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  PassionistsGlasgow

father frank's log...

24/9/2022

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FR. FRANK’S LOG: 25th SEPTEMBER – 2nd OCTOBER 2022

There is a famous quote from Robert Burns’ poem “To a Mouse” that says: “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley…” I had a couple of examples of this last week, that then led me on to the memory of a third. The first plan that went astray was my intended trip to Dublin for meetings last Monday. To be honest, after the Novena, I was just too tired, and there was too much going on. When I thought of what I would have to put in place before getting away, and what I would be coming back to, I just couldn’t summon up the energy. I contacted our Provincial Secretary in Dublin and we agreed that the meeting could be postponed until a later date. I immediately began to feel a bit more relaxed, and less stressed.
 
That meant that last Monday, having been declared a public holiday and a National Day of Mourning for the death of Queen Elizabeth II, I was able to celebrate the 10 o’clock Mass in St. Mungo’s for the repose of HRH’s soul, using texts that had been sent to all the parishes by the Archdiocesan liturgy office. Afterwards, I decided to watch the funeral service from Westminster Abbey, and it was there that I encountered the second of the best laid plans that had gone astray. You can imagine that every aspect of that service, as well as everything that went before, and everything that came after, was rehearsed, again and again, many times, leaving nothing to chance. It seems that even the music had been chosen a number of years back and had been rehearsed twice a year ever since. However, as the Queen’s coffin was carried into the abbey, on top of which was the Imperial State Crown as well as the Sovereign's Sceptre and the Sovereign's Orb, and as the representatives of the various churches took their places around the high altar, the Archbishop of York picked up his order of service from the chair, and a card fell out of it onto the floor. When the Queen’s coffin was in place, and the camera zoomed in, all I could see was this card on the floor, very visible on screen, and I was imagining the television presenters frantically trying to find a way of having it discreetly removed before the service progressed much further. Some things just can’t be planned for! As it turned out, before Lady Scotland made her way to the lectern to read the first lesson from First Corinthians, the card had disappeared. I thought that Lady Scotland, a patron of Missio, the Catholic Missionary Society, read absolutely beautifully. Indeed, I thought the whole service was beautiful in its simplicity, and that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, also spoke very simply and beautifully, and in a very Christ-centred way. Later, the Archbishop of York led one of the prayers, with not a bother on him.
 
The memory evoked was from many years back, when I was a Passionist student in Mount Argus in Dublin. I was given the task of being one of the Masters of Ceremony at the Easter Triduum Services. As a group of students, we tried to prepare everything perfectly, leaving nothing to chance. On Holy Thursday night, everything seemed to go to plan. We had reached the point after Holy Communion, where the tabernacle had been left empty and open, and we were having a period of deep silence before the procession to the altar of repose. We had forgotten, however, that one of the Passionist Brothers had been given the task of bringing Holy Communion to the choir up in the choir loft. He took his role as a Eucharistic Minister very seriously, but he could be a bit slow. To be honest, he was taking so long that we had forgotten all about him, until, in the midst of the deep silence, he made his way, very devoutly, and quite oblivious to anything else, up the aisle, and placed his ciborium into the tabernacle. A groan went round the sanctuary, and someone had to discreetly remove the said ciborium before the procession could begin. Some things just can’t be planned for!
 
Out at Bishopbriggs, we are all well. Father Justinian and myself are scheduled to receive flu jabs and Covid boosters. Father John continues to settle. We still await the great arrival.

As always, protect yourselves, your loved ones and others, and protect Christ in your lives.

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father frank's log...

19/9/2022

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FR. FRANK’S LOG: 18th – 25th SEPTEMBER 2022
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Just after I finished the log last week and sent it off to our webmaster for posting, along with the newsletter, word came in of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. We prayed for her respectfully at the Novena Mass that evening, and at the Masses next day. Since then, of course, it has been blanket coverage. I was born in June 1951, while George VI was still king. He died in February the following year and Elizabeth immediately acceded to the throne. Her coronation took place in June 1953. So, Elizabeth has been queen for almost all of my lifetime. Being from an Irish immigrant Catholic family, the queen didn’t feature hugely in our consciousness. In our tenement home in Partick, we had the usual pictures of the Pope, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and Saint Anthony of Padua. There was no picture of the queen, but neither was there any anti-royal sentiment. I suppose what I remember most is the national anthem being played at the end of a night at the cinema, or at the dancing, at which I probably felt a slight awkwardness, but stood anyway, as everyone else was standing. I think that came to an end sometime in the early 1970’s. On hearing of Queen Elizabeth’s death, I surprised myself by feeling quite emotional. Over the years I had come to respect her as a woman of deep faith, and someone whose faith informed an extraordinary life of dedicated service, and devotion to duty. I admired her when, as the country became less and less Christian, she continued to express her Christian faith quite strongly in her Christmas messages, and on other occasions when she addressed the nation. Ironically, I will be in Dublin for meetings on the day of her funeral. I do, however, feel a sense of being part of history as King Charles III accedes to the throne. We will pray also for him. I still remember a remark he made once, along the lines of, that to imagine the universe was created by accident, was like believing a hurricane could blow through a scrap yard and create a Rolls Royce. I think he actually had a Rolls Royce at the time. He too, I believe, is a man of strong Christian faith, and I’m sure that will inform his reign too, like his mother.
 
In terms of being part of history, the last time I felt that was when I was in Africa at the time of the first free elections in South Africa, which took place on 27th April 1994, now known as Freedom Day. In the lead-up to the elections, I had spent a few months looking after a parish, including a black township, in South Africa, near Pretoria. I remember clearly the tensions running high and I experienced a few scary moments during that time. I remember too, the efforts made to inform black and coloured people of the process of casting their vote, as it was something completely new to them. I felt embarrassed at the things we take for granted. Before the elections took place, I moved on to Botswana for a time to work with Passionist postulants and novices. I finished my African trip at our Theology house in Kenya, near Nairobi, and I was there when the elections in South Africa took place. Coincidentally, it was while she was in Kenya, that the then Princess Elizabeth heard of the death of her father. A few days before the elections, South Africans living in other countries were facilitated in casting their votes. I recall clearly three of our Theology students putting on their best clothes and queuing for hours to cast their vote in Nairobi. They were so excited, and so proud. It was, for me, very humbling. So, yes, I feel a sense of history in these present days. Someone mentioned to me that when the new postage stamps come out, the king’s head will face in the opposite direction to that of the queen’s on current stamps. I’ll take their word for it. The last time I took an interest in stamps was when the postal service in Ireland brought out a first-class stamp to commemorate the Canonization of St. Charles of Mount Argus. As rector at the time, they obliged me with a generous number of first editions which I was able to distribute to deserving recipients. I suppose, in Passionist terms, that was history too.
 
I now know that Fr Gareth will return on 29th September, Feast of the Archangels. Yippee!

So, as always, protect yourselves, protect your loved ones, and protect Christ in your lives.

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father frank's log...

9/9/2022

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FR. FRANK’S LOG: 11th – 18th SEPTEMBER 2022

Last Friday, the first Friday of the month, the local primary school came over for the 10 o’clock Mass, which was lovely. One of the teachers, and some of the pupils, were providing the music, and I had equipped them with an orchestral music stand that opens up into quite a few sections, allowing for a number of sheets of music to be laid out alongside each other. It’s quite a heavy piece of equipment and, after the school had gone, as I tried to collapse it down again to fit into the cupboard, it suddenly dropped too quickly and sliced off a huge chunk of skin from the index finger of my left hand. The blood poured out, and wouldn’t stop. I went through a plethora of paper towels and tissues trying to stem the blood, but it kept gushing. The cuffs of my alb were bloodstained and I had to soak it in preparation for a later wash. The first aid box was produced. The wound was beyond a sticking plaster, but eventually, with the help of one of our volunteers, a substantial bandage was wrapped around my finger to stem the flow, and absorb the blood. All was well, for now anyway.
 
Later that day I was to celebrate a wedding. Thinking that this bandage was going to be a bit unsightly and cumbersome, I mistakenly thought that, by that time, the flow of blood would have stopped and that the bandage could be replaced by a plaster. Big mistake! When the bandage was removed the blood began to flow again. A fellow priest, who had come to join me for the wedding ceremony, came to my rescue and, somehow, we managed to wrap about five sticking plasters around the wound, enough to get me through the nuptials without the blood oozing out over the happy couple. Over the next few days, I regularly sanitized the wound and changed the plaster and, only yesterday, five days later, did I decide to dispense with any bandaging and let the air in. There is still a bit of a hole in my fingertip, but, in its usual miraculous way, the body is healing itself and the skin has almost completely renewed.
 
Yesterday, also, we started our Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows, the patroness of the Passionist Congregation. This Novena has been celebrated in St. Mungo’s for over 50 years, begun by the then rector, Father Pancras Fanning, as a 10-minute reflection after evening Mass on the nine nights leading up to the Feast, which is the 15th September. There are a few people in the parish who have taken part in this Novena from the very beginning. Even during lockdown, unable to celebrate it in the church, we managed to celebrate it online from the Oratory in Bishopbriggs. In times gone by we were able to call on Passionist preachers from far and wide to conduct the Novena, but those days are gone, for the time being anyway, as a result of aging, frailty, and diminishing numbers. We could hardly be spread much more thinly. But the prayer and petition are the most important thing, and we continue to do that as best we can, and we hope the tradition of this Novena will continue for a long time to come.
 
