Celtic Wanderlust!

Spiritual Wanderlust!

There is within the Celtic Spirit

A need to wander and explore 

In far away lands.

While also longing for hearth and home.

We are betimes a sorrowful lot.

Lamenting life's little losses 

And large ones too.

Then sing and dance and play a tune

Raise the spirits within, without.

What a Spirituality are we!

We wander far sailing the tastes

Of all the world's religions

So drawn to God are we of any stripe and all.

Within the same heart there beats

The strict adherence to our Faith

Once given,

Signed, sealed, delivered.

One within the same are we

Demanding orthodoxy

Bordering on heresy.

And I delight in the inconsistency

The hobgoblin of my heart1

Fr Paul

Marriage Equality, Health Care and The Beloved of God

Marriage Equality, Health Care and The Beloved of God

And thanks be to God, that would be YOU! 

As a long time and outspoken advocate of the poor and for marriage equality, I greet the recent decisions of the Supreme Court with joy! Not everyone will. God knows that in the world of “faith” there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth over these decisions. But not from me. 

I have been and will continue to be an activist priest. And it was more than a decade ago that I wrote  “Everything You Need to Know About Sex in Order to Get to Heaven”; an outspoken satire about the church’s skittishness over human sexuality. Naturally I was excoriated by the right wing of my church, but most of the Beloved of God appreciated the work I was trying to do. 

(NB: You can have your own autographed copy by contacting me: paulbresnahan@gmail.com)

Most of the Beloved of God in our tiny corner of the world of faith understood that EVERYONE must come within the saving embrace of Christ. We’ve paid the price; we’ve reaped the benefit; and now I must say, many of us will feel vindicated.

Which brings me to the subject of “The Uneven Sidewalk”

As a  child I was fond of walking with my hands clasped behind my back and my head down. Many wondered why I seemed so sad and what could be done about it. And it is true that there were things in my life that made me sad, but that’s not the reason I carried myself the way I did.

Truth be told, there is a practical reason for the way I walked then and the way I walk now. The sidewalks are uneven. Even when the town of Sandwich finishes this repaving project along Main Street, and please God, they’ll finish it before the 4th, even then, I’ll walk the way I do with my hands clasped behind my back, and my head down. God knows I’m not that steady on my feet or sure footed. A mountain goat I’m not!

But pensive yes, I am a pensive sort. I’ve always loved a long walk through the city streets of my home in Somerville and Cambridge. And then when I was older through the city streets of Toronto and Boston. I have my favorite walks and currently going up to the boardwalk here in Sandwich or walking by the seaside in Lynn; these I find so deeply satisfying. And yes I am a pensive sort. 

There is a deep place in my spirit that turns itself to God when I write, when I pray, and yes, when I walk with my hands clasped behind my back and my head down to keep a careful watch out for uneven sidewalks and streets pock marked with potholes; such is the Pathway to God’s inclusive Love for ALL.

Yes, I am a pensive sort and I like to take whatever time I can to be with God. And it is out of that deep place where my heart turns itself to the Beloved of God; the poor and my family. We grew up poor. My uncle and two of my boys happen to be gay. And I knew many years ago that God loves the poor, and that God loves my uncle and my children. 

So I practice the Presence of God when I pray, when I write and when I walk. I discover that I have acquired the gift of approachability through all this Practice.

The last few days have been difficult for me. Family, friends, colleagues, parishioners, turn to me with some regularity for counsel on the matters of difficulty, of depression, anxiety, and that persistent panicky feeling that I find intrinsic to much of human experience. In the past few days, the intensity and frequency with which folks have turned to me has increased significantly. 

I hear in these voices a lamentation like the one David made for Saul and Jonathan. “O how the mighty have fallen.” It can be the death of a loved one or a mighty warrior like Saul. It can also be that certain nameless fear, that chronic feeling in the pit of your stomach that will not go away. It can be testy relationships between those we care about. On and on and on it goes.

The Psalmist speaks to the matter; “Out of the depths have I called out to you O God” “O God hear my voice!”

