Author: Father Sean Coyle

‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’ Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Advent, Year C

Linaoli Tabernacle, St John the Baptist, Fra Angelico, c.1433

Museo di San Marco, Florence [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 3:1-6 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Charles Kuralt was an American journalist who worked for many years on the CBS TV network in the USA. He was especially noted for his ‘On the Road’ features on the CBS Evening News. These started in 1967, the year I was ordained, and I became familiar with them when I went to study in the USA the following year.

I vividly remember one particular story – they were never from the highways but from the byways of the United States – about a man somewhat on the older side who lived in a small town somewhere in the heartland of the country. I forget the particular state. The nearest town was only a few kilometres away but there was no road connecting the two. People had to take a very long way around to get from one to the other.

The residents of both houses tried for years to persuade their politicians to build a road between the towns, without success. So this particular elderly citizen decided he’d start to build a road himself, using planks. When Charles Kuralt caught up with him he hadn’t got very far – but he had started.

Setting for a meeting of the Legion of Mary

This man was engaged in what the Handbook of the Legion of Mary calls Symbolic Action. The Handbook was written almost entirely by Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion.

The Handbook says, It is a fundamental Legion principle that into every work should be thrown the best that we can give. simple or difficult, it must be done in the spirit of Mary . . . 

But sometimes we are faced with works which are really impossible, that is to say, beyond human effort . . .

‘Every impossibility is divisible into thirty-nine steps, of which each step is possible’ – declares a legionary slogan . . .

Observe: the stress is set on action. No matter what may be the degree of the difficulty, a step must be taken. Of course, the step should be as effective as it can be. But if an effective step is not in view, then we must take a less effective one. And if the latter be not available, then some active gesture (that is, not merely a prayer) must be made which, though of no apparent practical value, at least tends towards or has some relation to the objective. This final challenging gesture is what the Legion has been calling ‘Symbolic Action.’ Recourse to it will explode the impossibility which is of our own imagining. And, on the other hand, it enters in the spirit of faith into dramatic conflict with the genuine impossibility.

The sequel may be the collapse of the walls of that Jericho.

I saw Charles Kuralt’s broadcast some time between 1968 and 1971. In the autumn of 1982 I was working in a hospital in Minneapolis as a chaplain on a three-month Clinical Pastoral Education programme. Charles Kuralt came to town while I was there to give a lunchtime lecture in an auditorium near the hospital and I went along to hear him. When he invited questions from the very large audience someone asked him, What happened to that road the old man began to build? So I wasn’t the only one who remembered the story.

Mr Kuralt told us that the man had since died – but that the road between the two towns had finally been built by the authorities.

The chances are that the man featured in Charles Kuralt’s story, since he was from the heartland of the USA, was familiar with today’s gospel. St John the Baptist is quoting the Prophet Isaiah and asking each of us to Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. He assures us that Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;  and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Jesus asks for our cooperation. When he was faced with the hungry crowds he asked the Apostles what food they had and then told them to feed the people. Their cooperation with their feeble resources enabled him to show God’s bounty in a way they could not have imagined. At Cana Jesus told the servants to fill the water containers – and changed the water into the equivalent of about 600 bottles of the very best wine. (I once read a commentary that advised the reader to take that in a symbolic sense. I really don’t see why we should diminish God’s bounty! What Jesus did is indeed a symbol of God’s bounty precisely because it was an ct of that bounty in a specific situation.)

Linaoli Tabernacle, Fra Angelico, c.1433

Museo di San Marco, Florence [Web Gallery of Art]

We have no idea what God can do with a seemingly insignificant or purely personal action. When the young St Anthony of the Abbot went of to live as a hermit in the desert, rather like St John the Baptist,  he had no idea that it would lead to the foundation of monasteries of contemplatives around the world.

When in 1964 Jean Vanier, a former officer in the Royal Canadian Navy and a professor of philosophy, bought an old cottage in France, rebuilt it and invited Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux, two men with learning disabilities who were living in institutions, to live with him he had no idea that this would lead toL’Arche communities around the world. These are communities where persons with learning disabilities live with others like a family and are able to develop their abilities, sometimes to the extent of leaving and living on their own. Raphael or Philippe, I forget which one, was able to make such a decision after .
Jesus, through the words of Isaiah repeated by St John the Baptist is calling us to actively prepare for his coming, in so many unexpected ways in our daily lives, through joys and sorrows, through the Mass and the sacraments, and in glory at the end of time. We are also preparing to celebrate the birthday of Jesus. However, that First Coming in the flesh has already taken place.

St John of the Cross Shrine and Reliquary, Segovia[Wikipedia]

St John of the Cross wrote in The Ascent of Mount Carmel, When he (God) gave us, as he did, his Son, who is his one Word, he spoke everything to us, once and for all in that one Word. There is nothing further for him to say. This is part of the Second Reading in the Office of Readings for Monday in Week 2 of Advent.

There is nothing further for him to say.

St John of the Cross goes on to write in the same passage, Consequently, anyone who today would want to ask God questions or desire some vision or revelation, would not only be acting foolishly but would commit an offence against God by not fixing his eyes entirely on Christ, without wanting something new or something besides him.

God might give him this answer, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’ I have already told you all things in my Word. Fix your eyes on him alone, because in him I have spoken and revealed all. Moreover, in him you will find more than you ask or desire.

The writings of St John of the Cross and of other great theologians do not reveal to us anything new but rather bring us into a deeper understanding of the Word. Likewise, the messages that the Church recognises as having been received in such places as Lourdes, for example, do not reveal to us anything new but rather emphasise some aspect of the Word, usually a call to penance and to prayer, in other words, Prepare the way of the Lord.

God asks us to look to the future in active, sometimes symbolically active, hope like the old man in Charles Kuralt’s story. Be ready to meet Jesus in whatever guise he comes and whenever he comes, each day, at the hour of our death, at the end of time.

 

‘Be on guard . . . be alert at all times.’ Sunday Reflections, First Sunday of Advent, Year C

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston [Web Gallery of Art]

We begin Year C, which highlights St Luke’s Gospel.

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

Jesus said to his disciples:

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

 

 “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Conditor Alme Siderum (Creator of the Stars of Night)

An ancient Advent hymn sung by the Christendom College Choir & Schola Gregoriana

Here is Pope Benedict’s Angelus Talk on the First Sunday of Advent, 29 November 2009.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This Sunday, by the grace of God, a new Liturgical Year opens, of course, with Advent, a Season of preparation for the birth of the Lord. The Second Vatican Council, in the Constitution on the Liturgy, affirms that the Church “in the course of the year… unfolds the whole mystery of Christ from the Incarnation and Nativity to the Ascension, to Pentecost and the expectation of the blessed hope of the Coming of the Lord”. In this way, “recalling the mysteries of the redemption, she opens up to the faithful the riches of her Lord’s powers and merits, so that these are in some way made present for all time; the faithful lay hold of them and are filled with saving grace” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 102). The Council insists on the fact that the centre of the Liturgy is Christ, around whom the Blessed Virgin Mary, closest to him, and then the martyrs and the other saints who “sing God’s perfect praise in Heaven and intercede for us” (ibid., n. 104) revolve like the planets around the sun.

This is the reality of the Liturgical Year seen, so to speak, “from God’s perspective”. And from the perspective, let us say, of humankind, of history and of society what importance can it have? The answer is suggested to us precisely by the journey through Advent on which we are setting out today. The contemporary world above all needs hope; the developing peoples need it, but so do those that are economically advanced. We are becoming increasingly aware that we are all on one boat and together must save each other. Seeing so much false security collapse, we realize that what we need most is a trustworthy hope. This is found in Christ alone. As the Letter to the Hebrews says, he “is the same yesterday and today and for ever (Heb 13: 8). The Lord Jesus came in the past, comes in the present and will come in the future. He embraces all the dimensions of time, because he died and rose; he is “the Living One”. While he shares our human precariousness, he remains forever and offers us the stability of God himself. He is “flesh” like us and “rock” like God. Whoever yearns for freedom, justice, and peace may rise again and raise his head, for in Christ liberation is drawing near (cf. Lk 21: 28) as we read in today’s Gospel. We can therefore say that Jesus Christ is not only relevant to Christians, or only to believers, but to all men and women, for Christ, who is the centre of faith, is also the foundation of hope. And every human being is constantly in need of hope.

Dear brothers and sisters, the Virgin Mary fully embodies a humanity that lives in hope based on faith in the living God. She is the Virgin of Advent: she is firmly established in the present, in the “today” of salvation. In her heart she gathers up all past promises, and encompasses the future. Let us learn from her in order to truly enter this Season of grace and to accept, with joy and responsibility, the coming of God in our personal and social lives.

Christ Healing the Sick, István Dorffmeister, 1779

Fresco, St Joseph Chapel, Balf, Hungary [Web Gallery of Art]

After the Angelus the Pope added these words for World AIDS Day, which is observed on 1 December.

The first of December is World AIDS Day. My thoughts and prayers go to every person afflicted by this illness, especially the children, the poorest and those who are rejected. The Church never ceases to do her utmost to combat AIDS, through her institutions and personnel dedicated to this mission. I urge everyone to make his/her own contribution, with prayer and practical attention, to ensure that all who are affected by the HIV virus may experience the presence of the Lord who gives comfort and hope. Lastly, by redoubling and coordinating our efforts I hope it will be possible to eradicate this disease.

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Antiphona ad introitum  Entrance Antiphon Cf Ps 24[25]:1-3

Ad te Domine levavi animam meam,

To you, I lift up my soul, O my God, 

Deus meus in te confido, non erubescam.

In you, I have trusted; let me not be put to shame. 

Neque irrideant me inimici mei. 

Nor let my enemies exult over me;

etenim universi qui te exspectant, non confundentur.

and let none who hope in you be put to shame.

Ps. Vias tuas, Domine, demonstra mihi: et semitas tuas edoce me.

Your ways, 0 Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths. 

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. 

Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Ad te Domine levavi animam meam,

To you, I lift up my soul, O my God, 

Deus meus in te confido, non erubescam.

In you, I have trusted; let me not be put to shame. 

Neque irrideant me inimici mei. 

Nor let my enemies exult over me;

etenim universi qui te exspectant, non confundentur.

and let none who hope in you be put to shame.

The text in bold is used in the Ordinary Form of the Mass. The longer text is used in the Extraordinary Form and may be used in the Ordinary Form.

Sonata K213 by Domenico Scarlatti played by Gabriel Guillén in St Joseph Chapel, Balf, Hungary, where the fresco of Christ Healing the Sick (above) is located.

‘My kingdom is not from this world.’ Sunday Reflections. Christ the King, Year B

From The Gospel of John (2003) Directed by Philip Saville. Jesus played by Henry Ian Cusick; narrator, Christopher Plummer. [John 18:33-37, today’s Gospel]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)


Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel John 18:33B-37 (New Revised Standard Version, CatholicEdition, Canada) 

Pilate said to Jesus: “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”


Christ Before Pilate, Tintoretto, 1566-67

Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice [Web Gallery of Art]


Last Saturday Pope Francis referred to the attacks in Paris the night before as ‘piece’ of the ‘Piecemeal Third World War’. In recent weeks hundreds have died because of attacks by terrorists, in Egypt, when a plane carrying mostly Russian holidaymakers returning home exploded and crashed in the Sinai Peninsula, in Beirut where more than 40 were killed by suicide bombers, 129 murdered in Paris and since then more than 40 in attacks in Nigeria, in one instance a suicide bomber reported to be a girl aged 11.

Last April 148 persons, most of the students, were murdered in an attack on Garissa University College in Kenya. Two years ago 67 people, from 13 different countries and from every continent, were killed in an attack by terrorists on a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya.

None of these incidents, all with an international dimension, reflect the values of the Kingdom of Christ the King.

But it is essential that we recognize that Kingdom where it is a reality. And it is a reality, though ‘not from this world’ but present in this world.

While editing an article by a Columban seminarian from the Philippines, Erl Dylan J. Tabaco, who is on his two-year First Mission Assignment in Peru as part of his preparation for the priesthood, I came across evidence of the reality of the Kingdom of Christ being a reality in our world, specifically in this instance in Lima.

A profoundly deaf young boy in Lima learning to speak in Manuel Duato School

Manuel Duato School was started by Columban Missionary priests more than 30 years ago to respond to the needs of the many young people among the poor of Lima with learning and other disabilities.

‘Team Duato: Two Schools, One Family’
Students in St Christopher’s School, Melbourne
The school is now twinned with St Christopher’s Primary School in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, Australia.

[Thanks to Renae Gentile and Elizabeth Moran of St Christopher’s Primary School for this video]

The Kingdom of Terrorism, the Kingdom of Satan, is international. The Kingdom of Christ is Universal. The children and teachers in Manuel Duato in Lima, Peru, and those in St Christopher’s, Airport West, Victoria, not far from the Columban central house in Australia, are building the Kingdom of Christ and at the same time growing in the values of that Kingdom.

Jesus tells us, Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs (Mark 10: 14). May we learn from the children of Manuel Duato and the children of St Christopher’s where the Kingdom of God is present among us, that Manuel Duato es Amor, ‘Manuel Duato is love’. Our broken world needs the hope and healing that Christ the King gives through such as ‘Team Duato: Two Schools, One Family’.

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This is a very special weekend for all Columban missionaries. Here in the Philippines the Reverend Kurt Zion Valdemoza Pala will be ordained to the priesthood. Among those present will be Fr Michael Cuddigan, a Columban now based in Hong Kong but who spent many years in the Philippines, who officiated at the wedding of Father Kurt’s parents. And Father Michael himself is a link with the beginning of the Columban mission in the Philippines as his uncle, also Fr Michael Cuddigan, was the very first Columban to arrive in Manila in 1929 when the Columbans took over Our Lady of Remedies Parish, Malate, Manila, where we still work. Father Kurt has spent time there as a deacon and will spend some time there as a priest before leaving for his mission in Myanmar in 2016. He has already spent two years in Fiji as a seminarian on First Mission Assignment.

Monday 23 November is the Feast of St Columban and also the 1,400th Anniversary of his death in Bobbio, northern Italy. The stamp above was issued by An Post in Ireland to mark the occasion. Australian Columban Fr Ray Scanlon reflects on a pilgrimage in the footsteps of our patron in St Columban, My Brother. Please keep all Columban missionaries in your prayers. Thank you.
Tomb of St Columban, Bobbio
 
Christi simus, non nostri – Go mba le Críost sinn agus nach linn féin – Let us be of Christ, not of ourselves (St Columban)

Responsorial Psalm [Philippines, USA]

‘My words will not pass away.’ Sunday Reflections, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

The Adoration of the Name of Jesus, El Greco, 1578-79

Chapter House, Monasterio de San Lorenzo, El Escorial, Spain [Wikipedia]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Mark 13:24-32 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

Jesus said to his disciples:

 “But in those days, after that suffering,

the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

 Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

In recent months refugees have been in the news almost daily, refugees from the Middle East and from Africa heading for Europe, Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar heading for other countries in Asia. For most of these people, many of whom have died in their efforts to find a better life, the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, are already in the past tense.

