I Have a New Job... Or Do I?

So, I have a new job! At least, theoretically, that is. I am now the official director of the “Spiritual Formation Program” (henceforward SFP), run by Madonna House since 1980 for young men considering a vocation to the priesthood but not quite ready to begin their seminary studies. The reason I am only ‘theoretically’ in charge of it yet is that God has not yet sent us anyone applying for the program for this coming year, so it is unknown at this point if we will run it or not.

I am pretty sure that I haven’t mentioned this program except in passing on this blog, but now that I am in charge of it (theoretically), I thought it was time to highlight this hidden contribution MH makes to the Church at large.

It was in 1980 that the idea came to Catherine Doherty, all in a flash, that MH could have a role to play in the formation of men for the priesthood in Canada and beyond. Her initial formulation of it, that we would be a ‘seminary’, proved beyond our means at that point (and still is), but a year of spiritual and catechetical formation was not. 

Unbeknownst to her and us, the Vatican had just around that time come out with its own recommendations for priestly formation, and was suggesting exactly that thing. So Catherine asked Fr. Jim Duffy to develop a ‘pre-seminary’ program, and from 1980 onwards we have offered this service to the Church.

I do not have statistics in front of me at all, but quite a number of men are serving as priests now who passed through the SFP, or are seminarians on their way to that happy state. Quite a number of men are now loving husbands and fathers, and a good few others are in other vocations. I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone who has done the program over these decades who has not reported, sometimes years later, that it was a formative influence in their lives that has helped them persevere in serving God.

The program runs more or less from Canadian Thanksgiving in early October to Easter Sunday. The men come, and for the most part live our MH life of work, prayer, and community life. They have, as all our long-term visitors have, a spiritual director from among the priests. They live with the other MH men guests at St. Anne’s, and in most regards their life is that of any guest to our community. Our belief, and it is a belief tried in the fires of long experience, is that it is our community life that is the principle formator of anyone who walks in the door to spend time with us.

But they have a meeting one evening a week to discuss their experience and to read together and reflect on significant texts on the priesthood or other key spiritual matters. They have a study day on Wednesday—in the morning all the MH guests have classes first on the Fundamentals of the Spiritual Life, then on the Catechism. A time of prayer or reading follows. In the afternoon the SFP men have a second class, which may be on the priesthood, the liturgy, Scripture, or Our Lady. A second time of study follows, then a holy hour.

During the year there may be special field trips—a visit to the Companions of the Cross, or to the bishop of Pembroke. Some years we get ambitious and do a pilgrimage to St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal. But meanwhile outside of these special events, there is the ‘real work’ of the program—the Nazareth life of prayer, work, and learning to love one another in community (this latter always proves to be the toughest part of it all).

The men go away, generally, at Christmas for a break, and often this is a significant point of formation, as when they come back in January they are coming back with a new level of commitment to the process. We always end at Easter (even though some years, 2016 being one of them, the early date of the feast means the second half of the program gets a bit compressed), and a long-standing feature of our Easter feast is the young men giving a short speech to reflect on what the program has meant to them and to thank the community for its support.

It’s a really good program, and it has done a lot of good for an awful lot of young men over the years, some of whom are in turn doing an awful lot of good for the Church now. So this program has been entrusted to me now, after passing through the hands of Fr. Jim Duffy, Fr. Robert Wild, Fr. Robert Sharkey, and Fr. Tom Zoeller.

So I’m mostly asking for prayers at this point—it is just a bit daunting to find myself in this position along with everything else going on in my MH life and work. I rather suspect I won’t be going out nearly as often to give missions and talks, if this program actually happens this year.

And of course I am writing this in case any young man (by which I mean, more or less, 19-35) reads this who is looking for just what I have described or something close enough. Or any vocation director of a diocese who may have a man making inquiries who would benefit from this program, or any priest of a diocese who can forward this to his vocation director, or any lay person who knows a priest who knows the vocation director… well, you get the idea. Spread it around, in other words, folks! Get the word out! Use that share-y thing-y at the bottom of the post there…

Don’t let Fr. Denis Lemieux languish in idleness and torpor – give him a program to run! That’s the spirit! And yes, do pray for me as I take up this very beautiful and awesome work MH has done for these past 35 years.

