Humblepiety

Feb

13

An 80’s Brummie on a musical Journey!

An 80’s Brummie on a musical Journey!

The television was not flat in the 80’s but chunky and heavy.
Boy George was singing from it “Do you really want to hurt me?”
Birmingham, a small part of Le Bon’s Planet Earth, my home city.
UB40’s soulful reggae filled the creaking doorways with rueful pity.
Steel Pulse bigging up revolution, the Beats mirror talking for free!
Multicultural before it was fashionable, music brought such harmony.
A melting pot of tension, soothed by Dexy’s plea to the joyful Eileen.
Two Tone tunes rescuing the working-class angst of this emerging teen.
Putting his head out, above school life towards making plans for Nigel.
Enjoying the silence of early morning waking, hearing a call of an angel.
From the sorting office in Howard Road to the gates of Oscott Seminary.
Following the promptings of love’s mystery, a fledging priestly journey.
Music kept me company caressing those years of study and complexity.
Marvelling at the haunting lyrics, the poise, the depth of sheer ingenuity.
Ozzie dazzlingly brilliant, Brum’s finest eccentric, one crazy train ride.
Electric Light Orchestra blue skies shine as a plethora of cultures collide.
40 years later I am still immersed in the Cure of the 80’s music industry.
At heart a claret & blue Brummie seeking the echo beach of lasting eternity.

Fr Patrick Brennan 2024 ©

Posted 13th February by Fr Patrick

Labels: poem Birmingham priesthood

0
Add a comment
Dec

10

Announcing!

‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.
Mary’s response to the Angel Gabriel is one of faith and devotion. It is one of trusting fidelity. It is one of love, pure love.
We love statues, artwork portraying Jesus, Mary and the saints. Devotion to Mary has resulted in beautiful images of her, drawing those who look, deeper into the mystery of faith, closer to Christ who is the very object of art dedicated to Mary. This is so because it is Christ who has motivated Mary and subsequently produced people to create statues and artwork in the centuries that have followed.
The meeting with the Angel Gabriel is a wonderful moment in our salvation history. This meeting has inspired me during this Advent to write this poem as a response of love to the meeting, a response that draws me deeper into the mystery of Christ.

Announcing!

In a half-lit room, prayer illumines the dawning of a dancing new morning
Awakening love within this fragile vessel of humanity, covering, enveloping
Mary, the maiden whispers salutations, utters cries of devotion and praise
In a wonderous moment, a surrounding of light, Angel Gabriel’s visiting haze
Heavenly words are spoken, a melody intoxicating, pouring forth, exuberating!
Her heart is ready, expectant prayerful, a picture of humanity silently waiting.

‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.

Fr Patrick Brennan 2024 ©

Posted 10th December 2024 by Fr Patrick

Labels: poem advent Mary

0
Add a comment
Dec

4

Dewfall: Even the Angels Pause to Adore!

Dewfall: Even the Angels Pause to Adore!
The Old Testament of the bible introduces us to the dewfall of God’s saving, redeeming, nurturing grace.
God’s word encourages us to dwell in contemplation, within the very centre of our hearts. To allow the dewfall of the evening to soak us through in awe and thanksgiving, to enable us to constantly ponder the gift of God’s own favour, that calmly visits each day without fail. The dewfall, that sweet life sustaining Manna from the desert, discovered in that wasteland of despair and disaster. The Dewfall restoring hope, renewing our sense that we are loved and Loved from eternity!
God’s love is Dewfall, a realisation that accompanies frail flesh and bone, so we do not fear the evening of life but in stillness feel the very droplets of love filling us to life’s fulness. The Mass is that continuing promise where the dewfall of God’s love, Jesus in his body and blood, once and forever sacrificed upon the altar of the cross, confirms our status as forever loved.
The following is a poem to express the meaning of the phrase at Mass “like the dewfall.”
Dewfall: Even the Angels Pause to Adore!
Haec ergo dona, quaesumus, Spiritus tui rore sanctifica,

“Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray,
by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall.”

Wait, as the Holy Spirit enters trembling hearts,
descending as “like the dewfall”
most gentle, yet insistent,
covering creation with an abundant saturation of grace, even the angels pause to adore

God said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven” (Ex 14:4)
“Like the dewfall” quiet, unseen, mysterious and gentle, even the angels pause to adore.

