OF YOU MY HEART HAS SPOKEN

  The Road to Emmaus - Third Sunday of Easter Homily 

  The country is going mad, I said to my sister as we stood at the pedestrian crossing in Salthill, a place bustling with  happy young families on Easter Holidays.  The couple standing next to us with two small children decided not to wait for the green man and headed straight across the road. I was telling Evelyn that I had learned always (mostly) to wait for the green man, especially if children were near, so as not to give them a bad example. Just then a little girl from the next family decided to run straight across the road too, while the 401 bus had started to move away from the stop. Thankfully her dad, with a roar, had called her back. People are distracted, in a hurry, recklessly ignoring basic rules of the road, putting themselves and others at risk.  It happens all the time when driving. You're trying to keep the speed limit which is admittedly sometimes impossibly slow. But you try to keep it when the driver behind bears down upon you aggressively, maybe ...

  From the breakfast table I look towards the rising sun and over the distance to where I celebrated Easter last year, somewhat torn between two loves. It’s a “shepherds warning” kind of morning. Beautiful, with red blushed clouds that might be promising a later rain, but we will not dwell on that for now. Storm Dave pounded on the roof of St. Anne’s Church during the Easter Vigil last night, rattling the doors, giving a kind of Pentecostal drama to the liturgy which was led by Auxiliary Bishop Donal Roche, accompanied by Emmet the Parish Priest and myself. All I had to do was sit back and take it all in and it was wonderful to experience, special for an Irish congregation to witness the baptism of a teenage boy and three adults receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. Something that we have been used to in England and becoming more common in Ireland now. In the archdiocese of Dublin alone 139 adults have joined the Catholic Church this Easter. It seems there is a similar trend t...

The blush of green On brown bushes Winter giving way To Spring Luminous in sunlight Fresh new leaves Trembling in the breeze A heart in the face Of adversity A soul trembling At the approach of God The tremble of anticipated Love The full extent of it On its knees Serving the reality That it encounters In this personal moment Of Salvation  

She  stands at the crossroads Of time and eternity Intersection of all creation A desire as old as Eden Burning in her soul The yearning of every child Who has graced the earth Embodiment of humanity’s Hope Of Redemption, Restoration She has held in her heart The wandering aridity Of the desert and there God comes to find her Lifting her up and keeping Her as the apple of His eye Humanity has found A response to God in her From her is deliverance Brought forth in Christ In Whom we are born and breathe Our perfect peaceful consummation Healing for our scars

  "You need to wear a polo neck" said the cashier at the supermarket checkout.  I wasn't sure that I heard her right and said, "pardon?"  "You need to wear a polo neck" she repeated. "Why do I need to wear a polo neck? I asked. "You need to hide this" she said, pointing to my clerical collar. "I don't need to hide it." I said.   Then she asked me if I had the app for the supermarket on my phone and I asked what the advantage of it would be, but I was too distracted by her comment to understand what she was saying now.   She was calm. I was calm. There was no hint of aggression in her tone and I took no offence, thinking that she might even be protective towards me, warning me that it could attract negative attention. Which it might, of course, and with good reason.   But it felt surreal and the phrase that stuck in me was, “you need to hide.” It would be easier to hide at times. But it's not the best thing. And I wear m...