A Small Matt Talbot Shrine

                                                           

A priest is praying in the small Venerable Matt Talbot Shrine at the Franciscan Church on Merchants Quay in Dublin. (Photo by Ken Johnston)

Matt Talbot Image

Note:  This photograph was posted by Ken Johnston on 30 June 2015 at
https://www.facebook.com/ken.johnston.167/posts/1134472103236554

Ballad of Matt Talbot

Davey Inthevalley wrote and sings this song about "Dublin's beloved Venerable Matt Talbot," which was published on 15 June 2015.

What apparently struck Davey about Matt was that Matt was an ordinary man, a hard worker, and eventually found grace that lead him to true sobriety.

Enhancing Awareness of Venerable Matt Talbot in Lithuania

 

Our friend, Grzegorz Jakielski, is particularly passionate about spreading awareness of Venerable Matt Talbot not just in Poland but throughout the world.

 

Last week he went on a three-day journey to Lithuania where he visited and photographed many Lithuanian churches and left holy cards of Matt Talbot with the prayer for his beatification in each.

 

Fifteen of his photographs can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.724126834376006.1073741832.304690079653019&type=3.

On Reading the Bible

From the time of Matt Talbot’s conversion and abstaining from alcohol, he read (and marked) his Bible daily and the writings of such authors as St. Augustine. When he didn’t understand a passage, he would seek clarification from his spiritual director.

The Bible contains keys to right living that Matt applied and we can apply immediately: do unto others what you would have them do unto you, turn the other cheek, and honor your father and mother. But it’s more than just a self-help book. The most important aspect of God’s word is its ability to bring us face-to-face with Jesus, who is the living Word of God.

Augustine was raised by a Christian mother and was probably familiar with many of the stories and teachings in the Bible. But it wasn’t until he had a personal experience of God speaking to him through Scripture that his life turned around. 


What happened for Augustine can happen for us. If we spend time with the word of God every day—not just reading it but pondering it, praying through it, and listening to it—we’ll begin to find Jesus. Our hearts will be stirred by what we read, and the words will begin to come alive for us, as if they were written just for us. We’ll hear Jesus speaking them to us, showing us how they apply to our own situations and filling our hearts with freedom and hope.

1963 Documentary About Matt Talbot

This 41 minute documentary is unique in that it consists of interviews conducted in 1963 with people who were acquainted with Matt.

Along with a brief text introduction about Matt in English, Polish, and German, it may be viewed at 

https://www.gloria.tv/media/UQJwNmGjkM4.

Support for Venerable Matt Talbot in Poland

Grzegorz Jakielski, an active supporter of Venerable Matt Talbot in Poland, sent some photographs from the VII Meeting with Matt Talbot in Plock Trzepowo last week, which can be viewed at   http://mateusztalbot.pl/strony/7spotkanie-galeria.html or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Matt-Talbot/304690079653019

           

Inviting God to Use Me

While this homily is addressed to all of us, it may speak especially to those who are addicted.

 If You Can Use Anything Lord, You Can Use Me - Homily for the 11th Sunday of the Year
Msgr. Charles Pope
June 14, 2015 
http://blog.adw.org/2015/06/if-you-can-use-anything-lord-you-can-use-me/

The readings today speak of God’s providence, which is often displayed in humble, hidden, and mysterious ways. While it is true that God sometimes works in overpowering ways, His more common method seems to be to use the humble and even unlikely things of the created order to accomplish His goals.

For us who are disciples, there are three related teachings that speak of how God will make use of us and of others. It will also be good to link these teaching to Father’s Day, which occurs next weekend in the U.S. These three teachings can be described as Adaptability, “Awe-Ability,” and Accountability.

I. ADAPTABILITY – In today’s first reading as well as in the gospel, we hear how God can take something humble and adapt it to be mighty and powerful.
The tender shoot of the first reading becomes a mighty oak: I, [the Lord], will take from the crest of the cedar … a tender shoot, and plant it on a high and lofty mountain; … It shall put forth branches and bear fruit, and become a majestic cedar (Ezekiel 17:22-23).

The mustard seed of the first reading becomes a great shade tree: The … kingdom of God … is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade (Mk 4:32-33).

The next time you think God can’t use you, remember

Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses was murderer had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt and was depressed
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zacchaeus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer
Lazarus was dead!

