Reality October 2016

EVELYN WAUGH MAN OF FAITH

MINDFULNESS A WAY OF FINDING GOD

MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP VISITS STORMONT

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

OCTOBER 2016

TO HEAVEN THROUGH A WINDOW A PILGRIMAGE TO ST GERARD MAJELLA'S HOMETOWN

500 YEARS OF THE REFORMATION

A THEOLOGICAL REVOLUTION THAT ALTERED THE COURSE OF EUROPEAN HISTORY

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THE ROLE OF THE SOCIETY OF MISSIONARY CHILDREN IN ENCOURAGING YOUNG CATHOLICS TO TAKE AN INTEREST IN THE CHURCH’S FOREIGN MISSIONS

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IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES 12 VISITING ST GERARD’S HOME TOWN Touring the famed Amalfi coast, pilgrims visit the home of St Gerard at Muro Lucano

By Claire Carmichael & Fr Brendan McConvery

18 THE HEALY FAMILY AND AFRICAN AMERICAN CATHOLICISM How an American Catholic family with family roots among slaves overcame prejudice

By Mike Daley

20 500 YEARS OF REFORMATION Commemorating the movement that altered the course of European history

By Prof Salvador Ryan

24 LUTHER & THE REFORMATION: WHAT HAS IT TO DO WITH US? Luther’s challenge to the practice of indulgences was a profound experience of Easter freedom that he called justification by grace through faith

By Dr Con J. Casey CSsR

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27 EVELYN WAUGH – CATHOLIC One of many English writers who converted to Catholicism during the 20th century

By Fr Richard Tobin CSsR

30 THE WOMAN WHO WASHED JESUS' FEET WITH HER TEARS The woman with the alabaster jar tells her story

By Fr George Wadding CSsR

33 CHILDREN HELPING CHILDREN Encouraging young Catholics to take an interest in the Church’s foreign missions

By Julieann Moran

36 A PRESBYTERIAN REFLECTS ON MARY A minister considers the influence of Mary

By Rev Steve Stockman

39 MINDFULNESS, MEDITATION, FAITH AND SUPER-VISION

By Carmel Wynne

42 ON THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS A report on the Syrians living as displaced persons in temporary shelters in their own land

By Noelle Fitzpatrick

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OPINION

REGULARS

11 BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

04 REALITY BITES

29 CARMEL WYNNE

07 POPE MONITOR

44 PETER McVERRY SJ

08 FEAST OF THE MONTH 09 REFLECTIONS 45 GOD’S WORD

REALITY BITES STRANGE GOINGS ON MAYO

ON THE BIG SCREEN

A film on the Knock apparitions has recently been released in cinemas in Ireland. Titled Strange Occurrences in a Small Irish Village, the film explores different dimensions of the events at Knock in August, 1879. It opened in cinemas at the end of August. It looks at Knock and its history as a Marian shrine through the lives of local people associated with the shrine and some of the one million plus pilgrims who come annually. It was directed by Aoife Kelleher, who also directed One Million Dubliners, a film on the history of Glasnevin Cemetery. The Knock film borrows its title from press coverage of the original event in Knock which was reported widely at home and abroad.

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LUTHERANS AND CATHOLICS ORDAINED IN A REFUGEE FIND COMMON GROUND CAMP The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s Assembly in New Orleans approved a document that is the fruit of 50 years of dialogue with the Catholic Church. The document, originally released last October and entitled, Declaration on the Way: Church, Ministry and Eucharist, is 120 pages long. It presents substantial progress in Catholic-Lutheran relations and maps the remaining steps needed to achieve full unity. It was prepared by a joint task force of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which has more than 3.7 million members in 9,300 congregations across the United States. The document notes that both Catholics and Lutherans believe that in the Eucharist, Jesus is “present truly, substantially, as a person and he is present in his entirety, as Son of God and a human being.” It also notes substantial disagreements remain between the two denominations, notably around the role of the papacy and the ordination of women, accepted by the Lutheran Church but not the Catholic.

REALITY OCTOBER 2016

Three Syrian-rite Catholic priests were ordained on the Feast of the Transfiguration (6 August) in a refugee camp near the city of Erbil in Iraq, two years after they were forced to flee their home in the town of Qarqosh after it was invaded by Islamic State militants. The ordination took place in a temporary chapel which is the temporary home for about 5,500 people, most of whom are Syrian-rite Catholics from the same town as the newly ordained. After the town was attacked, the seminary was closed, and four of its seminarians moved to a seminary in Lebanon. They returned to Iraq for their ordination to the diaconate.

One of the four went to Baghdad, where he was ordained to the priesthood. The other three were ordained in the camp

by Archbishop Yohanno Petros Mosche, Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Kirkuk and Kurdistan. Although the camp’s church only has capacity for about 800 people, about 1,500 came to the ordination.

CATHOLIC CANON IN ST ANNE’S CATHEDRAL The Church of Ireland Cathedral in Belfast has made a Catholic priest a member of its Cathedral Chapter. The canon law of the Church of Ireland allow members of other churches to be appointed as ecumenical canons. According to the statutes, “a Cathedral’s Ecumenical Canon may say or sing Morning or Evening Prayer or the Litany; read Holy Scripture; deliver an address and assist at occasional services” but not preside at the Eucharist. Fr O’Donnell joins the cathedral’s two existing ecumenical canons, a Methodist minister and a Presbyterian minister, both coincidentally called Rev Ruth Patterson. St Anne’s is unusual in that it serves two dioceses, Connor and Down and Dromore, each of which has their own cathedrals at Lisburn (Connor) and Downpatrick (Down) and Dromore. Brother Eric Loisel, of Holy Cross Monastery, Rostrevor, was installed as a canon in Downpatrick last April and the prior of his monastery, Fr Mark-Ephrem Nolan has been a canon in Armagh since 2012. In the same year, Fr Kieran O’Mahony OSA was installed as an ecumenical canon in St Patrick’s, Dublin.

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PASTORAL CENTRE REOPENS KINNOULL

THE REDEMPTORIST HOME IN SCOTLAND

The Redemptorist Pastoral Centre at St Mary’s Kinnoull has reopened after being closed for almost two years for an extensive refurbishment programme. Thirty-four ensuite rooms are now available for retreatants and guests.

Situated about one mile from the city of Perth, where John Knox launched the Scottish Reformation, St Mary’s was the first monastery to be opened in Scotland after the Reformation. The monastery and church are in the 19th century Gothic Revival style but the interior has been refurbished to a high quality, so that all the rooms are ensuite and there are amble classrooms and assembly spaces, as well as a large and well-laid out garden. The centre’s programme commenced in September and includes six-week renewal programmes several times each year, regular shorter courses and retreats. With the closure of Marianella and Hawkstone, St Mary’s is the only Redemptorist-run pastoral centre in Britain and Ireland.

Further details of courses and retreats can be obtained from the website www.kinnoullmonastery.co.uk or by emailing the reception at info@kinnoullmonastery.co.uk

St Mary's

The Kinnoull community

Fr Martin Gay CSsR, Paulina Czarnecka, Fr Gerard Mulligan CSsR receive the keys from builder John Hadden and architect, Henry Dempsey

5 One of the sitting rooms

The oratory

FAMINE MEMORIAL GARDEN BLESSED CATHOLIC CANON IN ST ANNE’S CATHEDRAL A new memorial garden was blessed last August near the Church of the Sacred Heart in Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh. It commemorates the victims of the Great Irish Famine, many of whom lie in unmarked graves in a famine graveyard nearby. It is said that the graves in the original cemetery were so shallow that dogs were able to dig up the remains. The memorial stone records the names of nearby towns with workhouses and famine pits. Blessing the memorial, Bishop Liam McDaid of Clogher said: “In this memorial there are four houses representing different stages of the famine tragedy. These express the breaking of the news of what was happening, a reflection on the Famine Kitchen, a reflection on the Workhouse (the only place of relief) and finally emigration, the final hope, on what were called the ‘coffin ships’”.

The memorial was unveiled by Isabelle Humphries from Cambridge, who discovered that her great-grandfather William Humphries was born in the local workhouse. The carving of the figures in the garden was done by Jonas Raiskas, a native of Lithuania who came to live in the area in recent years.

Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Kevin J Farrell of Dallas as head of the Vatican’s new office for laity, family and life. Bishop Farrell was born in Dublin in 1947, and was raised in an Irish-speaking home. He attended the Christian Brothers School in Drimnagh Castle. After joining the Legionaries of Christ, he was ordained to the priesthood in Rome in 1978. He served as chaplain to the University of Monterrey in Mexico, where he also conducted seminars in bioethics and social ethics. He served as General Administrator of the Legion of Christ, with responsibilities for seminaries and schools in Italy, Spain, and Ireland. In 2001, he was appointed as Auxiliary Bishop in the Washington Archdiocese with the titular see of Rusuccuru (an ancient diocese in North Africa), and has served as Bishop of Dallas since 2007. His older brother, Bishop Brian Farrell, also joined the Legionaries of Christ and currently serves as Secretary of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Bishop Kevin left the Legionaries, and was incardinated into the Archdiocese of Washington. Pope Francis created the new department by combining the pontifical councils for the laity and for the family. The statutes for the new office said it was being established “for the promotion of the life and apostolate of the lay faithful, for the pastoral care of the family and its mission according to God’s plan and for the protection and support of human life.” continued on page 6

REALITY BITES NEW VERSION OF BEN HUR The first version of the biblical epic, Ben Hur, was made as a silent film in 1925 based on the novel of the same name by Lew Wallace, an American soldier and politician. It was remade in 1959 as a large budget movie with expensive sets and starring Charleton Heston.

A new version has been made at the Cinecitta studios in Rome and went on release in the United States at the end of August. The executive producers are Derry-born Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett, who are Catholics, and who were anxious to get a blessing from Pope Francis for the crew and cast. “We loved the rephrasing of the story as one of forgiveness and reconciliation, instead of the previous incarnations which were revenge-driven,” Ms Downey said.

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Ben Hur stars Jack Huston and Morgan Freeman

AN ACTIVE SISTER? A Nike sportswear ad was launched on television during the Olympics.

It featured an elderly nun who competes in triathlons (involving swimming, cycling and running) and Iron Man challenges. Sister Madonna Buder, who stars in the ad jogging, cycling and competing in an Iron Man challenge, shouting “the first 45 didn’t kill me!” is a genuine nun. Now 86 years old, she was born in St Louis, Missouri, and entered the convent when she was aged 23. She was originally a REALITY OCTOBER 2016

Roma Downey

member of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in St Louis but in 1970, she transferred to the Sisters for Christian Community, an ecumenical group.

Sister Madonna was 48 when she began serious athletic training. She completed her first triathlon at the age of 52 and her first Ironman event aged 55, and has continued ever since. To date, she has completed 325 triathlons including 45 Ironman races, which involve a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile cycle ride and a marathon, and she holds the record for the oldest person to complete a triathalon.

“Certainly, my faith is important to me as a Catholic, and I feel that the values in this film are important and valuable. In the time we’re living, in a world that’s uncertain, with fear and confusion, I feel the central themes of forgiveness and reconciliation is a message that’s needed now more than ever. It’s my hope that audiences will leave the film with this message of reconciliation.”

Apart from the cinema and television work, including the ten hour long documentary, The Bible, made in consultation with pastors and biblical scholars, Downey and Burnett co-founded a charity, “Cradle of Christianity”, last year to address the exodus of Christians from the Middle East, and they are working on a documentary called Faithkeepers to tell their story. “We should be doing more to help them,” Ms Downey said. “They’re about to be going into another winter over there, displaced and homeless. We’re trying to find ways to get organised and get money and help these people before the winter hits.” She said she appreciated the declaration by Secretary of State John Kerry that Islamic State was committing genocide against Christian and other populations in the region, “that a spade would be called a spade.” Earlier this year, Roma Downey was awarded a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

Sr Madonna Buder today and insert, in her younger days

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POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS THE AUTHORITY OF AMORIS LAETITIA Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on the family is an example of the "ordinary magisterium" (papal teaching) to which Catholics are obliged to give "religious submission of will and intellect," according to an article in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

The author, Father Salvador Pie-Ninot, a Spanish-born theologian who teaches in the Gregorian University in Rome, said that, while Pope Francis did not invoke his teaching authority in a "definitive way" in the document, it meets all the criteria for being an example of the "ordinary magisterium." The article came in response to questions raised about the formal weight of the Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia ("The Joy of Love"). Some voices have questioned the authority of the document. One of the critics has been the American Cardinal Raymond Burke, who has described it as "a mixture of opinion and doctrine."

Professor Pie-Ninot examined the document in light of the 1990 instruction from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the vocation of the theologian. Issued under the direction of the Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (emeritus Pope Benedict XVI), it identified three levels of church teaching. At the top are "infallible pronouncements," which require the assent of faith as being divinely revealed. Then comes teaching proposed "in a definitive way,” which is "strictly and intimately connected with revelation," and "must be firmly accepted and held." Finally there is the ordinary magisterium, "when the magisterium, not intending to act 'definitively,' teaches a doctrine to aid a better understanding of revelation and make explicit its contents, or to recall how some teaching is in conformity with the truths of faith, or finally to guard against ideas that are incompatible with these truths, the response called for is that of the religious submission of will and intellect."

Accepting Amoris Laetitia as authoritative church teaching, Father Pie-Ninot said, applies also to the document's "most significant words," about the possibility of people divorced and remarried without an annulment receiving Communion in limited circumstances.

WHY I RESIGNED – POPE BENEDICT Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI gave an interview to an Italian journalist who was writing his biography, and it was published separately in the newspaper, La Repubblica on 26 August last. In the course of the interview, Pope Benedict explained how he had come to his decision to resign the papacy. He said he felt it was his "duty" to resign because of his declining health, and the demands of the long overseas visits that have become such a feature of the modern papacy. He told the journalist, Elio Guerriero, that, after his visit to Mexico and Cuba in March 2012, he felt he was "incapable of fulfilling" the demands of another international visit, with the World Youth Day 2013 in Brazil already looming on the horizon. "With the program established by John Paul II for these days, the physical presence of the pope was indispensable. This, too, was a circumstance which made my resignation a duty," the pope said. In addition to the gruelling schedules that are a feature of papal visits, he found the jet lag particularly stressful. After consultation with his doctor, he said, it became clear "that I would never be able to take part in the World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. From that day, I had to decide in a relatively short time the date of my retirement," he said. The visit to Cuba took place in March 2012, and on 11 February 2013, he announced his intention to resign. He now lives in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery within the Vatican City. For almost twenty years, different contemplative orders took it in turn to live in the monastery, with a special commission to pray for the pope and the church. When he learned that the Visitation nuns would soon be leaving, he realized naturally that this would be an ideal place to live and continue in his own way the service of prayer which John Paul II had intended for this house. Pope Francis contributed the preface to the book and expressed his admiration for his predecessor, saying that their spiritual bond remains particularly profound. The two men meet frequently and especially before each papal visit, Pope Francis calls to ask for prayers for its success.

