In Gratitude: The Story of a Gift-Filled Life - Softcover

Catherine McCann

9781909895768: In Gratitude: The Story of a Gift-Filled Life

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1909895768 ISBN 13: 9781909895768

Publisher: Orpen Press, 2015

A valuable window into a recent past courageous, poignant, enriching and honest. Margaret MacCurtain Born into a well-to-do family living in Simmonscourt Castle, Dublin in 1934, Catherine McCann lived a rarefied life, playing tennis and attending parties as part of Dublin s upper social circle. Yet at the young age of 20 she left this lifestyle for one devoted to the service of others, joining the Religious Sisters of Charity. Her life as a religious opened her eyes and soul to the world, through her work in healthcare and her study of theology. In her late thirties Catherine met a priest named Charlie O Connor, and a deep bond developed. They worked together on many projects, including leading a large number of pilgrimages to the Holy Land. When Catherine received a call within a call to come out she left religious life, but continued to lead a life of service as a physiotherapist, counsellor and spiritual director. Her departure was not a rejection of her religion but simply a change in her expression of faith, which would continue to grow throughout her life. In 1979 she bought a cottage in County Wicklow and created Shekina Sculpture Garden, a place for reflective days and celebrations. In Gratitude is the story of an ordinary life, lived to the full. It is rich in social history, from growing up in one of Dublin s grandest houses, to religious life in Ireland and abroad, to developing a more holistic life of service. This book will appeal to all those interested in the pursuit of creativity and friendship, service and faith, set across a background of national, religious and social change.

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Review:

An engrossing life, moving from social privilege to service of others, and played out against the tableau of enormous changes in Irish society and the Catholic Church. Well worth the read. --Tom Casey, SJ, Director of the Diploma in Philosophy and Arts, Pontifical University, Maynooth

Catherine McCann offers the reader a compassionate and unsentimental story of growing up in post-civil war Ireland, becoming a novice in a great religious order, immersing herself in its mission of charity, leaving after many years and reinventing herself in a new life without rancour or self-pity. A valuable window into a recent past courageous, poignant, enriching and honest. --Margaret MacCurtain, historian

Shekina Sculpture Garden in Glenmalure is the remarkable creation of a remarkable woman, Catherine McCann. Many people have found sanctuary there, and one grim afternoon I became one of them. As an agnostic, I was an unlikely visitor to Catherine, a former nun, and her great friend, the equally remarkable Fr Charlie O Connor, SJ. But I was going through some kind of existential crisis, and in the context of the garden, and of their non-judgmental company, I found one of the first glimmers of its resolution. I remain an agnostic, and very happily so, but I still return to Shekina for calm and good conversation. Those who have wondered about the back story to the creation of Shekina, and to the extraordinarily friendship between McCann and O Connor, will find a lucid and unusual narrative of our times in this revealing autobiography. --Paddy Woodworth, author and journalist

About the Author:

Catherine McCann is the author of Who Cares? A Guide for All Who Care for Others, Falling in Love with Life: An Understanding of Ageing, Diary of a Hippie: Journeying through Surgery, Saying Yes to Life: A Way to Wisdom, Time-Out in Shekina: The Value of Symbols in Our Search for Meaning and an abbreviated version of her doctoral thesis, New Paths Towards the Sacred: Awakening the Awe Experience in Everyday Living.

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