As we enjoy the delights that a Western summer can bring us, we can certainly enjoy the long days, some extra heat, and, hopefully, the chance to get a break—if we successfully manoeuvre the queues at airports, our flight might get away, and we can, hopefully, be reunited with our luggage when we reach our destination. After the challenges that the pandemic brought us, just to be on the way to an airport or a holiday destination gives us hope. Like me, I hope that you have very happy memories of summers spent with families and friends down through the years. As a child I remember crowding into our family Fiat 500 with my wonderful Auntie Mae; widowed at an early age she brought up her two children and ran the small family farm, becoming the wonderful 'granny' to so many. She was one of the wisest and kindest people that I have ever met, and her memory is always with me. When I was thinking of going to the Salesian noviciate, she was one of the few members of my family I went to for advice. "Always follow your dream—but only if makes you and others happy!" she told me. The Celtic rock group, 'The Saw Doctors' reminisce in their song about driving through the lanes and boreens of 'Galway and Mayo'—a summer experience I can well identify with:

We used to go out driving

We'd travel near and far

Nearly every Sunday in me

Father's oul' ford car

He'd be pointing out the landmarks

Everywhere we'd go, through the

Twistings, turning, winding roads

Of Galway and Mayo...

... And we'd be asking "are we nearly there?"

Wearing clothes that came

In a parcel from America,

The two of us the same

(lyrics by Leo Moran)

What I vividly remember on these summer trips was Mae's insistence that we visit one of the many holy wells that seem to be everywhere and down every road in rural Ireland—at least that is how it seemed to the eight year old me! Before we ever set out on any journey, she would liberally sprinkle the car with water from Lourdes, Knock or whatever holy well we had happened to visit recently. As she blessed the car she would invoke the blessing of God on the journey, asking the intercession of Our Lady of the Highway and St Christopher. Somehow you always felt safer and more secure with that blessing—again, as an eight year old, I saw nothing incongruous in a woman dispensing a blessing.

With a grant from the 'National Geographic' magazine, anthropologist, Celeste Ray made a fascinating study of the holy well tradition in Ireland—a tradition that goes back to pre-Christian times. As an island, water is obviously central in the national psyche. Springs provided fresh, drinkable water while the rivers provided food—the multi shades of green that Ireland is noted for, is helped greatly by the rain we get. Water makes up so much of our life in Ireland. In ancient mythology, it is the ancient Celtic god of the sea, 'Lir' who controlled the waters around Ireland: offerings needed to be made so that fishermen and travellers would be safe. His grandchildren were turned into swans to glide across the lakes and rivers of Ireland forever. An Irish legend that has eerily close associations with the Hebrew myth of Adam and Eve is that of 'Shannon', the longest river in these islands. 'Sinann', who was the grand-daughter of Lir. She decided to visit Connla's Well and ate the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge, although she knew it was forbidden. As a result, the waters of the well rose, carrying her out to sea and drowning her there, thus forming the River Shannon. The idea of a goddess residing in water is particularly well represented in Irish mythology. A pattern emerges from the various legends: that of the drowning of a divine lady in the sea or the waters of a lake or river. After that tragic event, the goddess dissolves in the waters and merges with it: she becomes the sea, the river or the lake where she perished and gives her name to it. In the interest of balance, some scholars feel that the early Christian monks 'Christianised' these ancient legends to fit the Hebrew/Christian Bible.

Christians associate water with healing qualities as we see in Lourdes—an immersion into the freezing cold waters of the Pyrenean mountain waters is part of the pilgrimage experience. Pagan Ireland had places like Loughanleagh (lake of the Cures) in Cavan; tradition has it those ancient physicians put herbs in the waters so that soldiers could soothe their weary muscles after battle and live to face another day. As part of their summer family ritual, Auntie Mae would go to Enniscrone in nearby Sligo with my mum for a seaweed bath and always assured us she always felt ten years younger! In modern Ireland, luxury spas are now springing up around these amazing sites.

While promoting life and fertility, water was also seen as a dangerous natural phenomenon, which could instantly destroy villages, flood crops and drown livestock and people. In addition to being worshipped for its beneficial dimension, water must therefore have been the subject of veneration to calm its wrath and to be granted clemency. For the ancient celts water gave them so much but they saw the source of this mysterious gift as so important: springs miraculously gushed forth from the ground. From these tiny sources, huge lakes and great rivers were formed. It is interesting to note that rivers, lakes and springs were generally seen as female in ancient Ireland, as they brought life and fertility. In early Christian Ireland these 'sacred fertile places' were also associated with female Saints such as Gobnait, Dymphna and Bridget. Women saints are alive and well in the minds and hearts of the Irish, and the location of wells today paints a picture of faith in the past. Local communities across the land built small oratories and places of prayer over these wells or even steps down into the water for ease of access, especially for the sick and infirm.

In the Anglo-Norman suppression of what they saw as an Irish over-dependence on the female and a pagan past, these holy places were often renamed after St Patrick or St Kevin. In her study of over 250 holy wells or springs for 'National Geographic', Celeste Ray discovered how the people of Munster still keep the feast of Noblait in modern times, re-discovering the ancient traditions. The early Irish Church seemed to promote an equality between men and women, missionaries and preachers came from both. Scholars argue that Brigid had powers that would be associated with that of a bishop and led both female and male communities effectively and strongly. Gobnait is said to have lived in the 6th century, to have founded churches, and to have kept bees. She is held as a patroness of health and fertility and of bees and bee-keepers. Annually on February 11th a feast day is held in her honour in the village of Ballyvourney ('the village of the blessed'). The neighbourhood is seen as 'blessed' because Gobnait is seen to have stopped a plague in the area. Even in modern Ireland, hundreds of people gather to attend mass, visit her shrine and drink from the holy well. As was pointed out with the curative qualities of water, Ray's research found that some wells are rich in specific chemicals; for example, waters associated with skin remedies are often high in sulphur, an effective ingredient in acne medication. Wells connected with strengthening 'weak children' are generally iron-rich. The wells in County Kerry's "Valley of the Mad" contain lithium and were effective in treating mental illness.

As a child I knew nothing of this rich history or science when we visited yet another holy well, I did know that it brought Mae such joy as she filled her plastic container shaped in the form of the Virgin Mary. She gave our family a rich and deep understanding of the faith that is important to me as any writings by Rahner or a biblical appreciation of McKenna. She had a firm grasp of what O'Donohue refers to as the 'Eucharist of the ordinary.' We can find God in the simple things of life and what is more ordinary and basic than water? In these summer pilgrimages across fields, searching for the source of great rivers and lakes, I found a beauty of family. We did this activity together, across generations, whatever the weather that was thrown at us. We discovered the presence of God in the beauty of nature. Our experiences of ordinary life will transform us if we are willing to experience them fully. This is quite different than much of religion's emphasis on being pure, perfect, or correct to find God. Jesus stands religion on its head.

I hope that you can drag up some happy memories of summer during these difficult times—return to the source of your happiness and peace. I pray that this sacred memory be a wellspring for our happiness, as John O'Donohue remarks:

With a good memory, you can actually go back within yourself to great things that happened to you and enjoy them and allow them to shelter and bless you again.

Author: Fr Gerry O'Shaughnessy SDB

Image: Photo by Alexandra Tran on Unsplash