Blessed John Paul I

 

I have some memories of the ‘Year of Three Popes’ It was 1978 and I was in third class primary school in C.B.S. James’s Street. The faith was practiced more then, churches were fuller, the world was bigger in that there was no internet, and mobile phone technology.  Flying overseas was a something occasional for most and done via a travel agent in offices in the city, not like today where we take commuter planes and with the click of a mouse, we can book a holiday.  There was no such thing as getting a 'selfie' with the Pope or Tweeting the Pope back then. 

The death of Pope Paul VI made the news on our radios and televisions. There weren’t embedded journalists and 24-hour news channels with guests taking us through what would be happening in the rooms of the dying pope, so we had to wait for the hourly bulletins and the main evening news. Pope Paul died on 6^th of August 1978 and at his side were his assistants and on his bedside locker was a Polish alarm clock he kept since he was in the Vatican Diplomatic service. The late British journalist and author Peter Hebblethwaite said in his book on Paul VI when the pope was pronounced dead, “The Polish alarm clock went off…”

However, before all that, the cardinals gathered in Rome to mourn the passing of Paul, now Saint Paul VI, and then to elect a successor. The conclave took place a little after the funeral of Pope Paul and on 26^th of August, the cardinals elected Cardinal Albino Luciani, from the Veneto region of northern Italy, and Archbishop (or Patriarch) of Venice. He was apparently horrified to be elected Pope. Publicly, he became known as the ‘Smiling Pope.’ He had been known for his writings, especially a book known as ‘Illustrissimi’, a collection of letters to famous people published in the early 1970’s. Some of these ‘illustrious ones’ were people like Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Pinocchio, G.K. Chesterton, King David, Jesus, etc.

There were some surprises associated with the election of Albino Luciani. For the first time, a newly elected Pope took two names: John Paul. This was in respect of his two immediate predecessors, Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) and Pope Paul VI (1963-1978) He also dispensed with the formal papal coronation, instead of being crowned pope, there was now just a simple Mass and ceremony of installation. His pontificate was among the shortest in papal history for just 33 days later, the pope died on 28^th of September 1978. Again, the cardinals had to make their way to Rome for a papal funeral and the election of a new pope.

I mentioned that I was eight years old when all this happened and significantly for me, my mother learned that the new pope, Albino Luciani’s birthday was the 17^th of October, so I shared a birthday with the new Pope. I remember her suggesting I write to him to tell him and while I was curious and interested in doing this, I set about finding out how it could be done. I don’t remember how far I got in writing to the Pope because as we all know, John Paul I died so soon.

As Hebblethwaite reminded us about that Polish alarm clock, after the funeral of John Paul I the cardinals met in conclave again and Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the Archbishop of Krakow was elected on the 16^th of October 1978 and took the name John Paul II - and the rest is history.

Today, in Rome, Pope Francis declared Pope John Paul I ‘the Smiling Pope’ Blessed.

Saints Paul VI and John Paul II, pray for us!

Blessed John Paul I, pray for us!

 

Silver Jubilee

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 7^th century.

June 8^th, 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.

 "See your" dignity, "friar" (cf 1 Cor 1:26) priests, and be holy, because He himself is Holy (cf Lv 19:2). And just as beyond all others on account of this ministry the Lord God has honoured you, so even you are to love, revere, and honour Him beyond all others. Great miseries and miserable infirmity, when you hold Him so near and you care for anything else in the whole world. Let the whole of mankind tremble with fear, let the whole world begin to tremble, and let heaven exult, when there is upon the Altar in the hand of the priest "Christ, the Son of the living God" (Jn 11:27)! O admirable height and stupendous esteem! O sublime humility! O humble sublimity, which the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself; that for our salvation hides himself under the little form of bread! See, friars, the humility of God and "pour out your hearts before Him" (Ps 61:9); humble even yourselves, so that you may be exalted by Him (cf 1 Pt 5:6; Jm 4:10). Therefore, hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves, so that He may receive you totally, because He gives Himself totally to you.

 

 

 

  

 

"We are always expected in heaven."