Msgr Thomas Rowland - 1926-2015

Well, we are in a time of it in Madonna House, with yet another of our members going to meet Jesus last night. Msgr Thomas Rowland died last night around 9:30, after a long struggle with acute leukaemia.

This is our third funeral of the year (fourth if you count Fr. Jim Duffy who died at Christmas time late last year). So we are in a season of saying goodbye and giving thanks, really, for the beautiful men and women who God has allowed us to share life with in this community.

Fr. Tom was a great man in many respects. He was first and foremost a man of the liturgy, a pioneer in the liturgical renewal movement following Vatican II, and a strong advocate of the active participation that was and is at the heart of this movement.

I don't have facts and dates at my disposal as I write this, but he was very active throughout the American Southwest in promoting precisely the kind of liturgical education and sacramental theology that the Church mandated in its constitution Sacrosanctum Consilium. He was a pastor through and through and in his home diocese of El Paso, Texas did great work in building up parish life around the celebration of the Eucharist and the other sacraments.

His one book, God Acts, We React, contains his insights around these subjects, and has been well regarded in liturgical circles. His concern always was to not overly focus on the precise rubrics and texts (although he was a stickler for doing things correctly!), but to understand the mystery of faith being expressed within them - the reality of God acting in Jesus Christ and this action creating in us a 're-action' - an imitation of the action of Christ that is both worship returned to God and sacrificial love and service for the world.

I would simply say on a personal note that Fr. Tom was my great teacher on the liturgy, and my writings on that subject on this blog and elsewhere are simply my own regurgitation of his basic insights.

How did this man get to MH? He came quite early, actually, to visit his sister Mary Catherine who had joined the fledgling community. He himself joined it in the late 1950s for some years, but was recalled to his diocese by his bishop. He remained an associate priest in the subsequent decades. It was in the late 1980s that he was allowed, finally, to pursue his sense of call to be a full-time member of MH.

Here, he worked in a variety of jobs--he was the bee keeper for a while!--wrote his book and travelled extensively giving workshops on liturgical theology all over North America. He went to Ghana and taught in a minor seminary there, and later was assigned to our house in Edmonton. He had unflagging apostolic zeal, and in fact the one thing he could not do easily was sit still. He loved parish life and was always the first one to volunteer to go out and fill in whenever a local parish needed a substitute.

It was just about two years ago that he went down to the West Indian island of  Carriacou, at age 87, to help out, since they had no priest on that small island. And he was quite ready to stay there as long as needed, and was unflagging in offering the sacraments, and bringing communion to 'the old people', most of whom were considerably younger than him. It was there that he began to feel tired and sick for the first time in his life. As he put it to me, he finally went for a blood test, since he had no energy, and found out that "I didn't have none!" Blood, that is. Upon returning to Combermere, he was quickly diagnosed with acute leukaemia and told he would live for a month or two more.

That was a year and a half ago. He was a strong man, and death did not come easily to him. But the last weeks his strong heart and iron constitution finally began to lose the battle, and he quietly slipped away last night into the arms of the Lord who he tried to serve all his life.

Fr. Tom was a unique character, an original. His other passion aside from the priesthood and the Mass was flying--he was a licensed pilot all his life. Coming to MH meant giving that up, so he become an avid hobbyist building remote controlled model airplanes which he flew all around the priest house on any fine day. He was famous for his prodigious appetite and could pack away ice cream (pralines and cream!) with the best of them. He was a lively conversationalist, a very funny man, a great story teller with an unbelievably detailed memory for past events. He was a Texan through and through, long and lanky and with a drawl that was undiminished no matter how much time he spent in lesser environs than the Lone Star state.

He was unlike anyone else in MH, really, and he will be missed. For those who might have known Fr. Rowland and who are in the area, I will be posting funeral information on my Facebook page when we have it. Pray for us as we say goodbye to another of our family, and pray for Fr. Tom that he quickly find his place at the banquet feast of heaven, the liturgy that knows no end.

