Put your best foot forward...🪂

‘It is never too late to be what you might have been’. (George Eliot)

Postman Tom hands me the package, ‘The Power of Silence’  by Robert Cardinal Sarah’. Hearing the title, Tom exclaims, ‘You will never do that’. Tom’s quick wit and word smithery never fail to brighten my mornings.

‘Have you started using that notepad’, I ask him. ‘No’, he replies, ‘I will probably be giving it back to you at Christmas with nothing in it’. When I tell him yet again of his wonderful way with words and quick wit, perplexed he mutters ‘thanks’. ‘What a shame we weren’t told such things in school’, I say. Tom’s reply makes me sad - ‘School? We were only put down in school’. 

So many of us go through life believing what we were told in our former formative years by the powers that were at the time. Their negative prognosis made an indelible mark that oftentimes remain forever.

Micheál would never sing along in our Nursing Home Holy Rosary & song group. He told me one time that in his boyhood years a teacher informed him that he could not sing so Micheal never sang again. He is eighty years of age. I suggested he give it a go as there is no right and wrong way to sing, singing is personal and unique to each one of us. Micheál is singing along with us all today, no linnet but he is no crow either. Singing lifts his spirits, he says, particularly on his down days. My heart dances with joy. 

When Pat was a little boy he was cruelly informed before the whole class that his singing was atrocious and would he please sit down. Pat is 65 years of age, nowadays he sings when he is alone. He loves it, he tells me joyfully.

Thank God Walt Disney didn’t believe the teacher who informed him that he had no talent. Thank God Thomas Edison’s mother didn’t accept that her son was ‘too stupid’ to learn - and many more besides. 

Many of us have personally experienced the paralysing power of negative words and opinions of others. However, whether we know it or not, it is absolutely certain that we can begin again. We can, all of us, step into a brighter meadow, leaving the negative behind. Once we take the first step, there is no going back, we will get the strength from within to push forward, follow our own star and a cornucopia of good things will be ours. 

Each of us has a unique song within us - a tune no one else can play, a melody composed by God for all to enjoy. 

Let us start afresh, right here, right now. Let us live our lives in the identity of who we are, leaving our footprints on the sands of Time. Each one of us has something to do that no one else can do. Christ is alive, He wants us to be alive too. This is what our heart desires.

‘The melody that you and I are destined to produce on this earth, no one has ever heard before. We are to show forth something of the infinite beauty and radiance and Love of the God who lives within us’.       (Fr. Leo Clifford)

Kay, in her eighties, a colourful raconteur. Her turn of phrase, her power of recall, her imagery. I could sit still and listen to her life’s tales all day long. Today, in the midst of it all she says in total seriousness; ‘My sister was a great artist. Me! I was always good with a bucket and mop and that’s all I was ever good for’. Did anyone ever tell her how interesting and enjoyable she is to be around, I enquire. She laughs, throwing her head back in disbelief. She wouldn’t believe that for a gold clock.

Bloom where I am planted.🌿

‘There is nothing more salutary or satisfying than to be able to help other people. It is not what happens to them when we help them, it is what happens to us when we give them that help with the Lord’.

 (Fr. Leo Clifford)

Pat on his way to the cemetery. ‘I haven’t missed one day since she left’, he utters, tears welling up in his sad eyes, he is so lonely without his beloved Ella. ‘You know Pat, she is as near to you as your breath’ , I say. Pat smiles and walks gently away.

Mike’s greeting: ‘I have sore feet’, walking slowly obviously in pain. I suggest he bathe his feet in warm salty water, he will give it a try.

Jack rang, he liked the hymn I sang at Holy Mass this morning, he watched it on his phone. Walking to Church is too much for him now. ‘You are doing what you can do Jack, God is very happy with that’, I say. Jack seems pleased.

‘How is your dear lady’, I ask Joe. ‘She’s great’, Joe replies. ‘I always knew God would send me a lovely lady when my mother got too old to do the housework’. Joe speaks his pure truth from his deepest heart. ‘The truth is kind and drives us towards the good’. (Pope Francis)

My friends share their joys and sorrows with me, I am profoundly privileged. To win the trust of another, to be the Hands and Feet of Jesus, no higher calling.

Gino Bartali (cyclist) said, ‘Good is something you do - not something you talk about. Some medals are pinned to your soul, not your jacket’. When I keep my eyes on my own paper, when I walk my own path, when I keep the eyes of my heart open at all times, something wonderful happens. I get to help lighten the burden of a fellow traveler and for me joy beyond measure. Bloom where I am planted.

Abbé Pierre suggested that the best way of knowing if we are in communion with God is to see whether we are in communion with the sufferings of humanity. 

‘Everyone has a place in my heart and I, in return, have a place in the heart of Jesus’. (St. Faustina)

‘I wanted to love my fellows; I loved the poor with compassion. I could not be happy unless I shared poverty, lived as they did, suffered as they did. We do it by seeing Christ and serving Christ in friends and strangers, in everyone we come in contact with’. (The reckless way of love by Dorothy Day)

Love in action.❤️

Marina stood smiling inside the window, I smiling outside, happy in each other’s company - window pane or not. No words needed in these encounters, ‘seeing’ is enough, Love is a many splendored thing. 

Walking away, I heard her talk to herself as in the old days, like she used to do when we first met in the high support hostel. At that time, Marina was alone in the world and her conversations were always with herself. As our friendship grew, Marina’s conversations with herself lessened and before Corona lockdown, they had all but stopped. 

Today, they were back in full flow and for a moment my heart sank, but as I stood a while and listened, I was greatly relieved, Marina’s conversation was not sad and dreary, she was joyfully reminding herself of our rendezvous. She was smiling as she spoke aloud our love in action, she was full of joy.

