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

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.

In the photo, from top, left, are the following Redemptorist Students:                               Bro. Sean Kelleher, Bro. Finbarr Connolly, Bro. Frank Toner, Bro. Tom McDonnell, and Bro. Willie Power.  These five students were going to assist in forming a Redemptorist House of Studies in India.                                                                                          Front Row, from Left: Fr. John Niall, Fr. Christopher McCarthy, and Fr. Brendan Moore.

(See below and in Redemptorist News, about the recent death of Fr. Finbarr Connolly in Dundalk.)

A Never-ending Ocean

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);

Fr. Finbarr Connolly, R. I. P.

Please pray for the happy repose of the soul of Fr. Finbarr Connolly, C.Ss.R. who died peacefully on Monday 7th May 2012.  He had been declining over the past few years and his gentle passing is a happy release for him.  .

Born 24 August 1924, Professed 8 September 1942, Ordained 1 August 1950 (in India), Died 7 May 2012 aged 87 years.

Funeral arrangements:

Reposing in St. Joseph’s Monastery, St. Alphonsus Road, Dundalk, from 3.00pm today, Tuesday, 8th May.

Removal from the monastery to St. Joseph’s Church on Wednesday 9th May at 6.30pm.

Requiem Mass on Thursday 10th May at 11.30 with burial afterwards to Dowdallshill Cemetery, Dundalk.

May his gentle soul rest in peace.

See Redemptorist News Section for a brief account of Fr. Finbarr’s life.

How rooted are we? How connected are we? ‘Put your roots down into the soil of God’s marvelous love‘ (Psalm 139, Living Bible). Have you, by any chance, some torn ‘ligaments’?  Ligaments are connections,- and the word religion comes from re-ligare, to connect again, with your Maker, your ‘Heavenly Father’ as Jesus describes him.

Jesus describes himself  like a plant,- “I am the Vine,- and you are the Branches!‘ Are we really connected into Him, is our energy, the sap of our souls, flowing from Him into us? Yes,- if we are really connecting him, if we are on-line with him. But maybe my Wi-fi is down,- from my side,- and I’m not connected for the moment. ‘Live in me, and let me live in you‘, or ‘Make your home in me, and let me make mine in you”,  or ‘Abide in me, and I will abide in you.’ He invites, and then he waits. It’s our move, now. Will I log-on to Jesus? Will I repair the wi-fi of my heart?

See in section Soul Food for Lent & Easter for Young Adults a reflection: ‘Jesus is LORD, well kind of, sort of...’

Limited places: bookings through Office at 091 844 007. Conducted by Fr. Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.& Fr. Tommy Byrne, C.Ss.R.

For further information contact The Secretary, Esker, 091 844007/844549 or email info@redemptoristsesker.ie