No excuses then, God chooses the weak and makes them strong

In fact, it is often our very weakness that is the open door for God. In our strength we are usually too proud to be of any use to Him. Moses was too strong at age forty when he pridefully murdered a man, thinking he was doing both the Jews and God a favor. It was only forty years later, at the age of eighty, that was Moses weak and humble enough to depend on God. Only then could God use him.

We are invited in this principle to consider that it is not merely in the “biggie-wow” things we do that God can work. It is also in the humble and imperfect things about us, the mustard seed of faith, the tiny shoots, and the humble growth that God can magnify His power.

So the first principle is adaptability. God can take and adapt even the humblest, most ordinary, lowliest things and from them bring forth might and lasting fruit. Never despair over what is most humble about you, or that you are of little account on the world’s stage. It is precisely our humble state that God most often uses to bring forth His greatest and most lasting works.

II. “AWE-ABILITY” – This is the capacity to reverence mystery and to have wonder and awe at what God does. In today’s gospel, Jesus emphasizes that though a man plants seeds, he does not really know the deeper mysteries of life and growth:
This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how (Mk 4:26-27).

Despite our often self-congratulatory celebration of our scientific prowess and of how much we know, there is much more that we neither know nor understand. We do well to maintain a reverential awe of the deeper mysteries of God’s works and His ways. We are also rather poor at assessing how effective our methods are. We may come away from a project considering it to have been very effective, and yet little comes of it in the long run. Conversely, sometimes what we consider to have been an ineffective effort may bear great fruit. God works in His own ways and we do well to remember that God can surprise us, reminding us that He is able and is in charge.

Some years ago, a friend of mine had on her desk a “God can.” It was a metal cookie tin with the following saying on its cover: “He worketh in strange and mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.” Into this box she would place slips of papers on which were written the challenges, struggles, and failures of her life. When she met the limits of her strengths and abilities, she would say, “I can’t … but God can.” So into this metal “God can” went the slips of paper, placed there in the hope that God would make a way out of no way. And quite often He did.

We do well to cultivate a sense of wonder and awe at who God is and how He works. Not only does this bring us joy, but it also opens us to hope and to the possibility that God can work in hidden ways to exult what is humble and to transform those who are cast down and troubled, including us and our culture. As we saw in the “adaptability” section, it is often in the humblest things that God does His mightiest works.
 
The second reading today reminds us, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor 5:9-10).

As we have seen, God is able to adapt and to work in wondrous and hidden ways to lift us up, even if we are humble and struggling. Given this capacity of God’s, we must one day render an account of how we have responded to God’s grace and His invitation to be exulted.

On the Day of Judgment, the answer “I couldn’t” will ring hollow because, as we have seen, “God can.” Today’s readings remind us to be open to what God can do, often in mysterious ways, and even with the most humble things in our lives.

As Father’s Day approaches, I am calling the men in my parish to account. I am summoning them to spend a year preparing, with prayer, Bible study, and fellowship to make the following pledge:

I DO solemnly resolve before God to take full responsibility for myself, my wife, and my children.
I WILL love them, protect them, serve them, and teach them the Word of God as the spiritual leader of my home.
I WILL be faithful to my wife, love and honor her, and be willing to lay down my life for her as Jesus Christ did for me.
I WILL bless my children and teach them to love God with all of their heart, all of their mind, and all of their strength.
I WILL train my children to honor authority and to live responsibly.
I WILL confront evil, pursue justice, and love mercy.
I WILL pray for others and treat them with kindness, respect, and compassion.
I WILL work diligently to provide for the needs of my family.
I WILL forgive those who have wronged me and reconcile with those I have wronged.
I WILL learn from my mistakes, repent of my sins, and walk with integrity as a man answerable to God.
I WILL seek to honor God, be faithful to His church, obey His Word, and do His will.
I WILL work courageously with the strength God provides to fulfill this resolution for the rest of my life and for His glory.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).
This resolution comes from a movie of a few years ago called Courageous, which I strongly recommend you see (if you have not already done so).

Indeed all of us, men and women, will be held accountable. For even if we can’t, God can. And even if we feel too humble and insignificant, God does His greatest work with humble things and humble people. For us, it is simply to say that we have an adaptability that God can use. This should inspire in us an “Awe-ability” that joyfully acknowledges God’s often secretive and hidden power. If that be the case, then, knowing our accountability, it simply remains for us to say, “If you can use anything, Lord, you can use me!”

