Some lessons from Mental Health and Wellbeing Summit

Ireland’s first ever Mental Health & Wellbeing Summit took place in Aviva on 14th October. We had a stand on the day, alongside other organisations promoting health and wellbeing from different perspectives, mostly medical and psychological. We were the only organisation coming from a Church background with a spirituality based approach. The room we were […]

Reconciliation is a work of healing

Reconciliation is one of those big words that can sometimes overwhelm us and we think it is always alluding to something ‘big’, like reconciliation between the countries or groups of people, but when we unmask it we realise it is a part of our everyday reality. Simply by being human we rub off each other, […]

Prayer for those who are homeless

Oh God of mercy and compassion,  give us grace to live life with an open heart; to notice people as we walk around town. Awake us to the wonder of life hidden in those without home who live on the streets and often feel so alone. Help us Jesus to be more like you, who […]

Taking charge of stress

“Somehow, we’ll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be. But for now, we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.”  (Brandon Sanderson) Perhaps you have a balanced life, some people do, with enough rest, enough play and interaction with family and friends, healthy life-style, and […]

The light of Christ

I was reading recently about light and shade. Light is always seen as positive and good, shade or shadows are metaphorically given a negative meaning – thought of as darkness, cold, fear and suffering. We speak, for example, of living in someone’s shadow, of life being overshadowed by some tragedy or disaster, or of facing the shadow of death. But […]

Breathing in God

In the beginning of time, “the Spirit of God was moving over the surface” of the earth (Genesis 1:2), as if blessing everything God was going to create, even before it came into being. God’s breath, ‘Ruah’, which is another word for the Spirit, is creative. God creates as He breathes; He creates life, He […]

Christ is Risen, Alleluia!

“God, give us eyes to see the beauty of the Spring, And to behold Your majesty in every living thing – And may we see in lacy leaves and every budding flower The Hand that rules the universe with gentleness and power – And may this Easter grandeur that Spring lavishly imparts Awaken faded flowers […]

Restoring the broken

I had a broken pot that I decided to repair. Actually, I broke it myself during a talk I was giving in order to illustrate our brokenness. Sometimes life breaks us, either through our own unwise choices, but most of the time through things that happen to us over which we have no control. At […]

Jesus was not born in a cozy place

“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the […]

The dark nights of Advent

  “Father in heaven, the day draws near when the glory of your Son will make radiant the night of the waiting world.” Roman Missal In the Northern hemisphere Advent corresponds with the season of Winter, when the days are short and the night is long. Advent reminds us that God comes to us in […]