Brendan O’ReganIt’s great to hear people being enthusiastic about their faith…it can be inspirational and infectious.
These thoughts were prompted by last Saturday night’s The Conversation on BBC World Service. Two religious sisters were interviewed: Mother Hildegard a Benedictine sister from Australia but now in Tyburn Convent, London and Sr Tracy Kemme, a young American woman who has yet to take final vows but is very confident that she will.
Sr Hildegard caused some family consternation when she joined the convent at the age of 35 – her father didn’t speak to her for two years. She felt that men find independent women hard to take – they “can’t handle it” she said.
Sr Tracy got a better reception, but her grandmother was disappointed because she loved the boyfriend Tracy was breaking up with. The sisters came across as confident independent woman, with spirits aspiring to Heaven but feet firmly on the ground. They were conscious of the challenges of community living, but felt the bonds of love made it all worthwhile.
Messages
Sr Tracy regretted that the ‘giving up’ aspects of religious life were the messages that largely got out there – ‘I wish people knew more about the yesses’ she said. She found that celibacy wasn’t easy, but was now free to love in a different way, ‘responding to God and God’s people’.
Both seemed very happy in their chosen way of life. Sr Tracy described it as having ‘a sense of peace’ and ‘deep groundedness’. Presenter Kim Chakanetsa was impressed, finding the interview ‘an absolute pleasure’. You can listen back by doing a web search on ‘BBC Conversation podcast’.
There was another enjoyable conversation, also with enthusiasm for religious faith, when John Sheahan of Dubliners fame, appeared on The Meaning of Life With Gay Byrne, back for a new season on RTÉ 1 last Sunday night.
One of the strongest threads in this relaxed and relaxing interview was his sense of giftedness. He was modest about it, but felt his musical talent was a gift from God – “where else could it come from?” he said. He thought prayer should be about thankfulness rather than asking for stuff and if he met God at the end of his life he would say above all that he was ‘eternally grateful’ for the gift of life.
Traditional Catholic practice was part of his upbringing, including the family Rosary and visiting pals being roped in for a decade, with plenty of giggles as the cat played with his mother’s dangling Rosary beads. Now he described himself as a ‘lukewarm Catholic’ as he didn’t go to Mass regularly, but he did pray, and did see the value of community prayer and gathering.
Gay Byrne recalled Stephen Fry’s anger at God in the face of the suffering of children (from a previous episode), but Sheehan said his reaction to the death of a grandchild and of a brother who pre-deceased him was just sadness and mourning. One of the things that saddened him about these deaths was the ‘loss of potential’ of these young lives.
He believed Jesus was God incarnate, whose presence attracted the apostles and disciples – a “bunch of fishermen”, a bunch rather like the Dubliners!
Things weren’t quite so enthusiastic on Pobal ag Guí (TG4), also broadcast last Sunday night. Amiable presenter Catherine Foley took an exploratory look back at the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979, the Eucharistic Congress of 2012 and points between.
Conservatives
We got the familiar stuff about declining Mass attendance and the fall-off in vocations (or is it a falloff in positive responses to vocations?). The ever present conflicts in the Church between liberals and conservatives were aired though I thought the more broadly ‘conservative’ viewpoint was underrepresented – mainly expressed by author and lecturer Ciarán Ó Coigligh.
Coverage of the Congress was rather jaundiced at first, with references to ‘grey relics’ (ageist?) and emphasis on the ‘small number of young people’, though the opening visuals were of a young Christian rock band. Foley did visit the designated youth space where Méabh Carlin, then with the Elation Ministries band, showed admirable enthusiasm for her faith.
Foley described how the Faith came through the generations, but now it seemed that this ‘chain’ was broken. It was something of a generalisation, but I could see some value in Foley’s diagnosis: “We were presented with faith and we failed to uncover its meaning.”
Pick of the week
FÍORSCÉAL
TG4, Tuesday, October 25, 10.30pm
Guns in the USA – Child’s Play: The issue of children shooting and being shot in the USA – nine are shot dead every day.
WOULD YOU BELIEVE? THE WALK OF LIFE
RTÉ1, Tuesday October 25, 11.10 pm
A group of cancer survivors walks the Camino to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain, to try to heal the emotional scars of this life threatening illness.
SIGN ZONE: A WORLD WITHOUT DOWN’S SYNDROME?
BBC2, Thursday (night) October 27, 2am
Another chance to see this ground-breaking documentary about Down’s syndrome and the ethics of pregnancy screening, fronted by Sally Phillips.