COLUMBAN MARTYRS HEROIC SACRIFICE
November 2014
PAUL CLOGHER SAINTS ON THE BIG SCREEN
PRESIDENT HIGGINS COMES FOR A CUP OF TEA!
Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS WHAT DOES IT MEAN TODAY?
SARNELLI HOUSE FOR ORPHANS LIMERICK PEOPLE HELP REDEMPTORIST WORK IN THAILAND
MY FAVOURITE SAINT YOUNG PEOPLE TALK
PLUS KATY DOBEY ON THE JOYS OF CREATION IN A POTTERY CLASS SÉAMUS ENRIGHT ON MY FRIENDS, THE SAINTS
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IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES 12 I BELIEVE IN THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS All are called By Bishop Donal Murray
20 MARIA LONGO, WOMAN OF MANY PARTS A long life of service By Fr Séamus Enright CSsR
22 GENARRO SARNELLI Challenging social evils in 18th-century Naples By Fr Séamus Enright CSsR
23 SARNELLI HOUSE Redemptorists caring for orphans in Thailand By Fr Puwani Tantikun CSsR
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26 SAINTS IN THE CINEMA How films portray holy people By Paul Clogher
30 DEATH: TRUST IN THE UNKNOWN The greatest mystery By Fr John J. Ó Riordáin CSsR
32 IRISH REDEMPTORISTS AS CHAPLAINS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR Service on the Front By Fr Brendan McConvery CSsR
35 MY FAVOURITE SAINT Different saints for different people By Tríona Doherty
39 SEVEN COLUMBAN MARTYRS OF THE KOREAN WAR The fate of Irish missionaries who stayed By Fr Maurice Foley SSC
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23
OPINION
REGULARS
11 SÉAMUS ENRIGHT CSsR
04 REALITY BITES
19 KATY DOBEY
07 POPE MONITOR
29 CARMEL WYNNE
08 FEAST OF THE MONTH
38 PETER Mc VERRY SJ 47 JOHN BOWLER
09 REFLECTIONS 42 SPIRITUAL READING 44 GOD’S WORD
REALITY BITES A WELCOME CUP AT THE MERCY CENTRE IN BAGGOT STREET
Srs. Margaret Casey and Mary Reynolds welcome President Higgins and his wife Sabina, to Mercy International Centre
4 DUBLIN
A CUPPA ON US
President Michael D. Higgins was presented with a cup and saucer that was once owned by Mercy foundress, Sr Catherine McAuley, in the early nineteenth century. He was attending the twentieth anniversary celebrations for the founding of the Mercy International Association which runs the Mercy International Centre in Baggot Street, Dublin. The cup and saucer
were presented to the president by his cousin, Sr Gabrielle Ryan rsm of the Mercy Brisbane Congregation. They were originally used to entertain guests in Coolock House, the home of Catherine’s benefactors, and were brought to Baggot Street when the first Mercy convent was established there in the 1820s. The gift has a particular significance in the Mercy tradition. Shortly before her death, Catherine McAuley requested that her Sisters
Mrs Sabina Higgins receives flowers from Sr Cecilia Cadogan
REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
President Higgins is presented with the cup and saucer that belonged to Sr Catherine McAuley by his cousin, Sr Gabrielle Ryan.
“would have a good cup of tea when I am gone”. Ever since, in Mercy circles, the ‘cup of tea’ is used as a symbol of hospitality. Mercy International Centre is managed by leaders of the Congregation from all over the world. It is a centre of hospitality, heritage and pilgrimage, drawing people from Ireland and abroad to Baggot Street to visit Catherine McAuley’s chapel, room and grave and the many memorabilia associated with her.
President Higgins making his address
N E WS
FIRST CATHOLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL IN IRELAND IN THIRTY YEARS DUBLIN
DANCING WILLINGLY TO SCHOOL
Willingly to school. First-year students from the new Le Chéile Catholic Secondary School.
Eighty boys and girls began their studies at the Le Chéile Secondary School in west Dublin in September, the first Catholic school to open in Ireland in almost thirty years. The new initiative was undertaken because parents expressed a preference for Catholic education for their children, although the school welcomes children from all faiths and none. The school differs from other Catholic schools in that it has no traditional association with a religious order. It is part of Le Chéile Schools Trust, which provides the legal, financial and inspirational role of trusteeship that was in the past provided by religious congregations. Currently located in temporary accommodation on the Mill Road in Blanchardstown, a permanent building is planned for Le Chéile Secondary School in Tyrrelstown.
ASSISTED DYING: ADDED PRESSURES ON VULNERABLE PEOPLE ARMAGH INSIDIOUS PRESSURE In a recent article on the debate in Britain over assisted dying, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Richard Clarke said that the danger of moving in this direction is the “insidious pressure” it might put on many people at the most vulnerable time of their lives. “There are few people who do not hate the thought of being ‘a burden’ on those they love, and they might indeed believe that asking to die would be an act of generosity to those around them”, he wrote in the
Belfast Newsletter. “Given the costs of care for the terminally ill, which often fall on a family, unselfish people might well believe that they owe it to their families not to waste the money that they had hoped to leave for loved ones, on their continued care.” Dr Clark said that the fundamental Christian tenet was that our life on earth is not our property to do with as we choose, and warned that the discussion in Ireland on the issue of assisted dying was already “well under way here, at dinner tables if not yet in council rooms”.
DR RICHARD CLARKE Anglican Archbishop of Armagh
continued on page 6
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REALITY BITES SYNOD FOR DIOCESE OF LIMERICK Bishop Brendan Leahy
LIMERICK
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OPEN TO ALL
The diocese of Limerick is to have a Synod, the first since the 1930s and the first in Ireland since the 1950s. About 400 men and women are expected to gather for the threeday meeting in the spring of 2016. “I hope that as many as possible throughout the diocese will be involved”, said Dr Brendan Leahy, Bishop of Limerick, in a pastoral letter
read at all the Sunday masses. “No one”, the bishop said, “no matter what age, should feel a stranger to the Synod process. In the coming year and a half there will be many gatherings for discussion, catechesis and prayer. We will be opening a website for the Synod. I invite you to send in observations or suggestions. And by ‘you’ I mean people of deep faith but also those who might consider
they do not have deep faith or seldom take part in worship or feel they have lost their faith.” “The Synod has to be about more than changing structures”, he said. As part of the preparatory process, copies of Luke’s Gospel will be distributed throughout the diocese in the coming months. Bishop Leahy’s longer, more reflective pastoral letter on the proposed Synod is available on the diocesan website, www.limerickdiocese.org
'DATE NIGHTS' KEEP LOVE ALIVE SAN ANTONIO
LOVE STORIES CONTINUE ... AT THE PARISH?
REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
'Date nights’ is the novel way that some Catholic parishes in the United States have developed to support married couples. When the Prince of Peace parish in San Antonio hosted its first date night last February, 120 couples showed up. The initiative recognises that for many husbands and wives, the training they received for their lives together started and ended with the required marriage preparation classes they took as engaged couples. The date nights often provide child care, and the event might include a meal, video presentations or a guest speaker. The couples, who are often struggling to rear children, are encouraged to make extra time for themselves before the next date night.
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POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS TIPS FOR A JOYFUL LIFE FROM POPE FRANCIS 1. Live and let live. Everyone should be guided by this principle, the Pope said, which has a similar expression in Rome with the saying, “Move forward and let others do the same.” 2. Be giving of yourself to others. “If you withdraw into yourself, you run the risk of becoming egocentric.” 3. Proceed calmly in life. The Pope admitted that in his youth, he was like a stream full of rocks that he carried with him, and as an adult, a rushing river. However, in old age he was moving like a pool of water, which brought “kindness and humility, a calmness in life”. 4. Have a healthy sense of leisure. Remember not to lose the pleasures of art, literature and playing together with children. 5. Care and respect for nature. “Isn’t humanity committing suicide with its indiscriminate and tyrannical use of nature?” 6. Let go the negative. Criticising others was a sign of low self-esteem, “that instead of picking myself up, I have to cut others down. Letting go of negative things quickly is healthy.” 7. Respect the beliefs of others. “Each person dialogues, starting with his and her own identity. The church grows by attraction, not proselytizing.” 8. Work for peace. “We are living in a time of many wars. The call for peace must be shouted. Peace sometimes gives the impression of being quiet, but it is never quiet, peace is always proactive.” These tips are adapted from an interview published in the Argentine weekly Viva on 27 July 2014
FRANCIS RECEIVES GIFTS FROM JEWISH LEADERS
FIVE WOMEN APPOINTED TO INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION
Australian theologian Tracey Rowland is one of the new female members of the International Theological Commission.
Pope Francis has named five women, a record number, to the International Theological Commission. Women have served on the panel since 2004, but there have never been more than two. The five women come from the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia and their areas of expertise include theology of the family, philosophy and bioethics. The International Theological Commission consists of up to thirty Catholic theologians from around the world and is an advisory body on matters relating to the official teaching of the Church.
POPE’S CAP SOLD FOR AFRICAN CHARITY
Pope Francis met a delegation of forty world Jewish leaders to honour the Jewish New Year, which was celebrated on 24 September. Among those attending the event were the
president and officials of the World Jewish Congress. Among the gifts presented to the Pope was a football jersey bearing the name ‘Francisco’.
A skullcap donated by Pope Francis has raised thousands of euro on eBay for an African charity. An Italian TV show host persuaded the Pope to exchange his cap for a new one in St Peter’s Square. The cap made its way onto eBay, where hundreds of bidders raised its value to over €100,000 within days. The money will go to Soleterre, a charity which provides medical treatment for mothers and babies in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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FEAST OF THE MONTH PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY Nano Nagle
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November 21
In 1782, a small community of women gathered in Cork to listen to a sermon on the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They were members of Nano Nagle’s recently-founded Society of Charitable Instruction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – known as Presentation Nuns from 1791. The women heard the preacher link their work with the work of Christ himself. They were his ‘co-partners’ in the redemption of humanity. He urged them not to pay any heed to their critics who dismissed them as ‘walking’ and ‘galloping’ nuns because they did not remain behind convent walls but reached out instead to the poor in the streets and laneways. There is no biblical basis for the feast of Mary’s Presentation, but the feast has been celebrated since the sixth century. According to an ancient tradition, Mary’s parents presented her in the Temple in Jerusalem when she was three years old; she remained there until she was twelve. She spent her time studying the Scriptures and learning handicrafts. The feast and its accompanying devotion became very popular among new women’s religious congregations in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They used the stories about Mary’s education in the Temple to promote the cause of women’s education. Cork-born Nano Nagle was an early activist of Catholic education in Ireland and pioneered new forms of religious life for women. Born in 1718, she began her schools for the poor in Cork in 1754, when it was still illegal for Catholics to run schools and to teach. In addition to founding several schools, she also founded a refuge for destitute women. She introduced the Ursulines to Cork in 1771 but when they were unable to cooperate fully with her plans for educating the poor, she founded the Society of Charitable Instruction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On Christmas Day, 1775 they began their life together by inviting fifty beggars to lunch. Service of the poor was a direct service of Christ. The work of Nano Nagle and her early companions was rooted in a life of strong faith and deep prayer. Nano had a great devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Blessed Sacrament. In Holy Week, 1784, she read an account of the Passion of Jesus to the children in her schools in Cork, remarking to a friend that she wasn’t in the least fatigued by this – “and you know it is pretty long”. Motivated by faith and a concern for people’s spiritual wellbeing, she was willing to go anywhere in the world, she said, and to do all in her power to save souls. Nano Nagle stood at the threshold of a movement of reform and modernisation that was to change the face of Irish Catholicism. Throughout the nineteenth century, new religious orders like the Presentation Sisters committed themselves to the development of education and catechetical instruction. With their spiritual and social aspects, they provided for the welfare of body and soul. In the decades after Nano Nagle’s death in 1784, the growing number of Presentation schools equipped their pupils to make their way in the world by promoting literacy, numeracy and elementary skills. Today, the Presentation Sisters continue to honour their foundress on 21 November. Séamus Enright CSsR REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
Reality Volume 79. No. 9 November 2014 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960 Published by The Irish Redemptorists, 75 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Republic of Ireland Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Fax: 00353 (0)1 4927999 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)
Publisher Séamus Enright CSsR Editor of this issue Séamus Enright CSsR editor@redcoms.org Coordinating Editor Máire Ní Chearbhaill Design & Layout David Mc Namara CSsR Business Manager Paul Copeland sales@redcoms.org Circulation Claire Carmichael ccarmichael@redcoms.org Finance Administrator Veronique Coller vcoller@redcoms.org +353-1-4067272 Administration Michelle McKeon mmckeon@redcoms.org +353-1-4922488 Printed by Turners Printing, Longford Photo Credits Catholic News Service, Photocall Ireland, Shutterstock REALITY SUBSCRIPTIONS Through a promoter (Ireland only) €18 or £15 Annual Subscription by post: Ireland €22 or £18 UK £25 Europe €35 Rest of the world €45 Please send all payments to: Redemptorist Communications, 75 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Republic of Ireland CORRECTION Brian Conway, the author of The Lure of Seminary (October 2014 issue), would like to add the following copyright citation to his article: With kind permission from Springer Science+Business Media: Review of Religious Research, The Lure of an Irish Catholic Diocesan Seminary, 56, 2014, 487-488, Brian Conway. The author regrets this error. When you have finished with this magazine, please pass it to another reader or recycle it. Thank you.
