Reality Winter 2016 (Jan/Feb)

ST FINTAN THE GREAT SAINT OF CO. LAOIS

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

CLIMATE CHANGE ITS EFFECTS ON RURAL KENYA

TEACHING YOUR CHILD TO SHOW APPROPRIATE ANGER

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

PEACE PRIEST THE LATE FR GERARD REYNOLDS CSsR ON FELLOWSHIP AND RECONCILIATION

THE EUCHARIST GOD'S TABLE FOR ALL CHRISTIANS MEMBERS OF THREE CHURCHES ON WHAT THE EUCHARIST MEANS TO THEM

POPE FRANCIS AND NULLITY OF MARRIAGE

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IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES 12 HOLY COMMUNION IN FITZROY How Belfast Christians share as far as they are able each other’s celebration By + FR Gerard Reynolds CSsR

14 ANGLICANS AND THE EUCHARIST How the Church of Ireland celebrates the Eucharist

By Canon Patrick Comerford

18 HOLY COMMUNION AND THE PEOPLE CALLED METHODISTS How Methodists celebrate Holy Communion

By Gillian Kingston

21 REFORMED AND REFORMING: GATHERING AROUND THE TABLE OF THE LORD

12 12-25

Presbyterians and the Lord’s Supper

By Rev Dr Katherine P Meyer

26 QUESTIONS TO JESUS: “WHY DOES YOUR TEACHER EAT WITH TAX COLLECTORS AND SINNERS?”

By Mike Daley

28 THE FATHER OF ACUSTICS PRIEST-SCIENTIST MARIN MARSENNE A French friar studied the mysteries of sound in the silence of the cloister

By Susan Gatley

32 POPE FRANCIS AND NULLITY OF MARRIAGE A CANON LAWYER LOOKS AT THE NEW REGULATIONS Pope Francis simplifies annulment process

By Professor Sean Cannon CSsR

36 OUR LADY VISITS THE HOMES OF BELFAST CELEBRATING THE ICON JUBILEE IN CLONARD Belfast families are invited to host a copy of the icon

By Catherine Green

40 DEGREES OF SEPARATION: CLIMATE CHANGE IN RURAL KENYA Rural Africa pays a high price for global warming

By Meabh Smith

12

40

OPINION

REGULARS

11 BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

04 REALITY BITES

25 DAVID O'DONOGHUE

07 POPE MONITOR

31 CARMEL WYNNE

08 HAVE YOUR SAY

43 PETER Mc VERRY SJ

09 REFLECTIONS 44 UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 45 GOD’S WORD

REALITY BITES TAKING THE HOLY YEAR MESSAGE TO THE SHOPPING MALLS SHANNON

GIVE UP YOUR AULD SINS

Some Irish parishes brought the Holy Year message of mercy to Christmas shoppers in their local shopping centres during the run up to Christmas. Sixteen priests were available to customers for confessions in the Skycourt Shopping Centre in Shannon, Co. Clare on 8 December, traditionally a busy shopping day as well as the day the Holy Year celebrations began. Fr Tom Ryan, parish priest of Shannon, said the initiative by himself and his fellow priests was a literal response to the Pope’s call to go out to the market place and proclaim the Gospel.

Many Dublin shopping malls have small chapels or oratories where shoppers can escape from the crowds for a moment of peace and prayer. Capuchin Friar, Fr Dan Joe O’Mahony, who is in charge of the oratory in the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, said ministering in shopping malls

4

Fr Tom Ryan © ShannonParish.ie

OUR LADY’S WORLD WIDE APPEAL WASHINGTON

A SIGN OF HOPE AND SOLACE

The December cover story of National Geographic Magazine was entitled “Mary: the Most Powerful Woman in the World.” The editor of the issue, Maureen Orth, a practising Catholic, said what made the biggest impression on her while interviewing people for the article was Mary's universal appeal across diverse cultures."It was a huge journey all over the world," she said after a year visiting Marian shrines in many countries seeing how Mary is the "hope and solace of so many people including Muslims.

The Muslim appreciation of Mary, as a "holy woman of God," she said, is a point both Christianity and Islam have in common and it is something to be explored especially in a time of strife caused by religious extremism.

She also witnessed the deep faith of REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

pilgrims who have travelled great distances to sanctuaries be where apparitions of Mary are said to have taken place. In Medjugorje, she met four cancer victims. Two have since died, one is continuing treatment and another shows no further signs of the disease, but all four spoke of experiencing spiritual conversion and inner peace. A place she discovered in her research was the small village of Kibeho in Rwanda, where three young girls reported that Mary appeared to them in the 1980s and foretold the genocide that took place in that country in 1994. One of the girls was killed in the genocide, another entered a convent in Italy and a third fled her country when the Hutu majority attacked the Tutsi minority and more than 800,000 people were killed.

was about “meeting people where they are at.” The Dominicans run the Oratory of the Holy Family in The Square at Tallaght near their priory, providing Mass, confession and adoration several days each week. Among the regular services offered by the Servites in the Oratory of St Peregrine in the Rathfarnham shopping centre is a weekly novena in honour of St Peregrine, patron of cancer sufferers.

Cornelscourt, Co Dublin, was probably one of the first Irish shopping centres with a chapel. Sacramental ministry began there more than forty years ago when confessions were available in a prefab in the car-park.

The present oratory was erected in the early 1990s and has a religious bookshop attached.

Over eighty people attend each of its two daily masses.

N E WS

NEW SPRING-TIME FOR THE FRENCH CHURCH? PARIS

SILENT REVOLUTION

About 56 percent of France’s total population has been baptized Catholic. Weekly Mass-going Catholics constitute about 6 percent of the overall population, while a further 15 percent are “occasional” Mass-goers, for major feast days or similar occasions. Taken together they amount to 13 million out of 66 million French citizens who have some active relationship with the Church and some regions are more actively Catholic than others.

Are there signs that the decline may be in reverse? One of the nation’s largest newspapers, Le Figaro, thinks it may be. In an article published in October, it described “the silent revolution of the Catholics of France.” That revolution was probably launched by Jean-Marie Lustiger and is now beginning to bear fruit. Born of Polish-Jewish parents, he converted to Catholicism at the age of 16, becoming in 1984 Cardinal Archbishop of Paris where he opened a new style of seminary, launched Catholic radio and television stations and created new opportunities for Catholics to engage and argue with secular thinkers. He has been followed by a generation of new bishops, including his own successor, André Vingt-Trois, often described as décomplexé, who refuse to be overawed by secular France. In some cases, they

Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger

were formed by secular France, having studied in the universities or the state-sponsored and exclusive Grandes Ecoles. Above all, they are intensely engaged with the Church’s responsibility to evangelise society. Alongside a small but steady increase in priestly vocations, there has also been a remarkable increase in the number of new religious movements. Often with a base in the charismatic renewal, the movements have produced many vocations to the priesthood and religious life. They also enable thousands of lay people to live “high-intensity Catholicism” in a way that is markedly different from the Catholicism

of neighbouring countries on the European mainland. One of its most public displays may have been the coalition of groups opposed to same-sex marriage which brought hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets in 2012.

Although Le Manif pour Tous, as the group is known, includes people from many backgrounds, French lay Catholics have been prominent in its organisation. While it is too early to speak of any radical growth in numbers of practicing Catholics, commentators have noted the increase of young parents with children at Sunday Mass.

MOSLEM COUNTRIES BAN CELEBRATION OF CHRISTMAS The governments of three countries, Somalia, Tajikistan and Brunei, banned Christmas celebrations in 2015, imposing punishments up to a five-year jail term. Somalia issued its ban a week before Christmas. “We warn against celebration of Christmas, which is only for Christians,” Sheikh Mohamed Kheyrow, director of Somalia’s ministry of religion, said on state radio. “The Christmas holiday and its drum beatings have nothing to do with Islam.” He said the ministry has sent letters to the police and other security personnel in the capital Mogadishu instructing them to “prevent Christmas celebrations”.

The nominally secular central Asian republic of Tajikistan, which has a majority of Moslems in its population, banned Christmas trees and gift-giving in schools. This follows a crackdown on Hallowe’en and Father Frost, the Russian equivalent of Santa The oil-rich sultanate of Brueni has also banned Christmas celebrations, representing a shift towards hardline Islamic law. Its ruler, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, one of the world’s richest men, announced last year he would push ahead with the introduction of sharia law, including tough penalties such as death by stoning or severed

limbs. The Sultanate’s religious leaders warned in December that a ban on Christmas would be strictly enforced, for fear that Muslims could be led astray. According to the imams, using religious symbols like crosses, lighting candles, putting up Christmas trees, singing religious songs, sending Christmas greetings are against Islamic faith.

Punishment for violating the ban is a five-year jail sentence. Last year, Muslims were warned they would be committing an offence if they so much as wore “hats or clothes that resemble Santa Claus.”

continued on page 6

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REALITY BITES NUN AMONG BBC’s TOP 100 WOMEN VENEZUELA

WE ARE ALL GOD'S CHILDREN

The BBC Foreign Service has compiled a list of the top 100 women in the world. It includes a Venezuelan religious sister, Sister Neyda Rojas.

Sister Neyda has for the past seventeen years has been serving God in a place that many describe as hell on earth - a Venezuelan prison.

For decades, prisons in the country here have been criticised by human rights organisations for serious violations of prisoners’ rights.

Sister Neyda, a member of the Mercedarian order, which was originally founded to secure the release of hostages held by pirates, helps teach the inmates some basic life skills, including literacy. "I have always seen the face of God in

their faces", she said. Often, the prisoners are effectively in charge inside the prison. They have weapons, a leadership structure and strict rules.

Prisoners who do not follow the rules often pay with their lives, human rights groups and former inmates say. "I am sure they will never shoot me,” she says, “God is with me. They will never do anything against me. In fact, they protect me."

Although she acknowledges that many of the inmates have committed serious crimes, she cannot stop seeing them as "God's children."

"They've lost their freedom, but not their dignity.

As a Mercedarian missionary who works in a jail, I have to serve them every day.”

Sr Neyda Rojas © BBC

She says the prison has given her the chance to feel maternal. One of her fondest memories is delivering the baby of a female prisoner who went into early labour. Another time a woman handed her a baby in a shoebox. The child was so ill, Neyda had to beg doctors to help her save it. She visited her in hospital every three hours and asked new mothers if they could breastfeed the child. The girl is now 18 years old and says that she has three mothers - her biological one, who died in prison, her adoptive mother and Sister Neyda.

TWO BISHOPS DEPART, ANOTHER COMES 6

Bishop Anthony Farquhar

Bishop Anthony Farquhar retired as auxiliary bishop of Down and Connor on 4 December, 2015 after serving thirty two years in the office. Always a very popular figure, Bishop Farquhar had spent 32years in that office. Prior to his appointment as bishop, Fr Tony Farquhar spent his early priestly life among young people, as teacher in St Mac Nissi’s College, Garron Tower and as chaplain in Queen’s and in the University of Ulster. Bishop Farquhar’s particular area of concern was ecumenism and he was to the forefront in encouraging ecumenical endeavours both in his native diocese and elsewhere. His passion for soccer is also widely known. He was President of Queens University Association Football Club and Patron of the Irish Universities Football Union.

Paying tribute to him on is retirement, Archbishop Eamon Martin said that he was “held in great affection by people throughout the country” through his work as “a teacher, lecturer, chaplain and in the area of inter-Church and inter-faith relations.”

REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

Bishop Dermot O’Mahony

Bishop Dermot O’Mahony, retired auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, died on December 10 aged 80, following a lengthy illness. Bishop O’Mahony became one of the youngest bishops ever appointed in Ireland in 1975 when he was made auxiliary bishop aged just 40. He chaired the Irish Bishops’ Commission for Justice and Peace during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and was active in supporting chaplains in the Maze prison. He retired as auxiliary bishop on health grounds in June 1996.

Bishop O’Mahony was sharply criticised in the Murphy Report over his handling of clerical abuse cases and issued an apology in 2009 saying he profoundly regretted “that any action or inaction of mine should have contributed to the suffering of even a single child. ”Since his death, others have been outspoken in his defence. A fellow auxiliary, Bishop Eamonn Walsh, told mourners at the funeral that Bishop O’Mahony had suffered deeply in “a society that at the time ignored the spirit of equity”.

Mgr Paul Tighe, a Dublin priest, has been appointed titular Bishop of Drivastrum and Adjunct Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture. He is currently Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication.

During his eight years at the Council, Mgr Tighe has visited many countries encouraging and supporting the local church in the ever changing media environment. He is a native of Navan and taught moral theology in Clonliffe College and Mater Dei prior to taking up his Vatican appointment.

Mgr Paul Tighe

N E WS

POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS “HOLY FATHER, WOULD YOU PREFER A BIG MAC OR A CHEESE BURGER?”

© Courtesy of The Irish Examiner

An Irish schoolboy, Gary Keaveney aged 13, from Dunmore in Galway, was planning on going to Rome on pilgrimage. There was one person he especially wanted to meet in Rome, so he decided to write to Pope Francis, inviting him to share a burger with him near the Vatican.

Gary’s letter was passed on to the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Brown, who organised special tickets for him and his family at the weekly papal audience in St Peter’s Square.

When rain threatened to put a damper on proceedings before the audience began, some of the guests, including Gary and his family, were brought inside for a special meeting with Pope Francis. Gary had gone to Rome during his mid-term break along with his mother, grandmother and sister. They were part of an Irish Faith and Light group of thirty-seven families. Faith and Light supports families with special needs. Gary, who has Down syndrome, was thrilled to meet Pope Francis, but unfortunately, they did not get to share that burger.

DID POPE FRANCIS CURE A BABY WITH A KISS? It has been claimed that a baby’s inoperable brain tumour has reduced in size following a kiss on the head from Pope Francis. During the Holy Fathers’ visit to Philadephia, little Gianna Masciantoni was passed up to the Pope Mobile by one of the security guards and Pope Francis kissed her head. Her parents Joey and Kristen Masciantonio claim that recent x-rays have shown a reduction in the tumour. Her father said: “I think this is all from God. I believe the Pope is a messenger from God.”

