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MESSENGER THE SACRED HEART

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FAITH IS WHAT WE DO I SEAMUS CLAFFEY ART: THE MADONNA OF THE ROSE BOWER I EILEEN KANE YOUTH SYNOD I GERARD GALLAGHER MARY: SMILE OF JOY I THOMAS CASEY SJ

RE:LINK: WONDER & AWE I FAITH QUILLE

CONTENTS 14

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10 THE BOOK OF PSALMS

FROM THE EDITOR THE PRAYER Donal Neary SJ OF JESUS ON THE CROSS

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DAILY OFFERING Pope’s Intention

6POPE’S INTENTION

Martin Hogan

14 MASTERPIECES OF

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POPE’S BLESSING

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PANDEMIC: WHO SUFFERS? Kevin Hargaden

CHRISTIAN ART

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Faith Quille

Gerard Gallagher

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Seamus Claffey

THE MADONNA OF RE:LINK THE ROSE BOWER CONFIRMATION Eileen Kane GIFT OF ‘WONDER AND AWE’

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YOUTH SYNOD

FAITH IS WHAT WE DO

MAY AND MARY John Scally

Cover photograph © Michael Drennan SJ

20 PLACES OF WORSHIP

PORT ARTHUR Alan Hilliard

MONKSTOWN 33 QUAKER MEETING GARDENING HOUSE MERCURIAL MAY Christopher Moriarty

Ciaran Burke

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44

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36 THANKSGIVING

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THANKSGIVING LETTERS THANKSGIVING STORY

A KINDNESS I’LL NEVER FORGET Andrew Redican

38 COOKERY

YOUNG READERS’ PAGES DOES GOD HAVE SKIN? Philip Fogarty SJ

POEM

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REFLECTION

MARY: SMILE JOY SUMMER SALADS OF Thomas Casey SJ AND SWEET TREATS Marie McGuirk

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CROSSWORDS

48 IN THE MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS BLESSED BARTOLO LONGO John Murray

GREENING THE SHOPPING BASKET

UNENDING PLAY James Smyth SJ

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IRISH IMMIGRANTS AT STAMFORD HILL Paul O’Reilly SJ

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CALENDAR

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REFLECTION

FROM THE EDITOR

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WHAT DO YOU MEAN? I can put my foot in it, as they say. A lady came up to me after Mass in the hospital, in a smart dressing-gown and looking very well. Wanting to compliment her on how well she looked, and her good health, I said: ‘You’re looking very well; you must be on the way out!’ That in a hospital would mean generally a different destination than I had in mind! She had the good sense to laugh and say, ‘What do you mean?’, and, on my explanation that it was on the ‘way out home’ I meant, herself, myself and her son had a good laugh.

Just as well she asked, ‘what do you mean?’ Isn’t this a question we might often ask? We presume easily that we know what another person means. In dialogue and discussion over big and even small issues, we could well ask further questions.

We have views on all sorts of political, family, Church, moral and other issues: while we can hold on firmly to what we believe is the truth,

we need to ask what a person with the opposite opinion really means.

St Ignatius reminded his retreatants: ‘Put a good interpretation on what another says rather than the opposite.’ He recommended his early Jesuits in their debates with the Lutherans to look for what united rather than what divided, and in a sincere search for truth, we listen to each other, debate, discern differing opinions, and then come to our decisions.

The disciple of Jesus is named as a listener. I wonder did Jesus also mean for us to listen not only to his word, but to each other. He once said, ‘If they are not against us, they are with us’, encouraging us to listen for unity. Peace among us demands we listen to each other. This is also the work of justice! Maybe we can look to the gospel’s most attentive listener, Mary, and ask that we can listen as best we can to what people really mean.

Donal Neary SJ

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DAILY OFFERING Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER

EVANGELISATION: The Mission of the Laity That the lay faithful may fulfil their specific mission, by responding with creativity to the challenges that face the world today.

MORNING PRAYER

Father of all goodness, come to my assistance today and make haste to help me. May I strive to be a cooperator in your mission of salvation and express my love for you in my care for others. I offer you my thoughts, words, and deeds this day for the intentions of Pope Francis this month. Our Father...

NIGHT PRAYER

At the end of this day, thank you Lord for helping me in all that I do. Forgive me, if I was hesitant at all to follow your will. Tomorrow, may I devote myself to prayer and work, helping those in my community who are in need. Our Father...

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

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POPE’S INTENTION

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Our approaches to faith often need renewal. What worked in the past may not work now. SEAMUS CLAFFEY discusses the Pope’s prayer for creativity in today’s evangelisation.

Seamus has worked in pastoral ministry in a variety of settings.

FAITH IS WHAT WE DO

The Pope’s Intention: That the lay faithful may fulfil their specific mission, by responding with creativity to the challenges that face the world today.

Late last year, as part of an initiative of Pope Francis set for Sunday 19 November, I was reading about the first World Day of the Poor while visiting Assisi, the birthplace of St Francis.

As I waited at Assisi Railway Station for the train to Rome, I picked up a local diocesan notice outlining how the World Day of the Poor would be celebrated in the area. It took its cue from Pope Francis’ Message announcing the Day which called for practical steps to show that caring for the poor was at the heart of the gospel.

The local bishop encouraged parishes to invite poor people in their area to one of their Sunday Masses and to a meal afterwards. For parishioners who could not be part of the day in question, there was a suggestion that they find a way of inviting a poor person to their homes for a meal in the near future.

Here we have a creative response to poverty and social exclusion experienced by so many people; one of the major challenges of our time.

Pope Francis has highlighted others, including the protection of the

environment, which he wrote about in On Care for Our Common Home – Laudato Si, published three years ago this month, and the promotion of the family, which is the subject of The Joy of Love. Significantly, in his first major document, The Joy of the Gospel, Francis strongly encouraged Christians to take the gospel out of the churches and into the streets.

Taken together these documents not only highlight some of the major challenges facing our world but also provide a compelling vision for humanity, encouraging us to take positive action.

One way of acting on the intention for this month would be to have copies of, or short extracts from, the Pope’s writings available in parishes, and in other places where people meet such as community centres, libraries and railway stations.

It would be even better if people gathered to reflect on these documents. Discussion of family life today, for instance, in light of The Joy of Love, would be appropriate in this year of the World Meeting of Families in Dublin (www.worldmeeting2018.ie).

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POPE’S INTENTION

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Pope Francis is our model for taking courageous and creative approaches to the challenges facing humanity today. For him, faith is what we do. He has travelled to countries in crisis, at some personal risk, in pursuit of justice and peace; has addressed one of the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges by taking migrant families to the Vatican and continues to make the cause of the poor a priority, providing accommodation, food and medical services to the poor of Rome.

Many people of faith are already

engaged in dealing with the challenges facing our world. We also know there are people not involved with the Church who are passionately committed to addressing such issues – often with great creativity. In supporting these efforts by Church and non-Church people alike, we are living out our Christian mission.

Pope Francis has provided us with a road map for responding creatively to modern challenges. With this month’s intention he is encouraging us to set out anew on this journey, because faith is what we do.

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FEATURE

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Everyone who goes to Knock has a story. Knock too has its story of hidden graces and encouragement for the ordinary people who visit. JOHN SCALLY, our regular contributor, remembers his visits to Knock and finds the same grace there today.

MAY AND MARY

As a boy, like most Irish people at the time, I welcomed the fine weather by joining the rush to erect a May altar in honour of Our Lady.

Boxes, tea chests and all kinds of idle implements were draped with white sheets to make home-made altars.

Flowers were piled into jam jars for decorations. The procession from the chapel down to the village was colourful. Every house along the way was decorated with flowers. From an early age we were given a great devotion to the Virgin Mary: Intercessor, Mother of Mercy, Star of the Sea. May was also the month for our annual pilgrimage to Knock. Many pilgrims were armed with flasks, mustard-laden ham sandwiches and raincoats on my last visit. Some had travelled by train via Claremorris station. The station was done up in blue and white, the traditional colours of the Virgin. The stampede for the bus to Knock was like a scene from the Battle of the Alamo. My first impression was of a row of cars and hedges; on the car registrations, each of the thirty-two counties were represented, with plenty of continental cars in their midst. The traditional hawkers had been displaced to a purpose-built location where people could engage in business or drink the soup

of secularism, depending on one’s point of view. Tourists purchased the obligatory holy water bottle and chatted amiably to the stall owners. Pamphlets and prayer booklets abounded.

Stewards, decked out in bright green sashes, directed the teeming crowds like traffic police. One man joked that he was seeking a cure for baldness. A distraught lady praying to give up cigarettes was horrified to discover herself trying to light a cigarette with the same matches she used to light a candle in the grotto.

The basilica was full of holy people – so called ‘ordinary people’ – whose generosity towards God was as tangible a sign of divine love as anyone would ever be entitled to expect.