REFLECTIONS November comes and November goes, with the last red berries and the first white snows. CLYDE WATSON
Everywhere chance reigns; just cast out your line and where you least expect it, and there waits a fish in the swirling waters. OVID
The saints became great because they were awake and aware of God’s presence in all of life, not just in the bits that feel holy. BR PETER BROADHURST OSM
Nothing prepares us for the ferocity of grief. ALICE TAYLOR
If we can live life with a sense of wholeness that includes death as part of life, we will find death less threatening and illness less fearful. SR STANISLAUS KENNEDY
I do benefits for all religions – I'd hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality. BOB HOPE
Quietness is the beginning of virtue. To be silent is to be beautiful. Stars do not make a noise. JAMES STEPHENS
I have found life an enjoyable, enchanting, active, and sometimes terrifying experience, and I’ve enjoyed it completely. A lament in one ear maybe but always a song in the other.
Prayer is when you talk to God. Meditation is when you're listening. Playing the piano allows you to do both at the same time.
SEAN O’CASEY
Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure, nor this thing nor that, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing.
If you are wise, you will mingle one thing with the other: not hoping without doubt, not doubting without hope.
KELSEY GRAMMER
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
SENECA
My soul, which has God to serve, stands in no need of repose. ST JOHN OF GOD
The simplest and most practical lesson I know is to resolve to be good today, but better tomorrow. SR CATHERINE MCAULEY
People who refuse to rest honourably on their laurels when they reach retirement age seem very admirable to me. HELEN HAYES
Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.
One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself. LUCILLE BALL
The better the question the harder the answer. There is no answer at all to a very good question. FLANN O’BRIEN
One of the main tasks of theology is to find words that do not divide but unite, that do not create conflict but unity, that do not hurt but heal. HENRI NOUWEN
ST TERESA OF AVILA
If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
If my hands are fully occupied in holding on to something, I can neither give nor receive.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
DOROTHY SÖLLE
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Kinnoull Centre for Spirituality Home of the Redemptorists in Scotland
St. Mary’s is set in natural woodland overlooking Perth, gateway to the Scottish Highlands. It provides a friendly environment for rest, renewal and retreat. The Team at St. Mary’s Kinnoull welcomes individual private retreatants. SABBATICAL IN SCOTLAND The Healing Ministry Fr. Jim McManus CSsR 2 – 6 November 2014 We will look at the healing ministry in the early Christian centuries, the place of the sacraments in the healing mission of the Church, and the ways in which the healing ministry is being discovered and exercised today. Celtic Spirituality Dr. John J. Ó Ríordáin CSsR 6 – 13 November 2014 Addressing the language, lore, social structure and spirituality of the Celts. This course includes an informative and memorable pilgrimage to the Celtic Holy Isle of Iona, celebrating Eucharist in this Sacred Place. Jesus in the Gospels T.B.A 16 – 21 November 2014 Spending some time reflecting on God’s Holy Word with an experienced teacher and guide, finding rest for our hearts and spirits. Transitions in Life Fr. Ronnie McAinsh CSsR 23 – 27 November 2014 Transitioning which is part of the life of every person is examined with a practical application to celibacy in our age. The role of marriage in its image of the Trinity is also highlighted. Our Journey is shared – concluding with focused reflections on the spiritual implications of real transitioning. Renewal in your Parish Community A Celebration of faith
If you are within the UK, and thinking of a parish mission or just a few days renewal in Autumn/Winter 2014 or 2015, contact the Redemptorist Team at Kinnoull. Parish groups can also come to St. Mary’s for a reflection day or an overnight retreat.
EARLY 2015 Kinnoull reserves the early part of the year for parish groups and school groups. Why not think about coming for a few reflective days? We would be delighted to welcome Religious Chapters or congresses to this homely place in the first couple of months of 2015. Contact us for more details and reasonable prices.
Redemptorist Centre of Spirituality Telephone:
01738 624075 Email:
stmaryskinnoull@btconnect.com www.kinnoullmonastery.co.uk
EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT SÉAMUS ENRIGHT CSsR
MY FRIENDS, THE SAINTS
I
have no doubt that the Second Vatican Council was a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. The liturgical renewal it set in motion has borne remarkable fruits in the lives of believers. The beatification of Pope Paul VI acknowledges his work in bringing the Council to a conclusion and in promoting a renewed liturgy. I am a child of the Vatican Council and its liturgical renewal has nurtured my life of faith. Of course, change can have unintended consequences and can bring losses as well as gains. Many of the old devotions ceased to be practised, and the love of saints and their role in Catholic life became overshadowed. Saints faded from view, even if we continued to celebrate their feasts. Saints were part of the fabric of my life from an early age. Two of my favourite places growing up were St Saviour’s Dominican church and the city library, both in Limerick’s elegant Pery Square. I discovered the saints in both places – in the library’s Vision series, Lives of the Saints, and in Fr Aengus Buckley’s wonderful frescoes of Dominican saints in St Saviour’s church. The books and the paintings expanded my horizons and fed my mind and heart. Personally, I was never completely influenced by the decline in interest in the saints. I owe this to both my mother and to my community. My mother is in a nursing home now but for many years I accompanied her on her weekly trip to town. No trip was complete without a visit to the Augustininan church, where I was dispatched to light candles at the shrines of Padre Pio and St Rita as my mother prayed at the back of the church.
I am also blessed that my Redemptorist community continued to embrace popular traditions, especially as they were celebrated in the annual novenas in honour of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St Gerard Majella. Such traditions are rooted in our heritage of remaining close to ordinary people.
Its members, priests and laity, developed a pattern of prayer, mutual support, a fresh approach to preaching the Word, and a handson engagement with the poor. The Oratory was one of many religious communities, confraternities, hospitals and charitable institutions that sprang up at that time.
My background in history has allowed me to introduce young Redemptorists in various parts of the world to our congregation’s origins. Over the years, I have lead pilgrimages to places associated with the foundation of the congregation. These experiences brought our Redemptorist saints to life for me – St Alphonsus de Liguori, St Gerard Majella, Blessed Gennaro Sarnelli, St Clement Hofbauer.
Today, structural and institutional reform is still necessary, but it will not be successful unless it is accompanied in our time by personal conversion, a renewal of prayer and preaching and personal engagement with the poor. Catholics are looking for ways of becoming involved in the governance of the church at every level and for the development of pastoral practices that include rather than exclude. But they are also looking for solid and life-giving preaching and access to the spiritual treasures of the church. We need both personal conversion and structural renewal.
Pilgrimages to Naples always included a visit to the Hospital for the Incurables, where both Alphonsus de Liguori and Gennaro Sarnelli nursed the victims of syphilis. I discovered Venerable Maria Longo, the Hospital’s founder, while researching our congregation’s history. Her story is introduced to the readers of Reality in this issue of the magazine. Maria Longo was associated with the Oratory of Divine Love, an organisation founded in the sixteenth century by a group of lay people and priests. At that time, church structures required renewal. The Roman Curia, where many of the members of the Oratory worked, was in need of reform, but the members realised that the starting point for renewal was reform of the individual.
Pope Benedict spoke of the saints as the true reformers of the church and of how in every generation saints are born who can be ‘forces for reform and renewal’. We need the witness of the saints on our journey of reform and renewal; they are our companions on the journey.
Séamus Enright CSsR Editor
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C OVE R STO RY
I BELIEVE IN THE
COMMUNION OF
SAINTS
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REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
A MISSION TO ALL OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS BY BISHOP DONAL MURRAY
We
often use the word ‘communion’ in reference to the Blessed Sacrament. We speak about receiving Holy Communion. The same word occurs in the final part of the ancient profession of faith known as the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” TWO REALITIES INTERTWINED It might seem that the word ‘communion’ is being used in two very different senses: on the one hand referring to a person receiving the Body of Christ in the Eucharist and on the other, referring to the nature of the Church as a whole. In fact these two realities are closely intertwined. Nearly fifty years ago, Fr Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, wrote Introduction to Christianity, a reflection on the central truths of Christian faith. In discussing this topic he said: “The saying about the communion of saints refers first of all to the Eucharistic community which through the body of the Lord binds the Churches scattered all over the earth into one Church.” In Pope Benedict’s closing message to the Eucharistic Congress in 2012, which had as its theme ‘Communion with Christ and with one another’, he said:
From the earliest times the notion of koinonia or communio has been at the core of the Church’s understanding of herself, her relationship to Christ her founder, and the sacraments she celebrates, above all the Eucharist. ORIGINAL MEANING OF ‘SAINTS’ The word ‘saints’, in the phrase ‘The Communion of Saints’, originally meant holy realities rather than holy people. It referred to the holy gifts, especially the Eucharist, through which we are united to Christ and to one another. Very soon, however, the © Tomás Murray
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phrase began to include the unity of the people united by these gifts. St Augustine, who lived in the fifth century, indicated how the Communion of Saints and the Communion of the Eucharist were closely related:
If you, therefore, are Christ's body and members, it is your own mystery that is placed on the Lord's Table! It is your own mystery that you are receiving! You are saying “Amen” to what you are: your response is a personal signature, affirming your faith. When you hear “The body of Christ”, you reply “Amen”. Be a member of Christ's body, then, so that your “Amen” may ring true!
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Saint Paul often refers to all Christians as ‘saints’. He addresses the Letter to the Philippians “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi” (Phil 1:1). This is not a judgement that all the Christians of Philippi were ready to be canonised! It was rather a recognition that they were part of the people whom God has chosen to be “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people” (I Pet 2:9).
EACH A MEMBER OF GOD’S FAMILY Paul is well aware of his own weaknesses and can sometimes be very critical of the failures of those to whom he preached. But he is also aware that each of them is a member of God’s holy people. Each has received the gift of God’s merciful love which called them into existence and which, in Baptism, welcomed them into God’s family. Though we are all sinners, “God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy.” The greatest gift of God’s love is Jesus himself and our share in his life, death and resurrection. Quoting St Thomas Aquinas, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
Since all the faithful form one body, the good of each is communicated to the others. … We must therefore believe that there exists a communion of goods in the Church. But the most important member is Christ, since he is the head. … Therefore, the riches of Christ are communicated to all the members, through the sacraments.
All the baptised, in the Communion of Saints, are taking part in an offering of the whole of human life, the whole Body of Christ, through, with and in Christ REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
The Communion of Saints does not exist only for those who have been baptised; it is a mission to all our brothers and sisters UNITED TO GOD AND ONE ANOTHER The Communion of Saints is first of all a reminder of who we are and a call to appreciate the gift we have received of being united to God and one another. In his Christmas sermon in 691, Pope St Leo the Great said:
Christian, recognise your dignity and, now that you share in God's own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God. The Communion of Saints also calls on us to reflect on what that gift asks of us. Vatican II’s call for more active participation by the congregation in Mass was not just about the celebration of the liturgy. In saying that the baptised were meant to be more than silent spectators, it was not speaking primarily about activities such as singing hymns, doing readings and bidding prayers, though these are important. Even more fundamentally, participation, as Pope Benedict put it, means “greater awareness of the mystery being celebrated and its relationship to daily life”.
OFFERING OF JOYS AND SORROWS What is offered to God in the Mass is the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, made present for us. The sacrifice of Christ is not only the sacrifice of his life, it is the sacrifice of all those who, in the words of St Paul, share in his sufferings so as to become like him in his death (Phil 3:10). It is the offering of the whole Body of Christ – and we are his Body. Writing to the Colossians, Paul said: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body that is the church” (Col 1:24). All the baptised, in the Communion of Saints, are taking part in an offering of the whole of human life, the whole Body of Christ, through, with and in Christ. The Vatican II document, The Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, stated:
… all their works, if accomplished in the Spirit, become "spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ": their prayers and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, their daily work, relaxation of mind and body, even the hardships of life, if patiently born. In the celebration of the Eucharist, these are offered to the Father in all piety along with the body of the Lord. And so, worshipping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God.
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SPEAKING FOR THE WHOLE OF CREATION In a general audience in 2002, Saint John Paul described the human person as “’the spokesperson for all creation”. Only human beings, of all the creatures on earth, can praise the Lord in words. United with Christ in the communion of saints, however, we Christians have the privilege of consciously offering our lives and the world itself together with Christ’s offering. The Eucharist expresses the deepest meaning of everything we do, the whole purpose of our lives, the purpose of all creation. But that truth is not just ours; it is the truth that has been placed by the Creator deep in every human heart. God wants all to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (I Tim 2:4) CHRISTIAN CALL TO GO FORTH The Eucharist is the peak of our lives as followers of Christ, but a peak is not the whole mountain. The Communion of Saints does not exist only for those who have been baptised; it is a mission to all our brothers and sisters. The love of God which calls us into communion is a comforting love, a healing and merciful love; it is Good News; it is an invitation into a joy which is always fresh, always new; but it cannot be seen as a possession to be kept to ourselves. Pope Francis, in The Joy of the Gospel, warns against regarding that love as an invitation into what he calls our ‘comfort zone’!
