Carmelite Monastery of St Joseph, Kilmacud - Sisters' Reflections

 We have been hearing a lot about grandparents recently.  In 2021, Pope Francis instituted the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly to be celebrated every year on the fourth Sunday of July, which falls near July 26 th, the memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.  Pope Francis encourages us to remember, our grandparents at Mass on that day and, if they are still living, to visit them or to visit an elderly person living alone. Grandparents are often the main teachers of the faith to their grandchildren, answering their questions and telling them bible stories and stories of the saints, as well as teaching by the example of their lives.   We give thanks for their witness. Some of us may not remember our grandparents very well but we may remember particular incidents or wise sayings passed on by a parent recalling their own childhood.   Pondering these can help us to appreciate our families and give thanks. We give thanks fo...

  This week we are still in the glow of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Yes, the Carmelite family all over the world is rejoicing in having Mary as our Mother and Protectress and thanking her for her countless blessings. The cradle of our Order is Mount Carmel in the Holy Land where the early hermits around the end of the 12 th . century built a small chapel in honour our Lady. They regarded her as their model in teaching them to pray and in helping them to share the fruits of their prayer with others.   I remember the joy of receiving the habit of Carmel as a young nun and in learning the little prayers that we say as we put it on each day. “Queen beauty of Carmel, you have given us a sign of your Protection” is the one as we slip the scapular over our shoulders each morning.   Over the centuries, people wanted to be associated with orders devoted to Our Lady, so the custom grew of giving then some part of the religious habit. The brown scapular was the sign ...

What comes to mind when you hear the word FREEDOM?   As a child it was for me school holidays, no homework, long summer days, making new friends and doing fun and   adventurous things. Nothing wrong with all of that.   As we move into the teenage years it maybe the struggle to grow up and the urge to pull away from parental control or what to us may feel like control. The cycle continues throughout our lives and into our senior years. But there is a freedom we all long for and it is worth the effort to search for It is inner freedom. The poet David Whyte has this to say ‘Freedom is perhaps the ultimate spiritual longing of an individual human being, but freedom is only really appreciated when it falls within the parameters of a larger sense of belonging. In freedom is the wish to belong to a structure in our own particular way.’ (David Whyte    from "Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work As a Pilgrimage of Identity")   But there is so much more than th...