The Messenger | April 2018

MESSENGER THE SACRED HEART

APRIL 2018 I €1.75 / £1.60

GARDENING:

APRIL AWAKENING

BY CIARAN BURKE

HEARING: ARE PEOPLE MUMBLING? I ANN KELLY ST JOSEPH’S CHURCH, TERENURE I CHRISTOPHER MORIARTY MEALS FOR EASTER I MARIE McGUIRK BALLOONS I JOHN LOOBY SJ RE:LINK: MIRACLES & PARABLES

CONTENTS 8 6

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14

10 THE BOOK OF PSALMS

19 HISTORIC CHURCHES

Martin Hogan

Christopher Moriarty

FROM THE EDITOR THE DARK SIDE Donal Neary SJ OF FAITH

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DAILY OFFERING Pope’s Intention

6POPE’S INTENTION

PATHWAYS TO A FAIRER FUTURE Seán Healy

13 POEM

THE PLACE OF RECEIVING Edmond Grace SJ

14 MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTIAN ART

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IN PRAISE OF HOLY SATURDAY John Scally

Cover photograph © Wilson Araujo, Shutterstock

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ANASTASIS or THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST Eileen Kane

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HEARING: ARE PEOPLE MUMBLING? Ann Kelly

ST JOSEPH’S, TERENURE

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RECOMMENDED BOOKS

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SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL Seamus Claffey

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130 YEARS: DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

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RE:LINK

MIRACLES AND PARABLES Faith Quille

27 34

52 47

31

TRUST IN GOD’S TANGIBLE CARE

38 COOKERY

47 IN THE MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS

Marie McGuirk

John Murray

Patricia Higgins

MEALS FOR EASTER

33 GARDENING

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50

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Alan Hilliard

APRIL AWAKENING CROSSWORDS Ciaran Burke

36 THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING LETTERS

37 THANKSGIVING STORY

A KINDNESS I’LL NEVER FORGET Anon

YOUNG READERS’ PAGES

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BLESSED SOLANUS CASEY Michael Duffy

46 REFLECTION

A PLACE IN THE FLOCK Donal Neary SJ

EMILIA AND KAROL WOJTYLA

THE FAMINE AND GROSSE ISLE

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THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE HOSPICE PART 2 John Callanan SJ

55

CALENDAR

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REFLECTION

FROM THE EDITOR

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THE LINEN CLOTHS

We are Jesus’ new risen body. He left, never to come back to the tomb, and was clothed in his risen body.

Not an ordinary body but the body which is the Church! We can put it like that. He likes all the different parts of his body: people of all different colours and ages, people of sin and of sanctity.

Easter is about moving on. The tomb is empty not because the bones of Jesus have dried up but because his focus now is elsewhere.

Someone said to me in our parish ‘I love passing your church. The door is always open.’ Like the door open at the end of Mass. Open to let us out with the message of the risen Lord. Among the most important words of the Mass are ‘Go now and serve the Lord with your lives’.

A Church community with an eye only on heaven lives only half the truth. The Church is called to go to those on the edge: the outsider, the sinner and those nobody wants. St Ignatius is said to have asked each

morning, ‘Who can I help today?’

It’s like the poem, ‘if I can help somebody along the way, then my living will not be in vain’. Jesus would say, ‘my rising has not been in vain’.

So the resurrection is about how we live in this life. It is the mystery of the new life of Jesus which sends us into the world. This is the nature of the church and the clothing of Christ’s followers is well described by St Paul: ‘Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love. And be thankful’ (Col.3).

We are grateful people, clothed in Christ as in the baptismal robe. This gives us the warmth and security we need to be the Body of Christ today.

Donal Neary SJ

Fr Joe Brennan SJ, RIP

Fr Joe Brennan SJ was a faithful and painstaking proof-reader of the Messenger for eight years until his death on 7 January last. With gratitude for his consistent interest in the Messenger and for his work, we commend him to the prayers of our promoters and readers.

Fr Joe was on the staff of Gonzaga College, Dublin, for over 40 years and is remembered there with great affection by generations of staff, parents and pupils. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

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DAILY OFFERING Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER

EVANGELISATION: For those who have responsibility in economic matters That economists may have the courage to reject any economy of exclusion and know how to open new paths.

MORNING PRAYER

Gracious Father, as I begin this day in your holy and marvellous light, grant that I may be open to your Spirit and so be led to do all things in your service. I offer you my thoughts, words, deeds and all that I am for the intentions of Pope Francis for this month (Include intention).

Hail Mary...

NIGHT PRAYER

As the sun sets, I meditate on your activity in my life today. Was I open to your Spirit? Did I follow your path of peace? Stay with me tonight, Lord, and grant me the grace tomorrow to be aware of your constant presence.

Our Father...

THE SACRED HEART MESSENGER incorporating the Pope’s Worldwide Network of Prayer (Apostleship of Prayer).

ADDRESS: Messenger Publications 37 Lower Leeson Street Dublin D02 W938 Ireland Phone: 01 676 7491 or 01 7758524 Email: sales@messenger.ie Website: www.messenger.ie BUSINESS LETTERS TO: THE MANAGER CHEQUES PAYABLE TO: THE SECRETARY EDITOR: Donal Neary SJ LAYOUT: Messenger Publications Design Department NIHIL OBSTAT: Noel Barber SJ, Censor Deputatus IMPRIMI POTEST: † Diarmuid, Archbishop of Dublin PRICES FOR 2018: Price monthly: €1.75/£1.60 Annual subscription 2018 from promoter or newsagent: €21.00/£19.20 Annual subscription by post: Rep of Ireland and NI: €30/£27 Annual subscription to Britain: £30 Annual subscription to EU and ROW: €35/$43 Online subscription: €15.00 Renew at: www.messenger.ie 01 6767491 or 01 7758524 © All rights reserved

POPE’S INTENTION

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SEAN HEALY SMA reflects on Pope Francis’ Intention for this month. Fr Sean is the director of Social Justice Ireland.

PATHWAYS TO A FAIRER FUTURE

Pope’s Intention: That economists may have the courage to reject any economy of exclusion and know how to open new paths.

The resources of our planet were created for the good of all; they were not intended for just a few.

The world in which we live is often characterised as one in which scarcity is the key issue, yet on our planet there is an abundance of what is required to ensure all people can live life with dignity. The problem is not scarcity but that fewer and fewer people in the world now control more and more of its resources.

Oxfam, in a briefing they published in 2017, calculated that eight men own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world’s people. They also noted that in order to maximise returns to their shareholders, big corporations were dodging taxes and driving down wages for their workers. These corporations were also reducing the prices they pay to producers, and investing less in their own businesses.

Income and wealth have not been trickling down, rather they are being sucked up to the better off. Over the past twenty-five years one per cent of the world’s population has gained more income than the bottom fifty per cent put together.

In democratic societies people give the responsibility for decisionmaking to elected politicians who form governments. People expect that the politicians they elect will make decisions that are fair, and that they will move towards building a just society.

One of the major areas in which governments exercise their power is in making decisions about how the goods a country has are to be distributed. That is why the annual budget is so important: it sets out the government’s decisions on how the resources currently available to it are to be distributed. Sometimes the government will cut taxes or provide additional money for services like healthcare and education, or for the building of a road or a school. Most years the budget combines these: cutting taxes, improving services and providing infrastructure.

A simple but effective way of checking if a government is making good decisions is to look at how the weakest in the society are treated.

Are they being left behind? A society should be measured by how it treats its most vulnerable people. Every

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POPE’S INTENTION

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budget should focus on ensuring that all groups are included, especially the most vulnerable, and that they benefit from the decisions made.

Many people, including economists and policy makers, academics and community activists, have insights and skills that can contribute to this process but at the end of the day responsibility rests with government. Their ambition should be, as is stated in the Acts of the Apostles, that there is ‘nobody in need’.

Ireland’s current housing crisis provides a sombre lesson. When Ireland was a poor country in the 1950s and 1960s we built sufficient houses, and had very low levels of homelessness.

Providing a home for all was a priority even though there were very small

resources available. The tenements were eliminated, and the housing stock was increased and improved.

Contrast that with the situation today. Ireland is one of the richest nations in the world but we have a growing homelessness crisis. The numbers of families waiting for social housing is also growing. Our population is growing, and people are living longer. Yet, we have failed to provide a basic necessity – appropriate accommodation – to more than 100,000 households in the country.

That is as strong a reason as could be provided for economists, and others like them, to have the courage to reject any economy of exclusion and know how to open new pathways to a fairer future.

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FEATURE

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Is Jesus just napping in the tomb? Why bother with prayer on the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

JOHN SCALLY, teacher of theology at Trinity College, Dublin, and one of our regular writers, offer us a reflection on this quiet day.

IN PRAISE OF HOLY SATURDAY When I was a young boy my grandfather told me the story of a man who had lived in our village.

During the Great Famine he was one of seven local men who were hanged for stealing on Good Friday. Six bags of potatoes were stolen from the pit of the local landlord. Six local men with large families and no food had crept into Lord McNicholas’ farmyard and stolen a bag each but the other man did nothing. This poignant story of an innocent man unjustly hanged for the failures of others enabled me to think of Good Friday in an emotionally significant and humanising way.

I needed a story like that to change my childhood perception of God as a tyrannical figure. Someone who had demanded the violent death of his only Son in order to put the world, which had gone wrong, right again. With maturity I came to realise that God did not want the violent death of Jesus; rather God accepts the self-sacrifice of Jesus because of the potential it entails for both his glorification and our glorification.

