Galway Advertiser 1986/1986_06_19/GA_19061986_E1_002.pdf 

Extracted text

MEDUGORJE
( C E L E B R A T I N G T H E A N N I V E R S A R Y )

You

are invited to an anniversary celebration in the

Church of the Resurection
Ballinfoile, Headford R o a d , on Wednesday, June 25th, at 8.30 p.m.
Liturgical Celebration will include Mass, Rosaries and Prayers for the sick.
The following is an extract from a new booklet by Fr. John O'Connor O.S.A.

Where the Bird Sings and the Cock Crows
//, in my lifetime, the teaching shepherds of the Church come to give their blessing to the now alleged apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Medjugorje in Yugoslavia, then with thankfulness I will be able to bear witness that I was present in the little room in the Franciscan Friary, when one of these apparitions took place. That was on Friday, 9th May, 1986, and on that particular occasion the alleged apparition lasted about ten minutes. I did not carry a watch, but I presume it began around the then usual hour, 6.45p.m. Yugoslavia time (5.45 Irish) and that it went on until roughly 6.55 p.m. The duration that evening was said to have been longer than was customary in recent times. If, on the other hand the Church declares against the authenticity of the events in Medjugorje, I will not feel cheated, because I believe that subjectively at least my week-long stay there in May 1986 was prayerfully fruitful and spiritually significant in my life. As possibly' most of the Catholic world now knows, ever since the feast o f St. John the Baptist (24 June) 1981, practically daily appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary have been reported from the rural parish of Medjugorje in Yugoslavia. Six young people are mainly involved -- two boys and four girls, now between the ages of fifteen and twenty-two. As one would expect, the situation has been under constant observation by the apostolic shepherds o f the Church, and for this purpose a Commission was set up by the local Bishop. At the very least, the existence o f this Commission has been an indication that the alleged apparitions have not been condemned as spurious, while at the point of highest expectancy, it has been taken as a sign of positive hope for those who believe. A Modern Wonder And believers there' are now without a doubt, and literally in their thousands they are making their way to this extremely picturesque plain, with its five hamlets or villages set in the shelter of mountains and hills, and with its parish church of St. James the centre of intense spiritual activity. There are some who go, of course, who have initially open minds.'Wit very few, 1 think, have returned home unmoved. And indeed it would be my guess that the vast majority become apostles -- and by that I do not mean just the pious followers of a new religious trend or fad (or even sect, if you wish), but people whose lives and outlook have been changed enough to believe that it is worthwhile to fast on bread and water every Friday (and sometimes every Wednesday) and to put their hearts into saying the fifteen decades of the Rosary every day. (These are apostles, then, who rather live a message than verbally preach it.) The person of faith, of course, will see this change as a grace from God, and so I believe it is, and it is in the context that I would place the new dedication. But as I see it, the psychological secret is that in Medjugorje one experiences the almost pristine Christian fervour of the people (which is surely the most expressive sign o f the authenticity of the events), and it is next to impossible not to be convinced that here there is neither hoax, nor hallucination, nor personified evil at work. The good fruits of the alleged apparitions have been so marked in the parish, that it is literally inconceivable that this harvest of peace and prayer and penance and love of the neighbour could have come from any other source, other than the direct supernatural intervention that is claimed. Peace in the Heart Much has been said in Medjugorje and much said about it, and it will take years before the full story is written. But meanwhile there is an urgency in the air around the church of St. James -- urgency about re-vitalising one's faith, about a turning again to God in true conversion, about sincere prayer and penance that is more than a token, about monthly confession. But if Mary has come to Medjugorje, these are not new ideals. N o , they are the Gospel values of her Son. She is once again drawing attention to the message of Jesus, altering us, maybe, to forgotten elements, highlighting aspects that this age must specially note. Secrets may be part of the events at Medjugorje, and there may be tentative talk about visions of hell and of purgatory, and about chastisement of a manipulated world, that through professed atheism has rejected God from daily life, and that through the still living philosophies of the 18th and 19th centuries is forever striving either to kill or at least, confine the influence of Christ to the chapel, as if he were not God among us, and as if his teaching were not meant to purify and bless and baptise and exerorcise the secular in our lives, and as if any solution we offer to any problem can be humane and compassionate, if Christ is not there to bless it. Still and all, essentially the Blessed Virgin Mary as presented at Medjugorje is talking to the individual human heart and its formation in peace and love. At Medjugorje, Mary allegedly called herself the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Queen o f Peace and asked that her yearly feast be celebrated on June 25. So around the world on the Wednesday of next week, honour will be paid to the Queen o f Peace, and the thoughts of pilgrims will go back to Medjugorje and the parish there, where peace has been one of the outstanding fruits. A Message for All There, feuds between neighbours have ceased, and harmony within families has been restored, as it only can be, 1 would contend, in the context o f Cana and of Christ. In Christ, people are married, and only in Christ can the wounds they inflict on each other be healed. In Ireland at present, there are surely caring civil authorities, and compassionate humane (and some humanistic) people, but unhappily, as I see it, if they cannot call in Christ to heal wounds or bless new unions, they leave a great emptiness in so many Catholic and Protestant hearts that are searching for God today. For me this is a sadness and it is sadder still that the Churches are helpless. While they can call on Christ to heal, they cannot call on him to sacramentalise new unions. One could expand on these ideas, but in the present climate that could be too emotive and would hardily promote the peace of Christ I am thinking about. Here, in any case, the main purpose is to draw attention to a place o f what seems to be extraordinary grace, and that is only about seven hours from Ireland. One also intends to alert people in their private devotion next Wednesday (June 25) that they could turn their thoughts to peace in the heart and home and the land, and to the Queen of Peace, who long before 1981 had a way with bringing compassion and consolation and counsel to troubled hearts. True, we have one mediator with God, and that is Christ, but it is an unwise person who has no place in the heart for the Blessed Virgin Mary, for her's is a music that can take the rough edges off things, if we only listen. (This feature has been sponsored by the Galway Rosary Group, which requested F r . John O'Connor OSA -- who visited Medjugorje in May -- for a brief assessment of the phenomenon).

