A Note on Moral Miracles

John Thavis, one of the world’s leading Vaticanologists, has recently published a most perceptive and highly readable book, The Vatican Prophecies: Investigating Supernatural Signs, Apparitions, and Miracles in the Modern Age (2015). 

 

In Chapter 7, '’The Miracle Trail,’' Travis discusses the Vatican’s current view on moral miracles as being too ambiguous and ephemeral as illustrated in the cause of Matt Talbot, which can be read a https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Vatican_Prophecies.html?id=QsdJBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en#v=onepage&q=matt%20talbot&f=false. The paragraph concludes: “Moreover, most recovering alcoholics or addicts have been through some form of treatment. Discerning precisely what prompted an alcoholic to abandon the bottle was simply beyond the competence of the Vatican’s experts.”

 

A physical miracle involving Matt Talbot, however, would keep his cause perhaps more active and likely,  e.g., http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/search?q=physical+miracle

Mary Purcell's Writings on Matt Talbot

Mary Purcell (1906-1991), renown biographer of Matt Talbot and other holy individuals and saints, published two booklets and two books about Matt. A nine page booklet titled The Making of Matt Talbot  (1972) can be read at https://issuu.com/messengerpublications/docs/the_making_of_matt_talbot. An expanded 32 page edition with the same title can be read at https://lxoa.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/mattalbot.pdf.

Extensive biographies of Matt Talbot by Ms. Purcell are Matt Talbot and His Times (1977) and Remembering Matt Talbot (1990). While these two books are still available for purchase online, there is now an online copy of Matt Talbot and His Times at  https://issuu.com/aidtothechurchinneed/docs/matt_talbot_times

An Informative Booklet About Venerable Matt Talbot

Nearly two years ago, we posted information about a “Profile in Heroic Virtue” article featuring Venerable Matt Talbot by the Dead Theologians Society at http://venerablematttalbotresource center.blogspot.com/search?q=Dead+Theologians+Society.

This society has also published a series of Booklets on the Saints, including a very worthwhile twelve page introduction, including photographs, about the life and inspiration of Matt Talbot. Also included is a catechetical reflection regarding addiction based on Genesis 3. The download pdf is available at  http://www.acnire land.org/dts/dts_matt.pdf.

Interior View of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Dublin

For those who have not yet visited the Shrine of Venerable Matt Talbot within Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Sean McDermott Street,  Dublin 1, Ireland, click this Google Map link for viewing:

https://www.google.pl/maps/@53.35421,-6.2532498,3a,76.8y,259.67h,81.2t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-CKER2AXtxqM%2FVh5MTuNJruI%2FAAAAAAAAF2o%2FZ6WS4FPM27M!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-CKER2AXtxqM%2FVh5MTuNJruI%2FAAAAAAAAF2o%2FZ6WS4FPM27M%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i8704!8i4352

Note: We thank Grzegorz Jakielski for posting this link on February 11, 2016 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Matt-Talbot/304690079653019.

Reminder: 2016 Pilgrimage in Ireland with Venerable Matt Talbot’s Vice Postulator

As we posted last September at http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/search/label/pilgrimage, the Philadelphia units of The Calix Society announced a one-of-a-kind  pilgrimage to Ireland with Fr. Brian Lawless, Vice Postulator for the Cause of Venerable Matt Talbot, which is scheduled for June 19 to June 30, 2016.

If you are interested and have not signed up, the above link has pilgrimage details.

Day of Prayer for Temperance

The complete News Feed is available at

http://www.catholicbishops.ie/2016/02/04/temperance-brings-balance-and-prevents-excess-getting-a-grip-bishop-eamonn-walsh/

Sunday 7 February 2016 is a Day of Prayer for Temperance, a day which offers us an opportunity to reflect on our relationship with alcohol and a day on which we can take time to pray for those who suffer from addiction.

Writing about temperance in the current issue of Intercom magazine Bishop Éamonn Walsh, Vice-chair of the Irish Bishops’ Drugs Initiative said:

We live in a world where many people wish to march to the beat of their own drum. Where freedom and tolerance means, ‘let me do what I want and you can do what you want, as long as it does not interfere with my freedom’. When a society takes down the protective banks so that everyone can be totally free, we could easily become a lazy lake with people floating around doing their own thing but really going nowhere. Once there is a focus in life, floating aimlessly disappears. A purpose develops with its own safeguards, priorities and balance. It is this balance that we associate with temperance. It may demand sacrifices to attain a goal for self or others. Once the habit of temperance is formed in one area of life, it can be drawn on whenever required.