From time to time, Jesus spoke to the disciples about his death, and they didn’t like to hear it. They also couldn’t understand it. What is he on about? This talk seemed to happen on the back of great pastoral successes that he and the disciples had when they went about Judea and Galilee preaching and proclaiming the word. They witnessed Jesus heal the sick, give sight to the blind, command the crippled to walk, even raise the dead. They saw the abuse he got from the established church leadership when he ate with tax collectors and sinners and even forgave them. For example, when they dragged the woman caught committing adultery before him and mortified her publicly, they really were not that interested in her sin. They were more interested in putting him on the spot. All eyes were on Jesus a lot of the time.

There was huge momentum building in their lives and Jerusalem and the Passover seemed to be the focal point. When they reached Jerusalem, Jesus entered in triumph riding on a donkey with people crying; “Hosanna, blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!” They are spreading their cloaks before him as well as palm branches and greenery. By the end of the week, things came to a crashing halt, there was a plot to arrest Jesus and no one in his company felt safe because one of his apostles, one on the inside betrayed him.

They all seemed to scatter after Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. They saw him being led off to be brought before the Sanhedrin in the early hours of the Friday morning. From there he was tried before Pontus Pilate, the Roman Governor, Tiberius Caesar’s man in Judea. There were two prisoners in custody, Barabbas, a well-known troublemaker to the Romans, someone they would happily do away with, and Jesus. According to a custom, in honour of the Passover they could call for the pardoning and release of a prisoner. Much to the anger of the Romans, and despite Jesus being scourged within an inch of his life, the Sanhedrin called for the release of Barabbas. Pilate had no choice but to go with the will of the mob calling for the crucifixion of Jesus.

In the middle east, two thousand years ago, in the hierarchy of punishments meted out to criminals, crucifixion was the most barbaric, grotesque, and frightening of all the punishments. The criminal died slowly in excruciating pain gasping for breath and bleeding profusely. Crucifixion was also a public act of disgrace to ultimately shame the criminal. They were nailed to crosses which they had carried and there they died sometimes over days and the bodies were often left there as a Roman warning; ‘Do not cross us – this is what will happen to you.’

When Jesus died, his apostles and his other followers disappeared in fear and hid themselves away. They tried to get something, anything by way of information. Their friend, their teacher, their Rabbi was put to death and while they remember that he had prophesied this, they didn’t understand, it didn’t click. They were heart broken. They locked themselves away and they didn’t know what to do.

When the Passover was over, early on Sunday morning, women from their group went with oils and spices to the tomb where the body of Jesus had been placed. They wanted to properly anoint his badly damaged body and wrap it up in a clean shroud.  They wondered who would help them roll away the great stone which was placed at the entrance to the tomb. When they arrived, they met two men in dazzling clothes who said; “Why do you look among the dead for one who is alive? He is not here, he has risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee: that the Son of Man had to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified, and rise again on the third day?” They remembered his words. This was stunning news. As the day went on, they learned that other disciples had had encounters with Jesus who reminded them of why this had to happen

As the Risen Jesus emerges from the death and darkness of the tomb, his followers need to do this too. And the challenge is to leave the tomb behind them and emerge into the light of the resurrection. Their encounter with the Risen Lord fortifies their faith and gives them the necessary push to further witness publicly to the faith. By doing this, they therefore leave the darkness of their locked rooms and fearlessly come out and stand boldly into the Easter light.

As a society, as a church, we have spent three days in the tomb with Jesus. We too have been hidden and locked into the darkness in a sense. These three years, the end of 2019, the whole of 2020, and the whole of 2021 and till now, has been like the three days in the tomb with the stone rolled in place. We have endured restrictions, quarantine, lockdown, and sickness. We learned words and terminologies like; asymptomatic, close contacts, contact tracing, community transmission, flatten the curve, hand washing, herd immunity, incubation, lockdown, masks, pandemic, PPE, quarantine, self-isolating, social distancing, super spreader, surge, testing, vaccine.   Please God it is time to emerge from this. We see the numbers going down. We give thanks for all who were at our service during the pandemic.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine and the madness of Putin’s war is destroying this country live on our televisions and on our social media. There is so much darkness and doom. Ukraine has already suffered enough God knows in her history, not least in 1986 when the infamous accident happened at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.  Daily we learn of more attacks on Ukraine by an aggressive bully but God willing soon the tanks will leave for good, and the process of rebuilding can start. On Good Friday, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, Pope Francis’ envoy in Ukraine knelt in prayer at a mass grave close to Kyiv. He said, “So many dead, as well as a mass grave of at least 80 people buried without a name or a surname…tears fail to fall and words do not come, yet thank God, that there is faith. We are in Holy Week – today is Good Friday when we can unite ourselves to the person of Jesus Christ and go up with him to the cross. Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Christ will come soon.”

