Carmelite Monastery of St Joseph, Kilmacud - Sisters' Reflections

  Have you marvelled at the vast expanse of ocean or the teeming forests of our beautiful planet home... Have you stood in breathless wonder before a stunning sunset or sunrise and were lost for words before the powerful thunder of the Niagara Falls...? But have you equally and even been more taken out of yourself by the miracle of your firstborn baby...as you counted ten tiny toes and fingers and kissed the perfection of every little toenail, nose and ears... Small is beautiful.... God thinks so too.    He always looks for the little ones to let his Glory shine through their poverty and humility...Isn’t that what he did for Mary, whose name means, Beloved by Yahweh ... and it was mostly to child seers that Mary has appeared on earth.   ‘Little Therese’ too could rejoice that ’God willed to let his Mercy shine out in me’... Small is beautiful in God’s eyes.   During the prolonged Covid lockdown what we missed most were the little things of life; the dai...

 “O God, be gracious and bless us And let your face shed its light upon us”  We are beginning our annual Community Retreat at a time of year when nature also slows down! There are rapid and remarkable changes happening all around us, and we can learn much from creation during this retreat time. Here are some of my thoughts: As the leaves on the trees display a variety of colours, may we too realise the beauty and variety that is hidden “under the ordinary colour” of all the persons around us, and may we appreciate each one as he/she changes and develops. “With fairness you rule the peoples You guide the nations on earth”. The leaves are falling too. May we let go of old ways that are no longer helpful, and with trust and faith let God work in our lives until the time of new shoots and growth. "So will your ways be known upon earth And all nations learn your saving help." It is the season of harvest; apples and blackberries are abundant! May we give thanks for all ...

  Recently two of my community were discussing the game of chess and it reminded me of a story told about the Archbishop of Prague. When Cardinal Archbishop of Prague Dominik Duka OP. was Provincial of the Dominicans in Czechoslovakia in the time of the Soviet Communism, he shared a prison cell with Vaclav Havel, playwright and future President of the Republic.   The celebration of the Eucharist was strictly forbidden, so the two prisoners would apparently play chess. The queen’s crown contained a tiny amount of wine and the kings crown a fragment of bread.   Unbeknown to their guards they celebrated the Eucharist, quietly whispering “Holy, Holy, Holy” and praised the King of Heaven and Earth as chess players. In dark times such as our own it is hard to praise, but all the more important that we do so.   On October 15 th we celebrate the feast day of our great Carmelite---- Saint Teresa of Avila and she is the patron saint of CHESS PLAYERS!   Teresa beca...

  As most of us have recently attended a course on St. Edith Stein, a reflection on her seems  appropriate. Edith was born into a Jewish family in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) in 1891. She was the youngest of eleven children of whom seven reached adulthood. Edith’s father died shortly before her second birthday and her mother, a strong and determined woman, took over his lumber business very successfully. She was a very faithful Jew, who attended synagogue on the Sabbath and the Holy Days; but although they observed Jewish customs in the home the family were rather casual about it and no pressure was put on the children. They kept a kosher kitchen, but not very strictly. When Edith was in her teens she gave up praying completely, but she never stopped searching for the truth. She was an exceptional student, together with her sister Erna, she was one of the first women in Germany to attend university and she studied psychology before moving on to philosophy falling un...