‘A new commandment I give to you . . .' Sunday Reflections, 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C

The Last Supper

El Greco  [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 13:31-33,34-35 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

When Judas had gone out from the upper room, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you.

‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

          

Fr James Gavigan

(1927 - 2020)

A familiar sight seven years ago here in St Columban's, Dalgan Park, Ireland, where we have a community of more than 60 Columban priests, mostly retired and many in our nursing home, was that of Fr Jim Gavigan, then in his late 80s, pushing the wheelchair of Fr Paddy Hurley, then over 90. When I came home from the Philippines in 2017 Father Jim was using a wheelchair himself for a while after a hip operation.

Father Paddy went to his reward on 15 April 2019. He had spent more than 60 years in the Philippines on the large island of Negros. His two Columban brothers, the late Fathers Dermot and Gerry, had spent many years in Fiji. That's where Fr Jim Gavigan had worked all his active years, being a member of the pioneering Columban group that went there in 1952, as was Fr Gerry Hurley.

Fr Patrick Hurley

(1924 - 2019)

I sometimes saw Father Jim 'driving' another priest's wheelchair. (We have professional staff here who do this work very efficiently and with great care but sometimes others chip in.)

Father Jim died on 23 June 2020 a few months before another classmate of his, Fr Terry Bennett, who had spent most of his life in the Philippines. When Father Terry began to fail, Father Jim always sat opposite him in our dining room. Someone asked him why. He replied, 'To keep Terry company'.

In all of this I see today's gospel being lived out. It is a gospel that is central to the Missionary Society of St Columban to which I belong.

Frs Owen McPolin, John Blowick, Edward Galvin 
China 1920

Frs John Blowick and Edward Galvin were the co-founders of the Columbans. Fr Blowick, the first superior general, accompanied the first group to China but was based in Ireland.

On the evening of 29 January 1918 an extraordinary event took place in Dalgan Park, Shrule, a then remote village on the borders of County Mayo and County Galway in the west of Ireland. At the time Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, which was engaged in the Great War (1914-1918). Thousands of Irishmen were fighting in the trenches in France and Belgium. Many, including my great-uncle Corporal Lawrence Dowd, never came home. There was a movement for independence in Ireland that led to the outbreak of guerrilla warfare in Ireland later in 1918. There was widespread poverty in the country, particularly acute in the cities.

Despite all of that, on 10 October 1916 the Irish bishops gave permission to two young diocesan priests, Fr Edward J. Galvin and Fr John Blowick to have a national collection so that they could open a seminary that would prepare young Irish priests to go to China. The effort was called the Maynooth Mission to China, because Maynooth, west of Dublin, is where St Patrick's National Seminary is, where Fr Galvin had been ordained in 1909 and Fr Blowick in 1913.

The seminary opened that late winter's evening with 19 students and seven priests. Many of the students were at different stages of their formation in Maynooth but transferred. The seven priests belonged to different dioceses but threw in their lot with this new venture which, on 29 June 1918, would become the Society of St Columban.

This Sunday's gospel was part of what the new group reflected on as they gathered in the makeshift chapel in Dalgan Park, the name of the 'Big House' and the land on which it was built. Among the seven priests was Fr John Heneghan, a priest from the Archdiocese of Tuam, as was Fr Blowick, and a classmate of Fr Galvin. Fr Heneghan never imagined that despite his desire to be a missionary in China he would spend many years in Ireland itself teaching the seminarians and editing the Columban magazine The Far East. But his dream was to take him to the Philippines in 1931 and to torture and death at the hands of Japanese soldiers during the Battle of Manila in February 1945, when 100,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed and most of the old city destroyed.

Intramuros (Walled City), Manila, February 1945

[Wikipedia; photo]

Fr John Blowick emphasised the centrality of the words of Jesus in this Sunday's gospel, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. The second sentence there was written into the Constitutions of the Society, drawn up the following year.

