101229 John the Apostle and other feeloughts

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you,
101229, 1902

Feeloughts about y’all, your baptisms, the feast of one of your patrons. (for John Kenneth John Nolan.) I’m going to start this blog with Catholic Encyclopedia entry on John the Apostle. It’s cold and I’ve been sitting in the ‘low temp’ for a couple of hours. I have another hour and a half before I must leave. Besides, I can’t wait much past eight thirty to make my decision about going to my Godfather’s wake and funeral. Videbimus. Ora pro eo.


December 27

St John the Apostle
Patron of Asia Minor


New Testament accounts

According to the usual and entirely probable explanation John and James the Greater (the sons of Thunder) became for a time disciples of John the Baptist, and were called by Christ from the circle of John's followers, together with Peter and Andrew, to become His disciples (John 1:35-42).

These ‘first four’ recognized something in John the Baptist and went to him to find the Messiah. They were close, very close. No doubt they did what John the Baptist preached – they repented to make the way of the Lord, the one whose sandal straps John the Baptist could not touch. Even if He were his cousin. … And you? We have many priests and prophets today pointing us to Jesus – in faith and religion Have you chosen a John the Baptist who will guide you to the One True Church? Or are you hanging with another type of person? Choose wisely. Use John the Baptist as your guide in your selection.


After the second return from Judea, John and his companions went back again to their trade of fishing until he and they were called by Christ to definitive discipleship (Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20).

Be patient. Choose wisely. Know that Jesus is calling you. Find The Way to Him. Read the calling of the apostles, especially the Apostle whom Jesus loved – because He loves you as much. Understand and imitate what John the Apostle did.



The conclusion is drawn that John was than James. With two brothers, one is the younger. Thom is the younger. Ken is the younger – actually the middle brother of three. We, too, had a James: who died in November 1967 – a cold, blustery time in New York City and in the Berkshires at Shadowbrook. But I digress.


Peter, James, and John were the only witnesses of the raising of Jairus's daughter (Mark 5:37), of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1), and of the Agony in Gethsemani (Matthew 26:37). John was a witness from the beginning. He saw a girl raised from the dead. John saw the Transfiguration. [I’m sure he didn’t think he was on an LSD trip – tho that could explain the book of revelations?] John was called to come closer and pray a little while with Jesus at Gethsemani. And still, John does not record his believing until he stepped into the cave and saw.



Only John and Peter were sent into the city to make the preparation for the Last Supper (Luke 22:8). According to the general interpretation, John was also that "other disciple" who with Peter followed Christ after the arrest into the palace of the high-priest (John 18:15).
When you put the John passages together, it looks like he and Peter were something of a pair. Little brother kind of thing? Apprentice/mentor? When you pair off, and it’s an inevitable thing to do, choose as wisely as John did. Be sure your sidekick is like Peter.


At the Supper itself his place was next to Christ on Whose breast he leaned (John 13:23, 25).
John alone remained near his beloved Master at the foot of the Cross on Calvary with the Mother of Jesus and the pious women, and took the desolate Mother into his care as the last legacy of Christ (John 19:25-27).


I’m too cold and my mind is too much on driving to New York….

I love you
Dad
1926

101229 John the Baptist, readings from his feast 12-27

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you,
101229, 1824

Feeloughts about y’all, your baptisms, the feast of one of your patrons. (for John Kenneth John Nolan.)


December 27

St John the Apostle
Patron of Asia Minor

I’m starting with the readings for John’s feast day: a tiny sliver of the biblical knowledge we have of the man. Go to the primary sources. Read John’s letters – if you will, letters from an old man. Read about John in Acts, John as maturing man. Read about John in the Gospels: not only the one ‘who loved Him the most’ or ‘loved by Him the best’ but probably the youngest of the twelve. Go to the primary sources; plus the biographies and the tradition of our Church that tells us about this man and what HE means to us today. Get to know the man, his heart; and embrace his spirit.


1 Jn 1:1-4

Beloved:
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life; for the life was made visible;
we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us; what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
We are writing this so that our joy may be complete.

Straight forward testimony. To help your belief and to help alleviate your disbelief. John was there at the beginning – among the first called, among the first to see that Jesus was risen from the dead. Begin your fellowship with John; and with and through him, with the Father, His Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12
R. (12) Rejoice in the Lord, you just!

In what, in whom do you rejoice. With the psalmist and the rest of us, rejoice in the Lord. Such rejoicing will help you be just. And if you are just now, you would know in your heart to Rejoice now and forever in the Lord. Go for it.

The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice; let the many isles be glad. Clouds and darkness are around him, justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne.

In the era of Kings on earth who really meant something, the people rejoiced in their king. Put yourself in the psalmist’s times. The Lord is King. Thus, and without hesitation for He is such a marvelous King, Rejoice. Since He is King of all the world, let the earth, the many isles rejoice and be glad. And if the very foundation upon which we stand rejoices, hear the earth cry out to our Lord and King. Rejoice yourself with all creation. Don’t stand aside. Don’t think you can run and hide. Rejoice. Get over it! Get with it! Rejoice. Rejoicing is so much more funner than all the alternative responses to our Lord and King.

Justice and Judgment are the foundation of His throne. We like the mercy part. We accept the justice part and are relieved by it. Do not forget the judgment part. We are judged and will be judged. He will ask you – how much did you rejoice in the Lord your King?


The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the LORD of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his justice, and all peoples see his glory.

The Lord is hot stuff! Not even mountains stand when he sears into them. Think how His ‘look’ will affect you. … The heavens proclaim His justice. Not just the earth, not only the foundation of His throne, but the angels and saints, all the heavens proclaim the King’s justice. … And all peoples see His glory. All peoples. And all people. Let your heart proclaim what your eyes see – the Glory of God. And Rejoice in it! Gaudate!


Light dawns for the just; and gladness, for the upright of heart. Be glad in the LORD, you just,
and give thanks to his holy name.


If you are just, Light dawns for you. What if you are not just? What if you are not upright? Be Just – rejoice, be glad, and give thanks that He is our God, our Lord, our King. Imagine this psalm as rock music. Rejoice!


Jn 20:1a and 2-8

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they put him.”

There was a lot of running around on this ‘first Sunday.’ We also have four different versions of the events on this day. Since John was an eye witness and participant, let’s go with he knew what he wrote about. And, since the conversation tonight is about John, I’ll pass by the commentary that the women’s arriving first demands.

John tells us Mary Magdalene ran to him and Peter with this astonishing news, frightened no doubt and shocked – where’s the body?!


So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.

John ran faster than Peter – and John wants you to know that. So there! We won’t also mention that on this ‘first Sunday,’ John was a ‘young man’ and Peter, the Rock, had quite a few years on the pup. John got to the tomb first, looked in, but did not go in. The boy knew his place. Peter first. Or was it simply that the younger man, seeing the tomb empty except for the burial clothes didn’t dare go in. Mary Magdalene was right, the body’s not here. They took it?! What’s up? Ole John was NOT going in the tomb first.


When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.

John saw and John believed. Those of us who rebel against the bad rap Thomas gets for ‘doubting,’ would like you to know that John too did not believe until he himself “saw.” That’s the good news. He got to see. And he believed. And, like in his letter, he wants us to believe, with our own gift of faith: leaning on his first hand experience when necessary. See and believe! Let yourself see what John saw. And believe.

I love you,
Dad
1857

101229 remembering baptisms 1989, 1987, 1949

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you
101229, 1757


The week since Christmas….

In 1987, this week, Jack was baptized at St. Elizabeth’s of Hungry, NYC. By Kevin O’Connell, S.J., the priest who officiated at your parents’ wedding.

In 1989, this week, Thom was baptized at St. Elizabeth’s of Hungry, NYC. By Kevin O’Connell, S.J., the priest who officiated at your parents’ wedding.

So, Happy Birthday to boffya.

To be on the safest side, I did the pouring (little droplets) of holy water and saying of the words on the days you were born.

It was important to me and supported by your mother – who was not yet Catholic – that you be born in or baptized in NYC. We, for the practical reasons, chose baptized in. We also chose to do the ceremony at St Elizabeth’s of Hungry – where I was baptized in 1949. (August 17th, I think. I know it was August and not July.) There are pictures of your ceremonies and the participants – relatives from your father’s, grandfather’s, and grandmother’s families plus your mother’s sister, godmother to each of you, who arrived late to both Christenings. Your uncle Ken is your Godfather. In a similar way for me: my Godfather was my father's brother; my Godmother was my mother's sister, Julia aka Putsey.

And think of this. Fortuitously, not because we picked the days because of the feasts, y’all were baptized on the feasts of John the Evangelist and Thomas Beckett. (I think I've matched up the dates correctly.) A biggie for each of you! This is the reason why I’ve pulled up short on finishing John Bosco and Thomas Aquinas, the January saints left to do. For my feeloughts about y’all and your baptisms via the stories of the two biggie saints.

There are lots of pictures of your homecoming from the hospital after your births. There are lots of pictures of your baptisms, the trip to and from, the small celebration we were able to give you and the relatives who came at the fancy hotels on The Park. Deo Gratias!

I love you,
Dad
1812

101229 in memoriam

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you
101229, 1736


The week since Christmas….

Yesterday morning, my Godfather and Uncle, Frank, died. After a long deterioration and an extended period in a nursing home. Requiescat in pacem! Ora pro eo!

Frank was the oldest of the Nolan Clan. New York City Policeman, then Captain, then lawyer. His oldest two children, Johnnie and Ken, are the only two cousins older than I. (Johnnie has died.)

I remember Uncle Frank as a big, strapping man – think tough NYC cop: tall, dark, handsome Mick. I remember always liking to go visit at his house, especially Long Beach – I’ve got some ‘playing with Ken’ stories from Long Beach.

His being my Godfather was something not talked about and not called upon. I did go to him a few times over the years for his advice and help – because, after Uncle Jimmy died, Uncle Frank was the only cop in the family. And, when I needed legal advice and he was a lawyer, I asked him. Maybe I got a special immediate and thorough response because I was his Godson, but I don’t think so; because I was his nephew, his brother Ken’s son, that would be plenty enough.

Here I sit, in Greensboro. The wake is tomorrow and funeral on Friday. No room on the train. No plane seats available to anywhere close to NYC [Baltimore is not close]. It’s a ten hour drive. I may go anyway. I feel I must. [Uncle Arch died just recently and I made the train trip for is wake and funeral.] Unfortunately, your grandfather, my father, Frank’s brother is unable to travel from Chicago. He will not be at the Wake/funeral. He will have to grieve and pray alone. That sux!

There are a gazillion Frank-stories within the clan. Some of them are also my stories: from as young as preschool and as recent as the one time I visited him in the nursing home. If my father is 85, Frank was, I guess, 88. From the readings for the feast of Holy Family: Sirach – “My son, take care of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he lives. Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him.” I hope y’all take care of your old father half as well as Frank’s children have taken care of him. (And better than your father and uncle have been allowed to take care of our father.)

I love you,
Dad
1755

28 January John of Reomay 539

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you
101221, 1707

Chipping my way through January – to be done before Christmas I have only John Bosco and Thomas Aquinas (to finish up, for this year). There’s also Francis de Sales, Timothy and Titus; but I don’t count them as required.


January 28

John of Reomay b. 425 d. 539

These dates are according to OSV encyclopedia. 114 is a long time in any era, but sixth century? That’s a long time to be a monastic, a hermit, a holy man….

