FATHER FRANK’S LOG: 3rd – 10th MARCH 2024
I was listening to reports on the radio about how disappointing the Willy Wonka Experience was at some industrial location at Whiteinch in Glasgow recently. It was billed as a celebration of chocolate in all its delightful forms, which sounded right up my street, if only it weren’t Lent, but apparently most families who turned up, expecting a wonderful and spectacular experience for their children, were left furious at what turned out to be a damp squib, and the event being cancelled. Earlier this week, in the 1st reading at Mass, we listened to the story of Naaman the leper, and he had a bit of a damp squib experience as well. To cut a long story short, he was sent to the Prophet Elisha for a cure for his leprosy. Having exhausted all other attempts at a cure, he expected that the prophet would do something spectacular and ask him to do something really difficult to bring about a healing. Instead, Elisha never even bothered to come out to look at his skin, he just sent out a message to go and bathe in the river. Disillusioned and disappointed, Naaman wasn’t even going to bother, but he gave way to the encouragement of others, bathed in the river, and was cured. So, that got me to thinking about a few of my own damp squib experiences.
The most recent was in the last couple of weeks and, in a sense, was my own personal Naaman experience. For a few days I had felt as if I had something in my eye, like a bit of grit, or an eyelash, but I couldn’t actually see anything. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, and was finding it difficult to sleep, I went along to a pharmacist in town. He would be my Elisha. When I told him the problem, he just said “there’s nothing I can do, it will be fine, it will sort itself out”. I said “well, what about an eye wash, would you recommend anything”. He replied “you can try one if you want, there are lots of them on the shelves”. So, without a great deal of sincerity, I thanked him, pretty disappointed, like Naaman, that he hadn’t even had a look at my eye. On the shelves there was an extraordinary and confusing array of eye washes, for all kinds of eye problems, and I just opted for one that looked as if it connected to my issue, and started using it. For over a week I didn’t think it was doing any good but then, just a couple of days ago, I awoke to find my eye clear. Probably it would have cleared without the eye wash, and the pharmacist, like Elisha, was right, and I had to eat humble pie.
When I joined the Passionists in 1975, I was looking forward to entering into an intense and wonderful spiritual journey. However, a few weeks before I was due to travel, I had a letter from the priest who was to be our formation director for that postulancy year. The main instruction in the letter was that I was to bring a pair of wellies and some gardening clothes. The beginning of my postulancy year introduced me more to gardening, doing the sacristy laundry, cleaning the toilets, and other such tasks, than it did to leading me into the mansions of contemplative prayer, so, in a way, that was a bit of a damp squib as well. However, as it says in the Rule of St Benedict, with regard to daily manual labour: “Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore, the brethren should be occupied at certain times in manual labour”.
When I made my 30-day Ignatian Retreat back in 1987, I was looking forward to the celebration of the Sacred Triduum towards the end of it. Surely this was going to be the most intense and inspiring experience of the Easter Mysteries of all time. When it came to it, however, the ceremonies were very, very low key and, even at the Easter Vigil, having had some difficulty preparing the fire on a wet and blustery Holy Saturday night, the celebrant ended up lighting the paschal candle using a Zippo cigarette lighter. What a damp squib that was! At the end of the day, as I have come to learn more and more, we don’t need the extraordinary, the spectacular, and the wonderful, to experience God. God is in the simple, ordinary, everyday-ness of life. As St Ignatius would say – God is in all things. Amen to that.
As ever, protect yourself, your loved ones and others, and protect Christ in your lives.
I was listening to reports on the radio about how disappointing the Willy Wonka Experience was at some industrial location at Whiteinch in Glasgow recently. It was billed as a celebration of chocolate in all its delightful forms, which sounded right up my street, if only it weren’t Lent, but apparently most families who turned up, expecting a wonderful and spectacular experience for their children, were left furious at what turned out to be a damp squib, and the event being cancelled. Earlier this week, in the 1st reading at Mass, we listened to the story of Naaman the leper, and he had a bit of a damp squib experience as well. To cut a long story short, he was sent to the Prophet Elisha for a cure for his leprosy. Having exhausted all other attempts at a cure, he expected that the prophet would do something spectacular and ask him to do something really difficult to bring about a healing. Instead, Elisha never even bothered to come out to look at his skin, he just sent out a message to go and bathe in the river. Disillusioned and disappointed, Naaman wasn’t even going to bother, but he gave way to the encouragement of others, bathed in the river, and was cured. So, that got me to thinking about a few of my own damp squib experiences.
The most recent was in the last couple of weeks and, in a sense, was my own personal Naaman experience. For a few days I had felt as if I had something in my eye, like a bit of grit, or an eyelash, but I couldn’t actually see anything. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, and was finding it difficult to sleep, I went along to a pharmacist in town. He would be my Elisha. When I told him the problem, he just said “there’s nothing I can do, it will be fine, it will sort itself out”. I said “well, what about an eye wash, would you recommend anything”. He replied “you can try one if you want, there are lots of them on the shelves”. So, without a great deal of sincerity, I thanked him, pretty disappointed, like Naaman, that he hadn’t even had a look at my eye. On the shelves there was an extraordinary and confusing array of eye washes, for all kinds of eye problems, and I just opted for one that looked as if it connected to my issue, and started using it. For over a week I didn’t think it was doing any good but then, just a couple of days ago, I awoke to find my eye clear. Probably it would have cleared without the eye wash, and the pharmacist, like Elisha, was right, and I had to eat humble pie.
When I joined the Passionists in 1975, I was looking forward to entering into an intense and wonderful spiritual journey. However, a few weeks before I was due to travel, I had a letter from the priest who was to be our formation director for that postulancy year. The main instruction in the letter was that I was to bring a pair of wellies and some gardening clothes. The beginning of my postulancy year introduced me more to gardening, doing the sacristy laundry, cleaning the toilets, and other such tasks, than it did to leading me into the mansions of contemplative prayer, so, in a way, that was a bit of a damp squib as well. However, as it says in the Rule of St Benedict, with regard to daily manual labour: “Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore, the brethren should be occupied at certain times in manual labour”.
When I made my 30-day Ignatian Retreat back in 1987, I was looking forward to the celebration of the Sacred Triduum towards the end of it. Surely this was going to be the most intense and inspiring experience of the Easter Mysteries of all time. When it came to it, however, the ceremonies were very, very low key and, even at the Easter Vigil, having had some difficulty preparing the fire on a wet and blustery Holy Saturday night, the celebrant ended up lighting the paschal candle using a Zippo cigarette lighter. What a damp squib that was! At the end of the day, as I have come to learn more and more, we don’t need the extraordinary, the spectacular, and the wonderful, to experience God. God is in the simple, ordinary, everyday-ness of life. As St Ignatius would say – God is in all things. Amen to that.
As ever, protect yourself, your loved ones and others, and protect Christ in your lives.
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