These words of Jesus from the Gospel of St John are for me the greatest legacy of Fr John Blowick to the many men from different countries who have shared his dream and that of Bishop Galvin to this day. 

And not only men, but women too, as Columban Sisters and as Columban Lay Missionaries. 

The Society of St Columban was born in the middle of the First World War because of the vision of two young men who saw beyond that awful reality and who took Jesus at his word. Down the years Columbans have lived through wars, in remote areas where their lives and the lives of the people they served were often in danger. Some have been kidnapped and not all of those survived. Among those who did was Fr Michael Sinnott, kidnapped in the southern Philippines in October 2009 when he was 79 and released safely a month later on 12 November. He died here in Dalgan Park on St Columban's Day, 23 November, 2019.

Fr Michael Sinnott in Manila on the day of his release

Father John Blowick's insistence on the words of Jesus in this Sunday's gospel becoming part of the very fibre of the being of Columbans sustained Fr John Heneghan, Fr Patrick Kelly, Fr John Lalor and Fr Peter Fallon, as Japanese soldiers took them away from Malate Church, Manila, on 10 February 1945, and their companion Fr John Lalor who was working in a makeshift hospital nearby who with others was killed there by a bomb three days later. 

Frs John Lalor, Patrick Kelly, Francis Vernon Douglas, Peter Fallon, Joseph Monaghan and John Heneghan

Fr Douglas died, most probably on 27 July 1943,  after being tortured  by the Japanese in Paete, Laguna, Philippines.

The words By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another are not only the hallmark of Columbans but of countless other groups, of countless families. They are meant to be the hallmark of every Christian.

Sicut Cervus

Setting by Palestrina 

Sung by Sistine Chapel Choir

This was the Communion Antiphon at the Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in the Sistine Chapel on Friday 9 May the day after his election.

Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum,

Like the deer that yearns for running streams,

ita desiderat anima mea ad te, Deus:

so my soul is yearning for you, my God.

Traditional Latin Mass

Fourth Sunday after Easter

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-18-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: James 1:17-21. Gospel: John 16: 5-14.

The Last Supper

Abraham Bloemaert [Web Gallery of Art]

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth (John 15:13; Gospel).

Prayers asked for Columban Fr Aminiasi Ravuwai

 

Fr Aminiasi Ravuwai

Today we Columbans received this email from our Superior General Fr Andrei Paz:

With a heavy heart, I write to request your prayers for our dear brother, Fr Aminiasi Ravuwai. Recently, Amini has been hospitalized in Lima, and after undergoing a series of tests, it has been confirmed that he has an inoperable tumor in his pancreas. He is experiencing significant pain, which has left him unable to travel for medical treatment outside of Peru. This news has deeply affected him and all of us who care for him.

In this difficult time, prayers are needed for Amini’s strength and peace, as well as for the grace to face the challenges ahead. I also ask for prayers for the Columbans in the Region of South America and for his family, who are dealing with this difficult news. The Columbans in Lima are deeply moved by his suffering, and his family is grappling with the emotional weight of this situation. Amini’s loved ones, both near and far, are struggling with the uncertainty of what lies ahead.

Please remember Amini in your Masses and prayers, asking for God's comfort and healing presence. Through our prayers and the intercession of St Columban and our Blessed Mother, the Immaculate Conception, may Amini experience the strength and peace that only God can provide. May he feel the solace of Christ’s love and the courage to persevere through this difficult journey. 

Thank you for your support and prayers for Amini, his family, and the Columbans in South America. In times like these, it is through God’s love and grace that we find hope and peace.

Father Amini with his family on his ordination day in Suva, 22 December 2020

You can read more about Father Amini here. He was a teacher before he joined the Columbans. He went to Peru as a priest in 2021 but had spent two years there on First Mission Assignment as a seminarian. He also spent a year in Manila for his Spiritual Year, the equivalent of a novitiate.

