In the first week of the New Year, on 6 January, we celebrate the Epiphany, which is one of the three principal and oldest festival days of the Christian church (the other two are Easter and Christmas). The Gospel of Matthew (2:1-12) speaks of Magi, or wise men, who followed a star from the east… Read More
Category: Blog
A Christmas to Remember
I am writing this in Christmas week, three days out from the big day on the 25th, and sadly we are in the midst of new restrictions and facing the possibility of more. The dreaded word ‘Lockdown’ is even being mentioned across the water in the UK. This time last year we probably believed,… Read More
An East and West Divide: Religion
Last week Pope Francis completed a six-day Apostolic Journey to Cyprus and Greece. The trip was a significant one for Greeks, who saw his visit as a message for Christian unity with a Catholic minority and an Orthodox majority. The pope met with a delegation from the Greek Orthodox Church, in which he recalled… Read More
Looking Forward: Advent & Christmas
For many years, and I can remember it well, there was a great tradition in Ireland of the pre-Christmas shopping season beginning on the Holy Day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. People from all over the country would descend on Dublin and there was a real sense that the Festive Celebrations… Read More
Dying for the Faith- Red Wednesday
These days there is much written and spoken about how faith and the observance and practise of religion has greatly declined, especially among the younger generation. Sometimes we forget to be grateful for the fact that those of us who do want to go to Church and pray with our fellow believers have the… Read More
The Gentle Queen- St Elizabeth of Hungary
This week on Wednesday, November 17th we celebrated the feast of St Elizabeth of Hungary who was born in Pressburg in 1207, a daughter of the King, Andrew III, and his wife Gertrude who was later murdered. Those were very different times and in infancy, she was betrothed to Louis IV, son of Hermann I,… Read More
Our World on the Brink – Climate Change
Climate change is very much the topic of the moment and has been for some time now. Last week the eyes of the world were on Glasgow and the Climate Conference (known as COP26), which is being attended by many world leaders including American President Joe Biden. The meeting began on 31 October and… Read More
The Value of Retreat
When I was in Secondary School, back in the ‘70s, we had a retreat with the Chaplain and a team once a year and I always looked forward to those few days. Of course, it made a change from the daily routine and afforded me a break from the dreaded Maths classes! It provided… Read More
Celebration of Life Mass- Sunday 3 October
Celebration of Life Mass- Sunday 3 October Where: St Saviour’s Church, Upper Dominick Street, Dublin 1 In the early days of the lockdown caused by the covid-19 pandemic my good friend’s father died. At that time of course we were unable to go into the Church so there was no funeral Mass. Friends and neighbours… Read More
The Saint of our Time: Padre Pio
On Thursday, 23rd we celebrated the feast day of the man we still refer to as Padre Pio, but who is of course a saint of the Catholic Church, with the title St Pio of Pietrelcina. Born in 1887, to peasant farmers in the Campanian Uplands, he later said… Read More
A Visit to Knock
Last Saturday I was in the west of Ireland for the weekend and took the opportunity to pay a visit to Knock Shrine in Co Mayo. The journey from Ballaghaderreen, where we were based, is a pleasant one through tranquil countryside. We made our way past houses and shop fronts festooned with Mayo flags in… Read More
The Princess and the Saint
The seven days which began on 31 August 1997 with news of the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and ended on 6 September with her funeral are unlikely to be forgotten by those, like myself, who lived through them. I will always remember the sight of her coffin, draped in the multicoloured Royal… Read More
Tragedy in Afghanistan
As I write this, news is coming in about two powerful explosions outside Kabul’s international airport which have claimed the lives of at least sixty Afghans and thirteen American troops. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said one blast occurred near the airport at Abbey Gate and the other close to the nearby Bidon Hotel. In… Read More
Popes in Peril – Times of crisis
It came as an unpleasant shock this week when news emerged from Rome that a threatening letter containing three bullets addressed to Pope Francis had been seized by Italian police. The discovery was made in a postal facility in the small town of Peschiera Borromeo on the outskirts of Milan. The suspicious package, believed to… Read More
St Dominic’s Journey – Founder of the Dominican Order
In August the Dominican family worldwide remember their founder, St Dominic Guzman, whose solemnity is celebrated on the eighth of this month. The son and youngest child of Felix de Guzman, a noble, and Blessed Joan of Aza, he was born in Calaruega, Spain, in 1170. He was educated by his uncle, the archpriest… Read More
Celebrating Grandparents
Last Sunday, July 25th, marked the first observation of the Church’s annual Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. On January 31, 2021, Pope Francis made the announcement of this new event to be celebrated every year on the fourth Sunday in July. In the Vatican, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, celebrated Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, standing… Read More