I am a happy mammy. For three weekends in a row my whole brood is at home. It is unusual enough to get our older two girls home together but because of a few family events and now Easter we are having a great run of family time. I love the banter and craic, sitting…
Does it seem odd to say I am enjoying Lent? We often think of Lent as an austere time when we are challenged to pray, fast and give alms. The image of sackcloth and ashes may not be far from our minds. It is true that Lent can be difficult. I am struggling without my…
‘Catholic’ has to mean more than a sign over the school door, writes Bairbre Cahill Timidity, a lack of clarity and confidence, fragmentation, consciousness of a damaged brand. These were just some of the challenges articulated by a group of school principals, teachers, members of Boards of Management and local clergy at a recent conference…
A group of 35 young adults. Three are given tickets to sit at a table where there are cans of lemonade and chocolate muffins. Five are given tickets to a table where there is orange squash and digestive biscuits. The other 29 get no tickets and are left at tables with dry crackers and a…
“There goes another one!” We were practising ballads for the GAA Scór competition and we needed help to add harmonies and generally lift the quality of what we had learned from straightforward ballads to something a little special. Brighdín has the most amazing musical ability. All it took was for us to begin singing the…
I think the dog is putting a challenge up to me. I’ve written about Roise before, how she joins in with us when we pray the Angelus. As we respond to the prayers, Roise makes a strange, sing-song baying sound. She’s a pack animal and we are her pack so she wants to join with…
At various times over recent years I have worked with young people preparing for the oral Irish exam in their Leaving Certificate. Apart from the challenge of developing a level of fluency in Irish most of the students also face the challenge of developing and expressing their own opinions. Our education system does little to…
There are times in the Sunday liturgy when the priest has the option to read a shorter version of the Gospel. This Sunday is one of those times but I find myself hoping that priests around the country will opt for the longer version. Why? This Sunday we find ourselves in the early chapters of…
Around the baptistry in our church there are beautiful wrought iron railings depicting flowing waters. In the midst of the waves there is another symbol, a spiral. The spiral is a symbol of life and energy, of growth and change. It is about being drawn back to the centre, to a place of truth and…
We were driving to Dublin from Donegal a few weeks ago, and there, on the side of the road beside a field was a bed. It was a double divan bed, the base lying at one side, the mattress over at the other side of the gate. It is not as if someone had been…