Urgent Appeal to Support the Matt Talbot Website Domain

Gregory posted the (slightly edited) following urgent message at https://www.facebook.com/VenerableMattTalbot/

“Last year I registered the matttalbot.ie domain and restored a copy of the official site created by Matt Talbot Dublin Diocesan Committee and Vice-Postulator of Matt Talbot`s Cause. Because the domain has been available for some time I saved it from domain buyers.

I corresponded with Vice Postulator Fr. Brian Lawless about this matter. The domain was to be redirected to the official site which was supposed to be created. Unfortunately until the present moment, I don`t know anything about the new official website and I don`t have contact with Fr. Lawless. He has not responded to my messages.

Soon I will have to pay the domain for another year; otherwise the domain will be lost. It would be a big loss because this domain is known and provides important information about Venerable Matt.

Therefore, I am asking everyone what to do? I do not have the funds (about $130) to pay for the domain for next year.
The best option would be to transfer the domain to a Vice- Postulator. As I mentioned I do not have contact with him. So I think the only option is to request your financial help to pay for the domain for a another year. I will be grateful for your opinions.”

Meeting Venerable Matt Talbot: Patron of Alcoholics

For readers who are interested in beginning to learn about Matt Talbot (1856-1925), we recommend the website created by Fr. Brian Lawless, Vice-Postulator for the Cause of Matt Talbot, and the Dublin Diocesan Matt Talbot Committee, which is now available at http://mateusztalbot.pl/talbot/index.html or www.matttalbot.ie/

This site includes the following sections:

Story:

Matt’s Early Life

The Dark Years

Matt the Worker

The Road to Recovery

Matt on Strike

Prayer and Spiritual Guidance

Matt’s Ultimate Victory

The Account of Matt’s Holiness Spreads

Videos:

Matt’s Early Life

The Dark Years

Matt’s Conversion

Matt the Worker

Death and Legacy

Prayers:

Prayer for the Canonisation of Matt Talbot

Asking Matt’s Help in the Presence of the Lord

Contact:

Private Message: https://www.facebook.com/VenerableMattTalbot/
E-Mail Message about Matt Talbot mateusztalbot@wp.pl

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/VenerableMattTalbot/

www.twitter.com/venmatttalbot

http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/

Official Matt Talbot Website is Back Online

The official website about Venerable Matt Talbot, created by Matt Talbot Dublin Diocesan Committee and the Vice Postulator for the Cause of Matt Talbot, is online again at www.matttalbot.ie.

Gregory at https://www.facebook.com/VenerableMattTalbot/ was able to register the available domain and has included the original content, which includes text, photographs, and videotapes, for those who want to learn more about Matt Talbot. 

More details about this change are available at the two links. 


Update:  Gregory posted the following message earlier today at https://www.facebook.com/VenerableMattTalbot/

“Father Brian Lawless, vice postulator of Matt Talbot`s cause contacted me. He informed me that the reason the original site www.matttalbot.ie did not work was a problem with the host company.

I never planned that the site belonged to me. Therefore, for the good of Matt's cause, I will pass the domain to Father Lawless.

Thanks to everyone who supported buying the domain. Thanks to you, the domain did not fall into the wrong hands."

 

"How did Matt Talbot spend his last day of life?"

Today is the 92nd anniversary of Matt Talbot's death.

Without getting into extensive detail as provided in biographies, we post the content from the Dublin Diocesan Matt Talbot Website: http://www.matttalbot.ie/.

 

Matt's Ultimate Victory

“Trinity Sunday, the 7th June 1925, was the hottest day of a heat wave that had gripped the country since the previous week. Matt as usual had attended the 5.30am Mass in Gardiner St. and went to Holy Communion with the men of his Sodality at 8.00am Mass. After Mass he returned to Rutland Street to have his usual meagre breakfast, one of his neighbours thought he looked poorly and advised him to take a little rest. Matt admitted that he was feeling a little weak but a half an hour later Matt came down again; he smiled at his neighbour, said he felt all right and was going on to the 10am Mass in Dominick Street.

He always hurried to Mass. Around two sides of Mountjoy Square, along Gardiner Place, past Belvedere College, down Gardiner Row and along the North side of Parnell Square he was now just a few minutes away from his goal, the Dominican Church. Turning into Granby Lane, a short cut to the Church, he stumbled and collapsed. Passers by came to his aid people coming from an earlier Mass in Dominick called for a priest, a nurse and a Guard were on the scene.

An eye witness account from Noel Carroll, who was a young boy at the time, recalls how his father who was manager of a chemist's shop at Bolton Street, would generally attend the 10am Mass on Sunday mornings in Dominick Street. On some Sundays he would take Noel along with him. Though he was only eight and a half years at the time he remembers that Sunday morning June 7th 1925 very well.

