Reality Magazine June 2020 by Redemptorist Communications

RELIGIOUS VOCATION – TOMÁS SURLIS

JUNE 2020

IS PAPAL INFALLIBILITY STILL WORKING?

LET THE PEOPLE SING: SACRED SONG IS INTEGRAL TO WORSHIP

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

OUR DEVOTION TO MARY

THE STORY OF OUR LADY OF LETNICA

COVID-�� AND CHILDREN WHAT DO WE SAY TO OUR KIDS?

www.redcoms.org Redemptorist-Communications @RedComsIreland �2.50 �2.00

ONLINE Due to the continuing circumstances, our Solemn Novenas will be celebrated online this year

JUNE 19–27, 2020

CLONARD MONASTERY MOUNT ST ALPHONSUS BELFAST LIMERICK www.clonard.com/web-cam

www.novena.ie/web-cam

Novena Mass Times:

7am, 9.30am, 6.15pm, 8pm

8am, 10am, 7.15pm, 9pm

This year’s theme:

HOPE IN A TIME OF CRISIS

IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES �� OUR LADY OF LETNICA A little-known Marian shrine, loved by St Teresa of Calcutta, carries the story and hopes of a people. By Prof Salvador Ryan

�� IS THE POPE STILL INFALLIBLE? In this second article, we look at how papal infallibility has fared since Vatican II. By Shaun Blanchard

�� LET THE PEOPLE SING Sacred song, uniting words and music, is a necessary and integral part of our worship. By Maria Hall

�� PROMOTING CHRISTIAN UNITY – GLOBALLY AND LOCALLY Celebrating 60 years of creative dialogue with other churches. By Andrew Pierce

�� HERE I AM, LORD! I DELIGHT TO DO YOUR WILL How do you discover if God is calling you to religious life? By Fr Tomás Surlis

�� BIBLE FORGIVENESS CEREMONY Different ways of celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation. By Fr Colm Meaney CSsR

�� COVID-��: TEN MESSAGES TO OUR KIDS In these difficult times young people have lost so many things they took for granted. What can we say to them? By Jim Deeds

�� BACK TO THE NORTH St Clement returns to Warsaw and founds the first Redemptorist community outside of Italy. Fr Brendan McConvery CSsR

�� GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD The risky petition in the Lord’s Prayer for “daily bread”never loses sight of the heavenly banquet to come. By Mike Daley

OPINION

REGULARS

11 BRENDAN McCONVERY

04 REALITY BITES 07 POPE MONITOR 08 WOMEN SAINTS & MYSTICS 09 REFLECTIONS 42 TRÓCAIRE 45 GOD’S WORD

17 JIM DEEDS 31 CARMEL WYNNE 44 PETER McVERRY SJ

REALITY BITES FAITH DURING THE LOCKDOWN IRELAND

APPRECIATION FOR ONLINE PRESENCE

A poll on behalf of the Iona Institute taken in the second week of April reveals that 27 per cent of Irish people have watched or listened to at least one religious service since the coronavirus lockdown began. In the same poll, 18 per cent said they were praying more than usual. When broken down by age, 24 per cent of 18-24-year olds said they were praying more than usual. This is the same for over 55s, but much higher than the age groups in between: just 9 per cent of 25-34-year olds say they are praying more than they normally would. Meanwhile, 37 per cent say they are praying about the same as usual, while 43 per cent say they don’t pray. The poll finds that 15 per cent of those aged 18-24 have watched at least one religious service in the current period. This was higher for the over 55s (44 per cent). Some 85 per cent of the respondents thought we would be more appreciative of family after the lockdown, while 75 per cent thought we will value the elderly more and 31 per cent thought we would be more spiritual. Brendan Conroy of the Iona Institute said: “It is encouraging that so many people are still taking part in religious services in whatever way they can during the current unprecedented situation. Weekly church attendance figures in Ireland are about 30 per cent, and so the 27 per cent who are tuning into religious services online, or via TV or radio, is about the same as that. In other words, they are doing their best still to take part in communal acts of worship."

SINN FÉIN LEADER CALLS FOR HOME ABORTIONS BELFAST

"A VERY RETROGRADE STEP FOR OUR SOCIETY"

When laws passed by the Westminster parliament permitting elective abortion in Northern Ireland came into force in April, Michelle O’Neill, Deputy First Minister and leader of Sinn Féin in the northern assembly, urged that women be permitted to perform medical abortions at home. This has been permitted in the other parts of the United Kingdom. “I support telemedicine,” Ms O’Neill said. “What we’re talking about is compassionate healthcare, modern healthcare for women. What we’re talking about is responding to women’s need at the timeofglobalcrisis–womenshouldn’t be left out in terms of supports that are put in place. And so, the regulations REALITY JUNE 2020

Michelle O'Neill

that have went through Westminster, the legislation that’s went through, needs to be implemented.” First Minister Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic UnionistParty,stated that “I don't think it's any secret that I don't believe abortion on demand should be available in Northern Ireland. I think it’s a very retrograde step for

Arlene Foster

our society here in Northern Ireland. Instead of supporting people who find themselves in crisis pregnancies, we’re notevenhavinganydiscussionaround that and how we can support people in those circumstances, how we can provide perinatal care.” The mainly Nationalist SDLP while proclaiming to be pro-life, did not commit its

members to following the party whip on the question and individual members were divided in their public statements. In a strongly-worded letter of April 22 addressed to all the members of the Local Assembly, the Catholic bishops of Northern Ireland reminded them that “we are morally obliged to save the lives of unborn children and to protect mothers from the pressures they might experience at the time of an unplanned pregnancy”. It urged them “to take steps to formulate new Regulations that will reflect more fully the will of a significant majority of the people in this jurisdiction to protect the lives of mothers and their unborn children.”

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PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS INDIA

“HORRIFIC” LEVELS OF VIOLENCE

Demonstration against the violence

Attacks on Christians and their places of worship in India continued to escalate in both number and severity in the early months of 2020, with 27 violent incidents reported in March alone. United Christian Forum in India, an organisation that advocates on behalf of Christians in India, documented 56 threats against Christians as well as 78 incidents of violence between January and March of 2020. Most of these attacks were perpetrated by mobs objecting to Christians holding worship services. International Christian Concern, which keeps an eye on reports of persecution worldwide, warns that while India’s national lockdown in response

to the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down the number of attacks on Christians, such attacks will likely return when the lockdown is eventually lifted. India is ranked tenth on Open Doors USA’s World Watch List of countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The organisation says that Christians in the country face “horrific” levels of violence from extremists, with thousands of attacks taking place every year. Levels of violence have increased under the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party of prime minister Narendra Modi. In April, Christians in southern India’s Tamil Nadu State were arrested on false charges

of “forcible conversion” while providing food and other aid to the poor. That same month, a Christian in India’s north-eastern state of Odisha was severely beaten by a mob for holding a Christian prayer gathering in his home. In March, Christians in India’s Uttar Pradesh State were falsely accused of forcefully converting Hindus to Christianity. As a result, they were brutally beaten by a drunken police officer who then ordered them to pose like Christ on the cross. In February, nine Christians were beaten by the police after being accused of “forceful conversion" in Tamil Nadu State.

INTO HOW MANY LANGUAGES HAS THE BIBLE BEEN TRANSLATED? WORLDWIDE

LOST FOR WORDS

As of October 2019, the complete Bible has been translated into 698 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,548 languages and parts of the Bible or collections of stories exist in 1,138 other languages. It is estimated that there are 3,969 languages without any Bible translation at all. Many of them are languages that have very few native speakers. Probably around 171 million people speak those 2,115 languages

which have no Bible translation. Translating the Bible is an important ecumenical task for the churches who co-operate in translation projects under the aegis of the United Bible Societies. Sometimes the new languages have not even been written down nor do they have formal grammars, so the translators have to learn the new language orally from native speakers and they are sometimes the first to create grammars of the spoken languages. continued on page 6

REALITY BITES PRIESTS TO DO ANOINTING

One of the problems raised by the coronavirus was how to anoint seriously ill patients suffering from the infection. Various dioceses drew up different instructions. Several Irish dioceses, aware that local clergy were often over 70 and so were required to be in isolation, drew up rosters of available clergy, or restricted the administration to priests who were hospital chaplains with access to PPE (personal protection equipment). The Archdiocese of Chicago assembled a team of 24 priest volunteers

– all under age 60, and without pre-existing medical conditions – to administer sacramental anointing of the sick to Catholics during the coronavirus pandemic. Fr Matthew O’Donnell, pastor of St Columbanus Parish on the city’s South Side, has been a part of the team for about three weeks. “I know that all of us who are doing this ministry in Chicago right now are doing it because we believe that this is what we’re called to do as priests, to be present to people,” Fr O’Donnell told CNA. “And I think all of us are knowledgeable of the risks, but the importance of the sacrament outweighs that.” Within each of the diocese’s six vicariates, the archdiocese ensured that there were at least four priests available that could handle the vicariate’s anointing needs, while also ensuring that no one priest is called to every single COVID-19 patient

AFTER THE PANDEMIC The Vatican has set up a commission to provide local aid and to deal with issues related to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Created at the request of Pope Francis, the commission will work in collaboration with the Roman Curia and specifically the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. According to the announcement released on April 15, the commission was formed “to express the concern and love of the Church for the whole human family in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, above all through the analysis and reflection on the socio-economic and cultural challenges of the future and the proposal of guidelines to face them.” Its president will be Cardinal Peter Turkson, the secretary Archbishop Bruno-Marie Duffé, and deputy secretary Fr Augusto Zampini. It will report directly to Pope Francis. Pope Francis “told us not to waste time, to get down to work immediately,” Cardinal Turkson said. “We must act now. And we must immediately think about what will happen next.” It also issued a manual of prayers in several languages including English, entitled Strong In The Face Of Tribulation: A Sure Support in Time of Trial. It can be downloaded from https://www.vaticannews. va/content/dam/lev/forti-nella-tribolazione/pdf/eng/strong-intribulation.-20042020.pdf. REALITY JUNE 2020

in his area. Among the recommendations made to the priests was to make sure not to dip their thumbs into the oil twice to avoid contaminating the oil: instead use a different finger to anoint first the patient’s head, and then the hands. They were recommended to either burn or bury the cotton on which they placed oil, and to disinfect the outside of the oil stock or container they used. The Irish Bishops’ Conference made similar arrangements, and requested that elderly priests, as far as possible, be excused from anointing and that hospital chaplains should take advantage of full personal protective equipment.

Fr Matthew O’Donnell

CAN FAITH HEALING SAVE YOU FROM THE VIRUS? In many places, especially in Africa, Brazil and parts of the US, homemade videos have appeared on the internet featuring religious leaders promising that "incessant prayer" can protect against the coronavirus. Fundamentalist preachers in Brazil have compared government and medically-approved measures to contain the virus to "a strategy of the devil". "My friends, don't worry about the coronavirus," said a Brazilian preacher, "it's a tactic of Satan, who feeds on fear." In the United States, the same attitudes have found an entry into some 'megachurches' of the evangelical right, the same churches which are often uncritical supporters of President Donald Trump. While it is perfectly correct for Catholics to pray for protection, and even to address their prayers through certain saints who have been invoked in times of epidemics, some Catholic prayers that circulate on the internet, insisting that an exact form of words be used or that the prayer must be said at a particular time of the day can be close to superstition, especially if they carry the guarantee that this particular prayer "has never been known to fail" or that it has the approval of the pope or Our Blessed Lady.

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POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS THE PAPAL GOOD FRIDAY STATIONS – WRITTEN IN PRISON On the evening of Good Friday, Pope Francis led the Stations of the Cross, in the courtyard of St Peter’s Basilica. As with all Holy Week services this year, the event did not include crowds of the faithful as in past years because of the coronavirus pandemic. In the past, Pope Francis has overseen the stations in the Colosseum in Rome. The meditations on the Stations of the Cross this year were prepared by the chaplaincy of the 'Due Palazzi' House of Detention in Padua. Fourteen people were invited by Pope Francis to meditate on the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, bringing it to bear on their own situations. Those invited included five prisoners, a family that was the victim of a murder, the daughter of a man given a life sentence, a prison teacher, a civil magistrate, the mother of a prisoner, a catechist, a volunteer religious brother, a prison guard and a priest who was accused and then finally acquitted after eight years in the justice system. The texts, compiled by the chaplain Fr Marco Pozza and volunteer Tatiana Mario, were written in the first person, but it was decided not to attribute names, for those who took part in this meditation wanted to lend their voice to all those throughout the world who are in the same situation. "This evening, in the silence of prison, the voice of one wishes to become the voice of all," went the meditation.

Pope Francis prays with doctors and nurses who took part in the Stations of the Cross

HAS TIME FOR BASIC LIVING WAGE ARRIVED?

7 In an Easter letter to social organisations that have participated in the World Meeting of Popular Movements, Pope Francis said the COVID-19 pandemic should give rise to consideration of "a universal basic wage" to guarantee people have the minimum they need to live and support their families. Pope Francis has participated on two occasions at their meetings, once in the Vatican and in 2015 in Bolivia. He had in mind especially "street vendors, recyclers, carnival workers, carnies, small farmers, construction workers, dressmakers, the different kinds of caregivers: you who are informal, working on your own or in the grassroots economy, you have no steady income to get you through this hard time". “The ills that afflict everyone hit you twice as hard," the pope wrote. "Many of you live from day to day, without any type of legal guarantee to protect you." He urged them to continue the struggle for the rights of everyone to the "three Ts that you defend: Trabajo (work), Techo (housing) and Tierra (land and food)". If fighting the pandemic is a war, he said, then the social movements are "truly an invisible army, fighting in the most dangerous trenches; an army whose only weapons are solidarity, hope and community spirit, all revitalising at a time when no one can save themselves alone." He praised "all the people, especially women, who multiply loaves of bread in soup kitchens: two onions and a package of rice make up a delicious stew for hundreds of children". “I think of the sick,” he said, "I think of the elderly. They never appear in the news, nor do small farmers and their families who work hard to produce healthy food without destroying nature, without hoarding, without exploiting people's needs.”

