Keash Church Celebrates Bi-Centenary

On Monday August 3rd there was a large gathering in St Kevin’s Church, Keash, Co. Sligo.  The gathering celebrated the Bi-Centenary of the Church’s opening in 1809.  An incredible thought that St Kevin’s has served the people of this parish for 200 years.  Fitting that this be celebrated and celebrated it was.  Well done to Canon Jim Finan, a truly “beloved” Parish Priest and a hard working committee who with a proud community put their best foot forward and celebrated in style.

Canon Jim Finan and Fr Pat Lynch

Some of the congregation

Congregation gathered for celebration

A packed church heard Bishop Brendan Kelly speak of the faith of the community of 200 years ago who, in hard times, rose above their own personal worries and needs to build a House for God and, in so doing, a house for themselves “Pobal Dé”.  He wondered “Why did they build this church?” and the only answer is FAITH.  They lived their Faith and expressed their hope and love in the builiding of a place of worship.

Bishop Kelly preaching to a packed church during Mass

Bishop Brendan acknowledged the contribution of £40 (a huge sum of money at that time) by the Protestant community to help with the building fund.  He said this clearly demonstrated that, at heart, we are a people united in our wish to serve God and find a place and time for prayer.  This, he said, remains the way and of this we should be proud and for this thankful.

Padraig Duffy spoke on behalf of the community.  He traced the history of the Church in Keash and of other places of worship that preceded St Kevin’s.  With emotion he recounted the place of gathering that St Kevin’s is – from baptisms to weddings, First Holy Communions, Confirmation days and of course funerals.  The church is central to all a community is.

Padraig Duffy speaks on behalf of the community

 

Bishop Brendan and Fr Padraig Devine SMA listen to Padraig Duffy

The Liturgy involved many parishioners in singing, reading the Word of God, prayers of the faithful etc.

Imelda Brehony

William Henry

Mass Servers

Parishioners lead the Prayer of The Faithful

The Offertory Procession included a selection of Prayer Books reflecting the prayers of people down through the years, a Lectionary reminding us of God’s word read and preached for 200 years in this church, flowers and plants symbolising growth and new life, the original Altar Stone from the Church, a 200 year old Chalice and of course bread and wine.

Prayer books presented to Bishop Kelly

Lectionary presented

Original Altar Stone

Flowers brought by one of the younger parishioners

Gifts offered and accepted

Following Mass, Bishop Brendan unveiled a plaque recalling the Bi-Centenary of the Church.

Bishop Brendan and Canon Jim with unveiled plaque

The plaque

Gathered outside for unveling of commerorative plaque

After Mass we were all welcomed to the local hall for a lovely celebration and plenty food.  A “Jubilee Cake”, baked for the occasion, was cut by Bishop Brendan.

Jubilee Cake

Keash Hospitality enjoyed and appreciated

Fr Dermot Meehan, Canon Jim Finan and Fr Padraig Devine

Fr Padraig Devine (nephew of Fr Ricky Devine who celebrated his First Mass in Keash Church) with Bishop Brendan outside Parish Hall

Well done to all involved in this special celebration and thanks to all who made us all feel so welcome.

Bishop Brendan’s Homily at Knocknacarra Novena

Bishop Brendan was invited to speak at a Novena held in Knocknacarra Parish (Galway) on Saturday May 30th.  The text of his homily is printed below.  

“Hope in a time of Recession” 

Homily: 

‘When Pentecost day came round, the apostles had all met in one room….’

When Fr Tadhg asked me to speak to the subject ‘Hope in a time of Recession’ a few months ago, the full force of the economic recession we are in was fast coming home to us.

The banks, those bastions of trustworthiness, were shaking; even beginning to crumble it seemed before our eyes. Along with them and their shares peoples’ money was disappearing like dust. Jobs were becoming insecure and many people found themselves unemployed. Houses were being re-possessed, building sites went silent, and the future was beginning to look very bleak for our young people. The traditional safety valve of emigration was closed, for this recession is worldwide, and the same things are happening to peoples’ lives in the USA, England, Australia and all over Europe.

We were all being plunged into a new vulnerability over which we seemed to have no control. The very foundations of all our prosperity were disappearing, and we had no preparation…

Now that the day has finally come and I am here, – and glad to be here and to be back home in Galway…I stand before you not just under the long lingering shadow of the Recession, but more immediately under the great dark cloud of the Ryan Report. As people of faith, we find ourselves caught in another sort of recession as it were: disillusion, questions, anger, another sure ground creaking and cracking under our feet.

As a Catholic and a follower of Jesus, as well as an Irishman, not to mention as a priest and a bishop, (go bhfóire Dia orainn), I am mortified, and I am groping for words….and would prefer to escape and not to have to face this appalling revelation. Not for the first time in the past almost 20 years now, there’s a wish the ground might open up and swallow me, especially since we are far from being finished yet. 

What can one say?  Facts, truths spoken, written down in black and white, speak for themselves. The naked reality of what went on under the watch of a church so sure of itself, at the pinnacle of its triumph, along with the State, after centuries of persecution. We had become proud as church and nation, it now seems… we all know what the proverb says. ‘After pride comes…fall’

We are on our knees and much of our presumed glorious history of the years following liberation is in tatters, and must be re-written. 

What we cannot do now, though, is allow the ground swallow us up. We have to say ‘Yes’. This is a terrible truth. And we are sorry. And our hearts are broken. And if you are amongst those unseen, unheard, stifled, broken children, we are so sorry. And we want to listen, we want to hear, to support and to cherish you. Even at this late stage. 