Born in Dijon, John became a hermit at Reomay. Look it up. It’s still on the map of France. When too many disciples showed up, John skedaddled to Lerins. Hermits were holy men who taught disciples. I guess the crowd got a bit too big for this saintly hermit. Know your limits. Know your niche. Know what you can do. Stretch but don’t find yourself in a situation where you are unable to give your best just because you hesitate to say no, no mas, enough, I’m outta here.

Pioneer of Western monasticism in France. Someone’s gotta be first, a pioneer. A rule of marketing – better to be first into the market than perfect. I guess we’re a market of forgivers of firsters. What will you be a pioneer for? Have already pioneered? Do not be afraid. Jump in. Let your ideas, your dreams, your visions make the world a better place; your corner of the world will seep into the ground water, don’t hold back, we’re depending on you.

John returned to Reomay at the request of the local bishop. Obedience. No matter your vocation, obedience is at the core of our faith. Not my will, Thy will be done. And when God puts us into the hands of others, we owe them our obedience as well. For our wellbeing and the good of all. Listen. It’s impossible to know whose voice God will use to call you. Samuel thought it was Eli calling him.

Upon his return, John of Reomay introduced new rules to the community and founded an abbey – now known as Mount St Jean. Each new leader must bring his rules book. It’s best if we can take a set off the shelf and promulgate them – like John of Reomay’s use of the rules of St Macanus – yeah, the Irish monks had been in the area before mid-sixth century. It’s not so much which rules, it’s persuading people to follow them, convincing them that these are the rules that are right and good and necessary for them, right now. Lead by example and by insistence vis a vis all the rules.

John of Reomay led the abbey for many years. John of Reomay had the great reputation of sanctity and made famous because of the miracles worked through him. What’s the reputation of your leadership, your governance? Is it saintly? And what are the miracles wrought by your efforts? Try a peek at celestebehe.blogspot.com to get a down to earth sense of the miracles that come into our lives; the miracles that we can, as the movie wanted us to do, pay it forward (v. payback the good done to you, pay it forward, three for each one.)

I love you
Dad
1731

today, 101221, 1644

I just read a couple of my long ago entries. long winded and a half. from now on, one saint per entry.

26 January Conan d. 648

Thom and Jack,
Good morning, I love you
101221, 1543

This has turned out to be a better day than expected. I’m still working on not expecting anything so every day can be that way.

The Christmas season is a time for friends to appear out of nowhere – on the net, by phone, a chance encounter, a visit. Today has been a little of all of that.

Plus, someone actually asked my ‘expert opinion.’ It’s hard to remember, sometimes, that I am an expert on a thing or two. Mental health advocacy is today’s topic. See how ancient the roots of my expertise? “Mental Health,” although still a term widely used in the public and notforprofit sectors is ancient nomenclature - pre 1960's. The question had to do with advocacy.

Beyond being a proud gadfly in every arena, being an advocate for the mentally ill is a vocation for me. Gadflies don’t care how things turn out. Advocates are vested in the results. As an advisor with no dog in the hunt, I can pretty much say what’s right and what’s wrong and let the involved parties sort it out. This is an arena where black and white are the best colors.

Then I read the pope’s speech to the cardinals in Rome. It was mostly about his admonition to us, to the Church leaders in particular, about rectifying as well as preventing the horrors of our sexual abuse sins. “We must accept this humiliation as an exhortation to truth and a call to renewal. Only the truth saves. We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustice that has occurred. We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen. We must discover a new resoluteness in faith and in doing good. We must be capable of doing penance. We must be determined to make every possible effort in priestly formation to prevent anything of the kind from happening again.”

Yes we must. All of us. This is not about programs but about penance. This is not about to whom we report offenses but that we must prevent them, must stop them before they happen. Sure, part of this is training. Part is selection. Part of this is sifting through our current clergy and excising from clerical duties those who have tolerated, abetted, hidden these sins – public penance.

The pope went on to say we must also assess the context, the culture, in which these sins occurred. Unfortunately, he spoke of the world’s culture not the milieu of the Church from the curia to the parish rectory (where many of these sins took place). We must not only straighten out our priests but also those of us who depend on them. We must listen to our children. We must look at our priests with the same human wariness we observe all the people we turn our children over to.

I suggest we each make part of our piety a penance for these sins. Not unlike our responsibility for Life. Unless we imbue our routine, daily prayer with our personal focus on penance and petition for protection, our “Church” will not make this change. Ora pro nobis.

And then there was the news out of Phoenix. Bishop Olmstead erasing the Catholic marquee from St. Joseph’s Hospital. What an ass. Excuse my French and my humble opinion. As the CEO of the hospital said: "If we are presented with a situation in which a pregnancy threatens a woman's life, our first priority is to save both patients. If that is not possible, we will always save the life we can save, and that is what we did in this case. Morally, ethically, and legally, we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save."

"In the decision to abort, the equal dignity of mother and her baby were not both upheld," Olmsted said at a news conference announcing the decision. "The mother had a disease that needed to be treated. But instead of treating the disease, St. Joseph's medical staff and ethics committee decided that the healthy, 11-week-old baby should be directly killed."

How could people of good faith and informed conscience differ so broadly? The Bishop, I believe, let his ego get ahead of his heart and his soul. The hospital's ethics team concluded the pregnancy could be ended under the church's ethical directives because "the goal was not to end the pregnancy but save the mother's life," the hospital said.

I’m guessing that the viewpoints I wrote for the News Herald won’t make it to print. If the bishop wishes to educate, be still, be quiet, be docile is the Church’s modus vivandi for educating. Read the recent America about ‘magesterium’ and the difference between educating and governing. As Bp Olmstead demonstrates, governing is what our bishops lead with.

And then there’s the saint of today’s musings – Conan, Irish, January 26. I’m skipping past Francis DeSales for now. Too big a saint for my minichews left at this time of year. I’ve also read my material on Thomas Aquinas again and again. I should be writing as I read but the encyclopedia version of his writings and contributions are too hard for me to chew then respond to cogently. I’ll get there though. Aquinas is a Thomas – about whom we should know a lot.


January 26

Conan aka Mochonna d. 648

He is said to have been a model of piety from his infancy. This is both a grace-filled inclination and a habit developed and shaped and reinforced by holy parenting. Unfortunately, you did not get the consistency of parenting that supported your pieties. Unfortunately, your mother is not a believer – in general but in this specific – in discipline. The discipline necessary for freedom. The discipline necessary for respect. The discipline necessary to show outwardly your conformity with the one true church. Alas, you are now of an age where you are more responsible for your own piety. You will soon be responsible for your children’s pieties [if you have that vocation and are so blessed]. So get with it, become a model of piety – for yourself, your family, your children, ….

Conan may have taught Saint Fiacre during the latter's childhood. Who will someday record in their biography that you taught them? As important as it is that you select and cling to the best and holiest teachers, it is more important for you to teach others in a way that you will be recalled in their martyrology. Teach with the sainthood of your pupils in mind.

Conan apparently lived and worked in the Hebrides, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, where he finished the evangelization of the people begun by Saint Patrick. Now that must have been one heckuva act to follow. I’ve been luckier in most of my jobs. As a fixer upper, I’ve come in after someone else has not been as successful as they had hoped. By contrast, initially anyway, I’ve looked pretty good. The results speak for themselves. I am sure that everyone who followed me did much better. In part because I left my own crap behind that needed cleaning up. And because of the good work we did left a strong springboard to leap into the future. Pick your positions wisely. It does matter who proceeded you and what they left behind. It’s better to follow a Patrick who left lots of graces scattered about.

Conan was probably consecrated bishop of the Isle of Man, where he is venerated as the first bishop of Sodor, the ‘southern islands’ of that area. Conan is also described as "Bishop of Inis-Patrick" which describes his zeal for souls on the Isle of Mann. Bishop, Abbot, Evangelist – that’s what our Irish saints did in those days. Be a little of each yourself. Remember the Graces of your baptism and the Gifts of your confirmation. Get them out. Shake the dust off of them. Put them to use.

Troparion of St Conan tone 1
We celebrate thy radiant memory,/ all honourable Hierarch Conan,/ consolation of the afflicted, teacher of the true faith/ and shepherd of souls on the Isle of Man./ Pray for our efforts, feeble as they are,/ and save our souls.

I love you,
Dad
1628

101218 re: Fourth Sunday of Advent

Jack and Thom,
Good morning, I love you.
101218, 1249

There were coffee houses galore when I was in college. Unfortunately for me, most of them were also smoke-filled hang outs. And hang out I did. Played bridge. Wrote letters and diary. Read the philosophical tomes of the times. Today, there’s Starbucks and the laptop.

Which is worse – to be excoriated [albeit anonymously] as a venter and anti-foreigner, or to be ignored totally? I suppose, given your behaviors, you’d choose the latter. I suggest that the modus says more about the doer than the target of their attentions. Yes, ignoring is attention.

I noticed this morning that I hadn’t posted on the blog since the 14th, that’d be Tuesday to today’s Saturday. There was the freezing rain on Thursday which kept me indoors and away from the 277 reported accidents in that 24-hour period in GSO. There was also selecting and wrapping Christmas presents. Putting together project proposals – aka resume de jure. I haven’t been writing this week though thinking and feeling more about y’all than if I were writing.

21 and 23 and what are you doing for Christmas? 1970 I was 21. Two years later it was 1972. Lots of stories from my early BAMA post-novitiate years. That’s what Christmas is for – to experience stories, retell stories, ingrain the collective unconscious of the clan.

I found my novitiate diaries this week. I don’t remember that Bill Nolan quite as well as I thought I did. Solipsistic and a half! The boy, especially the adolescent boy, is father to the man. I had a father I hope you are not being for your manhood. That’s part of a father’s role – to help you be a better person for yourself than I was for myself. Sorry you missed a lot of that.

I was looking forward to teaching tomorrow morning. The fourth Sunday of Advent. I had a role for my assistant who’s itching to lead the class. I had a present for each child wrapped and ready to go with a story of my annual reading for Christmas. Another Christmas tradition – what I read, from the Polar Express to Luke to Velveteen Rabbit (which is more of an Easter story), the Grinch who converts, Nutcracker and Clara, O Henry’s Magi et al. (which get more attention here in GSO), the Night Before Christmas, the letter to Virginia.

And the lesson itself. Tied to the Readings of the Day. I was wound up and ready to go. Until I got unplugged by the email from our faith formation director telling us about the schedule (very tight schedule) for our Christmas party for everyone in the ‘school.’ I was only quasi-surprised. She has a focus on our being wedded to the syllabus and the schedule. The syllabus has a lesson for the day. The schedule does not mention a party (except for the first communion group). Flexibility is the word most applicable in being a volunteer. Not my forte but hey the party is a good thing. Les Bon Tons Rolles!

Personally, this week’s Gospel is one of my favorites. And Ahaz’s refusal to tempt the Lord rings more than a few bells, albeit conflicting bells. Come along through the readings….

Is 7:10-14
The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying:
Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God;
let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!
But Ahaz answered,
“I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!”

We are taught to petition God. To ask Him for what we need. I believe Lord, help my unbelief. So how do we recognize a sign from the Lord? Is it good news? I reflexively said “thank you, God” when I read a letter this morning that brought very good news. I ignored the envelope that I know has very bad news for me. I did not thank God for that letter. Which one, really, is a sign from the Lord? Which one is really ‘good news’ for me?

I am reluctant to ask God for what I believe, feel, think I need. And when I do, I always put the tagline caveat on it: but not my will, Father, Your will be done. I know that you give me the grace necessary. I am humble enough to ask for help from the saints and the angels and Mary and Jesus and Father and Spirit.

