I Met God Today

  O come, o come, Emmanuel. Emmanuel - God-with-us - come quickly and do not delay. May we feel the closeness of God-with-us in our hearts and lives this Christmas time. May we find some measure of the peace and joy that the Christ-child's coming brings to troubled, sad humanity. If circumstances are far from ideal, may we remember that the first Christmas was full of the messiness and upheaval of human life too. Whatever our Christmas brings, may we find comfort in the knowledge that God knows first-hand our reality and God chose to be part of it and with us in it all, in the mess as much as in the joys. O come, o come, Emmanuel. Emmanuel - God-with-us - come quickly and do not delay.

This evening, Advent begins    We light the first candle and we wait in hope. In this Sunday’s reading, we hear words of hope. Through the prophet Jeremiah, the LORD tells that                 “the days are coming … when I will fulfill the promise I made” (33:14-16)  and Jesus instructs disciples to            “stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand” (Luke 21:25-28, 34-36).     These are days when our world needs hope, a hope rooted in faith (Hebrews 6:19), a hope grounded in a faith that knows God’s promises are fulfilled. In these days of darkness, both inner and outer, let us hold on to that hope.  Hold firm and wait for the Lord. He will come.   We pray: Come Lord Jesus, quickly come! Maranatha!

They tell me that when you go through the arch the mist is gone ... But … I’m afraid to go and see for myself I don’t know if that’s so I haven’t gone there But … maybe the mist will lift here soon, maybe the mist will reach there soon, maybe I don’t mind mist so much, and … I know this side so well. I don’t know what’s at the other side. I don’t know who’s at the other side and … maybe I like where I am now, maybe I am happy on this side of the arch there’s nothing wrong with this side. They tell me that there’s no mist there. But I can’t see around the turn in the road. I don’t need to go there But I could But why would I It might be lovely there. But it’s safe here, and familiar. But … to move is to change, and movement is good, change is good, but to change brings fear To take the turn is frightening But take the turn anyway. I can’t see it                            yet...

Feast of the Guardian Angels  Celebrating our Guardian Angels - expressions of God’s enduring love and care for each one of us. Photo by Cosmin Gurau: https://unsplash.com/photos/H9pOaHJT0_E “She was my angel in Kerdiffstown during my novitiate” – my older Dominican Sisters often describe another sister with this phrase.  Usually a so-called angel was a second year novice or recently professed sister, and she was aptly named.  Her role was a little like that of a guardian angel – taking a newly entered postulant under her wings, helping her to settle, guiding and caring for the one placed in her charge. You might wonder why this was the practice in our Congregation. I suspect it was because, in many ways, entering the convent was – and still is – like entering a parallel universe.  Things are familiar yet somehow strange; done in a particular way and at particular times; one can sense unwritten codes of behaviour that can be difficult to decipher. Some things ma...

A prayer for a time of emotional volatility      ~ or for when you experience yourself fall off the metaphorical cliff Lord I have fallen over the cliff, again. I didn't teeter on the edge this time. Yes I was tired, body and soul weary; there was that but I wasn't even close to the edge when      the           free                fall                     plunge                          happened and now It’s like the ground has vanished under my feet and I’m free-falling in emotions that overwhelm me - strong, difficult emotions emptiness Crying tears of fear or anxiety or sadness, I am frightened, tired, afraid, trapped, locked in, alone Not calm but dead-minded, numb and hurting together. I've fallen off the cliff Lord and it’s frightening. I feel s...

'Earth, teach me stillness Earth, teach me stillness'  In my mind often,  these words,  like a mantra But I’ve noticed: Earth is not still. I might even teach it a thing or two about stillness. If you sit in the Brockaghs, in the heather, the buzz of bees and hoverflies is deafening while the birds - so many - outdo one another in song - each more insistent, grasshoppers accompanying with their drum-like beat  bracken crackles - at a later time of year - as its seed-heads pop to say nothing of the earth hurtling through space spinning all the while on its axis. Earth is not still. I might even teach it a thing or two about stillness. Yet  it teaches me, silences me, stills me. It teaches me stillness. Earth teaches me stillness. Let me learn  and well 05.08.21

