Anne Quinn from Tuam Parish sent ECI this update:
Tuam Parish came in numbers to celebrate National Holy Wells day at Abbey Trinity on Saturday evening and were more than rewarded as Dr. Tony Claffey gave a riveting account of the history of the ‘Well’ and it’s origins. He informed the gathering that if they were expecting to see the ruins of the Monastery to which the well belonged they were 200 years too late. Not a stone was left upon a stone, but what is left is a beautiful well built by the monks with pure clean water thanks to the people of Tuam who have kept the river Nanny and it’s outlets free from pollution.
Work on the restoration of the well was on going for over 6 months in preparation for National Holy Wells Day. Great credit is due first of all to the Abbey Trinity residents who gave the initiative their 100% support and to the local Galway Co. Co. staff who put a lot of work into the preparation of the entrance to the well. Members of Tuam parish Eco-congregation and Tuam Tidy Towns battled briars and brambles to reveal the beautiful old structure of the well.
The Liturgy group and local musicians enriched the backdrop to the lovely ritual of taking water from the Well by John and little Zac. Archbishop Michael Neery, Cannon David Wiliams and Fr. Pat Farragher blessed the water and sprinkled the gathered group reviving a centuries old custom. The importance and sacredness of water was emphasised in their wise words. A solemn but joyful occasion was celebrated as strains of ‘How great thou art’ echoed across Tuam in the stillness as dusk fell.
The Synod Hall in St. Mary’s Cathedral provided the venue where food and chat was enjoyed by all and so ended a thought provoking, interesting and prayerful evening.
A walk and talk ‘in celebration of creation’ also took place in Kilmore/Cloonfush bog on Sunday 12th August. It was a reminder of how if we stay in the present, a simple walk in a simple place, a bog, can bring us to the presence of our Creator God. As the group walked in glorious sunshine, we were introduced to our sisters, the plants and flowers of the area, many unique to bogland and now becoming rare or threatened with extinction. To some people many plants may be seen as weeds but we reflected on how these plants have intrinsic worth as expressions of the Divine. They have also been friends to generations of humans and animals as food and herbal medicine, even to this day. The changes in the biodiversity of the area in the last 50 years was noted with the change from bog to marginal land with turf cutting. Childhood memories of days in the bog were recalled, of hard work, yet joy in its wild beauty. As we paused to say a brief prayer for creation, the cows in a nearby field lined up at the wall in silence, as though joining in, remarkably like the birds who listened to the words of Francis!
As Patrick Kavanagh observed ‘that beautiful, beautiful, beautiful God was breathing His love by a cut-away bog.
