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13 Apr 2024

3rd Sunday of Easter

This weekend we celebrate the third Sunday of Easter. As we journey through the Easter season, the readings for the 3rd Sunday of Easter invite us to reflect deeply on the themes of repentance, forgiveness, and the power of the Resurrection. The call to turn back to God and the assurance of His forgiveness are central messages that resonate throughout the readings, offering us a path to renewal and hope. In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter addresses the people with a powerful message of repentance. He acknowledges that both the people and their leaders acted in ignorance when they rejected Jesus and chose a murderer instead. However, Peter’s words are not of condemnation but of invitation. He invites his listeners to repent and turn back to God so that their sins may be wiped out. This passage highlights a fundamental truth of the Christian faith: God’s mercy is greater than our sins, and His desire is always to bring us back into full communion with Him.

The apostles on the road didn’t recognize him at first, but they did after he opened the Scriptures and broke bread with them. After their encounter they returned to the community in Jerusalem with the news of what had happened. While they were still speaking to the community, Jesus stood in their midst and said to them peace be with you. He is encouraging them not to be afraid. Then he invites them to touch him. Still more, he asks for food and eats in their presence. The resurrected Christ is present, in the same way he was when they traveled and ate together. He is not just someone who somehow survived what was done to him and escaped. He didn’t experience a near death on the cross he died and rose again as he said he would. Jesus reminds all of us that he is the same, yet there is something very different about him. They knew that he was with them; Yet, the disciples needed more in order to accept his new presence with them. What he did for the disciples on the road to Emmaus he does again and again for us through  our priests. He tells us what the Scriptures had said about him in the same way our priests do for us today.

Do we understand what God done  for us as he brings us new life after death? Jesus doesn’t choose just certain Scriptures as proof texts. He tells us as he told the disciples “everything written about me in the law of Moses, and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” What would we be like if Jesus came and stood among us in real flesh and blood, I think that our reaction would be exactly the same as the apostles disbelief. But if we stop and think for a moment Jesus does come amongst us each time  we go to the Eucharistic liturgy, Jesus is there with us on the Altar in the elements of Bread and wine and in the person of the Priest offering these gifts to the Father on our behalf. We remember the last supper when Jesus gave us himself as an everlasting memorial and we remember that each time we hear the prayers of consecration at Mass that we do this in memory of him. We are Easter people Jesus walks with us and we are called by our baptism to bring the light and peace of Christ  to the world.

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10 Apr 2021

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY

This Sunday  we celebrate the feast of Divine Mercy and the mercy of God is very much alive in our world today over this past year we have certainly seen that as we have gone through the COVID19 pandemic. Now that we are beginning to come out the other side it might be a good time to reflect on the mercy of god in our lives during the Pandemic. The mercy and love of god has been shown through so many people especially through the doctors, nurses and caring staff in our health services where ever we are. Through our families and friends, through those who have journeyed with us in our time of need and there are many unsung heroes out there who quietly got on with what needed to be done. We remember the mercy of god shown to us through our clergy and our spiritual guides especially in our times of loss helping us to cope and generally get through what has been a tough time. There are so many people who have shown the mercy and love of god to others over this year and any list that I would make would not do justice to them as there are so many. We thank God this weekend for all of them and the mercy and love they have shown to people around them where they are.

Over the 40 days of Lent we prepared for the Holy Week celebration, now after Lent and Holy Week we celebrate the season of Easter for 50 days.  The Easter season takes us from the empty tomb of Easter Sunday all the way to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The gospel tells us that Apostles are huddled together in fear in the empty room. They weren’t so sure that the women’s report that Jesus had risen was believable. They weren’t singing for joy! Now, a whole week has gone by. They still felt “rocky” about their future as many feel rocky about their futures today as we face up to life after COVID. Thomas wasn’t the only one who had doubts about Jesus, I think so many were doubtful then as so many are doubtful right here and now. The Apostles were pondering the shocking experience of the week before when all seemed to be lost as Jesus hung on the Cross. But that was only the beginning here we are in 2021 talking about how they felt after the events of that first Holy Week and they must have been gutted. Jesus came to assure them that he was alive and then his message must have troubled them: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  The disciples  were supposed  to go out to  teach, to preach, to heal by announcing the gospel. They were going  to open the eyes of those blind, those whose ears were closed, those whose hearts are hardened like concrete.

