Post by Séamus on Sept 10, 2019 12:45:34 GMT
Buildings can be profound statements and meditations in themselves,even when far from still intact. Yesterday's feast (Ardagh and Clonmacnoise diocese),Ciaran of Clonmacnoise(which I can never forget because of a nephew's name) for most would conjure images of the ruins of a monastic city,probably enormous for it's times. Two Chinese-Malaysian ladies I know who visited on their way to a Sligo wedding a few years ago told the(perhaps
secular-minded)guide that they were happy to die there,citing a legend that St Ciaran believed that anybody who died in Clonmacnoise would bypass purgatory.
The destruction and rebuilding of the current diocesan cathedral in Longford in recent years reinforces this imagery of past and rejuvenation,as does the universal feast on September 9th- Peter Claver who worked among Africans in Latin America,the two continents which now have lion's shares of the Catholic populations.
BenedictXVI,rightly I'd imagine,had the prudence to keep a reserved view of worldwide Christianity,neither writing off Europe or indifferent to the developed world's religious demise,nor declaring the developing world church as being perfect,but the news broadcasted on Claver's feast just happened to include the presence of a million people the day before at the Madagascar papal mass which isn't negligible either.
While I do take the point that leopard's skins should be left out of liturgy,it is nice to hear of the crowds on these occasions,and I took interest myself,perhaps only for romantic reasons- I had,the night before,by chance, been reading a 1950s travel-story largely about Madagascar, which painted the island of the time as amazingly idyllic and unique,from it's topography and animals (actual forests of cactus,the mythical roc may have been based on one of it's birds), strange language (first and last syllables of most words apparently not pronounced)- as an extra mystique most natives spoke a bit of French also,unique historical monarchy (until deposed by Paris;most of them anti-catholic,but one queen has actually been beatified years after this book) the royal palace still dominating the capital city,unique dress and quaint but stylish city buildings...how much of this has been lost since I wonder?
Was later struck by passage of Catherine Mcauley's life: "[Mother Catherine in a letter] 'on Wednesday last the first Scotch sister...22years old,most interesting. This sweet sister was never out of Scotland before. The variety of accents is now quite amusing at recreation..' The new spiritual children who came to greet her would cross the threshold outwards...The variety of accents that so pleased her would become a medley and the colour of the faces of her spiritual daughters would include the black,the yellow and the brown " (cf Bertrand Degnan rsm 1957) Physical stones,even when much newer than those which St Ciaran is associated,can encompass much reflection.
Ora pro nobis.
secular-minded)guide that they were happy to die there,citing a legend that St Ciaran believed that anybody who died in Clonmacnoise would bypass purgatory.
The destruction and rebuilding of the current diocesan cathedral in Longford in recent years reinforces this imagery of past and rejuvenation,as does the universal feast on September 9th- Peter Claver who worked among Africans in Latin America,the two continents which now have lion's shares of the Catholic populations.
BenedictXVI,rightly I'd imagine,had the prudence to keep a reserved view of worldwide Christianity,neither writing off Europe or indifferent to the developed world's religious demise,nor declaring the developing world church as being perfect,but the news broadcasted on Claver's feast just happened to include the presence of a million people the day before at the Madagascar papal mass which isn't negligible either.
While I do take the point that leopard's skins should be left out of liturgy,it is nice to hear of the crowds on these occasions,and I took interest myself,perhaps only for romantic reasons- I had,the night before,by chance, been reading a 1950s travel-story largely about Madagascar, which painted the island of the time as amazingly idyllic and unique,from it's topography and animals (actual forests of cactus,the mythical roc may have been based on one of it's birds), strange language (first and last syllables of most words apparently not pronounced)- as an extra mystique most natives spoke a bit of French also,unique historical monarchy (until deposed by Paris;most of them anti-catholic,but one queen has actually been beatified years after this book) the royal palace still dominating the capital city,unique dress and quaint but stylish city buildings...how much of this has been lost since I wonder?
Was later struck by passage of Catherine Mcauley's life: "[Mother Catherine in a letter] 'on Wednesday last the first Scotch sister...22years old,most interesting. This sweet sister was never out of Scotland before. The variety of accents is now quite amusing at recreation..' The new spiritual children who came to greet her would cross the threshold outwards...The variety of accents that so pleased her would become a medley and the colour of the faces of her spiritual daughters would include the black,the yellow and the brown " (cf Bertrand Degnan rsm 1957) Physical stones,even when much newer than those which St Ciaran is associated,can encompass much reflection.
Ora pro nobis.