Down through history many people have been considered holy, such as St Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa. What is noteworthy about these people is that, their great moments apart, it is their simplicity which chiefly colours our conception of them.

On closer examination we see that their lives were full of frailty, and their value could not be measured on a spiritual balance sheet – doing more and doing it better – but was centred on their being worthy ambassadors for God’s people. Frailty and holiness

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FEATURE

People gathered at Knock Shrine.

Photograph © Vizual Studio / Shutterstock.com

go hand in hand in Knock.

Some pilgrims feel that they are on holy ground: each stone, each blade of grass, each singing bird flying over the basilica, each voice and smiling face; each concerned look, all are holy. All, to them, are radiant ornaments on the sacred altar of creation.

These pilgrims feel comfort in the thought that although all is passing, all is eternal.

In the stillness of their souls they sense the eternal movement, and in the energetic running of the children, with their thoughts on sugar sticks

and chocolate, they see deeper into the abundant calm.

A person, it is held, can become accustomed to anything, but suffering for many of these people is a recurring nightmare. Often during severe illness it is difficult not to succumb to a great sense of the desolation of life. A desolation which can sweep around you like a tidal wave, drowning all in its blackness. The real miracle of Knock is the respite it gives from that blackness – at least temporarily. The most frequent healing is on the inside.

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THE BOOK OF PSALMS

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Psalm twenty-two is well-known and often features in Holy Week liturgies, moving as it does from the voice of abandonment to the voice of trust. It was prayed by Jesus on the cross. FR MARTIN HOGAN gives us the background to it.

THE PRAYER OF JESUS ON THE CROSS In the April article, we looked at some of the common elements of the psalms of lament, and examined psalm thirteen as a good example of this group. The best-known psalm of lament among Christians is probably psalm twenty-two, because the opening words of this psalm are to be found on the lips of the crucified Jesus in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew.

All of the typical elements of a psalm of lament are to be found here, although more fully developed.

The psalm begins with a statement of intimacy, ‘My God, my God’. In the opening address to God, the question ‘Why?’ is dominant (Ps.22:1-2).

This question expresses the incomprehension of the psalmist. The situation in which the psalmist finds himself makes no sense and appears to have no meaning. Above all, the psalmist cannot understand why the God on whom he has come to rely is suddenly not there, why the God whose saving presence the psalmist has experienced is now absent.

It is ‘my God’ who has abandoned him. The psalmist cries out to God, ‘Where are you when I need you so badly?’ God’s seeming abandonment of the psalmist is all the more perplexing because it stands in contrast

to God’s way of relating to their ancestors in the past, ‘In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted and you delivered them’ (Ps.22:3-5).

These verses, which remind God of his past faithfulness, are intended to motivate God to attend to this desperate petitioner. The sorry condition of the psalmist brings on mockery from others and, so, the suffering is given an added dimension (Ps.22:6-8). What is especially galling is that the crowd taunt the psalmist with regard to faith in the Lord. The psalmist is humiliated, ridiculed and shamed. This is another motivation for the Lord to act, because the Lord is being humiliated alongside the petitioner. Something of the lively relationship the psalmist has enjoyed with God up to this point is suggested by verses nine to ten, where God is described as a midwife, ‘Yet, it was you who took me from the womb…’.

The implication is that the Lord has a continuing responsibility for the psalmist’s life. He is ‘my God’ (Ps.22: 10).

The first explicit petition in the psalm comes in verse eleven, where the psalmist calls on the Lord ‘Do not be far from me’. It is a petition for the Lord to be near, suggesting that it is his remoteness and absence that is

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THE BOOK OF PSALMS

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most troubling. The poet describes his present situation in very dramatic terms in verses twelve through eighteen. There is an abundance of imagery and metaphor as he speaks of his plight in very symbolic language.

The language of verses fourteen through fifteen relating to the physical deterioration of parts of the body may suggest severe illness or even approaching death. What are we to make of the litany of animals (bulls, lions, dogs) in verses twelve, thirteen and sixteen? They are symbolic of all that seems to threaten the existence of the psalmist at this moment. The ‘lament’ element of this psalm is highly developed. Lament inevitably

moves into a more sustained petition (Ps.22:19-21). Four imperatives are addressed to God in quick succession, ‘But you, O Lord, do not be far away’, ‘Come quickly to my aid’, ‘Deliver my soul’, ‘Save me’. It is only the Lord who can protect him from the ‘dog’ and the ‘lion’.

A very noticeable feature of this psalm is the sudden change of mood from verse twenty-one onwards. In effect, the psalm of petition becomes a psalm of thanksgiving. There is a clear statement that the prayer has been answered (Ps.22:21,24).

This may reflect a priestly blessing pronounced over the worshipper in some temple service of healing

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THE BOOK OF PSALMS

12 or sacrifice, assuring the psalmist that the prayer has been heard. The psalmist receives the blessing and is moved to declare confidence in God’s healing, saving power and to proclaim God as saviour and deliverer in the presence of the whole community (Ps.22:22). This good news must be shared. In his joy, the poet calls upon those around him to join with him in praising and thanking God (Ps.22:23). The circle of praise is extended in verse twenty-five to the ‘great congregation’. The psalmist envisages a great thanksgiving feast to which all are invited (Ps.22:26).

The end of the psalm has an even wider universal perspective. All the nations will one day turn and bow down to the Lord (Ps.22:27-28). Even those who have died will worship him (Ps.22:29). Indeed, all future generations, those not yet born, will serve

the Lord (Ps.22:30-31). The sweep of praise and gratitude becomes as all-inclusive as the poet can imagine.

This psalm is not only quoted in the passion narrative of the gospels, but the language of the psalm influences the way the passion narrative is told (cf. Mk.15:24,4; Mt.27:35,43,46; Lk. 23:34-35). This psalm is the voice of the devout person who suffers unjustly, and the person who most fits this profile is Jesus. Jesus’ sense of abandonment

by God on the cross is the experience of every faithful sufferer. He is the righteous sufferer who knows divine abandonment. If the bulk of the psalm is the voice of the crucified Jesus, the final part could be understood as the voice of the risen Jesus thanking and praising God who, in response to Jesus’ self-emptying, has highly exalted him.

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MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTIAN ART

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This month EILEEN KANE explores the symbolism of the ‘new Eve’, Mary, Queen of Heaven, in The Madonna of the Rose Bower by Stefan Lochner.

THE MADONNA OF THE ROSE BOWER Stefan Lochner (1400–51) ‘O Mary, we crown thee with blossoms today, Queen of the angels and Queen of the May’ – so run the words of a popular hymn to Mary, sung especially during the month of May. The painting by Stefan Lochner, The Madonna of the Rose Bower (in Cologne, in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum) is a visual equivalent of that hymn. It celebrates Mary as virgin and mother, and Queen of Heaven, showing her in a paradise-garden where everything is beautiful, pure and perfect.

In the painting, Mary, with the infant Jesus on her knees, is seated on a cushion, on the ground. Behind her, framing her within a semicircular space, is a low, curved wooden bench that suggests a throne, and rising behind the throne is a rose bower. Roses – red, pink and white – blossom in profusion all over the bower, with their green leaves and tender stems standing out individually against the gold background of the painting. There are also some white lilies there, growing at the foot of the bower. Directly above Mary’s head we catch a glimpse of God the Father. Surrounded by a ring of golden clouds, and accompanied by

a myriad of cherubs’ heads, he opens his hands and dispatches down towards Mary a dove that symbolises the Holy Spirit, just as he does in scenes of the Annunciation. Here, though, the Son is already born, and is being presented to us by his mother Mary. The Father and Holy Spirit indicate that we are in the presence of the one, triune God. Mary and her son are surrounded by angels, all represented as little children and dressed in bright colours. In the foreground, four are playing musical instruments: a portative organ at the left, a harp at the right, and, behind them, two lutes. These instruments are shown in astonishingly accurate detail, even down to the bellows of the organ, operated by the angel’s left hand, and the plectrum that the angel on the right uses to pluck the strings of the lute. The detail extends, also, to the green sward on which the angels and Mary are sitting. It is not grass but a carpet of plants, with tiny flowers peeping out: blue violets, white daisies and red wild strawberries.

At the back of the throne on the left an angel in yellow, holding a red rose in his right hand, reaches up to

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MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTIAN ART

Š Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Photo

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gather another one from the bower, no doubt to offer to Mary. Opposite him, on the right, an angel in white holding a basket of shiny, redblushed apples offers one of them

to the child Jesus. Jesus already has an apple in his hand. This detail is important. It refers back to the fall of Adam and Eve, when the sin of disobedience – eating the forbidden

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MASTERPIECES OF CHRISTIAN ART

16 fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil – created the need for our redemption, and set in train the course of history that would eventually see a new Adam and a new Eve. The new Eve is Mary who, by her obedience to God’s will, became the mother of the new Adam – Christ – who would redeem us from our sins. Of course, the forbidden fruit was not necessarily an apple. The apple simply symbolises ‘fruit’ of any kind.