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Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the Gospel. We are called to be a chosen race and a holy people for a purpose: “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” (I Pet 2:9) SHARING THE GOOD NEWS The Good News is “an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth – to every nation and tribe and language and people” (Rev 14:6). Pope Francis says that Christians should “appear as people who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious banquet”. This follows from the foundation of the Communion of Saints, God’s loving invitation to communion in the divine life. “The primary reason for evangelizing”, Pope Francis says, “is the love of Jesus which we have received.” That is a very demanding call. It is not about sharing our joy simply with those who like us and those we like. It means reaching out to those who are different or excluded or despised, or to those we are
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Our task is one of building communion. We cannot invite others into the Communion of Saints through baptism unless we first invite them into a communion of humanity with ourselves tempted to see as threats. That is what Jesus told us: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Lk 6:27, 28). Our task is one of building communion. We cannot invite others into the Communion of Saints through baptism unless we first invite them into a communion of humanity with ourselves. That means that we need to change, to be open, to learn, so that we can see the Spirit blowing where he wills. Pope Francis says:
This is why I want a Church which is poor and for the poor. They have much to teach us … in their difficulties they know the suffering Christ. We need to let ourselves be evangelized by them. The new evangelization is an invitation to acknowledge the saving power at work in their lives and to put them at the centre of the Church’s pilgrim way. GATHERED IN ETERNAL COMMUNION Our communion with Christ and with one another will reach its fulfilment only when the human race is gathered in the house of the Father. In this world communion is always limited by our own sins as well as by the fragile, impermanent nature of even the best realities of life on earth. The promise of full and perfect communion is expressed by the Second Vatican Council:
When we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and enterprise – human dignity, brotherly and sisterly communion, and freedom … we will find them once again … [in a] universal kingdom ‘of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace’. Here on earth the kingdom is mysteriously present; when the Lord comes it will enter into its perfection. There we hope to find again not just human achievements, but the people whose deaths we have mourned, those we never knew but whose lives changed ours for the better, those we offended or neglected and the whole vast variety of God’s family. In that new creation there will be no room for dishonesty, envy, hatred, injustice, refusal to forgive. The people who enter the fullness of communion will be freed from sin, hostility and resentment. There will a glorious recognition of all God’s gifts ‘illuminated and transfigured’.
COMMUNION OF SAINTS: A PERFECT VISION Saint Thomas Aquinas describes the Communion of the Saints brought to its perfection. This union with God consists firstly, he says, in a perfect vision. "We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face." Secondly, in a most fervent love; for the better one is known, the more perfectly is one loved. Thirdly, in the highest praise. "We shall see, we shall love, and we shall praise." Finally, Aquinas says,
There will be the happy society of all the blessed, and this society will be especially delightful. Since each one will possess all good together with the blessed, and they will love one another as themselves, and they will rejoice in the others' good as their own. It will also happen that, as the pleasure and enjoyment of one increases, so will it be for all. Dr Donal Murray is Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Limerick
CONGREGATION OF THE SISTERS OF MERCY
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COM M E N T THE WAY I SEE IT KATY DOBEY
JOYS OF CREATION IN A POTTERY CLASS
LORD, YOU ARE OUR FATHER; WE ARE THE CLAY, AND YOU ARE OUR POTTER; WE ARE ALL THE WORK OF YOUR HAND. ISAIAH 64:8 At the end of November last year, I went to a pottery class. Run by Trinity Arts Workshop, the class was to take place in Goldsmith Hall on Dublin’s Pearse Street. Arriving for a 6pm session, there was a notable absence of students in this Trinity building. The entrance was eerily quiet and I followed some small handwritten signs down quiet deserted corridors until I reached large white doors. The doors were shut and the signs had run out. Reluctantly, I opened them and to my surprise, there was a hum of activity inside. The small workshop area consists of an even smaller antechamber which houses the kiln, the sink and, importantly, people’s completed pieces. Beyond this, in the main room, sat many people working at benches and tables, at the potter’s wheel or scanning the room’s many shelves to retrieve last week’s masterpiece. Among all of this activity, I was happy to see a familiar face and be beckoned over to sit with my friend. The teacher, Ciarán, welcomed me in and I sat with a group of others new to the class. Together we were to learn how to make coil pots. After a day’s work and an evening of thinking, the feel of the soft clay in my palm was immediately relaxing. All thoughts and distractions were
no distraction. There is only clay. Those working on the wheel offer a certain rhythmic beat and those working at the benches slap, roll and knead to that hum.
eliminated. We patted the clay into a ball, and began to roll long, thin sausages. The junior infants in my class do this at play-time nearly every day. They roll out long ‘snakes’ of marla (plasticine) and manipulate it into various letters and shapes. It is one of the most popular choices for play-time and once I began rolling my snakes of clay, I understood why. After we’d made enough coils, we cut a circular base for our pot and began to build. Before I knew it, the hour-and-a-half class was over and my pot was only half-made. Over the next couple of weeks, I abandoned the initial project and set my sights on Christmas. With lots of cake cutters in shapes like stars, hearts, and pine trees, I managed to make some Christmas tree ornaments. I learnt to print, to create texture, to prepare pieces
for the kiln and to glaze them. Despite some rough edges and sloppy painting, I was absolutely delighted with my creations. My family was inundated with presents of Christmas ornaments that were hand-made and therefore couldn’t be refused! This year, as the days grow shorter, I have made my way back to the pottery class. I have returned to the coil pot. I started again. I rolled coils. I cut a base. I built up the walls of the pot. It still awaits the finishing touches. I can’t wait to bring it home, to put a plant in it and to admire its existence. But I also look forward to the process: from seeing it after it has been fired in the kiln to painting it and firing it again. The world calms down when I enter that workshop. There is a little conversation, good company and lots of concentration. There is no phone signal, no music,
There is constant inspiration. From my place at the bench, I can see the others’ work evolve from week to week. Grey pots become grey bowls. Grey becomes white and white is painted blue. We rely on Ciarán for his advice when our pieces start to sag or our ideas run ahead of our skills. All of us listen in as he advises a single student. We all learn from his easy guidance. November is a month of remembering, but also one of preparation. The year’s cyclical character will come to light again once November looks towards December. Most of the regular attendees turn their attention to Christmas creations. The decorations are formed in their hundreds, the presents are passed on, and with the creation of something special, the birth of Jesus is celebrated and remembered.
If you agree, disagree or just want to add your own thoughts to our comment pieces, email: editor@redcoms.org or write to: The Editor, Redemptorist Communications, 75 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6
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F E AT U R E
MARIA LONGO A WOMAN OF MANY PARTS WIFE, CHURCH REFORMER, CHAMPION OF THE SICK AND POOR, RELIGIOUS FOUNDER BY SÉAMUS ENRIGHT CSsR
Maria 20
Lorenza Longo was a woman who played many roles in the course of her long life: wife, mother, widow, invalid, social activist, catholic reformer, nurse, hospital administrator and, finally, founder of the Capuchin Poor Clares. Her story took her from Catalonia in northeastern Spain to the kingdom of Naples in the south of Italy. Maria Lorenza Longo was born in Catalonia in 1463. She married Juan Longo, a lawyer and senior civil servant at a young age. The tradition is that she had three children, but the records only speak of one. As a young woman, she suffered a serious illness and was paralysed as a result. FROM CATALONIA TO NAPLES In the early sixteenth century, King Ferdinand of Catalonia took control of the Kingdom of Naples by devious means. As a result, the course of Maria Longo’s life changed. Her husband was invited to accompany the king to Naples in 1506 and to help in the administration of what was now a Spanish colony rather than an independent state. However, within a short time, he had returned to Spain, where he died two years later, leaving his wife and family in Naples. Maria Longo, now a widow and with a debilitating illness in a strange land, was supported by her family and a growing circle of friends. She had longed to go on pilgrimage to Loreto and to Rome for many years and finally made the arduous journey in 1510. Maria was
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healed of her paralysis during Mass in the Holy House of Loreto. She became a Franciscan tertiary – called secular Franciscans today – in gratitude for her healing and continued on her pilgrimage to Rome. IN THE LANES AND BACKSTREETS Restored to health, Maria Longo returned to Naples a changed woman. Her mornings are spent visiting the churches of the city and her afternoons visiting the poor in the lanes and backstreets. War had raged for forty-seven years, and the plight of the poor was horrendous. They know only oppression, misery, hunger, disease. The poor were also spiritually abandoned. Naples was without a resident archbishop for almost 100 years and the clergy were leaderless and demoralised. Yet, there were those who The Hospital for the Incurables, Naples
© Photography by Marion Cosgrave
were willing to tackle the problems, and Maria Longo’s encounters with the poor gradually drew her into a circle of reform-minded and sociallyactive people. These active Catholics – men, women, clerical and lay – were involved in a network of confraternities, hospitals and charitable institutions that were attempting to respond to the needs of the poor and the abandoned. Some historians suggest that Naples in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had the most developed network of hospitals in Europe. Maria began to focus much of her time and energy on service in the Hospital of St Nicholas. She worked there for several years, first as a benefactor and then as a nurse and administrator. She became the lynchpin of groups of women from all the social classes of
Naples, who both worked in the hospital and supported it financially. ORATORY OF DIVINE LOVE Early in 1518, Maria met Ettore Vernazza, a church reformer, who was visiting the major Italian cities to promote the establishment of Hospitals for the Incurables. Vernazza was one of the founders of the Oratory of Divine Love, and had collaborated with St Catherine of Genoa in establishing a Hospital for the Incurables in their native Genoa. The Oratory worked on the principle that reform of church and society begins with the individual. Members committed to a discipline of prayer and fasting, frequent confession and communion and hands-on service of the poor, especially through hospital visitation. The Oratory of Divine Love spread to Rome and its membership included some of the leaders in the Roman Curia who were committed to church reform. It promoted the revival of preaching and the proclamation of the Word, and it encouraged renewal in the older religious orders and supported the emergence of new congregations. Vernazza introduced Maria Longo to this world. She became closely associated with two religious orders: the Theatines and the Capuchins. The Theatines had been founded to promote reform of both the clergy and the laity, and one of their founders, later canonised as St Cajetan, became Maria Longo’s spiritual director. When the Capuchins arrived in Naples in 1529, Maria provided them with their first home. Maria was also introduced to Angela Merici, founder of the Ursulines, during her second pilgrimage to Rome for the Jubilee Year of 1525. Merici was working at the time in the Roman Hospital for the Incurables. HOSPITAL FOR THE INCURABLES The Hospital for the Incurables opened in Naples in 1519 and three years later, moved to the site that it still occupies to this day. Although not the first such hospital, it was to become the biggest and the most significant. Today it functions as a general hospital in the centre of Naples. Who were the incurables? In Maria Longo’s time, Italy was ravaged by war. Military invasions
and the movement of large armies around the country resulted in famine and plague. The soldiers brought more than famine and plague, they also contributed to the spread of venereal disease. Those affected by this A recent Redemptorist pilgrimage to Naples disease were generally called ‘incurables’ as there was no effective cure. well established and had accommodation Many of the sick were poor and lived in for 600 patients. She was exhausted and in ill atrocious conditions. Medicine couldn’t cope health. She did not resign to enjoy a life of quiet but the need for caring was urgent. Hospitals for retirement but to found the first Capuchin Poor the Incurables sprang from Christian piety. The Clare monastery in the world, located close to movement for church reform and for hospital the hospital. It was there that Maria Lorenza care were closely associated. St Catherine of spent the last years of her life. She died in 1542 Genoa, Ettore Vernazza, St Cajetan and the early at the age of seventy-nine. Theatines and Capuchins were leaders in both movements. LINK TO ALPHONSUS DE LIGUORI Nearly two centuries later, the young Alphonsus SERVING PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL de Liguori, founder of the Redemptorists, NEEDS worked at the hospital as a volunteer. By These hospitals were also spiritual centres. then, it housed more than 2,000 patients. The Maria Longo lived in an apartment in the experience was to nurture his vocation for the hospital and was assisted by a community of priesthood. Franciscan tertiaries in her administration of the Another connection between Alphonsus hospital. Theatines and Capuchins lived nearby and Maria Longo was through a confraternity and worked in the hospital. Maria fostered the that had been founded in the fifteenth spiritual life of the hospital community and century to work with prisoners, especially had appointed times for prayer on the wards. those condemned to death. Fifty years after She prepared people for the reception of the its foundation, Maria Longo had helped to sacraments and had a gentle way of persuading revive the confraternity and incorporated its them to return to the practice of the faith and church into the hospital complex. Alphonsus to be reconciled with God before death. became a member in 1725, the year before he The hospital catered for more than those was ordained a priest. Priest members were suffering from venereal disease. Maria Longo expected to accompany condemned prisoners had a special concern for prostitutes. She to the gallows and Alphonsus performed this frequently visited the brothels of the city and ministry, at least twice, as a young priest. He searched the lanes and backstreets for sick and later wrote of this experience, advising that the dying prostitutes. In 1524 she opened a shelter priest who attends the condemned prisoner for former prostitutes in the hospital complex should not speak of divine justice but of divine and, with the assistance of the Capuchins, went mercy. His approach is reminiscent of Maria on to open a convent those prostitutes who Longo who lovingly persuaded the patients in wanted to embrace religious life. the Hospital for the Incurables to prepare for After sixteen years, Maria Longo resigned death by making their peace with God. as administrator of the hospital. It was now Maria Longo was declared Venerable in 1892.