Madonna House Movie XI - A New Vision

Well, here it is, folks - the eleventh instalment in a twelve-part series on Madonna House community that we produced last year. This one, as you can see, is on a topic somewhat dear to my heart, which is the presence and role of the priests in MH. I show up, burbling away on the subject, throughout this video, so don't know what more I can add here. This is, simply, my vocation, and this short video does a pretty good job of presenting it, all things considered.

I believe that what we are trying to live in MH--priests and laity living together in a common family life with true mutuality and equality of dignity and mission--is not just for our community but is a new vision for the whole Church, one that I have given my life for. So here it is, and I hope you enjoy it:

This Week in Madonna House - Sep 21-27

This week in Madonna House the dominant event was the annual retreat gathering of the MH associate clergy. I'm pretty sure I've not mentioned this aspect of the community of the blog before, that we have associate clerical members. So, what's that about?

In the late 1950s a priest named Joseph Raya came here, a Lebanese Melkite, much against his will by some friends of his who knew Catherine and MH. When he arrived he was taken aback by the sight of our Pax-Caritas cross. It seems he had long envisioned just such a cross, with the equivalent words in Arabic. He also fell in love with the community and its spirituality, but he was quite sure that he was called to remain a parish priest in Alabama where he was then assigned.

It is to the credit of Fr. John Callahan, the first MH priest and director of the priests, that he discerned on the spot that we were to have an associate priesthood. He took off his own Pax-Caritas cross and immediately placed it around the neck of Fr. Raya (who later on became Archbishop Raya in the Holy Land, and there's a whole lot to be said about his life in and with MH that is a story for another day).

And so the associate priesthood, later expanded to include permanent deacons, was born. These are ordained men who identify with MH spirituality and desire to live it in their ministries and lives. They make promises as we do, but as associates, and strive to live the spirit of the Little Mandate to the best of their abilities in their home dioceses.

For our part, we pray for them, welcome them as true members of our community when they come to visit, and host this annual retreat for them at the end of September. I'm not quite sure about the current number of associates but I know it's over 100, including several bishops and deacons. This year for the retreat we had a smaller number than usual, perhaps about a dozen priests and five deacons with their wives (who, while technically not associates, we cherish as beloved friends).

The format is much what one would expect - a daily conference, liturgy in common, lots of time for prayer and quiet. MH is such a relational community that we don't seem to go much for 'silence' in retreats, so there is also lots of time for visiting and sharing of life and enjoying one another's company. Our theme this year, taking the cue from Pope Francis, was 'The Joy of the Gospel' and we looked at that from various angles pertaining to ordained ministry.

The existence of a associate clergy in MH is somewhat of a mystery in the proper sense of that word. These men come here, they love us and we love them, and then they go out into the world to exercise their priestly or diaconal service, and the full extent of what we mean to them and they mean to us is largely hidden from all of us. Many of our associate priests over the years have said to us that they don't think they would have persevered in the priesthood without their association with MH. But it is all very hidden, very undramatic, very ordinary, as most of the really important and beautiful things in life are.

Otherwise this week, we remain a small family, with a light sprinkling of guests only. I understand that is going to change in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, the harvest is coming in. Apple juicing was the big job of the week at the farm, and our farm manager informed me yesterday that our yield this year will be comparable to last year's bumper crop.

While I was away, the potatoes were harvested, and it was a good year for them. This is truly one of our staple crops, so we all breathe a sigh of relief when they do well. Living off the land as we do, we simply do not take food for granted.

There was another 'harvest' of sorts while I was on holidays that I should mention. We have four new applicants! Two men and two women began the 21-month process of discernment and formation in the MH apostolate. They join the four who are in their second year of applicancy, moving (God-willing) towards making their first promises this coming June. It is always a moment of joy and wonder when young people decide to throw in their lot with us and offer their lives to God in this humble but very beautiful way. While it is against blog policy for me to mention their names, please keep our applicants in your prayers.

That's about it - as always, I know there is lots going on in the community that I don't hear about until afterwards if at all, but that's what I noticed this week. Keep us all in your prayers, and know that we are praying for all of you and for the world.

