QUIET NOW! BE CALM!: ADDRESSING THE STORMS IN OUR LIVES – Eamonn Monson SAC

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Gospel of Mark 4:35-41

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Fifteen years ago my aunty Peggy died in England and according to her wish she was cremated and her ashes were posted home to my mother who kept the little box on a small table in the sitting room, covered with a white cloth with a candle lighting in front of it. Peggy’s remains rested there until we brought her to be buried in Aran as was her desire.

It was a blustery day when we set out on the ferry for Aran. Most people went below deck to take shelter from the weather but I stayed up on deck with my young cousin Sarah. I’ve learnt that it’s better to remain up on deck especially when the sea is rough. And it got very rough indeed with waves crashing over the top of the boat but I was in a safe position and had a firm grip on the steel bar of a seat.

What I experience on the sea in a storm is an overwhelming sense of the love of God, the majesty of who God is, even the fearsomeness of who God is; a reality that deserves the greatest respect; a reality that I find to be incredibly liberating. It is in such moments that I feel most fully alive.

At one stage in the crossing a large wave struck the right hand side of the boat, causing her to tilt dangerously to one side, but I knew she wasn’t going to keep tilting, that she wasn’t sinking. However, what the people down below saw was water rising up to cover the windows and in their sight the boat had turned over on her side and was about to sink. When the boat returned to a relatively even keel I went down to check on my mother and she was white as a sheet with the fright.

We all experience terrible storms in our lives and sometimes it is necessary to shelter from the storms but sometimes also it is necessary for us to stand up in the midst of the storm, to face it and experience what it is doing to us, and to try to find the mystery of God’s presence in the storms that we experience.

Throughout the storms that I have experienced in my life – one of the worst being the terrible storm of grief when the one I loved so much is taken in death – what I have found is that the strongest thing I can hold onto, the thing that keeps me secure is not a thing but the person of Jesus himself. Most often I’m not able to pray during the storms of life except to call out the name of Jesus and the name of Jesus is very powerful, especially when we have nothing else to cling to and it is good for us to call out the name of Jesus as a prayer because there, in Him, is the fullness of God’s presence, the fullness of God’s power.

We all know the experience of the apostles in the boat – there is Jesus sound asleep in the middle of this terrible ordeal and our experience often is that God is very silent and seems to be asleep when we are going through very difficult times. It is important that we cry out and that we rouse Him by our need and by our faith.

The name of Jesus is a very powerful name. What He does in the gospel today He ultimately does in our lives. He stands up and He speaks His Word to the storm and the turmoil and He says these beautiful words, “Quiet now! Be calm!” These words I have also found to be very helpful in my ordeals, allowing Jesus to speak them over the seemingly endless trouble of life, to let these words sink into my heart and into my soul.

We think these days of the parents of the young people who died in the Berkeley tragedy, the parents of Lorcán Miller and the terrible storm that has been unleashed in their lives. The parents of Patrick Kevin Pierce know what this storm is like – Patrick Kevin died 10 years ago on this day aged 22. We hold all of these parents in prayer and it is important that we as a community hold them because when the storm breaks people have nothing to hold onto very often, so I would like today that we would say the prayer on their behalf, hold them here in prayer, that the word of Jesus would be spoken over their grief; that they would find in Him eventually the calm, the peace and the consolation they need.

If you wouldn’t mind now closing your eyes and we’ll enter into that silent space within ourselves and, first of all, if you are experiencing any storm, just let Jesus speak those words to your trouble, “Quiet now! Be calm!” And for all the grieving parents we ask Jesus to speak that same word over their grief, into their hearts, “Quiet now! Be calm!” Let those words be in every breath we take and let them fill us to the very depths of our being. And finally we pray these words over all of our fathers on this Fathers Day and especially fathers who are experiencing any turmoil, that they too may hear the word of Jesus, “Quiet now! Be calm!”

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit!

Eamonn Monson sac

 http://www.churchservices.tv/shankill/recorded/MoOZXwzNyz

FAITH WORKING THROUGH LOVE – Fr. Eugène Niyonzima, SAC

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 What counts above all is “faith working through love” (Ga 5:6)

Spiritual preparation for the General Congress of the Union in July 2015

In the context of preparing for the General Congress of the Union in July 2015, a series of reflections have been shared through the monthly publication, Apostles for Today. In a particular way, the reflections from April and May spoke, respectively, of the importance of peace and dialogue, and of the spiritual motivations for mission. We would like to follow on from these by adding something regarding the biblical truth that what counts above all – in all of our apostolic and missionary commitments – is “faith working through love” (Ga 5, 6). In other words, we are called to remain faithful to the inseparability of faith and love, as the Church teaches us and as our Founder St. Vincent Pallotti urge us. Undoubtedly, this will facilitate in various ways the realisation of the identity and mission of the Union of Catholic Apostolate.

