Reality April 2018

ARCHBISHOP JOHN HUGHES

CHAMPION OF NEW YORK’S IRISH

THE BEGINNING EXPERIENCE HELPING YOUR LIFE TO MOVE ON

PATRICK KAVANAGH

AWARENESS OF GOD'S PRESENCE

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

APRIL 2018

HE IS RISEN! ALLELUIA ne Supp or azi ag

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Reality M

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IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES 12 PATRICK KAVANAGH: POET OF PLACE AND POET OF SPRING Patrick Kavanagh was aware of the miracles of God’s presence in the world around him and recorded them in his poetry

By Dr Úna Agnew SSL

19 ENTERING INTO THE MYSTERY From Easter to Pentecost we are invited to discover what it means to fully participate in the sacramental mysteries of the church

By Sarah Adams

22 A NET BURSTING If the fishing net in the story of the marvellous catch of fish could tell its story!

By Fr Seamus Devitt CSsR

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25 BEGINNING AGAIN FOLLOWING A PAINFUL LOSS How do you begin to recover from bereavement, separation or divorce? The Beginning Experience helps people to start again on the next phase of their lives.

By Marie Carson

28 THE RESURRECTION The Easter season invites us to reflect prayerfully on the first Glorious Mystery

By Fr George Wadding CSsR

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32 MARRIAGE – A JOURNEY OF LOVE Prayer is the compass in the voyage of marriage

By Fr Johnny Doherty CSsR

35 ARCHBISHOP JOHN HUGHES: CHAMPION OF NEW YORK’S IRISH The Tyrone connection to St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York

By Mike Daley

38 DISABILITY IN THE GOSPELS The Gospels challenge us to reconsider how we are reaching out to those who are marginalised in our communities

By Dr Louise Gosbell

OPINION

REGULARS

11 BRENDAN McCONVERY

04 REALITY BITES

31 CARMEL WYNNE

07 POPE MONITOR

44 PETER McVERRY SJ

08 FEAST OF THE MONTH 09 REFLECTIONS 40 UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 42 TRÓCAIRE 45 GOD’S WORD

REALITY BITES ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY VISITS CLONARD BELFAST

CELEBRATING THE COMMON GOOD

On Thursday February 23, Dr Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury and first prelate in the Anglican Communion, paid a short visit to Clonard monastery, Belfast. Archbishop Welby was accompanied by about 70 men and women clergy on an informal peace pilgrimage visiting parts of Northern Ireland. The guests arrived early in the morning, and spent some time reflecting on biblical perspectives on peace before joining the community and congregation for Morning Prayer at 9am in the church. After the prayer, gifts were exchanged. The Archbishop gave Clonard a reproduction of a page of an illuminated Irish Gospel from the library of Lambeth Palace, and Fr Noel Kehoe gave the archbishop a handpainted copy of an icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help.

Speaking about the ongoing political crisis in Northern Ireland, Fr Kehoe described it as "a failure in hospitality... a going out to meet the other to discover, in friendship, a common good.

The open space is narrowing, and leadership is found wanting." He recalled the presence of Frs Al Reid and Gerry Reynolds who had been involved in the years of talk across community divides that led to the Good Friday Agreement.

The group then divided into smaller groups to walk along the 'Peace Line' that runs along the back of the monastery. Fr Ciarán O’Callaghan and Ed Petersen accompanied them on the walk and pointed out landmarks as they made their way between the Falls and the Shankill.

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Dr Justin Welby

With Fr Noel Kehoe CSsR and the Clonard community

Rev Steve Stockman , Fr Ciarán O'Callaghan CSsR and Dr Justin Welby Archbishop Welby gives the blessing at the end of morning prayer

Exchange of gifts

At the Peace Line

REALITY APRIL 2018

A time of prayer outside Clonard Martyrs Commemorative Garden

Walking through the Streets of Shankill

N E WS

DEATH OF BILLY GRAHAM USA

I HAVE FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT...

The Rev Billy Graham, probably the world’s best known evangelist, died on February 21 at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99. He had continued his crusades until 2005, when he was forced to abandon them through Parkinson's disease and other ailments.

Graham welcomed representatives of other denominations, including Catholics, to attend his crusades. In many places, local Catholic leaders welcomed him and organised pastoral followup programmes to welcome lapsed Catholics who were prompted by the preacher to return to the church. Cardinal Richard J. Cushing of Boston claimed in 1964 that no Catholic who heard Graham preach "can do anything but become a better Catholic".

His crusades or revival meetings were usually held in large stadiums. He preached in more than 185 countries: in 1957, he filled New York's Madison Square Garden for 16 consecutive weeks.

His audience is estimated to have been in the region of 210 million, both live and through radio

and television ministry. He launched his weekly Hour of Decision radio programme in 1950: it is still running after more than 60 years. He first met St. John Paul II in 1981. He had preached in the Catholic Cathedral of Krakow in 1978 during a crusade in Poland, and was invited to dine with the bishop, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla. The meeting had to be cancelled since the cardinal had been called to Rome – to attend the conclave that would elect him pope!

The late Billy Graham

5 Rev Graham with St Pope John Paul II

SEVENTIETH MIRACULOUS CURE AT LOURDES FRANCE

"A SURGE OF WELL-BEING"

A French bishop has declared that the recovery of a long-debilitated nun following a pilgrimage to Lourdes was a miracle. It was the 70th such unexplained cure at Lourdes since a medical bureau to monitor claimed cures was set up in 1905.

Sister Bernadette Moriau had four operations on her spinal column between 1968 and 1975, and was declared fully disabled in 1980. One foot was permanently twisted, requiring her to wear a brace and use a wheelchair and to take high doses of morphine for pain. In July 2008, she went on pilgrimage to Lourdes. After returning to her convent, she was praying in the chapel, and she says, “I felt a surge of well-being throughout my body, a relaxation, warmth… I returned to my room and, there, a voice told me to ‘take off your braces'.” She did and found that, to her surprise, she could move.

Sister Bernadette immediately did away with all her

aids, from braces to morphine, and was able to take a five-kilometre hike a few days later.

It has taken ten years for the cure to be acknowledged as miraculous. Many cures are claimed at Lourdes, but only those passed by the Lourdes Medical Commitee, which examines them rigorously, can be claimed to be miraculous. If it pronounces that a cure is inexplicable in the current state of our medical knowledge, then it goes to the local bishop who pronounces it as miraculous.

There are 38 specialists from 12 countries on the International Medical Committee of Lourdes (CMIL) and their combined expertise covers many areas of specialisation. A Belfast surgeon, Michael Moran, is the first Irish doctor to be appointed to the International Medical Committee He is a specialist in the field of cancer research and has been vising Lourdes since his school days.

Sr Bernadette Moriau

continued on page 6

REALITY BITES ABORTION ON THE ISLE OF MAN

The Catholic Church on the Isle of Man has shown concern following efforts to legalise abortion on the island. The island’s abortion law, Termination of Pregnancy Act 1995, only allows abortion in extreme circumstances, where the mother’s life is endangered or the child has very low chances of survival. It is now proposed to grant abortions up to 14 weeks, or 24 weeks, for medical reasons.

Mgr John Devine, dean of the island’s Catholic Church, said "every abortion is an act of desperation", in a letter to the island’s chief minister Howard Quayle. “The Catholic Church wishes to be supportive of those who find themselves contemplating an abortion, whatever decision they take,” he added, though he stated his concerns regarding the island’s new abortion bill. He said that the bill cites "serious social grounds" or "impairments likely to limit either the length or quality of the child’s life" to grant a late abortion. “The former could be cited if an unplanned pregnancy was considered to be inconvenient,” Mgr Devine wrote. Roughly 40 abortions have been performed on the island in the last 40 years.

AUSTRALIAN BISHOPS QUESTION RELENTLESS MEDIA CAMPAIGN 6

Archbishop Anthony Fisher

Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney and Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen of Parramatta have both criticised as "relentless" a series of newspaper articles about the Catholic Church, its purported wealth and its response to victims of child sexual abuse by church personnel.

Archbishop Fisher, in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald, wrote that given its many works, it was inevitable that the Church would have lots of "assets", but the works were done as a nonprofit organisation. "To compare this with the corporates , as the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age did yesterday, is unreal," he wrote. "So is valuing St Mary’s Cathedral as if it were a potential site for a high-rise development. Its value is as spiritual and artistic heritage of the Church, city and nation.”

He admitted that, unfortunately, “ the good works of the Church have been tainted of late by the evil actions of some in our ranks and inaction of some leaders. We realise our good works can never excuse or undo the terrible damage done.

That has to be addressed directly. I realise that given our past failings some will believe any evil said of the Church. But to accuse us of lying to the royal commission, hiding our assets from abuse victims, and failing in our obligations to rectify wrongs done is unjust and untrue.”

The campaign against the church is relentless, he said. But if the church is knocked out of the equation, who will do the good that the ordinary church workers and volunteers do with those working 'assets'? Who else will serve the millions of the neediest presently assisted."

Bishop Long struck a similar note in a message to his diocese. The extent of the abuse in the Church and its handling by some Church leaders made it understandable for people to have lost trust in it, he said, but we need to rebuild a broken Church and any suggestion that the bishops would not honour financial commitments to a survivor of abuse is wrong and misleading.

REALITY APRIL 2018

WILL LATIN-AMERICA REMAIN CATHOLIC? In 1970, Latin America was 92 per cent Catholic.

It is estimated, however, that the continent, home to 39 per cent of the world’s 1.3 billion faithful, will no longer have Catholic majority by 2030. The current estimate is that only 59 per cent of the population is Catholic, a decrease from 80 per cent in 1995.

This poll is the first to reveal that, almost five years into his papacy, Pope Francis has been unable to staunch the bleeding. In 2013, the year he became pope, 67 per cent of Latin Americans told Chilean pollsters they were Catholic. The percentage of Latin Americans has accordingly dropped by eight points since his election.

Unfortunately, the survey doesn’t contain detailed data on each country polled. In the one nation for which is there is more detail, Chile, the decline is even more dramatic. It has become a nation in which Catholics no longer constitute the majority of the population. In 2013 it was 56 per cent Catholic, and in the span of just four short years the figure has dropped to 45 per cent. Chile, along with Uruguay, can no longer claim a Catholic majority. Honduras has plummeted from 76 per cent Catholic to 37 per cent in a 22-year span. It is the first country in the region in which Protestants outnumber Catholics (39 per cent to 37 per cent).

Brazil has the largest Catholic population on earth: it also has the largest Pentecostal community and second-largest Protestant population. It remains largely Catholic (54 per cent), but it is likely that it may lose its Catholic majority by 2025. For Latin America overall, it’s quite likely that the region will no longer be majority Catholic by 2030. Pentecostalism has continued to expand over the past decade but the most significant new development on the Latin American religious landscape has been the meteoric rise of the 'religious nones' – people who don’t have any specific religious affiliation or identity. In the 2014 Pew survey, 8 per cent of the Latin American population so identified. Within three years it has more than doubled to 18 per cent.

N E WS

POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS “WITHDRAW GRACEFULLY” POPE TELLS BISHOPS

Bishops preparing to retire should embrace austerity, humility, prayer and time dedicated to reading, Pope Francis has told bishops and Vatican officials preparing to retire.

Issuing a new law, titled 'Learning how to Resign (Imparare a congedarsi)', the pope says bishops reaching retirement should draw up a “new project of life” to be marked “as much as possible by austerity, humility, prayer, time dedicated to reading and willingness to provide simple pastoral services”. Bishops who are not cardinals serving in the Roman Curia should submit their resignation at the age of 75, and the pope will determine whether they should retire immediately or stay on for a further period.

The pope stressed that retiring prelates should “strip themselves of desires of power and of the pretence of being indispensable”. It places on them the obligation to prepare for resignation, to adopt a new "life project" marked by service. Any extension should not be seen as “a privilege, or a personal triumph” but as linked to the common good of the church. The concept of a retired bishop is a relatively new one in the church, given that bishops were expected to die in office; the pope is trying to set out what is expected of retired prelates.

PAPAL RETREAT

Ariccia, Italy

Pope Francis on retreat

From the first Sunday of Lent until the following Friday, Pope Francis and the members of the papal household made their annual retreat. In the past, the retreat was made within the Vatican, but Pope Francis has insisted that they make it in a retreat house outside of Rome, so that that they can have some space and quiet for prayer. This year it was made in the Divine Master Retreat House in the town of Ariccia near Rome. For the week, all the pope’s engagements were cancelled, including the Wednesday audience. The retreat was conducted by Fr José Tolentino Mendonça, vice-rector of the Portuguese Catholic University and a biblical scholar.

SHORT SERMONS, PLEASE

During the Wednesday General Audience on February 8, Pope Francis invited all preachers – deacons, priests, bishops – to refrain from giving homilies longer than ten minutes. He used the word "brief" several times. If it is too long, there will be those who will "go out for a smoke" during it, he said to laughter from the audience, but “It is true!” he insisted with a smile.

The pope observed that listening to the Word passes by the ear, descends into the heart, and reaches the hands, making a person act. “To transmit his message, Christ makes use of the priest’s words in the homily, which is a taking up again of that dialogue between the Lord and his people, so that the Word of the Lord can take flesh in us and be translated into action". He described preaching of the Word as a service that those who give the homily most offer to those who take part in the Mass.

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FEAST OF THE MONTH ST MAELRUBHA OF APPLECROSS APRIL 21

ST

8

St Maelrubha, who spent most of his life in Scotland, was born in the mid-seventh century in the barony of Loughinsholin, a portion of which was once part of Tyrone but is now in County Derry.

He was of the Pictish race, and said to have been of the same blood as Colmcille. After some years in the monastery of Bangor on the southern shores of Belfast Lough, he sailed across Sruth na Mile (the North Channel) for Scotland. At that time, he is thought to have been in his late 20s.

For a couple of years, he seems to have worked throughout Scottish Dalriada and the inner Hebridean Islands, founding a little monastery near Tobermory, the picturesque capital of Mull.

It is only in very recent years that archaeologists have unearthed the site and are conducting excavations there. St Maolrubha’s Well (Tobar Maelubha) in Tobermory village probably marks the location of his little private retreat about a kilometre or two from the monastery.

Irish monk that he was, Maelrubha relocated up the West Highlands in an exquisitely beautiful area with the very English name of Applecross, a name that derives, however, from the Irish Aber, a river-mouth or estuary, and crosán, a razorbill. The site was well-chosen with sufficient fertile ground which was open to both sun and sea. For 51 years Maelrubha was abbot here; and it was here on April 21, 722 at the age of 80, that he bade the world good night. After his death, an extensive zone around Applecross was declared a sanctuary where criminals might escape the rigours of the law, if they managed to reach it without being apprehended. Such sanctuaries were usually demarcated by a series of crosses in stone, and Applecross was no exception.

Apart from Colmcille, Maelrubha became the best known saint in Scotland, and enjoyed such a reputation for holiness and miracles that he was adopted as patron of the entire North-West Highlands. Nor did his death break the links with Ireland and Bangor. The Annals of Tighernach record a boating accident in 737 which resulted in the death of abbot Failbhe of Applecross and 22 of his monks; and the Annals of Ulster too mentions the same tragic event, and later they record the death in 801 of Oigi of Applecross, abbot of Bangor.

Coming as he did a century after Colmcille of Iona and St Mouaig of Lismore-in-Alba, Maelrubha’s personal missionary life and the continuing influence of Applecross had a major impact on the Christianisation of Scotland. It would have been even more significant had not the Viking raids begun within almost a half-century of the saint’s death. One Viking party that plundered the monastery didn’t live long to enjoy their booty because their ship sank within sight of the shore as they departed.

Having survived the Viking raids, Applecross remained a functioning monastery until the 16th century Reformation. After that cataclysmic event, only a scatter of fragments still survives: Maelrubha's Seat, Maelrubha's River, Maelrubha's Island, Maelrubha's Cell, and Claidh Maelrubha (Maelrubha’s grave).

On two occasions I made a pilgrimage to Applecross. The first was in July 1994, when I drove west from Inverness via the low-key loveliness of Strath Bran. Before reaching Torridon village, I thought my heart and mind would explode in an attempt to absorb the extraordinary natural beauty that was opening up with every twist and turn of the road. Rarely have I seen anything so entrancing. There was something about the texture of the light, first on the mountains, then on the Loch – Upper Loch Torridon.

I motored on to Shieldaig where the scene called for pause and silent contemplation. And there I sat on the edge of Loch Shieldaig, with Loch Torridon beyond, and beyond that the waters of the North Minch, and beyond that again the Isle of Lewis, and beyond that, everything that the Celtic imagination is capable of creating, even to Tír na nÓg and heaven itself. The beauty of the world was in danger of seducing me away from the goal of my pilgrimage which was the monastic site of St Maelrubha at Applecross.

John J Ó Ríordáin CSsR

REALITY APRIL 2018

Reality Volume 83. No. 3 April 2018 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960 Published by The Irish Redemptorists, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin 09 X651 Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)

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REFLECTIONS A person's life isn't orderly... it runs about all over the place, in and out through time. The present's hardly there; the future doesn't exist. Only love matters in the bits and pieces of a person's life.

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

WILLIAM TREVOR

Surely it is much more generous to forgive and remember, than to forgive and forget.

I pedalled on towards Athlone through slashing rain across brown miles of harvested bog – looking like a child's dream of a world made of chocolate.

MARIA EDGEWORTH

DERVLA MURPHY

The Gospel takes away our right forever to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.

CS LEWIS

I value my Catholic background very much. It taught me not to be afraid of rigorous thought, for one thing.

TERRY EAGLETON

DOROTHY DAY

It is a common delusion that you make things better by talking about them.

ROSE MACAULAY

The world is not fully itself until it is seen with the eyes of love and celebrated in art.

We cannot improve on God’s plan for our happiness. God loves us better than we love ourselves, and he has a better knowledge of our needs and of our heart than we have ourselves, and he has the will and the power to satisfy all the longings of our heart, if we only trust him.

EUGENE BOYLAN OCSO

Music will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.

LEONARD COHEN

It is better not to believe in God than to believe in a God who minimizes human beings, holds them under and oppresses them, with a view to a better world to come.

EDWARD SCHILLEBEECKX

Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.

Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles to watch you burn.

FLANNERY O’CONNOR

JOHN WESLEY

To be loved is terrifying.

Someone has seen you all the way down to the bone of your hope and your fears. To accept it or not?

Women can accept the fact that a man is a rotter, a swindler, a drug taker, a confirmed liar, and a general swine, without batting an eyelash, and without its impairing their affection for the brute in the least. Women are wonderful realists.

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change.

POPE BENEDICT XVI

AGATHA CHRISTIE

KATHARINE HEPBURN

KARL RAHNER

Why stay in the church?

Because it is the only chance to escape from oneself, from this curse of one's own importance, one's own gravity.

HANS URS VON BALTHASAR

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EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

THOUGHTS ON A REFERENDUM

Astute

governments only hold referenda when they are confident they will win them. That usually means they are certain they have done the groundwork that will deliver the desired result. Much of the groundwork for the forth-coming referendum on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, if we are to believe the spokespersons for the political parties involved and the media commentators, has been done by a body called ‘the Citizens’ Assembly'. For me, this is the first of the problematic questions looming in the background of this referendum.

It will probably come as a surprise to many of us that the Irish Constitution has a provision for the creation of additional law-making bodies. Having stated that the Oireachtas is vested with the power of making laws, and that no other legislative authority possesses this power, it goes on to state in Article 15:2.2 that “provision may however be made by law for the creation or recognition of subordinate legislatures and for the powers and functions of these legislatures.” I have been unable to trace any occasion in the 80 years we have been governed by this constitution when this article was activated. The Citizens’ Assembly of 99 members under a chairperson was constituted by the Houses of the Oireachtas in July 2016, on foot of an item in the programme agreed by the partners in this government. Agreement by the Oireachtas, however, is not the same thing as the law required by the constitution, and in the absence of such a law, the only Citizens’ Assembly with any authority remains Dáil Eireann, and it is strange to see it hand over its authority to a body such as this.

Additional aspects of the Citizens’ Assembly cause me unease. Its membership of 99 individuals is approximately 0.003 per cent of the electorate.

The Dáil did not specify how the members were to be appointed, beyond stating that they should be broadly representative of Irish society. How representative can such a small group be? It might represent age and geographical location (urban or

rural), but even then not all the 26 counties were represented. According to the list of 152 present and former members on the Assembly’s own website, it had more than 30 Dublin members, one each from Donegal, Kerry and Carlow, but none from Cavan, Offaly, Sligo, Leitrim or Longford. Fifty-three per cent seems like a high turnover of members, and one might wonder what percentage were present for all the meetings on the abortion issue. The task of selecting members was ‘outsourced’ to one of the nation’s leading Gallup poll companies that compiles polls of readers’ voting intentions for newspapers. At a recent meeting of the assembly (not dealing with the current amendment), it was discovered that an employee of the company had ignored the agreed conventions for the selection of members, and nominated seven potential candidates on the recommendation of family members and friends – scarcely a guarantee of objectivity. Then there is the question of submissions and addresses to the Assembly. Some 126 groups, as disparate as an American university and a Berlin pro-choice group, not to mention the many home-grown groups, made submissions. Individuals also addressed the meeting, and questions have been raised as to how representative of each side of the debate these submissions were. With all due respect to the members of the Assembly who have been generous in giving their time to the task, I wonder how a relatively loose group, with no professional qualifications or training, might be expected to digest over five weekends a mass of what must often have been complex medical material along with strongly argued conflicting opinions. My experience of third-level teaching has shown me how long it can take intelligent individuals to master complex ideas and to see their implications.

In her introduction to the final report, Ms Justice Lafoy, the Assembly chairperson, states: “Put simply, the members voted that they wanted to remove Article 40:3:3 from the Constitution, and for the avoidance of doubt, to replace it with a

provision in the Constitution that would make it clear that termination of pregnancy, any rights of the unborn, and any rights of the pregnant woman are matters for the Oireachtas. In other words, it would be solely a matter for the Oireachtas to decide how to legislate on these issues.” The report itself states that “64 per cent of the Members have recommended that the termination of pregnancy without restriction should be lawful.” 48 per cent recommended a time limit of 12 weeks, 44 per cent 22 weeks, and 8 per cent wanted no time restrictions whatsoever. These recommendations have given the politicians a remit for more radical change than they ever dared hope for, and it brings them the bonus of being able to hide behind the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly.

On March 8, the Supreme Court ruled that the unborn have no constitutional rights beyond the right to life contained in the Eighth Amendment.

If it disappears and the Constitution is reduced to stating that “provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancies", even that right will be gone. In today’s Ireland, where does that leave the God-given right to life of the unborn? The large turn-out for the Right to Life march (also an assembly of citizens) on February 10 suggests another answer.

Brendan McConvery CSsR Editor

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C OVE R STO RY

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REALITY APRIL 2018

PATRICK KAVANAGH POET OF PLACE AND POET OF SPRING PATRICK KAVANAGH WAS BORN ON OCTOBER 21, 1904 IN THE TOWNLAND OF MUCKER, IN THE PARISH OF INNISKEEN, CO MONAGHAN. HE WAS BROUGHT UP IN THE CONVENTIONAL BRAND OF IRISH CATHOLICISM – REGULAR MASS ATTENDANCE, YEARLY RECEPTION OF THE SACRAMENTS AND THE FAMILY ROSARY. YET HE WAS CONTINUOUSLY AWARE OF THE MIRACLES OF GOD’S PRESENCE IN THE WORLD AROUND HIM AND RECORDED THEM IN HIS POETRY.

BY DR ÚNA AGNEW SSL

Patrick

Kavanagh was a firm believer in the local and in everything that happened around him. With a keen sense of place, and its role in the constitution of his ‘childhood country’, he found abundant inspiration in his earliest memories of home. Memorably, he recalls his six-year old Christmas vision of "three whin bushes’ (that) rode across The horizon- the Three Wise Kings."

This was a picture he held in his memory of Cassidy’s hill and its whin bushes that overlooked his home in Mucker. Kavanagh’s Christmas is firmly rooted in the landscape of his home in Inniskeen, Co Monaghan.

KAVANAGH COUNTRY As a poet, he cherishes the townlands of his native County Monaghan and names them frequently in his writing, acknowledging their significance as authentic evocations of the landscape that formed his personal vision and the musicality that spoke its familiar

names: Mucker, Drumnagrella, Shancoduff, Kednaminsha were his familiar haunts. Each spoke to him of the day-to-day life of his drumlin country, home to a host of small subsistence farmers who lived close to the soil and shared its produce with the animals they raised. The names of Ballyrush and Gortin evoked memories of local events, his unique heritage of folk history. All of this, stored in his memory-bank from youth, took on significant stature in his imagination and provided him with a rich store of subject matter for poetry.

From his earliest years, Kavanagh walked these roads and lanes, took shortcuts across fields and bogs, so that there was scarcely a square foot of land in his vicinity that he did not know intimately. In true contemplative style, he absorbed the daily revelations of nature in weeds and grasses; "the undying difference in the corner of a field". His astonishment grew in his discovery that, in "any common sight" he saw "the transfigured face Of a beauty that the world did not touch."

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C OVE R STO RY

Such visionary capacity was destined to produce unforgettable lines of poetry and disclose avenues into the sacredness of earth.

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LITURGY OF THE SEASONS Little wonder that Kavanagh is the quintessential poet of spring. He admires the coltsfoot’s faith in being the first to brave a pathway through the frozen earth as he waits patiently for the baby sapling beech he has planted to be stirred into “greenful loveliness”. He is excited by the burgeoning of new life in the fields and hedgerows. Still a fledgling poet himself, his imagination is enkindled by the all-pervading energy of “the rising sap” as he counsels the man who is following the harrow (probably himself) to have faith in the seed he is scattering over

Nature, at this early point of his life as a poet, provides him with an all-embracing liturgy of the seasons, which his early formation in the Catholic faith interprets as the power of the Holy Spirit brooding over the fields and bringing fertility to the land. He stands in amazement at the March trees "in suspense Listening with an intense Anxiety for the Word That in the beginning stirred".

His anticipation of a new season of growth gives voice to a prayer of gratitude at being alive to witness the resurgence of new life around him:

In true contemplative style, he absorbed the daily revelations of nature in weeds and grasses “the black eternity of April clay”. Intuitively Kavanagh knows, though still a learner farmer, that his calling to be a poet will reach fruition in the ‘Genesis’ of a poetic harvest, just as the seed he is sowing will mature into stooks of corn.

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"O give me faith That I may be Alive when April’s Ecstasy Dances in every Whitethorn tree".

His early poetic skills are further honed in a resounding death knell for the "old cranky spinster" of winter, while in true Incarnational tones, he heralds the christening of earth that is pregnant by the Holy Spirit.

"And in the green meadows The maiden of Spring is with child By the Holy Ghost".

BROADENING WORLD Kavanagh was well into his 20s before he owned a bicycle, and was free to explore further into the foothills of Sliabh Gullion, the border regions of Creggan in South Armagh or cycle at leisure into Dundalk and Carrickmacross. As an apprentice farmer, he drove his cattle along the roads to the fair of Carrick, and on occasion, borrowed a neighbour’s ass and cart to bring butter and eggs to Dundalk market. From 1926 onwards he worked the fields of his newly acquired hill-farm, loving its triangular shape, its whitethorn hedges, his "foreign possession" at Shancoduff, next townland to home.

Kavanagh was 35 before he left Inniskeen for Dublin. Many, who dwell exclusively on his later poems, forget that for 35 years, the landscape of South-East Ulster with its daily round of seasonal work had imprinted itself indelibly on his soul and psyche.

Kavanagh’s early sense of God was closely associated with his initial attempts at tilling the land in spring with “a rusty old plough a kicking mare” (The Green Fool, 1938). Not yet accustomed to his farming role, since

the Kavanaghs, a dispossessed family, only acquired land in 1926, and as learner farmer, Patrick is more skilled in verse than he is with the plough. It is as poet that he recognises ploughing as a sacred, solitary and earthaffirming task : “Tranquillity walks with me And no care O, the quiet ecstasy Like a prayer" The straightness of his furrow might be questionable, but as poet he is making an indelible mark on the "lea-green" fields of his farm. He was surprised when George Russell (alias AE) offers to publish his poem in the Irish Statesman (Feb 15, 1930), and more surprised still, when he was paid for it!

