Today, June 27, 2020, Carlos, Christian and Clyde celebrate 44 years of priesthood.. This year I am spending it quietly at the Marian Shrine at Battle Hill. We did not recognise it then, but it was also the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Both Christian and I went on to serve OLPH as Parish Priest. That parish taught me a lot and shaped my priesthood in significant ways. For all that they have been to me and for me, I say thanks and Happy Feast.

Every year’s celebration brings its own memories and focus. Although the novel coronavirus has consumed the attention and imagination of the world, this year I find myself focussing on God, on the Divine, Transcendent Reality which is unnamed and yet has so many names. He seems to be taking me on a journey into nothing and yet at times I feel consumed by everything. I cringe whenever I think that that reality is being reduced to a thing, even to a he or she or it. That has become particularly true of the Eucharist – this superb gift flowing from the heart of God, consuming us and being consumed by us at the same time. The word “adoration” seems so inadequate before the ever-unfolding MYSTERY of God. That seven-letter word is the only one that resounds in my heart when I ponder the Divine. Yet this year, I have also come to use that word for human beings, those who have brought me much joy and those who have stretched my heartstrings. In the glow of mystery, I want to give everything and I can forgive everything. I get a glimpse even now of the freedom of the sons and daughters of God.

So I am – by the call of Anthony Pantin and the favour of the Apostolic See – priest and bishop,, not good at either in these perilous times. Can I love this world the way the Father loved that world to which He gave His Son? Words fail. Yet I want to entrust myself and all that I am and do to Miriam of Nazareth under that mysterious title which exploded into my consciousness when I was in Gonzales. OUR LADY OF THE TRINITY – Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, Spouse of the Spirit. Intercede for me, Ever-Virgin, that I may be in the years ahead, son of the Father, brother of the Son, and like you, Spouse of the Spirit. Amen.
By Bishop Clyde Harvey

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