Reality Magazine October 2020

HOW TO WRITE A CATHOLIC NOVEL

OCTOBER 2020

BAKING AND COPING WITH THE PANDEMIC

CHAPLAINCY: A VOCATION TO BE PRESENT

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

YEARS IN BRAZIL SIX DECADES

OF REDEMPTORIST MISSIONARY WORK

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Vienna Pilgrimage

in the footsteps of

St Clement

Celebrating the 200 th Anniversary of his death.

12th March –16th March 202 1

Price: Includes:

€695 Direct flight from Dublin to Vienna Staying at the Pallottihaus 20kg check in bag per person and small piece of hand luggage Return transfers from airport to your accommodation

4 breakfasts & 4 main meals Private coach for full day excursion Single room supplement €25 per night (limited number of rooms) Pilgrimage Highlights Walking tour of St Clement related sites in Vienna Day excursion to Tasovice (Birthplace of St Clement) Znomjo & Klosterbruck (Where Clement worked as a baker and servant to the Abbot) Visit to the shrine of St Clement Free time to explore Vienna/Schonbrunn Palace etc For a booking form contact:

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IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES �� MEMORIES OF REDEMPTORIST MISSIONARY LIFE IN BRAZIL A confrère looks back on his 56 years.

By Fr Brendan McDonald CSsR

�� WOMEN OF THE ROMAN CANON The seven women named in the Roman Canon.

By Maria Hall

�� CHAPLAINCY FOR ALL SEASONS The changing world of chaplaincy.

By John Scally

�� BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL What has Satan been up to recently?

By Mike Daley

12

�� CORN AND RICE A look at Filipino agricultural methods.

By Fr Colm Meaney CSsR

�� FLANNERY O’CONNOR: CATHOLIC WRITER FROM THE AMERICAN SOUTH Flannery O'Connor is once more a figure of controversy.

By Dr Eamonn Maher

�� BAKING BREAD IN STRANGE TIMES The symbolism of baking bread and breaking bread.

By Prof Michael Conway

20

42

�� BACK TO VIENNA Towards the end of 1808, Clement arrived in Vienna.

It would be his home to the end of his days.

By Fr Brendan McConvery CSsR

OPINION

REGULARS

11 BRENDAN McCONVERY

04 REALITY BITES

�� CELEBRATING EUCHARIST

19 JIM DEEDS

07 POPE MONITOR

Reflecting on recent months, liturgical skills need to be re-shaped.

By Dr Thomas Whelan CSSp

31 CARMEL WYNNE

08 FOREVER YOUNG

�� QUESTIONING JESUS A series of questions to facilitate dialogue about the nature of Jesus’ lordship and discipleship.

By Timothy O'Connell

44 PETER McVERRY SJ

09 REFLECTIONS 42 TRÓCAIRE 45 GOD’S WORD

© Image courtesy of The Irish Post

REALITY BITES PRIEST SAVES SWIMMER FROM SHARK Fr Liam Ryan

AUSTRALIA

4

NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES

Fr Liam Ryan, whose hobby is surfing, was on holiday with friends in western Australia. On the afternoon of July 31, he noticed a fellow surfer in distress. A great white shark bit Phil Mummert’s board in two, then resurfaced to continue its attack. The priest went to help and called for assistance. Fortunately, they were heard by another nearby surfer, who swam towards Mummert and hoisted him on his longboard, which he and Fr Ryan then paddled to shore. By the time they reached shore, Mummert was bleeding profusely from his upper leg. Once the injured man had been airlifted to the hospital, Fr Ryan says he took a “quiet moment of solitude in the sand dunes. I had a little bit of a cry, and just blessed the Lord.” Fr Ryan was ordained in August last year after completing studies at Perth’s 'Redemptoris Mater' Missionary Seminary for the formation of priests in the Neocatechumenal Way. He spent two years carrying out mission work in Alotau in Papua New Guinea and is now assistant priest at St Brigid’s Church in Midland parish, Perth.

ISRAEL CONFISCATES BAPTISMAL FONT PALESTINE

"WAR CRIME"

Israeli forces removed a sixth century baptismal font from a church in a Palestinian village which they allege was stolen from an archaeological site 20 years ago. In response, a Palestinian authority described the military’s action as an act of theft and a “war crime”. The font, believed to have been used in a sixth century church near Bethlehem where it was uncovered, weighs some eight tons and is believed to be one of only three of its kind. Neither the Israeli nor Palestinian authorities have reported exactly where the font was located but Palestinian media said it was found in the village of Tuqu, the site of the biblical Tekoa, home of the prophet Jeremiah, 12 km south of Bethlehem.

The confiscation of the font was described as “an act of thuggery and cultural appropriation” by Hanan Ashrawi, head of the Palestinian Department of Public Diplomacy and Policy. “The hallmark of Israel’s system of colonial occupation and oppression has been its disdainful attempts to erase Palestinian presence, culture and heritage, including the illegal appropriation and theft of heritage sites and artefacts,” she added. By international law, the territory of Palestine is occupied by Israel, but does not belong to the Israeli State, so it cannot assume ownership of archaeological material discovered there.

Phil Mummert recovering in hospital (Facebook Mish Wright)

The theft of the font caught on CCTV

SIX WOMEN TO ECONOMIC COUNCIL VATICAN CITY

HIGH PROFILE

Pope Francis has appointed six women including former British Labour minister Ruth Kelly and Leslie Ferrar, former treasurer to the Prince of Wales, to the Council for the Economy which oversees Vatican finances.

Ms Kelly said she felt honoured to REALITY OCTOBER 2020

have been appointed to the Council for the Economy: “It is wonderful to see the Pope's commitment to promoting women to decisionmaking posts in the Vatican.” Ms Kelly, a member of Opus Dei, served in the Labour Government between 2004-2008 as the Secretary of State

for Education and then joined HSBC Global Asset Management as global head of client strategy.

Also nominated to the Council was Cardinal Joseph Tobin CSsR, Archbishop of Newark. Pope Francis set up the Council for the Economy in 2014. It is currently headed by Cardinal Reinhard Marx.

The council sets policy guidelines

© Image courtesy of Ramallah News

Ruth Kelly

Leslie Ferrar

for the Secretariat for the Economy that Pope Francis established in the same year.

N E WS

REVEREND MOTHER FACES JAIL NUN ON THE RUN?

SACRISTAN ADMITS STARING FIRE NANTES, FRANCE

FIRE STARTER

© Image courtesy of iNews

A volunteer sacristan has admitted to starting a fire at Nantes Cathedral on July 18 and has been charged with arson. The fire in the 15th-century Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul destroyed the Gothic church’s great organ and 16th-century rose window. Arson investigators said the man appeared to have started fires at three different points in the cathedral.

Masses and a series of summer organ concerts at the cathedral have been moved to other churches in the diocese. Much of the cost of the damage to the cathedral will be assumed by the French government, which owns the building. The diocese, however, will be responsible for replacing the cathedral’s damaged pews and is seeking donations for the construction of a new organ.

Nantes' Cathedral

Abbess Mechthild Thürmer © Image courtesy of Catholic Philly

taken place “alienating”, but that she would not stop giving church asylum to the woman, who is due to be deported, until the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees agreed to open a legal process for seeking asylum for her.

The abbess deplored the lack of respect for church asylum, saying it had been a tradition since ancient times: “In each case it concerns a human being who has no future in his or her home country and who has suffered a great deal. That one should not be allowed to help such a person seems pure madness to me.”

In her view, the German asylum system was in part “inhuman”. “People are fetched out of their beds at 3am in order to be deported. I really fail to understand that. These people’s fate deeply worries me.”

Church asylum

5

VANDALISM TO CHURCHES BELFAST

UNDER ATTACK

Saintfield Road Presbyterian Church

Sacred Heart Church

© Image courtesy of The Irish News

The Abbess of a German Benedictine convent has been threatened with prison because she helped an asylum seeker, but says she is ready to accept the jail sentence. Abbess Mechthild Thürmer, who has been threatened with a “considerable term in prison” because she granted church asylum to an Eritrean asylum seeker in 2018, says she would willingly accept a jail sentence. When the 62-year-old nun refused to pay the €2,500 fine for “facilitating illegal residence” by granting “so-called church asylum” to the woman, the Bamberg court “strongly urged” her at least to release the asylum seeker she was protecting in order to avert a “severe prison sentence”. Mother Mechtild said she found the “deal” the court had offered her before any public hearing had

© Image courtesy of Geograph

BAMBERG, GERMANY

Places of worship and cemeteries across Northern Ireland have been subject to nearly 450 recorded attacks over the last three years. On average, this means a crime against a place of worship has taken place almost every other day. Saintfield Road Presbyterian Church in Belfast suffered two arson attacks in July 2016, and it took a full two years for the church building to be repaired. On Easter Sunday this year, the Sacred Heart Church in Ballyclare was attacked with paint. The disused Catholic Church of the Resurrection was also attacked and badly damaged. CARE NI is calling for more support for churches and other religious buildings and is asking for a public fund like the ‘British Places of Worship: protective security funding scheme’ to be set up in Northern Ireland to help with security measures such as CCTV, fencing and lighting. Belfast city has witnessed about one quarter of the attacks. While many of the buildings that have been attacked are Catholic, Belfast synagogue and the Islamic Centre and Protestant churches have also suffered property damage in the last 10 years as well. continued on page 6

REALITY BITES BELFAST PRIEST DROWNS IN DETROIT

Government authorities in Shanxi, China, are ordering people who receive government assistance to replace religious symbols in their homes, including pictures of Jesus, with pictures of Chairman Mao and President Xi Jinping.

Refusal to comply results in the assistance being taken away.

The religious freedom magazine Bitter Winter reported that officials in the city of Linfen, Shanxi province, were told in April to inspect and remove religious symbols from the homes of those receiving social welfare payments and to replace them with communist leaders. Those who complained would have their payments “annulled”. The policy also applies to members of state-run churches. A member of the Three-Self Church, the main officially-approved Protestant denomination, told Bitter Winter that images of Jesus and a religious calendar were taken from his house and replaced with images of Chairman Mao. The Chinese economy has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, so more and more people are relying on government payments to stay financially afloat. At the same time, the government has overseen a renewed crackdown on places of worship. “All impoverished households in the town were told to display Mao Zedong images,” a preacher told Bitter Winter. “The government is trying to eliminate our belief and wants to become God instead of Jesus.”

Christians in other provinces have reported similar treatment from government officials. In Jiangxi, a Christian reported that his disability payment was revoked because of his attendance at church. His wife reported he was told they would be “treated as anti-Party elements” if they did not stop going to church. An elderly member of the Three-Self Church reported that she lost her government aid after she said “Thank God” upon receiving a subsidy payment. Another elderly woman from the Henan province reported that her minimum living allowance was cancelled when officials discovered a cross on her house door. The woman, who is a diabetic and needs frequent injections, lost all government aid.

The Chinese Communist Party is requiring healthcare workers to interrogate gravely ill patients about their religious beliefs before treating them. The information is then uploaded to a government database and can be used to restrict their ability to travel, get a job or social security, or participate in other aspects of public life. Human rights advocates fear that religious beliefs are counted against citizens in the 'social credit system', a point-based system developed by the Chinese Communist Party in 2014 that tracks citizens, and rewards or detracts points based on what it considers desirable or undesirable social behaviour.

Fr Stephen Rooney, a native of Belfast, drowned in the Detroit River as a result of a boating accident on August 17. Fr Rooney was accompanied by a parishioner Robert Chiles and his family. The boat Mr Chiles was steering capsized, off Stony Island in the Detroit River. Fr Rooney had been a student for the Redemptorist brotherhood in Galway and Dundalk. Feeling he was called to the enclosed monastic life, he entered Bolton Abbey, Co Kildare. A few years later, at the suggestion of his abbot, he was ordained priest but decided to leave the monastic life. He was incardinated into the Archdiocese of Detroit where he was a popular figure in the parishes where he served.

Stephen was a classmate of Fr Seámus Enright CSsR and also of Paddy Donaghy, a Derry man, who also had entered

REALITY OCTOBER 2020

The late Fr Stephen Rooney

the Redemptorists as a brother, but like Stephen decided to seek priestly ordination. Paddy also died prematurely on April 19, 2014. Both Frs Paddy and Stephen maintained friendly relations with the Redemptorists and always visited when they were home on holidays from the US. Both were from strongly nationalist districts of their native cities – Stephen was from Ballymacarret and Paddy was from the Bogside.

MURAL IN MEMORY OF SISTER CLARE © Image courtesy of Belfast Live

6

PUT MAO IN PLACE OF JESUS

Bishop Donal McKeown has blessed a large mural on a gable wall in Derry commemorating Sr Clare Crockett who was killed four years ago in an earthquake in Ecuador. The 33-year-old native of Derry died alongside five postulants of her community, the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother. The mural was unveiled on Deanery Street in the Brandywell district of the city where Sr Clare grew up. In his homily at St Eugene’s Cathedral prior to the blessing, Bishop McKeown said Sr Clare “had a remarkable story of teenage dreams of fame and fun”.

N E WS

POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS POPE BAPTISES CONJOINED TWINS

PRISONER OF THE VATICAN ONCE MORE? On March 7 last, Pope Francis emerged for an hour from the general lockdown all over Italy to lead a prayer service on a wind-swept and deserted St Peter’s Square. The dramatic moment underscored for many commentators how isolated Pope Francis had become during the COVID-19 emergency and the unrelenting opposition from some of his conservative critics, cardinals included. Since the virus struck Italy, Pope Francis has become a 21st-century 'prisoner of the Vatican', with no crowded weekly audiences, no travel halfway around the world or even to the parishes on the outskirts of Rome. Francis has strictly complied with the Italian government’s lockdown and has criticised priests who complained about the measures. He will resume the programme of audiences in September. They will be held, however, in accordance with the medical guidance – in the internal Vatican courtyard of San Damaso with a limited crowd rather than the vast crowds that usually throng St Peter’s Square especially at the heights of the pilgrimage season.. Austen Ivereigh, a well-known commentator and biographer of the pope, agreed that the pandemic has been a difficult time for the pope but that it had offered him an unexpected opportunity to provide spiritual guidance to a world in need. He took advantage of the daily Mass televised from his private chapel to offer a daily reflection that reached a large audience. He has also launched a series of new catechism lessons applying Catholic social teaching to the pandemic, reasserting the church’s 'preferential option for the poor' by demanding that the rich don’t get priority in getting a vaccine and that political leaders address social injustices that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. All summer, there have been reports of Pope Francis’ well-known ‘cold calls’ to priests, nuns and ordinary folk around the world who least expect it – a bishop in Mozambique dealing with cholera and malaria outbreaks as well as a Muslim insurgency or an Argentine nun who cares for transsexual women. Two books were published this summer by prominent Catholic authors, both titled The Next Pope and speculated on likely candidates for the next conclave.

Pope Francis baptised twin babies who were born conjoined at the head and were separated at the Vatican’s paediatric hospital, Bambino Gesù Hospital, on June 5. The twins, Ervina and Prefina, were born on June 29, 2018 in a village about 60 miles outside Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic.

