Carmelite Monastery of St Joseph, Kilmacud - Sisters' Reflections

  Next week we begin a month to remember the Holy Souls. November can be a bleak month with dark misty days and cooler challenging weather.   But the first day of the month begins with All Saints Day. It sets a positive tone to the month.   The Church is saying to us as we remember our beloved dead; we are all included in the feast of All Saints. The Holy Souls are in God’s Presence, already in the embrace of God. It is nice to have a month to remember the un-named saints. The little saints rather than the well known bigger Saints. We all know people we have lived with, people who did not consider themselves saints but were good, compassionate and always ready to listen to others.   And there are saints we would be surprised to learn that they are included! They may not have belonged to any particular Church or Religion but they were compassionate, honest, searchers of the Truth. Take some time over the next few weeks and during the month to remember these people...

  “E.M.S. is not what you think ” is the title of a book by my nephew in the States sharing his exciting experiences as a paramedic in E.M.S. (Emergency Medical Services). Carmelite life is not what you might think, about “strict fasting and hard corporal penances”! On my final visit to Kilmacud Carmel before entering, the novice mistress advised me, as a preparation for the Carmelite life, to make “little acts of self-denial” – what my mother in her native tongue along with St Therese would call “petites sacrifices”. It was simple advice, and wise too! As a novice, my mother gave me a present of a Bible (trans. Ronald Knox). Two powerful passages have really sustained me all down the years. “It is I, the Lord your God, who hold you by the hand and whisper to you: ‘do not be afraid for I am here to help you’ “ (Is.41:13). “As the Father loves me, I love you. Remain in my love.” (John 15:9) I witnessed the election of several Prioresses. Great characters with different pe...

It is the season of letting go. Trees are letting go leaves, and animals are preparing for winter.  Recently I have noticed how many ways we can experience loss. On a large scale, we see reports of wars causing widespread destruction of human life and property and we hear of people forced to leave their homes with few belongings. We learn of the deaths of people closer to home, our own or loved ones of people we know. There is loss associated with ageing, reduced mobility or energy levels. There are also smaller daily losses when life interrupts our well-set plans and schedules. All these losses cause s greater or lesser amount of stress and grief that we need to work through and move on from. Letting go is indeed painful and difficult. Years ago, a wise person gave me some great advice for times of grief and loss. He said that because we are physical beings, it can be very helpful to create a personalised and practical ritual of letting go that is specific to the experience we a...