THE POPE’S DAY OUT

Pope Francis does not take too many holidays, so an informal surprise visit to the place where his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, created the world's first Nativity scene attracted attention. The pope had nothing listed on his official schedule, and so he used the free day to visit the Franciscan shrine in Greccio, a town 60 miles north-east7 of Rome and 56 miles south of Assisi. Pope Francis arrived in a blue Ford Focus accompanied by two plainclothes security guards. He even caught shrine's staff completely off guard. "I didn't even have my habit on, so I had to go and put it on before opening the gate for the Holy Father,” said Franciscan Father Alfredo Silvestri. After praying for some time, he made an unannounced stop at a local youth meeting organised by the diocese. He told the young people that their bishop had told him it would be a good idea to pray at Greccio during the Christmas season. "So I came to pray. But I won't say what white lie he used to lure me here!" the pope joked. "The sky is full of stars, isn't it? But there is one that is special that inspired the Three Wise Men to leave everything behind and begin a journey into the unknown.” We have to ask for this grace of discovering 'the star' that God today wants to show us, because it is that will lead me to Jesus, the pope continued.

Pope Francis signs a book during a surprise visit to the Franciscan shrine in Greccio, Italy

FEAST OF THE MONTH ST FINTAN OF CLONENAGH

8

My first introduction to St Fintan was in the Old (1847) Primary School in Kiskeam, Co. Cork. What stayed in my mind from that first introduction was the description in my schoolbook of the feast that Fintan’s father had put on as a farewell party before the son departed for a new career in the monastic life. If indeed a farewell party had taken place for Fintan, it surely was his last because in later years his monastic Rule was noted, if not notorious, for the scope of its severity and strictness, even by Irish monastic standards of the day.

His early training in monastic life and his own subsequent career never took him too far from home.

For a saint who is so well remembered in the Irish tradition there is little known with any certainty except that he is forever associated with his monastery at Clonenagh in Co. Laois. There, rising out of the bog on the western side of the old Limerick-Dublin road, about a mile beyond Mountrath, is a knoll without building or monument but conspicuous nevertheless for the density of its burials.

On my way to Dublin on a sunny morning in early summer I paused at Clonenagh , sat among the dead and joined them in praising God with Lauds, the Church’s official Morning Prayer. This was the site chosen by Fintan as ‘the place of his resurrection’. And here he was laid to rest in 603.

It can also be deduced from the mediaeval Lives that it was in this vicinity that he had been born.

Family connections were thought to have been good; the genealogists say that he was of the Fotharta clan; and had he been that way inclined he might even have been able to claim a relationship with the great St Brigid herself.

Putting some shape on his life we can state loosely that Fintan was born in the 520s and was baptised by a local priest. Having received some basic grounding in education from his baptiser, he is thought to have entered the monastery of Terryglass beside Lough Derg on the eastern bank of the Shannon in North Tipperary. Here he lived as a hermit until such time as he established an independent monastic community close to his home in Clonenagh.

Fintan’s strict Rule required abstinence from all meat and dairy products including milk and butter.

The diet was limited to bread, vegetables, herbs and water. Nevertheless, recruits flocked to him from all over the country. It is told that St Canice (Cainnech) of Aghabo and some other spiritual heavyweights came to him pleading for more leniency towards the monks. Fintan yielded to their request, but did not afford the same privileges to himself.

Among his most famous alumni were Comgall, founder of the great monastery of Bangor, and Aengus-the-Ceile-Dé (i.e., St Aengus of Tallaght) the outstanding 8th century authority on the history of early Irish saints.. Clonenagh, like most monasteries in the midlands suffered destruction at the hands of Turgesius the Dane in the 9th century and after the 12th century it fades from history.

Through the late mediaeval period pilgrims trudged across bog and causeway to pray at this hallowed spot. A wealth of folk traditions accumulated with each passing year; one such tradition maintains that the first church was built overnight; another tops it with the tradition that the causeway known as ‘St Fintan’s Road’ was came into existence an instantaneously.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I the nearby Ballyfin estate passed to the Crosbies/Crossans.

New owners from Devonshire replaced the Crosbie Castle with Ballyfin House and with a further change of ownership the property passed to the Coots. An ancient vellum manuscript, the Book of Clonenagh, survived in the Ballyfin estate until the mid 17th century when it is thought to have perished in a fire together with a crosier and other relic. Despite these losses however, the memory of the holy man lives on in the popularity of the name. Fintan is frequently chosen as a name for boys while Mountrath’s gothic parish church with its graceful spire rises into the heavens like the prayers of the saint after whom it is named.

John J. Ó Riordáin, CSsR REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

Reality Volume 81. No. 1 January 2016 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960 Published by The Irish Redemptorists, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin 09 X651 Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)

Chair, Redemptorist Communications Seamus Enright CSsR Editor Brendan McConvery CSsR bmcconvery@redcoms.org Design & Layout David Mc Namara CSsR dmcnamara@redcoms.org General Manager Paul Copeland pcopeland@redcoms.org Sales & Marketing Claire Carmichael ccarmichael@redcoms.org Administration & Accounts Michelle McKeon mmckeon@redcoms.org Printed by Nicholson & Bass, Belfast Photo Credits Catholic News Service, 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.

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REFLECTIONS We should ask God to increase our hope when it is small, awaken it when it is dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, and raise it up when it is overthrown.

JOHN CALVIN

What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.

JOHN WESLEY

If we are to better the future, we must disturb the present.

CATHERINE BOOTH

I wasn't God's first choice for what I've done in China.

I don't know who it was: perhaps a man, a welleducated man. I don't know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn't willing but and God looked down, and saw Gladys Aylward and God said, 'Well, she's willing.

GLADYS AYLWARD

When we believe that God is Father, we also believe that such a father's hand will never cause his child a needless tear. We may not understand life any better, but we will not resent life any longer.

WILLIAM BARCLAY

A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.

RUTH BELL GRAHAM

Drink has shed more blood, hung more mourningcrepe, sold more homes, plunged more people into bankruptcy, armed more villains, slain more children, snapped more wedding rings, defiled more innocence, blinded more eyes, dethroned more reason, wrecked more manhood, dishonoured more womanhood, broken more hearts, blasted more lives, driven more to suicide and dug more graves than any other evil that has cursed the world.

EVANGELINE BOOTH

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.

One should honour Mary as she herself wished and as she expressed it in the Magnificat. The true honour of Mary is the honour of God, the praise of God’s grace. Mary does not wish that we come to her but through her to God. MARTIN LUTHER

Sometimes you say to yourself: the fire in me is going out. But you were not the one who lit that fire. Your faith does not create God, and your doubts cannot banish Him to nothingness.

BR ROGER OF TAIZÉ

If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, then it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a foetus in the womb before it has come to light.

JOHN CALVIN

CORRIE TEN BOOM

At the end of the Middle Ages, nobody would ever have expected the monasteries to vanish from the scene within a generation - yet they did.

Change does happen.

Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.

JOHN WESLEY

ROWAN WILLIAMS

The only time my prayers are never answered is on the golf course.

Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.

BILLY GRAHAM

CORRIE TEN BOOM

9

20th - 21st February 2016

“Our Father... forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”

Speakers for 2016

20th - 21st February 2016 Main Hall, RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

Tickets: Saturday €30, Sunday €20, Weekend €35 Available online by Paypal For Group Bookings or Enquiries Phone: 086 066 9203 Email: divinemercyconference@gmail.com Conference Hours: Saturday 9am - 9pm, Sunday: 9am - 5.30pm The Conference opens with confessions, mass and adoration on Friday 19th February from 7pm - open to all, no ticket required for the vigil, doors open from 6.30pm Live web cast throughout the weekend- see www.divinemercyconference.com Thank you for your prayer and support for this great annual event Full programme and the latest information on our website www.divinemercyconference.com

EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

IN MEMORY

Some

years ago, I was celebrating a Mass at home for some family occasion. More than fifty of us filled the living room. At communion time, the youngest member of the congregation, my nephew, stretched out his hand expectantly for communion. I knew he was due to make his first communion a few weeks later, so I said, ‘wait and I will get you a special one in a minute.’ He burst into tears, and refused the unconsecrated host I offered him. “No, it’s not the same!” He said. The boy was a much better theologian than his uncle. I had refused him communion, “excommunicated” him, even though he was probably the holiest one of us in the room. That’s one reason why I prefer the Orthodox custom of admitting children to communion from baptism, and offering them a small piece of the consecrated bread soaked in the consecrated wine.

In this number, we are privileged to publish the last article written by a Redemptorist who was passionate about the Eucharist as a gift to be shared by all Christians. Fr Gerry Reynolds spent more than thirty years as a member of the community at Clonard Monastery, Belfast. He played a key role in the dialogue with all sides involved in the northern conflict that led eventually to the cease-fire in 1994, followed by the decommissioning of arms by the IRA in 2005 and the long-drawn out, and still continuing, search for the bodies of the disappeared.

Fr Gerry was committed in both mind and heart to realising, as best he could, the prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper that all may be one. The realisation of that prayer, and perhaps also a means to making it a reality, is in the Eucharist. To gather around the table of the Lord with all his Christian brothers and sisters was a dream Gerry held dear. Yet, he was careful to observe the discipline of his own

Roman Catholic Church, both in admitting others to Holy Communion and in sharing in the communion of another Church. His article describes the beginnings of a group called In Joyful Hope. For about five years, it has been taking a step towards Eucharistic communion while observing the norms of the member churches. Presbyterians, Methodists, Anglicans and Catholics come together regularly to fulfil Jesus’ command, “Do this in memory of me”.

One of the founders of the group, the late Rev. Dennis Cooke, a Methodist, drafted the group’s visionary guideline which declares: “the joy of being present at the Eucharistic worship of another Christian tradition is greater than the pain experienced by observing this discipline [of not communicating]”.

In this number, members of three Churches – Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian – describe how they celebrate the Eucharist and what it means to them. We are assuming that, since most of our readers are Roman Catholic, they will be familiar with how their church celebrates the Eucharist and what it means to them.

Why do Catholics not communicate at the Eucharist of another Church? The simplest answer is that the Catholic view is that there must be unity in faith before there is unity at the table. Is that the final answer? Not necessarily. Catholic canon law gives greater latitude for generosity than is commonly supposed, and at a recent visit to the Lutheran community in Rome, Pope Francis answered a question on intercommunion saying, “Always refer back to your baptism – one faith, one baptism, one Lord: this Paul tells us; and then consequences come later.”

Catholic theology on the Eucharistic presence of the Lord is rich. It is also tied up with other fundamental notions, such as the nature of priesthood and of the apostolic succession of ministry within the Church. A consequence is that it can appear less than generous in its understanding of what goes when our nonRoman Catholic brothers and sisters celebrate the Lord’s Supper. In his article, Fr Gerry describes in simple, but very profound, words how he experienced the Lord’s presence at a Presbyterian Communion Service. Many years ago, another very great Christian priest, the Rev James Hartin was attempting to explain to my class of first year theological students how Anglicans understood Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. He quoted some lines of ancient doggerel I have never forgotten, for they bring us beyond the limits where our search for neat theological solutions must stop. “Christ was the word that spoke it. He took the bread and broke it. That which his own word does make it, that I do believe and take it.” It is with deep respect and gratitude for Fr Gerry Reynold’s legacy to us that I dedicate this issue of Reality to his memory.

Brendan McConvery CSsR Editor

11

C OVE R STO RY

HOLY COMMUNION

IN FITZROY

THE LATE FR REYNOLDS WAS PASSIONATELY COMMITTED TO THE UNION OF ALL CHRISTIANS. IN THIS ARTICLE WRITTEN SHORTLY BEFORE HIS DEATH, HE DESCRIBES AN INITIATIVE, IN JOYFUL HOPE, WHICH ENCOURAGES MEMBERS OF DIFFERENT CHURCHES TO SHARE, AS FAR AS THEY ARE ABLE, IN EACH OTHER’S EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION.

BY GERARD REYNOLDS CSsR

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Remembrance Sunday 1994, the year of the Ceasefires, a little group of Belfast Catholics, linked with Clonard Monastery, has gone, Sunday by Sunday, to the Morning Worship of a Protestant Church. They go in faith and friendship and call themselves “unity pilgrims”. Each Thursday, from 7.30pm to 8.30pm, they spend an hour of silent prayer in the Adoration Convent chapel, 63 Falls Road. They pray there for a new Pentecost in all the Churches, for the visible unity of Christians in a common Eucharist and for

the Protestant congregation they plan to visit on the following Sunday and for its pastor.

WITH OUR FRIENDS IN FITZROY On Sunday Sept. 6th 2015, our unity pilgrims shared in the Morning Worship of Fitzroy Presbyterian church. We are at home there with longstanding friends. The fellowship between Clonard and Fitzroy is now 34 years old. As unity pilgrims we were delighted with the opportunity to share in the Presbyterian celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

The Word of God was proclaimed first by Clare Andrews, a young Fitzroy member, who read the Beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel.

Philip Mateer, one of the ruling lay elders of the congregation, read Romans 12 and assistant minister, Rev. Jonathan Barkley, preached God’s grace and call to us all.

Rev. Steve Stockman, the minister and teaching elder of the congregation, presided at the celebration. He extended the welcome to the Lord’s Table in the traditional form of the Presbyterian Church: ”The Table of Our Lord Jesus Christ is open to all who are in communion with

Gerry with the Elders of Fitzroy on the occasion of Rev Ken Newell’s retirement

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the Church Universal. We invite members of any branch thereof who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity to join with us in this Holy Fellowship”.

The ruling elders brought the plates of bread and the trays of wine to the congregation in their seats. I was sitting between two Fitzroy couples who devoutly took their sacrament of Jesus’ presence as the bread and wine were passed along.

I took the plate and the tray reverently into my hands, held each of them for a still prayerful moment before handing them on. In the conviction that our obedience to Church discipline will bring nearer the longed for day of a common Eucharist, I did not partake of the sacramental bread and wine, painful though abstaining was.

WALKING IN HOPE It was at the In Joyful Hope celebration in January 2013 at Gilnahirk Presbyterian Church, Belfast, that I first held the bread and wine in my hands for a prayerful moment before passing them to my neighbour. That practice enables Catholics to be profoundly involved in the Presbyterian Holy Communion ritual while keeping faith with their Church discipline.