Temperance has an unpopular image, it is perceived as a restrictive, a sort of kill-joy and spoil sport. Nothing could be further from the reality. Temperance brings balance and prevents excess getting a grip. Bad tempered behaviour or intemperate language is neither accepted in sport nor in social behaviour. Society is all too aware of how drugs, including alcohol, have done such damage to sport, recreation, working and family life. It has become so difficult for people to resist the culture of artificial and chemical enhancement for all kinds of performances and entertainment.

See Intercom February 2106 article on Temperance by Bishop Eamonn Walsh at http://www.catholicbishops.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Intercom-February-2016-article-on-Temperance-by-Bishop-%C3%89amonn-Walsh..pdf

Parish Resource for Temperance Sunday

• Father Mathew’s Prayer

Apostle of Temperance Father Mathew (1790-1856) was a Capuchin friar from Tipperary whose 19^thcentury crusade against the abuse of alcohol gained him the title of  “Apostle of Temperance”. Father Mathew’s call to sobriety has relevance to modern Ireland. The cost to the nation by way of, human suffering, abstention from work, criminality and social upheaval is inestimable.

Compassionate Lord and Saviour,
you inspired the Capuchin Friar Theobold Mathew
to show your compassionate face to those addicted
and burdened by the abuse of alcohol or addicted behavior,
and to promote temperance.
May we today, continue to serve our brothers and sisters with love and joy,
And to foster balance, and moderation in our life styles with the help of God.
So, we pray, “here goes in the name of God.”
Amen

First Friday Venerable Matt Talbot Novena Masses

Reminder Matt Talbot Novena and Prayers for Healing   will take place     5th February, 4th March & 1st April 2016 at 7:30 pm  St. Agatha Parish, North William Street, Dublin.      http://www.stagathasparish.ie/

                 

Dublin Street Art Image of Matt Talbot

Mags Gargan, Features Editor with The Irish Catholic, tweeted (2 Jan 2016), “Lovely to see Matt Talbot commemorated in Dublin street art.”
https://twitter.com/MagsGarganIC/status/683281189843660801

 

Lives Transformed

Bob Hunt, a pediatric Registered Nurse, Catholic faith instructor, and author, has written a series of articles on “Evidence for the Existence of God from Experience” for Catholic365.com. The quotation and link below are from Part 5.

 

Lives Transformed

By Bob Hunt
12/15/2015

 

“The greatest testimony to the presence and power of God and His Holy Spirit is the transformation of lives from wantonness and misdirection to virtue and meaning. The encounter with God that many have experienced may prove nothing more than an interesting passing moment unless it impacts one’s life. While this may not always be a dramatic turn, there are those examples of men and women whose lives have been genuinely transformed, even to the point of being unrecognizable from what it was before.”

To illustrate his point Bob presents five biographical sketches of such transformation, including that of Matt Talbot, which begins, “It would have been almost a miracle had Matt Talbot avoided becoming an alcoholic.”  See
http://www.catholic365.com/article/3090/evidence-for-the-existence-of-god-from-experience-part-5-lives-transformed.html

Matt Talbot: Also the Workers’ Saint

 

Whereas Venerable Matt Talbot (1856-1925) may be known most frequently as the patron saint of alcoholics, he is also considered as the Workers’ Saint.

A search of our site and elsewhere online notes “worker” or “labourer” in the title of articles and books about Matt. For example, the title of an article at http://www.catholicireland.net/saintoftheday/matt-talbot-the-workers-saint/ is "Venerable Matt Talbot - The Workers' Saint" and the first sentence states: “Matt Talbot was a Dubliner who struggled with a drink problem, then led a severe ascetical life, and became known after his death as the Workers' Saint.” 

In an article about St. Joseph the Worker at

http://www.motherofallpeoples.com/2010/04/st-joseph-the-worker/, that included such headings as The Gospel of Work and Your Workplace is Holy Ground, Matt and others are mentioned as examples:

 

“...One thinks here of Ven. Matt Talbot, the Dublin workman who spent a lifetime as a laborer on building-sites; he would offer his daily work, in union with St. Joseph, to the Divine Workman, of whom he once remarked in his laconic way, “Christ the Carpenter must have a close interest in those who work.”

 

One also thinks here of Bl. Charles de Foucauld; wishing to share St. Joseph’s lowly status as a manual worker, he prevailed upon the Poor Clares, during his sojourn in Nazareth, to allot him the task of sweeping their convent floors.

Examples abound of Christian zeal in offering to God work of every kind in the spirit of penance and prayer. St. Benedict was imbued with this principle, as is seen in his famous motto: “To work is to pray.” Similarly St. Bernadette; on becoming an invalid she famously declared that this was the newfound employment she could and would offer to God.

Gerard Manley Hopkins had a sharp insight into how the humblest tasks, howsoever low-grade they may be socially and economically, can glorify God and sanctify the worker.”

