{"id":396,"date":"2016-02-11T14:56:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T19:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/?p=396"},"modified":"2016-02-11T14:56:14","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T19:56:14","slug":"a-priests-holy-card-from-his-ordination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/a-priests-holy-card-from-his-ordination\/","title":{"rendered":"A priest’s holy card from his ordination"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaryChild_a\"<\/a> \"MaryChild_b\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This holy card came into my possession through an old Catholic book, I think. \u00a0I forget which book it was, but I always thought this was a pretty card. \u00a0The cross was a little plain for my tastes, but I appreciated the Marian theme (Fiat, Magnificat, Stabat).<\/p>\n

Up until today, I hadn’t known anything about this priest, but I ended up doing a Google search for him. \u00a0I stumbled across this hilarious anecdote from him<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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It was my first celebration of First Communion.\u00a0 Pentecost Sunday, 1961.\u00a0 At Communion time, I piously processed to the west end of the Communion rail but, upon my arrival there, found the first two children kneeling well beyond the votive stands.\u00a0 What to do?\u00a0 Certainly don\u2019t disturb the already trembling children.\u00a0 I have a ciborium in one hand.\u00a0 Can I lift the votive stand with the other?\u00a0 I doubt it.\u00a0 And, anyway, I don\u2019t want to create a scene (famous last words!).<\/p>\n

So I carefully leaned over the votive rack and gave First Communion to the first few boys.\u00a0 As I continued on to the fourth or fifth child, a commotion caught my attention.\u00a0 There was Sister Pauline charging down the side aisle behind the communicants like a raging bull, hissing a stage whisper in her Irish brogue:\u00a0 \u201cFaaaather!\u00a0 Yeeer on Fiiire.\u201d\u00a0 With those fateful words, she tripped on the step at the head of the aisle, and fell flat on her face.\u00a0 Meanwhile, I am nonchalantly glancing over my shoulder at flames licking at my earlobe, and I utter the understatement of the decade:\u00a0 \u201cOh!?\u201d\u00a0 The children all continue to kneel piously in their places.<\/p>\n

Before I can utter another \u201coh\u201d, a man in the congregation \u2013 evidently with great athletic ability \u2013 bounded over the prostrate Sister Pauline, vaulted over the rail\u00a0\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 and the children\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 and started beating me up!\u00a0 So, I\u2019m standing before the mesmerized sixth First Communicant, holding the ciborium in my right hand while giving my back to this stranger who is pummeling me with his hands and arms.<\/p>\n

When he finished, we nodded to each other!\u00a0 He went away and I continued with the First Communion children.\u00a0 Some in the back of the church had not seen the fire.\u00a0 All they saw was this man beating up the celebrant. I often wondered why no one budged!<\/p>\n

After distributing Communion to the children and the rest of the congregation, I finally turned around to go back to the altar.\u00a0 The gasps were audible!\u00a0 I, of course, could not see, but the congregation now could.\u00a0 The vestment was hanging in tatters down my back, the alb was torn through as was the cassock.\u00a0 The undershirt was singed.<\/p>\n

So, I have always remembered my First Communion celebration at St. Francis.\u00a0 It was so liturgically correct!\u00a0 Pentecost Sunday \u2013 the coming of the Spirit in tongues of fire!\u00a0 The perfectly trained children, never moving a muscle, while this unrehearsed side-show took place around them.\u00a0 Unfortunately, many expected this every time they came to Communion thereafter, but I was unable to oblige.\u00a0 I was just grateful that Father Daly did not ask me to pay for the vestments.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0And this is his bio from his former parish<\/a>, to which he was assigned from 1979 until his retirement in 2001:<\/div>\n
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Father Charles E. Maher was born in Connecticut and attended St. Pius Elementary School<\/strong><\/a>, LaSalle Academy<\/strong> <\/a>and Providence College<\/strong><\/a>. He graduated from Our Lady of Providence College Seminary in Warwick before completing his seminary studies at the American College, Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Father was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop McVinney on June 4, 1960 in the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in Providence.\u00a0 He served as assistant pastor at St. Francis de Sales, Wakefield; St. Benedict, Warwick; Cathedral of SS. Peter & Paul, Providence; St. Sebastian, Providence; and Our Lady of Mercy, East Greenwich.\u00a0 Father Maher was pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Providence from 1979 until his retirement in 2001.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This holy card came into my possession through an old Catholic book, I think. \u00a0I forget which book it was, but I always thought this was a pretty card. \u00a0The cross was a little plain for my tastes, but I appreciated the Marian theme (Fiat, Magnificat, Stabat). Up until today, I hadn’t known anything about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[6,18,32,34,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic","category-culture","category-devotions","category-holycards","category-lent"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6hA2G-6o","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":398,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}