The Lord spoke – “ask for a sign from the Lord.” So just do it.


Then Isaiah said: Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.

Isaiah reminds us we do not have to ask for a sign. One has already been given. Or, as Jesus told John’s disciples in last week’s gospel when they were sent to ask Him if He were the One: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” Open your eyes. Signs aplenty for you to see. A child is born to us. A savior has been given to us – he came, he’s here, he’s coming again!



Ps 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6.

R. (7c and 10b) Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
Open your heart, open my heart, and let the King of Glory reside. He brings us, gives us, calls us to, shows us, the Glory which is ours as his people, his children.

The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it. For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.
If there’s a reminder to never forget, these verses hit the nail on the head. Like the deacon’s column in last week’s News Herald – moral theology comes down to one apostrophe. Are we gods or God’s. The earth and all its fullness, the world and all of us who dwell in it, are HIS! Get over it. Accept it. Glory in it. What could be better for us? Since we are His, then He has responsibility for us. The perfect, infinitely loving Father.

Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD? or who may stand in his holy place? One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain.
Our heart desire’s to ascend the mountain of the Lord. We crave to stand in His holy place. It is the Glory of God in our heart, put there at our conception, sealed by the Holy Spirit at Baptism and Confirmation. We see the Christ child in the manger and wonder. Seems so simple this profound mystery. We pine for a clean heart, sinless hands. This is a time for Confession. A season for returning to the practice of our childhood – weekly confessions. Less to tell and the booster shot of grace becomes more potent in this Christmas season. Be not vain.

He shall receive a blessing from the LORD, a reward from God his savior. Such is the race that seeks for him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
Those of us who seek the Lord already experience His grace, His call, His cry out to us to seek a sign, to be that sign.


Mt 1:18-24
Gospel

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When did it begin? God knew at the moment of creation that He would come to this moment of salvation history. But which moment is the beginning? Wrong question. Salvation history continues until Jesus comes again. We get the genealogy of Jesus. Did it start with Abraham? It came to a critical moment with Joseph – note, Mary’s not in the genealogy. We do not give Joseph, like we do not give Thomas, his just due! There would not have been a virgin birth without a husband and father. Mary would have been ostracized or stoned; either way, without Joseph, she and Jesus would have perished before there was a birth.

When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Imagine the horror of this statement for Mathew’s audience. Like Joseph, upon hearing that his betrothed was with child, the reaction to ‘through the Holy Spirit’ musta been some profane version of ‘yeah, right!’ This is not looking good for our salvation history to play out. First, Gabriel had to persuade a fearful, doubting maiden to become pregnant not by her husband. She knew what the news would mean to Joseph, to her community. Still, she responded, not with, ‘why me Lord’ but ‘Fiat!’

Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly.
Joseph was a righteous man, a just man, a holy man, a good man. And, as a righteous man, upon hearing of Mary’s pregnancy, (from whom? Probably from Mary herself. Who else would have known? Did she tell Joseph before heading off to help Elizabeth? If she waited the three months after she returned, she’d be showing. No, she had to be in Joseph’s house immediately upon the news.) Joseph actually had a duty to disown her to the community. Instead, in order to maintain his righteousness and, to the extent maximally possible, Mary’s honor and the child’s potential, Joseph decided to do the best thing any man could offer Mary and her child.

Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
God steps in again to ask man to participate in his own salvation. A call to faith and courage and love and honor. Joseph is a son of David. In the necessary kingly line to fulfill the prophecies of the ages. Joseph was no schlump. He was a man’s man. A kingly man. A righteous man.

Resolved to do the best right thing, Joseph slept the sleep of angels. Into which, the messenger of the Lord spoke. Do not be afraid. Fear not what the Lord has done for you, to you, needing to do it with you. Please, pretty please. Mary is your wife. [I learn more and more each time I read one of Fr. Filias’ books about Joseph. They’re all out of print. And apparently not so many out there for sale. I have them all now. Feel free to pick any of them up.] Mary is Joseph’s wife. It’s important to understand what ‘betrothed’ meant to the Jews. Mary was Joseph’s wife although she had not yet moved into his house.

Joseph believed with all his being. He heard the message from God. He clutched onto the grace he received in order not to be afraid. Not afraid to take Mary into his home. But. What did Joseph think about becoming the father of the child who will save his people from their sins? Do not be afraid, the angel said. Joseph didn’t know what he shoulda most been afraid of. But he believed. He was righteous and good and loving.


All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”
Mathew wanted his audience to be clear that Jesus – along with Mary and Joseph – fulfill the prophecies. Church does that for us by juxtapositioning the readings.

When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
Joseph did what the Lord commanded of him. The command of Love. He could have said no; not only no, but heck no! Joseph had faith. He believed the Lord did not want him to be afraid. Do not be afraid when you do what the Lord commands. Fear not. Do you imagine you’re being asked to do anything more challenging than be the husband of Mary and the father of Jesus? Listen to God’s messenger and take into your home a wife like Mary. Good luck with that.

I love you,
Dad
1359

January 30, Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
110130


RE: Phoenix excommunication




Come dance with me on the head of a pin, where angels celebrate but moral theologians and we common Catholics fear to tread. In the company of angels we “humble of the earth, who have observed His law; seek justice, seek humility (Zep2:3, Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time).

A 27 year old ten-week pregnant woman went to a Catholic hospital because of pulmonary hypertension. Prior to admission, she refused her doctor’s advice to terminate her pregnancy.

Her condition worsened to include right heart failure and cardiogenic shock. The placenta, which increases the mother’s blood volume, contributed to this grave condition. Her doctors believed that both mother and child would die if the situation were allowed to continue. They recommended termination of the pregnancy. She could not be transferred to another hospital.

What do you do? How do you decide? The case was referred to the hospital’s ethics committee, led by a Sister of the order which runs the hospital.

Abortion is never permitted. Catholic health services’ standards state that abortion may not be performed as an end or a means. Our catechism says that if we procure an abortion, we are automatically excommunicated.

Concluding that both mother and child would die if nothing were done, the Sister chairperson supported the hospital’s ethics committee’s permission to terminate the pregnancy.

When the Bishop learned that the abortion was performed in the Catholic hospital with Sister’s permission, he publicly excommunicated Sister because she had cooperated in procuring an abortion.

The Bishop’s message was clear to Sister, to everyone concerned, and, given the national secular and Catholic press coverage, the entire country. Plus, the effect the Bishop’s decree had on the husband and wife who chose the procedure!

But this is when we dance with the angels to seek humble, healing justice for the mother and her family: and for the next family in a similar situation.

Catholic health services’ standards permit operations to cure a serious condition when they cannot be postponed until the unborn child is viable: for example, the removal of a cancerous uterus which results in the death of the unborn child. The child’s death is an indirect effect: an indirect abortion. This tragic outcome is morally permissible.

Kevin O’Rourke, O.P., professor of bioethics at Loyola University Chicago, has extensively examined the ramifications of this case. See, e.g., his article in the November 15, 2010 issue of America.

In this type of case, is the termination of a pregnancy a direct or indirect abortion? Permissible or condemnable? If we remove the placenta, which makes the mother’s blood volume life threatening, to save the mother’s life, is the subsequent death of the child an indirect effect? Can we not give some rationale to saving the mother’s life in the situation when both mother and child will die if we do nothing? Should we not provide the family the solace of merciful understanding for choosing life but also suffering the death of their child?

We must dance with the angels!

January 23, Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
January 23, 2011

RE: Embryonic Stem Cell



To persuasively engage in the debate about Embryonic Stem Cell research, we need moral certainty, medical research expertise, and a leap of faith.

We are certain that an embryo is a human person. “He saw me in the womb.” He saw me at the instant of conception. He infused me with his love by giving me my soul.

In 1998, only twelve years ago, medical researchers discovered in embryos versatile cells, stem cells, which we could turn into any cell in the body. The potential for regenerative medicine and drug discovery and development are enormous. Extracting stem cells from the embryo also destroys the embryo.

Our leap of faith is that if God gives us the potential of stem cells, He also makes it possible to derive that good without the evil of our killing an innocent human being.

In Sunday’s Gospel, Mathew tells us that “Jesus went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.” (Third Sunday of Ordinary Time: Mt4:23). One goal of medical research is to cure every disease and illness among the people.

Faith and science coexist. To live the Gospel of Life, our scientific, technological, and medical advances must not be divorced from conscientious moral and ethical guidelines: like, “thou shalt not kill.”

For scientific and moral reasons, medical researchers looked for stem cells elsewhere in the body. We discovered adult stem cells, e.g., from the placenta. These stem cells have capacities similar to those for embryonic stem cells.

Scientists know that all cells have the same genes. So, if we can program a stem cell into, say, a muscle cell, we should be able to program a muscle cell into a stem cell. In 2006, researchers accomplished this. Scientists made “induced pluripotent stem cells.” We induced cells to be able to turn into many kinds of cells.

The next scientific step asked: ‘why go backward to go forward?’ Since 2008, scientists have changed cells from one type, e.g., muscle cells, directly into another type, e.g., nerve cells.

With 20-20 hindsight, it was not necessary to destroy millions of embryos for a medical breakthrough that might improve all of our lives. With moral certitude and the faith of a mustard seed, we should stop stem cell research’s trajectory into the Culture of Death.

With moral certitude, the faith of a mustard seed, and trust in our medical researchers, we should demand that public funding for stem cell research be directed to the work being done with adult stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, and the miraculous transdifferentiation work with already developed cells.

With moral certitude and a leap of faith let’s not go down an embryonic stem cell road again. Paul exhorts us on Sunday “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ …all of you agree in what you say, [let] there be no divisions among you, be united in the same mind and in the same purpose (1Cor1:10).

January 9, Baptism of the Lord

January 9
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

RE: witness to the Gospel of Life



It is unseemly to see the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops acting like the Political Action Committees of the SEIU and the Chamber of Commerce.

Throughout the intense 2010 debate about healthcare laws and policy in this country, our bishops and the USCCB were in the papers, on the tv, speaking and writing to Congress and the President, and exhorting us Catholics to engage in the debate.

We also saw important Catholic organizations oppose the Bishops’ positions on key Life-related elements in the legislation. This public conflict within our Church essentially revolved around abortion: whether the legislation required abortion services in the public options and whether public funds would pay for abortions. This political jockeying is not what many of us expect of our religious leaders.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, President of the USCCB, stated upon his recent election that the USCCB has the proper balance between pastoral and public policy concerns. “Our forte is the realm of the spiritual. But, … the teaching of Jesus and his Church do have implications in every part of life, including the political and economic sphere.

As we prepare to participate in our diocese’s fourth annual March for Life on January 14th in Charlotte, let us take note of our political attention on the evil of abortion. This focus does not ignore the myriad of other causes that also require our efforts. However, our commitment to the protection of the unborn is a vital priority.

We cannot practice the Gospel of Life only as a private piety. This Sunday, The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Isaiah declares: “He shall bring forth justice to the nations,
not crying out, not shouting.” Isaiah goes on, “He will not grow faint, he will not be crushed.”

To resurrect our country into the Gospel of Life, we must vigorously and publicly witness to the Truth. We each have our charism to bring to bear in the defense of innocent life. In addition, we all can walk. Participate in the Mass for Life then join the March for Life in Charlotte. We all can pray. If you cannot be in Charlotte, go to Mass in your parish and make it your own Mass for Life; later, step outside your home/place of work at noon on the 14th and pray the rosary in solidarity with the Diocese of Charlotte.