WOMEN OF THE SPIRIT A SERIES OF WOMEN SAINTS AND MYSTICS DOROTHY DAY 1897-1980

Dorothy Day was many things over the course of her 83 years on earth: a convert, an activist, a journalist, a radical, a bohemian, a mother, and the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. In 2015, Pope Francis named Day as one of the Four Great Americans, along with Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Merton. The pope noted that a nation is great when it “strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work”. Indeed, her energetic zeal was hardly affected even by age. She walked a picket line with César Chávez, the labour leader, which led to her arrest at the age of 76. Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn in 1897, the third child in a nominally religious family. The Days moved to the San Francisco Bay area and then to Chicago, where she was exposed to the poverty of the unemployed. At the age of ten, Dorothy’s interest in religion grew when her elder brothers joined the choir at the Chicago Episcopal Church, and she was baptised. While studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana, Day became interested in radical social causes in order to help workers and the poor. This interested her more than her studies and in 1916 she left university to move to New York. There she worked as a journalist for socialist newspapers, and participated in protest movements for causes such as pacifism and women’s suffrage. She was imprisoned seven times for acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. In New York she became friendly with several famous artists and writers. She had several failed love affairs, mourned a friend who committed suicide, and had an abortion. She later regretted this last decision, and Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI considered her for sainthood for having spoken out about it. In 1921, she married Berkeley Tobey, an anarchist and atheist. They had a daughter, Tamar, in 1926. Around this time, Dorothy began to admire the Catholic Church as the church of the poor in America. In 1927, aged 30, she converted to Catholicism, had her daughter baptised, ended her common law marriage, and lost numerous friends. She wrote that her conversion began “at a time when the material world began to speak in my heart of God…of a Creator who satisfied all our hungers”. For several years she struggled to find her place in the Catholic Church. In 1932, she was sent to Washington D.C. to cover the Hunger March for America and Commonweal magazines. While at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, she prayed that she “might find something to do in the social order besides reporting conditions. I wanted to change them, not just report them…” The following day, back in New York, her prayer was seemingly answered. She met Peter Maurin, a French immigrant and former Christian Brother, and together they founded the Catholic Worker newspaper. It promoted Catholic teachings with a particular focus on social change and justice, calling on readers to make a personal response. Day and Maurin also founded a movement of 'houses of hospitality' and farming communes, of which there are now 178 in the United States and 29 more worldwide. The aim of these communities, she wrote, was to “change the world — make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do”. All her life, Dorothy promoted the gospel of non-violence. She protested against both World Wars, fascism, anti-Semitism, the Vietnam War atomic bomb and the internment of Japanese Americans. All of this was rooted in prayer, and respect for the Church. Dorothy Day wrote her own story, most notably, From Union Square to Rome (1938), and The Long Loneliness (1952). She died on November 29, 1980, at the Catholic Worker house in New York. “If I have accomplished anything in my life, it is because I wasn’t embarrassed to talk about God.” Sophia White REALITY JUNE 2020

Reality Volume 85. No. 5 June 2020 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 W&G Baird Printers, Belfast Photo Credits Shutterstock, Catholic News Agency

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.

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REFLECTIONS The discovery of the risen Christ on the first Easter Day gave his followers new hope and fresh purpose and we can all take heart from this. We know that coronavirus will not overcome us. As dark as death can be – particularly for those suffering with grief – light and life are greater. QUEEN ELIZABETH II

Posterity will one day laugh at the sublime foolishness of modern materialistic philosophy. The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator. I pray while I am engaged at my work in the laboratory.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. OSCAR WILDE

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable. C.S. LEWIS

LOUIS PASTEUR

As the eye naturally seeks the light and vision, and our body naturally desires food and drink, so our mind is possessed with a becoming and natural desire to become acquainted with the truth of God and the causes of things.

Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead Walk beside me… just be my friend ALBERT CAMUS

ORIGEN

The great argument used now against any theological proposition is not, that it is untrue, or unthinkable, or unedifying, or unscriptural, or unorthodox, but simply, that the modern mind cannot accept it. RONALD KNOX

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found, not hidden away in corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although we may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be incomparably the greater. ST TERESA OF AVILA

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. ALBERT EINSTEIN

A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it's in hot water. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. LAO TZU

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

Anyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car.

OSCAR WILDE

GARRISON KEILLOR

MAYA ANGELOU

EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

THANKS TO OUR CARERS

had very little to do with hospitals for most of my life. A few broken bones needed to be X-rayed and set in my younger years, but otherwise my only contact with hospitals was as an occasional visitor to members of my normally healthy family and then in my first years of priesthood, spells as chaplain to two busy hospitals in Belfast, the Royal and the City. But a few years ago, I needed an operation for an aneurysm that my doctor had been ‘minding’ until it was ripe for surgery. My week in the Royal began with the surgeon coming to chat as I was getting the beginnings of the anaesthetic. His witty comments calmed me down, and for the rest of the week, he called each day until he finally proclaimed, "You can go home." I remember with gratitude all the others – the young nurses, many of them boys and girls just out of secondary school and taking their first steps in the noble profession. I tried to place them by their accent: West Belfast, Tipperary, South Armagh, Kerala, Cebu, Portugal. The Royal was truly a world health centre. Then there was the physiotherapist who gave me breathing exercises, the tea and dinner ladies, the wee lad from ‘the Village’ (only Belfast people will understand that and I am not explaining!) who brought me down to Mass on Sunday in a wheelchair and waited for me even though his shift had ended. Before that, there were the technicians who took yet another blood test and operated the scanner on my preliminary visits, the clerks who kept the records and arranged the next appointment. There was also the chaplain and his assistants who made sure I had communion every day. When I left hospital, the district nurse called daily to check the wound and eventually removed my 64 staples, declaring I would live. I have no idea how many people contributed to my care, but there certainly were many of them.

That is why during the pandemic, I stood at the door of the monastery on the hillside each Thursday evening and clapped, even though we were far away from the neighbours who were doing the same thing and could not hear us. I included them in the prayers of the faithful whenever I celebrated Mass on the webcam. One of the most human aspects of the pandemic has been the way in which it has stirred our gratitude for the healthcare staff. While we probably see them most often in our mind’s eye wearing a surgeon’s scrubs or the armour-like PPE with total coverage and visor, their number includes so many more – the ambulance drivers and paramedics, cleaning staff, carpark attendants, chaplaincy personnel, hospital social workers who try to ensure that a patient’s needs are respected with discretion, the staff of the local doctor’s surgery who are very much the front line. Nor should we forget the staff of the funeral directors whose work in this time has been even more heart-breaking with so little of the human contact that is the hallmark of the Irish funeral. Some of those young nursing staff have had to take the place of spouses or sons and daughters as they brought comfort to dying patients whose nearest and dearest could not be with them. The coronavirus has been a hard and worrying time for us. It has been a time of trial, but it has also been a time of grace. Just enumerating them is like re-wording the litany of saints! Among the bearers of grace have been the medical personnel. Their salaries bear little relation to the good they do or to the labour and human toil that it requires. One team changes places with another early in the morning: that often entails an early rise and a drive or trying to pick up scarce public transport. At the other end of the day, coming off work late disrupts family life, especially if young children are to be seen before bed. Shift work can make

running a regular social life tricky! Human illness, when you get close to it, is not a pretty sight. In addition to this human cost, caring for the sick requires money, as we have learned in a dramatically new way these past weeks. Funding a health service for all must be a priority of our common good. While up-to-date equipment costs money, there is no way we can permit cheeseparing of the salaries of those on the front line, especially of younger nurses and doctors with an eye to the future and a need for a home.

Brendan McConvery CSsR Editor

C OVE R STO RY

OUR LADY OF LETNICA 12

KOSOVOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HISTORIC MARIAN SHRINE

REALITY JUNE 2020

A LITTLE-KNOWN MARIAN SHRINE, BUT ONE LOVED BY ST TERESA OF CALCUTTA, CARRIES THE STORY AND HOPES OF A PEOPLE BY SALVADOR RYAN

Remotely

nestled in the Karadag mountains of south-east Kosovo lies the tiny picturesque village of Letnica (Letnicë in Albanian). As you approach the hamlet by a winding mountain road, a large whitewashed church, with double bell towers, rises before you, dominating the rural landscape. This is the church of the Assumption and in it lies a statue of the Virgin Mary (the Gospa) which has served as an identity marker for the village’s inhabitants; a standard of hope in troubled times; the source of miracles for pilgrims in need; and a common attraction for different ethnic and religious groups in a region of religious and cultural complexity. It’s a place I know well, having visited it many times since my first trip in December 1999 while doing some aid work in neighbouring Macedonia, just over six months after the Kumanovo treaty, which brought the war in Kosovo to an end. PILGRIMAGE Majka Božja Letnička (Our Lady of Letnica) is a statue of blackened wood, carved some 400 years ago. Letnica has been an important site of Marian pilgrimage on the feast of the Assumption since the mid-19th century, when many thousands of pilgrims (Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Muslims) gather for the festival. Some report seeing tears flow from the statue’s eyes; others miraculous cures of ailments. The shrine is particularly renowned for assisting infertile couples. The tradition of a walking pilgrimage is very strong, as it is in many other Marian centres. Many pilgrims will travel great distances, some walking barefoot and carrying pilgrim

stones with them, either in their hands or, sometimes, in their mouths, as generations have done before them. Overrun with pilgrims, large numbers of tents are pitched in fields across the surrounding verdant valleys. Food stalls are erected in the area outside the church, specialising in traditional Balkan grilled meat. The vigil Mass of the feast is packed. The church will remain open through the night to afford devotees the opportunity to pray before the Gospa, the area ablaze with candlelight as pilgrims, with their worries and concerns for family, friends, and life situations keep vigil by proxy. There has been a KFOR (Kosovo Force) military pilgrimage to Letnica since the mid-2000s and this has contributed in no small measure to the internationalisation of the shrine, soldiers attending from countries such as America,

Austria, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. For some years after the conflict, there was a platoon of peace-keeping troops stationed in the church grounds at Letnica, the soldiers occupying the former nuns’ quarters. On the feast day, the statue of the Virgin is carried through the crowds after Mass, newly-clothed in a white dress for the occasion. One Muslim lady who travelled to Letnica with her family in 2016 described how she performs the pilgrimage: “We pray, light candles, take water, then we touch the dress of the Black Madonna so that we will have luck.” The dress which has adorned the Virgin for the previous year will now be cut up into small pieces of cloth, no larger than a postage stamp, and distributed to pilgrims. Those who visit the shrine on quieter occasions can often find a small box set aside, filled with small pieces of cloth which have

C OVE R STO RY

Overrun with pilgrims, large numbers of tents are pitched in fields across the surrounding verdant valleys. Food stalls are erected in the area outside the church, specialising in traditional Balkan grilled meat Stalls set up for the festival

touched the statue. These pieces of cloth are pocketed both by the curious and the pious, and often passed on to those who are sick. On my most recent visit, in September 2018, the box with the pieces of cloth wasn’t there. What one could do instead was drape a clean handkerchief on the end of a very long wooden pole and stretch it up to touch the statue (the handkerchief might then be cut into smaller pieces for later distribution). The feast day in 2016 was particularly special because it anticipated the following month’s canonisation of Mother Teresa, who had a close relationship with the shrine. Born During the festival, the Madona is carried around the village

REALITY JUNE 2020

Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in 1910 in Skopje, her Albanian Catholic parents, Nikola and Drane, were originally from Prizren in Kosovo and frequently visited the shrine. In August 1928, at the age of 17, Agnes travelled the 63km from Skopje to Letnica with her parents. There, while praying before the statue of the Virgin, she decided to enter religious life. Later, having become recognised internationally for her work amongst the poor, she would never visit Kosovo without always visiting Letnica, where her vocation began.

