Restoring the Circle
Address giver by Br Kevin Ryan July 7, 2010
My Brothers Pat Kelly and Peter Hardiman and all of you gathered here tonight.
Thank you for the invitation and privilege of launching this book
To save a lot of questions later – I can say, ‘no I have not read the whole book’. I have read some of it recently and much of it in draft form as it was emerging from cocoon to butterfly. I have, however, done much tertiary level study and know that when I am desperate to meet an assignment deadline it is sometimes helpful to go to the last chapter. That is what I did to begin writing this short speech!
What’s in a name?
This is a heading from page 493 – the last page of this book that is being launched tonight. I continue with two more paragraphs from the last page, with some additions from me.
Restoring the Circle (the Sun) to the Celtic Cross – the Celtic Cross having been denuded during penal times. Edmund was giving young people ‘a place in the sun’, he gave them ‘life’ in all its dimensions: practical skills, intellectual growth, emotional development and an understanding and experience of the Spirit of God present in them and among them and in Irish society and the landscape.
He did this through education.
But unlike many saints (perhaps most) he also ‘Restored the Circle’ – made life whole – through what Br Peter calls Edmund’s belief ‘that money and conversation at the boardroom table and marketplace have a sacred dimension when there is a passionate commitment to equity’.
This also is Celtic spirituality – seeing God in EVERY thing and every activity!
Let us hold those thoughts while I share with you a story – or selected parts of a story that began in 1971. It is the Br Peter Hardiman story and the Restoring of the Circle in his life! I share with you this story leaning heavily on my Irish heritage and which will allow me to indulge in some poetic licence.
In 1971 Peter wandered up to Broome in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Among the many people with whom Peter developed a close relationship was an artist Matthew Gill at Balgo and an elder called Paddy Roe from Broome. Peter brought the gift of being open to learning about the spiritualities of Aboriginal people and in turn Peter’s heart and mind was ‘opened’. Opened to the idea and the experience that all life was sacred – that while there are special places of significance and sacredness – everything, everyone, every experience is sacred.
With his Irish heritage, and with much of his inspiration being drawn from our Brother, Edmund Rice, (and there was much new writing about Edmund in the 1970’s), Peter saw during his years in the Kimberley region and in the years that followed, that in the art and spiritualities of the Aboriginal peoples there was much in common with Celtic Spirituality. The gentle exploration of this has been a part of Peter’s life journey ever since.
In 1998, many years after his Kimberley experience in the north of Western Australia, it seemed entirely appropriate that Peter was to journey to Ireland and related places. It is important to know that not long before his departure and in the course of doing a Masters of Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Peter’s life and education had been deeply touched and inspired by doing a Theology Unit at the with Professor Michael Jackson. The unit explored Creation Theology – an exploration (among other things) of the sense of the Sacred in everything. This is something that was deeply embedded in our Christian Spirituality heritage but which has been lost (to add a Kevin Ryan editorial note!)
Peter went to Ireland with a book in mind. He also went to Rome, to the central office of the Christian Brothers and in particular the archival records of the Congregation. He went to explore the life of Edmund. He also went to a most beautiful place in Ireland – a place at which I spent 3 wonderfully enriching weeks in 2008. The place is Glendalough – the home of St Kevin and his monastic tradition. At Glendalough and also at Iona off the coast of the Scottish mainland Peter more deeply and experientially explored spirituality in the Celtic tradition.
In 2002 Peter made a second and in Peter’s own words a ‘more focussed’ visit to Ireland and Rome. His research on this visit, while not excluding other matters, explored the life and experience of the early Brothers, the work of the early schools and influence of women on Edmund’s life. Peter would suggest that it was women who pointed out to Edmund ‘where he should move to’ with his life.
As the book emerged in Peter’s life what has surfaced in his writing? Each reader will answer that question in her or his own way depending on the life experience and the life questions that are brought to the reading of the book. In answering the question here I am bring some of my own responses and also I am bringing some of the reflections of Professor Michael Jackson in his beautifully written foreword.
