What treasures..Books

I start to savour a book, especially a new book, even before I open it. I feel the cover, skim through it, look at the pictures and the length of the chapters. Next I review the recommendations from authors, newspapers and magazines. This whets my appetite even more. I open the first page with great [...]

Churches

Churches can look so different, St. Peter’s in Rome, St. Paul’s in London, St. Patrick’s in Soho Square or St. Dominic’s in Haverstock Hill London: but they give the same message viz the message that God is there in a special way.  Entering a quiet church with its rising columns and pillars, the smell of [...]

The ‘BUT’ word.

The ‘But’ word How generous it is to fully praise someone. How many of us half praise people. It’s as if our generosity cannot stretch that little bit further just enough to be big hearted. The word ‘BUT’ can spoil what could be a full hearted praise. ‘You did that well’ BUT…’ ‘I thought your [...]

The Mark of the man

“The Mark of the man….!” Many years ago when my sister was clearing out the loft she discovered in a tin box old papers belonging to my mother. Among them was the birth certificate of my great grandfather. Born in 1851 in a time of great poverty in Ireland his birth was recorded by the [...]

What’s on the clothes line?

The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us. Jn1:13 What does this line from John’s gospel mean for you? We read it in one of the most sublime passages of scripture. In it we get a glimpse of the divine and yet it gives us the deepest insight too into what being truly [...]

Made in China

Made in China At the moment there is a wonderful exhibition in the Turbine Hall in Tate Modern on the South Bank. It is called “Sunflowers Seeds”. The Exhibitor is Ai Wei Wei a Chinese Artist. The Exhibition consists of one hundred million porcelain sunflower seeds. Each seed is handmade. The Traditional way of producing [...]

Who paints the leaves…?

Who paints the leaves when I’m asleep? Driving along the Great West Road at 7.30am some time ago I was overwhelmed with “the world charged with the grandeur of God” which G.M Hopkins wrote of in his poem “God’s Grandeur”. Autumn, with its coat of many colours cloaked the landscape and like the small boy [...]

Reflection on Work

Work Many words describe work. You only have to look up Chamber’s Crossword Dictionary for a flavour of them. At the moment in the Victoria and Albert Museum there are four, huge, priceless tapestries brought from the Vatican depicting scenes from the lives of St. Peter and Paul. The Cartoons for these tapestries were designed [...]

Reflection on Age

Recently I attended  a funeral Mass where a son in an Obituary described his mother’s life. She had lived in Poland during the war and endured many hardships. Yet she turned out to be a very loving, sociable person who was not embittered in any way. This set me thinking about older people. We sometimes [...]

Light at the end of the tunnel

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. I was on a train recently and heard the following conversation between a mother and her very young son. The train entered a long tunnel, within seconds the child said; “It’s dark outside. Is it night time? His mother responded; “No darling it’s still day time but we [...]