That’s the missing piece for so many in our time. When we cry out of our depths, we often act as though we have no one to cry out to. So many live without God. Not everyone has a Jesus to turn to. And many forget that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can cheer the downcast spirit. And for those of us who do have a God, it is often the case that we simply cannot find a way fit all the pieces together as we make our way to the kingdom of God

In this context today, we have David’s Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan, we have the poetic Lament of the 130th Psalm. And Paul’s plea for the generosity of the church in Corinth to make provision for the church in Jerusalem. We’ve been trying to fit the pieces together for a very long time and when we try to do so on our own we often get lost or mired in the muck of our own making. 

Thankfully in the Gospel we have two folks who understand that there is a profound difference in spirituality between the Lamentation of David and the Psalter and the Hope of the Gospel.

Jarius turns to Jesus.

And so does the woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for a dozen years or so.

"My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live," says the former
And the latter; "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well, she reasons to herself.

Jesus, aware that the woman had touched him with her faith, turns to her to say; “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

The matter of Jarius’ little girl posed a more difficult problematic. The poor child had already died. “Why trouble the teacher any further?”

Not so quick. It is not yet time for lamentation. It is time to demonstrate the power of God over sin and death. It is time to show who Jesus is for us. It is time for us to come to see why it is so central to our faith that he is the One to turn to with our problems, all of our problems. 

The Gospel passage continues with these words; 

"Do not fear, only believe." When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!" And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement."

Then he told them not to go telling every Tom, Dick and Harry what just happened. It is not yet time for him to go up to Jerusalem to fulfill God’s intention for Jesus and humankind. That will come soon enough. For now, just give the girl a little something to eat. God knows she’s been through a lot today and so have you all.

You see, the question is this; “Who do we have to turn to in all our sorrows, our lamentations, our confusion, our hurt, our perplexity, our sadness and melancholy?”

There is God. The one who is at the center of our souls, the Holy One who is closer to us than the very next breath we take.

There is Jesus. The One who gave his life for his Beloved. That would be you and me.

There is the Holy Spirit. The continuing Presence of God our Creator, Savior, and the Holy Wisdom from on High.

We have a whole community of God to turn to.

The essence of this turning is pure simplicity.

That is why I write and pray and take long walks. 

The human community may turn to the Community of God and I rejoice that The Beloved of God is growing in its inclusivity. 

Yes, I am a pensive sort. 

I love my long walks especially at this time of year when so much serendipity surrounds us.

As I walk along, or write or pray I find myself in what Paul Tillich called; The Eternal Now"; the Now that never ends but is always alive in the heart of God and in our hearts as well. Thus we are joined heart to heat in the "Now" of God.

Words keep coming to me like these; 

“Thou leadest me beside the still waters.

Thou restorest my soul.”

And yes.

“Out of the depths of my soul cries out to Thee”

O God hear my prayer”

Poetry comes to mind. My own poetry. Words of my own like these;

The Beloved of God

A moment with You.

A moment with God.

Time to walk

Time to breathe

In-Yah

Out-Weh

The Holy Name

Just the faintest breath of a prayer.

Being alone in the Silence

Being alone in the Presence

Being with You

The God of my Being

Never alone with You.

The uneven sidewalk

The pock marked potholes 

Of the sacred pathway

We tread together.

The salt air

The marshland waters

The birdcall of the morning

The glorious rising of the Sun

The glorious rising of the Lord

And Jarius' desperate prayer for his Beloved

That Jesus would take a thought for him

And his little girl?

“Arise little girl”

The Beloved of God

She and you and me

ALL, The Beloved of God.

The uneven sidewalk 

The pock marked pathway

To God.

And now may the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you always. Amen.

Fr Paul

Robin Williams and this Depressing Summer

Robin Williams and this Depressing Summer

The events of the summer we’re living through have been so depressing and dangerous. It is the kind of summer that brings tears to so many human eyes; eyes such as Joseph shed in Egypt as we read about in our first lesson. The conflict in the Ukraine, the sudden rise of the super extreme ISIS militant faction in Iraq, warfare yet again between Palestinians and Israelis, another unarmed teen is killed and subsequent civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, and now this week we hear of the death of a gifted comic genius, and Episcopalian Robin Williams. 

