The Pastoral Letter, Alcohol: the Challenge of Moderation (2007) is available at http://www.catholiccommunications.ie/AlcoholChallenge/AlcoholChallenge.html

See also The virtue-driven life

LITURGICAL RESOURCE PACK FOR TEMPERANCE SUNDAY 3-2-2008

Homily Notes
1. Temperance Sunday is the day of the year when we look at a virtue that has had a bad press in recent times.  When we hear the word "temperance", we think of words like spoilsport and not having a good time, something at odds with words like excitement, passion, and living life to the full.

And the reason why the word "temperance" has so many negative associations now is that the world we live in is out of tune with what temperance represents.  Temperance is about moderation and control.  It’s about having a balance in your life; it’s about being able to stand back and see where our lives are unbalanced, maybe where our lives are out of control in some sense.  And that’s difficult to do today because the ethos of our time is about saying "Run with the flow", "Don’t be negative", "Go for it", and so on.  And the flow of life today is in the direction of having a great time and indulging ourselves and getting loads of money and having a great time and having everything we want and spoiling ourselves. 

Excess is often now the order of the day and advertising fuels that excess.  A sobering question for all of us is: of all the things we spoil ourselves with, what do they really add to our lives?  And this is a time for asking the question: is there an area of our lives where we need to be more moderate, where we need to be more temperate?

And we ask those questions not to accuse ourselves or run ourselves down or to make life more difficult but in order to bring into our lives the kind of balance that will help us to live more human and ultimately more satisfying lives.

The question for each one of us on Temperance Sunday is: what is the area of my life that is creating an imbalance, putting my life out of focus?  And each of us can answer that question for ourselves.

2. For some people it will be simply saying: I need to control my consumption of alcohol / I need to get myself off drugs, the way I drink (or take drugs) is upsetting not just the balance of my own life but the lives of those most precious to me in the world. ‘Proverbially, Ireland is a land that combines the smile and the tear’. So said Pope Pius XII in 1956, addressing a group of Garda Síochána, who were also Pioneers.  He went on to lament the fact that, as a result of intemperance, more tears were shed in Irish homes than ought to have been the case. Many of us are only too well aware from painful, personal experience that the Pope’s observation was true.  Like every gift of God, alcohol is good.  It has its place at times of celebration and relaxation.  However, it is also a drug that can be devastating in its consequences.  What comes to us as a gift can be a curse for some, unless it is wisely used.

The Ireland of 2008 is very different from that of 1956.  It is a more complex place: less unified in its culture; less certain of its religious roots.  We are all rightly proud of the many positive changes of these decades, ranging from success in such fields as the economy and the arts to the confidence of a new generation aware of its European horizons.  But among the various shadow sides of this New Ireland is the need to face our complacency over alcohol particularly, and other drugs too, and their increasingly dominant place in our social life.

The challenge to practise and encourage temperance is there for all of us. We must seek to find credible ways of protecting our young people from habits of dependence on alcohol and other drugs. In this regard nothing can take the place of human awareness and of human responsibility.  Parents need to talk openly about these issues, listening to what their children have to say, alerting the younger ones, in good time, to the dangers of alcohol and substance abuse, the seductive power of advertising and the peer pressure that must inevitably come.

Schools have an important role to play in promoting discussion on the question of addiction.  The advantage the school enjoys, in dealing with large numbers, is the capacity to create a common appreciation of the issues involved.  If the school can increase understanding, heighten motivation and engender a positive attitude towards temperance, the efforts of the individual pupil will be encouraged and advanced.

Even the changing of attitudes, important though it is, will not be sufficient in itself.  Opportunities need to be provided within local communities for healthy recreational activity.  Those who create such opportunities and involve themselves in youth work and sport do a great service, not merely to the young but to our country as a whole. 

3. But drink and drugs aren’t the only addictions. There are others too, like work or rather the obsession we can sometimes have with work. At the end of life, married people who are workaholics invariably regret that they didn’t spend more time with their families and missed out so much in life and in family due to their obsession with work. Life got out of shape, lost the sense of balance, and all the things they would say are important  - spouse, family, children, home, health – all of them are sacrificed on the altar of work or money or success or whatever.

So, what is the great obsession of my life and who’s paying for it? Where’s the imbalance in my life now? Where’s the obsession that’s taking a toll not just on my own life but on the lives of those around me? And what can I do to moderate the obsession? What can I do to begin to control it?

