MIRROR
ON DOING
GOD’S WORK
MIRROR GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE
CONTENTS PAGE On Doing God’s Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Michael Kinsella. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Mystery of the Priestly Vocation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. Martin Barta. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Beginning a Journey with God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ukraine, India, Pakistan.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 A Miracle with Many Faces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Venezuela. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Source of Grace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Republic of Congo.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The Heart of the Catholic Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Russia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The ‘Living Stones’ of Bangui. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Central Africa Republic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 A Sign from God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Malawi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Curé of Ars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pope Benedict XVI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Archbishop Fulton Sheen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Harry Williams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Fr. Henry Sims. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dermott J. Mullan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Msgr. McDonald. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. Gerard Gordon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 One in Nine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Heine-Geldern. . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
‘Without the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we would not have the Lord. SAINT JOHN MARY VIANNEY - THE CURÉ D'ARS Editor: Jürgen Liminski. Publisher: ACN International, Postfach 1209, 61452 Königstein, Germany. De licentia competentis auctoritatis ecclesiasticae. Printed in Ireland - ISSN 0252-2535. www.acn-intl.org
ON DOING GOD’S WORK
ON DOING GOD’S WORK Dear Friends,
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he Church of the Eucharist is unimaginably more important than any Governmental or Non-Governmental Organisation for: it is through Her that the Holy Spirit saves humanity from itself. It is through Her that Christ Himself ‘offers life to men’.1
Aid to the Church in Need exists to help the Church in its pastoral mission of caring for every soul-in-need but especially for those who are suffering and being persecuted on account of their Faith in Jesus Christ and in His Mystical Body, the Holy Catholic Church. Tragically today Christ’s pilgrim Church on earth is suffering and being persecuted as rarely before in Her long history. Today also the sad reality is that the problems facing humanity have never been so grave and challenging. Indeed it is all too easy to lose hope and there is mounting evidence that increasing numbers of people are doing precisely that. So much so that one may reasonably ask: In the face of the world’s many crises, where is Hope to be found? In the face of so much burgeoning evil in the world, where is Goodness to be found? In the face of so much falsehood in the social and mass media, where is Truth to be found?
In the face of so much horrors on our screens and on our streets, where is Beauty to be found? To which Faith-filled Catholics can reply: Hope, Goodness, Truth and Beauty are to be found in the same place as they have been for the last two millennia: in the Real Presence of Christ, in the Holy Eucharist. The Mission of the Church is to bring the Holy Eucharist and healing power of the Gospel to the world. Aid to the Church in Need’s mission can thus be summarised as helping the Church bring Hope2, Charity3, and the Beauty of Truth4 to a world in crisis and despair. Beginning with this and continuing over the next few issues of the Mirror I would like to highlight some of the ways whereby Aid to the Church in Need is helping the Universal Church do God’s work. Priests do God’s work. Without the ministry of ordained Priests we would have no Eucharist and without vocations to the priesthood we would have no priests. So let’s begin this new series of Mirrors by looking at what ACN is doing to nourish vocations to the ministerial Priesthood and briefly reflect upon the lives of four Priests who have served God faithfully and well. Yours in Christ,
Dr. Michael Kinsella DIRECTOR, ACN IRELAND 1 Papal Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (The Church of the Eucharist), 17th April 2003, Paragraph 1 2 ‘Faith is Hope’ paragraph 2, Papal Encyclical, Spe Salvi (Saved Through Hope), 30th November 2007 3 Papal Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, (Charity in Truth), 29th June 2009 4 ‘Veritas in Caritate’ (Truth in Charity) Ephesians 4:15
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THE MYSTERY OF THE PRIESTLY VOCATION Dear Friends,
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central theme of the recent bishops’ synod on youth was the question of vocation. The synod fathers stressed that all of us have a calling from God. And indeed, the vocation of each one of us is this: to belong to Christ through Baptism, to be marked by the seal of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation, and to become one body with Him in the Blessed Eucharist. The mystery of the priestly vocation is closely tied up with the administration of the Sacraments. But at the same time, the Sacrament of priestly orders is a gift that exceeds our human nature. It is a calling that we do not merit.
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God chooses whom He wills. Often He chooses men who are altogether unprepared for His call. Therefore every priestly vocation is a story of marvels, in which the future miracles that God intends to work through His priest are already implicitly contained. One of these many marvellous stories was related to us by Fernando, now in the seminary in Montevideo, Uruguay. The country is highly secularised and, for decades now, Masonic influence within government has banished everything religious from public life. Consequently, a religious vocation here is a miracle in itself. Fernando, now 21, has been preparing for ordination for four years. His story began some years earlier, on a day like any other.
ON DOING GOD’S WORK
‘I was at school when the shocking news came through that Father William, our local parish priest, had been killed in a car accident. He was very close to our family. I couldn’t believe it, but when I arrived home, people were already flocking into the church where his body was laid, to bid him farewell. I went there with my mother. Looking around inside the church, I saw nothing but distraught, perplexed and helpless people around me, and on their faces the question: Why him? Why this 57-year-old priest of all people? I too was at a loss. And yet at the same time a question arose within me, which was repeated again and again: What can I do for these people? I felt I had to rise above myself. I looked up at a large picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which hung there and asked the question that burned in my heart: Lord, what do you want me to do? Then I looked down and saw Father William’s coffin.
