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Catholic Schools Week straddles two months and indeed two seasons. My late granny used to caution that although we welcome the spring and more sunlight from St Brigid’s Day onwards, you can get any weather in February. We saw this last year with the Beast from the East. We may not be out of the […]

The story of the three wise men gives us pause for thought in the darkness of January as the twinkling lights begin to fade and the trees, wreaths and decorations are all recycled or wrapped up and put away until next Christmas. Some of us struggle in January to let go of the year past […]

Today, the world celebrates Valentine’s Day. Today, Christians mark Ash Wednesday.  It is the first time since the Second World War that Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day are marked on the same day. For many this has raised a peculiar question:  Is it fasting or champagne? Is it ashes or chocolate?  Is it celebration or […]

Many would see January as the gloomiest month. After the months of build up to the Christmas season, January can leave us feeling quite flat. The most depressing day of the year is supposedly in January, known in recent years as ‘Blue Monday’. The sun sets at 5 o’clock most days, the trees are bare […]

Week Four: Here am I, the servant of the Lord. (Luke 1: 26-38) Every Christmas is a reminder that we are called to mid wife God into our world. It is a time when we echo the words of Mary, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.” It is a season when we bring […]

Week Three: Among you stands one whom you do not know (John 1:19-28) I was a stranger and you welcomed me! Many of us forget that Joseph, Mary and Jesus had to flee their homeland and become refugees in Egypt for a period of time (Mt 2:1-15). They experienced the dread of travelling under cover […]

Week Two: Prepare the way of the Lord… (Mark 1:1-8) In Mark’s Gospel, John the Baptist, is presented to us as the ‘voice crying out in the wilderness’ heralding the arrival of the ‘one who is more powerful than I’ and he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. John echoes the words of the […]

Week One: Keep Alert …  Keep Awake… (Mark 13:33-37) We begin our journey into Advent with the call to be attentive. What are we being called to be attentive to? Is it not the call to be attentive to the presence of God in all that we encounter? Is it not the call to recognise […]

Sunday, 19 November Extracts from the message of Pope Francis and a reflection by Fr Sean Healy SMA ‘Let us love, not with words, but with deeds.’ ‘This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him’ (Ps 34:6). The Church has always understood the importance of this cry. We possess an outstanding testimony to this in […]

Today, 24 October, we celebrate the seventy-second anniversary of the United Nations. The United Nations evolved out of the aftermath of two horrendous world wars that brought untold suffering and loss of life. The purpose of the UN was to save ‘succeeding generations from the scourge of war’, to ‘reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights’, to ‘establish […]