As Queen of Heaven, Mary is wearing a golden crown, set with pearls, sapphires, rubies, amethysts and other precious stones, arranged as the petals of flowers. In the centre of its base, above her forehead, is a diamond; at its apex, a large, clear blue sapphire.

On her tunic, at her throat, she has a gold brooch. This, too, is full of symbolism, because, worked in the gold, a unicorn can be seen, with one of its hooves on the lap of a maiden.

It was believed, in the Middle Ages, that this mythical beast could only be captured in the company of a maiden, and so the legend became another symbol of the Virgin Mary.

Mary is dressed all in blue, the folds and highlights of her mantle indicated, not by the addition of black, or grey or of white, but by

variations in the strength of the blue.

The pigment used was probably ‘ultramarine’, the very precious blue made from lapis lazuli that had been ground down into a powder. That blue was the most expensive colour in a mediaeval artist’s studio, more expensive even than gold. Mary’s halo is of gold, tooled with a border of stars. The child’s halo is also of gold, on which a pattern of iris flowers has been worked in the shape of a cross.

The background, too, of fully half of this painting is of gold; gold-leaf laid down over a red-coloured preparation that gives it a ‘warm’ hue, and then tooled with rays that emanate from God the Father.

At the top corners of the rose bower are two more angels. These are holding open the crimson and gold hangings that have been drawn back, allowing us to gaze upon this vision of heaven.

Stefan Lochner was the outstanding master of his generation working in Cologne. He painted the Madonna of the Rose Bower in about 1440–42, on a panel of oak-wood that measures about fifty centimetres in height and forty centimetres in width.

It is an astonishingly beautiful work, a painting that endlessly holds our attention, a hymn of joy and delight in praise of Mary.

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FEATURE

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GERARD GALLAGHER looks forward to the forthcoming Synod of Bishops which will focus on Vocation and Young People. Pastoral Co-ordinator at the Dublin Archdiocese, and parent, he shares his hopes for this meeting of world bishops.

Photograph © Milkovasa / Shutterstock

YOUTH SYNOD

What to do with my life? Pope Francis is aware of the importance of this question to young people. He has invited the bishops of the world to begin to prepare for a Synod on Youth on the topic, ‘Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment’. The Pope really wants to hear

the key questions that young people are asking today, with a strong hope that he will hear some input from young people themselves. This period of ‘listening’ is also a time for the whole Church to pause and reflect on what God is doing in the lives of young people today.

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FEATURE

18 Pope Francis has demonstrated his affection for young people. He has written to them with the desire for each young person to discern and listen to God’s call. He says he wants them to be the ‘centre of attention’ in the Church. This is a challenge to those in later years!

Discerning how to follow God is a gift. It is not a programme. Discernment is not easy. Even the Psalmist prays, ‘Who can discern their own errors?’ (Ps. 19:12). We need the gift of discernment to figure out what is going on inside our hearts. Being reflective is difficult in our present culture and is not something that is encouraged. Would it not be good to recall the questions the Pope is asking young people? Questions such as, ‘How does the Church listen to your situation?’ ‘What do young people really ask of the Church in your country?’ ‘How is contact made with young people who do not frequent Church?’

Our youth are millenial. They have come of age during a time of major technological change. They have grown up with the internet and all the social media platforms and outlets that have evolved. They seem to live much of their life ‘online’. In the midst of this chaotic world how many of them really get an opportunity to reflect on the key vocational questions? How can they be expected to reflect on their relationship with God when some of them are unsure who God is?

To be a reflective person at any age and to ponder the paths of life requires the gift of wisdom, and

is discovered slowly. St Ignatius of Loyola used discernment as an essential part of his legacy. He encouraged retreatants to examine not just their conscience, but also the mysterious and interior movements of the heart as they pondered the Scriptures. He often asked people to reflect on the question, ‘What is God saying to me through this text in the Scripture? What is its meaning for my life?’

Many agree that God has a plan for our lives. ‘For I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you hope and a future’ (Jer.29:11). For young people, part of God’s plan is the process of figuring out the path for their life.

They face huge decisions around career or what they are to do with their lives. These decisions require prayer, research, patience and advice. While being able to make a free decision is important, our young people require the support and accompaniment of wise people, youth leaders and family. God’s plan for each of us requires us to enter into a deeper ‘personal encounter with Jesus Christ’ and discernment of the plan God has for each one of us.

Earlier in 2017 the Irish Bishops’ Conference hosted an online survey called The Big April Ask using Pope Francis’ questions. Youth Leaders attempted to find out the core questions of young people. Parishes and communities that lament the absence of youth could perhaps identify with Martha in the gospel. Rather than spending time with Jesus, they are busy with other chores, even good works. Similarly the Church seems to

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FEATURE

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be busy with many matters and not totally focused on outreach to a new generation of youth.

Recently I asked a young person who does not feel part of the Church, what he’d like to see the Church doing now. He said he’d like his local priest to walk down his street and see his world. We have lost contact with some of the peripheries in our parishes. Our Church needs to change paths and ‘walk down’ the streets where people are living lives with no contact with Church.

Many young people are clearly choosing a variety of paths in life.

Church is not one of them. Our census indicates a major future change showing that one in three in the eastern part of Ireland are no longer

affiliated to any church. The Synod provides an opportunity to reach out to young people, involve them in Church life, and assist in their discernment.

Pope Francis has provided a moment to pause and reflect on the presence of young people within the Church. He is also proposing a compass to show the way this journey into relationship with God can take place. This metaphor can continue – the Church needs to read the same map that young people have.

Otherwise they will never find each other. The Church and its people need to ‘go’ to young people. How we do so, young and old, is perhaps the discernment question we all need to ask.

D on ation s gratef ully r ecei v ed

For the spread of devotion to the love of God in the Sacred Heart and other Messenger charities.

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For the promotion of The Sacred Heart Messenger.

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PLACES OF WORSHIP

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CHRISTOPHER MORIARTY educates us on the origin and spiritual practices of the Quakers, whose first meeting in Ireland was held in 1654. He focuses on the Quaker Meeting House located in Monkstown, and highlights its communal features.

MONKSTOWN QUAKER MEETING HOUSE

A simple grey-painted building with large windows stands at the corner of Pakenham Road in Dublin’s Monkstown. Both the form of the building and the size of the windows have an element of symbolism for its owners, the Quakers, who worship there every Sunday morning. Since their foundation in the seventeenth century, Quakers have embraced the principle of simplicity in their lifestyle and an idealistic concept of the importance of light.

The Quakers originated as a group of Christians who hoped to reform what they saw as the corrupt and much too worldly Church of En-

gland. They disapproved both of the existence of ordained clergy and of a liturgy, holding that all men and women were equal in the sight of God and that worship should be a combination of waiting in silence for inspiration from the Holy Spirit and, when inspiration struck, the sharing of thoughts with the congregation.

The first ‘Meeting for Worship’ was held in England in 1652 and the first in Ireland very shortly afterwards, in 1654. When the Quakers found that they were unable to reform the entire Anglican Church, they established themselves as a separate denomination and, within the next twenty

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PLACES OF WORSHIP

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Plaque that marks the spot from which food was supplied to the starving people during the Great Famine

years, drew up a system of organisation. While the system required strict adherence to rules of procedure, belief remained a purely personal matter and Quakers resolutely refused to formulate a creed.

In the early years the communal worship took place in the homes of members. Before long, it was found that a dedicated building was more convenient and these were built wherever the community was large enough. In Dublin, the Quakers built their first meeting house close to Dublin Castle in Bride’s Alley in 1657, moving to Eustace Street in 1689 where an eighteenth-century house is still in use.

While the Quakers insisted on the ideals of simplicity, equality and integrity, they never regarded poverty as a virtue and believed strongly in the sanctity of hard work. As a result many members were highly successful innovators in business. Some of

them were among the affluent Dubliners who moved their homes from the city centre to such seaside places as Monkstown in the 1820s. In 1829 they began to plan a meeting house and engaged the architect George Papworth, who had designed the Carmelite church in Whitefriar street a few years earlier. The builder was a Quaker, Albert Roberts, and the new meeting house was opened in 1832.

About the same time, two Quakers from Mountmellick, Thomas and James Pim, joined the group of entrepreneurs who backed the development of the Dublin to Kingstown Railway, in 1834 the first in Ireland and one of the earliest in the world. The success of the railways led to an increase in the numbers of commuting city workers and the creation of affluent suburbs, including Monkstown. Many Quakers settled there as a result.

A few years later the first of two

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PLACES OF WORSHIP

22 schoolrooms was added to the building. From their earliest years, Quakers had taken a serious interest in education, both of their own members and of children of other denominations. They were also greatly concerned with welfare in general and played an important part in organising relief during the Great Famine. In 1848 they set up a soup kitchen on their Pakenham Road property. A little plaque on the wall to the right of the premises marks the spot from which food was supplied to the starving people during the Great Famine.

