Thanks to social media we have no excuse when it comes to remembering birthdays, anniversaries, occasions, and other celebrations in the lives of friends and family. We are reminded about these celebrations almost daily on our timelines and if you are like me, it is a godsend.
Each
year around this time of year I see posts and photos on social media of some ordinations
to the priesthood and anniversaries of ordination. While in the west, the
numbers of priestly ordinations are down, in other parts of the world thankfully
there are more and more ordinations. We pray for vocations to the priesthood and
the religious life and to the Capuchin Franciscans.
On
this day 25 years ago, I was ordained to the priesthood in my home parish
church of Saint Kevin’s, Kilnamanagh, I was 27 years old and had been in
training and formation for the previous 10 years. Kilnamanagh is where Saint Kevin
was educated in the monastery there before he crossed over the Dublin mountains
and descended into Glendalough where he established his famous monastery and
centre of learning in the 7th century.
June
8th, 1997 was a wonderful day and a day I had dreamed of from day
one in the Capuchins in 1987. There were times along the way that I wondered if
the day would ever come. I felt that the odds were somewhat against me when I
joined because I was the youngest of the other five lads that joined with me. I
thank God for the family I’ve come from and the community I grew up as part of
and while none of us really understood what I was going to do and in fairness
some felt it wasn’t a great idea, everyone was so kind to me and to the family.
Unless
you are someone like me or know me well, you will not really hear much of men
and women going into religious life today. The most famous Catholics are famous
but not to everyone except perhaps for Pope Francis. Even in 1987 when Pope, now
Saint John Paul II was in the Vatican, it was very unusual for someone to “Go
away to be a priest” Looking back, again I say there wasn’t much understanding,
and there were some who said “A waste of a life” however, there was and still
is tremendous, good will.
I
have learned so much on the journey in ministries such as school chaplain, hospital
chaplain, and parish priest. I have baptized many babies and a few adults,
given children in the parish schools their First Holy Communion and
administered the Sacrament of Confirmation. I have been honoured to officiate
at many wedding ceremonies of childhood friends and past pupils. I’m at the
stage now where friends I grew up with, went to discos with, and went to school
with are now grandparents. Recently, I gave First Communion to a grand child of
a girl I grew up with.
While
there have been happy times, there have also been sad times and even scary times.
As parish priest I’ve been called to the scenes of accidents of one kind or
another. You are there with other professionals, Gardaí, Ambulance, etc. offering
whatever assistance you can. However, there it is as a priest commending the
soul of the one who has died in whatever difficult circumstance to the mercy of
God. In hospital ministry I have said prayers
for the dying and been called to the emergency department during critical and life-threatening
incidents. I was called to the bedside of a child who was involved in a quad
bike accident and watched the heartbreak of the mother holding him as he died. There
was huge bravery and selflessness when the family gave their child’s organs
that others may have life. I sat for hours all through the night when an elderly
woman kept vigil over her deceased husband who was taken to the hospital from a
cruise ship in the port. The situation was all the sadder as she was far from home
and her family were all hours away and making contact was proving quite
difficult. In these stories and more I can say hand on heart I have stood on
holy ground. Being a priest and being invited to pray for a family in their happy
or profoundly sad moments is like standing on holy ground.
As
Sr. Briege McKenna once said to me, to do all this, one must put “petrol in the
tank” All who are in ministry or in the caring professions and who encounter
critical incidents from time to time need to charge up the batteries. We cannot
give what we haven’t got. Everyone needs to reach out and ask for a little
help. I’m no different in that I have structures, pastoral supervision, and spiritual
direction to guide me as I go along. I need to pray and to be faithful to my
daily Mass, and my prayers, especially the Liturgy of the Hours, and the Rosary.
While I do this, this is also how I pray for others.
This
is the secret, the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours and a relationship with
Our Lady which is critical in the life of the priest. This fuels the fire and fans
the flame and it is more than good works and charitable acts. We need
to use another kind of vision, an inner vision, an insight, more than eyesight
which fails over time, so we can see in the dark. Faith is the way we do this,
and faith is passed on from one generation to the next. I simply couldn’t do
this if it weren’t for the faith of my parents, grandparents, and those around
me who love me.
We
are fuelled by the holy Word of God in the scriptures and in the gospel, it is
a living and life-giving word which nourishes and strengthens for this life and
for the eternal life. At Mass the bread and wine are changed by the priest into
the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. If they remained just bread and wine, they
stay human and is only useful to satisfy an earthly hunger and that would be
all. But they are changed, they cease to be bread and wine at Mass. They
become the body of Jesus and therefore we have the real presence of Jesus
Christ among us. As the Tantum Ergo says, “Sight is blind before God’s glory,
faith alone may see his face.” At the Last Supper, Jesus took bread and blessed
it and broke it and said “This is my body, do this in memory of me. The He took
a cup of wine and he said, “This is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, do
this in memory of me.” We see the presence of Jesus Christ with the eyes of
faith. This is how we priests do what we do, this is the powerhouse, here is how
we minister and bring Christ to others and especially those most in need.
I
am grateful to God for these past 25 years – a silver jubilee. I remember those
who have died since then and I keep them in my prayers. For my family, brother
friars, the Poor Clare nuns, and for friends, may God reward you all.
I
would like to finish this piece with the words of St. Francis of Assisi from
the ‘Letter to the Entire Order, in it St. Francis addresses the friars who
are priests and reminds them of their high calling. Eight hundred years later,
aside from the kind of language that was used at the time, these are still wise
words and images for us.