| Weekly Column published in Observer Newspaper group, N.I. 22nd August '13 |
There was a little noticed event took place last week in Ireland that passed off without much talk on the news and yet it led to me having one of the funniest debates I have had in my life. Did you know that the Bishops of Ireland held a ceremony where all of Ireland was consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?
It appears that a group called the Steering Committee for the National Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate heart of Mary was set up a couple of years ago and that they have succeeded in prevailing upon the Bishops to do so.
“The Knock based Marian group have been working since the Feast day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary 2nd June 2011 to rally the support of Irish Catholics to petition the bishops to formally Consecrate the whole Nation of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to spiritually safeguard the country from bad laws like abortion and the secularising invasion from Europe,” says their website.
Does such an action mean anything? Has it any real benefit for our country?
The only honest answer that I can give to these questions is that I don’t know, though I strongly believe in prayer and its power. However, I liked the way that this consecration of our land passed off without notice. I would venture to speculate several reasons for this omission.
It appears that a group called the Steering Committee for the National Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate heart of Mary was set up a couple of years ago and that they have succeeded in prevailing upon the Bishops to do so.
“The Knock based Marian group have been working since the Feast day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary 2nd June 2011 to rally the support of Irish Catholics to petition the bishops to formally Consecrate the whole Nation of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to spiritually safeguard the country from bad laws like abortion and the secularising invasion from Europe,” says their website.
Does such an action mean anything? Has it any real benefit for our country?
The only honest answer that I can give to these questions is that I don’t know, though I strongly believe in prayer and its power. However, I liked the way that this consecration of our land passed off without notice. I would venture to speculate several reasons for this omission.
Immaculate Heart of Maryimage source
Here is my first reason;
We are beginning to live in the truth for the first time in many years. Ireland was never the great wee Catholic country that we are led to believe that it was. The Church and the state had a dysfunctional dependency upon each other. The new Free State could not afford schools, teachers and hospitals so the provision of these services by the religious orders was literally a God send.
An example of the real Ireland was the 19th century groups the Whitemen and the Ribbonmen.
These were peasant oath-bound societies formed to protect the farm workers and the poorer tenant farmers. The Catholic Church opposed them and condemned the taking of secret oaths. The societies in turn retaliated and threatened priests who spoke against them.
While the Ribbonmen and Whitemen did try to make changes for the farmers and to a large degree were successful, their tactics could often be cruel, even against their own people.
What we are told of the glory days of the Church in Ireland, say from the 20s til the 60s were never such a thing. The Church was used as the social organization holding the state together. While it suited the politicians that the Church be at the forefront of Irish society then that was alright.
The Church and the state fed off each other; men and women from both sides equally to blame for the charade. As years have come and gone, I have come to realise that Ireland has been a society of lies at all levels; look at the banking crisis and the political corruption which preceded it.
Will we ever get an answer to what went on in the country?
Culture Minister Caral Ni Chuilin released documents to the families of three people killed in disputed circumstances in the Old North and the government immediately recalled the documents. Is the truth so destructive that ignorance is preferred and promulgated?
So I return to my original statement - the truth is Ireland was never the nice, idyllic Catholic country we all wanted it to be.
The second effect of ignoring the Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart is that it shows the contempt society has for God and all things to do with faith and morals.
While we may not like this reality at least it proves the point if any proof was needed that our society of today is gaining some degree of honesty about it. Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh in a recent interview said that in the abortion debate people of faith and those who held the Catholic position were treated with contempt.
Any reasonable look at the attitude of the Free State media would have to agree with this position. Only items which are detrimental or controversial to the Church get coverage. Events good and unifying are ignored.
But, you see, being honest is a good thing. If we want to live as if there is no God and mock all things Christian then let’s be open and stop the pretence that we are a Christian nation. We who practice our Catholic faith have understood the attitude of the media, north and south, for a long time and we expect nothing better.
So our society is beginning to move into a period of honesty as a nation. That would look on the face of it to be good. But the unfortunate reality is that since our politicians now have no moral compass they can no longer lead but are led by public opinion. This leaves society in a moral vacuum much as we see now in England.
In our local history, we in Northern Ireland had the spectacle of ministers of religion trying to justify an obvious ‘shoot to kill policy.’ It was abominable behaviour but when a society has no moral compass we degenerate into animal behaviour.
