As recounted by Franciscan sister and Native American Marie Therese Archambault, one-time teacher at Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota, and author of the book A Retreat with Black Elk: Living in the Sacred Hoop, “The Lakota world of Black Elk counted for nothing in the nineteenth-century schemes of the United States government. He and his people were denigrated as savages, heathens, and devil worshipers. The wasicu [white person] represented a world diametrically opposed to the tradition in which Black Elk had been raised.”
REALITY JUNE 2019
Looking back on his childhood, Black Elk would say, “Once we were happy in our own country and we were seldom hungry, for then the two-leggeds and the four-leggeds lived together like relatives, and there was plenty for them and us. But the Wasichus came, and they have made little islands for us and other little islands for the four-leggeds, and always these islands are becoming smaller, for around them surges the gnawing flood of the Wasichu; and it is dirty with lies and greed.” Into this competing and contradictory world Black Elk was born circa 1865 in what is today the state of Wyoming. His forebears lived a nomadic lifestyle following the buffalo. By the time of Black Elk, however, increased encroachment into the Dakotas by white settlers would lead to the Indian Wars, confiscation of land, the reservation system, and cultural ruin best captured in the once common phrase, “Save the man, kill the Indian.” Initially, Black Elk joined many of his fellow Oglala Sioux and resisted militarily. The highpoint of this was the Battle of Little Bighorn in June of 1876. There, a vastly larger Indian force completely destroyed American troops under George Custer’s command. The victory was short-lived though as Black Elk soon found himself on a reservation. Tiring of reservation life, he joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1886, touring much of America and parts of Europe. Black Elk returned to the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1889 where he became involved in the Ghost Dance movement. Fearful of its spirited reaffirmation of Native American culture, the American government tried to suppress it which resulted in the Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 where Black Elk himself was wounded.
TURN TOWARD THE SPIRIT, TURN TOWARD THE CHURCH In contrast to an easy mischaracterisation, Black Elk was far from being only a warrior. First and foremost he was a healer who came from a long line of medicine men. His own Lakota people would confirm Black Elk as one at the age of 19. The wakan or spirit world was a place where Black Elk felt very much at home. At the age of nine he had an all-encompassing vision which would mark him for the rest of his life. As described in the now classic Black Elk Speaks, he “saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the centre grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.” Black Elk’s interest in Christianity was sparked by his exposure to it while in Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. His connection to the Christian faith continued when he married Katie War Bonnet in 1892. Together they had three children. Eventually Black Elk’s wife converted to Catholicism and their children were baptised Catholics. She died in 1901. He would later marry a widow, Anna Brings White, and in addition to her two children, they would have three more. Though shrouded in legend and told with a bit of humour by his daughter Lucy, a pivotal moment in Black Elk’s conversion to Catholicism took place in 1904. One evening while caring for a young boy according to the traditional ways of the Lakota, Black Elk was interrupted by a Jesuit priest who they would later affectionately call “short
father” because of his size. The priest reputedly took whatever Black Elk was using and threw it into a nearby stove. Later, in the face of a dispirited man, the priest invited Black Elk back to Holy Rosary Mission where he could more deeply study the Catholic faith. Several months later Black Elk entered the Catholic Church on December 6, 1904, taking the name of Nicholas, on whose feast day he was baptised. TEACHER OF THE FAITH This would also lead to his eventual vocation as a catechist to his Lakota people whom he would serve for over half his life. Using the language, customs, and experiences of his people, Black Elk (when a priest was not available) led prayer meetings, visited the sick, buried the dead, offered spiritual counsel, prepared families for baptism, instructed children and adults in the faith, and took care of the mission chapel, St. Agnes, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It is reported that by the end of his life, Black Elk brought over 400 people to the Catholic faith. Mark Thiel, an archivist at the Marquette University who has been involved in the cause to canonise Black Elk, observes that “catechesis tailored to the needs of local ethnic and cultural groups is foundational for the Universal Church. Also, Black Elk struggled to bring into the Church those Lakota traditions which harmonised with the actual teaching of Jesus. Some of these traditions differed from the Christian traditions that developed in Europe. Nonetheless, through dialogue with local cultural communities, the Church in the United States has been opening up to the gifts from minority communities.” Though the word had yet to be coined at the time, one sees this process of inculturation personified in the person of Black Elk. Jesuit Fr Michael Steltenkamp, professor of theology at Wheeling Jesuit University and author of the books Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala and Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Missionary, Mystic, believes that Black Elk’s “story is that of a man whose culture was radically changed as a result of the settlement of the American West. The gospel helped him face cultural collapse, heartbreak, and change of any kind – experiences all people
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confront in varying degrees. His story can thus be instructive for others. He found ‘the good red road’ – the road of Jesus – was the road to walk in life.” Black Elk died on August 19, 1950. In the years since, Black Elk has grown in significance not only for Native Americans, but also for Catholics who are not Native American. This is highlighted in the opening of his cause for canonisation. In 2017, Bishop Robert Gruss of Rapid City, South Dakota, at the Mass initiating Nicholas Black Elk’s cause, stated “in his own search for God, he found a way to merge both
the Lakota culture and the Catholic culture that drew him deeper into the mystery of Christ’s love and the Church.”
Mike Daley is a teacher and writer from Cincinnati, Ohio where he lives with his wife June, and their three children. His latest book, co-edited with Diane Bergant, is Take and Read: Christian Writers Reflect on Life’s Most Influential Books (Apocryphal Press: Berkley, 2017.)
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COM M E N T FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS CARMEL WYNNE
ASSUMPTIONS, EXPECTATIONS AND MIND READING
MANY COUPLES NEVER HAVE A SERIOUS CONVERSATION BEFORE MARRIAGE ABOUT PRACTICAL ISSUES SUCH AS CHORES OR HOW THEY HOPE TO MANAGE THEIR FINANCES. ONLY WITH HINDSIGHT DO COUPLES IN DIFFICULTY REALISE THAT POOR COMMUNICATION STARTED LONG BEFORE THEY WERE MARRIED. Everybody knows that a loving marital relationship is not what we are shown in fairytales. What we see and what we read about in romantic fiction or watch on television is romantic love. Being in love is exhilarating, passionate and intoxicating. The highs of romantic love have been compared to the euphoria induced by drugs. Like any high, the intensity diminishes over a relatively short period of time. Couples in love delight in discovering that they share the same feelings about so many things. This is a magic time. They text, exchange long telephone calls and surprise each other with gifts and romantic gestures that communicate, ‘You are amazing and I love you’. Accepting of each other’s viewpoints, they enjoy differences of opinion. Most find it fun to argue and are more likely to have a laugh over a disagreement than have a row. Nobody tells couples who are madly in love that they live in a fantasy world. Their brain chemistry is altered. Tuned in to how happy they make each other feel, the assumption that they will always hold onto the blissful feelings of their very special romance is understandable. Any person who believes that ‘all you need is love’ to have a happy marriage will get a huge shock when romance wanes, as it will.
American inspirational speaker and relationship coach Iyanla Vanzant says, "A relationship blesses you with the opportunity to share who you are with someone else who is willing to see the truth of who you are." Her powerful messages about loving and being loved are challenging and insightful. Vanzant believes that if you refuse to share what you are feeling and how the other person has contributed to those feelings, you are withholding your love. The big obstacle to ‘sharing who you are’ is that many people have no concept of what this means. Sarah Litvinoff, an expert in couple counselling says, "Half of good communication involves knowing yourself well and explaining yourself to others – without this effective communication cannot happen." Partners who are not reflective can be forgiven for assuming that love is everything necessary for a happy marriage. Couples think they are being totally honest with each other, because they assume their communication is open and transparent. During the romantic phase people in love are on their best behaviour. Sensitive to each other’s feelings, they avoid mentioning something they assume would hurt a partner’s feelings, or quickly change the subject if a serious topic is mentioned.
Many couples who plan to get married never have a serious conversation about practical issues such as division of labour, chores, health insurance, personal credit ratings, and how they hope to manage their finances. All these practical issues have an impact on the quality of their lives together. It’s only with hindsight that couples, who seek help for marital difficulties, recognise that problems caused by their poor communication skills started long before they were married. Three things - assumptions, expectations and mind-reading - have a negative impact on the relationships of couples, who assume they have good communication when they don’t. A person may assume s/he understands the motivation behind what a loved one does or doesn’t do. Let’s say a man likes time to relax and unwind when he comes in from work. His assumption is that his partner will understand this. He gets irritated when she tries to have a conversation with him when all he wants to do is switch off and have quiet time. Her expectation is that he should listen and be interested in what she has to say. When this is unmet, she feels hurt, wounded by his perceived rejection. Her mind-reading is, ‘if he really loved me he would be sensitive to my need to talk’.
As romantic love wanes and reality sets in, negative feelings about perceived rejection and unmet expectations build up. Both people wonder about where the wonderful loving, nurturing friend who was always there before they married has gone. Passiveaggressive people who want a quiet life tend to withdraw, go silent, and become uncooperative and emotionally unavailable when needs they never made known are not met. Aggressive people who feel hurt and frustrated when they sense the lack of closeness and hostility in a partner may cope for a time. Unexpressed negative feelings simmer away under the surface until eventually a person can no longer withhold their truth. Erupting with anger, s/he spews out grievances, complaints and insults that can never be taken back. Couple conflicts are never about facts. They are always about feelings. Spouses, who learn that their rows are flagging the need to pay attention to what a partner needs and to their marital relationship, will find that conflicts have the potential to bring good and positive changes.
Carmel Wynne is a life and work skills coach and lives in Dublin. For more information, visit www.carmelwynne.org
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PRAYING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE LOST A CHILD
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THE MEMORY OF THE BRIEF LOSS OF A CHILD STIRS UP FEELINGS OF COMPASSION FOR PARENTS WHO HAVE LOST CHILDREN THROUGH ACCIDENTS OR ILLNESS, OR SIMPLY BY LOSING TOUCH WITH ONE ANOTHER OVER THE YEARS. BY JIM DEEDS
There
is a day I remember well, despite not wanting to remember it at all. It was 13 years ago. I had taken my sons Brendan and Joe (who were seven and five respectively then) on a trip to Donegal. We went to Rossnowlagh as we
always did and, after playing on the beach, we visited the Stations of the Cross in the nearby Franciscan Monastery. These stations were outside and located on a hillside. At the time, they were covered by a thick wood and hedgerows with a path meandering through
that was punctuated with the Stations of the Cross in wonderful life-sized figures. We had come here many times before and the boys were familiar and confident running along the path and through the trees as I prayed my way up the path. On the day in
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question, I stopped at one point during the climb through the Stations – for what, I can’t remember now – for a few moments. When I set off again, I looked up ahead but I couldn’t see Brendan or Joe. I walked a few metres along to a turn in the path, expecting to see them up ahead of me. I didn’t. I called for them. At first, I called out in a relaxed voice. There was no reply. There was not a sound actually. I shouted their names this time, as
had taken a slight detour off the path into the trees and we lost touch with one another. They were frightened and I was beside myself with panic. The truth is, however, that they were never far away at all. It just seemed so. And that felt terrible. LOSING TOUCH How awful to lose a child. Unless you have been through it yourself, there must be no words that accurately capture just how awful it really is. And we can lose children in different ways. We can think here of the child who is lost in a gradual way; over years. Perhaps lost through alcohol or drug use (by parents or children for that matter). Perhaps lost through a gradual distancing in a relationship eating away at the bond until at some stage both parent and child realise that there is nothing left and they lose each other. While both parent and child are still alive, and indeed may still be physically close or in touch with each other, nonetheless the child is lost to the parent and vice versa. In these circumstances we pray for, encourage and support actions that promote healing. Often the first move is the most important one and then the prayer is for endurance
Perhaps lost through a gradual distancing in a relationship eating away at the bond until at some stage both parent and child realise that there is nothing left and they lose each other I began to walk hurriedly along the path, my movements becoming quickened by a rising sense of worry. I shouted their names again. My voice became louder as I went on. And then it became more of a panicked scream than a shout as the seconds went by and became minutes since I had last seen my boys. I felt sick. The world seemed to close in on me. I burned with fear. I felt utterly helpless... And then I heard a noise that caused my heart to leap within me. “Daddy”. I followed the sound of Brendan shouting and found the boys about 50 metres away. They REALITY JUNE 2019
and generosity on all parts. The road to reconnection may be a long one, but unless it is travelled there may be no reconnection at all in this life. THE DEATH OF A CHILD We must think too, of course, of the parent who has lost a child to death. What horror. My couple of minutes of feeling so awful when my boys got lost came to an end pretty quickly. To lose a child permanently must be like my experience magnified and prolonged forever. I am mindful of these parents now. Some years ago I prayed with a group of people as part of my pastoral ministry in a parish of my diocese. We prayed the reflection by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin called, ‘Trust in the Slow Work of God’. The last line of the reflection says, “…accept the anxiety of yourself feeling in suspense and incomplete.” In our sharing that evening a young woman told us that she knew what it meant to feel incomplete. She recently had been bereaved when her young child died and the word ‘incomplete’ summed up where she was at. There was someone missing. She spoke quietly and with such emotion that the truth of what she conveyed stilled us all in the group and we were at one with her in her pain. I have no words here that will make that sense of incompleteness any better. None
of us do. All we can do is listen and be there. When my boys were lost I thought they were so far away from me. My mind was telling me stories about never seeing them again. And yet, if I looked well I would have seen that they were close to me. Then my joy when I was reunited with them was overwhelming. I believe in God. I believe God loves us all and that our deceased loved ones rest with God. Indeed, I believe that those loved ones, even though they feel very far away, remain close to us. In fact, they remain close to us in a very special way. Many people, having lost children or other loved ones, speak of having this sense of them still being with them. This is why we pray at funerals that, "… for them, life has changed, not ended"
Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.” The ministry is to look (and listen) with compassion, to walk with the bereaved, to do good for them and to bless them with the action of our hands. Ministry to the bereaved within parishes increasingly comes in the form of a structured lay ministry such as Bethany bereavement groups. We hear of the great comfort their work brings to those they meet with. In the midst of the darkness of pain they bring the light of Christ. This is not just the work of structured groups, though; each of us is called to minister to the bereaved in whatever small way we can; remembering that, as St Teresa of Calcutta told us, we are at our strongest and most effective in spreading God’s love by being faithful in the small things. Small things here might mean having a cup of tea or holding someone as they cry or listening to the story of their grief. It might mean practical help as well to ensure that life can go on around this most traumatic situation. Losing a child is surely one of the most outof-time events in our lives – we expect to bury our parents, not our children. Part of
We are at our strongest and most effective in spreading God’s love by being faithful in the small things A TERRIBLE SENSE OF DISTANCE There are others who do not experience this sense of closeness and live life with a terrible sense of distance. In these and all circumstances where a parent has been bereaved, we the community are called to be the eyes, feet and hands of Christ. As St Teresa of Avila tells us, “Christ has no body now but yours.
