Reality Magazine December 2014

A Tale Of Two Cathedrals

December 2014

St Alphonsus Liguori

A Christmas Carol

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

CHRISTMAS AND ME MEMORIES AND TRADITIONS

THOMAS MERTON

MONK AND SPIRITUAL WRITER BORN A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

THE NATIVITY STORY IN CINEMA HOW FILMS PORTRAY THE BIRTH OF JESUS

PLUS TRÓCAIRE CHRISTMAS GIFTS HELP MOTHERS AND BABIES ANNE KERRIGAN LIGHT AND SHADE IN THE FAMILY ALBUM

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IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES 12 CHRISTMAS AND ME Memories and traditions shared

By Triona Doherty

20 THE NATIVITY IN CINEMA Presenting the birth of Jesus in time and culture

By Paul Clogher

25 WHAT THE STAR SAW Events in Bethlehem as seen by the star in the East

By Fr Ed Hone CSsR

29 THOMAS MERTON’S MOUNTAIN Centenary of the birth of the monk and best-selling writer

By Fr Brendan McConvery CSsR

34 SHADOW LANDS

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Photographs recall happiness and sorrow

By Anne Kerrigan

36 PEACE COMES DROPPING SLOW Are we living the peace that we preach?

By Fr Ed Hone CSsR

40 GIVING THE GIFT OF LIFE THIS CHRISTMAS How Trócaire gifts support mothers and babies

43 ‘TU SCENDI DALLE STELLE’ Christmas carol of St Alphonsus

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OPINION

REGULARS

11 EDITORIAL TEAM

04 REALITY BITES

19 KATY DOBEY

08 POPE MONITOR

28 CARMEL WYNNE

09 REFLECTIONS

39 PETER Mc VERRY SJ

10 SAINT OF THE MONTH

47 JOHN BOWLER

44 GOD’S WORD

REALITY BITES KILLARNEY MISSION DRAWS THE CROWDS KILLARNEY

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Fr Kieran O'Brien and Fr Seámus Enright CSsR arrive in style at the mission

A MISSION IN A MILLION

The bells of St Mary’s Cathedral rang out as cathedral administrator, Fr Kieran O’Brien, and the Redemptorist mission team arrived for the opening of the parish mission on one of Killarney’s famous jaunting cars. They were joined by parishioners who had walked from Aghadoe and Muckross, ancient sites of Christian life in the parish. The mission had as its theme: ‘Christ our hope’.

The mission was preceded by months of preparation, involving hundreds of parishioners.

The opening ceremony saw representatives of 112 community groups and organisations take part in a service celebrating community life in Killarney.

On each morning of the mission, held in October, the bells rang out at 6.30 a.m. to summon the people of Killarney to mass at 7 a.m. Hundreds of ‘early Christians’ – as one of the local newspapers described them – flocked to the early mass. There was a noticeable presence of younger parents and children. Breakfast at the pop-up Mission Café was especially popular with the children.

The mission programme was extensive: morning mass in Killarney’s four churches; the evening mission celebration in the cathedral;

special masses for the pupils in the parish’s eight primary schools; a lunchtime mission for the students in the three post-primary schools, and an afternoon mass for sick and infirm members of the community. There were visits to the local nursing homes and care centres and to those who were housebound.

‘Twenty-four hours of Mercy’ began with a celebration of reconciliation and concluded with a healing service the following day. The cathedral remained open for adoration for the twenty-four hours and there was always a priest available for confession. Dozens of people remained in the cathedral throughout the night to pray.

Bishop Ray Browne, bishop of Kerry, presided at the closing of the mission. Water from Killarney’s lakes, rivers and holy wells was blessed by the bishop and used in a ceremony of renewal of Christian commitment. After the closing ceremony, the congregation gathered in the Mission Café, which had moved to nearby St Brendan’s College to cater for the large numbers.

Fr Derek Ryan CSsR of the mission team

© Photography courtesy of Eamonn Keogh MacMonagle, Killarney

Water from the local lakes, rivers and holy wells was brought to the altar to be blessed by Bishop Ray Browne at the closing ceremony

Bro Seán Murphy carries the cross of St Francis

REALITY DECEMBER 2014

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Bishop Ray Browne

HOPE HOUSE IN FOXFORD CELEBRATES TWENTY-ONE YEARS Gardens of Hope House

Sr Caitlín Conneely (centre) presents a cheque for €50,000 to Srs Dolores Duggan and Attracta Canny

MAYO

Niamh O'Neill of the mission team

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YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE

Hope House in Foxford, Co. Mayo has celebrated its twenty-first birthday with the presentation of a cheque for €50,000 by the Sisters of Mercy of the Western Province. The residential centre specialises in the treatment of alcohol, drugs, gambling and other dependencies.

Three thousand people have benefited from the programmes at Hope House, and it has been the recipient of many awards in its twentyone years, including the Mayo Meitheal award in 2007.

Foxford convent, on the banks of the River Moy, is associated with a long history of service. The Irish Sisters of Charity founded the convent and woollen mills there to provide employment for the impoverished people in 1892. A hundred years later, a new era of service began at the convent, when two Mercy Sisters, Attracta Canny and Dolores Duggan, identified the need for a residential treatment centre in the West.

The Sisters accepted an offer from the then Bishop of Achonry, Dr Thomas Flynn, to lease the recently vacated convent of the

Sisters of Charity. As the building required refurbishment, the initial outlay was provided by the Sisters of Mercy of the Western Province.

Hope House opened its doors in 1993.

The programme at the centre is broadly based on the Minnesota model, with the application of the ‘Twelve Steps’ as its foundation. The message is that no one travels alone but reaches out to others for help and reaches out to others with help. This model of shared leadership was practised by Sr Dolores and Sr Attracta as co-directors of Hope House. Both Sisters were trained in addiction counselling in addition to their other professional qualifications. Other counsellors joined Hope House over the years as demand grew.

The board of management, clients, staff, families, including children, learn from and support each other during the thirty-day residential programme. This is followed by two years of continual care for the person and their spouse/partner provided by Hope House counselling staff on an outpatient basis.

Reality Bites continue on page 6

REALITY BITES ST MEL’S CATHEDRAL IN LONGFORD PREPARES TO REOPEN LONGFORD

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CATHEDRAL COUNTDOWN

Christmas Day 2009

There is an air of anticipation in Longford town as the local community looks forward to having St Mel’s Cathedral back as their place of worship.

The five-year restoration project after the Christmas Day fire of 2009 is drawing to completion. The cathedral, originally built in the 1840s and 1850s, has been completely restored and greatly enhanced. It will have a new liturgical layout and many modern features.

A wide range of artists and crafts people were commissioned to embellish the new sanctuary area to create a place of beauty for the Eucharistic celebration.

St Mel’s Cathedral will re-open to the public on the weekend before Christmas.

Further details are available on www. longfordparish.com

Fr. Tom Healy, Bishop Francis Duffy and Bishop Colm O'Reilly listen as church artists explain their work

Bishop Colm O'Reilly, Frs Tom Healy, Tom Murray and Brendan O'Sullivan at the altar dedication

REALITY DECEMBER 2014

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CARDINAL NICHOLS TAKES POSSESSION OF TITULAR CHURCH IN ROME VATICAN CITY

REMINDING ME OF HOME

The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, has taken possession of his titular church in Rome – Santissimo Redentore e Sant’Alfonso, dedicated to St Alphonsus, founder of the Redemptorists.

During the mass in October, the prelate spoke about his devotion to the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour which resides there and referred to his past connections with the shrine.

“The deepest link I feel with San Alfonso is, of course, with the icon and shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. This is an icon and a devotion of my youngest days,” he remarked in his homily.

“In our home, as in many homes, there was a copy of this icon, a focus of prayer and reassurance. I now have a copy in my office in Archbishop's House and one newly installed in our cathedral.”

Commenting on the icon’s powerful role in people’s lives, he described how it “draws us to see the almost incredible: that through our suffering and pain ... we can become part of this great work of Jesus. We can unite our sufferings with his and offer them to the Father.”

Reception in the courtyard following the ceremony

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The Cardinal meeting with Redemptorist General, Michael Brehl

POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS CONDEMNED CATHOLIC WOMAN: “PRAY FOR ME, POPE FRANCIS”

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Asia Bibi, the Catholic mother of five who Asia Bibi has been sentenced to death by hanging in Pakistan for allegedly violating the country’s blasphemy law, has appealed to Pope Francis to pray for her.

In a letter to the pope, which was made public by the Vatican, Bibi wrote: “Pope Francis, I am your daughter, Asia Bibi. I implore you: pray for me, for my salvation and for my freedom. At this point I can only entrust (myself) to God Almighty who can do anything for me.”

Her plea came just days after the Lahore high court rejected an appeal against her sentence. Bibi has been in jail for over five years now, having been accused of making derogatory comments against Muhammad while arguing with a Muslim colleague. She strongly denies the claims and insists that the allegations stem from a row concerning a pot of water.

“I am holding tightly onto my Christian faith and trust that God my Father will defend me and give me back my freedom,” Bibi said in her letter, adding, “Pope Francis, I know you are praying for me with all your heart. I know that thanks to your prayer, I could be set free.”

Bibi’s supporters have launched an attempt to save her. If executed, she would be the the first woman in Pakistan to be lawfully killed for blasphemy.

A FEAST FIT FOR A POPE The Swiss Guard are more famous as defenders of the pope than for their culinary skills, but that hasn’t stopped one soldier from publishing a cookbook inspired by popular papal recipes.

Buon Appetito contains instructions for preparing Pope Francis’s favourite meal: pastrybased empanadas, followed by a roast sirloin dish known as ‘colita de cuadril’, rounded off with a milk-based Argentinian dessert called ‘dulce de leche’ – a regular item on the Vatican’s menu since his election last year.

Former professional chef David Geisser, 24, from Zurich, also reveals how to make dishes favoured by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II, along with recipes from the homelands of the three popes. Currently available in German, there are hopes the book will be translated into English next year.

REALITY DECEMBER 2014

THE POPE’S PLEA: “DON’T BE AFRAID OF DIVERSITY!”

Pope Francis has urged Christians to embrace diversity and respect the individual opinions of others in society, rather than reject people in fear of their differences.

His remarks were made in an address to members of the Catholic Fraternity of the Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowship. Speaking to the 1000-strong congregation at the start of their sixteenth international conference, Pope Francis said: “Seek the unity which is the work of the Holy Spirit and do not be afraid of diversity.

“Unity does not imply uniformity ... nor does it signify a loss of identity,” he added. He said that unity in diversity “involves the joyful recognition and acceptance of the various gifts which the Holy Spirit gives to each one” and having the freedom to “express oneself with complete respect towards the other”.

Referring to the “many Christian martyrs in various parts of the world” who compel all traditions “towards the goal of unity” the pope concluded: “For persecutors, we are not divided: we are not Lutherans, Orthodox, Evangelicals, Catholics. No! We are one.

