Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
GospelLuke 17:11-19 (English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between
Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who
stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have
mercy on us.’ When he saw them he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the
priests.’ And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw
that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on
his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus
answered, ‘Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to
return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ And he said to him, ‘Rise
and go your way; your faith has made you well.’
I've told this story before on this blog, in homilies, and on retreats I have given because the incident in question had a profound impact on me. It happened on the morning of Holy Thursday 1990 atHoly Family Retreat House, Lahug, Cebu City, which is run by the Redemptorists. I had gone up there after breakfast to do some business and as I was going in a woman approached me asking for some help. I made an excuse as I entered.
When I was inside I could see the woman through the glass doors sitting on the step (in photo above), her daughter, aged 13 or 14, beside her and resting her head on her mother's shoulder. I could see that, like the two peasant girls in Millet's painting above, they were heavily burdened - but with tiredness and hunger.
My business didn't detain me and when I was going out the two stood up. I gave the mother enough to buy breakfast for the two of them. The daughter looked at me with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen and said,'Salamat sa Ginoo - Thanks to the Lord!'
The radiance of this girl's smile compared to the look of dejection she had earlier was like the contrast between the colours of the painting by Adolf Fényes and the darkness of that of Jean-François Millet above. What struck me profoundly was that she wasn't thanking me. She was thanking the Lord, and inviting me to do the same, because he had responded to her prayer and that of her mother, Give us this day our daily bread.
In the First Reading, which on Sundays and solemnities is always related to the Gospel, Elisha reacts very strongly to Naaman's gratitude after he was cured of leprosy: Then [Naaman] returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, 'Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant'.But he said, 'As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.' And he urged him to take it, but he refused (2 Kings 5:15-16).
Naaman was grateful to God for his cure but wanted to reward Elisha. In de Grebber's painting we see Elisha turning away from Naaman almost in horror. Perhaps he overreacted but he had a profound sense of the fact that it wasn't he who had healed the Syrian general but God whose servant and instrument he was. Elisha wanted only God to be praised and thanked.
And indeed it was a young girl, probably around the same age as the one I met in Cebu City, who had directed Naaman to the Lord through his servant Elisha. In the verses preceding those read today we read: Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife.She said to her mistress, 'Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.' (2 Kings 5:2-3 ESVUK).
The young girl in Cebu expressed her gratitude for what I had given her mother by praising God directly and by inviting me to join her in her prayer of praise and thanksgiving. In doing so she gave me a far greater gift than any that Naaman could have offered Elisha, a profound awareness that everything we have is a gift from God.
I had never met the girl and her mother before nor did I ever see them again. But that meeting has been for me ever since what I call an 'ongoing grace from God'. The girl would now be in her late 40s. Please say a prayer for her and her mother and for their family. And may we thank God each day for everything we have, above all for the gift of our Catholic Christian faith.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest act of thanksgiving - Eucharist - that we can offer to God.
Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria Virgine, vere passum, immolatum in cruce pro homine cuius latus perforatum fluxit aqua et sanguine: esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine.
Hail, true Body, born of the Virgin Mary, having truly suffered, sacrificed on the cross for mankind, from whose pierced side water and blood flowed: Be for us a foretaste [of the Heavenly banquet] in the trial of death!
Traditional Latin Mass
What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful (Benedict XVI).
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-12-2025 if necessary).
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:4-8. Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8.
‘Will any one of you who has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, “Come at once and recline at table”'? (Luke 17:7; Gospel).
Readings(Jerusalem
Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)
Readings(English
Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)
GospelLuke 17:5-10 (English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
At that time:
The Apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ And the Lord said, ‘If you
had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree,
“Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.
‘Will any one
of you who has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come
in from the field, “Come at once and recline at table”? Will he not rather say
to him, “Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat
and drink, and afterwards you will eat and drink”? Does he thank the servant
because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you
were commanded, say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our
duty.” ’
And the Lord said, ‘If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you' (Luke 17:6; Gospel).
