21st Sunday of Year C 2013

 

"They will proclaim my glory to the nations" (Isaiah 66:20)

There are several themes running through this Sunday’s liturgy and the one that spoke most to me was the call to “proclaim my glory to the nations” and the invitation to be a witness “to my glory”v.19.

I found these words of life extraordinary – really like a rallying call to us, coming almost immediately after our Cardinal consecrated Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Is the Lord calling us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus as the Gospel today tells us - “Through towns and villages Jesus went preaching…” Lk.13.22  proclaiming the glory of his Father to both Jews and Gentiles alike.

Remember how after the miracle at the Wedding of Cana ‘He let his glory be seen and his disciples believed in him’ Jn.2.12  and later he prays ‘Father, I have given them the glory you gave to me that they may be one as we are one’ - thus he prepared and strengthened them for their future work of Evangelisation.

How are we to be witnesses of this glory of Jesus today?  For some it will mean going ‘through our towns and villages, teaching and sharing the good news that we have a Father who loves us, who in fact is madly in love with us.  Just take the time to look into the face of a little flower - it ‘has neither spun or woven its own beauty, yet not even Solomon in all his glory is arrayed like it.’  Jesus himself tells us ‘there is no need to be afraid Lk.12.2  little flock, for it has pleased your father to give you the kingdom.’

The prophet Isaiah also tells us about this good news so beautifully, especially in these times when sad and indeed horrific news seems to catch the limelight in our news reels and papers.

 

“Arise and shine out for your light has come, the glory of the Lord is rising on you

though night (recession, murders, abortions, break-up of family life) still covers

our land and darkness, our people.”

 

Is Mary, Queen of Ireland, telling us –

“above you the Lord now rises and above you his glory appears – lift up your eyes and look around, all are assembling and coming towards you, your sons from far away, and your daughters being tenderly carried.  At this sight you will  grow radiant – The Lord will be your everlasting light – your days of mourning over – your people will all be upright, possessing our land forever.  I, the Lord, have spoken and in due time I shall act”  Cf. Is.60

 

The prophet has a word for us too, who are not itinerant preachers, but who can still proclaim the good news in our homes and work places.  Listen to Mary, our Mother, speak through him:

“Your integrity will be before you and the glory of the Lord behind you, cry and the Lord will answer, call and pray and he will say – I am here.  If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist, the wicked word.  If you give your bread to the hungry and relief to the oppressed, your light will rise in the darkness – the Lord himself will always guide you, giving you relief in desert places”.    cf. Is.58

We can also proclaim and praise his glory by constant thanksgiving – Our Lady told the little Arab slave girl, Blessed Maryam – “always be content”

All our deeds, actions, thoughts and desires have the power to root us more deeply in His love and their fruits flow out to others – and then –Some day the veil will fall and we may cross the eternal threshold where we shall sing in the lap of Eternal Love -  God will give us a new name, the one he promised to those who prove victorious.  What will it be?  Praise of His Glory.  (Elizabeth of the Trinity)

An eventful month



 

We would like to share with our readers some of the joyful celebrations of this past month - you will then understand why we have not been attending to our blog!

 

Newly Ordained celebrates Eucharist with us

 

On the 22nd July, feast of St Mary Magdalen, Fr Paul Murphy who was recently ordained our diocese celebrated the Eucharist with us, and gave us his blessing.   Later we met with him and his parents in the parlour.  During the past year Fr Paul  came regularly to pray in our chapel while he was working in our parish as a deacon.   We   continue to support him with our prayer as he  soon begins ministry in Armagh cathedral.  We pray that many more young men may follow Paul's example and dedicate their lives to the priesthood.

 

  

Fr Paul is pictured here with his parents


Silver Jubilee celebration

 

On the 7th August we were happy to have fr John Harris OP with us to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his Ordination.  Fr John had celebrated his first Mass with us in the old monastery on the Chord Road - so it was a great joy to have him with us on this joyful occasion 25 years later.  Sr Paula Mary had devoted many hours in designing and creating the stole which he is wearing in picture.  

Being the eve of the feast of our holy Father St Dominic Fr John stayed so that we had solemn Vespers of the feast.

 

Celebrating the Feast of St Dominic on 8th August

 

It was a great joy for us to have our new coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh, Archbishop Eamon Martin  celebrate the feast of St Dominic with us. He arrived in time for first Vespers and met the community later afterwards.  He stayed overnight and  on the feast of St Dominic he celebrated the Eucharist.  Fr Gregory Carroll OP, Provincial, concelebrated with him.  Both of them joined us in the parlour and greeted our community friends who attended the Mass. 

