Those Who Knew Paul

Servant of God Paul Murphy, A Link in the Chain
By Stephen Ryan, MJ

In this month of February, we celebrate the 31st anniversary of the death of Servant of God Paul Murphy, who died on 10 February 1976. Does it seem possible, for those of our readers that knew Paul, that over 30 years have passed since his death? I remember very well the youth group gatherings we had in Phoenix at the different Miles Jesu houses in the 1970’s. I didn’t realize it then, for i was young and inattentive to such things, but Paul was very much in love with the vocation he was living in Miles Jesu. And he was just great with the young lads coming over to visit from time to time.

Many years later, as a grown man living the consecrated life in Miles Jesu, I was reintroduced to Paul Murphy through talking with Father General and many others who knew him. I’ve interviewed friends and family from down the years of Paul’s life. I’ve come to know him as a man very much in love with God, with his Catholic Faith, with his vocation and his brothers and sisters in Miles Jesu, and with his family. Paul had a profound relationship with God that influenced everything he was, everything he said, thought or did. His was a very natural friendship with God, not something he seemed to struggle with or force. Pope Benedict said so beautifully about this type of friendship with God when he was still a Cardinal:

“Heroic virtue does not mean that the saint performs a type of ‘gymnastics’ of holiness, something that normal people do not dare to do. It means rather that in the life of a person God’s presence is revealed – something man could not do by himself and through himself. Perhaps in the final analyses we are rather dealing with a question of terminology, because the adjective ‘heroic’ has been badly interpreted.

“Heroic virtue properly speaking does not mean that one has done great things by oneself, but rather that in one’s life there appear realities which the person has not done himself, because he has been transparent and ready for the work of God. Or, in other words, to be a saint is nothing other than to speak with God as a friend speaks with a friend. This is holiness.” (Our emphasis) –Pope Benedict XVI L’Osservatore Romano, 06 October 2002

There are many witnesses who knew Paul on a day to day basis. They saw how he prayed, how he attended Mass, how he prepared for Confession, how he worked and interacted with other people. There is a consensus of opinion – which is really more than an opinion because it is testified to by eyewitnesses, that Paul Murphy had this deep and easy friendship with God. For Paul, to talk to God was to talk to his most intimate friend. When Paul dealt with others, at home or at work, he was dealing with the friends of his Friend and this came out in the way he dealt with them.The following quote from the Miles Jesu Constitutions also illustrates well that relationship that Paul had with God, a relationship that developed his whole outlook on life.“A man who is so much in love and in contact with the truth of the reality of his sheer poverty and of God’s infinite richness, cannot help but fall on his knees and humbly beg God for help, thank Him for everything he has, praise Him for everything He is, and atone for any mistake or sin he has committed – in a word, pray.” (MJ constitutions, 199)

Paul was a man very much in contact with reality. He had a very clear idea of who he was and why he existed. There was never any doubt, from his youngest days, that he was on this earth for: to know, love, serve and adore God and be happy with Him forever in Heaven. The moment he realized the fullness of his vocation through the guidance of Father General, after he’d made his Cursillo in Phoenix, Arizona, he broke down and cried. How to serve God completely was his guiding aim throughout his life. And the living out of that vocation through the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in Miles Jesu enabled him to serve God with his whole heart and soul. His consecrated vocation to Miles Jesu was what he’d always been looking for…though there was a time when he still didn’t know that. The card he wrote and designed himself in his later years says it beautifully:

I’ve been asked:
Why are you serving God?
…to help the poor?
…to serve the people?
…to be a priest?
…to be a teacher, or a missionary,
or an engineer?
NO, nothing like that…
I serve God because…
I love Him, JESUS
I love Her, MARY
Jesus reveals to me His own infinite love and mercy, He forgives my sins, and offers me eternity.
Mary becomes the sweetheart of my soul, my intercessor before her Divine Son, and a mother beyond compare.

Paul was looking for God’s will, but it wasn’t clear to him before that point of the discussion with Father General what God wanted of him, and in what state of life he was to serve God. That moment, after making his Cursillo and realizing God was calling him to be an architect consecrated with the vows, was one of crystal clarity touching upon the most important question in his life: how best to serve God with his talents and abilities, but even more so, with his availability. Paul waited patiently upon the Lord, trusting that it would all come clear in the end.

I think the following thoughts of Cardinal John Henry Newman express well the trust that Paul had in God. The trust that God would show him eventually what it was that Paul was to do with his life. I believe it was that friendship with God finally being rewarded, when through Father General and the Cursillos Paul Murphy finally realized his vocation, that made a big, handsome strapping young man, break down in tears of joy at the treasure that he’d found in Miles Jesu. Cardinal Newman, it seems, is describing Paul’s quest to know God’s will and his unshakable confidence that God would show him His will:

"”God has created me to do him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission; I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I have a part in a great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection [sic] between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.”

Beautiful how Newman uses the words ‘link’, ‘chain’ and ‘bond’, all words that point to Vinculum, which is a link or bond in a chain. Paul is an ideal for us as Miles Jesu members. And he is a model of our times, not someone dressed in medieval clothes, speaking in some ancient dialect. Paul Murphy spoke our language, was raised up in our culture and strove for holiness in it, in a word, Paul Murphy was a 20th century man, like the vast majority of us reading this newsletter. God willing he will soon be a 21st century saint. Now that he is Servant of God, Paul Murphy, we can turn to him in our times of need or trouble and beg his intercession.

If you have a special prayer or favor granted through Paul Murphy’s intercession, won’t you please let us know by e-mail or post at the following addresses: paulmurphy@milesjesu.com or
Cause for Paul Murphy, MJ
1925 E. Baseline Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85042.

Stephen is a member of the Catholic Writer’s Guild of England and Wales, and knew Paul Murphy well as a young lad growing up in Phoenix in the 1970’s.

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