ST. PETER’S CATHEDRAL BELFAST

HOMILY GIVEN BY
CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY
SUNDAY 17th FEBRUARY 2008

Your Eminence, my brother bishops, my brother priests, Reverend Sisters and Brothers, dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ

I thank you for your kind invitation to be here this evening and for your welcome. It is a great privilege to celebrate Mass in this beautifully reordered Cathedral of St. Peter’s, Belfast. I know that establishing this Cathedral as a vibrant centre of worship for the Diocese and for the city has always been a particular priority for you Bishop Walsh. It was, in keeping with your Episcopal motto, a real ‘work of the heart’. I congratulate you on the outstanding outcome. From its masterly choir, to its majestic spires and its far-reaching contribution to the life of Belfast and especially the lower Falls, we can say of St Peter’s with the psalmist: ‘This is a work of the Lord, a marvel in our eyes. Indeed we are glad’. We can also say with St. Peter in today’s Gospel, ‘Lord it is wonderful for us to be here. Let us build three tents.’ In other words, let us enjoy the gift of God’s presence – in people, word and sacrament, a presence so evident in the beauty and peace of this Cathedral, a presence which is life-giving, energising and transforming.

This presence is very evident, of course, in the practice of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, a practice commended to us by Pope Benedict. There are so many graces which flow to individuals and to whole communities from adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I commend Fr Kennedy and the other priests of the Cathedral for encouraging this particular devotion and I thank those many parishioners who ensure that, in the words of St. Paul, there is prayer ‘without ceasing’ in the company of the Risen Lord here in the centre of Belfast, here at the centre of Down & Connor.

I would also like to pay tribute to Fr Kennedy for his inspired decision to invite priests across the Diocese to come together in the Cathedral to pray on a monthly basis, to pray with each other and for each other. In my opinion, nothing could be more helpful or important at this time. As priests we need the prayerful support of each other and of those around us as we face the uncertainties and challenges of our priestly ministry. If we are to be gentle and faithful shepherds after the Lord’s own heart, then we need the prayerful support and solidarity with each other and with all God’s people. Most of all we need time with the Lord in prayer because without him we can do nothing. Without his intimacy, his love, his power working in us we can so easily become an empty vessel, or as St. Paul would say, a ‘gong booming, or a symbol clashing’. We can only address the spiritual hunger that is so evident in our society at this time if we ourselves have built a tent for God’s abiding presence in our own hearts and minds. We can only lead others to believe that it is ‘good to be here’ at Mass, that it is ‘good to be here’ with others as the Body of Christ. If we ourselves have taken to heart the words of the Lord: ‘Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments my Father will love you and we shall come to you and make our home with you.
When Jesus is at home within in us, we are also at home with ourselves. This is what Jesus meant when he said came to give us a peace which the world cannot give. That peace is what so many people in our world are looking for. When we have it, when it is within us, it can draw others to Christ because He is its source.

I was really pleased to receive the invitation to come here this afternoon. It gives us an opportunity to honour and celebrate and thank God for the many strong bonds that unite the diocese of Down and Connor and Armagh. One of these is, of course, our shared association with our National Apostle, St Patrick. Tradition has it that he worked as a slave in Slemish, came back as a missionary to Saul and that he is buried in Downpatrick. I love that part of his Confession where he speaks of praying as many as a hundred times a night and just as often in the day.

A sixteen year old boy in the quiet of the North Antrim hills, he had his own experience of God’s indwelling presence, a presence which like St Peter at the Transfiguration, he wanted to keep with him. He wanted to hold on to it like the pearl of great price. In the end, life was to take him far from the silence of Slemish – even the beauty of Ballymena!. When he met the Kings of Armagh, for example, things were not just as serene! But it is clear from the tradition of his famous breastplate that in all the many challenges which followed the deep sense of God’s abiding presence within and around him never ever left him –

Christ above me,
Christ below me,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me.
In fact it is clear that it was this knowledge of Christ within that was the source of his missionary zeal. It came from his habit of creating space to, in the words of our Gospel, to ‘listen to him’! To listen to the Beloved, in whom the Father is well pleased.

In the course of his preaching, Patrick ordained bishops to minister to the needs of the people. Among these was St MacNissi – whom Patrick had baptised and who founded the Church of Connor.

Malachy, a native of Armagh had to struggle against his own family to preserve the religious freedom of the Monastery of Armagh. He moved to Bangor where he set about restoring the ruined Abbey before being made Abbot. Next he became Bishop of Down and in 1129 he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh. Unable to take possession of his diocese for a number of years, he resided in Armagh for only three years as Archbishop before returning to the diocese of Down which obviously made him ore welcome than his own people in Armagh.

Patrick MacNissi Malachy

Their memory lives on. They are venerated as the heroes of our faith. They have a special place in our hearts. Their example inspires us. None of them had an easy life. Each one had his cross to carry. Like Abram, Patrick had to leave his country, his family and his father’s house for the land which the Lord would show him – this far of land of Ireland. In return, the Lord made him a great nation and blessed him and made his name famous.

Like Paul, Malachy had to bear hardships for the sake of the Good News – the hardship of conflict with his own kith and kin, the hardship of leaving home. But he too relied – not on his own achievements but on the power of God, who saved him and called his to be holy.

I am sure that the secret of their greatness was the same – their love which revealed itself in the service of both God and of their people and which was the result of a most intimate union with God.

Over the past 200 years the designs of providence have made Armagh even more indebted to Down and Connor. Archbishop Crolly came in 1835 and died in 1849 – a victim of cholera contracted in the wake of the Famine – and in the course of his heroic pastoral duties. He lies buried in front of the High Altar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral of which he was the founder and close to St. Patrick’s Grammar School, which he also founded.
Cardinal William Conway was appointed in 1958 and he died in 1977. He was the Archbishop of the Council and of all the reforms that ensued and of the canonisation of St. Oliver Plunkett. Armagh owes much to Cardinal Conway.

What a delight to see Cardinal Cahal Daly here today – my esteemed predecessor and who has proved such a wise guide and counsellor to me all these years. We rejoice to recall the valiant testimony of his 40 years as a Bishop, in three dioceses, in so many difficult situations. He has given to so many people – in the words of today’s Gospel – the courage to stand up and not to be afraid. Long may you continue to do so and as they say in Donegal – go mairfidh tu an céad! – may you live to be a hundred.
I am very grateful to all of you for being here today. When Bishop Walsh invited me to this Mass in honour of my being created a Cardinal I was a little anxious. I was conscious of that verse from the Thomas Carnduff’s, Songs of the Shipyards – called The Men of Belfast. It goes:

We are the men of Belfast,
Her sinew, marrow, and bone,
By the graft of our brain and muscle
We fashioned for her a throne;
And people, or lord, or parson,
Class, or creed, or clan,
It’s little we care for yer titles,
Unless you’re a Belfast man!

Of course, Cardinal William Conway would have passed this test coming as he did from these historic streets of west Belfast. Cardinal Daly, would have also held his head high, having worked as he did in Down and Connor, for so many years and who is now living in Belfast. But for a poor Archbishop of Armagh, who comes from Laragh in Co. Cavan originally, there was little hope. This is compounded by the fact that since becoming Archbishop of Armagh, an Irish Theologian of some renowned has written that there are too many dioceses in the Irish Church and that really Down & Connor should be the Archdiocese of the Northern Province and not Armagh.

FEAST OF ST. BRIGID

HOMILY GIVEN BY

CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY

ST BRIGID’S CHURCH, LARAGH, Co CAVAN

FRIDAY 1ST FEBRUARY 2008

I welcome the opportunity to celebrate this Mass with you on the Feast of St. Brigid, here in the parish church of St. Brigid, patroness of this parish. A couple of week ago I was in the Holy Land and I had the great privilege of celebrating Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest place in the world. I offered that Mass for all of you, for all my families – my Laragh family; my Kilmore family; my Armagh family.

I know that each one of you felt very proud when I was made a Cardinal. But we must be careful. We must beware. Our neighbours call us “proud Laragh”.. Pride is a very dangerous vice, the root of all evil. But the treasure of which we must all be proud is not that we have a Cardinal in our midst, a Cardinal from our parish, a Cardinal from our family but that we have our faith.

Jesus tells us that we are to rejoice that our names are written in the Kingdom of Heaven. That is the source of our joy. By our Baptism we are called to share in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are to share in His victory over death and over sin and so enter into the glory of Heaven. The Lord has made us for himself. He has made us for friendship with Him. We are to be His friends.

One of the important ways of nourishing the friendship is by praying. In this chapel of St. Brigid, here in Laragh, I remember so many great people of prayer. I called here one afternoon, after Christmas. I met a lady coming in to visit the Blessed Sacrament. I remember her mother in turn who, years and years ago, came so often to this Church and I rejoice that the spirit of prayer is being passed on.

When I became a bishop I chose a motto. My motto is: To know Jesus Christ. This evening I want to thank you for all you have done to show me how to get to know Jesus Christ. I thank you for what you have done to help me to get to know the love of Jesus Christ. This parish nourished me, supported me in many ways. You rejoiced when I was ordained a priest. You were delighted when I was made a bishop and now, once again, you are almost delirious at the news about my being made a Cardinal.

We are to know Jesus Christ – Jesus Christ foretold by the prophet Isaiah in the First Reading. The prophet spoke of a servant. Jesus said he came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. God the Father delights in his son, Jesus Christ. He delights in each one of us in so far as we become like Jesus Christ. Jesus came into the world to bring true justice – to put things right. But true justice has not yet been established.

St Augustine once said: “With you I am a Christian, for you I am a bishop”. A bishop is a successor of the apostles. There was a wonderful procession and carrying in of the symbols of the bishop’s office at the beginning of this liturgy. An excellent explanation was given by Father Enda.

Jesus said to his apostles: “Go, make disciples of all nations. Baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. A disciple is one who learns from the Master. The first of the Masters is Jesus Christ. His apostles died of course, but before they died, they chose others who would continue their work. That work is continued by our preaching of the Word of God and in our teaching the things of God in the school and in the home. I still use the prayers which I learned at my mother’s knee in Drumcalpin and in Caulfiield school, from Annie Donohoe, nee Gallagher. But every baptised person shares in this work of teaching and preaching. Some of it may be done by words, but perhaps not so much by words as by example. St Francis said: “Preach the Gospel by every means, sometimes use words if necessary”.

“Baptise in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Jesus said. In other words, celebrate the sacraments with them, pray for them and with them. I pray for you, all of you and I ask you to please pray for me. A commemoration card is being distributed and I ask you, I beg you, to take it and to pray for me. If there are people whom you know to be good people of prayer, please take one for them also.

You saw the crozier being carried in by Donal Donohoe. It is the staff or symbol of the office of the shepherd. The shepherd uses his staff, his stick, to direct the sheep and to keep them from turning the wrong way. It is used to prevent them from turning into dangerous territory where they might slip over a ledge or down a ravine and be lost. There are many pitfalls and ravines which confront all of us on the journey of life. The bishop, the clergy, the parents, the grannies, we are all called to follow the good shepherd and to try and persuade others to listen to His voice and so to enter into eternal life.

I make my own for you tonight the wonderful prayer of St. Paul to the Ephesians which we heard in the Second Reading. I offer it for you and for those who are dear to you:
Out of God’s infinite glory, may He give you the power through his Holy Spirit for your inner self to grow strong. May you also grow strong in character.
One way of growing in bodily strength is to lift weights. You can grow strong in character by helping to lift the weights of the shoulders of your neighbours, especially of those more heavily burdened than yourself. They could be burdened with death and grief and sorrow. May Christ live in the heart of each one of you through faith. May you get to know the breadth and the length, the height and the depth of love which Christ has for each one of us.
This parish has played a big role in my life. I count on your prayers. I ask your prayers. I am the successor of Patrick. Near the end of his life, Patrick gave thanks to God for, through him, bringing the Good News about Jesus Christ to the Irish people. Patrick was very grateful to God for that marvellous privilege but then he wrote: ‘God forbid that I should lose any of the people given to me”. I rely on your prayers that I, myself, may not lose my way and that I may not lose my head and get puffed up with pride but that I may continue to serve my Lord and Master and so make sure that the people entrusted to my care are not lost.

AMEN

ST FRANCIS DE SALE MASS

ST EUGENE’S CATHEDRAL, DERRY

HOMILY GIVEN BY

CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY

THURSDAY 24 JANUARY 2008

St Francis de la Sale was born frail and in delicate health because of his premature birth. However, with care he gradually grew in strength and became active and energetic. His father wanted him to get himself a job and sent him to University to gain the right education but Francis had other ideas. He wanted to give his life to God. Francis was afraid that he would lose his vocation at the University and so he begged to be sent to a College which was well known for its religious ethos.

At College, Francis studies philosophy, Arts, Theology and the Law of the Church. In order to satisfy his father, he also took lessons in horse-riding, martial arts and dancing but Francis did not really care for any of these because he still yearned to give his life to God. Francis had not talked to his father about his desire to become a priest but his mother and a few close friends knew.

Eventually he was ordained a priest the religious condition of the people was deplorable and so the Bishop sent him to one of the toughest parishes in his diocese. Francis’ father was less than pleased. Along with his cousin, Francis set out to preach as often as he could to try and win back the people to the practice of their faith.

One evening he was attacked by wolves and he escaped by spending the night in a tree. Several times he was waylaid by assassins who had sworn to kill him and almost miraculously he always managed to escape.

Time went by and his work apparently was meeting with very little success. His father was no help to him as all he did was to write letters either begging him or commanding him to give it all up, have a bit of sense and return home. Francis, however, had no intention of quitting. He was always on the look out for new ways of reaching the hearts and minds of his people.

He began writing leaflets explaining the teaching of the Church. Every spare moment he had was spent writing these little papers which were then copied and distributed.

In the summer of 1595, he was attacked by a very hostile crowd who insulted and beat him. But soon after this bigger crowds began to come to listen to his sermons. His patient perseverance, despite every type of persecution, began to pay off. Conversions became more frequent and soon there was a steady stream of lapsed Catholics tip-toeing their way back to the Church. The Bishop was made welcome and was able to administer Confirmation and even presided at the 40 hour devotion – something which previously was unthinkable.

His untiring work of bringing back the lapsed Catholics to the fold was rewarded when he was made Bishop of Germany. As bishop he organised the teaching of the Catechism all over the diocese. He taught the lessons himself and children loved him and followed him.

His favourite subject was the devout life and his most famous book Introduction to the Devout Life arose from letters written to his cousin. He led a very austere life but the people were eager to see him. All the converts wanted him to come and preach. In 1622, even though he was exhausted, he kept on preaching and working. He died, while working, on the Feast of the Holy Innocent.

Real living – living devotion – presupposes the love of God. It is, in fact, that very love.
· When this love adorns the soul and make us pleasing to God, the love of God is called grace.
· When it gives us the power to do good, we call it charity.
· When it inspires us to do good often and readily and carefully it is called devotion.

Ostriches never fly. Hens fly sometimes with difficulty but eagles, swallows and doves fly swiftly and frequently. In the same way, sinners – like ostriches – never fly towards God. They roam about the earth seeking earthly things and never finding happiness. Those who are good but not devout fly sometimes on the wings of occasional good deeds but slowly and sluggishly. Those who are ready and willing to do good often, glide gracefully to God on high.

ASH WEDNESDAY 2008

DUNDALK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

HOMIILY GIVEN BY

CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY

WEDNESDAY 6 FEBRAURY 2008

Last week I was in schools in Portadown. The juniors sang about each and everyone being special – special in the eyes of God. Each one of us has our own qualities – talents – which make us special. But the very special thing about each one of us is that we are loved by God. The children sang with such enthusiasm.

I sometimes wonder how it is that we lose that enthusiasm as we move in life for recognising that we are special and specially loved by God. We seem to lose the ability to respond to that. We become listless and indifferent and anaemic in our response to God. Well, Lent is the time when we try to do something about all of that. We are ambassadors for Christ. St Paul appeals to us. He says: “Be reconciled to God because for our sake God made Christ the sinless one into sin so that we might become the goodness of God”. St Paul begs us once again “not to neglect the grace of God that you have received”. Now is the favourable time – this is the day of salvation.

So, I beg you to use this time, this special time, well. By all means use the ways the three traditional ways of spending Lent:

1. Pray
2. Fast
3. Give to the poor

Don’t parade it. Don’t blow the trumpet. Don’t let it become an ego trip. Exercise a strong willpower. I wish you a gracefilled Lent.

Lent is not a time in which the Church asks us to put on a sort of organised gloom. We are not to take on suffering for the sake of suffering. The ashes are also a sign of penance and conversion. Once the conversion was achieved, the prophets called for putting off the sack-cloth; washing away the ashes and getting into festive dress.

We do not have unlimited time to change our lives. God and His Church do not want us to have a Lenten face but rather to have an about face today; an about turn – change of direction.

I wish you all a very happy Lent.

150th ANNIVERSARY OF APPARATIONS AT LOURDES

HOMILY GIVEN BY

CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY

OUR LADY OF LOURDES CHURCH, DROGHEDA

SATURDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2008

Lourdes is a town of about 18,000 inhabitants. Where does that leave it in comparison with Drogheda? Lourdes is about 1,200 feet above sea level at the foot of the Pyrenees. But wait for it! Lourdes has about 410 hotels – with sixteen and a half thousand bedrooms. That means that for many weeks of the years there are about 33,000 visitors to Lourdes, billions of visitors every year.

What takes them there?
· As tourists? – not really – although the scenery is breath-taking.
· To see the beautiful paintings and statues? I don’t think so – although there are many lovely churches.
· To see the candlelight processions or the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament? possibly – but not really.

In my opinion, people go there for another reason.

v They go there to keep an appointment with God – which Mary has made for them.
v They go to meet their brothers and sisters, especially those who are sick, and who share the same faith as Jesus Christ so that they can understand better what it means to be a sick Child of God.

v They go there to take care of the health of their spiritual life; to look into the spiritual mirror and spot the wrinkles and the grey hairs of the soul.
v They go to get a bit of rest and respite from the conflicts and trials and troubles of life.
v People go there to get some inner peace and quiet and to clear their head and to see what is life all about and to see where God fits in.

Why Lourdes?
Yes, it is a beautiful but backward enough sort of place. It all began in 1854 when Pope Pius IX declared that it was an article of our faith that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was conceived – untainted, untouched by sin, the sin of our first parents. He said that she was, in fact, the most highly favoured daughter of God – full of grace – unstained by sin. The short-hand for all of that is: she was conceived immaculately. Her feast, commemorating that event, is the 8 December – Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Then, four years later, on 11 February 1858 – 150 years ago on Monday next – Mary, the Mother of Jesus – appeared to Bernadette Soubirous at the Face of the Rock in Lourdes. She said: “I am the Immaculate Conception”.

Who is or who was Bernadette Soubirous?
Ø Bernadette was the daughter of a poverty-stricken miller.
Ø A simple peasant girl living with her foster mother because her parents were too poor to nourish and feed her.
Ø She became an unknown religious sister. Humble and obedient in a convent far away from Lourdes at Nevers.
Ø She was a woman who suffered a huge amount which she accepted with all humility and became a wonderful witness to the teaching of the immaculate conception.
Ø Her father was a miller but in 1856 he was bankrupt, ruined. Unable to feed his family and pay the rent of his mill they had to leave their house and go to live in a kind of dump.
Ø That winter, Bernadette contracted Cholera and later Asthma and Tuberculosis. That is what brought her to her grave at the age of 35 years.

Spiritually, she was little better off. She had not yet made her First Communion by the age of fourteen. She had a lot of difficulty learning the Catechism. The only prayer she knew was the Rosary. So, when the Blessed Virgin said: “I am the Immaculate Conception” Bernadette really didn’t have a clue what she was on about.

That is the girl to whom Our Lady appeared several time 150 years ago at various stages, with a very simple message of prayer for the salvation of the world and penance for the conversion of sinners and a special message for the clergy – to get up and build a church on the spot.

Eventually and gradually, the message got through. Not alone the churches but the hotels and the hospices were built to accommodate the millions of people who, over the last 150 years, have heeded the call of Mary to pray and to repent of our sins.

The song and message of Bernadette has certainly caught the imagination of Catholics, all over the world.