We must not stay in the darkness of an empty tomb. We must run out into the daylight of the resurrection, and we start now. As St. John Paul II said; “We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.” Let us journey together to the Kingdom where the Risen Lord Jesus Christ lives. Let us befriend our ultimate destiny more and more, life with God in heaven. To quote two young saints; Derry girl, Sr. Clare Crockett (who died in Ecuador on April 16th, 2016) saying good-bye to a friend she said; “Until heaven…” And Blessed Carlo Acutis, the first Millennial saint, (who died in 2006) said; “Our goal must be the infinite and not the finite. Infinity is our homeland. We are always expected in heaven.”

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

There are no borders from space

The International Space Station flies across and orbits the planet around fifteen times per day at speeds of 27 thousand kilometres per hour or 17 thousand miles per hour. It was launched in 1998 and it is up there in low-earth orbit conducting scientific research with a multinational crew of cosmonauts and astronauts. Among other things, it will help to provide testing spacecraft systems and equipment for future missions to the Moon and Mars.

On clear nights it is possible to see the space station as it crosses the night sky looking like a bright star. Amateur and professional photographers and astronomers have pictured it as it makes its way across countries and continents. The photographs are stunning, and some pictures show in some detail the football-stadium sized space station high up in our skies. I have the ISS app on my phone, and it alerts me to the exact position of the space station in real time and it also shows via a camera mounted outside the earth below as it passes above.

From the beginning of the space programme, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, Astronauts Alan Shephard, and John Glenn and many other men and women have seen the earth far below as they orbited the planet. Those who travelled further out like the Apollo Astronauts saw the earth further away as they went to the Moon. As she reached the edge of our family of planets, Voyager, launched in 1977 turned her camera back towards earth after 40 plus years flying, and our sun was a tiny light way off in the distance.

In 2014, German Astronaut Alexander Gerst, one of the crew in the ISS, was flying over the region of Israel and the Gaza Strip and he saw the rocket attacks 400 kilometres below. He reflected; “We don’t see any borders from space. We just see a unique planet with a thin, fragile atmosphere, suspended in a vast hostile darkness. From up here it is crystal clear that on earth we are one humanity, we eventually share the same fate.”

When Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield was in command of the ISS during Expedition 35 in 2013, although he and the crew had very important work to do during their mission, including an emergency spacewalk, he treated us to breath taking photos taken from the cupola of the ISS. His pictures and those of the other astronauts clearly show us our beautiful, colourful, and fragile world. From the aurora borealis and the poles, to the oceans and rivers, to the eye of the hurricanes in August, the world is seen in all its sacred beauty. Thanks to the crew of the ISS, together with the space agencies, we see sunsets and sunrises, and towns and city lights at night. Our world is so pretty from the north to south and from east to west. And it is so tiny compared with other planets, stars, and galaxies in the heavens.

We need to take care of our planet. Over the years we have been warned time and again that we must protect the planet, and we are at a critical juncture now. Down here, we fight for land and territory and the result is the poor and the weak are far and away the losers. The terrible war where Russia has invaded Ukraine is affecting us all but most especially the ordinary Ukrainian women, men, and children who have been bombed, killed, injured, and displaced. Daily we see the results of massive violence and how it destroys lives and communities and homes. If this goes on there will eventually be no winners because we could lose everything. There will be nothing left.

We human beings form ourselves into families and communities, but we are called to share and respect what each one has. High up in space there are no borders. At the end of his Angelus address from St. Peter’s Square today, Pope Francis warns us that if war continues and destruction is allowed to rage, we will not have a world to live in. He says; “Before the danger of self-destruction, may humanity understand that the moment has come to abolish war, to erase it from human history before it erases human history.”