In the 1880s a fire destroyed much of the interior furnishings and led to a major rebuilding project. In particular, the ceiling was replaced with a beautiful structure of a dark-coloured Oregon pine. It contrasts with the rest of the Meeting Room which is austere in the extreme: well-proportioned but devoid of decorations.

While it is essentially functional, the ceiling does have something more than the basic essentials and this illustrates a change of outlook which had developed among Quakers during the course of the nineteenth century. Their forbears had ruled passionately against any sort of decoration, both in furniture and in clothing.

Liberal attitudes prevailed and, by the end of the nineteenth century, Quakers could no longer be distinguished by their outdated dress, and those who could afford it furnished their houses beautifully.

Pakenham Road was widened in the 1960s and the compensation money paid was directed towards a

major rebuilding which, once more, allowed for changes in the structure in harmony with developments in practice. In the older meeting rooms, the congregation sat in rows, facing an Elders’ Bench. The duties of Elders for centuries had included ensuring that the meetings took place in good order. This was accomplished in the past by the ‘them and us’ seating arrangement.

By the twentieth century, Quakers had come to realise that congregations were fully capable of disciplining themselves and that to sit in a square or a circle was very much more in accord with the time-honoured principles of equality. The usual arrangement for a modern Quaker meeting is to have benches or chairs arranged around a table on which a vase of flowers stands.

Monkstown Meeting House today contains the spacious meeting room, entered from a vestibule – in which the worshippers meet and chat before going in to the silent meeting. There is a large schoolroom and a kitchen. The schoolroom is used on Sundays for the junior meeting in which the younger members are given instruction or play-school depending on their ages. The kitchen is equipped mainly to provide tea and coffee which are served after the Sunday meeting or in connection with the many other activities which take place on the premises.

While silence is the essence of a set hour of Sunday worship, another essential to Quakers is community – so food and talk are an integral part of worship.

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A Blessing from Pope Francis

HISTORIC CHURCHES

FEATURE

24

KEVIN HARGADEN, of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, introduces the question of who suffers in a pandemic. The answer indicates why the Church has always been involved in responding to major health crises.

PANDEMIC: WHO SUFFERS? On the fourth of March 1918, a soldier reported sick at Camp Funston, a remote US army base in Kansas.

Within three weeks thousands shared this infection and more than eleven hundred soldiers were sick enough to require hospitalisation. Soldiers from the wheat-fields of middle America were shipped out to battle in Europe and took the virus with them. What followed was a pandemic the like of which the modern world has never seen. Over the next year, at least twenty-one million people would die from Spanish Influenza.

The disease wreaked havoc in Ireland. A society already ripped apart by the forces of war – in Europe and at home – now faced this mysterious illness that afflicted 800,000 and killed more than 20,000. It came to be known as the ‘black flu’ because of how it effected a dark pallor in its victims. It struck rapidly, often killing within a day. It was especially lethal in the bodies of otherwise healthy young people.

This year, we mark the centenary of this oft-forgotten human tragedy.

More people died from this single outbreak than died in the bloodiest war history had yet seen. Scientists, medical doctors and policy-makers today stand on high alert, fearful that

the same kind of plague could arise again, just as suddenly. We know that variations of avian flu or ebola have the potential, if left unchecked, to devastate our societies in a similar way.

On such anniversaries, it seems important to remember that the Christian tradition has always been unanimous in its stance in the face of plague: the followers of Jesus stay with the sick.

This can be demonstrated in any number of ways. The theologian David Bentley Hart has argued that stretching back even before the time of Constantine, Christians have always been known as those who served the sick. St Ephraim the Syrian lived in the city of Edessa, which was ravaged by an epidemic in the 300s. While the rich fled, Ephraim established hospitals and welcomed all who were afflicted. St Basil the Great founded a hospital in Cappadocia and personally worked the wards dedicated to treating lepers.

St Benedict set aside space at his famous monastery at Monte Cassino as a free infirmary and made care of the sick a basic obligation for those who followed his rule. The very first public hospital in western Europe was opened in Rome by a Christian

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FEATURE

25

holy woman, St Fabiola. She was known to walk the streets of the city seeking out those who needed aid.

By the Middle Ages, the Benedictine order were running more than two thousand hospitals across Europe. In the early modern era, new hospitals driven by the advances made possible through the scientific method, were established through Christian philanthropy. Advances were made again and again by people whose medical research was informed by their sense of Christian vocation – from the founder of mod-

ern physiology, Albrecht von Haller, to the devout French Catholic, Louis Pasteur, who discovered the germ theory of infection. This tradition continues today in people like Kent Brantly, a doctor who, inspired by his evangelical Christian faith, was at the forefront in the battle to control the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014.

In the Ireland of 2018, remembering the pandemic of a century ago should prompt us to consider the state of medical care that our nation currently provides. Although our society today enjoys a level of wealth

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FEATURE

26 and prosperity unimaginable to those who were fighting for independence in 1918, medical care is provided in a two-tier fashion that systematically benefits the wealthy. Although there is no shortage of doctors, nurses and administrators who work with a sense of noble vocation, there are few places where the inequality in our communities is more evident than in the waiting rooms and waiting lists of hospitals.

As Christians in Ireland, we should remind the politicians who serve us that these structural injustices are not acceptable. We can be paralysed when we confront the complex ways that economic inequality works in our society. But striving to develop a medical system that cares for all, equally, without reference to the ability to pay, is an excellent starting point.

More than that, as Christians in 2018, we should remember Pope

Francis’ words about the entire church being a ‘field hospital’: ‘I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds!’

Historically, the Church has been a refuge for the outcast. Christians have been the ones willing to go to the margins and touch the untouchables. We must seriously challenge ourselves: who is the outcast in our parish? Where do you find the lepers in our society? Then as the church, we must make ourselves at home with them, and them with us. The Church does not have the cure for all society’s problems, but in an age of pandemic loneliness and epidemic poverty, the Church must again become good news for those in need.

In Loving Memory

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

List of the Dead

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

re:link

May’18

27

Resource for Religion Studies

relink.messenger.ie

Confirmation gift of ‘Wonder and Awe’ In this month’s RE:Link we are going to take a closer look at the gift of ‘Wonder and Awe’, one of the seven gifts you receive from the Holy Spirit when you make your Confirmation. We look at this gift to help you gain a further understanding of what it means, and to revise the topic for your Junior Certificate RE. It will also give you more knowledge if you attend a confirmation ceremony this year.

Think back to your confirmation day.

Before this important day, you were preparing to be confirmed, with special classes in school or in your church. In these classes you learned about two aspects of confirmation.

The first aspect is that upon being confirmed, you receive seven special gifts from the Holy Spirit. Just to refresh your memory these are: n Wisdom n Understanding n Right Judgement n Courage n Knowledge n Reverence n Wonder and Awe in God’s presence

The second aspect is that upon living a life with these gifts of the Holy Spirit, you will begin to blossom in a religious way and will begin to live your life with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are as follows: n Love n Joy n Peace n Kindness n Goodness n Patience n Gentleness n Trustfulness n Self-control

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Wonder and Awe in God’s Presence

Most Roman Catholics in Ireland are confirmed between the ages of ten and twelve. This is a very young age to comprehend this special gift that we are being given. This is, however, the age of religious maturity in the eyes of the Church, and in other religious faiths such as Judaism*.

One gift which many young people find difficult to understand is ‘Wonder and Awe in God’s Presence’. There is nothing wrong with finding this gift difficult to understand, because, even as adults, we are still learning about this great and special gift. This gift gives us the ability to remember and appreciate the greatness of God and the consequence of knowing that God loves us in a special way; so we should not let Him down.

There are many things in this world which create feelings of awe and wonder. Let’s face it, the world is full of wonderful and awesome things.

Each and every detail of the natural world is a part of God’s creation,

so when we are awe-struck or full of wonderment, we are using our gift of ‘Wonder and Awe in God’s presence’. People travel within their own country, around the earth, and even space, in search of meaning and understanding and, in religious terms, to see the beauty and bounty of God’s creation. This is living life to its fullest in God’s presence. As God is present everywhere and in everything, when we witness something powerful, beautiful, amazing or inspiring, and acknowledge that this happened because of God, then we are experiencing wonder and awe in God’s presence.

There are many wonderful and awesome parts of God’s creation, in which he is very much present. To the right is a list of some natural places, sights and experiences that show us the gift of ‘Wonder and Awe in God’s presence’.

If there are some that you do not already know, look them up online, or in your local library.

*World Religion Link Jewish boys aged thirteen and Jewish girls aged twelve make their Bar/Bat Mitzvah, which means that according to Jewish law, they become accountable for their actions in the eyes of their families and the church. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah takes place in the synagogue and is followed by a great celebration of family and friends afterwards.