For persecutors, we are Christians. It is an ecumenism of blood that we live today!”

REFLECTIONS I heard a bird sing in the dark of December.

A magical thing, and sweet to remember.

It seems that God continually chooses the most unqualified to do his work, to bear his glory.

OLIVER HERFORD

MADELEINE L'ENGLE

I would like the angels of heaven to be among us. I would like an abundance of peace. I would like full vessels of charity.

BRIGID OF KILDARE

How could you have had such a wonderful life as me if there wasn’t a God directing?

MAUREEN O’HARA

Even if there were only two men left in the world and both of them saints they wouldn't be happy. One of them would be bound to try and improve the other.

FRANK O’CONNOR

I wish for all children to sleep on their pillows at night surrounded by love, peace, security and dignity.

Every year we celebrate the holy season of Advent.

Every year we pray those beautiful prayers of longing and waiting, and sing those lovely songs of hope and promise.

KARL RAHNER

If we love God, we will undoubtedly love our neighbour also; they are as cause and effect.

The whole world knows that His glory has not been spread by force and weapons, but by poor fishermen.

GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA

People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent.

BOB DYLAN

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o'clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.

P. J. O’ROURKE

EMILY BRONTË

CATHERINE MCAULEY

CHRISTINA NOBLE

One kind word can warm three winter months.

Poetry and prayer are very similar.

CAROL ANN DUFFY

JAPANESE PROVERB

On the stem of memory imaginations blossom.

PATRICK KAVANAGH

If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.

INDIRA GANDHI

TINA FEY

The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.

Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, love divine; Love was born at Christmas, star and angels gave the sign.

EDMUND BURKE

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

FRANCIS OF ASSISI

The power to question is the basis of all human progress.

In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way.

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SAINT OF THE MONTH Reality ST COLMCILLE – A DECEMBER BABY Born: 521 AD Died: 597 AD Feast Day: 9 June Patron of: Ireland, poets and bookbinders

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Linking someone’s birth with a major world event is a way of committing that date to memory.

When the prophet Isaiah received the Word of the Lord concerning the future birth of the Messiah, he noted that this happened: “When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Juda … Hear now, you house of David! The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7: pass).

A similar tradition of ‘linking’ events preserves the birthday of St Colmcille, the Irish abbot and missionary credited with spreading Christianity in present-day Scotland. We’re told that he was born, in Co. Donegal, on the same day that St Buite, founder of Monasterboice, died.

That gives us the date 7 December and while the Annals don’t agree on the exact year, 521 AD is an acceptable approximation.

Although Colmcille is primarily associated with the Isle of Iona in Scotland, he resided for more than half his life in his native Ireland. Much of his young adulthood was spent studying both secular and religious subjects. His studies under St Mobhi in Glasnevin were cut short by an outbreak of the Yellow Plague, which was raging in Dublin at the time. St Mobhi disbanded the community for the duration and Colmcille was forced to move away.

Whatever plans the well-educated Colmcille had for his own future, the plague had thrown them into disarray. True, he’d already turned his back on a civil and political life and he’d been ordained to the priesthood but, now in his early 30s, he may have wondered what was to become of him. If we’re to believe the stories of how prayer came so naturally to him – his friends called him the Dove of the Church thanks to his frequent visits there – then there’s no doubt he prayed about his predicament.

Perhaps because of his zeal and energy, or because he had not yet found his mission in life, Colmcille spent the next ten years on the move within his people’s territory in the northern reaches of Ireland. It was in Derry that he first founded a religious community – or possibly joined a pre-existing one. The following years saw him establish numerous monastic foundations. These included monasteries at Swords and on Lambay Island in Co. Dublin; Tory Island, Co. Donegal; Drumcliffe and Drumcolumb in Co. Sligo; Clonmore, Co. Louth; Moone, Co. Kildare, and Inchmore in Lough Gowna, Co. Longford.

At the age of 42, Colmcille left Ireland to live and work as a monk in Argyll before settling in Iona where, with his twelve companions, he founded a new abbey as a base from which to evangelize the pagan Picts.

His departure from Ireland is shrouded in controversy. Some legends tell of him being involved in a dispute over copyright; others say he was ashamed of his involvement in the 561 battle of Cúl Dreimne. But in contrast to this speculation, there’s the testimony of Adomnán, his 7th century biographer, and of Venerable Bede, the historian of the English nation. Both are adamant that Colmcille’s motivation for leaving his native land was the purest: to endure the martyrdom of permanent exile for the sake of the Gospel.

St Adomnán said that he left ‘because he wished to become a pilgrim for Christ’s sake,’ and St Bede commented that: “There came from Ireland into Britain a famous priest and abbot, a monk by habit and life, whose name was Columba, to preach the Word of God.” Columcille died on Iona in 597 AD, where he was buried by his monks in the abbey he created.

John J. Ó Ríordáin, CSsR REALITY DECEMBER 2014

Volume 79. No. 10 December 2014 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960 Published by The Irish Redemptorists, 75 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Republic of Ireland Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Fax: 00353 (0)1 4927999 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)

Publisher Seamus Enright CSsR Coordinating Editor Máire Ní Chearbhaill Design & Layout David Mc Namara CSsR Business Manager Paul Copeland sales@redcoms.org Circulation Claire Carmichael ccarmichael@redcoms.org Finance Administrator Veronique Coller vcoller@redcoms.org +353-1-4067272 Administration Michelle McKeon mmckeon@redcoms.org +353-1-4922488 Printed by Turners Printing, Longford Photo Credits Catholic News Service, Photocall Ireland, Shutterstock REALITY SUBSCRIPTIONS Through a promoter (Ireland only) €18 or £15 Annual Subscription by post: Ireland €22 or £18 UK £25 Europe €35 Rest of the world €45 Please send all payments to: Redemptorist Communications, 75 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Republic of Ireland ADVERTISING Whilst we take every care to ensure the accuracy and validity of adverts placed in Reality, the information contained in adverts does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Redemptorist Communications. You are therefore advised to verify the accuracy and validity of any information contained in adverts before entering into any commitment based upon them.

When you have finished with this magazine, pass it on to another or please recycle it. Thank you.

EDI TO R I A L

Happy Christmas!

Christmas is on the horizon. Already the winter darkness is yielding to the festive joy. Homes and shops are bedecked with sparkling lights. The evergreen holly and ivy are a promise of future warmth and sunlit days.

In a Christmas radio talk some years ago, the religious commentator, Gerald Priestland, said: "A merry Christmas to all you church people, misunderstood, nagged and teased, yet surviving against all the odds to keep the Mass in Christmas. Without you there wouldn't be any Christmas carols or bells or the gospel story preserved."

Around 2,000 years ago, somewhere in Palestine, the Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us. It is astonishing that God came among us, not as the dazzling deity, but as a baby.

As we kneel before the baby in the crib, we wonder what it all means. With Mary we ponder these things in our hearts and go away, like the shepherds, glorifying and praising God for all we have seen and heard.

Even if the commercial life cashes in on our awesome mystery, we don’t mind if they celebrate with us. Santa and sleigh bells, carols, parties, presents, shopping, puddings, turkeys are all part of the mix, the ingredients of the celebration we call Christ-Mass.

So we say happy Christmas to all of you: to shepherds and others who keep watch on their animals on dark and wet nights, to wise men who follow their stars – may it lead them to Bethlehem; to inn-keepers, shop-keepers, to postmen and nurses, to Gardaí and fire fighters and all who are on emergency duty; to exiles and peace-keeping soldiers away from their loved ones. To families everywhere, and to those who try to make Christmas happy for others with special dinners, meals on wheels and hamper gifts. To homeless people, to prisoners and to those for whom Christmas is a sad and lonely time: may the good news of God’s love for us in Bethlehem enlighten your darkness and bring you peace!

We wish our fellow Christians a happy and peaceful Christmas. And may we extend our Christmas greetings to Muslims and Buddhists, to Hindus and Sikhs, and to our own Jewish ancestors (Happy Hanukkah!).

In fact, we wish the whole world a happy Christmas, be they believers or atheists or humanists or agnostics. If you do not share our Christian faith, do share in the festivities and accept our prayer for your happiness and peace.

From the Editorial Team and all at Redemptorist Communications

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REALITY DECEMBER 2014

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CHRISTMASES PAST AND PRESENT: THEIR MEANING FOR A MOTHER, A SPANISH TEACHER, A FIFTH-YEAR STUDENT AND A GRANDMOTHER

BY TRIONA DOHERTY A white Christmas, midnight Mass, carol singers, chestnuts roasting on an open fire ‌ what are the images that come to mind when you think of Christmas? For most of us, Christmas is a very special time. It is a time when families come together to celebrate, catch up, and exchange gifts. For many people, Advent and Christmas also offer an opportunity to reflect on their faith and to ponder the mystery of the infant in the manger.

As we enter the season of Advent and begin to prepare for Christmas, both physically and spiritually, why not take a moment to reflect on what Christmas means to you?

COVE R STO RY

Having a gift that reminded me what Christmas was really about set the tone for the following day

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Counting your blessings Caoimhe O’Connell, mum and language school owner, Athlone

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know it’s probably wrong, but I start to get excited about Christmas once the summer is over. I like to get all my shopping done by the end of October so I can focus on the joys of Christmas rather than the panic of last-minute shopping.

Growing up I was lucky to have my mother’s sister, who was a nun with the Good Shepherd Sisters, as my godmother. Her Christmas gifts always had a religious association and I firmly believe her role as my godmother has a huge influence on my belief in God. On Christmas Eve we were allowed to open one present each and Auntie Jo’s gift was my choice each year. It was always exciting to open rosary beads, prayer books,

REALITY DECEMBER 2014

candles, statues of Mary and other beautiful keepsakes. Having a gift that reminded me what Christmas was really about set the tone for the following day. This symbolic gift the night before Christmas is something I plan to continue with my own two girls, Sadhbh (aged 1), Fiadh (aged 14 weeks) and also my husband’s daughter Lily (aged10). Sadly my Auntie Jo passed away a few years ago but her memory is always close and I am thankful for all that she has done for my growth as a person.

This Christmas, being a relatively new mum, I am probably overly enthusiastic about starting new traditions with my own little family. I have already got an ‘Elf on the Shelf’ stored away waiting to come out on the 1 December. I plan to wrap twelve children’s

books and open and read a different one each night in the run-up to Christmas.

Lily and I are decorating jars and giving them to our extended family as ‘Count Your Blessings Jars’. They can be left in the kitchen all year starting at Christmas and filled with little notes each time something good happens, for example doing well in a test, a new baby, learning to ride a bike, or anything the family are grateful for. The following Christmas they can read all their blessings on Christmas Day and give thanks for the year they had.

Lastly, after Christmas dinner we are going to have a birthday cake for Jesus to remind everyone why and who we are celebrating!

A FamilyCelebration Laura Enjuto, secondary school teacher, Madrid

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lthough the aim of celebrating Christmas is the same all over the world, the birth of Jesus is celebrated in many different ways depending on the country, the community and our homes. I would like to describe how this magnificent and glorious celebration is lived in my family in Spain.

