Letter from Dublin World Meeting of Families - 3

Another Prayer Space is the Monastery of the Poor Clare's, which happens to be besides the RDS, where Jesus in the Eucharist is also exposed. In front of the Monastery is an eco garden including a well to remind us about the gift of water and a stall where we were shown the fantastic minute life in a sample of water taken from a Dublin river.

Bishop Brian Farrell lead a workshop "Marriage, the Family and the Search for Christian Unity". In his role as Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity he says he trys to ensure that Christian Unity is kept on the local churches agenda. The time is right to discuss with other denominations the different understanding of Marriage as most of the Reformed Churches don't believe it to be a sacrament. He considered the Orthodox Marriage Liturgy emphasised the lifelong journey which the sacrament is better than the Catholic one. We were pleased he quoted from an Association of Interchurch Families document and that he did understand the difference in need between those separated Christians, united in the Sacrament of Matrimony to a Catholic Christian, seeking to receive Holy Communion in the Catholic Church and other Christians.

The keynote speaker in the afternoon was Cardinal Mario Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio to Syria who brought brought home in grafic detail the atrocities the people of Syria are facing, despite which, they still try to support and help each other.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is celebrated in twelve pods in the balcony overlooking the stalls. To solve the problem of the long queue that afternoon, in typical Catholic fashion, the volunteers recruited priests from the stalls which doubled the number of available spaces.

Our afternoon Eucharist was celebrated by Cardinal Kevin Farrell who is responsible for the Laity and Family Life. Referring to the day's Gospel in his homily he likened Nathanael's question "Can anything good come out of Nazereth?" to people questioning today "Can anything good come out of the family?" the response being the same "Come and see". Following a sunny clear blue sky, a downpour after Holy Communion sent the congregation rushing for shelter leaving the Bishops and Priests in front of the Altar getting drenched but we were treated this time to a beautiful double rainbow.

To my surprise and delight, despite the number of people present, Holy Communion was distributed in both kinds each day. At the Sign of Peace it was good that everyone made eye contact. The music was wonderful and a lot of work had obviously gone into preparing the three Eucharists. Thank you everyone.

In the evening we had to rush back to Balally as the parish was entertaining us pilgrims to another generous spread. A bishop from Guatemala joined us and fellow pilgrims entertained us with songs and some dances from Guatemala, Mexico, Croatia and of course the host country Ireland.