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.