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R E D E MP TO R I ST LI FE
GENNARO SARNELLI THE MAN BEHIND THE NAME BY SÉAMUS ENRIGHT CSsR
Sarnelli
House, the twentyfirst century home for AIDS orphans in Thailand got its name from a Redemptorist priest who lived in Italy three centuries earlier. Gennaro Sarnelli, born in 1702, did not encounter the devastating effects of AIDS, but he had close-up experience of human misery in many other forms, especially the treatment of prostitutes on the streets of eighteenth-century Naples. A university graduate and a lawyer, Sarnelli was later ordained a priest. He volunteered to work with victims of syphilis in the Hospital for the Incurables in Naples, and was committed to preaching parish missions. It is likely that he first met Alphonsus de Liguori at the hospital, where he also was a volunteer. Both were originally members of the Congregation of the Apostolic Missions, and both would go on to become cofounders of the Redemptorist congregation. As a young priest, Sarnelli was assigned to an inner-city parish. Most of those he came in contact with were poor – casual workers, labourers, those without jobs. Their families suffered because their lives were often bound up in petty crime, gambling and drinking.
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EVENING CHAPELS Liguori and Sarnelli decided to reach out to these men by inviting them for prayer and religious instruction. The meetings had to be held in the evenings and out of doors as many of the men were not comfortable or welcome in the city’s numerous churches. These gatherings, known as ‘Evening Chapels’, became places of lively and open debate, with the men frequently interrupting the instruction with questions and comments. The movement spread rapidly and in time its leadership passed to lay men. Many members changed their ways and even began to work as REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
volunteers in the Hospital for the Incurables and in other hospitals in the city. HELPING WOMEN The population of Naples increased dramatically during the lifetime of Gennaro Sarnelli, emerging as the largest city in Europe after London and Paris. Growth brought an increase in poverty, in social problems and in the number of prostitutes. Theologians, including such giants as St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas, believed that prostitution was socially necessary, and this belief had persisted for centuries. Sarnelli did not see it that way. He questioned the acceptance of prostitution as a necessary evil. From his pastoral experience he saw the connection between poverty and prostitution, and understood that prostitution was basically a form of degradation and exploitation. He was not, however, a social reformer; his primary concern was always for the women’s spiritual wellbeing. For years, Sarnelli made contact with individual women on the streets of Naples and continued to challenge the passive acceptance of prostitution and the degradation of prostitutes. He begged for money to support the women, found places for them to live and other ways of earning a living. Threats from their pimps did nothing to dissuade him. Sarnelli was aware that the public attitude towards prostitution would have to change, and in his writings, he pressed the government into enforcing the laws which prohibited prostitution. He died in 1744 in his forty-second year.
Séamus Enright is the editor of the current issue of Reality.
SARNELLI HOUSE
WHERE ABANDONED CHILDREN ARE AT HOME FR PUWANAI TANTIKUN, KNOWN AS ‘FR OLE’, IS A REDEMPTORIST, BORN IN CHONBURI, THAILAND. HE IS THE MANAGER OF SARNELLI HOUSE, WHICH GIVES A HOME TO ABANDONED AND ORPHANED CHILDREN WHOSE CHANCE OF A NORMAL FAMILY LIFE HAS BEEN DEVASTATED BY HIV/AIDS. FROM HIS OWN EXPERIENCE, HE TELLS HOW THE CHILDREN ARE PROGRESSING IN SARNELLI HOUSE TODAY.
Back
in 1998, I was a novice in the Redemptorist novitiate in Nongkhai in north-east Thailand. Nongkhai lies on the banks of the Mekong river and is the provincial capital. At that time, there were just three of us in the novitiate. Fr Mike Shea was our director of novices. Although American-born, his origins were rooted in Ireland. His great-grandparents came from the Dingle and Ventry areas of Kerry and had emigrated to the United States in the post-Famine years. With such an influence in the novitiate, we learned to revere things Irish, including the American football team, the Green Bay Packers. We also engaged in pastoral work in some of the villages where Fr Shea was stationed, and it was here we began working to help people with HIV/AIDS.
The group at Sarnelli House
FAMILIES DRIVEN OUT OF VILLAGES Until recently, having AIDS was a death sentence. There were no anti-retroviral (ARV) medicines available, nor proper medicine to treat TB, called by some the ‘white death’. People who had AIDS tried to conceal it, until it was too late to help them. Those suspected of having contracted the AIDS virus were driven out of villages, and their houses burned. Even worse, children of AIDS-infected parents, even though they did not have AIDS themselves, were also ostracised. They could not go to school with other children, no one would play with them, and very few relatives would take them in. Young people with AIDS died appalling deaths, with little or no help and comfort. These people truly became the most
abandoned, and we learned by practice what it was to be abandoned, and without hope or help. We novices did all we could, armed with some medicines to help with whatever symptoms those unfortunate people had, plus food, rice, blankets and any other type of clothes we could find. Fr Shea found a little colony of people dying from the AIDS virus, and we went there to help as best we could. One day, we visited a lady dying of AIDS. She had all her clothes laundered; her hut swept; she had taken a bath, dressed as best she could. She then lay down to die. We tried to waken her, thinking she was taking a nap. It was a terrible shock to find her dead. Within a year, everyone in that little encampment had died.
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“WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO MY CHILDREN?” Women with AIDS would always ask: “what will happen to my children when I die?” Fr Shea assured them that we would take them in and care for them. This was the impetus that decided we had to build Sarnelli House. Thanks to contact with the Redemptorists working in the slums of Bangkok, in the school for handicapped children in Pattaya, and in the International school Bangkok, money came in to help provide food for the young children under our care. We started out with nine kids. The Redemptorists of Thailand gave Fr Shea money to build Sarnelli House in 1999 for children with AIDS. Other individuals all over the world, plus some foundations, chipped in to help. At the present time, we have six houses for the 155 children under our care. Of this group, seventeen are in college. The House of Hope is our nursery, and later this year, we will take in two babies not yet born. We help girls financially during their pregnancy, and take care of their medical bills until birth, and then for three months afterwards. This gives the mothers an alternative to abortion. We then take the unwanted baby, and raise it as our own in Sarnelli House.
The Redemptorist team at Sarnelli House: L to R- Bro Keng, Fr Mike Shea and Fr Ole
We also have an Outreach Programme for children with AIDS whose relatives are raising them, and for those kids whose parents have died, but they themselves do not have the virus. We help with medicine, food, and school expenses. We now have anti-retroviral drugs, thanks to the work and sacrifice of our Australian nurse, Kate Introna. The Thai government supplies these medicines free, although there are some whose virus has mutated, and we have to buy expensive medicines to counter the new manifestation of AIDS.
We now have six houses for the 155 children under our care. Of this group, seventeen are in college. The House of Hope is our nursery, and later this year, we will take in two babies not yet born
The newly built water reservoir, funded by Limerick donations
The children learn many skills at the bakery
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FARM, GARDENS AND ORCHARDS After my ordination in 2011, I continued further training in various aspects of Redemptorist life and work in Thailand. I found myself stationed at Sarnelli House, with its six houses of children, and three parishes. A new development in the work has been the farm, gardens and orchards purchased with help from friends and foundations. The children plant their own
rice and we have sufficient for the whole year. We have a rice mill, a fertilizer making machine; we have a tractor and ploughs and a thresher. We raise cattle, pigs, chickens, geese, ducks, goats and fish. The Limerick Redemptorists, with the support of the J.P. McManus Foundation and Sarsfield Credit Union, helped us with a fish pond, a water reservoir, and to drill wells. They also helped us purchase all we needed for a bakery.
The older children working in the rice fields
Graduates of kindergarden
All in all, we are able to do what we do, thanks to help from our friends. I visited Ireland in 2013 and was amazed at how the Irish Redemptorists are able to raise funds for projects in mission countries all over the world. I even reached Kerry, and thought of the history of the Irish people, like Fr Mike Shea’s ancestors, who left there for a new life at the time of the Famine. Sarnelli House continues on, thanks to the generosity and help of the Irish of today, and of all those who help us raise and educate these children. For more info go to www.sarnelliorphanage.org
Breaking the Word... November 2014 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: ABBEYFEALE, CO. LIMERICK 1st – 8th November 2014 Parish Mission preached by Brian Nolan CSsR and Derek Meskell CSsR
BORRIS-IN-OSSORY, CO. OFFALY 1st – 8th November 2014 Parish Mission preached by Denis Luddy CSsR and John Hanna CSsR
KINNITY, CO. OFFALY 1st – 8th November 2014 Parish Mission preached by Laurence Gallagher CSsR, Johnny Doherty CSsR and Ms. Sarah Smyth
ANNASCAUL, CO. KERRY 22nd – 28th November 2014 Parish Mission preached by Derek Meskell CSsR, John Hanna CSsR and Ms. Niamh O’Neill
BONNICONLON, CO. MAYO 22nd – 29th November 2014 Parish Mission preached by Ciarán O’Callaghan CSsR and Ms. Sarah Smyth
MOHILL, CO. LEITRIM 8th – 15th November 2014 Parish Mission preached by Ciarán O’Callaghan CSsR and Ms. Sarah Smyth
BODYKE / TUAMGRANEY, CO. CLARE 8th – 14th November 2014 Parish Mission preached by Séamus Enright CSsR, Brian Nolan CSsR and Ms. Niamh O’Neill
CONFEY, LEIXLIP, CO KILDARE 15th – 22nd November Parish Mission preached by Laurence Gallagher CSsR, Johnny Doherty CSsR and Ms. Sarah Smyth
SLIEVERUE, CO. KILKENNY 15th – 22nd November Parish Mission preached by Denis Luddy CSsR and Brendan Keane CSsR
The details above are accurate at time of printing. If you have any views, comments or even criticisms about Redemptorist preaching, I would love to hear from you. If you are interested in a mission or novena in your parish, please contact me for further information. And please keep all Redemptorist preachers in your prayers!
Ciarán O’Callaghan CSsR, Provincial Delegate for the Proclamation of the Word Email: delegate@proclaim.ie Tel: +353-1-4067253 The Redemptorist National Mission team is fully booked until June 2015. We are now taking bookings from September 2015 onwards.
FE AT U R E
S T N I A S
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IN S O F SA E G A IM
TS A N
C T IT D S AN
Y I N FI L
M
BY PAUL CLOGHER
The
film, Brother Sun, Sister Moon, released in 1971, closes not with the last days of Francis of Assisi but with an upbeat musical epilogue more reminiscent of The Sound of Music than the life and struggles of a saint. With tasteful scenery, lingering close-ups and photogenic faces, this Francis appears too lost amid the attractive images and sounds to seem credible. Franco Zeffirelli’s work certainly illustrates the
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challenges filmmakers face when exploring saints and saint-figures. In a bid to make their work acceptable to the broadest audience, filmmakers often omit the challenging, introspective, and darker moments in the lives of the saints. Cecil B. DeMille’s stories of depravity and heroic virtue in The Sign of the Cross (1932) or the remake of The Ten Commandments (1956) show how filmmakers often
re-interpret the saints as contemporary action heroes. Throughout the twentieth century these biblical and Roman-Christian epics reached the height of their popularity. HOLLYWOOD FORMULA Films such as Quo Vadis, The Robe and Ben-Hur established a kind of formula in Hollywood cinema in the 1950s for depicting sanctity and holiness. With few exceptions the saint or saintly figure was a flawed
charac ter who, through conversion and suffering, attained a heroic destiny. In The Robe, Marcellus, the centurion who oversees the execution of Jesus, is portrayed as a fictional early convert to Christianity. Played by Richard Burton, Marcellus makes the transition from Roman brute to Christian saint with relative ease. He suffers martyrdom at the hands of the emperor, Caligula, but not before being serenaded to his heroic end by
angelic hosts. Theologians and film scholars have described this type of filmmaking as the ‘hagiopic’, which is a combination of biopic and hagiography, the literary style associated with biographies of the saints. This moulding of styles, however, has some negative consequences. It sometimes portrays the lives of the saints and the Christian story as a spectacular and sentimental spectacle. As the screenwriter and filmmaker Paul Schrader puts it: "For an hour or two the viewer can become that suffering, saintly person on screen; his personal problems,
or religious contexts at work in the art. Each saint portrayed on screen is very much a saint for their time who responds to the issues of the day. The many films on the early Christian martyrs throughout the midtwentieth century, for instance, reflect American and European anxieties about the emerging Cold War world. The character of the emperor Caligula in The Robe is best understood as a not-so-subtle reference to the pervading view of the Soviet Union as an evil empire. For the audience of the time, the parallel must have been potent. Like the early Christian saints, who resisted the dictatorship of imperial Rome, the western Christian, safely ensconced in the movie theatre, was called to do likewise, thus imit ating their heroic struggles and, in the process, integrating Chr istian f ai th with the political, social, and cultural sensibilities of the time. The stories of saints and martyrs functioned not just as vehicles of entertainment but served an ideological purpose in America’s mid-twentieth century culture war against communism.