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Places, Sights and Experiences n The birth of a baby n Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania n The Cliffs of Moher, County Clare n A person breaking a world running/swimming/climbing/gymnastics record n The Grand Canyon, USA n The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador n Mount Everest, China/Tibet n Birds flying in formation (murmuration) n The Great Barrier Reef, Australia n The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights), Northern Hemisphere n The hundreds of billions of stars in the galaxy n The Amazon Rainforest, Brazil n Iguazu Falls, Brazil n Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe /Zambia n The Dead Sea, Israel/Jordan/Palestine

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n The Matterhorn, Switzerland/Italy n Uluru (Ayer’s Rock), Australia n Mount Vesuvius, Naples, Italy n Yellowstone National Park, USA n The Sahara Desert, Africa n The Giant’s Causeway, Co. Antrim n Powerscourt Waterfall, Co. Wicklow n A peacock’s tail feathers in full display n Forked Lightning n Salt Flats, Bolivia n Blood Falls, Antarctica n A solar/lunar eclipse n Rainbows n The Blue Lagoon, Iceland n Whales communicating with each other under water.

These are only a small selection of natural wonders in our vast universe.

Wonderful-Bucket List You may have heard about the ‘Wonders of the World’, these are so named after the very fact that they inspire wonder (and awe) for people.

Some of these wonders are natural and others are man-made (for example the Great Wall of China), but there is no doubt that they all create a sense of wonder in the millions of visitors which they attract each year, not always for religious reasons,

but everybody is free to appreciate these wonders in their own way.

Many people make what is called a ‘Bucket List’ of places they would like to go and things that they would like to see in their lifetime. As the saying goes, ‘seeing is believing’.

Maybe think about creating your own bucket list, to explore your own feelings of wonder and awe.

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Exam Link 2014 Junior Certificate Higher Level Section 1

Q 5. Confirmation is one example of a Christian sacrament. Name another example of a Christian sacrament.

Q 9. The celebration of a Bar Mitzvah is most associated with which one of the following world religions?

(Tick the correct box) Christianity o Islam o

Judaism o

2012 Junior Certificate Higher Level Section 5 Question 5

Some experiences in life can make people wonder about the meaning of life. a. Examine the way in which an experience in a person’s life could make him/her wonder about the mystery of life. b. Outline one example of how a person’s search for the meaning of life could be expressed in an act of worship.

C ompetition !

Send us a drawing/photograph of your favourite experience of ‘Awe and Wonder in God’s Presence’. It can be from the list on page 29, or one of your own.

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

Please include your name, age & school.

Closing date: 24th of the month.

Winner receives a voucher wor th €40!

FEBRUARY 2018 RE:LINK WINNER:

Brian Fitzgerald St Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt, Co Derry

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

FEATURE

31

FR ALAN HILLIARD, frequent contributor to our pages, uses Pope Franics’ World Refugee Day on 14 January, 2018 to reflect on links between the challenges our own people faced as migrants in Tasmania, with the care for – and response to – refugees today.

PORT ARTHUR

Port Arthur, Tasmania Island, Australia

Tasmania is one of the less wellknown parts of Australia, but I love it. When the humidity hit unbearable levels in Sydney, I escaped to Tasmania for few days. It was always cooler and it made life liveable again. The island is not much different in size to Ireland but with a smaller population. Indeed the South Western area is easily the size of Cork and Kerry combined, but is accessible only by boat or plane.

A visit to Tasmania is not complete

without a visit to Port Arthur Prison.

Though the whole of Australia at that time was a convict colony, Port Arthur was where they kept people who broke the law while in the place of new-found freedom. Walking around the buildings one is immediately transported to similar penal institutions in Ireland. Apart from the sandstone, the buildings are similar in style to the granite buildings of Kilmainham Jail, Mountjoy Prison and others such institutions.

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FEATURE

32 One interesting point of information is that Port Arthur was the first penal institute to set aside a separate penal institute for children. The children were kept in a building on Point Puer (puer is Latin for boy). This information is particularly poignant for me as I walk through the buildings of the new university campus in Grangegorman. When it served as a penal institution in the eighteenth century, over three thousand female convicts and their children were deported to Tasmania from the prison there. A report in The Courier newspaper told of the female convicts and their children in their ship in Dun Laoghaire before departure. This report was based on the eyewitness account of the Rev Kirby who was chaplain to Grangegorman at that time: ‘The convicts will be usefully employed during the voyage in making shirts, stockings, and other articles of clothing. They retire to rest and rise, eat their meals and amuse themselves upon deck at certain hours, the rules in these respects being very rigid. The children who accompany their mothers are left with them till they are two years old; they are then taken from them and educated at the expense of government.’

When I took the tour of Port Arthur in late 2001, and having listened to an excellent overview of its history, my mind went to the MV Tampa. The Tampa was a Norwegian ship that, in that same year, had lifted over 430 Afghan refugees from a sinking boat in Australian waters and wanted to

bring them to shore in accordance with the ancient maritime laws of the sea. However, the ship and its crew were forcibly turned back by the Australian Navy following an instruction from the government who had an eye on the upcoming election.

They eventually ended up on an offshore facility similar to Manus Island, which has often hit headlines this year.

As I walk through Grangegorman campus later today, I will think of those in the ship in Dun Laoghaire and the refugees on board the MV Tampa and the many who cross water, both past and present, who are in search of peace, security and basic happiness. As I bring them to mind, I will have that familiar twinge in what one might call ‘my soul’, when I realise that having empathy for people who struggled in the past can sometimes cause us to be neglectful of a necessary empathy for those who struggle in the present.

Furthermore, I will be reminded that, if history teaches us anything, it is that we don’t learn from history.

True encounter with the other does not end with welcome, but involves us all in three further actions to protect, to promote and to integrate. In the true encounter with the neighbour, are we capable of recognising Jesus Christ who is asking to be welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated? As the gospel teaches us: the Lord was hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, a stranger and in prison – by some he was helped and by others not (cf Mt.25:31-46).

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GARDENING

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CIARAN BURKE warns us to be careful of the month of May; the colour and warmth of summer may tempt us but beware of sudden frosts that can catch out even the most experienced gardener!

MERCURIAL MAY

The sweet blossoms of Hawthorn decorate the hedgerows, like a pristine white lace trim. We start to feel the first of the summer warmth.

We welcome the month of May like a long lost friend, renewing our acquaintance with optimism and hope. The month of May, however, can be a fickle friend; one day we are

basking in its warm welcome, only to be met with a frosty greeting the next day.

It is the unreliable nature of the month of May we, as gardeners, must be most aware. Many may have spent the last few months carefully growing and tending their summer plants, grown with love

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GARDENING

34 from seeds. Garden centres offer an array of beauty in bloom, tempting us with trays of bedding plants. It is tempting on a warm sunny May day to act with abandon and plant out half-hardy bedding plants that will fill our summer borders, planters and pots with colour, too early in the month. Even the most experienced gardener can be fooled, as it only takes one chilly night for frost to burn and kill our tender newly-planted begonias, marigolds and lobelias.

The last frost in coastal counties is often experienced at the end of the first fortnight in May, in inland areas that late frost may not come until the very end of the month. Gardeners are wise not to be trusting of May, and wait until the danger of frost has passed. For the plants this also makes sense, as the ground will be warmer having waited a few extra weeks.

Summer bedding plants are an ideal way to add an extra splash of colour not only to the garden but also to balconies, windowsills and the entrances to our homes. Even in areas where there is no garden space, window boxes, planters, hanging baskets and pots can all be utilised to allow beauty to grow and, the flowers will provide nectar for bees.

Gardeners can make an important contribution to biodiversity in urban and suburban areas by planting summer flowers which provide nectar, that is food for bees.

Trailing petunias, lobelias, verbenas and fuchsias, can muddle together in baskets. Big flamboyant orange or red tuberous begonias

with French marigolds and red pelargoniums make a lively hot display in a container. There is a wealth of choice, the key is to be adventurous and pack the containers and baskets with lots of plants right from the start.

Plastic or terracotta, it does not matter much; just make sure that the planter has adequate drainage holes and fill with fresh compost each year.

I never bother with layering clay pots with additional drainage material such as stones or broken crocks, as is often advised. Once your pots and baskets are planted, then the most important thing to do is to keep them watered. The frequency of the watering depends on many factors such as the pot size, the weather and compost. The best advice I can give, is to check your planters each day, stick a finger into the compost to see if it is moist or not.

Plants packed in plentitude into planters will need feeding, and this will probably be required once each week. I use seaweed fertiliser, a liquid concentrate that I dilute in the watering can. Tomato food or specially formulated hanging-basket and pot products can also be fine.

The work we do in May will pay back many times throughout the summer. There will be moments that we will spend admiring the blooms, sniffing their scents and marvelling at the bees and butterflies that visit each day. Our summer starts in May, but do not be too hasty, wait until the frost has truly departed and plant ne’er a summer bedding plant till May is out, or half-way out if near the coast.

