Catechetical Centre

The message of Jesus, proclaimed in a simple, enthusiastic way

The Father’s Lap-Yvonne Rooney

I recently chatted to a priest friend and as we discussed prayer he asked me if was familiar with the ‘Father’s Lap’.  I was not. This prayer intrigued me and sounded very appealing.  Basically, we all know what it is like to see a young child settle into their parents or loved one’s arms.  Most...

Holding Close While Letting Go-Bernadette Sweetman

We are surrounded by changes in our daily lives at the moment.  Schools are reopening, workplaces are resuming on-site practice, people are moving on.  Life for many, though not all, is suddenly ‘unpaused’ after six months of a reset. My daughter, my only child, started secondary school this week.  Commencing secondary school is an exciting...

The Free, Simple Things – Yvonne McGowan

A thought that I often find myself contemplating and that I returned to many times during ‘lockdown’, is what brings joy and peace into my life. I can say that I know it is not the material things that bring a fleeting pleasure. Instead, it is the free, simple things in life that, in my...

“Beyond the Stars must Dwell a Loving Father!” -Willy Krause

In this strange year of 2020, many things work a bit differently. One of these are big celebrations: weddings, funerals, anniversaries, festivals, birthday parties – all of these have scaled down, postponed or cancelled all together. All kinds of events are affected, from the Olympic Games and the European Football Championship, to the Cannes Film...

With God You Will Never Walk Alone -Thérèse Ferry

A friend, an avid Liverpool Football Club fan, recently sent me a picture message. It was an image of the cup presented to the 2020 Premier League Champions, bedecked with ribbons, and underneath it, the caption read, ‘With God by your side, You’ll Never Walk Alone!’ It made me smile. Having grown up in a...

The Catholic Church as a Field Hospital-Raymond Friel

Pope Francis has a natural flair for vivid and figurative language. In one of his first interviews as pope, in September 2013, he was asked to reflect on how he saw the church. He replied,“the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful;...

Become a Saint – Martina Purdy

When I was a journalist, and John Hume was a politician, there were a few things that stood out about him: his courage, his fortitude and his stubborn refusal to compromise his message. In fact, political reporters, who love something new and unexpected, would often complain that John Hume was forever delivering his single transferrable...

Bread for Others- Karen Kiefer

During these pandemic days and months, many of us have retreated back into the warmth of our kitchens to comfort bake. Such was the case for me on an early Saturday morning just a few weeks ago. I wanted to bake my 87-year-old mother’s Irish bread; the bread she had baked for me for my...

Vocation? Ask God-He would be Happy to Help! -Hollie Frystal

How many young people are ever given the opportunity or take the time themselves to consider their lives in terms of a vocation? I am only seventeen and know how hard it can be for young people to decide what it is they want to do in life. We want guidance…so why not ask God!...

Allowing God to Give the Growth -Fr Paul Farren

Where did you spend the lockdown? What environment were you in? What environment are you in now as the lockdown eases? What have we been surrounding ourselves with? What do we surround ourselves with? If you think about a seed – a seed can be so small and apparently insignificant but it has such potential....

The Failure Paradox-Jim Deeds

The door of my parents’ home knocked and when my mother answered it she greeted an old gentleman with a warm smiling face. He asked her if this is where I had lived when I was a young man and if she was my mother. Slightly bewildered at this point, my mother replied yes to...

The Gift of a Blank Page – Dympna Mallon

While spring cleaning recently, I found boxes of schoolbooks belonging to my children going back over 20 years, many of which were only half used. As I flicked through the books I remembered how, in the 1970s, we were forbidden to tear out pages when we made a mistake because each book had only enough...

We are in this Together- Sr Anne Neylon

Teachers, this will be a summer holiday like none other! Covid-19 invites God’s people to look at life through a new lens. There is no going back to anything. There never was. Now, more than ever, people are cautious as they move forward. These words ‘we are in this together’ are regularly spoken during the...

Treasures from Heaven -Catherine McGonagle

What a confusing time we are in. While blessed with the opportunity to reflect on this piece of living history, we also face the challenge of navigating our way through uncharted territory and all we can do is place our hope in those who know best and put our trust in God… Lives have changed...

A French Connection-Fr Aidan Troy

On Ash Wednesday, 26 February 2020,1,000 people came to Three Masses at Saint Joseph’s Church, just a few minutes’ walk from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. People, from all over the world, were signed with Ashes.  Since 1869 St Joseph’s has welcomed people wishing to worship in English in this diverse community. We listened...

The Gift of God in a Life Less Complicated -Mary O Boyle

As the present pandemic ‘lockdown’ continues apace and the days turn into weeks and then into months, I find myself remembering times past when life seemed so much simpler and communicating with others meant talking in person, writing a letter or using a phone. Upon deeper reflection, reality creeps in and reminds me that life...

Comfort and Compassion-Sr Deirdre Mullan

In our thought for the week, Sr Deirdre Mullan, writes, ‘the pandemic has awakened in many a deep compassion and the need to reach out in a world where to even touch is now considered dangerous!’ As we get used to coping with the ‘new normal’ amidst the Covid 19 pandemic, one of the things...

Nothing Normal about the ‘New Normal’! – Elma Walsh

Donal Walsh once wrote, “A few months left, he said. There it was, I was given a timeline on the rest of my life. No choice, no say, no matter. It was given to me as easy as dinner, I couldn’t believe it, that all I had was 16 years here and soon I began...

With God on our side who can be against us? -Finbar Madden

In our thought for the week, Finbar Madden, Principal of Saint Columb’s College, Derry, reminds us, at a time when understandably we may experience a sense of abandonment, that any journey that we have been on, Jesus has travelled before, and now travels again – but this time with us. The image, of Jesus, is...

The Spirit Moulds us to Make Music for God!

In our thought for the week, Corinne Coyle, Principal of Saint Mary’s PS, Draperstown, invites us to reflect on how, during this Coronavirus Pandemic, we may, like Mary, allow God’s love to be celebrated through us. Corinne is also an Iconographer and the image is of her first Icon of Mary. Thought for the Week...

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, Some momentary awareness comes As an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, Who violently sweep your house Empty of its furniture, Still, treat each guest honourably. He may be...

Do You See This Woman?

Luke CH7:36-50 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to share his meal, so he went to the Pharisee’s home and as usual reclined on the sofa to eat. And it happened that a woman of this town, who was known as a sinner, heard that he was in the Pharisee’s house. She brought a precious...

The Glorious Abundance of the Almighty

Others have noticed it too: they’ve noticed the world’s obsessive insistence on scarcity. According to this worldview, there isn’t enough of anything to go around: not enough resources; not enough food; not enough water; not enough love; not enough forgiveness – not enough of anything we need. The world is in a constant state of...