The Christians of Iraq and Syria, all of them Arabs and with 2,000 years of living the Christian faith behind them, are facing annihilation as a community because of the actions in recent years of ISIS/ISIL/IS. And the Christians of Iraq now face another blow. The Iraqi parliament recently passed a bill that would force some Christian children to become Muslims.

Kiribati

Jesus tells us in the Gospel, From the fig tree learn its lesson. He’s using a simple example from nature that everyone in Israel would have understood. In Ireland, where I’m from, when we see the daffodils in bloom we know for sure that spring is here.

The young men in the photo above and the two girls in the photo below are from Kiribati, a republic in the Pacific that consists mostly of atolls and has a population of about 100,000, more than half of them Catholics.

Kiribati

The people singing joyfully in St Theresa’s Church live on Christmas Island, Republic of Kiribati, which is different from Christmas Island, the Australian territory where many refugees are being held at present.

Fiji-based Columban Fr Frank Hoare recently visited Kiribati. He noted, Kiribati is full of children and young people as it is not unusual for couples to have ten or more children. They have a carefree energy for life.

Fr Hoare pointed out too that the leaders of the country have ‘learned its lesson from the fig tree’. The Kiribati Government bought a property of some thousands of acres from the Anglican Church in Fiji for resettlement of people in the future. The President has said that the sea will cover Kiribati by the end of this century. Government officials have asked Australia and New Zealand to accept Kiribati people as permanent refugees. So global warming is not a matter of inconvenience and of changed conditions for the I Kiribati people. It is a matter of losing their homeland and being cast adrift to find shelter in different foreign countries. This would threaten the survival of their culture. This is one example of those causing least damage to the environment being made to suffer most because if it. 

The leaders’ fears are not without reason. The country is at sea-level, with no hills. The Guardian (London) carries a report as I write this on 13 November 2015, Collapsing Greenland glacier could raise sea levels by half a metre, say scientists. This could well mean that the children of the young people of Kiribati in the photos above will be born elsewhere, their homeland no longer existing.

The Christians of Iraq and Syria and the people of Kiribati will have many descendants but they will almost certainly be living in other countries. And like some of the churches in Syria and Iraq where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass had been celebrated for centuries, in some cases nearly as far back as the time of the Apostles, St Therese’s Church on Christmas Island, Kiribati, will have no celebration of the birth of Christ, the feast that gave its name to the island, of his Resurrection, of Pentecost. There won’t be any people around.

And there are the daily tragedies where for individuals the sun is darkened and the moon no longer gives its light.

Aleppo, Syria

The two girls in the photo in Kiribati are probably unaware of what may face them in the future. But the two girls in Aleppo know the experience of war and terror. Yet the parish priest of the Latin Catholic Parish of St Francis in Aleppo, Fr Ibrahim Alsabagh OFM, sees hope and finds Christians and Muslims Encountering God while waiting in line for a bucket of water.

Speaking at a meeting in Rimini, Italy, the Damascus-born Franciscan friar says, I am here to share the joy of the faith. He tells the people at the meeting, We are living in chaos and we are lacking everything. Alongside the real problem of security – his neighbourhood is controlled by the Syrian government but the Caliphate troops are just a short distance away – there is also the difficulty of getting hold of things due to rising costs and the scarcity of resources. But whenever a need is satisfied, we appreciate it more, even something as simple as a glass of water.

Father Ibrahim tells a story that reminds one of Jesus meeting the woman at the well – the parish happens to have a well. People queue for hours but despite this, nothing happens. Just cheery and smiling people waiting their turn. A Muslim approached me and whispered in my ear: ‘This is very strange, there is something great here among you. When I walk around the city, I see people fighting, almost killing each other over a bucket of water. But here it’s different.’ Speaking to everyone about Christ is difficult in the context in which we live. But it is through these small gestures of peace of heartfelt joy, of patience and humility that we manage to say so much to those who thirst for something great. A faith that is communicated not with grandiose speeches but simply by using the method Jesus taught us: ‘Come, follow me’.

This is the greatest wish of Father Ibrahim: We don’t know when it will all end, but it doesn’t matter when and how it will end. The important thing is to bear witness to Christ, only then will the political and humanitarian solution come. Bearing testimony to the Christian life by loving, forgiving and taking also into consideration the salvation of those who harm us.

Jesus tells us today, My words will not pass away. They live in the hearts of persons such as Father Ibrahim, in the hearts of the leaders of Kiribati, in the hearts of the young girls and the young men in Kiribati, in the hearts of the young girls in the midst of suffering Aleppo who live in the hope that there is something better.

May the words of Jesus live in the heart of each of us.

Antiphona ad Introitum

Entrance Antiphon  Jeremiah 39: 11, 12, 14

Dicit Dóminus: 

The Lord said:

Ego cógito cogitatiónes pacis, et non afflictiónis:

I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. 

invocábitis me, et ego exáudiam vos: 

You will call upon me, and I will answer you,

et redúcam captivitátem vestram de cunctis locis.

and I will lead back your captives from every place.

Vs. Benedixísti, Dómine, terram tuam: avertísti captivitátem Jacob.

You have favored, 0 Lord, your land; you have restored the well-being of Jacob.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto;

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;

et nunc, et semper et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

as it was, is now and will be for ever. Amen

The Lord said:

Ego cógito cogitatiónes pacis, et non afflictiónis:

I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction.

invocábitis me, et ego exáudiam vos: 

You will call upon me, and I will answer you,

et redúcam captivitátem vestram de cunctis locis.

and I will lead back your captives from every place.

The text in bold is used in the Mass in the Ordinary Form while the longer version is used in the Extraordinary Form, though it may also be used in the Ordinary form.

‘But she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’ Sunday Reflections, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) 

Gospel Mark 12:38-44 [or 12:41-44] (New Revised Standard Version, CatholicEdition, Canada) 

[As Jesus taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”]

Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums.  A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.  Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Head of a Peasant Woman with Greenish Lace Cap, Van Gogh, 1885

Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, Netherlands [Web Gallery of Art]

There are moments that remain a grace from God for a person for the rest of his life, moments when he was simply an observer rather than a participant. One such moment for me happened one night about forty years ago in Ozamiz City, Mindanao. It was quite late and I was looking out through an upstairs window in the convento (presbytery/rectory) of the Cathedral. As we say in Ireland, ‘there wasn’t a sinner’ on the cathedral plaza except for two persons. One was a man, a beggar maybe in his 30s. The other was Gregoria, known to everyone as ‘Guria’, a ‘simple’ woman and very gentle who would often wander in an out of classrooms in schools, doodle on the board and leave without having distracted anyone.

I noticed Guria, who was perhaps in her 40s, approach the man. She had two small pieces of bread, what we call pandesal here in the Philippines. She gave one to the beggar, just like St Martin of Tours when still a  soldier cutting his ample cloak in two and giving one half to a beggar. (St Martin’s feast day is on Wednesday 11 November.)

St Martin of Tours and the Beggar, El Greco, 1597-99

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC [Wikipedia]

What Guria did was pure, unselfish love. And yet she was probably unaware of this and certainly totally unaware of the fact that someone was observing her. She did not have a strong gift of reflection whereas God has given this to me and to most of us. But we don’t always use that gift.

St Mark tells us, Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. And he saw ‘Guria’ there. Perhaps she looked like the Dutch peasant woman in Van Gogh’s painting above. But it would seem that his disciples hadn’t observed her until Jesus drew their attention to her.

It is said that St Martin, after he had shared his cloak with the beggar, saw Jesus in a dream wearing that half-cloak. The reality is that Christ shows himself frequently to us, if we have eyes to see, as he showed himself to me through Guria 40 years ago, and on many other similar occasions down the years.

A bronze mite, Judea, 1st century BC [Wikipedia]

In the video below is the story of Kesz Váldez, from Cavite City, near Manila, who when still a ‘mite’ from a very impoverished background shared what he had, his ‘widow’s mite’, with other children on his seventh birthday, the first he had ever celebrated. He received the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2012.

 

‘Rejoice and be glad . . .’ Sunday Reflections, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day

The Coronation of the Virgin, Fra Angelico, 1434-35

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) 

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) 

Gospel Matthew 5:1-12a (New Revised Standard Version, CatholicEdition, Canada) 

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”

 

Dublin buses [Wikipedia]

When I go home to my native Dublin I use public transport all the time. I often find God’s presence in in those around me, passengers and drivers. So does Columban Sr Mary Nolan, now based in Dublin, who worked for many years in Peru and also served a term as Congregational Leader of the Missionary Sisters of St Columban. Hereshe shares such a moment on the 150 bus – and by chance Wikipedia has a photo of a 150 bus!

Coming from the city on the 150 bus recently I shared a seat with a woman whom I had never met before. Her name is Breda.  She told me she has been a widow for the past 29 years; her Dad suffers from Alzheimer’s and her Mom cares for him down in their home near Carlow.  Breda’s daughter Ashling was 11 years old when her father died.  There was another little girl four years younger who died of hepatitis at 7 months.  Ashling was traumatized but gradually came through it and did well at her studies.  She is a churchgoer, and a turning point for her was when she attended YOUTH 2000.  At that youth celebration Ashling met her future husband, a young man who is spina bifida.  They’re happily married since last year.

By the time I had heard that story my bus had arrived at St Agnes’ Road, where our convent is, and it was time to part from Breda.  I was amazed that such a happy faith-filled woman could have come through so much suffering.

The Solemnity of All Saints celebrates the countless saints whom the Church has never canonized and never will, people who have gone before us who in their lifetime, like Breda on the 150 bus in Dublin, accepted whatever life brought, sadness and joy, believing in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for them and in doing so being an inspiration to those around them.

I think that Ashling, Breda’s daughter, attended one of the four-day faith festivals organised each summer by YOUTH 2000. The video above is a promo for this year’s.

Songs for All Saints’ Day

Here is a rousing version of For All the Saints, words by Anglican Bishop William Walsham How and music by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The video is taken from an edition of the BBC’s weekly progamme Songs of Praise, which has been running since 1961.

A poem for All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days

Lochearnhead and Glen Ogle, Scotland [Wikipedia]

I don’t know much about the faith of Scottish poet Norman MacCaig (1910 – 1996). Wikipedia tells us that he described it as ‘Zen Calvinism’ – ‘a comment typical of his half-humorous, half-serious approach to life’.

A favourite poem of mine is Country Postman. It expresses for me something of the reality of the Communion of Saints that we celebrate and remember in a special way on these two days. I’ve no idea if Norman MacCaig was thinking of the Communion of Saints when he wrote it. But it captures something of what holds us all together as a community. With email, Facebook and all the ways of communicating in ‘this digital continent’, as Pope Benedict calls it, perhaps the role of the postman has changed, though he is still vital in rural communities, not only to deliver the mail but to keep an eye on older persons living on their own, some of whom perhaps are reclusive but who still welcome him.

The poem too catches something of the fragility in all of us, especially in those who serve the broader community quietly and generously for so many years. And could Jesus, who turned water into wine at a wedding for people like those whom this mail deliverer served, turn away this poor man who died after probably celebrating a little too much?

It is persons such as MacCaig’s Country Postman whom we remember on All Souls’ Day and it is our prayers that help them move from being numbered among All Souls to being numbered among All Saints.

Country Postman

Before he was drowned, 

his drunk body bumping down the shallows 

of the Ogle Burn, he had walked 

fifteen miles every day 

bringing celebrations and disasters 

and what lies between them to

MacLarens and MacGregors 

and Mackenzies.

 

Now he has no news to bring 

of celebrations or disasters, 

although, after one short journey, 

he has reached 

all the clans in the world.

 

[‘Burn’ here means ‘creek’.]

 

Columban Fr Patrick Crowley RIP

Fr Patrick J. Crowley 

(1926-2015)

Fr Patrick (Pat) J. Crowley died suddenly on 25 October, 2015, in St Columban’s Nursing Home, Dalgan Park, Navan, Ireland. Born inCaheragh Parish (Diocese of Cork and Ross), County Cork, on 18 March 1926, he was educated in Dromore National School,  Bantry, and St Colman’s College, Fermoy, County Cork. He joined the Columbans  in Dalgan Park in 1945, was ordained priest on 21 December 1951, and was assigned to Japan.

River Blackwater, Fermoy [Wikipedia]

He soon became Bursar for the Region of Japan and after a term of seven years, he took on the same task in Whitby, England. There followed appointments  as Bursar  in Australia (Essendon and Perth) in 1963, and later in Wellington, New Zealand, before he was reassigned to Britain where he became District Superior in 1972. As he put it himself: ‘it was a case of out of the frying pan into another frying pan’.  Finishing that term in 1979  he became Manager of the Mission Office in Ireland, where he computerised the office systems, before being appointed as Director of the Irish Region in 1983 for a term of four years.

Wellington, New Zealand [Wikipedia]

He was appointed General Secretary to the Central Administration of the Society in 1987, and continued working with the General Council for over twenty years, accepting the jobs of Society Archivist and History Coordinator as well.  It was only occasionally that his dedicated and painstaking work could be seen and admired.  In his annual publication of the Society Personnel Directory he tried to keep up with all the personnel changes  across the world.  But it was his bi-annual updating of Those who Journeyed with Us, where he managed to assemble profiles and photos of the more than seven hundred deceased Columbans, that really reflected his many years of determined effort.

St Columban’s Cemetery, Dalgan Park

This is Fr Pat Crowley’s final resting place as it is of so many others whom he lovingly honoured in Those Who Journeyed With Us, the book of obituaries of deceased Columbans, many editions of which he compiled and edited.

After the General Council left Dublin for Hong Kong in 1988, Father Pat remained on to manage the house in Donaghmede, Dublin,  until ill health obliged him to enter the Nursing Home in Dalgan in June 2012. Father Pat left us with memories of  a caring missionary, a quiet-spoken, discrete man with a deadpan sense of humour who served others without thought of reward or recognition.

May he rest in peace.

Bantry Bay sung by John McCormack

‘Some are gone upon their last logged homing,
Some are left, but they are old and gray,
And we’re waiting for the tide in the gloaming,
To sail upon the Great Highway,
To the land of rest unending,
All peacefully from Bantry Bay.’

This song about the people and the place where Father Pat grew up was written by James Molloy. The photo used in the video is by Pam Brophy and taken from Wikipedia. Thanks to Frs Noel Daly and Cyril Lovett for the text of the obituary.

