A New Year

It is a New Year and indeed, that time of year when one reassesses many things past and opens doors to all things new.  These times of gradual openings to new revelations are really and truly an ‘epiphany’ of life, because in the sheer small act of ‘opening out’, new gifts immediately arise.

I looked up the definition of ‘epiphany’ aside from my much loved ‘magi definition’ it said:  Epiphany – ‘a moment of sudden and great revelation or realisation’.  So that explains it!!

I have had many very special experiences of precisely this in recent times as I have gone about doing my day to day work while at the same time listening to those around me sharing with exuberant joy an experience of living ministry, or when I have a conversation on the phone with someone sharing in a very simple way something that is quite extraordinary and blessed. I have been gifted in the living and spontaneous sharing of it.  I too have discovered in recent months that this gift applies equally to shared sorrows as well as joys.  A ‘fully lived’ Epiphany.

Like the Magi, I realise that I am witnessing something special by recognising in these particular moments the gift of a shared life, linked to a sacred charism that keeps generating and reseeding and blossoming among us, tended by those who have the passion to live true to it, and to share the outcomes generously.

As we begin in this year to celebrate the  Tercentenary of Nano Nagle’s birth, I find myself wanting more and more people to become aware of ‘what lies beneath’, the depth and strength and ‘lantern light’ of Presentation Charism.  So:  each daily epiphany a celebration, and each celebration of Nano Nagle’s birth this coming year its own epiphany, a realisation and revelation of Nano legacy for each and all of us, precisely for our times.

The Nano Journey

“We celebrate Nano Nagle as a woman of her time and every time.  Her mystical encounter with God called her to respond with generosity, vison and faith throughout her life-journey.

At each point on this journey the power and clarity of her attentive awareness brought her to wisdom, love and action.  This contemplative vision is as luminous today as it was for her. It is her gift to generations of women, who have, like her, chosen to serve God’s poor with fidelity, courage and an open heart.”