Redemptorist News
SOUL FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY ADULT; Feb. 10, 2013, Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time.
SOUL FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY ADULT: FEB. 10, 2013, FIFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME.
See ‘Mass Readings’ in Homepage for today’s readings: Gospel is from Luke 5:1-11.
This past week, great crowds are flocking to the Novena in the Cathedral in Galway City,-
over 12,000 people each day. There’s a great buzz, and a sense of great joy.
People a times feel a great hunger in their hearts for words of comfort and of challenge, words to give them hope and a vision again. They are starving for meaning, and starving for belonging. There’s so much confusion around us, at times, so much to dishearten us with what goes on in our society. It can get us down.
About 750 years before Christ, AMOS, a small farmer with olive groves, and a prophet of God, wrote about ‘a famine for hearing God’s word. People will stagger from sea to sea, will wander from the north to the east, searching for the Lord’s word.’ (Amos 8:11,12)
And here today we have ‘…the crowd pressing around Jesus, listening to the word of God’.
Jesus was there with his feet at the very edge of the water of the lake of Galilee. There’s little enough space along the shoreline for crowds to gather. He had no choice but to look around and ask for a boat, so he could get into it and be safe while he was speaking to the people. As well as that, sound travels better on water, so maybe they could hear him more clearly when he was a little out from shore.
‘The crowd pressing round him’. We hear almost the very same words later, at the start of Luke 15: ‘Tax collectors and outcasts were crowding around Jesus to listen to him.’
We don’t know what Jesus said to them, nor how he taught them. But what happened next spoke louder than any words: he turned to the fisherman (Simon Peter), and asked him to ‘launch out into the deep’. When he did, and when he (reluctantly) cast out his net, there was an enormous catch, such that a second boat (James and John) had to come, and the two boats were down to the gunnels with the size of what they had caught.
That’s what happens when we ‘launch out into the deep’ of God’s word to us his people: our hearts are filled to over-flowing,- we find meaning and purpose and joy and new hope,- we are fully alive again.
The crowd on the shore saw all that was happening, and they understood. Their hearts too were bursting. And they went back to their homes and families with new life. That’s what happens when we ‘crowd around Jesus to listen to the word of God.’
Launch out into the deep- today!
Fr. Seamus
SOUL FOOD FOR YOUNG ADULTS: February 10, 2013: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
SOUL FOOD FOR YOUNG ADULTS: February 10, 2013: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
LETTER TO SINEAD AND MARK, – two young adults.
Click on Mass Readings, on Home Page, for this Sunday’s Readings: Gospel Reading is Luke Chapter 5, verses 1-11)
DEAR SINEAD AND MARK,
This past week, I’ve been in Galway City, at the annual Solemn Novena in Galway
Cathedral,- the annual nine days of prayer in honour of Mary, the Mother of Perpetual Help. A sight to behold,- about 12,000 people each day, coming to one of the six sessions, the first one at 7.45am, the last beginning at 9.30 at night. All ages are there, with plenty of college students coming to the sessions. It’s good for the heart, especially it is so easy to get disheartened and cynical in the face of so much wrong stuff going on in society.
The crowds coming remind me of the opening lines of this Sunday’s Gospel, – Luke Chapter 5, verse 1 to 11: ‘the crowds were pressing around Jesus listening to the word of God.’ (Ten chapters later, Luke begins Chapter 15, verse 1 with ‘tax collectors and other sinners were crowding around Jesus to listen to him.’) Crowding around Jesus to listen
'crowding around Jesus to listen to him'- Photo from the South of France.
to him. ‘Like sheep without a shepherd’ was how it was described in another part of the Gospels. (See the photo,- a post-card from the south of France,- thousand of sheep with their shepherd.) Why the hunger? Why the enthusiasm ‘to hear the word of God’? What was the magnetism that Jesus had that so many people travelled, some from great distances, in order to hear him speak the word of God to them?