They were joined together with “one of the rarest and most complex forms of cranial and cerebral fusion”, known as total posterior craniopagus, according to the hospital. On hearing that the complex three-stage operation was a success, their mother said that she wanted the twins to be baptised by the pope. “If we had stayed in Africa, I don’t know what fate they would have had.

Now that they are separate and well, I would like them to be baptised by Pope Francis who has always taken care of the children of Bangui.” The children were baptised in the chapel of the pope’s residence in Casa Santa Marta.

7

PAPAL TEAM TALKS? The Vatican is publishing a collection of Pope Francis’ best addresses to athletes of all kinds, and which will include testimonies from three professional athletes. Called, Put Yourself in the Game: Thoughts on Sports, the 124-page pocket-sized book has been described in the press release as “a ‘manual’ that suggests the possibility of living sport –but also life itself – according to the concrete indications of an exceptional coach: Pope Francis". The testimonies are by the Italian soccer player Francesco Totti, former Kenyan marathoner runner Tegla Loroupe, and Formula One driver Alex Zanardi. Shortly after finishing his piece,

Zanardi was seriously injured while taking part in a Paralympic training event and underwent surgery after being placed in a medicallyinduced coma. Pope Francis wrote to him for offering the world a “lesson in humanity”.

“Your story is an example of how to start again after a sudden halt. Through sport you have demonstrated how to live life as protagonists, making disability a lesson in humanity,” the pope said.

FOREVER YOUNG SAINTS WHO DIED YOUNG

GEMMA MARIA GALGANI (1878-1903)

8

Gemma Maria Galgani was born on March 12, 1878 in a small village in Tuscany in the north of Italy. She was the fifth child, and first girl, in a family of eight. The family were comfortable, as her father was the local pharmacist. When Gemma was young, the family moved to the nearby town of Lucca to take advantage of schools for the children.

The Galganis were struck by tragedy early. Her mother and three of her siblings died of tuberculosis, including her favourite brother who was studying for the priesthood.

When she was 16, Gemma herself contacted spinal meningitis. It can be a fatal disease, but she recovered. She attributed her cure to the Sacred Heart and the prayers of the young Passionist, Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. Gabriel was eventually canonised in 1920.

Gemma was an attractive girl and she received several offers of marriage. She longed to become a nun, but the Passionist convent to which she was most attracted refused to accept her on account of her poor health. Rumours spread that she had visions and ecstasies during her prayer, and that she might even be a bit ‘odd’.

Gemma continued to live at home, combining an intense prayer life with an unostentatious care for the poor. When she was 21, the stigmata, or signs of bleeding marks of the wounds of the Passion of Jesus, appeared for the first time on her hands and feet and other parts of her body. Recalling that first experience, she wrote later: “I felt an inward sorrow for my sins, but it was so intense that I have never felt the like again.”

Each Thursday evening after that, the mark of the wounds would appear on her hands, feet and side. They remained there throughout Friday, bleeding, but then disappeared leaving only white marks where they had been.

Saints such as St Francis and St Pio who had the stigmata have been known for an intense identification with the sufferings of Jesus during his Passion.

Some people were impressed by Gemma’s goodness; others, including her youngest sister, made fun of her. Her confessor was initially sceptical about her mystical gifts and told her to pray that the stigmata would be taken away. She did, and he took this as proof of her genuine obedience and simplicity.

Early in 1903, Gemma contracted tuberculosis. The illness developed rapidly. Gemma continued her prayer life and spent her last days in a small hospital run by religious sisters. One of them said of Gemma, “We have cared for a good many sick people, but we have never seen anything like this.” During Holy Week, her sufferings were particularly intense, but she united her sufferings with those of the crucified Jesus.

She died on Holy Saturday, 1903.

Gemma’s confessor wrote her life and the story of this young woman of faith became very popular. She was beatified in 1933, just 30 years after her death, and was canonised in 1940. As Gemma’s story became more widely known, her name became popular for little girls.

Her feast day is April 11.

Reality Volume 85. No. 8 October 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, Trócaire,

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“May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true, may you always know the truth, and see the light surrounding you, may you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong. May you stay forever young.”

Bob Dylan’s lullaby for his son.

Brendan McConvery CSsR REALITY OCTOBER 2020

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We remember in our prayers sick and deceased promoters and their families.

REFLECTIONS When some portion of the biosphere is rather unpopular with the human race –a crocodile, a dandelion, a stony valley, a snowstorm, an odd-shaped flint– there are three sorts of human being who are particularly likely still to see point in it and befriend it. They are poets, scientists and children. Inside each of us, I suggest, representatives of all these groups can be found.

MARY MIDGLEY

When I look at my life and its secret colours, I feel like bursting into tears

ERICH FROMM

CP SNOW

ALBERT CAMUS

The human heart is no small thing, for it can embrace so much.

ORIGEN

I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments.

The front page has nothing but man's failures.

EARL WARREN

The soul is healed by being with children.

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

Love is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgment and decision?

The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: if you pursue happiness you'll never find it.

It is very lonely sometimes, trying to play God. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR.

Selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either.

ERICH FROMM

There is the great lesson of 'Beauty and the Beast,' that a thing must be loved before it is lovable.

God our Lord would have us look to the Giver and love Him more than His gift, keeping Him always before our eyes, in our hearts, and in our thoughts.

SAINT IGNATIUS

In conversation, trifling occurrences, such as small disappointments, petty annoyances, and other every-day incidents, should never be mentioned to your friends.

Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology.

GK CHESTERTON

TERRY EAGLETON

C S LEWIS

When I was being brought up, we weren't allowed to wallow in self-pity, which was a thoroughly good thing. We were all fine and healthy because that was what we were told to be.

Unseen in the background, Fate was quietly slipping lead into the boxing-glove.

The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.

The motor-car, in bringing us all closer together, by making it easy to have lunch two counties away, has driven us all further apart, by making it unnecessary for us to know the people in the next bungalow.

And so, once again, we have to thank civilisation for nothing.

MAEVE BINCHY

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

RONALD KNOX

If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.

PG WOODHOUSE

MRS BEATON

9

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EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FORTALEZA

When

Fr Michael Curran was confirmed as provincial superior of the Irish Redemptorists for a third term of three years in September 1959, Fr William Gaudreau, the superior general, added a few words to his letter of appointment. “After much pressure from the Holy See and from the bishops of South America, I am knocking on your door to ask the Irish Province to take over a mission area there, specifically in the state of Goias, Brazil, in the diocese of Porto Nacional.” The Irish Redemptorists already had two missions in the Philippines and India, but a bumper crop of vocations in the 1950s made it a place to which a superior might turn in time of need. Although twice the size of Ireland, the diocese of Porto Nacional had only seven or eight priests at its disposal. Four Irish Redemptorists left for Brazil the following April. Only Fr James Collins, the superior, had missionary experience of several years in the Philippines. Frs James McGrath, Michael Kirwan and John Meyers were comparatively recently ordained. In an article for this magazine, written in October 1961, Michael Kirwan recorded their first impressions of Brazil. Most striking for them was the grave shortage of priests – one for every 5,000 widely-scattered people. Then there was the growing influence of fundamentalist Protestant sects making progressive inroads in communities deprived of priests and the Eucharist. Next was the growing influence of Marxism, especially after the success of Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution in 1959. What was clear, he wrote, was that "there is far too much poverty in Brazil", for side by side with the plush apartments of the rich, "there are shanty towns that are a disgrace to a Christian community". The area they covered to reach the scattered rural communities was vast. Fr James McGrath wrote later that year that "travel to the interior was only possible

on horseback: with the help of a guide, we move around for nine or ten days at a time… no sign of life anywhere. An amazing silence: no sound apart from the soft plodding of the horses’ hooves."

A second house was established in Fortaleza, the largest city of North East Brazil, by 1962. The intention was to build a college that would serve for the secondary education of local vocations. It eventually became the headquarters of the Irish Redemptorist ViceProvince of Fortaleza. The vast territory within the remit of the Redemptorists proved capable of absorbing as many men as could be spared from Ireland. By the end of its first seven years in 1967, the Brazil mission numbered five houses and 26 members, and Fr Collins, Don Jaime, was ordained bishop of Miracema do Norte in 1967. We were not the first Redemptorists in Brazil. The Dutch arrived in 1894, with the Germans hot on their heels. Today there are about 600 Redemptorists in Brazil, in five provinces.

What neither Frs Gaudreau, Curran or the first pioneers in Brazil could suspect was how radically Brazil was to change within the next few years. The Second Vatican Council released a new energy of the Spirit on the South American churches. The opening paragraph of the Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, stressed that the church shared in "the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of people of our time". To become open to those hopes and griefs was to become open a world torn by poverty yet striving for justice.

Dom Helder Camara, who is believed to have drafted the appeal of the Brazilian bishops to the Redemptorist general that resulted in the coming of the Irish to Brazil, was radical in his commitment to helping the Brazilian church become a truly ‘servant church’, the church of the poor. In the years following the Council, prophetic voices in

the Brazilian churches were becoming clearer and more insistent. The Irish Redemptorists of Fortaleza began to listen and to identify with the truth of what they were saying. They were also communicating that message back in Ireland. Fr Jim McGrath attended the Irish provincial chapter and was unexpectedly elected provincial. It was a time of intense change in the Irish Church, but Jim McGrath and Redemptorists on holiday from Brazil but helping on novenas and missions, helped then to see how much of the Brazilian experience was comparable to that of Ireland, especially as it became aware of its own need to be open to its own "joys and hope, ‘griefs and anguish”.

It is appropriate that on this annual Mission Sunday we should celebrate the 60 years of our Brazil mission. One of its pioneers, Fr John Myers, is happily still living in the land to which he has devoted so much of his life. Fr Brendan McDonald, who celebrates 56 years in Brazil this year, sketches a brief memoire of those days, recalling especially his own immediate contemporaries, Frs Joe McLoughlin, Eamonn Kavanagh and PJ Clear.

To all who served in Brazil and who are still happily among us, we say thanks for your generous service, and we pray that those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith may receive the reward of their labours.

Brendan McConvery CSsR Editor

11

C OVE R STO RY

MEMORIES OF YEARS

REDEMPTORIST MISSIONARY LIFE IN

12

THIS YEAR IS THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRISH REDEMPTORISTS IN BRAZIL. THEY WERE ASKED TO TAKE A NEW MISSION IN BRAZIL IN 1959 AND PIONEERS LEFT FOR BRAZIL IN APRIL 1960. THEY WERE FRS JAMES COLLINS, AS SUPERIOR, JOHN MYERS, JAMES MCGRATH, AND MICHAEL KIRWAN. ONLY FR COLLINS (LATER BISHOP) HAD MISSION EXPERIENCE. THE OTHERS WERE RECENTLY ORDAINED. OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS, THEY WOULD BE JOINED BY OTHERS. THIS IS AN ACCOUNT BY ONE OF THOSE YOUNG MEN OF HIS YEARS IN BRAZIL.

BY BRENDAN McDONALD CSsR REALITY OCTOBER 2020

Brazil

We disembarked in Manaus where Fr Dan Bray was waiting to greet us at the barrier with a loud shout out "Go home ye boyos while ye still have time!"

Somewhere

in this issue, there is a photograph taken in July 1964 of the then Irish provincial of the Redemptorists, Fr Jackie Whyte, “seeing off” six young Redemptorist missionaries.to Brazil on the 'SS Hubert'. They were Frs Dan Murphy, Joe Mc Loughlin, Con Keneally, PJ Clear, Sean Lawlor and Eamon Kavanagh and the writer of this article, Fr Brendan McDonald. Since then two have gone to their eternal reward (Sean Lawlor and Dan Murphy) and two have returned to Ireland, Joe McLoughlin and Eamon Kavanagh.

Fr PJ and I have stayed on, and this year we celebrate 56 years in Brazil. Both of us were to have written this brief account of the work here over the years but unfortunately in recent years Fr PJ has been suffering from Parkinson’s. The two of us have been together now since our secondary school days in Limerick. Personally, I think PJ would have been better writing these few lines but he did have an input and we reminisced often about these days over our time in Brazil. I must say that PJ has accepted God’s will very cheerfully indeed and is always in good humour.

13

C OVE R STO RY

Fr Dan Murphy CSsR

Fr Con Keneally CSsR Fr Seán Lawlor CSsR

Fr PJ Clear CSsR Fr Joe McLoughlin CSsR

Fr Brendan McDonald CSsR (author of this article) Fr Eamon Kavanagh CSsR

Fr Jack Whyte CSsR (Provincial) The voyage to Brazil, 1964

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Pedro Afonso church with the shamrock window

LEAVING IRELAND I remember that July day in ‘64 feeling a little sad as we watched Ireland fade away on the horizon as the ship headed to sea. But the adventure was beginning, and we soon got excited about what lay ahead. Our first stop was Lisbon, Portugal and Fr Dan Murphy, our senior confrère at the time, took us to the Basilica of Fatima. Our next stop was in Port of Spain, Trinidad, where the Dominican Fathers gave us a great welcome. After almost a month we finally arrived in Brazil.

We disembarked in Manaus where Fr Dan Bray was waiting to greet us at the barrier with a loud shout out "Go home ye boyos while ye still have time!" Dan, a good REALITY OCTOBER 2020

Purpose-built foundation house in Pedro Afonso

Tipperary man, was full of life and fun. He soon had us on a plane for Fortaleza where the vice province had its main house. I must say that our luggage was vastly overweight with all the supplies for the new mission, but Fr Dan managed to get us on the flight. The group was split up, with Seán Lawlor and I being appointed to Fortaleza while the others went to Pedro Afonso in the State of Goiás, today called Tocantins. Pedro Afonso was our first foundation in Brazil.

LANGUAGE LEARNING As we reminisced, Fr PJ recalled arriving in Pedro Afonso where they studied Portuguese with some local teachers. They started

Fr Seán Myers at 90

Each morning he got the old parish car and drove to the rural communities to celebrate Mass and visit the sick. In the town of Iguatu, he was very active in forming small groups of people called comunidades (basic Christian communities).

Fr Joe McLoughlin

Front row L/R: Fr Joe Hanrahan CSsR (Bishop Don Jose), Fr James Collins CSsR (Bishop Don Jaime), Fr Fredrick Jones CSsR, Consultor General (visitor), Fr Dan Murphy CSsR and Fr James McGrath CSsR. Back row L/R: Fr Dermy O'Connor CSsR, Fr Brendan McDonald CSsR, Fr James Duggan CSsR, Fr Seán Lawlor CSsR, Fr Joe McLaughlin CSsR and Fr Eamon Kavanagh CSsR.

The Canonical visitation

Mass celebrated in a simple, informal way

A typical dwelling in the Brazilian interior

getting to know the people and their way of life and also to became familiar with the spiritual and faith life of the people.

Fr PJ was known and respected as a very hard worker. He made friends easily, and immediately fell in love with the Brazilian people and their culture. He was later nominated to the community of Iguatu in the north east of Brazil where he was very active in the building of a new parish church.