In the summer of 1964, after my third year in the seminary, I spent a couple of weeks working in theMorning Star Hostel in Dublin. It was within walking distance of my home. I had been in the Legion of Mary for most of my five years in secondary school and used to rejoin my praesidium (the basic branch of the Legion) during summer vacations. In the summer of 1963 I spent a week on Peregrinatio pro Christo in a parish in Liverpool, England, and in 1965 did the same in a parish in Paisley, Scotland. My last experience of Peregrinatio was in Pewsey, Wiltshire, in the southwest of England in 1966.
Morning Star Hostel has a small number of 'indoor brothers' taking care of the men who stay there. These are laymen, Legionaries who devote themselves full-time to this work with the help of male legionaries who work there for a number of hours each week. I remember two of the indoor brothers from 1964, Tom Doyle and Sid Quinn. The old webpage about the Morning Star - the page doesn't seem to be there anymore - gave a short biography of Tom, along with a photo. It describes him in these terms: Tom Doyle was the manager of the hostel for about 50 years and he is regarded as an unknown saint by most if not all the people who knew him.
Tom Doyle (1905 - 1992)
I didn't get to know Tom or Sid well, certainly not their inner lives, though I did join them at prayer, which is central to the lives and work of members of the Legion of Mary and at all meetings. Sid knew my father as they had grown up in the same working class neighbourhood where I also grew up. I saw the utter dedication of Tom and Sid, or 'Brother Tom' and 'Brother Sid' as they were known within the hostel. During Legion meetings and Legion work members address and refer to each other as 'Brother' and 'Sister' but not outside of that.
As Pope Francis might put it, Tom and Sid well knew 'the smell of their sheep'. That might be the smell of alcohol, the smell of unwashed bodies. Sometimes for Tom it might be the smell of his own blood: Rows and scuffles and fist fights were regular occurrences and poor Tom had the responsibility of calming every storm. No doubt Tom who was small in stature was on the receiving end of some of those blows and it is well known that near the end of his life one of the residents very badly beat him up so that he had to spend time in hospital but when he came out he made himself the best friend of that resident!
Things have changed somewhat for the better in the Morning Star since I worked there during the summer of 1964, as you can read here. The dedication of the members of the Legion of Mary who look after it is still very much there.
When I read the words We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty in today's gospel I thought of Tom Doyle and Sid Quinn. The words of Jesus seem to be in contrast with what he says elsewhere, especially in St John's Gospel, where he calls us friends, where he asks Peter, Do you love me? Feed my lambs.
When I used the material above six years ago Liam Hayden, a friend who was my classmate in primary school and who was deeply involved all his adult life with the Legion of Mary along with his wife Moira, some of their children following in their parents' footsteps, posted this comment: I was very close to both men and they had a profound effect on my development as a person and as a legionary, especially in 1969 when I took leave from my job to volunteer as an indoor brother for a year. I went on holiday with both on separate occasions and they were, to my mind, saints of the Church and both are interred, at their own insistence, in the Morning Star plot in Glasnevin cemetery Dublin.
Thanks for reminding me of a priceless interlude in my life.
Liam wrote a chapter on Tom
Doyle for a book published last November in Ireland, The Rock from Which You Were Hewn; International edition by Ignatius Press. (I have a chapter on the seven Columban priests killed in the Korean War who, with others, are being proposed for beatification as martyrs by the bishops of Korea.)
Liam died of Covid on Holy Saturday 2021. May his generous soul rest in peace.
There are 'unknown saints' like Tom Doyle and Sid Quinn throughout the world, many of them for example taking care of aged parents or of their children with severe disabilities, who gladly say We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.
These have fanned into flame the gift of God, to use the words of St Paul in today's Second Reading.
Ave Stella Matutina – Hail,
Morning Star
El Carmen
Traditional Latin Mass
What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful (Benedict XVI).
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-05-2025 if necessary).
Epistle: Ephesians 4: 1-6. Gospel: Matthew 22:34-46.
GospelLuke 16:19-31 (English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
At that time:
Jesus said to the Pharisees, ‘There was a rich man who was clothed in purple
and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid
a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what
fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his
sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side.