In the video Fr Frank Hoare, an Irish Columban who went to Fiji about 50 years ago, interviews Father Amini shortly after his ordination.

Elderly Columban Missionaries Say 'Thanks'!

 

The video above, with yours truly speaking, was posted last week on the website of the Missionary Society of St Columban in Ireland under the title Elderly Columban Missionaries Say 'Thanks'!

Most of us Columban priests living here in St Columban's, Dalgan Park, Navan, are officially retired, though some of us are still active in various kinds of pastoral work. There are more than sixty of us here, most of us in our 70s, 80s and 90s. When I entered what was then our seminary here in 1961 there were more than 190 studying for the priesthood, spread over seven years. 

St Columban's is northwest of Dublin city. We have a very good bus service, with four buses per hour most of the time going to and coming from the city centre, a journey of about 50 minutes. There is also a bus to and from Dublin Airport every hour, 24 hours.

We are very conscious of the support of the people of Ireland, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the USA from our beginnings more than 100 years ago. In more recent years we have been receiving support from the Catholics of Chile, Fiji, Korea, Peru and the Philippines. That support is both financial and spiritual. Indeed those who pray for us are spread far and wide. 

St Paul in his letters uses words of gratitude extensively. Romans 1:8 is an example: First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.

Those of us who spent many years in the Philippines, in particular, see the truth of this because many of our former parishioners are now living and working in Ireland. Irish people now associate Filipinos with hospitals because so many of our nurses in Ireland are from 'The Pearl of the Orient'. None of us when we went to the Philippines could have imagined that. And many of the Filipinos here proclaim their faith often without being aware of it, through their care for the sick, through their participation at Sunday Mass, which most Irish Catholics don't do any more. Some parishes have Filipino choirs, the initiative coming from the Filipinos themselves.

And we have a growing number of Filipino-Irish people. Some are immigrants who have become Irish citizens and a growing number are the children of Filipinos born here in Ireland.

The same can be said about Catholics with origins in other place, notably Poland, Nigeria, Kerala in India, but also from many other place. 

We retired Columban missionaries are often bridges between immigrants from the countries we worked in and the people of Ireland who welcome them. We know what it is like to be an immigrant. We know what it is like to learn a new language and to adjust to what we initially experience as 'strange' ways of doing things. But we also identify with immigrants from places where we have worked. They are not strangers to us. Their identity is part of ours.

Above all, we know that our deepest identity comes from our baptism as children of the Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus the Risen Lord and therefore of one another. And we hope and pray that those not yet baptised may one day discover the deepest identity and the eternal life to which they are called.

Stephane Grappelli and Frankie Gavin

The opening music to the Columban video is Oh the Days of the Kerry Dances (or The Kerry Dance), words and music by James Lynam Molloy. One of the recurring lines in the song is Oh for one of those hours of gladness, Gone, alas, like our youth too soon. John McCormack's recording, with which all of us here have been familiar from our childhood, is here. The lyrics resonate with me from time to time.

However, in the joyful version of the tune above - the one used in the Columban video - we have an elderly jazz musician from France, Stephane Grappelli now no longer with us, and a young Irish traditional musician, Frankie Gavin, playing together and blending their different traditions. There is clear respect between the two and their supporting musicians, each taking delight in the playing of the other. Both come from musical traditions where the older pass on their skills to the younger, where the older encourage the younger and take joy in their talent and progress, where the older and the younger listen to and appreciate the other.

This video is a kind of metaphor for me as an older missionary priest and resonates with my experience down the years. The young and the old have a great deal to share together and are a source of inspiration and life to one another. I remember a few years ago one quiet afternoon in St Andrew's Church, Westland Row, Dublin, seeing a grandfather teaching his toddler grandson how to genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament and pointing out different things in the church to the youngster. The old man was passing on the Faith while the child was a source of life and encouragement to his grandfather. 

As I say in the video, Being old is good! And thank God for that.

