Living In A Fool’s Paradise
Vincent Travers OP
To imagine that I am the centre, never be satisfied. One of the
of the world, that life is about ‘me’ first, ‘me’ only, ‘me’ always, and that nobody else is the grand illusion. If I am a fan of ‘me’, I am deluding myself. The excessive preoccupation with love of me is one of the pervading mindsets of our time. The narcisstic personality has fallen in love with himself. The only person he cares about is himself. He is sorry whenever he is not number one in the pecking order.
Vanity
Ego is self-indulgence. Ego, can character in T.S. Eliot’s play, The Cocktail Party, claims that ‘Half the harm done in this world is due to people who want to feel important’. On the other hand, life is liberating when we get beyond importance, credit, praise, and self-indulgence.
Parable!
There was a spoiled brat whose world began and ended with self. One day, he decided to go on a hunger strike. His mother was frantic, so she took him to a psychiatrist. The doctor, one of the world’s foremost experts in behavioural sciences, attempted with every conceivable device to coax him to eat. It was in vain. Totally exasperated, he asked, ‘Boy, what would you like to eat?’
“Worms”, yelled the boy.
The doctor had no intention of being upstaged by a smart Alec, so he sent his nurse to the worm farm. Before you could blink an eye, she returned with a huge plateful of the biggest, freshest, and wriggliest worms you ever saw.
‘Now, sonny boy, ‘ smiled the niece, my comfort, and my shrink, ‘eat the worms.’
‘But they aren’t cooked.’ The nurse took the worms immediately to a French restaurant, whose specialty was gourmet worms, and returned with a special treat of Worms Provençal’. But the boy turned up his nose up at the sight of them. ‘I don’t want a plateful, I just want one.’
The doctor grabbed the plate, scraped off all but one worm, and hissed, ‘Boy, eat the worm.’
‘You eat half,” said the little creep.’ And that’s what the doctor did. Next, he put the fork into the other half, held it under the boy’s nose, and in a threatening voice demanded, ‘Eat it.’
The boy burst into tears. The shrink look at him, stupefied, ‘Now, what’s the problem?’
‘You ate my half, ‘ shrieked the boy.
‘I’ Specialist
The story would be funny if there were not a tragic twist to it. The meaning of the parable becomes clearer when we substitute ‘ego’ for ‘worm. How easy it is to become the ‘I’ specialist when the only person I care about is myself. How easy it is to become self-absorbed to the point where we allow our little world to shrink to the size of a worm. When ‘ego’ is dominant, when nothing or nobody matters but my convenience, my comfort, and my agenda. Sacred Scripture speaks about ‘becoming a worm and no man.’
Born Self-Centred
Observe a frustrated baby who doesn’t get his own way. Often his tiny fists clench, his face becomes red and eventually purple, his eyes screw up, his legs kick, and when he has sufficient breath, he lets out a bellow of rage which rises in pitch. Granted, this is a form of self-protection, but it would be hard to paint a more accurate picture of egotistical human nature in action. We grow old, but we don’t grow up. Self-centredness is more obvious in children because they lack an adult’s sophisticated ability to mask and disguise it.
Ego is the Archenemy of the Good
The me, my, and mine philosophy of life ends in a cul-de-sac. Inevitably, the charmed life I sought turns sour, or empty, when I’m no longer the star attraction, when my expensive toys lie broken, when my body grows old, soft, and flabby, my hair falls out, my arteries harden, and my best efforts to look after number one leave me unsatisfied because, I’m tired of living for self, and long for something bigger than self. What happens when I discover, to my dismay, that I am not indispensable?
It is sobering to walk around a cemetery late in the evening, when the sun is setting, and no one is there to bother me. I look around, and to my dismay, I discover the cemetery is full of indispensable people.
Real World
An exaggerated sense of individualism destroys much of what is good and beautiful in life. Marriages and friendships die when ‘I’ believe I am the indispensable one. The real world is not about ‘me’, it’s about you. Society is not wired up for this kind of thinking.
Full of Self?
But something is happening in our world that we are not going to read about in the papers or hear about on television. It is one of the hopeful signs of our times. It is one of the reasons I am so glad to be alive today. It has to do with what is occurring to the notion of ‘self’. Psychologists, philosophers, sociologists, spiritual writers of different traditions, and ordinary decent people in all walks of life are seeing the destructive consequences of selfishness, greed, and individualism. The ‘me’ attitude wreaks misery, breaks hearts, lives, homes, and relationships. The best of life is not about ‘me’; it’s about ‘you’. It is putting others first.
Eric Fromm, the renowned psychologist, noted that ‘most people have never lived’. David Henry Thoreau, the poet, has the marvellous line where he says, ‘Oh, to reach the point of death and realize one has not lived at all’.
Unawareness is the root of all, or pretty close to all, our problems. Unawareness robs us of the richness of life. No less a man than the great Greek Philosopher Socrates wrote that “the unexamined life is not worth living.”