We’re not told anything of what he said to them, when he sat and taught them from the (safety of !) the boat. But what he did next really spoke to them all,- they saw Simon Peter and his companions struggling mightily with the enormity of the catch of fish, so much that the two boats were down to the gunnels in the water, with the amount of fish. What does that say about Jesus and his words? As always,- filling us to overflowing with what he so wants us to have! If our hearts launch out into the deep, and if we put out our ‘nets’ for the word of God, we will be filled with an amazing catch. And if we go and tell others what happened to us, they too will experience that great catch of joy.
He’s inviting each of us, you Mark, you Sinead, and myself, to ‘launch out into the deep’.
That’s what’s going on in Galway, these nine days,- from Feb. 4th to 12th inclusive. ‘Flocking around Jesus to listen to the word of God.’ Join us in prayer if you can’t be there!
Fr. Seamus.
seamus.devitt@redemptorists.ie
Have you got your own St. Luke’s Gospel? Easy to get one, even on line. This is the Year of Luke,- it’s the Gospel people seem to love the most.
SOUL FOOD FOR HUNGRY ADULTS: FEB.3, 2013. FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME.
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME: FEB. 3RD, 2013. SOUL FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY ADULT.
‘Ah, sure, who’s he to talk? Sure, don’t we know his family, and where he comes from. Who does he think he is, anyway?’
Sounds like any part of Ireland, where we so often put down the ‘local lad’ who has done
well. We pull him (or her) down to size,- our size! But it happens in lots of places, and it happened to Jesus in his own home-town of Nazareth. ‘Who’s he to talk?’, they sneered. It’s one way of dealing with something or someone you don’t like,- pull them down.
Jesus had just read to them, (and they were delighted to hear it, at first!-)in their own synagogue where had grown up as child and man: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me! He has anointed me: he has sent me to bring good news to the poor (of Nazareth), to proclaim liberty to captives (in Nazareth), new sight to the blind (of Nazareth), to set the downtrodden (of Nazareth) free, and to proclaim to the whole community there a year of favour from the LORD.’ And then he had told them: ‘this text is being fulfilled today, even as you listen.’ The kingdom of God, God’s presence and action, is here today among you. Today, here, in Nazareth, for a start,- and wherever else I go, later.
He was talking to them about a whole new way of being community in Nazareth, God’s kind of community,- where the little would be raised up, the downtrodden set free,- where people would forgive, would be passionate about each one’s dignity, would free each other up in all sorts of ways.
Too much! Too much! Work a few miracles for us, they said,- like you have been doing elsewhere. But don’t ask us to change our ways or our hearts. Some other time! But not now. Just do us a few miracles!
And Jesus found it so hard, so disappointing that his own neighbours, whom he knew by first names, would just reject him. ‘Who does he think he is!’ And not only reject him, but get violently angry with him and try to dump him, outside the town,- his own town.
He got the same reception in other places too, at times, until eventually those who didn’t want anything to do with this new way of being ‘a people of God, together’, dumped him outside another town, Jerusalem,- on a hill called Calvary. That’s the end of his human life and his public ministry,- but today’s event is just the start of it, in his own home town.
‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you came to birth, I consecrated you… I have appointed you as prophet to the nations.’ (from Isaiah Chapter 1, verse 4,- today’s first reading.) From his mother’s womb, Jesus had been chosen and appointed to be a prophet of God’s love and presence and activity in each community, and in each person.
This new ‘people of God’ that Jesus was proclaiming, is wonderfully described in Paul’s famous passage about Love,- (today’s 2nd reading, First Corinthians,12) – a community of people who are patient, never jealous, never conceited, never resentful, and so on. A people who care, and who forgive as they are themselves forgiven.
Jesus doesn’t speak to ‘people in general’,- he speaks to individuals and to communities. He spoke to the people of Nazareth. He called the Nazareth community to this new vision and reality. They found it all too threatening, too immediate, and so they put it all off, they rejected his call, they rejected him.
