Montfortian links

For those who are interested in additional information about devotion to Mary from a Montfortian perspective, these links may be beneficial.

http://www.montfort.org.uk/links.htm provides a menu of references

http://www.montfort.org.uk/Writings/MontWork.html provides free online study of books by St. Lous Marie de Montfort

http://www.montfort.org.uk/footsteps/archive/9-1-Spring2004/td160.htm provides a different link to the Commentary on the Letter by Pope John Paul II and the letter itself that was posted earlier today.

http://www.montfort.org.uk/footsteps/archive/9-1-Spring2004/woman-cross.htm has a reflection on the Pope's letter, "The Woman at the Cross," by Fr. Mitchell, S.M.M.

Pope John Paul II, St. Louis de Montfort, and Matt Talbot

Not only were the writings of St. Louis de Montfort influential for Matt Talbot, Pope John Paul II noted their importance to him in his youth. This quote from Pope John Paul II may help those who are concerned that a devotion to Mary may compromise their worship of Christ.

As far as I am concerned, the reading of this book [True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin by de Montfort] was a great help to me in my youth: "I found the answer to my doubts," which were due to a fear that worship given to Mary "if developed too much, might end by compromising the primacy of the worship of Christ" (My Vocation, Gift and Mystery, pg. 42). Under the wise guidance of St. Louis Marie de Montfort, I understood that, if we live the mystery of Mary in Christ, there is no such risk. This saint's Mariological thought, in fact, "is rooted in the Mystery of the Trinity and in the truth of the Incarnation of the Word of God" (ibid.)." This quote is from the letter of Pope John Paul II referred to below ( text of this letter).

Commentary on the Letter of Pope John Paul II

SOURCE: http://www.montfort.org/English/news.htm

On 8 December 2003, Pope John Paul II wrote to the Religious of the Montfortian Congregations, a letter to commemorate the 160th anniversary of the publication in 1843 of the "Traité de la Vraie Dévotion à la Sainte Vierge" (True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin). In the letter he reflects on certain aspects of the teaching of St. Louis Marie de Montfort concerning consecration of oneself to Jesus through Mary. See the text of this letter.

St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, all his life, practised and preached in his missions and retreats a form of devotion to Our Blessed Lady which he called "the most perfect devotion" to her, and which is often referred to as "the Holy Slavery". About Autumn 1712, he set down his teaching on this devotion in a book which has become, as Pope John Paul says in this letter, a classic of Marian spirituality: "True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin". After St Louis Marie's death in 1716, his followers in the Company of Mary continued to make this devotion a major part of their teaching and preaching, but, for some reason, they never thought to publish his book, although they possessed the manuscript. They did, however, value the manuscript sufficiently that, when the French Revolution brought chaos to the Vendée region where the Mother-house of the Company of Mary was, they hid it, along with other precious papers, in a field nearby. After the revolutionary fury had abated, they retrieved these papers and put them back in the library of the Mother-house, but then, it seems, forgot about them. It was only in 1842 that one of the members of the Company of Mary, doing some research in the library, came across the old manuscript and recognised the handwriting of St. Louis Marie. The manuscript was quickly authenticated, and in 1843 was published for the first time as "Traité de la Vraie Dévotion à la Sainte Vierge" (Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin).

Some 20 years later, in 1862, Fr. Frederick William Faber, of the London Oratory, made the first English translation of the book and had it published in London. There have been a number of English editions published since that time, in the United States as well as in Gt. Britain. In 1883, Bishop Herbert Vaughan, at that time the Bishop of Salford in England, and the founder of the Mill Hill Missionaries, wrote a letter recommending St. Louis Marie's book to all the clergy of the diocese. When he was transferred to Westminster Archdiocese in 1892, he did the same for his clergy of that diocese.

St. Louis Marie's book has been an inspiration to many thousands of people throughout the 160 years since its first publication. Our present Holy Father has several times acknowledged its influence on him, as he does again in this letter. It is well known that Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion of Mary in the 1920s, made the "Holy Slavery" the basis of the Legion's spirituality. Others in the English-speaking world who have been deeply influenced by it include Matt Talbot, Mother Mary Potter (foundress of the Little Company of Mary), Eddie Doherty and Catherine de Hueck Doherty (these two the founders of the Madonna House apostolate based in Combermere, Ontario).

St. Louis Marie de Montfort and Matt Talbot

Today, April 28, is the feast day of St. Louis Marie de Montfort, whose writings had a significant influence on Matt Talbot during the last forty years of his life. The chains that were found on Matt's body after his death were part of his "Total Consecration to Mary," which was popularized by de Montford. Today, however, the wearing of a chain or medal reminding one of holy slavery to Mary is an optional practice.

Links for further reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_de_Montfort

one biography of St. Louis de Montfort's life

St. Louis de Montfort's works and articles about his spirituality.

Online texts of Louis de Montfort's works

A Single Vocation

Bernard McGuckian, SJ

The Sacred Heart Messenger

August 2007

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: Each month, Fr. Bernard McGuckian answers some of the questions you ask about the faith and its practice..

There seems to be only two vocations spoken of in the Church: to marriage or to religious life. What about single celibate people, who neither want to marry nor take Holy Orders or enter a relig-ious congregation? Could ‘singledom’ be described as a vocation?
John.

It is true that the two vocations mainly spoken about in the Church are marriage and relig-ious life with the result that the fulfilled single life that so many people live is largely a forgotten topic in religious literature and discussion. However we should not forget that the goodness of single people has not been overlooked.

Single and Heroic

Among the more than four hundred lay men and women beatified or canonized by the late Pope John Paul II many were single. In our own times the heroic virtue of both Venerable Matt Talbot (1856-1925) and Edel Quinn (1907-1944) has been officially recognized and the Cause of the Servant of God, Frank Duff (1889-1980), founder of the Legion of Mary has been recently introduced.

All three were single people who walked closely in the footsteps of Christ under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Venerable Matt, a working man whose excessive drinking led to problems in his early life, is now known worldwide for his subsequent asceticism. He changed so radically in his late twenties that the rest of his life took the form of an extraordinary re-sponse to Christ’s warning that ‘unless you do penance you will likewise perish’ (Lk.13:3).

Co. Cork-born Edel, both a competitive and competent tennis player and according to the Frenchman who fell in love with her, ‘a sylph-like dancer’, spent the last years of her short life (she was only 37 when she died) spreading the Gospel around East Africa, in spite of debilitating tuberculosis.

Frank Duff, a highly-placed civil servant, abandoned a promising career to spend his life in the service of the poor and marginalized. His work was so blessed that it turned into the Legion of Mary which still mobilizes millions of other lay people like himself in the cause of evangelization around the globe.

To these three ‘singles’ we could add a fourth: John Anthony McGuinness, a civil servant and member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul who combined Matt Talbot-like austerity with selfless dedication to the Dublin poor.

Completion of Baptism

None of these three people felt called to the Sacraments of Matrimony or Holy Orders nor did any of them take religious vows. All of them, however, in early adulthood became aware that at baptism, the first of the Christian sacraments, they had received a vocation.

The late distinguished Irish writer Mary Purcell, single herself and an exemplary lay Christian, suggested that the reason for not having ‘Amen’ in the baptismal formula was to indicate that the real ‘Amen’ was to be a life in keeping with the sacrament. This seems to have been the mind of the Church from the earliest days. Evidence for this appears in an inscription over a tomb in the ancient catacombs at Rome: ‘He has completed his baptism’.

A truly Christian death was seen as the completion of a journey that began at baptism. This is still true today. Whether we are married, religiously vowed or single, we have all still the same vocation. ‘This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you’ (Jn.15:12).

