Praying For The World- The World Praying For Us Part 2

Praying For The World- The World Praying For Us Part 2

Vincent Travers OP

Three men my brother and two brother-in-laws meet weekly, ritually, on Thursday, in a pub to do a variety of different things. A number of things happen when men and women gather in homes, golf clubs, bridge clubs, or wherever they celebrate friendship, enjoy each other’s company, talk about family and friends, solve the problems of the world, let off steam and engage in the kind of stuff men and women yak and gossip about when they get together. This is a lovely, informal way, to sustain one another in our respective lifestyles, in times of crisis, when we share retirement concerns, or whatever it is, as we seek to redefine and reshape the next chapter of our lives. It’s ritual whether we realize it or not.

Ritual in all Shapes and Sizes

Talbot House, based in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, is a long term residential centre for men of different ages, nationality, and religion, who seek recovery from addiction, substance and alcohol abuse. It is located in the middle of a forest on parish grounds in a truly delightful setting except when the wind is howling and the freezing temperatures are minus 25 or worse.

This is where I am ministering pastorally at this time. Whenever I can, I participate in all aspects of the recovery programme, except individual and group sessions. I have all the privileges without the responsibility. I am often asked what aspect of recovery, drugs or alcohol, am I addressing. I tell them I am a recovering sinner!!!

Spiritual and temporal recovery needs are covered and catered for in a carefully organized and enlightened programme. For example, grace before meals is an important part of the ritual. If someone is missing, someone finds him. We wait until all have gathered, then and only then, is grace before meals said. The grace is simple and meaningful: “For food in a world where many walk in hunger. For faith in a world where many walk in fear. For friends in a world where many walk alone. We give you thanks Lord our God.” The prayer ends with a resounding ‘Amen’. Places are taken at the eight tables. Each table group, in turn, go to the kitchen to serve themselves the prepared meal. It’s ritual pure and simple!

Importance of Ritual

Ritual plays a huge part in everyday life. There is a solemnity and seriousness about ritual when we gather for funerals, weddings, graduations, standing for the national anthem, the playing of the last post to honour the dead who died in the service of their country. Less serious, when we take our place in the queue in the supermarket to pay the cashier for groceries. Life is full of meaningful ritual. Ritual is life giving. By and large it works, but sometimes it is not simple and straightforward. It doesn’t meet our needs. We are going through the motions. It is tiresome, boring because of repetition and sameness. However, we demean ritual at our peril. Ritual fulfils a deep human need in society and in Church.

Eucharist is the highest form of ritual. Eucharist is ritual that has sustained religious practice for over two thousand years. The more we enter into its mystery, its magnitude and depth, the more we grasp how indescribable God is. Eucharist goes beyond us, beyond language, imagination, feeling. We can know God, but we can never understand God.

Justice

We live in a world where there is so much inequality. The weak and vulnerable struggle, in an often, uncaring and corrupt world. Fewer and fewer speak up for the “little guy”. Justice is at the heart of Eucharist. We do not grasp easily the justice dimension of Eucharist. Justice and Eucharist are inseparable. Eucharist calls us to act justly, love tenderly, and to reach out to the poor and needy. The invitation to justice is non-negotiable. The validity of our Eucharistic worship will be judged by how it affects “widows, orphans and strangers”, the last, the lost and least.

Unity in Diversity

There are no special places at mass. We gather before God equal in dignity and status. Eucharist does away with the distinction between rich and poor, servant and master. Rich man, poor man, beggar man and thief take their places in the pew of their choice. We kneel side by side. We line up in single file for Holy Communion. Mary, prophesied all of this in her Magnificat: “He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises up the lowly” (Luke 1: 39-56). This was the very thing that attracted Dorothy Day, a modern apostle of the forgotten and neglected. She observed no special places at the Table of the Lord. To see the distinction as a reality, to behold the gap between rich and poor levelled out – this understanding of the Eucharist spoke deeply to her sense of justice. Mass concludes with a call to justice: “Go forth and announce the gospel of the Lord”. Become the one we have received. Become Eucharist to the world.

Eucharist Sacrifice is Togetherness

When Jesus gave us the Eucharist at the Last Supper, he intended it to be a powerful ritual that brings us together. Amazingly, Church is one of the few places where, on a day to day basis, we witness the lived truth that we are related related to God and to one another. Travel the world. Attend mass in any village or city. We are treated as family. The sign of peace before Holy Communion is offered publicly to the world in the person beside us. Whoever that person is, he or she is our neighbour. Our neighbour is ‘everybody’. Jesus was neighbour to all. He was born in a barn, worked in a carpenter’s shop, lived in a humble abode, socialised with neighbours and friends, spent his last day and night on earth in a prison dungeon, died for all humankind. He was that kind of neighbour.