Our forte must be the realm of the spiritual. The Holy Spirit gives us the strength to bring forth justice for the unborn in the commonweal. We have the obligation to restore legal protection to the lives of our unborn children. We have a duty to align our beliefs and actions. We should persuade our elected officials to support pro-life legislation. We should participate in the Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities (USCCB.org).

Let our country see all of us advocating the Gospel of Life. Pray. March. Advocate. Help get our bishops out of the political arena and more often tending to the spiritual needs of our Church.

January 1, Mary Mother of God

Mary Mother of God
January 1, 2010

RE: culture of life in our family


“Fiat”. “Let it be done unto me according to thy word.” This profound declaration by Mary, the Mother of God, puts an end to any debate about choosing abortion. Don’t you think?

The angel said to Mary: ‘Do not be afraid. You have won God’s favor. You are to conceive.’ The betrothed girl confronted the possibility of motherhood. The result of which was the probable ostracization by her husband-to-be and her village. An impossible way to live.

Joseph did not want any part of this. He would extricate himself by quietly divorcing Mary. That is, until he, too, listened to God’s messenger. ‘Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit.’ The child is a gift of God!

John Paul II wrote that “the family… by its nature is called to be the ‘sanctuary of life.’”
Growing up we feel cherished by our family. Our family introduces us to God and brings us into the Church. At our very core we know that we are loved, that our life is valued, and that all life is holy. We are nurtured by our faith, confident in our beliefs. Like Mary and Joseph.

Our family assures us that life is a gift from God. My life. Your life. Every life. In the imperfections of our relations with our children, parents cultivate in them respect for others. We strive to make certain that our children recognize God in all life.

The efforts to re-establish a ‘Culture of Life’ is a continuous personal struggle. Every couple confronts this challenge with their desire to fully express their love. The man and woman surprised by a pregnancy must choose. Parents face the conundrum when our adult child comes to us in a situation like the one Mary and Joseph experienced. We are afraid. We want to escape the problem quietly.

This is no longer just a pious belief. We are immersed in reality. Uncontrollable emotions drown us. Chaotic thoughts confuse us. The clock is ticking.

You can turn to the Room at the Inn (Charlotte and Greensboro). To positively demonstrate our living the Gospel of Life we should be supporting them all along. This will guarantee that they are there to help every Mary and Joseph.

Who will be the angel who says, “Do not be afraid!” Who will have the courage to say to the frightened girl, “You have won God’s favor!” Who will dare say to the boy, “The child is a gift from God, so take this girl home with you as your wife!”

We will have the wherewithal to carry on the Culture of Life within our family when we pray daily to do the will of God. When we remember how astonished Mary was. When we recall Joseph’s kindly reflex to step aside quietly. When we embrace the lessons of the Holy Family. Then we will draw upon the same grace that Mary the Mother of God had when she said “Fiat!”

Jan 10 William de Don Jeon (of Burgess) d. ~1210 c. 1218

Thom and Jack
Good Morning, I love you

When reviewing a resume, a typical disqualifier is frequent job changes. But, then again, if a person is changing jobs frequently, some one new is always hiring the person. My recommendation is to stick with one organization for the long run. Believe it or not, the data seem to support that individuals who stick in one place ultimately advance further than the frequent movers. The turtle beats the hare. The ant survives the grasshopper. And then there’s William de Don Jeon.


January 10

William of Bourges d. ~1210 c. 1218


William de Don Jeon was born at Nevers France. He was educated by his uncle Peter, archdeacon of Soissons. William de Don Jeon was born into well connected Church family: thus, likely, also well connected in the secular arena. He was blessed to have an uncle well positioned in a near-by city. He was able to receive an excellent education not only from his uncle but from the Church and community resources from whom the archdeacon could draw.

You have an uncle from whom you can learn a lot. A man of honor, service, diligence: and, oh by the way, your Godfather. You might let yourself turn to him for guidance on faith and Church. He’ll give it to you straight. Although he has some long-term, justified complaints against our Church, with special disregard for some of the assholes in cassocks, he has a faith, religiosity, and piety worthy of your emulating. The Catholic half of your family also has the resources of Mother Church from which you should draw sustenance and education – for your mind and your soul.

William de Don Jeon became a canon of Soissons and of Paris. The man started as a student and rose up the ecclesiastical ranks. Such ascendency is in part who you know but also to continue in the trajectory usually requires demonstrable holiness as well as service and leadership talents that draw people to the Church. You should take a closer look at William de Don Jeon’s rise from his being sent to study with his uncle to his appointment as Canon of Paris. These were public positions in direct service to increasingly large groups of people. He was in the public eye as well under the watchful gaze of our Church fathers of the time.

Learn from this man how you too should prepare yourself and act in your vocation in order to be called on to serve and lead more people. How you should marshal your gifts and resources and pass them forward so that you bring back to God 5,000 times the talent He gave you.

William de Don Jeon then became a monk at Grandmont Abbey. On the rise, fast tracked, on the A-team. Suddenly William De Don Jeon ducks out of the public arena into a monastery. How does a person stay tuned to his vocation, the constant variations on the theme of God’s calling? This move is not predicted by anything we know from the brief bioblurb. This man has that story to tell.

The trajectory he was on pointed to the peaks of ecclesiastical hierarchy in France if not in Rome. All of a sudden he says no to this. He withdraws to pray and serve his fellow monks and the people for whom the monastery exists. Instead of flying higher on the wings of ascendency, William de Don Jeon becomes servant to the servant and pursues a life a prayer and aesthetics. If we stop the film here, what do we predict? Given what we know about the lives of saints, our best bet is that this man will do his best to follow God’s will: no matter what that is or where it takes him.

William de Don Jeon became a Cistercian. There is being a monk and there is being a Cistercian! The strictness of the rule and the demands for adherence to it are beyond what you think we get from our marines or navy seals. William de Don Jeon left the monastery near Paris, a vibrant hub of our Church where he had been canon and went to a Cistercian monastery at Pontigny. God will lead you almost anywhere. Some times we think we know why. Some times we agree to go without asking why. But Pontigny? The Cistercian monastery?

William de Don Jeon was elected to serve as Abbot at Fontaine-Jean in Sens, and in 1187 became Abbot at Chalis near Senlis. When a community of monks select their abbot, especially twelfth century Cistercians, the criteria include one’s personal adherence to the rule and the ability by example, exhortation, and direction to help others to do so also. William de Don Jeon was chosen to lead two Cistercian monasteries. Imagine not only his personal holiness and communal influence but also how a reputation necessary to be called to another monastery was built up around this man of God.

In 1200, William de Don Jeon was named Archbishop of Bourges. An abbot in the twelfth century was a big kahuna in the community and the Church, not to mention in the religious order and at the monastery. Obviously, William de Don Jeon’s reputation rang out beyond the abbey walls. He was called by the people of Borges, confirmed by Pope Innocent III, supported by his Cistercian superiors to become Archbishop. What the bioblurb tells us about his reign as archbishop allows you to extrapolate back to develop a fuller picture of him as Abbot and monk.

William of Bourges lived a life of great austerity. He was a canon in a major see. He withdrew to become a monk. He pursued his vocation into the Cistercians, whose very name should make you think of a life of austerity. He answered the call to be Abbot for two Cistercian monasteries: to be a model of Cistercian austerity. And the bioblurb says he lived a life of GREAT austerity! Austere beyond Cistercian austerity is radical piety; an extreme makeover of a religious kind. As Archbishop of Bourges he had regal opportunities and he chose to live a life of great austerity.

William of Bourges was in great demand as a confessor. When you think of bishop or archbishop you don’t think of confessor. I had a paradigm as a psych hospital ceo. I believed that I could best lead the hospital from the treatment team meeting. In the similar but profoundly more holy way, it seems that William of Bourges led his See (as he likely did his monasteries) by touching the souls of people directly, at the moments of their greatest vulnerabilities. Great numbers of people sought him out to confess to. What qualities of person do you require of some one to whom you are willing to confess to: confess even your minor faults and failings never mind any sins that aggrieve the heart of God?

William of Bourges aided the poor of his See. It is embarrassing to our Church that an archbishop is noteworthy because he aided the poor of his See. Alas, it is true. Many of our bishops were not servants of the poor. I’d say we’re getting better at it being more likely than not that our bishop aides the poor. He cannot, however, be much more generous than we are in our support of the poor of our diocese. Give more to our bishop. Tell him to aide the poor with your gift.

William of Bourges defended ecclesiastical rights against seculars, even the king. Twelfth century conflicts between the church and civil authorities were common. It was about land, a monster source of wealth. It was about tithes and taxes: who’d get the people’s money. It was about who had authority to judge which people and which offenses: the power of justice and mercy. Twelve hundred plus years into our Church, we still had challenges with role identity. Many of our church leaders were also the civil authority. It was common for Kings to name and control the men appointed to bishop, canon, priest, and deacon. Thus, who was their master? That William of Bourges had to defend ecclesiastical rights is a statement about the evolution of our western civilization.

William of Bourges converted many Albigensians during his missions to them. Any priest pursued as a confessor would not surprisingly be a success at converting his opponents. Not only dissuading them of the errors of their beliefs he brought them into full communion with the Church. Is that not the kind of person you want to be?

William of Bourges, a man to emulate.

I love you,
Dad
101128, 0042

Jan 24 John Grove d. 1679

Jack and Thom
Good Morning, I love you

101214, 1154.

Today is the feast of St John of the Cross. Fr. Jim Kinn has written a couple of books about this saint and his invitation to contemplation. Fr. Kinn’s books are worth your perusal – there are two in the library here. Grandpa probably has all of them. Or, next time you visit/talk to Grandpa ask him to get you one or all of Fr. Kinn’s books. Or, better, pick up one of the books St John of the Cross wrote: Ascent of Mount Carmel, Dark Night of the Soul, A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul, or the Bridegroom Christ.

John of the Cross’s life of poverty and persecution could have produced a bitter cynic. Instead it gave birth to a compassionate mystic, who wrote: "Who has ever seen people persuaded to love God by harshness?" and "Where there is no love, put love -- and you will find love." Another John to emulate.


January 24

John Grove d. 1679

This English Martyr has a different story to tell than the usual priest martyr.

John Grove owned a house in London which he made into a
'safe house' for a handful of Jesuit priests. John Grove served as the manservant at the House in London. Think about that. In seventeenth century England a man worked for a house of priests who were wanted for treason because they were priests. John Grove chose to serve his faith, his God, his Church by serving these ‘outlaw’ priests – serving the servants of God. How far are you willing to go to serve?

John Grove literally put his life on the line. When the English’s 17th c. version of the Gestapo swooped in to arrest Jesuit priests for participation in the phony ‘Titus Oates Plot’ aka the Popish Plot, they took John Grove too.

John Grove was martyred along with William Ireland at Tyburn.

I love you
dad

Jan 24 William Ireland d. 1679

Thom and Jack
Good morning, I love you

101212, 1215. Yesterday I spent learning the lesson for today’s faith formation class. We had 60 minutes of lesson plus an Advent addendum – to fit into 37 minutes. Class was shortened from the usual fifty minutes because I’d signed our class up to do the procession with the candle for the Mass right after class. I cut back thirteen minutes of the lesson to give us time to gather up siblings, get instructions from the liturgical coordinator, then take one practice run. We were also invited to do the offertory. Every child got a role in addition to processing. Carry the candle. Light the candles. Carry the bread, the chalice, and the wine. The exact number of jobs for the small group of children we had. We did good and did well.

After reading Bishop Sheen’s admonition to stand up and not use notes, I got that prepared – even with an electronic and paper outline and powerpoint presentation. I had it nailed. I think the students think I did ok by them.

101214, 0806. I lost 44 hours. There was Tom Clancy’s Dead or Alive. Almost a thousand pages. There was selecting and wrapping presents – but none got wrapped. There was figuring out what to for football watching with Refs precipitously shut down. (a regular spot at buffalo wings to watch Pittsburg win but without any desire to keep downing Guinnesses to watch the next two games. And there were brief spurts of writing into a (fictional)bio that’s lost all sense of purpose and energy – except there are reasons to keep commenting on the feeloughts gathered that appear to be worth passing on. Maybe there’s something in those scribbles that won’t be found elsewhere.)

It’s twenty something degrees this morning. Winter in NC. But sunny and the 0900 Mass is coming up soon. There’s the NH and America to read – both came yesterday. (no word from the NH editor re: January submissions. C’est domage.) I did notice that the number of views on the blog continues to go up for the third month in a row. I guess if I keep writing, someone will stop by for a click or two. Reinforcement for avoidance behavior? I’m so easily distracted.

I’m not holding two sentences in a row together. I guess another shot of caffeine to help me not think about my easy distractibility. Definitely too much I-itis



January 24

William Ireland, S.J. d. 1679

January 24th is also Francis deSales. But this English Martyr will be easier to start and finish before heading off to Mass.

The bioblurb in the Jesuits’ saints book that I have is hardly much longer than what AngelsandSaints online gives us. You can do the bio yourself without knowing the details. One reason for doing the litany of English Martyrs is to remind us that the story is the same again and again and again unto this day for yourselves. Greensboro may not be quite ‘reformation’ England, it is just as anti-Catholic. Look around you. Those closest to you. How many of those encourage you to live your faith fully? How many of those reinforce your not living your faith? Conforming to your religion? Supporting your Church?

William Ireland, born in Lincolnshire, studied at St. Omer, France. As a young man, he had to leave home and country to follow his vocation. He knew how his choices would affect those who loved him. He knew how his choices would affect those who loved him but did not want him to be true to his faith. He knew as well how his choice would affect those who aligned with the Crown, the secularists of his day; and what they would do to him and , possibly, to his family if her were true to his faith, religion, and Church. You’re old enough now to not only be responsible for all of your choices, regardless of their effects on others. The Right choices will have the right effects.

In 1655, William Ireland joined the Jesuits. He took final vows in 1673. The Jesuits are persnickety about keeping records. For its individuals and for the Order as well as for the Church. Initially, William Ireland was a confessor to nuns. Who woulda thunk it? No doubt that this young man went to the seminary in France, joined the Jesuits there, for in his mind the obvious vocation to return to serve in England. Instead, he was first sent to be a confessor to nuns. The headline here is that he fulfilled his vow of obedience – not only to his superiors but ‘not my will, but Yours be done.’ The flaw in my logic when I left the novitiate thinking I could not do the vow of obedience. Once created, especially once baptized, we have already taken a perpetual vow of obedience.

Soon after the confessor assignment, William Ireland was sent to England. He worked in service of the English Catholics – and with an effort to retrieve the ‘protestants’/’reformers’ for the one true church. As Mother Teresa said, ‘the effort is ours, the rest is in God’s hands.’ It is our responsibility to choose right, do right, live right. If those around us are adverse to that, try to dissuade us, reject us because we choose to live the one true faith, that’s on them. We have our duty to be their light and not worry about how they will try to snuff it out.

William Ireland was arrested at the London Jesuit House. He was accused of being complicit in the [trumped up] Popish Plot. It’s not unlike you’re being accused of adopting something your father preaches. It’s not treason to do what’s right, regardless of who teaches it to you.

I love you,
dad
0834

Jan 22 Colman of Lismore d. 702

Thom and Jack
Good morning, I love you

[101211, 0932] after reading the news & record then online perusing the Times and Post and WSJ, I figured a quick entry with the brief bioblog on Colman would bring a quick end to my avoiding the lesson plan I have to finish for tomorrow. Alas, the best laid plans….

Angelsandsaints gives us only 20 words on Colman of Lismore. So, I googled him. I got 1100 words at Brigid-undertheoak.blogspot.com. I recommend you peruse her work about Irish saints. Or go directly to her primary source: John O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints.


January 23

Colman of Lismore d. 702

Abbot bishop of the monastery of Lismore, Ireland. He succeeded St. Hierlug in 698. So. There you have it. The life of a saint in 14 words. How many words will it take to tell your story? When you walk around a hospital, there are some people with wads of keys. Some have to carry their keys on a metal ring hooked to their belt. People with the keys to the kingdom are important. It would seem that the more keys the more important. Not so, not so! The person who can get around the hospital with only one key not only demonstrates the talents of his keymaster but is the most important person in the place. Until, of course, he gets a visit from the man who gets around the hospital, into every nook and cranny, without any keys. Will your life story be told without any words?

And then, we have:
Brigid-undertheoak.blogspot.com

Colman, a teacher of the monastic school at Lismore.

Colman was the son of Finnbar. I’ve always loved that name. Finbar! You gotta say it outloud to get the full effect. A big, burly man. With a full fu man chu mustasche. A barrel chested man with a booming voice. Finnbar!

Colman, son of Finnbar, was born the child of a Ri of the county Cork in Youghall. We start the tale of every man with his lineage. His paternity. His clan. His hometown – in your cases we’d add where you were baptized.

Colman entered the monastery of Linsmore as a young man. The son of a Ri went to a celebrated monastery, of course. According to O’Hanlon, Colman was distinguished for all those virtues of which he made profession. For which virtues are you known. Which virtues have you professed? Which virtues have you taken to heart to make your own; to remake yourself?

Lismore was a celebrated isle of sanctity and learning. I suggest to you that the two are inseparable. To tear them apart, especially for high school students, is a high risk disservice to the children.

Lismore offered the world a home for many holy prelates, abbots, and religious to receive their education and training. A unified blessing of the holy and the profane. This university city, a holy place, welcomed the laity as well to study under the rectors and masters. St Oengus wrote that there were over 800 monks there under Colman’s tutelage.

St Hierlog was the abbot-bishop under whom Colman offered his first vows. He succeeded the holy abbot in January 698. To the extent that Hierlog was a holy magnet for people of faith who wanted to learn, Colman was moreso. From all parts of the country people came to acquire the knowledge that makes wise unto salvation, with the learning which was destined to procure them distinction in other walks of life.

To whom do you go for learning? It’s important the who and the where. The leader and the peers. Understand Linsmore under Colman and you will have formidable criteria for selecting your places of study.

In O’Hanlon’s words: “Its school is said to have attained a higher degree of reputation than any other in Ireland. Besides numerous holy men, who sought a refuge from the world in this retreat for wisdom and sanctity, and who lived in seclusion and penance within its monastery, many others were called forth from its enclosure, to adorn stations of dignity and importance in the Irish Church.” A Catholic Harvard of seventh and eighth century Ireland – only moreso. How are you transforming your education into the kind of personal product that Colman mentored at Linsmore?

Colman was the spiritual father of many monks and an instructor of many prelates. These exhibited in their lives and actions the excellence of that discipline and training, to which they had been subjected.

Not only are we students but also teachers. We teach by our presence. We affect those around us. What kind of spiritual father are you? What impact are you having on those into whose lives you intrude? More important, when you hold yourself out to be a teacher, and people come to you to learn, how do you offer sanctity and wisdom and knowledge? Yes, in that order. What’s most important should always come first.

I love you
Dad
101211, 1002

Jan 22 William Paterson d. 1592 with reflections on Fulton Sheen's Character Building sermon

Thom and Jack
Good morning, I love you

Saturday, 1211, 0534. Yesterday I found the ‘perfect’ gifts for my faith formation class. But there were only five nutcrackers in the box and I need eight gifts. Oh well, even the perfect is not perfect enough.

Tom Clancy has another book out – it’s big enough to be a boat anchor. The first hundred pages have my attention. See how a ‘good thing’ can be a temptation? I probably should have finished off my work for yesterday on yesterday. Instead , I had a long lunch at the Macaroni Grill with Tom Clancy.

I did get some writing done, though. It’s not my best. It may not be informative. But every day there’s more. That’s something.

Rumbling around in my head, louder and louder as Sunday approaches, is my lesson plan for my faith formation class. The lesson in the syllabus only tangentially fits the lesson of the day: Gaudate Sunday. Rejoice! We’re half way through Advent, Rejoice the Lord is near. These children won’t know what an entrance antiphon is. And Latin? Puleese! But the rose candle must be explained. The stuff of advent. The advent wreath. The advent candles. The advent calendar. And to keep us focused, the Crèche. …

The parish apparently does not have a step ladder. How’s a lady reach the top shelves in the supply rooms? Anyway, I spent ten bucks to get a plastic two step so the students can reach the candles to light them. Another contribution to the parish. Which will mean more to the life of our parish. The effect of the students’ processing and lighting this week’s advent candle or the two-step?

Fulton Sheen on character. I revisited Life is Worth Living. An original 1953 edition. The book shows the wear and tear of 57 years of being around for us. I’ve been around 61 years for you. Yes, the years before 1987 were for you, too. As the boy is father to the man, the son is father to the children. I can vividly picture the good bishop in the frame of our black and white tv. He was in our living room, a bishop, talking directly (only?) to us. It’s a privilege to have a priest in the house. Imagine how it felt for me to have the bishop be our guest.

Character building by Bishop Sheen. The practice of character training is more complicated than the theory. (Read the first two paragraphs of this chapter and you’ll see the dichotomy of your parents.) The character we create – note, we create, not born with, character is built, not a genetic component. The character we create depends on whether we give primacy to the soul or the body.

It is easy to let the body dominate. Just let go. Just do it. It is very hard to have the heart, mind, soul, ideals dominate. But it’s the crucial choice in deciding who we are, what we’ll do. How do we harness our body, the sensate? How do we discipline the lower, yes l o w e r, appetites. Take a few minutes with Paul’s letters and get a fill of the mind body dichotomy.

There is operating in nature a law of degeneration. And our body is in nature. Is it our aspiration to be degenerates? Do we want to be pulled down to what is the worst in us, in nature? We do not become better by being left alone. By letting things be – all due respect to John Lennon. I remember where I was when I heard Howard Cosell tell us that John Lennon was shot. 1980, a Monday night. With remembrances of 1968. 1963. Remembering where I was, how I found out that my brother died; my mother; my Uncle Mike; Aunt Monica. So we reflect on 30 years after John Lennon was shot. We remember every year the loss – because of all the gains from them – of the people in our lives who have died on our watch.

Muscles if not exercised atrophy. Amen to that! And the pain creeps in and worsens. No pain no gain is an axiom to commit to or else you wind up with no gain and constant pain.

“If we allow our minds to become fallow and do not pour truth in it by study, not only does ignorance possess it [like weeds take over a fallow garden], but we actually reach a point where we can enjoy nothing but picture magazines and cheap novels.” (so I balance Tom Clancy with Fulton Sheen?)

“The capacity for thought and for discerning truth from error is then surrendered and lost.”

“Nature penalizes the slothful. [you remember sloth, don’t you? Not a critter but a deadly sin.] Organisms that fail to develop themselves deteriorate and become degraded forms of life.”