Moreover, if you are amongst those many many others who were not in institutions, but who knew terrible abuse as a child, and for whom there is no public forum and no redress, we will listen to you too, and that’s a promise, and we will do all we can to bring healing, for we cherish you too. 

The economic recession brings a terrible vulnerability for many families and individuals at one level. But now this Report brings an even deeper vulnerability, and shame.

We have come together this evening to celebrate the Mass. The Holy Eucharist. The Breaking of Bread. The Breaking of the Body of Christ. The pouring out of His Blood. The redemption wrought, we believe, by that forced nakedness and cruel exposure, bleeding and bloodied, on the cross of ridicule from which there was no escape, for he was nailed to it. Totally defenceless, entirely vulnerable.

We have come together as we do at every mass to remember and to celebrate this appalling event, because he asked us to do it, he obliged us. “Do this in memory of me” Jesus said, his last admonition to us.

Never allow yourselves forget: the vulnerability of Jesus, the defenselessness of your God. Your capacity to crucify the most innocent one.

‘Do this in memory of me’ not, then, for my sake but for your own, because you will need to do it. You will need to do it over and over, century after century. Sunday after Sunday 

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ Jesus said too. But do we really believe it? Did we really believe it? Did we even have a clue what it meant?

Maybe now that humility, that humiliation of soul and heart that Jesus said was blessed, maybe now we feel it, in all its pain….

For we thought we were doing great…we never had it so good! Never more money in our pockets ! The scourge of emigration solved and left behind! And earlier before that as Catholics, never so many vocations, missionaries, a truly Golden age.

Now we acknowledge it was not all golden and the economic boom was not all boom.

‘Do this in memory of me’ Jesus said, lest you forget….and we did, forget.

Lest you grow proud, and we did grow proud.. 

So where are we and what can we do?

Well, here we are, gathered together.

To do this in memory of him. This Eucharistic prayer. Prayer –now there’s a word!

Prayer is something that rises from the heart. Often the broken heart. Never a mere obligation, a law imposed from without. We are here because we want to be. Like Peter ‘Lord, to whom shall we go?’.

Prayer is a cry of our own hearts. In face of pain, and the unknown future, and the poor fragility that is so much part of our human reality.

A cry to the God who is Father of Jesus and our father. 

And always at such a gathering the Holy Spirit comes. For he cannot come into pride or power.

‘When Pentecost Day came round, the Apostles had all met in one room…’ as we do tonight. They were still reeling from disappointment and the disaster of Jesus’ death.

If we really do meet and do come together, without judgement or blame, but acknowledging our humanity , our need of each other and of God, hearts crying out together in prayer…then hope is born 

The truth for us now in time of recession surely, is, at so many levels, where go if not to each other, and together to God?

The old structures, from the outside so strong they looked: Cut stone, banks, schools, asylums, they were all so strong and impregnable it seemed

But already for many tears so many elegant bank buildings have been sold off, all the great mental and other asylums, where are they? And the great schools and houses of religious groups

All changing hands, disappearing from view. 

It is a new time, a new beginning. A Pentecost moment in the deepest sense.

 A time not to be afraid of letting the trappings, the accretions go and all they represent. The Apostles had to let go of so many of their assumptions and presumptions. So must we.

That’s why we confess at the beginning of every mass. We always begin with repentance with sorrow. Not because the law says so, but because we have to and there is no other place from which we can authentically pray 

And we can do this, and we must.

and that’s Hope, in the deepest and best sense.

Born of letting go. No more self-justification. Born of trusting God anew and always.

Born to the poor in Spirit who know their own limitations and sin, and who have no choice but to rely on God’s love and mercy.

And on that love and mercy reflected in our brothers and sisters gathered with us.

So there is a future and we can trust the future, and not fear it,

not because we can secure it,  but because God will, and we

are people of repentance.

We repent for the past

And we are not afraid of the cost. 

When the Advocate comes whom I will send from the Father…

he will lead you to the complete truth…

And he will tell you the things to come.

The Holy Spirit of God is working and is with us…

For we are a people of repentance and we pray -

Together.

And the Holy Spirit in us, binding us, is our Hope.

Prayer for Forgiveness and Healing

Introducing Mass today (May 24th, 2009) in Ballaghaderreen, Co. Roscommon, during which forty-six young men and women from the parish were to be Confirmed, Bishop Kelly prayed for healing and forgiveness in the wake of the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. The following clip, recounts his words and the prayer of our diocese at this time.

Children and Teachers of Brusna N.S.

Children of Dernabruck N.S. with Principal Teacher and Bishop Brendan Kelly

Children and Teachers of Monasteraden N.S. with Bishop Brendan

Cardinal Seán Brady’s Homily in Attymass

My dear friends in Christ,

 

A number of journalists came to my house on Friday last.  In the subsequent television coverage of the event, I was very glad to see that the flowers in the garden featured prominently.  TV crews and their editors have a keen eye for beauty. 

 

Driving here today I was struck by the sheer beauty of the countryside.  There is new life everywhere – flowers in full bloom in the gardens, blossoming shrubs and trees in the hedges and young lambs, calves and foals in the fields.  I sometimes wonder do we sometimes take it all for granted. 

 

Many of the great scientists never lost their amazement at the marvels that are daily with us.  They compared themselves, and their knowledge, to children picking up pebbles on the ocean shore.  This legacy of wonder is the source of prayer.  Without this radical amazement there is no prayer or praise of God.  The surest way to lose our desire to pray is to take things for granted. 

