It’s an incredibly beautiful day at sea. The ship sails steady on the white edged choppy waves and peace reigns now, with loneliness left behind in Dublin port. Mostly left behind. Out here I am suspended between two realities, ready Continue reading A Future And A Hope→

There’s a breeze that blows before the rain. It meets the resistance of the rhododendron, braced against the weather, not a trembling but more a stiffened shaking, a soldier standing to attention in a storm. This is a day of Continue reading Thou Art My Island→

Holiness: A Path Travelled Together “Growth in holiness is a journey in community, side by side with others.” – Gaudete et Exsultate 141. Pope Francis, in this affirmation from his Apostolic Exhortation on the call to holiness in today’s world, Continue reading A Path Travelled Together – Pat Maguire→

Back in the 1990’s I was involved in the formation of students for the priesthood who were being educated in what might be called a “liberal” institute, though I’m not at all fond of such labels but I don’t know Continue reading Always The Same Lord→

Broken body restingOn my lap hiddenImage of the unseenGod in finite form frail God knows how to liveAnd how not to beAble to keep goingTo birth’s beginningsThe end of expectancy Eternal is the spaceBeyond end and beginningThe place of this Continue reading You Are Weeping Now→

“Insomnia can become a form of contemplation. You just lie there, inert, helpless, alone, in the dark, and let yourself be crushed by the inscrutable tyranny of time. The plank bed becomes an altar and you lie there without trying to Continue reading INSOMNIA: They Who Fly Home To God→

I see his face in every flower The quote above is a line from the poem ‘The Presence Of God’ by Joseph Mary Plunkett, one of the martyrs of the 1916 Rising whose marriage to Grace Gifford took place in Continue reading CORPUS CHRISTI: The Presence of God→

Slowing to the pace of a pond, time away from mowing machines, a breeze too cool for June, a warm suntrap carved into the rhododendron bush, birdsong, rushes rustling and water lilies perfectly still. This is Ashburnham! There is no Continue reading TRINITY SUNDAY: Slowing To The Pace Of A Pond→