Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30 (Vigil): Elizabeth Coyne, (Anniv).
11.00: Martin & Mary Nora Duggan; Johnny Buckley, (Anniv).
6.30: John Walshe, (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

As you read this, I should be in Ephesus in south west Turkey, following in the footsteps of St. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles. This year, as you know, is the 2,000 anniversary of his birth in Tarsus. This special commemorative year will be inaugurated by Pope Benedict on June 28th next. So this is a pre-emptive strike!

In our Lenten Sessions this year with the Church of Ireland, we took 'Paul, his Letters and his Writings' as our topic. Shortly after that, an opportunity arose to visit Paul's world in the company of some Augustinian colleagues, one of whom is an expert on the saint. I seized the opportunity with both hands! Preparation for the trip sent me back to study the life and world of Paul anew. I went through his fourteen letters with great interest and (dare I say it) some enthusiasm. Why, I asked myself, could I not have shown the same enthusiasm for Paul when I was a student? I found most of his stuff impenetrable!

Then, courtesy of the Internet, I came across an article in a magazine called 'Oxford Today'. It was describing how, in about 1800, Oxford University began examining its students - first, to check they had not been tainted by the poisonous ideas the French Revolution, and then to grade those unfortunates who had to earn a living by joining the Civil Service! From this mundane necessity, exams began!

Until then, apparently, students went to university to learn only. If there was no testing before they left, there was nothing they had to prove. Nothing to achieve, except their own satisfaction. No point to learning, except education itself.

What a wonderful privilege that must have been! With hindsight, I now know that it was the very thought of exams that spoiled my enjoyment of St. Paul. How many of those sitting the Leaving Cert this week will have been turned off Shakespeare for life by exams? Or have they already taken to avoiding 'the Bard of Avon'? Exams can damage your education!

I do realise that testing is the price we have to pay for an egalitarian society. If you aren't awarded your university place by birth and wealth, you have to win it by merit. But examining our children has gone far beyond any benefit to them. And the testing is not confined to education. Like education, sport is also a commercial commodity now, involving big money. Every young fellow wants to play for Man. United, not for the love of the game, but for the money involved! This is serious stuff.

We've come to believe that every talent is measurable, if not by exams, then by money. But who influenced you most, outside your family? Probably a teacher, perhaps largely unrecognised and poorly paid. What single quality has contributed most to your happiness? Almost certainly love, which can't be measured. And how do you measure parenthood?

There is such a thing as beneficial exams. Paul described these hardships as 'the trials through which we triumph'. He viewed suffering as character-building, forming us into the people God meant us to be. Perhaps, after all, there is some point to the sweating and the swatting! All you doing the infernal Leaving Cert, may you all do well. But be assured that you will never again endure such an academic ordeal as the present one. University will be a pleasant breeze after this!

-Dick Lyng

Wedding Bells

Pictured in the pdf version of this newletter are Ronan Kelly (Lakeshore Drive, Renmore) and Fiona Burnell (Tubber, Clare) who were married in the Augustinian Church here on Saturday week last. Ronan is of course the son of our next door neighbours, Collette and Tom Kelly. They are actually photographed at the rehearsal rather than at the wedding ceremony itself, which explains their relaxed demeanour. We wish them both many years of married bliss (together, of course!).

MID SUMMER FESTIVAL

As you know already, we are celebrating our Mid Summer Festival on the last weekend of June (28-29). We discussed the celebration at our Steering Committee on Tuesday night last. The Church of Ireland community has been invited to join us.

Quotable Quotes...

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