St Columban’s Cemetery, Dalgan Park, Navan, Ireland

More than 400 Columban missionaries are buried here.

We humbly beseech your mercy, O Lord, for your servants  that, having worked tirelessly for the spread of the Gospel, they may merit to enter the rewards of the Kingdom. 

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

Death of Columban Fr Otto Imholte

 

Fr Otto Imholte

3 January 1937 - 25 July 2022

This obituary was posted originally here. I have made some minor editorial changes.

Father Otto passed away due to several health complications in Hope Health Hulitar Hospice, in Providence, Rhode Island, on July 25, 2022. Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, August 1, 2022 at St Mary’s Catholic Church in Leigh, Nebraska with Fr Steve Emanuel celebrating. Burial will take place in St Mary’s Catholic Cemetery with lunch following in the church social hall. Visitation will be on Sunday, from 4 until 5 p.m. with a parish rosary recited at 5 p.m. Memorials can be directed towards the Columban Fathers or the Leigh Legacy Fund. Svoboda Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements.

Father Otto’s family would like to offer a sincere thank you to Columban Fathers for all of their care and assistance as well as thank the doctors and nurses at Rhode Island Hospital and the Hospice House. A special thank you to Pam Serbst and Ann Leary at the Bristol Home and their time with Father Otto.

Fr Otto Imholte was born on January 3, 1937 in Leigh, Nebraska, USA. His parents were Urban J. and Frieda A. Wullschleger Imholte. His elementary and high school education were in Leigh.

His seminary formation with the Columbans began with Spiritual Year in September 1957 in Bristol, Rhode Island. The following year he entered the Columban major seminary in Milton, Massachusetts. In September 1960 he continued his studies at the Columban seminary at Dalgan Park, Navan, Ireland. He returned to Milton in September 1963 and was ordained on December 21, 1963, at the Major Seminary Chapel by Richard Cardinal Cushing.

In September 1964 he joined the teaching staff at the Columban Minor Seminary in Silver Creek, New York. Starting in July 1966 he began to attend Villanova University where he received a Master’s degree in Mathematics. In July 1967 he returned to Silver Creek as Dean and a member of the house council. In May 1968 he was appointed Socius (assistant) for Spiritual Year at Bristol.

In July 1970 he was assigned to Fiji where he served at the parish in Varoka, Ba. In June 1974 he returned to the US on vacation a little ahead of time because of the serious illness of his mother. He worked in South Sioux City at St Michael’s Parish until May 1975. He then returned to Fiji.  He was the Principal of Corpus Christi Teachers Training College in Suva from 1977-1978.In June 1984 he was named Regional Bursar in Fiji. The next January Father Otto was appointed to Xavier College along with his other duties as regional bursar and member in charge of local applicants.

In 1985 he returned to the United States and began working as a chaplain in a hospital in Des Moines, Iowa. He was appointed Assistant Regional Bursar effective in September 1987. In March 1989 he became the Regional Bursar. Fr. Otto was praised for his years of service as Regional Bursar for his efficiency in computerizing that office and for his help to other regions.

In September 1997 Father Otto began a sabbatical (which included a trip to the Holy Land) at the Chicago Theological Union and resided at the Drexel formation house. In September 1998 he became bursar at the new Columban International Theologate in Chicago.

In April 2001 Father Otto took on the responsibility of Bursar General of the Columbans, resident in Ireland. He served in that position with praise for his expertise and dedication during two administrations until Fr Paul Oxley took over.

After returning to the United States he took up residence at the regional house in St Columbans, Omaha. There he coordinated the mission appeals program. He also assisted the Regional Bursar Dan Eminger with some tasks. During this time he had to deal with serious health issues. In October 2019 worsening conditions led to his going to seek further care with the Columbans in Bristol, Rhode Island.

No matter where Father Otto was stationed, he was a Nebraska Cornhuskers fan through and through. He was always able to come up with the latest scores and stay up to date.

