I have been reading Pope Francis on the call to holiness in today’s world. My heart sings when I see him draw upon images of the family to illustrate what he means by holiness. As always with Pope Francis, it is a very down-to-earth holiness. He says, ‘We are all called to be holy by…
I find myself wondering where Mary is and what her thoughts are in this time between Easter and Pentecost, between the resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Gospels do not tell us about the encounter between Jesus and his mother – and we can scarcely begin to imagine it. Mary’s rebellious…
I have a lot of empathy for the disciples in this Sunday’s Gospel (John 20:19-31). They are gathered together in a room with the doors closed, “for fear of the Jews”. When Jesus appears among them the disciples are filled with joy but are not overly surprised. This is not the moment when they realise Jesus…
As we enter into Holy Week I find the scriptures of this Lenten season echoing within me. They are words of love and liberation. From the first week of Lent we are urged to love our neighbour as ourselves. Relationship with God is never just a ‘me and you’ affair. It is always lived out…
I’m off the coffee for Lent. I thought I would be struggling. Usually half way through the morning I feel that I simply need to get a cup of coffee. It turns out…I don’t! Now perhaps by the end of Lent I will be walking past coffee shops simply to get a whiff of the…
My 17-year-old son announced recently that the timing of Lent is perfect this year. He will arrive at the first match of the senior Gaelic football season without having a crisp, biscuit or sweet in his system for seven weeks! We both know that there is more to Lent than help with the pre-season training…
There is a psalm that I have loved for many years and even more so since I became a mother. It is psalm 139: “It was you who created my inmost self, and put me together in my mother’s womb; for all these mysteries I thank you: for the wonder of myself, for the wonder…
Over the Christmas holidays our daughter Méabh had a few friends from college visiting. One came up from Clare, another from west Donegal. To my delight they spoke Irish – all the time. Now Méabh had done all her schooling through Irish but was never great at chatting with me in Irish. Somehow Irish was…
My children say that I have a ‘brass neck’. They are right in so far as I do believe it pays to take a chance, to ask that vital question, to push the boundaries. However, I would prefer if they would describe me as audacious rather than as having a brass neck! I looked up…
Looking at our own four, who now range in age from 17 to 23, I have always felt that Faith has been a positive, strengthening influence in their lives. From the beginning we wanted to raise our children as people of Faith and have made that one of the priorities in our life as a…