But each morning he got the old parish car and drove to the rural communities to celebrate Mass and visit the sick. In the town of Iguatu, he was very active in forming small groups of people called comunidades (basic Christian communities). He was very

Small mission chapel

loyal to the Legion of Mary, prayer groups, and visiting the poor. His next appointment was Paraiso in the state of Goiás, where he worked as a curate in the parish. He also worked for about 12 years with Bishop Jaime Collins in Miracema, especially looking after the local seminary. For the last few years, he has lived in Fortaleza having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

RADIO STAR? Fr Seán Lawlor and I were appointed in those early days to the founding community in Fortaleza. I spent some time then in Iguatu where Fr Michael Kelly and I spent a lot of time building a new parish church and also

We had a weekly radio programme which was very popular, and it helped us to keep in contact with our big sprawling parish.

YEARS

15

COVER STO RY

The younger generation

A gathering of the Fortaleza Redemptorists circa 1990s

17 Redemptorists gather in the parish of São Raimundo

working in the small communities around the parish. We had a weekly radio programme which was very popular, and it helped us to keep in contact with our big sprawling parish.

After two years in Iguatu, I was appointed to Paraiso, a parish in the State of Goiás.

My work here was mainly parish work and I taught English to the students of the last year in the parish school. I was very happy here and the people were extremely nice and cordial. After a year and a half the provincial asked me if I would go to Goiânia, the state capital, where I lived with our Redemptorist confrères from the Goiás Province.

One of my jobs was to send food and other supplies to our own communities in the region. The roads in those days were very bad. In the rainy season, mud was the problem, and in the dry season the problem was blinding brown dust. To help with my expenses I gave English classes in the Catholic University run by the Jesuit Fathers. I also

São Raimundo church, Fortaleza

managed to do a degree in Portuguese to help my pastoral work.

UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR After four very happy years in Goiânia, I was recalled to Fortaleza to teach in our own college. I was also asked by Cardinal Aloísio Lorscheider, Archbishop of Fortaleza, to coordinate the University Pastoral Ministry in the city. I did this for several years. A teaching vacancy came up at the university and I went for it. To my delight I got the job and then spent many years, until my retirement, teaching at the Federal University of Ceara. I was advisor to the local bishops' conference for over 32 years and until my resignation last year. But I have continued working as a curate in Pici parish up to the present day. I love my parish work in Pici.

When I look back over the years, I am very proud of the younger generation of Brazilian Redemptorists here in the vice province. They

have taken on most of the leadership roles and have brought great energy and creativity to our life and mission. I often remind them that when we in Ireland had many vocations and Brazil had few, we sent our seminarians to Brazil. Now that Brazil has many vocations and we in Ireland have few, I feel that some of them might contribute to work in Ireland.

To conclude, I thank God for my missionary vocation, the confrères with whom I have lived and worked and the many lay people who have shared my life and work over the past 56 years.

A native of Co Waterford, Fr Brendan McDonald has worked in Brazil since his ordination 56 years ago. He has been in turn parish priest, preacher, teacher and university professor and shows no sign of slowing down.

COM M E N T WITH EYES WIDE OPEN JIM DEEDS

LOOKING AGAIN AT DERELICTION

SOMETIMES, WE FEEL DERELICT, ABANDONED AND ALONE. BUT THIS IS NOT THE END, ONLY A TIME TO LOOK AGAIN, WITH FAITH AND TRUST. I was a passenger in a car driving along a motorway recently and happened to look out my window as we passed by some farmland and caught sight of an old dwelling that had gone to ruin. Its walls were half fallen, the roof was long gone and nature had begun to reclaim it by growing grass and wild flowers all over it. It stood silently, in dereliction: abandoned and dilapidated. Still, it was quite a striking sight and it got me thinking.

In years gone by, who knows what it might have looked like? Who knows who might have lived there?

The crumbling walls may have once stood strong. They might have been painted or papered in a design that pleased the occupants. There may have been photographs hanging on those walls alongside paintings or memorabilia of real significance to them. Those walls probably offered protection from the wind and rain, gave refuge in difficult times and provided a focus for gatherings in happy times.

But now they are derelict. It was quite a sad sight when looked at in this way. Let’s look again, though.

There was a green-ness to the scene that evokes in me a feeling of new life. There are plants and grass and soil. Even in its state of dereliction, life is working in these walls. I imagine small animals seeking and finding shelter and being very thankful for it! I can close my eyes and see the flowers that will bloom on the branches and in amongst the grass. I can almost smell their wonderful scent and hear the soil as it gives its nutrients to these plants in a selfless act of giving itself

for the betterment of another and the betterment of life itself. Viewed in this way, the scene I saw first as one of dereliction becomes one of beauty.

Most of all, I am struck by the fact that it ‘is’. That it is – it exists. It is still standing. Now, it is not standing in the same way as before. It is not as grand or as pleasing to the eye. It is not serving the same purpose, but it is serving a purpose nonetheless. It inspires those who would take time to really see it, encouraging them to reflect and to think, not only about the house, but ourselves too.

Many times in life we feel derelict– abandoned and derelict. We feel that things have changed; and not for the better. Perhaps we think we have aged, and our lives don’t have the ‘pizzazz’ they once had, that we have no purpose. We can feel that the measurements of success– money, possessions, shapely bodies, perfect relationships, knowledge– don’t apply to us. And sadly, we are often reinforced in that by the messages we receive from others,

from the media, and from our own internal critic. In these circumstances it is easy to become down; even depressed.

Inspired by that old derelict house, I wonder if we could look again? If you, right now, feel derelict, in ruins, falling apart or down, I'm telling you these things in honesty and in love for who you are at your very core: • You are beautiful. In so many ways, you are beautiful.

Outside and in.

• Sure, things change; and sometimes the changes are really difficult. But even in those changes, your life’s purpose continues; perhaps in a different manner– but it continues nonetheless.

• You play your part in life sometimes without even being aware of it. You count to so many people who would be lost without your words of wisdom, actions of love or simply your presence.

• Treat yourself. Have a day to yourself. Get your hair done. Eat a lovely meal. Talk

to someone who really loves you. Listen to or play a song that just opens your heart up.

Walk in the most beautiful place you know. Give money to a stranger in need. Write a list of the times and ways you have been blessed (had it good). These things will leave you feeling less derelict and dilapidated.

• There is a God who dreamt you up and who is looking on in such love and admiration of who you are becoming. Far from being abandoned, you have a constant companion and supporter in God. In these strange and worrying times of global pandemic, many of us can become worried, upset and disconnected from others as well as becoming disconnected from our own inherent worth. So, perhaps, as well as taking something from those key messages above, we might share them with someone or some people who we know need to read or hear them. We are, after all, one big family of God’s children and so we must look out for one another.

And so, this month, I pray that we may look once again at our lives and see not dereliction and purposelessness. Instead, may we see that, despite change and hardship, we are still standing and moving forward with purpose. And may we know that we are loved by the creator of al life– God almighty.

Amen.

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

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LIT LI T U RGY

WOMEN OF THE ROMAN CANON

BY MARIA HALL

As we open the door and enter the holy place that is the Roman Canon, let us allow the aroma of the Holy Spirit to summon up for us the images, personalities and events that flood the mind of the Church when she carries out her bridegroom’s simple imperative, ‘Do this in memory of me.’

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Milton Walsh

It

is awe-inspiring to think that the words of the First Eucharistic Prayer have been heard and prayed by our Christian predecessors for over 1,500 years!

In the Roman Rite, the Roman Canon was the only Eucharistic Prayer up till the 1960s.

Its roots are found in the Old Testament (for example, the ‘Holy, Holy’ has its origins in Isaiah 6, Psalm 117 and Matthew 21). From the accounts of the Eucharist such as the Didache and Justin Martyr, the Eucharist had a prayer of thanksgiving and praise, with text and a structure that we would recognise today. This classic dialogue comes from the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus in the third century: The Lord be with you; And with your Spirit.

Let us lift up our hearts; They are turned to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord! It is right and just!

REALITY OCTOBER 2020

The main elements of the prayer were, and still are, praise, thanksgiving, invocation of the Holy Spirit, remembering, and intercession through the saints. By the time of Pope Damasus in the fourth century, the text of the Roman Canon was nearly complete.

But it was Pope Gregory I who made a final addition: to the list of male saints, he added the names of seven early Christian female martyrs whose courage and witness cost them their lives in the most horrendous ways.

These saints of the Roman Canon are remembered in order that we might draw inspiration from the example of their lives and that they might intercede for us in our need.

There is a lovely symmetry of numbers in the prayer. Before the consecration, Mary the Mother of God is mentioned first, followed

by Joseph, then 12 apostles and 12 early martyrs. After the consecration come John

the Baptist and a further seven men and seven women, all martyrs. We are invited to bring their names to mind, to recall the sacrifices they made, and their astonishing strength of faith, and remember that we can still call on them today to listen to our prayers and bring them before Almighty God. WHO ARE THOSE WOMEN? FELICITY AND PERPETUA Perpetua’s story is unique in that she recorded it herself till the day she died and then the account was finished by a friend.

In the year 203 AD, aged 22 years old and still breastfeeding her young child, she was arrested along with Felicity, her servant, who was heavily pregnant. They were seized in Carthage (modern day Tunisia) as part of a group of five catechumens to serve as a warning to others on the dangers of being a Christian. Perpetua

But it was Pope Gregory I who made a final addition: to the list of male saints, he added the names of seven early Christian female martyrs whose courage and witness cost them their lives in the most horrendous ways. was reunited with her child in prison and wrote: Such solicitude I suffered for many days, and I obtained for my infant to remain in the dungeon with me; and forthwith I grew strong and was relieved from distress and anxiety about my infant; and the dungeon became to me as it were a palace, so that I preferred being there to being elsewhere.

Felicity was worried that she wouldn’t be martyred with her companions because she had yet to give birth. They prayed fervently and she went into labour and gave birth to a girl who was brought up by a fellow Christian sister.

The two women were thrown to a fierce cow who, by some accounts, shuddered at the sight of their age and vulnerability. They endured horrific attacks from the animal and were both mortally wounded, but during this ordeal they still encouraged the catechumens who were watching, that they should be strengthened in their faith. The final seal of death was given by the sword.

The two women kissed each other before their fate, knowing that heaven awaited.

Felicity died first, then Perpetua, but the executioner was nervous, and she had to guide his hand in order to successfully behead her.

AGATHA Agatha was the daughter of a Sicilian nobleman, born around 231 AD. She had several suitors, but she had decided to become a consecrated virgin. She may have been a deaconess (there are early painting showing her in a white tunic and red veil) carrying out teaching duties in the Christian community.

Quintianus, a suitor with considerable status, was angry at her rejection of him and had her imprisoned in a brothel for a

St Agatha

month, but despite brutal assaults she didn’t change her mind. He sent her to prison where she was tortured. She was stretched on a rack, her skin torn, burned and whipped.

She endured all this pain willingly and so he had her breasts cut off. In her prison cell, she received no food or medical help, but had a vision of St Peter who healed all her wounds.

Finally, Quintianus had her burned to death on a bed of hot coals. She was just 20 years old.

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LI T U RGY

AGNES Agnes was alive at the same time as Lucy and their stories are similar. But she was only 12 years old when she died. Agnes too rejected marriage in favour of devoting her life to Christ. An angry suitor betrayed her, and she was sent to a brothel as punishment. In front of the Roman governor, she refused to give up her faith and so she was sentenced to death. Accounts of how she died vary. Some say she was beheaded, others burned at the stake or stabbed and strangled. She went unshackled because her wrists were too small for the irons. Her story soon became legendary and her tomb, a place of pilgrimage.

St Agnes St Lucy

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LUCY Lucy was also born in Sicily, around 20 years after Agatha died. Her mother wanted her to marry a pagan suitor, but Lucy had other plans. She wanted to devote her life to Christ.

They visited the tomb of Saint Agatha and Lucy had a vision of her in which she said her mother’s illness would be cured if they performed acts of good faith. So they gave her dowry money to the poor and her mother was cured! Lucy became known for her kindness and generosity to the poor.

Lucy had a suitor who was angry at being rejected and so he betrayed her to the Roman governor. This was during the reign of Diocletian who was particularly cruel towards Christians.

There are several accounts of her torture and death. A large fire was prepared on which she would be burned to death, but the flames only licked around her body and she was saved.

One account says her eyes were gouged out, and another that she took her own eyes out so as to discourage those who admired them.

A famous account of her life is one of the earliest printed books, the 13th-century ‘Golden Legend’ lives of the saints (a Medieval best seller). It says that she was stabbed through the neck but carried on talking, predicting the imperial downfall and rise of Christianity. Only ten years later, the Edict of Milan gave freedom for Christians to worship.

REALITY OCTOBER 2020

CECILIA Cecilia also desired to live a celibate life but was forced to marry a pagan nobleman called Valerian.

At their wedding ceremony she sang and prayed to God because she wanted to remain a virgin.

On their wedding night she explained this to him, saying that an angel was watching over her to protect her. Keen to see the angel for himself, Valerian was baptised by the Pope Urbanus. Both he and his brother Tibertius became Christians and dedicated their lives to burying Christian martyrs. Cecilia spent her time preaching and converted many hundreds of Christians.

Eventually, she was arrested and sentenced to be suffocated to death in the baths. She endured staggering fire and heat, but the flames didn’t harm her. At last, the executioner was ordered to behead her but after three strokes (the maximum) she was still alive. She bled for three days while still praying and preaching. On the third day she died and was buried by the pope who made her home into a church.

ANASTASIA Anastasia was known as ‘deliverer of potions’ because she healed many people from the sufferings of poison. She spent her life travelling, tending to those in prison and burying those who had been martyred. She was captured and tortured several times. In Rome, the pagan priest Ulpian offered her luxuries or torture. She chose torture. He attempted to touch her but was struck blind and died.

She worked with a young Christian widow called Theodota. Theodota was captured and martyred and Anastasia was ordered to death by starvation for 60 days. However, Theodota visited her and brought food.

She also escaped drowning and was able to carry on converting people until after a final capture she was staked to the ground and burned alive in 290 AD. Her name means ‘resurrection’.

These brave women lived and died in another age. Their stories were legendary and inspirational to the early Christian Church. They can still offer hope in today’s world, especially to women suffering abuse, violence, exploitation and persecution. It’s unfortunate that their names are optional in the Missal and are frequently omitted. We should hear their names every time the Roman Canon is prayed, remember their lives, and ask to gain “some share and fellowship” with them in the Kingdom of Heaven.

RESOURCES Catholic Ireland.net In Memory of Me: A Meditation on the Roman Canon. Milton Walsh The Witness of Early Christian Women: Mothers of the Church. Mike Aquilina.

Videos at: www.mariahall.org/feasts-andseasons FOR CHILDREN The Forgotten Christmas: Saint Anastasia Lucy: a light for Jesus. Barbara Yoffie Loyola Kids book of Heroes: Stories of Catholic Heroes. Amy Welborn. https://www.catholic.org/saints/fun_facts_arch. php DVD: Catholic Heroes of the Faith; the story of Saint Perpetua

F E AT U R E

CHAPLAINCY

FOR ALL SEASONS

23 THERE IS A GROWING NUMBER OF PASTORAL WORKERS WHOSE JOB DESCRIPTION DEFINES THEM AS CHAPLAINS. FEWER AND FEWER OF THEM ARE PRIESTS BUT ALL HAVE UNDERGONE TRAINING FOR THE MINISTRY IN WHICH THEY SERVE.