Before I share with you my answer to the question let us reflect on the challenges Peter has had to face in writing this book. I suggest here:
- the ‘loneliness of the researcher and the writer’. Many writers of books and Doctoral theses talk of this.
- The misunderstanding of what ‘he is about’ – writing of books is not a common occupation for anyone and it is, sadly, not strong in our Christian Brother tradition.
- The agony of pursuing details, approvals and acknowledgements and not always being successful in getting them.
- The learning of new computer and technical skills
- The dealings with the leadership group of the Christian Brothers in Western Australia and South Australia. I was in that leadership group and I know sometimes we were emotionally and practically supportive and sometimes not – for the ‘not’ times I now apologise!
After that diversion let us know return to the question of what has emerged in Peter’s writing. I am trying to ponder here the issues that Peter has explored that MAY be somewhat unique. Among the many, many aspects or faces of this book I suggest:
That Peter has paid greater attention than any other student of ‘Edmund Rice’ to the first forty years of his life – his childhood, young adulthood, marriage relationship. In particular Peter has paid attention to the immersion of Edmund in the Celtic Heritage and how this influenced the second forty years of his life.
The exploration of Edmund’s thirteen years of transition from the time of the death of Mary, the perfect love of his life until the opening of his first school is dealt with in an imaginative and ‘heart provoking way’. Other writes have explored this but I think Peter has done it in an more imaginative way. Among other images we read of Edmund being ‘steam cleaned in the tunnel of darkness’.
The book explores the influence of the many women in Edmund’s life. I think this is something that our ‘Brother Congregation’, the Presentation Brothers have done very well.
Peter explores Edmund’s mover from seeing the ‘sacred and beautiful in the landscape’ to the ‘sacred and the beautiful in the faces of the least attractive children in Waterford’.
The use of the Celtic story telling style and the use of images is very significant in this book. Like the parables of Jesus, the stories that Peter creates or uses, and the images that he shows or describes in the book, allow for all readers to explore what they need to explore in their lives. Stories and images are open- ended and leave us to ‘ponder these things in our hearts’ if I may borrow from the Gospel of Luke and its description of Mary.
The committed Catholicity of Edmund is highlighted and yet also his openness to all religions, all cultures and all political points of view – Edmund is seen as a builder of relationships not a builder of violence.
Money, contracts, legal issues are not interruptions to a spiritual life. Dealing with this in the right way and with a heart on the Gospel’s call for us to liberate the poor, is part of our spiritual journey.
There are many photos of people, places and images. Pondering these in fact is enough to explore Edmund’s life and our lives.
The book speaks to many of the needs of today in this country and I think I can say the needs of today in Papua New Guinea as well. As Professor Michel Jackson says, this book is written in the spirit of Vatican Council 11 because it speaks to these needs – it is not an esoteric, irrelevant piece of writing. It speaks to the appropriate use of money, to the need for just practices, to the liberation of those excluded in our societies, and perhaps MOST DEEPLY to the call by the younger people in our societies (here and elsewhere) for a spirituality that is open hearted and integrated, and that speaks to all aspects of our lives - our recreation, our human relationships, our work and to our sitting humbly before the majestic creator who is within this magnificent universe of which we are a part.
Let us hope that thousands of people come to know a little of Edmund. There are those of us in the Network who need to know the Gospel and the story of Edmund much more deeply. Those in the role of formation, those on Boards and in leadership positions in the Oceania Province and Edmund Rice Education Australia and those in similar roles in ministries. And the Brothers must know the stories deeply. We MUST know the stories more deeply to keep the ‘HEART’ of the Network strong. If we do not the Network will die! So I invite you to ponder all that is in this wonderful book on Edmund.
Peter, our Brother, we congratulate you, we thank you and we wish you well as you journey into another stage of your life and exploration of Edmund as you move to Waterford, the birth place of the Edmund Rice movement in all its various expressions.
It gives me great pleasure to launch: Edmund Rice – Restoring the Circle to the Celtic Cross.
