Annemarie Lee - En

ACTS OF THE 7th EUROPEAN ASSEMBLY OF LAY DOMINICAN FRATERNITIES

ANNEX IVc

PRESENTATION BY ANNE-MARIE LEE PREACHING IN THE SECULAR WORLD I am privileged to be asked to speak to you today on preaching in the secular world. This request has had me thinking over the past months on how the course of my life has been affected by the preaching of others and on how my preaching has affected the people who cross my path in life. Background to the Preaching I am speaking to you out of the Irish context and the incredible changes that have taken place in my country over the years from my youth to the present day. I was born at a time when there was a great deal of unemployment and poverty. Most young people emigrated to England or to America looking for better opportunities. Ireland was a Catholic country. When I was growing up, the Catholic Church dominated society in an unhealthy way. People lived in fear of the power of the clergy. Our government was tied to the Church. No politician would go against the wishes of the Archbishop of Dublin at that time. Our practice of the faith was devotional and ritualistic. We had very little knowledge of theology. We had an unhealthy fear of God. In his book What is the Point of being a Christian, Timothy Radcliffe OP, our former Master, describes it very well when he says: “Entering into that freedom, which is Christ’s own gift, requires that we be liberated from the wrong idea of God. We must destroy the idol of God as a big, powerful person, usually thought of as male, who bosses us around and tells us what we must do if he is to like us. We must get rid of the God who opposes our freedom and keeps us trapped in infantile submission. So many people’s lives have been crucified by worship of this alien idol. We must discover the God who is the source of freedom bubbling up in the very core of our being, and granting us existence in every moment.” Burns & Oats, 2006, p 45. An example of that infantile submission might be described in a story a colleague of mine very generously shared with us many years ago. We were talking about the Sacrament of Confession, as it was called then. Aine told us that one time she was making her confession “Bless me Father for I have sinned: I told lies, I stole some money, I was disobedient.” Here the Priest stopped her and with a twinkle in his eye asked “How old are you?” “Twenty-three, father” “Carry on” he said. She told us how embarrassed she was because for the first time she realized she had been saying the

same words in the confessional since her first confession at the age of seven. It had become a meaningless ritual. The Second Vatican Council began when I was still in secondary school. There was great excitement, things were changing rapidly. People were expected for the first time to take responsibility for their own faith. This was extremely difficult and frightening for people who were used to being told what to do. It had been so comfortable just to obey the rules, in the knowledge that this would get you into heaven. But now we would have to look again at the Lord’s Prayer, the Nicene Creed and the Ten Commandments and think for ourselves. We were expected to inform ourselves and work out our own destiny in the Faith. It was also very difficult and frightening for many priests who were used to being obeyed without question and who equated obedience with respect. The Charismatic Movement burst onto the scene during this time and I believe it was very helpful in supporting us through this difficult transition period. I learned a language to communicate both with and about God. I learned about the God of love and compassion as opposed to the judging, punitive God I grew up with. People came together in large numbers to pray. They prayed over each other for healing; they prayed in tongues, they sang new hymns. There was great excitement. Over the past fifty years there has been a great reduction in the numbers of people attending Sunday Mass in Ireland. However, this fall-off from public practice doesn’t tell us very much about the faith of the people. The influence of the hierarchical Church has weakened; the numbers of priests is dropping annually and at the same time the laity are slowly taking more responsibility for keeping the faith alive. Today we are one of the richer countries in the European Union and with that come materialism, consumerism and a sense of autonomy, which puts God in the background. Our sense of neighbourliness and charity towards one another is being replaced by an attitude that asks the question “What’s in it for me?” We still have the poor among us but we don’t seem to see them. The heart of the Church has always been in the family and that is where it remains today. In many homes it is the grandparents who carry the responsibility for passing the Faith on to their grandchildren. In times past, only one breadwinner was required per family but now both parents must work to pay the bills. This means that many young children spend most of their days in the care of minders, away from the influence of their own parents. Many of these minders have no interest in instilling in the children moral values, not to talk about Christian values. What does it mean to preach in this context? The words ‘to preach’ in the sense in which I’m speaking today mean to draw the attention of others to Jesus Christ and His message. When I preach I’m preaching a way of life that flows against the current. The words ‘to preach’ can also have a derogatory meaning in the English language. To

