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MERCY & MIGRATION Alan Hilliard THE POPE’S INTENTIONS Cormac McConnell FROM THE ARCHIVES: MESSENGER 1916 MATER DEI: 50 YEARS Donal Neary SJ

CONTENTS Regular Editorial Donal Neary SJ

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Pope’s Intentions Cormac McConnell

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Praying with Luke’s Gospel Carmel McCarthy RSM

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Masterpieces of Christian Art Eileen Kane

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From the Archives: January 1916

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Ignatian Bookshop

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Daily Offering

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Dublin’s Historic Churches Christopher Moriarty

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Gardening Helen Dillon

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Our Readers Write

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Cookery Marie McGuirk

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Adult Crossword

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Children’s Crossword

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Young Readers’ Pages

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In the Master’s Footsteps John Murray

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Serial Story: Cora’s Shed Georgina Downes

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Fragments Michael Paul Gallagher SJ

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Patrick Kavanagh’s poem, ‘Advent’ , published in the December issue of The Sacred Heart Messenger was reprinted from ‘Collected Poems’, edited by Antoinette Quinn (Allen Lane, 2004), by kind permission of the Trustees of the Estate of the late Katherine B Kavanagh, through the Jonathan Williams Literary Agency.

Features Students go to TaizĂŠ Isabelle Ryan & Ciara Foley

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Mercy and Migration Alan Hilliard 18 Care for Future Generations Ronan Barry

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Mater Dei 50 Years Donal Neary SJ

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The Gospel as Told by Water Sister Susan SMSM

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Special Education Supplement ----------- Centre spread pull-out ----- Page 27

4 The Sacred Heart Messenger is an official publication of the Apostleship of Prayer ADDRESS: Messenger Publications 37 Lower Leeson Street Dublin 2 Ireland Phone: 01 676 7491 (or 00 353 1 676 7491) Fax: 01 6767493 (or 00 353 1 6767493) E-Mail: sales@messenger.ie Website: www.messenger.ie ARTICLES TO: THE EDITOR 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 2016: Price monthly: €1.50/£1.25 Annual subscription 2015 from promoter or newsagent: €18.00/£15.00 Annual subscription by post Rep of Ireland and N.I.: €25/£21 Annual subscription to Britain: £24 Annual subscription to EU and ROW: €30/$40 © All rights reserved.

Editorial Happy New Year! It is a new begining for The Messenger, as we say goodbye to Fr John Looby SJ, editor of seven years, and a new recruit takes on the role. We thank Fr John for his creative guidance of the magazine over these years, and for directing it towards the world of new technologies and ideas, while always upholding its main aim – to make Christ’s love known today.

Thanks are also due to the hardworking and innovative team, with ideas blending the old and the new, and an abundance of new plans for our publications.

January is indeed a month of the new. Our article on the Mater Dei Institute of Education pays tribute to a 1966 venture of lay-cleric collaboration – the professional education of Catechists in our post-primary schools, one of the first of its kind in Ireland. With creative leadership for 50 years, Mater Dei has led the field of collaboration between the church and the Department of Education and Sciences.

An article on Taize highlights the emergence after the Second World War of the first ground level centre of interfaith prayer and dialogue, a place which has given young people an experience of faith they have never forgotten.

An introduction to Pope Francis’ Letter, Laudato Si on care of the earth is a new area of faith reflection on one of the biggest problems of our time. Letters of thanks show how the Lord is always new in our lives, and our thanks renews us.

A good recipe or hint for the garden leads us into new foods and new flowers. St Luke’s gospel

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highlights some new points of Jesus’ life, such as his mercy and calling of women.

January is also a month of trust and hope. As bells ring out at midnight, and we sing Auld Lang Syne, we enter into 2016 with confidence that God will always be with us. We can sit back and give thanks for the last year, and pray God’s help in the new, and lift the heart to God – remembering loved ones far away.

Donal Neary Editor

May the roads and paths of 2016 rise to meet us all with a kindly direction; and may we find God’s warm hand in all the New Year brings.

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.” So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

Donal Neary SJ

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POPE’S INTENTIONS CORMAC McCONNELL

The Art of Conversation PRAYING WITH THE POPE

This month the Pope asks us to pray ‘that sincere dialogue among men and women of different faiths may produce the fruits of peace and justice.’

Have you ever fallen out with somebody close to you after an argument and found it difficult to begin the process of reconciliation? If so, I am sure you will readily agree that certain key elements to ending hostilities and engaging once more in normal civilised relations depend on the ability to forgive unconditionally, and also depend on a desire to re-launch sincere dialogue. These are easy words to say but more difficult to put into action! Forgiving someone is something that we find extremely difficult to do, especially when we believe that we have been totally wronged.

IT’S GOOD TO TALK! When Pope Francis visited the former wartorn city of Sarajevo in June 2015, he praised the work of the Bosnian Council for Interreligious Dialogue, set up in 1997. He emphasised that when he spoke of interreligious dialogue he did not want to see it merely limited to leaders of religious communities, but extended to all believers, since he saw it as above all ‘a conversation about human existence’. Authentic and JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

effective dialogue, he stressed, was an issue of developing bonds of friendship that unite us all, and favouring the promotion of moral values, justice, freedom and peace.

Many people reading this article may remember the long running TV Ad campaign by British Telecom in the mid-1990s and fronted by the well-known actor Bob Hoskins, with the simple but clever catchphrase ‘It’s good to talk!’ These ads were about selling a phone service, but the intention of getting more people to talk to each other was a welcome by-product that nobody could argue with. I don’t think many of us would dispute that healthy communication between family members, colleagues and friends is essential to our own well-being as well as to the wellbeing of a properly functioning society.

I often ask myself whether ‘talk’ has any role left in the world we live in today? Is conversation a lost art? How much do we really engage in authentic and effective dialogue in our homes, workplaces and communities? Has the

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spoken word irrevocably been subsumed into a new, more sophisticated, yet superficial form of communication? Are we living in a world today populated by anonymous faces that no longer subscribe to traditional ways of community living, but exist at a mere virtual or make-believe level?

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? We might visualise what affect a traumatic life-changing event would have on our ability to function. Challenging times like a serious illness, the passing on of a loved one, a marriage breakdown, an unexpected job loss, or financial pressures can easily trigger moments in all of us of deep anxiety and fear. The ability to ‘talk’ at these difficult times can become almost impossible. We may retreat into our shell and hide from the world. In these moments of crisis the emotional and physical strain of it all can lead us to

seek retribution or worse. Toxic thoughts can immobilise people because of the resentment they feel based on unfortunate circumstances. Today young people have a wonderful phrase that I like very much – they say ‘What would Jesus do?’ Well, I think Jesus would welcome Pope Francis’ approach, and ask us to follow his lead.

A CHANGE OF HEART We are living today in a multicultural and ethnically diverse society. This brings with it huge opportunities for growth and new experiences, but can also cause adverse complexities leading to racism, xenophobia, bigotry and intolerance. The challenge presenting itself to us today is to openly accept each other as brothers and sisters.

If we began to operate out of the heart, rather than the head, it would be a turning point – a conversion so to speak. But changing how we operate and

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8 feel is no easy task. In the words of an old Eastern proverb ‘the longest journey you will ever take is the eighteen inches from your head to your heart.’

Turning points can be wonderful experiences of renewal and rebirth, but they can also be times where one can find oneself adrift. Our understanding of these life events can also be challenging, and where the experience has been negative, the process can lead us into developing intolerant opinions of others.

We may be challenged to reappraise our stance on many issues, including our own belief system. Our default position may be to protect ourselves from what we feel are alien

beliefs. We may bury our heads in our traditional culture and value system; rather than allowing our religious beliefs to inform us, we may let them blind us. So what we need to do is ask ourselves the following fundamental questions: How do we understand our common call to be ‘God’s people’? As we consider our commitment to Christian unity, for what should we beg forgiveness? Knowing the mercy of God, how do we engage in social and charitable projects with other Christians?

By asking these questions and reflecting upon them, we may begin to evaluate our own ability to forgive, and in so doing enter into sincere dialogue with all people of faith.

Pray for peace in the world.

Mk.2:16-21

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THE GOSPEL CARMEL McCARTHY RMS

Introducing Luke

PRAYING WITH THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: PART 1

Since the Sunday Gospel passages in Ordinary Time this year come from St Luke’s Gospel, the following months will feature some reflections on praying with this Gospel. As in the case of the other three, this Gospel carried no name until it was attributed to ‘Luke’, well into the second century. But, without knowing who its author really was – while continuing to call him Luke – it is possible to profile this gifted writer of the third Gospel. Such a profile emerges from exploring the choices its author made as to how best to tell the story of Jesus so that the early Christian communities for whom he was writing might be drawn into a deeper and more authentic faith in the risen Lord.

The first thing we can say by

way of introducing the Gospel of Luke is that its author was clearly a Gentile. He wrote excellent Greek, and his aim was to present ‘an orderly account’ showing how the events surrounding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus fitted into God’s plan for humanity. Consequently, his focus, as is also the case for the other Gospels, is on the theological meaning of Jesus’ mission, so that his readers (including us today) might ‘know the truth’.

While following Mark’s basic outline of the story of Jesus (about 50%), Luke’s Gospel includes some additional material, which he shares with Matthew (25%), and some material unique to him (25%).

Second, it is useful to remember that Luke’s Gospel is unique

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10 in that it forms part one of a two-volume narrative. Part one begins the Christian story with the birth of John the Baptist as a prelude to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, while part two, the Book of Acts, tells of the birth of the Church in Jerusalem, and its rapid growth beyond the confines of its Jewish origins, culminating in the preaching of the Gospel in Rome by Paul.