READING GOD’S BOOK OF NATURE Kavanagh was aware, like St Francis before him, that his fields and natural surroundings provided him with "‘a magnificent book in which God speaks to us". His whitethorn hedges, primrose banks and patchwork of irregular fields offered him opportunities for rare glimpses of a beauty and goodness that reflects the God who made them.

"This was my God who made the grass And the sun And stone in streams in April".

Filled with enthusiasm for ditches, hedges, whin bushes, weeds and trees, Kavanagh chatting with his neighbours

Kavanagh’s poetry is much beloved by ecologists everywhere, and surely finds favour with the sentiments expressed

by Pope Francis in Laudato Si' (2015).

Like him the poet sees nature as a mirror that reflects God ’s beauty. Even when

15

Love’s Doorway to Life is a unique compilation of Patrick Kavanagh’s work, which traces the story of his life from the drumlin hills of Monaghan to the Grand Canal in Dublin.

A long time student of the poet, Úna Agnew is a leading expert in the field of Kavanagh study. She is assisted here by her brother Art Agnew, also a Kavanagh enthusiast, and together they offer an alternative biography of Kavanagh’s poetic life and his struggle to fulfill his destiny.

Aware of the poet’s eccentric public persona and frequent social improprieties, these recordings remain attuned, to the poet’s unique conviction that “posterity has no use for anything but the soul”.

Utilising more than 50 excerpts that cover three

AVAILABLE NOW

Love’s Doorway to Life – By Úna Agnew and Art Agnew An Alternative Biography of Patrick Kavanagh 3 CD SET for €25 Available directly from Eist at www.eist.ie or 0872789390

stages of his life, Kavanagh is celebrated as the people’s poet who captures the spirit of a people and immortalises cameos of Irish life in a lyrical language that is unsurpassed.

COVER STO RY

indoors, in his "10 by12" upstairs attic room, his little window "lets in the stars".

Writing his autobiography The Green Fool in 1937/8, Kavanagh knew that his Monaghan hills and poplar-lined lanes had furnished him with all the romance he needed to be a writer. Here his imagination from childhood has become "implanted with the seeds of whimsical poetry".

By some strange instinct, he knows he is destined to be a poet. His solitary walks over his native landscape, introduce him to "life’s miracles" and immerse him in an irrepressible joy of living.

This practice, though useless in monetary terms, made him "richer that Henry Ford or the Rothschilds"(The Green Fool). Such delight in growing things and respect for the minutiae of creation are infectious for all who read Kavanagh’s work. It awakens us also to a corresponding love and care for our planet Earth.

Notwithstanding the fact that Kavanagh would later quarrel openly with “the stony grey soil of Monaghan” as he resolutely discards the plough for the pen, he had already accumulated a rich archive of material, gleaned from total immersion in growing things. Rooted in the Catholic faith of his family and locality, he sees nature as a manuscript of God’s beauty. The mystery of his poetic gift he sees as God-given, brought to life at his anointing by the Holy Spirit at Confirmation and later as "the flash of Divine intelligence" he takes as the essential ingredient in his best poetry.

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS A more assured poet in later life, Kavanagh’s genius expresses itself in the manifold splendour of a cutaway bog (The One) , in the healing waters of the Grand Canal (Canal Bank Walk) and the leafy yellowness in autumn of a tree-lined street, (October). By the time he publishes Come Dance with Kitty Stobling and other Poems (1960), he is the quintessential ‘Man for all Seasons’. Not only has be explored the unfolding rhythms of his beloved earth, he has also come to terms with the seasons of his own life.

Since we are currently in springtime while spring flowers are making their entry in the northern hemisphere, it is appropriate to dwell with Kavanagh on the sacramental beauty of a single flower: (Primrose).

The poet on home ground

17

"Upon a bank I sat, a child made seer Of one small primrose flowering in my mind.

Better that wealth it is, said I, to find One small page of Truth’s manuscript made clear.

I looked at Christ transfigured without fear– The light was very beautiful and kind, And where the Holy Ghost in flame had signed I read it through the lenses of a tear."

The face of the primrose is open and fragile, offering the poet a clear-sighted vision of "one small page of Truth’s manuscript". What does he see? He sees the vulnerable face of Christ mirrored in a flower, offering him an intuition of a God who does not inspire fear. The poet, at this time, seems to long for reassurance from a God of gentleness and compassion. He considers himself wealthy in

his new understanding of God. Looking deeper into the heart of the primrose, he sees the splash of flame at its centre, a confirmation of divine authorship and signature of the Holy Ghost.

He is lost in consolation. Moments of vision such as this recede from his sight, like the fading coal of Shelley, but Kavanagh had captured something memorable; he has snatched "out of time" the reassuring message of a flower.

Such is the genius of our Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh, 1904-1967, whom we celebrate on the 50th anniversary of his death. Úna Agnew, Saint Louis Sister, is a leading expert in the work of Patrick Kavanagh and recent author, with her bother Art Agnew, of a triple CD compilation entitled: Love’s Doorway to Life: An Alternative Biography of Patrick Kavanagh, produced

by Eist.ie, 2017.

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We need the help of thousands of volunteers to work with us on all aspects of World Meeting of Families 2018, a large and exciting international event that will gather many thousands of Irish and International families in Ireland in August 2018.

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www.worldmeeting2018.ie/volunteer www.worldmeeting2018.ie/volunteer

In Tune with the Liturgy A series that highlights some of the features of the Church’s worship in the month ahead

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THE FIFTY DAYS FROM EASTER TO PENTECOST ARE A SPECIAL TIME WHEN NEW CATHOLICS WHO WERE BAPTISED AT THE EASTER VIGIL ARE ACCOMPANIED AS THEY DISCOVER WHAT IT MEANS TO FULLY PARTICIPATE IN THE SACRAMENTAL MYSTERIES OF THE CHURCH. WE ARE ALL INVITED TO SHARE IN THE REDISCOVERY OF THE MYSTERY.

BY SARAH ADAMS

One

of the most popular genres of TV in the UK and b ey o nd is , without qu e sti o n, crime drama and in particular murder mysteries. Midsummer Murders, Poirot, and Agatha Christie’s Marple are just

a few examples. People seem to love a good mystery, especially one that involves a murder or two. What makes them so popular is the intrigue, the false clues and the detectives who dig deep to discover the truth and to find the

criminals involved. Mysteries in life take many forms; fiction writers do not have the monopoly on the realm of mystery.

Researchers spend hours upon hours delving into the unknown and trying to find answers to all kinds of questions.

In Tune with the Liturgy

20 Within the church, we too have our mysteries. We call them ‘Sacred Mysteries’ and we celebrate them every week when we go to Mass. These mysteries lie at the heart of our faith. We are invited each week to enter into this mystery and by doing so enter more deeply into our relationship with God. God is a mystery, but not like a secret or a problem to be solved. God is a mystery in the way that a mother loves her child, in the way that we might look at someone or something and cannot imagine anything more beautiful. It is like the mystery of how people still love one another even when they have been together for decades of years.

difficult to describe or express to another person. Perhaps the best way to describe it is the way that parents, when their children ask how they will know when they have met the right person, often reply “You’ll know it when it happens."

The word ‘sacrament’ comes from the Greek root for the word ‘mystery’. At the beginning of Mass, the priest usually says, "Let us prepare ourselves to celebrate these sacred mysteries”. It is an invitation to enter deeply into the mysterious love of God. We experience the divine mystery most fully in the Eucharist when we share in the intimate act of eating and drinking together with those named after the one we love most: Christ.

Entering into this mystery for the first time occurs when a person decides that they might wish to become a Christian. Within the Catholic Church, a process called the Rite of Initiation of Adults (RCIA) provides people with the opportunity to find out more about

God is a mystery in the way that a mother loves her child SACRAMENTS AND MYSTERIES The mystery of God is both a sense of being really in awe of something incomprehensible and tremendous, yet at the same time feeling immensely close to God. It is something really REALITY APRIL 2018

God and the church. It has four stages: a period of inquiry when a person expresses an initial interest in finding out more. This can lead to a person choosing to join the catechumenate, as a catechumen. The catechumenate is an opportunity to receive and explore a deeper experience of coming to know Christ, which may lead them to deciding that they do wish to become a Christian. At this point, often coinciding with Lent, they will enter a period of Purification and Enlightenment, where the focus turns to a deepening of prayer and reflection growing in a relationship with Christ. This ultimately leads to Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation being received at the Easter Vigil. It is a profoundly moving moment, not just for those who are baptised, but for the whole parish community. Once a person has taken this step, it is perhaps understandable that people might think that it is all over, that the ‘prize’ has been won! But, far from it, this is just the beginning of a life long journey of mystagogy!

WHAT IS MYSTAGOGY? The church has some strange language!

Mystagogy is a prime example of a word that the majority of the population, even within the church, has never heard of and would struggle to define. It is pronounced “mis-tuhgoh-jee,” and it comes from two Greek words. The first is agogos, which means 'leader'. So 'pedagogy, for example, is about leading (or teaching) children. A synagogue

A LIFE-LONG JOURNEY It would be wrong to think that 'mystagogia' is only for those who are new to the church.

In reality, 'mystagogy' is a life-long journey for all of us of entering ever more deeply into the mystery of God. The journey of faith does not end until the day we die. Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Sacramentum Caritatis (64) makes this clear. He writes, "The Church’s great liturgical tradition teaches us that fruitful participation in the liturgy requires that one be personally conformed to the mystery being celebrated, offering one’s life to God in unity with the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of the whole world... The mature fruit of mystagogy is an awareness that one’s life is being progressively transformed by the holy mysteries being celebrated. The aim of all Christian education, moreover, is to train the believer in an adult faith that can make him a “new creation”, capable of bearing witness in his surroundings to the Christian hope that inspires him.”

If it is through the celebration of the holy mysteries that our lives are "progressively transformed", there is a need for these sacraments to be celebrated with great care and attention to the deeper purpose.

The experience of mystagogy leads us to Eucharist and leads us from Eucharist. We are nourished by it so that we can live it more profoundly in the world. At the same time we participate in it so that we can enter more deeply into our relationship with Jesus.

Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangeli Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) begins, “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew. In this Exhortation I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy, while pointing out

Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you is a gathering place (syn –'together') to which people are led. The second Greek word is mystes or mystery. So 'mystagogy' is a process of leading (or training) into the mystery, the initiation into that which is not yet fully revealed. More specifically, mystagogy is an initiation into God’s self-revelation. This might sound quite complicated, but if we were to think about a moment or a time when we can speak about God acting in our life, even in the last 24 hours, we would be recognising the presence of God there at all times in our life. God is always there, ever present, but sometimes we have to give time to actively remembering how God has been acting in our lives to fully see.

Within the RCIA, the fourth stage is called “mystagogy”. In theory, it is the period of time from Easter to Pentecost when new Catholics are accompanied as they discover what it means to fully participate in the sacramental mysteries of the church. These newly baptised are called 'neophytes' from the Greek word meaning 'new plant', because the faith has been newly planted in them.

Even though the catechetical formation has been completed, they will still have much to learn about what it means to live as Catholic Christians. At this stage the 'neophyte' may have even more questions about living a life of faith. Just like a baby plant, they need the ongoing support of the community so that they can grow deep roots.

new paths for the Church’s journey in years to come” (#1) He later goes onto say: “I dream of a 'missionary option', that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channelled for the evangelisation of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation” (#27).

In the view of Pope Francis, as a church, we seem to have got a little stuck and he wants us to break free. His belief that the church can transform the world begins when we start to share the basic message of the Gospel. Our first proclamation must be that “Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you” (#164). In order that we might do this Pope Francis invites every Christian to “a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them" (#3).

This is what mystagogy is all about: entering into the mystery of God so that we may grow more deeply in our relationship with Jesus.

It is in and through our participation in the sacraments that this is possible. The more deeply we come to know the Lord, the more able we will be to proclaim the joy of the Gospel, written in our hearts and lived out in our lives.

Sarah Adams studied liturgical theology at Maynooth. She now lives in Devon, working for the Diocese of Plymouth as a Religious Education adviser. She enjoys hiking on Dartmoor and the surrounding countryside.

21

F E AT U R E

A NET, BURSTING IF THE FISHING NET IN THE STORY OF THE MARVELLOUS CATCH OF FISH COULD TELL ITS STORY… AN IMAGINATIVE MEDITATION ON JOHN, CHAPTER 21.

BY SEAMUS DEVITT CSsR

I

22

was just sitting there that evening, minding my own business, in my usual place.

Seven big fellows were having a yarn, nearby.

One of them was my boss. He said to his mates, "Come on, let’s go, lads!" So they just grabbed me, and threw me into the back of the boat. The usual treatment! I knew some of the men; John and James were locals from the village. Nathaniel was from up the road about ten miles. I heard them call another one ‘Tom the Twin’. Two others I did not know, but they were certainly not used to this kind of place: they weren’t used to boats! They all climbed in. Last of all, my boss Simon pushed the boat out and then climbed in. Two of them sat on me – as usual! It was getting dark.

All night long they just kept throwing me out on the water, dragging me along, then drawing me in. I could see their disappointment – there was nothing in me: I was empty. I did what they told me, but nothing happened. I felt useless. All those fish out there somewhere – but I didn’t catch a thing. What kind of net am I, anyway?

AT FIRST LIGHT The night went on. They tried and tried again.

Nothing. Zilch! They were fed up. My boss was embarrassed, because after all it was his boat, and his idea to go fishing, and he brought these lads from town out for a night’s fishing. He was the expert here, but he had nothing to show for it.

The light was dawning now. As they turned the boat yet again, they noticed someone standing on the shore, a hundred yards away or so. They didn’t know who he was, but he

REALITY APRIL 2018

shouted across to the boat, "Catch nothing, lads?" "Nothing" was all they could shout back. Then the voice "Throw it to the RIGHT side, and you’ll be surprised what happens!"

The fishermen looked at each other. They were old hands at this job. They had tried all night and nothing happened. Who was this guy to tell them how to fish? Anyway, they listened. Once again, they took hold of me, and with a mighty heave threw me overboard again, in the direction the man on the shore had said. I can tell you this, I was expecting nothing. "Once more, nothing" is what I said to myself as I hit the water and sank down.

FULL NET Well, you should have seen what happened then. All these great big fish came straight toward me, threw themselves at me. I could hardly cope. They were jumping and leaping, and I seemed to be holding them all in my arms – me who usually caught only little fish and rubbish! – here I was now bursting!

In all my years so far, nothing like this had ever happened to me. It hadn’t happened to my boss either, I can tell you. The big guys in the boat – ‘all hands on deck’ –tried pulling me in, but just couldn’t do it – there were just so many fish in me.

While they were shouting and laughing with delight, John (I remember the moment well) John the fisherman pointed to the shore and shouted to the other lads "LOOK, IT IS THE LORD!" I didn’t know what he meant, but my boss surely did. He took one look towards the man on the shore, and grabbed his old cloak (for he was in

his boxers) and just jumped in right beside where I was. He left me, he did. Here was the biggest prize he had ever got, and he just leaves it all behind. I was disgusted. He swam towards the Man like he never swam before. That Man must have been someone really special for my boss.

James, John and the others began rowing – very slowly because I was being dragged along behind, I was so full of jumping excited fish. They came to the beach, pulled the boat in out of the water, and just left me there still in the water.

BREAKFAST The Man had a fire going. He had a few small loaves on top of it, and he asked my boss for some of the fish he had caught – actually I had caught them, but that’s another matter. So, my boss (Simon) came over to me. I was really bursting, I was. And he started lifting out all the fish in me. I watched his face – he was beaming. This had never happened to him in his life of fishing. All the fish were really big ones, and here he was counting them – one, two, three… – and on he went. I couldn’t believe it when he came to the last and shouted over to the Man and to his friends "One hundred and fifty-three!"– who would have believed it? It must have been the biggest catch any fisherman in the village had ever seen. I was so proud. And I hear the people are still talking about me, in every corner of the world – "Did you hear about the net that caught so many fish, that day in Galilee?"

And do you know what he did then, my boss? He just threw me down there on the beach, near the fire. I was tired, but was I happy!

The Man by the fire? He had breakfast ready for them, and I tell you the men were hungry. He broke bread for them and gave it to them. He gave them some fish that I had brought in. The men seemed to know him well. They called him Jesus. They even called him Lord. Simon even told him that

he loved him. I think they all loved him.

Their eyes were so excited, and they were even hugging each other.

BEING A NET? I’ve heard since that the Man – the one they call the Lord – has that effect on people who come to him. They listen to him. He tells them to try another way of doing things. Amazing things happen. He sits down with them a lot, talks to them, spends time with them, and they talk to him a lot. He prepares meals for them which they love, and which fill the spot.

And then, they seem to go out, all on fire, like, and bring lots and lots of others to meet their Friend. I tell you, if you think my net caught lots, you should see those friends of the Man, and the great numbers they bring back to meet this Jesus who loves them so much.

You know what I think. Those men that day, and all the women and men since then – they themselves seem like great big fish that the Man himself has caught in his embrace. And not only are they like fish gathered in, but they seem to do what I do – they seem like nets themselves, going out to others, telling them

about Jesus their friend, and bringing them back to meet him.

I’m off now. I’ve a lot more fishing left in me yet. Throw me out into the deep water, please. The dawn has come. Today’s another day. Thanks for listening!

J.C. NET P.S. Well, it wasn’t really me that caught all those fish that day – it was the Man on the shore that made it all happen. He just used me. I’m glad and thankful that he did. Hope he does it again. Have to go!

23

Fr Seamus Devitt CSsR is a member of the Redemptorist community in Esker, Athenry where he works with the retreat team and devotes what spare time he has to his hobby of painting.

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Go forth... the whole world is your domain

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long and thirst for new life?

The woman at the well through a simple meeting with Jesus experienced freedom

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The current milieu militates against a sense of God. Yet the psalmist says “Only in God is my soul at rest”.

In searching there are new discoveries and in finding there is joy.

Are you searching?

We can accompany you on your journey of discovery.

Jesus is still calling, “the harvest is great but the labourers are few”.

Contact: Sr. Una Boland Telephone: 087-6263034 Email: unaboland@yahoo.ie

Venerable Mary Potter pray for us

Beginning again FOLLOWING A PAINFUL LOSS

25

WHAT DO YOU DO AS YOU BEGIN TO RECOVER FROM BEREAVEMENT, SEPARATION OR DIVORCE? IT CAN BE A LONELY TIME, BUT FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS, THE BEGINNING EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN HELPING PEOPLE TO START AGAIN ON THE NEXT PHASE OF THEIR LIVES.

BY MARIE CARSON

It’s

likely that very few people reading this article, would not know someone who has lost a partner through death, separation or divorce.

It may be a family member or a close friend.

It may even be your own experience and if so you will be very aware of the devastation, hurt and trauma that has wrecked your life…the unbearable feelings of loneliness and grief…

the uneasiness around married friends…the uncertainty about your future. All this can lead to a complete loss of confidence and erosion of self-worth. You may be struggling to bring up children on your own, and while family and friends may be supportive you might still feel deep down inside that no one really understands what it is like… and you’re right.

When my marriage ended I wanted to die. I could see no reason for living. I cried and cried for many months and was depressed for ten years. By that time I was desperate for help and still in so much emotional and physical pain at the loss. When I found Beginning Experience it was literally a life saver. It gave me hope, friendship, support and freedom to be myself.

FE AT U R E

support to people who want to live a full life again, to leave grief and self-pity behind and to take charge and be in control of their lives once more.

BEGINNINGS The story began in 1985 when the late Fr Jim Stanley CssR, a man of vision, was director of retreats in St Clement's Redemptorist Retreat House in Belfast. He became increasingly aware of the needs of separated and divorced people, and of the fact that there were retreats for almost every other group of people except them, so he organised a weekend retreat for separated and divorced individuals.

During the weekend, the deep pain and grief of those who attended burst forth and Fr Jim saw the real need for them to share this with peers, but to share too their hunger for understanding, acceptance and support from their church. It was evident that one weekend was not the complete answer, so he organised a monthly support group where they could continue to meet at St Clement's. This then became the home of Belfast Beginning Experience until the retreat house closed in 2006, precipitating a move to their current base at St Bride’s Hall.

Following his groundbreaking initiative, Fr Jim heard of a group in America called The Beginning Experience. This was designed to help separated, divorced and widowed people work through their grief, and be healed, and transformed. Some group members were travelling from America and England to hold a weekend in Derry. Excitedly arrangements were made for eight people to attend.

My Beginning Experience weekend was the best present I ever bought myself. It turned my life around and set me on a new path. When I was a married person I felt very comfortable in the Church but now that I am separated I feel that I am unrecognised and isolated. I wondered where I could fit in?

Beginning Experience gave me a sense of belonging.

I was introduced to Beginning Experience by a local priest and attended the support group a year after my separation. The weekly meetings were somewhere I could take time to identify and work through the feelings of loss of my hopes and expectations of marriage and family life. I was able to come to terms with a huge burden of disappointment.

Fr Jim Stanley CSsR

26

WHAT IS THE BEGINNING EXPERIENCE? The feelings of stigma, shame, isolation and rejection that can follow the loss of a partner for reasons of bereavement or separation are very hard to bear, and many people suffering this loss believe there is no one person or place to turn to for help. But there is something that can help grieving people to pick up the pieces of their lives and go into the future with hope.

For more than 30 years Beginning Experience has striven to provide that help by accepting and understanding those who are grieving.

This is achieved because the people who are part of Beginning Experience have themselves suffered the pain of loss of a spouse, through bereavement, separation or divorce. They know how important it is to take time to listen and encourage someone who feels completely alone. They have experienced that very encouragement and been listened to when friends and family seem so far away. They have moved from the darkness of grief into the light of a new beginning and, following training in facilitation and listening, they are ready and willing to help others to do the same.

Beginning Experience is designed to provide REALITY APRIL 2018

programme for those Jesus in his ministry and passion, support suffering the loss of a spouse went through the grief stages due to separation, divorce and bereavement and is the only of denial, bargaining, anger, team working in the north of depression, acceptance and Ireland.

The work of the volunteer reaching out

GROWING AND REACHING OUT Immediately following this weekend, Fr Wendy Vetter, an American priest who had been part of this team, returned to Belfast in August 1985 to train the group, and so the Belfast Beginning Experience team was born. Under the spiritual guidance of Fr Jim and Sr Augusta Maria CP, the group continued to train, heal, grow and nurture themselves, a vitally important aspect of the ministry that continues to the present day.

Over the next six years, the Belfast team took a leading role in the expansion of Beginning Experience throughout Ireland. Teams emerged in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Ennis, the West of Ireland and Dundalk.

From the initial first steps taken by Fr Jim, which were crucial in bringing Beginning Experience to Belfast, the team have continued to enjoy spiritual and practical support from the Redemptorists, and are currently guided by Fr Brendan Keane based in Clonard Monastery.

FOUNDATIONS The rationale for this powerful ministry is based on sound theological and psychological principles.

The people involved in this ministry have a deep respect for the value of the individual. They hope to be able to act as enabling instruments of the

power of God, who is the helper. They enable others to be transformed, and allow the individual to find his or her own answers. When we feel loved, understood and accepted by others we feel loved, understood and accepted by God. Jesus in his ministry and passion, went through the grief stages of denial, bargaining, anger, depression, acceptance and reaching out. Participants of this ministry are helped to realise this, so that they can begin to sense that Jesus can identify with them. Through his life Jesus came to new life through pain and so with us.

I feel I was led to Beginning Experience as an answer to prayers at a time when I felt most desperate. It was four years after the sudden death of my husband and it gave me hope that there was a way through the intense pain, pressure and hopelessness I felt.

Not only did I find compassion and understanding, love and friendship but through the journey I have also found a new independence, confidence and understanding of myself as a person.

team is governed by a local board, which is accountable to the Great Britain and Ireland Regional Board, which is in turn accountable to the International Ministry Board in Indiana, USA. The International Ministry Centre holds the copyright on the support programmes which the ministry offers, including the residential weekend.

Although the programmes of BE were designed by and intended for Roman Catholics and have their roots in the Catholic tradition, in true ecumenical spirit, they are open to people of all faiths and those of none.

While programmes designed for the children of bereaved parents exist in America, there are none currently available in Great Britain and Ireland.

However, by supporting single parents the ripples of benefit reach far beyond individuals into families.

Following the death of my wife, I felt I had lost not only her but also my reason for living and my confidence and self-worth. I became a recluse and stayed away from people and places, going only to work. Beginning Experience helped me to regain my self esteem, to have the confidence to try new things and to meet new people.

The Beginning Experience Weekend is the core programme of the ministry. It is residential and comprises a structured process to help those widowed, separated and divorced (for at least a year) to work through their loss, and to enable them to start to move towards a new beginning in life.

You can contact local Beginning Experience groups - Belfast: www.beginningexperiencebelfast.org Dublin: www.beginningexperience.ie Cork: www.beginningexperiencecork.com Galway: www.galwaydiocese.ie/news/ beginning-experience Dundalk: www.facebook.com/DundalkBE

SUPPORT PROGRAMME The Belfast Beginning Experience team of trained volunteers currently offers a weekly

Marie Carson came to Beginning Experience following her own bereavement and has both experienced and witnessed its transformative powers for life after loss.

27

Praying with the Rosary – The First Glorious Mystery prayer corner

EASTER SUNDAY, AND INDEED THE WHOLE EASTER SEASON, OFFERS US AN OPPORTUNITY TO REFLECT ON RESURRECTION. FR WADDING INVITES US TO SEE THAT DAY THROUGH THE EYES OF ONE OF THE APOSTLES. YOU MIGHT ALSO READ REFLECTIVELY PART OF THE GOSPEL ACCOUNT OF THE RESURRECTION ACCORDING TO MATTHEW 28; MARK 16; LUKE 24 AND JOHN 20 AND CONCLUDE

BY PRAYING THE ROSARY PRAYERS

The

BY GEORGE WADDING CSsR

28

Who

can know a mother's pain when she holds her dead child in her arms? Who can know Mary's pain when she held her butchered son in her arms, as she whispered once more the fiat she first spoke on the day she conceived him in her womb! As young John told us afterwards, she just sat there caressing her son’s lifeless face while her tears made rivulets through the dried blood on his chest. And there she waited until Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus returned with permission to bury her son’s remains.

The crowd drifted away to prepare for the Passover. They must move fast now as the Law requires much careful preparation. The Paschal Lamb, the symbol of their deliverance from the hands of Pharaoh, must be got ready for the morrow. They leave behind the real Pascal Lamb who had just been sacrificed for them on the cross. It was a dark, dark day, as Jesus had told the chief priests and arresting guards in the garden of Gethsemane: “This is your hour – when darkness reigns.” (Lk. 22:53).

IN A LOCKED ROOM Apart from John, the other ten apostles (including myself), and some Galilean friends waited for news in the darkened upper room. Ever since we heard in the early hours of Jesus’ arrest and show trial, we had locked ourselves into the upper room in

REALITY APRIL 2018

the grip of fear. Even our accents could betray us.

I cannot describe the Resurrection to you like I could describe his passion and death. Of its very nature the Resurrection itself cannot and never could be described. All I can do is to try and explain our reaction to the news about the Empty Tomb as it reached us through various sources.

Towards evening the women in our group began preparing food for the Sabbath. And then, just before sunset, the small group who had stayed with the Lord to the bitter end, returned. They were bent with grief and drained of tears. John had a protective arm around Jesus’ mother and quickly found her a seat. The disciples stood around shamefaced.

Through deep sobs, Jesus’ mother said: “When Jesus was a baby, an old man foretold that my child would break my heart. He never did – until today. I never dreamed it would end like this. My poor child!”

All that evening and the following day we spoke with lowered voices for fear the very walls would betray us. The Calvary group took us through the sickening details of the crucifixion blow by blow: the mockery of the priests and elders, every word that Jesus spoke from the cross, how he promised paradise to one of the thieves and asked John to take care of his mother, how he gasped for breath and begged a drink for his burning thirst; above all, how he asked his Heavenly Father to forgive his

enemies. Did that include us? We were not his enemies but we were faithless, spineless friends when he needed us.

In subdued voices, people endlessly recalled stories of what they had seen over the past three years: healing the sick, feeding the multitudes, calming the storm, walking on water. The Master had raised the dead; why did he not save his own life? “Oh please, don’t say that,” said one of the women, “that’s what the priests shouted at him on the cross to mock him.” There never was a prophet like him. He was the final hope for our people. Why did he let this happen? At one stage the conversation turned to Judas’ treachery. “Don’t go there,” interrupted Peter.

“I was supposed to be the ‘rock’ and I was no better than Judas. May God forgive me!” And the others said, "Peter, at least you tried and failed; the rest of us didn’t even try." Amid tears and whispers – that was how we spent the Sabbath.

THE NEW DAY On the first day of the new week, Mary of Magdala the other women headed off with spices they had prepared to finish anointing the Master. Thomas left to attend to some business of his own. Then two others set off for home. The rest of us stayed put, not knowing what we were going to do.

Suddenly there was a frantic hammering on the door, and the women burst in, scarcely able to

Resurrection speak with excitement. “The body is gone. Jesus is not there.” They blurted out something about burial cloths and angels saying Jesus was risen and we were to go to Galilee. “The angel specifically mentioned you, Peter,” they said. (Mk. 16:7) Some of the men said – under their breath, “you can’t trust a few hysterical women who believe what they want to believe.” But Peter had taken control again. He grabbed John and they were gone like a flash to investigate. Mary of Magdala followed them back to the tomb. Before long Peter and John were back carrying the burial cloths and announcing: "It is true; the tomb is empty!”

Could that possibly mean that the Master was alive, that he had risen from the dead? Were the women telling the truth after all? James turned to Peter and John: “Brothers,” he said, “we should have known better. Didn’t the Master foretell his death and resurrection, but we were too preoccupied with our own ambitions to attend to him.”

“Of course,” said Peter, “and when he foretold the destruction of the Temple and promised to restore it in three days he mustn’t have been talking about the Temple at all, but about the temple of his own body. How blind can you be!”

“And what about Mount Tabor?” added John.

“What about Mount Tabor?” the rest of us asked.

“The Lord told us not to mention it until after his resurrection from the dead. Jesus took Peter,

James and myself up the mountain to pray, like he did after the Passover meal two days ago. But on Mount Tabor he was indescribably transfigured before our eyes. We had to shield our eyes against the dazzling brilliance of his face. Moses and Elijah, representing our holy Law and our Prophets were speaking to him about his Passover in Jerusalem and a voice came from heaven saying ‘this is my beloved Son, listen to him’…”

PASSOVER “His Passover?” blurted Peter, the light suddenly dawning. “His Passover! They were speaking about his passion and death! I have been so obsessed with my own sin and the horrors of these past few days that I forgot all about Mount Tabor.”

The dark, sombre mood of the room began to yield to a more light-hearted atmosphere. Voices were raised in excitement. They dared to hope.

It was like the sun breaking through after days of black clouds and heavy downpours. Mary of Magdala arrived back a second time and told us that she had seen Jesus and had spoken with him.

While we tried to absorb all this, there he was in the room with us. “Peace be with you,” he said, smiling at our fear. Then he showed us the wounds of his hands and side – it was a gentle rebuke for our abandoning him in his hour of need, but also an assurance that the man we were looking at was

truly Jesus of Nazareth who had been crucified three days ago. He was alive. And in case we still thought it was just a ghost he ate a piece of broiled fish. And then he vanished again.

In this little room in the heart of Jerusalem, we were witnessing probably the greatest event in human history. We were too excited to think of resting for the night. But eventually we did settle.

We had just blown out the candles when there was another knock at the door. The two disciples who had set out for Emmaus had walked the whole way back to tell us their story. They were brimming over with excitement. “Jesus is risen,” they blurted out.

Then they told us how he joined them on their way home and explained to them how everything that happened to Jesus had been foretold in Sacred Scripture. And though they didn’t recognise him at once they invited him to stay the night with them and at supper they recognised him in the breaking of bread. “He’s alive, brethren, he’s alive,” they shouted. “We know,” said Peter, “He was here too and ate a morsel with us.”

From then on, the message of the angel became our rallying cry: “You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified; he has been raised, he is not here…”

Fr George Wadding CSsR is a member of the Redemptorist Community at Dun Mhuire, Griffith Avenue, Dublin. He is the author of Praying with St Gerard, the Family Saint (available from Redemptorist Communications)

29

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COM M E N T FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS CARMEL WYNNE

A LISTENING DEFICIT

PEOPLE OFTEN ASSUME THEY ARE GOOD COMMUNICATORS BECAUSE THEY CONVEY FACTUAL INFORMATION CLEARLY. THEY FAIL TO RECOGNISE THE IMPORTANCE OF FEELINGS IN COMMUNICATION. At some point in our lives almost everyone has had the experience of not feeling loved, of feeling disrespected, controlled or misunderstood. If you have ever had a difficulty talking with a family member or colleague, you will have experienced some of those feelings.

As a life coach I work with people who come to me for very different reasons. Clients want to achieve goals, seek a better work/life balance, or are challenged by personal or professional issues. One thing that almost all of these clients have in common, regardless of their original reason for coming for coaching, is an unsuspected deficit in communication skills.

They have never learned to listen to the conversations they have in their own mind.

A failure to recognise how closely your thinking and feelings are connected is a huge deficit. The key to resolving issues in family, work and social relationships is to take back the power you have given away.

Most of us fail to recognise that when we believe someone made us feel disrespected, controlled or misunderstood, we gave them the power to make us feel bad.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is seen as one of the most powerful communication tools for improving all aspects of family and professional relationships. One of its most important presuppositions is

that the map is not the territory.

This means that a map is not the landscape that it shows; it’s only a limited depiction of selected information.

We make sense of the world by drawing our own mental maps.

We can never know everything there is to know in any given situation so our maps have only limited information. A person who has difficulties talking to someone will have expectations that the other person does not meet.

Let me take the example of a man, who is professionally successful, has responsibility for managing people in a work situation and whose colleagues say he is easy to talk to. He comes for relationship coaching because he can’t have a civil conversation with his teenage son. “What were your expectations, how did you want your son to respond?” is a powerful coaching question that has the potential to reveal the unexpected skills deficit.

Many clients are surprised at how that question uncovers details about assumptions and expectations they had no awareness of and find disturbing. Parents have clearly defined expectations about how children should behave around their parents, siblings, peers and in all sorts of different situations. Spouses, managers and friends also have criteria about how people should and ought to behave. In effect

what both adults and children do to some extent is judge the quality of the interactions they have with others, based on their expectations and personal beliefs about what the appropriate interaction with them is in any one of these relationships.

Difficult conversations are threatening because most of us never learned about the third element of effective communication, listening to the dialogue going on inside our own mind. The widespread belief that if I am right, you must be wrong contributes to a win/lose mentality that is an obstacle to recognising how communication difficulties can be resolved.

Many of us never learned that the meaning others take from the words they hear may not be the communication we intended. It’s surprising how many people assume that they are good communicators because in some situations they have the ability to convey factual information.

Whenever we interact with other people, we do so on the basis of assumptions and expectations that we relate to emotionally. Let’s assume the man and his son had different though equally valid, expectations of each other that were not met. The father had criteria for how a father and son should talk.

The father’s negative feelings were triggered when his son did

not conform to his expectations of how they should be talking. If the father lacked awareness of the expectations he had of how he wanted his son to relate, he could conclude that his beliefs about his son’s unacceptable behaviour were logical and appropriate.

It may seem obvious; people don’t know what we don’t tell them. Once the father accepted that it was unrealistic to expect his son to live up to unspoken expectations, expectations he was not even aware of himself, it clarified why it’s said that the meaning of communication is the response you get.

If you are not getting the response you want you could change your communication to get a different response. Or you may wish to develop the skill of listening to yourself so you communicate better. It’s probable that you’ll discover that a lack of clarity about what you expected, but never requested, is behind many of the difficulties you experience in talking with family and colleagues.

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

MARRIAGE

A JOURNEY OF LOVE A POPULAR SONG TALKS ABOUT LOVE LIKE THIS: “I AM A SAILOR, YOU'RE MY FIRST MATE, WE SIGNED ON TOGETHER, WE COUPLED OUR FATE. HAULED UP OUR ANCHOR, DETERMINED NOT TO FAIL. FOR THE HEARTS TREASURE, TOGETHER WE SET SAIL.” IN THE JOURNEY OF LOVE, IT IS PRAYER THAT GUIDES US.

BY JOHNNY DOHERTY CSsR

It

is very noticeable, when you are around the family and friends of a young couple who are getting ready for their wedding day, how much of the conversation is about them losing their freedom, especially the man! People talk about getting married and settling down.

The implication is that all the fun of life will now be over. Of course, this is generally good humoured. But there is also an element of seriousness about it.

This betrays the mentality that marriage is a destination that is reached on the wedding day. We wish the couple every success in their life together but without any great expectations of joy and happiness.

And just in case those expectations are present, there will be people warning them to wait until the honeymoon is over!

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MARRIAGE, A JOURNEY However, if we approach marriage as a journey that begins with the wedding day, the possibilities change dramatically. For any journey, the first thing that is decided is: Where are you REALITY APRIL 2018

going? That is an essential question for the journey of marriage and one that a lot of couples don’t fully ask themselves.

The second question for every journey is: How do you get to where you want to go? It is essential for couples to look for and take on board all the resources that will help them travel this journey together. They don’t have these naturally. They must learn them and keep learning them at every stage.

It is said that a successful marriage is one where a couple enter between 15 and 20 different marriages with each other during a lifetime. Marriage is a way of life that is always on the move.

It changes as a couple’s circumstances change. The secret is to enter fully into the marriage relationship that is there at every stage. The temptation is for people to yearn for things to be different to such an extent that they miss out on the possibilities of the present.

SO, WHERE ARE YOU GOING? Marriage is the journey of a couple towards one another. Within the

context of Christian faith, unity with one another is held up as the goal, the destination, as it is of all human life and of all creation. In the Book of Genesis this is expressed for the married couple in the words: “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body” (Gen. 2, 25). This journey into unity is never completed "until death do us part".

It is a life-long commitment to love one another "for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health". What an extraordinary promise that is. It is only the generosity of love that can enable any couple to make it.

Every couple, on their wedding day, means that promise. Not every couple is able to deliver on it for all kinds of reasons. It is often so tragic when a couple has to separate or divorce and the dreams they had are shattered. The wonder of it is, though, that so many couples make it through into old age with their dreams intact and their generous love fulfilled.

HOW DO YOU GET TO WHERE YOU WANT TO GO? A ceremony that often takes place during the wedding Mass in the Catholic Church, is the ceremony of the three candles. At the beginning of the Nuptial Mass, just after the couple come together at the altar, they light the two outside candles. This is often thought of as representing the fact that they are two individuals coming together for their wedding. A much better way of looking at it is that these candles represent the candles that their parents and godparents were given at their Baptism to keep burning as a light of faith. Then after the couple exchanges their wedding vows, they light the middle candle to signify that something different

has taken place between them. They are now taking charge of their new life together which includes their life of faith. Sometimes at this stage a couple have been advised to blow out the other two candles. This is a mistake. Their call is to build together on the faith that has been given them in Baptism and handed on in their families. Their task is to become one while always remaining two individuals. How can this possibly happen?

In the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of St Paul, the Word of God teaches that unity is built on three pillars: unity of mind; unity of heart; unity of affection. This is true of unity at every level of life. It is particularly true of the unity to which married couples are called and to which they have vowed their love.

1. UNITY OF MIND It’s amazing the number of couples who say things like: “we think the

same way about everything” or “we feel the same way about everything” and are convinced that this is a sign of how close they are to each other.

Maybe it is such a sign, but it is not what unity of mind is about. Rather, unity of mind is about developing a common goal for their marriage, a common purpose around which everything else circulates. It is about putting their marriage at the centre of their priorities.

All decisions then must be measured by how these add to or subtract from the health and vibrancy of their marriage. This takes a lot of effective communication that is made up of regularly talking to each other and listening actively to one another about what is best for each one and for their marriage.

Our Catholic tradition sees marriage as a sacrament. This involves the acknowledgement of it being a three-partner relationship which

cannot work fully with only two.

Because of this, prayer together is an important part of discerning what is best for the marriage at each stage of the journey and for gaining the grace of generosity to make the necessary

Affection in word and action needs to be practiced to make the journey of marriage an adventure decisions that can at times be difficult for one or other to face.

2. UNITY OF HEART The marriage vows that a couple exchange on their wedding day are a commitment to build up the goodness of each other through affirmation and praise.

Disillusionment in marriage generally begins when criticism becomes part

33

of their relationship. This leads to rows and can eventually bring them to the point of separation. Unity of heart means making praise and thanksgiving a constant part of the journey of marriage. Don’t let each other's faults and failings drive you apart. Let the goodness and generosity of each other unite you.

Forgiving each other is a constant need if you are to practise this essential power for your marriage.

St Paul gives two important teachings on this. “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger” (Ephesians 4:25) and “Forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins” (Colossians 3:13). In other words, don’t let your rows fester, but deal with them immediately so that you can continue moving forward on your journey together. Praying for and with one another is vital for

this forgiveness. Sometimes, it is also important to get help from a counsellor or someone else to get you beyond the block, whatever it happens to be.

3. UNITY OF AFFECTION Affection is not just about how a person feels. It is much more about how a person speaks and acts. In the marriage relationship, affection in word and action needs to be practised to make the journey of marriage an adventure.

Affection in word: The simple, profound sentence "I love you" needs to be constantly spoken, firstly in order to be heard and believed, and secondly in order to be followed.

Affection in action: It is amazing how many couples lose the ability to touch, to hold, to embrace, and kiss each other in their journey

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together. It is an ability that needs to be reclaimed and practised. Without this, love-making becomes more an act of need than a gift of love.

