Notebook
A few months ago, Fr Tom Mulligan published a biography of Fr Patrick Peyton – The Rosary Priest. Fr Peyton was a native of the parish of Attymass, Co. Mayo, where Fr Mulligan has since been parish priest. I have no doubt it was this connection that drew him into a place where he wanted to tell afresh the story of this man who, in so many ways, shaped the world of his day and now, through Fr Mulligan’s pages, has the potential to speak to a new generation.
Moving through the pages of this book, we hear again the story of a man who sought to please God and give glory to Our Lady, and of colossal gatherings all over the world of people who listened to Fr Peyton’s simple but profound message that the “family that prays together stays together” and that a “world at prayer is a world at peace”. So, so much being said there and seldom in more need of being heard than now.
I especially loved his story of Fr Peyton from the night before he left his native Attymass. He was going because his sister had gone before him and he felt it was somewhere he might make a go of things. He was going with his brother Tom who, as things turned out, was ordained by his side some years later. Like many, he quite likely wondered if ever he’d return.
His father knew this truth and the night before he left, he brought his son into the bedroom in their little cottage, and asked him to kneel down before a picture of the Sacred Heart. He spoke to him about what the future might or might not bring but had only one message he wanted his son to remember: “Never turn your back on God.”
Impressed
He told him that he and his mother would not be able to be with him, but that God would always be there and impressed on his young son the need to remember this and never turn away from God. As I read those lines there was a lump in my throat – they were powerful and faith-filled people. We do well to remember them.
Fr Peyton, as Fr Mulligan relates, was to revisit this moment in later years and come to a fuller appreciation of its significance. He came to realise that his father did not ask him to become successful, wealthy or to send home money to his parents. He did not measure the potential success of his son in dollars and cents but through his remaining faithful to the church of his baptism and the place where he celebrated and received the Sacraments.
Fr Peyton’s sister got him a job in her local church. It was there the sense of vocation (which it seems likely was always there) caught fire again. Priesthood followed but not before serious illness visited him and led him to a place of prayer where he promised Our Lady that were he healed, he would dedicate his ministry to giving glory to her name.
Over the following decades, he enlisted the help of stars of stage and screen and embraced the media in a way that overshadows much of our current day attempts to harness and relate to the power and potential of media. Skilful beyond question, he reached millions and millions reached for God as God had always reached for them.
Fr Peyton is on the road to sainthood now. In his native Attymass, a centre bearing his name and promoting his message seeks to continue his work. It’s a place worth a visit and a story worth hearing. Fr Mulligan’s time was well spent – not just during his time in Attymass but also in his responding to a stirring in his soul and heart to tell this story again that it might be heard and understood and that a father’s wish is remembered and a promise kept – so that we don’t turn our backs on God.
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Attymass in New York
Thinking of Fr Peyton’s native place reminds me of an amazing site, literally down the street from where stood the once famous and ever lamented Twin Towers. At the end of Vesey Street, rounding a corner we are face to face with a tumbled down house, stone walls and a field of rushes, weeds and wild flowers.It could be around any corner in Ireland and stands there as a memorial of ‘The Famine’. Once standing in a field in Attymass, it was taken down stone by stone, transported and built again in its brokenness so that it could speak a message to all willing to hear.
