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).
Showing posts with label Fr Joseph Coyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fr Joseph Coyle. Show all posts
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, 'Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”'(Matthew 11:2-3; Gospel).
Readings(Jerusalem
Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)
Readings(English
Standard Version, Catholic Edition: (England & Wales, Scotland, India)
GospelMatthew 11:2-11(English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the
Christ, he sent word by his disciplesand said
to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for
another?”And Jesus
answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and
see:the blind
receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf
hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to
them.And blessed is
the one who is not offended by me.”
As
they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the
wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?What
then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those
who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.What then did you go out to see? A
prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.This is he of whom it is written,
“‘Behold, I send my messenger before your
face, who
will prepare your way before you.’
Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has
arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the
kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
I have used this material before but it fits in with one of the themes in today's readings: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,and the ears of the deaf unstopped(Isaiah 35:5; First Reading), It is the Lord . . . who raises up those who are bowed down (Responsorial Psalm), Go and tell John . . . the deaf hear (Matthew 11:5; Gospel).
Fr Joseph Coyle was a Columban priest from Derry city, Northern Ireland. He died in the Philippines on 18 December 1991, aged 54, and is buried in a Catholic cemetery in Bacolod City. Father Joe and I weren't related - my Coyle ancestors moved centuries ago from the north-west of Ireland, where the surname originated, to Rush, a fishing village north of Dublin city - but we felt a sense of kinship. He was ordained on 21 December 1961 during my first year in the Columban seminary in Ireland.
Father Joe spent most of his life as a priest in the island of Negros. He gradually became aware of persons with disabilities and of how their needs weren't being met. He was able to obtain artificial limbs for some. But he noticed that there was one group in every community that was almost totally isolated because they didn't share a common language with those around them, not even with their own families. These were persons who were profoundly deaf.
More and more Father Joe became involved with deaf people, celebrating Mass in Sign Language in a number of places. In the late 1980s he established Welcome Home in Bacolod City as a residence for out-of-town deaf students so that they could attend special schools in the city. Special Education has spread now to many towns and that particular need is no longer urgent. But Welcome Home Foundation, Inc. continues with a school for young children, deaf and hearing, catechetical programmes in public schools with both deaf and hearing catechists, and other activities.
Father Joe's death was devastating initially to the young deaf people with whom he had worked. But his vision was continued and developed by others, most noticeably by Mrs Salvacion V. Tinsay who died in 2008. Her daughter Mrs Agnes T. Jalandoni, President and CEO, along with her board and staff have enabled the work begun by Father Joe to grow and adapt to current needs.
Fr Mike Depcik preaching in American Sign Language on today's readings
Fr Mike Depcik OSFSis an Oblate of St Francis de Sales and one of very few profoundly deaf priests in the world. He has his own vlog, Fr. MD's KitchenTable, where, among other things, he posts videos of homilies for Sunday Masses in American Sign Language, such as that above for this Sunday's Mass.
John the Baptist sends his followers to ask Jesus, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? Jesus replies, Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news brought to them.
For Catholics who are profoundly deaf, priests such as Fr Mike Depcik, deaf from birth, and Fr Joe Coyle, who became aware of the isolation of the profoundly deaf, especially within their own families, are included in the response of Jesus to his cousin St John the Baptist: the deaf hear. The deaf aren't isolated to the same degree as before, though I have known of priests and people who consider a signing interpreter at Mass as a 'distraction'.
And the ministry of priests such as Fr Depcik and Fr Coyle isn't limited to the deaf. Indeed, part of their ministry, and of those who work with them, whether deaf or hearing, is to bring about the change of heart that is central to Advent, not only a turning away from sin but a recognition of the needs of others that we weren't aware of before. It was through having friends who were deaf in varying degrees from birth and through knowing Father Joe that I became aware of the isolation of the deaf within the Church and in society at large. The same can be said to some extent of persons with other disabilities. But profound deafness is the only physical disability that of its nature can totally isolate a person from the community.
There will always be some, for whatever reason, on the margins. The gradual inclusion of those who are profoundly deaf in all activities of the Church and of wider society shown, for example, in the use of signing interpreters at public functions and on television, is one of the signs that Jesus spoke about to assure St John the Baptist that he, Jesus, truly is the one who is to come.
