At a Summer School last year, I was struck by a quote that has stayed with me since. It ran, “When your life is normal, you want it to be more exciting. When you’re on dialysis, you realise how exciting normal is” It reminded me of how important it is, to enjoy and celebrate the normal in life. There’s a ...

Another fresh New Year is here Another year to live! To banish worry, doubt and fear. To love and laugh and give! This bright New Year is given to me To live each day with zest . . . To daily grow and try to be My highest and my best! I have the opportunity Once more to right some ...

“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son…” (Jn. 3:16) “I am living in faith, faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me”. (Gal.2:20) Advent is the time of waiting in joyful hope and expectation…waiting for the fullness of God to come into our lives and our world. This waiting ...

“On this mountain he will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples . . .” Isaiah 25: 7. How these words of Isaiah sang out to me as I visited the grave of Sr Maureen McBride as she lies in the cemetery, St Rambert, France. As I prayed at her tomb I asked Maureen what to write  for this reflection ...

“He sent me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.   (Luke 4:  18 – 19). 8 – 15 October has been marked as the week for prisoners – a time when we remember all those who are ...

Recently, an article by archaeologist and photographer, Enda ‘O Flaherty, on Ireland’s abandoned old school houses, triggered memories of an  experience I had in my own National School of Kilrickle in Co. Galway, over 80 years ago. The article referred to 1937 when the Irish Folklore Commission, in collaboration with the Department of Education and the Irish Teachers’ Organisation, initiated ...

As June passes with many memories of sadness, shock and destruction, I turned the calendar over to see July’s surprise image: I was met with the words:  “Let cares drift away!” On another calendar I saw a    smiling Shetland pony! As I look out of the window I see magnificent colours of the harvest and wild flowers bouncing against the ...

The weekend of 10th and 11th June, was a special and happy occasion for us in Churchtown. A girl from Antrim, called Grace Mc Cann,  had expressed the wish to visit our convent  and have a talk with Una.  Grace  knew Sr. Carmel well and had already visited our convent on a few occasions,  so she was no stranger to ...

On Sunday, May28, the Notre Dame Secondary School leavers of 1977, paid a flying visit to their old Alma Mater. On the previous afternoon, one of them arrived at our convent to invite the sisters, especially any of them associated with their class, to join them the following afternoon in the Senior School. They had only been permitted to look ...

All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope. Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Ghandi and Dorothy Day all lived with a promise in their hearts that guided them towards the future without the need to know exactly what it would look like. Let’s live with hope. ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen “How will this be?” Mary asked. ...