The one thing I never understood, however, was why we had to bother going to church on Easter Saturday when nothing really happened on that day. On Good Friday we

are asked, ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord?’ It is an uncomfortable question and one most of us would rather avoid.

Jesus died and is buried and all is apparently over.

Holy Saturday is a day of waiting.

It is a day not about our experience but Jesus’, his descent into hell as it were, opening up a way for us through the very powers that would otherwise destroy us. As an integral, though neglected, component of the Paschal Mystery, it evokes a faithful waiting on God in the darkness of faith and invites a spirituality of silence to allow God to reveal his divine wonderful life to us.

Holy Saturday is a gentle call to slow down and reflect on the bigger picture. Who is the God of the Paschal Mystery for us today?

On Easter Sunday we marvel at the miraculous. The crucified Jesus has unexpectedly become the risen Christ. The eternal has invaded the transient. The Jesus of Good Friday has shown once and for all that God’s relationship with each of us transcends the limitations of this life. But why waste time with Holy Saturday if Jesus is just napping in the tomb?

The God of the Easter story is an

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FEATURE

After the darkness comes light

impatient figure, hungry to transform us into worthy bearers of the name ‘Christian’.

It is through love alone that we please God. Jesus came on earth to love and be loved. The Christian life is an exchange of love – the love we receive and the love we give for Christ. To walk the way of unconditional love is to accept an arduous task.

Holy Saturday is a day when we are aware of the expectation of a new

beginning of risen life, new birth and hope. It is a welcome opportunity to savour the energy, joy and trust of the unique Easter laughter.

Our challenge on Holy Saturday is to allow this love to be a lamp for our steps and a light for our eyes. This is a lull before the Easter storm when we remember our call to bear witness to a Christianity which has a vital, personal quality that gives sympathy to our hearts and understanding to our minds.

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THE BOOK OF PSALMS

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FR MARTIN HOGAN, ministering at St John the Baptist Church, Clontarf, Dublin, continues his exploration of themes of distress in the psalms, focusing on individual lamentation.

THE DARK SIDE OF FAITH Far more numerous than communal laments are individual laments (Ps.37; 13; 17; 22; 25-28; 31; 35; 36; 3839; 42-43; 51; 54-57; 59; 61; 64; 6971; 86; 88; 102; 130; 140-144). These psalms are prayed by an individual in a situation of great distress. They are a cry out of the depths of personal agony.

The description of the distress and agony tends to be in very general terms, with little attention to detail.

The psalmists speak of their situation in symbolic language, the language of imagery. The language of these psalms tends to be full of hyperbole and exaggeration. This is not descriptive language but evocative language. The dominant image or symbol at work in this type of psalm is that of the ‘depths’. The individuals who are praying these psalms have a sense that the waters of chaos are about to engulf them and sweep them away forever. From the depths of these chaotic waters they desperately plead with the creator God to hold back the forces of chaos. They plead with God to raise them up out of the depths.

The language used in such psalms is general enough to enable people of every generation to use these psalms in their own situation of

distress. Symbolic language has a certain elastic quality. It invites us to bring something to it from our own experience.

These psalms have been described as a ‘voice for the dying in which we are all engaged’. The imagery of these psalms is occasionally transparent enough to allow us to have some idea of the situation out of which the poet prays. The most frequent contexts for these psalms include the experience of sickness, approaching death, abandonment by friends and the attack of enemies. Indeed, there is frequent reference in these psalms to ‘enemies’. These seem to be the godless, those without faith in God who mock believers in their distress, often with the question, ‘Where is your God?’ In these psalms, the poet does not dwell too long on his or her distressing situation but quickly moves on to petition, to the cry for help, which is the principal feature of these psalms.

About forty-three of the 150 psalms in the Book of Psalms belong to this category.

Once again, these psalms all have certain common elements, such as an initial address to God and a fervent plea for help, a description in general terms of the plight which has given

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THE BOOK OF PSALMS

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rise to the prayer (the lament), a more developed cry for help (the petition); expressions of confidence that God will hear the prayer and a promise to praise and thank God for hearing the petition. Out of the depths of distress there often arises not only petition and trust but praise. It is almost as if the very act of bringing the situation of distress to God in prayer has a healing effect on the one praying. The psalmist does not praise God because of his or her suffering and distress. Rather, they praise God in the very midst of their distress and agony because they are convinced that, having brought their plight to God, God will ultimately hear their cry and change their situation. In the

very act of praying to God out of distress, the psalmist already begins to experience God’s saving intervention. At times, the change of mood towards the end of these psalms is so pronounced that a liturgical dialogue may have to be presupposed. Perhaps, a prophet or priest responds to those praying with a word that assures them that their prayer has already been heard. The praise would then be a direct response to such a word. None of these psalms slavishly follow the above pattern. There are great differences between them, with one or other element being more emphasised.

A good example of this type of psalms is Psalm 13. The four-fold

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THE BOOK OF PSALMS

12 ‘How long?’ is striking at the beginning of the psalm (Ps.13:1-2). This is the moment of lament, which is here expressed in question form. The question, ‘How long?’, is a statement of impatient hope. That God should forget is inconceivable (Isa.49:15).

There is little information here to clarify the original circumstances of the poet. Perhaps it is a prayer out of an experience of sickness.

Lament moves quickly into petition (Ps.13:3-4). God is implored to attend to the poet’s plight and to prevent the triumph of death.

The psalmist uses three urgent verbs, ‘look’, ‘answer’, ‘give light’.

The consequences of the Lord not responding are spelt out. There are consequences here not just for the psalmist but for the Lord. The psalm continues with an expression of absolute confidence in God’s faithful

love and, at the very conclusion, the psalmist promises to praise God when deliverance comes (Ps.13:56). Perhaps some functionary in the Temple has spoken a divine oracle of assurance to the one praying, giving an assurance that the Lord has heard this heartfelt prayer. Even in the depths of distress, lament begins to turn to praise.

It may be also that by articulating their plight to the Lord, those praying move beyond lament to praise. These psalms are witnesses to the power of praise which can well up out of the depths of distress.

The one praying moves from lament, through petition to praise. The conviction that God has heard the prayer because of God’s steadfast love enables the poet to sing God’s praises, even though the situation is materially unchanged.

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Poem The Place of Receiving

by Edmond Grace SJ

The place of receiving is now.

Now is where I receive sickness or health, plenty or want, esteem or humiliation, achievement or failure, friendship or loneliness.

Now is where you are loving me – disfigured in your passion on the cross.

Now is where you are calling me to be with you in rising from death.

Now is where I taste death, my place of turning in your mystery.

Now is where praise wells up, where I revere you tenderly and serve you lovingly.

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MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTIAN ART

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EILEEN KANE takes a look at ‘Anastasis’, a fresco of The Resurrection of Christ, crafted between 1315/16 and 1321 in the church of the monastery of ‘Saint Saviour in Chora’, in Istanbul, Turkey. The monastery no longer exists, but the church remains as a museum.

ANASTASIS / THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST Between the years 1315/16 and 1321, teams of artists decorated the entire church with mosaics and frescoes – walls, ceilings and domes – of the monastery of ‘Saint Saviour in Chora’, in the city that was then called Constantinople, now Istanbul. The monastery was an ancient foundation, dating possibly from as early as the fourth century, when the Greek town of Byzantium was refounded and renamed ‘Constantinople’, by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (272– 337). The name ‘in Chora’, meaning ‘in the countryside’, indicates that the monastery had been founded outside the walls of the city, and although, over the centuries, the city expanded well beyond its original walls, that is the name by which the monastery continued to be known.

Today the monastery itself no longer exists, but the church, with its splendid decoration, remains.

No longer functioning as a church, however, it is known as the ‘Chora Museum’.

Along the entire length of the right-hand side of the church there is an external side-chapel known as the parecclesion. There, in the half-dome over the apse, is the great fresco of

the Anastasis, or the Resurrection of Christ.

The figure of Christ, resplendent in garments of brilliant white and surrounded by a radiance of golden stars, dominates the scene. Striding forward with a great, divine energy, he has already broken down the doors of the underworld, leaving its guardian, Satan, pinned on the ground beneath the rubble. Strewn all around are bits and pieces of metal locks, bolts and bars. With his right arm Christ reaches out to Adam, and with his left, to Eve, and draws them both by their wrists, out of their tombs. Adam, with long, flowing hair and beard, and Eve, wrapped in a voluminous red mantle, seem almost weightless, as they are drawn upwards by the Redeemer they have awaited. Behind Eve, standing upright in the tomb she is leaving, is a young man in a green, gold-bordered tunic, carrying a shepherd’s staff. This is Abel, one of her first two sons, the righteous one, who was slain by his brother Cain, out of jealousy, because his sacrifice of a lamb had been accepted by God, whereas Cain’s had been rejected. Behind Adam stands John the Baptist, the Forerunner of Christ;

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MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTIAN ART

Photographs: Zzvet / Shutterstock.com

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The Anastasis fresco in the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora, Istanbul, Turkey.

and beside John, King David. David is shown as a young man. Beside him stands King Solomon, represented as a much older man. Other kings are

there too, and with them, on Christ’s right and left, the prophets and other just men who looked forward to the coming of the Redeemer. Behind

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MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTIAN ART

16 these two groups are some rocks, and a deep blue sky. Against the background of blue, above the head of Christ, in Greek letters, is written the word ‘Hanastasis’. Beneath it, on either side, are the first and last letters of the names ‘Jesus’ and ‘Christ’.

