Forthcoming events

• 28 September: Manresa 8-day directed retreat. For details, contact:  01 8331352
• 01 October: MAGIS Ireland, 20 Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin 1. First Friday prayer meeting, which will be held monthly. For further information, contact Sylvia Gallagher at 086 6012711
• 05 October: Gardiner Street Church ‘Country and Gospel’: James Kilbane in concert at 8pm. Tickets cost €15 and can be got from the parish office. Tel: 8363411. Proceeds go to the Pioneer Association.
• 5, 12 and 19 October at Manresa: Gerry O’Hanlon SJ will give three talks on A Renewed Vision for the Church. From 8.00pm to 9.30pm. See Short Notices.
• 07 October: ‘Making Space for Faith and Prayer’ will be held in Manresa House. Contact 01 8331352
• 09-10 October: MAGIS Ireland – enjoy an Ecumenical weekend event entitled ‘One Church many traditions’. For further details, contact Noelle Fitzpatrick. Tel: 01 888 0606
• Wednesdays of October: 8 pm, Gardiner Street Church:Brendan Comerford SJ will give a  four-week course  on ‘Teachers of Prayer – the Mystics’
• 14 October 8 p.m. Haddington Road Church: lecture by Fr Joseph McCann: Spirituality and World Religions. 
• 17 October, noon: Custom House Quay, Dublin 2. Peter McVerry SJ will be MC at the launch of the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty: Refreshments afterwards at Liberty Hall
• 11 November 8 p.m. Haddington Road Church: lecture by Clifford Longley: Catholic Social Teaching – irrelevant or The Answer?

“Fire kindling fires….”

Eoghan Keogh, former youth worker with Slí Eile (now Magis Ireland), joined the staff of Belvedere College, Dublin as a school chaplain and pastoral worker this September and his first job was to accompany the students and staff on a trip to Lourdes as part of the annual  Dublin diocesean pilgrimage. “Even though I was hardly in the door when they asked me to travel with them I didn’t have to think twice about it because I knew it would give me a good chance to get to know some of the students I’ll be working with in my time ahead.” The pilgrimage turned out to be an important experience for him as he came to recognise the significance of the Lourdes trip, now in its sixty-first year, for the students, staff and himself. ”I felt priviledged to be part of it and while it was my job that took me there, it really impacted on my own faith.” Read Eoghan’s story of the trip. Read more »

Doing time on criminal justice

Students at the UCD Quinn School of Business were asked last Wednesday: Do you have time to give to others? They turned up for a talk on the value of volunteering, hosted by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice and the UCD Service Learning Programme. The talk, entitled ‘Give Your Time, Use Your Skills, Change Your Perspective’, also marked the college launch of the Jesuit Centre’s new volunteering guidebook publication, Time To Give? Volunteering Opportunities in the Criminal Justice Area. Fr Peter McVerry SJ was the keynote speaker. The guidebook was produced with help from a number of UCD student volunteers, as well as interns at the Centre, and aims to highlight the variety of volunteering opportunities available within organisations working in the area of criminal justice, including Women’s Aid, The Society of St. Vincent DePaul, Business in the Community Ireland and Foróige. See photos here. Read more »

Short notices

• Sean Coughlan SJ has spent an active priestly life in Hong Kong. When he recently visited Crescent, his old school, he was pictured in front of the foundation stone of the school (1971) which incorporated a foundation stone from an earlier (1642) Limerick Jesuit school.  In Sean’s time, sixty years ago, there were just 200 pupils, all boys, yet they won the Munster Senior Schools Rugby cup in his last year.
• Peter  McVerry SJ took issue with Dublin’s Lord Mayor over a proposed ban on begging in the city. Ban professional beggars  by all means, said Peter; but the state’s economic downturn has forced many onto the streets who may have to wait weeks to begin receiving social welfare payments: “It’s better for them to be begging than robbing.”
• Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice have launched a new Facebook page: if you have a Facebook account, why not check out the page and ‘Like’ it.
• In a short series of talks on Tuesday evenings in Manresa (5, 12, 19 October), Gerry O’Hanlon SJ will suggest that the key to the profound renewal to which the Church is being urgently called today is already available to us in the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. The series comes under the title ‘A new vision for our Church’. According to Gerry, Vatican II opens up a vision of the Church that is at once faithful to our deepest traditions and capable of responding to the challenges of our contemporary world. See Manresa’s website.
• Belvedere College students feature in a new two-part series on RTE One TV (Tuesdays 28 September and 5 October at 10.15pm), The Home, helping residents of St Monica’s Nursing Home through their Log-On-Learn programme.

Magis Ireland launched

Magis Ireland (formerly Slí Eile), was launched on Sunday, 26 Sept by  the Irish Jesuit Provincial Tom Layden. He said that Magis Ireland reflects a shift in vision whereby the organisation is now linked into an international  Jesuit ministry to young people all over the world.  A number of young adults associated with Slí Eile over the years, spoke movingly about how the organisation, with its committed staff, had helped them through struggles with their faith. It also gave them the courage and the opportunity to get involved personally in  issues of social justice, resulting in their volunteering work in Zambia, Jamica and Colombia. Padraig Swan, Director of Magis Ireland, said, ” We are about community, providing a safe place for young people to explore personal  issues around faith and justice – hence our motto- ‘more for your life, more for our world’.”

Jesuits commemorate Newman

Irish Jesuits played their part in the beatification Mass of Cardinal Newman  Sunday 19 September. The Jesuit novitiate’s response to the papal visit started “with eleven novices standing in a rainy field at 1.00am on the Sunday morning”.  They were among a group of 850 volunteer stewards for the ceremony and included Niall Leahy, Joseph Keegan,  Ronan McCoy and Gavin Murphy from the Irish Province. Newman author Dermot Mansfield SJ (Heart Speaks to Heart: Veritas) was interviewed on the BBC Sunday Sequence programme before going on to assist RTE’s John Bowman with live television commentary during the beatification Mass. Leon Ó Giolláin SJ (pictured here) interviewed some UCD students who had attended the event, in a special Mass broadcast on RTE TV this Sunday, 26 September. He also gave a homily ‘as gaeilge’ in the University Chapel, Stephen’s Green, Thursday, 16 September. Read it below. Read more »

Soul-friends

On 18 September the large theatre in Gonzaga College was over 90% full for the Anamcharadas seminar: Living Faith in the 21st century. Michael Paul Gallagher SJ presented ‘Where are we now? What hope for faith?’ Language does no justice to this brilliant PowerPoint session: Michael Paul used images and imagination in a search for media to convey the reality of God to a postmodern generation. The theme of John Feehan (pictured here) was ‘Creation as Revelation’ – exploring how our scientific understanding of the natural world has profound implications for Christian belief and practice. The seminar celebrated the 25th birthday of Anamcharadas, whose co-founder, Myles O’Reilly SJ, was the main organiser. Read more about Anamcharadas and Myles – dubbed by his friends God’s Universal Hustler. This may not do him justice. Read more »

A different type of leader

The first module of the Arrupe Leadership Programme took place in the Manresa Jesuit Centre for Spirituality, Clontarf on 24 -25 September. Thirteen participants from all walks of life meet to explore, over the next six months, a different type of leadership formation, based on the insights and tradition of St Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits. Course organisers Paddy Carberry SJ and Mike Drennan SJ say this tradition “is about service and is rooted in respect for each individual as called by God. Its aim is to form leaders anchored in solid values, courageous in making decisions and imbued with a sense of justice.” The course is named after a much-loved Jesuit leader and former Father General, Pedro Arrupe. The chapel in the Spirituality Centre in Manresa was re-dedicated to Fr Arrupe some years ago. The plaque pictured here is on the wall outside.

Limerick Sixes success

Limerick’s first intercultural soccer festival, The Limerick Sixes Soccer World Cup 2010, has been hailed as “a huge success” by organizers, who hope now to make it an annual event. The tournament took place in glorious sunshine last Saturday, 25 September, at Crescent Comprehensive School. Hundreds of soccer players from across Limerick participated, and the soccer games took place to the diverse sounds of Elikya Gospel Choir, Pines Horizon Filipino Band, the South African Women’s Dance Group and the Candeias Capoeira Group, celebrating the growing cultural diversity in Limerick. Eugene Quinn of JRS, one of the organizers, said “We are delighted with the great spirit in which the tournament was played. There was tremendous participation from all 24 teams who hailed from local and migrant communities throughout Limerick City and County and beyond. It was a fantastic sporting and family day out.” Read more »