Body of Christ

To love one another is the vocation of all Christians. Whether the word ‘singledom’ is approp-riate for the vocation of some of us is a moot point. It would not be if it seemed to authorize opting out from involvement in the Body of Christ of which we all are members with a specific role to play. Membership of the Body of Christ excludes anything like setting out on a ‘solo run’. If anything, the single person is called to a more self-sacrificing and even more universal love.

The unmarried person, as St. Paul noted, is free to love and serve God and a large number of others in a way that would be well-nigh impossible for those with special and unavoidable obligations to members of their immediate family circle. Don’t we all know unmarried men and women who use this freedom, not to withdraw into some form of isolation and non-involvement but to throw themselves enthusiastically into the great Christian adventure?

Exceptional People

It has to be conceded that the qualities that led to the reputat-ion of holiness of the people mentioned above are hardly run-of-the-mill. Few so-called ‘ordinary’ single people lead lives that catch the popular imaginat-ion as did theirs. To most people Edel Quinn’s life seems more like that of an extraordinary foreign missionary in the mould of a St. Francis Xavier rather than of a modern young woman with a love for sport and dancing.
The rigorous fasting of Matt Talbot is more reminiscent of the penitential life of the legendary Curé d’Ars than of your ordinary working man who goes quietly about an honest day’s work without any song and dance. And Frank Duff seems more in the mould of the founder of a great religious order than of a self-effacing civil servant who took early retirement to do something different.

Yet the difference between the lives of these outstanding people and those of other single people is not so much a question of kind as of degree. Like Edel, Matt, Frank, Mary and John, every one, whether married or single, has a mission in life. As Cardinal Newman puts it: ‘God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission - I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.’

Prayer

One of the main fruits of prayer, something that loomed large in the lives of all the people mentioned here, is that it helps shed light for each of us on our ‘mission’. We should all pray frequently in the words of St. Paul, when suddenly ovewhelmed on the road to Damascus: ‘Lord, what am I to do?’ (Acts 22:10). This was not a ‘once off’ prayer. Throughout his life he kept asking the Lord for further light as his situation and circumstances changed. If we follow this example of the great Apostle to the Gentiles we are unlikely to go too far astray.

SOURCE: http://www.messenger.ie/j/page327


NOTES:
Fr. McGuckian serves on the Matt Talbot Committee and has written other articles about Matt, which are posted on our site.
Even though Matt had the opportunity to marry in sobriety, he believed it was God's will to remain single and chaste.
Mary Purcell, who is mentioned in this article, has written significant biographies of Matt Talbot and are posted on our site.

Matt Talbot Sunday 2008

For those in or near Dublin, Ireland on June 1, 2008, there will be a Matt Talbot Sunday Mass at 4 p.m. at the Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Sean McDermott Steet. Matt's remains were enshrined in this church in 1972.

Fr. Damian O'Reilly, Vice-Postulator of the Cause for the Venerable Matt Talbot, will be the celebrant.

The church's website is http://parishes.dublindiocese.ie/seanmcdermott/

Matt Talbot Committee

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

Who is Ireland's favourite saint?

A contest was held on the Gerry Ryan Show in 2005 to determine Ireland's favourite saint. The first article presents the story behind this quest. The second article details the effort to put forth Matt Talbot as the favourite saint. To enhance readability of these articles, click on each link after the word "SOURCE."

The story behind the Gerry Ryan Show’s great quest
by Evelyn O’Rourke


On Wednesday, the 12th October – which was the 30th anniversary of the canonisation of St Oliver Plunkett – we launched the ‘Gerry Ryan Show’ quest for Ireland’s favourite saint on RTÉ 2FM. The quest was to take about three weeks, with the winner due to be announced on November 1st, All Saints Day.


For weeks our desks were groaning with the weight of postcards, envelopes and scraps of school book paper as listeners rushed to nominate their favourite saint!
But how did this madcap adventure begin?

I have been working as the reporter on ‘The Gerry Ryan Show’ for three years now and we are always dreaming up weird and wonderful ways to entertain and stimulate our audience. I was in France at a friend’s wedding recently, and as I sat in the church, I suddenly thought that with the media’s current obsession with lists – everything from the ‘best movie’ to ‘the worst Eurovision song’ – wouldn’t it be great to tap into a religious theme and discover Ireland’s favourite saint?

Our listeners are a fantastically diverse bunch but whenever we touch on religious subjects we get an overwhelming response. I knew that Irish people in particular have huge affection for saints, regardless of their actual relationship with the church. I spoke to Gerry and the team about my idea and they were fully supportive from the outset. And so the masterplan was created….

On that first day, the 12th of October, we invited Fr Michael Collins (curate with Dundrum parish) to join Gerry Ryan and myself in studio as we launched the quest. We spent an hour or so on-air trawling through many, many possible contenders for the title.

After that first day we were able to collate the votes we had received and we issued a list of ten contenders. They were St Brighid, Venerable Matt Talbot, St Padre Pio, St Anthony, St Martha, St Martin de Porres, St Therese de Lisieux, St Gerard Majella, St Jude, and Pope John Paul II.

The inclusion of the late pope caused a stir, but interestingly he polled most favourably on the web as opposed to the phone or by post, so votes for him were probably reflective of the younger section of our audience. Another candidate whose huge fan base interested me was St Gerard Majella. He is the patron saint of expectant mothers and many mothers contacted us to say that they had relied on him during their pregnancy. The Venerable Matt Talbot was another popular candidate, due in no small part I believe, to the intervention of Fr Bernard McGuckian SJ, who enthusiastically canvassed on his behalf on the programme!

During the campaign we eliminated the candidates one by one, and finally the day came when we had to name the winning saint. After many thousands of votes on the web, by phone, by email, by text and by post, there could only be one winner.

While St Padre Pio had many, many supporters, in the end St Anthony, with his unique way of helping people find lost articles, won out.

St Anthony is officially (well, according to us anyway!) Ireland’s favourite saint…

SOURCE: http://www.amdg.ie/2005/12/20/finding-irelands-favourite-saint/

Pushing the case for Matt Talbot as Ireland’s favourite saint
by Barney McGuckian SJ

Late in October, Evelyn from the Gerry Ryan Radio Show phoned. “We are looking for Ireland’s favourite saint. Will you “root” for Matt Talbot?”

A Reflection on Petitions to Matt Talbot

An innovative Pioneers novena in Co. Clare
by Pat Coyle




The lovely west Clare seaside holiday town of Kilrush (next stop America) looks a lot bleaker on a freezing cold November night, and as we were driving to it the voice of Ralph Mc Tell kept singing in my head –“Oh it’s a long long way from Clare to here…”



We travelled a few lonely, winding roads that dark evening so it was a great surprise to me that over 700 people had travelled along many similar roads for almost nine weeks to make the Matt Talbot Novena. It was organized by the Pioneer Association in Clare, in the beautiful St Senan’s Church, Kilrush, and I was the guest speaker on the second last night.



I’d been invited by Fr Tom Ryan the parish priest of Shannon and family friend who had been sent to my native Derry to help out some years ago. Whilst there he married my parents not long before they died. No – don’t re-read that sentence – you got it right – and don’t think scandalous thoughts about my mum or my dad (who, God rest him, had Alzheimer’s). One particularly bad day he got very agitated and wanted my mother to leave the house as he couldn’t remember marrying her and thought they were living in sin. She was at the end of her tether when Fr. Tom just dropped in for a visit. I asked him to marry them with a blessing, which, knowing the situation, he duly did, and daddy was happily settled for another while.



