Mary Kennedy. In 2014 the parish community of St Brigid’s, Cabinteely launched a series of listening based workshops on the theme: ‘What Really Matters?’
The project began by asking 100 people, from all walks of life, the question: “Can you sum up, in a word, what matters to you?” There was no shortage of responses and while many rose to the challenge of answering with ‘a word’, some also offered a phrase or motto that was close to their heart. There was invariably a story and perhaps, more tellingly, a life experience, that illustrated why ‘belonging’ matters, ‘forgiveness’ matters, ‘a sense of humour’ matters, ‘never giving up on anyone’ matters. The importance of relationships was the most recurring theme – people matter.
The project was a collaboration between the senior social club and Transition Years from the local secondary schools. It was co-ordinated by Mary Delany, who has a background in the arts and has been bringing together seniors and young people of the parish in creative ways for about 15 years.
Senior citizens
“We’d invite a group of fifth or sixth class girls to come along and we’d introduce them to our senior citizens. At the Wednesday social club, we get together and we prepare an idea. We might be working on Monet, for example, and we do something with cut-outs and paper and we’d make something that we’d put in an inexpensive IKEA frame or something like that,” she says. “But the main idea behind doing this would have been gathering together the two different generations and really getting to know each other and chatting and sharing stories about life.
“I remember one time, we did an interview around Christmas memories past and present, and that was another workshop where our young people posed as journalists, and we had some pre-prepared questions where we engaged with our seniors and the young people took their portraits. It was an exchange of memory. The young people got a chance to say what they love about Christmas, and they heard the memories of our older people.”
Outreach
This outreach developed into the project ‘What really matters?’ and the results were shown at an exhibit launched by RTÉ’s Mary Kennedy at the end of May.
“We invited the seniors to bring an object to a workshop to help focus on something in their life that was important, that mattered to them, and we got some Transition Year students to gather their stories,” Mary says. “The aim of the afternoon was to create an atmosphere of belonging, of being valued, of listening. It was also a super afternoon of team building. We had some collaborative art that the students made with our seniors on canvases. They were amazing. We also had a photographer who took portraits with the seniors and the objects.
“So we created a display and gathered the community together under the heading, ‘What Really Matters: Stories and Memories Matter’. This was kind of the focus of the night – the need for listening to each other, connecting and belonging,” Mary says.
Mission statement
“We have a lovely parish mission statement, which refers to appreciating the gifts and talents of each of us and building the atmosphere of a family. I think this is something that has huge importance, and we need to keep trying to do that – nurturing that sense of belonging.”
Praying for the parish community
There are a number of prayer groups who meet regularly in Cabinteely parish, but one of the longest running is The Word charismatic group, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last September. Set up by Monica Gray, her husband Oisin and Fearghal O’Farrell (now deceased), the group of about 14 people have been meeting every Thursday night ever since for about an hour and a half.
“We meet, we pray, we sing hymns and we share scripture,” Monica explains. “We normally have a teaching on some part of the Scripture, Old Testament or New Testament, and then we would have a time of Confession, praying for each other and praying for various things.
“From time to time, we’ve been fortunate enough to have other denominations with us. We try hard to be inclusive. We welcome anybody who cares to join.”
Parish groups
To mark the 30th anniversary in September Fr Tom O’Keefe celebrated Mass for the prayer group in the parish centre and all the other parish groups were invited. “There’s a Thursday morning one, a meditation group and we asked anybody who’d be interested to come and celebrate with us,” Monica says.
“So we had a Mass and a bit of a hooley afterwards. It was good fun. The whole point of it is, it should be good fun. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, and I think that’s really, really important.
“We’re a community at this stage. We look out for each other and we help each other,” she says.
“We meet in the parish, pray for the parish, for all the other groups and the priests in our parish.”
What a difference a smile makes
The mission statement of St Brigid’s parish in Cabinteely says it aims to make God’s love visible by “working together to nurture a truly Christian community” where “all know that they are welcome and have a real sense of belonging”.
This aim is manifested through the numerous voluntary groups that work in service of the parish, and perhaps the most visible sign of this parish welcome is the team of voluntary greeters what welcome parishioners to the main Sunday Masses and hand out the missalettes.
“There’s about 20 people involved and we cover three Masses with six or seven people at each Mass,” explains Jean Sheehan, the co-ordinator.
“We get there about 10 to 15 minutes before Mass starts and stand at the back of the church just literally handing out leaflets and saying ‘good morning’ or ‘Happy Easter’ with a big smile. It’s just kind of a welcoming face and occasionally somebody might ask you something, like ‘where would I get a Christmas dues envelope’ but it’s just to be there, to smile and hand out the leaflets.”
Jean says the greeters, which have been in operation for about 15 years, generally get a “very nice smile back” and they get to know the faces of all the regular massgoers.
“It’s very low key, but I think it’s nice. I know, myself, if you’ve ever visited another church and somebody smiles and welcomes you and hands you a leaflet, it’s quite a nice thing.”