All of those killed in this war and other wars and conflicts were some mother’s daughter or son. Who knows, they could have been the scientist to bring about a cure for cancer. Each child has the potential to reach for the stars and how many children has this been stolen from by the evils of war?

Let us pray for a renewed respect for each other as citizens of the planet and strive to see what we have in common rather than what divides us. We have nowhere else to go right now until we stand before God at the end of our lives. Let us pray for peace.

Christmas 1981

I remember Christmas 1981. We lived in Rialto, and I was in sixth class in James’s Street CBS. Myself and my brother, Kevin, like a lot of kids, didn’t particularly like going to school and we walked up the old Grand canal extension which served the Guinness Barges. The smell of the hops and barley was pungent in the still foggy air of those dark winter mornings. School children were like shadows emerging from the mist wearing Snorkel Jackets and sporting Man Utd and Liverpool school bags over one shoulder. Corporal punishment was phased out in 1981 and banned by Minister of Education John Boland in 1982. Charlie Haughey’s Fianna Fail were in Government for half the year and Fine Gael and Garret Fitzgerald won the General Election in the summer of ’81. 

In January 1982 a biblical amount of snow fell on Ireland which closed the schools for over a week. Irish life struggled in the snow but we kids were ecstatic. We slid down the hills on plastic sacks and makeshift sleds and threw basins of water over the pathway over night for an ice slide in the morning. Its gas now when I think of it, I worked in schools for 10 years after ordination, and my brother is a School Principal. Who would’ve thought?

On Christmas eve, 1981, Santa brought Kevin a Salter Science set, a Rubick’s Cube and surprises. I was into music and had a turntable and Santa brought me ‘Prince Charming’ by Adam and the Ants and ‘The Visitors’ Abba’s last studio album until ‘The Voyage’ this year. Our Mother and Father were younger then than we are now.

Parents were mighty people that time. We think of the past from the prism of today. Its like we had a smart phone in our hands forever. There was only one telephone in the house and that was on the hall table on the bottom of the stairs. The television was very manual, and you had to get up off the couch to change the nine stations. And at the end of the day, the television closed for the night to the strain of the national anthem. Mam had to save up as both myself and my sister Grainne were making Confirmation and Communion in 1982. There were three younger ones, David, and Aoife and Lorna who were very young. Clodagh didn’t come along till 1985.

Christmas was magical all the same. While we anticipated the visit of Santa, we went to see him in Crumlin Shopping Centre, but Switzer’s was the place to go. I think we still have the ‘I’ve seen Santa at Switzer’s’ badge. On Christmas eve, Santa was in great form, and we provided the TK Red Lemonade and biscuits for himself and a carrot for Rudolph. I’m sure I heard the clatter of hooves on the roofs of Uppercross Road in the still of the night.

We went to Mass on Christmas mornings mostly as midnight Mass was a bit too late for the younger ones. We were all immaculate in our Christmas gear and early in the afternoon it was off to Nana’s and Granny Greta’s for our other pressies. We had our dinner later in the afternoon. To think all six of us were piled into the Mini Traveller, carry cot and all, and off to Nana’s in Donore Ave and then on to Granny Greta’s in Glasnevin.

As a 12-year-old, I didn’t really understand what was going on from a religious point of view. In the church, we visited the crib, and we sang the Christmas carols and hymns. We children adored baby Jesus, his mother Mary, and Joseph. I even played the part of a shepherd in a Nativity play when I was 7. I didn’t fully get the importance of how God became a child and came into the human story but with that childlike innocence we believed. We were moved that for Mary and Joseph, there was no room at the Inn and so they were relegated to a farm stable for animals out of the way and in the background.  I now see how important it is to give time and a chance to those who are marginalised. Pope Francis highlights the plight of migrants and the challenge to welcome them today.

I remember Christmas to be a lovely, kind, generous and holy time. By watching the sacrifices our parents made, their patience, and the example our grandparents gave, it actually brings the Christmas story to life every day of the year. One of the miracles of Christmas is how we learn generosity and kindness from the people who made us what we are. And this is a powerful story of hope which crosses generations.  

Things have changed and we have grown up and my siblings have children of their own. Technology has exploded and the slower world of 1981 has become much faster and much smaller. In 1987 when I joined the order, one of the friars used to wrap Monday’s copy of the Irish Independent and send it out airmail to the Irish Friars in New Zealand so they could read all the news from home and especially the GAA results.  Today, with WhatsApp we can speak to our loved ones in real time on the other side of the world. The Astronauts on the ISS, the size of Croke Park, can communicate with us across all time zones as they orbit the earth at 28 thousand Kilometers per hour.

And now, because the world has become smaller, and intercontinental travel is so easy, disease can move from continent to continent quickly too. Covid 19 has demonstrated this powerfully in the last two years. This microscopic virus, they say which is one five hundredth the size of a full stop has wreaked havoc on our society. God willing, 2022 will see better times for us all. May our scientists, immunologists, virologists, medics, nursing staff, and care staff be safe and successful this coming new year. 

As a child, I didn’t understand how God came down from heaven, and with love came into the human story as a little baby and was born in time. I didn’t understand how Mary and Joseph must have felt. But I believed. I adored baby Jesus in the crib with my brothers and sisters and all my friends. Some don’t go to the church that much anymore and that is sad. I guess it is what it is. But unless one is made of stone, you can’t fail to be moved by the beautiful innocence of a little baby as she or he looks up helplessly at you. Almighty God did that for us. He came down from heaven and was born in poverty as a tiny baby, Jesus. And he welcomes each one of you to the threshold of the crib. And I still don’t fully understand. But I believe.

 

 

 

 

 

Padre Pio and Our Lady

Padre Pio had a great love of and devotion to Our Lady, especially of Our Lady of Graces which the Friary of San Giovanni Rotondo is dedicated to.  He spent long hours in conversation with her and her Divine Son, Jesus. To him, Mary was the best way to approach Jesus and there is no better prayer than the Rosary to connect with her and the mysteries that comes from the life of Christ. You may have heard some of the stories of Padre Pio and his devotion to the Rosary which he called his ‘weapon’. 

Padre Pio always wore the Rosary around his arm at night. A few days before his death, as he was getting into bed, he said to the friars who was in his room, “Give me my weapon!” And the friar, surprised and curious, asked him: “Where is the weapon? We cannot see anything!” Padre Pio replied, “It is in my habit, which you have just hung up!” After having gone through the pockets of his religious habit, the friars said to him: “Padre, there is no weapon in your habit! . . . we can only find your rosary beads there!” Padre Pio immediately said, “And is this not a weapon? . . . the true weapon?!” Padre Pio instructed: “Recite the Rosary and recite it always and as much as you can.” To Padre Onorato Marcucci, grabbing the Rosary that he had just placed on the nightstand he said: “With this, one wins the battles.” He prayed many rosaries each day and people, including friars, were amazed at the number of rosaries he recited. In February 1954, at 9:00 p.m., speaking to Father Carmelo he said: “I still have 2 rosaries to pray today. I said only 34 so far. Then I will go to bed.”

Padre Pio is a saint for our time. He was photographed, he was recorded in film and in voice. I have lived with Capuchin friars who met him personally and recalled to me conversations they had with him. One Friar, Fr. Peter Dempsey, now gone home to God, told me that during WWII when the friars studying in Rome couldn’t travel home, they would be sent to San Giovanni Rotondo or some other Italian friaries. There Fr. Peter, who was a post graduate theology student, would sit beside Padre Pio and he said Padre told him speaking in Italian that he often prayed for the Irish Church and for the great missionary endeavour of the Irish who travelled to distant lands to spread the gospel. 

When we think of saints, naturally we remember the saints our parents introduced us to like Saint Anthony, Saint Therese the little flower, or Saint Francis of Assisi, St. Rita of Cascia etc. Let’s not forget the Saints of Ireland too, and Irish Diocese. Many of these lived centuries ago and perhaps its hard to identify with them today. But remember, Saint John Paul II reminds that we are all called to sanctity. It is the vocation of all of us to aspire to holiness. Pope Emeritus Benedict once said we are not made for comfort, we are made for greatness! Sanctity! But we can identify with saints who lived closer to our time and as we see how they lived, perhaps we can see ourselves that we can do it, we can imitate Christ in our time, in our families, and in our communities. Sanctity is the art of the possible. 

Padre Pio suffered most of his life. He endured misunderstanding for a time while the Holy See investigated the spiritual phenomena associated with his life, yet he remained obedient to the church and the Holy Father throughout. He also suffered because he was famous in a sense. Many people wanted to see him, and to go to confession to him. Often to the point of exhaustion would he have a word of challenge or of encouragement for someone or a prayer for an intention. Again, always with Mary’s rosary between his fingers. 

He bore the stigmata, the bleeding wounds of our Lord on his hands, feet, and on his side for 50 years. The friars and his doctors dressed them daily with a bandage and covered them with a fingerless mitten. The pain was bad enough, and horrific especially on Fridays. But the experience was excruciating and humiliating all the time because he was an object of curiosity. He said himself “I only want to be a poor friar who prays.” 

Padre Pio often suffered from bad health and once about 10 years before he died, he was very ill, and it coincided with the visit of the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima to some diocese in Italy. It wasn’t scheduled to visit San Giovanni at all, instead Our Lady was scheduled to stop in the large city of Foggia. While the friary in San Giovanni Rotondo is within the Foggia diocese, it is a good distance from Foggia.  Padre Pio was severely ill with pleurisy, unable to even celebrate Mass from May 5 let alone go to Foggia. The statue of Our Lady was to arrive at the beginning of August and Padre Pio remained bedridden. Somehow the scheduled got changed. The statue would not go to Foggia now but go to San Giovanni Rotondo instead. Joy filled the air as people gathered by the friary. With the help of a loudspeaker, Padre Pio was able to prepare them for their ‘mother’s’ arrival on August 6. That morning, Padre Pio struggled to get down to the church. He managed to get before the statue of our Lady — “but had to sit down because he was exhausted — and he gave her a gold rosary,” observed Bishop Carta. “The statue was lowered before his face, and he was able to kiss her. It was a most affectionate gesture.”

That same afternoon. Between two and three o’clock, Our Lady of Fatima was again in the helicopter ready to travel to the next stop. Taking off from the Casa for the Relief of the Suffering the helicopter circled three times around the monastery before flying away to its next stop. Afterwards, the pilot could never explain why that circling happened. Bishop Carta described how “From a window Padre Pio watched the helicopter fly away with eyes filled with tears. To our Lady in flight Padre Pio lamented with a confidence that was all his own: ‘My Lady, my mother, you came to Italy, and I got sick, now you are going away, and you leave me still ill.’” But as the helicopter was circling, he felt a shudder, a jolt, through his body. The bishop repeated what Padre Pio would say for the rest of his life: “In that very instant I felt a sort of shudder in my bones which cured me immediately.”

As I said, Padre Pio had a filial devotion to Our Blessed Lady. He was always communicating with her. The main reason is that she it is who brings us to her son Jesus. Mary always points to Jesus. This has always been Mary’s mission; she turns to us, and she says, as she said in few words at the wedding at Cana; “Do whatever he tells you.” 

Our Blessed Lady came here to Knock in 1879, eight years before Padre Pio was born, to bring hope to a suffering people. She came with St. Joseph, and St. John the Evangelist.  On the Altar was the Lamb, the Eucharistic Lord who gave himself totally for us. On that wet August evening, as she appeared to give hope, she also reminded us that her Divine Son, Jesus comes to us bearing the message of eternal life. That night, Mary appeared in silence. She never said a word but as Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, who was here in 2018, and after that elevated Knock Shrine to an International Sanctuary of Special Eucharistic and Marian Devotion said; “…in her apparition at Knock, the virgin says nothing. Yet her silence is a language; indeed, it is the most expressive language we have. The message that comes from Knock is that of the great value of silence for our faith.” 

Padre Pio is with us today. He has been praying to the Blessed Virgin for us during the pandemic. He knows suffering and he helped to build the Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza. He reminds us today that he continues to pray for us to Our Lady of Knock for all our needs. But he asks us to listen to Mary because in silence she points to Jesus, her Divine Son. Because he alone has the message of eternal life. Amen. 