THE GUESTS OF HONOUR Over 1500 inmates of the dormitories of the Missionaries of Charity all over Italy, including Milan, Bologna, Florence, and Naples as well as Rome were among the guests of honour at the canonisation of Saint Teresa of Kolkata. They travelled, in some cases overnight, in a fleet of buses and sat in a reserved section at the front of St Peter’s Square. After the Mass, the guests headed for the Paul VI Hall, to eat a lunch consisting of Neapolitan-style pizza. The pizza was freshly prepared by a staff of twenty pizza makers who brought three of their own mobile ovens to cook it. It was served by some 250 of Mother Teresa’s sisters, as well as 50 Brothers from the male branch of the congregation and some volunteers.

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FEAST OF THE MONTH BLESSED DOMINIC COLLINS S.J. MARTYR October 31st After the Elizabethan conquest of Desmond in the late 16th century, Munster lay desolate. Besides, Elizabeth’s father, King Henry VIII had already decreed that allegiance in the religious field was no longer to be paid to the pope but to the reigning English monarch. This was something which Irish Catholics stoutly refused to do even under threat of fines, confiscations and death itself. It was into this harsh religious and political climate that Blessed Dominic Collins was born in the mid 1550s.

Dominic belonged to the merchant class in the port town of Youghal, Co. Cork. In the circumstances of the time, prospects, even for a young man of Dominic’s natural gifts, energy and ambition, were slim. At the age of about twenty, he took ship for the Continent with the aim of pursing a military career. Initially he worked at menial tasks in inns until he had saved enough money to achieve his goal of becoming an army officer.

He fought on the side of the Catholic League against the army of the Protestant King Henry IV of France. As a result of his successful capture of a strategic castle in Brittany he was made military governor of the area. Henry IV offered him a bribe of 2000 ducats to return the castle. Dominic refused. Instead he handed it over to the Spanish commander Don Juan del Águila. On hearing of Dominic’s military prowess King Philip II of Spain gave him a substantial pension.

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In the service of Spain Dominic made his way to the important naval base of Corunna in Galicia.

Now in his early thirties and having giving close on a decade to soldiering, he found himself with a recurring thought of following a religious vocation. Here in Corunna in 1598 he met Thomas White, a Jesuit priest from Clonmel. For Collins this meeting was a graced moment; he felt that his call was specifically to the Jesuits and no other. His age, and lack of formal education militated against his chances of becoming a priest. Instead, he was accepted on probation as a Jesuit lay-brother. The resident community at Santiago de Compostella was greatly impressed by the manner in which the dashing young office knuckled down to the most menial tasks in the house.

In the early autumn of 1601 King Philip III sent a large military force to Ireland under the command of Don Juan del Águila, and Dominic Collins was sent as travelling companion of Fr Archer, another Irish Jesuit. Most of the fleet arrived in Kinsale in late September 1601. Collins was in another ship that got to Ireland in early December.

After the calamitous defeat of the Irish at the Battle of Kinsale, Collins fell in with O’Sullivan Beare who decided to make a last stand at Dunboy Castle in the Beare Peninsula. A garrison of 143 held out against a force that was in excess of 4000. Brother Dominic Collins did not participate in the fighting, but his years of experience in the battlefield and his time as infirmarian during a plague in Santiago, must have stood to him in caring for the sick and wounded.

Hoping to avoid further loss of life Dominic approached the enemy seeking honourable terms of surrender. Sir George Carew, leader of the army and president of Munster, would have none of it, and took Dominic prisoner. Of the 73 remaining defenders, seventy were hanged in the vicinity of Dunboy and two others in Cork. Dominic, was severely tortured, promised preferment in the State church, and entreated by ministers of religion and his own relatives to renounce his faith.

Unyielding, Dominic Collins was taken to his native Youghal for execution. On October 31 1602 while being marched to the gallows he is said to have been in a joyous and up-beat mood. His address from the scaffold was clear and defiant. He was laying down his life out of fidelity to the Catholic faith.

When darkness enveloped the scene on that Halloween evening, some member of the Catholic community took his body and buried it in a secret location. st

John J. Ó Riordáin, CSsR REALITY OCTOBER 2016

Reality Volume 81. No. 8 October 2016 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960 Published by The Irish Redemptorists, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin 09 X651 Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)

Editor Brendan McConvery CSsR bmcconvery@redcoms.org Design & Layout David Mc Namara CSsR dmcnamara@redcoms.org General Manager Paul Copeland pcopeland@redcoms.org Sales & Marketing Claire Carmichael ccarmichael@redcoms.org Administration & Accounts Michelle McKeon mmckeon@redcoms.org Printed by Nicholson & Bass, Belfast Photo Credits Catholic News Service, Shutterstock, REALITY SUBSCRIPTIONS Through a promoter (Ireland only) €18 or £15 Annual Subscription by post: Ireland €22 or £18 UK £25 Europe €35 Rest of the world €45 Please send all payments to: Redemptorist Communications, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin D09 X651 ADVERTISING Whilst we take every care to ensure the accuracy and validity of adverts placed in Reality, the information contained in adverts does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Redemptorist Communications. You are therefore advised to verify the accuracy and validity of any information contained in adverts before entering into any commitment based upon them.

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

REDEMPTORIST COMMUNICATIONS Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin D09 X651 Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Email: sales@redcoms.org Web: www.redcoms.org

Redemptorist Communications is a ministry of the Irish Redemptorist Province in which lay people and Redemptorists collaborate to communicate the Gospel message – to inform, inspire and challenge through pastoral publications and other media

REFLECTIONS Holiness is not for wimps and the cross is not negotiable, sweetheart, it's a requirement.

MOTHER ANGELICA

You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.

JOHN BUNYAN

The world is so competitive, aggressive, consumerist, selfish and during the time we spend here, we must be all but that.

JOSE MOURINHO

She looked as if she had been poured into her clothes and had forgotten to say ‘when.’

Charles II once invited the members of the Royal Society to explain to him why a dead fish weighs more than the same fish alive; a number of subtle explanations were offered to him. He then pointed out that it does not.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

ALASDAIR MACINTYRE

Cheerfulness strengthens the heart and makes us persevere in a good life.

Therefore the servant of God ought always be in good spirits.

Young writers should keep out of pubs and remember that the cliché way of the artistic life is a lie.

NT WRIGHT

Faith is not a thing which one 'loses’, we merely cease to shape our lives by it.

GEORGES BERNANOS

We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.

RICHARD ROHR

ST PHILIP NERI

PATRICK KAVANAGH

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

BUDDHA

PG WOODHOUSE

What we have at the moment isn't, as the old liturgies used to say, ‘the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead,' but a vague and fuzzy optimism that somehow things may work out in the end.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.

You know what charm is? A way of getting the answer ‘yes’ without having asked any clear question.

ALBERT CAMUS

Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.

MARTIN LUTHER

RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labelled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards.

Few friendships would survive if each one knew what their friends say of them behind their back.

BLAISE PASCAL

When you pray, rather let your heart be without words than your words without heart.

JOHN BUNYAN

One's only failure is failing to live up to one's own possibilities.

We cannot build up the idea of the apostolate of the laity without the foundation of the liturgy.

ABRAHAM MASLOW

DOROTHY DAY

POPE BENEDICT XVI

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Kinnoull Centre for Spirituality Home of the Redemptorists in Scotland

After a 14 month refurbishment the Retreat and Pastoral Centre at Saint Mary’s, Kinnoull, Perth is now open.

Kinnoull has served as a centre for retreats for clergy since 1870 and became a fully functioning Pastoral Centre in 1979.

Extensive work has been carried out, which includes a complete renewal of the heating system, 49 rooms of which 34 en-suite rooms are available. These are newly furnished and available for retreats, conferences, meetings and times of recollection. In addition the monastery is equipped with Wi-Fi throughout, and a good standard of catering is maintained. There is step free access throughout the building with a lift from the basement to the third floor.

You are invited to join the community who gather for Morning and Evening Prayer and midday Mass or simply to have a quiet time on your own.

Kinnoull is set in beautiful grounds with a panoramic view of the surrounding hills and its own woodland.

SABBATICAL RENEWAL COURSE for Priests, Religious and Lay Leaders in the Church.

17 October—1 December 2016 Our Seven Week Renewal Courses, now in their 35th year, are designed to meet the needs of those who are looking for a shorter sabbatical programme with a clear focus on personal and spiritual renewal through prayer, inner healing and an integrated spirituality.

WEEK 1: Orientation: Setting our Goals

Fr. Gerry Mulligan C.Ss.R. and Miss Marie Hogg

WEEK 2: Transitions in life Fr. Ronnie McAinish C.Ss.R

WEEK 3: Healing in the Spirit: Spirituality of True Self Esteem Fr. Jim McManus C.Ss.R. and Miss Marie Hogg

WEEK 4: Ministry of Healing in the Church today Fr. Jim McManus C.Ss.R. 10-14 November: Celtic Spirituality and Pilgrimage to St. Columba’s Island Monastery of Iona Fr. John J. O’Riordan C.Ss.R.

WEEK 5: God is with us: An introduction to the Gospel according to St. Matthew Fr. Ciarán O’Callaghan C.Ss.R.

WEEK 6: Jonah and Jesus: The Gift of God’s Mercy.

Fr. Denis McBride C.Ss.R.

WEEK 7: Integrating our Sabbatical Experience Fr. Gerry Mulligan C.Ss.R. and Miss Marie Hogg

St. Mary’s, Kinnoull

Redemptorist Centre of Spirituality Telephone: 01738 624075 Email: info@kinnoullmonastery.co.uk

www.kinnoullmonastery.co.uk

END OF YEAR RETREAT:

Celebrating the gift of God’s healing Mercy 27 – 31 December 2016 Retreat led by Fr. Jim McManus C.Ss.R, and Miss Marie Hogg

EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

FAST FORWARD TO LUTHER 500

The

first time I noticed Luther, I was probably about ten years of age.

My bus stop was near the Grosvenor Hall of the Belfast Central Mission in Belfast, and outside it was a large poster advertising a film about Luther, “the man who broke the chains of Popery.” I did not know much about history, but I did know that any street in Belfast that bore the inscription “No Pope Here” was a no go zone for little Catholic boys like me. I took an instant dislike to Luther.

A few years later, I was doing the Reformation for GCE history. As well as learning how to spell “transubstantiation,” I learned from my Christian Brother history teacher that Luther did not believe in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist or praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, that he scrapped devotion to Our Lady, he regarded relics with horror and wanted to drop the Epistle of St James from the New Testament, because it encouraged the anointing of the sick. I had a growing number of reasons for not liking Luther much.

I was on a slow learning curve, however. The following year I was doing A level English. One of our texts was the tale of a fraudulent seller of indulgences, who hawked around a supply of spurious relics, like a bit of the sail of St Peter’s boat or the bones of one of Abraham’s sheep. Our teacher, a witty but pious man who got Mass said for our exams at an English Carthusian monastery, encouraged us to enjoy the Catholic Chaucer’s exasperated irony at the exploitation of indulgences and fraudulent relics more than a hundred years before Luther.

Fast forward another few years. I have now entered the Redemptorists to begin studies for the priesthood. By this time, the Second Vatican Council had just come to a close. I am at UCG, but a student a few years ahead of me is researching a paper on Luther for a Church History seminar. He discovers there

is a growing body of Catholic historians, especially in Germany, who are prepared to make a better case for Luther. Yes, there were many aspects of the selling of indulgences that were scandalous, and the young Augustinian friar and theologian was perfectly right to challenge it. No, he did not set out to found a new Church. Yes, there was an extraordinary complex social and political world against which we need to read the story of Luther.

Salvador Ryan’s article in this issue of Reality will shed much light on that.

That is not to say that Luther was without fault. He had a dangerous power with words and a tendency to exaggerate for the sake of argument. A visit to Rome while still a pious young friar, had left him with bitter memories from which he launched a virulent attack on the papacy. “There is buying, selling, bartering, trading, trafficking, lying, deceiving, robbing, stealing, luxury, harlotry, knavery, and every sort of contempt of God, and even the rule of Antichrist could not be more scandalous.”

He was sometimes disturbingly anti-Semitic.

He could be crude and vulgar, and was not beyond playing his own brand of politics.

Whether he intended it or not, the movement he unleashed in the rather obscure university town of Wittenberg would alter the face of Christendom and Europe forever. Reading more of the theology of the Reformation over the years, I learned that Luther did believe in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist even if he had problems with the word transubstantiation (see Fr Con Casey’s article in this issue), or that his veneration for the Mother of Jesus never lessened. “God has formed the soul and body of the Virgin Mary full of the Holy Spirit, so that she is without all sins, for she has conceived and borne the Lord Jesus.”

My journey with Luther took another turn when I began to listen more attentively to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. You might say that Bach is Luther’s theology set to melody.

There is a depth to the great master’s sweetest tunes that seems to be Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith in musical form. Then I discovered Taizé with its Lutheran theology reaching out to all the Churches, and helping them rediscover things we thought had disappeared from our common heritage at the time of the Reformation, such as the Eucharist, the religious life and devotion to the Mother of the Lord (one of the best books on Mary I have ever read was Mary, Mother of the Lord and Figure of the Church by Brother Max Thurian, one of the founders of Taizé).

This year marks the inauguration of the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. Some Catholics leaders have asked whether Catholics can, or even should, mark the anniversary with anything more than a deep regret for the events at Wittenberg.

Pope Francis sets a different example. He will go to Sweden on 31st October to celebrate it on what has been the traditional date of Reformation Day.

Brendan McConvery CSsR Editor

11

C OVE R STO RY

VISITING ST GERARD’S HOME TOWN IN MAY OF THIS YEAR, A PILGRIMAGE UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF THE IRISH REDEMPTORISTS VISITED PLACES IN ITALY ASSOCIATED WITH THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REDEMPTORISTS AND THEIR TWO SAINTS FROM THE REGION, ALPHONSUS THE FOUNDER AND GERARD MAJELLA, THE PROTECTOR OF THE FAMILY. FOR MANY, THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE TOUR THAT TOOK IN MANY BEAUTIFUL PLACES ALONG THE FAMED AMALFI COAST WAS THE VISIT TO THE HOME TOWN OF ST GERARD, MURO LUCANO.

BY CLAIRE CARMICHAEL AND BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

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REALITY OCTOBER 2016

Like

many small Italian towns, Muro was built on a hill to make it easier to defend. It is two thousand feet above sea-level and is part of the mountain chain of the Apennines, the backbone of Italy. Despite its small size, it has a long history. It was the site of one of the battles in Hannibal’s war with Rome about two hundred years before the birth of Christ. In the castle, Queen Joan of Naples was murdered by being smothered with a pillow in 1382. The castle later became the property of the noble Orsini family. One of its members, Pierfrancesco, count of Muro, became a Dominican, and two years before Gerard’s birth, he was elected pope, taking the name of Benedict XIII. He reigned for six years, dying in 1730.

Emigration to the United States from this part of Italy has always been high. In addition to Gerard, Muro claims as it own

the American actress, Anne Bancroft, whose parents were born in the town.

DAILY LIFE IN MURO IN GERARD’S TIME There was little industry in Muro. Small tradesmen plied their crafts as builders, carpenters, blacksmiths, potters and the like.

