Skip to main content

OF YOU MY HEART HAS SPOKEN

Eamonn Monson SAC

Search This Blog

Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Posts

OUR LADY QUEEN OF APOSTLES

on May 21, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

JOY BEYOND SORROW: Mental Health Awareness Week

on May 18, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

NOEL O'CONNOR: A Child At Rest

on May 14, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

A CLASS OF A MIRACLE

on May 10, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

HELEN: When it's all been said and done

on May 07, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

FIRST OF MAY: When I Was Small

on April 30, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

40 Years Red

on April 29, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

BREND: A Special Feeling

on April 28, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

RADIANT WITH GLADNESS: Easter Vigil Homily 2019

on April 21, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

From Notre Dame to Sacre Coeur: Easter 2019

on April 20, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

ON OUR KNEES - Mass of the Lord's Supper

on April 19, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

STOP ALL THE CLOCKS, COVER THE STATUES

on April 13, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Motherhood and God

on March 30, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Saying It Is Half The Victory

on March 23, 2019

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Eamonn Monson Podcasts

EAMONN'S OTHER BLOGS

Wordpress
Sean
CAMINO - One Million Steps To Freedom
I AM Huruma - Mostly Shankill

Popular Posts

NOEL O'CONNOR: A Child At Rest

It’s one of those moments when solitude bites - that most blessed gift of God that I treasure. It’s when loneliness overwhelms me and there is no one there to absorb it with me, no human face-to-face physical presence. And nothing on earth will relieve it, only God who doesn’t relieve it quickly but stretches it out so that I actually experience it. I’m not the only one and it’s not the worst loneliness going on in the world– but it’s mine, right now. And it hurts! It happened following my visit to Noel in the hospice, something I’ve already written about but will repeat again here. His brothers JJ and Patrick and niece Fiona were there. Noel slept peacefully so the rest of us chatted until he stirred, woke and looked at us without speaking. I knelt beside his bed, we held hands, I placed my right hand on his head and we prayed. It felt like we were intimately enfolded in one Heart. I asked Jesus to take our hands, our priestly hands and use them as His own, that the Light of His Love…

JOY BEYOND SORROW: Mental Health Awareness Week

Judas leaves the warmth and light of the Upper Room, separates himself from the grace of the Eucharist, and goes out into the cold night to betray Jesus for whom this must have been one of the most difficult moments of His life. Yet, what He says of that moment is this, “now is the Son of Man glorified!” What an odd thing for a condemned man to say. But He can say this because He has the grace and the courage to allow events to unfold as they must, the grace to wait until the conclusion which is in fact a glorious one, the glory of His resurrection. This is the grace offered by Him to us, that when our darkest moment comes upon us, we have the vision to see that there is light beyond the darkness, joy beyond the sorrow. This vision of grace does not mean that we ignore the feelings that come with darkness. As we come to the end of Mental Health Awareness Week I’m very aware of the words of Prince William who said of his grief for his Mother Princess Diana, that it is a pain like no ot…

OUR LADY QUEEN OF APOSTLES

“Wherever I shall be, I intend to imagine myself to be together with all the creatures in the Cenacle in Jerusalem where the Apostles received the Holy Spirit. I shall remind myself to renew this desire often. As the Apostles were there with Mary, so will I be in spirit with the most beloved Mother and Jesus. As they are my special intercessors, I am confident that they will help me and all other creatures to receive the abundance of the Holy Spirit” (St. Vincent Pallotti)
I take this prayer of St. Vincent Pallotti and place myself before the image of the Cenacle – Mary in prayer in the Upper Room, surrounded by the apostles and disciples of Jesus after His Ascension into heaven. There’s an empty space in front of Mary and I think of myself going in there to kneel at her feet, my hands resting on her lap in prayer. It reminds me of Mary Ann McDonagh who was, as I thought then, an old woman, though probably not yet fifty. When I was a boy in Aran where she lived, I loved her, the home…

A CLASS OF A MIRACLE

He is frail now, vulnerable, and his gaunt, harrowed face has a softer expression. We have been at odds for almost twenty years, so I wasn't expecting anything. My intention was to be civil, greet him, shake hands and move on but to our surprise he hung around us, came back to our table after the meal and we talked, chatted in a very light and friendly manner. He even asked after my life in Hastings.
Someone later reminded me about what he did all those years ago, the reason for the breakdown in our relationship and I haven't forgotten but the expression in his face made me lay all that down.
There was a moment when he came up behind me as I was sitting at table and he placed his hands on my shoulders, something my nephews would do. As I do, I reached back without looking, to touch the hands touching me and I was so surprised, surprised and moved. As I was leaving we hugged. He said, "look after yourself " and I said "you look after yourself." And I lef…

HELEN: When it's all been said and done

She is one of the most beautiful expressions of womanhood I have ever met and in that she was also a most beautiful expression of who God is. With her I felt safe and redeemed, loved and admired.
As I write these words my soundtrack is playing Robin Mark's 'When It's All Been Said and Done' and I have only a short while ago received word that Helen died during the night, finally a great release for her but what a loss for her family. My Mass this morning was for her, the readings so appropriate. As I went to bed last night praying for Helen I thought of the heavens being torn apart at the Baptism of Jesus, the Spirit of God descending, "...Beloved... my favour rests on you." Similar to what is in the first reading at Mass today - St. Stephen in his agony saying, "I can see heaven thrown open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God", a reflection of what Helen must have been experiencing in her own agony at that time. "Lord Je…