And he quietly slipped away from them.
Do I and do we reject his message and his call to become a new ‘people of God’ where our God is wonderfully, wildly active? Do I and do we put our response to this on the long finger,- for another time?
Will he quietly slip away, if I or we don’t respond?
What’s he saying here, what’s he saying now? Today. This weekend. In my community.
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
P.S. See Homepage for information on St. Blaise, Feast day Sun. Feb. 3rd.
SOUL FOOD FOR YOUNG ADULTS, February 3, 2013.
SOUL FOOD, on the FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: FEBRUARY 3RD, 2013.
Letter to Sinead and Mark, two young adults.
Dear Sinead and Mark,
‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you.’ Wow! Think about it! Your heavenly Father and mine, who knows the number of hairs on the head of each person, knew you and knew me, in our mother’s wombs,- knew us intimately and everything about us. And still does. God is that close, that intimate, right now, with each one of us, and with all of us together, his people, his ‘beloved’. ‘The kingdom of God is near at hand’,- literally!
And when Jesus tried to tell that to his own neighbours, his fellow-villagers from the back-woods town of Nazareth, they couldn’t take it. It was all too close, all to near, and it scared them: ‘this text is being fulfilled today, even as you listen!’ he had said, a few minutes earlier, in the synagogue.
He had just told them that the Spirit of God was in him, and he was here to bring people great news (about God’s closeness to them right where they were just then), he was here to lift the downtrodden, set people free (from all sorts of stuff),- and they just couldn’t take it. It was too immediate for them, and they started to scorn him,- ‘ah, sure, don’t we know who you are and your family…’ (just the way we often do it in Ireland.) It was their way of putting it all off till another day,- putting responding to God’s closeness on to the long finger.
If he had told them to go off and do something heroic, some great deed, to win God’s blessings, they would have rushed off right away to do it. But to be told that they didn’t have to do a thing except to welcome God’s gift, God’s closeness,- just to receive a ‘gift’ of God’s real presence and activity in their lives, ah no! They wouldn’t have earned it themselves, so they didn’t want it.
And when Jesus held up a mirror to them of what they were doing, they got angry and gave him the push,- trying to throw him over the cliff outside the town. He slipped away from them.
And it’s so hard for us to receive that pure gift also,- our God is closer to us than we could ever imagine, God is working in my life in this particular place and on this particular day. God loves me and wants the very best for me, and is calling me to welcome him. Ah, that’s hard. It means that I’ve got to let go and let God!
‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you.’ If it was true in the womb, it’s true this day in February, and it’s true where I am at this moment. Pure gift. Lifting us up. But are we willing to be lifted up?
Maybe today could be that ‘Wow’ day in my life, at last. ‘Here’s lookin’ at you’, he says, to me and to you.
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
P.S. See Homepage for information on St. Blaise, patron saint for sore throats, whose feast day falls on this Sunday, Feb. 3rd. Many Catholics seek the blessing of throats on this day.
Soul Food for Young Adults,- Sunday, January 27, 2013 (Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C).
LETTER TO SINEAD AND MARK,- two young adults.
Dear Sinead and Mark,
Do you ever feel the need for someone or some group to give you new heart and hope- to put pep in your step again, and energy to go out and make a difference? Well, I know that I need that kind of boost, every so often.
President Barack Obama gave his Inauguration Address last Monday, January 21, 2013.
It’s a powerful speech. There are extracts from it below, at the end of this. It lifts the heart.
