Jairus’ daughter was twelve years old, when the power of Jesus gave life back to her. The woman with the bleeding had suffered for twelve years,
when Jesus gave her back her health, and not only her health, but restored her once again to her community, from which she had been ostracised because of her blood-ailment. One was given back to her family, the other to her community, and both were profoundly affected by their encounter with Jesus. They got their lives back again!

Around the same time as Mark was putting this together in the near-final version of his Gospel, two of the leaders of the Christian communities were put to death: Simon, nick-named PETER (rock) by Jesus, was crucified, Paul was beheaded. We can scarcely imagine the shock and bewilderment of the early Christian community, around the Mediterranean. Jesus, the LORD had been put to death years earlier, but the community knew in their deepest faith that He was risen, and was with them. But now, to lose not only the two Apostles to martyrdom, but many other disciples, men and women and children, who were also martyred. It was hard to take, and many lost heart. So, Mark wrote his Gospel to put new heart into very frightened and confused disciples, telling them the Good News, ‘the Gospel about Jesus Christ, Son of God’ (Mark 1, verse 1)

The two events related in today’s Gospel are told to give us hope, and to give us the example of the power of faith in Jesus,- the faith and desperate pleading of the President of the Synagogue, Jairus, the girl’s father, and the faith of the woman who, in spite of all the men present, crept up and touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. Faced with such faith, in both people, power went out from Jesus. Mark is always presenting Jesus as the Son of God, the Son of Man, with power: a teacher, one who calls disciples, one who has authority over the evil spirits, and one who cures lots of people, through the power of God that was in him.

Jesus’ power still gives life, if we but ask or even ‘touch the hem of his garment’ with faith. In the face of all the opposition that disciples undoubtedly face daily today, Jesus Christ is Son of God, one of us, and teaches, calls, delivers, and heals with power. We just bring ourselves to him, with our needs, our illnesses of any kind, our dis-ease, and lay them before him in faith. Not a prayer of ours will go unanswered,- even if at times the answer is not what we would have preferred.

Jesus heals. Jesus gives us back our lives. Jesus restores us.

‘Lord, do come and lay your hands on us, that we may be saved and may live.’ (See Mark 5:23)

The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul was celebrated on Friday, June 29th. They are both Patrons of Esker Church, and of the local parish church of Kiltullagh, Co. Galway. This goes back to the name of the Dominican Abbey Church in Athenry, founded in the 1200′s. The Dominicans later took refuge in the Esker area, during Penal Times, and built a monastery here in the 1700′s, and the present church c. 1840. The Redemptorists took over Esker c. 1903. 

Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.

Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist, Sunday, June 24^th, 2012.

 

126 was the number of our house when I was growing up, in Dublin.  And John 1:26 was the number of the text of Scripture in the first sermon I ever gave (a practice one,- and in Irish-  in our seminary days! ) in the Redemptorist House of Studies, in Cluain Mhuire, Galway: ‘Tá in a sheasamh in bhúr measc duine nach n-aithin díbh!’,- ‘There is standing in the midst of you  One whom you do not recognise!’,- the words of John the Baptist, the Pre-Cursor of Jesus, as he pointed towards Jesus of Nazareth who is the true Light.   And he added, about Jesus, ‘He must increase, and I must decrease!’

And this Sunday, June 24^th, is the Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist, to Elizabeth and to Zechariah. ‘He is to be called John’, said Zechariah,- and then he got his voice back, after nine months of silence!  You’ll find it all there in St. Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 1.

Like any good evangelist, John pointed to Jesus of Nazareth as the One to follow, the One who was Sent.

Six months after John was born, Jesus was born. The Feasts (chosen because of the Summer and the Winter Solstices) fall just after the longest day (June 21), and then after the shortest day (December 21).  Jesus is the Light of the World that is caught in darkness, and his birth heralds the beginning of the increase of Light in the World.