Cheap vs Costly Grace

This homily by Fr. Lincoln, who currently serves St. James Parish in Tupelo, Mississippi, is posted at http://peregrinolincoln.blogspot.com/search/label/homily%20-%20costly%20grace%20vs%20cheap%20grace

 

6/14/2015 – 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Matthew 4:26-34

 

We are back in Ordinary Time this Sunday after having many weeks of Lent and the Easter season, of the solemnities of the Most Holy Trinity and the Body and Blood of Christ.  In fact, the last time we had a Sunday in Ordinary Time was way back in February in the middle of winter.  Today, in the middle of our summer months, in the midst of our farmers trying to grow their crops and many of our parishioner trying to grow their gardens with all the rain we’ve been having, its appropriate that we hear Jesus teaching us about the Kingdom of God through parables about seeds.   


In particular, it is the parable of the mustard seed that intrigues me today.  Jesus spoke in parable in our to help us to better understand the Kingdom of God.  The parable of the mustard seed and these other parables are meant to shed light on the new reality we are to live out when we are called to a life of discipleship and when we begin to cooperate with God’s grace in our lives.

Grace – that is an interesting concept, isn’t it?  I will have to admit that perhaps we don’t here about grace enough at mass or in our preaching.  Grace is the presence of God in our lives.  Grace is our participation in the life of God – in the life of the Holy Trinity.  Grace is a supernatural gift that God gives to us, a gift that comes out of his goodness and benevolence, a gift that he bestows upon us for our eternal salvation.  Grace is given to us freely.  But we have to respond to that grace in order for it to bear fruit in our life.  We have the potential to respond to grace, just as the mustard seed had potential to grow into this amazing and wonderful plant.   

Think of how we can validly receive a sacrament, such as receiving the Holy Eucharist when we come to mass.  But there is a difference between validly receiving a sacrament and fruitfully receiving the sacramental graces that this sacrament offers us.  We cannot be passive in our faith, just as we cannot be passive in receiving a sacrament.  We receive God’s grace in the sacraments and in our lives through our personal faith, through our expectancy, through the hunger and thirst we have for God in our lives.

But the grace we are talking about is costly grace, to quote the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the renowned German theologian who was put to death by the Nazis in WWII.   Jesus didn’t die for us and bring us salvation so we could stay trapped in a cycle of sin.   He died for us so that we could be transformed and receive new life.  If Jesus just had pity on us and did not challenge us to rise from our sins, to be transformed into a new creation, then his death would have been in vain.  Then the grace that Jesus offers would be cheap grace. It would be the kind of grace that does not mean anything to us because it does not require anything from us in return.  God’s grace calls us to holiness. It calls us to transformation, renewal, and conversion.   

We all know that there are certain behaviors and lifestyles that our world deems to be acceptable and even praiseworthy.  But through the lens of our faith, those behaviors and lifestyles are not part of the kingdom of God.  That is why Paul boldly asserts today that we walk by faith, not by sight, because the ways of the world can lead us astray sometimes and keep us from repentance and conversion. If we don't walk in the light of our faith, if we don’t interact with the graces we receive from God, then we remain children of the world, not children of the light of Christ...

     

...I have mentioned before that I really enjoy this daily devotional publication called Give Us This Day published by the Liturgical Press in Collegeville, Minnesota.  One of the features I like is “Blessed Among Us,” which is a short reflect on saint or a person who has lived out his faith in a meaningful way.  I think that the secular world mistakenly views a saint as a perfect person with few flaws and faults.

For us Catholics, saint include those people of faith who rose above their struggles in life, who met life in their reality and tried to infuse that reality with faith, who stand as examples of faith for all of us.   

The Blessed Among Us for Tuesday was an Irishman named Matt Talbot.  Matt Talbot was not a priest or a ground-breaking theologian, or a powerful leader of society.   He was a laborer who struggled to make a living, who had almost no formal education, who was an alcoholic since he was a teen.  Yet, at the age of 28, he had enough of his miserable existence, he walked into a church, committing himself to a path of conversion and change in his life.   He took a pledge not to drink anymore.

