Memory snapshots from the Congress
How do you turn a stadium into a space for worship?
A couple of weeks after the wonderful 50th International Eucharistic Congress, my colleague Fr Pat O’Donoghue and I both sat down at our computers in the Diocesan Liturgy Resource Centre and sorted out over 1,200 emails each all directly related to the planning and preparation for the event. And they were just the emails we had kept. Going through them reminded me of lots of moments along the marathon of work undertaken for the Congress by many fine people.
After initial dialogues, meetings for the IEC2012 started their relentless frequency in October of 2010. A Liturgy Committee was formed drawing on the wisdom and experience of people from all over the country. A lot of focus naturally was falling on the Opening Mass, the Eucharistic Procession and the culminating celebration of the Eucharist, the Statio Orbis. But there were liturgies to be planned and overseen in every detail right across the eight days of the Congress, including an Ecumenical Liturgy, a Reconciliation Service, Mass with the Anointing of the Sick, Morning Prayers and Eucharistic Adoration in the Prayer Space.
Soon it became clear that the RDS would be the main venue for the week with the final Eucharist planned to take place in CrokePark. In the early months of the work, the following questions were often running around my head: “How are we going to transform a sports stadium into a place of worship and prayer?” “How are we going to cope with Irish weather in outdoor arenas?” “How are we going to distribute communion to thousands and thousands of people in a reverent and unhurried way?”
We visited the RDS and tried to imagine what Leinster’s rugby ground might look like during the Congress. Where would be the best place to position the sanctuary? There were engineering, costs and health and safety aspects to be considered. For the sanctuary area in the RDS, rather than trying to design something from scratch, we took huge inspiration from the beautiful chapel of the Irish College in Rome.
Having the altar at one end of the stadium, it was decided that we would place the Ambo (the place where the Word of God is proclaimed) in the middle of the arena, inspired by Jesus’ teaching: “the kingdom of God is among you” (Luke17:21). We hoped this would help give the message that the whole arena was the space for worship and not just the sanctuary end. It would mean that the choir would be leading everyone singing long “Alleluias” to accompany the procession of the Book of the Gospels being carried half the length of the pitch from the altar to the ambo. We would also have to make sure that the Lectionary and Book of the Gospels were weatherproof!
I remember one day pacing the full length of the pitch with Hillary Kavanagh, the creative director of Arcana, the production company for IEC2012, to work out how long it would take an entrance procession to get from the back of the arena to the altar. Time had to be added too for to allow for incensations. It took a good five minutes. We would need plenty of verses for each Opening Hymn.
It was with great gratitude to God that I learned that Sr. Louise O’Rourke and her team from the Disciples of the Divine Master would be taking care of the sacristy. Sr. Louise had worked on huge scale liturgies before, including Papal Masses, and brought an attention to detail, a depth of experience and level of gentle organisation that was breathtaking.
Together we made some preliminary visits toLeinster’s rugby Home and Away dressing rooms that were to be the sacristy and main celebrants’ vesting area during the Congress. There was the lingering smell of something like ‘Wintergreen’ muscle rub. In the Home Dressing Room there were three large signs on the wall. Each had just one word on it. They read: “Disciplined. Humble. Relentless.” I remember smiling to myself and thinking that those words would apply well to the wonderful array of people from all over Ireland who were soon to facilitate eight days of something beautiful for God.
Seventh Storey Mountain
The 20th century monk Thomas Merton is famous for a wonderful book on his spiritual struggles and joys entitled: “Seven Storey Mountain”. We faced a seventh storey challenge as part of our preparations for the International Eucharistic Congress: How were we going to distribute Holy Communion to the people on Level 7 of Croke Park at the Statio Orbis Mass where it is particularly steep? Working this out became something of a turning point for me personally.
To be honest, there were times when I was really weary of the impending Congress. The extra workload for the IEC2012 was a burden on top of an already hectic schedule for us in the Liturgy Resource Centre. [I have to thank Fr Michael Carey and the parish team in Whitehall for being so understanding with my being just a “Bed and Breakfast” presence over the past year in particular and for their support.] Paul Rooney, who did a great job as IEC Volunteer Manager, organised a meeting in Croke Park on Saturday 4th February last to start work on finding possible solutions to the “Seventh Storey” Holy Communion distribution challenge. We met at 9.30 on a cold, wet, grey morning. We expected that maybe 120 die-hard volunteers would turn up. 230 people came and what wonderful people they were, typical of the amazing army of over 2,000 volunteers that helped make the whole congress such a success. They were good humoured, faithful, patient and so hopeful that the IEC would be a great growth moment for the Church. One woman was in her 80’s. A young couple came with their five week old baby in tow. We all ventured up to the highest tiers of Croker where the seating is steeply pitched at around 40 degrees. For two hours they sat in several configurations and, using broken ice cream wafers in tupperware, we rehearsed the movement to and from their seats and we timed different communion distribution scenarios. What we learned proved to be really important for the success of the Statio Orbis Mass. Their input at a similar exercise in the RDS was equally valuable. Together with Fr Christy Fitzgerald fromCork and Ross, Fr Turlough Baxter from Ardagh, we trained Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion how best to distribute the Eucharist in the most challenging corners of the arenas.
