'Christ alone was their true treasure.' Sunday Reflections, 5th Sunday of Lent, Year B

 

Sheaves of Wheat

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24)..

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 12:20-33 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him.

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgement of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

The readings for Year A may be used instead of those above.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Christ in Agony on the Cross

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself (John 12:32).

Sir, we wish to see Jesus. This was the request of some Greek pilgrims to Jerusalem who spoke to Philip. Jesus when told of this said to Philip and Andrew, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever

loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.

Presumably, these words were conveyed to the Greeks by the two apostles or perhaps repeated to them by Jesus himself.

St Philip the Apostle

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

The Lord was making it very clear that there are consequences to following him. Philip himself was to end his life as a martyr.

On 12 March 2015 Pope Francis addressed the bishops of Korea during their ad limina visit. He recalled his visit to Korea the previous year when he beatified a group of martyrs. The Bishop of Rome said [emphasis added]: For me, one of the most beautiful moments of my visit to Korea was the beatification of the martyrs Paul Yun Ji-chung and companions.  In enrolling them among the Blessed, we praised God for the countless graces which he showered upon the Church in Korea during her infancy, and equally gave thanks for the faithful response given to these gifts of God.  Even before their faith found full expression in the sacramental life of the Church, these first Korean Christians not only fostered their personal relationship with Jesus, but brought him to others, regardless of class or social standing, and dwelt in a community of faith and charity like the first disciples of the Lord (cf. Acts 4:32).  “They were willing to make great sacrifices and let themselves be stripped of whatever kept them from Christ . . .  Christ alone was their true treasure” (Homily in Seoul, 16 August 2014). Their love of God and neighbor was fulfilled in the ultimate act of freely laying down their lives, thereby watering with their own blood the seedbed of the Church.

The previous Sunday, 9 March 2015, there were attacks on a Catholic church and a Protestant church in an area of Lahore where many Christians live as my Columban confrere Fr Liam O'Callaghan, who is based in Pakistan, reports. Pope Francis expressed his grief during his Angelus talk later in the day and noted: Our brothers' and sisters' blood is shed only because they are Christians.

After celebrating Mass in Erbil, Iraq, on 7 March this year Pope Francis met the head of the Assyrian Church of the East, which is not in communion with Rome, and said, I greet with affection His Holiness Mar Gewargis III, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, who resides in this city and honours us with his presence. Thank you, dear Brother! Together with him, I embrace the Christians of the various denominations: so many of them have shed their blood in this land! Yet our martyrs shine together like stars in the same sky! From there they call us to walk together, without hesitation, towards the fullness of unity.

When we say, We wish to see Jesus we have no idea what this might entail. But we do have the assurance of Jesus himself today where our following him will lead us: If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him.

Let us pray for the Christians of Pakistan, the Christians of the Middle East, the Christians in those parts of Africa who are being persecuted simply for being followers of Jesus. May the promise of Jesus, If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him give them courage and honour.

 

St Patrick's Breastplate

Extraordinary Form of the Mass

Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) 

Passion Sunday

The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 3-21-2021 if necessary).

Epistle: Hebrews 9:11-15.  Gospel: John 8:46-59.

Authentic Beauty

Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.

Pope Benedict XVI meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel, 21 November 2009.

The Minstrel Boy from Irish Suite

arranged by Leroy Anderson

BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin

I'm posting this before the feast day of the patron saint of Nigeria and of Ireland, St Patrick. Leroy Anderson was commissioned to arrange some Irish tunes for symphony orchestra. The first four were performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1947. Anderson added two more in 1949. These for me are by far the best such arrangements of Irish melodies that I know of. 

Since my childhood I've loved this arrangement of The Minstrel Boy. The video above includes many photos from the Great War (1914-18) in which many Irish soldiers in Irish regiments of the British Army died, including my great-uncle Lawrence Dowd whose grave in Belgium I located 84 years after his death, the first relative to visit it.

The full Irish Suite played by the Boston Pops under the direction of Arthur Fiedler is below. Along with the Irish music you can also enjoy some beautiful Irish scenery.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig!

