2011 Matt Talbot Sunday

The Archdiocese of Dublin issued the following notice dated 17 June, 20, 2011 at

http://www.dublindiocese.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2483&Itemid=44]

Matt Talbot

Sunday 3rd July, 2011

“Each year the Sunday following the Feast of Corpus Christi is designated as Matt Talbot Sunday in the Archdiocese.

This is a Sunday set aside for us to reflect, to pray and to focus our attention on the person and life of Matt Talbot. At this time when so many of our communities are affected by the scourge of alcohol and substance misuse, Matt is set before us as a model of temperance and a source of strength and support to all who suffer from addiction or additive behaviors. Suggested Prayers of Intercession and other relevant material will be sent to each parish in the coming week.”




One important location for Matt Talbot Sunday is noted below:

1928 book review of "Life of Matt Talbot"

[The person most responsible for making Matt Talbot well
known in Dublin and all of Ireland shortly after Matt’s death
in 1925 was Sir Joseph A. Glynn. Background information 
about how Sir Glynn came to write the first bibliography of 
Matt Talbot and its subsequentsuccess can be found at http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2008/04/life-of-matt-talbot-biography-online.html, which also includes a link to reading the 1942 edition of his book online.]

.

LIFE OF MATT TALBOT. By Sir Joseph A. Glynn. Dublin:

Catholic Truth Society of Ireland. 1928.

Book Review by: John Howley.

Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 17, No. 66 (Jun., 1928), pp. 317-319.

When Matt Talbot died in 1925 his name was known to very few:

a few friends, a few comrades knew and esteemed him as an

excellent Christian and a model worker, a good man in every

sense of the word. Still fewer knew of his life of ceaseless prayer,

his heroic penances, his magnanimity, his poverty joined to

magnificent generosity, his life as a modern Cali De. Now,

three years after his death, this Dublin worker is known to the

pamphlet written for the Irish Catholic Truth Society by Sir Joseph

A. Glynn.' Should the present volume prove as good "a best

seller " as his pamphlet, and in my opinion it will deserve to,

Sir Joseph will have well merited . of his native land. Her true

glory lies in heroic souls like Matt Talbot: the man of God and

not the man of blood should be the theme for the Irish bard, the

perdurable glory of the land that was known as the Insula

Sanctorum.

This is quite a small volume, barely 116 pages, but full of

meat. A live man looks out at us from its pages. Sir Joseph

has fashioned no plaster image daubed and gilded with pietose

rhetoric; he has steered his course safely between the Scylla of

"swaddle " and the Charybdis of humanism, we see the super

natural in a vivid and objective presentation of the natural. The

author keeps himself in the background, he narrates facts but

he suggests rather than expresses comments. He gives his reader

a chance to make his own reflections, he does not furnish him

with a ready-made meditation. As Matt Talbot lived a singularly

hidden life, uneventful and undramatic from a worldly point

of view, the temptation to embroider and pad out the slender

narrative with edifying considerations must have been very

severe. By the narrative of fact, rather than by comment,

the author drives in on the reader's mind that sense of awe

which flows from any real apprehension of holiness in a fellow

creature.

Sanctity is the shadow of .God on earth, the participation of

His creature in the most ineffable and terrible of His attributes.

Sanctum et terribile nomen ejus. When we dimly realise what the

word " holy" means and feel in our hearts that it is a silly abuse

of language to say "a very holy man " when we only mean "a

good pious Christian," we are then capable of that sense of awe

and reverence which this sacred epithet should inspire when we

see or suspect its appropriateness in the lives of God's servants.

Holy Church alone can infallibly declare the holiness of any

servant of God, but we are not forbidden to suspect its appro-

priateness in the case of Matt Talbot and to look forward with

hope to the judgment of the Holy See.

Chapter IV of this little book is a remarkable piece of work,

a fine Judicial and judicious, account of the labour troubles

between 1911 and 1914. It is interesting to note that while

Matt Talbot in that crisis was fully on the Labour side, he took

no part in the later politics of the " troubled times." Sir Joseph

Glynn tells us that he "made enquiries from Matt Talbot's most

intimate friends, including two sisters, a brother-in-law, and

fellow-workers, all of whom agreed that Matt Talbot took no

interest whatever in politics; that he was never known to vote

at an election ; and never discussed political events......

During the Anglo-Irish War of 1919-1921 he never was drawn

into discussions on the subject. If anyone asked him had he

heard of such and such a matter, he replied that he had not, as

he did not read newspapers nor look at the placards.