He is survived by his sister Eileen (Frank) Paulus, sister-in-law Alice Imholte, many nieces and nephews, and many Columban brothers.

Fr. Otto is preceded in death by his parents, brother Urban P. Imholte and sister Noreen (O’Del) Marchant.

+++

While working in the USA and in Ireland Father Otto was very involved in Worldwide Marriage Encounter. He told couples in Ireland, where he was a team priest in giving Marriage Encounter Weekends for around 11 years, Your love for one another sustains me in my priesthood. The movement promotes the two sacraments of Matrimony and Holy Orders.

May Father Otto rest in peace.

Leigh, Nebraska

[Wikipedia; photo]

Leigh is a village with around 400 people and is located in the farming area where Father Otto grew up.

Death of Columban Fr William G. Moran

 

Fr William Gerard Moran

14 May 1936 - 8 July 2022

William Gerard Moran was born 14 May 1936, at Flemington, Victoria, Australia, not far from the Flemington racecourse, home of the Melbourne Cup. This led to a lifelong interest in horse-racing. After primary and secondary schooling, Bill worked for two years with the Commonwealth Public Service while doing part-time studies in Latin and Economics.

In 1955 he came to Essendon [a suburb of Melbourne where the Columban headquarters in Australia are located] for Spiritual Year and then moved to our seminary in Sydney for Philosophy and Theology studies. Following his ordination at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, in 1961, he was appointed to Rome where he studied and graduated with an STL from the Angelicum. He then began studies in Scripture but had to abandon them because of health problems.

Appointed to the ANZ [Australia and New Zealand] Region, he worked for three years in the Far East Office before an appointment to the seminary in Turramurra [near Sydney] where he taught Dogma and served as Vice-Rector and Rector. In 1979 Bill was appointed to South America where he worked mostly in Chile in various capacities until an appointment back to ANZ in 1988. He served as ANZ Regional Director from 1990 to 1994. 

He returned to Chile but again health problems forced an early return to ANZ where he served as Regional Bursar for a number of years until his retirement. In recent years the success of his grandnephew as an Australian Rules footballer with the Footscray Bulldogs gave him new life and much pride. Bill died 8 July in St Vincent’s Hospital after a period of respite at Mercy Place Aged Care, Melbourne. The word I would choose to best sum up Bill is 'conscientious'.

Fr Ray Scanlon

May Father Bill rest in peace.

 

Melbourne General Cemetery, Carlton North

[Wikipedia; photo]

There is a Columban plot in Carlton Cemetery.

Columban Fr William Carrigan RIP

 

Fr William Carrigan

18 July 1933 - 21 May 2022

The funeral took place today in his native Conahy, County Kilkenny, Ireland, of Fr William Carrigan. He died last Saturday after an illness of only a few weeks.

Father Billy spent 45 years in parish, work in Mindanao, Philippines where he showed an extraordinary love for persons, especially children, with little or nothing in life.

You will find a short obituary of Father Billy on the website of the Columbans in Ireland here.

In his retirement years in Ireland Father Billy served the Filipino community in County Kilkenny and surrounding counties. Many of these attended his wake and his funeral Mass. They also started the traditional Filipino novena for the dead, celebrated in the home of the deceased. At the Our Father in the Mass they surrounded his coffin and sang it in Cebuano Visayan, Amahan Namo.

Amahan Namo (Our Father)

St Colman's Church, Conahy, County Kilkenny

[Photo: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage]

Father Carrigan was buried here this morning.

The Rose of Mooncoin

sung by Johnny McEvoy

Irish people have an extraordinary connection with their native county, of which there are 32, particularly in the context of the Irish sports of Hurling and Gaelic Football. Ironically, the county divisions were made by the English.

