I found that being in Ireland taught me a lot about what it means to be in search of our heavenly home says, Maura Collins
Soon before I left California this August to live in Ireland for a couple of months, a woman in my Catholic community texted me an told me that she’d pray for me. “Seek God first,” she wrote.
Ah, words to live by. With the endless new opportunities available when traveling, not only is it practically helpful to have God as your number one priority, but it is also wise.
Going to any foreign country is a neat opportunity, because it sets your life and the customs you are used to against a different backdrop, and you gain a more vivid picture of your life, allowing you to reflect on how you’re living it. A similar thing happens in the spiritual life during a silent retreat, as Sister Clare Crockett would say, “alone, with Christ alone.” In the encounter with Christ in that silence, you see more clearly where your daily habits distract you from the not-so-distant or foreign land of Heaven, our true native land.
Home
I found that being in Ireland taught me a lot about what it means to be in search of our heavenly home. New surroundings, faces, and customs. The more I went out and explored my surroundings, the more familiarity I gained. It reminded me that I am really a pilgrim wherever I go on Earth, because Heaven is my true native land. The kingdom of Heaven is the best land to begin discovering. If getting to know the kingdom of Heaven is anything like the difficult adventure of finding my way around Dublin the first weeks I was here, then I don’t want to waste time before I seek, look, and knock, to see what it is that makes up the ‘City of God’. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7-8) This seeking never ends, because the riches contained in the Catholic faith are never exhausted. They ultimately lead us to God, who renews us constantly in a life that is more vivid and lush than the beautiful, green grass that lays across all of Ireland. The more we get to know God in His Church, and try to conform our lives to His, the more we become citizens of our heavenly homeland, whose King is ‘ever ancient, ever new’.
The life of grace we are offered a share in, renews itself, constantly. It is even more abundant than the number of cafes and restaurants in Dublin”
The Kingdom of Heaven is best explored with friends. Not only earthly ones, but heavenly ones too. I love that Ireland is full of opportunities to befriend some heavenly companions: walking in the footsteps of so many holy people, such as St Brigid, St Patrick, and St Kevin. To be in the places where they prayed, worked, evangelised, and lived out their daily lives in love of our Lord gives one a sense that Heaven is not so far off.
Bountiful
They redirect our focus to God and help us open ourselves to Him. God is SO bountiful. He is constantly showering us with opportunities to know Him better so we may love Him more. The life of grace we are offered a share in, renews itself, constantly. It is even more abundant than the number of cafes and restaurants in Dublin. God gave me so many opportunities while in Ireland to get to know Him a little more clearly and to love Him a little more dearly, with so many beautiful and inspiring people and places, and solid, Catholic events that enriched my life. I travelled to St Brigid’s Holy Well, explored the Monastic City at Glendalough, saw Croagh Patrick from a distance, and visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock. With so many Masses offered every single day in Dublin, in beautiful, old churches, there is a keen sense of the depth and newness that exists in Catholicism. Ever ancient, ever new. But what is the ever-renewing reality of Catholicism really for?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “All the activities of the Church are directed… to the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God.” (CCC 824) I experienced this truth in a unique way while in Ireland: attending daily Mass at St Teresa’s on Clarendon street in Dublin. The sanctuary there gave me a unique image to reflect on: one that helps illustrate what it means to be Catholic.
Each day, God’s love for us is renewed on altars all across Ireland and across the world and Christ’s life is participated in by the members of His Church, and it requires us to align our heart, soul, mind, strength, our very being, with God”
The front of the altar there is a glass case in which a statue of the crucified body of our Lord Jesus lays, amidst His burial cloths. The Paschal Mystery is fully on display in a vivid way when you attend Mass at St Teresa’s. It truly sanctify us. We are incorporated (literally) into His body through reception of the Eucharist. The paschal mystery is renewed each day in the Masses of the one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith. Receiving the Eucharist at St Teresa’s is like a picture of what it means to be Catholic: to be one with Christ in His passion, death, and resurrection.
Renewed
Each day, God’s love for us is renewed on altars all across Ireland and across the world and Christ’s life is participated in by the members of His Church, and it requires us to align our heart, soul, mind, strength, our very being, with God, so that He might be glorified, and we might be sanctified. Just as the rhythm and melody of a traditional Irish tune carry you into it and a whole room of people all at once, the life of Christ enters into you and makes you live something in common with the other members of His Body. Just as the tune connects you with those who played the tune in years gone-by, the flame of life, especially the life of grace, is passed on when it is lived. Just like an Irish tune is cyclical, living the Paschal Mystery every day creates a cyclical pattern in your life. Each round draws you deeper into the Mystery. God’s Life is that mysterious and beautiful melody. Ever ancient, ever new.
My time as a Catholic in Ireland was the invitation and the scene set by Divine Providence where God allowed my life to become a little more Eucharistic, to join me more deeply into his Life in that Kingdom that is ever ancient, ever new.
May God bless Ireland and all its faithful!