HISTORY OF THE SHRINE The shrine of Our Lady of Letnica is intimately tied to the complex history of the surrounding region. The history of Letnica parish can be traced back to the early 14th century when it was part of the Kingdom of Serbia. An area rich in minerals, it was famed for its mining, and attracted Croats and Saxons from Central Europe, who worked the first mines. The Croats who settled here are known as Janjevci (from the town of Janjevo, their stronghold). The nearby village of Šašare reputedly gets its name from its Saxon settlers. From the mid-15th century, Kosovo became part of the Ottoman empire (until reconquered by Serbia in 1912). Hostility towards Christians increased after the failed Austrian invasion of the Ottoman empire in 1690. Two episcopal reports in 1710 and 1716 relate how both churches in the parish had been extensively damaged and that the local Ottoman government refused to allow their repair. The parish wouldn’t have a church again until 1866. In the intervening period, Masses were celebrated in the open air under an oak tree upon which the statue of the Gospa of Letnica was placed. It has ever since been hailed by Croats as having helped them preserve their identity and their Catholic faith during difficult times. Catholics are a tiny minority in Kosovo. By the beginning of the 19 th century,

Letnica was one of just six Catholic parishes (with a combined Catholic population of some 6,000). It was also one of the few predominantly Slav parishes (most Catholic parishes in the diocese of Skopje were Albanian Catholic). Albanian Catholic communities and Albanian Muslim settlements such as the villages of Stublla and Bincë were also within the area. But there was also another category of believer, the so-called laramans, who identified neither exclusively as Catholic or Muslim, but a mixture of both (the Albanian adjective i larmë means variegated or motley). They were also called by some “crypto-Catholics”, who kept their Muslim names but were thought to be Christian at heart. The growth of the shrine at Letnica coincided with a campaign of recovery by the Catholic Church, aimed at winning back souls in the Karadag mountains. In 1835, Propaganda Fide in Rome chose Letnica as the centre of Franciscan missionary activity to the laramans. Widespread veneration for Mary by laraman and Muslim women was regarded as a hopeful sign. In 1866 (when the new church opened) a total of 25 baptisms

The parish church at Letnica, Kosovo

of laramans took place. Two names were recorded in the register for the baptism of each laraman child: their Christian baptismal name and their Muslim name by which the child would be known by in public. Church authorities were uneasy with this arrangement, but clergy on the ground were happy to accommodate when negotiating difficult cultural and religious waters. There was also the memory of 1845-8 when a group of laramans from Stublla requested to be officially recognised as Catholics and were refused. Instead they were deported to Anatolia where ma ny o f th em died. They were subsequently hailed as martyrs. Touching the statute with a handkerchief

After the First Balkan War in 191213, the Ottomans were swept aside and Kosovo became part of Serbia again. It was incorporated into the Kingdom of the Serbs, the Croats and the Slovenes in 1918. Ivan Franjo Gnidovec, bishop of Skopje from 1924 to 1939, promoted Letnica as the main pilgrimage shrine of the diocese. He also ended laraman baptisms, seeing no reason now why so-called “crypto-Catholics” shouldn’t come out into the open. Some did but others were reluctant to do so, either because of traditional marital ties with other Muslim families or because they feared the repercussions. CHANGING TIMES By the time of my first visit in December 1999, Letnica and its shrine had entered another phase of its history. Owing to increasing tensions through the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, large numbers of Janjevci, the Croat population of the region who had lived in these hills for almost 700 years, left their native place and travelled to Croatia in several waves of evacuation. Early evacuees were re-settled in western Slavonia in five Serbian villages that had

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been ravaged during the war of 1991 and left deserted by their original inhabitants. Numbers later travelled to Zagreb. I listened to one woman, with tears in her eyes, explain to me what had happened just three weeks before. Villagers, having made their decision, went out into their small patches of land and wept openly while kissing the ground; many older members maintained a heavy silence, conscious that they would never see their homes again. Vrnavokolo, a neighbouring mountain hamlet within the parish, had to be approached on foot up a steep rocky path. Here was an abandoned village, houses empty, denuded of any remnant of life. An eerie silence hung over the land. A child’s shoe embedded in an embankment: the only visible trace of human population. Built in 1983, the large St Francis church and retreat centre was now an ecclesiastical Marie Celeste. Hymn books still on the seats; dead flies littered the floor; unused and unwashed

cups in the kitchen. And, poignantly, on the table, a photo of a recent Confirmation class. In Letnica, the houses and parcels of land of those who left were largely occupied by Albanian settlers who had moved to the region in the wake of conflict in Northern Macedonia in 2001. Out of 4,331 Janjevci (Kosovo Croats) registered there in the 1991 census, only some 40 remained in 2011 and these were mainly elderly, widowed, incapable of work, and living in houses in a state of extreme disrepair. One of those who chose to stay was local community activist, Frok Dokić, who runs a small family restaurant. More recently there are signs of hope. The European Commission’s Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) has funded a major cultural heritage project in Letnica, sponsoring workshops involving sociologists, anthropologists and ethnologists. Their work is initially centred on restoring an old mill owned by Frok Dokić

Praying the Rosary

(which will become a museum), but it also wishes to relate more widely the unique history of Letnica through stories, films and photographs. And still the pilgrims come. On my most recent visit, in late August 2018, I walked behind the sanctuary to one of my favourite spots in the church: an area where the whitewashed walls are covered with the petitions of pilgrims written in simple biro. The hopes, fears, gratitude and desperation of those who have made the journey here constitute a people’s litany. One simply reads: “Our Lady of Letnica, pray for my family, and preserve us from every evil”). For a region that has suffered so much in the past, we can just echo that final sentiment.

Salvador Ryan is professor of ecclesiastical history at St Patrick’s College Maynooth.

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MEDITATING THE GOSPEL STORY WITH THE MOTHER OF THE LORD By Fr George Wadding CSsR Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that when we pray the rosary in a prayerful, contemplative manner, it lifts us into a world where “we see and enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known.” Fr George Wadding CSsR is well-known for his thoughtful but simple and imaginative style of writing. In this little book, he invites us to explore the twenty scenes from the story of Jesus our Redeemer that make up the Joyful, Sorrowful, Luminous and Glorious mysteries of the Rosary. Walking and praying with Mary, we accompany the Lord along his way. This beautifully illustrated book is for beginners, as well as those who have been praying the rosary for many years. It can be used by the family or a prayer group. It is ideal for those who wish to pray the rosary tranquilly, resting in the mysteries, like Mary, ‘who pondered them in her heart.’ It is well-bound but still small enough to slip into a handbag or a pocket, and the colourful images for each decade will long stay in the memory. May God’s Spirit be with all who seek comfort in its pages.

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COM M E N T WITH EYES WIDE OPEN JIM DEEDS

WE ARE IN A LONELY PLACE...

IN THE FACE OF PANDEMIC AND THE HORROR OF BEREAVEMENT AND GRIEF, WE HAVE SO LITTLE TO OFFER. I’ve heard it said that during the time of lockdown our spending habits changed. Spending on everyday clothes has gone way down, for example, whereas spending on online goods like sports equipment and sportswear has increased. Not only that but we hear that spending on food has gone through the roof. I can say from my own context of sharing the house here with my wife and three young adult children that the weekly shopping bill has indeed increased. In times of worry, it seems, we like our grub. Jesus liked his grub too. Now, I believe he was the Son of God, so I don't say this glibly or with any disrespect. But the evidence is that he liked his grub. There are lots of stories told about him talking while he was at the table eating with people. So much so that in the Gospel of Luke we hear that there was a false rumour put about by the authorities who didn’t trust Jesus accusing him of being a drunk and a glutton! His enemies couldn’t figure out why Jesus spent so much time eating with people. They didn’t know that he encountered people when he was at the table with them or spoke with them as they caught their food or even as he cooked breakfast for them. Jesus was, and is, all about personal encounter. One story involving Jesus and food always sticks in my mind. It is also from the Gospel of

Luke. One day large crowds of people had followed Jesus as he preached his Good News (imagine a God who loves every one?!) and healed the sick. It was late on this day and there were lots of people. Jesus's close friends still didn't fully understand him and who he really was because they started to get nervous about how to care for all these people. No need for nerves when you are friends with Jesus though. They told him to send the people away to get fed. They said to do this because, "We are in a lonely place" (you can find this in Luke 9:12) We are in a lonely place. Those are very stark words that really hit home to us all now, don’t they? We are in a lonely place. Pandemic. Lockdown. Social distancing. Not seeing friends and family. Losing loved ones. We are in a lonely place alright. Surely Jesus, full of his preaching about a loving God, would have listened to his followers and made the problems all go away. Well... kind of. Jesus' reply, at first, seems cold; heartless, even. He says, "Feed them yourselves.” (This is in Luke 9:13) Feed them yourselves? We are told that were 5,000 of them. And that was only the men. (Why didn't they count the women and children? If they had, there would have been double that surely?) Feed them yourselves? His friends must have

panicked. They told him that they had only a little to offer; a grand total of five loaves of bread and two fish. So little to offer in the face of so much. That rings true for us now too, doesn't it? In the face of pandemic, lockdown, social distancing and the horror of bereavement and grief, we have so little to offer. Really, we can only offer our acquiescence to the evolving guidelines. It feels so little. Every day, I feel that I can only give so little in the face of so much, just like the Apostles felt. Indeed, I only have myself to give. Let’s focus on what Jesus said to his friends. Did he tell them that their small offering wasn't enough? Surely, he could have. He could have said, "A few loaves and fishes? Is that all? Let them starve then." But, of course, he didn't say that. He took what little they had to offer and... he multiplied it! He took what they had, and he made it bigger, plenty, more than enough. We are told that the thousands were fed and that there was enough left over to make hampers (maybe for the poor and needy someone place else?) And so it will be for our time too. What we have to give, we give with good hearts. Some among us will give service in frontline jobs, taking care of people in hospital and care homes or keeping our communities

running by providing the amenities we need and keeping by shops open. Some will give their good deeds in acts of charity and volunteering. Some will give their patience and obedience to the rules around social distancing. Some will give their prayers for the sick and dying. Whatever we give, we all can give. And whatever we give, God multiplies. God multiplies it until there is enough and more, just as his son did in the countryside of Judea all those years ago. These are difficult days indeed. But let us be patient in these difficult days. Let us give what we have, knowing it will be multiplied by God and that in that way our giving will be enough. Let us do this trusting the God who said "feed them yourselves" and then did the hard work to make sure all were fed.

Belfast man Jim Deeds is a poet, author, pastoral worker and retreat-giver working across Ireland.

TH E PA PAC Y

IS THE POPE STILL INFALLIBLE?

REFLECTIONS ON THE ��th ANNIVERSARY OF VATICAN I’S DEFINITION THIS IS THE SECOND ARTICLE CELEBRATING THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEFINITION OF PAPAL INFALLIBILITY AT THE FIRST VATICAN COUNCIL. HOW HAS THAT TEACHING FARED IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH SINCE THEN? BY SHAUN BLANCHARD

said at the beginning of last month’s article that I could offer two plausible answers to the question “is the pope still infallible?” The first was to say: “No – and he never was.” That was the topic of last month’s article.

REALITY JUNE 2020

MORE INFALLIBLE THAN EVER? My second answer – that the pope is more infallible now than he’s ever been – is not merely facile. It is a somewhat facetious way to point out the myriad problems created by inflated

conceptions of the papal office; conceptions that are widespread inside and outside the Church today. These problems are intimately intertwined with a host of complex factors. A major one is the unresolved difficulty of an ancient church, which for centuries deliberated at a ponderous, sometimes even glacial pace, trying to adapt itself to the globalised modern world of technology and mass media. While we laugh at ridiculous statements from the era of Vatican I – like the English convert W. G. Ward’s quip that he wanted an infallible papal bull every morning with his Times newspaper at breakfast – have we completely avoided this mindset? Taking the

pulse of the Francis adulation, and the equal and opposite anti-Francis hysteria, makes me wonder how different we really are. A single line on an airplane, a private letter, a footnote in a papal document: such are taken either as instant developments of doctrine or as dangerous lapses into 'ambiguity' or even error and heresy. Contrariwise, when a pope seems to sanction a politician or theologian we love (or disapproves of one we hate) the weight of 'the Church' is mistakenly thrown behind or up against that figure. “THE POPE’S ON OUR SIDE!” For the last three pontificates at least, Catholics of all stripes have waited with bated breath for papal utterances that confirm our side is right, that our sort of Catholic has now (definitively?) won the ideological battle over the other, bad Catholics. The same gross gloating that was rampant in some conservative and traditionalist circles during the pontificate of Benedict XVI has now flipped to the other side of the field. Many progressives were once so deeply disturbed by 'ultramontanism' (literally, 'beyond the mountains’, the name given to extreme supporters of papal infallibility in the 19th century) now can’t believe their luck. With the glee of a child on the playground vindicated by the teacher, they turn the weapons of their erstwhile oppressors back upon them. Conservatives who advocated a strict Roma locuta, causa finita est ('Rome has spoken, that’s the end of the matter') policy when Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) reigned (except, in the US at least, when he talked about economics or immigration or the environment) are now as stunningly shrewd in their interpretation of doctrinal documents as the most subtle postconciliar Jesuit. What, they ask, does 'inadmissible' mean, just as progressives asked what 'definitive' meant in the days of John Paul II. DOES THE FAITH CHANGE WITH THE POPE? Soon after the election of Pope Francis, a friend told me of a Catholic theology professor announcing to a doctoral seminar “it’s fun to be orthodox again!” Such a statement, even if unintentionally, gives the impression that orthodoxy – the very truth of the Catholic faith – can change from

pope to pope. Even worse, it implies the faith is reducible to and dependent on the opinions of the current pope. A consequence of such mis-readings of Vatican I – unintended, I would argue, by the average council father and by sophisticated ultramontane theologians like Giovanni Perrone – is that the pope has ceased to be the supreme (earthly) pastor and guardian of the faith and has become a kind of inspired revealer of progressive revelation. If this is so, then the faith itself hangs upon the will of a single man. It could change as soon as a new batch of white smoke puffs over St. Peter’s. Benedict XVI critiqued a reading of Vatican II that saw the Council as “eliminat[ing] an old constitution and creat[ing] a new one”. Today, I think a much more widespread problem, for Catholics all over the ideological spectrum, is the view of the pope I have outlined. That is, a view in which authority is so concentrated in one man that he reigns as a kind of hybrid between an absolutist head of state and a second Moses. Instead of Louis XIV’s infamous statement “I am the state” this new conception would have the pope say, “I am Tradition” (a phrase Pope Pius IX allegedly uttered). The roots of this problem are very complex, and it would be simplistic to put too much blame at the feet of Vatican I. Indeed, on the question of infallible teachings acts themselves, the text of Pastor Aeternus has, if anything, circumscribed them. Today, there is no real consenus as to the number and content of infallible papal teaching acts beyond universal recognition of two recent definitions: Mary’s Immaculate Conception (1854) and her Assumption (1950). Before the precise, technical definitions of the Vatican councils, it was commonly argued that papal teaching documents like Unigenitus (1713) and Auctorem fidei (1794) contained infallible definitions (in the form of solemn censures of heresies). Even extremely divisive (and politically motivated) medieval bulls like Unam Sanctam (1302) were included in ultramontane lists of infallible teaching. While some theologians would today recognise infallible definitions in these bulls and others, there is simply no agreed-upon list of infallible papal definitions (as some Protestant apologists eagerly point out).