Marina was avoided and rejected most of her life, labelled that weird strange lady who talked to herself. Oftentimes laughed at, ridiculed, cruelly isolated. Consequently, her ‘self chats’ became her haven and heaven, protection against a cold unwelcome world, her way of self-soothing. 

Today her ‘self chat’ sounded warm, cozy, reassuring and joyful. That which came into Marina’s life because of pain is now her reward, Marina is self sufficient. Her great shame has become her crowning glory.

Thankyou beautiful Marina, you enrich my life. Because of you I know who God is.

‘Only the heart knows how to find what is precious’. (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

The life of a Refugee.⏰

‘The school of Christ is the school of Love. In the last day, when the general examination takes place....Love will be the whole syllabus’. (St. Robert Bellarmine)

We meet outside the corner shop for our final ice cream, Paulina is leaving our town tomorrow, she is going to Cork city. Her letter arrived two days ago letting her know time has come to move on. 

Wearing our pretty dresses for our final Cahersiveen photograph, the sun shone down on us as we tried hard not to weep. If things were different, if people were kinder, if  ‘visitor’ was used instead of ‘refugee’, if all God’s children were treated equally.

Jesus constantly made the point that we must welcome the stranger, have time for the marginalised and show acceptance towards those who differ from us in race and religion but things are the way they are and we accept. With acceptance comes peace and hope. 

We are grateful to God for our wonderful friendship not dependent on time and place, dynamic collaboration. We each have our own journey to travel in this wonderful world. We will go on making our contributions as The Lord leads us, we surrender to what is - but we are forlorn😢😢

We are grateful to God too for bringing us safely through many hardships in our lives thus far. We believe without a shadow of a doubt that Father God knows what He is about, we have oodles of evidence.

What a Blessing is writing. Now my heart is lighter, my hope stronger.

‘The seed will decay if it is hoarded up. It will bear fruit if it is sewn’. (St. Dominick)

‘How can I recognise if the roots of love have taken hold of me? If I am concerned, not about myself but about everyone else’. (Catherine Doherty/Madonna House)

Stargazing.🌠🌠🌠

Waiting in the darkness, Ruairi Killian and I. The night sky glorious, packed to overflowing with bright twinkling stars. Meteor showers on the way...

No need to leave our own place and queue for hours in an airport to go to another place. Everything we need to be happy is right here, right now. In these tumultuous times, we are realising more and more, how blessed we are. 

How right you were Dorothy when you gushed: ‘There is no place like home’. Emily Dickinson too when you penned: ‘Home is the definition of God’.

Corona, you have put a stop to our mighty gallop. You are not a welcome guest in our world but you are teaching us many valuable lessons. Would that we did not have to learn the hard way.

‘Short cuts make long delays’. (J.R.R. Tolkien)

Wait before you wonder.

Wait before you wonder what tomorrow may unfold.

Wait before you worry as to what it’s going to hold.

Do not peer in fear along the road that lies ahead.

Many things may happen to prevent the things you dread.

Do you really think that only evil things can be?

Do you not believe in God?  Then trust Him utterly.

Live in hope and confidence, by nothing be depressed,

then you’ll draw into yourself the good things and the best.

(Patience Strong)

⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️

Deafening silence.❄️

August bank holiday weekend 2020. No music festival in our town, first time in many years.

Deafening silence, sombre mood

No street music, no dancing, no reunion of friends and family, no packed pubs open all hours. No aroma of burgers late into the night for hungry revellers. No rubbish filled streets, no council workers out at cockcrow cleaning up the excesses, downright carelessness of the masses in anticipation of fresh onslaught.

No loud music wafting from the imposing stage on the street as Holy Mass is being celebrated.  One half hour delay for the madness to begin too much to ask. Forgive us dear Lord, we did not know what we were doing.

Instead, our beautiful beaches full to overflowing. Festival of picnics, sand, sea, sun hats and swimming.

Today, Bank holiday Monday, there’s a tinge of gratitude intermingled with the sadness, no huge hangovers that endure and wreak havoc, no separation heartbreak for those who didn’t make it home.

Corona is teaching us a new way of being, it is not all bad. Maybe in future we might be less inclined to take so much for granted. Open the eyes of our hearts, dear Lord.

‘There is nothing so much like God in all the universe as silence’. (Meister Eckhart)

Muck or diamonds.💎

Strolling home from Holy Mass, Diarmuid and I, happy and content. Through the years it would have been easier had I tweaked my faith life to fit in with theirs, many terse moments would have been avoided, but at what cost. To have the foundation, irrespective of how they use it, is worth it’s weight in gold, everybody will come to that realization sooner or later.

Standing firm and gentle was indeed short term sacrifice for long term gain. It was a never a ‘Tall Order’ to attend Sunday Holy Mass, in our home. I would tell them that if I had a good friend who always visited my home but I never bothered to visit my friend’s home, would that not be very ill mannered and disrespectful. Likewise, not visiting God in His Church for Holy Mass once a week is disrespectful too since we call on Him always, He is forever visiting with us. 

Phases and fads pass in the twinkling of an eye, in the end only substance remains. Know God - Know Peace. No God - No Peace.

The sermon Father Larry preached was so fitting. An excerpt:
‘Life makes no sense and is unbearable without God. A close relationship with God is a real treasure. It gives us a sense of who we are and where we are going. The lesson for each of us today is that no matter how difficult life is for us right now, with Divine help we can face each day with optimism

 I love sharing a prayer with any young person I meet. When I complimented a young man recently on accepting my prayer, he replied genuinely: ‘That’s because we need it’. 

Young people will take whatever we offer them - muck or diamonds, let’s give them diamonds.

‘I met Jesus, and I desire so much that each of you can meet Him too’.

(Mother Elvira, Cenacolo Community)