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From the Postulator’s Desk

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Autumn 2011

From the Postulator’s Desk:

No.32, Autumn 2011,

Donal Blake CFC, Edmund Rice Postulator

Greetings from a mellow North Richmond Street, Dublin. The autumn leaves are swirling in the breeze under the gaze of a watery sun. Dublin itself is awash with blue flags, its Gaelic Football team having recently defeated old rivals Kerry in a rip-roaring All-Ireland Final at Croke Park before a crowd of 82,000 spectators. Sadly, my native Cork was not involved this year. Croke Park is just over our garden wall!

This, for reasons spelt out towards the end of this letter, may well be my final letter to you in the series ‘From the Postulator’s Desk.’ Thanks for your company over the past eight years, and may God bless you all.

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Edmund Rice Cause

I am very conscious that there are different constituencies that have an interest and a stake in the Edmund Rice Cause, and, as Roman Postulator, I have found myself endeavouring, formally or informally, to be answerable to them all:

(1) Congregation of Christian Brothers (CFC),

(2) Congregation of Presentation Brothers (FPM),

(3) Edmund Rice Network (ERN) and similar Associates,

(4) People of Callan, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland - the Westcourt connection (1762),

(5) People of Waterford – the Mount Sion connection (1802, 1844),

(6) The Catholic Church in Ireland,

(7) The Diocese of Ossory, where Edmund was born,

(8) The Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, where Edmund started the Brothers,

(9) The Diocese of Cork, where the Presentation Brothers developed separately (1827),

(10) The Archdiocese of Dublin, where Edmund lived 1831-1838, and which promoted the Cause for Edmund’s Beatification in 1996,

(11) The Catholic Church worldwide,

(12) The Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Vatican City, Rome,

(13) Devout individuals who have a personal devotion to Blessed Edmund.

All of these groups may have differing perceptions of Blessed Edmund Rice and what he stood for. Some may see him as a remarkable historical figure of the past, while others may see his spirit alive and well, with a message and a challenge for today’s world and today’s Church. Some may have a personal devotion to him and a deeply felt gratitude for favours received. Others may not be all that interested in his historical legacy, but may marvel at the wonderful enthusiasm and inspiration of people, young and not so young, who work in movements such as the Edmund Rice Camps (ERC) and Edmund Rice Schools Trust (ERST). For some, Canonisation may not be all that important in the greater scheme of things, while, for others, the day of Edmund’s Canonisation cannot come too soon! The reality is that we all believe that Blessed Edmund is already with God and that Canonisation, if and when it comes, is always for the edification and inspiration of the rest of us. We do our best, of course, by prayer and action, to bring about the incarnation of Edmund’s spirit among us. The late Brother John E. Carroll, that great servant and advocate of Blessed Edmund, used to say that if we do not canonise Edmund in our hearts first, then formal Canonisation may take a long time.

In the meantime, we still await that elusive healing miracle that may very well decide the outcome of our campaign for Edmund’s Canonisation. We participate in Novenas, Masses, historical commemorations, publicity drives and special campaigns of prayer. All the background paperwork has been concluded. All the time, there is a trickle of accounts from various parts of the world of remarkable outcomes of prayer through the intercession of Blessed Edmund. I take note of all of these, and each time I muse: ‘Is this the one?’ I have investigated most of these, and have got the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (CCS) in Rome to take a preliminary look at them. I spent a period of time in Rome during the month of June this current year when I had long discussions with our Congregation Leadership Team and with Monsignor Robert Sarno of the CCS at the Vatican about the progress or otherwise of the Cause. For one reason or another, all of the reported Favours - whether they came about after a campaign of prayer to Blessed Edmund or after a blessing with one of his first-class relics – were deemed to be deficient in one or other of the CCS’s criteria for a miraculous cure, and no further investigation was advised. Very often, the surgeons and consultants involved were non-committal or even hostile, and sometimes the patients themselves were not willing to undergo further medical examination. At a personal level, this can be dispiriting. But, of course, there is our time – and God’s time!

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Friday, 1 June 2012:

250th Anniversary of Edmund Rice’s Birth

[Tuesday, 1st June 1762]

Anniversaries are times to reflect and to celebrate, and what better time than the 250th anniversary next year of Blessed Edmund’s birth at Westcourt, Callan, Co. Kilkenny! I have checked to see if there is a special word for 250th anniversary, and I find there is a number of Latin-derived terms, the simplest being ‘Semiquincentennial’ (literally half of 500th anniversary) and ‘Quarter-millennial’ (literally quarter of 1000 years anniversary)! I think, on reflection, that 250th Anniversary is simpler!

Anyway, next year, on Friday, 1st June 2012, Edmund’s followers in Christian Brother, Presentation Brother and Edmund Rice Network circles of influence will honour the birth of Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice, their founder and inspiration, in ways yet to be decided and in various parts of the world. Naturally, one would expect a major local celebration in Callan, Co. Kilkenny, the actual place of his birth. I expect that Edmund’s followers in Ireland and the people of Callan will see to that. Worldwide and Congregation-wide, I expect it will be a time of reflection on what Edmund’s birth and life have bequeathed to today’s world and today’s Church and on how and where we may have deviated from Edmund’s spirit. Since “tomorrow began yesterday”, to use the memorable phrase of a New Zealand Marist, there will be much prayerful soul-searching on the strengths of the Edmundian message as a way forward into the future,

In line with this positive approach, the CLT of the Christian Brothers has spent 40 full days, over a period of more than a year, in prayer, reflection, research and discussion with a view to proposing a positive and Spirit-filled rebirth, in line with the 2008 General Chapter at Munnar, India. They presented their process, A Way into the Future, at a meeting of Province and Region Leaders in Lusaka, Zambia, at Pentecost this year. A group of 35 Brothers and others with particular expertise representing the wider Edmund Rice Network (ERN) will meet in Nairobi, Kenya, 2 – 7 October, to work in what are called five “Spark Groups” over the next six months. Appropriately, the plan for rebirth will be launched on 1 June 2012 at Emmaus Retreat and Conference Centre, Dublin, in Edmund’s native Ireland, on the 250th Anniversary of the birthday of Blessed Edmund. Hopefully, the plan outlined on Edmund’s Birthday next year will chart the Edmundian approach until the next Congregation Chapter due to be held in 2014.

Meanwhile, the newly-elected Leadership Team of the Presentation Brothers, fresh from their Congregation Chapter at Emmaus Retreat Centre in July 2011, will reflect on their own perspective on 1st June 2012. We congratulate them as they take up their new roles: Martin Kenneally (Leader, re-elected), Rupert O’Sullivan (Deputy Leader, West Africa), Denis Claivaz (Canada + Geneva), Barry Noel (West Indies), Walter Hurley (Ireland). Needless to say, they, too, will have a plan for next year’s commemorations. Long may the historical bonds between the Presentation Sisters (PBVM), the Presentation Brothers (FPM) and the Christian Brothers (CFC) continue to flourish under the benign inspiration of Nano and Edmund.

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Book Launch:

The Way of the People: Folk Church, Domestic Church,

Edited by Br Leo Canny CFC

At a pleasant function in Marino Institute of Education (MIE), Dublin, in late May 2011, the long-awaited Way of the People was launched by Dr Daithí Ó hÓgáin, Professor at Folklore Department, UCD. Because of health problems, Br Leo Dorotheus Canny (85), its editor, had just removed to a nursing home, and so the launch was more low-key than originally intended.

“Have you ever wondered what it must have been like to grow up in a country where, for many years, the Catholic Faith of the majority of the population, mainly Gaelic-speaking, was proscribed by an unsympathetic Government , totally English-speaking, during a period dominated by the Penal Laws?” Such was the fate of Blessed Edmund Rice (1762-1844), Founder of the Presentation and Christian Brothers. The late Br Liam Philip Canny CFC, a brilliant researcher and social historian and author of many books, tried to answer that question posed to him in the 1980s by former Superior General, Canadian-born Br Gabriel McHugh CFC. Thus began a long saga of research, including a period as Loftus Research Fellow at Iona College, NY. Liam trawled through the enormous Irish language manuscript collections of the Royal Irish Academy and of the Irish Franciscans, among many, as well as the holdings of the Irish Folklore Commission, in an attempt to arrive at an authoritative answer to the question posed. Because, however, of many other literary commitments and the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease, Liam at his death in 2001 left behind him a large but uncompleted collection of chapters written in the Irish language of his attempt to complete The Way of the People: Folk Church, Domestic Church, research into the values, faith beliefs, practices, superstitions of the Roman Catholic people of Ireland during the period between the Battle of Kinsale (1601) and the Great Hunger (1845-1847).

Liam’s brother, Br Leo Canny CFC, a scholar in his own right, decided to try and prepare his brother’s research for publication, and thus began another saga. During a visit to Ireland from Rome in 2005, I agreed to be his unofficial editor and to help in any way I could. I was to continue in this role during frequent visits to Ireland, until I finally returned to Dublin at the end of 2007. From that time until publication in mid-2011, I visited Leo in Drimnagh Castle approximately once a fortnight. Early on, it was decided that, to reach a greater international audience, Liam’s magnum opus would need to be translated from its original Irish into English. A team of voluntary translators, all fluent in both English and Irish, was recruited: Brothers Liam McInerney, Martin Fahy, Brian Ó Foiréis CFC, and Fr Seán Ó Duinn OSB, Glenstal Abbey. Since the text came to over 1000 pages A4, the next task undertaken by Leo and myself was to abridge the English version by two thirds, not an easy task. Because of Liam’s developing Alzheimer’s, unintentional repetition had occurred. The book finally settled into 27 chapters and about 350 pages, and a team of proof-readers checked the final version of each chapter as it appeared on Leo’s computer. The team consisted of Br Leo Judge, Dr Ben Cunningham, Br PJ McMahon, Dr John Boylan – and myself.

There were many hiccups along the way, including disagreement over what to include or exclude of Liam’s vast array of detailed footnotes. In the end, Leo graciously decided to lodge all of Liam’s original papers in the European Province Archives, Marino, Dublin, for the convenience of scholars. A further crisis occurred when Leo’s computer was stolen in early 2010, containing the final version of all the chapters. Initially, Leo was inclined to give up. Luckily, however, about ten versions of each chapter, at different stages of editing, survived on discs, and Rory Geoghegan’s computer wizardry and painful rereading and rechecking by Leo and others finally recovered the most up-to-date version of the intended book. This pushed back the publication date by several months. It is no wonder that by this stage Leo almost considered the book his work rather than that of his brother!

Publication date almost became a non-event as Leo, in the throes of advanced diabetes, was transferred to St Patrick’s Nursing Home, Baldoyle, from the more familiar surroundings of Drimnagh Castle. The printer/publisher had been chosen because of his proximity to Drimnagh Castle, but now Leo was in Baldoyle, north of the city, and about 15 miles distant. Because of Leo’s illness, no final plans were made about the book’s distribution.

Cardinal Seán Brady, Primate of All Ireland, states in the introduction:

“The book sets out to track as accurately and exhaustively as possible the religious mind of Gaelic Ireland, mainly through the immense manuscript literature and oral heritage of the language. Significantly, it does this for the first time. It is that rare treasure, a book that breaks new ground.”

It is an essential tool for anyone who wishes to explore how home influences played a role in the formation of Edmund Rice. Up to now, most of our sources for a study of Edmund Rice and his time were English-language based which mainly dealt with conditions in the few larger towns and cities. The book, as published, is a tribute to the zeal, diligence and scholarship of both Canny brothers, Liam and Leo – ‘all the brothers were valiant.’ The book (350 pages) retails at €30 hardback and €20 paperback.

For an update on distribution details, please contact:

Br Leo Canny CFC, Cowper Care, St Patrick’s Nursing Home, Baldoyle, Dublin 13.

Tel. +353-86-331 5728 (Local: 086-331 5728)

Poetry and Edmund – Br Brendan MacCárthaigh, India

Br Brendan MacCárthaigh is an Irishman who has worked in India for many years. A gifted musician and poet, he has identified with the down-and-outs in Kolkata, and is involved with a movement called the Serve Centre which works very closely with those at the margins of society. He sees it as a great injustice that such a large portion of Indian society is denied an education that those whose parents are more well-to-do can purchase for their offspring. Brendan has taken to living simply with them while striving for education reform. He has reflected long and hard about the anomalies of religious life where, despite the vow of poverty, we do not have the worries that many of our brothers and sisters have, especially at this time of recession.

His hero is Blessed Edmund Rice (1762-1844), the wealthy merchant in Waterford who “had it all” but took the radical decision to give up the prestige of a rich lifestyle to identify with the poor in 19th century Ireland and provide them with an education that was the key to liberate them from a state of ignorance and poverty. He has written a series of Six Sonnets all reflecting on key moments in Edmund’s journey. I reproduce below one of the six – I hope it gives you food for thought. I feel that all six should be unveiled for a wider audience. If you would like to contact Brendan, his email address is: serve@vsnl.net, and he resides at St Joseph’s College, KOLKATA (formerly Calcutta):

5. RESIGNS FROM SUPERIOR-GENERALSHIP 1838

"This is my body." So: my hour is come.

The body I have led until today

I must surrender. Father, take away

My fear of following your suffering son.

Shall senile scorn sour me when I resign?

Shall disillusion dull me from your will?

I love my brothers: shall I love them still

For seeing visions, dreaming dreams, not mine?

What if my body's tortured by dissent,

Betrayed by blindness into foreign hands,

Straitened by Law, misunderstood by friends,

And crucified as disobedient?

Here at your daily Calvary, my Lord and God,

Your lifelong love dissolves my fear: "This is my blood."

-BMacC

Some Other Anniversaries, 2012

In addition to the 250th anniversary of Edmund’s birth that is being celebrated in 2012, there are some other interesting anniversaries next year that should be of interest to the followers of Blessed Edmund Rice (This the Congregation Historian in me coming to the surface!). These include:

(1) Bicentenary of the opening of the Brothers’ First School in Dublin in 1812 at Hanover Street in St Andrew’s Parish, south of the River Liffey:

Dublin was to become the greatest concentration of the Christian Brothers and their schools in Ireland. Br Thomas Grosvenor, one of Edmund Rice’s first two companions at Mount Sion, Waterford, was the founding Superior. This school, in a converted warehouse serving the sailing ships at nearby Sir John Rogerson Quay, was succeeded by a purpose-built school at Westland Row in the same parish in 1864. Thomas Grosvenor left the Brothers to become a diocesan priest in Dublin in 1822. He died of cholera heroically contracted during an epidemic while hearing the Confessions of his poor parishioners in Irishtown in 1827. A plaque honours his sacrifice in the porch of Donnybrook Church. Other early foundations in Dublin were at Mill Street in 1818 and James’s Street in 1820. These led the way for the Brothers’ first purpose-built Generalate and Novitiate at North Richmond Street (1828), beside the soon-to-be famous O’Connell Schools named after the great Daniel O’Connell MP, the hero of Catholic Emancipation, and a personal friend of Edmund Rice.

(2) 150th Anniversary of the Death of Br Michael Paul Riordan in 1862

Br Michael Paul Riordan, a member of the Cork Community, was Edmund Rice’s successor as Superior General of the Christian Brothers in 1838. In God’s Providence, he was to provide much suffering and misunderstanding for Blessed Edmund in his old age. He had the unenviable task of following in the footsteps of Blessed Edmund as Congregation Leader, a difficult act to follow. A compromise appointee at the General Chapter of 1838, he suspected that not all the Brothers reacted cordially to his appointment, and, initially, he ruled by edict rather than by consultation. With his Francophile tendencies, he even had notions of grafting Edmund Rice’s Brothers onto the French De La Salle Order! He caused many a heartache for Blessed Edmund in his retirement. He eventually turned out to be an excellent administrator of schools, mellowed with age, and his promotion of the publication of their own schoolbooks by the Brothers led to the fame and efficiency of the Brothers’ schools being recognised even beyond the shores of Ireland. He died at North Richmond Street, Dublin on 17 February 1862, aged 73, having been Superior General for 24 years. He should not be confused with Br Michael Augustine Riordan, also a member of the Cork Community and no relation of M.P. Riordan, who seceded from the North Monastery in 1826 to become founding Superior of the South Monastery, Cork, the first foundation of the distinct Presentation Brothers who wished to remain under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Cork rather than under Edmund Rice.

(3) Centenary of the Death of Br Patrick Ambrose Treacy (1834-1912),

Hero of the Australian Christian Brothers

Australia became one of the most fruitful and prolific arenas for the educational and religious activities of the Christian Brothers worldwide. The vast Oceania Province today includes not only Australia but New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, The Cook Islands, East Timor (Timor Leste) and the Philippines. Brothers from this vast Province have also gone as missionaries to India, China and Africa. Much of the credit for this must go to the heroic exploits of Co. Tipperary-born Ambrose Treacy. After an abortive attempt in Sydney in 1842-1847, stymied by the ‘Benedictinising’ attempts of Archbishop Polding OSB, the Brothers simply left and returned to Ireland. They were later to return to Australia, this time to Melbourne, in 1868, under the entrepreneurial leadership of Brother Ambrose Treacy. Despite being so far distant from the Generalate in Dublin, Br Treacy, with very little resources and always appealing for more Brothers, founded a huge network of Catholic day schools and boarding schools right across the vast continent of Australia. He even visited many of the mining camps and sheep-farms on horseback to collect funds for the new schools, and was not disappointed. He began to recruit novices locally, since the outflow from Ireland could not keep pace with the demands of the new foundations. A man of action and great lateral thinking, as well as a loyal, devoted follower of Edmund Rice, he must have been devastated to be recalled to Dublin, admittedly on promotion, to become a member of the Brothers’ General Council after the General Chapter of 1900. During his ten years back in Ireland, he, with his vast experience of school building in Australia, became unofficial clerk-of-works for the construction of the new Generalate and Novitiate, St Mary’s, Marino, and one of the main fundraisers. During his ten-year period as Assistant to the Superior General, he was a good ‘friend in court’ for the expanding Australian and New Zealand network of CB schools. In an age of daunting and time-consuming travel, he undertook their onerous Visitation on behalf of the Superior General, even including a visit to the Brothers at Gibraltar on his way out, and returned to Dublin exhausted after an absence of ten months. At the end of his ten-year spell in Dublin, although in poor health, he was happy to return to his beloved Australia in 1910. There he died two years later, aged 78, and is buried at Nudgee College, Queensland. Knowing the flair of Australians, I am sure that the centenary will be marked appropriately. I do know that Br Regis Hickey, former Edmund Rice Postulator, has been engaged in exhaustive research into Br Treacy’s correspondence in a follow-up to the excellent biography by the late Br Kenneth K. O’Donoghue published in 1983.

