Former Board member and current patron and retired Bishop of Limerick, Dr. Edward Darling, took to the slopes of the Alps last August in an effort to raise funds for Bóthar.
Bishop Edward celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination in 2006 and used this landmark in his life to inspire support for his efforts.
His campaign involved contacting all of the people that he had ordained in his lifetime and asking for their support. His requests met with a huge response from friends all over Britain and Ireland.
Bishop Edward had trained for the challenge in the Austrian Alps prior to the trek, which was a godsend for the real test where he excelled at the physical challenges that faced him on the slopes.
His presence in the group of 30 fellow participants was a huge boost to the event, both in terms of his fundraising contribution and in terms of his passion for the work of Bóthar.
On a personal note, one book in my collection which I really treasure is 'Choosing the Hymns' by Edward Darling. It was given to me as a gift in 1984, with the simple inscription 'To Peter - A memento of your love of hymns - Edward'. I have tried to follow Edward's example by taking great care over the choice of hymns sung in the Chapel of the Resurrection. It saddens me how poor the choice of hymns tends to be in the Catholic Church today - even (dare I say!) in our great Cathedrals.
As I said in earlier posts - what a remarkable man!
2 comments:
That book sounds really useful Peter. We are using the RSCM Sunday by Sunday and it os often unimaginative in my view and I use my extensive knowledge of texts to suggest other ideas. Fr Tim was impressed that I sing while serving (as you do) and I said I had played and sung for so many years I knew many hymns by heart. The hymn he was commenting on was "Blest are the pure in heart" which I at the time said was by Faber but of course it is John Keble. What a treasury we have in times of joy and sorrow!
Choosing the hymns contains some very inspired choices.
The Church Hymnal contains the words of Bishop Edward for no less than 21 Saint's Days! For example, for February 1 (St Brigid) we have:
Lord, for your servant Brigid, a woman good and true,
we offer thanks and glory and joyful praise to you.
Your Church's life she strengthened, and founded in Kildare
a place of truth and learning, of holiness and prayer.
By the way, these words are set to a fantastic Irish tradional melody 'The Star', harmonised by George H P Hewson (1881-1972).
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