It wasn’t a promising start. It was a morning of driving rain and misty drizzle as our bus headed through West Cork on the way to Kealkill. Whatever else it was it definitely wasn’t a morning for a pilgrimage. However with a simple prayer we began our 18km walk to Gougane Barra in honour of the feast of St. Finbarr. (more…)
The call of the disciples doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. Jesus, after spending time in the desert reflecting on who he was and what his Father was calling him to do, invites an unusual group of people to follow him. These are the men who are going to help him proclaim good news, to bring healing to the broken and to reveal the presence of a loving God to all. In these days of human resource management and professional recruitment there are criteria that must be fulfilled, references to be checked and qualifications to be earned. To this end one could have asssumed that Jesus would have chosen from among the powerful, the learned and the influential. But our God is a God of surprises and He rarely acts in ways we aniticipate.
So it was with the apostles. In Luke 5 Jesus invites Simon Peter and his companions to put out into deep water, to respond to an invitation that seems pointless. The resulting catch is astonishing and it opens Simon Peter’s eyes to the fact that something extraordinary is happening. Once again Jesus invites Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John, but this time to do something far more profound. Their true vocation is to become fishers of men and women. Jesus wasn’t interested in the external trappings that people valued, as much today as back in his time. What Christ was looking for were people with a heart that was open to God’s call, not when they were ready, but when he needed them.
I’ve only been involved with vocation promotion for less than a year, but it’s been a powerful experience. It’s about journeying with people and listening to their story and how God continues to love, challenge and call them. For some they are thinking of becoming a priest, while others are interested in consecrated religious life. Very often though there is a sense that people feel that they don’t have enough faith; they are not holy enough; or maybe that they are not ready. But if we are going to wait until we ourselves are ready, well that day will most likely never come. Sometimes we need to take the risk, we need to leave our nets behind and we need to follow God’s call. If you look at the life of Peter and how he shaped his world and built up the people of God, it all began with that simple invitation to “Come and follow me.” That’s your invitation too. What’s your answer?
There are places like this all around the world. Whether you visit Glendalough in the east of Ireland, Iona off the coast of Scotland or Santiago in the northwest of Spain there is an ineffable sense of something sacred. It’s not just the location, which is as near heavenly as earth can be, but there’s something else that you can’t really describe. Places like these have been the destination of countless hundreds of thousands of pilgrims for well over fifteen hundred years. (more…)
Earlier this week on RTE, Ireland’s national broadcaster, John Creedon went behind the grille at the Poor Clare Convent in Galway. He was given a unique opportunity to see what happens in the convent and to chat with some of the community. It was a fascinating insight into the lives of the many sisters living lives of contemplation, coupled with creative outreach to the world around them.
It was wonderful to hear the vocation’s stories of the different women. They came from a wide variety of backgrounds and from all around the country. The University of Galway seemed to be an especially good place for vocations! What was most striking was the humanness of their individual stories. Whether they were working for the County Council or studying for a business degree before they entered they were united by a sense of God calling them to do something special. We tend to think that joining a religious congregation is counter cultural today, but it seems that it has always been the case. In an interview with one of the older sisters, John was informed that when she joined her family kept all her old clothes, because they assumed that she’d never last in the convent. You can watch the interview by clicking here. It runs from 36mins 56secs to 45mins 6secs.
Asking the sisters for their prayers and support has always been a strong tradition in the Poor Clares. Their community in Galway has taken it a step further, embracing the internet through the development of a new website. This initiative is in response to Pope John Paul II’s call that monasteries and convents should be schools of prayer and that they would continue to offer to today’s world an authentic experience of God. You can check out their website by clicking here. Judging by its popularity, as well as their Facebook page, it’s clear that people are open to their message and engaged by their spirituality and way of life – perhaps now more so than ever!
Aylesford Friary, in Kent, was alive last weekend with music by the MOBO nominated Jahaziel and Indecisive; workshops on a range of issues relevant to young people today; and a sense of celebration that has to be experienced to be believed. Each year hundreds of young adults gather from all over England and beyond for the Brightlights Festival to celebrate and share their faith. The tone of the three days is always relaxed and there is something for everybody. This year’s theme was 12: Ears that hear, eyes that see, focusing on discipleship. It was about a invitation to journey, beginning with the Feast of Ss Peter and Paul, and listening to where God was calling you in your life.
In addition to all the craic there were gentle and reflective liturgies throughout the three days. In addition to morning and night prayers we celebrated a number of liturgies of the Eucharist, as well as the Sacrament of Reconciliation. These experiences were enhanced by the work of the RISE Drama Group and the composition of original music for the occasion by Edwin Fawcett.
This is all part of what it means to come to Brightlights. There is an atmosphere here that is truly unique. It’s about building community and recalling that each of us have unique vocation, but also a common calling. It reminds us that we have a phenomenal message to share with the world if only we have those ears to hear and eyes to see.  It is an event that the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been delighted to support and hope to continue into the future.
Leah Libresco has caused something of a stir in the US. Most of us in Ireland and England probably never heard of her, but she’s all over CNN at the moment. In the course of her regular atheist blog, ‘Unequally Yoked: a geeky atheist picks fights with her Catholic boyfriend,’ Libresco announced that she is in the process of becoming Catholic. For Libresco this journey of faith has been about finding one’s moral compass and exploring questions of morality.
“I had one thing that I was most certain of, which is that morality is something we have a duty to,” Libresco told CNN in an interview this week, a small cross dangling from her neck. “And it is external from us. And when push came to shove, that is the belief I wouldn’t let go of. And that is something I can’t prove.” “There was one religion that seemed like the most promising way to reach back to that living Truth,” Libresco wrote about Catholicism in her conversion announcement post, which has been shared over 18,000 times on Facebook.
Such a road to Damascus experience has been equally lauded by churches and pilloried by atheists. For some this is an opportunity to crow about the unassailable truth found in religion in general and Catholicism in particular. For others it marks a phase or an illogical shift into the world of self delusion.
For ourselves though it represents a reminder of the richness of the tradition we have in the Church and, most importantly, the compassion of Christ in reaching out to all people. This mustn’t be simply a case of one-upmanship, because I suspect that the number of Christians becoming atheists is greater than the reverse. We need to be able to enter into reasoned and faithful dialogue with others. Above all we need to follow Peter’s command to be “prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have within in you ( 1 Peter 3:15 ).” It’s more about spreading Good News than winning converts. Above all it’s about helping others discover the vocation that God has for each one of us.
Additional reporting available from CNN