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Adventuring Into God With Rev Ruth Patterson

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December 3 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

€30

Margaret Aylward Centre

Advent is about waiting and listening in order that we may hear the Divine whisper that contains the promise of something more.  This is always an adventure that keeps us on tiptoe in our spirits.  So let’s wait and listen and share together at this…

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Contact

The Margaret Aylward Centre for Faith and Dialogue,    

Holy Faith Sisters, Glasnevin, D11 TC21

Tel : (01) 797 9364 | Mob: 087 664 9862  Email:  info@macfd.ie

Dublin Book Launch 1st September

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Ruth Patterson’s book: A Traveller Passing Through

Brendan McManus SJ

Thanks for inviting me to launch this book, it is a real pleasure as I know Ruth from her work and the topic interests me greatly.

As a writer myself, I guess I’m interested to learn from someone of her experience and wisdom.

As a Jesuit priest, I’m amazed at the overlaps with Ignatian Spirituality, mainstream Christian theology I guess, it’s so real, earthy, fully human, and discerning; it’s more than just a guidebook for the Holy Land, rather it’s a synthesis of prayer, spirituality and social action/reconciliation.

As I write on similar themes, here are 10 reasons I wish I had written this book:

  1. What it means to be a pilgrim, in the introduction she defines it as ‘passing through (Colmcille)’, not holding on, free (losing bag at the airport); we are pilgrims in this world, passing though on the way to our real home (p. 104), coming home to out true selves (p.111).  A key part of this is identifying with the poor and marginalised (e.g. Peter McVerry, Br Kevin, p. 106), crossing over to the ‘other side’, we are drawn out of our narrow ‘strait-jackets’ or ‘slavery (Like N. Ireland)’ to live in freedom and awareness.
  • Every place is a Holy Land; Everything speaks to us of God, but it is about awareness or ‘inner transformation (p. 94)’, to be awake to the divine possibilities in the ordinary; rejecting the ‘dualistic mindset (p. 95)’ to be more present to a God of reality, of the present moment trying to break through. Everything in our lives demands a response from us. Even the context of peace and reconciliation work in N. Ireland (p. 74), the courageous work of bridging the divide, building bridges, overcoming fear and hostility, and unmasking false religion.
  • The use of scripture as a living text, her familiarity with it, ability to draw on relevant texts; ‘The scripture of our lives’, how to apply it to our lives. It tells of a human experience, e.g.. the shepherds at the nativity p.91, where people encounter God and live transformed lives; which indicates to us about how we might live. She fills out biblical stories for us, e.g. The Good Samaritan (the inn as a place of welcome), Zaccheus in the tree (welcoming Jesus in his home), and draws out the ‘message’ or implications of human encounter with the divine.
  • The ‘composition of place’, the ability to recreate scenes, to see Mary at the well (p. 66), being visited by the angel, the use of the imagination, ‘seeing what’s not there’, bringing a scene alive and bringing it home. It’s beyond physical sight, but seeing with minds and hearts (p. 67), the real significance and meaning
  • Asking questions of us, bringing it home, inviting us into personal engagement with the theme/text, examining our spirituality, applying it to ourselves, asking ‘who do you say I am?’ Use of questions to involve the reader, get them to be on pilgrimage, on the journey, implications for my life, opening the way to God
  • Faith as a personal relationship, an intimate journey of love, a two way communication and a progressive opening up to mystery (p. 76). We see this in terms of several personal vocation journeys, like those of Peter and Abraham, the process of becoming, “His long journey of growing faithfulness and revelation as to who God is…” p.34, the reality of the ‘storms (p. 76)’ that come into our lives, that threaten us but also stretch us and allow us to grow;  but more importantly she also applies it to herself, she talks of ‘an inner nativity’ p. 63, the slow process of letting go control and letting God work within me.
  • Introducing us to Jesus, getting to know him, watching and learning from him, relating to him, getting to love him. Crucially, she presents the face of God as one of mercy and compassion, one who is close, intimately involved, cares passionately and invites transformation (living the beatitudes; p. 140). This is someone enormously attractive that we get drawn into; the ‘God of Surprises (title of a Jesuit classic p. 65)’, who gives us enormous freedom yet invites a response, a collaboration.
  • The reality of the incarnation, that Jesus was fully human, (fully divine), living an earthly existence, but crucially that we are invited to walk that same road, to not only follow Jesus but to ‘be’ Jesus in living that same tension, divinity in humanity. Thus the focus on the humanity of the scripture figures like Elijah , powerful prophet and fearful itinerant; also the tendency to present Mary as an “idealised perfection (p. 61)” as unhelpful. In that sense also, the book is sacramental, God works through concrete signs and symbols, ‘the sacrament of encounter (Pope Francis)’ p. 82
  • Her willingness to take risks, to be vulnerable, show her humanity, something of her struggles, faith life, personal journey; we get to see the two sides, the professional exterior and also the honest, real, humble human being trying to do God’s will; we also get to see the vulnerability of the biblical figures, Elijah, Mary etc.Being reflective,  looking back on experience,  seeing the meaning
  1. Speaking into the background of the pandemic, the seriousness of the crisis, using the Gospel text of the ‘storm (p. 76)’ that beset our lives and the damage caused, but also the invitation to let go, to simplify, to prioritise what was important