During the later troubles, when, alas, our own people fought one

another, he was equally reticent, and carefully avoided expressing

any opinion on the merits of the dispute which occasioned the

fighting. His friends were most emphatic in their denial of his

having ever done more than express his sorrow at seeing Irishmen

fighting amongst themselves." These passages are very illumi-

nating as revealing Matt Talbot's outward reaction to public

events of a political character. Was he as inwardly indifferent

as he seemed to his comrades Talk or action on his part was

useless and he knew it and was silent before men. But was he

silent before God How came it about that the English Government

gave way when the insurgents were all but crushed Events

govern nations, but the saints pull the strings that govern events.

Matt Talbot did "not read newspapers nor look at the

placards." This is a little touch of Sir Joseph's which enables us

to reconstruct the man. To pass through Dublin in those

troubled times and not glance at the posters! For an Irishman

to reject news! And such news It seems to me that such

voluntary indifference to what at that moment was most humanly

interesting marks the mystic union with God even more than the

traits scattered all over Chapters V and VI which deal expressly

with Matt Talbot's prayers and inner life. These two Chapters

show us the man of prayer and the man of penance. The author's

industry in collecting all possible information as to the details

of Matt Talbot's prayers and pious practices is beyond all praise.

Directly we know very little of Matt Talbot's interior life, but

his various outward practices, his fondness for the cross-vigil,

for motionless erect kneeling, etc., all point to an intense

concentration in prayer, often prolonged for hours. We have all

the outward signs of a sublime mystical union.

Matt Talbot was first and foremost a man of prayer. His

penances are the features that will most attract public attention

in this self-indulgent age, but it would be a grave error to look

on him as a mere ascetic. Leuba and Co. will regard him as an

Irish fakir, a mere degenerate; but we know he was healthy in

mind and body, the healthier because he brought body into

subjection to mind, that both .might be in subjection to God.

He helps us to understand the old Irish Saints and their constant

prayers and penance, for he reproduced their life in these days

when no one will bear the least avoidable pain or suffer the
smallest discomfort.

To write the life of a servant of God is a difficult thing to do

well, but Sir Joseph Glynn has succeeded in this. Let us hope

that before long it will bulk large in the Postulator's dossier.

The Alcoholic Who Became a Saint

Venerable Matt Talbot

By: Ann Bottenhorn

June 2011

Source: http://wau.org/resources/article/re_the_alcoholic_who_became_a_saint/

Nothing ever happened to Matt Talbot, an ordinary Irish laborer of no great learning, no riches, no remarkable accomplishments.

He lived in poverty and died, alone and unrecognized on a cold cobblestone lane, in Dublin. He left no family, no followers, no written discourses.

Scarcely anyone knew a thing about him. Yet within six months of his death, a brief biography sold 120,000 copies. Within a year, it had been published in twelve languages. Five years after that, the Catholic Church began investigating Matt Talbot’s life to determine if he warranted consideration for sainthood. A short fifty years after his death, the Church bestowed on him the title, “Venerable,” finding him fit to be commended as a “hero” whose virtues are worthy to be imitated.

No, nothing ever happened to Matt Talbot, but as one biographer noted, “he happened to those about him, as light happens to a dark room.”

Living to Drink. Darkness abounded during Matt’s lifetime. Ireland’s great famine of the 1840s had driven many countryfolk into the city, seeking food and employment. England had garrisoned troops in Dublin, and shortly after Matt was born in 1856, soldiers began returning from the Crimean War. The city teemed with people who were out of work, out of money, and out of hope.

Matt was the second of twelve children born to Charles and Elizabeth Talbot. The family lived on the verge of poverty, for although Charles Talbot worked regularly, he spent most of his wages at the local pub. Eventually Matt and seven of his brothers followed in Charles’ footsteps, drinking their way through life.

After spending just one year in school, Matt went to work at the age of twelve. He started as a messenger for a wine merchant and soon began sampling the products. Before long, he was living to drink. Neither thrashings from his father nor a change of jobs—he became an unskilled laborer for a bricklayer—deterred Matt. Over the next sixteen years, he spent nearly all of his earnings on alcohol.

By nature generous, Matt sometimes paid for his friends’ drinks when they had no money. When he had none, he pawned or sold what he could—right down to his own shoes once—so that he could continue drinking. Thus one Saturday, when twenty-eight-year-old Matt had been out of work for a week, he stood outside his neighborhood pub, broke but optimistic. Surely one of his friends would buy him a drink. Hadn’t he done so for them?

But curt nods and cold shoulders were all that Matt’s friends gave him. Eventually, he returned home, dejected and sober, and announced that he was taking “the pledge”—a euphemism for making a solemn promise not to drink. That evening he met with a priest, made his promise, and went to Confession for the first time in years. And from that day, the grace of God, which Matt hadn’t even thought to ask for yet, began manifesting its work in Matt.