Earlier this week I took part in a Zoom meeting with our Provincial and Council. As Father Antony is now on the council, I was able to view him in the parish office in Minsteracres, already looking well relaxed in his new surroundings. His mum, his sister, his nephew and his auntie, were all at the opening Novena Mass yesterday morning and so I was able to pass that news on to them, as they haven’t heard from him, and are giving him space to get settled in. I have also been in contact with Father Gareth who has now been to Merthyr Tydfil to see his mum who, thankfully, is doing well, and he has arrived back again to Belfast. He has some bits and pieces to finish off there, before he begins the task of packing up. It’s a tough task to be doing all that again less than a year from having had to do it all to go in the other direction. Still, he’s happy to be returning to St. Mungo’s, and we will look forward to welcoming him, whenever he gets here. Father John is having to go through the process of a driving test so as to acquire a U.K. driving license. Father Justinian remains amazingly well for a man of his years. But, for now, it’s a quiet house, until shh… you know who returns. We can’t wait.
​
So, as always, protect yourselves, protect your loved ones, and protect Christ in your lives.

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father frank's log

3/9/2022

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FR. FRANK’S LOG: 4th – 11th SEPTEMBER 2022
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One of the tasks I could always depend on Father Antony to do, at one time with Father Gareth riding side-saddle, so that they could go for an all-day breakfast in Asda afterwards, was to bring the weekend count to the bank and lodge it. Over the few years since I came, the method of doing this has changed on several occasions, so that now it’s more of a self-service operation. Part of the process is to tip any coin in the lodgement into a big counting machine. This might require several goes until all the coin is inserted and a receipt is printed, which is then placed into the lodgement bag, along with a lodgement slip, and then fed into the deposit box, whereby another receipt is printed out for our records. It’s not rocket science but it can be a bit time consuming, and it was certainly time consuming this week as the task has now fallen to me. There was a lot of coin because there had been an unusually large number of the little milk bottles that people hand in to help pay off the parish debt for the renovations that were done over 20 years ago. For an old man like myself that can be a very heavy load to carry. When I arrived at the bank there were already three people waiting at the coin machine, and so, I firstly deposited the notes, and then came back to take my place in the queue. The first person seemed to have a vast amount of coin to deposit, then two ladies with a smaller amount. The man in front of me began to tip his coins in, but half way through the machine came to a halt. After a staff attempt to get it going again, the diagnosis was that the machine was full, and that we would have to wait a while until someone came to empty it. As I was on the 12.15pm Mass I decided not to risk waiting. The next day I returned again, dragging my heavy load behind me. When I got to the bank there was someone trying to fix the machine and I was told it would be at least two hours before it would be available. When I gave an exasperated sigh, I was told that this is what happens when people put into the machine stuff that isn’t mean to be put in. Having seen my fair share of foreign coins, and even supermarket trolley coins in the collection over the years, I could have a certain amount of sympathy. The next day I returned again, and it was third time lucky. I was greatly relieved to finally have the lodgement complete but lamented lost time that could have been spent more productively.
 
Still loosely on the theme of coins, I am very disappointed and disheartened that the cost of parking around St. Mungo’s has been doubled. We are considered to be city centre for parking purposes, but really it is penalising people going to Mass and, at this time, when we are enduring a cost-of-living crisis, it seems a rather crass and heartless thing to do. I don’t want to lose people but, with every penny counting at this time, I would of course understand if people choose to go elsewhere for Mass where they don’t have to pay. Having said that, I would rather that they put less into the collection than go elsewhere, as their presence, their prayerfulness, and their friendship is much more important to us than anything else.
 
It may be that the cost of parking may also affect our Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows which begins next Wednesday, 7th September, and runs until the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on Thursday 15th September. There was a time when, in preparation for the Novena, we would look to Passionists in Ireland or England, sometimes even further afield, to come and preach for the nine days. Alas, those days seem to have gone. The Passionists in England are unable to maintain their ministries and that is why Father Antony has gone to Minsteracres, or else it would have had to close. In every Passionist house in Ireland, we are stretched to the limit because of our diminishment in regard to the numbers, age and health of our members. A main theme of last Chapter was how to manage our diminishment. So, our Novena is much simpler now, and the focus is very much on prayer and petition, adoration and reconciliation, uniting our sorrows to Mary’s sorrows, feeling close to her, and drawing comfort from knowing that she will understand, and that she will be praying for us in the presence of her Son, and praying with us in the moments of quiet adoration. It will still be a blessed time.

So, as always, protect yourselves, protect your loved ones, and protect Christ in your lives
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    FATHER FRANK KEEVINS C.P.

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