My final post of 2009 is a day earlier than my usual Wednesday posting day. I think you will see why as you read it. It was written for Priests in Crisis. I think it is the most important post of the year.
Please click this link to find Dark Night of a Priestly Soul on Priests in Crisis.
As we prepare to begin a new year, I will offer Mass on the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God for the readers of These Stone Walls. Thank you for your presence here, your support and encouragement, and most especially for the gift of your prayers and prayerful witness.
May the Lord bless you and keep you in 2010.
Fr. Gordon J. MacRae
Editor’s Note: Several of you have expressed a desire to join Fr. MacRae in a Spiritual Communion. He celebrates a private Mass in his prison cell on Sunday evenings between 11 pm and midnight. You’re invited to join in a Holy Hour during that time if you’re able.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Father Mac,
You are in my prayers. May GOD’S Holy Will be done. Thank you for your Priesthood and your continued reaching out for souls for GOD. You are giving “all ” in order to follow Christ.
With Saint Faustina we can all declare; JESUS I trust in You.
Jim
I am sending the following note and the link to the Dark Night of a Priestly Soul, to many people on my email list, to publishers, authors, priests and relatives. If any of you want to copy my note and add the link to Father’s article and send it to those that you know, you have my permission. This article is important to read for priests and laity alike. Sharon
“It’s a New Year! Time to consider making changes in my life. I already know from New Years past, that distractions and busyness can “undo” my new decisions and new goals. Patterns of thinking and living sure seem “immune” to serious ongoing change. But there have been occasions when my habits and thoughts have taken a dramatic turn with little effort at all because of a strong inspiration that has come my way. This has usually been through prayer, or through something I have heard or read. When the word of God enters the soul like lightning, it tends to penetrate past the normal barriers of entrenched beliefs in our deeper self. We see things in a “new” way, we extend mercy and understanding without effort and our commitment to love God and our neighbor has a new zest. Below is such an article that has affected me deeply in the way I just described. It was posted just as this New Year was beginning, December 29, 2009. I share it with you. Happy New Year. ” Sharon
Please click this link to find Dark Night of a Priestly Soul on Priests in Crisis.
Father Gordon:
My prayers are for you as we begin this New Year on the beautiful feast of Mary, the Mother of God.
I just completed a family dinner and New Year’s celebration with 20 members of my immediate family. Dad is newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, as was my aunt recently. In my chapel tonight I looked at the Cross and contemplated the terrible suffering of husbands and wives who lose their spouses to this terrible disease, and looking at Jesus on the Cross seemed to help.
As you endure your suffering, I believe that you are on the Cross with Jesus, and that He will use your suffering for the sanctification of others, hopefully for priests.
God bless you, Father
Fr. Gordon,
Your writings are so very poignant and touching. My heart aches for you and for all our priests who despaired and lost hope.
I wish I could do much more for you. Yes, I pray and offer up little sacrifices and visit the Blessed Sacrament, but I wish I could do something more. I have written to newspapers before and responded to unfair reports about priests and bishops. I have been personally thanked by other laity for doing so.
I think that we as laity have a great challenge before us now. We must stand up, call, write, organize and get after defending our priests and their rights. Who else will do this? We cannot stand silently by and watch Christ crucified again and again without speaking up for Him and His priests.
I pray God will give me courage to do more than I have. I pray I will take this challenge seriously and do all that I can to make this injustice known. Please keep praying for us Father. You need us, and we need you.
Thank you again Fr. Gordon for your posts and for your ministry. I pray for you daily, and I hope that someday you will be exonerated and once again live your vocation in freedom. And I will pray for dear Fr. Lower and all priests who lost hope and took their lives. I cannot imagine their despair, but our loving heavenly Father understands and loves them. God bless you.
A blessed Christmas season and new year to you Father.
My dear brother Priest, Father Gordon, first thank-you for the personal note and especially thank-you for witnessing so powerfully to everyone, in particular suffering priests.
May Our Lady of Hope be with you now and throughout the coming year, and may She remind you of the countless souls you help with your life of witness and prayer.
Fr. Joseph
Dear FR Gordon,
I send you Christmas greetings, may the New Year bring you Peace. You were placed at the crech scene at the mass for Christmas. May the little infant Jesus give you a song for your heart. After reading your blog I was very aware at table how blessed we are to be able to celebrate and eat and drink and how unaware we are of those who suffer from no food or drink. You have opened my eyes and I hope to do something for God. Thank you for this blessing, Denise
PS Happy New Year Father
Dear Father MacRae,
A very moving and enlightening account of the plight that awaits anyone who is unfortunate enough to find themselves in this type of situation rightly or wrongly.
Maybe it is time for the Church to take an active role in providing lodging and essentials for priests who find themselves in similar circumstances, especially while they await the outcome of any accusations.
People have been know to do many things that are wrong to accomplish goods or money. So it is not surprising that people can justify taking away a good person’s name and welfare. Some people have claimed to be abused by brothers or priests in institutions that are Catholic and where they did not even attend.
We need to pray more and get back to the practice of Holy Hours.