Anyway, that night I was deeply moved as I heard petitions to Matt Talbot read out. Heartfelt requests for people sick, in trouble, or alcoholic. One petition really touched me. ‘Dear Matt Talbot, please help me and my wife to stop drinking so much.’ I thought about their children and I spoke about alcoholism and how it affects families. I have direct experience of the disease which is a physical, mental and spiritual one, and I’m aware that whilst there is great help for the alcoholic it’s often family members who are traumatized, wounded by the illness, and indeed sick themselves, and who are totally neglected.



I don’t think I have ever spoken to a more receptive group. There was an incredible silence in the Church for the 20 minutes of my talk. Lovely, gentle people came up to me after to tell me their own stories, and each used the same phrase, that they would have heard a pin drop as I spoke. Nothing to do with me, but a lot to do with the reality of alcoholism in Ireland today and the painful tentacles the illness sends out to all who come in contact with it.



I am not a pioneer myself and would really miss my glass of wine, but I am deeply grateful to the pioneers for their generosity in giving up alcohol altogether as a spiritual gift to help those addicted and those suffering from the alcoholic’s behaviour. And as AA and AL-Anon (the twelve-step group for anybody affected by another’s drinking which has helped me greatly) will tell you, real and healthy recovery from the effects of the disease of alcoholism requires a spiritual dimension.



From Kilrush to Shannon, same novena, same talk, different people – 400 of them – many families and many young people. But similar petitions and the same great faith in Matt Talbot and a God who would hear their prayers. More people to talk to afterwards, more pain, more hope.



The whole experience was very moving. Fr. Tom, his parishioners and the people of West Clare were warm and welcoming. As he drove me to Limerick to catch the train for Dublin in the wee small foggy hours of Wednesday morning we talked of the importance of the novena, the people and the Pioneers.



“Well you’re from the Jesuit Communication Centre,” he said, “and the Pioneers in Kilrush and Ennis and further afield are the Jesuit link with Clare.” And it was great to have been with them. I have lovely memories as I write this at my computer in the JCC, still humming that lovely song but knowing it’s really not so long a way from Clare to here!




SOURCE: http://www.amdg.ie/2005/12/20/not-so-long-a-way-from-clare-to-here/ The title of this 2005 article was changed for posting purposes.

Venerable Matt Talbot: Can an Alcoholic Become a Saint"

by Fr. Kevin Shanley, O.Carm.

The late Fr. Kevin Shanley, O.Carm. gave the following 2004 talk about Matt Talbot as part of the "Life is Worth Giving" Series in Darian, IL., USA. The original, typed text of this article, which is dated 2002, can be read as is (with white background pages) or a blue background by clicking each page. Note that the birth date for Matt is incorrectly listed as 1853 rather than 1856.

This, like some other homilies and articles already posted, might be considered "introductions" to Matt Talbot.

http://carmelnet.org/shanley/Shanley2004-03.pdf

"Life of Matt Talbot" (1942 Ed.) by Sir Joseph Glynn

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.

A friend of Glynn's, who knew Matt for 25 years, suggested that Glynn write a short sketch of Matt's holy life for his fellow Dublin workers, although Glynn had not previously heard of Matt Talbot. Within months Glynn wrote a twenty page pamphlet titled, "Life of Matt Talbot, a Dublin Labourer," which was published in 1926 by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland and sold 10,000 copies within four days. Another edition was published in 1927 which sold 120,000 copies within a few months. In 1928 the first edition presumably in hardback with the title, Life of Matt Talbot, was published and subsequent editions have been published, including this 1942 edition that is available online at the link below. (These books have long been out-of-print but do periodically appear for sale at amazon.com and eBay at a reasonable price.)

Being the first biographer of Matt's life so soon after his death, Glynn had the opportunity to interview many who knew and worked with Matt. Later biographers regularly used Glynn's editions for their own biographies. Mary Purcell's biographies, which were first published in 1954 and benefited from interviews at the two official Enquiries about Matt Talbot's holiness which opened in 1931 and again in 1948, are the most definitive and result in some different conclusions about Matt than does Glynn. Therefore, the serious student of Matt Talbot might begin by reading Glynn's 1942 edition followed by Mary Purcell's Matt Talbot and His Times (1977, American Edition) and her Remembering Matt Talbot (1990).

Glynn's Life of Matt Talbot is provided online courtesy of the University of Chicago and the Open Library website established by The Internet Archive.

Either click the homepage at http://www.archive.org/details/MN5135ucmf_8 and then click the flashing text to view the book to the left of your screen or go directly to http://www.openlibrary.org/details/MN5135ucmf_8 to begin reading. Click the right page to turn the pages forward or click the left page for previous pages.

A personal reflection on Matt Talbot

by WI CATHOLIC

November 29, 2007

Today, I have been reminded of one of my favorite Irishmen, a recovered alcoholic who long ago was asked to take another favorite Irishman of mine under his wing and intercession. Since then, I have added many others (Irish and non-Irish, bless their hearts) to his intercession.

This man began drinking at AGE 12!!

His life had become so unmanageable by the time he was 28 that he "took the pledge" to not take a drink for three months. Even his mother doubted his ability to stop, telling him not to do it if he did not mean it.

He did.

He found that there was only ONE who could help him succeed, and often begged the One not to let him slip back into where he HAD been. That One is the "Higher Power" of AA/Alanon, the "God as we understand Him" of the Old Timers in AA/Alanon, the God of the Old and New Testament. He is the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Matt Talbot spent the rest of his life serving His Lord, in prayer and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, 'working the fifth' by examining his conscience and frequent Confession, daily attendance at Mass, and giving most of his earnings away. This, years before the start of AA.

He read books (with LITTLE education) that I have not begun to desire to read by great men/women of the Church (like St John of the Cross). Few people outside his own little corner of Ireland knew of him. Until his death, that is .

When he died on the street of a heart problem, they were not even sure of who he was, but when he was identified, and his belongings taken from his room, they were amazed to learn of his devotion, his piety, his life. Within a short time, word spread, including to Rome.

Alcoholics the world over have gained strength to recover from his example. A recovering friend of mine said that there may NEVER be a physical miracle for his Beatification or Canonization, but there are MANY spiritual miracles as a result of his life, his recovery, and his intercession from Heaven. I pray that God allows two physical miracles in order for him to be called ST MATTHEW TALBOT.

Alcoholism is a physical affliction as well as spiritual. Body, mind and soul are all affected, as are every family member and friend of the person who has 'crossed the line' into dependency on the drug of alcohol (whether wine, beer or liquor). So in MY humble opinion, each and every person who has been aided by devotion to him IS already not only a spiritual miracle, but also an emotional and a physical miracle. Every family member and friend is also blessed and benefited by that miracle of sobriety. Lives are changed and restored.

But my opinions do not matter.

Venerable Matt Talbot, I once again ask you to aid my loved one, my family members, my friends, and all those that I have placed in your care over the last 20-25 yrs since I first heard of you. Bring them to the grace, presence, and the blessings of God. Bring them to recovery. Bring them to Him, the Author and Giver of Life so that they may also merit Eternal Life.



God bless!

"O Virgin, I ask only three things:

• the grace of God,
• the presence of God,
• and the benediction of God."

~Prayer of the Venerable Matt Talbot

Source: http://wicatholicmusings.blogspot.com/2007/11/matt-talbot.html

"Confession-the now forgotten sacrament in Ireland?"

Once he decided to give up alcohol, Matt Talbot went to confession and then took a three-month pledge. Regular confession became one important aspect of his new life changes to stay sober and grow in love of Jesus Christ.