That one hit me hard. Well, to tell you the truth this summer hits me hard. The relentless bad news, day after day, after day. Even listening to it without the hype that the networks give it, has helped little. I prefer listening to my news on NPR and even there, the facts and details of it are all more than we can seem to bear.

Monday night as I was out for my evening walk, I heard the news of Robin Williams’ death; an apparent suicide. Oh my God, it took my breath away. Here is one with whom I share so much; a wonderful sense of humor, a common faith and the same psychiatric diagnosis as bi-polar. 

As for that unparalleled sense of humor, who can forget Robin’s ten top reasons to be an Episcopalian; 

10. No snake handling.

9. You can believe in dinosaurs.

8. Male and female God created them; male and female we ordain them.

7. You don't have to check your brains at the door.

6. Pew aerobics.

5. The Church year is color-coded.

4. Free wine every Sunday.

3. All of the pageantry - none of the guilt.

2. You don't have to know how to swim to get baptized.

And the Number One reason to be an Episcopalian:

1. No matter what you believe, there's bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you.

But all the comedy ended, all the laughter was silenced Monday. Not only do we share a common faith, we also share that demon known as bi-polar affective disorder. I had my break in 1990 and no recurrence since but I do take my meds faithfully, I see my psychiatrist, and my spiritual director just so that I can keep myself on an even keel. I pray and read my scripture every day and I keep a journal where I share with God my deepest thoughts.

None of us can know what it is that drives someone to this last great desperate act. But we do know from such books as the “Noonday Demon” that depression can be so dreadful and dark that many are driven to the depths of despair. From that point there is little comfort for those who suffer so. 

Interestingly enough I think Robin Williams dealt with the  question of suicide in one of his most self revealing movies; “What Dreams May Come” filmed and produced as long ago as 1998. It was not a critical success. I think it was probably too theologically profound to receive critical acclaim. In the movie, Robin plays a gifted doctor whose sons both die in dreadful accidents and then whose wife takes her own life. Eventually Robin’s character ends up in heaven, but he tells his angel that he cannot live in heaven without the one he loves. He decides he’d rather go to hell and be with her than to live in heaven without her. He then goes to go to hell and back for the love of his wife. And it is only that love that can overcome her deep and self absorbed despair.

I know what suicide leaves in its wake. As one who has gone to the graveyard with families of those who have taken their own lives, the question is often there, spoken or unspoken; is there really a heaven for my beloved? How can God embrace someone who forgets the mercy and love of God? 

The answer to that question comes in part, from today’s Epistle. “Can God reject his own people? God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

In today’s Gospel it is said that the woman has a demon. We live in an age full of demons. Now we call them personality disorders, schizophrenia, psychosis and so on, but the one thing we cannot fill with psychiatry is the void left when we take God out of the equation of modern life. 

When Jesus walked the planet, those with demons recognized him instantly. I ask you now to do the same. What of those today with empty souls? Empty bodies? With what shall we fill them if they cannot recognize Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit that dwells within? They cannot recognize Jesus unless we have the courage to tell the story of how God has made all the difference in our lives.

And when our lives are filled with demons, I only wish we could call out loudly and insistently like the woman in today’s Gospel. Even at the initial resistance of Jesus, the woman pushes back with daring tenacity. "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.” At such such a statement as this Jesus says; “Great is your faith”.

How I wish I could have reached out to Robin Williams with my illnesses and my faith. I think we might have found a place to meet and laugh and cry and find God again beating in the human heart. Alas, that will have to wait until another day when “ What Dreams May Come” will be the dreams we dream. In the meantime, I will have to be patient. 

Sunday by Sunday and day after day we sings the songs of God and cheer one another on. I did write these words on Facebook Monday night not just for the broken hearted but for all of us. “A thought. Just a thought. Sometimes in the evening when you are wondering how somebody is, pick up the phone and ask them, "Hey, how are you?" You many save a life.”

