KNOCK, Ireland, AUG. 22, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Astrology, palm reading and tarot cards are superstitions that conceal a lack of trust in God's providence, according to Archbishop Sean Brady.
Archbishop Brady of Armagh, primate of all Ireland, said this today while celebrating the Mass of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Ireland's National Marian Shrine of Knock, visited annually by over 1.5 million pilgrims.
Speaking on the theme of "Following Christ in 21st-century Ireland," Archbishop Brady said that today's challenge is to keep "our lives focused on Christ amid the distractions of increasing prosperity."
He explained: "The land of saints and scholars has become better known as the land of stocks and shares, of financial success and security.
"Tragically it has also become a land of increasing stress and substance abuse. And all of this has occurred as the external practice of faith has declined."
"One of the most subtle but disturbing signs of this underlying fear in Irish life is the increasing reliance of people on practices which claim to 'unveil' the future," the 68-year-old archbishop affirmed. "Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, tarot cards, recourse to clairvoyance and mediums conceal a desire for power over time and a lack of trust in God's providence.
"They are the new Irish superstition. Those who put their trust in them or take them seriously are colluding with an illusion, promoting a fiction. Underlying this trend of 'future telling,' is a fear of the future.
"It is a symptom of the insecurity that lurks behind the seeming confidence of modern Irish culture and life. It is evidence of the failure of a life without God to address the deepest needs of the human spirit."
Discipleship of Mary
"[A]s we face the myriad of challenges of being a disciple in 21st-century Ireland," Archbishop Brady explained, "Mary is the perfect disciple today, just as she has always been through the first two millennia of the Church's existence."
"Indeed our Gospel reminds us that the example of Mary, [is] to say 'yes' at every moment, of every day, to follow Jesus, to say 'yes' to putting our complete trust in God's word and in his plan," he continued. "And so it is Mary who reveals to us the essential virtue for those who wish to follow Christ in the Ireland of the 21st century.
"That virtue is trust. Trust in the power of God to do all things.
"Mary always directs us to Christ. She knows that he alone can give us everything we need. Everything we need as disciples in the Ireland of the 21st century. Everything we need as a Church."
Archbishop Brady added: "The challenges may change in their detail, the culture in which we live might alter from one generation to the next, but the fundamental call of the Christian disciple remains the same in every age, to say 'Fiat, voluntas tua,' -- 'Be it done unto me according to thy Word!'"
ZE07082207 - 2007-08-22