Being a Gentile in a movement which was overwhelmingly Jewish in origin possibly helped the author of Luke to become more aware of Jesus’ teaching regarding those treated as outcasts in a predominantly Jewish first-century society. Notice how this gospel is filled with characters that would have been regarded as outsiders, such as tax collectors, sinners, and Samaritans. Because women were given such an inferior status in Jesus’ time, Luke takes great care to show how respectful and accepting of them Jesus was – as demonstrated in his compassion for their plight and his appreciation of their support in his ministry.

Given that Luke was of Gentile origin, another aspect to his Gospel is his exceptional familiarity with the Old Testament. He is as much at home in the Jewish Scriptures as are any of the other three evangelists – if not even more. In fact, one of the most important portrayals of Jesus presented by Luke is that Jesus’ life, especially his death and JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

resurrection, is the key to understanding the Old Testament. The infancy narrative (chapters 1–2) is composed in such a way as to make it clear that the coming of Jesus fulfilled much Old Testament hope and promise.

Another key feature in Luke’s Gospel is his presentation of Jesus as being in the ‘midst of time.’ Jewish hopes were centred on the Messiah’s coming, and the establishment of God’s kingdom of justice and righteousness at the end of history. The earliest followers of the risen Jesus were convinced that this end time had come with Jesus’ death and resurrection, and so they expected his second coming to occur in their lifetime.

Luke reinterpreted this historical schema so that the risen Christ was seen as the definitive centre of history, followed by the extended period of the Church’s mission before the end times.

For Luke therefore the ‘time of Jesus’ was a special one-year period in which the kingdom of God was realised on earth in the ministry of Jesus, preceded by the ‘time of Israel’ and followed by the ‘time of the Church.’

A further significant characteristic of Luke’s way of presenting Jesus’ mission is his focus on God as champion of the poor and oppressed. In this regard, we need only look at how many parables, found only in Luke, have this concern as their focus.

Repentance and forgiveness of sins unite to form another key building block in Luke’s presen-

11 tation of the call to discipleship.

The three parables about the lost Sheep, lost Coin and lost Son (15:1-32) depict a merciful Father whose forgiving love is unconditional and enduring.

Luke uses the word ‘repentance’ twenty-five times in all, more than any other New Testament writer.

The prominence of the Holy Spirit in Luke is another dominant theme. As the power of God at work in Israel, in Jesus, and in the Church, it is the Spirit that binds them together into the story of God’s mighty acts in history. In many key events in Luke we find mention of the Spirit at work.

Luke stresses themes found also in Mark and Matthew, and in some cases brings them to new prominence. As well as recording Jesus’ teaching about prayer, Luke also notes how Jesus himself would withdraw to

pray (5:16), or spend the night in prayer (6:12). The three great canticles used in the Prayer of the Church, the Benedictus, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, are unique to Luke’s Gospel. In fact, prayer and praise punctuate this Gospel, never letting the attentive reader forget the role of God in the unfolding of Jesus’ destiny.

Finally, the third Gospel unfolds in an atmosphere of joy – a theme emphasised by Pope Francis in his first encyclical letter (The Joy of the Gospel, 2013). As we move forward into 2016, let us reflect on how the opening lines of this encyclical echo the spirit of Luke: ‘The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.

Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew.’

Bequest Please remember in your will

‘I give and bequeath to The Sacred Heart Messenger, 37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland the sum of €__________ for the general charitable purposes in Ireland of the said Charity. The receipt of the said Charity shall be sufficient evidence of payment of the said sum.’

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ISABELLE RYAN CIARA FOLEY

Youth Pilgrimage to Taizé ST JOSEPH’S SECONDARY SCHOOL, STANHOPE STREET Five students from fourth and fifth year in St Joseph’s, Stanhope Street, Dublin, who are already part of a Pledge Club in school (abstaining from alcohol until 18 years of age and never doing drugs) joined the Diocesan Youth Pilgrimage to Taizé in July 2014. They enjoyed their experience immensely and this is what two of the students wrote about their experience of this unique pilgrimage.

Isabelle Ryan Sixth Year Student Before arriving in Taizé I didn’t know what to expect and because of this I was slightly nervous. I had imagined it as a very spiritual and peaceful village, which I was happy to go to, although I really didn’t think it would be as fun as it was. Following our arrival, we were greeted with a warm welcome by a volunteer of the community and got to know the people in the group that we had travelled with. It was the start of a wonderful week and one that I will never forget.

As you will learn on your first day in Taizé, each person over the age of 17 gets a job. In mine and Ciara’s case, our job was at Point 5 where, for the rest of the week, we would become the toilet cleaning team. Although at first we were disappointed that we had gotten a less glamorous job, whereas some of our other friends were in charge of cooking dinner or working in JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

the little shop in the Oyak, from our first day we realised that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Each morning we would go to Point 5 at 10am and meet with our groups, we would then sing the famous Point 5 song ‘What shall we do with the dirty toilets (x3), all around in Taizé? Hey-ho let’s go clean them (x3), all around in Taizé!’ Every day after finishing work, the Point 5 team would be treated to iced tea and small pastries, which made the job a little bit sweeter.

We ate our meals three times each day. Breakfast was served after morning prayer at 8:15am. We’d usually be woken up each day by a band, with a French musician, who I became friends with in Bible group, as their leader. Lunch followed the midday prayer at 12:20pm and supper was served before evening prayer at 7:00pm.

Queuing in the line to receive our meals was often one of the busiest times of the day, and there was never a dull moment.

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Christoph Radtke/Wikimedia Images

Church of conciliation, Taizé.

Sometimes people would have guitars with them and a singalong would start in the middle of the line.

Each night after the evening prayer at 8:30pm, we would leave the church, turn towards each other and shout ‘Oyak!’

The Oyak is a social area where everyone goes after prayer and meets with friends. There is a small shop there where you can buy ice cream, drinks, and a small selection of hot foods.

Here at the Oyak, is where I was first introduced to the ‘Taizé games’, which everyone plays each year in the community.

These include Samurai, Funky Chicken, Ninja and the Foot Game. Many people often brought guitars, ukuleles and even a saxophone down to

the Oyak and usually the night would end with everyone dancing and singing together in a large crowd. There was even a night where our group sang Irish songs, which gained a lot of attention! Lights go out at 11:30pm, sometimes at midnight if we have been quiet, and the night watch team asks everyone to leave the Oyak.

Most nights, Ciara, myself and our friends would go to the church to listen to people singing as there was usually a small gathering of people there.

This was always a lovely way to end the night.

Taizé was definitely the greatest experience of my life, and the memories I have from my trip are ones that I will always cherish.

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14 Ciara Foley Fifth Year Student My first expectation of Taizé was a small quiet community filled with young people and little freedom. I was wrong! Taizé was the friendliest community with the nicest young people and the most liberty to do as you pleased.

Prayer in Taizé church

The centre of Taizé holds a massive church, with so many Damir Jelic/ extensions built on to it to fit Wikimedia Images more people each year!

Taizé Prayer happened three times daily, and whether you attended or not was optional. It wasn’t like Mass you would go to in Ireland; it was a lot better.

Upon entering the church, you are handed a prayer book with songs in every language you can JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

think of. People hold signs that ask for complete silence and the people sit on the floor, as there are no chairs in the church.

Prayer begins with a few songs everybody sings in all sorts of languages, ranging from English to Swedish to German! Then, one of the Brothers, who sit in rows in the centre of the church, will do a reading, and afterwards we return to songs.

Half-way through Taizé Prayer there is a silence, which lasts between seven and ten minutes.

With over one thousand people gathered in the church, you wouldn’t expect such silence, but you can almost hear your heart beat. It’s a wonderful experience to see such tranquillity and share it with the others around you.

The last two days of Taizé are different to the usual Taizé Prayer. On Friday night we go to the top of the church and each person can put their head on the cross if they wish, and pray.

On Saturday evening we all light candles and each person holds a candle, which makes the whole church light up and it’s very beautiful.

Taizé was the experience of a lifetime and I cannot wait to go back.

The five students who did the pilgrimage this year want to go back next year and they have gained interest from other students to join next year’s pilgrimage.

It is clear from the two accounts above that the pilgrimage, which involves a community aspect, is a key factor in faith formation for young people today.

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CHRISTIAN ART EILEEN KANE

The Adoration of the Magi MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTIAN ART The Adoration of the Magi by Gentile da Fabriano (c.1370-1427)

What a contrast there is, in the subject-matter of the paintings, and in the paintings themselves, between The Adoration of the Magi, by Gentile da Fabriano (in the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence), and The Numbering at

Bethlehem, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, which we saw in our December issue. In Bruegel’s painting, Mary and Joseph were arriving in Bethlehem, weary from their journey, unknown, and ignored by everybody.

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16 In Gentile’s, they – and the Infant Jesus – are the centre of attention. No longer moving unobtrusively among busy villagers in working clothes, they are now receiving the public homage of three princely visitors dressed in gold-embroidered costumes, who have come a great distance especially to see them.

The three visitors, ‘wise men... from the East’, Matthew calls them, (2:1-12), occupy the centre of Gentile’s altarpiece. They are of three different ages. The eldest, grey-bearded and almost bald, is on his knees, bending low, to kiss the foot of the infant Jesus, while Jesus, held firmly on the knees of his mother Mary, leans towards him and stretches out a hand to touch his head. Beside Mary, Joseph stands, looking on. The second wise man is in the prime of life. He too is on his knees, but upright. He is removing his gold crown from his head, as he prepares to greet Jesus, and holds in his hand a golden vessel, containing the gift he is about to offer. Last of the three is the youngest.

Holding his gift in his hand, he stands waiting, while a groom removes the golden spurs from his heels. Behind him, filling the right-hand side of the scene, come crowding forward all the attendants and horses who have accompanied the wise men to JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

Bethlehem, all of them in festive mood.

Over at the left of the scene, behind Mary and Joseph, are two young women, one of them holding the gift which the eldest wise man has offered.