Dear friends, Father Werenfried often used to say when preaching that he would gladly give up the entire collection if just one young man in the congregation were willing to place his life in the service of the Lord. Today there are many young men who have followed the call of the Lord and now need the help of your generosity. Most of them are poor and cannot afford to pay for their own training. Yet later they will repay everything they have been given by the Lord and work miracles in His Name. My grateful blessing on you all,
Father Martin M. Barta ACN ECCLESIASTICAL ASSISTANT
That was my answer: become a priest. Immediately, all the objections began. My future plans were clear, everything had already been marked out. Yet the answer burned in me like a fire. And in my mind I saw a simple, poor priest like Father William, close to the people, visiting the sick. At this the ‘castle’ I had built for my future simply collapsed and another ‘castle’ sprang up in its place, in which I had not laid a single brick. Other signs of God’s mercy followed, till finally I said yes to God’s call.’
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BEGINNING A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY WITH GOD UKRAINE, INDIA, PAKISTAN ‘The fundamental question of our priestly life is this: Where is my heart directed? It is a question we need to keep asking, daily, weekly. Where is my heart directed?’ POPE FRANCIS
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his question lies at the heart of every vocation. It was what Jaroslav, now at the seminary of Vorzel in Kiev, Ukraine, first asked himself when, more from curiosity than devotion, he began to prepare for his first Holy Communion. Before then he had found ‘everything boring: going to church; the sermon by a man I didn’t know; praying to a God I couldn’t see...’ Now he recalls,
‘Lord, let me know your will’: seminarians in Pakistan.
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‘It was curiosity that opened my heart. I asked myself, How can it be that people devote their entire lives to God? That was the way God chose to knock on the door of my heart. And then came the moment when I said ‘Amen’ – an Amen from the depths of my heart. It was the beginning of my vocation, the beginning of a journey of discovery with God throughout my life.’ Now he is at the Sacred Heart Seminary, preparing – with 23 others – for a life following the Lord.
ON DOING GOD’S WORK
Pavlo is another of the seminarians who felt the same questions burning within him: ‘Where is my heart leading? Which road does it long to follow?’ He was on retreat when he realised: ‘The priesthood is the path for me.’ But there was still a slight sense of uneasiness. It was only when he entered the seminary chapel, where the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament was taking place and they were chanting the Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. ‘I was overcome by a feeling of profound peace and I knew: this is my heart’s true home.’ Pavlo, Jaroslav and the others need our help to continue their journey to the priesthood. We have promised the seminary €600 for each of these 24 seminarians for the year ahead. It costs less to train the 23 seminarians who belong to Bongaigaon Diocese, in northeast India. This young diocese is growing fast. First founded, just 19 years ago, with 14 parishes, it now has 34, along with numerous
‘Follow me’: a procession in Kiev.
outstations. Priests are in short supply. Vocations are plentiful, but their training is costly for this poor diocese – and yet the diocese will not compromise over the quality of their formation. Bongaigaon is classic mission territory. Many people in the villages and tribal groups are hearing the Good News of God’s love for the first time. The seminarians also visit the people, and then share their experiences with one another back in the seminary. They need our help, and we have gladly promised them €9,200 for the current academic year. In Pakistan, in the diocese of Multan, similar experiences of community are vital. Confident of your generosity, we immediately said yes to Bishop Benny Travas when he asked for help (€7,500) to hold week long retreats and days of recollection for his 33 seminarians. These are essential for Christians living in such a hostile environment, so they can reflect on their future priestly journey – and find rest for their hearts in God. •
‘Here I am, Lord’: candidates in India.
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ON DOING GOD’S WORK
A MIRACLE WITH MANY FACES VENEZUELA
‘The mission of the priest in the Church is irreplaceable. Therefore, even if in some regions there is a scarcity of clergy, it should never be doubted that Christ continues to raise up men who, like the Apostles, leaving behind all other work, dedicate themselves completely to the celebration of the sacred mysteries, to the preaching of the Gospel and to pastoral ministry.’ POPE BENEDICT XVI.
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hese men ‘burn’ with love for Christ, whatever the circumstances. David Gonzalez, a seminarian at Saint Peter the Apostle’s Seminary on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela, put it like this: ‘To labour for Christ is not merely worth the effort, it is worth our lives.’ The only problem is, how can one to live in a country where the supermarkets shelves are bare?
asked us for help (€15,000), hoping to defy the food shortages and rampant inflation for one more year. More than ever, Venezuela needs priests to proclaim the Gospel and sacrifice themselves entirely in the service of their people. And if the desperate situation in the country should get even worse, then their presence will be more needed than ever. 20-year-old Jose Gregorio has only one goal in life. ‘I long to win souls for Christ and give my life for Him and His Church.’ With priests like this in the future, and with your generosity, we can overcome every adversity. •
The students at the seminary are often asked, ‘How do you manage for food?’ Another seminarian, Victor Mijares responded with a phrase from his Bishop, Raul Biord Castillo: ‘The fact that the seminary even still exists is a miracle, a miracle with many faces.’ One face of this miracle is ACN, as it is thanks to you, our benefactors, that the seminarians are able to study in the first place, without going hungry. So this year, once again, the 22 seminarians from six different dioceses will be able to continue their studies, despite the crisis in their country. Bishop Raul has
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‘Lord, send me’: seminarians in Venezuela preparing to receive their habits.
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THE SOURCE OF GRACE REPUBLIC OF CONGO
‘Wherever there is life, fervour and a desire to bring Christ to others, genuine vocations will arise.’ POPE BENEDICT XVI.
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his fervour and desire are found in many parts of Africa. It is the continent of vocations. Take for example the small diocese of Ouesso in the Republic of Congo with just 15,000 Catholics (roughly 20% of the population). Founded in 1983, its first native priest was ordained in 1999. Now the number of priests has grown to 20, and there are 12 young men in the seminary.
The day of his ordination, proud parents beside him.
One of the seminarians, Mokoko Lys, speaks for them all when he describes the source of this grace: ‘The summit of our spiritual life is the celebration of the Eucharist. This is the sacred place of our encounter with Christ the Redeemer. This daily experience of being so close to Him will make us capable, in the future, as priests, of bringing people the Word that redeems.’ The training they receive is solid – and costly for this small diocese. We have been asked to help with €7,300 for the current academic year. •
Ready to serve God: deacons being ordained in the Congo.
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ON DOING GOD’S WORK
THE HEART OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH RUSSIA
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ccording to Pope Francis, a priestly vocation is like a ‘diamond in the rough’, which needs to be ‘carefully polished with respect for the conscience of the candidates and with patience, so that they may shine among the People of God’. In the seminary of Mary, Queen of Apostles in Saint Petersburg, Russia there are six of these ‘rough diamonds’. One of them has come almost from the ends of the earth – from the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Siberia, some 11 hours away by plane. Kamchatka belongs to the diocese of Irkutsk.
Yevgeni studied tourism, and it was as a tour guide that he met a Catholic priest who became ‘an example for my life’. Later, in the army, he saw how many soldiers had lost all inner peace and were deprived of spiritual
Caught by a wave: future fishers of men on the shore by Saint Petersburg. 8
nourishment. He prayed with them, as he had learnt from his priest friend: the Our Father, the Rosary, the Creed. He felt God was calling him. ‘I could have done every possible thing in the Church’, he says, ‘but there is one thing that only the priest can do, namely forgive sins in the name of Christ and make Christ truly present in Holy Mass.’ This is what he felt called to do. ‘By the grace of God, I am now the only seminarian from the largest diocese in the world’, he says. Gregor also felt the call. He was an electrical engineer and loved to party. One morning, after a night’s heavy drinking, he was sitting on the bus, bleary-eyed and late for work – and worried that he would be fired for being late. Then he
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remembered his Bible, opened it and read: ‘... from now on you will be catching men..., they left everything and followed him’ (Lk 5:10-11). But Gregor still hesitated, wanting to see a sign. A mishap at work meant that his late arrival went unnoticed in the chaos. He took this as a sign and soon afterwards, Gregor was on his way to Saint Petersburg. Each of the six seminarians has his own story to tell, as have the six men who are preparing for the permanent diaconate.
From tour guide to seminarian. Yevgeni, the only seminarian from the largest diocese in the world.
They all represent the latest chapter in yet another great story, that of the seminary itself. Founded in 1879, and confiscated by the Bolsheviks in 1918, for decades it was used by Communists as an administrative building, then finally it was returned in a dilapidated state to the Catholic Church after the end of the Soviet Union by a decree signed by the then vice mayor, Vladimir Putin.
Since it reopened in 1993, 64 priests have been ordained. A seminary is the heart of the diocese, as then Apostolic Administrator of Moscow, Bishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz once said, ‘This seminary is the heart of the Catholic Church in Russia.’ In short, it is a treasure in need of renovation and Aid to the Church in Need is assisting with these efforts.
So in addition to being a seminary it is a place of profound symbolic importance, a historical treasure. 700 priests have passed through its doors, many died as martyrs, two have been proclaimed saints.
Additionally, ACN has agreed to underwrite the running costs (€79,000 p.a.) for the entire complex. These costs are projected to decrease once the seminary’s pilgrim house opens its doors. •
Many of them died as martyrs: Seminarians at the main entrance to the seminary – pre-1917.
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THE ‘LIVING STONES’ OF BANGUI THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
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n his first letter to the Christians in Asia Minor, Saint Peter writes: ‘You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ’ (1 Pt 2:5).
The Carmelite Fathers in the Central African Republic understand these words both literally and metaphorically. They see themselves as ‘living stones’ in the Church and they also manufacture stones, or more precisely, bricks, with which they build schools, churches and hospitals. The very first missionaries here did the same thing over 120 years ago. Now it is a matter of trying to rebuild the country after decades of power struggles and civil war.
Building the first school.
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‘Our bricks will prove stronger than war and hatred’, says Padre Federico – and by that he means both the living stones which are the Carmelite Friars and the bricks for building the houses. For while the old bricks, made of baked clay, eventually crumbled, the new bricks they are producing are made of earth, sand and cement, compressed in a special machine with just a little water. They will last practically forever, an image of the fidelity and perseverance of the Carmelites. Bodelo is 20 years old. A refugee, he sought shelter with the Carmelites, along with his family. Seeing the new bricks, he exclaims enthusiastically: ‘Mbi ye ti ga maçon – I want to be a bricklayer.’ For Bodelo and other refugees like him, there will be opportunities to work in brick making and rebuilding.
Bricks to build the kingdom of God.
ON DOING GOD’S WORK
The Carmelites will also be selling the bricks for other projects – like the centre for undernourished children that is now being built in Bangui at the Pope’s request. ‘Not a bad beginning’, laughs Padre Federico, ‘to have the Pope as our first customer!’
‘And whereas all the bricks are identical, each brother is quite different from the next. They all have the same goal and all burn with the same love, but each one builds different mansions with this love in the Kingdom of God.’
But what matters most to him, and to the Holy Father too no doubt, is the steady trickle of young men knocking on their door. ‘They are the stones with which we are building the Church of Christ in this country’, he says. Except that while it takes no more than a week for a brick to be ready to build with, the formation of a young Carmelite novice will last from the first moment of his vocation until the end of his life, built into the walls of the living Church.
For 10 years now, Padre Federico has been responsible for the formation of the postulants, novices and seminarians. He has asked our help for the 38 young Carmelites in the monasteries and seminaries of Bangui and Bouar and also Yaoundo in Cameroon. A total of €22,800 will help these young hearts burn brighter and these young men become living stones in the spiritual house of the Church. •
Spiritual builders of the future: Carmelite friars and novices in Bangui. Padre Federico is on the left.
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A SIGN FROM GOD
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he country of Malawi in Southeast Africa is one of the poorest in the world. Around a fifth of its 19 million inhabitants are Catholic.
‘It was like a sign from God’, he writes, ‘that He continues to hold His hand in blessing over me.’
For the priests, Mass stipends are essential for their survival, and not least for the elderly priests. For Emeritus Bishop Allan Chamgwera of Zomba the stipends arrived on the day of his 90th birthday.
He thanks us for our ‘generous support’ and prays to God
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‘that He may continue to sustain your enthusiasm for the Faith and the creativity to continue spreading the Good News’. •
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Training of Priests 13,643
Seminarians received support from ACN in 2017
Aid to the Church Need is able to support one in every nine Seminarians around the world on their path to Priesthood.
‘It is the Priest who continues the work of redemption on earth’ T H E C U R É D ’A R S
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THE CURÉ OF ARS – A MODEL PRIEST POPE BENEDICT XVI5
‘The Priesthood is the Love of the Heart of Jesus’, the saintly Curé of Ars would often say. This touching expression makes us reflect, first of all, with heartfelt gratitude on the immense gift which Priests represent, not only for the Church, but also for humanity itself.
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think of all those Priests who quietly present Christ’s words and actions each day to the faithful and to the whole world, striving to be one with the Lord in their thoughts and their will, their sentiments and their style of life. How can I not pay tribute to their apostolic labours, their tireless and hidden service, their universal charity? And how can I not praise the courageous fidelity of so many Priests who, even amid difficulties and incomprehension, The town of Ars, France.
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remain faithful to their vocation as ‘friends of Christ’, whom He has called by name, chosen and sent? I still treasure the memory of the first Parish Priest at whose side I exercised my ministry as a young Priest: he left me an example of unreserved devotion to his pastoral duties, even to meeting his own death in the act of bringing viaticum to a gravely ill person. I also recall the countless confreres whom I have met and continue to meet, not least in my pastoral visits to different countries: men 5 Adapted, abridged and edited from Pope Benedict XVI, ‘Proclaiming a Year for Priests on the 150th Anniversary of the ‘Dies Natalis’ of the Curé of Ars’. The Vatican, 16 June 2009. The complete text (and references) of Pope Benedict’s address is available at www.acnireland.org/Mirror 01 2019.
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generously dedicated to the daily exercise of their priestly ministry. Yet the expression of Saint John Mary also makes us think of Christ’s pierced Heart and the crown of thorns which surrounds it.
Here the teaching and example of Saint John Mary Vianney can serve as a significant point of reference for us all. The Curé of Ars was very humble, yet as a Priest he was conscious of being an immense gift to his people:
I also think, therefore, of the countless situations of suffering endured by many Priests, either
‘A good shepherd, a pastor after God’s heart, is the greatest treasure which the good Lord can grant to a parish, and one of the most precious gifts of divine mercy’.
because they themselves share in the manifold human experience of pain or because they encounter misunderstanding from the very persons to whom they minister. How can we not also think of all those priests who are offended in their dignity, obstructed in their mission and persecuted, even at times to offering the supreme testimony of their own blood?
He spoke of the Priesthood as if incapable of fathoming the grandeur of the gift and task entrusted to a human creature: ‘O, how great is the Priest! … If he realised what he is, he would die… God obeys him: he utters a few words and the Lord descends from heaven at his voice, to be contained within a small host…’.
There are also, sad to say, situations which can never be sufficiently deplored where the Church Herself suffers as a consequence of infidelity on the part of some of Her ministers. Then it is the world which finds grounds for scandal and rejection. What is most helpful to the Church in such cases is not only a frank and complete acknowledgment of the weaknesses of Her ministers, but also a joyful and renewed realisation of the greatness of God’s gift, embodied in the splendid example of generous pastors, religious afire with love for God and for souls, and insightful, patient spiritual guides.
Saint John Mary Vianney
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Explaining to his parishioners the importance of the Sacraments, he would say: ‘Without the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we would not have the Lord. Who put Him there in that tabernacle? The Priest. Who welcomed your soul at the beginning of your life? The Priest. Who feeds your soul and gives it strength for its journey? The Priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, bathing it one last time in the blood of Jesus Christ? The Priest, always the Priest. And if this soul should happen to die [as a result of sin], who will raise it up, who will restore its calm and peace? Again, the Priest… After God, the Priest is everything! … Only in heaven will he fully realise what he is’.
It is the Priest who continues the work of redemption on earth… What use would be a house filled with gold, were there no one to open its door? The Priest holds the key to the treasures of heaven: it is he who opens the door: he is the steward of the good Lord; the administrator of His goods … Leave a parish for twenty years without a Priest, and they will end by worshiping the beasts there… The Priest is not a Priest for himself, he is a Priest for you’. He arrived in Ars, a village of 230 souls, warned by his Bishop beforehand that there he would find religious practice in a sorry state: ‘There is little love of God in that parish; you will be the one to put it there’. As a result, he was deeply aware that he needed to go there
These words, welling up from the priestly heart of the Holy pastor, might sound excessive. Yet they reveal the high esteem in which he held the Sacrament of the Priesthood. He seemed overwhelmed by a boundless sense of responsibility: ‘Were we to fully realise what a Priest is on earth, we would die: not of fright, but of love… Without the Priest, the passion and death of our Lord would be of no avail. Pope Benedict XVI
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to embody Christ’s presence and to bear witness to His saving mercy: ‘[Lord,] grant me the conversion of my parish; I am willing to suffer whatever you wish, for my entire life!’: with this prayer he entered upon his mission. The Curé devoted himself completely to his parish’s conversion, setting before all else the Christian education of the people in his care. The Curé of Ars immediately set about this patient and humble task of harmonising his life as a minister with the Holiness of the ministry he had received, by deciding to ‘live’, physically, in his parish church: As his first biographer tells us: ‘Upon his arrival, he chose the church as his home. He entered the church before dawn and did not leave it until after the evening Angelus. There he was to be sought whenever needed’.
Saint John Mary Vianney taught his parishioners primarily by the witness of his life. It was from his example that they learned to pray, halting frequently before the tabernacle for a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. ‘One need not say much to pray well’ – the Curé explained to them – ‘We know that Jesus is there in the tabernacle: let us open our hearts to Him, let us rejoice in His sacred presence. That is the best prayer’. And he would urge them: ‘Come to communion, my brothers and sisters, come to Jesus. Come to live from him in order to live with him… Of course you are not worthy of him, but you need him!’
The pious excess of his devout biographer should not blind us to the fact that the Curé also knew how to ‘live’ actively within the entire territory of his parish: he regularly visited the sick and families, organised popular missions and patronal feasts, collected and managed funds for charitable and missionary works, embellished and furnished his parish church, cared for the orphans and teachers of the ‘Providence’ (an institute he founded); provided for the education of children; founded confraternities and enlisted lay persons to work at his side. Pope Francis
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This way of educating the faithful to the Eucharistic Presence and to Communion proved most effective when they saw him celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Those present said that ‘it was not possible to find a finer example of worship… He gazed upon the Host with immense love’. ‘All good works, taken together, do not equal the sacrifice of the Mass’ – he would say – ‘since they are human works, while the Holy Mass is the work of God’. He was convinced that the fervour of a priest’s life depended entirely upon the Mass: ‘The reason why a priest is lax is that he does not pay attention to the Mass! My God, how we ought to pity a priest who celebrates as if he were engaged in something routine!’.
He was accustomed, when celebrating, also to offer his own life in sacrifice: ‘What a good thing it is for a priest each morning to offer himself to God in sacrifice!’ This deep personal identification with the Sacrifice of the Cross led him – by a sole inward movement – from the altar to the confessional. Priests ought never to be resigned to empty confessionals or the apparent indifference of the faithful to this Sacrament. In France, at the time of the Curé of Ars, Confession was no more easy or frequent than in our own day, since the upheaval caused by the Revolution had long inhibited the practice of Religion. Yet he sought in every way, by his preaching and his powers of persuasion, to help his parishioners to rediscover the meaning and beauty of the Sacrament of Penance, presenting it as an inherent demand of the Eucharistic presence. He thus created a ‘virtuous’ circle. By spending long hours in Church before the Tabernacle, he inspired the faithful to imitate him by coming to visit Jesus with the knowledge that their Parish Priest would be there, ready to listen and offer forgiveness. Later, the growing numbers of penitents from all over France would keep him in the confessional for up to sixteen hours a day. It was said that Ars had become ‘a great hospital of souls’. From Saint John Mary Vianney we can learn to put our unfailing trust in the Sacrament
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of Penance, to set it once more at the centre of our pastoral concerns, and to take up the ‘dialogue of salvation’ which it entails. The Curé of Ars dealt with different penitents in different ways. Those who came to his confessional drawn by a deep and humble longing for God’s forgiveness found in him the encouragement to plunge into the ‘flood of divine mercy’ which sweeps everything away by its vehemence. If someone was troubled by the thought of his own frailty and inconstancy, and fearful of sinning again, the Curé would unveil the mystery of God’s Love in these beautiful and touching words: ‘The good Lord knows everything. Even before you confess, He already knows that you will sin again, yet He still forgives you. How great is the love of our God: He even forces Himself to forget the future, so that He can grant us His forgiveness!’
But to those who made a lukewarm and rather indifferent confession of sin, he clearly demonstrated by his own tears of pain how ‘abominable’ this attitude was: ‘I weep because you don’t weep’, he would say. ‘If only the Lord were not so good! But He is so good! One would have to be a brute to treat so good a Father this way!’ He awakened repentance in the hearts of the lukewarm by forcing them to see God’s own pain at their sins reflected in the face of the Priest who was their Confessor. To those who, on the other hand, came to him already desirous of and suited to a deeper spiritual life, he flung open the abyss of God’s Love, explaining the untold beauty of living in union with Him and dwelling in His presence:
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‘Everything in God’s sight, everything with God, everything to please God… How beautiful it is!’ And he taught them to pray: ‘My God, grant me the grace to love you as much as I possibly can’. In his time the Curé of Ars was able to transform the hearts and the lives of so many people because he enabled them to experience the Lord’s Merciful Love. Our own time urgently needs a similar proclamation and witness to the truth of Love: Deus caritas est (1 Jn: 4:8). Thanks to the Word and the Sacraments of Jesus, John Mary Vianney built up his flock, although he often trembled from a conviction of his personal inadequacy, and desired more than once to withdraw from the responsibilities of the parish ministry out of a sense of his unworthiness. Nonetheless, with exemplary
obedience he never abandoned his post, consumed as he was by apostolic zeal for the salvation of souls. He sought to remain completely faithful to his own vocation and mission through the practice of an austere asceticism: ‘The great misfortune for us Parish Priests – he lamented – is that our souls grow tepid’; meaning by this that a pastor can grow dangerously inured to the state of sin or of indifference in which so many of his flock are living. He himself kept a tight rein on his body, with vigils and fasts, lest it rebel against his priestly soul. Nor did he avoid self-mortification for the good of the souls in his care and as a help to expiating the many sins he heard in confession. To a priestly confrere he explained: ‘I will tell you my recipe: I give sinners a small penance and the rest I do in their place’. Aside from the actual penances which the Curé of Ars practised, the core of his teaching remains valid for each of us: souls have been won at the price of Jesus’ own blood, and a Priest cannot devote himself to their salvation if he refuses to share personally in the ‘precious cost’ of redemption. In today’s world, as in the troubled times of the Curé of Ars, the lives and activity of priests need to be distinguished by a determined witness to the Gospel. •
Saint John Mary Vianney
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Mass Stipends 1,504,105
Mass Intentions delivered in 2017
Aid to the Church Need is able to support one in every ten priests worldwide.
‘All good works, taken together, do not equal the Sacrifice of the Mass the Holy Mass is the work of God’. T H E C U R É D ’A R S
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MY GRANNY’S FAVOURITE PRIEST HARRY WILLIAMS6
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here was a famous priest that my grandmother, Effie Williams, loved to talk about. She was personally familiar with him because after he was ordained, he was assigned to her parish — St. Patrick’s Church in Peoria. Whenever she talked about him, her face would light up.
A couple of months before his death, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen was asked on national television:
The priest was Fr. Fulton J. Sheen, later known as Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. Grandma Effie told me that when Sheen spoke, everyone listened, even the people who were not Catholics. It was as though there was a magnetic force that surrounded him that attracted people to him.
Bishop Sheen responded that it was not a Pope, a Cardinal, another Bishop, or even a Priest or a Nun. It was a little Chinese girl of eleven years of age. He explained that when the Communists took over China, they imprisoned a Priest in his own rectory near the Church.
If there was such a force, it came directly from the extraordinary graces he received as a result of the holy hour of adoration he made every day for more than 60 years in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord — from the time he became a priest in 1919, until the time of his death in 1979.
After they locked him up in his own house, the Priest was horrified to look out his window and see the Communists proceed into the Church, where they went into the sanctuary and broke into the tabernacle. In an act of hateful desecration, they took the ciborium and threw it on the floor with all the Sacred Hosts spilling out. The priest knew exactly how many Hosts were in the ciborium: thirty-two.
‘Bishop Sheen, you have inspired millions of people all over the world. Who inspired you?’
When the Communists left, they either did not notice, or didn’t pay any attention to a small girl praying in the back of the Church who saw everything that had happened.
Father Fulton Sheen
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6 Adapted and edited from Harry Williams My Grandmother’s Favorite Priest November 20, 2016. The original is available at: https://adoration.com/2016/archbishop-fulton-j-sheen-new-york-judge-ruling-mygrandmothers-favorite-priest/
ON DOING GOD’S WORK
That night the little girl came back. Slipping past the guard at the Priest’s house, she went inside the Church. There she made a Holy Hour of Prayer, an Act of Love to make up for the act of hatred. After her Holy Hour, she went into the sanctuary, knelt down, bent over and with her tongue received Jesus in Holy Communion (because it was not permissible for laymen at that time to touch the Sacred Host with their hands).
to bring the world to the burning Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. It is a marvel to reflect upon how the story of the devotion and sacrifice of an anonymous little Chinese girl inspired and transformed the life and mission of one of the giants of the Church in the 20th Century. Undoubtedly that unknown little martyr is now numbered among the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. •
The little girl continued to come back each night to make her Holy Hour and receive Jesus in Holy Communion on her tongue. On the thirty-second night, after she had consumed the last and thirty-second host, she accidentally made a noise and woke the guard who was sleeping. He ran after her, caught her, and beat her to death with the butt of his rifle. This act of heroic martyrdom was witnessed by the Priest as he watched grief-stricken from his bedroom window. When Bishop Sheen heard the story he was so inspired that he promised God he would make a Holy Hour of prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament every day of his life. If this frail, little child could give testimony and witness to the world concerning the real and wonderful Presence of her Saviour in the Blessed Sacrament, then the Bishop was absolutely bound by all that was right and true, to do the same. His sole desire from then on was
Bishop Fulton Sheen
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FR. HENRY SIMS, MY FAVOURITE PRIEST DERMOTT J. MULLAN7
I
still remember the first sermon I heard from Father Henry Sims back in July 1972. My wife and I were on vacation with our first child when we attended Mass in St. Patrick’s in Newcastle. The Priest, Father Sims, mentioned that although God had to take care of some large things, such as the solar system, He could still also take care of you and me. ‘And thank God He does!’ were his words. I had never heard a Priest mention a topic that was even remotely close to my work (astronomy), but here was Father Sims putting God’s care for me in an astronomical context. Then he said: ‘I always recommend that people read the Bible every day, even if it’s only one verse. Someone may object: but if I read only one verse a day, I’ll never get finished. But that’s okay: you can finish it in Heaven’.
With those two items, Father Sims got my attention. From 1972 until his death in 1999, every time we were able to return to Newcastle we would always go to hear Father Sims celebrate Mass. In which regards I was deeply impressed by a practice that Father Sims had in preparation for Holy Mass. After preparing the altar, he would kneel down on the top step of the altar, gazing at the tabernacle for at least 2 or
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3 minutes. I have never seen any other priest prepare for Mass in this way. Every summer, I would go to Father Sims for spiritual direction and for sacramental confession. He always set aside a couple of hours to deal with whatever topics I wanted to discuss. On one occasion, I had just received news that my mother had terminal cancer. Father helped me prepare for my mother’s death by means of a technique that at first seemed bizarre: he rose from his chair, walked to the door, opened it, and left the room. Then he came back in to explain that death was like passing through a door, and my mother was getting ready for that. However, Jesus has already gone through the same door, so He would there to help my mother when her time came. In one memorable Confession, before he assigned me a penance, he asked: ‘Who do you pray to? God the Father, or God the Son? Your answer will determine what penance I give you.’ Prior to that time, I had never really thought much about praying to God the Father, but from that Confession on, Father Sims’ question led me to reflect on a whole new aspect of Prayer.
7 Adapted and edited from Homiletic and Pastoral Review, December 2003, p. 72
ON DOING GOD’S WORK
During one Confession when I had asked Father to guide me through the Examination of Conscience, he stunned me by asking, in connection with the Fourth Commandment: ‘Have you any favourites among your children?’ It had never dawned on me that such an attitude might be sinful. Father Sims certainly treasured my children: during the last few years of his life, he set aside a ten-week interval each year, and on one day of each successive week, he celebrated Mass for each of my children individually. On one occasion, he celebrated Mass in our vacation home. He said that the Mass would bring down God’s blessings on all who use that home, whether they are believers or not:
‘Those visitors who are not believers will not know where the blessings are coming from, but we will know’. A year before he died, Father Sims wrote me a multi-page letter covering certain aspects of the priorities that should occupy my outlook on life. The wisdom, kindness, and practicality of the letter are striking. ‘Give the Lord everything in your life’, he told me, ‘and He will take everything’. He knew the meaning of those words personally: as a convert to Catholicism, he was full of joy and enthusiasm for the Church. He helped so many people into the Church. Now that Father Sims has passed away, I pray for him in every Sunday Mass because of a certain habit he had during his own Masses. When it was time for the Gloria, he would raise his hands and eyes to heaven and say in a highly unusual way the words ‘Glory to God in the highest’. What was unusual was the way in which he would pronounce the word ‘glory’: the ‘O’ was uttered as a long-drawn out sound which left me wondering if Father was perhaps seeing the glory of God’s presence right then and there. Now, at every Sunday Mass, my mind turns to Father Sims during the Gloria, and I pray God to admit into the glory of heaven this Holy Priest who was truly a shepherd to me for almost thirty years. •
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MSGR. MCDONALD, MY FAVOURITE PRIEST FATHER GERARD GORDON8
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henever you went to visit him you could not help but notice the front door; you could see it from the parking lot as you drove by the church: CONFESSION! The foot-high letters were emblazoned on the front door as a reminder to all who knocked, and to all who passed by, that the time of salvation is near; do not postpone God’s Mercy. Judgement could come at any moment! Monsignor McDonald (10 April 1941 – 16 November 2018) was like no other priest you will ever meet; he was cut from a different cloth that they don’t make anymore. I once asked him when he knew he wanted to be a Priest. He barked the answer: ‘The moment I was born.’
He was beloved by his parishioners and especially by other Priests. He continued to say his prayers in Latin, in the old-school tradition. He gave away everything, and never kept a thing for himself. He had a funny little thing that never ceased to amaze us. It went like this: if you told him a date—any date—he would tell you what the feast day was. Or, conversely, if you told him a Saint, he would tell you the feast date. He knew them all, even the most obscure and arcane saint.
I asked him if he liked being a Monsignor. His answer came before I could finish the question: ‘I love it!’
We would test him, starting with the easy ones: ‘St. Francis?’ The quick response: ‘October 4.’ ‘November 22?’ Easy ‘St. Cecilia.’ Then they got harder: ‘April 9?’ The correct answer: ‘St. Acacius of Amida.’ ‘July 24?’ Instantly the correct saint: ‘St. Christina the Astonishing.’
