If I ever get a chance to write my autobiography, I’ll have to include my brief encounter with the great Father Norman Weslin (R.I.P.). I’m thinking that that autobiography is going to have to be postumously published, if anything. Names and places and dates and circumstances would have to be changed to protect the guilty (as one reader put it) if I were to publish it before I died!
- Back in the day, before Priests for Life burst on to the scene, I had been speaking with Father Frank Pavone (a great priest!) about teaming up with him. Ineffable logistical difficulties had it that that would not be the case. Ineffable, for now. That was a disappointment.
- Back in the day, when Father Paul Marx was still in charge of Human Life International (I knew him from his Collegeville days!), he wanted me to take over the reigns of HLI as well as found a religious community to carry on pro-life work. Ineffable logistical difficulties had it that that would not be the case. Ineffable, for now. That was a disappointment.
- Back in the day, Father Norman Weslin invited me to his remote residence to engage in some discussions about the vision he had to found a religious community to carry on pro-life work. He wanted my to write the constitutions for this community and take charge of it, leaving him free to carry on his work. Ineffable logistical difficulties had it that that would not be the case. Ineffable, for now. That was a disappointment.
Two out of three have already died. It is as if the third is being aborted. All three have suffered greatly for a variety of reasons, including the mockery and censure of those who should know better. All three, in their own ways, are heroes for me. But of these three, it is Father Norman Weslin who stands out for me as a particularly poignant image of the suffering Christ.
He spoke at length to me about the importance of fasting, perhaps knowing that that is not my forte. Father Weslin would frequently fast in prison for 39 days, saying that it would be presumptuous to go the full forty days. He described the effects of fasting on the human body. This is an aspect of our Lord’s ministry that is not often taken up, nor are there many who have the strength of a Father Weslin to survive more than a handful of days. I have all the respect in the world for this wonderfully humble priest who sacrificed himself for the sake of those who are defenseless among us.
@ infinitegrace — Father Weslin would only want you and others like you… so very many… to know the healing power of our Lord’s love. This is what this is all about. Our Lord’s love for all of us… and you too!
Father Weslin now has a front row seat to see what is going to happen to America in times to come. We pray for the repose of his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed. And… and… we ask his intercession for us! Hail Mary… (Picture source)
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
