Showing posts with label Fr Ralph Beiting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fr Ralph Beiting. Show all posts

12 July 2024

'Christ is there with me . . . Christ has promised me . . . I'll give you myself.' Sunday Reflections, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

1 January 1924 - 9 August 2012

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 6:7-13 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.


Léachtaí i nGaeilge


High Street, Pewsey
[Wikpedia; photo by Nigel Cox]

Today's gospel reminds me of experiences as a seminarian while on Peregrinatio pro Christo with the Legion of Mary, in St Anne's Parish, Edge Hill, Liverpool, in 1963, in St Fergus' Parish, Paisley, Scotland in 1965 and in Holy Family Parish, Pewsey, Wiltshire, England, in 1966. Peregrinatio pro Christo, or PPC, is a programme of the Legion of Mary that began in 1958. Legionaries give up a week or two of their summer vacation to do full-time Legion work in another country. The name comes from the motto that inspired St Columban and many Irish missionary monks, Peregrinari pro Christo, 'to be a pilgrim for Christ'. Saint Pope John XXIII quoted this in a letter to the Irish Hierarchy in 1961 on the occasion of the Patrician Year, commemorating 1,500 years of the Catholic faith in Ireland. In the same letter he specifically referred to the involvement in this spirit of the Society of St Columban in Latin America. 

Many of us in the seminary, including some of the priests, used to go for a week or two during our summer break. Like the apostles, we depended on the hospitality of parishioners for board and lodging. In my three experiences I was in parishes and the main work was going from house-to-house in pairs, rather like what the Apostles were sent by Jesus to do in today's gospel. Legionaries never work alone. Occasionally people would close their door once we announced who we were but very few were impolite. Some would give us a warm welcome. 

I remember one family we visited in Liverpool. They were lapsed Catholics and the parish records showed they were rather hostile to the Church. However, when the man who opened the door heard our Irish accents he called his wife and began to tell us about their pleasant experiences on visits to Ireland. I suggested that the friendliness and warmth of the Irish people was  an expression of their Catholic faith. We had a very friendly conversation with the couple and when we were leaving they seemed to have let go of their hostility to the Church.

Garrard County Courthouse, Lancaster, Kentucky
[Wikipedia; photo by W. Marsh]

As a young priest studying in the USA I had similar experiences in Lancaster, Kentucky, during the summers of 1969 and 1970. The parish priest, Fr Ralph Beiting, had college - and some high school - students from other parts of the USA work on various projects in his parish that covered nearly four counties and that had very few Catholics. There was still a lingering prejudice against Catholics among some of the people. 

One of the projects was to visit each home in pairs, just as the Legion of Mary does, and introduce ourselves as being from the Catholic Church, and telling the people about our programmes. Again, the response was generally positive. In some rural homes we'd meet older people sitting on their rocking chairs on the veranda. They'd invite us to sit down and relax and would sometimes share a bit about their Bible-based faith. As we'd leave we'd hear the friendly farewell so common in the area, 'Y'all come back!'

Some of the programmes we invited children to were summer Bible schools and five-day vacations for poor children in a summer camp, boys one week and girls another week. Black and white children would be together at a time when this was rare in that part of the USA.

Only God knows what can result from going from house to house as a way of carrying the mission that Jesus gave to the Twelve and that he gives to us. He doesn't guarantee 'success' but simply sends us out in trust.

One of Father Beiting's summer apostolates for many years was street-preaching, very often with seminarians. On one occasion before I met him he was driven out of one town at gunpoint but returned the next day, not to preach but simply to show himself. Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there . . . and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’” (First Reading).

Fr Beiting was eventually not only accepted but welcomed. He, a Catholic priest, was continuing an old tradition in the area, that of the travelling preacher. He was one of the very few left. Fr Beiting, born on 1 January 1924, was ordained in 1950 and up to his late 80s he was still going strong. In the video above he is preaching during the summer of 2011. He died on 9 August 2012. What a wonderful example he was as a disciple of Jesus and as a Catholic priest! I was a young priest when I first met Fr Beiting in 1969. He and the community he created that summer had a profound and formative influence on my life.