In this scene the figures of Christ and of Adam are especially remarkable. Christ leans towards Adam as he strides forward, but his upper body and head are turned to face directly out, towards the spectator. In that way, the artist has been able to portray Christ’s facial features exactly as they are traditionally seen in icons of the Redeemer – facing directly outwards, a young man with a small mouth, an aquiline nose, strongly marked eyebrows, hair parted in the middle, and a forked beard. Adam’s face is that of a man of almost countless years, but strong, and he fixes his gaze determinedly upon Christ.

Christ’s white garments have a brilliant sheen, moulding his youthful physique. Some of the light that emanates from Christ shines upon Adam’s blue sleeve, but Adam’s white mantle looks heavy and dull in comparison with Christ’s.

Such is the skill with which the painter of this fresco used the colour white, shading and contrasting it, or leaving it unmixed in order to give it brilliance, that the figure of Christ has an almost visionary quality. It suggests to us the brilliant appearance, ‘like lightning’, of the angel or angels that the gospels tell us Mary of Magdala and the

other women saw when they went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus, on Easter Sunday morning.

They found the tomb empty. ‘He is risen’, the angel said, ‘he is not here’. The gospels do not mention the descent into hell. We find that in the Apostles’ Creed: ‘He suffered under Pontius Pilate, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose from the dead.’

In the Anastasis, therefore, we have a statement of faith rather than the illustration of an event. Depictions of the ‘Descent into hell’ do also occur in the art of the western Church, but much less frequently than in the art of the Byzantine east.

It is also worth noting that the Resurrection is a scene that was most appropriate for this place, because the parecclesion was used as a mortuary chapel, and contains a number of tombs.

This Anastasis is one of the supreme masterpieces of Christian art, yet we do not know the name of the artist who painted it. Given that Saint Saviour’s in Chora was a monastery church, he and the other painters and mosaic-artists who worked here may well have been monks, and therefore remained anonymous. We do, however, know the name of the benefactor who financed the enlargement and decoration of the church. He was Theodore Metochites, the top official at the court of the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus II Paleologus. At the end of his quite eventful career, Theodore became a monk in St Saviour’s, and was buried in the monastery in 1332.

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FEATURE

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ANN KELLY, well known audiologist, addresses the issue of hearing decline, offering a realistic appraisal of the situation and some good advice.

HEARING: ARE PEOPLE MUMBLING?

‘My hearing is fine, it’s just that people mumble!’

On average, it takes people seven years from the time they think they might have a hearing loss to the time they seek treatment.

In Ireland, eight per cent of adults have a significant degree of hearing loss. One out of three people at the age of sixty-five have a hearing loss and this quickly increases to one in two over the age of seventy, commonly accompanied by noises (tinnitus) in our ears.

DEGREES OF HEARING LOSS Between the two extremes of hearing well and hearing nothing, there are

many degrees of impairment: mild, moderate, severe and profound. Most hearing losses are mild to moderate where typically someone might hear ‘get’ instead of ‘wet’ or ‘dish’ instead of ‘fish’ and would have considerable difficulty in a background of noise.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO GET OUR HEARING CHECKED? An important fact about age-related hearing loss is that as we get older, we start developing a gap between what we hear and what we understand, and the older we get, the wider the gap. The problem with having a wide gap by the time you try hearing aids is that, even though technology has

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FEATURE

18 come a long way, the devices may just make all sounds louder but not necessarily make speech clearer.

That is why people who are fitted with hearing devices for the first time in their 60s tend to do better than those fitted for the first time in their 80s or 90s.

THERE ARE OBVIOUS BENEFITS FROM WEARING HEARING DEVICES BUT IS IT OK TO DO NOTHING? The effects of hearing loss are different for each individual. Untreated hearing loss can lead to social, physical and psychological consequences such as problems participating in social activities, isolation and withdrawal, sadness and low self-esteem. While some can be reluctant to wear hearing aids, an untreated hearing loss is more noticeable than the hearing aids themselves.

COGNITIVE DECLINE RELATED TO HEARING LOSS A study from Johns Hopkins University found that hearing loss is associated with accelerated cognitive decline.

Researchers found that in older adults with hearing loss, brain tissue loss happens faster than for those with normal hearing. However, the good news is that addressing your hearing loss early will improve your communication as well as reduce natural cognitive decline.

WHAT DOES GOOD HEARING HEALTHCARE MEAN? Like the way we get our eyes and teeth checked we should also get our

hearing checked. Ideally, we should all get our hearing checked by the age of sixty, so we have a baseline, thereafter test every two years.

Hearing loss develops very gradually so it is important to get tested regularly. The earlier any loss is detected, the sooner you can begin to improve your quality of life.

Hearing aids now are available in different shapes and sizes to best suit the individual. In recent years extended wear devices can be worn day and night while rechargeable aids are now commonplace, eliminating the need for changing batteries.

SOME INTERESTING HEARING FACTS – In the First World War parrots were kept in the Eiffel Tower in Paris because of their remarkable sense of hearing. When the parrots heard enemy aircraft, they warned everyone of the approaching danger long before any human ear could hear it.

– Sometimes if there is a problem with your ears, your perception of taste may be off because the nerves run through the ear and connect the taste buds on the front of your tongue to your brain.

– Your ears never stop hearing, even when you sleep. Your brain just ignores incoming sounds. Hearing is a ‘passive process’ – you can’t switch your ears off. Listening involves an ‘active process’ of attention and concentration. That is why when one is tired, stressed or distracted, one’s listening skills may be poor.

Happy Hearing!

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HISTORIC CHURCHES

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CHRISTOPHER MORIARTY explores the history of St Joseph’s Church, Terenure, a busy residential suburb of Dublin.

ST JOSEPH’S CHURCH, TERENURE

A splendid wheel window on its west front is the dominant feature of the church which provides a little breathing space beside the teeming traffic and busy shops of Terenure crossroads. It is one of the parts of the original design which has survived unaltered in a fine late nineteenth century building. The huge bell which stands beside it in a securely locked cage is another part of that story.

Terenure, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, was being transformed from a region of big

houses, with extensive grounds, to one of elegant terraces of smaller houses to accommodate the growing numbers of office workers and professional people in the city just to the north. The introduction of a horse-drawn tram service added to the popularity of Terenure, and blocks of smaller houses followed.

There was a small church, dedicated to St Joseph, which achieved fame in literary history as the place where James Joyce was baptised on 5 February 1882. At that time St Joseph’s was one of the

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HISTORIC CHURCHES

20 churches in the enormous parish of Rathfarnham. The church was too small and the parish too big to cope with the influx of people and their new homes. In 1894 it was divided up and the parish of Terenure was created. Not long afterwards work began on a replacement for the church.

The designer was a young architect, William Geraty Clayton, employed in the office of William Henry Byrne.

Byrne was a wellestablished church architect, noted in particular for his use of the gothic revival style. Whether influenced by his employee or perhaps searching for a change, the style chosen for Terenure was Romanesque. The essential feature of Gothic architecture is the pointed arch, in contrast to the more ancient semi-circular pattern in use, as its name implies, since classical times.

The new church was completed in 1904, to a traditional cross-shaped plan of a relatively long nave, leading to a pair of transepts to right and left with the sanctuary forming the apex of the cross. Wherever space permits, churches are aligned on an east–west axis, with the sanctuary at the east end, its window bathed in the light of the rising sun. The main entrance door is at the opposite end, frequently beneath a great west window. This couldn’t quite be managed at Terenure and the west

and east windows are closer to north and south. What this arrangement did provide, was for the splendid ‘west’ front to face directly on to the main street.

Seen from this angle the church is asymmetrical, with the twolight window of the Lady Chapel appearing on the left and the gable of the ‘south’ transept to the right.

There is a slender turret with a pointed roof to the left and a massive square tower to the right.

Somewhere here the original design was curtailed. It had included a tall bell tower which was never built.

This may be why the bell stands incongruously on the lawn nearby. It used to be rung by hand – requiring the full weight of the bell-ringer to get it going. The noise at this low level was deafening and may explain why it now hangs silent.

The portions of the ‘west’ front to each side fall into insignificance when compared with the central part. At ground level there are three porches, each topped by a semi-circular head and an angular tympanum. These are supported by coloured marble pillars, while the three heads have relief sculptures of the Blessed Virgin, Jesus, with attending angels and St Joseph. They stand out on a background of gilded mosaic. Above these is a row of eleven niches which probably were planned to hold statues; above them is the truly

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HISTORIC CHURCHES

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magnificent wheel window which transforms the otherwise restrained front. White stone predominates in its design except for the spokes of the wheel which are of coloured marble. Viewed from inside the church, this window stands above a beautiful organ and is glazed in shades of blue and purple with an image of the Lamb of God at the centre.

This entrance looks along the nave towards the white marble altar with a sculpture of the entombed Christ beneath the table. Side aisles are separated by arcades of coloured marble pillars which support the windows of the upper storey. A great crucifix hangs above the altar and partly obscures the view of the east window.

That window was the first major addition to the church and is a very remarkable concept. The work was commissioned from Harry Clarke in 1920 and the theme is ‘the Adoration of the Cross by the Irish saints’.

The glass fills three large lancet

windows. The dominant figure in the central one is the crucified Christ, his body in flesh colours. A canopy in red and orange extends across all three windows: above it are praying angels, below the assembled saints.

In brilliantly coloured garments, they kneel or stand in reverence. The church has two smaller windows by Harry Clarke himself while his colours and style are present in others.

