The Annual Forty Hours
A Personal Reflection
The three days that we have come to call the Annual Forty Hours has always been a very special time for me. As a youngster I can still visualize our little church in Morrisville, Pa. decked with flowers and candles. All the externals announced the Divine Presence. My singular recollection is that of all the senses being bombarded. The smell of beeswax candles, the incense and the flowers. The sight of the monstrance being carried underneath the canopy. The Solemn High Mass for opening and closing. The visiting clergy honoring the parish for this special event. The choir singing the beautiful Latin Hymns of the day. The Pange Lingua echoing throughout the church. Me, dressed in my altar boy cassock and swinging the thurible hot with charcoals and burning incense wafting throughout the congregation.
My sense of this time has not changed as a priest - an older priest now.
I look forward to next week. It is almost like a retreat without going away. The church will be decorated and open all day. People, I hope, will come in and out.
We will try to emulate the solemn ceremonies of the past.
Why do all this? Because Jesus Christ is present among us.
Forty Hours will open at the Noon Mass on Sunday.
The church will remain open all Sunday afternoon.
Sunday night will be the solemn procession with the Blessed Sacrament.
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday Night devotions will take place at 7:00 P.M.
Servers will be commissioned on Sunday night.
First Communion Children will be blessed on Monday.
Confirmation candidates will be blessed on Tuesday.
The church will be open to the faithful all day on Monday and Tuesday.
Come and stay a while.
Pax et bonum
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
October 21, 2009
Please pray for our staff as we go togther for an afternoon of retreat on Friday. We will be under the direction of the Catholic Leadership Institute. Assembling at the Mother Boniface Center, we look forward to this time together (1:00 - 7:00 P.M.) with only one agenda item, i.e., GOD. Our offices will be closed Friday afternoon.
A new adventure for us at SMT this year there will be the Thanksgiving Dinner that we will serve on Thanksgiving Day at noon in our hall.
Thanksgiving....a special time for all!!!
A Thanksgiving Dinner will be served from Noon until 1:30 P.M. in St. Martin of Tours Hall on Thanksgiving Day. Our invited guests will be those who may, for whatever reason, be alone. An invitation has also been given to our Police and Firefighters who will be working that day. It is our opportunity to put into practice the Corporal Works of Mercy. For all those who help, we recognize that you will want to be with your loved ones as well. Dinner will be served and clean-up will conclude by 2:00 P.M.
Would you be interested in supporting our endeavor?
Ways to help???
* Cook a turkey
* Help serve the meal
* Assist in the kitchen
* Set up
* Clean-up
* Be a driver
* Deliver a "take-out"
*Be a greeter/Hospitality
* Donate Script or Cash toward the dinner
Whatever you do for the least of our brothers and sisters, that you do for ME.
Pax et Bonum.
Please pray for our staff as we go togther for an afternoon of retreat on Friday. We will be under the direction of the Catholic Leadership Institute. Assembling at the Mother Boniface Center, we look forward to this time together (1:00 - 7:00 P.M.) with only one agenda item, i.e., GOD. Our offices will be closed Friday afternoon.
A new adventure for us at SMT this year there will be the Thanksgiving Dinner that we will serve on Thanksgiving Day at noon in our hall.
Thanksgiving....a special time for all!!!
A Thanksgiving Dinner will be served from Noon until 1:30 P.M. in St. Martin of Tours Hall on Thanksgiving Day. Our invited guests will be those who may, for whatever reason, be alone. An invitation has also been given to our Police and Firefighters who will be working that day. It is our opportunity to put into practice the Corporal Works of Mercy. For all those who help, we recognize that you will want to be with your loved ones as well. Dinner will be served and clean-up will conclude by 2:00 P.M.
Would you be interested in supporting our endeavor?
Ways to help???
* Cook a turkey
* Help serve the meal
* Assist in the kitchen
* Set up
* Clean-up
* Be a driver
* Deliver a "take-out"
*Be a greeter/Hospitality
* Donate Script or Cash toward the dinner
Whatever you do for the least of our brothers and sisters, that you do for ME.
