Blog

A very strong wind last night was sheer delight for the variety of trees in my back garden. It is Maytime, the trees are in full leaf. The greenness of the tall sycamore is in striking contrast with the rich burgundy of the Japanese Maple. Each...

Scattered liberally throughout his work, the poet Patrick Kavanagh finds extraordinary affinity with the names and moods of the calendar months. He seems to revel in their musicality and meanings. ‘April’s ecstasy’ infuses himself and his spring...

It is the Easter vigil our local church. As the ceremony begins, there is almost total darkness outside, apart from the lively flames of a small fire created by our Parish Sacristan. Inside the church is total darkness. I was one of the Ministers...

I am a photographer; I love to create memories with a click from the shutter of my camera. Photos are tangible and they leave everyone with memories of an event or occasion whether sad or joyful. Photos remind us and communicate with us. They tell...

I often use my small globe as a symbol during prayer. It helps me to focus on our beloved world with its diversity and terrible suffering. Yesterday I experienced the ‘globe’ in a human way. I attended a Christmas party for about 80 people who have...

Kavanagh’s poems suggest a man fascinated by God. He found God in the fields, in the hedgerows, “in the swamps and marshes…”, in short: “in the bits and pieces of every day.” Few writers, secular or sacred, have more persistently engaged in...

My name was Nimbo, the other clouds called me Nim because I was always thinking of ways to be different – different from my friends and neighbours, who often overlapped and blotted out the sunrise. Anyway, one lovely moonlit night, when the stars...

The water is calm and glistening with the rhythmic sounds of the tiny, nondescript breakers happening well out from the shore. I’m enjoying this scene of seagulls as they mew and caw call and interact harmoniously with one another. Suddenly, from...

One day I went for a walk in nature and ended up having a beautiful conversion with a pawpaw tree. As I strolled along the path, I came across a pawpaw tree that seemed to be calling out to me. I stopped and looked at it more closely and it...

I had the opportunity to witness the commissioning of the Atu Mould Conference Hall at the Arnold Jassen Spirituality Center, Botiano Hills, Accra, Ghana, during my sabbatical. Atu Mould was a young billionaire and philanthropist who died of...

Part 6. We Learn about Ageing from the Nautilus. The nautilus is one of the oldest sea-molluscs, spiral in shape and composed of many chambers that form itself into an attractive spiral. It begins as a tiny creature, that starts at its inmost...

When I walk on the banks of the Dodder River in South West Dublin I am reminded of Ilia Delio’s invitation, and indeed of many others including St Francis of Assisi, to seek the living God in the first book of revelation, the ‘Book of Nature.’ Ilia...