MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

With everything going on, I have not yet written my Christmas letter for this year - which will end up looking a lot more like a New Year's Letter for Next year. Below are two photos from the gig I had singing as part of a quartet at the Warwick Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. (Standing as I am amidst some really good-looking people, you can tell they hired me for my voice.) New Year's Eve I will be singing Eisenstein in a production of Fledermaus. And for that, I will be modifying my beard into a more European trimmed look.

There definitely will be a long narrative and more pictures upcoming - in the meantime, have a blessed and peace-filled New Year's and - watch for more stuff.

“NOW I CAN TURN YOU OFF”

A number of people kept telling Fr. John he should make a recording and so in 2001, he did. In fact, he did two together and issued them together. When the first CD’s were published, Fr. John sent a set to his sister, who wrote back that she was thrilled and had actually been waiting for something like this for years. “Now I can turn you off,” she said.

Now there are three - one of sacred songs, one with a wide range of songs from operatic arias to show tunes to the song that Father's own father sang at his wedding breakfast, and the third of recordings made when Father was singing live concerts in a number of different locations.

We trust that you will not want to turn him off when you hear these beautiful songs. Each disc is $12, and may be ordered on line at : www.lulu.com. Type in the disk # or the title of the disk, and you should be taken to Father John’s page on the site.

All proceeds from the sale of these disks goes to the work of the Xavier Society for the Blind. If you send Fr. John an email when you have ordered a disk, he will send you the full booklet that was made for each disk when it was originally published.

Lulu item #1387771

Lulu item #1391166

THE SEVERAL SIDES OF FATHER JOHN
Lulu item #1313461

ANOTHER WAY TO GIVE

HELP THIS POOR LITTLE BOY!!!!


For those of you who would LOVE to help support the Xavier Society for the Blind (see SHAMELESS BEGGING LETTER below) and yet don't have the ready cash to make those huge contributions - there is another way.

The Xavier Society for the Blind has enrolled in the Goodsearch Program. This means if you search on the Internet using the Goodsearch program, or shop through Goodshop, the Xavier Society receives a small amount for each search and a percentage of each purchase. Please encourage your friends and family to sign up for this easy way to support our work. Doesn’t cost anything, and the more people who use it, the more money we will receive.

GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up! You can easily and quickly add the Goodsearch option to your toolbar so it automatically credits the Xavier Society each time you make a search.

GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 37 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting your favorite cause.

Just go to www.goodsearch.com and be sure to enter Xavier Society for the Blind as the charity you want to support. And, be sure to spread the word!

See? And it doesn't hurt a bit!

The poor little boy at the top is, of course, mine own (and much younger) self, visiting my Great Aunt Mary and Great Uncle Hen at their house in Red Bank. I thought I looked pretty sharp that day, and all these years later, I don't know that I was too far off. Compare that picture with one of me today, and you'll see why I need all the help I can get.

Many thanks - and as we say in the trade, God bless you.

SHAMELESS BEGGING LETTER

There is a letter going out from the Xavier Society for the Blind - appropriately entitled Shameless Begging Letter #1 - which might suggest there will be OTHER shameless begging letters. I discovered that some of my friends no longer have snail mail addresses in my records. I may have lost them, they may have moved - and we are using internet communications so much it's the kind of thing I might not notice.

Soooo - in case you (noble reader) did not get a Shameless Begging Letter, I did not want you to feel left out. And so I post it here. If you are an Iternet wanderer and have stumbled on to this little corner of the world while looking for something else, please consider this personally addressed to you. (And sending money is a perfectly acceptable way of responding to such a personal note.) And if you are a long-time friend who did NOT get such a letter, it could be I do not have your snail mail address and you should thus and therefore get in touch.

Many thanks for what I assume will be your astounding generosity in these difficult financial times.