In light of the Divine Mercy homily given by Irish Cardinal Sean Brady yesterday and reported below, confession appears much less common in Ireland today than it was during Matt's lifetime. One might argue that active Irish alcoholics are even more likely not to go to confession than in the general population of Catholics.

Although it is not the same as confession with absolution by a priest, Alcoholics Anonymous (and other twelve-step programs) has a type of confession, although that word is not used within this program of recovery.

Step 4 asks the alcoholic to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of himself/herself. This step is recommended to be done with the guidance of a sponsor. Once completed, Step 5 asks the alcoholic to admit to God, to himself/herself, and to another human being the exact nature of his/her wrongs. That other human being could be the sponsor, or anyone familiar with the program, including a priest. The heavy burden lifted can be a life-changing experience that may eventually lead the non-confessing

Catholic alcoholic back to the confessional.

"Confession is now the 'forgotten sacrament -- cardinal"

By John Cooney
Irish Independent News

March 31, 2008

CONFESSION has become the "forgotten sacrament" for many Irish Catholics, according to Cardinal Sean Brady.

Preaching at Knock Shrine in County Mayo yesterday, the Primate of All-Ireland also linked the decline in confession to a wider spiritual crisis in values in an increasingly violent and celebrity-obsessed society.

He called on pilgrims attending a special Divine Mercy Sunday service to pray for a renewal of the traditional practice of confessing personal sins to a priest for absolution, a central feature of Irish Catholicism until a few decades ago.

"When we cease to worship God, we can lose the sense of direction and of purpose in life," the 68-year-old Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh warned.

He observed that the consequences of today's spiritual crisis in society -- or a crisis of values -- were becoming increasingly evident.

"We are becoming a more heartless, less forgiving and a less merciful society," he said.

"You see it in an increasingly aggressive and competitive attitude, in the more frequent resort to violence, in the relentless pursuit of the vulnerabilities of celebrities and public figures, for entertainment rather than for legitimate public interest and in the merciless culture of image compliance, not least among the young."

Cardinal Brady also suggested that this crisis was probably linked to our increasing departure from the practice of the Catholic faith, and to our loss of a sense of our being created and therefore dependent on a Creator other than ourselves.

"The problem cannot be addressed by social or political initiatives alone," he said.

"Our society needs a change of heart about God, about the Church, about living, enjoying and sharing a faith which makes us more loving and human."

Referring to yesterday's Gospel reading, Cardinal Brady quoted Christ's words to his apostles after the Resurrection that 'those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven.'

"What incredible words," added the Cardinal. "What consoling words. The mercy of God is completely available to us. It is willingly and generously offered."

Source: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/confession--is-now-the-forgotten-sacrament--cardinal-1332858.html?service=Print

PRAYER FOR THE RELEASE OF A LOVED ONE FROM ALCOHOL OR DRUG ADDICTION

Lord Jesus, I put myself into Your hands this day. I ask You, with all my heart, to cure the terrible addiction to alcohol (drugs) in (name the person). Create in them an intolerance for alcohol (drugs) that will prevent them ever offending those who love them again. And grant their loved ones the grace to forgive them for all the hurt they have caused. Through the Divine Mercy and blood of Jesus, I also pray that they will be healed of all withdrawal symptoms of this terrible affliction. I sincerely ask this, in the name of Jesus. Amen

Venerable Matt Talbot, pray for us!

MAY THE LORD GIVE YOU HIS PEACE.

Source: http://wicatholicmusings.blogspot.com/2007/11/prayer-for-release-of-loved-one-from.html This and other prayers can be found at http://www.circleofprayer.com/divine-mercy-prayer-book.html . Both of these sites have postings about Matt Talbot.

Divine Mercy, the Resurrection, and the Addict

 

Father John J. Lombardi

2004

 

 

"I recently talked to a drug addict, and, point blank, he asked me why Catholics go to Confession. Here's an answer from St. Faustina and her "Diary of Divine Mercy":


"When I left the confessional, ineffable joy filled my soul so that I withdrew to a secluded spot in the garden to hide myself from the sisters to allow my heart to pour itself out to God. God's presence penetrated me and, in an instant, all my nothingness was drowned in God, and at the same moment I felt, or rather, discerned the Three Divine Persons dwelling in me. And I had such great peace in my soul that I myself was surprised that I could have had so many misgivings."

Why do we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday immediately after Easter? Because the Church wants Catholics to realize God is calling us to many graces thru the Sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession; that this Sacrament is a beautiful liberation from sin; it promotes the practicing of virtues, and it engenders a concrete entrustment to His Mercy. God says: "I have blotted out thy iniquities as a cloud, and thy sins as a mist: return to me, for I have redeemed thee" ( Is.44:22).

Now: Jesus came for three kinds of people- sinners, the sick and simple poor. Are you one of these or "outside Jesus' grasp"?

My friend the drug addict, himself detecting the "inner truth" of confession--we read St. Jas. 5:16: "Confess yours sins to one another and you will be healed"-- described the process of Confession: It's like getting garbage out of your body and soul.

That's right. So, make a confession to a priest soon! Here are five good reasons: 1.It's a Gift from Jesus: "He breathed on them and said, "receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven, whose sins you retain are retained" (Jn. 20:22-23).

2. Saints like Mother Teresa and her Missionary of Charity of Sisters went regularly. She said: "Confession is humility in action. We call it penance but is really a sacrament of love." So: shine like the saints.

3. Get the garbage out. 4. Practice the Latin maxim: Bonum diffisum est-Good is diffusive of itself. When you are clean and free you help others be the same. 5. More graces can adhere in your soul if you are more sanctified.


One of the saddest things in our Catholic Church these last few decades is the rejection of Confession. This "spiritual staple" of the spiritual life is so grace-filled and yet so neglected today. Always remember, as complicated as life can sometimes be, The Three C's of The Spiritual Life: frequent Confession, Communion and Communication (prayer). Don't let your past mistakes be a present problem: entrust yourself to Jesus and his Church appointed priest-minister, the priest (cf. also Mt. 16:18), and Reconcile.

You may still be granted an indulgence, which is a release of the punishments of sin in the afterlife … granted by Pope John Paul II for the devout observance of the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday). The Decree of the Holy See offers: "a plenary indulgence, granted under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, -Eucharistic communion and prayer for the intentions of the Pope) to the faithful who, on the Second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday, in any church or chapel, in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin, take part in the prayers and devotions held in honor of Divine Mercy, or who, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, recite the Our Father and the Creed, adding a devout prayer to the merciful Lord Jesus (e.g. 'Merciful Jesus, I trust in you!')." (Source:Marians of the Immaculate Conception Website.)

**************************************************** The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ is vitally important -"The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ" (# 638). Many today want to deny the bodily resurrection. The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" emphasizes the bodily Resurrection, this way, in paragraphs # 638-655:

"Historical and Transcendent event"; "The empty Tomb"; "The Appearances of the Risen One," "Christ's Risen Humanity" …Given all these testimonies, Christ's resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an historical fact…Therefore the hypothesis that the Resurrection was produced by the Apostles' faith will not hold up. On the contrary their faith in the Resurrection was born, under the action of divine grace. From their direct experience of the reality of the risen Jesus" (#643-44).

