Changing the inner programming

Dick McHugh SJ and Myles O’Reilly SJ are giving a number of courses on Gestalt and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) in Milltown during June and July 2008. Dick, who has worked and lived in India since 1951, along with Tony DeMello SJ, developed NLP to help people with their psychological and spiritual development. Dick has been giving this course in Milltown since 1992, and in recent years with Myles as co-leader. There are three courses on offer:

1. Gestalt-living in the present, 4-9 July
2. NLP Master Practitioners Course, Part 1, 4-8 & 12-16 June
3. NLP Master Practitioners Course, Part 2, 19-23 & 26-30 June.

For more information contact: Myles O’Reilly SJ, (00353) 1 4972943 (X216), mylesforeilly@eircom.net.

Blessed Columba Marmion Commemorated

Donal Neary SJ and Pat Coyle of the Jesuit Commuication Centre were guests at a special commemoration ceremony on Sunday April 6, to mark the 150th anniversary of Blessed Columbia Marmion in St Paul’s Church, Arran Quay, the church where he was baptised. Columba Marmion went to school in Belvedere before becoming a diocesean priest and, finally, a Benedictine monk. He was renowned in his day for his great sense of humour and his spiritual wisdom. A film of his life first broadcast in 1965 on RTE was shown on Sunday night, and Fr Columba McCann from Glenstal gave a talk about Dom Columba’s life and spirituality. Bishop Eamon Walshe, himself a former Belvedere pupil, was the main celebrant of the mass which followed. Fr Jim Caffrey, rector of St Paul’s, gave the homily. Columba Marmion was beatified by Pope John Paul  II in 2000 and his cause for canonization is in its final stages.

We remember in our prayer

• Fr Tony Farren, facing an operation in a Galway hospital
• Br Joe Osborne, in hospital recovering from an operation
• The sick in Cherryfield

New beginnings on Inis Oírr

Eleven young adults were on Inis Oírr in Galway Bay for the Easter Triduum as part of a joint initiative between Slí Eile and the Galway Spirituality Centre. This pilot retreat on the theme of “new beginnings” involved a pilgrimage to different sites on the island, a dawn resurrection mass, and group reflections. A poem from John O’Donohue’s Benedictus was used to reflect the ‘beginnings’ theme: your courage kindled, and out you stepped onto new ground. To see photos of the retreat: Web Album. The next event for young adults aged 18-35, is a Film and Pizza Evening, April 15, 7.30pm, at the Jesuit Spirituality Centre, 6 Ely Place (Sea Road), Galway. Contact: galway@jesuit.ie, 00353 91 523707. One of the pilgrims, Kieran Hayes, has written a personal account of the pilgrimage experience, which you can read below. Read more »

Stations of the Cross on Sacred Space

Sacred Space presents a set of Kenyan-themed Stations of the Cross that are suitable for individual reflection and prayer. Both the images and the words are challenging and topical as they offer Kenyan perspectives in the art and in the consideration of climate change. Adapted from Trócaire’s 2008 Lenten Resources, the paintings accompanying each station are from Lodwar Cathedral. Having become aware of the political and social unrest in the East African country, we are now invited to pray in solidarity with the people of Kenya. Read more »

Spirituality Centre in Limerick gets busy

Parents from the Crescent recently attended the Jesuit Centre of Spirituality in Limerick for a retreat in daily life. Liam O’Connell SJ and Dermot Murray SJ each directed a number of participants. Another such retreat will be organised in May. Also, Dermot Murray and Charlie Davy animated an afternoon of personal prayer, group-sharing and Mass, on the theme of being ‘ambassadors for Christ’, for a group of six people on Sunday 10th. This was the third meeting of this group since last December. The group hopes to expand to about twelve members over the next few months. Next meeting is scheduled for 19 March.

Slow down this Lent!

Manresa is holding a series of evenings of reflection this Lent, starting on Tuesday 5 February, from 7.30pm to 9.00pm. It’s about “Making time for God” during the busy weeks of the Lenten season and “Exploring God’s loving presence”. The series continues every Tuesday until the Tuesday of Holy Week (March 18), and it will be directed by Ciary Quirke SJ. People are invited to turn up for “any one evening, or all seven, as you wish”. For more details, email Manresa or phone 01-8331352.

Church unity week

This year is the centenary of the January Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Among the events organised for the week is the Morning Service programme on RTÉ, 27 January, at 11.15am, which will be led by staff and students from the Irish School of Ecumenics. The Week in Dublin opens with an ecumenical service in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral at 8pm on Friday, January 18, 2008. The preacher will be Archbishop Alan Harper, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh. Also, Tom Layden SJ has been invited to preach at the morning service in Knock Methodist Church, Belfast, on Sunday 20 January.
Read more »

Ignatian preparation

The end of January is the closing date for Magis 08 applications. This is the Ignatian pre-programme to World Youth Day, which takes place in Sydney, Australia next July. Organised by various Ignatian congregations, it includes projects in Cambodia, Indonesia and India among others. Patricia O’Connor of Slí Eile is the Irish coordinator and will lead the Magis group to Sydney.

A difficult experience of priesthood

Shortly before he passed away, Des O’Brien SJ wrote for Spirituality, a Dominican publication, this affecting meditation on living as a priest while knowing that he had an inoperable condition.

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Having spent just under forty years working in Zambia as a missionary priest, I came home to Ireland in September 2005 on three months scheduled leave to discover I had inoperable lung cancer. This in itself was quite a shock. But when I began to lose my voice in the hospital just a few days after the diagnosis because of damage already done to the nerves attached to the vocal chords by damage done by the tumour I became quite alarmed. Read more »

Asking for trouble!

Andrew Bates, a former Belvedere student, is taking a 1990 Toyota Starlet across 10,000 miles of every kind of terrain, as he and his team make their way to Mongolia. They hope to raise €5,000 for a number of charities.

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In December of 1995 I found myself hanging out the open door of a crowded train as it made its way across a strange countryside full of palm trees and people making fuel from cow dung by the side of the tracks. I was 17 years old and had spent the past two weeks in Calcutta as part of the first group of 5th year students from Belvedere College who had travelled to India to work in local schools and experience another side of this world. Read more »

Is it still relevant to have devotion to saints?

Fergus O’Donoghue was on the panel of RTE Radio’s discussion programme Spirit Moves on March 18. Prompted by the Feast of St Patrick, the discussion concerned devotion to saints. Here are some excerpts from the lively exchange.

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18th March 2007: On this week’s programme, the day after the feast of St Patrick, Susan McReynolds, together with broadcaster, Mary Kennedy, Senator David Norris, and Jesuit historian, Fr. Fergus O’Donoghue examined what relevance the saints have in people’s lives today. Read more »

The woman at the well

In an article first published in The Irish Catholic, Brendan Comerford finds lenten inspiration in the Gospel story of the Samaritan woman at the well outside Sychar.

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This year 2007, we’re listening to the scripture readings for Year C in the Sunday Lectionary, yet the liturgical instructions tell us that for The Third Sunday of Lent we can use the readings for Year A if we wish! I can never resist the temptation to do so since the Gospel reading for The Third Sunday of Lent, Year A, is the marvellous story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-42). Read more »