Sincerely,
rdennis
Dear Father:
What a tragic story about Father Lower! What can we do to help the priests, other than prayers?
God bless,
Esther
Dear Father Gordon- oh, how my heart goes out to you and to Fr. Lower and to all priests falsely accused… and to think any good priest might be accused, at any moment, with no rights… it makes my heart sick. It can make one lose all hope-
But I know Mary is here watching over all her sons- her Son knows exactly what each priest is going through- and that there are people seeking justice for you and for all priests.
I can only hope the coming year brings hope with it…
All my prayers, Fr.- and I remember you at every Sacrifice of the Mass.
Fr. McRae,
I thank you for sharing this tragic story with so much heartfelt love and compassion. I recently attended a funeral for my friend’s husband who committed suicide. So many people were saying that he was extremely selfish to take his own life and leave his wife and children. I only saw a man who was in tremendous agony and would do anything to stop the pain. It was so sad!
I pray daily for all priests. I thank you for the courage to write this blog and to continue to serve the Lord in prison. You are a blessing to so many.
Dear Father,
This may be one of the most heart wrenching stories I have ever heard, but unfortunately I know there are other similar stories related to this witch hunt that I really blame the media for. They have created a sense of fear and hysteria.
That being said, I am sorry for the loss of your friend and a good priest. Thank you for posting this article; it is a story that all Catholics need to hear. I think what the laity need to realize is that as priests you are all on the front lines of this battle with the devil. Satan knows if he can get rid of the priests, there is no Eucharist, no Eucharist~well I don’t even want to think about that!
I will include the repose of Fr. Lower’s soul in my prayers; I can’t even begin to imagine the despair and anguish he felt.
My prayers for you continue as well.
May 2010 bring you many blessings!
Dear Father,
Know that you are prayed for daily, in my Rosary and in my immediate prayers. Your earthly mother seems to insist upon it! I think she is getting our Lady to act on your behalf Father. That’s what she is doing in heaven, and it shouldbe no surprise to you, of course she would be concerned for you, as your mother. Just wanted to let you know, I have heard her request for prayers for you.
Dear Father Gordon,
I knew Father William Rosensteel. He was a friend of mine. When I would go up in the U.S. for mission appeals, I would never miss a meal at his house. I followed the issue closely as we have a few mutual friends. It was so so sad… And, furthermore, the accusation was withdrawn. But he jumped off the bridge before finding out. What as sad story.
Thank you for your courage in writing your article. It is important for the life of the Church. Yes, there are terrible things that have happened. The scandals in the Church of Ireland are terrible. However, we often never hear about the other side of the coin, of those who are slaughtered lambs to appease the angry crowds.
You are, as always, in my prayers.
Dear Fr Gordon
What a dreadful story, Father. How very sad that as a priest you are a sitting target when you can be accused and convicted without evidence.
I have heard before from my American cousins that America adopts a ‘guilty until proven innocent’ law which is an absolutely terrifying thought. I truely believe the law is an ass. I will pray for Fr Richard, along with my continued prayers for you Fr Gordon.
may 2010 bring you new hope, peace and freedom
love and blessings
Jan
There are approximately 7,000 priests in the United States who have been accused; anywhere between 64 and 89 currently serving 5 years or more. Of those accused, 28-29 have committed suicide, mostly all before even going to trial (either Canonical or Civil/Criminal).
One has to wonder if the assumed guilt on the part of the Church authorities, coupled with the public perception, isn’t the deepest reason for the “hopelessness”. A psychologist friend who has treated over 50 accused priests in my section of the country, told a group recently that from his observation, better than 60% of those accused, suffer clinical depression within the first month of the accusation and that even with treatment for the depression, 45% of them manifest the same level of the depression upward to 10 years later.
This man has been treating priests accussed as far back as the late 1970’s! The lesson from St. Paul: “We are members of the same Body — if one member suffers the entire body suffers…” has been abandoned by the Teachers et al! May God have mercy on our souls.
Dear Father Gordon,
We must defend our shepherds. Help us Mother of God to protect our priests. As I prepare to go to a funeral tomorrow for a young veteran who took his own life. I can only surrender and trust. I beg for Divine Mercy for all of us.
Jesus I Trust in You!!!
God Bless you Father Gordon, please pray for us sinners.
Daer father,
In this Year of the Priest your post published on the Priests in Crisis is needed. It is unjust, shameful and totally unChristian that so many priests have been abandoned and shunned.
Knowing God’s merciful and loving heart I have no doubt that Father Lower’s low ebb and deep despair and sadness would be understood by our Compassionate God and that in his last seconds of living he was able to sob out his pain in the loving comforting embrace of God the Father.
It is the innocent whose suffering is closest to Christ’s suffering.Jesus knows the hearts and minds driven to despair by the lack of charity and justice of their fellow sinners. Any person falsely accused and convicted is walking with Jesus carrying His cross.
In the world’s eyes they are despised but in Christ’s eyes they are beloved and He alone knows the pain of this cross and Mary His mother knows the pain and anguish felt by friends and relatives of the falsely accused.
I hope in this special Year of the priest every lay Catholic will make a special effort to pray for all priests.