Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

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...

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 (...