I Have Nothing But Gratitude

So today is my tenth anniversary of ordination. I find myself quite at a loss for words, uncharacteristically, and can only say that I have a heart full of nothing but gratitude to God for allowing me to be in this most sublime and awesome vocation. Thank you, God.

Probably my lack of words is also connected to the fact that this is my last blog post for a couple of weeks, as I depart on my annual vacation tomorrow. Blogging will resume as normal on September 21.

Meanwhile, since I am a man without words today, here are some things I’ve written in the past on priesthood and my own call to it that say what I would say if I had anything to say!

Here are my thoughts on the day I was ordained.

And here are my reflections on Catherine Doherty’s sense of the priesthood.

Here are my reflections, with Pope Francis, on being a minister of God’s mercy.

Finally, here is what I believe it is all about, not only priesthood, but life in Christ, and it is to this reality and this mystery that my life is pledged, poor enough job that I make of it most of the time.

And so, besides those four last words (for now), I leave you with one of my favorite choral pieces which expresses what is really in my heart ten years later. ‘Praise the name of the Lord, praise the Lord, you servants of His, alleluia.’

An Open Letter To All My Brother Priests, On Humanae Vitae

And now, beloved sons, you who are priests, you who in virtue of your sacred office act as counselors and spiritual leaders both of individual men and women and of families—We turn to you filled with great confidence. For it is your principal duty—We are speaking especially to you who teach moral theology—to spell out clearly and completely the Church's teaching on marriage. In the performance of your ministry you must be the first to give an example of that sincere obedience, inward as well as outward, which is due to the magisterium of the Church.

For, as you know, the pastors of the Church enjoy a special light of the Holy Spirit in teaching the truth. And this, rather than the arguments they put forward, is why you are bound to such obedience. Nor will it escape you that if men's peace of soul and the unity of the Christian people are to be preserved, then it is of the utmost importance that in moral as well as in dogmatic theology all should obey the magisterium of the Church and should speak as with one voice. 

Therefore We make Our own the anxious words of the great Apostle Paul and with all Our heart We renew Our appeal to you: "I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment."

Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae 28

Reflection – Well, this is painful. I have been staring at paragraph 28 for some time now, trying to figure out what to write about it that is a) true; b) charitable; c) really, really, really charitable.

This is, in my view, the ground zero of HV, the precise place where, if this encyclical had been received by those to whom it was addressed, and lived out in this precise paragraph, I honestly believe things would have unfolded quite differently in the Church over the last forty-five years.

It is a tragedy the scope of which I don’t think we can readily grasp that the clergy of the Catholic Church greeted this encyclical, for the most part, not with ‘sincere obedience’ but without outright rebellion, disdainful scorn, and embarrassed silence. With very few exceptions, when the doctrine has not been openly controverted, it has been tacitly ignored by the clergy of the Church, at least on this continent.

It is a failure of pastoral care and love that HV and the Church’s teaching on contraception has not been preached, taught, promoted, studied, from every parish, every diocese, every Catholic school and college and hospital. The harm done to souls has been incalculable.

I say this without judgment of my elder brothers in the priesthood. I was two years old in 1968 – I do realize that it is the easiest thing in the world to look back at the mistakes and blindness of a past era with easy condemnation and judgment. I do realize that there was a whole social and cultural ferment in the late 1960s and 1970s that was very hard to withstand, that compelled a certain conformity in rebellion and revolution, and that HV was an unexpected and (I guess?) bizarrely counter-cultural document in its day.

Well, we should have tried harder. We should have had greater spiritual maturity, greater intellectual capacity, greater docility and humility and courage. I find it deeply saddening that the average Catholic today has heard virtually no homilies about the subject, to the point where this satirical article is painfully on point. There has been, in most parishes and dioceses, not one word of teaching and guidance from the shepherds of the Church to counteract the ‘shepherding’ we are given by the secular world, which counsels us to simply do whatever we want, however we want, with whoever we want, so long as everyone is consenting.

It is not my way to be critical or harsh or judgmental of people, generally. But… and I address this to my brother priests reading this... surely we can do better than that, can’t we? Even if, in the immediate ferment of the 1960s, the reception of HV was poor, surely 45 years later we can pull ourselves together, guys, can’t we? Who’s with me? Anyone? (Fr.) Bueller?