‘There is standing in the midst of you One whom you do not know!’ He is still here  in the middle of us, but do we notice? As they say in Irish, ‘sin ceist!’,- that’s the question,- do I notice him, do we?  The birth of John was the birth of the one who would point the world towards Jesus. Thanks, John!

P.S. See any bonfires last night, St. John’s Eve? Did you see any? Let us know. It’s a very ancient custom,  certainly in parts of the West of Ireland, predating Christianity, celebrating the summer solstice. Contact us on info@redemptoristsesker.ie  

Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.

Welcome to the Eleventh Sunday of the Year.

A Reflection:

Tyburn is beside Hyde Park, in London. Tyburn was  the place where,  in the 1600’s, Catholics,  clergy and lay, were  taken for execution. They were  hung, then cut down and cut open, and then quartered  or cut into four pieces. Catholics gathered  to see some of their own being put to death for their faith. Sometimes, the crowd even put flowers on the scaffolding, in solidarity with their faith-companions.

Could they have ever imagined that 400 years later, the Successor of Peter, Pope Benedict XV1 would gather nearby with 80,000 people,  in prayer and praise and song? Could they ever  have foreseen this? Probably not. Yet, it happened, in 2010.

This Sunday, June 17^th 2012,  sees the final Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress, in Dublin. About 80,000 people are expected to fill Croke Park. (If you are outside of Ireland, you can watch it on EWTN channel.) Here is a celebration of the gift of Eucharist, of the Body and Blood of the Lord, given to us in a tiny host or in a chalice. Little is indeed Large! What seems small to the eye is fullness to the heart. It is food for the world.

And the Readings that we are given for this Weekend’s Mass? Planting, waiting, with patience and belief. ‘We walk by faith, not by sight’. What God is doing among us is like a tiny seed that is planted by God, and grows from something very small to something beyond our dreams.

Home, or Away, we are courageous,  – therefore we aspire to please him. Our God is doing something in us. It’s happening, folks! – hidden perhaps, but real none the less. The tiny seed will in time give shelter to the birds of the air,-  to the whole world.  What the Lord is doing will bear great fruit, in time. Is it bearing fruit in us? Sin ceist !

Seamus Devitt, C.Ss.R.

(Check www.iec2012.ie re highlights of the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, June 10-17, 2012.)

THREE HYMNS FOR CORPUS CHRISTI, also  ADORO TE DEVOTE, and TANTUM ERGO

Below are three hymns composed by St. Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Google any one of them on YouTube, to hear them sung. Adoro Te Devote was also composed as a Eucharistic Hymn by him, as was the Tantum Ergo (the last verses of Pange Lingua, a hymn used on Holy Thursday Evening, at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.)

 

PANIS ANGELICUS:  (Part of a hymn written by St. Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpus Christi)

Panis Angelicus fit panis hominum

Dat panis coelicus figuris terminum

O res mirabilis! Manducat Dominum

Pauper, pauper, servus et humilis

Pauper, pauper, servus et humilis

 The angel’s bread becomes the bread of men

The heavenly bread ends all symbols

Oh, miraculous thing! The body of the Lord

Will nourish 
the poor, poor, and humble servant

The poor, poor, and humble servant

 

 

O SACRUM CONVIVIUM: O Sacrum Convivium is a Latin prose text honoring the Blessed Sacrament. It was written by Saint Thomas Aquinas. It was included in the Latin Catholic liturgy as an antiphon on the feast of Corpus Christi. Its sentiments express the profound mystery of the Eucharistic miracle: “O sacred banquet at which Christ is consumed, the memory of his Passion is recalled, our souls are filled with grace, and the pledge of future glory is given to us.”[1]

Original Latin

O sacrum convivium!

in quo Christus sumitur:

recolitur memoria passionis eius:

mens impletur gratia:

et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.

Alleluia.

Translation of original Latin

O sacred banquet!

in which Christ is received,

the memory of his Passion is renewed,

the mind is filled with grace,

and a pledge of future glory to us is given.

Alleluia.

O SALUTARIS HOSTIA, “O Saving Host”, is a section of one of the Eucharistic hymns written by St Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpus Christi.