Affection in word and action helps a couple to rejoice together in good times and to support each other in the times that are not so good. It is essential for every stage of the marriage journey. And it is the fulfilment of the marriage vows.

Make praying together a part of your affectionate love and let God’s affection for you as a couple warm your love for one another.

Fr Johnny Doherty CSsR is from Carndonagh, County Donegal. He is a member of the Clonard Community and of the Redemptorist Parish Mission Team. He has worked in the Derry Diocese as part of a team training parish pastoral councils. He is the founder of A Movement of Continuous Prayer for Marriage and Family Life.

Consider the following statistics as quoted in For Better & For Ever by Fr Robert A. Ruhnke, CSsR (Marriage Preparation Resources):  The current divorce rate in the US is about 50 per cent  Of those couples who worship together each Sunday, the divorce rate is 3.3 per cent  Of those couples who also pray regularly together in their home, the divorce rate is 0.3 per cent. This is well worth thinking about!

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John J. Ó Ríordáin writes in a simple and affectionate way about this saint. The booklet also provides some reflections about, and prayers to Brigid.

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AMERICAN CATHO LI C S

ARCHBISHOP JOHN HUGHES CHAMPION OF NEW YORK’S IRISH

35

Upper Eastside New York, c. 1800's

ST PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL IN NEW YORK IS A PROMINENT LANDMARK IN MANHATTAN. ITS FOUNDATION STONE WAS LAID IN 1868 BY AN EMIGRANT FROM CO TYRONE WHOSE FAMILY HAD COME TO THE UNITED STATES TO ESCAPE POVERTY. JOHN HUGHES HAD BECOME A PRIEST, BISHOP AND LATER ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK

BY MIKE DALEY

With

a mix of both nostalgia and embarrassment, I recall that one of the more memorable things about my youth was waking up Saturday mornings and watching 'professional' wrestling. The moves, the drama, and, most important, the nicknames. If you didn’t have one, you weren’t considered primetime. How could anyone forget 'Macho Man' Randy Savage, 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper, 'The Nature Boy' Ric Flair, or 'Hulk' Hogan.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that one of American Catholicism’s greatest churchmen, Archbishop John Hughes, had an impressive nickname as well— 'Dagger' John.

The name derives from the standard practice that most bishops use of putting a cross before their name in signed correspondence. Rather than a cross, however, Hughes’ enemies, and

even some friends, saw a dagger instead.

Apparently, given his prickly and pugnacious personality, it was a well-deserved nickname.

Msgr Thomas Shelley, emeritus professor of history at Fordham University (established by Hughes as St John’s College in 1841) notes, “It is an understatement to say that John Hughes was a complex character. He was impetuous and authoritarian, a poor administrator and worse financial manager, indifferent to the non-Irish members of his flock, and prone

A M E RI CA N CAT H OL ICS

Start of the cathedral build

to invent reality when it suited the purposes of his rhetoric. One of the Jesuit superiors at Fordham with whom he quarreled said, "He has an extraordinarily overbearing character; he has to dominate." Nonetheless, through sheer strength of character, Hughes won the grudging respect of his opponents and the unconditional loyalty of the New York Irish who composed the vast majority of the local Catholic community.”

36

thoughts turned to America as a possibility. Patrick became convinced of it at the death of his daughter Mary. Under the penal laws at the time, a priest could not enter the cemetery gates. The most he could do was bless some soil which was then given to someone to sprinkle over Mary’s casket.

In 1817, a year after his father came to America, John landed in Baltimore. After working a series of jobs throughout Pennsylvania and Maryland, he became a gardener at a fledgling seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, under the direction of French immigrant Fr John Dubois. There Hughes would meet Elizabeth Seton (who would later become the first native-born citizen of the United States to become a saint) whose own religious community was nearby. In the process, Hughes’ dormant religious vocation was reawakened. After being refused by Dubois on several occasions to study for the priesthood, he finally gained acceptance due to appeals on his behalf from Mother Seton. Ordained in 1826, Hughes was sent to Philadelphia.

REALITY APRIL 2018

CHURCHES OR SCHOOLS? Hughes’ rising stature led to his appointment as coadjutor to Bishop Dubois (the person who had previously denied him admittance to seminary) in 1838 and, upon Dubois’ death in 1842, he became Bishop of New York (when it became an archdiocese in 1850, he became archbishop).

While in New York education emerged as a key matter for Hughes. He was concerned that the city’s Public School Society, a publicly funded private organisation, that allowed the King James Bible to be read and Protestant prayers to be said, was more sectarian than “public”.

John McGreevy, dean and professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, believes that “Hughes and other bishops and Jesuits who were founding schools genuinely felt that the public schools were not nonsectarian, they were not neutral; they were engines of converting Catholics into Protestants. And if they were to be true to their faith and true to their vows as priests, they had to somehow stop this. Catholics were generally poor, and they didn't have many resources. And they were eager—their parents were eager, just like anybody else's parents—to get their children education. And if these bishops and religious leaders didn't somehow provide either a Catholic alternative or change what was going on in the public schools, their fear was, they're going to lose a whole generation of young Catholics.”

Unfortunately, the episode ended in 1842 with the state barring all religious instruction in public schools. With the public schools still being hostile

DEFENDER OF THE FA I T H A N D T H E FAITHFUL While in Philadelphia Hughes fought two things: trusteeism and antiCatholicim. Trusteeism sprang out of the democratic spirit of America and emphasised lay participation and governance in parish affairs. This sentiment found itself in conflict with the church’s desire for greater clerical and centralised control. Though describing himself as “American by choice”, Hughes the pastor would brook no dissent or challenges to his authority.

As for anti-Catholicism, Hughes frequently faced the charge that Catholicism’s values were incompatible with American ones, chiefly religious liberty. When challenged to debate the well-heeled and well-known Presbyterian minister John Breckinridge, Hughes displayed rousing oratorical skill and, as a result, became nationally known as a defender of the Catholic Church and the immigrant. In this regard, Msgr Florence Cohalan, author of A Popular History, states that “Hughes Archbishop Hughes' burial

The cornerstone was laid in 1858 and, given its initial remote location from downtown, was derisively called by critics “Hughes’ folly.”

EMIGRANT AND EXODUS Born on April 24, 1797 in Annaloghan, County Tyrone, John Hughes’ early life was marked by discrimination and poverty. Later in life, Hughes would recall, “They told when I was a boy that for five days I was on social and civil equality with the most favoured subjects of the British Empire. These five days would be the interval between my birth and my baptism.”

As difficult as the sacrifice was for poor tenant farmers with seven children to care for, after expressing an interest in the priesthood, Hughes’ parents allowed him to pursue studies at a hedge school. This ended at age 17, when his labour was needed back home. Rather than work the fields, however, his father found him a job as a gardener at a local estate.

But Hughes’ father Patrick wanted more for his family than life in Ireland was able to provide.

Like many of his countrymen, the elder Hughes’

did not overestimate the value of controversy, but used it to make the enemies of the Church more cautious and to raise the morale of the sorely tried Catholic masses.”

to the interests of immigrant Irish and Catholics in general, Hughes began to advocate for the creation of a separate parochial school system in the United States. As he said, “I think the time is almost come when it will be necessary to build the schoolhouse first and the church afterwards.”

When anti-immigrant fears swept Philadelphia in 1844, several Catholic churches were burned by mobs. It was rumoured that the riots and hostilities would reach New York. Attempting to protect his flock, Hughes visited New York City's mayor, who asked, "Are you afraid that some of your churches will be burned?" "No, sir," he replied, "but I am afraid some of yours will be burned. We can protect our own. I come to warn you for your own good."

Suffice to say the threat was averted.

Over the years, Hughes responded to massive population growth (due significantly to the Great Famine from 1845-49) and successively built up the institutional presence—parishes, schools, hospitals, religious communities—of Catholicism in New York. His most visible achievement was the building of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The cornerstone was laid

completed in 1879 and serve as a lasting symbol of Catholicism’s place in America Hughes died on January 3, 1864. Reflecting on his life, Fr Richard Shaw, author of Dagger John: The Unquiet Life and Times of Archbishop John Hughes of New York, writes, “His career reflected the American dream of the self-made man and of the battle of the immigrants to make the United States their own country.”

Unveiled by the Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, a 'Blue Plaque' is now attached to St. Macartan’s Church in Augher. It honours John Hughes’ person and gives 'proprietorial pride' not only to his adopted country of America and New York City but to his birth place and the people of Ireland.

in 1858 and, given its initial remote location from downtown, was derisively called by critics “Hughes’ folly”. Though construction was halted for several years due to the Civil War, it would eventually be

Mike Daley is a teacher and writer from Cincinnati, Ohioc where he lives with his wife June, and their three children.

His latest book, co-edited with Diane Bergant, is Take and Read: Christian Writers Reflect on Life’s Most Influential Books (Apocryphal Press: Berkley, 2017.)

Holy Land Pilgrimage 2018

Staying at Tiberias (3 nights) – Bethlehem (2 nights) – Jerusalem (3 nights)

Tuesday 23rd to Wednesday 31st October 2018.

Cost: €1,445 per person sharing on a dinner BB basis Single room supplement : €475 Direct flight from Dublin – Tel Aviv Spiritual Directors: Fr Brendan McConvery CSsR and Fr Richard Reid CSsR For more information contact: Claire Carmichael: Email: ccarmichael@redcoms.org Tel: 01 4922488

HIGHLIGHTS · Walking in the footsteps of Jesus · Visit to the Holy Sepulchre · Visit the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem · Spend time in Nazareth village · Visit Mount Tabor · Boat trip on the Sea of Galilee · Dip in the Dead Sea

F E AT U R E

DISABILITY IN THE GOSPELS THE GOSPELS CHALLENGE US TO RECONSIDER HOW WE ARE REACHING OUT TO THOSE WHO ARE MARGINALISED IN OUR COMMUNITIES.

BY DR LOUISE GOSBELL

My

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husband Mark is a special educator and has an adopted brother, John, who has Down Syndrome. My contemplation of disability and the Bible began with an ‘episode of exclusion’ experienced by John.

My parents-in-law and John had been members of a local church in regional Australia for many years. My in-laws had been part of this church even before they brought home a two-week-old foster child who had been given up by his natural parents because of his disability. John was well-known in the church and my in-laws believed they had been well supported by their decision to adopt John into their family.

John had been involved with various aspects of the church service for some years, including welcoming people at the door, handing out bulletins, and carrying the candles for liturgy. However, when a new minister was appointed, he asked John to step down from these positions because he didn’t believe that someone with an intellectual disability had the capacity to understand the Gospel. What is sad is that John does understand the Gospel; what he couldn’t understand was why he wasn’t allowed to assist anymore.

THINKING ABOUT DISABILITY This incident was very formative in my life. For the first time I started to seriously consider the experiences of people living with disability in our church communities. I went on to write my Master’s thesis in Theology, as well as my PhD in Ancient History,

addressing the issue of disability in the Gospels.

I do not have a disability and I am not the carer of someone with a disability, although my husband and I will one day become John’s carers when his ageing parents are no longer able to look after him. I do feel strongly, however, that to work against the injustices experienced by people with disability in broader society, and I might add, sometimes in our churches, we need the voices of nondisabled people to join the chorus.

In my experience, the average worshipper in the church pew is unsure how to respond to disability for a number of reasons. I think disability reminds us of our fragility as human beings. Perhaps we are also reminded of the reality that disability can, and does, happen to anyone at any time through illness or accident. But as Christians, I think one of the things that makes disability hard to grapple with is that although there is an abundance of references to disability in the gospels, they are mostly in the context of Jesus’ healing ministry.

LEARNING FROM JESUS Jesus healed people with disability; the blind, the lame, the deaf,and so on. How can we possibly apply those

REALITY APRIL 2018

stories to any real-life situations of engaging with people with disability in our churches? What I tried to address in my PhD thesis, then, was not so much what life was like for people with disability in Jesus’ time, but how do the Gospel writers describe disability and how does this compare with other literature of the time that talks about disability?

What I’ve suggested is that in the same way things like gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status were used in the ancient world as a way of classifying people, the language of disability was used in a similar way. Comparing disability stories in the Gospels with other sources from the ancient world helps us to understand how counter-cultural Jesus was in his dealings with people.

One of the passages I addressed was the parable of the great banquet in Luke 14. The parable states there was a man who was hosting a banquet and when the time was near he sent a servant out to gather people for the meal. However, the invitees suddenly remembered they had to wash their hair that night, and ended up not attending. In response, the banquet host sends the servant out again and directs him to ask the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame to fill his house.

THINKING AGAIN This passage is often interpreted by commentators and preachers as being an allegory, an extended metaphor which tells us about the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews were those who were originally invited but declined the invitation and the second invitees are the Gentiles.

However, I have a problem with this interpretation.

One of the reasons that interpretation doesn’t make sense is

in relation to Luke’s overall narrative and the story he tells of Jesus. If Jesus really was saying in Luke chapter 14 that the Jews were now out because of their rejection of Jesus, then surely it would follow that the rest of Luke’s Gospel would show a deliberate mission to the Gentiles, and no further mission to the Jews. However, this is not the case. It is only in the Book of Acts that an intentional mission to the Gentiles commences.

Instead, I think Jesus has a far more literal concept in mind; that is, the Gospel needs to be heard not only by those who are confident of their future place in the kingdom and those who are socially acceptable, but also those on the margins of society.

Through my own research I found, on the surface, that the stories about Jesus healing people with disabilities are difficult and seem to present disability as a wholly undesirable condition. There is no doubt that interpretations centred around this belief have caused great anguish for people with disability, as they grappled with their faith.

Reconsidering a passage like the banquet parable has some important implications. When we interpret this passage as a metaphor about the Jews and the Gentiles, it is easy to

think of ourselves as the marginalised; the Gentiles who were once outcast but now have been brought in. In this way, we consider the work of bringing in the marginalised as a work God has already completed in bringing us outsiders in.

However, when we consider “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” as having a more literal dimension, then we are forced to reconsider what are we doing in our

The gospel needs to be heard not only by those who are confident of their future place in the kingdom and those who are socially acceptable, but also those on the margins of society church communities to reach out to those who are truly marginalised in our communities. These are people who are also made in God’s image and are equally deserving of hearing the Gospel preached to them.

