I Met God Today

Reimagining Prayer This Lent 2020. ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’ Be careful what you pray for!   Lent can be a little like New Year. In some senses, both have a penitential flavour to them, albeit driven by quite different motivations: January’s “New Year, New You” becomes Lent’s “Return to the Lord.” We start with great intentions to clean up our life – giving up those things we have determined enjoyable but bad for us or taking up habits we consider good for our body or for our soul. We might resolve to fast from social media, chocolate, coffee, alcohol, cigarettes (insert your favourite poison!). Alternatively, we might commit to attending daily Mass, making time for prayer or Bible reading, giving to charity (insert your chosen virtue!). Of the many possibilities we might consider, drawing closer to God needs to be at the heart of our living of Lent. The forty days of Lent are a graced time, an opportunity to satisfy our thirst for God, a chance to rediscover the gift of relationsh...

What is love? On St Valentine’s Day this year, during evening prayer with my community, I renewed my vows as a Dominican sister. I chose to enter religious life because of love of God. That’s not to say that to love God is the same as falling in love with another human being. Neither is it to say that religious are somehow superior, making the better choice. If there are similarities between these expressions of love, there are chasms too. My friend offers this analogy: imagine finding yourself in a dark room, with no electricity. Which would you prefer: to know that God is with you always or to have somebody sitting by your side, a real flesh and blood person? Which would make you feel more at ease? I know which I would choose! As a religious, as a consecrated celibate woman, my vow represents a decision to leave an open space - that space filled for others by their love for one person - and to hope that this space can be or is filled by God. But it’s not a turning my back on love, on...

How much greater would our world be  if we could  all  just do this -> -> ->   It's not new advice!! See: Deuteronomy 10:18; Matthew 5:44; John 4:21; John 13:34; Ephesians 4: 2-3; etc; etc; etc.       #BeKind #Kindness #LoveOneAnother #GodIsLove 

25.11.19, 4.25pm    I met God today. At least I think I did. He was walking his dog on the beach and he had a kindly face as those possessed of dogs often do. Kindliness is close to Godliness. Dogliness is even closer. We passed by silently with a mutual nod of the head. I, with a million million questions, a million million whys, walked on without stopping ... even to pet God's dog As did God keeping the answers to himself for another day

ISTOCK November starts with a bang - or with hundreds of them -  fireworks and bangers going off every night. Spiritually, too, it starts big, with a triduum – three days dedicated to remembrance of those who have died: the eve of All Hallows, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day. Commemorating the dead continues this week with another All Saints Day. Today we celebrate all the Irish Saints, both those recognised by the Church and those who are not yet, or may never be, canonised. For Dominicans, another triduum begins tomorrow as we commemorate all the Saints of the Order of Preachers and all our deceased Dominican Sisters and Brothers. November is the month of the dead, of the holy souls, of the saints. If November starts well, we don’t always persevere in our remembrance of the dead, despite our good intentions. Even before Halloween, the shops begin to fill with all things Christmas. The commercial world would have us quickly move on from the supposed darkness of the dead. We coul...

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 19:1-10 3 November 2019 image credit: http://www.jywallpaperapp.ethiccoders.com/5 Zacchaeus was anxious to see Jesus. Have you ever risked your dignity, or even your physical safety, to get a better view? Perhaps you have clambered up on a bus stop roof, clung to railings, or perched precariously atop some object or other. Maybe, like Zacchaeus, you opted to climb a tree to get a glimpse of someone important. Something about Jesus has piqued Zacchaeus’ curiosity. Faced with a triple hurdle – crowds, his stature, and his unpopularity as chief tax collector – Zacchaeus will not be deterred from his desire to see Jesus. Curiosity pushes him beyond considerations of injury or embarrassment. Zacchaeus’ curiosity changes his life. It puts him in the right place at the right time. A meeting ensues that proves transformative. Zacchaeus … hurry, because I must stay at your house today. If he intends to see without being seen, Zacchaeus does not go unno...

Break my heart, Lord! Our world is hurting. Lord Jesus, break my heart with what breaks Yours. Give me courage to act. Help me to wake, "to wake for pity's sake!" A SLEEP OF PRISONERS ~ Christopher Fry Dark and cold we may be, but this Is no winter now. The frozen misery Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move; The thunder is the thunder of the floes, The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring. Thank God our time is now when wrong Comes up to face us everywhere, Never to leave us till we take The longest stride of soul we ever took. Affairs are now soul size. The enterprise Is exploration into God. Where are you making for? It takes So many thousand years to wake, But will you wake for pity's sake!