Personal: My Time as Postulator Comes To an End

Those of you who know me personally will be aware that my health has been causing problems in recent years. In August 2008, shortly after returning to Ireland from residing in Rome, I attended a Chapter of the European Province at the University of Limerick where I suffered what is colloquially called a blood clot on the brain. I have no memory of that week, but I was moved, first to Limerick Regional Hospital where I had a CAT-Scan and, later, to Cork University Hospital, where I underwent brain surgery. I made a good recovery, but I still suffer from high blood pressure, eye problems and pernicious anaemia. Medication helps, but I occasionally suffer from vertigo. Driving is no longer an option.

I made a commitment after the brain operation to continue as Postulator for a further three years. That time is now completed, and, after consultation with the Christian Brothers’ Leadership Team in Rome, it was felt that, for my own sake and for the Edmund Rice Cause, now might be a good time to step down. In the meantime the leadership teams of the Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers will discern to choose my successor. I retain my other hat as Congregation Historian and may now, with a little more leisure time, be able to devote my diminished energies to a few favourite research projects that I could never previously find time for. God is good, but, humanly, I’m a little sad.

I would have liked, I suppose, that Blessed Edmund would have been canonised on my watch, but God views time differently! I take comfort from the fact that I did my best while I could. I worked full-time at our Generalate Archives in Rome in the period 1981-1986 completing the historical research required for the advancement of Edmund’s Cause to Beatification level, under the instruction of the late Br Columba Normoyle, Promoter of the Cause, and of the late Fr Dermot Cox OFM, the then Postulator of the Cause. I returned to Ireland in 1986 and was involved as a member of the teacher education staffs at Marino Institute of Education (MIE), Dublin and Newman University College, Birmingham, UK, and in the setting up of the St Helen’s Province Education Office in Clonkeen Road, Blackrock. I never lost my interest in Edmund and his Cause, and in 1994 I produced the first of three editions of a short biography of Edmund and chaired the committee that prepared the special International Mass broadcast on Irish television that honoured the 150th anniversary of Edmund’s death in 1844.

I had the privilege of attending Edmund’s Beatification ceremony in Rome in October 1996. In September 2003, I returned full-time to the Cause, being appointed Roman Postulator. Since then, from a base in Rome and, later, in Dublin, I have organised Novenas, given lectures, written articles, distributed memorabilia, prepared celebration of Edmund Rice Masses, sent out an international Newsletter, answered queries of a historical and theological nature from hundreds of Brothers and other clients of Edmund worldwide. I have been elated at the enthusiasm for Edmund that exists among young and not so young. I have been disappointed, too, at times, by the failure of some to communicate timely information about Edmund-related events in different parts of the globe.

In late 2007, I suffered the inconvenience of moving my office from Rome to Dublin (due to the downsizing of our Roman property). This involved the transport and reinstallation of several containers of books and documents. Then, as mentioned above, I suffered a debilitating but life-saving brain operation in August 2008. In March 2011, I suffered the indignity of some person unknown hacking into my email and sending out a false begging letter in my name, destroying my password in the process. I never managed to get back my email address book, losing the details of hundreds, if not thousands, of clients of Blessed Edmund. The email addresses of the Brothers I was able to find elsewhere, but there are hundreds of laypeople out there whose details I have lost. I have had to get a new email address to continue. Maybe Edmund was telling me that it was time to let go! Like St Paul, I find myself “boasting” of my infirmities!

I would like to say a sincere ‘Thank You’ to all who co-operated with me. Thanks in particular to Br Philip Pinto CFC who recommended my appointment to the CCS at the Vatican in 2003, and to Brothers Martin Kenneally, Donatus Brazil and Bede Minehane FPM who acted as Vice-Postulators in turn since 2003. A special word of thanks is due to the Rome and North Richmond Street communities who have housed, fed and tolerated me and my moods in my time as Postulator. I intend, of course, to continue spreading the message of Edmund, but in a less pressurised way. I wish my successor God’s blessing, Mary’s protection and Edmund’s guidance

God bless you all and may Blessed Edmund lead you all into the future –

Donal Blake CFC

Christian Brothers

*Edmund Rice House

North Richmond Street

Dublin 1, Ireland

*Blessed Edmund Rice lived in this House, 1831-1838.

It will shortly be refurbished to house a larger community.

In the 1960s it housed as many as 45 Brothers.

- Feast of St Francis of Assisi,

- Brotherhood Day

- Anniversary of Death of Colm Keating CFC, 1999

- 4 October 2011

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From the Postulator's Desk

No. 31 September 2010

Donal S. Blake CFC, Edmund Rice Postulator

As I sit writing this letter, Pope Benedict XVI has just touched down in the UK at the beginning of his State Visit there. The late John Paul II in 1982 merely came on a pastoral visit. This time the Pope is being received as Head of the Vatican State by Queen Elizabeth at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, and will later meet the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister in London. This is truly a great historic occasion, hopefully putting to rest centuries of Penal Laws against Catholics and bringing closer together the two great Christian groupings of Anglicans and Roman Catholics.

Blessed John Henry Newman

One of the main events of the Pope’s visit to Britain is the Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890) on Sunday 19th September at Birmingham. One of the great scholars of the Oxford Movement, Newman is revered by both Anglicans and Roman Catholics as one who was eminently true to his conscience. His advocacy of the Church as ‘The People of God’, long before the Second Vatican Council promoted the same concept, and of an educated Catholic laity, should highly recommend Blessed John Henry Newman to the worldwide Edmund Rice Network. His insistence that education is much wider than the mere transmission of skills – it is, in fact, holistic preparation for both time and eternity – is the underlying philosophy of Christian Brother and Presentation Brother schools from the days of Blessed Edmund Rice. So Christian Education now has a new Patron and Advocate before the throne of God.

Speaking to a male audience, Newman once summarised the product of education as “a Gentleman, a Scholar, and a Saint.” The central theme of the Pope’s visit to Britain is based on a phrase found in Newman’s vast writings – “Heart speaks unto heart”[Cor ad cor loquitur]. So, despite Newman’s enviable intellectual capacity, he urges us to reach out and speak not just head-to-head but heart-to-heart. If there is not an engagement of hearts, there may never be an engagement of minds. It reminds us of the prayer used by the Brothers at the end of their religious exercises, “Live Jesus in our hearts forever.” It reminds us too of Ricean spirituality which emphasises “the providential presence of God in our lives, and to respond to Christ present and appealing to us in the poor.”

Long before Vatican II, Newman saw the value of going back to our roots – if we do not know where we are coming from, how can we plan with any enthusiasm for today’s and tomorrow’s journey? It was by Newman returning to the Church Fathers and the Scriptures that he identified the orthodoxy and authenticity of the Roman Church. Thus the importance of history. So we are challenged to return to our Gospel and Edmundian origins so that we can advance into the future to serve today’s world and today’s Church in the true spirit of Blessed Edmund. Blessed John Henry Newman’s hymn, ‘Lead Kindly Light Amid the Encircling Gloom,’ should give us peace and confidence in our search. With him, in another of his hymns, we realise that the aim of all our journeying is: ‘Praise to the Holiest in the Height’.

An attractive challenge that Newman throws down is the use of IMAGINATION in the promotion of the Church and its institutions and ministries. Taking up this challenge, I now urge the readers of this communication to share with me how imagination might be harnessed to promote the Canonisation of Blessed Edmund Rice and the various ministries, projects and endeavours undertaken under his inspiration. By ‘imagination’ I think Newman means not only the use of images in a new way but imaginative approaches to what we are about – in fact, lateral thinking. I can be reached with your imaginative suggestions at postulatorcfc@gmail.com

Our congratulations reach out to the various Newman Societies and to schools and colleges named after the new ‘Beatus’ - there are several in the British Midlands– but I think in particular of Newman College, Buenos Aires, Argentina, founded by the Christian Brothers in 1948. I wonder, too, would it be a bridge too far in these secular times “amid the encircling gloom” for University College Dublin (UCD), the present day descendant of Newman’s 1854 Catholic University, for whom he wrote ‘The Idea of a University’, to consider a name change to Newman University? Would this be an over-use of “imagination”, the term used by Newman all those years ago? I also remember with special affection Newman University College, Birmingham, where I spent two happy and fruitful years, 1990-1992, as Newman Postgraduate Research Fellow, in preparation for the establishment in Ireland of the St Helen’s Education Office in 1992.

Blessed John Henry Newman, pray for us and our educational endeavours.

Edmund Rice Cause and Miracles

People keep enquiring about the progress of the Edmund Rice Cause and the role of miracles. I am very conscious that because of recent bouts of ill-health I haven’t been as attentive as I would have liked. My present term as Roman Postulator comes to an end next summer and I will then have to consider my future role in the Edmund Rice Cause. Returning to miracles, there is both encouragement and disappointment in this area. There is encouragement in the number of people from all over the world who write in to claim that through the intercession of Blessed Edmund Rice their prayers have been answered. Many indeed claim to have experienced a physical or spiritual healing through such prayers. All of this is encouragement that there is true devotion to Blessed Edmund out there. Monsignor Robert Sarno, my mentor at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Rome, keeps reassuring me that everything, bar the approval of a miracle, is now in place for Edmund’s canonisation. He says we should bombard heaven, being always mindful that there is our time – and God’s time. We should, too, be mindful of the saying: “Act as if everything depends on you; pray as if everything depends on God.”

The disappointment comes from the fact that the vast majority of ‘cures’ that we have on file do not generate sufficient medical evidence to convince the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome, despite the fact that the people involved are convinced that there has been an exceptional answer to their prayers. Thus, we have had reports of ‘cures’ in Cork, Waterford, Callan, St Lucia, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Liverpool, Toronto, India, to name but a few locations. An added disappointment is that I only hear about some possible cures, merely by accident, despite the many requests to Provinces and Regions to forward all information. One Region (whose blushes I wish to spare)) has still not forwarded details of a supposed ‘cure’ that occurred over two years ago, despite several requests from me and promises from them! Maybe we don’t wish to have Edmund canonised? As we all know, miracles do not grow on trees

The advance of medical science makes it more difficult to prove that what has happened is indeed a miracle. Blessed Dominic Barberi (1792-1849), the Passionist who received Blessed John Henry Newman into the Church in 1845, was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1964. Since then, nothing! I see from an old newspaper clipping of mine (1984) that his then Postulator, Fr Eugene Keenan CP, stated with a sigh: “Miracles are always a problem.” Fr James Walsh SJ, another Postulator from the 1980s, claimed 25 cases for miracles for one particular Cause – and all were turned down! When a journalist put it to him that miracles are becoming hard to come by, he replied: “You could say that having to go through these astringent tests sorts out the men from the boys! It is a big claim one is making after all. What might happen is that miracles will change from the physical to the moral type; a hardened non-believer becoming converted could then be considered.”

I suppose, at one level, the greatest miracle is that good works arising from the inspiration of Edmund Rice continue hundred of years after the time he lived and worked in our world. Anniversaries often trigger off a surge in enthusiasm. The date, 1 June 2012, will mark the 250^th anniversary of the birth of Blessed Edmund Rice. I suggest that we set about a vigorous campaign of prayer for an accepted miracle between now and 1 June 2012.

2012: 250^th Anniversary of the Birth of Blessed Edmund Rice

As mentioned briefly above, 1 June 2012 marks the 250^th anniversary of the birth of Blessed Edmund Rice in 1762 at Westcourt, Callan. Without this wondrous event in the family of Robert and Margaret Rice 250 years ago in the troubled Penal Days of Ireland’s past history, Irish educational and religious history might have panned out differently. True, the Servant of God, Nano Nagle, had taken up the challenge to Ireland’s Catholic laity to provide appropriate Catholic education for girls, by founding the Presentation Sisters in Cork in 1775. But if there was no Edmund Rice, to whom would she have passed on the torch for the Catholic education of boys? Recent research I have undertaken connected with the bicentenary of the founding of the North Monastery, Cork, in 1811, suggests that Bishop Moylan of Cork would have encouraged the foundation of a congregation of Presentation Brothers without any connection with Edmund Rice’s venture in Mount Sion, Waterford.

Which brings me back to the celebrations in 2012. I am sure that Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers and various manifestations of the Edmund Rice Network will wish to honour the occasion in a meaningful way. But at the moment there are so many different groupings and organisations sharing in one way or another in the life and heritage of Blessed Edmund Rice (Just look at the many websites that are listed if one types in ‘Edmund Rice’) that I wonder at times if the whole Edmund Rice ‘thing’ is in danger of being diluted. Despite my best efforts, I am not always informed of what is being planned by various groups. Where does the Edmund Rice Postulator fit in to all of this? I speak merely as being anxious not to lose the window of opportunity in the promotion of Edmund as Saint that could and should be provided by a well-thought out plan of campaign for the celebration of 2012. By the way, I have not the slightest ambition (or, indeed, ability or energy) to wish to take over any of the functions of the many excellent Edmund Rice-connected organisations that are already achieving excellent results for young people and others in today’s world and today’s Church. Any suggestions? Please get in touch.

‘EDMUND RICE – Restoring the Circle to the Celtic Cross’

Book on Edmund Rice by Br Peter Hardiman CFC,

[Private Publication] Brisbane, Australia, July 2010

A new book, a labour of love, quite a few years in gestation, by Australian Christian Brother, Peter Hardiman, has just been produced. Because of a mailing hiccup, I hadn’t got my hands on my own personal eagerly awaited copy of the book until yesterday. Peter, as some of you know, has recently arrived in Mount Sion, Waterford, from the Philippines as a member of the staff of the International Heritage Centre and Chapel. We wish him a ‘céad mile fáilte’ to Waterford, and much happiness. He is interested in exploring the possibilities of Mount Sion as an Edmund Rice Studies Centre. While I was stationed in Rome six or seven years ago, I met Peter and read in draft form a number of the chapters of the new book and I can promise you a challenging and inspiring read. Now that I have taken a superficial glance at the book’s 521 pages while on a train journey from Waterford to Dublin yesterday afternoon, I can say at once that this is a fascinating book. The number of illustrations is impressive, even if their size is on the small side. The book is not meant to be an easy read, in the sense of a continuous narrative. Rather is it a combination of the insights of theology, history, philosophy, Celtic spirituality, Aboriginal ‘dreamtime’, story-telling, sociology, myth, folklore, cosmology, art, iconography, etc., brought to bear on the life and times of Blessed Edmund Rice and his message, yesterday and today. The book is divided into 29 chapters, and each chapter ends with five or six ‘Points for Reflection’. Professor Michael Jackson, who was close to Peter in his study of theology at Notre Dame University, Western Australia, speaks thus of the new book:

“This is an exceptionally imaginative and deeply insightful work. In a wonderfully creative and quite Celtic mode of story-telling, the author uses an abundance of images, imaginary dialogue-partners and poets to chronicle Rice’s deeper spiritual conversion, his inspired use of money to the advantage of the poor, his establishing of a new form of monasticism as ‘monastery in the street’, together with his schools for the disadvantaged and programs of ‘liberation through liberation’ on behalf of the poor, young apprentices, and those pursuing catechetical and vocational goals.”

My own review of the book will have to wait until the next edition of the ‘Postulator’s Desk.’ I can already see that this book should fit in excellently with The Way of the People ,the soon-be be published English translation of the late Br Phil Canny’s major study of the 18^th -century Penal Law domestic Gaelic-speaking Church of the countryside that Edmund Rice experienced as a young man growing up near Callan in Co. Kilkenny. I am collaborating on this with Br Leo Canny, Phil’s brother. The author of the new book, Br Peter Hardiman cfc, may be contacted in Waterford to discuss the background of his new magnum opus on Edmund Rice at ptrhardiman@yahoo.com.au or at 087-6558331. He may also be able to update you on where the book may be obtained in your part of the world. I append below the short review of the book that appeared in the Oceania Christian Brothers. Newsletter,July 2010:

A well-researched, thematically developed treatment of the life of Edmund Rice, this book examines the story from the angle of Celtic spirituality. Leading readers through dreamworld, myth, and otherworld, the writer gives major attention to the significance of the Celtic cross, which differs from an ordinary cross in that it contains a circle where the vertical and horizontal arms meet. Hardiman uses this feature to say that whereas an ordinary cross speaks of adversity, the circle draws attention to the loving creativity of God. His thesis is that Edmund Rice, coming on the scene towards the close of Ireland’s difficult Penal times, brought something of the joy of creation to the deprived youth of Ireland and the many needy who touched his compassionate heart. The author presents Rice’s difficult, declining years in great detail, where the cross is much more apparent than the circle. Giving rein to his imagination, Hardiman occasionally becomes a dramatist and a novelist to create the atmosphere for his story. He also uses a multitude of images to emphasise the points he is making. Copies of the book may be obtained from Xavier Grafix, 28 Moorak St, Taringa, Queensland, 4068, Australia.

- Source: Oceania Christian Brothers Newsletter, July 2010.