In the fertile plain at the foot of the hill were cultivated crops of grain, and on the hillsides, vines and fruit-trees, especially figs and olives, grew. Work in the fields began before dawn and continued until the afternoon heat forced the workers home for lunch and an afternoon nap or siesta, essential if they had been up since four or five and had already done eight hours or more of heavy work.

Gerard’s family would have eaten pasta, bread, vegetables and fruit, with meat and fish appearing comparatively rarely. Very few people ate breakfast. Even then, it consisted

of a morsel of bread and a drink of water, with a handful of fruit or nuts when they were in season.

If the summers were hot, the winters in the hill country like Muro can be intensely cold, and heavy falls of snow are frequent.

In Gerard’s day, the harsh winters were made worse by famine, if the crops had failed. This part of Italy stands on one of the most unstable parts of the earth's crust, and earthquakes are common. One in 1980 caused considerable damage to much of the region, including the two major shrines of Gerard at Muro and Materdomini.

MURO’S CHURCHES Until 1986, Muro was a small independent diocese, and its cathedral still stands today.

It would have been the most important church in Gerard’s time, and it was there

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St Gerard's town, Muro Lucano

C OVE R STO RY

he was baptised on 6 April, 1726, the day of his birth. In addition to the large parish church of St Andrew, several monasteries and convents had chapels attached to them.

In the Carmelite convent chapel, Gerard received his confirmation.

of how Gerard was given a small loaf of white bread by a little boy with whom he played.

Recalling stories of their childhood with one of his sisters, Gerard remarked that he now knew the little boy was Jesus.

MURO AND THE PILGRIMAGE TO ST GERARD There are three places closely associated with St Gerard.

His relics are conserved in the monastery and church of Materdomini, where he died. It has become the centre of devotion to him, drawing pilgrims from much of southern Italy, but also from all over the world. As a Redemptorist, he spent most of his religious life in the monastery of Iliceto, now called Deliceto. Although the monastery is still there, and is home to a modern religious community called the Oasis of Peace, it was confiscated from the Redemptorists by the state during the time of Italian unification.

Muro is the place where Gerard spent the greater part of his life from birth, apart from a short time in his teens he spent in Lacedonia, about twenty miles away, as servant boy to the bishop.

Emigration to the United States from this part of Italy has always been high

14

The local church in Muro

St Gerard, Saint

The most popular religious communities in that part of Italy are still the various branches of the Franciscans, and few towns are without a friary. Gerard’s mother had a cousin, Father Bonaventure, in the Capuchin friary on the outskirts of town, and the young Majellas were often brought to visit Uncle Bonaventure.

The most popular church of Muro is Our Lady of Graces in the small hamlet of Capodigiano. Reached now by a good road, in Gerard’s time it was more inaccessible, but from a very young age it became one of his favourite churches. It houses an old carved wooden statue of the Mother and Child, and is associated with a popular story REALITY OCTOBER 2016

Anne Bancroft, Actress

Even after Gerard had joined the Redemptorists, he returned frequently to Muro. His sisters were raising their families in the town, and Gerard encouraged two of his nieces to join the Redemptoristine community. He brought them to the convent in Foggia himself, and he may have terrified the girls by joking he would throw them into the river they had to cross if they did not promise to become saints!

A recent painting of the Majella family

15

The plaque outside the Majella home

An inscription over the door reads:

�According to tradition, in this house, given to the church by the heirs of Francesca and Lucia Barbieri, Pasquale, Antonio, Nella and Gerard now living in New York, was born St Gerard Majella on 5 April, 1726. Saint of the people, of the poor, of workers and mothers and children.�

Benedict XIII, Pope

C OVE R STO RY

The famous window in St Gerard's family home

16

GERARD’S FAMILY HOME In Muro today, several places associated with Gerard are visited by pilgrims. The first and most important of these is Gerard’s family home and birthplace. It is here the Majella family lived. A recent benefactor commissioned a painting of the family, intending to hang it in the church of St Mary of the Snows in Muro where he was parish priest but it eventually made its way into the family home. On the outside wall is a very attractive mural that tells the story of how Gerard ran away from home to join the Redemptorists. Seeing how attracted Gerard was by the group of Redemptorists giving a mission in the town and fearing he might want to follow them, his mother approached the superior and told him she could not afford to lose Gerard, as he was effectively the family bread-winner. Fr Cafaro, the superior, told her the Redemptorists were not going

On another occasion, while collecting for the restoration of the monastery at Materdomini, Gerard stayed with a relative called Alexander Piccolo, a watchmaker.

Gerard was always popular with children, and Alexander’s ten-year-old son Pascal decided he would help Gerard, and ran ahead of him calling out that Brother Gerard was coming. As they made their way through the town, the boy fell and banged

Seeing how attracted Gerard was by the group of Redemptorists giving a mission in the town and fearing he might want to follow them, his mother approached the superior and told him she could not afford to lose Gerard, as he was effectively the family bread-winner his head on the pavement. At first it was thought he had died, but Gerard picked him up and after a short time, was able to hand him back to his family none the worse for wear.

REALITY OCTOBER 2016

A mural of the great escape

St Gerard's monastery bedroom with his actual bed and habit

to take Gerard anyway as he appeared so sickly, but he advised her to lock the boy in his bedroom when she was attending the final session of the mission in the cathedral.

Gerard was not to be beaten. He took the sheet from his bed and made it into a rope and climbed out the window. The window from which he made his escape can be seen in the interior of the house.

Another place which is associated with Gerard is the tailor’s workshop of Marco Panutto, where Gerard did his apprenticeship to the tailoring trade. Panutto was a strict man, and Gerard was often bullied by him and the other apprentices. The workshop is now a small chapel where groups of pilgrims can come to pray, or if they are sufficiently small, they can celebrate the Eucharist.

Our pilgrims said Mass in the former Cathedral where Gerard was baptised and visited the sanctuary of Our Lady of Graces at Capodigiano.

St Gerard's tomb at Materdomini, Italy

Saint

Gerard Majella

ONL Y

from Rede m Com ptorist mun icatio ns

Rediscovering a Saint

Gerard Majella’s name is familiar to many Catholics. But sometimes those who pray through Gerard’s intercession know relatively little about him. Even the holy pictures of Gerard, either the larger ones that hung on the wall of so many homes or the smaller ones we slipped into our prayer books, did him no favours.

This book is an introduction to Gerard’s life, especially for those who might not be familiar with it.

Gerard was born and raised in a poor family in the South of Italy almost 300 years ago. He never travelled more than fifty miles from his home town; he wasn’t a famous theologian or writer or preacher; he died before he was thirty years old. But his outstanding holiness and love of people made this Redemptorist brother not only a saint of his time, but also very much a saint for our time too.

This book, by Fr Brendan McConvery, C.Ss.R. gets behind the man and the myth to offer a modern take on a saint for mothers, fathers and the rest of us.

Redemptorist Communications, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin D09 X651

Tel: 01-4922488

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€9.95 £8.50

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By Mike Daley THE STORY OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF AN AMERICAN CATHOLIC FAMILY WITH ROOTS AMONG SLAVES ON THEIR MOTHER’S SIDE AND IRISH EMIGRANTS ON THEIR FATHER’S TO THE CHURCH’S LIFE.

Founded

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by Bishop John Carroll in 1789 (and currently sponsored by the Jesuits), Georgetown University is one of America’s premier institutions of higher learning. Situated on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River and located in a prestigious and prosperous area of Washington, D.C., it is a short walk to the U.S. Capital. The school itself has a healthy endowment of over $1.5 billion dollars. From its present privileged institutional status today, you would never guess that, at one point in its history, it was on the verge of closing due to financial strains.

Yet, with debt crippling its operations, that was the situation the school found itself in 1838.

The Jesuits and Georgetown decided that the solution to their monetary woes was a slave sale. Two hundred and seventy two persons to be exact! Long acknowledged, but rarely spoken about, the Catholic Church was involved in

America’s original sin of slavery. Now seen as incompatible with the Gospel, at the time the morality of slavery was still debated within the American church.

As reported recently by The New York Times: “At Georgetown, slavery and scholarship were inextricably linked. The college relied on Jesuit plantations in Maryland to help finance its operations…. (Slaves were often donated by prosperous parishioners.) And the 1838 sale— worth about $3.3 million in today’s dollars— was organized by two of Georgetown’s early presidents, both Jesuit priests.”

THE BLACK IRISH CHILD OF A SLAVE The sale ended Georgetown’s slaveholding days and allowed them to weather their financial storm. Uncertainty soon followed, though, with the Civil War (1861-1865). Enrollment fluctuated both during and for several years thereafter. In 1874, however, Fr. Patrick Healy became president

and, due to his initiatives, would become known as Georgetown’s “second founder.” He placed the school on sure footing through a reform of the academic curriculum, establishment of an alumni association, and construction of a major building—the iconic Healy Hall.

The irony of all it all was that Georgetown didn’t admit black students, but their president was one. He was the son of Michael Morris Healy and Eliza Clark. Michael was an Irish immigrant who, by luck and hard work, had become a successful planter in central Georgia. Eliza was a black slave of his who for all practical purposes was his wife for more than twenty years. Their union produced nine children who survived into adulthood.

Legally, however, interracial marriage was forbidden. In a Southern society concerned with the purity of races (and superiority of the white one), if you had “one drop of Negro blood” you were considered black. With the rise of restrictive

Healy Hall, Georgetown University

REALITY OCTOBER 2016

James Healy

Patrick Healy

laws enforcing racial segregation, it appeared that the Healy children’s future looked bleak. Yet surprisingly, given their “blackness,” they lived very successful lives.

ADVANCEMENT THROUGH EDUCATION James O’Toole, professor of history at Boston College, raises the question: “What made the Healy’s achievement possible? They didn’t storm the colour line head on. And they didn’t succeed entirely on their own. Instead, they allied themselves with institutions that operated uniquely inside and outside American society, permitting them an indirect transit across the racial divide. The Healy siblings became white—and they did so at a time when barriers against African-Americans rose ever higher and were patrolled with increasing vigilance and violence.”

Central to the Healy’s advancement was education. Given the South’s anti-literacy laws against slaves, for this to happen the children had to go north where racial classification was not as restricting and freedom was possible. Through a chance encounter on a steamship with the thencoadjutor Catholic bishop of Boston, John Bernard Fitzpatrick, a friendship was struck between the elder Healy and the bishop which would change the children’s, especially the boys’, lives.

Though the boys’ education began in Quaker schools, at the bishop’s suggestion, Healy in 1844 sent four of his sons—James 14, Hugh 12, Patrick 10, and Sherwood 8 — to the newly established College of the Holy Cross run by the Jesuits outside Boston in Worcester, Massachusetts. Michael, then six, followed five years later. While at Holy Cross, they flourished. Up to that point, however, religion had played little role in the Healy boys’ lives, but there they were baptized, confirmed, and, after graduation, three pursued religious vocations.

Sherwood Healy

THREE PRIESTS IN THE FAMILY James, under the tutelage of Bishop Fitzpatrick, studied at seminaries in Montreal and Paris.

Ordained in 1854, he became the bishop’s secretary and chancellor of the diocese. This proved good training, as he was appointed bishop of Portland, Maine in 1875. In the process, whatever misgivings people had about James Healy being “black” were eventually overcome as he was seen first and foremost as a “Catholic priest.”

Hugh, who had rescued his younger siblings down South after the death of his parents in 1850, tragically died after a boating accident in 1853. Patrick, as mentioned earlier, became a Jesuit and later president of Georgetown University (18741882). Though “white” by appearance, Patrick still faced prejudice. O’Toole relays the story of an older Jesuit that when Patrick travelled the country on business for Georgetown University, some Jesuit houses would not receive him knowing no one would ever sleep again in the bed that he had used.

Sherwood, like James, became a priest in Boston.

Though intellectually accomplished and becoming one of the best educated priests of his day, of all his brothers he stood out as the most “black looking.

That being said, he would go on to become rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. It is said that the only thing which stopped him from becoming a bishop was his early death at age 39.

Michael chose service in the US Revenue Service (the US Coast Guard today) rising to the level of captain. He would never have been given this rank had it been known that he was black. His exploits in Alaska would earn him the nickname “Hell Roaring Mike.” Sadly, Eugene, orphaned at age two, never really found his way.

Michael Healy

Josephine entered a nursing order but died, like Sherwood, at a young age. Eliza entered the Sisters of Notre Dame, where taking the name Sr. Mary Magdalen, she distinguished herself as the head of several convents and as a school administrator.

It is with some ambivalence that the word “black” is used in association with the Healys however.

It was not an identification that was sought by

Long acknowledged, but rarely spoken about, the Catholic Church was involved in America’s original sin of slavery

AND THEIR SISTERS All three sisters entered religious life. Martha would eventually leave and settle in Boston to raise a family.

them, nor did they ever really speak out on behalf of, or enter into solidarity with, their fellow black Catholics who suffered greatly for their faith on behalf of their race. That challenge would befall Augustus Tolton, the first publicly known black priest, who was born a slave in Missouri.

The Benedictine historian Cyprian Davis writes in The History of Black Catholics in the United States: “The story of African American Catholicism is the story of a people who obstinately clung to a faith that gave them sustenance, even when it did not always make them welcome. Like many others, blacks had to fight for their faith; but their fight was often with members of their own household.

Too long have black Catholics been anonymous.

It is now clear that they can be identified, that their presence has made an impact, and their contributions have made Catholicism a unique and stronger religious body.”

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

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THE REHisF95OTheses, RM AT I ON Luther Posting

by Ferdinand Pauwels, 1872

On

20

COMMEMORATING FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OF THE REFORMATION THIS OCTOBER MARKS THE BEGINNING OF A YEAR OF PREPARATION FOR THE COMMEMORATION OF THE QUINCENTENARY (500 YEARS) OF THE REFORMATION ON OCTOBER 31, 2017 AND IS THEREFORE A GOOD OPPORTUNITY TO LOOK AT THE FIGURE OF MARTIN LUTHER ANEW.

BY SALVADOR RYAN

REALITY OCTOBER 2016

October 31, 1517, All Hallows eve, a young Augustinian friar named Martin Luther, nailed 95 theses (or propositions for debate) to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. In so doing, he precipitated a theological revolution which would alter the course of European history forever. Or, at least, so the short-hand for the outbreak of the Reformation goes. Except that this iconic event may never actually have happened; or, at least, not as it has long been envisaged in the popular mindset.

It’s fair to say that Luther has been a hugely divisive figure over the centuries. Regarded by a good many Catholics until relatively recently as a firebrand heretic whose aim was to split the church asunder, and by many Protestants as a heroic figure who took on the might of papal Rome in clinging to his convictions (captured in the famous phrase “Here I stand, I can do no other” – another tradition attached to Luther which is, in fact, not wholly reliable) and, through his ideas and actions, played a significant role in ushering in the modern world. Who, then, was the real Luther, and what, in fact, did he set out to accomplish?

YOUNG BROTHER MARTIN First of all, it should be noted that the young Luther was steeped in the theology and piety of late medieval Catholicism, a great deal of which he would later reject, but not wholly. Some scholars maintain that Luther remained a very ‘Catholic’ thinker, even after he broke with

Rome. Secondly, as is the often the case with many individuals who have been branded ‘heretics’ over the centuries, Luther’s approach to the practice of piety was quite rigorous in outlook.

