And so, we come to the final Sunday before Christmas – the 4th Sunday of Advent. Final preparations for the birth of Jesus. Today’s short gospel, relating Mary’s 130km journey to visit Elizabeth (same name as different versions of Isobel), invites us to reflect a bit deeper on life. On the human level we have two women who are expecting babies having a perfectly natural meeting – but then the presence of the Holy Spirit points out to us that God is there too. Not just two wom

The third Sunday of Advent is slightly special. The Advent Sundays usually stress repentance and conversion, but the 3rd Sunday is all about joy and happiness at the Lord’s coming. The colour of the vestments can be different at Mass – rose, and also the rose candle on the advent wreath is lit. There were a lot of ‘religious’ people around in Jesus’ time but the only one he took seriously was John the Baptist. And this Sunday John, speaking to various professions, tells us th

"Walking the path of the Willow" .... the road to renewable energy at St Patrick's Kiltegan Continuing our exploration in journeying towards an ecological awakening, we travelled to the beautiful home of St. Patrick’s Missionary Society, just outside of the village of Kiltegan in County Wicklow. Responding to Pope Francis’ “challenge to protect our common home” encapsulated in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si, the Fathers at St. Patrick’s Kiltegan tried to find ways of producin

President Higgins presented the annual Irish Presidential Distinguished Service Awards to recipients for 2020 and 2021 on Thursday 2nd December 2021. Fr Kevin O'Hara, SPS was nominated for an Award in 2020 for his peace, reconciliation and development work in Nigeria. The presentation of Fr. Kevin’s Award was deferred until Thursday, 2nd December 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions last year. As Fr. Kevin did not travel home for the Award Ceremony at Áras an Uachtaráin, his sis

Today’s gospel puts before us John the Baptist as a model to follow in genuinely welcoming Jesus into our lives. John is in the middle of the story. On one side we have, named, the emperor in faraway Rome, his ‘national’ representative in Judea, his local reps in the regions and the chief priests. The great political and religious figures are there. Then we have John – who is not attracted to any of them, but lives in the remote edges of the desert. No greater contrast! The R

Each week, during the season of Advent, AMRI (Association of Leaders of Missionaries & Religious of Ireland) will provide a snapshot of the ways that member congregations of AMRI are living out Pope Francis 2015 Encyclical, Laudato Si. “We will explore the concept of an integral ecological journey – animating how we understand the interconnectedness between ourselves, our ‘common home’ and humanity. Episode 1 (video link below) features a 15 minute short film narrated by Fr B