Totus tuus

On this day 30 years ago I got on a minibus along with about 12 other “young” people and travelled through the night to Ballybrit just outside Galway. We did not sleep on the journey as we were too excited about the event. On arrival we made our way through the 300,000 or so other people to the racecourse. It is impossible to paint a word picture to fully describe the scene. It was still dark and the lighting along the way was very dim. Some groups had guitars and were singing as they walked. We arrived at a area that was fenced off into a seeming endless number of corrals. On finding ours we sat down on the wet grass and tried to get a little rest. I woke up to a gray misty dawn. A well known bishop and a priest were on the stage trying to get people awake. Looking around I finally realized the size of the crowd. I will never see as many people in one place again. From horizon to horizon it was just people. It seemed that every teenager in Ireland was here, along with all the twenty somethings. As we waited being entertained by a bishop, who had fathered a child with an American divorcee and a priest who had a son with his housekeeper (unknown to us then), the fog slowly lifted. The drone of a helicopter became slowly audible and then it appeared through the mist. A white figure could be seen waving from the cockpit. The roar from the crowd drowned out all other noise, it later turned into singing.
The red helicopter circled before landing. The Pope had arrived.
Over the 2 and a half day period of his visit, Pope John-Pau II was seen by about 2.5 million people out of a population of about 3.5 million.
It was a turning point both for Ireland and the Catholic Church here. After his visit there was an upsurge in religious devotion. However 10 years later the revelations which would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church began to appear. Child sexual abuse, financial irregularities and political deals became the normal news for the Church. If there is such a thing as “peak oil” then perhaps this was peak faith.
Anyway, for me, these 3 days were an amazing adventure. I had witnessed something that never happened before and would never happen again. Everyone seemed to know what they had to do and did it.

De profundus

It is never easy to listen. To hear, to understand and to empathise all take time and effort. We are so busy with our own personal worlds that to reach out and touch someone else’s’ take a huge leap of love that for many it is a leap too far. We may know people who can do it but even if we are surrounded by friends, there is no certainty there will be one among them who can make this connection. I knew a man who could do just that. He was strong but understood weakness, he was determined but understood uncertainty and he was practical but knew love. I saw first hand how he saved people from themselves. People who had given up on their lives were given another chance through his ability to listen.
He is no longer here.
The Summer has given way to the chill evening wind of Autumn. The trees have chosen a warm red brown coat before the final Winter sleep. Branches are heavy with fruit, some good and some bad. The heavy musty smell of decaying leaves is on its way. All goes back to the good earth. Dust to dust.

A man for all seasons

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.


Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilís.