PassionistsGlasgow
  • Welcome To Saint Mungo's
  • Parish Newsletter
  • Parish Office / Visiting Saint Mungo's
  • Passionists Young Team
  • Universalis Mass Readings for Today
  • Website Links
  • St.Paul of the Cross
  • St. Paul of the Cross for Children
  • St.Charles of Mount Argus
  • St Mungo Patron Saint of Glasgow
  • St. Mungo's Parish
  • Safeguarding (Updated Oct 24)
  • Photo Album
  • Archdiocese Privacy Notice
  • Father Franks Log
  • Fr Justinian CP (RIP)
  • Synodal Path
  • Pope Francis
  • Welcome To Saint Mungo's
  • Parish Newsletter
  • Parish Office / Visiting Saint Mungo's
  • Passionists Young Team
  • Universalis Mass Readings for Today
  • Website Links
  • St.Paul of the Cross
  • St. Paul of the Cross for Children
  • St.Charles of Mount Argus
  • St Mungo Patron Saint of Glasgow
  • St. Mungo's Parish
  • Safeguarding (Updated Oct 24)
  • Photo Album
  • Archdiocese Privacy Notice
  • Father Franks Log
  • Fr Justinian CP (RIP)
  • Synodal Path
  • Pope Francis
  PassionistsGlasgow

father frank's log...

30/9/2023

0 Comments

 
FATHER FRANK’S LOG: 24th SEPTEMBER – 1st OCTOBER 2023

I paid a long overdue visit to my older brother last week, the doyen of Scottish sport journalism, as I like to call him, or, Mr Grumpy, alias Victor Meldrew, as his wife, children and grandchildren like to call him, affectionately of course, I hasten to add. It was good to have a catch up on him and on all his family. His youngest daughter, my youngest niece, married with two young children, has just embarked on her third career change. Having started her working life as a nurse, during which she became involved in the HCPT pilgrimages to Lourdes; she then spent a number of years as a flight attendant, or air hostess, as it used to be called. Latterly, she decided to train as a primary school teacher and, having now qualified, she has only just begun her first posting with a Primary 3 class in a local Catholic school. She finds it challenging, but so far, so good. She has a wonderful way with children, so I think she will blossom in the role as time goes by. His other daughter is also a teacher, specialising in autism, having 2 autistic children of her own, although both of them are young adults now. She and her husband are heroes of mine, models of selflessness, sacrifice and dedication. With the help of her father, and his sporting contacts, my neice has also raised extensive funds for autism over the years. However, I discovered during my visit that there is another fundraising effort going on at present, for a different cause. One of my brother’s colleagues in Radio Clyde has a 4-year-old son who has a very serious condition called Neuroblastoma, and they are helping to raise funds for the necessary treatment for both that child, and his little 4-year-old friend, who has the same condition, and who is going through treatment at the same time. So, there is an event soon called “A Pie, a Pint and a Pundit” at the Albion Social Club in Yoker which I hope will raise good funds for a very worthwhile cause. It’s just part of a much bigger fundraising effort, but they are very happy to play their part. I have those two children now firmly on my prayer list.

Not to be outdone, I discovered that, the day after my visit, my brother’s son, the oldest of the three, was travelling up from Brighton, where he now lives with his partner and two children, to take part in a sponsored climb up Ben Lomond to raise funds for the same cause. He has followed his father into journalism, covering a little bit of sport, but a lot of more wide-ranging stuff as well. While his young son is Celtic daft, he is also in the Brighton and Hove Albion Academy, which must be very exciting at present, given how well Brighton are going in the Premiership, and how good is the football they are playing. Could a Keevins play for Celtic someday? We can only dream. As children growing up, my older brother was my protector when we travelled to home games on the tram from Partick to Parkhead. After leaving school he was determined to go into sports journalism, but it wasn’t easy at the time. However, after a short period as a civil servant, working in the local labour exchange, or the “buroo” as it was more often referred to, he finally made the breakthrough with D.C. Thomson and the journey began from there, both in newspapers and on radio, and not just football, but tennis and boxing as well. He was blessed to have a few trips to Wimbledon back in the day but, while he doesn’t cov​er tennis any more, he still has an abiding interest in covering the boxing world. He has now spent more than 50 years in the profession and has many a tale to tell. They are a good family, very close, and very supportive of each other.

Out at Bishopbriggs the focus is more on rugby than on football at present, thanks to Father Gareth’s abiding passion for rugby, and the rugby world cup currently taking place in France. There was great rejoicing in the house this week when Wales hammered Australia. There was rejoicing also that Scotland beat Tonga, but that joy is tempered by the fact that Scotland are unlikely to qualify from a group that contains the world’s number one team, Ireland, and the present world champions, South Africa. Still, you never know!

As ever, protect yourself, your loved ones and others, and protect Christ in your lives.
0 Comments

father frank's log...