The In Joyful Hope initiative, which began in November 2010, is a new step in Eucharistic communion. Presbyterians, Methodists, members

of the Church of Ireland and Catholics have come together, obedient to Jesus’ command “Do this in memory of me”. At every celebration, they are faithful to the Catholic Church discipline. The late Rev. Dennis Cooke, emeritus principal of Edgehill Methodist Theological College, Belfast was the driving force in gathering us in the organising committee.

He drafted our guideline statement which declares: “that the joy of being present at the Eucharistic worship of another Christian tradition is greater than the pain experienced by observing this discipline”.

Here is why we organise the In Joyful Hope celebrations: - to surrender ourselves together to the Lord’s will as we share his prayer “Father, may they all be one”.

- to experience together the realisation that Christ is present among us in our various Christian Churches.

- to be edified, inspired, encouraged by one another’s faith in the sacrament of Holy Communion/ Eucharist.

- to anticipate in so far as we can the common Holy Communion/Eucharist for which we yearn.

The late Fr Jean Marie Tillard OP, renowned worker for Church unity in the “Faith and Order Commission” of the World Council of Churches, left us a beautiful prayer which sums up the

The joy of being present at the Eucharistic worship of another Christian tradition is greater than the pain experienced by observing this discipline passion of his life and also that of the In Joyful Hope organisers and the Clonard unity pilgrims: God our Father, may Christ’s disciples have the grace, through your Holy Spirit, to discover that the most profound joy within your Church, lies in our coming together, in one and the same faith and love, in order to prepare resolutely for the day when we may share in a common Eucharist.

The 25th In Joyful Hope celebration will be held in St John’s Catholic Church, Falls Road, Belfast, on Wednesday 24th February 2016.

Fr Gerry Reynolds, a native of Mungret, was, until his death last November, a member of the Redemptorist Community at Clonard Monastery. With the late Fr Al Reid, he was a founder of the Clonard Peace Ministry.

Gerry and Ken Newell walking on the Lagan Tow Path

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THE CHURCH OF IRELAND, AS PART OF THE WORLDWIDE ANGLICAN CHURCH, HAS A LONG TRADITION OF EUCHARISTIC THEOLOGY AT THE CENTRE OF THE CHURCH’S LIFE.

THE EUCHARIST OR HOLY COMMUNION

IN THE CHURCH OF IRELAND AND

BY PATRICK COMERFORD

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Church of Ireland sees itself, alongside the Roman Catholic Church, as the ancient church of this land, and part of the Anglican Communion, the world’s third largest grouping of Christians.

The historical, foundational documents for Anglican theology are The Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-Nine Articles and the Ordinal, or liturgy for ordaining deacons, priests and bishops.

THE EUCHARIST AS A SACRAMENT In the Thirty-Nine Articles, Article 19 states clearly that the Church is found where “the pure word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance in all things …”

Article 23 specifies that only priests ordained by bishops may preside at the Eucharist, while Article 25 describes Baptism and the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper as the two “Sacraments ordained of Christ,” alongside the five other sacraments. Article 28, often seen as the foundational Anglican doctrinal statement on the Eucharist, states: “The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the Love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another; … the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ; and likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ.”

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However, the interpretation of Article 28 varies throughout Anglicanism. In one interpretation, those who receive the sacrament of the Holy Communion in faith, receive the spiritual body and blood of Christ. Others say the real objective presence of Christ is in the Eucharist, although the precise nature of that presence is a mystery of faith. Still others identify with the Eucharistic theology of consubstantiation often associated with Martin Luther.

The classical Anglican understanding of the Eucharist as mystery is found in words from the poet-priest John Donne, often ascribed to Elizabeth I:

He was the Word that spake it; He took the bread and brake it; And what that Word did make it; I do believe and take it WHAT’S IN A NAME? The first Book of Common Prayer (1549) referred to “the Supper of the Lorde and the Holy Communion, commonly called the Masse.” Many outside observers are surprised that the word Mass survived the Reformation.

Although it was excised from the second Book of Common Prayer (1552), and its use is less frequent in Ireland, it continues among Anglicans with a Catholic tradition and in more popular use for special occasions such

ANGLICANISM

© Patrick Comerford

as “Midnight Mass” at Christmas Eve. The term “Lord’s Supper” is derived from Saint Paul (see I Corinthians 11: 20). It was preferred by many Reformers, but is also found in pre-Reformation English texts.

The use of the word “Communion” for sacramental celebrations comes from the Vulgate text of I Corinthians 10: 16, and was widely used in pre-Reformation English.

In the Church of Ireland today, the terms used in the Book of Common Prayer (2004) include the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Communion, and the Eucharist. Of these three, the Holy Communion is most frequently used to describe the full rite, although the Eucharist is used increasingly.

THE CENTRAL ACT OF THE CHURCH’S WORSHIP The Book of Common Prayer (2004) says “the Holy Communion is the central act of worship of the Church” and “it is fitting that the Holy Communion be celebrated in every cathedral and in each parish church” on Sundays and on the principal Holy Days, such as Christmas, Easter, the Epiphany, the Presentation, Maundy Thursday, Ascension Day, Trinity Sunday and All Saints’ Day. There is no provision for celebrating the Eucharist on Good Friday.

The Ordinal clearly sets out that priests

(who are both male and female) are ordained both to preach the word and to “minister his holy Sacraments” – the sacramental life is central to any understanding of ordained ministry.

Despite the expectations of the rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer, the frequency of celebrations varies according to the traditions of cathedrals and parish churches. For example, the Eucharist is the main Sunday service in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and Saint Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, in Saint Bartholomew’s Ballsbridge, All Saints’, Grangegorman and Saint John’s, Sandymount, all in Dublin, and Saint George’s, Belfast, and, during term time, the Chapel of Trinity College Dublin. Christ Church and Saint Anne’s are alone among Irish cathedrals in having daily celebrations of the Eucharist.

However, in many parishes where there is a weekly Sunday Eucharist, this may take place at an early hour (typically 8.30), with half a dozen or a dozen people present. The main Sunday service in parish churches is usually at 10.30 or 11 a.m., and typically alternates in many parishes between the Eucharist and Morning Prayer. Although the Book of Common Prayer says “Members of the Church should partake of the Lord’s Supper regularly,” in some churches the Holy Communion may be celebrated only once a month, and in those places this is usually on the first Sunday of the month. Celebrations of the Eucharist at Easter and Christmas can see many parish churches packed to capacity, and in the past, Easter Communion provided

In the past, Easter Communion provided a clear definition of membership of the Church of Ireland a clear definition of membership of the Church of Ireland.

REFORMING THE LITURGY Before modern liturgical reforms, it was

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Communion vessels, Christ Church Cathedral

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© Patrick Comerford

commonplace to find that when Holy Communion was celebrated on a Sunday, it followed an abbreviated form of Morning Prayer. The vast majority of parishioners left the church during the final hymn, and only a handful of people remained for a short service of Holy Communion. This practice is dying out, mainly because it is no longer

The Book of Common Prayer provides for two Eucharistic rites. Holy Communion 1 more-or-less follows the format of Holy Communion in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Holy Communion 2 (pp 201-240) draws on the insights of the modern liturgical movement and its format is immediately recognisable to Christians of other traditions.

There are provisions for some variations, with three Eucharistic prayers, and a variety of collects, prefaces, postcommunion prayers and blessings that set or develop themes according to the liturgical calendar and seasons.

The Book of Common Prayer encourages full Scriptural readings at each celebration (normally Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle and Gospel), followed by a sermon and the Nicene Creed. A westward celebration, with the priest standing behind the altar and facing the people, is increasingly normal, the

In some cases, Communion hosts are used, with one large host for the celebrant. My own preference is for one, large, tasty bap facilitated by the liturgical structures in the Book of Common Prayer. Increasingly, all present receive the sacrament, but few parts of the Church of Ireland have come to the stage of liturgical awareness in the Church of England where, thanks to the Parish Communion Movement and later liturgical reforms, the Eucharist is the normal Sunday morning service.

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dominical words (what Roman Catholics call ‘the Words of Institution’), are used, and the full, four-fold movement described by Dom Gregory Dix (taking, blessing, breaking and giving the bread; taking, blessing and giving the cup) is regarded as one continuous moment of consecration. In the past, the 1662 Book of Common Payer restricted this understanding to the priest’s use of the dominical words.

BREAD AND WINE The bread used must be “the best and the purest bread.” In some cases, Communion hosts are used, with one large host for the celebrant. My own preference is for one, large, tasty bap. Sadly, in all too many parishes, the bread is often cheap sliced pan, pressed down and already cut into small cubes, so that the breaking or fraction is reduced a token gesture. Care must be taken too with the choice of wine, and one bishop delights in using champagne in his cathedral on Easter Day! Generally speaking, everyone present

comes forward to receive Holy Communion, usually kneeling at the altar rails, although in cathedrals with large congregations communion may be administered in front of the rails, with people coming forward in single file and receiving standing up.

The presiding priest administers the bread of Communion from a paten, and may be assisted by one or two colleagues or a lay people administering a chalice.

Everyone is expected to have examined their consciences beforehand. In the past, children waited until Confirmation, around the age 12-14, to receive Communion.

Children are invited to come forward to the rails to receive a blessing, but I am among the increasing number of priests who offer Communion to children who have been baptised. Christians of other traditions who are baptised and in good standing in their churches are generally welcomed, but their consciences are respected.

Because of this tradition of Eucharistic hospitality, Anglicans find it difficult to

understand the practices of other traditions and we often feel excluded. This is particularly difficult, because of family relationships, in the Roman Catholic Church, and it is of little comfort, to point to similar practices in other traditions, including the Orthodox Churches, and in many evangelical traditions such as the Baptists and the Brethren.

COMMUNAL CELEBRATION In the Church of Ireland, there can be no celebration of the Holy Communion unless at least one communicant is present. In other words, there are no private masses.

But participation in the Eucharist is never taken for granted, and there is an air of reverence and stillness as people approach.

It is a tradition that finds expression in the well-loved words of the Prayer of Humble Access: “We do not presume to come to this your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness but in your manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to

Patrick Comerford

gather the crumbs under your table. But you are the same Lord, whose nature is always to have mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us. Amen.”

(The Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford lectures in Liturgy and Anglicanism in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute and is a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin

The altar at All Saints', Grangegorman © Patrick Comerford

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HOLY COMMUNION AND THE PEOPLE CALLED METHODISTS M E T H O D IST S H AV E A D E E PLY EUCHARISTIC SIDE TO THEIR LIFE AND WORSHIP WHICH COMES FROM JOHN WESLEY, THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

BY GILLIAN KINGSTON

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John Wesley by George Romney

Writing

in his journal on Christmas Day, 1774, John Wesley (1703-1791), founder of the Methodist movement, observed that ‘during the twelve festival days, we had the Lord’s Supper daily; a little emblem of the Primitive Church. May we be followers of them in all things, as they were of Christ.’

For John Wesley, Holy Communion was a means of grace, and, as he wrote, by grace ‘I understand outward signs, words or actions ordained of God, and appointed for this end – to be the ordinary channels whereby he might convey to men preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.’

He continues: ‘the chief of these means are prayer, whether in secret or with the

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great congregation; searching the Scriptures (which implies reading, hearing, and meditating thereon) and receiving the Lord’s Supper, eating bread and drinking wine in remembrance of him.’

In a sermon on ‘the duty of constant communion’, he writes, ‘I am to show that it is the duty of every Christian to receive the Lord’s Supper as often as he can.

•The first reason why it is the duty of every Christian so to do is because it is a plain command of Christ... Observe too that this command was given by our Lord when he was just laying down his life for our sakes.

They are therefore, as it were, his dying words to all his followers.

•A second reason why every Christian

should do this as often as he can is because the benefits of doing it are so great to all that do it in obedience to him; namely, the forgiveness of our past sins and the present strengthening and refreshing of our souls.

These are indeed persuasive arguments from one whose call ‘to spread scriptural holiness over the land’ led to the movement which would in time become the Methodist Church. It is today a world-wide communion of some 85 million people HOW METHODISTS CELEBRATE THE LORD’S SUPPER Following the usage of John Wesley, Methodists usually refer to the Eucharist as ‘The Lord’s Supper’ or ‘Holy Communion’.

It is Methodist practice to celebrate the Lord’ s Supper on the first Sunday of each month at morning worship, and on another Sunday evening in the month if there is a regular evening service. Some churches may also celebrate the Lord’s Supper at an early morning service or at a mid-week service.

The service is ordinarily led by an ordained minister. In very exceptional circumstances, such as when a congregation will be deprived of the sacrament, with the specific permission of the Conference, the governing body of Church composed of equal numbers of lay persons and ordained persons, a lay person may preside.

the words of the Nicene Creed. There may be hymns at appropriate intervals.

The Lord’s Supper begins with the presentation of the (monetary) gifts of the people and the bread and wine. The Great Prayer of Thanksgiving follows with paragraphs and responses appropriate to the season of the liturgical year. The Words of Institution are similar to those used in other churches. This may be followed by the saying of the “Prayer of Humble Access:” We do not presume to come to this your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table. But you are the same Lord, whose nature is always to have mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ and to drink his blood that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us. Amen.

I am to show that it is the duty of every Christian to receive the Lord’s Supper as often as he can John Wesley

THE ORDER OF SERVICE The Methodist Worship Book (1999) is used in most Methodist congregations in Ireland, though an older book, the Methodist Sunday Service (1974) may also be used. There are orders of service for Holy Communion for different seasons of the Church’s liturgical year. The service falls into three parts: the Gathering of the People of God, the Ministry of the Word and the Lord’s Supper.

The Gathering of the People of God includes a summons to worship and the singing of a hymn, followed by confession of sin and an acknowledgement of God’s forgiveness. Other prayers or collects may be used and the Gloria recited.

The Ministry of the Word allows for four readings from Scripture: an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, often said responsively, a reading from the Epistles and a Gospel reading. This is followed by a sermon/homily and prayers of Intercession, concluding with the Lord’s Prayer. This leads in to the Lord’s Supper with the exchange of the Peace and an affirmation of the faith of the Church in

RECEIVING HOLY COMMUNION Those sharing in the Lord’s Supper come forward in groups to kneel or stand at the communion rail and receive both bread and wine. Each group is dismissed with prayer by the minister. When all have partaken, the following prayer is said together We thank you , Lord, that you have fed us in this sacrament, united us with Christ and given us a foretaste of the heavenly banquet prepared for all people. Amen.