Jesus urges us in St. Matthew’s gospel, chapter 24, to ‘stay awake’. Staying awake for Jesus is life in the real world. They can’t all be wrong!
Question Box
Question 1. How did St. Therese become known as the “Little Flower”?
Answer:
St. Therese loved nature and often used the imagery of nature to explain how the Divine Presence is everywhere. Therese saw herself as “the Little Flower of Jesus” because she was just like the simple wild flowers in forests and fields, unnoticed by the greater population, yet growing and giving glory to God. Therese did not see herself as a brilliant rose or an elegant lily, but simply as a small wildflower. Therese saw the world as God’s garden, and each person being a different kind of flower, enhancing the variety and beauty which Jesus delighted in. In her autobiography, she beautifully explains this spirituality:
Jesus set before me the book of nature. I understand how all the flowers God has created are beautiful, how the splendour of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not take away the perfume of the violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy. I understand that if all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her spring-time beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wild flowers. So it is in the world of souls, Jesus’ garden. He has created smaller ones, and those must be content to be daisies or violet,s destined to give joy to God’s glances when He looks down at His feet. Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be.
Question 2. I know some people visit cemeteries during the month of November. I can understand people going to clean up the family grave but if we can pray for our deceased in Church and at home, why go to the cemetery? It seems unnecessary and maybe a little bit morbid to me. I don’t know.
Answer:
Apart from cleaning up the grave, I think a good reason for all of us to go at least once a year is to honour the memory of our deceased relatives and friends. Visiting a cemetery also reminds us of our mortality, that one day we will also go to our graves as a salutary lesson. Perhaps also it may remind us that the life given to us by God should not be wasted, and that we should use our lives for good. Finally, while we do pray for the deceased at mass and at home, a visit to the grave is a more forceful reminder not to forget them and indeed also that we are united with them in the communion of saints. We pray for them and ask them to pray for us.
Question 3. I know we say a Novena for nine consecutive days but is it necessary for the prayers to be said on consecutive days?
Answer: Novenas are an ancient tradition that goes back to the days of the Apostles. Before His Ascension, Jesus told His disciples to pray together after He had gone. So with Mary, the mother of Jesus, they all went to ‘the Upper Room’ and joined constantly in prayer for nine days. At the conclusion of the nine days, the Holy Spirit descended on each of them individually as tongues of fire. (Acts 2:1-4). This is the basis for the Novenas we say today. It is an imitation of the nine-day prayer of the Apostles as they awaited the coming down of the Holy Spirit.
To fulfil the Novena, you need to pray the Novena prayers for nine consecutive days. In the Gospels, Jesus tells us to pray without ceasing…to be persistent in our prayers, and a novena is persistent prayer. The persistence of the followers of Christ and His mother to wait for the promise ended in fulfillment. The Holy Spirit descended on them. Our persistence in praying for nine consecutive days will also be rewarded by the Lord. Should the person praying the Novena miss a day for some acceptable reason, then I think that saying the prescribed prayers twice on the following day would serve to obtain the particular graces of the Novena.
History Of Halloween
As I write this article, children are excitedly going from door to door dressed as ghouls, skeletons, witches, and many other scary creatures. It’s Halloween, and the trick-or-treaters are out. To us, it’s a time for ourselves and our children to dress up in fancy dress, have a party, and enjoy ourselves, but as I answered my door to a particularly scary group of children, I began to wonder where this all started.
In countries such as Ireland, Canada, and the United States, adults and children alike revel in this popular Halloween holiday, which, I discovered, derived from ancient festivals and religious rituals.
Samhain
Straddling the line between autumn and winter, Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic festival called Samhain (pronounced sow-in); traditionally celebrated from 31 October to 1 November, as the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. To commemorate the event, Druids (Celtic religious leaders) built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to make sacrifices to the Celtic deities.
In Celtic Ireland about 2,000 years ago, Samhain marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. It was a crucial time of year, loaded with symbolic significance for the pre-Christian Irish. They believed that on the night before their New Year, October 31, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead was at its thinnest, allowing the dead to return to earth. On this night, people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. It was the night that the spirits of family ancestors were honoured and invited home. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road, and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.
But the world of the dead was peopled not only by the spirits of the departed. They believed the lord of the underworld also walked the earth, and a host of gods, ghosts, fairies,and other creatures of uncertain nature travelled with him. Otherworldly creatures were believed to be everywhere and may or may not have been harmful to the living; so villagers disguised themselves as ghosts, demons, and other malevolent creatures to protect themselves from harm.
All Hallows Eve – Halloween
By 43 AD, the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honour Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
By the seventh century, the influence of Christianity had begun to spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually supplanted the older Celtic rites. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III incorporated the honouring of the dead into the Christian calendar, designating November 1 as All Saints Day; and in 1000 AD, the church also designated November 2 as All Souls Day. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils to ward off harmful spirits. The All Saints Day celebration was also called All hallows, and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.