Pax et Bonum.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
October 7, 2009
...and the silent blogger is back on line after a temporary shut down of a month due to vacation plans and then, the necessary post-vacation "catch-up".
I have set a theme for myself for the school year and I have shared this with our parents and now am doing the same with the students. My 2009-2010 theme is "Let's be nice. Let's be nice to one another".
I have asked students and adults to realize the special dignity that each of us possess. We are "temples of the Holy Ghost". We carry within us that unique dignity because we are made in the image and likeness of God. This is an important concept and it is a challenging one to get across to children and adults alike.
I am often astounded when we encounter people on campus who, for whatever reason, don't speak. Whatever happened to the custom of greeting one another as we pass on the street, in the corridors and going and coming from church? There is an ignorance that has crept into our society - either consciously or unconsciously. People walk by one another with never a thought to the other.
I like to say "hi". And it really ticks me off when I say "hi" to someone and you don't even get a grunt back. Sadly our youth have followed in the footsteps of many adults. It is probably a generation and a half already that has lost this one very nice, courteous aspect of daily living.
I have also asked myself, is it our Philadelphia Area that breeds such impoliteness? I am not sure. The next time you travel the Penna. TPK west, take note. The toll taker at this end doesn't care if you are a kangaroo. Arrive at Pittsburgh and you get a big hello and have a nice day. I kid you not. It never fails.
I just returned from Arizona spending 9 days in the Grand Canyon State. Walking the streets of Phoenix and Tucson, I found - to my delight - folks saying hello. Wow, I had to adjust gears. Leave my Philadelphia face behind and put on a new front. It was rather pleasant. People were nice. It is not hard and not much to ask.
Recently, I was standing out front of church before a Mass on Sunday. Coming up the steps were a couple of senior age (should have known better) and I greeted them. Nothing. So, a little louder, I said "good morning" and I emphasized that I was making a point for I am sure they both heard me the first time. I was eventually able to get a typical Philadelphia grunt. I run into the same thing at school both with the parents and the students.
So, I have asked - and I will ask all year and I am going to be a pest about it - Let's be nice to each other, let's acknowledge that Divine Dignity within each other.
A nice smile and pleasant hello can go so far.
At the October-Fest last week, I passed so many people on the lot - with never a gesture of acknowledgment - even from some of the workers. Then my day was made - a sixth grader made it a point to come over, shake my hand and say hello. Must have good parents, I thought.
I once knew a kid from Philly who went off to college in another city. I asked him about the perception others have of Philadelphians. His response to me was shocking but believable. He said: "Oh, most think that we are barbarians. That we are ignorant and have no manners."
So, again, let's be nice. It isn't hard.
Pax et Bonum.
...and the silent blogger is back on line after a temporary shut down of a month due to vacation plans and then, the necessary post-vacation "catch-up".
I have set a theme for myself for the school year and I have shared this with our parents and now am doing the same with the students. My 2009-2010 theme is "Let's be nice. Let's be nice to one another".
I have asked students and adults to realize the special dignity that each of us possess. We are "temples of the Holy Ghost". We carry within us that unique dignity because we are made in the image and likeness of God. This is an important concept and it is a challenging one to get across to children and adults alike.
I am often astounded when we encounter people on campus who, for whatever reason, don't speak. Whatever happened to the custom of greeting one another as we pass on the street, in the corridors and going and coming from church? There is an ignorance that has crept into our society - either consciously or unconsciously. People walk by one another with never a thought to the other.
I like to say "hi". And it really ticks me off when I say "hi" to someone and you don't even get a grunt back. Sadly our youth have followed in the footsteps of many adults. It is probably a generation and a half already that has lost this one very nice, courteous aspect of daily living.
I have also asked myself, is it our Philadelphia Area that breeds such impoliteness? I am not sure. The next time you travel the Penna. TPK west, take note. The toll taker at this end doesn't care if you are a kangaroo. Arrive at Pittsburgh and you get a big hello and have a nice day. I kid you not. It never fails.
I just returned from Arizona spending 9 days in the Grand Canyon State. Walking the streets of Phoenix and Tucson, I found - to my delight - folks saying hello. Wow, I had to adjust gears. Leave my Philadelphia face behind and put on a new front. It was rather pleasant. People were nice. It is not hard and not much to ask.