The congregation is then bidden to ‘Go in peace in the power of the Holy Spirit, to live and work to God’s praise and glory,’ to which the response is ‘Thanks be to God’.

The bread and wine are served respectively from a common plate and from a tray of individual glasses. Some churches may use a chalice for the Prayer of Consecration. The minister will either offer the plate or place bread in the outstretched hand of the person taking communion, with the words, ‘The Body of Christ, given for you,’ to which the

Tray for serving Holy Communion with individual glasses for the wine

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Communicant with glass of communion wine

response may be ‘Amen’. Similarly, the wine is given with the words, ‘The blood of Christ, given for you,’ and the response, ‘Amen’

The fullness of our God made man We here with Christ receive . …and

THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD John Wesley and his brother, Charles, the hymn writer, were clear in their writings and in their hymnody that Jesus Christ is present in a real sense as his people take bread and drink wine. Their Hymns on the Lord’s Supper, a number of which are still sung regularly, emphasise this…

Jesus, we thus obey Thy last and kindest word; Here, in thine own appointed way, We come to meet thee, Lord His presence makes the feast, And now our spirits feel The glory not to be expressed, The joy unspeakable.

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We need not now go up to heaven, To bring the long-sought Saviour down; Thou are to all already given, Thou dost ev’n now thy banquet crown: To every faithful soul appear, And show thy real presence here!

The document, Together to Holiness: 40 Years of Methodist and Roman Catholic Dialogue, notes that “Methodists and Catholics affirm the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

This reality does not depend on the experience of the communicant, although it is only by faith that we become aware of Christ’s presence. Christ in the fullness of his being, human and divine, crucified and risen, is present in the sacrament. This presence is mediated through the sacred elements of bread and wine.”

SHARING IN THE LORD’S SUPPER The documents, The Decree on Ecumenism, and One Bread, One Body have opened possibilities for Eucharistic sharing at least on ‘unique occasions’. Such an occasion is defined as one ‘which of its nature is unrepeatable, a ‘one-off’ situation in a given moment which will not come again.’It would be desirable, in the interests of Christian unity and consequent Christian witness, that Christian people maximize on such opportunities.

“The people called Methodists” have traditionally had an ‘open’ table, affirming that all who love the Lord Jesus and intend to follow him may draw near and receive. They affirm that the table is Christ’s and his is the invitation. However, Methodists recognize that the discipline and theology of some other Christian traditions mean that they may not make a similar invitation.

That said, pastoral considerations should allow for the sacrament of Holy Communion to be offered to those in inter-church relationships and family circumstances.

Perhaps the Reverend Charles Wesley, brother of John, might have the last word…

Who thy mysterious supper share, Here at thy table fed, Many, and yet but one we are, One undivided bread.

Gillian Kingston is on the chaplaincy team at University College, Dublin. She is the ex-Lay Leader of the Conference of the Methodist Church and a local (ie.lay) preacher. She is interim Vice President of the World Methodist Council and a former member of the International Commission for Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Methodist Council.

REFORMED AND REFORMING

GATHERING AROUND THE TABLE OF THE LORD

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THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH HAS ITS OWN DISTINCTIVE WAY OF CELEBRATING THE EUCHARIST. A MINISTER OF A DUBLIN CONGREGATION INTRODUCES US IMAGINATIVELY TO A TYPICAL PRESBYTERIAN CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER.

BY KATHERINE P MEYER

Just

before the service of morning worship begins, one of the elders stands and walks to the front to greet all those who are settling into their seats.

“Good morning,” she says. “On behalf of all the congregation, I extend a very warm welcome to any of you who are worshipping here for the first time this morning. We are delighted to have you with us.

Our service today includes a celebration of the Lord’s Supper, and so we affirm that the table around which we are about to gather is not our table, but the table of our Lord

Jesus Christ. All who love the Lord and who come from any branch of the Church of Jesus Christ are welcome here.”

Not these exact words, perhaps, but words much like them are spoken at celebrations of the Lord’s Supper across Ireland in churches belonging to the Reformed, or Presbyterian, tradition. And although at times we have more than embraced our own share of ignorance and sectarianism, it has never ceased to be a clear principle of the Reformed tradition that those churches with whom we have had strong, even bitter,

historic disagreements did not ever cease on that account to be Christian churches. The table is not ours, but belongs to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

UNITY IN DIVERSITY The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, like most other Irish churches, is currently blessed with great internal diversity, though we are still struggling to embody this diversity with the grace and gratitude and sense of adventure that we might. This diversity is cultural, as well as theological, and it is expressed in our

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worship, as well as in our daily practice of the Christian life. It is also, and undeniably, messy, with the result that any two or three celebrations of the Lord’s Supper in different local Presbyterian churches throughout Ireland could turn out in practice to be quite different from one another in various ways.

However, let’s go back and take a seat in the gathering for worship with which we began.

As we move through the service, we will take the time to pause here and there in order to highlight some of its most important aspects.

The first of these has already been implied.

In most Presbyterian congregations in Ireland, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, or the sacrament of communion, takes place between four and twelve times a year. Here, too, however, there are exceptions. There is at least one Dublin congregation in which there is a celebration of the Lord’s Supper

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guidelines and liturgical materials prepared at various times by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, or by other churches belonging to the Reformed tradition, such as the Church of Scotland, or the Presbyterian Church (USA).

All have been significantly shaped by the wide liturgical scholarship of the twentieth century, as have the eucharistic liturgies of other traditions, including the Roman Catholic, with the result that worshippers are often more at home in one another’s traditions than they realise.

PRESENT IN THE WORD The congregation is called to worship with words from Scripture, and then the service proceeds with the singing of hymns and songs, and prayers of thanksgiving and confession, often followed by an assurance of God’s pardon. Prayers used in the service may be read or revised from available worship resources, or they may be composed for the occasion by whoever is leading them.

Readings from Scripture, usually one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament, are often preceded by a prayer for illumination, which might go something like this: Prepare our hearts, O God, to receive your word; and silence in us any voice but your own, that today, in this place, we may hear you.

Here we stop and notice the importance, in the Reformed tradition, of the invocation of the Holy Spirit in worship, both in the liturgy of the word and in the celebration of the sacraments. The word is, if you like, an audible real presence, while the bread and wine are a visible one. And just as the written word in Scripture becomes, in our hearing and by the power of the Holy Spirit, the living Word of God to us, so the bread and wine become, by that same power of the Spirit, the body of Christ, and the risen Christ is present in our midst.

Whatever else it is, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is a meal for the broken, for the lost, for the uncomprehending, for those who have been less than they thought they were, and for those who still hunger for that vulnerable yet trusting humanity which is the fullest expression of Christian faith every Sunday. Although a more frequent celebration in practice has been widely welcomed, along with what might be called a deepening spirituality of the table, the older practice in which communion was more infrequent, was arguably accompanied by a deep, though solemn, sense of celebration and thanksgiving.

The other important, and perhaps surprising, thing you will notice as the service proceeds is that so much of it may be deeply familiar. No set liturgy is imposed on all ministers and congregations. Those who have a leadership role in the celebration of the sacraments will generally draw on the REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

The readings from Scripture are followed by a sermon, sometimes called a communion meditation. This is a critical part of the liturgy, and even the briefest celebrations of the Lord’s Supper, with someone who is ill, for example, will include at least one reading from Scripture and a very brief reflection on the word. The understanding here is that the sacraments are always grounded in the antecedent promises of God. The bread and wine “speak” to us in ways that the spoken word cannot, as we see and take them into our hands and eat them.

Their integrity, however, is rooted in the wider context of God’s grace and promise in which they are set.

RESPONDING TO THE WORD The response to the word takes the usual forms, and may include the recital of the Apostles’ or the Nicene creed, or a more contemporary affirmation of faith or prayers of intercession; and an offering. These are followed by the invitation to the table of the Lord, which might go something like this: Friends, this is the joyful feast of the people of God! They will come from east and west, and from north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God . . .

This is the Lord’s table.

Our Saviour invites those who trust him to share the feast which he has prepared.

Again, the emphasis is on the primary eucharistic hospitality of which we should all speak, that of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever structures of formation and preparation we put in place in our traditions, and however much in our more defensive moments we have defined ourselves over against one another, we come to the table of the Lord at Christ’s invitation alone. And we come with joy and thankfulness, for the dimensions of this table are not set by us; they are not narrowed or expanded by what we believe, and they will not be determined by what we are capable of doing or failing to do.

At some point during the celebration, perhaps here, as part of the invitation, or perhaps later, as part of the great prayer of thanksgiving, the words of the institution of the Lord’s Supper will be read, based on 1 Corinthians 11 or on one of the gospel accounts. These words are important as a reminder that in breaking bread together, we are doing as Christ commanded.

A MEAL FOR THE LOST AND THE BROKEN They are also important as a way of remembering that the context for the institution of the sacrament was the last supper Christ shared with his disciples, all

of whom, in various ways, betrayed him.

Whatever else it is, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is a meal for the broken, for the lost, for the uncomprehending, for those who have been less than they thought they were, and for those who still hunger for that vulnerable yet trusting humanity which is the fullest expression of Christian faith.

And for us, unity is found, in the end, in that hunger. It is an awkward unity, but it is real, and large and organic.

The prayer of thanksgiving is followed by an invocation of the Holy Spirit, because it is by the power of the Spirit alone that the bread and wine become for us the body and blood of Christ, and by the power of the Spirit alone that we see them for what they are and receive them in faith. And yes, we do believe that the bread and wine become, fully, truly, really, and by the power of the Spirit, the body and blood of Christ.

After the breaking of the bread, the most common way of serving one another is by passing plates of bread and trays of wine around the congregation, which remains seated, as around a table. Each person receives from his or her neighbour, and serves his or her neighbour in turn. Any leftover bread and wine is shared informally or taken

home after the service, or is put in the bird feeder, or otherwise disposed of responsibly.

They have served their purpose, but are not to be wasted, any more than any other of God’s gifts are to be wasted.

Finally, we are all sent out, with God’s blessing, to embody the life we have received, in a world which belongs to Christ alone.

But first, in many places, the service will be followed by coffee, and time to meet informally with others in the congregation.

So please come and visit. Not every service will look exactly like the one I have described, but I hope I can say that you will receive a warm welcome, in the name of Christ.

23 Rev Dr Katherine P Meyer is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. She is currently serving as minister of Christ Church, Sandymount, Dublin, which is a united Presbyterian and Methodist congregation

A RESOURCE FOR THE YEAR OF MERCY JOURNEYING WITH JONAH –THE STRUGGLE TO FIND YOURSELF By Fr Denis McBride CSsR In this new book Fr Denis has chosen to explore the character of Jonah – a somewhat unlikely hero. The prophet Jonah is a sympathetic partner, albeit a curious one, to help us review our lives. Although a believer in God, Jonah struggles to come to terms with the awful strangeness of God’s choices, particularly God’s mercy; he grapples to find his true self and purpose in life; he tries to flee from the presence of God; he is angry when he finds that God is not angry but all-merciful. Jonah is offered to us as an unusual teacher – awkward, reluctant, disobedient, opinionated, fearful, flighty: the prophet who remains stubborn to the end. But his story celebrates the beauty of the indiscriminate mercy of God, a message for our time.“ There is one constant in the book of Jonah: Jonah’s belief that God’s indiscriminate mercy extended to the pagans of Nineveh is not only inappropriate but incomprehensible: Jonah is scandalised by God’s mercy. Our minor prophet has to learn as we all do, that mercy is indivisible: we cannot plead for mercy for ourselves and then deny it to others.”

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COM M E N T THE YOUNG VOICE DAVID O’DONOGHUE

WE DON’T WANT FATHER TRENDY, WE WANT FATHER SINCERITY

WHAT ATTRACTS YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN TO THE CHURCH? MAYBE IT IS CHALLENGE RATHER THAN TRENDINESS. As 2015 closed out, in the depths of winter and amidst the artillery of freezing rain and the terrifying trumpet blasts of college exams, I happened to stumble across an interesting article in the flurry of Irish news. It mentioned a priest, therein referred to as Father Trendy, and the news media reported, slack jawed and wide-eyed, that this clergyman had been known to take selfies -- imagine, a priest who had taken notice that the 21st century had pulled into the station with the sound of churning modems and whistling mobile ringtones?

It bothered me that while his love of selfies were front and centre in the article the priest’s tireless charitable efforts were relegated to a mere castaway line. This article, I felt, highlighted one of the central misunderstandings on the part of those who feel the Catholic Church must relate itself to young people primarily by dipping into the fads of the age: replacing the crucifix with a selfie stick or hymns with a selection of the top 40 from the day’s pop charts.

While I commend the effort, I can’t help but feel that this tentative extension of the faith’s tributaries to the trends of today ignores the much greater appeal that its bedrock has for young people; the rock of sincerity, passion and compassion that are at the heart of the Christian faith. While some young people may see some novelty in Father Trendy, what many of us want more than anything is Father Sincerity.

© Courtesy of RTÉ Stills Library

Our current Pope, Francis I, is the model for this transformation. He embodies the great words of his namesake Saint Francis: “preach the gospel, and when necessary, use words”. Young people don’t respond to sermons backed by the latest top 40 pop hits. We react to the values to which the Church should strive to return in the public consciousness: love, compassion and self-sacrifice.

Pope Francis has done away with the gold and jewels of the papacy and brought it back to first principles with a discourse that focuses on poverty, social justice and climate change, issues about which young people like myself are passionate. We must remember that it is the adornments of petty theological squabbles that scare young people off and only sincerity and simplicity, returning to what Christ called the whole of the gospel “Love God and Love

your neighbor as yourself”, that can make them return.