Celebrations in England resembled Celtic commemorations of Samhain, complete with bonfires and masquerades. Poor people would visit the houses of wealthier families and receive pastries called soul cakes in exchange for a promise to pray for the souls of the homeowners’ dead relatives. The practice was later taken up by children, who would go from door to door asking for gifts such as food, money, and ale.
In Scotland and Ireland, young people took part in a tradition called guising, dressing up in costume and accepting offerings from various households. Rather than pledging to pray for the dead, they would sing a song, recite a poem, tell a joke or perform another sort of “trick” before collecting their treat, which typically consisted of fruit, nuts or coins.
Halloween in America
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland’s potato famine of 1846, helped to popularise the celebration of Halloween nationally. In the late 1800s, the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups meshed, and a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money.
The practice of decorating “jack-o’-lanterns,” the name comes from an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack, originated in Ireland, where large turnips and potatoes served as an early canvas. Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, home of the pumpkin, and it became an integral part of Halloween festivities. Carved pumpkins peered out from porches and doorsteps in the United States and other parts of the world. Gourd-like orange fruits inscribed with ghoulish faces and illuminated by candles, a sure sign of the Halloween season.
At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. These celebrations included “play parties,” public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbours would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance, and sing.
Over time, Halloween evolved into a secular, community-based event characterised by child-friendly activities with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. In Ireland, England, the United States, and other countries, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating, going from house to house in search of sweets, chocolate, and other goodies, has been revived, with families preventing tricks being played on them by providing the neighbourhood children with small treats.
Which brings me back to where I started, with giggly little ghosts, witches, skeletons and many other scary creatures knocking at my door demanding, “Trick Or Treat!”
Canon Sheehan: Clergyman And Celebrated Author
Helen Morgan
He was a household name in the 19th and early 20th centuries, one of Ireland’s most prolific writers in his day, and a much-loved spiritual leader. Canon Patrick Sheehan was a man of many talents. A novelist, a playwright, a poet, and a short-story writer, his works, so prominent in Irish homes in the past, are seldom read today. Their subject matter of poverty, religion, and the Land Wars has long since lost its appeal.
Patrick Augustine Sheehan was born into a comfortable Catholic family in Mallow on St. Patrick’s Day, 1852. One of the 5 children of Patrick Sheehan and his wife Johana, he grew up at a time of great poverty and political upheaval. Sheehan received his basic education at the Long Room National School in Mallow. At the age of 11, tragedy struck when both of Sheehan’s parents died within seven months of each other. The 4 surviving children were left under the guardianship of their Parish Priest, Rev John McCarthy. In 1866, Sheehan was sent to St Coleman’s College in Fermoy, which was a seminary as well as a boarding school. In August 1869, Sheehan entered St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, to study for the priesthood. A diligent and commit- ted student, the intense study affected his health, forcing him to spend time in the College infirmary. The deaths of his two older sisters, both nuns, within a short time of each other, devastated the young seminarian. His health, which was never robust, declined, forcing him to return temporarily to his home in Mallow.
A year later, Sheehan returned to Maynooth, where he completed his studies. On the 18th April 1875, he was ordained in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Cork, and assigned to the English mission.
First worked in England for two years
Fr. Sheehan began his priestly duties on the Cathedral staff at Plymouth in Devon. At the time, Plymouth was a noisy port town with much drunkenness and wantonness in its rougher areas. For a young man straight out of the seminary, it must have been a huge challenge. Nonetheless, Patrick worked hard and was full of hope and zeal. Three months later, Fr. Sheehan was transferred to Exeter, filling in for Canon Hobson for a year. One of his duties was to minister to the inmates of Dartmoor Prison. During this time, he established a reputation as a formidable preacher that was to remain with him throughout his life.
In 1877, Dr. McCarthy, his former guardian who was now the Bishop of Cloyne, recalled the young priest to take up a post as junior curate in his home town of Mallow. While there, Fr. Sheehan formed a literary society which was aimed primarily at the Catholic youth. In 1881, he was moved to Cobh, then a British naval base through which thousands of Irish emigrants passed on their way to America.
Seeds of his writing career sown in Cobh
It was in Cobh that the seeds of Fr. Sheehan’s writing career were sown. From time to time he wrote articles for the local newspapers, drawing attention to the plight of the poor and needy. At the age of 36, Fr. Sheehan was transferred back to Mallow as senior curate. His writing output increased as he set about spreading the Christian message through his short stories, articles, and novels.
In 1895, Fr. Sheehan completed the manuscript of his first novel entitled Geoffrey Austin, Student. The same year, he was promoted to Parish Priest of Doneraile. His novel My New Curate, published in 1899, put him on the road to literary success both at home and abroad. His other works include The Triumph of Failure (1889), Glenanaar (1905), The Queen’s Fillet (1911), Miriam Lucas (1912), The Blindness of Dr. Gray (1912), and The Graves of Kilmorna, which was published posthumously. He also wrote children’s stories.