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

'Peregrinari pro Christo' - 'To be an exile/pilgrim for Christ'. Sunday Reflections, 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

The Calling of St Matthew (detail), Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings(New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Matthew 10:37-42 (New Revised  Standard Version, Anglicised CatholicEdition) 

Jesus said to his Apostles:

^‘Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’

Post-World War II Japan [Source]

Whoever loves father or mother . . . son or daughter more than me . . . and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

These words of Jesus in today's Gospel speak to the hearts of missionaries who leave their homelands and who give up the right to have their own families. Up to maybe a hundred years or so ago it was not uncommon for missionaries, and emigrants, never to return home. When I entered the Columban seminary in Ireland in 1961 our priests came home only after seven years. And they travelled by ship across the Atlantic and Pacific. We were, and are, inspired by our patron saint, St Columban, whose motto was Peregrinari pro Christo, 'To be an exile/pilgrim for Christ'.

Times have changed and long-distance travel by plane has replaced journeys on ocean liners and freighters and is much cheaper. People fly across the Atlantic for weekends. And people are living much longer, which has led to many missionaries spending their latter days in the country of their birth. For some, this is a second experience of going into exile.

My Columban confrere Fr Eamonn Horgan went to Japan as a young priest in 1954 and came back to Ireland for good in 2013. He writes about these two experiences in his article Two Sorrows.

Fr Eamonn Horgan with Japanese friends

Father Eamonn writes: The months since my ordination the previous December (1953) had been pleasantly spent finishing my seminary course and visiting friends and relatives. My mission destination was to be Japan, where, God willing, I would spend the rest of my active life as a Columban missionary.  

But then: The year since ordination had slipped by without much concern on my part about facing the ordeal of leaving kin, friends and country. Exile was something I had only read about, but here I was about to embark on my own. I’m afraid that during those final months before leaving, the missionary spirit in me had noticeably faded. Any tint of glamour attached to a missionary career suddenly grew dim. I had heard many tales of missionaries who, through accident, sickness or even martyrdom, had never come home. Would I someday find myself joining that brave company?

However, his experience in Japan gradually lifted his spirits: Little by little the clouds of melancholy began to lift. It has been said that Japanese have difficulty understanding foreigners. My experience of them belies that opinion. On so many occasions I have found the Japanese understanding my peculiarities and idiosyncrasies better than I understood them myself. Their loyalty was inspiring and the virtues they displayed at every turn would match or surpass those of many ‘official’ Christians.

A farewell party

Father Eamonn gradually found that he had a new homeland: Time and again, when overseas folk came to visit me, local friends or mere acquaintances insisted that I bring them to their homes. The welcome was ever genuine, the hospitality lavish. Over the years as Japan ‘grew on me’, I learned to appreciate more and more how kind the Lord had been to me, in bringing me to so charming a land and so loving a people. Almost imperceptibly I found myself feeling more and more at home among them. They seemed to reciprocate the feeling.

Minimata Railway Station [Wikipedia]

But then came the second sorrow, 'exile' once again: Forward to April 2013: the scene, a train station in Minamata City, South Japan. A group of 40 or so Japanese, men and women, baptised and non-baptised, bidding farewell to their pastor as he departs for retirement to the land of his birth. As the train pulls out, copious tears, theirs and mine, flow freely.

This scene is similar to that in Acts 20:36-37, When he had finished speaking, he knelt down with them all and prayed. There was much weeping among them all; they embraced Paul and kissed him.

Another farewell

The pain, though mixed with joy, continues: The heartbreak of separation still persists, not just on my side but on theirs too I think. Frequent letters and emails, genuinely nostalgic, continue to arrive here. January 1, 2016 brought two members of an English conversation group of mine [Father Eamonn used to teach English to adults] who had sacrificed their Japan New Year festivities, the biggest of the year, to fly all the way here to visit their departed friend.

Irish airmail stamp, 1948-9 [Wikipedia]

Richard King's set of four Irish airmail stamps published in 1948-9 feature the Angel Victor over four sacred sites bringing the 'Voice of Ireland' to St Patrick asking him to come among the Irish once again as an exile, this time freely as a missionary unlike his first six years in Ireland when he was kidnapped and brought there as a slave. The great saint let go of all the pain of his first exile and embraced the pain of his second at the call of Jesus in order to bring the Gospel to the Irish people.

Crypt of St Columban, Bobbio, Italy [Wikipedia]

St Columban for many years begged his abbot in Bangor, Ireland, to allow him to go into exile to the European continent. His abbot finally relented and twelve other monks, including St Gall went with the great missionary. St Columban was driven out of a number of places by various authorities who did not like the demands of the Gospel. But he brought a renewal of the Catholic Christian faith to much of western Europe because he had embraced the grace of the call to be an exile/pilgrim for Christ.