Jesus Christ, in His Bodily Resurrection, triumphs over …

Sin: If Jesus didn't bodily rise from the dead, sin would have the last word of destroying the God-Man, and us. "If Christ has not been raised then your faith would be in vain" (I Cor. 15:14). Sin deforms, Christ's Resurrection transforms. A few years ago a pilgrim was driving by the Grotto on Rt. 15, headed for Washington. All of a sudden he looked up and saw the golden Mary statue-glistening-- and decided to stop. Driving up he wondered if a priest was around. After seeing the beauty of the belltower statue he realized a desire to make a confession. Sure enough, yes: the man found a priest, made a Confession and continued his trip. He was a changed man. Because Jesus rose from the dead in a glorified body, He gave the Apostles the ability to forgive sins. Simple spirits or "good causes" alone don't do this. Jesus' Resurrected body triumphs over sin: There is a holiness to beauty and beauty to holiness-it radiates.


Corruption-our bodies decay, but Jesus' didn't. Impassiblitiy is an attribute of Christ's glorified body. It means suffering no longer-in body or spirit. He gives us hints of re-vivified bodies here on earth thru "tastes of the resurrection". I recently witnessed one of God's miracles in life. Last Fall I went to see a lady in the hospital, who is a wife and mother, and in just giving birth was possibly dying. I didn't recognize her: she was sedated, medical tubes all over her, beeping monitors, purplish-colored skin, and covered by so much medical technology I could barely see her. I tried talking to her without a response, so I simply blessed her, leaving, thinking a worst-case-scenario. I left a note to her and her husband. A few months later I got a call from her friend: she was recovering and back home. Recently she came to the Grotto and with her large family, she received Holy Communion. "Lazarus revisited"! I was astonished by this "resurrection hint": no traces of suffering, but, oppositely, a serene face and courtly walk, no wounds or scars, a kind of gentle radiance about her-- she overcame all to live…How can you feed off of Jesus thru thanking Him at Mass, Holy Communion, prayer?

Death. "The wages of sin is death" (Rm. 6: 23). Lazarus was risen from the dead but, unlike Jesus, he died again. Jesus definitively overcomes death's power by His physical Resurrection. Death, which is a result of sin, has no ultimate power over Jesus, or us. Last Winter a pilgrim's husband died suddenly. She was grieving one morning when she heard the nearby Church bells ringing. Immediately she forgot her troubles and heard Jesus-she went to Mass and encountered the Crucified and Risen One. Death was transformed and her whole day changed. Likewise, another widow heard her husband say, just before his death-"You can always find me at the altar." Jesus Christ Risen transforms death.

Don't stop celebrating: Easter is not only an event, it is a Season, a state of mind and soul-by "knowing the power" of the Resurrection, St Paul says (Phil. 3:10). For Fifty Days, until the Ascension, we celebrate Jesus' Easter-saving-power and his promise. So: recall the saying, "Out of the tomb and into my heart." Catholics not only think about this, but concretely act upon it by the Five S's of the Spiritual Life: -Sacraments, Scriptures, Silence (prayer), Service, Saintly inspiration. These are ways to invite, embrace and immerse yourself in the Resurrected Jesus.

Meister Eckhart, a medieval German Dominican, lover of creation and the Creator, once described a kind of resurrection process: "Out of the ground the rod grows which is the soul in her purest and highest. It shoots out of this primal ground at the breaking forth of the Son from the Father. Upon the rod opens a flower. The flower is the Holy Ghost Who will rest and repose there." … Jesus hints of this indwelling Trinity in Jn 14:26, and St Paul hints it in Rm. 8:11. God desires a dwelling within us. As we know the Resurrection was historical-it happened way back then, and physical--disciples touched His wounds. But: this does not negate His resurrection power affecting us today--internally, metaphysically. Resurrection can also be a state of mind and ongoing conversion: endless Love generated within us. After all, St Paul himself wanted to know the power of the resurrection even though he didn't experience it historically, physically. Are you allowing God's "Primal Ground" and Life to be the foundation of all your thoughts, words, deeds? St Paul intimates an Eckhartian conversion by giving up selfish self to gain the "rod" of his soul in God, as he says: "With Christ I am nailed to the cross. I no longer live, I, but Christ within me" (Gal 2:19-20). Allow Christ and the Whole Divine Trinity to flower forth and live within you. Rest and repose there. (cf. Mk. 6:31). Become part of the Resurrection.

St Gregory of Nyssa counsels: "If by a diligent life of virtue, you wash away the film of dirt that covers your heart, then the divine beauty will shine forth in you." -May the Divine and Beautiful One, the Resurrected Jesus Christ, shine in and thru you to others."

 

Source: The title has been modified for posting purposes
http://www.emmitsburg.net/grotto/father_jack/2004/divine_mercy.htm

"All Need Mercy...

Although Divine Mercy Sunday did not exist during Matt Talbot's lifetime, he prayed for and received divine mercy.

"His mercy endures forever."-Sir 51:12

Father John J. Lombardi

2003

Padre Pio was famous for "reading hearts" and for his insights in hearing confessions-and so he can help you be insightful into your own soul, in preparing for your next confession. Jean Vianney used to hear them all night, so he can help you persevere thru any and all obstacles, when approaching the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Blessed Damien the Leper Priest humbled himself and, in the midst of others, shouted his confession across a Hawaiian harbor, so much did he love the sacrament-- and so he can help you love it more!...

I was recently walking thru the Grotto with Don Briggs, our Mt St Mary's rugby coach, on a sunlit day (we were talking about a recent, bloody game!), when we came upon a group of pilgrims. A mother was walking with her children near the reflecting pool, encouraging her girls to pray as they tossed pebbles in it. She said: "And pray for grandpop-that he go to confession." I thought this was an interesting prayer-especially out loud. I began talking to the ebullient mom, and she said her mother said "dad" had not been to confession in fifteen years, and that mom was "concerned". Meanwhile, the girls continued hurling pebble-prayers into the pool. Walking away, I felt spiritually inspired by this manifestation of the mystical Body of Christ and the Love behind it.

This Sunday-the Second Sunday of Easter-- is Divine Mercy Sunday, recently proclaimed by Pope John Paul II. Today, believe it or not, we need God's mercy more than ever. Why?-you ask. We have wars, near and far, and raging nations to quell. The Christian family is attacked ceaselessly and on the verge of breakdown. Drugs, crime and murder occur in unprecedented numbers these days, and not just in inner cities. Our Catholic U.S. Church has just gone thru one of its worst years with clergy abuse issues. Catholic education and identity is in malaise and demise. There are the counterfeit sexuality problems (secularized sensuality parading as legitimate sexuality)--contraception, homosexualism, fornication, and pornography is becoming mainstream. Then there is the Culture of Death which seeks destruction of pre-born innocents and the elderly-and anyone not deemed worthy of "savage capitalism"…Yes, indeed, we need God's forgiveness today. In light of all this, two things are now required: to be candidly realistic by acknowledging the threats to Christian life today; and also to acknowledge the Good -Better-News: God forgives and is all merciful-if we ask Him.

But today there is the growing lack of the sense of sin: people just don't think "white lies" or abuse of the Sabbath-rest is sinful-thus, they miss out on mercy. Other people don't think pornography, gossip, or lack of charity are sins…They, too, miss out on mercy. Others deny the biblical "sacramentality" of Jesus Christ-- thinking they can become "whole" or "renewed" by confessing sins to God alone, neglecting the communal aspects of the Church and the extension of Jesus' priesthood-community. They ignore Jesus resurrection counsel (today's Gospel): "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven, whose sins you retain are retained" (Jn 20:23, and, His mandate to St Peter: Mt. 16: 19). St James says: "Therefore, confess your sins to one another…that you may be healed" (James 5: 16). Eschewing this biblical advice, many miss out on mercy …Some people take God's mercy-His compassion-for granted-and so don't even ask Him for pardon, missing out on mercy…Others, have been unfortunately trained to receive a kind of "general absolution" whereby they don't confess their individual sins to a priest, but only informally and nebulously, as part of a larger congregation. All these are missing out on mercy--how unfortunate!

