Come & See Inspirations (C&SI)

On this weeks programme John talks to Gerard Hanley from Emmaus Centre in Dublin about the celebration of WYD2019 in Dublin by those pilgrims who couldn't make it to Panama. We have our regular reflection on the weekly Sunday Gospel as well as other notices and liturgical odds & ends.

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On this weeks programme John and Martina have an interview with Dr Mary Healy. Mary is a professor of scripture in Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit Michigan and a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Mary spoke to us about her experiences in Charismatic Renewal and Healing. She also spoke to us about family life and marriage.
Mary grew up in a “Sunday Mass catholic home”. Parents took her to mass on Sunday but had no other faith activity during the week.They had no prayer life to speak of. Then her parents went on a “Cursillo” retreat and both her parents had a deep conversion experience after which the rosary, the sacraments, and personal prayer became so important to them and they introduced their children to these also. Mary went to college, and as is quite common drifted from God due to having no prayer life. At end of college she was spiritually empty but went on to rediscover her relationship with God while attending in Steubenville University. Mary lived with a charismatic community in Maryland for several years and this taught her a great deal about getting to know God in a personal way and through the Cross and Resurrection.
Mary also shares with us about the Christian understanding of marriage and how repentance, giving and accepting forgiveness makes marriages strong and leads spouses to a deeper love for one another. One of the biggest obstacle to healing is unforgiveness. We need to be very careful about this in our lives and examine our conscience often. Forgive and allow God judge the person who has wounded us. With every Gift of the spirit it is God the Holy Spirit operating through us. The more intimate we are with Jesus the more we know His ways. We are like a musical instrument which the Holy Spirit “plays”...the more intimate we are with Jesus the “sweeter the tune”!!!!

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The Sacred Space Team were delighted to interview Sean Bloomfield (Director Producer) and Cimela Kidonakis (Producer/DP) about their new documentary Apparition Hill which opens in Omniplex Cinemas on October 7th (The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary). Apparition Hill is, as the tagline says, "a film about life... and what comes after." A film crew offered 7 free trips to a place of alleged miracles, Medjugorje, a little-known village nestled in between two mountains along the border of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia to film their experiences. Medjugorje has been a hotbed of debate as millions visit the town each year to see for themselves whether the legend is true: that Mary, the actual Mother of Jesus, has appeared to a select group of natives with regularity for the last 30 years. As of yet, the Catholic Church has declared no official ruling one way or another. The winners of the online video contest embarked on a journey seeking answers to life's questions.
Sean and Cimela share with us about their own experiences of Medjugorje, the video contest and the filming process. It is a truly moving account of what happens when you bring 7 strangers together to try to find answers to the questions we are all asking. The beauty of the documentary is it's completely unbiased view on whether or not Our Lady is truly appearing in the little village of Medjugorje. As Sean says in the trailer: "Medjugorje is either the greatest miracle since Jesus walked the earth or its the biggest hoax in the history of mankind."

Apparition Hill runs from October 7th to 13th. Whether you believe in Medjugorje or not, whether you are a believer or an unbeliever, even if you are simply curious about the phenomena of miracles and apparitions, you will find this documentary to be very moving. It is literally changing lives all over the world, and it has an opportunity to go to the Oscars! Throughout the last few months, several members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences® have been deeply touched by Apparition Hill. Read more about this HERE. To find out more about the film and its crowd-funding initiative HERE.
Sean was also helped to write the auto-biography of one of the visionaries, Mirjana Soldo. Mirjana was only 16 years old when she and five other children saw a mysterious young woman on a remote hillside in the village of Medjugorje, then part of Yugoslavia. The woman - who possessed a beauty and grace that seemed to come from beyond - identified herself as the Virgin Mary. The apparitions that began on the afternoon of June 24, 1981 would dramatically change Mirjana’s life and the lives of countless people around the world. This auto-biography gives an excellent insight into Mirjana's personal experiences of the apparitions and her struggles under communism. It is receiving five star reviews on Amazon and is a real page-turner. If you would like to find out more about Mirjana's book HERE (it is also available from The Book Depository HERE or Amazon HERE).