CATHOLIC CULTURE The problem we face, then, is not a technical theological problem. Rather, it is a problem of Catholic culture, clerical and lay. The Francis pontificate, whatever challenges and tensions remain unresolved, has given more conservative Catholics a great gift, one they should really take to heart. That gift is the realisation that, at least on many matters, one can disagree with the pope and still be a good Catholic. While many conservative Catholics did not want to hear that John Paul II and Benedict XVI disagreed on certain matters (sometimes sharply) the era of Francis has irreversibly brought to light the fact of change and disagreement at the highest levels of the Church. And that is a very healthy thing, if for no other reason than the stubbornly persistent fact that the Catholic Church is made up of human beings, and human beings change and disagree. It might take decades, or even over a century, to implement the ecclesiological vision of Vatican II. After all, it took well into the 17th century for the vision of the Council of Trent to fully permeate the Church. In the meantime, those jubilant 'progressives' who give the impression that the pope is a prophet unbounded by scripture, tradition, or the teaching of his predecessors need to reassess. Likewise, in need of introspection are those 'conservatives' who react to every comment of Francis with a hysteria that is only comprehensible if the faith stands and falls with the pope. Good thing it doesn’t. The holder of that primacy, thanks be to God, is a humble Jew from Nazareth.

Shaun Blanchard is a native of North Carolina. After studies in England, he completed his PhD at Marquette University in Wisconsin and now teaches at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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Let th

g n i s e l e peop BY MARIA HALL

THE MUSICAL TRADITION OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH IS A TREASURE OF INESTIMABLE VALUE, GREATER EVEN THAN THAT OF ANY OTHER ART. THE MAIN REASON FOR THIS PRE-EMINENCE IS 20 THAT, AS SACRED SONG UNITED TO THE WORDS, IT FORMS A NECESSARY AND INTEGRAL PART OF THE SOLEMN LITURGY. (SACROSANCTUM CONCILLIUM 112)

Imagine

having 'Happy Birthday' or 'Congratulations' spoken to you on your big day or reciting the words of the National Anthem at a state occasion. How dull! You’d probably say "but they are meant to be sung!" Singing has a unique way of uniting people, lifting spirits and creating a sense of occasion. Life would be so very grim without it.

yet they are meant to be sung… they are songs! One of the major objectives of 20th-century liturgical reform was to increase the participation of the faithful. Back in 1903, Pope Pius X wanted to restore Gregorian Chant so that the faithful could take a "more active part in the ecclesial offices". Sacrosanctum Concillium of Vatican II fostered the ideas of Pius X, and affirmed the pre-

Singing is not optional; it isn’t the domain of the choir and it isn’t a selection of someone’s favourite hymns! But so often, we attend Mass and happily speak the words of the Gloria, psalm or Alleluia. And REALITY JUNE 2020

eminence of music in the liturgy, that "whenever the sacred action is to be celebrated with song, the

whole body of the faithful may be able to contribute that active participation which is rightly theirs". In other words, music is at the heart of the liturgy; it is not an added extra. We are talking particularly about the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist, but music shouldn’t be missing from weekday Masses either. Our Sunday celebration should be a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy of Jerusalem. The words of the Preface leading into the Sanctus describe the vision of praise given to God in the heavenly Jerusalem; And so with Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominions, and with all the Hosts and Powers of Heaven, we sing the hymn

of your glory, as without end we acclaim… Our entire Mass should be this vision; earth and heaven joining forces in a great attack on the senses as we give God what is due to him. That is why we sing! INVITING THE FAITHFUL TO SING Congregational singing in parish varies from place to place. Where there is a reluctance to sing, the invitation is a challenging one. But it must be addressed! Singing is not optional; it isn’t the domain of the choir and it isn’t a selection of someone’s favourite hymns! No one must feel pressured because then they definitely won’t join in! This is a long-term goal and needs to

be a team effort involving the priest, director of music, cantor and choir and of course the congregation! Knowledge and understanding are crucial for effective transformation (we should avoid the word ‘change’) and parish formation is essential. When people understand the liturgy, their ability to fully participate will grow. It’s much easier for an outsider to come in and work

with people, so consider a parish or deanery initiative to provide learning and formation. I worked in a parish just before the coronavirus lockdown began. I met with 30 choir members and musicians from different Masses. The aim was to create a sense of harmony (pardon the pun!) and understanding about their role. This is an outline of what we covered. Session 1. Understanding the Mass; the history, structure and meaning of the Mass. Session 2. Various roles at Mass; congregation (all of us!) choir, cantor, organist, musicians. Elements of the Mass and the order of importance in which they should be sung; what the Church documents say. Singing through some good examples. Discuss a plan to go forward. The discussions were animated at times because everyone has opinions! But there was a willingness to learn and a gradual acceptance that some adjustments were needed. It can be done!

TRANSFORMATION In one parish, I met with musicians who wanted to improve the quality of their contribution to the liturgy. They were keen that if there was to be transformation, the parish must be part of this process. We had several sessions and throughout the process, everyone was kept fully informed.

If we ignore singing the text, we are denying the faithful the opportunity to experience the liturgy at its fullest and thus develop a rich relationship with Christ in the Eucharist.

We made a plan that the first changes would take place at Christmas. Though it seemed like a long time off, it gave everyone time to get used to things, to practise and to work with the parish, in an atmosphere of shared growth. These new steps included having a brief congregational rehearsal before Mass, a cantor leading the psalm, and lectors singing ‘The Word of the Lord’.

Clergy and directors of music have a responsibility to work together and ensure that the text of the Mass (starting with the dialogues) is given musical priority. Musicam Sacram (1967) is the original point of reference. ‘Singing the Mystery of Faith’ is a modern, practical resource which is great for parishes. They both point us to the most important musical elements of the Mass: (a) In the entrance rites: the greeting of the priest together with the reply of the people; the prayer. (b) In the Liturgy of the Word: the acclamations at the Gospel. (c) In the Eucharistic Liturgy: the prayer over the offerings; the preface with its dialogue and the Sanctus; the final doxology of the Canon, the Lord's Prayer with its introduction and embolism; the Pax Domini; the prayer after Communion; the formulas of dismissal.

•Do we sing the Mass or are we singing at Mass? The Second Vatican Council made the Mass more accessible and that was the point, but what wasn’t desired or anticipated was that it would become subjective. Now everyone has an opinion, especially about music! Singing three hymns and not much else is really missing the mark. This is pre-Vatican II practice. In a liturgy where there was no participation for the faithful, hymns gave the congregation something to do! Hymns are wonderful and uplifting in the right place, but they shouldn’t replace the text of the Mass which is infinitely more suitable.

STARTING POINTS •Entrance music Most parishes, I imagine, have an entrance hymn, but the General Instruction of the Roman Missal refers to a 'chant'. Our starting point should be the Entrance Antiphon, which has been largely overlooked until recently. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal says: Th is chant is su n g alternately by the choir and the people or similarly by a cantor and the people, or entirely by the people, or by the choir alone. It is possible to use the antiphon with its Psalm from the Graduale Romanum or the Graduale Simplex, or another chant that is suited to the sacred action, the day, or the time of year, and whose text has been approved by the Conference of Bishops. (GIRM 48) •The Dialogues The dialogues are in the first degree of parts that should be

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Singing three hymns and not much else is really missing the mark. This is pre-Vatican II practice. In a liturgy where there was no participation for the faithful, hymns gave the congregation something to do!

sung. And if they were, the Mass would begin to be transformed! They are the exchanges between priest, deacon, lector and the people. For example; In the name of the Father and of the Son… Amen Through Christ our Lord. Amen The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God Lord in your mercy. Hear our prayer. The Lord be with you. And with your Spirit… Unless you are one of the 5 per cent of the population who is tone deaf, then the only obstacle to singing is confidence! The music for these is in the Roman Missal and is very simple. •The Psalm The psalms are songs and so we should be singing them! The idea of singing a short response comes from the Early Church. It was an easy and effective way for the faithful to join in and still is! The role of singing the psalm usually falls to a cantor, though there is the separate role of psalmist! REALITY JUNE 2020

Fintan O'Carroll’s collection is suitable for any parish situation. It’s a collection of beautiful settings for every Sunday of the three-year cycle with prayerful psalm tones to accompany them. REHEARSE WITH THE CONGREGATION This is the most important factor in getting people to sing and should be planned very carefully. The best thing to do is to take ten minutes before Mass to explain, practise and encourage any small changes. It must be prepared, short, to the point and gentle! This is where the choir is important in supporting the congregation; that’s their role! It would be great if the clergy could show their support by coming into church and joining in too. I have rehearsed with a congregation many times and still find it a bit daunting, because what you’d like is everyone in church to raise the roof with their singing and that isn’t always reality! But striving to improve the liturgy is always the right thing to do, so say a

prayer and persevere! I once heard the great composer, Marty Haugen, say that people must be allowed to ‘own’ the music. We own the words of the Mass because we have said them

so often; whatever music you introduce needs to be repeated so often that it is absorbed into the subconscious. Only then will people sing with all their hearts!

RESOURCES Singing the Mystery of Faith. A Guide to Liturgical Music. Veritas. Free music for the chants for the Mass at www.icelweb.org/musicfolder/openmusic.php Simple Gradual (Available on eBay) A full set of texts for Entrance, Offertory and Communion Antiphons compiled by the Society of St Gregory: www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Missal/Music/ ProcessionalBook.pdf Entrance Antiphons for the Church Year by John McCann. Published by Kevin Mayhew Sing the Mass (National Centre for Liturgy). Veritas. A Responsorial Psalm Book By Fintan O'Carroll. Veritas. Maria Hall is music director at St Wilfrid's Church, Preston, England. A qualified teacher, she has a Master’s from the Liturgy Centre, Maynooth and is a consultant on matters liturgical for schools and parishes. www.mariahall.org

F E AT U R E

PROMOTING CHRISTIAN UNITY GLOBALLY AND LOCALLY

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH CAME LATE TO THE DEVELOPING WORK TOWARDS CHRISTIAN UNITY THAT HAD BROUGHT TOGETHER MANY CHURCHES IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING WORLD WAR II. THIS YEAR MARKS THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST CREATIVE STEP ON ITS PART TOWARDS UNITY WITH THE OTHER CHURCHES. BY ANDREW PIERCE

the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity ended in January 1959, the newly-elected pope, John XXIII, created shockwaves by announcing that he planned to convene an Ecumenical Council. This would become the Second Vatican Council (1962-5), arguably the most significant religious event of the 20th century, with repercussions that continue to animate the Church even now. The idea of a second Vatican Council was not new. Pope Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s predecessor, Pius XII, had contemplated calling a brief and tightly-focused council shortly after the end of World War II. His advisors at the

time saw this as an opportunity to reassert an anti-Modernist and anti-ecumenical understanding of Catholic orthodoxy, and to combine it with the promulgation of the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This defensively-intended council did not, however, see the light of day, although we can catch a hint of its likely tone in the encyclical Humani Generis (1950) which condemned a number of current philosophical developments, as well as in the letter, Ecclesia Sancta, issued by the Holy Office in 1949. This letter concerned Catholic involvement in the ecumenical movement, and accorded a cautious, if limited, welcome

to ecumenism. It acknowledged that the Holy Spirit was the inspiration for the contemporary ecumenical movement, and permitted Catholic experts (albeit under strict conditions) to attend consultations on matters of faith and morals. A WIDER VIEW Pope John, however, had something else in mind. A historian and a diplomat, he was determined that Vatican II would be a landmark in the search for visible Christian unity. In June 1960, as part of extensive preparations for the Council, he established the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity

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And, although internal Christian differences are often explained in terms of doctrinal disagreements, it is striking that these divisions largely coincide with nondoctrinal fault lines Pope Francis dining with the leaders of the World Council of Churches