Questions And Answers

Question 1. Why do we offer mass for the dead?… A friend of mine died and had many masses offered for him. How do we know they helped him get to Heaven?

Answer:

Thank you for your question. The practice of offering the holy Mass for the repose of the soul of the deceased originated in the early church. The catechism teaches, “From the beginning the church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God” (No. 1032).

The Vatican Council II affirmed: “This sacred council accepts loyally the venerable faith of our ancestors in the living communion which exists between us and our brothers and sisters who are in the glory of heaven or who are yet being purified after their death.”. Therefore, just as we pray for each other and share each other’s burdens now, the faithful on earth can offer prayers and sacrifices to help the departed souls undergoing purification.

The testimony of many of the church fathers also supports this belief: For example, St. Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386), in one of his many catechetical discourses, explained how at Mass both the living and dead are remembered, and how the eucharistic sacrifice of Our Lord is of benefit to sinners, living and dead; and St. Ambrose (d. 397) preached, “We have loved them during life; let us not abandon them in death, until we have conducted them by our prayers into the house of the Lord.”

We always should remember our own dearly departed loved ones in the holy Mass and through our own prayers and sacrifices help them gain their eternal rest in Heaven.

Question 2. Our society is getting more and more permissive and more secular. God and Christian values are pushed to one side, if they are not altogether ignored. My wife and I practice our faith as best we can but the temptation to go along with the tide to become more secular in outlook – is always strong and almost overpowering I am afraid for ourselves and for our faith…..

Answer: Thanks for your letter Chris. As you see I just gave a few essential points of your letter. St. Paul had the same problem as you spell out in your letter. He had Christian converts in Corinth a great centre of arts and commerce but it also had a reputation as a notorious centre of immorality. The letter of Paul to the new christians of Corinth helps us to understand how we should behave in a society where Christianity and the following of Christ is an exception to the way that society in general behaves. St. Paul in his letter to the Christians at Corinth tells them they are doing well and the reason they are keeping the faith is their union with Jesus Christ. The lesson for us is that if we are to keep our faith and provide a witness for others, as we are Chris, Tyne and Wear called to do, we must go to Christ , live in Christ and through our prayer and the practice of charity let Christ live in us. We must daily put aside some time for Christ and invite him into our lives and from him we will get the strength to be true witnesses to him and to his teachings in the world in which we live today. We must pray. A person without prayer is like a tree without roots’said Pope Pius XII.

The Industral Revolution

Steam

Although the textile was the first manufacturing process that is thought to have started the Industrial Revolution; it was the invention of steam powered engines that became its driving force. Before this, the main sources of power were first, human muscle power or draft animals, and later wind and water power. Windmills and water wheels were adequate for slow, repetitive jobs such as grinding corn, but were not at all satisfactory on certain jobs such as pumping water from a deep flooding mine shaft. This was a significant industrial challenge that miners faced during the 1700s. In fact, it was the very deepness of English mines that spurred engineers to search for pumps that were quicker than the old water driven ones.

By the mid-sixteenth century, work on air pumps had established the notion of a piston working in a cylinder. However in 1680, the French physicist Denis Papin experimented with putting some water at the bottom of a tube with a piston just ahead of it, and heating the water to convert it to steam. He discovered that the expanding steam forcibly pushed the piston forward then returned it to its previous position when cooled. Although Papin was well aware he had created some sort of engine that could eventually do the work, he was deterred by the very real mechanical difficulties of his time. Instead he chose to work on a smaller scale and eventually invented the world’s first pressure cooker. The search for a more effective water pump had to go on.

The First Industrial Steam Engines

It was left to English military engineer, Thomas Savery to invent what most regard as the first practical steam engine the “Miner’s Friend”. Unlike Papin’s system, this had no piston since Savery wanted only to draw water from the coal mines deep below the surface using steam to produce a vacuum in a vessel. It was this vacuum that was employed to produce an adequate amount of energy to pump water out from the mines. This turned out to be a temporary solution as the energy could draw out water from the depth of only a few meters. Also the pressure was too much for the boilers and there were several explosions as the boilers were not strong enough.

In 1712, Thomas Newcomen, an English engineer and partner of Savery, invented a more effective and practical steam engine. He improved the steam pump by reintroducing the piston. His machine was called a “beam engine” because it had a huge rocking-arm or see-saw beam at its top whose motion transferred power from the engine’s single cylinder to the water pump. Besides being called a beam engine, Newcomen’s engine was also called an atmospheric engine since it used air pressure to move the piston down. It was fairly easy to build and came into general use in England around 1725. It remained in use for more than 50 years. However Newcomen’s engine used a lot of energy to run effectively as the cylinder was required to be heated as well a cooled every time. This wasted much of the energy it generated.