our belief as followers of Christ of the Good News of the Gospel is that when we die, we will be together again in our heavenly home. And so we believe it will be for those who have lost a child through death. They will be reunited with their children one day, and it will be a reunion of overwhelming joy. Perhaps today we could recommit ourselves to reaching out to the bereaved and assure them of our prayerful and active support in the midst of their grief.
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F E AT U R E
A SON IN PLACE OF A SON IN THE HEARTBREAK AND SADNESS OF HUMAN LIFE, THERE ARE UNEXPECTED MOMENTS THAT ARE TRULY FULL OF GRACE AND REMAIN GRAVEN IN OUR MEMORIES. BY STAN MELLETT CSsR
It 36
was getting late that Saturday evening more than 40 years ago. It had been a long day with meetings, confessions and those loose ends that need tying up at the end of another week. I was in my room preparing for my cousin’s funeral Mass next day when I was called to the monastery reception. There waiting for me was a young Indian man whose name I cannot now remember, except that it was an obvious Hindu name like Krishna or Gopal. He was a distraught nervous wreck. He came, he said, because someone told him there was a priest in the monastery who had been to India. Between broken words and sobs he told me his story. A TRAGIC ACCIDENT He was a young doctor working in Ireland, not long married. With his young wife, they came to Ireland and they had a little son. That very day while driving from Galway to Limerick, a young boy without looking suddenly ran across the road. The doctor who was driving
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had no warning and no time to stop, and the little boy got the full force of the car head on. As a doctor, he knew that time was of the essence if the boy was to be saved. He gave what first aid he could and then took the boy in his car to Ennis hospital, where despite the best efforts of the hospital staff, the boy died. In the subsequent hours, dealing with the family and the Gardaí was a nightmare. Eventually, in a daze, he was allowed to continue his journey to Limerick where he would be contacted. It was at this point I met him and heard his story. What do you do in the presence of such grief, remorse, confusion and pleading for help? I recall how I listened with a feeling of helplessness as we talked for a long time. He was going to visit the family on the morrow, he said, and he dreaded the prospect. As he was leaving I cast about for something more to do or to say. In the religious shop of the monastery reception where we were sitting, I instinctively took two framed pictures of the Mother and Child off the wall and said "Look, this
is small consolation but take one for yourself and your wife, and give the other to the mother of the boy when you visit tomorrow." As he slowly took his leave with all the graciousness and respect of a devout Hindu, I felt not for the first time how we have to live with inadequacy and incompleteness. A task unfinished! OFFERING A GIFT Next day I offered Mass for my cousin who had been killed in a car accident. Somehow, I managed to conduct the obsequies and console his wife and his young children. There were tears and sadness and the inevitable questions: Why a death so young? A father so needed? Where was God in all this dreadful sorrow? Again, the feeling of inadequacy! Yet another job half done; more unfinished business! It was evening before family and friends went their sad and sorrowful ways and ‘left the world to darkness and to me’. Before ending the day, I decided to visit the family whose boy had been killed. It was not an easy
visit. I met a broken-hearted mother and some of the family. This was the second son she had lost: the first had died in a fire accident. My presence and my feeble standing in solidarity with this shocked and grieving family was all I could offer. Yes, the Indian doctor had visited with his wife and their son and yes, he did give her the picture, but he offered something far more precious. For the son he had accidently killed, he offered her his own young son. Of course, she refused. "What could I do with his son?" she said. Amazed, humbled and almost speechless, I left that home, as the mother uttered a word of sympathy for my own bereavement. Inadequate, insufficient! A job half done! Unfinished business! Yet, in all this heartbreak and tragedy, in all the brokenness and incompleteness, there were moments that were full of grace. A native of County Clare, Fr Stan Mellett was ordained as a Redemptorist priest in India. For most of his active life in Ireland, he was a parish missioner. He is now a member of the Redemptorist parish team in Ballyfermot.
Praying with the Rosary – The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery prayer corner
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The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
WE HAVE FINALLY ARRIVED ON OUR JOURNEY WITH JESUS AND HAVE REACHED THE PLACE OF THE SKULL WHERE EXECUTIONS TOOK PLACE. IT MIGHT BE HELPFUL TO MARK THESE TEXTS IN YOUR BIBLE: MATTHEW 27: 35-56; MARK 15: 25-41; LUKE 23:32-49; JOHN 19: 18-37 BY GEORGE WADDING CSsR
Four
soldiers were left to take charge of my execution. Once more they yanked off my clothes and left me standing naked before this hostile
crowd. All my wounds began to ooze blood once more and my entire body was a mess of blood and dirt from the road. I was forced to the ground and the soldiers set about their
grizzly task. First one wrist was seized and, with a few blows, nailed to the crossbeam like a piece of leather to a bench. The nerves in both cases were stretched across these
prayer corner nails like the strings across the bridge of a violin. The slightest movement of the wrist sent bolts of excruciating pain through my body. This pain would be enough to knock most people unconscious. It was added to the pains of the scourging and crowning with thorns, to the thirst and shortness of breath, to my loneliness and heartbreak, knowing my mother was nearby. After my hands were nailed the soldiers turned the cross over to rivet the nails from the other side and, in doing so, smashed my face into the clay once more. How often over the years I had recited the verse of Psalm 22: “They tear holes in my hands and my feet and lay me in the dust of the earth.” I uttered no cry but my eyes were blinded with blood and tears.
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INRI Before the cross was elevated, officials came with the inscription indicating the crime which merited this punishment. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. The Jews who had contrived my death were furious.
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“You mustn’t write, King of the Jews, but, this man said he was King of the Jews.” Pilate lost his patience with them. “Look” he said, “You handed him over to me on the capital charge that he claimed he was setting himself up as an alternative king to the emperor. I convicted him, not on my findings, but on your word because you wanted him crucified. Now that he’s crucified you say he didn’t set himself up as king. You can’t have it both ways. What I have written, I have written. Good day!” and he sent them packing. The soldiers nailed the plaque as it was to the cross and I spent the last three hours of my earthly life hanging between heaven and earth. From head to toe my body, was a blazing inferno. There was no relief. I just sagged there and tried to pray and stay responsive until my Father’s will was accomplished. Verses from the Psalm 22 floated in and out of my mind. With all those people who would feel abandoned by God, I prayed the opening verse, “My GOD, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Look
at me – this was how my people responded to the good news of God’s love for them. The Son of God chose to spend his life on earth between two great indignities – an incontinent baby in a stable and a naked criminal on a cross. Two other criminals were executed that day. The four soldiers sat down and waited. Roman custom permitted them to take the prisoners’ clothes as booty. So, they divided my clothes among themselves, bloodied and all as they were. My tunic was seamless, woven by my dear mother, so they decided to draw lots for it. The psalmist had foretold: “they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothes” (Ps 22:18). That seamless garment was more than just a piece of clothing; it was a symbol of my priesthood – the robe of the high priest was seamless; likewise, according to the rabbis, was the robe of Moses. There was also Joseph, with his colourful long-sleeved tunic (Gen 37): like me, Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and was still their saviour.