(known since 1988 as the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, or PCPCU). For 60 years, positive ecumenical engagement on the part of the Roman Catholic Church has been one of the most visible aspects of church life around the world. The ecumenical achievements of the Council cannot be reduced to its explicitly ecumenical texts but include the broader reimagining of Catholic identity undertaken by the bishops. Between 1962 and 1965 the Council fathers adopted a critical stance towards the initial drafts of conciliar teaching that they were expected to approve. Concerning the Church itself, an original text envisaged a single document, De Ecclesia, made up of 11 chapters and an appendix on Marian theology. Yet, over three years, this text underwent significant revisions. It finally became the source of several key conciliar texts: the dogmatic constitution on the church, Lumen Gentium, the pastoral constitution on the church in the modern world, Gaudium et Spes, the decree on ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, the declaration on other religions, Nostra Aetate, and the declaration on religious freedom, Dignitatis Humanae. ROLE OF THE SECRETARIAT The Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity played a key role in the production of the final texts on ecumenism, other religions and on religious freedom, as well as being an important contributor to the Council’s dogmatic REALITY JUNE 2020

constitution on revelation, Dei Verbum. When both Lumen Gentium and Unitatis Redintegratio were promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1964, the pope took the unusual – and not widely known – step of insisting that the decree on ecumenism was to provide the interpretative key to the understanding of church found in the dogmatic constitution. Ecumenical commitment pervaded the conciliar texts and helped to reorient the Church to a more positive engagement with the contemporary social, political and religious world. The Council had placed the Catholic Church firmly at the heart of the worldwide movement for visible Christian unity. Afterwards, the Secretariat became intimately involved in a series of important dialogues amongst the world Christian communions, with one of its branches focusing on the Orthodox churches in the east, and another addressing issues dividing the western churches. In the west, several important dialogues continue to help clarify where and how church-dividing issues arise, and to challenge institutionally selfinterested misunderstandings produced over many deeply unecumenical centuries. The energetic commitment to ecumenical witness on the part of so many churches and so many individual Christians since the early 20th century is one of the great signs of hope in our time. A whole generation has now grown up with an expectation that churches will seek to work and witness together as much as they possibly can, in marked contrast to what an earlier generation would have seen as ‘normal’ church

behaviour. Yet, like all institutions, churches find change a difficult business; learning new habits in our practices of religious belonging takes both time and deliberation. UNITY AT LOCAL LEVEL The work of the Council, and the subsequent work of PCPCU impacts especially at the level of church leadership. How, it is important to ask, does ‘promoting Christian unity’ take shape at a much more local level – on this island, for example? In 1988, the eminent Irish Presbyterian theologian, Robin Boyd, produced a short book, the title of which goes to the nub of the issue – Ireland: Christianity Discredited or Pilgrim’s Progress? One way to begin an answer to this question is to distinguish between purely ‘doctrinal’ aspects of our religious identity – creeds and dogmas, for example – and other, ‘non-doctrinal’ aspects that are often highly visible in church life. This isn’t a new idea – in the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles describes an early conflict in the church, when tension arose between ethno-religious groupings called ‘Hebrews’ and ‘Hellenists’. This potent cocktail of ethnicity, language, culture and religion is worth noting, because it recurs over and again in Christian history. And, although internal Christian differences are often explained in terms of doctrinal disagreements, it is striking that these divisions largely coincide with non-doctrinal fault lines – often cultural and linguistic divisions, such as those between the Latin West and Greek East,

The churches were ill-prepared for the ecumenical revolution of the 1960s: serious ecumenical engagement on the part of the Catholic church coincided with the rise of the civil rights movement St Pope John XXIII, instigator of Vatican II

between the north and south of Europe, and, more locally, between planter and native – and their descendants – in Ireland. Some of the most important ecumenical dialogues to-date address major doctrinal divisions – over the eucharist, the papacy, ordained ministry, salvation. And these dialogues have yielded significant – and in some cases surprising – levels of doctrinal consensus. In 2009, Cardinal Walter Kasper produced a short, sharp, shock for anyone at risk of ecumenical fatigue in his book Harvesting the Fruits, in which he gathered together some of the key recoveries and discoveries from Catholic dialogues in the West with Anglicans, Lutherans, Reformed and Methodists. Within a relatively short period of time, previously antagonistic relationships have been transformed utterly. Yet the people of God is not shaped by doctrine alone, and the quest for visible Christian unity needs to attend closely – perhaps more closely than it has done thus far, and in an explicitly theological way – to how non-doctrinal factors (an interpenetrating mesh of ethnicity, class, culture, nationality, gender and much else besides) regularly pretend to doctrinal status. In her illuminating account of ecumenical relations in Northern Ireland, historian Maria Power surveyed a shift that she detected – in the words of her book’s title – From Ecumenism to Community Relations. Part of her argument is that the churches were ill-prepared for the ecumenical revolution of the 1960s: serious ecumenical

engagement on the part of the Catholic church coincided with the rise of the civil rights movement. Issues that had been unquestioned and identity-defining were now seen as a suitable subject for dialogue with those against whom ‘our’ identity had long been defined. In short, mutual ecumenical encounters over supposedly doctrinal matters proved capable of bringing non-doctrinal, inter-community boundary markers to white heat. To reduce tension, the churches effectively re-branded themselves as ‘communities’, and sought to engage in fostering better ‘community relations’ rather than with the more fraught territory of ecumenical dialogue. Whether our churches are now sufficiently resourced to build on their experience of community relations, so as to address the ways in which ecumenical Christian identity may be articulated together, is a moot point. FACING THE FUTURE Perhaps the conversations and debates generated by the ongoing Decade of Commemorations offers a clue to the kind of ecumenical theology that we need to develop in Ireland. Across the island, we have been invited not only to look again at familiar-sounding events, but to look more closely and more critically. Many of the events from a century ago were shaped by and were subsequently encased in tribal mythologies. W.B. Yeats put the point well: "Out of Ireland have we come/Great hatred, little room/maimed us at the start".

The ecumenical challenge of Ireland, as Yeats articulated it, was not that we lacked sufficient physical territory in which to let our hatreds roam free – we had more than enough of that. Our ‘little room’ was the unduly restricted story that we had been told about ourselves, and that we continued to tell – one in which the others had no place. Orange versus Green, Protestant versus Catholic, Settler versus Native, British versus Irish – these hostile pairings all emerge out of a history in which dialogue with the other was simply not anticipated, hopedfor, planned-for, or imagined: whoever the others were, they did not really belong. The Decade of Commemorations has challenged people across the island to practice ethical remembering, thereby subverting earlier tribalised certainties by asking us to remember together how it is that we are all here and how we have become who we are. In this way, perhaps, it may be possible to shape alternative stories – together – both of who we are and who we hope to become. Hopefully, the experience of the Church over the past 60 years in promoting Christian unity will enable it to add its distinctive concern with repentance, dialogue and renewal to this wider conversation. Dr Andrew Pierce is Assistant Professor in the School of Religions, Trinity College, Dublin. He has a special interest in ecumenism.

V O CAT I O N

! d or L , m a Here I

o t t h g i l e Id

HOW DO YOU DISCOVER IF GOD IS CALLING YOU TO SPEND YOUR LIFE AS A PRIEST IN THE SERVICE OF OTHERS? BY TOMÁS SURLIS

my work as Rector of the National Seminary in Maynooth, I am part of a team called the Community of Formators. We are priests and religious and lay men and women who strive to assist those who are discerning a vocation to the diocesan priesthood. Most of the men are in formation for an Irish diocese. A small number comes from other parts of Europe and from Africa. The work that we do together has taught me that every baptised Christian is called by God to be a person for others, like Jesus was; to do something to make the plan of God for our world a reality. That is, to do something that no other person can do because God has created each person with a definite purpose in mind. God wants each one of us to have life and have it abundantly (cf. John 10:10). He did not

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create us to wallow in self-doubt, paralysed by fear or an unhealthy sense of unworthiness. He speaks words of peace to the hearts of those who love him while the evil one speaks words that cripple and maim and make deserts of our hearts by convincing us that we are worthless or hypocrites or alone. God’s call causes the desert to bloom, makes straight the pathway and lifts our eyes to the mountains from where our help comes: the Mount of Sinai, the Mount of Beatitudes, the Mount of Calvary, the Mount of Tabor. WHAT IS A VOCATION? In his Meditations on Christian Doctrine St John Henry Newman wrote a profound reflection on what it means to have a vocation (calling) as a disciple (follower) of Jesus Christ:

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his—if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling. Newman has hit on something fundamentally important for the person who is trying to prayerfully figure out his/her path in life. Each one of us is created by the Father who has loved us from all eternity and who has a plan for our

l l i w r do you 27 lives, a plan “for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). Our task as followers of Christ is to develop attentive hearts by doing what the great exemplars of faith in the Bible did. Think of Abraham or Moses or Elizabeth or Mary. Each one heard the voice of God unexpectedly and in a moment of reflection; they pondered and questioned and prayed for guidance and through their pondering, questioning prayer the Holy Spirit developed the gift of faith within them so that they were made able to freely say ‘yes’ to God’s plan for their lives. And what a difference each ‘yes’ has made to the story of the human race. The point is that our ‘yes’ matters! God speaks and then he waits with infinite respect for our free will for us to respond. He desires our ‘yes’ but he respects our freedom to say ‘no’ for that is the meaning of our radical freedom as sons and daughters of God. The word vocare means 'to call' or, better, 'to be called'. A call can be heard and answered or it can be heard and ignored. Think, for example, of the times when our phone has rung and we are eager to answer and to have a

conversation or think of the times when we are too tired or distracted to answer a phone call, saying to ourselves "I’ll do it later." The problem is that sometimes ‘later’ never comes. COMING TO DECISION Figuring out our vocation in life is not something that we have to do alone. To answer God’s call does not have to take on the appearance of climbing a steep mountain without the equipment we need to make it to the top. God has clothed us in the necessary ‘gear’ for we are called, chosen and sent. We are anointed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and announced to the world as beloved sons and daughters in Confirmation. He fills our hearts with his gifts and these gifts bear fruit in lives of holiness that are founded on faith, built up by prayer and loving action and fulfilled by our faithful ‘yes’ to God’s call to be who he has created us to be. All of us, married or single, bishop, priest or deacon, religious sister or brother, are called to be fathers and mothers, to generate the life of God in others by our word and example, by our thoughts and our deeds. We are called to transform this earth

by working with Jesus in and through the Church to build up the Kingdom of God in this world so that we can glorify him in eternity with all those who have faithfully trod the path of Christian discipleship before us. In these times of challenge where fear threatens to overpower us, let us pray the Lord of the Harvest to flood our hearts with the faith and conviction which allows us to say with the Psalmist, “Here I am, Lord; I delight to do your will” (Ps 40:7).

Tomás Surlis is a priest of the diocese of Achonry in the West of Ireland. Since ordination in 2003, he has worked as a school chaplain, as a curate in parish, as principal of St Nathy’s College, Ballaghaderreen and since 2018 as Rector of the National Seminary, St Patrick’s College Maynooth.

THE BIBLE FORGIVENESS CEREMONY

REALITY JUNE 2020

AN E XPERIENCE OF SOMEONE IN THE CO N G R E G AT I O N O V E R LO O K I N G H I S ERROR MAKES FR COLM THINK ABOUT HOW HE CELEBRATES THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION ON PARISH MISSIONS IN THE MOUNTAIN VILLAGES.

of Dumaguete diocese as the presidents of Siberia, Kazakhstan and Uruguay. So, for a churchgoer, at 6.15am, to nod his accurate awareness of my Old Testament regal mix-up was altogether good news for me.

BY COLM MEANEY CSsR

CELEBRATING FORGIVENESS Divine mercy is one of the hallmarks of our congregation. One of the nicest evenings I have on the mission is a celebration of forgiveness. It’s a simple ceremony. I begin by emphasising that the core, overriding message of our gathering is God’s mercy, which is offered freely. God’s grace, however, may be free but it is not cheap. Christ highlighted the incongruity and unacceptability of asking for God’s mercy while denying that same mercy to our own enemies. Nonetheless, God’s overflowing, inexhaustible forgiveness is the focus of our evening’s ceremony. I try to highlight the social nature of sin, how it affects others. In fact, as Aquinas wrote: “God is not offended by us except through that by which we act against our good” (Summa Contra Gentiles, 3.122). I use visual aids to make my points graphic: I wield a machete to highlight the various types of violence which scar, maim or kill – physically, verbally, emotionally. I display a plastic bag of sugar (heroin substitute) to focus on the prevalence of drug abuse and the damage and destruction caused by it. I place a cloth over someone’s eyes as a sign of 'sins of omission', how we shut out eyes to situations which cry out for comment or condemnation. Then time is

was 6am and I was making the daily crossing between the gentle, entertaining reveries of the land of Orpheus (ie sleep) and the more serious responsibilities of our quotidian Alphonsian existence (ie giving a homily). The first reading was from the Second Book of Kings, describing the exile to Babylon. In my short talk I was holding forth, with appropriate solemnity, on the cruelties imposed on the unfortunate Israelite king. As I described how his children were slaughtered as he was forced to watch, and then how he had his eyes gouged out, I saw a churchgoer

was signalling that I was wrong in what I was sharing. PREACHER CORRECTED As soon as I reached my room, I opened the Old Testament: he was right and I was wrong! I had mixed up Zedekiah (who indeed did suffer such cruelties) with Jehoakin (who, taken into captivity, was treated pretty well, all things considered). Was I disappointed at being so caught out, 'corrected'? Not at all! His simple nodding gesture was like a little pin near the big balloon of any pretentions I may have, any presumptions of infallibility that are apt to tempt me. In fact, far from any negative sensation at all, I was thrilled to discover a layperson so informed with the scriptures, and especially so familiar with th e m o re obscure passages. In the mission areas in the province, whether mountain or highway, the scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, are almost as foreign as the Koran. I refer to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, (not to mention Peter, James and John), and they are as familiar to the Catholics

God’s grace, however, may be free but it is not cheap. Christ highlighted the incongruity and unacceptability of asking for God’s mercy while denying that same mercy to our own enemies move his head from side to side. Generally (apart from India) this means one of two things: either he was nodding in sad sympathy at the dire straits of the hapless monarch, or else he

given for each to reflect on what they need to change in their lives. I encourage them to try and identify one habit or weakness that could be the focus of both their penitence and renewal. The actual meeting of penitent and minister is based on an article I read years ago in Chicago Studies magazine. Simply said, sinfulness and sorrow for sin are communicated in silence, through the clenching of both hands. The fists represent hardness and being closed: the fist is used to fight, the palm to caress; a closed fist cannot receive a gift, only an open hand can. The priest then opens the hands and says the words of absolution. From the priest, the forgiven then proceeds to have oil smeared on their open palms. The oil is ordinary oil, blessed to be used as the balm of healing. Finally, they proceed to kiss a crucifix, expressing their gratitude to the Lord for his goodness. The entire event is celebrated slowly and solemnly (apart from the machete wielding!), with nice background music, dimmed lighting. I’ve used this format many times, in diverse places, with various groups. The response has invariably been positive and encouraging – people find it meaningful and moving.