Dr Louise Gosbell teaches at Mary Andrews College in Sydney and is a member of Seven Hills Anglican Church. She addressed the Australasian Religious Press Association conference in Sydney. This article was originally published in Majellan magazine.

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UNDER THE MICROSCOPE LADY BIRD REVIEWED BY CARL KOZLOWSKI

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I’ve always been fascinated to see what happens when a prominent actor or actress decides to take a seat behind the camera and make a truly personal artistic statement.

From the stunningly dark visuals and spirit of Charles Laughton’s 1955 moody masterpiece Night of the Hunter to Clint Eastwood’s moody 1971 thriller Play Misty for Me, on down through Tom Hanks’ 1996 showbiz dramedy That Thing You Do! and Jason Bateman’s 2013 comedy Bad Words, a solid directorial debut offers intriguing insights into their creative process and true passions.

Yet even among these acclaimed and often beloved films, few stand out as more self-assured and personal than indie goddess Greta Gerwig’s current writing-directing debut, Lady Bird. Coming off a string of acclaimed cult comedies in which she delivered a series of performances that were giddy, goofy and earnest all at once, it would have been easy to assume that any creation of Gerwig would be a lightweight soufflé.

Surprisingly, her debut film, Lady Bird, while seemingly just another coming-of-age story set against a backdrop of 1980s rock and pop music, achieves some serious emotional resonance. Depicting the senior year of a gawky yet cute teenage girl in 1983 Sacramento who calls herself 'Lady Bird', the movie provides a wise and affecting look at teenagers trying to figure out their place in the world.

It’s also a powerful portrait of the bond between mothers and daughters and – even rarer – a respectful homage to small-town life and the close emotional REALITY APRIL 2018

Timothee Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan being directed by Greta Gerwig

connections it can bring.

The movie offers a slice-of-life look at a girl named Christine (Saoirse Ronan) who has renamed herself 'Lady Bird' in order to stand out from the crowd both at home and at school. Feeling trapped in nondescript Sacramento, she dreams of fleeing to a college on the East Coast where she can pursue a drama degree and never look back.

But Lady Bird has a few basic problems. First, she doesn’t have the grades to achieve an Ivy League education; second, her plain-Jane

and depressed yet caring mom (Laurie Metcalf) feels that any choice that takes Lady Bird out of the area is a deep rejection of her and all that she’s done for the girl.

And third, the financially struggling family is hard-pressed to afford any type of college, much less the most elite ones around.

Yet Lady Bird still does her best to walk the line between relatively mild rebellion and being a straight arrow. Along the way, she has to navigate one close friend’s life in the closet, whether to trust another

boy enough to be her first sexual experience, and figure out how far to let her freak flag fly.

These are universally touching matters, ones that nearly everyone faces at some point in their life while growing up. Gerwig, however, does a remarkable job of making these eminently relatable and often funny moments resonate with everyone even as much of its beauty and humour are rooted in the odd details of life in Catholic schools.

Gerwig does a remarkable job portraying a Catholic teenager torn between the 'good girl' everyone expects her to be, and her growing desires to be different. The movie handles the complex emotions of teen romance and, yes, sex with discretion and powerful emotion.

Its portrayal of the priests and nuns in her life are all uniformly positive.

Lady Bird's relationship with her mother may be occasionally contentious, but it also is one of the most positive portrayals of a teenage child/parent relationship in ages.

The relationship between Lady Bird and her mother is one for the ages, beautifully drawn and wonderfully portrayed by Ronan and Metcalf. Both were nominated for Oscars this spring, along with the stellar writing and directing talents of Gerwig. This is the breakout art house hit of the year.

I urge you strongly to go and see why.

Carl Kozlowski has been a professional film critic and essayist for the past five years at Pasadena Weekly. This review originally appeared on Catholic News Agency.

LOVE'S DOORWAY TO LIFE REVIEWED BY KATE GREEN Sub-titled An alternative biography of Patrick Kavanagh, this beautifully boxed three-CD set is a gift worth giving and receiving. Compiled and voiced by Úna Agnew, an expert in Kavanagh's poetry, and her brother Art, also an aficionado, these discs cover 50 excerpts of his poems. Autobiographical in content, they trace with compassionate sensitivity his life and poetic journey from the "stony grey soil of Monaghan" to the stony grey streets of Dublin.

Acknowledged as one of Ireland's foremost poets, and quoted by world leaders and modern celebrities for his wisdom, spirituality and sheer beauty of language, Kavanagh learned his trade through the harsh vicissitudes of life: impoverishment; misunderstanding; social rejection; sense of personal unworthiness. Yet his deep sense of God's presence in nature and himself, his ultimate belief that life is God's gift and that we must be "capable of receiving with grace the grace of living", run like a golden thread through his poetry which charts his personal struggles, his wry self-assessment, his renewal and redemption. The trajectory of Kavanagh's life mirrors that of human beings: wrestling with "tyrants Love and Life and Time" . If only we all could be blessed to emerge at the end, battered, bruised but sure of the primacy of God.

REDEMPTORIST

PARISH MISSIONS

Kavanagh finds God in "the bits and pieces of everyday life", and as such, his poems take on a sacramental quality that elevates the spirit of believer and unbeliever alike.

A refreshing and uplifting sojourn through the life and poetry of Patrick Kavanagh, a comprehensive introduction to those who are new to it and those who are lovers already."

Love's Doorway to Life: An Alternative Biography of Patrick Kavanagh scripted and narrated by Úna Agnew and Art Agnew is published by Eist Kate Green is a former teacher of English and Religious Education in Belfast. She works closely with the Redemptorist Congregation, mainly in Clonard Monastery.

Breaking the Word in April 2018

Please pray for the Redemptorist Teams who will preach the Word and for God’s People who will hear the Word proclaimed this month in:

Templeport, Co. Cavan.

(14th – 22nd April 2018) Mission preached by Johnny Doherty CSsR and Maureen Flanagan Charleville, Co Cork.

(29th April – 4th May 2018) Mission preached by Laurence Gallagher CSsR and Denis Luddy CSsR

The details above are accurate at the time of printing. If you have any views, comments or even criticisms about Redemptorist preaching, we would love to hear from you. If you are interested in a mission or novena in your parish, please contact us for further information. And please keep all Redemptorist preachers in your prayers.

Fr Johnny Doherty CSsR, Email: dohertyjohnny@gmail.com Tel: +44 28 90445950

Fr Laurence Gallagher CSsR, Email: missions.novenas@redemptorists.ie Tel: +353 61 315099

D E V E LO P M E N T I N ACTION

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY WILL JU

BY ACTIONS

MARCH 1 MARKED 100 DAYS SINCE ROBERT MUGABE STOOD DOWN AS PRESIDENT OF ZIMBABWE. THE ZIMBABWEAN PEOPLE ARE HOPEFUL OF A NEW START BUT ARE NOT TAKING ANYTHING FOR GRANTED.

BY SARAH McCAN 42 Since

Robert Mugabe stood down and was replaced as president by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the mood here in Zimbabwe has been positive.

There is a sense of optimism and hope for the future. The new president has being saying the right things. He has promised free and fair elections this summer. He has promised to tackle corruption. He has made a commitment to clear the $1.8 billion national debt. But these promises and commitments must be backed up by actions.

CHANGES FOR THE GOOD Yes, there have already been some signs of progress on various fronts. A new budget has been set which has seen a small increase in investment in health (although there is still

been dramatically decreased. The president has given individuals three months to bring money back into the country that has been residing ‘offshore’. A new Peace and Reconciliation Commission has been set up to try to address the awful history of violence in Zimbabwe that has never had the benefit of any kind of healing process.

But there is a lot more still to be done. The elections will be a real litmus test for the president. He must ensure that there is no violence, no intimidation, a level playing field for candidates and the mechanisms to ensure a transparent registration system for voters.

Citizens will be watching the elections very closely. They will want transparency and international observers. The international community will be key to holding the president to account.

The president has said Zimbabwe is open for business, and he needs to court international investors and donors. He needs foreign investment if the country is to flourish. The economy

The economy has stagnated for years and is the number one concern for many citizens, particularly for young Zimbabweans a long way to go on this front). The number of police checkpoints in the country has REALITY APRIL 2018

has stagnated for years and is the number one concern for many citizens, particularly for young Zimbabweans, many of whom unwillingly emigrate. Unemployment in the ‘formal economy’ is estimated at 80-90 per cent(although many people are employed in the ‘informal economy’, making money where they can on a day-by-day basis).

NOT JUST ELECTIONS However it’s not just around the elections that people are demanding change. They want to see ‘pro-poor’ investment plans, particularly for small farmers, together with investment in sanitation, roads, health facilities and schools. But economic reform must go together with upholding human rights. Business and human rights standards must be met.

The mood is optimistic but seasoned with a heavy dose of realism. Zimbabweans lived for three decades without change, so there is a big sense of 'wait and see'. There have been recent worrying incidents that have seemed to be a throwback to former times – with heavy handed put downs of protests by students and street vendors. A strong judiciary exists in Zimbabwe, but now is the

UDGE NEW ZIMBABWEAN PRESIDENT NOT WORDS

SPRING

time to further strengthen this to guarantee greater oversight and to ensure that human rights are protected.

Trócaire will continue to support the work of local organisations to ensure human rights are upheld and that Zimbabweans are supported to fulfil their potential and achieve a more inclusive society that benefits all. Our work with local organisations to

ensure that young people and women especially register to vote and understand their rights is critical at this time, as is support for pro-poor economic growth and policies, particularly for small holder farmers who form the backbone of the economy.

There are a lot of tests to come but events in Zimbabwe, and more recently South Africa, have shown people that change is possible.

Leaders can be held to account. There is hope and as someone said to me recently “You can’t underestimate hope”. People here truly believe that even greater change is possible.

To find out more about Trócaire’s work or to make a donation visit www.trocaire.org or call 0800 912 1200.

Ennismore Retreat Centre

Friday 8th – Sunday 10th June Trinity: The Nearness of God. Stephen Cummins OP Friday 10a.m. to Sunday 4p.m.

Cost: Res – €220/ Non Res €140 Sunday 10th – Saturday 16th June “Be Clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience” (Col 3:12) Fr. Mike Serrage MSC Cost: Res: €440 Sunday 24th – Friday 29th June God is love; Journey into the Heart of Creation (A Centering Prayer Retreat) Fionnuala Quinn OP & Lesley Connor Cost: Res: €460

Sunday 8th – Friday 13th July “Become who you are meant to be and you set the world on fire” (St. Catherine of Sienna); A Journey

ST DOMINIC’S

towards Transformation and Wholeness.

Martina Lehane Sheehan Cost: Res: €440 Sunday 15th – Saturday 21st July “For the Beauty of the World” Benedict Hegarty OP Cost: Res €440 Sunday 15th – Saturday 22st July Individually Directed Retreat Ann Alcock Cost: €465 Sunday 22nd – Saturday 28th July Individually Directed Retreat John Bennett Cost: €465 Sunday 22nd – Saturday 28th July Individually Directed Retreat Sr. Peggy Cronin Cost: €465

Sunday 12th – Sunday 19th August “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them” (John 6:44) Stephen Cummins OP Cost: €440 All 6 days retreats commence Sunday evening at 6p.m. with supper and finish after lunch on Saturday.

For ongoing programmes please contact the Secretary at: Tel: 021-4502520 Fax: 021-4502712 E-mail: ennismore@eircom.net www.ennismore.ie

CO M M E N T REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

WORKING – TO MAKE THE RICH RICHER

DESPITE THE STEADY ECONOMIC RECOVERY, MOST WORKERS SEE LITTLE IMPROVEMENT IN THEIR STANDARD OF LIVING. YET THE TOP 100 COMPANIES REPORT STELLAR GROWTH RATES AND OUTSIZE PROFITS AND CORRESPONDING RISE IN EXECUTIVE SALARIES. WHAT IS GOING ON?

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The Taoiseach has warned that the Government is concerned that wages will grow too quickly in 2018, damaging Ireland’s competitiveness and undermining future economic growth.

Some days later, Terrence McDonough, Emeritus Professor of Economics, NUI Galway, wrote in a letter to The Irish Times on December 29, 2017: “I would rather not live in an economy where the prospect of rising wages is considered bad news.”

The convention was that when an economy is improving, everyone gets a share and everyone will be better off. We are now in our fifth year of 'recovery'. Indeed, IBEC have recently stated that the economy has moved beyond the recovery phase and into a period of strong and sustainable growth. However, most workers are seeing little improvement in their standard of living. Average real earnings have grown about 1.8 per cent. And this is in the context of soaring increases in rent, cost of housing, car insurance and health insurance. IBEC has warned that “the risk of losing competitiveness will need to be carefully managed over the coming years”, which translates into ‘keep wage increases to the minimum'.

According to the Central Statistics Office, 10 per cent of workers are earning the minimum wage, which is not sufficient for a decent quality of life. From January 1, 2018, the minimum wage was increased by REALITY APRIL 2018

30c per hour, amidst complaints from business groups that this increase will put jobs at risk, using the argument that inflation is 0.3 per cent, and therefore any increase in not justifiable.

While some companies continue to struggle, most companies are seeing increasing profits. Indeed, the top 1,000 Irish companies reported “stellar growth rates and outsize profits” in 2017, generating income of about €1.1 million per employee. Their recorded profits rose to €34 billion, up from €28 billion in 2016 and €22.5 billion in 2015.

A recent Irish Congress of Trade Unions report documented pay rises for some CEOs of Irish companies of up to 100 per cent between 2015 and 2016, and a near doubling of cash bonuses. It found that the gap between the pay packets of CEOs and those of average workers is widening in most Irish companies.

Ireland is enthusiastically immersed in a global economic system which is designed to ensure that most of

the wealth created goes upwards to the already wealthy. A recent Oxfam report Reward Work, not Wealth found that 82 per cent of the wealth created in 2017 went to the richest 1 per cent of the world population. No one who is interested in an equitable society can fail to be irked by the unfairness in the distribution of wealth.

