A Dubliner's Perspective
The Exile returns home
I must say, I really miss saying Mass in St Val's on Sunday mornings. I'll continue to put material in the homily section of the site. The material is drawn from articles I have written in the past. When I returned I got new tires for my scooter, taxed and insured it, and began to use it again. About 10 days ago I set off in heavy rain to see my Provincial superior to discuss my future. At one point he asked if I needed a car, and I replied that I did. I pointed out that sometimes travel on the scooter was dangerous. As luck would have it I had a tumble from the bike on my way home. Thank God I didn't hit anything and nobody in the flow of traffic hit me. The problem was caused when I had to brake hard on the wet road. The back skidded and I was flung off. Although I broke no bones I was badly bruised especially on my right side which hit the road. My thigh was sore and black for a few days. By now I'm well on the road to recovery. On Friday, I picked up a Toyota Yaris. It has a 1.3 litre engine and has only done 22,200 miles. I'm delighted with it. Petrol consumption will be good, about 42 miles to the gallon.
I have been active during the past week with evangelization. Part of it had to do with the Alpha course. I also visited the Archbishop's vicar for the new office for evangelization for the archdiocese of Dublin. I have good reason to think that I will have opportunities of cooperating with him in this great enterprise. A small group of us from around the city have agreed to meet on four occasions during the next month to pray for a new outpouring of the Spirit and his manifestations. We have been inspired by a revival which is taking place in Florida. It is being shown each day on the God Channel here. It is amazing, healings and miracles are occurring regularly. I have heard that even dead people have been raised to life. Come Holy Spirit.
Summer Season
Hi to all my friends in Redford. At the moment I'm listening to Public Radio from Detroit on the internet. It helps me to feel a sense of connection with you all. At the moment they are talking about the failure of the recall against Andy Dillon. I'm delighted it failed. I sometimes smile when I hear the traffic news, and feel grateful I'm here when I hear how warm it is in the city. As an Irishman I never got used to temperatures in the 80s and 90s. I continue to be very interested, like many other people here, in the presidential campaign. By and large on this side of the Atlantic, it is Barack Obama who fascinates us all. Yesterday I heard a program on BBC radio which was about the economy in the U.S. One whole section was devoted to Michigan and specifically Detroit. It indicated that there is a lot of hardship in the city and even went so far as to say that things were nearly as bad as they were in the Great Depression on 1929. I thought that, based on my experience, it seemed to be an unsustainable exaggeration.
The economy in Ireland has taken a nose dive. Last year we had a growth rate of about 4.5% . This year we will have fallen back to no growth or even minus 1% growth. That inevitably means that unemployment is rising and may reach 7% by next year. It is all due to the rising cost of fuel and food, the difficulty of borrowing money because of the American prime lending problem being exported with the consequent collapse of the building industry. It looks as if we are in for a bumpy ride with strikes, rising emigration and many other difficulties. From a spiritual point of view there may be a silver lining. Many Irish people seem to have been mesmerized in recent years by what wealth can buy. As a result God can be forgotten. Hopefully, like the prodigal son, many people will come to their senses during the downturn, reasses their position, and return to the Lord.
I have been on the road recently. I went to the Irish Annual Charismatic Conference ten days ago. It was attended by over 1000 people. One of the speakers was Mrs Patti, Gallagher Mansfield from the U.S. She spoke to our STL class in Detroit during the year. She recounted how she had been baptized in the Spirit during an historical retreat in 1967. It kick started the Catholic Charismatic Movement throughout the world in fulfillment of the prophetic paragraphs about the charisms in the Documents of the Second Vatican Council. I conducted a healing service, celebrated mass, during which I gave a homily, and gave a few talks. I was thrilled when an English woman approached me after the Mass to tell me that she had suffered from painful arthritis for about 16 years. As she prayed during the Eucharist she felt heat going through her whole body. Her pains disappeared and she had the inner conviction that she was completely healed. I have heard reports of other healings as well. It was fantastic conference with tremendous energy, enthusiasm and commitment to the New Evangelization. This weekend I conducted a Charismatic retreat in London for 80 people. Again there was a great spirit displayed from beginning to end with reports of a number of powerful blessings received. Now I'm preparing to speak at a miracle service in London on July 12th & 13th. Pray that God's glory will be revealed.
I have lots more to report but don't have the time to do so now. I have pressing things to do. A big thank you to all those who have left a message in the guest book section. They mean a lot to me. By the way, I have been proudly wearing my Knights of Columbus tee-shirt. A big hello to Fr. Paul and all the staff in St Vals.
Miracle Rally
I'm writing this report in London. Fot the past two days I have attended a miracle rally in the big Quaker Hall across the road from Euston Underground station in the city centre. On Sat. we began around 9.30 A.M. and concluded at 9.30 P.M. There were three speakers, Mr Damien Stayne, founder of the Cor et Lumen Christi community, For Bernard Murphy, who belongs to the new Franciscan order, Friars of the Renewal, and myself. By evening time, when he had the miracle service which was conducted by Damien, there were well over 1000 people in the auditorium. We had prepared all day by means of prayer, praise, the Eucharist and teachings. Before he prayed for healing Damien said we should think big, believe big, talk big, and that God would do big. The miracle service was like the Acts of the Apostles come alive because so many people appeared to be healed. I say appeared, because Damien has a policy of checking on reported healings afterwards to ensure that they are genuine and permanent. That said, we had an amazing number of people coming forward to say that God had touched them and healed them. I can remember one woman who had some bad disease of the eye, I can't remember its technical name. She could not see with that eye. Her sight was completely restored. There were also a number of people, who because of diabetes, had poor eyesight. A number of them could see perfectly following prayer. Others reported that their diminished hearing had been restored. When cancers were prayed for, one woman came forward to testify to the fact that she had a large tumor in her stomach, slightly to one side. It was about the size of a clenched fist. Following a prayer of command that cursed cancerous growths, the woman found that her lump had disappeared. There were many people who had problems lifting their arms for various reasons such as arthritis and injury who had their freedom of movement restored. Other people who had trouble walking had the strength of their limbs restored and were able to abandon their walking aids and to walk without impediment. I missed some of the testimonies because a distressed woman spoke to me at great length about her problems, but no doubt I'll hear more about the reported healings in the future. It was amazing to see the supernatural power of God so clearly at work. I found it thrilling because I wrote my STL thesis on the role of the charisms in the New evangelization. The Miracle rally was a dramatic example of what is possible. I pray that more and more Catholics will grow in the charism of expectant faith (Cf. 1 Cor 12:9) so that they will be enabled to heal the sick and perform miracles. These manifestations of the Spirit's activity are the Good News in action, lending credibility to the message we preach. On the Sunday I ended the conference with a rousing talk on the New Evangelization. It was followed my a commitment service and prayer that God would grant us gifts of revelation, proclamation and charismatic demonstration. All of this was done within a context of really loud praise and worship of God. It was absolutely wonderful to see so many Catholic people willing to commit themselves to the great cause of the New Evangelization. By the end of the evening everyone looked younger because they were filled with the joy of the Lord. As I said to those present, "isin't it marvelous to be with fellow Catholics who are so filled with zeal and the praise of God" I thank God for the great grace of being present at this rally.
Great New Scripture Site
Fr. Francis Martin was my scripture professor in Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. Rarely does anyone mix spirituality, in depth scripture knowledge, theology, philosophy and a good grasp of modern culture in such an illuminating and inspiring way. I'm delighted to find that he has a new website which contains loads of his homilies both in written and recorded form. The address is www.hasnehmedia.com/homilies.shtml Do make use of it as a wonderful resource. I know I will.
Birimingham Charismatic Conference
I was a speaker at this year's five day long conference. Apparently, it was notable because it was the 21st. It was held in the Paragon Hotel and over three hundred people attended. This year's theme was, "Who do you say that I am?" I gave the four keynote addresses. They will be available on CD from Archie Cameron, Agape Ministries, 58 Marshside Road, Southport PR9 9TH. England. His Phone No. is 01704 224286. His Email is archie@agapeministries.co.uk When I revise the scripts I may post them in the evangelization section of the website.
I must say that I was deeply impressed that so many Catholics and other Christians would spend so much time and money devoted to the things of God. There were all kinds of activities which included sessions for young people. On the Friday night we had a long healing service which began with Mass and continued with a para liturgical service when healing teams prayed for the many people who came forward for ministry. I must say, it was one of the most anointed healing sessions I have ever participated in. When we were praying for people it was amazing how so many of them fall backwards under the power of the Holy Spirit as soon as hands were laid on them. A number of words of knowledge were uttered, i.e. prophetic words which pinpointed particular ailments the Lord wants to heal. The evening ended with a blessing with the monstrance. Even though the whole session lasted for well over three hours, it passed quickly. Unfortunately I had to leave at 7 A.M. on the last day because I was traveling by scooter to the ferry back to Ireland at Holyhead in Wales. By the way, although the weather has been terrible this August, it was dry and sunny for the whole journey. As a result I did not have an opportunities to hear testimonies about what happened. When I'm told about them I'll share them on this blog.
BOOK ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
Before I left Detroit I gathered articles I had already written for different magazines. I modified some, added to others and wrote new material. I submitted the lot to an English publisher who had already printed a book of mine. For about four months I did not hear from him whether he intended publishing the manuscript or not. In the meantime many ideas came to me, so I edited what I had already written, removed some chapters and wrote some replacement ones until I was satisfied with the outcome. I gave it the title, Called, Empowered, Gifted & Sent. Those four words are the headings of the four sections of the book, each of which contains a number of fairly thematic chapters. I got the good news this week that it will be published next year before the conference season begins i.e. in April 2009. The book contains a good deal of material about the New Evangelization. I should mention that it is written from a Charismatic point of view.
GUESTBOOK ENTRIES
I want to say a big thank you to all of those who sent greetings and made
such kind comments in the guestbook section of this website. Believe me
when I say that each and every one of them is precious and means a great
deal to me. I remember you all with affection and appreciation. At the
moment I'm busy moving house. Those of you who have done so in the past
know what hard work it is. So please forgive me if I don't write to each of
you individually. But do not allow that fact lead you to think that I do not
value your input. I really, really do. God bless you all!
TRIP TO WALES
This weekend past, I headed off on my scooter to South Wales. I got the ferry at Dublin Port disembarked at Holyhead and traveled about 180 miles to the town of St David in South Wales. As I passed Fishguard, another ferry port in Wales I called to the terminal and arranged to return to Ireland via Rosslare. It had the effect of shortening my road journey by about 100 miles! The meeting I attended was in St. Non's Retreat Center in St David's. The group that gathered was comprised of a number of charismatics, from Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland.It included two Anglicans. The pilgrims had gone together to Assisi in the autumn of 2007. The whole venture was a response to a prophetic word that had been uttered during the Newman Consultation, a gathering of charismatic leaders from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in 2005.
The aim of the pilgrimage was to build links between the four countries, to seek healing for historical hurts and misunderstandings, and to discern what the Spirit is saying to the Church. Suffice it to say that the main message that the pilgrims received was to rebuild the Church as Nehemiah had rebuilt Jerusalem in the O.T. and as St Francis had done when he repaired a derelict church in his native city. We devoted a lot of time praying and sharing. One idea that we discussed, not for the first time, was the possibility of organizing a pilgrimage to an ancient Christian site in each of the four countries.
There was quite an ecumenical aspect to the weekend. For instance, having celebrated the vigil mass of Sunday on Saturday evening, we all attended the Anglican Eucharist in St. David's Cathedral on Sunday morning. It was striking how similar it was to our own. Welsh Anglicans are very high church. They had a statue of Mary in the Lady chapel, and had the blessed sacrament reserved. The Cathedral is amazing. It is quite large, and was built by the Normans in the 12th century. I commented on the marvelous oak ceiling and was told it was new, it had been installed in 1500 A.D.! When we got back from the Cathedral we did a bible study on Nehemiah 2:17-20 and 4:7-20. It was very fruitful. We began to appreciate that if we intend to re-build the church by means of the new evangelization we will need to devote a lot of time to intercession and spiritual warfare. When we got back from Wales, one of our group received an email from a friend in England. Guess what the subject was? the importance of Nehemiah and the role of intercession/spiritual warfare. It was more than a coincidence, it was a providential God instance which confirmed the word we had received. I have included a chapter on intercession in the Prayer in Practice section of this website.
When I got back to Dublin, I received an email from one of the women who had been with us during the weekend. She had just received it from England. It's subject? intercession in Nehemiah. Was that a coincidence or a God instance? Surely it was the latter.
St David's Cathedral South Wales
I have written an article on The New
Evangelisation in Goodnews Magazine
See http://www.ccr.org.uk/archive/gn0809/g08.htm