He describes how it was a very sunny morning as he and his father turned into Granby Lane they noticed a lot of excitement centred around a man lying on the ground. Noel's father, being a chemist, went over to give First Aid; Noel observed his father as he opened the stud of the man's shirt-collar. By now a large crowd had gathered. The chemist instructed the people to stand back. As they did Noel got a good look at the man. He had no collar or tie, and wore a grey suit. Noel recalls that as the man closed his eyes and died the bell for Mass had begun to ring it was about 9.40am. It is quite conceivable that the last sound which Matt heard was the Vox Dei, the voice of God's call to the Banquet of the Eucharist, a call that Matt had been so faithful to during his life now beckoned him to its fulfillment in heaven. If Matt had known that morning what was going to happen he would not have worn the chains. Little did he realise that they would be the way in which God would reveal the hidden aspects of his life of holiness to the world.”

Dublin Diocesan Matt Talbot Website Update

The Dublin Diocesan Matt Talbot website is back online at http://www.matttalbot.ie/.

Dublin Diocesan Matt Talbot Website is Not Currently Available

 

The official Venerable Matt Talbot website at http://www.matttalbot.ie/ has been unavailable since earlier this month.

One source (https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/results/www.matttalbot.ie)

indicates that there are website problems, which we hope are resolved shortly. We believe this website is the finest single source of introductory information about Matt Talbot.

Matt Talbot Dublin Diocesan Committee Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Matt-Talbot-Dublin-Diocesan-Committee/217785025048151, however, is functioning.

A biographer’s note on Matt Talbot's reading and comprehension abilities

The first  American book published about Matt Talbot (http://cnp.stparchive.com/Archive/CNP/CNP04041947p40.php) was Matt Talbot, Alcoholic: The Story of a Slave to Alcohol who Became a Comrade of Christ’s (1947) by Fr. Albert H. Dolan, O.Carm. (1892-1951).  This quotation is from that book:

“What I remember best of Matt Talbot’s story as I heard it first years ago is the astounding character of the books he possessed, books found in his room after his death. This man, with practically no schooling, read and digested some of the most advanced and profound treatises of mystical theology.  The lives of the saints reveal that very holy souls with no education read books, the understanding of which would require light directly infused by the Holy Ghost. Once Matt told a friend that he was reading Newman’s ‘Apologia.’ The friend replied that a book like that was over Matt’s head, that he himself had found it beyond him. Matt answered that whenever he read a book he always prayed to God to give him light to understand it and that he thought he received enough light to understand most of what he read.”

Matt Talbot also discussed what he read with spiritual directors (see http://www.matttalbot.ie/new-matt.htm). More information about Fr. Dolan can be found at Fr. Albert H. Dolan.

Historical Development of Matt Talbot's Cause

The interesting website at http://newsaints.faithweb.com/about_us.htm is the result of years of research and collaboration between the members of the Hagiography Circle with the Congregation of the Causes of Saints and the petitioners of beatification and canonization causes from the time of the French Revolution (1789) to today, including up-to-date news at http://newsaints.faithweb.com/index.htm.

Below is the listing for Venerable Matthew Talbot (http://newsaints.faithweb.com/year/1925.htm). The definition of each entry is available at http://newsaints.faithweb.com/databases.htm:

07 June in Dublin (Ireland)    

MATTHEW (MATT) TALBOT                                                                                       
 layperson of the archdiocese of Dublin;                               

  member, Secular Franciscans                                                 
born: 02 May 1856 in Dublin (Ireland) The                     

                

diocese of competent bishop: Dublin                                   

CCS protocol number: 101                                                    

type of cause: heroic virtues                                                    

       

opening of informative process: 06 November 1931           

closing of informative process: 1934

decree on writings: 27 November 1937

 introduction of cause: 28 February 1947

 decree “non-cultu”: 04 April 1948

 opening of apostolic process: 1948

 closing of apostolic process: 1953

 decree on validity of informative and apostolic processes: 19 February
   1963

 commission of CCS officials and consultants: 25 March 1975

 session of cardinal and bishop members of the CCS: 13 May 1975

 promulgation of decree on heroic virtues: 03 October 1975

       

 postulator: Mons. Liam Bergin

 petitioner: Archdiocese of Dublin, Drumcondra, Dublin 9 IRELAND

 website: www.matttalbot.ie

                     

                

  

Reflection on Venerable Matt Talbot's Death and Legacy

Each of us will have a different way of reflecting on Matt Talbot’s death and legacy today, the 88th anniversary of his death.

One approach is to read http://www.matttalbot.ie/ultimate-victory.htm and the following two Dublin Diocesan Matt Talbot Website pages and/or play the "5. Death & Legacy" video at  http://www.matttalbot.ie/videos.htm and then record your reflection in a “Matt Talbot Journal.”