And just for the record - in case my paltry words move you to the point of actually sending something:
Web site: www.xaviersociety.com
Mail: 154 East 23rd St
New York, NY 10010



Shameless Begging Letter #1
31 July 2008
Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola

Dear Friends of Father John,

WAIT!!! This is NOT a scam letter that is going to ask for money or tell you that you have just inherited a legacy in some African country. (Well, it IS going to ask for money but that comes later, and it’s for right here in New York City. No inheritance.)

As you may know (and if you don’t, check the Blog – www.frjohnsj.blogspot.com) I am now the Chairman of the Board of the Xavier Society for the Blind. (The technical title is President, but I was first appointed as Chairman – complicated legal stuff – and I’ve never switched over to President, unless I’m filling out a bank card or a grant application.) This note is just to catch you up on that and a couple of things and to remind you – should you hit the lottery, find money under the sofa or decide you’re going to give it all up and enter a monastery in the hills of Tennessee – we REALLY need financial help.

In case I haven’t been keeping you up properly and completely, when I finished my mini-sabbatical and sang a concert here in New York (…if you can make it here, you’ll make it anywhere, and so forth) the Provincial asked me if I would go to the Xavier Society for the Blind and see if I could be of any assistance. The Jesuit Executive Director had died unexpectedly in September (he was 66) and at that point there was no replacement on the horizon. I did and enjoyed the operation and the staff.

The Xavier Society for the Blind was founded in 1900, and incorporated in 1904. It was founded by a group of Catholic laywomen, with a Jesuit as the “spiritual advisor.” He also functioned as Executive Director and was with the Xavier Society until his death in 1941. I am the 9th Jesuit to be Executive Director – and as soon as I got the title, I submitted a new set of By-Laws, separating the job of Board head and Executive Director, and we now have the first lay Executive Director, who is also a woman. She’s been with the Society for 16 years and is terrific. She has an MBA, and is probably more capable than either of the current presidential candidates. Well, close anyway. So that went well and we’re working together famously.


In 1911 the Jesuits were formally invited to manage the Xavier Society, which they did with an all-Jesuit Board until the early 1950’s. Then, for a variety of legal and practical reasons, they went back to a Board that was both Jesuit and lay, as it remains today. In 1948 they bought the building we are in today, on 23rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. It is a 7-story building (well, 1600 stories if you count the books in our library – hehehe) and we currently have around 15,000 square feet.

We are essentially a small publishing house. Without going into all the things we have done in the last 108 years, right now we print and distribute braille, large-print and audio recordings of books, magazines, prayers, Mass readings and Mass Propers, and articles to blind and visually-handicapped clients all over the U.S. and Canada. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 clients and a staff of thirteen, plus a large group of dedicated and varied volunteers. We have never charged for our services – and mail to the blind is free, fortunately – but that means we have to raise all our operating and program funding each and every year. That, of course, is one of my jobs. Runs in the neighborhood of $2 Million a year. (It’s actually a little less than that but in these times, I’m going to shoot high.)

I am also the Chaplain for the New York Athletic Club and the Huckleberry Indians, and for the Notre Dame Club of New York. I say Mass regularly at St. Malachy’s Church – the Actors’ Chapel where I am also head of the Evangelization Committee. I sing regularly with Jazz at Noon at the National Arts Club, and I am an active member of the Lambs Club. I am a paid-up member of Actors’ Equity (in case a Broadway show suddenly needs a replacement) and a member of the NY Gilbert & Sullivan Society, the Mario Lanza Society (an audition is NOT necessary to join), the Episcopal Actors Guild, and the Cornell Club. I recently did a small concert in July for a Jewish group here in the city, at least one and maybe two concerts in January in Florida, and I am talking with another group in Florida about a concert or two. (Any money raised goes to the Xavier Society for the Blind, of course. Make the check out to us and it’s tax-deductible.) AND my three CD”s are now available on line – go to www.lulu.com and type in “Sheehan” and you should get the chance to order as many copies as your heart desires. The more you order, the cheaper each copy is and we get more money per disk.