This great window as planned and executed stood just behind the altar until 1954. For a second time, the church had become too small for its congregation and a remarkable architectural decision was taken. The building was extended towards the south following exactly the design of the original nave but about double its length. The altar was left in place but the ‘east’ window found itself reconstructed far away from it. An entrance porch was added to this end of the church and above the door is a mosaic of St Joseph, depicted holding a lily flower, his symbol from very ancient times.

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RECOMMENDED BOOKS

22

Messenger Publications is busy producing and finding new books of interest to the readers of The Sacred Heart Messenger for our Ignatian Bookshop. This page is intended to keep you up-to-date on new releases and special offers. To purchase, go to www.messenger.ie, or call 01.7758522, or visit a good bookshop.

The Life and Times of Daniel Murray Archbishop of Dublin 1823-1852 Thomas J Morrissey SJ €29.95 Cloth

Wisdom at the Crossroads The Life and Thought of Michael Paul Gallagher SJ Thomas G Casey SJ €12.95 Paperback

This gifted Jesuit writer and theologian had the ability to help all who struggled with the challenges of belief and unbelief. His legacy lives on in this account of his life and thought by a fellow Jesuit.

Finding God in All Things Brian Grogan SJ €7.99 Paperback

One of our most popular books. A simple, clear explanation of Ignatian spirituality and the ways in which God is involved in every aspect of our lives.

A fascinating study of a forgotten figure in Irish history. Murray became Archbishop of Dublin shortly before Catholic Emancipation and remained in the post for almost thirty years through a period of turbulence and change in ecclesial, public and political life in the capital city.

Dear Pope Francis The Pope Answers Letters from Children Around the World Pope Francis Special price €9.99 Hardback A great way to prepare children for the forthcoming visit of Pope Francis. Written by the Pope himself, his responses to these children’s questions will help all youngsters to understand his kindness and thoughtfulness and his love of children.

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FEATURE

23

In the month of Confirmation, former Messenger editor, JOHN LOOBY SJ, offers a timely reflection on the symbols at sacramental celebrations.

BALLOONS

The boys seemed well prepared in a rehearsal for Confirmation in a Dublin church. They knew how to enter the church, when to sit and when to stand, and they knew the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Two young teachers had prepared them well. Quite imaginatively they had decorated the church with brightly coloured helium balloons symbolising the power of the Spirit. When I asked them why we used symbols for the sacraments, I realised I was pushing them beyond their comfort zone.

This led me to start thinking about the use of symbols in the sacraments. Young people today are accustomed to symbols but in an advertising context, where balloons are associated primarily with parties, something that can be seen and touched, not something spiritual. I began to wonder if modern life has made us oblivious to the power of symbol to comprehend the spiritual. So I went back to Christ’s use of symbolic gestures when he touched people’s lives.

The sacraments through symbols,

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24

FEATURE

let us know that we have been touched by the saving grace of God and what is happening at this very moment.

The doctrine of the Eucharist is not easy. The priest today, who holds up the host before placing it in the hand of the believer, knows that what Christ came to do – to share his life with us – is being done in mystery and reality. The symbol of bread carries the meaning of what is being done here and now. We do not need to be told food and drink is necessary for life. We know that Christ is necessary for our lives. We need him to touch us with presence and care.

Some sacraments are received once in a lifetime at an important moment. Baptism, as we begin our life and the Anointing of the Sick, which we receive when we are seriously ill. The relevance of this sacrament struck me forcibly when a man followed me one day into the sacristy. He explained that he was a doctor and had suspected that he was seriously ill.

So he had sent a sample of his blood to be tested anonymously – and had learned that he had an incurable disease. In faith he asked for the Sacrament of the Sick, wanting the assurance that Christ was with him at this critical juncture of his life, that he was loved by Christ as this familiar

life was ending. Oil, some words, blessings touched him in a significant way.

At ordination I found the symbols profoundly moving. At the high point of the ceremony the ordaining bishop places his outstretched hands firmly on the head of the man being ordained. The gentle pressure speaks of being empowered to consecrate bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and minister as a priest. Now not only do I speak in the name of Christ at the consecration at Mass but at another profound moment a priest can – in the person of Christ himself – pronounce the words of absolution in confession.

On both occasions, the priest is empowered to speak in Christ’s own name, ‘I absolve you….’; ‘this is my Body’. God deals with us in a gracious way and the earlier moment in the ceremony prepares you for what follows. The one about to be ordained lies stretched out on the ground before the altar – in a position of profound submission and awe – while the congregation sing the litanies asking the saints of God to intercede for those about to be ordained. This is what Christ did with his apostles, and their successors do so in memory of Him. The symbols catch the sense of what God continues to do in our lives.

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THE CHURCH LOOKS AHEAD

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SEAMUS CLAFFEY has worked in ministry in a variety of settings and writes on pastoral issues. In this occasional series called ‘The Church looks ahead’, he looks at the great value of our small Christian communities.

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL A line from the title of a famous 1970s economics book was ‘Small is Beautiful’. The Church is at its best when it is made up of small Christian communities where we care for each other, pray our way through the joys and sorrows of everyday life with the help of the word of God, and reach out to others, especially those who are on life’s edge.

This is an understanding of Church – a community of communities – that people like Salesian Fr James O’Halloran has written about, advocated for and facilitated over many decades. The good news is that this is happening already here and across the globe. In Ireland St Vincent de Paul conferences, parish pastoral councils, prayer groups, choirs, liturgical and youth groups might not call themselves small Christian communities but to varying degrees that is what they are.

I am thinking, too, of Mass-goers, including our daily Mass-goers, many of whom are older adults, who gather to pray, chat together afterwards,

often catching up on the wellbeing of each other and members of the parish community, and are open to helping others less well off than themselves. The consistent challenge of Pope Francis to all of us is to reach out more to those who are poor and excluded.

As Church, we must take some responsibility for those who have less than regular contact or no contact with the Church. In many ways, the Church in Ireland is already made up of small Christian communities and this will be the case even more in the future. In this scenario, priests will celebrate the sacraments of course, but they will also, increasingly, resource lay women and men in leading their local communities in prayer, liturgy and loving service.

Small is already proving beautiful as in the early days of Christianity.

More of the same is how I see the Church in twenty years’ time and with an even greater love for our suffering sisters and brothers.

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Messenger Celebrates 130 years Dates for your diary

Sunday April 15 at 3pm Mass of thanksgiving in SS Peter and Paul Church, Portlaoise.

Principal celebrant and Homily: Bishop Denis Nulty.

Sunday April 29 at 3pm Mass in St John the Baptist Church, Garvaghy Rd, Portadown.

Principal celebrant and Homily: Cardinal Seรกn Brady.

All Welcome at both Masses and for refreshments after Mass.

Saturday June 23

Messenger Day Venue: Gonzaga College, Sandford Rd, Dublin 6.

More information about Messenger Day will appear in the May Sacred Heart Messenger and on our website at www.messenger.ie www.messenger.ie

re:link

April’18

Resource for Religion Studies

relink.messenger.ie

The Miracles & Parables of Jesus ~ Part 2 Using the map, find some of the locations mentioned in Jesus’ miracles & parables: n Jesus turned water into wine at wedding feast in Cana. n Jesus healed the paralysed man in Capernaum. n Jesus calmed a storm on the Sea of Galilee. n The Good Samaritan came from the province of Samaria. n Jesus brought Lazarus back to life in Bethany. n Jesus fed the 5,000 in Bethsaida. n Jesus walked on water at Lake Gennesaret.

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The Parables of Jesus Christ stories are now known as parables.

As well as having a basic meaning eg: a woman who loses a coin, it also has a deeper, more important meaning, about God’s love and the importance of our everyday actions: the coin symbolises God’s love for each and every one of us and how we are all equally important to God. It is important to note, that many people at the time of Jesus were farmers, shepherds and fishermen, kept their own animals and grew their own crops, so these simple stories appealed to their everyday reality, as they could interpret the deeper meaning and then apply it to their own lives.

I wonder what Jesus’ parables would be based on if he was speaking to an audience today?

The Prodigal Son

The Sower

The Mustard Seed

The Lost Sheep

The Good Samaritan

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All illustrations © freebibleimages.org

During his public ministry (active years of spreading the Good News) Jesus performed amazing actions which nobody had seen before, called miracles (see March RE: Link). People were astonished at what Jesus did, and over time large crowds would gather to see Jesus and to hear him speak. Jesus’ followers had many questions about how he, a man and a humble carpenter’s son, could do these amazing things.

To explain the Kingdom of God and God’s love and power, Jesus told stories to help his followers to understand. These stories were based on everyday things such as farming, housework, a hidden treasure, family, animals and friendship, as anybody could relate to those things. Those

The Miracles of Jesus Christ Parable

Bible Referemce

Lesson about the Kingdom of God

The Sower

Matthew 13:3-8 13:18-23

That each person responds to Jesus’ message of God’s love in their own unique way. Some accept God’s love, others take time and some reject it.

The Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32

God is like a father who will always forgive us if we are truly sorry.

The Mustard Seed

Mark 4:30-32

God’s love is like a seed inside all of us which can grow and blossom when nurtured.

The Lost Sheep/ The Lost Coin

Luke 15:4-9

Each one of us is equally valued in the Kingdom of God and that everybody is cared for and treated the same.

The Good Samaritan

Luke 10:25-37

To treat all of our neighbours as we would like to be treated ourselves as we are all part of the Kingdom of God.

n There are over forty parables that n A prodigal is a person who spends Jesus told in the New Testament.

