Welcome / Fáilte Romhat!
The Franciscan Abbey in Multyfarnham was founded in 1268 and continues to be an active centre of Franciscan mission in Ireland. The only Franciscan Abbey in Ireland still standing on the footprint of its original foundation, the Franciscan fraternity continues its commitment of service from this special place.
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The loyalty of the people of Multyfarnham to the Franciscans
HISTORY SEGMENT
During the first half of the 18th century Franciscan life at Multyfarnham was as uneventful as the friars could make it. The friars could never forget that they had no legal status.
As far as parliamentary legislation could make them such, they were outcasts, declared enemies of the state. Consequently they had to move about quietly, performing their priestly duties as unobtrusively as possible.
Yet there is no evidence of open persecution. The friars had, of course, moments of extreme uneasiness. Sometimes a threatened descent of Jacobite’s, or an unaccountable paroxysm of anti-Catholic fury, would lead to a sudden enforcement of penal legislation and a renewed vigilance on the part of the authorities.
Peter Warren OFM, and Francis Delamar OFM
HISTORY SEGMENT
Among the Guardians of Multyfarnham friary in the first quarter of the 18th century were two friars who filled the office of Provincial in challenging times. Fr Peter Warren came from a family distinguished since the early days of the Norman occupation, when they received generous grants of land and fixed their principal seat at Warrenstown, Co Meath.
During the English Civil War (1642 – 1651), the family consistently supported the Royalist cause and as a result suffered severely under Cromwell. At the Restoration they were singled out under the Act of Settlement for special treatment as ‘innocent papists’ and obtained lands at Castleknock. In later years they stood by the Stuarts and the soldier members of the family followed James II into exile.
Let Conscience be Your Hangman
In this month’s reflection, Fr Kieran considers what it means when we speak of acting in accordance with our consciences. As Kieran writes, we are quick to recognise the principle that we cannot be the judge in our own case!
He then guides us to what St Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians. St Paul speaks of the importance of conscience and then goes on to point out that: “True, my conscience does not reproach me at all, but that does not prove that I am acquitted.” Why does he say this? In the following words, he writes: “The Lord alone is my judge.”
We can all to easily point to acting in accordance with our conscience, as if it is infallible. But is that true? Can our conscience be in error?
And so to our role and responsibility as Christians, doing our best to follow and live the Gospel. Kieran writes of the need, not just to act in accordance with our conscience but to recognise the importance for an informed conscience. Our presence at Mass, listening actively to the Word of God, is one part of informing our consciences and thus, making decisions that reflect the Gospel values that are core to our baptismal promises.
Latest Updates
The arrival of Oliver Cromwell in Ireland -1649
Following the rebellion of 1641 and the assertion that was it conceived in the Friary of Multyfarnham, it was no surprise the friary would suffer in its aftermath and in particular, during the Cromwellian campaign in Ireland (1649 to 1653.) Since 1641, the English...
Participating online via our webcam
We invite you to join us via our webcam for all of our services here in the Friary church. These include our weekday Mass with the Franciscan Community, Sunday Mass (and Vigil Mass on Saturday evening) and our very popular Novena Mass to St Anthony, which is...
News
The Stations of the Cross Garden Floods
On Friday, October 28, the River Gaine, which flows through the life-sized Stations of the Cross garden, burst its banks after a period of intense rain. Below you will see some images of the aftermath! Click on the image to expand it to full page...
From the desk of Fr Kieran OFM
Let Conscience be Your Hangman
In this month’s reflection, Fr Kieran considers what it means when we speak of acting in accordance with our consciences. As Kieran writes, we are quick to recognise the principle that we cannot be the judge in our own case!
He then guides us to what St Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians. St Paul speaks of the importance of conscience and then goes on to point out that: “True, my conscience does not reproach me at all, but that does not prove that I am acquitted.” Why does he say this? In the following words, he writes: “The Lord alone is my judge.”
We can all to easily point to acting in accordance with our conscience, as if it is infallible. But is that true? Can our conscience be in error?
And so to our role and responsibility as Christians, doing our best to follow and live the Gospel. Kieran writes of the need, not just to act in accordance with our conscience but to recognise the importance for an informed conscience. Our presence at Mass, listening actively to the Word of God, is one part of informing our consciences and thus, making decisions that reflect the Gospel values that are core to our baptismal promises.
More revelation please, less discovery!
In his reflection, Fr Kieran asks us to consider the twin ideas of discovery and revelation. In both cases, we learn something new, something that was previously unknown to us and if we didn’t think too much about it, we might not pay much attention to the difference. But as Kieran points out, there are fundamental differences.
As with so much of our language, we can find the roots of the words we use every day in Latin (or Greek). In the case of “reveal” and, “discover” a quick look at their Latin roots tells its own story. “Discover” comes from the Latin “dis,” a negative, and “cooperio,” to hide; that is, it means an unhiding of something. On the other hand, “reveal” is from “re,” meaning back, and “velum,” meaning a veil; that is, something is seen when the veil is withdrawn. In both cases, something that was unseen is now seen but there is a difference, isn’t there? Discovery implies some conscious action whereas revelation suggests that what is unhidden is separate to any act of the one looking.
Kieran reflects on this difference, illustrating his point as always through Scripture and brings us inexorably to the conclusion that as Christians, it is revelation that will change our lives!
Hearing is believing!
Very many of us are familiar with the name Helen Keller. Helen was permanently deaf and blind as a result of an illness she contracted at just 19 months old.
In something she wrote, she said: “Blindness separates us from things, but deafness separates us from people.”
Fr Kieran’s reflection this week bring those words to mind. Kieran takes as the theme of his reflection the story of the apostle Thomas, or as the world often knows him, “Doubting Thomas” as told in St John’s Gospel (Jn 20:24-29). In the Gospel story, there is much about “seeing” – whether Thomas’s doubt on hearing that the other apostles have “seen” the Lord or even, the words of Jesus himself after his encounter with Thomas when He says to him: “You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
However, Kieran asks us to turn our minds to another one of our senses, that of hearing. In our lives, we are called to the presence of Jesus via our hearing, “in scripture, in prayer, and in the suffering of creation, to name the primary sources of revelation.” It seems that when speaking of our encounters with the Lord, Helen Keller and Kieran are on the same page!
An Evening of Beautiful Music in the Friary
Some buildings lend themselves, naturally, to having good acoustics and the Friary church can count itself among those. And when music is played and sung here, the tones of the voices and of the played music combine with the very stones themselves to deliver a sound that cannot be replicated in any other place. In every sense, it is a unique experience, both for the artists and for their audience.
And so it was last Sunday evening when The Lynn Singers from Mullingar, the Irish Concert Orchestra Quintet, and Vocative, a small six-man group of singers visited us to perform their Winter Concert. An audience of just over 300 people were treated to a beautiful evening of perfect singing, and magnificent and uplifting music. The first half of the evening was given over to The Lynn Singers, Vocative and the ICO Quintet performing “Magnificat” from St Luke’s Gospel (LK 1:46-55). Few of us can say that we have not heard the amazing words of Mary’s prayerful response to the Angel sung. However, Sunday’s performance was one with which few would be familiar. In an arrangement by Kim André Arnesen, a young Norwegian classical composer from Trondheim in that country, the performance of “Magnificat” was quite simply, beautiful. How such a sound could be obtained from so few voices is a mystery and the individual performances were so perfect, that the soprano voices were like the voices of angels filling the Friary church. This arrangement was sung in Latin and while this might, at first, risk disconnecting the audience from the magnificence of the words, having the Latin and English, side-by-side on the back page of the accompanying programme, allowed us to engage with the prayer. A spectacular performance, with Musical Director, Dervilla Conlon skillfully encouraging every note and pause to deliver an impeccable performance.
This was followed by the ICO Quintet with a performance of three pieces, two by Arthur Duff (“Windy Gap” and, “Meath Pastoral”) before concluding with McAnanty’s Reel. Kenneth Rice led the quintet in a spirited uplifting, toe-tapping, rendition of this well-known reel and at times, it seemed that Robin Panter on Viola was going to step forward, put his viola down, and break into the reel itself. Joyful!
The evening concluded with three songs, again from the The Lynn Singers, with Vocative and the ICO. First, we had Moonset, by Don McDonald, a thoughtful piece, followed by Blackbird, a Lennon and McCartney icon to an arrangement by Kenneth Rice of the ICO Quintet, and the evening finished with a song that seldom fails to bring to mind old friends, the Parting Glass, again to a Kenneth Rice arrangement with Audrey Snyder.
Evenings such as this are as rare as they are special, and it will take a few weeks for the last echoes of music from the evening to fade away. It is evenings such as this that remind us of why the Friary church in Multyfarnham has a special place in the hearts of all of us.
T. Gerard Bennett