I guess for some people it was a good example of me making a big deal out of nothing. In some ways I was a bit surprised at myself. Not mind you, that I made a big deal out of something that many would think was quite trivial, no, more that I reacted to something that was well established for years. I think the first time I saw the phrase ‘Ballyfermot Upper,’ it did not Read more…
‘Are you going away with no word of farewell ‘Will there not be a trace left behind? Well I could have loved you better, didn’t mean to be unkind, You know it was the last thing on my mind’ In any experience of closure, of goodbye, of an ending, we are left with the inevitable question, is that it? What remains? Is there anything left, and if so what? When this applied to a person Read more…
‘Mammy! Mammy! I’d walk a million miles for one of your smiles….’ ‘You never miss a mother’s love until she’s buried beneath the grave….’ Think Al Jolson….think the old Irish song, ‘A Mother’s Love’…. Add to this the scene in the old movie, ‘Going My Way’, the old mother at the end, and you’ll get a sense of where I am coming from in this ‘rumblings’, one of the last couple of them left before Read more…
According to those who know about these things it is one of the most stressful things you can do……. …………Moving House………. There’s no doubt there is something about it. It’s not just the physical effort of packing and lugging stuff downstairs and off to the new place and then when you get there up more stairs. Undoubtedly some of it is about the emotion of it. There is the sadness of endings. There is the Read more…
‘It goes against my grain’, was one of my mother’s phrases. One of those sayings we now call a ‘bridism’! A bridism was either a phrase, unique to our mother, or at the very least, one that she used often. Against the grain was one such phrase. ‘Do you think I am the Ali Khan?’ was one that was unique to Ma. We think now it was a corruption of Aga Khan. The Aga Khan Read more…
At times there can be a little confusion about what a prophet is. The most common mistake is to say that they are people who foretell the future. Now, there can of course be an element of that. However to reduce a prophet, or indeed a prophetess, to that is to miss something very important. One of the key things about a prophet is that they challenge us. The truth is the prophet will make Read more…
‘I see his blood upon the rose And in the stars the glory of his eyes, His body gleams amid eternal snows, His tears fall from the skies…’ (Joseph Mary Plunkett) Most of us will remember this beautiful poem, The Presence of God, from our childhood. It is a memorable comment on God’s magnificence infusing all creation. Along with God’s beauty there is of course the powerful reference to blood, God’s blood. It is interesting Read more…
About this time thirty-five years ago I left home. Thus began an adventure that has taken many twists and turns. I have been a Brother, a teacher, a retreat giver, and now a priest. It has been very exciting and I have really enjoyed it. Of course there have been sad times and even a few dark days. The road has at times been quite rocky. Now and again I hit not only a pot Read more…
A funeral in our church is a very important and special occasion. Yes of course it is also a sad occasion, sometimes painfully so. It is an opportunity for us, as a faith community, to step in beside those who are in grief, sometimes plunged suddenly into this awful experience, and attempt to walk beside them in prayerful solidarity. For us here in St. Matthews from the initial point of contact from the undertaker there Read more…
The notion of prayer and fasting is far from new. In fact, even though I am very interested in the role of both, prayer and fasting, in the life of Jesus, the reality is that both were being practised by others for many years before that. My initial idea of the ‘desert day’ was for myself and a few priests that I shared it with. It then expanded to something that might be beneficial to Read more…