Nonetheless, he struggled mightily for the first year, at one point collapsing on the steps of a church, not knowing if he could go another step in life.   But daily mass and a devotion to prayer and penance kept him on the right path. He even tried to make amends to the people he had harmed or to those from whom he borrowed money to buy drink.  We think of the many who struggle in our society with addictions of many kinds.

Cheap grace would excuse those addictions and not challenge us to break out of that cycle.  Cheap grace would let us take the easy way out. But the life of Matt Talbot, an Irishman who died in 1925 and who was named Venerable by Pope Paul VI and who possibly will be canonized one day, is a witness of faith for all of us.  Grace is costly, not cheap.  It demands something for us.  It demands sacrifice and commitment and faith.  Finding a way to respond to grace in our lives is a way for us to let that little mustard seed of faith grow and develop in our lives and to bear fruit.   

And remember this – Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Be a disciple.  Make disciples.

90th Anniversary Gathering at Granby Lane

Matt Talbot was on his way to Mass at St. Saviour’s Church, Dominick Street, Dublin on Trinity Sunday, 7 June 1925, when he collapsed and died of heart failure on Granby Lane.


Granby Lane then and now

Earlier today, there was a procession from St. Saviour’s Church to Granby Lane for laying of wreath, prayers, and blessing.

Note:  Additional photographs are available from https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10203040236087134&id=1842181797

2015 Documentary on “Matt Talbot – his life and legacy”

 

A new and important documentary on Venerable Matt Talbot, who died 90 years ago on 7 June 1925, can be viewed at http://www.icatholic.ie/matt-talbot-life-legacy/.

It was recorded at the Matt Talbot Shrine in Dublin, with Fr. Brian Lawless, Vice Postulator for the cause of Venerable Matt Talbot, as the presenter.

Light a Candle

In solidarity with those able to attend, light a candle in memory of Venerable Matt Talbot and all our deceased family and friends.

Devotees of Matt Talbot are encouraged to attend these Dublin Masses

Saturday 30^th May

Fr. Michael Shields will visit the Matt Talbot Shrine, Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Sean Mac Dermott Street, Dublin 1 and celebrate Matt Talbot Vigil Mass at 7.00 pm followed by Healing Service.  Come and pray a Litany of Healing, Hope and Joy.

Sunday 31^st May

Matt Talbot Novena Mass & Prayers for Healing at 3.00 pm at the Matt Talbot Shrine, Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Sean Mac Dermott Street, Dublin1. Supervised car parking.

Friday 5^th June

Matt Talbot Novena Mass & Prayers for Healing at 7.30 pm. St. Agatha’s Church, North William Street, Dublin 1.

 

Saturday 6^th June

Memorial Mass for Matt Talbot & our deceased loved ones at 7.00 pm. Service of Light from 8.00-11.00 pm. Matt Talbot Shrine, Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Sean Mac Dermott Street, Dublin 1

Sunday 7^th June

Corpus Christi Mass at 9.30 am.  Procession to Granby Lane at 10.15 am for laying of wreath, prayers and blessing. St. Saviour’s Church, Dominick Street, Dublin 1.

Praying for Those in the Grip of Death by Addiction

This prayer was previously posted at  http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2008/11/venerable-matt-talbot-devotional_162.html

Today, we pray with one voice, asking that each of those suffering from the spiritual death of addiction will be liberated from the bonds of compulsion and craving; that the hold of these harmful behaviors will be released forever.

We call to you, Lord Jesus, and to the Power upon whom you called, that like the Prodigal Son, these brothers and sisters, held in the grip of death by addiction, will be able to return to a life free from harmful dependence.

Matt Talbot was led out of the despair of dependence, by living and working in prayerful devotion. He was dedicated to helping others. Through abstinence, prayer, the Sacraments, and reading of the Word, he was saved. Today, we ask that each of the addicted be led out of the shadows and into the light of hope.

With the example of this humble servant, and all the Saints who have struggled and prevailed, we ask that our plea for sobriety be heard, and that the energy needed for recovery will be available to all who seek Your help.

Show us the way out of addiction. Lead us to a new life of Faith. Teach us, through the example of Matt Talbot, to discipline of living addiction free lives.