Fast Facts

n A mustard seed is about two to

money in a reckless or extravagant way.

three millimetres in diameter and n The saying ‘Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight. Red sky in the can grow into a mustard plant that morning, shepherd’s warning’ first is nine metres tall. appeared in the Bible in Matthew’s n A Samaritan is a person from Gospel. A red sky can signify a the region of Samaria in ancient drastic change in the weather, and Israel. Jews and Samaritans did the saying has since been adapted to include the word ‘sailor’. not get along at the time of Jesus, and could even have been called n Being a shepherd (a person who enemies. minds and tends to sheep, to keep them safe from wild prey and n Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, ‘The thieves) was a common profession Prodigal’, is based on the parable at the time of Jesus. Hence a of the Prodigal son.

‘Shepherd’s pie’ is traditionally made from lamb.

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Exam Link 2017 Ordinary Level Junior Certificate RE Section 1 Question 13 a. The Sower is the name of a parable told by Jesus of Nazareth. Name another parable told by Jesus of Nazareth.

© freebibleimages.org

2017 Higher Level Leaving Certificate RE Section 2 Question 3

This picture is based on a parable told by Jesus. a. Pick one thing from the picture which suggests that it is based on a parable told by Jesus. b. Name another parable told by Jesus. c. Give one reason why Jesus used parables to teach about the Kingdom of God.

C ompetition !

Write a modern day version of one of Jesus’ parables. The winning entry will be published in next month’s RE: Link and on the RE: Link Facebook/Twitter pages.

Send your entry via email to relink@messenger.ie or post to RE:LINK, The Sacred Heart Messenger, 37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2.

Please include your name, age & school.

Closing date: 24th of the month.

Winner receives a voucher wor th €40!

JANUARY 2018 RE:LINK WINNER:

Niamh Fennessy

Scoil Mhuire, Clane, Co Kildare

Get in touch: 01 775 8523 relink@messenger.ie @RelinkMagazine facebook.com/relink relink.messenger.ie

FEATURE

31

PATRICIA HIGGINS is part-time manager of an IT charity, and is married with three young children. She has previously lectured in non-profit management, and established young adult programmes connecting volunteering and Ignatian spirituality.

TRUST IN GOD’S TANGIBLE CARE

‘Did you ever think he took it for ye?’

(Mk 5.29, Mt 9.18-26, Lk 8.40-56) ‘Did you ever think he took it for ye?’ Someone put this question to my Dad after his own father – my grandfather – had died. My Dad had been very ill with cancer three years earlier, when he was 40. He had been gravely ill, and defied medical

expectations when he made a full recovery. It was only a short time later that my grandfather was diagnosed with the disease.

The question stayed with my Dad, not surprisingly. It implies my grandfather had successfully negotiated a

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FEATURE

32 trade with God of his own health for my Dad’s.

The story of the healing of Jairus’ daughter seems set up to force Jesus to engage in a similar kind of tradeoff. Jesus, en route to see and heal Jairus’ daughter, was waylaid by an old woman who had been bleeding for many years. ‘Come on, come on, come on, we don’t have time for this,’ is a mild version of the thoughts that I imagine were running through Jairus’ head. ‘If you don’t hurry up, my daughter is going to die … it’s her or my daughter … and … well, dammit she’s old … so come on.’ Jesus, however, was able to heal both.

He did not need to sidestep one in order to heal the other.

If we don’t have to bargain with God about what gets healed and what doesn’t in our lives, what role is there for us to play in the healing process? How can we facilitate God’s healing in our own life?

RELATE TO GOD OURSELVES

Focus on our own honest and truthful communication with God. Jesus told the old woman that her faith had made her well when she had found the courage to tell the ‘whole truth’ of her condition directly to Jesus. ‘Women’s problems’ which her condition seems to fall under, aren’t easy to talk about even today – particularly to men – so in those days this took real courage. We can take comfort, however, by knowing that God is looking for that chance to relate to us. In the middle of the weeping and wailing when he got to Jairus’ house, we see Jesus ask for only a small group to come with him to see to the girl. (I wonder whether

she might also have been struggling with ‘women’s problems.’ She was 12, a common age to begin menstruation. Many women could identify with the sense of looking and feeling like ‘death warmed up’ around the time of their period).

TRUST IN GOD’S TANGIBLE CARE

The old woman had a longing to touch Jesus’ cloak in the middle of a crowd. Her pain was one unseen and unacknowledged in this big group of people. She couldn’t reach Jesus directly, but she could touch something of him. Many people are asked to carry unacknowledged pain in middle of others: those who long for a child in the midst of the friends who are starting families, those who are coping with the loss of their life partner at family celebrations, those who hold memories of pain and abuse in childhood that they have never been allowed to declare.

Whenever we’ve yearned to feel the healing touch of a connection to God, we’ve been that old woman, and we are asked to trust that God will give us a hem to reach out for.

BE THAT CLOAK HEM FOR OTHERS

Our capacity to heal and save is restricted. We can’t take away the many types of pain. But we can be that means by which God shows concern and love. We can be that hem that people get to touch that helps them to move through a tough moment and towards greater healing.

A knowing look, a touch, a holding of a hand, a text on a day that you know someone will be finding hard can get someone through a difficult situation.

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GARDENING

33

CIARAN BURKE talks of his favourite spring flower, and warns us to be careful of over-eagerness in our preparation for the coming summer months.

APRIL AWAKENING

The equinox has passed, and the days are energised with new light, you can almost feel nature awakening all around. The yellow of spring daffodils starts to give way to multi-coloured tulips, and gardeners’ minds are filled with anticipation for the season ahead.

On the first sunny weekend of April, the air carries the hum of lawnmowers, the buzzing of hedge trimmers and our nostrils are filled with the wonderful smell of newly mown lawns; the suburbs are buzzing with enthusiasm for the garden.

This eagerness is welcome but is

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GARDENING

34 often premature: as people dream of barbecues, picnics and long, hot summer nights, there are still plenty of opportunities for Jack Frost to visit with a sharp reminder that it is still spring. Summer bedding plants too tender for our vernal days will be doomed to a frosty death without any hope of resurrection.

April is a month of great activity, bees are busy on sunny days, sap is rising up through trees and leaves unfurl. Spring blooming shrubs such as Viburnum x burkwoodii and Skimmia japonica delight our eyes with their blooms of purest white and waft their sweet perfume in the air. Bulbs are bursting forth from the earth, and as the last of the daffodils fade, newcomers such as tulips and bluebells take up their starring roles colouring our gardens and pots for weeks to come. One of my favourite spring blooms is our native wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa.

Its delicate-looking pristine white blooms hide its tough and hardy character, for it grows in the Northern European forests of Scandinavia and Finland, just as it carpets the floor of woodlands here in Ireland. I remember the beautiful sight of seeing drifts of the starry white flowers in a soggy woodland soil near the village of Kilmovee in County Mayo, and being excited as I came upon a cluster of deeply pink flushed blooms, as if they were blushing because of my presence.

Anemone nemorosa has fleshy tubers that do not store well and as such is not sold as a bulb like many other Anemone species such as A. blanda and St Brigid’s, A. coronaria.

Instead you will find them offered for

sale as growing plants in the garden centres and an increasing amount of varieties are being offered in white, pink and blue. One of my favourites is the large petalled soft blue A. nemorosa ‘Robinsoniana’, named after the Irish garden writer William Robinson.

Wood anemones like to grow in dappled shade and in a soil that does not dry out completely. In our gardens they make themselves completely at home when planted under deciduous trees and shrubs, where fallen leaf residue enriches the soil and improves the structure. Left to their own devices, small clusters of wood anemone in time, will become carpets of spring beauty. They are also happy in window boxes, and can be used to underplant trees and shrubs already established in pots.

April is the time to get sowing vegetables out of doors, cabbage, salads, onions, carrots and peas sown now will be filling our plates with summer harvest. Hardy annual flowers such as pot marigold, Calendula officinalis, Corn flower, Centaurea cyanus and baby’s breath, Gypsophila elegans can all be sown directly into freshly raked soil or in pots, and without need for any protection from cold.

A few packets of seeds for a small investment of euros will yield great returns and the dividends of joyous summer blooms is priceless.

Cornflowers and baby’s breath make an easy and instant bouquet of cut flowers that will last a week in a vase inside, and can make a beautiful and unique gift to the host of a summer garden party. All that we need now are April showers . . .

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35

John Sullivan SJ Fergal McGrath SJ

I am Infinitely Loved 31 Daily Meditations Brian Grogan SJ

Stations of the Soul An Artist’s Journey Joan Keogh

€3.99

€3.95

€3.95 The Stations of the Cross Vincent Sherlock

€3.99

€4.95

€4.95

Challenges in Later Life Mary Threadgold RSC

Walk With Me into the Light Some Comfort on the Journey Through Grief Margaret T Naughton

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THANKSGIVING LETTERS

36

Every month we publish a selection of thanksgiving letters from our readers. Please be assured that receipt of a letter is fulfilment of a promise to publish. A longer ‘letter’ – a story of thanksgiving – is on the facing page, and our readers are invited to submit their own ‘A Kindness I’ll never Forget’.

RELEASED FROM A SMALL, DARK PLACE

TRULY GRATEFUL

Father, Please publish my letter of thanksgiving for numerous favours received over the last fifty years and more. Particularly, for being released from a small, dark lift with my seriously ill brother after fifteen minutes of being stuck there.

I would like to thank the Sacred Heart for saving my son’s house from flooding, and giving me the strength to cope with my brother’s recent death.

