News

We are at a ‘crossroads’ halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox on February 1st.  A crossroads can be a good place to stop and refuel for the journey onward and outwards, and we can do this in no better company than that of Brigid whose feast day is on this day (Lá Fhéile Bríde). Brigid never ceases to ...

Word of God Sunday is on Sunday 26th January 2020, falling close to the Day of Dialogue between Jews and Catholics and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It is  a new annual observance announced by Pope Francis last year on 30 September 2019 on the Feast of St Jerome, the fifth-century saint who translated the Bible from Greek ...

It is less than one week until the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2020 begins (WPCU).  This is a week during which Christians come together to pray for their unity. Congregations and parishes all over the world exchange preachers or arrange special ecumenical celebrations and prayer services. Traditionally the week of prayer is celebrated between 18–25 January, between the ...

I read an article this morning by John Vidal in the Guardian Newspaper and recognised immediately with some relief that it is actually naming ‘the proverbial elephant in the room’ stating what we deep down all know to be true.  In general, in the midst of long-term  crises, we can often find it easier to keep doing the same thing ...

When we listen to the News broadcasts shared from across the world oft times we can remain with a sense of helplessness, overwhelmed by the suffering of humanity on so many levels, especially if the news is of  personal, community or national tragedy, climate disasters, world migration and poverty? What is there to do?  How can we respond (without delaying) ...

Christmas is the ‘Good News’ that never becomes old.  It seems quite timely then to revisit the re-telling of this news in a rather special poem written quite some years ago (Christmas 1978) by Sr. Raphael Consedine, pbvm.  The words continue to echo in our lives as deep down in their simplicity as they express Presentation Life and the core ...

A new year and a new opportunity to be grateful and feel blessed.  The seasonal rhythm from Autumn and Winter into Spring (from, darkness to light) and old year into new, is an opportunity to stop, recognise, gather and appreciate the fruits and treasure of the year past – the outcomes of a life journey.  A journey that the feast ...

Each year as Christmas approaches it seems that one becomes more and more sensitised to the contrast  between the ‘commercial frenzy on the streets and in the shops’ and the seemingly ever growing numbers of people who are challenged by life circumstances to the extent that their problems seem insurmountable, and the only way is ‘downwards’.  They become part of ...

Red Wednesday is an initiative of the organisation, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) which aims to focus the attention of the western world on the problematic situation that persecuted Christians are facing and to show them our compassion. On this occasion, several churches and public buildings around the world are lit in red. “The persecution of Christians is ...

On the 24th November the image used at a Papal Mass in Nagasaki had an additional significance: it is a sculpture of Mary that survived the explosion of the atomic bomb in 1945 – The Virgin of Nagaski. When Pope Francis offers Mass during international trips, an image of the Marian devotion of the country he is visiting is usually ...