April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
REFLECTION
Remembering Father Jones
I remembered something a priest did many years ago during a homily at a daily Mass. He handed each of us a feather and told us to look at it and consider how God had made it: strong in the center, but very gentle on the outside. "This is how your faith should be," he said.
I said a prayer in thanksgiving for the answer given to my problem and for the gift of the priest who told me this story: Rev. Jack Jones, who passed away in 2009.
I met Father Jones at daily Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany. I can still picture him in the small room to the side of the altar, sitting in a chair with his head bent in prayer as he spiritually prepared to celebrate Mass. His calm demeanor helped us to mentally leave the hectic pace of our offices behind and settle in to hear the quiet voice of God.
Often, he would begin by thanking us for coming. He would remind us of how pleased God was to see us there. Now, when I am with young people at Mass or faith formation, I don't take their presence for granted; I thank them for coming.
Father Jones was a wonderful teacher. His homilies were uncomplicated, relevant and always inspiring. At the beginning of the eucharistic prayer, he would pause and invite us to "enter deeply" into the mystery that was about to unfold. I still use these words to help center myself in prayer.
He made the different liturgical seasons come alive. During the Easter season, he would ask us to imagine that we were gathered in our "upper room." His words made me feel as if I were part of those first disciples waiting "in constant prayer" for the Spirit's arrival.
Amazing, too, was how he could relate to my life. After all, what did he know about being a young wife and working mom? But he had the ability to enter into another person's experience. Once, in a homily, he described the commotion and chaos typical in households as they began their day. I remember thinking, "Did he have a camera set up in my kitchen this morning?"
He was a compassionate man devoted to the Sacred Heart and he truly lived this devotion. If parents were worried about the faith of their children, he would reassure them, saying, "There is plenty of room in Jesus' heart for everyone." To caregivers concerned about loved ones who were suffering and often irritable, he would say, "It's not easy being sick!" He spent many of his vacations among the sick in Lourdes, France, hearing confessions.
Once, I woke up in the middle of the night with the sense that someone was praying the Rosary. I fell back asleep and, in the morning, awoke to an intense feeling of the presence of Father Jones. I immediately went to see him - only to find out that he had passed away that morning. Perhaps, as he left us, he was praying the Rosary, and Our Lady came to escort him to heaven.
In a daily homily recently, Pope Francis said of announcing the Gospel, "This work must be nurtured with memory. Memory of what? Of that encounter with Jesus who has changed my life! Who had mercy! Who was so good to me! The Lord has changed my life! I met the Lord! Remember always. It's like blowing on the embers of that memory, no? Blowing to keep the memory alive."
(Ms. Kennedy is a parishioner of Christ Our Light Church in Loudonville and a member of the Mother Teresa Community in Albany's South End.)[[In-content Ad]]
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