Saint Valentine and Sister Eileen!? St Valentine's Day 2018 Love changes everything. Live loved. On Valentine’s Day 2015, I was in Tallaght, preparing to make my First Profession as a Dominican Sister the following day.  On Valentine’s Day 2018, I am in Dún Laoghaire, preparing to renew my vows as a Dominican Sister during Evening Prayer tomorrow. This weekend, a group of our sisters shared something of our vocation stories with one another. Reflecting on my vocation in the days since, I realise that I might have said something far simpler. Just this: I fell in love with God. I fell in love with Jesus.  It’s that simple and that complex.  The rest is just detail.  As Pedro Arrupé SJ said: “Fall in love. Stay in love, and it will decide everything.” "Now is the favourable time" (2 Cor. 6:2) "My heart is ready O God, my heart is ready" (Psalm 108)

Presentation of the Lord Mass today began with these great words of prayer (photo).    Today’s Gospel tells of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple and recounts the reactions of an older man and woman, Simeon and Anna, to this baby, Jesus.  I love to pray the Canticle of Simeon each night in Compline but this year is the first time I’ve noticed Luke description of Simeon’s actions: “he took him into his arms and blessed God”  ... imagine this old and devout man holding our Lord in his arms ... the most natural and human a response to a baby.  Just WOW

Everyone - or everything - wants to be like us Dominicans ! #OPsRock My nephews spotted the Dominican cross on this spider! This breed of chicken is called Dominican!

Feast of St Dominic - preaching on 1 Samuel 3:1-10 8 August 2017 Team KADML 2017 - photo credit: Fr Philip McShane OP On the Feast of St. Dominic, it was my great joy to preside and preach at Morning Prayer at the Knockadoon Music and Liturgy Week.  Our theme was "Seek the Lord" and the chosen Scripture that morning was 1 Sam. 3:1-10, recounting the call of Samuel. Here is what I said to those gathered. We begin this day as we begin all things, +In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today, the 8th of August, is a very important and joyous day for Dominicans all over the world. Today, we celebrate the Solemnity or Feast Day of St. Dominic de Guzman, the man who founded the Dominican Order, the Order of Preachers. For us Dominicans, today is celebrated as a Solemnity – that’s the biggest type of celebration there is!! One of my Dominican sisters often teaches people that if they are involved with us they are, in their own way, part of our Domi...

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Reflection on the Gospel Matthew 13:1-23 16 July 2017 Jesus said, “Imagine a sower going out to sow.” In his Gospel, Matthew gives this parable a title, calling it the Parable of the Sower. However, Matthew has Jesus provide an interpretation of the parable that, like the parable itself, focuses not so much on the sower, as on that which is sown and what happens to it. The attention is on what happens after the sowing, in other words, on the varied outcomes of the sowing and on the varied responses to the revelation of the kingdom. Interesting, then, to discover that in the Greek text, while the sower sows, there is no mention of the word ‘seed.’ To the disciples then, and to us now, this interpretation provides both an explanation as to why the kingdom is not accepted and encouragement to persevere with the assurance that remarkable results will ensue. However, in some ways, interpretation, even one offered by Jesus, deadens the parable and curtails...

Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time - Reflection on the Gospel Luke 19:1-10 30 October 2016 Zacchaeus was anxious to see to see what kind of man Jesus was Zacchaeus desires to see Jesus. In order to do so, he does the unthinkable. He climbs a sycamore tree, risking derision, particularly as a public figure in an unpopular and much-maligned profession. The attraction of Jesus is so powerful for Zacchaeus that fear of what others might think and potential ridicule cannot deter him. His eagerness to see Jesus is sufficiently strong to overcome any negative response he might encounter. What had he heard about this man that made him want to see Jesus? Luke tells us that Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus, but this appears to be more than simply idle curiosity about physically seeing Jesus. Perhaps, God has been working in Zacchaeus so that he has already moved towards conversion in his heart. In seeking to see Jesus, Zacchaeus takes a first step and Jesus responds. Then, when Jesus addresses him...

Palm Sunday  Mark 14:1-15:47 29 March 2015 Is. 50:4-7; Ps. 22; Phil. 2:6-11; Mark 14:1-15:47 Throughout his Gospel, Mark forewarns of Jesus’ ultimate fate - opposition and misunderstanding accompany his public ministry. We have been propelled, almost relentlessly, with Jesus towards Jerusalem and the cross. This Sunday, we have arrived. In the text for the Procession, we hear of Jesus’ dramatic entry into the city of Jerusalem. We can only assume that among the enthusiastic crowd are some who will soon shout for Jesus to be crucified and mock him as he dies. Mark’s Gospel is concerned with Jesus’ identity and with discipleship. The opening verse tells us Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God. But what this means – both for Jesus and for us as his disciples – can be known only at the cross. Without seeing the centrality of suffering to his mission, and correspondingly to ours as his followers, we cannot understand Jesus or be true disciples. Watching Jesus suffer and die, one of his k...