preach at someone is akin to nagging; to keep talking at them, instructing them whether they are listening or not. This kind of preaching is not effective. Why Preach? We must preach because we have received a precious gift, Faith, which we have a responsibility to share. When we preach we must do so out of love, love of God and love of neighbour. Pope Gregory the Great said: “Our Lord sent his disciples to preach two by two, tacitly implying that the man who has no love for others should by no means take on himself the task of preaching.” Sermon 17. In successful preaching there are four essential co-operating elements: 1. The preacher, 2. The message. 3. The listener, and 4. The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the key operator in the preaching. The preacher imparts the message, the listener absorbs the message and the Holy Spirit does the rest. If, for example, the preacher sets out to convert the listener to a particular religion or way of life or thinking, then the preacher’s will, not God’s Will, is being promoted. Richard P. McBrien in his book Catholicism says: “The heart of the Augustinian position is this: We are freely saved, but salvation is ultimately the effect of God’s own goodness and mercy (hesed); therefore, salvation is gratuitous and so is the beginning of salvation, which is faith.” Who has responsibility for preaching? All baptized Christians have responsibility to share their knowledge of and belief in God, at the level at which they are called by God to do so. St Paul, in a letter to the community of believers in Rome, said: “…all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then are they to call on Him if they have not come to believe in him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard of him? And how will they hear of Him unless there is a preacher for them? And how will there be preachers if they are not sent? As scripture says: How beautiful are the feet of the messenger of good news.” Rom 10: 13-15. Everyone who has been gifted with Faith is called to share that Faith in so far as they can. For some this means studying for years and sharing at an academic level. Others are called to share by the example of the lives they live within the family, the local community and the workplace. We are all presented with opportunities to share our faith; we must remain alert to these opportunities and do our best not to waste them. All are

expected to preach within the bounds of orthodoxy as set down by the Church. What authority do we have to preach? We take our authority to preach from our Baptism. As Lay Dominicans we are in a very advantageous position to preach because of our commitment to prayer, study and community. Personally, I feel I know very little about my faith, especially when I hear other Dominicans teaching in class or discussing religious matters in seminars. Yet when questions of religion or personal belief come up in the workplace, my colleagues turn to me for my comments because I’m known as the religious one. They are interested in what I have to say because I do have more knowledge than they do and more importantly they know I am expressing what I believe and take seriously. How do we preach? To preach is to be who we are. To preach in the secular world is very much to be who we are, because in today’s world people are not so easily swayed by words alone. They want examples. There is no better example than the person who strives to live according to the teachings of Jesus. To share, to listen, to welcome, to love our neighbour are traits which are gradually dying out in our world today, unless there is some guarantee of a return, which benefits me. Every human being preaches, every waking moment, by example. We preach by the way we live your lives, by the choices we make, by the work we do, by our attitude, because others are watching us and are likely to imitate us if they perceive what they see as good. To preach is to convey a message. The message can be good, bad or ambiguous. We preach by raising our minds and hearts to God, in formal prayer on a regular basis, in the Eucharist, the Divine Office and the Rosary. We preach by wearing the Dominican logo constantly so that those who recognize it may take the opportunity to share their Dominican experience and those who don’t recognize it may ask what it symbolizes. The Dominican badge can be a focus through which a sacred space is opened for spiritual dialogue. In the world of the workplace any hint of the spiritual introduced into the conversation can cause embarrassment or discomfort. One’s spiritual dimension is recognized by others and admired but “don’t draw me into that dialogue” is the unspoken message. . We preach through the spoken and the written word. Some of us will be offered the opportunity to preach in Church. The first advice on how we should preach came when, on their way back from Denmark, Bishop Diego of Osma and Dominic of Caleruega met three Cistercians – papal Legates with a mission to preach to the Albigensians. These Cistercians were discouraged by their lack of success in the preaching and were about to give up. Diego admonished