They are framed by a doorway, but the doorway, protected by a projecting roof, gives access, not, as might be expected, to an interior space, but to a garden with fruit-laden trees. Beside it is a cave, with an ox and an ass looking out, and, on the roof of the cave, directly above the heads of Joseph and Jesus, is a large golden star, the star that led the wise men here, to Bethlehem, and ‘filled them with delight’, as Matthew tells us.

In Gentile’s composition, the star is a kind of meeting-point between the main scene in the foreground, and the smaller scenes in the three arched spaces of the background.

‘We saw his star as it rose’, the wise men said, and, just as they followed it to the place where the child Jesus was, so it seems to invite us to follow it, too. Our eye can travel along the path that leads from it back to a mountain by a distant ocean, where we find three men standing, looking up into the sky. From there they set out, accompanied by their retinue.

In the central arched space, we see them riding side by side, in the middle of a long procession, approaching the hill-top city of Jerusalem, where they will have an audience with King Herod.

17 ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’, they will ask, a question that, as we know, so disturbed Herod that he immediately decided to get rid of Jesus, hoping to use the wise men as unwitting collaborators. From Jerusalem, it was but a short journey to Bethlehem the city of David, seen in the third arched space, and, with the star as guide, to the place where Jesus was.

Each of these three arches is crowned by a finely carved, gilded and painted finial. In the centre, in a roundel, is Christ as Saviour, accompanied by the

wise men, and we compare the simplicity of Mary, carrying the infant Jesus in her arms, riding on a donkey, and Joseph going ahead, on foot – with the elaborate procession, with horses and outriders, around the wise men from the east. Gentile has very deliberately lined up the figure of Christ as Saviour at the top, and Christ as an infant refugee in the arms of his mother, in the predella, with, between them, the city of Jerusalem and the three wise men.

Gentile da Fabriano wrote his name on this altarpiece on the gilded frame, between the main

reclining figures of Moses, the law-giver, on his right, and King David, his ancestor through Joseph, on his left. In the outside finials, also in roundels, is the Annunciation, with, on our left, the angel Gabriel, and, on our right, Mary, accompanied by prophets who foretold the coming of Christ. Beneath the altarpiece is what is called a ‘predella’, with three scenes of events around the birth of Christ – a lovely night scene of the Nativity on the left, and the Presentation in the Temple, on the right.

In the centre, the main scene shows the Flight into Egypt, the long and arduous journey the Holy Family had to undertake in order to avoid the murderous plan of King Herod. It is the counterpart to the journey of the

scene and the predella, and the date 1423. The work is therefore much earlier than Pieter Breugel’s, which is dated 1566, and whereas Breugel used oil as a binding medium, Gentile used the older technique of ‘egg tempera’.

Gentile’s painting is reckoned as one of the greatest masterpieces of its kind. It is unsurpassed for the elegance of the figures, the handling of the draperies, the finesse of the brushwork, and especially for the intricacy of the tooling of the gold. The fact that there is so much gold in the work is undoubtedly explained by the identity of the man who commissioned it – Palla Strozzi, probably the wealthiest man in Florence at that time.

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SPECIAL FEATURE ALAN HILLIARD

Mercy and Migration The World Day for Migrants and Refugees is celebrated every year in the month of January. The theme of the year is set out in a letter that is issued by the Holy Father prior to the celebration. This year the theme is in keeping with the Jubilee of Mercy.

Dublin is full of contradictions and dichotomies. In the midst of all the energy in the business and commercial centres you find people hanging on to life by their fingertips.

One day when I was walking by the college where I am based I saw this first hand. It was the first week of term and all the students were pre-occupied with talk of fees, time-tables, courses, pubs, bikes, accommodation and other such things. Outside at the railings I came across a lady who was worn down by the years. She had a hand on an iron fence to hold her up as the other hand clutched a brown bottle from which she drank. She was mightily oblivious to the worries that consumed the students as she blasted out verse after verse of a song I remembered from my teenage years. ‘By the Rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yeeah we wept, when we remembered Zion’.

For many years this song was a happy go lucky ‘boppy’ piece, which was very popular in my disco days. Following years of JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

study and reflection this line from psalm 137 has a deeper resonance within me. For the lady who sang, the song was most likely taking her to a happy moment when she too sat or danced with people she loved and enjoyed; not unlike the people of God in exile in Babylon.

This song is a psalm from the Bible and it is a song about exile.

Exile can be that of a country or people that is imprisoned in a strange land. It could also be that of a person who has lost a time of happiness and joy, or even that of those forced to leave home to find themselves currently estranged physically, emotionally and spiritually because everything around them is new, unfamiliar and challenging.

One of the reasons the Church reaches out to migrants, refugees and those who travel is that the Church understands exile – it is at the heart of the spiritual life.

Many Church documents remind us that as we make our pilgrim journey to God’s Kingdom in our earthly existence we are all ‘in exile’.

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The exile from God’s Kingdom is not the only form of exile. An understanding of the spiritual life requires an erudite reflection on exile. Exile is a place of transformation; a place of churning, a place where the heart, soul and mind are invited to see life differently. The old ways and the old places are lost to us and this leaves a space that seeks to be filled. In scripture we see this drama lived out in the life of Abraham, Moses, Elijah and many others. ‘The Lord our God by his favour has left us a remnant and granted us a refuge in his holy place; this is how God cheered our eyes and gave us a little respite in our slavery’ (Ezra

9:8). Exile brings many to a new home, a new place of richness and joy; some however don’t make it, they stay stuck in darkness and blame.

Pope Francis marks exile as an important formative influence in his life. When he was exiled from Buenos Aires by the Jesuits, he went to Córdoba. While he was stationed there he went through what he calls a ‘period of purification’. His spiritual journey, combined with pastoral work with many who were outcast, brought about a ‘great internal crisis’ (Jimmy Burns, [2016] Francis: Pope of Good Promise).

He lost some of the rigid ways with which he looked upon the

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20 world and, seeing the way people’s lives were damaged by the circumstances of life, he began to believe that they deserved compassion not condemnation.

This year, in a most urgent manner, the world is asked to consider the plight of migrants and refugees with the eyes and the heart of mercy. Yes migrants can be a nuisance, but let us remember that there are certain categories of migrants who travel freely and easily because the world of commerce facilitates them. On the other hand there are other categories of migrants that present difficulties for our present systems especially asylum seekers, those from lower socio-economic groupings and refugees. It is these groups that the world can often appear to be unwelcoming towards. They are very often the victims of the circumstances of life.

Alluding to these realities, the document described as

St Joseph’s

PENNY

the Churches’ Magna Carta on migration Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi informs us that the migrant is one who ‘surprises us and interrupts the regularity and logic of daily life’ (para 101).

This surprise can be both a welcome and an unwelcome one as previously outlined.

The letter of Pope Francis for the 2016 World Day for Migrants and Refugees recognises the challenges that face us but his message is very clear. Defying any contradictions or dichotomies, Pope Francis tells us that the only appropriate response for a Christian to the plight of migrants, especially to the plight of refugees and asylum seekers, is a response dictated by ‘The Gospel of Mercy’. It is the mercy of God and the mercy of His people that transforms the plight of those in exile and it is the same mercy that transforms the Church more completely into the image of Christ who saves us from ultimate exile.

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DINNER FUND

All donations will be gratefully acknowledged and should be sent to: SAINT JOSEPH’S PENNY DINNER FUND

c/o Fr Paul Farquharson SJ, St Francis Xavier’s, Gardiner Street, Dublin D01 TX23 Thank you to all of you who sent money during the past year. Your contribution is greatly appreciated.

JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

21 band who was buried in the trenches by the shells. He was wearing the badge of the Sacred Heart and the Brown Scapular, to which he attributes his safety.

FROM THE ARCHIVES LECTURES ON HOME LAUNDRY

1916

SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE I. Preparation – Sort clothes the day before washing them. Divide into groups and treat as follows: To be steeped: I. All body-linen, excluding anything in wool, print or silk. All table-linen and bed-linen. Steep in water to which a little shredded soap is added.

II. Handkerchiefs.

Place separately in a bowl of water to which a tablespoon of salt is added.

III. Kitchen cloths, rubbers and dusters.

Steep separately in water to which a tablespoon of dissolved washing soda is added.

Washing soda undissolved should never be added to clothes, however coarse the texture or however dirty, as it discolours and rots them.

N.B. – Very dirty white silks may be steeped.

Not to be steeped: Woollens, prints, laces, and coloured silks may never be steeped. The woollens shrink, the prints and silks lose colour, the lace fabric is injured, unless very coarse and strong.

REPORTED KILLED Dear Rev Father, Some months ago my brother, who volunteered for active service at the outbreak of the war, was sent to the Dardanelles. He wrote after landing, and the next report that reached us from a comrade was that he was killed. It seemed too true, but, placing confidence in the Sacred Heart, I began a Novena. I finished it last Sunday, and, thanks be to the Sacred Heart, on my return from Mass I got a card from my brother saying he was a prisoner of war.

Yours sincerely, A Grateful Sister

o a father, who sorely grieved at his daughters taking the veil in a Good Shepherd Convent, Louis Veuillot, the distinguished French Catholic writer, sent the following letter: My Dear Friend, Dry your tears. I congratulate you most heartily. Servant of the poor – that sounds well, but servant of the poor Magdalenes – that sounds far better. Picture to A True yourself the search through Catholic thorny and broken paths for Father IN PRAISE AND the lost and bruised sheep. I THANKSGIVING. LETTERS TO THE have five daughters whom I would willingly surrenEDITOR der to the Cloister. Yet God only knows the depth of my love for them. Our children belong to us no more BURIED BY SHELLS than the fruit belongs to the tree that bears it. When Dear Rev Father, it is all ripe down it falls. Happy are they who fall Mrs Cusack returns a thousand thanks to into God’s hands. Happy the maiden who follows the loving heart of Jesus, Our Blessed Lady the lamb. Happy the father whose daughter finds and Saint Joseph, for having saved her hus- shelter in the calm of the Cloister.

www.messenger.ie : JANUARY 2016

22

Messenger Recommends All on sale from The Ignatian Bookshop Tomorrow’s Parish: A Vision and a Path

Donal Harrington (Columba, 2015, hardback €14.99).

