SIT WITH SEELOS
INTRODUCTION
Today, October 5th, is the feast day of
Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos.
He died on October 4th, the feast day of St.
Francis of Assisi, so they picked today, October 5th, 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.
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.
