Ireland; Church.. added factorsIt is never mentioned that the status of religious and priests in Ireland has been high, and wealth wide. When historians write of Ireland, the Penal years are mentioned, the Famine, the harsh rule. But always in modern times, there has been no persecution of the Church. They have enjoyed - in every sense of the word - wealth and ease. Sometimes here we have posted photos of the typical priest's Houses. Spacious and gracious, while those they serve have lived in slums and hovels. One day a few years ago, the housekeeper of one such huge house, pushing the priest's wheelie bin out to the street, "gave out" as they say here about the accommodation the curate had within the house. So many rooms for one man; yet he complained about it. The expectation was of space and comfort. Any social record of the last 70 years will show that while many starved, the Church ate well. The film, "Magdalen Sisters" correctly shows the Sisters eating ham at breakfast and butter, while the girls, some of them pregnant, had thin porridge. When the Orders now speak of their old ones, they speak of those who will be well cared for to their last days. No poverty or hardship there. And many will have joined for what is known as "Three hots and a cot." So it comes hard now, this fall from all grace. But there will be no hardship in real terms. The orders are so rich that the words "holy poverty" have become meaningless, in monetary as well as spiritual terms. So we continue our own work, as the heat and high humidity continue. Thankful for skills we can use gladly to feed our babies. Creative pleasure in colour and form... to delight eye and hands. And the summer soft fruit is coming in from the continent now; peaches and nectarines in abundance. Folk are asking for gooseberry jam so next week we are hoping to call at a grower and stock up on them. Our two tiny bushes have an even tinier handful of course.... Oh we are all so rich in the ways that matter; rich in love, rich in the utter joy of giving. Blessings this warm, damp evening. |