Fr Martin’s Homily from 3rd September 23

Some twenty two years ago, an assistant priest, packed his boxes to leave from here to become the chaplain at the University of Essex. He had only been an assistant at Our Lady of Lourdes for a year but it had left a deep impression on him. He had learnt so much from his parish priest, Fr Pat Sammon, and from the people of the parish. As the curate was leaving, Fr Pat gave him a spare bed to take with him saying “you’ll need this to lay your head on.”

That assistant was me and never did I think that I would return to Our Lady of Lourdes as its parish priest. But God’s plans for us are often surprising and very different to those we might manufacture for ourselves. But what is clear, it is Christ who has brought me here, not a removal van. His plan, not mine.

And it is an honour to re-join your wonderful community of faith. Some of you may be able to retrieve a vague memory of me from my brief time here, others of you will have no idea who I am. But just as I am not the same person I was twenty odd years ago (these grey hairs are evidence of that), so you will have changed, matured, developed, collected a few battle scars along the way as individuals and, indeed, as a community.

I said that I remember this as a wonderful community of faith. This recollection is not to flatter you but just to acknowledge a truth: across the Diocese and beyond Our Lady of Lourdes has long been considered a flagship parish not simply because of the numbers of people who have gathered here to worship God but also because of the quality of their faith, if one  might dare to speak in such crude terms. Men and women, a pilgrim people, who have a real love for Jesus and His Church, a boldness about proclaiming God’s kingdom; heralds of God’s truth; disciples of Christ.

These were the hallmarks of this parish. I sense already that those hallmarks are still in evidence.

More than ever, we need communities of faith and hope, communities that declare aloud that God is steadfast: that He is our rock and our shield. He is love. We need men and women who by their lives proclaim that love’s victory has been won for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. A community that says life is worthwhile; that justice is worth striving for; that beauty, truth and goodness are what make us truly alive.

That community is not some religious fantasy. With the Holy Spirit, the Lord the giver of life, that idea of what we are able to become takes flesh. That community sits in front of me.

But I am also aware of the many challenges that your community has faced in recent years and done so with great dignity and resilience. Like all parishes, you experienced Covid and so many of our communities are still suffering from a spiritual long Covid, a loss of many of our brothers and sisters combined with a certain loss of confidence about their purpose and future. At the same time, Fr Pat Sammon became ill and just over a year ago died. Fr Adrian, a newly ordained priest, was left to care for and steer a course for the community during those uncertain and sad times. He did so with great spiritual and pastoral care.

In the 1970’s there were four priests resident here, then three, two and now one and if you are not depressed enough, it gets even worse, you have ended up with me.

But God’s plan, not ours and maybe this is an opportune moment for us to pause and discern God’s will for us, to become more sensitive to the movements of the Holy Spirit, to find our spiritual bearings and to face the future together with great hope and a renewed sense of mission.

I ask for your prayer, your understanding and your help. If I am to be a teacher, I need to be a learner; to learn from your experiences and how God has touched your lives. If I am to be a man of prayer, I need to be surrounded by your prayer. If I am to take up my Cross and follow the Lord, I invite you to help me to shoulder any trials and challenges we will face together. If I am to be a witness to hope, I need your witness to sustain and strengthen me.

I put before you today a single appeal. Listen to the call of the Holy Spirit. We must grow in trust of God and not fall into the trap of thinking that it all depends on “me”. It doesn’t. It cannot. But together, Our Lady of Lourdes will flourish again as a refuge of prayer and hope for those who are lost, bruised and hurting; a sanctuary of praise for those who wish to give thanks to God.

By the way, I still have and use the bed. I do have somewhere to lay my head. I feel very blessed and humbled to be back.

Fr Martin Boland, 3rd September 2023