Recently, I was standing out front of church before a Mass on Sunday. Coming up the steps were a couple of senior age (should have known better) and I greeted them. Nothing. So, a little louder, I said "good morning" and I emphasized that I was making a point for I am sure they both heard me the first time. I was eventually able to get a typical Philadelphia grunt. I run into the same thing at school both with the parents and the students.
So, I have asked - and I will ask all year and I am going to be a pest about it - Let's be nice to each other, let's acknowledge that Divine Dignity within each other.
A nice smile and pleasant hello can go so far.
At the October-Fest last week, I passed so many people on the lot - with never a gesture of acknowledgment - even from some of the workers. Then my day was made - a sixth grader made it a point to come over, shake my hand and say hello. Must have good parents, I thought.
I once knew a kid from Philly who went off to college in another city. I asked him about the perception others have of Philadelphians. His response to me was shocking but believable. He said: "Oh, most think that we are barbarians. That we are ignorant and have no manners."
So, again, let's be nice. It isn't hard.
Pax et Bonum.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Holy Cross - September 14
No Cross, No Crown.
When I was a pastor at Visitation Parish in Philadelphia, our Vietnamese Community celebrated a great feast by inviting a Vietnamese Archbishop. I concelebrated the Mass and afterward joined the parishioners for a grand dinner at a fine Vietnamese restaurant in South Philadelphia. I was seated with the Archbishop and enjoyed my conversation with him.
I was taken by this man. There was something about him that drew me. Something almost "mystical". I became fixed on his pectoral cross and chain. All bishops wear a pectoral cross over their heart. In most cases they appear to be fine jewelry. The one I was looking at was quite crude and imperfect. The chain actually looked like something kids might make at summer camp. Anyway, I finally worked up enough courage to ask the bishop about it. When I did, he turned red and I knew I had intruded into a private area. But he obliged me.
Archbishop Francis X. Nguyen had been a prisoner in a communist camp in Vietnam for many years. he told me that to pass the time he would gather pieces of thread and wire and gradually he fashioned what I was looking at and inquiring about.
Here was a man who had carried a cross. Here was a man who had cried as Jesus, in the solitary life of a prisoner My God, My God, why have you abandoned me! He knew isolation. The heartache of not being able to exercise his ministry as priest and bishop.
He never told me any details of his imprisonment but I learned of them later in books and periodicals and from Vietnamese priests.
...and we complain about our crosses, don't we?
Sadly we do.
...being stuck in traffic.
...having to curb our life style by a down turn in the economy.
...adjusting schedules to care for aging parents.
...impatient with our own personal aging and weakness
We complain about these crosses. Forgetting, that if there is no cross there will be no crown.
No Cross! No Glory!
Let us examine our Crosses more closely.
Pray for the grace to carry them as Christ did.
And look to victory by "Lifting high the Cross we are given".
Pax et bonum.
(I am going silent for two weeks - R&R time. Pray for me until then)
No Cross, No Crown.
When I was a pastor at Visitation Parish in Philadelphia, our Vietnamese Community celebrated a great feast by inviting a Vietnamese Archbishop. I concelebrated the Mass and afterward joined the parishioners for a grand dinner at a fine Vietnamese restaurant in South Philadelphia. I was seated with the Archbishop and enjoyed my conversation with him.
I was taken by this man. There was something about him that drew me. Something almost "mystical". I became fixed on his pectoral cross and chain. All bishops wear a pectoral cross over their heart. In most cases they appear to be fine jewelry. The one I was looking at was quite crude and imperfect. The chain actually looked like something kids might make at summer camp. Anyway, I finally worked up enough courage to ask the bishop about it. When I did, he turned red and I knew I had intruded into a private area. But he obliged me.
Archbishop Francis X. Nguyen had been a prisoner in a communist camp in Vietnam for many years. he told me that to pass the time he would gather pieces of thread and wire and gradually he fashioned what I was looking at and inquiring about.