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On this week's programme Fr. John Mockler of the Servi Della Sofferenza (Servants of Suffering) chats with Lorraine about the upcoming triduum in honour of St. Padre Pio which will be held in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Newcastle West, Co. Limerick, from September 21st to 23rd 2016
Fr. John begins by explaining why he has organised a triduum in honour of St. Pio and why St. Pio is the saint for our times. St. Pio, who was the first priest who had the stigmata (the wounds of Christ), is the saint for our times, because in bearing the wounds of Jesus, he witnessed to the fact of the Resurrection in his wounds.
St. Pio also participated in the redemptive suffering of Jesus, as St. Paul says: "completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church" (Col 1:24). By uniting his suffering with that of Christ he was able to bring many people back to Christ in the confessional. For this reason, Pope Francis named him a 'Servant of Mercy' and one of the patrons for the Year of Mercy.
Fr. John speaks to us about the spirituality of St. Pio and what message he has both for young people and those who are not so young.
Fr. John also shares about his own devotion to St. Pio and how he came to hear about and became a consecrated priest of the secular institute of the Servi Della Sofferenza (The Servants of Suffering) which Our Lady requested be set up to continue the work of St. Pio in the world.
The triduum in honour of St. Pio will include an opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation as St. Pio is the saint of the confessional, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the rosary and veneration of and blessing with the first class relic of St. Pio.
A first class relic contains a part of the saint's body, in this case it is part of a bandage that contains the blood of St. Pio. Of course, as we know relics are not magic, nor are they to be used superstitiously. When we venerate the relics of a saint we are professing our belief in:
"(1) the belief in everlasting life for those who have obediently witnessed to Christ and His Holy Gospel here on earth; (2) the truth of the resurrection of the body for all persons on the last day; (3) the doctrine of the splendour of the human body and the respect which all should show toward the bodies of both the living and the deceased; (4) the belief in the special intercessory power which the saints enjoy in heaven because of their intimate relationship with Christ the King; and (5) the truth of our closeness to the saints because of our connection in the communion of saints we as members of the Church militant or pilgrim Church, they as members of the Church triumphant." (H/T to the Catholic Education Resource Center where you can read more about the Catholic understanding of relics HERE).

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So we are coming to the end of the month of October and in the northern hemisphere and particularly in Ireland the dark days of winter are coming in. So on the podcast this week we resurrect a chat that John and myself had in 2017 about who and what are the saints in the tradition of the church ahead of the great festival of All Saints on November 1st.
All Saints
As the clocks change this weekend and the evenings have firmly drawn in, we head into Samhain (November) and the dark days of Winter here in Ireland. As the earth heads into hibernation and rebirth, the ancient Celts saw this time as a "thin place" between this world and the next. All Hallows Eve (Halloween) and the celebrations of All Saints and All Soul's are a reminder to us that our nearest and dearest who have died are not really that far away and that we honour and pray for and with each other in the Communion of Saints especially at this time of the year.
On November 1st, the Church celebrates all the saints: canonized or beatified, and the multitude of those who are in heaven enjoying the beatific vision that are only known to God. During the early centuries the Saints venerated by the Church were all martyrs. Later on the Popes set November 1 as the day for commemorating all the Saints.
We all have this "universal call to holiness." What must we to do in order to join the company of the saints in heaven? We "must follow in His footsteps and conform [our]selves to His image seeking the will of the Father in all things. [We] must devote [our]selves with all [our] being to the glory of God and the service of [our] neighbor. In this way, the holiness of the People of God will grow into an abundant harvest of good, as is admirably shown by the life of so many saints in Church history" (Lumen Gentium, 40).
"For centuries the church has confronted the human community with role models of greatness. We call them saints when what we really often mean to say is 'icon,' 'star,' 'hero,' ones so possessed by an internal vision of divine goodness that they give us a glimpse of the face of God in the center of the human. They give us a taste of the possibilities of greatness in ourselves."— Joan D. Chittister in "A Passion for Life"
"When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and ignore all the others. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy. Being highly skilled in some activity or profession is good, but it will not satisfy us unless we aim for something greater still. It might make us famous, but it will not make us happy. Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places. The key to it is very simple - true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only he can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts."

Text us at +353 874668950 or email at comeandseeinspirtaions@gmail.com