BY JOHN SCALLY

THE HOSPITAL CHAPLAIN Fr John Kelly

Chaplains

were often seen as the priests who administered the sacraments to the sick in hospital or who played an honorary role in the local sports club, providing them with a blessing or words of encouragement when it was needed. The work of chaplaincy is no longer confined to priests. What exactly do chaplains do and why do we need them? In this article, we are invited to look at four different kinds of chaplaincy and at the chaplains who minister.

Fr John Kelly, is a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin and director of pastoral care, Tallaght University Hospital. He explained how he got involved in this role.

“While at secondary school I was a volunteer carer on the Diocesan Lourdes Pilgrimage. My interest in caring for those who are sick originates from this enriching experience. During my seminary training, I also took part in a programme called Clinical Pastoral Education which is part of the process of training healthcare chaplains.

“I work as a member of a team of healthcare chaplains and volunteers that provides an on-site pastoral care service in a large urban

hospital 24 hours a day. As professionallytrained healthcare chaplains, the pastoral care team celebrate the hospital’s mission, vision and values. We facilitate and animate staff and volunteers using a range of certified mediation skills and finely-developed interpersonal skills. Each team member mentors and motivates hospital staff in the delivery of excellent patient experience, promotes meaningful staff engagement, co-creates an ethical workplace culture that values wellbeing, and advances the hospital mission throughout the local community.”

So, what is the nature of his role? “The work of healthcare chaplains involves a ministry of

F E AT U R E

encouragement to assist patients and their families trust in God in their darkest hour.

Sickness, hospitalisation and the fear of the unknown brings great anxiety and fear. We see this in Matthew’s Gospel (14:23-32) where the apostles are frightened when a storm threatens their boat. Jesus comes to them, walking on the water, and encouraging them, 'Do not be afraid'.

He invites Peter to have the same experience of walking on water, and when Peter’s faith wavers, Jesus holds him up. In the same way my encouraging words of comfort and hope invite the patient to hear those words: 'Do not be afraid'.

“Every day as a healthcare chaplain I encounter many challenges and opportunities.

Being present to patients, their families and healthcare staff throughout the hospital are sacred moments of deep encounter. They are opportunities to share in the joys and sorrows that are encountered by God’s people on the journey of life. In this way I hold people in the way that Jesus embraced Peter in his moment of fear.”

THE PARISH CHAPLAIN Angie Escarsa Increasingly, chaplains are to be found in parishes. A case in point is Angie Escarsa from the Philippines. She has been in Ireland for 20 years as a lay missionary with the Columbans. In 2019 she did an MA in Chaplaincy Studies and Pastoral Work in DCU. For Angie there is one key to chaplaincy.

“Chaplaincy is about presence. This somehow is what made me feel drawn to it. Parish work has been part of my journey before and during my missionary life in Ireland. During my first three years in the country, I was assigned to work in a parish in Ballymun.

“My experience of parish chaplaincy during my time in the parish can be described as both a challenge and a learning. The role of the parish chaplain is often confused with the role of the pastoral worker. It is unusual to have a lay

person as the parish chaplain in the Catholic Church. It is always the priest in the parish.

People in the parish are not familiar with parish chaplains but they know their pastoral worker.

The challenge is to marry both the role of the pastoral worker and the priest. It brings back what chaplaincy is about. Presence.”

Angie with two Columban missionaries

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THE PRISON CHAPLAIN Sr Mary (not her real name for security reasons) has been involved in prison chaplaincy for many years.

“It has been said that a good religious has a Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. I initially worked in teaching, but our Sisters were grappling with the challenge of reconciling their firm commitment to education with the fact that other callings have their role to play. In this sense, far from opposing the proclamation of the Gospel, new ministries advance it, as they await the times appointed by the Lord's mercy. As a result, the Sisters recognised that some diversification of ministry was called for while still living lives of fidelity to the God who calls us.

“One of the biggest blights on Irish society for a generation was the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The media was full of stories such as the

'Birmingham Six' and the 'Guilford Four’' and the 'Maguire Seven’. This also raised awareness of the plight of many Irish who had travelled to London lured by romantic ideas of 'digging for gold in the street'. Some had found the reality very different and had fallen on hard times. I got involved in chaplaincy among the Irish community in general and later got involved in prison chaplaincy because sadly there were a number of Irish people, mainly because they had fallen on hard times, in English prisons.”

Sr Mary has a very clear motivation in doing the work she does. “In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus said to us very clearly: 'I was in prison and you visited me'. My work requires me simply to do what Jesus asks me to do. The Gospel tells us the story of the rich young man, a good young man, a young man who had kept all the commandments from his

youth, who, nevertheless, could not become a follower of Jesus, could not be admitted to the early Christian community, because his unwillingness to share what he had for the sake of those in need was a contradiction of everything that Jesus lived and preached, an obstacle to revealing a God of compassion by being the compassion of God. “I take inspiration from the fact that the early community understood that this radical inclusiveness, revealed by the actions of Jesus, was key for their community and life together. In their community, no one was to be unwanted, rejected or marginalised. Everyone had the same dignity of being a child of God and that dignity was to be recognised and affirmed by the way in which the Christian community reached out to them and accepted them. Prisoners deserve the mercy of God too and that is why I want to be there for them.”

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THE SCHOOL CHAPLAIN Trish O'Brien Trish O’Brien is a school chaplain. “This is something I have always wanted to do even since before I knew it existed as a job! I am currently working in St Louis Community School in Kiltimagh, and have been chaplain here for six years now.

“When I was in school myself, I found life tough. I was the eldest girl, had been bullied and had gone through a lot of upheaval.

School for me was a place where I could hide from the outside forces that defined me but never shine as the real me. I often wished that I had someone I could confide in, that wouldn’t judge me in any way. I made a silent vow even then that if ever I became a teacher I would always watch out for the students in my care.

“So here I am many years later attempting to do just that! What a privileged place to be.

I have found myself holding students’ most intimate fears, worries, frailties and desires to be good enough right there in the space between us. 'I am afraid …. I am worried … I

am not enough… I have no one to talk to…

I don’t know how to make things better…' It is a terrifying and vulnerable place to be as a student but a very courageous one too.”

Trish’s job is a complex one.

“Of course school chaplaincy has many facets. In our school we have a 40-student strong chaplaincy team and together we take on the liturgical aspects of the school year. This year, we did a 'Sunflower of Remembrance' for November in memory of all loved ones who had died but also in tribute to the mum of one of our student chaplains who had passed away the previous summer. We have a carol service at Christmas and an Ash Wednesday service among many other occasions. The beauty of all of these though is that they are student-led. To me this is one of the great 'highs' of chaplaincy, to see how the students come together to plan, critique and celebrate prayer moments in our school. It makes me very proud of them and how confident they are in their ability to lead the school in prayer.

“Chaplaincy is a wonderful vocation. I am delighted to be doing this work. It catches you by surprise all the time, especially when you least expect it, but in a very rewarding way.”

Asked to sum up chaplaincy, Trish offers two reflections: "People will never forget how you made them feel” (Maya Angelou); “and that has made all the difference” (Robert Frost).

John Scally teaches theology at Trinity College, Dublin. He has a special interest in the areas of ethics and history.

O U R FAT H E R - PA RT 8

BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL He knocks at the door, rings, and enters with his typical seductions and companions Pope Francis

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A FAVOURITE CATHOLIC PRAYER USED TO PRAY FOR PROTECTION AGAINST SATAN WHO "WANDERED THROUGH THE WORLD FOR THE RUIN OF SOULS".

WHAT HAS HE BEEN UP TO RECENTLY?

BY MIKE DALEY

REALITY OCTOBER 2020

For

a while for us it was the ‘don’t miss’ viewing opportunity of the week–the governor of Ohio’s Tuesday coronavirus news conference.

Though not known as a charismatic figure, each week countless persons tuned in to watch the governor try to combine encouraging words of support and challenge with news about where the state was in its COVID-19 struggle.

One afternoon in particular stands out for me.

Governor Dewine took the podium to speak once more about the battle to overcome the pandemic.

He reminded his listeners that the virus was still here, just as dangerous as it had ever been, and, whether we wanted to admit it or not, living amongst us.

What the governor said next got my Catholic ears tingling. He spoke of when he and his wife Fran were growing up, they would attend Saturday morning catechism class at St. Paul Catholic Church in Yellow Springs, Ohio. There the nuns seared into his mind and memory the image of the devil roaming the world searching for souls.

Though he didn’t equate the two, the governor did say in a parallel fashion that both the devil and now COVID-19 were in search of bodies to corrupt and infect. If only he’d ended his news conference with the Our Father and the final petition of “Deliver us from evil”.

THE DEVIL: THERE’S NO SUCH THING – EXCEPT THERE IS Sadly, with deadly consequences, some people have discounted the threat posed by the coronavirus.

Even basic cautions and courtesies like wearing face masks are dismissed as unnecessary or an invasion of individual liberties.

Likewise, many moderns today, tend to deny the existence of the devil. Some are embarrassed at being asked to believe in a red, horned, pitch fork-bearing being. For them, belief in the devil is childish. Others are mindful of the historical, and at times still current, tendency to label what or who was strange, unfamiliar, or feared as satanic. For them, belief in the devil promotes close-mindedness. Additionally, in light of advancements in science and psychology, most argue that the supposed demonic possessions of the past have been reasoned away in the present. For them, belief in the devil is anti-intellectual.

This has led various wags over the years to state that the devil’s greatest trick is to convince us that he doesn’t exist.

Going against many of his contemporaries, Pope Francis is adamant in the reality of the devil when he writes, “There is evil. Evil is not something intangible that spreads like the fog of Milan. Evil is a person, Satan, who is very cunning. The Lord tells us that when Satan is driven out he goes away, but after a certain time, when one is distracted, perhaps after several years, he comes back worse than before. He does not stage a home invasion.

No, Satan is very courteous; he knocks at the door, rings, and enters with his typical seductions and companions.”

“lives at the end of the times, expecting the final in-breaking of God’s kingdom in history. At the same time, Jesus knows that the victory of God’s reign can only come about through a great contest between God and Satan, a context in which he is intimately involved.”

ST PETER AND SATAN Given how highly regarded St Peter is in the Catholic tradition, one lingering question is why does Jesus refer to him as Satan (cf. Mt 16:13-28)? The answer has everything to do with suffering and our response to it.

In quick order, Peter, unlike those surrounding him, declares Jesus to be the Messiah–the anointed one of Israel. Dashing expectations, Jesus responds by saying his life will be one of rejection rather than exaltation. Peter, to say the least, is shocked to hear this and rebukes Jesus. In return, Jesus reproaches Peter calling him Satan–the tempter and the father of lies.

Like so many of us, Peter sees his proclamation of Jesus as the Messiah through the lens of worldly power. Jesus, however, sees himself as the suffering servant bringing forth the Kingdom of God through service and nonviolence. I think most of us live in the midst of this tension between St Peter and Jesus.

Any resolution of this conflict calls for discernment. As Jesuit priest and author James Martin writes in his book Jesus: A Pilgrimage: “It’s easy for us to listen to the voices that do not come from God; those voices can sound appealing. Likewise, sometimes it feels more natural to dwell in the darkness than to turn toward the light.

We hear voices that tell us we are unworthy of God’s love, that nothing will change, that all is hopeless. We hear the voice of, as one of my spiritual directors called it, the Hinderer.

We tend to turn more toward our inner 'demons', who tell false stories about us and subvert our identities, rather than turning

We tend to turn more toward our inner 'demons', who tell false stories about us and subvert our identities, rather than turning toward God, who knows our true story, our real identity JESUS AND THE EVIL ONE Jesus’ worldview, as exemplified in scripture, was one that presumed the existence of the devil and demonic spirits. Jesus’ message about a just and liberating Kingdom was done with the knowledge of, and in opposition to, an enslaving kingdom of sin under the control of Satan. As pictured in Jesus’ ministry of exorcism, there was a constant struggle and battle between the two kingdoms. Though we may discount or downplay it today, St Peter proclaims this reality in Acts: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy Spirit and power.

He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (10:38).

Though the petition “Deliver us from evil” is often said in prayer and imaged to mean evil in a broad or general sense, many scripture commentators believe that Jesus had in mind “the Evil One”.

Speaking to Jesus’ eschatological (or 'End Time') consciousness, Jesuit priest and author of A Faith You Can Live With: Understanding the Basics, John O’Donell writes that Jesus

toward God, who knows our true story, our real identity.”

THE EVIL ONE TO EVIL Though we may not face the Evil One as Jesus did, all of us face evil in one form or another.

As our various catechisms and catechists over the years have taught us, evil in the form of social (unjust structures and actions that are embedded in a society like racism, sexism, militarism, etc) and personal (selfish actions which weaken our relationship with God and others) sin are all around us.

In the context of liturgy, right after the Our Father, the priest offers up what is called a spiritual embolism which can also be seen as an extension of the final petition: “Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.”

Evil, in all of its forms both dramatic and subtle, can be overwhelming and defeating. Looking out at the world, despair seems to be the most viable option. What difference can I, whether by myself or in a group, make?

The petition “Deliver us from evil” reminds us that we are not lost, forgotten, or forsaken. As St Paul says, “Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more” (Romans 5:20). The Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasises that “In this final petition, the Church brings before the Father all the distress of the world. Along with deliverance from the evils that overwhelm humanity, she implores the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance in expectation of Christ’s return.”

God–through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus–seeks to deliver us from the disorder and destruction in our midst. In hopeful perseverance, then, we are able to proclaim: “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.”

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-authored with scripture scholar, Sr Diane Bergant, is Take and Read: Christian Writers Reflect on Life’s Most Influential Books (Apocryphile Press).

27

Corn and Rice

A CITY BOY, THE AUTHOR LEARNED SOMETHING 28 ABOUT FILIPINO AGRICULTURAL METHODS WHILE HELPING OUT IN HIS STUDENT DAYS.

BY COLM MEANEY CSsR

When

we eat our potatoes at dinnertime, we don't usually think about the farmer who supplied them, and the toil and effort involved, from planting to harvesting – I suppose because the process nowadays is largely mechanical. But when I eat either of the staple foods in the Philippines – rice or corn – I have a real sense of the arduous process, because here there is very little of the mechanical, and much more of the manual. Arduous and tiring to be sure, but at the same time satisfying and a burden shared – largely due to the Philippine equivalent of the Irish meitheal: in the Filipino language bayanihan (pron: bai-an-E-han): a group activity, like at harvest time.

REALITY OCTOBER 2020

Allow me to describe two farming processes: of the two, corn is far easier to produce (and, in fact, needs far less neighbourly help than rice). In fact I played a minor part in such planting when here as a student in 1987 in a remote part of the country. You simply make a hole in the soil with your heel, drop in three corn grains (in case one or even two might fail), then cover them with another deft heel movement, and proceed along the line. Later on the corn needs fertilser and is eventually harvested.