Columban Fr Oliver C. Kennedy RIP

Fr Oliver Canice Kennedy

(1922 – 2015)

Fr Oliver Kennedy was born in Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland, on 3 November 1922, the year the Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland, separated from the United Kingdom as an independent state. He was educated at St Brendans National School, Loughrea, and St Josephʼs College, Ballinasloe, County Galway. In 1941, he was a member of the first class to be admitted to the new Dalgan Park at St Columbanʼs, Navan, County Meath. He was ordained priest on 21 December 1947.

St Brendan’s Cathedral, Loughrea, Diocese of Clonfert [Wikipedia]

His first appointment, in 1948, was to Burma, but because of the difficulties in obtaining a visa he was subsequently appointed to Korea. He was to spend the next twenty years there, working in the

Kwangju area as pastor of Koksung and later of Posong, before becoming director of Catholic Relief Services in Kwangju.

Flag of South Korea [Wikipedia]

In 1989 he was appointed to the General Mission Office in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He spent almost twenty years there in various roles. Affable and hard-working, he enjoyed good relationships with all the office staff.

Montego Bay. Jamaica [Wikipedia]

The Columbans worked for some years in the Diocese of Montego Bay.

Then, in 1986 he was appointed as a member of the pioneer Columban team to Jamaica. Jamaica was characterised by high levels of violence, and by a lack of family life values, due in large part to the suffering in slavery of so many of the early inhabitants. After seven years working there, Father Oliverʼs health demanded that he be reassigned to the USA. There he worked once again, for as long as he was able, in the Omaha Mission Office.

St Columban’s, Dalgan Park

Father Oliver was in the first group of Irish Columban seminarians to start their studies in this, the ‘New Dalgan’, when it was opened in 1941. The ‘Old Dalgan’ in Shrule ahd served as our seminary in Ireland from 1918 until 1941. He studied here for seven years and spent the last two years of his life in the nursing home here.

He was admitted to the Dalgan Nursing Home in June 2013. His last two years were difficult, but he was treated with immense kindness and patience by all the members of the Nursing Home staff. May he rest in peace.

St Columban’s Cemetery, Dalgan Park

Father Oliver’s brother Joseph, also a Columban priest, is buried here too. He was ordained in 1942 and worked on mission in China, Japan, Britain and Peru. He died on 18 February 1997. The light of heaven on both of them.

‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Sunday Reflections, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Christ Healing the Blind, Nicolas Colombel, 1682

Art Museum, St Louis, Missouri, USA [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Mark 10:46-52 (New Revised Standard Version, CatholicEdition, Canada) 

They came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.  Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

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Fr John Burger is an American Columban served as a member of the Columban General Council from 2006 until 2012. He spent the early years of his priesthood in Japan and tells a wonderful story about a blind man who was a member of a prayer group in a parish where he served. Each week the group met to share on the following Sunday’s gospel and to pray. Father John was a little nervous when this Sunday’s gospel came up, wondering how his blind friend would respond.
He and the others were astonished when the man shared that this was one of his favourite passages in the gospels. Why? Because Jesus asked Bartimaeus, What do you want me to do for you? The blind parishioner went on to say that he was quite happy as he was. He had his own apartment and he knew his way around. But if the Lord were to ask him directly, What do you want me to do for you? He would tell him that there were parts of his life where he would like Jesus to shed his light, even though he would hesitate to ask him to do so.
 Probably the blind Japanese man had experienced people, with every good intention, wanting to help him when he needed no help. On a pilgrimage to Lourdes in Easter Week 1991 with a group of persons with physical disabilities I shared a room with our leader, Joe, able-bodied, like myself, and Tony and Tom who weren’t. Both needed help in some very personal matters. However, I learned very quickly from Tom not to do something for him when he could do it himself. That was a very good lesson for me.
Jesus didn’t presume that Bartimaeus wanted his sight back. He asked him, What do you want me to do for you? The blind man, who had shouted Jesus, Son of David, a title indicating he was the Messiah, answered, My teacher, let me see again.
Do I allow Jesus to ask me, What do you want me to do for you? And if I allow him do I have the faith of Bartimaeus to tell him what I want him to do for me? Jesus responded to the faith of the blind man: Go; your faith has made you well. And the blind beggar’s response to this was a further expression of his faith: And immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
On 11 October 2012 in his homily at the Mass marking the opening of the Year of Faith and the 5oth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council Pope Benedict said, The Year of Faith which we launch today is linked harmoniously with the Church’s whole path over the last fifty years: from the Council, through the Magisterium of the Servant of God Paul VI, who proclaimed a Year of Faith in 1967, up to the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, with which Blessed John Paul II re-proposed to all humanity Jesus Christ as the one Saviour, yesterday, today and forever. Between these two Popes, Paul VI and John Paul II, there was a deep and profound convergence, precisely upon Christ as the centre of the cosmos and of history, and upon the apostolic eagerness to announce him to the world. Jesus is the centre of the Christian faith. The Christian believes in God whose face was revealed by Jesus Christ. He is the fulfilment of the Scriptures and their definitive interpreter. Jesus Christ is not only the object of the faith but, as it says in the Letter to the Hebrews, he is “the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith” (12:2).
Bartimaeus seemed to have grasped something of this, calling Jesus by a Messianic title, Son of David, putting his faith in him and following him on the way.

