Lord, just a few moments with You,
a few thoughts shared between us,
the sense of Your friendship can be more healing
and refreshing than a mountain scene,
easing my body, soothing my anxious mind.
October 5, 2020
October 4, 2020
Most lovable and popular Saint,
son of a wealthy merchant of Assisi,
you discarded earthly possessions
for the Savior you loved so dearly
and you won innumerable persons for Jesus.
How greatly we need in our day unselfish and just merchants.
Inspire them with the love of Christ for others
and with the desire for things that endure.
Amen.
October 3, 2020
O Mary, we have exiled your Divine Son from our lives,
our councils, our education, and our families!
Come with the light of the sun
as the symbol of His Power!
Heal our wars, our dark unrest;
cool the cannon’s lips so hot with war!
Take our minds off the atom
and our souls out of the muck of nature!
Give us rebirth in your Divine Son, us,
October 2, 2020
My good Angel, you come from heaven;
God has sent you to take care of me.
Oh, shelter me under your wings.
Lighten my path, direct my steps.
Do not leave me, stay quite near me
and defend me against the spirit of evil.
But above all come to my help
in the last struggle of my life.
Deliver my soul so that with you it may praise,
October 1, 2020
In the Gospels, there are several accounts of feeding a large crowd from scant supplies. These accounts may be versions of one memorable event for which several accounts have survived. In reading these accounts we may presume that people who came a considerable distance brought no food with them. Such interpretations miss the whole point of the story.
October 1, 2020
I’ve been living here in Ciudad Juarez in the Parish of Corpus Christi in the Northern part of Mexico, Rancho Anapra, for almost eighteen months now. A few miles away one can see the border wall between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas. It is indeed a real privilege to be here as a Columban lay missionary with Fr. Bill Morton, a Columban priest, and my fellow lay missionary, Sai Tamatawale.
October 1, 2020
I had just arrived in the Philippines shortly after ordination. It was 1973 and something unprecedented was happening back home in Ireland. Limerick had made it to the all Ireland hurling final! Desperate to find out news of how the match went I got my shortwave transistor radio all set up in the presbytery.
October 1, 2020
Pulsating through our world, oceans and land
the tropics and artic, our home
flows the presence of God
loving a myriad of creation faces.
Embracing every species in its habitat
with a niche for the smallest
a preferred place for ones pushed to the side –
the Spirit lives in every atom, life and species.
October 1, 2020
I was ordained in 1969. Those were confident and energetic times. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon a few days later. Vatican II had only just finished, and we were excited and optimistic about the changes it was bringing. We were young, idealistic and ready, if not to save the world, at least to make a significant contribution.
October 1, 2020
The Depths of the Love of Your Heart
Virgin full of grace,
I know that at Nazareth you lived modestly,
without requesting anything more.
Neither ecstasies, nor miracles,
nor other extra ordinary deeds
enhanced your life,
O Queen of the elect.
The number of the lowly,
"the little ones,"
is very great on earth.
The Columbans are a society of missionaries, including priests and lay people, who minister to people of various cultures as a way of witnessing to the universal love of God.