Jesus wondrously entered this world,
true God, true man through Mary,
who had conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit —
a silent, unseen, mysterious, gentle incarnation.
Jesus Himself the fulfillment of “the dewfall” even the angels paused to adore.

During holy Mass, each priest prays
for the Holy Spirit to descend like “the dewfall”
to transubstantiate bread and wine
into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
All of this is done in a very quiet, unseen, mysterious and gentle way,
yet in a way that is so miraculous that even the angels pause to adore.

As we prepare to celebrate the Mass,
may the Holy Spirit descend upon each of us “like the dewfall”
so that soaked in God’s redeeming grace
we may believe ever more fervently in the great gift of the Blessed Sacrament.
So that…with the angels may we learn how to pause to adore.

Fr Patrick Brennan ©

Posted 4th December 2024 by Fr Patrick

Labels: Eucharist poem dewfall

0
Add a comment
Nov

21

On the anniversary of the Birmingham pub bombings.

On the anniversary of the Birmingham pub bombings.

50 years has passed, struggles often unseen, that night Birmingham wept

Who done it? A cry went up in the darkness of grief, a whisper of a secret still kept

Innocently gathering, seeking the shelter of a night out, craving human company

Laughter the chatter of friendship, of love, beautiful traits of shared humanity

Lives ended in a flash and bang of hate filled explosives and shocked expletives

Justice sought swiftly, administered unjustly, too quickly, lives lost locked up for years

Just tell us so that shrouds of peace may be wrapped around the living, drying tears

Justice please for the very stones of this great city demand it, deserve it too

For the 21 killed and the generations still to come, Birmingham remembers you.

Fr Patrick Brennan

Native of Birmingham, heritage of Irish parents, a pilgrim with humanity, on life’s shared journey

Posted 21st November 2024 by Fr Patrick

Labels: poem Birmingham

0
Add a comment
Aug

26

Christ’s Ardent Love Still Burning.

Christ’s Ardent Love Still Burning.

August sunshine fast fades from view, as September waits in the wings.
Grey rain adorns the heavens while the approaching autumn wind sings.
This year is hurtling by straining for the finish, life’s race needs winning.
Aged bones creak, conducting livings’ symphony, a new dawn beginning.
A vibrant song of grace and gratitude flows freely from these prayerful lips.
Wisdom sought from gospel parables at pages creased by eager fingertips.
Timeless values spoken down the ages embraced with hopeful yearnings.
Find root and home in hearts cultivated by Christ’s ardent love still burning.

Fr Patrick Brennan 2024 ©

Posted 26th August 2024 by Fr Patrick

Labels: poem gospel Christ Life

0
Add a comment
Jul

15

Love

Love

Silence attracts, it has the power to overwhelm.

Descending into the catastrophic human realm.

Where breath is finite and death a moment away.

Grief is clinging, removing words, silence wins the day.

The heart breaks, shattered into fragments of memory.

Fatigue saps the soul where thought and speech are weary.

Suddenly a word breaks the stillness “love” restoring humanity.

Dispersing smothering melancholy, shaking off its’ clinging dust.

Eternal love conquers where battles valiantly fought were finitely lost!

Fr Patrick Brennan 2024 ©

Posted 15th July 2024 by Fr Patrick

Labels: poem Love

0
Add a comment
May

29

Your People Come In Procession

Your People Come In Procession

Gathering
with an air of waiting.

Chattering excitedly
anticipating it will be raining,
prepared for a seasonal drenching,

Pilgrims
arriving from many regions,
travelling from afar
in prayer filled pilgrimage,
to seek Mary’s maternal intercession.

Smiling
in awesome wonder
about to embark for the first time
or for the umpteenth,
(it gets into your very soul, this candlelit procession!)

Suddenly
with a definite forward movement
that interrupts the momentary stillness…it begins!

Ave, Ave, Ave Maria!
Why do people come here?

To come in procession.
To touch the veil between heaven and earth, at Mary’s invitation!

Fr Patrick Brennan 2024 ©

Looking at the pictures of the diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes and the torchlight procession I was a little envious that I was not there and I was inspired to write my poem based upon the theme of pilgrimage, Mary’s invitation for “the people to come in procession” to Lourdes.

Posted 29th May 2024 by Fr Patrick

0
Add a comment
May

19

Fragility

Fragility
Waiting for instructions, just breathe slowly and steadily for a few moments….
Then blackness, nothingness, sleep perhaps, a time to let go of the senses.
Brittle, the ailing body trusting to another for healing, for restoration.
Fragility smothers flesh and bones, while breath soothes life’s waking sensation.