Mary walked through a wood of thorn Kyrie eleison. Mary walked through a wood of thorn, Which seven long years no leaf had borne; Jesus and Mary.
What bore Mary beneath her heart? Kyrie eleison. A little child without any smart Mary bore beneath her heart, Jesus and Mary.
Then roses sprang from out the thorn; Kyrie eleison. As the Christ child through the wood was born, Roses sprang from out the thorn; Jesus and Mary.
These are the first three stanzas of seven but have acquired a life of their own. Their context is the Visitation. Wikipedia notes: The dead thorn wood, a symbol of infertility and death, begins to bloom when Mary walks through it with the divine child.
Traditional Latin Mass
Third Sunday of Advent
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 12-14-2025 if necessary).
John answered them, 'I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie' {John 1:26-27; Gospel).
Gospel Mark 7:31-37(English Standard Version, Anglicised)
Then Jesus
returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of
Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.And they brought to him a man who was deaf
and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on
him.And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he
put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.And looking up to heaven, he
sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha”, that is, “Be opened.”And his ears were opened, his tongue was
released, and he spoke plainly.And Jesus charged them to tell no one.
But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.And they were astonished beyond
measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and
the mute speak.”
In the Second Reading today St James asks in his blunt way, For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in,and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place”, while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there”, or, “Sit down at my feet”,have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
In the autumn of 1982 I spent three months working in a hospital in a city in the the US Midwest. I noticed that a particular nurse always wore a pro-life badge, for which I admired her. But in the three months I was there as chaplain to patients and staff on the floor we both worked on she never spoke to me except at a weekly staff meeting. I was curious rather though not hurt by this and before I finished the programme I asked her if we could meet. I told her what I had noticed and expressed my admiration for her quiet pro-life stand. She was quite taken aback, as she had never been conscious of ignoring me. It turned out that she had once had a bad experience with a priest and had 'tuned out' on all priests. We had a very good conversation and ended up hugging each other.
The nurse had been making distinctions but was far from being a judge with evil thoughts. We can be such, by deliberately shutting out another person or group of persons from our life. But very often we are unaware of others or of their needs.
Fr Joseph Coyle
(28 February 1937 - 18 December 1991)
One group of persons largely ignored in the Church, is the Deaf. (Those who are profoundly deaf refer to themselves as a group as 'The Deaf', with an upper-case 'D'. Nor do they describe themselves as 'hard of hearing'.) One of my late Columban colleagues, Fr Joseph Coyle from the city of Derry in Northern Ireland, worked for many years in what is now the Diocese of Kabankalan, in the southern part of the province of Negros Occidental, Philippines. Early in his time in remote parishes he became aware of the needs of persons who had lost limbs and helped many to get artificial limbs.
But later he noticed that there were persons who were more or less totally isolated, even from their own families - persons who were profoundly deaf from birth or from early childhood. They did not even have a common language with their parents or siblings. Their deafness was experienced as an affliction by themselves and their families. They felt a sense of powerlessness.
In English the word 'dumb' has come to mean 'stupid' because of the perception in the past that those who used to be described as 'deaf and dumb' were stupid.
Fr Joe Coyle then focused his ministry on the Deaf. In the late 1980s he set up a residence in Bacolod City, Welcome Home, for out-of-town students so that they could attend schools with special education for the Deaf. That particular need is now being met more and more in public schools in other cities and towns.
One of the services of Welcome Home Foundation, Inc. today is to send catechists to local public schools where there are profoundly deaf students. Some of these catechists are themselves profoundly deaf. Welcome Home also strongly encourages parents of profoundly deaf children to learn Sign Language and holds classes for them.
While based in Bacolod City from 2002 until 2017 I regularly celebrated Mass in Welcome Home, using my limited Sign Language and with the help of interpreters, some of them profoundly deaf. On the first three Sundays of each month the Deaf participate with interpreters in Mass in churches in Bacolod City, on the third Sunday in San Sebastian Cathedral. On the fourth (and fifth) Sundays Mass is in the Fr Joseph Coyle Chapel in Welcome Home. The celebrant is Fr. Dominic Derramas, a diocesan priest who studied Sign Language while in the seminary.