MOCKERY My helpless and pitiable condition encouraged my enemies to unleash their venom against me. Chief priests, lawyers, elders and the rabble all screamed insults at me: "Come down if you are the son of God"; "So you’re going to destroy the temple"; "Look at you – you’re some king!" It had all been foretold: “I am a worm and not a man, scorned… and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults shaking their heads: He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord deliver him…” (Ps 22:6-8); “All who pass your way clap their hands at you. They scoff and shake their heads…” (Lamentations 2: 15). Even my fellow sufferers joined in until one of them told the other to shut it: “We deserve what we’re getting; can’t you see for yourself this other poor fellow is an innocent victim.” His spontaneous gush of humanity earned salvation for this man whom tradition has named as Dismas. He turned to me and said in heartfelt prayer, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” “This day,” I promised him, “you will be with me in paradise” (Lk 23:42-43). I could not lift my head without banging the crown of thorns against the cross. So, I raised my eyes and saw this ocean of
struggling humanity stretching across history, all screaming to be rescued: soldiers blindly obeying orders, religious leaders who believe that, by killing me or those I love, they are doing God’s will, a rudderless rabble tossed hither and thither on the stormy seas of life by the slogans and shibboleths of fanatics and rabble-rousers. “Father, if only they knew you as I know you! Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do! (Lk 23:34) I thirst for them, Father, for every single one of them.” A soldier heard my prayer and offered me a drink from his ration of cheap wine. Another psalm said, “They gave me poison to eat, and in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink” (Ps 69:21), but I was glad to have my mouth moistened. A FINAL DUTY There was one more task for me to accomplish before drawing the curtain on my earthly life. As the crowds began thinning out, my mother and young John and a few friends got within speaking distance of my cross. Their faces were swollen with all their crying. Three years previously, at a wedding in Cana, my mother had asked me for a miracle to save the blushes of a young married couple. I gladly granted her request, but it launched
me on my public ministry. I indicated to her that from then on, she would be more a disciple than a mother to me while I set about my heavenly Father’s mission. My hour had now come. I had very little energy left. Indicating John with a nod of my head, I whispered to my mother, “Woman, here is your son.” And to John I said, “Here is your mother” (Jn 19:26–27). I addressed her formally as ‘woman’ at Cana and I did so again now on Calvary. These were formal moments in the story of salvation. From then on, she would be at my side as a mother of mercy, a mother of hope and consolation for all my followers. John put his arm around her to show he understood. My energy was now sapped to the last dregs. In these dying moments I prayed again for all humanity. I had come to show them how much God loved them. I was willing to suffer and die for them, though my human instinct cringed at the very thought of the suffering it would entail. By my own life and teaching and by the signs I worked, I showed them that my way was the only way to the Father. I loved them even unto death. I embraced them all one last time. Then I whispered: “Father, I have done your will; I am coming home. It is finished!” (Jn 19:30). I made a great effort to gather the shreds of energy remaining to me before crying out, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46). With a piercing spasm I detached myself from earth and was welcomed by my Father with infinite love. All heaven rejoiced because my humanity was entering glory. But among all the souls who surrounded me, one was particularly jubilant. It was Joseph who had been my earthly father and more than anyone else, understood the glory I had acquired after such bitter battles.
Fr George Wadding CSsR is a member of the Redemptorist Community at Dun Mhuire, Griffith Avenue, Dublin. He is the author of Praying with St Gerard, the Family Saint (available from Redemptorist Communications).
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Cyclone Idai heading towards Mozambique and Zimbabwe - image by NASA
CYCLONES IN MOZAMBIQUE
ON THURSDAY MARCH 14, CYCLONE IDAI HIT MOZAMBIQUE WITH 120MPH WINDS CAUSING CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE AND 40 WIDESPREAD FLOODING. HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WERE KILLED AND TENS OF THOUSANDS LOST THEIR HOMES. THEN CYCLONE KENNETH HIT THE COUNTRY AT THE END OF APRIL. BY DAVID O’HARE
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arrived in Beira in Mozambique two weeks after the cyclone had battered the city. The destruction was everywhere I looked. It’s hard to imagine the force of cyclone – in every street there were metal roof panels crumpled like tissue paper, reinforced concrete walls demolished, major buildings totally roofless. I travelled out of the city and went to a small rural area called Tica. The damage was just as bad there. People had lost their homes, their crops and their possessions either in the cyclone or the floodwaters that followed it. There were large areas still under water and a fear that water-borne diseases like cholera could take a hold. People were in dire need of emergency assistance particularly shelter and food supplies. THE STRICKEN PEOPLE I spoke to many people about the day the cyclone hit and what its effects have been. Juan Carlos
REALITY JUNE 2019
(45) and his wife Anita Lopez Paulo (34) have six children and five grandchildren living with them. The grandchildren are all under three years old with the youngest only five weeks. "On the day of the cyclone the winds started blowing in the afternoon, but we soon saw that there was a real threat. We were hiding in our house when the roof ripped off. We ran to a mud outbuilding to take shelter. We stood upright all night with our hands over our heads. The following day the flooding came at us from both sides. I had to grab my three-week-old grandson as I thought he would drown. We ran to the school for shelter and had to stay there for four days. We have lost everything – our clothes, the babies’ clothes, utensils, documents," Anita told me. Juan said, "We were really afraid as we had heard a lot of people had drowned and houses were washed away in the floods. We tried to patch the roof as best we can when we came back but we
had no materials like nails. Our crops have been wiped out. We have been going to the school to get a cup of either rice or beans a day for the whole family. I managed to salvage a small bunch of bananas and we have been eking those out too." RESPONSE KITS As part of the Caritas Internationalis network, Trócaire was able to respond immediately to this disaster. While I was in Mozambique, I saw this response first-hand. People’s urgent needs were assessed. With the help of local community leaders, the most vulnerable, including the elderly, mothers with babies and people with disabilities, were identified. Families received emergency food consisting of 25kg rice, 7 kg beans, 3kg sugar, 1kg salt, 2 litres oil and soap. The soap was very important to help keep the spread of disease at bay. These food kits will feed a family of five for two weeks. Emergency shelter tarpaulins were also distributed in Tica. Each household received a heavy-duty tarpaulin which can be used to temporarily replace roofs that were destroyed and make homes weatherproof. It is important that the people who need help most are targeted. Trócaire has done this through a token system which has worked well. One local man, Fernando Jose (26), told me, "The token we have received will help us a lot. It will give us a
lifeline and it is well organised which is good. We know we will get help with the token. Some food came before from an agency but it was done at the side of the road and resulted in anger and strife amongst the people here." THE FUTURE It will take a long time for the people of Mozambique to recover from this disaster. They will need support until they can replant, and harvest destroyed crops and become selfsufficient again. Donations to Trócaire’s Lenten campaign this year will be used to continue supporting people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe affected by the cyclones as well as tens of thousands of families right across the developing world who face hunger and hardship.