  1. The privileged place of faith working through love

As Pope Francis remarked in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (37), “Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that the Church’s moral teaching has its own “hierarchy”, in the virtues and in the acts which proceed from them”. Here, the Pope emphasised, “what counts above all else is “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6). Works of love directed to one’s neighbour are the most perfect external manifestation of the interior grace of the Spirit: “The foundation of the New Law is in the grace of the Holy Spirit, who is manifested in the faith which works through love”.[1]

It is worth mentioning that, thanks to faith working through love, believers enter a new phase of their existence, a new life modelled on the radical novelty of the Resurrection. To the extent that they open themselves, thereby their thoughts and feelings, their mentality and their entire behaviour are slowly purified and transformed on a path never completely finished in this life. In other words, “faith working through love” from this time onwards becomes a new criterion of understanding and action that changes a person’s entire life.[2]

  1. The inseparability of faith and love

The fact that faith working through love enjoys a privileged place in the “hierarchy of virtues and the acts deriving from it” makes these two Christian virtues always inseparable. For Pope Benedict XVI, there is a strong relationship ” between believing in God – the God of Jesus Christ – and love, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and which guides us on the path of devotion to God and others.[3] When we have been conquered by the love of Christ and therefore, moved by this love – “caritas Christi urget us”[4] – when we are conscious of being loved, forgiven, and even served by the Lord, who bends down to wash the Apostles’ feet and offers himself on the cross to draw humanity into God’s love, we become open in a concrete and profound way to love of our neighbour.[5]

  1. Faith and love: two inseparable realities in the life of Pallotti

In the spiritual writings of Pallotti, observed Jan Kupka, it emerges clearly that he had a stable reference point in his personal life: to live faith in daily life and to believe without reservation the teaching of the Church.[6] Moreover, Pallotti lived faith in terms of a vow as evidenced by this excerpt from his writings: “I vow to believe in the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin, and all articles of faith; not only do I believe them, since I must do so as a Christian duty, but I also intend to make a vow to believe them”.[7] However, Pallotti was not content simply to live his faith deeply in daily life. With joy, he also proclaimed the truths of faith and bore witness to the love of God for all people. In other words, for him, faith, as lived and/or proclaimed, and love always went hand in hand, were two inseparable realities. This inseparability of faith and love is likewise maintained in his foundation, the Union of Catholic Apostolate, in that it has the task of reviving faith and rekindling love in the Church and in the world.[8]

  1. The importance of faithfulness to faith working through love in the life and mission of the Union

To conclude this reflection, it must be emphasised that faith working through love is of paramount importance to the life and mission of the Union. Indeed, if the Union is defined as “a communion of the faithful who, […] promote the co-responsibility of all the baptized to revive faith and rekindle charity in the Church and in the world”,9 then the inseparability of these two realities in daily life will allow its members to make concrete the spiritual heritage of Saint Vincent Pallotti. Its mission will become strongly credible, because “faith working through love” will become, in all of its dimensions, a contagious testimony to the world, offering each person the possibility of encountering Christ and, in his or her turn, of becoming an evangeliser.10

  1. Let us pray to the Lord:

 Lord God, when we revive and spread faith and love,

we become participants in the redemptive

mission and work of your Son, Jesus Christ.

You send us as labourers in your harvest; for this reason,

no work should seem too hard for us, no effort too tiring.

Send your Holy Spirit, Lord, to enkindle our faith

and strengthen us by his power.

Give us the courage to take up our work faithfully each day.

May our failures not discourage us.

Teach us instead to receive from you all that we lack.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Amen.

 

                                                            Fr. Eugène Niyonzima, SAC

                                                             National Formation Promoter,

                                                             Rwanda/DR Congo.

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9 Id.

10 Cf. The Synod of Bishops on “the New Evangelisation for the transmission of the Christian faith” (October 7-28, 2012), Proposition,41.

 

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Segretariato Generale, Unione dell’Apostolato Cattolico

Piazza San Vincenzo Pallotti 204, Roma, Italia uac@uniopal.org

[1] POPE FRANCIS, EG, 37, referring to S. Th. I-II, q. 66, a. 4-6.

[2] Cf. POPE BENEDICT XVI, Porta fidei, 6.

[3]  Cf. Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for Lent 2013. Referring to: Rm 12: 2; Col 3: 9-10; Ep 4: 20-29; 2 Co 5: 17.

[4]  2Co 5: 14.

[5] Cf. Deus Caritas Est, 33.

[6] Cf. J. KUPKA, “Anno della fede 2012-2013: Riscoprire la gioia nel credere e ritrovare l’entusiasmo nel comunicare la fede” (The Year of Faith: Rediscover the joy of believing and once more find enthusiasm in communicating faith”), pp. 12-16.

[7] OOCC X, p. 262.

[8] GSt, 1.

My Relationship with God: A Theological Reflection – Charles Lafferty sac

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Scripture Passage:     John 21: 1 – 19. 

            After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberius; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

            When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

A Theological Reflection on My Relationship with God

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            When I was wondering what passage of scripture to use for this Theological Reflection, this passage from John 21 came to mind as it is one of my favourite pieces of scripture to pray with – but I kept asking myself if this was a suitable text to describe my relationship with God. After this initial moment of doubting, it soon became apparent that this text is appropriate for so many reasons. I would say that my family upbringing was very much centred on a life of faith and I see this shown indirectly from this passage by the fact that we know that the apostles have spent three years or so with Jesus. However, when the grief and disappointment of the Crucifixion of Jesus settles down, the disciples go back to what they are used. It is in the desolation and quietness of Tiberius that perhaps they question what has happened, what does it mean for the present or even for the future. Similarly, when I was at university, away from the comfort of a strong faith setting of a family, surrounded by the allures of university life, which whilst it may have been fun and entertaining, was not ultimately not fulfilling. The important aspect for me is that Peter sets out to go fishing but is joined by those who shared his journey with Jesus. It has been easier for me to acknowledge the presence of God when among my family and friends of faith and also in quiet surroundings that the night of fishing for the apostles would provide – although this is how I have imagined this scene when praying with it.

