DUNKELD NEWS Diocesan Newsletter of the Bishop of Dunkeld No
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DUNKELD NEWS Diocesan Newsletter of the Bishop of Dunkeld No. 18 December 2019 INDSIDE - Parish news stories; Lourdes reports, Our pilgrims in Spain and Italy, Schools and Youth News Emotional welcome for the Little Flower What a grace-filled event it was for our for everyone present. It seemed to everyone diocese to have the relics of St Therese of that her saintly presence was enough as she Lisieux visit us in our own St Andrews spoke in the silence of everyone’s heart. Cathedral in September. It was as though Therese, one of the most popular saints in Therese had come not for herself but for the history of the Church, had indeed come everyone in every diocese in Scotland and to visit us to inspire us, to encourage us, the people present were delighted that she and just to be present with us for a few days was really here in our Diocese of Dunkeld where she will listen to us and speak to us with devotees, young and old, who loved in the depths of our hearts. Never has the her and wished to spend some time in her Cathedral been so bedecked with so many physical and spiritual presence. Most of all beautiful roses, symbols of her great love to learn from her. The good humour spread Fr Anthony McCarthy, parish priest for God and her promise to all of her devo- quickly among the congregation, and the of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Broughty tees. sense of incredulity at her closeness was Ferry, died on Thursday 10th October, awesome. Everyone, from the very young 2019. In her lifetime, Therese, a young Carmel- to the elderly and wheelchair-bound, ite nun wished nothing other than obscu- crowded into the packed Cathedral carry- Fr Tony was born in Cork and studied rity, yet her autobiography, ‘The Story of a ing their roses and flags of welcome. for the priesthood at All Hallows Col- Soul’, made her a household name in the lege, Dublin. He was ordained priest for whole Catholic World. Bishop Stephen greeted Therese and then Dunkeld on 22nd June 1958 by Arch- blessed and incensed the reliquary while bishop Patrick Skinner CMI of New- As she arrived quietly on the Wednesday the Choir sang the hymn “All that we have foundland. evening, a hushed silence prevailed, but a and all that we offer”. Following Fr Tony’s Requiem Mass, silence full of promise and expectation, celebrated by Bishop Stephen and his with orderly queues and smiles of joy re- The procession commenced with the fellow priests from across the diocese, Fr vealing the sense of wonder and excitement continued on p14 his body was taken to Cork for burial in the family grave. Since his ordination he served as a curate at St Serf’s, Highvalleyfield 1958- 1962; curate at St Patrick’s, Dundee 1962-1964; curate at St John’s, Perth 1964-1971; parish priest of Holy Cross, Strathtay 1971-1973; parish priest of St Bride’s, Pitlochry 1973-1977 and parish priest of St Fillan’s, Crieff 1977-1984 and for the last 34 four years, as Parish Priest of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Broughty Ferry. Under Bishop Vincent Logan, in 1982, Fr Tony’s already well established reputation for printing and publishing enabled the launch a new initiative in the diocese committed to ‘communica- tion and caring’ - it was to become the Dunkeld’s Lay Carmelites come to venerate the relics of St Therese start of the Dunkeld News. INSIDE THIS ISSUE: News, views and coming events from around the diocese ©2019 DIOCESE OF DUNKELD - SCOTTISH CHARITY NO. SC001810 Learning to sing in the dark recent visit to the island of South Uist for a family wedding was a rich and bittersweet experience. AWe journeyed through Skye, and chatted to cousins and aunts and Bishop Brian McGee on the ferry - after the ritual of Cal-Mac fish and chips. The remoteness of island life is a great leveller. Hebrid- ean life is personal and intimate - and the weather and sea remind us all that we are fellow travellers, subject to the same tides Mary O’Duffin of life. So to with my own sons, dashing to catch learn to sing in the dark, trusting that God The familiar ritual of driving and ferry- a French ferry on the way home from camp- has plans for our rescue? What would such ing back to our roots for weddings and fu- ing in France, our overladen car, with bikes singing in the dark feel like? Would we dis- nerals, and the joy of seeing the increasing and tent, they would break into singing cover some hope beyond ourselves? Some brood of younger cousins and the