But, follow the following phenomenal fact (excerpted from, Divine Mercy brochure): " On Feb 22, 1931, Our Lord Jesus appeared to a young nun, Sister Faustina Kowalska, bringing her the message of Mercy for all mankind. Jesus appeared with red and white rays of light coming forth from his chest and asked her to paint an image with the saying, "Jesus, I trust in You!" on it. Jesus said: 'The pale ray stands for the water which makes souls righteous; the red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. Fortunate is the one who dwells in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him…As a further sign of His forgiving love, Jesus called for the Feast of Divine Mercy to be celebrated in the whole church, and also asked for a novena (nine days of prayer) to be added…(excerpted from Divine Mercy brochure). We also read:

"We can also see these rays as simultaneously symbolizing the Holy Spirit, whom Christ breathed into the Disciples during the same Octave-day appearance. On the strength of that Holy Breath, all sins are forgiven and 'at-ONE-ment' with the Father is accomplished. Here, God in Christ is reconciling the world to Himself (see 2 Cor 5:18). And here the Church, the newly-born Body of Christ, is commissioned to be the instrument of reconciliation down through the ages."

"The Feast of Mercy focuses on God's mercy as an event! It focuses on God's continuing action of mercy throughout salvation history as we see it recorded in the letter to the Romans, culminating in His loving plan to have mercy on all! (See Rom ch's 9-11.) This Feast is a summation of the event to His mercy active in our lives now. It is because of His mercy that we have forgiveness of sin and new life as children of God. This needs to be celebrated!

The Feast of Mercy is a Day of Atonement. The Feast of Mercy is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Day of Atonement (see Lv 16, Lv 23:26-32 and Sir 50). It is a day of forgiveness of sins for those who approach the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is an annual celebration like the Day of Atonement-all sins and punishment are washed away in His infinite mercy. The focus of this paschal event is on God's mercy for us sinners and His free gift to those who turn to Him with trust. (From Divine Mercy Sunday.com).

We are encouraged to partake of God's mercy-it is one of His essential attributes. Mercy, from the Hebrew word, hesed, means forgiveness, to pardon a wrong. God-as-sovereign is not obliged to excuse us, but out of His nobility and generosity, he does forgive us to free us. We see many other Lessons of Mercy in the Bible:

In David's lament, we read one of the most famous confessional psalms: "Have mercy on me, O God, in your abundant mercy blot out my transgression" (Ps 51:1ff). This is David's prayer after he committed the sin of adultery and asks for God's forgiveness. This Psalm is in the Bible not only to "report David's confession," but also to let you know God's mercy forgives all sins-even the most serious…I recently visited a drug treatment center and, after giving a conference on the "drunk-become-venerable-disciple," the Irishman- Matt Talbot, a counselor mentioned how much shame the resident clients have from taking drugs and being bad stewards of their bodies, often with extensive and gigantic effects upon others, thus finding it difficult to approach God, to seek mercy, or make a confession…I thought, how true that must be for these folks, and yet how truer it is, to just such persons, that God's mercy should be proclaimed and offered thru the Divine Mercy devotion-and to all of us who are sinners, no doubt, with our own shameful sins.

If and when we progress in the spiritual life we sense that, when we do sin, we can actually become enslaved to sin (cf. Jn 8:34), and its consequences; we subsequently perceive we need God's grace and mercy. When we ask for it and He does forgive us, we become free. Thus the psalmist says: "Let your mercy come to me that I may live" (Ps 119:156): How can you progress in the spiritual life and truly trust God to free you more-of all your sins and enslavements to bad, harmful, wrong things or people? Know the enslavement; know the grace given.

The prophet Jeremiah reports Yahweh saying: "I will surely have mercy on them" (31:20). Notice: God will surely forgive His people, and so make acts of entrustment unto His mercy by a daily examination of conscience, and filter out all bad stuff by seriously amending your life. Unlike humans, God is merciful-He does not have to learn it, acquire it or think about it, as we do, and then bestow it: He is mercy! Trust Him.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy" (Mt 5:7). Have you heard the saying, "If you want to keep it, give it away" ? Practice this wisdom thru giving away mercy and forgiveness-without restraint-to others. And when it doesn't come easy, or you feel yourself resisting, do it anyway-stretch and grow-become someone else (cf. 2 Cor 5: 17-in Christ, become a "new creature"). We are called to be mirrors of Divine Mercy when we give it to others.

"Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy…'" (Mt 9:13). Many of us religious folks can get used to boxing in God by imposing inordinate rules on others-especially if we are striving for perfection and holiness (which we all should be doing). We need beware of this subtle phariseeism. Jesus constantly warned the Pharisees that we need to imitate God and His merciful ways as part of the call to the perfecting process. Mercy blends with justice and holiness, with righteousness and moral living-it is not an opposite, nor an enemy, but a fulfillment. Sometimes, when we strive for holiness we need to re-learn the lessons of mercy…

" Jesus, Son of David, Have mercy on me" (Mk 10:47).
This is the foundation of The Jesus Prayer. The full prayer is: "Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of God have mercy on me a sinner." Memorize this prayer. Some say it's the Gospel in miniature, because it acknowledges Jesus as God; that He can forgive us, if we acknowledge we are sinners. Pray it unceasingly …

"…Then gentiles might glorify God for His mercy" (Rm 15:9). St Paul is saying that God attracts thru His forgiveness-do you?...

"By His great mercy he has given us a new birth" (I pt 1:3). We need to be born again-spiritually-- by asking forgiveness and giving forgiveness-otherwise we are "spiritually dead" and outside God's mercy.

What to Do/How To Live Divine Mercy:
Go to confession-soon! Entrust yourself to Jesus-He is there, an Ocean of Mercy waiting for you. Scott Hahn-convert and speaker-- says it is like "medical care"-taking a cleansing shower to help others around you sense cleanliness and spiritual sheen…Intercede for others: especially agnostics and atheists-pray for their conversion. Pray especially for the most hardened sinners; your prayers can help them and alleviate God's just punishments upon them and the whole world…Spread His Mercy: forgive others (don't hold grudges), and, like Saint Faustina, talk about Jesus-as-mercy to others, and link them to His love. Be a witness by embracing Jesus' divine Light and spreading it to others. Think of Damien the Leper Priest and Mother Teresa of Calcutta-they loved Jesus in the Eucharist and in His disguises-in the poor and most unwanted: go find Him as you experience His mercy more and more…

Prayer:
"Most Merciful Jesus, whose Heart is Love Itself, receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who particularly extol and venerate the greatness of Your Mercy. In the midst of all afflictions and adversities they go forward, confident in Your Mercy; and united to You, O Jesus, they carry all mankind on their shoulders. These souls will not be judged severely, but Your mercy will embrace them as they depart from this life."

How to Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet:
Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary, Apostles' Creed. Then, on the Our Father Beads you will say the following words: Eternal Father, I offer you the body and blood, soul and divinity of your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. On the Hail Mary Beads you will say the following words: For the sake of His sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world. In conclusion, three times you will recite these words: Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world. (From the Diary of the Servant of God, St. Faustina)

Source: http://www.emmitsburg.net/grotto/father_jack/2003/divine_mercy_sunday.htm

Temptation

In reading the verses and prayer for dealing with temptation below, we might think of the temptation Matt Talbot experienced about drinking.