SUMMER
To make a donation or find out more about Trócaire’s work visit www.trocaire.org
Juan Carlos surveys his destroyed crops
Anita Lopez Paulo with one of her grandchildren
David O'Hare from Trócaire at an emergency food distribution in Mozambique
Ennismore Retreat Centre
Sunday 16th – Saturday 22nd June Catherine of Siena & Julian of Norwich Two 14th century mystics, different in almost everything except their intense focus on the presence of Jesus. We will reflect on Catherine’s dialogue & letters, and Julian’s showings. Donagh O’Shea, O.P. Cost €440
Sunday 7th – Saturday 13th July Mystery of Love : a universe cradled in the Trinity. Scripture tells us the love of Christ extends to ‘all things’ (Col. 1:20), gathering the whole of creation into the life of God, ‘so that God may be all in all’ (I Cor. 15). Benedict Hegarty, O.P. Cost €440
Sunday 14th – Saturday 20th July “Choose whom you will serve” (Josh. 24) In this reflective retreat, we will focus on opening ourselves to the invitation to discipleship of the heart. Stephen Cummins, O.P. Cost €440
ST DOMINIC’S
Sunday 21st – Saturday 27th July Never too Late to Laugh … Hope and humour in a wobbly church ! Joe Kavanagh, O.P. Cost €440 Sunday 4th – Saturday 10th August Lost and Found (Luke 19:10) In the life and mission of Jesus, God seeks and saves the lost, and that includes each one of us! We experience once again the joy of being found by God, and the response we are called to give. Gerard McCarthy, SVD Cost €440 Sunday 18th – Saturday 24th August Ignatius & Pope Francis: a Contemplative Look Guidance for prayer with special reference to the influence of St. Ignatius Loyola. Integrating the spirituality and ministry of Pope Francis Donal Neary , SJ Coat €440
Ennismore Retreat Centre is set in 30 acres of wood, field and garden overlooking Lough Mahon on the River Lee. It’s the ideal place for some time-out, reflection and prayer. For ongoing programmes please contact the Secretary or visit our website Tel: 021-4502520 E-mail: info@ennismore.ie www.ennismore.ie
www.ennismore.ie
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
Unity Pilgrim: The Life of Fr Gerry Reynolds CSsR By Gladys Ganiel Redemptorist Communications, Dundalk 2019 Soft cover, 280 pages. €14.95 ISBN- 978099271657
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Fr Gerry Reynolds was born in 1935 in Mungret, on the outskirts of Limerick city in the shadow of one of the most famous of the ancient Irish monasteries. There is a proverbial saying in the region, “as wise as the women of Mungret”, that takes its origins from a tale about the monks of Mungret and another monastery competing for a reputation in learning. Fearing they might lose, the Mungret monks disguised some of their number as women washing clothes in the stream the visitors had to cross. Hearing them conversing in fluent Latin and Greek, the opponents retreated: “If the washerwomen can talk like this, what must the monks be like?” Gerry Reynolds' mother, Mary, was a Cork woman, but every bit “as wise as the women of Mungret”. When Gerry was just six years of age, their father, Bartholomew, died in an accident, and she was left to run the family farm and raise three sons and a daughter. There was a strong Redemptorist strain to the Reynolds clan. Two uncles were in the Congregation, Frs James and Gerard, and both had spent an important part of their priestly lives in Belfast. Fr Gerard was rector of Clonard at a time when some important initiatives were being introduced into the community such as the weekly Perpetual Novena and the annual Mission to Non-Catholics, the first venture into the ecumenical apostolate that would be such a feature of the life of his nephew. Fr James was director of the retreat house that REALITY JUNE 2019
had been started in Ardglass in 1947 before eventually moving to a prime site on Belfast’s Cave Hill. Two of the younger Reynolds boys joined the Redemptorists – Gerry and Pat. An older cousin, Fr Dermot O’Mahony, was by this time a missionary in India. Their aunt, Mother Oliver, sister of the two Redemptorists, was a member of the Mercy Order in St Marys of the Isles in Cork. After a theological education that included a degree in English and Latin at University College, Galway, young Fr Gerry was ordained in 1960. He was quickly sent to work in the communications office of the Redemptorists to become a member of a team that was transforming The Redemptorist Record from a bi-monthly run of mill ‘missionary magazine’ into a magazine of comment and information on the rapidly changing church of the period of Vatican II, and renaming it as Reality in the process. From Reality he moved to the Catholic Communications Centre in Booterstown, where a group of young priests like Peter Lemass and Joe Dunne were enlivening the Catholic contribution to broadcasting and television. Gerry was given the responsibility of editing a new kind of monthly magazine chiefly, but not exclusively, for priests called Intercom. It is still in existence and doing essential work. Gerry also spent some years in two other Redemptorist communities, Mount St Alphonsus Limerick, and Esker, Athenry before coming to Clonard Monastery, Belfast in 1985. He was then just 50 years old. The Northern 'Troubles' had been raging for almost 20 years and showed little sign of ending. Clonard Monastery was, literally, on the peace-line and was already attempting to be a bridge-place from which communication would be possible between the Falls and the Shankill, the symbols of a divided community. Gerry found common ground with others, such as the Cornerstone Community, who were also trying to reach out. Gerry’s heart was programmed for friendship, and as a southerner, he carried less baggage than his northern colleagues might have done. His first partnership, the first of many, was with Rev Sam Burch, the Methodist minister on the Springfield Road.
With his Redemptorist brother, Fr Al Reid, Gerry was generous in reaching out in all sorts of ways. If Al is rightly remembered for his place in the process that eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement, Gerry was never too far away. The specialness of Gerry’s contribution, however, will be found in his commitment to the unity of all Christians as believers. This book details many of his efforts and his friendships, especially with the Rev Ken Newell and his wife Val, and the members of their congregation at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church. Dr Gladys Ganiel, research fellow in the senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University, has written this book with careful attention to detail, as befits an academic. It surveys many aspects of Gerry’s life and ministry, not least his involvement with the Jesus Caritas Fraternity for diocesan priests. It does not flinch in acknowledging the occasionally tense relationships between Gerry and the various Redemptorist communities where he lived. The fault was not all on one side, but a strong bond of loyalty and genuine affection bound them together. If there was a single thread of devotion running through Gerry Reynolds’ life, it was probably devotion to the Eucharist which he had absorbed from his first days as a novice in Esker. It acquired an additional depth through the persona of Charles de Foucauld, inspiration of the Little Sisters of Jesus and the Jesus Caritas Fraternity. His ecumenical ministry was inspired by a desire to see all Christians feeding from the Body of Christ in the Eucharist. The pain of witnessing this separation at special times of shared faith was soul-searing, and occasionally put him at odds with the very explicit Catholic discipline of inter-communion, but this interior struggle makes for some of the most heartfelt pages of this book, which draws on Gerry’s own correspondence and diaries, as well as interviews with him and those close to him.