We are beginning to live in the truth for the first time in many years. Ireland was never the great wee Catholic country that we are led to believe that it was. The Church and the state had a dysfunctional dependency upon each other. The new Free State could not afford schools, teachers and hospitals so the provision of these services by the religious orders was literally a God send.
An example of the real Ireland was the 19th century groups the Whitemen and the Ribbonmen.
These were peasant oath-bound societies formed to protect the farm workers and the poorer tenant farmers. The Catholic Church opposed them and condemned the taking of secret oaths. The societies in turn retaliated and threatened priests who spoke against them.
While the Ribbonmen and Whitemen did try to make changes for the farmers and to a large degree were successful, their tactics could often be cruel, even against their own people.
What we are told of the glory days of the Church in Ireland, say from the 20s til the 60s were never such a thing. The Church was used as the social organization holding the state together. While it suited the politicians that the Church be at the forefront of Irish society then that was alright.
The Church and the state fed off each other; men and women from both sides equally to blame for the charade. As years have come and gone, I have come to realise that Ireland has been a society of lies at all levels; look at the banking crisis and the political corruption which preceded it.
Will we ever get an answer to what went on in the country?
Culture Minister Caral Ni Chuilin released documents to the families of three people killed in disputed circumstances in the Old North and the government immediately recalled the documents. Is the truth so destructive that ignorance is preferred and promulgated?
So I return to my original statement - the truth is Ireland was never the nice, idyllic Catholic country we all wanted it to be.
The second effect of ignoring the Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart is that it shows the contempt society has for God and all things to do with faith and morals.
While we may not like this reality at least it proves the point if any proof was needed that our society of today is gaining some degree of honesty about it. Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh in a recent interview said that in the abortion debate people of faith and those who held the Catholic position were treated with contempt.
Any reasonable look at the attitude of the Free State media would have to agree with this position. Only items which are detrimental or controversial to the Church get coverage. Events good and unifying are ignored.
But, you see, being honest is a good thing. If we want to live as if there is no God and mock all things Christian then let’s be open and stop the pretence that we are a Christian nation. We who practice our Catholic faith have understood the attitude of the media, north and south, for a long time and we expect nothing better.
So our society is beginning to move into a period of honesty as a nation. That would look on the face of it to be good. But the unfortunate reality is that since our politicians now have no moral compass they can no longer lead but are led by public opinion. This leaves society in a moral vacuum much as we see now in England.
In our local history, we in Northern Ireland had the spectacle of ministers of religion trying to justify an obvious ‘shoot to kill policy.’ It was abominable behaviour but when a society has no moral compass we degenerate into animal behaviour.
The second effect of ignoring the Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart is that it shows the contempt society has for God and all things to do with faith and morals.
While we may not like this reality at least it proves the point if any proof was needed that our society of today is gaining some degree of honesty about it. Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh in a recent interview said that in the abortion debate people of faith and those who held the Catholic position were treated with contempt.
Any reasonable look at the attitude of the Free State media would have to agree with this position. Only items which are detrimental or controversial to the Church get coverage. Events good and unifying are ignored.
But, you see, being honest is a good thing. If we want to live as if there is no God and mock all things Christian then let’s be open and stop the pretence that we are a Christian nation. We who practice our Catholic faith have understood the attitude of the media, north and south, for a long time and we expect nothing better.
So our society is beginning to move into a period of honesty as a nation. That would look on the face of it to be good. But the unfortunate reality is that since our politicians now have no moral compass they can no longer lead but are led by public opinion. This leaves society in a moral vacuum much as we see now in England.
In our local history, we in Northern Ireland had the spectacle of ministers of religion trying to justify an obvious ‘shoot to kill policy.’ It was abominable behaviour but when a society has no moral compass we degenerate into animal behaviour.
Now we come to the third effect of having the Consecration of our island to the Immaculate Heart of Mary pass off without notice. We now know firmly where our nation’s priorities lie. There is work to be done, there is a crisis in Egypt and an economic turmoil in the land; ‘we haven’t time for such nonsense as prayer.’
While we may not like this reality at least it proves the point if any proof was needed that our society of today is gaining some degree of honesty about it. Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh in a recent interview said that in the abortion debate people of faith and those who held the Catholic position were treated with contempt.
Any reasonable look at the attitude of the Free State media would have to agree with this position. Only items which are detrimental or controversial to the Church get coverage. Events good and unifying are ignored.
