Presentation Day holds particular significance for Presentation people everywhere. It is more than just a day, a feast, a celebration. It holds the resonance and inspiration for the call and response by Nano Nagle, who gave of herself to make a difference to the lives of those kept poor. But more than that, her passion was to enable those she ...
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Presentation Day Novena 2022
The Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple takes place on 21st November each year. This is a Feast that is celebrated with great joy throughout the world, wherever there are Presentation people. The content of this year’s novena has been prepared by Sisters Mary Kealy, Lois Greene, Prema Antony and Sheila Reen who have put together these ...
Read More »The Presentation of Mary
The early annals of the Presentation Congregation record that the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple was the date chosen by Nano in 1782, to receive two young women into the novitiate. Nano’s choice of this day for this ceremony, indicates that this Feast had a special place in her spirituality. Following Nano’s death, her fledging Congregation ...
Read More »Do not lose heart
I was at a recent funeral of a friend of mine who was an avid fan of the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh. But more than that, a person who saw in Patrick Kavanagh the life of the farmer, poet and mystic completely intertwined. Someone who communed so readily with God through Nature, and who through his words could open this ...
Read More »A poverty that sets us free
We prepare to mark the 6th World Day of the Poor on Sunday, 13th November (a Day established by Pope Francis in his Apostolic Letter “Misericordia et Miser” in 2016, to celebrate the end of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy). This day has been an important focus point for advocacy and action every year since then. Its aim after all is ...
Read More »Shoeless on Sinai to COP27
From 6 to 18 November 2022, the governments who are parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will convene in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt for the conference widely known as “COP27.” Sharm el-Sheikh sits on the Sinai Peninsula, the land held sacred by followers of Abrahamic religions as the place where God appeared to Moses and called him to ...
Read More »Enough is Enough!
I had the privilege of participating recently in the 2022 Conference on Intergenerational Climate Justice. This is the third such conference. The theme of this year’s gathering was “Enough is Enough! And it Needn’t Cost the Earth”.* We know that climate change raises issues of justice, and that the poorest people everywhere suffer first and most. Intergenerational injustice acknowledges that ...
Read More »SDGs Challenge Us to Change
Ireland’s second National Implementation Plan for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been launched by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, and other members of the government, including the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, in Dublin on Wednesday, October 5. The SDGs are the agreed roadmap to a “fairer, safer world”. The Sustainable Development Goals challenge us to change the way ...
Read More »A time for every season
Today, Tuesday October 4th the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi marks the end of the ‘Season of Creation’ which opened on 1st September, the ‘World Day of Prayer for Care of the Earth’. It has offered us a vital opportunity to stop, look, hear and pray with the beauty of the Earth and Life around us that radiates the ...
Read More »International Day of Non-Violence
On the 2 October, International Day of Nonviolence (and Gandhi’s birthday) Pax Christi join with the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative to offer the following focus for prayer and reflection to help individuals and communities affirm their intention /commitment to live a nonviolent life. The working of this commitment was created in the United States by Eileen Egan and Rev. John Dear. ...
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