In 1904, Fr. Sheehan was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity by the Pope, and the same year was promoted to Canon. By then, his reputation as a writer was well established. In 1909, he was offered a bishopric, which he turned down. Shortly after, he was diagnosed with cancer.
On the 5th October 1913, Canon Patrick Sheehan, priest and celebrated author, died in Doneraile among his friends and parishioners. He was buried in his native Mallow.
“Life Everlasting”
“Think of the love that the father has lavished on us by letting us be called God’s children; and that is what we are….My dear people, we are already the children of God, but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed. We shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is.”
1Jn 3:1-2
The story goes that once upon a time, twins were conceived in the womb. Weeks and months passed, and the twins developed. As their awareness grew, they laughed for joy. “Isn’t it great that we were conceived? Isn’t it great that we are alive?” Together they explored their world. When they found their mother’s cord that gave them life, they thought, “How great a mother’s love that she shares her own life with us.” As the months passed, they noticed how much they were changing.
“What does it mean?” one asked. “It means that our stay in this world is coming to an end,” said the other.
“But I don’t want to go anywhere, I want to stay here always. It’s warm and safe and secure.” “We’ve no choice,” said the other, “we have to go.” “Maybe there is no life after birth, we will shed our chord, and how will life be possible without it?”
“Have you seen our Mother? Maybe she only lives in our minds? Maybe we only made her up because she makes us feel good?”
But the other protested, “Of course there is a mother. Who else gave us nourishment? Who else created the world for us?”
And so the last days were filled with a lot of questions and fears, and finally the moment of birth arrived.
When the twins had passed from their world, they were born into light. They coughed out fluid and gasped for the dry air. They opened their eyes and cried for what they saw was beyond their fondest dreams: what they saw was the beautiful face of their mother, as they were cradled lovingly in her arms. They were home.
Death, we trust, is but another birth canal. Through the first we entered into this world, and through the second we enter into the next. And just as the first passage was an experience of pain and trauma that ushered us into our earthly life, in a similar way, death is a frightening tunnel through which we must pass in order to enter into our heavenly life.
God’s Saving Love
Our hope is in God’s love. Our trust is in the power of that love which gave us life, in the first instance, in our mother’s womb; that same love that has raised us up again and again through the storms and troubles of life; and that same love, we dare to believe, will one day raise us up beyond death to a deeper and fuller life “where we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is.” God’s love, we trust, is stronger than death, greater than death. And His love will have the last word on human life. I remember well on that cold and crisp January morning, shortly after my father had breathed his last, the sight of a tiny snowdrop raising its delicate head above the hard winter earth nurtured hope in our hearts, as it bravely heralded the final victory of God’s love. Death may look like the end, it may feel like the end, but for the person of faith in Jesus Christ, the only end is the “Father’s love” or be it the “Mother’s love”. For the person of faith, as for the baby in the womb, death is the process of being born into everlasting life, a coming home to the warm, nurturing, and loving arms of our heavenly parent.
As for “the twins in the womb,” our hope, too, is in our love for one another, what we live here in this earthly life in love: compassion, care, mercy, patience, and generosity of heart will form part of our happiness in the next. We believe that such love is eternal; that such love is immortal because it is already a sharing in the life of God. There is a power in deep human love that cannot die: “God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him. Love will come to its perfection in us when we can face the day of judgement without fear. “1Jn 4:16-17. When our loved ones depart from us, they leave with empty hands(no material pos- possessions!), but not with empty hearts. Within them, they carry “the riches of love”. They have lived in this life, and this love, we trust, comes to its full flowering in the next, in everlasting life.
A Communion of Love
It is true to say that we are never as close to our loved ones, who have gone before us, than we are in the celebration of the Eucharist. In Holy Communion, we receive the love of Jesus Christ, whose love we have come to know and experience, to taste and to touch, in the hands and hearts of our departed loved ones. Through him, with him and in him, they come to nourish us once more, and to make their home in us.
The Message of the Grave.
Yes, the grave of a loved one will always be a sacred place of prayer and remembrance as it contains “the remains” of someone dear to us, but, in faith, we trust that “the person” whom we have known and loved is not there – our faith is that he/she is now with God and with us in a new way. Trusting in the mercy and love of God, we go to visit their graves so that we might hear again the words of the angel spoken to the women on that first Easter morning: “Why do you look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; He is risen. Lk24: 5
General Henry Ireton And Terence Albert O’brien, Op, Bishop Of Emly
Homici Tenry Ireton, Parliamentary. The official and son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell was buried amid great pomp and splendour in the Lady Chapel, Westminster Abbey, in February 1652. His epitaph reads:
Having dispatched the enemy, their camps being destroyed and their cities having surrendered, and almost the whole of Ireland having been subjected, he was elevated from earthly to heavenly heights, amidst general lamentations, at the summons from those above, and attended by angels… In eternal memory of this most noble hero.’