Richard Burton in The Robe
The saints are imitators of Christ who implicitly mediate his passion and death in their own lives and give the Christian story fresh relevance in each historical and cultural era guilt and sin are absorbed by humane, noble, and purifying motives." For Schrader, this style reduces its subject matter to a kind of escapism. We are enthralled by the action, immersed in the fate of the hero, but when the lights go up, the film may have done little to challenge us or our view of the world. SOCIAL AND CULTUR AL CONTEXT Cinema shapes and forms culture. No filmmaker or viewer can escape the social, political,
SAINTS AS IMITATORS OF CHRIST Christian faith challenges believers to model their lives after Christ. The saints are imitators of Christ who implicitly mediate his passion and death in their own lives
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Diary of a Country Priest
Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc
F E AT U R E
Franco Zeffirelli’s Brother Sun, Sister Moon
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and give the Christian story fresh relevance in each historical and cultural era. This theme is prominent in the treatment of the last hours in the life of Joan of Arc. Released in 1928, Danish filmmaker Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc explores the anguish and struggles of the saint as she faces her own trial and death. The Christ-figure theme refers to how directors sometimes depict Jesus through a series of parallels between their central character and the Gospel story. Joan’s trial is interpreted through a series of comparisons with the passion and death of Jesus. Experimental in tone, the film style captures
from below, thus creating a threatening, hostile effect. Joan of Arc dominates the screen. The visual style evokes the passion story through the use of Christian imagery in key scenes. As they mock her, Joan’s captors give her a crown of straw and sceptre. As she dies at the stake, a multiplicity of crucifixes, from the church steeple down to the simple crucifix Joan holds as she dies, fill the screen. Her charge, like that of Jesus, is posted over her head and at her death an onlooker cries ‘you have burned a saint.’ Joan is not a sensationalised hero but a very human figure who struggles and, in so doing, shares in the suffering of Jesus. In his adaptation of the novel Diary of a Country Priest (1951), Robert Bresson focuses on the struggles of a young, isolated priest in northern France, as he faces his own death through cancer. The visuals are influenced by Eastern iconic art, especially in his closeups. The Diary of a Country Priest explores the quest for freedom and the wider tension between free will and predestination. Like Joan of Arc, the struggles of the pastor hint at the sufferings of Jesus.
It is perhaps when filmmakers focus on the ordinary above the spectacular, the human over the superhuman, that they best represent sainthood the intense human drama of the trial. The story unfolds, primarily, through the facial expressions of the characters. Joan’s anguished, confused, and struggling face is shown in contrast to those of the judges, who are often filmed REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
Robert Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest
CONTRASTING IMAGES OF SAINTHOOD Since the emergence of cinema, filmmakers have offered contrasting images of the saints and sainthood. The epic spectacular style, which dominated Hollywood cinema for so long, idealised the saints through an overreliance on sentimentality, melodrama, and romance. Filmmakers such as Dreyer and Bresson offer an alternative, more reflective, approach. For Dreyer, the passion and death of Joan of Arc allows him to draw parallels with the passion of Jesus, thus re-interpreting Joan as a living image of Christ. Bresson’s interest in theology and his use of Eastern art styles make his a cinema of contemplation, even prayer, which depicts the saint as one who grapples with the tension between freedom and fate. The growth of the Christ-figure theme in Christian reflection on cinema has expanded the subject matter of the so-called ‘religious film’ to include fictional characters. FILM AND THE POTENTIAL TO TRANSFORM As cinema evolves, its ability to represent and mirror our world will expand and become more complex. Images fascinate us because they both captivate and transform. Indeed, cinema’s major challenge to Christianity
remains its potential for social transformation. And as cinema transforms our understanding of its subject matters so too does it potentially change our faith. The saints are exemplars of faith and imitators of Christ. Their example is extraordinary, however, only because it is rooted in the ordinary and the everyday. It is perhaps when filmmakers focus on the ordinary above the spectacular, reality above fantasy, the human over the superhuman that we so often mistake for the divine, that they best represent sainthood. In Joan’s sorrow, the silent suffering of the country priest, and other examples, film approaches what this call means with more depth than images of heroes in the lion’s den facing their end with a seemingly superhuman awareness of their fate. While reflecting cinema’s need for heroes, this style lacks the solidarity that has drawn so many generations of Christians to the saints as authentic and meaningful illustrations of the Christian story. It is perhaps in the more introspective moments of struggle and darkness that cinema captures the image of the saint as an imitator of Christ . Paul Clogher teaches religious studies at the Waterford Institute of Technology. He has a special interest in film and theology.
COM M E N T CHRISTIAN PARENTING CARMEL WYNNE
BE WARY OF ASSUMPTIONS
COMMUNICATIONS DIFFICULTIES WHEN A FAMILY MEMBER IS ILL When a family member is seriously ill, texts bring with them presuppositions that may not necessarily be accurate. It’s unfortunate that sometimes our good intention can backfire and cause unnecessary distress. Last May when my husband was in hospital I took a picture of him on my mobile telephone to show to my daughters. One of our girls said she was constantly telling people that Dad was in good form. She suggested that I send out a text with the picture that would reassure family and close friends. The distress caused to those who received only the text, because they did not have smart phones, illustrates how important it is that the words you text must convey the right message. Every person who receives a text makes assumptions based on their beliefs about a situation. The group text message I sent out, with a photograph of my smiling husband in his wheelchair, celebrating with a glass of brandy, was meant to reassure family and close friends. It had the opposite effect on those who received only the text without the smiling image. Mytextsaid“Dadon29May”. Some people misread “Dad” for “dead” and jumped to the wrong conclusion that they were being informed of Colm’s premature demise. My intention was to communicate that my husband Colm, who was seriously ill in hospital, looked cheerful and well. Unfortunately the words without the picture conveyed a different message. For many people, illness changes the family’s quality of life. Living with cancer is a family issue that can
affect simple things. Colm had an inoperable tumour for years and coped well. His life challenging illness has an impact on everyone in the family. One big change for us was that we could no longer decide to go someplace on the spur of the moment. We had to check places out in advance. As walking up even a small incline left Colm breathless we needed to find places where paths were flat and avoid inclines, steps and hilly places. Adjusting to major life-changes is hard but it can be made easier when the family make the decision to communicate honestly. However, despite the best efforts of all involved, miscommunication can so easily occur. When someone is so seriously ill that there is no further treatment, family and friends will be in such a highly emotional state that logic wanes and meanings gets distorted. It’s challenging to learn that a simple text message with two or three words can convey a very different message to the one the sender intended. My
brother came back from a holiday in Holland with a small bottle of an XO brandy that was a different brand to the one my husband usually drank. He couldn’t let the situation pass without taking a photograph of the brother-in-law with “the opposition’s brandy”. Thinking that he was doing the right thing he also decided to send a group text message. His positive intention was to communicate in pictures that Colm looked well and happy. The text he wrote under the picture was “Taken today”. I was chatting to his wife telling her about my group text fiasco when we were shown the message he had just sent out. He was greeted with a horrified “What have you done?” There is no doubt that words have meaning in a context. Every person who receives a text makes assumptions based on their beliefs about a situation. When a loved one is terminally ill, people are in an emotional state and this
has an impact on what they see on the screen. Miscommunication frequently happens because language is such an unreliable resource. It’s so easy to assume that if you and I speak the same language we will both attach the same meaning to the words we use. We don’t and this discrepancy makes it more likely that miscommunication will happen. Another assumption many of us make is that family members are communicating with family friends. The expectation that friends are up to date on the current situation can lead to other stressful situations that one might not anticipate. My daughter invited me to take part in a positive Facebook initiative. For three consecutive days I was to post three positive things each day and nominate three people who would continue the practice. One of my posts was “In the hospice, saw a beautiful dragon fly in the rose garden”. One caring friend that I nominated who was living abroad assumed that “in the hospice” meant I was the patient. This illustrated the problem with communication. You know the information you want to communicate but you have no control over the assumptions and beliefs family and friends hold that can potentially change your intended message. Colm Wynne died on 28 August 2014. May he rest in peace.
Carmel Wynne is a life and work skills coach and lives in Dublin. For more information, visit www.carmelwynne.org
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F E AT U R E
DEATH:
TRUSTING IN THE UNKNOWN THE HOPE OF EXPERIENCING GOD FACE-TO-FACE BY JOHN J. Ó RIORDÁIN CSsR
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There
is something that no reader has ever done or experienced. Of that we are certain. None has personally experienced dying. On this subject the Welsh poet Saunders Lewis says: We can look on; sometimes we can recognise the moment No one can feel with another in that moment When the breathing and the person come to an end. And there it is. No one can feel with another in that moment. Every individual has to experience his or her own death. The thought of having to face that mystery has led many to distract themselves from the inevitable. DIFFERENT TRADITIONS In the seventeenth century a band of English Puritans sailed to America on the Mayflower. They were determined to found a new world where death and sin would be no more. They
REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
failed of course, but ever since, American culture is shot through with that Puritan illusion: the denial of death. Several years ago, one of my Redemptorist colleagues got a rude awakening when he first celebrated a funeral Mass in New York. On returning to the sacristy after the Mass, the parish priest berated him for using the word ‘death’ with reference to the deceased. My confrere thought this reaction odd at the time, but today we have a better understanding of the reaction of the parish priest. Until recently at least, it was different in the Irish tradition and thank God, much of that tradition is still intact. A funeral is part of life. The moment comes, the die is cast for one and the community gathers round in solidarity with the bereaved. After prayers and tears, laughter and song, the body is committed to the earth from which it is sprung. And we are left with the mystery.
MYSTERY REMAINS We may claim to have known the person very well but did we? The Siberian-born poet, Yvgeny Yevtushenko, says: Of whom essentially, what did we know? Brother of a brother? Friend of a friend? Lover of a lover? In any man who dies there dies with him His first snow and kiss and fight … Not people die but worlds die in them. And so the question remains: What has happened to this person, the person whom we thought we knew? At funeral services we may hear well-meaning references to the dead person going ‘straight up’, ‘splitting the clouds’ or ‘sitting around the heavenly mansions chatting with old friends and neighbours’. That may provide a kind of soft landing for the bereaved, but it does so at a cost. That kind of talk trivialises death and, more importantly, it trivialises our understanding of what we call the beatific vision, the notion
of experiencing God face-to-face in heaven. It reduces the vision of God to a sort of option, visiting the God-room in the heavenly mansions as it were. FACING REALITY OF DEATH Death is the most profound thing that is ever going to happen to you and to me. Some years ago when we were burying my sister Eileen it was bucketing rain in the graveyard. As we filled in the grave my grandniece Michelle, a little girl of three, was looking on intently at proceedings. Taking the child by the hand, my sister Peggy pointed to the sky and said, ‘Michelle, Auntie Eileen is up there with Holy God.’ ‘She is not’ replied the little girl, ‘she’s down there in the muck.’ The body is in the muck, and yet, the Christian dares to hope. The paschal candle, lit at every funeral service as a symbol of the risen Lord, is a reminder of that hope. In the prayer before Communion at Mass we speak of waiting in joyful hope. True, we do
not know what happens beyond the grave; we cannot even speak of beyond. Yet the believer confidently entrusts their dead to the unfailing love and mercy of God, made known to us through Christ Jesus. And it is with the same confidence that we entrust to the good Lord our own selves when the moment comes for us. INVITATION TO REFLECT Every funeral we attend is an invitation to reflect. It earths us. There’s no better place for asking ourselves what is a truly successful life than when gazing on the narrow brown box we call a coffin. I’m not suggesting that we think of death in a morbid fashion, but that serious reflection on our own death can be a healthy exercise. When faced with decision-making, for example, remember that there are no big or small decisions in life; there are only decisions made in the light of inevitable death. The bible puts it directly and simply: ‘In all your works, remember your last end and you will never sin’ (Sirach 7:36).
Divine Mercy Pilgrimage 2014/15
St Columban
Missionary Extraordinaire by John J. Ó Ríordáin C.Ss.R. Loss of Memory can affect nations as well as individuals. Through the publication of his attractive booklets Fr John J. Ó Ríordáin, CSsR nourishes the ‘nation’s memory’, his latest contribution being St Columban, missionary extraordinaire Ireland’s greatest missionary. Columban made such an impact on Continental Europe in the 6th century that he is still remembered there with admiration and wonder. He died at Bobbio near Milan in 615 AD, and next year, his 1400th anniversary, is being celebrated widely on the Continent. We are invited to celebrate at home too; not only for personal reasons but also for the sake of national health! Ó Ríordáin’s booklet is well within people’s reading range; and at €3 it is probably within their financial range as well.
www.redcoms.org sales@redcoms.org 00353-1-4922 488
Fr John J. Ó Riordáin is a Redemptorist preacher and author.
Friends of St. Therese
Available from Redemptorist Communications
Available from Redemptorist Communications
The English monk, Alcuin of York, who died in the year 804, was one of the bestknown scholars in medieval Europe. For his tombstone he composed an epitaph that has retained its currency for well over a thousand years. There’s a ring of truth about it, a sound that lingers in the ear and in the heart: Here halt, I pray you, make a little stay, O wayfarer, to read what I have writ, And know by my fate what your fate shall be ... Now in your turn, wayfarer, for this song That I have made for you, I pray you, say: ‘Lord Christ, have mercy on your servant here’.
