The Heelers Diaries

the fantasy world of ireland's greatest living poet

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Location: Kilcullen (Phone 087 7790766), County Kildare, Ireland

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

ghosts

Evening at the Chateau de Healy.
Watching the ultimate proof that God has a sense of humour, ie the Catholic channel EWTN.
The Dad and Paddy Pup are also present.
We are watching Father Benedict Groschel.
Father Gro is one of the station's superstars.
It's hard to describe him.
He's seventy years old, craggy enough, a bit wizened, occasionally impatient, thoroughly good humoured.
Not your standard TV presenter.
The quality that makes him stand out is a quality he shares with EWTN's other improbable superstar Mother Angelica, whom I have occasionally, and wrongly, styled The Insane Nun.
The quality of the genuine.
Let me be serious for a moment.
The quality of the genuine which you find on EWTN (much maligned and misunderstood though it may be) is like fresh air compared to the cynicism, negativity, and rampant exploitationism that one finds on most other television stations.
When Father Gro or Mother Angelica say something you have the strangest intuition that they are speaking from the heart.
The simplicity of Mother Angelica and the intellectualism of Father Gro carry an equal profundity.
Their words strike home.
No really.
And as we join tonight's programme, Father Gro is sharing a wry reminiscence.
He seems to look directly at the viewer.
He says: "People are always telling me: Father, Catholic teaching regarding abstinence from sex outside of the married state is so difficult. I say to them: Tell me about it. I've been a friar for fifty years."
Well bold readers.
This was quite the funniest thing I've heard in ages.
You'd have to see the way he did it to get the full richness of his sense of humour.
The programme continued with an email from a viewer being read out live on air.
The email was asking for advice on Catholic attitudes regarding the existence of ghosts.
Father Gro's craggy facial expression deepend into a sort of whimsical roguishness.
"Look," he said. "We Catholics tend to think about ghosts in the sense that they shouldn't be here. They should be in heaven, or maybe in purgatory, or God forbid, in hell. But there's so much anecdotal evidence, one has to be cautious about coming to any conclusions. Our order of monks runs a home for boys in New York city. We opened the home in 1968 after taking over a building no one else wanted. The building was in an area that wasn't really considered safe. We were told though that the reason it had remained unused for years was because it was haunted. So we took it over. Then the boys came to me and said: Father there's someone walking around upstairs every night and he keeps turning out the lights but when we go to look, there's no one there. So this went on for a while. Finally we said a mass for the ghost. We even gave him a name. We called him McGuinness. We told him: Hey, you're welcome to stay as long as you don't harm anyone, and maybe if there's a break in, you might chase away the burglars. We've been running that home for boys for forty years. We've never had a break in. I don't know if it's McGuinness chasing them away. I just keep an open mind."
The Dad was most enthused by Father Gro's anecdote.
It prompted him to share some reminiscences of his own about the paranormal.
I'm going to print the Dad's accounts verbatim without comment.
At least I'm going to try.
"Your Grand Aunt Margaret," he told me, " was a nun. Her name in religion was Sister Mary Anthony. She was supposed to be a bit psychic. I can remember at least three experiences she was supposed to have had. Once in France as a young nun, she got lost. There was a lot of anti clericalism in France at the time and the streets weren't safe. She met another nun, whom she didn't recognise, and the newcomer guided her through the streets of Paris to the convent. The unknown nun left her at the gate. When your Grand Aunt got inside the convent she saw a picture of the one who had guided her there. It was Saint Therese of Lisieux who was of course deceased."
Ah yes gentle travellers of the internet.
Of all the Saints in heaven Saint Therese is most likely to be the one who makes personal appearances in stories like this.
I happen to know that Randall O'Sullivan of Rolling Stone magazine claims to have received similar personal assistance from a nun who resembled Saint Therese of Lisieux on the mountainside at Medjugorje.
Apparently Saint Therese gets around.
Anyhoo.
The Dad's anecdotage continued.
"Your Grand Aunt was my mother's sister. She used to write home to us regularly when she was stationed at the orphanage in West Grinstead. I still have one of her letters in which she describes an apparition of the Virgin Mary which she says she witnessed at the convent. That part of England would have seen a lot of Catholics martyred for the faith during the Reformation. It would be holy ground."
Paddy Pup and me both tried to keep straight faces.
"You don't believe that?" said the Dad. "Okay, how about this. While Sister Mary Anthony was at the orphanage in England, her father Thomas Mahon died. He was your Great Grandfather by the way. He was a tall man with a great bushy white beard. We sent a telegram to Sister Mary Anthony to let her know. She wrote back to say she'd known already, and that her late father had visited her himself to tell her he had passed on. Not only that, she told us one of the children had come to her the next day and said: Sister I'm going to tell the Mother Superior on you, because I saw Santa Claus coming out of your room last night..."
Well bold readers.
My noble friends.
My gentle voyagers of the blogosphere.
A few paragraphs ago, I promised to print the Dad's words without comment.
I have not been entirely successful.
Occasionally a comment or two may have slipped out.
I shall not comment on the final story though.
Not now.
Not ever.
Santa Claus indeed.

