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