Pope Francis has mass appeal to so many otherwise spiritually agnostic young people because his is a faith that is both beautiful and useable. His faith does not distance him from those who question and doubt and rediscover their faith, who can feel intimidated by the cassock and catechism. He is, as he says himself, a shepherd “living with the smell of his flock” who is unafraid to associate warmly with everyday people and the most disadvantaged. When young people see Pope Francis invite 200 homeless people to dine in the Vatican, we are intrigued by the warm and welcoming light of such selfless love far more than the glow of an iPhone screen can ever replicate. When the Pope focuses the whole world on the issue of climate change and connects the stewardship of the

environment with our love for all of God’s creation, young people begin to take a peek at Genesis and find something powerful and useful. When young people see priestly selfies, they only see a thin, modern-looking sheet draped over an organisation still built on dry sermons, sanctimoniousness and dogma. What young people want to see is action, sincerity and compassion. Many young people are fumbling around in the dark spiritually and only through engagement with the evils of poverty and injustice can the faithful, as Christ said, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” David O'Donoghue is a freelance journalist from Co. Kerry. His work has appeared in the Irish Catholic, The Irish Independent, and the Kerryman. He is the former political editor of campus.ie and holds an abiding interest in all things literary, political and spiritual.

25

Q U E STI O N S TO JESUS 5

WHY

DOES YOUR TEACHER EAT WITH

TAX COLLECTORS AND

SINNERS?

BY MIKE DALEY

The

saying is at least as old as Aesop, the ancient Greek storyteller to whom it’s credited: “You are judged by the company you keep.” Growing up, I was sure to hear it from my parents if they didn’t approve of one of my friends. It may have been because of where they lived, how they talked, what they wore,

26

public ministry, Jesus proclaimed his commitment to the poor, imprisoned, blind, and oppressed; those whom society considered nobodies and undesirables. This motley crew could not have been who they wanted their son to associate with. In fact, a reputation even began to be attributed to Jesus that he was “a glutton and a drunkard” (Mt 11:19).

It was not Mary and Joseph’s parenting, but the unsavory characters Jesus was hanging around with that led to this charge and the apparent change in his person. It eventually reached such a point that a family intervention was deemed necessary, as they believed he was “out of his mind” (Mk 3:21).

TABLE FELLOWSHIP Following the call of Matthew (Mt 9:9-13), Jesus and his disciples had a festive meal. Again, many socially unacceptable people came and sat with them. This led some Pharisees to dismissively, frustratingly, and confusedly ask

From the start of his public ministry, Jesus proclaimed his commitment to the poor, imprisoned, blind, and oppressed; those whom society considered nobodies and undesirables even the music they listened to.

Ironically enough, now with three kids of my own, I think I’ve actually said the exact thing to my own children.

Did Mary and Joseph use the same time honoured adage with Jesus? From the start of his REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

For faithful, first century Jews, tax collectors were associated with the Roman Empire, the enemy.

You weren’t supposed to work for or collaborate with Rome. It only served to compromise your faith commitments. Matthew and his kind did just that. The tolls and taxes they collected placed heavy burdens upon their fellow countrymen. Yet, Jesus invited the supposed disloyal and dishonest Matthew to be one of his disciples.

According to Jesuit biblical scholar, Daniel Harrington, “sinners” probably included “people notorious for their immoral activities such as thieves, prostitutes, and brawlers. But it may also have involved people who by their very professions (tax collectors, peasant farmers, etc.) could not be expected to live a full Jewish religious life.” It is to these suspect groups that Jesus says, “Let’s eat.”

WHO’S IN? WHO’S OUT? In the ancient world, and to some extent still in our own, to invite someone to a meal was an expression of religious beliefs, a sacred event with mutual obligations. Some groups restricted who they ate with so as not to render themselves ritually impure or socially questionable. Meals created, defined and reinforced boundaries, making it clear who was “in” and was “out.”

By his dining habits, Jesus turned these expectations on their head, and in doing so, challenged peoples’ understanding of God. Jesus’ God was not one of exclusion but inclusion. The Pharisees, like so many of us, get caught up on the

Fr Greg Boyle with members of Homeboy Industries

act or thing—the sin—and lose sight of the person. “We can’t eat with them because they do this or did that.”

Jesus was focused, first and foremost, on the person. He wanted to communicate to them through shared food and friendship not only that he loved them, but God did as well. In his book Talking About Jesus Today, William Rieser writes that “table fellowship becomes a reconciliation rite; it points directly to God’s readiness to accept human beings with all the messy complexities of their lives, provided, of course, they can acknowledge their needs, their inadequacies, their frail resolutions and their failed efforts.”

This is why Jesus replied to the Pharisees with these strong and challenging words: “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” It also allows Franciscan Robert Karris to provocatively remark: “Jesus got himself killed because of the way he ate.” Dare we risk it ourselves?

PIZZA: IT’S NOT THE EUCHARIST BUT IT’S A START It’s probably not the nickname that he wanted, but it’s the one that he got—Looney. Born in Dolores Mission, Los Angeles, “the gang capital of the world,” he was behind bars before he even got started. No doubt aided by absent parents struggling with addiction, mental illness, and unemployment.

During a celebratory pizza, Looney shows Fr. Greg a piece of paper. It’s his grades from detention—all A’s. Well, mostly!

With affirming words that he rarely hears, Fr Greg says to Looney, “On everything I love, if you were my son, I’d be the proudest man alive.” At this, Looney begins to cry. Sensing that he’s afraid to be back out, Fr. Greg reassures him that “You’re gonna be just fine… after all, straight A’s.”

Summarizing his encounter with Looney, Fr. Greg writes: “If you read scripture scholar Marcus Borg and go to the index in search of ‘sinner,’ it’ll say, ‘see outcast.’ This was a social grouping of people who felt wholly unacceptable. The world had deemed them disgraceful and shameful, and this toxic shame… was brought inside and given a home in the outcast.”

“Jesus’ strategy,” according to Greg, “is a simple one: He eats with them. Precisely to those paralyzed

By his dining habits, Jesus challenged peoples’ understanding of God. Jesus’ God was not one of exclusion but inclusion Now this fifteen year old is out on parole having just been released from six months detention. He returns to one of the few places that he considers home—Homeboy Industries run

by Jesuit Greg Boyle, also known as the Gandhi of the gangs.

As described in the book, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, Fr. Greg leads a program for persons like Looney. Most of the time is spent on job-training, but there is also time and space for persons to work on themselves.

in this toxic shame. Jesus says, ‘I will eat with you.’ He goes where love has not yet arrived, and ‘he gets his grub on.’ Eating with outcasts rendered them acceptable. Pizzas all round—Looney’s home.”

Sinners, tax collectors, Looney, and you and I. God, in and through the person of Jesus, is waiting for us at the table. To meet him and one another. To welcome the kingdom of God into our midst.

Mike Daley is a teacher and writer from Cincinnati, OH where he lives with his wife June, and their three children. His latest book is Vatican II: Fifty Personal Stories (Orbis).

27

SCIENCE AND FAITH SERIES Science and Faith are often placed in opposition to each other. In fact nothing could be further from the truth.

Some of the greatest scientists have been Catholics, and among them a number of Catholic priests. In this series we tell some of their stories.

FATHER OF ACOUSTICS:

MARIN MERSENNE

28 THE” FATHER OF ACOUSTICS” WAS A SEVENTEENTH CENTURY FRENCH FRIAR OF THE PENITENTIAL ORDER OF THE MINIMS OF ST FRANCIS DE PAOLA

BY SUSAN GATELY

Silence

is the background for sound. Not surprising then perhaps that the so called 'Father of Acoustics' was a priest who spent his entire adult life in the quiet of a Paris convent.

Fr Marin Mersenne was born into a family of labourers in Oizé, south west of Paris in 1588. Aged 23 he joined the Order of Minims, an order of friars founded in 1435

by St. Francis of Paola in Italy. Humility is the mark of the order with members considering themselves the least (minimi). From 1619 until his death aged 60, Le Père Mersenne lived in their convent in Paris.

The order recognised that Mersenne could best serve them through an apostolate of the intellect, and so he lived his life dedicated to God and science. His early works discussed ancient and modern science and texts on

REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

mathematics and mechanics.

H. Floris Cohen, author of The Rise of Modern Science: A comparative history, says that Mersenne was not one of the greatest thinkers of his time. He was "a bit of a muddler, and his perennial vacillation makes his work hard to digest". Perhaps recognising his own limitations, Mersenne saw a role for himself not just as a scientist but as an architect of the European scientific community.

CONTACT MAN FOR OTHER SCIENTISTS There were no scholarly journals at the time, so the Minim priest went out of his way to be of service to other scientists.

During his lifetime, he made extensive trips, on horseback or by carriage, to the Low Countries, Italy and around France to meet fellow scholars in person. In addition, he had

a huge circle of correspondents - around 140 - who were key thinkers at the time, some of them from as far away as Tunisia, Syria and Constantinople. His collected correspondence fills twelve volumes.

Among his colleagues and correspondents were philosophers and scientists like Galileo, Pascal, Descartes and the Dutch philosopherscientist, Isaac Beekman.

The network was so efficient that if someone wanted to circulate some new idea or theory, all he needed to do was to send a message to Mersenne, who would then pass on the news faithfully to his other regular correspondents.

According to James Collins in God in Modern Philosophy, he acted as a “clearing house for scientific and philosophical information in the decades just prior to the appearance of the first learned journals." In

1635 he established the Académie Parisienne, a precursor of the Royal Academy of Science.

ear' ringing perhaps in his ears, Fr Mersenne set out to scientifically analyse music. He studied a string in vibration and established that there was a measurable relationship between four properties of the string: its tension, its length, its thickness, and how often it vibrates in a second. In the silence of his monastic cell he also discovered the phenomenon of ‘overtones’ or ‘harmonics’.

Where better to do this than in a friars cell?

Mersenne discovered not just the first overtone (an octave higher than the fundamental), but in his quiet cell he heard the second to sixth harmonic.

“The sound of any string is the more harmonious the greater the number of different sounds it makes heard at a time," he wrote in Harmonie Universelle.

In the same work he established that the intensity of sound, like that of light, is inversely proportional to the distance from its source.

The sound of any string is the more harmonious the greater the number of different sounds it makes heard at a time

A SCHOLAR IN HIS OWN RIGHT Fr Mersenne was also a genuine scientist who made several contributions in the field of scientific methodology, telescope , pendulum theory and in the study of the motion of falling objects. Mathematicians remember him for his search for a formula to generate prime numbers, based on what are now known as 'Mersenne numbers'.

He is best known however for his study of acoustics. The science of sound and music occupied Mersenne most of the time . "Music … is made particularly and principally to charm the spirit and the ear, and to enable us to pass our lives with a little sweetness amidst all the bitterness that we encounter there," he wrote in his huge work, Harmonie Universelle, written in 1636-7 and which runs to more than 1,000 pages.

With the strains of the charmer of 'spirit and

THE SCIENCE OF MUSIC "When we hear a musical note, say the C on a piano, we are inclined to believe, without thinking twice about it, that we hear just that C," explains Cohen. Actually, we don't. What we hear, the real C, "comprises not only what musicologists call the ‘fundamental tone’, which is the simple C, but in addition a whole range of higher notes. These higher notes are jointly called the ‘overtones’ or ‘harmonics’, and they are what makes music truly music."

The author of Quantifying Music (1984) says that everything that makes the C produced by a violin and the equally loud C blown by a trumpet different is due to these overtones. But we don't hear them.

In order to discover the overtones, you need two things: a suspicion that there is more to a musical note than the fundamental, and an extremely quiet spot, isolated by thick walls from any conceivable noise from the buzzing outside world.

HIS DEATH AND LEGACY Fr Merseene died from complications arising from a lung abscess in the arms of a lifelong friend, the priest and philosopher Pierre Gassendi, who described him in a letter written three days later as: "A man of simple, innocent, pure heart -without guile."

"None was more painstaking or inquiring," wrote Gassendi. "Tirelessly he devoted himself to advance the arts and sciences through his own investigations or by stimulating others to do so. They will justly mourn him."

With almost his dying breath, Mersenne asked for an autopsy to discover the cause of his death. “Peace-loving and genuinely interested in others, he must have been a sweet-natured man, a breath of fresh air among so many self-obsessed, hot-headed megalomaniacs," concludes Cohen.

29

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COM M E N T FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS CARMEL WYNNE

TEACH YOUR CHILD TO EXPRESS HEALTHY ANGER

ANGER IS A MISUNDERSTOOD EMOTION. AT TIMES IT CAN BE HEALTHY AND POSITIVE. HOW CAN WE HELP CHILDREN CHANNEL THEIR ANGER IN A HEALTHY WAY? Do you believe you are an emotionally honest person? What do you do when you feel angry?

Do you acknowledge that you are angry and let others know what is upsetting you? Or, do you try to control your anger, in the mistaken belief that the virtuous thing to do is keep the peace?

Richard P. McHugh S.J. says “For religious people especially, anger is the most misunderstood emotion.

Religion tends to have a distorted picture and a negative connotation of anger. In reality anger is a healthy, positive, contacting, necessary emotion, helpful in all areas of one’s life”.

There is a common belief that feeling angry involves ill will and hostility that if expressed is bound to lead to conflict. Anger, the churning emotion that causes inner turmoil, simply signals that something is not right for you or for others.

A definition of healthy anger is, I want something that I’m not getting and I assert myself to get it. How you give expression to your anger either clears the air to allow you have a rational discussion; or it builds up resentment that, if not acknowledged, will fester over time and eventually may turn toxic and poison the relationship.

Many women tell their husbands, “You never listen to me” unaware that beginning a sentence with the word "you", often makes the other person feel defensive. "You" statements suggest that the other person is at fault for not giving me what I want.

A person who is fearful of

expressing anger has learned to suppress so-called “negative emotions”. How can a parent, who believes that anger must be controlled, model how to express angry feelings in a healthy way?

Some people lack any awareness that they have suppressed many of their emotions since childhood.

In everyday conversations people often say, "I feel", when they are talking about what they are thinking. When "I think" and "I feel" are used interchangeably it usually denotes a lack of emotional awareness.

Suppressed emotions do not disappear but over time some people lose the capacity to connect. A person who radiates rage but protests, "I’m not angry" has repressed anger. He or she has lost the ability to connect with feelings.

Hardly any parents demonstrate the positive impact of using the energy of healthy anger to assert oneself, to request, not demand, what one wants. Bad teaching has given us a negative perception of expressing angry feelings.

