The Venerable Matt Talbot Resource Center exists to compile writings about the life, times, conversion, and recovery from alcoholism of Matt Talbot (1856-1925) of Dublin, Ireland. Disclaimer: The placing of information on this site from external linked sources does not necessarily imply agreement with that information. This center is independent of any other center, group, organization, website, or Facebook page. Comments are welcome at: ven.matt.talbot.resource.center@gmail.com
31st Sunday 2008
Brendan Clifford
Addressing the people and his disciples Jesus said, ‘You, however, must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one Master, and you are all brothers You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted.’
Mt 23: 8-12.
I have two questions for you. The first is this: who are the people you feel are more important than you are? You may think of public figures like the Pope or the President, or celebrities you read about in the papers or see on television. You may think of people closer to home: neighbours or relations.
Each of us could make a list. Almost without noticing it, we judge that other people are more important than that we are. It may be because they are better off, or better educated, more talented, more attractive or more popular. If we meet these people we may try hard to make a good impression on them and to be in their good books. We may not like to admit it but most of us are a little like Hyacinth Bucket, the Lady of the House in the television comedy ‘Keeping Up Appearances.’
We are not inferior to anyone
Jesus tells us there is a wiser way to live. ‘You must call no one on earth your father,’ he says, ‘since you have only one Father and he is in heaven.’ He is not telling us that we should not respect our parents and call them ‘mother’ and ‘father.’ He is telling us not to consider ourselves less that any other human being; we are not inferior to anyone.
Matt Talbot understood this. One day when there was a lull in his work in the timber yard Matt was in his usual secluded place between the stacks of timber. The manager of the company, Mr. Martin was showing a visitor around. He heard some movement among the timber stacks and called out, ‘Come out, whoever is there, and don’t be afraid.’ Matt walked out and said, ‘With all respects to you, sir, I never yet met a man I was afraid of.’ On another occasion a fellow worker spoke about his ‘master,’ meaning Mr. Martin. Matt said, ‘He is only my boss: I have only one master - in heaven.’
The great Indian leader, Mahatma Ghandi was deeply committed to non-violence and said, ‘I shall not fear anyone on earth. I only fear God. I shall bear ill-will towards no one. I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.’
We are not superior to anyone.
Here is the second question: Who are the people you consider to be less important than you are? This is an embarrassing question; we find it hard to admit that we could make a list of these people, and that we keep adding names to the list. If we take part in the Mass every day, we can easily think that we are better than the neighbours who do not go at all. If we help some one who is poor or sick, we can imagine we are more important than that person. Suppose a stranger comes to my door and I think he is a beggar; my attitude to him is likely to change if I discover he is the county manager.
These words of Jesus are good news for the entire world. How different the world would be if everybody believed it and acted accordingly. They are good news especially for those who are poorest and least respected. Imagine people in shanty towns in Latin America or the Philippines meditating on them. The well off world tells them that no one of importance lives in a shanty town. But Jesus words assure them that they are inferior to no one; they need call no one on earth their father.
It is a life long task for each of us to become sufficiently mature and self-possessed and humble to live by these words. At the beginning of each Mass we call to mind our sins: we know at that moment we are not superior to other people. Before Communion we offer each other a sign of peace: we know then that the other people are not superior to us; they are our sisters and brothers.
Prayer.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for letting us know that we need call no one on earth our father because we have only one Father. We pray that we may not allow ourselves to be called rabbi or teacher, because we are all your sisters and brothers.
Venerable Matt Talbot
http://irishbishopsdrugsinitiative.com/?page_id=235
He was born on 2nd May 1856 in humble circumstance in Dublin’s inner city, the son of Charles and Elizabeth Talbot. In post-famine years Dublin and the rest of Ireland was in distressed state: an era of grinding poverty and appalling living conditions. Yet it was also a time when the Faith was strong and prayer and the practice of their religion were the channels of hope and optimism for the masses of people.
Hard-drinking was, however, a problem, a feature of Dublin life: all the attendant miseries of excess drinking, the hardship of broken families and unfulfilled hopes were only too evident in the city. From his early teens up to the age of twenty-eight Matt Talbot was a hard drinking man, never a day idle but enduring a source of distress to those who loved him. In 1884, however, Matt stopped drinking and made a three month pledge to God he would refrain from the habit. Despite great temptations in the early stages of his conversions he never took a drink again. The remaining forty-one years of his life were lived heroically by Matt in attending daily Mass, in constant prayer, in helping the poor and indeed in the ascetic life-style of Celtic spirituality.
The chains found on his body at death were not some extreme penitential regime but a symbol of his devotion to Mary, Mother of God that he wished to give himself to her totally as a slave. This life was his prayer to God and his defence against a reversion to alcoholism. He died on Trinity Sunday, 7th June 1925, in Granby Lane on his way to Mass in the Dominican Church nearby. Within a few short years of his death his reputation as a saintly man and especially as a patron protector of those suffering from all forms of addiction, and their families, was being established. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery and then in 1972 his remains were removed to a tomb in Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Sean McDermott Street, Dublin, in the area where Matt spent his life. Every day pilgrims come to pray at his tomb, many come in organised pilgrimages from overseas as well as Ireland.
Matt has a tremendous following in North America and there is particular devotion to him there. The pilgrims pray to Matt asking him in turn to pray for them and their loved ones and they also pray for him that he may soon be raised to the company of the Saints in Heaven.