“Don’t Let Me Go Back.” Now he faced an enormous dilemma. Matt had promised, for three months only, not to drink. His family drank. His friends drank. He spent his non-working hours drinking. How was he to avoid the alcohol his body craved, that his mind assured him he could never do without?

He took refuge in the only place his drinking buddies wouldn’t come looking for him: church. Matt began to attend Mass daily, before work, and to spend evenings kneeling in a shadowy corner of a neighborhood church —a neighborhood far from where he lived.

There, he made new friends—Jesus, Mary, and the saints—and cultivated new tastes—for solitude, prayer, and the presence of God. It didn’t come easily, and time and again Matt returned home convinced that he would never stick with sobriety. Back in church the next day, he’d beg God, “Please, don’t let me go back to my old ways. Have mercy on me.”

Years later, Matt told his sister that the first three months were the hardest, declaring that it’s easier to raise someone from the dead than to stop drinking. To help himself, Matt stuck two pins, crossed, in the sleeve of his coat, where he would see them often. They were to remind him to pray and to remind him that Jesus had suffered and died on the cross for him.

Matt was practical about adopting a new life. He established a schedule of Mass and prayer that left no time for visiting pubs. He never carried money in his pockets, lest he be tempted to stop in while walking to or from work. He joined the Franciscan Third Order and numerous sodalities. He spent Saturday afternoons and evenings, and all day Sunday, in church with his “new friends.”

Drunk with the Spirit. Gradually, a new thirst began to replace the old one: a thirst for more of God’s life and love. And God didn’t let him down. The love of Christ began to overwhelm Matt’s indulgence and intemperance. Matt wanted only to become like Christ, so he started fasting, sleeping less and praying more, and giving money to the missions and local poor families.

He read Scripture, lives of saints, and—considering his meager schooling—an astounding assortment of books: The Confessions of St. Augustine; writings of St. Francis de Sales, Teresa of Avila, and John Cardinal Newman; papal encyclicals, world history, and social policy. Word by word, he deciphered what they said. What he couldn’t understand, Matt laboriously copied onto a scrap of paper and handed it to a sometimes astonished priest for explanation the next time he went to Confession.

Prayer, reading, and atonement grew into a way of life that Matt managed to keep hidden. Meanwhile, those around him began to notice his humility, generosity, and self-control. His fellow laborers learned that Matt didn’t abide cursing or lewd stories, so they stopped. His employer suspected that Matt was giving away most of his earnings, but no one guessed the intensity with which he was living this new life. He was inebriated now by the Holy Spirit, “drunk,” as one writer put it, “only with the mercy and the wisdom and the power and the love of God.”

For the last two years of his life, Matt suffered from heart disease. Strict fasting, limited sleep, and hard physical labor had worn him out. On June 7, 1925, he collapsed on the way to Mass. No one recognized the frail little man who died in Granby Lane. He carried no money or identification, just a few odd scraps of paper in his pockets. Curiously, two pins, blackened with age, were pinned to his sleeve in a cross. Four days later, the body of Matt Talbot was identified. The books in his bare tenement room were discovered, along with many scraps of paper on which he had written. On one of those scraps was written the following prayer: “O Virgin, I ask only three things: the grace of God, the presence of God, and the benediction of God.” Among many others, this prayer was surely answered.

Matt Talbot believed God absolutely. He emptied his heart and life of all that encumbered him and waited for the Lord to fill him to overflowing. He remained sober for forty-one years and, in a quiet, unobtrusive way, shed light in the darkness around him. He stands now as a hero for all who struggle with addiction, and a model for all who desire, in the words of Pope Pius XII, “the greatness of Christianity lived in all its fullness.”

*Note: For those unfamiliar with Matt Talbot, he is not officially canonized as a “saint” by the Roman Catholic Church; he is currently recognized as “Venerable.” (See Beatification, Canonization, and Sainthood) The 76th anniversity of Matt’s death was Tuesday, June 7. The brief bibliography referred to in the above article was written by Sir Joseph Glynn and expanded in later editions. (See "The Life of Matt Talbot" by Sir Joseph Glynn )

A Note on Irish beatifications and canonisations

[The following is an excerpt from a 2011 article posted at http://fatherdoyle.com/2011/01/05/thoughts-for-january-5-from-fr-willie-doyle/]

"...Let us look at the Irish situation. St Charles of Mount Argus of course stands out, but while we have adopted him as our own, he was Dutch, and interestingly both of the miracles for his beatification and canonisation were worked in the Netherlands. St Oliver Plunkett is of course Irish through and through, but his situation was slightly different as he was a martyr which symbolically makes his canonisation a little easier. Blessed Edmund Rice also lived and died in Ireland, and his beatification miracle was worked for a man in Newry in Northern Ireland. However, for a variety of reasons his cause for canonisation probably will not progress for some time. Then of course there is Blessed Columba Marmion who was a Dubliner but who became renowned as the abbot of a Belgian monastery. He is not widely known in Ireland. Then there are the 17 Irish martyrs who were beatified in 1992. Again, most unfortunately they are even less well known than Columba Marmion – one would probably search far and wide to find an ordinary Catholic who could even name one of them. (There is also the case of Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy from Cloyne but he falls just outside the time frame we are looking at, having died in 1492).

