Pastor’s Desk: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week’s article comes from Fr. Tom Cahill, writing for Intercom magazine.

Vanity of Vanities

Brain scans are revealing. Take the ones done on teenagers listening to music. These show that insecurity and not personal preference dictates what songs they call ‘cool’. In one study they listened to tracks and rated how much they liked them. After a break, they listened to them again, some having been shown a popularity rating based on how many times a track had been downloaded. While 12 per cent of those who didn’t know whether others liked a track or not changed their ratings, 22 per cent of those who knew that a tune was a hit changed theirs. Of those, three quarters moved in tune with the song’s popularity rating.

Now for the interesting bit: the first time they heard a track their reward and pleasure zones lit up; but on listening again their anxiety and pain centres glowed. This suggested that fear made them change their views.

Today’s first reading (Eccles. 1:2, 2:21-23) is tailor-made for that sort of thing. ‘Vanity of vanities!’ it proclaims. ‘All is vanity.’ Human toil it sees as an annoyance, and notes that even at night our minds don’t rest. Worry persists. We don’t like truth packaged in pessimism. Yet, truth made one researcher remark that many people who think they’re individuals with free choice actually are slaves to what others think.

Those words on vanity from the third century BC could just as easily be from today, so accurately do they hit the spot. If we have to be slaves to what another thinks, then let that other be the Other.

Fr. Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries

 

July 31, 2010  Posted in: Pastor's Desk  No Comments

Pastor’s Desk: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week’s article comes from Fr. Tom Cahill, writing for Intercom magazine.

Hardwired for God

I don’t know if our genes are, but according to scientists our brains are: hardwired for God. They’re programmed to discover supernatural reasons for life’s mysteries. Our brain organises the information, our senses send it to discover cause and effect. Since babies only 12 months old can do this, it seems to be innate rather than acquired. So, the findings of researchers at Bristol University studying the development and workings of children’s brains are not surprising. They indicate that belief systems offer a possible evolutionary benefit to people.

An itch to ask the question ‘why’ is not the only thing that’s innate to us. There’s the universal hope, expectation even, that good will conquer evil. Just read your novels, watch your films. Don’t you feel more satisfied when the good guy wins?

Even books and films with ambiguous endings aren’t as emotionally satisfying as those with a clear-cut victory where the one who is good wins out against all the odds. That feel-good factor when good conquers all comes with the job, so to speak, of being human.

It’s this faith in goodness, more specifically in God, that’s the basis for what today’s Gospel reading (Luke 11:1-13) tells us: Ask, and it will be given you; search and you will find… Scripture is telling us that God doesn’t take us for a ride. He’s not a messer, if you’ll pardon the slang. He’s consistent and we can trust him.

That’s the God we’re hardwired to believe in, the one who gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

Fr. Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries

 

July 24, 2010  Posted in: Pastor's Desk  No Comments

Church Notices: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

  • If any of our parishioners know of a very sick person who would like to travel to Lourdes with the Diocesan Pilgrimage in September, please contact the Parish Office. The Associate Membership to help with the financial cost of bringing the sick pilgrims on the Diocesan Pilgrimage will commence this weekend. If you wish to make a donation and become an Associate Member please call to see the ladies at the table at the back of the church after Mass.
  • The Donaghmede Estate Residents’ Association Festival takes place this weekend. The main Parade will assemble at St. Kevin’s School at 11.30am this Sunday morning. There will be a Fancy Dress Children’s Parade at 12 noon, live music from 4-5pm with lots of fun for all the family and the festival will finish with a Social Evening in Trinity Sports and Leisure Centre. Admission is by pre-paid tickets only.
  • Donaghmede Library is hosting a variety of events over the summer months. You can drop into the library to view the full programme of activities, or check out their website for more details.
  • The Church Gate collection this Sunday after all masses is for the Irish Wheelchair Association. Please give as generously as you can.
  • The Funeral Ministry Team meeting will be held this coming Tuesday, 27th July at 7pm in All Saints’ Chapel.

 

July 24, 2010  Posted in: Announcements  No Comments

Pastor’s Desk: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week’s article comes from Fr. Tom Cahill, writing for Intercom magazine.

Clutter

Laptops are turning lecture halls into private cinemas and even online casinos. Once considered valuable aids to learning, they’re no longer the apple of a teacher’s eye. An increasing number of lecturers just don’t want them in the classroom anymore. The reason? Students use them less for learning and more for entertaining. Themselves, that is. Not only are those who use them distracted, but so too are those nearby them. Not surprising when laptop use in class becomes networking in Facebook, watching movies, waging World War III virtually and playing poker actually, online. Instead of focusing on teacher talking, students focus on their laptop calling. So, the teacher strikes back, banning them from the classroom. This is a clear example of how something good: the amazing laptop, can get in the way of something better: the desired education.

Today’s Gospel reading (Luke 10:38-42) gives another example of the same thing. Jesus visits Martha and Mary. The good here – Martha’s attention to guests – gets in the way of something better: her attention to God’s word. Mary, on the other hand, just sits absorbed by what Jesus is saying. She’s free of clutter in her life and so can focus on what’s important. Activity is fine, but it shouldn’t push contemplation from our lives.

A Buddhist monk once told Thomas Merton, a famous American Trappist, that you can’t contemplate properly until you can close doors quietly. Closing doors quietly on clutter – mental, emotional, and social – is what today’s Gospel is about. You may lap that up, but you won’t top it!

Fr. Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries

 

July 17, 2010  Posted in: Pastor's Desk  No Comments

Pastor’s Desk: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week’s article comes from Fr. Tom Cahill, writing for Intercom magazine.

On the Run

If you run, take note. Running barefoot is best. Results from a Harvard University study show that people are born to run without shoes. For two million years we ran barefoot, landing untutored, on the sides or balls of our feet thus letting our heels down lightly. However, since the 1970s when running shoes took off we have begun to develop a new gait. Now comfortably shod, we land heavily on our heels with every stride we take - with about three times the impact of barefoot running. This increases the likelihood of suffering stress-related injuries. So if you don’t want to put your foot in it, go au naturel.

Today’s First Reading (Deut 30:10-14) and Gospel (Luke 10:25-37) are about doing-a-what-comes-naturally. The First Reading tells us that it’s easy to find God’s word. It’s in our mouth and in our heart. Could anything be more natural than to listen to what’s so close to us? The Gospel describes the coldness of two types of law-observant people: a priest and a Levite. Both served the great symbol of established Judaism: the Temple, one in liturgy, the other in administration. Both feared contamination from a seemingly dead person. Both obeyed the rules - but betrayed their humanity. Both sacrificed the greater good for the lesser. Both put symbol before substance: the symbol of God’s presence in stone before the reality of that presence in flesh.

They ran their race wrongly. They ran from, because of law, instead of running to, because of compassion. Well shod, no doubt, they didn’t run barefoot.

Fr. Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries

 

July 10, 2010  Posted in: Pastor's Desk  No Comments