 

 

The servant of God and cherished son of this parish of Attymass, in whose honour we gather today, Father Patrick Peyton, did not take things for granted.  In the opening words of his autobiography All For Her Father Peyton refers to the “picturesque beauty of Attymass” – set as it is between the Ox Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. 

 

Today I realise how blessed he and all of you were, and are, to grow up amidst such wonderful natural beauty of rivers, lakes and mountains.  All of that beauty must have helped to form his prayerful character for he tells us that the most important inspiration in his early life was the practice of praying together each day as a family – “Because of the daily family Rosary” he wrote “my home was for me a cradle, a school, a university, a library and most of all a church”. 

 

In the year 2002 another man who did not take things for granted testified to the importance of prayer in his life.  In that year Pope John Paul II wrote a letter on the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He said:

 

From my youthful years this prayer has held an important place in my life.  It has accompanied me in moments of joy and in moments of difficulty.  To it I have entrusted any number of concerns; in it I have always found comfort….The Rosary is my favourite prayer.  A marvellous prayer – marvellous in its simplicity and in its depth”.

 

Pope John Paul went on to say: “The family that prays together stays together”.  I think that we have all heard that somewhere before.  This is exactly the message that Father Peyton had been preaching all his life.

 

It is wonderful that you have taken such care to remember Fr Peyton in his home parish. You have ensured that the man renowned across the world for preaching the importance of family prayer will always be remembered in the Parish of his family home.

 

I congratulate all involved in keeping alive the memory of Fr Peyton.  I am honoured to have been invited to celebrate this Mass and to unveil the Fr Peyton statue. It is a joy to be here and I thank Bishop Brendan Kelly and Fr Mulligan for their warm welcome and hospitality.

 

TRY PRAYER – IT WORKS

 

One of Father Peyton’s wonderful phrases was: Try prayer – it works.  Obviously, Father Peyton had asked himself the question:  Does prayer make any difference?  It is a question asked by many people.  In prayer we talk directly to God.  For example, in this Mass we said “God our Father, you have made us your sons and daughters and restored the joy of our youth; may we look forward with hope to our resurrection”.  When we address God in this way we are actually responding personally to a God who has already personally addressed us.

 

In prayer it is God, not we, who takes the initiative.  But the question remains, does our prayer affect God in any way?  The fact is that God loves us and makes us his sons and daughters.  As a result I think we have to say that praise and thanksgiving really pleases God.  This really rejoices the heart of God for what God intends is coming about.

 

Love has also led God to promise to hear our prayers.  Surely that promise has made God open to being affected by our prayers.  They are prayers that respond to God’s own invitation to ask and we shall receive.  They are aimed at deepening our friendship with God for God is our loving and powerful God – a God who grants what will improve our union.  God grants what we have asked or something that, in the end, is more beneficial.  All our prayers are answered – perhaps not always in the way we asked or expected but in a way that is more beneficial.

 

Prayer has often been described as communication or dialogue with the living God.  In that sense the conversations which we have just heard in today’s Gospel could be described as a prayer.  The two dejected, disheartened disciples were on their way home to Emmaus.  Then Jesus draws up alongside them.  He engages them in a very lively discussion.  They end up totally changed people – changed in mood and attitude.  They literally change direction and head back to Jerusalem to join the others.  Who can say prayer is not effective?

 

Yet there are many people now who resist the idea of praying and certainly resist the idea of praying the Rosary.  Prayer is an answer to the supreme question:  What does God ask of us?  The difficulty is that the very question itself has too often disappeared off our radar screens.  We have learned to listen to every ‘I’ except the ‘I’ of God.  The annoying thing is that this resistance to the idea of praying comes from two dramatically opposed ideas.  Some think that we are too great to be in need of divine help.  Others maintain that we are too small to be worthy of divine guidance.  Others do not pray because they are too busy. As a result they deprive themselves of something which could bring them immense good.

 

Around our country at the moment there are many people who are reeling in shock at the dramatic turn of events in our economy. There are many people who, through no fault of their own, are suffering immense anxiety and distress about their financial situation, often keeping that anxiety carefully hidden from neighbours and friends.

 

I pray that those who are anxious or distressed about their financial situation will not be too proud to pray or too proud to ask for help. Prayer works. Not always in the way we think it should but – it works. I pray that through the help of God and the help of family, friends and neighbours those in financial distress will find the strength and resources to cope through the difficult months ahead.

 

In one of the most poignant parts of his autobiography, All for Her, Fr Peyton speaks very movingly of the time when, two years before his ordination, he was stricken with a serious illness. He speaks of how he was at his worst – discouraged, depressed and hopeless. He then goes on to explain how, in his despair, he learned three important lessons. I think the lessons Fr Peyton learned in his illness have something very important to say to our country at this time of economic crisis.

 

The first lesson was his ‘total dependence on his neighbour.’ In his illness he needed to depend totally on the doctors and nurses and care assistants around him. He had to let go of his pride and to accept their help. He had to admit that he was in need. As he explains: I learned that famous line from literature: “No man is an island.” We are all one family, all one in Christ, all members of His Body. We form with Him a Mystical Body that is closer even than the branches and leaves of a tree are to the trunk that gives them life.’

 

As Christians we have a family bond with one another and with every person. We have an obligation to help and support one another, especially those who are in need.

 

Perhaps as a society we need to admit that in recent years all too many of became too proud to ask for help or too preoccupied with our own concerns to offer help to our neighbours and friends. It is often said that as we got wealthier we became less concerned about community and more individualistic. Perhaps we need to rediscover our commitment to one another and to the common good of all. We each need to ask: am I doing enough to help those who are in distress around me? Am I making it possible for people to admit the distress they are in and to ask for help?