Here was a man who had carried a cross. Here was a man who had cried as Jesus, in the solitary life of a prisoner My God, My God, why have you abandoned me! He knew isolation. The heartache of not being able to exercise his ministry as priest and bishop.
He never told me any details of his imprisonment but I learned of them later in books and periodicals and from Vietnamese priests.
...and we complain about our crosses, don't we?
Sadly we do.
...being stuck in traffic.
...having to curb our life style by a down turn in the economy.
...adjusting schedules to care for aging parents.
...impatient with our own personal aging and weakness
We complain about these crosses. Forgetting, that if there is no cross there will be no crown.
No Cross! No Glory!
Let us examine our Crosses more closely.
Pray for the grace to carry them as Christ did.
And look to victory by "Lifting high the Cross we are given".
Pax et bonum.
(I am going silent for two weeks - R&R time. Pray for me until then)
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
September 4, 2009 - The Year of the Priest
...and more or less an anniversary of mine
I am writing early this week about a day that, in my own odd way, I have always remembered and cherished. It's an anniversary day in my life. A day that I will never forget.
Forty-six years ago on September 4, 1963 I entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to begin my studies for the priesthood.
Some might say it is a strange day to remember. Naturally one remembers an ordination date, a wedding anniversary, the day of death of a dear one. True!
But September 4 always presents itself to me as a day when a new and important chapter in my life began. I chose to follow the route my life has taken at the age of sixteen. They look at you today, sneer a bit, ask how a 16 year old could possible make a choice such as I did (and others did as well), joke about all that one missed in the last two years of high school and sometimes even dismiss the choice as immature. I put my hand to the plow and I never looked back. I am happy that I did what I did. I have been happy with the choice that I made and I seem to get happier as the years roll on.
I remember the day as though it were yesterday. My parents drove me up the Boulevard from Bucks County, over City Line Avenue and through the front gates of the Diocesan Seminary. I had this old footlocker with a bullet hole in it and it contained what possesions I was permitted to bring with me. We had to report by 4:00 P.M.. It was the Wednesday after Labor Day. I still remember the two deans of men waiting on the front steps. Father Harry Degnan and Father Joseph Daley (who would soon become the bishop of Harrisburg). I was scared a bit when I heard the one priest say to the other "there's the Deliman boy". Did they really know us that well!
At 4:00 P.M. a bell rang which meant our parents had to leave. It also meant that we immediately, i.e., new men and veteran seminarians, fell into a routine - a routine that we basically would follow each day at 4:00 P.M. It became a schedule we would follow for some years before the Vatican II allowed a relaxing of the daily regimen.
I lived in an open dormitory with 78 other young guys. The open dorm (while I would find it difficult today) was a rather unique experience for a 16 year old kid. Let me just say that I quickly shed whatever inhibitions I had. Privacy was pretty much non existent and a thing called a bell, the Vox Dei (voice of God) ruled our lives and called us to chapel, to class, to the refectory, to recreation.
I look back at all that and thank God for his Grace. I did it and I guess it never seemed tooooo
difficult because it was what God wanted me to do. I rose at 5:00 am and learned to get ready in fifteen minutes because at 5:15 we recited the Angelus and we did it in Latin. Chapel at 5:30, Mass at 6:00 and breakast at 7:00. Breakfast, by the way, was usually in silence.
In this Year of the Priest I find myself thinking of many of these things, thanking God for my priesthood and the many folks whose lives I have touched in these years of serving as an Alter Christus - other Christ.
I am sure there are some I have offended either because I have had to make an unpopular decision, was having a bad day myself (that happens you know, even to a priest) or some one simply has not learned to agree to disagree.
I love being a priest and being with priests. Just the other night I had dinner with four other classmates and we laughed and talked and even shared matters of declining health and vigor as we approach the mid-sixties. You know - aches in places you never even knew existed.
Pray for me on my anniversary. I would appreciate a Hail Mary. And then pray for some seminarians that are very close to my heart. I look forward to the day when I can stand at the altar with them and celebrate that supreme sacrifice that is regularly celebrated from the rising of the sun until its setting.
Pax et Bonum !
