Events This Week
- GENERAL MEETING: We held our General Meeting on Monday night last. We would have wished for a bigger crowd, but the weather was very bad. You will recall that the meeting was called principally to deal with matters related to the planned Church renovations. Our renovations committee had already submitted their 'wish list' (together with surveyors' drawings) to the architects. Some of our renovations committee then met with the architect, Richard Hurley, days prior to the meeting. He proposed January 1st, 2004 as a more realistic date for beginning work on the project. And the entire project will last 7 months. So we will be looking for an alternative place of worship for the first 7 months of 2004! I know that many are disappointed with the delay. But we are dealing with a 'Listed Building' (ie. preserved) and quite a few hurdles had to be crossed even before getting this far. But this is 'par for the course', given the nature of the project. And we may not be out of the woods yet by any means in this regard. It is quite impossible to visualise the many obstacles that may yet lie concealed in the long grass!
- DIFFICULTIES ARISING: Those who had planned to marry in the Augustinian this Summer were asked to find an alternative location. Now of course, after all, the Church will be available this Summer. All we can now do is apologise to those who were inconvenienced and beg their understanding. Of course we must now approach an entirely new set of people and ask them to seek alternative locations for their weddings!
- SUMMER PLAY: We will hold the next gathering of those interested in the Augustinian play for the Arts Week on Tuesday night next at 8.00 in the Priory. Once again, we stress that we are not just looking for actors. We need all sorts of 'dogs-bodies'!
AS I WAS SAYING...
This is of course the June Bank Holiday. It marks the beginning of Summer and the first instalment of the holiday season. Today many of us will make the first of our many Sunday Summer expeditions to the seaside, to hills, the woods, or whatever. The lovely weather of the last few days served to remind us that, in many ways, the festival has already begun.
Our post primary schools and our third level colleges have now closed or are about to close for the holidays. In a few weeks now the Junior and Leaving Cert exams will be but memories as the holidays displace the 'points-chasing'. The word holiday grew from the two words `holy day'. The word 'Holy' means special, set aside from the mundane, the ordinary. Among God's people of the Old Testament, Saturday was (and still is) the holy day. It was the Sabbath, the day of rest. Muslims observe Friday as their Sabbath.
All three monotheistic religions then have their Sabbath, their 'Day of Rest'. Moreover, all three religions agree on the three-fold purpose of the Sabbath:
- It allowed people the time and space to pray to and praise God.
- It serves as a reminder to the well-off that their work, wealth and property is not the be-all and end-all of life; they must surrender the opportunity of profit-making for one day per week.
- The enforced day of rest ensured that servants were not exploited and made into slaves.
Among Christians Sunday always was and still remains special. Since the time of the Apostles it has been the honoured practice to gather weekly, on Sunday, to pray and to celebrate the death and the resurrection of Christ. The ancient pagan worship of the Sun God would be replaced by the rising of the new Son of God. The Irish Name De Domhnaigh (the Lord's Day) captures this spirit well. It is a day on which we are willing to waste time with the Lord; to relax in his company and in the company of our fellow believers, our neighbours, as we celebrate the Eucharist.
But there is more to Sunday than Mass. There is the whole spirit of the day. It is intended as a day of rest and relaxation; a day of recreation and re-creation, refreshing us in body and in Spirit. Hence our healthy tradition in this country of Sunday being the major Sports Day of the week. The recreation of body and spirit can be a very enjoyable project indeed. It is a day that we take off to enjoy God's creation and to revel in the company he has given us. It is a day on which we resist the temptation to make slaves of ourselves.
It is widely acknowledged now that people work far harder today than they did a generation ago. Besides, many homes require two wage packets if mortgages are to be repaid. For reasons of our own sanity, if for no other reason, it is vital that we withdraw from the fretful and the stressful for a mere one day per week. It is equally important to take full advantage of the few sunny Summer days we get. Most of our happy memories seem to have been constructed during the Summers of our childhood. This is such an important time for families.
I do hope you all make the best of it. Have a lovely Summer!
-Dick Lyng.
CONFESSION AND RECONCILIATION
{Two correspondents took me to task for the piece that appeared here last Sunday (and in the Irish Times during the week, where these letters subsequently appeared)}.
Madam, - I welcome the sentiments on reconciliation and healing expressed in the timely article by Father Richard Lyng, OSA (Rite and Reason; May 19th).
However, I was dismayed to find no reference in it to the crying need for reconciliation in our (his and my) Church because of the alienation of so many men as well as women, because of the continuing ban on women's ordination on the grounds of gender.
I believe that this is a really great problem within the Roman Catholic Church today, and that the number who feel ostracised and deeply offended by the ban is growing apace. I also believe that its continuance mocks our efforts at reconciliation.
Father Lyng says that in the matter of reconciliation "we would expect some guidance from the Christian churches". Indeed. The need for my Church and his to address this matter becomes daily more urgent, I believe.
Injustice ignored is injustice condoned - hardly the best Christian stance. And I wonder why we should expect our fellow Christians to be interested in reconciliation with us while this glaring injustice holds.
We need to get our own house in order if we wish to offer anything of value to our neighbours. I wish the Conference very well. I also hope this subject will have its rightful place high on the agenda.
- Yours, etc.,
BETTY MAHER, Vernon Grove, Dublin 6.
Madam; - Father Richard Lyng on Confession (Rite and Reason, May 19th), like so many modernisers, has gone full circle. Today, I rather thought, "listening" was the name of the game - not talking down to people or over them, but listening to them, with experience, becoming, indeed a "listening Church".
But now I discover that one of the ways that the Catholic Church has always listened to people on a one-to-one basis and allowed them to have their say in their own words (an original form of "active participation"), namely individual, auricular Confession of sins, should be suppressed.
Has Father Lyng not learnt from recent events if nothing else - that conspiracies of silence about wrongdoing do not heal anyone?
Clericalism and the mystification of the priesthood too, I was led to believe in seminary, are among the greatest evils in history and were thankfully dealt a long overdue coup de grace by "Vatican 11".
According to Father Lyng, however, a Catholic priest can at last decide to wave his hands over any mute and passive crowd and all sins in the room instantaneously disappear!
The shamans will be green with envy.
- Yours, etc.,
Rev Father DAVID O'HANLON, CC, Parochial House, Kentstown, Navan, Co Meath.
BITS AND PIECES
- FR PEARSE MAHONY: Some of you are aware that Pearse has not been very well for some weeks now. He is now being treated for lymphoma in the Regional Hospital and is in very good spirits. We have no idea how long he will be hospitalised but he will probably be home in a few days. Please keep him in your prayers.
- BAPTISMS: We will welcome two babies into the Church during the 11.00 Mass today: Anna Maeve Donnelly and Con Lohan. (Con is grandchild of Síghle and Gerry Meehan).
- OUTDOOR COLLECTION: The Churchgate collection this weekend is in aid of Our Lady's Boys Club, one of Galway's great institutions. Please give generously.
- FLOWER POWER: You may well be wondering about the beautiful flower display in the Church! Had you missed out on the Summer Festival, and that sort of thing? No! There is a simple explanation actually. Lisa Gibbons (Hedy's one and only daughter) married Vincent here last Thursday. Our regular 'flower operatives' (!) -Hedy herself, Margaret Cunnane and Mary ÓhÍcí- got together and decorated the Church beautifully for the occasion. Well done ladies, and we wish Lisa and Vincent every happiness in their life together.
- CHILDREN'S MASS?: A couple of people met up with personnel from the Diocesan Pastoral Centre to discuss the feasibility of integrating the children and young people more into our liturgies. Should we have a separate Children's Mass? I was unable to attend the meeting so I am not aware how it actually went. But there will be a further meeting on Tuesday week next, June 10th in the Priory at 8.00.
- LOURDES PILGRIMAGE (1-6 JULY): There are still many places available on the annual diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes. If interested, contact the local parish priest, Fahy Travel, or Fr. Martin Moran, Merlin Park.
- ENVIRONMENTAL ALLIANCE: This group asked me to bring your attention to a city-wide Referendum on the Eyre Square trees to be held on June 21st.
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