 

We have pasted the third page of the recommended reading below:

Matt sets before us a radical example which demonstrates that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. His life is a witness to the fact that people can by God's grace and their own self acceptance say no to that which leads to addiction or addictive behaviours and that in the meantime our communities must never lose hope and must continue to care for them.

Maybe it is because of this that so many have come to love and admire Matt Talbot. Matt's friend Paddy Laird always found it extraordinary that there were only seven people at Matt's funeral, but upon making public his life story hundreds of thousands have come to see him as a hero and a beacon of hope.

People need heroes, not in the sense of comic book or movie superheroes with superhuman powers, not pop stars or celebrities all art and pizzazz but with little or no moral substance. No what we need are ordinary people who against extraordinary odds do the right thing, like saying no to addiction or compulsion. Matt Talbot understood this and he would say to others, "If I can do it so can you with the grace of God".

Matt example has inspired many institutions, movements and individuals around the world giving hope of recovery to those who are willing to accept their weakness and need. Such people stand as beacons in our world to the truth that we can overcome addiction rise above our weakness and achieve great things even sainthood.

Jesus said, "Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest shoulder my yoke and learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls" Matt 11:28-30.

Matt Talbot's life as a labourer who was overburdened by addiction and guilt gradually grew in awareness through the gift of grace and the Holy Spirit that a life of meekness and humility of heart will lead to rest for our souls, and towards a better world where all self destructive drive will come to an end, where people will live in harmony of body, mind and spirit, in harmony too with each other, with creation and with God.

By following the example of Matt Talbot you tell the world that there is more to life than "sex, and drugs and rock n roll," that there is hope for every broken heart and that by God's love his kingdom comes into our hearts, our homes and our world.

At this time when so many of our communities are affected by the scourge of alcohol and substance misuse, God has chosen Matt to be set before us as a model of temperance and a source of strength and support to all who suffer from addiction or additive behaviors.

Matt Talbot ascetic and urban spiritual mystic, who overcame addiction by the Grace of God, his higher power, whose faith was nourished by his extraordinary love of the Eucharist and his sublime devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Christ told his followers, "You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," Matt 5:48. When Matt found sobriety through prayer, his desire for drink was replaced by a desire for Christian perfection.

Update on new Matt Talbot website

We noted on June 18, 2012 that the Dublin Diocesan Matt Talbot website is now online at www.matttalbot.ie. Since that notice, additional entries have been added to the “The Story of Matt Talbot" as well as an interactive map of Matt Talbot’s Dublin, videos about Matt Talbot’s life and prayers. Additional sections currently remain “under construction.”

Note that the Dublin Diocesan Matt Talbot website and our Venerable Matt Talbot Resource Center are independent entities.

Dublin Diocesan Matt Talbot Website now online

We noted earlier this year that the “official” Matt Talbot website was forthcoming (Official Venerable Matt Talbot website coming soon).

Although still under construction, the “Dublin Diocesan Matt Talbot Website” is now online at www.matttalbot.ie with its home page and "The Story of Matt Talbot" available.

We encourage all who have an interest in Venerable Matt Talbot to bookmark this new interactive website and to continue to use our Venerable Matt Talbot Resource Center bookmark.

New Vice-Postulator for the Cause of Venerable Matt Talbot appointed

According to the new Official Matt Talbot website (http://www.procathedral.ie/matt-talbot) and a

confirmation email from the former Vice-Postulator, Rev. Damian O'Reilly, a new Vice-Postulator has been announced in Dublin.

As noted on the website, "Favours received through the intercession of the Venerable Matt Talbot should be notified as soon as possible to the Vice Postulator:

Very Reverend Brian Lawless, Adm

Parish of St. Agatha

North William Street

Dublin 1.

His email address is frbrian@stagathasparish.ie

Matt Talbot Committee

	Some of the articles that have been posted on this site refer to the "Matt Talbot Committee," which is directly involved in furthering the cause of Matt Talbot for sainthood. Its 2008 membership follows: DUBLIN DIOCESAN MATT TALBOT COMMITTEE Chairman: Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin Executive Chairman: Rev. Damian O’Reilly, Vice Postulator Secretary: Rev. Philip O’Driscoll, C.C. Members: Mr. Patrick Behan, Mr. Thomas Brennan, Brother Christopher Carroll, Mrs. Patricia Ferrari, V. Rev. Brendan Quinlan, P.P., Mr. Anthony Malone, Mrs. Mary McCann, Rev. Bernard McGuckian, S.J., Mr. Gerard McLaughlin, Mr. Bernard Nolan, V. Rev. Michael Casey, Adm. Mr. Charles Sydner, Paula Murray, Vera Brady. Source: http://www.dublindiocese.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1088&Itemid=505