RADIANT WITH GLADNESS: Easter Vigil Homily 2019

Last Sunday morning at the 10am Mass Deacon Duncan and I were standing at the altar, possibly during the Eucharistic Prayer, when we saw little Emily leading her mother up the side aisle until they came right in front of the altar. Emily is about a year and a half old and I think she is just learning to walk and her mum is behind her holding both of Emily’s hands so that it’s the child who is at the front, leading. What both Duncan and I saw was the extraordinary joy on the face of the child as she looked up. She was literally radiant with gladness at whatever she was seeing – and it was not Duncan or me. It was like she was having a vision of God. It was quite extraordinary.
So, she has become for me a symbol of the journey that we have all been making towards Easter and it is somehow the child, that which is innocent within us that has led us here to catch sight of the mystery of Jesus who died and has come back to life. No one but God knows what was going on in Emily’s mind, no one …

By Pelham Beach: I Think As I Pray

A beautiful Friday afternoon. Walking the sea front by Pelham Beach in the direction of the Bathing Hut Café which never seems to be open and is exactly three miles from my door. It’s a walk I do every other day, mostly in the evening. Six miles in total and it’s really good for my head.
I pray as I go and think as I pray and often just let my eyes and my mind float, taking in what’s there. The beauty of everything. Every one.
September 28th. I remember it’s exactly a year ago since I was inducted as Parish Priest of St. Mary Star of the Sea. 28 is a significant number – January and July. I was 28 years old the last time I became a Parish Priest in Galapo, Tanzania.

I don’t know how to assess the last year, to know whether I’m doing well or not. There’s always a bit of a shadow lurking to suggest I will never really get it right, that I never have in fact gotten it right. The shadow suggests that my mistakes - past and present - are bigger than they actually are.
The devil is an accuser. …

Saying It Is Half The Victory

The first day of springtime breaks with heavy clouds as I set out along the A27 from Hastings to Crawley for a meeting of priests. I used to dislike this road intensely but I’ve become accustomed to it now and take it as it comes, take the traffic as it is, though this morning it’s not bad at all.
On the radio they’re talking about “The Terrible Sonnets” of Gerard Manley Hopkins, the 19th century English Jesuit priest and poet whom I became quite fond of when still at school. The Terrible Sonnets were written in Ireland, a place where he felt exiled and suffered from depression, a condition I have struggled with for many years, maybe even since I was a child. “I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day” he wrote. I know this feeling well.
But I smile at the thought of exile, living away from one’s homeland which for Hopkins was like oppressive captivity whereas for me I feel free. This is what I think in the silence after the radio has been turned off.
Along the way I glance at the hedger…

40 Years Red

Red the life vest of the oarsman. Red the wide-rim hat of a smiling cyclist. Red the lips, the dress of a woman walking into the sun. Red the fluttering shirt of a young man running. Red the coat of a woman calmly writing, seated stately on the pebbled shore. Red the tulips. Red has made me smile, revived my drooping spirits. And yellow is the Mustang that growls like a contented lion.
Our daily prayer begins with Psalm 95. Before I leave my bed this morning a line from it is already hovering around me – “for forty years I was wearied of these people.” What a thought with which to start the day. But it’s the forty years part that is significant now because on this day forty years ago I made my Final Profession as a Pallottine on the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena and I intend this to be a blessed, peaceful day.
It's also Monday, my day off, a day that always finds me spun out after the weekend. It’s my day of rest and I tend to approach it slowly, quietly lingering over breakfast…

TWO MEN IN A SHELTER: The Story of a Brief Unexpected Friendship

“But at the centre of his own faith there always stood the convincing mystery - that we were made in God’s image. God was the parent, but he was also the policeman, the criminal, the priest, the maniac, and the judge…and God’s image shook now, up and down on the mule’s back, with the yellow teeth sticking out over the lower lip, and ...he pressed his hand with a kind of driven tenderness upon the shoulders of God’s image.” (Graham Greene, ‘The Power and The Glory') It's midnight and Liam is asleep, wrapped in a duvet, his head resting on Ivan’s shoulder. A Buddhist and a Christian. That piece of information was shared when they exchanged names more than three hours ago. The concern that brought them together has now become inconvenient as the cold bites and the rain has long since penetrated to the skin. Ivan feels odd in these situations and wonders was it a mistake to have gotten involved in the first place. He is a private, solitary man who likes to walk alone and seldom ever…

Archive

2019 23

2018 57
- December 5
- November 7
- October 4
- September 5
- August 8
- July 7
- June 4
- May 4
- April 4
- March 4
- February 3
- January 2
2017 42
- December 7
- November 7
- October 6
- September 8
- August 2
- July 7
- June 5

Show more Show less

Powered by Blogger

Copyright Eamonn Monson 2018