BOOK REVIEWS BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR
Conscience: Writings from Moral Theology by St Alphonsus Translated by Raphael Gallagher CSsR Liguori Publications, 2019 Paperback, 253 pages. €20 ISBN- 9780764828140
St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) was a prolific writer who only began writing for publication in the second half of his long life. His writings can be classified under several headings – those intended to affirm and strengthen the faith of ordinary believers through growth in the practice of prayer and the virtues (the majority), those intended as aids to the priestly ministries of preaching and the confessional, and finally, academic writings in moral theology. Many of the latter were written in the Latin that was the common language of Catholic theological discourse until almost the mid-20th century. It was chiefly Alphonsus’ moral writings that won him the title of Doctor of the Church in 1871 and led in 1950 to his being proclaimed by Pope Pius XII as patron of confessors and moral theologians. Sheer necessity drove Alphonsus to begin work on what was to become his major contribution to moral theology, his Theologia Moralis. Its beginnings were modest enough. The first generation of Redemptorists had joined Alphonsus in the work of rural parish missions as ordained priests. They were followed by young men who either had just begun their theological training for ministry, or who were commencing their studies from scratch, under the guidance of Alphonsus and some of his brethren. Following the educational methods of the seminaries of the time, the foundation of each course was an adequate textbook (in Latin) expounded by the teacher,
who highlighted especially what was to be learned by heart. Where textbooks did not exist, other means had to be found. Alphonsus for example produced a grammar of standard Italian (la lingua Toscana) for young men whose spoken language was the Neapolitan dialect, but who would need something more correct if ever they were to stand in the pulpit. His experience in studying for ordination and his subsequent pastoral experience as a missioner and confessor convinced him of the centrality of moral theology in the preparation of men for the priesthood. He taught the moral course himself, and chose the textbook, which though written nearly a hundred years before by a German Jesuit called Hermann Busenbaum, was remarkably complete, and was far removed from the Jansenist tainted ones proscribed during his own course. Like many a good teacher before and since, Alphonsus made the textbook his own, fleshing it out with notes and clarifications over successive editions from the first in 1748 until all trace of Busenbaum’s original had disappeared, and the book became Alphonsus’ own comprehensive vision of the moral life. It was indeed a lifetime’s work, which ended only with the ninth edition by which time Alphonsus was 89 years old and in very fragile health. Given its nature, the large moral theology has never been translated into English in its entirety. Indeed, successive generations of Redemptorists, raised on the moral theology of their father, studied, not Alphonsus’ original text, but the text as it was transmitted by later Redemptorist commentators. An excellent critical version of the original in four volumes was edited by Fr Leonard Gaudé at the beginning of the 20th century, and is the basis of the present book. Dr Raphael Gallagher CSsR has given us a translation, with a brief introduction and a solid and detailed commentary on the opening 'Treatise on Conscience'. The 430 end notes are, with few exceptions, references to the sources Alphonsus used in his text: they witness to his wide reading, from early patristic and medieval classics, to his ongoing dialogue with his contemporaries. It is the fruit of 20 years reading and wrestling with
the text, sometimes in brief periods of research snatched from his main work of preparing lectures and directing students’ dissertations, until eventually retirement from his post in the Alphonsian Academy in Rome made it possible to focus on this project. A translator is faced with many challenges, not all of which can be resolved to his or her satisfaction. Gallagher has opted rightly for producing a text which flows intelligently and allows the reader to enter the thought world of the original author. The original language of the treatise on conscience is doubly, or even triply complex, in that it is a literary language being written by one whose mother tongue was Italian, but the original Latin was already overlaid by its use as a religious and legal language, so that “words that are suitable in the juridical language of the text are not always the words that are appropriate in the theological controversies of the corollaries” (xii). As Fr Gallagher’s text shows, Alphonsus carefully peeled away and examined the words and concepts associated in his day with conscience. A modern author approaching the question would also be in dialogue with the psychological and social sciences. The detailed modern understanding of how human beings interact with the world was not available to Alphonsus, but he was aware that decisionmaking was a torture for scrupulous and timid people and he attempted to bring some clarity and compassion to it (articles 10-18). While not a book for the merely curious or the general reader, this book will be a treasure especially for Redemptorists and postgraduates as a witness to Alphonsus’ key place in the development of moral theology, and how his heritage was transmitted by subsequent Redemptorist moralists like Bernhard Häring, Sean O’Riordan, Domenico Capone, and Raphael Gallagher himself. Addressing the members of the Alphonsian Academy earlier this year, Pope Francis hoped it would continue to commit itself to a kind of moral theology that does not hesitate to get “its hands dirty” with concrete problems, especially with the fragility and suffering of society’s most vulnerable. That is the heritage of Alphonsus in a nutshell.
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CO M M E N T REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ
RELIGION – THE ICING ON THE CAKE
DOES A RELIGION MAKE ANY SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THE LIVES OF ITS FOLLOWERS, BEYOND THEIR ATTENDANCE AT RELIGIOUS SERVICES? OR IN TRUTH, IT IS LITTLE MORE THAN A MERE DECORATION?
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Karl Marx once famously said, with some justification it must be admitted, that “religion is the opium of the people”, meaning that religion encouraged people to put up with their situation because it was “the will of God”. Even today, some people living in extreme poverty and hardship will say, “it’s God’s will.” Today, perhaps, we might say “Religion is the icing on the cake”. It doesn’t impact in any significant way on the lives of many of us. It doesn’t transform us. Apart from attending certain religious services from time to time, our lives as Christians do not differ from the lives of people of other religions or none. If you ask people “what is your dream for 30 years from now?” I think most people would say something like, “I hope I will have a nice house and a pension for my retirement, and that my children will have a good job and be in a happy relationship.” Exactly the same as any non-Christian would say. But we Christians are asked to dream bigger. Wars, famine, homelessness, a refugee crisis, hate crimes, and poverty affect hundreds of millions of people in our world. We Christians ought to be angry at the way things are, because this world is not the way God wanted it to be when God created it. We Christians are called to dream of a different world. We are called to change the way the world is today to the way the world should be tomorrow. REALITY JUNE 2019
changing those circumstances. And thirdly – and this where we often fall down - to do something about it.
