Feb 18 William Harrington b. 1566 d. 1594

Thom and Jack,
Good Morning, I love you
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Duke was down double digits most of the first half. It wasn’t until 9:32 remaining in the game that they took their first lead. Cameron was beserk! In any game, only one team wins. Last night Duke was the better team. The way they won, I’d bet now that Duke wins the return trip to Chapel Hill.

Today we had our hubergero duo officiating at Mass. ‘You are a priest forever….’ and deacons, too, are forever. For some guys, forever is a very long time. Each had their personal story about St Scholastica – not the saint herself, St Benedict’s twin sister, but someone and someplace named for her. We have Scholastica High School.

From this morning’s Mass –

Gn 2:18-25

The LORD God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.”

< First, God made animals and birds whom man named. ‘But none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.’ So, we have a Biblical admonition against bestiality. >

So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man.

When he brought her to the man, the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.

< “God said” not subtle. When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen. So, when “God said,” I suggest we listen. This proclamation got my attention. “God said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone.’” and pets are not the answer. The first answer to ‘aloneness’ is marriage. To the same degree that man should not be alone, woman is “flesh of man’s flesh” and should also not be alone. “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.” And, thus, woman is clung to, reciprocates the Hug of God. Be not alone. So, what does say about those of us alone? That question hung with me through Mass. How is it different to be by oneself vs to be alone? We are created man for woman and woman for man. We are created from one flesh to come together to be one flesh. In the same way as we are created by God to return to God. Ora pro nobis. >


R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.


Gospel

Mk 7:24-30

Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. … she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

< Fr. Scherer, after his aside with his Scholastica story, preached about intercessionary prayer. Is not our prayer suppose to be – not my will but your will, give me the grace to do your will. But, Jesus did tell us to ask what we wanted in His name. This gospel tells us to be persistent when we ask Jesus for what we want. >


February 18

William Harrington b. 1566 d. 1594

Yes, an English Martyr. Look back to Dec 20, 2010 for a litany of English Martyrs.

William Harrington was born at Mt. St. John, Yorkshire.

William Harrington confirmed his vocation for the priesthood after meeting St. Edmund Campion, a guest in his father’s house in 1581. It does matter with whom you hang. You never know whom you’ll meet. Seven steps to Kevin Bacon is also a game to play with your vocation. Bring yourself closer and closer to the persons who God has sent to bring you closer to him. Choose wisely.

Though the family did not persevere in the Faith, the youngest son never forgot Campion's example. Choose the model of the saints, canonized and in your life, to discern your vocation.

First, the man discerns his vocation. Then he has to figure out how to pursue it. Fortunately, Church and churchmen and the record of English Martyrs before him, showed William Harrington a path to the priesthood. He had to leave family and friends and country to find the place for his training and preparation for his English Mission vocation.

William Harrington went abroad, first the seminary at Reims, then to the Jesuits at Tournai (1582-1584) and would have joined the order had not his health broken down and forced him to keep at home for the next six or seven years. Persistence! Perseverance!

William Harrington was ordained at Reims, France, in 1592.

William Harrington returned to England to work in the English mission. Arrested in London in May 1593 for being a priest, William Harrington was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, After nine months of suffering at Tyburn, after having given proofs of unusual constancy and noblemindedness in prison, at the bar, and on the scaffold.

Only [???] a year in service to God and family/country/community before being caught fulfilling God’s will. Whatever your vocation, doing God’s will is one way to get you hung, drawn and quartered - maybe not literally like the English Missionaries but you are exposed to family, friends, community who are not in sync with your proper discernment of God’s will.

William Harrington was only twenty eight when he was sent back to God. Twenty eight. A full life, in spite of his family's opposition, in spite of his illness. Be true to our faith and live your full life like William Harrington.

I love you,
Dad
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