It's not natural, it's supernatural.

Some people don’t get why a person will consider religious life or priesthood as a way of life. I believe this is true for several reasons but perhaps the main one is because of the profession of the vow of celibacy. As human beings you see, most people are meant to find a life partner. Relationships are what make the world go around. So unlike what Tom Jones says; it IS unusual. One of our late Capuchins; Fr. Godfrey Mannion once said; “It’s not natural but it’s supernatural.”

So we religious always try to keep one eye on the next world while we go about our daily lives. This is also true of many others who are not monks, nuns or priests, but we religious have promised to daily or even more regularly check in with Jesus Christ in prayer.  So we look to the next world because after all, we believe that we’re going to be there an awful lot longer than we are here on planet earth.

So why did I choose to be a Capuchin? Or as so many people have asked me; what made me become a Capuchin? Well, it took a long time percolating as a young person Breakdancing, Dee-Jaying on our Kilnamanagh Summer Project Radio, and going out with two or three girls. And then joining in 1987 and being professed in 1994 and continuing until my ordination in 1997.

Between the years I studied, was involved in pastoral ministry, laughed, cried, fell in love, felt lonely, and got scared, wondered, and struggled. But deep down too, it felt right, it fit. Just like you, my life can be a day-to-day rollercoaster. But unlike you maybe, few people understand the choice of religious life and that can be hard. Don’t get me wrong, people are very kind.

People sometimes ask; why stay in an organization that some have little time for today and perhaps people are angry with (especially in Ireland for example?) To tell the truth, sometimes in our world it isn’t easy to be identified publicly as a priest or a religious. When was the last time you saw a priest in a collar or a nun in a habit on the streets? (outside of Rome)

A few years ago, I was crossing Stephen’s Green in my habit one evening to go to Loreto College to speak at a fundraiser on behalf of Br. Kevin and the Capuchin Day Centre. I couldn’t get parking near that side of the Green so I parked a bit of a walk away. In the middle of the Green I walked right into a load of teenagers. Suddenly they were calling to their mates to come and see this real monk. I was surrounded and mobile phones were out. Could they have a picture? I stood in with some of the group for the picture – I imagine I was all over Snapchat or Instagram in the days after.

I stay in religious life because I’ve no choice. I can’t leave – I don’t want to. That’s what a vocation does when it’s internalised, in other words when I try to understand it on the inside. It’s a love relationship with Jesus Christ that’s fuelled by prayer. And I need your help too and I’m glad when you say you’ll pray for me and you often do.

So here we are on Vocations Sunday, this year in the teeth of a Global Pandemic, when we can’t meet up or invite you to ‘come and see’ I still invite you who are considering what do with their lives to consider what it might be like to be a member of a religious order or a priest. It’s all about serving – maybe you can handle it. 

Easter 2021

Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who has been crucified. He is not here; he has been raised. Look, there is the place where they laid him.

In Mark’s Gospel, as in each of the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection, there is an invitation to all of us to enter the story. There is an invitation to see the empty tomb and to believe that Jesus Christ is Risen. This invitation is first issued by a young man dressed in white robes to Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome in tonight’s Gospel who are sent to tell the Disciples and Peter this great news.

This invitation is fundamentally a call to faith, and it begins to change things profoundly. It changes the way the disciples see Jesus and it calls them to go out and preach this good news fearlessly. They have no more business harping back to the past and trying to resuscitate the way things were before. It is a new time now and things will never be the same again.

We are witnesses to this great news too. We can see that the stone has been rolled back and inside the darkness of the empty tomb there is no sign of the body. Therefore, believing Christians have no business in the darkness of the tomb. Like the women who fled from the tomb when they learned that Jesus was gone on ahead of them, we must hurry too, there is not a moment to lose.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a new beginning. The disciples fortified by the Holy Spirit, enthusiastically go about the world preaching this great news that Jesus is alive. As the Gospel is preached, it reaches the ears and hearts of many. Our own people received this good news in their lives, in their turn, and they passed it on to us.

There are always risks in embracing something new, but Jesus had challenged the disciples to believe. And the two on the road to Emmaus were reminded of the new mission belonging to those who follow Christ. The Church before the passion and death of Christ is completely different to the Church following the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We are called to faith.

