Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

  Artist: Sr. Marie Paul O' Brien, pddm Traditionally in Ireland today, the 1st of February is regarded as the first day of spring though meteorologists would say the 21st of March. Oh, I know that there is no magic switch that flicks on the first day of spring, unleashing new life and green shoots, but there is something about knowing that spring has come that leaves a tingling promise of renewal, and rebirth, in my veins.  In Ireland today we also celebrate a special woman, the great St. Brigid. In liturgical iconography and statuary Saint Brigid is often depicted holding a reed cross, a crozier of the sort used by abbots, and a lamp (called a "lamp of learning and wisdom", as lamps and fire were regarded sacred to the Celts and druids). Early hagiographers portray Saint Brigid's life and ministry as touched with fire. Brigid also founded a school of art, including metal work and illumination, over which Conleth presided. The Kildare scriptorium produced the Book of

One of my prayer corners Today the Church marks St. Aelred of Rievaulx, a 12th-century Cistercian monk who wrote the book on 'Spiritual Friendship' and is considered a kind of patron of friends. On Monday, beginning of Ordinary time, as I put away the crib that was in my room, I put one of my icons back in its place. This icon is very meaningful to me. It bookended my arrival and my departure in Canada. A week after my arrival I received it as a gift, in poster style and it graced my wall for the duration of my 2 year stay there in Deschatelets Residence. The icon was one I had actually never seen before and was a gift from Taize, a copy of the Coptic icon which belonged to Brother Roger Schultz, the former prior there. The original icon dates from seventh century Egypt and is usually referred to as “Christ with the believer” but is just as frequently referred to as “the icon of friendship” . Then when I was leaving Canada, my PDDM Sisters in Canada gave me a gift o

Christmas has officially finished! Until next year that is.  With the second Vespers of the Baptism of the Lord, today we return to Ordinary Time. With the commercial hype of Christmas having passed, albeit somewhat subdued this year, it is easy to get dragged into a sense of a mundane life, void of fairy lights, candy canes and presents under the tree and January can be somewhat of an anti-climatic month. We get back into the ordinary course of events. Through the period of Ordinary Time following Christmas, we become increasingly aware that this marvel of birth and growth will mature into something challenging. The Good News that God’s extraordinary life comes to us in seemingly ordinary ways is the ongoing lesson of Ordinary Time. However we will need time to focus on this and in a few weeks we will be gifted with the time of Lent which culminates in the great event of the Resurrection, the battle of life over death, light over darkness. Last week, I jokingly said that the shops wil

  "And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” You are God’s beloved. That word “beloved" means every inch of what it sounds like. In Greek it is, “agapetos” which means “loved with agape” – loved with a love that is deep, active, self-sacrificing and absolutely unconditional. This is a love that doesn’t have to be earned. This is a deep love that just is. God gives us life and unconditional love. We are told to give God – nothing. Nothing is demanded of us before or after in return. There is nothing we can do that will cause God to stop loving us. Nothing will cause that love to be taken away. Instead we get an invitation, one that we are free to embrace or ignore. God invites us just to trust in the gift, to trust in the active, unconditional love God has for each one of us. Just to trust in it. Happy feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the day where we recall our own Baptism, where we became part of a community of Christ, as belo

This year, more than 120 million babies will be born on earth. And of course, they will receive a name. Some parenting websites say that that a name holds the power to shape a child's self-esteem and his identity and influence how he's seen and treated by others. And then there's the belief that names have been proven to affect everything from a child's self-confidence to his grades in school and his future professional success. On the 3rd of January the Church celebrates the Holy Name of Jesus. In the liturgical revisions of Vatican II, the feast was removed, though a votive Mass to the Holy Name of Jesus had been retained for devotional use. With the release of the revised Roman Missal in March 2002, the feast was restored as an optional memorial today, January 3rd. It might sound like a strange feast. Why do we celebrate a name of a person, do we not celebrate the person? A name is very important, it gives identity. For Jesus, it gave him his mission, his life pr

Although it is the 2nd Sunday of Christmas, the 2nd of January is the liturgical memorial of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen. By celebrating the feasts of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen on the same day, the Church praises a virtue which has always been held in high esteem: friendship. Born in Cappadocia around 330, Basil and Gregory first were schoolfriends, they studied together in Athens. Following this, they were co-defenders of the orthodox teaching on the Trinity. As the French say, “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Basil and Gregory faced the same problems as modern Christians. Sainthood meant trying to preserve the spirit of Christ in such perplexing and painful problems as reform, organization, fighting for the poor, maintaining balance and peace in misunderstanding. For Gregory, we are reminded in The Church's Year of Grace by Pius Parsch that ‘during his life span the pendulum was continually swinging back and forth