Bicentenary of the North Monastery, Cork, 2011

The year 2011 marks the Bicentenary of the coming of Edmund Rice’s Brothers to Cork. Bishop Moylan of Cork was experiencing difficulties concerning the quantity and quality of untrained teachers that were employed in the City to staff a series of voluntary Catholic schools for poor boys established by the Cork Charitable Society since 1793. He looked enviously at the schools for girls founded by Nano Nagle’s Presentation Sisters. He even sent a young man named O’Shea over to London to train at Joseph Lancaster’s Monitorial School. However, on his return, this young man proved a disaster. Then he heard that a man named Edmund Rice had set up a series of schools for poor boys in the neighbouring Diocese of Waterford and Lismore staffed by dedicated religious men who followed a Rule of Life based on an adaptation of the Presentation Sisters’ Rule. Bishop Moylan visited Waterford in 1809 to see for himself. He met Edmund Rice. He was very impressed by Edmund and his ‘Brothers of the Presentation’ that he saw there.

Back in Cork he asked for volunteers to go to Waterford to train as Brothers for the Cork schools. The first two to answer the call were Jerome O’Connor (33) and John Leonard (25), two young businessmen of stainless reputation. Having completed their religious and teacher training under Edmund Rice at Mount Sion in Waterford, they returned to Cork in November 1811, and the rest, as they say, is history. At first they occupied a temporary dwelling and taught in the old school that had been set up by the Cork Charitable Society in Chapel Lane near the Cathedral or North Chapel, as it was called. In time others followed in the footsteps of the pioneers. A young architect, Michael Riordan, joined up in 1814. He designed a purpose-built school building and a religious residence. Bishop Moylan died in 1815 and left whatever money he had for the completion of the new buildings. He was replaced by Bishop John Murphy. The Brothers moved into the new residence or monastery in 1816, but the new school was adapted to become a temporary hospital because of an outbreak of a virulent form of typhus which is estimated to have claimed the lives of 25% of the population of the city. The Brothers volunteered as nurses of the sick and, sadly, two of them, Ignatius McDermott and Francis Ryan, martyrs of charity, succumbed to the illness. It was only in 1818 that the depleted community took possession of the new school building.

Seated on a hill to the north of the city, the school was officially titled ‘Our Lady’s Mount.’ But it was as the North Monastery that this very successful school became known far and wide. In time it became the inspiration for other schools north and south of the River Lee. Simplistically, in a new reorganization of the Brothers, those north of the river continued to look to Edmund Rice as their inspiration and leader (Superior General) and became known as Christian Brothers (CFC) in the mid-1820s, while at the same time those south of the river also looked to Edmund Rice as their inspiration but chose to follow Bishop Murphy as their leader – they retained the old name ‘Presentation Brothers’ in a new totally separate congregation of Brothers. (FPM). Thus, in time, Blessed Edmund became venerated as the Founder of two distinct congregations of teaching brothers that developed separately after 1826 and spread around the world. In more recent years both groups have co-operated wholeheartedly to bring about Edmund’s Beatification (declared ‘Blessed’) in 1996 and, hopefully, Canonisation (declared ‘Saint’) in the not too distant future. Amen to that!

A whole series of celebrations and publications is being planned by a Bicentenary Committee in events that will span the twelve months from November 2010 to November 2011. The next issue of the ‘Postulator’s Desk’, as well as the Christian Brother and Presentation Brother websites will carry further details.

Mission Prayer of Blessed Cardinal Newman

Finally, as a reflection for all members of the Edmund Rice Network, I conclude with the rather well-known Mission Prayer of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman. I think it is very apt for where we are today. It repays slow prayerful reading:

God has created me to do him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.

I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.

I am a link in the chain, a bond of connection between persons.

He has not created me for naught. I shall do good: I shall do His work.

I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it – if I but keep His commandments.

Therefore I will trust him. Whatever, wherever I am. I can never be thrown away.

If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him.

He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about.

He may take away my friends; he may throw me among strangers.

He may make me feel desolate, make my spirit sink, hide my future from me –

Still He knows what He is about.

Donal Blake cfc,

Edmund Rice Roman Postulator/ Congregation Historian,

postulatorcfc@gmail.com ; 086-300 5604

Edmund Rice House

1, North Richmond Street

Dublin 1, Ireland. 16 September 2010

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2010: Edmund Rice International Novena
Theme: HEALING AND RECONCILIATION
Monday, 26 April – Tuesday, 4 May
Feast Day of Blessed Edmund Rice: Wednesday, 5 May 2010

Introduction:

We live in a time of recession and gloom. The virtue of hope appears to be at a low ebb, and consequently faith and charity may also be challenged. Leadership seems to be sadly lacking or of very poor quality in many areas of human endeavour. Many of us feel let down by our politicians, our bankers, our business leaders and even by our Church. Even the weather and Mother Nature seem to out of sympathy with us in recent months!

Those of us who are Brothers feel broken by the actions of a minority of our members who so far forgot their sacred trust that they abused some of society’s most vulnerable young people placed in our care. We feel ashamed and dismayed. Our hearts go out to those who were hurt and let down. How could it have happened? But the Good Lord has reminded us: “Behold I am with you all days, even to the end of time.” It is at times like the present that we acknowledge that Christ is “Our Light in the Darkness”. It is in this spirit of fragility and humility that we approach this year’s Edmund Rice Novena and pray for healing for all concerned. We pray for forgiveness and reconciliation. It is at times like this that we need Edmund’s intercession and example more than ever.

We take heart from the fact that our two Congregations, the Presentation Brothers and the Christian Brothers, at their most recent Congregation Chapters chose the following positive themes as the Way Forward, rather than wallowing in doom and gloom:

“Sing to the Lord a New Song!
Growing through Fragility.
Engaging with Diversity.
Being Brother in Christ.”
[Pres Brothers, Grace Dieu, Waterford, 2005]

“The time is now! The place is here! You are the People!
Fly free as Edmund did before you to New Horizons,
to the unknown, the not-yet-imagined.
Risk leaping and falling. Trust me.
Dare to be my Disciples
In you I am doing something new.”
[Christian Brothers, Munnar, India, 2008]

Blessed Edmund too experienced a time of recession and low morale in the Ireland of his day, at the beginning of the 19th century. After the failed 1798 Rising and its brutal suppression, government was moved from Dublin to Westminster in the fallout from the 1800 Act of Union. It was in such an atmosphere that Edmund became proactive. Instead of moaning about how awful things were in Ireland or waiting for the government or the clergy to do something about it, he set about remedying the plight of poor Catholic youths in Ireland by founding his Brothers in 1802 to provide them with free education, “to raise boys to the dignity of men”. Interestingly, he took his lead from a group of women, the Presentation Sisters founded by Nano Nagle in Cork.

*In the spirit of Edmund, we dedicate this year’s Novena to Healing and Reconciliation.

*The healing miracle in answer to your prayers during this Novena may be the one that will finally be accepted for Blessed Edmund being declared SAINT EDMUND.

*Each country and each region will have the freedom to choose their own local healing intentions.

*The Novena Prayers may be said privately or in groups.

*Some may wish to link the Novena with daily attendance at Mass. Feel free.

*The Novena target group is much broader than the membership of Edmund’s two Brotherhoods:
*It is open to all who wish to honour Blessed Edmund,
*to all (young and old) who wish to promote his Canonisation,
*to all who work in his spirit,
*to all who have a personal devotion to him,
*to all who are grateful to him for favours received,
*to all who wish to pray for a special intention,
*to all who are associated with the Brothers in their ministries as formal or informal members of the Edmund Rice Network (ERN) around the world.

The central point of each day’s Novena will focus on a few minutes’ quiet reflection based on (a) a short Scripture text, (b) a saying of Blessed Edmund, and (c) a short quotation from the Munnar or Grace Dieu Chapters of the Brothers.

Format:

*Universal Prayer for Blessed Edmund’s Canonisation
*Prayer of the Edmund Rice Network
Quiet Reflection based on:

- Scripture
- Saying of Edmund
- Quotation from International Chapters of the Brothers

Special Prayer for each day of Novena

*Prayer for Special Intention.

The prayers marked by an asterisk (*) will be the same each day of the Novena; The reflection (No.3) and special prayer (No.4) will change each day.

Day 1: Monday, 26 April

Universal Prayer for Blessed Edmund’s Canonisation

O God, we thank you for the life of Blessed Edmund Rice. He opened his heart to Christ present in those oppressed by poverty and injustice. May we follow his example of faith and generosity. Grant us the courage and compassion of Blessed Edmund as we seek to live lives of love and service. Grant that soon Blessed Edmund will be declared a saint of your Church. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of the Edmund Rice Network [ERN]

Inspired by the spirit of Blessed Edmund so alive today, we as colleagues in the Edmund Rice Network dedicate ourselves to work together in our continuing mission, to tell the story of Blessed Edmund, to share his vision, and to nurture a response in those who are moved by his example. Blessed Edmund, in whose steps we follow, we entrust our lives to you. Shelter us from ignorance, selfishness and oppression. Teach us to live in peace, to educate ourselves for justice and peace. Inspire us to act justly, and to revere all of God’s creation. Plant peace firmly in our hearts and in our world. Amen.

Reflection:

- Scripture:

“As long as you did it to one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it to me.”

- Saying of Edmund:

“One thing you may be sure of, that while you work for God, whether you succeed or not, he will amply reward you.”

- Quotation from Munnar Chapter, 2008:

“Let us open our hearts to the cry of the poor and the earth and be moved to prophetic action through advocacy and works for justice.” (Munnar, 2008)

Special Prayer for Day One: Litany of Blessed Edmund (Part One)

Blessed Edmund, Model of strength, Be our guide.
Blessed Edmund, Model of risk, Be our guide.
Blessed Edmund, Model of gentleness, Be our guide.
Blessed Edmund, Model of trust, Be our guide.
Blessed Edmund, Model of courage, Be our guide.
Blessed Edmund, Model of patience, Be our guide.
Blessed Edmund, Model of openness, Be our guide.
Blessed Edmund, Model of perseverance, Be our guide.

Prayer for Special Intention

O God, you inspired Blessed Edmund Rice to follow your Son in a life of consecrated service of the poor and of all in need of a truly Christian education. Grant through his intercession the petition(s) I now make………………………………..
and so hasten the day when he will be publicly honoured as a saint. I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Blessed Edmund Rice, Presentation Brother and Christian Brother, pray for us.

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Day 2: Tuesday,27 April:

Same as Day 1 except Nos. 3 and 4 below:

3. Reflection:
(a) Scripture:
“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”
(b) Saying of Edmund:
“Be intent on prayer and whatever may happen will turn to our good.”
(c) Quotation from Grace Dieu Chapter, 2005:
“Our experience of death and dying as well as growth and new life…calls for a spirituality through which we become ever more deeply immersed in the mystery of his Cross so that we may proclaim the power of his hope-filled resurrection.”

4. Special Prayer for Day 2: Litany of Blessed Edmund [Part Two]:

Blessed Edmund, Liberator of the oppressed, Lead us to life.
Blessed Edmund, Comforter of the afflicted, Lead us to life.
Blessed Edmund, Breaker of bondage, Lead us to life.
Blessed Edmund, Sharer in Christ’s ministry, Lead us to life.
Blessed Edmund, Participant in Christ’s Passion, Lead us to life.
Blessed Edmund, Seeker of God’s will, Lead us to life.

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Day 3: Wednesday, 28 April:

Same as Day 1 except Nos. 3 and 4 below.

3. Reflection:
(a) Scripture:
“They that instruct many unto justice shall shine as stars for all eternity.”
(b) Saying of Edmund:
“Have courage; the good seed will grow up in the children’s hearts later on.”
(c) Quotation from Munnar Chapter, 2008:
“Each community shall walk with young people and accompany them in their spiritual search as they engage in outreach with people at the margins.”

Special Prayer for Day 3: Litany of Blessed Edmund [Part 3]:

Blessed Edmund, Brother of mercy, Empower us.
Blessed Edmund, Brother of faith, Empower us.
Blessed Edmund, Brother of contemplation, Empower us.
Blessed Edmund, Brother of vision, Empower us.
Blessed Edmund, Brother of wisdom + understanding, Empower us.
Blessed Edmund, Brother of grace and truth, Empower us.
Blessed Edmund, Brother filled with hope, Empower us.
Blessed Edmund, Brother centred in God, Empower us.

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Day 4: Thursday, 29 April:
Same as Day 1 except Nos. 3 and 4 below:

Reflection:

- Scripture

“After this the Lord chose another seventy-two and sent them out two by two, to go ahead of him to every town and place where he himself was about to go.”

- Saying of Edmund:

“Were we to know the merit of and value of only going from one street to another to serve a neighbour for the love of God, we should prize it more than gold or silver.”

- Quotation from Grace Dieu Chapter 2005:

“Those present will never forget the moment when the Congregation Leaders of the Presentation Brothers and Christian Brothers knelt before the Blessed Sacrament in Mount Sion as Edmund did in his time.”

Special Prayer for Day 4: Creed of Edmund’s People [Part 1]:

We believe the God-fire burning in our hearts can transform both ourselves and our world.
We believe we are called by God to a deep personal relationship with Jesus, the lover of all creation.
We believe we are called to be Good News people.
We believe we are called to keep our hearts and minds open and attentive to God’s will.
We believe we are called to witness by prophetic action to our option for the poor, the oppressed, and people at the margins.
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Day 5: Friday, 30 April:

Same as Day 1 except Nos. 3 and 4 below:

3. Reflection:
(a) Scripture
“Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
(b) Saying of Edmund:
“The will of God be done in this and everything we undertake.”

Quotation from Munnar Chapter, 2008:

“Fly free as Edmund did before you to new horizons, to the unknown, the not-yet-imagined.”

4. Special Prayer for Day 5: Creed of Edmund’s People [Part 2]:

We believe we are called to immerse ourselves in the culture in which we live and work.
We believe in a community that is prayerful, inclusive and welcoming.
We believe our internationality is a witness to a search for global unity.
We believe it is in facing our fragility that we can accompany others in theirs.
We believe that in sharing Eucharist and Reconciliation we are drawn beyond ourselves to the mystery of God.
We believe others share the charism of Edmund, and are one with us in living it out.
We believe the call to live justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with our God. Amen.

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Day 6: Saturday, 1 May:

“Same as Day 1 except Nos. 3 and 4 below:

3. Reflection:
(a) Scripture:
“I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”
(b) Saying of Edmund:
“It (a law case) is a painful anxiety, but to some of us it is not as much as one may imagine. ‘The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away, so blessed be his name for ever and ever.’ This should be all our motto.”
(c) Quotation from the Grace Dieu Chapter, 2005:
“Our spirituality is informed by the reality of God’s presence in all of creation. We seek to be more responsible for the care of the earth by implementing best ecological practice in our everyday living.”

4. Special Prayer for Day 6: Blessed Edmund’s ‘Our Father’[Part 1]:

Our Father … who always stands with the weak, the powerless, the poor, the abandoned, those that must sneak off to the ‘hedge schools’ of our day, hiding their lamps under bushel baskets.

Who art in heaven … where everything will be reversed; where the first will be last and the last will be first; where Mary, Edmund’s wife, and his daughter and all our beloved dead will greet us and welcome us home, where grieving will be no more.

Hallowed be thy name … for you are a God who desires intimacy with us, who calls each of us by name and calls each of us “my beloved son” and “my beloved daughter”, who called Edmund to pray and mourn and steep himself in Holy Scripture and the spirituality of a God who has many “interior castles” for each of us.

Thy Kingdom come … a kingdom where we wake up to our destinies in you; where we find Edmund and the early Brothers struggling to teach young people just as we struggle “to do and to teach”.

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Day 7: Sunday, 2 May

Same as Day 1 except Nos. 3 and 4 below:

3. Reflection:
(a) Scripture:
“He who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name.”
(b) Saying of Edmund:
“Above all, beg of him to give you the virtue of humility which is so necessary for religious of every station, but particulary for those who have the care and direction of others.”
(c) Quotation from the Munnar Chapter, 2008:
“The Beloved sometimes wants to do us a great favour:
Hold us upside down and shake all the nonsense out.” (The mystic poet Hafiz)

4. Special Prayer for Day 7: Blessed Edmund’s ‘Our Father’ [Part 2]:

Thy will be done … Open our freedom, to let you in, so that the complete love that flows through Edmund and the early Brothers will help us listen to your will in times of great struggle. Help us also to listen with constancy and great sensitivity.

On earth as in heaven … May the work of our hands, the schools and temples and structure we build in this world, reflect the values of heaven which are joy, graciousness, tenderness and justice. Make us all truly brothers and sisters.

Give us this day … Not tomorrow. Do not let us put off being whole and holy, being your face to our students and the world, being, like Edmund, men and women who seek out the prisoner, the disenfranchised, the bullied in our midst.

Our daily bread … which you have become in us, in all, in Eucharist and in the bread of hospitality which Edmund showed and lived whether in the shoe shop, the bakery, the business office or the classroom.

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Day 8: Monday, 3 May:

Same as Day 1 except Nos. 3 and 4 below:

3. Reflection:
(a) Scripture:
“Were not our hearts burning while he spoke to us on the way?”
(b) Saying of Edmund:
“O God, did we even now rightly begin to serve you, your loving heart would take us all to its final embrace.”
(c) Quotation from Grace Dieu Chapter, 2005:
“Why can’t vocations find us? It’s because we are whispering! For the sake of the Reign of God, and the future generations of God’s People – let’s stop the whispering and start shouting from the housetops that Religious Life really is good news – for us and for the world.”(Sister Joan Chittister OSB)

4. Special Prayer for Day 8: Blessed Edmund’s ‘Our Father’ [Part 3]:

Forgive us our trespasses … Forgive us our blindness toward one another. Help us really see the person in front of us as your face and not just as a burden. Forgive our racism, our sexism, our incurable propensity to fret about tomorrow, and help us in Edmund’s own words to know deeply that “Providence is our Inheritance.”