 

 

The second lesson Fr Peyton learned in his illness, was the importance and power of the gift Jesus gave to us of His mother, a gift given to us with his dying breath on the cross. He explains how a close friend said to him on his sick bed: ‘Mary is alive. She will be as good to you as she thinks she can be. It all depends on you and your faith’.

 

‘That night’, he says, ‘his words activated my dormant faith. It was like setting a match to a hay stack sprinkled with gasoline. Thanks to the family that always prayed the Rosary, I had come to know who Mary was and that Jesus Christ, her Son, had entrusted me to her.’

 

No matter how bad things are, we are not alone. Our God has not abandoned us. In fact he has assigned the mother of Jesus to us as Our Mother, our Mother of Perpetual Help.

 

The third lesson Fr Peyton tells us he learned was that, ‘Without God I can do nothing!’. In John 14, Jesus says: ‘I am the vine, and you are the branches.  ‘He who dwells in me; as I dwell in him, bears much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing!’ (15: 5)

 

It is not always easy to pray but it is always worthwhile to pray. In fact, there is an increasing body of research which points to the physical, social and psychological benefits of prayer.  Our society is hungry for prayer.  To meet that hunger  I challenge anyone in Ireland to turn off the TV, switch off the mobile, shut down the computer and pray at some stage every day and tell me that the quality of their life was not better as a result. We need time to chat quietly and intimately with our Creator. We need regular prayer as much as we need regular exercise or a healthy diet.

 

 

FAMILY

 

Pope John Paul II insisted that the Rosary is, and always has been, a prayer of the family and a prayer for the family.  He saw that today the family is threatened by many destructive forces.  He saw the Rosary as a great defence against those destructive forces.  For:

 

When we contemplate the birth of Christ, we learn of the sanctity of life. 

When we behold the household of Nazareth, we see the truth of the family according to God’s plan.

Following him on the road to Calvary, we learn the true meaning of suffering.

Contemplating Christ and his mother in the glory of Heaven, we see the goal to which each one of us is called. 

 

At the same time he felt that it is natural to bring to our rosaries all the problems and worries of life.  There we hand them over to the merciful hearts of Christ and Mary.  After 25 years of his life as Bishop of Rome, Pope John Paul assures us that it works.  The Rosary brings us into harmony with the rhythm of God’s own life.  It brings our life’s destiny and deepest longing into union with God. 

 

Pope John Paul – like Father Peyton – was totally convinced that the family that prays together stays together.  It brings families together but it also gives them the ability to look one another in the eye, to communicate with one another and to forgive one another.  He knew that many of the problems facing families today come from an inability to communicate.

 

 

Peace in the Family

 

Finally, one of my favourite phrases from Fr Peyton’s many talks is the one which straddles the main wall in the Fr Peyton Memorial Centre. It is the  phrase, ‘the world that prays is a world at peace’.

 

In his letter on the Rosary, Pope John Paul said he was willingly entrusting to the power of this prayer the cause of peace and the cause of the family.  I would wish today to entrust to the Rosary the cause of peace in the family right across this island.  I am thinking of the very many people who have suffered violence, been attacked, beaten up or abused.  Today I pray fervently for their total healing. 

 

Many of the problems facing contemporary families result from their increasing difficulty in communicating.  Parents often lament the resistance they encounter when they try to communicate the values of their faith and morals to their children.

 

I think it is particularly important to reconnect young men with prayer. The popular perception of prayer as a woman’s activity is a relatively new phenomenon in Ireland. It is also a real problem in terms of addressing aggression, violence and immaturity in younger men. It takes sensitivity and humility to pray, qualities which are not always valued or respected among young men but which are essential to maturity and responsible fatherhood.

 

Pope John Paul was well aware that some families cannot come together often nowadays.  The rare occasions when they do are often taken up with watching television, where scenes of angry violence and bloodshed too often occur.  To return to the recitation of the family Rosary would mean

 

Filling at least part of daily life with very different images – the image of Jesus, for example who is meek and humble of heart – or the image of his most Blessed Mother.  It would mean reproducing something of the atmosphere that reigned at Nazareth in the home of Mary and Joseph. 

 

It would involve putting Jesus at the centre of things, sharing our joys and sorrows with him.

It would mean placing all our plans, needs and worries and drawing from him the courage, hope and strength to carry on.

Some will object that what I am proposing wont work.  St Therese – the Little Flower – at one stage found it very difficult to pray the Rosary so she decided to just say one Our Father and one Hail Mary for each decade very slowly.  That worked well and gradually she was able to recite again the full decade.

 

UP-TO-DATE:  TWITTERS, TEXTS AND E-MAILS

 

Fr Peyton had a great gift for using the most up-to-date means of social communication. He was pioneering in his use of television to communicate the Gospel and the power of prayer through the Rosary. He attracted the support of many famous film stars along the way. I am sure if there had been mobile phones in his day Fr Peyton would have been big into texting and twitter! He would rejoice in the power of the internet and email to join people together in prayerful solidarity instantaneously and across the world.

 

In the name of Fr Peyton I would like to make an appeal to every Christian in Ireland today who sends texts, twitters or uses e-mail. I appeal to you to think about setting up groups of prayer between you and your friends using these modern means of communication. I ask young people in particular to think of sending their friends and family an occasional twitter or text to say that you have prayed for them. Make someone the gift of a prayer through text, twitter or e-mail every day. Such a sea of prayer is sure to strengthen our sense of solidarity with one another and remind us those who receive them that others really do care.

