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).
Today, 31 March 2026, Tuesday of Holy Week, the Vatican posted the video above with the Pope's intention for all Catholics to pray for during the month of April. We are asked to Pray with the Pope for his specific intention for each month. This was formerly known as the Apostleship of Prayer.
APRIL: For
priests in crisis
In the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Lord Jesus, Good Shepherd and
companion on the journey, today we place in your hands all
priests, especially those going through moments of crisis, when
loneliness weighs heavily, when doubt clouds their hearts, and when
exhaustion seems stronger than hope.You who know their struggles and wounds, renew in them
the certainty of your unconditional love. Let them feel they are not mere
functionaries or lonely heroes, but beloved sons, humble and cherished
disciples, and pastors sustained by the prayer of their people.
Good Father, teach us as a community to care for our
priests: to listen without judging, to give thanks without demanding
perfection, to share with them the baptismal mission of proclaiming
the Kingdom in word and deed, and to accompany them with closeness and
sincere prayer. May we support those who so often support us.
Holy Spirit, rekindle in our
priests the joy of the Gospel. Grant them healthy friendships, networks of
fraternal support, a sense of humor when things don’t go as
expected, and the grace to always rediscover the beauty of their vocation.
May they never lose trust in You, nor the joy of serving your Church with a
humble and generous heart. Amen.
Fr Bernard O’Connor was born on 18 April 1934 in Ballymote,
County Sligo, Ireland, and educated in Ballymote Boys National School and St
Joseph’s College, Ballinasloe, before joining in the Columbans in St Columban's, Dalgan Park, Navan, in
1952.
Fr O'Connor was ordained in St Columban’s, Dalgan Park, on 21
December 1958 and appointed to the Philippines. After language studies in
Tagalog he began his many years of work in the Archdiocese of Manila. His first
years were spent in Silang and Binangonan but from 1969 he was engaged in
Student Catholic Action. This was a dynamic ministry of leadership-training
among university students in Manila founded by Columban Fr Edward J. McCarthy in
1936. Father Barney served, mainly in Far Eastern University, during the
turbulent years of Martial Law when all student organizations were suspect and
many banned.
Having served as Superior in the District of Luzon he
returned in 1988 to parish ministry in Our Lady of Remedies, Malate, until he
was appointed to Britain in 1995. Mission Awareness and House Manager were two
of the roles he carried during his thirteen years in Solihull and, as he put
it, up to the last he was still seeking new veins on the coalface of British
mission.
'Spaghetti Junction', M6, near Birmingham[Wikipedia]
Father Barney made his way through this many times while going on weekend mission appeals.
During all these years Fr Bernard suffered from poor health
and he returned to Ireland to begin dialysis treatment in 2009.
Eventually he needed treatment three days every week but
always tried to bounce back as quickly as possible. As one of the first
Columbans to develop computer skills along with his cryptic crosswords and
stamp collection he always had ways of coping with the long hours of treatment
and recovery.
Father Bernard will be remembered for his droll humour, for
his hope and indomitable courage, a witness to all of us on how to cope with
life’s difficulties.
When it was evening on that
day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples
had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and
said, ‘Peace be with you.’After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then
the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be
with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’When he had said this, he breathed
on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.If you forgive the sins of any, they
are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
But Thomas (who was called
the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.So the other disciples told him, ‘We
have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails
in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his
side, I will not believe.’
A week later his disciples
were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were
shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your
finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not
doubt but believe.’Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’Jesus said to him, ‘Have you
believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
have come to believe.’
We can read the words of Jesus to Thomas as a gentle rebuke that has led to the nickname he may carry for all eternity: 'Doubting Thomas'. But I prefer to see him as the one who understood that the Risen Lord must carry the scars of his crucifixion and who made the most explicit act of faith in the whole of Sacred Scripture: My Lord and my God!
The First Reading today (Ats 2:42-47) opens with the words They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 'The breaking of the bread' is an expression used for the celebration of the Eucharist. We can see in this sentence the essence of the Mass as we celebrate it today: listening to God's word, praying and sharing in the Sacrifice of Jesus and sharing his Body and Blood.
Some commentators say that the failure of Thomas was not to listen to God's word as related by his companions. Maybe he did fail here but did the others have the same awareness as Thomas had that the Risen Lord must carry his scars for all eternity?
InEvangelii GaudiumNo 7 Pope Francis writes: I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: 'Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction'. Thomas had been a companion of Jesus for two to three years but what he experienced in today's gospel was precisely what Pope Benedict describes as the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.