The most important improvement in steam engine design however was brought about by the Scottish engineer James Watt. Watt was an instrument maker and In 1763 was asked to repair the model Newcomen engine used for demonstrations. Watt discovered that the engine would run much smoother if condensation of the steam took place in a chamber separate from the cylinder. He was able to build a more effective steam engine that worked at nearly twice the efficiency of the best Newcomen type engine. This highly innovative device marked the early beginnings of automation since Watt had created a system that was essentially self-regulating. Watt also devised a pressure gauge that he added to his engine.

In 1776, the first Watt engine was put to work in a coal mine. However, by 1790, Watt had invented new improved steam engines which offered a powerful, reliable power source that could be located almost anywhere.. Eventually, the Watt steam engine was widely used for running textile machinery, pumping water from mines and marshes, grinding grain, and other types of work. More than anything, it was Watt’s steam engine that speeded up the Industrial Revolution both in England and the rest of the world.

High-pressure engines

Watt’s steam engine was not perfect however, and did have one major limitation; it used steam at low pressure. High pressure steam meant greater power from smaller engines, but it also meant extreme danger since explosions of poorly made boilers were common. The first to show any real success with it was the English inventor Richard Trevithick. By the end of the eighteenth century, metallurgical techniques were improving and Trevithick believed he could build a system that would handle steam under high pressure. In 1797 Trevithick constructed high- pressure working models of both stationary and locomotive engines that were so successful that he built a full-scale, high-pressure engine for hoisting ore. By 1803, Trevithick had built a powerful, high-pressure engine that he used to power a carriage which he drove through the streets of London. In 1804 he constructed the world’s first steam railway locomotive at Samuel Homfray’s Penydaren Ironworks in South Wales. That engine won a wager for Homfray by hauling a load of 10 tons of iron and 70 men along 10 miles of tramway. A second, similar locomotive was built at Gateshead in 1805, and in 1808 Trevithick demonstrated a third, the Catch-me-who-can, which ran round and round a circular track at 12mph on open ground in London where Euston Square is now. Rides were offered to courageous bystanders at a shilling a head until a rail broke and the machine fell over. He then abandoned these projects, because the cast-iron rails proved too brittle for the weight of his engines.

Trevithick was always so bursting with new ideas that he failed to carry his projects’ patents through and turned eagerly away to fresh challenges. His technical innovations were truly remarkable, but high-pressure engines had earned such a bad reputation in England that twenty years would pass before English inventor George Stephenson would prove their worth with his own locomotives.

In 1880, an Anglo-Irish engineer, Charles A. Parsons, came up with the first steam turbine; and by the late nineteenth century, the steam engine was being widely used to power trains, automobiles, ships and electric generators.

The steam engine was the major power source of the Industrial Revolution and dominated industry and transportation for 150 years. However, the developers of the early steam engines and steam railways would never have been so successful without parallel developments taking place in the iron industry. Without the iron masters’ expertise in creating new methods of iron casting and working iron, it would have been impossible to have produced steam power in the first place. Their story I will save for next month.

Tell Me About Jesus”

Sr. Marian Moran

Never had I seen a figure of such abject loneliness and dejection. He stood at the edge of the path in Henry Street, with a suitcase beside him, looking absolutely desolate, staring into space.

He wasn’t begging, so I hesitated to offer him money. Instead I asked if he’d like a cup of tea. Over tea and buns, I learned that his name was James and he had recently returned from Canada, knowing he was very ill. At one stage, the woollen cap he was wearing shifted revealing a dread ful sight. In place of his ear was a mass of infected tissue. He told me he had contracted cancer working in the mines in Canada. All he had for pain relief was paracetamol. After further chat, he agreed to come with me to my wonderful G.P. Dr. Brian Daly, who seeing James’s condition had him admitted to Beaumont Hospital immediately. There they made him as comfortable as possible until he was transferred to the Hospice in Harold’s Cross. It was Holy Week. My friend Mary Marren had begun visiting him daily as well.

Once he knew he was dying he told us a little more about himself. He said his name was John, not James. He’d hidden his name because he said everything had been taken from him but he was determined his name would not be taken. He told me he had things on his mind he would like to get sorted.” Well. John” I told him, “I don’t know what religion you are but in our religion we have a sacrament of reconciliation and you can talk to a priest about any problem and it can never be repeated to anyone ever.” “I want that” he said. “Can you get me this priest?” The Sister who was looking after him got a priest from Mount Argus and John got along famously with him. Father told me John was at peace and ready to go. I said I’d no idea what religion John was and Father replied: “It doesn’t matter what religion he is. If I was as close to God as that man is, I’d be very happy.”

Upsetting Examples Of His Hard Life

John had been brought up in a children’s home in Wicklow. He gave me some upsetting examples of the hard life he had there. Eventually he qualified as a mechanic and emigrated to Canada. On route, he visited his mother who was married and living in England. He sent her his first week’s wages. To his great sadness she returned it to him and told him not to write again.