As we forgive those who trespass against us ... God forbid us to grow bitter in spirit or despairing and even when we are maligned by our own as Edmund was, help us to forgive, to bless and not curse. Why? Because that is exactly what you did, Jesus!

And lead us not into temptation… for none of us is without sin.

But deliver us from evil … That is, from the blindness that lets us not see ourselves, one another, and our wounded world as brothers and sisters, saints in training, lovers in the Holy Trinity, sons and daughters of Mother Mary, disciples of a God who called Edmund and all of us to a reality that we can only imagine.

Amen … I believe , Yes Lord, Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus, live in our hearts forever.

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Day 9: Tuesday, 4 May

Same as Day 1 except Nos. 3 and 4 below:

3. Reflection:
(a) Scripture:
“Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
(b) Saying of Edmund:
“The world and everything in it is continually changing, which proves to us that there is nothing permanent under the sun, and that perfect happiness is not to be expected but in another world.”
(c) Quotation from Munnar Chapter, 2008:
“[The Edmund Rice Network] challenged us with their conviction that we need to walk together into the future as followers of Edmund… As one of the invitees said. ‘Imagine your future with us rather than without us’.”

4. Special Prayer for Day 9: Prayer on Edmund’s Virtues:

Spirit of God, grant us the LOVE which filled the heart of Blessed Edmund, inspiring him to give all for you.
Spirit of God, grant us the JOY of Blessed Edmund who found his happiness in seeing and serving you in the poor.
Spirit of God, grant us the PEACE of Blessed Edmund who trusted in you and your providence through countless difficulties.
Spirit of God, grant us the PATIENCE of Blessed Edmund who held to being a man of faith even when misunderstood and opposed.
Spirit of God, grant us the KINDNESS of Blessed Edmund who always had time for the smallest and weakest.
Spirit of God, grant us the GOODNESS of Blessed Edmund whose broad vision saw ways all around him to spread the goodness of the Kingdom.
Spirit of God, grant us the GENTLENESS of Blessed Edmund who brought the gentleness of Christ to all his relationships.
Spirit of God, grant us the FAITHFULNESS of Blessed Edmund who did not give in to discouragement.
Spirit of God, grant us the SELF-CONTROL of Blessed Edmund who prayed constantly that your will be done in him.
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Buona Festa!

Wednesday, 5 May: Feast Day of Blessed Edmund:

Happy Feast Day, Edmund! Happy Feast Day to all who have journeyed with us for the past nine days of this Novena. May God bless you and yours; may Mary mother every one of you; and may Blessed Edmund guide us all into a blessed future.

Donal Blake CFC, Postulator, postulatorcfc@gmail.com
Bede Minehane FPM, Vice-Postulator, pbm@eircom.net

15 April 2010

From the Postulator’s Desk, Advent 2009

Diary of Events in 2009

Christmas Greetings from Donal Blake

January:

I visited Rome for ten days and stayed at our Generalate in Via Marcantonio Colonna. A visit to Rome, a place I love, always gives me a boost of energy. I gave a brief account of my stewardship and visited Monsignor Robert Sarno at the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints. I availed of my visit to reconnect with other Postulators who are fellow-members of the College of Postulators and tried to dip into their wisdom to advance the Cause of Blessed Edmund.

I also communicated in person that I was appointing Brother Patrick Bede Minehane FPM Vice-Postulator of the Cause in succession to Br John Donatus Brazil FPM who, because of mounting work as Archivist and Procurator for the Presentation Brothers, felt that he could no longer do justice to the role. We thank Donatus for his work over the past three years and welcome Bede to his new role. Bede comes well qualified for all exigencies, having been a former Provincial of the Anglo-Irish Province and later a member of the Presentation Brothers’ General Council. It was pleasant to visit St Peter’s Basilica and other Roman churches where the elaborate Christmas Cribs were still in place.

February:

I travelled down to Cork, a journey I was to repeat several times in the course of the year, to meet with Br Bede Minehane FPM, the new Vice-Postulator, who is stationed at Mount St Joseph, the Generalate of the Presentation Brothers, and to continue my research into the early history of the North Monastery, the bicentenary of whose foundation is being celebrated in 2011. The results of my study will probably appear in book form and/or form the basis of a series of historical articles. I generally avail of the generous hospitality of the North Monastery Community at Fairhill during my Cork visits and, in pursuit of my research, I dip into the House Annals of the North Monastery, the Minutes and Account Books of the Cork Charitable Society, the St Leger Papers, the local history holdings of the Cork City Library, Grand Parade, the Cork Diocesan Archives, and the files of the Cork Examiner. I also avail of my visits to Cork to say hello to my family members, especially my brother-in-law Jim in Doneraile who has been coping bravely with serious illness for the past few years.

March:

This month I resumed my association with Br Leo Canny CFC, Drimnagh Castle, Dublin, who is editing and translating into English the detailed research of his late brother, Dr Phil Canny CFC (Liam Ó Caithnia), into the Gaelic-speaking domestic church milieu of Edmund Rice’s childhood in Callan, Co. Kilkenny, in the mid-eighteenth century. Remember that most of our resources for the Edmund Rice story to date have been in the English language, whereas Gaelic was the language of the home. Phil, whose brilliant history of the sport of hurling was a literary sensation in the early 1980s, had his final research into Blessed Edmund Rice’s childhood brought to an untimely conclusion through the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease. May he rest in peace. I assist Leo who is over 80 years of age by proof-reading, by offering friendly criticism, by researching for him in the Allen Library, North Richmond Street, and by supervising the project towards the final stages of publication. On average I devote a day per week to this work which, hopefully, will shed new light on the influences at work on the youthful Blessed Edmund Rice. Hopefully, the work should be ready for publication by Easter 2010.

During March I also co-operated with Chris Reidy, an Australian who was making a documentary on Edmund Rice and his legacy. He had previously worked with Channel 9 of the Australian TV Network. I accompanied Chris on a tour of Edmund Rice’s Dublin, completed an hour’s interview on camera, and made further contacts for him at Callan and Waterford.

April:

This month was taken up by pressing Edmund Rice matters. First of all, the annual International Edmund Rice Novena had to be got ready. Normally, we focus on two seriously ill people, one from the Christian Brother circle of influence, the other from that of the Presentation Brothers. This year, seeing that we were centring on the bicentenary of Edmund and the early Brothers making their perpetual vows as Religious of the Presentation, we decided to change the format and focus on a prayer campaign that the Christian and Presentation Brothers rediscover in their own lives Blessed Edmund’s founding charism of ‘raising boys to the dignity of men’, and to pray for new vocations worldwide, especially in Africa where the Brothers are involved in about a dozen countries. Various regions of the world were encouraged to add their own particular intentions for the Novena. I directed people from various places around the world to where Edmund Rice material was available in print and more especially on various websites. I produced a new edition of ‘From the Postulator’s Desk’ and communicated it to various Promoters and to regional websites.

The new international ER website, www.edmundrice.net , recently initiated by Br Michael Godfrey and now managed by Br Michael Burke, South Africa, is well worth a look by all who wish to keep up to date on the activities of the Edmund Rice Network, including the two congregations. Bit by bit I am transferring to this website the various ER prayers and paraliturgies that I had collected from around the various Provinces and Regions. On 25 April I made an input at a Conference held in Emmaus Retreat Centre, Swords, for the European Province sector of the Edmund Rice Network. About 200 attended. Br Pat Madigan CFC, the new CEO of the Mount Sion Centre, Waterford, collected and codified the various suggestions and sharings for future use.

May:

During May I caught up on some of my on-going research. On 5 May we concluded our Novena and celebrated the Feast of Blessed Edmund. Early in the month I attended the AGM of the Irish Church Archivists Association at Mater Dei Institute. This group represents most of the religious orders in the country, in addition to some dioceses. It is a very fruitful way of networking with sources of useful information for historical research and it supplies an update on the most modern methods of preserving documents in archives. It organises an annual training course for the initial training of new archivists and researchers.

In the middle of the month I was a guest speaker at a book launch in Mitchelstown CBS, Co. Cork. The book was on Dean Morgan O’Brien, the parish priest who introduced the Christian Brothers to Mitchelstown in the mid-19th century. The author was Tom O’Donnell, a history teacher at the school. Later in the month, I delivered a lecture at the North Monastery, Cork, to staff and past-pupils on a former Superior and headmaster of the school, the famous Limerick-born Brother Dominic Burke (1834-1904), the ‘father’ of technical education in Ireland. A pleasing feature of the evening was that a group of ten relatives from Limerick of the late Br Burke that I had helped to track down attended the function. I felt rather pleased. Unfortunately, as I walked across a darkened corner of the car park I tripped over a step and suffered a heavy fall. Was it a case of ‘pride comes before a fall’?

June:

1 June marks the birthday of Blessed Edmund, but unfortunately there was little to celebrate this year. The devastating Ryan Report into abuse in Ireland’s Industrial Schools, closed in the late 1960s, was just published, and all 18 religious congregations involved in their management were castigated for their failures, cruelty and even abuse. The Christian Brothers catered for more of these deprived children than most and so bore the brunt of the media reaction. We were all smeared by association. One journalist went so far as to state that nobody should feel safe in the same room as a Christian Brother! It didn’t seem the proper time to point out that the majority of Christian Brothers in Ireland were never stationed in the Industrial Schools and that the majority on the staffs of the Industrial Schools, an inadequate system inherited from the 19th century, were not guilty of sexual abuse, whatever else. Even one instance of this was, of course, one too many, but one cannot turn back the clock! I grieve and pray for all those abused. It wasn’t an easy time to promote Blessed Edmund’s path towards sainthood, and I received a number of nasty anonymous telephone calls. Where is Edmund Rice in this very sorry saga? We need you now more than ever, Edmund!

Still, life goes on. I acted, as in former years, as a member of a panel of interviewers for the selection of prospective candidates for a course for the training of addiction counsellors connected with Sister Consilio’s admirable centre at Cuan Mhuire near Athy, Co. Kildare. I also made myself available to advise Barry Lenihan, a senior pupil at Clonkeen College, who is presenting a study of Mount Sion, Waterford as a module for his Leaving Certificate history examination in June 2010. I then sat down and wrote a number of Jubilee letters to Brothers who are celebrating 50, 60 and even 70 years of brotherhood this year. I felt better afterwards and prayed, ‘Edmund, we didn’t all fail you!’

July:

July is vacation time in Ireland for soul and body. In early July I joined 45 members of ARBI (Association of Religious Brothers of Ireland), composed of members of various congregations of Brothers, for a week’s retreat in Emmaus Retreat Centre, Swords, Co. Dublin. The retreat master was Brother Philip Pinto, Congregation Leader of the Christian Brothers, and the topic was St Mark’s Gospel. Philip has his own impressive way of presenting Scripture and linking it to the problems of today, and I never realised before now how challenging Mark’s Gospel could be!

My companion on a fortnight’s holidays this year was, as usual, Br Jim Logue. Over the past twelve or so years, we have gradually worked our way around the coasts of Ireland and Britain and some of their offshore islands, using public transport. This year’s choice was Bournemouth, Dorset, UK. Bournemouth boasts of a seven mile sandy beach and is a purpose-built holiday resort – and the sun shone most days! We were booked into a very pleasant B&B, and a generous cooked breakfast set us up for most of the day. We attended Mass at the Sacred Heart Church, a former Jesuit foundation, and listened to the music of the bands in Bournemouth’s beautiful Lower Garden.. We visited much of the surrounding counties of Dorset and Hampshire, taking in Poole with its “millionaires’ row” at Sandlands, the New Forest with its wild horses, Christchurch with its Priory, and Dorchester, onetime home of the novelist, Thomas Hardy. One day we ventured as far as Salisbury to see its soaring cathedral. On another occasion we visited Brownsea Island in Poole Bay by ferry, where Baden Powell founded the Boy Scout movement. We travelled to Lymington one day and looked across at the Isle of Wight where we had holidayed a few years ago. On a memorable very sunny day we travelled by open-top bus to Swanage and then by boat along the famous Jurassic Coast. On 22 July we returned to Ireland refreshed and with our knowledge of the south coast of England much enhanced.

On 31 July, feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, Edmund Rice’s patronal saint, I attended a poignant funeral. Mrs Mary Leader, mother of our Br Donal Leader, was buried at Templemore, Co. Tipperary. Donal, who is stationed in our community near the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, was delivering a series of lectures on Human Rights at a conference in Bangkok for members of the Edmund Rice Network in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, the Cook Islands, India and the Philippines. He was struck down by a massive heart attack, was hospitalised far from home, and so couldn’t travel home to Ireland for his mother’s funeral. What a sad predicament! He has since made a good recovery and returned to Ireland.

August:

August is a slack time in Ireland. Most people take their annual holidays at this time, and many offices remain shut. During this month I prepared another edition of ‘From the Postulator’s Desk’, forwarded it to regional local Promoters and posted it on various websites. Sister Teresa Ryan, a Brigidine Sister, visited from Australia. She had attended a sabbatical with me back in 1997 at Hawkstone Hall near Shrewsbury, UK, and I was glad to renew her acquaintance and catch up on her news. Knowing I would be away on a course during September, I contacted Br Bede Minehane FPM, the Vice-Postulator, to be available during my absence. Then I called down to Cork to spend a few days with my closest relatives, my sister Mary and my brother William and their families. Keeping in touch with family is so very important. Jim Dennehy, my brother-in-law, continues to battle cheerfully with an array of serious illnesses, and I am in awe at the commitment of my sister who looks after him so well and so generously. God bless them all.

September :

I am at an age (67) when I should consider slowing down, put my affairs in order, and prepare for the final phase of senior religious life. A number of years ago, the Brothers and Sisters that compose the Nagle-Rice Family, namely the Presentation Sisters, the Presentation Brothers and the Christian Brothers, came up with a programme that tries to achieve just that. And so this year I was invited to participate. The venue was Ballyvaloo Retreat and Conference Centre, Blackwater, Co. Wexford, managed by the St John of God Sisters, and located on the famous sandy Curracloe Beach. On 6 September a group of 24 Religious, male and female, assembled, to be greeted by Br Peadar Gleeson CFC and Sister Kathleen Quinlan PBVM, the course directors. Over the next month we were encouraged to relax, play and pray.

We had many excellent inputs by visiting lecturers, but the one that made the greatest impact on me was Br Mark McDonnell’s wonderful three-day Powerpoint presentation of Cosmology/Ecology. His images were outstanding. We were exposed to many different types of prayer, and Fr Columba McCann OSB, Glenstal Abbey, made a great impression with his approach to Lectio Divina. Our visits to Glendalough, Callan, Mount Sion, Ballygriffin, South Pres Convent and Mardyke House – some of our holy places - were both enjoyable and inspiring, each in its own way, and the hospitality we experienced along the way certainly enhanced the Nagle-Rice spirit of the group. We felt very proud of our Founders, the Venerable Nano Nagle and Blessed Edmund Rice. During our last Mass together I presented each participant with a little locket containing a third-class relic of Blessed Edmund. All in all, the course presented me with a renewed love of God and his Creation and hope for the future.

October:

October was for me a month of medical visits. Because of my major operation last year arising out of the presence of a clot on the brain, this month consisted of a series of check-ups that all was well. I had blood tests, an ECG and heart-monitoring, an EEG for the brain and a long appointment with a neurosurgeon. I was delighted with the positive results. Then, just to remind me forcibly of my mortality, I was involved in a traffic accident – my own fault! My intention was to attend a funeral Mass on a Tuesday morning for one of our Brothers who had died in the Nursing Home in Baldoyle. I travelled by train to Sutton and began to walk the final mile towards Baldoyle. I needed to cross the road to reach the Home, but the traffic was very heavy. Finally there was a small break and, with a quick look over my right shoulder I stepped out into the roadway. I hadn’t noticed a truck coming out from a T-junction and next moment I was sent sailing through the air. I thought my back was broken. I was lying face down on the footpath, and both my hands and one knee were bleeding. The poor driver was white-faced and did all he could to make me comfortable. I was removed to the A&E at Beaumont Hospital. No bones were broken, although my right arm and right shoulder were quite bruised. The doctor was amazed I was so unscathed after a collision with a truck. I showed him the Edmund Rice relic I had in my pocket and he agreed that somebody up there was looking after me!

November:

November was the wettest month in living memory, and thousands of people in the west and the south and along the Shannon Basin had to leave their flooded homes. Climate change? I travelled down to Callan to do an inventory of the various documents that had accumulated since the Brothers moved out from the town to the Westcourt site in the late 1960s. Some documents I sent to the Provincial Archives in Marino for safe keeping; others I sorted for the use of whoever will be showing visitors around Edmund’s old home in Westcourt. Finally, several documents had five or six copies. I shredded most of these copies, leaving just the originals and one copy. Br Michael Godfrey who had spent the past few months overseeing the renovations at the Brothers’ Residence in preparation for the new community arriving after Christmas, left for Melbourne at the beginning of the month, before his new posting to Zambia in the New Year. Before leaving Ireland, he enthused his relatives in Australia and Co. Tipperary to sponsor the erection of a new outdoor statue of Blessed Edmund in front of the Visitor Centre at Westcourt. It was blessed by Bishop Freeman of the Ossory Diocese. It looks very well and is lit up at night.

December:

Where has the year gone? The arrival of December reminds me that I need to tend to my Christmas mail - snail and electronic. This month a sculptor in metal from Brisbane, Australia, called to my office in Dublin asking for my assistance. Her name is Susan Kaden and a son of hers is a student at St Laurence’s College in Brisbane. She has been employed to sculpt for the new car park at St Laurence’s bronze images of the Venerable Catherine McAuley and of Blessed Edmund Rice. I helped her as I best I could, sharing my knowledge of images of Blessed Edmund with her, directing her to the McAuley Mercy Centre, Baggot Street, here in Dublin and down to Callan and Waterford where she might get even greater help.

Finally, as I was going to press, word has begun to filter in of a young man injured some time ago in a horrific sports accident in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The doctors apparently thought he might never walk again. A first-class relic of Blessed Edmund was applied to him and a Novena was made in honour of Blessed Edmund. Remarkably, the young man is now able to walk again, much to the astonishment of the medical people involved with his treatment. Is this another cure through the intercession of Blessed Edmund? Let us hope so.

With that final piece of good news, let me wish you all the blessing of the Peace Child at Christmas, the protection of Mary Immaculate and the continued guidance and intercession of Blessed Edmund. A Very Happy Christmas to you all!

Br Donal Blake CFC,

Edmund Rice Roman Postulator

postulatorcfc@gmail.com

Mobile: 086-300 5604

Edmund Rice House,North Richmond Street,

Dublin 1, Ireland.

6 December 2009

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Easter 2009

From the Postulator’s Desk

Easter 2009 Edition

The blessing of the Risen Christ be with you all! At the time of Easter our thoughts are raised to what is of true value in life, what is passing, what is lasting. Jesus entered into his Kingdom at the moment of his Resurrection. He achieved all that the Father had required of him. “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

(Mark 1:11, 9:7, Matt 3:17, 17:5, Luke 3:22, 9:35)

What will we be remembered for? The Good Master promised his followers: “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10). This then is our aspiration during our life and we depend on the grace of God to achieve it. Jesus, our Elder Brother, “went everywhere doing good” (Acts 10:38) and, naturally, we look to his followers to see how this may be accomplished throughout history. In our case, we look at his servant, Blessed Edmund Rice, to see how he became ‘another Christ’.

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Edmund, Patron of Honest Businesspeople with a Social Conscience:

At the present moment in world history we are very conscious of the vast economic downturn that is affecting every country. We are appalled at the reckless greed and dishonesty of some in the business and banking world who have brought this about. We desperately look for exemplars of integrity in the business world, and we look to our holy religion to provide models. I suggest that we need look no further than Blessed Edmund Rice. He was known as a model of fair dealing in his many years as a businessman. He gave many a loan to people who could never approach a bank. His hand was ever open to the poor and he became executor of many charities so that the widow and the orphan might receive what was rightly theirs in many wills and bequests that were often contested by a bigoted and heartless bureaucracy. In his life as a businessman, Edmund had acquired a good working knowledge of the law. Time was of the essence to poor people.

Often Edmund paid out in advance to these poor people from the meagre funds of the Brothers, hoping to claim the money back later from the unreformed and unsympathetic Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests (CCDB). Even as a very old and sick Christian Brother, he undertook many arduous stagecoach journeys from Waterford to Dublin to champion the rights of poor people deprived of their legal and monetary rights. At one stages the Commissioners threatened to seize all the properties of the Brothers as collateral. In February 1839 Edmund wrote: “I am obliged to set off for Dublin this evening. It’s well if this work does not kill me.” All matters had not been resolved by Edmund’s death in 1844, but at a meeting in Dublin Castle on 13 June 1845, William P. Matthews, Secretary of the Commissioners, conceded:

“That from the documents laid before the Board and statements made, it appears to the Commissioners that the late Edmund Rice, Esq., was a gentleman of the strictest integrity, and whose life was one of active benevolence, therefore the entries made in his books should be received as prima facie evidence of payments made for the sundry branches of Mary Power’s charities which during life he had benevolently superintended, and that his representative ought to be reimbursed such sums as may appear to have been advanced in this case by him out of his private funds to aid in maintaining Testatrix’s Charities.”

Already, groups representing the Brothers in the United States and Australia have organised ‘working breakfasts’ among businessmen and professionals who are past-pupils of the Brothers. During the course of the meeting an input is made on caring ethics in business on the model of ‘Edmund Rice, Businessman’. A discussion ensues, and a collection is taken up for various projects for the poor, sponsored by the Brothers and their Associates, in inner cities in the so-called First World and in deprived areas in Africa, South America and India. There is a growing enthusiasm for this movement. It only goes to show how relevant Edmund Rice and his values are for today’s world.

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Scientifically crafted bust of youthful Edmund Rice goes on display

The following is brought to you, courtesy of catholicireland.net, a Catholic website:

Last year a likeness of Edmund Rice was generated by scientists from his skull, in time for the opening of the new Edmund Rice Heritage Centre at Mount Sion, Waterford. This year the scientists have advanced a stage further. A new bust of Blessed Edmund Rice which claims to depict him accurately as he looked when he was young has gone on display.

The likeness was created using state-of-the–art laser technology and is made of resin, paint and clay. A forensic scientist from the University of Dundee, Dr Caroline Wilkinson, undertook the task of reconstructing Blessed Edmund's facial features as he would have appeared as a young man.

The bust will sit beside an existing one which depicts the Christian Brothers’ founder as he would have looked when he was 82.

The centre, which opened a year ago, celebrates the life Blessed Rice.He was born in Co. Kilkenny and had a career as a successful merchant in Waterford until he dropped all to work for the education of the city’s poor.

His tomb is in a chapel adjoining the centre, which has already become one of the country's leading religious and heritage tourism sites and attracted both Irish and foreign visitors over the past year.

It has an interactive multimedia tour telling not only the story of Rice himself but of the Ireland in which he lived and worked.

Picture shows the new bust of Edmund Rice as a young man.

Note: The image may or may not be to your liking. Traditionally, the ‘Carrick Portrait’ was reckoned to be the most accurate likeness of Blessed Edmund, although not a very good painting.. I’ll supply a copy of this in the next Newsletter and make some comments on it. In the meantime, please send on your comments on the new image of Edmund as a young man which appears at the top of this section.

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Note on ‘Nano Nagle 225’

20 April 2009 marks the 225th anniversary of the death of the Servant of God, Nano Nagle (1728-1784), the founder of the Presentation Sisters (PBVM). Already, a wonderfully evocative Eucharist has been broadcast on Palm Sunday (5 April 2009) on Irish TV (RTE) from Killavullen Parish Church, Co. Cork, Nano’s native parish (She was born at Ballygriffin in this parish, and her cousin, Edmund Burke (1729-1797), the great orator and politician, was reared nearby). On 20 April, there will be an international celebration held in Cork honouring Nano. The celebration will include visits to the Presentation Convent, Douglas Street, where Nano died and to Ballygriffin where she was born. Considering Edmund Rice’s close contacts with the Presentation Sisters in founding his own Brothers, there will be a strong representation present from the three congregations that together constitute the Presentation Family: The Presentation Sisters, the Presentation Sisters and the Christian Brothers. We all owe Nano a debt of gratitude. She was the inspiration that fired all the subsequent founders of religious congregations in Ireland in the 19th century. Let us pray for the success of the campaign for the Canonisation of Nano Nagle, Servant of God, trailblazer of lay initiatives in the Catholic Church in Ireland just then emerging from the long winter of the Penal Laws.

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Edmund, Patron of Pressurised Students

At this time of year many students in the Northern Hemisphere face into the annual pressure of achieving good results in their final examinations. In many cases the direction of their future careers depends on the outcome. For many years, educationalists have agonised about ways and means of relieving the sometimes unreal expectations of parents concerning the educational performances of their children. The students themselves feel under severe pressure and not all can cope adequately in the situation. Edmund, both as a parent of a handicapped daughter and as a founder of teaching congregations, understands very well the dilemma of young people under pressure. While Edmund, from his own career in business, was always conscious of the importance of young people achieving their full potential with dignity, he was also very conscious of the variety of gifts that young people possessed and that achieving the greatest results in higher mathematics wasn’t the only criterion of academic success.

Many people, both parents and students, have reported greater peace of mind and a realistic understanding of the various gifts of mind and heart that they possess, after praying through the intercession of Blessed Edmund around the time of examinations. Let us imitate these people and, as the timetable of examinations approaches, let us invoke Blessed Edmund for the parents and young people we know who are caught up in the various stresses brought on by the examination system. At a time of economic downturn, let us pray that Blessed Edmund will guide young people in their careers and life decisions, not forgetting giving serious consideration to the possibility of a religious vocation.

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15 August 1809: Edmund and his Companions become a Roman-approved Diocesan Congregation, the Society of the Presentation

This year we celebrate the Bicentenary of Edmund Rice and his early companions making Perpetual Vows in Waterford on 15 August 1809. The previous year, in answer to their desire for the vowed life, Bishop Power had allowed them to take private annual vows. He then requested Rome to recognise Edmund and his companions as a new Diocesan Congregation, with the understanding that they would continue to renew their annual vows each year until such approval was granted. Realistically, the Bishop expected a number of years to elapse before such a permission would be secured. Among other things, he would have to provide Rome with rules and constitutions of the proposed new congregation written in Latin.

But, providentially, the course of European history intervened. There were troubled times in Europe because of the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Emperor of France (and of much of continental Europe) removed Pope Pius VII from Rome to French-held territory as a prisoner for five years, mostly in Savona, until 1814. In the absence of the Pope, Cardinal di Pietro, Prefect of Propaganda Fide, early in 1809, before he too went into indefinite exile, granted provisional permission through his secretary, Monsignor Quarantotti, to Bishop Power to proceed with his plan for a new diocesan congregation of teaching brothers, with the understanding that he would provide Latin rules and constitutions for the tiny new group. The Bishop considered this sufficient grounds to allow Blessed Edmund and seven companions, much to their great joy, to proceed to simple perpetual vows, which they did, on 15 August 1809, in the Society of the Presentation of Mary, closely modelled on Nano Nagle’s Presentation Sisters who had only got definitive Roman approval as recently as 1805, although originally set up in 1777 in Cork. Unlike the Presentation Sisters who had opted for solemn vows, Edmund Rice’s Brothers, with their simple vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, were not bound by enclosure. They were spread over three small communities in the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore: Mount Sion in Waterford City, Carrick-on-Suir in Co. Tipperary and Dungarvan in Co. Waterford. Edmund was named ‘Brother Ignatius’ in honour of the great founder of the Jesuits, St Ignatius of Loyola. The new Brothers were clothed with a simple black habit which initially they only wore indoors and in their schools so as not to cause offence to their Protestant neighbours. The Penal Laws were still, in many regards, still alive and well!

Whatever period of membership and of ad hoc training that Edmund and his companions had experienced under Edmund’s example and guidance prior to 1809 was accepted in the place of a canonical novitiate. From 1809 onwards, however, all new members would have to enter as Postulants for at least six months and then proceed to Novitiate training for a period of two years before being admitted to vows. Today, both the Presentation Brothers and the Christian Brothers look back to 15 August 1809 as the date on which they were recognised by Rome as proper religious and not just as enthusiastic amateurs. We give thanks to Blessed Edmund and Bishop Power for this great advance in their organisation.

Today, the inclusive Edmund Rice Network, including the Presentation and Christian Brothers and their many Associates, rejoice at the many graces bestowed through Blessed Edmund and his followers down all the years on the many young people with whom they shared the benefits of education. They thank the Lord for the good done and also say ‘sorry’ for occasional personal failures. Blessed Edmund Rice, pray for us and guide us.

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International Edmund Rice Novena

Monday, 27 April – Tuesday, 5 May 2009

Introduction:

This year, as mentioned above, we celebrate the Bicentenary of Edmund Rice and his early followers making perpetual vows in Waterford on 15 August 1809, with the approval of Rome.

This marked the formal beginning of the Presentation Brothers (FPM), the Christian Brothers (CFC) and the Edmund Rice Network (ERN).

We honour the event during our Edmund Rice Novena by concentrating on the following intentions:

1. A recommitment among those following Blessed Edmund in the vowed

life as Christian Brothers or Presentation Brothers;

2. A campaign of prayer for new members in the two Congregations;

3. A wider involvement and enthusiasm among Associates that work in the Edmund Rice Network that has sprung up in various parts of the world;

4. Our own local and personal intentions may be added to these.

These intentions are very much in keeping with the aspirations expressed at the most recent General Chapters of Edmund’s two Congregations. Coincidentally, Edmund’s native country, Ireland, has just been celebrating the Church’s Year of Vocation (concludes on Sunday, 3 May).

Novena Prayers:

O God, we thank you for the life of Blessed Edmund Rice.

He opened his heart to Christ present

in those oppressed by poverty and injustice.

May we follow his example of faith and generosity.

Grant us the courage and compassion of Blessed Edmund

as we seek to live lives of love and service.

Grant that soon he may be declared a saint of your Church.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

(2) O God, you inspired Blessed Edmund Rice to follow your Son

in a life of consecrated service of the poor

and of all in need of a truly Christian education.

Grant through his intercession the petitions I now make:

(a) a recommitment to the ideals of Blessed Edmund

among his vowed followers, the Presentation and Christian Brothers;

(b) an increase in the number offering themselves as new Brothers worldwide, including in our part of the Lord’s Vineyard;

(c) a deepening of involvement and enthusiasm among the Associates that work

in the wider Edmund Rice Network throughout the world.

Listen also, Gracious God, to the special local intentions we bring before you

through the intercession of Blessed Edmund .................

We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

(3) Our Lady of the Presentation, pray for us.

Our Lady of Good Counsel, pray for us.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

Our Lady Help of Christians, pray for us.

St Joseph, pray for us.

St Patrick, pray for us….

Holy men and women of our land, pray for us.

Blessed Edmund Rice, our hope and inspiration, pray for us.

Nano Nagle, Servant of God, pray for us.

Live Jesus in our hearts forever.

(4) Optional: One decade of the Rosary daily for the Novena intentions

and/or

Attendance at daily Mass each day of the Novena.

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Edmund Rice Cause Today

I am occasionally asked at what stage is the Edmund Rice Cause today. A simplistic answer is that we now require one more miracle of healing before approaching the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. We have been looking at a number of exceptional healings, but the answer is a little more involved. What follows below is the text of a short talk I recently gave on this topic. I hope you find it helpful and that you keep on praying and hoping.

Since Edmund Rice was beatified – declared ‘Blessed’ – on 6 October 1996 by the late Pope John Paul II, work has continued to ensure that Blessed Edmund will soon be canonised – become known worldwide as ‘SAINT Edmund Rice’. Everybody can play his/her part in this campaign by making Blessed Edmund better known and by bombarding heaven by prayer.

In 2003 Br Donal Blake CFC, Christian Brother, was appointed Roman Postulator to liaise with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints (CCS). Assisting him as Vice-Postulator is Br Bede Minehane FPM, Presentation Brother. Thus Blessed Edmund’s two Congregations are involved together at official level. Assisting them in the various regions around the world where the Christian Brothers, the Presentation Brothers and the Edmund Rice Network have a presence is a whole host of Local Promoters.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints informs us that three issues remain to expedite Blessed Edmund’s Canonisation in the coming years:

Relevance of Blessed Edmund today;
Existence of a lively devotion to him;
One miraculous cure from a life-threatening illness.

Relevance: What is it in the life of Blessed Edmund and what he stood for in his time that is still relevant in today’s Church and in today’s world? For many years, we concentrated on Edmund as Religious Founder and Educator. In more recent times, many have also drawn strength and meaning from Edmund as parent of a handicapped daughter and as a widower. Others again saw him as an honest and caring businessman in a corrupt world. The list goes on…

Devotion: Is there a genuine devotion to Blessed Edmund? How is it being nurtured? How does it manifest itself? Do people pray to God for help in their problems in life through Edmund’s intercession? Hence there are Edmund Rice memorabilia. There is an Edmund Rice Mass and an Annual International Novena in preparation for his Feastday on 5 May. There is a growing volume of Edmund Rice literature. Do we use the school, the parish and local media to spread devotion to him?

Miracle: One further miracle, performed since 6 October 1996 (the date of his Beatification) needs to be described and verified before Blessed Edmund can be formally called ‘Saint Edmund’ in the Rite of Canonisation. The evidence, both spiritual and medical, has to pass rather stringent tests ordered by the CCS. Many people, for instance, claim that Blessed Edmund has intervened to cause healing to many relationships. But the cures sought in Rome are those of medical physical healing that can be monitored by hospital records and hospital tests. Instances have been recorded in Melbourne, Toronto, Florida, Chicago, St Lucia (West Indies), Liverpool and Cork. Let us pray that at least one of these may prove fruitful. There is, of course, our time and God’s time!

Have a Blessed Easter. May the Risen Christ inspire you and yours now and forever.

Postulator: Br Donal Blake CFC, Edmund Rice House, North Richmond St., Dublin 1

Tel. 086-300 5604; Email:postulatorcfc@gmail.com

Vice-Postulator: Br Bede Minehane FPM, Mount St Joseph, Blarney St., Cork

Tel. 021-4304977; Email: pbm@eircom.net

6 April 2009

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Advent 2008

From the Postulator's Desk:

‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!’ It’s Advent, that time of year when we look forward to a better future, to a fuller realisation of our hopes and dreams both for ourselves and for our loved ones at Christmas and in the New Year in the company of the Christ Child and Blessed Edmund. In a time of recession, let us hope that our priorities are mature and generous – and inclusive.

Sincere thanks for all the prayers and good wishes during and after my recent visit to hospital. It is only now that I feel sufficiently recovered to offer an explanation to the many clients of Blessed Edmund for being unavailable in my office in the recent past. It is great to be alive!

1. Health Scare

Yes, indeed, 2008 has been an ‘annus horribilis’ for me, health-wise. After relocating the Postulator’s Office from Rome to Dublin, I experienced extreme tiredness and I was advised to have a full medical check-up. It was discovered that I was suffering from hypertension and pernicious anaemia. I was put on a course of medication, including monthly injections of Vitamin B12. During Summer 2008, I began to experience bouts of severe headaches but, seeing that I had been subject to migraine headaches in the past, I concluded that this was more of the same, due to the trauma of relocating from Rome and settling down in Dublin after four consecutive years in the Eternal City (I had spent another six years there in the 1980s).

I had booked to attend the week-long European Province Chapter at Limerick University in August and had intended giving a talk there on the present state of the Edmund Rice Cause. Things did not work out as planned! I recall travelling down from Dublin to Limerick on Sunday, 10 August, but remember little of the following week. Apparently, I attended the chapter sessions zombie-like from Monday to Wednesday, but have no recollection of being present. On Wednesday, thanks to the watchfulness of Nurse Rosaline Dillon, I was sent to Limerick Regional Hospital for tests, including a CAT scan. On Saturday, 16 August, I was removed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital (CUH) – I have a vivid memory of that journey - and was successfully operated on for four and a half hours during the morning of Sunday, 17 August, by Mr George Kaar, neurosurgeon, and his team. I was suffering from chronic subdural haematoma – in layman’s terms, a clot on the brain.

Ironically I was under the care of the same Clinical Department that dealt with Mrs Betty McSweeney, the lady who claimed to have been assisted through the intercession of Blessed Edmund Rice in her recovery from brain surgery in January 2006. Oddly enough, while I have recommended other people to pray through the intercession of Blessed Edmund, I don’t remember praying for myself during my stay in hospital! Maybe I wasn’t capable of so doing, but I do know that others were praying for me. There is a lesson there somewhere!

I have made a good recovery since the end of August, but have had to rest more than usual, as my energy levels were low after the operation. The scars have healed by now. Life feels good! You will forgive me, I’m sure, if I haven’t been in touch on Edmund Rice matters recently, but hope that I will be back to my old self after Christmas. Pray for me.

2. New Vice-Postulator:

Brother Bede Minehane FPM

Due to pressure of work, Brother Donatus Brazil, Presentation Brother, who has been Vice-Postulator of the Edmund Rice Cause for the past three years, felt obliged to resign from this post. I was reluctant to lose him, as we had worked very well together. I take this opportunity to thank him for his sterling work on the Edmund Rice Cause and I wish him well in his time-consuming role as Archivist at the Generalate of the Presentation Brothers Congregation in Cork.

Taking his place as Vice-Postulator is Brother Patrick Bede Minehane. Bede hails from West Cork and has been a Presentation Brother since 1960. A science graduate from UCC, he also studied Catechetics in UCC and Mount Oliver Institute. He was a secondary school principal for 15 years before being appointed Anglo-Irish Provincial in 1990, a position he held for nine years until his election to the CLT of the Presentation Brothers in 1999.

He has been co-ordinator of the Presentation Volunteer Programme since its inception in 2000. He has been deeply involved in developing collaboration between the three Congregations of the Nagle-Rice Family from 1990 to the present, serving on many Inter-Congregational groups on behalf of the Presentation Brothers. He is a member of the Mount Sion Board of Directors and also of the Nagle Rice On-Going Formation Committee. He is at present community leader at Mount St Joseph, Cork. His brother, Denis, is also a member of the Presentation Brothers.

3. What Age was Edmund Rice?

Traditionally we have accepted that Blessed Edmund Rice was born on 1 June 1762 and died on 29 August 1844, aged 82 years. This was based on the inscription which appeared on the Memorial Chapel erected in his honour at Mount Sion in 1845, the year after his death: “Edmund Ignatius Rice departed this life, 29 August 1844, aged 82 years”. It was felt that his own Mount Sion community would get these details correct. This was reinforced by the account of Edmund’s life written for the 1845 edition of the Catholic Directory by Br Austin Grace whose family had been neighbours of the Rices in Callan, Co. Kilkenny.

But are you aware that according to some sources Edmund Rice was a mere 80, or even as much as 87 years of age, when he died? What first drew my attention to this contradictory evidence was my involvement in early July 2007 in the exhumation of the remains of Blessed Edmund Rice prior to the scientific process in which a likeness was made of his skull for the new Mount Sion Heritage Centre. Inside the present coffin I found the breastplate of the original coffin in which Blessed Edmund was buried in 1844. Etched on it was the name “Br Edmund Ignatius Rice” and the inscription “aged 87 years”! This would have Edmund born in 1757 rather than 1762, the traditional date of his birth. Was it a simple case of the undertaker mistaking 82 in some Brother’s handwriting for 87? Then I discovered another strange coincidence. The Tipperary Vindicator of Wednesday, 4 September 1844, recording the death of Edmund Rice and purporting to be quoting from the Waterford Mail and the Waterford Chronicle, stated: “At Mt Sion in this city, in the 87th year of his age, the Venerable Brother Edmund Ignatius Rice, Founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Ireland and England.”

Intrigued, I looked further afield. The obvious records of Church and State, i.e., Baptismal Records and Birth Certificates, weren’t of much use in my quest. Catholic church registers in Ireland, as often as not, were not compiled during the 18th century because of the Penal Laws, and Birth Certificates in Ireland began as late as 1868. Thus the Register of Births, Baptisms and Marriages kept in Callan Catholic Parish Church was of no help since it didn’t go further back in history than January 1821. The starting dates for neighbouring parishes, in the forlorn hope that Edmund might have been baptised in some other neighbouring church, precluded any relevant information – Ballycallan (1819), Cuffesgrange (1819), Gowran (1809), Dunamaggan (1824), Mullinahone (1835), Kilkenny, St John’s (1789), Kilkenny, St Patrick’s (1802) The Founder’s Will, written in 1838, does not contain his date of birth. Many of our national records that survived into the 20th century were destroyed in two disastrous fires, the first in the Custom House (1920) during the War of Independence, the second in the Four Courts (1922) during the Civil War. So there are many gaps in our Public Records, causing much frustration.

Finally I discovered in two official lists that Edmund Rice is stated to have been born, not in 1762 or 1757 but in 1764! The first of these was compiled in 1829, the year of Catholic Emancipation, when all male religious in England, Scotland and Ireland were obliged by law to register with the Clerk of the Peace. The register was printed by order of the House of Commons. On page 21 of this register are the names, ages and birth-places of 16 Brothers then resident in Dublin. The first of the entries is: “22 September 1829: Edmund Rice: 65: Westcourt, Co. Kilkenny” [i.e., born in 1764]]

The second list appeared in a circular letter sent out to each of the Brothers’ Houses on 4 November 1831. This gave the names of the “Brothers Directors [Superiors] now in the Institute with their ages, the number of years under vows, and the names of the places where the houses over which they preside are established”: Edmund I. Rice: 67: 22: Dublin [i.e., born in 1764; professed in 1809]. Are we to suppose that Edmund was confused about the year of his birth or was it a case that whoever wrote out the lists simply didn’t check with the man in question?

The above shows the unexpected pitfalls that can waylay researchers in Ireland who merely wish to check up on the dates of birth of people born in 18th century Ireland. In the absence of more definite evidence, I think you will agree that it is safer to accept the traditional dates associated with the life and death of Blessed Edmund Rice: born in 1762, died in 1844.

4. The Cork ‘Cure’: A Lost Cause?

As you may be aware from a recent edition of the ‘Postulator’s Desk’, we had pinned great hope of advancing Edmund’s Cause to canonisation by a cure in the Cork region attributed to Blessed Edmund. Betty and her family were convinced that the intercession of Blessed Edmund was involved in Betty’s restoration to full health after a serious operation for the removal of a large tumour from her brain. Nobody was denying the skilful operation performed by the Neurosurgeon for the removal of the tumour. It was after the operation that things seemed to deteriorate for Betty. She remained in a coma, and it was only after the application of a first-class relic of Blessed Edmund that she regained consciousness and made a rapid recovery, so much so that today, three years after her hospital visit, she is not on any form of medication. What made her recovery all the more remarkable was that two Brothers, one a Christian Brother, the other a Presentation Brother, were involved in procuring the relic for her in the very city were Edmund Rice’s followers divided into two separate congregations all those years ago in 1827. Maybe I was too sanguine! The family members and their GP were convinced that something extraordinary had occurred. I had been trying to contact Betty’s surgeon, a very busy man, and then my own neurosurgery delayed any contact between us. His report finally arrived a few weeks ago, and what a disappointment it turned out to be. He was convinced that no miracle happened! Maybe he thought that we were trying to downgrade his own surgical skills. His report includes the following paragraph:

“No miracle took place here. She developed post-operative complications which were probably predictable given the enormous size of her tumour. With benefit of steroids and good nursing care, plus the passage of time, her condition improved over a number of days which, again, was predictable. Speaking as a surgeon and therefore as a scientist, I have little belief in miracles.”

I wrote a nice letter in reply to the Surgeon, who is not a Catholic, thanking him for taking the trouble to put pen to paper. It included the following:

“When people are gravely ill, their families and friends, in desperation, resort, not only to the best medical services but to various forms of prayer, either directly to God the Healer or to one of his saints. I do realise that it must be frustrating for surgeons who have used up-to-date procedures to have these ignored and the improvement in the patient attributed instead to miraculous intervention. Normally, grace builds on nature, and it would be foolhardy indeed to ignore medical science. Yet, for a believer, there are cases from time to time that appear to defy the ordinary laws of healing. Whether they are miracles or are attributable to hidden healing powers within the body may be interpreted according to one’s belief system, but they are outside the usual medical sequences. So I keep on hoping that some day a ‘cure’ attributed to Blessed Edmund Rice will satisfy the high criteria upheld by the Medical Bureau at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome and so help to have Blessed Edmund declared ‘SAINT Edmund Rice’.

So, is this the end of the matter? The only hopeful phrase in the surgeon’s report is the use of the phrase “probably predictable”. He is entitled to his opinion. The family and their friends are disappointed but are quietly convinced of the intervention of Blessed Edmund’s intercession on behalf of the sick woman. The surgeon, however, is not prepared to admit anything but good medical procedures. To have his views overturned, an independent surgeon of equal or higher competence nominated by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints would have to examine the case and over-rule the opinion of the neurosurgeon, and Rome is very reluctant to go to that extreme, especially when there is some doubt in the matter.

We have been at this point a few times in the past few years concerning a number of reported cures. In the end, the medical evidence was not sufficiently strong to convince the Medical Bureau in Rome, and so it is back to the drawing board. It isn’t that a definitive verdict was returned that no miracle occurred - in all cases, the recipients were convinced that a miracle had happened – but that the medical evidence was insufficient to prove “beyond reasonable doubt” that a miraculous cure had occurred. Remember that at Lourdes, despite the many thousands of cures claimed over the years, only 67 cases are accepted as truly miraculous by the Medical Bureau there. It doesn’t mean that all the other occurrences are sham.

So, we need to renew our prayers in the Cause of Blessed Edmund Rice that sooner rather than later a cure attributed to the intercession of Edmund will be of such clarity that both the medical people involved as well as Rome itself will declare that there is no natural explanation for the new well-being of a client of Blessed Edmund. We pray that this situation will happen in our own time. As Edmund himself might utter, “may the will of God be done in this”.

5. Launch of Daire Keogh’s " Edmund Rice and the First Christian Brothers"

I attended a pleasant function on Thursday, 20 November 2008, at the Merrion Hotel off Dublin’s Merrion Square. About two hundred people attended. It was the launch of Dr Daire Keogh’s new book, Edmund Rice and the First Christian Brothers (Four Courts Press, 316 pages). It is the first volume of a two-volume study of the Christian Brothers in Ireland up to the year 1950. A good read, Volume One, according to its Introduction:

“aims to get beyond the stereotypical representations of Edmund Rice and the first generation Christian Brothers, to see them as they saw themselves and were understood by their contemporaries. It goes beyond hagiography, and interprets the Brothers against the background of Catholic Emancipation, the modernization of Irish society and the fashioning of the Church according to the norms of the Council of Trent.”

The book first appeared in the bookshops in early August and such is the interest it has aroused among historians and others that the second edition is already nearly sold out. Daire, a scrupulous historian, presents Edmund and his early companions in all their humanity, warts and all. These were vital years in the formation of Irish Catholic consciousness, marking the emergence from the penal era and the establishment of the modern church. Edmund Rice made a radical contribution to this process, fostering confidence and helping to create a literate modern society through the revolution in Irish education that he initiated. It is refreshing to have a prominent historian put the record straight, and we look forward to the publication of Volume Two next year. The launch was performed by the Honourable Mr Justice Peter Kelly, past-pupil of O’Connell CBS, Dublin, and Chairman of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, the high-powered statutory group selected to ensure the continuation and integrity of Ireland’s Christian Brother Schools into the future.

6. Projected Edmund Rice Prayer Book

Before last summer I mentioned my interest in producing a collection of Edmund Rice prayers, reflections, novenas, etc., that might be of benefit to Prayer Groups, School Assemblies, etc. This announcement generated quite an amount of interest among readers in both Christian Brother and Presentation Brother circles of influence, and I received leaflets, booklets, etc., from Edmund Rice devotees all over the world. There was, as one would expect, quite an amount of repetition among these, but sufficient to supply variety for those charged with preparing liturgies, organising prayer groups or honouring special occasions connected with the life of Blessed Edmund. I faithfully collected the various contributions into a large cardboard box in my office, with the intention of sorting and editing these during the summer. Unfortunately, my episode of brain surgery intervened, and the task remained uncompleted. I was, of necessity, away from my office for two months and, in my absence, the details of where the various contributions for the new booklet had come from were mislaid! Now that I am (almost) back to full time in the office, I intend to take up once more the task of producing the booklet, this time, however, without the detail of where the various contributions have come from. I hope the various contributors who kindly provided material will be understanding of this. My new deadline, considering that I have other tasks in hand, is the anniversary of Blessed Edmund’s Birthday, 1 June 2009. In the meantime, feel free to contact me, preferably by e-mail, at my Dublin office. God bless you all and may Blessed Edmund guide you. A Happy Christmas and a Bright 2009 to all of you.

Br Donal Blake CFC,

Edmund Rice Roman Postulator/

Congregation Historian,

Edmund Rice House,

North Richmond Street,

Dublin 1,

Ireland

postulatorcfc@gmail.com

Mobile No. 086-300 5604

Office Phone +353-1-6230097

[Dublin 01-6230097]

Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady,

21st November 2008

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Easter 2008

1. Death and Resurrection Experience, Easter 2008

The joy and peace of the Risen Lord be with you all this Eastertide!

I experienced in a very real and painful way the Death-Resurrection story this Easter. It happened as follows. I visited Rome for eight days in early March to carry out some research in the Christian Brothers Generalate Archives and to seek some advice from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints about how best to proceed in the case of an alleged cure through the intercession of Blessed Edmund Rice. Br Tony Twomey, the Immersion Director of the Christian Brothers’ European Province, who lives in Community with me at Edmund Rice House, North Richmond Street, Dublin 1, travelled out to Rome with me. Tony has the onerous task of introducing groups of teachers and senior pupils from the Brothers’ schools in Ireland and England to projects for the poor and down-and-outs in Africa, India and South America, but this was his first visit to Rome. In whatever free time I had, I helped to introduce him to the wonders of the Eternal City. What made it all the more interesting for him was that he knew that one of his nieces, Mary Collins (29) from Athy, Co. Kildare, was travelling out to Rome for the St Patrick’s Weekend, just after our return to Dublin, and he keenly looked forward to discussing the Roman visit with her.

Mary and three female companions, best friends since their student days studying science at University College Dublin (UCD), travelled to Rome on Saturday, 15 March, and attended the Palm Sunday Mass in St Peter’s Basilica the following morning. Mary sent a text message that the girls were having a memorable visit. They planned to go out to a good restaurant for a special meal together on Monday, the night of St Patrick’s Day, and were due to fly home the next morning. Imagine Br Tony’s horror on the morning of 18 March when word filtered through that Mary and a pal of hers, Liz Gubbins from Limerick (28), were mindlessly killed by a drunken driver at a pedestrian crossing in Rome the previous night. The other two girls in the party had left to walk to their nearby hotel just five minutes previously. The families were shattered. The bodies of Mary and Liz were returned to Ireland on Good Friday. Mary’s remains were removed to Athy Parish Church on Easter Sunday Evening, and the funeral was after 11.00 am Mass next morning. A huge crowd attended. Liz’s funeral followed in Limerick a day later. We supported Tony as best we could, however inadequately, and attended the various ceremonies. Our prayer now, through the intercession of Blessed Edmund, is that both girls celebrate the Resurrection with Christ in heaven and that the Good Lord bring comfort and healing to the grieving families and survivors. Death and Resurrection, Easter 2008.

Image related to article

Bishop Lee celebrates the Mass of Dedication

2.The “New” Mount Sion

The new Blessed Edmund Rice Chapel and Edmund Rice International Heritage Centre have been officially opened at Mount Sion in Waterford.

The Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Dr. William Lee, was chief celebrant together with Bishop Laurence Forristal and Bishop Michael Russell at a Mass of Dedication of the new Chapel on Sunday February 3rd. Parish Priest, Fr William Ryan, acted as Master of Ceremonies.

The ceremony was attended by large numbers of Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers and many students from secondary schools in Waterford. Music was provided by The Edmund Rice Choral Society.

Featured in the Chapel are the four sculptures in wood by well known Irish Liturgical Artist, Fergus Costello - the altar, the ambo, the tabernacle and the scriptorium. Fergus also designed the tomb in stone and glass which contains the remains of Blessed Edmund.

Four of the windows contain images of the four evangelists, created by Brother Joe Connolly, and the Celtic designs were produced by Michael Daniels.

On Friday February 8th, An Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, TD, opened the new Centre and prayed at the tomb of Blessed Edmund Rice. The Opening of the Heritage Centre was also attended by Mayor of Waterford, Ms. Mary O’Halloran.