He was appalled at the laxity of many contemporary monks and their attention to the spiritual life, and it’s no wonder that when he abandoned a legal career to join a religious community he applied to the Erfurt house of the observant Augustinian hermits, one of the strictest orders in Germany. Luther didn’t do things by halves.

It was partly Luther’s obsession with his own sinfulness and the fear of sudden death and a terrifying judgment (exacerbated by getting caught out in a lightning storm) that led him to make a vow to ‘become a monk’.

He applied himself assiduously to his new role, with extremes of fasting and long hours of prayer, not to mention recourse to the sacrament of confession, often several times a day, in an effort to assuage himself of the guilt which accompanied his acute awareness of sin and made him incredibly anxious and uncertain of God’s love or of the possibility of him ever being saved. It was Luther’s experience of what he called anfechtung, temptation’s assault; it brought him to the brink of despair.

The severity of Luther’s preoccupation with his own sinfulness and the prospect of damnation despite all his efforts at strictly living a religious life, make his theological breakthrough (which, in the mythology around Luther, is usually termed the Turmerlebnis or ‘Tower Experience’, reflecting

the idea that it came to him while sitting on the toilet) all the more significant. The breakthrough came about when, as biblical professor at the new University of Wittenberg, he read the Pauline passage in Romans 1:17 with new eyes – “for in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written ‘the one who is righteous will live by faith’”. Something clicked with Luther. It was one of those ‘Aha!’ moments which made him realise that the key to his dilemma was faith. Luther would come to appreciate that faith did not mean a dispassionate assent to creedal formulas or doctrinal decrees; rather, it meant a total reorientation of one’s personality, a radical re-forming of the individual, an unconditional turning to God. Faith, in essence, was best understood by the Greek word pistis meaning ‘trust’; trust in God’s promise, not in the efficacy of one’s own good works.

spiritual benefits drawn down and distributed by the papacy (out of what was considered to be the ‘treasury of merit’ of Mary and the saints) for what were understood at the time to be significant spiritual undertakings, such as lengthy and dangerous crusades to liberate the Holy

became Archbishop of Mainz and Primate of the German Empire in 1514 at age 24, he had to take out a massive loan from the Fugger banking family, a loan that would need repaying.

In 1507 Pope Julius II had issued a Jubilee Indulgence to raise money for the rebuilding of St

His massive relic collection included such precious items as straw from Jesus’ manger, a wisp of Jesus’ beard, a feather from the angel Gabriel, Christ’s swaddling clothes, milk from the Blessed Virgin, a branch from the burning bush, bread from the Last Supper

THE BUSINESS OF INDULGENCES It’s impossible to pinpoint exactly when this realisation came to Luther. Given his anxiety about his own sinfulness and the terror which the prospect of God’s justice instilled in him, Brother Martin’s abhorrence of the business (literally, the business) of indulgences is understandable.

Plenary indulgences (remission of all temporal punishment due to sin) had started out in the later eleventh century as

Land from Muslim forces. But over the centuries, the deeds required to obtain an indulgence became less challenging. Soon those who wished to contribute to the financing of a crusade could obtain something similar from home, as could those who agreed to assist with more menial tasks such as the re-roofing of a church. After 1476, Pope Sixtus IV decreed that indulgences were no longer restricted to those who earned them, but could be transferred to benefit the souls of the relatives and friends of the person who obtained the indulgence. This opened the door to indulgences becoming big business, especially as they could now be purchased and the money used for various ecclesiastical projects.

A BISHOP’S DEBTS AND A DEBATE Becoming an archbishop in the early sixteenth century was an expensive business.

When Albrecht of Brandenburg

Peter’s Basilica. It was renewed in 1513 and 1515, and Albrecht obtained permission to sell the indulgence in his own lands, with the understanding that he could retain a large proportion of the funds raised, and so be able to repay the bank. He embarked on an aggressive campaign of indulgence-selling, spearheaded by the infamous Dominican friar, Johann Tetzel.

These indulgences weren’t for sale in Luther’s Wittenberg, but he encountered people who had purchased them over the border. The reason why the papal indulgences weren’t for sale in Wittenberg was simply because the local ruler, Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony, had his own indulgences to dispense attached to his massive relic collection which included such precious items as straw from Jesus’ manger, a wisp of Jesus’ beard, a feather from the angel Gabriel, Christ’s swaddling clothes, milk from the Blessed Virgin, a branch from the

21

THE RE F O R M AT I ON

The All saint's church where Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses on the door and sparked the reformation in Wittenberg, Germany

22 burning bush, bread from the Last Supper, and so on, all of which could earn a paying visitor over 1,900,000 days off Purgatory.

Tales associated with the sale of indulgences, especially of those who sold people indulgences which purported to cover the sins they hadn’t yet committed, alarmed Luther greatly. Simply

put, he concluded that they made people complacent about sin and not sufficiently focused on contrition.

It was this that prompted Luther to compile in Latin 95 theses or propositions for a proposed academic debate on Disputation on the Value of Indulgences. On 31 October 1517,

The Main Square in Wittenberg, Germany

REALITY OCTOBER 2016

he sent them to Archbishop Albrecht of Brandenburg with a covering letter inviting him to engage in the debate. Whether they ever got posted on the castle church door is doubtful, and would appear strange if he had just sent off a private letter to someone who would be a key player. Luther’s theses were passed on to the University of Mainz and a copy was also sent to Rome.

THE DEBATE THAT NEVER WAS In the event, the debate never took place, as events soon took on a life of their own. Both Albrecht and Rome had much to lose if indulgences were to come under a theological spotlight. What’s more, the ensuing debates soon moved from the issue of indulgences to far weightier matters: issues of authority and also of theology, most specifically the issue of justification and the workings of God’s grace. Meanwhile, Luther’s theses, originally meant for academic discussion, came more into the public domain. A German translation appeared without his permission, and was

widely circulated thanks to the new technology of printing.

This made Luther a more public, and so conceivably a more dangerous, figure.

Furthermore, as he was called to account for his views, and as the authority of the papacy in Rome was increasingly emphasised, he found himself becoming bolder in his assertions.

What didn’t help either was the intervention of an Italian Dominican named Silvester Prierias. The following year, he responded to Luther’s 95 theses by setting out some extreme views of papal infallibility, arguing that because the pope is infallible, anyone who disagrees with him is a heretic.

In 1519, appealing to canon law, he argued that popes cannot be deposed, even if they lead multitudes to hell. This helped convince Luther that the papacy was none other than antichrist.

Papal authority had suffered greatly in the previous two centuries, when the papacy was for some 70 years beholden to the French monarch while at Avignon (1309-77). There was a period in which there were two, and then three, rival

popes, until the matter was dealt with by a church council at Constance in 1415. Many theologians sympathised with the view that ecumenical church councils were more authoritative than popes until, that is, an ecumenical church council at Basel experienced a schism some years later. This partly explains the attractiveness of Luther’s emphasis on sola scriptura, scripture alone, which seemed to offer an answer to the uncertainty over authority; for now, at least.

FAITH ALONE? Luther’s issue with indulgences can be overplayed. It was not the core of his theological revolution.

Rather, it was his realisation, over time, that only faith (trust in

God’s promise and what Christ has done) justifies; the works of Christians have no part to play in their salvation. For Luther, faith is an unmerited and direct gift of God to the individual.

The good works of Christians – prayer, fasting, penance, charity, vows of poverty and celibacy, etc. – do not have any influence on whether they are saved.

Those who think they can be saved by using their free will are mistaken; this only makes things much worse, as it deceives the individual into relying on his or her own strength and not on Christ.

For Luther, this was a disaster.

He had tried it for years and it only left him feeling broken and in despair. The Gospel is a promise by which God gives what

he promises. His famous motto was “believe it and you have it”. It’s like a sign that signifies a gift, and then confers that gift, a notion that has its roots in a very Catholic understanding of the sacraments. Luther became quite suspicious of self-chosen works that added extra duties to what was required by the Ten Commandments and other scriptural exhortations. On that basis, he stated that, because of the command ‘Honour thy father and mother’, a housemaid obeying her master has more certainty that she pleases God than a monk pursuing selfchosen spiritual disciplines not found in Scripture. But good works still have their place for Luther. It’s just not one that saves: indeed, anyone with true

faith does works of love, not in order to be justified, but because he or she is already justified.

Pushed to its inevitable consequences, Luther’s system would strike a heavy blow to the world of medieval religion with its emphasis on merit, leading large numbers of monks and nuns to abandon their cloisters and the laity to reassess their religious practices. Western Christianity would never be quite the same again.

Salvador Ryan is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. His Remembering the Reformation: Martin Luther and Catholic Theology (co-edited with Declan Marmion and Gesa Thiessen) will be published

by Fortress Press in early 2017.

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THE RE F O R M AT I ON

LUTHER AND THE REFORMATION:

WHAT HAS IT TO DO WITH US? AT THE HEART OF LUTHER’S CHALLENGE TO THE ROMAN PRACTICE OF INDULGENCES WAS A PROFOUND EXPERIENCE OF EASTER FREEDOM THAT HE CALLED JUSTIFICATION BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH. DIFFERENCES ON JUSTIFICATION HAVE OFTEN BEEN IDENTIFIED AS THE KERNEL OF THE REFORMATION CONFLICT. LUTHER’S EXPERIENCE OF JUSTIFICATION WAS ROOTED IN HIS EXPERIENCE OF THE EUCHARIST.

BY DR CON J. CASEY CSsR

On 24

31 October 1517, Martin Luther nailed a piece of paper to the door of the university church in Wittenberg.

The university was new and small. It certainly wasn’t Oxford, or Paris. Nonetheless Luther’s idea spread like wildfire. They caused furore right across Germany and well beyond, to Poland and Hungry and to most of Western Christendom.

THE WAR OF WORDS A war of words began. It soon became a war of books. The books were full of hard, indignant words, hatred-filled and abusive. Bonfires followed, bonfires of books. Book burnings became people burnings on both sides. The conflict then morphed into intolerable warfare, and when the warring parties were exhausted 30 years later, all was changed utterly in the lands that had once been known as Christendom.

What was the conflict about? To Luther’s contemporaries, matters of life and death were at stake. Looking back, we are more likely to see a series of unseemly theological squabbles getting out of hand, then getting swept up into political power games with a deadly outcome. Most likely then, we will see little of practical consequence for us today. Politically, we are more likely to be concerned with the survival of the planet than with the survival of political Christendom. In the church we live in ecumenical times, and little passion is left for the great confessional battles of yesteryear.

REALITY OCTOBER 2016

Yet something momentous was at stake. Rather than regard their concerns as simply a mistake, it seems wiser to figure out what the row was all about, and what sent Europe rocking and rolling so violently in the wake of Luther’s piece of paper on the door of a university church and what it might have to do with us.

Who then was Martin Luther? In 1505, he entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, in Saxony. Or rather, Martin Luter had entered. The family name was ‘Luter,’ but around the time of the Wittenberg event he changed his signature. He took on a new Greek name, ‘Eleutherius’ – which means ‘the freed one’, later shortened to ‘Lutherus,’ still offering the reference to ‘one who has been set free’. The name change referenced the dramatic experience which had restructured his life and selfunderstanding entirely. Without some sense of the dramatic experience that lies behind Luther’s name change, and the interior struggles that led to it, it is impossible to understand the reformation.

‘IT IS MY SOUL’S DESIRE TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD’ When Luther set out to become a friar, he was in search of God. The journey of friars or monks is no different from that of every Christian, but they take it on with single-minded intensity. What stands in the way is the tiresome egoism that besets every human being. Luther tried to shake it off. He tried acts of penance. He tried contrition.

He tried confession, but he got nowhere. It was his genius to recognise this. No matter how hard he

tried, corrupt, sleazy, unholy egoism clung to him with the tenacity of nature itself. The bitter truth was that ‘his soul’s desire’ was for self-assertion, self-aggrandisement. This was the bitter truth for all human beings, hence their sickness, their venality, their violence through the ages.

In his despair, Luther zoned in on the phrase, ‘the justice of God’ or ‘the righteousness of God’.

He tells us that he hated that phrase. God is just, God is righteous. Martin is not. He is unjust, unrighteous, impure in thought, words and action.

The righteousness of God, then, must necessarily show itself as wrath for the ungodly. Just as in any well-run state it is the role of authorities to condemn and repress wrong-doing, so it will be God’s role to judge, to condemn and to punish.

He went in circles, like an animal in a trap.

The trap was sprung, but not in a single day.

Evidence suggests that the release came through a prolonged process of prayer, and the reading and study of Scripture. He came to realise what ‘the righteousness of God’ really meant, and what it entailed for him. The righteousness of God is what God gives us so that we can be free to see the face of God. God gives us his righteousness so that we can be free from our hideous egoism, free to love as God loves. It is gift entirely. You don’t have to curry favour. All that is required is openness to receive the gift as gift. Recognise, welcome the gift of your blessedness; welcome it precisely as gift. You are the freed one.

Luther called it his ‘paschal experience’. It should not be interpreted as a kind of psychological cure.

Luther was talking at a deeper level.

The gift he spoke of was ‘justification by grace’. God’s love was declared for you. Its source is the transforming power of Christ. Perhaps we might liken Luther’s paschal experience to that of Mary Magdalene meeting the risen Christ in the garden on Easter day. He called her by her name. In that moment in recognising him, she recognised herself and saw the whole world anew.

Luther was clear his paschal experience and recognition of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist must go hand in hand.

The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist was bedrock to Luther’s faith, a keystone of his theology. Later on, his fellow-travellers claimed that Jesus was speaking symbolically when he said ‘this is my body’ or that the Eucharist was a memorial, not a real presence.

This was anathema to Luther. He also rejected any commercialisation of the Eucharist. For Luther, the Eucharist was in the order of miracle, wholly gift entirely consonant with his own justification by grace, and by grace alone.

‘CRYING OUT FOR REFORM’ It has been rightly said that ‘at the beginning of the fifteenth century everyone that matters in the Western Church was crying out for reform’. In October 1517 Luther came crying out for reform.

The presenting issue was the sale of indulgences.

The campaign had arrived in Wittenberg that

banking family, the richest merchant bankers of the day. For Luther all of this was a horrible perversion of the true nature of Christianity, and a horrible oppression of those lured into playing this perverse game.

He saw at least three layers in the perversion.

First, it was nonsense to talk about the sale of release from purgatory. Justification was by grace alone. Second, this transaction delivers a person deeper into the clutches of fear. Third, the notion of the availability to Church authorities of ‘a treasury of merits’ which they can disburse for a fee, which was the fundamental notion behind the campaign, is a nonsense. So Luther said, because there is no such things as a vicarious salvation that can be bought for you or provided by another. Salvation is our individual encounter with the paschal joy, said Luther, and, there is no other.

Although in the short term there was little reaction to Luther’s assault on indulgences, within a few years the ‘Luther matter’ was on everyone’s lips. That is not surprising considering the context in which Luther spoke his truth. ‘Doctrines have dates:’ in other words, they have a social and political context.

Social discontent was in the air, new political ambitions were abroad. Princely authority was being asserted over against imperial authority.

