We will return to our discussion on the last days of the life of Fr Willie in a few days time when we get closer to the anniversary of his death later next week. For now, however, we shall have one of Fr Willie’s thoughts. ‘What is it to thee? Follow thou Me’ (John 21: 22). This thought came to me: I am not to take the lives of others …
Virtues
August 12, 2022
Today we will consider the virtue of prudence in the life of Fr Willie. We will take a bit more care in doing so as prudence is not as straightforward as it first appears… The Catechism of the Catholic Church says the following about the virtue of prudence: 1806 Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right …
August 11, 2022
The Catechism of the Catholic Church has the following to say about the virtue of charity: 1822 Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbour as ourselves for the love of God. 1823 Jesus makes charity the new commandment. By loving his own “to the end,” he makes manifest the Father’s love which he receives. By loving one …
August 10, 2022
Fr Willie, like all of us, had to struggle against his defects. We see an especially vivid example of his struggle in private diary notes written on this day 106 years ago (10 August 1916 – 1 year before his death and one year before the “Behold the Man” episode reported in an earlier posting today). For the past couple of days I have been very unhappy, in bad humour, …
August 10, 2022
The Catechism of the Catholic Church has the following to say about the virtue of hope: 1817 Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without …
August 9, 2022
Fr Willie does not have a specific record for the events of 9 August 1917, so we will instead have one of his typical sayings, and resume his narrative tomorrow. You must bear in mind that, if God has marked you out for very great graces and possibly a holiness of which you do not even dream, you must be ready to suffer; and the more of this comes to …
August 9, 2022
Counting today, Fr Doyle’s anniversary is 9 days away. It is traditional for Catholics to reflect on specific themes, or to pray for particular favours, for 9 consecutive days. This is a very ancient tradition and dates back to the earliest days of the Church – the apostles and Mary spent 9 days in prayer between the ascension of Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. So, …
August 7, 2022
We once again resume Fr Willie’s narrative of the events at the Battle of Passchendaele. This is his account of the events of August 5, 1917. In a particular way, we see Fr Willie’s tenderness as he describes his tears for the fallen soldiers, as well as his confidence in God’s providence and protection. We also see his incredible sense of fun and adventure, though perhaps we cannot all identify …
August 5, 2022
Today is the feast of St John Vianney. Fr Willie had a great devotion to him and visited Ars in 1907. From O’Rahilly’s biography: In spite of missing a train, and after an adventurous journey on a very primitive steam-tram, he found himself in the spot hallowed by the Curé of Ars. Fr. Doyle insisted on seeing everything: the room in which the saint died, the half-burnt curtains said to …
August 4, 2022
We have no more reports from Fr Willie until August 5th, and we shall take up his narrative once again on that date. What we do know about these days is that Fr Willie and his men had a few days rest before facing the trauma of battle once again. This might be an appropriate place to give the following excerpt from O’Rahilly’s biography which includes an excerpt of a …
August 2, 2022