Servant of God, Fr Emil Joseph Kapaun (20 April 1916 - 23 May 1951) celebrating Mass with American soldiers during the Korean War [Wikipedia]
In hisgeneral audience in St Peter's Square on 31 October 2012
Pope Benedict said: I cannot build my personal faith in a private
dialogue with Jesus, because faith is given to me by God through a community of
believers that is the Church and projects me into the multitude of believers,
into a kind of communion that is not only sociological but rooted in the
eternal love of God who is in himself the communion of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, it is Trinitarian Love. Our faith is truly
personal, only if it is also communal: it can be my faith only if it dwells in
and moves with the 'we' of the Church, only if it is our faith, the common
faith of the one Church.
Pope Francis re-echoes this inEvangelii GaudiumNos 264 - 268: We need to
implore his grace daily, asking him to open our cold hearts and shake up our
lukewarm and superficial existence . . . Sometimes we lose our enthusiasm
for mission because we forget that the Gospel responds to our deepest needs,
since we were created for what the Gospel offers us: friendship with Jesus and
love of our brothers and sisters . . . The word of God also invites us to
recognise that we are a people . . . Mission is at once a passion for
Jesus and a passion for his people. When we stand before Jesus crucified, we
see the depth of his love which exalts and sustains us, but at the same time,
unless we are blind, we begin to realize that Jesus’ gaze, burning with love,
expands to embrace all his people. We realize once more that he wants to make
use of us to draw closer to his beloved people. He takes us from the midst of
his people and he sends us to his people; without this sense of belonging we
cannot understand our deepest identity.
What both Pope Benedict and Pope Francis are saying is that while our faith is
in a person, Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, it can never be a question of 'Jesus
and me'. Pope Benedict says, faith is given to me by God through a
community of believers that is the Church and projects me into the multitude of
believers and Pope Francis emphasises that He takes us from
the midst of his people and he sends us to his people; without this sense of
belonging we cannot understand our deepest identity.
In other words, I can only know myself as a brother or sister of Jesus, as a
son or daughter of God the Father when I know myself as a member of their
family, which I have become through my baptism.
And that awareness of who I am is strengthened when I join other members of
God's family every Sunday as they devote themselves to the apostles’
teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
British soldiers at Mass in the Netherlands during World War II [Wikipedia]
Many Irish Columbans served as chaplains in the British Forces during World War II. One, Fr Patrick McMahon, died in action in Normandy, France, after rescuing a Canadian soldier on 14 August 1944.
In the Office of Readings, prayed by priests, monks, nuns and others as part of the Prayer of the Church, there are two readings. The first is from the Bible and the second usually from writers in the early centuries of the Church. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Easter Week the second reading is from Instructions to the Newly Baptized in Jerusalem also known as The Jerusalem Catechesis, written, as far as I know, by St Cyril of Jerusalem. The author says, Just as the bread of the Eucharist after the invocation of the Holy Spirit is no longer just bread, but the body of Christ, so when the Holy Spirit has been invoked on the holy chrism it is no longer mere or ordinary ointment; it is the gift of Christ, which through the presence of the Holy Spirit instils his divinity into us [Friday].
For the Saturday reading the author tells the newly-baptized: Do not, then, regard the bread and wine as nothing but bread and wine, for they are the body and blood of Christ as the master himself has proclaimed. Though your senses suggest otherwise, let faith reassure you. You have been taught and fully instructed that what seems to be bread is not bread, though it appears to be such to the sense of taste, but the body of Christ; that what seems to be wine is not wine, though the taste would have it so, but the blood of Christ.
When I celebrate Mass with
the Deaf here in Bacolod City, a group whose needs the late Columban Fr Joseph
Coyle was the first priest to respond to and whose vision is being carried on
now by many others, both Deaf and hearing, after the consecration of the bread
and again of the wine, I hear from speaking people who are present the words of
St Thomas, My Lord and my God. Just like St Thomas, they recognise
the presence of the Risen Lord in the bread and the winde that have no become
his Body and Blood.
Fr Emil Kapaun and Fr
Patrick McMahon recognised the presence of Jesus in the bread and wine that
became the Body and Blood of Christ each time they celebrated the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass. They also recognised the presence of Jesus in the wounds
of the soldiers they tended and in whose service they sacrificed their lives -
following the example of St Thomas who, according to tradition, was martyred in
India.
+++
Regina caeliis sung during the Easter Season at the end of the Church's Night Prayer (Compline).
Oremus. Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, mundum lætificare dignatus es: præsta, quæsumus, ut per eius Genitricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuæ capiamus gaudia vitæ. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. R. Amen.
Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
The Son whom you merited to bear, alleluia.
Has risen, as He said, alleluia.
Pray for us to God, alleluia.
V.Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.
Let us pray. O God, who through the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ gave rejoicing to the world, grant, we pray, that through his Mother, the Virgin Mary, we may obtain the joy of everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Congratulations to Fr Dan Fitzgerald, born in the city of Cork, Ireland, on 28 June 1916 and ordained on 21 December 1939. He is the first Irish Columban to reach the venerable age of 100 and the second Columban to do so. Fr Bernard Toal from the USA turned 100 on 17 October last year.
