NEWS & MEDIA
Bieber Fever in South Africa
You couldn’t have planned it if you tried. After a very long drive and a good night’s sleep I’m up and wandering around the Holy Family Centre with Sr. Susan. There are children running around, playing football or simply chatting with one another. As I turn the corner...
The Divine In Everyone
There's a clock on the office wall of the Tshwaranang Hospice and Care Centre that advertises the services of a local funeral director. It's a sombre reminder of the reality facing South Africa in light of the HIV / AIDS crisis. But in a place that could easily be...
Africa Here We Come! (Maybe)
By my very nature I'm not a nervous passenger. In fact I love travelling. I love the sights, trying the food, making new friends, and experiencing different cultures! But by any measure this trip has gotten off to a rocky start. I'm sitting in Cork Airport with an...
What is God asking of us today?
"If you don't have it, don't spend it." As far as common sense goes it doesn't get any more self evident than that. But are there certain things that are absolutely essential, things that we cannot abandon, without sacrificing values that make us who we are? This was...
Surge in Vocations in Spain
You'd be hard pressed to find a country which has been traditionally more Catholic than Spain. It's been at the centre of the story of the Church for hundreds of years, but in recent times it has faced many of the same challenges we have in Ireland and England. There...
Eucharistic Congress – there’s an App for that
There's an App apparently for everything. There is no aspect of our lives, no matter how obscure, how bizarre that doesn't have an associated smart phone feature that can make our lives more hassle free. Today I found out that these handy features now extend to our...
Emmaus Vocations Walk
Last Sunday, as part of our celebration of World Day of Prayer for Vocations, about sixty people gathered for an Emmaus walk outside of Muckross Abbey. It was to be a day of reflective prayer, where we walked in two or threes, thinking about the story of those...
Vocations Sunday
"God encounters us ever anew, in the men and women who reflect His presence, in His Word, in the Sacraments and in the Eucharist". Pope Benedict XVI This coming Sunday is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. It's an annual event where the universal Church comes...
Pope Benedict’s Message for Vocations
World Day of Prayer for Vocations 2012 Pope Benedict XVI The source of every perfect gift is God who is Love - Deus caritas est: "Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him" (1 Jn 4:16). Sacred Scripture tells the story of this original bond between God and...
What are you so happy about?
Not so long ago I wrote a blog on the New Atheist bus campaign which extolled the virtues of not worrying about God and getting on being happy in life. It presumed not only the absence of God, but that in the meantime all believers were a pretty glum, worrisome group....