November humbles me as I witness the outpouring of love and remembrance of parishioners for their dead. During the month, people gather to share prayers at Mass, pray the rosary in cemeteries and to attend remembrance services. I have come to see the remembrance service or remembrance Mass as one of the most important gatherings…
Over the past two weekends, I had the opportunity to celebrate Vigil Masses. Hardly unusual or particularly newsworthy, were it not for the fact the Masses were in Spain! I left Tubbercurry at 3.20am and celebrated evening Mass at 5pm, in a hotel function room in Torremolinos. I returned home, in both cases, the following…
My aunt Mary Margaret will be 99 in November, please God. I visited her recently in her home in Richmond, Virginia. This has become an almost annual event as I spend some time in a parish on Long Island, New York each year. Whilst there, I do a little parish work but enjoy a fair…
I write these lines in advance of a class reunion in St Nathy’s College, Ballaghaderreen. It will see former pupils and classmates, who sat the leaving cert in 1981, gather to mark the 40 years that have passed since those June days The intention was to have this gathering in 2021 but, like lots of…
Recently I had reason to call a support line to discuss problems with a service. Over the space of four days, I called and though I spoke to someone each time, the situation remained unresolved. I arrived at the stage where I did not have to wait for the instruction to press ‘One’ or ‘Two’…
“Why did you not go in to join the celebrations?” It is a fair question! There was jealousy at work. Yes, he had gone away and left us all in the lurch. Yes, he had eaten into my father’s property but there was more to it than that. I resented him, not just because he had…
Notebook In recent days, I attended a class reunion of my Maynooth ordination class (1987). We have managed to meet every year since we left Maynooth. Like everything else, Covid had its say, so we have not met since 2019. In earlier years, we moved around the country, with a different classmate arranging the reunion…
Notebook When I was about seven years old, my county, and indeed the whole country, was shocked by the murder of Bernadette Connolly, a young girl from Collooney. It was as if the world had stopped spinning and her name was on everyone’s lips. Later, I came to know her father and some of her…
Lent has almost run its course. Palm Sunday approaches and, on its heels, Holy Week. This is intended to be the highpoint of the Church’s liturgy; the recalling of those sacred events of more than two thousand years ago. We will journey with Jesus into Jerusalem on a donkey’s back, see him betrayed, we will…
I know nothing about Ukraine. I don’t believe I know anybody from the country and I’d be hard pressed to name even a few of its cities or towns but I know I am heartbroken that the country finds itself at war. There are countless videos in circulation that seek to explain why Russia, or…