Nowadays the corn is taken to the mill at the nearest town, but you can occasionally find the millstone in the house and hear the tell-tale sound of the two stones being rotated, and the powdered corn falling into a container.

RICE PRODUCTION The production of rice, however, is another matter entirely. I think of the words of Psalm 126, "they go out full of tears, carrying seed for the sowing (actually, not really tears, but more perspiration and mud up to the knees), they come back full of song, carrying their sheaves".

The rice seedlings are nurtured in a separate area, then, when they are ready to be transplanted, a crowd arrives, and each takes his/her place – this is bayanihan. Each takes a few bunches of the seedlings and begins to plant each one separately, a few inches apart, in a very soggy, muddy rice field. No wonder the school children here have a ditty that runs: "planting rice is never fun, bent from morn till the set of sun".

You can hardly imagine the tiredness of being bent over continually in the tropical sun, planting one after another of the nearly endless rice stalks. After this is finished, the rice needs to be carefully monitored, so that the conditions

alternate between dry and moist.

Fertilser is applied at exact times, then harvest time arrives.

Harvesting of the rice is done with sickle in hand (as in the parable of the wheat and the weeds), yet there still remain two stages before the rice is ready for cooking. First the grains have to be separated from the stalk. In urban centres, the rice is taken to the mill; in the rural areas, sometimes a mobile thresher is available; in the remote areas, the job is done manually. A sort of screen is set up (using any type of netting, like mosquito netting, so that the grains don’t disperse), then the rice stalks are beaten down on a hard surface, so as to dislodge the grains.

The final task is to separate the rice from its husk. Again, in the towns this is done by machine; in the rural areas there still survives (very seldom) the method of putting the husks into a large mortar and two people in tandem pounding them with a pestle until the rice is separated. The mixture, husks and rice-grains, still

has to be 'purified'. I'm not sure how this is done in the towns, but in the villages the mixture is held in a tray of native fibres, it is carefully thrown upwards and the heavier rice grains return to the tray, while the husks (chaff) are taken by the wind. And only after all these intricate steps have been followed, from planting in the muddy field in the scorching heat of day to separating the rice from the chaff, is the rice ready to be boiled. All this would have been far more difficult without the presence of the bayanihan. Interestingly the word comes from bayani which means 'hero' – so the bayanihan is a gathering of heroes: entirely apt.

MOVING HOUSE The most picturesque and memorable example of bayanihan (and I think unique to the Philippines) is when a house needs to be moved to a different location– maybe because the original foundations became unstable. Whatever the reason, the 'gathering of heroes' prepares to lift the entire house. The house will be entirely wood or bamboo, the roof will be either thatch or galvanised sheeting, but still quite a weight! The men, perhaps 20 or 25, plan carefully so that no group is over-burdened, therefore their coordination has to be precise. At the signal, they lift

Milling the corn

the house and walk in coordinated movement, not without some funny comments to offset the burden. It really is an amazing sight.

LIVING ROSARY During my missions I have an experience of bayanihan called 'The Living Rosary'. I had never heard of it until I arrived here. It is the essence of simplicity, but confers many benefits: it involves 70 adults, the youth dramatise each mystery and we finish with a light meal. The Living Rosary simply means that a different person represents each bead of the rosary, plus the crucifix at the beginning (five people), hence the total of 70. Even the preparation involves quite a group: 70 candles are glued individually onto a cardboard base the size of a saucer, then different coloured plastic paper, stapled to the base, surrounds the candle. And of course, the food has to be prepared beforehand, then distributed after the event.

We always celebrate the Joyful Mysteries as they are the easiest to dramatise. We gather in an open space and the candles are distributed to pre-arranged groups (a townland, an extended family, etc).

They wait their turn, as we proceed decade by decade. We follow the usual structure of the Rosary, so the

Moving house

first five people take their place and light their candles, while someone recites the Creed. They then place their candles on the ground, retire to the side, look for a seat, and we proceed to the first mystery. The routine is the same for each decade: the youth present a simple drama, the 12 volunteers come to the microphone, say their individual piece (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be...); at the end of the mystery they hold their 12 candles aloft while we sing a Marian hymn, then they too place their candles on the ground and retire for the moment. At the end of the fifth mystery, I invite all to return to the centre, regain their candles (70) and hold them all aloft while the Hail Holy Queen is recited, a truly beautiful, mesmerising sight in the gathering Philippine dusk.

TODAY’S ROSARY On occasion, I have tried to connect the Rosary with contemporary events. For Mary's agitation at the angel's message I look for some current, local example of any kind of anxiety. For the visitation, some instance of bringing comfort and relief to somebody in distress. For the third mystery, we celebrate the joy of new life; for the fourth we focus on worry and trauma in family life, and

for the fifth, the consolation of settled and serene family life. In these cases, I usually interview some person or a couple, and we will have practised beforehand.

And, of course, we have our highlights, the most memorable of which is the fourth mystery, the presentation in the Temple. Where possible, I insist on a 'live' baby Jesus (gender doesn't matter as the infant has a nappy!) and so during the dramatic enactment of this decade the youth playing the role of Simeon has to be entirely dependable and responsible. Following the gospel script, as Mary and Joseph approach, Simeon takes the babe in his arms. So, Simeon is there on the stage and the couple approach; then he takes the infant in his arms. Gasps from the crowd; the concerned mother looks on somewhat aghast!

Simeon has been told to hold the baby aloft and he duly does. More gasps (will he let the babe slip from his arms?) but then he returns the babe safely to Mary's arms, and all ends well. But it's a talking point in the village for days!

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.

29

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COM M E N T FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS CARMEL WYNNE

THE PAIN OF BEING STIGMATISED

TO FEEL ASHAMED OF SOME WRONG YOU HAVE DONE OR A LACK OF KINDNESS IS A HEALTHY RESPONSE, BUT TO FEEL STIGMATISED AND HURT BY NEGATIVE COMMENTS CAN BE HEART-BREAKING AND SOUL-DESTROYING. Wouldn’t life be wonderful if everyone made an effort to be kind and loving? Wouldn’t it be amazing if people were non-judgemental, 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 cyberbullies 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.

However, to feel stigmatised and shamed because of negative comments about who you are is heart-breaking and soul-destroying.

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, 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.

Eilish O’Carroll

Phillip Schofield

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 Eilish 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

31

F E AT U R E

Flannery O’Connor

1925-1964

CATHOLIC WRITER FROM THE AMERICAN SOUTH 32

AS THE CENTENARY YEAR OF HER BIRTH APPROACHES, FLANNERY O'CONNOR, THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC NOVELIST, IS ONCE MORE A FIGURE OF CONTROVERSY.

BY EAMON MAHER

The

name Flannery O’Connor is synonymous with the Catholic Novel in North America. The majority of her characters, however, are not Catholic at all and do not even possess what one would call a Catholic sensibility. She grew up in Savannah, Georgia, an area in the American South that is referred to as the Bible Belt.

She spent the bulk of her relatively short life suffering from lupus, for which there was no effective medical treatment, in an overwhelmingly Protestant culture.

REALITY OCTOBER 2020

WHAT IS A ‘CATHOLIC WRITER’?

I will concentrate here on O’Connor’s chef d’oeuvre, Wise Blood, which I will argue could only have been written by a person formed in the Catholic faith. The idea for the piece came while reading a selection of the writer’s prose essays, selected and edited by her close friends, Sally and Robert Fitzgerald. In these essays, O’Connor teases out what exactly constitutes a ‘Catholic’ writer.

She writes: The Catholic novelist believes that you destroy your freedom by sin; the modern reader believes, I think, that you gain it

that way. There is not much possibility of understanding between the two. So I think the more a writer wishes to make the supernatural apparent, the more real he has to be able to make the natural world, for if readers don’t accept the natural world, they’ll certainly not accept anything else.

O’Connor wrote about the world that she knew best. She was intimately familiar with the language the inhabitants of the South employed when talking about religion. She was aware of how they were moulded by the environment in which they lived where it was almost impossible to escape the influence of religion.

O’Connor regularly draws a distinction between art and religion. She quotes Aquinas who said that a good work of art is a good in itself. She continues: “If I had to say what a ‘Catholic Novel’ is, I could only say that it is one that represents reality adequately as we see it manifested in the world of things and human relationships.” Hence the

writer who happens to be a Catholic should see her/his primary duty as to reflect the world as it is, not as s/he would like it to be. There is no room for sentimentality or propaganda in good art.

Finally, O’Connor outlines her dilemma as an eternal outsider within her own culture: What the Southern Catholic writer is apt to find, when he descends within his imagination, is not Catholic life but the life of this region in which he is both native and alien. He discovers that the imagination is not free, but bound.

SEARCHING FOR GOD IN UNLIKELY PLACES O’Connor is rather like the Japanese Catholic novelist Shushako Endo, who found the country of his birth to be like a “swamp” waiting to swallow up any signs of Christianity that might be taking root. When Wise Blood was published in 1952, it elicited mixed reviews. This is due, in part, to the grotesque, even gothic, nature of the spiritual itinerary of its main character, Haze Motes, a young man who has returned from military duty in a disillusioned state. His experiences have convinced him that there is no God. Intrigued by the antics of a blind preacher, Asa Hawks, who tells him that he can’t run away from Jesus, Haze responds: “I don’t need Jesus. What do I need with Jesus? I got Leora Watts.” Leora Watts is a prostitute whose services Haze saw advertised on a toilet wall in Taulkinham, the town where he decides to settle and establish his own sect, The Church without Christ, “where the blind don’t see and the lame don’t walk and what’s dead stays that way”. His religion is based on the denial of all the main tenets of Christianity, and which goes as far as to question the very concept of sin. He buys an old battered Essex car, atop of which he addresses the rare few people who come to listen to his rantings. One person who does take heed is the 18-year-old Enoch Emery, who believes his mission in life is to assist Haze to see the light. Another person who becomes obsessed with the bizarre preacher is the 16-year-old illegitimate daughter of the aforementioned Asa Hawks, familiarly known as Sabbath, who tries on several occasions to get Haze to have sex with her. Annoyed at being rebuffed by Haze, she insightfully observes: “That innocent look don’t hide a thing, he’s just pure

filthy right down to the guts, like me. The only difference is I like being that way and I can teach you how to like it. Don’t you want to learn how to like it?” In another outburst, she calls him a killjoy who wanted nothing but Jesus.

FAITH AND VIOLENCE There is a strong connection between violence and religion in Wise Blood. Many of those who profess their faith most loudly are not overly concerned with God, whereas those who deny his existence vehemently are seen to be seeking solace from a superior being. Hence, Haze is bemused by Hawks’ indifference to his salvation: "What kind of preacher are you?" he heard himself murmur, "not to see if you can save my soul."

The problem for the so-called atheist is that he was brought up in a strict Christian home – his grandfather was a preacher and Haze often accompanied him on various trips and saw the power he exerted over his audience, a power Haze does not seem to possess. His attempts at ridding himself of all religious affiliations do not seem to enjoy much success either. He has sex with Leora Watts and Sabbath, but the attempt to be “filthy”, as Sabbath calls it, ends in a violent and abrupt end to their relationship. Although he proudly asserts: “I’m going to preach there was no Fall because there was nothing to fall from and no Redemption because there was no Fall and no Judgment because there wasn’t the first two. Nothing matters but that Jesus was a liar”, he nevertheless seems preoccupied with the idea of salvation. The con man preacher, Solace Layfield, who wants to join forces with Haze and ends up being killed by him, is accused of being a fraud: “You ain’t true. Why do you get up on top of a car and say you don’t believe in what you do believe in for?” Authenticity is in short supply among the people with whom Haze associates and that leaves him disenchanted and alone.

Enoch works in a museum and believes that a mummy he goes to see there on a daily basis might supply the means of achieving the mission he has set himself to show Haze that perhaps this could be the new “jesus” – notice the absence of a capital ‘J’. He tidies up his small room and transforms a cabinet into what he looks on as a “tabernacle”. When he presents the mummy to Haze, the latter angrily throws it against the wall

of his room, where it shatters. He then leaves both Sabbath and Enoch behind as he decides to make a new beginning in a new town. It is while he is undertaking that journey that he kills Layfield and is in turn badly beaten up by a local police trooper. Totally disheartened, he makes his way back to Taulkinham and blinds himself by rubbing his eyes with quicklime.

The desperate quest for salvation and the feeling of being dead to God are two strong leitmotifs in this novel. His landlady Mrs Flood, with whom Haze spends the last years of his life, notes: “He might as well be one of these monks, she thought, he might as well be in a monkery. She didn’t like it.” Haze’s total disinterest in his army pension and penitential rituals such as placing rocks in his shoes show that he feels the need to punish himself.

He explains that these gestures are carried out “to pay”, and he continues: “I’m not clean.” Mrs Flood remarks in a bemused manner: “You must believe in Jesus or you wouldn’t do these foolish things.” O’Connor, skilled artist that she was, does not supply answers to the questions that are raised

by Haze’s acts of self-mortification. By blinding himself, it may well be that he comes to truly ‘see’ the world and his acts for what they are, and the self-inflicted punishment is his attempt to make amends. The last lines of Wise Blood describe Mrs Flood staring into the eyes of her dead tenant and feeling “as if she had finally got to the beginning of something she couldn’t begin, and she saw him moving farther and farther away, farther and farther into the darkness until he was the pin point of light”. There are overtones of the intervention of grace in these lines, the notion that the sinner is often the one most cherished by God. We are not too far from Catholic belief in this instance and the Catholic sensibility of O’Connor shines through in that “pin point of light” that closes the novel. What happens beyond is a matter for God, and not for the novelist.

Eamon Maher is director of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies in TU Dublin. His latest book, co-edited with Brian Lucey and Eugene O’Brien, Recalling the Celtic Tiger, is published by Peter Lang, Oxford.

33

F E AT U R E

ORDINARY AND INNOCENT FOOD

Baking Bread in Strange Times SOME OF US HAVE REDISCOVERED THE SHEER DELIGHT AND WONDER OF MAKING BREAD – MIXING FLOUR, KNEADING DOUGH AND BREAKING THE FRESHLY-BAKED LOAF.

BY MICHAEL CONWAY

During 34

t h e earli e st days of the shutdown I went to do some shopping in a local supermarket and was delighted to see that the place was fully stocked; or so I thought. I walked around – obeying the social distancing rules – collected and ticked off everything on my list, item by item, until I began searching for the final one. I scoured the shelves to no avail, and, then, there it was, the gaping void at the heart of the supermarket with ‘Plain flour €0.99’ written above it. There was no flour. In the precise moment this made no sense at all as there was plenty of bread and cake on the shelves, so I double-checked and inquired from an assistant; only to discover that yes, indeed, there was a run on flour. Of all things, I thought.

And everyone said that toilet paper was going to be the issue.

As the days went by, I learned that baking had become a kind of a ritual for many during the days of confinement. Social media was inundated with pictures of the latest creations.