I pray for success for my daughter, who lives abroad, and for her daughter in exams; for my son who had to emigrate that he gets a good job and masters the language, and for good health for him and his family. Sacred Heart thank you always, I place all my trust in you.

Margaret, Kilkenny

Grateful thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, His Blessed Mother and all the Saints.

I pray too in thanks for many favours received for which I am truly grateful.

M R, Derry

SAVED FROM FALLING Thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for all he has done for me in the past and is still doing. I am ninety-one years of age and I pray every day to the Sacred Heart to help me and save me from falling and hurting myself.

Anonymous

A CASE AGAINST HIM I am writing in thanksgiving to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. My son got into trouble at work and the company took a case against him but I thank the Sacred Heart of Jesus that he was just fined a small amount.

The Sacred Heart always comes to my aid. No matter what, he never lets me down.

A long time reader

THE WHOLE WORLD Dear Father, Please include in your letters of thanksgiving my grateful thanks to the Sacred Heart and his Blessed Mother for a very special favour recently received.

I would wish to tell the whole world about the Sacred Heart as he never lets me down.

A grateful Granny

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37

THANKSGIVING STORY

A big, kind-hearted man in the RAF became like a parent when this writer was a sick child. Have you a kindness memory? Send it to us! There is a €40 token for each published contribution.

This month’s contributor wishes to remain anonymous.

A KINDNESS I’LL NEVER FORGET

Bill was a lovely, big, kind man from Belfast. He was in the RAF, and he looked the part. He had a deep, manly voice and a moustache with ‘twiggly’ bits at the end of it.

Bill used to come to the hotel for dances held in the winter months when it was quiet. He came for ‘The Golf Dance’ with his girlfriend, ‘Paddy’. As soon as he arrived in the door I could hear his big husky voice as he would laugh and shout out to me, ‘Where is my best girl?’ I was about six years old at the time.

Then I became seriously ill and was taken to Belfast to hospital. I was there for about two months. My

parents could not visit me as often as I would have liked but Bill became a parent to me. He came to visit me every night and brought me lots of goodies. He chatted to me and he would tell me stories and jokes and really cheer me up. He helped me not to be so lonely.

I will never forget Bill and in later years he was always a part of any celebrations in my life.

Today I thank God for Bill and his generosity to me. I ask God to bless him abundantly for all his kindness to me and to give him a special place in His Kingdom.

Thanks Bill, so much.

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COOKERY

38

MARIE McGUIRK offers us recipes for the celebration of the joyous occasion of Easter, and a tempting chocolate brownie for those who have been fasting!

MEALS FOR EASTER As Lent comes to an end this month we celebrate the joyous occasion of Easter. Lamb is always associated with this great feast so I hope you enjoy these recipes. A chocolate brownie will be a lovely treat if you gave up sweet things during Lent

EASTER SUNDAY LAMB WITH ROAST VEGETABLES

(4 people) 2 racks of lamb (ask your butcher to trim them for easy carving) 4oz (100g) Feta cheese 4oz (100g) sun blushed tomatoes in oil chopped 2oz (50g) chopped green olives 2 red peppers cut into cubes 1 aubergine cubed 2 small courgettes cubed 1 carrot cut into dice 1 onion diced 4 cloves garlic left whole 1lb (400g) baby potatoes washed and left whole 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar

METHOD

n Heat the oven to 200°C, 400°, Gas 6. n Mix together the cheese olives and tomatoes. n Cut a pocket 3 cm deep in the top of the lamb racks where the meat joins the bones. n Press the cheese mixture in to the pocket and seal with cocktail sticks.

n Place the lamb in a roasting dish standing up and interlock the bones to keep the racks standing.

Place in oven n Toss the vegetables in the olive oil and place in another baking dish. Place in oven. n Cook the lamb for 30 – 35 minutes, remove and cover with tin foil to rest. n Continue to cook the vegetables for another 5 minutes or until soft.

Toss in the balsamic vinegar. n Serve at once with the lamb.

LAMB AND VEGETABLE STIR FRY

(1 Person) 6oz (150g) leg of lamb sliced 1 dessertspoon soy sauce Dash of sweet chilli sauce 2 tablespoons water or chicken stock A small knob of ginger grated 1 small clove of garlic chopped A little oil 1 small red onion cut into slices ½ red pepper sliced A handful of frozen peas ½ carrot gated coarsely Handful of spinach 1oz (25g) cashew nuts (optional)

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COOKERY

39

METHOD

n Cut the lamb into strips. n Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and stir fry the lamb for 3-4 minutes. n Add the onion, ginger, garlic, pepper, peas and carrot.

Continue to stir fry for a further 4 minutes. n Add the stock soy and chilli sauce. n Bring to boil and bubble to reduce the liquid slightly. Then just before serving add the spinach and nuts. n This is delicious served with plain boiled rice.

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

7oz (185g) butter 7oz (185g) good quality chocolate 3oz (80g) self- raising flour 1 ½oz (40g) cocoa powder 2oz (50g) chopped white chocolate 2oz (50g) chopped milk chocolate

1oz (25g) chopped walnuts 3 eggs 10oz (250g) caster sugar

METHOD

n Line a square brownie tin with greaseproof paper and preheat oven to160°C, Gas 4, 325°F. n Melt the butter and chocolate together and leave aside to cool. n Place the eggs and sugar in a mixer and whisk until light and frothy. n Fold in the sieved flour and cocoa powder into the egg mixture and then fold in the cooled butter and chocolate. n Lastly fold in the chopped chocolate and nuts. n Pour into prepared tin and bake for approx. 30 -35 minutes. The brownies should be squidgy in the middle so the time will vary according to your oven type n Cut into squares before cooling on a wire rack.

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CROSSWORDS

The prize is €100 for the first correct solution opened.

Judge’s decision is final.

ENTRIES MUST REACH US BEFORE THE 24th OF THE MONTH.

WIN €100! ADULT CROSSWORD Send to: Adult Crossword 804, Messenger Publications, 37 Lr Leeson St, Dublin 2, Ireland

_________________________________________________

Address: ___________________________________________

Name: ____________________________________________

40

ACROSS 1 Glorious day or night of comedy? (7) 5 Cut some material for clothing (7) 9 Only pound left with unknown variety of agate (4) 10 Boss blew in suffering unsteady feeling (10) 12 Long aria performed for Queen Elizabeth I (8) 13 Dig for prey! (6) 14 Runner is getting the extent of fungal infection (8,4) 17 Propping up below fastening (12) 21 Gadget that is used to loosen firm grip? (6) 23 Lowest speed determined by bank (4,4) 24 Gradually how one learns to walk? (4,2,4) 25 Call from tannoy Ezra heard (4) 26 Piece of music before extraordinary duel (7) 27 I’d get in in a roundabout way altering the text (7)

DOWN 2 Mollusc twinkled but not at start or finish (6) 3 Enjoy costly pleasures, no end of great comfort I took in (9) 4 To West Way it is by canal (7) 6 Slanting boil removed by that Parisian (7) 7 Islands to north of Georgia (5) 8 Food to spring up rapidly (8) 11 Couple with part used for drilling (5-3-3) 15 Solve wrong number (6,3) 16 Cretin with Jo moving apparatus for forcing water into boiler (8) 18 Drunk bird watched suspiciously (3-4) 19 Having poor taste (7) 20 Terns flying round west scattered thinly (6) 22 Force I need to get the Spanish parliamentarian inside (5)

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CROSSWORDS

41

CHILDREN’S CROSSWORD: WIN €30!

Name: _____________________________________Age:__________

Address: _________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Send to: APRIL Children’s Crossword, Messenger Publications, 37 Lr Leeson St, Dublin 2, Ireland, by 24th of the month.

ACROSS 1 He dropped things from the leaning tower of Pisa (7) 7 Very probably Picasso’s favourite subject at school (3) 8 Another word for ‘pram’ (5) 9 A Mongolian tent (4) 10 Every sentence has a ____ and a noun (4) 13 Mountain range in Russia (5) 15 When you are sick (3) 16 Instead of walking she _______ down the road (7)

DOWN 2 Someone who works in the theatre or the movies (5) 3 We put this number on every book we publish! (4) 4 Have one for breakfast! (3) 5 A red, black spotted bug (7) 6 In the orchestra, they make a crashing sound (7) 11 Moses was an ______ in Egypt (5) 12 Shorthand for when something needs to be done quickly (4) 14 Noah’s ___ (3)

JANUARY 2018 CROSSWORD SOLUTIONS AND WINNERS

CHILDREN’S CROSSWORD: Across: 1. 1 Decline; 7 Ray; 8; Aztec; 9 Bath; 10 Hair; 13 Nobel; 15 Awe; 16 Pastime.

Down: 2 Egypt; 3 Leaf; 4 Nut; 5 Armband; 6 Scarves; 11 Alarm; 12 Plot; 14 Boa. CHILDREN’S CROSSWORD WINNER: Oisin O’Dowd, Kerry, Aged 10.

CHILDREN’S POETRY PRIZE: Cormac O’Dowd, Longford, Aged 11.

ADULT CROSSWORD: ACROSS: 1 Whitstable; 6 Menu; 9 Spoil; 10 Jove; 11 Kind; 13 Refuse collector; 14 Gradient; 16 Quango; 18 Potage; 19 Trickery; 22 Picture-restorer; 24 Loop; 25 Silo; 26 Tibia; 27 Reed; 28 Whist-drive.