Pope Paul VI, back in 1965, highlighted the flaws in the global economy: “It is unfortunate that... a system has been constructed which considers •profit as the key motive for economic progress, •competition as the supreme law of economics, and •private ownership of the means of production as an absolute right that has no limits and carries no corresponding social obligation. ...One cannot condemn such abuses too strongly by solemnly recalling once again that the economy is at the service of people.”

Again, Pope John Paul II, in 1980, challenged the very fundamentals of global capitalism when he said: “we must first of all recall a principle that has always been taught by the Church: the principle of the priority of labour over capital. “ Pope Francis too is extremely critical of the global economy: “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world.

This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralised workings of the prevailing economic system.....

While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace.. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits.”

Today, in Ireland as elsewhere, the benefits of the recovery are concentrated amongst some people, in certain jobs, in certain sectors, in certain parts of the State. Workers see most of the fruit of their work going to making the comfortable more comfortable.

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH “HE IS RISEN!” There are three people in today’s Gospel. They were totally overwhelmed, but in very different ways, by the death of Jesus their EASTER SUNDAY friend on Friday afternoon.

Mary Magdalene was a troubled soul, who found great comfort in the friendship of Jesus. She was one of that small group – all women apart from one young man – who followed him to the cross.

Before dawn, she made her way to the tomb, and to her horror, it was open. Can someone have stolen the body of Jesus? She runs back through the darkened streets to tell the disciples. Two nights ago, Peter had denied that he even knew Jesus. In a fit of bravado, he had followed him to the courtyard of the high-priest but in the glow of the charcoal fire, his courage failed him and he ran away.

Now he is running to the tomb, possibly with a sense of guilt: the least I can do for Jesus is to find what happened to his body. The

third is someone the Fourth Gospel always calls “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. His real name is uncertain, but the tradition identifies him with John, the youngest of the disciples.

He had followed Jesus after his arrest along with Peter. When Peter abandoned him, John hung around. More importantly, he was at Calvary with the women. He has taken in every detail of that last scene which he will later set down in his Gospel. From Jesus on the Cross, he had received the last thing he had to give, his mother, and he took her into his own home.

When they reach the tomb, they see the neatly folded shroud. If you are stealing a body, you don’t waste time stripping it of its linen shroud. It is the beloved disciple who grasps the meaning of it all – Christ is risen as he said. There are a few things striking about these three stories. All of them were friends of Jesus, but in different ways. Peter the leader had lost heart and had fallen, but was struggling to get back again. The Beloved Disciple had love and faith: he did not need

anything else, but he was able to put the signs together. The story continues with Mary – still weeping and searching for the body of Jesus. Her search will come to an end when he speaks to her and calls her by her name and she responds – “Rabbouni, my teacher”.

“UNLESS I CAN PUT MY HAND INTO HIS SIDE, I REFUSE TO BELIEVE!” How can you depict the excitement and surprise SECOND SUNDAY of Thomas as Jesus invites OF EASTER ) (DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY him to put his hand into his side and see for himself that he is the same one who was hung from the cross on Good Friday and whose side was pierced with a lance? Michaelangelo Caravaggio did it in one of his most famous paintings. If Caravaggio was a saint, he was not a particularly good one. His private life was chaotic! Yet, there is something deeply moving and compelling in the way he paints a Gospel scene. He was deeply influenced by a popular form of spirituality in his time.

It was based on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola, making “ourselves present, as it were, to the place where the event occurred … and the eyes of the imagination beholds everything which is found, said, or

done there, or is thought to be done there”.

Caravaggio has chosen that moment when Thomas the doubter is challenged by Jesus to put his hand into his side. The hand of Jesus guides the hand of Thomas. Despite his feisty argument with the other disciples in the first part of the Gospel, Thomas is not a prepossessing figure. He is middle-aged and care-worn. His jacket is worn at the elbow, and the seam is giving way at the shoulder.

His hands are the hands of a worker, with the nails well bitten and ringed with dirt. Yet this is the hand that is thrust into the wounded side of the Saviour. The Risen Jesus is a young man. He is younger than his disciples, he seems to smile at Thomas as he grasps that hand. You might have expected the Lord who raised Jesus from the dead to restore his body to its perfection. No, it still carries the print of the nails and the torn side. Somehow, it needs the openings of the wounds for the light of resurrection to shine out.

Today is also known as Divine Mercy

Sunday. It was instituted by Blessed John Paul II. In a world that has lost its sense of the value of the human person, John Paul was trying to develop a sense that a human person is valuable, not only when it is healthy and beautiful. It is perhaps even more valuable when its first stirrings of life in the womb are regarded as a problem to be got rid of, or when it is frail and broken by illness, hovering on the edge of death for months, even years. When the human body is wounded and broken, the light of resurrection sometimes seems to glow most tellingly from its very woundedness. Just as Thomas with his dirty fingers was brought to faith in the Risen Lord may we too come to a deeper faith as we stand close to the fragility and the brokenness of human life.

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Today’s Readings Acts 10:34. 37-43; Col 3:1-4; John 20:1-9

Today’s Readings Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 5:1-6; John 20:19-35

God’s Word continues on page 46

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GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH “HE OPENED THEIR MINDS TO UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURES” The two disciples who are telling their story at THIRD SUNDAY the beginning of today’s OF EASTER Gospel are the two who had encountered Jesus on the Emmaus Road. As they talk excitedly, he comes and stands in the midst of them.

New Testament scholars have noticed that, as the resurrection stories were transmitted from generation to generation, they acquired a greater concreteness of narrative detail.

By the time we get to the Gospels of Luke and John, the stories have developed as full ‘short stories’ with a careful build-up of narrative. One reason for this may have been their use in preaching and instruction over many years. As any preacher knows, a good story never stands still: it is good precisely

because it can adopt new twists concealed at every telling. Today’s story may be a good example of how the resurrection stories developed as part of a whole tradition. It has much in common with last Sunday’s Gospel: the appearance to the apostles, with and without Thomas, including the introductory greeting of peace. Paul mentions stories of an appearance of the Risen Lord to Peter, and another to Peter and the rest of the disciples.

Luke alluded to the appearance to Peter, but did not narrate its details (24:34). Luke stresses here the reality of the risen body that can be touched and can eat food. Jesus shows them “his hands and his feet”. This might be an echo of showing his wounded hands and feet to the disciples and then especially to Thomas (John 20:20, 27 – last Sunday’s Gospel). The food, grilled fish, may also be an echo of the meal beside the lake in John 21.

Central to Luke’s concern here is the

teaching given by the Risen Lord to the disciples that enables them to “understand the scriptures”. The cross is the key which will open the Old Testament so that it becomes the way to understand Jesus. In the light of other texts, such as the psalms of the suffering and abandoned one, the Servant of the Lord texts in Isaiah, the suffering prophet Jeremiah, who Jesus is will become clear.

The mystical body of Christ, the church, is a wounded body. Sometimes, those wounds are wounds of glory of the heroic witness of its martyrs. At other times, the wounds of the church are wounds of shame, the shame of abuse or clericalism and power.

LISTENING TO THE VOICE OF THE SHEPHERD The long speech of Jesus APRIL in John 10 is known as the Good Shepherd Discourse. It draws FOURTH SUNDAY much of its imagery and OF EASTER language from Ezekiel 34.

The Greek word kalos that we usually translate here as 'good' has a wide range of meanings. As well as morally good, it also means noble, beautiful, or ideal.

Firstly, Jesus is the model shepherd because he lays down his life for his sheep. This is something which a hired hand will not do: he has no stake in the welfare of the sheep.

Second, he is a model shepherd because he knows his sheep. A village shepherd not only depended on his flock for his livelihood, but he also developed an affectionate relationship with them as he watched them being born, then frisking as tiny lambs and eventually as full-grown animals. Both these ideas are central to how Jesus presents himself as the ideal shepherd.

John gives us in this discourse his clearest teaching on the meaning of Jesus’ death.

He lays down his life for the sheep. The language here is sacrificial in intent. Usually in a sacrifice, the human priest slays a sheep, offers some of its blood and consumes its flesh in a sacred meal in the hope of finding forgiveness. Here Jesus the priest is laying down of his life for the sheep. He will take it up again (17-18). He acts with sovereign freedom: no one takes his life from him. This will be spelled out during his trial when he denies that Pilate has "no power" over him.

Yet Jesus’ power to lay down his life is also the power to take it up again. It is a power which has been entrusted to him from the Father.

The NT normally speaks of the Resurrection as an act of power of the Father exercised through the Spirit. The shepherd's task is to gather other sheep into the sheep-fold (10:16). This verse should be read in the light of the evangelist's commentary on Caiaphas' prophecy that one man should die rather than that the whole people should perish.

The evangelist added the comment: "He

[Caiphas] did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the scattered children of God" (John 11:5152). Jesus has already gathered the first lot of scattered sheep (the Samaritans); before his death some Greeks (Jews of the dispersion?) wish to see him. In the community’s mission after the Resurrection, the Gentiles will receive the Good News that they are invited to form part of the flock. For John, belonging to the flock of Jesus means hearing his voice, that is, sharing a personal relationship with the shepherd.

Today is, a day of prayer for vocations.

Pastoral ministry always has a dimension of shepherding, supporting people in their pain, loss and anxiety, and their triumphs, joys and victories. Let us pray today that the Lord will give us shepherds after his heart.

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REALITY APRIL 2018

Today’s Readings Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; 1 John 2:1-5; Luke 24: 31-48

Today’s Readings Acts 4:8-12; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18

THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 3 APRIL 2018

I AM THE VINE, YOU ARE THE BRANCHES The most common fruits in the Holy Land APRIL were the grape and the fig. Fertile land was at a premium, and from the earliest times, farmers made the most of it by making terraces in the small plots of land they had available. These FIFTH SUNDAY terraces were ideal for cultivating the vine, the OF EASTER fig and the olive, that most valuable crop that provided oil for lamps, for cooking, for flavouring vegetables, for dressing wounds and countless other household uses.

During the Last Supper, Jesus uses the symbol of the vine to teach his followers about the true meaning of discipleship. He begins by describing how vines are cultivated. It was essential to prune the vine carefully each year if it was to bear good quality fruit. Thorough pruning took place in the winter, but more gentle pruning continued during the rest of the year. Pruning was designed to remove dead or diseased branches to make room for new growth that would bear healthy rich fruit, ultimately leading to a healthy and productive vine. Caring for a vine required skill and experience. It is the work of the Father. The vine was a common symbol in the Bible for Israel, the People of God. One of the psalms describes how God planted this vine in the promised land: "You brought a vine out of Egypt, to plant it you drove out nations" (Ps 80:8). Jesus now applies this image to the community that he is founding, the church. Its members are branches in him that will bear fruit, but they need to remain part of the vine, drawing life from the sap that runs up from the root to every part of the vine. Just as the vine-dresser keeps an eye on the vine and prunes it when it needs it, so the disciples will need to be pruned by the discipline of the Father.

This leads on to another very rich image for discipleship in the Gospel of John. It is the language of ‘abiding’ or ‘in-dwelling’. Just as the individual branch remains in the vine, the disciple must remain attached to the Master. What makes this possible are the words of Jesus that remain in the mind and heart of the disciple. Just as a skilled vine-dresser wins praise from the quality of the grapes his well-tended vines produce, so the fruit of good works the disciples of Jesus produce will win glory for the Father.

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SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 1 ACROSS: Across: 1. Aeneid, 5. Altars, 10. Kibbutz, 11. Thermos, 12. Lily, 13. Andes, 15. Urdu, 17.

Gem, 19. Sesame, 21. Otters, 22. Calvary, 23. Zither, 25. Elijah, 28. Ash, 30. Reed, 31. Abhor, 32.

Whoa, 35. Clemens, 36. Motives, 37. Legend, 38. Scythe.

DOWN: 2. Embalms, 3. Emus, 4. Dozing, 5. Anthem, 6. Twee, 7. Remorse, 8. Skalds, 9. Issues, 14.

Dervish, 16. Emcee, 18. Style, 20. Ear, 21. Ore, 23. Zurich, 24. Therese, 26. Jehovah, 27. Hearse, 28.

Abused, 29. Holmes, 33. Fete, 34. Stay.

Winner of Crossword No. 1 Edel McCormack, County Galway

ACROSS 1. The study of human values and moral conduct. (6) 5. Spicy Japanese condiment. (6) 10. A person who walks in the countryside for pleasure. (7) 11. Day of rest and religious observance. (7) 12. The Bard's river. (4) 13. Once an angel, now joined with Satan. (5) 15. The longer of the two bones in the human forearm. (4) 17. The most common family name in Korea, (3) 19. One who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their ideals. (6) 21. Put money or time into something with an expectation of a return. (6) 22. The state of being married. (7) 23. The sheen on furniture produced by age and polishing. (6) 25. Very happy. (6) 28. Stop living. (3) 30. Members of a religious community of women. (4) 31. A Roman father ministering in the Army. (5) 32. A large, thick, flat piece of stone. (4) 35. Cause someone to get the wrong impression. (7) 36. Ancient document copiers. (7) 37. Totally bewilder or perplex. (6) 38. Items intended to attract and deceive. (6)

DOWN 2. Revolving drum raffle at fetes and fairs. (7) 3. Spend time doing nothing. (4) 4. Utter a high-pitched piercing sound or terror or excitement. (6) 5. Book and talent of Solomon. (6) 6. Cries noisily, making convulsive gasps. (4) 7. The language of raised dots. (7) 8. An artificial and inferior substitution or imitation. (6) 9. Crosspiece forming a seat for a rower. (6) 14. Lost temporarily. (7) 16. Population centres. (5) 18. Joint between the foot and the leg. (5) 20. It can be black, green, white or oolong. (3) 21. The solid form of water. (3) 23. Hat, canal and country. (6) 24. Country bordered by Algeria and Libya. (7) 26. Double chest of drawers for a lanky youth. (7) 27. Reduce something in quality or character. (6) 28. Take your time, tarry. (6) 29. Rubbed out. (6) 33. Turn over the pages of a book quickly and casually. (4) 34. Short aquatic reptile. (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.3, April 2018 Name:

Today’s Readings

Address: Telephone:

Acts 9:26-31; 1 John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8 All entries must reach us by April 30, 2018 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. 3, Redemptorist Communications, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin 09 X651

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