Send each of those who suffer from addiction behavior the strength and courage needed to overcome dependence. Inspire us to seek abstinence and sobriety in our day to day lives, to live as Matt Talbot lived, by the light of Your Holy Spirit, and the guidance of Your redeeming grace, as we seek the miracle of recovery. 

We ask this in the name of God, the Most High, Amen.

Relying on the Lord

Venerable Matt Talbot’s life illustrates that the Lord can break all involuntary chains, even the chains in our own minds which hold us back from true peace.*

Venerable Matt Talbot, pray for us that we may grow in the serenity, courage and wisdom which comes from God alone.





*Note:  The chains that Matt was wearing at the time of his death were symbolic of his great devotion to Mary and Jesus. Without those chains, which were inspired by St. Louis de Monfort, we would not know of Matt Talbot today.

Introducing Venerable Matt Talbot Via Tellagami

This 15 second Gami video (https://tellagami.com/app/) was published on Apr 10, 2015 by Susan Pombrio. The Matt Talbot image was posted four years ago at
http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2011/04/venerable-matt-talbot-image.html

 

A Prayer for a Miracle of Healing

 

Personally knowing the power of prayer and facing yet another deadly health challenge poignantly described at http://csn.cancer.org/node/289551, Robert asked his uncle, Monsignor Bill, who knew of Matt Talbot, to write a prayer for him.  This is that prayer:

 

 

Venerable Matt Talbot, you sobered up through a simple daily program of complete reliance on God after pledging yourself to live without alcohol. You did this with the encouragement and guidance of two spiritual  directors. You lived your Catholic faith after the example of Mary our mother and her beloved Son\, Jesus our Savior.  You began each day with Mass and Holy Communion.  You prayed and fasted  constantly.  You gave what little you possessed or earned through your hard work to the poor.

 

We come to you,  Dear Matt, on behalf of our beloved Robert who has suffered so much since his fall. We are asking you to intercede for a miracle of healing for Robert from the cancer that threatens to take his life.  Please go to Jesus and Mary and plead with them for this great favor.  We will be grateful to you for all our lives.

 

Conclude with 3 our Fathers, 3 Hail Mary’s and conclude with: O Sacred Heart of Jesus, we place our trust in you. Immaculate Heart of Mary we hope in you.  Venerable, Matt Talbot, please hear our prayers. AmenAmen

Litany for Venerable Matt Talbot

 

May this litany* for Matt Talbot encourage and comfort all who pray it.

 

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

Lord have mercy, Christ hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, have mercy.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy.

God the Holy Spirit, have mercy.

Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy.

Holy Mary, pray for us.

Blessed Mother of God, pray for us.

 

Venerable Matt Talbot, born into poverty and lack, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, who suffered the abuse of an alcoholic father, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, who suffered the loss of childhood innocence, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, who succumbed to the drug of alcohol as a teenager, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, who fell into debt due to his addiction, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, who stooped to steal from a beggar, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, who later searched in vain to repay the beggar, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, whose faith was darkened by the veil of addiction, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, blessed by a holy mother who never ceased praying the rosary, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, who endured intolerable cravings for alcohol, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, whose friends turned away from him in derision and mockery, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, broken, desperate, humbled, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, prostrate before the tabernacle, tortured for want of a drink, hearing only Jesus’ response, ‘I thirst’, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, restrained from receiving the Eucharist by Satan, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, freed by Christ to receive Eucharist, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, upon crying out to Our Lady was freed from the bondage of an alcoholic obsession, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, who turned from sin to serve God’s poor and destitute, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, who gave all to the poor, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, entirely transformed and sustained by the Holy Eucharist, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, so devoted to Our Lady that her rosary was ever in his hands, pray for us.

 

Venerable Matt Talbot, friend of Francis of Assisi pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, Third Order Franciscan, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, friend of Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, and Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, refuge and comfort for alcoholics and their families, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot, totally embracing Christ’s victorious grace in his life, pray for us.

 

Let us Pray

 

Venerable Matt Talbot, addict for Christ, look down upon all of us in our struggles with different addictions, in bondage, tortured of soul, heart and mind,

blind to the saving light of Christ.

 

Through your prayers, let us have our eyes opened by grace to see salvation in the Holy One of God, who hung upon a Cross so that we may be set free. Father, pour out your light and blessing in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Saviour.