 

Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal celebrate with us

Sr Lucille and Sr Clare, Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, spent two weeks with us while they were helping their sisters settle into their new home in St Mary's parish at the other side of town from us.  They had stayed in our retreat house for a few days last year when they were looking into the possibility of starting a foundation in Drogheda - so our joy was great when Sr Lucille phone a few months ago asking if we could accommodate herself and Sr Clare again this time.  They are pictured here with Srs Jacinta, Monica, Veronica and Kelly Frances - the four sisters who have come to Drogheda.  On the feast of St Dominic all six sisters joined us for Vespers, supper and recreation.

 

 

 

Sr Jacinta here receives an icon written by our sisters for their new home in Drogheda, Sr Lucille is on left.

 

Below are the four sisters who came from Leeds for the inaugural Mass on the 15th of August in St Mary's Church, Drogheda.  Srs Elizabeth, Catherine, Joseph and Cecilia stayed in our retreat house while they were here.  Their new house has only accommodation for the four sisters who live there.

 

 

 

 

Welcoming Cardinal Dolan of New York 

 

 

 

 

As Cardinal Dolan was instrumental in the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal coming to Drogheda, he came all the way from New York for the inaugural Mass which took place in St Mary's Church, Drogheda on the evening of the 15th of August.  Also in attendance were the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Browne, Bishop Denis Nulty and Bishop Michael Smith and a packed church of parishioners who warmly welcomed the sisters. 

 

During his stay in Ireland Cardinal Dolan celebrate our community Eucharist on Tuesday the 13th August and met the community afterwards.  In the picture are members of to our own community,  the Franciscan sisters  and Sr Bosco, a Sister of Mercy from Drogheda who had taught him in primary school and with whom he has kept contact ever since.

 

15th August 2013 - Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary - Consecration of Ireland to the Immcaculate Heart of Mary -

Today at Knock Shrine Cardinal Sean Brady together with co-adjutor Archbishop Eamon Martin, Archbishop Charles Brown - the Papal Nuncio  and the Bishops of Ireland will consecrate Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  We pray that this entrusting of our country to Mary our Mother will bear abundant fruit in holiness of life in our people. 

At our Eucharist this morning we, in solidarity with the Bishops, prayed the act of consecration entrusting ourselves, our community, our Church and our country to Mary's hands.

Act of Consecration

Most Blessed Virgin Mary,

Mother of God and Refuge of Sinners,

we entrust and consecrate ourselves,

our family, our home and our Dioceses

to Jesus through your Immaculate Heart.

As your children,

we promise to follow your example in our lives

by doing at all times the will of God.

O Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit,

we renew today the promises of our Baptism and Confirmation.

Intercede for us with the Holy Spirit

that we may be always faithful to your Divine Son,

to his Mystical Body, the Catholic Church,

and to the teachings of his Vicar on earth, our Holy Father the Pope.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Queen and our Mother,

we promise to uphold the sanctity of marriage

and the welfare of the family.

Watch over our minds and hearts

and preserve our youth from dangers to the faith

and the many temptations that threaten them in the world today.

We ask you, Mary our Advocate,  to intercede with your divine Son.

Obtain for our country the grace to uphold the uniqueness of every human life,

from the first moment of conception to natural death.

O Blessed Mother, Our Life, our Sweetness and Our Hope,

we wish that this Consecration be for the great glory of God

and that it lead us safely to Jesus your Son.

A Naomh-Mhuire, a Mháthair Dé,

guigh orainn na peacaigh, anois agus ar uair ár mbáis.

Amen.

 

Prayer to Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of our faith

(This prayer is taken from Lumen Fidei, the recent Encyclical of Pope Francis.)

 

Mother, help our faith !

Open our ears to hear God’s word and to recognise his voice and call.

Awaken in us a desire to follow in his footsteps,

to go forth from our own land and to receive his promise.

Help us to be touched by his love,

that we may touch him in faith.

Help us to entrust ourselves fully to him

and to believe in his love,

especially at times of trial, beneath the shadow of the cross,

when our faith is called to mature.

Sow in our faith the joy of the Risen One.

Remind us that those who believe are never alone.

Teach us to see all things with the eyes of Jesus,

that he may be light for our path.

And may this light of faith always increase in us,

until the dawn of that undying day

which is Christ himself, your Son, our Lord!

Amen

 

St Dominic's Prayer for Others

A Reflection on St Dominic's Prayer and concern for others.

 

All of the accounts of St Dominic's  life speak of his great passion for the salvation of others. A passion that found expression both in his preaching and in his prayers. This was something that impressed me when I was discerning my vocation - the energy and fervency of his prayer for the conversion of sinners. His frequent cry "what will become of sinners?"  This links into what I read in St Catherine of Siena's "Dialogue": when God the Father tells her that it is the love and desire with which she offers her prayers, penance and actions that is most important since only love is infinite.