We are more familiar with the many different ways people express destructive anger than with positive modelling of how to express it in a healthy way. Some people ventilate and let go verbally. Others shout or stamp their feet or pound the table.

Others still may become aggressive and hit out.

McHugh says that what adults fail to realise is that their efforts to get a child to control his or her emotions is rooted in the fact that in their own childhood the "authorities" had warped attitudes towards emotions. They learned to suppress their emotions and one consequence is to believe the child must be coerced into suppressing strong feelings and putting on the "false face of conventional selfcontrol".

Toddlers, who don’t have the language to express what they want, go through a phase commonly called the terrible twos.

They express their rage in angry tantrums that can frighten parents.

Younger children who are afraid to give expression to feelings of anger will sometimes manipulate

situations. They act helpless and look for help, even when it is not needed. It is their way to exert a small level of control.

Un-cooperative children are usually very angry. Afraid to challenge parents directly they use hidden aggression to vent their anger indirectly. They don’t refuse to do what is asked of them but they delay and defer in a power play that the parent cannot control.

Teenagers, who get into trouble for expressing feelings that meet with parental disapproval, learn to become emotionally dishonest. In an effort to placate their parents they become skilled at concealing and suppressing how they really feel. Hiding how you feel because you are afraid to be emotionally honest can create huge inner conflict that simmers behind a pleasant facade.

Anger is a complex emotion because often it is combined with other emotions such as fear, hurt, powerlessness and frustration.

Frustrated parents will often blame a child for making them angry.

Misattributing blame by denying that one is responsible for one’s own emotional reaction perpetuates faulty thinking Children who believe they are responsible for making parents angry learn that it’s acceptable to blame others for your negative feelings.

An emotionally honest parent could never blame a child for making him or her angry.

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

31

F E AT U R E

POPE FRANCIS AND NULLITY OF MARRIAGE

A CANON LAWYER LOOKS AT POPE FRANCIS’ 32 RECENT CHANGES ON HANDLING APPLICATIONS FOR NULLITY OF MARRIAGE

BY SEÁN CANNON CSsR

On

Tuesday 8th September 2014, Pope Francis surprised Catholics by publishing two documents on the reform of the procedures for handling petitions seeking declarations of nullity of marriages. Less than a year before the Pope named a commission to advise him on the reform of the existing process for granting annulments.

It was expected the reform would take some time to complete. The commission, however, produced drafts of two documents in record time. These were carefully examined with the help of other experts, and published in the form of two

apostolic letters by Pope Francis, one for the Latin Church, and one for the Oriental Catholic Churches.

What we have is a very substantial revision of the process, involving drastic procedural changes but without any changes in doctrine.

Although the two documents are similar, I will write only about the one for Catholics of the Latin Church.

WHAT IS NULLITY OF MARRIAGE? Before dealing with the updated procedures, we should explain what nullity of marriage means and how it differs from civil divorce. A

REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

decree of civil divorce declares an end to a marriage contract which really and truly came into being by an act of marriage consent and has lasted for a shorter or longer period of time. Today so called “no-fault” divorces are granted by the civil courts in many countries when the parties are agreed to end their marital relationship.

A declaration of nullity of a marriage is a decision which states that despite appearances, the relationship in question was not a real marriage from the beginning. Such a decision can be given by a church body or

(more rarely) by a civil court.

It does not deny that some elements of a marital relationship existed in a particular case, but declares that some essential element of a fully legal marriage was absent from the beginning.

Proving the nullity of a marriage was usually much more difficult than obtaining a decree of divorce. The recent reform of Pope Francis does not change the criteria or grounds under which the church grants decrees of nullity: it does however make the process faster, easier and less expensive.

WHY THE CHANGE? The Holy Father begins by stating he is taking this initiative in virtue “of the power of the keys” granted to Peter and his successors. This power also affirms, strengthens and vindicates the power of the pastors of particular churches (bishops) by which they have the right to judge their subjects. Over the centuries, in regard to indissolubility of marriage, the Church has gained “an ever clearer understanding of the words of Christ, has more completely understood the doctrine of the indissolubility of the sacred bond of marriage, and has developed a

system of matrimonial consent and established a process more fitting to the matter, that ecclesiastical discipline might more and more conform to the faith which is professed.” The Church has done all of this in view of the salvation of the people, since the Church and all her institutions must strive to communicate divine grace and favour, in accordance with the mission of each one. Because the bishops share with the Pope the competency of the Church “to safeguard the unity in faith and discipline concerning marriage”, he offers them this document.

The initiative is also prompted by the enormous number of the faithful who, though anxious to satisfy their own consciences, are too often dissuaded from using the legal structures of the Church because of their physical or moral distance. Charity and mercy require the Church to strive to draw closer to her children who find themselves at a distance from her maternal concern.

Many of the participants at the Synod on the Family favoured the speeding up of marriage processes.

These arrangements for speedier and simpler processes, but which do not increase nullity of marriage, are offered with respect to their wishes. Pope Francis is concerned that people who have to wait for clarification of their personal status may, for a long time be “oppressed by the darkness of doubt”.

Pope Francis is following the example of his predecessors who wanted marriage cases resolved by juridical, rather than administrative, procedures.

This was because of the need to protect to the highest degree the sacred bond of marriage, and this is assured by following legal procedures.

THE CRITERIA FOR REFORM Pope Francis states seven fundamental criteria guiding the work of reform: 1. One legal decision alone is sufficient to effectively demonstrate the nullity of a marriage, unless it is appealed.

This means the current practice of routinely referring a decision to a second tribunal is no longer binding. Moral certainty can be reached in the first decision given according to the norm of law.

2. A single judge acting under the responsible care of the bishop is a sufficient guarantee to avoid any laxity creeping in.

3. The diocesan bishop is judge in his diocese. He should exercise his office and not leave all decisions to delegated and curial officials.

This holds e sp e cially fo r the new shorter process to be established (see no 4).

4. Besides making the ordinary process more expeditious, a shorter form of marriage process, is to be set up for cases where the alleged nullity of a marriage is supported by particularly evident arguments. This process, Pope Francis admits, is not without some risk to the principle of the indissolubility of marriage. It is to be conducted by the diocesan bishop personally in unity with the successor of Peter, “the greater guarantor of Catholic unity in faith and discipline”.

5. The practice of making the first appeal to the metropolitan archdiocese is to be restored, since the office of head of the

ecclesiastical province, which has existed for centuries, is a distinctive sign of the Church’s synodal nature.

6. The Conference of Bishops should be moved by apostolic concern to reach out to the dispersed faithful and should feel the need to uphold the reform by supporting the right of bishops to organize the exercise of the judicial power in their particular churches. Each episcopal conference is to be the guarantor of a just and worthy payment of the tribunal workers.

It should also ensure that, as far as possible, the marriage process is free of charge. In a matter so strictly linked to the salvation of

A declaration of nullity of a marriage is a decision which states that despite appearances, the relationship in question was not a real marriage from the beginning people, the Church must show herself a generous mother and manifest the gratuitous love of Christ through which we have all been saved.

The reform retains the possibility of an appeal to the Apostolic See because it is a long standing practice, which reinforces the bond between the See of Peter and the particular churches, as well as being a protection against the danger of abuses of law.

CHANGES IN PRACTICE Following these criteria, the letter introduces changes to that section of the Code of Canon

33

F E AT U R E

What is a Declaration of Nullity anyway?  A declaration of nullity is not the same as divorce.  Divorce declares that the marriage contract which came into being by the couple’s exchange of consent is ended.  A declaration of nullity declares that, despite all appearances, this was not a true marriage from the beginning.  A declaration of nullity can be granted one of the following grounds.

34

The Pope has not changed or added to the grounds or motives for granting annulments Law that has to do with making decisions concerning nullity of marriage, namely canons 16711691. These changes are largely technical and of particular interest to those examining petitions for nullity, so I leave it to legal journals to describe them at length.

The decision to streamline the rules by which the church issues decrees of nullity amounts to the most sizeable reform of the 1983 Latin Code since the 2005 Instruction Dignitas connubii [The Dignity of Marriage] of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. In particular, the new

shortened process for handling the more evident cases of alleged nullity should lead to a faster solution of cases.

It is important to note what the pope does not do. He has not altered church teaching about the doctrine of the indissoluble nature of marriage. The true marriages of Catholics are as firm and binding as they always were.

The pope has not changed or added to the grounds or motives for granting annulments.

Marriages of Catholics can be null for one of three reasons: 1.the presence of a diriment impediment which cannot

REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

1. The presence of a diriment impediment which cannot be dispensed or for which a dispensation had not been given before the marriage ceremony took place. Examples of a diriment impediment are close blood kinship, impotence.

2. The existence of a serious, legally recognized flaw in the consent given by one or both people in course of the marriage ceremony. If one of the partners, for example, was subjected to a threat forcing them into marriage, then the marriage is not valid.

3. The failure to observe the prescribed form for exchanging consent. If for example, the couple made up their own form of marriage vows that ignored what the State and the Church required for a legal marriage.  Pope Francis has not introduced any new grounds for nullity, but he has tried to streamline the process so as to encourage Catholics whose marriages have broken down to see if there is some hope for an annulment.

be, or has not been, removed before the marriage ceremony took place; 2. the existence of a serious legally recognized flaw in the consent given by one or both people in the marriage ceremony; 3. the failure to observe the prescribed form for exchanging consent.

The pope has not done away with the need for a legal process to show the nullity of a marriage but he has simplified it. While recognizing the suffering caused by the increasing number of failed marriages, he does not equate them with a null marriage. He is anxious to offer those whose marriages have broken down a reliable and speedy legal way of finding out if their marriages might have been seriously flawed from

the start. He has improved the procedures by simplifying them and removing requirements which would slow up the process without guaranteeing more reliable results.

Finally, Pope Francis adds 21 practical procedural rules to guide the acceptance, examination and resolution of petitions for nullity.

DIFFERENT REACTIONS Reactions to the new rules have varied very much. Some have welcomed the changes making the process easier and speedier and thereby relieve the pain of those caught in the dilemma of failed marriages. Others have been more cautious and wonder whether the changed procedures will make all that

much difference. A few have been alarmed and wonder if declarations of nullity are in danger of becoming “divorce Catholic style”.

We need to allow local churches time to adjust to these changes.

In Ireland, we have become used to having four regional tribunals handle nullity cases rather than each diocese trying to provide this service. While the new rules allow individual diocesan bishop to withdraw from inter-diocesan arrangements, I doubt if it would be wise to do so. The regional tribunals have functioned well.

With the decline in the number of clergy and the scarcity of qualified legal experts, it will be even more difficult for individual dioceses to process marriage cases. While the papal document

urges a return to decision-making at diocesan level, it does not rule out use of regional tribunals. In recent years, there has been a sizeable drop in the number of applications for annulment, but following the changes in procedure that trend may be reversed. If so, it will pose a real challenge for tribunals, whether diocesan or regional, in applying the new rules which came into force on December 8th, the same day the Year of Mercy began.

Fr Seán Cannon is an Irish Redemptorist. He has taught Canon Law at the Alphonsian Academy in Rome for many years. He also served two terms as its president.

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OUR LADY VISITS THE HOMES OF BELFAST

36

TO CELEBRATE THE JUBILEE OF OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP, THE REDEMPTORISTS OF CLONARD MONASTERY, BELFAST, HAVE ORGANISED A SERIES OF “HOME VISITS” BY FIVE SPECIALLY COMMISSIONED COPIES OF THE ICON.

BY CATHERINE GREEN

June

27th, 2015 saw the start of a Jubilee year in celebration of Pope Pius IX giving the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help into the care of the Redemptorist REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

Congregation, with the exhortation to "make her known throughout the world."

Plans were soon afoot at national and local level, to engage and energise the people of God

throughout Ireland to work closely with the Redemptorists in that endeavour.

Here in Clonard Monastery in Belfast, our new Rector, Fr. Noel Kehoe, wasted no time

37

in inviting co-workers to join with him and Fr. Peter Burns in forming an organising committee to garner ideas and bring them to life. We had our first meeting on October 12th and quickly decided on a 3-pronged outreach: to the homes, to schools and to the streets of West Belfast.

THE HOME INITIATIVE IN BELFAST On Calvary, Jesus gave His mother into the care of St. John, and the Gospel tells us that "from that moment the disciple took her into

his home." This beautiful statement became our inspiration and the bed rock of the "home initiative".

The weekly Perpetual Novena in Clonard and the annual Solemn Novena each June continue to draw many faithful people to the Eucharist.

We also realise that many good people no longer come to church. And so, in the spirit of, and following the example of St.Alphonsus and the early Redemptorists, we devised an initiative to bring Jesus and His Mother into the homes and lives of people, via the icon of

Our Mother of Perpetual Help.

Fr. Kehoe commissioned the making of five special icons. Fr.Patrick O'Connor of the Clonard Community put his joinery skills to work and crafted a wooden display box with the words "Icon of Love" and "Icon of Mercy" on each of its door-panels. The boxes were painted, decorated and varnished by father and son team of artists, Séamus and Séamus Óg Ó Labhradha. At each of the Sunday Eucharists on November 29th, one icon was solemnly blessed and we were ready

J U B IL EE O F O U R MOTH E R OF PE RP E TUAL HELP

38

to start on Thursday, December 3rd, the first Thursday of Advent.They welcome her into their home We had advertised this initiative on the Clonard website and in the Sunday newsletter for weeks leading to this date. We produced a series of "signing-up" forms, and made these prominent and accessible in the main corridor of the Monastery, and invited people to commit to taking one of the icons home for six days. We asked them to invite family, friends and neighbours to their home on two or three evenings for a half-hour of prayer and quiet contemplation. We produced and had printed a simple format of prayer and meditation to help them. Along with the icon, each home would receive a little pack containing all they would need for the prayer-time.

Letters were to be sent out to the homes advising them of the procedure for receiving their icon. Members of the family were to attend one of the Thursday Novena sessions: before the final blessing of the Mass, they would be called up to the sanctuary and given their icon. They would sign that they had received it, and bring the icon back to the monastery the following Wednesday, so that all five icons would be ready for the next five families to receive at the following Thursday’s novena. They would also be contacted to ascertain which novena session they would be attending in order to receive their icon.