23/9/2023

0 Comments

 
FATHER FRANK’S LOG: 17th – 24th SEPTEMBER 2023
​

Father Frank’s Log is back on track after a short break for our annual Novena in honour of Our Lady of Sorrows. As always, it was a time of grace and blessing for those who took part, whether here in the church or, for the first time ever, online. The Novena was bookended by two guest speakers, both called Father Aidan. Father Aidan O’Kane, a classmate of Father Antony, is known affectionately as the baby priest in the province, but only because he is the most recently ordained, just 3 years ago. Father Aidan Troy is a senior priest in the province, a former Provincial and General Consultor, and he will be 53 years ordained come December, so there is a 50-year gap between them in terms of priesthood. Each of them was very different in style and content, but both did a great job, for which we were very grateful.

The day after the novena closed was the Feast of St. Ninian. The gospel for the feast was the sending out of the 72 disciples, in pairs, to proclaim the Good News, the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I had dropped Father Aidan Troy to the airport early in the morning and, as I was gathering thoughts for the lunchtime Mass, I was reminded that when I first joined the Passionists, Father Aidan had, at that time, the title of Director of Missions. This meant that, whenever a parish priest in Ireland, Scotland, or even further afield, wanted to book a parish mission, conducted by the Passionists, they would contact Father Aidan, in those days either by letter or by phone, and make the request. It would then be his task to appoint missioners and send them out, most often in pairs, to proclaim that same Good News that was entrusted to the disciples. Father Aidan would draw up a mission list which was sent around the various houses in the province, and the men would look to see if their name was on the list. If so, where were they going? When were they going? Who were they teamed up with? There was usually a senior missioner and a junior missioner on the team, and it was the junior’s task to bring the mission cross with them, which would then be carried ceremonially into the church at the opening of the mission, and erected on the sanctuary, remaining there for the duration of the mission as a reminder of our core charism – We preach Christ Crucified.

When I was ordained in 1983, I was assigned to be part of an itinerant mission team. I can remember looking at the mission list and seeing my name on it for the first time. I was being sent out like a disciple, firstly to the city of Derry in Northern Ireland, teamed up with Father Germanus McGrinder; then, in the couple of years that followed, to Prestonpans with Father John Craven and Father Brendan McKeever; to Househillwood with Father Paul Francis; but also, with Father John Mary and Father Andrew Kennedy, whose task was to help with confessions, and with the visitation of the sick and housebound; then to Balloch with Father Michael Doogan; also, to Rutherglen with Father Michael Doogan; then to Moodiesburn, again with Father Paul Francis. I remember that during this Moodiesburn Mission, after the evening service, we watched the end of the Scotland v Wales World Cup qualifier on the night that Jock Stein died. The parish priest was a friend of Jock’s and he was devastated to watch this unfold in front of his eyes on the TV. Those were formative times, and many other missions followed before I was moved into a different kind of ministry as a Formation Director and Novice Master. Sadly, this traditional Passionist ministry has diminished greatly now, because of a shortage of priests, but also because of a changing church. We seek new ways in these times, of being faithful to preaching Christ Crucified as a work of infinite love.

It's time now to catch breath after the Novena, and to catch up on all the bits and pieces that were set to one side during it. Father Gareth is at present caught up in freshers’ week at the GCU university and the CGC college; Father John has successfully renewed his visa for another 3 years, and Father Justinian is still the healthiest man in the house.

As ever, protect yourself, your loved ones and others, and protect Christ in your lives.
0 Comments

father frank's log...

9/9/2023

1 Comment

 

FATHER FRANK’S LOG: 10th – 17th SEPTEMBER 2023

As I write the log today, we are getting ready in St. Mungo’s to begin our annual Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows. I would have preferred a few more relaxed days beforehand to get ready, but I had to go to Minsteracres at the beginning of this week for two days of meetings with the interim Passionist Provincial Council of the new, expanded St. Patrick’s Province. That resulted in my being absent when our live streaming service was launched in St. Mungo’s last Monday. Father Gareth was the first to go live at the 10am Mass, and it all seems to have gone smoothly. My first opportunity to welcome people on the world wide web was just yesterday, Wednesday morning. I had hoped to get a haircut beforehand as last Sunday, before Mass, a number of people had sensitively told me that I really needed one. However, I just didn’t find the time, and I celebrated Mass looking like a cross between Albert Einstein and Ken Dodd. Later in the day I did manage to get shorn, and so now I look more like a billiard ball.
​
I got to thinking then, that I could almost recount the story of my earlier life through the various phases of my head and facial hair. When I was growing up in Thurso Street in Partick, there was a man across the road in the same street who seemed to do the barbering for all the children in the area. On a regular basis we would be brought over to his house, settled into a chair with a board across it to raise us up; then, a bowl would be placed on our heads, and everything beneath the bowl was clipped away. I think we had the Beatles style before the Beatles ever had it. By the time I was into my teens we had moved to Drumchapel, and it was now the 60’s. Like most of my contemporaries, I grew my hair as long as I was allowed to grow it while attending St. Mungo’s Academy, and throughout those years I went to an actual barber. On leaving school I grew my hair even longer, and when I began to play in a folk group, I also grew a beard, after all, I had to look the part of a serious folkie. At this time, I was also trying to find work and I was being advised that nobody would give me a job if I continued to look so hirsute. I stubbornly kept my long hair and beard and, in fact, had no problem being accepted for a job, firstly in the Singer Sewing Machine Company in Clydebank, and then in the Olivetti factory in Queenslie. To their credit, my future bosses looked beyond the hair, even though they regularly teased me about it. Later on, I had a variation on my long hair and beard, when I took a notion to shave the beard away, just at the chin. This was the look I sported when I was best man at my brother’s wedding. It looked horrendous, and my sister-in-law delights in producing the photos now and again. Although, as they were both sporting matching perms at the time, they could scarcely talk. When I entered the Passionists, aged 24, my hair was still quite long, and I had a bushy beard. So too did my fellow Scot who joined at the same time, although he has since left. We had matching green quilted anoraks as well, and when we turned up at the Graan in Enniskillen on the 4th of October 1975, our four fellow postulants, all younger than us, three from Ireland and one from Nigeria, looked at us alarmingly, as if they had just been invaded by some marauding Scottish Highland Clan. At some point during that postulancy year, during the season of Lent, I got my haircut and shaved my beard off completely. One of the older members of the community didn’t recognize me at all until about three days later, thinking that I was a new postulant to whom he hadn’t been introduced. Since then, only once did I grow a beard again, and then shaved it off immediately as it looked awful, So, this is how it is since then and now, folically challenged, and just needing a three-and-one now and again, and an eyebrow trim, to keep me looking respectable. Just to say that my best barber ever was Father Antony.

I will take a break from the log next week to focus on the closing days of the Novena.

As ever, protect yourself, your loved ones and others, and protect Christ in your lives.

​
1 Comment

Father Frank's Log...

3/9/2023

2 Comments

 
FATHER FRANK’S LOG: 3rd – 10th SEPTEMBER 2023

I have found myself, this week, lamenting the demise of letter writing. It was sparked off by my relief that, for the daily Masses, the first readings have moved away from a period of long extracts, taken from the earlier books of the Old Testament, from Genesis through to Judges, and have now returned to the Letters of St. Paul. Wonderful though these Old Testament readings are, at 10 o’clock in the morning, with a relatively sparse group of people in the church, and with lots of unpronounceable names in the text, they can be a bit exhausting. St Paul’s letters are much more palatable. Apart from St. Paul, many of the saints were prolific letter writers, e.g., Catherine of Siena, Ignatius of Loyola, and Teresa of Avila. So too was St Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionists. There are about 3,000 of his letters that have survived, and a collection of these, from 1720-1775, the year of his death, have been collected into a 3-volume work, imaginatively entitled “The Letters of St Paul of the Cross”.

In 1992, when I was transferring to Minsteracres in County Durham, I realised that the monastery was only 10 miles from Consett. In the mid to late 1950’s, when my father was made redundant from the Anchor Line shipyard on the Clyde, and after a short spell working on the Clyde Tunnel, which has just celebrated the 60th anniversary of its opening, my father took a job in the steelworks in Consett, which I think at that time was called the Consett Iron Company. It meant that he was away from a Sunday night to a Friday night, living in digs, and we only saw him at weekends. That only lasted about a year, however, as he sadly suffered a heart attack cycling to work one morning, 8th April, 1960, and died almost instantly. It transpired that he had written many letters to my mother during that time, and she still had them all wrapped up in a bundle in a tin box. I didn’t ask if I could read them, they would have been too personal, but, from these letters, I was able to discover the address of his digs and so, shortly after I moved to Minsteracres, and got settled into my work with the North European Passionist Novices, I made my way to Consett, for the very first time, to see where my father had lived, worked and died, during that short period from 1959-1960. The steelworks of course had shut down for good in 1980, by Margaret Thatcher, ironically known as the Iron Lady, and there was precious little for me to see of what they once were. I did, however, find the place where his digs had been, and, close by, there was still the remnant of a working men’s club that he may have frequented, but that was about it.

When my mother died in 2001, and I was doing a bit of a clear out of stuff, I discovered that she had also kept the letters that I had written to her after I joined the Passionists in 1975, and had moved to Enniskillen. We had no access to phones at that time, even though on occasion, during our half-day off on a Saturday, I would surreptitiously find a phone box and call home, having to reverse the charges, because we had precious little money either. So, mostly, I wrote letters. There would be later letters from Dublin, Crossgar and Rome, as I pursued my studies towards priesthood. After ordination, with more opportunity to make phone calls, my letter writing eased off, and only resumed again when I spent a year in South Africa and Botswana in the mid-1990’s. All my letters were there, in her tin box. I had been quite a good letter writer to friends as well in those earlier years, and really looked forward to getting a reply. When I look back on it, my writing then was quite neat and legible. Now, with the proliferation of the internet, email and texting, not to mention all the other social media stuff I don’t use or understand, personal letter writing has become a thing of the past and, if ever I do have to write anything longhand, as, for example, in greetings cards, it’s so scrawly I can’t even read it myself, never mind anyone else. So, as I mentioned at the beginning, I am lamenting the demise of this beautiful art form of letter writing, which I think is a great loss.

As ever, protect yourself, your loved ones and others, and protect Christ in your lives.
​
2 Comments
    Picture

    FATHER FRANK KEEVINS C.P.

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.