But, you see, being honest is a good thing. If we want to live as if there is no God and mock all things Christian then let’s be open and stop the pretence that we are a Christian nation. We who practice our Catholic faith have understood the attitude of the media, north and south, for a long time and we expect nothing better.
So our society is beginning to move into a period of honesty as a nation. That would look on the face of it to be good. But the unfortunate reality is that since our politicians now have no moral compass they can no longer lead but are led by public opinion. This leaves society in a moral vacuum much as we see now in England.
In our local history, we in Northern Ireland had the spectacle of ministers of religion trying to justify an obvious ‘shoot to kill policy.’ It was abominable behaviour but when a society has no moral compass we degenerate into animal behaviour.
Now we come to the third effect of having the Consecration of our island to the Immaculate Heart of Mary pass off without notice. We now know firmly where our nation’s priorities lie. There is work to be done, there is a crisis in Egypt and an economic turmoil in the land; ‘we haven’t time for such nonsense as prayer.’
Have all our priorities become self centred?
image source
Have all our priorities become self centred?
Everything is viewed in relation as to what use it is to me. We are people always in a hurry. We have lives to lead and we have bills to pay. Such events as the Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary are valueless nonsense.
We are modern people, sophisticated members to the European Community, we have other priorities, and taking time off work or reading about all this old fashioned stuff is not one of them.
Although it is very painful it is also good to see Ireland being honest. Perhaps someday real historians shall look at the history of the relationship between Church and State and see how dysfunctional that relationship was.
There is, however, a fourth reason why I am glad that the Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary passed over without notice in the media.
This last reason is the most important because the lack of interest in the Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary reflects the similar contempt and lack of interest in the birth of a child two thousand years ago.
No one noticed when the Son of God was born into the most violent and corrupt empire the world had ever seen.
This lack of interest in what has happened in Ireland last week shows us the problem that the poor secularists and atheists face.
They rant, rave and shout about there being no God and that people who believe in God have no right to take their beliefs into the public arena. Basically they are trying to shout God out of existence as if they believe that making enough noise shall cause God to run in fear.
That is not how God works. God speaks quietly in the heart of every person alive and constantly calls us to do what is right. When we know something is evil we cannot say that such a thing is good. If a government makes an immoral act legal, the immoral act may now be held by the people as acceptable but the act is still immoral; no matter how much people protest, immoral actions can never become moral.
And we all know this in our heart, because such a crime is abhorrent to human nature. The heart – that part of ourselves to which we can never lie.
Last Thursday in Knock a gauntlet was thrown down between God and the secularists of Ireland. On our behalf, whether we like it or not, the Church in Ireland assumed the authority to carry out this act of consecration, and it has the authority to do so.
Now we are in a new situation. The Church has asked God for protection on our land. If there is no God then nothing will happen. Interesting times lie ahead.
Everything is viewed in relation as to what use it is to me. We are people always in a hurry. We have lives to lead and we have bills to pay. Such events as the Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary are valueless nonsense.
We are modern people, sophisticated members to the European Community, we have other priorities, and taking time off work or reading about all this old fashioned stuff is not one of them.
Although it is very painful it is also good to see Ireland being honest. Perhaps someday real historians shall look at the history of the relationship between Church and State and see how dysfunctional that relationship was.
There is, however, a fourth reason why I am glad that the Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary passed over without notice in the media.
This last reason is the most important because the lack of interest in the Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary reflects the similar contempt and lack of interest in the birth of a child two thousand years ago.
No one noticed when the Son of God was born into the most violent and corrupt empire the world had ever seen.
This lack of interest in what has happened in Ireland last week shows us the problem that the poor secularists and atheists face.
They rant, rave and shout about there being no God and that people who believe in God have no right to take their beliefs into the public arena. Basically they are trying to shout God out of existence as if they believe that making enough noise shall cause God to run in fear.
That is not how God works. God speaks quietly in the heart of every person alive and constantly calls us to do what is right. When we know something is evil we cannot say that such a thing is good. If a government makes an immoral act legal, the immoral act may now be held by the people as acceptable but the act is still immoral; no matter how much people protest, immoral actions can never become moral.
And we all know this in our heart, because such a crime is abhorrent to human nature. The heart – that part of ourselves to which we can never lie.