The world has been in the throes of Covid-19 for over 12 months. In this once-in-a-century pandemic, we have painfully witnessed people suffer, become severely ill, and even die. Europe is enduring a fourth wave and here in Ireland, NPHET are working hard to make sure we are safe. Last year, we were confined to celebrating the Easter liturgies behind closed doors and online and on social media because of the Lockdown restrictions. We had no idea that we would be in severe restrictions again this Lent and Easter.

The immediate aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus meant that the disciples fled and hid themselves away. Locked in the upper room with the windows and doors bolted they feared the same fate as Jesus. On the morning of the third day as the women went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus, they found that the stone had been rolled back and seeing a vision of angels they were told that Jesus was not there. They were reminded that Jesus has said this. They were called to action and to go and tell the Disciples that Jesus was going on ahead of them. The two walking on the road to Emmaus also encountered the risen Jesus but they were prevented from recognizing him until he opened the scriptures for them and broke the bread at table. Then their eyes were opened, and their faith was rewarded so much that it spurred them on to action.

In our time in a sense, Covid 19 is confining us to stay apart and away from people in those ‘upper rooms.’ There is darkness and fear around and not being able to gather and meet in church is hard for people of faith. We understand the dangers of groups of people being indoors together, especially given these dangerous variants of the disease. But still to gather safely in church and to pray at a social distance and wearing masks is a source of strength and consolation to so many people. Going to the church in solidarity with our neighbor is also a powerful way of minding our mental health at a time of great stress and fear for all. Again, we pray that we will be permitted to safely worship together soon.  During this darkness, the risen Jesus comes to look for us and while right now, we are unable to fully emerge from the locked rooms of our fears, the light of the risen Lord is coming. We hold out a hope that the time will soon be right thanks to our compliance with the public health guidelines and with the further roll out of the vaccines.

I have heard that the church before Covid and the church that will emerge, around the world, and particularly here in Ireland will be different. We are challenged to imagine new ways of listening to and inviting women and men to take part in church by virtue of our baptism calling. Like the early church after the resurrection, many disciples did not feel comfortable with the newness. Returning to the safety of the old and familiar was preferable. But the Holy Spirit was powerfully at work urging the disciples to preach the Good News. I believe this is happening again today and while this may be scary, it is also exciting and to be part of what will emerge with God’s help. This is what the Risen Jesus is calling us to going forward. Let us be part of the endeavor – it’s the work of the Spirit.

“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, yes to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 18-20)

 

The time has come

Jesus understands suffering.

Jesus gets how people suffer. He gets it

We can confidently place our fears at his feet.

Jesus knows the heartache we feel being separated from loved ones because of the virus. He understands.

He feels the pain of all who miss someone.

Jesus is conscious of the exhaustion of our healthcare workers, nursing, and medical staff.

Jesus holds all of us who are afraid and comforts all who are worn-out with it all.

Jesus will stay with us for the duration of any further lockdown. He is with us every step of the way.

We know this because Jesus was led into the desert -to a place of danger, extremes, and foreboding.

Jesus understands what we are going through.

All through his public ministry the most wretched found a listening ear, a non-judgmental heart, and healing and forgiveness of sins. And those who were written off by the established church leadership of the time were called by name; “Come follow me.”

He himself stood at the frontier of suffering and crossed the border right into pain, shame, and rejection.

When we walk, as we are, through this Covid ‘valley of death’ we have Jesus walk with us, and like the poem ‘Footprints’ carrying us.

Jesus is telling us, despite social distancing, we still have each other.

And there is hope.

We are moving through it.

Daylight is coming.

The time has come.

People have been asking about Ash Wednesday. We do not have a supply of ashes this year as the church suppliers have not had much business since the churches have been closed to congregations for much of last year. Ashes are made by burning the palm from the previous Palm Sunday. We still have that supply of palm as we were closed to congregations last year. Our Paschal Candle from 2020 still has a lot of wax in it when it would normally be burned down by now. Because of Level 5 restrictions we are unable to have people come and queue for blessed ashes.

We went into Lockdown last March during Lent and the churches closed all through the remainder of Lent, into Easter and over Eastertime. We celebrated Holy Week, the Paschal Triduum, lit the Paschal Candle, and celebrated Easter time with empty churches.

A journalist was ringing around different clergy asking about our online ministry and what of the future? I told her our Facebook Mass each day since last March has been very well supported and our Rosary at 8.00 p.m. each night, also on the Priorswood Parish Facebook page is a spectacular success. We are blessed to have upwards of 220 different accounts on with an average of 2 thousand plus views. She asked me about Easter, and I said it may be that we will not have the congregations back unless its safe. As Archbishop Farrell has said, “Everything we do must always be in accord with NPHET guidelines.”

Christmas was difficult for parishes with Covid 19 volunteers, social distancing, and sanitizing before and after Masses. We were constantly on guard in case the guidelines on numbers would be breached. And yet by and large all our Churches were safe places. I hope we never have a Christmas like it again – it was completely stressful.

This year, Lent begins in two days’ time with Ash Wednesday. Wearing ashes traditionally reminds me and others that we are going to do something special for Lent. We will try to be more charitable, or less selfish, or be more moderate and sober, perhaps giving up alcohol or tobacco. Self-denial is a powerful way to get into the spirit of Lent. On Ash Wednesday and on Good Friday we are called to fast and abstain. To fast from food, eating one meal and two collations (small portions of food) and to abstain from meat and alcohol. However, we need to be sensible also too. If one does not have good health, and is on medication, or one is older, there is no obligation to fast.

In a way we have been living a kind of Lent with the pandemic since last March. All of us have struggled with the restrictions or have feared contracting Covid. Too many have been sick, and sadly, many have died. Our medical front line heroes have really suffered. Just look at the huge numbers that have been hospitalised. Businesses and jobs have suffered greatly. We pray for the continued success for the roll out of the vaccines and please God we pray for a safe return to the time when we can meet and hold our loved ones again.

We will bless any ashes you may have during our Mass on Facebook live on the Priorswood Parish page. Taking our lead from St. Mel’s Cathedral Parish, Longford, we invite you to use some cold ash from the fireplace or some soil from the garden which we will bless remotely.

 

 

  

You can't sunbathe in a hurricane

I was advised last year not to look at too much news but rather to ration the news to one bulletin per day. This is good advice, but I acknowledge that I’m finding it difficult for three reasons. First, it is automatic. Taking up the phone is now a force of habit and is done without thinking. Second, the response to this pandemic demands we stay apart from people. Looking at the phone is a way of finding out is anyone out there. Third, I am taking up the phone to see the news in the hope that there are hints of a good news story in the midst of the misery.

Of course we are not alone and without a doubt there is solidarity in that we are all in this together. Social media has afforded us the mechanism to reach out in a myriad of ways not least in making us smile and laugh. However, sometimes we can’t help feeling alone in the eye of the storm and the construction of a word or a sentence on a WhatsApp group can take a few attempts. Sometimes it’s better to say nothing or hope they will say are you okay?

Prayer is a challenge too. The unbeliever would say despite all the prayers in 2020, millions still got sick and died of Covid 19. The believer would say that God hears our prayers and through medical science, nursing and medical staff, care staff, and front-line staff, the Holy Spirit is working in the world. And for people who regularly turn to prayer for themselves and for others and are finding it a challenge, the saying ‘You can’t sunbathe in a hurricane’ makes sense.

Since all this began, I’ve sat quietly with the Lord. I don’t mind admitting I’ve felt it is a one-way street, that I am getting no answers to my prayers for an end to this thing. I know that believers in their millions have been asking God for the same thing. Many of them have had terrible times in that they have lost loved ones and have become sick themselves.  Here in our corner of the world, we’ve prayed the Mass on Facebook each day and the Rosary each evening. We have been joined by an increasing international number of our Rosary family. This has been a wonderful blessing.

Prayer does work and miracles do happen. I am contacted daily through three different Facebook feeds for prayers for intentions. People reach out in desperation and many are at their wits end. Naturally, there might be no answer in this world and sometimes the answer to prayers will not work out the way we wish.  Yet many more get back in touch with gratitude for prayers answered too.  I find myself being joyful when someone thanks me for prayers that were answered, and I get discouraged when there is no earthly answer. Sometimes the discouragement is compounded depending on what kind of form I am in. Covid 19 has sometimes succeeded in frightening me and this has a bearing on whether I am happy or sad.