He loved everything about being a Priest; that should give you a little insight into the man who really was beloved by anyone who met him. His parishioners would always say the same thing: ‘He doesn’t need a microphone.’ I would agree with that statement. He shouted the Gospel to all who would listen, and to those who wouldn’t.
How did he do it? How did he know all these things? The only answer was that he loved our faith and found it inexhaustible. The saints really were his friends. As we know the birthdays of our friends, he knew the feast days of his friends the saints….and now he lives with them forever; he is now one of them.
8 Adapted and edited from Fr. Gerard Gordon, ‘My Favorite Priest’. Original can be accessed at http://policeholyname.org/my-favorite-priest/ Fr Gordon is Chaplain to the Police Holy Name society of Nassau County, New York. Watch Msgr. McDonald discussing his being a priest at: https://vimeo.com/188328209
Monsignor McDonald could never pass by a wake without stopping in. He would go into every parlour when visiting a wake. I learned that from him. Whenever I go to a wake, I stop
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in to say a prayer in the next parlour. I find the families are very appreciative, and I usually wind up meeting people I know. Simply put, he loved being a Priest. If you were to Google ‘Priest,’ his picture should show up because he was as they say, a ‘Priest’s Priest’. He was the Priest another Priest could go to with any concerns, and his responses were always abundantly merciful. I went to him once with a problem. I was taking care of my sainted mother who was well into many years of Alzheimers and I was close to broke. He gave me the couple of hundred dollars needed to get us through.
I’m not sure I ever thanked him appropriately for that, but I have never forgotten him for it. And now from Heaven he knows how grateful I am to him for being such a great inspiration of what it meant to be a Priest. I cannot begin to count the lives of the people he helped and touched throughout his many years of service. Msgr. McDonald’s last wish was that all what he had should go to the support of vocations, so that you might have good Priests and that your children in turn might have good Priests to serve them. I wish I had told him that he was my favourite Priest when he was in this world. •
‘ Do not postpone God’s Mercy’ MONSIGNOR JAMES M. MCDONALD
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HAPPY TO HELP HAPPY TO HELP Many thanks for your letter. I am happy to be able to help – even if only in this modest way. I find it hard to imagine how I would bear it if I had to suffer or face persecution for my faith myself. A Benefactor in Slovakia PRAYING CONSTANTLY FOR THE MISSIONARIES Our heartfelt greetings to all at ACN and our thanks for the work you are doing. Let us hope that this new birth of Jesus will bring peace to the hearts of all the world, particularly where Christians are persecuted mercilessly for their faith. My sister and I both pray constantly to God for the missionaries and for all the people in these places, to give them the strength they need. Two Friends in Chile
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SECURELY DEPOSITED IN THE INVIOLABLE SAFE I have just received Mirror and although I gave a donation just a few days ago for Christians in the Middle East, I feel I must put another €100 securely away from thieves, in that inviolable safe – the poor and needy. We must help the victims of this war, for which we in the West must bear some share of the blame. May God strengthen those helping our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria, and grant them happier day. May He bless you all. A Benefactor in France THANKFUL FOR ACN I give thanks for the existence of ACN and for the fact that the great deeds that began in the time of Father Werenfried continue to this day. A Benefactress in Germany
ON DOING GOD’S WORK
ONE IN NINE Dear Friends,
A
lmost 15 years ago one of our sons informed us that he felt God was calling him to the Priesthood and that, after completing his studies in Architecture, he intended to follow this call. The emotional response of family members was initially somewhat contrary to the joy one would expect when the Lord calls a new labourer into His vineyard. We were particularly concerned about how we could help prepare him for the many ongoing spiritual, intellectual and human challenges that he would encounter when following his vocation. These concerns made us all very conscious of the importance of the family’s spiritual formation and accompaniment of Seminarians.
No stone should be left unturned in helping them to develop in maturity, in supporting their faith, and thereby providing our future Priests with the best possible preparation for the responsibilities of their future mission doing God’s work. Thanks to your prayers and your generous donations, ACN is able to support one in every nine Seminarians around the world on their, not always easy, path to Priesthood. My heartfelt thanks to you all, along with the fervent plea to continue with your unfailing support. With sincere good wishes,
Thomas Heine-Geldern EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT OF ACN INTERNATIONAL
WHERE TO SEND YOUR DONATION TO AID THE CHURCH IN NEED Please use the Freepost envelope. Aid to the Church in Need, 151 St. Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9.
(01) 837 7516
info@acnireland.org www.acnireland.org
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IE32 BOFI 9005 7890 6993 28 BOFI IE2D
If you give by Standing Order, or have sent a donation recently, please accept our sincere thanks. This MIRROR is for your interest and information. Registered Charity Numbers: (RoI) 9492 (NI) XR96620.
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‘The Sacrament of priestly order is a gift that exceeds our human nature.’ ACN Ecclesiastical Assistant
‘The vocation to the priesthood so greatly exceeds ordinary human strength that its germination, its growth and its fruitfulness are entirely dependent on the prayer that must precede, sustain and accompany the life of every priest.’ Ready to serve at God’s Altar: Pope Francis ordaining a deacon to the priesthood in Saint Peter’s, Rome.
THE MIRROR IS AVAILABLE TO READ AT ACNIRELAND.ORG/MIRROR 19 - 1
Father Werenfried van Straaten