On his way back to Ireland to die, he visited her again, and God help him, she closed the door in his face. It was heart breaking for him. He wrote to her from Dublin and put no address on the letter so she could not return it to him. It was so very sad.

John only lived 10 days in the Hospice. It was Easter and he saw the daffodils and new growth with great joy. He liked to be brought to the Oratory and sit in peace. So often he said: “Oh I would like to be in Heaven and see those gates opening and my mother walking in.” “And you will John”, I would assure him. Over and over he would say “Tell me about Jesus. Will He be happy to see me?” “Happy to see you” I would say. “He will be waiting for you with open arms.” “Here you are John” He’ll say, “my John who shared my passion with me.” He’d smile his little lopsided smile and like a child he would say: “Tell me again.”

He had a friend in America who looked after his small pension. I asked her to send what remained as John was dying. A colleague, John O’Carroll with Mary Marren ran a pub quiz to make up the deficit. John’s wife Ula, a Polish artist obtained a beautiful granite headstone for the grave in Dean’s Grange. We put a simple notice in the papers … John Hubert Born 12 November 1966 – Died 10th April 1988.

The Bible Lectio Divina

Brendan Clifford OP

When You Were Being Made

O Lord, you have searched me and know me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret.

Psalm 139

When did you begin to be made? When did you begin to be you? The answer to both questions must surely be: at conception. The sperm and the egg came together and formed a new entity. Its make-up was complete. Nothing else was added to it from the outside to change it into something else or into someone else. So there you were!

In the present debate leading up to the referendum on the Eighth Amendment both sides hold values that come from the Christian faith: compassion for people who suffer and are vulnerable, and the right to choose freely what is right and good. The huge disagreement is about the question: what is conceived in the womb? When does it become a human being with a right to life? As a result, there is disagreement on what is a right and good choice in this matter.

I have been greatly surprised at the number of people in prominent positions, including medical experts, who favour abortion on demand for the first twelve weeks of a pregnancy. Can people who believe in the right to life from conception to natural death, still hold confidently to this conviction and talk about it freely to other people?

Modern science supports them. Modern science and technology make it possible to see a baby coming to be within the womb. After five weeks ultra sound can detect the heartbeat. By nine weeks limbs, fingers, mouth, nose and eyes have formed. The tiny but unmistakeable body of a baby is there. By ten weeks the baby can make bodily movements.

Science then, based on what can be seen and measured is our first witness. It backs up what God’s word says in the prayer of the psalmist: you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret. Our Christian faith, based on the Scriptures firmly asserts the right to life of the child in the womb.

Mother and child

People in the present debate who focus attention on the baby in the womb are often accused of not caring about the mother. As a single man and one who is not a parent, I have no experience of what it is like for a woman who faces a crisis pregnancy. Yet all of us can have some sense of how deeply distressed and frightened a pregnant woman may be when she is completely unprepared and feels unable to cope, or if she learns that her baby has a life limiting illness or a disability.

The challenge to our society, and to us as members of that soci- ety, is to show compassion for the mother and for her child, not putting the welfare of the one against the other, but enabling both to live and flourish as far as this is possible. We cannot stand in judgment on women who have abortions; we know that they and we need the same mercy of God.

This historic moment

As citizens of our country at this present historic moment, we will do a service to the young people of today and to future generations if we talk about the referendum with family, friends and neighbours, listening attentively to their points of view, and respectfully and confidently defending the right to life of the child in the womb.

From Pope Francis’ Prayer for all Creation

You are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures. You embrace with your tenderness all that exists. Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we may protect life and beauty. Fill us with peace, that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one. Amen

Valuing Family

Mary Hunt

For those of us lucky enough to be born into a loving family it is something. we can take for granted. Our families are our first teachers and the first place we learn that we are loved. A child also learns security in a family. Most of us know the feeling of security given to us by our parents. We felt safe knowing Mam and Dad were there when we came in from school or cut our knee or had a bad day. The first four years of life are so important in the formation of the personality and a strong foundation in a family setting cannot be replaced. As the saying goes, “There is no substitute for a happy childhood.”

If we really think about it being surrounded by family will be important throughout life, first of all as we become parents and take on that responsibility, and later when grandchildren enter the picture and we grow in love as a consequence. Family will almost always provide us with the sense of belonging, love and security we need as human beings. Time spent with family is precious and celebrations such as weddings or birthdays are a time when family members gather together. We can even support each other on sad occasions too, which may be even more important. It is worth putting in the effort to keep in touch with family when they are far away or with extended family, as there can be many shared memories and experiences which make us feel in touch with our past and connected in the present.

Of course family life is full of ups and downs as we struggle to get along together and some will have negative experiences. I’m not denying this reality. Also for some without a loving family base life can be lonely. We should welcome others to share in our family life when they might not be as fortunate as us. For those of us who are lucky however it is important that we value, even treasure our families and make the effort to keep unity within our family. May God bless all families!