A native of Limerick city where he went to school in St Clement’s College, Fr Colm Meaney first went to the Philippines as a student and has spent most of his priestly life there.

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COM M E N T FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS CARMEL WYNNE

THE PAIN OF BEING STIGMATISED

SHAME CAN MAKE PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY YOUNG AND VULNERABLE PEOPLE, FEEL BAD WHEN THEY BELIEVE THEY HAVE DONE SOMETHING THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE OR THAT LETS THEIR FAMILY DOWN. Wouldn’t life be wonderful if everyone made an effort to be kind and loving? Wouldn’t it be amazing if people were nonjudgemental, supportive and encouraging? Unfortunately many are not. There have always been bullies; people who deliberately inflict pain and make life miserable for their victims. The tragedy of our times is that cyber bullies have a model in the President of the United States who sends out hateful, hurtful and vindictive tweets. Caring parents teach their children how they should act, how they should behave in public, with relatives and on social occasions. If children misbehave and fail to meet the standards of acceptable behaviour, they are told "You should be ashamed of yourself". To feel ashamed of bad behaviour or an unkind act is a healthy response. On the other hand, to feel stigmatised and shamed because of negative comments about who you are is heart-breaking and souldestroying. Our family’s beliefs and values play a major role in how we treat others. Whether we are aware of it or not, our parents strongly influence our choice of friends, and how we conduct ourselves in public and in private. They teach us the rules we live by. Many young adults who are focused on their careers feel a subtle pressure to live up to

parental expectations, to get married, settle down and have children. Some feel ashamed, as if they are letting their parents down by not living a 'normal' life according to their parents' definition of normal. Shame is a strong emotion that makes people feel bad when they believe they have done something that is unacceptable or unworthy of who they are. When shame makes an adolescent feel they are not okay because of perceived family disapproval or social prejudice it has a huge impact on their self-esteem and life choices. Can you imagine what it must feel like to go through life feeling judged and condemned, believing there is no one you can turn to, no one you can trust, and no one who understands? No caring, empathetic person would want anyone, whether they knew the person or not, to go through life feeling like this. To feel shamed for being who you are must be a terrible cross. Suppose someone you have known since childhood told you this was his experience as a gay man. How would you respond? Imagine you are told that the truth will set him free but it will hurt a lot of people he loves. It will devastate his family. He wants your help to tell people he is gay. He is exhausted from pretending he is something he is not. Let’s suppose that he can no longer cope with the mental stress of hating himself for living

a lie. He has thoughts of suicide but is not suicidal. What would you do? Would you advise caution, tell him to think long and hard before he makes a decision, or would you instantly offer to support him in any way he would find helpful? Older people can feel shocked when they recognise prejudices they inherited from their parents, society, the Church and state. It takes a long time for a change in attitude to filter down through society. The discrimination and stigmatisation of gay people is unspiritual. The personal stories of celebrities like BBC presenter Phillip Schofield, who was married to his wife Stephanie for 27 years, and Irish actor Eilis O’Carroll, who was 40 when she told her husband that she was gay, reflect the trauma of coming out. Both expressed their immense gratitude to their respective spouses who loved them and supported them when they finally made the painful decision to reveal, "I’m gay". For generations society was structured to suit heterosexual couples. Having the right family image was necessary to progress in certain professions such as politics. In order to fit the perceived image for a successful career, thousands of gay people married for the wrong reasons. It was only in 1993 that Ireland officially passed legislation which decriminalised homosexuality.

A gay man once told me that he believes you can have no understanding of what it is to feel shame until you’ve lived with the belief that your whole self is wrong. It takes enormous courage for a person to reveal that for most of his or her life s/he felt unworthy, shamed and stigmatised for not being heterosexual. Kind words will never undo the damage or heal the lifetime of pain of gay people who for 20, 30 or even more years felt shamed and stigmatised by society. No one can change what happened in the past. But every person has the ability to be kind, loving and non-judgemental in the present and in the future. As poet Maya Angelou said, "When we know better, we do better".

Carmel Wynne is a life and work skills coach and lives in Dublin. For more information, visit www.carmelwynne.org

F E AT U R E

COVID-�� Ten messages to our kids 32

THESE PAST FEW WEEKS HAVE BEEN DIFFICULT FOR MOST OF US. YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE LOST THE FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION WITH FRIENDS AND THE PRACTICE OF SPORTS AND HOBBIES THEY TOOK FOR GRANTED. WHAT CAN WE SAY TO THEM? A FATHER OF TEENAGERS AND TWENTY-SOMETHINGS REFLECTS.

so in these times of struggles, and that faith tells me that God is good and that we will be okay in the end. The ten messages I wrote are in no way definitive, of course, but I offer them here for your consideration as well.

BY JIM DEEDS

This is a good message to begin with. There is a lot of worry out there and worry can quickly turn to panic. One of the problems with panic is that it messes with your decision-making. Decisions made in panic rarely turn out to be good decisions. So, if you feel yourself begin to panic a bit, talk to someone who you know is level-headed and give yourself a chance to take a few deep breaths and a bit of time to relax. Don’t panic. We are here for you.

How

we speak to our children and grandchildren, nephews, nieces or other young people in times of struggle is very important. Often times, we ourselves feel paralysed by worry and in that paralysis, we find it hard to articulate much of anything at all to them. What will happen in that scenario is that they will get their messages about the struggles facing them and how to deal with those struggles from other sources. Some of these will be good and wise sources. Some may not. I faced this situation as many of us did with

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the onset of the changes we all needed to make to combat the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus making people ill all over the world. My children are late teenagers and early twenty-somethings. I noticed my daughter, whose school had just closed and who was therefore around the house more, acting in small ways that let me know she was nervous and unsettled. I set about collating some key messages I wanted her and my boys to read, hear and think about. I wanted the messages to be clear, realistic and hopeful. I still hold on to my faith, perhaps even more

1. Don’t panic

2. Be responsible

You have the power to make a huge difference in the world on a whole lot of levels. Your actions can really help people

We have to rest well and eat well. We have to take exercise in safe ways. Prayer and meditation, alone or with others, is also a great way to recharge the batteries 33

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ourselves. Donations of time or money to charities are ways to go. Praying for people is another one too. There are sure to be others. Why not spend time these days thinking of how you might help others?

6. Check in with others

and help the situation we are facing into. Take a bit of time to think through how you can best contribute to the health and wellbeing of those around you. That will mean taking responsible decisions and action as well. That might mean making some sacrifices in terms of the way you live and behave. You can do it!

write, draw, sing, play games – and learn new skills. There are lots of language lessons online for example. Why not challenge yourself to do something new each day? It could be fun.

3. Keep the batteries charged

Now more than ever we would ask you to be like Jesus, who spent his time on earth looking out for the poor, the sick and the needy. While we have to look after ourselves, we also need to think how we can make a difference to those less fortunate than

When your mobile phone’s battery runs down it loses the ability to run at full capacity. It won’t be as bright and isn’t able to do all it can usually do when fully charged. In the same way, if we allow our batteries to run down, we can become less bright, less energetic and not be able to do as much as we might if we kept the batteries charged. While your phone simply needs plugged into a socket, we’re more complex than phones. So, we have to take the right steps to keep our batteries charged. We have to rest well and eat well. We have to take exercise in safe ways. Prayer and meditation, alone or with others, is also a great way to recharge the batteries.

4. Use your skills and talents

You have so many skills! You have learned to do lots of things as you’ve grown up. And learning new skills is fun, useful and keeps us occupied when we might otherwise be bored. So, spend some time using the skills and talents you already have – play music, REALITY JUNE 2020

5. Take care of the poor and needy

In these times of keeping our distance from each other and even isolation for some, it is vitally important that we remember that human beings are made to be social beings. We are hardwired for some sort of interaction. That interaction will, of course, be different for different people. Some will be grieving the loss of hugs and handshakes; others will be content enough that they are gone for this time. But no one can exist with zero contact or interaction. It is not good for us. So, remember to check in with friends and family, especially if you know they are on their own. A simple phone call, text or WhatsApp message could brighten someone’s day more than you could know. You could check in with your parents once in a while. Just ask how they are; it’s hard for us all at times and your concern and compassion will be appreciated.

7. Use social media well

Your generation has grown up with social media and you use it so well. I know that some people go on about the dangers of

Keep your antennae up for dangerous nonsense – advice about miracle cures or racist talk or talk of God punishing people with this virus. Pure nonsense

social media and, while there are of course things to avoid, in balance social media platforms are great ways for people to be and feel connected to other people. Step into it like never before. Get connected to people and keep them encouraged and hopeful. Be a virus of goodwill and love that spreads faster than COVID-19. You guys know how to do it. You got this.

8. Don’t believe the hype

Having said what I’ve said about social media, there’s also a lot of nonsense out there! Don’t just swallow everything that everyone says or writes as being true. Be curious about the source of the information you are reading. You’ve probably got a bit of time on your hands these days, so go factcheck if something sounds fishy. Also keep your antennae up for dangerous nonsense – advice about miracle cures or racist talk or talk of God punishing people with this virus. Pure nonsense. You’ve got good brains, you can use them to filter out the nonsense from the good stuff.

9. Know you are loved

This is really important. In these times of difficulty, it could be easy to forget the

fundamental things in life. Don’t. Please remember that you are loved immeasurably. You are precious and you are important. You are the apples of our eyes and we love you dearly.

10. All things pass and this will too

St Teresa of Avila once said, “Let nothing disturb you Let nothing frighten you All things pass away; God never changes” She was right of course and one day this virus will pass away. It will be gone. It will be history. That is likely to be only months away from now. Society will have to do a lot of rebuilding though. Many people will be in hardship and the systems we have lived by and lived under in the past will need to be reconsidered. Keep yourselves fit and well and ready to be at the forefront of building the world again. Your generation are the leaders of today and, more so, of tomorrow. Learn from the mistakes of the people who have gone before you. Learn also from what they did well and do even better. We know you can build a world that cares for all creation. Go for it!

Conclusion

As I wrote these messages to my children something struck me; I was also writing to myself! I, too, was worried and unsettled. Perhaps seeing my daughter behave in those small ways that alerted me to her worry also alerted me to my own. And that was a gift to me because in writing these messages I found a quieter place within myself where I could think and pray about how best to live well in these times of upheaval. I found that being sensible, focusing on what is true and important is the key to getting by. And I found that keeping God at the heart of all things, not cut off or seen as only for oncea-week (now virtual) Mass, is the true way to live well. My prayer is that by reading and sharing these messages you too will come to the quiet and find God waiting to console you there. May God continue to bless us and strengthen us these days and all days. Stay well.

Belfast-born husband and father, Jim Deeds, is a regular columnist with Reality.

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Mary Blessed Mother

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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IN THE F OOTSTEPS OF CLEM ENT: PA RT 4

BACK TO THE NORTH THE FIRST REDEMPTORIST COMMUNITY OUTSIDE OF ITALY WAS IN WARSAW FROM 1788 UNTIL 1808. SCHOOL, ORPHANAGE, CHURCH – IT WAS A PERPETUAL MISSION THAT ATTRACTED MORE 37 THAN 60 NEW MEMBERS. BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

October

was a good time for a walk across the Alps. The hot Italian summer had passed into a cooler autumn, and a few weeks remained before the first snows would block the Alpine passes. Armed with a letter of introduction to the papal nuncio in Vienna, and little else, Clement and Thaddeus headed towards Austria in 1785. Ever the pilgrims, they made a detour to visit the most popular Marian shrine in Italy, the Holy House of Loreto. On arrival in Vienna, Clement’s 'Catholic nose' smelt the same stale air of state control as when they had left a year earlier. The Emperor Joseph had closed 800 monasteries in his realms and

was unlikely to make an exception for an obscure community from Italy whose members gave parish missions, one of the activities he had banned. Clement and Thaddeus made the best use of their time they could. They took a course in catechetics and made several pilgrimages to holy places, praying for the success of their mission. In October 1786, they decided to move further north into Russian Poland or Swedishcontrolled territory, still further to the north. On their way, they made a brief stop at Clement’s birthplace in Tasswitz. Clement’s mother, Maria Hofbauer, had died the previous year, so he visited her grave and said Mass for the repose

of her soul. A chance meeting with his former hermit companion, Emmanuel Kuntzman, ended up with the recruitment of the first Redemptorist brother north of the Alps. Poor Emmanuel’s aspirations for the hermit life had proved illusory, but he still maintained his pilgrim spirit, and his latest hope when he met Clement was to visit the tomb of the Magi in Cologne. His health was not as robust as it had been, but at least with Clement and Thaddeus, he had the consolation of finding a religious community as home. ARRIVAL IN WARSAW The three travellers arrived in Warsaw in February 1787. They

were fortunate that the papal nuncio was a Neapolitan who knew and respected Alphonsus. Their first challenge was to find a place to live and an apostolate which would give them some pastoral work and become an eventual channel for the missionary energy of the Redemptorist congregation to which they now belonged. There was a small church in Warsaw that was in the charge of the German confraternity of St Benno. Benno was the 11thcentury bishop of Meissen who was much venerated in Bavaria. The confraternity originally ran a hostel for travellers and an orphanage for poor German children. For a time, the church

