OF YOU MY HEART HAS SPOKEN

I believe in harmony I believe in kindness I believe in gentleness I believe in forgiving I believe in being forgiven At all times In every relationship And not just sometimes And not just with some Words that build up And not knock down I believe in Jesus The personification of all these I love Jesus who has loved first He who is Love I love You Jesus And I ask you to take me Into the very depths of my being Where You abide Into the deepest recesses Of Your most beautiful Sacred Heart Where I reside And seek to abide Where going inwards Meets with moving outwards Towards another Where falling and rising Embrace Where descending and ascending Are one in You Who are the wellspring Of salvation In whom I bathe And rise to live In heaven now Even while still on earth O my Jesus I love You so much More than I ever knew. "I am for peace but when I speak they are for fighting" (Psalm 120)

  In the back garden of my home in Mervue there’s a lilac tree that was planted by my Mother and it was once tall and beautiful when in full bloom. The winter after she died a storm uprooted and knocked the tree flat on the ground and we were all very sorry for it because it represented her. The tree lay there through the winter and into the spring. I left it like that because I felt it had something to say to me about what is fallen in life, even though people were urging me to get rid of it and then to my great surprise, the following May new lilac blossoms emerged from the fallen tree and when I went to look at the roots I noticed that one single slim root was still connected to the earth and by it the tree lives on. So, it rests there as a parable for me of the hope that abides in the fallen states of life, in times when things fall apart and out of place. A reminder of the line from the Book of Job,  " there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and

Most loving Holy Divine Spirit Here I am I am Yours All Yours Now in this moment Forever I worship You And I love You And I surrender my whole life To You That you may remove me From myself Take me out of the way Of Your purpose, Your plan And sweep me up Into Yourself To be as Your spouse In Mary Not knowing where You will take me Or how I will be Heal my fear Purify my anger Vanquish my resistance Seduce me! Purge my soul of sin By the Fire Of Your Divine Love Breathe the Breath Of Your Peace In me Blow away the cobwebs Of my mind My judgements My comparisons Fashion me Into the image of Jesus That I may be Wholly like Him Let this be done in me Let it be done in us Your People Your Church That we may be Neither liberal nor conservative But True True to You And the gifts That You have given In the name of Jesus To the Glory of God the Father For the salvation of the world. Amen! (The above came to me in prayer yesterday evening 14-05-2023 in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament)

  “Are you the Parson?” asks the old man sitting alone at the back of the church. “I don’t share your faith, but I come in here very often when it is empty, and I just sit here and feel well. I feel love! Loved!” “I’m very pleased” I say. “But it’s not just a beautiful building” he goes on, “there’s something else…” And his voice trails off as he ponders, searching for a word that escapes him, so I prompt him. “A Presence?” I ask. “Yes!” he replies, raising his index finger. “There is a Presence here!” “There is indeed” I reply. What a wonderful thing for him to experience and for me to hear, to be reminded again of what I already know and experience. The abiding Presence of Jesus that is hidden in the Tabernacle and it strikes me that our church does its own work in drawing people in, Jesus does His own work without any effort on my part. All I do is open the door in the morning and leave it open. God does the rest! This is the blessing that is ours as a Catholic Community. Weekly and

Anger Surrenders to sadness Hurt To a softening sorrow For all that is lost To us The one who stays Away And those we love Who have kept us at bay We say nothing Like a lamb that is dumb Before the shearer As sadness and sorrow Surrender to silence Lest more be lost In the saying Yet gained again When we pray

Woman smiling In the back seat of a taxi Morning sunlight on her face A single Swan in flight Magnificent dazzling white Against the deep blue sky Moving in the grace Of a day without cloud Strain suspended Strolling friends Beside a city river Learning to part Before meeting Learning To let go To the One True Friend The blessedness Of Life in  mind A prayer for the broken Those of battered faces In our soul