Sure, I know it is a depressing summer. I know as well as anyone what demons lurk within the human heart as well as within our history. How long will it take for humankind to realize that the only answer to all our heartaches is the joy of knowing God our Creator, Jesus our Savior, and The Holy Spirit, the Holy Wisdom from on High. 

Yesterday I came across these magnificent words form a Celtic Psalter. Given the beauty of the land is it any wonder the Celtic land is a land of such poetry? Let me share these words with you now. 

At the heart of life and in its heights glory shines. 

Within creation and beyond
glory has its source.
Guide me to the heart of life
that I may know its heights.
Lead me further within, O God,
that I may know you as beyond.
In the sufferings of my heart
and the brokenness of creation
open to me further
the doors of the eternal
that through the pain that is within me and the struggles that are around me
I may be guided to you as the heart of life, that through the pain that is within me and the struggles that are around me
I may be guided to you as in and beyond all
that has life.

-from Sounds of the Eternal: A Celtic Psalter. 

Keep singing the songs of God dear friends, cheer each other on. The Kingdom of heaven is among you and within us.

~Fr Paul

LGBTQ Irish Need Not Apply

Some Irish Need Not Apply

There will be a parade in South Boston Monday and I will not be there. Neither will the Mayor of Boston. And one of the primary sponsors of the parade, the Boston Beer Company, maker of Sam Adams brand of brew, has withdrawn its support. This is all because the organizers of the parade have specifically excluded one particular group of people from marching in the parade.

I do not think this would please Patrick of Ireland one bit. We do not know all that much about Patrick but what we do know is that he was sold into slavery by Irish slave traders when he was a young man. We know that he was not much of a Christian in his youth. His dad had been a deacon, but he was more or less “ho hum” about the faith. But there was something about being in slavery for six years in France that brought him to his knees. He had a vision of a ship one night that beckoned to him to come home. He escaped his master and after a series of minor miracles, walked two hundred miles to freedom and fast talked his way onto a ship bound for Britain. There he studied the faith of the church and again had a vision, some say of the Bishop of Rouen, a sainted fellow by the name of Victricius, and the vision invited him to Ireland and become the Apostle to the Celts.

It was not an easy task for the foreign born Patrick, probably a Welshman or a Scot, to bring the Gospel to a stiff necked and stubborn lot which those Irish surely are, I’m here to tell you.

But, he was a tireless builder of the church. Remember these Celtic Christians built their communities on the reality of human need and human suffering. As they built their monasteries their message was consistent; if someone you love is sick or dying, bring them to us and we will take care of them. If you are hungry, come to us and we will feed you. If you and your children want to learn, we are among the best schooled scholars in Europe, come here. If you are weary and dreary with life, come to us and we will cheer you with good brew, good stories, and much mirth. If you hunger for God, come to us, where you may be baptized and born anew to a living Gospel life, and live with Jesus.

He was an extraordinary man of faith, and yes, I believe he did drive the snakes out of Erin. But the serpents that he drove away were not of the sort that crawled about on the ground but a more evil and pernicious sort. The snakes Patrick drove out of Ireland were the slave traders who worked under the military might of a man known by the name of Coroticus. It is our good fortune to have Patrick’s letter to Coroticus to this day. We also have his so called “Confessions” or the story of how he came to Christ. 

He rid Ireland of the slave trade, but it is the way he did it that is extraordinary. He wrote an open letter to Coroticus and delivered copies of his letter to all his soldiers, informing him that, under his authority as Bishop of Ireland, he is excommunicated. Worse still, if any of his followers and soldiers did not repent and turn from their evil ways, they too would suffer the same fate. 

Here, let me read a brief snippet of his vivid, lively, and salty wit;

“I myself have composed and written these words with my own hand, so that they can be given and handed over, then sent swiftly to the soldiers of Coroticus. I am not addressing my own people, nor my fellow citizens, but those who are now become citizens of demons by reason of their evil works. They have chosen, by their hostile deeds, to live in death; and behave like apostates, bloody men who have steeped themselves in the blood of innocent Christians. The very same people I have begotten for God; their number beyond count, I myself confirmed them in Christ.

