On Holy Ground
On my last day in Donegal!
Yesterday I visited again some of the sick and housebound in the parish. Fr Porter, Parish Priest, drove me to the houses and told me some of the local stories and pointed out items of interest as we travelled. One of the men we were visiting had an interesting story.
He lived in a village called Lisdoo and sometime ago people in the parish spoke to Fr Porter about a Penal Mass Stone called the Lisdoo Mass Rock. He hadn’t heard of it but said he’d ask the man we were going to visit.
When Fr Porter spoke to him, not alone did he remember the Mass Rock but he was able to tell him its story.
During the time the British Army were present, they had sealed off many roads. This was done in the name of security. To do this, they placed large boulders across roads, effectively cutting them off and meaning people had fewer roads that were more easily controllable to travel.
On one such road, numbered among the stones used to create the block, was the Lisdoo Mass Rock. This man had seen it but did not want to draw attention to it. He kept his eye on it through the years and, in the wake of the Good Friday agreement, when the army withdrew and roads were re-opened, he heard this road was being cleared again. He went to where the work was taking place and asked what would happen with the stones removed. He was told that any of them that were useful would be kept and anything else destroyed and dumped. He arranged to have the stone removed and took it home, placing it in a field on his own farm and ensuring the writing was faced away from view. This way, he felt it could be kept safe until an appropriate time.
When the priest approached him, he knew the interest expressed meant that time had arrived. He took the priest to the place where the stone lay and told him that there was writing on the other side. He said he would love to see the stone given a place of honour.
It was suggested that the stone be placed at the Grotto on the grounds of the Parish Church and the man said that he could “die happy” knowing that.
The stone has found its place – “I once was lost, but now I’m found”.
Amazing Grace!
I met this man yesterday and he told me the story again. It was clear he numbers it among his finest achievements – that he saved what he had seen and recognised to be a central part of a Sacred Story.
Lisdoo Mass Stone
LENTEN THOUGHT: What part can we play in protecting the sacred? The sacred of our past and the sacred “in life” that deserves to be our future?