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Friar S
No. 36

PROVINCIAL NEWSLETTER

St Columcille
Benburb bronze

21 December 2015

MESSAGE FROM THE PRIOR PROVINCIAL

Dear brothers, sisters and Servite family,
warm greetings to you on this fourth Sunday of Advent. Early in this season of
hope I stumbled accross a very surprising article in the National Geographic
Magazine for December 2015 in the common room of our Servite Priory in
Kersal Manchester. It was written by a journalist Maureen Orth and it's title was
Mary the Most Powerful Woman in the World. Its a beautiful, reflective
exploration of the presence of Mary in faith and culture in our contemporary
world, expressed across geographical boundaries and expressive of a deep
universal love of this woman who still lives in people's hearts and minds.

stable.

With Christmas Day now almost upon us, it's amazing all these centuries on that
Mary's yes still speaks so powerfully in giving life to Jesus in that Bethlehem

Thank you to each of you who have given life to others in your Servite community life and ministry in
2015. As Joyce Rupp often says: compassion is never convenient, and yet you live this compassion so
generously in the sharing of your gifts day in day out, in a world that needs our Servite vision of life so
much.
Pope Francis intuits this so clearly in his invitation to all of us to walk through our doors of mercy for
the coming year and to open our hearts to all in need of this mercy as compassionately and as
creatively as we can.
With 2016 just around the corner, the words of the American poet Jack Gilbert in 1925 quoting
Whitman ring out: We must risk delight ...we must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the
ruthless furnace of this world
In this spirit I wish each of you enormous delight.

Nativity window, north aisle Great Malvern

Priory Church 14c PMA

May you be blessed

with the
MERCY of CHRIST
and great joy for a
HAPPY CHRISTMAS
2015
1

QUOTE FROM PRIOR GENERALS

LETTER
FOR THE YEAR OF MERCY
Help me, Lord, make my eyes merciful.
May I never be suspicious
and never judge on outward appearances.
May I know how to perceive what is beautiful
in the soul of my neighbour
and may I be helpful to him.
Help me, Lord, make my hearing merciful.
May I be open to the needs of my neighbour.
Let my ears be open
to the suffering and groans of my neighbour.
Help me, Lord. Let my tongue be merciful.
May I never speak ill of my neighbour.
May I always have a word
of comfort and pardon for every one.
Help me, Lord. Let my hands be merciful
and engaged in good work.
May I only know
how to do good things for my neighbour
and take upon myself his difficult and painful burdens.
Help me, Lord. May my feet be merciful.
May I be quick to come to the aid of my neighbour
and overcome my own inertia and fatigue.
My true rest must be
my willingness to help my neighbour.
Help me, Lord. May my heart be merciful.
May I share in all my neighbours sufferings.
Let me close my heart to no one.
Let me be sincere
even with those who would abuse my generosity;
let me find refuge in the merciful heart of Jesus.
I will not speak of my own suffering.
May your mercy find a home in me, O Lord.
You command me to practice three degrees of mercy.
First I must perform actions of mercy of all sorts.
Second I must speak with mercy
what I cannot do with actions I must do with words.
Third: prayer; I must extend my prayer
to reach even those places I cannot visit physically.
O my Jesus transform me into yourself
because you can do everything.
From Servite Prior Generals 2015 Christmas Letter quoting Walter Kasper,
Mercy: the Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life

Mother of Mercy fresco

Subiaco, Italy 14c

Christ the Merciful One

Icon in Recklinghausen Museum, Berlin

Perhaps Portia in
is the nearest that Shakespeare
was able to come, in seemingly merciless
Elizabethan times, to displaying Our Lady, the Lady
of Mercy from
Six centuries and more had passed since the chant
began ringing around the churches
of
and monasteries at the end of each day. Believers
had come to value the
of the God of
Mercy as displayed in the Holy Queen, the Lady of
her Servants.
It was through her that the Mercy of God was
brought into humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.
That is why his mother is called
,
because Jesus Christ is the personification of the
Mercy of God. He is the one who opens up the
for believers.
From Mercy and the Motherliness of God,
Paul Addison OSM 2015

SERVITE FRIARS PROVINCE OF THE ISLES

ELECTIVE CHAPTER June 2016

FRIARS TO REMEMBER IN PRAYER

Fr Pat OConnell our oldest friar, is failing in health, while
still always checking on Servite and World News. He cannot
get down to church any more, and celebrates Mass with Fr
Philip Allen (also quite poorly) in a little chapel next to his
room.
Fr Paul Addison has had major surgery in late November,
which has been successful after two years of various operations
to re-stabilise his inner workings. He is recovering well.
Fr Steve Naughton celebrated his 91st birthday recently. He is
lively but frail. A recent fall left him in more pain.
Fr Colum McDonnell is now residen in Ashbrook Care Home
and doing well.
Fr Camillus McGrane has been in and out of hospital. He has
had surgery and is recovering in Caritas (Dublin). He is well
cared for by his Prior fr Liam Tracey while he is much missed
in the parish of Divine Word, Marley and by his Parish Priest
ever stalward Fr Jim Mulherin.
Fr Dermot MacNeice has been assigned to the community in St
Peregrines Priory, Grangewood after completing a renewal
break. At the time of writing this, he is in Craigavon hospital
for heart tests and treatment.

Election Committee The Council discussed the appointment

of the Election Committee for the 2016 Elective Chapter. It
was pointed out that the Benburb Community had looked after
this in past elective Chapters and this seemed to have worked
for us. It was decided that the election committee should be:
frs. Ray OConnell, Gabriel Bannon, Bernard Thorne.
Election Start: The date of 25th February is * proposed as the
date for elections in the Province. Fr Colm McGlynn will
write this request to Rome for approval of this as a
dispensation of the Provincial Directory.

Library Project Benburb

Fr Gabriel Bannon gave and update on the Library Project. A
new code for volunteers has been formulated and accepted by
the board. Works on the building should begin around the
beginning of December and finish sometime in July. A
branding for the Library project has been discussed by the
community and agreed. This will appear on
all materials going out from the project.

Blessing New House Grangewood,

St Peregrines Priory
The Blessing of the new house in
Grangewood took place on 25th November and was attended
by the Council members and Fr Jim Mulherin from the Marley
community. It was a very enjoyable celebration and gratitude
was expressed by all Council members for the hospitality
shown and for the great meal prepared by Bro Joe Whelan and
work done by whole community.

A REFLECTION
FROM JAMAICA
Sister Rose Chang OSM, former Prioress General, recently
produced a reflection and meditation on Listening to the Word
of God. Here is a quotation:

Extract from Blessing Prayers

Introduction by Prior:

Happy those who hear the Word of God and keep it.

In Latin a Priory is known as Conventum the word Conventum

meaning Where people come together. And this priory, dedicated to
Saint Peregrine, is the home and the gathering-place for the Friar
Servants of Mary. Let us invoke the Holy Spirit to build up the
community of friars and this holy place of gathering in divine grace
and peace.

Jesus spoke these words in response to the person

who praised his mother for having borne a son like
him.
In other words, according to Jesus, Marys true
greatness was her ability to LISTEN, HEAR and DO
Gods will as it was revealed to her at every moment of
her life.
Is it not the deep desire of each of us to be truly happy,
to be content and at peace with ourselves and
everyone else? This desire can become reality if we
only LISTEN attentively to Gods word spoken in our
daily life and then ACT on it. However, if we are to do
this the Mary-way, we need to take the time and
space to PONDER the Word.
How does one ponder a word, a thought, an event?
First, one must hold the word, i.e. not just let it come
in through one ear and go out the other. Our often
busy and noisy lives does not help us to listen like this
so we need to cultivate this art of listening attentively.
This kind of listening opens us to the deeper meaning
and appreciation of ourselves , of others and of all of
life and with this level of awareness, it is very likely
that we will meet God right there in the yaad of our
ordinary (and maybe not so ordinary) lives.

All: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful

and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created,
and you will renew the face of the earth!
1. We praise you, Loving God, Creator of all that is:
because from the communion that is your Blessed Trinity
you sent you Son to gather together your scattered children.
2. He found a home of enthronement
in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady,
and shared our humanity in everything but sin.
3. Risen from the Dead,
he has poured out the Spirit of Eternal Life upon us,
gathering us as brothers and sisters
to form his Living Body, the Church.
4. Today we renew our consecration to Him
as Servants of Mary together,
and we bless and dedicate this house to you
in honour of Saint Peregrine, our brother in heaven.
5. Stay with us always in this place.
Gather us in your Spirit in our vows of consecration.
6. Open our ears to hear your Word.
Open our hearts to love your People.
Open our lips to sing your praises
as a community of prayer and joyful praise.
All: Grant this, loving Father, in the Holy Spirit,
through Christ, our Lord. Amen

IN HONOUR OF REFUGEES AND NOMADS

AT CHRISTMAS 2015
NO ROOM AT THE INN?

Colette Cullen Christmas 2015

An amazing French illuminated manuscript 14c

depicting Joseph holding the Baby, while Mary is
reading in bed! It is a sign that she hears and
welcomes the Word of God.

(sister of fr Paul M. Addison OSM)

Christ born of Mary

means that God is in our midst
in our very humanity!
His divine life
makes us wonderfully new!
Something wonderful
to celebrate with joy!
prior provincial

provincial secretary