IN T HE F O OT ST E PS OF CL EMENT: PART 4

A model reconstruction of Warsaw in the late 18th century at the time of Clement

and the various works had been in the care of the Jesuits. Following the suppression of the Society in 1773, the church

was now in a bad state of repair and the confraternity’s projects were at a standstill. The arrival of two German-speaking priests St Benno's Church, Warsaw

and a brother seemed like an answer to prayer. The directors of the confraternity offered the church to the Redemptorists and requested them to take over the school for poor German boys. They were supported by the nuncio, who asked Clement to stay at least a year in Warsaw and see how things might work out. The only problem was that this apostolic plan would have been highly unacceptable to the Redemptorist superiors in faroff Italy. After very unsuccessful attempts at running schools

attached to his early foundations, Alphonsus had totally forbidden his followers to take on educational work. Besides, if they were so taken up with the regular work of a city church and school, what was to become of the parish mission work? COMMUNITY LIFE IN ST BENNO’S The little monastery attached to the church was in a total state of disrepair. At the beginning all that was habitable was only one room, but even it was damp. The

In the 20 years of the existence of St Benno’s from 1788 to 1808, it was home to 65 Redemptorists, all but three of whom received their formation and theological training in the cramped conditions of the small monastery REALITY JUNE 2020

Sunday in St Benno’s 5am Polish sermon followed by Mass 6am Mass and hymns 8am High Mass with chant, Polish/ German sermons 11am Catechism for children Solemn High Mass with orchestra 3pm Office of the BVM (sung) Confraternity prayers 4pm German/Polish sermon Sung Vespers 5pm Visit to Blessed Sacrament Way of the Cross/ Examination of Conscience/ Litany

entire furnishings of the house amounted to a table and a couple of chairs. There were no beds, so one man slept on the table and the others made themselves as comfortable as they could on the chairs. Brother Emmanuel took over the kitchen. Despite his goodwill, he knew little about cooking and even what utensils were needed had to be borrowed from kindly neighbours. Worse, the cashbox was virtually empty, and they could not expect much help from their Italian superiors. St Benno’s was in any case a foreign foundation. The Austrians had annexed part of Poland, and Clement quickly realised that they were unpopular because they were regarded as Germans. Having taken over a former Jesuit church, another rumour went out that they were ex-Jesuits, trying to get in by the back door. The confraternity was keen to get the school and orphanage under way as soon as possible and the three Redemptorists applied themselves to running a free school for poor children. It was soon obvious that these poor children needed something

in the line of vocational training that would prepare them for the world of work. Little has come down in the records as to how Clement and his brethren took care of this aspect of the educational life. It is most likely that Clement did what he often did later – he used his contacts with willing tradesmen to persuade them to take on the boys as apprentices. Although the school began with a hundred pupils, within a few years the numbers had risen to around 400 or 500. It included both boys and girls. Clement realised that it was even more important to give the girls some kind of practical training. Warsaw had a large military garrisons of occupying troops. In a letter, Clement observed that there was hardly a street without a brothel. If the dignity and virtue of these girls was to be protected, it was vital that they be provided with some way of earning a living and so a group of women was found to teach the girls trades. The orphan b oys lived in the monastery with the Redemptorists, while the girls found accommodation with families. For a time, the orphanage had between 40 and 60 children, and Clement, like the others, regularly washed faces and combed hair, sometimes picking out lice! THE PERPETUAL MISSION The small community was also beginning to attract vocations. Clement did not see himself as a teacher or social worker. He was a priest making the Good News of salvation available through Word and Sacrament. The

tiny church soon became the spiritual centre of Warsaw. The Redemptorists started their day at 4am, with quiet time for their own community prayers. Then the first of the day’s services began. The boxes show the Sunday and weekday timetables for the church. In addition to the work in the church, orphanage and school, the Redemptorists were kept busy at the work of formation of novices and eventually students for ordination. There was no seminary – the ordained passed on their knowledge to the beginners, but they kept a serious programme of study alive, the kind of programme that Clement wanted for himself when he was first drawn to the priesthood. In the 20 years of the existence of St Benno’s from 1788 to 1808, it was home to 65 Redemptorists, all but three of whom received their formation and theological training in the cramped conditions of the small monastery. They combined work and prayer, for they observed fully the Alphonsian rule with three half-hours of meditation, recitation of the divine office in choir and other periods of community prayer. The services in the church were conducted in German and Polish, and confession was available daily in those languages and several others, including Italian, Czech and French. Clement was also able to enlist the help of lay people – the men and women who taught trades to the children, a lay community he called Oblates. The daily programme of the church services shows the importance attached to music.

Weekdays in St Benno’s 5am Mass for domestic servants: no sermon 6am Mass with Exposition of Blessed Sacrament and Polish sermon 8am Mass with hymns and Polish sermon 10am High Mass with Exposition and German sermon 5pm German sermon – Visit to Blessed Sacrament/ Polish sermon followed by Way of the Cross In Lent, Office of the Passion sung in Polish/ Examination of Conscience, Litany etc. This shocked the Redemptorist superior general who thought the Redemptorists should just say simple Masses, preach and be available for confession. This was the time when the great Austrian composers like Hayden and Mozart composed elaborate settings for Masses and other services for full choir and orchestra. The musical archives of St Benno’s bears witness to the use of music by some 68 composers, including Mozart, Hayden, Handel and Beethoven. The vestments, flowers and other decorations were of the highest quality. To be continued: On the road again

Fr Brendan McConvery CSsR is editor of Reality. He has published The Redemptorists in Ireland (1851 – 2011,) St Gerard Majella: Rediscovering a Saint and historical guides to Redemptorist foundations in Clonard, Limerick and Clapham, London.

THE O U R FAT H E R : PART 5

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

Don’t be afraid to take some risks

THE RISKY PETITION IN THE LORD’S PRAYER FOR “DAILY BREAD", WHICH IN FAITH WE MAKE OUR OWN, SPEAKS OF THE FOOD NECESSARY FOR OUR EARTHLY JOURNEY BUT NEVER LOSES SIGHT OF THE HEAVENLY BANQUET TO COME. BY MIKE DALEY

For

my daughter’s 21st birthday, in addition to the usual and soon-tobe forgettable gifts of clothing and money, my wife told me to write her a letter. “Take your time,” she said. “Make your words count.” Well, after the obligatory congratulations on reaching her big milestone and telling her how proud I was of her, I only wanted to say one thing – “Don’t be afraid to take some risks.” Even then,

REALITY JUNE 2020

though, what father wants to let their daughter slip through their hands unprotected? Go off to college? Get a job? Live by herself? Study abroad? Take a mission trip to Tijuana, Mexico? Honestly, at the same time I was telling her to live life to the fullest, my fingers were crossed hoping she’d settle for the safety and comfort of what was familiar. Thankfully, my superstitious ways rarely work.

A KINGDOM OF RISK AND VULNERABILITY In the aftermath of his baptism, buoyed by the words of God the Father – “This is my beloved Son with whom I’m well pleased” (Mt 3:17) – Jesus began his public ministry proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Message-wise it was a little 'risky'. Glad tidings to the poor. Liberty to captives. Recovery of sight to the blind. Freedom for the oppressed. What was Jesus thinking? It so riled up the people of his hometown Nazareth that they were ready to throw him off a mountain (see Lk 4:29). Jesus didn’t stop there however. Forgiveness seemingly had no limits – "not seven times but seventy-seven times” (Mt 18:22). His understanding of neighbour was ever more inclusive going so far as to suggest that we love our enemies and pray for our persecutors (Mt 5:44). Even more demonstrably, as evidenced in his table fellowship, sinners were not to be avoided, but brought into relationship

through food and conversation. In God’s Kingdom grace – the gift of God’s friendship and mercy – is foundational. Jesus offered it to unsuspecting people in unexpected places in a variety of ways. The way Jesus went about preaching the Kingdom was 'risky' as well. The best way to describe it is with the word 'itinerant.'. In scripture, Jesus is a man on a mission wandering from place to place. Even when pressed, rarely does he stay put. There is no fixed address or base of operations. The urgency of the Kingdom of God compels him to move, to share the good news with others. Responding to one would-be follower who said, “I will follow you wherever you go,” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head” (Lk 9:58). HUNGER AND TRUST Discipleship is a life marked by vulnerability and dependency on others. In other words, a little 'risky'. This is why Jesus prayed, “Give us this day our daily bread.” As scripture scholar Gerhard Lohfink suggests in his book The Our Father: A New Reading, “So there is no provision for a long period of time, no planning for the future. The end-time situation is so acute, the current proclamation so important, that no planning is possible. Jesus and his disciples do not yet know, in the morning, where they will be at nightfall. They constantly live in the now, and their view extends only to the next day.”

Whether it is translated to mean “for the day that is now” or “the day that is to come", the petition for daily bread isn’t some generic call for God’s providential care. For Jesus. it was a real plea of trust that a basic human need – hunger – be satisfied. Long-time professor of theology at Georgetown University, Monika Hellwig, remarks in The Eucharist and the Hunger of the World that “hunger is the most basic experience of dependence, of contingency, of the need for others. To be hungry is to experience oneself as insufficient, as having needs, as being unable to guarantee one’s own existence. To be hungry is to know in a dark, inchoate kind of way that we do not create ourselves, but are creatures, receiving our existence as gift. Never really to be hungry is to be in danger of forgetting that our very existence is a gift – in danger of forgetting reverence and gratitude to the source of our being, the transcendent creator. It is not by accident that food, side by side with birth and death, has always been a central occasion for human communities to pray.” This is just what Jesus did. Pray to the Father that those who believed in his Kingdom message – curious listeners, close friends, sympathetic supporters – would provide for the needs of Jesus and his closest disciples. Instead of crippling anxiety, the petition conveys hopeful assurance. God can be counted on. People can be trusted to help. From this Jesus was able to say to others, “If God

so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides” (Mt 6:30-34). BREAD FROM HEAVEN As a Jew, in praying for daily bread, Jesus must have been aware of his ancestors in faith who, while fleeing slavery in Egypt, found themselves near famine in the desert (Ex 16:1-36). Grumbling against the leadership of Moses and Aaron, some in the Israelite community wished to give up their freedom and return to the land of Egypt where they at least had “kettles of meat and ate our fill of bread”. Hearing their pleas, the Lord answered their prayers “with bread from heaven” – manna. Each day the people were instructed to go out and gather their daily portion trusting that God would provide for the following one as well. It must not be forgotten though that Jesus also said, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4; Dt 8:3). While in no way discounting the physical need for bread, some commentators, especially those with a Catholic sensibility, have understood “daily bread” in a more spiritual and Eucharistic vein. In his book Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that bread can point beyond itself “to the fact that man’s real food is the Logos, the eternal word, the eternal meaning, from which we come and toward which our life is directed”. The 'risky' petition of Jesus for “daily bread", which in faith we make our own, speaks to the food necessary for our earthly journey while at the same time never letting us lose sight of the heavenly banquet to come.

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.

THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD OF LOCKDOWN WITH COVID-19 NOW PRESENT IN ALL THE COUNTRIES WHERE TRÓCAIRE WORKS, THE CHARITY'S DIRECTOR FOR ZIMBABWE DETAILS HOW THE VIRUS IS AFFECTING A COUNTRY WHERE 80 PER CENT OF THE ECONOMY IS INFORMAL BUSINESS… BY SARAH McCANN

a country where hustle and bustle are a part of everyday life, people are now living through a very strange, new ‘normal’. Zimbabwe, where I have lived and worked for the past four years, has had a lockdown in place since March 30 in an effort to curtail the spread of COVID-19. This led many to question how a country already devastated by economic, climatic and political crises can survive yet another crisis.

COPING WITH THE CORONAVIRUS The first case of COVID-19 was detected on March 20 and as of May 4 there were 40 confirmed cases. However, a lack of testing likely hides a much higher ‘real’ figure. Out of a population of 15 million, as of late April, only approximately 6,000 people had been tested. This was expected to increase to around 10,000 tests at best by early May. Against this backdrop of a huge lack of testing and tracing capacity, and very rundown medical facilities, the Government decided to implement a strict lockdown on March 30. While there is speculation that the lockdown may soon be lifted, at present it restricts all movement and only allows activities deemed ‘essential’ to take place. All land borders are effectively closed and REALITY JUNE 2020

all flights, bar one weekly one, have been stopped. This has had a devastating impact in a country where over 80 per cent of the economy is informal. In Zimbabwe, people make a living from odd jobs such as selling goods from door to door or at market stalls. People earn small amounts of money from cross-border trading, small-scale farming and domestic work. Like most other people, I buy fruit, vegetables and lots of other things on the street from local vendors. Already people earn barely enough to get them through each day. There is no doubt this has had an enormous impact on their livelihoods and incomes. AN ALREADY COLLAPSED ECONOMY The country is already reeling from near total economic collapse. By the end of 2019, it had an inflation rate of over 500 per cent. To put that into context, a junior doctor here was earning approximately $100 a month while a loaf of bread cost $1. Zimbabwe is also facing a massive food shortage this year with over seven million people in need of food aid to feed their families. The communities Trócaire works with are the poor and marginalised. We work with

rural farmers, who feed their families off little more than one acre of land. To make ends meet beyond what they can eat and sell from the land most people have part-time jobs, working as labourers or in mines. Most families, particularly in the south, send their grown-up children to neighbouring South Africa and Botswana to work. Now that these countries are in lockdown, this means young Zimbabweans are now isolated and out of work. One of our local partners in Matobo district, Masakhaneni, does incredible work in the south and is rolling out COVID- 19 information to far-flung communities with Trócaire support. The director of Masakhaneni painted a dire picture when we spoke: “People are extremely vulnerable to limited information, poverty and hunger. The closed borders also exacerbate the acute food shortages.” His comments sum up the double-edged sword of what a lockdown entails: you

protect an already vulnerable population from the virus, but do you make them more vulnerable by increasing poverty? ABUSE OF POWER Additionally, considering Zimbabwe’s human rights record is questionable at the best of times, there are risks associated with the potential abuse of power by security forces. Trócaire’s partners produce daily monitoring reports to hold those in power accountable. To date, we have recorded 207 incidents of assault, 12 attacks on journalists, 269 arrests and damage to property during the lockdown. Another dilemma is how can a lockdown be lifted when there is so little testing and tracing? A huge number of people cannot practice social distancing due to the confined nature of where they live. These vulnerable people struggle to maintain stringent hygiene practices as they simply do not have access to running water or soap at home.