Two Titles and Sources of Same Article

The purpose of this post is to clarify an informative article with two different titles and sources by the same author.

In 2007 we posted (with permission) the Abbey of Saint-Joseph de Clairval Spiritual Newsletter, August 15, 2004, about Venerable Matt Talbot by Dom Antoine Marie, OSB. at http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2007/11/matt-talbot-model-for-all-men-and-women.html.  Since it was titleless, we gave it the title, “Matt Talbot - A Model for all Men and Women,” for posting purposes.

Six years later, this article was reposted at https://prayers4reparation.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/a-former-alcoholic-on-the-road-to-sainthood-we-all-have-one-or-the-other-cross-to-carry-never-despair-of-gods-mercy/ with the title, “A FORMER ALCOHOLIC ON THE ROAD TO SAINTHOOD – WE ALL HAVE ONE OR THE OTHER CROSS TO CARRY; NEVER DESPAIR OF GOD’S MERCY!” Besides additional headings for the text, which may increase readability, this article also has a different source, namely, published in “The Little Way Association” (Helping the Missions side by side with St Therese), issue number 88, Sacred Heart House, London.

Keep the Light Shinning for Venerable Matt Talbot’s Legacy

 
http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/search/label/tomb

A New Year with Venerable Matt Talbot

Although the 90th Anniversary Year of Venerable Matt Talbot’s death has concluded, let us continue to pray for his canonization and to share his life and influence with others, one day at a time, during 

 

                                                       

New Image of Venerable Matt Talbot on Holy Card

This card with prayer is available on eBay.

For addicts, alcoholics and those who love and care for them

The following article was published in recognition of National Recovery Month, a yearly program sponsored by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

By Barry Schoedel

September 13, 2013

Southeast Alaska Catholic Newspaper Online

http://akseac.com/2013/09/13/for-addicts-alcoholics-and-those-who-love-and-care-for-them/

Many people may not realize this, but the Church, primarily through the commitment of individual Catholics, has been involved in reaching out to those enslaved to substances or behaviors since the Incarnation of Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Indeed the Word became Flesh to reconcile an estranged humanity to the Father, and this reconciliation leaves no stone unturned. It embraces all that is good and true in medicine while completing it with the love of God. It is intrinsic to the vocation of the Church that she effects and guides the liberation of peoples from their various forms of bondage. This includes those who are harmfully enslaved to substances and behaviors. As Catholics we are grateful for the medical disciplines that support recovery and at the same time have a responsibility to proclaim the love of God in Jesus Christ to all peoples, especially the mentally ill and those suffering from substance abuse disorders.

Even before the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, through such organizations as the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – founded by Fr. James Cullen S.J. in Ireland in 1898 – there have been Catholics specifically committed to serving the good of those who are dependent on alcohol. Venerable Matt Talbot was freed from the compulsion to drink when he recognized that he was enslaved to it and only a new life in God could free him. After reaching out for help from others, he gave his life to God through devotion to Jesus, daily Mass, meditation and prayer, receiving spiritual direction, and mortification. Matt is an inspiration to many people in recovery because he was a simple man, a humble Irish laborer, whom God used as an instrument of grace to communicate that his grace could relieve people of the compulsion to drink. Matt’s life was a continual seeking of the reconciliation offered in Christ, allowing himself to be led by the Holy Spirit to a restored relationship with God the Father.

Bill W., one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, considered Fr. Ed Dowling, S.J., an important spiritual director. Bill W. grappled much with the Catholic faith and made a sincere effort to try to understand the faith, though he struggled with accepting the authority of the Church. An often unmentioned and behind the scenes founder of Alcoholics Anonymous was Sister Ignatia Gavin. In 1935 she admitted a patient that Dr. Bob (another founder of A.A.) brought to her hospital for the treatment of alcoholism. The hospital didn’t want to admit alcoholics. The disease aspect of chemical dependency was not well understood at this time and it was seen as strictly a moral problem and a problem of the will. Sr. Ignatia was able to admit this patient under a diagnosis of acute gastritis, thus revolutionizing the approach to the treatment of alcoholism. Sr. Ignatia worked to get alcoholism accepted as a medical condition serious enough to have its own criteria for admission so that alcoholics didn’t have to be admitted through the “back door.” Her efforts resulted in an entire ward of the hospital being devoted to the care of recovering alcoholics. This was a huge advance in the treatment of alcoholism and has influenced how we approach all chemical dependency issues.

