WeeklyReflection

A reflection on the spirituality of mindfulness The balance of our minds is a fragile thing. The daily diet of bad news has profound effects on our moods and our thinking. The terrible tragedies and mindless acts of cruelty that are relentlessly reported eventually disturb the delicate equilibrium of many souls. The resulting insecurity is constantly spreading and is too often expressed in break-down, despair or thoughts of suicide. A serious, silent tipping point is […]

‘Please turn back’ my passenger said after we had travelled six or seven miles, ’I’ve forgotten my mobile.’ There was panic in her voice. Even though there was no emergency in her life just then, and we would be back in a few hours, the thought of being phoneless was very distressing for her. Full-blown FOMO – the fear of missing out – is one of the most insidious social anxieties of our age. The […]

My brother Joseph had Down’s Syndrome.  Every so often, in my dreams, he still comes storming back to deeply disturb my life.  My mother adored him.  And during those most difficult times, especially when Joseph’s severe diabetes demanded unrelenting attention, she was sustained by the certainty that in caring for Joseph she was entertaining angels unaware.  If I had my mother back now I would tell her that it was even more that that.  It […]

Anois teacht an Earraig sang the blind Irish pilgrim-poet Raftery.  ‘On the brink of Spring, with the “stretch” in the days, I will raise my sail, and launch out anew.’  This is the time of year when nature beckons to us, the high roads call to us, something stirs in our soul.  Shades of Druidic customs awaken within Celtic hearts. On St Patrick’s day a few years ago, I said Mass on top of the […]

There is something about Good Friday that I cannot get used to.  It always comes into our lives so strangely new.  It is more than the quietness of our small City or of the stillness of the fields that stretch out towards the Yorkshire Dales.  It is as if creation itself participates in some kind of turning of the light – a light that touches the heart of each person and even of the cosmos […]

Mr Casey was always courteous.  He was the conductor on the Bus Eireann that dropped me at Lisivigeen, near Killarney, for my first ever summer holiday, eight miles from home.  I was seven then.  Our farmer friends were waiting at the crossroads.  Mr Casey helped me down the three steps of the bus with my strapped and bulging suitcase.  We waved him goodbye and set off across the fields for the farmhouse.  No emperor ever […]

I was ‘doing supply’ for my brother in the N Ward of a large hospital in Manchester.  As ‘acting chaplain’ I was called out one night to a patient in deep distress.  The reason given to me by the doctor was as follows.  ‘This patient is deeply disturbed by her sins and imperfections.  She is convinced that she is not in the state of grace, whatever that may mean.  Short of sedation, I can do […]

‘Rome Slams Abuses of the Mass’.  Priests and parishioners are worried at these loud and recent messages about rubrical correctness around the sanctuary.  Many objective commentators describe such Vatican warnings as sadly missing the point.  Those who stop coming to Mass claim that they are bored by the irrelevance of our liturgies and homilies.  The real issues, they say, are about what happens in their daily lives, and how the Eucharist might support and nourish […]

Barrie and Tish, two of our parishioners in their early fifties, bought a boat this summer and are now sailing for Turkey.  It was something they wanted to do for a long time.  It will take them a couple of years to complete the adventure.  Their regular ‘Postcards from the Sea’ are shared in our weekly newsletter.  Last week they reported the repair, at Marseilles port, of a smashed mast, and now Combava is sailing, […]

A few years ago a shy young couple from a ‘good Catholic family’ in the parish asked to get married in Church. Because I had never seen them at Mass I did not immediately agree to their request and suggested further meetings.  Maybe it was the tone of my voice, or maybe they were not very keen in the first place, but the outcome was that I never saw them again.  I did hear some […]