"From Adversity to Hope, from Hope to Action”

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The Sacred Heart and the Venerable Matt Talbot"

This article by Fr. Sean Coyle was posted July 1, 2011 at

http://bangortobobbio.blogspot.com/2011/07/sacred-heart-and-venerable-matt-talbot.html

A related article, "Matt Talbot's connection with the Columbans," can be found at http://www.misyononline.com/nov-dec07-msview1

or http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2008/01/matt-talbots-connection-with-columban.html

The video included in Fr. Coyle’s article can also be found at

http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2010/06/brief-video-about-venerable-matt-talbot_8544.html

St. Columban and Matt Talbot

St. Columban was perhaps Matt Talbot's favorite Irish saint, and Matt financially supported the Missionary Society of St. Columban in China (JB)

St. Columban (543?-615) November 25, 2009

Columban was the greatest of the Irish missionaries who worked on the European continent. As a young man he was greatly tormented by temptations of the flesh, and sought the advice of a religious woman who had lived a hermit’s life for years. He saw in her answer a call to leave the world. He went first to a monk on an island in Lough Erne, then to the great monastic seat of learning at Bangor. After many years of seclusion and prayer, he traveled to Gaul with 12 companion missionaries. They won wide respect for the rigor of their discipline, their preaching, and their commitment to charity and religious life in a time characterized by clerical slackness and civil strife. Columban established several monasteries in Europe which became centers of religion and culture. Like all saints, he met opposition. Ultimately he had to appeal to the pope against complaints of Frankish bishops, for vindication of his orthodoxy and approval of Irish customs. He reproved the king for his licentious life, insisting that he marry. Since this threatened the power of the queen mother, Columban was ordered deported back to Ireland. His ship ran aground in a storm, and he continued his work in Europe, ultimately arriving in Italy, where he found favor with the king of the Lombards. In his last years he established the famous monastery of Bobbio, where he died. His writings include a treatise on penance and against Arianism, sermons, poetry and his monastic rule. Comment: Now that public sexual license is approaching the extreme, we need the Church's jolting memory of a young man as concerned about chastity as Columban. And now that the comfort-captured Western world stands in tragic contrast to starving millions, we need the challenge to austerity and discipline of a group of Irish monks. They were too strict, we say; they went too far. How far shall we go? Quote: Writing to the pope about a doctrinal controversy in Lombardy, Columban said: “We Irish, living in the farthest parts of the earth, are followers of St. Peter and St. Paul and of the disciples who wrote down the sacred canon under the Holy Spirit. We accept nothing outside this evangelical and apostolic teaching.... I confess I am grieved by the bad repute of the chair of St. Peter in this country.... Though Rome is great and known afar, she is great and honored with us only because of this chair.... Look after the peace of the Church, stand between your sheep and the wolves.”

(This entry appears in the print edition of Saint of the Day.) Source: http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1210

Also see "Matt Talbot's connection with the Columbans" at http://www.misyononline.com/nov-dec07-msview1 or at http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/search?q=+Columbans

Matt Talbot's Connection with the Columban Fathers in China

"Matt Talbot's Connection with the Columbans" 

http://www.misyonmagazine.com/articles/2007/11/12/matt-talbot%e2%80%99s-connection-with-the-columbans/

"In the September-October issue we featured Mary Gaffney’s article on the Venerable Matt Talbot, the Irishman who overcame alcoholism through a life of extraordinary holiness. He had a special bond with the Columbans, as this extract from The Mystery of Matt Talbot by Father Morgan Costelloe shows. A priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin, Fr Costelloe was for many years Vice-Postulator for the cause of Matt Talbot and is now retired.

 In 1918 a significant event took place that renewed Ireland’s interest in the foreign Missions. A number of priests founded the Maynooth Mission to China. Its official title was The Missionary Society of St Columban, which meant that it was dedicated to Matt Talbot’s favorite Irish saint. Matt was quick to recognize that it heralded a rekindling of the zeal of the Irish monks to leave all for the sake of Christ . . . Matt decided to contribute as much as he could to this Missionary Society . . .

 After his illness in 1923 Matt was destitute. He could not work, so the local Conference of the St Vincent de Paul supplemented about P40 weekly sick benefit, which he received from his Trade Union. His donations to the Maynooth Mission to China stopped suddenly.

Unaware of the reason for this, the priest who usually received Matt’s contribution sent him Christmas greetings in 1924 and added that since he had not heard from him for some time, he hoped that he was not ill. Matt had some pennies saved, ‘for a special occasion’. They amounted to thirty shillings (editor’s note: roughly a week’s wage) and in the shaky hand of a sick man he wrote what has become a famous letter: 

‘Matt Talbot have (sic) done no work for the past 18 months. I have been sick and given over by priest and doctor. I don’t think I will work any more. There (sic) one pound from me and ten shillings from my sister’.

 His contribution was four times his weekly benefit. He had given everything away. The Columban Fathers, who had no idea that the writer would one day be a Servant of God, were so impressed by the letter that they placed it in a special file. Today the letter is in the Vatican Library."