OF YOU MY HEART HAS SPOKEN

Jesus invites us  To consider the birds of the air To look at the flowers of the field To learn from them Gaze Consider Contemplate Listen to the beautiful song Of the blackbird and the robin Observe the flight of the swallow The soaring of the seagull In the blue blue sky I am inspired I am lifted up I am filled with their freedom Look at the variety of flowers in the garden The wild flowers of the field The majesty of the trees The beauty of a simple bush I am filled with their beauty  And their majesty And the wonder of the sun rising As it dissolves the darkness of the night And warms the cold of the morning And the sheer sheer beauty The majesty of the setting sun And I look at your face And there I see a beauty like no other It is the beauty of love In all its shapes and forms and sizes Only you Can love like you do  And that is your beauty Consider the love that you feel In your heart and in your body And your soul Consider that this is a reflection Of what G...

  Prayers for Healing offered at Mass in St. Patrick's Church, Corduff, Dublin on May 1, 2026 "Heal me Lord and I shall be healed, save me and I shall be saved, for You are my praise "  Jeremiah 17:14

Silence of Pallotti House Chapel A state of acute unworthiness! This is how I felt as I entered the chapel for morning prayer. Alone. Alone with the One, such is the definition of what a monk is. A man who is alone with the One. I am a monk then in that sense. It has been a lifelong fantasy of mine, to be a Cistercian monk in a monastery with all the Trappist trappings. I even asked Chatgpt to paint me a picture of me as a monk and that is what you have above. A fantasy. Not meant to be in the physical sense but it is there spiritually within me and I am living it now in that way. Thank God. In the chapel on the morning in question, there came to me again that silence, that incredible, absolute silence that is physical as well as everything; physical in that it inhabits the place, enfolding and filling me, so that I can only think that it is the Divine Silence, the Silence of Mercy. The little Chapel is filled with it. The very air itself is not only soundlessly silent, but it is silen...

Yesterday's Manna Is gone Its joy consumed A hunger Somewhat sated Enough Something similar Is given for today Not for tomorrow What seems the same Is new Enough Sufficient Unto the day I seek Nothing other Nothing more

  Homily for Good Shepherd Sunday 

Carve it In my bone Inscribe it In my heart Imprint it In my mind Shape it In my soul Breathe it In my every breath Your Name Lord Jesus Christ Son of God

Melifont Abbey: February 18-20, 2000 In 1999 I became spiritual director to “Ruah”, a small group of lay evangelizers, and in December of last year I suggested to them that it would be good for us to go to a monastery in order to experience a silence in which we could listen more attentively to God. It’s my constant belief that there is too much talking and not enough silence. So it was arranged that we would go to Melifont Abbey for this weekend. Six of the group travelled and as Brendan was here I decided to ask him to come along to keep me company. The two of us set off on a dirty Friday evening after what was a very hassled day for me. We arrived at the Abbey after dark, at 7.00 p.m., and were well received, though the reception was manic and extremely draining in many ways. Fr. William showed us to our rooms, gave us tea and talked to us for a long time. The guesthouse is lovely and old with all sorts of nooks and crannies. Dan, Pat and Louise were the first to arrive and after a...

  These have been days of catching up with the past. It's been too long, years of not being in contact and then, in one day, the doors of sickness and death opened and brought me back in touch with two men from my days as Rector in Pallotti House in the 1990's. Neither of these men know each other. Both sent me their phone numbers. Agustin came to us from Argentina as a very young man, not with the idea of becoming a priest, but he needed a place to stay until he got established. We got on very well from the start and remained friendly even after I told him it was time to leave and get his own place.  He did well and now has a wife and two children, one of whom I baptized here in Shankill fifteen years ago, which is the last time we met. So, he sent me a voice message and, after recounting the illness of his friend, went on to thank me for all I had done for him. "I owe you so much" he said. And, if there is anything I need him to do, he will do. He owes me ...

  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...

  Naomh Éanna's chapel “…proclaim the message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it. Refute falsehood, correct error, call to obedience – but do all with patience and with the intention of teaching.” (2 Timothy 4) +++ The Gospel given for this St. Patrick’s Day Mass was somewhat surprising – the parable of the darnel in Matthew chapter 13. And yet appropriate because it is true. The Master planted good seed in his field, only to have his enemy come along in the secret dark of night to plant darnel alongside the wheat. Both crops grow up together. They are very alike, so that it’s difficult to distinguish one from the other and, what’s more, the darnel hooks itself onto the root of the wheat so that separation is quite tricky. That’s why the Master doesn’t want the darnel uprooted before harvest time, because the wheat, the good could be uprooted with the bad. It’s clear that the enemy of God has planted darnel in the good field of His people. It has happened in the Church and in ...