Jesuit Knock-out

Michael Paul Gallagher SJ and Conall O’Cuinn SJ spoke recently at two sessions each of the Knock Novena on September 16th and 17th respectively. Each session was attended by approximately 4,000 people – not quite the 5,000 at the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, but the event had some of the efficiency with which Jesus had the apostles organize and feed the crowd. Michael spoke on the theme of ‘Praying Our Vulnerabilities’, referring to both Newman and his own on-going radio-therapy. Conall spoke on ‘The Spirituality of Repentance and Healing’, using the readings in reference to a Swedish film called As it is in Heaven and the present abuse and victim issue. By the time both celebrants returned to the sacristy a professional CD copy of their talk was already for sale in bookshop. The West is awake and the Novena was definitely a Knock-out!

Short notices

• Michael Hanly, now working with Concern in Malawi, has two links with the Jesuits: he attended Belvedere from his native Leixlip, and later spent two years at a Jesuit-run development centre in Malawi. His latest project is teaching bee-keeping in Malawi’s Ngara Forest Reserve: “Bee keeping, he says, does take some training and initial investment for hives, equipment and smokers, but it is a low-risk activity requiring no farm land, no heavy labour, and the groups are meeting a niche in the market, where high prices reflect a high level of demand.”
• (From the Connaught Telegraph) At the annual Maimean pilgrimage in County Mayo, Fr Micheal MacGreil SJ gave a powerfully political as well as spiritual sermon as he prayed for the unemployed. It sounded like a Marxist analysis as he pointed out that work and labour bear little connection with pay and reward: “It was not the employed or the workers that brought the country to its knees, but money being sent out to make more money.” Karl Marx is no longer anyone’s flavour of the month, but he did tell some home truths about labour and its rewards or lack of them.
• Michael Sheil SJ has been appointed acting Rector of Belvedere College while continuing to reside in Clongowes.
• British Jesuit Father Nicholas King has been made one of three Chaplains of Honour of the Sanctuaries during a celebration of Mass at the Grotto in Lourdes by the Catholic Association Pilgrimage. Read the full story at www.jesuit.org.uk/latest/100825.htm

MAGiS Hungary 2010

Sli Eile teamed with Dromore Diocese in Northern Ireland to bring a group of twenty young people to partake in the MAGiS Hungary programme for two weeks in August. Participants were split into multi-national groups for the experiments, and each day consisted of five core elements: morning prayer, the central activity (experiment), liturgy, Magis reflection circle, and the evening Examen of Consciousness. The experience was a powerful one, each person being drawn into the MAGiS (More) of their lives through different aspects of the experiments. The eclectic mix of the Irish group – well-off and poor, and of different levels of education (including two Maynooth seminarians) – enriched the sharing, and it introduced new people to the dynamic of MAGiS as an Ignatian programme for young people seeking to develop their faith, ahead of the MAGiS-World Youth Day event in Spain, August 2011.

Forthcoming events

• 1 September: Gardiner St Church, ‘Translating Newman for Today’ by MP Gallagher SJ; 7.30 pm
• 5 October: Gardiner St. Church: James Kilbane’s concert ‘Country and Gospel’ in aid of the Pioneers; 8 pm
• Wednesdays of October: Adult faith course on ‘The Mystics – teachers of Prayer’ by Brendan Comerford SJ

New era for ‘Jes’

Coláiste Iognáid (the Jes) is entering a new era, symbolised by the construction work which began in early August. There have been many setbacks since this work was first planned, so it was with some relief that the builders were welcomed onto the site, even though there will be noise and disruption. The plan is to pull down the old Jesuit Community building and rebuild the school on its footprint. Firstly, however, the builders had to erect prefabs that would serve as classrooms in time for the new school year. They worked right through the Sunday before school recommenced on Monday, and they had it all ready on time. The school is currently up and running, and Leaving Certificate students this year are expected to do even better than last year’s students, whose results (in the words of Principal Bernie O’Connell) were “solid”.

JESUITICA: The flies of Ireland

Only one Irish Provincial has had a genus of flies called after him. In 1937 Fr Larry Kieran welcomed Fr Hermann Schmitz, a German Jesuit, to Ireland, and he stayed here for about four years, teaching in Tullabeg and doing prodigious research on Irish Phoridae, or flies. He increased the known list of Irish Phoridae by more than 100 species, and immortalised Fr Larry by calling a genus after him: Kierania grata. Frs Leo Morahan and Paddy O’Kelly were similarly honoured, Leo with a genus: Morahanian pellinta, and Paddy with a species, Okellyi. Hermann served Irish entomologists by scientifically rearranging and updating the specimens of Phoridae in our National Museum. He died in Germany exactly fifty years ago.

Faith and Justice contribution

As the summer ends, the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice says farewell to Louise Gallagher who has been working as Social Policy and Research Intern in the Centre for the past nine months. Louise, who is from Galway and holds a Masters degree in Development from Dublin City University, played a key role in several of the Centre’s publications and research projects. Her most recent contribution was the co-authorship of a guidebook called Time to Give? Volunteering Opportunities Within the Criminal Justice Area, a forthcoming publication of the Centre, published by the Messenger Office. Louise is off to Canada next month, travelling and job hunting. We wish her well. The photograph is of Eoin Carroll, Acting Director of the Centre, presenting her with a framed copy of the guidebook as a token of appreciation.

Caught in the web

An interesting project over the last year has been the welcome for a Sunday reflection from people who come to the church in Gardiner St. Never allowing the gospel get stuck in the web, an ad has gone up inviting people to sign up for receiving a reflection on the Sunday gospel, and any news about events in the church and parish. Gradually the group getting this weekly e-mail has grown to almost 200, from many parts of the world. One of the latest requests came from Mumbai, India. Many arrive to an event in the church saying they came through the weekly letter, the parish website (www.gardinerstparish.ie), the Jesuit website or the Logos Missallette. If you would like to receive this reflection by e-mail, send your address to sfx@jesuit.ie.

Welcomes and farewells at feastday Mass

The Mass for the 31 July feast of St Ignatius, at Gardiner St church, celebrated by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, was the occasion for the handover of service from Fr John Dardis (left in photo) to Fr Tom Layden (right) as the Provincial of the Irish Jesuits. A short letter of appointment from Fr General Adolfo Nicolas was read by Fr John, after which the new Provincial responded, asking for prayers for his term of office. He noted that, as well as being ordained in Gardiner St church, he had worked there a few times – as a novice lighting the lamps for the Novena of Grace, and later as the preacher of that novena and of the novena to the Sacred Heart. He was also involved in linking the Gardiner St church with Belvedere College when he worked there as chaplain. The congregation warmly responded to his words and to the congratulations of Archbishop Martin.

Peace in Portadown

AMDG Express seldom features the small Jesuit community in Churchill Park, Portadown, which was started in the days when Garvaghy Road and Drumcree were synonyms for sectarian tensions. Quiet, sustained ecumenical work on both sides has brought real change. Good relations have developed between Jesuits and leaders from the mainline churches who meet regularly. They held joint ceremonies at Christmas, Easter, Church Unity Week and a day of quiet and prayer together. Summer recess was declared at a shared meal hosted by the Catholic parish priest. Michael Bingham SJ devotes a lot of time to the prisoners in Maghaberry, which houses more than 1,000 people, rife with political dramas and personal tragedies. Davy Byrne SJ keeps in touch with the local people especially in times of distress and ill health.

100 years on Leeson Street

The Leeson Street community celebrated its centenary happily. Bruce Bradley, who started St Ignatius’ Day in Farm Street, London, dashed over to give a carefully researched and memorable homily to Jesuits and a houseful of friends at Mass in University Church. Then Fergus O’Donoghue launched the congregation on an SJ-themed tour of Newman House, where, over wine and finger food, Fr Tom Layden introduced the centenary book (pictured here). It was a memorable day, the fruit of excellent planning, and it all came together nicely. To mark the birthday the house has been renovated in a dozen ways, and the Messenger Office rewired. Apart from the book, with its illustrations both of our history and present state, the archives inherit a visual record of the community, in the shape of interviews on camera with each of the brethren.

Versatile Jim

With the death of Brother Jim Sutton last week, the Irish Jesuits lost a quiet man of multiple talents. Born in Glasnevin, and schooled by the Christian Brothers in Scoil Mhuire, Marino, he was bright enough to win a scholarship into the ESB. Having trained as an electrician he entered the Society at 22. That was his most familiar role in the Province: he wired, rewired, fixed and constructed and maintained plant in most of our houses, leaving a precious legacy behind him. His other talents were less well known. He ran with Donore Harriers, played brilliant hurling with St Vincent’s Club, and could bring a party to life with his banjo. In this last year he pulled himself back from a life-threatening sickness to brighten the surrounds of Cherryfield with its brilliant flower beds. He is remembered with great affection.

The Centenary Cluster

Alan McGuckian SJ in Belfast has joined a group of Unionist Protestants looking ahead to the Centenary Cluster – the set of centenary commemorations starting in 1912 with the Ulster Covenant, through the foundation of the Ulster Volunteers and the gun-running in Larne, and the foundation of the Irish Volunteers with the gun-running in Howth, Jim Larkin and the Lock-out, through to the Battle of the Somme, the 1916 Rising, and all the tensions of that extraordinary decade. In the Republic Brian Cowen has urged Irish people to prepare for these centenaries in a way that transcends divisions. As the only Catholic and Nationalist in a group of Protestants with differing perspectives, Alan finds it a moving and significant experience.