Anne Keeling meets the president of the Morning Star hostel in Dublin
Among the writings of Servant of God Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary, is a booklet called Can We Be Saints? He answers his own question with a definite ‘yes’ and through his organisation legionaries can strive to respond to that call.
The Morning Star hostel in Dublin’s north inner city is one of the earliest apostolates of the Legion. It was established in 1927. Managed and staffed by volunteers it accommodates up to 34 homeless men every day. The governing body of the hostel is the Morning Star praesidium (basic unit of Legion members), which looks after the day-to-day running of the hostel. Its president is Willie Burke.
Willie’s voyage through life before joining the Legion was not always an easy one. His problems started at 14 when he was expelled from school for experimenting with prescription drugs. “No other school would take me,” he recalls, “it was ’79 or ’80 and so there was a big taboo about drugs back then.” He began to associate with other young lads who were out of school or unemployed and alcohol consumption also became a pastime, leading to anti-social activities.
Suicidal
Despite a respite of two years from age 16 to 18, during which Willie got involved in the Charismatic movement, it was to take many years before he found himself ready to get help for his alcohol addiction. In 1999 Willie was 34. As had happened in his teens he felt suicidal.
“I was out of my house, sleeping in friends’ houses, sleeping here and sleeping there. One morning I woke up and I came to my senses,” Willie says. He knew he needed help with his problems. He started to pray to God to help him get back on his feet. Leaving to talk to his family he met a friend who was a recovering heroin addict. Through him he talked to some counsellors and within five days he was in Sr Consilio’s Cuan Mhuire rehabilitation centre in Bruree, Co. Limerick.
Willie spent four months there. There was daily Mass and rosary and weekly Confession as well as great support and help from Sr Agnes and all the other staff. Willie became sober and free of drugs and he has remained so ever since.
On his return to Dublin, Willie got work as a labourer on building sites. “I was attending Mass regularly and then I found a Charismatic prayer meeting… down in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel on Bachelor’s Walk. Eventually a couple of people asked me would I like to join the Legion and that was around 2004.”
At first he was not so keen. “The idea I had of the Legion of Mary was a group of old ladies doing coffee mornings and maybe knitting clothes for people in poor countries.” On being asked two more times he thought that maybe God was saying something to him and so he joined the Our Lady Queen of Peace praesidium in St Peter’s Church in Phibsboro. Part of his work there was to visit the Morning Star once a week and so he got to know the staff and the residents and got to really like it. “After a year I asked would it be possible to come and work full-time here and they said no problem,” he says.
Voluntary basis
Willie now lives as well as works at the Morning Star on a voluntary basis. In 2008 the outgoing president of the Morning Star praesidium suggested that he would be suitable to take over from him for the six year term. “Thank God it all went well,” says Willie, “and the six years are up now this September so please God the hostel will be refurbished by then and it will pass on to the next president.”
Through fundraising in all the dioceses of Ireland, enough money was raised to go towards the cost of substantial renovations in the hostel. Willie explains that the demand for beds has grown and one night five men had to be turned away because they were full up. When completed the Morning Star will be able to accommodate 68 men, twice as many as it does at present.
Willie’s life is a full one, with work – cooking, cleaning, interacting with the men – and prayer. He clearly loves it. “We’re here and we do it out of love. We do our work out of service. We’re not here to make money out of the residents,” Willie says.
“When you join the Legion of Mary you’re taught to put yourself outside of your comfort zone. Keep up the prayer and you get the graces to do anything the Lord asks you to do, not to be afraid of it, just to accept it. Try your best and he’ll do the rest.”