Even though I’m faithful to the Government guidelines, the fear is that I will wake up with Covid. I develop symptoms regularly in my head. And if I do not feel them, it must be because I am asymptomatic. If I do not get Covid, surely someone I love will and worse still, it will be my fault for not staying at home like NPHET says we should. Hands up who else feels like that? Fear and isolation can do this to us on the inside. So, we hope and pray for an end to this and its coming. While prayer is tough now and putting language on how we feel is difficult, I refuse to give up on hope. Still, there is not a lot left in the tank.

Catholic Grandparents Association. January Faith Café 2021

My Faith Story is completely caught up my relationship with my grandparents, especially my maternal grandparents, and in particular my mother’s mother, who we called Nana. She was born weeks before Padraig Piaras and the other leaders of the Easter Rising entered the GPO in 1916.

Nana, (died 1991) Grandpop (died 1994) Granny Greta, (died 1992) and Grandad (died 1977) grew up in the infancy of the state during the 1920’s, and 30’s and it was a different Ireland to the place we have now, and a different church to the church we have now.

They coped with a lot of hardship, but there was a real sense of meitheal and solidarity between families and neighbours when our grandparents were growing up and starting their families. A huge amount of what they did revolved around the local parish and the church. Devotions, sodalities, the Legion of Mary, now in its centenary year this year. By and large they were a generous and kind people who did not shut the door on others.

The second half of the 20^th century saw monumental change, and especially in Ireland. In 1962, RTE began broadcasting on television, and despite Dev’s fears, Gay Byrne began the Late Late Show, now in its 59^th season. Pope John XXIII called his Council and my grandparents, your parents, got used to going to Mass in the vernacular for example. They had to contend with decimalisation instead of pounds, shillings, and pence.

The clergy were blessed and lucky to have a great cohort of supportive laity though some perhaps didn’t appreciate this and took it for granted. Sadly, there were clergy and religious who didn’t live as men and women of the gospel and to this day there is a blight on the story of religion in Ireland. While this is not a conversation for tonight, we know the report of the Commission into the Mother and Baby Homes will prove terribly painful for many people, indeed especially for those directly affected.

Faith, prayer, church, Mass was all very much part of the language of my life growing up going between my home and my grandparent’s houses. We were not brainwashed but the church was part of my story and my formation to some extent. Thanks to Vat II and the social teaching of Pope Paul and Pope John Paul II in particular, and the response of Archbishop Ryan in Dublin for example, the church was expanding and building churches and schools with the help of the people via SHARE.

If the Council didn’t shake the church up over time, the earthquake happened when Paul VI died. Paul had an alarm clock which kept good time from the time he got it in Poland when he was a papal diplomat in the 1940’s. Author Peter Hebblethwaite wrote that when Paul died, the Polish alarm clock suddenly went off. Cardinal Albino Luciani who had been elected pope to succeed Paul in August 1978 died suddenly. The Archbishop of Krakow, 58-year-old Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope on October 16^th, 1978. The papacy which had been emerging from behind the walls of the Vatican since Pope John, and Pope Paul, burst out from St. Peter’s Square. In the first year of the pontificate, John Paul II travelled to Mexico, Poland, Ireland, and the United States of America. Everybody was talking about John Paul II

As the time went on, perhaps it became more difficult – especially as you saw how flagrantly some clergy did not live up to their gospel calling – which would be expected of men of God. Yet, my grandparents and parents, the domestic church, laid a foundation from the kitchen table which helped people like me to see the bigger picture. And that bigger picture is that the church is belongs to Christ. And it is made up of ‘God’s holy and faithful people’' in the words of Pope Francis. Yet, Jesus never said it was going to be easy, but he promised to be with his church; c.f. Matt 28 (“I am with you always…”) and John 16:33 (“Simon, Satan has got his wish to sift you all like wheat, but I have prayed for you, Simon, and when you have recovered, you must strengthen your brothers. In the world you will have troubles, but have courage, I have conquered the world.”) We need to be reminded of this and through this, of the people who have kept the faith despite the huge challenges and the scandals.

Our grandparents made us what we are. It may sound like a cliché, but we stand on the shoulders of giants. Not just from a faith point of view but because they are the engine room of the family, the heartbeat of the home where the faith was transmitted. We felt safe when they were around.

Pope Benedict XVI says that ‘grandparents are a source of enrichment for families, for the church, and for society’ in his beautiful 2008 prayer. Pope Francis says Grandparents are ‘the living memory of the family.’ He often refers to grandmothers and grandfathers especially as he remembers his own grandparents. Never was the vocation of grandparents more necessary than today, you are a powerful image of God in our world and in the heart of the family for 2021.

