City stroll☀️🙏🏻

Loved Priest’s homily in Cork city Church;

Bats somehow found their way into a Church one time, and the young Pastor just could not get rid of them. He tried absolutely everything. Eventually, in sheer desperation, he consulted an older Priest asking his advice on the menacing matter. ‘Simple’, elderly Priest replied. ‘Baptise them and you will never see them again’.

Telling tale!! I get to assist Father oftentimes during Christenings in our Church. Yes! Baptise them and you will never see them again! (Not always but often.)

Mid-morning, just one homeless guy sitting on cold pavement. Emaciated, crutches at his side. Gentle humble guy. My powerful prayer, (which he read before placing in an inside pocket), widow’s mite, large hot latte, and enough to ensure a hostel for the day and night. What a gift to my heart. He may or may not use God’s money for a hostel but that is not my concern. 

To quote Marcus Aurelius;

“It is another’s fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so”.

They freely share, (crows too and many other different little birds), they squabble, they live side by side. They teach me!,

Jim 🐈 takes his meal on the other side. What he doesn’t know don’t trouble him!

‘If you wish to go to extremes, let it be in sweetness, patience, humility, and Charity’. 

(St. Philip Neri)

 

No clarity! Trust!☀️🙏🏻

‘Those who love me I also love, and those who seek me find me’. (Proverbs 8:17)

Young man asked Mother Teresa; ‘Please Mother can you pray I receive clarity’. Mother Teresa laughed and kindly told him; ‘My dear man I have never received clarity. I will pray that you trust’.

One year ago in a place where someone was in deep pain. Whole family in deep turmoil. I asked Jesus if I should go to the person. Jesus did not answer me. Not one word. After a short while I began to walk saying all the while; ‘You are not saying no’, ‘You are not saying no’, over and over again. 

My visit was welcomed and the family told me recently that things began to change for the better on that day.

Jesus did not say no and He would have stopped me before I reached my destination if it was wrong. I look back now and marvel. Not my doing, all His!! 

No clarity!! Trust!!

May Christ be ALL, and I be nothing. His glory shines in vessels weak. May Christ be ALL and I be nothing. This is my hope, not I but Christ in me. This is my hope, not I but Christ in me’. (Christ be ALL/Grace Worship)

 

Freely give☀️🙏🏻

                      ‘If you have two coats you are stealing from the poor’. (Dorothy Day)

I gifted three of my beautiful coats to dear ladies. I have perhaps more than enough still in my wardrobe. These coats were gifted to me over time and were special. However, the gigantic relief witnessing them being worn by folk who could never have purchased them themselves, is beyond beautiful.

Another thing!! I can now concentrate on the ones remaining and I’m loving every minute. Today I wore my black wool coat to Holy Mass and it had not seen the light of day since last winter. Too many choices blur our vision, reminding me of a quote; ‘A sheep between two bales of hay starves to death’.

Giving to those who cannot pay us back is so rich and rewarding. Jesus told us so!!

On Christmas Day, one lady send a photo wearing my beautiful white coat, fur collar too, and wow!! No words!! To think it might have remained in my wardrobe thereby robbing dear lady of a hint of happiness in our broken world.

The less I have, the freer I feel. Miraculous. Out of wardrobe, out of mind!!

‘Jesus said also to the man who had invited Him; “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your  friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. When you have a feast invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. You will be paid at the resurrection of the just’.

 (Luke 14:12-14)

‘Let us rejoice in poverty, because Christ was poor. Let us love to live with the poor, because they are specially loved by Christ. Even the lowest, most depraved - we must see Christ in them and love them to folly.’. (The reckless way of Love/Dorothy Day)

I am so grateful to my dear friend Barbara for gifting me this book. Definitely Dorothy and I were meant to meet!! I read one time that her only possessions on the day she passed from this world were; 1) Bed. 2) Bookcase. 3) Wireless. 4) Kettle. Speaks for itself!!

Contemplating the Face of Christ at the school of Mary☀️🙏🏻

‘What is really important is that the Holy Rosary should always be seen and experienced as a path of contemplation’. (Pope St. John Paul 11)

Dear nephew Tim sent me this beautiful Nativity scene this morning from Asturias, north/west Spain.

In my week of wakefulness, (scarpered sleep), I began, one night, to pray entire Holy Rosary, four Sacred Mysteries, Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous. Wished and tried many times up and down the long years but somehow never quite got there.

Well, my unwelcome flu fixed all that. Lying there all hours, nothing to do, nowhere to be, conditions purely perfect!!  What a joy!! I had no idea. In fact, entering into each mystery took my attention completely off my lack of sleep. Immersed in the beautiful rhythm, all anxiety seeped away.