REALITY OCTOBER 2020

At one level you might say that all this baking was a way of filling up the extra time; doing something rather than nothing.

But I had a suspicion that there might be more to it. The early days put us all into a kind of altered state of consciousness, where some things became evident that, usually, are hardly even noticed or considered. The importance of community, for example, was clear to everyone, looking out for the vulnerable was recognised to be vital, expressing gratitude to those who work in healthcare,

deliver groceries, and stack shelves became a kind of duty, and so on.

Primal drives and impulses came to the surface, surprising many of us by their potency, clarity, and universality.

WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT BREAD? And baking was in there too. Articles began to appear in the newspapers that remarked and commented on this phenomenon from various perspectives. The Irish Times journalist, Derek Scally, reported from Germany that the hottest

lockdown recipe was Irish soda bread (Sodabrot). This was partly, he told us, because yeast was impossible to get in the shops, so Germans turned to the Irish rising agent. In an ironic twist, I discovered only last week that my local supermarket had run out of bread soda! In fact, soda as a rising agent was brought back in the 1800s from across the Atlantic, where native Americans used it in their own baking. The New York Times (taking from the British papers) carried an article on pandemic-baking in Britain, telling of flour mills striving to meet a surge in demand. The explanation for all this was deemed to be the search for respite from all the chaos. Nigella Lawson observed that “one of the ways to interrupt anxiety is to let the other senses take over”. This may be so; but it is certainly not the whole story. Such generalised statements miss one essential point. It’s not just baking; it’s baking bread. The internet is awash with pictures of bread; preparing, baking, breaking, and sharing, with many doing it for the first time.

More insightful remarks are to be had from Nathan Jurgenson, who is a social media theorist. He speaks of the ‘social photo’ to characterise the practice of taking and sending images that is now so common in our culture. He explains that it is a kind of language, a visual expression, that communicates to the other something that is important for oneself. It transpires that the photofood of the pandemic is bread. It

signifies, he says, home or, better, running and maintaining a thriving home. Bread and baking bread stand for safety, protection, and nourishment. Sometimes, the bread is broken, which conveys eating and health as well as being at home with others. In the bruising days of mounting statistics, of closures and lockdowns, of distancing and confinement, bread becomes a powerful image and symbol of togetherness, of brokenness, of community, and, perhaps, even, of survival. It mobilises something deep in our consciousness that reflects not only the impulse to life, nourishment, and preservation, but also to ways of countering powerlessness, vulnerability, and despair. Bread is life in the face of death.

HISTORY OF BREAD But there may be even more to bread. My Larousse Gastronomique tells me that bread-making dates back to at least 9000 BCE, and that “no other food is so redolent of myth, tradition, and rite as bread”.

That’s a very long time and a very powerful cultural, social, and religious resource. In the second century, Pliny the Younger, a Roman governor, wrote to the Emperor Trajan, seeking counsel on how to deal with Christian communities.

In his letter he remarked that it was their custom to assemble to partake of “ordinary and innocent food”; this was, surely, bread and wine.

Indeed, you could say that there is

an early ‘social photo’ of Eucharistic bread in the Catacomb of Callixtus from the very next century that shows two figures, one cutting a very wholesome-looking loaf of Eucharistic bread and the other in the orans posture.

The body-bread (and blood-wine) are embedded in Christian identity as comfort, nourishment, and a sign of communion. In his poem, Eucharist, Robert Kinast, puts his finger precisely on what is perhaps the vital energy for assembly, table fellowship, and celebration; namely, hope.

The bread breaks differently and like the crack of dawn in the creator’s first dream gathers us from talking dust into a chosen audience witnesses to the festival of His importance to set before us all at once the whole of His mystery

We sip a wilder wine and hear the whispers of the stars explode like the sound of shadows passing over blooming leaves.

And should all this prove empty at the end we would still compose a litany to praise its foolishness so cunning is the hope it gives us to live by.

HOPE IN TIME OF PANDEMIC Participating and celebrating at the Eucharistic table ought to inspire hope; for now, and for always. It serves to open our world so that history with all its vicissitudes – including the tragedy that is COVID-19 – is recognised, understood, and lived from within the horizon of hope. This hope that we meet and live in faith is a communal hope. You cannot just hope for yourself, but you must hope

for your partner, your friend, your neighbour, and even your enemy.

And as Pope Francis has underlined in Laudato Si', we must hope, too, for our earth as our common home, the place whence we came, and, to some degree, to which we will return to be reunited with the ultimate hope of creation itself.

All of this has implications for the quality of our coming together in faith. The pandemic has brought something elemental about bread to the surface. It retains its potent symbolic force in our culture. There is no doubt about that now. As Christians prepare to return to the celebration of the Eucharist, I am wondering why is it that so many in our Christian culture no longer recognise, experience, or even inquire into this bread for body, mind, and soul. We now have an opportunity to consider again our Eucharistic celebrations and ask questions about how we prepare for them as a community; how we participate in them as communal action; and how we invite and welcome others into our assembly and to our table.

The celebration of the Eucharist is the practice of hope in the face of the difficulties, despairs, and downfalls of life. It is to live in a bigger world, where faith, hope, and love, are mirrored in sharing what is “ordinary and innocent”.

Professor Michael Conway is a priest of the Diocese of Galway and Professor of Theology and Culture at the Pontifical University, Maynooth

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IN T H E F O OT ST E PS OF CL EMENT: PART 7

BACK TO VIENNA

The Minoritenkirche where Clement began his apostolate in Vienna

TOWARDS THE END OF 1808, CLEMENT AND HIS YOUNG TRAVELLING COMPANION, FR MARTIN STARK, ARRIVED IN VIENNA. IT WOULD BE CLEMENT’S HOME TO THE END OF HIS DAYS.

BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR 36

Towards

the end of 1808, Clement and his young travelling companion, Fr Martin Stark, arrived in Vienna. Once again, they had a brush with the law. Clement had brought some sacred vessels in his luggage and they were discovered when the travellers were stopped and searched by the military. They were detained for a few days and the vessels were confiscated. By now, Napoleon was advancing into Austria. Vienna fell in May 1809 after a ferocious siege. Apart from helping out in the military hospitals, there was little for Clement and Martin to do by way of pastoral work. Baron Penkler, a friend of Clement’s, found rooms for the two of them and a post hearing confessions in the Franciscan Minoritenkirche in central Vienna.

Here the two of them lived quietly and in virtual obscurity for the next four years.

CHAPLAIN OF ST URSULA’S When the chaplain of the Ursuline convent boarding school died in April 1813, the Archbishop of Vienna offered the post to Clement. In addition to his work in the school, the chaplain took care of the sisters’ small public church in return for

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board and an apartment across the road from the church. This was ideal for Clement’s purposes – it allowed him to offer accommodation to Fr Stark and any Redemptorists who might be visiting Vienna. In time, it would become the apostolic base for Clement, the ‘Apostle of Vienna’.

Clement’s apostolate in Vienna had begun as confessor in a city-centre church. Administering the sacrament of reconciliation continued to occupy a major part of his day. In addition to the penitents he received in St Ursula’s, he spent many hours each day doing the confessional ministry in the Capuchin church. He often arranged for the night watchman to call him at three or four in the morning so he could walk to the Capuchin church in the centre of town. He took advantage of the quiet to pray but often, his penitents were already waiting for him. One penitent passed his name on to another. They included intellectuals, artists, civil servants as well as workers and students. His confessions were not rushed – he allowed time for talk and spiritual direction. As usual, police spies were keeping an eye on Clement. One report said that “the confessional is the most powerful means for maintaining this newest fashion [for

piety]”. Zacharias Werner, friend and penitent, said “Fr Hoffbauer sees through planks!” For all that, Clement did not detain his penitents too long in the confessional. Fr Madelener, later a Redemptorist, believed that his knowledge of human nature was the result of a spiritual gift.

“He listened for a while with closed eyes, then he opened them for a moment, and very calmly spoke ten or twelve words that contained everything the penitent needed to know.” Once pressed for time with a penitent who was taking her time, Clement told her: “What I cannot tell you, the Holy Ghost will provide.” Another of his sayings was that it was better to speak to God about the sinner than speak to the sinner about God. He had learned from St Alphonsus the destructive cost of Jansenism. One of his disciples said he was the ideal confessor for the lost son or daughter whose shame stopped them from making a full confession of what was on the tip of their tongues to say. In such cases, Clement only said, “Carry on. I already know what you want to say!” On the other hand, he was patient and kindly towards the scrupulous. A nervous young priest

How Vienna looked in the time of Clement

was taking a long time purifying the paten and chalice at Mass. Clement came up behind him and said “John, leave something for the angels to do!”

CLEMENT AND THE POOR Clement had a growing list of poor clients. Most days, he visited the poor areas of the city, with a supply of food and spare clothing concealed beneath his cloak. He knew also when to take notice of whatever talents his clients had. One of his regulars was a painter, so rather than give him more money, Clement commissioned him to do some paintings which are still in the house Clement eventually founded in Vienna.

The poor were welcome in the small community refectory at St Ursula’s. Sometimes at lunch time it was full of poor people, soldiers, students and beggars: as often as not, Clement prepared the meals himself. Clement’s income from the chaplaincy was limited– he was for the most part reliant on providence for his daily bread, but it did not limit his generosity. “I am very poor, but not so poor as to have nothing to give.”

A SAINT AND SINNERS His care for the poor was especially noteworthy when they were close to death. It has been estimated that he attended over 2,000 people on their deathbed. He usually did his sick calls on foot. He said that if he could say the Rosary on his way to a dying person, no matter what their reputation was, he could prepare them for a good

death. When possible, he brought flowers or a small gift to the sick.

Sometimes, he needed more drastic methods to touch a hardened heart. Called to the sickbed of a nobleman who had been away from the sacraments for a long time, Clement tried his best, but to no avail: all he got was a torrent of abuse.

Finally, he rose to go, but stopped at the door and looked back. “Well, what do you want now?” came the angry shout from the bed. “I will go quietly,” Clement replied, “But just this once, I would like to see how a soul dies on its way to Hell!” In a moment, the atmosphere changed. “Father, can you forgive me?” the man asked. Clement heard his confession and shortly after, he died in peace.

Clement sometimes had an insight into troubled souls. A wealthy lady who had lost her money was determined to end it all by throwing herself in the Danube. Clement fell into conversation with her and learned her trouble. He picked up a handful of dust, threw it into the air and said “What is money?

It is worth as much as this handful of dust.” Thus began a long and fruitful spiritual relationship. On another evening, a troubled man hurried past him down by the river. Clement caught up with him and produced his snuffbox. “Would you fancy a pinch?” he asked. They fell into conversation.

Clement invited him back home – the beginning of another life-transforming friendship.

THE LIVING LITURGY We saw how in Clement’s student days in Vienna,

the imperial government exercised strict control over the liturgy and especially preaching. With his own little church and his experience of the perpetual mission of St Benno’s behind him, Clement was determined to make worship in Vienna a thing of joy. The nuns' little chapel attracted only a small congregation and sermons were unknown. To their surprise, Fr Hoffbauer announced he was going to preach on Sundays.

He bought flowers to beautify the tiny chapel, spared nothing on candles, organised good music and song. The Forty Hours adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was not a devotion favoured by the imperial order. That did not stop Clement celebrating it in St Ursula’s. His mass-servers were not little boys but university students and young men. Soon St Ursula’s had the reputation for the most splendid Mass in all Vienna.

The secret police still kept an eye on Clement and one report spoke of "the quite dreadful crowd" he was attracting. One of Clement’s circle, himself a distinguished preacher and theologian, Dr Emmanuel Veith, said, “I heard him say often these splendid words, 'The Gospel must be preached anew.'” Preaching the Gospel anew was at the heart of Clement’s mission in Vienna.

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.

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F E AT U R E

REFLECTING ON RECENT EXPERIENCE:

CELEBRATING EUCHARIST A LITURGICAL SCHOLAR, WHO HAS TAUGHT SEVERAL GENERATIONS OF STUDENTS APPROACHING ORDINATION HOW TO CELEBRATE THE EUCHARIST, HAS REALISED IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS THAT LITURGICAL SKILLS NEED TO BE RE-SHAPED.

BY TOM WHELAN CSSp

The 38

p a st few months have revealed both strengths and weaknesses in how church experienced pastoral ministry. There has been much to commend, not least the willingness of priests to be creative in how they might minister in a new, unprecedented pastoral climate – often risking personal safety in order to provide spiritual and sacramental support to those seriously ill or dying. It has been an extremely challenging time for people in full-time ministry, including those frustrated at not being permitted to minister because they were, themselves, self-isolating because of age or underlying health conditions.

LITURGICAL TOKENISM? On the downside, this made us chronically aware of the shortage of ordained priests and realise the need to bravely face the question of how we are going to minister into the future. It has become patently clear how impoverished the 'liturgical diet' is in parishes, with almost no broadcast celebrations of Morning/Evening Prayer, or of a Liturgy of the Word. During the recent months of webcam liturgies, the extent of (unintended) clericalism became glaringly evident, practically everywhere. Even before COVID, the ministry of lay women and men was often

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tokenistic and occasionally patronising. With webcam, the lack of a suitably-developed lay ministry quickly became apparent, and many have observed how pronounced was the absence of women.

However, challenges provide opportunities and a quick overview of these might invite reflection.

It is incumbent on all involved in pastoral ministry to ensure that, in the continuing challenging environment, the best of recommended health practice be taken seriously. The safety of both lay and ordained

forget– most particularly when using a webcam – that the ministry provided by the presider and other ministers demands an ability to communicate. This relates not just to proper use of microphones and how we pace speech and voice register, but also to 'bodily attitudes' (how we stand, sit, kneel, genuflect, etc). All of these communicate much more than we realise. Rushing between altar, ambo and chair in the interests of efficiency, is never conducive to prayer. A presider should maintain a sense of 'calm presence'.

Liturgy, of its nature (because corporate worship employs patterns of behaviour), engages the language of ritual which includes Word/word, symbol, movement, gesture, and silence. These are elements of a complex ritual language, and therefore do not need explanation: in fact, to attempt to elucidate the 'meaning' of any of these is to rob them, immediately, of power to evoke. Nothing needs to be explained if it is celebrated properly and generously! Symbol and rite should be approached and respected for their inner poetic qualities which can evoke biblical resonance. Ritual has nothing to do with efficiency and unfolds at its own pace.

Nothing needs to be explained if it is celebrated properly and generously! ministers must be safeguarded, as well as that of all who physically participate in the liturgical celebration. For instance, by now, all who distribute Eucharist are used to wearing face coverings and to visibly and publicly sanitising their hands both before and after Communion.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS The very best of liturgical practice should be aimed for at all times, and in all matters. We often tend to

One example of this relates to the distribution of Communion: best practice remains that the priest only consecrates what is needed at any given Mass (see GIRM [General Instruction on the Roman Missal 85] and only uses the reserved Sacrament (in the tabernacle) in an emergency. A small number of consecrated hosts are reserved for viaticum and communion to the sick.