Trócaire is doing its best to provide information to communities where we work, but it is a real challenge to do this during a lockdown. Solutions need to come from local communities to enable them to overcome this crisis.Our partners are incredible and they have the trust of the communities with which they work. The important prevention messages they convey will be believed. They can counter fake news. They can support communities, not just through this lockdown period but also through the long-term impacts. Trócaire will, of course, be on this journey with them, every step of the way.

To make a donation or find out more about Trócaire’s work visit www. trocaire.org Sarah McCann is Trócaire country director for Zimbabwe.

Need some inspiration

as you pray before the Blessed Sacrament? Nearly three hundred years ago St Alphonsus published his book of Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, which became, and remains, a classic of devotional writing. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament for the 21st Century is offered in continuity with the spirit of that great work. It contains 28 visits – reflections and prayers – that draw us ever deeper into the mystery of God and God’s love for humanity. It is a wonderful companion for all who take part in Eucharistic Devotion and for those who like to make the occasional visit to the Blessed Sacrament. Beautifully presented in full colour throughout, this is a devotional gem you will treasure for years.

Visits to the Blessed Sacrament for the 21st Century

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CO M M E N T REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

THE CORONAVIRUS

HAVING JUST RECOVERED FROM THE COLLAPSED ECONOMY OF THE 'CELTIC TIGER' HOW WILL WE COPE WITH THE AFTERMATH OF THE PRESENT PANDEMIC?

The coronavirus has devastated our economy, and transformed, at least temporarily, our lives. One little microscopic virus has brought the vast global economic structure to its knees. It has shown us that Irelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dream was, in reality, a fantasy. That dream, during the Celtic Tiger years, was the pursuit of maximum wealth creation, but it left some people behind. But it all collapsed, leaving a legacy of debt and suffering. However, within a few years, we were again pursuing the dream of maximum economic growth, yet again leaving some people behind. Now that too has collapsed. This little virus is forcing us to question our pursuit of infinite, continuous growth, our desire to have more and more. Living with less is being forced upon us. It is reminding us that we are not in control of everything. We were so busy making money, there was so much to do, and time was so short, but now this microscopic particle has expanded time, leaving many wondering how to fill their day. This little virus also challenges the values which are embedding in the REALITY JUNE 2020

culture of our western societies. This culture has elevated individualism over the common good. It tells me that I am responsible for me, and only me. It tells me that I am the author of my own fate; the ideal person to which I should aspire is a self-sufficient individual who is not dependent on anything or anyone else. To achieve that, I have to be successful within the economy. Rewarded with money and status, I can stand alone. But this little virus does not respect self-reliance. Our wealth, our status, our postal address, the high walls we build around our houses, cannot protect us. We have learnt that the only protection against this virus is to re-discover a sense of common purpose. We are all dependent on everyone else. One chance contact with an infected person puts us at risk. We are only as safe as the most vulnerable person in the state. Social solidarity is not a dream for starryeyed idealists but a reality in our world which, if ignored, threatens all of us. And so it has shone a bright light on the past inequalities and

injustices in our society. Our past failure to address the basic housing needs of our population has left homeless people and those living in overcrowded homes most at risk of catching and spreading this virus. Our past failure to address the public hospital crisis has made the coronavirus much more dangerous. Our past failure to eliminate poverty has created a fertile ground for this virus to flourish. But there is worse to come. Climate change will be far more destructive than this virus and will permanently transform every aspect of our lives. The fear is that, when this crisis is over, we will get back to business as usual, pursuing maximum economic growth that is not sustainable nor inclusive of everyone in our society. If we forget the importance of a sense of common purpose, which the virus taught us, climate change will severely punish us, in the not-toodistant future. We could not foresee the arrival of this virus. So we were unable to prepare for its coming. But we can foresee the arrival of

climate change. Denial is not an option. Postponing action in the futile hope that some technological advances may ward off the danger is not an option. Climate change will require a similar response to this virus, but on a global scale, a response based on the reality that we are all responsible for all, no nation is an island, and that every person, and every nation, has to play their part if we are not all to suffer. The Catholic Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social teaching elevates the common good above individualism and so it challenges the individual pursuit of wealth. It emphasises social solidarity and the importance of a common purpose. It informs us that we are all responsible for all. It tries to persuade us that the 'other' is not a competitor or a threat to my well-being, but the face of God to us, and their well-being is essential to my well-being. But can we learn the lesson before it is too late?

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 IT’S A MYSTERY, NOT A PUZZLE JUNE The Trinity can sometimes appear like a complicated mathematical puzzle of fitting three persons into one THE MOST God. Like Jews and Muslims, Y HOLY TRINIT Christians believe in one God. Yet the God that Jesus reveals to us is such an infinitely rich God that he can only be understood when our minds are stretched into mystery. Our God does not dwell in some remote part of the solar system. “In him we move and live and have our being,” St Paul once preached in the city of Athens. Our God has drawn near to us in the human form of Jesus, his Son and Word, and continues to be present to us through the Spirit. Today’s Gospel is part of a longer story of a meeting between Jesus and a Jewish leader called Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a good man searching for the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ message to him was quite simple. It is not a question of whether human beings can ever find their way to God, but that God

has already found the way to come near to them and to give them a mysterious rebirth through the Spirit. “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him might not be lost but have eternal life.” The secret mystery of the Trinity is that God is love, a love that needs so much to express itself that it takes a human body and identifies with us in our weakness. The cross is the sign of how deep that

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14 BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

FOOD FOR THE SOUL In today’s Gospel, Jesus reveals himself as the living bread that has come down from heaven, and says that anyone who eats this bread will live forever. Jesus’ statement that he is the bread of life is difficult for his hearers. They have no trouble with heavenly bread: their ancestors were sustained by bread from heaven they called ‘manna’ while they travelled through the desert for 40 years on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. Their difficulty starts when Jesus identifies

the bread he promises to give with his body and blood. We often use abstract words like ‘personal existence’ or personality when we want to express the deepest truth of what it means to be a human being. The Bible uses more concrete language. Body means much more than a bag of bones held together by muscles and sinews. Blood is the vital element that sustains life. When people offered an animal in sacrifice, the most important part of the offering was not killing it but pouring its blood on the altar.

love goes and when we sign ourselves with it, we do so in the name of Father, Son and Spirit. When we were brought into the new birth of baptism, it was in the name of that same Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Spirit. Today’s Readings Ex 34:4-6.8-9; Ps Dn3; 2 Cor 13:11-13; Jn 3:16-18

When Jesus is talking about his body and blood, then, he is talking about his total human presence. His body will be stretched to breaking point on the cross. His blood will be poured out in sacrifice. The life of Jesus is absolute gift for us. Another way of saying that is that it is utter love. To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus means to enter as fully as is possible for human beings into the depths of the mystery of his self-giving love. That gift is laid out for us at every Mass. Today’s feast of the Body and Blood of Christ gives us an opportunity to think a little more deeply about what the Eucharist means, and to ask God for a deeper understanding of this great Sacrament of Love.

Today’s Readings Dt 8:2-3.14-16; Ps 147; 1 Cor 10:16-17; Jn 6:51-58

God’s Word continues on page 46

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH FOLLOWING CHRIST MEANS TRAVELLING LIGHT The whole chapter 10 of Matthew's Gospel defines what it means to be a disciple 12TH SUNDAY IN of Jesus. And the definition ORDINARY TIME is not for the faint-hearted. When travelling around the countryside driving out demons and spirits and healing the sick, a true disciple must travel light and leave all money and possessions behind – no bag or extra sandals and each disciple will be as defenceless as a sheep surrounded by a pack of wolves. Today's Gospel passage continues in similar vein with a warning to the disciples. When

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they preach the Word of God, they will encounter bitterness and hatred. Jesus has already experienced rejection and criticism in his ministry, so he is very aware that the same animosity awaits his followers. But the key statement from Jesus is one of hope: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.“ The future trials of the disciples predicted by Jesus are in many ways applicable to his followers today. Our numbers are declining. Our most cherished values and beliefs are constantly under challenge by an increasingly secular world that finds them irrational and unbelievable. There are many conflicting voices offering unasked-for advice on what directions the

The view from Mount Scopus, the rugged landscape surrounding Jerusalem

Church needs to take if it is to survive and win back the crowd. Warning them of the adversity they will face, Jesus says to them “Do not be afraid." Someone has calculated that that phrase occurs 365 times in the Bible, or one for every day of the year! Armed with it, true disciples of Jesus are ever-ready to face difficulties that will come. We know we are supported by a compassionate and loving Christ who cares for us and offers us hope in our uncertainty. Today’s Readings Jer 20:10-13; Ps 68; Rm 5:12-15; Mt 10:26-33

THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER � JUNE ��

SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 3 ACROSS: 1. Altars, 5. Pulpit, 10. Namibia, 11. Rebuffs, 12. Glib, 13. Tutor, 15. Oral, 17. Sad, 19. Angora, 21. Yahoos, 22. Abraham, 23. Critic, 25. Menhir, 28. Fez, 30. Ursa, 31. Cases, 32. Agar, 35. Baptism, 36. Harvest, 37. Editor, 38. Riyadh. DOWN: 2. Lemming, 3. Albs, 4. Shamus, 5. Period, 6. Lobs, 7. Inferno, 8. Enigma, 9. Psalms, 14. Tamales, 16. Grail, 18. Camel, 20. ABC, 21. Yam, 23. Crumbs, 24. Insipid, 26. Hogweed, 27. Rarity, 28. Farmer, 29. Zephyr, 33. Mint, 34. Pray.

Winner of Crossword No. 3 Kay Brady, Longford, County Longford

TRUST IN GOD'S PRESENCE The tenth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel is known JUNE to biblical scholars as the ‘mission sermon’ because it puts forth in very direct language the dangers and trials that will confront Jesus' disciples as they 13TH SUNDAY IN follow his instructions to spread the Word of God ORDINARY TIME around the small villages and towns in Galilee where he is proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven. Those dangers will be, if anything, greater after he has departed and left them with the mission to make disciples of all nations (Mt 28:19). Understandably, there is an atmosphere of fear and trepidation amongst the disciples as they encounter opposition to their message, and people’s reluctance to hear the Word of God for what it really is. The relationships between the disciples and their own families have also changed as they have given priority to following this wandering prophet and leaving a secure lifestyle behind them. Today’s Gospel, however, brings a welcome contrast. Jesus offers them a glimpse of the fruits of their work as preachers and teachers. They will receive a prophet’s reward. They will be welcomed into the homes of people just as Jesus Christ is welcomed. This reward is for sharing. Those who offer them even the smallest cup of cold water to help them on their journey will also receive a great reward. We can sense that these final consoling words at the very end of this chapter are a reminder that the trials which will most definitely come the disciples’ way will be balanced by rewards that will have far greater value. The disciples may be as vulnerable as children, but their future work will be dependent on trusting in God’s power and presence in their lives.

Today’s Readings

ACROSS 1. A member of the Society of Jesus. (6) 5. He composed Messiah (1742). (6) 10. Popular cheese, originally made in Somerset. (7) 11. The time from dawn to noon. (7) 12. A long, angry, and confused speech. (4) 13. Large holes in the side of a cliff or mountain. (5) 15. Shock someone so much that they do not know how to react. (4) 17. Anything that looks cheap or is of low quality. (3) 19. How the Pope is elected. (6) 21. Wooden frames for holding an artist's. (6) 22. Smears or rubs with oil as part of a religious ceremony. (7) 23. Demanding that rules concerning behaviour are obeyed to the letter. (6) 25. Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. (6) 28. A diagrammatic representation of an area. (3) 30. Curved structure spanning an opening and typically supporting weight. (4) 31. A man made waterway. (5) 32. Someone who believes there is a correlation between social status and human worth. (4) 35. Putting out a fire. (7) 36. Go into a place where you are not wanted. (7) 37. A container in which incense is burnt during a religious ceremony. (6) 38. The abode of God and the good. (6)

DOWN 2. Lasting forever. (7) 3. Untie, or loosen something. (4) 4. A statement of an intention to inflict injury or damage on another. (6) 5. The longest Shakespeare play. (6) 6. He is said to have fiddled while Rome burned. (4) 7. A book of the New Testament in the form of a letter or series of letters. (7) 8. Large beetle which was regarded as sacred in ancient Egypt. (6) 9. People who act of behalf of others. (6) 14. The smallest sovereign state in the world. (7) 16. Someone whose job is to train a sports team. (5) 18. Ancient Greek mythological hero who led the search for the Golden Fleece. (5) 20. Abbreviated explosive. (3) 21. And so forth, in short. (3) 23. Pieces of broken ceramic, metal or glass. (6) 24. A person who lives alone and avoids contact with others. (7) 26. Part of a monk's head left bare on top by shaving. (7) 27. The network of a spider. (6) 28. What Mary and Joseph had to use as a crib for the newly-born Jesus. (6) 29. A local church community. (6) 33. Drinks something by taking a little at a time. (4) 34. The most active volcano in Europe. (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.5, June 2020 Name: Address: Telephone:

2 Kg 4:8-11; Ps 88; Rm 6:3-4, 8-11; Mt 10:37-42 All entries must reach us by Tuesday June 30, 2020 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