Author: ANTONINO

A continuation of Fr. Bernardino’s column from two weeks ago about his recent trip to England…

When I was growing up I was surprised that in Portugal after Weddings or when big personalities visited the country, they would meet for a «Glass of Water». It took some time for me to discover that a “Glass of Water” meant to be a big and luxurious banquet. In England «Cheese and Wine» if I understood well, means a gathering of friends where food is served in a non-formal way. No special chairs for special people but simple food being served to people who could find a chair or be standing, drinking, eating and mainly socializing with one another.

Guess what! My hosts Neil and Dena Spence planned a «Cheese and Wine» gathering for July 26th. It sounded «normal». What happened «above» the normal was that gathering for «Cheese and Wine» meant to be a fundraiser event for the poor being helped by the project «People Helping People». From that gathering I could bring 555 Euros. I brought that money to Funchal on Monday, July 30th.

The following day when I was on my way to deposit that money in the Bank I received a very angry telephone call from a frustrated lady in charge of coordinating the distribution of the services and the money to the poor. She was very upset because this man had been ringing her house door bell, very early in the morning, when she was still in bed. This man was desperately asking for help.

Hunger has no rules, especially when children are involved… when there is hunger and no food, illness and no medicine, babies and no nappies. The man had come from far away. He had walked for an hour and a half to be able to catch a lift to Funchal. People Helping People wants to be an open door when all the other doors close. That’s the price we have to pay in our combat against bureaucracy and social inequality.

Pope Francis says that the poor are our doormen to heaven. Jesus says that “Whatever you do for the least of my children you do it unto me” (Math. 25). This lady in America was sleeping in her old car in the city of Concord, California. The police officer, who was a woman, knocked at the window of her car and told her that she had to move. It was illegal to sleep in cars inside the boundaries of that city. The city of Concord was distant from my city only about 20 minutes.

She rang the bell of my Parish residence asking me if I would give her permission to park her car in the huge parking lot of my Parish. Of course she got something better than a car to rest for the night. We spent some time together listening to her pain and frustrations and agony for being poor. At a certain point she said something that was “nailed” in me forever. What she said was: “This country is in a war against the poor”. I closed my eyes and said “I wish it was this country only”. But it is not true. Actually, the whole world is in a war against the poor.

One of Mother Teresa’s sayings that has been guiding «People Helping People» is: “WHEN YOU START BY JUDGING YOU HAVE NO TIME TO LOVE”.

From all our hearts to the people who gathered in the Spence’s family house for “Cheese and wine” here is our sincere and deep gratitude. I hope you don’t mind that I mention your names. It is for you that I will offer the Celebration of the Eucharist this coming Sunday.

Thanks to: Barry and Heather, Elizabeth and Nick, Ivan and Geraldine, John and Jenny, Robin and Rosemary, John, Ben, Trish and Jim, Julie and Doug, Nicola and Gavin, Chris, Eric and Jeanette, Kirstie and Sam. And last but not least, Jack and Lilly (my favourite English Angels).

Love and Peace,
Fr. Bernardino Andrade
(bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)

– Brought to you by: Fr.Ricardo Teixeira

Having the opportunity to hold the celebrations in English in the Penha de França Church I was asked to write a few words. My name is Ricardo Teixeira; I am a member of the congregation of Priests of the Sacred Heart – Dehonians.

I’m a priest for 10 years, 4 of them in China. Now, coming back to Portugal, I get embarrassed every time people ask me to talk about that time in mission. Because of my missionary experience, I am asked to give testimonies and conferences.

The most embarrassment comes when people call me brave for this experience and I know that the brave and the courageous are the Christians who are in that country and others that are adverse, and maintain their faith.

I admired them when I saw them making long distances to go to church. Where, with effort, they built magnificent churches; for their audacity, they called themselves Christians even though they could lose their jobs, property, and social recognition because of this affirmation. The courage was not mine, the truly brave are those who today, here too, continue to declare themselves as Christians.

Thank you for the opportunity once again to be able to remember the courage of these, our brothers.

Recently I have had the privilege of being invited to spend 10 days in England. It was my first time in that beautiful country. It was a gift from a very special couple who attended the English Mass at the Chapel Penha de França, in Funchal. It is impossible to know Neil and Dena and not believe in the Sacrament of Marriage that is the symbol of the passion that God has for His people. Married for 53 years it is impossible to know Dena and Neil and not believe that Love is a growing journey. That love is growing together. That love is a commitment. That love is a decision. I strongly believe that they love each other more now than on the day of their Wedding. It is a marriage built on a rock as Jesus says in the Gospel (Mat. 7). It is impossible to know Dena and Neil and not believe that love is not love until it is shared with the world especially with the most vulnerable.
Neil belongs to the Church of England and Dena to the Catholic Church.

Besides their strong faith in God, their healthy communication, they also have something special. It is their sense of humour. That’s why laughter is the best music we can hear in that house. That’s what motivated Dena to buy a card for her grandson’s birthday with this saying: «My internet went down the other day so I had to go downstairs to speak to my family. They seemed like good people» Visiting England for the first time I felt like my internet had to break down for me to be able to «go downstairs» to know England and the marvelous English People.

One day in California I said to one of my colleagues: «I have a handicap. The more peoples and cultures I know, the less ready I feel like to put labels on them». He said: «No. That is not a handicap. That is a gift to see beauty in diversity». Africa was a mosaic of peoples, cultures and religions. The United States is a mosaic of peoples and cultures and religions. And they are really like a beautiful mosaic full of diversity and beauty.
However I don’t understand why I fell into the trap of believing that the English People were formal, distant and sometimes cold.

