Tag Archives: Reflection

The following is a brief extract from a reflection written by Fr. Yannick Essengue, SJ called ‘Hear Creation’s Cry’ as part of the Laudato Si’ Movement’s monthly prayer guide for May 2024.  You can read the full reflection at this link HERE Also included below are some beautiful and inspiring questions for reflection. All these days, we walk with the ...

Venerable Nano Nagle, founder of the Presentation Congregation died on the 26th April 1784. In her book Nano Nagle: Woman of the Gospel Sr. Pius O’Farrell includes a eulogy to Nano, attributed to Sr. Ursula Kavanagh: “What will become of the innocent orphans, hundreds of whom she drew from vice and ignorance? What will be come of the sick, naked ...

At the tomb on Easter morning, Mary of Magdala recognises Jesus at the sound of her own name, ‘Mary’. She responds with the fullness of love and faith. In all her vulnerability, at this moment, having gone to seek out Jesus, Mary receives her apostolic calling from Jesus.  He tells her not to remain there but to: “Go, find my ...

The fact that this year Ash Wednesday falls on St. Valentine’s Day is a simple reminder, if one were needed, that Love is all about the Heart! The 13thC mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg in her writings The Flowing Light of the Godhead expresses the reality of a lifelong Love and yearning for intimacy of relationship with God, and how this ...

Circumstances of a chance ‘chink of ‘insight’ from a moment’s encounter planted this seed of prayer: ‘trust in the slow work of God’.  It seems both apt for this particular day, the ‘World Day for Consecrated Life’ (when we pray in particular for all discerning and wanting to respond to the plan of God for their lives) and also an ...

We are at the cusp of cross-over into Spring Days, and ever growing Light, that from the Creator’s hands brings awakening Life to all it touches. It is not a coincidence that this ‘breath of Nature’ brings to our consciousness all kinds of grace-filled connections that inspire new life and hope. In Ireland we are moving towards the feast day ...

At the end of the last year, almost buried in the momentum of preparation for Christmas, Pope Francis sent his greetings, and a very powerful message to the young people present at the 46th European Meeting organised by the Taizé Community [28 December 2023 – 1st January 2024] on the theme “Walking together”.  Here are a few of the many ...

It can seem at this of year that we are waiting, always waiting …waiting in queues, waiting for holidays, waiting for people to come home, waiting for time to do all the preparations, waiting for time to make that phone call, waiting to get all the work cleared up, but above all waiting for Jesus to arrive! Today I looked ...

Thanksgiving is on Thursday, November 23, 2023.  Thanksgiving has been celebrated independently by colonies and states for more than 200 years.  However, in 1941, Thanksgiving was established as a federal holiday held on the fourth Thursday of November.  The first Thanksgiving celebration is believed to have occurred in 1621. The story, historically told from the pilgrim’s perspective, is that Plymouth colonists from ...

As this phase of the Synod on the future of the Church comes to a close on Sunday, 29th October, and the delegates prepare to return home, Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, offered the following spiritual reflection on Tuesday 24th October, entitled:  ‘The seed germinates.’ This is a very apt and beautiful meditation that we too, as Church, can live together. ...