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Father Cyril Axelrod CSsR  is the only deaf-blind priest in the world. He was born profoundly deaf but became blind more than thirteen years ago from Usher Syndrome. He ministers to people who are deafblind and to people who are deaf. You can read about himhere. In this video Father Cyril speaks to seminarians.

When I was in secondary school we studied some of the poetry of John Milton, most of which I disliked. But his sonnet On His Blindness was an exception.

‘Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant.’ Sunday Reflections, 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. First Columban Centenarian.

Call of the Sons of Zebedee, Marco Basaiti, 1510
Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Mark 10:35-45 (New Revised Standard Version, CatholicEdition, Canada) 

 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?”  And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Christ in the Carpenter’s Shop, Georges de la Tour, 1645

Musée du Louvre, Paris [Web Gallery of Art] 

In May 2008 I unexpectedly received an email from Michael in Australia whom I hadn’t met or heard from since the summer of 1967 when we were working together on a building (construction) site in Dublin. I had just been ordained subdeacon and was to be ordained priest in December of that year. The general foreman on the site was my father.

In a later email Michael said, Your father was a great role model for me to try and emulate. I remember the first job that I met your father on, as he was the general foreman. It was the first job for me as a journeyman carpenter and it was a pleasant experience coming to work with such a pleasant gentleman giving the instructions.

My father, a week before his sudden death in 1987

I wasn’t at all surprised at Michael’s words as I had heard others who had worked with my father, John, say similar things. And when I worked under him myself that summer I could see what I had known before: he led by example. He never swore, never shouted at anyone and was most helpful to young workers and to young architects. He sometimes would laugh at home at the lack of experience of the latter in practical matter. But he also knew that you can only learn through experience – and with the help of mentors. And he was a real mentor to the same young architects.

Many times before I took an important examination or was about to do something for the first time Dad would say, The experience will be good for you. There was never the hint of a demanding expectation. And I have found his words to have been true.

But I often heard him speak with gratitude, respect and affection of general foremen under whom he had worked as an apprentice and as a young carpenter. One was Mr Grace, whom I never met. Two of his sons became Capuchin priests and two of his daughters religious sisters. Another was Mr Boyle, whom I did know and who with his wife in their old age were a handsome couple.

Dad was the same at home as he was on the construction site. He never raised his voice to his two sons or to our mother. He was courteous with everyone he met and was just himself in every situation.

His authority came from within. He was responsible and loving in everything he did. Every morning, after returning from a very early Mass, he prepared my mother’s breakfast before heading for work. He started work on time and ended on time. But he wasn’t a slave to the clock.

Jean Vanier, right, with John| Smeltzer

L’Arche Daybreak Community, Toronto, 2008 [Wikipedia]

The men who have most influenced me and whom I have most admired are men who are gentle but strong, firm and responsible. One example is Jean Vanier, under whom I have twice made retreats here in the Philippines, in Cebu City in 1991 and in Quezon City in 1996. Now 87, he is the founder of L’Arche and, with Marie-Hélène Mathieu, co-founder of Faith and Light. Jean gave up a career as a university professor of philosophy to devote his life to persons with learning disabilities. He leads by example, showing the deepest respect to those considered unimportant, gentle but firm.

When I was 16 and still at school I spent nearly a year as a member of Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil (Local Defence Force), known as the FCA and now called the Irish Army Reserve. We used to train on Sundays. There was one particular corporal, just a few years older than us, who used to roar at us continually with a wide range of unoriginal swear words. Nobody respected him. We had a sergeant whose strongest expression was ‘damn’, which is considered a very mild expletive in English. He got both our respect and our cooperation. He had a sense of rightful pride in what he and we were doing.

Men like my father, Jean Vanier and my sergeant in the FCA are men in whose lives I have seen the words of Jesus in today’s gospel lived out: You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them . . . but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant. . .

Happy Bday, Fr Bernard Toal, 2015

First Columban Centenarian

Fr Bernard Toal, born 15 October 1915

Fr Bernard Toal, the first Columban to reach the age of 100, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, on 17 october 1915 but grew up in nearby Gloucester, New Jersey. He was ordained in Buffalo, New York, on 18 December 1943. Because of World War II he spent the early years of his priesthood in the USA.

From 1947 to 1951 he was based in Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental, Philippines where he taught in Immaculate Conception College, now La Salle University Ozamiz. From 1951 until 1969 he was in St Columban’s, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, most of that time as Director of Probationers, Columban seminarians on a year of intense spiritual formation.

Fr Toal worked in Peru from 1968 till 1979 when he was reassigned to the USA where he worked in parishes in New Mexico, Texas and California, the last being St Mary’s, Fontana, California, where he worked from 2001 until he retired to St Columban’s,Bristol, RI, in 2011.

We thank God for Father Bernard’s long life and for his faithful service as a Columban missionary priest. Ad multos annos!

Fr Toal, right, on 29 September 2015