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
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