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THANKSGIVING LETTERS

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

A BIG ROW

LONG JOURNEYS

Dear Father, I am eighty-eight years old and all my life I have been a reader of The Messenger. Now I help distribute a few for the local nun. But in all those years I have never asked for my thanksgiving to be published. That’s my fault. I have always promised but then forgot. I have so much to thank the Sacred Heart for.

When my children (five sons) had accidents I always promised the Sacred Heart publication but never did.

Years later two of my sons had a big row and didn’t speak to each other for nearly twelve months. I begged the Sacred Heart to help them. He did and today these two sons are very close. God be thanked.

Another son is separated from his wife. Every year he agreed that she could take one child for a month to visit her home country. In 2012 she went with the youngest child and did not return. We prayed and prayed to the Sacred Heart for the child’s return and, one year later, she was returned. The fact of her Irish citizenship played a big part in her return.

A million thanks to the Sacred Heart for all these things and a lifetime of blessings, big and small.

Lifetime reader

Dear Father, Please publish my grateful thanks to the Sacred Heart. My daughter had to travel a long journey on a bad, frosty morning. I prayed to the Sacred Heart to keep her safe. Thanks to him she arrived safely. My son and grandson also had to travel a long journey late one evening. I put all my trust in the Sacred Heart and they too arrived safely. I am always praying to the Sacred Heart.

A great lover of the Sacred Heart

RECOVERING NOW Dear Father, I wish to thank the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Our Blessed Lady, St Martin, St Pio, the Holy Spirit and all the saints for many favours granted to my family and me over the years.

Recently for a good result on a scan I had done. My health has been poor over the past year, but is recovering now.

I pray always and thank the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Mother and all the saints for their help. They never let me down.This letter is long overdue. Please keep helping my family and me.

Thank you again.

A Co Down reader

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THANKSGIVING STORY

37

ANDREW REDICAN shares this experience of a good samaritan for this month’s ‘Kindness I’ll Never Forget’.

Have you a kindness memory? Send it to us! There is a €40 token for each published contribution.

A KINDNESS I’LL NEVER FORGET

T

he last bus approached where I was thumbing a lift. Last hope.

The lights on the bus went out and it drove right by. A kind lady, in her late forties perhaps, pulled in at the bus stop and shouted, ‘come on.

Hop in’.

‘I haven’t any money to pay you’, I mumbled.

‘Hop in’, she repeated, adding, ‘you must be perished and hungry.’

She handed me two bars of chocolate.

Even though I was twenty-four, I remember now how embarrassed and self-conscious of my appearance I was, but most grateful. I can’t remember what we talked about. But I do remember how I was worrying what my sister (my ‘second mother’) would think of me, thumbing at such a late hour, and ‘the cut of me!’

I could never forget that woman’s

kindness to me, and her daring. Like the nine lepers, I’m now ashamed to admit that I never returned to say thanks, or even drop her a line of thanks. She was such a kind-hearted lady to offer a lift and drive such an undesirable-looking character at that late hour of night. She had to be brave and daring, for my sister hoped I wouldn’t go to Mass the next morning, she was so ashamed of my appearance. That she confessed to me years later. I went to Mass.

Now, fifty-two years after the wonderful kindness of that very dear lady, a wiser and much older man, I really appreciate that someone once wrote, ‘Kindness is the ability to love people more than they really deserve.’

Thank you my good lady. May God reward you for your extraordinary kindness to me.

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COOKERY

38

MARIE McGUIRK offers a delicious variety of salads for the beginning of summer. Beware the spicey chicken salad comes with a kick!

SUMMER SALADS AND SWEET TREATS May is one of the nicest months of the year and as the weather begins to get warmer we can enjoy some fresh crispy salads.

SPICEY CHICKEN SALAD

(1 person) 2 teaspoons soy sauce 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar A little grated ginger Small clove crushed garlic Pinch of sugar 1 chicken breast 1 small carrot cut into ribbons 1 scallion sliced Mixed salad leaves 2 cherry tomatoes 1 scallion sliced Chopped coriander

DRESSING

(This can be kept in a jar in the fridge and used on other salads) 1 teaspoon French mustard 1 teaspoon honey 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 4 tablespoons olive oil.

METHOD

n Mix together the soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger and sugar. n Cut the chicken breast into strips and toss in the marinade. Place in fridge for twenty minutes then remove from the marinade n Heat a fry pan or wok and add a little oil to it. Stir fry the chicken

pieces for five minutes. n Add a tablespoon of water to the remaining marinade in the dish and then pour this on top of chicken. Place a lid on pan and turn down heat. n Continue to cook for a further eight minutes stirring occasionally. n Meanwhile place all the dressing ingredients in a jam jar and shake vigorously. n Slice the carrot into thin ribbons with a potato peeler. n Toss the salad leaves in a little of the dressing and place on a serving plate. n Sprinkle the tomatoes, carrot ribbons and scallions on top and then the cooked chicken. n This recipe can be multiplied to cater for larger numbers.

SUMMER SALAD

(4-6 people) 2 tins of peaches in natural juice 1 red onion cut in half and then thinly sliced Juice of 1 lime A little olive oil ½ mild red chilli finely chopped

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COOKERY

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8oz (200g) feta cheese cut into small dice 1oz (25g) chopped mint Salt and pepper

METHOD

n Drain the peaches well and place in a serving bowl. n Stir in the onion, olive oil, chilli, lime juice and seasoning. Mix well. n Scatter over the cheese cubes and finish with the chopped mint.

Chill and serve.

ORANGE AND GINGER DRIZZLE CAKE

(serves at least 8) 8oz (200g) softened butter or margarine 8oz (200g) caster sugar 9oz (225g) self- raising flour 3oz (75g) ground almonds 4 eggs 4 pieces of stem ginger chopped 4 tablespoons syrup from stem ginger jar Rind and juice of 1 orange

DRIZZLE

Juice of 1 orange Juice of ½ lemon 2 tablespoons icing sugar

METHOD n Heat the oven to 160°C/350°F No 4 Gas. n Line an 8inch 23cm deep cake tin with parchment. n Using the all in one method place the soft butter, sugar, flour, ground almonds and eggs in a bowl. Beat for one minute. n Fold in the ginger, syrup and orange rind and juice. n Pour into prepared tin and bake 50–55 mins. n Stick a skewer into middle of cake, and if it comes out clean remove cake from oven otherwise continue to cook for a further five minutes. n Heat the orange and lemon juice with the icing sugar and dissolve slowly. n Bring to boiling point and simmer for a few minutes to thicken then pour over cake while it is still in tin. n Allow to cool in tin before removing. This freezes well.

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CROSSWORDS

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

Judge’s decision is final.

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

WIN €100! ADULT CROSSWORD Send to: Adult Crossword 805, Messenger Publications, 37 Lr Leeson St, Dublin 2, Ireland

_________________________________________________

Address: ___________________________________________

Name: ____________________________________________

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ACROSS 1 Demon allowed it to be implied though not expressed (8) 6 Deny having wind so stormy (6) 9 Snap this fiery monster, a bloomer (6) 10 Egg consumed on island first that had not been developed (8) 11 React violently, lady given free hand (5-7) 13 Not as jealous, shocking unit of energy (5) 14 Stomach to fail dismally during dive! (9) 17 Signal that’s extremely frivolous (4,5) 19 One way to make a deduction (5) 21 Goat with pipe should not have gone off the rails! (7,5) 24 New Prince Court, pedestrianised area (8) 25 Graeme, remarkably thin (6) 26 From Arizona, a pastureland flower (6) 27 Charge harbour where there are low duties (3,5)

DOWN 2 Visible impression’s remarkable inclusion (4) 3 By inference rational thought with friend (9) 4 Rumour from an eccentric going round (6) 5 In three banks men plied this old craft (7) 6 Collide violently before end of day in an easily managed way! (8) 7 Bridge partners going round court become enraptured (5) 8 Guard fortress, one used by sentinel (10) 12 Got up liquid quantities, say, of rock-forming mineral (4-6) 15 Amusing odd fence (5,2-2) 16 In Gabon I uprooted tropical plant (8) 18 Usual practice at animal home (7) 20 151 at most at highest point (6) 22 Calf cavorting round ring of the central point (5) 23 Be taking artist into hillside (4)

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CROSSWORDS

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CHILDREN’S CROSSWORD: WIN €30!