Some writings about Matt tend to leave the impression that once Matt took the pledge not to drink, his "craving for drink" was instantly removed. Reading detailed articles and most biographies suggest, however, that just the opposite was true.

Even though Matt made significant changes in his life after taking the pledge, such as going to daily mass before work, going regularly to confession, spending evenings in churches, reading the bible and spiritual readings late each evening, and praying constantly, the temptation to drink was ever present for many months before it began to subside. He frequently mentioned to his mother that he wouldn't be able to keep his three-month pledge. But by the grace of God, Matt did not pick up a drink.


Matt once told his sister, Susan, to "never be too hard on the man who can't give up drink. For it's as hard to give up the drink as it is to raise the dead to life again. But both are possible and even easy for Our Lord. we have only to depend on Him in constant prayers" (Beevers, 1955).

Maynard (2000) notes repeatedly in his book that "Matt was able to slake his thirst only by developing another taste. Through prayer and meditation he cultivated a friendship and love for Jusus Christ," which took years to reach its "full flowering."

Sources:

Beevers, John. Shining as Stars, 1955. Westminster, Maryland:

Newman Press, p. 110.

Maynard, Philip. To Slake a Thirst: The Matt Talbot Way to Sobriety. 2000. New York: Alba House, pp. 10-11.

"Dealing with Temptation"

Mary Fairchild

About.com:Christianity

March 25, 2008

If you're struggling with temptation in your life, take some encouragement from these verses and pray the prayer below, asking the Lord to help you deal with the temptations you face each day.

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)



“But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.”
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NLT)

Dear Lord,
You know the temptations that I am facing today. But your Word promises that I will not be tempted beyond what I can bear. I ask for your strength to stand up under the temptation whenever I encounter it. Your Word also tells me you will provide a way out of the temptation. Please, Lord, give me the wisdom to walk away when I am tempted, and the clarity to see the way out that you will provide. Thank you, God, that you are a faithful deliverer and that I can count on your help in my time of need.
Amen

Source: http://christianity.about.com/od/prayersforspecificneeds/a/PrayersVerses.htm

"To begin a new life"

On this Easter we are reminded that one can begin a new life of recovery from the slavery of alcoholism by the grace of God. This paragraph is from a spiritual letter previously posted here titled Matt Talbot - A Model for all Men and Women.

"Matt Talbot is a model for all men and women. To victims of alcoholism or drugs, he shows through his example that with the grace of God, recovery is possible. «Alcohol addictions are at times so strong that those closest to the alcoholic are led to believe that he will never overcome his addiction, and the alcoholic himself is tempted to lose all hope. It is good then to remember Jesus' resurrection. This reminds us that failure is never God's last word» (Social Commission of French Bishops, declaration of December 1, 1998). To those who are slaves to other sins (idolatry, blasphemy, abortion, euthanasia, contraception, adultery, debauchery, homosexuality, masturbation, stealing, false witness, slander, etc.), he reminds them that one must «never despair of God's mercy,» in accordance with Saint Benedict's recommendation (Rule, ch. 4). Our Lord promised St. Margaret Mary that sinners would find in His Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy. Just as it is the nature of a ship to sail on the water, it is God's nature to forgive and be merciful, as the Church confirms in one of its prayers. Saint Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church, also was able to write near the end of her manuscripts: «Even if I had on my conscience all the sins that can be committed, I would go, my heart broken with repentance, to throw myself into the arms of Jesus, for I know how much He loves the prodigal child who returns to Him.» She added, in spoken words, «If I had committed all the crimes it is possible to commit, I would still have the same confidence, I would feel that this multitude of offenses would be like a drop of water thrown into a raging blaze.» Matt Talbot's life eloquently proves that by turning faithfully to the Lord to ask forgiveness, one may, through the Sacrament of Penance, the normal way of reconciliation with God, begin a new life under Mary's maternal gaze."

The original source of this spiritual letter by Dom Antoinee Marie, OSB is from the Abbey of Saint Joseph de Claifval (in France) at http://www.clairval.com/lettres/en/2004/08/15/2180804.htm

"The importance of examples like Matt Talbot"

In his book titled, The Heart of Catholic Spirituality: Finding a Voice through the Centuries (Paulist Press, 2003), theologian Fr. Thomas Lane, C.M. notes the importance of examples like Matt Talbot who changed their ways and have journeyed back into the heart of God.

See pages 91-92 at

http://books.google.com/books?id=jc39S6MbmLwC&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=matt+talbot+thomas+lane&source=web&ots=lAaIEWXoQ0&sig=DvLmUJEQleIUqTysWADbWxWTMho&hl=en#PPA91,M1

More contents of this book can be read at

http://books.google.com/books?id=jc39S6MbmLwC&dq=matt+talbot+thomas+lane&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0

Lent 2008 - Alcohol: The Challenge of Moderation

Matt Talbot would be supportive with the attention being paid to the use and abuse of alcohol. He was known to loan money for a "pint" as long as the fellow did not abuse alcohol and deprive his family of the necessities of life.

Lent 2008 - Alcohol: The Challenge of Moderation

Media Pack for Lent 2008 Press Conference

Please click on the relevant links below to access the contents of the media pack: * Press Release Friday 1 February 2008 - Bishop Eamonn Walsh hosts discussion with young people on alcohol issues Click here * Remarks by Bishop Éamonn Walsh at the discussion with young people on alcohol and the World Wide Web launch of the DVD: Find the Balance - Dare to Dream Click here * Rite and Reason article in Irish Times Click here * Links to resources for Temperance Sunday - 3rd February 2008 Click here

The Catholic Communications Office is an Agency of the Irish Bishops' Conference
Email us at info@catholiccommunications.ie

Source: http://www.catholiccommunications.ie/lent2008/lent2008-mediapack.html

"Great Sinners became superlative saints because of Him"

The Holiest Week of the Year

Father John J. Lombardi

The Passion is God's response to all the problems of life: Sin, suffering., separation from God and others. God shows His love no more dramatically than in His Sacred suffering. So, this Holy Week, ask: Are you answering your problems with The Answer, Christ?

The word passion comes from the Latin root word, pati, which means "to suffer." So: when we are patient or are patients in the hospital, we suffer--hopefully thru Him, with and in Him. St Peter counsels: "Christ suffered for you and left you an example to follow in His footsteps" (II Pt. 2:21), and St Paul writes: "Love is patient, love is kind…" (I Cor 13: 4). St Augustine called Christ "The Medicine of Immortality," and said of Him, "O Lord, You are the Divine Physician, and I am the sick man." Though we may know from our religion and this Holy Week that Jesus is the Answer, we often forget this in daily life. How so, you ask?