them and instructed them on the importance of preaching, suggesting that they were going about their task in the wrong way. Diego suggested that example would be more effective than words. The Albigensians were a frugal people embracing a lifestyle of poverty. Diego and Dominic sent their carriage, provisions and companions back to Osma and adopted the lifestyle of the Apostles, walking from place to place and depending on charity for their food and shelter. They began to have a little more success in their preaching. Our first experience of preaching comes within our families. We as children are on the receiving end as our parents pass on their knowledge of the faith to us. A vast amount of preaching, in all its forms, goes on within the family. I facilitate parenting courses and one of my very frequent sayings to parents is: Your children will copy what they see you do far more readily than do what you tell them to do. When you think about this you will see that it applies to adults too. When you live a lifestyle that conforms to the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Church, people notice and some will ask questions. Some will even attempt to copy you because they can see there is a depth of meaning in your life, which is missing in the materialistic lifestyle so prevalent nowadays. In his book Jesus Of Nazareth, Pope Benedict 16th says: “The Kingdom of God is not to be found on any map. It is not a kingdom after the fashion of worldly kingdoms; it is located in man’s inner being. It grows and radiates outward from that inner space.” Published by Bloomsbury, 2007, page 50. This ought to be a comfort for those who feel too shy to speak out about their faith or for those who might endanger themselves by speaking openly about their faith. With guidance from the Holy Spirit, those who are searching can read the body language of the practicing Christian. There is no need for words. Was it not St Francis of Assisi who said: "Preach the Gospel at all times – if necessary, use words"? I would like to offer some examples of preaching from my own life. In our efforts to live the Christian Life my family and I simply remain open to the opportunities which come our way and God does the rest. I have changed some details to protect the identity of the people I speak about. Preaching by instruction One day I was queuing at the cash desk in a supermarket with my nephew Matthew and his friend Damien, both aged seven. The queue was long and the boys were getting bored. Damien pointed at my badge and asked “What’s that for?” I quickly scrambled around in my brain to find an answer suitable for a seven-year old. “That badge is to let people know that I try to tell the truth at all times.” I said. “Oh!” came the reply. “There is a boy in our class who always tells lies. “That’s not very nice” I said. “When people catch you telling lies it makes it very hard for them ever to believe you again, even when you are telling the truth. Do you tell lies?” I asked. Both boys began to fidget uncomfortably, so I

quickly said. “No, no you don’t need to answer that question. Just remember you nearly always get caught when you tell lies.” I heard a giggle behind me and when I looked around there were several people tuned into the conversation I was having with the boys. The following is the story of preaching in action In September four years ago, a seventeen-year-old Dutch girl named Sandra came to Ireland to stay with our family while she attended the last two years of the local secondary school. Sandra turned out to be a rather disruptive force in our household. She did everything in her power to cause me to be angry with her. When we discovered that Sandra’s home situation was a very unhappy one, we took action on her behalf, and with her permission contacted social services. When Sandra was assessed it was discovered that her home situation was most unacceptable and that she was, in fact, in danger. Her very controlling parents emotionally and physically abused her. Social workers, police and psychologists, in both countries, became involved in her case. Her parents were summoned to Ireland. They were extremely angry and said they would cut Sandra’s funding because of our interference. Sandra was terribly scared. We assured her that she was welcome to stay with us. We were prepared to look after her and support her financially until she finished school. “But, I can’t pay you back” Sandra said. “No, when a person does a good deed for another he or she should not expect any return. We don’t expect you to repay us for what we do for you. What we expect you to do, Sandra, is to pass on that good deed to someone else, when you are in a position to do so”. Sandra stayed with us for eighteen months and then went back to the Netherlands, but not to her parents. The Dutch social services took over, they found accommodation for her and offered counselling, which she accepted. At age nineteen she married her longtime boyfriend, a very nice, sensible lad who stayed with us twice while visiting Sandra. We are still in regular contact with the young couple and recently they told us that they are now looking after a sixteen-year-old boy who is not getting on with his parents. They say that they are passing on the gift Sandra received from us. Sandra is also to be admired for the way she is working at her relationship with her parents but now she meets with them on her terms, not theirs. Creating space to preach As lay people we can always use our initiative to gather people for spiritual reflection. This can be done of an evening in our own homes or away for a weekend in suitable, inexpensive, self-catering accommodation. I have done this with great success many times on a shoestring budget. The venues have usually been in the countryside because the participants were from the city. Our first task on arrival is to explore the area around the hostel and bring back flowers, branches, fir cones, stones, anything that attracts, with which to create a sacred space with candles and incense. We have a programme prepared for the few days in which the time is divided between spiritual talks, shared prayer, walks, preparation of meals, relaxation sessions. The participants have the opportunity to explore their faith in a setting of confidentiality and understanding.