There is a mountain That calls A place Not yet revealed Where solitude Speaks no more And thoughts are stilled Emotions calmed All argument surrendered All obligation ended No meetings to attend No deadlines to be met There will be No talk of God Of whom nothing Can be said The abiding Presence That seeks only My silence Trusting Without a word That HE IS Already now The summit of my soul Love unspoken Hope unwritten Faith fulfilled Forgiveness felt To this May I attend

  “…the moment I saw the brilliant, proud morning shine up over the deserts of Santa Fe, something stood still in my soul, and I started to attend. There was a certain magnificence in the high-up day, a certain eagle-like royalty…”  (DH Lawrence)   “You’re out early!” said a surprised James as he ran past me on the seafront. 7.17 on a beautiful, sunny morning. It’s not me at all, not like me to be out so early and this is the third morning in a row. I’m surprised by myself!!! And I was surprised to see a hawk-like bird on High Street as I was starting out on my walk. It was lifting off the footpath with a pigeon in its claws. Startled by my arrival, it dropped its prey, swooped down and dropped it again before perching on the roof of a house. Suddenly an intermingled flock of seagulls and pigeons went ballistic, circling round and round, flapping and screeching with all their might until the predator fled and the unfortunate prey lay dead on the ground. Surprises! Yesterday I took

O my soul It is time now To uncork The old wineskin And pour away That which has gone sour The ancient bitter Wounding word Offences given and received Not yet fully forgiven The tiny drops of resentment Remaining Resistance to life Fear of love Sediment of sorrow All negative thought And guilt Time now To cast aside The stiffened leather That can no longer hold The New Wine of Christ To peel away The protective layers Of over-ordered living And like Mary Be free-blown in the Spirit And live like heaven Has already come to me And I to heaven +++ Here we have an anchor for our soul, as sure as it is firm, and reaching right through beyond the veil where Jesus has entered before us and on our behalf (Hebrews 6)

i Malware In his computer Malword In his soul Like a poisoned spear Embedded Malady Malfunction Virus Eating its way To the core Working subtly Slickly hiding A lifetime Now rising From the vault Of his netherworld Poised to possess Completely ii “I abhor you” She said to the boy Frustrated by him Not meaning it – perhaps And for all the good  That followed The sensitive child  Received it Believed in it Absorbed it Into his humus Keeping it Like a Word of God Become flesh In him Disliked Disdained Maybe even hated Darnel among the wheat It is this that battles With God for his soul This lie iii I am the boy I am the man The boy become a man Of many years Another man A stranger A man with Hard worked hands Holds my face In a public place “You’re beautiful” He says Like a prophecy From on High This cure This stunning cure Word become flesh This truth By which all shackles Will be gone By which the war Will finally be won The harvest done "You shall be a crown of beauty  in the han

Jesus in this moment Jesus only In this moment I choose this moment I accept it and love it In this moment My heart is lifted up In adoration, gratitude, praise In this moment I repent completely Of all my sins Everything that keeps me At a distance from You My Jesus Take to Yourself All my desires My addictions My deceptions The cravings That lure me into Settling for less Than You In this moment I am all Yours My Beautiful Jesus All Yours And You Are ALL And all my beseechings Are Yours And all my people Are Yours In this moment This present moment this eternal moment I take the innocent Love songs of the world And sing them to You My Lord My Life My Love My ALL In all

I taste the rain I feel the fire Rain on my face Fire on my shoulder Fuoco di San Antonio Blessed am I That a Saint is attached To my pain Saint of the Desert Saint of solitude Saint of all that is lost I am widowed I am orphaned I am childless I am nothing And You my Lord Are everything You are in everything In me In the innocent  Love songs of the world That I sing to You

