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Below we have an extract from this year's CAFOD book of Lenten reflections "Out of the Ashes" based on the Mass readings
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The
Power of Penance|
URSULA SHARPE, a Medical Missionary of Mary, working in Uganda, reflects on the powerful penitential experience she had at Lough Derg in Ireland. (Wis2:1, 12-22; Ps 34; Jn 7:1-2, 25-30) As I write this I am in Lough Derg, St Patrick's Purgatory, in Donegal, Ireland. It is a place of pilgrimage, where St Patrick is said to have done penance and where, for over a thousand years, people have come from all over Ireland and from many parts of the world to do likewise, through prayer and fasting for three days. On arrival on the island one is divested of one's shoes. Each day one meal of dry toast and oatmeal biscuits is taken with black tea or coffee. No sleep is allowed the first night. I have been awake now for 36 hours and there are another 4 to go. Prescribed prayers are said while the pilgrims go round the basilica, the six penitential beds (where rumour has it, the stones are sharpened each night!) and other areas of this tiny space. The challenge is to avoid falling or stubbing your toes. Each "station" takes at least one hour to complete. I have said 792 Our Father's, 1896 Hail Mary's and 240 Apostles' Creeds - and I still have another day to do! We have Masses, confessions, prayers galore. The night vigil is tough, with the stations inside the basilica. At times, we drag our bodies outside to try and stay awake only to be eaten by the midges or beaten by the freezing gales coming from the lake. It seems to rain all the time, and it is cold and miserable. Yet, there are over 350 companion pilgrims here today, of all ages, and this is the pattern from June to August each year. Many return year after year. Why, you may ask? Lough Derg is where you come face to face with your limitations. It is paradoxically relaxing, like a mindless mantra, where all you experience is this moment. For me, it is about being in solidarity with some of the suffering of our world; the numbed and hungry people of Darfur, Sudan, the cold of the Afghan refugees. It is raining constantly and I am wet and I think of the people of Bangladesh trying to find a dry spot in the flood waters of their country. I experience the longing for sleep of the sleep-deprived victims of torture. And then it is over, and we are on the boat back to the mainland. My fasting and suffering are over but as I thank God for all the little things that I have been taking for granted, I can pray in a new way, at least for a little while, for those who are so less fortunate than I. Thought for the Day PRAYER The CAFOD/DLT Lent Book 2005 is available from
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