Fr. Joe’s writings and rumblings.
‘Sit there and keep quiet!’ How often did you hear that as a child? Or a variation of it. ‘Children should be seen and not heard’. Sometimes it might have been more specific. ‘You haven’t a note in your head’ or ‘you can’t dance, you have no rhythm’. Most of Read more…
Once again we find ourselves with that little footnote in the Church or liturgical calendar reminding us that we have arrived at Church Unity Week. WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY (18-25 JANUARY) In fairness it is not a ‘little footnote’ for everybody. It will be celebrated officially by the Read more…
We have been talking about you in the past few days. I guess it’s important to be clear who the ‘we’ is. By ‘we’ we mean those of us here in the Faith Community of St. Matthew’s in Ballyfermot, I include myself, here in the Bunker, from where I write Read more…
Wise men? The three kings? Astrologers from the East? This can all sound a bit vague. Today, January6th, is the day we remember them. ‘A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey:’ The Journey of the Read more…
(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 Read more…
How many shopping days left? How many sleeps? Still time left to get Confession Not sure yet which Mass, maybe Midnight in Matthews! Do you remember last year? To think that all that started over soggy sprouts Trying to remember that it’s about making others happy Going to surprise a Read more…
Just fifteen shopping days left! Just fourteen sleeps left! We are all familiar with this type of countdown but I have been wondering about a different type of countdown. How about: Just fifteen days left to get the ‘soul weeding’ done? Just fifteen days left to get the ‘cradle of Read more…
‘What is this Roncalli thing that they are talking about?’ ‘It’s a new thing. A fella said to me the other day he thought it was a new take away like Macari’s or Fuscardi’s, or maybe a pizza place, but it’s not, it’s something to do with the Church’. The Archbishop Read more…
NOTE : In this month of November when we pray for our beloved dead sometimes hard questions come up. Yes, big questions like, where are they now? Are they in Purgatory? What is Heaven like? And so on. However sometimes these hard questions are more personal: Did he know how Read more…
‘Tell us this Father, do you believe in ghosts?’ It was an interesting question and drew me back years ago to two encounters I had with ghosts, one very real, the other not so much. The first of these happened about forty years ago on a small back road outside Ballycastle Read more…