Chew on that one for a while! And it is true for our entire existence. I am living proof of the good and the ugly of the possibilities of develop or don’t. A contrast for consistency of good would be my brother and father – so far as the physical goes and, I humbly assume, the spiritual.

“Life is a temporary suspension of destructive powers.”

One reason, I suppose, that Jesus kept reminding us to be prepared. The thief is always lurking in the night. The Evil One never rests. He tempts us with the good. He persists like the Chinese water torture. Be not like the frog contentedly in the pot as the water gradually boils around you.

“We can lose our souls [you remember soul, don’t you? Not the music, your essence.] not only by doing evil, but also by neglecting the good.”

It’s Advent. Get off your butt and do some good. I saw my first Salvation Army kettle and bell ringer yesterday. It’s a iron clad rule, thou shalt not pass a Salvation Army kettle without putting money into it. Plus, it’s important for thanking the bell ringer for being there for us.

The tension between need and satisfaction. What are you doing to control your reactions to this ever present tension? Those efforts are called discipline.

“People who are always wanting their own will are unhappy. The self-centered are self-disrupted. The man who is self-seeking winds up hating himself.”

“The self one has to live with can be one’s own greatest punishment. To be left forever with that self which we hate is hell. He who starts only loving self, ends up by hating himself.”

Taking Bishop Sheen one sound bite at a time is about all we can chew on. Chew slowly. Don’t choke on it. Take your time. Mull it over. Pray with him. He’s at his blackboard in the sky. Ask him to help you wrestle with the implications for you.

The law of self perfection. “This involves a certain amount of self restraint, effort, and discipline to bring the body captive to the mind.”

“If there were any nonsense in the world, it is the notion that repression is always wrong. It assumes that nothing should ever be repressed. This is to forget that if you repress evil, good comes up; if you repress good, evil comes up…. The problem is not whether there will be repression or not; it is rather what will be repressed - goodness or evil.”

“If the evil is not eradicated at once, there is both a lingering pain and a diminishing pleasure. Total abstinence is a biological phenomenon as well as a moral recommendation.” Do no evil. If your hand is an occasion for falling, cut it off!

“As the eye should not look at everything – e.g., a too bright light – so neither should the brain look at everything. Though reading is good, one will not put garbage inside the brain. When the wrong kind of ideas get into the mind, they seep down into the unconscious and, later on, come out as evil acts.”

“No character ever develops without a certain amount of punishment and resistance and mortification to that which is evil.”

“Limiting the good which we enjoy is actually a form of concentration; it is very much like paying more attention to the rose than to the thorn.”

“It is necessary [Necessary] every now and then to impose hard things upon ourselves lest we develop faults in a given avocation.”

Bishop Sheen advises: stand while teaching; do not use notes. Stand to communicate with passion not passivity. “Truth should always be communicated to students with a certain fire and enthusiasm; but if one is on fire, he cannot sit.”

Motives for self-discipline. [you’re adults now; well, at the end of adolescence. It is time for SELF discipline. As a professor told us during our first graduate school class, ‘you don’t know enough yet to ask questions. I’ll tell you when you may ask questions. First, learn something.’ So too it is with children. Initially and continually it is the parents’ responsibility to teach and impose discipline so that you may learn what it is. It is our job to plant the seeds and nurture them, plucking the weeds when concupiscence sprouts them, so that you start with an informed conscience and an inherent understanding of discipline. You grew up with a lot of weeds allowed to take root. But now, it’s up to you to discipline yourself. Bishop Sheen offers a few reasons why discipline, your pursuit of perfection, is both necessary and good.]

The reason is love.

“In order to give carnality free reign, the aspirations of the spirit must be have to be suffocated.”

“In order to satisfy the desire of the personality for union with Perfect Life and Truth and Love, which is God, instincts and passions which rebel against these ideals must be disciplined and mortified.”

“The best reason for doing it is to reproduce within ourselves the Divine Image and Likeness.”

The motivation is Love.

“Love is not only an affirmation, it is also a negation.”

“A man who loves a woman and asks for her hand in marriage by that very acts negates every other woman.”

“A man who affirms the love of God negates the love of evil.”

“Those who wish to develop a character of soul … The motto of their lives is ‘all things that are pleasing to Him, that I do.’”

“The reason noble characters refuse to sin is not because they are afraid of hell or punishment; they negate evil because they would not hurt the one they love.” [I suggest to you that if you do not have this relationship with the All Loving God, you’ll never get there in a human relationship.]



January 22

William Paterson d. 1592

The litany of English martyrs also gives us pretty much the same bioblurbs. Hundreds of them. Over and over. But consider that. For hundreds of years of tyrannical massacre of our priests and repression of our faith and church, the Catholics of England persisted. Boys who saw priests hung, drawn, and quartered went into exile, became ordained, then returned to serve while risking each day, literally, life and limb. So we should take the brief moment it takes to refresh ourselves in the blood of the brief bioblurb of each English martyr. No matter what we see around us, in our face, that represses our faith and disdains our Church, we must draw on the courage of these martyrs to do ourselves what it necessary to be better Catholics.

[I copied the name as Patenson. But I think that’s a typo in the original.]

William Paterson was born at Durham. Next time you think Duke, think William Paterson.

William Paterson left his homeland and studied at Reims. He was ordained in 1587.

1588 William Paterson returned home to serve his family, friends, countrymen; to promote the Catholic cause in the dangerous atmosphere of Elizabethan England. Sure good queen bess did plenty of good for England – and laid the foundation for much of the good that fled there to settle America. And there was Shakespeare, too. But, do not ever forget what she promulgated against Catholics and our faith and our church. Do not forget so that you can see it happening in your own life. So that while it’s happening in your life, you can resist and overcome the Elizabethans in your life.

1591 William Paterson was tried and condemned for being a priest. Let’s guess that he was 23 when he was ordained. Look in the mirror. Imagine yourselves leaving home to become what God called you to be. Then having the courage – the Holy Spirit – to return to your Elizabethan homeland to witness to what is right and good and the One True Church. No doubt such faith will be tried by everyone around you. Your faith, our faith, The faith, will be condemned out of hand. You risk ostracization. But not quite the fate of William Paterson; which may be an easier fate to face?

During imprisonment, William Paterson converted six other prisoners to the Catholic faith. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, you are Catholics. How you live your life not only matters to you but may be the crucial experience for an other’s opportunity to see the Truth and the Way. You too will convert people to your cause just by your presence and your persistence in your modus vivandi. Let your life be an example like William Paterson’s.

William Paterson was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. William Paterson gave life and limb for our faith, to witness to those who scorned him. [imagine the daily scene at Tyburn. The priests kept coming. They professed their loyalty to the Crown. The witnessed their faith and loyalty to God and Church.]

William Paterson was beatified in 1929 along with the many other English martyrs.

I’m off to 0800 at OLG.
Ora pro nobis.
Te amo.
Dad
[0714]
2317 words in 100 minutes.

Jan 21 Thomas Reynolds b.1564 d. 1642 plus litany of English Martyrs

Thom and Jack,
Good morning, I love you

101210, 0214. Friday morning. Second week of Advent. The purple is a give away. It’s a penitential season. Isaiah and John the Baptist are the men of the season. Yesterday, the Church dropped Juan Diego into the mix. Sunday is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. [as Guadate Sunday our Patroness of the Americas gets moved a day either way.] but I digress.

Penance in the weeks before Christmas? If you’re cleaning house in anticipation of Holiday Company, you’ve got the metaphor of our commercialized season. Make ready: for the Lord, too, is coming. We celebrate His first coming; we anticipate His second coming [any time now, you never know when the thief will strike in the night.]; and, mystery of mystery, He’s here, among us, in Eucharist in us, one with us.

Penance and prayer. In addition to these saint prayers. In addition to the [almost] daily outreach to you. [more of a holding my arms open, outstretched, standing on the knoll, looking down the road, waiting for you.] a Friday abstinence. [We used to do meatless Fridays all the time. The rules changed. The practice changed – see how helpful rules can be! Giving up the Friday bacon or the steak dinner apparently is a big deal. It seemed so inconsequential when everyone was supposed to be doing it. Now try it yourself without the support of knowing the entire community of Catholics is with you on this.]

A fast? For advent? For me? For penance? For my own sins. As my pitching in to make up for the sins of others? [I don’t have that kind of chutzpah. I need them to make up for mine. I’m sure that net penance-sin is negative.] Read the John the Baptist entries in the gospels. From leaping in his mother’s womb at the presence of Jesus across the room in Mary’s womb to his last day standing before Herod, praying in his cell, giving up his head – talk about losing your head over Jesus!

Prayer? For advent? That’s easy. My Monica prayer. Patient expectation. Pray as if everything depends on God [act as if everything depends on me. Well, don’t depend on me so much as God.] We had the feast of St Ambrose a couple of days ago. I guess it takes a mega soul like him to hook an Augustine. Who is your Ambrose?

Yesterday felt like a good day. I started work at a quiet six fifteen. I was in the zone when it was time to head to Mass. I parked in my classroom at St Paul’s to work on a project. I knocked it off in plenty of time to not have to hurry to the fax machine – some people refuse to accept email; go figure.

We have a statue of Mary at the entrance to St Paul’s administration building. Someone has put a rosary around her praying neck. Not in her folded hands, around her neck. I asked one of the parish’s muckymucks if we had done that or had someone taken it upon themselves to adorn the Madonna disrespectfully? She told me that she thinks that the rosary has been there a long time and, when they take it off, someone puts another one around her neck. I guess the staff have given up.

We all agree that to do that is disrespectful. The rosary is a blessed object. The statue is a memorial to our precious Mother. Why doesn’t whoever’s doing this, get it? How do we teach our children not to wear the rosary around their neck when we allow this disrespect to persist? What we are ‘giving up’ is the high ground, the pulpit, the message that no matter how often you spit in my face, I’m going to wipe it off and hug you – but I am going to wipe off the spittle. Not my fight. Just disappointed that we give up so easily.

The apartment is a mess. Boxes strewn everywhere. [Does strewn include everywhere?] Books and papers on every horizontal surface needing a better place to be. Symbol? Reminiscent of my mother’s place when she died. But there’s a purpose, I’m just not particularly purposeful. Labeling boxes so you can find stuff. Selecting Christmas gifts that won’t overload the UPS truck. If you have wall space, there’s a picture here that’ll fit right in.

I read Bishop Sheen last night. A 1953 book of his Sunday lessons. His Chapter on Character Building is worth your time. Anything he’s written is worth your time if only to give you a flavor of what we were watching most Sundays on the tiny black and white [that’s redundant, in the early fifties, tv was black and white, color wasn’t anything we looked for. Like Ford’s first cars, any color you want, as long as it’s black.] tv.

This Sunday our faith formation class will be part of the procession for the 1030 Mass. We’ll be the ones carrying then lighting the candles. Most of the students will be in town and participating. Plus sibs! We have one student who, after his mother said he’d participate, surprised her and said no, he did not want to do it. She thought he’d enjoy doing it. I know she’s right. And I know the idea of participating, of ‘fitting in’, being a part, scares the shit outta him. I empathize 100%. With the fear; plus with the horror he has that his mother does not really get him.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to ease him into the group to give him a rewarding experience at eight years old of leading, literally, the entire congregation. I don’t know how I can help him assimilate with the class, accommodate his fears with the potential friendship his peers offer him. To be so afraid of rejection and hurt – with the justification that it’s happened already a gazillion times in his mind and maybe only a half gazillion times in reality – prevents him, so far, of discovering that the occasional friendship trumps any disappointment along the way.