But my main job is the Xavier Society for the Blind. I’ve started a very basic web site (a larger and much more sophisticated one is on the drawing board as part of our computer renovation project, currently underway ), we’re in negotiation about selling our building, and I’ve re-vamped the structure of the organization to make it more efficient and responsive. We are shortly going to be getting rid of our audio tape operation and moving to a strictly digital distribution. (In time that will mean our clients can download material directly from the web site, as well as having it sent by mail). And each day we spend at least some time thinking about, worrying about and going after – money. ( So much for that vow of poverty thing, huh? But of course I don’t get to KEEP any of the money we raise.)

So if you have any bright ideas about places to look – please share them. (Hey, I’m even buying two lottery tickets a week, just in case – you can’t win it, if you’re not in it.) If you know any people with “extra” money (whatever THAT is) or generous impulses – put them in touch with us.

If you are suddenly and irresistibly moved to send a check, the address is back at the beginning. Check and see if your company or employer does matching gifts - and they tell me (for those who have stock) that sometimes there can be tax benefits to donating stock rather than direct cash. I have NO understanding of this, but mention it just in case.) Our web site is open and while still very basic gives you some idea of what we do. And of course, I am always available to answer questions, make speeches and sing concerts.

And since several people have asked - let me share one of our standards bits of information:
Xavier Society for the Blind (our full legal title), located at 154 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010, is a 501(c)(3) organization, incorporated in 1904 under the laws of the State of New York, meeting the charitable guidelines of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Charities Information Bureau and the Better Business Bureau. It is listed as an agency in the Official Catholic Directory under the Archdiocese of New York.

All donations to XSB are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by the law.

Even if you can’t send money, you know you are regularly in my prayers and will always be. (Actually this is just a sneaky way to keep in touch and have someone else pay for it.)

Love and hugs and prayers to all,

One More on the List

Ahem - I am proud to report that I have been accepted as a member of the New York Athletic Club, and named as Chaplain to the club. I have also been named as Chaplain to the Huckleberry Indians, a distinguished club that lives within the NYAC (but not as part of that group. So for those of you who are keeping track - I'm Chairman of the Board for the Xavier Society for the Blind (which is a full-time, got an office job) and I help out at St. Malachy's Church (the Actors' Chapel) and I'm head of the Evangelization Committee there. I am Chaplain for the Notre Dame Club of NY, and the two I named above.

I'm proud of all of them - but the NYAC is a special pleasure, since my grandfather was a member of the club, and it has been around since right after the Civil War.

I continue to sing with the Jazz at Noon group each Friday at the National Arts Club, and at the Lambs Club. I've been asked to do a concert in Florida in November (with a possibility of several other concerts also in the Florida area) and I'm doing a show here in Manhattan for a Jewish Center later in July.

Keeps me off the street.

The Pope has Come / Gone

Too many people have been asking me about the Papal visit - was I going, did I see him (in some cases, did I see Him?), what did I think? We live in the neighborhood, so although we were far enough away not to have police at our front door every day, His Holiness did drive past the front door and we did have helicopters overhead for many hours of several days. I di not go to any of the events. (That's why God invented television, no?)At some point you weigh responsibility against desire, and at this point, I simply had too much to do. I watched some of the moments on television, or on my computer (the Catholic Bishops Conference had the best feed of anyone)and have read some of the many words that have been written. Fr. James Martin has an outstanding blog connected with the NY Times on the visit - he is one of the best writers I know and if you want some really good reflections from a Jesuit, turn to him.

At some point I may write a wider-ranging reflection (once I figure out if I have anything particular to say). I think it was an extraordinary, and for many people, a surprising visit. I think many people got a new sense of this teacher and pastor, who had the reputation of being something of an attack dog, especially on doctrinal issues. But for the moment, let me share the notes for the homily I'm going to give at Mass today. The First Reading tells of Paul curing a crippled man, and the people of that place wanting to put up statues in honor of him and Barnabas, calling them gods. They respond that they are men, like themselves, who are bringing them good news that will change their lives. Seemed a coincidence of Scripture and daily life too good to pass up.