MAY WE SING? The function of music in liturgy is not simply to embellish the liturgical act: it is an integral part of the very act of liturgy and is used to highlight those moments which are of greater importance.

Unfortunately, singing by the assembly involves the forced projection of droplets of saliva into the air and potentially contributes to the spread of the virus, and is therefore not advised.

Cantors may sing but appropriately distanced.

Live music is always to be preferred to recorded music, irrespective as to how wonderful the latter might sound. We cannot praise God in song in a vicarious manner! However poor our singing might be, it is part of our living offering of praise. In the absence of a cantor, appropriate live instrumental music can be used.

The liturgy is always a teacher: “The best

catechesis on the Eucharist is the Eucharist itself, celebrated well” (Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 64). An assembly can see through any pious pretentions or devotional 'airs and graces'that a presider may assume. The Rite must be allowed to speak for itself. A presider should never 'get in the way' but rather be totally transparent to the Mystery being celebrated to enable it to come to the fore through the symbols, words and gestures employed. One of the great criticisms of the reformed liturgy is that it is all about the personality of the presider: a criticism, unfortunately, not without merit. The tendency towards personal affectivity is not reflective of the reformed liturgy of Vatican II. A Presider never refers to himself, not even under the pretence of making an assembly feel 'welcome' and encouraging a 'human' encounter. This draws attention to himself in a way that distracts from the very purpose of worship: to be swallowed up as assembly in the love of God, seen in and through Christ and the enlivening action of the Spirit.

Otherwise liturgy is experienced as a 'performance' at which the assembly are spectators.

The opposite is, in fact, the case. The task of presiding is actually that of serving the assembly, of creating a space, so that it might empower it to participate ever more deeply in the 'Presence' that enfolds in them and in their gathering, and that is experienced in Word and Sacrament. The presider leads and enables the (sacramental) prayer of the assembly and oversees the various dimensions to gently facilitate the deeper participation of the assembly in its worshipful task which overflows into social action.

THE WEBCAM? Unfortunately, one of the challenges that the webcam brings relates to participation. When broadcasting liturgy, we need to remember that the use of TV and other screens (mobile, iPad, computer, etc) conjures 'entertainment'.

Most of these platforms do not permit two-way participation, thus creating a voyeuristic type of experience. This uncomfortable term ought to make presiders aware of the limits of broadcast worship. While it brings a degree of comfort to those housebound and otherwise unable to physically attend, we must also accept the clear invitation to be both conscious and inclusive

A presider never refers to himself, not even under the pretence of making an assembly feel 'welcome' and encouraging a 'human' encounter of those who are digitally present. This must never be done in a patronising way. From now on we will need to become deeply aware of the omnipresence of the webcam and learn how best to utilise it. Digital worship offers many possibilities into the future but begs serious consideration of the nature of sacramental celebration: is a corporeal presence necessary for a celebration of sacrament? We will have to realise its limitations as well as exploit its potential – without ever compromising on the need to celebrate well, and with care. Having said this, we should not underestimate the importance of social media in the ministry of the church at this time.

Dr Thomas Whelan is a member of the Spiritan Congregation.

He has a doctorate in liturgy and degrees in music. He served as president of the Milltown Institute and now teaches in the National Centre for Liturgy, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.

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QUESTIONING JESUS THE DISCIPLES’ QUESTIONS IN JOHN 13-17 JESUS BIDS FAREWELL TO HIS DISCIPLES IN THE 'FAREWELL DISCOURSE' OF JOHN 13-17. IT MOVES THROUGH A SERIES OF QUESTIONS WHICH AT TIMES MAY SEEM NAÏVE BUT JOHN USES THEM TO FACILITATE DIALOGUE ABOUT THE NATURE OF JESUS’ LORDSHIP AND DISCIPLESHIP.

BY TIMOTHY O’CONNELL

At

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the beginning of the Farewell Discourse, Jesus surprises his disciples by approaching them like a slave, wrapped in a towel and equipped with a basin of water as he stoops to wash their feet. Surprised, Simon Peter asks, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” (Jn 13:6). This question highlights the absurdity in Jesus, who deserving the highest honour, exercises his lordship through menial service. His stooping to wash his followers’ feet is an image that anticipates his humiliation through crucifixion (Jn 19:1-42). Being washed by Jesus also anticipates how disciples participate in his death: being washed by Jesus suggests baptism, which is the subtheme of this scene.

PETER AND THE BELOVED DISCIPLE Following Jesus’ prediction that one of his disciples will betray him, the “beloved disciple” enters the story (Jn 13:24-25). Simon Peter prompts this disciple to ask, “Lord, who is it?” (Jn 13:25). Despite Jesus’ reply that he will make a final appeal to his betrayer, honouring him with the gift of a piece of bread, none of the disciples understand (Jn 13:28).

John is telling his readers that Jesus’ knowledge and control are complete, even in the darkest of situations. All that happens, can only happen if Jesus permits it (Jn 13:27). The gift of the piece of bread suggests the Eucharist, which is the subtheme of this scene. The Eucharist is the place where Jesus gives himself to his followers and benefiting is dependent on proper inner disposition and solidarity with him (Jn 6:54-56). John assures his readers that insincerity has no negative effect on Jesus’ lordship; ironically, it succeeds in advancing his mission. Even betrayal, leading to his death, is the means of bringing about redemption.

In Jn 13:36 Simon Peter asks, “Lord, where are

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you going?” Jesus’ reply in Jn 14:1-4 associates the image of the Temple as the Father’s household with the entire company of those who believe. Jesus tells the disciples that his departure to the Father’s household is to prepare a place for them and that he will come again and take them to himself (Jn 14:2-3). Simon Peter’s question emphasises his misunderstanding concerning Jesus’ destination, which is to indwell disciples. Simon Peter’s linked question, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now?”, highlights the uniqueness of Jesus’ death (Jn 13:37). It is Jesus’ prerogative to volunteer his life for humanity’s redemption (Jn 10:18). All discipleship depends on Jesus’ death. Simon Peter does not yet understand this. His difficulty is similar to that of anyone who contemplates the injustice of Jesus’ death. Simon Peter’s intention to lay his life down to prevent Jesus’ death is ironical (Jn 13:37) and shows his failure to distinguish Jesus’ salvific death from any other death.

QUESTIONS BY THOMAS, PHILIP AND JUDAS Questions by other named disciples in John 13-17 are linked to Simon Peter’s questions. Thomas, Philip and Judas (not Iscariot) each ask one question.

In Jn 14:5 Thomas asks, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” This question invites readers to consider Jesus’ identity and mission. Jesus’ reply in Jn 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”, highlights John’s theme of bringing God into contact with humankind and vice versa. Readers learn that Jesus is the metaphorical ‘way’. This echoes John the Baptist’s citation from Isaiah: “Make straight the way of the Lord” (Jn 1:23). The ‘way’ metaphor

points to Jesus. John expresses Jesus’ lordship in terms of his oneness with the Father to whom he is departing via the cross, thus making the way to the Father accessible to all. This is the way all wishing to come to the Father should follow (Jn 14:6). The reply echoes Jesus’ eucharistic language in Jn 6:32-33 where he describes himself as “the true bread from heaven” which “gives life to the world”.

Philip’s demand, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied” (Jn 14.8) characterises the inability to ‘see’ Jesus as God’s self-revelation.

Philip’s demand for a vision of the Father apart from Jesus, presupposes that Jesus and the Father are separate realities. Jesus’ reply emphasises the inappropriateness of seeking such a visionary experience (Jn 14:9-11). Disciples can entrust themselves to Jesus and depend on his promises as the promises of God (Jn 14:1). On the other hand, Philip’s question shows that Jesus and the Father are distinct: they are in a Father-Son relationship.

Philip’s demand echoes Jesus’ question to him in Jn 6:5 regarding the ‘sufficiency’ of bread to feed the multitude. The eucharistic reference is noticeable in Philip’s earlier reply to Jesus’ question concerning the quantity of bread required to ‘satisfy’ the multitude: “Six months wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little” (Jn 6:7). John’s readers are to notice the irony in the Greek term ‘little’, meaning ‘one-mouthful-per-person’. Jesus is the bread that satisfies one mouthful per person!

Judas’ (not Iscariot) question in Jn 14:22, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”, concerns Jesus’ continued dialogue with his disciples and, through them, sustained dialogue with those who do not yet believe. Dialogue continues despite Jesus’ physical absence! This is especially so where the worshipping community

is in view. For John, Baptism and Eucharist were the believers’ privileges. Participation in these rites were dividing lines between believers and those who were unable to accept Jesus’ teaching (Jn 3:10; 6:61).

Judas’ (not Iscariot) question ironically asserts Jesus’ sustained lordship; though physically absent, he will manifest himself to disciples who believe in his word and gratefully love him. By extension, Jesus’ mission to the world continues through his disciples.

QUESTIONS BY THE GROUP ‘SOME OF HIS DISCIPLES’ Jesus is addressed as ‘Lord’ in all the questions by individual disciples in the Farewell Discourse. The omission of this title and the use of third person singular ‘he’ distinguishes the questions posed by the group “some of his disciples” in Jn 16:17-18: “What does he mean by saying to us, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”; “What does he mean by this ‘a little while’? … We do not know what he is talking about.”

The disciples have adopted an in-group strategy excluding Jesus from their deliberations. They discuss Jesus’ words but do not address him though he is present! They speculate among themselves about brief time-periods either side of Jesus’ departure, and succeed only in obscuring the reality of his death. However, Jesus does not abandon them to their plight. All along the disciples have been interrupting him. Now, Jesus whom they have excluded, interjects into their conversation and voices their concerns on their behalf (Jn 16:19)! This is John’s ironical emphasis on the need for disciples to stay focused on their Lord who is available in a sustained and mysterious mode by the Spirit, especially through the Eucharist.

CONCLUSION The disciples’ questions in the Farewell Discourse are catechetical questions facilitating readers' understanding of lordship and discipleship in John. Their questions show that being in dialogue with Jesus (Jn 13:6-10, 36-38) and with each other is at the core of discipleship, with the condition

of keeping Jesus present in the Eucharist central (Jn 16:17-18). Implicit in their questions is an underlying recognition of Jesus’ ability and authority to provide answers. That one question gives rise to subsequent related questions emphasises the progressive nature of discipleship. Contrary to the disciples’ presuppositions, Jesus’ lordship is exercised authoritatively, but it is through servanthood. Overall, the disciples’ questions show that they recognise Jesus as Lord; however, they misunderstand much concerning the nature of his lordship and the discipleship it entails. Modern readers can take heart from the self-effacing and ironical manner in which John characterises the disciples as they struggle to understand Jesus’ identity and mission. Readers may also be heartened that asking questions of Jesus is not only permitted, it goes to the heart of discipleship.

Timothy O’Connell recently completed a Research Masters in Theology and Religious Studies under the direction of Dr Jonathan Burroughs at Mary Immaculate College.

A Redemptorist Pilgrimage Visiting the sites associated with St. Alphonsus & St. Gerard in Southern Italy

Saturday May 8th to Saturday May 15th 2021.

Based at the Caravel Hotel in Sant’Agnello, Sorrento (Half Board) Cost: €1,095.00/ £985.00 per person sharing.

Places are limited so early booking is advised.

Group Leader: Fr Dan Baragry CSsR For further details contact Claire Carmichael at ccarmichael@redcoms.org Tel: 00 353 (0)1 4922488

Beautiful Sorrento

DEVASTATION IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE BEIRUT EXPLOSION TRÓCAIRE IS WORKING WITH LOCAL AGENCIES TO RESPOND TO THE URGENT NEEDS OF THOSE AFFECTED BY THE TRAGIC EVENT. Photos by Caritas Lebanon and Stefanie Glinski for Catholic Relief Services

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August 4, 2020 a huge explosion rocked Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.

The cause of the explosion has been linked to 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that was being stored in a port warehouse. Damage was extensive and devastating, with reports of windows being shattered up to 24km away.

The emergency services still continue to clear rubble and debris but there is little hope of

finding anyone still alive. At the time of writing over 190 people are reported dead and at least 6,500 injured. The damage has left up to 300,000 people homeless.

TRÓCAIRE IN BEIRUT Trócaire’s head of programmes, Alison Heron, is based in Beirut and described the carnage.

“Everything had been destroyed. There were people covered in blood around us,

Hot meals and water were distributed in Beirut to people affected by the explosion

by Trócaire's local partner Caritas Lebanon.

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cars had been flattened. I don’t know how I came out of it basically unscathed. I just had a few glass wounds and a bump on my head. It feels like a miracle. I’m lucky to be alive. It’s devastating walking around the city now. East Beirut has been decimated, there’s not a building undamaged.”

Thankfully, all Trócaire staff and local partner staff on the ground

are safe and accounted for. Because Trócaire has a presence in Beirut, the agency was able to react immediately together with its partner organisation, Caritas Lebanon.

With the generous support of the public in Ireland, Trócaire is responding to the urgent needs on the ground in Beirut. Thousands of people have been affected by the devastating explosion. Trócaire’s local partner is providing emergency supplies to people, providing medical

The devastation in Beirut following the explosion at the port.

assistance and helping to clear the rubble.

A blast of this magnitude is a major crisis whenever it occurs but it comes in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and economic collapse in Lebanon. The blast damaged store houses containing wheat which has left many concerned about the availability of food in the country.

ONE PROBLEM ON ANOTHER Lebanon has also been affected by the war in Syria and is generously hosting over one million Syrian refugees – the highest per capita of any country in the world. Dealing with the impact of this explosion on top of these existing crises will be very difficult for the country.

“Lebanon has already suffered so much,” said Alison Heron. “But there is such a community spirit, people came together in the aftermath of

the explosion and they have huge resilience.”

“There are a lot of dead and a lot of injured, and the health situation is likely to worsen quickly, as the toxic gases can cause additional health problems,” said Rita Rhayem from Caritas Lebanon.

“The situation is critical, and this is the first time that we have experienced a situation of such great magnitude. It is apocalyptic, but we don’t stop, and we will carry on in order to help all those in difficulty”.

PROMPT ACTION Caritas Lebanon acted as quickly as possible to make sure urgent needs were met. Immediate support was needed to provide food and medical supplies and in the medium term, support will be needed to enable people to renovate their houses and business.

Wafaa Ismail, 35, sits in front of what is left of her house. She fled Syria years ago to find safety in Lebanon. Now she has once again lost everything.

Caritas Lebanon and their large team of youth volunteers were helping people affected within hours of the explosion, assisting the wounded as the local hospitals did not have the capacity to do so.

So far, Caritas has delivered home appliances and baby items to 40 families, hygiene kits to 133 people, hot meals to 30,000 people and food to 700 people in need. Volunteers and social workers are visiting affected people’s homes daily to provide assistance in person.

Trócaire is working closely together with Caritas Lebanon and will also be providing emergency cash assistance to 290 vulnerable families through Caritas Lebanon.

With your generous support, the agency can increase this to more families, support the renovation of homes and provide much-needed psychological support.

In the immediate aftermath of the explosion Pope Francis said, “Let us pray for the victims, for their families; and let us pray for Lebanon so that, through the dedication of all its social, political and religious elements, it might face this extremely tragic and painful moment and, with the help of the international community, overcome the grave crisis they are experiencing.”

