Hello, and welcome to a selection of homilies by Monsignor Joseph Bernard McAllister. My name is George Martin. My wife Anne and I had the honor to know Monsignor McAllister from the time of his arrival at our parish, the Church of the Holy Cross, Garrard Park, Maryland, in 1968 to his sudden death in 1995. After many years in the planning, I am delighted to provide to both those who knew Monsignor McAllister, and to a wider audience, the wisdom of this Catholic scholar via the selected recordings of his homilies covering the period from 1980 to 1994. Of the over 1,000 recordings made, we have selected 115 for transferring to CDs.
These recordings would not have been made had it not been for the fact that my mother was housebound during much of this period, which provided for me the opportunity to provide to her each day a recording of that day's 06:45 a. M. Mass. I wish to thank my son John for the hundreds of hours he spent in editing and transferring them to CDs. In using the word scholar, I do not want to scare off those who do not know Monsignor, as he was very much aware of the audience he was addressing.
In fact, he would often quote the words of Aristotle in accordance with the mode of the knower, which could reflect on his considerable effort to be mindful of his audience. That these homilies were given during a weekday masses and are less than ten minutes in length, the time restraints demanded that they be to the point, and to the point was what it was all about. As then, and hopefully for you now, these recordings will be like a pep talk or mini spiritual exercise. In listening to Monsignor McGallister, you are mindful that the point being made was a product of one of the most learned Catholic scholars of the twentieth century, refined over fifty years of the most intense Catholic controversy since the Reformation. Born in 1906, Monsignor Regalischer almost saw the end of the twentieth century when, to our great sorrow, he died suddenly on the sixteenth day of December nineteen ninety five.
Reflecting on his thorough education, when entering the seminary he even repeated high school, and subsequent teaching of logic and ethics, he oft referred to himself as being Aristotelian and or Atomist. As reflected in his resume, he was a devoted student of Saint Thomas Aquinas, and his energy was focused, like Saint Thomas, on the defense of the church using his considerable knowledge and persuasive argumentation. Upon his arrival at our parish in 1968, I took note of the quality of his preaching. Having in my possession almost 1,000 recordings of daily and Sunday masses celebrated by Monsignor McAllister, I felt compelled to share with others the wisdom of this man in support of our Catholic faith. I asked Monsignor McAllister if I could record his masses for my mother's benefit.
I explained to Monsignor McAllister that my mother was very religious but was housebound and and would certainly benefit from daily mass recordings. Monsignor McGallister took this request with enthusiasm and would start the recording each day with his own comments about the readings for that day. Until my mother's death in 1989, this became a routine of mine in both seeing my mother almost daily and providing to her Monsignor's tapes, which clearly enriched my mother's life during that period. I continued to tape these masses until 1994, when for some reason the audio capability ceased. Presently, I continue to listen to these tapes from time to time, but as you can imagine, the quality of the old tapes has diminished.
In stating that I wish to preserve the thoughts of Monsignor McAllister, I do not mean to capture for the ages sayings as one would the wisdom of Confucius, nor to record for historical purposes another Catholic scholar, but rather having readily available thought provoking comments by a person dedicated to promoting the Catholic faith. As a good teacher, he was clearly focused on one subject per day, and as a preacher, he was not about man's temporal condition. He believed that an open mind was obliged to close on something, and there was no doubt as to his conclusions. He stated many times that Christ did not give us a book, but rather a church built on his teachings preserved through the centuries to the present time in the Roman Catholic church. Monsignor would often remark on the importance of the present time and how both the past and the future abstractions not worth our concern.
How we dealt with our present task and obligation was of utmost importance in his agenda. His agenda was that which Christ gave to his church and we are called to practice. What Monsignor did each day was, in my mind, as good a reflection of what we are called to be as any person I have ever known. As to the format of these recordings, we anticipate that listeners will be listening to one or more of these homilies on an unpredictable schedule. Therefore, we made no attempt to set an order by the liturgical year or by theme.
While some recordings include the reading of the day for context with a particular homily, for the most part, they have been randomly selected. These recordings are being provided free of cost, so please return to them frequently as I do or pass them on to a friend for their use. And finally, it should be noted that Monsignor Regallister loves his years at Holy Cross after his long academic career. So if you enjoy listening to these recordings, a donation of Monsignor McAllister's name to Holy Cross Church, Garrett Park, Maryland 20896 would be appreciated. So now, the recording of selected homilies of Monsignor Joseph B.
McAllister.