Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

When it costs you...follow Him. When it doesn’t’ make sense, ..follow Him. When your way seems the better way, ..follow Him. When you are hurt, confused and disillusioned,...follow Him. When all the others are going a different way, ...follow Him. When your head and your heart ache from seeking, ...follow Him. When people ridicule you for your love, your faith, your belief, ...follow Him. When it would be easier to put your head in the sand and ignore the promptings of the Spirit, ...follow Him. When the rising sun gives you a glimpse into the bright new dawn which lies ahead, ...follow Him.  Follow...and don’t look back! Jesus who calls you will not let you down.

St. Joseph’s Young Priest Society AGM Foxrock Branch 10 th of June 2019 The Congregation to which I belong, the Disciples of the Divine Master was founded in 1924 by Blessed James Alberione, who also founded the Pauline Family, a Family which consists of five religious congregations including ourselves, four secular institutes and an aggregated institute. The Founder intended that as Disciples, our life of contemplative Eucharistic prayer would support the activities of the other Pauline congregations. In daily life, we were the maternal presence to generations of young boys who joined the minor seminary of the Society of St. Paul and diocesan seminaries in the early 20 th century; hence how the vocation to support and care for priests flowered and developed.   Today, this ministry to priests takes on different expressions according to the needs of the local Church throughout the world. During Adoration we hold up to God the needs of humanity and of the Church, pray...

Today we celebrate the feast of St Thomas the Apostle. Many remember him more for his doubt rather than his heartfilled expression of faith: ''My Lord and my God'. Thomas comes to faith when he has the chance to voice his doubt. All of us carry doubts, about ourselves, our family and friends, our Church and even doubts about God. But we can't remain in doubt. Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will. The greatest seed of doubt which the devil tries to plant in us is that we are not loved nor lovable, not good enough nor worth fighting for. We only have to look to the cross to see the determination and love of God who gives his Son for us and we see that this doubt cannot be true. Don't dig up in doubt what was planted in faith. If we were quicker to doubts our doubts than doubt our faith, our lives would be very different. However we pilgrim along, some days we carry the doubt but then other days we are able to marvel and humbly say: "My Lord and my God...

Often it might feel that Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat when the storms of life assail us. But maybe the question is, is Jesus in your boat at all? Or have you thrown Him overboard because He rocked it, rocked you out of your comfort zone with regard to how you live your faith, how you trust Him, trust others? Do you trust Him in the storm? The first reading and the response to the Psalm remind us to keep our gaze fixed on him, especially in the storms, trials and difficulties. In the Book of Genesis we see how Lot's wife looked back to the city they were fleeing and she turned into a pillar of salt. The Lord was guiding them to safety but her gaze, her heart, was elsewhere. It reminds us that there is always the temptation to look back, often with nostalgic emotion, to what we have left behind, to people or places which might have seemed to be good for us but in reality were not. God wants to give us the fullness of life (Jn 10:10). Sometimes choices we have to make ar...

It's fitting that on the vigil of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, the Consistory for the canonisation for Blessed Cardinal John Newman has been set for the 1st of July 2019.  Heart speaks to Heart- Cor ad cor loquitur! This motto of  Cardinal Newman is what comes to my mind and heart for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. Usually this is followed the next day by the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary but this year the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul takes precedence. Nowadays it seems that the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been archived back to the time of our grandparents or our parents. I remember in school learning to sing 'Sweet heart of Jesus' with great fervour as taught to us by the Sisters of Mercy. Even now when I hear it, I am still somewhat nostalgic. I doubt somehow that these are the songs which my nieces learnt for their school choir for Mass. I also remember how often we prayed the short prayers to the Sacred Heart in class, in ass...

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 ...

Today is World Communications Day! Thinking and praying in a special way for all the members of the Pauline Family to which I belong, called to bring Jesus Master to the world with the most modern and effective means of social communication. All of us use social communication to varying degrees so today is a day to reflect and think how we use these means, what we post, repost, like, tweet, pin, message, snapchat etc. Is it for God's glory? Is it communicating life, truth, beauty, goodness? It is also a day to recall those means of communication which we have for centuries...to talk to each other, be in the presence of one another, to smile, to cry, gestures, facial expressions...this is all a language in its own. Modern technological means can never and should never replace these! Don't get stuck in virtual life...enjoy the beauty of real life!