Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

On the 29th of June 2017, I had the great joy to participate in the ordination of my friend and fellow religious, Charles Lafferty, SAC. Throughout the years, I  have count myself truly blessed to have shared in the journey to priesthood of different friends within the Pallottine Family. Together with Sr. Eileen and Sr. Sabine, Dominican sisters, we had all ministered with Charles in the group 'Religious in Formation' so it was with joyful spirits that we travelled from Dublin to Derry for this great day. However it is thanks to Youth 2000 that led our paths to cross earlier with Charles. Indeed Youth 2000 was well represented as it also acknowledged the generous volunteering and support that Charles has been to the group over the years. Fr. Charles was ordained in his home parish of Ardmore, Derry. It is always very special to see how the parish prepares for this day. It was truly a celebration of faith and family. As the proverb goes, it takes a village to raise a child.

Explaining the Trinity is not an easy task. I take some consolation in the fact that the great Doctor of the Church St. Augustine of Hippo spent over 30 years working on his treatise De Trinitate [about the Holy Trinity], endeavouring to conceive an intelligible explanation for the mystery of the Trinity. There is a story told that Augustine was walking by the seashore one day contemplating and trying to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity when he saw a small boy running back and forth from the water to a spot on the seashore. The boy was using a sea shell to carry the water from the ocean and place it into a small hole in the sand. The Bishop of Hippo approached him and asked, “My boy, what are doing?” “I am trying to bring all the sea into this hole,” the boy replied with a sweet smile. “But that is impossible, my dear child, the hole cannot contain all that water” said Augustine. The boy paused in his work, stood up, looked into the eyes of the Saint, and replied, “It

Sr. M. Louise pddm ARTICLE WRITTEN FOR THE WESTMEATH INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER From the 29 th of April to the 29 th of May, two Sister Disciples of the Divine Master (PDDM), originally from Athlone, Sr. M. Louise O’ Rourke and Sr. Josephine Fallon, gathered in Rome, together with 51 other Sister Disciples of the Divine Master for their General Chapter. During this gathering the Sisters, representing the 1400 sisters in 31 nations in which the Order is present, elect the new Superior General and her team, deal with pressing issues, promote renewal and discern priorities according to the changing times of the Church and society. Sr. M. Josephine Fallon, originally from Wolfe Tone Terrace was present at this gathering, representing the Disciples of the Divine Master in United States of America. Sr. Josephine joined the Order in Ballykeeran in Ireland and went to the States in January 1971 where she has been ministering since in different roles. Presently she is the Delegation Supe

Tomorrow in our community in Athlone, our PDDM community along with other religious sisters, friends, Adorers and collaborators will begin their annual retreat or spiritual exercises. For about 4 years now we have opened our annual retreat to those who serve with us in the mission and it's had a fantastic response, with about 30 to 40 participating in the retreats in Athlone and Dublin. We are aware that not everyone has the opportunity, be it for family situations or financial reasons, to go away to a retreat house for a retreat. We all need to take time out to recharge our minds and hearts and see where we are in life.  How many of us have tried out our best Olympic sprints to grab a mobile phone charger or our laptop battery when we’ve been chatting to friends and suddenly the horrible beeping noise warns us that the phone or laptop is about to die!? There is no power. Sometimes we let our spiritual life and energy get to that point too. Yes, our lives can be so busy (yes,

Today we have a Gospel which many of us are very familiar with. There is the temptation to skip to the end and summarize: "Okay, Peter betrayed Jesus three times, now the Lord asks him three times ‘do you love me?’ Reading in modern English, you may not get much out of it. However, if you look at the passage in the original Greek, it does make a difference. Basically, there are two different words translated as ' LOVE ' in this passage. It may help to put the two original Greek words in place of the English words in the same 3 verses above. Notice the changes below: John 21: 15 So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you agapao me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I phileo You." He said to him, "Tend My lambs." (note the two different verbs used by Jesus and Peter) 16 He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you agapao Me?" He said to