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Listing March - 2020

Tuesday

Mar-31

Prayer during this coronavirus pandemic

Lord Jesus, you travelled through towns and villages curing every disease and illness. At your command, the sick were made well. Come to our aid now, in the midst of the global spread of the coronavirus, that we may experience your healing love.

Heal those who are sick with the virus. May they regain their strength and health through quality medical care. Heal us from our fear. Stay by our side in this time of uncertainty and sorrow. Be with the families of those who are sick or have died. As they worry and grieve, protect them from illness and despair. May they know your deep peace.

Be with the doctors, nurses, carers, researchers and all medical professionals who seek to heal and hep those affected and who put themselves at risk in the process. May they know your protection and peace.

Be with the leaders of so many countries as they make difficult decisions for the greater good. Be with us in our homes as we try to keep safe. Soothe our worried minds and keep us calm. Protect us and wrap us in your loving care today and everyday. We make our prayer through Christ Our Lord. Amen

Monday

Mar-30

Sunday

Mar-29

Friday

Mar-27

A little story

A young man approached the foreman of a tree logging crew and asked for a job. 'That depends' replied the foreman, "Let's see you fell this tree." The young man stepped forward and skilfully felled a great tree. Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, "You can start Monday." So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rolled by and Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, "You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today."

Startled the young man replied, "I thought you paid on Friday." "Normally we do" said the foreman. "But we're letting you go today because you've fallen behind. Our daily felling charts show that you've dropped from first place on Monday to last place today." "But I'm a hard worker" the young man objected. "I arrive first, leave last and even worked through my coffee breaks." The foreman, sensing the young man's integrity, thought for a minute and then asked, "Have you been sharpening your axe?" The young man replied, "No sir, I've been working too hard to take time for that."

We all live busy lives and sometimes forget to sharpen our own axe. We need time to relax, to unwind, to pray, to think, to learn, to socialise. Like a sharp axe these are essential, if we don't make time for them we loose our effectiveness as time goes on.

Thursday

Mar-26

Wednesday

Mar-25

Monday

Mar-23

Sunday

Mar-22

Thursday

Mar-19

'Even though God is the wind beneath your wings, you still have to do a lot of flapping.' ~Brian Cavanaugh

Sometimes people see God as the master magician, who can wave a magic wand and everything will be as we want. Unfortunately God does not work that way. The image of God as the wind beneath our wings is a beautiful one. With God on our side we can do so much, we can ride the storms of life, we can have the freedom to go where we want and we can have the confidence to be the person God created each of us to be. But this doesn't just happen and we've got to flap our wings too. We've got to trust. We've got to put our faith and hope into those parts of our lives that we're unsure of. We've got to believe that things can happen. All of this can be summed up in the following prayer: Lord, thank you for being there for me and together we can and will do so much.

Wednesday

Mar-18

'When something bad happens to us, something that severely upsets our normal routines and knocks us off our normal course, the opportunity is there to question our assumptions and turn our lives around.' David Quinn

It happens to all of us at some stage when we are thrown off course by an unexpected event or crisis. We are human and vulnerable and we are all affected in different ways. The one common link is the phrase, 'I took so much for granted.' This phrase doesn't just apply to when we are thrown off course but it applies to us each and every day. We simply take so much for granted in any given day. This includes our family, friends, health and the many good things we still have despite the recession. No matter how bad things may seem, we can still get our priorities right and nurture those things that we simply take for granted.

Tuesday

Mar-17

'There is a distressing tendency nowadays for people who should know better, to talk about Paddy's Day rather than St Patrick's Day.' ~Cormac MacConnell

I'm not sure have you noticed it but it seems to be more common to hear about Paddy's Day. Poor St Patrick! Is it a denial of what the man stood for? This included simplicity, bravery, conviction, courage and a man who always felt God was by his side no matter what happened in his life. Is reducing him to Paddy an attempt to say that his life didn't amount to much? He deserves more.

Today is not a normal St Patrick's Day. Despite so much gloom this year with the coronavirus pandemic, we need to turn to our faith for a sense of hope and direction. St Patrick lived through difficult times too but at all times he simply put his trust in God. St Patrick survived and got through the most steepest and difficult challenges in his life We too can do the same. In what is a very difficult time for so many people I still want to wish you a Happy St Patrick's Day!

Monday

Mar-16

Sunday

Mar-15

'Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.' ~Mother Teresa

Once there was a young man who wanted to find God, so he went into a large, beautiful cathedral. He thought that under the spacious domes, in the light of the stained glass windows, and in the presence of the glittering mosaics he might experience God. Filled with feelings of God's closeness, he put his head down on the back of the pew in front of him. A few minutes later he felt a tapping on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw an old woman. "Are you hungry?" she asked. "I could give you a few euros to get something to eat." Realizing the risk the woman had taken and the simple love that prompted it, the man thanked her but said that he was all right. A few minutes later he left the church, knowing that he had found God in more ways than one.