4 Comments:

Blogger Schneewittchen said...

Yer a terrible, terrible man Lord Heelers, six Hail Marys for you and no supper.

3:26 AM  
Blogger heelers said...

You should try it Schnee.
James

3:47 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Although I have kept a Blog dedicated to my friend Nelda for the last several years. I have never received a comment from anyone outside of her family. Thank you for reading Nelda's story, and your prayers for her are sincerely appreciated. It is also quite a unique feeling to be communicating with someone half a world away. Your writing captured my attention. It is beautiful, and your faith in our loving Lord is comforting. I then could not believe my eyes when I saw an entry referencing EWTN and Father Gro (as you put it). At first glance, I thought you were indicating a distaste for EWTN and I hesitated to read further. It was as though I did not want to muddy the image created by your masterful pen. Obviously, I did continue and to my amazement your thoughts and impressions of that network mirrored my own. Mother Angelica has seen me through many nights when I "walked through the valley of the shadow of death", and , like you, I get a kick out of Father Gro's humor. I am also an avid fan of Father Corapi. He lays it on the line and often that is just what I need. That network has also been a blessing to my Mother who has battled Alzheimer's Disease for the last 12 years. She is now on a feeding tube. Yesterday was her 73rd birthday, and I bought her gifts that would typically be for an infant child because those are the few things that bring a semblance of comfort and peace to her, still beautiful, face. Back to the subject...EWTN has brought the Holy Mass into Mom's life every day, in addition to the Holy Rosary, and the Divine Mercy Chaplet Recitation. Mother Angelica had faith in Divine Providence, and because of this unwavering faith, God's Word is truly being spread to the ends of the earth. It is late, and a good night's sleep is calling. Again, thank you for sharing in our journey to see the world "Through Nelda's Sight". Ireland sounds like a beautiful place. My ancestry is Irish, English, Scotch, a tiny bit Indian, and an even smaller bit German. I hope one day to see the lands of my ancestors. God Bless you today and always.

Sincerely,
Robyn
from CC,TX. USA

7:16 AM  
Blogger heelers said...

Good morning Robyn.
You've taken my comments about EWTN in the right spirit!
The channel is like a fresh of breath air in Ireland and Britain where we haven't had Christian programming for over thirty years.
In all truth there hasn't really been a television network since the advent of the medium that acted with conscience, discernment and concern for its viewers.
For the past three decades, whatever the reason, the televisual medium generally seems to have been effectively highjacked by people who had swallowed every atheistic shibboleth of our misguided age.
I do make fun of the fact that compared to the other "slicker" television stations, it looks like a miracle EWTN is on the air at all. But I am fascinated by the fact that EWTN's sincerity and advocacy of truth, the quality of the genuine as I call it, is what lifts this particular station above all the rest of the big budget pornographers.
The presenters on EWTN are sincere.
And they're sincerely trying to do some good.
After thirty years of falsehood, violence, porno, and all that dross on the mainstream channels throughout the free world, after thirty years of it, some of us can barely believe our eyes when we switch on EWTN.
Good call too Robyn, on Father Corapi.
He's one of the good guys!
Robyn I will continue to pray before the divine mercy for Nelda each evening.
You say a prayer sometime for me too!
Peace.
James

7:10 PM  

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