€3 P+P
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TH E G R E AT WA R
IRISH REDEMPTORISTS AS CHAPLAINS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR
SERVING IN THE MIDST OF SHELL-FIRE AND CARNAGE BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR
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Within
m o n th s o f th e declaration of the First World War, the numbers attending the weekly meeting of the men’s confraternities at the Redemptorist churches of Limerick and Belfast were showing signs of decline as men rushed to enlist in the British army. By the end of 1914, about 500 Limerick confraternity men were serving with the forces. In his end-of-year summary for 1915 in the confraternity chronicle, Fr Con Mangan, the director, remarked that “we cannot but
Irish Volunteers who had enlisted in the army. Some of the chaplains on active service felt they could do little unless the men had received some religious preparation for living under fire and in close proximity to death. One way the Redemptorists helped soldiers on the way to the front was by offering short retreats before the men left Ireland. Fr Hartigan gave one of these retreats himself, commenting that it was “the most consoling work I have ever done”. CHAPLAINS VOLUNTEER In the early twentieth century, Redemptorists largely followed a monastic model of living . They gave missions and retreats in parishes throughout the country and then withdrew to the monastery to spend their days in prayer and study. While giving retreats, they usually worked in groups of at least two. No Redemptorist was permitted to live or work alone. To serve
Being a chaplain in the First World War meant living far from the security of an organised community, without the companionship of fellow Redemptorists feel very sad when we think of the hundreds of our grand young fellows who have, since the last retreat, fallen on the field of battle.” The Redemptorist provincial, Fr Patrick Hartigan, was sympathetic towards John Redmond’s home rule movement and the REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
Fr Harry Potter 1880–1952 was a native of Birr, Co. Offaly. He was the first Irish Redemptorist to volunteer as a military chaplain and remained in service from 1915 until the end of the war. He was awarded the Military Cross for bravery
as a military chaplain was to embark on a different form of life. Being a chaplain in the First World War meant living far from the security of an organised community, without the companionship of fellow Redemptorists. The work of a chaplain was also unfamiliar and would require a man to learn a range of new pastoral skills. The first Irish Redemptorist to offer his services as a chaplain was the Offaly-born Fr Harry Potter who volunteered in 1914, but only received his commission the following June. His father was the commanding officer of the army base in Limerick, so the military life was in his blood. He served until October 1919. IRISH REDEMPTORISTS Fr Potter was followed by ten more Redemptorists from the Irish province over the four-year period of the war. The Redemptorists were then a relatively small congregation in Ireland, with four houses in Ireland and missions in Australia and the Philippines. Nevertheless their contribution to the chaplaincy service was generous. According to
the figures in the Irish Catholic Directory at the time, there were eleven Redemptorists war chaplains. Chaplains were also drawn from other religious orders and from Irish dioceses. The largest groups of priests were from the Archdiocese of Dublin (15) and from the Jesuits (25). Irish Redemptorists also volunteered from Australia for the ANZACS (Australia and New
Fr Harry Potter’s citation on being awarded the Military Cross for bravery For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He rendered great assistance to the medical officer, working under heavy shell fire, and stayed till the enemy were within a few yards of the aid post. Having then evacuated all the cases which it was possible to move, he left with the medical officer. His coolness and presence of mind prevented a large number of wounded from falling into enemy’s hands. Zealand Army Corps), and several Irish men were engaged in service through the Redemptorist’s English province. Fr Michael Geraghty of Limerick and Fr David Aherne from Fermoy were both members of the English province. Fr Geraghty was awarded the rank of honorary chaplain of the forces with permission to wear service uniform on formal occasions. Fr Aherne had the rank of major. He was mentioned in dispatches several times and was awarded the DSO (Distinguished Service Order) in 1917. An Irish Redemptorist, Archbishop Patrick Clune of Perth in Australia was, in virtue of his office, chaplain-general of the ANZACS. While he was visiting the troops in the aftermath of the war, his nephew, Conor, was murdered in Dublin on Bloody Sunday 1920. The archbishop
used his access to British government circles that his position gave him to act as a go-between in the negotiations leading up to the Truce. NO LONGER YOUNG Many of the priests who signed on as chaplains were scarcely in the first flush of youth. Fr Patrick Kilbride was forty-seven when he joined up but he served until the end of the war. Fr David Aherne was forty-three. Most of the Irish saw service on the European mainland, mainly in France and Belgium. Frs Michael Hannigan and Michael Cagney, who joined the chaplains’ service in 1915, served with the Dublin Fusiliers in the Dardanelles. The encounter with the inhumanity of war left a deep mark. The Redemptorist provincial wrote that one of the chaplains who had only left a short time before “arrived home early from the war as he was not able for the din of battle ... He was in the hottest of the struggle for a few weeks and his nerves got greatly shaken.” Such accounts, together with the growing support for those politically opposed to the war, made it increasingly difficult for the provincial to find a replacement.
Most of the Irish chaplains saw service on the European mainland, mainly in France and Belgium FR BERNARD KAVANAGH Fr Bernard Kavanagh was born in Limerick in 1864. When the Redemptorist province was divided into the two provinces of England and Ireland, he opted to remain in England. He seemed an unlikely chaplain. He was fifty years of age and of indifferent health. Nevertheless, in September 1914 he was commissioned as a chaplain and threw himself into the work with gusto. He was anxious to go to the French front, but his chronic rheumatism told against him. Eventually he was sent to Egypt, where for sixteen months he did duty as a hospital chaplain. Although his superior officers tried to excuse him from the more demanding duties on account of his age and ill-health, Fr Kavanagh continued to volunteer for the more dangerous missions. By 1917, he was in
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T H E G R E AT WA R
Fr Patrick Kilbride 1868–1945 (centre) became a chaplain in 1915 at the age of 47. He was sent to Salonika in what is now Greece. He fell ill and was transferred to the military hospital in Italy where he remained as chaplain until 1918. He is here pictured with two other chaplains (unknown) at the military hospital at Bodighera
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Palestine, then part of the Turkish or Ottoman Empire, and allied with Germany. Although he rejoiced to drink water from Jacob’s Well or pluck a fig from a tree that the patriarchs might have planted, this was no pilgrimage. His letter to his sister gave a grim account of what he witnessed: “As you know, I never looked to join the army at my time of life – being in it I have never prayed that I might outlive this war and carnage where so many younger and better men are falling ... I have seen men fall upon the ground hysterical under a persistent fusillade, others become insane. I have stumbled at night over some dead comrade, who, a few
Fr John Doyle 1876–1965 was a native of Co. Wicklow. He joined the military chaplaincy in the final months of the war and served in France
RESTING ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES By December, 1917, they were within sight of Jerusalem. On 8 December, Bethlehem fell to allied forces. It was but a short push to Jerusalem. Fr Kavanagh was there when British field marshal, Edmund Allenby, took control of the city. To spend time in the Holy City was a dream fulfilled. Writing to his provincial, he told him that he had found a billet in a former German hospice and slept for the first time in a bed since last February. “To undress and get into a neat room with clean towels and a basin is an astonishing comfort. Today, I walked over to Bethany and saw the veritable tomb of Lazarus and the house of Martha and Mary. From where we are now the view of Jerusalem is indescribably beautiful, the spot is pointed out where Jesus wept over the city.” Fr Kavanagh was shot dead by a Turkish sniper on the Mount of Olives on 21 December 1917. The letter informing the provincial of his death was written by an officer he had received into the Church just days earlier. His last resting place is in the Commonwealth War Cemetery on Mount Scopus, the continuation of the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem.
Fr Patrick Carroll 1889–1932 was a native of Co. Limerick. He became a chaplain towards the end of the war but continued for a year later, serving for the most part as a hospital chaplain in the Rhineland
“I have stumbled at night over some dead comrade, who, a few hours before, was full of life and laughter.” Fr Bernard Kavanagh hours before, was full of life and laughter. I have jammed dozens into the ground by night and scraped a little earth on top of them before the battle was renewed at day-break. More than once as I went my rounds a machine-gun was turned on me and the ground ploughed up with bullets a few yards in front. … Yet strange to say, by God’s mercy – for it is not I – I have never experienced one moment of dismay.” REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
Fr Brendan McConvery is author of The Redemptorists in Ireland, 1851–2011, published by The Columba Press.
SAINT H O O D
MY
Favourite SAINT
SAINTS PEOPLE LIKE AND WHY
BY TRĂ?ONA DOHERTY
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Do
people still read about the lives of the saints? I remember as a child having a book about the lives of the martyrs. What stuck in my mind were the rather sanitised illustrations of St Joan of Arc being burnt at the stake, and St Sebastian complete with arrows sticking out of his chest – they never seemed like real people. There is a saint for almost every day of the liturgical calendar. While there is no official list, it is estimated that there are over 10,000 canonised Catholic saints, not to mention the thousands celebrated in local regions throughout the world. Down through the years, different saints have floated on and off my radar. Like many, I pray to St Anthony when I lose something important, St Joseph of Cupertino for success in exams, St Jude in the most desperate circumstances, and St Christopher when undertaking a journey.
St Josephine Bakhita
SAINTS WE TURN TO Relics and prayer cards are passed among families and friends, and many of us have a particular saint we turn to when a loved one is ill. Just recently I heard the story of a man suffering from cancer whose family had been praying to St Peregrine, patron saint of cancer patients, and whose condition had greatly improved. Miracles, often healings, play a central role in the canonisation process. One prayer to St Anthony acknowledges the possibilities when we call on a saint's intervention: 'The answer to my prayer may require a miracle, even so, you are the saint of miracles'. Many of the saints down through the ages reflected God's love in their service of others. They were people who gave up everything to help others, often suffering greatly themselves in the process. There is
SAI N T H O O D
a lot we can learn about their lives that is still relevant today. How often do we take the time to find out about a new saint? ST JOSEPHINE BAKHITA A friend recently introduced me to St Josephine Bakhita, and I have been intrigued by her story ever since. Born in Darfur, Sudan in 1869, Josephine was kidnapped by slave traders as a young girl. She was bought and resold several times, beaten and scarred. In her autobiography she described her treatment by one of her captors: “I do not recall a day that passed without some wound or other. When a wound from the whip began to heal, other blows would pour down on me.” She eventually ended up in Venice, where she was freed and decided to stay with the Canossian Sisters. She later joined them, spending the rest of her life in Italy.
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There is lot we can learn about their lives that is still relevant today. How often do we take the time to find out about a new saint? FORGIVING HER PERSECUTORS In spite of her traumatic background, Josephine was known for her gentle, calm nature. Asked once "What would you do if you were to meet your captors?", she responded: “If I were to meet those who kidnapped me, and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands. For, if these things had not happened, I would not have been a Christian and a religious today.” It is hard to imagine being capable of such forgiveness and acceptance. Though her later years were marked by illness, she maintained her cheerfulness. When a visitor would ask how she was, she would reply "As the Master desires." Bakhita was canonised in 2000, and was adopted as the patron saint of Sudan, a country that has seen so much suffering. REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
Danny Sweeney, Leeds
ST JOHN BOSCO
When I was younger I volunteered to work with young people at Savio House, the Salesian retreat centre near where I grew up, and I have been involved with the Salesians ever since. I spent six months in Bangalore in India with the Salesian community, working with street children in outreach and education. I find a sense of belonging with the Salesian family. St John Bosco's charism was for those who were young, poor and most vulnerable. He worked with street kids and runaways in Valdecco, a slum of Turin. He brought a message of love and redemption, and showed that you don't need to be pious or stand-offish; you need to be loving and connected. When John Bosco first went into a prison, he saw that the needs of the young people there were not bring met. He responded by giving them a family and provided for their physical and spiritual needs. CAMBODIA AND INDIA In the first 100 years of the Salesian congregation which was founded by
St John Bosco
John Bosco, 2,600 houses were opened – one every two weeks. I visited Salesians in Cambodia, and saw where they had set up a hotel school to train young people in catering and hotel management. In India the young people were being trained to use a printing press or to sew. The year 2015 will be the twohundredth anniversary of John Bosco's birth. I see him as an example of someone from very ordinary beginnings who responded with love to those who were suffering around him. He wasn't afraid to go against the grain, and went to places priests would not have gone. He lived for the young and the poor, the people most in need. My favourite quote from St John Bosco is: “It is not enough just to love young people – they must know that they are loved.” From my experience with youth work, so many young people do not hear that message. We live in a world that is very much about the self, and young people don't feel valued. We don't have kids who run away from home to work in factories any more, but we do have young people in need.
Caitriona Maddock, Kilkenny
ST MARY MacKILLOP
My favourite saint is Sr Mary MacKillop. She originates from Melbourne and is Australia’s first and only saint to date. I heard about Sr Mary from my aunt Katherine who has been a nun in Australia since the 1970s. My aunt has great faith in her as, like St Mary MacKillop, she believes in the value of education for all. Mary MacKillop focused on the railway and bush children of Australia who, due to isolation and poverty, were often deprived of the opportunity to go to school. I come from a background that strongly values the importance of education. From a young age my parents encouraged us to complete homework straight after school and to respect and listen to our teachers. As we grew up we understood the importance of education for our future, not only with regard to job prospects but also so that we’d be happy with our chosen careers.
Mary MacKillop really appeals to me because I am a teacher. I strongly believe that education is the most important resource in society, not only with regard to intellectual development but also for emotional, moral and spiritual growth. We are lucky that in our society education is accessible to people of all ages. A CHANCE TO LEARN I really admire how Mary MacKillop went out of her way to support these poor children and to give them the chance to learn. She also cared for their welfare, so much so that when she suspected a case of abuse and reported it she was excommunicated! This was lifted two years later by the bishop who issued it. So I believe that she was a brave activist and defender of the innocent, who would not be bullied into submission regardless of the consequences to herself. I think that Mary
St Mary MacKillop
MacKillop teaches us to believe in ourselves, to work hard towards what we want to achieve and to try to do our best always, both for ourselves and in our encouragement of friends and loved ones. I admire her determination to do right in the face of challenges. Members of my family have carried her prayer and photo in our handbags and pockets to interviews and exams – with great success! I suppose I would describe St Mary MacKillop as the saint to pray to in terms of education. While we pray to St Anthony to find our lost items, St Christopher to protect us on our journey, we pray to Mary MacKillop before those important exams and job interviews. We have even been encouraged by our aunt to hide her prayer and photo in the place or building where you want the job or success!