The
rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up
his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out,
“Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his
finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.” But
Abraham said, “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good
things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here,
and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm
has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not do
so, and none may cross from there to us.” And he said, “Then I beg you, father,
to send him to my father’s house — for I have five brothers — so that
he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” But Abraham
said, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” And he said, “No,
father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”
He said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be
convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” ’
An Indian Missionary of Charity who was based in Hong Kong for some years told me of something that happened there shortly before Christmas 2009. Yang was what Sister called a ‘street-sleeper’, ie, someone living on the streets. Strictly speaking he wasn’t, as he had a little place where he lived with his mother. Both were Buddhists. Yang was in poor health and couldn’t get a job. He mixed mostly with those who were ‘street-sleepers’.
He first came across the Missionaries of Charity when they were distributing lunch-boxes to very poor people in the street. He began to come to their place regularly for a meal and made a point of coming to the annual Advent celebration when gifts would be distributed and a meal provided. Yang’s mother often wondered where he got his regular meals. ‘From Sister’ was his answer to her queries but she didn’t know who ‘Sister’ was.
Yang didn’t attend the Advent celebration in 2009 because he was in hospital but he asked his mother to go in his place. When she arrived the celebration was over but the Sisters had kept one meal in case someone would arrive late. So they gave it to her.
A day or two later, around 19 0r 20 December, Yang died. Some time after that his mother came to the Sisters to express her profound gratitude to them for their kindness and hospitality to her son and to herself.
Yang and his mother experienced the personal love of Jesus for them through the Missionaries of Charity who took care of the many Lazaruses outside their door. And Sister told me that food never ran out. It was constantly supplied by hotels and restaurants.
A violent attack on a Catholic
parish by members of the Islamic rebel group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) has
left 64 people dead in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The attack
earlier this month has led to calls for international attention, with one
Catholic Bishop in the region describing it as ‘horrible carnage’.
What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful (Benedict XVI).
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 09-28-2025 if necessary).
I try to mark Lala's birthday every year. Fewer and fewer persons with Down Syndrome are being born in European countries. This is because more and more children with Down Syndrome are being aborted. Below, with some minor changes, is what I have posted over the last three years.
+++
I first wrote this post in October 2008 and used it again in 2011 under the title Lala and Queen Elizabeth II. I have re-posted it a number of times, with variations, because Lala's story is one that should be told over and over again. This year I am re-posting what I have posted over the last three years, with a couple of updates on ages. I am posting the day before Lala's birthday in the Philippines, 27 September, the feast of St Vincent de Paul. No doubt, the occasion will be marked at Punla, Ang Arko, where Lala lives, the only L'Arche community in the Philippines, in Cainta, Rizal, part of the metropolitan sprawl of Manila.
The Pope's Universal Prayer Intention for September 2014 was:That the mentally disabled may receive the love and help they need for a dignified life. The truth is that persons with mental or learning disabilities can teach the rest of us about the dignity of life, as the photo above of Lala helping Jordan with his meal shows.
Let us show our service to the poor, then, with renewed ardour in our hearts, seeking out above all any abandoned people, since they are given to us as lords and patrons. (St Vincent de Paul, used in the Office of Readings for his feast day, 27 September.)
St Vincent de Paul,(24 April 1581 - 27 September 1660)
Lala has have two birthdays, the real one and the official one, as did the late Queen Elizabeth. Lala’s official birthday is 27 September, the feast day of St Vincent de Paul, and she turns 47 this year. Queen Elizabeth’s official birthday was celebrated in 53 Commonwealth countries, but not on the same date. Only the Falkland Islands observed her official birthday on her real one, 21 April. In the United Kingdom her official birthday could be on the first, second or third Saturday in June. She turned 96 on her most recent birthday, to be her last. May she rest in peace.
While there’s no confusion about the date of birth of Queen Elizabeth, there is about that of Lala. The young Princess Elizabeth was born in a palace in London. Lala was found shortly after birth in a trashcan in Cebu City in the central Philippines. Those who found her took her to the Asilo De La Milagrosa, the orphanage of the Daughters of Charity there. The Sisters noticed that the little girl had Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) and took her in and raised her. Since they didn’t know who her parents were they had to choose a name for her.
The Sisters chose 'Vicente' as her family name, in honour of St Vincent de Paul, and 'Louella' as her Christian name, in honour of St Louise de Marillac. The two saints founded the Daughters of Charity in France in 1633. Lala, as all her friends know her, probably has something else in common with St Louise. She was almost certainly born out of wedlock, as the saint was, and, like St Louise, never knew her mother. I suspect that Lala’s mother, probably very young and unmarried, panicked – her panic possibly added to when she saw that her daughter wasn’t 'normal' - and left her baby where someone could find her and take care of her.
And the Sisters made the feast of St Vincent de Paul, 27 September, Lala's official birthday.
St Louise de Marillac (15 August 1591 - 15 March 1660) [Wikipedia]
I first met Lala in Cebu in 1992 at a Faith and Light celebration. We had just begun a community there, after a retreat given by the co-founder of the movement, Jean Vanier, a Canadian layman, in Holy Family Retreat House, Cebu City, in October 1991. During the retreat he gave a public talk in the auditorium of St Theresa’s College, as I recall, and a group of interested people got together after that. The gathering at which Lala was present included members of Faith and Light from Manila who had come to tell us more about the movement.
I could see immediately that Lala had a special gift: she’s a natural 'ice-breaker'. Though she seldom says anything, she lights up any group into which she comes, unless she’s in a bad mood, which happens from time to time.
Lala became a member of our Faith and Light community in Cebu but I lost contact with her when I went to Lianga, Surigao del Sur, in 1993 as parish priest and to Manila the following year to become vocation director of the Columbans. But one day when I visited the L’Arche community in Cainta, Rizal, known as 'Ang Arko', I was surprised to see Lala there. L’Arche, the French for 'The Ark' as in Noah’s Ark, was founded by Jean Vanier, in 1964 when he invited two men with learning disabilities, Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux, who had been living in an institution, to join him in a small cottage he had bought and was renovating in the town of Trosly-Breuil, France. Jean had no intention of founding anything, but he realized very quickly that he had made a commitment to these two men. One of them, I forget which, chose to live independently some years later, something he could never have done had he stayed in the institution and not met Jean. Out of these small beginnings has grown an international movement of about 130 residential communities where those with learning disabilities are enabled to live in a family-type situation and to develop their abilities to the greatest extent possible.
Jordan and Raymon, another young man, were welcomed by Ang Arko when they were very young. Both have physical as well as learning disabilities. Others have also been welcomed down the years. The original house was in Manila but the community moved later to Cainta.
Lala and Hachiko, each looking more content than the other!
Sadly, this beautiful dog died not long afterwards, choking on a chicken bone.
In Holy Week 2001 I attended the international pilgrimage of Faith and Light to Lourdes as chaplain to the group from the Philippines. Lala was one of the twelve or so Filipinos. I was based in England at the time and travelled with a group from there
The Easter Vigil was celebrated in the underground basilica. Some of the Old Testament Vigil readings were dramatized. During the account of creation when the words God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him were read, a spotlight shone on a young man in a wheelchair. But what moved me most was when Lala was part of a group dramatizing the reading of the Exodus.
I simply marveled at the fact that a young woman who should never have been born, according to the 'wisdom' of so many, left after birth among garbage, was on the other side of the world helping to proclaim the Word of God to thousands of people, many like herself, and doing so with the joy that permeates her soul.
Queen Elizabeth, Queen of Canada, in Toronto in 2010[Wikipedia]
Ever since I was a small child I've just loved the scarlet jackets of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the 'Mounties'. I used to draw Mounties with crayons but never developed into an El Greco or a Van Gogh!
Queen Elizabeth was blessed by God with a long and healthy life in which she continued to serve her people with dignity until her death. Though she was among the richest people in the world, Lala, also with her two birthdays, enjoys even greater riches, because the words of Mary’s prayer, the Magnificat, have been revealed in her life: 'God has lifted up the lowly'.
The version above is an adaptation of the text of the prayer. Below is the translation in the Breviary used in the Philippines and in the USA during Evening Prayer (Vespers).
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.
'The clouds parted and Your light, oh Lord, shone down upon us.'
Entrance to Holy Family Retreat House, Cebu City
Peasant Girl Bringing Basket
Apostle Paul
