Jim Cogley: Reflections Tues 4 June – Mon 10 June 2024
Please note: The Wood You Believe Retreat scheduled for July 16 to 19th in Slí an Chroí Retreat Centre in St Patrick’s College Kiltegan is now fully booked as is the Family Tree workshop on Sat June 15th in Our Lady’s Island.
You are invited to tune in to services by going to ourladysisland.ie
Morning Masses are usually at 10am and Sundays at 11am. This Wednesday there will be the usual first Wednesday healing Mass at 3pm. Next Sunday a beautiful new book of poetry called Unblinded by the Light by a local man John Crosby will be launched. If you are visiting the Island make sure to pick up a copy as it is a real gem.
Tue 4th June – The Art of Charity
In the postings for mid-May I mentioned that one of my favourite charities is Mary’s Meals. My interest in this has been quite recent, and has changed from being just another charity, that I was vaguely aware of, to one I am deeply committed towards. I am still in the process of learning more about it and how the charity operates. It was founded in 2002 by Magnus McFarland, who was a salmon farmer from Scotland, and its objective is to feed hungry children in a place of education. The more I read the more impressed I am, that from such small beginnings in a garden shed, Mary’s Meals is now a global organisation that daily feeds 2.5m children in some of the poorest countries in the world. What is even more impressive is that by involving local volunteers and buying local produce they are able to provide a full meal for as little as 11c. With little more than 5% of funding going on administration costs that is pretty impressive and it’s important to know that money donated goes directly to those most in need.
Wed 5th June – A model easy to replicate
Three of the Gospels have the account of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes where Jesus takes something small that is offered and uses it to feed a multitude. Mary’s Meals is really a modern day equivalent of that miracle. Here in Our Lady’s Island during May we did some fundraising with the final figure looking in excess of €4,000. That figure equates to a staggering 40,000 meals. To put that in perspective if our church holds 300 people, such a donation can provide a meal for 130 churchfulls. The local initiative here is a model that some of you might like to replicate. A weekly Church sponsored Coffee Morning was organised to help break down the residue of Covid isolation and people were invited to contribute to a designated charity each month. This has worked extremely well over the past year and helps greatly to build community spirit. Speakers for the charity are invited to speak, the wider church community are invited to contribute, a few take charge each month, while several bake and bring confectionery.
Thurs 6th June – Mary’s Meals – A Fruit of Medjugorje
On a recent trip to Medjugorje, while our local fundraising efforts were still under way, the only book I brought with me was Magnus MacFarlane’s book GIVE subtitled Charity – The Art of Living Generously. Upon arriving we had just missed a concert in support of Mary’s Meals that had raised €10,000. Any groups travelling there are invited to see a film on the organisation and hear a presentation and this we thoroughly enjoyed. The project is one of the fruits of Medjugorje and so is appropriately called Mary’s Meals. The apparitions began in 1981 and in the pre-Bosnian war days the MacFarlane family were regular pilgrims to Medjugorje and had been deeply touched by the spirit and message of the place. During the bloody conflict Magnus invited his community to contribute some basic necessities to help the people of Medjugorje. During that time he made dozens of trips in his little lorry and while he was away the shed would fill up yet again. And so it was that Mary’s Meals was born and Magnus gave up his salmon farming and became an accidental CEO of the organisation and later an accidental author.
Fri 7th June – Giving what we cannot keep we gain what we cannot lose
A wealthy high-class lady had lived a life of privilege in a stately home with servants at her beck and call. Upon her death an angel gave her a conducted tour of the heavenly realm. An exquisite mansion was passed and she was told that it was now the abode of her former butler. Later as they passed another beautiful dwelling she was told that it was now occupied by one of her maids. An equally lovely mansion surrounded by the most fabulous gardens she found to be the place where her long term gardener now lived. Seeing how well her former servants had fared she grew excited at the thought of what delights awaited her so she could hardly wait to be shown her new abode. Stopping at what she deemed little more than a shed the angel told her that it was hers. In astonishment she asked ‘Why?’ when all the others were now living in luxury. ‘I am sorry Madam’, said the angel, ‘but this was all we could build with the money you sent on in advance’! We only can claim as ours that which we have given away.
Sat 8th June – Always – A Little More
A multi-millionaire was once asked, ‘How much money would it take to make you truly happy?’ His answer was ‘A little more.’ In our materialistic world we often fail to appreciate the hold that money has over our hearts, even to the extent that we may believe the myth that ‘to have more is to be more’. Particularly for those who have known poverty in early years, a poverty consciousness can still exist in later life even when there is full and plenty. A clue to this is where well-off people can appear to be very generous but will give everything except money. This is because money has become equated with identity and so is something we always want more of but find it difficult to part with. Let’s be really honest with ourselves and ask the hard question with no resorting to excuses; in the past year what percentage of my income, be that great or small, have I directed towards charitable causes? The Bible suggests one-tenth as a minimum and that might be just enough to keep us aware of how easily money can become our god.
