Parish Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: (Vigil): Bernard Coyne, (Anniv)
11.00: Mary & John Lovett, (Anniv).

AS I WAS SAYING.....

So we move across to St. Nicholas's Collegiate Church this weekend. It is truly an exciting time for us as a community. From a superficial point of view, the mere fact that everything will be new to us (for a while at least!) makes it an exciting event in itself. The closest parallel I can think of is that of a family moving into a new home. There is of course great excitement. But there will also be some confusion for a time. As the Reverend Patrick Towers put it in his own inimitable way, "your lot will have to learn where the cornflakes are kept!" I can now assure Patrick that we will soon learn where the milk and sugar is kept too!

Apart from the excitement generated by the mundane practicalities just outlined, today's move is a truly historical one. St. Nicholas's is the oldest church in Galway, and perhaps the oldest parish church in the country. Part of the building dates back to at least 1320. The Augustinians, comparative latecomers, didn't arrive in Galway until 1500. Between 1537 and 1691, St. Nicholas's oscillated acrimoniously between the Roman Catholic and the Anglican communities. Anglican worship has continued uninterrupted there for at least the last 300 years. So, from a purely historical point of view, today is of enormous significance. The wheel has come full circle, but this time without the rancour and the animosity.

But the real excitement and the real joy surrounding the move is generated by its ecumenical significance. So many of our older parishioners came to me over the last couple of weeks and said in bemusement, "As children we were told to keep away from St. Nicholas's, or 'The Big Church'!" They were of course referring to that awful 'ecumenical winter', to the freezing atmosphere that prevailed generally in the Pre-Vatican II days. Attending each other's funerals and weddings was very much an issue. Both communities were deliberately kept apart from each other, for fear of mutual heretical contamination we must presume! Some historians hold that the post-Reformation 30-years-war (1618-1648) ended precisely because the participants could no longer recall the reasons why the war began in the first place! How many Catholics (or Anglicans for that matter) could name five doctrinal obstacles to the unity of Christians?

For the last 40 years, the Christian Churches have engaged in study groups, prayer groups, annual Ecumenical Services, common blessings in a secular or civil contexts. All of this has been healthy and admirable. Nevertheless, it has one major weakness: these engagements have been entirely vicarious exercises. In other words, official delegates of the respective Churches entered into these talk-shops on behalf of their own congregations. By definition then, ecumenism was an elitist affair. It bypassed, unwittingly, ninety-nine percent of their respective congregations.

Christianity does of course embrace ideas and intellectual endeavour; the road to Christian unity must involve discussion on matters of doctrine and discipline. But Christianity is, first and foremost, a religion of 'flesh and blood'. Its primary objective is the formation and sustenance of community. People come to know and love each other long before they come to agree or disagree with each other intellectually or doctrinally. Have we not been placing the cart before the horse? Thanks to the Church of Ireland, the renovation of the Augustinian Church has been transformed from a domestic crisis into an ecumenical opportunity. Let us embrace this opportunity with gratitude and joy.

-Dick Lyng.

DURING RENOVATIONS AT ST AUGUSTINES

DaysMass times:Location
WEEKDAY: (Monday - Saturday)8.30am, 10.00AM and 11.00am Ozanam House, St. Augustine Street.
SUNDAY (including Saturday vigil) St. Nicholas' Church, Market Street. Saturday 6.30pm Sunday 12.00 Midday and 6.30pm

LETTER OF POPE JOHN PAUL TO THE ELDERLY, OCTOBER, 1999

As an old person now, I realise more than ever that the years pass quickly, and the gift of life, for all the effort and pain it involves, is too beautiful and precious for us ever to grow tired of it.

Dear brothers and sisters, at our age it is natural to revisit the past in order to attempt a sort of assessment. This retrospective gaze makes possible a more serene and objective evaluation of persons and situations we have met along the way. The passage of time helps us to see our experiences in a clearer light and softens their painful side. Sadly, struggles and tribulations are very much a part of everyone's life. Sometimes it is a matter of problems and sufferings which can sorely test our mental and physical resistance, and perhaps even shake our faith. But experience teaches that daily difficulties, by God's grace, often contribute to people's growth and to the forging of their character.

"Time flies irretrievably", as the ancient Latin poet put it. We are immersed in time. Birth establishes one date, and death another. But if life is limited and fragile, we are consoled by the thought that we will survive beyond death itself. In speaking to the elderly, I know I am speaking to my contemporaries. We have made a long, long journey! Like so many other times in history, our own has registered lights and shadows. Not all has been bleak. Many positive aspects have counterbalanced the negative. Yet it is true too that we witnessed unprecedented sufferings that affected the lives of millions and millions of people. The madness of war was incalculable; equally terrifying was the slaughter which took place in the death camps, which truly remain the Golgothas of our time.

The second half of the century was burdened by the nightmare of the cold war. This was a war capable of bringing humanity to extinction. Thank God, that dark page of history was closed. Communism fell before the weapons of truth and justice. What is old age? It was the Latin poet Cicero who coined the phrase 'the autumn of life'. There is a close resemblance between our human bio-rhythms and the natural cycles of which we are a part.

Saint Ephrem the Syrian liked to compare our life to the fingers of a hand, both to emphasise that its length is no more than a span, and to indicate that each phase of life, like the different fingers, has its particular character, and "the fingers represent the five steps by which man advances". Consequently, whereas childhood and youth are the times when the human person is being formed and is completely directed towards the future, and-in coming to appreciate his own abilities-makes plans for adulthood, old age is not without its own benefits. In a certain sense, it is the season for that wisdom which generally comes from experience, since "time is a great teacher". The Bible does not hesitate to point out, at times with blunt realism, the fleeting nature of life and the inexorable passage of time: "Vanity of vanities....vanity of vanities, all is vanity". Those of us who are older, schooled as we are by experience, understand this in a special way. Jesus had once said to Peter: "When you were young you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go" (Jn 21:18). These are words which, as the Successor of Peter, touch me personally at this point of my pilgrimage; they make me feel strongly the need to reach out and grasp the hands of Christ. Old age is the final stage of human maturity and a sign of God's blessing.

It is natural that, as the years pass, we should increasingly consider our "twilight". If nothing else, we are reminded of it by the very fact that the ranks of our family members, friends and acquaintances grow ever thinner; we become aware of this in a number of ways, when for example we attend family reunions, gatherings of our childhood friends, classmates from school and university, or former colleagues from the military or the seminary. The line separating life and death runs through our communities and moves inexorably nearer to each of us. If life is a pilgrimage towards our heavenly home, then old age is the most natural time to look towards the threshold of eternity. Despite the limitations brought on by age, I continue to enjoy life. For this I thank the Lord. It is wonderful to be able to give oneself to the very end for the sake of the Kingdom of God!

At the same time, I find great peace in thinking of the time when the Lord will call me: from life to life! And so I often find myself saying, with no trace of melancholy, a prayer recited by priests after the celebration of the Eucharist: In hora mortis meae voca me, et iube me venire ad te - 'at the hour of my death, call me and bid me come to you.' This is the prayer of Christian hope, which in no way detracts from the joy of the present, while entrusting the future to God's gracious and loving care. "Iube me venire ad te!" ('Bid me to come to you...'): this is the deepest yearning of the human heart, even in those who are not conscious of it.

Grant, O Lord of life, that we may be ever vividly aware of this and that we may savour every season of our lives as a gift filled with promise for the future.