How Rome Fell

When Then Edward Gibbon had published the second volume of his monumental history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire he presented it to the Duke of Gloucester. The Duke received him kindly and remarked: “Another damn’d thick square book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh? Mr Gibbon?” Gibbon’s own view of his achievement is summed up in his statement: “I have described the triumphs of Barbarism and of Religion.” Gibbon was born on April 27, 1737. In a famous passage he has recorded how the idea of writing his history first occurred to him: “It was at Rome on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing Vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started in my mind.”

Making what was called the Grand Tour was a usual part of the education of young eighteenth century English gentlemen. Gibbon had arrived in Italy in the Spring of 1764 and he reached Rome in the Autumn. He has described the impression that it made on him. He wrote “almost in a dream… Whatever ideas books may have given us fall infinitely short of the picture of its ruins. I am convinced there never existed such a nation and I hope for the happiness of mankind there never will again.” He was then twenty seven years of age.

Twenty three years work

Eleven years after his visit to Rome Gibbon published the first volume of the “Decline and Fall”. He completed the sixth and final volume in June 1787. It had taken twenty three years from the time the idea of writing the history had first occurred to him and the publication of the final volume.

The completion of so daunting a task gave rise at first to a feeling of elation but it quickly gave way to sense of melancholy. In his Memoirs Gibbon wrote: “It was on the day or rather the night, of 27th of June 1787, between the hours of 11 and 12, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summerhouse in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a covered walk of Acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all Nature was silent.

I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken my everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion that whatever might be the future of my history the life of the historian must be short and precarious.”

Once a Catholic

Gibbon had been living at Lausanne in Switzerland for the six years prior to laying down his pen.

It was there that he wrote the last three volumes of his history. Before that he had been living in London. His fame as an historian had already been established by the publication of the first volume in 1775.

Three editions were rapidly sold out and Gibbon instantly achieved an international reputation. The next two volumes were published in 1781. The age of the Enlightenment was characterised by a complacent scepticism of all supernatural religion. Gibbon was probably reflecting his own attitude to religion when he wrote: “In modern times latent and even involuntary scepticism adheres to the most pious dispositions. The admission of supernatural truth is much less an active consent than a cold and passive acquiescence.” Surprisingly, however, considering his background and education Gibbon had experienced a brief period of religious fervour in his youth and had converted to Catholicism. This was at a time when what was called Popery was outlawed in England and dismissed in polite society as an outdated form of bigotry. Much later in his life Gibbon recalled this incident. He wrote: “Youth is sincere and impetuous . . . a momentary glow of enthusiasm had raised me above all temporal considerations.”

Wasted Years at Oxford

Gibbon was sixteen years of age and a student at Oxford when he converted to Catholicism. Incidentally, he poured scorn on the professors and tutors of the University from whom, he claimed, that he learned nothing. He was already a voracious reader and his reading led him to doubt the Faith in which he had nominally been reared. He became interested in Catholicism and a bookseller in London recommended him to a Catholic priest attached to the chapel of the Sardinian Embassy. Being attached to an Embassy the Sardinian chapel had diplomatic immunity from the penal laws. There was an Irish Dominican, Father Patrick Brullaghan, attached to the embassy chapel at this time and it may very well have been he who instructed Gibbon. At all events he was received into the Catholic Church on June 8, 1753. The result was Gibbon’s expulsion from the University and his exile to Lausanne in Switzerland where his father placed him in the charge of a Calvinist minister. After nearly eighteen months of debate and discussion Gibbon reverted to Protestantism.

He wrote home: “I am now a good Protestant… I have in all my letters taken notice of the different movements of my mind, entirely Catholic when I came to Lausanne, wavering a long time between two systems, and at last fixed for the Protestant.”

Barbarism at the door

The mature Gibbon wrote the Decline and Fall from the perspective of the age of Enlightenment. His judgments reflect the supreme self-confidence and the rationalism of the age in which it was written. He is a master of the narrative prose style of the period and his work gives it a classical expression. We know a great deal more than he did about the history of Rome and of what he so dismissively describes as “Barbarism and Religion.” Presumably in his judgement the description would have applied to the Golden Age of Celtic Christianity as it is to the whole history of Byzantium. It is a defensible judgement that Gibbon himself was helping to sow the seeds of a new barbarism of which the Guillotine was potent symbol. It was already doing its bloody work in the year 1794 when he died.

The Garden This Month

Deirdre Anglim

Easter is here! Lime green euphorbia is magnificent in the front garden. I uprooted a large section of the plant earlier in the year. Cherry blossom tree flowered at the end of March last year. Here’s hoping it has flowered where you are this month. The blossom lifts my heart. Even though I know that in a few short weeks high winds will blow the pink ‘snow’ all over the lawn.