Prayer for the Canonisation of Venerable Matt Talbot
Lord, in your servant, Matt Talbot
you have given us a wonderful example
of triumph over addiction, of devotion to duty,
and of lifelong reverence for the Most Holy Sacrament.
May his life of prayer and penance
give us courage to take up our crosses
and follow in the footsteps
of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Father,
if it be your will that your beloved servant
should be glorified by your Church,
make known by your heavenly favours
the power he enjoys in your sight.
We ask this through the same
Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
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.
|
by V. Rev. Eoin McCrystal, P.P.
Holy Trinity Parish
Donaghmede-Clongriffin-Balgriffin
http://holytrinityparish.ie/2011/07/pastors-desk-matt-talbot-sunday/
Welcome everyone, as we gather to celebrate Matt Talbot Sunday. The Sunday after Corpus Christi Sunday is always reserved for The Venerable Matt Talbot. I am conscious that a younger generation might not know too much about Matt Talbot and so I hope to share a little insight to his life.
Matt was born on the 2nd May 1856 at Aldborough Court in the city centre. He was the second of 12 children of which only 9 survived. He was baptised 3 days after his birth in the Pro Cathedral Dublin. His early school life was not a success; one report describes him as a “mitcher”. He got a job at around 12 years of age as a messenger boy for E & J Burke Ltd Wine Merchants, who bottled stout and ale and so began his drinking life. He was usually to be found in O’Meara’s Pub on the North Strand (now Cusack’s) and he received his pay in there every Saturday morning. He reached a low point when he stole a fiddle from a blind man in order to buy drink. When he became unemployed his “friends” in O’Meara’s ignored him and he decided to take the pledge. He went up to Clonliffe College and took a three month pledge and experienced the most difficult months of his life. Where can he go in order to avoid the pub! He takes refuge in the churches of the city, beginning his day with 5.30am Mass in Gardiner St. and joins the Men’s Sodalities in Gardiner St. and Merchants Quay. His father died in 1899 and he and his mother moved a number of times around the city after that. In 1909 he was working permanently for T & C Martin and was a member of the ITGWU. He went out on strike with the union in 1913 under Jim Larkin. His mother dies in 1915. The President of Clonliffe College becomes his anam-chara (soul friend, spiritual director) for the next 25 years. He took no part in the 1916 Rising but kept notes on the men shot and prayed for them. He has bouts of stays in the Mater Hospital in 1923 for heart and kidney problems. In 1925 on the 7th June he collapsed and died in the street on Granby Lane. In 1937 the Papal Decree introduced his cause and he was declared Venerable on the 3rd October 1975.
People who suffer with addiction to drink or drugs invoke his intercession as do families with an addict living among them. Matt understands the pain that is suffered by both. Today let us remember Matt and pray for those afflicted by addiction.
Matt Talbot was a drunk. He came to this state partly as a result of nature and nurture, as his father was an alcoholic, as were most of Matt’s brothers. Born into a poverty stricken home on May 2, 1856 in Dublin he became an unskilled laborer who blew most of his wages on feeding his addiction to drink. The worst thing he did to buy alcohol was to steal a fiddle from a street performer and sell it for booze. Penniless in 1884, he took the pledge not to drink and kept it for the remainder of his life.
However, turning away from alcohol was only a small part of his transformation. In order to truly change one’s life it is never enough to turn away from something. We must also turn to something. Talbot turned to God. He began to attend daily Mass and and read books and pamphlets on the Faith. He repaid his debts and, after a fruitless search for the fiddler whose fiddle he stole, donated the money he wanted to pay the fiddler for his stolen fiddle to the Church for Masses to be said for the fiddler.
Talbot led an ascetic life thereafter, eating little and giving away much of his wages to charities and to help his fellow workers. He wore heavy chains and cords under his clothes as a penance and on Sundays would hear several Masses. He got up early every day to go to daily Mass, and he would normally spend his evenings on his knees in prayer. He did all of this while continuing to earn his daily bread as a laborer. He lived with his mother until her death in 1915 and then alone until his own death in 1925. It is entirely possible that, other than by God, he would have been entirely forgotten after his death, except that he died on the streets of Dublin on his way to Mass on June 7, 1925, and after his death the chains and cords he wore under his clothes were discovered.
In his death, Matt Talbot achieved a fame that had been a complete stranger to him in his quiet and obscure life. He quickly became a symbol of the Irish temperance movement. John Paul II as a young man wrote a paper about him. He was declared Venerable by Pope Paul VI.
Irish playwright and drunk Brendan Behan contended that Matt Talbot had been a figure of ridicule among his fellow workers because of his piety. I have little doubt of it since sanctity can make a great many people uneasy, especially when the person exhibiting it seems otherwise to be quite ordinary. Venerable Matt Talbot through his life reminds us all that sainthood is within the grasp of each of us but that it sometimes, in Earthly terms, can be a daunting path. Matt Talbot led a life of prayer, religious devotion, asceticism, penance and voluntary poverty that emulated the extreme self-denial of a monk or a nun of a very strict order, and he did it all while living in the World. He gave up everything to gain everything.
“...You will have seen that this Church contains the remains of a remarkable saintly man of Dublin, Matt Talbot. He lived as an ordinary worker in the midst of the daily challenge of alcohol abuse and of harsh poverty and deprivation. He was a true mystic in his life but he witnessed not through writings but through an almost unnoticed humility in poverty. It is interesting that the only written text that we have from him is a donation: he scribbled his donation to a newly formed missionary society on a small piece of paper: ‘two pounds, from a poor man, Matt Talbot’...”
