An exceptionally good answer, taken from ‘The Pastoral Letters of St Charles Borromeo, is worthy of prayerful meditation, and will hopefully increase your amazement in the wonder and mercy of God, and lead you closer to Him as you live through these days of Advent (– you’ll find it in the Office of Readings today)
We are raffling this lovely hand-knit '12 Days of Christmas' Set (knitted characters from the famous song, "Twelve Days of Christmas").
Our good friend and Benefactor, Vivienne Lamont, knit the characters (all 78 of them) and kindly donated them to us to raffle to raise funds. We are very grateful for this, as we have had a lot of large maintenance expenses in 2021 - removing badly damaged/cracked exterior plaster on the chapel walls & replastering, replacing damaged windows, replacing the Monastery boilers.
From my point of view, God is the light that illuminates the darkness, even if it does not dissolve it, and a spark of divine light is within each of us. (Pope Francis)
For me the candles are more than decoration, they are a reminder of the wonderful acts of God’s love, of His constant presence in our life.
During my work with candles I realise that a lighted candle accompanies a person throughout his life.
Christ Jesus is the image of the unseen God’. (Col 1:) While reflecting on this line of Scripture I was inspired to write this short reflection on a painting on the Holy Face of Jesus which I have just completed.
This is not the first picture of the Holy Face which I have painted but always while painting I ask myself what did Jesus really look like when he walked on this earth? Our paintings, no matter how beautiful, can only be a pale reflection of the beauty of the God Man – the Eternal Son of the Father. Each painting looks different – I’m sure that it also contains some small reflection of each artist!
The Divine Office ... “is a gift, not a burden, and many are the graces that flow from this source: Grace to praise God; to comfort our hearts; to brighten our path; to renew our strength; and to edify and sanctify the faithful”
Wishing and Praying a blessed feast of Our Lady of Knock to all of you – may she unceasingly draw all of us ever more deeply into the heart of her Son, our Eucharistic Lord.
The following is part of the homily given by Pope St John Paul II on his visit to Knock in 1979 – a prayer as relevant today as it was when he made it ... possibly even more so. Also our prayer for Ireland and for you today: