The Course is Ended

And so our course for this autumn has drawn to a close. I would like to thank everyone for their participation and assistance in offering the course at the Parish Centre, Blessington. At the final session last night a number of participants received a Certificate of Completion, having participated for the 5 evenings of the course. All others received an acknowledgement of the sessions they had attended and credits towards a Certificate in the next course.

It has been wonderful to meet and share faith and reflections in Blessington. I wish to thank Fr. Tim for inviting us into the parish and who supported the venture, offering encouragement and direction. Special thanks must go to Ann, Betty, Fiona and everyone in the Office who gave tremendous assistance in so many different ways, from the survey at the start to the Awards at the very end. If I have ommitted anyone, please accept our special thanks too.

This has been a pilot project and we all have learned much in the course of the past five weeks. Please God we will be back in Blessington again in the not too distant future. Fr. Tim is thinking of Lent 2010 already! Now there's forward planning for you.

Godbless and keep you always. Hopefully we can all answer a little more clearly now the question posed by the course title - "Where is your God?" -

Fr. Joe Cullen, Mrs Eileen O'Brien, Fr. John Littleton, Ms. Christine Clear

This Week: Wednesday Oct. 28th 2009: Bringing it All Back Home

And so we come to the final week of our course "Where is your God?"   The title for this Wednesday's evening is "Bringing it all back home" and the session will be guided by Joe Cullen, a Dominican priest from The Priory Institute in Tallaght Village.   

The evening will look back at the various themes explored over the past 5 weeks and integrate them so that we can, in a very practical way, bring our explorations to everyday life.   It is not easy to be a Catholic in todays' world.  Indeed, even to remain Christian can be a challenge at times, given the pressures, disillusionment and the lack of support in society for a life that is built on love and the service of God and our neighbor.  

The question this course has posed - "Where is Your God" can be understood in two ways.  One way is to see it as a question posed by others to believers in a world shot through with "a multitude of 'over-whelmings'."   In the face of the suffering and pain of life it is easy to argue that life has no meaning, it is "a tale told by an idiot" as Hamlet says in Shakespeare's play. 

Another way of understanding the question is to apply it to ourselves as we search for meaning and value in our own lives.   What do we hold most precious, most desirable, most worthy of our time and efforts, most certain to give us enduring happiness every day?   Is it money, property, power, fame, praise and popularity?  What is it that we hold most dear?   What is "God" to me in me life?   Who is God as far as I have allowed God to impinge on my life?

This second question also relates to our personal experience of tragedy and loss when we are brought face to face with the unfathomable mystery of why we see our loved ones suffer and go through 'the valley of darkness' ourselves?    What will help mend broken hearts, give meaning to a death, console us and give us hope and the strength to carry on?

God is Mystery and Mystery invites us in to share in that holiest and most sacred of places; where the love of God meets the love in us.   It is there that the Holy Spirit lives that reassures us that in the midst of darkness, we are not alone.  Christ has shown us that this is true.  And that even in the darkest hour there lies the spark of a brighter day.

This Week: Wednesday Oct. 21st - Spirituality in the Ireland of Today

Christine Clear has worked extensively as a lecturer, facilitator and administrator in the area of spirituality. She is a graduate of Milltown Institute, Trinity College and D.I.T. She has spent many years giving workshops on spirituality, specialising in human and divine love in third-level institutions, schools, prisons, workplaces, and spirituality and community centres. She has set up and is at present running The Living Room ( at the corner of Clarendon St. and Coppinger Row) a place of silence for the Carmelite Community in Dublin’s city centre.

Having worked in the main through spiritual conversation and dialogue, Christine is at this time working rather through silence and thereby enabling people to listen to themselves, to others, and to God. She has found this praxis very rewarding.

Peace of Mind: Power of Silence

(photo -Joe Cullen)

Silence is much more than the absence of sound; it is the autonomous pre-existing entity in which God creates. It is the source to which all words return to attain true meaning.

Silence is the womb of the tangible world. In the Christian Biblical version of Creation, God 'spoke' and the world came into being. With the pronouncing of the Word, speech became primary, but silence remained primordial.

The heart of Christian meditation is to return to this primordial state of being. It is a journey from

words into the creative word of God; this Word is enveloped by silence. By its very nature, silence is unexploitable, often purposeless and for that reason very frightening.

The power of silence is its ability to mediate the irreconcilable. Differences can coexist without tension because silence is non-judgmental. In an all-absorbing silence, differences travel towards one another with no need to swallow or disintegrate or demolish each other. Silence frees us from expectations so that we can understand and resolve a myriad irreconcilable elements.

Silence has also the power to help us realise how unrealistic our sense of self-importance is. Words are often inadequate to express what we want to say. It is silence that puts an end to our self-delusion, to our belief that we could drown the voices of dissent by our logic and "explanations".

Most of all, silence opens the door to forgiveness. Spoken words determine relationships for good or for ill, for love or for hate. But words once spoken sink into the oblivion from which they came. This 'forgetting' opens the door to forgiveness.

It is not, however, as if the word simply disappears into the general hubbub only to pop up again at some unexpected and unbidden moment. Rather, by choosing to 'let go' we allow the suppleness of silence to reshape the word's sharp edges. Forgiveness is thus a 'letting go' of what has been 'determined' by our speech. Silence is the deep expanse in which this letting go takes place. Meditation allows us to make new beginnings.

Ironical as it may seem, silence is the foundation of all interpersonal communication. When we communicate with each other, we are often unaware that silence sits in at every conversation. Silence is the third speaker in a conversation. That is why the listener receives more that just the words that the speaker has given. The more we are aware of this, the more we will speak from this silence.

What transpires then in a conversation is between the silence of 'the one' and the silence of 'the other'. What moves back and forth between people is not words but silence. When this happens, we no longer notice any opposition between ourselves and the community and instead of standing against each other, we face the silence together. The journey into silence strengthens community bonding.

The repetition of a word, an apparently 'useless' activity - Ma-ra-na-tha in the tradition of Christian Meditation - allows journeying back into the word. It is a journey from word to silence. The 'daily practice' of Christian Meditation allows us to experience these qualities of silence first hand.

Silence is not the same as not talking. Rather, it is a deep presence within a person, a presence that shapes not only every word but also every movement and every gesture. Such an abiding presence guides a person to a life that is beyond the word and ultimately beyond himself. Truly the journey into silence through meditation is one that fosters non-violence and helps build community togetherness.

This Week: Wed Oct. 14th at 8.00 pm - "Dust on the Bible, rust on the soul."

Fr. John Littleton is a very well known priest, both here and in the U.K. As former President of the National Conference of Priests of Ireland, he is often called on to comment or a offer a view on current issues concerning the churches here. He is Head of Distance Education - for a programme in theology studied by lay people in their homes through the distant learning method. Adult learners from all over the country are currently involved in this programme. It is possible to obtain a Certificate or a Diploma and even a Degree in theology through The Priory Institute.

A priest of the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, Fr. John is in constant demand as a retreat leader, preacher of missions, novenas and days of prayer. He writes weekly columns for several newspapers and has published three books on theology and Roman Catholicism in the 21st century. His main area of expertise lies in the study of the Scriptures. A man of wisdom and great humour, we are delighted to have him to lead the third evening of our course on Wednesday Oct 14th at 8.00 pm. See you there!

What is the Bible?

The Bible is a collection of writings which the Church has solemnly recognised as inspired.

It is a fact of history that in the time of Christ the Jews were in possession of sacred books, which differed widely from one another in subject, style, origin and scope, and it is also a fact that they regarded all such writings as invested with a character which distinguished them from all other books. This was the Divine authority of every one of these books and of every part of each book. This belief of the Jews was confirmed by Our Lord and his apostles; for they supposed its truth in their teaching, used it as a foundation of their doctrine and intimately connected with it the religious system of which they were the founders. The books thus approved were handed down to the Christian Church as the written record of Divine revelation before the coming of Christ.

How did we get the Bible?

The truths of Christian revelation were made known to the apostles either by Christ himself or by the Holy Spirit. They constitute what is called the Deposit of Faith, to which nothing has been added since the apostolic age. Some of the truths were committed to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and have been handed down to us in the books of the New Testament. Written originally to individual Churches or persons, to meet particular necessities, and accommodated as they all were to particular and existing circumstances, these books were gradually received by the universal Church as inspired, and with the sacred books of the Jews constitute the Bible.

In one respect, therefore, the Bible is a twofold literature, made up of two distinct collections which correspond with two successive and unequal periods of time in the history of humankind. The older of these collections, mostly written in Hebrew, corresponds with the many centuries during which the Jewish people enjoyed a national existence, and forms the Hebrew, or Old Testament, literature; the more recent collection, begun not long after Our Lord's ascension, and made up of Greek writings, is the Early Christian, or New Testament, literature.

Yet, in another and deeper respect, the Biblical literature is pre-eminently one. Its two sets of writings are most closely connected with regard to doctrines revealed, facts recorded, customs described, and even expressions used. Above all, both collections have one and the same religious purpose, one and the same inspired character. They form the two parts of a great organic whole the centre of which is the person and mission of Christ. The same Spirit exercised his mysterious hidden influence on the writings of both Testaments, and made of the works of those who lived before Our Lord an active and steady preparation for the New Testament dispensation which he was to introduce, and of the works of those who wrote after him a real continuation and striking fulfilment of the old Covenant.

The Bible, as the inspired record of revelation, contains the word of God; that is, it contains those revealed truths which the Holy Spirit wishes to be transmitted in writing. However, all revealed truths are not contained in the Bible; neither is every truth in the Bible revealed, if by revelation is meant the manifestation of hidden truths which could not otherwise be known. Much of Sacred Scripture came to its writers through the channels of ordinary knowledge, but its sacred character and Divine authority are not limited to those parts which contain revelation strictly so termed. The Bible not only contains the word of God; it is the word of God. The primary author is the Holy Spirit, or, as it is commonly expressed, the human authors wrote under the influence of Divine inspiration.

The Bible as Literature

The Bible is plainly a literature, that is, an important collection of writings which were not composed at once and did not proceed from one hand, but rather were spread over a considerable period of time and are traceable to different authors of varying literary excellence. As a literature, too, the Bible bears throughout the distinct impress of the circumstances of place and time, methods of composition, etc., in which its various parts came into existence, and of these circumstances careful account must be taken, in the interests of accurate scriptural interpretation.

As a literature, our sacred books have been transcribed during many centuries by all manner of copyists to the ignorance and carelessness of many of whom they still bear witness in the shape of numerous textual errors, which, however, but seldom interfere seriously with the primitive reading of any important dogmatic or moral passage of Sacred Scripture.
In respect of antiquity, the Biblical literature belongs to the same group of ancient literature as the literary collections of Greece, Rome, China, Persia, and India. Its second part, the New Testament, completed about 100 AD, is indeed far more recent than the four last named literatures, but it is older by ten centuries than our earliest modern literature. As regards the Old Testament, most of its contents were gradually written within the nine centuries which preceded the Christian era, so that its composition is generally regarded as contemporary with that of the great literary works of Greece, China, Persia, and India.

The Bible resembles these various ancient literatures in another respect. Like them it is fragmentary, i.e. made up of the remains of a larger literature. Of this we have abundant proofs concerning the books of the Old Testament, since the Hebrew Scriptures themselves repeatedly refer us to more ancient and complete works as composed by Jewish annalists, prophets, wise men, poets, and so on (cf. Numbers 21:15; Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18; 1 Chronicles 29:29; 1 Maccabees 16:24; etc.). Statements tending to prove the same fragmentary character of the early Christian literature which has come down to us are indeed much less numerous, but not altogether wanting (cf. Luke 1:1-3;Colossians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 5:9). But, however ancient and fragmentary, it is not to be supposed that the biblical literature contains only few, and these rather imperfect, literary forms.

Of course the widest and deepest influence that has ever been, and ever will be, exercised upon the minds and hearts of human beings remains due to the fact that, while all the other literatures are but human productions, the Bible is indeed "inspired of God" and, as such, especially "profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice" (2 Timothy 3:16).

Light catches the fallen tree

photo: Joe Cullen

This Week: Wed. Oct 7th 2009 : Prayer

Eileen O' Brien is from north county Dublin, lives in Co. Cavan and is married to David. A former full time member of the retreat team at Manresa,the Jesuit retreat centre, Eileen worked as a secondary school teacher in the North of Ireland and was a Prayer Guide at Knock Shrine, Co. Mayo. Returning to formal studies in 2003, she was awarded a Masters Degree in spirituality from the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy.
Eileen is also a qualified Spiritual Director and assists with directed retreats as well as giving courses in adult religious education. Eileen will lead this week's session in our adult religious education course "Where is your God" on the theme of prayer. The title of the session is "Only a heartbeat away".

Sr. Wendy Beckett - Artist and Spiritual Guide

The following is taken from Sister Wendy Beckett's book "Sister Wendy Beckett on Prayer"

Do you want to pray?

One year- I forget the details- the Lenten sermons at St Patrick’s in New York were given by a famous Jesuit who took prayer for his theme. He was much admired, but the compliment that stuck in his memory was that of an old priest who seemed to regard the very number and length of his sermons as constituting, per se, a sort of brilliant tour de force. ‘Because as you know, Father’, he said, (dropping his voice conspiratorially) ‘prayer’s the simplest thing out.’ I hope the famous Jesuit did know, because the simplicity of prayer, its sheer, terrifying uncomplicatedness, seems to be the last thing most of us either know or want to know.

We can do anything except actually praying

It is not difficult to intellectualise about prayer. Like love, beauty and motherhood, it quickly sets out eloquence aflow. It is not difficult, but it is perfectly futile. In fact, those glowing pages on prayer are worse than futile; they can be positively harmful. Writing about prayer, reading about prayer, talking about prayer, thinking about prayer, longing for prayer and wrapping myself more and more in these great cloudy sublimities that make me feel so aware of the spiritual: anything rather than actually praying. What am I doing but erecting a screen behind which I can safely maintain my self esteem and hide away from God?

What do you really want?

Ask yourself: what do I really want when I pray? Do you want to be possessed by God? Or, to put it the same question more honestly, do you want to want it? Then you have it. The one point Jesus stressed and repeated and brought up again is that, ‘Whatever you ask the Father, He will grant it to you.’ His insistence on faith and perseverance are surely other ways of saying the same thing: you must really want it, it must engross you. Wants that are passing, faint emotional desires that you do not press with burning conviction, these are things you do not ask ‘in Jesus’ name’; how could you? But what you really want, ‘with all your heart and soul and mind and strength’, that Jesus pledges himself to see that you are granted.

He is not talking only, probably not even primarily, of ‘prayer of petition’, but of prayer. When you set yourself down to pray, what do you want? If you want God to take possession of you, then you are praying. That is all prayer is.

God wants to love us and give us God's self

The astonishing thing about prayer is our inability to accept that if we have need of it, as we do, then because of God’s goodness, it cannot be something that is difficult. Accept that God is good and that your relationship with Him is prayer and you must conclude that prayer is an act of the utmost simplicity. Yet so many people seem to feel that there is some mysterious method, some way in that others know, but they do not. ‘Knock and it shall be opened to you’: they seem to believe that it needs some sort of Masonic knock and their own humble tapping will go unnoticed. What kind of God thinks of tricks, lays down arcane rules, makes things difficult? God wants to love us and to give us Himself. He wants to draw us to himself, strengthen us, and infuse His peace. The humblest, most modest, almost imperceptible rubbing of our fingers on the door, and it flies open.

Nothing more to say

Prayer is the last thing we should feel discouraged about. It concerns nobody except God- always longing only to give Himself to us in love- and my own decision. And that too is God’s, ‘who works in us to will and to effect’. In a very true sense there is nothing more to say about prayer, ‘the simplest thing out.’

Questions for Reflection

What does the prayer mean for me?

Who is God for me?

What does God see, when God is looking at me?

Does anything I have read above resonate with me and my experience of prayer?

Margaret Silf - Come to rest in God

The following is an extract from Margaret Silf's book TASTE and SEE: Adventuring into Prayer

Prayer is God’s initiative, not our achievement. It is about listening, more than about talking. Prayer is more about receiving, more than about asking for. It is about coming to rest in the direction of God.

St Teresa of Avila and Prayer

St Teresa compared prayer in a person’s life to watering a garden. Just as there are many methods of watering a garden, there were many forms of prayer. As a child she liked to pray the rosary, which she was taught by her mother. As a young person she found that vocal or saying prayers helped her to focus her attention on God.

She often found later in life that to begin reading a book helped her to focus her attention on God. She loved nature and she found that contemplation on any one of the beautiful things of nature helped her to focus on the power and the grandeur of God. She read the lives of the saints and had a particular devotion to Mary Magdalene, Martha and Mary, and Joseph.

The Catechism - Prayer

Catechism ; No.2559

‘Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.’ But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or ‘out of the depths’ of a humble and contrite heart… Only when we humbly acknowledge that ‘we do not know how to pray as we ought’ are we ready to receive the gift of prayer’.

Be Still in Prayer

The following is an extract from "God in all Things" the sequel to "God of Surprises", by Gerald Hughes SJ

No one is able to pray! Prayer is a surrender of our whole being to God, so that God may be the God of mercy and compassion to us and through us. Too much conscious effort can kill prayer! Prayer is about letting the Spirit of God pray in us. The Spirit who lived in Jesus, and raised him from the dead, now lives in us.


Prayer is about being still, so that we can become more perceptive and more responsive to God. In prayer ‘Heart speaks to heart.’ God, who is love, speaks to us, and we speak from the heart to God. Our prayer does not have to be articulate, well phrased or eloquent, but it must be sincere, honest and without pretence. Prayer may be groans and grumbles; it may be ‘ahs and ‘ohs’, or it may be wordless; but it must be ‘me’. Each person is unique in the sight of God and for this reason there can be no single way of praying. The simper the prayer, the more honest and heartfelt, the better it will be. The Psalmist tells us to ‘Be still, and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10)

Stillness is important in prayer so that we can become more aware and sensitive to the promptings of God within us. The English cartoonist Calum specialised in God cartoons. God was usually portrayed as a tubby figure, resting on a cloud, his head haloed, hands joined on his large tummy. He would be looking down on earth and commenting on what he saw and heard. In one cartoon God is observing choirs down below singing hymns of praise and he remarks: “I’ve had a fair amount of adulation in my day’” During Church services I often imagine Calum’s God addressing the congregation and saying, ‘ For heaven’s sake, shut up and stop trying so hard; be quiet and listen for a change’!

To what kind of God do we pray? Our idea of God is derived from our life experience. For those of us who are brought up with an awareness of God, this usually means that the idea comes first from our parents, then from siblings, teachers and preachers. We tend to create a God in our own image and likeness, or in that of our Church or our nation. We can therefore have some very fearsome images of God! In this way we have managed for centuries to justify killing one another, each side in war claiming to be fighting ‘Pro Deo et Patria’- ‘For God and Country’. This same habit of creating God in our own image and likeness has also enabled us to foster suspicion and hatred against people of other faiths or of none, and against Christians of different denominations. We convince ourselves that we are being loyal servants of God in attacking God’s ‘enemies’ and suspecting the worst in them.

We need to be still in prayer, so that God can teach us who God is, as distinct from us teaching God how God ought to be! It is good to begin every prayer with, at least, a short period of stillness, even if only, for a few seconds.

Week 2: Eileen O'Brien - On Prayer

What is Prayer?

Prayer is personal to each one of us. If we were to ask ourselves what prayer means to us, I suspect we would come up with a definition that was different from everyone else. This I believe is a good thing. Below are what some people have said or written about prayer. I offer it here in order to stimulate our thinking about what prayer means to us.

Jesus Christ

“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do for they think that they will be heard for their empty words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily
bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our
debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:5-14)

Friars Walk - St Mary's Priory, Tallaght

photo: Joe Cullen