• Home
  • Mary Immaculate
    • Novena of the Immaculate Conception
  • Oblates
  • Blog
fatherdaniel
dd text

Feast of the Holy Family - Homily

12/28/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
On the map of the Holy Land we can pinpoint many places which are associated with the history of salvation: Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Be’er Sheba. The end of today’s Gospel takes us to one of such places: Nazareth. Interestingly there is no mention of Nazareth in the Old Testament. Apparently it wasn’t an upmarket town, it must have had a bad name too if Nathanael in the Gospel of St John stated: “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” So why is Nazareth so significant to our Christian faith? Jesus was conceived there as we learn from the scene of the Annunciation. God was made man not in Bethlehem but in Nazareth. That’s where God came to live among his people. In Nazareth you can visit a magnificent church of the Annunciation but at the same time you can also overlook the hills, streets, wells and houses which remind us that the life of the Holy Family was lived there in an ordinary, even we could say a plain way. You don’t find monuments marking that longest period of Jesus’ earthly life there. However we don’t need to produce monuments to commemorate the Holy Family’s life in Nazareth because every Christian family striving to live up to the Christian Family values captures that Childhood of our Blessed Lord in Nazareth which we know so little of. That’s why the Catholic Church isn’t outdated in her teaching on the family but the Church upholds a very high reverence for the family life because a married man and woman who produce and raise children according to Christian standards reflect the glory of those hidden years of Jesus of Nazareth. A Christian family is an icon of the Holy Family of Nazareth where Jesus has got the center place. It think that you all are familiar with these funny family stickers that can be found on the back of the cars. A Christian family should include Jesus there for sure. But it is not about the stickers it is about everyday life. I could talk about many things but let me highlight one thing which shines in every true Christian family: sacrifice. It is there where Children learn to see that they are not the center of the world, it is in the family where children learn to make sacrifices for others.

Let me give you just one example which I believe can show us a very plain but powerful sacrifice. In a family, the father was a recovering alcoholic, that’s why his sons, who were young adults then, made a decision not to have any alcohol so that he wouldn’t be put into situation which could be too difficult for him to handle. They had their 21st Birthdays, Graduation parties without any alcohol. They did it for the sake of their dad.

My Sisters and Brothers! The strength of a Christian family is in placing Jesus at the center of their family life. Even if sometimes it demands to make sacrifices to keep him there it gives the family Holy Spirit who not simply keeps them together but make of them a small domestic church which is an icon of the Holy Family shining with the light of the Holy Trinity.

As we are preparing for the Synod on the Family in October 2015 people have various ideas what the outcome of the Synod should be. Let me share with you a story of a young family from Paris some years ago. They were doing it tough. The man lost his job. The power was cut off in their apartment as they couldn’t pay bills. They came to their friend, a priest. He was very poor himself but after listening to their story he went to the church and came back with a dozen or so candles. He gave the candles to the couple saying: “Some good people donated these candles to be lit on the altar where Jesus is present. I don’t have money to pay your electricity bill but take these candles and use them in your place so that you don’t need to sit in the darkness. Besides, Jesus is as present in your place where you strive to live according to his Gospel as he is when the Sacrifice of Mass is offered in the church.”

That priest didn’t simply solved a problem but he brought faith into their difficult situation that in spite of the problems they faced there was beauty and dignity in their family struggles. I would like to finish this homily with a prayer to the Holy Family so that the Church may always continue to give such faith to all families.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

in you we contemplate

the splendor of true love,

to you we turn with trust.

Holy Family of Nazareth,

grant that our families too

may be places of communion and prayer,

authentic schools of the Gospel

and small domestic Churches.

Holy Family of Nazareth,

may families never again

experience violence, rejection and division:

may all who have been hurt or scandalized

find ready comfort and healing.

Holy Family of Nazareth,

may the approaching Synod of Bishops

make us once more mindful

of the sacredness and inviolability of the family,

and its beauty in God’s plan.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

graciously hear our prayer. Amen.


0 Comments

Have a Blessed Christmas.