A Death Sentence And A Death Foretold
In Limerick city, where he died of fever on 26 November 1651, it is fair to say that his death evoked little by way of lamentation. The surrender of the city to the forces of General Ireton following a prolonged siege was followed by the trial and execution of a number of prominent Limerick citizens, including the saintly Dominican bishop of Emly, Terence Albert O’Brien. Before his death, Bishop O’Brien accused Ireton of the injustice of the sentence that had been visited upon him and summoned the general to answer for his actions before God’s judge- ment seat. It is said that in his final death throes, Henry Ireton was haunted by his condemnation of the bishop of Emly.
A Limerick Dominican Life
Terence O’Brien was born in 1601 near Cappamore, County Limerick, into a landowning Old Irish family with a large estate of some 2,000 acres. He entered the Dominican novitiate in Limerick in 1621. After completing his studies at Toledo in Spain, he was ordained in 1627 on the four hundredth anniversary of the foundation of Limerick’s St Saviour’s priory, possibly by Bishop Richard Arthur. On two separate occasions, he served as prior of the Limerick community and was also prior of the Dominicans in Lorrha, County Tipperary. In 1643, he was elected Irish provincial, and it was in that capacity that he attended the general chapter of the Dominican congregation held in Rome in May 1644. He presented to the chapter a list of friars martyred in Ireland, including Fr Peter Higgins, who had been executed in March 1642 in the wake of the 1641 Rebellion. Within ten years, O’Brien’s name would also be listed in the order’s martyrologies and venerated as a martyr the length and breadth of Europe by the sons and daughters of St Dominic. He was appointed coadjutor bishop of his native diocese of Emly in March 1647 and consecrated bishop by the papal nuncio, Archbishop Rinuccini, on 2 April 1648 in Waterford.
Like Lightning Through The Land
Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland in August 1649 and in the words of Bishop French of Ferns, ‘Cromwell came over and like a lightning passed through the land’. After Cromwell’s departure for England in May 1650, Ireton succeeded him as commander of Parliamentary forces in Ireland. General Ireton, however, did not arrive at the gates of Limerick guered defenders were forced to surrender on 27 October.
Symbol: a Visible Sign
When Parliamentary soldiers entered the city on 29 October, Bishop Terence Albert was arrested in the plague house while attending the sick and the dying. That same day, he was tried and sentenced to death by hanging. He was executed on 30 October 1651. Other members of the citizenry executed alongside the bishop included the mayor, Thomas Strich, a former mayor, Dominic Fanning, and Geoffrey Barron, the nephew of Franciscan Luke Wadding. After his death ,O’Brien’s body was singled out for special indignity: it was beaten by the soldiery until it was no longer recognizably human. The Dominican historian, Augustine Valkenburg, suggests that as a fair and a bishop, Terence Albert was ‘a special symbol of the popery so hated by Ireton and his soldiers’. Ireton did not long rest in death’s sleep in Westminster’s Lady Chapel. There followed a grisly twist that recalls Galatians 6, in the King James Version (1611): ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap’. Following the Restoration of the monarchy and by order of parliament, Henry Ireton’s body – along with that of his father-in-law Oliver Cromwell – was exhumed and hanged from Tyburn gallows on 30 January 1661.
A Child’s Eyes
Beatified by John Paul II in 1992, the martyred bishop of Emly is memorialized in a chapel erected in St Saviour’s, Limerick in 1982. Witness to the horror of the holy man in chains, eyes wild, a small child stares from one of the stained glass panels in the chapel. The scenes depict the life and death of O’Brien and the story of his people in the centuries that have since come to pass: our great struggles and small victories, concluding with the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979. But it is this child, in particular, that holds our gaze. She is a vessel of all our hopes and fears carried into a future that is increasingly uncertain. We invoke the intercession of Terence Albert O’Brien, Bishop of Emly and citizen of Limerick’s citadel, for our children and theirs and the generations to come.
The Garden This Month
Deirdre Anglim
Purple osteospermum still flowers at the gate. It has spread through the bed over the summer months. Pyracantha has an abundance of berries for hungry birds. Cotoneaster is thriving nearby. Winter jasmine was almost smothered by John’s wort and wild grasses earlier this year. The delicate green shoots are now covered with tiny buds which will open in a few weeks time. The Fuchsia bush outside the kitchen door is laden with purple/red “earrings”.
Autumn leaves are everywhere. Aren’t the colours wonderful?
Do wrap up BEFORE you head out to the garden. Put on a hat, coat/jacket, gardening gloves, and shoes/boots. You need protection on cold days.