We adults have forgotten how to dream. It has taken children, like Greta Thunberg, a 16-yearold Swedish schoolgirl, to show us how to dream. She walked out of school every Friday to stand before her parliament demanding climate change. Hundreds of thousands of children all over the world have shared her dream, also walking out of school to protest for climate change. The Taoiseach said he supported the student protests, even though it was his policies, or lack of them, that they were protesting against! Those who objected to the students going out on strike were adults, sometimes educators, who wondered how they would make up the time they missed from school! We adults, of course, encourage children to be active citizens, meaning helping
with the Tidy Towns clean-up or visiting the local old folks home. We even encourage them to debate issues like climate change. But this time, the children were doing it, without adult control, and many adults were uncomfortable. Children are supposed to be taught by adults, but here children were the teachers. Thos e children dreamt of change and tried to do something about it. They have put us adults to shame. They reminded us that we have lost our sense of outrage. The role of the Christian churches is to help people to dream, and dream big. To dream big has three stages: first, to become aware of the injustice that leads to the unacceptable circumstances that many people, now and in the future, face. Secondly, to commit ourselves to
Jesus sought to change the way things were. He railed against the poverty of the majority of people, by identifying himself with those in need: “I was hungry, and you gave me to eat.” He objected to his society’s exclusion of certain people by “eating with tax collectors and sinners”. He spent his whole public life training 12 people to be agents of change. To dream big has a cost; it cost Jesus his life. We die to our rights (“it is mine, I can do what I want with it”) so that others might have their rights. Jesus constantly asked people to “repent”. The word 'repent' didn’t just mean 'be sorry for your sins'. It meant a total change of life. People were part of a system which they were comfortable with, and Jesus called them to leave their comfort zones. If we find that there is no cost in following Jesus, then we need to question our following of him. To dream of a better, more just world is not our dream. It is God’s dream into which we enter, to make the dream become reality.
For more information or to support the Peter McVerry Trust: www.pmvtrust.ie info@pmvtrust.ie +353 (0)1 823 0776
GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH REAL ABSENCE? Christian art depicts the Lord’s Ascension by him gradually being lifted up above the earth and SOLEMNITY OF soaring into the clouds. THE ASCENSION (IRELAND) Maybe we can get a slightly better grasp of what this feast means if we think about two words – 'absence' and 'presence'. There are all sorts of ways in which a person can continue to be ‘present’ to us after they have gone away– by a photograph, by a letter, by a gift. For Catholics, the risen Lord continues to be present to us especially through his Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. The other side of the mystery of the Ascension is Jesus’ 'real absence'. We do not see him or hear his voice as the disciples did, or feel the touch of his hand as the sick did. A modern Irish poet, Dennis O’Driscoll, has a poem called Missing God. Does that title
mean that God is missing from our world or that the poet has undergone a loss of faith, but knows that somehow, he still misses God? That sense that we are missing something can catches us unawares, as “when the radio catches a snatch of plainchant from some echoey priory; when the gospel choir raises its collective voice to ask Shall We Gather at the River? or the forces of the oratorio converge on I Know That My Redeemer Liveth and our contracted hearts lose a beat.” There are also dark times too when God’s absence is painfully felt: “we stumble on the breast lump for the first time and an involuntary prayer escapes our lips; At the top of the Mount of Olives there is a tiny shrine that marks the place of the Ascension. It is now a mosque, but the local
Palestinian Christians are permitted to use it once a year on this feast. There is very little inside, except for a stone that is said to be marked by the indent of the feet of Jesus as he left this earth. To be quite honest, I cannot make it the shape of the feet, but it is a memorial to absence and presence. The real presence of Jesus on our earth meant that God took on our human nature. His real absence means that we may have to journey without the reassurance of his bodily presence alongside us but knowing that we are not totally alone.
MIGHTY WIND, GENTLE BREATH The Feast of Pentecost, like Easter, takes us back to our Jewish roots. The SOLEMNITY OF Jewish community began PENTECOST to celebrate it at sunset yesterday. They call it Shevuot, the Feast of Weeks. It occurs 50 days after Passover, and commemorates the giving of the Law on Sinai. Like Passover, it was a pilgrimage feast when Jews came to Jerusalem. The New Testament has two different ways of describing the gift of the Holy Spirit – the dramatic events described in today’s first reading or the more gentle image of Jesus breathing the Spirit into his disciples which we find in the alternative Gospel for today. When he says, “In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week” (John 20:19), John is referring to Easter Sunday. The Spirit is Jesus’ Easter gift to his community.
Unexpectedly, he enters the closed room where his disciples are hiding. There are none of the great signs of the coming of the Spirit we read in the first reading – no tongues of fire, no great wind shaking the house. Instead, Jesus "breathes on them". That word is used three times in the Old Testament. First, in the creation story God breathed into the face of the clay figure he had made from the dust of the earth, and it became a living being (Genesis 2:7). Second, Elisha the prophet restores a boy to life by breathing three times on him (1 Kings 17:17-24). The third is when young Tobias cures his father’s blindness by rubbing his father’s eyes with the gall of a fish, breathing on them and so restoring his sight. Breathing on someone is like a new creation, a resurrection and a restoration of vision. Luke’s account of the day of Pentecost in Acts is very rich. That extraordinary list of nationalities “(1) Parthians, (2) Medes and (3) Elamites; (4) people from Mesopotamia, (5) Judaea and (6) Cappadocia, (7) Pontus
and (8) Asia, (9) Phrygia and (10) Pamphylia, (11) Egypt and (12) the parts of Libya round Cyrene; (13) residents of Rome – Jews and proselytes alike – (14) Cretans and (15) Arabs" (Act 2:9-11) encompasses 15 countries that stretch from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. They have come to Jerusalem for the pilgrimage feast of Shevuot. For Luke, Pentecost is not just a Jewish feast but the inauguration of the Christian mission that is meant to transform the world. In one of my favourite novels, The Diary of a Country Priest, a wise and experienced old priest tells a nervous young curate lacking in confidence that "the Gospel is meant to be the light of the world, we have turned it into a bedside lamp for Christians."
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Today’s Readings Acts 1:1-11: Ps 46; Ephesians 1: 17-23; Luke 24:46-53
Today’s Readings Acts 2:1-11: Ps 103: Rom 8:8-17; John 14:15-16, 23b-26, or John 20:19-23
God’s Word continues on page 46
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GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH THRICE BLESSED THREE IN ONE JUNE We say that the Trinity is a mystery, but it is a mystery that comes from the depths of our THE MOST HOLY knowing who God is. In TRINITY today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples in his final conversation with them that he has many things to say that would be too much for them to take in, but the Spirit will lead them to the complete truth. It took the church almost 300 years after this to find a way to speak about God that expressed the depth of its faith and the reality of its experience. Despite all that, it is still not easy for us to speak about God. The great truth about God in the Old Testament was that he communicated with human beings. He was active in their history through the Spirit that communicated the divine Word through the Law and the Prophets. The great truth about God in the New Testament is that God took on human form in Jesus. The church’s
doctrine of the Trinity tells us that God is first of all a community of three persons who love one another, who communicate with one another. A genuine community is one that is open to others. It is not locked in on itself. That is why the icon of the Trinity usually depicts three people seated around a table with the fourth side of the table still waiting for someone to take their place there. The place where we most experience the truth of the Trinity is at the table of the Eucharist when bread and wine, the gift of God the Father in creation, are transformed into the life-giving body and blood of the Son through the action of the Holy Spirit. Just as it took the church 300 years to find a way of speaking about the Trinity, it takes us a lifetime to find a way to speak about God from the truth of our own experience of love and joy, but also from fragility and brokenness. Just as Jesus tells his disciples that the Spirit of Truth will not add anything new to his teaching, the same Spirit leads us to understand more deeply our own truth about God.
Following St Patrick who taught us the Trinity through the leaves of a shamrock, Irish tradition found many reflections of the Trinity in daily life.