12/25/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Statue of the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem.
There is a movie about Jesus. In the scene depicting his Nativity a group of shepherd walks into the cave where Mary and Joseph embrace the Baby Jesus. When Joseph sees the shepherds he gets worried as they look like criminals so he moves forward to block the way to Jesus. Joseph is ready to defend his young wife and the Baby. The shepherds stop and try to get a glimpse of the Baby. As Joseph obscures the view they start having a quite conversations among themselves. After a few minute one of them who looks like the worst criminal steps forward and stretches his arms in a begging gesture. He is begging to be given the Baby – his Saviour. Alter a moment of hesitation Mary passes the Baby onto the shepherd-beg
gar. When the Newborn lands in the arms of the man he receives the Baby with such joy and love than he seems to be ignoring what is happening around him. He has been given his Redeemer. That’s what matters to him.


Picture
Church in the shepherds' filed in Bethlehem. Visit of the shepherds.

 As we enter the mystery of the Nativity once again my prayer for you is that your way to Christmas Mass may be such a grace-filled journey that when it will come to receive the Holy Communion you may approach the altar in the same way the shepherd-beggar was coming up to Mary to be given the Baby Jesus. I pray that you may believe that that “First Holy Communion” which happened when Mary gave her Son to Joseph, shepherds and the Wise Men happens every time when you go up to the altar to receive Jesus’ Body and Blood. Then you participate in the mystery of God made man. He is your Saviour, your Redeemer. Don’t feel embarrassed to be a beggar begging to be given your Lord Jesus Christ. Have a Blessed Christmas.
Picture
Beg to be given Christ the Lord
0 Comments

Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord - Homily

12/23/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Some time ago I was doing my daily walking around a duck pond when I spotted a black swan. In the following days as I saw it again I started thinking why this magnificent bird didn’t fly away. It simply didn’t fit there among the ducks and other little birdies. First I thought that it was sick or maybe injured. However some days later I found out the reason. That day I saw the big swan again but this time there was a baby swan as well. Looking at them I thought: “This little one has kept you here. Because of your baby, our little pond has become your world, your home.”

          Sisters and Brothers gathered to glorify God on the night on his Nativity!

          The most amazing day in the history wasn’t when God created the universe. The most amazing day in the history wasn’t even when God created the first people in his own image. The most amazing day in the history was when out of love for us people, God became one of us as the Prophet Isaiah said: “There is a child born for us, a son given to us.” These simple words amazed the angels who witnessed the moment. These simple words amazed Mary and Joseph as they were looking at the tiny little person lying in the manger. These simple words have amazed millions Christians who, since that first Christmas Day 2000 years ago, have treasured their faith that because of Jesus Christ God will never abandon our human world. Like the swan I saw in the duck pond, God the Father has bound himself to us for good.

          When we compare our Earth to the whole universe it does look like an insignificant pond. When we take the life of a single person it looks even smaller. The earth may look insignificant in the universe but as long as there are people walking here it is God’s world.

          Tonight looking at you I see the reason why this planet is so special. It is because of you. It is because of love God bears for you. Tonight’s Christmas Gospel isn’t just about an event which happened centuries ago but it is a message for us here to give us faith that no matter how big our sins may be they cannot put God off. We cannot discourage God because we are the reason he his here, because of us and for us he has sent his only Son here.

          That’s why a good Christmas is the one leaving us with belief that this life of mine; with all its joys and concerns, with all my awkward behaviour; is still God’s world. Even if I feel sometimes that my life looks more like smelly dirty water in the duck pond; Jesus Christ doesn’t have a problem to get there. Like 2000 years ago when he entered our human world as God and human in one person, he didn’t get dirty but he made purer those who came to believe in him.

          A few days ago I read some reflection written by a priest who is in charge of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Paris. In this magnificent building there is exposed the consecrated host, which as we believe is the Body of Jesus. Day and night bishops and priest, nuns, brothers and lay people come to pray there. It’s been going for 125 years now, without a break. At night the church is illuminated to remind the people of Paris that they are prayed for there. A few years ago all the lights went out. However the priest said that it was the most glorious night in his life as he spent the whole night on the phone. People kept ringing and asking: “What’s wrong? Are you closing the church? Aren’t you praying any more? Have you given up on us?”