Lent offers us an opportunity to do that. That’s what Lent is about, an opportunity to try to bring an element of moderation into an area of our lives that is creating an imbalance. 

Prayers of the Faithful

Priest:
In the Church, God has made known to us his hidden purpose: to make all things one in Christ.
Let us pray that his will may be done.

Reader:

• We give you thanks for the presence and power of your Spirit in the Church: -
  give us the will to search for unity, and inspire us to pray and work together.
  (Pause) Lord hear us
• Your people have known the ravages of war and hatred: - grant that they
  may know the peace left by your Son. (Pause) Lord hear us
• We pray for moderation in our eating and in our drinking: - help us not to abuse
  these gifts and to realise that our deepest hungers are satisfied by you alone.
  (Pause) Lord hear us
• For our parish, that we continue to invite young men and women in our midst to
  share their gifts and energy with the Church. (Pause) Lord hear us
• Welcome all who have died in your peace (especially those we remember at this Mass
  ............................). Bring them to everlasting life with our Lady and with all the saints.
  (Pause) Lord hear us

Priest:
Almighty, ever-living God, through Christ your Son you made of us a new creation.
Shape us, then, in his likeness, since in him our human nature now lives with you.
(We make our prayer) through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection after Communion
One of the following may be used as a reflection after Communion:

1. Archbishop Oscar Romero

It helps now and then to step back and take the long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent
enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the
Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No programme accomplishes the Church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realising that.
This enables us to do something and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way –
an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between
the master builder and the workers.
We are workers, not master builders, - ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.

2. Alcohol: The Challenge of Moderation

Alcohol confronts us with our own frailty and weakness. Even those who are not
addicted need the support of a higher power in the journey through life if we
are to avoid the perils of addiction. We need the support of friends, of family
and of God. Indeed, there may be people around us who need our support. The
love and support of God is mediated through people just like us when we reach
out to others, bringing God’s love and care into our world.

(Pastoral Letter from the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference)

3. An tAlcól: Dúshlán na Measarthachta

Tá plaic crochta ar an mballa in a lán de na hionaid a chuireann cóir ar andúilithe,
agus scríofa air tá: ‘Is tusa amháin atá in ann é a dhéanamh ach ní féidir leat é
a dhéanamh i d’aonar’. Cuireann sé seo i gcuimhne dúinn go gcaithfidh muid glacadh
leis nach bhfuil ár neart tola uilechumhachtach agus cé ‘go bhfuil an Spiorad
toilteanach, tá an corp lag’ (Maitiú 26:41). Cuireann sé i gcuimhne dúinn freisin
go gcaithfidh muid cúnamh a iarraidh ar Dhia agus ar a chéile má tá muid ag
iarraidh alcól agus na bronntannaisí eile a fuaireamar ó Dhia a úsáid go measartha.
Freisin, tá sé ag cur i gcuimhne dúinn go bhféadfadh sé gur ‘muide’ an crann taca
a theastaíonn ó dhaoine agus iad ar thóir tacaíocht ón AA nó ó ionaid leighis nó
ó chomhairleoir. B’fhéidir nach mbeadh an t-am, an fhuinneamh ná an scil againn
chun cabhrú leo ach b’fhéidir go mbeadh sé ar ár gcumas iad a threorú i dtreo an
chúnaimh a theastaíonn uathu.

(Tréadlitir ó Chomhdháil na nEaspag Éireannach)

4. A Íosa a Aonmhic an Athar

A Íosa a Aon-Mhic an Athar ‘s a Uain,
Thug fíorfhuil do chroí ghil dár gceannach go crua,
Bí’m dhíonsa, bí’m choimhdeacht, bí’m aice gach uair,
Más luí dom, más suí dom, más seasamh, más suan.

Ó ísligh mo dhíoltas is m’fhearg is m’fhuath,
Is díbir na smaointe mallaithe uaim;
Lig braon beag ded’ Naoimh Spiorad beannaithe ‘nuas,
A scaoilfeas an croí seo’tá ‘na charraig le cruas.

Tabhair tionscnamh dom ghníomhartha i d’ainm go buan,
Is críochnaigh le fíorcheart de ghnáth mo uaill,
Go bhfaighinnse teacht saor ó gach cealg is cluain,
A Rí Mhic, ‘s go bhfaighinnse bheith ag amharc ort suas.

(Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna)

For Liturgical Notes in Irish see: Domhnach na Measarachta 2008 

For other resources see: Day of Prayer for Temperance 2007  

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