On one of these weekends a group of women were sitting around a low table on which was spread a colourful cloth, some candles and a scent burner. The atmosphere was intimate and as the light faded outside, the conversation turned to spiritual matters. We began to talk about God and religion and what it all means. “I don’t go to church anymore” one woman said. “But when I do go to weddings or baptisms I find myself weeping. I just weep, even though I’m not sad. In fact I feel very peaceful but it’s embarrassing the way I weep.” Even as she was talking about it she became emotional. Then someone said, “Did you ever think that it might be God reaching down and giving you a hug, saying “You are precious to me, I love you very much,” and that is why you weep and at the same time feel peaceful?” She thought this was a beautiful idea. Then someone else said, “wouldn’t it be great if Church was like this, like us here talking and sharing our hopes and worries and discussing things?” And so, the discussion went on and we felt the presence of Jesus very strongly among us as we talked late into the night. We were church. Some weeks later the same group met up again and one of the women said she had a story to tell us. “It happened to me on Mother’s Day,” she said. “I went to the supermarket to do my weekly shopping and before I went in I said to myself, I’ll have time to go to Mass. As I went into the Church a young girl handed a ticket to me. I asked her what it was for. She said. “It’s Mothers Day and the priest is going to give someone a gift.” “But I don’t belong to this Parish.” “That doesn’t matter so long as you are a mother?” “I am,” I said, so the girl insisted I take a ticket. After Mass the priest pulled a ticket out of a box beside the altar and called out my number. I nearly died. Up I got and walked up the aisle, my legs like jelly, while the priest, who was a bit of a comedian, made funny comments. He presented me with a huge bouquet of beautiful flowers and wished me a Happy Mother’s Day. Everybody clapped as I walked back to my seat, all eyes looking at me. I went home and danced around the kitchen floor, hugging the flowers, tears running down my face. All I could think of was what was said in the room that night. “Think of it as God leaning down, putting his arms around you, telling you of His great love for you.” I knew then that God definitely loves me. Of all the people in the Church that morning He picked me to give the flowers to. It was fantastic! Preaching through craft activities During the four weeks of Advent children and young adults could be busy making the crib and its inhabitants from papier mache. They could also make an Advent wreath while the events of this time in the liturgical calendar are explained to them. This activity might be a family activity, or it might include some of your children’s friends and neighbours, it could also occur on a wider scale in the local church. Saturday mornings during the six weeks of Lent might be spent working with children building an Easter Garden for the Church. A cave, soldiers, birds, rabbits and other animals can be made of papier mache. The parents might bring in a large branch from a tree, and plants for the garden, and a small waterfall can be included. There will be plenty of room for imagination and all ages of children can be involved, the older ones doing the more complicated work. The events leading up to the birth of Jesus and the story of the Easter Garden will unfold gradually as the young people ask questions and

make decisions about what can go in the crib or garden. Preaching by simply being When David, my husband, and I lived in London with our two small children, we had a Swiss student, Gabriella, staying with us for one month. She was a beautiful nineteenyear-old girl who had been raised by her mother and grandfather. Before coming to us, Gabriella and her boyfriend had spent six months in India looking for the meaning of life. She was quite confused. Our children were babies at the time and Gabriella spent all her free time talking with me and playing with the children. She was fascinated by our family life and before leaving us, she told me that because of what she saw in our home she had decided to change her whole life plan. When she went home she would study, have a career and wait until she was married before having children. It was Gabriella who made me realize the importance of example. The written word is a valuable form of preaching The reader can return again and again to a passage that inspires. Those of us who have an interest in writing don’t need to produce books to be effective. We can write nuggets of information in the parish newsletter. People are interested in hearing short explanations of Christian customs and practices, how they came about and what they mean. This is another way of sharing spiritual insights, information about the saints or church history. If the newsletter is hand-delivered to homes in the parish, then a wide audience will have been reached. Preaching with words in Church Over a number of years I was asked to preach in the church close to my workplace on Family Sunday (the Sunday after Christmas Day). Because I worked with these families and they often shared their worries and troubles with me, I knew them quite well and I knew their needs. Some of them were in irregular relationships and were in fear of God’s wrath. They were good people for whom life wasn’t easy and I wanted to let them know through the following sermon that God loved them anyway. I knew that those who came to church would tell others what I said, for two reasons: 1. My message would be provocative and 2. I was their community nurse. The following is the full sermon. FAITH AND THE FAMILY “Way back in history, as far back as four thousand years ago, there was a man who had a wife and he also had a problem. He had been promised an inheritance for his children and his children’s children; an inheritance of a very large tract of fertile land. The problem was, he had no children and his wife was too old to have any now. The wife suggested that her slave girl could have a child for him. He agreed. He lay with Hagar, the slave of Sarah, and they had a son. Later, God sent a message to the man