Each moment and each person and each corner of any street was for me a surprise. It was like a show with no intermission.

The place where I stayed was more in the country side of Shrewsbury. Those roads, escorted by beautiful trees extending their arms and embracing each other over the passing cars, the fields of wheat, cows and lambs grazing through those little hills… it is a scene that will stay forever in the eyes and hearts of those who visit them.
And… what about those «cold and distant» people? I confess that every moment and every person I met was a pleasant surprise. And one of the best parts of this discovery was that I was rewarded for expressing my feelings. In the airport I was close to a coffee shop, waiting for my flight. The waiters were so kind and always smiling and treating each customer like as if he/she was the only customer. I went to buy a cup of coffee and expressed my feelings about their service. I got my coffee. Then I asked a normal question: «how much is it?». The answer was: «That’s on the house». His name was Patrick. I wish I could meet Patrick again. But actually I met him again in every person I encountered in England.

Soon I will write another story about a social gathering made of “Cheese and Wine” that brought € 555,00 to the poor helped by “People Helping People” in Madeira.

Love and Peace
Fr. Bernardino Andrade

(bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)

It happened 35 years ago, during the month of August. Actually it was August 15. I remember not because I have a good memory, but because it was the day when the church celebrates the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. Another thing I remember very well was that it was during the peak of the Summer’s heat.

I was standing at the altar celebrating the Eucharist. In my home Parish it is the Feast of «Nossa Senhora do Monte» (Our Lady of the Mountain). I was facing the people. The Church was packed. Many people were standing. Among the standing people there was Gina holding her four-year-old daughter, Irene, in her arms. I assumed that no matter the child’s weight, she was not a light weight for Gina.

At a certain point of the Mass I saw Gina lifting her daughter to the level of her face, and she deposited a very gentle kiss on her sleeping daughter’s forehead. Very naturally. Very normally. Very gently. Then she kept looking at the altar.

I confess that this was a little epiphany for me.
In that moment I thought: «That sleeping child will never know that her mother kissed her today. She will never know how much her mother would always find ways to express her love for her, even when she is asleep».

Yes. It was an epiphany for me. Besides the Bible, mothers have always been for me the best teachers about God’s love and my relationship with God. I fell into contemplation and started thinking and I still think that Irene was asleep and she would never know that her mother kissed her in that moment. It was a gentle and secret kiss.

I believe that the majority of expressions of love that mothers have for their children go unnoticed. During that day I fell into deep contemplation thinking of how many times God kisses me during the day and during the night without being noticed by me. Then I discovered that God is a permanent surprise. He always holds me in His arms and always kisses me, performing so many miracles in my life even when I don’t notice it. God is a permanent surprise. The only thing I ask God in this moment is that He will help me to be open to his gentle and secret kisses. To his gentle and secret surprises.

Love and Peace
Fr. Bernardino Andrade

PS. The mother kissing her daughter, in this picture, is Irene, the one who was kissed by her mother 35 years ago. Now she is 39.  She is my cousin. Irene is doing to her one-and-a-half month old daughter what her mother did to her 35 years ago. In my story I said that Irene would never know that she was kissed by her mother on that very hot day when both of them were perspiring in Church. Now she knows because I told her many years ago. The baby is called Lara Virginia, after her grandmother who died recently.

1.
Jesus is a fascinating man. Jesus is a very kind and a very attractive man. He attracted multitudes. Healed the sick, played with children, left 99 good sheep and looked for the stupid, for the least, the last, the lost, the run-away. And when He found His lost sheep, bleeding, dirty, and smelling like urine and feces, approached her, very gently, with no questions asked, took her in His arms and brought her home.

Sometimes the Sunday Mass can be very beautiful, very alive, and very inspirational and very attractive. Sometimes it can be boring, uncomfortable, challenging and disturbing. The truth is that the Eucharist is never meant to be a Sunday spiritual entertainment.

In today’s Gospel (21st Sunday of the year, Cycle B, John 6: 60-69), Jesus gives to people a completely different image of what His followers thought He was. That sweet and attractive Jesus all of a sudden becomes very disturbing. He talked about eating His flesh. And the biggest challenge was that eating His flesh had disturbing and subversive consequences. What happened then? «Many of His disciples left Him and stopped going with Him. Then Jesus said to the twelve:

What about you? Do you want to go away too? » (John 6: 60-69)

2.
A Disturbing Jesus in a disturbing world

According to the Assistant Director General of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, about one-half billion of the over four billion people who live on earth are at the brink of starvation daily.

Some 200 million children become mentally handicapped or blind due to a lack of nutritious food, and another 10 million succumb to other hunger-related illness. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately one-third of the world’s population is underfed and one-third is hungry. Four million people die each year of starvation and 70% of children under six are undernourished. Equally alarming are the statistics which estimate that approximately three billion members of the human family suffer from chronic spiritual hunger and/or malnutrition.

These hunger pangs must also be recognized, as this hunger can be just as lethal as its physical counterpart. In recognition of this fact, the Church puts the gathered assembly in touch each week with the food that will satisfy its hungers. Each week the community is fed with the Bread of Life, in both word and sacrament; nourished by this essential food, every believer receives the strength needed for continuing to live a committed life. (Celebration)

This is highly disturbing: There is a lady who attends Mass in one of the churches where I help, when she hears me talking about the poor and the suffering she very openly leaves the church during my sermon to return when I finish. It is really an act of protest against bringing to church themes that are «not proper». Nothing new. His disciples did the same. I am afraid that many Christians don’t agree about the «proper themes for a proper church».

Love and Peace
Fr. Bernardino Andrade