HOMILY NOTES
For me, the most important line in all of today’s readings is found in the First Reading - “Men, why are you doing this? We are of the same nature as you, human beings. We proclaim to you good news.”

I have two thoughts – the first is that often enough, when someone does something good for us, we tend to overestimate them. When we were young – we fell in love – and we were thrown when we discovered that the object of our love wasn’t perfect in all things. We really like our movie stars – and so because they can act well, somehow people think they are also experts in political affairs and international diplomacy. During this past week, I heard people on the street say things like – OH the Pope – Christ on earth – the closest I will ever get to God. Sigh – even the Holy Father would say that’s silly – in fact, he would probably say it faster and louder and stronger because he knows how weak he is, and how much he needs to help of the Spirit – he said that at the end of the Mass Saturday at St. Patrick’s.

The apostles knew better. Pay attention to the message – don’t try and make the messenger into something more than they are. Priests and Bishops and Cardinals and yes, the Holy Father have been given great privileges – and even greater responsibilities. But we are of the same nature as you are – we are all human beings –and if you try to turn any of us into something else, you are making a mistake that is not fair to us, and may not be good for you. Like assuming the object of your first love is perfect – you are going to be disappointed.

My other reflection comes from the same line – we are of the same nature as you, human beings. And if WE can proclaim the good news, so can you. If WE can find God’s spirit in our lives, find God’s hand in our daily work – so can you. You can hear the message and live the message and most important, you can share the message with others. If you find a really good restaurant, you tell your friends. If you see a really great movie, you tell your friends. If you get a good bargain on clothes or cell phone rates or buying a new car – you tell your friends. So why aren’t you telling your friends about what ought to be the most exciting thing in your life?

It was exciting to have the Pope come and visit. I am a great fan of the Pope, and I think he’s doing an extraordinary job and I think it was a great visit. But he’s the Pope – meaning no disrespect, he’s ONLY the Pope. Here at Mass we come in direct and personal contact with God. We have the Word of God preached to us, we have a miracle performed each day here on the altar that is way more extraordinary than the healing we heard about in the first reading and we have the extraordinary privilege of being able to receive God into our own bodies physically. What could possibly be more exciting or more important than that!

So why aren’t you telling your friends? Why aren’t you excited about sharing that? Why isn’t THAT the most important thing in your life?

* * * * * * * * * *
Now that the Pope has left - back to work.

IT'S A SINATRA SORT OF THING

While I suspect that YOU may not have been waiting with bated (or should that be baited?)breath, >>I<< have been wondering how my immediate future would develop.

On Thursday, March 27th, the current Board of Directors of the Xavier Society for the Blind named me as Chairman of the Board. In the past the Executive Director was always also Chairman. At the moment, the former Director's Assistant (and Financial Officer) is the Acting Director. What I think we are working towards is re-structuring the organization along the lines of our Jesuit high schools, where we have a Principal, who runs the school on a day to day basis, and a President, who is a member of or works with the Board, works with long-range planning, does fund-raising (don't you start hiding your checkbooks, now) and public relations - that sort of thing. That would be me.

Over the next several months we'll be figuring out exactly what that means - as we raise the several million dollars we need to keep the doors open (don't you start hiding your checkbooks, now - I know, and I'm going to keep saying it).

The Xavier Society for the Blind was formed in 1900, and today is the only Catholic publishing house and lending library for the blind and partially sighted. We produce books and other materials in Braille, in large type, and audio recordings. We have a lending library of over 15,000 items and we produce audio versions of seven weekly and two monthly periodicals. Although not exclusively Catholic, our orientation is religious and spiritual. We do not charge for our services - anyone who is blind or partially sighted may qualify. Clients do not have to be Catholic - many are not -and there is no charge for any of our services. Postage is free for the blind, so there is one charge saved.

