“Everything about that celebration was… a celebration of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, inclusion”, writes Fr Martin Delaney
In 2013, when the movie Philomena was released, worldwide attention was focused briefly on Seán Ross Abbey near Roscrea, Co. Tipperary. Seán Ross was the mother and baby home where Philomena Lee had given birth to her baby boy and then forced to give him up for adoption.
The rights and wrongs of mother and baby homes and the culture and society which led to their establishment have been well ventilated in recent years. I don’t wish to continue that discussion here, except to say that when the Sisters of The Sacred Heart of Jesus came to Roscrea in 1932 they did so to respond to a perceived need in Irish society at that time. In 1971, the ministry of the sisters evolved into care for children with special needs and St Anne’s Special School came into existence.
Like many other similar establishments founded by religious congregations St Anne’s is now in partnership with the Health Service Executive (HSE) and other State bodies.
Recently, I visited St Anne’s to participate in a celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation. Caoimhe, a beautiful young girl from our parish, was one of the five Confirmandi.
Sometimes very pious and simplistic language is used when talking about children with special needs. When parents welcome a special needs child into the world I have no doubt that they do so generously and lovingly but with a huge mixture of feelings and fears. “What will the future be like for our child, for us and for the other members of our family?”
Despite our best efforts we all come from a ‘mainstream’ mindset. As I participated in the Confirmation Mass in St Anne’s, I could feel myself being coaxed gently and joyfully out of my mainstream preconceptions of what a ritual like this should be.
Comfortable
One boy who was to be confirmed clearly did not feel comfortable in the suit which he was wearing. He proceeded to remove it item by item. I was reminded of the young boy explaining to his teacher the phrase “he came to himself” in the story of the Prodigal Son. He graphically described how the prodigal first of all took off his coat, then his jacket and then his shirt. He next took off his vest and at last, “he came to himself”.
As I witnessed this young man’s formal suit being replaced by much more casual comfortable clothes I thought; now he is himself and God loves him just as he is. When it came to the prayers of intercession the children were invited to respond not with the expected verbal response, which some would have been unable to do, but with the ringing of bells and the waving of flowers which they all joined in.
Everything about that celebration was just that, a celebration of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, inclusion.
The Spirit of God was present in St Anne’s at Seán Ross that day as She/He is every day. Driving out the avenue I wondered “Was this the most real Confirmation I’ve ever been to?”
No Plan B: In his first year as Bishop of Ossory, Bishop Larry Forristal visited the schools before Confirmation. It was learned through the grapevine that the new bishop was asking the children the same question in every school: “Do you know what a Pectoral cross is?” The standard expected answer was: “It is the big heavy cross that hangs around the bishop’s neck.”
All was going well until the bishop arrived in the school of his Vicar General’s parish and as this was the only parish in the diocese to have a monsignor the bishop decided to change his question to “Do you know what a monsignor is?” The children had only learned one possible answer!
I Live Alone
Stay by my side, O Lord,
For I’m alone.
I need your presence with me
Night and day,
to share my home,
To guide me on my way.
Keep me safe from danger;
Fill my heart with joy.
Give me your peace, your gift
To share with those whose hearts
Are troubled or despair.
And even when the shadow
Of the Cross falls on my path
I see your Easter sunlight
Through the dark.
I live alone, dear Lord,
But I am sure
Your gaze is ever on me
As on an only child.
Abide in me, dear Lord,
That I may live in you.
Amen.
– Benedictine Abbey, Kylemore