'Ozone Friendly' surroundings at Ards Friary, Co. Donegal

Our Capuchin Friary at Ards, Creeslough, Co. Donegal is situated on the shores of Sheephaven Bay. Below are some scenes from around the friary. See www.ardsfriary.ie for more...

100th Anniversary of Church Street Tenement Collapse

Fr. Bonaventure Murphy ofm.cap.

 

The information about this photo is supplied by Dr. Brian Kirby, Archivist, Capuchin Archives, Capuchin Friary, Church Street, Dublin 7. Ireland. I have blogged this partly in response to a question and replies on Twitter. (impossible to put this in in 140 characters! ) If you join the Capuchin Archives, Ireland on Facebook, you can find out much more about the historical collection at our Provincial Archives. As we approach the 100th anniversary of the Easter rising of 1916 for example, there will be further details of material of historical significance published.

 

Photographic print of Michael Collins attending a wedding party 

Nov. 1920

20.5 cm x 15 cm (pasted onto card)
Print by Keogh Bros., 124 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin.

Photographic print of an unidentified family group (possibly a wedding party). Michael Collins is the second person to the left in the back row. Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. is seated at the left of the second row. Collins was Minister for Finance and TD for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-chief of the National Army. Collins was shot and killed in August 1922, during the Civil War. Fr. Bonaventure, born in Carrignarvar, County Cork, joined the Capuchin Order in 1899.

 Fr. Bonaventure died in the Capuchin Friary in Kilkenny on 26 April 1968.

A reader on Facebook subsequently supplied additional information in relation to the photograph:

The photograph was taken at 16 Airfield Road Dublin, on Monday, 22 Nov. 1920, a day after the Bloody Sunday incident. It was the wedding of Lil Clancy and Michael O’Brien. To the right of Collins is Gearoid O’Sullivan.

The image was posted on the Capuchin Archives, Ireland Facebook page on 2 March 2012.

 

 

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The Friars on the move...

Today, August 12^th 2013 is change over day in the Irish Capuchin province. We had our Provincial Chapter during the first week of July where we elected a new Provincial Minister, and four Counsellors (I am one of them) We went away during mid-July to pray, and to reflect on what the chapter was asking us to do. A big part of the meeting is spent with one eye on the recommendations of the chapter, and forming communities that will best help the vision to become the reality. As the picture on the jigsaw begins to emerge, the Provincial makes phone calls to ask friars to move to new places and to begin new ministries. This is not easy for both parties. We are a small enough Province of friars and we all know each other well. It is hard to ask someone to step out of their comfort zone and begin something new and it is also difficult to hear the call come in and prepare to take a leap of faith.

So, today is the day that 50 per cent of the friars are moving to new friaries and appointments. Behind the scenes, a lot of work has been done in preparation for today. For example, friars who are taking up work in a new place will have secured documentation from diocesan bishops, and the relevant organisations (parishes, chaplaincies etc.) Cars and vans are arriving and leaving with belongings. Gone are the days of “Take nothing for your journey, neither staff nor haversack…” Now it's just the laptop, cell phone, and books… what would St. Francis of Assisi say about this 'twenty-first century seraphic logistics'?

Over the years, I’ve seen friars pack their bags and move on. It’s a humbling experience to witness men say yes to whatever the Lord is asking of them. I am mindful on one friar, Fr. Bruno, now gone to God.  A former missionary, he moved from Zambia, where he gave the best years of his life, back to Ireland. He didn’t have great health in the end but he always said ‘yes’ to God.  I was with him when he died and as he waited for death he was quite honest in saying he looked forward to meeting the Lord. He was even excited about it and he smiled all the way into heaven.

By supper time this evening, friars will be settling into their new surrounds. For others, we have been asked to remain for another term. It’s what we professed when we took our vows. No matter what four walls are around us, we try to be faithful to living out the Gospel call of Jesus Christ after the manner of St. Francis.

 

Disciples of all nations: Rio in Dublin: 'Go...Do not be afraid....Serve'

Disciples of all nations: Rio in Dublin: 'Go...Do not be afraid....Serve': Father Paul Thornton, during his opening words of the final Mass of Rio in Dublin said, 'though we have come to the end of this l...