By deconstructing the doctrine of indulgences in the way he did, Luther had called into question a

The righteousness of God is what God gives us so that we can be free to see the face of God autumn, with a kind of advertising jingle: ‘as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs’. In other words, we have a commercial operation and a guaranteed outcome, ‘the soul from purgatory springs’. The beneficiaries of the commercial operations were the re-building operations of the papal court. A cut of about half the money went to the Prince Archbishop in Mainz, himself in debt to the Fugger

financial system that was important for the contemporary social fabric.

Those recruited to oppose Luther were slower to appreciate the excitement that Luther sought to share, the discovery of new meaning for what it was to be human, and a fresh appreciation of the true nature of Christianity. One could look deep down into one’s own corrupt soul, and down there experience the searing redemptive love of God that sets you free. Properly speaking, paschal experience cannot be institutionalised (or commercialised). If the Church is to be the place where paschal experience is celebrated, it has to find another way ‘to hold its own in the world’s territory’ where it would no longer be simply an organic part of social, legal and political arrangements. This took centuries to work out; indeed it remains a central preoccupation of our time.

When the Roman side eventually absorbed a great deal of these aspects of Luther’s vision, they in turn brought to light aspects of ‘justification’ that seemed to be overlaid in the rush to a Reformation.

Principally these concerned the corporate nature of salvation. Luther had seen that vicarious salvation, bought for you by another, was bought with false coinage. But that truth need not obscure the truth that it is in a ‘communion of saints’ that we undertake our journey ‘to see the face of God’.

We make that journey in an institutional context.

The giftedness appears in forms that are local, and yet universal: in these communities, though they may often be small and poor or dispersed, Christ is present and the whole Church prays there.

The age of reformation brought to light new understanding of what it means to be Church, and, indeed, new understandings of what it means to be human, to engage with the story of our soul’s desire.

Dr Con Casey is an Irish Redemptorist. He is associate director of the Loyola Institute of Catholic Theology at Trinity College, Dublin.

25

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F EAT U R E

CATHOL I C In

this, the fiftieth year since his death in 1966, I found myself nudged into re-reading the books of Evelyn Waugh. It made for a happy summer of rediscovery.

I had allowed myself to be put off by the unpleasant things that had emerged about Waugh since he died and that had been gleefully overemphasised in the media – that he was a snob, a grumpy curmudgeon, cruel, intolerant, a generally nasty man. So I read his diaries and letters and a few of the biographies and other books that had been written about him to see how this ‘ogre’ could have written some of the best books of the twentieth century in such pure and elegant prose.

Undeniably the nasty qualities were there, his irascibility, his malicious streak, his delight in provoking and humiliating people. Waugh himself often acknowledged his failings: ‘I am a bully and a scold’, he wrote. He even acknowledged his sins. Most ordinary Catholics would be taken aback by his lax sexual behaviour, even after his conversion. But along with that

went his repentance and recourse to confession, and his sense of his deep need for God’s saving grace. A friend, Nancy Mitford, once took him to task over some nasty behaviour and asked how he reconciled being so horrible with his Christianity. He replied sadly that were he not a Christian he would be even more horrible, and anyway would have committed suicide years ago.

EARLY DAYS Evelyn was born in a middle-class London suburb in 1903. His parents, Kate and Arthur, were from families of clergymen and doctors. They were a happy couple, though of different temperaments, Kate being steady and home-loving, Arthur volatile and rather theatrical. He was director of a publishing company, with many friends among literary people. He had written a successful life of Tennyson and a few slighter books. His father had been a successful doctor who sadistically terrorised his family, so that Arthur grew up insecure and moody, hiding his insecurity by an

EVELYN WAUGH WAS ONE OF A NUMBER OF ENGLISH WRITERS AND ARTISTS WHO CONVERTED TO CATHOLICISM IN THE MIDDLE YEARS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. HE IS BEST KNOWN FOR HIS NOVEL, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, WHICH WAS MADE INTO A VERY SUCCESSFUL TELEVISION SERIES AND A FILM.

BY RICHARD TOBIN CSsR excessive jollity and theatricality of manner. Though a decent and kindly man, he made the mistake of idolising his first-born, Alec, five years Evelyn’s senior, with inevitable consequences.

‘Daddy loves Alec more than me’, Evelyn said to his mother, to whom he was close. ‘But you love me more than you love Alec.’ ‘No, I love you both the same,’ said his mother, trying to be fair. ‘Then ‘, said Evelyn, ‘I am lacking in love.’ He was nine at the time.

As it happened Evelyn turned out to be quite like his father in many ways – moody, inclined to depression, concealing a fragile sense of self behind theatrical and sometimes outrageous behaviour. It is possible that both father and son were mildly manicdepressive.

Arthur and Kate were generous in educating their sons. Very early Alec established himself as a popular novelist. Evelyn went to Oxford to study history. He ended up making it rather than studying it.

Falling in with a bunch of kindred spirits, most of them from wealthy or titled families, he discovered the pleasures of drunkenness and generally extravagant behaviour.

Twenty years later he wrote a fictionalised account of these years in Brideshead Revisited. He ran up debts, later paid off by his father, and failed to get a degree. With the days of wine and roses over, what was he to do to earn a living?

His first choice was to be an artist, but a brief spell at art school convinced him he would never be really good enough. Next he tried carpentry and cabinet making, with

The world is unintelligible and unendurable without God the same result. Then he took to school-mastering and worked briefly in three boarding schools. Pupils testified to his being a good teacher but the life bored him and led to excessive drinking and being sacked.

27

F E AT U R E

28

In his autobiography, A Little Learning, he tells of reaching such a low point that one night he left his clothes on the shore with a little note and swam out to sea in the moonlight intending to keep going.

Some distance out he ran into a shoal of jellyfish which stung him back to sanity. So he turned and swam back to shore and ‘climbed the hill that led to all the years ahead’.

What immediately lay ahead was marriage and his first novel, Decline and Fall, a sparkling satirical farce about the social scene of the twenties and its ‘bright young things’. It was an immediate success and Waugh’s name was made. His marriage, however, was not a success. It lasted only a year. Both he and his wife (also named Evelyn) seem to have been too immature for marriage. She left him for another man and Waugh was devastated. It was a bitter memory for the rest of his life.

Years later the man who had taken his wife became a Catholic and wrote to Waugh apologising and asking forgiveness. Waugh replied by postcard: ‘OK. EW.’

Eventually he concluded that ‘the world is unintelligible and unendurable without God’ and that ‘the Roman Catholic Church is the only genuine form of Christianity’.

‘The essential issue’, he wrote ‘is between Christianity and Chaos’. He sought instruction from Fr Martin D’Arcy, the Jesuit philosopher, who said of him ‘I have never met a convert who so strongly based his assents on truth. He had convinced himself very unsentimentally of the truth of the Catholic faith and that in it he must save his soul’ ‘Conversion’, Waugh wrote to a friend, ‘is like stepping across the chimney piece out of a Looking-Glass world, where everything is an absurd caricature, into the real world God made’. (The ‘Alice’ books were always among his favourites.)

CONVERSION Some years of unrest followed his divorce. He travelled in Africa and South America, partly escaping, all the time searching. ‘The trouble with the world today,’ he wrote to his brother Alec, is that there is not enough religion in it. There’s nothing to stop young people from doing what they feel like doing at the moment.’

But his conversion to Catholicism was much more than a rebound from his broken marriage. He had been thinking things out for many years, often arguing with his Catholic friends, a surprising number of whom were Catholics, many of them recent converts.

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY Over the next five or six years Waugh wrote several travel books and three of his most highly rated novels - Vile Bodies, Black Mischief, and A Handful of Dust - as well as his fine book on St Edmund Campion and a good deal of journalism. He fell in love with a young Catholic woman, Laura Herbert, but it was a couple of years before they could marry because of the slow progress of the annulment of Waugh's first marriage. His second marriage was a happy one. He and Laura had seven children, one of whom died in infancy. Though slight in build - as was Waugh himself - Laura was a strong, resourceful woman, as she needed to be to

REALITY OCTOBER 2016

Evelyn and his family

cope with her husband's sometimes difficult character.

Though he was a generally good father, Waugh often resented his children's intrusions on his work and privacy. His daughter Teresa once brought a friend from university to meet her family. As they were approaching the house Waugh shouted from a window, 'Go away!'

'We'd better go', said Teresa, 'when Papa is in a mood like that.'

Yet after Waugh's death his eldest son, Auberon, whose relations with Waugh had not always been smooth, wrote: 'The main point about my father is simply that he was the funniest man of his generation. He scarcely opened his mouth but to say something extremely funny. His house life revolved around jokes. It was his wit - coupled of course with supreme accuracy of expression, kindness, loyalty, bravery and intelligence - which endeared him to everyone who knew him or loved his books.' Waugh's many life-long friends would say amen to that. 'We would laugh all day long', said one of them in whose home Waugh stayed for several months. 'You couldn't help loving him'.

LATER YEARS Waugh served as a soldier during World War Two, for a time as a commando. His courage was acknowledged by all. He was given a few months leave in 1944 to write the book by which most Catholics know him, Brideshead Revisited. It marked a change in style from his earlier

comedies, treating of the working of God's grace in the lives of various characters.

After the war, over a period of ten years, he wrote what many consider his greatest book, The Sword of Honour Trilogy, also deeply Catholic though by no means piously so.

Then his creativity dried up, apparently through a combination of increasing ill-health and disillusion with the world. And with the Church.

The changes in the liturgy that came with Vatican II distressed him grievously. Not the loss of Latin or 'the sense of mystery', but the loss of shape and form in the way Mass was now celebrated. He found Mass had become loose and shapeless in comparison with the tight form of the traditional 'low' Mass where the priest was like a craftsman doing a good job. In writing and in the humbler tasks of life Waugh prized craftsmanship, the job properly and elegantly done.

Whatever the reasons, Waugh became increasingly despondent and often expressed a wish for death.

He constantly prayed and asked for prayers that he would not lose the faith. At Mass on Easter Sunday 1966, with family and friends, he radiated good humour. Shortly after returning home he died suddenly of a heart attack. His daughter , Margaret, wrote afterwards to his friend, Nancy Mitford, 'You know how he longed to die, and dying as he did on Easter Sunday, when all the liturgy is about death and resurrection, after Mass and holy communion, would be exactly what he wanted. I am sure he had prayed for death at Mass'.

Fr Richard Tobin CSsR is author of Visits to the Blessed Sacrament for the Twenty-First Century (Redemptorist Communications) and is a member of St Joseph’s Community, Dundalk

COM M E N T FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS CARMEL WYNNE

HIDDEN CONTROL AND MANIPULATION

YOUR RELATIONSHIP IS IN TROUBLE IF YOU ARE HAPPY SOME OF THE TIME, BUT ANGRY OR MISERABLE MOST OF THE TIME. IT IS NOT HELPED BY TRYING TO IGNORE THE FEELINGS OF UNEASE OR NOT TAKING TIME TO LOOK AT WHAT CAUSES TENSION. Are you in a relationship where you are wondering why you should stay or how you can leave without causing hurt to you and your partner? Some people stay in a couple relationship long after it is healthy or wise to do so.

Your relationship is in trouble if you are happy some of the time, and angry or miserable most of the time. If your last relationship failed, it is easy to convince yourself that you must stick it out. So you make yourself busy, so busy that you don’t have time to look at what is making you happy, angry or miserable.

It’s pointless to live in hope that things can get better. What you need to do is try to figure out why relationships fail. Rather than stay in the hope that things will get better, set out to understand what goes wrong.

When you understand why it is that you and your partner love each other, but can’t get on amicably for longer than a week or two, you can decide what to do.

Therapist John O. Stevens says, “Whenever people are together, their actions or inactions will affect each other, and in this sense control always exists in a relationship. You may find this hard to accept. It’s easier to deny that you would allow anyone to control you than to admit that when your partner makes you feel happy, frustrated or ecstatic, you give your partner the power to control you emotionally."

In an emotionally healthy relationship a couple will talk about how they are feeling. Each has the freedom to talk about how the other person contributed to those feelings. Fights do not end in one person shutting down, withdrawing emotionally and withholding love.

Withholding love for any reason is a sign of fear. You are afraid of being hurt again. You fear your love will not be reciprocated. You fear losing control and wrongly believe that you look strong by refusing to give in.

If you do not have an intact sense of self-worth you will fear that who you are is not enough. Needing to be loved can cause you to fall into the trap of making your partner’s needs more important than your own. Love does not hurt. What hurts is falling into the trap of seeking to get and keep the love that meets your expectation of what it is to feel “loved”.

Love is your feeling response towards a partner. When you have expectations that your partner will know how you want to be loved, you set yourself up for disappointment. Worse you enter into a hidden cycle of control and manipulation that will sour the relationship.

It’s easier to blame your partner for hurting your feelings than to accept your share of the responsibility for giving control away. Expecting a partner to love you and make you happy is one way to set up a relationship for failure. If, in order to keep the relationship sweet, you make your partner’s needs more important than your own, you are manipulating yourself. Even if your partner responds warmly when you act nicer than you feel, you will not feel unconditionally loved because your partner will be relating to the role you’re acting out, not to you.

Feelings of resentment that erode intimacy build up when either partner holds an expectation that the other perceives as a demand.

Whenever you act in a way that hides how you feel, you are playing a role, manipulating yourself because you lack the trust to be real. You are probably withholding what could help and save the relationship.

It is not a sign of loving someone to withhold information that you expect will disturb them. It’s understandable that there will be some fear if you decide to be honest and open about what you experience and how you feel. Censoring the truth is another way to withhold your love.

Be warned, honesty is not guaranteed to bring a response of love but it is absolutely essential if you want to work on having an emotionally healthy relationship. It takes what I call Super-Vision to see what is behind the role-playing and unresolved issues that have no place in an honest loving relationship.

When issues are not resolved the relationship suffers. Over time unresolved issues build up resentment which leads to a loss of closeness and intimacy. A simple sentence like, “Don’t you speak to me like that,” fuels frustration. If I comply, you have control. If I ignore you I’m withholding what you want.

If your partner has the power to evoke a negative response in you, is it possible that you are unconsciously engaged in a cycle of manipulation and control that neither of you recognises?

29

PRAYE R

prayer corner

The woman who washed

In this series, Fr George Wadding invites us to take an imaginative look at some familiar Gospel stories, imagining how the characters might have told their story if were they alive today. Using the imagination can be a powerful way of entering into reflective contemplative prayer. Find a quiet corner, read the article slowly a few times, think about and pray as the spirit leads you. You may also find it helpful to read the biblical text in the Gospel of St Luke 7:36 - 50

I 30

was a streetwalker or, in plain language, a prostitute. I was well known in town.

Passers-by would shun me. Brazen children would sometimes call me vulgar names and throw stones at me if their parents weren't around. My customers were from all walks of life - some were self-righteous Pharisees or even Scribes and Levites. Some were poor labourers, if they could afford me. Some young lads I put on the road to God-knows-where, God help them! Some of my clients were the fathers of the children who threw stones at me or the husbands of women who spewed scorn at me in the stores and on the streets. My livelihood depended on keeping my mouth shut and turning a deaf ear to their abuse and insults.