O salutaris Hostia,

Quae caeli pandis ostium:

Bella premunt hostilia,

Da robur, fer auxilium.

Uni trinoque Domino

Sit sempiterna gloria,

Qui vitam sine termino

Nobis donet in patria.

Amen.

O saving Victim, opening wide

The gate of Heaven to us below;

Our foes press hard on every side;

Your aid supply; Your strength bestow.

To your great name be endless praise,

Immortal Godhead, One in Three.

O grant us endless length of days,

In our true native land with thee.

Amen.

 

(Literal translation)

O Salutary Victim,

Who opens the door of the sky,

Hostile wars press,

Give strength; bear aid.

To the Lord One in Three,

May there be eternal glory;

For, life without end

he gives to us in our homeland.

Amen.

 

Adoro Te Devote is a Eucharistic Hymn also composed by St. Thomas Aquinas.

Adoro te devote, latens Deitas,

Quæ sub his figuris vere latitas;

Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit,

Quia te contemplans totum deficit.

 

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,

Sed auditu solo tuto creditur.

Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius;

Nil hoc verbo veritátis verius.

 

In cruce latebat sola Deitas,

At hic latet simul et Humanitas,

Ambo tamen credens atque confitens,

Peto quod petivit latro pœnitens.

 

Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor:

Deum tamen meum te confiteor.

Fac me tibi semper magis credere,

In te spem habere, te diligere.

 

O memoriale mortis Domini!

Panis vivus, vitam præstans homini!

Præsta meæ menti de te vívere,

Et te illi semper dulce sapere.

 

Pie Pelicane, Jesu Domine,

Me immundum munda tuo sanguine:

Cujus una stilla salvum facere

Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

 

Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio,

Oro, fiat illud quod tam sitio:

Ut te revelata cernens facie,

Visu sim beátus tuæ gloriæ. Amen

 

English Translation of Adoro Te Devote:

 

I devoutly adore you, O hidden Deity,

Truly hidden beneath these appearances.

My whole heart submits to you,

And in contemplating you,

It surrenders itself completely.

 

Sight, touch, taste are all deceived

In their judgment of you,

But hearing suffices firmly to believe.

I believe all that the Son of God has spoken;

There is nothing truer than this word of truth.

 

On the cross only the divinity was hidden,

But here the humanity is also hidden.

I believe and confess both,

And ask for what the repentant thief asked.

 

I do not see the wounds as Thomas did,

But I confess that you are my God.

Make me believe more and more in you,

Hope in you, and love you.

 

O memorial of our Lord’s death!

Living bread that gives life to man,

Grant my soul to live on you,

And always to savor your sweetness.

 

Lord Jesus, Good Pelican,

wash me clean with your blood,

One drop of which can free

the entire world of all its sins.

 

Jesus, whom now I see hidden,

I ask you to fulfill what I so desire:

That the sight of your face being unveiled

I may have the happiness of seeing your glory. Amen

TANTUM ERGO:

Tantum ergo are the opening words of the last two verses of Pange Lingua, a Mediaeval Latin hymn written by St Thomas Aquinas. These last two verses are sung during veneration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and other churches that practice this devotion.

Latin text

Tantum ergo Sacramentum

Veneremur cernui:

Et antiquum documentum

Novo cedat ritui:

Praestet fides supplementum

Sensuum defectui.

 

Genitori, Genitoque

Laus et jubilatio,

Salus, honor, virtus quoque

Sit et benedictio:

Procedenti ab utroque

Compar sit laudatio.
Amen.

V. Panem de caelis praestitisti eis

R. Omne delectamentum in se habentem

Oremus: Deus, qui nobis sub sacramento mirabili, passionis tuae memoriam reliquisti: tribue, quaesumus, ita nos corporis et sanguinis tui sacra mysteria venerari, ut redemptionis tuae fructum in nobis iugiter sentiamus. Qui vivis et regnas in saecula saeculorum.