            The first awareness that I can relate to in my relationship with God is the first interaction between Jesus and the disciples – he calls them children which makes me realise how intimate I should be with God. There is an air of mystery over who this man may be, as if a mist prevents me from recognising God in my life. This is unfolded for me when I can accept that God comes to me in many and different forms – in the caring neighbour to the disgruntled stranger. My relationship calls for a deep trust – I see this is reflected in that there would be no apparent reason for the apostles to cast the net out after a night of not catching anything but with trust can come a marvellous result.

            It is when Jesus is recognised that can lead unto a deeper understanding of my relationship with God. It is the beloved disciple who declares that it is the Lord, yet it is Peter who is spontaneous in his response to going to meet Jesus whereby he jumps into the water. For me, there are times when I wish to respond with my whole heart to the presence of God in my life. Yet there are also times when perhaps I am more sedate and I trust that I will get to be with God and know him more if I allow myself to proceed at a slower pace and not to be in a rush. It is also reflective of the point that sometimes I try to go and know God on my own – this leads me to journey through waters that have a greater risk, as Peter did. The other way is whereby I am in the boat as the beloved disciple was with the rest of the apostles. There is security and safety in numbers with the added comfort of being in the boat which is a great symbol for the Church. It is in the Church that I am able to strengthen my relationship with God.

            Before Peter leaves the boat, there is the disclosure that Peter clothes himself as was naked and then jumps into the water. For me this points to the fact that sometimes I may be embarrassed by my nakedness before God; whereas the truth is that God accepts me in whatever way I come to him – this can be and has been a strain for me to cope with. The next insight I can give is that my relationship with God is not a one off event – it is something that is ongoing with some of the same things but also with some different aspects. I say this because when I think of Jesus standing by the charcoal fire and Peter comes to see him I am reminded of Peter standing at the fire where he disowns Jesus. In the good and the bad events of life, God is always there, bringing the warmth and comfort of the fire.

            A powerful message for me after this is when Jesus asks the apostles to bring some of the fish they have caught, even though he already has fish on the fire. This speaks to me that in my relationship with God it is a two way process. Although all that I have has been given to me by God, he still beckons me to use my gifts in life along with those that others may bring to any given experience. It is very much a moment where God seeks to empower me with confidence in my own abilities. The end of this scripture passage sees the community gathered around the fire, eating bread and fish together. This, for me, speaks of the importance of community and communal celebration in my relationship with God. It is in these environments that we are comfortable in our relationships with God for we need not or dare not ask who brings us together for we know it to be the Lord.

            For me then, this passage leaves me with a strong appreciation for my relationship with God – I am able to identify with God in so many ways and this may be due to my continuing questioning of what I am faced with, especially if the mist descends. For me though, it is important that I can relate to God in so many ways as it means then that I can be open to relating to people in different ways. I would have a deep love and reverence for Eucharistic Adoration but I am also aware of my strong links with my father and this gives me an insight into my connection with God the Father. I also am very prone to reflection over the many questions and this can give rise then to looking for the action of the Holy Spirit in my life and sometimes this means the most to me in times of difficulty or confusion. It is through all of this then that I can hear the words of St Vincent resound: “Help me to use your gifts and improve myself so as to become totally, your living image: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, an image of your infinite qualities and perfection” (OOCC X 749 – in Pallottine prayer book, p.37)

A VOICE THAT NEEDS TO BE HEARD – Fr. Emmet O’Hara sac

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While I was a seminarian in Rome I often went over to St. Peter’s Square to the Papal Audiences on Wednesday morning or to the Angelus on Sunday. I was often struck by the vast crowds of people who came from different countries to pray, to listen and to receive a blessing from St. John Paul II. Often I would walk around to look for the best vantage point to see him. As I walked around what struck me most was all the different languages they were all speaking, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, French and English. People of faith coming together from different continents; men and women, young and old, black and white were coming together to pray and to be blessed.

Language is the means of communication and today we come to this place of prayer, ‘Our Lady’s Shrine in Knock’ to communicate and consecrate our love to Mary and her Son Jesus on this the Feast Day of Our Lady Queen of Apostles.  In our 2nd reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, the 1st Pentecost took place, as they gathered in prayer there was no unifying language. Just the opposite, the Holy Spirit came to rest on the head of each of them, the Apostles, Our Blessed Mother and the other women and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech. They all left that upper room with a renewed confidence to go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit gave them the confidence to witness. In our readings over the last few weeks for Easter we heard about how the confidence was taken away from them when they saw to their pain and horror the death of their friend, the one they loved die on the cross. After his death they were left unsure, fear had gripped them and anxiety had set in, even though Jesus promised them the gift of the Holy Spirit. His rising from the dead gave them new hope and gradually Jesus re-introduced himself back into their lives.

He returned to take away their worries and fears, he gave them signs, he showed them his hands and feet and his wounded side. He breathed His Spirit upon them, gave them the gift of peace, opened the scriptures to them, broke bread with them, he surprised them, he forgave them, he gave them hope and promised them the gift of the Holy Spirit. They might have let Him down by turning their back on Him, but he didn’t turn his back on them he fulfilled His promise, the mandate that was given to Him by the Father.

knock6On our Christian journey we too can find ourselves in the same boat as the disciples, we too at times can feel hopeless, despairing about certain things within the church and in society – that is natural for the times we are living in. There is a crisis of FAITH. Over the last few years certain sections in the Irish media have tried to undermine our Catholic Faith. They try to distort and ridicule the teachings of Christ and His Church. We have to claim that back and there is evidence of that out there. We have a voice and a language that needs to be heard and there are people out there that need to hear the voice of Christ through us, his disciples.

The Upper Room is a place for us also; it is a place of transformation, a school of love. St. Vincent Pallotti knew the importance of the upper room experience in his own life and he wanted us to have that same experience the disciples had at Pentecost. At the heart of the Upper Room is patience, expectation, perseverance, prayer fellowship and hope. In that gathering of the Upper Room no two followers of Christ were the same, each were different, each with there own gifts and talents, each made in the image and likeness of God.

The principle gift of the Holy Spirit given to those gathered in that upper room is tongues, is speech, and is language. They used the gifts that where given to them to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. On that day they could have decided well thanks for the memories, thanks for the gifts, we have done our part, now let’s go home as we know some of them did go back to their former way of life. But Jesus called them back. The coming of the Holy Spirit is not so much the end of Jesus’ activity but the beginning of something new for the disciples whom Jesus commissions and sends forth to be his presence in our world today.

In this regard, it’s helpful to think of Pentecost not so much as a singular event in the life of the Church, but as a way of life in which all of us, as the baptised Catholics, name, claim and proclaim our identity and mission as followers of Christ and members of his body. This is who we are. This is what we do.

Our Founder St. Vincent Pallotti received that gift of the Holy Spirit, which led him on a journey to setting up the Society of Catholic Apostolate and the Union of the Catholic Apostolate. He had an utter confidence in what the Lord could do through him. Even on his deathbed when those around him might have thought, we are losing him, will his charism die with him, but he reassures his followers it won’t. “It will develop and be blessed by God”. You will see. I tell you this not simply because I trust that it will happen, because I am certain of it.” He was true to his word.

knock1bThis year The Mother of Divine Love Provence is celebrating 75 years of the Pallottine Charism in East Africa. In 1940 Bishop Patrick Winters, Fr. Vincent Cunningham and Fr. Jim Mullen left Ireland to go to Tanzania to share the charism of St. Vincent Pallotti. In the last few years we in Ireland have been blessed with the arrival of Fr. Louis Sisti, Fr. Mathew Sanka who is now ministering in Texas, following his time working as Mission Promoter in Thurles and we have Fr. Martin Mareja our main celebrant who took over from Fr. Matthew and goes around promoting the Pallottine Charism in different dioceses in Ireland today.

We have a lot to be thankful for, but there is still so much to be done and we can’t do it without the aid of the Holy Spirit and Our Blessed Mother. We are disciples of the Lord, you and me. To know Jesus, as a friend is the best gift, that anyone of us can receive. But we can’t keep that gift to ourselves; we have to share it with others. We have to give witness to the gift we have received. Our Lady appeared here in Knock and gave witness. Fifteen people from this village witnessed an apparition of Our Lady, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, a Lamb and Cross-at the gable wall behind us. Each of them gave testimony to what they saw, the encounter they had with Mary, without their witness and testimony we wouldn’t be here as pilgrims today.

Mary came to Knock to be a mother to the people of Ireland and the people of Ireland responded and over the years many pilgrims have come here to seek her motherly love and protection. Today she comes to meet your needs as Our Lady of Knock and as Queen of Apostles.  Today we need Mary more than ever; especially we need her to be a mother to our young people.

Pope Francis invites us all to take the Good News to the “Existential outskirts” and the 1st “outskirt” is to be found in our own lives. There are still areas he says in our inner thoughts, in our emotional lives, in our actions, in our spirit, in our will which have not been lit up by the light of the Gospel.”

knock1aEnter into the Upper Room with Our Lady, the apostles and the other women and join them in prayer and wait for an outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit. When we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit we shall be unshackled from our fears and move out beyond our comfort zones. We shall be able to go forth to wherever God leads us. When it comes to the Holy Spirit, we may not always know exactly where the journey will take us, but we can rest assured that every road ultimately leads us closer to the heart of Christ and to the fullness of God’s kingdom.

I want to leave the last words to a man who wasn’t afraid to witness or speak the language of God’s love in his life. He had a great love for the poor and for social justice. He was assassinated as a martyr for the Catholic Faith. Today in San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador Oscar Romero will be beatified. He wrote and I leave you with this: “The Church must suffer for speaking the truth, for pointing out sin, for uprooting sin. No one wants a sore spot touched, and therefore a society with so many sores twitches when someone has the courage to touch it and say: You have to treat that. You have to get rid of that. Believe in Christ.  Be converted”.

 

PRAYER TO ST. RITA

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RITADear St. Rita, model wife and widow, saint of the impossible – you yourself patiently suffered a long illness for the love and glory of God. Teach us to pray as you did. Full of confidence in your intercession, we ask you to come to help us not only in our personal needs but we ask you to bless our marriages, homes and country at this critical time. We pray for the intentions which we speak in the silence of our hearts (name the intention) and may the answer to our prayer be for the glory of God and the salvation of all.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen

PASTORAL LETTER ON MARRIAGE – Bishop Seamus Freeman sac

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

On my appointment as Bishop of Ossory in D1279103259450ecember 2007, I chose the words Libertas in Veritate, The truth will make you free (John 8: 32),from scripture to guide me in my ministry. Now, over seven years later, these words resonate with me more strongly than ever as we prepare to vote on the changes proposed by the Marriage Referendum on 22nd May 2015.

Marriage is of fundamental importance for children, mothers, fathers, and society. I ask the faithful in our diocese to consider very carefully the profound implications which this constitutional amendment would have on the family environment and on our understanding of parenthood. Marriage is important – Reflect before you change it.

We come to this debate believing that the union of a man and a woman in marriage, open to the procreation of children, is a gift from God who created us “male and female”. Reason also points to the truth about human sexuality that makes the relationship between a man and a woman unique. Mothers and fathers bring different, yet complementary gifts and strengths into a child’s life.

There can be no doubt that those seeking a yes vote are motivated by love and care for their homosexual brothers and sisters and this is entirely good and Christian.  All of us must value each other and be caring and respectful. We must honour the views of people who think differently to us, trusting that our own sincerely held views, grounded in faith, will also be heard and respected.

Our desire to protect marriage and the family as it is currently understood in the Constitution is not intended to block or deny equality for others. In fact, although it is presented as such, this Referendum is not about equality.  After all true equality recognises difference.

In his recent teachings, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, stressed the importance of this when he speaks of the ‘the dignity of difference’. He refers to the difference between men and women and the beautiful, God given plan of how their complementarity leads to the new life of children. It is not a judgment on same-sex unions to say that there are intrinsically different to a union between a man and a woman. Being different does not make us any lesser or unequal.

In fact, a real search for equality requires us to be truthful about differences so as to then ensure that we are just and compassionate in how we respond to these differences. To vote No in this Referendum is not, therefore, contrary to the value of equality. It is to be truthful about the genuine difference between a union of a man and a woman and a union between two people of the same sex. To vote No is simply to remain true to the understanding of marriage as between one man and one woman.

This understanding of marriage occupies a unique place of esteem in the Irish Constitution: it is provided there with the strongest possible legal support and protection. Despite what many think, the reason for this is not the esteem in which married love is held but rather, it is because the Constitution designates marriage as the institution upon which the family is founded (Article 41.3.1).

We are now being asked to recognise same-sex unions as marriage.   If we think of marriage merely in terms of the public expression of adult love, this might make sense. This is not however how the Constitution understands marriage and, as the Referendum Commission has told us, the constitutional status of marriage, by which has to be meant its status as the foundation of the family, is not being altered. Where the Constitution is concerned, marriage is, and will remain, inextricably linked with having children.

The Marriage Referendum proposal is that we are being asked to vote Yes in order to recognise all loving adult relationships equally, whether homosexual or heterosexual, conferring exactly the same rights on both when it comes to procreation.

On May 22nd we are not voting on inequality and we are not voting simply on the real love of two adult people.  In truth, our vote will have real implications for the family, for children and for our future as a nation.  It is important that we cast our vote on the 22nd May 2015.  I ask the faithful in our diocese to read the pastoral statement published by the Irish Bishops at our Spring General Meeting, “Marriage is Important – Reflect before you change it.This Statement was distributed in parishes over several week-ends and is also available on our websitewww.ossory.ie

With every blessing of the Lord to all the faithful in our diocese, the Diocese of Ossory.

Yours faithfully in Christ,

Seamus-Freeman-

 

 

 

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“A Journey to God Knows Where” – My Vocation Story by Liam O’Donovan S.A.C.

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Liam Donovan sacDiscerning a vocation: a mess of confusion, a deserted wilderness, a foggy night, a fear of incompetence. That has been part of my experience anyway. This not so dramatic story is for those who have a even the faintest voice calling them to something they think  impossible and unimaginable, something that they dare not acknowledge for too long a time for fear it might be real. 

Tell me where you come from and I’ll tell you where you are going: Divine Origins

Growing up on a farm in south Kilkenny, as the youngest in a family of five children, I can say without a doubt that faith was a huge part of my upbringing. Rosary at home, Sunday Mass, moving statues, prayer meetings, and pilgrimages were all part of my memories of family life. By their example more than anything else, my parents instilled in me a personal sense of Jesus and Our Lady. That said, I never remember having a strong desire to be a priest as a child—even if I might have said it as a people pleaser. Nevertheless, you’d imagine if someone was being called to the priesthood with this kind of background discernment would be a “walk in the park.” 

Where am I going?: A Directionless Youth  

My teenage years marked the beginning of a prolonged period of confusion in my life and overriding feeling of being lost in the world. Faced with all the temptations that come a young person’s way I was captured by a sense of excitement. Let the party begin! At first this did not really seem to conflict with my spiritual life, but as time went on I began to suffer the incompatibilities. My faith and the sense of God never fully left me, but it just felt damn inconvenient at times. “God must love me,” I thought, “but I’m failing Him and He’s not well pleased with me.” At times I was desperately unhappy and guilt ridden with the tension of trying to merge these two different worlds. More and more the fun lifestyle left me with a feeling of emptiness and loneliness—even God seemed remote. 

As for my future, I didn’t have a clue. After finishing school, having no great desire for anything, or any particular direction in which I felt drawn, I tried accountancy, then a number of different factory jobs, and I eventually found a weekend job that allowed me to go back to college to study electronic engineering. During the final year of that course, under a bit of pressure with exams and assignments, I found myself praying—a practice I had lost the habit of as a teenager. While praying to Our Lady I was shocked when I heard myself saying, “If you get me through these exams I’ll give ‘your thing’ a chance.” Something inside me knew that I would not be doing electronics for the rest of my life. On the one hand, the thought of priesthood terrified me, so much so that I didn’t even want to name it or fully acknowledge it—it seemed ridiculous and impossible. On the other hand, something about it excited me.    

I’m not going there: An Uncomfortable Light

burning bushFrom that time on I began a secret prayer life. Hidden from family and friends I grew more and more in the conviction that I was being called by God, called to share this Rediscovered Gift. Eventually, I felt the compulsion to express this to another person and mustered up the courage to go to a Franciscan priest in Waterford: “Father I think I’m called to the priesthood.” This was a decisive step for me; just to say those words to another made it seem more real and possible, it wasn’t just some bizarre dream. 

Coincidently, that same week my aunt asked me to go on a retreat with a community called the Foyers of Charity, a request I accepted as providential. That retreat was full of light. The words of Marthe Robin—the foundress of the Foyers—resonated with me: “Everyone can and must achieve his vocation.” When I heard that the Foyer was looking for lay members to join it was the perfect solution: no study, no speaking in public, a hidden life with God. A year later I joined; I had discovered my dream life. However, throughout this idyllic period I was continually disturbed by the question of priesthood. On one occasion a priest, who was doing one of the Foyer retreats, pulled me aside to say, “I have never said this to anyone before, but you’re meant to be a priest.”  This question kept arising for me, both interiorly and from outside. It really aggravated me: “That’s rubbish I found my vocation and I’m happy. The priesthood is beyond anyway.” But why did it disturb me so much? Why did it keep niggling? 

Ok then, let’s go: Risking for God

After two graced-filled years with the Foyer it became clear to me that it was being called elsewhere. Left with the uncertain question of my call to priesthood and where I might join I turned to for advice to my uncle, a Pallottine priest. Strangely after a number of meetings, and prayer in between, I told him, “No, the priesthood is not for me after all.” The picture was so unclear to me, the call so dim, and the fear so extreme that I could not take that final step. He replied, “That’s fine, but would go a talk to Emmet (the Pallottine vocation director) before you leave. Bizarrely, I left that meeting with Emmet having agreed to join the Pallottine Fathers that following September. Whatever happened in that conversation I came away knowing I had to take the risk.

IMG_2726The risk has been worth it for me; I don’t regret it for a minute. Though it has not been easy, it has gradually come clear that God is leading me (down a crooked path it must be said) to become a priest with the Pallottine Fathers. The guidance, fellowship, and support of an entire community is something that has been vital for me personally. Even though it has been joy-filled in the main, it doesn’t mean that the obstacles are gone either. The doubts, uncertainties, deserts, trials, the sense of unworthiness, and the fears of being incapable and incompetent are still there. But God doesn’t need the strong; He is strong in my weakness. Even though the path be uncertain and the destination unknown, with God as your guide it’s journey you’ve got to risk taking.

African SAC Continental Meeting raises hopes – Deacon Allan Bukenya sac [IR] – Arusha – TANZANIA

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Recently the Mother of Divine Love Province [Ireland] hosted an important meeting here in its Delegature of East Africa. It was conducted at Arusha in Tanzania and, although only just a Deacon, I had the good fortune to attend – a somewhat daunting experience but I thank God for the opportunity.

 

Our Leaders came not just from Africa but from other parts of the world, Asia, Europe and Latin America – a very vibrant team of 16 who sat down to discuss issues concerning the Society as a whole but Africa in particular. In the serene environment of the Canossa Spirituality Centre no one could doubt that a new Pentecost was happening as they brought their wisdom, care and concern to focus on each of the SAC entities across the continent. As a young member I felt strengthened in my vocation, spiritually enriched and filled with hope. 

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Despite the many problems affecting us here the meeting reaffirmed that Africa can and must stand up with dignity. And, through its many vocations, this dignity will be affirmed when we prophetically proclaim our Pallottine charism giving hope to people through our commitment to health, dialogue, the building up of a just society, peace and reconciliation, interreligious dialogue, education, pastoral care for families and youth.

 

I was so happy to hear that formation is an issue at the heart of our superiors. Our houses of formation here are full of zealous and resourceful students at all levels, a blessing that provided great consolation to them.

 

Fr Jacob stressed the need to rediscover and strengthen our missionary tradition and spirit. Our Society, from the outset, was marked with a missionary outlook. With this heritage all our Pallottine entities here should never fear to undertake missionary ventures. Peru, Chile, Cuba, Taiwan, the Philippines, Burkina Faso, and Malawi were mentioned, among others. St Vincent, from his place in heaven, must have been happy!

 

ea2In East Africa Uganda has become a Land of Martyrs. It has a high number of Catholics but, with deep political, social and cultural problems, she finds herself at a crossroad. Because of her brokenness there is a crisis in faith, hope and charity creating a disintegrated society. It was recognised that our charism can be relevant in re-igniting that glowing flame of faith and charity, and in bringing hope. We can and must respond in very concrete ways, specially encouraged by the ordination of three Ugandan Ugandan Deacons last February.

