Latest Space #23
The Newsletter of SacredSpace.ie

Each November is different, as time changes the way we reflect on life, on loss and on the insight we gain from the lives of those we have loved.

The beginning of this November brings me a new experience of bereavement, as the funeral of a friend of many years takes place in Sydney. The great distance from Dublin to New South Wales was lessened in the last few weeks by a regular stream of emails from visitors to Kevin's hospital bed, as he lay in his final illness. Many of Kevin's friends didn't know each other, but knew how important keeping in touch was to him. The communion of saints became evident in a new way as messages of consolation and concern created a network of care around the world.

As you find your daily prayer on Sacred Space this November we hope that we can help you to realise that you are part of that communion of saints on Earth. As we pray together, may we draw strength from each other and from the graces revealed in the lives of those who have gone before us.

With the best wishes of all the Sacred Space team,

Piaras Jackson SJ
Editor, Sacred Space

Chapel of Remembrance

The coming of November reminds us to pray for our dead

http://www.sacredspace.ie/chapel/remembrance

Developments in Sacred Space

Survey of Sacred Space

We have been able to get many helpful insights from the survey in which some 700 people participated earlier this year. One of the requests was that the Latest Space newsletter be more frequent. Instead of publishing four issues a year, we will try to bring an issue out each month. In our next issue we will bring you some information and pointers related to Advent.

Some of the findings of the survey confirmed the data we had gathered over the years, but there was a huge amount of new information that could be gathered only through a verbal survey.

• Most people use Sacred Space at home
• Half of the respondents volunteer at least once a week
• 75% of respondents visit Sacred Space before lunch, 50% begin their day with Sacred Space prayer
• 95% of the 700 people who responded pray every day

The time that many people took in answering the questions has been most encouraging. Most of you who use the site say that you want it to help you to grow spiritually, to assist you in developing a deeper relationship with God. This feedback is also very helpful to us a we continue to refine and develop the site. Our central questions is, "What will help people to pray?" Your reaction continues to engage and help us.

Chapel of Intentions

Cistercians in Ireland and Carmelites in New Zealand are happy to support the Sacred Space community with their prayers

You can choose to have your prayer published on the Chapel of Intentions page or kept solely for the Prayer List. Every week we send a list of the prayers submitted to the Cistercian Sisters at Saint Mary's Abbey, in County Waterford, Ireland and to the Sisters in the Discalced Carmelites Monastery, St Thomas, Auckland, New Zealand.
http://www.sacredspace.ie/chapel/intentions

Ruang Sakral - Sacred Space in Indonesian

Indonesian translator, Alan Jeffrey Dompas and his wife Ira receive a silver wedding anniversary blessing from Fr Jan Majernick in Cana in 2004

Bahasa Indonesia is a major language of Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation. Sacred Space has been available in Indonesian since 2002 thanks to a businessman who realised that he could offer to others what he appreciated himself.

The world of the shipbroker is concerned with buying and selling various vessels, tankers and containers. One Indonesian-based broker sought respite from the pressures of the global market by turning to Sacred Space.

"I used Sacred Space in the office when I felt distressed, lonely or tempted," Alan Jeffrey Dompas recalls. "It's a step-by-step, no nonsense guide on how to meditate." Alan appreciated what the Jesuit Communication Centre in Dublin had begun. "I was overwhelmed by the possibilities of the technology and the good it could do for people who hunger for God. I knew that this is exactly what our beloved John Paul II would have wanted us to do with technology, all for the greater glory of God."

Although he was able to use the site in its English version, Alan thought of the millions of people in the land of his birth. "I suddenly realized that there is no Indonesian version but I wasn't a trained translator. I thought to myself, if I don't start now, when do we start?"

Alan realised that the translation would involve work. "I'm a businessman and I take on challenges - a challenge is a challenge!" Alan has found that part of that challenge has been not to offer too literal a translation, but to accept the constraints and possibilities of Indonesian. Oscar, Alan's son, has helped with the translations, as does his company's IT manager, Joseph Dwi.

The new Sacred Space management system that is now in use - and still under development - was welcomed by Alan. He finds that the work is made easier, though it still requires about 6 hours a month.

Sacred Space Audio - Podcasts

http://www.sacredspace.ie/audio

A parish without walls

Gerry Bourke talks to Paul Daly about Sacred Space in an interview published in Reality magazine

Reality is a publication of the Irish Redemptorists. A recent issue contained an article on Sacred Space.

Last January Fr Gerry Bourke, stepped down as editor of Sacred Space, the hugely successful prayer website run by the Jesuits in Dublin. He spoke to Paul Daly about his work on Sacred Space and how it has become a worldwide community of prayer.

