‘And some say love is holding on and some say letting goSome say love is everything and some say they dont know’Perhaps Love, John Denver/ Placido Domingo One can only imagine the amount of songs that have been written about love. This is not to mention all the love poetry. Whilst he does not appear in the Church liturgical calendar, a few days ago there was a big focus on St. Valentine. The first Valentine Read more…
Sometimes we miss what is under our very noses. This is as true in the spiritual life as in all other spheres of life. Is it possible that there is something at the heart of our spiritual life that is both extremely important and at the same time is often missed? I think many will be surprised to discover that I am speaking about forgiveness. Forgiveness is a familiar word to us all. Perhaps too Read more…
Perhaps a break this week from the detail of Roncalli and we let’s turn our attention to Brexit and our own General Election! I can only imagine your reaction to the notion that your Parish Priest is going to take up valuable space in your parish newsletter about two topics that you feel you have heard more than enough about and indeed could do with a break from. Surely this is not the space for Read more…
SOME QUESTIONS…. AND A FEW ANSWERS…Well last week’s rant certainly provoked a few questions. I need to say at the outset though that I am not able to answer all the questions because some of them can only be worked out as we go. What I mean by that is, it’s trying to get a balance between talking in a void and offering nothing of substance by way of ideas for developing the parish, and Read more…
New, exciting, different and challenging are words that come to mind when I think of the Roncalli project/community. These are attractive words, each one of them exuding their own energy. However there are some other vital ingredients that I consider essential to any discussion on Roncalli. Roncalli is Gospel Based. It is rooted in Sacred Scripture. It takes its cue from the Second Vatican Council. Roncalli is a new way of being Church. It is Read more…
CHRISTMAS DAY CHALLENGE( if you could manage it, there’s a lot of winners in it!)NOTE: This is only for girls and boys who are over 15yrs, three months and two days old. Everybody else should be just let get on with munching on reindeer cakes and guzzling drinking chocolate!However this is for the rest of us! It might be entitled: ‘How to avoid your house on Christmas Day becoming like a scene from Albert Square Read more…
In a way I should not really be calling it a shock because I should have seen it coming. I mean to be honest I was a little bit suspicious something like this was going on behind the scenes. Now even though I have called this Santa Shock it’s not really about Santa at all. Actually it’s probably better called Christmas Shock. Oh I dont know does that sound worse…. I mean who wants a Read more…
Attend a tea making ceremony on Mount Koyasan in Japan, address Leinster House, appear in Fair City, travel Route 66….. and so on. You may have seen the movie, The Bucket List? Perhaps not. Whether you have or you haven’t, no doubt you will be familiar with the idea of things to do before you die. You know how it goes, if God forbid you found out you had a year to live, what five Read more…
I am so happy it is Advent. I love this season. I love it nearly as much as I love Easter. I love the waiting, the thrill of the expected. The Advent wreath. The readings. The joumey ofAdvent. The build up to Christmas. Sometimes people say Advent is about waiting. It is, but it’s a particular type of waiting. It’s not a twiddle your thumbs type of waiting. It’s not the waiting you would do Read more…
In a recent homily I mentioned the five year old Jesus in the overall context or question of when did Jesus know he was God’s Son and I was quite surprised at the amount of reaction it got. Some expressed surprise, in that they had never really thought of Jesus as a five year old or a ten year old, others felt we cannot know anything about Jesus at this stage in his life because Read more…