page taken from Soothing Breath booklet (4 Corners Festival 2021)  https://4cornersfestival.com/soothingbreath/ Breathe. Be breathed. Do you ever hold your breath? I do. In times of anxiety or stress, I stop breathing. Often unthinkingly, it becomes my way of asserting control, albeit not at all effective. Breathing deeply and with awareness is the better strategy!  In a time of pandemic, when our breath symbolises danger, when a virus tiny yet deadly is carried in this very fact of our lives, how can we breathe freely, let alone peacefully? Where is God in this? As COVID-19 filled successive months of 2020, I pondered the topic of breath in my prayer.  Have you noticed how closely connected God’s breath is to all existence? All is breathed by God. Again and again in Scripture, we find the Hebrew ruach and Greek pneuma - translated breath, wind, spirit - used in connection with God. In the beginning, the ruach of God hovers and creation happens (Gen 1:2). The movement...

Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Reflection on the Gospel Mark 4:35-41 20 June 2021 This Sunday’s Gospel is filled with atmosphere. It begins as darkness approaches. Soon, a gale is blowing, waves are crashing and a boat is in danger of ‘going down!’ In my mind, it is inextricably connected to another moment filled with atmosphere – a dark Roman evening in March 2020, slightly over two weeks after the World Health Organisation declared a pandemic. I imagine I will never again hear or read this text without being transported back to that time. The choice of this episode from Mark’s Gospel for that March evening was an inspired one and the Pope’s homily is to be read and pondered more than once. [1] Nevertheless, what remains in my memory is not words, but images and impressions: Pope Francis praying alone in the rain, in the darkness, in a virtually empty St Peter’s Square. It was a visually striking moment of prayer, both reassuring and filled with foreboding. In a sense, for many of...

In today's Gospel, Jesus teaches. There are crowds listening to him as he teaches about discipleship. What he says is challenging and demanding. Being his disciple is hard, but it is not impossible. Today, these words may give heart to struggling disciples ...                                                                                                                         ... let your light shine. More than once in John's Gospel, Jesus declares: ' I am the light of the world'. Here, Jesus declares: ' You are the light of the ...

This beauty is ridiculous! This detail! This is just one flower from a horse chestnut tree 'candle'      ~ c andles are the flowers that appear at this time of year and cover the tree ~ there must be at least 25 of these on each candle.   God is an artist - and an amazing one! God is in the details. So many pointers to God!   How should tasting, touching, hearing, seeing, breathing any Lifted from the no of all nothing Human merely being doubt unimaginable You? Now the ears of my ears awake And now the eyes of my eyes are opened ~ ee cummings #GodIsAnArtist #TheWorldIsMyCloister #IMetGodToday

'God is love'  This is what St John writes in 1 John 4:8.  Just three words but they say everything.  John continues to write about God's love for us, rather than write about our love for God.      God is love      ~ Just three words.      God loves us      ~ Just three more. What more can be said? Nothing more needs to be said! If we can rest in these words, if we can believe them, if we can live from them ...  ... knowing we are loved by God. Everything else falls into place -  surely and simply       God is love and God loves us           Here endeth the lesson!  

Winter is not letting go of life easily this year. In the wake of its death throes, we are showered with hail, sleet, even snow – in temperate Ireland in April – and cutting winds too. But, Spring is taking hold, irrepressibly: buds bursting, trees greening, flowers unfolding their colours, birds ever-more-insistently singing. Like old hatred that burns high, easily kindled,       Winter is fighting back, biting back, at signs that its time is past. But as love is stronger than hate,       Spring cannot, will not, be stopped. Light will come, days grow longer. Resurrection is fact. Death and hate have no place in a resurrected world. Life, light, love, peace, unity will reign in God’s space. In ours’ too we hope. Quench that dark fire      for the Light that cannot go out. Jesus is still risen. Death has been defeated.      