Father Eamonn followed the example of the patron saint of the Missionary Society of St Columban in embracing his first exile from Ireland in going to Japan and his second 59 years later when leaving Japan in order to return to the land of his birth.

Please pray for all overseas missionaries and for the millions of people who have been forced from their home places by war or by economic necessity. We missionaries have been able to make a choice and accept or reject God's invitation. For far too many refugees there has been no choice.

Kim Jung-hae, Roberta, a Korean, served in Japan as a Columban lay missionary.

'Ego Patricius peccator rusticissimus . . . Mise Pádraig, peacach róthuatach . . . I Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman . . .'

St Patrick 

St Benin's Church, Kilbennan, County Galway, Ireland [Wikipedia]

'Ego Patricius peccator rusticissimus . . . Mise Pádraig, peacach róthuatach . . . I Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman . . .'

The opening words of St Patrick's Confession in Latin, Irish and English.

Please pray earnestly to St Patrick for a renewal of the Christian faith in Ireland. 

Extracts from St Patrick's Confessio 

[Christian Classics Ethereal Library]

I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement [vicus] of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.

The Angel Victoricus over Glendalough, Ireland

One of a set of four airmail stamps used in Ireland between 1948 and 1965 featuring the Angel Victoricus  carrying the words of the beginning of the letter mentioned by St Patrick below, 'Vox Hiberniae', Latin for 'The Voice of Ireland'. The stamps were designed by Richard J. King who died in Dublin on St Patrick's Day 1974.

And after a few years I was again in Britain with my parents [kinsfolk], and they welcomed me as a son, and asked me, in faith, that after the great tribulations I had endured I should not go anywhere else away from them. And, of course, there, in a vision of the night, I saw a man whose name was Victoricus coming as if from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter: ‘The Voice of the Irish’; and as I was reading the beginning of the letter I seemed at that moment to hear the voice of those who were beside the forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and they were crying as if with one voice: ‘We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us.’ And I was stung intensely in my heart so that I could read no more, and thus I awoke. Thanks be to God, because after so many years the Lord bestowed on them according to their cry.

St Patrick's Breastplate is attributed to the saint but was probably written some centuries after his death.

Collect of Mass on St Patrick's Day (in Ireland)

Lord, through the work of Saint Patrick in Ireland 

we have come to acknowledge the mystery of the one true God 

and give thank for our salvation in Christ; 

grant by his prayers 

that we who celebrate this festival 

may keep alive the fire of faith he kindled.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 

one God, for ever and ever.

Collect (elsewhere)

O God, who chose the Bishop Saint Patrick

to preach your glory to the peoples of Ireland,

grant through his merits and intercession,

that those who glory in the name of Christian

may never cease to proclaim your wondrous deeds to all.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

Again I ask, please pray earnestly to St Patrick for a renewal of the Christian faith in Ireland. We contemporary Irish have not kept alive the fire of faith he kindled. We have to a great extent let die this precious gift given to our ancestors more than 1,500 years ago through a great missionary bishop who when a teenager had pretty much lost the faith, was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave where he re-discovered it and later came back to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in answer to Vox Hiberniae, 'The Voice of Ireland'.

Dóchas Linn Naomh Pádraig: by Irish Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus

Dóchas linn Naomh Pádraig,
St Patrick is our hope
Aspal mór na hÉireann,
The great apostle of Ireland
Ainm oirirc gléigeal,
A bright and splendid name
Solas mór an tsaoil é.
The great light of the world
D'fhill le soiscéal grá dúinn 
Returned with the gospel of loved
ainneoin blianta 'ngéibheann, 
despite years in captivity,
Grá mór Mhac na páirte 

The great love of the dear Son
d'fhuascail cách ón daorbhroid.
freed all from bondage

Sléibhte, gleannta, mánna.
The hills, glens and plains
'S bailte móra na h-Éireann,
And the towns of Ireland
Ghlan sé iad go deo dúinn
He cleansed them for ever for us
Míle glóir dár Naomh dhíl.
A thousand glories to our beloved saint
Iarraimíd ort, a Phádraig,
We ask you, Patrick,
Guí orainne, Gaela,
To pray for us, Irish
Dia linn lá 'gus óiche
May God be with us day and night
'S Pádraig Aspal Éireann.
And Patrick apostle of Ireland

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig!

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

'The gift of God' - the faith that St Patrick brought to the Irish



Saturday, 17 March, is St Patrick's Day and Ireland's National Day.

One of Miss Cunningham's pupils in Rutland St School in the heart of Dublin half a century ago tells how St Patrick came to Ireland twice, the second time to stay there. You will notice that in this Brown Bag Production, done a few years ago, the pope who gave St Patrick permission to go to Ireland as a bishop bears a remarkable resemblance to a much more recent pope!

Mary, the young girl telling the story, has Patrick being kidnapped in France. I'm more inclined to think he was from Wales, much nearer to Ireland. But we don't know. Scholars can't identify 'Bannavem Taburniae', Patrick's native place as mentioned in the opening paragraph of his Confession. Young Mary sees Patrick's reluctant willingness to return to Ireland as a missionary. There is no doubt about the truth of this because the saint writes about his struggle in his Confession, the authenticity of which no scholar doubts. It and the Letter to Coroticus are the only writings of the saint that we have.

 Slemish, County Antrim in the north-east of Ireland where St Patrick is said to have worked as a shepherd while a slave. It is generally believed that St Patrick came to Ireland as a bishop in 432 and that he died on 17 March 461.

Each time I read his Confession I'm struck by the saint's knowledge of Scripture. Texts from the Bible are interwoven with his own words. He had a strong sense of the faith being a gift from God as this extract shows. Words from Scripture are in italics. The English translation is by Bishop Joseph Duffy, the Latin is Patrick's own and the Irish version is by Bishop Liam Mac Philibín (William Philbin).

 My decision to write must be made, then, in the light of our faith in the Trinity. The gift of God and his eternal consolation must be made known regardless of danger, I must fearlessly and frankly spread the name of God everywhere in order to leave a legacy after my death to my brothers, and children, the many thousands of them, whom I have baptized in the Lord. And at the very end of the Confession: Do not attribute to me in my ignorance the little I achieved or pointed out which pleased God. Let your concusion and the general opinion rather be the real truth, that my success was the gift of God. This is my confession before I die.

In mensura itaque fidei Trinitatis oportet distinguere, sine reprehensione periculi, notum facere donum Dei, et consulationem aeternam, sine timore fiducialiter Dei nomen ubique expandere, ut etiam post obitum meum exagallias relinquere fratribus et filiis meis, quos in Domino ego babtizaui, tot milia homnium.  And at the very end of the Confessio: ut nemo umquam dicat, quod mea ignorantia si aliquid pusillum egi uel demonstrauerim secundum Dei placitum; sed arbitramini et uerissime credatur quod donum Dei fuisset. Et haec est Confessio mea antequam morior.

Mar sin, de réir creidimh sa Tríonóid is ceart dom comhairle a dhéanamh, bronntanas Dé agus an sólás síoraí a chur in iúl gan aird ar chontúirt, ainm Dé a leathadh i ngach áit gan fuacht gan faitíos ionas go bhfágainn tar éis mo bháis oidhreacht ag my bhráithre agus ag mo chlann, a liachtaí sin mile duine a bhaist mé sa tiarna. Agus ag deireadh na Faoistine: . . . nach ndéarfaidh aon duine choíche go mba é m’aineolas ab údar le cibé beagán a rinne mé nó a léirigh mé de réir thoil Dé. Ach ceapaigí agus creidtear – is é lomchlár na fírinne  é -  go mba é tabhartas Dé é. Agus siúd í m’Fhaoistin roimh bhás dom.

Please pray that the present generation of Irish people, many of whom, perhaps even a majority, have rejected the gift of God, our Christian Catholic faith that St Patrick cherished so deeply, may, with God's grace, re-discover it. 

Lord, through the work of Saint Patrick in Ireland 
we have come to acknowledge the mystery of the one true God 
and give thanks for our salvation in Christ; 
grant by his prayers that we who celebrate this festival 
may keep alive the fire of faith he kindled.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
one God, for ever and ever.

I

Dóchas linn Naomh Pádraig, Aspal mór na hÉireann,

Bring hope to us, St Patrick, great Apostle of Ireland,

Ainm oirearc gléigeal, solas mór an tsaoil é.

Illustrious, glorious name, he is the great light of the world.

D'fhill le soiscéal grá dúinn d'ainneoin blianta i ngéibheann.

He came back to us with the gospel of love, despite years of captivity.

Grá mór Mhac na páirte, d'fhuascail cách ón daorbhruid.

Great love of the Son, freed all from oppression.

II

Sléibhte, gleannta, máighe,'s bailte mór’ na hÉireann:

Hill, valleys, plains, large towns of Ireland

Ghlan sé iad go deo dúinn, míle glóir dár naomh dhil.

He cleaned them for ever, a thousand praises to our dear saint.

Iarr’maid ort, a Phádraig, guí orainn na Gaela,

We ask you, Patrick, pray for us Irish,

Dia linn lá 'gus oíche 's Pádraig Aspal Éireann.

God and St Patrick Apostle of Ireland be with us day and night.

First stanza repeated.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig faoi mhaise daoibh!
A Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Ireland needs St Patrick's prayers to rediscover the Catholic faith

First Holy Communion at Holy Family Home, Bacolod City



Kevin Myers is a columnist for the Irish Independent who often says things other won't say. At times he can border on the crude and can go 'over the top' - an expression now widely used in Britain and Ireland that comes from the trench warfare of the Great War or World War I on which Kevin is an expert - often in a funny way. He was born in England of Irish parents and educated in a Catholic school there. As far as I know, he is not a practising Catholic but he has a deep respect for what the Church teaches, though not always for what some of its members do.

On Tuesday 8 march he wrote a column under the heading We boast about how much alcohol we drink, but if outsiders agree they are called racists. He began, ALL right; so now we've got a Government. Therefore let it hit the ground running, as promised, by ending the hideous and demeaning farce of St Patrick's Day. He goes on to write about the tendency of many Irish people to drink to excess, particularly on St Patrick's Day, giving grounds for the stereotype of the drunken Irishman.

Then he writes, we have already informally established the caricature elsewhere, with the transformation of First Holy Communion into an excuse for girls to be draped with huge Joan Collins wigs, fake tan and make-up.

And the Catholic Church, as broken as a Mormon lap-dancing club in Afghanistan, is speechless at this whore-mongering degradation of the consecration of bread and wine into the living body and blood of Jesus Christ, the redeemer of mankind. And no, I'm not saying that -- it's what the Catholic Church actually believes. Yet it nonetheless allows the parents of a seven-year old girl to dress her up like a trollop in order to celebrate this momentous day, and then to spend the aftermath getting paralytic, courtesy of the special bar-extensions. Men once gave their lives to keep the faith alive: now it's an excuse for alcoholic comas.

I know that some bishops, priests and teachers have tried to curb some of the excesses that go with the celebration of the sacraments but on at least some occasions have been met with hostility by parents who want to put on a show.

The girls in the photo taken some years ago in Holy Family Home, Bacolod City, come from backgrounds of extreme suffering and often of real poverty. The excesses of contemporary Ireland would be beyond their comprehension.

First Communicants, St Patrick's Church, Tokyo (formerly a Columban parish)



A few weeks earlier, on 22 February, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, gave a talk to the Cambridge Group of Irish Studies, at Magdalen College, Cambridge, England on the topic 'KEEPING THE SHOW ON THE ROAD' Is this the future of the Irish Catholic Church?

Here are some extracts from his speaking notes with my emphases added:

I am thus in a situation where I have near monopoly control – at least in theory - of primary education in the Archdiocese of Dublin. What are the results? In Ireland we have a fully State-funded system of Catholic education. We have wonderfully dedicated teachers. There is access for clergy to schools which also look after the programmes of preparation for the sacraments. First Communion and Confirmation are major events in the life of each school. The question is: how far are these events really faith-filled events today? It is above all good Catholic teachers who express their concerns to me in this regard. Admission to the sacraments is not something which is automatically acquired when one reaches a certain class in school.

A few weeks ago a very angry survivor of sexual abuse by a Dublin priest came to me to express his disgust and horror at what the Church had done to him. He wanted nothing more to do with a corrupt Church or any of its agents and listening to his story one could well understand his anger. Leaving me he thanked me and added: “I believe that you will be confirming my little lad later this month”. For many the sacraments are the social events of a civil religion rather than celebrations of the Church.

Young Irish people are among the most catechised in Europe but apparently among the least evangelized. Our schools are great schools; our young people are idealistic and generous, but the bond between young people and Church life ends up being very weak.
This is due to the fact that the religious education and sacramental preparation became over the years more and more assigned almost exclusively to the school. Parents were not formally involved in the education process. The parish was content to leave the task of religious education to competent teachers. Should there be political moves or moves by teachers’ organizations to remove sacramental preparation from schools, then the parish structure of the Church in Ireland would be totally unprepared.

Kevni Myers and Archbishop Martin are, in slightly different ways, saying the same thing about the celebration of the sacraments, especially First Holy Communion. Three or four years ago an Irish judge commented, when someone was looking for a temporary licence to serve alcohol on the occasion of a First Holy Communion celebration, remarked that the sacraments had come to be linked to alcohol. He told of one defendant brought before him who had been driving under the influence of alcohol. The man's excuse was that he was on his way to confession!

There has been a colossal falling away from the Catholic faith in Ireland in the last few decades. I am not sure of the reasons why. Some say the rot had set in long before. That may well be true. Some try to gloss over the reality by speaking of the undoubted generosity of many young people.

Earlier in his talk Archbishop Martin noted: Ireland is today undergoing a further phase in a veritable revolution of its religious culture. Many outside of Ireland still believe that Ireland is a bastion of traditional Catholicism. They are surprised to discover that there are parishes in Dublin where the presence at Sunday Mass is some 5% of the Catholic population and, in some cases, even below 2%. On any particular Sunday about 18% of the Catholic population in the Archdiocese of Dublin attends Mass. That is considerably lower than in any other part of Ireland.

For the second time since I became Archbishop of Dublin there will be no ordination to the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Dublin this year and the coming years indicate only a tiny trickle of new vocations.
 

Holy Family Church, Aughrim St, Dublin, the parish in which I grew up and where I celebrated  my First Mass.

 
In theory, the Archdiocese has about 1,100,000 members, about 84 percent of the population of the area it covers and is by far the largest in terms of numbers of Ireland's 26 dioceses. The parish I grew up in had five priests when I was young and the church used to be packed for Mass on the weekdays of Lent. Now it has three priest,s two of them diocesan, the third a returned missionary who is not in good health. The pastor emeritus also helps out. The parish I now go home to has three priests, including a religious priest in his 70s and a retired parish priest. When I first went home there in 1981 it had four priests, as I recall, all from the diocese and three of them much younger than any of the priests there now. Since last year St Brigid's has had a full-time lay parish pastoral worker, a young man named Kevin Mullally.
 

St Brigid's Church, Blanchardstown, where I go home to now. It is just north of the city of Dublin and has many Filipino parishioners, mainly because of James Connolly Memorial Hospital.

The interior of St Brigid's. When I was young Blanchardstown was essentially a rural village. Now it has become a huge suburb of Dublin. many of its parishioners, like me, grew up in Holy Family Parish.



St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, the son of a deacon and grandson of a priest, was probably like many young people in Ireland today when he was kidnapped and taken there, probably from Wales, at the age of 16. Here is the opening of his Confession with my highlights and [comments]:

1. I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement [vicus] of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. [Was he 'catechised' but not 'evangelised', as Archbishop Martin described the young people of Ireland today?] And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.

2. And there the Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my insignificance and pitied my youth and ignorance. [Maybe it's appropriate that St Patrick's Day always falls during Lent.] And he watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.

St Patrick's Church, Tokyo

May St Patrick, patron of Ireland and of Nigeria, patron of churches in every continent, obtain a renewal of faith for the descendants of those who kidnapped him and to whom he later brought the Gospel. May he also obtain God's very special blessings on the people of Japan who are suffering so much at present.

Lúireach Phádraig  Saint Patrick's Breastplate

Críost liom,                                                 
Críost romham,
Críost i mo dhiaidh,
Críost istigh ionam,

Críost fúm,
Críost os mo chionn,
Críost ar mo lámh dheas,
Críost ar mo lámh chlé,

Críost i mo lúi dom,
Críost i mo sheasamh dom,

Críost i gcrói gach duine atá ag cuimhneamh orm,
Críost i mbéal gach duine a labhráionn liom,
Críost i ngach súil a fhéachann orm,
Críost i ngach cluas a éisteann liom.

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ within me,

Christ below me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right hand,
Christ on my left hand,

Christ in my sleeping,
Christ in my waking,

Christ in the heart of all who think of me,
Christ in the mouth of all who speak of me,
Christ in every eye that looks at me,
Christ in every ear that listens to me.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig faoi mhaise daoibh!
A Happy St Patrick’s Day!













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