TAKE AND EAT The short introductory JUNE verse at the beginning of today ’s Gospel makes three important SOLEMNITY OF THE points. Jesus made the BODY AND BLOOD crowds welcome, he OF THE LORD talked to them about the Kingdom of God and he cured those in need of healing. It is a lovely summary of the three important aspects of the work of Jesus – welcoming, preaching and healing. As the sun sinks down in the sky, the disciples are beginning to get worried. It seems Jesus has forgotten that a crowd of people, especially one that probably had children beginning to get restless, will soon need food. They were probably even more shocked at his answer – "give them something to eat yourselves." Their own
provisions of five small loaves and a couple of dried fish was not enough even to provide a meal for two or three of them, let alone the teacher and his 12 disciples. Describing the same scene in his Gospel, John adds that it would take almost the entire year’s wages to feed a crowd of more than 5,000! Jesus simply tells them to split the people up in groups of about 50 as though preparing for a banquet. When the food is brought to Jesus, he does four things – raises his eyes to heaven, blesses them, breaks them and hands them to the disciples to be distributed to the crowd. It is no accident that these actions and words are repeated in every celebration of the Eucharist. Like all the other Gospel writers, Luke want us to see this scene repeated when we gather at the Lord’s table. We do not receive a piece of bread and fish but the body and blood of the Lord. Scripture scholars call stories like this or the
marriage feast of Cana ‘gift miracles’ as they remind us that our God is a generous God who does not give in half measures.
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REALITY JUNE 2019
Three folds of the cloth, yet only one napkin is there, Three joints of the finger, yet only one finger fair, Three leaves of the shamrock, yet only one shamrock to wear, Frost, snowflake and ice, all in water their origin share, Three persons in God, yet to one God alone we make prayer.
Today’s Readings Prov 8:22-31; Ps 8; Rom 5:1-5; John 16:12-15
Today’s Readings Gen 14:18-20; Ps 110; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Luke 9:11b-17
THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 5 JUNE 2019
THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP Today’s Gospel contains four brief incidents. Jesus and his disciples have begun the final journey to Jerusalem. Their way lies through Samaritan territory. Relations between Jews and Samaritans 13TH SUNDAY IN were hostile, but Jesus treats them as people ORDINARY TIME whose Jewish roots entitle them to a place in the Kingdom of God and sends his disciples to them. When they are rejected, some disciples want tough action, such as fire from heaven to destroy their town. Jesus rebukes them and quietly moves on. Accounts of the three short meetings with prospective disciples follow. In each account, the most important thing is the final saying of Jesus, and together they form a teaching on what it means to be a disciple. First comes a volunteer who confidently proclaims he will follow Jesus wherever he goes. It takes only a word about the sleeping arrangements of Jesus and his followers to make him reconsider: foxes have dens, birds have nests, but Jesus sleeps wherever he can. Next, a person is invited to join the band of disciples. He is willing enough, but there is a problem: his father has just died. Burial in Palestine usually took place on the same day a person died. Jesus’ answer to leave the dead to bury the dead may well strike us as inhuman. From what we know about Jesus this would be most unlikely, so this might be an example of how the Gospel writer has taken a saying ("let the dead bury the dead, your duty us to proclaim the Kingdom of God") and created a story around it. Luke (and Jesus) wants to emphasise that proclaiming the kingdom takes priority over everything else, that it is about life at its deepest. The third person seems to be making a reasonable request – he is willing to follow but first wants to say goodbye to the folks at home. Jesus answers with a proverb about laying the hand to the plough and looking back. These three stories are challenging. They also lead us back to Elijah’s call of Elisha in the first reading. A call to God’s service is a privilege; it is also a challenge that confronts us about how far we are willing to change. We might remember in our prayers today the men and women who have taken seriously Jesus’ call to serve his people as priests or religious.
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SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 3 ACROSS: Across: 1. Quartz, 5. Cerise, 10. Hurling, 11. Relaxed, 12. Tugs, 13. Babel, 15. John, 17. Goa, 19. Hotpot, 21. Cassis, 22. Galilee, 23. Caesar, 25. Panama, 28. Lie, 30. Cues, 31. Alamo, 32. Sumo, 35. Uniform, 36. Avignon, 37. Altars, 38. Medusa. DOWN: 2. Upright, 3. Ruin, 4. Zigzag, 5. Cornea, 6. Rule, 7. Sextons, 8. Thatch, 9. Adonis, 14. Bolivia, 16. Togas, 18. Paean, 20. Tar, 21. Cep, 23. Cactus, 24. Ezekiel, 26. Aquinas, 27. Anoint, 28. Llamas, 29. Embalm, 33. Coma, 34. Find.
Winner of Crossword No. 3 Oliver Broderick, Youghal, Co. Cork.
ACROSS 1. Worship consisting of prayers over nine successive days. (6) 5. Venomous snakes. (6) 10. Not now existing. (7) 11. A match for Satan. (7) 12. A large, heavy, scholarly book. (4) 13. Yearn to possess your neighbour's wife? (5) 15. Secret plan for a small area of planted ground. (4) 17. Long-tailed rodent and despicable person. (3) 19. Official count of a population. (6) 21. A proverb is one man's wit and all men's ..." (6) 22. Make a fateful and final decision to cross this river. (7) 23. Prevent of hinder the progress of something. (6) 25. Festival celebrating the Resurrection. (6) 28. Latin word for peace. (3) 30. Hollow jointed stem of a tall grass. (4) 31. Man made waterway. (5) 32. An arm or leg of a person. (4) 35. A competitor in a contest. (7) 36. A person who lacks belief in the existence of God. (7) 37. Radiation counter. (6) 38. Working without a monetary reward. (6)
DOWN 2. Upholstered sofa and empire. (7) 3. Sicilian volcano. (4) 4. The writer of a book. (6) 5. Soft covering on the developing antlers of deer. (6) 6. A colour varying from deep red to darkpurplish brown. (4) 7. Strip of closely pleated fabric used for trimming. (7) 8. Infected with bacteria. (6) 9. For the time being in Latin. (3,3) 14. City-state surrounded by Rome. (7) 16. Home of a famous shroud. (5) 18. Mount where Moses received the tablets. (5) 20. Just the woman for legal action. (3) 21. Great sorrow or distress. (3) 23. Believed to be holy and having a special connection to God. (6) 24. The longest river in Asia. (7) 26. The capital of Georgia. (7) 27. Automatons. (6) 28. A minister in charge of a Christian church or congregation. (6) 29. Where to find Kublai Khan's stately pleasure dome. (6) 33. A sudden sharp pain or painful emotion. (4) 34. Rectangular piece of deep fried potato. (4)
Entry Form for Crossword No.5, June 2019 Name:
Today’s Readings
Address: Telephone:
1 Kgs 19:16b, 19-21: Ps 16; Gal 5:1, 13-18; Luke 9:51-62 All entries must reach us by June 28, 2019 One €35 prize is offered for the first correct solutions opened. The Editor’s decision on all matters concerning this competition will be final. Do not include correspondence on any other subject with your entry which should be addressed to: Reality Crossword No.5, Redemptorist Communications, St Joseph's Monastery, Dundalk, County Louth A91 F3FC