Carmelite Monastery of St Joseph, Kilmacud - Sisters' Reflections

There’s a real feel of springtime in this part of the world, even on cold days! The birds are singing and there’s a brightness pouring through the windows on sunny days that shows up all the dust and cobwebs! It creates a desire in me for spring cleaning and decluttering. Isn’t there a great sense of satisfaction when a good cleaning job has been completed and one can sit back and enjoy a tidy room again? This week we began the season of Lent, when people traditionally “give up” something like sweets, chocolate or smoking. I was reflecting about what I might give up this Lent, when (as often happens) the words of a secular song popped into my mind, an upbeat chart-topper from 1990 by Irish rock band “Hothouse Flowers”. The song is called “Give it up” and the theme of the lyrics are about giving charity to the less fortunate, but the opening verse seems particularly appropriate for me this Lent: Well, I'm coming face to face with my conscience Coming to an understanding of myse...

One of our sisters supports people serving long prison sentences by regularly writing letters and emails to them and she frequently receives letters back from them. It is obvious that her letters are greatly valued by the prisoners. Recently sister shared a little about what had happened in one of the prisons in recent weeks and it reminded me of what happened in 2001 in the largest prison in Sweden.   Truls Bernhold, a Lutheran minister, completed the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius ---- that is, a 30- day silent retreat during which meditation on the life of Christ is central to the exercises. Each person is accompanied by a spiritual director for 1 hour each day. Sometime later Truls received training on how to LEAD the Spiritual Exercises.   In 2001 he was invited to lead a meditation group in the Kumla Prison, the largest in Sweden that houses the country’s highest-risk prisoners. The effect of the meditation course on the prisoners involved impressed...

It is always a joy to see the first snowdrops, the heralds of spring. Even though they sometimes show themselves in January they are often known as the Fair Maids of February. In Ireland we say that the Feast of St. Brigid on February 1 st is the first day of spring and as snowdrops appear around this time St. Brigid  is often portrayed with them in art. Traditionally snowdrops represent innocence and simplicity as well as new beginnings, hope and the ability to overcome challenges. Perhaps for these reasons they are often used as symbols of sympathy and consolation. In medieval times snowdrops were usually put on the altar on Candlemas Day, (February 2 nd ) to symbolise the purity of Our Lady, and they are sometimes known as Candlemas Bells. We don’t usually associate St. Therese with snowdrops, but I remember reading about an interesting cure at Gortnamucklagh, Glenties, in Co. Donegal, which involved Therese and snowdrops, it took place the year before her cause for canonisation...

  February is upon us with all its signs of Spring to cheer our hearts: snowdrops daffodils, birdsong, to name but a few. St. Brigid, Secondary Patroness of Ireland, heralds it in. An ancient writing about her says: “Everything that Brigid would ask of the Lord was granted her at once. For this was her desire: to satisfy the poor, to rid of every hardship, to spare every miserable one. She was simple before God; she was compassionate to the suffering, she was splendid in good works.”   Only yesterday a mother told me that she had gone to the Shrine of St. Brigid in Faughert for a healing blessing for herself and her sick son. So, Brigid’s influence lives on. Who does not look forward to the healing feast of Our Lady of Lourdes on February 11 th ? There is no end to the queue of people at this time in need of healing: children, teenagers, parents young and old, all wanting to drink from the spring of Christ’s healing waters. Then comes St. Valentine’s Day on February 14 t...