Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

  Over the past 20 months or so, we have become accustomed (or not!) to so many rules and regulations as we continue to overcome the COVID 19 pandemic. Only a year ago we were asking ourselves is it ‘permitted’ to go beyond 5km or outside our county? Even now, even in our Churches there are still so many things we can and can’t do…stay 2 metres apart, no choirs, no sign of peace, etc. We are surrounded by laws, rules, regulations, policies, guidelines, codes and more. It can be tiring, frustrating and tedious, for those who have to follow them and for those who have to oversee their application. When I was a student of Canon Law (the legal system of the Catholic Church), I was fascinated by the shortest canon in the Code of Canon Law, canon 1752 which reads : “The salvation of souls is the supreme law.” This canon is the kaleidoscopic lens through which we are called to read all of the other 1751 canons. Ironically it’s the very last canon and not the first! With the Gospel this...

 A chalk drawing by Sr. Marie Paul O' Brien, pddm (Dublin) The birth of Jesus Christ in that stable in Bethlehem is where all my questions begin to be answered” . (Cardinal Basil Hume) Part of me understands these words from the late Archbishop of Westminster for it was during Advent about 9 years ago that I only began to understand the mystery of life, of death, of birth, of motherhood, the real meaning of Advent and Christmas and the preparation for the birth of the Infant King. “The people in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:2). That previous summer, our journey as a family was plunged into darkness with the sudden death of our father at the age of 47. Two days afterwards, my sister announced that she was expecting her first child. God, through his mysterious ways, had already begun to comfort us and assure us that life would go on. A few months afterwards, I recall how on the first Sunday of Advent, my sister told us that she had already named th...