The Galway Hooker
Today's photograph shows four Galway Hookers moored at the end o f Nimmo's Pier at low tide. The picture was taken during the War years. The boats are all full of femmainn or sea-weed, which was worth ten pounds per boatload to the boatmen. It was used to make iodine in various fac tories in Galway. The hooker was a tradi tional form of transport. It was very much a working boat, used extensively for fishing and for carrying cargo. It was of solid design, indeed they sometimes crossed the Atlantic. They were built by craftsmen j n the days before there were engines with which to negotiate the coasts and sounds and islands. It was just a small number of families who passed the art o f building these boats down to each other over a long period of years. The largest kind of hooker was known as the Bad M6r, sometimes called the Balaisti, because o f the heavy stone ballast. The next type was known as the Leath Bhad or half boat. T h e n there was the Gleoiteog, and Anally the

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Pucan. The true hooker was painted with an "Irish Var nish", or Archangel var nish, a kind of emulsion of Creosote and coal. In recent y e a r s , a remarkably successful restoration movement has saved the Galway Hooker from extinction. It is wonderful to see them on the bay, there is a sense of timelessness about looking at those brown red sails out on the bay. Most of the hookers today are used ex clusively as pleasure craft. If you would like to know more about these boats, then you should read Richard Scott's book on "The Galway Hookers". It is full o f information and very well illustrated.

Don't forget that the Galway Civic Museum is open down at the Spanish Arch. It is open every mor ning from ten until one, and afternoon from two thirty to five thirty, and on Sun day afternoons. There is plenty to be seen there, and for just a few pence. T.K.

KAREN COSTIN
ON GALWAY 61395

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