June 22 - Memorial Mass for Father Donal Doyle in Dublin
June 30, 2025
2025年11月26日
On Sunday, June 22, a memorial Mass was held at the chapel of Gonzaga College in Dublin, where family members, relatives, and friends from Ireland gathered, and we were honored to attend.
Gonzaga College is a Jesuit secondary school located deep within a residential area of Dublin, surrounded by beautiful greenery.
It was in this very same chapel, with its striking stained glass, that Father Doyle celebrated his Golden Jubilee Mass in 2015.
https://www.sophiakai.gr.jp/news/overseas/2015/2015090901.html
As soon as we stepped inside, memories came flooding back. Many alumni of Sophia University had come from Japan at that time as well, and it remains a warm and deeply nostalgic memory.
The Memorial Mass was celebrated this time by Jesuit Father John Guiney, who had also assisted Father Doyle at his Golden Jubilee Mass in 2015. The liturgy began with the words, "This is a Mass to celebrate his long and beautiful life," and it was filled with a spirit of gentle joy.
Mr. Keisuke Honda, who teaches at a university in Dublin, was also present. Since I had long known Honda-san's mother, and had often had some chats together with Father Doyle and her at SJ House in Tokyo in the past, I felt it was surely no coincidence that we could be with Keisuke on this occasion. I truly sensed that Father Doyle,from heaven, had woven this mysterious bond.
After the liturgy, there was a friendly gathering over tea and cake, where I spoke with Father Doyle's nephews and family members.
Stepping outside afterward, we were refreshed by the sight of the vast green field stretching out at the site.
On a personal note, my relationship with Father Doyle goes back to 1995. At that time, I had suddenly lost my partner in the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and was in the depths of grief. It was then that I found a card placed in my office mailbox at Sophia University, with these words written on it--this was the beginning of our connection.
--
Death is nothing at all.
It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was. I am me, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name. Speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well.
--
It was a tender message: "Death is not a separation; love and relationships continue. The one who has departed has not disappeared into the distance, but remains close by, present as before."
Until we meet again. Remembering how Father Doyle shared in the sorrow of loss with such compassion, I now pray for the eternal rest of his soul.
Sachiko Tanaka (Faculty of Foreign Studies, French Dept, 1982)
Shiori McCann (Faculty of Foreign Studies, French Dept, 2000)
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2025年11月26日 |
June 22 - Memorial Mass for Father Donal Doyle in Dublin |
2025年11月26日 |
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