Fr. John Doe (Fr. Ralph Pfau), a priest who was trained at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana and served in Indianapolis, is believed to be the first Roman Catholic priest who sought the help of Alcoholics Anonymous to be free from the compulsion to drink. Fr. Ralph Pfau was a prolific author of materials to support both Catholics and non-Catholics in recovery from Alcoholism. Books such as Sobriety Without End, Sobriety and Beyond, and his Golden Book series were well used resources by both Catholics and non-Catholics in the early history of AA. They remain some of the best recovery resources available. Fr. Ralph also was instrumental in the founding of what is now the National Catholic Council on Addictions. Fr. Ralph especially worked during his life to reach out to priests and religious who were alcoholic, which led to the founding of what is now called Guest House, a substance abuse ministry to clergy and religious who are alcoholic and/or addicted. Their mission statement is, “to provide information, education, treatment and care needed to assure that clergy, men and women religious, and seminarians suffering from alcoholism and other related conditions have the best opportunity for quality recovery.” The success of Guest House led to the foundation of a similar program in India called Friendship House as well as the establishment of the National Catholic Council on Addictions.

The late Jesuit and moral theologian Fr. John C. Ford was also an early A.A. member and friend of Bill W. Fr. John Ford became an important resource for the Church’s developing understanding of the psychological and moral aspects of alcoholism. The late Fr. John C. Ford is to this day considered an eminent moral theologian, who helped the Church articulate such Catholic teachings as the moral evil of contraception. More recently, Cardinal Justin Rigali (the then) Archbishop of Philadelphia, held a one day conference on addictions, delivering a keynote address titled, “Let the Oppressed Go Free: Breaking the Bonds of Addiction,” which is now available in book format. Just this summer, Archbishop Tobin of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, delivered the keynote address at the annual meeting of the Guest House ministry, sharing honestly about his own confrontation with chemical dependency and his journey in recovery. Many other clergy and religious are also involved head on in addressing the problems of addiction and substance abuse, both in the Church and society at large.

Alaskans are no strangers to alcoholism and chemical dependency problems. Alaska is continually recorded as having among the highest “amount of alcohol consumption per person ratio” among all 50 states. Although certainly not limited to Native peoples, among Natives this rate is inordinately high. An article in the Juneau Empire last year mentioned that in 2010 alcohol and drug abuse cost Alaska’s economy 1.2 billion dollars. This is a staggering figure, yet it doesn’t completely communicate the spiritual and moral diminishment that alcoholism and chemical dependency causes in hearts and souls, and in homes, families, and communities.

Whether we are recovering addicts or alcoholics, those in need of recovery, or those who love them, we are called as Catholics to be evangelized by the love and goodness of Christ, to make disciples, and to proclaim the Kingdom of God. In Southeast Alaska we have a special obligation and opportunity it seems, to carry on this tradition of participating as a Church and as individual Catholics in the liberation of our neighbor, through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. As we approach the Synod and examine our commitment to the Mission of the Church we have to ask ourselves what we can do to better reach out as the Body of Christ, with love and truth, to those suffering from painful and debilitating addictions.

Thankfully, it is not a matter of reinventing the wheel, but instead receiving more fully in what has come before us in terms of the Catholic tradition of helping alcoholics and addicts. We must trust that the Christian faith is important to complete moral and spiritual recovery and that we have something immeasurably good to share with those suffering from addictions. We must be willing to meet people in the midst of their bondage and to accompany them with Christ to freedom.

Under the guidance of the Bishop and as an aspect of our call to be missionaries of the love of Jesus we have the opportunity and obligation to develop an intentional approach to ministry to persons and families affected by alcoholism and addiction. We have to believe that we can more fully give of ourselves to those trapped by the bondage of addiction in Southeast Alaska by introducing here Catholic movements such as the Calix Society, the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association for the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Catholic resources such as the writings of Fr. Ralph Pfau, the Guest House, the National Catholic Council on Addictions. Also, we must become aware of, and better understand, how to introduce people to the places of recovery that are already established in our communities, such as 12-step meetings, inpatient and outpatient programs, and Native resources.

“Year of Mercy” at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Dublin

The following notice was posted on 13th December 2015 at http://www.salesiansireland.ie/2015/12/launch-of-the-year-of-mercy-at-our-lady-of-lourdes-church-in-dublin/

 

In announcing the Holy Year, the Pope has asked for a Door of Mercy to be opened in every Cathedral of the world and in Holy Shrines frequented by large groups of pilgrims.

The Shrine of Venerable Matt Talbot attracts quite a number of pilgrims from Ireland and overseas, and it will also have a Holy Door of Mercy during this Jubilee Year for the greater benefit of pilgrims.
The Holy Door will be blessed, and then opened on Christmas Eve.

Matt Talbot has a message for young people; he was only twenty-eight years of age when he made his basic life choice and changed his ways. His return to the sacraments gave him a deep experience of God’s infinite Mercy, which transformed and sustained him.