 

There was recognition that, if we are to support the countries of Africa to ‘stand up and walk with dignity’ then a high degree of involvement on the ground is required of all those responsible, as well a determined spirit of collaboration. Other emphases mentioned were an increased spirit of transparency and accountability, a constant commitment to the protection of minors and vulnerable persons and, above all, spiritual renewal. The latter was very much stressed and a call to not only to be people with a social conscience but also rooted in prayer and adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist, especially during this Year of Consecrated Life, but right throughout our lives. 

 

The visitors did nallan bukenyaot lock themselves inside the Canossian walls. They moved out and experienced the beauty of Africa in the wildlife with a visit to Manyara National Park. At Esso, Arusha, they witnessed a vibrant church with many, young and old, who worship God at St Vincent Pallotti parish. They saw how Pallottines work with people in transforming society, in caring for the handicapped, the sick, and all those in distress. The work at Esso and in the international houses of formation in both Arusha and Nairobi were both admired for their spirit of cooperation and collaboration.

 

My hope and prayer is that the decisions and recommendations they made will help us all to move a step further in our commitment to loving God and our neighbour, after the example of St Vincent, and with the intercession of Mary Queen of Apostles.

 

Deacon Allan Bukenya sac [IR] – Arusha – TANZANIA

16.03.15

bukeallan2006@gmail.com

MERCY TURNS ALIKE TO FRIEND OR FOE – Holy Thursday

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HOLY THURSDAY MASS OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

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In the Gospel of yesterday’s Mass Jesus says, “It is at your house that I am keeping Passover” and when I hear these words it strikes me that there is a very personal dimension to it, like Jesus is saying it directly to you and to me, that my soul is the house and my heart the table of His Passover; that He speaks directly to you saying, “this is my Body broken for you…this is my Blood poured out for you. In this we are invited inward to share this mystery in a profoundly personal way and it means that He does not want us to remain outside or that the mystery of the Eucharist should be something external to us.

At the Chrism Mass this morning in the Pro-Cathedral Archbishop Diarmuid Martin asked us to bring home his good wishes to all the people in our parishes and in his homily he spoke a lot about the theme of Mercy which is so prominent in the life, teaching and action of Pope Francis – Mercy that crosses all boundaries, Mercy that is expressed in a Church described by the Pope as being a field hospital in war.

I never knew what a field hospital looked like until I saw the movie ‘Testament of Youth’ which tells the story of the English feminist and pacifist Vera Brittain who lived during the First World War. The field hospital is an incredibly awful reality, a place of unspeakable human suffering and misery.

Vera gave up her hard won education at Oxford and trained as a nurse so that she could share the suffering of the men who were fighting at the front. To her dismay she was sent to work in the German Ward of a field hospital in France and was challenged by the fact that she had to nurse those who were killing the English men she loved. But she had to do it. And maybe one of the reasons why she was sent to that ward was because she spoke German.

00FWWvadThere’s a scene in which a young German soldier is near death and the ward sister tells Vera to go and look after him. He is young and blinded and bloodied. And when Vera goes to him he thinks she’s his girlfriend – so she lets go of her resistance, holds him and speaks tenderly to him in German and he dies comforted. Vera had a vision of Divine Love working in that awful place.

In a poem called ‘The German Ward’,  Vera later wrote  – I learnt that human mercy turns alike to friend or foe”. Mercy turns alike to friend and foe!

This is what we witness in perfect form in Jesus at the Last Supper. He who is Divine Love and Mercy gets down on his knees to wash their feet – feet that are dirty and tired from the journey of their life. It is not a liturgical act – it is love on his knees tending to the reality of their lives.

The astonishing thing about this is that Jesus does not only get down on his knees in front of the nice, good apostles; he gets down on his knees in love before Judas and before Peter; he kneels to the betrayer and the denyer.  Mercy turns alike to friend or foe!

But this does not mean that Jesus supports or agrees with what they are about to do. Divine Love is able to love and to disagree in the same moment; Divine Love is both merciful and truthful in the same moment, to serve and to oppose in the same moment. And this is the love that we are called to become when we celebrate the Eucharist in Holy Mass.

However, the liberal, progressive society in which we live does not understand such love and will not allow it to be expressed. In the major changes that are taking place one of the ideas being promoted is that if you love me then you must agree with me, if you really love me you must support what I am doing no matter how wrong or harmful it may be and if you do not agree with me, if you do not support me then you do not love me. Jesus would say to much of what is happening – I disagree with you and I love you; I oppose what you are doing and I get down on my knees to minister to your needs.

It happens all the time in marriage relationships, in the relationships of parents with their children, in our relationship with someone we love who is living a self-destructive life, or a life destructive of others. In our ordinary relationships love and opposition live side by side as do conflict and mercy, hurt and healing. In our perseverance against the odds  the perfect Love of Jesus is at work.

Last-Supper_BouveretThe first thing tonight is that each of us needs to allow Jesus to wash us in whatever way we need, to let him be the lover that we need in our moment of greatest weakness, to be light in the darkness of my depression, to bind up what is broken in my body, mind, soul and heart, the liberator of my addictions. We need to allow him to do it and not resist him as Peter did.

And then every single one of us, without exception, is to become Living Love and Mercy to friend and enemy alike.

“When he had washed their feet and put on his clothes again he went back to the table. ‘Do you understand’ he said ‘what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and rightly; so I am. If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you.’”

SO I GAZE ON YOU: Entering Into Holy Week – Eamonn Monson SAC

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The Prayer Of Quiet Gazing

094March 28, 2015 marked 505 years since the birth of St. Teresa of Avila who has been one of the most significant guides of my spiritual life since I was 17 years old. I began reading her very early in my life as a Pallottine and there are two moments – a dream and a time in prayer – that have connected me to her.