EASTER MESSAGE 2022

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“Sing O Barren one!”  This is the word God speaks to the beleaguered people of Jerusalem whose hope had gone and who felt that all they had dreamed of and striven for was over.  In this powerful message, (Isaiah Chapter 54,) they are told, “The Lord has called you back from your grief, as though you were a young wife abandoned by her husband.  For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will take you back.  The mountains and hills may crumble but my love for you will never end.”  God is urging his beloved to sing.  It may seem to us at the moment that we are barren, that what we have known, dreamed of and striven for is over.  The world lives under the threat of devastation and destruction.  What seemed as secure and eternal as the mountains and hills is crumbling and we are powerless to stop it. But the one indestructible force, more powerful than any other, is love, God’s love for us, for humankind.  So, in this present moment, God urges us to sing.  What sort of song can come from such a barren place?  The way ahead is uncharted but we are returning to Love, to God.  At the moment, we are on the very cusp of stepping over the threshold, out of that liminal space we have experienced during the pandemic, not back to what we have known, but into an unknown future, into a wilderness journey.  It will require of us a huge refocussing of trust, an ever expanding vision of who God is, a willingness to let go, and, above all, a remembering who we are.

But we start with gratitude.  That must be part of the essential rhythm of our song; gratitude, overflowing wonder and praise to the God who continually calls us out of darkness, who rescues us, challenges us, moulds us and shapes us for a purpose far greater than we can ever know or even imagine.  As I reflect on that I remember David, called from being a humble shepherd boy tending sheep to become a King.  At one point, when David is established in Jerusalem, Nathan the prophet shares with the King God’s covenant promise for the future.  David’s immediate response is to worship. He begins his prayer with these words of gratitude and praise, “Who am I, O Lord God, that you have brought me thus far?”    And he ends his prayer, “When you grant a blessing, O Lord, it is an eternal blessing!”  In this moment he has a heightened awareness of who God is, of his loving purpose, and, in all humility, of who he is.  There follows a refocussing of trust, for no matter what happens or how many times he wanders from that covenant promise, having feet of clay like the rest of us, God’s love draws him back and God’s calling of him will urge him on.  Can we see how it is so important at times to pause, and remember the infinite love that first drew us and we found ourselves on a journey that you could never have planned or engineered?  In these days, whenever I pause to remember, these words of David come to me loud and clear, “Who am I Lord that you have brought me thus far?”  It is somewhat overwhelming.  It follows that if we believe that it is God who has brought us to this very time that we find ourselves in now, as part of humankind, as a person of faith, then we have no option but to affirm and trust that when God grants a blessing, it is forever.  That does not necessarily mean that the blessing is a neat package that would secure our comfort and keep things the way we would like them to be.  God is a God of surprises.  The blessing may often be shrouded in mystery or disguised as something less, even anguished, but it is my limited experience that enough of it unfolds at those times when it is desperately needed to keep us trusting and hoping.  Our song has to be one of gratitude for that ‘love unknown’ that has brought us thus far.

Ruth