SIT  WITH  SEELOS

INTRODUCTION

Today, October 5^th, is the feast day of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos.

He died on October 4^th, the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, so they picked today, October 5^th, as Seelos’ feast day.

The title of my homily is, “Sit With Seelos.”

In the Marian Prayer Garden at St. Mary’s Church - on Duke of Gloucester Street, Annapolis - there is a bench that has spots for 2 people to sit with a Statue of Blessed Francis Seelos.

Coming home to our rectory - we come into our house from the parking lot - through our prayer garden.  Half the time  I see someone - usually just one person - but sometimes two - sitting there with the life size bronze statue of Francis X. Seelos.

If it’s just one person sitting there, we often joke as we go by that  person, “You can go to confession to him, you know.” And people have joking said in reply, “I often do.”

So that’s the background of the title of my homily: “Sit with Seelos.”

TRY IT - YOU’LL LIKE IT

Suggestion: try sitting down with Seelos, you’ll like it.

I was down in our Seelos shrine in New Orleans a few times.  They have the identical statue - but the bench is a tiny bit different there. It has arm rests.  Our Seelos bench is different. It doesn’t have those arm rests. So ours fits 2 people more comfortably.

I preached down there in New Orleans,  a few years back and told them we have a similar Seelos statue. It was  made at the same time: one was for St. Mary’s Annapolis and the other for the Seelos Shrine in New Orleans.

And I suggested to the folks down there to sit with Seelos and go to confession and pray with him - as I have done here in Annapolis.

Nice.

New Orleans is the official Seelos Shrine.

St. Mary’s Annapolis is an unofficial Shrine for Seelos in that he worked and lived at St. Mary’s - as well as New Orleans and elsewhere.

His cause for canonization is in process.

WHAT TO PRAY FOR?

Now what to pray for when sitting on the Seelos bench.

First of all make a good  confession. Seelos was a great confessor. People came from everywhere to go to confession to him.

I have written about this somewhere. In that talk, I said that the confession lines were always very long - very, very, very long - at Annapolis, Pittsburgh, New Orleans - and in the many places he was.

He preached parish missions from 1863 to 1866 - in Detroit, Wisconsin, St. Louis, and all over the place.  Having preached parish missions out of Lima, Ohio for 8 ½ years before I came here to Annapolis,  I know how Redemptorist preached missions go and how important confessions are to the life of a Catholic.

So pray for forgiveness of sins.

Next pray for a sense of humor.  Seelos preached and pushed laughter!

When he’s canonized a saint, if I’m alive.  I’ll continue the message from his life to laugh. Loosen up and laugh. Lighten up and laugh. He started a Laughter Club at St. Mary’s when he was stationed there.

Next pray for patience.  While at St. Mary’s he ran into two Redemptorists who tried his patience. One was the first pastor of St. Mary’s: Michael Mueller - who could be a very strict priest and person. In the lobby of St. Mary’s - center door - next time you get married or go through that door, notice and read the marble plaque on the wall there. It’s in memory of Michael Mueller.  He wrote a book: The Catholic Dogma: Extra Ecclesiam Nullus Omnino Salvalltur [1888] "Outside the Church There Is No Salvation."

That was a teaching by some in the Catholic Church. 

Then there were the jokes about Catholics or Baptists or Moslems arriving in heaven. I’m sure you heard that joke. St. Peter takes someone  to their resting place. When they weant by certain halls, St. Peter would go, “Shish! When asked why by the new arrival, St. Peter would say, pointing to a group, “Shish, they think they are the only ones up here.”

Well, Mueller criticized Seelos for being too easy going with our seminarians when he was in charge of them.

A Redemptorist name Gabriel Rumpler also gave Seelos grief - for being too easy going. Well, Rumpler, a genius of sorts, was known for his rigorism and his strictness. In time he had to go to a mental hospital.

I have heard enough Catholics complaining in the last 50 years how angry they are because they were taught by strict, strict, Catholic Religious teachers. In time, this caused some to dropped out of our faith.

They blame their scrupulosity - everything is a sin - on those folks.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Sit with Seelos.”

Sit on the bench. Pray for laughter, forgiveness, patience and understanding of all the folks in your life.

Pray for Seelos smile.

October 4, Seelos died in New Orleans, of Yellow Fever.

His dates: 1819-1867.

His place of birth: Fussen Germany. He was one of 12 children. He came to America - to New York City - in 1843.

When Seelos was dying many, many folks in New Orleans were praying for him - because the Newspapers were keeping an account going of his sickness.

A hurricane was going on that Oct. 5 - but the city showed up for his funeral.