Féile na Laoch
Féile na Laoch Reflection,
Cúil Aodha
3 August 2025
My friends,
I’m pleased to accept your invitation to join you in this ‘gathering of the throng,’ as part of Féile na Laoch. In gathering in this context, we are seeking to make connection between the spiritual well of tradition and our desire to imagine how it will continue to speak to our hearts, our lives, in the evolution of community and culture.
KNEECAP – the young Belfast trio has ruffled some feathers. Whether you agree or disapprove, we find it difficult to ignore the questions they are asking – questions about language, tradition and identity. Their stance is an eruption that could not be contained. Cultural tectonic movement has been taking place over quite some time facilitated by the nurturing the language – the lens and sensibility through which they view the world. This eruption is fuelled by the cherishing of tradition while risking innovation and imagination of a new future.
Such youthful intelligent insightful exuberance is a lesson we in church communities can learn from; whereby we can be confident that the richness of tradition remains the well of inspiration for our exploration of new patterns of gathering in prayer.
Today is such a gathering. The introductory note to explain the context of this gathering in prayer, points to the evolution of the Prayer of the Church as we know it today. It is a liturgical structure forged from the Psalter of the Old Testament to equip the faithful to gather in prayer as the need arises.
From that very Prayer of the Church for this week on Thursday the Office of Readings included a piece from the Instructions to Catechumens by St. Cyril of Jerusalem and it reads,
“The Church, that is, the assembly, is designated by this apt term because it assembles all and brings them together.”
Gathering in prayer is the life blood of the Church. It is fitting that we gather today in Cúil Aodha at a critical juncture in our spiritual/cultural evolution. From our biblical storeroom, we draw out the jewels of our history to remind us where we’ve come from and search again for pearls of inspiration that will inspire our new patterns of gathering in prayer. It is fitting that we do so in the context of a festival that celebrates leaders and leadership, Féile na Laoch.
Someone is needed to call the assembly to prayer and shepherd it in doing so. Our tradition of liturgical gathering is built on the pillars of Word and Sacrament. Because the celebration of the Holy Mass may not be possible, does not mean the assembly cannot be called to and led in celebrating the Word and drawing from its riches as we are doing in this celebration.
May the Lord bless abundantly our desire to give him glory and praise while we nurture hope and joy on life’s journey together.