Pink aubrietia thrives in its pot, while the purple variety continues to bloom under the laurel bush. My plan to introduce both into the crevices of my granite wall did not happen last year. Every season brings challenges, doesn’t it? I’m hoping to include yellow and white alyssum with semper vivum when the opportunity comes.

Forget-me-not surrounds the sandpit. Purple osteospermum has spread itself along the beds. Daffodils are still in bloom in the front garden, a joy to behold. I’ll dead head them when they have finished flowering but will leave the foliage to die back naturally.

Wrap up well before you venture out. April days can be treacherous so check the weather forecast beforehand. Decide which jobs you really need to do. Pace yourself. Keep weeding between your vegetables. Kneel down! Protect your back and your knees. Take a break and have a cup of your favourite brew. Do a little and often, it is much better than exhausting yourself.

Oxalis is everywhere in my garden. Pale pink clematis has climbed the wall and is heading towards the nearby hedge. It is well supported by canes. I’m happy to let it meander where it will.

Forsythia is beautiful but needs to be cut back once it finishes flowering. I will try sowing some of the cuttings around the back garden. Some will certainly root. I’m already looking forward to even more yellow splendour. Dad did this every year. His garden was full of colour as a result.

Red kalanchoe has flowered for months in the porch. My granddaughter gifted it to me. She checks it every visit!

Check your houseplants for red spider mite. Do this regularly. Spray both tops and undersides of the leaves. Get rid of dead/ deceased leaves. Don’t overwater!

Ask young relatives/grandchildren to help with big jobs like mowing the lawn, hard pruning the fuchsia/berberis bushes. They love to be part of your life in the garden. Make memories. Happy Easter!

Life Is Very Good

“God saw all that he had made and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

If I think carefully about it, it actually seems like a very strange thing to say that ‘I am pro life.’ After all, shouldn’t everyone be pro-life? Is there really anyone out there who thinks that life is a bad thing? Don’t most of us enjoy nature programmes such as ‘The Blue Planet’ precisely because they give us a wonderful glimpse of the beauty, abundance and amazing variety of life on our unique, fascinating planet? We can all agree, then, that life is good, and indeed, very good.

From a Christian point of view, of course, life is a gift, a very special gift from a loving and compassionate God who deliberately chooses to create this particular life and takes pleasure in creating it. Naturally, God loves what He creates: “For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made, for you would not have made anything if you had hated it” (Wisdom 11:24). When God creates this individual human life, this soul and this body, nothing like it has ever existed before, or ever will again. In God’s eyes, this life is beautiful, it is precious – more precious than the rarest jewel in the world: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (Jer.1:5); “You are precious in my eyes, you are honoured, and I love you” (Isaiah 43:4).

‘Do we value human life?’

At this moment in Irish society, we as individuals and as a nation are at a very crucial time in our history. The Eighth Amendment of our Constitution acknowledges the right to life of the unborn.’ We are now being asked to vote to keep this right or to take it away. In effect, we are being asked; ‘Do we value human life?’ Is every human life unique, precious or even sacred? Should it be protected from its natural beginning to its natural end? Are there some stages within that time when we should be allowed to end that life? Should some human beings be allowed to develop fully and to live while others who are deemed less valuable, or inconvenient, or in some way sick, disabled or deficient, be per- mitted to be destroyed? Does one human being have the right to decide whether another human being, young or old, lives or dies?

To be honest, I am personally surprised that any society that supposedly cherishes equality, liberty, and human autonomy would even ask such questions. From a young age, the answer has always been, not only obvious to me, but instinctive. As soon as I heard of the very notion of abortion at the age of eleven or twelve, I found it repulsive and wondered how anyone could possibly justify it. Young children are always excited when they hear that their mammy is expecting a baby and wonder what their new baby brother or sister will be like when they are born.

So how has it come to pass that this most basic of human instincts the desire to protect life, and this most basic of human rights – the right to life are now up for discussion? The only plausible answer to this question must be that not all the members of our society agree on when human life begins and therefore not all believe that abortion involves killing an innocent human. This is undoubtedly a complex issue and opinions vary drastically depending on one’s religious beliefs, one’s scientific knowledge of human development in the womb, and one’s own life experience and particular circumstances. These are some of the questions we will be addressing in next month’s issue as we continue our reflection on the goodness of life.

Ame And The Women Behind The Wire

This has nothing to do with patriotism but to me anyway it is unrecognised heroism. The wire referred to in the title is not the sort that cages prisoners but for some if not all women it represents a prison of sorts.