May God continue to fill the hearts of both with joy.
Ad multos annos! To many years!
Collect for Priests
O God, who made your Only Begotten Son eternal High Priest,
grant that those he has chosen
as ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may be found faithful in carrying out
the ministry they have received.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
James and John, the sons
of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do
for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What is it you want
me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us
to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But
Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink
the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized
with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that
I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will
be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to
grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
When
the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John.So Jesus called them
and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize
as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over
them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among
you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be
slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and
to give his life a ransom for many.”
In May 2008 I unexpectedly received an
email from Michael in Australia whom I hadn't met or heard from since the
summer of 1967 when we were working together on a building (construction) site
in Dublin. I had just been ordained subdeacon and was to be ordained priest in
December of that year. The general foreman on the site was my father.
In a later
email Michael said, Your father was a great role model for me to try
and emulate. I remember the first job that I met your father on, as he was
the general foreman. Itwas the first job for me as a journeyman
carpenter and it was a pleasant experience coming to work with such a
pleasant gentleman giving the instructions.
My father, a week before his
sudden death in 1987
I wasn't at all surprised at
Michael's words as I had heard others who had worked with my father, John, say
similar things. And when I worked under him myself that summer I could see what
I had known before: he led by example. He never swore, never shouted at anyone
and was most helpful to young workers and to young architects. He sometimes
would laugh at home at the lack of experience of the latter in practical
matter. But he also knew that you can only learn through experience - and with
the help of mentors. And he was a real mentor to the same young architects.
Many times before I took an
important examination or was about to do something for the first time Dad would
say, The experience will be good for you. There was never the hint
of a demanding expectation. And I have found his words to have been true.
But I often heard him speak
with gratitude, respect and affection of general foremen under whom he had
worked as an apprentice and as a young carpenter. One was Mr Grace, whom I
never met. Two of his sons became Capuchin priests and two of his daughters
religious sisters. Another was Mr Boyle, whom I did know and who with his wife
in their old age were a handsome couple.
Dad was the same at home as he
was on the construction site. He never raised his voice to his two sons or to
our mother. He was courteous with everyone he met and was just himself in every
situation.
His authority came from within.
He was responsible and loving in everything he did. Every morning, after
returning from a very early Mass, he prepared my mother's breakfast before
heading for work. He started work on time and ended on time. But he wasn't a
slave to the clock.
The men who have most
influenced me and whom I have most admired are men who are gentle but strong,
firm and responsible. One example is Jean
Vanier, under whom I have twice made retreats here in the Philippines, in
Cebu City in 1991 and in Quezon City in 1996. Now 87, he is the founder of L'Arche and,
with Marie-Hélène Mathieu, co-founder of Faith and
Light. Jean gave up a career as a university professor of philosophy to
devote his life to persons with learning disabilities. He leads by example,
showing the deepest respect to those considered unimportant, gentle but firm.
When I was 16 and still at school I spent nearly a
year as a member of Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil (Local Defence
Force), known as the FCA and now called the Irish Army Reserve. We used to
train on Sundays. There was one particular corporal, just a few years older
than us, who used to roar at us continually with a wide range of unoriginal
swear words. Nobody respected him. We had a sergeant whose strongest expression
was 'damn', which is considered a very mild expletive in English. He got both
our respect and our cooperation. He had a sense of rightful pride in what he
and we were doing.
Men like my father, Jean Vanier and my sergeant in
the FCA are men in whose lives I have seen the words of Jesus in today's gospel
lived out: You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize
as their rulers lord it over them . . . but whoever wishes to become great
among you must be your servant. . .
First Columban Centenarian
Fr Bernard Toal, born 17 October 1915
Fr Bernard Toal, the first Columban to reach
the age of 100, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, on 17 October 1915
but grew up in nearby Gloucester, New Jersey. He was ordained in Buffalo, New
York, on 18 December 1943. Because of World War II he spent the early years of
his priesthood in the USA.
From 1947 to 1951 he was based in Ozamiz City,
Misamis Occidental, Philippines where he taught in Immaculate Conception
College, now La Salle University Ozamiz. From 1951 until 1969 he was in St
Columban's, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, most of that time as Director of
Probationers, Columban seminarians on a year of intense spiritual formation.
Fr Toal worked in Peru from 1968 till 1979
when he was reassigned to the USA where he worked in parishes in New Mexico,
Texas and California, the last being St Mary's, Fontana, California, where he
worked from 2001 until he retired to St Columban's,Bristol, RI, in 2011.
We thank God for Father Bernard's long life
and for his faithful service as a Columban missionary priest. Ad multos
annos!