Goodness knows that wasn't always easy. At times I wanted to call out the names of my sanctimonious clients from the rooftops.

But that would have ended my career for good.

I tell you, I have had rough days. Some men are just wicked and cruel. I longed to be shut of them all but it was my livelihood, my bread and wine. I was trapped in a snare of my own making, despised by God and man, carrying in my heart a ton of guilt and remorse and self-loathing.

A STRANGE MEETING Then, one day, a group of men passed by.

They were clearly a Rabbi and his disciples.

The Rabbi would have known my trade since I had let my hair down - a traditional

REALITY OCTOBER 2016

sign of our profession. Still, he greeted me with a friendly 'good day' and stopped to chat with me. His group moved on a bowshot away - was it embarrassment or to give us privacy! From the start I knew he was not a client. He looked me straight in the eye without a trace of lust and his smile was warm and non-judgmental.

"How are you?" he asked in a friendly way.

"I'm fine, thank you, Rabbi," I answered.

"But you're not happy?"

I didn't answer, but slowly tears welled up in my eyes.

"I understand," he said.

I wanted to talk further with this kind man but I was concerned for his reputation.

"You shouldn't be talking to me," I said, "you'll be in deep trouble."

With a broad smile and a chuckle he said, "Not for the first time!"

"I can see you are a good woman," he said, "but life has not treated you well."

Our conversation took off from there. We sat down on a low wall nearby and I poured out my soul to him. He seemed to read me like an open book and understood my pain like no one I had ever known. He spoke to me of God in a very personal way and said he had been put on earth to tell people of his Father's love for them and that God wanted them to repent of their sins and turn their lives around.

When I protested that my sins were too great and too numerous for God's forgiveness he said, "Have you forgotten

what the prophet Joel said: 'come back to me with all your heart... turn to the Lord again, for he is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness and ready to relent"(Joel 2:12). And he quoted many more of the prophets but the one I remember best of all was Isaiah: 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.' (1: 18) He paused and looked straight at me: "Dear friend," he said, having talked with you I know that you deeply repent of the life you have had to live so far." "To the depths of my soul," I said. "And do you wish to change and draw closer to the Lord who created you in love?" "Oh Yes," I said, "if he will have me," Then in a low and authoritative voice he said to me, "Friend, your sins are forgiven. Sin no more." It was like heavy manacles chaining me to earth slipped from my ankles and I began to soar like a bird released from a snare. I was elated and peace engulfed me. I cried like a baby. When my tears eased off and I could see again through the mist, the Rabbi had moved off quietly with his disciples.

Jesus' feet with her tears LOOKING FOR A FRIEND But I met him again. I had to thank him. I heard by chance that his name was Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee and that he was dining with a rather well-known Pharisee in the town, a man called Simon. I grabbed an alabaster jar of expensive ointment I had hidden in the house and dashed off to Simon's house just as I was, hair hanging loose, clothes unkempt. I was still floating on air and overwhelmed with joy. I went straight to Jesus, to the obvious consternation of the diners who knew me. My tears ran down his dusty feet like rivulets through the sand.

I tried to clean them with my loose hair and emptied my aromatic perfume over them.

By now the diners were recovering from their first shock and a few rose to shoo me out - no fear of them laying their ritually purified

Father George Wadding is a member of the new Redemptorist Community, Dun Mhuire, Griffith Avenue, Dublin

hands on an unclean creature like me! I was about to leave when Jesus said, "Simon, I have something to say to you." His strong voice restored calm and all sat down again. Jesus went on: "There was once a creditor who had two men in his debt. One owed him five hundred coppers, the other fifty. They were unable to pay so he pardoned them both.

Which of them will love him more?" "The one who was pardoned more, I suppose" answered Simon. Jesus said, "you are right," and all the guests muttered their approval of Simon's 'clever' answer.

Now, before I tell the rest of this story I should tell you that, in our country, when a guest is formally invited to dinner, three rituals are always performed for him: he receives a formal kiss of peace, cool water is poured over his dusty feet to cleanse and cool them, sometimes a drop of fragrant oil (or attar of rose petals) is placed on the guest's head, or a pinch of sweet-smelling incense is burned.

So, Jesus, looking straight at me, continued to address Simon. "Simon," he said, "you see this woman. You invited me into your house and you gave me no water for my feet but she has poured out her tears over my feet and wiped them away with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she has been covering my feet with kisses... You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with precious ointment.

For this reason I tell you that her sins, her many sins, must have been forgiven her, or she would not have shown such great love. It is the man who is forgiven little who shows little love." Then he repeated to me what he had said earlier in the day, "Your sins are forgiven... Your faith has saved you; go in peace".

Of course, Simon was humiliated, his bad manners and his self-righteous notions about his own sinlessness had been exposed. His guests were dumbfounded at the audacity of this Rabbi to presume to forgive sin but I slipped out of the dining room, the happiest woman in Palestine.

I hadn't a notion what the future might bring but I was not worried. I would never again walk the streets. My future was now in God's hands..

31

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MI S S I O N

CHILDREN HELPING CHILDREN THE SOCIETY OF MISSIONARY CHILDREN

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FOR OVER ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY YEARS, THE HOLY CHILDHOOD SOCIETY, NOW THE SOCIETY OF MISSIONARY CHILDREN, HAS BEEN ENCOURAGING YOUNG CATHOLICS TO TAKE AN INTEREST IN THE CHURCH’S FOREIGN MISSIONS. MISSION SUNDAY THIS YEAR IS OCTOBER 18.

BY JULIEANN MORAN

Where

there are children t h e re a re g re a t opportunities to enable them to develop their missionary hearts! Visiting our youngest Christians in schools that are actively and generously supporting the Society of Missionary Children is obviously great fun, but it is also very nourishing and a spiritually rich experience. Just before the summer

MISSION

Secretary in 1881. In 1922 Pope Pius XI gave it his blessing, making it a Pontifical charity and the official children’s charity of the Catholic Church. Today through prayer and material aid, it supports children from developing countries all over the world.

Children from Uganda

34

holidays, I spent time praying, singing hymns, and exploring the plight of refugee children across the globe with the pupils of St Evin’s National School in Monasterevin, Co. Kildare.

Engaging in a “what would you carry in your backpack” exercise allowed us all to discover how we can contribute through prayer, spiritual and corporal works of mercy, and donating whatever small amount we can for those more in need. I’m not sure who was more spiritually nourished that day – me or the pupils. There is a deep rooted tradition in our parishes of supporting missionaries around the world, particularly on Mission Sunday. We also need to invest time, energy, and resources if we wish to encourage our youngest parishioners to become missionaries here at home, praying for, and sharing with, others who need their help.

F R O M H O LY C H I L D H O O D TO MISSIONARY CHILDREN The Society of Missionary Children (originally called Holy Childhood) was founded in 1843 by Bishop Charles de Forbin Janson in France. As a young priest, Charles had REALITY OCTOBER 2016

been disturbed by the plight of children in China. He decided to ask the children of France, and later, the children of Europe, to help. He asked them to do two things; to say a prayer each day for children in mission countries and to donate a coin to help with their material needs. Charles believed this plan would have a two-fold benefit. It would benefit the children in the mission countries, by bringing much needed bodily and spiritual help, and it would also benefit the children of Europe helping them to grow in their virtue of charity to others.

Within 10 years of its foundation, the Society was active in more than 100 countries worldwide, including Ireland. A lay-woman, Miss Catherine D’Alton , introduced it into Ireland. In 1853 she organised a small committee attached to the Pro-Cathedral Parish in Dublin, and pioneered the work of the Society until her death in 1880. That same year Pope Leo XIII encouraged bishops across Europe to introduce the Society in their dioceses.

With the official establishment of the Society in Ireland, Fr Michael Hyland, a Holy Ghost Father, became its first National

A MISSIONARY CHURCH Being missionary is an inherent part of being Christian. A missionary Church is one that seeks to engage all of the Church in the activity that God has for them. All of the Church means simply that: all of it! God has called and gifted everyone, including our youngest Christians, and awakening children to the needs of other children helps them to answer God’s call. Encouraging them to say a short prayer and to offer a small sacrifice from their own spending money (if they have spending money) is participation in the Church’s missionary activity. It is missionary.

So often, I hear the phrase “our children are the Church of the future.” I disagree.

Our children are not the Church of the future, they are the Church today and our goal should be to move everyone from being passive recipients of the Church’s activity to being actively engaged in the work God has for them, no matter how old or, indeed, how young they are. In Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis tells us that missionary outreach must be “paradigmatic for all the Church’s activity.”

He says we “cannot passively and calmly wait in our church buildings.” He invites us, throughout the world, to be “permanently in a state of mission.” Children helping Children is not simply the motto of the Society of Missionary Children, it’s active participation in God’s mission right here, right now!

The donation from St Evin's NS Monasterevin

IRISH CHILDREN ON MISSION – MEETING NEEDS Children in Ireland have been answering God’s call to mission for over 173 years and they have supported the Society of Missionary Children in many different ways. Last year children across the whole island of Ireland prayed for other children and donated whatever they could afford in their mission globes. Raising over €42,000 they supported children in Lesotho, Sierra Leone, and the Philippines. In Lesotho, their contributions helped to build a preschool playground, some new toilets in a primary school, provide musical CDs and other materials for children to learn hymns and songs, and provided much support to an orphanage, giving the children there a chance to feel part of a much larger family that is caring for them: the Universal Church!

In Sierra Leone, Irish children’s contributions helped to build a new school and to renovate a health centre for children and their families.

Finally, financial support from Irish children helped to restore an old Church building as a classroom for children living in Pagatay Cemetery in Manila, where missionary sisters are working endlessly implementing feeding, hygiene, and literacy programmes.

Children in Ireland do not have to donate to participate. It is equally important that children pray for other children here and around the world. A simple and effective way to do this is by participating in the National Day of Prayer for Children held during October, during Mission Month.

This year we will be celebrating from Sligo Cathedral on Friday, 14th October at 12 noon. We can all be together, in prayer, on the same day even if people cannot travel to Sligo. Our resource book is available to help everyone pray with us on the day. It provides a “Helping Hands” prayer service, a “Children Helping Children” Mass and the “Mission Rosary,” any of which can be held in your local parish church, parish centre,

school or individual classrooms. However you celebrate the day, the most important part is encouraging children to pray together.

Many of you already have your own unique way of supporting the Society of Missionary Children and I do hope you will continue that support in any way possible. For those who have not supported us before and would like to become involved, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me for a mission globe for your classroom, parish centre, or home.

Other resources such as our rosary beads, classroom rosary kits, parish rosary kits, copy books, wrist bands, prayer resources, and bookmarks are also available. I am more than happy to visit schools and parishes to share stories about our mission projects and the Society.

Julieann Moran is National Secretary for the Society of Missionary Children. You can find out more about the Society through their website at www.wmi.ie or on their Facebook page.

MOT HE R O F P E R PE TUAL H E L P

A PRESBYTERIAN REFLECTS ON MARY

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DURING THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE ICON OF OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL SUCCOUR AROUND IRELAND, IT MADE A VISIT TO STORMONT, THE PLACE WHERE THE NORTHERN ASSEMBLY MEETS, FOR AN ECUMENICAL PRAYER MEETING ON THE VIGIL OF PENTECOST.

BY REV STEVE STOCKMAN

So

I, a Presbyterian minister, found myself in Stormont, the seat of Northern Ireland Government, with an Icon of Mary! We were actually there to pray for all of our MLAs (Members of the Local Assembly). They had just been elected that very week and it was a very moving experience to name them all, one by one, and ask the Holy Spirit to work in and through each one of them. We were acutely aware that it was the eve of Pentecost so praying the Holy Spirit to come was an appropriate prayer.

REALITY OCTOBER 2016

Back to the Icon of Mary. This was a part of the Redemptorists Jubilee of the Icon. They had been taking it round Ireland, praying in Churches and neighbourhoods. For the trip to Stormont it was felt appropriate to invite the Protestant side of the ClonardFitzroy Fellowship, so many of us from Fitzroy Presbyterian joined our brothers and sisters to model to our MLAs that it is possible to work together and cross our traditional divisions even when we hold differences.

A PRESBYTERIAN AND MARY We do have differences in how we see Mary.

When I was given the privilege of sharing from Scripture, I thought it would be good to be honest with those differences. The veneration of Mary has been probably what has made me most uneasy in my many times in Catholic Churches. I admitted that during the Clonard Novenas, I simply change the word Mary to Jesus.

However, if we Protestants are uneasy at how our Catholic brothers and sisters venerate Mary we must be careful how little

attention we pay to her. Indeed we might need to confess that we have been disparaging of her; even rude.

In the bad old days Northern Ireland’s soccer fans were known to sing very vulgar things about the Pope and Mary. Whatever way we look at Mary, we need to see that she was the mother of Jesus. That should cause us to treat her, first of all, with the deepest respect and, secondly, to learn from her obedience to God. At Stormont because it was the eve of Pentecost I thought it very poignant to read Luke 1: 41-42: When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!

There is the Holy Spirit right there, and then that phrase that Protestants have not been too eager to use “blessed are you among women”.

WHAT MARY DID FOR GOD Whatever way we honour Mary across our divisions, let us look at what she did for God. For 400 years, from the return from exile, very little had happened amongst the people of God. Then, once again, God interrupted time and space.

Luke chapter 1 tells us that an angel appears first to a man named Zechariah and then to a teenage girl called Mary. The angel uses a recurring phrase through the New Testament that this visit launches; “Do not be afraid!” Really! For Mary the appearing of an angel is not the most frightening bit. The angel tells her that she is going to become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the son of God; the Messiah!

During an Advent service in Fitzroy, a few years back, Janet Morris led us in a reflection on these Scriptures. During that event, I turned over in my head, soul and heart these verses about Mary pregnant with God’s Son and how she then visits her cousin Elizabeth also miraculously with child.

In the intentionality of my listening, as I meditated on the words of an angel, a pregnant teenager and a supportive cousin I found myself unsettled on the fault line between earth’s expectations and the strange and mysterious ways of heaven.

A WOMAN MISUNDERSTOOD? Mary lived the rest of her life being misunderstood. The neighbourhood’s most loved girl became the biggest scandal and disappointment. Pregnancy outside marriage was not the respectable way but, in adding to a million mysteries, that is the way God chose.

Mary responded to God with a huge life changing “yes”. She gave herself back to God. She took the rumour and gossip and carried

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M OT HE R O F P E R PE TUAL H E L P

the defamation of her character; in the name of God and for our salvation. Elizabeth’s words jump out, transcending the human cost to Mary with her heavenly accolade; “Blessed are you among women.”

PRESBYTERIAN POEM ABOUT MARY CURSED (BLESSED AMONG WOMEN)

by Steve Stockman

AUTUMN

Cursed for the life that’s befallen you Mary, Blessed among women Cursed for what neighbours are calling you Mary, Blessed among women Cursed that no one will believe in you Mary, Blessed among women Cursed that the holy men grieve for you Mary, Blessed among women.