And that’s it. That’s the sum total of Ireland’s effectiveness in promoting sanctity since the Council of Trent. Of course, it’s not for the lack of good candidates. There were dozens of other martyrs from the penal times that deserve recognition, in addition to candidates like Venerable Matt Talbot, Mary Aitkenhead, Catherine McCauley, Nano Nagle, the three Legion of Mary candidates Edel Quinn, Alfie Lambe and Frank Duff; Fr John Sullivan and of course Fr Doyle himself. There are of course, many other worthy causes besides these. As an Irish poem says:

Why are saints so difficult to recognise,

In these days, not like in olden times,

When we had a resident saint in each oak-grove,

A holy well in each townland, miracles galore?

By the law of averages, if, as philosophers maintain,

And common sense agrees, human nature doesn’t change,

And we are the mixture as before, there must be

Saints somewhere, if only we had eyes to see

We should celebrate those who have already been raised to the altars, and today is a great day of celebration for our own adopted St Charles of Mount Argus. But we should also celebrate those who have yet to be recognised formally, and the best way to do this is by actually promoting their cause and making them well known, and in particular by asking their help in prayer. If we do not ask for miracles, they will not be granted!

Of course, neither Fr Doyle nor Matt Talbot nor any of the others are in the least bit insulted or upset that they have not yet been beatified or canonised! But it is we, and our country, that lose out, for beatifications and canonisations strengthen the local Church..."

[Information about the cause for three of the people mentioned in this excerpt can be found at http://www.legionofmary.ie/causes/]

On Prayer

[The excerpt, On Prayer, is from the homily, “The Sermon on the Mount: On Purity of Intention & on Prayer,” by Fr Jeffrey L. Sarkies and posted September 8, 2010 at http://didymus.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/the-sermon-on-the-mount-on-purity-of-intention-on-prayer/]

...I think it is safe to say that no one can be a disciple for long without an active prayer life. What the Lord derides in this section boils down to hypocrisy. Praying in an exaggerated fashion so that others will notice and be amazed by the piety is not praying at all. Praying in a yada-yada fashion, running on and on, won’t cut it either. What is going on on the inside is what matters.

Prayer is relational and some of the best praying is done completely without words. Silence is necessary. So is openness. What happens when we pray? What are we doing? We stand in the quiet of our interior life and recognize the emptiness. We wait and God fills the void. I remember a story alleged to be about Matt Talbot. Talbot was a recovering alcoholic. Late in his life he used to spend long hours in his parish church. Supposedly, after observing him for some time, someone asked Talbot what he found to pray about all that time. He is said to have replied, “Oh, I just look at him, and he looks at me.” It is through contemplative prayer that the one praying comes to know God’s love and is able to “express” his love for God. Words are not required...

Reading the Saints

[In his homily, “Saints: A Sinners Guide or Ten Most Important Facts about Repentance,” Fr. John J. Lombardi notes the importance of reading about the conversion stories of saints.]

...9. Read about the saints: remember--they were sinners who became saints by God's grace and their human cooperation with Him. The greatest of these conversion stories include St Paul (overcoming his anger, religious triumphalism) St Augustine (paganism, restlessness), Mary Magdalene (transforming her sensuality), St Francis of Assisi (overturning his machismo and materialism); St Margaret of Cortona (against parental disobedience); Ven. Matt Talbot (a drunk who became divinized); St Phillip Neri ("Joyful saint", juggler and joke-teller) once said: "Lord, keep your hand on Phillipo, for today he may betray you." So: study how God worked in the saints and become one yourself.

Source: The entire homily can be found at http://www.emmitsburg.net/grotto/father_jack/2006/saints.htm

[The following is an except from an article on the influence of saints on the author's spiritual journey.]