And, do you know what, Sinead, Mark? We have the same kind of ‘Inauguration Address’ in the three readings placed before us at Mass today. They’re full of hope for the time ahead of us. Let me tell you just a little about them:
Ezra and Nehemiah,-ever heard of them? Not many of us have, to be honest. Yet, they had a great role as leaders in their community, at a critical time in the history of the Jewish people, our ancestors. One was a priest/scribe, the other a political leader. Together they had negotiated with the King of Persia (Iran, to us) the release of the captive Jews, and also permission to rebuild their Temple back home in Jerusalem. And today (in this reading), the people are back home- after two generations away in exile, somewhere about the year 440 BC- and the people all gathered, including ‘the children old enough to understand’, and their great Book was read to them,- the Book of God’s dealings with them. The people heard the words with great joy, from early morning to noon; they cried AMEN, AMEN! with joy, and were filled with tears of joy. Then, the Ezra and Nehemiah sent them all home to celebrate, -‘Do not be mournful, do not weep’- for the people were all in tears as they listened to the words of the Law….’Go, eat the fat, drink the sweet wine, …for this day is sacred to our Lord. Do not be sad; the joy of the Lord is your strength.’. It was a knees-up time! Let the music begin. Here was a new beginning for the people, the inauguration of a new era. And it’s an invitation to us, today, to hear the Word with great joy again, and to go home and celebrate it and live it with joy. (See it in Nehemiah 8, today’s First Reading).
Paul (I Corinthians 12:12) sets out his stall, telling the disciples of Jesus in the port city of Corinth
that they are all like one body in Christ,- all different parts, but all one body, with Jesus, needing each other, concerned for one another, and using all the varied gifts that the Spirit had given to people in the community. These new Christians (only baptized a few short years before) are the start of a new era in their world,- all of them living and working as ‘one body’ in Christ, caring for the world of people.
Jesus, at the very start of his three years of ministry, sets out his stall, (See Luke 4:12ff), when he reads out (-proclaims, gives his own ‘Inauguration Address’!-) in the synagogue of Capernaum, 
before all the people: a new era was beginning, here, too, with Jesus. ‘‘The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has
anointed me…sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, new sight to the blind, to set free the down-trodden, proclaim the Lord’s year of favour .’ And then he added: ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’
And that’s our joy today- that’s your job and my job, to work together with others to bring good news to people, to set people free, to help people to see their dignity clearly, to help lift up people who are down-trodden by society, who are ignored and even walked upon by others. It’s a fantastic vision for our world that Jesus had in his heart, his dream for his gathered people, who in turn would make the dream happen.
He wants to gather together followers,- people who are truly captivated by him, by his vision for the world, people who are fascinated by it and drawn to it as by a magnet. He’s about gathering people with this dream. Are you up for it? He looks for particular people, in every particular place,- meaning wherever we are, and whoever we are, and now. He’s in a hurry, because the world needs us. ‘This text is being fulfilled today, even as you listen’, he tells us.
Thanks, Sinead, Mark. Hope you have a great week. And mind the burgers!!
Fr. Seamus.
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S INAUGURATION SPEECH: (extracts)
(You can find it on You-tube as well):
Barack Obama set out his stall last Monday, 21 January, in his second Inauguration Address, in front of ¾ of a million people gathered, and in front of his nation and the world. He set out his dream, his hope, not for himself but for the nation, for himself as a citizen with all his fellow-citizens. ‘We the people…’ and ‘You and I, as citizens…’ were repeated over and over again.
“You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course.
You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time…with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.
Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.
But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; … collective action… Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as …one people.
We, the people, still believe that our obligations …are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity… climate change, our economic vitality and our forests and waterways; our croplands …we will preserve our planet, commended to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences peacefully …because (our) engagement (with each other) can more lastingly lift suspicion and fear.
And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice – not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.
We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still…
Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.
You and I, as citizens, have the power to… now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, …with common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, …the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.
SOUL FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY ADULT: January 27, 2013. Third Sunday.
THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, JAN.27, 2013.
SOUL FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY ADULT: Jesus has a Dream for the world!
INAUGURATION SPEECHES and speeches with a passion for justice, can be up-lifting for the human heart and for entire communities, peoples and nations,- indeed for thw world.. Here we combine two well-known modern ones (one from this past week), with two we find in today’s Sunday Readings. How do you see the similarities? That’s our challenge for this Sunday. What is the voice of the Lord saying to us, what is the Dream for us, – in Ireland, Alaska, Maine, Sydney, Dubai… or wherever we find ourselves at this moment?