Then, one morning I awoke praising and thanking God for my returned sleep and even more than that my newfound nighttime Holy Rosary. Every single thing from God is for our good. Flu or fun!!

Fun or flu!! It is all from You.

My friend Mary is right when she declares; ‘There are miracles in the Holy Rosary’.

‘To pray Holy Rosary is to hand over our burdens to the merciful hearts of Christ and His Mother’. (Pope St. John Paul 11/Rosarium Virginia Mariae)

 

New Year 2026☀️🙏🏻

 ‘It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you. Yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand. (Saint Mother Teresa)

First day out and about in one whole week!! Flu having swept my tired feet right out from underneath me, leaving me no other choice but stay home and rest. Oh how I yearned to receive Holy Eucharist again and thank God this morning I did. All glory to God forever.

Joyful prayer-sharing encounters in Church. Couples from Poland, England and Paris. Outside, our town seemed drab and grey but as always not so our Church. I had no intention of sharing my prayer today, barely back on my feet, but as always wonderful Holy Spirit guided and directed all of it. Seamlessly. 

While three couples happily received my powerful prayer, I blessedly received an upsurge of joy. Divine confirmation to keep on keeping on in the Gladsome Light of Christ.

Thank you Father God for this vocation I’ve come to love so much. More and more it is plan to see that definitely it is not of me!!

New year resolution!! Yes, refrain from replying too quick and sometimes not reply at all. Make the sign of Holy Cross on my mouth as dear Mother Teresa would do, when in danger of acting or speaking without mercy.

2026 already. To be Your Hands and Feet dear Jesus is my only desire. Do with me what You will. Amen

‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything  that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith’. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Remember saying to dear sister Katy rip one time how lucky we were to have so much at our fingertips while Mother Teresa did all she did with nothing but her bare hands. Nowadays, my bare hands are enough for me. All the rest has fallen away. Trinkets!!

Nowadays too I know that ‘lucky’ is thanking no one. It is a secular term. ‘Blessed by God’ is what we truly are!!

‘But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint’. (Isaiah 40:31)

My powerful prayer☀️🙏🏻

‘Let us live to serve our lives☀️🙏🏻

‘Let us live to serve our lives’. Words spoken softly in my sleep last night. Hard to articulate. (Like building a cloud with bricks!!) Gems come gently and if I don’t write them down right away, they disappear forever. I know that from experience!!

I have a hard copybook of them! Amazingly beautiful wisdom from above in the dead of night. One that stands out; ‘Deeper your prayer, deeper your sleep, there’s a direct correlation’. Back then I had to look up the word ‘correlation’ in my dictionary.

This morning I googled; ‘Let us live to serve our lives’ and here’s what I found!

‘Let us live to serve our lives’ is a powerful call to find purpose through selfless action, emphasising that a meaningful existence comes from contributing to others. Seeing life as an opportunity to serve God and humanity rather than just oneself. 

It means using your freedom and gifts to help others, echoing Jesus’s teachings and Paul’s epistles, and aligning your daily actions with love and purpose’.

There it is!! Divine confirmation as we head into 2026. What a Mighty God we serve. 

Our dear Dad would often say that three books are absolutely essential in any home; 1) Holy Bible; 2) Atlas and 3) Dictionary. Even now, myriad years later,  modernity with all it’s grandeur will never replace the glory of a good book. 

Another time, more than sixty years ago, dear Dad reading his newspaper (rare occurrence in his busy day). I notice the Roses of Tralee for that year. ‘Who is the nicest, Dad’,  I ask. ‘You are Bridge’, he replies with that beautiful kind smile. He meant every word. The heart knows.

‘Love alone can make fresh wonders spring forth). (Jesus/He and I)

Do the next right thing☀️🙏🏻

My new phone (Christmas present from my boys) gifted me this gem. Written February 2020! Just popped up!

In days of yore my dear Mom would tell me in the midst of my punishing panic; ‘We will wait and see’. I would reply impatiently: ‘’We cannot! we must do it now’.

Mom was right, I grew to learn with the passage of time. Hasty decisions rarely reap rich rewards.

Derm (third son) is learning it too. Time really is a great prophet’. Wait and see!! Wonders unfold at their own chosen speed!

Life is not a problem to be solved suddenly and abruptly. Life is a mystery to be lived continuously and perpetually.

‘God is the Artist, you are a block of marble and the chisel is EVERYTHING!’. (Dr. Peter Kreeft)

Sacrament of the present moment. Right here! Right now!

‘Beauty is the heart’s encounter with the living God’. (Bill Donaghy)