 

The main purpose of my life here is to offer worship to God and to pray for those who need our prayers. But looking at St Dominic's life I see ever more clearly that my prayer must be passionate. To use a modern expresssion, I must be engaged by what I am praying for. I must know in my own heart the tragedy of those who turn from God and have that knowledge, that awareness, fuel my prayer. So that my prayer, like Dominic's, will be earnest and fervent and will bear fruit for others.

Novena in preparation for the feast of St Dominic

 

Today we being the novena in preparation for the feast of St Dominic - before Vespers each evening for the coming nine days we have a short reflection followed by the singing of the 'O Spem' - a prayer reminding St Dominic of his promise that he would be more helpful to his brothers and sisters after his death than when he was alive. 

Readers of this blog might like to join us in praying to St Dominic during these days:

O wonderful hope which you gave to those who wept for you at the hour of your death, that after your decease you would be helpful to your brethren.

Fulfil Father what you have said and help us by your prayers

You shone on the bodies of the sick by so many miracles, bring us the help of Christ to heal our sick souls.

Fulfil Father what you have said and  help us by  your prayers.

A Vocation Story

Since today's Gospel is the sending out of the Disciples it seems appropriate to share Sr Mary Cathy's vocation story: how she recognised/discovered where our Lord was calling her to work in his vineyard.

Sr Mary Cathy making First Profession, 2nd February 2013

My name is Cathy Howard. I am 32 years old and I come from Finglas, Dublin. Both my parents are living and I have four brothers, two sisters and nine nieces and nephews. I entered the Monastery of St. Catherine of Siena in Drogheda, County Louth, in April 2010. I spent nine months as a Postulant, two years as a Novice, and made my First Profession on the 2nd February 2013.

I did not really know anything about God or the Church until I got involved with the Legion of Mary in 2004. A member of the Legion working in the Regina Caeli Hostel, encouraged me to go to Confession – the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and so I did. This was the first time I had gone to Confession since my First Holy Communion. I spent two hours with the priest and it was during this Confession that I experienced God’s love, mercy and forgiveness. For the first time in my life I felt free and alive. This was the beginning of a new journey for me. I was to spend many more hours in confession during my first years following my conversion. This sacrament continues to be a great source of healing for me.

I became a member of the Legion in 2005. Part of the Legion’s work is door to door visitation by two members. I found this work very challenging as I had very little knowledge of the teachings of the Church and found myself for the most part, to be the one praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit on my companion who spoke, and on the people whom he/she addressed. While doing this work I learned so much myself about the faith.

In the first years of my conversion, going to daily Mass and Eucharistic Adoration were essential for me – I felt I could not live without them. It is even more so the case today. I attended many Youth 2000 retreats all over the country and also went for weekend or week long retreats to a retreat house in Scotland, called Craig Lodge. This retreat house is run by a married couple and there are 8-11 people, of my own age, living and working there as a community- looking after the retreatants who come there. What attracted me greatly to this retreat house was the fact that Morning, Evening and Night Prayer were sung daily and there was adoration of the Blessed Sacrament throughout the day. I felt attracted to joining this community and felt that there was where the Lord was drawing me. To join, it is necessary to do one or two years formation with them and I asked if I could come and stay for a week or two to see if it was for me. They agreed and I went the following December for two weeks but could only stay four days as I had to return home due to an urgent family situation. I went back many times after that but never joined them.

In the first year of my conversion the company I was working for, went into liquidation and it was some time before I got another job in a sweet factory in Finglas. In the work place I seemed to be the only one who had the faith and was not afraid to speak about it, but I felt very much out of place in that work situation, as if I did not fit in at all. It was the Lord alone Who kept me going in that job for two years. I used to begin to pray the rosary on the way to work as I walked to the bus, getting three decades said, and then continued the remaining decades on the bus itself. After that I took out my breviary and began to pray Morning Prayer. I used to get the funniest looks from the people sitting beside me but I did not care in the least. I knew this was the only thing that would get me through the day as work started at 7:30 am and I would have to wait until after work to go to Mass – which was great to look forward to. During this time my faith was growing and my relationship with the Lord becoming stronger and deeper. I spent most weekends away on retreat and during the week I would spend time each day in adoration.

Eventually the factory closed following a fatal accident and the idea of joining a community for a year or two came to my mind again - since I was out of work I thought it might be an opportune time. However, on the advice of a friend I took time to think and pray about the situation as he said that if I were to join a community for a year or two I would still have to return to Dublin with no job, flat, money etc. It was a real test for me to see how much trust I had in God’s providence – that he would look after these things for me.

I prayed about this and remember sitting in Adoration in the presence of the Lord and pouring out my heart to Him – saying that if it was His will that I put the formation year in Craig Lodge out of my mind, then, that He would help me find work with people who had faith and on the south side of Dublin as I could not bear working in Finglas again. ‘Not my will but Yours be done’ – I prayed.

Weeks or months after making that prayer – I can’t remember how long exactly, I received a phone call from a friend asking if I would be interested in working for a period of seven weeks, in a Carmelite Monastery, making altar breads and this monastery was on the south side of Dublin! If that is not an answer to prayer then I don’t know what is!

I accepted the job and really loved this work. I attended Mass with the sisters and prayed the Divine Office with them before I started work and then for my lunch break I would sit in prayer with the Lord in the chapel. After a while the sisters let me use their own little oratory where I could expose the Blessed Sacrament. Until I worked there, I never actually thought about where the altar breads came from even though the priest reads from the missal everyday at Mass ‘….. Through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life’. I really could not believe that I was making altar breads knowing that the bread was going to be changed into the living and true flesh of Jesus Christ. This blew me away.

The seven weeks turned into eleven or twelve weeks and when it was time to leave my heart was breaking. One day the Prioress took me by surprise and asked me to stay behind after work as she wanted to talk to me. She asked me if I ever thought of Religious Life? “No way, I said. I was not humble enough”. She laughed and said that none of us are. I must have mentioned that I was interested in joining a community for a year’s formation but never thought of Religious Life, especially the enclosed type. She said that I had the capability for it and that I was very balanced. I really could not believe this was happening and I remember going home very excited that day. I spoke to my spiritual director and he was very encouraging.

Working for, and praying with that Carmelite Community was very important on my faith journey and I am very grateful for that period of my life. At this stage I also started looking at other communities and I thought about a fraternity, the Fraternity of Mary Immaculate Queen, whose members had become good friends of mine. We set a date for a month’s live-in/trial with them but something happened at the last minute and I was unable to do it.

When I first came back to the Church I used to come to the Dominican Church (St. Saviour’s Community, Upper Dorset St., Dublin 1) in Dominick’s street, for Mass and Morning Prayer on my days off. I also attended the weekly Divine Mercy Holy Hour. I had a tremendous healing experience during a Novena to St. Martin in 2004 and since then I have had great devotion to him. I would never pass the church without going in to say a quick prayer and light a candle. Over the years I got to know the priests and students very well and you could almost say that I had became part of the furniture! I felt very much at home there. My heart was there.

I remember sweeping the floor at work one day and really feeling that the Lord was calling me to religious life. But where was the question? This conviction was very strong and I spoke about this to my spiritual director. As he pondered on my situation and knowing how attracted I was to Eucharistic Adoration – how it was my lifeline –it was then he told me about the Dominican Nuns in Drogheda- how they have Eucharistic Adoration all day, how they sing the Liturgy beautifully and pray the rosary daily. I had never heard of them before – it was only the friars that I knew from the Dominican Order. I was really taken by all of this and thought that this may be where the Lord was leading me to. They hold vocation weekends every couple of months and when I rang, the Novice Mistress said that there was a weekend coming up soon and that I was welcome to attend.

I was so nervous about going that my spiritual director drove me to the monastery and left me in the chapel. I remember feeling a beautiful Presence when walking in. After the weekend I knew that there was where the Lord wanted me to be. During the weekend, when talking to the young sisters I mentioned that I was not too keen on the study because I had missed out on some of my education, due to a medical childhood condition and family circumstances. One of them put my mind at rest when she said that if you are passionate about something or if you are in love with someone you want to know everything about that person and that it was the same for us with the Lord – we study for the sole purpose of growing in the knowledge and love of God and for no other reason.

My parents did not take the news of my entering too well, especially because of what the media was saying at the time. My Mam did say that as long as I was happy she would be happy but I knew she was hurting inside. However, my parents and most of my family have been very faithful in visiting me. The Lord said “Everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for the sake of my name will be repaid a hundred times over, and also inherit eternal life”. ( Mt. 19:29). I now feel a new bond with my family that was not there before and I am very grateful for it.

Choose Life Prayer

Choose Life: Prayer for the Child in the Womb



Lord Jesus, you are the source and lover of life.
Reawaken in us respect for every human life.

Help us to see in each child the marvellous work of our Creator.
Open our hearts to welcome every child as a unique and wonderful gift.

Guide the work of doctors, nurses and midwives.
May the life of a mother and her baby in the womb be equally cherished and respected.

Help those who make our laws to uphold the uniqueness and sacredness of every human life, from the first moment of conception to natural death.

Give us wisdom and generosity to build a society that cares for all.

Together with Mary, your Mother, in whose womb you took on our human nature, Help us to choose life in every decision we take.

We ask this in the joyful hope of eternal life with you, and in the communion of the Blessed Trinity.
Amen.

Our Lady of Knock, pray for us.
All the Saints of Ireland, pray for us.