Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: John Joe Conneely, (Anniv).
11.00 Stephen Concannon, (Anniv).
6.30: Joe Dolan, Bowling Green, (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

'The Desert' is central to Lent. It is very important, not just for Christianity but for all four of the 'great religions': Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam.

Like all great symbols, 'the Desert' embraces many layers of meaning. It operates like an onion: as soon as we peel off one layer of meaning, another layer emerges.

So the Desert means, simultaneously, a barren, uncultivated place, a place of suffering and testing, the home of demons and devils, a place where God is encountered, a refuge for bandits and lawbreakers, a refuge from the world and a place for prayer and perspective. And, from the beginning, Judaism and Christianity regarded it as central to the 'divine encounter'. For example, John the Baptist, Jesus and St. Paul all deliberately withdrew to the desert at critical points in their lives. All three found it necessary 'to withdraw to the margins'.

So this marginal experience, this need 'to step back', seems to be part and parcel of our journey to God. There are many groups in the Church today who are enduring the 'desert experience'. Some, like people in second unions, have the desert experience forced upon them. But I have also met people who, of their own free will, found it necessary 'to leave the Church', to withdraw to the margins, to shun the sacraments. (Incidentally, John Waters, in his recent work 'Lapsed Agnostic', charts one such journey). They felt so strongly about some particular issue that they felt that their continued presence 'within the Church' compromised their integrity.

Enforced conformity can breed hypocrisy: one thing is said in private and another in public. The quest for integrity can force many to the margins.

Many of our young people, who are so conspicuously absent, may not have made such a deliberate choice. But is it necessary to view their absence from our churches in such a consistently negative way? Perhaps it is a good thing that they withdraw to the 'churchless desert' for a time? Perhaps this period of 'pruning purification' is essential if their faith is to develop adequately? After all, how many adults are still walking around with the God of infancy still cradled between their ears?

Back now to the notion of 'leaving the church'. The Church is a broad reality. And it surely must include those who are enduring the 'desert experience'. People do not 'leave the Church'; rather, they take the Church with them. For far too many, 'the Church' is equated with the hierarchical model. This is the quasi-divine pyramid: the Pope, the Cardinals, the Bishops, the priests, right down to the local church mouse! But, the Church is not a pyramid where God only speaks to the apex and the base eventually gets the message! The Church is a community where God communicates with every member prepared to listen, and where every person is vital for the health of the whole body. Those in the desert are as central to the Church as is the Pope. Our challenge is to get that message out to them.

-Dick Lyng

Guide Dogs

Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind relies totally on voluntary contributions. Our national training centre in Cork trains guide dogs, and long cane, mobility and independent living skills for the blind and visually impaired and Assistance Dogs for families with Autistic Children.

Our annual church gate collection in Galway on Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th February 2008. Church gate collections form one of our main sources of income and we are very grateful for all donations.

The late Andy McGinley, RIP

Andy McGinley was born in Donegal on November 30th, in 1920. His sister Mary Ethna Kenny (90), mother of Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, attended his funeral here. She discharged herself from hospital the night before where she was recovering after a recent fall. Such determination proves that she is indeed a sister of Andy.

The large gathering of nephews, nieces, grandnephews and grand-nieces displayed the deep affection in which he was held by his family. But they also knew how stubborn and awkward he could be, and how eccentric he was in many ways. Who could forget his antics with that flash-camera during a midnight Mass or a solemn funeral? But such foibles made him all the more endearing!

Andy came to Galway in 1947 to work in Maxwell McNamara's General Grocery Stores. Apart from two years spent in exile in Longford, working in an outlet of the same company there, he was to spend the remainder of his life in Galway. Andy married Bridie on St. Stephen's Day, 1954. He arrived in Donegal for his honeymoon, accompanied by a solitary suitcase only. When his family made enquiries concerning the whereabouts of the new bride, Andy responded reasonably if unromantically: 'But she has work to be doing!'

Bridie and himself managed a restaurant and boarding house in Abbeygate Street, where Cooke's Wine Bar stands today. The dinners served there were legendary. This was much more than an 'Eating House', obviously. In days when travel was not easy, Andy and Bridie provided a home-from-home for many, many young people. It was there that Bridie and Andy made connections which were to last a lifetime. Gardai, teachers, staff from the Connaught Tribune, and particularly medical students from the college found their way there. It was wonderful to see lots of these people returning to visit Andy in his final days. I saw there the fruits of friendships forged over forty years ago. It said a lot for him, and for them.

When the Whitehall Close scheme was completed in 1990, Bridie persuaded a reluctant Andy to sell off the restaurant and to move down the street to Whitehall. They moved in February and Bridie died suddenly in July. Andy was on his own. Andy could come across as a taciturn, laconic, unresponsive individual. That was the front he presented to the world. In actual fact, he was a warm-hearted friend to many; he had a great web of correspondents, at home and abroad. To these he wrote on a regular basis, sending the Connaght Tribune with letters of encouragement to 'Keep the Faith' concealed within. His grandnieces were the special objects of his affection, and of his legendary but concealed generosity!

His last days were difficult. An active man all his life, he found immobility a terrible burden. His predicament brought to mind Michael MacLeomair's remark in old age: 'While I have myself grown tired of life, death itself holds no attractions.' Andy kept his Prayer Book, which resembled an archive, by his side. It contained prayer cards, memory cards, prayer leaflets, and all the paraphernalia of the traditional Catholic. They served Andy well when his 'Day of Testing' came. The people of St. Augustine's will miss him very much.

-Dick Lyng.

The Cardinal and The Irish Times

Madam,

It is unfortunate for Cardinal Connell that he didn't take the same route as the Editor of the Irish Times.

He could simply have burnt the evidence and refused to talk.

Yours, etc.
Christopher McCamley,
Newtown, Drogheda,
Co. Louth.

Lenten Programme: 2008

Please note that our Lenten Sessions with St. Nicholas' will begin on Tuesday week next, February 19th. Because the Christian Churches are celebrating the 2,000 anniversary of the birth of St. Paul this year, we will subject the unfortunate man to a particularly intensive scrutiny this Lent! We will use video clips, DVDs and all the trappings of contemporary communications.

The programme runs as follows:

Each session will last from 8.00 to 9.30. You might give us notice if you intent coming. But this is not absolutely essential.

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