          I hope that as you return home from this Mass you may believe that your life is lived against the background of God who has become a man out of love for you. If you feel that he is gone it is just because you cannot see him at the moment not because he has withdrawn himself from this world.

Sisters and Brothers! I pray tonight so that the amazement filling this Holy Night could grow in you into desire to make more and more room for this little person known to the world as Jesus Christ, but who is known to us as our Saviour.

0 Comments

Fourth Sunday of Advent - Homily

12/20/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Very often it is said that religion is a private thing. However I am really glad that the Blessed Virgin Mary didn’t think that way. If she had believed that religion was a private matter we wouldn’t know the story of the Angel Gabriel coming to her. We wouldn’t have any stories to tell at Christmas. We read these stories so often, in fact they are the best known pages of the Bible, but let’s remember that if they are in the Bible it is because Mary believed that those stories didn’t belong only to her. What happened to her was a gift to the whole human race.
          As we are approaching Christmas 2014 let’s ask what we have done with our very own story of meeting with God, the story of his presence in our life. If your say that you are a believer you aren’t a private person, you are a gift to others. Are you like Mary sharing with others what God did to her or do you keep your faith story private or better to say like a talent buried under many layers or secrecy and privacy?
          I think that you all know that Jesus was born in a stable but actually I find it very enriching that the stable where he was born was a cave turned into a shelter for animals. I tressure this image of Our Lord being born I n a cave because a cave doesn’t have a door you can shut. It is always open. You can come in anytime. Don’t you think that it is striking thought?
          A priest told once that when he did his studies in the seminary they had a custom that on the birthday of a student the others would remove and hide the door to his room. It meant that he couldn’t stay away from them on his birthday. Everybody could come in to have a cuppa or a drink with him. I guess at times it was inconvenient, especially when he needed to get changed but it had good massage. “You aren’t just a private person. You are important to us. You are a gift to us and we have right to celebrate it with you.” The priest said that although he didn’t enjoy losing his door on his birthday it was better than having nobody knocking at his door.
My Sisters and Brothers!
          Mary’s life wasn’t the first Big Brother’s show where people can watch each single step of participants. Her life was telling the story of Jesus. It wasn’t about her. It was about him. That’s why her story is in the Bible because her days, months and years were like pages of a notebook filled with God’s handwriting. I am sure she was surprised to find some lines there but she didn’t erase them.
    On this Last Sunday of advent I pray so that you can be a Catholic whose life is like the Bethlehem Cave, always open. If the entrance to your heart and mind is wide open you will do things you wouldn’t believe you were able to do. But you will do them because of the Holy Spirit living in you the same Holy Spirit who filled Mary in today’s Gospel.

0 Comments

New Bishops for Melbourne

12/18/2014

0 Comments

 
PictureBishop Mark with Mum and Dad
Yesterday Fr Mark Edwards was consecrated bishop at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne. Before we made our way to the Mother Church of Melbourne Archdiocese, there was a prayerful gathering of the Oblates who came to Melbourne for this Celebration. It took place in our Provincial House. First we all assembled in the Oblate Chapel of the Provincial House to pray and bless Fr Mark who had just completed his spiritual retreat preparing him for the Episcopal Ordination. A few hours before he was to be consecrated auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne, as his brother Oblates we offered him our prayers and blessings. There is no doubt that we are proud that an Oblate has been called by the Church to the Episcopal Ministry but we also know how difficult this ministry is. It was a humble but powerful realisation of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit among us. As we surrounded Fr Mark I was thinking of similar gatherings which took place in 1902 in Fremantle when the Oblates gathered around Fr  Matthew Gaughren who was appointed to be a Bishop in South Africa. Fr Matthew was one of the first three Oblates who came to Australia in 1894 to establish the first Oblate mission in the Down Under. Fr Matthew before sent to Australia was the Provincial Superior of his home province in Ireland. The fact that the Provincial of the big province was chosen to the new mission in Western Australia shows how much hope the Oblate had for this new establishment. They chose their own leader to guide and support the new Oblate Community in Australia. There were still just a few of them in 1902 when they learnt that they were going to farewell their leader who was to sail to South Africa to be bishop there. One can only imagine how much it costed them. They were still a small and fragile community, separated from Europe by such a big distance but they humbly and generously accepted the call of the Church and gave their blessing to Bishop-elect Matthew Gaughren. Twelve years later that small Oblate community learnt again that their new leader Fr Charles Cox was appointed to South Africa too. In 1914 the Oblates in Perth gathered again to pray and bless their Superior who was to follow the steps of Bishop Matthew Gaughren to serve the Church as bishop in South Africa. A hundred years after our Oblate Pioneers shared there scarce personnel recourses with the wider Catholic Community by giving the Church one of them as bishop we gathered again as an Oblate Community to generously give the church one of us. As one can imagine it is a big offering as we face the challenges which the early Oblates in Australia had. Our personnel recourses our stretched to the point of breaking but we still want to think bigger then what we have in our various ministries, we want to be open to the calls of the Holy Spirit heard in the Church and through the Church.