A New Image of Venerable Matt Talbot

This image of Matt Talbot was created by Tracy L. Christianson, based on using the only known photograph of Matt as a reference, reading about him, and prayer.

More information is available at http://www.portraitsofsaints.com/collections/all/all-images-matt-talbot

 

Tracy has given us permission to post her depiction.

The Jubilee Year of Mercy

Two basic sources of

information about this Jubilee Year (8 December 2015 – 29 November 2016) may be found at

https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco_bolla_20150411_misericordiae-vultus.html  and http://www.im.va/content/gdm/en.html. 

 

As we have previously reported at http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2015/07/venerable-matt-talbot-missionary-of.html, Archbishop Eamon Martin stated the following in a homily earlier this year:

 

”I think of the Venerable Matt Talbot who recognised his weakness and then quietly undertook daily sacrifice and penance while reaching out humbly in love and charity to others. In preparation for the Jubilee Year of Mercy Pope Francis has been speaking about the need for “missionaries of mercy” in the world. Last Advent he said “there is a need for people who are witnesses of the mercy and tenderness of the Lord, which shakes up those who are resigned, revives the discouraged, (and) ignites the fire of hope.” Matt Talbot was such a “missionary of mercy.”

The archbishop also stated, “I would like to thank God today for the many missionaries of mercy around this country who unselfishly reach out to help those who are addicted by offering prayer, providing counselling and therapy, recovery programmes and pathways of mentoring and support for addicts and their families.”

 

Are you a missionary of mercy?

December First Friday Matt Talbot Novena Mass

The final First Friday Novena Mass and Prayers for Healing of the Venerable Matt Talbot 90th Anniversary Year is Friday, December 4, 2015, at St. Agatha’s Church, North William Street, Dublin, at 7.30 pm. Prayers are especially for those suffering from any form of addiction, those in recovery, their families and the wider community affected by alcohol and drug misuse. All are welcome.

As noted at their website (http://www.stagathasparish.ie/), these Matt Talbot Novena Masses will resume in the new year beginning January 1, 2016 at 7:30 pm.

Father Ed Dowling and Bill Wilson

Glenn F. Chesnut, who earned a doctorate in theology at Oxford University and has had a long career teaching religion and history at multiple American universities, has published Father Ed  Dowling: Bill Wilson’s Sponsor (iUniverse, July 2015). 

“This is the story of Father Ed Dowling, S.J., the (non-alcoholic) Jesuit priest who served for twenty years as sponsor and spiritual guide to Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.  Father Ed said that the graces he received from meeting Bill Wilson were as great as those he had received from his ordination as a priest, and Bill in turn described encountering the Jesuit as being like a second conversion experience, where he could feel the transcendent presence of God filling the entire room with grace...”

There is much information about the early years of Alcoholics Anonymous and includes Matt Talbot in Chapter 7, which can be read at https://books.google.com.pe/books?id=AthFCgAAQBAJ&dq=fr+ed+dowling&source=gbs_navlinks_s 

The entire text can be read at http://hindsfoot.org/dowtext.pdf, with Chapter 7 beginning on page 76.

Fr. Ralph Pfau and His Golden Books

Fr. Ralph Pfau (1904-1967) was the first U.S. Catholic priest to join Alcoholics Anonymous in 1943, on his 39th birthday. His “Golden Books” were published under the auspices of the "Society of Matt Talbot Guild." He founded an organization called the "Sons of Matt Talbot" for recovering alcoholics who wanted to learn more about the Catholic faith.
 

Professor Emeritus Glenn F. Chesnut has just released his Father Ralph Pfau and the Golden Books: The Path to Recovery from Alcoholism and Drug Addiction (October 2015), which can be downloaded at http://www.hindsfoot.org/pfcath.pdf

or http://www.hindsfoot.org/pfcath.doc

 

Table of Contents

1. Ralph Pfau (“Father John Doe”) as Major Twelve-Step Leader

2. Early Life 

3. The Myth of Perfection, Natural Theology, and St.  Augustine 

4. Abraham Low and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy 

5. Forgiveness and Acceptance: Receiving God’s Sanction 

6. Simple Sanctity and the Little Way of St. Thérèse 

7. Winning Acceptance for A.A. within the Catholic Hierarchy 

8  Later Life 

9. Seeking Balance among the Natural Instincts

10. The Hierarchy of Spiritual Values 

11. The Higher Power as Truth Itself 

12. Making a Decision

A Request to Support a Venerable Matt Talbot Outreach in Poland

Our friend, Grzegorz Jakielski, is one of the most active supporters and promoters of Venerable Matt Talbot today, both online and in his travels.