In the dream I walked into an old unfamiliar church where I met my father who was already dead at the time. He pointed me to a side altar at the top left-hand side. When I went there I saw St. Teresa’s tomb in front of the altar. It was like the Italian ones with the shape of the body carved in marble; she was sleeping covered with a blanket. Then she stirred and woke up, telling me to stand between her and the altar. “Stay here” she said “and I will take care of you.”

The second happened during a charismatic retreat when I was resting in the Spirit, in a state of deep quiet. A rope ladder came down from heaven and standing beside it was St. Teresa who pointed to the ladder and said to me, “I have given you the means to ascend to the heights.”

With these I am both emotionally and spiritually connected to her, even though I don’t pray to her that much.

“My soul at once becomes recollected and I enter the state of quiet. Everything is stilled and the soul is left in a state of great quiet and deep satisfaction.” (St. Teresa of Avila)

As we enter into Holy Week we are drawn by God to this state of quiet recollection in prayer as we contemplate Jesus in His Passion, as we “look upon the one they have pierced.” (Zechariah 12:10). The appropriate form of prayer is that of silent gazing.

“O God you are my God, for you I long. For you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry weary land without water. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary…” (Psalm 63)

So I gaze on you – a silent gazing on the person of Jesus, a loving gaze and a total surrender to Him in which I put aside my own thoughts, my agenda and my struggles. I surrender my self-preoccupation and allow love for Him to be stirred, awakened within me in the silence.

There is an invitation to turn a new page, to allow my heart to be “as a page that aches for a word which speaks on a theme that is timeless” (Neil Diamond); a blank page that is ready for a new word to be written by God.

It is the promise made by God for the new covenant which we experience in Jesus. “Deep within them I will plant my law, writing it on their heart.” (Jeremiah 31) – the law that is written is His Word and His Word is Knowledge, Wisdom and above all it  is Love. So what He seeks of us is a heart that is ready to have Love written on it in a new way.

It is the sharpest of all instruments, diamond-like, that God uses for this writing so that what is written is an indelible carving that pierces through to the core as the Passion pierces through to the very heart of Jesus.

Head-of-Christ-c.1648This is where we flinch and turn away because we cannot bear our own pain and we cannot bear the full impact of the suffering of Jesus.  “He had no special beauty or form to attract us; there was nothing in his appearance to make us desire him.  He was hated, despised and rejected. A man of suffering, acquainted with grief. People would not even look at him, turned their backs, hid their faces from him, averted their gaze.” (Fourth Song Of The Suffering Servant, Isaiah 52-53). But if we are to experience full blessedness then we must not turn away; we must keep on gazing.

Fr. Luigi Giussani, founder of Comunione e Liberazione, speaks about spending Holy Week simply looking on the face of Christ as the way to being changed or transformed. If we spend our energy in this sacred time getting caught up in our sins or wanting to be perfect we will end up tired and unchanged at the end of it.

“Looking Christ in the face changes us. But to be changed we need to really look into his face with the desire for good, desiring truth.”

It helps to understand that when we gaze on Jesus we are gazing on the fullness of who He is. When we gaze upon the Crucified we are at the same time gazing on the Eternal Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Infant of the Incarnation in the stable, the Compassionate Healer and the Risen Lord – all of the expressions of who Jesus is provide us with the grace we need to continue looking at what we would rather avoid.

Something more happens in the prayer of gazing – we are drawn to Him to enter into Him as He himself has entered into us so that we experience everything as He does. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person.” We see as He sees, understand as He understands that in the awfulness of suffering, in abandonment, He is not alone. We are not alone. The Father who seems absent is with us in hidden form sustaining Jesus, sustaining me, sustaining you!

Entering into the experience of Jesus is an essential development in our interior spiritual life. Entering in and not staying outside.

The Pharisees missed the point of Jesus because they always remained on the outside looking in, always questioning, judging, condemning. They would not sit at the table of intimacy and mercy; they would not come to the banquet.

There are many things that keep us on the outside, including those things that kept the Pharisees outside but perhaps our greatest obstacles are guilt and fear. Guilt keeps us from coming to the table of mercy; we feel unfit, unworthy to take our place because we are ashamed. Yet, it was the worst of sinners who sat at table with Jesus in the gospel and perhaps this was made possible because they shifted their gaze from themselves to Him.

Fear of suffering – the thought that God might ask too much of us – also keeps us at a distance, the prospect of unbearable suffering puts us off, turns us away, creates a resistance in us. Maybe we cope better when we are actually suffering.

Within the experience of suffering we find that, with our gaze fixed on Jesus, there is the capacity to endure in the strength that comes from Him – “I can do all things; there is nothing I cannot master in Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13)

It helps to allow the Spirit of Jesus in His Passion to pray within us. In the garden of Gethsemane his distress, terror and agony give expression to ours; his darkness expresses ours; his struggle our struggle. In His abandonment on the cross he cries out our feeling of being abandoned by God – “my God, my God why have you forsaken me?” And because we are in Him and He in us, we are ultimately led to the moment of surrender to the Father which is the goal of all life and the point of all gazing, all prayer. Not my will but yours be done. Father into your hands I commend my spirit!

Surrendering in trust into consummation, consolation, completion!

Eamonn Monson sac