Feb 18 William Harrington b. 1567 d. 1594 beat. 1929

Thommy and John

Good morning
I love you

I’m been frequenting libraries lately. Used to be, you could go to the library for quiet along with a comfortable seat and lots to read. Well, these days, here in gso, there is lots to read and there’s hourly access to the internet. Not a comfortable seat to be found. And, quiet does not exist. As I type, there’s an infant wailing; and has been for about twenty minutes; and there’s not sense of relief for the infant or those of us being irritated. Yeh, it’s the mother’s responsibility and frankly this mother is not interested in her or her baby’s impact on the rest of the world; she’s getting what she wants to heck with the rest of us…. This morning I was in the library and there’s a children’s section. It’s a small library and it’s one big open space with a reference desk and low round tables & chairs creating a divide between the adult and the child side. On the child side, leastwise early in the morning, the children [and mothers and, rarely, fathers] are young. The children have a couple of play tables and lots of little kid level shelves for hunting books. Yep, they do get excited and they do start yabbering – and, invariably, the parent shushes them or, rarely, the library staff. On the adult side, well, the idea of a quiet library does not exist and I’ve yet to see library staff play in loco parentis and shush someone. [1522, no infant noise] This morning there were three old farts yammering as if they were at the corner bar or IHOP or their equivalent of starbucks. Loud, of course, because of the hard of hearing – it was not hard at all to hear from the far side of the room….. it’s common for patrons to receive and send cell phone conversations…. It’s not uncommon for patrons to chat away about what one is doing at the moment or simply to pass the time of day socially. It is not uncommon for the encounter at the desk to be full voiced chit chat between the staff and patron –or, and this is my favorite annoyance, among staff…. Yeh, I’m whining. And there’s no impacting these noise makers. Heck, if we can’t find quiet, the reverence of quiet, the respect of quiet in our church, why would I dare expect it in our library? Silly me…. Oh well. [1526; I’d thought for a few seconds that the infant was taken away or put to sleep. Nope…  ]

February 18

Bl. William Harrington b. 1567 d. 1594 beat. 1929

Over and over and over again Butler brings us, the church brings us, I bring to you, a story of an English Martyr. …. Not only were there so many of them, their story is so important and compelling – and, as English and not so distant from our country or our time [if at all], ….

William Harrington was born in Yorkshire.

William Harrington met Edmund Campion, S.J. and afterward decided to become a priest. How much ‘credit’ goes to Campion? The Jesuits in general? To the zeitgeist out of which Campion stepped into William Harrington’s life? to the Holy Spirit? It is very common for us to attribute our vocation, even our work, [not uncommonly our behavior or personality – but I digress], to our encounter with a particular person. At a moment in time, many of us have the aha, this is what I want to be when I grow up – this is my vocation. Fr. Bernard Murphy, S.J., my freshman home room teacher plus latin and English, a curmudgeony old man is such a person in my life. at Cheverus High School. As I was looking to affirm my vocation [to get away from home? To get closer to God?] it’s not uncommon for us to find in the saints’ autobiographies, diaries, letters or their stories written by others, that their vocation is attributable to a particular person. In reality? In honor? How did I choose psychology? Then hospital administration? …. To knowloveandserve God in this world and be with Him in the next. To discern the will of God – Thy Will Be Done. With that as the core, then our vocation comes to us from our responding to our calling. To the degree a person helps us hear the will of God, then let’s be close to that person for our discerning…. To be our mentor, angel, advisor, and all that.

William Harrington was ordained at Rheims [sometimes spelled Reims] in 1592. William Harrington returned to the English mission the same year.

In 1593, William Harrington was arrested in London for being a priest. The coup de gras was that he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn for being a priest servant of the English people…. A traitorous threat to the monarch because he adhered to and would not separate from the Catholic faith and Church. Such persistence can cost you your life or, in this life, the persecution of your monarchs….

I love you,
dad