1. Martin Luther King Jr. 1968, on the Mall in Washington DC: “I have a
dream!… When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last”!
(The full version of Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech. www.metacafe.com/…/martin_luther_king_i_have_a_…
2. President Barack Obama, January 21, 2013, Inauguration Speech, on
Capitol Hill in Washington DC, in front of ¾ of a million people gathered, and in front of his nation and the world. He set out his dream, his hope, not for himself but for the nation, for himself as a citizen with all his fellow-citizens. ‘We the people…’ and ‘You and I, as citizens…’ were repeated over and over again.
“You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course.
“You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time…with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.
‘Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.
‘But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; … collective action… Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as …one people.”
‘We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences peacefully – not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.
‘And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice – not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.
(You can watch the Second Inaugural Speech of President Obama, January 21, 2013 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zncqb-n3zMo )
3. Jesus of Nazareth, in his home town: c. 26 A.D. His ‘Inauguration Speech’, at the beginning of his three years of ministry: (Text from Luke 4:14ff.)
‘‘The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me…sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, new sight to the blind, to set free the down-trodden, proclaim the Lord’s year of favour .’ And then he added: ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’
This was Jesus’ ‘Inaugural Address’ in Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 4:14. Jesus begins his years of ministry in the synagogue of his home town, Nazareth, using a text from the Prophet Isaiah. The Spirit of God had grasped him at this time, he said, and he was calling to people who would hear, to follow him in his dream for the world, a dream of liberty for captives, freedom for the down-trodden, and sight for a world that is oftentimes blind. He is gathering a people who will share his dream and make the dream a reality wherever they find themselves.
4. Ezra, the Scribe: c. 460BC, Inauguration Speech, on the return home to Palestine of the Jewish people, exiled for over two generations: (from Today’s First Reading, Nehemiah 8:2-10) Notice the thirst of their hearing, their AMEN! AMEN!, a response of YES to the Word of God, their bowing down in reverence, and then their going home filled with JOY, and ready to share their celebration with their neighbours.
“The people all gathered, including ‘the children old enough to understand. Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
The Levites…instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.
Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.
Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.”
Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.”
In other words, as with any Inauguration Address, the message is: ‘Do not be sad; the joy of the Lord is your stronghold.’. It was a knees-up time! Let the music begin. Here was a new beginning for the people, the inauguration of a new era.
See Text of this Reading, from Nehemiah Chapter 8, on http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+8&version=NIV
Today is our new day, a new beginning if we are ready to be in the gathering of the Master. “I have a dream!’ Have we got it?
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R. seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com
Media Statement from the Provincial Leadership Team of the Irish Redemptorists
Media Statement from the Provincial Leadership Team of the Irish Redemptorists
Sunday 20th January 201
The Irish Redemptorist Community is deeply saddened by the breakdown in communication between Fr. Tony Flannery C.Ss.R. and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF)
Fr. Tony Flannery is highly regarded and respected by many in Ireland, both within and outside of the Redemptorist Congregation. He has been an effective parish missioner all over the country since the mid 1970s and from this context has raised matters which he believes need greater dialogue, debate and consideration. Within the Dublin Province of the Redemptorists there exists a very lively spirit of debate and dialogue; we are and over many years have been, committed to mature discourse. Although not all Redemptorists would accept Fr. Flannery’s views on all matters, we do understand and support his efforts to listen carefully to and at times to articulate the views of people he encounters in the course of his ministry.
As Irish Redemptorists we appreciate the difficulties this situation has created for others, especially for our Superior General in Rome, Fr. Michael Brehl. He has made every possible effort to resolve the matters which have emerged between the CDF and Fr. Flannery.
