I Met God Today

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 make little sense, yet eve

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 so afraid and alone overwhelmed in the emptiness and there's no one nobody to turn to, no one to talk to, here or anywhere Not one who can understand What do I do? Where do I turn? Lord, are you there? Why don't you answ

'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