Go make disciples of all nations – Rio in Dublin 28th of July 2013

This is the text of the homily I gave today at the Mass for the pilgrims at 'Rio in Dublin' It was a two day gathering of music, song, and prayer with young people from Ireland, and other countries including the Brazilian Catholic Community in Ireland. This was to unite with the Irish pilgrims who travelled to Rio de Janeiro to meet with Pope Francis for World Youth Day 2013.

 

The Call to discipleship is not just for the 12 apostles but for all of us by virtue of our baptism. We have been given a great mission. The moment we walk out the door – into work, or school, or college, or wherever, we are missionaries. The moment we open the doors of our hearts, we are on a mission for Jesus Christ.

We open the door of our hearts to everyone else on planet earth by the way we live our lives…by example. St. Francis of Assisi says “Preach the Gospel; if necessary, use words.”

Go. The mission continues – passed on to us by good and generous people; our parents; our grandparents freely received, freely given. The challenge is to pass on the flame of faith in our turn in our time.

And this is the key to happiness, to be about our Father’s business. Fuelled by prayer and strengthened by the Word of God, and by the Eucharist, the core and heart of the Church. We are guided in this by the Holy Father and the Bishops on this side – and by our Blessed Mother, Mary and the Saints on the other side as we go out. And when we do this, when we take up the mission of Jesus Christ we get a spring in our step and a song in our heart.

Look at the Holy Father, Pope Francis; a joyful servant of Jesus Christ. Look at Pope Emeritus Benedict, he is serene and holy supporting the church by his prayers and his study. Look at Blessed Pope John Paul II the great. He is blessing us all from the ‘window of the house of the Father.’ These popes are a trinity of missionary zeal, a power house of hope and joy for our time.

Yes! The disciple is guaranteed joy and contentment on the inside. Sure, we are not all ‘happy-clappy’ people. Real Christians know that suffering is part and parcel of our lives. And this suffering is not a waste of time. God is not blind to anyone’s suffering. Jesus Christ saved the world in agony in Gethsemane and he hung upon the cross on Calvary. And as Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, the cross is the Theatre of Redemption. I worked for a few years in Beaumont Hospital as Chaplain. Some of the widest smiles I ever laid eyes on were from people in hospital beds. They were suffering but they were selfless. And from their hospital beds, they did powerful missionary work.

St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina suffered for 50 years with the stigmata – the bleeding wounds of Jesus Christ’s passion. It pained him every hour of every day of those 50 years. Not because he couldn’t cope with the bleeding or the sores. No – it was a crucifixion to him because he was the object of curiosity.

Pope John Paul II suffered great pain in his life and in his pontificate. He was shot within an inch of his life in May 1981 and one of the first things he said in his recovery in hospital was that he prays for his attacker; ‘the brother who shot me whom I have sincerely pardoned.’ John Paul II was a giant of prayer, preaching, and evangelisation. He witnessed to the gospel of life for all of his life – even when he could no longer walk, or speak.

In all our families - in every community in which we live, there are people who we would call saints. And Jesus Christ says to his disciples, Go, make disciples of all nations. He is also saying, as interpreted by Pope John Paul, Pope Benedict, and now Pope Francis; Go, become saints. Sanctity is not for fourteenth century nuns or bishops. Sanctity is for all. Who knows? Someone in this church could one day be canonised saint by the Church. Hopefully all of us will. How would you feel if in years to come someone lights a candle under a statue of you? And the great saints of the church would have laughed at the thought of them being venerated too. But John Paul II is not laughing. Neither is Pope Francis. Not if you see the amount of saints they’ve canonised. It’s all about the universal call to holiness.

Jesus Christ says; “And I am with you always, yes, to the end of time.” This is the promise that the Church will never die. No matter what politician or newspaper or television company says. We have a supernatural promise that they don’t see. So, connect with Jesus Christ. Talk to him. Work for him. Tell all the people about him. By the way you live your lives.

Do not ever be afraid.

 

 

Seven key-points that made John Paul II 'The Great Pope'