Name: _____________________________________Age:__________

Address: _________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

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

ACROSS 1 Japanese sport (4) 5 Dark brown colour, also a coffee (5) 6 A Mongolian tent (4) 7 A black widow’s bite can be ____ (5) 10 A ____ of measurement (4) 13 You fly it! (4) 14 A ____ boom (5) 15 A male deer (4) 16 You would find the Eiffel Tower here (5) 17 Part of our DNA (4)

DOWN 1 Celebratory, happy (6) 2 A famous English scientist (6) 3 They make cameras (5) 4 Someone who breaks the rules (5) 8 To go very quietly you might go on _____ (6) 9 An organisation of teams (6) 11 People who move from place to place (5) 12 Shy, afraid (5)

FEBRUARY 2018 CROSSWORD SOLUTIONS AND WINNERS

CHILDREN’S CROSSWORD:ACROSS: 1 Girl; 5 Panda; 6 Tuba; 7 Nacho; 10 Asia; 13 Lion; 14 Match; 15 Yeti; 16 Scoop; 17 Lake. DOWN: 1 Gotham; 2 Rabbit; 3 Canal; 4 Idaho; 8 Cinema; 9 Online; 11 Sauce; 12 Actor.

CHILDREN’S CROSSWORD WINNER:Caitlin Hanniffy, Galway, age 10 ADULT CROSSWORD: ACROSS: 1 Sausage-meat; 9 Valley; 10 Lampoon; 12 Overarm; 14 Y-fronts; 15 Do me a favour; 16 Rue; 17 Now; 19 Thunderbolt; 22 Antique; 23 Exempla; 24 Leakage; 25 Geezer; 26 Letterpress. DOWN: 2 Anaheim; 3 Sultana; 4 Guy; 5 Mollycoddle; 6 Admirer; 7 Joiner; 8 Inessential; 11 Golden eagle; 13 Measurement; 18 Withal; 19 T-square; 20 Roe-deer; 21 Orpheus; 25 Gar. ADULT CROSSWORD WINNERS: Murt Hunt, Mayo.

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page 42

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

In his article ‘Does God Have Skin?’

Philip Fogarty SJ talks about the incarnation of Christ. Can you find these words from his article?

Incarnate Samaria Communities Gentleness Nowhere Afraid Tribulation Senses Believers Patience Kindness Generosity

Mary’s Prayer Fill in the blanks

Hail Mary, full of G_ _ _ _, The L_ _ _ is with you.

B_ _ _ _ _ _ are you among women, and blessed is the f_ _ _ _ of your womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, M_ _ _ _ _ of God, p_ _ _ for us sinners, now and at the h_ _ _ of our death.

Amen.

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6 5 4

1

5 3

3

6

2 6 2

3 4

2

5

6

4

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

Poetry Competition

Test your talents and submit your own poem for a chance to win €30!

This month’s poem should be written on the theme of:-

THE SENSES

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

FEATURE

44

Is God near or far? PHILIP FOGARTY SJ, writer and retreat director, links the insight of a young child with the wish that God always be near us.

DOES GOD HAVE SKIN? There is a story told about a fouryear-old little girl who awoke one night very frightened, convinced that there were all kinds of monsters in her room. She ran to her parents’ bedroom. Her mother calmed her down and led her back to her own room, put on the light and reassured the child with the words: ‘You need not be afraid. You are not alone here. God is in the room with you.’

The child replied, ‘I know that God is here, but I need someone in this room who has some skin!’

It is said that God is everywhere, but we need to be able to touch, see, hear, smell, taste God in some way, otherwise it would seem as if God is nowhere! When Jesus walked the dusty roads of Palestine he could be seen and touched and heard. He was human just like us, subject to all the trials and tribulations, joys and sorrows of human experience. As Christians, we believe that in Jesus ‘God the only Son, who was close to the Father’s heart’ (Jn.1:18) became a physical being like us, was made flesh, incarnate. So, in Jesus, God does indeed have skin!

Why? Because we humans need to encounter God, who is spirit, in some tangible way through our senses.

Since we tend to believe in what we

can touch, see, hear, smell and taste, God respects our nature and so deals with us through our senses. In Jesus, God could be touched, seen and heard. However, Jesus only lived on earth some thirty-three years.

Does God have skin now in the twenty-first century?

At the very heart of Christianity there is a teaching that modern day Christians have largely ignored. St Paul put it succinctly: ‘Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.’ (1 Cor.12:27). In other words, as Christians we are the body of Christ in today’s world.

This is not just a metaphor. The body of believers, (the People of God), is the body of Christ. Paul does not say that the Church replaces Christ’s body, or that it represents Christ’s body, or even that it is Christ’s mystical body. He says, ‘Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ.’ (1 Cor.6:15).

The word ‘Christ’ can sometimes be confusing. Some think of it as Jesus’ surname, like Fogarty or Smith.

But ‘Christ’ or ‘Messiah’ (both words mean the same thing, the anointed one) was a title given to Jesus after the resurrection. In John’s Gospel, when the woman from Samaria talks about the Messiah who is coming,

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FEATURE

Image © FamVeld / Shutterstock

45

Jesus says to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’ (Jn.4:26).

In the New Testament ‘the Body of Christ’ can refer to three things: to Jesus who walked the roads of Palestine, to the Eucharist and to the body of believers. This is how Paul puts it in a letter to the Christians of Rome: ‘For as in one body we have many members, and not all members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members of one another.’ (Rom.12:4-5). As communities of believers, and not merely as individuals, possessed of Christ’s

spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal.5:2223) we incarnate, make flesh, make present God in our world today.

Throughout the letters of St Paul there is constant reference to Christians being the Body of Christ.

Insofar as Christians think and act in Christ’s spirit and work together continuing Jesus’ mission in the world, then Paul can assert that ‘in the one Spirit we were all baptised into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.’ (1 Cor.12:13). Herein lies

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FEATURE

46 the challenge for twenty-first century Christians who are steeped in the rampant individualism of our times, and it is one reason why so many young people are uninspired by what they perceive as the Body of Christ today.

In writing to the Colossians Paul wrote, ‘As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion and kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another, forgive each other, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you were called in the one body.’ (Col.3:12-15).

‘When we live in love, God, who is spirit, is alive in us and we are alive in God’ (1 Jn.4). Reaching out together to others, especially the poor and the marginalised in our world, with love and forgiveness, we incarnate God, and make present his love. An individualism that ignores that reality and looks only for individual, personal salvation betrays the good news of Jesus.

When the four-year-old little girl who was afraid in the dark was reassured and comforted by her mother, God was made flesh through her actions. When we, as the Body of Christ, struggle to make love, truth and justice a reality in our world, then we make God present. Yes, God has skin!

Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

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

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

Jn 14:27

First Friday: 4th May 2018 ................................................................ ................................................................ ................................................................ ................................................................ ................................................................

SEND TO:

The Sacred Heart Messenger,

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FEATURE

FR THOMAS CASEY SJ in his new book Smile of Joy: Mary, Mother of Jesus (Messenger Publications 2018) takes a new look at Mary’s place with the apostles after the resurrection of her Son. She was the one who looked on them with the mercy she knew was in the heart of her Son.

MARY: SMILE OF JOY

God is a God of mercy for Mary. She is absolutely certain that God has a heart that is sensitive to our pain and misery. Indeed, she knows that the pain and unfreedom of human beings causes so much ‘pain’ to God that he went through the pain of sending his only Son to us.

For this reason Mary encouraged the disciples to go beyond their own little concerns, to widen their hearts and enlarge their vision.

She reassured them that love was stronger than death because love lasts forever, and stronger than any suffering because ultimately love wins out over everything. She warned them that not caring about the plight of those around them would make them undeserving of God’s care. For that moment, while they were in the upper room, she urged them to help the whole world through their prayer.

Later, she had a hunch that the Holy Spirit himself would empower them to go out to the four corners of the earth.

Mary must have experienced great joy as she prayed with the disciples in the upper room for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit is love in person, anyone with any emotional sensitivity would relish the thought of his coming. And Mary

was of course no stranger to the Holy Spirit. At the moment of the Annunciation, Mary opened herself to the Holy Spirit coming upon her. She gave her complete consent to living in the pure stream of God’s love. As Pentecost approached, she helped the disciples to open themselves up to the Holy Spirit. She can help us receive the gift of the Spirit as well.

Fr Tom Casey’s book, Smile of Joy: Mary, Mother of Jesus will be published on 23 April by Messenger Publications, and may be ordered from www.messenger.ie/bookshop, and in Veritas, Knock and other bookshops.

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IN THE MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS

48

JOHN MURRAY tells of the life of Bartolo Longo, founder of the modern city of Pompeii in southern Italy. Longo, after embracing satanism in his youth, recommitted himself to a life of faith.

BLESSED BARTOLO LONGO Many of us know the stories of St Augustine and Matt Talbot, and can take some comfort from the way in which they changed their lives. Have you heard, however, of Bartolo Longo and his journey from satanist to saint?

Bartolo was born in 1841, but sadly lost his mother when he was only ten. How life might have been different; how valuable the role is of a mother in a young child’s upbringing! By the time the young Bartolo was to enter university he was ready in his heart for all that a secular institute of education could give him, and, in nineteenth-century Italy, that meant quite a lot of anti-clericalism and even exposure to the occult.

Bartolo flung himself headlong into this heady mixture. He participated in séances, dabbled in drugs and publicly ridiculed the faith of his youth and of his mother. He began even to lure people away from the Catholic faith, and all of this he managed to do while obtaining a degree as a lawyer.

Soon he was invited to join a Satanist group which was operating in the university and was even ‘or-

dained’ a priest in this group.

This new life and energy, however, did not bring with it a key to happiness for Bartolo. He found himself to be paranoid and depressed, even on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Yet, just as in the story of Augustine, there were others, family members and no doubt his deceased mother, who were praying fervently for him. Somehow their prayers broke down the anger and sin with which the young man had surrounded himself, and one night Bartolo felt he heard the voice of his dead father crying out to him ‘return to God!’ Bartolo was stunned. Despite his experiences and the direction he had taken, he sought out a friend who lived nearby. He was a professor in the university and a man of faith.

Even he was stunned when he saw his friend, whom he had not seen for a while. ‘Do you want to die … and be lost forever ?’ The professor, Vincenzo Pepe, was thinking of the sinful choices Bartolo had made and though his language was harsh something cut through to the heart of his friend.

Immediately on Vincenzo’s advice he went to a local Dominican

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IN THE MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS

priest, Fr Alberto Radente, who began to work with Bartolo. It was a slow work.

The priest had to remove layers and layers of negativity and prejudice and sin.

It took a month, but by the end the young man was able to go to confession and be freed from the years of slavery which he had endured somehow in the name of ‘freedom’.

Bartolo even began then to bear witness to Christ at the parties and student cafés where formerly he had worked hard to lead people away to another master. He even pronounced vows as a lay Dominican on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Satan, however, was not giving up so easily and, as sometimes happens with those who have left behind a life of sin, guilt stirs and robs the neophyte of God’s peace. Bartolo began to feel unworthy of God’s forgiveness. He also remembered those whom he had led from the Church in his satanic zeal. ‘Despite my repentance I thought: I am still consecrated to Satan, and I am still his slave and property as he awaits me in Hell.’ Bartolo began to experience a

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

49

deep sense of despair and almost committed suicide.

But Mary too had not given up on ‘her man’. That consecration to her on October seventh was not wasted. Soon Bartolo was reminded in prayer that his path to heaven was through teaching others to pray the rosary. He moved to the ruins of Pompeii and with the help of a local countess rebuilt the shrine of Our Lady there; Bartolo is considered the founder of the modern city of Pompeii. Soon too – with the guidance of Pope Leo XIII – he married a Countess, though the two entered into a celibate marriage as they continued to serve the poor of the area. For the next fifty years Bartolo preached the rosary, established orphanages for the children of criminals and transformed a city of death into one dedicated to the Mother of God. Indeed at his beatification in 1980 Pope John Paul II proclaimed Bartolo ‘a man of Mary’. Some praise indeed from the Pope of ‘Totus Tuus’!

Blessed Bartolo Longo pray for us!

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50

GREENING THE SHOPPING BASKET

Some tips from Eco-congregation Ireland on making your shopping basket greener! Today take time to think of the effect you have on the environment, and see if there might be something you can do to make that effect more positive.

GENERAL GUIDELINES We all need to buy goods, but we can make certain choices to reduce the environmental impact of our purchasing. There are five golden ‘R’s to consider before making a purchase: REFUSE – do I really need the item?

REDUCE – do I need to consume as much, e.g. if buying a car I could buy one with a 1400cc engine rather than a 2.5l space cruiser, so saving resources used in manufacturing and running and fuel costs RECYCLE – can the item I am considering buying be easily recycled?

What proportion of recycled and raw materials are used in its construction?

REUSE – instead of buying a brand new item, can I reuse an existing item that I already have or buy it second hand?

REPAIR – instead of buying new, can I have an existing item repaired? Can the item that I am considering buying be easily repaired and are spare parts available?

FOOD Not so many years ago the range of so-called exotic produce was largely limited to bananas and citrus fruit, with occasional pineapples, melons and seasonal satsumas. Today the supermarkets, and to a lesser extent greengrocers, supply a wide range of fruits and vegetables from across the world. The change has given

increased choice, but in the process we have lost touch with the rhythm of the seasons. The change has also increased pollution from the transport of food – termed as food miles.

Flying fruit and vegetables round the world uses up to 4 litres of fuel for each kilogram of produce. Whilst there is a debate about the merits and risks of GM and whether or not there is a difference between the taste or nutritional value of organic produce, it is widely recognised that the use of pesticides, along with other intensive farming practices, has had a damaging impact on wildlife in the country. Our choices on the supermarket shelves and grocery stores can make a difference.

GOOD PRACTICE n Buy locally grown produce where possible and support farmers’ markets. n Consider growing your own produce if possible and practical. n Make pickles, jams and preserves when produce is in season and cheap. n Choose organically grown crops and avoid buying too much produce that has been flown in from around the world. n Avoid choosing food with excessive packaging.

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Unending Play

by James Smyth SJ

We walk at dawn through wonder fields of light We hear red words across the rim of sky – With night you come with doom and death to claim All lovely things that share our cycled day.

You check the span of every trembling leaf, The wheel apart of stars down burning years.

You hear the flake of hills through aeons of ice And tiny tumult in a summer hive.

Our loves – our dreams – the years’ relentless cry Are hints and symbols of our root divide.

Till lonely ripples on the dark and deep We turn and quiver to intenser peace.

Till home – our father’s house – the garden gate.

Eternal childhood in unending play.

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PAUL O’REILLY SJ, recalls the generosity of the early Irish immigrants in the Jesuit parish at Stamford Hill, London. Fr Paul is a Jesuit working in London as a medical doctor.

IRISH IMMIGRANTS AT STAMFORD HILL I will remember forever the homily that the bishop gave at my diaconate ceremony. He reminded us of what St Paul said to the Galatians: that Jesus has the power to transcend the sorts of barriers that so frequently divide our society – between Jews and Samaritans; slave or free; male and female; all of you are one in Christ Jesus (Gal.3:28).

The church I was ordained in was St Ignatius, Stamford Hill. We are a community which has seen many waves of immigration into England – the Jews, the Irish, the Caribbeans, the Pakistanis, the East African Asians, the Ghanaians the Somalis, and the Kurds. He said that, for him, the whole history of those people was, quite literally, built into the church. ‘If you look around this church,’ he said, ‘you will see that it is built in many different styles of architecture. It has at least two of everything – but never two the same. It has two towers and, if you look carefully, you’ll see that they are quite different. If you look at each of the pillars, you’ll see that they’re all different. Each one is individual, unique. Even the bricks in the walls aren’t all the same.’

This is what is called an Irish penny-church. It’s called that be-

cause it was built by very poor Irish immigrants who could only afford to pay for a small bit at a time. So, every time they had enough for one more pillar, or one more wall, it was a different builder who came to do it and he built it a slightly different way, using slightly different materials – probably whatever happened to be cheapest at the time. And over the years, building styles changed, so each pillar, each wall, each brick, each little thing in the church is just slightly different from all the others.

Each one is individual, unique. But they’re all still standing.

These were people who knew what it was to be a poor suspect minority in a not always friendly country. They were people of faith, however. They could only build a little bit at a time, but that didn’t stop them thinking big. They could only afford one pillar at a time, but they knew that if they kept at it – ‘kept on keeping on’, as my mother would say – they would one day have a building that would give glory to God. Every brick in the beautiful church was somebody’s heart-felt gift to God. Probably, there were people who went hungry to build this building.

But they kept on keeping on. Probably most of the people who con-

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53

tributed to it knew that they would never live to see it completed. But they kept on keeping on.

These people, poor as they were, devoted to the Eucharist, acted locally and thought globally. They wanted their church to be a lasting witness that our God is a God for all peoples. And, coming from that same Irish peasant stock, I am proud of them: if they could stand where I stand in the church and look out over

a church full of people of every tribe and tongue, every people and every nation, they would praise God. They would celebrate that every penny they scrimped and saved, every hardship they underwent, every meal they did without, had been worthwhile. They would know that now other people stand where they stood, sit where they sat and kneel where they knelt and all of them continue in the faith that unites us all.

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St Rita of Cascia R

St Brendan B

9

2 4

u

St John I Pp Mt

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Ss Nereus & Achilleus Mm

5

Bl Edmund Rice R

SATURDAY

10 11 12

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3

FRIDAY The English Martyrs

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The Visitation of the BVM

27 28 29 30 31

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13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Pentecost

8

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1

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WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

TUESDAY St Joseph the Worker

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MONDAY

Ascension of the Lord

6

6th Sunday of Easter

SUNDAY

MAY 2018

u First Friday

In the simplest corner of the summer garden A chance to look, to admire, to wonder And then to remember with awe The beauty of our creation.

Text and photograph: Donal Neary SJ ISSN 1649-4450

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