The Robin & Forgiveness

I expect we all have a Robin Redbreast in our gardens or around our homes. but particularly in our gardens. I've lived in the same house for nearly 32 years now and we've always had a Robin bobbing around the place. A regular sight in my garden in the Autumn and Springtime is a Robin perching on the handle of my shovel. Have we had the SAME Robin for all those years - probably not. But I've never seen this Robin hatching from an egg and I've never ever seen a dead Robin, so why not the SAME ROBIN for all those years ? Why not? I remember as a child my Mum leaving scraps out for the birds and I particularly rememer the Robin visiting the windowsill - I remember too my Mum telling me of the story of how the Robin got its Redbreast - something to do with keeping the last embers of life in the world alight. Maybe it was a metaphor for something or other? But things changed and when Mum moved away there wasn't anything on our windowsill for the Robin or any other bird for that matter. Indeed the hunger in us was so bad that I used to "raid" other windowsills just for food for myself and my brother. I remember chasing these birds away so I could get at the rasher rinds and the crusts of bread. That's hunger for you.

Naturally the "authorities" got to hear of this and we were all carted off to Court and placed into the tender mercies of the Sisters of Charity. You'd think that things would improve a bit because of this but no, they didn't. Many of the beatings I got in my early days with the Sisters of Charity was to do with "food raids" - there was many a time I chased birds from the windowsills of the convents kitchens to get at the scraps left out for those birds. Sometimes I would lie quietly under the windowsill so as to be first to grab the delights being placed there. A few of those times a Robin would actually perch on my shoulder so he/she would be first in the queue ! Of course when I made my grab for the food the poor Roobin would fly away. I've alway felt a bit guilty of depriving this Robin of his chance at the feast - I've never forgotten the awe I felt that a bird would perch on me. Amazing feeling really. And now I have a Robin in my garden just like I've had a Robin in the back of my mind for years. Like us all, I'm sure, I put food out for the birds, particularly during hard frosts and maybe throughout the year .... I have four bird feeders placed around the garden and in winter these are kept topped up. And these are visited regularly by all kinds of birds .... only recently I saw a Heron at the bottom of the garden - - there is a swamp/bog behind us so Herons are occasional visitors in the area.

But the Robin is the constant in my garden. So last week I was bringing a fistfull of muesli down to one of the feeders when I noticed the Robin perched on the hose - I offered the Robin my open palm with some of the muesli in it. The Robin alighted onto my hand and proceeded to feed. I went into some kind of hypnotic state and basically froze while the Robin cleared my hand of the muesli. I'm a bit of a camera buff and an opportunity like this would be something I would pray for BUT that is not what went through my mind. I felt that this Robin was forgiving me for all those many many times that I had take food from them when I was a child. I have tried since to repeat this but with a camera - but to no avail.

Maybe forgiveness is given once - because once is enough.

I Have The Right

The Inadvertent Solicitor

Well isn't it AMAZING what comes out of the mouth of a MERE SOLICITOR. Well you certainly have some fucking neck let me tell you.

This INADVERTENT SOLICITOR must have thought that ALL WAS WELL in the garden ... or maybe not .... ? But YOU are certainly going to find out.

HILARIOUS!

I think I know a few journalists who will really lap up this story. I think the headline will be: THE NEW PREDATORS, all about the people who have preyed and abused those who have attended at the Redress Board.

Children for export

Four More Men In Black

THE Dublin archdiocese will have the highest number of men in formation for the priesthood in almost 10 years when the new term at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, begins next month.

The news comes as the Catholic Church in America launches a new, Hollywood-inspired vocations poster similar to the eye-catching 'Men in Black' vocations campaign launched here in 1998. The new poster is based on the cult science fiction film, The Matrix, and features a priest posing a la Neo, the messiah-like figure played by Keanu Reeves.

Five thousand copies of the poster will be distributed among interested young people who are gathering in Cologne in Germany next week for World Youth Day, an event that is being attended by up to 1,500 Irish youth. Dublin's vocations director, Fr Kevin Doran, said that the Church here has no plans yet to use the poster.

However, he said that the vocations situation facing the Dublin diocese was improving. "We should have 15 men in formation, up from the low point of nine a few years ago." He says that four Dublin men are due to start training for the priesthood this year. He also confirmed that enquiries about the priesthood have increased since the death of Pope John Paul II in April.

Fr Doran, who is also the National Vocations Coordinator, said that over a 10-day period in April, when world attention was focused on Rome, the vocations website run by the Dublin diocese recorded a 600pc increase in hits. He said some of this interest had translated into concrete queries about joining the priesthood. "Currently I am in touch with 10 or 11 men who are considering becoming priests, which is up on last year."

However, he said that the number due to enter formation this year "would not really reflect the events of last April because it usually takes from six months to a year before an initial query might turn into a decision to join". He added: "That means we won't really know until this time next year what impact on vocations the death of Pope John Paul II, and the election of Pope Benedict, has had."

According to Fr Doran, the low point for vocations to the priesthood of the Dublin diocese was 1997 when no-one entered formation. He said: "Until 1997 or 1998, the trend in terms of vocations was downward, and since then it has been climbing upward again, although slowly."

The absence of vocations in the late 1990s prompted the diocese to launch the 'Men in Black' campaign based on the spoof science fiction film of the same name starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as two agents, dressed in black, sworn to defend earth from 'the worst scum of the universe.'

The new movie-inspired poster, which originated in the US, is the brainchild of Fr Jonathan Meyer, who is also the priest used in the poster. Like Neo, he is dressed in black in a full-length cassock, and like Neo, he is wearing sunglasses, but unlike Neo he holds a cross in one hand and the rosary in the other.

Fr Meyer said: "Today's seminarian is engaged with the world but is also committed to orthodoxy, like John Paul II." He said the poster has already got a big response. "They were going like hotcakes. Young kids wanted them to hang in their bedroom, high school students wanted them to hang in their lockers. That is invaluable. If we can get kids to hang a picture of a priest in their room, we've done something huge for vocations."

He added: "People love heroes. The poster personifies the priest as a hero."

David Quinn - Religious and Social Affairs Correspondent