Latest news from Castletown Community
Greetings to all our friends as we sail through March with no serious storms but no shortage of rain as the flow of the Nore River close by lets us know.
Busy month for visitors
This has been a very busy month so far with classes from a number of Primary Schools having their Confirmation students attending day sessions in the Pastoral Centre. These schools included Sacred Heart Primary Roscrea, De La Salle Stephen St. Waterford and Conahy Parish.
On the 11th March, Loreto College Beaufort in Dublin arrived with 50 3rd Year students for a day's Retreat. Owing to this visit coinciding with a booking with the Diamond Approach from Ireland, we had to accommodate - very successfully - the students from Loreto Beaufort in our Central Community. We had the Hall and our Community Room and Oratory available for the emergency. It all worked out very well with no disruption to anyone.
On the 19th/20th March, Heywood College Transition Year students were in attendance and enjoyed the experience immensely.
The Augustinian Fellowship Group
The Augustinian Fellowship Group visited from 1st - 3rd March. This all male group of 20 middle aged people from various walks of life had a very intense reflective stay in Castletown.
Problems of various dimensions be it in the family, work place or very private had the ideal setting in our campus here where all were away from any prying eye.
The principal input speaker for the session was a man named Roland who spent most of a week in our community. He was a very special individual, highly qualified and top of the range when it comes to financial matters. When you mention micro chips, Silicon Valley or modern technology, he is your man.
He was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and after moving to South Africa for a number of years has now found his happy home in Spain. Roland is now the official leader/organiser of this group known as SLAA . They are pencilled in for another session with us later on in the calendar year.
Roland was so charmed and impressed during his stay that he has invited all four of us -Brothers Kevin, Frank, Cornelius and Albert to be his guests at his ranch in Spain. We hope to be off shortly and will report back!
Diamond Approach Group
Diamond Approach Group, Ireland visited from 6th - 11th March. This group had been with us for the first time on 1st - 3rd September, 2023 with 35 members. This time the number had risen to 48. Most of the members are from Ireland, for the most part Munster.
The four leaders who gave inputs hailed from USA, Netherlands, Germany and Ireland. Most of the attendees at the session belonged to the 50-70 age bracket, most being women.
The Diamond Approach path is a unique teaching for self-realisation that combines time-honoured spiritual practices with modern psychological understanding.
Many of those attending the sessions have as their aim to become Diamond Approach teachers.
Private sessions with a Diamond Approach Teacher cost $100 per hour a session. A minimum of 10 private sessions are required for the first year of group membership As you can figure out it doesn't come cheaply.
The Ridwan School is home to the Diamond Approach, a contemporary spiritual path and a community of individuals engaged in inner development.
Meitheal Youth Leadership
Meitheal Youth Leadership Programme attended from 22nd - 25th March: Castletown has been working overtime with the first of five Meitheal groups occupying our Campus from the Diocese of Kildare and Loughlin. A further four groups will come during June.
This is a very well prepared course for future leaders in final years in Secondary Schools and beyond. The overall organiser of this mammoth undertaking has been Robbie Norton for the past 27 years. Both Dr. Denis Nulty, Bishop of Kildare and Loughlin as well as Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick have given tremendous support to these worthy training sessions - Meitheal from Diocese of Kildare and Loughlin and Anois coming from the Diocese of limerick.
World Wise Global Schools
World Wise Global Schools were in Castletown on Wednesday 20th March. Lissie Nooone, who is one of the regional co-ordinators of this Irish national Global Citizenship Education (GCE) programme for post primary schools, had a meeting with its group of 12 - followed by lunch. As mentioned in the December Newsletter 2023, this organisation is funded by Irish Aid under the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Salesian Sisters
On Tuesday 26th March, some 40 Salesian Sisters will gathered as of 9:30am for an all-day session. Last June some 43 Sisters gathered here in Castletown for one session incorporating the visit of their Superior General from Rome, who incidentally is Italian. After lunch their deliberations continued. We wish them God's blessings on their noble undertakings into the future.
Set up in 2013, it provides a comprehensive range of supports to ensure the integration of quality engagement with Global Justice issues at post primary level.
Lectio Divina
As a Community, we have a shared reflection on Thursday evening during Lent on the Gospel reading for the following Sunday. The session lasts 45 minutes after which we have the 5:30 evening Mass in Miguel House. A small number of local parishioners join us. We do the same during Advent.
Rest in Peace
Mrs. O’Çonnor who died last January aged 93 lived for over 20 years in Castletown after her retired husband, a headmaster, had passed away. She walked round the High Field most days and in latter years was wheeled round by her devoted family and carers. Her son Aodh who is a Primary school teacher in Dublin picks up the story.
We met many times on the walk in Castletown. My Mother Breda and I spent many precious hours together on the walk in the Hill Field as she called it. She loved the improvements you made, especially the widening of the path which allowed us to walk alongside each other and it meant she was able to continue walking there when she needed support.
I'm sure you heard that Mam died at the end of January. She also loved the reflections around the field. We would stop to read them and reflect on life. When she reached 90 she wanted to walk to the top of the hill one more time. She managed it on a day in September. When we got to the top she was so delighted to look out on the Sliabh Blooms. We always found Ard Erin from a point near the top of the hill.
I made her a promise that day that I'd like you to help me keep. I told her that one day when she was gone to heaven that I'd get a seat there in her memory with an inscription from one of her favourite poems.
I'd like to do that in her memory. I'm thinking of a simple wooden bench in the style of the original seats - the ones that are still there near the grotto. Would you be open to that idea?
When a person close to us dies their life comes back to us in short flashes. We are reminded of the beautiful times. I get fleeting glimpses of her in the hill field. Mam was a very holy person - she had such an absence of self that she allowed so much space for the rest of us. We had so many happy hours together on that walk. It is a very special sacred place for me now.
When the seat is there I'm going to sit down and read her favourite story to her -Frank O'Connor's "Guests of the Nation". I'm looking forward to that day already.
Thanks so much for this. It means a great deal to me.
Aodh.
All is well and during the course of the summer this special seat will be in position as Breda wished.
Busy community
Our Community is forever changing. One day it resembles an airport with inbound and departing passengers. Other times it is like a hotel with guests having shorter or longer stays. Then at present some days it resembles a building site with workers rushing to have our renovated new De La Salle Community Residence ready to accommodate our new occupants in September.
Some day, you may be one of us living in this oasis of calm and peace after some hectic weeks of greeting and welcoming so many people of all ages and nationalities and creeds.
Br. Albert O'Driscoll