...and more or less an anniversary of mine
I am writing early this week about a day that, in my own odd way, I have always remembered and cherished. It's an anniversary day in my life. A day that I will never forget.
Forty-six years ago on September 4, 1963 I entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to begin my studies for the priesthood.
Some might say it is a strange day to remember. Naturally one remembers an ordination date, a wedding anniversary, the day of death of a dear one. True!
But September 4 always presents itself to me as a day when a new and important chapter in my life began. I chose to follow the route my life has taken at the age of sixteen. They look at you today, sneer a bit, ask how a 16 year old could possible make a choice such as I did (and others did as well), joke about all that one missed in the last two years of high school and sometimes even dismiss the choice as immature. I put my hand to the plow and I never looked back. I am happy that I did what I did. I have been happy with the choice that I made and I seem to get happier as the years roll on.
I remember the day as though it were yesterday. My parents drove me up the Boulevard from Bucks County, over City Line Avenue and through the front gates of the Diocesan Seminary. I had this old footlocker with a bullet hole in it and it contained what possesions I was permitted to bring with me. We had to report by 4:00 P.M.. It was the Wednesday after Labor Day. I still remember the two deans of men waiting on the front steps. Father Harry Degnan and Father Joseph Daley (who would soon become the bishop of Harrisburg). I was scared a bit when I heard the one priest say to the other "there's the Deliman boy". Did they really know us that well!
At 4:00 P.M. a bell rang which meant our parents had to leave. It also meant that we immediately, i.e., new men and veteran seminarians, fell into a routine - a routine that we basically would follow each day at 4:00 P.M. It became a schedule we would follow for some years before the Vatican II allowed a relaxing of the daily regimen.
I lived in an open dormitory with 78 other young guys. The open dorm (while I would find it difficult today) was a rather unique experience for a 16 year old kid. Let me just say that I quickly shed whatever inhibitions I had. Privacy was pretty much non existent and a thing called a bell, the Vox Dei (voice of God) ruled our lives and called us to chapel, to class, to the refectory, to recreation.
I look back at all that and thank God for his Grace. I did it and I guess it never seemed tooooo
difficult because it was what God wanted me to do. I rose at 5:00 am and learned to get ready in fifteen minutes because at 5:15 we recited the Angelus and we did it in Latin. Chapel at 5:30, Mass at 6:00 and breakast at 7:00. Breakfast, by the way, was usually in silence.
In this Year of the Priest I find myself thinking of many of these things, thanking God for my priesthood and the many folks whose lives I have touched in these years of serving as an Alter Christus - other Christ.
I am sure there are some I have offended either because I have had to make an unpopular decision, was having a bad day myself (that happens you know, even to a priest) or some one simply has not learned to agree to disagree.
I love being a priest and being with priests. Just the other night I had dinner with four other classmates and we laughed and talked and even shared matters of declining health and vigor as we approach the mid-sixties. You know - aches in places you never even knew existed.
Pray for me on my anniversary. I would appreciate a Hail Mary. And then pray for some seminarians that are very close to my heart. I look forward to the day when I can stand at the altar with them and celebrate that supreme sacrifice that is regularly celebrated from the rising of the sun until its setting.
Pax et Bonum !
Thursday, August 27, 2009
August 27 - St. Monica
.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy died on Tuesday past. He was a Catholic and as his funeral arrangements are announced it is not surprising that Mr. Kennedy be given a Mass of Christian Burial.
We Catholics are an interesting bunch of believers. We have strict rules of morality and unchangeable Dogmas of Faith. We can be tough on our own and justly call them to accountability. Our Clergy and Laity both do this. We can be vocal about our beliefs and convictions. And there are times when we are painfully silent.
Senator Kennedy did a great deal of good in his almost half century of service in the U.S. Senate. Mr. Kennedy was also very far off the mark on issues that Practicing Catholics find themselves passionate in debate.
Some Catholics will disagree with his final commendation and farewell within the context of Roman Catholic Ritual. Others will have no opinion either way.
In my 36 years as a priest I have presided over countless Funeral Masses. Many I have questioned and questioned deeply:
* drug dealers
* drug addicts
* cases of suicide connected with satanic worship
* ordinary folks, nominal Catholics, who rarely darken the doors of the church
* a high profile member of the mob
* and..you get the drift.