We have a staff of 15, and a building on East 23rd Street. We do our own Braille printing and transcriptions, we record and reproduce audio materials on site and we have over a thousand volunteers who help make what we do possible. But our operating costs are currently about $1.5 million a year - and in the near future, they will be going up as we finish the process of converting to a fully digital audio department. We record everything digitally, but for several reasons, including the age of one section of our client base, we still send our our materials on tape.

So be braced - fund-raising letters will (at some point) be appearing here and perhaps in your email box and maybe even (gasp) a real printed letter. Signed by me. With a teardrop of desperation in the corner.

I will continue to help out at St. Malachy's (The Actors' Chapel) but less than I have. And I have asked St. Ignatius to take me off the Mass schedule there for a while, at least until I get a better handle on this full-time. The people are wonderful and the work is very important - but I confess, it's a little daunting. I find myself humming that line about ("..if you can make it here, you'll make it anywhere.") I will continue as Chaplain for the Notre Dame Alumni CLub here in New York - and I have a couple of small singing things coming up - bored, I ain't.

Of course, one of my father's proudest boasts was not just that he hated Frank SInatra, but that Frank hated him. Great story - remind me to tell it to you sometimes, if I haven't already in an earlier page.

I know I owe a whole lot of stories about life in New York lately - and there are fun things going on. I'm doing some great stuff at the Lamb's Club and at the last meeting Abe Vigoda and I were talking about doing a duet together. Yes, THAT Abe Vigoda. Somewhere in this post I'll stick a picture we had taken of the two of us when we went to the Actors' Home in Englewood to do an afternoon show. (He is NOT living at the home - the Lambs went out as a group.) I've been to the opera and just renewed my subcription for next year - cheap seats but even so, speaking of fund-raising. Yikes. Including the Ring Cycle, the tickets cost twice my monthly allowance. Ah the vow of poverty - pinch, pinch, pinch.

And I was invited to a meeting of the Huckleberry Indians - more on that distinguished group in a later posting, but they are the most fascinating group of men and the club has a tremendous history - and you can smoke a cigar in the club! Last bastion of civilization. I'm going out to Notre Dame for my 40th college reunion this summer (who said I was old? Just older....) and I've been invited to come down for the Annapolis graduation and commissioning. The son of friends from Lagos is getting his commission. I wonder if I would have been invited if ND had beaten Navy last year? We'll never know. There is now a bus route from NY to DC that charges between $1 (yes, one dollar) and up - I got a round trip ticket for $11 including handling. This is good. And the circus is coming to town and spring is coming to town and life is good.

So greetings to all - from now on you may address me as "Father Chairman" - and remember, I'm a Chief so it would be "Father Chairman Chief" - I'm going to have to find a larger business card.

More later - love and hugs and prayers and stuff like that for now.

March Madness

And I'm not talking about basketball. Actually, I realized to my chagrin that my last posting here was before "THE CONCERT" and I truly do have some catching up to do.

But for the nonce - I am still in New York, working part-time at St. Malachy's Church, the Actors' Chapel, and part-time at the Xavier Society for the Blind. Both jobs are on track to possibly turn into full-time jobs in the not too distant future, so I await word from my Provincial about which way I should point my nose.

I have done some singing - although nothing as extraordinary as my concert (of which there is a DVD - contact me for further information) - and I've been to Texas - and met a host of interesting people. All of which will be detailed in... well, detail... soon. I will be going to my 40th college reunion at Notre Dame this May/June, and may even get to go to the Annapolis graduation earlier in May. And as soon as the definite word is out, I will post it here. With more details about St/ Malachy's or the Xavier Society, depending on which way I go.

The picture at the top was taken in Texas - the picture at the bottom is St. Malachy's on 49th Street and 8th Avenue - right across from Spring Awakening.