"For This is the Will of God: Your Sanctification"

by Rebecca Po
Singapore

...Many saints are not the most talented or intelligent; some are not even likeable by others. However they made use of whatever God has given and whichever situation they find themselves in – a vehicle to grow in holiness. St Francis de Sales said “Bloom where you are planted.” They felt with the same keenness, the weakness, temptations and weariness as anyone does. St. Bernard of Clairvaux had a quick temper which he moderated later in his life. St. Augustine in his Confessions said “Lord make me chaste but not yet.” He later struggled violently and victoriously against the cruel yoke of the flesh. Besides imperfections and weaknesses, some saints went through down right serious problems such as family and marital problems, addictions, among other things. St. Elizabeth of Hungry endured for forty one years her unfaithful husband and her prayers obtained his conversion on his deathbed. St. Gianna Molla chose life of the baby in her womb over her own life. Venerable Matt Talbot was converted from 16-year addiction of alcohol.

Source: http://www.drcm.org/divine-call-archive/417-for-this-is-the-will-of-god

Venerable Matt Talbot Image

This image of Venerable Matt Talbot was located in the section of photos for Franciscans III at http://imagessaintes.canalblog.com/albums/saints_franciscains_iii/photos/22404454-matt_talbot.html.

No additional information about this image is available at this time.

To view the different images of Matt, click ”Matt Talbot image”

Everyone is called to holiness

From that day in 1884 when he first took the “pledge” not to drink, Matt Talbot strove to imitate Christ for the remaining forty-one years of his life. (JB)

The Pope’s 3 Simple Rules for Holiness: Mass and the Eucharist, prayer, and the Ten Commandments are key, as well as the example of the saints.
by CINDY WOODEN (CNS) 04/13/2011

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Everyone is called to holiness, which is simply striving to imitate Christ, particularly in loving God and loving others, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Ending a long series of general audience talks about saints and doctors of the Church, the Pope spoke about the meaning of holiness and how it is achieved.

Addressing an estimated 12,000 people in St. Peter’s Square April 13, Pope Benedict said there are three simple rules for living a holy life:

“Never let a Sunday go by without an encounter with the risen Christ in the Eucharist; this is not an added burden, it is light for the entire week.”

“Never begin or end a day without at least a brief contact with God” in prayer.

“And along the pathway of our lives, follow the road signs that God has given us in the Ten Commandments, read in the light of Christ; they are nothing other than explanations of what is love in specific situations.”

The Pope said he knows most people, aware of their limits and weaknesses, think it wouldn’t be possible to be a saint.

The doubts, he said, are one of the reasons the Church proposes “a host of saints — those who fully lived charity and knew how to love and follow Christ in their daily lives” — be remembered on specific days throughout the year. The saints come from every period of the Church’s history, every part of the world, every age group and every lifestyle, he said.

“I must say that, personally, for my faith, many saints — not all of them — are true stars in the firmament of history,” the Pope said. “But I also want to say that, for me, it is not just the great saints, who I know well, who show me the path to follow, but the simple saints — the good people who I have known in my life and who will never be canonized.”

The unnamed saints “are people who are, so to say, ‘normal,’ without visible heroism, but in their goodness each day, I see the truth of the faith, this goodness that has matured in the faith of the Church. For me, their goodness is the surest form of apologetics for the Church and a sign of where truth lies,” the Pope said.

“It is in the communion of the saints — canonized and not canonized — that the Church lives,” Pope Benedict said.

“We enjoy their presence, their company, and we should cultivate the firm hope of imitating their journey and of joining them one day in the same blessed life, eternal life,” he said.

Pope Benedict said the Holy Spirit wants to transform each and every Christian into “tiles in the great mosaic of holiness that God is creating in history.”

He said, “How great and beautiful and also simple is the Christian vocation seen in this light. All of us are called to holiness.”


Source: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/the-popes-3-simple-rules-for-holiness/

Venerable Matt Talbot Image

This image of Venerable Matt Talbot was located in the section of photos for Franciscans III at http://imagessaintes.canalblog.com/albums/saints_franciscains_iii/photos/22404454-matt_talbot.html.

No additional information about this image is available at this time.

To view the different images of Matt, click ”Matt Talbot image”

Inspiration for the song, "In Your Presence Lord 'Matt Talbot'

We have noted earlier today that Noeleen Murphy has released a new CD in remembrance of Matt Talbot http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2011/04/in-your-presence-lord-matt-talbot.html

We greatly appreciate Noeleen kindly agreeing for us to post a letter she wrote to us about the circumstances surrounding her song:

“I do believe Matt Talbot touched your heart the way he touched mine. I knew very little about his life until my husband was given an image of the Venerable Matt Talbot. When the image was placed on the wall and it was blessed, from that day Matt Talbot touched my heart. The words of the song gave me to feel the feeling, the sadness of his life. He handed everything over to Jesus.