I was in graduate school before I learned one of the most important lessons of little league. A .300 hitter is a star! And a star makes an out seven out of every ten times at bat! A one in four success rate is outstanding but to get through the three to experience the fourth is excruciating.


January 21

Thomas Reynolds b. 1564 d. 1642

An English name. A seventeenth century death date. You know the lesson if not the story of Thomas Reynolds’ sainthood. Our friends the English did us a favor {?} by creating so many martyrs!

An man with a priestly vocation in sixteenth century England had to leave home and country to answer God’s call. I’m sure the documents accompanying his canonization gives us all the details of his life. The bioblurb online starts with his exiling himself to go to the seminary.

But, go back. The boy, born Thomas Green, hears God’s call. He also hears the wails at the gallows of men hung, drawn, and quartered for being priests. Sure, every kid wants to grow up to be disemboweled while swinging by the neck on the gallows. His parents must have observed his holiness, his piety, his inclinations to be a priest in this place that murdered priests as political repression. He must have told a few of his closest friends. What, are you nuts?! Or his mother’s pleading, you can’t leave me! The forces of evil rise up against every vocation – and the evil one does it through our most loving people.

Thomas Reynolds left England to study at Rheims, then Valladolid and Seville. He was ordained in 1592: at 28 years old. That means he must have left home and country when he was, say, 23, or maybe 21. Are you prepared to hear God’s call? Whatever the vocation. However you are suppose to live your Catholic life? With that call, as Thomas Reynolds teaches you, comes the grace for the strength to leave home to do what God wants you to do. The fortitude to leave city, county, country even to follow the will of the One calling you back to him. To do right, to live good, may require you to get under an other roof.

Thomas Reynolds did not go to France and Spain to leave home. No doubt his intention was to return and serve. To bring to the Catholics in his family, community, country, the Good News and the Catholic Church. To bring to those he loved, of whatever disposition to their faith and their succumbing to the pressures of peers and the Crown, to bring to them the One True Church.

Thomas Reynolds returned to England. In 1606 he was exiled. Those he loved, those he wished to only serve by doing right and good, rejected him, ostracized him, expelled him. That’s the price we pay sometimes when we choose what is right. Blessed are those persecuted because of Me (me?).

Thomas Reynolds gave 14 hard years, continuously under threat of death. He was 42. France needed good priests too. Let’s be sensible here. You did your part. You’ve earned a break. Thomas Reynolds returned to England and labored for our faith until his arrest.

Our English brethren put Thomas Reynolds in prison in 1628. He was 66 years old. Take a trip to England and walk through the castle/prison cellars. That’ll give you only the slightest hint at how horrible the conditions were for any guest of the Crown.

The English kept Thomas Reynolds in prison for 14 more years. Who knows, maybe they forgot him? Maybe he had a friend in the right place (for a while). Maybe the goaler believed he could turn him. Maybe God figured he’d give the prisoners a priest for their holy souls while they lived out their (un)just punishments.

At Tyburn, along with Blessed Alban Bartholomew, Thomas Reynolds was hanged, drawn, and quartered for being a Catholic priest. Ora pro nobis!

I love you,
Dad

P.S.

When I scooped up Thomas Reynolds, I figured the addendum of Catholic Encyclopedia’s entry on the English Martyrs was a worthy exercise. At 0334 it’s daunting. Still, I plough on.

The English Confessors and Martyrs (1534-1729)

The English people didn’t much resist the Reformation. Of course, to do so would have been treasonous. Freedom in a monarchy is a deception. Not even freedom of religion or freedom of conscience.

The big ticket items for the “Reformation” were the supremacy of the Pope in all religious matters [a true separation of Church and State] and the unity of the Catholic Church – One Holy Catholic Apostolic: One [True] Church.

Catholics who remained faithful risked their lives if not only their livelihood. They educated their children in Catholic schools and colleges and seminaries. I do not understand how it is any Catholic would raise his children in a secular, anti Catholic school. But, hey, that’s me.

England’s tyranny against Catholicism was insidious. Not unlike the incrementalization of anti religious and anti Catholic “rules” promulgated in our secular schools. Write a paper on ethics but do not mention religion? What’s THAT about? Is it not anti-religious, if not also anti-Catholic, for our ‘parliament’ to continue to pass laws on the specious plea of political and national necessity [our freedoms and rights are at stake], laws which, e.g, permits and by other legislation, rewards the killing of embryos, fetuses – the people we have created with God but say it is our right to kill if we please.

The beatification of the English Martyrs is important for, of course, the English. The cause of these people is also important for all missionary countries – remember, we live in a missionary diocese!

At first, in 1888, fifty-four were beatified; in 1895, eight more were added. The lists drawn up by Bishops Smith and Challoner led to the "admission of the cause" of two hundred and forty-one martyrs: Venerables.

We now know immeasurably more of the persecution and its victims than before the cause began. In short, over 230 additional sufferers seem possibly worthy of being declared martyrs.

The collection comprised nearly 500 scripta, and over 2000 pages. It was not completed till 17 June, 1904. A decree was drawn up and confirmed by the Pope on 2 March, 1906.


just the John, Thomas, William, Kenneth, SJs

Beati –

Under King Henry VIII
• Cardinal: John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, 22 June, 1535.
• Lord Chancellor: Sir Thomas More, 6 July, 1535.
• Carthusians: John Houghton, 4 May, 1535; William Exmew 19 June, 1535; John Rochester, 11 May, 1537; Thomas Johnson, William Greenwood, John Davye, Thomas Green, Thomas Scryven, Thomas Redyng, June-September, 1537.
• Benedictines:Thomas Marshall (or John Beche), 1 December, 1539; John Thorne, William Eynon, John Rugg, 15 Nov., 1539.
• Doctors of Divinity: Thomas Abel, 30 July, 1540.
• Other secular priests: John Haile, 4 May 1535; John Larke, 7 March, 1544.
• Other religious orders: John Forrest, O.S.F., 22 May, 1538.
Under Queen Elizabeth
• Martyrs connected with the Excommunication: John Felton, 8 Aug., 1570; Thomas Plumtree p., 4 Jan., 1571; John Storey, D.C.L., 1 June, 1571; Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, 22 Aug., 1572; Thomas Woodhouse p., 13 June, 1573.
• First martyrs from the seminaries:John Nelson p., and S.J. before death, 3 Feb., 1578; Thomas Nelson, church student, 7 Feb., 1578;
• Martyrs of the Catholic Revival: Edmund Campion, S.J., English College, Rome, Alexander Briant p., and S.J. before death, 1 Dec., 1581; John Payne p., 2 April, 1582; Thomas Ford p., John Shert p., 28 May, 1582; William Filby p., Thomas Cottom p., and S.J. before death, 30 May, 1582.
• York martyrs: William Lacey p., 22 Aug., 1582; William Hart p., 15 March, 1583;

Venerables

Though, they all died heroically, their lives were so retired and obscure that there is generally but little known about them. It may, however, be remarked that, being educated in most cases in the same seminaries, engaged in the same work, and suffering under the same procedures and laws the details which we know about some of the more notable martyrs are generally also true for the more obscure.

Under King Henry VIII (12)
• 1537-38: Thomas Belchiam, Thomas Cort, Franciscans, thrown into prison for preaching against the king's supremacy. And died of ill treatment.
• 1539: John Griffith p. (generally known as Griffith Clarke), Vicar of Wandsworth, for supporting the papal legate, Cardinal Pole, drawn and quartered, (8 July) at St. Thomas Waterings; Sir Thomas Dingley, Knight of St. John, beheaded, 10 July, John Travers, Irish Augustinian, who had written against the supremacy; before execution his hand was cut off and burnt, but the writing fingers were not consumed, 30 July.
• 1540-1544 John Ireland p., once a chaplain to More, condemned and executed with Bl. John Larke, 1544; Thomas Ashby l., 29 March, 1544.
Under Queen Elizabeth
• 1583: John Slade l., 30 Oct., Winchester, with John Bodley l., 2 Nov., Andover.
• 1584: William Carter l., 11 Jan., Tyburn; Thomas Hemerford p., John Nutter p., John Munden p., 12 Feb., Tyburn; John Finch l., 20 April, Lancaster; Richard White l., 17 Oct., Wrexham.
• 1585: Thomas Alfield p., with Thomas Webley l., 6 July, Tyburn; Hugh Taylor p., with Marmaduke Bowes l., 26 Nov., York. From this time onwards almost all the priests suffered under law of 27 Elizabeth, merely for their priestly character.
• 1586: Edward Stransham p., with Nicholas Woodfen p., 21 Jan., Tyburn; Margaret Clitherow l., 25 March, York; Richard Sergeant p., with William Thompson p., 20 April, Tyburn; Robert Anderton p., with William Marsden p., 25 April, Isle of Wight; Francis Ingleby p., 3 June, York; John Finglow p., 8 Aug., York; John Sandys p., 11 Aug., Gloucester; John Adams p., with John Lowe p., 8 Oct., Tyburn, and Richard Dibdale p., 8 Oct; Tyburn; Robert Bickerdike p., 8 Oct., York; Richard Langley l., 1 Dec., York.
• 1587: Thomas Pilchard p., 21 March, Dorchester.
• 1588: William Gunter p., Theatre, Southwark; Thomas Holford p., Clerkenwell; William Dean p., Mile End Green; Thomas Felton, O.S.F., Hounslow. These eight were condemned together and suffered on the same day, 28 Aug. John Roche l., condemned with the last, and all suffered 30 Aug., Tyburn. William Way p., 23 Sept., Kingston-on-Thames; Edward Campion p., 1 Oct., Canterbury;John Robertson p., 1 Oct., Ipswich; William Hartley p., Theatre, Southwark, with John Weldon (vere Hewett) p., Mile End Green, 5 Oct., Halloway; William Lampley l., Gloucester, day uncertain.
• 1589: John Amias p., 16 March, York; Thomas Belson l. 5 July, Oxford; William Spenser p. 24 Sept., York.
• 1590: John Hogg p. 27 May, Durham.
• 1591: Thomas Watkinson l., 31 May, York;William Pikes l., day not known, Dorchester; John Masson l., 10 Dec., Tyburn.
• 1592: William Patenson p., 22 Jan., Tyburn; Thomas Pormort p., 20 Feb., St. Paul's Churchyard, London.
• 1593: William Davies p., 21 July, Beaumaris.
• 1594: John Speed l., condemned for receiving a priest, 4 Feb., Durham; William Harrington p., 18 Feb., Tyburn; John Cornelius, S.J., with Thomas Bosgrave l., John Carey l., 4 July, Dorchester; John Boste p., Durham, with John Ingram p., Newcastle-on-Tyne, they suffered 24, 25, and 26 July, Darlington.
• 1595: Robert Southwell p., S.J., 21 Feb., Tyburn; Henry Walpole p., S.J., 7 April, York; William Freeman p., 13 Aug.,
• 1596: William Knight l., William Gibson l., 29 Nov., York.
• 1597: William Andleby p., with Thomas Warcop l., 4 July, York.
• 1598: John Britton l., 1 April, York; John Buckley O.S.F., 12 July, St. Thomas Waterings; 19 Aug..
• 1599: John Lion, l., 16 July, Oakham;
• 1600: John Rigby l., 21 June, St. Thomas Waterings; Thomas Sprott p., with Thomas Hunt p., 11 July, Lincoln; Thomas Palasor p., with John Norton l., and John Talbot l., 9 Aug., Durham.
• 1601: John Pibush p., 18 Feb., St. Thomas Waterings; Roger Filcock, S.J., 27 Feb., Tyburn; Thomas Hackshot l., 24 Aug., Tyburn;
• 1602: Thomas Tichborne p.,Francis Page, S.J., 20 April, Tyburn.
• 1603: William Richardson p., 17 Feb., Tyburn.
Under James I and Charles
1604: John Sugar p.,16 July, Warwick; Thomas Welborne l., with John Fulthering l., 1 Aug., York; William Brown l., 5 Sept., Ripon; 1606: Martyrs at the time of the Powder Plot: Nicholas Owen, S.J., day unknown, Tower; Edward Oldcorne, S.J., with Robert Ashley, S.J., 7 April, Worcester. From this time to the end of the reign the martyrs might have saved their lives had they taken the condemned oath of allegiance. 1607:Thomas Garnet, S.J., 23 June, Tyburn. 1610: Thomas Somers p., 10 Dec., Tyburn; John Roberts, O.S.B., 10 Dec., Tyburn; 1612: William Scot, O.S.B., 30 May, Tyburn; John Almond p., 5 Dec., Tyburn; 1616: Thomas Atkinson p., 11 March, York; John Thouless p., 18 March, Lancaster; Thomas Maxfield p., 1 July, Tyburn; Thomas Tunstall p., 13 July, Norwich; 1618: William Southerne p., 30 April, Newcastle-under-Lyne. 1628: Edmund Arrowsmith, S.J., 20 Aug., Lancaster.
Commonwealth
All these suffered before the death of Oliver Cromwell.— 1641: William Ward p., 26 July, Tyburn;Thomas Reynolds p., 21 January, Tyburn; John Lockwood p., , 13 April, York; Thomas Holland, S.J., 12 Dec., Tyburn. 1643:Brian Cansfield, S.J., 3 Aug., York Castle; John Duckett p., with Ralph Corbin, S.J., 7 Sept., Tyburn; 1645: Henry Morse, S.J., 1 Feb., Tyburn; John Goodman p., 8 April, Newgate; 1646:John Woodcock, O.S.F., Thomas Whitaker p., 7 Aug., Lancaster. 1651: Peter Wright, S.J., 19 May, Tyburn. 1654: John Southworth p., 28 June, Tyburn.
The Oates Plot
1678: Eward Mico, S.J., 3 Dec., in Newgate; Thomas Beddingfeld, 21 Dec., in Gatehouse Prison; 1679: William Ireland, S.J., with John Grove l., 24 Jan, Tyburn; Thomas Pickering O.S.B. 9, May, Tyburn; Thomas Whitbread S.J., with William Harcourt, S.J., John Fenwick, S.J., John Gavin or Green S.J., and Anthony Turner, S.J., 20 June, Tyburn; Francis Nevil, S.J., Feb., in Stafford Gaol; 14 July, Tyburn; William Plessington p., 19 July, Chester; Philip Evans, S.J., 22 July, with John Lloyd p., 22 July, Cardiff; 7 Aug., York; John Wall, O.S.F., 29 Aug., Worcester;John Kemble p., 22 Aug., Hereford; David Lewis, S.J., 27 Aug., Usk. 1680: Thomas Thwing p., 23 Oct., York; William Howard, 29 Dec., Tower Hill. The cause of Irish martyr Oliver Plunkett, 1 July, Tower hill, was commenced with the above martyrs. The cause of his beatification is now being actively proceeded with by the Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh.