Our Redemptorist Constitutions require us to be obedient to God’s call to us as religious in the Church. Following our founder, St. Alphonsus, for whom thinking with the Church was a important criterion of missionary service, a further key element of our Church mandate is to listen and stay close to God’s people; to engage in missionary dialogue with the world while endeavouring to understand people’s anxious questionings; to try to discover in these how God is truly being revealed.
It is of immense regret that some structures or processes of dialogue have not yet been found in the Church which have a greater capacity to engage with challenging voices from among God’s people, while respecting the key responsibility and central role of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
We sincerely hope and pray that even at this late stage, some agreed resolution can be found to this matter.
Ends
Media enquiries: through Wally Young at Young Communications: youngcom@eircom.net and/or 087 2471520.
Note 1:
The Redemptorists:
For many Irish people, especially of a certain generation, the word Redemptorist is synonymous with ‘parish mission’. There are few parishes in Ireland that have not experienced at least one Redemptorist parish mission in the last 160 years. Parish missions traditionally have been the flagship apostolate of the Congregation since the first mission was preached in Limerick more than a century and a half ago.
Parish mission work isn’t the only ministry in which Irish Redemptorists have been engaged since 1851. The ‘explicit proclamation of the Word’ has taken on many forms: the annual solemn novenas have had extraordinary success in recent decades and continue to attract young and old in their thousands; the ministry to young people has developed very significantly over the years; Redemptorist retreat house, church ministry and parish work continue to serve the needs of the Irish Church. Individual Redemptorists now minister with migrants, travellers, in schools, universities, prisons and hospitals and to many other groups and communities.
From the very beginning, “overseas mission” has been an integral component of the Irish Redemptorist story. Redemptorists down the decades have engaged in other important work too, not least of which has been the peace ministry, which helped in no small way to bring about a resolution to the Northern ‘Troubles,’ and the ministry of ecumenism which has helped build bridges and forge links with members of other Christian communities in Ireland. Redemptorist Communications has also been a significant ministry of the Irish Province.
Note 2:
Fr. Tony Flannery, C.Ss.R.:
Fr. Tony Flannery, C.Ss.R., is a Redemptorist for over 40 years. He studied from 1965 to 1969 in Cluain Mhuire in Galway; from 1969 to 1971 he was a student in Marianella in Dublin. From 1971 to 1973 he worked in Limerick as a teacher and from 1973 to 1975 he was a student once again in Marianella (Dublin). After ordination as a priest, he worked as a parish missioner from 1975 to 1983 out of the Esker Community in Athenry in Co. Galway. From 1983 to 1996 he was based in our Limerick Community as a parish missioner. From 1990 to 1996, Fr. Flannery was Rector of our Mount St. Alphonsus Community in Limerick. After a period of sabbatical time between 1996 and 1997, Fr. Flannery returned to Esker and has remained there as a parish missioner since then.
ENDS.
SOUL FOOD FOR YOUNG ADULTS: JANUARY 20, 2013, 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.
SOUL FOOD FOR YOUNG ADULTS: LETTER TO SINEAD AND MARK- two young adults.
2nd SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME, JANUARY 20 2013. Click on Mass Readings on Home Page, for the Readings for this Sunday.
Dear Sinead and Mark,
We’re back to porridge, – back to school, to college, to work, back to ordinary living again, now that the Christmas season is over. Back to the wonderful ordinariness of the everyday ordinary!
Special greetings to all the Leaving Cert Students from Athenry, who joined us here in Esker during the past week for their retreat. A great group of young adults and a joy to be with, over those two days! Thanks to all of you for coming!
The ‘Soul Food’ put before us today is a Banquet!,- In fact, it’s a wonderful village wedding, to which Jesus and his friends were invited. The readings are about wedding, delight, rejoicing, and wonderful wine,- the very best!