DOWN: 1 Washrag; 2 In-off; 3 Splashing out; 4 Adjacent; 5 Lively; 7 Existence; 8 Undergo; 12 Resuscitated; 15 Artichoke; 17 Grievous; 18 Popular; 20 Yardage; 21 Zenith; 23 Rabbi.

ADULT CROSSWORD WINNERS: Maureen Ferguson, Dublin.

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Sarah’sWordsearch S U O L U C A R I M J B L Q U N C O N D I T I O N A L M L R J R M L M W N L M Z T B Z G I L U L A T L Y T L Q E B T L S L C N H S B P B A Y Y J D R E E I T C H Q S B R D D P Y C N E F U S T N Q D Y P B O L R L M I E A N R B M A N J Y D A X R X P P J T W N D D R N U D N Y I X T B I N D N I J G L L R Y O M L G V W S U Q H L Z L B L N B N P I L J S T M O Y R L W R Z N D M J J E H Q D L Y B B G L B Z K Y R W Z Y G V W Z

John Scally, in his article on Holy Saturday, discusses the significance of Easter weekend.

Can you find these words taken from his article?

EAST

ER PRA

Jesus showed us many things, To love and share and dance and sing.

To learn and pray, to help and care, He promised he’d always be there.

YER ....

God made you and God made me, He made the world for us to see.

God loves you and long ago, He sent his Son to tell us so.

Easter Sunday Crucifixion Risen Holy Laughter Miraculous Humanising Innocent Paschal Mystery Unconditional

.. ..... ...

He died but then came back to life, Let’s celebrate for he’s alive! Amen.

5 1 5 4

3

4 6

4

1

2

5

4

1

2 1

5 2

4

1

6

Sarah’s Numbers Complete the grid so that each row, each column and each 3x2 box has the numbers 1-6

Poetry Competition

Test your talents and submit your own poem for a chance to win €30! This month’s poem should be written on the theme of:-

MYSTERY

Competition Information: Please include your name, age and address with your entry and send to: APRIL Competition, Young Readers’ Pages, The Sacred Heart Messenger, 37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland OR by email to competitions@messenger.ie by the 24th of the month.

FEATURE

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Beatified in Detroit in November 2017, this Capuchin Blessed, born of Irish parents, lived a simple life, with sanctity and goodness. Fr MICHAEL DUFFY OFM Cap, who ministers in Dublin, introduces his life story which will continue in the May Messenger.

BLESSED SOLANUS CASEY (1870–1957) Pohd-lokh the storyteller believed that a man’s life proceeds from his name in the way that a river proceeds from its source. Barney Casey was born in 1870, in the USA, the son of immigrant parents, his mother from County Armagh and his father from Monaghan. ‘Barney Casey’: yes, it has an earthy ring about it!

And in that sense, Barney’s life did indeed proceed from his name.

However, with due respect to Pohdlokh, we gain even more inspiration by absorbing what the gospel tells us about those who follow Jesus: ‘Your names are written in heaven’.

Barney’s life, solidly formed in a faith-filled family, was grounded in humility, that beautiful strength of soul which enables one to see and accept with gratitude the truth of one’s deepest being.

Life was not easy for the Caseys in USA, but they had a strong Catholic faith, which they passed on by example to their family of sixteen. Some weeks before his beatification, which took place in a large football stadium on 18 November 2017, I decided to immerse myself in his story, in preparation for a homily which I was to deliver in St Mary of the Angels, Church Street, on the first of December.

I simply wanted to connect with him in a human way. At first, he was elusive. There was never anything spectacular or sensational about his life. It was all quite ordinary, the same ups and downs as the rest of us. I was particularly touched when I discovered that, though separated by some seventy years, Barney and I had something in common: he, like myself, had diphtheria as a youngster. Two of his sisters also had diphtheria, one of whom died. I spent fifty-three days in Cork Street Fever Hospital, Dublin, at the age of four and a half. An older brother of mine had died from the same disease in 1939. The disease left its mark on Barney, who was later described as having a weak, raspy voice. He liked to sing but his Capuchin confreres never encouraged him to do so, preferring instead to let him play the fiddle – though he was not much better at this, they tell us!

He tried his vocation in Diocesan priesthood but ran into difficulties with his studies. He had no Latin or German. After four years, he was told that he must leave the seminary. At the age of twenty-six, he knocked on the door of St Bonaventure Capuchin Monastery in Detroit, where on

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Photo: Barbara Kalbfleisch / Shutterstock.com

Banner on lamp post honours Blessed Solanus Casey outside St Bonaventure Monastery during week of his ceremonial elevation to Blessed, one step before Catholic sainthood.

The kingdom of God is near.

Lk 21:29-33

First Friday: 6 April 2018 ................................................................ ................................................................ ................................................................ ................................................................ ................................................................

January 14, 1897, he was received as a novice and given the religious name Francis Solanus.

He faced the same difficulties in his studies. In the end, it was decided to ordain him to the priesthood, but as a so-called ‘simple’ priest – he could say Mass daily but was considered unfit to preach or hear confessions.

This he accepted with characteristic humility and loving submission to God’s providence. He learned humility through suffering: the suffering born of that wounded pride that comes with disappointment, and failure. Fr Solanus simply did what was available to him. He acted as porter at the door of the friary. The foundations were already being laid for a life of heroic sanctity.

Petitions may be sent to us on this form, or on any piece of paper.

All petitions received are placed on our Sacred Heart altar, and Mass is offered for them once each week.

SEND TO:

The Sacred Heart Messenger,

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37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.

REFLECTION

46

April 22 is the world day of prayer for Vocations. This reflection by Donal Neary SJ, editor, invites us to say ‘yes’ to our Christian vocation, called as each of us is at Baptism, and to pray especially for vocations to priesthood, religious life and Church ministry.

A PLACE IN THE FLOCK He looked at his flock of sheep and each of them he knew.

The same with ourselves.

Jesus looks at us and knows us well, And knows that each of us has a place in his flock.

The parent, teacher, chaplain, priest, religious, All called in his flock to do what he did, To love, to be compassionate, to join in the adventure of faith.

Each of us has a place and a role; Just like the sheep are the less a flock if one gets lost, So is God’s family when one is missing.

Often we feel we have nothing to offer, When the best we have to offer is ourselves.

The talents and gifts we have are called in the service of others, As our baptism calls us to be men and women for others.

Some affect a group or make a mark in public life But mostly we serve others in the ordinary and the everyday.

The place we serve the Lord is the workplace and the kitchen, The family and the groups of friends And especially in our care for another when the other is needy.

He looks at all of us and doesn’t want to lose anyone; He looks at all of us and wants the best for everyone No matter what our past or our weaknesses.

He looks at all of us and asks that we be the ones today Who speak his word and touch the world with his compassion.

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IN THE MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS

47

JOHN MURRAY explores the many ways in which Pope John Paul II was shaped by the faith of his parents, Emilia and Karol Wojtyla. Both of whom sadly died early in the Pope’s life.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

EMILIA AND KAROL WOJTYLA

Above: Pope John Paul II, and insert, Emilia and Karol Wojtyła, parents of Pope John Paul II, with their elder son, his brother Edmund

‘Who will this child turn out to be?’ the bystanders wondered at the birth of John the Baptist. After all he would not be called Zechariah after his father.

Does not every mother think their child is special? Many stories about Karol Wojtyla’s childhood abound and it is virtually impossible to separate truth from pious fantasy. The story that Emilia – his mother – walked him in a pram through Wadowice

and told her neighbours ‘you’ll see Lolek will be a great man someday’ has been testified to so often that it should perhaps be given the benefit of the doubt.

Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, was born on May 18 1920 in the Polish city of Wadowice. After centuries of subjugation Poland had emerged from the Great War as an independent nation.

It was possible again to ‘breathe

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IN THE MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS

48 the Polish air’, to celebrate Polish culture, to sing folk songs, to go to Polish theatre; in other words, to be proud to be a son or daughter of the Polish nation. The young Wojtyla would in time imbibe all of that and make his own unique contribution.

Emilia and the older Karol, his father, were married in 1904. When Poland was reborn Karol Senior, who had served in the Austro-Hungarian army, continued to serve as an officer in the new nation’s army until he retired in 1927 with the rank of captain.

Emilia Kaczorowska was the fifth child of Feliks and Maria and was born in 1884. There is some speculation that she was a Jewish convert but there is no solid evidence for this other than the later sympathy of her son towards the Jewish faith and people – ‘our elder brothers’ he would often say in sermons. Wadowice had a Jewish population of 2000 people and by and large the Jewish people and the Catholics got on well. The young Karol often played in goal for a team which mainly consisted of his local Jewish friends.

A son, Edmund, arrived in 1908 and there was also a daughter, Olga, but sadly she did not live long.

Edmund was a bright young man and from 1924 to 1929 he studied medicine at the great Jagellonian university, from where he graduated and went on to practice at the hospital in Bielsko. Emilia and Karol were said to be justifiably proud of their eldest son.

The young Karol – nicknamed

‘Lolek’ – arrived on May 18 1920.

While he was growing up Emilia, who was often sick, took in sewing to help supplement the family income and often she would be doing this work while the young Karol played in the apartment.

However tragedy was soon to strike the Wojtyla household. On 13 April 1929 Emilia died of kidney failure and congenital heart disease.

She was forty-five. A requiem Mass was celebrated and she was buried in the parish cemetery. In a postFreudian world there has been ample speculation about the influence of her short life and early death on the mind and theology of the later pope.