 

ATTYMASS HAS REASON TO BE PROUD

 

The truths taught by the Servant of God, Fr Patrick Peyton, are worth repeating often:

 

‘Prayer works – try it!’;

‘The family that prays together, stays together’ and

‘The world that prays is a world at peace!’.

 

Ireland has every reason to be proud of its world famous but humble countryman who achieved so much good by his life as a priest. Attymass has every reason to be proud of its Servant of God and son of the parish. As we celebrate his memory and unveil the new statue of his image, let us pray that our country will be renewed in faith, hope and love by a return to a culture of prayer and a richer spirit of solidarity with one another.

 

Mary, Queen of Peace. Pray for us.

 

Amen.

Divine Mercy Sunday (Knock Shrine)

 

Knock Shrine, Co. Mayo

 

Introduction to the Eucharist and Homily preached by Bishop Brendan Kelly at Divine Mercy Sunday 2009 in Knock, Co. Mayo.

 

Introduction:

 

Céad fáilte go Cnoc Mhuire ar an lá aoibhinn Cásga seo!

Alleluia is our song, for we are an Easter people!  We know we are saved and our destiny is Life in all its fullness, for Jesus is Risen…by the power of the Father, his power which is his Mercy…He does not hold anything in for us…let us not retain our sins ourselves, or the sin of anyone against us.  Give us the grace to grasp in a new and liberating way the depth of your mercy to us, Lord, that we may in turn be merciful to each other, especially those who have sinned against us.

 

 

Homily:

 

Alleluia Alleluia!

Jesus said: “You believe because you can see me.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”

Alleluia!

 

When Jesus was on the mountain, at the beginning of his ministry, he sat down with his disciples and a great crowd of people and what he taught them was “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed those who mourn, blessed are the meek..” The 8 Beatitudes!  We often refer to them as the ‘New Law’ given on the new mountain by the new Moses, or rather the one whom Moses imaged, – but framed in positive terms, unlike the Old Law. (‘Thou shalt not..’)

Here now at the very end of his time on earth, Jesus’ last word to them as Risen Lord, another beatitude, a ninth!  Only this one is not for the disciples who saw him in the flesh, historically.

This beatitude is for US, for you and me specifically today.

“Blessed are YOU he is saying to us, who have never seen and yet believe”

 

And we do believe!  That’s why we are here!  That is our blessing!  We believe in Easter, in Jesus Risen. We have not seen physically, but we believe!  Just as the disciples who were full of fear and Thomas who was plagued with doubt put their fear and doubt aside and believed, not because our eyes always tell us, but because we have decided in our hearts:  We have chosen belief in Jesus, as risen Lord of our lives!

 

All around us today there is conflict, greed, selfishness, and death. So much happening that diminishes life that takes it away…

Trócaire in their campaign this year put before us the fact that 26 million people are homeless because of conflict and war… Also the fact that 6 million children will die of starvation this year.

The hard times that have come upon us economically, bringing so much fear and doubt into many lives, have come upon us to a large degree because of greed… and lets not be too quick to point fingers.  We all got caught up maybe to some degree. These are only two very blatant facts of life around us today…I could go on.

 

In the midst of all this nevertheless, we are believers.  We are an Easter people.  There is a future marked out for us.  Nothing the world can do to us will quench this faith. We are here today celebrating the Passover of the Lord, for that is what the Mass is.  The one who faced condemnation, deprivation of freedom, violence, abuse, scorn, contempt, hatred, most sorrowful passion and death itself is victorious over all these cruel and harsh realities.  He is alive.  Risen.  And we are his risen people.  Our trust    is in the same Father. The Father all-merciful. It’s a concept we can hardly imagine. St. Faustina said “tell the whole world about his inconceivable mercy”.

 

(Three years before St Faustina was canonised, St Therese, the Little Flower, was declared in 1997 ‘Doctor of the Merciful love of God”… because she spoke continuously of the power of God’s mercy to restore and heal even the most hardened sinners. “Were I to commit all possible crimes”, she said, “it would be only like a drop of water in the ocean of God’s mercy”)

 

We don’t experience mercy often from the world.  We are so easily hurt, grievously, we find it impossible to forgive.  We are a hugely fragile and vulnerable people and

we build all sorts of protections around ourselves, even religious protections.

We do not expect mercy in our world…in a sense the world seems incapable of mercy or forgiveness ‘to err is human, to forgive divine’, the proverb says.  We believe in the mercy of God, because we know Jesus who was condemned and suffered and died has risen and destroyed death and all death’s children… by the power of God’s mercy.

 

Clearly the Church is telling us, at the end of the old millennium and the beginning of the new, to announce God’s mercy in our own day… not out of fear, but with deep peace in our hearts: peace, the gift of our risen Lord in today’s gospel and his ultimate