Blessed for giving back to God All that God had given you Blessed that you no matter what Did all that he asked you to

Blessed by ending up in doing What you were born to do Blessed for giving back to God All that God had given you

Cursed by what your future serves Mary, Blessed among women Cursed for always living on nerves Mary, Blessed among women Cursed that you would suffer loss Mary, Blessed among women Cursed by the shadow of that cross Mary, Blessed among women.

Blessed for giving back to God All that God had given you Blessed that you no matter what Did all that he asked you to Blessed by ending up doing What you were born to do Blessed for giving back to God All that God had given you.

Whether Catholic or Protestant Mary’s obedience calls to us. Is God asking us to do something transformational for him? It might cost. It might destroy your reputation.

It might help in God’s work of salvation.

Will we respond like this most remarkable teenage girl?

Rev Steve Stockman

Steve Stockman is minister of Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, Belfast

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F E AT U R E

MINDFULNESS MEDITATION FAITH AND SUPER-VISION

AT THE HEART OF THE EXPERIENCE OF CHRISTIAN PRAYER IS STILLNESS AND SILENCE IN WHICH WE ARE INVITED TO DISCOVER THE LOVE OF GOD. RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT PEOPLE WHO MEDITATE REGULARLY LOWER LEVELS OF STRESS AND HAVE AN INCREASED SENSE OF WELL-BEING.

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BY CARMEL WYNNE

I’m

not sure if the popular trend for promoting Mindfulness is a good or bad thing. Thomas Merton, one of the great theologians of the last century, wrote, “Solitude is as necessary for society as silence is for language and air for the lungs and food for the body”. He believed that if society did not provide sufficient solitude to develop the inner life of the people who form society, many would seek a false solitude.

There is a widespread assumption that if you and I speak the same language we will both attach the same meaning to the words we use. We don’t.

You can easily see the difficulties that arise from the assumption of shared meaning when you try to find a universally agreed meaning for words like prayer, mindfulness and meditation.

Growth in prayer takes different forms for different people and for the same person it takes different forms at different times. When we talk about prayer, we do so one the basis of a whole multitude of assumptions. Assumptions are a very useful, even essential part of everyday life. However, two people having a conversation about prayer could be talking about totally different experiences if neither asked the question, how do you pray?

Each of us is called to a personal, intimate relationship with God. To be in relationship requires involvement. A personal experience is a pre-requisite for a serious prayer life. By “experience” I don’t mean an intellectual knowing about God. The invitation is for an experiential relationship, not to know about God, but to know God as a person.

Not to say words about being loved by God but to be intimate, to be present in love, wordless.

IS MEDITATION PRAYER? Some of the better known teachers of Christian meditation are Benedictine monk John Maine, Trappist monk Thomas Keating and Cistercian monk, Thomas Merton. The form of Christian meditation taught by John Main focused on concentration on the breath or repetition of a mantra. He said “The all-important aim in Christian meditation is to allow God’s mysterious and silent presence within us to become more and more not only a reality, but the reality which gives meaning, shape and purpose to everything we do, to everything we are”.

F E AT U R E

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He taught people to Sit down. Sit still and upright. Close your eyes lightly. Sit relaxed but alert. Silently, interiorly begin to say a single word.

He recommended the prayer-phrase Maranatha to be recited as four syllables of equal length. His suggestion was that you listen to it as you say it, gently but continuously. You are not to think or imagine anything – spiritual or otherwise. If thoughts or images come, these are distractions at the time of meditation, so you keep returning to simply saying the word. He believed that one outcome of this prayer is it gives reality, meaning, shape and purpose to everything we do, to everything we are.

Trappist monk Thomas Keating made Centering Prayer popular. He had a spiritual experience and realised that union with the divine is not only possible but available to all. He defined centering prayer as "a very simple method in which one opens one's self to God and consents to his presence in us and to his actions within us." Beyond words, emotions, and thoughts, centering prayer, said Keating, is like "two friends sitting in silence, just being in each other's presence."

THE THREE VOCATIONS The belief in a personal relationship with God is necessary if you wish to make progress in prayer.

When I was a child, there was a widespread belief

REALITY OCTOBER 2016

among Catholic Christians that only monks, priests and nuns had the gift of prayer. Men and women, who dedicated themselves to God in religious life, had a special vocation.

Men who became priests were believed to have a higher calling than women who entered religious life. Next in favour with God were people who lived the dedicated single life. The vocation to the married life was regarded as the least important vocation, necessary for the propagation of children.

but others went to enjoy the brilliant oratory, the thundering delivery describing the wrath of God, the horrific punishments for sin and the graphic predictions telling of hell fire and eternal damnation.

Towards the end of the parish retreat, there were always long queues for confession. It’s not my intention to be disrespectful but it would be foolish to deny that some misguided people engaged in

Beyond words, emotions, and thoughts, centering prayer is like two friends sitting in silence, just being in each other's presence

DEVOTIONAL PRAYER People had simple faith, a great loyalty to the Church, to saying prayers and engaging in traditional devotions.

Many families like ours recited five decades of the rosary nightly, followed by what were popularly called the trimmings of the rosary, a litany of saints’ names followed by the plea, “Pray for us. The Irish culture of going to politicians and those in authority to intercede on your behalf was reflected in how my mother begged her favourite saints to intercede on her behalf.

The belief was widespread that even though God loved us, his wrath was to be feared. The priests who preached at parish retreats gave brilliant sermons about the unworthiness of sinners who didn’t fear God. Many who attended were motivated by faith,

what I call the revolving door confessional.

There is a lovely story told of the young boy who wanted a bicycle. His priest told him to have faith that no prayer goes unanswered. So he prayed and he prayed and he prayed. Weeks went by and months went by and no bicycle. Then one day, the priest saw him riding a brand new bicycle. “What a blessing that God has answered your prayer” the priest said. “No” said the boy. “I got tired of praying, so I stole the bicycle. But don’t worry Father. I’ve been to confession and God has forgiven me”.

Some ill-informed adults looked on confession as a way of expunging sin, with little insight into the ways that sin harms relationships with self, with others and with God. Ignorant of how to engage in an honest examination of conscience they had a check list of sins. They ticked off what was done and how many times, entered the confessional and went through the ritual, "Bless me father for I have sinned, it’s a year since my last confession, these are my sins”.

With a distorted view of the sacrament, the confessional for some, like the little boy who stole the bicycle, absolved one of all responsibility for one’s actions. Say one’s penance of a decade of the rosary or a couple of Our Fathers and one’s soul was wiped clean. It’s cynical but true that ignorant of the need for reparation a small number of misguided “penitents” were habitual offenders. Absolved from sin in confession, they went out free to sin again with the confidence that all would be forgiven. The seal of the confessional protected even if they confessed to murder, rape or incest.

MIND, BODY AND PRAYER Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Herbert Benson, was a pioneer in mind/body medicine. He worked to build awareness of it, to validate it through research and to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western medical practices. Director Emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute and Mind Body Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Benson was one of the first western physicians to bring spirituality and healing into medicine.

He conducted studies that showed that people, who meditate regularly enjoyed lower stress levels, had increased well-being and some were able to reduce their blood pressure levels and rising heart rate. His book on meditation which he called The Relaxation Response became an instant bestseller and motivated millions of people worldwide to practice meditation.

Professor emeritus John Kabat-Zinn, founder and former director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts, has brought the practice of mindfulness to the general public, as if this is something new and innovative, rather than a

form of meditation dating back thousands of years.

All spiritual traditions include meditation techniques that help people shift their thoughts away from their usual preoccupations towards an appreciation of being in the present moment.

THE DIFFERENCE IS FAITH You can have prayer without spirituality and meditation that is not prayer. The experiential difference between mindfulness, meditation and Christian prayer meditation is faith.

Faith gifts you with what I call “Super-Vision”, that is the spiritual eyes to see you self, your life, everyone and everything in the world from a spiritual perspective. When you take a breath, when you walk, when you talk, you are experiencing a Godgiven gift. Experiencing the spiritual presence in all things, you cannot know yourself apart from Him. This knowing takes you beyond words and thoughts, to interior silence, wordless, being with God. I wonder is it because language is inadequate to describe this intimacy that it’s eminent physicians and academics rather than monks and priests who are responsible for millions of people worldwide practising meditation.

Camel Wynne is a regular contributor to Reality

Surprised by Fire: A transformative journey towards wholeness

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Martina draws on over twenty-five years’ experience in her work in psychology and spirituality, and the book is filled with real life stories and honest accounts of her own learning experiences. Sr Stan, renowned author, says of Martina’s writing … ‘I could not put it down’!

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

ON THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS

Syrian refugees crossing the border from Serbia to Croatia

ALTHOUGH THE EUROPEAN MEDIA REPORT FREQUENTLY ON THE INFLUX OF REFUGEES FROM SYRIA TRYING TO GET INTO EUROPE, THERE ARE MORE THAN SEVEN MILLION 42 PEOPLE (MORE THAN A THIRD OF THE POPULATION) LIVING AS DISPLACED PERSONS IN TEMPORARY SHELTERS IN THEIR OWN LAND. TRÓCAIRE WORKS ON THEIR BEHALF THROUGH ITS PARTNER ORGANISATIONS AS WELL AS IRISH PERSONNEL.

BY NOELLE FITZPATRICK

The

road into Damascus was quiet, lined on either side with pink flowered bushes, in sharp contrast to the dusty brown soil of the surrounding landscape. As the city stretched out in the distance, regular checkpoints - barrel and concrete barriers painted in the national colours - slowed our progress.

AN ODD NORMALITY We hit traffic congestion inside the historic walls.

I had not expected to find life to be ‘normal’ here, but people were going about their daily business, trying to maintain a sense of normality. The shops were open, but trade was poor. The rate of inflation since the beginning of the crisis means that even for middle class Syrians all but the very basics are beyond their means now, and often those basics are hard to find.

Anti-ISIS graffiti are sprayed on walls in the city centre. Military checkpoints are everywhere. It is

REALITY OCTOBER 2016

Living in one room with a shared kitchen and bathroom, Khawla and her husband have just had their first child, 2-month-old Haydar

an odd normality. The central part of Damascus has, for the most part, escaped the worst of the violence. The suburbs, where over 400,000 people are believed to be living under siege conditions,

have experienced much more sustained violence.

Locals watched the European Championship football finals with enthusiasm here, earlier this summer. Soccer was a popular sport before the

money to support themselves.

For many women, the loss of a husband means also losing all income.

Meanwhile, the Bassam family of eight also lives in the Midan district. This family fled the fighting in the neighbouring suburb of Ghouta, where their son and daughter sustained serious shrapnel injuries. Their The Hai Hamdi family - pictured are Badia Mhemeed, Taghreed (2), eldest son left for Turkey to Jihad (3), Maher (9), Mahmoud (6), Ahmar (17) and Talal (12) avoid military conscription.

Mohammed and Fatlleya are an older couple crisis, but now the army is using the main stadium as a military base. We see a few people begging from the outskirts of the eastern city of Deir al Zor. and sleeping on the street and, we are told, this There, they had a farm and grew wheat, olives and cotton. They fled their home in terror four years was not a usual sight pre-conflict.

The imposing downtown Four Seasons Hotel ago when ISIS swept into their town overnight. cocooned behind concrete bollards symbolised Since then, they have moved numerous times for me the way in which the UN system is being within the suburbs of Damascus because they severely hampered in this conflict. There have could not meet the rising rent prices.

The Hai Hamdi family, farmers from rural been three different UN envoys to Syria in the past five and a half years. The chemical weapons Kobani, have another story. They moved to inspectors have also left and ‘unconventional’ Damascus in February 2016. Kobani is in northern weapons are reportedly being used against the Syria, near to the border with Turkey. The conflict there had destroyed their home and they were civilian population. no longer safe, but leaving had its own problems and involved making payments for smuggling .To PUTTING A HUMAN FACE ON IT Over the next few days we visited local Trócaire get to Turkey would have been more expensive partners, and met people supported by other than travelling to Damascus, so they came to the INGOs. We heard stories of trapped civilians, of Syrian capital, the journey,with its various stops women being harassed as they try to go about and negotiations, taking them a month. Their new home there, in Jaramana, is a shell of a one-room apartment, with its gaping holes for windows providing no protection from the elements as temperatures frequently drop to less than zero their daily lives, and men afraid to move about for fear of being arrested and conscripted into in winter. But ‘it is safe compared to Kobani’, they say. They pay SP10,000 rent per month. That’s military service, or worse.

The Zraa family lives with five other families in less than €20.

The children are attending school and their a two-room shelter in Midan. They are originally from Yarmouk, an old Palestinian neighbourhood father has got labouring work in the market, near the city centre which they left four years ago earning enough to cover the rent. But they when the conflict made it impossible for them continue to be dependent on support from others to safely stay in their home. The town has since to cover some basic food needs and particularly been decimated. There are now no men living in for ‘additional’ items such school books and the house, and the widows have no way to make medical care.

Deterring migration – closing borders, deportation or indefinite detention – is not a humane answer, in fact, it is not an answer at all

As we talk to the Hai Hamdi family, I can hear bombing that feels unnervingly close. Nobody here, however, takes any notice of it. Two days earlier, the town of Darayya, which lies 20km south of Damascus, was heavily bombed shortly after receiving humanitarian aid. The day before that, there were two explosions in Set Zaynab.

The Syrian Government was responsible for the former, ISIS for the latter.

Yet despite these ongoing attacks and the fact that they are living through the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, all the people that I met are determined to provide for their families and survive as best they can.

REFUGEES IN THEIR OWN LAND Much of the recent Irish and western media attention has been focused on Syrian refugees entering Europe. The reality is that most uprooted Syrians are living in temporary shelters within their own country – i.e. more than seven million people (over one third of the population) are displaced within the Syrian borders and upwards of four million are seeking refuge in neighbouring countries.

With over 60 million people displaced globally, migration is a leading human rights challenge of our generation.

In 2015, under the EU’s relocation programme which sought to ease the migration crisis in Southern Europe, Ireland agreed to take in 4,000 refugees by the end of 2017. So far 311 people have come to this country.

As the Syrian conflict enters its sixth year, and with ongoing conflicts in the likes of Yemen, Iraq and South Sudan, migration has become a coping mechanism for people when there is nothing left to lose. Deterring migration – closing borders, deportation or indefinite detention – is not a humane answer, in fact, it is not an answer at all.

Noelle Fitzpatrick is Trócaire’s Programme Officer for Syria.

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REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

INEQUALITY AND VIOLENCE

HOW A YOUNG MAN, JUST WANTING TO HAVE WHAT OTHER KIDS HAD, GETS TRAPPED IN A SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE, DEATH AND EXILE.

44

John (not his real name, but it could be) grew up in a very deprived neighbourhood. His family were very poor. He often went to bed hungry. None of his family had ever worked. His teachers used tell him that if he wanted a good future, he had to stay in school. But even at 13 years of age, he knew they were lying; even if he stayed in school, he knew he didn’t have any future. What good is a Leaving Cert these days? To have any chance of a decent job, he would have to go to college, but his family could never afford it.

So he left school at 13.

At Christmas, he watched the Late Late toy show, and dreamt that night that he had got one of those toys for Christmas. But when he woke up in the morning, his dream was shattered. His mother tried to do her best, but there were four other children and little money. He watched the crowds of children on television enjoying themselves at Funderland. He didn’t want much, he just wanted the chance to do what other kids were doing, but he needed money for that.