But I know that there have been times when parishioners and priests in various places have complained that signing interpreters were a 'distraction'. In some instances the Deaf have been made clearly unwelcome at Mass. Maybe some of those who made them feel such are already in 'St James territory' (Second Reading).
I do not know the source of the sorrow of the old man in Van Gogh's painting above, which expresses very painful isolation. But isolation is what many profoundly deaf persons feel, especially if they are seen as 'dumb' in the modern sense. And what must deaf persons feel if some don't even want to welcome them at the celebration of Holy Mass, our most important act of worship as Catholic Christians to our loving Father?
As in so many of the healing stories in the Gospel, we see Jesus giving his full attention to the person in need. We see him engaging physically with that person, using his very spittle in the act of enabling the man to hear and to speak clearly.
Again, as in so many of the healing stories, Jesus is bringing someone back into the circle. The man's deafness and speech impediment, the latter a direct result of the former, isolated him to a large degree from his own family and community. Now he was fully part of them again.
'E.T. phone home' scene
I remember seeing the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestial with a young friend, Glenn, who is profoundly, though not totally deaf, due to Usher's Syndrome, which also affects his sight. At the time he was about the same age as Elliott, the boy in the clip above. I watched the movie through Glenn's eyes, with a deeper appreciation of what is involved when a profoundly deaf person and a hearing person are trying to communicate. It can be very hard work, but rewarding.
About thirty years ago I saw something very beautiful at the Home of Joy in Tayuman, Tondo, Manila, a home for children run by the Missionaries of Charity. I was looking for a particular girl who was profoundly deaf. I'll call her Maria. I found her playing with a group of other girls, all of them using Sign Language. But only Maria was deaf. Without being aware of it, she had invited her friends into her world of silence - and they, without being aware of it, had invited her into their world of sound. All were equal.
A very important detail in the gospel is that not only did the deaf man's friends bring him to Jesus but they begged him to lay his hand on him.
Many churches in the western world have what is called a 'loop system' whereby those who are hard of hearing and use hearing aids can participate fully in Mass and other services. Being hard of hearing is something that very often comes with growing old, and I am experiencing that myself now - I've been using hearing aids for nearly seven years now - but it is a very different reality from profound deafness, especially if that deafness has been there since birth or early childhood.
The soul of a profoundly deaf person yearns for the living God just as much as the soul of a hearing person. But do we, the majority who are hearing, really allow/enable the Deaf to participate fully in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?
The Last Rose of Summer
from Leroy Anderson's Irish
Suite (1947)
Last Sunday, 1 September, autumn officially began here in Ireland, according to MetÉireann, the Irish meteorological service. We've had a rather poor summer but today the sun is shining and it is 20C here coming up to noon. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and it reached 24C here in the afternoon. However, I think that today is 'The Last Rose of Summer' weatherwise here and I thought I'd add this arrangement of the old Irish melody by Leroy Anderson. It captures for me the sadness of a farewell. But autumn has its own attractions and thank God for the four seasons in this part of the world which seldom experiences extreme weather of any kind.
May the glory of the Lord endure for ever; may the Lord rejoice in his works (Psalm 104[103]: 31).
Traditional Latin Mass
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 09-08-2022 if necessary).
One sabbath when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees, they were watching him. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy (Luke 14:1-2; Gospel).
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matthew 11:2-3; Gospel).
Readings(Jerusalem Bible:
Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand,
Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
GospelMatthew 11:2-11 (English Standard Version
Anglicised: India)
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds
of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him,
“Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And
Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the
blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the
deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news
preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the
crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to
see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A
man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in
kings' houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes,
I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written,
“‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.’
Truly, I say to you, among
those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet
the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
I have used this material before but it fits in with one of the themes in today's readings: Then the eyes of
the blind shall be opened,and the ears of the deaf unstopped(Isaiah 35:5;
First Reading), It is the Lord . . . who
raises up those who are bowed down (Responsorial Psalm), Go and tell John . . . the deaf hear
(Matthew 11:5; Gospel).
