Easter Sunday is a very special day of the year. It is a day that has come to mean many things to many people. On this day there are more people in Church all over the world than on any other day of the year, with the possible exception of Christmas.  There are a number of reasons, not least of which is tradition.  Some people attend Church at Easter out of habit, some out of tradition, some out of obligation.  Beneath all of that, my guess is that deep down, deep within us, we believe in the Easter message.  We cannot prove it.  There are days when we doubt it.  Most days we don’t even think about it, but once in a while we come face to face with the stark reality of death. That gives us pause for thought and causes us to think about the meaning of life. Somehow, we cannot escape the conviction that there is more to life than this.  Deep within us burns a seemingly inescapable hope of life after death.  But what is that hope and where does it come from?

I believe that it is rooted in the very way we are made. There are two parts to every one of us.  One part is physical, visible and tangible.  The other part is spiritual, invisible and intangible. The physical part of us belongs entirely to this earth. It is made of the same basic material as the rocks, the soil and the trees. We call this our body.  When we were born we were small and weak. As time goes on we grow bigger and stronger.  Assuming good health we stay at that level for a few years. Then decline begins to set in. We grow weaker as the years go by and eventually we die. This is the natural cycle of physical life. It is part of our nature. The other part of us however is very different.  Our spiritual nature has no predetermined boundaries.  There are no natural limits to the development of our character or to our accumulation of knowledge and insight. From the moment we are born this spiritual part of us begins travelling a road to which there is no visible end. The more we learn, the more we increase our capacity to learn. The more we love, the more we enlarge our ability to love.

Our bodies can live out their entire potential within the framework of time but not our souls. All of us have unlimited spiritual possibilities that would require an eternity to explore. There is more to us than just our physical bodies. The way we are made, our two-fold nature, keeps us believing in the message of Easter.

Happy Easter to one and all. 

Fr John Galvin

Pandemic

A poem by Lynn Ungar

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
 
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
 
Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

 
Lynn Ungar

3/11/20

© http://www.lynnungar.com/poems/pandemic/

These are worrying times for all of us as we are compelled to retreat to the sanctuary of our homes in order to combat the spread of the Covid19 virus and thereby save lives.  It is not easy, even in these early days, but it is something we should and must embrace not simply as an act of civic duty but as an act of faith.  There is no greater blessing than the gift of life and health and God calls on us to do everything we can to protect and safeguard the gift of life, our own life and the life of others.

In the face of an overwhelming sense of dread and worry we can feel easily powerless and vulnerable.  And yet, now more than ever, we need to hold on to a sense of hope. We need to trust in our public health professionals and comply with all the advice they give us.  Yet, even whist staying apart, we need to pull together as a community by being mindful of others who need our help and support.  Just because we cannot meet them does not mean we cannot remain connected.  A simple phone call to a neighbour has never been more needed and may never be more important than it is right now.

We also invite people to unite in and through the power of prayer.  Prayer takes us beyond ourselves and connects to others as well as to our God.  Last week, the day before the schools closed, a child in one of our schools offered me a wonderful image of prayer.  She said that praying for someone is like sending them a virtual hug that lets them know they are loved. What a lovely way of thinking of the power of prayer!  We could all do with a good ‘virtual hug’ right now so let us pray for one another and for all those we love.  Let us pray for those who have already contracted the virus and all those who are vulnerable or worried. Let us pray for all those working in our health services and those working to keep essential services going so that we have what that need.

In accordance with health guidelines the celebration of all public Masses has been suspended in our Churches.  Fr Con and I will continue to celebrate Mass privately each day and will offer it for all of you as well as for all those who are affected or worried, near or far. Our Churches remain open for anyone who wishes to come and say a prayer or light a candle.  We ask those visiting our Churches to observe the social distancing guidelines that have been issued.

Masses are being live-streamed each morning on www.churchservices.tv  for anyone who is so interested.

Please mind yourselves and mind one another.  Stay safe. If there is anything that Con or I can do for you please feel free to give us a call.  

Beannacht Dé orainn go léir.

Fr Seán

I came across the prayer reflection this morning and found that it spoke powerfully to me. I offer it here in the hope that it can do likewise for you.

The whole world over

We struggle the whole world over

faced with a threat that we can neither see nor understand..

We struggle the whole world over

to hold on to hope in the face of uncertainty and anxious fears.

We struggle the whole world over

to cope with restrictions, confinement and isolation.

We ask you Lord to help us to hold each other in thought and prayer

the whole world over -

and to guide us through this present crisis

so that the hope of peoples the whole world over

may be rekindled and together we may prevail.

Make our faith stronger than our fears.

We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen

Many of us will have heard how the Chinese symbol for ‘crisis’ can convey either a sense of threat or a sense of opportunity.  The origin of the word ‘crisis’ in Greek is equally interesting and comes from the Greek word meaning 'to sift'.

Sifting entails shaking out the excesses in order to leave only what is important. That's precisely what a crisis does; it shakes things up until we are forced to hold onto what matters most while the rest falls away. During this time of enforced reflection we may begin to evaluate our lives through completely new eyes and be able to chart our future with the things we consider important, like family, friends and community, being given the consideration they always deserved. The moment when we stand in danger of losing something is also the time when we value it most. Just to shake hands or to give someone a hug will be a novelty when all this is over. The value of living as a community may well be appreciated like never before.

Even in our darkest hour humor will always shine through. One joke spawned in the light of Covid 19 relates to an avid sports fan that was overheard saying, 'Two weeks now and no sports on TV. I notice a lady sitting on the couch across from me. She looks nice. I think she's my wife!

© Fr Jim Cogley, Our Lady’s Island.

These weeks of Lent offer us the opportunity to come face to face with ourselves, taking stock of our own spiritual life and measuring our lives against the yardstick of God’s commandments.

This Sunday’s Gospel finds Jesus in the desert wrestling with issues of right and wrong.  For most of us, perhaps with the exception of those who have visited desert lands, it is difficult to visualise the dry parched earth and the stark landscape of the desert.  No one books a holiday to the desert unless they can be assured that someone has built a resort spa and a five star hotel! The desert also represents a parched place for the heart and the soul.  The desert may be the time when health is broken or promises have been broken.  The desert may be the wasteland of depression, hopelessness or crushed dreams.  Have you ever been there? Are you there now?

Living now, as many of us do, in built up areas, piled high on top of each other in high rise apartments, bombarded day and night with the roar of traffic and the blare of electronic music, we are in danger of losing our desert roots and with that, our inner life.  We need to create a time and space to nurture our spiritual lives.  Lent is such a time.  The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert wilderness and He remained there for forty days.  Like Jesus we too should let the Holy Spirit lead us out into the desert this Lent where we can confront the devils that haunt our lives, and like Christ, wrestle with them and overcome them.                                          Fr John