After the service in the Oblate Chapel we gathered around the table to have lunch as a family. For us Oblates is just part of who we are to celebrate the events of one of us as something that touches everyone. I am sure Fr Mark could sense the joy, support and gratitude of all Oblates gathered around him.

The Ordination Mass took us to the origin of the Church’s life and mission. When Archbishop Hart and other bishops laid their hands on Fr Terrence and Fr Mark one could only think about when it all began: two thousand years ago Jesus Christ chose the Twelve and gave them power and authority which have been faithfully passed on from one generation to the other. This simple gesture of laying hands reveals that the Holy Spirit works through inconspicuous situations and events of life. We could dream about his extraordinary and spectacular interventions but the Spirit of God choses the effectiveness rather than spectacles. This effectiveness aims at transforming the person in order to transform the Church.

At the beginning of the rite of the Episcopal Consecration the Bulls of the Holy Father were read out by the Papal Nuncio. Those Bulls are the Apostolic Letters issued by the Pope appointing priests to the ministry of bishop. The solemnity the Nuncio read out those documents with and their unusual form of scrolls highlighted the unity with the Holy Father. The Episcopal Ordination bridged Melbourne with Rome. However what I found very powerful those documents were very personal and in fact they were more letters of the Pope addressed to the bishop-elects. I think that it came across very clearly that Episcopacy is not a promotion but a call from Jesus discerned and evoked from the heart of the Church. The authority of the Holy Father does bring encouragement, support and peace for those who are called to the ministry of bishop. The Holy Father himself assures the candidates of the authenticity of their calling to serve the People of God as bishops.

When I saw Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Papal Nuncio to Australia, it was not only a sense of such closeness to the Pope Francis whom the Nuncio represents but the Archbishop Gallagher’s presence brought us also close to St Eugene de Mazenod. Archbishop Gallagher’s apostolic lineage or succession comes through St Eugene de Mazenod. St Eugene, who was Bishop of Marseille, ordained a few bishops himself, most of them were missionary bishops for various mission countries, but among those bishops ordained by Eugene was also an Oblate who later became Cardinal Archbishop of Paris in France. During his time as Archbishop of Paris he ordained a lot of bishops and in this way today we have not only Oblates who refer to St Eugene as their father but there are a number of bishops in various countries who say that in their Apostolic Succession thay have St Eugene de Mazenod as their “ancestor”


0 Comments

Third Sunday of Advent - Homily

12/13/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
My Greek isn’t great but using the limited knowledge of the Greek language I have, let me read the beginning of today’s Gospel. “A man came, sent by God. His name was John. He came as a martyr, as a martyr to speak for the light, so that everyone might believe through him. He was not the light, only a martyr to speak for the light.” I guess I can’t impress you with my Greek but I hope that you have picked up that one Greek word in the passage - MARTYR. The first Christians when they heard this passage proclaimed at their Masses they heard it in the way I have just reread to you. In our English version of the Bible we have it translated very nicely as a witness. It can give us lots of material for reflection what it means to be a witness. We could have a polite discussion on what it means to be a witness of Christ. Probably we could come up with, at least, a few options how to be a witness of Christ to the world. But St John the Baptist doesn’t fit into so called politically correct way of speaking. His preaching wasn’t cozy because his whole being was challenging the established social system. This Sunday of Joy, as the Third Sunday of Advent is called, the Prophet from the Jordan comes to us in order to challenge, and maybe to shake up, our established and settled way of thinking, our cozy way of understanding and being Christians. A few years ago when we had the World Youth Day in Sydney the theme of the gathering was: “When the Holy Spirit comes, you will be my witnesses.” That’s what Jesus said to his Apostles before he ascended to heaven. Using our improving Greek we can say: “When the Holy Spirit comes you will be my martyrs.”

My Dear Friends, who is a martyr? The one who lies his or her life for Jesus. I just wander how many parents present in this Church would be rushing to organize the Baptism of their children if they were aware that they are putting them on the path to be martyrs. I guess that we would have very few baptisms. But why? What is wrong about giving up ones’ life for Jesus? Our Blessed Lord says: “The one who wants to save his life will lose it but the one who loses his life for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel will save it for life eternal.”

On December 13, the Church remembers St Lucy, a martyr from the early centuries of the Church. I am always touched by her words which we recall in our priestly morning prayers for her fest day: “I am the lowly servant of the Lord, who wished only to offer everything to the living God. Now since there is nothing left to be offered, I give myself to him.” These are the words of a young girl who like all of us wanted to be happy and she did find such a happiness. It is in surrendering one’s life to the Lord so that one’s light may shine before people so that they could see one’s good deeds and praise our heavenly Father. John the Baptist made it very clear that that what drew people to him was the light of Christ already shining from him. It wasn’t his own light but the light of Christ. It reminds us of Moses who during the march from Egypt to the Promised Land would enter the Holy Place in the Sacred Tent to speak with God. When he was leaving the Tent his face was shining from his exposure to the Almighty God.

My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Each single person in this Church is called to be a witness – a martyr of Christ. Most of us won’t be faced with the kind of martyrdom St Lucy met but you and I are called to be martyrs by our commitment to Christ, by our perseverance and faithfulness to our life vocation, by our selflessness, by making sacrifices and doing all these things not to get people admiration but to direct people’s admiration to Our Blessed Lord whom we have encountered and got so impacted by that encounter that we now believe that our lasting joy and happiness is in making of our life an offering to the One who has created us and who has redeemed us.


0 Comments

All fair are you, O Mary!

12/8/2014

0 Comments

 
160 years ago Pope Blessed Pius IX promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. In the Papal Bull Ineffabilis Deus he announced: “We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which asserts that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from every stain of original sin is a doctrine revealed by God and, for this reason, must be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful"

This Solemnity becomes part of the Church’s Advent journey; how powerfully and quietly Mary fits into this Advent journey; powerfully because she stands before us in all her beauty, quietly because her beauty directs our attention not to her but to her Son - our Lord, Jesus Christ. The sinless Mother of God comes to us during our Advent to display the ultimate beauty which can be only seen in God. For centuries Christian artists have tried to show how beautiful the Virgin Mary. A few months ago in the National Gallery of Victoria we could admire Italian Masterpieces from the Spain’s Royal Court. The selection of pieces of art was impressive. Each room of the exhibition was bringing us to the next level of wander and excitement. However the last room left me speechless. In the room there was a painting of The Immaculate Conception of Giambattista Tiepolo. I couldn’t take my eyes of Mary in the painting. Her beauty was so stunning that one could only stop to glorify God whose own beauty is reflected in the beauty of the Mother of God. Before I realised I was holding my Rosary and I was praying repeating the words Gabriel uttered when he saw Mary in Nazareth: “Hail Mary full of grace.”

Picture
The Immaculate Conception of Giambattista Tiepolo
V. All fair are you, O Mary!

R. All fair are you, O Mary!

V. The original stain is not in you!

R. The original stain is not in you!

V. You are the glory of Jerusalem!

R. You re the joy of Israel!

V. You are the honor of your people!

R. You are the advocate of sinners!

V. O Mary!

R. O Mary!

V. Pray for us!

R. Intercede for us with our Lord Jesus Christ!
0 Comments

Second Sunday of Advent - Homily

12/6/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
            When I was teaching religion classes I found it very interesting that my students being given an option to research a Gospel they would choose the Gospel of Mark. Do you know what was so appealing about Mark’s Gospel? It is the shortest one. Mark has got 16 chapters while Matthew 28, Luke 24 and John 21.

