A west of Ireland parish priest has written a letter to God to restore the power and water to his cold and weary parishioners who have had to face hardship in the face of the aftermath of the January storms.
Writing from Parochial House, Lisdoonvarna, Fr Robert McNamara read the letter at Sunday Masses. It began: “Dear Lord, the power is gone, the heat is gone, and I’m under the duvet reading John B. Keane’s letters with the light of a battery-operated torch. Thank God for Dolly’s shop! John B. Keane put it into my head to drop you a line myself.
“These days of –hopefully- spring, we are thinking of that great and wise woman St Brigid. I’m sure as a fellow Irish person she’s delighted with Nicky Considine’s crosses he made for the parish. We also celebrate your Presentation, that rather mysterious event when, just like many’s another mam and dad, Our Lady and St Joseph brought you, as a little lad, to the temple to be blest…
“So speaking of ‘presentations’, today we present ourselves to you after that terrible storm. Thank God we made it. We present to you all the poor creatures who suffered so badly from it, not just loss and damage to homes and businesses and livestock but loss of life, and especially the seriously sick who needed ventilators, dialysis-machines and the like. We present to you those who are still affected, still without power, and we present to you the workers striving to restore it, and the generous people in our localities who made facilities available. But I am left with a question, Lord. Why did you allow it? What did you want us to learn from it? I suspect we must all work that one out for ourselves.”
Anyway Lord, at this stage, we get it! Please restore the power and the water! Your friend,
Robert.”