 
He has a Facebook page in English at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Matt-Talbot/304690079653019 and a website in Polish at http://www.mateusztalbot.pl. We exchange information about Matt and have posted some of his writings and photographs.

As noted in his November 10 message at  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=787066531415369&id=304690079653019, Grzegorz is seeking financial assistance to continue the Polish site by offering Matt Talbot prayer cards and handmade rosaries.

We encourage all to consider purchasing these items or simply make a donation. Your prayers would also be appreciated.

What Gift Have You Been Given to Share?

There is an old Christian tradition that God sends each person into this world with a special message to deliver, with a special song to sing for others, with a special act of love to bestow. No one else can speak my message, sing my song, or offer my act of love. These are entrusted only to me. (John Powell, Through Seasons of the Heart,1986).

 

We have noted that God chose Matt as a sign of hope for addicts   (http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2015/11/venerable-matt-talbot-sign-of-hope-for.html).

 

Take time to think about what song, message, act of love God has given you to bring into the world, to help God's kingdom on its way. Ask God to give you His power and His wisdom to use that gift bravely and well.

Venerable Matt Talbot: A Sign of Hope For Addicts

Matt Talbot Dublin Diocesan Committee

February 22, 2014
https://www.facebook./permalink.php?id= 217785025048151&story_fbid=268544269972226

 

There is an old Christian tradition that God sends each person into this world with a special message to deliver, with a special song to sing for others, with a special act of love to bestow. No one else can speak that message, or sing that song, or offer that act of love and according to this tradition, the message may be spoken, the song sung, the act of love delivered only to a few, or to all the people in a small town, or to all the people in a large city, or even to all the people in the world. It all depends on God’s unique plan for each of us and this truth is no where more evident for us than in the life of Matt Talbot.

Matt did not speak with great eloquence but his message has touched the hearts of millions, he was no nightingale but his song of hope has soothed many a tortured soul and his acts of love continues to resonate in our world today, unaware of the impact his life would make God’s unique plan for Matt was gradually unveiled and the stage on which it was set was Dublin’s inner city during a time of great social and political unrest.

Jesus said: “I bless you Father Lord of heaven and earth for hiding these things from the learned and clever and revealing them to mere children.” Matt 11:25

Matt Talbot was not learned or clever he was one of Dublin’s poor he lived in a tenement, wore second hand clothes, died in a laneway and was buried in a pauper’s grave. Poorly educated he did not start school until he was 11 years old and with less than a year of formal education, the two words written in the remarks Column of the roll book in O’Connell’s sums up Matt’s time in school, a mitcher. Coming from such a deprived background and with an alcoholic father and a family history of neglect and poverty, Matt found himself sucked into the culture of addiction and to the only choice of drug available to the poor of his day, alcohol. Matt like so many others embraced alcohol as a means of escape from the misery and poverty of daily life. 

Today we live in an age of addictions more sophisticated perhaps than those of Matt’s day, addictions to substances such as alcohol and other drugs soft or hard, prescription or illegal, addictions to gambling, pornography and the internet, addictions to work, professional advancement, sex, money and power. In a sense you might say they are the ancient enemies, even if the e-technologies and the e-drugs provide new faces for them and a new attraction and power that like demons, can take procession of our souls.

Matt Talbot gradually came to this awareness and from the time of his conversion from alcoholism to sobriety, as a young man of twenty eight, he spent the rest of his life living to a heroic extent the Christian virtues thro’ prayer, spiritual reading, work and love of neighbour. 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 behaviors 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”. But Matt also understood the human condition he once said to his sister Susan, “never think harshly of a person because of the drink it’s easier to get out of hell than to give up the drink, for me it was only possible with the help of God and our blessed Mother”.

Matt’s 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 addictive 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.

“You must therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” Christ told his followers. When Matt found sobriety through prayer and spiritual guidance, his desire for drink was replaced by a desire for Christian perfection.

This is why God chose Matt as a sign of hope for addicts.

"From Adversity to Hope, from Hope to Action”

This article was posted on 26th October 2015 at
http://www.salesiansireland.ie/2015/10/from-adversity-to-hope-from-hope-to-action/

 The only known letter that Matt Talbot ever wrote was to the Columban Missionaries. Matt was very ill at the time, in December 1924 and in a very poignant and moving letter he wrote: “Matt Talbot – have done no work for past 18 months. I have been sick and given over by priest and doctor. I don’t think I will work any more. There one pound from me and ten shillings from my sister.”

