Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: Martin Kelly, High Street, (Anniv).
11.00: Raymond Maloney, (Anniv).
6.30: Eileen, Cecil & Lenny Stocker , (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

I was in Portomarin, a small village in the north of Spain, as the planes went through the Twin Towers. 9/11 was established as yet another notorious milestone. The World Trade Centre was a fireball. I had completed the first stage of my walk to the Shrine of St. James at Compostela, on the famous 'Camino'.

I had heard of Al Qaeda and I knew that they were rather serious about religion. Immediately I knew that the motivating force behind this carnage was religion. I had been a priest for over 25 years. Religion is my vocation, my existence. I'd given my life to it. I recognised the same passion that motivates religious people to do great things is the same energetic force that brought so much death and destruction on that day. Where does that leave me? What is authentic and what is twisted? Who can tell?

Suddenly every government official became a religious leader; they were lining up to reassure us that all religions are for peace. It was embarrassing. Religion is, and always has been, ambiguous. We have the capacity to make religion an enormously constructive force and to protect us from that which makes it an enormously destructive force.

If I thought for a moment that what we saw that day was the only face of religion, I'd run a mile from it. Because there is another face -- maybe harder to see after 9/11 --, but it's there. I saw it every day on that happy, energetic pilgrimage in the north of Spain; I see it every Sunday in our parish, where faith stands for life, for hope, for fun, for abundant joy. I have seen this faith lift people from dark despair to something approaching equilibrium; I have seen its capacity to lift the eyes of devastated families to a reality beyond their own pain. I have seen this faith expressed in the lives of brave men and women. On this anniversary of 9/11, the words of Martin Luther King are particularly apt:

The past is prophetic in that it asserts that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. How much longer must we play at deadly war games before we heed the plaintive pleas of the unnumbered dead and maimed of past wars?

Not since ancient Rome has one state so totally eclipsed all others. In every index of power, the United States far exceeds any other country today. It alone accounts for 36 percent of all military spending in the world! Ironically, it is its great power that makes it so very vulnerable. In such circumstances many Americans feel that their country can establish rules of conduct for others, while itself acts as it sees fit. Allied to this imperial 'arrogance' is an unhealthy, religious passion. Americans must come to understand history as a conversation with the world, not simply an exercise in self-celebration. And, without humility, religious passion can be a dangerous ingredient.

-Dick Lyng

Items of Some Interest

Parish Groups

The second half of September is really the beginning of the 'New Year' where parish and church life is concerned. People are coming back after the Summer break. Children have resumed the 'normality' of school life. Various groupings in civil life are making plans. The same thing is happening in Parish life. Ironically, Autumn is a time for renewal and new beginnings.

Over the last couple of meetings of our Steering Committee, we have looked closely at these matters. With the help of an outside facilitator, we examined our ideals and our goals. There are about 12 separate groups attached to the Augustinian here. The functions of some groups are selfexplanatory (Readers, Eucharistic Ministers) while the role of others is more problematic (Liturgy Group, Music Group, and so on) Some of our groups are crying out for new members, while others have quite sufficient for the tasks entrusted to them.

At our last Steering Committee meeting, we decided to begin this reappraisal, or more accurately, we have begun the process of having the groups indulge in a little self-assessment.

We have begun by requesting the coordinators of our Ministers of the Eucharist and our Readers (Brenda Foy & Tim Roe respectively) to call a meeting of both groups (separately, obviously). They have been asked to explore two basic, fundamental areas: (i) the needs of the group members themselves; and (ii) the needs of the Church, or in other words, what the Church requires of them.

The outcome of the first part of this self-assessment (the needs of group members themselves) will only come to the surface at the meeting itself. Have we (ie. The Augustinians here) neglected these groups over the last year? As so often happens in Church matters (and in all voluntary groups, I guess) have the members been taken for granted?

The second part of the examination has greater clarity: 'What does the Church require of you?' There is no shortage of documents, resources and web sites aimed at addressing that question. For example, there is an excellent web site to help Readers prepare the Scripture Readings both for Sundays and weekdays at www.lectorprep.org. This site will even pronounce all those strange words for you.

So, both for Ministers of the Eucharist and for readers, there is abundant resources and information. But how do we best convey what will be of use? Perhaps we would need a weekend, or even an evening dedicated to both the theory and the practice? All these matters will be explored more thoroughly at your respective meetings.

Obviously, it will take some time to get these two groups together for this meeting. Only then, when these two groups have mapped the way, will we be in a position to turn our attention to the other groups.

Of Visions and Values

I agree with the archbishop that an erosion of basic Christian values has also been a major contributing factor to many of the problems within society today. Our value system in respect of morality, justice, fair play and concern for the welfare of others owes virtually everything to Christianity.

Eoghan Harris raised a few eyebrows when he talked of how he would like to see an Irish republic founded on Christian principles. But there is absolutely no contradiction in what he said. Republicanism, in this respect, is not about the destruction of religion and its values but simply the separation of church and state. Harris is right to tie Christian values to republicanism; it is only upon such basic decencies that a worthwhile society can be built.

We must be careful of secularism and not allow it to career free to the point where we have replaced a theocratic society with a hedonistic one. Archbishop Brady is right to be concerned about where society is going; we all should be.

-David Adams, Irish Times columnist.

Married in the Augustinian

Pictured in the PDF version of this newsletter is the happy couple, Brian Fleming from Greystones, Co. Wicklow, and Louise O'Riordan from Shankill, Co. Dublin. Louise and Brian married in St. Augustine's Church last week.

What, you may well ask, was their connection with St. Augustine's here? Louise explained this simply enough: "Galway is our favourite city in the world. We have been coming here for years. But we find the restored St. Augustine's Church simply breathtaking. The use of space and light is amazing."

So their romantic dream was realised on Thursday week last. They travelled from Dublin with their respective families and they spent a week in Spiddal prior to the wedding. After their wedding ceremony, they repaired to Glenlo Abbey for their reception.

Weddings have doubled in number here since our restoration. Whether that is a good thing or not is an open question. Should brides not marry in their own Parish Church? But will brides obey their parish priest any more? The jury is still out!

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