[0423. My eyes are burning and my tush is sore. And there are 242 to screen through to find the plethora of John, Thomas, William, Kenneth, and SJs. We have a ritual at ground zero NYC to read the names of those killed on 9/11. It would be worth our while to once in a while to read off the names of the English Martyrs, to remember, to never forget, to inspire. A litany of saints! Any litany, another form of prayer. I still remember the Litany of the Holy Name – Blessed be God, ….]


The prætermissi (242)
Martyrs on the scaffold
1534: Elizabeth Barton (The Holy Maid of Kent), with five companions: John Dering, O.S.B., Edward Bocking, O.S.B., Hugh Rich, O.S.F., Richard Masters p., Henry Gold p., 1537. Monks, 28.
After the pilgrimage of grace and the rising of Lincolnshire many, probably several hundred, were executed, of whom no record remains. The following names, which do survive, are grouped under their respective abbeys or priories.
• Barlings: Matthew Mackerel, abbot and Bishop of Chalcedon, Ord. Præm.
• Bardney: John Tenent, William Cole, John Francis, William Cowper, Richard Laynton, Hugh Londale, monks.
• Bridlington: William Wood, Prior.
• Fountains: William Thyrsk, O. Cist.
• Guisborough: James Cockerel, Prior.
• Jervaulx: Adam Sedbar, Abbot; George Asleby, monk.
• Kirkstead: Richard Harrison, Abbot; Richard Wade, William Swale, Henry Jenkinson, monks.
• Lenten: Nicholas Heath, Prior; William Gylham, monk.
• Sawlet: William Trafford, Abbot; Richard Eastgate, monk.
• Whalley: John Paslew, Abbot; John Eastgate, William Haydock, monks.
• Woburn: Robert Hobbes, Abbot; Ralph Barnes, sub-prior; Laurence Blonham, monk.
• York: John Pickering, O.S.D., Prior.
• Place unknown: George ab Alba Rose, O.S.A.
• Priests: William Burraby, Thomas Kendale, John Henmarsh, James Mallet, John Pickering, Thomas Redforth.
• Lords: Darcy and Hussey.
• Knights: Francis Bigod, Stephen Hammerton, Thomas Percy.
• Laymen (11): Robert Aske, Robert Constable, Bernard Fletcher, George Hudswell, Robert Lecche, Roger Neeve, George Lomley, Thomas Moyne, Robert Sotheby, Nicholas Tempest, Philip Trotter.
1538 (7): Henry Courtney, the Marquess of Exeter; Henry Pole, Lord Montague; Sir Edward Nevell and Sir Nicholas Carew; George Croft p., and John Collins p.; Hugh Holland l. Their cause was "adhering to the Pope, and his Legate, Cardinal Pole". 1540 (6): Lawrence Cook O. Carm., Prior of Doncaster; Thomas Empson, O.S.B.; Robert Bird p.; William Peterson p.; William Richardson p.; Giles Heron l. 1544 (3): Martin de Courdres, O.S.A., and Paul of St. William, O.S.A.; Darby Genning l. 1569, 1570 (8): Thomas Bishop, Simon Digby, John Fulthrope, John Hall, Christopher Norton, Thomas Norton, Robert Pennyman, Oswald Wilkinson, laymen, who suffered, like Blessed Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, on the occasion of the Northern Rising. Various Years (6): Thomas Gabyt, O. Cist., 1575; William Hambleton p., 1585; Roger Martin p., 1592; Christopher Dixon, O.S.A., 1616; James Laburne, 1583; Edward Arden, 1584.
Martyrs in chains
Bishops (2): Richard Creagh, Archbishop of Armagh, in Tower of London; Thomas Watson, Bishop of Lincoln, in Wisbeach Castle.
Priests in London Prisons (18): Austin Abbott, Richard Adams, Thomas Belser, John Boxall, D.D., James Brushford, Edmund Cannon, William Chedsey, D.D., Henry Cole, D.D., Anthony Draycott, D.D., Andrew Fryer, — Gretus, Richard Hatton, Nicholas Harpsfield, — Harrison, Francis Quashet, Thomas Slythurst, William Wood, John Young, D.D.
Laymen in London Prisons (35): Alexander Bales, Richard Bolbet, Sandra Cubley, Thomas Cosen, Mrs. Cosen, Hugh Dutton, Edward Ellis, Gabriel Empringham, John Fitzherbert, Sir Thomas Fitzherbert, John Fryer, Anthony Fugatio (Portuguese), — Glynne, David Gwynne, John Hammond (alias Jackson). Richard Hart, Robert Holland, John Lander, Anne Lander, Peter Lawson, Widow Lingon, Phillipe Lowe, — May, John Molineaux, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, Richard Reynolds, Edmund Sexton, Robert Shelly, Thomas Sommerset, Francis Spencer, John Thomas, Peter Tichborne, William Travers, Sir Edward Waldegrave, Richard Weston.
Priests in York (12): John Ackridge, William Baldwin, William Bannersly, Thomas Bedal, Richard Bowes, Henry Comberford, James Gerard, Nicholas Grene, Thomas Harwood, John Pearson, Thomas Ridall, James Swarbrick.
Laymen in York (31): Anthony Ash, Thomas Blinkensop, Stephen Branton, Lucy Budge, John Chalmer, Isabel Chalmer, John Constable, Ralph Cowling, John Eldersha, Isabel Foster, — Foster, Agnes Fuister, Thomas Horsley, Stephen Hemsworth, Mary Hutton, Agnes Johnson, Thomas Layne, Thomas Luke, Alice Oldcorne, — Reynold, — Robinson, John Stable, Mrs. Margaret Stable, Geoffrey Stephenson, Thomas Vavasour, Mrs. Dorothy Vavasour, Margaret Webster, Frances Webster, Christopher Watson, Hercules Welborn, Alice Williamson.
In Various Prisons: Benedictines (11): James Brown, Richard Coppinger, Robert Edmonds, John Feckinham, Lawrence Mabbs, William Middleton, Placid Peto, Thomas Preston, Boniface Wilford, Thomas Rede, Sister Isabel Whitehead. Brigittine: Thomas Brownel (lay brother). Cistercians (2): John Almond, Thomas Mudde. Dominican: David Joseph Kemys. Franciscans: Thomas Ackridge, Paul Atkinson (the last of the confessors in chains, died in Hurst Castle, after thirty years' imprisonment, 15 Oct., 1729), Laurence Collier, Walter Coleman, Germane Holmes. Jesuits (12): Matthew Brazier (alias Grimes), Humphrey Browne, Thomas Foster, William Harcourt, John Hudd, Cuthbert Prescott, Ignatius Price, Charles Pritchard, Francis Simeon, Nicholas Tempest, John Thompson, Charles Thursley. Priests (4): William Baldwin, James Gerard, John Pearson, James Swarbick. Laymen (22): Thurstam Arrowsmith, Humphrey Beresford, William Bredstock, James Clayton, William Deeg, Ursula Foster, — Green, William Griffith, William Heath, Richard Hocknell, John Jessop, Richard Kitchin, William Knowles, Thomas Lynch, William Maxfield, — Morecock, Alice Paulin, Edmund Rookwood, Richard Spencer, — Tremaine, Edmund Vyse, Jane Vyse.
The eleven bishops
Since the process of the Prætermissi has been held, strong reasons have been shown for including on our list of sufferers, whose causes ought to be considered, the eleven bishops whom Queen Elizabeth deprived and left to die in prison, as Bonner, or under some form of confinement. Their names are: Cuthbert Turnstall, b. Durham, died 18 Nov. 1559; Ralph Bayle b. Lichfield, d. 18 Nov., 1559; Owen Ogle Thorpe, b. Carlisle, d. 31 Dec., 1559; John White, b. Winchester, d. 12 Jan., 1560; Richard Pate, b. Worcester, d. 23 Nov., 1565; David Poole, b. Peterborough, d. May, 1568; Edward Bonner, b. London, d. 5 Sept., 1569; Gilbert Bourne, b. Bath and Wells, d. 10 Sept., 1569; Thomas Thurlby, b. Ely, d. 26 Aug., 1570; James Thurberville, b. Exeter, d. 1 Nov., 1570; Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, d. Dec. 1578.