Faith in the Family

“Ah sure we will make a video, a bit of storytelling and poetry, some music and song, telling the story of Colmcille” says I. Well naivety is a wonderful thing! If I had any notion of what I was taking on I wouldn’t have done it but here we are now with an hour long…

Faith in the Family

We are standing in a liminal space, an in-between space, how things were and how things may be in the future. Over the past year we have been unmoored, disconnected from our usual routines and while there has been an experience of loss there has also for many been an experience of gift, of being…

Faith in the Family

It is probably the dread of every Catholic parent that some day their child will say: “I do not believe what you believe.” As a result, we may be reluctant to get into conversations about faith because at some level we feel it is better not to enquire too deeply, to open up too challenging…

Faith in the Family

We are in the midst of the Easter Season and I for one am glad that it is a season and not simply a day. I need time for Easter to grow gradually. I have struggled with stones and tombs this year and have needed a slow gentle dawning rather than exuberant exclamations of joy.…

Faith in the Family

Our Cniotáil agus Comhrá group met on Thursday – a handy way  for people to catch up on some knitting tips and build their confidence in speaking Irish. We usually try to avoid any chat about Covid but on Thursday a question emerged, “Cá háit a rachfá dá dtiocfadh leat?” – where would you go…

Faith in the Family

During the week we had the first session of our book club exploring the story of St Ignatius ‘The Pilgrim’ which Bishop Alan McGuckian had translated into Irish. We talked about the early life of Ignatius and the impact it had when he began to realise how present and active God was within his own…

Faith in the Family

Many of the readings in the early weeks of Lent have reminded us of God’s call to break the rod of oppression, to feed the hungry and care for the homeless poor, to learn to do good and to love our neighbour. I know people who live their lives faithful to this but they may…

Faith in the Family

Lent has begun and yet it all feels somehow out of kilter. I usually look forward to Lent, to the sense of pause, of a change in rhythm, a re-tuning of life. This year I have felt differently. I mentioned this to a friend recently and her comment was, “Sure haven’t we been living Lent…

Faith in the Family

“Cuir tús leis an chomhrá i nGaeilge”, that is the statement on one of the large posters I have just designed to go up around Letterkenny, “Start the conversation in Irish”. Before Christmas I began in my new role as Comhordaitheoir Pleanála Teanga or Irish Language Development Coordinator for Letterkenny. Apart from the fact that…

Faith in the Family

We would all like to live in a simple and straightforward world, wouldn’t we? I was listening to my daughter earlier today. She has been home since just before Christmas and is now getting ready to go back to university. In contrast to other years, she has barely seen her friends. There was talk of…