They were sent to bring the message of Jesus to others and in the same way we are sent out to bring his message to other people wherever we are by what we say and do. Our world is hurting so much because of the many things that are happening within it particularly the covid19 pandemic. The Apostles felt rocky about their future as many of us do today but god is with us as we go out into the world as his messengers. May all of us be witnesses to the Gospel bringing the mercy of God to the people of our time and place as we go forward into a rocky future where god is with us to help and guide us.

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10 Feb 2021

Feast of our Lady of Lourdes

Image result for our lady of lourdes

Recently I was looking at the readings for the feast day our Lady of Lourdes and the gospel Reading is the Wedding Feast at Cana, So let us reflect on the wedding at Cana for a moment. The bride and groom whose wedding was being celebrated were in the background because at the heart of this story we see Mary and Jesus. Mary, who asks for help when she tells Jesus “they have no wine”,  And Jesus who replied why ask me my time has not come. Of course Jesus did the miracle of changing the water into wine  because Jesus like so many other children he could not refuse his mother’s request. Mary the faith filled disciple, had trust in God and in divine providence and knew what Jesus would do. The care, concern and affection of God are manifest in Jesus and it is the same care and affection that is reflected through Mary his mother. In her response at the wedding at Cana Mary shows herself a model disciple who trusts in God. She shows that trust with the words that are meant for all of us even now as we read them again “Do whatever he tells you.”

 As all of us who travel to Lourdes know In the Rosary Basilica there is an icon over the main altar with the words To Jesus through Mary and that is another aspect of this story, Mary always points away from herself to Jesus.  Mary is giving us the direction to do what Jesus asks us to do. She is not saying that we should do what she wants us to do instead she is showing us the way to Jesus the son of God. She is mother to us all and  also the first disciple of her son. She knows the way to live because she learned it by listening to her son and pondering in her heart what he did and said. We should listen closely to what she says as Mary is the one who “keeps all these things in her heart,.” Do whatever he tells you is Mary’s message for us today because God never gives up on us and calls us to a better way of life a life of love and  service for others where ever we are. This past year has been a hard one for all of us wherever we are in the world with the COVID19. As a result of the pandemic many of us have not travelled to Lourdes in 2020 and again  in 2021 many of us will not be able to get our annual  pilgrim visits due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.

So with Mary we stop and ponder in our hearts  all the things Lourdes means to all of us individuals who go there as Pilgrims, as Hospitalite members or as pilgrimage helpers of one sort or another or priests or pilgrimage leaders. We also remember  all the Sanctuary Staff  the hoteliers and their hotel staffs with the travel agents who enable us to do all we do in Lourdes. We say a prayer for all of the Pilgrims known to us who have died remembering  all the Lourdes pilgrims and helpers  who have lost their lives because of COVID19. In Lourdes we see a reflection of God’s care in the commitment of all the people who tend to the suffering of others. They are God’s compassion in flesh, God’s care in motion. We pray on this feast day that we may continue to be the compassionate face of god wherever we are called to be in the world as members of the international Lourdes pilgrim family.

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29 Jun 2015

LOURDES PILGRIMAGE

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 Over the next few weeks a number of friends of mine will be travelling to Lourdes here are a few thoughts on what the place and the people mean to me 34 years on from my 1st pilgrimage as a 14 year old in 1981.

When I think about Lourdes so many things like the cold water of the baths and people such as Fr. Leahy and Mrs. Smye and CLM all come to mind. After all the  years of coming and going so much has changed and so many people have gone to God both young and old and all the ages in between. There have been So many happy and sad times together with those who began to mean a lot to me way back at the start in August 1981 and many of those people mean so much more to me now they all know who they are and hopefully they might even be reading this !!!. Lourdes is the one thing that I have in common with all of my friends. The experiences that I have had over the years have changed me So much for the better I hope that I am more thoughtful and a less annoying person than before other people will have to tell me whether that is true or not. Lourdes has many meanings for everyone who visits the place but for me it means love, joy happiness and yes even sadness but above all else it is about the presence of Mary our mother in my life.

It is about Mary bringing all of us to Jesus who in turn brings us to the Father and the father’s house. Lourdes is not about me as an individual instead Lourdes is about giving yourself away in service for others the pilgrims of all nationalities who need your help physical, medical, spiritual or for many including myself it is simply about just sitting listening to what is important to someone which often times is a load of rubbish or at least it seems that way to you but to them it is the most important thing in their lives at that moment. One friend recently stated that Lourdes was the annual dose of steroids for her faith she said this in an interview on the radio and that is a great description of the Lourdes experience it certainly is a boost for those whose faith is strong to keep on going and a kick up the 90’s for those whose faith is not so strong to a start walking along on the road of faith.