First, I have to go back over three years to October 2001 when my wife Anne was diagnosed with breast cancer. As we staggered out of the hospital we contemplated the diagnosis and the prognosis. The surgeon was confident of a successful outcome as the disease had been caught reasonably early. A tumour was removed a short time later and then “just a little bit more to be sure”. When it was nearly time for Anne to go home the bombshell was dropped in my absence – I had returned home from my daily visit when she was told that the whole breast would have to be removed. I returned to the hospital as Anne had rung me devastated. As it turned out she was not to leave hospital for eight weeks. I was living in dread although I never stopped praying.

I would repeat prayerful Quotes from the Bible

Over the weeks I had taken to bouts of crying at different times such as when doing menial things like shaving or doing the washing up. I had developed a habit in times of stress previously of writing down helpful phrases taken from the Bible or elsewhere. I would repeat these to myself when I needed to give myself a life. There is nothing new in this but it does work except in this particular case nothing seemed to raise my hopes for Anne. I was coming to the belief that I would lose her and even visualised myself at the funeral mass saying a few words in tribute. Yes, I wanted to pay her the tribute she richly deserved but what would I say? And how would I explain my own inadequacies during our life together, worse still was I just feeling sorry for myself? Self-pity is sometimes one of the sad ingredients of grief.

I was in one of those tearful moods in the middle of shaving one morning. As I dried my eyes and face a beam of sunlight warmed my cheek through the bathroom window and at the same time the following phrase sprang to mind “In the day when I cried you answered me Lord and delivered me from all my fears”. I decided there and then that the Lord would heal Anne. I had absolutely no doubt about it. The funeral oration would not be necessary.

God decided you had suffered enough

While I am sure the Lord lifted me up that morning, I found in time that I was being presumptuous of what His will was. What I envisaged was not to be, for three years down the line Anne you are no longer with me. God in His wisdom decided you had suffered enough and on October 10th 2004 on Sunday evening at a quarter to nine he took you to His kingdom. At the time this wisdom was not apparent to me but He was not finished with me and was to make contact with me in what I thought then was an unusual way but on reflection I now know it was to be one of His best ways through others. I was seated at Anne’s hospital bed on one of the days leading up to her death. Anne was sleeping as was a fellow patient Barbara, in the bed opposite. All was quiet but I was not so, for I was now aware of the final outcome. I felt let down by God, had He taken a holiday I asked myself? Suddenly, a voice from behind me said “You know only our faith keeps us going”. Barbara had woken up and immediately it was as if I could see Christ stretched out before me on the bed where Anne lay and I knew that He was not absent but was there suffering again with Anne.

Yes, at the funeral mass I did say a few words for Anne. I recalled her suffering yet her generous giving of herself. I said that even though I considered myself a prayerful person, my prayers could never match her basic Christianity.

O Domhnaill Abu

Bill McStay

Bill McStay writes about a great Ulster churchman

On 22 October 1927 the bells of the Church of Ireland and Catholic Cathedrals in Armagh tolled together, following the death of the Catholic Primate Cardinal Patrick O’Donnell. Though Primate for less than three years, he had won the esteem, even affection of all those he had encountered, whatever their political or religious views. He had eg. as Cardinal formed a cordial relationship with Lord Londonderry, Minister of Education in the new political entity of Northern Ireland, solving with him the vexed question of the training of male Catholic teachers.

Born in 1855 to a farming family near Glenties, Donegal, Patrick showed brilliance at school and university, and immediately upon ordination as a priest in June 1880, was appointed to a professorship in Maynooth College. Eight years later, he became the world’s youngest bishop, and was consecrated Bishop of Raphoe by another Donegal man, Michael Logue, his predecessor in Raphoe and now Cardinal Primate.

A Giant among Churchmen

A man of imposing physique, a keen walker and swimmer (noted also for his atrocious handwriting!), O’Donnell brought energy and determination to his role. He took on the immense challenge of financing the building of St. Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny, plus schools and parish houses across his scattered diocese, covering the major part of Donegal. He was an ardent promoter of the Irish language, and the Temperance movement, taking stern action against the distilling and selling of poteen throughout his diocese.

Interested all his life in politics, Patrick O’Donnell advocated the road of debate and reasoning, deploring the misguided path of violence. He was sad at the partition of the country, but recognising its reality argued for the safeguarding of minorities in both North and South. A strong supporter of universal education, he served on the governing body of the National University of Ireland, and was awarded an honorary degree.

Among the many accomplisments of this giant among Irish churchmen, his work in tackling poverty and economic deprivation during his years as Bishop of Raphoe ranks supreme. From a small farming background himself, he took a keen interest in the plight of the rural dweller. So when in 1890 Arthur Balfour, Chief Secretary of Ireland, invited the young Bishop to serve on the new Congested Districts Board, O’Donnell accepted immediately, and remained a CDB stalwart until its dissolution in 1923. The CDB played a big part in transforming Irish society in its thirty years existence. It was the very first community development agency in Europe, concentrating on nine of Ireland’s most deprived counties including Donegal.

It was said that CDB had a finger in every pie. It tackled improve- ments in rural housing; employment, health and educational projects. It encouraged with grants cottage industries like lace-making, knitting and carpet weaving. It set up cooperative societies and assisted the development of fishing. A spirit of determination drove its efforts, encouraged by members like O’Donnell, who exhorted his priests to lend their talents to this great enterprise, by serving eg. on the new parish committees. The involvement of ministers of religion, both Catholic and Protestant, was praised by Hugh Law, MP for West Donegal, whilst the Civil Servant who was Secretary to the CDB observed of Bishop O’Donnell that “it was impossible to overrate his positive contribution to the Board.”

When Patrick O’Donnell, newly appointed Archbishop of Armagh in 1924, returned from Rome in December 1925 after receiving a cardinal’s hat, Ireland’s pride and satisfaction was evident. He was welcomed in Dublin by President WT Cosgrave, and on his way north by groups like the Gaelic League and the Royal Ulster Rifles. When the new Cardinal attended the Chicago Eucharistic Congress in 1926, he was enthusiastically received by Irish-Americans, proud of this modest Donegal man who brought such credit to their race.

O’Donnell’s episcopal motto was In hoc signo vinces (by this sign (the Cross) you shall conquer). In the judgment of his countrymen, and of people of good will everywhere, by his persistent efforts to bring dignity and hope to those in need, he had truly fought the good fight, and had conquered indeed.

Saint Martin Replies

• Kildare: I want to thank St. Martin, Our Mother Mary and everyone I pray to for all the fantastic favours which I received; my son passing all his exams in College; success in employment, health and happiness. Also for my husband being made permanent in his job and so many other favours which were granted. Heartfelt thanks to all, especially the Sacred Heart to whom I pray daily.
• Co. Dublin: I promised publication. My dear Mam survived an emergency, high-risk surgery. I can’t thank you enough. I received your St. Martin relic last month with my subscription renewal. Needless to say it is well worn! My life would be lonely without St. Martin and all my other Saint friends. I am forever grateful and I continue to pray that Mam makes good progress.
• Limerick: Please publish my sincere thanks to St. Martin for many favours granted down through the years. Most recently for returning me to good health for which I am very grateful. Thank you St. Martin and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. You have never failed me.
• Derry: I want to thank St. Martin for the recovery of my daughter’s dog and many other favours he has granted me over the years.
• Staffordshire: Recently I met a young Slovakian couple at my local Church. They were unemployed, ineligible for state benefits and seeking work. Despite numerous applications, they were not offered an interview even for part-time work paid at the minimum wage. I gave them a copy of the St. Martin prayer and I advised them to start the Novena, and I would do likewise. Within four days they were offered job interviews at a local residential Nursing Home. They have now started work there as assistant carers and are happy. Thanks to God and the intervention of St. Martin. My late mother had great devotion to St. Martin and passed that on to her family. We have had numerous favours through his intercession.
• Roscommon: Thanks to St Martin for a very good year with cows calving. Everything went very well also for good health for all the family.
• Galway: I want to thank St Martin on behalf of a friend who had a miraculous escape from drowning. She had been feeding fish when the mishap took place. She was in dire straits but the family dog raised the alarm, barking furiously until help arrived. The incident happened the day before the feast of St. Martin. Her mother- in- law also wants to give thanks. She underwent a successful hip operation, as a result of a serious fall, at the age of eighty nine years. She has been reading the St Martin magazine for over fifty years. God bless you all.
• Birmingham: For many years I have read the St Martin Magazine and have great devotion to my dear friend who has helped me numerous times over the years. A couple of months ago my husband was taken ill. They thought it was a stroke but it turned out to be Encephalitis. After many tests and weeks in hospital he is out and doing quite well. Thank you St Martin, Our Lady and most Sacred Heart of Jesus for many favours received.
• Anon: Just a note of sincere thanks to St Martin, Our Lady and all the Saints to thank them for looking after a little 6 weeks old baby. He was very ill and we prayed and prayed and thank God he is home now and doing well. St Martin is a great Saint please continue to pray to him.
• Anon: I wish to thank Our Lady and St Martin for protecting all the workers on a building site where I was last employed.
• Dublin: I promised thanksgiving for an ulcer on my leg which got better. Thank you Most Sacred Heart, Our Lady and Padre Pio but especially St Martin in whom I put all my trust to intercede on my behalf.
• Meath: My heartfelt thanks to St Martin and the Holy Mother of God, Mary for their help with favours granted, especially with a problematic bowel. I also am so grateful to them for just being there when life presents all sorts of problems. They are always ready to listen, thanks be to God.
• Tyrone: Please publish my long overdue thanks to St Martin for my exam success. I trust St Martin will watch over me as I complete my exams this year and will lead me in the right direction concerning my career in the years to come.