Too often we regard Holy Week, the Stations of the Cross, the ceremonies of the Triduum, as having to do with the salvation of our own souls only. There is a persistent tendency in many of us towards a private kind of religion. Irish Catholics of a certain age are prone to confine the mystery of redemption to a personal transaction between God and the individual. Heavily influenced by a flawed and limited grasp of […]
The Christmas hype is all around us but the meaning of Incarnation has no ending. In January, the month of courageous beginnings, Christians will try to live out in their lives the Feast of Love and Mercy they have just celebrated. In a weeping world they will put love where there was no love and thus continue the human Incarnation of divine love. Life itself, all that it brings, all that we experience, every sensation […]
English poet Christina Rossetti was looking through the lens of Incarnation when she prayed: Lord, purge our eyes to see, Within the seed a tree Within the glowing egg a bird, Within the shroud a butterfly. God is now fleshed. To perceive the world in Christmas light is to discern the hidden depths of everything, the astonishing possibilities in all that happens, the extraordinary mystery abiding within the ordinary. This Christian revelation of an […]
It has been two weeks since we celebrated the magnificent Easter ceremonies. We remembered our story, we prayed our hearts out, we took part in the Vigil liturgy as best we could. And then there was the bank holiday and soon we were all back at work as usual. The paschal banquet of sublime mystery was over for another year. But have our lives since been different because of it? Do we have a clearer […]
On a dark, chilly evening in early March I was walking home through a small park in Crosby with my shopping. Impossible to miss, I stared at the sudden appearance of the crocuses – violet, white and blue – translucent in the shadows, staked out like a rosary between tree trunks. Overnight, from drab patches of lifeless leaves and muck, something beautifully fragile and life-giving had soundlessly emerged. Pope Francis was sensitive to this phenomenon […]
My spondylosis was flaring up again, and needed attention. The Kinsley Surgery waiting-room was hot and crowded. A child with some kind of painful rash was becoming alarmingly upset. We were all looking at her and at the flustered mother, already holding a baby in her lap. She pleaded with, explained to, and scolded the suffering, obstreperous little girl to no avail. We were all becoming uncomfortable and uneasy. Clearly embarrassed the mother handed her […]
Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Yes we were. And we still are. Because he is crucified everyday. Our Lord is being crucified all around us at every moment and most of us are too blind or too busy to see. There is little point in walking, singing, weeping, praying before the suffering face of Jesus today if we do not see his anguished features in the sad stories on the ‘News at […]
English poet Christina Rossetti was looking through the lens of Incarnation when she prayed: Lord, purge our eyes to see, Within the seed a tree, Within the glowing egg a bird, Within the shroud a butterfly. God is now fleshed. To perceive the world in Christmas light is to discern the hidden depths of everything, the astonishing possibilities in all that happens, the extraordinary mystery abiding within the ordinary. This Christian revelation of an incarnate […]
It happened in Rathmore, my home village in the south of Ireland. It is one of my first memories. It was Christmas Eve and I was four. The snow had started to fall. I was standing near the small door between our small shop and our small kitchen. I was beside myself with anticipation, hyped to the gills with Santa Claus. Christy Cremin had just bought his weekly ration of Woodbines. “Where is he now […]
Some things you don’t easily forget. I still remember a special moment from around this time last year. Their small faces ablaze with innocence, Kaitlin and Matilda lit the first purple candle in our Advent wreath. Something about the way they shyly smiled at each other was already providing us with a glimpse into the mystery for which we were preparing. What I was feeling was a kind of aching and longing. The focus shifted […]
One Easter the Harley-Davidson annual gathering took place in Killarney near where I was born. Instead of avoiding the noisy, crowded town on that week-end as many had supposed, the local people thronged the streets to see, and touch the silver, purring monsters. Parents, grandparents and small children, excitedly or wistfully, were visibly stirred by these gleaming icons of human transcendence. I wondered about the source of our innate desire for adventure, for new vistas, […]
‘There is no Catholic God.’ But there is the loving energy of Being that sustains all things. Pope Francis said it. There is no ‘God out there’. There is the inner spirit of Life that creates and nourishes the body of the cosmos and the cosmos of the human body. Divine grace is the universal instinct for growing, healing, evolving and flourishing. It is the mysterious force that moves the human heart to create, imagine, […]
A friend of mine entered for last year’s Talent for Britain auditions. I tuned in to one of the first episodes. The panel judges were finding it all rather boring and predictable. During the interval they said so. Mr Potts, a sad-faced young man from Wales was next up. He said he would like to be an opera singer. I noticed two of the three judges throwing cynical glances at each other. Paul Potts opened […]
On a dark, chilly evening in early March I was walking home through a small park in Crosby with my shopping. Impossible to miss, I stared at the sudden appearance of the crocuses – violet, white and blue – translucent in the shadows, staked out like a rosary between tree trunks. Overnight, from drab patches of lifeless leaves and muck, something beautifully fragile and life-giving had soundlessly emerged. Pope Francis was sensitive to this phenomenon […]
It is 11.45pm on Christmas Eve. Everything is ready – except the homily! Our church had fallen down – literally. We were trying to keep our parish-family together in the school hall. The day was spent in taking care of the essentials – finding an ordinary table for a make-shift altar, replacing infant chairs with ones big enough for well-padded adults, coaxing the caretaker for adequate heating, extra lighting for the partially sighted, making space, […]
In one of her striking reflections Annie Dillard described how we would behave at Mass if we understood its full impact. We would strap ourselves to our seats, wear protective headgear, and be utterly attentive to the earth-shaking import of what was happening around us. We have many ways, she was pointing out, of avoiding what we would rather not face. And so we argue over translations, rubrics and rites. We distract ourselves with the […]
Let us try to understand the background to some of the words and events recorded in the readings of Advent and Christmas every year, to go a little deeper into the meaning than perhaps we usually do. During the coming weeks in our hymns and carols, our weekly and daily liturgies, even our everyday reflections, the same Christmas vignettes, memories and stories will be continually repeated. Here is a very sketchy introduction to the way […]
Dear friends, I encourage you to reflect, today, just for a moment on some of the special people or ideas or movements that have, at some time in your life, attracted you strongly and fired your imagination. Who were the people, what were those challenges that captured your heart and brought new hope and excitement into your life? Be thankful for them. In this way I want to introduce you to today’s feast – the […]