Have you bought tulip bulbs yet? Buy from a reputable source, your garden centre or local nursery. Choose quality bulbs. This is the month to put them into the ground. Mix compost into the soil as you prepare it. They like well-drained soil. Use the trowel to dig deep, at least 6 inches down. Space each bulb approximately 6 inches apart, too. Plant the bulbs in groups; they look much better than ina single file. Double white tulips are magnificent. Add forget-me-nots and daffodils between the tulips. Imagine how glorious your spring garden will be!
Fill winter hanging baskets with a mix of trailing ivies, pansies, violas, double daisies, and primroses. When they are established, you can gift them to someone who is moving to a new home. Don’t forget to add a label with the names of plants and care instructions.
This year, I intend to add wallflowers and sweet william to my main flower bed. Montbretia has been in situ for years, and it’s time for a change. Foxgloves are very easy to grow; they are not fussy about where you put them. They self-seed every year. I’m optimistic that I will have a ribbon of colour in a few years time.
Martin De Porres
Jordan O’Brien OP
The city of Lima, where Saint even if they have grown up in a city.
loved, has much in common with a modern city such as Vienna, Berlin, or any large town with a population of 5,000 or more. Such places have an anonymity that does not help when it comes to supporting one another as the Christian faith demands. Martin was the connection that held the multicultural community of Lima together. He crossed the barriers that divided groups. With no radio, newspaper or modern means of communication Martin fulfilled an essential role in connecting people Negro and Indian, noble Spaniard and lowly soldier. Martin de Porres was the axle for the many spokes of his community. He held a unique place in the city, as testified by witnesses giving their account of Martin de Porres shortly after his death.
On a recent visit to Ireland, Cardinal Schonbörn spelled out the situation that is part of the modern city isolation and loneliness. While the majority enjoy city life and the urban atmosphere, there are many who find themselves at a loss to a community and to neighbours, both for physical and mental health. It cannot be left to govern- ment services alone, because there is a dimension of life we must take responsibility for, namely, the pastoral dimension stemming from our faith by which we are in personal contact with others.
Christoph Schonbörn is the arch- bishop of Vienna, and his pastoral care of the people is second to none. He recognizes the urban situation and encourages Christians to respond out of love to relatives and neighbours and address the loneliness that is part of city life. The causes of loneliness often begin with separation, divorce, and family breakup, as well as widowhood and neglect of children, the cardinal reminded his audience in Limerick. His reflections were a commentary on Pope Francis’ recent letter on the Family.
Saint Martin likewise knew the pastoral needs that Cardinal Schonbörn spoke about. In Lima, Martin had a keen eye for people and went out of his way to talk to the abandoned slave, the failed immigrant, the discharged soldier, or the widow rearing her children without sufficient means. He put himself in the middle of these and other situations. He had no resources but somehow managed to support those on the margins of society. Martin had a great pastoral understanding of the needs of people, which came from hearing the Gospel or Good News of Jesus. Add to that his constant prayer for those whose stories he heard on a daily basis. Martin could only draw close to people when he prayed and understood the empathy of Jesus for the sinner, the widow, the mentally ill, and those overcome by sickness or disease the Gospel story.
The challenge we face today as followers of Jesus is to re-evaluate the society, urban or rural, in which we live. We are all shaken by the complexity of our world, yet we need to be caring of others not professionally, but as followers of the man from Nazareth. We need to be disciples in the original sense of the word, those sitting at the feet of the Master, to learn the power of compassion and change it into empathy. Compassion is to suffer with others, while empathy identifies another’s needs, sits with them, talks to them, and listens attentively.
The stories told of Martin de Porres put the stress on empathy: the mother to whom he gave the change from the messages he was sent to buy by his mother; The man he found dying in the street and car- ried to his own bed to look after; Befriending John Macias who immigrated to the New World from Spain to seek his fortune but found himself alone and disillusioned. Martin took an interest in his plight to such an extent that John Macias became not only his trusted friend, but in time, a Dominican brother and now a fellow saint.
On the day of his canonization by Pope John XXIII, Martin de Porres was declared the patron of social justice. Social justice is, first and foremost, serving the community and bringing people into contact with one another.
Garage Mass
Flannan Hynes OP
Irish Dominican priest working in Uruguay
Our parish here in the outskirts of Montevideo, Uruguay, is very extensive. As well as the parish church, we have 8 chapels in different sections of the parish. Most of the chapels are a good distance from the parish church. There is no bus service in many of the poorer areas. The parish is divided into sections and, as far as possible, each section has its own chapel.
Each chapel is cared for by a Basic Church Community. The priest accompanies each community and goes, once each month, to celebrate Mass. Preparation for Baptism is held in the chapel, so that when neighbours want to know the dates, they go to the community. Three years of catechism classes are held for First Holy Communion. The chapels are used for other activities. One such activity present in many chapels is classes of support for the children who are having learning difficulties in school.
In the area furthest from the parish church, we have not got a chapel but rather the use of a family garage. The community was founded in 1995 and has kept going ever since. The neighbours have a real affection for their chapel garage. Their grown-up sons and daughters were baptized there. Some made their First Holy Communion there.