 

Amen

 

Fr. Tom Ryan P.P. St. Senan’s Parish Shannon

 

 

* A litany is an expression of solidarity with the whole people of God. Particularly, it is an expression of a shared ministry with those biblical or holy characters who have journeyed before us, recognition that they have something to offer us and that we can be guided by their intercession.

 

 

Source:  Matt Talbot - A Lenten Journey, pages 48-50 (http://www.acnireland.org/images/books/matt_talbot_a_lenten_journey.pdf)

Matt Talbot: An Example for Finishing Your Life Well

The writer is pastor of the Church of the Nativity in Magadan, Russia.

 

"After a bad start, finish your life well."

Father Michael Shields

December 2014

http://www.catholicanchor.org/forum/bad-start-finish-life-well/

 

 

I am turning 65 this month and a lovely question has come to me: “How do I want to finish this life?”

We all may have had some bad starts along the way but the Christian Gospel says we can make a great finish.

While praying about this for a few months I met a friend along the way. A lovely little saint named Venerable Matt Talbot (1856-1925). He was an Irish man and a chronic alcoholic who found sobriety for 41 years through devotion to the Eucharist, prayer, self-discipline and spiritual direction. He lived the 12 step program before it was discovered. He is a saint for the addict and the alcoholic, the down-and-outers and the rest of us who need a little hope to keep on the path home.

He was a simple man who, through great efforts, taught himself to read and write so he could read the Bible and the lives of the saints. He would often be found kneeling in front of the church door waiting for the parish to open for the early morning Mass. He found a deep relationship to Jesus through Mary as he made the consecration of Saint Louis de Montfort.

He was going to Trinity Sunday Mass when he died and would have been terribly embarrassed that others found out he was wearing a small chain to remind himself he was a servant of the great King and Queen of Heaven.

I love the story about how he spent seven years trying to find the blind fiddle player from whom he stole a fiddle to pay for some pints of beer. He couldn’t locate him so gave the amount of money that the fiddle cost to a priest to pray for the man’s soul. He was a simple man who started badly but finished a saint.

So here I am before God asking, “Lord, show me how to finish this life.”

Matt’s simple spiritual life resonates with me and was taken from the pattern of the Irish monks as summarized by Saint Columbanus: “Pray daily, fast daily, work daily, study daily.” I confess that this is the best description of the life I want to lead as I finish this life. I find in this simple saint such beauty and a call to run with him to the end. I recall Saint Paul’s words in Hebrews: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us with perseverance run the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:1)

Lord, in your servant Matt Talbot you have given us a wonderful example of triumph over addiction, of devotion to duty and of lifelong reverence for the Holy Sacrament. May his life of prayer and penance give us courage to take up our crosses and follow in the footsteps of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Matt we are coming, pray for us.

Venerable Matt Talbot and Divine Mercy

Asking Matt's Help in the Presence of the Lord

Gentle Matt, I turn to you in my present needs and ask for the help of your prayers.
Trusting in you, I am confident your charitable and understanding heart will make my petitions your own.
I believe that you are truly powerful in the presence of Divine Mercy. If it be for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
the honour of Mary, our Mother and Queen and the deepening of my relationship with them, show that your goodness towards me, in my daily struggles, equals your influence with the Holy Spirit, who is hidden and at home in my Heart.
Friend of pity, friend of power, hear, oh hear me in this hour, gentle Matt, please pray for me.

 

 

Monsignor Charles Pope, pastor of Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian Church in Washington, D.C., provides us with a very thoughtful meditation for Divine Mercy Sunday—“Gods Perfect Mercy” at 

http://blog.adw.org/2015/04/gods-perfect-mercy-a-meditation-for-divine-mercy-sunday/.

He concludes his meditation with a video of the song “I almost let go,” which we all can relate to:

 

I almost let go;I felt like I just couldn’t take life any more.
My problems had me bound;
Depression weighed me down;
But God held me close
so I wouldn’t let go.

 
God’s mercy kept me;
so I wouldn’t let go

I almost gave up;
I was right at the edge of a break through,
but couldn’t see it.
The devil really had me,
but Jesus came and grabbed me,
and He held me close,
so I wouldn’t let go.

God’s mercy kept me,
so I wouldn’t let go.

So I’m here to day because God kept me
I’m A live today only because of His grace
Oh He kept me, God kept me
God’s mercy kept me,
so I wouldn’t let go.