Fr Joseph Coyle was a Columban priest from Derry city, Northern Ireland. He died in the Philippines on 18 December 1991, aged 54, and is buried in a Catholic cemetery in Bacolod City. Father Joe and I weren't related - my Coyle ancestors moved centuries ago from the north-west of Ireland, where the surname originated, to Rush, a fishing village north of Dublin city - but we felt a sense of kinship. He was ordained on 21 December 1961 during my first year in the Columban seminary in Ireland.
Father Joe spent most of his life as a priest in the island of Negros. He gradually became aware of persons with disabilities and of how their needs weren't being met. He was able to obtain artificial limbs for some. But he noticed that there was one group in every community that was almost totally isolated because they didn't share a common language with those around them, not even with their own families. These were persons who were profoundly deaf.
More and more Father Joe became involved with deaf people, celebrating Mass in Sign Language in a number of places. In the late 1980s he established Welcome Home in Bacolod City as a residence for out-of-town deaf students so that they could attend special schools in the city. Special Education has spread now to many towns and that particular need is no longer urgent. But Welcome Home Foundation, Inc. continues with a school for young children, deaf and hearing, catechetical programmes in public schools with both deaf and hearing catechists, and other activities.
Father Joe's death was devastating initially to the young deaf people with whom he had worked. But his vision was continued and developed by others, most noticeably by Mrs Salvacion V. Tinsay who died in 2008. Her daughter Mrs Agnes T. Jalandoni, President and CEO, along with her board and staff have enabled the work begun by Father Joe to grow and adapt to current needs.
May I ask your prayers for the soul of Mrs Teresing V. Lizares who died recently. She was a founding trustee of Welcome Home Foundation and a sister of Mrs Salving V. Tinsay.
Fr Mike Depcik preaching in American Sign Language on today's readings (also spoken)
Fr Mike Depcik OSFSis an Oblate of St Francis de Sales and one of very few profoundly deaf priests in the world. He has his own vlog, Fr. MD's KitchenTable, where, among other things, he posts videos of homilies for Sunday Masses in American Sign Language, such as that above for this Sunday's Mass.
John the Baptist sends his followers to ask Jesus, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? Jesus replies, Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news brought to them.
For Catholics who are profoundly deaf, priests such as Fr Mike Depcik, deaf from birth, and Fr Joe Coyle, who became aware of the isolation of the profoundly deaf, especially within their own families, are included in the response of Jesus to his cousin St John the Baptist: the deaf hear. The deaf aren't isolated to the same degree as before, though I have known of priests and people who consider a signing interpreter at Mass as a 'distraction'.
And the ministry of priests such as Fr Depcik and Fr Coyle isn't limited to the deaf. Indeed, part of their ministry, and of those who work with them, whether deaf or hearing, is to bring about the change of heart that is central to Advent, not only a turning away from sin but a recognition of the needs of others that we weren't aware of before. It was through having friends who were deaf in varying degrees from birth and through knowing Father Joe that I became aware of the isolation of the deaf within the Church and in society at large. The same can be said to some extent of persons with other disabilities. But profound deafness is the only physical disability that of its nature can totally isolate a person from the community.
There will always be some, for whatever reason, on the margins. The gradual inclusion of those who are profoundly deaf in all activities of the Church and of wider society shown, for example, in the use of signing interpreters at public functions and on television, is one of the signs that Jesus spoke about to assure St John the Baptist that he, Jesus, truly is the one who is to come.
Mary
walked through a wood of thorn Kyrie eleison. Mary walked through a wood of thorn, Which seven long years no leaf had borne; Jesus and Mary.
What bore Mary beneath her heart? Kyrie eleison. A little child without any smart Mary bore beneath her heart, Jesus and Mary.
Then roses sprang from out the thorn; Kyrie eleison. As the Christ child through the wood was born, Roses sprang from out the thorn; Jesus and Mary.
These are the first three stanzas of seven but have acquired a life of their own. Their context is the Visitation. Wikipedia notes: The dead thorn wood,
a symbol of infertility and death, begins to bloom when Mary walks through it
with the divine child.
Traditional Latin Mass
Third Sunday of Advent
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 12-11-2022 if necessary).
John answered
them, “I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I
am not worthy to untie” {John 1:26-27;
Gospel).