When possible, the community organizes a ‘Living Crib’ that is a representation of the Nativity Story before Christmas time. With permission from the city council, a part of the street is closed. As many children as possible are included. Great ingenuity is used to make up the costumes. Between scenes from the Nativity Story, local musicians perform. Parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, all turn up to see the children. Neighbours turn up for the music.
It must be remembered that Uruguay is far from being a Catholic country. In fact, it has been a secularist state for over 100 years. All religion and all religious symbols were pushed out of public life. For over 100 years, any mention of God has been forbidden in all State primary and secondary schools. A large proportion of the population is proud to call themselves atheists. Many people watching the ‘Living Crib’ would have no idea of the Nativity Story. People are not hostile to religion, just totally indifferent. Religion, or belief in God, has no part in their lives.
Catholics a small minority
Catholics are a small minority in this sea of indifference. Unlike most countries in Latin America, which have a strong Catholic character, in Uruguay, the Catholic Church is totally separated from the State. The Church in Uruguay must be the poorest in Latin America and is also the freest from State interference. For over 100 year,s the Church has learned to continue its mission in this secularist society. Always going against the current of society, yet keeping to its mission of bringing the Good News to all. The Church lives in a pluralist, democratic, secularist society and must be conscious of that fact. In that society, the Church is called to proclaim, with fidelity and joy, the good news of the Gospel and all that is implied in that mission. There is no way in which the Church can impose its voice, but it asks that its voice be heard and respected in this pluralist society. What can happen is that any and every voice is heard except the voice of religion.
During the past 100 years, the Church has served society in many ways. The good of society has always been the aim of the Church. The Church has always worked for the poor and needy, the sick, the homeless, those suffering from addictions, and in general for all those left in the margins of society.
On the first Saturday of each month, we celebrate Mass in the garage, which serves as the chapel for the community, ‘Glory to God’. The number of people attending Mass has always been low in Uruguay, and in recent years it has become lower still. A small group gathered around the table in a semicircle. A Mass without hymn singing is unthinkable. Any defects in the singing are made up by enthusiasm. The homily is shared by all. Not all contributions are to the point, but all are respected. The Prayers of the Faithful cover many topics: nothing is left unsaid. Many prayers are for the intentions of the neighbourhood: the sick, the lonely, those without work, marriage problems, sons and daughters on drugs. It can happen that the flow of prayers is interrupted when someone prays for María, who is in the hospital, and another person replies: ‘I did not know that María was in the hospital’, so the matter has to be cleared up before proceeding with the prayers. Praying for the deceased is very important to the community. The Mass is truly a family celebration.
Ireland’s North Atlantic Voyagers
Bill McStay
A series of TG4 (Irish Television Channel) programmes earlier this year featured a unique method of travelling from Ireland to the world famous pilgrimage centre of Santiago de Compostella in Northern Spain. It told how four Irishmen were rowing in a currach, in stages, by way of Wales, Cornwall and France, sticking as close as possible to the coasts of these lands. They appeared to enjoy each other’s company, and even the hard graft of hours on the oars, punctuated by rest stops at ports along the way. A point of interest was that their light, keelless boat, which I would have called a currach, of the kind seen in films about the Aran Islands, was described as Naomhog Gobnait, with naomhog being apparently the Kerry word for a currach.
Historians of Ireland’s past describe Irish voyages to Britain and its offshore islands, and as far as the Faeroe Isles of the North Atlantic, and continental Europe.
The sailors’ choice of craft was the currach, described as having its ribs, sides, and keel fashioned of light timber or wickerwork, with a hull covering of ox hide tanned with oak bark, and joints tarred with pitch. There were three or four oars, and a sail hoisted to a mast stepped amidships. Such was the buoyancy of these frail-looking craft that they were said to be virtually unsinkable, their crew’s marvellous skill enabling the boat to ride the ocean breakers, and even remain afloat when half filled with seawater.
At the dawn of history, to all Europe’s inhabitants the great ocean to the west marked the limits of the known world, for since the prevailing winds were mainly westerly, it is no surprise that the prehistoric peoples of the continent never ventured far enough west to reach the most distant Atlantic islands until the Middle Ages. But by the fourth or fifth century, they were pushing into the Northern
Seas, for we learn that Saint Patrick was taken for slavery from his homeland somewhere in Britain by Irish raiders; that in the early Christian era Saint Columba founded his monastery on the Scottish island of Iona; and that in these same years Irish missionaries visited the European mainland, pushing as far into the continent as Switzer land and the plains of Lombardy.
St. Brendan (of Ardfert and Clonfert)
It is known also that Irish monks introduced sheep to the Faeroe Island, and thaat one outstanding Irish missionary, Saint Brendan of clonfert(the Navigator), Voyaged to the Hebrides and beyond in the early sixth century, for his name crops up in place name on Scottish islands like Barra, Mull and Islay. From early Irish literature there are accounts of Brendan’s crew seeing a mountain belching fire, suggesting they ventured as far north as Iceland.
