Thirst for Scripture

A four-evening course on the Gospels of Mathew, Mark and Luke was the most widely attended of any adult faith evenings in Gardiner Street. In co-operation with Iona Rd parish, the series, given by Fr Brendan Comerford SJ, was planned through both Parish Priests and Parish Councils. The evenings focussed on the context of the culture of the time and the readership of each gospel. A follow-up is planned for Advent (a talk on the Infancy Gospels) on Tuesday Dec 16th at 11.30 a.m. as part of a mid-morning min-retreat for Advent. A further session on St John’s gospel is planned for Lent.

Spirituality in Chicago

Michael O’Sullivan SJ, who teaches spirituality in the Milltown Institute, gave a paper in Chicago, USA, on ’Teaching Spirituality Well’ to the International Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality, and accepted the job of organizing and running the opening day of next year’s meeting of the Society in Montreal. While in Chicago Michael met Gustavo Gutierrez, the founder of liberation theology, who at the age of 80 gave an inspiring and energetic address on ’40 Years after Medellín’. See full report below. Read more »

Prayer and money worries

The feedback from Sacred Space can be astonishing, a measure of where people’s concerns lie. In the last three months the Chapel of Intentions has shown many more Sacred Spacers asking for prayers because of lost jobs, evictions and bankruptcies. There was even bigger feedback to a reflection last month on how the financial turmoil had affected prayer. See “Something to pray about” below.

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Short Notices

• 160 people attended the pastoral conference in Milltown on 8-9 November, the tenth event celebrating the Ruby Jubilee of the Milltown Institute. Timothy Radcliffe OP (pictured) gave a memorable address.
• All who have lived in Emo, especially Jesuits, are invited to visit the house on Wednesday, 19 November. There will be concelebrated Mass (in the Round Room) at 4 p.m., and a guided tour of the house.
• Derek Cassidy celebrated the RTE radio Mass on 9th November from Belvedere College Chapel, and commemorated all the dead of two wars, but especially the 47 boys and two teachers (Frs John Glynn and Willie Doyle) from Belvedere who died in the first World War.
• The annual memorial Mass for deceased Jesuit missionaries will be offered in the Community Chapel, Milltown Park, at 3.30 on Sunday, 16 November. Jesuits and their families are all welcome.
• John McDade SJ, Principal of Heythrop College, will speak in Haddington Road Church on “Catholics and Jews: the new relationship since Vatican II”: at 8 p.m. on Thursday, 13 November, in a series of lectures organised by lay people in the parish, several of them former Jesuit students.

In the news

The media this week have covered at least three Jesuit items besides Tony O’Riordan’s advocacy of female offenders, detailed above. The Irish Catholic featured John Dardis’s tribute to the two Jesuits murdered in Moscow. The Enniscorthy Echo listened to Elizabeth Foley alerting congregations to the continuing vitality of the Sacred Heart Messenger – Elizabeth is on its marketing staff. Finally Belvedere’s commemoration of the 1918 Armistice was noticed not just by RTE’s coverage of the Mass on 9 November, but by radio host Pat Kenny, who welcomed Oliver Murphy and two of his Transition Year students to his radio programme on Armistice Day.

Commemorating slain Jesuits

A memorial service will be held in Novosibirsk on 29 November for the Otto Messmer SJ and Viktor Betancourt SJ, the two Jesuit priests who were brutally murdered in Moscow last week. The homily was given by Bishop Joseph Werth SJ, Bishop of the Diocese of the Transfiguration of the Lord and President Russian Bishops’ Conference. The full text of the homily is below. Read more »

Short Notices

• As the picture shows, the bulldozers finally tackled the old Cherryfield on Monday, 3 November.
• This Friday and Saturday, 7-8 November, the Milltown Institute will host an International Pastoral Conference with Dr Timothy Radcliffe OP as the keynote speaker, on: “Who do you say that I am?”
• Speaking to Fr Provincial, John Dardis, this morning, 4 November, Gerry Clarke said he moved back to Goma yesterday after having spent a number of days over the Rwandan border on account of the danger from rebel troops near Goma. Goma is calm now, he said; the ceasefire is holding but the situation is still fragile. There is a strong presence of police and UN forces in the town at present to ensure security. “It’s lovely to know you are thinking of us,” he said.
• There will be a special welcome for Jesuits at the Mass in University Church on 11 November (6.30 p.m.) to mark the 150th anniversary of the completion of John Henry Cardinal Newman’s service to Irish education.
• Michael J. Kelly SJ has been asked and agreed to serve as a member of the International Advisory Board for the Combat Diseases of Poverty (CDP) consortium based at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
• The Gardiner Street Gospel Choir provided backing vocals for two tracks to the new CD from Luca Bloom, called ‘Eleven Songs’. They were recorded in the Ignatian Room, at the back of Gardiner Street Church.
• Niall O’Neill, Senan Timoney, Brendan Duddy and John Dunne, whom we prayed for in their sickness, are all happily back with their communities.

Ireland funds African projects

The Jesuit Mission Office works hard to raise funds for a variety of projects in different parts of the world, and recently Murt Curry and his colleagues in the office were rewarded. Four more projects were approved by Misean Cara, bringing the total project money approved in 2008 to 560,000 euro. Our picture shows JVI volunteers Dermot and Josephine, who are helping Br Paul Desmarais SJ with an ECO-Housing and Metal Workshop project in Kasisi, Zambia. Read Murt’s report below. Read more »

The Pilgrims

Seven Jesuits have just returned from a long-planned pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Donal Neary and Derek Cassidy had gone ahead to prepare the way for them, checking on places and transport. The picture shows Charlie Davy, Peter Sexton, Derek Cassisy and John Guiney offering Mass at Dalmanutha, where Jesus prepared breakfast for his disciples after the Resurrection. Read Donal’s account below: Read more »

Canon of Shyogwe

AMDG Express inflitrated the Synod of Dublin and Glendalough to get this picture of a now-familiar face, Ken Rue, financial director of the Messenger. Ken is studying for ministry in the Church of Ireland, and is a Canon of Shyogwe in Rwanda, which gives him a special link with his pictured companion: Fidele, Rwandan by birth but for many years now an Irish citizen and a member of the Irish Jesuit Refugee Council (he fled to Goma during the Rwandan genocide).

Making news

Three Jesuits were in the national news last week. John Dardis, on RTE’s News at One, talked to Sean O’Rourke about the two Jesuits murdered in Moscow. Edmond Grace has held his line in an exchange of letters to the Irish Times. Richard Leonard (pictured right) from Australia gave radio interviews on the dangers of internet addiction, to Newstalk and to Aonghus MacAnally on the Mooney programme. Richard also gave excellent 3-minute reviews of four important films, on camera for JCC – they will appear presently.

Belvedere remembers the Armistice

On 9th November at 10 a.m. in the Belvedere College Chapel, Fr Derek Cassidy SJ will celebrate a Mass to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice, and to remember the 47 former pupils and two teachers from Belvedere who lost their lives in the First World War: to be broadcast live on RTE radio. Some Transition Year students will experience what it must have been like to live in the trenches, as part of a wider commemoration. See report below. Read more »

Jim Hayes SJ

AMDG Express has saluted two of the Irish Jesuits working in Britain: Kieran Barry-Ryan and (post-humously) Jack Donovan. Jack’s near-contemporary, Jim Hayes, is living in Liverpool, but for many years he has hardly featured on the horizons of Province activities despite a remarkably active priestly life. The photo shows Jim with his ordination class. Click on ‘Read more’ below for Paul Andrews’ report on a recent conversation with Jim. Read more »