R. Amen.

English translation

A translation over a hundred years old[5] and still used in Catholic churches liturgically[6] renders the hymn thus, in a form which can be sung to the same music as the Latin:

Down in adoration falling,

Lo! the sacred Host we hail,

Lo! o’er ancient forms departing

Newer rites of grace prevail;

Faith for all defects supplying,

Where the feeble senses fail.

 

To the everlasting Father,

And the Son Who reigns on high

With the Holy Ghost proceeding

Forth from Each eternally,

Be salvation, honor, blessing,

Might and endless majesty.

Amen.

V. Thou hast given them bread from heaven.

R. Having within it all Sweetness.

V. Let us pray: O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament left us a memorial of Thy Passion: grant, we implore Thee, that we may so venerate the sacred mysteries of Thy Body and Blood, as always to be conscious of the fruit of Thy Redemption. Thou who livest and reignest forever and ever.

R. Amen.

 

 

 

 

‘ARE WE THERE YET?, ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET?’-  so says the young Goat to the Camel and to the Cow, in the Bothar advertisement. (See ‘Are we there yet? on You Tube!)

On the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord, we can ask ourselves the same question,- ‘Are we there yet?’    And Jesus gives us the answer,- ‘Where I am, there will my servant (disciple) be also.’ (in John 12:26).  If He, the Head, has gone to be ‘at the right hand of the Father’, then we, his body, are already there too. What lies ahead for us is already here!  Every one of us, in the midst of pots and computers and pans, is truly ‘at the right hand of the Father’ every day, in health or in sickness, – and so we can say to the One with us, ‘Our Father!’

Are we there yet? We surely are. It hasn’t been revealed to us, but we are ‘there’ at God’s right hand already, every hour of every day. We’re here, -and we’re there! Taimid anseo, ‘is ansiud!

What we look forward to is already ours. Today , the Feast of the Ascension, is our feast too.  Wow. Deo Gratias!  Moladh go deo le Dia. Let the music begin.

‘Give us once again all the miracles and gifts of Pentecost’ (Pope John XX111)

In this coming week, we enter together in the whole church into an ‘upper room’ of prayer, together with Mary the Mother of Jesus, for a powerful outpouring of the promised Holy Spirit on all God’s People, and on all the leadership of the Church .

‘Give us once again all the miracles

 and gifts of Pentecost.’

Pope John XX111

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year B, -May 13th 2012.

Gospel of the Day, – St. John, Chapter 15, verses 9 – 17.

Giving a retreat one day to a Confirmation Class, in Antrim, I put a leading question to them ‘How much does God love us? This much, maybe…’ and I opened my hands until they were about shoulder-width apart. ‘No! – more!’ they chorused. The hands went wider, and again the same answer. At last the hands were outstretched as if on the Cross, and they answered ‘Yes, that much!’ As I stood there with the hands still outstretched, one girl over on my left spoke up: ‘But you can’t even begin to describe how much God loves us!’   We were all of us stunned into a silence, with the wisdom and truth of what she had just said- ‘you can’t even begin to describe how much God loves us!’

If I had just one verse of the Scriptures to take with me to a desert island, it very probably would be John 15:9, (found in today’s Gospel) -  ‘As my Father has loved me, so I have loved you!’, but more like this: ‘The way my Father has loved me, that is how much I have loved you!’  ‘As much as my Father loves me and has always loved me, that is just how much I have loved you, and have loved all of you!’,- that is, with a love that has no limits at all. When we ponder and contemplate the first part, and wonder at just how much the Father loves His Son Jesus from all eternity,- as the awesomeness of this fills us, then we hear what Jesus is saying to us in the second half, about his relationship with us,- one of love without limits, like the Father’s.  And then he says: ‘Live in my love’,- or ‘Abide in my love’, or ‘make your home in my love’,-  or maybe, like a fish in the sea, we swim in the ocean of God’s love that knows no shores nor horizons. (See ‘A Never-Ending Ocean‘, a poem/reflection, in the ‘Soul-Food’ section.)