An excellent overview of parish life at present in Ireland; and coming from a realistic appraisal of the situation, helpful suggestions for all parish ministers, parish councils and others, for moving into the future with realistic optimism and hope. The author’s work obviously comes from knowing what it’s like on the ground in a parish.

Gospel Reflections for Year C Donal Neary SJ (Messenger, 2015, €9.99).

A page a week for Sundays and Holy Days of Year C. A special effort has been made to link the gospel, or sometimes the first reading, with life’s ordinary situations.

Gospel Conversations

Desmond O’Donnell OMI (Dominican Publications 2015, €9.99).

Interesting way of entering the real world of the people of the gospels, and through their conversations, hearing much about the background of the history of Jesus’ people.

Sacred Space 2016

(Columba Press, 2015, €12.99).

The text of the ever-popular website, with scripture and prayer for every day of the year.

JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

www.messenger.ie Phone Bríd on 01.7758522

23

Daily Offering God, our Father, I offer You my prayers, thoughts, words, actions, joys, and sufferings of this day, in union with the Heart of Jesus. May Jesus, be my guide and my strength today so that I may witness to your love.

With Mary, the mother of our Lord and the Church, I pray for the intentions proposed by Pope Francis this month.

Amen.

UNIVERSAL: Interreligious Dialogue: That sincere dialogue among men and women of different faiths may produce the fruits of peace and justice.

EVANGELISATION: Christian Unity: That by means of dialogue and fraternal charity and with the grace of the Holy Spirit, Christians may overcome divisions.

With sincere appreciation to our promoters, readers & benefactors

Through the generosity of our Promoters, most of our readers are able to receive the Messenger at the lowest possible cost. THANK YOU. Be assured that the Lord will bless you for your help in making better known His name and the love of His heart.

Thank you also to all of you who sent donations during the past month for the spread of devotion to the Sacred Heart and for other good causes, especially the Jesuit Education Mission in Assan, NE India. You are all remembered in our prayers and Masses. – Donal Neary SJ

www.messenger.ie : JANUARY 2016

24

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ARCHITECTURE CHRISTOPHER MORIARTY

St Teresa’s Church DUBLIN’S HISTORIC CHURCHES

St Teresa’s Church, Clarendon Street, Dublin.

Halfway down Grafton Street a signpost shows the way to St Teresa’s Church. A few paces along the dark and narrow alleyway of Johnson’s Court lead to a stone arch and small forecourt and one of several entrances to the church. It is a rather quiet and unobtrusive approach to one of the most beautiful, most historical and most built and rebuilt of all the places of worship in Dublin’s fair city. Something of a hint of the beautiful things to come inside is given by Imogen Stuart’s sculpture of Methos, the Angel of Peace, which has graced the belfry since 2008.

While innumerable shoppers and passers-by in Grafton Street go into the church from Johnson’s Court, the main entrance is the west door round the corner in Clarendon Street. Going in this way is a revelation – a transformation from a grey building in a row of houses and shops to a brilliant interior, focussing on the superb Resurrection triptych that fills the east window. On the right, as you face this window, three arches open to three oratories, each with a domed ceiling and a statue above the altar. This JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

arcade leads to the centre of the church and truly magnificent work by many artists added at intervals in the course of more than two centuries.

This is a good point from which to reflect on the history of the church. The foundation stone was laid in 1793, the year of the Catholic Relief Act, which permitted the building of places of worship. However, churches had to be low-pitched without steeples or towers and were not to open on to prominent streets. So the earliest part of St Teresa’s was a simple rectangular building, hidden away between the town houses of Grafton Street and Clarendon Street. It was built on a north-south axis and formed the lower storey of a monastery for the seven Carmelite friars who had moved there from Stephen Street. They had been helped in securing a site on Clarendon Street by a well-disposed Protestant builder, William Semple. Essential support came from a committee of Dublin businessmen, under the chairmanship of the brewer John Sweetman.

The original rectangle forms the nave of the present day church with the organ and

25

choir loft at the north end.

The architect was Timothy Beahan of Leeson Street.

Funds were raised by a door to door collection and the names of all the contributors were carefully recorded and are still preserved. Named ‘Clarendon Street Chapel’, the building was opened for worship on 1st May 1797. As well as the regular services, special fundraising concerts and sermons by popular preachers were held in the chapel. The proceeds went in part to the maintenance of an orphanage. Although the oldest part of the church, the nave is one of the most recently and beautifully decorated. Between 1990 and 1997 stained glass windows by Phyllis Burke were installed. Their subjects are ancient saints and prophets but their treatment is wholly modern and the pale colours of the glass allow a brightly lit interior.

From 1855 onwards the friars acquired additional pieces of land whenever they could to make space for extension of the church and for monastic

buildings. The work began in 1865 under the architect John Burke who had not long before distinguished himself as the designer of the Mater Hospital.

He extended the church southwards to accommodate the main altar and added the east transept, the belfry and the gateway on Johnson’s Court.

The style was Romanesque and this would also be used for the west transept and the great entrance front on Clarendon Street, added in 1876. The architect was William Hendry Byrne. That was the final phase of the building of the structure of the church – but interior additions and embellishments continued throughout the two centuries and more of its existence. One of the most important works of religious art is the sculpture of the Dead Christ, which John Hogan had completed in Rome and brought home to Dublin in 1829. An unknown donor allowed two of the friars to purchase it and the work was placed in front of the High Altar.

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26

If that had been all, St Teresa’s would have earned its place as one of the most distinguished in the land. But the church also enjoys a remarkable reputation both in politics and in church music. Without doubt the greatest man associated with it was Daniel O’Connell. Early in the 19th century he came to know the friars, in particular the charismatic Father Francis Joseph Lestrange. St Teresa’s became the venue for indoor meetings to advance the cause of Emancipation. Perhaps ironically, such political use of church building was forbidden by the hierarchy shortly after 1829. Slightly less politically, St Teresa’s was the church chosen for the funeral of Michael Davitt in 1907 and, earlier, that of the excommunicate Fenian Charles McCarthy.

From its foundation, music was central to worship in St Teresa’s.

The present organ was originally built in the 1840s by John White JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

of York Street, enlarged in 1876 and rebuilt and improved from time to time thereafter. In 1897 the organist and choirmaster Vincent O’Brien revived the long neglected work of Palestrina, aided and abetted by Edward Martyn. This was so successful that the choir was transferred to the Pro Cathedral and generously endowed by Martyn.

And there it remains. A revival of the choir at St Teresa’s began in 1990 and it accompanies 11 o’clock Mass on Sundays and at midday on Feast Days – in addition to winning choral awards and making concert performances from time to time.

The Carmelites of St Teresa’s offer much more than church services. They have a secluded café beside the church and a bookshop. There you may buy a beautifully illustrated book A Hidden Jewel, by James Noonan OCD, one of the best books available on any Irish church.

January ‘16

re:link

Resource for Religion Studies relink.messenger.ie

INTERVIEW:

“

The story of a teenage refugee...

”

Refugee’s Prayer

God, Almighty and merciful and ge fu e whose Son became a re own; had no place to call his e who look with mercy on thos er, ng da m ro today are fleeing f3 . ry homeless and hung bring Bless those who work to y and sit ro ne them relief; inspire ge arts; compassion in all our he world of the and guide the nations all will towards that day when stice of ju rejoice in your Kingdom s Christ Jesu and of peace; through our Lord.

AMEN. TOPICAL ARTICLES | Celebrity Profiles | COMPETITIONS

& PRIZES | Free Online Content | Interviews & more...

Hi! My name is Faith. Coming from a background of teaching Religious Education at St. Conleth’s Community College in Newbridge and my previous studies in Theology at the Mater Dei Institute, I have found that students retain information given in concrete examples. I believe that this applies even further, when it is an example that they can relate to; such as a personality their own age or a celebrity whom they are knowledgeable of.

This supplement aims to give relateable topics on current themes, which

will be an additional resource for students of secondary level Religious Education.

This is not intended to replace the student’s textbooks, but instead to enrich their learning through curriculum related articles, celebrity profiles and other present day topics.

This week we have focused on the theme of refugees and we hope that you enjoy our first edition.

Faith

did you know?

13.9 million

What is a the difference between a refugee & an asylum seeker?

A REFUGEE is a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

An ASYLUM SEEKER is someone who is seeking to be recognised as a refugee.

If they are granted this recognition they are declared a refugee.

m?

W here do refugee’s come fro The top 3 origins:

Syria

Afghanistan

An estimated 13.9 million individuals were newly displaced due to conflict or persecution in 2014.

W here do asylum seek

ers live in Ireland?

n n n n

In a hostel or similar. One room per family.

Shared toilet and shower facilities.

Meals are cooked and served at set times of the day.

Visitors are not allowed.

Somalia

Where do they get money?

Asylum seekers cannot work they receive a weekly allowance of €19.10 per adult and €9.60 per child. This must cover any additional school expenses, clothing, footwear, toiletries, phone credit, internet access, etc.

JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

Weekly Allownace

€19.10 €9.60

(Information Reference: Jesuit Refugee Service, UNHCR &Irish Refugee Council)

A Teenage Refugee Story

Faith Whelan talks to a student about being a refugee in Ireland.

As a teacher, I meet many different young age refugee in Ireland today. What she people, from lots of backgrounds. Most told me was as follows...

When she arrived in Ireland 4 years ago of the time I do not know the student’s history, other than what they choose to (she was 13 at the time) what stands out in her memory is how cold and wet it was, share with me.

While I was supervising a class one day, in comparison to her home country. She a 5th year student named Melanya men- left her house where she lived with her tioned to another student that she lived Grandparents to move to Ireland with in a hotel. I was curious, yet I didn’t want her mother, father and brother. Melanya to ask questions, as many homeless peo- and her family were given their room in ple are housed in hotels temporarily. I was what used to be a hotel and this is where they live today. Melanafraid that this may have ya shares this room with been the case. no guests are her family and told me This student speaks allowed to enter that it has a TV, a table perfect English, yet with the hotel... and beds. The hotel a hint of an accent, so I guessed that maybe she was not from Ire- has many people living there from variland. It didn’t matter. She is a hard work- ous different countries, which she finds ing, diligent girl and so I had no reason difficult as every week new people come to ever phone home about her or to ask and others leave. The meals are commumore. However when I heard from the nal and must be eaten at set times during Home School Liaison Officer that Melan- the day. No guests are allowed to enter ya would be missing some classes as she the hotel.

Melanya was keen to tell me that she was involved in a Refugee Integration programme in the school, I realised that is very happy here in Ireland and that I had been mistaken. I asked Melanya if she has never experienced racism. She she would talk to me about being a teen- said that she missed her Grandparents

and friends the most, but wouldn’t return home other than for a visit. Melanya’s friends and classmates know that she is a refugee. Melanya said that she spends her week day evenings doing homework and her weekends with friends or visiting her uncle and cousins in a nearby town.

Melanya’s school equipment and clothes are paid for and she gets €9 per week for herself. Melanya’s dream is for her family to have their own home again and she cannot wait to go to college and hopefully get a good job afterwards. As refugees Melanya’s parents are not allowed to work in Ireland but she hopes that by the time she finishes school that

they may be given asylum here.

Melanya’s words of advice for other teenage refugees arriving in Ireland were: “Be with your family, don’t be shy to go to school and talk about being a refugee.

You’re going to move on. Stay.”

To hear more stories from teenage refugees or get some additional information visit relink.messenger.ie

Competition!

Would you like to WIN €40 and get your work displayed on our RE:LINK website?

Write a letter to a teenage refugee who has just arrived in Ireland. What would you say?

What advice would you give them?

Send your letter via email to relink@messenger.ie or post to The Sacred Heart Messenger, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2.

We would love to hear your feedback on our new supplement. If you have any comments or queries, please contact relink@messenger.ie

31

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GARDENING HELEN DILLON

The Small Space JANUARY

If you only have a very tiny garden and are as keen on plants as I am, you can have a great time being especially picky and searching for the best plants that deserve to be grown in a very small space. (I used to have a balcony in Chelsea measuring 9 feet x 4 so I know all about this.)

A few general rules: if you have a lawn, consider digging it up (be careful to save every spadeful of valuable topsoil plus all the turfs to rot down for making new beds). Pave Plectranthus or gravel the Argentatus area, provided it’s level, and decide on the best place to sit to catch the sun. On no account use Mypex under the gravel (a material which keeps down weeds but always manages to get kicked aside so you see it). Get yourself organised to collect rain off the roof, which will be important, as many of your plants will be in containers.

What needs to be said a thousand times (I know you’ve read it before) is that once peat-based potting compost has dried out,

it’s difficult to get it properly soaked again. That’s why I prefer soil-based compost – such as 2 parts topsoil, 1 part Bórd na Móna peat (considered the best) and half a part grit (Westland will do). For general potting, I often use some excellent potting mix, which comes from Germany and is peat-free – plants seem to love it (obtainable from Fruithill farm – see Google – who will deliver to Dublin). Half this product and half the soil-based mix above would be better for longterm container residents such as roses.

Which rose would it be if I could only grow one? ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ would certainly be one of my absolute favourites.

1.2 metres tall, delicious fragrance, bright pink, very good repeat flowering. I have it growing mixed up with a hardy shrubby salvia called ‘Penny’s Smile’, which is exactly the same deep pink and blooms all summer, a madly pretty combination. For the tiniest garden of all, my choice would be adorable, pale pink ‘The Fairy’.

www.messenger.ie : JANUARY 2016

32 Just about any plant you can think of can be grown in a pot, but will be entirely dependent on you, and how much time you, or persuadable friends, will have for watering it. A well-established hydrangea in a pot for example, will need half a watering can every day in summer. We’ve had hydrangea ‘Blue Deckle’ in a big pot of lime-free compost for over twenty years. (Gardeners are so fickle, if we lived in Kerry on acid soil no doubt we’d only want pink hydrangeas.)

Dublin hydrangeas are invariably pink because of limey soil.

To give you a few ideas of what we grow in pots here: hydrangeas, roses, tulips, alliums, Geranium ‘Rozanne’, silver-leaved Convolvulus cneorum, salvias in variety, agapanthus, lilies, Ceratostigma willmottianum (lovely blue flowers in autumn). Tender plants for summer (which need a greenhouse, conservatory or bright porch for winter) include: Plectranthus argentatus (one of the best silvers); begonias; cannas.

If you have a mostly shady garden, there are still good plants available such as: camellias (limefree soil please); hydrangeas; box; hollies; Viburnum tinus; Choisya ternate; ivies; francoas; hellebores; London Pride (Saxifraga urbium) – looks lovely as a mass of tiny pink flowers and deep green low foliage; hostas; fatsia and sarcococca (wonderful winter scent).

With care and very regular JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

watering and feeding, you can have very successful long-term potted camellias. Just remember to position the pots next to the water barrel or tap to make life easy. For summer there are begonias, petunias, love-in-amist (sow direct) and nicotianas in variety.

Best veg in containers, ideally dustbins (obtainable Churchtown Stores, Churchtown, Dublin), are: French and runner beans; cut and come again salads; cultivated rocket (nicer than the wild one); spring onions; radishes; Asian vegetables, especially Mizuna (sown first week September) will last all winter under a cloche.

When I asked Julie (my husband’s niece) who helps us so brilliantly in the garden here, and has a small garden herself, what she most likes to grow, her answer was ‘I love trees’.

She’s growing a dwarf Gingko, a brown turkey fig which has delicious fruit, tree ferns in dustbins (shade) and three willow ‘Golden Curls’ (correctly called Salix sepulcralis Erythroflexuosa) a lovely little tree despite its impossible name, Senecio petasites (slightly tender shrub with glamorous leaves, a groundsel relation), hellebores and ferns.

On the balcony here the dwarf early flowering cherry, Prunus incisa Kojo-no-mai is growing in a dustbin (which offers a good, deep root run). The clouds of white blossom from this lovely little tree are not to be missed in March.

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SPECIAL FEATURE RONAN BARRY

Care for Future Generations LAUDATO SI ~ PRAISE HIM Ronan Barry is the chaplain in Willow Park College, Dublin; he is married with four children, and has worked with JVC and Magis Ireland.

What legacy are we leaving for future generations? This question is one of many at the heart of the Pope Francis’ encyclical (a letter from the Pope to the whole Church). This encyclical entitled Laudato Si (Praise Him) is focused on the care of our common home; Earth. Laudato Si is a call to action, an invitation to change the current direction of the world by embracing the task of caring for our common home.

This papal letter reminds

all people of faith and none that we are of the earth and that the earth cares for us.

The earth gives us our water to drink, our air to breathe and our food to eat. We are connected to the earth and we, as a human family, are tasked to ‘till’ and ‘keep’ it (Gen 2:15).

‘Tilling’ refers to cultivating, working or ploughing the land and ‘Keeping’ means caring, protecting, and preserving our earthly home (Laudato Si, 160).

This understanding implies a

www.messenger.ie : JANUARY 2016

34 relationship of love, where we receive and we give back.

Jim, my (not so young) nextdoor neighbour, often speaks of the danger that society ‘is losing it’. For Jim this danger comes about because we are losing contact with the land. He asks the same question as Pope Francis, ‘what will we leave for the next generation?’ For Jim, contact with the land is hugely important. He believes it gives us all an understanding of the meaning of life. He observes that when his generation worked (‘till it’) the land, we had an understanding of the time needed for planting, the time needed for gathering and the time needed for resting (‘keep it’). This experience of sowing the seed and waiting, gives us a great insight into the true meaning of development.

There is nothing ‘instant’ about waiting for the garden to come into bloom but there is a great sense of understanding and satisfaction when you experience growth and harvest.

Like Jim, Pope Francis agrees with so many other world leaders that we are travelling on the road to Earth’s ruin. He recognises that this ruin is also intrinsically linked to the continued impoverishment of the poorest JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

people living in our world.

Francis declares that we can no longer wait, and that care for the Earth is not optional anymore, we must act. The world must seek a new model of development. We need to invest and develop a model of integral development where the economic activity benefits growing communities. These communities are named as ecological communities where the relationship between the environment and the human community is recognised as an essential neighbour. Pope Francis stated that not alone is every person valued in our Godcreated world, but every creature has value, as it was created

by God. We can no longer take a ‘piecemeal approach’ but we need to struggle to find a new way forward.

Pope Francis, invites us all to ask the questions: What is it all about? What legacy are we leaving for future generations?

However, he doesn’t leave us dangling with those questions as his suggestions are clear ways forward.

Pope Francis wants our attitude to ‘our common home’ to change so that we can make a difference.

His aspiration for us is not just to be good citizens in our native land but to

35 become good global citizens for the love of our earthly community.

He agrees with ‘Jim’ that ‘we just can’t keep going the way we were going’ but we need a change for the better for all. Pope Francis offers many clear ways to help, whether your contribution is personal, local or global. He appeals for the promotion of energy conservation, e.g. reducing, recycling and reusing of waste. Conserving energy also includes improving transport systems, encouraging the development of buildings that reduce the energy intake and levels of pollution. In his own words, ‘Truly, much can be done’

Laudato Si, is not just a letter from Pope Francis, it is a cry from the Earth to us, the human family, to stop and have a change of heart. Pope Francis and many people from around the world (like Jim) are listening to the earth.

They hear the voice of Wisdom (God’s Holy Spirit) saying that our earth is our home. St Francis of Assisi also listened to our common home like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. ‘Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us’ (4).