“The very next day after my new converts, dressed all in white, were anointed with chrism, even as it was still gleaming upon their foreheads, they were cruelly cut down and killed by the swords of these same devilish men. 

“Because of all this, I am at a loss to know whether to weep more for those they killed or those that are captured: or indeed for these men themselves whom the devil has taken fast for his slaves. In truth, they will bind themselves alongside him in the pains of the everlasting pit: for "he who sins is a slave already" and is to be called "son of the devil." Jn. 8:34, 44 (O.L.)

“Because of this, let every God-fearing man mark well that to me they are outcasts: cast out also by Christ my God, whose ambassador I am. Patricides, they are, yes and fratricides, no better than ravening wolves devouring God's own people like a loaf of bread. Exactly as it says: "the wicked have scattered your law, 0 God," which in these latter days he had planted in Ireland with so much hope and goodness.” ~From the letter to Coroticus. 

We do not know exactly what happened then, but we do know that Patrick and the Christian Church fought valiantly against the slave trade in Ireland long before that became fashionable.

This little sketch of Patrick’s life is seldom referenced. But it is important, because it seems to me that when Patrick baptized his thousands, I find it hard to believe that he set out to exclude anyone from the grace and mercy of the Gospel of Christ.

As the words of John’s Gospel today make abundantly clear,"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

If Nicodemus wanted to know what it would take to gain eternal life, if Coroticus, and his soldiers may have wanted to know, or if the organizers of the St. Patrick’s Day parade or if you and I may want to know, we must be born anew, born again in the Spirit of the Compassionate heart of Christ. This is the same Christ who knew no outcasts, for to him all were welcome within his saving embrace. The blind, the lame, the poor, alike as well as the healthy and the wealthy, for to Jesus we are all one people in God. 

No parade for me, tomorrow. Perhaps instead, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from when my help cometh.”  ~Psalm 121. I am a member of the Mount Washington Weather Observatory. I often check the MWOB website, what wonderful photographs. How I love to check the weather conditions up on the mountain. No matter how bad the weather is here, it is worse up there. On Thursday afternoon at 4pm, it was chilly, cold and windy here, oh, but up on the Mountain it was -13F with sustained winds out of the NW at 70mph, rendering a wind chill of -51F. Now that’s cold. The people native to the area called Mount Washington Agiocochook, or "Home of the Great Spirit. It is born into us to look up into the hills, for it is from the heights that the Great Spirit of God is made known to us. We look up!

We live by the Faith of Abraham. When God said to Abraham, look up to the stars of heaven and count them if you can, so shall your descendants be, or count the grains of sand upon the earth if you can, all the nations on earth shall be blessed in you.

God did not say...make sure you pick out the black ones, or the poor ones, or the female ones, or the LGBTQ ones. God said, look to the stars of heaven and stand in awe and wonder. Look and count them if you will. They are all God’s creation, so are we. 

Many years ago, in the wake of the great migration during the potato famine there were those who posted signs in their workplace windows that said; “Irish need not apply”, for shame. Now the organizers of tomorrow’s parade have placed a figurative sign in South Boston’s window that says “Some Irish need not apply, you know who”, for shame!

Today’s collect says it is God whose Glory is always to have mercy. Yes, mercy, 

Lord have mercy, 

Christ have mercy, 

Lord have mercy. 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Fr Paul

Prophesy: Occupy the Churches!

The End is at Hand!

Yes! 

Occupy the Church!

And what, you ask me, is the end? 

The end is to Occupy the Church!

The End is not to go to church. The End is to BE the Church.

Listen to Jesus.

Look at Jesus.

The prophesy of Jesus is that he will die. 

His death was the prophecy. 

In the meantime he healed the sick.

He taught the poor and the rich of his love for all.

He reached out to the lepers and prostitutes, and outcasts of all sorts.

They were male and female, Samaritan and Jew, rich and poor.

They were even eunuchs (gay folks!)

He told the disciples in Mark's Gospel three times that he was going up to Jerusalem to die. 