And then, as we awaken to ‘as I have loved you’, in all its depth and width and height and length, he tells us to ‘love one another’ with the same depth and width and height and length.  And to help us to do this, he says (in the same chapter) ‘make your home in me as I make mine in you’. What a relationship, what an intimacy. He invites us to live in each other.

‘I am alive, or rather it is not I who am alive, but it is Christ who is alive in me! I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.’ (St. Paul, to the Galatian disciples, in Galatians 2:20)

Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R., May 12, 2012.

 

Fr. Finbarr Connolly, C.Ss.R.

1924 – 2012

Fr. Finbarr was born on 24th August 1924 in Blackrock, Co. Dublin.  He professed his vows as a Redemptorist in Dundalk on 8th September 1942.  After his profession he transferred to the Redemptorist House of Studies, Cluain Mhuire, Galway where he began his philosophical and theological studies.

In 1946 he was one of the five students sent from Galway to Bangalore, India the others being Fr. Willie Power who currently is a resident at Carrigoran House, Co. Clare, while the other three Frs. Sean Kelleher, Tom McDonnell and Frank Toner have all passed on to their eternal reward.  At that time the Redemptorists were just eight years on this mission which had begun in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1938 and in 1940 had extended to Bangalore in southern India.  By the end of World War II a number of young Indians had joined the ranks of the Redemptorists and so it was necessary to set up the structures for their training and education.  And this explains the decision to send a group of Irish students to India; they were to be the nucleus of this new venture.

On the 1st August 1950 Fr. Finbarr was ordained a priest in Bangalore and ordained with him on that day was Fr. Sean Kelleher.

After his ordination Fr. Connolly was destined to spend another twenty six years living and working on the sub-continent.  During this time his main apostolate was teaching in the Redemptorist Studendate (seminary) in Bangalore, where his subjects were dogmatic theology and spirituality and for a certain period moral theology.  As one of his students expressed it, “Finbarr was always well prepared, very precise and word perfect.”  Another of his former students said much the same that “he was a good teacher and very well liked as a lecturer, not only with nuns but with others besides.  He was always well prepared and that it was very easy to take notes.”

When free from teaching he was very sought after as a retreat master, and a popular choice for nuns retreats.

A comment that is constantly mentioned is that “he was warm hearted and a good community man.”  Somebody added, however, that he was not somebody who “would be up all night, that he was a prudent person.”  It was also said that if he had been a driver, which he wasn’t, that he would never have received ‘a ticket’ for speeding.

In 1976 he returned to Ireland and for many years he lectured in the Marianella Pastoral Centre where his clear-minded lectures were much appreciated.  At this time we were still in the post-Vatican Council Two period and he was much in demand for updating programmes, especially by religious sisters.

As one man who was a student in Marianella during Fr. Connolly’s sojourn there put it: “Finbarr was a lovely man – I lived with him for a good few years in Dublin and in our early days when we first joined the Congregation, he was a beautiful, warm, welcoming and gentle presence.  I have no doubt but that he will earn a just reward for his good life.

In 1996 he was transferred to Dundalk and this move gave him a new lease of life and again he was in demand as a retreat preacher to religious sisters and a spiritual director.

Some years ago due to failing health Finbarr took up residence in Blackrock Abbey Nursing Home, Dundalk.  Recently his condition deteriorated and he died at 10.30pm on Monday 7th May 2012.

Finbarr’s two brothers were also Redemptorists, Michael and John though John left the C.Ss.R. in 1967 and joined the Diocese of Galloway, Scotland ministering in St Brigid’s Parish, Kilbirnie.  Finbarr’s sister emigrated to Canada where she married and had three children, but she died many years ago.  Unfortunately at this juncture we do not have his sister’s name.

Some publications by Finbarr Connolly: In the world: God and I (1977) pp237; Religious Life. A Profile of the Future (1982) pp84; God and Man in Modern Spirituality (1984); The Ten Commandments & Today’s Christian, co-authored by Finbarr Connolly, Peter Burns (1985);