blessing upon us.

~~~~~~~~~

 

The word Mercy is a wonderful word.

In Latin the word is ‘misericordia’ made up of two words:  the word ‘miser’ meaning ‘misery’ and “cordia” which comes from the word for ‘heart’.

So mercy or misericordia means

Having a heart for the misery of mankind, of  the world.

That’s what Jesus came to reveal to us and to show us in his life, in his word above all in suffering the sorrow and passion of Calvary: That God has a heart for the misery of the world, for you and I in our misery. Jesus took on himself that misery, in all its depth. This is his mission from the Father.

St Paul says so eloquently, in the letter to the Philippians: 

“He emptied himself,

taking the form of a servant…

He was humbler yet and became obedient unto death even death on a cross”- the cruellest most abject suffering, identified thus with the most despised criminal,

shamefully exposed, despised, jeered at and damned, object of scorn, contempt every possible insult, spat upon. 

Jesus identified with us in our deepest misery and poverty, revealing to us that God is not absent but profoundly present when we are at the lowest point…

 

We come to Knock on pilgrimage…carrying our own pain or the pain and misery of others, of people we love and cherish…illness, suffering, approaching death, bad news we have received, breakage in relationships or families, pain and suffering. We come here…to the place where Mary, Jesus, and the Lamb who was sacrificed     appeared in the misery of pouring rain and at a time when hunger and distress was again stalking this part of the country.  They didn’t use the word “recession” in those days. But it was a recession so deep people were starving: it was a time of famine.  Mary and the Lamb silently but really present to the people in their misery; they are not alone, not abandoned.  Neither are we now.

 

Jesus as the Lamb, utterly approachable, most vulnerable of creatures, reveals the true nature of the Father.  The Lamb reveals the merciful love of the heart of our God for us. Not distant or too ‘holy’ for us but with us in all our misery and failure and sin. We sometimes like to keep God at a distance It can suit us.  The vision of Knock was an act of mercy from God. It was a manifestation of the His mercy for the people of this place in their misery in August 1879. It is still so for us today, lest we be tempted to lose hope.

 

That’s the whole story of Jesus’ life isn’t it? Over and over, he manifests the mercy of God for his people in their misery.

Remember the woman caught in adultery.  The religious people, the lawyers & Pharisees wanted him to condemn her but he bent down to the ground and eventually said, “He who is without sin cast the first stone”. Jesus casts no stones for he is merciful.  They slowly went away beginning with the eldest, it says, until only Jesus remained and the woman.

“Has nobody condemned you”?  “Nobody”!

“Neither do I. Go and sin no more”.

 

In this story.. misery and the heart of God meet- MERCY!

And the woman is liberated, set free to new life. 

 

It’s the same way in the story of the prodigal son.

The son’s misery meets the Father’s heart- MERCY- and there is resurrection and new life, there’s celebration, joy!

There is no condemnation in Jesus.  There is no condemnation in the Father only merciful Love.. that calls us to love in our turn to be merciful. 

~~~~~~~~

When Pope Paul 2 canonised St Faustina on April 30^th 2000 he said “by this act today I pass on the message of Divine Mercy to the new millennium.  I pass it on because I want people to know the better face of God and that of his Divine Mercy and through it, the better face of their brethren”.

Three years before this on Mission Sunday 1997, as I’ve already said, the same Holy Father proclaimed St Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, a Doctor of the church and specifically the Doctor of the Merciful Love of God.  It is worth noting that Therese’s full name in religion is St Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.  ‘I want people to know the better face of God’, the Holy Father said in 2000. And the Risen Jesus calls on the apostles..to show forth this merciful face of God. In bringing forgiveness. And to be a people who see the better face of God in their brothers and sisters especially the poorest and all whose lives are miserable. People who are sinners.

 

“As the father sent me so I’m sending you. 

Receive the Holy Spirit,

those whose sins you forgive they are forgiven;

those whose sins you retain they are retained”. 

The church has always seen these words as instituting the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  But they are words first of all for the ordinary everyday life of those who believe in the Risen Christ. We are people who forgive as the Father forgives us; we do not retain, hold on to the sin done to us.

We are people who are merciful as the Father is merciful.

We are people who say to the Father when we turn to him ‘Forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us..’

The world very often does not believe in forgiveness: we hear constant demands for retribution, for punishment, for ostracisation. 

But we, like our Father, are merciful.  We forgive. In our families, in our tribes, in our world.  We are all called to be the living face of God’s Mercy. Never despairing of even the most depraved person.

There’s the call of the God who is merciful, the call of the Risen Jesus:

Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful.  Show the world his face.  Be that Holy face of the merciful God in the world of 2009. 

We believe!.

Therefore we will, with the help of God, be merciful.

Thomas – Doubter or Expert Witness?

 

Fr. Liam Swords, one of our Diocesan priests, muses on “Inquiries” and feels certain that in today’s world there would have been an INQUIRY/TRIBUNAL into the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Witnesses under cross-examination, he believes, might not hold up too well …. Well one would!  We’ll let Liam tell the story 

The case for the prosecution is by now almost wrapped up as Thomas, the final witness, is sworn in. Quietly, he recounts how he had stubbornly refused to believe any of the reports that Jesus was risen. The judge begins to listen with renewed interests in a now hushed courtroom. At last, a cool level-headed witness. Thomas held out against the mounting   pressure of his associates who believed, as he saw it, what they wanted to believe. He could accept only tangible proof, nothing less than touching the wounds of the risen Jesus. There is a gasp in the court-room when he informs them that, a week later, he did just that. In the end, it all came down to Thomas”    evidence.  As a result the enquiry was forced to bring in an inconclusive verdict. 

For two thousand years, Thomas has got a bad press. In fact, the derogatory expression “doubting Thomas” is now common currency in most languages. Thomas is long overdue a reappraisal. That his demand for proof was not inordinate is twice underlined in     today’s gospel. Firstly, Christ himself submitted to the conditions laid down by Thomas and secondly, the event was recorded – when so many others were not – “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” We who believe today are indebted in no small part to the tenacity of Thomas.