County Kilkenny is a place where hurling reigns supreme and Father Billy played it well in his youth. The unofficial anthem of the county is The Rose of Mooncoin, a song sung in Croke Park, Dublin, on the many occasions - far too many for those of us not from Kilkenny! - when that county has won the Liam McCarthy Cup in the All-Ireland Hurling Final. Even though we worked in the same area in Mindanao in the 1970s and early 1980s I don't recall hearing Father Billy sing but I know that as a good Kilkenny man, with a strong sense of his roots in Conahy, a rural area, he knew and loved this song.

Indeed, I believe that it was this sense of rootedness in his own community, knowing who he was, that enabled Fr William Carrigan to enter so deeply into the lives of the people, especially the very poor, he served in Mindanao. 

Rest in peace, Father Billy!

Death of Columban Fr Joseph Houston

 

Fr Joseph Houston

14 December 1940 - 14 May 2022

Fr Joseph Houston was from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and was ordained at Easter 1969. He spent the early years of his priesthood in Chile before coming back to Ireland to teach in our seminary. He later returned to Chile but was to spend the last 25 years of his life in China.

Father Joe was a Christian gentleman to the core. Solas na bhFlaitheas air - The light of Heaven upon him.

You will find his obituary here.

My Lagan Love

Played by Innisfree Ceoil, featuring the uilleann (elbow) pipes

The River Lagan flows through Belfast, Father Joe's native city.

St Columban's Cemetery, Dalgan Park, Ireland

'If you have love for one another' - the hallmark of every Christian. Sunday Reflections, 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C

 

The Last Supper

El Greco  [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings, (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings, (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel, John 13:31-33a, 34-35 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)  

When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

John 13: 31-33a, 34-35 in Filipino Sign Language

A familiar sight four years ago here in St Columban's, Dalgan Park, Ireland, where we have a community of more than 60 Columban priests, mostly retired and many in our nursing home, was that of Fr Jim Gavigan, then in his late 80s, pushing the wheelchair of Fr Paddy Hurley, then over 90. When I came home from the Philippines in 2017 Father Jim was using a wheelchair himself for a while after a hip operation.

Father Paddy went to his reward on 15 April 2019. He had spent more than 60 years in the Philippines on the large island of Negros. His two Columban brothers, the late Fathers Dermot and Gerry, had spent many years in Fiji. That's where Fr Jim Gavigan had worked all his active years, being a member of the pioneering Columban group that went there in 1952, as was Fr Gerry Hurley.

I sometimes saw Father Jim 'driving' another priest's wheelchair. (We have professional staff here who do this work very efficiently and with great care but sometimes others chip in.)

Father Jim died on 23 June 2020 a few months before another classmate of his, Fr Terry Bennett, who had spent most of his life in the Philippines. When Father Terry began to fail, Father Jim always sat opposite him in our dining room. Someone asked him why. He replied, 'To keep Terry company'.

In all of this I see today's gospel being lived out. It is a gospel that is central to the Missionary Society of St Columban to which I belong.

Frs Owen McPolin, John Blowick, Edward Galvin 
China 1920

Frs John Blowick and Edward Galvin were the co-founders of the Columbans. Fr Blowick, the first superior general, accompanied the first group to China but was based in Ireland.

On the evening of 29 January 1918 an extraordinary event took place in Dalgan Park, Shrule, a remote village on the borders of County Mayo and County Galway in the west of Ireland. At the time Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, which was engaged in the Great War. Thousands of Irishmen were fighting in the trenches in France and Belgium. Many, including my great-uncle Corporal Lawrence Dowd, never came home. There was a movement for independence in Ireland that led to the outbreak of guerrilla warfare in Ireland later in 1918. There was widespread poverty in the country, particularly acute in the cities.

Despite all of that, on 10 October 1916 the Irish bishops gave permission to two young diocesan priests, Fr Edward J. Galvin and Fr John Blowick to have a national collection so that they could open a seminary that would prepare young Irish priests to go to China. The effort was called the Maynooth Mission to China, because Maynooth, west of Dublin, is where St Patrick's National Seminary is, where Fr Galvin had been ordained in 1909 and Fr Blowick in 1913.

The seminary opened that late winter's evening with 19 students and seven priests. Many of the students were at different stages of their formation in Maynooth but transferred. The seven priests belonged to different dioceses but threw in their lot with this new venture which, on 29 June 1918, would become the Society of St Columban.

This Sunday's gospel was part of what the new group reflected on as they gathered in the makeshift chapel in Dalgan Park, the name of the 'Big House' and the land on which it was built. Among the seven priests was Fr John Heneghan, a priest from the Archdiocese of Tuam, as was Fr Blowick, and a classmate of Fr Galvin. Fr Heneghan never imagined that despite his desire to be a missionary in China he would spend many years in Ireland itself teaching the seminarians and editing the Columban magazine The Far East. But his dream was to take him to the Philippines in 1931 and to torture and death at the hands of Japanese soldiers during the Battle of Manila in February 1945, when 100,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed and most of the old city destroyed, like Mariupol in Ukraine today.

Intramuros (Walled City), Manila, February 1945

[Wikipedia; photo]

Mariupol Hospital airstrike, 9 March 2022

[Wikipedia; photo]

Fr John Blowick emphasised the centrality of the words of Jesus in this Sunday's gospel, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. The second sentence there was written into the Constitutions of the Society, drawn up the following year.

These words of Jesus from the Gospel of St John are for me the greatest legacy of Fr John Blowick to the many men from different countries who have shared his dream and that of Bishop Galvin to this day. 

And not only men, but women too, as Columban Sisters and as Columban Lay Missionaries. 

The Society of St Columban was born in the middle of the First World War because of the vision of two young men who saw beyond that awful reality and who took Jesus at his word. Down the years Columbans have lived through wars, in remote areas where their lives and the lives of the people they served were often in danger. Some have been kidnapped and not all of those survived. Among those who did was Fr Michael Sinnott, kidnapped in the southern Philippines in October 2009 when he was 79 and released safely a month later on 12 November. He died here in Dalgan Park on St Columban's Day, 23 November, 2019.

Fr Michael Sinnott in Manila on the day of his release

Father John Blowick's insistence on the words of Jesus in this Sunday's gospel becoming part of the very fibre of the being of Columbans sustained Fr John Heneghan, Fr Patrick Kelly, Fr John Lalor and Fr Peter Fallon, as Japanese soldiers took them away from Malate Church, Manila, on 10 February 1945, and their companion Fr John Lalor who was working in a makeshift hospital nearby who with others was killed there by a bomb three days later. 

Frs John Lalor, Patrick Kelly, Francis Vernon Douglas, Peter Fallon, Joseph Monaghan and John Heneghan

Fr Douglas died, most probably on 27 July 1943,  after being tortured  by the Japanese in Paete, Laguna.

The words By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another are not only the hallmark of Columbans but of countless other groups, of countless families. They are meant to be the hallmark of every Christian.

Canonisations on 15 May

Pope Francis will canonise ten saints in the Vatican on Sunday. Among them will be Blessed Titus Brandsma OCarm, from the Netherlands, who was killed by lethal injection in Dachau Concentration Camp, Germany, on 26 July 1942.

Blessed Titus Brandsma OCarm

23 February 1881 - 26 July 1942

Another priest who will be canonised is Blessed Charles de Foucauld. I have often written about him on Sunday Reflections.

Blessed Charles de Foucauld

15 September 1858 - 1 December 1916

Cantate Domino 

Taizé Chant

 Cantate Domino canticum novum (alleluia)

O sing a new song to the Lord (alleluia)

These words from Psalm 97[98]:1 are the opening words of today's Entrance Antiphon.

Traditional Latin Mass

Fourth Sunday after Easter

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-15-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: James 1:17-21. Gospel: John 16: 5-14.

The Last Supper

Abraham Bloemaert [Web Gallery of Art]