It was fitting therefore that the Matt Talbot Novena Mass for October, the month of the Missions, was animated by the Columban Missionaries. The Mass was held on Sunday 25th of October in Matt Talbot Shrine, Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Sean McDermott Street. The Eucharist was led by Fr Vincent, a Columban Missionary from Fiji presently studying in Ireland, while Fr Richard Ebejer and Fr Cyril Odia concelbrated; a sizeable crowd gathered for the occasion.

The theme for the evening was “From Adversity to Hope, from Hope to Action”: seeking to highlight Matt Talbot’s own love for the missions, and how in the midst of his own struggles, the hope that sustained him encouraged him to reach out to others.

Venerable Matt Talbot, who died in 1925, was renowned for his holiness, having overcome a crippling alcohol addiction, through prayer, penance and works of charity. He has been a heroic inspiration to many people in Ireland and abroad battling addiction. His shrine attracts quite a number of pilgrims who come seeking spiritual strength to be able to stay in recovery.

The occasion also marked the conclusion of the 90th Anniversary Year, during which the parish held a number of special activities to commemorate Matt Talbot and celebrate his legacy.
  
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The Salesians of Don Bosco have been entrusted with the pastoral care of the Shrine and Parish in inner city Dublin for over twenty years. Though in the heart of the city, it is very much a ministry to the marginalized and those affected by social problems.

Matt Talbot included in “Spirited Lives”

Author Connie Clark has just published Spirited Lives: 20 Stories of Saints and Their Amazing Gifts (Twenty-Third Publications), a 64 page paperback  written for teens and young adults. 

 

The first section of seven chapters focuses on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the second section of thirteen focuses on the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Each chapter directs the reader to focus on how a particular saint, blessed, or venerable put a particular gift into action. “Self-control” is illustrated by Venerable Matt Talbot.

 

A selection of the contents of this book can be found at http://www.amazon.com/dp/1627850937/ref=rdr_ext_tmb.

A Perspective on Pope Francis and his Canonizations

Matthew Bunson, one of the United States’ leading authorities on the papacy and the Church, has written an informative article on Pope Francis and his strong emphasis on promoting the lives of the saints at

https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/ByIssue/Article/TabId/735/ArtMID/13636/ArticleID/18519/The-Churchs-New-Saints.aspx?ref=top10.

At some point in his papacy, perhaps Venerable Matt Talbot will be one of the estimated 4,000 causes of saints currently working through the Congregation for the Causes of Saints that Pope Francis will promote.

Taking the November Pledge

As we near All Saints Day and All Souls Day, the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, of which Venerable Matt Talbot was a member, suggests that November is an ideal occasion to take a break from alcohol and take a Short-Term pledge and offer it as a prayerful act in honour of deceased loved ones as well as addicted friends and family members.

 

Details are available at http://www.pioneerassociation.ie/index.php/media-centre/10-news/482-novemberpledge2015

 

Proposed Papal Visit to Ireland Should Include Matt Talbot Shrine

The following is a Letter to the Editor of The Irish Catholic published on 15 October 2015 at http://irishcatholic.ie/article/papal-trip-ireland-should-include-matt-talbot-shrine

The Irish Catholic

The Irish Catholic

Dear Editor,

Your front page story in last week’s The Irish Catholic (08/10/2015) focused on a possible papal visit to Ireland in 2018 and the places that may be included in his itinerary. (See http://irishcatholic.ie/article/pope-hand-picked-ireland-hope-2018-visit)

Pope hand-picked Ireland in hope of 2018 visit

Francis has a ‘special affection’ for Ireland

- See more at: http://irishcatholic.ie/article/pope-hand-picked-ireland-hope-2018-visit#sthash.am4qQHWY.dpuf

If he were to come he should also visit the Shrine of Matt Talbot. This was actually included in John Paul II’s own itinerary, but due to logistic reasons, he was just driven past the church. The disappointment of the locals is still very palpable today, 36 years later. (See http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2015/10/pope-john-paul-ii-crowd-waiting-at-matt.html)

Though situated right in the heart of Dublin, the North inner city is a marginalised community having to endure the social stigma attached to it. However there are many positive elements to be found there which are often overlooked.

In the words of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin: “Inner city Dublin has a great history of people looking after one another, especially when times are hard. This community has shown that it has extraordinary resources of goodness and caring and courage.”

Pope Francis loves the deprived and marginalised, and would feel very much at home visiting such a community to which Matt Talbot belonged. Moreover, Matt would be very much to the heart of Pope Francis, since he is a clear “witness of the mercy and tenderness of the Lord”.

 

The Pope’s visit will highlight the World Meeting of Families; in the inner city he will surely meet many resilient families, as the archbishop himself affirms: “There are great families in this parish. There are great mothers and grandmothers, who when things went wrong kept families together.”

