2013-09-15 (from one of my oldest and dearest friends - thank you Rob!)
The
Testimony of Robert de Weger
(Comments welcome here)
My memories of Holland:
In the year of our Lord 1946, the Lord saw fit to bless my parents Nicolaas and Louise de Weger with a son and so I was born, Robert Gregory Mary. Robert, because dad being a scout master, was impressed by his meeting with Sir Robert Baden Powell when he met him at the world jamboree in 1937 in Holland. Gregory after Pope St Gregory the Great and Mary because of mum’s love and devotion to the mother of God.
I was born in the township of Gouda in Holland and some of the things I remember about my early years were: Climbing between two stone pillars at my kindergarten, being the best block builder in my kindergarten class.
Sickness: Being stuck up in the attic of our house making cubbies out of the mattresses while our chicken pox ran its course.
Mischief: Climbing up to a local furniture factory on the dyke nearby, in order to swing on the sails of the windmill there and being caught by the owner which scared us out of our wits.
Play: Skating on the local canals in winter and playing in the snow. Riding on my tricycle which had only two wheels. Remembering my grandfather on my dad’s side, who would grab me and hold me between his legs threatening not to let me go.
I still remember the specific aroma in the foyer at my mum’s parent’s place where all the walking sticks and umbrellas were kept.
Well we grew up to a family of five children when my parents decided to immigrate to Australia, for which I am now eternally grateful. My brothers and I got up to a lot of mischief on the liner to Australia and really had a ball.
Australia:
When we arrived in Brisbane my parents had many struggles, which I didn’t appreciate until later years. I think I started to love the Lord as I got more and more involved in my Catholic Faith. To this I owe a great debt of gratitude to mum and dad for their nurturing of the faith and so being faithful to their baptismal promises.
Being an altar boy meant a lot to me and nurtured the love for the Eucharist that has stayed with me all of my life. Also being involved in the Dutch choir at St Mary’s in East Brisbane gave me a Hugh love for church music. These things and the praying of the rosary daily at home with the family sowed the seeds for loving the Lord and remaining faithful to Him, I have no doubt about that.
School in my life was just great and I don’t remember a time when I never liked it. After all not everyone gets to be a foundation pupil of a college (Iona College Lindum) and gets taught exclusively by nuns and priests (Mercy nuns and Oblates of Mary Immaculate).
I really looked up to the priests that taught me and in my mind I really wanted to emulate them.
Fr McCarthy stood out as a very saintly person. I remember him giving us word’s of wisdom at the retreats he gave us. I also remember him working very hard on the college grounds and planting the trees down along the entrance road.
My playground was our 7 to 8 acres of bush, tree houses, marbles, fighting other gangs with catapults and sand bombs, riding my bike and making my go carts etc. etc. We were very adventurous boys in those days.
As time passed four of the boys of that first class of 26 at Iona College became priests. Three of them were Oblates and one Capuchin. I joined the Iona passion play and travelled around Queensland with it. I have been in the play for the last 15 years.
I cried when I saw the resurrection scene at Lismore and I’m sure that was a special grace from the Lord and a moment of conversion for me. There were many such graces given to me during my life and continue to be given.
I developed Epilepsy which I have to this day. It has been hard at times but also a blessing in disguise. It prevented me from getting caught up in peer pressure at school and gave me the time to sit back and look at what was important in life, such as values and principles that were important to live a happy and fulfilling Christian life. If this had not happened I would probably have been a car fanatic and the world would have been my God.
We had a great relationship with the local priests in Wynnum and there were many nights when priests would visit our family for a card night and chat, or going for rides with Fr Benedict and some of the capuchin seminarians (including the now Bishop Oudermann) to the Gold Coast. Also there were now 10 children in our family.
My working career started as an apprentice boat builder but due to a close drowning because of epilepsy, I had to give that trade away. Next I was a storeman and packer for 7 years. Then in 1974 I joined the Commonwealth Public Service as a clerical assistant and have been there ever since.
I learned to play the guitar and built myself a sailing boat. I loved the water and had some great years sailing around Moreton Bay.
At about the age of 17 I did a Cursillo (A short course in Christianity). There I met Terry Finn a future elder of the Emmanuel Covenant Community. Also Fr Tom Flynn, a life of the party sort of priest, and the uncle of my future wife Philomene Flynn. From that time on my journey with the Lord intensified. I became involved in the charismatic renewal in 1974/75 and joined Emmanuel Covenant Community at the 2nd intake in 1976.My enthusiasm new no bounds and I grasped hold of the lifestyle to which I felt the Lord had called me to.
It is a mystery how God leads us but I can say this, that being a member of Emmanuel has been a fulfilment of all that I love about the Lord and the Church and has taken me places in my faith walk that some people can only dream about.
One of those places was marriage to a great woman of God, Philomene Flynn. We were married by her two brother priests, John and Hilary Flynn with whom we have had the privilege of sharing our home with often.
I married her at the tender age of 38 and she was the first girl I’d ever kissed. That’s a bit unusual in this day and age, to say the least, but it was probably the problems that come with Epilepsy that stunted my social growth with the opposite sex. She has been a source of joy and inspiration to me, and together we have been blessed with two beautiful children, David and Naomi. David achieved an OP1 at Iona College and is now an engineer with Aim Laboratories at Redcliffe. Naomi achieved a degree in Psychological science and now lives in Melbourne working with people who need help in a safe house after completing degrees at the John Paul 11 institute in Theology of the Body, Bio-ethics and Natural Family Planning. I am so very proud of both of them and pray for their futures daily. David and Lisa have both done NET which is giving up a year of your life to do Evangelization for youth.
Now at the age of 67 and 65 respectively, our time is still very involved in Emmanuel, (especially as a sacristan, reader, apologetics and the Knights of the Southern Cross) living that lifestyle and watching with nervous anticipation as our children have grown up. David is now married to Lisa Curtis and have our first grandchild (a girl) Arianna, born 26 October one day after my dad’s birthday. They have chosen to be committed Christians in their life and are also very involved with Emmanuel youth. You know it’s not many sons who pops up and asks for a good catholic bible for Christmas. We can now look forward as we grow into old age and seek to serve the Lord and His church together. My current interest is Apologetics. It has placed a new joy in me for the Lord and the Catholic Church. I will be retiring next year and I will be looking forward to using some of my talents to build the kingdom of God in the New Evangelism. Pope Francis said recently that we need to be authentic Catholics nuturing our Faith or that Faith will die out.
May His name be praised.
Robert de Weger