Fr. Joachim Mary Mudd, FFI leading Lenten retreat

Many events which were postponed or canceled during the past two years due to Covid shutdowns are cautiously being rescheduled now and are happily bringing people back together again. On Saturday, March 21, 2020, the Diocese of Providence Office for Religious had planned to hold their Lenten Day of Recollection for All Religious Men and Women on the Portsmouth Abbey Campus. A monk was on tap to give the main presentation providing spiritual sustenance, and the campus dining staff was prepared to serve lunch, a different kind of sustenance, for the body. It was to have been the first time that the Portsmouth monks would have hosted such a group, but who could have imagined the changes that the world would undergo during that previous week, around the time of the Ides of March and St. Patrick’s Day. 

While the 2021 gathering also was not able to take place, happily, as I mentioned, a day of recollection was held this Lent on Saturday, March 26, at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Providence. Fr. Andrew Senay O.S. B. of the St. Louis Abbey and I were able to spend the day in the city, made some new acquaintances among the local religious and renewed some friendships formed at previous diocesan get-togethers. The main speaker for the day was Fr. Joachim Mary Mudd, F.F.I. (Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate) based in nearby New Bedford. He was introduced and welcomed by Sr. Elizabeth Castro, H.M.S.P., who heads the Office for Religious. Fr. Joachim later celebrated Mass for the participants in the Cathedral, ably assisted by Fr. Andrew. The friar joined the Franciscans in 1982 but said the call to the priesthood came later, and he was ordained in 1997.  

His topic for the day centered around the obligation of the call to holiness which each of us has. The question, as he made clear, is: can we preserve the state of grace, our state of grace, for a long time? We bind ourselves, as religious, to the evangelical counsels, among other vows. “Our will is like a muscle,” he suggested. “It needs to be exercised in order to get stronger, like giving up chocolate! We stand in need of arming ourselves fearlessly.  Resource must be had to counter temptation. Armed from head to foot, as St. Paul says, in the helmet of salvation.” Sadly, many people are comfortable in their mediocrity because human nature is like water, it takes the path of least resistance. “We are not capable ordinarily,” Father said, “for heroic events, and this is where mortification comes in. Because the precept of chastity requires absolute continence, we must pray,” he continued, “and avoid dangerous associations and reading. It requires more than normal effort, it takes courage and habitual mortification and prayer. Remove the fuel, remove the fire. Renounce them in the name of Jesus, go for a walk, call a friend. This is true of all temptations. We must fortify our will, aim for some measure of perfection.” 

 

 

Fr. Andrew Senay, O.S.B. reads the gospel

This helps to ensure not only our salvation, but assists in the welfare of our soul, the glory of God (“there is nothing more just”), as well as the edification of our neighbor. “There is no better tool for evangelization than our good example to bring to God sinners and believers, the unbelievers, the scandalous,” he suggested. “By their fruits you shall know them. It’s not a ‘me-God’ thing. It’s about others. It is important to further this movement of evangelization that Christian men and women affirm to become more religious.” Fr. Joachim brought his conference to a close with his thoughts on the beatitudes, upon which secular society is not expected to operate. We religious should make “a lifetime commitment to practicing the beatitudes because they are the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments. They go beyond the Decalogue. They are the perfect synthesis of Our Lord’s own life.  He preached them, and he practiced them.” 

 

 

Fr. Joachim Mary and Fr. Andrew in the Cathedral Sacristy

Father Joachim's heartfelt words were of great benefit to all of us and offered much to ponder and meditate upon during the time set aside afterwards for personal silent time and for the hour of Adoration before Mass began. Barring any further unforeseen calamities, Sr. Elizabeth and the Council of her Office of Religious are inviting all of the consecrated men and women to gather, finally on the Portsmouth campus, on June 12 for the (more-or-less) annual summer picnic to be hosted by the Benedictines.