If the Pope were to visit Matt Talbot’s Shrine he would surely also visit his own Jesuit Community in Gardiner street, and pray at the shrine of Venerable John Sullivan. Holiness touches the lives of all people, whatever their background!

Yours etc.,

Richard Ebejer SDB,

Our Lady of Lourdes,

Sean McDermott Street, Dublin.

Site of the Matt Talbot Shrine

Pope John Paul II crowd waiting at Matt Talbot Shrine

This 1979 photograph and text is from the Dublin City Council Photographic Collection at http://www.dublincity.ie/image/libraries/030-our-lady-lourdes.

"Our Lady of Lourdes was built in 1954 and contains the shrine of Matt Talbot (1856-1925). This photo was taken during the visit of Pope John Paul II in September 1979. 

Pope John Paul II had voiced his support for the beatification of Matt Talbot and the locals were convinced that the Pontiff would visit the shrine. 

Despite many weeks preparation, the Papal cavalcade swept past the disappointed gathering. As one local put it: 'no joyrider even came down Sean McDermott Street so fast'."

Facing Demons

Dr. Ronda Chervin’s latest book, Avoiding Bitterness in Suffering: How Our Heroes in Faith Found Peace Amid Sorrow, was just published last month by Sophia Institute Press.

 

In the chapter titled “Meeting Christ in Temptation,” Dr. Chervin discusses saints and holy people who were periodically surrounded by “gruesome tormenting demons."

 

She provides two examples in which Matt Talbot suffered from “violent oppression demons,” one occurring while waiting to enter a church and another within church while approaching the alter rail. She also notes Matt’s practices of fasting and penances to help him overcome temptation to drink.

 

These remarks can be read on pages 222-223 at http://www.amazon.com/Avoiding-Bitterness-Suffering-Heroes-Sorrow/dp/1622823036#reader_1622823036

Video of Matt Talbot Related Photographs

This 1:41 video of photographs (taken 29/8/15) are from Granby Lane (where Matt died) and his Shrine in Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Dublin.

Declared "Venerable" 40 Years Ago Today

Prayer Pulled Matt Talbot Over the Line

by Fr. Tom Ryan, P.P.
22 September 2015
http://www.shannonparish.ie/2015/09/prayer-pulled-matt-talbot-over-the-line/

For the next nine Tuesdays starting on Tuesday, 29th September in SS John & Paul Church Shannon people will gather each week at the Shrine of Matt Talbot, to pray and intercede for people suffering or sharing in the life of addictions.

Excessive drinking and addictive behaviours are having a damaging effect on Irish society. Research has shown that half of all adult drinkers in Ireland are harmful high risk drinkers and 15% of our 18 to 24 year olds who drink are already dependent. More people die each day from alcohol related problems than on our roads. Nowadays more women and young people are presenting for help with alcohol dependency. Very few Irish families have not been impacted in some way by the problems of addiction, whether it be alcohol, tablets, or other drugs, online gambling, pornography or some other dependent behaviour.

All of us can identify behaviours in our personal lives which we know deep down are not good for us, like over use of alcohol, drugs or the internet, an unhealthy relationship, obsession with work, the need to gamble or spending, or a fixation with someone or something which dominates our lives to the exclusion of those who are most dear to us.
Being honest with ourselves is the first step to recognising our weaknesses and this in turn can open us to the love and mercy of God that can lead to us changing our lives for the better, with God on our side. This was the experience of Matt Talbot.

Matt Talbot was born in Dublin in 1856 and died suddenly in 1925, experienced at first hand the pain and suffering of addiction. Matt worked and prayed and fasted for the gift of temperance. He had experienced at first hand, in his own body, the havoc and the ravage wrought by his drinking alcohol to excess. He had felt the horrors of hangovers and saw its effects on his work and on his relationship with his friends and with his family. In fact, he saw that he was slowly but surely destroying himself.

Somehow or other, by the grace of a good and generous God, he got the strength to give it all up and to go sober. He began to see that our hunger and thirst for food and drink is something good – given to us by a good and generous God, to encourage us to eat and drink to keep ourselves alive and strong and well. But he saw also that it was something to be used in moderation.

One of the things we need, at all times, is a proper approach to the use of food and drink and the sexual power, given to us by God to bring new life into the world. There is a right way and a wrong way of using his gifts. There is a temperate way and an intemperate way. The temperate way is the better way. The intemperate way is the way that leads to disaster, but people don’t see it like that unfortunately. The temperate way is possible.

Matt Talbot is an outstanding example of prayer and conversion. The Matt Talbot Novena, now in its 23rd year in Shannon, is our annual opportunity to support by prayer and reflection all suffering or sharing in the life of addictions. Matt Talbot has shown that it is possible to change; the power of prayer should never be underestimated.