People responded wholeheartedly. Within two weeks of the signing-out forms being available, volunteers had signed up until April 2016. The initiative will run to the end of May, and will be a fitting preparation for the Solemn Novena in June. Our hope is that many blessings and graces will be poured out on all who welcome Mary and her Son into their homes and hearts, and that they will be drawn into an ever-closer union with God, who is Love and Mercy, and Jesus, "with whom there is plentiful redemption."

Catherine Green is a former teacher of RE and English. She has worked in the Ministry of the Word and of Music in Clonard Monastery ,Belfast, for many years. A Redemptorist Oblate, and married to Sean,also an Oblate, they have 3 sons and are currently enjoying "the ministry of Christian grandparenting."

REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

Fr Noel Kehoe blesses the icons

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THE DOOR of MERCY The new ‘Jubilee of Mercy’ announced by Pope Francis is of great significance. Drawing from his biography, his motto, interviews, homilies, and messages, here we learn how Francis sees himself as a pilgrim in need of mercy. Further, we are all pilgrims, called to pass through the ‘door of mercy’ opening before us in this Holy Year. In a world that sits lightly to love and forgiveness, where many feel they are beyond forgiveness, this is an invitation to start out on a personal journey to discover what mercy truly is.

We are pilgrims, called to pass through the “door of mercy” in this Year of Mercy. In a world where many feel beyond forgiveness, let’s start out to discover what mercy truly is.

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D E V E LOP M E N T I N ACTION

DEGREES OF SEPARATION: CLIMATE CHANGE IN RURAL KENYA PEOPLE IN RURAL AFRICA PAY A HIGH PRICE FOR GLOBAL WARMING IN BOTH FAMILY AND PERSONAL TERMS

BY MEABH SMITH

“Our

40

relationship was brought about by distance,” Teresina Karimi (45) says, sheltering from the thick, stifling heat under the rim of her thatched roof. The burning sun has come out and Teresina points to her patchy crop of vegetables, which is drying up and turning yellow. “I miss him but there are no options here. There is nothing else that we can do,” she says. “We still love each other.

People don’t stop loving each other because they are far apart.”

DEGREES OF SEPARATION Teresina met her husband, Julius, when she was a child and they played together in the peaceful Teresina Karimi with sons Amos (11) and Anthony (16) inTharaka

Kenyan countryside. When they got older, he left their village to find work. Julius began to write to Teresina and their relationship blossomed. And while she was surprised to receive his letters, she started to write back. “The first time I saw him again was when he came to my house years later.”

Soon after, they were married.

When Teresina and Julius were children, the rain fell and the land was green. Today, Tharaka Nithi, a county two hours from Nairobi, is a different place. The security that once came with farming life has left the rural villages, taking the people with it.

In their village, Kamatanka, everyone relies on farming. Year after year, they watched climate

change dry their two acres of farmland, their soil becoming lifeless and their crops parched and limp. Migration was the only possible way to put the last two of their five children through school. It is a sad irony that men like Julius have had to leave their families to work on commercial farms with flowing irrigation schemes, the very lifeblood they cannot afford.

“Up to 80% of families in this region do not have enough food,” says Abraham Maruta, Deputy Caritas Director in Meru Diocese, which is developing irrigation systems for poor households. “When crops fail, people sell what they have, animals, land and any other assets to get cash, until eventually they have nothing to fall back on and the head of the family has to migrate.”

WHEN WATER IS SCARCE Teresina’a village is located in the lowlands of Mount Kenya, an important tea and coffee producing region. Many rivers traverse the area. Last year, three rivers dried up completely leaving people along a 20 – 30km stretch of land without water.

People like Teresina rely on local rivers, such as the Naka, an hour’s walk away, for drinking water and women like her plant crops along the shore.

But water isn’t the only supply being taken from the rivers. Just as the people are being stripped from their land, so too is the essence of the land - the water, the trees and the earth. Born from desperation, sand harvesting and felling trees have become valuable ways to get cash fast.

Men and women walk to the river, equipped with shovels and negotiate prices with local landowners and sand merchants to dig sand

REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

from the riverbed and load it into trucks. They work in small groups and divide the payment between them. In the late afternoon, white trucks dripping with water and sand rattle continually along the on the road.

Sand like this is fuelling Kenya’s construction industry and the local labour market. But it spells disaster for rivers in the long-term. Left uncontrolled, it depletes water levels, causes erosion, and can lead to dangerous floods.

Cutting down trees to provide wood for curing tea is another environmental problem. Workers from the tree plantations come from Mount Kenya to the lowlands to buy wood. Young men walking along the road carrying tree trunks is a common sight. If it continues, it will dehydrate the land and render it unusable until there are no more trees to sell.

HOPING AGAINST HOPE? Teresina is part of the Wendani (Hope) women’s group. Fifteen women came together to help each other save money, cultivate each other’s land and tender for casual work like construction.

“It’s hard on your own,” says group treasurer, Helen Kende. “But when you come together you can help each other plan. Our greatest desire is to get the children through school.”

Julius comes home every three months for three days at a time. “The kids are very happy to see their father,” Teresina says. “Even though I feel sad when he leaves, I can’t prevent it because if we both stay at home, the kids will be unable to go to school.”

The only thing that could unite Teresina and Julius for good is water. “I would like to see irrigation on my land. If I had irrigation, I could plant more crops and harvest.” Maybe then Julius could come home and they could farm together again on the land on which they met.

made, white crocheted throws. Her home is on scrubland off a busy motorway.

“My husband came here because he wanted to start a business,” she explains. “At the time we used to send letters to each other as there were no phones. He would send money home if anyone was coming and I would see him once a month. I missed him.”

Mary decided to move to the city when her eldest daughter was nearing secondary school age. “I wanted to have enough money to support her through secondary school. The money here is quicker. I used to have to wait for my husband to send it back to me.”

She misses the village and the simplicity of rural life. Her home in the countryside now sits idle, the land unfarmed. “Here, you have to queue to get water and when it rains the electricity gets cut off,” she says.“Children’s lives are a bit better back in the village because there is land around their home. Here it’s congested. There are lots of people and less space.”

THE URBAN SHANTY TOWN Three hundred kilometers away, Mary Kanini (35) sits with her orphaned niece, Whitney (19), in her shanty home in Kibera, the biggest slum in Kenya. She moved from the countryside to live in Kibera in 2010, following her husband there after eleven years apart.

A keen knitter, she has adorned the battered furniture in her small wooden house with hand-

A MIGRANT’S STORY Dennis Gitonga (32) is both brave and ambitious.

He came to Kibera looking for a job in 2012.

“Due to climate change, there is much drought.

We used to grow maize, beans and coffee. But the rains have decreased. I came here in the December after I got married to see if it would be better.”

Dennis rents a room from his aunt and goes into the city daily to find work in different factories. “In the village you can be waiting for three to four months for your crop to grow, and during that time you need money to live on and pay school fees. Here, you get the money quicker. Work is never certain and no two days are the same.

Nearly 80% of Kenya’s population is under 35 years and unemployment among the young is high. It forces them to migrate to urban areas and contributes to the uncontrolled expansion of city slums, when all they dream of is going home.

Dennis pins all his future hopes on what he can achieve in Kibera. It’s a gamble, but with little hope on the land he left, he has nothing to lose.

Meabh Smith has worked with the overseas aid agency for 13 years. As Press Officer, she writes about overseas development and justice issues, She has travelled in the developing world to highlight the impact that Trócaire’s work is having on families and communities in need.

Trócaire’s Lenten campaign runs from Wednesday 10th February to Sunday 27th March. To support Trócaire visit trocaire.org or call 1850 408 408.

41

Breaking the Word in February 2016 www.proclaim.ie

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

Drumlish / Ballinamuck (Co. Longford) Parish Mission (13th – 19th February 2016) Mission preached by Laurence Gallagher CSsR, John Hanna CSsR and Sarah Kenwright St. Mary’s, Bennekerry (Co. Carlow) Parish Mission (20th – 26th February 2016) Mission preached by Derek Meskell CSsR, Dan Baragry CSsR and Sarah Kenwright Rochfortbridge, Navan, (Co. Meath) Parish Mission (20th – 26th February 2016) Mission preached by Denis Luddy CSsR, Johnny Doherty CSsR and Niamh O’ Neill Killough [Bright] (Co. Down) Parish Mission (27th February – 4th March 2016) Mission preached by Johnny Doherty CSsR and John Hanna CSsR Bohermeen, Navan, (Co. Meath) Parish Mission (27th February – 4th March 2016) Mission preached by Laurence Gallagher CSsR, Ciaran O’ Callaghan CSsR and Niamh O’ Neill

WINTER

We still have some availability for missions after Easter 2016

Ennismore Retreat Centre

7th February - €20 Passing on the Faith 3-6pm Breda O’Brien (Columnist with the Irish Times)

12th - 14th February Res.- €165 Non/Res. - €100 Lenten Retreat Lenten reflections with ‘Laudato Si.’ Archie Byrne OP and Benedict Hegarty, OP

18th February - €10 /Donation Lenten Evening of Reflection Forgiveness- The key to peace on the Spiritual Journey (7.30pm) Martina Lehane Sheehan 21st February - €20 Imaging of God: Soul and Symbol 3-6pm Dr Anne Francis

ST DOMINIC’S

28th February - €20 New Spiritual Communities/New Monasticism 3-6pm Dr Bernadette Flanagan 20th March - €20 “Interpreting the Signs of the Times: Through the Eyes of Faith”. 3-6pm Martina Lehane Sheehan 24th - 27th March - €200 Holy Week Retreat Ennismore Retreat Team 16th April - €55 “The Ecology Encyclical of Pope Francis”- an inspiring call to Contemplation and Action Fr. Donal Dorr

7th May - €55 Mental Health, Spirituality & Well-Being 10.30am-4.30pm Professor Patricia Casey & Martina Lehane Sheehan Ennismore Retreat Centre is set in 30 acres of wood, field and garden overlooking Lough Mahon on the River Lee. It’s the ideal place for some timeout, reflection and prayer.

For ongoing programmes please contact the Secretary or visit our website Tel: 021-4502520 E-mail: ennismore@eircom.net www.ennismore.ie

COM M E N T REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

THE POOR YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE WITH YOU

ARE THE REAL DEFENDERS OF HUMAN RIGHTS THE HOMELESS AND THE POOR WHO HAVE TO FIGHT EVERY DAY TO RETAIN THEIR SENSE OF DIGNITY IN A SOCIETY THAT DENIES THEM DIGNITY? I was speaking at a meeting on homelessness recently. A young working mother with two children, who had lost her rented accommodation because she could not afford to pay the increased rent being demanded, and was now living in a hotel bedroom, spoke very powerfully of her experience of being homeless. She talked about her feelings of shame, how she felt that she had failed her children, that she was an inadequate parent.

The stigma that society imposes on groups like homeless people is at best divisive, at worst malevolent. It helps to reinforce the pattern of inequality which preserves the status quo. It reinforces the “them” and “us” mentality, thereby promoting discrimination. When it was suggested that perhaps some homeless families could be relocated down the country, one provincial town objected, saying that they did not want “Dublin’s homeless” coming down to their town.

While the stigma is imposed by society, it becomes internalised and exp erienced by the individual, like the homeless mother above. Again, 65year olds, who have worked all their lives but have now retired, are not eligible for the state pension until they are 66.

During that transition year, they have to sign on for Jobseeker’s Allowance. Many will tell you of the embarrassment and

humiliation that they experience when signing on the dole. They are made to feel they are welfare scroungers.

Travellers, ex-prisoners, even those in social housing, can experience this stigma. “They” are not welcome amongst “us” and all sorts of rationalisations are given to justify it – “they” might rob us or attack us, “they” leave the place in a mess, “they” are irresponsible. “They” are not like “us”.

This stigma can be transmitted both by individuals and i n s t i tu t i o n s , s o m e t i m e s unintended, but sometimes not.

In a recent speech by the Taoiseach at the Dublin Chamber of Commerce dinner, he referred to the fact that “Tanaiste Joan Burton has already begun the task of transforming our passive welfare system into an active job support service.” He referred to “the passive welfare culture” where “welfare dependency

becomes a way of life,” thereby reinforcing a popular belief that those on welfare are lazy, prefer to live off the State and are draining valuable resources which could have been used productively to promote economic growth.

What remained unsaid, however, was that that every parent in receipt of child allowance is also a welfare recipient, as are all our pensioners, including retired politicians, and those who are unable to work because of disabilities.

Brendan Howlin, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, in his budget speech in October last, stated that “a fair society is one where those who work hard receive decent rewards.” This was in a budget whose focus was on reducing taxes, from a Government that committed itself, if re-elected, to the elimination of the Universal Social Charge, at a cost to the Exchequer of €4 billion. No one could argue that those who

work hard should NOT receive a fair reward but is this how we should define a fair society?

What message does this send to those who are unable to work, due to age, disability or lack of employment opportunities (employment opportunities which could be greatly expanded if the Government had 4 billion euro to invest!)? Brendan Howlin’s statement is one you might expect to hear from a conservative Government.

Is not a fair society one which is ashamed of homelessness and poverty in its midst?

Often, too, the very institutions set up to help those who are unemployed or homeless or on the margins of society reinforce the stigma. Welfare recipients often talk about being treated as a number, feeling dehumanized, needing to negotiate endless checks and limitless forms, and battling against a system that seems to be against them.

Homeless people often feel that they are up against a government funded system which doesn’t care about them and has little respect for them.

We admire those at home and abroad who struggle to defend the rights of marginalised groups of people. But the real defenders of human rights are those who are homeless or in poverty who have to fight every day to retain their sense of dignity in the face of the stigma by which society tries to deny them that dignity.

43

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE AND CATCH THE HEART OFF GUARD

The 44

unusual title of Fr Brian Darcy’s book of reflections is taken from the final line of Seamus Heaney’s poem, Postscript. The poem describes how an unusual view of a familiar landscape can be an explosive moment that transforms the familiar. For Brian Darcy, this is a metaphor for that kind of spiritual insight that comes through suffering and the broken heart. As he writes in the preface, “it is only when the heart is broken open that we can know the need for healing.”