You are a source of strength for the young people when they are struggling because you have life’s experience. You have the wisdom of years and perhaps are more qualified to encourage the kids today. Indeed, during the height of the gangland violence in Dublin city in the last few years, which we pray for an end to soon, Archbishop Martin walked with many grandparents of the north inner-city community and he appealed to those engaged in violence to ‘listen to their grandmothers. ‘

Covid 19 is crucifying our society and is cocooning our grandparents in these days. Seeing pictures on television and on our social media of nana’s and granddads meeting their grandchildren and great grandchildren from inside the living room windows is hard to watch. God grant that soon; our grandparents can hold us again and we can all hold each other with no fear.

We need to focus on the positives. The Vaccines are being rolled out and each day while we hear the grim news of more infections, we are hearing too of the vaccinations. So, the end is in sight and the Cavalry is on the hills.

Lord bless the healing hands of our nursing, medical, and surgical staff. Bless the immunologists, virologists, and scientists who have developed these vaccines. God speed the effort to make us all well. May God bless our grandparents through Louis and Zelie Martin and Joachim and Anne. Amen.

 

 

Baptism - A time of new beginnings...

We remember these times, and the past year, 2020, more for what we missed and lost than for what we could do, or where we could go, and who we could be with. We will recall it as a time when we had to stay apart from others, and to have no close contact with people. We learned a new language too, like support bubbles, social distancing, mRNA, and other abbreviations. And when shops, businesses, and banks, would be wary of customers coming in wearing face coverings, today you may not be admitted unless you sport a facemask.

In the church, we will remember 2020 as the year when we had to close churches and stop people from coming to Mass. We resorted, successfully in the main, to an online presence and certainly here in Priorswood, our weekday Mass and evening Rosary on Facebook live and on the webcam on Sundays has been not only a powerful time of solidarity but a lifeline for all concerned. We have lost but we have gained too.

While we can’t say Mass with the people right now, and only hold funeral Masses with 10 people, and while we can’t book in or celebrate Baptisms, we can gather with people from all over the world on our social media timeline. God closes one door, but he opens another.

Today, we see Jesus coming to John for Baptism. The Baptist is the one who prepares the way for Jesus. For those following John and accepting baptism it was a chance for them to begin again with a new confidence. When Jesus descended into the waters of the Jordan and ascended, the heavens were torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descended on him and the voice said; “You are my Son, the Beloved, my favour rests on you.”

One of the ceremonies that has suffered in the parish because of Covid is the baptism ceremony. Indeed, this was the parish where I celebrated my first baptism as a deacon back in 1996, and I still remember her name. We have been unable to book in any baptisms and there are many who are waiting for the baptism of their baby to take place. I know how painful this can be, and Fathers Bill and Terence would understand this. Declan, who was ordained to the permanent Diaconate in August, also understands because as a deacon, he is one of the ordinary ministers of baptism.

One of the cornerstones of the ministry of a parish is to welcome a new member of our church among us and we here would acknowledge the importance and the significance of this, both infant baptism and adult baptism. Baptism is the gateway to the other sacraments of the church and the same Holy Spirit that descended like a dove on Jesus, comes down upon the child or adult who is baptised. Holiness hits us when we are baptised and this is for our life on earth, and for the eternal life.

I was baptised in late October 1969 in the Church of the Holy Child, Whitehall, the parish where my parents were living in when they got married. My mother recalls that Fr. Tom Stack who baptised me during the ceremony said, “Baptism is a time of new beginnings…” I reconnected with Tom Stack years later and he brought my baptism candle up in the offertory procession at my first Mass after ordination in June 1997. Just last month, Msgr. Tom Stack died after 60 years of priesthood. A member of the Radharc team of priests, Tom made pioneering programmes from the 1960’s to the 1990’s from a religious, cultural, and social point of view.  I am grateful to God to be here in Priorswood during these scary and challenging times. I am thankful for my Capuchin brothers and my blood family. I believe Covid 19 is a crucifixion but if it has anything going for it, perhaps it has reminded us how much we miss those we love. And I am full of gratitude for Msgr. Tom Stack and my baptism where it all began for me as it is for all Christians.