My experience with Fr Beiting was similar in many ways to that with the Legion of Mary. The Handbook of the Legion, mostly written by the Servant of God Frank Duff, who founded the Legion in 1921, states: The object of the Legion of Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by prayer and active co-operation, under ecclesiastical guidance, in Mary's and the Church's work of crushing the head of the serpent and advancing the reign of Christ.

The urgency of such work is highlighted in a letter Frank Duff wrote to my late Columban confrere Fr Aedan McGrath in 1948 where he stated that where the laity did not fulfil its role, the Church would fail. He insisted that 'an inert laity is only two generations removed from non-practice. Non-practice is only two generations away from non-belief'. (Frank Duff, A Life Story by Finola Kennedy, p.8).

That is what has happened in the Western world, including Ireland, in the last 76 years. More than ever each of us needs to joyfully proclaim Christ is there with me . . . Christ has promised me . . . I'll give you myself, as the 87-year-old Fr Beiting, with many serious illnesses, was doing in the video above.

The words of the Gospel Acclamation, based on John 6:63, 68, put everything in focus: Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life.


Magnificat anima mea Dominum 
My soul glorifies the Lord
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach 
Conducted by Jordi Savall

This is the opening of Bach's setting of the Latin text of Luke1:46-56, Mary's prayer during her visit to Elizabeth. The full work is here. The Magnificat is part of the Church's Vespers (Evening Prayer) and is often proclaimed at Mass when the Gospel of the Visitation of Mary is read. Every member of the Legion of Mary prays the Magnificat every day and it is prayed in the middle of every meeting of the Legion.

Johann Sebastian Bach
Elias Gottlob Haussmann [Wikipedia]


Traditional Latin Mass 

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 07-14-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: Romans 8:12-17Gospel: Luke 16:1-9.

Sheaves of Wheat
Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty’ (Luke 16:7; Gospel).


22 April 2023

The Road to Emmaus can be anywhere. Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Easter, Year A

 

Supper at Emmaus
Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel: Luke 24:13-35 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

That very day two of the disciples were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 1and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is towards evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge



Cliffview, Lancaster, Kentucky

Today's gospel reminds me of a 'casual' meeting during Lent of 1969. The previous September I had begun a three-year course in music at Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY, north of New York City. (In 1966 the trustees of the college, run by the Religious of the Sacred Heart, had dropped 'of the Sacred Heart' from the name of the school - a sign of things to come in the Church.)

I was on my way to class one morning and met a student named Betty coming from class. We stopped for a brief chat. I asked her what she planned to do for the Easter vacation. She told me that she and a few other students were going to work in a parish in eastern Kentucky for the week. I had no pastoral obligations after the Holy Week ceremonies - I was one of the chaplains at the college while a student - and asked Betty if there was room for one more. There was.

We drove the 1,500 or so kms to Lancaster, Kentucky, one of four towns in a very large rural parish where there were only a handful of Catholics, where there was widespread poverty and the remnants of an anti-Catholicism that was based mainly on ignorance. The parish priest was Fr Ralph Beiting, then in his mid-40s, whom I mentioned last week. We met some college students from other parts of the USA.

Our work that week was not what you would call exciting. We spent most of our time cleaning out parish buildings, scrubbing and polishing floors. This was in preparation for summer programmes that included a Bible school for young people, summer camps from Monday to Friday in nearby Cliffview (see photo above) for children, boys one week, girls another, black and white children together at a time when there was very little social interaction between the two groups. There was house-to-house visitation in pairs, and similar activities in the other three towns in the parish and in the four counties where they were located.


Fr Ralph Beiting
1 January 1934 – 9 August 2012 [photo]

The six weeks I spent in Kentucky in the summer of 1969 is the only extended experience in my life that I would like to re-live, if that were possible. (A glorious winter’s day skiing in January of the same year in Toggenburg Ski Resort, near Syracuse, NY, my only time to try it, is the only short-term experience I’d love to re-live!) The Kentucky experience was one of discovery. I discovered that I had the ability to sit and listen to individuals. That is because a number of the college students I was working with, and one or two older persons, approached me and opened up to me. I had been totally unaware before that of this quality that others saw in me.

I also saw the different gifts that people have. Fr Beiting was a wonderful organiser, a man who inspired young people, who expected all the volunteers to attend our daily Mass. He responded to the spiritual and corporal needs of the people he served, his own people. He went preaching from town to town with seminarians to accompany him, setting up his microphone at a crossroads or other places where people might congregate. On one occasion he was driven out at gunpoint but showed up next day, not to preach, but to let the people know he was there. Eventually people saw that he was carrying on an old tradition in that part of the USA of travelling preachers, rather like Jesus himself. But the Protestant preachers seldom moved around anymore. Fr Beiting preached basic Christianity and was a 'man's man' in the best sense of that expression.

But if you wanted to talk about a problem, Fr Beiting wasn't the best person to sit and listen to you. Another priest I met was wonderful with children but found adolescents and young adults difficult to relate to. Each of us has our own specific gifts from God, all of which are needed. Fr Beiting made it possible for people to discover their gifts and use them in the service of others. 

This was a like a liberating revelation to me, a sense of realising what St Thérèse of Lisieux said about holiness: it is becoming what God wants us to be. It was for me something like the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

For a very long time after that summer 54 years ago I felt something like what one of the two disciples in today's gospel said: Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?

Another grace I experienced was the importance of friendship in our lives. I made some life-long friends that summer. In one instance God used me many years later to pull back one of those friends from suicide.

My 'casual' meeting with Betty on campus that Lenten morning wasn't, as I look back, the beginning of a conversion like that of Saul experiencing the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus. It was rather like the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, a growth in awareness of who I was as one called by God to the priesthood. And it was an experience of the joy of being a priest, a grace reinforced while working with joyful, dedicated priests that summer and for part of the following summer. And much of that joy came from the Lord through the generous, idealistic young people I was working with in Kentucky.

The road to Emmaus can be anywhere and the Lord can meet us through others we meet on that road. The two disciples who met Jesus, who invited him to dine with them, experienced the truth of the words of Jesus at the Last Supper: These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:11).

I Can See (The Emmaus Song)
Written and sung by Steve Green


Traditional Latin Mass

Second Sunday After Easter

Good Shepherd Sunday

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 04-23-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Peter 2:21-25. Gospel: John 10:11-16.


The Good Shepherd
Early Italian Christian Painter [Web Gallery of Art]

Communion Antiphon (John 10:14)

I am the good Shepherd, alleluia, alleluia. I know My sheep and Mine know me, alleluia, alleluia.

14 April 2023

'Our time needs Christians who have been grasped by Christ.' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Easter, Year A

 

The Incredulity of St Thomas
Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]

Second Sunday of Easter, Year A

Divine Mercy Sunday

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel: John 20:19-31 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

  

Léachtaí i nGaeilge


The Incredulity of St Thomas
Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

The closing words of today’s Gospel give us the reason why the four gospels were written: these [signs] are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

In his general audience in St Peter's Square on Wednesday 24 October 2012 Pope Benedict asked The Year of Faith: What is Faith? 

In trying to answer that question the Pope said [emphases added]:  Indeed, God has revealed that his love for man, for each one of us, is boundless: on the Cross, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God made man, shows us in the clearest possible way how far this love reaches, even to the gift of himself, even to the supreme sacrifice. With the mystery of Christ’s death and Resurrection, God plumbs to the depths of our humanity to bring it back to him, to uplift it to his heights. Faith is believing in this love of God that is never lacking in the face of human wickedness, in the face of evil and death, but is capable of transforming every kind of slavery, giving us the possibility of salvation. Having faith, then, is meeting this 'You', God, who supports me and grants me the promise of an indestructible love that not only aspires to eternity but gives it.

Benedict points out to us the painful reality that we can reject God's love: However, we see around us every day that many remain indifferent or refuse to accept this proclamation. At the end of Mark’s Gospel we heard harsh words from the Risen One who says: 'He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned' (Mk 16:16), loses himself. I would like to invite you to reflect on this.

This side of Jesus and of his Gospel has been largely sidelined, forgotten, in our times. Jesus is not a fuzzy teddy bear and following him is not like cuddling one, as the families of nearly 100 Christians killed in Nigeria last week can tell us.

The closing words of Pope Benedict in his talk are both challenging and uplifting: Dear friends, our time needs Christians who have been grasped by Christ, who grow in faith through their familiarity with Sacred Scripture and the sacraments. People who are, as it were, an open book that tells of the experience of new life in the Spirit, of the presence of that God who supports us on our way and opens us to everlasting life. Many thanks.

The Pope may well have had in mind today's First Reading (Acts 2:42-47): And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers . . . And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need . . . And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people.

That passage from the Acts of the Apostles probably gives an idealised description of the early Christians, but it shows us what we are called to as followers of Jesus Christ, what we can be by the grace of the Holy Spirit. 


Fr Ralph Beiting
1 January 1924 – 9 August 2012 [photo]

I remember while spending a good part of the summer of 1969 in a large rural parish in eastern Kentucky where there were few Catholics but where the parish priest, the late Fr Ralph Beiting had many projects involving mainly college and some high school students from all over the USA, along with some adult volunteers. A college student who has remained a friend ever since remarked to me before he went back home to New York that we had had a wonderful experience of Christian community, something like that in the First Reading. This particular group may never have this experience together again - but we know that such an experience is possible, said my friend Brendan.

The yearly observance of Lent, Holy Week and Easter, ending with Pentecost, is what renews our hope and enables us, with the grace of God, to build and experience Christian community throughout our lives if we are, to use the words of Pope Benedict, People who are, as it were, an open book that tells of the experience of new life in the Spirit.


Regina Caeli / Queen of Heaven

Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia. / For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia. / Has risen, as he said, alleluia. / Pray for us to God, alleluia.

The ancient Latin hymn Regina caeli replaces the Angelus during the Easter Season and is sung at the end of Compline (Night Prayer). Above it is sung by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain.

Below is a setting by Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (c.1548 - 1611) sung by Voces8 from England.


Traditional Latin Mass

The Octave Day of Easter

Low Sunday

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 04-16-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 John 5:4-10Gospel: John 20:19-31.


Apostle St Thomas



07 July 2021

'You have the message of eternal life.' Sunday Reflections, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St Bartholomew and St Thomas
Unknown Bohemian Master [Web Gallery of Art]

Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two.


Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 6:7-13 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.


Léachtaí i nGaeilge


High Street, Pewsey
[Wikpedia; photo by Nigel Cox]

Today's gospel reminds me of experiences as a seminarian while on Peregrinatio pro Christo with the Legion of Mary, in St Anne's Parish, Edge Hill, Liverpool, in 1963, in St Fergus' Parish, Paisley, Scotland in 1965 and in Holy Family Parish, Pewsey, Wiltshire, England, in 1966. Peregrinatio pro Christo, or PPC, is a programme of the Legion of Mary that began in 1958. Legionaries give up a week or two of their summer vacation to do full-time Legion work in another country. The name comes from the motto that inspired St Columban and many Irish missionary monks, Peregrinari pro Christo, 'to be a pilgrim for Christ'. Saint Pope John XXIII quoted this in a letter to the Irish Hierarchy in 1961 on the occasion of the Patrician Year, commemorating 1,500 years of the Catholic faith in Ireland. In the same letter he specifically referred to the involvement in this spirit of the Society of St Columban in Latin America. (Thanks to Shane for the link). 

Many of us in the seminary, including some of the priests, used to go for a week or two during our summer break. Like the apostles, we depended on the hospitality of parishioners for board and lodging. In my three experiences I was in parishes and the main work was going from house-to-house in pairs, rather like what the Apostles were sent by Jesus to do in today's gospel. Legionaries never work alone. Occasionally people would close their door once we announced who we were but very few were impolite. Some would give us a warm welcome. 

I remember one family we visited in Liverpool. They were lapsed Catholics and the parish records showed they were rather hostile to the Church. However, when the man who opened the door heard our Irish accents he called his wife and began to tell us about their pleasant experiences on visits to Ireland. I suggested that the friendliness and warmth of the Irish people was  an expression of their Catholic faith. We had a very friendly conversation with the couple and when we were leaving they seemed to have let go of their hostility to the Church.

Garrard County Courthouse, Lancaster, Kentucky
[Wikipedia; photo by W. Marsh]

As a young priest studying in the USA I had similar experiences in Lancaster, Kentucky, during the summers of 1969 and 1970. The parish priest, Fr Ralph Beiting, had college - and some high schoool - students from other parts of the USA work on various projects in his parish that covered nearly four counties and that had very few Catholics. There was still a lingering prejudice against Catholics. 

One of the projects was to visit each home, in pairs, just as the Legion does, and introduce ourselves as being from the Catholic Church, and telling the people about our programmes. Again, the response was generally positive. In some rural homes we'd meet older people sitting on their rocking chairs on the veranda. They'd invite us to sit down and relax and would sometimes share a bit about their Bible-based faith. As we'd leave we'd hear the friendly farewell so common in the area, 'Y'all come back!'


Fr Ralph Beiting

Some of the programmes we invited children to were summer Bible schools and five-day vacations for poor children in a summer camp, boys one week and girls another week. Black and white children would be together at a time when this was rare in that part of the USA.

Only God knows what can result from going from house to house as a way of carrying the mission that Jesus gave to the Twelve and that he gives to us. He doesn't guarantee 'success' but simply sends us out in trust.


One of Father Beiting's summer apostolates for many years was street-preaching, very often with seminarians. On one occasion years ago he was driven out of one town at gunpoint but returned the next day, not to preach but simply to show himself. Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there . . . and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’” (First Reading).

Fr Beiting was eventually not only accepted but welcomed. He, a Catholic priest, was continuing an old tradition in the area, that of the travelling preacher. He was one of the very few left. Fr Beiting, born on 1 January 1924, was ordained in 1949 and up to his late 80s he was still going strong. In the video above he is preaching during the summer of 2011. He died the following summer on 9 August 2012. What a wonderful example he was as a disciple of Jesus and as a Catholic priest!

My experience with Fr Beiting was similar in many ways to that with the Legion of Mary. The Handbook of the Legion, written by the Servant of God Frank Duff, who founded the Legion in 1921, states: The object of the Legion of Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by prayer and active co-operation, under ecclesiastical guidance, in Mary's and the Church's work of crushing the head of the serpent and advancing the reign of Christ.

The urgency of such work is highlighted in a letter Frank Duff wrote to my late Columban confrere Fr Aedan McGrath in 1948 where he stated that where the laity did not fulfil its role, the Church would fail. He insisted that 'an inert laity is only two generations removed from non-practice. Non-practice is only two generations away from non-belief'. (Frank Duff, A Life Story by Finola Kennedy, p.8).

That is what has happened in the Western world, including Ireland, in the last 73 years. More than ever each of us needs to joyfully proclaim Christ is there with me . . . Christ has promised me . . . I'll give you myself as the 87-year-old Fr Beiting, with many serious illnesses, was doing in the video above.

The words of the Gospel Acclamation, based on John 6:63, 68, put everything in focus: Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life.


Spaséñiye, sodélal (Salvation is created

Composed by Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov
Sung by Voces8 in the Cathedral Basilicia of Saint Louis, St Louis, Missouri.

Russian: Spaséniye sodélal yesí posredé ziemlí, Bózhe. Allilúiya.

English: Salvation is made in the midst of the earth, O God. Alleluia.

Fr Paul Kenny
(29 June 1930 - 29 June 2021)

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Columban Fr Paul Kenny who died peacefully on his 91st birthday.

You will find Father Paul's obituary here.

Solas na bhFlaitheas ar a anam uasal - The Light of Heaven on his noble soul.


Extraordinary Form of the Mass

Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) 

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 7-11-2021 if necessary).

Epistle: Romans 6:19-23.  Gospel: Matthew 7:15-21.

 

Authentic Beauty

Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.

Sung by Voces8
Music by Manning Sherwin, lyrics by Eric Maschwitz
Arrangement by Jim Clements

Berkeley Square Gardens, London