Seeing things as they were

    “Late night pharmacy,” declares the neon sign above the shop in Dun Laoghaire.

    Paddy never needed such a sign; he didn’t even need to be at the shop.  Pharmacist in an isolated town on the western seaboard, there would be callers at the house on a Saturday evening.  Frequently the callers would arrive by tractor; the only journey of the week from a remote farm.  The trip would take in shopping, Saturday evening Mass, a couple of pints in a bar, and, when necessary, a call with Paddy.

    “I can’t…

    [continue reading...]

Recent Posts

To show the recent posts is just one thing you can use this tabbed section for. There are many more. It´s up to your creativity.

  • Seeing things as they were
  • Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, 21st March 2010
  • Please God, send more atheists
  • Sermon for Saint Patrick’s Day, 17th March 2010
  • How old are you on the inside?
  • Reworking the script
  • Flush with cash
  • Sermons

    Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, 21st March 2010

    “See, I am doing a new thing”. Isaiah 43:19 It has not been the most auspicious week in Irish history: the ...

    Sermon for Saint Patrick’s Day, 17th March 2010

    "Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place" Ephesians ...

    Sermon for Mothering Sunday, 14th March 2010

    "A sword will pierce your own soul too."  Luke 2:34 In our increasingly secular society, one of the things that ...

    Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent, 7th March 2010

    Unless you repent, you too will all perish. Luke 13:5 If I go out and commit a crime, who is to ...

    Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent, 28th February 2010

    "Go tell that fox”.  Luke 13:32 Calling him a fox, Jesus speaks about Herod in less than complimentary terms. Jesus’ comment ...

    Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent, 21st February 2010

    “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert.”  Luke ...

    Sermon for Ash Wednesday 2010

    “ . . . as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships ...

    Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday, 14th February 2010

    "Master, it is good for us to be here" Luke 9:33 I was at theological college from 1983 to 1986. It ...

    Sermon for Sunday, 7th February 2010 (5th Sunday after the Epiphany/2nd Sunday before Lent)

    "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you ."  1 Corinthians 15 :1 “I am ...

    Sermon for the Presentation of Christ, 2nd February 2010

    “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation”. ...

    Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, 31st January 2010

    "But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. " Luke 4:30 I was thinking about ...

    Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, 24th January 2010 (3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time)

    " ... proclaim the year of the Lord's favour" Luke 4:21 What would the year of the Lord’s favour look like? Standing at ...

    Personal Columns

    How old are you on the inside?

    The band played the old Martha and the Muffins song “Echo Beach”.  Taking off the jacket to dance, the 50th birthday receded over the horizon for a moment.  They play at the Druid’s Chair this Saturday evening.  There is a temptation to go along to recapture that sense of agelessness.

    A lady in her late-90s defined the feeling succinctly, “The problem”, she said, “is that I don’t feel that I am the age I am”.

    When she declared herself to be feeling tired one day, I said to her. “You…

    Ireland

    Seeing things as they were

    “Late night pharmacy,” declares the neon sign above the shop in Dun Laoghaire.

    Paddy never needed such a sign; he didn’t even need to be at the shop.  Pharmacist in an isolated town on the western seaboard, there would be callers at the house on a Saturday evening.  Frequently the callers would arrive by tractor; the only journey of the week from a remote farm.  The trip would take in shopping, Saturday evening Mass, a couple of pints in a bar, and, when necessary, a call with Paddy.

    “I can’t…

    Spirituality

    Fainthearted anniversary

    It is three years today that forthefainthearted.com appeared on the Net.  Begiining in 2004 and having its infancy as fainthearted.blogspot.com, it was transformed after an RTE television piece on blogging led Richard O’Connor, Grandad in the RTE feature, to come to my aid.  Richard’s long-suffering attention has kept the blog alive and bug free since March 2007.

    Looking in the archive, the very last blogspot post was a piece of spiritual reflection.

    “Contemplative prayer at church this evening reflected on the words, “I have carved your name on the

    Ministry

    Aspiring to be a spectre

    In a West Country childhood, there were always magical stories.  There were tales of people who had met Merlin, the great wizard, keeping watch should he need to rouse Arthur and his knights from their earthbound slumbers.  Should they again need to ride forth, everyone knew they lay in wait in Cadbury Hill.

    In Somerset, there were there knights in shining armour who would ride back from the dead in the moment of need and, in Devon, a navy waited the hour when it would again put to sea.

    The…

    Cross Channel

    Inequitable questions

    A Google search for the death of King George V suggests a reluctance on the part of the British media to comment upon the circumstances of the British monarch’s final days.  The New York Times online archive has its report from 1986 of the revelation, fifty years after the event, that George V’s doctor hastened his end.

    As he lay comatose on his deathbed in 1936, King George V was injected with fatal doses of morphine and cocaine to assure him a painless death in time, according to his

    International

    Southbound
    • KENYA AIRWAYS – KQ 101
    • WED 28APR      LONDON GB        HEATHROW           2000
    • THU 29APR       NAIROBI KE      JOMO KENYATTA      0630
    • KENYA AIRWAYS – KQ 448
    • THU 29APR     NAIROBI KE      JOMO KENYATTA         0810
    • THU 29 APR    KIGALI RW        KIGALI INT’L                  0835

    The charge came though on the credit card.  tickets for Dublin to London, London to Nairobi, and Nairobi to Kigali, for less than the price of a package holiday to a Spanish Costa.

    The trip is for work, to visit projects and to talk about developing…

    Church of Ireland Comment

    Reworking the script

    “Protestants don’t do revisionism”, said my friend.

    He being far cleverer than I, not a Protestant, and it being one of those arguments that was so subjective that no conclusion was possible, there seemed no value in arguing the point. Do we really not do revisionism?  Do we really not rewrite the past in our own minds so that we appear differently from the way that others might see us?  Is it the case that we don’t sometimes simply misremember things?

    Revisionism is a rewriting of history and his point,…

    Monologues etc

    1 The Shepherds

    A Hyacinth Bucket character encounters a distasteful scene

    Really, it wasn’t nice. It wasn’t nice at all.

    I was just saying to Leonard, my husband, that it wasn’t nice. Leonard has just retired as an important civil servant and he knows about things. He agreed with me, “Not at all pleasant,” he said to me. “Not the sort of thing that decent people like ourselves should have to see”.

    You’d think the Government would do something about it, wouldn’t you? I mean to say, if this sort of thing started…

    Notice Board

    Hurt for Haiti Fundraising Fest in Limerick

    From ‘Hurt for Haiti’:

    Hey Folks!

    On Sunday, 21st February, we are holding a massive event in aid of our brothers and sisters in Haiti who are in such despair.

    We have a huge day planned with some top entertainment on hand. The venue is The Bentleys Complex- all the upstairs and downstairs rooms AND The Brazen Head next door. It’s going to be a great day out and for a great cause.

    We’re gonna kick off around 3 in the courtyard with Jon Kenny and Mike Finn on hand…