Emmaus  “Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:13-25) Where will you meet the Risen Lord today ... look for Him, listen for Him, be surprised by His presence! He is risen! He is still risen! Watch for Him on the road! Feel your heart on fire! Emmaus is everywhere. All roads lead to Emmaus.  I met God today. My heart is burning still. #Emmaus #WeWalkHisWay #WeWalkByFaith credit: claudiarndt

Fourth Sunday of Lent - - - ‘God loved the world so much’       ‘God loved the world so much’ In a very real sense, these six words from this Sunday’s Gospel say more than enough and there is nothing further to be said, nothing more one can add! While short, today’s excerpt is packed tight, complex and rich in meaning. It contains a summary of John’s Gospel and the opposites or polarities presented in it are found here too: darkness and light; acceptance and rejection; his own and not his own; belief and unbelief (see John 1:1-13). There is much with which one might spend time. But, let’s remain with God’s love.      God so loved the world Assertions of God’s love echo throughout the Scriptures from their beginning, from the first moments of creation: ‘God saw … it was very good’ (Gen 1:31). In today’s readings, God’s love is very much in focus. From Chronicles, written in the time of exile, we hear that God ‘wished to spare his people’ and ‘tirelessly s...

Belfast, 24 Feb 2021 All things must We have cocooned and the world of nature with us Or rather we have taken its class, perhaps not learned and absorbed its lesson yet -      the graces of rest      not found in being busy for the sake of seeming busy - but sat grudgingly through the class, lived the lesson nonetheless And now Nature invites us to look again to turn the page alongside it and to study the next chapter unfolding like a butterfly but everywhere because not only winged insects cocoon All the earth does. To some extent if not completely soaking up the grace on offer to let it shine when the time to cocoon reaches its end as all things must. Only eternity does not. God only is without end.                                         Unfurl                      ...

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple  Mass today begins with these beautiful words of prayer:   Dear brothers and sisters,  forty days have passed since we celebrated  the joyful feast of the Nativity of the Lord. Today is the blessed day  when Jesus was presented in the Temple by Mary and Joseph.  Outwardly he was fulfilling the Law,  but in reality he was coming to meet his believing people. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, Simeon and Anna came to the Temple.  Enlightened by the same Spirit,  they recognised the Lord and confessed him with exultation.  So let us also, gathered together by the Holy Spirit,  proceed to the house of God to encounter Christ.  There we shall find and recognise him in the breaking of the bread,  until he comes again, revealed in glory.  Today’s Gospel (Luke 2:22-42) tells of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple and recounts the reactions of an older man and woman, Simeon ...

One Day Now more than ever, our world needs prayer, needs healing, needs beauty, needs reminders of its saving. Now more than ever, we need prayer, need healing, need beauty, need reminders of our saving, to save us from ourselves Open your mind and you will find those reminders. Open your eyes and you can see them Open your ears and you can hear them. Open your mouth and you can speak them or sing them. Open your heart and you will be them – for yourself, for others. Read the words the people in this video are singing and watch their faces - this is a prayer - for peace, for oneness, for an end to ‘othering’, for an end to division and violence and hatred, for us to know ourselves as brothers and sisters. One day, we will all be one ... may that day be soon  This is Jesus' prayer: 'that all may be one' (John 17:21). It is my prayer.   Make it your prayer too. One Day. That all may be one. Koolulam | One Day - Matisyahu | Haifa | Feb. 14th, 2018 "One day this all will ...

Beauty will save the world? "I believe the world will be saved by beauty."  So says Prince Lev Nikolyaevich Myshkin, the protagonist in Fyodor Dostoevsky's, The Idiot . Of course, that this is not true in the absolute and literal sense is something of which Dostoevsky was fully aware.  It is God who saves the world - only God: 'for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life' (John 3:16). In these days, our world is filled with much that is intensely ugly - violence, corruption, division, racism, anger, poverty, gaping inequality, hunger, war, displacement of peoples, exploitation, diminished respect for life, out-of-control consumerism, climate change and destruction, an ongoing pandemic.  There is so much pain, so much hurt, so much heartache. So much is broken. So much seems beyond repair. We are tired and we are raw from all the ugliness. Darkness threatens to overwhelm the li...