that his wife would have a son of her own the next year and so she did. We now had a family consisting of Abraham, his wife Sarah, the slave girl Hagar and their two children. Now, Sarah had a problem. Hagar’s son, Ishmael, was older than her son, Isaac, and according to the law of the land stood to inherit everything. Sarah nagged at her husband until he banished Hagar and her son from the family. A generation or so later there was a man called Jacob. He married two sisters, Leah and Rachel, who were also his first cousins and he took on two concubines named Bilhah and Zilpah, the slaves of his wives. Between the four women they produced twelve sons and several daughters. So, you had a family consisting of Jacob, his two wives, his two mistresses and many children. These twelve sons became the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel. You will remember the youngest son, Joseph, he was famous for his coat of many colours. Many, many generations later in the year 6 BC there was a fifteen-year-old girl named Mary whose marriage had been arranged to a carpenter called Joseph. They were engaged. But she became pregnant and Joseph wasn’t the father. There was a fierce amount of panic around the situation. She said an angel of God appeared to her but Joseph knew nothing about this. She could be stoned to death if the authorities got to know about it. However, the angel also appeared to Joseph and explained things to him. Joseph accepted the story and not particularly wanting to see Mary stoned, decided to stand by her. Thus you had a family consisting of Mary and Joseph and their child Jesus who wasn’t fathered by Joseph. Joseph is thought to have been considerably older than Mary and to have come to the marriage with some children of his own. Jesus grew up eventually and one day while he was resting by a well outside a village he got into conversation with a woman. During the conversation it was revealed that the woman had several children by six different partners. Jesus did not condemn her and she, realising who He really was, became one of His disciples and went back into the village to tell the people. Now, I am not making any judgement about the different groupings of people who come together and call themselves family. Only God could look deep into Mary’s heart and know that it was His own Son who occupied the womb that lay beneath it. It was He who chose the fragile structure of the human family in all its creative forms to pass knowledge of himself down through the generations to the present day. During the last two thousand years when the Church Jesus founded to teach, guide and encourage us in His Way, itself became disabled by its own power, wealth and pomposity, it was the family, guided by the Holy Spirit, who pulled us through. In times of oppression and persecution by foreign states or hostile regimes, it is the family that keeps the flame of Faith burning in secret. We have evidence of this in many parts of our world today through the stories coming from the underground Church. The family is the most important unit in society, no matter how it is made up. The reality today, as in times past, is that there are families which are made up of groups

of people other than the conventional mother, father and two children. Each family unit is precious to God and loved dearly by Him and this has been so since humankind was created. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the fathers of the Faith, it was to them God first made Himself known and through them and their families, generation after generation, that he gradually revealed Himself and His Will for humanity. God didn’t exclude them because their family structure was a little unusual or creative. In Jesus, God assumed the human form, and freely entered into a human family, to offer the ultimate Sacrifice, which saved us, and freed us from our bondage to sin. Faith is a gift from God to each individual who is open to receiving it. It is within the family that the foundation is laid, a foundation of knowledge and example in the Christian way of life, on which the seed of Faith can be nurtured and grow. The ideal family is the husband and wife who commit themselves through the Sacrament of Marriage to God and to each other for life and who raise children who will leave the nest when the time is right. We don’t live in an ideal world. Families are not perfect. Only God knows what is in our hearts. Our hope is in our children, therefore each one of us, married or not, aunt, uncle, neighbour or friend has a responsibility to support and nurture the family in every way we can.” The End I was approached by a number of women in the following week saying how much my talk meant to them. One woman, who was rearing ten children on her own because she was separated from her husband, said they had the best discussion ever on religion, based on my sermon, at the dinner table that Sunday. All those who commented to me said how refreshing it was to get a woman’s view on things religious. Preaching by listening As I approached the health centre one evening, I met a woman on her way out. I stopped to ask her how she was as she had been recently bereaved. She began to pour out her grief resulting from the sudden death of her twin sister and shortly afterwards the death of her elderly mother. We stood there for two hours because I knew that if the flow of memories this woman was expressing had been broken in order to invite her inside, a blessed moment might have been missed. She might not have been able to take up where she had left off. We are often presented with blessed moments like this for preaching. We just need to be awake to these opportunities presented to us by the Lord in our daily lives. To listen well is very difficult and might not be regarded by many as a form of preaching. I have one friend who listens to me patiently and without judgment. Through those opportunities of being really heard, I have had many valuable spiritual insights. Often people need to clear their hearts and minds in order to let God in; to make room for Him. In conclusion I have talked about preaching in the secular world as a lay person, a member of the

Dominican Order, the Order of Preachers. I have spoken about preaching in its different forms, instruction, example, words, listening, writing. I mentioned the essential elements, the preacher, the message, the listener, and the Holy Spirit. I talked about the necessity of love, prayer, study and community in preparation for preaching. I would like to quote once again from Pope Benedict 16th: “The first task is preaching: to give people the light of the word, the message of Jesus. The Apostles are first and foremost Evangelists – like Jesus, they preach the Kingdom of God and thereby gather people into God’s new family. But the preaching of God’s Kingdom is never just words, never just instruction. It is an event, just as Jesus himself is an event, God’s word in person. By announcing him, the Apostles lead their listeners to encounter him.” Now I will finish by saying that of all the different ways to preach, the most important, in my opinion, is by example.