How would you like if someone says this to you: ‘You are a crown of splendour in the hand of the Lord, a princely diadem in the hand of your God: No longer are you to be termed ‘forsaken’ or… ‘abandoned’, but you shall be called ‘My Delight!’… for the Lord takes delight in you…and as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so will your God rejoice in you.’ I think the Lord is telling you and me that He is crazy about each of us. Wow
And then that Wedding: a village wedding, where the whole village is invited, and it goes on for a couple of days. An enormous embarrassment if the drink supply runs out. ‘O, how mean the couple’s family are’ is what would be said. The Mother of Jesus spots what’s about to happen, has a word with her Son, doesn’t get much response from him, but she goes and tells the servants to ‘do whatever He tells you!’ She knows this Son of hers.
And he responds with a huge response,- the equivalent of between 600 and 900 bottles
of the very best wine, in six stone water jars! Nothing small about Jesus.
And then John tells us that all of this was a ‘Sign’- John didn’t talk about miracles, but rather about some things that Jesus did or said, that were Signs of Who Jesus is. This event is an ‘event-sign’- telling all who read about it now that Jesus is ‘flaithiúl’ (as we say in Irish), that is, he is princely in his generosity and kindness. There’s a fullness about Jesus that is over-flowing. And what you get, when you come to Jesus, is the very best,- of wisdom, of
'Draw some out now.'
joy, of light, of forgiveness, of liberation. The Cana event is the first Sign that Jesus worked, and it begins to tell us who Jesus really is.
‘You are hereby invited to the banquet that is Jesus!
Come with a great appetite, ready to be fed, and ready to dance.’
And remember the Mother’s words at the banquet,- ‘do whatever he tells you!’ And if you do, your heart, your life, will be over-flowing. ‘Draw some out now’ said Jesus.
Have a wonder-full week!
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
SOUL FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY ADULT: January 20th, 2013, Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
SOUL FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY ADULT:
Go to Home page for the Mass Readings for this Sunday. Gospel is John 2:1-11. First Reading is Isaiah 62:1-5. Second Reading is First Corinthians 12:4-11.
Last Sunday, we had the Baptism of Jesus. Today, we have the Wedding at Cana in
'Draw some out now.'
Galilee,- the first ‘sign’ that Jesus worked, even before he began his ministry of preaching. This event points to much more than a re-telling of what happened.
There’s a Hebrew word that helps us understand the events and saying of Jesus, particularly in St. John’s Gospel. The word is DABAR… a Hebrew word telling us that some event is a WORD, meaning that it tells us something beyond the event itself. The greatest Word-Event of all happened when “the Word became Flesh”, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
The event at Cana is a DABAR, it is a Deed-Word, it is a LOGOS (the Greek equivalent of DABAR) , a word from God. This event at Cana is an ‘I AM’ event, an ‘I AM’ deed. That’s why John calls it ‘the first sign’ that Jesus worked. John doesn’t talk of ‘miracles’, but rather of events or teachings that are ‘signs’. Through this Cana event, John is telling us more about who Jesus is,- he is the ‘I AM’, -a phrase that the Jews understood as referring only to the Holy One, to God, who called himself (in talking to Moses) ‘Tell them that I AM sent you.’
And all the Signs that John tells us about- and there aren’t many of them recounted in John’s Gospel- are ‘I AM’ signs about the person of Jesus of Nazareth, where the Word becomes flesh.
Now, re-read the CANA story, in the beginning of John Chapter 2. It’s a very traditional village wedding, where all the neighbours are invited, and any visitors as well, such as ‘the friends of Jesus’. (We could think here of the musical ‘Momma Mia’ and all the fun of the wedding!) So many came that it seemed there would not be enough left to drink,- a huge embarrassment for the hosts. The Mother of Jesus whispers to him ‘They have no wine!’ Jesus seems not to answer her. She simply says to the head Waiter, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ She knows her Son! And the ‘Sign’ that he works, the changing of so much water into such wonderful wine,- this sign tells us about himself, namely that no matter how many people come to him, they will never be thirsty or hungry, and there will never be shortage of any kind. Everyone who comes will have more than enough. And this plays out again and again throughout John’s Gospel.
