This is why the Irish support the poor people of Gaza. Because we have a compassion that springs from our very own history of suffering under the English ourselves. We remember; it is written on our hearts. We went through mass murder and genocide ourselves. Compassion was taught us by our own dead.
You mentioned that beautiful tradition at your parish of posting pictures of the departed as a reminder to pray for them. That got me thinking of the 100 Masses offered for the Holy Souls right before Our Lady appeared at Knock.......How many more lost their lives after she appeared? How many left Ireland, but took that trauma with them? The first video about Cromwell mentions "generational trauma". Imho, that translates to spiritual trauma, both generational & spiritual trauma. How does a nation heal having been afflicted by such evil over literally centuries? I have no answer. But I'm seriously pondering dedicating my Lenten offerings this year for the Holy Souls, especially those of my ancestors. Having 100 Masses offered isn't possible, but maybe 40 days of penance will help. I regret not taking more seriously joining in the "Great Fast" someone mentioned back in the fall ~ but it's never too late to start anew ~
I agree! It’s a good idea. The veil is thinning now. I sense it. It was non sum dignus who posted about the Great Fast.
They say that the Parish Priest in Knock had a really huge devotion of the Holy Souls and was rumoured to be a real saint. The locals at the time thought that it was because of him that Our Lady choose to visit there rather than anywhere else. As to healing. I tend to think of it from a personal rather than a historical or social point of view. I would guess my greatest source of healing has been three things. The Eucharist. Confession. Prayer (especially the rosary). I was just out walking with the dog this morning. A really beautiful frost morning about -5 C or - 23F. Right out of the blue I recalled a sin I committed 45 years ago and had not thought about since then. I was working in a factory at the time and stole a power drill. I had no reason to steal it, I did not need it. I suppose I just stole it for the fun of it. But it caused me a deep sadness. Also a certain fear. I mean how many other things like this, I thought are lurking in my past , forgotten? Really this was only a very small thing compared to others I have done. But then Jesus spoke to me. He said that instead of thinking of each sin individually I should more regard my spiritual condition at the time. About where I was with God. At that time I was a million miles away from Him. Since then I converted and came back. I found this very healing to have been given this birds eye view or God's eye view of things. Yes I once walked in this deep bog of sin but I no longer walk in it. That's the main thing. Padre Pio said that once having confessed our sins we should move on happy and relieved and not look backwards. God does not want us to dwell in sadness forever about out sins but to accept His forgiveness with joy. Padre Pio also encouraged folks to go to confession every week. He said it is like a house where there is little dirt but that the house of our souls can always do with a good weekly dusting. So I do this every week. I admit I often fund this a great trial. But also a great, great source of joy, peace and healing. It is amazing how Jesus can speak to us through the voice of the priest. For instance last Saturday the young priest thanked me for coming to Confession every week and encouraged me to continue on doing so. This was providential as I was tempted to believe I was being a great nuisance to him by doing so. As to personal, human healing I have to say in my own life it has been truly miraculous. I suspect many people who had experienced the things I did during the war here would wake up screaming with nightmares. But for me it has never been a problem. Perhaps the greatest miracle of all is that I am able to forgive myself and move on. Perhaps the greatest sign of healing is the Gift of Joy. Always, always this huge feeling of joy and gratitude and peace. Great Joy means great healing. But really I would encourage all good Catholics to weekly confession for healing and joy. It can be a trial. It can be a great challenge (if we are being frank and open with the priest). But it's such a source of joy and transformation.
Three saints had a hand in bringing me back to the faith: Padre Pio, Saint Therese of Lisieux, and St. John Paul II (even before he was officially a saint) ~ returning to regular confession was a huge thing. Where I live, there were no regular confession times as they had adopted the practice of "general absolution" services twice a year, instead. (I believe Rome eventually issued a correction to that at some point) You could make an appointment, which was pretty daunting for someone who had been away for a very very long time. Trauma on top of trauma. Make the appt, go, feel the joy and relief, but to go again - either make another appt, or wait for the general absolution service, which by now you know after studying, is just not right....So, it's a different kind of trauma to overcome, because one starts to wonder if any of these "confessions" were even valid, and that joy just fades away. Not a good way to start off, lol. If we are to follow the examples of the saints, and the saintly priest at Knock was so devoted to the Holy Souls that the Blessed Mother appeared to the village, there is a good example to follow. The Queen of Peace appeared, perhaps because by his work, so many souls were lead to the place of greatest peace, that being Heaven. Which in turn brought some peace to those in the village. I certainly do not expect a visit from Our Lady, but for a nation to heal, the individuals belonging to that nation must look, as pointed out, to their own individual healing. How many of our ancestors are suffering still in purgatory? They are definitely praying for us. That part of the Church has been mostly ignored over the past 60 years or so because "we all go straight to heaven". I agree with HH that the veil is thinning, you can indeed feel it. While the Lord helps those who help themselves, the Holy Souls need our help. Maybe by helping them along, we'll be also helping ourselves along ~
This really resonates with me. Years ago when I received the grace to return to the faith I had become a daily Mass goer/communicant. Grace upon grace. I had a bit of a revelation while upstairs cleaning ( these insights come at the oddest times) I suddenly was aware of my Irish ancestors praying for me from heaven and purgatory. I was so filled with gratitude. We owe the Holy Souls so much.
