Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

 St. Catherine dictating 'The Dialogue'  This morning I realized two things: (a) if I do not feed the blog something soon it will wither away into nothingness and (b) that I am definitely moving a lot in Dominican circles and am becoming ‘Dominican’- not that this is a bad thing! I find myself drawn more and more to some of their particular saints. Yes, I know, saints are for the whole world but one in particular has been cropping up time and time again: St. Catherine of Siena !   I got her as my patroness at the beginning of last year, not once but twice! Both on our little prayers cards which are distributed to us by our superior and then on one of these internet site which randomly give you a patroness. Guess who I got! I also carry her name as my baptismal name- Cathriona, after my Nana Cathleen and my Granny Kathleen (the later whom I sadly never met). This year, the feast of St. Catherine falls on Vocations Sunday. Unfortunately for St. Catherine, her liturgic...

With Vocations Sunday on the horizon, here's some tips for those of you who might be discerning if God is leading you to serve Him in priesthood or religious life. Twelve Exercises to Discern Your Call Imagine yourself 5 to 10 years from now. Do you want to continue in life as you are now? Imagine yourself as a priest or religious ten years from now. Fantasize by going through an entire day in your future as a priest. Visualize yourself being a priest and doing what you imagine a priest does. Notice how your gut reacts to this exercise. What is usually the most life-giving part of your week? What does that say about you? Shadow a priest or religious for a day. Accompany them through the various aspects of ministry. For one week, live as if you decided to enter the seminary or formation program. Notice how you felt. The following week live as if you decided to drop the church vocation question and dismiss it. What feelings are stirred within you? Imagine Jesus loo...

Literally, I haven’t been to Emmaus. But the moment I intend that question in a figurative sense. I do not refer to the Palestinian village several miles from Jerusalem , but I refer rather to our own Emmaus, because Emmaus is the place you go when there is nowhere else to go. Emmaus is the place of lost hopes, shattered dreams, and heavy hearts. Emmaus is the place you retreat to when you are bone-tired, beaten down, and broken up by the tragedies and disappointments of life. It may be a village, but it is often a state of mind, characterised by the absence of joy, the lost sense of meaning, the frequent loneliness of the human condition, and the seeming absurdity of life. Have you been to Emmaus? It is the place you escape to when you are hurting and in need of healing, when you are crying and are in need of comfort, when you are exhausted and in need of renewal. If you have lived at all, I suspect you have been to Emmaus or maybe you are still there. The road to Emmaus is frequ...

T alk for Ruah: 30 th of March 2012 Divine Master Chapel of Adoration, Athlone “From Ashes to Alleluia” Dear God, we know that every journey begins with a first step. Be with us this evening as we take another step in our Lenten journey. We began this journey with the sign of ashes on our forehead, reminding us that this is no ordinary walk. We move one step forward in the promise of your light. We seek new meaning in the Easter that awaits us all. But first, we must walk with you to Jerusalem , to Calvary , to the Tomb and beyond. Every religious experience begins with emptiness. We began the Lenten journey in the desert and we continue to walk, making the journey from Ashes to Alleluia.   On Ash Wednesday we came forward to have ashes placed on our forehead and to hear the words “Remember you are dust and to dust you will return”. . The burnt palms, symbol of the joy and majesty which accompanied Jesus during his entrance into Jerusalem , become the dust and ashes placed on...

Today in our Congregation and in the Pauline Family, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the return home to God of Mother M. Scholastica Rivata, our first sister Disciple of the Divine Master. Reflecting on her life and her discipleship has given me much food for thought. She truly was in tune with the voice of the Divine Master,seeking to do his will in all things. An early wake-up call from the birds and her life inspire these humble thoughts below! "What does it mean to have a vocation? Is a vocation a job, a career, a way of life? What does money have to do with it? Have you often asked yourself- at twenty, thirty, forty, sixty- what am I going to do with the rest of my life? You’re not alone. Understanding vocation is the key to understanding life, not in the future but here and now. Understanding vocation is the key to living a meaningful life, the key to fulfilment on life’s journey.   For Christians, vocation is the invitation to follow Jesus. “Come after me”, he sai...

This Saturday, we commemorate 25 years since M.M.Scholastica returned to the house of the Father. Here are some of her spiritual thoughts which allow us to see the depth of her spiritual union with her Divine Master. THOUGHTS FROM MOTHER SCHOLASTICA ' ...Heaven is beautiful and to reach there we need to pass by the way of our Master, the way of the Cross, may the Lord be blessed because in His infinite mercy He   allowed us poor mortals to participate in it… '              Seek to correspond to the divine invitations and to work faithfully because the Lord has chosen you and loves you so much. He lets you taste the joy of belonging to Him, to be His, always be His. Give thanks to Him and keep faith that He will continue to enrich you with the Holy Spirit. Your ‘yes’ which you pronounced on the day of your Profession flows into each day until that final day where you will give to Him all of your life adorned...

Take off your sandals, you are on holy ground! (Ex 3:5) In its various moments, the liturgical year celebrates nothing other than the fullness of this mystery of walking continuously on holy ground in the company of the saints who walked the pilgrim way of Christ. It has its centre in the annual Easter, everything springs from it and everything tends to it. Christian spirituality is a paschal spirituality, that is, a spirituality polarized by the divine event of salvation, by the paschal mystery lived by Christ and celebrated memorially by the Church. The imposition of ashes at the beginning of Lent is always a very poignant moment: ‘Repent and believe in the Gospel’. Ashes and fire are two images which accompany me during the Lenten journey. On Ash Wednesday, the burnt palms, symbol of the joy and majesty which accompanied Jesus during his entrance into Jerusalem , are now ashes placed on my forehead…the liturgical cycle continues! I remember often raking out the fire at home...