There he would be put on trial, he would be found guilty. Then he would be crucified, he would die and then he would rise again. He said this three times on the way up to Jerusalem and each time they recoiled in horror. 

He overturned the tables of the money changers (Bankers/Corporations?). They made quick work of him. 

They had high hopes that he would be the Messiah and usher in the New Age. He would be the political fulfillment of their intentions.

Instead of that, he just plain died. 

This is Christ's prophecy. 

It was to be his end. 

They killed him.

But when the end came, they buried him and three days later the women came by to tend to things after the custom of the observant faithful of the day. 

And lo and behold, he was not dead. 

Yes he suffered, excruciating suffering. And yes he died, in a most ignominious and shameful way. 

Crucifixion is a scandalous and shameful way to die. 

Yet he rose again and manifestly appeared to us and continues to appear to us in the lives of those who continue his work. 

He is risen indeed! 

Now it is up to us to do his work of organizing our lives around human need. 

Where there is suffering, we will bring the salving presence of Jesus. 

Where there is warfare and violence, we will bring peace with justice. 

Where there is hatred for the outcast, we will bring the embrace of Jesus. 

There is no longer slave or free, Jew or Greek, male or female...gay or straight, rich or poor, black or white...you name it; it's not there...we only see through the eyes of Jesus now..and we are ALL ONE in Jesus, because we are signs of the Kingdom's coming! 

We are in the end times because we are living to the end that Jesus intended. By the way, we could use some help, because there are many, many others not living in accordance with the mandate of Jesus; namely, that we "Love one Another!" 

We are not here for sacred rituals! 

If our sacred rituals do not point us to the work of Christ, they are nothing worth.

We are here to bring the healing touch of Jesus, the loving embrace of Jesus, the Peace of Christ in the non violent struggle of Justice for ALL!

Take the church back from the authoritarian dictatorship under which it presently suffers. Listen to Hans Kung, Roman Catholic theologian whose right to teach in the name of the church has been removed. He has been silenced! 

Take the church back from the Right Wing Fundamentalists and religious extremists who use the guise of Christ as the Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees of old. 

Take the church back from its empty rituals and bring hope to the poor.

In the name of the church: OCCUPY THE CHURCHES!!!

"Fr Paul"

One of the "Thin Places"

A Mountaintop Wedding

It happened on a mountain top in West Virginia. There was a pretty bride and a handsome groom and there was the dog, "Macie", bedecked with a specially made collar and leash. There was laughter and a few tears. It was cold on the mountain top in October, just yesterday. But we warmed ourselves with jackets, blankets, good humor and gracious affection. We were all friends and family. And of course, my wife and I were there too. A priest and his bride.

We decked out the altar as for a wedding. It was beautiful. There was a special hand made chalice and paten. The flowers gave a special accent to our joy.

Then came the procession, the traditional words of greeting; "Dearly beloved, we are gathered together, here in the sight of God, etc." The Declaration of Consent, presentation, and collect were followed by the readings and the Gospel. The priest gave a greeting, and an inner warmth filled us to the brim.

At the Eucharist, there came a moment when I elevated the chalice to heaven. I said the sacred words; "And when he had given thanks to you", I looked up to heaven and it was as if we were transported in an instant to eternity. White and darkened wisps of layered clouds whisked by in the wind, and there behind them there broke a sky as blue as azure. 

Time stood still for an instant. It seemed to take my breath away, but I continued on as I have for every Eucharist I've said a thousand times before. But this time there was something different. Folks said that as they looked behind me, the sun broke through the clouds just then, and the sight transfixed us all.

The moment came and then the moment went by. 

It was on the mountain top.

It was in West Virginia among some of the best of friends. I searched for a way to describe the feeling when it then came to me. 

This is what the Old Celts called "A Thin Place". It is where you may come to touch the Presence, or more correctly, where the Presence will come to touch you.

We rejoiced. We made our way back to our cars but as we did, gratitude filled our hearts to the brim. 

My heart sang an old Irish hymn; "And O what transport of delight, from Thy pure chalice floweth".

And so it was. 

And so too may you be filled with all the fullness of God.

Fr. Paul