The infectious enthusiasm, warmth and good humour of these volunteers did me the world of good. They helped me believe that all this effort was going to be massively worthwhile and steeled me through the final months of constant effort. It was all for the Lord. They were indicative of the same good hearted people who would attend the Congress, turning the RDS each day into a kind of “Eucharistic Village”.
The use of more substantial hosts (made by the Cistercian sisters in Glencairn Abbey, Co. Waterford) made a deep impression on many who attended as well as being easier to manage in blustery outdoor conditions. We made special effort to ensure that those who had a gluten intolerance could receive Holy Communion at each Mass from the chalice. Each of these chalice stations around the arena was marked with a red umbrella to distinguish them from the white umbrellas held over the distribution points for the host.
At a meeting of the International Delegates on the second last day, the first thing they all spoke about was the fabulous congregational music at the liturgies. It was a wonderful mix of plainsong, familiar and new, Irish and international hymns, with great emphasis on the new Mass settings by Irish composers. It truly was the fruit of a mammoth effort, rehearsals, planning and advance preparation. There were even animators in the congregation encouraging the full participation of everyone in the singing each day. Many of them wore t-shirts with “Sing with me” emblazoned on the front. A photo appeared of one animator where the letter ‘g’ was obscured by her Congress badge making the t-shirt appear to read a much less appropriate: “Sin with me”!
A friend who watched TV coverage of the Statio Orbis Mass said I walked off the altar at the end with a smile so wide it looked as if I had swallowed a coathanger. I was so relieved that it was over! But together we had been to the mountaintop, all seven storeys, and what a grace-filled experience it had been.
The Weather: It was so hot on the first couple of days that we were all grateful for the free bottled water handed out by the great team of volunteers. As the week went on, more typical Irish weather took over and we were suffering from an over-abundance of water! Instead of plastic bottles, the volunteers were handing out very useful plastic ponchos. I was spotted several times squeegee-ing large amounts of water off the sanctuary. The Poor Clare sisters on Simmonscourt Road were praying we’d be blessed with good weather for the Eucharistic Procession on the Wednesday evening. Three minutes before we began the rain stopped and we enjoyed a glorious sunset during a very prayerful event in which over 12,000 took part.
On the Friday at the RDS, I was speaking to Patriarch Fouad Twal ofJerusalem, the main celebrant that day, saying it was a pity about the rain. “Where I am from every time it rains we see it as a blessing,” he replied. “Your country is just very blessed!” On those particularly wet days, a lot of the congregation retreated to the shelter of the stands whilst the concelebrants, cardinals, bishops, priests and deacons, bravely sat in the rain on the pitch in front of the sanctuary.
A God-incidence: One day we were short someone to pray an Intercession in Spanish. Eilish and Lynn, part of the Liturgy team, went to the food hall and looked at ID badges trying to find someone from a Spanish speaking country. They met a family fromPuerto Rico and asked if one of them would be willing to lead a prayer. The family became emotional and explained how they had suffered a recent bereavement and had come to the Congress seeking healing and strength. They were utterly delighted to be asked. One of their sons led the prayer and through mobile phone texts, relatives back inPuerto Rico were able to watch it live on EWTN.
Vestments: The vestments featured twelve Celtic crosses in different colours. They were inspired by the instructions for the design of the priestly vestments of Moses and Aaron in the Book of Exodus 28:12 and 28:29. They were to bear the names of the twelve tribes ofIsrael on their shoulders so that they would continually carry them in remembrance in prayer before the Lord. So too, priests are to carry the whole of humanity before the Lord in the liturgy.
The Book of Revelations describes the great heavenly celebration around the Throne of the Lamb of God, how 144,000 (twelve thousand times the twelve) were gathered as “a great multitude that no one could count from every nation and from all tribes and peoples and languages” [Revelations 7:9] standing before the Lord and worshipping. The chasuble worn by the presiding bishop and principal concelebrants at our truly International Eucharistic Congress had 144 small Celtic crosses around the hem as a further reminder of that people of God of all tribes and peoples and languages. The Celtic crosses, as well as being distinctively Irish, echoed the emblem of the 1932 Congress.
A celebration of Mass featured as part of the special Congress programme for Children. Although they had everything needed, there was no designated sacristy space for the celebrant in which they could vest. One of the team leaders suggested the celebrant vest in front of the children explaining the alb, stole and chasuble to them. It became a lovely teaching moment and one the children spoke about afterwards.
Incense: Members of An Garda Síochána and RDS security people had a quiet week during the Congress. As someone recently quipped: “No one was arrested for being drunk and disorderly and there were no drug finds: apart from Damian’s incense!” I do enjoy sourcing fragrant incense for use in the liturgy and the sacristy team were busy grinding a blend for use each day, including some Russian Orthodox Rose incense. As well as burning it in the thurible, we also used “bowls full of incense” as mentioned in Revelations 5:8. At the preparation of the gifts when the people may be honoured with incense along with the gifts of bread and wine, the altar, cross and celebrant, the servers gracefully carried the bowls through the people of God. It reminds me of St Paul: “Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us … and through us spreads in every place and time the fragrance that comes from knowing him” [2 Corinthians 14]. A number of those seated up in the stands inCrokePark commented that even they were able to enjoy a waft of the incense!
The last word: Looking back on that amazing eight days, I’ll leave my lasting impression again to St Paul: “Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen!” [Ephesians 3:20-21] Fr Damian McNeice