Before we visit the office where the Sacred Space website is administered, Fr Gerry Bourke, SJ, shows me the room in Dublin’s Leeson Street where Caravaggio’s famous painting, ‘The Taking of Christ’ hung for decades before being identified. He points to a large print of the painting on the wall. “Don’t tell anyone,” he jokes. “but we still have the original!”

Upstairs is the office of the Jesuit Communications Centre, where the Sacred Space website is run by just four people, all of them on a part-time basis. The four include Fr Gerry, who stepped down in January as editor of Sacred Space, having worked with the site since 2001.

Continue reading A Parish without walls

Sacred Space for Advent and the Christmas Season 2007-2008

Although Advent is some weeks away (beginning on 2 December), now is the time to order your Sacred Space for Advent 2007. This is the first of this edition of the publication and follows the popular Lent issue.

The Lent book proved to be popular with many people because they found that it offered a portable version of the website experience. Many schools and church groups used the texts as a helpful guide through the season. We hope that this version proves to be as helpful.

You can find out more from Ave Maria Press in the United States or The Sacred Space for Advent and the Christmas Season 2007-2008 book can be ordered from Messenger publications  www.messenger.ie. Orders for delivery within Europe will be made via secure online ordering on the website or by calling Vera at +353 1 6767491. Copies can also be ordered from the publishers Michelle Anderson Publishers, Ave Maria Press or Veritas or from your bookshop.

Book Review: Finding sanctuary

The strength of the book is the presentation of ancient wisdom, going back beyond St Benedict to the desert fathers, by a writer with a sense of the actual and contemporary. Here he is introducing the concept of community:

“The ease with which something is declared to be a community is now quite extraordinary… For me the low point of this ever-expanding notion of community came when an IT consultant asked me how we managed ‘our database community’ – meaning all those people whose details we had on our database; apparently simply having their names and addresses on the same computer disk now turns people into a community.”

From there Jamison goes on to examine the links between community and stability, silence, and contemplation. The book is constructed in seven steps, exploring sanctuary from the doorway (virtue) and the floor (silence) to the roof (community). You would read it in a night. But you would come back the next night to linger on one stage or the other. It is a profoundly meditative book, yet it engages us where we are, seeking meaning in our distracting busyness. If I were a monk, I would feel blessed to have Jamison as my abbot.

Paul Andrews, S.J.

Finding sanctuary: monastic steps for everyday life.
Abbot Christopher Jamison, OSB. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 9780814631683
www.findingsanctuary.org

Book Review: My best teachers were saints

Some fifty-two saints are considered in the course of the book, many in succinct recollections of an aspect of their lives that Swetnam goes on to develop and apply to modern life. She finds in the story of Limerick’s Saint Ita an opportunity to reflect on the teacher’s dynamic of letting students go; the Magi prompt us to reflect on how it is that we draw out the talents of others; a reminder not to be held back by self-doubt or insecurity is occasioned by remembering Thérèse of Lisieux.

The book is directed to teachers and makes explicit connection of each saint to the teacher’s vocation. It deserves a much wider readership, however, as many people will easily apply the Swetnam’s insight to whatever form of teaching or witness is represented in their lives. Parents or others who are asked about the importance of the saints will appreciate the fresh telling that Swetnam brings to the old stories and the new angles she offers. It is a book that recommends itself for regular reference, a source to which one might return to find a inspiration and encouragement in how to live the Christian life. Each saint dealt with

Each chapter helpfully concludes with a recommendation for further reading, pointing to a selection of helpful books and websites.

My best teachers were saints: what every educator can learn from the heroes of the church.
Susan H. Swetnam Loyola Press ISBN 9780829423297

Book Review: My life with the saints

James Martin recalls how, as an adult, he grew to value the saints,

"I found myself growing fond of these saints and developing a fondness towards them. I began to see them as models of holiness relevant to contemporary believers and to understand the remarkable ways that God works in the lives of individuals. Each saint was holy in his or her unique way, revealing how God celebrates individuality."

Martin takes a wide view in the people he considers as his saints – a view that may help us in this month of prayer for our dead. He numbers biblical figures, recogniseable saints and such people as John XXIII, Dorothy Day and Pedro Arrupe among those who have influenced him. As he lists some of the figures who are not formally canonised, we may reflect on who are the people who would be found in our own gallery of saints.

My life with the saints is encouraging in the reminder that we are called into a communion with people who considered real dilemmas, as we do, and coped with them. Even in the darker moments, such as in the bleaker times of Mother Teresa’s life, the saints persevered and followed the call they had heard.

The idea that the saints glumly followed the Lord is challenged by considering Martin’s insight. He depicts the saints as enthusiastic and inspirational people, each of whom has a message for us today. Visit the book’s page on the Loyola Press website to find  links to some of James Martin’s talks. One series is called, Laughing with the saints, a helpful supplement to our November habit of remembering the departed.  

My life with the saints
James Martin, SJ. Loyola Press, Chicago ISBN 0829420010