The reflections in this book are designed to help people better understand the gospel reading, to perhaps reflect on the reading during the week before or after Mass. This book provides a valuable aid to clergy in preparing their weekly homily, helping to ground it in the living human experience.

Donal Neary SJ is formerly Parish Priest at St Francis Xavier’s, Gardiner Street, Dublin, and chaplain at Mater Dei Institute of Education. Fr Neary has drawn on his long experience of pastoral work in Dublin to put together these reflections, and as a result they bear huge relevance to everyday life.

Further books in this series are planned for each liturgical year.

€9.99 www.messenger.ie T: 01.7758522 www.messenger.ie : JANUARY 2016

3 36 6

OUR READERS WRITE : LETTERS OF THANKSGIVING SAVING THE HAY Dear Father, As promised, I want to publish my grateful thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for answering my prayers during the very wet weather last July. He sent three fine days, which allowed my son to save his hay, without which his livelihood would be lost.

Readers, please pray for suitable work and happiness for my grandson.

Forever Grateful HUSBAND IS SICK Dear Father, I wish to publish my heartfelt thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, St Martin and Our Lady for all the help they have given me. My husband has an ongoing sickness and at the moment he needs lots of prayers. I am enclosing an offering for the Sacred Heart Shrine. O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I Place All my Trust in Thee.

A grateful believer in The Sacred Heart, St Martin, and Our Blessed Mother.

Thank you father LOOKING AFTER MY FAMILY Dear Father, I want to thank the Sacred Heart, his loving Mother Mary and Saint Joseph for all my graces and JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

blessings myself and my husband and family have received over the past years, but especially my daughter-in-law and grandson. Thanks again dear Sacred Heart, your Mother Mary and Saint Joseph and I pray you will continue to look after my family. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I Place All my Trust in you.

A Grateful Mother and Grandmother

COMING TO MY RESCUE Dear Father, Over the many, many years I have implored the most Sacred Heart for all my needs, big and small, he never let me down.

I am now 93 years old, still going strong and my thanks is long overdue. So thank you Blessed Lord for coming to my rescue.

Thank you also for all my family and all my friends. God bless all of us in USA and Ireland.

A Reader, Florida, USA MAKING THE RIGHT DECISIONS Dear Father I want to thank the Sacred Heart for all the help he has shown me. I ask again in St Jude and The Sacred Heart to help me make the right decisions. I have recently started a course in the evening, and working all day with a medical condition. I pray

37 I will be able for it, and succeed well in the future. I have never given up hope and I have always had faith in the Sacred Heart.

I also want to thank the Sacred Heart and Our Lady for helping me through the last few years and my wonderful mother passing away. RIP. Sacred Heart of Jesus I Place All my trust in thee.

A young grateful believer in the Sacred Heart.

A SECURE AND SURE FUTURE Dear Father, I would like to thank you Sacred Heart for getting me through these past couple of years.

Though they may have been difficult, you have taught me to use this time, and guided me to the right path in life. Through your love and help I have been accepted to and am currently studying in Cardiff University.

Without your help, I wouldn’t have found this path, the best path for me.

Thank you that my Nan is well and that my parents and the rest of my family are well and happy.

I’m sorry that there were times over the past couple of years that I doubted you or that I was reluctant to pray, but I am glad that I have found you again.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I Place all my Trust in Thee. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

A young believer, Cardiff

85TH BIRTHDAY Dear Sacred Heart and Your Holy Mother. Thank you for looking after my needs during the past month and past year.

It’s my 85th birthday, and I need your graces, guidance and blessings more than ever.

I know you are there at my side, all I have to do is ask.

Please look after all my needs and financial problems, so with the help of your mother, the Holy Spirit, and Your Most Loving Heart – problem solved.

Please look after the needs of my family. I know in your own time everything will be sorted.

Thanking you, Birthday Girl MANY FAVOURS Dear Father, I want to thank the Sacred Heart, His Blessed Mother, St Joseph and Padre Pio for many favours granted to me in my lifetime.

Sacred Heart of Jesus I Place all my Trust in You. A Grateful Reader, Belfast PRAYERS ALWAYS ANSWERED I would like to thank the Sacred Heart for many favours received over the years and I continue to ask for employment and financial security for my family. I place all my prayers in the hands of the Sacred Heart, and I know my prayers will be answered as they always are.

Thank you

‘Like’ The Sacred Heart Messenger facebook.com/sacredheartmessenger www.messenger.ie : JANUARY 2016

3 38 8

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COOKERY MARIE McGUIRK

A Selection of Soups COOKERY January is a cold month and after the excitement and over-eating around Christmas, people like to simplify their diets at this time.

Soups are hearty and warming and very quick and easy to make.

I hope you like this selection.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP

1kg/2lb butternut squash, 1 tbsp sunflower oil salt and freshly ground black pepper 25g/1oz butter 1 medium onion, chopped ½ red chilli chopped 2 cloves garlic crushed 4 small sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only, plus extra leaves to garnish 1 litre/2 pints vegetable stock 1 tsp salt 150ml/¼ pint single cream 50g/2oz Gruyère cheese, coarsely grated METHOD n Cut the squash in two and place in microwave for 6-10 minutes, depending on size or until softened. n Remove the pumpkin from the oven and, when cool enough to handle, discard the seeds and cut the flesh into small chunks. n Melt the butter in a large pan.

Add the onion, garlic, chilli and half the thyme leaves and cook gently for about ten minutes until the onion is very soft but not browned. Add JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

the squash, any juices from the plate, the stock and one teaspoon of salt. Cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes. n Leave the soup to cool slightly, then add the remaining thyme leaves and liquidise until smooth. Return to a clean pan and bring back to a gentle simmer. n Stir in the cream and season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper. n Serve with a little of the grated Gruyère in each bowl.

Scatter a few more thyme leaves on top.

PEA, PARMESAN AND CHORIZO SOUP

1 tbsp olive oil 1 large white onion finely chopped 40g/1½ oz grated Parmesan 75g/3oz chorizo skinned and diced in small cubes 750g/1lb 11oz frozen peas 1 litre/2.2 pints chicken stock Freshly chopped mint to garnish METHOD n Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 7. n Heat the oil in a saucepan and

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gently cook the onions for 5 mins. n Sprinkle the Parmesan over a non stick baking sheet and cook for 5 mins in a hot oven. n Fry the chorizo for 2-3 mins and leave aside. n Take the Parmesan off the baking sheet when it has hardened slightly and place on a wire rack to cool. Break into shards. n Add the peas and stock to the onions and cook for a further 5 mins. Blitz the soup and reheat. n Add the chorizo and serve at once garnished with chopped mint and Parmesan shards.

QUICK CHICK PEA SOUP

2 tins chickpeas drained and rinsed 1 onion chopped 1 tbsps rapeseed oil

2 cloves garlic crushed 1 tsp each coriander, paprika and cumin 1 large potato peeled and diced 2 carrots peeled and diced 1.5 litres/ 2½ pts chicken or vegetable stock Sprig of thyme Chopped fresh coriander METHOD n Heat the oil in a saucepan and sweat the onion and garlic for five minutes without colouring. n Add the carrots, potatoes and stir in the herbs and spices. n Add the stock, cover and bring to boil. Simmer gently for 10-15 mins or until vegetables are soft. Remove the thyme. n Add the washed chickpeas and blend thoroughly. n Warm through and serve garnished with fresh coriander.

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40 40

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ACROSS 1. Dandy Joseph with Lisa mixing wine (10) 6. Layer of undersea manure! (4) 9. Only son initially came from this French city (5) 10. Change position during film I left (4) 11. One coming from the country for a stretch (4) 13. Like steeplejack’s job, very risky (6,9) 14. Boot ball after fall on rugby field (4,4) 16. One drawing musical entertainer endlessly (6) 18. Shrewd having statue rebuilt (6) 19. Catch one’s zip perhaps (8) 22. Extended reach in force (4,3,2,3,3) 24. It’s a big fiddle (4) 25. Which French duke had tobacco? (4) 26. Crabby fruit? (5) 27. Stylish establishment where lady loses a leading zoologist (4) 28. University having this sort of thinking that’s one-sided (10)

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DOWN 1. Burped, that’s how volcanic matter poured forth (7) 2. Amid arrangement of mango (5) 3. Without great effort straight off (4,4,4) 4. Game-bird, one requiring special help (4,4) 5. Create fashionable opening (6) 7. Outburst about increase in population (9) 8. Mend its remarkable fixed attitude (7) 12. Frank’s stirring rather hot tea (5,2,5) 15. Definitely caught and bowled (3,3,3) 17. Dad off replacing the Italian spring flower (8) 18. Finished crossing (3,4) 20. Unseasoned timber receives unfair treatment (3,4) 21. Challenge little devil removing gun (6) 23. Outcast had sly look round piano (5)

41

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Send to: January Crossword, Messenger Publications, 37 Lr Leeson St, Dublin 2, Ireland

ACROSS 1. How you’d describe an almost broken plate (7) 7. Goes well with Doritos (3) 8. Allowed by law (5) 9. Strangely affected by the moon (4) 10. ___ and crispy (4) 13. You’d get a bad one from unwashed feet (5) 15. Possessive pronoun (3) 16. Most kittens are ___ (7)

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h c r a e s d r o W Sarah’s

42

Find these football clubs in Sarah’s Wordsearch!

ARSENAL

EVERTON

LEICESTER

LIVERPOOL

MAN UNITED NORWICH SPURS

SWANSEA

WEST HAM

Tree-mend ous What d

Jokes!

id the b e to the t aver say ree?

It’s been nice gna wing yo u!

How do you pro pe dogwoo rly identify a d tree?

By the b ark!

Why do Because trees hate test s? they get stumped the que by stions!

