Why do the wicked prosper and we who are kind, suffer?

I receive many messages and prayer requests through social media asking for intercession for special intentions. They are all heartfelt and sincere and many are urgent. Some people are suffering huge challenges in their lives, and they worry about loved ones, and local, national, and international crises.

Do you ever feel like you are at the end of your tether and that you wish that the difficulties and challenges would stop?

I met two people recently who came to me for blessings, and they are praying that the onslaught of difficulties, complications, and painful challenges will end. For them it seemed to be going on and on. Just when we heal there’s a set-back and it takes a monumental effort to begin again.

A woman asked me on a social media message “Is it selfish for me needing a break, I’m worn out with a difficult family situation.” The simple answer is no, it is not selfish at all, and it may well be exactly what she needs. Another, in tears with challenges in work who sees others being rewarded for bad behaviour while she feels she is punished and ridiculed for her adherence to best practice and honesty. “When will this ever end?”

Read the Book of Job in the Old Testament and see how it seems Job, a faithful servant of God, suffering terribly, has reached his limit and calls out to God in his suffering, exasperation, and exhaustion. He asks; “why do the wicked often go unpunished?” Why who do bad people prosper and those who are righteous suffer? It is a question for the ages.

‘Why do the wicked live on, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? Their children are established in their presence, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them. Their bulls breed without fail, and their cow claves and never miscarries…’

(Job 21: 7-10)

But things change for the better. Gold is tested in fire. The pruned plant bears the best fruit.

We’ve got to trust that things are about to change, and that God will make all things new for us. Jesus suffered misunderstanding, abuse, lies, and violence, and he was mocked, scourged, and crucified. He understands the heartfelt need for justice.

Trust me, your luck will change. Night is darkest just before the dawn. ‘Don’t give up, one minute before the miracle happens.’ Believe.

 

Encounter with a holy spirit

I met an extraordinary woman the other day. I received a phone call asking me about a blessing with the Padre Pio Glove. “Would you be able to come to my home, I am unable to come to you?” I said that would be fine, and since she lived in Dublin it was very convenient.

I called to her house the other evening in an area I know fairly well, and I parked the car around the corner from the house. She came to the door, and I was met with a cheerful smile and a real ceád míle fáilte. We went into the back room, the kitchen and she sat, and we chatted. I was struck by her welcome and by the fact that she was really delighted and grateful I called. It was very evident that here was someone who had a hope and a real joy deep down. As we chatted, she mentioned that while she wasn’t native to Dublin, she had lived and worked here for a few years.

She told me that she had been battling cancer and was now receiving palliative care at home. She said “They tell me that the tumors have metastasized, and they are unable to do anymore. They tell me I have about two to three weeks left.” She said this without the least bit of fear or sadness. At the same time, she added that she hopes that she might get longer and is not for throwing in the towel. She told me she has a great faith in God, in prayer, and in St. Pio.

As we talked, she asked me when my birthday was, and I said October 17^th and she mentioned that I was a Libra. It turns out that we were around the same age, but she was a few months younger than me and that we would have similar knowledge of the times, the music, and the culture of our generation.  I was moved to hear her story and how positive she is despite the grim outcome. She is not one bit afraid and indeed accepts the fact that these may be her last months on this earth.

I told her of a conversation I had with a friar some years ago about the signs of the grace of a happy death. He said we do not get the grace of a happy death until we are dying. I believe she is experiencing this grace in abundance, and it certainly showed to me the other evening. And this grace is to be shared and it spills over to all who encounter her, it is for her but it also benefits others. The grace of a happy death for someone can strengthen our faith and the faith of all who know them and love them. I bet she strengthens all who are assisting her in the hospice home care team. I told her how much I appreciated the time I spent in her company and that this encounter would fortify me and my own faith. I told her that I would ask people to pray for her and with a smile and with the light from her bright eyes, she said thank you.

On this feast of the Most Blessed Trinity, I give thanks for this meeting with a sister who may soon stand before God, yet I pray she will get some more time and I pray that her hope and joy will invite many more people to faith. God is family, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are all invited to enter into this love. We pray for this sister and for her lively faith and thank God that she shares it with all of us, even through the pain and struggle.

The Padre Pio Mitten. What happens when it doesn't work out?

There is no doubt about it but the level of devotion to the relics of St. Pio is very high. Relics are a way to tangibly connect with the saint which helps us to focus in on the fact that they were real, they lived a human life, and they are accessible. From the sacred to the secular, many people are interested in being proximate to someone famous or holy through a relic or a something they owned. I remember some years ago on the Late Late Show, they brought one of Elvis Presley’s Rhinestone Jump suits into the studio in a type of glass tank. The presenter was only allowed to touch it provided he donned two red velvet gloves, and it was so precious that it didn’t stay long as the studio lights were deemed too strong for it to be exposed under them but the interest among the audience was huge.

Padre Pio was someone who drew millions over the years because he had a direct line to God. It is well known that he possessed exceptional gifts like the ability to be in two places at once, the power to read souls, the ability to be able to see things before they happened, and he saw the supernatural and regularly met with the Guardian Angels. However, he couldn’t just turn this off and on. Sometimes he could see nothing as unless it was revealed to him, it wasn’t going to happen. But it was the stigmata, the bleeding wounds of Christ crucified on his hands, feet, and side that intrigued people the most. He disliked this ‘gift’ as it was these wounds that made him an object of curiosity and they had people crowding around him day after day. To protect the bleeding, he wore bandages and fingerless brown mittens on each hand. The friars changed the mittens each day and Padre Pio was given a fresh pair each morning and they kept the many worn ones as relics which we have today.

Of all the relics of Padre Pio, the mitten is the one that attracts people the most. For others, especially those who dislike this kind of devotion, it completely puts them off and they see it as a kind of madness perhaps.

Over the years, I have heard of many instances where people have received favours, healings, and consolation from praying with or a blessing via the Padre Pio mitten. I am busy each day answering emails, messages on social media, text messages, and phone calls asking for me to bring the mitten to hospitals or the homes of someone sick or in difficulty. There is tremendous faith in the prayers of Padre Pio. Brother Laurence Speight who died in 1998 and who promoted the cause of Padre  Pio used to get fulsome thanks for his ministry with the mitten of Padre Pio but he would always say; “It’s not me, it’s their faith.”

But what happens if it doesn’t work out? I am also aware that for some the healing wasn’t to be. There are no guarantees unfortunately and Padre Pio always said that sometimes there may be no healing or solution on this earth. He would always call people to pray. “Pray, pray, pray.” We are continually called to faith. It is faith that opens the door to healing and it strengthens us. And of course Padre Pio is only the conduit if you like. Jesus is the healer, and it is to Him that Padre Pio always points.

  

Nana and Padre Pio. Remembrance of her and my grandparents during the month of the souls.

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina died early in the morning of September 23^rd, 1968, and while he was well known and loved by many thousands across the world, his fame would grow and devotion to him would increase and multiply in the years after his death. Even while he was alive, people would make the journey from all parts of Italy to meet him, receive his blessing, and even book tickets for the sacrament of penance from him. When it was more difficult for people to make these trips, there were those who travelled across continents in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s to come to his Mass in the early hours. Many Irish have met him would have made the long journey to San Giovanni Rotondo to see him.

While he was alive, and while he didn’t like his image being portrayed, there were photographs of him being circulated and it was well known that pieces of his Capuchin habit were being torn and kept as relics. He used to wear the skullcap, but he had to give it up as they were being stolen even from his head by over-zealous people. His brown fingerless mittens, used to cover the plasters over the stigmata were kept as relics after they were worn once and changed.

My mother and father were married in December 1968, and I came along in October 1969. One afternoon in the Spring of 1969, my mother was in work in Abbey St in Dublin city centre, an elderly man came to the office with pictures of this Padre Pio and asking for 2/6d (two and six) in the old money. My mother hadn’t got it at the time, but he gave her the picture anyway and she felt badly not to be able to pay the man who she felt sorry for to leave the office with little money for his work.

When I was a little boy, my Nana, my mother’s mother, used to show me her old black-and-white picture of Padre Pio and I remember she would exclaim that he was a “very holy priest” She had the old traditional image of the Sacred Heart installed in the sitting room with the little red lamp which she used to light each day faithfully.

As a young lad out playing, on Monday, I would be Superman, on Tuesday, I would be Batman, on Wednesday, I would be Adam Ant, and on Thursday, I would dress up as a priest. This make-believe world, long before the internet and smartphones, kept us kids occupied in school, after school, and at the weekends.

As a teenager I was more into Breakdancing, graffiti art, discos, and I had a couple of girlfriends. We sported Adidas Rom, and baggy jeans which broke my mother’s heart trying to afford for us. In my mind I was thinking about priesthood, and I knew some of the priests in our parish who asked me did I ever think of being a priest? Sunday Mass was the limit of my religious practice then although I remember I used to pray a lot more as a younger boy. The seeds of a vocation get sown a long time back in the past.

In 1985 just after my Inter Cert, a brown-habited Capuchin visited my school and spoke of St. Francis of Assisi and the order he founded. Then he mentioned Padre Pio. I began to remember my Nana’s fondness for him and that old black-and-while photo she had in the house in O’Curry Road. He invited us to a “vocations workshop” which I went along to.

The vocations day was in Church St Friary, a church we would have passed by going to the other granny’s house in Glasnevin on Sundays. I met a lot of younger friars, full of fun and energy and I must say I was made very welcome and one of them said he knew I had a vocation to the Capuchin Order because I asked for a second helping of ice cream at dinner.

Time passed and I joined the order and a few years later, I found myself dressed in the Capuchin habit and linking my Nana’s arm as we walked up to Dufferin Avenue close to where she lived and where the Irish Office for Padre Pio was located.  We venerated the mitten of Padre Pio, and she was blessed by it which was an incredible experience for her since she had such a devotion to him. Over the years as a Capuchin student friar, I was involved in the organizing of the Padre Pio days of prayer in Church St with the late Frs. Senan, Angelus, and Barnabas, heroes of mine in the order, and Eileen Maguire, the Director of the Irish Office for Padre Pio until 2018.  I was in Rome for the Beatification of Padre Pio in 1999, and for the Canonization of Padre Pio in 2002.

Nana died on February 1^st, 1991, and I was ordained priest on June 8^th, 1997, and today I find myself as the Director of the Padre Pio Apostolate for the Capuchin Order in Ireland and I imagine that my Nana had something to do with all this because of her love for Padre Pio. My mother wonders too that all those years ago when she hadn’t got that ‘two and six’ to give the old man selling the pictures of Padre Pio, perhaps she gave much more, to her cost to God and Padre Pio.

 

  

XXV

Most people were sad when they heard the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth recently. It was one of those “Where were you when you heard?” moments. The Queen celebrated her silver jubilee in 1977 at a different time in Anglo-Irish relations. At any rate, she went on to have a golden, diamond, and platinum jubilee since then. 25, 50, 60, and 70, has come along in our lifetimes and while 1977 is only 45 years ago, most of us remember it especially as it was the year of Saturday Night Fever, and Star Wars, and ABBA’s hugely successful tour of Australia.

It’s been 25 years since I stood here in this church and Bishop Jim Moriarity, now passed on, ordained me priest in the presence of many of you. The theme of his homily was “A priest for the year 2000, a priest for the new Millennium. The Millennium, the year 2000, we wondered then, didn’t we, what that might mean as we watched them place the “Time in the Slime.” That was the clock ticking down to the year 2000, but even the millennium clock couldn’t survive the waters of the river Liffey! We were worried too about the millennium bug, and would the computers crash and what would happen to the planes flying in the skies when the clock struck twelve across the world on Dec 31^st, 1999, into Jan 1^st, 2000? A lot of water has flowed under O’Connell bridge since then. We have had the Euro, 9/11, President Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth laying a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance. A pope resigning, a Latin-American pope who chose a name like no-other in 2000 years. We had Roy Keane come home from Saipan, and now we wonder will Oasis reform? When I was ordained priest, Fianna Fail were elected to Government and Leo Varadakar was doing his Leaving Cert. Who knew that one day that Fianna Fail would be in Government with Fine Gael?

But let us go way back to the ancient ones who walked this holy ground in the 5^th century. One of them was a monk called Kevin who spent his early life and learning and who was ordained to the priesthood here in this area. Long before Dunnes Stores, or the Community Centre, or the Cuckoo’s Nest, or the Summer Project, or the Cycle Rally, St. Kevin, captivated by his love for God and his desire for solitude, left here to cross the mountains to settle in the monastery of Glendalough.

I could be wrong, but I don’t believe there was another monk or priest who left this area till I did in September 1987. My going away followed some summers of breakdancing, and discos, and dates, and some of you are here, and off I went to the Capuchins and their Franciscan habit and Padre Pio who had me spellbound, and I really had no idea why at 18 years of age. Perhaps if I had waited for a few years and not have gone so young, many of you may not be here, and maybe something else would be happening here today. But I did join, and for a while it was very tough, and awful leaving my family, and tough leaving Kilnamanagh, and especially all of you.

So, the boy from Kilnamanagh grows up to be a priest for the 21^st century and in the intervening years, I have been a school chaplain for ten years, a hospital chaplain for three years, and a parish priest for twelve years but all the while a brother in community in our Cork and Dublin Capuchin houses.

It all started for the Franciscans, nearly eight centuries after St. Kevin, when St. Francis of Assisi knelt before a cross in a little ruined church in down in the valley below the town of Assisi and he was inspired in his prayers to “Go and repair my church which as you can see is falling completely into ruin.” He thought of placing blocks and stones on the broken walls of the church he was kneeling in but soon after his followers, the first Franciscans came, he learned that it was a different rebuilding programme God wanted him for; to build up the church using living stones, people. Today, there are Franciscan brothers and sisters all over the world and the work is as vital today as it was in Francis’ time, so much so, that our Pope has taken the name Francis. Our lives revolve around the call to be lesser brothers and sisters to everyone in fraternity, and prayer to all – especially those most in need, the poor, the homeless, the refugee, and our mother Earth, our common home – the environment.

The call to serve for me, like the other friars and sisters and all in ministry, comes from Jesus. He has set a fire in our hearts and while there are struggles in all our lives, the joy that comes from following Jesus Christ can radiate so that other see it come through and becomes the building blocks of a vocation. Vocations are home grown and come in normal ways and while our world may not understand this, I would argue that priesthood and religious life prayerfully well lived is crucial for society in the 21^st century. I couldn’t do this if I didn’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ which fuels all that I do.

And like everyone, I have my moments, and I have been supported by you all and you are so important to me.  I have shared happy days and sad days with you along the way. I have officiated at weddings in your families, I have baptized your children, and even grandchildren now! I have offered the funeral Mass for some of your loved ones. In all this and more, I have been the privileged one.

As I touched on, it hasn’t been easy. A lot has happened in the church in those intervening years and there has been huge suffering and for most that suffering is a daily cross.

Moving is something that we friars and clergy must do every few years and both we and our people face upheaval when we have to go to new places. You have a new PP; Fr. Frank arrive here in the summer for example. I have recently changed from parish ministry after twelve years to a new ministry with Padre Pio Prayer Groups, and Vocations Ministry.  Following the Lockdown and on the back of the years in parish pastoral ministry and involvement in some diocesan projects, I have been quite tired. But when the move came, this change hit me pretty hard. Why I am saying this is for you all to hear that I thank God for each one of you and the friars are consoled by the friends that God gives us.  We friars are called by God to follow Jesus Christ in the way of Francis of Assisi in the Church of today. He doesn’t leave us alone; he gives us great support. Yes, there are challenges and sometimes the light is dim, and I wonder where God is. But in comes people like you – all of you. And Jesus says through all of you, “I’ve got your back.” “I love you.” “I will not leave you alone.”

So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, mile búiochas…

To friends older and newer, thank you for your love. Even if I might not see some of you a lot, I know you are there, and I value your friendship and I ask you to keep in touch and let us meet now and again. For my part, you are always in my prayers.

To the friars, I said this in 2013 when I was 25 years in the order, I don’t know how you put up with me, I really don’t. I made Perpetual Profession of Vows in 1994 and that day I said I would be a friar for life. I hope I won’t let you down. (That’s another reason for celebrating today, the next milestone for me won’t be till 2038!) I am sorry for being a pain sometimes and causing you hassle along the way. And I’m sorry for being impatient with you as well, and sometimes being a big baby.

To the Poor Clare Sisters. I thank you for your prayerful support from day one.

To my family of origin; Dad, Mam, Kevin, Gráinne, David, Aoife, Lorna, and Clodagh. And now, Tracey, Sam, Louise, Jane, Helen, Peter, Orlagh, and Ross. To the Aunties Deirdre, Maureen, and Uncle Paddy, and the cousins, everyone knows what you mean to me. I would wither away if I hadn’t you, I would die.

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.