The Season of Advent

Advent presents a rare and precious opportunity. Prioritising ‘unproductive’ time and allowing space for personal and communal spiritual encounters inspire the contemplative stance borne of prayerful waiting. It is a time to reset our inner compass and to seek clear direction. The four candles of the Advent Wreath are personal reminders to each of us to question, to consider and to discern: What do I hope for? What do I love? In what do I find joy? In what do I find peace?

The Season of Advent (.pdf)

The Passionists arrive 21 November 1887

The first Passionists from the Anglo Hibernian Province arrived in Australia on 21st November 1887.

They were  Father Alphonsus O’Neill, C.P., Father Marcellus Wright, C.P., Father Patrick Fagan, C.P., Father Colman Noonan, C.P. and Brother Lawrence Carr, C.P.

Father Marcellus Wright, C.P.

Father Marcellus was a business man when he joined the Passionists at the age of twenty two. When he arrived in Australia he was five years a priest. After ordination, he spent twelve months in the Paris House at Avenue Hoche. Here the English Irish Passionists had served the English-speaking people of Paris since 1863.

After that, he had gone to live at St. Mungo’s in Glasgow. His ministry was taken up with the giving of parish missions and his preaching was described as “all fire and earnestness.”

In the course of his years in Australia, Fr. Marcellus was superior at New Town in Tasmania and at St. Brigid’s, Marrickville and he was the first Novice Master when the Novitiate was established at Mary’s Mount in Goulburn, New South Wales.

21 November Feast of the Presentation of Mary

Passionist Saint Vincent Mary Strambi gives this account of the devotion of St. Paul of the Cross to the Presentation of Mary:

He prepared himself for the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the temple… by a fervent novena.  He desired that the religious community of the Retreat of Monte Argentario, whose church is dedicated under the title of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, would make this novena with him, using the following ritual: After the Blessed Sacrament had been exposed for adoration and the appropriate prayers had been said, Psalm 65, Cry out with joy to God, all the earth, O sing to the glory of his name, was to be sung.  In this psalm Paul recognised the way in which God had led him.  The psalm also reminded him of the exceptional graces he had obtained through the Blessed Virgin, who had always helped and protected him….  On the day of the feast, he seemed to be totally penetrated by a spirit of tender devotion.  Even on his deathbed, he recalled: “The day of the Presentation was always a most holy and solemn day for me.”

Homily on the Feast of the Presentation   here

St. Paul of the Cross and the Feast of the Presentation  here

The Feast of the Presentation and the Passionists  here

The Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary  here

Feast of Blessed Grimoaldo Santamaria

Today 18 November 2019 we celebrate the feast of another Passionist – Blessed Grimoaldo Santamaria, C.P.

He was born on 4th May 1893 in Pontecorvo Italy, the eldest of five children. He was professed a Passionists at 17 years of age on 6th March 1900. He began his preparation for Ordination at the Passionist Community in Ceccano, Italy.

Barely two years after his profession he was stricken with acute meningitis. He died on 18th November 1902. He was only 19 years of age.

Read more about Blessed Grimoaldo C.P.   here

Read about a miracle attributed to his intercession   here

Talk to God – Letter of Bishop Eugene Bossilkov

A Pastoral Letter of Bishop Eugene Bossilkov, C.P., on Prayer – 11 February 1952

Read here – Talk to God – Bishop Eugene Bossilkov C.P.