When I asked my husband to type the words of the song for me, he asked me for the name of the song. At that time I didn’t have the name of the song, and once again I asked Matt for his help. I looked up at the image and said, “this is not my life, it is yours.” Within a few minutes it came into my head the name of the song, “In Your Presence Lord ‘Matt Talbot.’” I was very excited just to get the name of the song and to have it finished. I later found out when Matt was asked, “What do you be doing in the church?” he would answer, “I was in the presence of the Lord.” So that was the first time it was confirmed for me.

I went to visit Matt Talbot’s tomb and could not stop crying; my husband was with me that day. A lady gave him two prayer cards, and when he looked at them, he said, “O my God! Look what is on the top of the card.” I could not look at it. I told him I would see it when we returned to our car. When I got into the car, my husband handed me the prayer card. On the top of the prayer card it said, “Asking Matt’s help in the presence of the Lord.” And that is what I did; my life has changed. We go and visit churches and prayer groups promoting the Cause of the Venerable Matt Talbot.”

IN YOUR PRESENCE LORD-'MATT TALBOT'

Noeleen Murphy has released a new CD in remembrance of Matt Talbot. Ordering information can be found at http://www.matttalbotcounselling.ie/cd.html.

With permission to quote her, Noeleen writes, "I got the inspiration to write this song from an image of Matt Talbot. Just looking at the image, I was touched by the sadness and heartbreak of addiction.

Since writing and recording this song, I have been privileged to be asked to sing in many different venues throughout Ireland promoting the Cause of Matt Talbot. The highlight of 2011 so far for me is being asked by the Irish Pioneer Total Abstinence Association to sing the recording at the Matt Talbot/PTAA Knock Shrine Pilgrimage on Sunday 17th July 2011."

 

Below are the first two verses of the song as they appear in a 4 page booklet that accompanies the CD"

IN YOUR PRESENCE LORD-'MATT TALBOT'

I carry my cross for you my Lord
As you walk gently with me today
In my addicted state my body aches
And I hand it right into your arms O Lord
Stay close to me today

As I place these chains in the palms of my hands
And I offer them into your arms O Lord
In my addicted state my body shakes
And I hand it into your arms O Lord
Stay close to me today

 

Update:  Noeleen can be heard singing the entire song at 53 minutes into the tape at http://www.hmwn.net/audioarchive/search_results_id.php?title=20071623

The Lenten Life of Matt Talbot

Barbara McGuigan hosts an EWTN series titled, “The Good Fight.” The two-hour episode produced on 3/19/2011 is named, “Addiction,” and focuses on the Venerable Matt Talbot, whom she describes as the “patron of all those who suffer with the scourge of abuses, disorders, and sin.”

After presenting an overview of Matt’s life, she interviews her guest, Fr. Killian McCaffrey, who briefly describes his own journey into the priesthood and then shares his insight on Matt Talbot.

i Listen Now

Source: If the “Listen Now” doesn’t work, click Program 3 at http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/seriessearchprog.asp?seriesID=7084&T1=

Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |

Pilgrimage Mass at the Tomb of the Venerable Matt Talbot

Inter Parish Pilgrimage Mass at the Tomb of the Venerable Matt Talbot (“Friend of Addicts”)
in Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Sean Mc Dermott Street, Dublin 1 on Sunday the 10^th of April 2011 from 3.00-5.00pm. Petitions (or notes on favours received) can be brought to the mass or sent to Fr. Brian Lawless, Parish Office, St Agatha’s North William Street, Dublin 1.

You might also email Fr. Lawless at frbrian@stagathasparish.ie with your petitions or favours received.

Source:http://www.dublindiocese.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2357&Itemid=44

A Poem

The following poem was recited by James Finley, Ph.D., during his presentation at the 2010 conference, “Following the Mystics through the Narrow Gate.” It appears on page 8 in the March 7, 2010 post by Dr. Bill Kerley titled, “It’s Not Right! It’s Not Fair! It’s the Kingdom of God!” http://www.ordinarylife.org/files/20100307.pdf or View as HTML

Matt Talbot was a drunkard

Dismas was a thief

Magdalene was a playgirl

and Thomas without belief

But there they are in heaven

Looking down upon us now

Each holding a tilted halo

To a badly battered brow

And so the sins of all you sinners

Don’t definitely damn

For your was-ness doesn’t matter

If your is-ness really am.

Erasing a bad habit with a good habit

The following is an excerpt from a homily for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 13, 2011, by Fr. Gabriel Burke.


“...In the fight against sin we need to employ the virtues. We are aware of the 7 deadly sins, pride, covetousness, lust, anger,gluttony, envy and sloth but we must also make ourselves aware of the opposite virtues, humility, liberality,chastity,patience,abstinence,love and diligence. We take our most habitual vice and implement its opposing virtue. A bad habit will only be erased by a good habit. We must struggle everyday and have a battle plan in implementing a new regime.Take the life of the Venerable Matt Talbot, a chronic alcoholic by 21 yet he gave up drink one day and never looked back. It was a struggle in the beginning. In order to overcome drink he substituted the time he spent at the pub with long walks. This led him to going to churches. He spent less time walking and more time praying. When one day he entered a pub, he was not served and on leaving the pub went to a church and made the resolution not to carry money with him. In this way if he did have a craving for drink he would have no money to pay for it. This is exactly the type of thing Christ wants us to do. He does not mean that we are to literally pluck out our eye or chop off our hand. He wants us to really fight against vice and turn to virtue. We are to radically turn around our lives...”

Source: http://frgabrielburke.blogspot.com/2011/02/6th-sunday-in-ordinary-time.html

Self-Harm

Dr. Heather Barnett Veague has recently published the book, Cutting and Self-Harm (2008), for teens and young adults. While she includes present day age-appropriate case studies in this text of important psychological disorders, it may be arguably inappropriate to have included a side-bar story about Matt Talbot, considering the time and place in which he lived, historical influences, and the guidance of a spiritual director. Most Christian ascetics choose a life of penance and mortification of the soul not out of masochist leanings, but for the imitation of Christ in real-life.

The first link includes the brief story about Matt, pages 14-15, but most of the book is not available for preview. (You may need to insert “Matt Talbot” in the “search in this book” box.) The second link provides most of the text of the book, but the Matt Talbot pages are not readable.

http://books.google.com/books?id=yRyOKeMVNtsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Cutting+and+Self-Harm++By+Heather+Barnett+Veague&source=bl&ots=3l-7SzVzCT&sig=s06acXaFAAfD1NFGc4EUstfjtm0&hl=en&ei=zlqOTc7zBcLytgfDyoCuDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://www.scribd.com/doc/50673716/1/What-Is-Self-Harm-1#

Drawing of Matt Talbot

This drawing of Matt Talbot appears in Talbotania: The Journal of the Talbot Research Organisation, Spring, 1982, Vol. 3, No.1. http://www.talbotro.co.uk/Vol%203/Vol%203%20No.%201.pdf.

One article about Matt can be found on pages 2-6 at http://www.talbotro.co.uk/Vol%201/Vol.%201%20No.%203%20Christmas%201978.pdf

Talbotania is no longer published, but Volume 1 (1977) through Volume 11 (1996) can be found at http://www.talbotro.co.uk/trotlbtnBackNos.html

Matt Talbot's Tomb

Source: http://www.o-sullivan.net/pilgrim3b.htm

Venerable Matt Talbot's tomb is located in Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Sean MacDermott St., Dublin, Ireland. Information about this church is available at
http://www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/living-church-community-mags-gargan-1
A street sign to the tomb of Matt Talbot can be seen at http://www.yelp.ie/biz/tomb-of-matt-talbot-dublin . n.net/pilgrim3b.ht

What makes a 'fast-track' saint?

We are occasionally asked about the seemingly “slow” pace toward official sainthood of Venerable Matt Talbot. While we do not have any “inside” information about his cause proceedings (nor any other information about Matt) beyond what is available on the web and in books, we must realize that the process has taken one or more centuries of many who become officially recognized as saints.

There are a few, however, who are on a “fast-track” toward sainthood. John Allen, a veteran Vatican correspondent for NCR, suggests in this article that most fast-tract sainthood cases share five traits.

"With beatification of John Paul II, what makes a ‘fast-track’ saint?"

John L. Allen Jr.

National Catholic Reporter

Feb. 01, 2011

When John Paul II is declared “Blessed” on May 1, it will represent the fastest beatification of modern times, narrowly surpassing Mother Teresa. Both, of course, were global celebrities whose deaths prompted grass-roots campaigns for immediate sainthood, and they remain the only two recent cases in which the normal waiting period to launch a cause was set aside.

In light of the speed with which John Paul’s beatification has unfolded, some wonder why the wheels are taking longer to grind for other notable would-be saints: Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day, for instance, or Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, or the wartime pontiff Pius XII.

In effect, it raises the question: What makes a “fast-track” saint?

In 1983, John Paul overhauled the sainthood process to make it quicker, cheaper and less adversarial, in part because he wanted to lift up contemporary models of holiness. The result is well-known: John Paul presided over more beatifications (1,338) and canonizations (482) than all previous popes combined.