The Legion of Mary 1921 - 2021

My family have a history with the Legion of Mary. Both my parents were members of the Legion in the 1950’s and 60’s before they married. My mother’s sisters were Legionaries too as well as many of my father’s cousins. One of the cousins, Brendan Shortall was a Legion of Mary Envoy to East Africa and his picture hangs in the Legion of Mary Headquarters, De Montfort House on Morning Star Avenue in Dublin’s North Inner City.

As a boy, I joined the Legion of Mary in the Parish where we lived in 1980 and ’81. We were part of a Junior Praesidium attached to Benedicta House on the South Circular Road. We met on Tuesday evenings and part of the routine was all Legionaries would be allocated Legion work, an apostolate where we would do some works of charity or service to the church. The older members maybe would visit homes, or work supporting poorer people etc.  There were others who we heard would undertake a protracted trip on what was called PPC (Peregrenatio Pro Christo) where a group of Legion of Mary members would go to a parish for example in the U.K. and promote the Legion at the invitation of the parish priest. I remember we younger members stood at the ‘Book Barrow’ selling Catholic Truth Society literature. Others would be involved in distributing religious goods like Rosary Beads, Medals, and holy pictures.

There were on occasion, Legion events like reunions and social evenings where Legionaries would meet from other places. It would always begin with the Rosary and conclude with the Legion prayers. Prayer was and is the bedrock of all of the meetings and social occasions, big and small.

I believe this is what Frank Duff and the other members of the very early association had in their hearts when they met for the first time on this day in 1921. The first meeting of the ‘Association of Our Lady of Mercy’ took place 100 years ago in Myra House on St. Francis Street in Dublin’s south inner city. The first work proposed by the group was to make a visitation of the hospital for the poor known as the Dublin Union. There were around four thousand residents. The Nuns were supportive to the members in their making this visitation for charitable purposes.

Frank Duff had a devotion to St. Louis-Marie De Montfort (1673- 1716) who was a priest and preacher who in his time impressed Pope Clement XI. He was canonized in 1947 by Pope Pius XII. He had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Rosary. On of his most notable works was his book on Our Lady called ‘True Devotion to Mary.’ The Legion of Mary handbook, well known to all Legionaries and used at each meeting is influenced by the writings of De Montfort.

From its humble beginnings, this Association of our Lady of Mercy developed to become the Legion of Mary and like a pebble being dropped into a pool, the ripples spread from Francis Street in Dublin to its base off North Brunswick Street, all around Ireland, and across the world. For me, the Legion emphasises the vocation of the laity by virtue of their baptism. From Day one, September 7^th, 1921, Frank Duff and the men and women of the fledgling Legion took the initiative to work for the spread of the gospel, under the banner of Mary, from their own lived lives, in their families, among their fellow worker and neighbours. Zealous Legionaries, lay women and men, journeyed to far-flung places to witness to the mission of the Legion working on the ground with others to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. The Legion is like an army – an army of gospel people, equipped with zeal for the message of Jesus Christ under the protection of Mary.

Legion of Mary members chosen as envoys like Tullamore native, Alphonsus Lambe went to South America. It is hoped that Alfie will be beatified one day. Well known envoy, Venerable Edel Quinn who hailed from Kanturk, Co. Cork, and went as Envoy to Nairobi. Edel died out there as a relatively young woman out there is someone else who the Legion hopes will be raised to the altars of the Church. Frank Duff’s cause for Beatification is also open. There are many heroic Legionaries, lay men and women across the world, who did great work where they were at, and who many would honour as models of zeal and charity.  For example, I have spoken to many people who remember Tom Doyle, a Legionary who worked with the homeless men of the Morning Star Hostel. Tom was a great example of kindness, charity, and patience with all who stayed in the hostel.

I learned about these men and women when I was in the Legion and these people are the ones the many members across the world look up to. Sanctity should be the art of the possible and when we look at the lives of lay women and men who from their own families and homes spend themselves to live the gospel of Jesus by their example, it is a labour of love. It is a mission that is worth highlighting in the 21^st century.

May the Legion of Mary continue to be missionaries of the gospel of Jesus Christ under the mantle of Mary in our country and our world for the next 100 years and beyond.

“Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?”