Fr John Harris OP, Provincial of the Irish province of the Dominican pictured with Fr Raúl OP, Fr Atanasio OP and Fr Fabio OP after the 800 years anniversary of the arrival of Dominican friars in Ireland Mass from Knock Basilica The Notebook
I was recently in Lourdes on pilgrimage with a number of my Dominican brethren and 86 fellow pilgrims. As readers of my column, you are well aware that this year we are marking the 800th anniversary of our Dominican presence on this island. Given the year that is in it I have been thinking a lot about our history and our position in the ongoing history of the Church in Ireland. Maybe because this was my frame of mind as I visited the grotto I was struck by the flowing stream like never before.
As you know from the story of the apparitions, on Thursday 25 February, 1858 “the lady” told Bernadette to go and wash at the stream and drink from it. Initially Bernadette thought the lady was telling her to go to the River Gave, but the lady stopped her and pointed into the grotto.
The young girl started to dig with her bare hands until there appeared a new stream and from that day to this that stream has never stopped. On that day the people laughed at Bernadette and thought she had gone mad, digging in the grotto, and washing herself with muddy water. But she was undeterred.
We know that the apparitions stopped at the end of the fortnight, “the lady” had not revealed her name, there was no great miracle like that of the sun at Fatima. Bernadette was attacked on all sides, her family were confused at best if not totally disbelieving her story, the church and civil authorities were united in their opposition, both agreed to the closing of access to the grotto.
The bishop began an ecclesiastical investigation, the mayor threatened her with prison if she didn’t come clean and admit that she had invented the whole story to get notice. Bernadette remained resolute and the stream kept flowing. The authorities put up a barricade to keep people out of the grotto but they never attempted to stop the water flowing.
The miraculous water kept flowing from under the barricade and the people washed and drank from it and the miracles of healing continued. Eventually the barricade was removed.
Like the story of St Patrick and the early centuries of the Church in Ireland our Dominican story was initially of success and building. But then came the centuries of persecution and opposition. In 1500 we had almost 40 convents all over the island, by 1600 we had three, one in Rome, one in Lisbon and one in Leuven, none in Ireland.
Our preaching was no longer in well-constructed convents with full choral and liturgical life, but in the little huts hidden in the bogs of the West and dark alleys of Dublin and other cities. But the brothers kept ministering, facing persecution, hunger, rejection and indeed the gallows.
The preaching never stopped; the ministering to the people never stopped. For almost half of our history in Ireland it has been a story of persecution and opposition, not of great priories but small houses and back alleys. But like in Lourdes the stream continued to flow.
Nothing could stop the water flowing from the grotto neither can any opposition stop the graces flowing from the Gospel. No, in all things we are victorious in Christ. The waters of Massabielle continue to flow. That flowing stream can be a great encouragement to us in Ireland as we face the challenges of witnessing to Christ today.
There are many reasons to be downcast, there are plenty of barricades in our faces but look at Lourdes, the stream is still flowing. All the opposition in the world can’t stop the flowing waters of God’s grace.