Drugs. While the world offers legal drugs and illegal ones as answers to problems, Christ offers His Passion. Perhaps you've recently read about the Federal Drug Administration suggesting that antidepressants have been over prescribed and have possibly increased suicidal tendencies in some teens. Also observe that our country, awash in drug therapies has become like, as the book title says, a "Prozac Nation". This drug inducement can become a religion. Don't forget that more and more athletes are using steroids; infertile and contracepting couples are utilizing "drug therapies" to birth or not, and more children are on prescription drugs. And, of course: illegal drugs-suburbanite heroine users and urbanite-crack babies. Drugs can become a religion people bow to and swallow to solve problems. To legal and illegal drug-takers, ask: Have you tried Jesus, The Medicine of Immortality? Some people just never ask the question. The question-answer seems, today, almost naive, too simple; and some people prohibit the question from ever being asked. In His Passion Jesus shows us He is not sterilized or immunized from the world's worst problems: "For the Son of Man must undergo great suffering" (Mk 8:31). He is in solidarity with us. This Holy Week, the choice is ours-over-medication or passionate meditating-on Him, whom Isaiah prophesied:. "a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity"( ). Jesus offers Himself to a drug-infested culture, as when He speaks to the woman at the well, and us: "Whoever drinks the water I will give will never thirst" (Jn. 4: 14). Are you trying Jesus as your healing balm? The saints conformed themselves to Jesus especially by frequent reception of Jesus in the Eucharist, for they heard Him say: "The Bread that I will give is My Flesh for the world" (Jn. 6:51). Our heroine, St Bernadette, after seeing the Blessed Virgin of Lourdes was dying and asked her sisters to spread her diseased body out like Jesus in cruciform fashion, arms spread wide open. "There," she said, "Now I am like Him." When we meditate upon the Passion we are less likely to take, need, and push drugs to others. Become saintly: allow Him to become both your Divine Physician and Medication.

Another problem today is in replacing the Passion with inordinate counseling and therapy. David Brooks, in a recent New York Times column, wrote of Christopher Lasch and his classic book ''The Culture of Narcissism.'' "Lasch (calls) the therapeutic mentality an anti-religion that tries to liberate people from the idea that they should submit to a higher authority, so they can focus more obsessively on their own emotional needs." Simply put: Americans are talking more to one another than to God. A recent New York Times Magazine article (Mar ) detailed a philosopher who is challenging and wresting the power held by counselors and therapists in our culture, by promoting philosophy as answer to life's problems. Philosophy--"love of wisdom"-this guy is saying, is the bigger answer to problems, not a biased analyst or co-opted counselor. You know, Plato, Aristotle and, hopefully St Thomas Aquinas, who give more substantial answers to problems like Why is there evil?, than do talk show hosts and therapists. He's got a point. But: philosophy is still not total: There is a God Who made substantial answers and the very desire in us to seek them--Christ is the Way, Truth and Life (Jn. 14:6), Who promises liberation: "You shall know the truth and the Truth shall set you free" (Jn.8: ). This Holy week consider how, in the Eighth Station of the Cross Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem (see Lk 23:28)-- He Who Himself was suffering consoled others. Will you let Him help you or embrace other, partial, human answers? Hear Jesus say: "Come to Me all you who are weary and I will refresh you" (Mt. 11:28). We are impoverished when we keep our problems from God. God in some sense is like the prodigal son's father. How joyous it must have been to have the son return from the poverty that was his humanity.

There is another partial answer offered by the world, and is called in David Brook's column, "Hooked on Heaven Lite". You know the fare: everybody goes to Heaven; no Cross or blood thank you; Christianity without grit, sin and blood-redemption. He writes: "Here, sins are not washed away. Instead, hurt is washed away. The language of good and evil is replaced by the language of trauma and recovery.-- Do you feel good about yourself? " The theologian Niebhur analyzed this condition last century and described it as: "A God without wrath brought men without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross." We are in constant tendency in our American modernist West, to wrest Christ from His Cross (witness fewer Crucifixes within sanctuaries); separate His suffering from our redemption (it seems, today, old fashioned to "offer up sufferings"); split His offer of salvation from our walking of the Stations of the Cross (a passing phenomena in Catholic America). And yet, St Paul proclaimed Christ crucified, (I Cor 1:23) and said: "I have become crucified with Christ" (Gal 2:19) and "The message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us being saved it is the power of God" (I Cor 1:18)

The Passion presents us with an alternative to the non-mystical mish mash of sterilized spirituality. We should see it both in Jesus' historical Passion "yesterday" and His ongoing Passion "today". Fr Chester Snyder, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., recently made the beautiful connections of salvation and sweat, Yesterday's Passion and Today's: "I don't have to go to the movies to see Jesus crowned with thorns. I see that when I hear that someone has profaned your good name and spread lies and rumors about you. But you resist the temptation to respond with like-hatred and venom. And so the passion begun by Jesus lives on in you anew…Our task is to be Simon of Cyrene in the name of Jesus so that the suffering of others does not end on a cross of despair or indifference."

The answer of The Passion is, if you'll pardon the expression, Gritty Divinity. Jesus is not only pure, Heavenly, undefiled divinity--Blissful Love, He is also a man, earthy, real, passionate, and loving. He is the perfect combination of both-grittiness and divinity. There is no one like Him, so, don't try any other, partial answers. Buddha is only human. Krishna is a myth. Lao Tzu of Taoism is a doubtful historical figure. Mohammed is a prophet. Plato and Aristotle were great Greeks, though not gods. None of these figures, as good as they were, were God, or are as in love with us as Christ, shown by: Blood. Sacrifice. Humiliations.

How will you, like Our Lady at foot of the Cross, adore His sacred Passion? -Participate in it? - Witness to others:

Last week a Pilgrim-penitent came to the Grotto to confess his sins, and brought with him three mentally retarded, blind men who could not be left alone. The Pilgrim could not reach the Chaplain nor depart from his blind friends, so he left the Grotto a little frustrated. Then: his car broke down near Cunningham Falls St Park. Hours later the Chaplain departed for a penance service and, steaming along on Route 15, saw a man waving his arms for help, near by a broken down car. It was the Pilgrim who sought confession earlier at Grotto. They greeted each other and transferred the blind men to the Chaplain's car and headed to the pilgrim's home to amend his car situation. The Pilgrim explained the purpose of his visit to the Grotto, and his frustration, and also his car troubles. The men in back could hardly hear, as they blindly, but contentedly, gazed into space and enjoyed the Spring breeze and a bold sunshine warmed them. As they buzzed along, the Chaplain asked: "Do you want to make a confession now?" The Pilgrim said, "Sure. That would be great." The man confessed and was freed. They eventually arrived at the group home and began escorting the three blind men inside, only after the Chaplain realized the men couldn't walk on their own. They needed intense and incessant help, and patience-- to assist them in their plight. In utter amazement the Chaplain looked back and saw one man standing idly in the front lawn, child-like, awaiting his turn to get escorted, flailing in the wind for help, sun shining on his shaved head, eyes wide open, gazing, but not seeing: Jesus in His Disguises. Walking His Passion again… The Chaplain then realized: this Pilgrim was participating in the Passion by his suffering in love with the helpless men. And the Pilgrim was responding to the Passion by his confession, and he was witnessing The Passion to others by bringing these vulnerable men to Church, to Holy places. May we do the same.

Are you asking the Big Questions and seeking, embracing Big Answers--Christ, the Lord

Great Sinners became superlative saints because of Him -think of St Augustine who came out of sensuality and ; Mystics have sought Him, drunks have stopped drinking for him (Ven. Matt Talbot); Little girls have turned His Great Way into a marvelous "Little Way" (St Therese) helping Him to be accessible to all. People have died for him-just like Him (St Stephen in Acts, and St Paul Miki in Nagasaki, Japan, both saying: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do"). He continues His passion today: are you with Him? How will you adore and respond to His passion. What a paradox, what an answer--The Lord of Glory is crucified. (cf.I Cor 2:8), that we might have everlasting life.

Source: The title of this 2004 homily was changed for posting purposes. http://www.emmitsburg.net/grotto/father_jack/2004/holiest_week.htm

Whereas "sinning" or "sinner" is not part of a twelve-step program vocabulary, Matt Talbot had absolutely no doubt that he was a sinner and needed the Lord's help to daily overcome his thirst for drink and character defects. And to even hint he was becoming a "saint" in sobriety would have been unimaginable to him.

For one overview of sin among major religions, see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin