CELTIC GARDEN
PRESENTATION
Keynote Address by
Marguerite
Community Member
11th October
‘05
I would like to add my welcome to Fr.
Neal’s. It is a momentous day for us as a Community and the
I want to set the Garden in the context
of our work as a Community and to explore what this
We were formed as a Community in 1981
working against a background of inter-community violence and social
dislocation.
We worked at Prayer/Evangelisation
/Building Community/Reconciliation and Healing …
areas that were and are difficult and
challenging, areas as important to explore in 2005 in the Celtic Garden as they
were in 1981 in Columba House.
Our prayer together led us into working
with people on the margins – in the early days they were prisoners and their
families and we experienced something of what it was to be marginalised ourselves,
trying to live the message of
Reconciliation – a difficult message to hear when as Hurt communities we were
moving further and further apart.
A scripture that had a significant
impact on us as a Community was the beautiful text from Isaiah:
“Come
now let us set things right, though your sins are as scarlet they will be white
as wool.”
It spoke to us of the centrality of
Repentance and forgiveness in the journey of RECONCILIATION. From this came an
important decision and that was that in any future work outreach we would work
intentionally in a cross community way.
We did that for many years through the
monthly Christians Together meetings in the Guildhall where in a prayerful
atmosphere we explored our Common Christian Heritage and reflected on Christian
non violence. We then focussed our Reconciliation work in parishes giving
people the opportunity to explore the key issues of forgiveness and healing,
dealing with anger, sectarianism and the “other side.” A memorable aspect of the programmes was the
Healing of Memories Retreats held in St. Anthony’s, our retreat centre. People
coming apart in the beautiful rural setting of the retreat centre, walking,
praying, reflecting and bringing to prayer the burdens they were trying to
leave down. A happy consequence of this that initiative was that it brought us
into contact with Rev John Blair and the
As our patron saint we had a desire to
learn about Columba, about his life/his particular charisms and gifts and we
began praying and thinking, probably about ten years ago, about the idea of a
A
quiet place for prayer and reflection, honouring the men and women of Ireland’s
Golden Age and by renewing interest in the characteristic of Celtic
Spirituality we ourselves we would renewed.
So we got a group together, we met regularly but the
VISION was not for that time and painful as it was we had to let go of it.
But God had a plan for our lives and He invited
us to join him in the great work of RECONCILIATION and HEALING – working again
with people on the margins this time through addiction. We gathered a cross
community/cross border group together to bring to life the project that became
White Oaks. A centre dedicated to introducing people to a new way of
life/following a spiritual programme that brings contented sobriety that
introduces the notion of living in the present, one day at a time.
Many of you here have supported that
project – in prayer, with finance and expertise. Last Sunday we gathered to
celebrate Medallion Day, when people who have been one, two, three years sober
come back and acknowledge how different their lives are now after following the
programme. Seeing people there supported
by their families was such a tribute to what can be achieved with VISION,
EFFORT, COMMITMENT and PRAYER. The same restoration that we saw in peoples
lives last Sunday is the same restoration we believe can begin in people’s
lives as they use the Garden.
As a committee we acknowledge Fr. Neal
as the visionary for the Garden. Someone described a visionary as the one who
sees the masterpiece as they mix the paints…So Neal saw in the land across the
road the
As a group we bring the same
VISION/EFFORT/COMMITTMENT/PRAYER to the
The Celts were people of imagination...
And I want you now to imagine, to see with the inner eye…this place of
stunning, wild, natural beauty. We have captured a little of it in the
introductory brochure. It’s a place of such stillness that you can really hear
the song of the birds. I believe it to be what scholars call the “thin place”
beloved of the Celts who believed that in such a place heaven and earth are
closely connected.
It is present moment place where those
who will come to visit will be invited to
Listen to the silence
Feel the wind/ rain/sun/cold
Look at the moss/heather/trees
The Celtic Peace Garden is a place of pilgrimage,
on a day like this reminiscent of Croagh Patrick or Lough Derg for those who
have visited there; a place where people can come aside, take time to think,
pray and reflect, to discuss and be challenged by new thoughts/new ideas… to
experience peace and healing.
A
place where we can challenge ourselves to hear what are the real questions /to
explore what are my real values/to ask what do I really want from life/what do
I really want to put energy into? What are the hurts/resentments/fears in my
life that prevent me from moving on? Prevent me from building community/
prevent me from making a contribution to sustainable peace/prevent me from
believing that my contribution to society makes a difference; and recognising these
things to explore them with others.
We will be keeping the pathways in the
Garden rough… so that the very act of walking round it will be deliberate and
slow … such a contrast to the way we live our lives … hectic… fitting in
meetings/led by schedules…This act will be surrounded in prayer as the great
men and women of our Celtic past
Columba, Brigid, Canice, Brendan … surrounded each act they did in
prayer. We are told that the Celts had prayers for lighting the fire/milking
the cow-the Higher Power evident in everything!
We are not interested in developing a
memorial garden to past generations but in learning what in the life of Columba
the Reconciler or Canice who accompanied him in prayer can we reflect on today
so that we can life in a better, more inclusive way.
Water will be a feature of the Garden …
giving us an opportunity to ask “What are people really searching for today?”
Particularly our young people; many of whom with such depth of spirituality are
crying out for opportunities to explore the questions and be led in ways that
will be life affirming rather than soul destroying. The silence of the place a
real contrast with the ever present mobile
phones.
We intend building a small oratory/meditation
space in the garden… a place where in the Celtic tradition the anam cara, the
soul friend can give counsel and support.
The listening ear which so many are crying out for in a world where we
are told that everything depends on me and success has to be sought at all
costs; where the wounded and those in need of healing often are led to clutch
at anything before finding a home in Christian Community with the welcome and
muintearas that was so much a part of the Celtic spirit.
Evangelisation was a key concept for
these early Celtic Christians and an area of the Garden will mark the
evangelisation of
The central feature of the Garden is the
figure of the risen Christ, which we are discussing with Maurice Harron a local
sculptor who has enriched the project already with his insight and knowledge.
The figure is the sign of HOPE and HEALING which we offer to people as they
make their pilgrimage in the garden, walking round the pathways on their own or
being led in prayer and reflection in groups.
This space is primarily a workshop you
will see some of the crafts…sewing/bog wood as you go round. Columba advised
his monks to pray until tears come and work until sleep comes; work and prayer
coming together. So this workshop/outlet centre/café and work space for groups
will be well used and an important adjunct to the garden. Some of the craft
pieces you see have been worked on by residents at the white Oaks Centre
learning new skills and maybe for the first time enjoying the fact that they
have created something…
We see this space being used by school
groups, doing the Graden pilgrimage and writing up their reflections here. By
adult groups taking on the planned Reconciliation Programmes or the Serenity
Week-ends. Parish groups deciding to ground their aspiration to reach out to
people from different communities to really hear the other side… the
possibilities are many… as we see the masterpiece as we mix the paints.
I want to finish with a thought Fr. Neal
shared with us and that is that when God gives his gifts He does not take them
back… so Columba’s gift of prayer, reconciliation and evangelisation, Brigid’s
love and concern for the poor, Canice’s intercession and the fire that sent the
saints to Europe is still here and present today; maybe as we take up the
opportunity that the Garden will give us and ours young people to reflect,
discuss and pray on the great gifts we come to believe that the God who worked
in them still wants to work in us.