First Annual SJS Benefactors Mass

Homily

Today we stand with our Blessed Lord at the beginning of his ministry as he went about preaching a Gospel of repentance and joy:  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

But though he was the Son of the Living God, he was also Jesus of Nazareth.  Full God and fully man…a man like us in all things but sin: like us in our limitations, as well.

So he had to call helpers: Apostles and their successors, Bishops, and their helpers, the Priests: helpers to carry his Gospel of Joy to the ends of the earth: to Cappadocia, and Thessalonica and even Boston.

That is why, at every Ordination to the Priesthood, the Bishop prays:

And now we beseech you, Lord, in our weakness, 

to grant us these helpers that we need

to exercise the priesthood that comes from the Apostles.

For over a thousand years, the Church has prayed those words, because she knows that no Bishop can evangelize the Church all by himself.  That is why at every ordination the Bishop looks out over the local Church which God has placed in his care and beseeches God to look on him in his weakness, and give him the priests he need to teach, sanctify, and govern this people whom God has placed in his care.

And that is what this seminary, this holy house is about: helping men to discern a vocation to the priesthood and forming them into the kind of Priests their Bishop needs them to be.  And that is why you love and support this holy work: for without your support this seminary would cease to be, and without this seminary we would have no priests, and without priests the Church would cease to be.

It is a holy work, and one of the most important works the Lord entrusts to the Church to carry out.  And one that finds its fulfillment in ordination.

____

Like the day of my own ordination.

Almost thirty four years ago I was laying down on the carpet at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in Worcester as the cantor led the gathered Congregation in the Litany of Saints. At twenty-seven I had no idea what God held in store for me, But I did know that the carpet was itchy against my nose, and I remember thinking that with all the anxiety coursing through my veins that I was feeling a bit dizzy. Which is when it occurred to me that at least if I fainted while laying on the floor, I wouldn’t have far to fall. 

But I didn’t faint. Rather, I stood up and knelt before Bishop Flanagan and felt his hands upon my head and heard him pray to God on my behalf. The prayer he prayed, has been used by Bishops to make Priests for over a thousand years. It asks God, “the author of human dignity” to draw near, recalling how when Moses and Aaron found it hard to govern the Israelites, God “chose men next in rank and dignity to accompany them and assist them in their task.” 

The life of a Priest is pure grace, seldom easy, but always exquisitely beautiful. I wish I could tell you what it feels like to hear a penitent weep when welcomed home after 35 years of being lost. I wish you could know what it’s like to give viaticum, anoint in faith, and commit a soul to God as she breathes her last breath. 

To be and be called “Father,” to so many, to be called to preach the Gospel with conviction and joy, to be invited to bring Christ’s healing presence and truth to the most intimate pains of the human heart. 

And most of all, to join the sacrifices of your lives to the one perfect Sacrifice of Christ offered upon this altar, and to receive the power through Christ to transform mere bread and wine into his own Body and Blood. To stand behind that altar before which I was ordained, and to offer the sacrifice which is the source and the summit of each and all of our lives. 

In almost thirty years, I have never doubted, even for a moment, that God chose me to be a Priest. Oh there have been good days and not so good days, trials and temptations, fears and exhaustions. But all that goes with being a human, and it is in my humanity, and with my weaknesses, and even with my sinfulness that God has chosen me to be your Priest and to make me strong in Christ.

____

How do these men know if they are called to such a life?  

Sometimes its hard to tell.  That’s why we call it discernment.  For example, I think of John.  John was twenty years old when Father Balley opened a seminary near his home town.  The problem was that John was not very good at academics, having no more than a little arithmetic, history, and geography from his elementary education.  

His early writings reveal that he found Latin extremely difficult and he and his best friend Matthew would sit up late at night reciting declensions, which he never really mastered.

  

But if this wasn’t enough, a war broke out and John was drafted into the army.  After basic training he lasted less than a week.  You see, in the morning his regiment was due to march into battle for the first time, so John got up before the sun rose and snuck off to Church to pray.  However, he lost track of time, and when he returned to camp his regiment had already left.  While he escaped being punished for that incident, he soon decided that military life for not for him and he joined the resistance, deserting the army and serving as the schoolmaster in a nearby town under an assumed name for over a year.  When he eventually contacted his family, his father, was naturally furious with him.  In the end, his brother volunteered to join the army in his place and no charges were ever brought.

So he returned home to try the Seminary again.  However, his Latin was still so bad, that he failed the entrance exam the first time around, but kept trying and eventually passed.  

Three years later he was ordained a Priest and sent as the associate to Father Balley, the good Priest who first encouraged him before the war.  But Father Balley died within a few years and Father John was sent to one of the smallest and most remote parishes in the entire Diocese.  

And from that parish, John Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars, transformed the Priesthood and revitalized the Church, which is why Pope Benedict XVI  named him the patron of all Priests in the Year for Priests, for Father John “taught his parishioners [not just by words, but] primarily by the witness of his life.”

But if God could work through Jean Baptiste, he can work through these men who sit among you, who need never fear:  for if they listen carefully for his voice deep within their hearts, he will strengthen them and form them and make them shepherds after his own heart.

Pray for these men.  Work for these men.  Support these men.  For God who has begun the good work in them will bring it to fulfillment.

First Annual Benefactors Banquet

REMARKS BY MONSIGNOR MORONEY

Tonight, I am delighted to welcome you to the first annual Benefactors Banquet.  It’s a time for us to say thank you to those who make so much of the work in this holy house possible by their generous financial and spiritual support.

And the truth is that this work depends on your generous donations.  Less than half of the price of educating a seminarian comes from tuition, room and board.  This past year, through the institution of our first ever major development effort, this holy work has been supported by over $200,000 in donations and more than $400,000 in grants.  That unbelievable success is the result of the hard work of our Development Staff, our Development Committee and all the other members of our staff who make it all work.  They’re all here on a Sunday! Please join me in thanking them for all their hard work!

And the truth is that this work depends on your generous prayers.  Without prayer we are just a business, and an educational institution.  But as noble as education is, it is but one of the full pillars of our life here at Saint Johns, as we seek to form men to be the best pastors, the best spiritual leaders, and the best human beings: effective disciples of the Gospel of Joy so needed as we form the Roman Catholic Church in New England for the twenty first century.

So welcome!  I promise no long speeches, just this expression of gratitude, which now takes concrete form in a new tradition we inaugurate tonight in the presentation of two Medals to individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the support of this holy work: the Saint John the Evangelist Medal given in recognition of an individual's extraordinary contributions to the spiritual support of the Seminary and the Archbishop John J. Williams Medal given in recognition of a person’s extraordinary contributions to the temporal life of the Seminary.

This year we have two very worthy recipients.

PRESENTATION OF 

THE ARCHBISHOP JOHN J. WILLIAMS AWARD

Our first award recipient is Mr. Jack Shaughnessy, Sr.   As you know, we present this well deserved honor posthumously, and so I ask  Jack, Jr. to please come forward to receive this medal in Jack’s memory.  

I am grateful to you Jack, and to all the members of the Shaughnessy family present tonight. As you know, your father was an extraordinary man.  His love for the Church and his deep faith were readily apparent to everyone who met him.   Dedicated to his dear wife, Mary and his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, it was Jack’s faith which got him through the Job-like experiences in his life, and that same faith that made him so generous to this Seminary in the years that followed.

Jack was a close counselor of mine and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss him.  Last September when I informed him that he would be the first recipient of the Archbishop John J. Williams medal, he suggested that someone else would be more worthy of the award. But no one, indeed no one person, has ever loved this house more or been more generous.

And so I ask Jack Shaughnessy, Jr., to receive the first John J. Archbishop Williams medal in his father’s name in recognition of the extraordinary generosity by which he supported the work of this holy house.

Jack, please come forward and offer a few words in your father’s name. 

Remarks by Jack Shaughnessy, Jr. in accepting the posthumous awarding of the first annual Archbishop John J. Williams Award to Jack Shaughnessy, Sr.

Your Eminence Cardinal Sean, Monsignor Moroney, Bishop Libasci, Sister Jean, assembled clergy, seminarians, and fellow supporters of St John’s Seminary; it is with great honor and humility that I am here to accept the Archbishop John J. Williams Award on behalf of my Dad, Jack Shaughnessy Sr. I would also like to offer congratulations on behalf of the entire Shaughnessy family to fellow honoree Loretta Gallagher who will soon be accepting the Saint John the Evangelist Medal in recognition of her many contributions to the Seminary.

For those who did not know him my Dad loved to be known as a “cheerful giver”, but at the same time he was a “reluctant honoree”, and it was only when he believed that by accepting an honor that he could help increase support to a particular institution that he would agree to do so. He was also fond of quoting scripture (one time actually borrowing the Sunday Missilette to bring to that night’s Charity event) and one verse that he often used was from Matthew, the first half of which reads: “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret” which is how he tried to live his life. But it wasn’t just his financial contributions that set my Dad apart, it was his never ending donation of time to so many causes over the years that truly distinguished him as a Man for Others in the truest sense of his Jesuit ideals. Countless dinners, fundraisers, tributes and events filled his days and while we all cringed every time he took out his handy pocket calendar to let us know what “events” he had in the upcoming weeks and that he needed to fill a table we seldom said no as we somehow knew that it was what was expected of us.

Knowing that my Dad would have taken this opportunity to speak to the cause instead of speaking about himself, I tried to envision just what he would have talked about today had he been able to do so. I’m confident that he would have first thanked Cardinal Sean for his friendship and leadership as he has steadfastly guided our archdiocese through some difficult times, never wavering in his Faith. Next, he would have said that nothing that he did would have been possible without the love and support of his late wife Mary, who he missed so dearly. And he would have said how proud he was to be the recipient of the Archbishop Williams Award, named after the first Archbishop of Boston, the son of Irish Immigrants. He would have spoken to the seminarians, many of whom are here today, and thanked them for accepting their calling to the Priesthood and how very crucial that was to the future of the church. And more likely than not, he would have worked in today’s Gospel reading and made sure that we understood that just as Jesus had called to Peter and Andrew fishing by the Sea of Galilee and said “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men”, in a similar manner He has called out to the these Seminarians to serve in the same way.

 

The second half of his oft quoted passage from Matthew reads: “Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you”. And while none of his can ever be sure what awaits us on our Judgment Day, I feel like he knew in his final hours that his own eternal peace was at hand. The grace and serenity that he displayed in those last hours was something that none of my family will ever forget as his final words were in prayer to the Blessed Mother, knowing that he had done all he could not just for his family but for his fellow man in his long and satisfying life.

My Dad spent his entire adult life teaching each of us by his actions how to be better spouses, parents and for some of us grandparents and we will all be forever grateful. We have also learned to live faith filled lives, do what we are able to do to help others in need and will certainly endeavor to carry on the Shaughnessy name as he did so ably and graciously for so many years. 

I know he would be both proud and humbled to be singularly honored as the first recipient of this Award and on behalf of the entire Shaughnessy Family many of whom are here tonight including 6 of his 7 children, their spouses, many grandchildren and even his eighth great grandchild Matthew John I thank you for remembering him in this special way.  As he often said, we have been truly blessed.

PRESENTATION OF 

THE SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST AWARD

Our second award recipient is Mrs. Loretta Gallagher.  Loretta, tonight, you will be the first recipient of the Seminary’s Saint John the Evangelist Medal, in recognition of your extraordinary contributions to the spiritual support of the Seminary.  

From the first day I arrived at Saint John’s, Loretta has been a constant source of encouragement, reassurance and prayerful support.  In a thousand ways, from organizing Carmelite prayer chains and notes and gifts in support of the seminarians, to actively engaging the members of the Serra Club, Loretta Gallagher has witnessed by her prayers and hard work to the importance of what God is doing in the hearts of these young men.

As a member of the Board of Trustees and a personal advisor to me and to my predecessors she has been insightful and unwaveringly generous in her advice and her unflagging support.  In tough times, Loretta Gallagher is God's most optimistic cheer leader.  In good times, she is a sage source of common sense advice.

And so I joyfully present this first Saint John the Evangelist Medal to Loretta Gallagher in recognition of her spiritual support of the work God does in this holy house.  Your wisdom and passion for the Seminary’s mission is a constant consolation and source of strength.

Thank you for what you do and for who you are for each of us!

Pope Francis on the Parish Priest

"The parish progresses because it has many organizations, many things, but it also has a priest, who carries the parish forward. We in history know but a small part – though how many holy bishops, how many priests, how many holy priests have given their lives in the service of the diocese, the parish – how many people have received the power of faith, the power of love, hope [itself] from these anonymous pastors? We do not know: there are so many.”

"The parish priests of the country or the city, who, with their anointing have given strength the people, who have passed on the teaching of the faith, have given the sacraments: [in a word], holiness.”:

“‘But , Father, I have read in a newspaper that a bishop has done such a thing, or a priest who has done this thing.’ Oh yes, I read it, too. Tell me, though: do the papers carry news of what great charity so many priests, so many priests in so many parishes of the city and the countryside, perform? Of the great work they do in carrying their people forward? No? This is not news. 

"It is the same as always: a single falling tree makes more noise than a forest that grows. Today, thinking about this anointing of David, it will do us good to think of our brave, holy , good , faithful bishops and priests, and pray for them. We are here today thanks to them."

Pope Francis

Morning Mass Homily

27 January 2014

Catholic Schools Week at Saint Joseph's Basilica

On Sunday morning I was delighted to celebrate Catholic Schools Week at Saint Joseph's Basilica in Webster.  Here's the homily I gave at the Solemn Mass:

Today we stand with our Blessed Lord at the beginning of his ministry as he went about preaching a Gospel of repentance and joy:  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

But though he was the Son of the Living God, he was also Jesus of Nazareth.  Full God and fully man…a man like us in all things but sin: like us in our limitations, as well.

And so he needed helpers to carry out his ministry to the ends of the earth, disciples who would carry his Gospel to distant lands…to Cappadocia, and Thessalonica and even Webster.

Every baptized person is called to be such a disciple…to witness to the good news that God is love, and out of love has been born as a man, opened his arms on a cross and died and rose for us, defeating death and selfishness and sin.  In others, that Jesus is in our midst and we need never be afraid of anything ever again.

But true love, gratuitously given and generously bestowed, is a hard lesson to preach to a culture so obsessed by consumerism and narcissistic self-interest where children go hungry for anyone to love them.

This is not your great grandmother’s culture or your great-grandfather’s world.  The problems your children will face and incredibly different from the ones which you remember in fourth grade.  Along with a technologically advancing world is a set of moral challenges which changes more quickly than we can often appreciate.

Our Holy Father indicated this recently when recalling “a very sad little girl who finally confessed to her teacher the reason she felt that way: 'my mom's girlfriend doesn't like me.”

Should it shock us that the Pope would acknowledge the struggles of the child of a same sex couple?  No more than it should shock us that more than half of the students of Catholic schools today will experience the searing fracture of a divorce, or that….

All of which is why the Holy Father asks the question:“How do we talk about Christ to these boys and girls?” “How do we talk about Christ to a generation that is changing?”

And the answer to his question is sitting right in front of me: the inheritors of the vision of Father Chalupka and those first Felician Sisters…an answer which was different in the time of Monsignor Cyran and the days of Msgr. Lekarczyk and the years of Monsignor Kubik and the time of Father Stachura, as it is unique today, when Monsignor Czynezski and you, the parishioners of Saint Joseph’s spread the Gospel of Joy in Webster in the first decades of the twenty first century.

For each of these generations have had to discover what Pope Francis has called “a new language, a new way of saying things.”  The message remains the same: Christ Jesus, our Lord.  But the ways in which we proclaim him changed and evolves in each generation.

For example, an essential part of the teaching of Jesus, a necessary consequence of repenting and embracing the Kingdom of God, is working for that unity in peace which comes only from God’s love.

But our culture seems driven sometimes by a lust for dystrophy promoting a loud cacophony of dissonant voices all yelling at each other.  The Holy Father offers a solution:

“We need to resolve our differences through forms of dialogue which help us grow in understanding and mutual respect.  A culture of encounter demands that we be ready not only to give, but also to receive.  Media can help us greatly in this, especially nowadays, when the networks of human communication have made unprecedented advances.  The internet, in particular, offers immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity.  This is something truly good, a gift from God.”

I think the Holy Father must have counted how many computers there are in Saint Joseph’s School when he suggested that the internet and modern forms of technological communication provide great opportunities for Catholic Schools and catholic students in learning the Gospel of Joy.

For the Catholic School to which this parish is dedicated seeks to speak in today’s language to today’s children. With nearly 170 students led by three Felician sisters and eleven teachers, a guidance counselor and reading specialist and three teachers’ aides. Here children learn about civics, history, science and literature.  They learn not only English and Polish, but Spanish and French.

And most of all they learn about Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

And it is this living out of the Gospel of Joy that we will celebrate this week.  With the presentation of the Partners in Education Award, today’s open house and Book Fair, the service projects and puppet shows, alumni day and parent teach appreciation day.  Even Buddy Bingo and Basketball, both of which might well soon take place in your new gymnasium.

_________

Its a story that started when the first Polish residents of Webster arrived a century and a half ago, starting with Herman Pawlowski and his wife and children.  Joseph and Frances Reglinski were the first to be married here, and to them you could add the Sikorskis, Kruewskas, Janakowskis, Krefts and Reminski.  And the families callled Pokraka, Paradowski, Reglinski, Santor, Buembrenek and Sielinski.  

And all of them heard the Lord’s call, to come and follow him…to lead their children to him and to teach them to share with their lives the Gospel of Joy, the Catholic Faith which has come down to us from the Apostles.

May God bless you for being a part of that wonderful story and give you the grace to continue to make Saint Joseph’s School the shining examine it has been and will be for many decades, pray God, many centuries to come.

Dr. Majeres at SJS

Back by popular demand, Dr. Kevin Majeres, MD of Harvard University gave a wonderful presentation on the psychological and emotional underpinnings of anxiety at a workshop on Monday morning.  After lunch with the faculty, he spent another hour with the seminarians answering questions.  Dr. Majeres website is http://purityispossible.com.

Manners Matters at SJS

Theresa Salameno of Manners Matters presented an evening of reflections on the etiquette of dining and the role of manners in the life of a diocesan priest this past Monday.  Her quick wit and great knowledge of the field made it a delightful evening!

SJS For Life!

At five o’clock this morning, our noble seminarian pilgrims set off by train for our Nation’s Capitol to take part in the Day of Prayer and Penance for Life.  To understand the weather they faced, here’s a view of the snow between the cars as they approached Union Station!

This evening they took part in the Vigil Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception celebrated by Cardinal O’Malley.

Tomorrow will begin with a Holy Hour at 5:00am.  Here’s the homily they will hear preached by Father Riley in those early morning hours:

Jesus called the first of the Apostles with two simple words: “follow me.”  So they dropped their nets, left their old life and followed him down the road. 

 Little did they know where that road would lead.  Little did they know its final destination: the Cross and how their basic job description, like the job description of the Church, would be to proclaim that Cross and he who was crucified upon it for their salvation.

It’s the same job description given by God to Jonah: to proclaim the message God would give him, almost the same message which Jesus gives to his disciples: “Repent and Believe!  For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

It’s the same message God gives to us.  To repent.  To turn away from all darkness, selfishness, and sin and cling only to the Light, Love, and Purity which we come to know in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

For there is much darkness, selfishness, and sin in our world.  Just forty-one years ago today our country legalized the taking of innocent human life by abortion.  Since that time, fifty six million children have lost their lives before birth by abortion. 

And so we join Jonah and Simon and Andrew in proclaiming to all who will listen: Repent and Believe!  Repent from the darkness which would see the life of another human being as but a disposable problem, repent from the selfishness that refuses to love the innocent and most vulnerable among us, repent from the sin of taking the life of that tiny child. 

And believe!  Believe that God will hold us responsible for our actions, believe that we will be judged on whether we have embraced the culture of death or the Gospel of Life, believe that Jesus meant it when he said “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.” 

Repent, believe, and follow him.  Follow him as you walk the streets of your nation’s Capitol in his patient endurance, in his love even for his enemies, in his prayer from the cross: “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing!” 

Follow him through the cold and the snow in proclaiming the truth in season and out.  Follow him who stood up to the Pharisees, the Chief Priests, and Sadducees and all the leaders of his day and rendered unto God what was God’s.  

Follow him whom they crucified for the truth he lived in love.  Follow him to the Cross and join your suffering to his that it might have meaning and give praise to Almighty God.  “They will treat you as they treated me,” he reminded us.  Let us rejoice in that truth! 

 For as we have followed him to the Cross, we will surely follow him to the Glory of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Where we will see, face to face, all those tiny children who have died at the hands of our selfishness and sin.  Let us work for Justice, defend those whom everyone else forgets about, and with the courage of Jonah, Simon, and Andrew proclaim to all the world that the Kingdom of God is at hand!

The Holy Hour will be followed by a Mass with Cardinal O’Malley at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart and then the March for Life through the very very cold streets of our nation’s Capitol.  All will return to their warm beds in Boston via another long train ride.  All because they believe what Pope Francis taught us just last week:

"Unfortunately, what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as 'unnecessary'. For example, it is frightful even to think there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day; children being used as soldiers, abused and killed in armed conflicts; and children being bought and sold in that terrible form of modern slavery which is human trafficking, which is a crime against humanity."