Patrick Doyle, Leixlip
ST FRANCIS OF ASSISI
St Francis Of Assisi
As a child growing up, I have fond memories of my family saying prayers to St Francis and I was always curious about who he was. Over time I began to dig into his life story and found it intriguing that he was never actually ordained, and that he had a great connection with the poor even though he came from a wealthy family. Francis never really finished his formal education, but valued himself and others as people rather than in terms of wealth and education. A selfless soul who dedicated himself to helping the destitute, it is his simplicity that appeals to me. Spreading the good news, barefoot and with no money, must have been radical for the time, especially considering the wealth he came from.
This simplicity appealed to people and it’s no wonder his popularity grew. He is even more relevant now, with our modern complexity of life. If something becomes too difficult to deal with or there are too many things to cope with, I just say a prayer to St Francis to make my problems less complicated. Francis was also a great advocate for nature and the environment and in today’s world he’s more relevant than ever. I also find it interesting that our current Pope has adopted his name; in a world of inequality between rich and poor his values are needed now more than ever. The quote of his which stands out in my mind is “It is in giving that we receive.”
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COMMENT REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ
DRUGS – A THREAT TO IRISH SOCIETY
LEGISLATION TO CONVICT DRUG GANG LEADERS REQUIRED A consignment of herbal cannabis, to the value of €6.5 million, recovered from a criminal gang
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A young man, whom I knew very well, had a drug problem since his teenage years. He entered a rehab programme, came off drugs and returned home. Shortly afterwards, his mother went into his bedroom and found him hanging. He left a note, explaining that he owed a lot of money to drug dealers from his drug-using days and now they were threatening him and looking for their money. He had no way of paying and did not want to sell drugs to pay off his debt, as that would have sucked him back into the drug culture he had escaped from. The note said that he wanted to decide when he would die, and not leave that decision to the drug dealers. Several hundred young people are estimated to have committed suicide because of drugs over the past few years. A 16-year-old boy has been using cannabis for several years. He lives with his mother and 8-year-old brother. He now owes several thousand euro to the drug dealers. The drug dealers have smashed his mother’s windows on several occasions, walked into her house and robbed the TV and anything else of value. They accompany her to the post office each week to collect her social welfare and take it from her. They tell her that if she does not REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
pay her son’s debts they will petrol bomb her house some night when she and her children are asleep. She cannot take the stress anymore and has begun to self-harm. Her 8-yearold child is probably going to be taken into care as there is little food in the house and the electricity has been disconnected. Thousands of families around the country are living in fear and dire poverty, like this one. Drugs have ravaged many families. They have killed thousands of young Irish people. On average, one person per day dies in Ireland from a drug overdose – far more than from road accidents. I regularly drive young people to the ferry and pay for their ticket to England, as they flee from the drug gangs to whom they owe money. Many young people have been seriously assaulted, assaults which are never reported to the Gardaí out of fear of further retaliation. Young people, who begin experimenting with drugs, may find themselves quickly out of their depth, as their drug debts mount up. They are then forced, under threat, to sell drugs to pay off their debt. They end up in prison serving lengthy sentences, as they are not savvy enough to avoid being caught. Those higher up in the gang
hierarchy do not handle drugs themselves so they avoid conviction. Whole communities are dominated by drug gangs. Drug gangs are ruthless; they survive through intimidation, fear and violence. Their biggest fear is that people will give evidence to the Gardaí. So people see nothing, hear nothing, know nothing – the alternative is to be shot or have your house petrol bombed. Most of the intimidation is never reported, as people are too afraid to talk to the media. It is in the more deprived communities that drug gangs thrive – hence the threat posed by drug gangs goes unresolved and largely ignored by the political system. And it’s going to get worse. The drug problem, which began with heroin in the inner city of Dublin thirty years ago, has now spread to every town and even village in Ireland. New drugs, such as crack cocaine and legal highs, are now readily available. Each new drug that comes along makes the user more paranoid and more violent than the previous drug. The latest arrival, crystal meth, will destroy whole communities in Ireland, as it has already done in the US. And PCP, which is even worse than crystal meth, will be the next wave of drugs
to hit our shores. We ignore the drug problem at our peril. During the troubles, the IRA was seen as such a threat to the stability and security of the State that emergency legislation was passed which allowed a person to be convicted of IRA membership on the evidence of a Garda Superintendent, usually corroborated by one other piece of evidence. The drug gangs today are just as much a threat to our society today as the IRA once were. Yet the key leaders of the drugs gangs are untouchable by the law, as they pay others to take the risks and are never caught themselves in possession or proximity to drugs. Emergency legislation which would allow a senior drug gang member to be convicted of drug dealing on the evidence of a Garda Superintendent, corroborated by one other piece of evidence could be introduced. This evidence could come from an expanded Criminal Assets Bureau who would confirm that the person’s assets or lifestyle are incompatible with their known sources of income. Those whose wealth is funded by inflicting death and fear on so many people and communities should not be allowed to enjoy their affluent lifestyle. A much greater legal and political response is required.
CHRISTIAN WI T N E S S
THE SEVEN COLUMBAN MARTYRS OF THE KOREAN WAR
39 A painting depicting the 103 Korean martyrs canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1984. Pope Francis added 124 additional martyrs on the path to sainthood by beatifying them in his recent Korean visit. The Korean church has now introduced the cause of 84 modern-day martyrs, including 7 Columbans
WHEN THE KOREAN WAR BROKE OUT IN JUNE 1950, THERE WERE ABOUT THIRTY-FIVE COLUMBAN MISSIONARIES IN THE COUNTRY. SEVEN OF THEM WERE TO DIE BEFORE THE YEAR WAS OUT. ALL OF THOSE WHO DIED WERE IRISH OR OF IRISH DESCENT BY MAURICE FOLEY, SSC
The
communist North Korean army started the three-year war by crossing the 38th parallel – the line that roughly divided Korea, north and south. At that time, the Columban missionaries were living in various locations around the southern part of the country. Some were close to the North Korean border, while those in the south were several hundred miles from the border area. Despite the worsening situation and the lack of communication between them, the priests were determined to stay in their parishes duringtheconflict,evenwhentheywereencouraged by their people to flee for their own safety.
Chuncheon city, north-east of the capital Seoul, was only twenty-five miles from the 38th parallel andquicklyfellto the communists. Three Columban missionaries, Thomas Quinlan, Frank Canavan and Tony Collier lived and worked there. Despite the danger, they had taken a decision to remain, even against the advice of an American army officer who urged them to vacate the area. DEATH AND IMPRISONMENT Tony Collier decided to join Thomas Quinlan and Frank Canavan who lived across town some twenty minutes away. He set out from
his parish with his catechist, Gabriel Kim, but was stopped by a North Korean communist patrol. They were summarily interrogated and shot on the roadside. Tony was the real target but the catechist was also on the hitlist. However, on being shot Tony fell across the line of fire, saving his companion’s life by taking the impact of the bullets intended for him. The catechist was badly wounded but survived, lying quietly next to Tony until the North Koreans had moved on. That same day, Thomas Quinlan and Frank Canavan were taken prisoner and later sent
C H RI STI A N W I T N ESS
Patrick Brennan
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Francis Canavan
to Seoul. There they met an Australian Columban, Phil Crosbie, who worked in a neighbouring parish in Chuncheon and who had also refused to leave his people. The three missionaries found themselves in the hands of their North Korean captors. From Seoul they were transferred north to a prison camp where they joined a much larger number of prisoners, about 800 in all. These included captured US soldiers, diplomats and other missionaries both Catholic and Protestant. ON A LONELY MOUNTAINSIDE Jim Maginn was parish priest in the town of Samchok, on the eastern seaboard of the Korean peninsula, and his fellow Columban, Paddy Reilly was parish priest in the neighbouring district of Mukho. Like the other missionaries, they were aware of the imminent dangers and were in no doubt
Anthony Collier
about the risks they were taking by staying with their people. Although the people urged the two priests to flee while they had the choice, they opted to remain. When Samchok fell to the communist forces, Jim Maginn was soon to be captured, dragged from his house, interrogated, tortured, and shot on a mountainside outside the town. His remains were not recovered from the shallow grave on the lonely mountainside for a year. Paddy Reilly was being sheltered by some of his Catholic friends until the danger passed but was discovered by the communist forces. He in turn was interrogated and executed near the village that gave him shelter. He too was abandoned on the hillside where his young life was violently taken. PRISON MASSACRE In the port city of Mokpo in the southwestern tip of the Korean peninsula, three
Beatification Mass of the 124 martyred companions in Seoul, South Korea August 2014
Thomas Cusack
other Columban missionaries were stationed: Patrick Brennan, Tom Cusack and the youngest of the three, John O’Brien, just recently arrived in the country. Pat Brennan, the superior and the most experienced of the three, suggested that the other two leave before the North Koreans arrived. But they too opted to stay and he respected the generosity of their decision. Tom Cusack had been in the country for fifteen years when the war broke out. He spoke the language and was well liked by the both church and non-church people. When the city fell the three were captured and taken to the jail in a neighbouring city. Their stay there was short as they were transferred to a larger prison as the communist forces fled north before the advancing United Nations forces, headed by the US military. The three men were believed to have been killed in the massacre that took place in the prison on 24 September 1950. It was seen as an act of desperation and savagery by the communist forces as the tide of fortune turned against them. DEATH MARCH After enduring the prison camp with hundreds of other prisoners, Thomas Quinlan later a bishop Frank Canavan and the Australian Columban, Phil Crosbie were taken north on an eight-day forced death march with the retreating North Korean army. Only 250 prisoners survived the march through mountainous territory , harsh terrain and the brutality they were forced to endure. Thomas Quinlan and Phil Crosbie
REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
CHRISTIAN WI T N E S S
James Maginn
John O’Brien
carried a very elderly French Sister on the march for three days, because falling behind or taking a rest meant certain death from the ruthless leader, a North Korean known to the prisoners as ‘The Tiger’. The Sister finally died as they carried her and they laid her in a shallow grave by the roadside. Frank Canavan survived the death march but died in captivity on 6 December 1950. He told his fellow prisoners that he would have
these Columbans had and still have on the faith and practice of the Korean people. It is not too much to say that the people have been inspired and have not forgotten the contribution of the seven young missionaries who felt compelled to stand side-by-side with them in their darkest hours. Their names were included in a list of eight-four modern-day martyrs proposed by the Korean Catholic church for beatification and presented to Pope Francis during his recent visit to South Korea.
Patrick Reilly
his Christmas dinner in heaven. They buried him with all the ceremony they could muster and marked his grave with a cross. He could have fled south with the kind American officer who had come to warn them, but he opted to stay with the people. KOREAN PEOPLE REMEMBER At this distance of time and place it is hard to understand the impact that
Columban, Fr Maurice Foley SSC, worked in Korea for thirty years and in Peru for a further twenty years. He is now retired at St Columban’s, Dalgan Park, Navan.
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ADVENT RETREAT: “Stay Awake” An Advent invitation to be alert to the coming of the Lord in our daily lives. The retreat will be led by the Orlagh Team Friday, 28th (6.00pm) - Sunday, 30th November (12.00 noon) €160 (residential) | €110 (non-residential)
SPIRITUAL READING THREE RECOMMENDED BOOKS BY SÉAMUS ENRIGHT CSsR
Books
have the power to change us. When Ignatius of Loyola’s battle wounds brought an end to his military career, he turned to books during his convalescence. A volume on the life of Christ and a compilation on the lives of the saints engrossed him. They heralded the beginning of his conversion. When Edith Stein, the twentieth-centur y Jewish philosopher, randomly selected the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila, she read the book at one sitting. She later was baptised a Catholic, became a Carmelite nun and died in the Edith Stein gas chambers of Auschwitz. The content of spiritual reading can be varied: lives of the saints, books on prayer and spirituality, theology, memoirs, poetry. St Alphonsus de Liguori recommended spiritual reading on a regular basis. For him, it was about growing in the love of God and not primarily about acquiring knowledge.
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St Alphonsus de Liguori recommended spiritual reading on a regular basis. For him, it was about growing in the love of God and not primarily about acquiring knowledge REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
He suggested prayer for guidance before beginning; slow and attentive reading; selecting a thought or sentiment and returning to it several times during the day. From my own reading, I can recommend three modern memoirs, all by American writers, that I found particularly interesting and inspiring.
AUTUMN
The first is by James Martin, a Jesuit priest who works with America magazine. In My life with the saints, published in 2006, he weaves his own story with those of a number of saints and faith-inspired people. There are chapters on Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, and on Dorothy Day, the lay Catholic writer. The book also includes an account of the courage of the Ugandan martyrs in the late nineteenth century. A chapter on Mary presents her in an attractive and accessible way. For Martin, saints can be seen as our companions or as our patrons, those we turn to in times of need, and our relationship with the saints can vary with the circumstances of our lives. Journalist Colleen Carroll Campbell was once a speech writer for President George W. Bush. Her 2012 publication, My sisters the saints: a spiritual memoir is a moving account of a journey that led her ‘from the baths of Lourdes and ruins of Auschwitz to the Oval Office and the Papal Palace’ as she
spent a week every month over a threeyear period living with a community of Benedictine women in Atchison, Kansas. Her aim was to try and find an answer to the question: ‘Is it possible to live a contemplative life outside a monastery?’ She answers with a resounding ‘Yes!’
struggled to make sense of some of the great dilemmas of our time. Her personal narrative includes accounts of six Christian women whose courage and example changed her life. The third memoir is Judith Valente’s delightful Atchison Blue: a search for silence, a spiritual home and a living faith, published in 2013. Valente, a poet, describes how she
Ennismore Retreat Centre ST DOMINIC’S
8th November - €55 Healing Day for the bereaved - a day of reflection Patrick Sheehan 5th - 7th December - €165 / €100 Advent Retreat Finola Cunnane All Day Retreats include a 4 course lunch Vouchers available at Reception in values of €25 & €50 redeemable towards any of the events on our programme.
