EASTER MISSION IN PORTUGAL MARCH 2008

 

Visiting Lisbon for a mission is a great treat. Portugal is a country filled with Catholic history and a land of mystical privileges because it is the birthplace of Saint Anthony of Padua (who is known in Portugal as Saint Anthony of Lisbon), and also because of the powerful and anointed apparition of our Lady of Fatima. That apparition alone produced three saints in the persons of Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia. So many other areas of Christian history involve Portugal.

This time I visited a few parishes in Lisbon where I gave talks on different topics and also visited The Irish prayer house and gave a talk to the English speaking community there.
 

 

The theme of the mission in Portugal was Easter. Preparing to live an Easter liturgical season in a spiritual sense is a task of high discipline. We live a Catholic faith today that has become cold and far from being mystical. These days, it is difficult to get across the faithful with a reflection exhorting them to penetrate the mysteries of Easter. It is also a challenge for a mystical preacher, better to say a great trial of charity, love and compassion. Everything one does is going to be measure on every level spiritually.
 

 

It is very common to see the clergy in plain civilian clothes, be it  priests or  religious. They have become too self-conscious to wear their habit. It is something extremely sad. It brings a sensation of something sacred being thrown away. It gives me the feeling as if I were dealing with Protestants and not with Catholics. This does not necessarily describe their spirituality. I'm sure among those who do not wear their habits are many who are very holy. It is just a tragedy to see them not realizing what they have ignored and left out. It is leaving an area of the priestly and religious mission unguarded. The youth are not inspired with the priesthood vocations and much less with the religious vocations. They do not see much difference between those groups and those of the world. It doesn't mean that their habits are going to make them holier, but there is much more to not wearing the habit than the human eye can see. It is basically a demolishing of sacred tradition for the sake of a vain and artificial modern culture which shapes idiosyncrasies into a plastic, artificial vessel.

 

I went to the city of Beja to preach in the annual charismatic national congress of Divine Mercy. It was a two day retreat. We had a very good turn out and people were very attentive, and I could say that the whole retreat was a much anointed one. This area of the Church there, is of a much humble nature, much different than the one you find in the Lisbon parishes. Sometimes people of humble backgrounds are very much more receptive to the mystical approach to faith than those that are more comfortable in the world and enjoy a higher supply of earthly goods. It seems to be, that the more supply of earthly goods that one has, the less appetite for heavenly goods.

I enjoyed the retreat and loved everyone in a big way.

I have the honor and the blessing to have the support of a team of Portuguese ladies who helped me greatly and put together the mission in the whole country. They are curiously all named Ana, so I named them by Ana I, Ana II and so on.
 

Portugal is in my heart, deep in my heart, and I have a spiritual family there who I long to see all the time.

 

I pray for this nation and ask you to please to join me. They are in the midst of a great materialistic European society that if not being cautious with, can take away the faith and exchange it for a fake and vain life away from God.  

God bless Portugal and its Catholic heritage.