SIXTY NOT OUT!...

Fr. Michael Creech C.Ss.R.,

another diamond jubilarian shares

some of his story...

Sixty years seems, and is, a life-time ago when I joined the Redemptorist family. Even before entering the novitiate I already had a sense of belonging - daily contact in St Mary's Clapham in London with Bro Gerard the sacristan; Bro Joseph the porter at the monastery door, and regular meetings in the sacristy passing the time of day or chatting with members of the large community made up of new and old Redemptorists.

The novitiate and formative years seemed to go on and on - a marathon before reaching ordination and emerging into the wider world, religious and secular. Sadly - I can only speak for myself - it also seemed to take a long time before settling down to community and apostolic life. A long process of learning what we had never been told about as students!

Every life is an epic; an adventure, that usually contains drama. The CSSR numbers were big, and there were at least ten 'houses', most with largish communities. This is no place to give an early itinerary; sufficient to say I was moved five times in the first five years! I was fortunate that parish missions, school missions and nuns retreats made the years tick by quickly - whatever house I was in!

Sixty years - 1952 - 2012 - covers some of the most important years in Church history; the Second Vatican Council (making us re-think, re­structure and re-organise traditional parish missions as well as parish ministry); General Chapters; a New Liturgy, that included changing from Latin to the vernacular; six Popes, each one so different and in their own way charismatic, yet wielding growing international influence; several new Generals, scores of Provincials and a host of Rectors!

Years ago (well before the days of consultation) I found my name on the nominations list moved from Kinnoull (Scotland) to Heathfield (on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa). I never dreamed I would 'end up' in Heathfield, East Sussex. A kind Rector barred me going to South Africa; an understanding superior released me on loan to the Arundel and Brighton diocese where everybody still knows me as a Redemptorist. I am flattered sometimes that I am still asked for preaching engagements, and have aimed to give at least one mission a year. I am now preparing for a mission this Lent (as well as looking ahead to moving into a new church and accommodation sometime next year).

You may observe that only two names of deceased brothers appear in this sketch of 60 yrs. I have shared my CSSR life with so many other wonderful confreres, the majority now occupying a line on the necrologium – (our list of the deceased).

People ask why I don't write a biography. Time for that perhaps in the next life where I, and many who have shared these sixty years, will have more leisure