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 time-out, reflection and prayer. For ongoing programmes please contact the Secretary or visit our website Tel: 021-4502520 Fax: 021-4502712 E-mail: ennismore@eircom.net www.ennismore.ie
GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH WORDS OF COMFORT AND OF HOPE To d a y ’s G o s p e l i s wonderfully reassuring COMMEMORATION and particularly pertinent OF ALL THE FAITHFUL for the feast of the DEPARTED Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed. Jesus makes two points. First, he reassures his followers that everything he gives to them has already been given to him by God. Those who follow him can therefore have
NOVEMBER
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MOTHER CHURCH Today is the feast of NOVEMBER the dedication of the Lateran Basilica. We might think that St E Peter’s is the pope’s TH F O DEDICATION LICA SI A B N main church in Rome A LATER but that is not the case. The Basilica of St John Lateran is the pope’s main church because it is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Rome, which has the pope as its bishop. This cathedral is the seat of papal authority and therefore is, in a sense, the parish church of Catholics everywhere. Every year, on 9 November, the anniversary of its dedication is celebrated throughout the Catholic world as a way of expressing the unity of the whole church with the Bishop of Rome. It is an opportunity for Catholics everywhere to reflect on the universal nature of our church, and what it means to be a member of it. The Emperor Constantine built the Lateran Basilica in the fourth century on land that had belonged to the Laterani family (hence the name ‘Lateran’). It has had a rather unfortunate history. The original building, dedicated to the Saviour, was sacked by barbarians and restored in the fifth century, ruined by an earthquake in the eighth and rebuilt in the ninth, twice burnt down in the fourteenth century and then restored. It was the residence of the popes until 1308.
confidence in what Jesus has to say because it comes from God. Jesus’ second point is that his message is for everyone who wants to hear it. God’s message does not require us to be intellectual or highly qualified; it requires only that we are open to hearing it and willing to respond to it. Jesus had observed that it was the sinners, the tax collectors and ordinary people in need who followed him. So he offers them – and us – an invitation: “Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened, and
I will give you rest.” It is hard to think of any words that could be more comforting or consoling as we remember and mourn for those we have loved and lost.
Today’s Readings Is 25:6–9; Ps 26; Rm 5:5–11; Matthew 11:25–30
Basilica of St John Lateran
09
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REALITY NOVEMBER 2014
Pope Innocent X commissioned the present structure in 1646. ‘Basilica’ is the word given to an early form of building used for Christian worship. It was modelled on the Roman Basilica – a building used as a law court and a commercial exchange. At first the name ‘basilica’ was used of churches which resembled the Roman
building, but now the title of ‘basilica’ is given by the pope to certain privileged churches both in Rome and throughout the world. Today’s Readings Ez 47:1–2, 8–9,12; Ps 4; 1 Cor 3: 9–11,16– 17; John 2:13–22
NOVEMBER
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33rd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
USE YOUR TALENTS In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his listeners about a man who goes away on business and leaves three of his servants in charge of his property. To one servant he gives five talents, to another two, and to the third he gives one talent. A talent was a considerable amount of money in Jesus’ day. The master
doesn’t tell the servants what to do with his property, but allows each to use his own initiative. The first and second servants take risks with the money and decide to invest it. Their gamble pays off and they double their fortunes. But the third servant is afraid. He buries his talent in the ground for safekeeping.
KING OF THE UNIVERSE NOVEMBER The feast of Christ the King marks the end of the church’s liturgical year. It is always celebrated on CHRIST THE KING this day. In times past kings and queens were people of power and majesty who commanded respect, obedience and fear. They fought battles and lorded it over their subjects. But the kingship of Jesus is of an entirely different sort. Today’s Gospel account of the last judgement gives us a clear insight into Jesus’ idea of kingship. For him kingship is not about power and authority but rather about service. On the
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Upon his return, the master is delighted with the first two servants. They have shown themselves worthy of their master’s trust and esteem and so he invites them to share in his happiness. But the third servant is castigated for returning his talent intact and unused. The master is furious with him for his fear and lack of initiative. He calls him a goodfor-nothing. The story ends with the third servant being thrown into the dark, where there is weeping and grinding of teeth. Throughout his Gospel, Matthew is at pains to show that fear can cripple discipleship and stand in the way of a genuine following of Jesus Christ. He is trying to encourage his readers to avoid complacency and timidity, and to take risks for their faith. The servant was punished not for misusing his talent, but for not using it at all. In Jesus’ eyes, what is important is to not be afraid to use our talents and to take risks in the service of the Gospel, remembering that effort always matters more than results.
Today’s Readings Prov 31:10–13, 19–20, 30–31; Ps 127; 1 Thess 5:1–6; Matthew 25:14–30
last day, in our hour of judgement, we will be judged on one thing only – whether and to what extent our attitude to others led us to reach out to them in love and compassion. It is as simple as that. Our God is an incarnational God, who chose to be born in a cave and to be servant of all. Christ our king is a servant ruler who turns the traditional concept of monarchy completely on its head. The servant king is the one we are called to imitate. Today’s Readings Ez 34:11–12, 15–17; Ps 22; 1 Cor 15:20– 26, 28; Matthew 25:31–46
God’s Word continues on page 46
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THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 9, NOVEMBER 2014
SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 6 ACROSS: Across: 1. Hobnob, 5. Stares, 10. Iceberg, 11. Illicit, 12. Esau, 13. Aisle, 15. Paul, 17. God, 19. Phobia, 21. Salmon, 22. Scrolls, 23. Ararat, 25. Yields, 28. Job, 30. Abel, 31. Canal, 32. Cain, 35. Kidding, 36. Trachea, 37. Assign, 38. Rapids. DOWN: 2. Oregano, 3. Need, 4. Bigwig, 5. Shield, 6. Ails, 7. Exclaim, 8. Pileup, 9. Stolen, 14. Solomon, 16. Visas, 18. Basic, 20. Act, 21. Sly, 23. Alaska, 24. Agendas, 26. Loathed, 27. Sandal, 28. Jargon, 29. Batter, 33. VIII, 34. Harp.
Winner of Crossword No. 7
Mary Cunningham, Castlelawn Heights, Co.Galway
ACROSS 1. Economise, be thrifty. (6) 5. Those who give. (6) 10. Ostentatiously costly and luxurious. (7) 11. Giant Philistine warrior killed by 16D. (7) 12. Thin, circular structure in the eye. (4) 13. Biblical character who was swallowed by a whale. (5) 15. Flightless bird, fruit and New Zealander. (4) 17. Fail to keep up. (3) 19. Irish city of the tribes. (6) 21. Having no specific pattern, purpose or objective. (6) 22. This city is the smallest country in the world. (7) 23. A person harmed as a result of a crime or accident. (6) 25. Radiation counter. (6) 28. Practical help. (3) 30. A small alcove in a room, a secluded spot. (4) 31. Sudden fear caused by awareness of danger. (5) 32. Donations to the poor and needy. (4) 35. Ninevah was its capital. (7) 36. The largest primate. (7) 37. African bloodsucking fly. (6) 38. Italian city with a deadly attraction. (6)
DOWN 2. Extremely significant or important. (7) 3. Wild mountain goat. (4) 4. Pass along an area regularly to maintain security. (6) 5. Canine identifier for soldiers. (3,3) 6. The world's longest river. (4) 7. Properly prepared for use. (7) 8. Exercising your franchise. (6) 9. Mixture of oil and balsam used in baptism and ordination. (6) 14. Southern African country, capital is Windhoek. (7) 16. He brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. (5) 18. Roads both narrow and divided. (5) 20. May I have a versatile vegetable? (3) 21. Low quality newspaper. (3) 23. A sin not regarded as depriving the soul of divine grace. (6) 24. Lydian king still associated with great wealth. (7) 26. Region that was home to Jesus for most of his life. (7) 27. A mischievous or cheeky person. (6) 28. Area associated with Lorraine. (6) 29. Legendary creature killed by St. George. (6) 33. Worry about a raised element on the neck of a stringed instrument. (4) 34. Take and keep a firm hold of something. (4)
GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH continued from page 45
WITH HOPE WE CAN COPE NOVEMBER Jesus is in Jerusalem just before his death. He is seated on the Mount of Olives with his disciples who are enjoying the spectacular view. As they look at the city, Jesus makes a speech in which 1st SUNDAY OF he offers his final words to his disciples and ADVENT encourages them regarding the crises they will face in the future. One crisis he is probably referring to is the one that faced Jerusalem in the time of the First Jewish War (66–73 AD). This was a Jewish rebellion against the emperor that was crushed ruthlessly by the Romans. During the war Jerusalem was destroyed. The unrest would have offered a number of challenges to the Christian community. According to the historian Eusebius, many Christians fled the city. Many others remained behind and for them, as well as for Christians living among Jewish communities outside Judaea, life must have been tense. Some might have understood the crisis as a sign of the end of time. Jesus’ disciples live in the time between the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of time. They do not know when the end of time will come. So Jesus’ message to them is to keep alert for they can easily fall prey to false voices and false signs. He gives an example. A wealthy man with servants goes on a journey. Before he leaves, he specifies the servants’ responsibilities and expects them to be fulfilled. In particular, the servant who is the doorkeeper must be the most alert of all. The references to the four watches of the night (evening, midnight, cock crow and dawn) may form a link with the story of Jesus’ passion and crucifixion. The Last Supper will take place at evening. His struggle in Gethsemane, arrest and Jewish trial will take place in the middle of the night. At cock crow Peter will deny him, and he will be sent at dawn for trial before Pilate. These will be moments when discipleship will be tested and fail. Nonetheless, Jesus alerts his disciples to be faithful to their calling as his chosen ones. As long as people have lived, they have attempted to predict the end of time. All of the predicted dates came and went and still time continues. Today’s liturgy is not about end-of-time-prediction. Rather, it reminds us that between now and the end of time (whenever that is), our chief task is to live as authentic disciples of Jesus.
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Entry Form for Crossword No.9, November 2014 Name: Address:
Today’s Readings
Telephone:
Is 63:16–17; 64:1, 3–8; Ps 79; 1 Cor 1:3–9; Mark 13: 33–37 All entries must reach us by November 30, 2014 One €35 prize is offered for the first correct solutions opened. The Editor’s decision on all matters concerning this competition will be final. Do not include correspondence on any other subject with your entry which should be addressed to: Reality Crossword No. 9, Redemptorist Communications, 75 Orwell Rd., Rathgar, Dublin 6
COM M E N T OUR BROKEN WORLD JOHN BOWLER
THE GREAT BARRIER REEF
AN ICON UNDER PRESSURE I am in Australia at the moment. I am here for three months. Upon arrival I began asking questions about Australia’s environmental problems. One thing that is continually referenced in the responses is that wonderful Australian icon, the Great Barrier Reef. So I decided to have a closer look. I checked The Great Barrier Reef Outlook 2014, published by the Australian Government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. This report says in its executive summary that The Great Barrier Reef is an icon under pressure. … Notwithstanding positive actions since 2009, the greatest risks to the Great Barrier Reef have not changed. Climate change, poor water quality from land-based run-off, impacts from coastal development, and some remaining impacts of fishing remain the major threats to the future vitality of the Great Barrier Reef. … The Great Barrier
Reef remains a significant economic resource for regional communities and Australia. Major changes to the condition of the ecosystem have social and economic implications for regional communities because some uses, such as commercial marine tourism and fishing, depend on an intact, healthy and resilient ecosystem. Climate change remains the most serious threat to the Great Barrier Reef. It is already affecting the Reef and is likely to have far-reaching consequences in the decades to come. Sea temperatures are on the rise and this trend is expected to continue, leading to an increased risk of mass coral bleaching; gradual ocean acidification will increasingly restrict coral growth and survival; and there are likely to be more intense weather events. The extent and persistence of these impacts depends
The Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia
to a large degree on how effectively the issue of rising levels of greenhouse gases is addressed worldwide. The impacts of increasing ocean temperatures and ocean acidification will be amplified by the accumulation of other impacts such as those caused by excess nutrient run-off. © Commonwealth of Australia (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority) 2014
Even UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) is concerned. In June 2012 due to the approval of massive fossil fuel related development along the Queensland coast, they requested the Australian Government “not to permit development that would impact on the outstanding universal value” of the Great Barrier Reef . Despite the recommendation, six months later the then Australian Environment Minister Tony Burke went on to approve a 60 million tonne coal terminal at Abbot Point on the Great Barrier Reef coast. UNESCO
had been expected to make a decision on whether to list the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” in June 2014 but deferred this to 2015. Given the above from these two bodies I have to say that I am very perplexed at Australia’s push to expand its coal mining industry, much of which has a huge potential to damage the reef. Many environmental organisations including Greenpeace, are campaigning to stop this headlong rush in coal expansion. Coal is having a twofold impact on the reef: through its export which takes it directly through the reef with potential for accident and with associated coastal infrastructure build up; and the burning of coal which is having an already detectable adverse effect (for example coral bleaching and ocean acidification). All of this coal rush is happening at a time when the global scientific consensus indicates the world needs to shift away from climate damaging energy. And coal is just about the worst climate villain.
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