Saturday

Mar-14

Thought For The Week

'Religious people often use the word 'faith' to describe their relationship with God. To the modern ear this sometimes sounds like a kind of vague belief, an inferior sort of knowledge, a not sure but I hope it's true attitude. But faith really means trust or confidence in someone you already know or have started to get to know.' ~Alan Walker

Faith is a lifelong journey. It could best be described as the paths, roads and walkways we journey on each day. These have many twists and turns and they sometimes have fabulous views. They also have potholes that need avoiding and signposts that have fallen down. But we trust these pathways and roads of life to get us to our destination.

The same goes for our relationship with God. We put our trust and confidence in God to gently guide us through each day. It's often described as simply having faith or growing in faith. These weeks of Lent give us many opportunities to treasure this gift of faith, of which we all have some. It's never the amount of it that is important but knowing that with it our life journey has meaning, direction and purpose.

Martin Luther King Jnr put it so well when he said: "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to be able to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step." As we journey through these weeks of Lent, the invitation is to take that first step.

Thursday

Mar-12

Wednesday

Mar-11

Monday

Mar-09

Saturday

Mar-07

'All the goodness, love, value and tenderness we experience in life fall short precisely because we already know something deeper. When we feel frustrated, angry, betrayed, violated or enraged, it is in fact because our outside experience is so different from what we already hold dear inside.' ~Ronald Rolheiser

Life as we know has a unique ability to uplift and energise us. But just as quick it can shatter and bring us back down to reality in the blink of an eye. Our expectations in life are often not met, particularly values that are precious to us such as love, trust, honesty, goodness and so on. What we hold dear and precious to us is not always reflected back to us in how people relate to us. We need to begin to understand that this is not our fault. No one can take away our own sense of worth, our identity, our fingerprint, our energy, our gifts and talents and all those things that are precious to us. Others may not understand us but we are assured that God understands us, loves us and will always stand by our side. During Holy Week we get a glimpse on just how special this relationship is.

Thursday

Mar-05

Thought For The Week

'Prayer begins with you. Start where you are and stay with it. God is with you as you are and does not expect you to be any other than you are.' ~Mary Luke Tobin

Last Saturday was Feb 29th and this year we mark a leap year. A leap year is added to our calendar to keep it working properly. The earth travels around the sun in one year but in fact it takes a little longer, 365 1/4 days. The Leap year every four years corrects this. The chances of being born in a Leap year are 1 in 1500. Any year that can be divided by 4 is a Leap Year. Of course for anyone whose birthday is on Feg 29th, it is indeed a special day.

For all of us we too need to correct ourselves on occasions. We steer off course, we lose focus, we drift and particularly when it comes to spiritual matters. It is good to recheck and get going again. Thankfully with God we don't have to wait every four years!

Every time we set aside a moment of prayer is our chance to reconnect spiritually. The journey of Lent which we have just begun, is a chance to create more space in our busy lives for some quiet moments of prayer. We sometimes feel such moments of prayer must be long and extended to have any value. This is not the case and often shorter is so much better.

Prayer is when we connect to the energy of God that is all around us. Sometimes we are very much aware of the presence of God in our lives and sometimes it just doesn't happen. The best starting point is to know that God is with us where we are right now. Whatever is going on for us right now is the most important moment to start with and stay with.

This calls for honesty. It pulls in a whole range of feelings of where we might be right now, from content, upset, angry, anxious, unsure, scared, happy, sad, fulfilled, stressed, hopeful or whatever. Honesty in prayer and saying what's going on for us right now is so precious. Having shared the honest moment means that the prayer has not been a waste of time. What a pity if this only happened every four years. But when we can weave these short little moments of prayer into our daily routine, we are connecting to the energy or presence of God all around us. This is a good place to be.

Tuesday

Mar-03

A short reflection called 'Safe in the Hands of the Lord'

A child picks up a small bird that has fallen from its nest. She makes her hand into a little nest to keep it from falling. But she does not make her little hand into a cage for she has no intention of possessing the bird or turning it into a pet. Having reassured the bird that it is in safe hands, she slowly raises it up and up. Then when the moment is right, she releases it. She rejoices when it succeeds in keeping itself aloft and happier still when it flies off. That is what real love is all about.

It's the same for each of us. Jesus gently holds us in his hands. The invitation each day is to leave the nest of his hands, to do our bit, to live today well with all its richness and blessings. And whenever we want we can return to the nest, for reassurance and guidance, for comfort and protection, for direction and conversation and to know that we are always safe in the hands of the Lord.

Sunday

Mar-01

The following light hearted story was shared by Fr.Sean Duggan at the close of the Ballincollig mission last evening led by the Redemptorists

A farmer was trying to get his donkey to move on but the donkey was having none of it and refused to move. The farmer was getting frustrated, roaring and shouting at the poor donkey. Then he picked up a stick to whip the donkey when a car skidded to a halt next to him and out steps a stunningly beautiful woman. She gave out to the farmer, "How dare you shout and roar at this poor animal and worse again that you should hit him with a stick. You need to be gentle and give it some words of encouragement."

With that she went over to the donkey, stroked its ear, rubbed its nose, kissed its mane and talked ever so sweet to the donkey. Sure enough the donkey happily set off on its travels. The woman turned round to find your man stretched on the ground. "Oh my God" she shouted, "are you ok?" "Oh I'm fine" he said, "but I think I need some encouragement too!!"

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