  Third Sunday of Lent - John 4:5-42   “Jesus, tired by the journey, sat straight down by the well.” Here we witness one of the most human moments in the life of Jesus. In His tiredness and His thirst, He is one with us and represents all the weariness and thirst of our lives. The first word that He speaks in this gospel reading is, “give me a drink!” So, before we go looking for anything from Him, we focus on what we can give Him. In what way, can you quench the thirst of Jesus? What does His thirst mean to you? Later in Lent we will hear Him cry from the Cross, “I thirst!” It’s not just water He needs. He thirsts for you, longs for you to come closer to Him. You want to come close to Jesus but there are obstacles in the way and His desire is to remove the obstacles, to bring you through them and beyond them. In the first reading the people were “tormented by thirst”, a very strong expression that also is not just about the thirst for water; it is about the deepest yearnings of the

  O living water let me lay down the burdens of my life, the burden of my sin, the conflicts and complexities, the unanswerable questions, unsolvable problems my battles my fears my anxieties. Wash over me and refresh what is tired, mend what is broken. Dear Father, make holy our lives by sending down your Spirit upon us like the dewfall, the Spirit descending upon bread and wine to transform them into the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, for our salvation and that of the whole world. Amen

  The "WHY?" Of Jesus on the Cross Cries out From the rubble Of the earthquake The devastation of war From every single Tortured, broken life The Silence of God The Father For the Son And every other one Sacred Silence Mystery Of the newborn orphan Lifted from destruction One precious life Sign of Hope Sign of God Aya

  “…find me on my knees with my soul laid bare” (Delirious?, Find Me In The River )   There’s part of a homily that you think might be better left out because it’s too focused on self, but it turns out to be one of the pieces that people connect with. The bit about me going round the empty church on my hands and knees on a Sunday evening. We are beginning to listen to the Sermon on the Mount in Chapters five, six and seven of Matthew’s Gospel, teachings that are central to the teaching of Jesus. They are Divine Revelation and not optional extras. Jesus is presented as the new Moses who climbed Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments that were inscribed on stone by God Himself, Commandments that are the foundation of the faith of Israel. Here Jesus goes up the Mount of the Beatitudes to deliver the New Law and that he sits down to teach emphasises the importance of what he is saying. He teaches “ex cathedra!” The translation of the Beatitudes that we have had for many years

  Stone in my heart Kind Shepherd Knot in my stomach Tender Lamb Primeval screech Of the troubled youth The strains of Love Where ease once abounded Burdens of all Your people I tell to the Cross In my hand That salvation may come falling Like the dew of the dawn Descent of the Spirit Consecrating Thus I pray As I walk And turning the corner Of the street of my home You surprise us again With your Shepherd's delight Making us smile At the silence of sky On fire

I thought It was you But perhaps It was God Who loosened  The ropes That fast held my boat To your harbour wall There is water now Between us No more The effortless movement In and out Of each other's Space Untied Undone Unbound I have no oar To row Against the current Only the tide That carries me Imperceptibly further Away We wave and speak Across the distance There is love In our smile There always will be Love Even as we move Out of earshot Out of sight Into that unseeing Silence Another shore Another state of being I am constrained now Until it is accomplished This baptism This fire An unhurried haste Has entered into me Quickening Every thought And word and deed Each prayer Each restless desire Strains eagerly forward For the consummation The Love That knows no fall And does no hurt or harm And does not take offence

  Moment in history. Moment of grace! Moment of Divine Providence! I'm still amazed at the timing - that I should be here in Rome for the death and funeral of Pope Benedict XVI; that God has brought me here for a reason and a purpose that is yet unknown to me. A few months ago I decided that I would come to Rome after Christmas instead of going home as I usually would. In part I needed to break away from habitual living, to live more freely for a week. Perhaps even to simply suit myself. The upcoming 80th birthday of Fr. John Fitzpatrick settled me on Rome rather than anywhere else. I want to honour him and this milestone in his life because he has been a very significant person in my life. The original decision meant that I would miss the Living Family retreat due to take place in early January. But, out of the blue, completely independent of me, the date of the retreat was changed to February around the time I will be in Ireland for the Provincial Assembly. In this I reco