            My Dear sisters and Brothers! It is the second Sunday of Advent, the second Sunday of the New Liturgical year, until Advent of 2015 we will be given on Sundays passages taken from the Gospel of Mark. As we listen this Sunday to the first verses of the Gospel we can discover the reason why the Gospel of Mark has got for its symbol a lion. Each of the four Gospels has been attributed with a symbol as we read in the Book of the Revelation: “At the very center, around the throne itself, stood four living creatures covered with eyes front and back. The first creature resembled a lion; the second, an ox; the third had the face of a man; while the fourth looked like an eagle in flight.” St. Irenaeus reflected that the first living creature was like a lion symbolizing his effectual working, his leadership, and royal power.  This is the symbol of Mark because his Gospel begins with John the Baptist, whose preaching is described as a voice crying in the wilderness, like the roar of a lion.

            The roar of St John in the wilderness wasn’t a sound of a hurt animal or an angry one but it was the cry announcing coming of the Messiah. The voice of John the Baptist was the voice of many generations of humans longing for the coming of the Son of God, the Saviour promised to the first parents before they were expelled from Paradise. At the end of such a long waiting and longing John the Baptist appears in the same poverty the first people were. Genesis tells us that after people sinned “God made clothes out of skins for the man and his wife and they put them on.” John who was an honest man, even by wearing a garment of camel-skin preaches this message: “Millennia have passed since our first parents were driven out of Paradise. We have built cities, we have acquired various survival skills, we have populated the earth but still deep down we are poverty stricken people. It doesn’t matter how much we achieve, without the Son of God coming to our aid we are just kidding ourselves, like the people who were trying to build the tower of Babel to reach heaven. No one can reach heaven without God reaching out to us to draw us to heaven.” John the Baptist, the righteous man, doesn’t say: “I deserve to get to heaven because I am a good person.” No, John the Baptist says: “I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals.” John didn’t baptise to forgive sins as only God can forgive sins. John’s action was to make people sorry for theirs sins. John was helping people to make an act of contrition so that they could be ready to be forgiven when Christ comes. At the same time he was proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins or to say it more clearly: a baptism of change of thinking, change of mentality for forgiveness of sins. The poor prophet from the desert was sharing with his contemporaries that the coming Messiah was not to simply say: “Don’t worry, your sins are not bad, you are OK, you are a good person”, but that the Messiah was to establish such a baptism that those who receive it would be so filled with the Holy Spirit that their thinking would be completely different to what they exercised before.

            I would like to encourage and invite all of you to renew the grace of your own baptism by going to Reconciliation before Christmas. Before you do so, say a few times the act of contrition and pray this prayer: “Lord I desire to be forgiven but even more I desire you to change my thinking, my mentality, so that your way of thinking could become mine too.”


0 Comments

What am I doing for Christ?

12/3/2014

0 Comments

 
PictureSt Ignatius with the recalcitrant clay (St Francis Xavier)
A young ambitious man from a noble Spanish family came to Paris in 1525. He was only nineteen but his aspirations were set high. He was planning to study in order to return to his home and restore fortune and prestige of his family. In Paris he enjoyed sports and city’s night life. Probably he would have returned home to rebuild his family property if he hadn’t met a fellow student: Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatius was 38 at that time so the young man had lots of fun ridiculing the middle aged student. It took Ignatius 5 years to break through the mask of self-sufficiency and to face the young man to ask himself this question: “What am I doing for Christ?” That young man was Francis Xavier. The man who today, for his missionary endeavours, is compared to St Paul the Apostle. However it took plenty of work of the Holy Spirit to change the heart of the young Francis. His mentor, Ignatius Loyola, kept saying: “Francis is the most recalcitrant clay I have ever formed.” That recalcitrant clay was eventually formed into a humble and committed missionary priest who spent his life building Christ’s kingdom in Asia.

In 1552, he set out for China but was out ashore on to Sanchian Island, the gateway to China, with only his faithful convert Anthony to care for him. He died looking at the land where he wanted to take the Gospel to. He died without receiving the sacraments as there was no priest around. That day his relatives back in Spain in his family castle of Javier observed that the figure of crucified Christ sweated blood. It is an unusual statue of Our Lord as Jesus is smiling while on the cross. The smile of Jesus that shines out of suffering; the smile that reveals Jesus’ joy for having saved people. That recalcitrant clay was formed into a missionary who amidst isolation, loneliness, misunderstanding and physical exhaustion discovered the joy of answering with his life to the question he was asked by St Ignatius Loyola: “What am I doing for Christ?” He was giving his whole life for Christ.

Picture
Smiling Christ from the chapel in the Javier Castle
Picture
Smiling Christ from the chapel in the Javier Castle
Picture
Castle of Javier where St Francis Xavier was born. The smiling Crucified Christ is here.
The feast day of St Francis Xavier is close to us Oblates as the saint is the patron of catholic missions, but his feast day has been the day when we return to that third December 1995 when Saint John Paul II canonised our Founder Eugene de Mazenod. A few weeks later the Pope met our Superior General, Fr Marcello Zago OMI. Fr Zago wrote later to the Oblates: “Among the numerous impressions of the canonisation I remember in particular that of John Paul II, who meeting me on 11 January told me that he has taken St Eugene as his patron and that he placed his relict in his private chapel. He saw in him, in fact, a model and protector for the evangelisation of modern times.”
In his homily at the canonisation Mass the Holy Father preached: "We are living in the second Advent of the world's history. Eugene de Mazenod was a man of Advent, a man of the Coming. He not only looked forward to that Coming, he dedicated his whole life to preparing for it, one of those apostles who prepared the modern age, our age. Eugene de Mazenod knew that Christ wanted to unite the whole human race to himself. This is why throughout his life he devoted particular attention to the evangelization of the poor, wherever they were found. By patiently working on himself, he learned to discipline a difficult character and to govern with enlightened wisdom and steadfast goodness.. His every action was inspired by a conviction he expressed in these words: "To love Church is to love Jesus Christ, and vice versa". His influence is not limited to the age in which he lived. But continues its effect on our time. His apostolate consisted in the transformation of the world by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What Saint Eugene wanted to achieve was that, in Christ, each individual could become a fully complete person, an authentic Christian, a credible saint.The Church gives us this great Bishop and Founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate as an example of heroic faith, hope and charity."
0 Comments

Dreams about the priesthood

12/2/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Blessed Oblate Martyrs of Spain
A few days ago we celebrated the feast day of the 22 Oblate Martyrs of Spain. They were martyred for their Catholic Faith and particularly for their commitment to the religious life and the priesthood. Interestingly 17 of those Oblates were young seminarians (in the Oblate Congregation we call them scholastics) who were preparing to be ordained priests. Recently a painting was commissioned which presents them dressed in white. It is a reference to the image from the Book of the Revelation where we read: “Do you know who these people are, dressed in white robes, and where they come from?” I answered him: You can tell me my lord.” Then he said: “These are the people who have been through the great persecution, and because they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lam, they now stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his sanctuary, and the One who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. They will never hunger or thirst again; neither the sun nor scorching wind will ever plague them, because the Lamb who is at the throne will be their shepherd and will lead them to the springs of living water, and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

The Oblate martyrs are standing in a field of wheat. We should remember Jesus’ words from Luke’s Gospel: “The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest.” Looking at this new painting we can say: “The harvest is still plentiful but workers that we repreparing for the harvest were cut down in their youth.”

As we pray the Novena of the Immaculate Conception let us also turn to those young Oblates who dreamed about becoming missionary priests but were martyred before they had a chance to be ordained, to share their passion for the Oblate missionary way of life with the young men today.

This is a YouTube clip presenting the story of those Oblate Martyrs.

0 Comments

    Archives

    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    Fr Daniel OMI

    An Oblate Priest

    Categories

    All
    Holy Land
    Homilies
    St Eugene De Mazenod

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.