It’s not like time has proven the Pope to be wrong and the secular world to be right. As I blogged quite a while ago, all the prophetic bits of the encyclical have been borne out with almost scary accuracy.

Besides the negative (and at times, quite deranged) feedback I’ve gotten for this series, I’ve also gotten positive feedback calling me ‘courageous’. This disheartens me more than the hate mail and nasty comments. It should not be a matter of courage for a Catholic priest to teach Catholic doctrine on a Catholic website. I don’t feel especially courageous doing this series. It should not be a matter of  ‘courage’ because all Catholic priests should be teaching the doctrine, but they aren’t. May God have mercy on us.

What would it look like if we had, and if we did, starting now? Would the whole world suddenly break out into mass chastity and sexual sanity? Would every Catholic in the whole wide world be convinced and converted and start obeying God’s laws on this matter? Of course not. But some would. Maybe quite a few. And those who didn’t would have to grapple with the question as they do not have to right now, because no one ever challenges them on it.

Anyhow, that’s enough for one day. Pray for your priests, and those reading who are priests, let’s pray for one another, so that wisdom, charity, and pastoral boldness and love may reign in our hearts. Amen.

This Week in Madonna House - June 15-21

This week in Madonna House was dominated, of course, by yesterday’s event of the ordination of Michael Weitl to the ministerial priesthood of Jesus Christ, by Bishop Michael Mulhall, ordinary of the Pembroke diocese.

It really is hard to know what to say about this event. The chapel was packed with the MH community, Michael’s large extended family from Iowa, his and our friends from all over and next door. The schola cantorum outdid themselves with the music, the handicraft department with the decorations, the kitchen with the food. One of our women made a tapestry reproducing a painting (the artist’s name escapes me) of Christ washing the feet of Peter which hung over the head table. It was also a gloriously beautiful day—Combermere at its very best with bright sun, sparkling river, and a horde of dragonflies eating up all the mosquitoes on our behalf.

All of which is wonderful, but of course extraneous to the heart of the matter, which is this strange and mysterious gift of the priesthood of Jesus Christ conferred on a weak and lowly man. The ceremony is so simple—one man kneels before another man, hands are placed on his head, a prayer is said. And yet in that ceremony so much happens: a radical reconfiguration of the inner being of that man, sacred powers to celebrate the banquet of the Eucharist and wash away sins from the soul. Commissioning to preach and pray and serve God’s people. And in all that, a depth of intimate encounter with Christ that is wholly divine, wholly mystical, utterly mysterious. What is there to say about such things?

A beautiful moment came at the end when the new Fr. Michael, in an old custom, presented his mother with the cloth he had used to wipe the sacred oils from his hands, and received from his father a violet stole that he would use (later that day!) to hear his first confessions, and then return to him. Both of them will keep those items and ultimately be buried with them. Fr. Mike’s dad was heard to joke later that it’s a good thing his son had given them advance notice that this was going to happen, or that might have happened right then and there.

So around all this awe and wonder and holy mystery, we just had a grand good time yesterday, in the good old Catholic way. Fun and frolic and laughter and kids running around everywhere and lots of good food and drink. Today, of course, Fr. Michael will celebrate his first Mass of thanksgiving, suitably on the feast of Corpus Christi. We will have Adoration of the Eucharist all day, as is our custom on this feast, and the traditional Corpus Christi procession and Benediction at the end of the afternoon led, of course, by our brand new priest.

Beyond that (and of course much of the work of the week revolved around that one way or another) it was a fairly ordinary week in MH. The farm continues to be the place of intense activity, with planting of cabbages being one of the big jobs this week. We have our usual international crowd of guests, which means that the FIFA World Cup is a major point of discussion and intense interest here. No fistfights have broken out yet, but it’s still in the first round.

So that’s about it, really—much joy and gratitude in this little corner of God’s Church, as we watch one of our own receive the gift and mystery of the priesthood and begin his new life of service to God’s people in that gift. And that’s what happened this week in Madonna House.