Sun 9th June – ‘Adam – Where are you?’
When we hear the Scriptures read, especially from the Book of Genesis, which is the book of beginnings, we have a tendency to ask historical questions like did it happen, or when and where did it happen? A far better question is to ask is how is it happening right now in our experience? The primary purpose of the Bible is not to be primarily a factual historical document but to convey spiritual truths that are always and universally true in every age.
From that Genesis story a term we all grew up with was Original Sin that we were told went back to the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden for eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. From the first reading of today its worth reflecting that what happened afterwards had as much a bearing on their expulsion from Paradise as what went before and this is where Genesis is still happening. God confronted Adam with the question, ‘Adam where are you and what have you done?’ Rather than admit his guilt and take responsibility Adam blamed Eve who in turn blamed the serpent. Neither was prepared to take responsibility for their actions, and this is where Genesis is still happening. It is always so much easier to fix the blame than the problem and it is precisely our tendency to blame that keeps us inwardly divided and lacking peace. Maturity has to about taking responsibility both for the foreseen and unforeseen consequences of our actions, but how many of us are that mature? It’s so much easier to take the childish route of finding someone to blame. Of course, the word blame if broken down is B-lame. Whenever we ‘blame’ we are always psychologically lame.
To blame is to stand in judgement and Jesus taught, ‘Do not judge so that you will not be judged, and as we judge so we shall be judged, for the judgements we give out will be the judgements we will get back.’ I suspect that having a judgmental blaming attitude is one of our big blind spots. We can of course judge actions or behaviours but we can never judge persons simply because we never know their entire story or where that person is coming from. People rarely act from malevolence but from what seems right from their perspective and the more we know the whole of another’s story the less we are inclined to judge.
If we were to take that first question posed by God in the Bible ‘Adam, where are you?’ and apply it to ourselves we can then ask.
Where am I in relation to myself? Am I comfortable with myself, do I like myself, am I my own best friend, can I sit with myself in silence, or do I always need noise for distraction? Do I live with mistakes and regrets and act as my own judge jury and executioner? It’s amazing how many of us are hard, harsh and critical towards ourselves with so many things we would like to change. In the Gospel when Jesus spoke of a kingdom divided against itself being unable to stand it’s equally true for all of us. If we are inwardly divided we lack peace and can’t stand either, or withstand much either. Inner strength and security can only come from having inner peace.
Next, we can ask where are we in relation to others? Usually, it’s in our dealings with others we find an opportunity to see our own faults and failings. Here again it’s so much easier to blame than look at ourselves. Christ spoke of wanting to take the splinter out of someone else’s eye while being blind to the plank in our own. It’s far easier to recognise how someone else needs to change rather than see what is wrong with us. Blaming others is so endemic that we may not even recognise when we are doing it. So, it comes out in phrases like: ‘It’s you who makes me angry’, or ‘It’s because of you that I am so unhappy’ or ‘It’s you who makes me act this way.’ It’s all too easy to think that someone else is upsetting our apple cart when we are the ones driving with the wheel on the rim. In the end nobody really upsets us, no matter how much we would like to think that they do. Rather it is we who upset ourselves by how we react to another’s behaviour.
Then we can also ask where are we in relation to God and Faith? When something goes wrong and tragedy strikes it’s easy to blame God for allowing it to happen. I know a lady who lost her husband some years ago and from being a woman of strong faith who always came to church she would now class herself as someone who has no time for God. In a real way she has cut off her nose to spite her face as we say because it’s only in spirit that she can have contact with her departed husband but by rejecting God in her life she is also excluding her husband. To live without God is to be disconnected from our source and to die without Him is to live without hope for our future.
Monday 10th June – What is it about Mary’s Meals?
Why has Mary’s Meals found its way into my heart? There are probably many reasons but the main one is that it provides a very simple answer to the problem of world hunger, and one in which we can all play our part. There are always enough resources to meet human need but never enough for our greed. So, by encouraging us to be a bit more generous we are given the opportunity to be like the small boy in the Gospels who offered his lunch of five loaves and a few fish and ended up feeding a multitude. In Chinese wisdom there is a saying that ‘as the head so is the tail.’ As I read about the founder Magnus McFarlane and see where he has come from, and the level of goodness and kindness that he brings to the organisation, I cannot but be assured of the level of integrity that pervades throughout the organisation and be impressed at how little of the overall budget gets eaten up in administration costs as is the case with so many big charities.