Throughout his sixty years as a priest Fr Eugene McGrath has prayed, “He must increase, I must decrease”, and anyone who has spent time with this gentle Irishman will realise his prayers have been answered.
From the moment he greets me at the front door of the Little Sisters of the Poor facility in Glendalough where he now resides, I sense I am in the presence of holiness.
It is a presence that lies beyond his deep humility, serene nature and grandfatherly tenderness and ignites in one a yearning to stay longer than one needs to.
I soon came to recognise these qualities as gateways to a deeper spiritual treasure.
It had been quite an assignment to convince Fr Eugene to spend time discussing his Diamond Jubilee, which fell on March 13 – a result of his humility more than his hearing difficulties – and it also came with conditions.
“I don’t want you to make me the focus of this article”, he insisted, “I would like this to be a story about my family, my parents love and prayer and the beauty of consecrated life”. Humility is indeed a wonderful virtue, but from a journalistic perspective it can be very stifling. Fortunately, however, the fruit of the McGrath family tree is worthy of a story itself.”
In an ironical twist, given his cheerful disposition and typical Irish humour, Fr Eugene was born twelve days after the Great Depression began in 1929.
Raised in County Kerry he was the youngest of 10 children to Eugene and Margaret, farming parents who provided the family with a remarkable and lifelong gift of faith – which has produced, to date, 349 years years of consecrated service.
Four of Fr Eugene’s sisters would become religious sisters and would be dispersed throughout the world. In 1936, Sr Angela and Sr May responded to a call from a visiting Reverend Mother from Iona Presentation Convent in Perth and left for Australia.
It was a testing year for the family, Fr Eugene reflected, in which his father also passed away.
“By Christmas of that year our family was reduced from twelve to nine”, he said.
Sr Angela would spend 36 years at Iona, before passing away and Sr May would serve 62 years as a Religious, much of it in Pakistan.
Another sister became Sr Rose and spent 69 years with the Poor Clares in England and Sr Gemma, who stayed in Ireland with the Presentation Sisters, would go on to celebrate 60 years of consecrated life.
Of all his siblings, however, it was his brother, Fr James, who had the most impact on his spiritual and personal development.
It is an affection that is still obvious today as he proudly displays the five thick volumes of meticulously crafted, hand-written letters he received during his older sibling’s 69 years of priesthood.
“Along with my parents, he had the greatest influence on my life”, Fr Eugene shared. “From the age of 10 I wanted to follow him”.
There would be 13 years between their Ordinations, but a relationship of brotherly love would remain a lifetime.
Fr Eugene’s priestly seed took deeper root during his teenage years and when Perth’s Archbishop Prendiville arrived at the family farm to report on the two sisters at Iona, he would accept his invitation to Australia.
Leaving his family and Ireland, he said, was the greatest cost of his vocation, but his sacrifice led to six decades of faithful service to God and the many parishioners he would encounter within the Perth Archdiocese.
Fr Eugene was ordained in Rome in 1954 and from his push-bike home visitation days in Queens Park in 1955 to his recent years as Chaplain of the Little Sisters home, Fr Eugene has touched the lives of thousands throughout Boulder, Northam, Subiaco, Kellerberrin, Rockingham, Guilford, Manning and Belmont.
His Diamond Jubilee celebrations were simple, celebrating Mass on May 12 at the Little Sisters residence and then at Iona on May 13, but this is exactly the way he wanted it.
He seems to be still recovering from the very public affair of his 50th anniversary celebrations, which involved the participation of numerous bishops, amongst other events.
He wanted this milestone to be a personal celebration with Christ, Our Lady and those saints he holds dear to his heart, he said.
One of the most influential of those saints, not only for Fr Eugene, but foundational to his family, was St Therese (Martin) of Lisieux, who was canonised in 1925.
Fr Eugene’s mother had a strong devotion to St Therese and wanted her family to replicate the Martins, and the influence of this French saint would resound throughout Fr Eugene’s life.
During our interview he produces a picture of her and her words, “Tout est grace” (Everything is grace), which was a saying the McGrath family adopted.
“We are nothing until God gets hold of us”, he said. “He is constantly at work within each of us, but it took me a long time to wake up to this”.
One of his favourite prayers comes from the lips of St Therese, “It is all very simple – the weaker and more imperfect we are, without desire or virtue, the more fitting objects we are of His consuming and merciful love”.
Another favourite phrase comes from St Paul, “The love of Christ drives me”.
These are the prayers he still wants his life to be shaped by and it is not difficult to recognise them in his 84-year-old frame.
His mind in razor sharp, his insight is profound and his words are always encouraging, but his delivery is carefully contemplative – as though waiting for guidance from a perpetual conversation he is having within – an acute awareness that every word and action carries spiritual significance.
Sensing the focus of our conversation was drifting back to him, Fr Eugene quickly draws attention to the many groups he has been associated with throughout his life, such as the Legion of Mary, the St Vincent De Paul Society, the Marian Movement of Priests, Flame Ministries International, the Holy Spirit of Freedom Community and numerous prayer groups.
It was a great privilege to be associated with, and to welcome these groups, he said, but it is the six years of Perpetual Adoration he helped establish during his time at the Belmont/Redcliffe Parish, that remains one of the highlights of his journey.
“I look back on this as the most fruitful edition for priestly ministry”, he said.
Today Fr Eugene has difficulty hearing, but even this may be an answer to his St John the Baptist prayer – “He must increase, I must decrease”.
As his communication with people diminishes, so his communication with God increases.
“I would have desired so much to have been able to keep in touch with a simple phone call with some of the many wonderful people who have been a part of my priesthood”, he reflects, “But it is no longer possible”.
But this does not mean he has forgotten any of those who have shared his journey. “The Good Lord has given us a beautiful Chapel here at the Little Sisters and therefore I have not lost touch with anyone”, he said.
“I truly take all whom I have been spiritually responsible for, to the foot of the Cross of Calvary, through my daily Mass and to Our Lady through the Rosary”.
At the conclusion of our time together, as he provides me with a blessing, it is not difficult to understand the truth of these words.
The sense of being in the presence of Christ deepens and I am left wondering just how many others, over the past 60 years, have been benefactors of such a beautiful instrument of God’s grace.