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The Tomb of Blessed Edmund

3. New Leadership Team of the Christian Brothers

Brother Philip Pinto was re-elected Congregation Leader at the Christian Brothers’ six-yearly General Chapter at Kunnar, Kerala, South India, in March 2008. For the first time ever in the Brothers’ more than two-hundred-year history, there is no Irishman on the Congregation’s Leadership Team, and the first African-born Councillor has been elected onto the Team. This is the Holy Spirit speaking to us to reflect on the more international membership of what Blessed Edmund Rice initiated in Waterford in 1802. As heretofore, the new CLT will be based in Rome, but will need to travel all five continents to visit where the Christian Brothers and their ministries are located. We pray the blessing of Blessed Edmund on them as they take up their leadership role.

The membership of the new Team is as follows:

Br Philip Pinto, India: Congregation Leader

Br Jack Mostyn, USA: Deputy Leader

Br Francis Hall, UK: Councillor

Br Victor Kamara, Africa: Councillor

Br Peter Dowling, Australia: Councillor.

4. International ER Novena 2008

It is that time of year again when our thoughts focus on preparation for Blessed Edmund’s Feastday, Monday, 5 May. Everyone will have their own special intentions, but an underlying one is that Blessed Edmund will soon become ‘Saint Edmund Rice’. We are also conscious in this ‘Year of Vocations’ of praying for new vowed members of Blessed Edmund’s two Congregations, the Presentation Brothers (FPM) and the Christian Brothers (CFC), and for an increase in the membership of the Edmund Rice Network (ERN) - those who draw their inspiration from Blessed Edmund and who are linked with the two Congregations as Associate Members and/or Co-Workers.

This year, Br Donatus Brazil FPM (the Vice-Postulator) and myself, Br Donal Blake CFC (Postulator), at our March meeting, have selected two families, the McGowans from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the Walshes from Montreal, Canada, as a special focus for our International Novena. There is much suffering and illness in both families and we request our International Associates to storm Heaven during the Novena through the intercession of Blessed Edmund for a restoration of good health and happiness to all concerned. This year’s International Novena runs from Saturday, 26 April, to Sunday, 4 May. Please make an effort to attend Holy Mass on Monday, 5 May, the Feast Day of Blessed Edmund.

Prayer Resources are available at http://www.edmundclt.org/prayerresources/prayerresources.html

5. Tribute to Br Aidan Quinlan

Br Aidan Quinlan has been and still is a great devotee of Blessed Edmund Rice. Even before Edmund Rice was beatified by Rome on 6 October 1996, Br Aidan, from his base in St Mary’s, Baldoyle, Co. Dublin, promoted a “League of Prayer” in honour of his hero. Month after month he sent out a monthly ‘Newsletter’ that included historical snippets from the lives of Edmund and the early Brothers, and articles outlining the progress of Edmund’s Cause towards Canonisation and recording both requests for, and answers to, prayers through the intercession of Blessed Edmund.

This was in addition to his sterling work in the Brothers’ former African Office, which among other things involved the sending of a weekly newsletter to Irish Brothers working in Africa. This office is now transferred to Zambia, and St Mary’s, Baldoyle, out of which Aidan worked is being transformed into a building site, preparatory to being absorbed as a much-needed extension to St Patrick’s Nursing Home next door for elderly and sick Brothers. Aidan himself has been quite ill of late, and the pressure of meeting monthly deadlines was becoming burdensome. It has been decided to call a halt to his ‘Newsletter’, at least in its present format. In the meantime, gratitude is being expressed on all sides, not least by many elderly readers, for Br Aidan’s gallant attempts over the years to spread devotion to Blessed Edmund through the ministry of the pen. We salute you, Aidan, and I’m sure that Blessed Edmund is proud of you.

6. The late Brother Fabian O’Donohue FPM

Brother Fabian, RIP

They came in large numbers from near and far and from many walks of life to pay their respects to Br. Fabian O Donohue a real ‘Gentleman of the Presentation’ whose funeral Mass was celebrated in Christ the King Church, Turner’s Cross, Cork on Saturday February 23rd. Br Fabian, you will recall, was one of the two people we prayed for during last year’s Novena. The other person, Linda Loughran, is still seriously ill. So let us keep up our prayers.

The chief celebrant at the Mass was Fr. Kerry Murphy O Connor PP who spoke of Fabian as ‘mirror of God’s love’ to young and old and especially to the poor and vulnerable. The Greenmount school choir enhanced the requiem liturgy. Former colleagues from the various schools in which Fabian taught were at hand to offer words of appreciation and condolence to his family who travelled in large numbers from his home place in Ballinagun, Kilrush, Co.Clare.

‘He had an elegant athletic walk, his long fingers seemed to offer him balance as he moved lightly and with purpose. I’m told that he moved similarly on the football field. His visits home to Ballinagun were like Christmas even if the only gift he brought was himself. He was a second father to me’. With these words his nephew John spoke of Fabian in an eloquent eulogy after Mass.

A tribute from another Clareman, Br. Pat Madigan cfc came from New Mexico stating: “all Claremen have reason to be proud of Fabian”. It is very appropriate that he is laid to rest in the Blessed Rice Cemetery in Mt.St.Joseph next to another great Clareman Br. Basil Daly.

His coffin was laden with bouquets of flowers from family and friends who wanted to say a sincere ‘thank you’ to their friend. Among them were two bouquets from ‘Right of Place’, the group representing those who suffered institutional abuse – an eloquent statement of gratitude to one who always listened respectfully and did not judge.

Br. Fabian’s playing colleagues from Nemo Rangers formed a guard of honour and took turns in carrying his coffin. A sports profile and appreciation by Plunkett Carter from Greenmount appeared on the Cork Evening Echo and a minute’s silence was observed before the All Ireland Club semi-final game at Ennis which Nemo Rangers proceeded to win in style.

In the words of an old friend, Brother Mark McDonnell, CFC, writing from India, "It gives one confidence in the dynamic of religious life when it offers men like Fabian as exemplars of what the fruits of a good religious life can be”.

May he rest in peace.

7. A New Edmund Rice Prayer Book?

Over the past twenty or more years, people in different parts of the world, sometimes working independently, have produced prayers and reflections of various kinds centred on Blessed Edmund – prayers for favours, prayers for his Canonisation, litanies, novenas, Morning and Evening Prayers, meditations, liturgies, suggested Mass Readings, etc. It has been suggested to me recently that it might be a good idea to collect these prayers into one single prayer book for devotees of Blessed Edmund. I agree with these sentiments, and I now propose, with your help, to produce such a collection that would then become widely available. How can you help, I hear you asking. Search your prayer books, shelves, etc., and forward to me in whatever format you consider most convenient examples of what you find. I appeal in a special way to secretaries and archivists working in provincialates, regional houses, novitiates and houses of formation. I also include individuals who may have collected items of devotion. Please pop examples of what you have into an envelope or as an attachment by e-mail and forward same, before 1 June 2008, Birthday of Blessed Edmund, to:

Br Donal Blake CFC,

Edmund Rice Postulator,

Edmund Rice House,

North Richmond Street,

Dublin 1,

Ireland.

Tel. +353-1-8230097 [Dublin 01-8230092]

postulatorcfc@gmail.com

If you are reluctant to permanently part with what you send, please remind me of this, and I will ensure that the items are returned to you!

8. Alleged Cure in Cork City

I mentioned in a recent communication about an alleged cure in Cork City granted through the intercession of Blessed Edmund Rice to Betty, a married woman. It involves recovery from an operation for the removal of a tumour on the brain, where little hope of survival had been held out by the surgeon. A first-class relic of Blessed Edmund was applied to the affected area by Betty’s husband, a long-time devotee of Blessed Edmund. Today, Betty is alive and well. I recently met the family at an impressive Edmund Rice Prayer Meeting at the Presentation Brothers’ Mount St Joseph in Cork, attended by about sixty people. The family gave public testimony to the intervention of Blessed Edmund in their lives.

The case has now moved a step forward. I got the family and the Brothers involved to write a preliminary account of what had occurred. I then submitted this, during my March visit to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome, to Monsignor Robert Sarno, an expert in such matters. Such officials are by nature cautious, but he accepted that the case was “promising”. He then advised me on how best to proceed. This will involve collecting copies of the medical records, interviewing the family doctor, the surgeon, nursing assistants, family members of the patient in greater detail, etc., writing up all of this material under prescribed headings … and then getting a more expert preliminary opinion from a panel of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. Then, if the verdict is still positive, I need to approach the Bishop of Cork to set up a Miracle Tribunal to examine under oath all the personnel involved in the alleged cure. Informally, the Diocese has told me that they have never had any experience of organising such a tribunal, and they will be very reliant on what I, the Postulator, and Br Donatus, the Vice-Postulator, can tell them concerning procedures. There is no guarantee that everybody involved will co-operate with such an intricate procedure. It will also involve a new medical examination of Betty. All going well, it will take about two years minimum. Then, I, or somebody working on my instructions, will need to write up a detailed Miracle Positio for the Congregation of Saints. So, if you see me with a faraway look in my eyes over the next few years, you will know why! Please pray that the Cork case will be successful. Only then, of course, Edmund can be canonised.

The following report by Br Clement McCarthy FPM gives a touching account of how the relic was made available:

“It was approaching bedtime when I received a telephone call from Brother Nessan O’Mahony, a Christian Brother who resides with his community about a mile from our residence, Mount St Joseph. Knowing that our Presentation Community possessed a first-class relic of Blessed Edmund Rice, he asked if he could borrow it for a friend Michael whose wife Betty was gravely ill in the Cork University Hospital after a serious brain tumour operation. I agreed they could have the relic and asked them to come and collect it.

While on my way to the Community Chapel where we keep the relic, it occurred to me that when they arrived in a matter of minutes I would invite Nessan and Michael to join me in prayer in the Chapel at the Blessed Edmund Shrine. Both gladly agreed and we went to the Shrine where I already had candles lighting. I was meeting Michael for the first time. He was very distraught and overwhelmed by grief as he told me of the serious illness of his wife Betty at the local hospital. Michael said his wife was greatly disturbed and agitated after the serious operation. I got the impression that Betty’s condition was life-threatening – hence Michael’s recourse to the intercession of Blessed Edmund Rice whom he trusted with great conviction.

After Michael lit a special candle for Betty, all three of us prayed with great devotion and fervour and much faith, believing that through the intercession of Blessed Edmund Betty would be healed. After some time I placed the relic on Michael’s head at a place corresponding to the place on Betty’s head where the operation had taken place. Together we recited the prayer to Blessed Edmund and the special prayer for healing.

As I reflect back now, I recall this as a great faith experience for me, as I feel it was also for Michael and Br Nessan. As Michael and Br Nessan set out on their journey to Betty at the Cork University Hospital I could not help observing how calm, confident, peaceful and hopeful Michael had become.

A few days later Michael and Br Nessan returned with the good news that Betty was recovering. They joined with our regular Thursday night Divine Mercy Prayer Group to say thanks. Michael gave a touching testimony to all present attributing the improved health of his wife Betty to the powerful intercession of Blessed Edmund Rice.”

I leave you to reflect on this remarkable account by Brother Clement, and I remind you once again about my request for various Edmund Rice prayers, etc., which I hope to receive by Edmund’s Birthday on 1 June. Please join in the Annual International Novena, 26 April – 4 May, in preparation for the Feast of Blessed Edmund on 5 May. Please remember, in addition to your own intentions, the McGowan Family, Belfast, and the Walsh Family, Montreal, during the Novena. God bless you and yours and may Blessed Edmund guide you in your life choices.

Br Donal Blake CFC,

Edmund Rice Roman Postulator,

Edmund Rice House,

North Richmond Street,

Dublin 1,

Ireland.

01-8230097 (+353-1-823 0097)

postulatorcfc@gmail.com

4 April 2008

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Advent 2007

Greetings to all Friends of Edmund Rice! Sorry for the long silence, but personal adjustments arising from ill-health and the transfer of my office from Rome to Dublin have kept me pre-occupied with adjusting to living in Ireland after four years in Rome. I will still need to visit Rome a few times a year to keep in touch with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and to do some history research in our International Archives at Via Marcantonio Colonna 9. If and when we receive news of what appears to be a definite miracle worked through the intercession of Blessed Edmund, then I may have to spend more time in Rome to find out how to go about setting up a Miracle Tribunal. This morning’s post has brought in an invitation for all 377 Postulators to a special Papal Audience at 12 noon on Monday, 17 December.

Regarding my health, the doctor has discovered as a result of tests that I am suffering from a complaint called pernicious anaemia. Seeing that I suffer from high blood pressure, this was the last condition I suspected. The anaemia is being treated by a course of Vitamin B12 injections and tablets and, already, I can feel the energy returning. I had attributed the tiredness to the recent transfer of my office and its contents from Rome to Dublin. Please pray to Blessed Edmund that I will have sufficient energy to adequately promote his Cause.

New Dublin Office

My new address is:

Postulator’s Office,

Edmund Rice House,

North Richmond Street,

Dublin 1.

The general telephone number is: (a) from outside Ireland: +353-1- 855 6258; (b) from inside Ireland: 01-855 6258. I may, shortly, be assigned a personal number. My e-mail address remains: postulatorcfc@gmail.com

The move was set in motion by the sale in Rome of our old Generalate, Via della Maglianella 375, and of our extra residence, Via dei Casali Santovetti 50 (where I lived). The Christian Brothers’ only presence in Rome now is at the new Generalate located at Via Marcantonio Colonna 9, next door to their former secondary school, Istituto Marcantonio Colonna (now a Catholic University). Since we had to give vacant possession of Santovetti to its new owners, we spent a few weeks since the end of the summer disposing of all furnishings, etc. Then I had to start again at Marcantonio Colonna and remove all the files, documents, books, etc., of the Postulator’s Office (ten large boxes) and transfer them to Dublin via Missionary Transport Service. I am busily equipping a new office at North Richmond Street at present. It will take me some time to assign all the files and documents to new shelving and filing cabinets. Wish me well! By the way, Blessed Edmund Rice lived here in North Richmond Street from 1831 to 1838, the last eight years of his time as First Superior General of the Christian Brothers. His bedroom is preserved as a shrine. Next door is the famous O’Connell School (OCS), named after Blessed Edmund’s great friend, “The Liberator”, Daniel O’Connell MP.

Happenings at Mount Sion, Waterford

As mentioned in my last communication, work proceeds at Mount Sion on the building of a new Blessed Edmund Rice Chapel to house his permanent tomb and a new Museum and Heritage Centre to display in a worthy state-of-the art interactive setting the history of Edmund and the early Brothers. Centrepiece of the Exhibition will be a laser-generated image of Blessed Edmund as an elderly man, created over the summer months from an examination of Blessed Edmund’s skull by forensic scientists from England. By all accounts, Edmund’s image looks very like that depicted in the oil-painting from life, the so-called “Carrick Portrait” that is stored in the Christian Brothers’ Residence at Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, founded 1806.

A very high powered committee is in charge of operations in Waterford and they assure me that the builders are up to schedule. The programme for the Official Opening will be as follows:

Sunday, 3 February 2008:

Mass of the Dedication of the New Blessed Edmund Rice Chapel. The remains of Blessed Edmund will be deposited in a special shrine in the new chapel. The Mass will be celebrated by Bishop William Lee of Waterford and Lismore, assisted by the newly-ordained Bishop Seamus Freeman of Ossory. Bishop Freeman is a member of the Pallottine Fathers and is, appropriately, a past-pupil of Callan CBS, Co Kilkenny. He was stationed in recent years at San Silvestro in Rome, a church well-known to Irish couples who got married there.

Friday, 8 February 2008:

Official Opening of Museum and Heritage Centre. Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern TD, will perform the ceremony. During the week 3 – 9 February, a series of events will celebrate the life of Blessed Edmund and his two Congregations, the Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers.

1807: Founding of Dungarvan CBS, Co. Waterford.

Two hundred years ago, the two Mulcahy blood brothers, John and James Mulcahy, founded the Brothers’ third establishment at Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, towards the end of 1807. A Mr. Barron of Faha, Co. Waterford, bequeathed by will a sum of £1000, the interest on its investment to establish and maintain a monastery and school. This mission appealed to the charity of Blessed Edmund, particularly as there was no Catholic free-school in the town. The two Mulcahy brothers had their pioneering difficulties as the interest on the Barron bequest was insufficient for the school and they were obliged to take up farming as a part-time occupation. Today the Christian Brothers are no longer present in the town but they are Trustees to the secondary school and primary school that they left behind them. In early December 2007, the local people celebrated the bicentenary of the establishment of the schools in a dignified and fitting manner.

2008: Bicentenary of Edmund and his Companions taking their First Vows:

The year 2008 marks the bicentenary of Blessed Edmund and seven companions taking of annual vows “according to the rule and constitutions of the Presentation Order”, at the Presentation Convent, Hennessy’s Road, Waterford on the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, 15 August 1808, in the presence of Bishop John Power of Waterford. The little group consisted of the personnel of Mount Sion, Carrick-on-Suir and Dungarvan, the first three foundations of the Brothers. It was an historic occasion. Heretofore, they were, at best, pious laymen but now they were consecrated religious. The fact that they, a group of men, took their vows according to a formula established by a religious congregation of women, Nano Nagle’s Presentation Sisters, set a precedent in the Irish Church. I have no doubt but the Presentation Brothers and the Christian Brothers – and the Presentation Sisters - will celebrate the event appropriately in the coming year.

Denis McLaughlin’s new book on Edmund Rice:

Dr Denis McLaughlin, a professor at the Australian Catholic University - a former Christian Brother, - has produced a new study on Edmund Rice and on Ricean Education, just to hand. The book is a labour of love for Denis and runs to 450 pages. It is titled ‘The Price of Freedom: Edmund Rice, Educational Leader’. The foreword is written by Cardinal Edward Clancy. The publishers are David Lovell Publishing, Melbourne, Australia. The book retails at 25 Australian dollars. Chances are that it may become available at your nearest Edmund Rice Centre, depending on where on the planet you live. The blurb says: “This book is a critical contribution in the rediscovery of that lost man Edmund Rice. The specific focus is on Rice’s contribution as an educational leader. In so doing, the author Denis McLaughlin has critiqued many long-held traditional interpretations and has found them either historically inaccurate or challengeable. He offers alternative perspectives that richly portray an invitingly human Edmund Rice as son, victualler, husband, father, religious Brother and educational leader.” See if you agree with his assessment.

Some Vacancies among Promoters

Because of recent bereavements, realignments of personnel and restructuring of regions within both the Presentation Brothers and the Christian Brothers, we are in need of some new Edmund Rice Promoters in various parts of the world. Both Brother Donatus Brazil FPM (Vice-Postulator) and I myself will, over the next few months, be anxious to fill the gaps in time for the next International Novena. We appeal, in particular, to various Congregation Leaders in the areas affected to appoint people in the places bereft. On the other hand, we would welcome individuals, with an interest in Edmund Rice and his Cause, to get in touch with us. I am available at the e-mail address: postulatorcfc@gmail.com and Donatus is available at his new e-mail address: jdb1802@ireland.com . Remember that the miracle-cure that we are seeking may well come from your part of the globe.

‘Miracle’ in Cork?

Work is on-going on the reported favour in the Cork area. We have been trying to assemble, with the assistance of the family concerned, a preliminary report of the supposed happening in the south of Ireland. It is a slow tedious process and takes on a life of its own. Since Br Donatus resides in Cork I am working closely with him in trying to establish the nature of the reported ‘cure’ and the evidence that prayer to Edmund and the use of his relic occurred around the time concerned. Pray that both the family and the medical people involved will be able, under oath, to state that they are convinced that an extraordinary occurrence took place. It is not required that medical people state that a miracle occurred – what is sufficient is that they acknowledge that in their experience of treating the particular disease that a cure does not normally occur in such circumstances. Copies of the medical records have to be supplied; the quality of the evidence given under oath has to be sifted locally, and only then does an international Medical Tribunal have a second look at the findings of the Cork Diocesan Tribunal. That could be a long road. Pray to Edmund in particular that this could be the favour that sees him declared ‘SAINT EDMUND’. I think it would be particularly appropriate in the case of Blessed Edmund that Cork should be the venue for the miracle that would see him canonised, as it was in Cork that Edmund’s followers divided into Presentation Brothers and Christian Brothers. Let us keep praying.

Doneraile Memorial

Work is on-going at the Parish church of the Nativity of Our Lady, Doneraile, Co. Cork, on the Nagle-Rice memorial. As mentioned previously, the local connection with all three congregations of the Nagle-Rice Family is being commemorated – Presentation Sisters, Presentation Brothers, and Christian Brothers. A four-way division of the cost has been agreed to – the local Parish and the three congregations. It is hoped that the work will be completed before Easter. For those in the south of Ireland, details of the unveiling will be announced in good time.

Novena

It is appropriate at this time of year to look back at last year’s Novena and look forward to next year’s one. Both Linda and Fabian that we prayed for last year are still seriously ill. However, the families and communities involved state that the prayers said and the messages of encouragement sent have brought peace and resignation around serious situations, and there is always the hope that God, through the intercession of Blessed Edmund, may intervene. In the case of Linda, we should keep her whole family in our prayers as word has come that the doctors are afraid that her illness may have been transmitted to her children also. Pity the poor husband! Brother Fabian is now in Marymount Hospice in Cork. He is quite cheerful and resigned, although the cancer seems to have progressed further. He recently attended the annual Cemetery Day at Mount St Joseph. The victory of his team, Nemo Rangers, in the Munster Club Final recently must have brought a smile to his face! Fabian played for them with distinction many times in the past. God bless him and may Edmund guide him.

Casting our minds ahead to the 2008 Novena, let us continue to pray for Linda and Fabian and their relatives and friends. If you have an intention that you think might be suitable for the International Novena, please get in touch with your local Edmund Rice Promoter, if you know one. Otherwise get in direct touch with either Br Donatus or myself by the e-mails listed above. If there is some aspect of Blessed Edmund’s life that you or your friends find inspiring, please share that with us.

In the meantime, may the Blessing of the Christ Child and his Blessed Mother and the guidance of Blessed Edmund be with you and your loved ones this Christmas season and in the New Year of 2008. Keep in touch. Live Jesus in our hearts for ever. Blessed Edmund, pray for us and for our loved ones.

Br Donal Blake CFC,

Edmund Rice Postulator/

Congregation Historian,

Edmund Rice House,

North Richmond Street,

Dublin 1,

Ireland.

8 December 2007,

Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

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June 2007

From the Postulator’s Desk

The first day of June marks the Birthday of Blessed Edmund Rice each year. Before Rome presented us in 1996 with 5th May as Blessed Edmund’s official Feastday, the first of June was traditionally celebrated, in communities and schools in the Northern Hemisphere at least, as a special day of prayer for success in the end-of- academic-year examinations. It can be a worrying time for students and their families. What are their priorities in life? Seeing that, for over 200 years, Edmund and his followers have brought education and its benefits within the reach of hundreds of thousands, we should invoke Blessed Edmund that the students will put their education to the best possible use in their life choices and careers. It is heartening to see so many in the Edmund Rice Network each year making some return for their quality education by reaching out to the less privileged in the Edmund Rice Camps, Edmund Rice Awards, the Edmund Rice Immersion Programme, in the SHARE scheme in Cork City, even “in going from one street to another to serve a neighbour for the love of God.”

This year’s Novena

By all accounts, great effort was put into this year’s Novena. Some prayed the Novena individually, others prayed it as a group, while some marked the occasion with special Masses and Talks. One man sent me an e-mail from Rarotonga in the remote Cook Islands in the Pacific that he had actually enjoyed the Novena! Isn’t that a lovely thought? What of the two special recipients of this year’s prayers? Br Fabian O’Donohue FPM who lives in Cork is still weak from his surgery and chemo-treatment but is much heartened by the thought of so many people praying through the intercession of Blessed Edmund for and with him. He had a relic of Blessed Edmund with him during the Novena. He sends his greetings and prayerful thanks to you all.

Linda Loughran from Limerick is still seriously ill. Br Kieran Loughran CFC, her husband’s uncle, did a magnificent job in circulating the Novena prayers to the extended Loughran family in Ireland, England and the USA. They feel so proud of the Edmund Rice connection and that so many, in so many countries, are praying with and for them. Linda is still quite ill and we should continue our prayers through Blessed Edmund’s intercession. Br Loughran informed me as follows: “The most recent bit of news is that the specialist treating her has informed my nephew that there is a 60/40 chance that the children may have the illness as well! They need to carry out tests on them. Please God, all will be well and Blessed Edmund will not be found wanting.” There is plenty of motivation there to continue our prayers for the entire Loughran family.

Bonnie Schott’s Celebration of the 2007 Novena

I hear you asking, ‘Who is Bonnie Schott?’ Bonnie from Indianapolis USA is mother-in-law of Dr Daire Keogh, Lecturer in History at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin. In her spare (?) time, Bonnie is a voluntary catechist at her local Catholic school. Daire, as you probably know, has written a biography of Blessed Edmund and is at present researching a two-volume critique of the Christian Brothers in Ireland. During visits to her daughter Katie who is married to Daire, Bonnie became enthused for Blessed Edmund and two years ago she recommended her niece Bridget Mayberry as a worthy focus for the 2005 Edmund Rice Novena. Bridget, you will recall, went to God in July 2005, but her little boy Cody who was ill at the time is now doing very well, T.G. I met Bonnie twice during visits she made to Rome. I first met her with Daire and Katie and their family, and then last year she was in Rome for the canonization of St Theodora Guerin, the first Indianapolis saint. We had Bonnie and her friends as guests for a meal at our Generalate. She enthused her parish priest in Indianapolis about Edmund Rice, and a first-class relic of Blessed Edmund now holds pride of place in the parish church of St Roch, Indianapolis. By the way, Fr Wilmoth also visited us here in Rome.

Now read on [e-mail of 17 May 2007]: “We had the most beautiful Mass today at St Roch’s, and I wanted to tell you about it. I saw Fr Wilmoth at about 8.40 a.m. today as I was turning in some raffle tickets before the 9.00 a.m. Mass. Father asked me if I knew what saint we were doing today. He grinned and told me I had better not be late, because they do the intro at the beginning of Mass that tells what feast day we are celebrating. Well, lo and behold, today was Blessed Edmund Rice Day at St Roch’s. His actual feast is May 5, but they did it today because Mr G’s class had prepared the Mass – and he always puts in a lot of effort. They gave a short intro to his life before Mass, and then Father gave the most beautiful sermon about Edmund Rice. Donal and Daire, you would have been very proud of Father’s history lesson on Edmund!

The readings they selected for the Mass were absolutely perfect for the life of Edmund. They did 1 Peter 4: 7b – 11 and then Mark 9: 33-37 for the Gospel. Father had our Edmund Rice relic on the altar the whole time, and Mr G had the kids sing “Set Your hearts on the Higher Gifts” for the responsorial Psalm. He did the Servant Song for the Offertory, and the kids took up several items that reflected the life of Blessed Edmund in the Prayers of the Faithful. They sang “The Summons” song at the start of Mass.

You are probably wondering why I am telling you all this. Well, as I sat there listening to the sermon, I felt I was experiencing a little bit of heaven today. I think there were many celestial beings “in the house” today. And I realised that this was a very special Mass, with the relic and all the perfect readings and songs. So I asked Blessed Edmund if he would heal Matt’s back at the Consecration and help Tom find a new job and direction….

And Father Wilmoth, Mary De Armand, Mr G and myself were all at this Mass, and we have all been to the International Headquarters of the Irish Christian Brothers in Rome! …I am really hoping that Edmund Rice will be canonized before our Indianapolis Edmund Rice Fan Club gets too old to travel to his canonization! We are all ready to buy our tickets now and be there for the occasion, now that we are seasoned veterans of Rome canonizations. I cannot think of a better way that Edmund Rice could pay Daire and Katie back for all the work that have done to write his history than to cure one of their relatives – and I nominate Matt! I believe that Bridget was with us in spirit today, along with my Mom and Dad.”

What can I say? Doesn’t it do your heart good to hear of such devotion to Edmund, in a city where there are neither Christian Brothers nor Presentation Brothers! But with promoters like Bonnie (and her parish priest), who is to say that our next miracle won’t come from Indianapolis USA? God bless you, Bonnie, and may Blessed Edmund bless you.

Death of Philosopher John Moriarty (1938 – 2007)

After a brave struggle with tumours, that great searcher, philosopher John Moriarty, for whom we prayed in last year’s Novena, returned to God on Friday, 1 June 2007, Edmund Rice’s Birthday incidentally. For a short time he lost his cradle Catholicism and sought the truth in a great search through Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and the beliefs of Eskimos and Australian Aborigines. He finally travelled full circle back to Jesus of Nazareth and his childhood Christianity. Along the way he discovered closeness to God in a garden. A mystic, he lived his final years in the shadow of Mangerton Mountain in Kerry and acquired a wonderful appreciation for the spirituality and contribution to society of Blessed Edmund Rice. The author of several books, ‘Dreamtime’ written in 1996, gives a wonderful account of his search ‘for the Holy Grail’ of God and Goodness. He was laid to rest on Monday, 4 June, in Aghadoe Cemetery, after Holy Mass in the Cathedral, Killarney. Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh (another Moriarty), the well-known broadcaster and sports commentator, devotes the final chapter of his most recent book to John, ‘From Borroloola to Mangerton Mountain’ (2006). On p.265, he claims about John:

“I subscribe to the school of thought that advances the notion that this unique philosopher will one day be recognized as one of Ireland’s greatest original thinkers.” Light of Heaven to him from all of us.

Memorial in Doneraile, Co. Cork, to Nagle Rice Family

I mentioned a few issues back about the possible construction of a memorial to all three congregations of the Nagle Rice Family in my native Doneraile, Co. Cork. It is most unusual that all three groups should have a connection with one particular location. Some of the earliest Presentation Sisters (including Nano Nagle), Christian and Presentation Brothers (including some of the pioneers of the North Monastery and South Monastery, Cork) are from the immediate area. Br Michael Augustine Riordan, first Superior of the separate South Monastery (1826), was architect of the Parish Church of the Nativity of Our Blessed Lady (1827). My contention is that it was Nano Nagle’s local reputation and example that facilitated so many local men joining Blessed Edmund Rice’s early Brotherhood. The story continues into the future through the influence of the local Nagle Rice Secondary School.

At a meeting during Easter Week 2007 that included the parish priest, some parishioners and representatives of all three religious congregations, it was decided to go ahead and erect a memorial. The three congregations and the parish will share the cost of the monument. A sub-committee is actively planning a design at present, and a follow-up meeting is planned for the end of September, on a date when I can attend from Rome. Nano Nagle’s Cause took a turn for the better recently with the appointment of Fr Brendan Cooney, Procurator of the Kiltegan St Patrick’s Missionaries, as Vice-Postulator. His special task will be to have the title ‘Venerable’ bestowed on the Servant of God, Nano Nagle, as soon as possible. Many years of historical research have been completed by Sister Pius O’Farrell PBVM. Let us share our prayers for Nano’s eventual canonization with the promotion of our own Edmund. He would be the first to acknowledge that he owes a debt of gratitude to Nano. His early Brothers followed her Rule and they were initially known as Religious of the Presentation.

Laser Image of Blessed Edmund

As readers of this column may know, great work is afoot at Mount Sion, Waterford, to erect a monument truly worthy of Blessed Edmund. A new Chapel to house Edmund’s permanent tomb is being erected and a new International Heritage Centre to do justice to Blessed Edmund’s reputation is almost completed. It is envisaged that the centrepiece of this new amenity will be a laser-generated image of Blessed Edmund’s head. All the necessary permissions have been obtained at Roman and local level. On Monday, 18 June, the coffin will be opened by Mr Thompson, the local undertaker. The skull will be reverently placed on the altar for laser-photography and then re-buried. Under my direction as Postulator, a group of scientists from Liverpool Museum will attend and carry out the necessary scientific work. Then a Dr Caroline Wilkinson, a noted forensic scientist, will reconstruct Edmund’s face (1) as an old man, (2) as a younger man, by methods perfected by police forces in the past fifty years. It is generally acknowledged that the early portraits of Edmund Rice taken from life leave something to be desired. The results of the advances of modern science will, hopefully, give a clearer picture of what Edmund really looked like. The results, with an explanation of the scientific methods deployed, will form the focus of the new International Heritage Centre, all going well. By the way, the present Blessed Sacrament Chapel at Mount Sion, the temporary resting place of the remains of Blessed Edmund, will be demolished at the end of June to make way for the newer and larger chapel being constructed to house Edmund’s new permanent tomb. Please pray to Blessed Edmund that what is envisaged under the leadership of the special committee working under the direction of Mr Barry O’Brien CEO, former Director of Waterford Glass, will result in a worthy final resting place for Edmund, our future Saint Edmund, and a source of inspiration for all his many followers.

Recent Snippets about the Presentation and Christian Brothers

On 5 May 2007, Feast of Blessed Edmund, the three ‘home’ Provinces of the Christian Brothers representing England and Ireland came to an end. In their place is the new European Province, embracing Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe, with new headquarters at Marino, Dublin. Former foreign missions in Africa and South America now form part of new Provinces in these vast continents. The challenge for the new European Province may well be to look at unanswered needs in Europe itself. Its very first Provincial Chapter takes place at Sedgley Park, Manchester UK, at the end of July and the beginning of August.

The Presentation Brothers recently opened their very first Community on mainland Europe. It is located in Slovakia and will concentrate on service to the Roma/Romany people, often considered to be the most discriminated against group in modern Europe. The new community consists of Seán Bonner (Co. Donegal), Vincent Costen (Co. Waterford), and Michael McKeown (Co. Tyrone). We pray that Blessed Edmund may be with his Brothers in this new endeavour.

At an impressive Mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, on 6 May 2007, the Christian Brothers’ continued presence in the USA since 1906 was celebrated by a large congregation, including Christian Brothers, Presentation Brothers, students and staffs from the New York schools, and members of the Edmund Rice Network. The chief celebrant was Bishop Gerald Walsh, Auxiliary Bishop of New York. The Christian Brothers were officially represented by Br Michael Godfrey CFC, Deputy Congregation Leader, Rome, and Br Hugh O’Neill CFC, Province Leader, North American Province, Texas. The Presentation Brothers were represented by Br Gerard Despathy FPM, Province Leader, and Br Francis Sebo FPM, Florida. Ad multos annos!

In October 2007, the Christian Brothers’ five provinces and region, covering Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Pacific Islands, will unite as the new Oceania Province. The headquarters will be at Brisbane in Queensland, symbolically facing out to the Pacific Ocean where the Brothers have recently opened two Communities in the Philippines.

In answer to a query, Claudia, the little American girl with leukaemia that we were praying for in last year’s Novena, is recovering well. Her uncle is Br Francis Schafer FPM, Kissimmee, Florida. In a recent e-mail, he stated that Claudia (7) is back in school and is living the normal life of a seven-year-old. She has been through a rough time of chemotherapy. “Her hair is now growing back and her body’s physique is returning to normal. She will conclude the maintenance phase of therapy in November. Claudia has been a little hero through this journey. She has faced several setbacks with amazing courage.” So keep praying, keep hoping that Blessed Edmund’s intercession will see her through.

Keep in touch. Keep cheerful. Keep praying. Keep Edmund under pressure.

Br Donal S. Blake CFC,
Edmund Rice Roman Postulator
Congregation Historian
+39 06 3211 0363

postulatorcfc@gmail.com
1 June 2007,
Birthday of Blessed Edmund