solace of with rugby-type gusto school hymns, out transformation and light? visiting Hallan, the ancient graveyard be- of season carols and surprising devotional side the Atlantic where grandparents and hymns to the Blessed Sacrament - and In November, we remember those we now parents rest. All these human experi- somehow - drawn into hope - we always have loved and lost. We also remember ences knitted together by the life of faith. seemed to catch the ferry against the odds. those who have let us down and disap- pointed us, sometimes departing from this Memories of long summers and East- In the chapter 16 of the Acts of the Apos- life before we have been reconciled. We ers and occasional Octobers in the care of tles, St Luke shares with us a very power- bury all this in the mercy of God. our grandparents, set to work on the croft. ful experience of “singing in the dark”. One abiding memory I have is lying in bed, Paul and Silas, beaten and bruised, found We are united to the unknown angels and cocooned in the attic sleepless and restless themselves chained up in prison, unable to saints of our lived experience as well as the but daring not to disturb the grandparents move, with nothing but each other’s com- known ones. The divide between the living below. They had raised 9 children and now pany for solace. They could have become and the dead is no more. We gather up all took on 4 or 5 or 7 grandchildren for the bitter, and complained loudly about their the sufferings and losses of this present life, holidays. With cows and sheep and hens plight. It was also possible that they lost all the hurts and desires of our most human and dogs, late night visitations with grand- hope and shrank into a darker corner of de- natures - and we sing hymns and pray to- children were not encouraged. spair than any prison could afford. Instead gether. We pray that our beloved dead rest they sang, praises and hymns to God, and in perpetual light. We pray for lost and poor We developed the art of singing in the as the Eucharistic liturgy encourages all of souls who have no-one to pray for them. dark - usually hymns and in them ex- us to do, they lifted up their hearts. pressed all the longings, energy, hope and United in our faith in Jesus, the Christ, missing-our-mothers that filled our young Suddenly, the earth began to shake and who braved the darkness of sin and death, hearts. Only much later did I discover that the walls and ceiling of their prison crum- that we might live in the hope of the Res- this heartfelt music moved and warmed the bled and a door opened wide, with the light urrection - even if that hope is sometimes apparently stony hearts below. and freedom of possibility before them. lived by learning to sing in the darkness. DUNKELD NEWS We all have our prisons, the circumstanc- es that we cannot change: Ill-health, sepa- Eternal rest grant into them, O Lord, Coming editions ration and loss; grief or addiction; growing and let perpetual light shine upon them. 1st March 2020 old, or being young and without hope. Can 14th June 2020 we dare to reach out to one another and May they rest in peace. Amen. 20th September 2020 DUNKELD DIOCESAN CENTRE, 24-28 LAWSIDE ROAD, DUNDEE, DD3 6XY Email your stories and photos Concluding series of talks in the Echoes series Photos need to be high resolution .jpg [email protected] 7pm: on Mondays 2nd December, on Twitter @DunkeldNews 9th December and 16th December Editor - Andrew Mitchell CALL or TEXT 07806 789791 Presented by Mary O’Duffin page 2 Setting out on the Road Gillian Janvier gives her personal reflection on teaching in a Catholic Primary Gillian Janvier with her class at St Columba’s, Cupar School I have always regarded teaching as a vo- At its heart, and this is where our voca- ‘big picture’. It also means that we have to cation. However, through engaging thor- tion differs from others, is the recognition have positive relationships with the wider oughly with my studies this year, I realise that all our pupils are unique, each having community in which we belong, and work that the vocation of a Catholic teacher their own set of God-given gifts, and each closely with families and the Church. is a far greater responsibility, and it has is made in the image and likeness of God. completely transformed my approach They should all be valued, despite the chal- As well as the importance of community to teaching and learning. Not only am I lenges, and it is our unique job to ‘touch bonds, I have embraced the values of Cath- called to teach, but I now understand that h e a r t s’.