Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: Maureen Murray, (Anniv).
11.00: Dick & Jeanne Byrne & Eamon Molloy, (Anniv).
6.30: Joanna Neber (Whitehall), (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

We have just turned the last page on the year 2009, indeed on the first decade of the 'new' millennium. Like being back at school, we can now draw a neat line under the year, turn over to a new page, put in a fresh margin and begin again.

There are, of course, many ways of marking this moment. Some hit the hotels and the nightclubs on Friday night, cheered away the seconds and welcomed in the new year with hugs, bonhomie and good cheer.

Others gathered, more quietly, with a few friends, and talked over the year that's gone; some dared to peer into the distance at the year that lies ahead. A neighbour of ours at home in Kilkenny used to go to bed early on New Year's Eve - the only day of the year he retired before midnight. He insisted that it was only 'a numbers game' and, anyway, he was always allergic to fuss!

Yet I'm sure that as he tossed on his bed and waited for sleep to descend, his mind reached back over the dying year, as as mine did on Friday night last. We humans are strangely programmed creatures. Almost unconsciously we will draw up a kind of balance sheet - annus mirabilis or annus horribilis?

This article could take a depressing excursion at this stage, down through the Ryan Report, via the Dublin Report, and back again via our Bankers to our beloved Politicians! But, for the sake of my own sanity and for yours, I will spare you that awful journey!

But what measure do we use in assessing a particular year? How do we determine our judgment on the year that's gone? Personal happiness and satisfaction will be high on our list. But so too will family well-being. But what of our wider family: the neighbours, the wider community, the people of Africa, the poor of Iraq?

It's not easy for us to construct our own personal scale of values, as we are so encouraged to do nowadays. We're very likely to take short-cuts, excusing our selfishness, overlooking the costly demands of justice, creating a set of values in our own image and likeness.

Perhaps that's why God chooses to speak to us, giving us a revealing Word, written into our hearts, and in the form of the Great Religions, but fully expressed in Christ, the Eternal Word made flesh. It's from there that we get our criteria, our understanding of the maker's intentions and therefore of our own destiny. This revelation assures us that our world has an underlying order, that it's indeed a cosmos and not a chaos, that it should be going somewhere, not just endlessly round in circles.

And so, whatever way you spent Friday night last, it is still not too late to spare a moment for this Word of God and His purpose for us. For that is the only true goal: a Kingdom of truth and integrity, of justice and peace, of love, compassion and practical charity. By these criteria we can judge our sense of real progress, or the lack of it.

I hope that 2009 has brought you nearer to this reality and that for this 2010 you can set your sights afresh on the things that really last forever.

Happy New Year to all!

-Dick Lyng

Items of Great Interest

The late Bobby Deacy

Bobby Deacy (68) died suddenly at his home in Newcastle on Monday morning last, December 28th. His remains were brought to the Augustinian on Wednesday morning for the 12.00 funeral Mass. Luminaries from the world of rugby were thick on the ground, Tom Kiernan, Sid Millar, Noel Murphy, Tom Grace, Ronnie Dawson, Mick Bradley, and our own Eric Elwood among them. His burial took place afterwards in Forthill Cemetery, in a grave beside his grandparents.

The Old Testament reading at his funeral Mass stated: "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven." Bobby was 'a man for all seasons', and a man of many activities. He was a keen fisherman, an accomplished gunman, and a competent sailor. His first love, however, was rugby. As a rugby player he would have appreciated the advice offered by the biblical writer that morning: 'There is a time to gather and a time to scatter.'

As a young man he had a distinguished playing career with Galwegians. But it was in administration that Bobby made his mark. He held key posts in the Union, culminating in his Presidency of the IRFU during the 1996/97 season. Bobby was hugely respected within the rugby fraternity; they placed enormous trust in him but he repayed that trust one hundred fold. I heard a friend of his saying last night that Bobby had two families: the nuclear family of Anne and his two children, and his extended family of the rugby fraternity. There must have been some minor little frictions as these two objects of his devotion vied for his attention. Because, where Bobby was concerned, there were no half measures. It was one hundred percent, or nothing.

Bobby was generous with his skills, his advice, his time and his money. Many individuals and small family businesses sought his advice when they were in tight corners. Because his advice was invariably sound. We Augustinians benefitted from his skills and generosity when this church was under reconstruction. He was a key member of our financial team. He could be a difficult man at a meeting; but he was difficult for all the right reasons. He was never afraid to ask the hard question, or to voice the unpopular opinion. A few times he set the cat among the pigeons, but, in retrospect, it was the right thing to do. That cat needed exercise.

He was an extraordinary man, by any yardstick. In 1980, at the age of 40, Bobby had a heart by-pass at a time when that procedure was still in its infancy. He has been on quite a heavy regime of medication since. That makes his achievements all the more remarkable. You would expect a man with such a medical history to 'put up his feet' and nurse himself with great care. But Bobby elected to travel the opposite road, and, by doing so, left a wonderful legacy of achievements.

Bobby touched many lives, and the huge congregation on such an awful morning was an eloquent 'Thank You' to Anne, Edith and Norman for sharing Bobby with the wider community. As this is a time of great sorrow for them, they will find consolation in the knowledge that Bobby was a good man who did much good; he was greatly valued, and much appreciated; he was widely respected and he died peacefully. When the fog of grief scatters with time, these blessings will emerge as stepping stones to support them towards a different future.

May he rest in peace. -Dick Lyng.

The Trouble With Snowmen

'The trouble with snowmen,'
Said my father one year
'They are no sooner made
than they just disappear.

I'll build you a snowman
And I'll build it to last
Add sand and cement
And then have it cast.

And so every winter,'
He went on to explain
'You shall have a snowman
Be it sunshine or rain.'

And that snowman still stands
Though my father is gone
Out there in the garden
Like an unmarked gravestone.

Staring up at the house
Gross and misshapen
As if waiting for something
Bad to happen.

For as the years pass
And I grow older
When summers seem short
And winters colder.

The snowmen I envy
As I watch children play
Are the ones that are made
And then fade away.

-Roger McGough.

Football Quotes of 2009

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