Since those reforms, at least 20 beatifications, the final step before sainthood, might be defined as “fast-track,” occurring within roughly 30 years after the person’s death. This privileged set includes a mix of the famous (Padre Pio and Opus Dei founder Josemaría Escrivá) and the relatively obscure (Anuarite Nengapeta, a Congolese martyr, and Chiara Badano, a lay member of Focolare). They include men and women, clergy and laity, from both the developing world and the developed.

Aside from a reputation for personal holiness and miracle reports, there are five traits most of these fast-track cases share.

First, most have an organization behind them fully committed to the cause, with both the resources and the political savvy to move the ball.

Opus Dei, for instance, boasts a roster of skilled canon lawyers, and they invested significant resources in the cause of their founder. An Opus Dei spokesperson estimated that the total cost of seeing Escrivá declared a saint, including staging two massive ceremonies in Rome -- beatification in 1992 and canonization in 2002 -- was roughly $1 million. That factor alone helps explain why other causes may languish. In the case of Dorothy Day, for example, there’s ambivalence in Catholic Worker circles. Some question whether Day would have wanted to be made a saint, and others wonder if the resources would be better invested serving the poor.

Second, several of the fast-track cases involve a “first,” usually to recognize either a specific geographical region or an underrepresented constituency.

Italian laywoman Maria Corsini was beatified in 2001, just 35 years after her death, along with her husband Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi, the first married couple to be declared “blessed.” Nicaraguan Salesian Sr. María Romero Meneses was beatified in 2002, 25 years after her death, as the first blessed from Central America.

It’s also striking that of the 20 fast-track cases, 12 have been women. That’s arguably related to an effort by officialdom to counter perceptions that the Catholic church is hostile to women.

Third, there’s sometimes a political or cultural issue symbolized by these candidates that lends a perceived sense of urgency.For instance, Italian laywoman Gianna Beretta Molla was beatified in 1994, thirty-two years after she died in 1962. (Molla was canonized in 2004). She’s famous for having refused both an abortion and a hysterectomy that would resulted in the death of her unborn child.

In other cases, the perceived issue may be internal to the church. María de la Purísima, a Spanish Sister of the Cross, was beatified in 2010, just 12 years after her death in 1998. Vatican officials hailed her as a model of preserving the traditions of religious life in a period of “ideological turmoil” following the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

The linkage between a candidate and an issue also can help explain why things slow down. Caution surrounding Pius XII, for example, is obviously related to tensions in Catholic/Jewish relations.

Fourth, causes sometimes make the fast track because the sitting pope feels a personal investment.

For instance, two Polish priests moved through the process swiftly under John Paul: Jerzy Popieluszko, a Solidarity leader murdered by the Polish communists, and Michal Sopocko, the confessor of St. Faustina Kowalska, a mystic and founder of the Divine Mercy devotion, to which John Paul had a strong personal commitment. (The date for John Paul’s beatification ceremony, May 1, has been observed since 2000 as “Divine Mercy Sunday.”)

Fifth, fast-track cases generally enjoy overwhelming hierarchical support, both from the bishops of the region and in Rome.

Badano, beatified just 20 years after her death in 1990, is the first Focolare “blessed.” The movement is admired for its spirituality of unity and its ecumenical and interfaith efforts, not to mention its loyalty to the bishops and to the pope.

The criterion of hierarchical support also may help explain why Romero’s cause isn’t moving with the same speed. Because of his association with liberation theology, Romero was a polarizing figure among his fellow Latin American bishops, some of whom are still on the scene.

All five criteria are present in droves for John Paul, which may augur a very brief interval before he’s formally declared a saint. Padre Pio offers a term of comparison -- just three years passed between beatification in 1999 and canonization in 2002.

To some extent, how quickly things move may depend on whether the issue associated with John Paul’s cause remains his impact on the world and his personal charisma, or whether his mixed legacy on the sexual abuse crisis looms larger as time goes on...

...In the meantime, two footnotes:

• John Paul’s process doesn’t even come close to being the fastest on record. That distinction belongs to St. Anthony of Padua, who died in June 1231 and was canonized less than a year later by Pope Gregory IX. Anthony even beat out his master, St. Francis of Assisi, canonized 18 months after his death in October 1226.
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• Despite perceptions that Pope Benedict XVI has slowed down the saint-making factory, he’s actually churning out new “blesseds” at a more rapid clip. John Paul approved 1,338 beatifications over 26 years, an average of 51 a year; Benedict has signed off on 789 beatifications, or 131 a year. Yet Benedict is not canonizing people with the same frenzy. John Paul’s 482 canonizations work out to more than 18 a year, while Benedict’s 34 so far represent an annual average just under seven...
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Note: This article has been slightly revised. The full article can be found at:

http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/beatification-john-paul-ii-what-makes-fast-tst-track-sain

t Other articles can be found by searching the web for “fast-track saints.”