I am frailty, capturing the precious gift of once again discovering thanksgiving.
Grateful for a journey taken upon soil and concrete, this amazing grace of living.
Resting, recuperating, taking stock of the past, revaluing the joy of future days.
Touching for a brief time the divine always present, working in mysterious ways.

Beyond the reach of this lifetime the promise of heaven, the hope for salvation.
Transforming these dead dry bones and breathing newness, fresh invigoration!
Standing before the magnificence of the Almighty trembling through every sense.
Humbled by a realisation, that this mortal finery stands in divinities true presence!

Fr Patrick Brennan 2024 ©

After an operation for a bilateral Inguinal hernia I am resting and getting better. It takes a while to recover! It reminded me of the fragility of life and the promise our faith sows into our hearts of eternal life. That eternal life is present in the Eucharist and heaven is a touch away from earth as death is to eternal life. The monks I stayed with on retreat for many years see each day as a preparation for death; death, the guest who is welcomed when he arrives at an hour we do not expect! I wrote this to express all these thoughts.

Posted 19th May 2024 by Fr Patrick

Labels: poem eternal life

0
Add a comment
Jan

3

Please all the people all the time?

Please all the people all the time?

Serenity Courage Wisdom

I have been called a lot of things over the years.

Friendly banter from friends, peoples and peers.

A vocation, a bridge builder not a people pleaser.

But here’s the thing, a spoiler, a tantalising teaser……

Christianity is lived when enemies are loved, those who hate are prayed for.

You can’t please all people at all times, so just be yourself at the heart’s core.

I am not a door mat on that bridge towards eternity, honestly, I don’t go for that.

Truth is a leveller, so I am not the one with every answer and I am ok with that.

Finding many rooms in the heart for Christ, well this a worthwhile human touch.

But renting rooms in my head for those who are displeased, well, not so much.

A New Years resolution, the hearts determined revolution, a kind of a re-evaluation.

Be serene, courageous in the wake of the displeased, make wisdom a prayerful intention.

Fr Patrick Brennan January 2024 ©

I wrote this poem January 2024 a New Years resolution of sorts.

As a priest I am called to follow Christ, I am sure he does not want me to please him, or pay lip service to his words. A vocation is not about courting popularity. I am always touched by images of priesthood that involve the bridge builder, the good shepherd, these speak to my experience of the last 32 years and sum up vocation as a call to love, and love is not as easy as it seems. I don’t always choose to love, I don’t always build bridges towards heaven and I sometimes doubt my worthiness to be a good shepherd. Yet through it all I know I am loved Christ has said so, and therefore I don’t have to please everybody every time, but I do have to love and that is far more challenging!

Posted 3rd January 2024 by Fr Patrick

0
Add a comment
Jan

2

Eucharist: Love Woven

Eucharist: Love Woven

Silence covers the church this January afternoon.
The outside cold seeps inside, the air is bracing.
The bench creaks a welcome, a time to fine-tune.
Arriving to embrace stillness, slowing the hearts racing.
Frantic noise and clutter of Christmas activity fades.
Breathing a prayer of serenity amidst this advancing year.
Eager eyes seek the shelter of faith’s renewing shades.
Banishing darkness with eternal light, removing useless fear.
Immersed deeper in what matters, the sacrifice, the mystery.
The simplicity of the words belies an incredible beauty awoken.
Once upon a cross whispering “Father forgive” changed history.
An intricate portrait of love woven, life’s truth softly spoken.
A duty to preside, a privilege to acknowledge that Christ abides.
Looking deeply into the chalice, the sacred radiates communion.
Manna from heaven where the depth of the Eucharist provides.
A school of humility revealing love, the instrument of instruction.
Never worthy to behold, still entrusted with the story to be told.
Stretching out arms towards the veil between heaven and earth.
Kneeling before the immensity of presence, it’s truth never old.
Marvelling this Christmastide at the sheer fragility of Christ’s birth.

Fr Patrick Brennan January 2024 ©

Posted 2nd January 2024 by Fr Patrick

Labels: Eucharist poem Christmas

0
Add a comment

Humblepiety

Don't tread rough-shod over the piety of the faithful...Good advice from a long time ago

Add a comment

Add a comment

Add a comment

Add a comment

Add a comment

Add a comment

Add a comment

Add a comment

Add a comment

Add a comment