There is no doubt that the people of Beirut face a huge challenge in rebuilding and will need all the help and support they can get.

To donate to Trócaire’s emergency appeal to help rush urgent supplies and assistance to those who need it most visit www. trocaire.org

Trócaire is supporting Caritas Lebanon to respond to the emergency needs of people affected by the devastating explosion in Beirut.

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CO M M E N T REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME

WRITING TO THE WORLD MEETING OF POPULAR MOVEMENTS LAST JUNE, POPE FRANCIS SAID “THIS MAY BE THE TIME TO CONSIDER A UNIVERSAL BASIC WAGE AND TO RECOGNISE THAT NO WORKER IS WITHOUT RIGHTS."

The

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coronavirus has shone a bright light on the precarious existence of millions of people. In many countries, millions of day labourers faced starvation, as their meagre daily income disappeared during the lockdown.

Even in wealthier countries, many people, who saw their income reduced or withdrawn, were forced to depend on food banks. Many others worried that they could face eviction from their home if their jobs did not return.

Our society is structured such that the only way most people can live with dignity is by having a decent job. This is the floor that protects us from poverty and homelessness. Yet, even before the pandemic arrived, 122,800 Irish workers earned the minimum wage or less, far below what is required for a socially acceptable standard of living. We also knew that about 110,000 people were living in poverty, despite having a job. We have also seen, time and time again, how quickly employment can disappear for some people. If paid employment, then, cannot provide the basic floor for all citizens to live a life with dignity, we must look for an alternative. One alternative is the Universal Basic Income (UBI).

In our current system, a person is valued by their contribution to the economy. Banks cannot find a CEO who will work for a mere €500,000 per year, while homeless people and the unemployed are often considered to be a 'drain on the economy' and undeserving

REALITY OCTOBER 2020

as likely to get a job as people on traditional welfare. Most people want to work, rather than stay at home doing nothing, because it gives them dignity.

of support. They may be given a welfare payment which helps them to survive and scrape by, but falls well short of allowing them to live a dignified and fulfilling life. Even that inadequate welfare payment may be withdrawn or reduced, if they cannot prove that they are looking for work.

For many years now, social justice groups have been calling for the introduction of a Universal Basic Income. The UBI would be a taxfree payment from government to everyone in a specified age group, regardless of their income or wealth, which guarantees that they can live a dignified life with their basic needs met, without any requirement to seek work. People can then top up their income from other taxable sources, such as employment, which will not affect their UBI. UBI “provides (poor people) with a floor on which they can stand, because it can be combined with

earnings, unlike welfare which is a net in which they can easily get stuck”, according to Philippe Van Parijs, a renowned Belgian political philosopher and economist.

CRITICISMS The two main criticisms of UBI are that it is unaffordable, and that it would deter people from seeking work.

Some economists have shown how society could afford to pay a UBI, through various different taxation models. The main opposition to considering UBI is political apathy, and an ideology that only values people for their contribution to the economy.

Some argue that it deters people from working, believing that people have to be forced to work by the need to earn money to survive.

However, Finland recently tried a limited UBI project and found that those in receipt of UBI were just

BENEFITS •The UBI would eliminate a lot of bureaucratic administration. There is no means-testing, no tax credits, and no tax reliefs.

•The UBI would eliminate poverty traps inherent in the traditional means-tested welfare system.

•Welfare fraud would be eliminated.

•Unlike welfare payments, there is no stigmatisation of those in receipt of UBI. •UBI would be good for the environment. Full employment depends on ever-expanding GDP growth, which conflicts with our concerns for the environment.

UBI seems much closer to Gospel values. It reflects a value that every human being is entitled to be given the resources by society to live a decent, dignified and fulfilling life, just by the fact that they are a human being, and that we all have an obligation, in solidarity with others, to ensure this happens. Pope Francis has added his voice to those who are calling for nations to consider a UBI, calling for a conversion that “puts an end to the idolatry of money and places human life and dignity at the centre”.

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 THE MURDERED SON This is the third vineyard parable. It describes how someone developed part of his land as a 27TH SUNDAY IN vineyard. It took some ORDINARY TIME effort – clearing the land, levelling it and making terracing on which to plant the vines. A winepress was a shallow plastered pool where the grapes were trodden to extract the juice, the first stage in wine production.

A small tower served as a look-out post for a watchman on the lookout for thieves and provided shelter at night. This vineyard owner was probably an absentee landlord: all he had to do was collect the rent.

At this point, things begin to go wrong.

The tenants refuse to pay the rent: worse still, they are in truculent mood, greeting

the demand for rent with a show of strength that looks like the beginnings of a peasant revolt. Unrest of this kind was not unknown in Palestine in Jesus’ time. The landowner meets force with force, sending an even larger number of servants, but the result is the same. Then he makes a disastrous choice: he will send his son in the hope that they will recognise him and show some respect. This provides the tenants with an even greater opportunity to make their point: they kill the boy, dumping his body outside the vineyard.

The parable now begins to look like an allegory. An allegory is a symbolic story of the past. The song, The Four Green Fields, might seem like as a sad tale of an old lady whose land has been stolen from her. Then you realise that the old lady is Ireland, her four green fields are her four provinces, and the song is really a republican version of

ARE YOU GOING TO THE WEDDING? R BE OCTO The prophets often saw Israel’s relationship to God as a marriage and Jesus used the same imagery 28TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME of a marriage-feast for the Kingdom of Heaven.

To refuse an invitation to a royal wedding was a serious matter, an insult to the king.

Like last Sunday’s parable, this recalls how Israel, throughout its history, rejected God’s messengers, the prophets. When the king “dispatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town”, Matthew is probably thinking of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70, some years before his gospel was written. The empty places at the banquet will be filled, but not by those who were originally invited.

Just as the first group of servants represents the prophets sent to Israel, the second group, sent out to invite “anyone they could find, good and bad alike”, represents Christian missionaries to the Gentiles so that the banquet is filled with guests. This is another

allegory or ‘coded story’ of the mission of Jesus the Messiah to Jews and how it was continued by his followers in their Gentile mission.

The little parable of the wedding garment does not seem to sit comfortably with the inclusive and optimistic vision of the wedding feast. It is the first time we hear that there were conditions attached to the invitation, such as coming properly dressed. Matthew’s point is that, although the invitation is extended to “good and bad alike”, such an extraordinary privilege cannot be treated casually. Gentile converts cannot assume that they have been freed from the obligation of continuous daily conversion any more than the Jews of the past to whom the prophets were sent. The mystery of the Kingdom of heaven breaks into our lives as unexpectedly as an invitation to a royal wedding, but it cannot be treated casually for it demands a whole-hearted response.

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Ireland’s struggle for independence. Today’s parable is an allegory based on the history of God’s chosen people. The first tenants are the Jewish authorities in the time of Jesus, the servants are the prophets, the Son is the Messiah and the second group of tenants are the Gentiles who will share Israel’s inheritance through the preaching of the Church. We must be careful, however, not to read it as though all Jews (the ‘first tenants’ of the vineyard) were guilty of murdering the son, and their rights are given to ‘new tenants’, the Gentiles.

Today’s Readings Is 5:1-7: Ps 79; Phil 4:6-9, Mt 21:33-43

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Today’s Readings Is 25:6-10; Ps 23: Phil 4:1-14,19-20; Mt 22:1-14

God’s Word continues on page 46

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH RENDER TO CAESAR WHAT IS CAESAR’S S c r i p tu re s c h o l a r s describe today’s parable as a ‘conflict story’ in 29TH SUNDAY IN which Jesus’ opponents ORDINARY TIME try to catch him out SUNDAY) (MISSION with a tricky question, designed as a trap. It only allows for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. If Jesus says it is permissible to pay taxes, he makes it look as if he hates the Romans and risks losing popular support: if he says it is against the Law to pay taxes, then he will look like a dangerous political revolutionary who must be denounced to the authorities. Jesus sees through the game and responds with a master stroke. He asks to see the coin in which the tax is paid.

Jesus and his disciples probably did not carry money, simply because they did not have

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any. A Roman coin is produced, bearing the image and inscription of the Emperor. Strictly speaking, observant Pharisees should not be carrying things with human images, including coins, as it was against the commandment forbidding idolatry. Having one within the Temple precincts was even worse. Jesus’ answer defeats his critics and exposes them as compromised by their support for the imperial power.

This difficult little story has attracted conflicting interpretations throughout Christian history, especially when it has been invoked for guidance in church-state relations. ‘Rendering to Caesar’ has been taken to mean that Christians simply do what the State requires, and that followers of Jesus should keep religion and politics strictly separate. If we are to understand it properly, we need to bear in mind that

the heart of Jesus’ preaching was that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The Kingdom is not a place (not even a heavenly one), but a call to submit every aspect of our lives to God’s kingly rule. Until God’s rule is fully realised, we live in a political world whose values often fall short of the values of the Kingdom, and can even be directly opposed to them. ‘Rendering to God the things that are God’s’ acknowledges that God has an interest in the human world, including the world of politics. To be a disciple of Jesus means that support for all other values, including for a political party, must always be with an eye to the values of Jesus.

Today’s Readings Is 45:1, 4-6; Ps 95; 1 Th 1:1-5; Mt 22:15-21

46 MASS FOR MISSION SUNDAY This weekend, we are invited to reflect on the idea of mission. We are familiar with the idea of foreign missions, where priests and religious sisters and brothers leave their native land and travel to far-off, perhaps exotic, places to spread the Gospel and to attend to the needs of the local population by providing schools and hospitals Today, there is a different understanding of mission. Churches which once were full now have plenty of spare places during the celebration of the Eucharist. Many individuals in the past were catechised before they were evangelised: they had never actually made a conscious decision to believe, and so gave up what was, to them, an empty religious observance.

Who is going to evangelise these people in our neighbourhood? The Church now emphasises that all of us have a missionary aspect to our being a disciple of Jesus. This will not demand a direct challenging of other people, but rather using the means of attracting them. If we live our daily life in an unobtrusive manner, especially if we radiate REALITY OCTOBER 2020

an inner joy, knowing that God loves us, then other people will wonder what our secret is and want to share in it.

Today’s Readings Is 45:1, 4-6; Ps 96; 1 Th 1:1-5; Jn 17:11, 17-23

THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 8 OCTOBER 2020

THE GREAT COMMANDMENT Among the Pharisee teachers of Jesus’ time, there were many different interpretations of the Law. Some taught that every commandment was to be observed with the same attention to detail, since 30TH SUNDAY IN you could never be sure what the reward was for ORDINARY TIME keeping it. Others taught that the commandments ranged from serious to the relatively minor. This debate provides the background for this story. By asking Jesus for his opinion, his opponents are inviting him to take sides in the debate. In his reply, Jesus begins by quoting a verse from the Book of Deuteronomy 6:5 that would have been familiar to them since was part of the prayer they said twice each day, the Shema (“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one…”). He then quotes another verse that resembles it – the command to love the neighbour as yourself (Leviticus 18:2). On these two verses, he says, hang the whole of the Law and the Prophets, that is, God’s entire revelation to his people.

Jesus is not unique in identifying the love commandment as the summary of the Law. The greatest Pharisee teacher, Hillel is still revered

by Jewish tradition for his mildness. Like Jesus, he was a Galilean, who died shortly before Jesus was born. There is a story told of how he and a stricter teacher were approached by a would-be convert, who made the same strange request of both of them: “Explain the law for as long as I can stand on one foot”. Shamai, the strict one, drove him away angrily. Hillel received him kindly, and said “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.”

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SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 6 ACROSS: Across: 1. Christ, 5. Rapids, 10. Hadrian, 11. Diorama, 12. Rule, 13. Knock, 15. Esau, 17.

Tut, 19. Buddha, 21. Altars, 22. Acolyte, 23. Revere, 25. Escape, 28. Odd, 30. Cute, 31. Bayed, 32.

Fret, 35. Peccavi, 36. Pandora, 37. Snatch, 38. Iberia.

DOWN: 2. Huddled, 3. Iris, 4. Tenant, 5. Redact, 6. Prow, 7. Dead Sea, 8. Cherub, 9. Maquis, 14.

Our Lady, 16. Charm, 18. Bless, 20. Ace, 21. Ate, 23. Recipe, 24. Vatican, 26. A priori, 27. Extras, 28.

Oafish, 29. Delphi, 33. Cart, 34. Once.

Winner of Crossword No. 6 Margaret Teehan, Nenagh, Co Tipperary.

ACROSS 1. Ancient Egyptians considered this beetle sacred. (6) 5. Abstained from food or drink, especially as a religious observance. (6) 10. Christian exclamation of adoration, praise, joy. (7) 11. Brad sat on the sleeveless jerkins worn by medieval peasants and clerics. (7) 12. Crow and chess piece. (4) 13. Greek Mount where all females are banned. (5) 15. Its varieties include Thai Jasmine and Italian Arborio. (4) 17. May I trouble you for an edible root? (3) 19. The capital of Turkey. (6) 21. Mount traditionally considered the resting place of Noah's Ark. (6) 22. Credit to a cause or source, possibly a medieval writer. (7) 23. Building used for public Christian worship. (6) 25. The reason that Joseph and Mary travelled to Bethlehem. (6) 28. Noah's second son and a showy, extravagant performer. (3) 30. Gem associated with a 40th wedding anniversary. (4) 31. West African country, formerly known as Dahomey. (5) 32. Address God with adoration, confession, supplication, or gratitude. (4) 35. Issue, or proceed, as from a source or origin. (7)

36. A knight of a religious military order founded in the early 12th century. (7) 37. A strange or peculiar person or thing. (6) 38. Having been made or come into being only a short time ago. (6) DOWN 2. A full-length garment worn by Christian clergy, members of church choirs, etc. (7) 3. Unit of currency of South Africa. (4) 4. It is found in the eye of the beholder. (6) 5. Understand a measure of the depth of water. (6) 6. Short underwater craft and sandwiches. (4) 7. Happening previous to the expected time. (7) 8. Islamic canonical law. (6) 9. Express approval or agreement. (6) 14. Famous Roman wall builder. (7) 16. Short prayer of thanks said before/after a meal. (5) 18. A formal statement of Christian beliefs, possibly given by the Apostles. (5) 20. This Wednesday marks the first day of Lent. (3) 21. The start of the alphabet. (3) 23. Regulation requiring people to remain indoors during specified periods. (6) 24. A pub raid to find fault with someone; scold. (7) 26. Moves computer text up or down. (7) 27. First name of Great Blasket Island author Sayers. (6) 28. Belief or opinion contrary to Christian doctrine. (6) 29. The author of 'Paradise Lost'. (6) 33. Another name for the Three Wise Men. (4) 34. A small migratory diving duck in the mews. (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.8, October 2020 Name:

Today’s Readings

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Ex 22:21-27; Ps 17; 1 Th 1:5-10, Mt 22:34-40 All entries must reach us by Friday October 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.8, Redemptorist Communications, St Joseph's Monastery, Dundalk, County Louth A91 F3FC

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