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 Read more…
(Perhaps in praying this litany, you might feel moved to compose your own). Lord I pray forgiveness on the brother who believed lies about me Lord I pray thanksgiving on the sister who modelled for me unconditional love Lord I pray forgiveness on that sad sick young priest that hurt Read more…
Heavenly Father, help me lament the loss of the aborted little baby but continue to love it’s mother… Lord Jesus, help me to proclaim the beauty of your gift of sexuality and not shun my transgender fellow pilgrim… Holy Spirit, help me to be faithful to my life of faith Read more…
There was a time when we all prayed for vocations. It was often billed just like that. ‘Let us pray for vocations’…. sometimes it went further and said ‘Let us pray for vocations to the priesthood’. Indeed now and again we said, ‘Let us pray for vocations to the priesthood Read more…
I have been asked a few times to say a little bit about my practice of contemplative prayer. These are just a few private notes or observations on what I have tried to talk about. Let me say I am no expert in the area, if such a thing exists. Read more…
‘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…
‘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…
Where do you look for Jesus? Or do you? I have recently been on pilgrimage and met a lot of people who are looking for Jesus. Actually I often meet people who are looking for Jesus…..now, having said that I am wondering is that correct? It is an interesting question, do Read more…
‘They are neither in the Church, nor out of it. Neither fish nor flesh. These are the modern curse of the Church, these a la carte Catholics. They tick the box. They pick and choose. They use us when they need us, and don’t bother with us the rest of Read more…
This morning, Saturday, the day the votes in the referendum are being counted I was in the Phoenix Park. I was feeling pretty heavy hearted. As someone who wrote and preached and indeed voted no, whilst I was not surprised at the outcome, as I had fully expected the Yes campaign to win, Read more…