We can gain a plenary indulgence every day during this jubilee year for the Holy Souls. We must go to confession every 20 days minimum and Mass & Holy Communion plus prayers for the popes intentions. We should also go to church or holy site assigned by our bishop.
Speaking of Oliver Cromwell, please forgive me but I didn't know who he was until my first visit to Ireland. That was about 25 years ago. My sister and I flew off to 'find our roots' etc. We were walking along a river and spotted this weird little building with a slit in it overlooking the river. There was a man standing nearby and I asked him, "What is that?" He said, "Oh, it's part of the legacy of Oliver Cromwell. I wouldn't waste my time on it, but you can have a look if you want to" . . .my sister and I just looked at each other and moved on. I studied later who he was, vile person. There are no words . . .
There has been a move particularly in Ireland by some 'historians' to rehabilitate Cromwell as an 'honourable enemy'. He was even voted as the tenth greatest Briton in a poll by the BBC. https://www.geni.com/projects/100-Greatest-Britons-BBC-Poll-2002/15375 Two words describe the man in my opinion; 'vile protestant'. There was something of the jihadist extremism in Cromwell's puritanical religion. John 16v2 'the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God'.
Nothing I've ever read of him in years gone by allowed for even the slightest hint of anything "honorable". Sounds like the work of "revisionist historians" more so than historians seeking to teach & preserve facts.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cromwell-Honourable-Enemy-Untold-Cromwelli/dp/1842120808 It is amazing when you read the 5 star reviews of this book that people are so easily mislead. They accept the author's premise without realising how selective he has been with the evidence. They read a book as if the author is the sole fount of wisdom on Cromwell.
My grandmother ( may God rest her soul) had an expression she used that i have never forgotten: " black as Cromwell's heart" I would love to hear her opinion of his rehabilitation.
I love this one star review of the book. Poorly researched Bit of Propaganda Tom Reilly is a small-time journalist in Drogheda, Ireland and locally prominent as the village atheist. This book is an endless string of special pleading on behalf of Oliver Cromwell whose own letters to Parliament betray him as someone who believed that the killing of Catholic non-combatants "gave glory to God." Conspicuously absent is any reference to Cromwell's speech to his troops in Bristol as they embarked telling them that they were Israelites about to enter Canaan and extirpate its idolatrous inhabitants. In this book Mr. Reilly reveals himself as thoroughly incapable of sifting and weighing historical sources. He glosses over or dismisses the contemporary accounts of the masscre of Drogheda and paints a Cromwell saddened by his inability to restrain his overzealous troops. Though it is true that the contemporary rules of warfare offered no guarantee of quarter or mercy for a garrison that resisted a seige and had to be taken by storm, no civilized people have ever countenanced the sort of behavior (for instance seizing children for use as human shields) of Cromwell's Model Army. Reilly does include Cromwell's justification that such atrocity will strike terror into the hearts of other towns and thus "will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future." But he leaves out Cromwell's judgement from the very same letter that the killings were "a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches." In his defense, even Reilly blushes to completely exculpate the perfidy at Wexford. Likewise absent from Reilly's whitewashed narrative is any accounting of the massive demographic and economic upheaval that resulted from the campaign of this "honourable enemy" and its aftermath. According to the English Parliament's own survey after the war, about 47.7% of the Irish population at the beginning of the war was gone. Most of those were killed during the war or executed or sent to English plantations in the West Indies as slaves immediately after. About 2.7% were Catholics who had fled to the Continent (mostly to France and Spain). Cromwell paid his debts, paid his army, and bolstered his power in England with gifts of land in conquered Ireland. Out of a total of 20 million acres in the survey, 11 million were confiscated. What this book does provide is a pretty thorough summary of the main arguments of generations of Cromwell apologists. That makes the book tangentially useful for teaching logic and historical reasoning but utterly useless for studying Cromwell's Irish Campaign.