In the introduction, he describes experiences in his own life when three poems of Heaney opened the door of his heart and made way for healing.

Fr Brian is familiar as a commentator writing each week in the Sunday World or as the presenter of a BBC Radio Ulster Sunday morning programme of music and talk.

However, he would probably regard his most important

form of communication as his preaching ministry. As a Passionist, he has been a parish missioner and retreat giver. As a member of the community of St Gabriel’s Retreat, the Graan, near Enniskillen, he takes his turn in preaching on a Sunday, as well as participating in the annual novenas and other celebrations the Graan hosts. The Graan's spiritual network extends well into the neighbouring counties on both sides of the border and people come there to celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation and to search for healing of body and soul.

Brian estimates that he has accumulated a stock of half a million words through the years of his preaching ministry. Already the author of six books, including an autobiography, his publisher wanted another one based on his preaching but he was unwilling to trawl back through so much material and make a choice.

The publisher came up with the perfect solution: you give us access to the material and we will find someone to choose the best bits and do some editing. Angela Hanley, a trained theologian and writer on Catholic topics, has sifted through the material and selected some two hundred themes. Little of the homily form remains. Here the thoughts are trimmed to their essentials.

Sometimes they are scarcely more than a few lines long. The shortest of them is probably this:

REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

“In a sense, Martha has a list of things ‘To Do.’ Mary’s list is a reminder of what our vocation ‘To Be’ is. It is not enough for us to be among people, we actually have to be with them.

‘God’s work always begins with listening’” (page 38).

Like a good preacher, Brian is good at picking up examples of practical faith. He tells for example the remarkable story of James Foley, the young American journalist beheaded by ISIL who, without a rosary beads, rediscovered the value of the rosary during his imprisonment by counting the prayers on his knuckles. “It took a long time, almost an hour to count one hundred Hail Marys on my knuckles. It helped keep my mind focussed.” Or Jordan Speith, the young golfing prodigy, for whom the most important thing in life is his family, especially his autistic sister.

Brian Darcy has his heroes and he tells many of their stories and quotes their words. It is a pity that the book has no index that will allow you to find easily them again, so it might be a good idea to make a reference to those that strike you somewhere on the end papers of the book. A quotation from the French Jesuit, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin has a curiously up to date ring and mirrors something of Brian’s own story. “It has sometimes seemed to me that there are three weak

stone sitting dangerously in the foundations of the modern church: first, a government that excludes democracy, second, a priesthood that excludes and minimises women; third, a revelation that excludes, for the future, prophecy.” Teilhard was under a cloud for many years, but died without breaking communion with the Church and the Society to which he belonged. Little did he realise that much of what he had stood for would be vindicated in the Second Vatican Council more than twenty years after his death.

This is a book to read at random.

For some, it might prove an ideal meditation book, a starter for prayer, as there is a genuinely contemplative feel to it. For others, especially teachers and preachers, it will be a treasure trove to be plundered.

Brian Darcy: And Catch the Heart off Guard Dublin: Columba Press, 2015. €14.99

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH FISHING FOR SOULS This scene takes place on the shores of the Lake of Gennesaret, also known as the Lake of Tiberias 5TH SUNDAY IN or the Sea of Galilee. It ORDINARY TIME figures prominently in the story of Jesus. His first followers were people who made their living from it, like his fishermen disciples, or Mary Magdalene, from Magdala, a small lakeside town.

The first part of the Gospel describes how Jesus got into a boat the better to be seen by the crowd, perhaps also to use the natural amplification of the water to carry his voice. The second and most important part is the story of the call of the first disciples.

Mark and Matthew begin the story of Jesus’ ministry with the gathering of the disciples.

Luke defers it until now. He also tells the story

in a slightly different way. As an experienced fisherman, Simon probably smiled at what he took as a well-meaning gesture of gratitude for the loan of his boat from a man with little experience of fishing. The previous night, the best time for fishing, had brought in nothing, he tells the preacher, but not wishing to offend him, he declares himself willing to lower the nets. To his surprise, the nets begin to bulge with so many fish that they are close to breaking point. They signal to their partners in the other boat at the shore to come and help them save the precious catch.

Simon recognises that there is something holy about this teacher. Falling to his knees, he confesses that he is ‘a sinful man.’ Later events in the story, such as his denial that he knows Jesus on the night of his arrest, will confirm him to be a weak man. Jesus’ response, ‘Do not be afraid,’ is not simply

intended to restore Simon’s self-confidence.

There are echoes here of the stories of the call of Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament. Each of them recognised how unfit he was for the task but was given a sign of reassurance from God. In Simon’s case, the sign came first in the miraculous catch.

Jesus interprets for him what it means: he is to become a catcher, not of fish, but of human beings. Peter and his companions James and John become the first disciples, leaving ‘everything’ to follow him. In this story, the abundant generosity of Jesus’ gift of fish is matched by the generosity of the fishermen’s response.

STRUGGLING WITH SATAN The Gospel of the First Sunday of Lent is always one of the accounts of Jesus’ temptation. This FIRST SUNDAY year we read Luke’s OF LENT account of that event.

The first thing to notice about this Gospel is the role of the Spirit. Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit at the time of his baptism. Now the Spirit leads him into the wilderness. The ‘wilderness’ or desert is still part of the landscape of the Holy Land. This is not the golden sand-dunes familiar from the cinema. It is, rather, a rocky, dry place, where little grows except a few thorny shrubs. The desert has few inhabitants, beyond some wandering shepherds trying to find a little grazing for their flocks The people of Israel lived close enough to the desert to fear it as an inhospitable place. Some of their prophets, like Elijah, fled to the desert in hard times. Yet their great national story told how for forty years they had survived in the desert after they

escaped from Egypt, before coming to rest in the Holy Land. In the desert, they spent their ‘honeymoon with God’, learning how to be God’s chosen people. Luke emphasises that Jesus was in the desert for forty days. This echoes Israel’s forty years or the forty day desert journey of Elijah to the Holy Mountain of Horeb (1 Kings 19).

The temptation to turn the stones into bread is a temptation to use power for one’s own ends. Jesus rejects it by recalling that human beings do not live on bread alone. The second temptation apparently takes place on a high mountain. From such a height, it is easy to imagine the world spread out before you. According to the devil, Jesus will have it all in return for worshipping him, the temptation to put ambition at the centre.

For the third temptation, we move from the silence of the desert to the Temple, with its crowds milling around. It is a temptation to display power in order to win popularity.

These are typical temptations: they may not summarise everything the Gospel means to say when it speaks of Jesus being tempted.

The early Christian writer who composed the Letter to the Hebrews says that ‘Jesus was tempted in every way that we are but did not sin’ (Hebrews 4:15). We should not see the temptations as confined to these forty days. For Luke, the final great battle is still to come. The devil departs from Jesus ‘until an opportune time.’ That ‘opportune time’ will be during the last days of his life when darkness and the sense of abandonment begin to close around him, when he will feel desperately alone.

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Today’s Readings Isa 6:1-8 Ps 137 1Cor 15:1-11 Luke 5:1-11

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Today’s Readings Deut 26:4-10 Ps 93 Rom 10:8-13 Luke 4:1-13

God’s Word continues on page 46

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A MAN TRANSFORMED On the second Sunday of Lent, we always read one of the accounts of the Transfiguration.

SECOND SUNDAY ‘Transfiguration’ means OF LENT a change in appearance.

It is the name given to this story because it tells how Jesus was ‘transfigured’ in the presence of three of his disciples.

Peter, James and John are three leading members of the group of the twelve and Jesus brings them up a mountain to pray. We are not told where the mountain was, but Mount Tabor is the traditional place. Luke constantly emphasises the importance of Jesus’ prayer. As he prays, he begins to look different: the look on his face changes and it is as though his garments begin to glow

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REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

with light. Luke may be reflecting a detail in the story of Moses: Moses had been so transformed by his time with God on Sinai that his face seemed to be permanently altered and it reflected the glory of God (Exodus 34:29-35).

Jesus and his disciples are joined by Moses and Elijah – representing the Law and the Prophets. Like Moses, Elijah also had a moment of vision on the Holy Mountain of Horeb, another name for Sinai (1Kings 19).

They are talking to Jesus about his passing: the Greek word used is ‘exodus,’ which means ‘going out’ or ‘crossing over’ and is applied to the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. At Easter, we celebrate the death of Jesus, not just as a departure, but as a ‘crossing over’ into the glory of God and our ‘crossing over’ through the waters of baptism to new life through Christ.

The reaction of the disciples is complex and confused. They struggle to keep awake: their sleep may be a reference to Abraham’s sleep as he waits God’s moment of revelation (see today’s first reading, Genesis 15:5-12, 1718). Something even more wonderful now happens. A cloud passes over the mountain, and a voice from within the cloud says, ‘This is my Son, the Chosen One, listen to him.’ The splendid vision prepares them for the horrors of the arrest and passion.

Today’s Readings Gen 15:5-12, 17-18 Ps 26 Phil 3:17-4:1 Luke 9:28-36

THE REALITY CROSSWORD

NUMBER 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

REPENT OR PERISH Today’s Gospel falls into two parts. The first recounts a conversation Jesus had with some people who have just learned the troubling news that some of their fellow Jews had been killed by THIRD SUNDAY the Roman army under orders from Pilate. Pilate OF LENT was a brutal and nervous administrator. Fearing that a Jewish festival might provide the occasion for armed uprising, he gave orders to kill the worshippers, mingling their blood with that of the animals they were offering.

This news possibly generated a debate about the meaning of suffering and death: is there some link between suffering and sin?

This theme runs through the bible, but Jesus strenuously rejects it.

The Galilean who were killed were no more sinful than any other Galileans, any more than people who perished in a recent building accident at Siloam near Jerusalem were greater sinners than the other inhabitants of the city. It provides the occasion for an instruction on the need to repent Jesus’ saying, ‘unless you repent, you shall all perish as they did,” is the entry into second part of the Gospel. The parable uses a fig tree as a symbol for the human response to God’s invitation to grow and be fruitful. The fig was the commonest fruit-tree in the Holy Land.

In the parable, the owner is getting tired of waiting for this tree to produce fruit. New fig trees normally produce a small crop of tiny fruits in the second year, then a good crop in the third. The gardener is probably more aware of the tree’s life-cycle than the owner is, and asks for one more year to allow the tree to mature. Meantime, he will do what he can to help it along, loosening the hard dry soil to allow the rain, and especially the dew on which growing things in Palestine were so dependent, to seep through to the roots and he will enrich the soil with feed for the plant. For all his efforts to save the fig tree, the gardener knows that there is a limit to the landlord’s patience: if the fig does not respond to the care lavished on it, there is no alternative but to replace it with another plant.

This is a sober parable for Lent. It invites us, not to learn techniques for the cultivation of fig trees, but to take stock of the cultivation of the soul. A Jewish teacher called Rabbi Eliezer, who lived close to the time of Jesus, recommended his followers ‘to repent the day before they died.’ Since no-one can be sure of when they are going to die, it is wise to live in a state of continuous repentance!

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SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 9 ACROSS: Across: 1. Turnip, 5. Oblate, 10. Bahrain, 11. Colombo, 12. Opal, 13. Digit, 15. Noah, 17.

Led, 19. Gadget, 21. Armada, 22. Release, 23. Novena, 25. Hermit, 28. Aid, 30. Ursa, 31. Arson, 32.

Ecru, 35. Hoodlum, 36. Sabbath, 37. Assess, 38. Relief.

DOWN: 2. Unheard, 3. Neat, 4. Pencil, 5. Orchid, 6. Lilt, 7. Tombola, 8. Oblong, 9. Joshua, 14.

Genesis, 16. Verne, 18. Trees, 20. Tea, 21. Ash, 23. Nought, 24. Visions, 26. Macramé, 27. Touché, 28. Aromas, 29. Dowser, 33. Flee, 34. Abel.

Winner of Crossword No. 9 Denis McGreal, Co Mayo.

ACROSS 1. Biblical hero in the lion's den. (6) 5. Brief to the point of rudeness. (6) 10. Idealistic reformer aiming for a state in which everything is perfect. (7) 11. City of the Hanging Gardens. (7) 12. Made cheese. (4) 13. Sauce of crushed basil, pine nuts, garlic and Parmesan. (5) 15. Recommend strongly. (4) 17. ...---... (3) 19. Native African tree with an exceedingly thick trunk. (6) 21. Decorative window cover which hides the fastenings from which curtains are hung. (6) 22. Wild American dogs. (7) 23. A whirling mass of water. (6) 25. Deliberate skin marking. (6) 28. It is as good as a wink. (3) 30. The longest river in the world. (4) 31. Textile from flax. (5) 32. A malarial fever marked by successive hot, cold and sweating fits. (4) 35. The generally prevailing weather conditions of a region. (7) 36. Free from guilt. (7) 37. A crudely built hut, cabin, or house. (6) 38. Military or naval banner used to indicate nationality. (6)

DOWN 2. The fruit for guacamole. (7) 3. Book abbreviation referring to an item previously cited. (4) 4. Weapons with long wooden shafts and pointed metal heads. (6) 5. Superiors of monasteries. (6) 6. Red corundum, used as a gem. (4) 7. Person travelling to a sacred place. (7) 8. Extremely good, excellent. (6) 9. Animals with three pairs of legs and usually two pairs of wings. (6) 14. King of Israel known for his wisdom. (7) 16. One surface of a cut gem. (5) 18. Took an exam again. (5) 20. Container, often with a lid or removable cover. (3) 21. Caress the tamed household animal. (3) 23. City known as 'The Bride of the Sea.' (6) 24. Original Irish potato importer, (7) 26. People and language of the Philippines.

(7) 27. Carried out orders. (6) 28. XC. (6) 29. Attack the good name or reputation of someone through libel or slander. (6) 33. The first human to be born. (4) 34. Cleopatra's snakes. (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.1, January/February 2016 Name:

Today’s Readings

Address: Telephone:

Ex 3:1-8,13-15 Ps 102 1 Cor 10:1-6,10-12 Luke 13:1-9 All entries must reach us by February 29, 2016 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. 1, Redemptorist Communications, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin 09 X651

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