In our pilgrimage to Lourdes all of us come with the sick, the fragile, those who long for many different kinds of healing perhaps body, mind or spirit. We place them at the heart of our pilgrimage week as a visible sign of our faith in God’s love for the weak and those in our modern world who count for little or nothing at all when in truth they are of great value more valuable than Gold and Silver.  Those of us, who are sick or weak or powerless, like Bernadette, teach the rest of the able bodied world something of great and vital importance. They teach us that God is with the weak and the powerless and through them he points us along the right road.  We may, at least for part of our lives, enjoy comfort, good health, various kinds of success; they are not what life is about. Life is about the journey we make to God, not about what we think of as our achievements or our plans. Remember the old saying that man proposes and god disposes, this means god does what he sees is good for all of us both as individuals and community. 

When I went overland to Lourdes for the 1st time August in 1981 I didn’t think that I would go back and yet here I am talking about the one thing that is so much of what I have become over the intervening years. There is a line of Patrick Kavanagh that says “Only they who fly home to God have flown at all” I certainly have flown high above the clouds and so many others have been in the flight with me and given me so much in relation to Lourdes and the life I have back as a result back home. I only hope that I have been able to give them something back.  So much good has come into my life as a result of Lourdes and all the experiences that I have had there and I will always be grateful for the people and the place that mean so much to me.

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10 Jul 2012
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Down and Connor Lourdes 2012

Our Lady of Lourdes Pray for us

 

The annual Down & Connor diocesan Lourdes Pilgrimage begins today with a great number of people (Around 700) travelling today and tomorrow to the great spiritual place that is Lourdes. Ever since a small spring sprang up where Bernadette scraped in the mud at Massabielle, the dump outsideLourdes, people have flocked to the spot on the side of River Gave. It has become one of the greatest places of prayer on the face of the earth with people of all ages and all colour coming for all sorts of reasons —the sick and the -healthy, the young and the old, the happy and the sad, people in despair and those with gratitude, people of faith and those looking for faith.

Lourdes and places like it are important because I feel that they offer the thing most needed by every human being: spiritual assurance, real solid spiritual ground to stand on.  And certainly in Lourdes we see the rock of faith, that is faith in action. Lourdes is run by people who believe in the love of god for his people and they as a result of this belief are prepared to go that extra mile in service of those who need them. The people who are involved there also believe in the dignity of every individual no matter whether they are disabled in any way in mind, body or spirit.

They also have a passion for life and for living and for loving, living their daily lives in the spirit and the love of God. Lourdes helps us to believe in God despite the mess we see around us. The advert for Red Bull says that it gives you wings  and makes the world go round but really its love that makes the world go round, and that love is present in those who serve the sick whether working in the hospitals, hotels, shops or cafes along the streets. Personally I think that anyone who comes to Lourdes gives themselves away, in that giving yourself away to all those who need you get so much more than I can ever tell you about back especially from those who have any type of disability. We are all called To make a pilgrimage  to those special places where god dwells that means we make a prayerful journey, with no rewards or results guaranteed. The true pilgrim may seek to have specific needs met, but is open to whatever God chooses to grant, knowing that there will be graces and gifts, but trusting,  trusting that the giving is in the hands of God.

We are all called to come to Lourdes at Mary’s invitation for one kind of healing or another perhaps body mind spirit or soul. The burdens we carry and I believe we all have some kind of burden give us the opportunity to learn to be compassionate and  kind to each other and in doing so, we show kindness to our Lord. For me the Lourdes pilgrimage has brought me many graces friendship and faith are chief among those.

If I had been told in 1981 when I went for the first time that those who began the journey with me at Belfast Central Railway station would be my friends 31 years later I wouldn’t have thought that  was possible. But so many things that we feel are impossible in human reckoning are certainly different in the eyes of God and to the eyes of faith. I have been fortunate to return to the Shrine of Our Lady many times. Our Lady has a very special role in my life and I continue to experience this every day through many people and in many different situations. The faith that I have now was formed in many places and situations here at home and certainly  in Lourdes and other places of faith I have had the opportunity to go to. I hope that all those who take part in the Lourdes pilgrimage this year get all the spiritual benefits for themselves and all those who are dear to them both here at home and wherever they may be.

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