As an adult he later admitted that he did not have many memories of the mother who died when he was but nine. On a table in his bedroom in the Vatican he kept a picture of his parents shortly after they were married.

Karol senior was to be the main formative influence on the future pope. Jerzy Kluger, a Jewish friend, remembers the captain as ‘neither familiar or distant, but approachable.’

Above all Karol remembers his father as a ‘man of constant prayer’.

When the boy awoke he would invariably find his father on his knees silently praying. Father and son would read the bible together and prayed the rosary regularly. Together also the two would rise early and attend Mass at seven in the morning in the nearby church of St Mary’s. It was a routine that would stand to him through his years of priesthood and later episcopacy.

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IN THE MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

49

Emilia Wojtyła, with baby Karol

Tragedy was again to strike in 1932 when Edmund contracted scarlet fever from a patient and died. It was a hammer blow to the father and son. For Lolek, just twelve, it was a hard lesson in God’s will. But he was learning from his father that suffering can be transformed by faith and that the true measure of man was in his character.

This character was to be tested in the ensuing years as Nazi Germany invaded the young nation in 1939 and suppressed education and culture. Krakow was to become the Wojtyla home. Rations were sparse and the captain’s health deteriorated through the ensuing months. By December 1940 he was bedridden.

Karol combined his work in a quarry with attending a clandestine theatre group.

One day in February 1941 he returned home to find his father had died. He rushed to the local church and a priest returned to pray with his father and a couple of days later Fr Figlewicz said the requiem Mass and the captain was buried in the military section of the cemetery. ’I never felt so alone…’ Karol would later write.

He had no one – no relatives, just friends. One of these remembers the young man often praying on the floor with his arms in the cruciform position, just like his father.

‘Who will this child turn out to be ?’ The man, the priest, and later cardinal and pope – the mystic who was Karol Wojtyla – was formed in the school of prayer which his mother and especially his father led. As Emilia often said ‘You’ll see Lolek will be a great man someday.’

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ALAN HILLIARD tells a story of Irish immigrants to Quebec, Canada, and challenges of the Church to ‘welcome, protect, promote and integrate’ our migrant population, especially those seeking asylum.

THE FAMINE AND GROSSE ISLE Fr Thomas Quinn was born in Strokestown in County Roscommon in 1841 and he died in Quebec in Canada in 1914. It was with great emotion that he often spoke of the occasion when the priest in Grosse Isle, who cared for the disease ridden Irish emigrants, took him to his father’s dying bedside. His father lifted his head and, recognising his six year old son, said to him ‘Remember your Soul and your Liberty’.

Quinn made an immense contribution to Canada. He could never stop remembering the forty-seven Roman Catholic and seventeen Anglican chaplains who worked over the summer of 1847– boarding the immigrant ships, giving the sacraments in the hospitals, and tending to the burials. Thankfully, for those Irish who made it to shore in 1847, there was little sense among those who welcomed of ‘having to look after our own first’. He supported the work of French Canadians to claim the right to speak in their mother tongue. He went on to work tirelessly for the integration of the Irish into Canadian society. Throughout his life he used every opportunity to express his admiration and gratitude for the many Canadian clergy and sisters who put their own lives in jeopardy as they selflessly cared for

the thousands of Irish who arrived on famine ships. For example, speaking in French at the first Congress for the French Language he said, ‘Canada, however, had foreseen the advent of these people and had acknowledged them as brothers and sisters in Christ. Stirred with compassion, French-Canadian priests, braving the epidemic, contended for the glory of rushing to their relief.

French-Canadian clergymen, be eternally blessed for your heroism! You, above all, who fell victims to your devotedness!’

It must have been an awful experience to be in the belly of those ‘coffin ships’ as people died, delirious from disease; where children screamed with angst as their parents were stolen from them by the dreaded famine fever and where those who weren’t preoccupied by disease were tortured by hunger.

One of the greatest antidotes to suffering and death in those days was the warmth and care of others.

Before ever migration was a much talked about topic people were welcoming, supportive and assisting newcomers as they came to terms with their new environment. Now maybe, do we talk a lot about the subject, and do less?

The core belief of those who

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reached out was that the people in need were their brothers and sisters in Christ. They weren’t primarily Irish, Scottish, dying, sick, angst ridden; they were brothers and sisters in Christ and that was the motivation that propelled good people into action, thus assisting people like Thomas Quinn and his brother to embrace a wholesome life after the tragedy of their early life.

Today we can call people immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, bludgers, welfare frauds – the list goes on. Categories such as these can sit easy with us because they mean we do not have to do anything.

In this year’s message for ‘World day of Migrants and Refugees’ Pope

Francis tells us that ‘our shared response may be articulated by four verbs: to welcome, to protect, to promote and to integrate’. This inspiring letter by Pope Francis may well have been written as a study of the beliefs, actions and words of those priests and nuns in the Grosse Isle area in 1847.

Reflecting on the actions of those in Grosse Isle and looking at things happening in our world today, we might see those in need as a nuisance, anchored somewhere off our antenna, or we might see them simply as our brothers and sisters who need to nourish their souls and taste liberty. This is how God our Father sees them.

Photo: Famine Memorial in Westport, Mayo, of famine ship, designed by Irish artist John Behan.

In Loving Memory

The names sent to us of all those who have died are entered on our

List of the Dead

They are placed on the Sacred Heart Altar in our oratory and remain there for two months. Every Wednesday Mass is offered especially for them, that they may have eternal rest with the Lord, and that their families and friends may be consoled in their loss. www.messenger.ie

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JOHN CALLANAN SJ, an Irish Jesuit and well-known author, presents the second and final part of a story from his time working in a hospice. Fr John currently works in the parish of St John the Baptist, Clontarf, Dublin.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE HOSPICE PART 2 SYNOPSIS OF PART 1: During his training year as a Jesuit, John Callanan SJ found himself placed in a hospice, but without an assigned role. On suggesting to the matron he thought he’d be best occupied assisting the current elderly chaplain, she seemed less than impressed. ‘Who’, she asked, ‘do you suppose is the most important person in the whole hospice?’…

My first guess – ‘the consultant’ – brought a smile to Matron’s face. My innocence obviously tickled her. He was probably the least important, I was told. I immediately adjusted my sights and said of course, it would have to be the Matron. I thought politically I had made a good move but was gently put in my place. ‘Probably the second least important’, I was informed.

By that stage I was stumped, so I asked the matron to please tell me what my smartest move might be, and what position would give me the greatest insight into the whole bereavement process. She didn’t hesitate for a second. ‘Becoming the tea lady would be your best choice but as that position is already taken by a woman who is a genius at the job you haven’t a chance of usurping her role or getting into that slot.

You’re next smartest move would be to become a nurse’s aide.’

‘So who or what exactly is a nurse’s aide?’ I had to ask, and I was politely informed that usually such a being was a girl of about eighteen from the Irish Midlands. She wouldn’t have too much formal education but would have plenty of native wit along with a burning desire to become a fullyfledged nurse. ‘It’s about the hardest job you’re likely to find around here and normally the young people who are nurse’s aides work like their lives depended on it. Most of the dirtiest jobs come their way – like washing the patients, or cleaning the toilets – but they certainly become very knowledgeable about the harder aspects of dying in a very short time – and so will you. You’ll find them very friendly and non-threatening and, like the tea-lady, everybody knows and calls them by their first name. That’s the gift they and the tea lady have really. Patients tell them everything about themselves and their life history because they are not intimidated by what they find in front of them. The patient is not overwhelmed – as they might be by the consultant or the matron – and

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thus they go into all sorts of gory details about their aches and pains.

Nothing is left out, and because the tea lady has heard the same health problems being discussed over and over again, she has picked up a lot of folk wisdom around the wards and knows all sorts of remedies that usually work. In the patient’s eyes, they are the salt of the earth, and they are as far as I am concerned as well.’

Her words proved to be right on the mark. I was a nurse’s aide for six weeks and I found myself facing all sorts of experiences on a daily basis.

You could be asked to wash down the wards, and then to sit with a bedside visitor. You’d find yourself seated beside a wife, trying to comfort her dying husband as he gently slipped away. The thought of it was

almost enough to freeze you to the spot but it didn’t. Maybe we were given a grace to cope with what came at us each day.

I don’t know why or how, but before long – and without really realising it – a certain ease would begin to develop and what you had to face would become less threatening.

Something about the real privilege you had been given would start to sink in, and – despite your own doubts and fears about your competence – a calm would take over.

People tended to re-assure you that in fact your presence had been a real help. It had assisted them in getting through the ordeal they had faced.

As the matron might have said, you had become a little like the ‘salt of the earth’ yourself though you hardly knew it.

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APRIL 2018

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SUNDAY

29

5th Sunday of Easter

22

4th Sunday of Easter

15

3rd Sunday of Easter

17

10

3

TUESDAY

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St Pius V Pp R

23

24

St George Mt St Adalbert B M Patron of England

16

9

Annunciation of the Lord

2nd Sunday of Easter

8

2

MONDAY

1

EASTER SUNDAY

25

St Mark Evangelist

18

11

St Stanislaus Bp Mt M

4

26

19

12

5

WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

APRIL 2018

27

20

13

St Martin I Pp Mt

6 u

FRIDAY

28

St Louis Mary de Montfort P

21

St Anselm Bp Dr

14

7

SATURDAY

u First Friday

Is this what we are preparing for?

Rolled away stone, rolled up clothes.

As if everything was over.

And we know – how marvellous – The new Christ – we are his body – It is just beginning.

Text and photograph: Donal Neary SJ ISSN 1649-4450

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