 

Chrism Mass 2009

Bishop Brendan and some of the conclebrants at Holy Thursday's Chrism Mass

World Day of The Sick (11th February 2009)

MESSAGE FROM THE HOLY FATHER FOR WORLD DAY OF THE SICK 2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The World Day of the Sick, which will be celebrated on 11 February of this year, the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes, will see the diocesan communities meet with their bishops in moments of prayer, in order to reflect and to decide upon initiatives of sensitisation connected with the reality of suffering. The Pauline Year that we are celebrating offers a propitious opportunity to stop and reflect with the apostle Paul on the fact that “just as the sufferings of Christ overflow into our lives; so too does the encouragement we receive through Christ” (2 Cor 1:5). The spiritual link with Lourdes, in addition, calls to mind the maternal solicitude of the Mother of Jesus for the brethren of her Son “who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into the happiness of their true home” (Lumen gentium, n. 62).

This year we direct our attention particularly to children, the weakest and most defenceless creatures, and, amongst them, to the sick and suffering children. There are little human beings who carry in their bodies the consequences of illnesses which have made them invalids and others who fight against diseases that are now incurable despite the progress of medicine and the care of qualified researchers and health-care professionals. There are children wounded in their bodies and souls as a consequence of conflicts and wars, and other innocent victims of the hatred of senseless adults. There are ‘street’ children, deprived of the warmth of a family and abandoned to themselves, and minors profaned by abject people who violate their innocence, provoking in them a psychological wound that will mark them for the rest of their lives. And we cannot forget the incalculable number of young people who die because of thirst, hunger, lack of health care, and the little exiles and refugees from their own lands, with their parents, who are in search of better conditions of life. From all these children arises a silent cry of pain that calls on our conscience as men and believers.

The Christian community, which cannot remain indifferent to such dramatic situations, perceives the impelling duty to intervene. The Church, indeed, as I wrote in the encyclical Deus caritas est, “is God’s family in the world. In this family no one ought to go without the necessities of life” (n. 25, b). I thus hope that the World Day of the Sick will also offer an opportunity to parish and diocesan communities to become increasingly aware that they are “God’s family”, and will encourage them to make the love of the Lord, who asks that “within the ecclesial family no member should suffer through being in need” (ibid.), perceivable in villages, neighbourhoods and cities. Witness to charity is a part of the life itself of every Christian community. And from the outset the Church translated Gospel principles into concrete actions, as we can read in the Acts of the Apostles. Today, given the changed conditions of health care, the need is perceived for closer cooperation between health-care workers who work in various health-care institutions and the ecclesial communities present in local areas. From this perspective, all the value is demonstrated of an institution that is connected with the Holy See, the “Bambino Gesù” Children’s Hospital, which this year celebrates its 140 years of existence.

But there is more. Since a sick child belongs to a family that shares his or her suffering often with great hardship and difficulties, Christian communities cannot but also make themselves responsible for helping family units that are afflicted by the illness of a son or daughter. Following the example of the “Good Samaritan”, one should bend down in front of people who are so sorely troubled and offer them the support of practical solidarity. In this way, the acceptance and sharing of suffering is translated into a useful support to the families of sick children, creating within them a climate of serenity and hope, and making them feel surrounded by a wider family of brothers and sisters in Christ. The compassion of Jesus for the weeping of the widow of Nain (cf. Lk 7:12-17) and for the imploring prayer of Jairus (cf. Lk 8:41-56) constitute, amongst others, certain useful points of reference by which to learn to share in the moments of physical and moral tribulation of so many afflicted families. All of this presupposes a disinterested and generous love, a reflection and sign of the merciful love of God who never abandons his children in affliction, but always provides them with admirable resources of the heart and intelligence, so that they can adequately address the difficulties of life.

The daily dedication and tireless commitment to the service of sick children constitute an eloquent testimony of love for human life, in particular for the life of those who are weak and who are in everything and for everything dependent on others. It is, indeed, necessary to affirm with vigour the absolute and supreme dignity of every human life. The teaching that the Church proclaims incessantly does not change with the passing of time: human life is beautiful and should be lived in fullness even when it is weak and shrouded by the mystery of suffering. It is to Jesus that we must direct our gaze: in dying on the cross he wanted to share the pain of all humanity. In his suffering for love we see a supreme co-participation in the sufferings of sick children and their parents. My venerable predecessor John Paul II, who offered a shining example of the patient acceptance of suffering, especially at the sunset of his life, wrote: “on this Cross is the ‘Redeemer of man’, the Man of Sorrows, who has taken upon himself the physical and moral sufferings of the people of all times, so that in love they may find the salvific meaning of their sorrow and valid answers to all of their questions” (Salvifici doloris, n. 31) .

I wish here to express my appreciation and encouragement of the international and national organisations that provide care to sick children, especially in poor countries, and with generosity and self-denial offer their contribution to assure that such children have adequate and loving care. At the same time I address a sorrowful appeal to the leaders of nations to strengthen laws and measures in favour of sick children and their families. Always, but even more when the lives of children are at stake, the Church, for her part, makes herself ready to offer her cordial cooperation, with the intention of transforming the whole of human civilisation into a “civilisation of love” (cf. Salvifici doloris, n. 30).

To end, I would like to express my spiritual nearness to all of you, dear brothers and sisters, who suffer from an illness. I address an affectionate greeting to those who help you: to bishops, to priests, to consecrated men and women, to health-care workers, to volunteers and to all those who dedicate themselves with love to treating and alleviating the sufferings of those who have to face up to illness. A special greeting for you, dear sick and suffering children: the Pope embraces you with fatherly love, together with your parents and relatives; he assures you that you are especially remembered in his prayers, inviting you to trust in the maternal help of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, who last Christmas we once again contemplated while she held in her arms the Son of God made child. Invoking upon you and every sick person the protection of the Holy Virgin, Health of the Sick, to all of you from my heart I impart a special Apostolic Blessing.