Last Thursday in Knock a gauntlet was thrown down between God and the secularists of Ireland. On our behalf, whether we like it or not, the Church in Ireland assumed the authority to carry out this act of consecration, and it has the authority to do so.
Now we are in a new situation. The Church has asked God for protection on our land. If there is no God then nothing will happen. Interesting times lie ahead.
Franciscan Sister’s new convent dedicated by Cardinal Dolan of New York
image source
It wasn’t long before God showed that he will move in his own time. Last Friday evening Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York concelebrated Mass to mark the arrival of four American nuns from the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal to Drogheda, where they took over the Sisters of Mercy convent.
As the Irish orders die, Americans, one of the lands we helped to evangelise, are returning the compliment.
Quietly God moved the hearts of four nuns from a foreign land to come here and remind us of what we are. Others will come, and our people shall eventually learn that the big house, the foreign holiday and the fancy car do not make us happy.
We have joined the headlong rush to modernism; we have grown up and left all that old nonsense behind us!
This is what the atheists and secularists want us to believe but are they right? They most certainly are not.
It is not a question of who shouts the loudest or who has the most numbers. That is what the atheists want us to believe.
God is a personal God; he works quietly in the heart of every man woman and child on this island. We can listen to him or we can reject him, but we can’t run away from him.
Ireland is behaving like a rebellious child. As a nation we have chosen the path of selfishness, self-centredness and self reliance. The nice people don’t need help and don’t give any.
But go out into the highways and byways where you have St Vincent de Paul, Fr Peter McVerry, the MacMillan Cancer Support group and the fellowships like AA and Gamblers Anonymous and you shall find a different story.
There you shall find quiet unassuming people helping their neighbour, giving of their time and their money to help those who are less fortunate. As the rich grow richer there are groups all over Ireland, north and south, setting up food banks to give food to those whom our new enlightened state has forgotten.
Unless you look with the eyes of faith you cannot possibly see the importance of what happened at Knock last week. Taking a child to be baptised is the most important thing a parent can do for it, yet for most of us baptism is just another social event connected with a birth.
It is the same with the Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It was an act of huge significance in our land and the reality of that can only be seen through the eyes of faith.
Already this act of consecration has borne fruit in my life.
As the Irish orders die, Americans, one of the lands we helped to evangelise, are returning the compliment.
Quietly God moved the hearts of four nuns from a foreign land to come here and remind us of what we are. Others will come, and our people shall eventually learn that the big house, the foreign holiday and the fancy car do not make us happy.
We have joined the headlong rush to modernism; we have grown up and left all that old nonsense behind us!
This is what the atheists and secularists want us to believe but are they right? They most certainly are not.
It is not a question of who shouts the loudest or who has the most numbers. That is what the atheists want us to believe.
God is a personal God; he works quietly in the heart of every man woman and child on this island. We can listen to him or we can reject him, but we can’t run away from him.
Ireland is behaving like a rebellious child. As a nation we have chosen the path of selfishness, self-centredness and self reliance. The nice people don’t need help and don’t give any.
But go out into the highways and byways where you have St Vincent de Paul, Fr Peter McVerry, the MacMillan Cancer Support group and the fellowships like AA and Gamblers Anonymous and you shall find a different story.
There you shall find quiet unassuming people helping their neighbour, giving of their time and their money to help those who are less fortunate. As the rich grow richer there are groups all over Ireland, north and south, setting up food banks to give food to those whom our new enlightened state has forgotten.
Unless you look with the eyes of faith you cannot possibly see the importance of what happened at Knock last week. Taking a child to be baptised is the most important thing a parent can do for it, yet for most of us baptism is just another social event connected with a birth.
It is the same with the Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It was an act of huge significance in our land and the reality of that can only be seen through the eyes of faith.
Already this act of consecration has borne fruit in my life.
I am not afraid to write here and say publically that I am glad and feel safer now that I know that I and my family have been put under the care of Our Lady, formally by the Church.
I have bad news for the atheists and the secularists; there is a God and those like you have believed a hundred times in history that they would be able to destroy God. But he is always with us.
Where is Communism now, where is Stalin and Chairman Mao? They are consigned to the dustbins of history, forgotten and ignored; a horror story of the past.
On Saturday morning last I had to go to Mass at a neighbouring parish because of work commitments. Unknown to me Saturday was the Feast of Our Lady of Knock. After the gospel the priest stood up to preach and my heart sank as I was in a hurry.
