SÉAMUS AHEARNE:  MORE LITTLE REFLECTIONS

THE DEAD AND FUNERALS:

The month of November. The Dead. One of the most attended Church Services in the year is the Gathering we have for the 2^nd of November, when the Dead of the past year are remembered. We had that last Monday. The Church was completely packed. The Service was very reflective. Many, if not most, would be people who don’t attend Church. However, the outstanding description and observation of that packed Church was the Silence. The Collective Remembering. The Grieving many. The Togetherness. The shared Reverence. It was awesome. It was a Holy Place. It was a Holy Moment. It was very Humbling.

It emphasised too, how gentle and welcoming we have to be for Funerals. We have to be ever so careful in making that time in Church (for bereaved families) as caring and warm and homely. We can’t begin by telling people to be up and down like Jack in the boxes. We can’t expect or insist that they completely conform to what we do and how are. We can’t expect them to know the responses. We can’t impose our expectations on them. We can hardly put on the face of ‘being holier than thou.’ If we have been to their homes, our role is to make everything as easy as possible for the family. We know the practicals. We can coordinate everything. It is about them. It is about the dead person. It is about the story. Is isn’t about us. It is our opportunity. Flexibility is essential. But a warm heart is what will always be remembered.

BOB DYLAN:

‘GO AWAY YOU BOMB’ featured in some words written by Robert Prevost many years ago. He included those words from Dylan, in a piece he wrote on nuclear weapons. Bob Dylan met with Pope Leo last week. The hooded Bob had some moments with the other Bob – Pope Leo. I was rather amused that Bob Dylan was given a Rosary Beads as a gift. That might be the usual gift for some visitors, but it seemed rather strange. The Pope now leaves for Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. I hope that he isn’t pushing himself too hard.

POPE LEO’S BOOK ON THE TRADITION THAT FORMED HIM:

A Book has been published. Freedom Under Grace: Reflections on the Spiritual Tradition that formed me. Liz Dodd reviewed the Book in The Tablet October 31^st. She was impressed. Bob Prevost showed great stamina over those twelve years as our Leader in the Augustinians. He travelled the world. He got to know all of us, and to see what was happening everywhere, or what wasn’t happening and should be. He had that calmness; that humanity; that humour; that resolve – to call us to be brave; to be adventurous; to be searchers anew for language and new ways of grasping where God is; and how ministry has to evolve; how the Communion of Community has to lead to serious Communication outward and onward. I am not sure that too many of us listened! (Of course, we can agree – we made him who he is!!!)

Yes, I can see how, our spiritual tradition did form Bob, but I believe it was the rugged demands of life as a missionary in Peru that made the man we now see. His missionary experience before in Peru as an ‘ordinary’ minister of faith in the rough demands of life among the poor and the broken was what shaped him. It built upon his communal experience, and the reflective spirit of Augustine and ‘some’ Augustinians. He then saw the Church all over the world in those 40 different countries and that added to his breadth of vision and understanding of what Ministry was now needed. After his time in Rome he went back to Chicago to be with Augustinian Students. He was then called to be Bishop in Peru. That was rather different. And Francis called him to be on the Team to be a proposer for Bishops and eventually to be the Leader of that group in Rome. He must be the most experienced candidate available ever for the office of Pope.

THE AMERICAN BISHOPS AND TRUMP:

Twelve US Catholic Bishops met with Donald Trump in the Oval Office on October 22^nd and prayed. Apparently, they thought, it was to be a private meeting. Some of the twelve realised their naivety later (or had it pointed out to them) and apologised as they saw their Prayer being used. How our Religious Leaders could show such embarrassing stupidity is beyond belief with the Elections hovering. The ‘Signs of the Times’ are there for reading! But weren’t read. Should they be impeached? Maybe perversely, the Praying was highly effective as the results poured in!

Donald then went on a tour of his Ballroom and explained how this Ballroom was the best ever built. That it could withstand missiles and drones. That it would turn out to be the safest place in Washington and probably in the world. Of course he also said that the war in Iran contributed to the defeat even though the country was in a better state than it had ever been. Of course he is the best President ever. If his name was on the Ballot papers, he would have won. That is what he said. Previously he told his rallies that his name was on the Ballot sheet! But his name was on the Ballot paper and that was the reason the Republicans lost.

Poor pathetic Donald fits the character sometimes mentioned in AA. He oozes ‘grandiosity.’ He may not drink alcohol but the inflated sense of himself is splashed everywhere. He deserves to be pitied for his lack of insight. Those who know him or work with him are dangerous people if they don’t consistently pour some realism over him. To let him see himself as others see him. Where is his mammy? Or Melania? Surely she can tell him to stop his blethering, or at least to try to be coherent in his speeches.

‘Oh, would some Power the gift give us, To see ourselves as others see us! It would from many a blunder free us.’ (Robbie Burns was a sensible man.)

A POSSIBLE STRIKE AND CIVIC PRIDE:

Last thought: I do hope that the promised Strike due on Thursday, does not take place. I understand the idea of using maximum leverage as making sense. But how could such a body of people do something like that when all the heads of Governments are meeting in Dublin? That is putting the needs of themselves above the pride we should have in our Country called Ireland.

Seamus Ahearne osa

6^th November 2026.