And that’s how this event becomes an ‘I AM’ sign,- it is pointing to who Jesus is, and his limitless love and generosity for the whole world of people.
‘If any are thirsty, let them come to me and drink’, he cried out later in the Temple (John, Chapter 7). ’Draw some out now!’ is what he says to us in today’s Cana event. Jesus is the lavishness of God, made flesh! He is the ‘flaithiúlacht’, the princely-ness of God, down to earth.
This wedding at Cana is symbol of the wedding of God and God’s people,- “your land shall be called ‘The Wedded’” – in Isaiah 62, the First Reading for this Second Sunday of the Year. If you can, spend a little time with it,- it’s so full of the promise of God to be with his people, wedded to them, rejoicing in them, delighting in them,- God like the bridegroom rejoicing in his bride! God is with us, and we are like husband and wife with each other, delighting in each other.
There’s food and drink (and plenty of it), in this Banquet of today’s readings. ‘Rogha gach bí, ‘is togha gach dí!’- ‘a choice of every food, the best of every drink’,- from the old Irish epic story, the Táin. The same, at the banquet that is Christ. Draw some out now.
Seamus Devitt. C.Ss.R.
P.S. The Scripture Passage for the Octave of Christian Unity in 2013 is from Micah Chapter 6: ‘This is what the Lord your God asks of you,- to act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with your God.‘ We are called on to engage thoroughly with this challenge together in our Christian Churches. The Octave goes from January 18th to january 25th.
Dear Sinead and Mark,- January 13th, 2013, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
SOUL FOOD FOR YOUNG ADULTS: Letter to Sinead and Mark- two young adults.
Readings for this Sunday, January 13 2013, are from the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Year C; Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11. St. Paul’s Letter to Titus, 2:11-14, and 3:4-7. Gospel, St. Luke 3:15-16, 21-22.
Dear Sinead and Mark,
Do you ever feel that your heart is somehow gone ‘dry’, that the fizz has gone out of you? You feel somehow drained, with little heart for life.
And then you think back to someone who once put new heart into you,- maybe a teacher, or a relative, maybe someone in your local community who gave you back a belief in yourself and a zest for life? And when you think about that person, you get new heart and purpose again, you’ve got that ‘Get up and Go’ in you, once more.
Well, I wonder what was going on in the man Jesus, that time when he approached John and asked to be baptized? Was he searching, unsure of the path ahead? Was he a bit ‘out of steam’? Then, that moment of his baptism, that moment when he 
was submerged in the water of the Jordan, then came up and went off to pray a while,- that was the moment when he powerfully experienced his whole human self as filled with, as steeped in, the very Heart of God, the Holy Spirit of God. He heard those words: ‘YOU ARE MY SON, THE BELOVED: MY FAVOUR RESTS ON YOU.’ He felt it in his very bones, that he was BELOVED,-and that he had a work to do. This was his ‘Get up and Go’ moment!
And maybe, for ourselves, in some moment of quiet, in some place, -any place!- the word breaks through unexpectedly, and we are ‘steeped’ in the presence of the Spirit of God who reminds us who we are,- ‘YOU are my son/my daughter, the Beloved! My favour rests on YOU!’ It all becomes really personal, and we know it in our bones. And if it hasn’t happened to you yet,- no panic. Just make sure that you keep on having little moments of quietness, of quiet still prayer, where you are open to God’s Spirit coming and breaking through,- when you know that, YES!- I am beloved. I am God’s child, God’s loved one. Yes, I am precious,- and God’s favour rests on me as a pure gift.
That’s the ‘Get up and Go’ moment, for you. You’ve work to do, you’ve people to love, a world to change. And gradually, you are more and more ‘steeped’ in the Spirit of Jesus, and you have the fire in your belly that He has.
It’s a moment to pray for, an experience to pray for. And, if you do, it will come, without a doubt.
Blessings of God on you, near and far! Be Loved!
Fr. Seamus.
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