We start the celebration when, on Christmas Eve, the whole family gathers together between 9.30 p.m. and 10.30 p.m. to have dinner and a blessing with a short speech and a prayer thanking God for everything that has been given to us. In my family we also fondly remember the relatives who are not with us anymore.

The same night at midnight there is a worship called ‘Misa del Gallo’ – something like ‘Rooster Mass’ (recalling St Peter, when he denies Jesus three times before the rooster crows). My family prefers going to the 12 noon Mass on Christmas day. After the Mass everyone in Spain gathers together again for lunch around 3 p.m. We spend the rest of the day playing cards or board games, or just hanging around with friends. In recent years, kids get presents from Santa Claus on Christmas Day, but the tradition for us is to get them on 6 January when the Three Wise Men arrived at the manger of Jesus.

This is not the end of Christmas; there are still two important days for families – New Year´s Eve, which is celebrated in the same way as Christmas Day, with the family together for dinner, thanking God for being together and for everything we own. The only difference is that there is no Mass that night; everyone attends it on 1 January at whichever time suits. Personally speaking, for the last six years I have gone to the 10 a.m. Mass as my

15 mom loves it. Young people go out that night.

On 1 January, once again, families gather together for another big lunch. But still it will not be the last time; still we have 6 January to go! This is a day for kids, a day when they get presents from the Three Wise Men, and there are visits to the homes of relatives to

get more presents which the Three Wise Men left in their houses.

This is the way we spend Christmas – a sad time for me, especially when you miss the ones who are not with you anymore, but as they tell me: life is precious, make the most of it.

In recent years, kids get presents from Santa Claus on Christmas Day, but the tradition for us is to get them on 6 January when the Three Wise Men arrived at the manger of Jesus

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Christmas Traditions Caolán Coleman, fifth year student, Coláiste Rís, Dundalk

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y family have loved Christmas for as long as I can remember as it’s a time for giving to others as we share in the joy and celebration of the birth of Jesus. It all starts for me with getting our house decorated. I really do love putting up the decorations, especially when the whole family gets involved. Putting up the tree is a family affair in my house with everyone participating, bedecking it with ornaments, each with their own meaning.

The next part is decorating my grandmother’s house which takes slightly longer and ends up looking like Santa’s grotto. Old-fashioned decorations cover her house from top to bottom. The whole town then catches up with us as they paint the entire place with lights and decorations.

It never fails to get me into the Christmas spirit with the smell of cinnamon filling the air in my house. As the candles are lit on the Advent wreath in our local church, the anticipation begins to grow.

The week leading up to Christmas is the most exciting. You can feel everyone becoming more joyous and caring for one another. Then the big day arrives, Christmas Eve. We start our day by meeting the family and have a delicious breakfast. After some last-minute shopping, we welcome our extended family to our home, remembering that Advent is the season of welcoming both the old and the new. We attend midnight Mass and as a family, give thanks for the blessings we have received throughout the year.

Wearing our new Christmas pyjamas (a family tradition!) we still wake early on Christmas Day. I love the feeling of family and togetherness that Christmas brings.

REALITY DECEMBER 2014

Puddings and cakes, and Jesus in the manger Anne Tallon, grandmother, Fermoy

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s autumn turns to winter and the dark nights grow longer, thoughts of Christmas begin to enter my mind.

Winter was always the season to wrap up warmly, snuggle up close to the fire and dream about a white Christmas.

But, of course Christmas could not happen without preparation and Advent was the lead-in time for all this extra work. Puddings and cakes were mixed and stirred and wished upon in October. Rooms were cleaned and decorated for guests who might call. Letters and cards were written to grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins wishing all ‘a very happy and holy Christmas’. In our house all

cards had a religious theme matching our crib which had pride of place in the sitting room: the baby Jesus not yet in the manger.

At last the peaceful day of Christmas Eve arrived. The Christmas candle was lit by the youngest member in the household and carefully placed in the window. This was to guide and welcome the weary traveller who may turn out to be a member of the Holy Family looking for shelter! Then the younger members of the family hung their stockings by the fireplace and left carrots, cake, milk and whiskey for Santa and Rudolph and reluctantly went to bed – full of great expectation. In the kitchen final bits of baking were completed whilst listening to carols on the radio.

On Christmas Day the house came alive early in the morning to shouts of happiness and joy from delighted children when they realised that Santa had been. Then everyone had to get ready for Mass, earlier than usual, as the church was always full on this day. The church even seemed to be warmer, which may have been due to the larger than usual congregation or may also have been due to the goodwill amongst neighbours! At the end of Mass happy people made their way home, some still humming the carols that were ringing in their ears. Back to the excitement of the presents and the noise and the grand dinner that was yet to come.

Inside the house, in the sitting room, baby Jesus slept soundly in his manger.

SEEK A NEW DIRECTION

EXPLORE RELIGIOUs SISTERS OF CHA RIT Y

The Love of Christ urges us on – as Sisters of Charity we continue to live a journey of loving service in the Spirit of our Foundress Mary Aikenhead who spent her life in love serving ‘God’s nobility the suffering poor’.

The rest of your life is starting now – Is God inviting you to share in this same journey of loving service as a Sister of Charity, as a friend of Mary Aikenhead or as volunteer in one of our services?

Take the first step and contact Sr. Rita Wynne on 086 343 4448 or email ritawynnersc@eircom.net

You can also get more information on our website www.religioussistersofcharity.ie

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COM M E N T THE WAY I SEE IT KATY DOBEY

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS IN FRANKFURT

FESTIVE FLAVOURS AND GINGERBREAD HEARTS IN THE MARKETS On my seventh birthday, some six days before Christmas, my family and I got on a plane to Frankfurt.

The whole family was making the initial trip which led to our move to Germany for two-and-a-half years. I thought I was getting a plane journey for my birthday!

Excitedly, we all boarded the plane and the flight attendant brought colouring books and crayons for the entertainment of my sister and me. My recollection of the period spent in Germany is sometimes vague and not quite chronological, but my over-riding memory of this first visit was Christmas.

Back in Ireland, the days were short and evenings long. The fire was often lit and a warm, cosy feeling swept throughout the house. Christmas decorations added a different kind of warmth to the Dublin home and our Christmas tree lent a sweet smell and atmosphere to the sitting room.

However, landing in Germany, the Christmassy atmosphere seemed to go up a notch. The airport twinkled with fairy lights and the floor sparkled back at their reflections. As yet unfamiliar Christmas tunes tinkled through the air with an unmistakably festive feel. The smell of baking emanated from somewhere with what must have been ginger and cinnamon hitting my untrained nostrils. The cold that struck us as we left the airport was different to the moist atmosphere which we’d left behind.

The crisp, cool air slapped a sevenyear-old me in the face. Hands were immediately freezing, balled up and dug into pockets; coats zipped to the top.

Frankfurt Christmas Market

Over the next few days, we explored the area where we were planning to set up our new home. I’m sure this included plenty of mundane, practical trips: to view houses, to find schools, to fill in forms, to wait in line and so on, but all I can remember are the Christmas markets. Dark, dark evenings spent outside in the cold, hugging mugs of hot orange juice and huddling around stalls selling all sorts of delights. The smells I’d smelt in the airport intensified as I peered up at counters full of all kinds of roasted nuts, dipped in honey, sugar, salt, butter. Next door, the hut offered breads and cakes, next door again, there were hand-made candles, further along were carefully crafted wooden toys that captured my attention for many minutes.

Every few stalls we came across Christmas decorations: ceramic, wooden, metallic; petite angels for the Christmas tree and larger ones that carried candles. Crib figures were another major component. From stall to stall, different artistic interpretations of shepherds, kings, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus stood to attention on the tables.

Most impressive to me, however, were the giant gingerbread hearts and houses that hung from specialised gingerbread stalls.

Hearts were iced with greetings and wishes which called out to the passers-by. Wrapped in transparent plastic with ribbons and bows, these hearts made the perfect gift. Yet more exciting still, however, were the carefully crafted gingerbread houses. Every so often such an edible house would appear, reminding me of the witch’s house in Hansel and Gretel. Fantastic biscuit sculptures included smarties for roofs, jelly tot door knobs and marshmallow-lined windows. With longing, I stared at their perfect, mesmerising beauty.

The following year, once settled in Germany, I would make such a house on a small scale in school in preparation for Christmas. It was to be the perfect gift for our parents.

Our teacher provided the biscuits, and we made a paste of icing sugar and water which acted as a glue to bind our walls together. Carefully, we balanced our biscuits on paper plates, decorated them with icing and chocolate, and brought them

home for our families to enjoy as a Christmas treat. The little house was my pride and joy that year.

Last year, I taught some German to fifth and sixth class children in my school. In the run-up to Christmas, we concentrated on how this exciting period is celebrated in Germany. I got a chance to go back down memory lane and to share my recollections with the children. Some of them had been to Christmas markets at home or abroad and had some understanding of the special atmosphere associated with this form of social gathering and evening entertainment. Although much older than I was when I made my gingerbread house, these children seemed equally enthralled by the creation of their own gingerbread houses. Proudly, they carried them out to their parents at the end of the lesson. Without any encouragement from me, each decided the sweet little house was to be a precious Christmas gift.

The gift of Christmas is a special time for children. Excitement is in the air as Advent draws to a close and the waiting and preparation ends in celebration. For me the memories of Christmas are strong throughout my childhood. They leave a lasting impression of family, joy and thankfulness.

If you agree, disagree or just want to add your own thoughts to our comment pieces, email: editor@redcoms.org or write to: The Editor, Redemptorist Communications, 75 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6

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F E AT U R E A scene from The Nativity Story

The Nativity in

Cinema

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FILMS OF THE CHRISTMAS STORY REFLECT TIME AND CULTURE

BY PAUL CLOGHER

Since

the birth of cinema in the late nineteenth century filmmakers have offered audiences a Jesus for their time and culture. The New Testament gospels give little insight into the interior motivations and feelings of characters, and remain silent on the appearance of people and locations.

Making a film about Jesus, then, is a much more complex task than it may first appear. From the first draft of a script to the final editing process, cinema interprets and, perhaps, rewrites the story of Jesus in

REALITY DECEMBER 2014

light of new social, political, and cultural contexts.

Nativity scenes in homes and churches across the world greet the beginning of the Christmas season. But the crib itself is very much the product of popular interpretation. The Gospel of Luke mentions Jesus lying in a manger, for example, but offers little else in terms of detail. The familiar image of the nativity owes as much to generations of popular Christian practices as to the biblical texts. Like the crib or the Stations of the

Cross, cinema provides images where the gospels are silent and draws not only on scripture but on centuries of religious and devotional art for inspiration.

SURGE AND SPLENDOUR: KING OF KINGS (1961) With lavish scenery, casts of thousands, and heavenly choirs, the Hollywood biblical epics depicted the life of Jesus with an often casual attitude to the diversity of the four gospels or ancient history. Combining scripture, melodrama, and elaborate

Paul Clogher teaches religious studies at the Waterford Institute of Technology. He has a special interest in film and theology.

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battle sequences, they appealed to a broad audience and were the ‘blockbusters’ of their time. At the height of their popularity, Nicholas Ray released King of Kings. Seeking to bring the Jesus story into the twentieth century, he depicts Jesus as a youthful figure who preaches peace in a time of conflict. In a world beset by the Cold War and growing moral scepticism, the pacifism of Jesus offers an alternative to the threat of unending conflict that viewers may have felt throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Ray embeds this subtext into his nativity episode by situating the birth of Jesus against the backdrop of oppression and violence. The sequence begins following an extended depiction of the Roman invasion of Jerusalem many years earlier.

The birth of Jesus, a moment of peace and tranquillity, contrasts heavily with General Pompey’s

marching armies. Despite its powerful subtexts, King of Kings presents the birth of Jesus with sentimentality.

Cinema provides images where the gospels are silent and draws not only on scripture but on centuries of religious and devotional art for inspiration.

Siobhán McKenna plays Mary, dressed in traditional blue, with an almost divine

F E AT U R E

Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus

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Siobhán McKenna as Mary in King of Kings

awareness of her son’s mission. Indeed, much later in the film Jesus seems to know less about his own fate than does his mother. With garish colours and patterns, the scene resembles a picture postcard and lacks realism. The shepherds and Wise Men are perfectly arranged in adoration of the infant Jesus, while a light emanates from the manger. Music, too, plays a key role.

Heavenly choirs swell at important points to ensure the right emotional response, suggesting, perhaps, that the producers did not trust their own imagery and style to carry the meaning of events.

King of Kings is a much more complex film than its nativity scene suggests. Its political undertones and depiction of a more youthful Jesus stress the need for an interpretation of the gospels that responds to the complexities of the modern world.

Its nativity, however, suffers from the limitations of the epic genre which, as the decade progressed, lost influence as a credible medium of the Christian story.

REALITY DECEMBER 2014

AN ITALIAN SETTING: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT MATTHEW (1964) While King of Kings played in theatres across the world, one Italian filmmaker planned a strikingly different approach. When Pier Paolo Pasolini, a Marxist filmmaker with a tendency for anti-clericalism, announced his intention to film a life of Jesus, political allies accused him of betraying their principled opposition to Christianity, while neo-fascists picketed the opening night of The Gospel according to Saint Matthew without ever watching the film.

As the title suggests, Pasolini draws his story almost entirely from the Gospel of Matthew. Filmed on location in the poverty-stricken towns and villages of southern Italy, in documentary style,

and with a cast of amateur actors, the film makes a profound comment on the religious and social institutions of 1960s Italy and the relevance of the Christian story for that world.

By depicting the birth of Jesus in a recognizably Italian setting, Pasolini draws parallels between the world of the gospels and contemporary Italy. The infancy narrative begins in stillness. Joseph looks at a young and clearly pregnant Mary and then walks away in silence. Pasolini does not give us a narrator to explain events nor any dialogue to explore the characters’ motivations.

Like Matthew’s text, the pace is slow and meditative. The nativity, too, avoids dramatic overplay. The Wise Men pay homage to the sound of ‘Sometimes I feel like a motherless child’, a song that dates back to the era of slavery in the United States when the children of slaves were often separated from their parents and sold. The musical choice and striking visual style give the scene a timeless quality. Rather than attempting to ‘copy’ or recreate the nativity, Pasolini reminds us of its meaning in the present. The child offers hope not only for the people of the first century but for those who struggle in every time and place.

Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel according to Saint Matthew

CHRIST IN AFRICA: SON OF MAN (2006) The vast majority of Jesus films are European or American productions. The white, blonde-haired, blue-eyed messiah dominates cinema. The theological concept of ‘inculturation’ reminds us that Christianity expresses itself in and through all cultures and not merely in a Western or European context. Mark Dornford-May’s Son of Man relocates the Gospel story to a fictional African state called Judea in the early twenty-first century. Against the backdrop of a violent conflict between rival militias, warlords, and colonising armies, Jesus is depicted as a black African revolutionary.

control a distinctly African Bethlehem.

Mary and Joseph take refuge in a shed where the child is born, and child angels announce his birth to local shepherds. Son of Man asks what the incarnation might look like in a contemporary setting. A highly political interpretation, it portrays key characters from the bible as warlords and terrorists. Jesus revolts against this

The 'Pieta' scene from Son of Man

Among the most recognizable images in Christianity, directors have given new life to the nativity on screen for over a century. One common thread that emerges is how directors interpret the Jesus story in order to respond to contemporary concerns, especially politics and ethics cyclical brutality through an insistence on non-violence, social liberation, and justice.

Mark Dornford-May’s Son of Man

The annunciation scene begins with Mary, portrayed as a school teacher, fleeing an invading militia who are slaughtering children, a clear allusion to both the massacre of the innocents in the New Testament and the horrors of contemporary conflict. As she hides in a classroom among dead bodies, the angel Gabriel appears as a child speaking in the Xhosa language of South Africa and Lesotho. The angel announces the coming of Jesus to a frightened Mary in the midst of despair and death.

The allusions continue into the nativity itself. Son of Man re-interprets Herod the Great as a militia leader whose thugs

The director is conscious, too, of the artistic heritage of the Jesus story. The child Jesus sleeps in a wooden chest while an electric fan behind Mary’s head evokes the halos of renaissance and baroque art.

This nativity illustrates the solidarity of God with all who suffer. Later, in the film’s temptation scene, Jesus rebukes Satan with the words ‘this is my world.’

The incarnation reclaims a broken and scarred creation for a God who liberates.

THE NATIVITY: A MOMENT OF HOPE Among the most recognizable images in Christianity, directors have given new life to the nativity on screen for over a century.

One common thread that emerges since the heyday of the biblical epic is how directors interpret the Jesus story in order to respond to contemporary concerns, especially politics and ethics. The three examples chosen in this short reflection, in some shape or form, all interpret the nativity as a moment of hope for a world marked by conflict, whether it be cold war America, post-Fascist Italy, or modern Africa.

Films will always have their limitations, of insight or taste, but the enduring popularity of Jesus in cinema demonstrates how, in a media-driven world, the Christian story remains a source of fascination, inspiration, and even provocation for filmmakers and audiences alike. As cinema re-interprets the nativity, so too can we discover something new, even unknown, in that most familiar of images in our churches, communities, and homes.

If over the course of the season ahead you encounter one of these films in some corner of television’s expanding universe, it is worth remembering that like the reflections of saints and scholars, the paintings of great masters, and the harmonies of gifted musicians, film artists, too, offer us the opportunity to find new meanings in the vibrant and expansive landscape of the Christian story.

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F E AT U R E

What

w a S r a t S e h T All Those Years Ago THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM TELLS ITS STORY

BY ED HONE CSsR

25

The Star speaks:

I don’t know why I was chosen – there are an awful lot of us to choose from; I’m not the brightest, cleverest, oldest or youngest, but chosen I was.

When the Creator whispered to me and told me what I was to do, I was thrilled: honoured to represent heaven, bursting with anticipation at what was to come, and full of a deep joy such as I had never

known before. I could feel myself burning more brightly than ever – which I had to do if I was to complete the task before me.

I waited and waited until the Wise Ones saw me, consulted their ancient scrolls, and

decided they should watch me and follow me as I moved through the skies. I moved ahead of them, drawing them onwards, keeping far enough ahead to lure them, but not so far that they would become discouraged.

F E AT U R E

26

It was a journey of weeks, which as you can imagine is nothing to a star, but even I was impatient for the journey to end.

The Creator had told me what I would see, and I couldn’t wait! I listened to the Wise Ones as they journeyed along: they were excited, puzzled, knowing they were on the edge of something momentous, but not knowing what it was. They were well prepared for the journey with provisions of every kind, and riches of great worth.

The leader addressed them as they were leaving their homeland: "Friends, let us set out on the great adventure of our lives; all our studies, our searching of the heavens, our listening to foretellings, have brought us to this day, to this journey – and who knows what we will find at its end. All we know is that the world is changing, and something longedfor through the ages is going to come to pass. Let us begin in hope, pray that we can travel in peace, and look forward to the fulfilment that awaits."

So the journey, where nothing was certain, and much was at risk, began.

The Star speaks:

:I saw Caesar Augustus call a census of the whole world – at least the whole of the world as he knew it; we stars know differently,

...and the world in its entirety, indeed all the worlds, were beyond his imagination. The great movement of people began, with each travelling to the region of their birth to be registered. I saw the young couple into whose lives the Desired of the Nations was soon to appear; nothing visibly marked them out, but I knew the child they were expecting was heaven coming down to earth; it was fitting that the realms above were represented at the birth below. The young man was solicitous, taking every care of his wife, especially as her time drew near. He spoke to her often of the dreams that were woven into his everyday life, and how he found it difficult to know what was ordinary and what was spoken only to him; his dreams merged into the realities of REALITY DECEMBER 2014

life. The woman didn’t speak much: she didn’t need to. She too had had the experience of heaven gently crashing into her life when the Messenger had announced she was to bear God’s Son. From that moment onwards, for her as for him, the miraculous was a normal part of life. She had spoken with her husband about that great Announcement; at first he was sad and confused, but his dreams spoke and told him what he must do, and now his heart was at peace. As they drew close to Bethlehem, she knew her time was near. Frantically he sought shelter for them both, but no one would welcome them. She spoke: “The place is not important: it will be blessed and graced by the One who is to be born.” She was afraid, but like her husband, she was also at peace.

The Star speaks:

For my part, I drew the Wise along the route I had planned: they must arrive at just the right time, at just the right place.

When they were drawing near, I halted, and they rested for the night. What I could see, but they could not, were dancing, singing angels above the shepherds' fields. In all my long existence, I had never seen such a thing before: truly heaven and earth were mingling, a new order was being created. The shepherds were overwhelmed, and gathered together to discuss what they were seeing and hearing. They were not used to attention, never mind the attention

of angels. One spoke up: “Though we are only shepherds, this message of salvation has been given to us. How can we receive such news except with great joy? What can we do except go at once to see this child, born in David’s city, and offer our humble service? We have nothing to offer but our presence, and this we will gladly give.” Ensuring the sheep would be safe, they hurried to Bethlehem, the song of the angels ringing in their ears.

The Star speaks:

I was impatient to complete the journey, even though I knew already how it would end. I shone brightly by night and by day, willing the Wise 27 onwards.

The shepherds had made their visit, and returned full of wonder and praise. They felt at the centre of the whole world. They could never look upwards again without remembering the glory of the angels, and the child in the manger. Finally, I came to rest over the stable. The Wise arrived, and were suddenly and uncharacteristically hesitant.

They were used to giving orders, paying their way, being shown reverence and respect.

But now it was as if they sensed that the world had changed. They stooped down and entered the stable, encountering the gloom and the smell of animals. They were silent, but their actions said it all: they each bowed low and offered precious gifts. They knew, beyond doubt, the world was changed.

The Star speaks:

When you look up at the night sky and see the stars, think of those wondrous events long ago. Know that even now, heaven is still mingled with earth; the Holy One lives in our midst. And rejoice.

COMMENT CHRISTIAN PARENTING CARMEL WYNNE

LIFE LESSONS, DECEMBER 2014

WHEN YOU GIVE OF YOURSELF, YOU TRULY GIVE

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When my children were very young I had a friend, who every January, made a list of the people who gave her Christmas gifts. She claimed to love Christmas but she found the whole thing of presentgiving stressful. So she estimated how much was spent on the gifts she received and used this as a guideline on the appropriate amount to spend on the gift-giver the following year.

My friend and her husband devoted one Saturday afternoon to going around different shopping centres looking for the best tree to bring home. They visited department stores to see the latest decoration trends. She put up the tree early in December, decorated with the newest, fashionable ornaments and lights. I was never sure whether I envied her efficiency or felt saddened by the pressure she put on herself. Somehow I had a sense that by making her preparations so perfect she missed out on the Christmas spirit.

In our family the children enjoyed the fun of helping with the preparations. The only thing that happened early in December in our house was the children wrote to Santa. Our Christmas tree and decorations went up on the Saturday closest to my husband’s birthday, 17 December. Most of the gift-buying happened in the last ten days before Christmas.

Many of the decorations that went on our Christmas tree annually were made by the children. Traditionally, at the bottom of the tree we hung a faded paper snowmen with a black hat. It REALITY DECEMBER 2014

was the first decoration our eldest daughter made. Other decorations which the children were proud of making decorated the tree for many years.

One year, one of my daughters bought a plastic holly wreath with her pocket money at the Christmas fair. She proudly hung it on the front door as a surprise gift and explained to me that it was to be recycled. She asked could we have a new family tradition: every year she would hang it up. The following year another friend made Christmas wreaths for a charity. I gently suggested to my daughter that maybe we should replace our plastic one and support the charity. I was promptly told that we should donate to the charity but the wreath would stay and be recycled every year.

Respecting my child’s desire

to start a family tradition with a second-hand plastic wreath was both challenge and gift. I was conflicted between my maternal instincts to encourage her conservation values and my insecurities about how the neighbours might judge a cheap artificial wreath. The challenge was to acknowledge that my child’s happiness was important.

The gift, that she was too young to recognise, became a symbol for a significant life lesson. The value of a gift that lasts is in the intention of the giver and not the cost of the present.

My children are now adults and recently we had a family celebration at which each of my four daughters thanked their dad for the life lessons he taught them, the most valuable gifts they received. I have their permission to share them here.

• One of the most valuable life lessons you taught me is to find solutions by breaking the problem into small pieces.

• Be nice to everyone, respect everyone, always have a back-out plan. If you’re prepared to execute it you’ll probably never need it. If you don’t have it, you’ll need it.

• One thing you taught is to always give credit where credit is due. That way, people are happy to work with you again. They know they are appreciated as I acknowledge their work and they feel I value their contribution. The people running the show know that I’ve done my job well and can see I’m getting on fine with the team working with me.

• The best thing I learned from you is to stand on my own two feet. There will always be friends and family around to help but best not need it if it can be helped.

And always have a shovel ready in case someone I love needs a dig-out.

The tradition of gift-giving at Christmas is fun for some and stressful for others. Different families have different values about what makes a gift special. For some it has to do with the monetary value and for others the loving intention shown in the choice of gift is priceless. I love what Kahlil Gibran, the prophet said: “You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

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

CENTE N A RY

THOMAS MERTON’S MOUNTAIN CENTENARY OF THE BIRTH OF THE MONK AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR

BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

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As

the First World War raged in Europe, a baby was born in France on 31 January 1915. Thomas Merton, one of the best-known spiritual writers of the twentieth century, published the first volume of his autobiography, the classic The Seven Storey Mountain, in 1948.

C E N T E N A RY

year. There is an obscure hint in Merton’s own account of his life that the decision to ship him back home was due to an inappropriate relationship with a girl, possibly even the threat of a paternity suit. He returned to the United States and resumed his studies at Columbia University in New York.

Young Merton

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EARLY YEARS Thomas Merton was born in the Languedoc region of France. His father was a New Zealand-born artist and his mother an American. The growing threat of war forced the family to return to the United States. His mother died when he was six years old and his father ten years later. Thomas and his brother John Paul were shunted between grandparents in America and a series of boarding schools in France and England. At the age of eighteen, he entered the University of Cambridge. There was little by way of organised religion in his early life. He only

RELIGIOUS SEARCH BEGINS Merton threw himself with gusto into student life. He was a member of the college running team and of the editorial committee of its magazine. He enjoyed jazz, smoking, drinking and the company of young women. He got his BA without much trouble and embarked on a thesis for his master’s degree on William Blake, the English poet.

It was during this time that his religious search began in earnest. One of the triggers for it was his encounter with the Catholic philosophy of the Middle Ages and his discovery of Dante’s Divine Comedy, a long poem in three parts – Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. From this poem, Merton would eventually borrow the title for his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain.

His quest led him to seek instructions in the Catholic faith and he was baptised in 1938, at the age of twenty-three.

Even before his baptism, Merton had an intuition that he was called to the priesthood.

His early search led him towards the Franciscans, and he spent some time teaching at the St Bonaventure’s College in New York. They were reluctant to accept him, perhaps on account of the incident that had led to his hurried departure from Cambridge. At this time Merton made the acquaintance of Catherine de Hueck Doherty, the Russian Catholic émigré and baroness, who had

Merton’s account of monastic life in The Seven Storey Mountain has been criticised as being romantic in the extreme. Nevertheless it attracted young men to the monastic way of life, including many who had been through the horrors of war learned to say the ‘Our Father’ when his New Zealand grandmother came on holidays and was appalled at his lack of religious knowledge.

Merton’s stay in Cambridge was brief. His legal guardian decided it was better for him to return to the USA at the end of his first REALITY DECEMBER 2014

established a series of friendship houses for homeless people in several American cities.

Merton became a volunteer in the New York house.

ABBEY IN KENTUCKY His search eventually led him to the Trappists, as the members of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance were then known. He entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane, near Louisville, Kentucky, in 1941, taking the name of Mary Louis. Merton was just a few months in the monastery when his brother, John Paul, came to say goodbye before leaving as a pilot for the war in Europe. While staying in the guest house, he expressed a desire to become a Catholic. Thomas was told to give him a crash course in the catechism and he was received into the Church before he left. Less than a year later he was shot down over the English Channel. Thomas’s grandparents had died while he was a student in Columbia, so he was now totally without any immediate family.

Trappist culture at the time did not encourage much literary activity, beyond the publication, usually anonymously, of pious lives of saints. Merton’s abbot was impressed by the literary gifts of this young monk. He commissioned him to write a few short religious works for publication which were successfully received. Merton had kept a journal throughout most of his years in Columbia up to his entry into the community. He seems to have contemplated writing an autobiography at the age of twenty-four!

BEST SELLER In 1946, encouraged by the abbot, he began to work on it in earnest. The abbot was enthusiastic, as he hoped it might attract new candidates to the monastery. Others were less impressed. A book written by a religious had to be given to two anonymous readers or censors within the community.

The two who read Merton’s story were not encouraging. One of them thought his writing talents were limited and recommended that he take a correspondence course in writing!

Another believed that his accounts of his rather wild student days were not likely to give edification and so attract the wrong kind of young man to the monastery.

Despite their opposition, the abbot gave his approval for publication. It appeared in 1948 about a year before Thomas’s ordination and became an overnight best-seller. The book was edited for a British audience by the novelist, Evelyn

Waugh, and, taking its title from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, was published as

STRICT RULE IN THE MONASTERY Gethemane Abbey was a strictly enclosed community that followed the ancient Rule of St Benedict. The day was built around the monastic offices, beginning with vigils at 2 a.m. and concluding about 7.30 p.m. with compline. Most of the rest of the day was devoted to manual labour on the monastery farm, interspersed with periods of study or prayerful reading of the scriptures. The monks fasted for more than half of the year, eating only one full meal a day.

The monastery observed a rule of strict silence. Conversation was only permitted when absolutely necessary and then it had to be as brief as possible. For everything else, the monks observed a rudimentary sign language. They were only allowed to write even to their families four times a year: there was no question of access to newspapers, radio or television. They slept in cubicles in a common dormitory, except in case of sickness. Even study and reading were done in a common room where each monk had a desk with a few books such as a bible and copy of the rule. They seldom left the confines of the monastery which became even more overcrowded as Merton’s book drew more young men to try out the Cistercian way of life in the aftermath of the Second World War. Cistercian life has changed radically since Merton’s day. The call of the Second Vatican Council to return to the roots, revealed that many of the practices of Trappist life owed more to the seventeenth century ‘thundering abbot,’ Armand de Rancé, reformer of the monastery of La Trappe, than they did to the founders of the Cistercian movement.

Merton’s account of monastic life in The Seven

As an American in the 1960s, Merton could not stand aside from the big issues at the time, such as opposition to nuclear war, the struggle for civil rights among the black population, the Vietnam war Elected Silence: it too was an outstanding success.

Storey Mountain has been sharply criticised as being romantic in the extreme. Nevertheless

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C E N T E N A RY

it attracted young men to the monastic way of life, including many who had been through the horrors of war. Merton continued to write about monastic life. Two volumes of a journal, The Waters of Shiloh (1949) and The Sign of Jonas (1955) continued the life story begun in

by his community for much of his life in the formation of novices and young monks.

Having got over the enthusiasm of his early years, he recognised that monastic life in the modern age was in ferment. Most of the great Cistercian foundations in Europe

He tried to reformulate contemplative life for a new generation. What attracted him was a life in search of God that had been unchanged for centuries, held together by a rhythm of daily worship. That search for God never left him, even if it was never fully satisfied The Seven Storey Mountain. He also produced several books on aspects of monastic prayer such as Seeds of Contemplation (1949) and Bread in the Wilderness (1953).

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MONASTICISM IN THE MODERN WORLD Merton’s talents as a teacher and communicator meant that he was employed

had been rocked by a war which had left the American abbeys such as Gethsemane untouched. Younger monks had often served in the armies or had been prisoners in concentration camps and the monastic life to which they returned looked decidedly unreal to many of them.

As the Constitution on the Church in the

Merton with the Dalai Lama

REALITY DECEMBER 2014

The hermitage

Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) of the second Vatican Council had made clear in its opening words – ‘the joys, the sorrows, the hopes and the fears of people of today are the joys, the sorrows, the hopes and fears of believers.’ This was as true of monks and nuns as it was of the lay faithful.

CIRCLE OF FRIENDS As an American, Merton could not stand aside from the big issues that were shaking America at the time, such as opposition to nuclear war, the struggle for civil rights among the black population, the Vietnam war. Issues like these found their way into his later works, such as Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1966). Since he had no immediate living family, Merton’s college friends remained close to him. Through correspondence with them and others who had written to express their appreciation of his books, he built up a circle of friends that included American Catholic writers like Flannery O’Connor and John Howard Griffin – who had dyed his skin to enable him to study at first hand the condition of black Americans in the state of segregation in his book Black Like Me – and Boris Pasternack, author of Doctor Zhivago.

For most of his life as a monk, Merton longed for a more radical solitude. He was eventually given permission to live as a hermit within the boundaries of the monastery but his capacity for friendship and his curiosity about the larger world made even this problematical. To the horror of his superiors, the hermitage sometimes became a centre to entertain his friends.

MERTON’S LEGACY Merton increasingly became attracted by the ecumenical and inter-faith dimensions of monastic life, particularly as practised in Buddhism and Hinduism. He obtained permission to participate in an ecumenical meeting on the monastic life in Bangkok.

While there, he met his death due to an accident with an electric fan in his room, on 10 December, 1968. He was just one month short of his 54th birthday.

Interest in Merton has not lessened since his death. Although there are weaknesses in The Seven Storey Mountain, it is still in print and continues to attract readers. It is a remarkable statement of how a young man, a product of the world of mid-twentieth century America, discovers faith and pursues a path that is out of the ordinary. Merton was only twentythree years old when he made the decision to become a Catholic and he wrote the book just ten years later. That is the secret of its charm – it is very much a young man’s book.

His bigger project was to attempt to reformulate contemplative life for a new generation. What attracted him to Gethsemane was a life in search of God that had been unchanged for centuries, held together by a rhythm of daily worship.

That search for God never left him, even if it was never fully satisfied. In a time of change, he was asking profoundly serious questions, not least what form this search might take in a world of psychoanalysis, social change and global conflict. It is to his credit that he asked such questions, not that he found the answers. What emerges from the pages of his many writings is a picture of a man passionate for God, but also of a human being, who can laugh, enjoy jazz or sing the songs of Bob Dylan, and above all, value deeply the friendship of men and women.

Fr Brendan McConvery is author of The Redemptorists in Ireland, published by The Columba Press.

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F E AT U R E

SHADOW LANDS WE CANNOT LET THE SHADOW OF OUR LOSSES BECOME THE FOCAL POINT OF OUR THOUGHTS

BY ANNE KERRIGAN

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Recent

surveys indicate that many people retain hundreds of photos on their electronic devices. Apparently, these pictures are rarely developed in the ‘old-fashioned’ way. It has been said that keeping the photos on the hi-tech equipment solves a storage problem as well as cutting out developing costs, and that the pictures are readily available for sharing with others.

I am sure each of us has had the experience of seeing a photo of a new baby, a new puppy, a graduation or a wedding on someone’s smartphone. This technological age seems to pose a serious threat to the family album.

I am, as the technologically savvy say, a dinosaur. I love the old family photo albums, with the photographs neatly aligned and labelled. Some of them are old and faded, but there is a depth of history present in those photographs that cannot be captured on an electronic device.

REALITY DECEMBER 2014

FAMILY ALBUM: MEMORY AND LOVE As I look through the albums, I pause over some of the pictures, and fondly recall the incident or the person. I absorb my family, my story. I need to look, and then stop to consider the photograph while internalising and refreshing my memory.

Sometimes, I can even feel the love gushing forth from those old photographs. Spending time poring over the albums of our family history is a treat I give myself, and I love it.

I own a very basic digital camera, an ‘aim and shoot’ model. It is small, easy to handle, and reliable. This is perfect for me since I am not really a photographer. I just like to take pictures of the people in my life, so that I can save the photos, and enjoy them time and again in the future. A very big bonus in this technological age is that my trusty little camera enables me to delete the really bad pictures before they are developed, or printed, as the process is now called.

So, I was eagerly looking forward to heading to the printer’s to pick up some recent pictures that I had been able to edit, thanks to the magic

of modern computers. Since I had been delayed getting them to the store for processing, I had pictures of several holidays and events on the one disc. When I retrieved the order, there were multiple packages. I was thrilled to have so many new photos to explore. When I arrived home, I got myself comfortable, made a cup of tea, opened the packages, and started my magical journey. There were some lovely photos, as well as some which I might have deleted. These were relegated to the discard pile, and I continued to enjoy the rest.

BLOT ON THE HORIZON One particular picture of my family was really lovely. Everyone was smiling broadly, and the happiness of the group was almost palpable.

But, there in the upper corner of the picture, was a dark shadow. It didn’t block anyone’s face; it just seemed to be part of the ceiling.

It was very distracting. I wondered how I had missed that spot when I was editing the photos. I returned to the store, and entered

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the disc into the computer, confident that I would be able to remove the shadow. But no matter how hard I tried to manoeuvre the photograph, I could not delete that dark spot.

That shadow jumped out at me, and it was all I saw when I looked at the photo.

I put the picture into a frame, hoping that the edge of the frame itself would hide the shadow. No luck. The shadow was still there, and nothing I did was able to erase it.

It was only when others commented on the lovely family photo that I realised what was happening. My intense concentration on that shadow hindered my perspective, so much so that I was hardly able to focus on the lovely, smiling faces of the people I loved.

LOOKING BEYOND THE SHADOWS My experience with that photograph was clearly a reminder of how often we fallible human beings lose our ability to perceive the many gifts in our lives. So often, the shadows in our lives become the focus of our attention.

The sorrows and losses become dominant in our thoughts, the ever-present darkness.

There is the pain of broken relationships, death, accidents, illness, and other endless personal issues which cast shadows in each of our lives.

Certainly, there must be time for normal and natural grieving; that is a healthy response to a personal loss. For example, when I focus only on the loss of my beloved daughter, the pain is almost overwhelming, and it is hard to remember the gifts of joy which she brought into my life. The shadow becomes dominant, and interferes with my ability to fully recall that God has promised me I would not journey alone.

The challenge is to learn how to live in the presence of loss and pain. Henri Nouwen, the great spiritual writer, once reminded us that, “In all forms of light, there is the knowledge of

surrounding darkness.” When writing about joy and sorrow, the poet and philosopher, Kahlil Gibran said that, “You are weeping for that which has been your delight.”

We grieve for the loss of something or someone who had been precious to us, but, as Christians, we are challenged to defy the shadows, to remember that we are a resurrection people It would be wise to explore how often we let the shadow of our losses become the focal point of our thoughts and attention. The pain of the loss, whatever it is, will undoubtedly remain with us forever.

A regular contributor to Reality, Anne Kerrigan is a grandmother and lives in New York

F E AT U R E

PEACE COMES DROPPING SLOW WE ALL CAN BE PEACEMAKERS

The

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year 2014 has not been a good one for peace. Pope Francis spoke dramatically about the scale of warfare in the world: “Even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction …” Not a world war as happened twice in the twentieth century, but a world at war, multiple conflicts spilling over from one nation to another, huge displacement of peoples, and massive disruption of human life.

Will it ever be better? Should we even expect it to be? War has always been a part of human existence, and that seems unlikely to change. We know, however, it’s not the way things should be.

The world has been shocked and horrified at the violent executions of hostages by the ‘Islamic State’, where differences of religion, even

REALITY DECEMBER 2014

BY ED HONE CSsR of denomination, are seen as sufficient excuse to take life. Massacres of whole populations have taken place when insurgents have taken over. Millions of people live in fear of their lives.

CHAMPIONS OF PEACE TREAD SOFTLY The Church is rightly a champion of peace, preaching, teaching and advocating peace. It is involved at many levels in peace-making efforts throughout the world; but the Church needs to tread softly too. Christian history tells of officially sanctioned massacres of heretics, of ‘schismatics’, of those refusing obedience to religious authority; there are disputes, often resulting in violence, between different Christian groupings in the world today; and Christian support for armed conflicts which are deemed ‘just’ have to be reconciled with the commandment not

to kill, the teachings of Jesus about forgiveness and reconciliation, and the Church’s teaching about the sacredness of all human life.

HOW COMMITTED ARE WE? As we approach once again the celebration of the birth of Christ the Prince of Peace, we can ask ourselves the necessary, if uncomfortable, questions about our own commitment to peace. Are we active in seeking peace in our own divided heart, where we can be at war with ourselves and with God? Are we peacemakers in our families? Do we keenly seek to reconcile divisions within our own church, being dissatisfied with anything that keeps us at arm’s length from our fellow Catholics and other Christians? Do we take an interest in world affairs, joining the debate on what is a just

response to violence? These are not questions demanding a ‘yes’ or ’no’ answer, but rather invitations to reflect on how we live with, or without, peace.

SLOW PEACE ON A LAKE ISLE In his poem, The Lake Isle of Inisfree, W.B. Yeats dreams of escaping the hustle and bustle of city life by moving to the island in the lake, and here looks to find the peace for which his heart longs: “And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow.” He realises that peace is not sudden, cannot be commanded or manufactured, but must always “come dropping slow”. Every ceasefire, peace treaty and peace-building project involves intense, prolonged and communal effort, a process that will increase its chance of bringing real peace.

Even the path to peace requires discernment.

NO QUICK SOLUTIONS Black-and-white solutions are usually simplistic, and serve as no solutions at all.

We have a right to expect our Church to model the peace it seeks to promote, both in its words and in its deeds. The alternative to committing to peace is giving in to war, and allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed by the sheer scale of misery it produces. What do we mean by our Church modelling peace? It can be something as ordinary as how we settle differences that arise in our parish; how we relate to the priest or other parishioners whom we dislike or with whom we strongly disagree; how we engage with, or ignore, Christians from other churches, or people of other faiths, or of no faith

at all. On a wider level, it’s how the institutions of power in our Church relate to civil authority, whether our stance is always oppositional, or whether we are trying to work together towards a more just, equitable society. The world outside the Church has a right to look to us to see if we are living the peace we are preaching.

JESUS ENCOURAGES An encouraging image Jesus uses can encourage us when we feel our efforts are small in the face of the enormous need for peace: his disciples are to be the leaven, the rising agent, in the dough; although only a small part of the mix, it enables the whole loaf to rise.

Fr Ed Hone is a member of the Redemptorist community in Luxembourg, where he ministers to English-speaking Catholics

37

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THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

WE ARE CALLED TO BE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD Christmas changes everything.

No other religion believes that God became a human being.

Other religions believe that God interacts with human beings through prophets: Jews have Moses and Isaiah and Elijah, Muslims have Muhammad, but we Christians believe that God became one of us.

Other religions have sacred spaces where people encounter God – Jews have the Temple in Jerusalem, Muslims have Mecca – but because of Christmas, we Christians believe that we encounter God, not in sacred places, but in other human beings. Other religions worship God with sacrifices and offerings, but because of Christmas, we Christians worship God by loving God in each other. “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do it to me” (Matthew 25:40).

Because of Christmas, every human being has become a brother and sister of the Son of God and therefore a child of God. Because of Christmas, the whole human race is one family, God’s family. What God wants most of all is that we live together like God’s family. In a family, the parents don’t give three of the children sirloin steaks for dinner while the fourth is given bread and jam – but that is what is happening today in God’s family, where 1 billion people live on the edge of destitution. No, in a family, everyone shares what is available. In a family, the parents don’t give three of the children a nice room and a comfortable

bed to themselves, while telling the fourth to sleep on the porch outside the front door. But that is what is happening today in God’s family, with homeless people, migrants and refugees.

Jesus came to show us how to live as God’s family. He gathered a group of disciples who, during the life of Jesus, lived together with him as God wishes us to live together. This group of disciples became, after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the early Christian community. Their mission was to continue to show the rest of the world how to live together as God’s family. When others looked at this community, they were astonished. They could not understand the total selfsacrificing love which those in the community had for each other.

“See how they love one another,” they exclaimed in amazement.

The Christian community was to be “the light of the world,” showing how people should live together. They were to be “the salt

of the earth” showing people the meaning of life. But Jesus warned them that if the community stopped loving each other with this radical self-sacrificing love, then “the salt will lose its flavour and be good for nothing but to be trampled underfoot” (Matthew 5:13–16). That’s the responsibility we take on when we become Christians.

There is a lovely story in a book

by Fr Gregory Boyle SJ, Tattoos on the Heart – the Power of Boundless Compassion. Fr Greg works with gang members in Los Angeles. The church to which he was attached began to take in homeless people to sleep there at night. On Sunday mornings, despite all the air fresheners and a liberal swinging of incense, there was a smell of feet lingering in the church building as the parishioners came to mass. Some started grumbling and talked of going to church somewhere else.

Fr Greg held a meeting. “What

does the church smell like?” he asked. “Smells like feet,” one man said. “Why does it smell like feet?” Fr Greg asked. “Because many homeless people sleep here,” another said. “Why do we let that happen?” asks Fr Greg.

“It’s what we’re committed to do,” said another. “Well why would anyone commit to do that?” asked Fr Greg. “It’s what Jesus would do,” said someone else. “Well, what does the church smell like now?” Fr Greg asked. A man stood up and said “It smells like commitment.” “It smells like roses,” said someone else.

The packed church roared with laughter. From then on, the smell in the church didn’t change, just how the parishioners saw it.

One Sunday, shortly afterwards, a former parishioner drove by and talked to Fr Greg about being baptised in the church and making his first communion there. He saw gang members gathered at the church door, homeless men and women being fed in the soup kitchen in the parking lot, folks arriving for AA and NA meetings. The man shook his head, disgusted.

“You know,” he said, “this used to be a church.” Fr Greg replied, “You know, most people around here think it has finally become a church.”

That is the meaning of Christmas. Without Christmas, we would want the church to be clean, to smell nice, to be comfortable, a place where we could worship God without being distracted.

39

GIVING THE GIFT OF LIFE THIS CHRISTMAS

40

The

birth of a baby is a precious time, but for women living in Somalia, it’s too often a matter of life and death. With the help of donations from the Irish people, Trócaire is putting the safety of mothers and newborns at the top of the agenda.

A young mother about to give birth, travelling by donkey along a dry, dusty road may sound like an image from the nativity, but it’s actually a scene being played out on a daily basis in Somalia.

This war-torn east African country might be renowned for its infamous pirates who operate off its coast, but the entire nation has been devastated by decades of internal strife which has left millions living in dire poverty without vital services. Life there is fragile in the extreme for mothers and their newborn babies, and the region has one of the highest maternal death rates in the world.

The Christmas story concerns the gift of life, not the horrors of death. Mary and Joseph had searched long into the night for a safe place to deliver their child. Turned

REALITY DECEMBER 2014

away from the inn, their only refuge was a dimly-lit stable. So it was there that Jesus of Nazareth was born, in the most primitive of settings, surrounded by lowing cattle. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, under the loving eyes of his parents.

Thousands of years later, mothers in Somalia face the same uncertainties as Mary.

How and where can they bring the new life, which they’ve carried and nurtured for nine months, safely into the world?

Asha and her baby boy

TRÓ CA I R E

ALONE AND VULNERABLE Traditionally, women in Somalia give birth at home without trained medical support. Only 9% of births are attended by a skilled birth attendant and one out of every twelve women dies as a result of pregnancy-related causes.

Giving birth in a health centre or hospital greatly improves the chances of survival of both mothers and babies, but Somalia’s geography can make this problematic.

It’s a hot, arid country dissected by poor roads.

In such terrain, donkeys and carts are the most common means of transporting people from remote villages and settlements to the clinics and hospitals.

Thanks to the generous support of Irish people, Trócaire is providing women in Somalia with a safe haven in which to give birth via its network of hospitals and health posts in the south central region of Gedo. Women and their babies receive medical care before and after birth, increasing their chances of survival and boosting their health.

NEIGHBOURLY HELP Asha, who lives in the Bellet Amin village in Gedo, is one such mother who has been helped by the project. Now in her mid-30s, she had previously lost a baby girl while giving birth alone at home and suffered from a postnatal infection. During her subsequent pregnancy, Asha was concerned and called her neighbour – a traditional birth attendant – to come and help.

The baby wasn’t positioned well and so, with no vehicles operating during the night in the region due to security risks and her husband away from home, the neighbour rushed to fetch a donkey and cart to carry Asha to Bulla Hawa maternity ward.

Asha gave birth safely in one of the most dangerous places in the world for women, delivering a healthy baby boy. She received a ‘baby kit' containing a baby blanket, soap, powder and nappies, was given iron and vitamin supplements to prevent anaemia and offered a counselling session on the importance of breastfeeding.

Somalia's immunisation rates are amongst the lowest in the world and one in ten children die

before their fifth birthday, so Asha’s baby boy was vaccinated against tuberculosis and polio to help him survive his first years.

SUPPORTING NEW MOTHERS As part of its Christmas gift range, Trócaire is offering two gifts to help mothers and their newborn babies in Somalia enjoy a healthy start to their lives together. For €100, the gift of safe motherhood will fund medical care and train midwives to deliver healthy babies and support new mothers. The gift of a birth certificate, at €15, will give parents proof of their baby’s place and date of birth in the absence of a formal birth registration system in Somalia. This gift is also an incentive for mothers to go to a Trócaire hospital to receive medical care during and after their pregnancy.

The war in Somalia has had a numbing impact over the past 20 years. But as well as saving lives, the safe motherhood programme is

delivering longer-term benefits to the country, providing basic essential services to give Somalians a feeling of hope and to encourage the community to work together to protect these services.

For Asha and many mothers like her, the benefits of this programme are already clear.

And if their children can survive their perilous first years, who knows what they’ll go on to achieve for their community in the future.

Trócaire gifts can be bought online at trocaire.org, over the phone on 1850 408 408, in Veritas stores, selected Easons stores and in Trócaire centres in Maynooth, Co. Kildare; Cathedral Street, Dublin; Cook Street, Cork; or King Street, Belfast. Trócaire One4all gift cards are another way to gift a donation this Christmas and are on sale in An Post post offices nationwide or on one4all.ie.

Trócaire Gifts This Christmas

41

Chickens for rural families in Kenya – €7 Birth certificates for babies in Somalia – €15 School kits for children in Trócaire’s school programme in Somalia – €30 Protecting communities from disasters such as drought and floods – €65 Support for grandparents caring for orphaned grandchildren in Ethiopia and Kenya – €85

Empowering female entrepreneurs in Ethiopia – €250

Goats for farmers in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo – €50

Safe motherhood for women in Somalia – €100 Clean water sources for communities worldwide – €150

Land on which to live and farm for families in Myanmar, Honduras and Guatemala – €200

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21/10/2014 12:27

Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle (‘You come down from the Stars’)

S

t Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorists, believed passionately in the love of God for humanity. He used all the means at his disposal to communicate this fundamental Christian truth. He preached, wrote on a wide range of topics, painted, and composed music, including classical

chorales and popular hymns and carols. One of his chorales is kept in the British Museum.

He composed ‘Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle’ in the dialect of the Neapolitan people in 1755. It was eventually translated into Italian and, as the Redemptorists spread around the world, into many other languages. It continues to

be a much-loved Italian Christmas carol and is often sung at midnight mass in St Peter’s Basilica. Giuseppe Verdi reputedly remarked: "Christmas without 'Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle' is not Christmas." The carol has been recorded by Luciano Pavarotti and by Andrea Bocelli.

O King of Heaven! from starry throne descending, Thou takest refuge in that wretched cave: O God of bliss! I see Thee cold and trembling.

Thou weepest thus to see me so ungrateful; What pain it cost Thee fallen man to save!

My sins have pierced Thee to the very core; I once despised Thy love, but now I love Thee, Thou, of a thousand worlds the great Creator, I love but Thee; then, Jesus, weep no more.

Dost now the pain of cold and want endure; Thy poverty but makes Thee more endearing, Thou sleepest, Lord, but Thy heart ever watches, For well I know 'tis love has made Thee poor; No slumber can a heart so loving take; I see Thee leave Thy Heavenly Father's bosom, But whither has Thy love transported Thee?

Upon a little straw I see Thee lying; Why suffer thus? 'Tis all for love of me.

But if it is Thy will for me to suffer, And by these sufferings my heart to move, Wherefore, my Jesus, do I see Thee weeping?

'Tis not for pain Thou weepest, but for love.

But tell me, darling Child, of what Thou thinkest.

"I think," he says, "of dying for Thy sake."

Is it for me that Thou dost think of dying!

What, then, O Jesus! can I but love Thee?

Mary, my hope! If I love him too little Be not indignant - love him thou for me.

If you would like to listen to this carol, go to: http://feastofsaints.com/stachristmas.htm

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GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH IMPRESSIVE FIGURE John the Baptist must have looked SECOND SUNDAY and sounded OF ADVENT like a bit of a wild man. He dressed in camel-skin, survived on a diet of locusts and wild honey, lived in the desert, and preached a very uncomfortable and disconcerting message. Not your average man or your average lifestyle.

Yet he had a huge impact on people, and they flocked to him.

In first century Palestine, there were many other voices with other messages. The priests called people to the Temple, the Pharisees emphasized the Law, the Zealots 44 wanted their fellow Jews to take up arms against the Romans. Why, then, did so many respond to John?

Obviously, he impressed them by his holiness and his integrity.

He preached with conviction, and it shone through. He was also a humble person, careful not to claim any glory for himself, as we can see from today’s Gospel.

For many people also, John stood in a strong tradition of radical

prophets stretching back to the Old Testament. They ached for a prophetic voice that would call people to account and would show them the way. They liked, and were challenged, by what the Baptist had to say.

John impressed Jesus too. In fact, John was the one person in that society who really impressed Jesus, the only religious leader that Jesus spoke of with fondness and regard. And Jesus agreed with John’s message of repentance. John called the people of Israel to a change of heart. He warned them of a coming catastrophe if they refused to change their ways.

This was how Jesus began his preaching too. He began by calling on people to change their ways and to turn to God. That message of repentance is addressed to each of us during this Advent season also.

We are called to examine our lives and to see what needs changing so that we will be ready for the Lord when he comes.

PREPARING THE WAY John the Baptist was a wonderful THIRD SUNDAY prophet but OF ADVENT he was also a humble man.

Over and over again, he insisted that he was not the one who was to come but was called only to point the way. He stressed that

someone was coming after him who was greater than he, and whose sandals he was unfit to untie.

There was a reason for John’s humility and why the Gospel writers were so anxious to emphasise it.

John’s reputation had become so great that some people had begun to believe that he might be the long-awaited messiah.

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REALITY DECEMBER 2014

Today’s Readings Is 40:1–5, 9–11; Ps 84; 2 Pet 3:8–14; Mark 1:1–8

Fresco of St John the Baptist by Eduard Engerth,1857, Altlerchenfelder Church, Vienna. © Renata Sedmakova / Shutterstock.com

Even after his death, many of John’s disciples continued to believe that he, and not Jesus, was the Christ.

This is why in today’s Gospel John states point blank that he is not the Christ, and why the Gospel writer stresses so strongly that John is merely a witness to the light, not the light in person.

There is only one light – Jesus of Nazareth.

Just as John the Baptist was a witness to the light in his day, so also are we called to be witnesses to the light in ours. The way we do that is by letting Christ’s light shine through in everything we do.

Today’s Readings Is 61:1–2, 10–11; Luke 1:46–50, 53–54; 1 Th 5:16–24; John 1:6–8, 19–28

MARY’S “YES” In today ’s G o s p e l Mary has an experience DAY that must FOURTH SUN OF ADVENT have utterly shocked her. She receives a visit from the angel Gabriel, who tells her that she has been chosen to be the mother of God’s Son. Imagine the shock, first, of having an angel

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appear before your very eyes. Then imagine being told that God had selected you to give birth to his son! After those two surprises Mary probably didn’t bat an eyelid when the angel finished his visit by informing her that her elderly cousin Elizabeth, who had been barren all her life, was herself with child.

But the most amazing thing of all about the events of that day in Nazareth was not so much what

happened, as Mary’s response to them. Mary was only a young woman, still a teenager, only recently engaged, and the Gospel tells us that she was disturbed and bewildered by what she heard. She wanted to know how all this could happen. But having been assured by the angel that this was God’s plan for her, she didn’t ask for time to think about it, or go to a friend to ask for advice. Instead, she said “yes.” She said, “Be it done unto me

according to your word.” She gave God an unequivocal “yes”. That is why every generation from that time on has called Mary blessed, as we do today. Her total obedience to God allowed Christ to enter into our world and make our salvation possible.

Today’s Readings 2 Sam 7:1–5, 8–12, 14, 16; Ps 88; Rm 16: 25–27; Luke 1:26–38

A sculpture of Mary and the archangel Gabriel outside the Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth © igor kisselev / Shutterstock.com

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God’s Word continues on page 46

THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 10, DECEMBER 2014

SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 8 ACROSS: Across: 1. Fatima, 5. Amazon, 10. Idiotic, 11. Saintly, 12. Lear, 13. Cobra, 15. Moat, 17.

Red, 19. Stella, 21. Litter, 22. Opposes, 23. Astute, 25. Vogues, 28. Rim, 30. Rare, 31. Benin, 32.

Stay, 35. Prelate, 36. Illegal, 37. Assert, 38. Mighty.

DOWN: 2. Agitate, 3. Iota, 4. Anchor, 5. Absurd, 6. Arid, 7. Outpost, 8. Bibles, 9. Oyster, 14.

Bedouin, 16. Sloth, 18. Visor, 20. Ape, 21. Lev, 23. Abrupt, 24. Targets, 26. Uptight, 27. Scylla, 28.

Regent, 29. Miriam, 33. Tame, 34. Blog.

Winner of Crossword No. 8

Johnny Mahon, Harristown, Rathdowney, Co. Laois

ACROSS 1. The land of milk and honey. (6) 5. One who lives in solitude for religious reasons. (6) 10. American mammal with a foxlike face. (7) 11. Bewildered or confused. (7) 12. Morose, looking dejected. (4) 13. The second planet from the Sun. (5) 15. Circle of light around or above the head of a saint. (4) 17. The core of the problem. (3) 19. Deadly snakes. (6) 21. Wind instrument and champagne glass. (6) 22. Female harbinger of death in Gaelic lore. (7) 23. Kick a ball through the legs of an opposing player. (6) 25. Broad-winged birds of prey. (6) 28. The total value of all goods and services produced in a country in a year. (3) 30. Heal meat to preserve it. (4) 31. French artist associated with dancers. (5) 32. Lock company and American university. (4) 35. A small ornament of little value. (7) 36. Live through mortal danger. (7) 37. One under par in golf. (6) 38. A severe flood. (6)

DOWN 2. Yield to disease or despair. (7) 3. Highly excited by curiosity or eagerness.

(4) 4. The lime-tree. (6) 5. A chaotic din caused by a crowd. (6) 6. The Eternal City. (4) 7. A precise moment of time. (7) 8. Extremely mournful or fatal. (6) 9. Extremely unpleasant, repulsive. (6) 14. Providing care for the sick and infirm. (7) 16. Biblical tower of many languages. (5) 18. Describes a severe landscape, building or room. (5) 20. Sink in the middle through pressure. (3) 21. A payment to a professional. (3) 23. A fine point or distinction, it's often legal. (6) 24. Where trains and buses end. (7) 26. Spending time in idleness. (7) 27. Vegetables and native of Stockholm. (6) 28. Not severe, rough or violent. (6) 29. Stopped for a moment. (6) 33. Slide into kids. (4) 34. Uttered by the mouth. (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.10, December 2014 Name: Address:

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH continued from page 45

MODEL FAMILY DECEMBER Many of us tend to have an idealised image of the Holy Family. We imagine it as a family where nothing ever went wrong, where there were no troubles or confusions or misunderstandings of HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY AND any kind, a family that was perfect in every way.

The trouble with this sort of image, though, is JOSEPH that none of us could relate to or identify with it. It is too idealistic. Good and all as our family life might be, and hard as we might try, we couldn’t possibly match it. That is why today the church tries to present a more realistic picture of what the Holy Family was like.

Of course the family of Nazareth was an extraordinary family, like no other in history, but it was also an ordinary family with its conflicts, problems and misunderstandings.

Mary and Joseph’s life together got off to a rocky start. Remember how Mary became pregnant without Joseph knowing, and how he was planning to leave her until an angel intervened. When the time came for Jesus to be born, they couldn’t find accommodation anywhere. No sooner had they dealt with that problem than they had to flee their country in the middle of the night to save their child from Herod’s henchmen. They knew what it was like to be refugees, strangers in a strange land. And they knew what it was like to be short of money.

Today’s Gospel tells us how they could not afford the normal offering of a lamb when they went up to the Temple for the rite of purification. All they were able to give was the poor family’s gift of a couple of pigeons. While in the Temple they were undoubtedly also confused and frightened by Simeon’s prediction about the turmoil their child would cause and about the sword that would pierce Mary’s heart.

Remember how Jesus went missing as a 12-year-old, and his parents spent three days frantically searching for him, before finding him in the Temple, oblivious to their distress.

Nor did the problems stop once Jesus began his public ministry.

At the marriage in Cana, Jesus and his mother did not exactly see eye to eye. And then there was the time when Mary and the rest of the family came after Jesus and pleaded with him to come home, thinking he had lost his mind.

The Holy Family was not trouble-free. Which is why it is for us a source of consolation and hope. Whatever family problems we may be experiencing right now, Jesus, Mary and Joseph understand what we’re going through. They know all about the stresses and strains of family life. They have been there themselves. Don’t be afraid to ask them for help.

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Today’s Readings

Telephone:

Gn 15:1–6, 21:1–3; Ps 104; Heb 11:8,11–12,17–19; Luke 2: 22–40 All entries must reach us by December 31, 2014 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. 10, Redemptorist Communications, 75 Orwell Rd., Rathgar, Dublin 6

COM M E N T OUR BROKEN WORLD JOHN BOWLER

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS ARE KEY IN ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGNS

Small is beautiful. Sometimes it really is. Take Ireland for instance, and our political system. Politics in Ireland, and our politicians, are accessible. And to a campaigner that is beautiful.

Over my years of campaigning I have been based in, and visited, many countries. The style and type of government of any country has a significant impact on how a campaign is organised.

In Ireland, although I disagree vehemently with some decisions taken on environmental issues, I have to say that I have almost always been able to meet with the relevant minister to discuss the issue both before and after policy is agreed and/or legislation is enacted.

This is very important. It is very difficult, even with a highly visible and robust campaign, to have all your concerns understood by the government if you cannot sit face-to-face and dialogue with them.

One of the principles I have always held in my campaigning is to do my best to inform and include everybody, and that includes politicians. In Ireland, although often very frustrating, I have managed to do this. The door has always been open. It is important to remember that these same politicians are the ones who will actually decide the issue so keeping them well informed is essential.

I cannot say that it is easy to do this in Australia. It is a large country. It is a continent. It has both state governments and a federal government. So, in many instances it is necessary to brief both state and federal administrations. Due to the size of the country it is also not so easy to get to meet the politicians faceto-face. You may be in Perth on the west coast, but the federal minister you want is based in Melbourne in the south east, and he or she sits in a parliament on

the east coast. The distances are staggering. Perth to Melbourne is over two thousand miles (just under 3,500 km), and it is a further 420 miles (675 km) to Canberra where the federal parliament sits.

This does not make it easy. Perth is 2,300 miles (3,800 km) from the parliament. Even flights are long distance. The U.S. has the same distance problems.

Face-to-face dialogue is so important. Not only with the politicians but also with those in industry and business that those of us in the environmental movement sometimes target.

So when I eventually get back to Ireland I am going to stop complaining about the time it takes me to get to the Dáil or to a particular government department.

It is not only the distance that can be a problem in some countries. We are lucky in Ireland that we have a relatively open

system of government. It may take a number of letters, phone calls and emails, but eventually one usually gets the meeting with the desired politician. In my twenty years of campaigning I can only remember one minister who refused to meet. I will not name names. However, in some places I have been it is nigh impossible to get a meeting with a senior politician, democracy or not.

So if you are running a campaign – environmental, justice, poverty, human rights, whatever – don’t give up until you get that meeting.

It is of critical importance that those who sit in Leinster House understand your position. Some will agree with you if you can brief them well enough, some will disagree. Some campaigns you will win and some you will lose.

Dialogue with all sides, dialogue with all stakeholders, will give you a better chance of winning your cause. So get out there and start knocking on ministerial doors.

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CHRIST COMMUNITY COMPASSION THINK ABOUT IT

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