We have accorded them all Christian Burial because, I want to believe, we have a compassionate nature. We make a case for "mercy upon mercy upon mercy".
In the Book of Macabees we read: It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead. No qualifications!
When our President recently met with Pope Benedict XVI it was reported that he hand-delivered a peronal letter from Mr. Kennedy. The contents were never disclosed. I wonder...just wonder...I'll let you fill in the blanks.
So, let God be the final judge and let us be faithful to the words of Macabees and pray for the dead. We Catholics are good at that.
No death in any family is ever a time for sniping, especially within a family of faith.
It is holy to pray for the dead.
Be holy, then, and pray.
Pax et Bonum.
*
.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy died on Tuesday past. He was a Catholic and as his funeral arrangements are announced it is not surprising that Mr. Kennedy be given a Mass of Christian Burial.
We Catholics are an interesting bunch of believers. We have strict rules of morality and unchangeable Dogmas of Faith. We can be tough on our own and justly call them to accountability. Our Clergy and Laity both do this. We can be vocal about our beliefs and convictions. And there are times when we are painfully silent.
Senator Kennedy did a great deal of good in his almost half century of service in the U.S. Senate. Mr. Kennedy was also very far off the mark on issues that Practicing Catholics find themselves passionate in debate.
Some Catholics will disagree with his final commendation and farewell within the context of Roman Catholic Ritual. Others will have no opinion either way.
In my 36 years as a priest I have presided over countless Funeral Masses. Many I have questioned and questioned deeply:
* drug dealers
* drug addicts
* cases of suicide connected with satanic worship
* ordinary folks, nominal Catholics, who rarely darken the doors of the church
* a high profile member of the mob
* and..you get the drift.
We have accorded them all Christian Burial because, I want to believe, we have a compassionate nature. We make a case for "mercy upon mercy upon mercy".
In the Book of Macabees we read: It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead. No qualifications!
When our President recently met with Pope Benedict XVI it was reported that he hand-delivered a peronal letter from Mr. Kennedy. The contents were never disclosed. I wonder...just wonder...I'll let you fill in the blanks.
So, let God be the final judge and let us be faithful to the words of Macabees and pray for the dead. We Catholics are good at that.
No death in any family is ever a time for sniping, especially within a family of faith.
It is holy to pray for the dead.
Be holy, then, and pray.
Pax et Bonum.
*
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
August 25, 2009 - Year of the Priest
Moving right along and continuing still with kernels from the recently completed bio of Vianney, I wanted to cite a quote that is good for meditation.
Voltaire was educated a Catholic but became terribly tainted by the immorality of the French Revolution. He bitterly attacked the Church, the Sacraments and her Dogma.
Voltaire is said to have been watching a procession with the Blessed Sacrament. As the Divine Presence went by him he tipped his hat. Challenged by another with regard to this gesture he replied, " It is what one gentleman does to another." Voltaire declined the Sacrament on his deathbed only because he would not contaminate God's blood with his own.
As far as he drifted from the Church, something of the old remained within.
It seems to me that he chose not to complicate his grave spiritual condition any further. Receiving the Sacraments in mortal sin is sacrilege. His conscience was at least formed well that much. Is ours???
Pax st Bonum.
Moving right along and continuing still with kernels from the recently completed bio of Vianney, I wanted to cite a quote that is good for meditation.
Voltaire was educated a Catholic but became terribly tainted by the immorality of the French Revolution. He bitterly attacked the Church, the Sacraments and her Dogma.
Voltaire is said to have been watching a procession with the Blessed Sacrament. As the Divine Presence went by him he tipped his hat. Challenged by another with regard to this gesture he replied, " It is what one gentleman does to another." Voltaire declined the Sacrament on his deathbed only because he would not contaminate God's blood with his own.
As far as he drifted from the Church, something of the old remained within.
It seems to me that he chose not to complicate his grave spiritual condition any further. Receiving the Sacraments in mortal sin is sacrilege. His conscience was at least formed well that much. Is ours???
Pax st Bonum.
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