 

From the  Vatican, 2 February 2009

Benedictus P.P. XVI

Day for Consecrated Life

At the invitation of Bishop Brendan Kelly, the Religious of the diocese of Achonry gathered in The Cathedral of The Annunciation and St. Nathy, Ballaghaderreen on Thursday February 5th, 2009.  This gathering took place to celebrate Consecrated Life and to acknowledge the contribution of the Religious to the ongoing Pastoral Ministry within the diocese.  Representatives of all Religious Orders working in the diocese were in attendance – Sisters of Mercy, John of God Sisters, Louis Sisters, Marist Sisters as well as members of other congregations who are currently in the diocese.  Below you will find the text of Bishop Brendan’s Homily as well as a few “photos” from the evening.

Today is the feast of St Agatha. She was martyred in Sicily around the middle of the third century.  There are many legends about her, but it is impossible to glean any actual facts. We just have her name, Agatha, which means ‘good’, and she is mentioned in the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer 1). And we know, as the late Fr Gerard McGinty OSB says in his book on the Saints of the Roman Calendar, Agatha died because ‘she loved God supremely and solely’

So it suits well that we are celebrating consecrated life on her feast day, for what else is consecrated life but ‘to love God supremely and solely’

 

We are here to celebrate you, my sisters, and the witness that is the lives you have chosen. We are here to invite you to joyfully choose again today this witnessing, this martyrdom that is the loving of God supremely and solely. Your consecration, your calling is an essential part of the Christian family, which without you would limp.

 

We are here also to pray for ‘many new vocations to consecrated life’ as our Holy Father said on Monday last in Rome. And all of us here this evening, let us pray with all our hearts for a new flowering of vocations to the consecrated life within our own diocese. And let us do that every day during this month of our year of Vocation.

 

It was 50 years ago, on the feast of The Conversion of St Paul, 25 Jan 1959, that Pope John astonished the Church by announcing the holding of an Ecumenical Council. Amongst the decrees to emerge from that Council was one on the Religious Life, or to give it its proper title, On the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life. Many of you have lived through that process of adaptation and renewal and are still living it. It has been a process full of excitement initially and new life, but also a process fraught with pain and even crucifixion and death. What is worth noting today is the title of that document. There were decrees on the ministry and life of priests, on the church in the modern world, on Ecumenism etc etc, but the only document from the Second Vatican Council to contain the words ‘renewal’ and ‘adaptation’ in its very title was the document on Religious Life. Clearly something essential, the core of Religious Life was unchangeable, but the expression and living out of this life in our day demanded something new, a new fire, a new spirit. So the searching began, and the pain soon followed…

 

Today however lets remember the foundation, the core, the heart of this vocation:

the joyful embracing of Chastity, Poverty and Obedience together in community. It is the calling given, for example, to St Paul, to St John, and above all to Mary. It is the way chosen by Jesus himself. It is a way that lives amongst us still, for you are here, amongst us:  carrying us all in prayer and consecration, loving us all in your chastity, poor with Jesus and with all who know poverty, in any of the myriad forms that it touches our human lives. Above all, perhaps, you by vows and solemn promises of obedience,  are listeners in a world of too much noise and talk, where words are too often debased and over-used. You are listeners to us all and to the people of our times in that unique and healing way that comes from those who listen to God all the time and to Jesus in silence, and who have in that deep sense become more and more his living Temple amongst us.

 

A couple of points from the Readings we have just heard. Both the First reading and the Gospel today mention the firstborn son as ‘consecrated to the Lord’. Jesus is firstborn in this sense, and so is every woman and man who is consecrated to the Lord. And the Church as Mother, just like Mary, presents her firstborn constantly to the Lord. As we do today. With deep gratitude and joy. With Jesus the firstborn, by your very lives you save our world…

 

And then we have Anna. ‘She never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer’

What fasting at 84 years of age? Surely this ‘fasting’ means her saying yes each day to all that growing beyond girlhood entails, all the fasting that’s in the loss of her life’s companion and the slow-or sudden- decline of faculties and strength, of ‘úth na gcos is na lámh’ and eyesight, and all the other loss that is part of being four score and more..

And then prayer. Prayer is the dedication of the onset of one loss or weakness after another to God in peaceful trust, and in union with Jesus who emptied himself in the greatest prayer ever lived on Calvary.

Anna became a prophetess…she saw the child Jesus for who he is…because her consecration, renewed each day, gave her sight and insight for the truth and for the love of God at the very same time as her outer faculties faded.

And prophetess above all maybe because she reacts to the sight of the infant with praise of God.

 

So this evening we praise God too with all our hearts for the prophetic witness that consecrated life is, and we give thanks to God for each and every one of you , Sisters. Let us redouble our prayers now for a new flowering of Vocations to the Religious Life amongst the people of this Diocese. May that be God’s gift to us in this Year of Vocation.

 

A quiet chat

Entrance Procession - Each congregation represented by a carried and lighted candle

Gathered and at prayer

Some of the priests who attended

Catching up - before leaving the Cathedral

Altar Display - representing the work of all Religious in diocese and beyond

A few of the faces ...

From St. Louis Community, Kiltimagh

Enjoying the moment

Srs. Ann and Nancy

Bishop’s Ordination Words

This is an extract from Bishop Brendan’s words on the day of his ordination in St. Nathy’s Cathedral.  The full text and Ordination ceremony is available on a souvenir DVD.  This is a recording of the recording so apologies for less than perfect video.  Thought the words might be of interest ….

For copies of the DVD (€20 plus P&P, contact The Presbytery, Ballaghaderreen, Co. Roscommon)