But his sermon was short, it lasted only one sentence.
“Our Lady was a person who knew she was a creature of God.”
What a sermon in one sentence. Try telling that to our politicians who have decided that they are the masters of life and death for our unborn!
Oh, and one last thing, the next time you see a man in need in your parish don’t send him to St Vincent de Paul, send him to Atheist Ireland.
He mightn’t get any bread but they’ll feed him plenty of nonsense!
I have bad news for the atheists and the secularists; there is a God and those like you have believed a hundred times in history that they would be able to destroy God. But he is always with us.
Where is Communism now, where is Stalin and Chairman Mao? They are consigned to the dustbins of history, forgotten and ignored; a horror story of the past.
On Saturday morning last I had to go to Mass at a neighbouring parish because of work commitments. Unknown to me Saturday was the Feast of Our Lady of Knock. After the gospel the priest stood up to preach and my heart sank as I was in a hurry.
But his sermon was short, it lasted only one sentence.
“Our Lady was a person who knew she was a creature of God.”
What a sermon in one sentence. Try telling that to our politicians who have decided that they are the masters of life and death for our unborn!
Oh, and one last thing, the next time you see a man in need in your parish don’t send him to St Vincent de Paul, send him to Atheist Ireland.
He mightn’t get any bread but they’ll feed him plenty of nonsense!
Knock PilgrimsAugust 15, 2013
image source
Prayer for the Act of Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Refuge of Sinners, we entrust and consecrate ourselves, our family, our home, our Dioceses and Ireland our country to Jesus through your Immaculate Heart. As your children, we promise to follow your example in our lives by doing at all times the will of God.
O Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, we renew today the promises of our Baptism and Confirmation. Intercede for us with the Holy Spirit that we may be always faithful to your Divine Son, to his Mystical Body, the Catholic Church, and to the teachings of his Vicar on earth, our Holy Father the Pope.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Queen and our Mother, we promise to uphold the sanctity of marriage and the welfare of the family. Watch over our minds and hearts and preserve our young people from dangers to their faith and the many temptations that threaten them in the world today.
We ask you, Mary our Advocate to intercede with your divine Son. Obtain for our country the grace to uphold the uniqueness of every human life, from the first moment of conception to natural death.
O Blessed Mother, Our Life, Our Sweetness and Our Hope, we wish that this Consecration be for the greater glory of God and that it lead us safely to Jesus your Son.
P.S. Did you see Usain Bolt win the 100 and 200 metres in the athletics last week? He is a superb athlete. I have followed all the great sprinters of my lifetime and there is none like him.
But I love to watch him crouch to start; he Blesses himself twice before every race. A multi millionaire at the prime of his life in great health and who can have anything he wants……and he stops to ask God for help.
Atheists…..eat your heart out!!
Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Refuge of Sinners, we entrust and consecrate ourselves, our family, our home, our Dioceses and Ireland our country to Jesus through your Immaculate Heart. As your children, we promise to follow your example in our lives by doing at all times the will of God.
O Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, we renew today the promises of our Baptism and Confirmation. Intercede for us with the Holy Spirit that we may be always faithful to your Divine Son, to his Mystical Body, the Catholic Church, and to the teachings of his Vicar on earth, our Holy Father the Pope.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Queen and our Mother, we promise to uphold the sanctity of marriage and the welfare of the family. Watch over our minds and hearts and preserve our young people from dangers to their faith and the many temptations that threaten them in the world today.
We ask you, Mary our Advocate to intercede with your divine Son. Obtain for our country the grace to uphold the uniqueness of every human life, from the first moment of conception to natural death.
O Blessed Mother, Our Life, Our Sweetness and Our Hope, we wish that this Consecration be for the greater glory of God and that it lead us safely to Jesus your Son.
P.S. Did you see Usain Bolt win the 100 and 200 metres in the athletics last week? He is a superb athlete. I have followed all the great sprinters of my lifetime and there is none like him.
But I love to watch him crouch to start; he Blesses himself twice before every race. A multi millionaire at the prime of his life in great health and who can have anything he wants……and he stops to ask God for help.
Atheists…..eat your heart out!!
“Our God is a great God.”
Any comments? Submit via this blog or send us an e-mail: turloughquinn@hotmail.com.
Any comments? Submit via this blog or send us an e-mail: turloughquinn@hotmail.com.
