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Awaking what is dormant…giving sound to the silence

I’m thinking about the arrival of Jesus, the new arrival for this time in my life, for all our time and I wonder in what space will he choose to be born again. There are the usual suspects – my sin, the areas of my life where I’m not in control, my vulnerability.

But then I remember an add on tv. A man is walking along the corridor of his company building when he hears an old phone ringing. The sound comes from behind a door of ‘The Complaints Department’. The man enters the room which is covered in dust and cobwebs; he answers the phone, listens to the voice on the other end of the line and replies something like, “sorry, you’ve got the wrong number!”

The product they are advertising has not had a complaint in years and there is no complaint now, so the man emerges from the room satisfied and he closes the door on the gathered dust within.

I’d like to be able to stand before God with no complaint made against me and, at Christmas, I’m hoping that Jesus will come and make his home within at least one of the areas where there is some complaint and need for improvement. But I suspect now that God has a different idea.

In the place where there is no complaint there is also no life, no engagement. It is in decay, dying, dead. The birth of Jesus is about life and engagement in places where decay is at work.

Yesterday I celebrated Mass with a group of special needs adults and their families at the St. John of God Centre, Ravenswell in Bray. I’m not used to a setting like this but decide at the outset that I would “be myself” as much as possible and go with the flow.

Most of the residents are not able to speak in the conventional way. Some make no sound at all and some make a lot of noise, different people would let out a spontaneous roar from time to time. I had no idea if I was communicating or not but I said what I had to say and had to shout a lot of the time to be heard.

Joy, the chaplain had prepared a lovely liturgy in which various members of the community placed a figure in the crib and a member of their family would read a prayer. As Louise placed a shepherd in the crib she was pure delighted that the red of his cloak matched the red of her jumper. She said it with signs and with a smile that had been previously absent on her anxious face.

When it was complete I suggested we sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. A bit cheesy maybe but it connected, so we sang it again. Everyone connects with happy birthday. And at the end of Mass we sang ‘Silent Night’ everyone joining in with whatever sound God gave them to sing with. I don’t think anything else I do over Christmas will compare with this.

After Mass I went down to Eugene, a man I anointed a couple of months ago because he was dying and here he is, revived, his beautiful blue eyes smiling. He has been silent for a long time but his sister sitting beside him said he was very animated and excited by the Mass. She hadn’t seen him so animated for a long time. He was one of the ones who let out a roar from time to time. And I understood the connection that had taken place. It was pure joy! And to think our society is moving in the direction of saying that most of the people at that Mass should not have been born.

There was part of Eugene that had gone silent, something that lay dormant within him. Yesterday at Mass God came and awakened that which was dormant and gave a sound to the silence within him. There is part of me that lays dormant, a fear and a love choked within me. This is perhaps my special need.

It reminds me to allow God himself to choose what part of my life He will enter and touch this Christmas or at any other time. Like King David, the most noble part of me  wants to provide Him with the most appropriate dwelling place but God insists that He will make the choice and, like Mary I will now let Him do just that.

My prayer for the remainder is simply, “Come Lord Jesus, let it be done to me according to your Word!”

Eamonn Monson sac http://emonson.blogspot.ie/

My Vocation Story

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveller.”

On a cold day, in February 1993, as I prepared for my mock Junior Certificate, I first encountered the words of Robert Frost, words which have remained with me, and words which I have returned to on many occasion as I have forged my way through life. That very day, back in February 1993, I first really contemplated where my life may bring me, and which road I would take on the path of life, would it be married life or priesthood. Would I be a engineer or a priest, where would God lead me in life, and am I willing to put my trust in God to lead me.

            The day arose to fill in my CAO form for college, and nowhere was ‘priesthood’ an option, and I was too afraid to ask anyone, so I decided to go to college and study engineering. Although I succeeded in my engineering, I was never fulfilled, satisfied, or happy, leading me to return to Robert Frost’s words and once again contemplate on my vocation in life. It was then I first applied to religious life, a young lad of 20. For three years I struggled with my studies, and was of the view, “if God wanted me to do this it shouldn’t be so hard.” I still remember the day I knew I was in the wrong place, I was lonely and alone in a seminary, in a class of over twenty lads, and over one hundred and seventy lads studying for Diocesan Priesthood. Feeling so alone, opened my eyes, God truly wants all people to be happy, and fulfilled so I decided to leave and travelled the main road of society. I got a great job in an engineering company, and for almost ten years was extremely successful, succeeding in purchasing a house, new car and enjoying the pleasures and pain of life.

            A life changing event happened in 2008, I travelled to Australia to the World Youth Day, where once again my faith was reinvigorated; and it was there I decided, during my time in prayer that God was still calling me to priesthood, the only decision was where? A return to Diocesan Priesthood or Community/Religious life? Throughout that year I discerned and prayed for guidance, for which road should I travel? In my discernment I prayed the words of Mary, the Mother of God, “Be it done unto me according to your word,” as I prayed these world I realised the necessity to truly listen to God, listen with my mind and heart and then the need to surrender my will to God, similar to Jesus as he lay on the cross, “Not my will, but your will be done.”

            While attending a Youth 2000 event, I meet with the vocations director of the Pallottines, and he invited me to a weekend retreat in Thurles, where I could learn more about the Pallottines, St. Vincent Pallotti the founder of the Society and about myself and where God was guiding me in my life. During that weekend I felt welcomed and at home, and knew God was calling me to ‘give, offer and surrender my whole life to God.’ On August 11^th 2009, while in Medjugorje on my annual retreat I received a phone call from the Provincial of the Pallottines, congratulating me that my application to become a member of the Society of Apostolic life, in order to study for the priesthood had been accepted. Three years late I took my first promises to the Society, ‘to give, offer and surrender my whole life to God’, and this I do each day by trusting in God, surrendering to his will, and by believing in God, that he is guiding and directing me each day, so that I will receive that strength and courage to follow the road less travelled by, and always say, “not my will, but your will be done O Lord.”

On my way back from giving a retreat one winter’s day, I stood in Maam Valley admiring the mountains, pondering the words of the Prophet Isaiah – Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low. (Isaiah 40) – and I thought, what a sad prophecy. It didn’t make sense to me to think of such majesty being lowered, filled in; majesty that speaks so clearly of the Beauty and Majesty of God.Then I understood that the levelling and the filling in are about making it easier for God and His people to meet. The simplyfying of religion, making it less complicated. It is done by making a straight highway for our God – preceding verse from Isaiah 40.

Notice

The book, A Patchwork Quilt, Pallottines in the U.S.A., Volume I and II, by Fr. Donal McCarthy, S.C.A., can now be ordered and paid for on-line through the printer/publisher’s books website: http://www.eprint.ie/. The book (two volumes) is being offered for Euro 28 with the cost of postage and packaging to be added. As the book weighs 1.4 Kilos approximately the cost of postage within Ireland is Euro 8.25; to the U.K. Euro 11.55; and to the U.S.A. Euro 17.80. The cost of packaging will be determined by the publisher but should not be more than one or two Euro. A full name and address must be furnished with the order.

Read Fr. Anthony Gaughan’s REVIEW of A Patchwork Quilt – Pallottines in the U.S.A.

Frs Derry Murphy SAC, Provincial and Fr Donal McCarthy SAC with Fr. Donal’s first volume of the history of the Irish Province of the Mother of Divine Love, entitled ‘A Patchwork Quilt – Pallottines in the U.S.A.’