JANUARY CHILDREN’S COMPETITION: DRAW OR PAINT A PICTURE AND WIN €30 THE BEST ENTRIES EACH RECEIVE A PRIZE OF €30 TOPIC: ‘A Winter’s Day’ January Competitions, Young Readers’ Pages, The Sacred Heart Messenger, 37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland OR your scanned entries by email to competitions@messenger.ie *Remember: entries for all competitions – including the crossword – must reach us no later than 24th of the month. Please remember to include your age.

by Ciarán Bartkett | Chapter 5

JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

43

Scaredycats

The very next day, Fearless Finn stood up in front of the class in St Colman’s Primary.

Miss Roach, his teacher, was staring at him from behind her milk-bottle spectacles. She was old and smelled of barley water and celery. She was alright – apart from the time she shouted at the whole class for losing the school frog a couple of weeks ago. Since then everyone called her The Roach.

She had a sharp voice and probably looked and sounded way meaner than she really was.

‘Go ahead Finn,’ she shrieked, ‘read your report.’

‘Yes, Miss Roach.’ Finn cleared his throat and began.

‘My two best friends are called Hassie and Twanky.’ The class began to titter. The Roach glared at them and nodded towards Finn who took no notice of them and just kept reading.

‘We play everyday up in the attic in my new house. Hassie supports Manchester United, just like me, so we are always talking about how things have gone downhill the last two seasons. Twanky doesn’t like football but he is always making the weirdest sandwiches for us to try. Last week, he made us strawberry jam with blue cheese and flaked salmon, and it actually wasn’t too bad.’

By this stage, the whole class was in an uproar. The Roach was starting to boil the way she did

on the day Mr Toad the Frog went among the missing. She lifted her wooden metre stick and cracked it off her table, causing immediate silence.

‘Class,’ she thundered, ‘you will all listen to the rest of Finn’s report, regardless of what he gets up to with his friends! Continue Finn.’

Finn just kept reading, fearless and care-free. ‘Twanky can’t really play as much with me and Hassie as he wants to, because he is so big he has to sleep a lot. But Hassie and I do alright by ourselves. He was telling me about the time Man United won the big European Cup in 1968, because he was there.’

The Roach finally looked up.

It was as if she hadn’t been listening to the first half of the report. ‘What do you mean he was there, Finn? What age is this Hassie?’

‘Oh, Miss, he says he’s about a hundred and eighteen, but don’t worry, he’s been dead for fifty years.’

Everyone stayed silent. The Roach was nearly knocked over in surprise and confusion.

‘What do you mean, Finn?’

‘Hassie’s a ghost, Miss.’

Finn had a big smile on his face but everyone else was looking at him like he was crazy.

‘And this em…Twanky, is he a ghost too?’

‘No, Miss. He’s a blue fluff monster.’

44 4

I

SPECIAL FEATURE DONAL NEARY SJ

Moving Out In Ministry MATER DEI : 50 YEARS A meeting in 1965 was to be eventful for the Irish Church.

John Charles McQuaid, then Archbishop of Dublin, called a young priest, Fr Paddy Wallace to meet him. With the fear and trepidation that most priests felt then about meeting McQuaid, Paddy went to the house, to be told briefly: ‘Father, the Americans have started training catechists. Please go and see what they are doing, and start it here.’

This small conversation, or rather order, was the beginning of the Irish RC Church’s first big move into sharing ministry with men and women, religious and lay. The Mater Dei Institute of Education was born in autumn 1966, and opened with a class of 42, mainly nuns, later that year.

Archbishop McQuaid was often critical of some teachers.

In the early years some were dismissed for forward-looking views, but reinstated after staff pressure. But dare anyone else criticise Mater Dei! Under the guidance of Mother Jordana OP, who ran it with (or others would say, at times, without) the Archbishop, it developed from a small group with a three–year Diploma. Under the guidance of Fr Wallace, Fr Dermot Lane and others for JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

many years, it extended its diploma to degree standard with a secular subject – music, history or English – approved by the then Department of Education.

Normal third level grants were awarded in 1987. The student body expanded over the years to 70 trainee teachers, Masters students, and a thriving oneyear course for seminarians and religious run with enthusiasm.

The Masters course in School Chaplaincy founded in 1991, prepared qualified lay people for School, Prison and Health care chaplaincy.

Many strands went to make up the formation of religion teachers. An academic component of theology, philosophy, and scripture was complemented by the educational component, under the guidance for many years of Sr Marcellina O’Sullivan PBVM, including hours of teaching practice in each of the four years.

Never a place to let the grass grow under academic feet, nor fail to look ahead to future developments, the important institutional link with DCU was established in 1999. Degrees were awarded from DCU, and the co-operation was of mutual benefit.

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Well-known names in the Irish Church were involved, including Fr Dermot Lane, Bishops Dermot O’Mahony, Donal Murray and Brendan Leahy, Srs Bernadette McMahon DC, Una O’Neill RSC, and the late Frs Denis Carroll, and Michael Maher MSC. Committed administrative and other staff played a big role in the formation of students on an informal level.

A NEW VENTURE Until the 1960s, post-primary religion had been taught mostly by priests, nuns and brothers.

A few lay people taught from personal interest. McQuaid saw that the time would soon come when these personnel would diminish, and how right he was.

As religious moved away from schools, and with less joining to take their places, a veritable army of young lay people, close in age and mentality to their pupils, were willing to take their

Mother Theresa place. I count among valued with a group from friends men and women who Mater Dei have been teaching religion in very challenging situations for many years. As teachers and chaplains, they have kept religion and faith alive in schools and in parishes also. They deserve more support from the Church.

When one reflects that the two principal places of any religious formation now are the school and the parish, we can see how relevant and important has been the contribution of Mater Dei to Ireland. One teacher of twenty years’ experience now says, ‘I am still grateful for teaching methods I learned in Mater Dei, which helped my English teaching also’.

It was a place also of friendship, youthful good humour and growth in faith; many a marriage and vocation to priesthood and religious life developed from the college. It

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46

was a great place to work in.

With a relatively small student body many staff knew every student by name.

It changed over the years, reflecting new challenges and positives about religion in Ireland. Changes happened; the interview was dropped for admission, the level of students’ faith practice changed, but it was never a dull place. The presence of a large female academic and admin staff showed a way forward in a then very male Church.

We had our difficulties too as we tried to accompany students in the years of growth and disillusion. Many came into college fervent Catholics and the courses challenged the faith of childhood; questioning was demanded as well as encouraged. Hopefully faith was never forced, but always encouraged in a human context.

The core academic courses both encouraged and challenged personal faith.

JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

Justice and other outreaches were encouraged. The summer teaching trips to Calcutta, Darjeeling, Assam, Kenya, the weekly work with pupils in inner city and Ballymun schools, many retreats run by staff and chaplains, the Focolare groups, different liturgical groups preparing vibrant liturgies and preparing to do so in schools, teaching religion in mixed faith schools, all contributed to an overall Christian formation.

Sport played a good role, though the severe lack sometimes of male students led to poor results in soccer!

The future is different – Mater Dei, under the well-experienced direction of the present Director, Andrew McGrady, will now become a part of DCU, along with the Church of Ireland and St Pat’s Colleges of Education. MDI has never stood still! It has been awake to different challenges of education and faith in Ireland, at a time when the Church was buffeted from within and outside, and the newest venture is a BD in Theology, finding space for the need in the Irish church of serious theology for lay people. The building may go, but the spirit of MDI will live on wherever we meet – at a religious gathering, in a Drumcondra pub, a wedding or funeral, a parish occasion, or elsewhere in Ireland. It is a jubilee of thanks.

Donal Neary SJ, Editor of the Messenger, was chaplain in Mater Dei 1988–2002.

CALENDAR & AOP 2016

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Sacred Heart Calendar 2016

Pope’s Intentions Principal feast days of the year Brief thought for the day based on the gospel reading

Living Prayer: Apostleship of Prayer

Introduction to the Apostleship of Prayer Forms of the Daily Offering A monthly reflection on the Pope’s Intentions The liturgical calendar for each month The gospel reading for each day

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48

The Gospel as Told by Water

by Sister

Cana:

Susan SMSM

He did wondrous things with water!

First it was the wedding at Cana; I was just waiting in the well and suddenly I was poured into six stone jars. I felt a warm glow all around me and Jesus’ handsome smiling face looking at me. Then I heard the servants speaking quickly in low tones to one another. I began to feel different. I was still water, mind you; however the wedding guests began to smile as they drank me, and, imagine, they said that they had never tasted such delicious wine!

Jacob’s Well: Then there was that hot midday when I was being slow-

ly and painfully lifted out of Jacob’s Well by a woman. She was a regular at the well. She always came alone, around midday when nobody else was around. I sometimes heard the other women gossip about her. When she looked down at me, all I could see were her sad eyes.

Tired and thirsty, Jesus walked up to her that day and I’ll never forget their conversation all about ME – WATER, AND GOD, AND PRAYER. Then I heard Him say, ‘I am LIVING WATER’! I never again felt the same ordinariness about myself because I knew Jesus and I were related.

Passover: It was Passover and Jesus wanted to spend it with His friends. I could sense it was a special meal. It was as if He was saying ‘good-bye’. I must say I didn’t like the look of one of the guests, even though he had hung around with Jesus for a long time.

Something strange began to happen. He, who had said he was ‘Living Water’, took a towel and poured ME into a large bowl. He began to wash the feet of his friends and they were shocked. It was only the poor servants who really got involved with me to do that sort of thing.

Peter, a big guy, who seemed to be one of Jesus’ closest friends, even though he was always shooting off his mouth, well, Peter gets really upset and it looks like he and Jesus are going to have a falling out! Then it’s over and I find myself gently streaming over Peter’s feet while Jesus smiles.

The next day, Jesus is executed and when the soldiers want to know if he’s really dead, they thrust one of their lances into his side, just below the heart. I can no longer contain my grief and I weep from his side along with his blood. Then, my sister, Rain, begins to fall.

JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

T

his booklet is an attempt to walk the journey of loneliness with someone whose heart has been broken by the loss of their beloved. Take this book within your hands and carry it with you as you travel the roadway of life. As you attempt to re-define your world in the wake of your loss use it as your companion on the road to a new beginning, not forgetting but remembering with love, living with a smile in your heart for those who are now gone home to God. Practical, thoughtful and empathetic, this is a book for both the bereaved, and for those who walk with them along the difficult road to acceptance.

€3.99

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collection of almost 50 portraits of modern-day saints, which first appeared in The Sacred Heart Messenger magazine. “In writing these stories I wanted to help people see that sanctity and holiness did not just belong to the ancient past but was something attainable in the modern age. The men and women of this past twentieth century lived ordinary lives within the last few decades from our own. Some of them had colourful pasts when perhaps they – by their own admission – did not always walk with Christ. But God’s grace at some point touched their lives and brought them to serve Him in a most extraordinary way.”

Here you will find well-known figures such as Bishop Oscar Romero, Simone Weil, Edith Stein, and Billy Graham, as well as many lesser known heroes such as Rose Hawthorne, Georges Rouault, Laura Vicuna and Aloysius Stepinac.

€12.99

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50 50

IN HIS MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS

I JOHN MURRAY PP

The Hills Are Alive

Readers of a certain vintage may already be humming once they have seen this title! ‘The sound of music’ seems to fit in so effortlessly with the little word ‘hills’. Austrians – officially – are not supposed to like the perceived ‘saccharine’ view of their country, but the film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer has many fans and is still popular today in TV reruns around Christmas and other holiday periods.

The real story of Maria Von Trapp is somewhat different. Yes, she certainly did enter a convent and spent some time there but a lot happened before then and the subsequent love affair with Captain Von Trapp and his several children.

Maria was born and raised as a Catholic. However her mother died when she was only two and her father placed her into the care of an elderly cousin who tried to teach her some prayers and read her Bible stories. Things changed when she reached nine. Her father died and her uncle became her legal guardian. He was a fierce advocate of the new National Socialism (Nazi) party and he had no time for religion or religious symbolism. ‘At the JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

mere mention of the word he would burst into laughter,’ Maria remembered.

Unfortunately Maria begun to imbibe this spirit too and so began to think of herself as an atheist. By the time she was a young adult she had left her uncle and began to share digs with a friend. After a short period working in a hotel she enrolled to be a teacher. Some of the Catholic girls in her class went to Mass every day and Maria made fun of them – ‘the holy water girls’ she called them.

She had no need of God and filled her own spiritual void with music, which had always been so important for her.

Palm Sunday 1924 was to be a pivotal moment in her life.

On that day she was passing a church and, thinking that there would be a performance of ‘St Matthew Passion’, on she went inside. She still loved music whatever the source. Instead there was a Lenten lecture by a famous Jesuit priest. Maria sat down and listened. ‘I had heard from my uncle that all these Bible stories were just legends and inventions without a word of truth in them, but the way this man talked just swept me off my feet. I was completely over-

51

whelmed. At the end I just had to go and talk to him.’

‘Do you really believe all this?’ she asked the priest. He invited her back a couple of days later when he would have more time to talk. Maria duly returned and for over two hours she threw at him all the arguments and accusations which she had heard and indeed nursed in her own short life. The priest, she remembered, listened a lot more than he talked. It was a lesson in good evangelisation. ‘If anyone asks you for the reason for the hope that you have, give it with courtesy and respect.’ St Peter wrote in his first letter. (3:15) ‘As I looked back on those few hours I realised what happened in my soul. This priest was not only a famous theologian, a great preacher both in Germany and many English-speaking countries, but he was also a humble man who loved his Lord and Saviour. When I had finished throwing everything at him he

looked at me and began to tell me how Jesus Christ had lived and that he had been crucified and died for me. He said it so simply that I was completely disarmed. And then he said, “Are you sorry for what has happened?” With tears streaming down my face I simply replied “Yes, Father.”’

Maria had come home. Because she was already a baptised Catholic, the priest simply gave her absolution. ‘God will simply eradicate your sins,’ he said. ‘Your soul will look like the soul of a newly baptised child.’

The encounter changed the direction of her life. In due course Maria graduated and as a post-exam treat she and a few other girls went hiking in the mountains. Again there was a moment when God seemed to touch her. Overwhelmed one evening by a beautiful sunset she opened her arms in sheer gratitude to God and asked

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52

‘what can I give back to you?’

She felt she knew the answer.

Immediately on return she went back to Salzburg and asked directions to the strictest convent in the town. She found the Benedictine abbey of Nonnberg, rang the bell and asked the nuns to stay.

Maria did her best to fit into the life but somehow it was not for her. After two years the wise Mother Superior also recognised this and sent her as a temporary tutor to the Von Trapp family, and especially to one of the children who was recovering from a fever. Very soon Maria took over as governess for all the children.

And – after initial difficulties – romance too began to blossom and she married Georg Von JANUARY 2016 : www.messenger.ie

Trapp on November 26th 1927.

Meanwhile, the Nazi shrub, which had been growing when Maria was a young woman, had now become a massive tree.

Hitler annexed Austria as part of the Third Reich in 1938 and Captain Von Trapp – as the film correctly reminded us – had to report for naval duty. He knew he could not do this and so with his young family – and Maria pregnant with their third child – walked across the Alps into Italy – and eventually to the United States. There the hills of Vermont reminded them of their homeland, and though they would never return to Austria, Maria knew that she had come home long before that.

53

I

SERIAL STORY GEORGINA DOWNES

Cora’s Shed PART 3

THE STORY SO FAR: Cora retreats in the evenings to her little wooden shed by the river, especially now, following a needless argument with her husband. She muses on the upcoming engagement party she will host for her daughter Catriona, and discusses with her brother-in-law, Harry, the prospect of taking a back seat at the event and hiring caterers.

When Harry leaves, the kitchen is quiet. Cora sits in the same spot as before, with thirty invitations still to write, yet she feels completely different. As a twenty-one year old bride, the size of her new home hadn’t daunted her. Almost immediately, she had set about digging a vegetable garden. Her first child had come within the year, along with a crop of carrots, peas and onions. Anything they hadn’t eaten, she froze. Three more children had followed over the next fifteen years. Her garden had flourished. Sean had worked in the city and she had run the house. Harry often tells stories of how it used to look when he and Sean were boys. It is beautiful now.

She drives into the village to post the invitations, and takes a detour to Ellen Webb’s house, hoping to catch Calum.

‘Cora! How lovely to see you.’

Ellen extends her arm, shepherding Cora from the hall to the kitchen. ‘He’s not here right now but come in. Come in. You look amazing. I love your scarf.

Sit down.’

Ellen is overpowering and irresistibly likeable. ‘Will you have

tea or coffee? I’ve an espresso thing if you’d like. It’s delicious.

Calum got it for me for Christmas. Will you try one? You will.’

She takes a capsule and inserts it into her machine and it begins churning. ‘You like coffee, don’t you? What a lovely surprise! Is Calum expecting you? You know he’s setting up here now. Isn’t it great to see a bit of ambition in the youngsters? How’s James getting on?’

‘Still doing his Masters.’

‘Of course he is.’

‘Actually, now I’m here…’ Cora pulls an envelope from her bag.

‘It’s an invite to Catriona’s engagement party.’

‘Oh Cora, you put a stamp on it! I’ll get that off for you.’ Ellen peels the stamp and hands it to Cora who smiles and sticks it to the inside of her bag.

‘What’s the date?’ Ellen asks, putting on her glasses. ‘The nineteenth! Now, we have a do on the Friday but Saturday is fine. I’ll look forward to it. Oh, your marinated duck the last time… hmmm!’

‘Well, actually, Ellen, I was going to ask Calum to do the catering.’

‘What? Cora. Are you serious?’

‘Well, Harry told me he was

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54 home and I think it would nice to have the day off.’

‘Of course it would!

Goodness knows you’ve done your share of entertaining in that house down the years.

But Calum would love to do it. That’s fantastic! He’ll be thrilled. Have you his number? I’ll get him to give you a ring and ye can put your foodie heads together. I’m sure you’ll come up with something amazing. Now, tell me… what’s Catriona’s fiancé like?’

That evening, Cora makes a salmon salad. She boils new potatoes for Sean while she eats French bread.

‘I’m getting Calum Webb to cater Catriona’s party.’

‘Why’s that?’ He seems surprised.

‘Well, it might be nice to give him the business and I could just…’ She trails off.

He looks up at her. ‘Just what?’

‘Oh, I don’t know, maybe have a drink, for one thing.’

‘Do you not have a drink when

you cook?’

‘Not really. I never seem to finish a glass because I’m usually too busy. And anyway, we’ll be meeting Paul’s parents for the first time so I think it might be better if I’m not stuck in the kitchen all day.’

Sean laughs. ‘So you’ll be drunk on our first meeting. Catriona will be thrilled.’

‘Sean, that’s not what I mean.’

He raises his head slowly. ‘Don’t always take yourself so seriously, Cora. Well, I can’t imagine a party in this house without you at the helm, but watching you try to relax will be fun.’

‘What do you mean by that?’ she snaps. Immediately, she wishes she hadn’t. She knows what he meant and now there is nowhere for the conversation to go. He finishes the fish then pulls a phone out of his pocket.

Holding it away from his eyes, he says he has to check his messages then leaves the table.

‘Harry is coming later,’ she calls after him, but he doesn’t turn round.

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 a Mass is offered specially for them, that they may have eternal rest with the Lord, and that their families and friends may be consoled in their loss.

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Fragments by

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Michael Paul Gallagher SJ

Enough for me

‘Take and receive’, the famous prayer of St Ignatius, ends with the words: ‘your love and grace, that is enough for me’.

Are we not told that we are restless in this world, because completeness is impossible here? And yet poets, mystics, lovers, talk of arriving at a fullness and not wanting anything else for now. Call them times of ‘enoughness’. Fragile they may be but they stoke our hope for a love that is eternal.

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ISSN 1649-4450

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