The people in his neighbourhood who had money were the kids selling drugs. They always had money. Now, John thought, what a difference it would make to his mother if she had money. John was very close to her and he was sick of watching her trying to make ends meet. He wanted her to be happy. So John started selling REALITY OCTOBER 2016

poor are not radically resolved by .... attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems. Inequality is the root of social ills.” (The Joy of the Gospel, no. 202) He prays: “ Beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor.

(No.205)

Posed by model

drugs. He knew it was wrong but, as he used to say, “I was given this world, I didn’t make it.”

At first his mother tried to discourage him; she said she didn’t need the money but he knew she did. After a while, she knew there was no point in telling him, he had his mind made up.

Now when the television broke down, they were able to buy a new one. They were able to celebrate First Communions and Confirmations without going to a money lender. For the first time John could remember, Christmas was a happy time – he even went to Funderland!

From an early age, John knew that this society had no place for him. No matter how hard he might try, he would always be an outsider. The rest of society lived on a different planet to him.

Unfortunately, the story has a tragic ending. To sell drugs, John had to do what the dealers who supplied him wanted. A rival gang had appeared on the scene and John was given a gun and told he had to kill one of them as a warning to stay off their turf.

John didn’t want to, but he was in too deep and now there was no turning back. It was kill or be killed, the law of the jungle. John shot him on the street. A feud erupted and John had to flee for his life to Spain. Every day he thinks of his mother and wishes he were back at home. But he knows he can never return.

John wonders how it all went wrong. Pope Francis knew thousands of people like John in the shanty towns of Argentina.

He too wondered how it all went wrong.

"As long as the problems of the

Society will point to those who grew up beside John but didn’t turn to crime. They seek to divert attention away from the inequalities and injustices in society, to lay all the blame on the individual.

Pope Francis asks them to look deeper.

"Everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape. .....Those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers.” (no.53) John was but one of Irish society’s “leftovers”.

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH JUST DOING OUR DUTY There are two distinct sayings of Jesus in today’s Gospel. The first is about the need for a bold faith 27th SUNDAY IN (verses 5-6). The second ORDINARY TIME is about the attitude of the servant. When Jesus talks about faith, he does not mean readiness to believe a set of statements such as you find in the creed, e.g. that Jesus is divine.

Faith in the biblical sense is the kind of trust you have in a person that makes you stake everything on following them. This is the kind of faith the disciples want as they make their way to Jerusalem where Jesus will face his passion. He replies that with faith the size of a mustard seed, they could do great things. The mustard seed is very tiny, but it possesses great potential for growth (e.g.

Matthew 13:31-35

The second saying is a parable about what is expected of servants. The situation in the parable would have been familiar to Jesus’ audience – a medium sized farmer employs a single worker as a jack of all trades to help on the farm and around the house. He would be expected to have his master’s dinner ready and to wait on him hand and foot. To quote a familiar proverb, ‘why keep a dog if you are going to bark yourself?’ The ending of the parable applies it directly to the disciples: they should not expect special treatment in doing what is expected of them – they are simply servants of the Kingdom of God. Today’s Gospel, then, is about two basic attitudes that should characterise the disciples of Jesus. The first is a strong faith/ trust that will not be daunted by things that look forbiddingly impossible. The second is an attitude of humility that does not expect to be thanked for doing their duty. It is the

direct opposite of the attitude of the Pharisee who expected public recognition for every act of piety. Saints are people who did not take no for an answer, despite the obstacles.

There are countless people who consider themselves as very ordinary believers, ‘doing no more than their duty,’ when, for example, they put their career on hold to look after an elderly parent or to give fulltime care to a seriously ill child. They are also the people who have raised children by putting themselves in second place for years or who held a marriage together through great challenges because ‘it was their duty.’

SAYING THANKS Leprosy is the name the bible gives to many different forms of skin disease: it is not always 28RD SUNDAY IN what is called “Hansen’s ORDINARY TIME disease” today. The bible has very detailed rules for such diseases. They are not just a medical condition, but they carry a certain degree of religious impurity. In the ancient world sickness usually had a religious significance as well as a physical one. The bible makes the priest responsible for assessing the degree of infection and then for certifying the cure.

In small closely knit communities, diseases could spread rapidly. The Book of Leviticus took no chances with accidental contact: “The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be dishevelled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, 'Unclean, unclean.' He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the

camp (village)” (Leviticus 13:45-46).

The ten victims in today’sGospel may have been living in a kind of settlement set aside for people like them. They observe the rules of keeping their distance, but instead of calling out that they are ‘unclean,’ they ask Jesus to take pity on them. He tells them to go to the priests but, on the way, they discover that the condition of their skin has suddenly improved.

Now we learn the point of this miracle story. Nine of those who have been cured continue their journey, anxious to get back into the flow of everyday life and who would blame them? One man reacts differently – the Samaritan who returns to throw himself in gratitude at the feet of Jesus.

Jesus recognises that it is a foreigner who has returned to give thanks. His final words to the Samaritan – ‘Stand up and go on your way, your faith has saved you’ – are a reminder that the salvation message of the Gospel will eventually come to the Samaritans, and they have once more shown their openness to receiving the message of salvation.

We usually have an instinct to keep sickness at a distance. All the healing stories in the Gospels make the point that Jesus also overcomes the distance between suffering people and the community where they should be loved and cherished every bit as much as he overcomes physical illness.

Reading the story of the grateful Samaritan reminds us, first of all, to be grateful for the gift of health. It might also remind us to visit a long term sick person this week and bring them some of the comfort that comes from the healing presence of Jesus.

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Today’s Readings Hab 1:2-3, 2:2-4; Ps 95; 2 Tim 1:6-8. 13-14; Luke 17: 5-10

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Today’s Readings 2 Kings 5:14-17; Ps 98; 2 Tim 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19

God’s Word continues on page 46

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH NEVER GIVE UP IN PRAYER The opening line of the Gospel makes it abundantly clear that this parable is a lesson 29TH SUNDAY IN in persevering prayer – ORDINARY TIME ‘that we should always pray and not lose heart’. The meaning of the parable is fairly straightforward. The widow represents the most vulnerable people in Israelite society.

With no husband to ensure their rights, widows were at the mercy of others. We do not know what this woman’s case was except that she wants justice done her against her “enemies” – probably relatives who had taken advantage of her weakness to cheat her out of her property. The rather self-important judge is not going to allow a defenceless woman get the better of him: at least that is what he thinks. Initially, he ignores all her demands for justice. Jesus includes an element of humour in the story our

translations miss. Our translations usually have the judge say something like ‘she will persist in coming and worry me to death.’ The original word may mean something closer to ‘she will slap me in the face’ or perhaps ‘she will give me an uppercut.’ The judge fears the exasperation of this powerless woman will know no bounds, and her persistence will finally spill over into violence. He may not fear God, or give a farthing for public opinion, but he is brought to his knees by a defenceless widow!

Jesus applies the parable to how God deals with persistent prayer. The riddle of unanswered prayer is a great test of faith, and one the bible does not ignore. The whole of the Book of Job is built around the problem of a good man who loses everything, but God seems deaf until he and Job become locked in a dramatic argument. The main character of our parable is a human judge, and not a very honest one at that. Another judge is coming, the Son of Man, who will call to account even

people’s innermost motives and intentions and will be even more searching than the most stringent earthly judge.

Today’s first reading takes the story of Moses as another example of persevering prayer. As long as he kept his arms raised, Israel prevailed. When he let them fall, the tide of the battle turned. Sometimes, just remembering that someone - a child, an elderly person, someone who is ill – is praying or has lit a candle for us can be a great consolation when our own prayer falters.

KEEP IT SIMPLE Who prays best? Is it professionals, who know all the techniques, or amateurs who cannot 30TH SUNDAY IN even trust themselves ORDINARY TIME to get it right?

Pharisee were totally dedicated religious amateurs. Strictly speaking, they had no place in the religious hierarchy. They were a fellowship of likeminded people that included priests and laity, but their influence came from the popular esteem they enjoyed. This Pharisee’s prayer could be described as a commercial for the movement, except for one omission and one wrong attitude. The omission is any reference to the Pharisee’s zeal for studying the Law. He has been blessed with a temperament that finds observance of the Law easy. If his catalogue of his good deeds is a fair measure, he is a most observant Jew. Fasting was common in the Pharisee

movement and they extended the laws on tithing (setting apart for the temple one tenth of a crop) to things the law had not mentioned.

Tax collectors, or publicans, were at the other end of the social ladder. They bought the rights to collect the taxes of their own people from the occupying power.

If this were not bad enough, they added a percentage for themselves. The Gospels always present tax collectors as outsiders, so that ‘tax collector’ and ‘sinner’ effectively means the same thing. One might imagine the audience of the parable waiting to hear how such a person would pray. The surprise of the parable is that it is this person rather than the dedicated religious professional who knows instinctively how to pray properly.

He is not there to overwhelm God with a catalogue of good deeds. His demeanour at prayer speaks of a humble heart: he stands barely inside the area of the temple reserved for prayer, he keeps his eyes down cast, he

strikes his breast as a sign of penitence and pleads for mercy. After his prayer, he returns home ‘at rights with God.’ The Pharisee’s prayer was a failure because he made the fatal mistake of comparing himself with others, and assuming God would not hear the prayer of the tax collector. In other words, he was playing God. Luke rounds off the parable with yet another reference to what has been a favourite theme since Mary first mentioned it in the Magnificat: ‘everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted.’

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REALITY OCTOBER 2016

Today’s Readings Ex 17:8-13, Ps 121, 2 Tim 3:14-4:2; Luke 18:1-18

Today’s Readings Sir 35:12-14,16-19; 2Tim 4:6-8, Luke 18:9-14

THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 8, OCTOBER 2016

SALVATION STARTS TODAY Jericho was the last town before Jerusalem on the road from the Jordan valley. One of the oldest inhabited places on earth, in Jesus’ time it was a prosperous place. Its location in the desert 31ST SUNDAY IN some five hundred feet below sea level spared ORDINARY TIME it the cold damp winters common in Jerusalem, so it was a popular place for those rich enough to afford a holiday home and Zaccheus might be just such a man.

Zaccheus has a drawback money cannot overcome. He is short, and that prevents him from seeing Jesus as he makes his way through the crowd. The sight of Zaccheus hoisting himself into the tree, regardless of his expensive clothes, would probably have drawn laughter from the crowd. One might suspect too a smile crossed the face of Jesus, as he looked up into the tree and invited himself to stay with the tax-collector. Zaccheus clambers down and welcomes him as warmly as Martha did (Luke 10:38).

Jesus’ decision to accept Zaccheus’ hospitality is met with objections: ‘everyone who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of a sinner." Like the woman who gate-crashed the Pharisee’s dinner party to anoint the feet of Jesus, Zaccheus has undergone an instant conversion in the time it took him to clamber down from his tree. He proclaims that he is going to give half his property to the poor and pay back four times over anyone he has cheated. The Law specified that, in some cases, four-fold restitution was required but the teachers had interpreted it more leniently so that double restitution at most was required, or more frequently, just the original amount with a token supplement. In his enthusiasm, Zaccheus is committing himself to the most stringent requirement.

One small word in this story puts it into Luke’s larger vision of salvation. That word is ‘today’. ‘Today’ Jesus must stay with Zaccheus, and ‘salvation has come to his house today.’ Luke uses the word today at key points in his Gospel. The angels announced to the shepherds that ‘today’ a saviour had been born for them (Luke 2:11). In his first sermon, Jesus announced that Isaiah’s prophecy was being fulfilled (4:21) ‘today’. He reassures the repentant thief beside him on the cross that he would be with him in paradise ‘today’. You do not have to wait for salvation: it begins now, this very day. Jesus’ final words that the Son of Man has come to seek out and save the lost recall all the other parables of the lost – the lost sheep and the Good Shepherd, the woman and her lost coin, the father and his lost son.

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SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 6 ACROSS: Across: 1. Ararat, 5. Simian, 10. Incisor, 11. Nigeria, 12. Alps, 13. Masai, 15. Rhea, 17.

Nod, 19. Assisi, 21. Alumni, 22. Andorra, 23. Vulcan, 25. Kimono, 28. God, 30. Limb, 31. Bones, 32.

Even, 35. Scalpel, 36. Endorse, 37. Latent, 38. Temper.

DOWN: 2. Recipes, 3. Rusk, 4. Tarzan, 5. Sinbad, 6. Magi, 7. Abraham, 8. Pinata, 9. Wasabi, 14.

Solomon, 16. Isaac, 18. Claim, 20. Inn, 21. Ark, 23. Valise, 24. Lambada, 26. Obverse, 27. Ounces, 28. Goblet, 29. Defect, 33. Apse, 34. Adam.

Winner of Crossword No. 6 Helen Murphy, Shanvaghera, Knock, Co.Mayo

ACROSS 1. Imaginary belt in the sky that includes the paths of the planets. (6) 5. A system of ideas intended to explain something. (6) 10. Florence Nightingale's war. (7) 11. Stone which enabled the translation of hieroglyphics. (7) 12. Hang around the bread. (4) 13. An original apostle. (5) 15. Either of two equal parts. (4) 17. The surface of the ground, with the grass growing on it. (3) 19. Relating to the backbone. (6) 21. A small pointed beard. (6) 22. Knights of the Crusades. (7) 23. The art of growing dwarfed trees. (6) 25. A wrapped bundle. (6) 28. Not bright or seen clearly. (3) 30. The most populous continent. (4) 31. Roman god with two faces. (5) 32. Measuring a relatively great distance. (4) 35. Striking phrases used in advertising. (7) 36. Process of wearing away over time. (7) 37. Hotel Bible. (6) 38. Advise or train a younger colleague. (6)

DOWN 2. Art of folding paper into decorative shapes. (7) 3. A thought or suggestion about what to do. (4) 4. Official head count. (6) 5. A long thin fibre used in sewing. (6) 6. Where the sun rises. (4) 7. Withdraw a statement as untrue or unjustified. (7) 8. Long and narrow boats. (6) 9. Totally bewilder or perplex. (6) 14. Marine mammal. (7) 16. The angel who rebelled against God. (5) 18. Skeletal deposits which form reefs. (5) 20. A Polynesian garland of flowers. (3) 21. A break between two objects. (3) 23. Fry food lightly and then stew it slowly. (6) 24. The capital of Kenya. (7) 26. A spicy Spanish pork sausage. (7) 27. A story handed down by tradition. (6) 28. A small purple-black plum-like fruit. (6) 29. Building for historical items. (6) 33. A fine open fabric, for a shoe perhaps. (4) 34. The only apostle to die of natural causes.

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Entry Form for Crossword No.8, October 2016 Name:

Today’s Readings

Address: Telephone:

Wis 11:22-12:2; Ps 144; 2Thess 1:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10 All entries must reach us by October 31, 2016 One €35 prize is offered for the first correct solutions opened. The Editor’s decision on all matters concerning this competition will be final. Do not include correspondence on any other subject with your entry which should be addressed to: Reality Crossword No. 8, Redemptorist Communications, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin 09 X651

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