Through we do not know the precise methods of navigation used by these early sailors, we can understand how, where at all possible, they would have stayed close to land, where prominent physical features like headlands, mountain peaks, rivers, and inlets could be recognised from previous journeys. But sailing across miles of open sea would have been a different matter say to the Faeroe Islands, Iceland and even Shetland, for the mariner’s magnetic compass was not invented till the 14th century It is known also that Irish monks, so what enabled the voyagers to introduce sheep to the Faeroe plot their passage? It seems that Islands, and that one outstanding they depended largely on the heav Irish missionary, Saint Brendan of enly bodies as their guiding lights, Clonfert (the Navigator), voyaged like the sun’s position on a clear to the Hebrides and beyond in the day, and of the Pole Star and other early sixth century, for his name known stars in the hours of dark- crops up in place-names on Scottish ness. Reading about these daring islands like Barra, Mull, and Islay. voyagers of centuries ago, con- From early Irish literature there are quering the Northern Seas in accounts of Brendan’s crew seeing what seems to us their flimsy a mountain belching fire, suggest craft, and facing storm and isolaing they ventured as far north as tion in the immensity of Iceland. ocean, we can only react with Though we do not know the prewonder and admiration.
Saint Martin Replies
Hants U.K. I promised to write my thanks for publication in the St. Martin Magazine. Since last July when my husband was diagnosed with High Grade Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, we have said the rosary every day, St. Martin’s, Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Knock, and Divine Mercy Novenas. The word cancer scared the life out of us, but my husband kept positive all the time-with all our prayers, we felt everything would be alright. He is due for his second monthly check-up next week. He is eating and sleeping well and looks well, so we feel sure that everything will be O.K. So we say thank you to Our Lord, Our Lady, and St. Martin.
Derry I wish to express my sincere gratitude to St Martin for helping me get a place in university. I promised publication and am now fulfilling that promise. Thank you, St Martin, I am eternally grateful and will be forever indebted to you.
Clare: I want to thank St Martin for interceding on my behalf. I had a malignant tumour and prayed that the chemotherapy would work. I recently got good news. I am so glad. Thanks once more for your great help, and it was a miracle from St Martin, St Pio, Our Lady, and the Sacred Heart.
Waterford: I am writing to thank dear St Martin very much for having asked the Sacred Heart of Jesus to cure a little animal. I also thank our Blessed Lady for interceding for me. I say a little prayer to St Martin every day.
Dublin: I promised Thanksgiving to St Martin, Our Lady, and St Pio if an infection in my leg was healed. They never let me down. There are numerous other favours I could mention. I will never stop praying to St Martin.
Derry: Please publish my thanks to St Martin, Our Lady, and St Peregrine for many favours granted over the years. Most recently for lung cancer surgery, and also a safe operation for my son’s heart problems. I have often promised to give thanks, and I still pray for good results for my follow-up
Swansea: I am writing to thank St Martin for the many favours he
has granted me over the years, from helping friends recover from cancer to my family, who have had a very difficult time of late. I have prayed to St Martin for over 40 years, and he always answers my prayers.
Gloucester: We would like to say thank you to St Martin for his help when our son got into a spot of trouble. The outcome was better than we expected, and he has come back to his hometown to start afresh. We hope with your continued help he will be able to find a place to live, get a job, set- tle down and be happy. Thank you once agai,n St Martin.
Belfast: With a grateful heart, I wish to thank St Martin, St Dominic, and Our Lady for interceding with the Sacred Heart throughout my life on my behalf. I am now 91 years old. I was blessed with 12 healthy children (2 sets of twins), and my eldest child was named Martin. I have had so many prayers answered in relation to employment, exams, healthy births of grandchildren, and much more. I suffered a stroke in January of this year and am now in a Nursing Home, but am recovering quite well, praise God! My children pray with me daily to St Martin on their visits. A grateful Mother, Grandmother, and Great Grandmother.
Lancaster: I want to thank St. Martin for the healing of my little cat, who at one point looked as though she might have a very serious bowel condition (possibly cancer). She is now recovering, but has a way to go yet. However, I know St Martin will continue to look out for her.
Anon: I want to thank St Martin, Our Blessed Lady, and St John Paul. I experienced severe depression and found it difficult to motivate myself to do anything. Simple tasks that I could normally do without effort became a chore, and I found it difficult to get out of bed and face the day ahead. My concentration was terrible, which began to impact my working life. I prayed for help, but I began to lose faith in my prayers as there was no improvement in the situation for several months. I was even losing faith in the power of prayer when, out of the blue one day recently, everything changed. I find I am now full of energy in the morning, and I have been complimented on my performance in work. Life is wonderful again, thanks to St Martin. Don’t ever give up hope and con- tinue to pray when things look bleak.