Understanding God

 On Friday in the Catholic Church we celebrated the feast of The Sacred Heart of Jesus. At Mass Fr Ger asked the children what the heart was a symbol of. The boys answered that the heart was a symbol of love. And rightly so, you feel love with the heart. I did not get too reflective on the Feast day but later I was struck by it. And it made me think of God. 

Recently somebody asked me what my understanding of God was. I responded that God is love. He wanted me to speak more about that answer, I struggled. I know what God is for me but I struggle to put words on it. Truly knowing God and having that relationship with Him can be hard to put into words. Love is an emotion. Does this mean that God is an emotion? No. God loves us unconditionally. The greatest love in the world is the love God has for us. For this reason God is love. It is thanks to God (love) that we can love others. God shows us love first. It can be difficult to describe God using words. I understand God to be great. Love is strong. Great is strong. Therefore God is love. According to Aristotle God can know and love nothing more or less than himself. Because God loves himself greatly and us equally God is love. Scripture does not tell us who or what God is. It is by reading of God's interactions with the people that we learn who/ what God is. In his ministry Jesus was always showing love (God) to those he met. Think of the healing of the paralytic or the woman caught in adultery. Jesus healed the paralytic with love. He showed love to the woman by not passing judgement on her. The greatest love a person can have is to lay down their life for another. And Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice of love for us by accepting death, death on a Cross. Jesus knew he did not deserve to die but he accepted it for the love of people. And this love was God. To know love is to know God. If we do not know love we cannot know God. If we do not know God we cannot truly love.

God as love is different to our earthly understanding of love. God is not of this world in the normal sense that he is a physical being. God as love is independent of the world. For this reason no worldly words can adequately describe God as love. God is bigger than the world. He is utterly transcendent. God is the master builder, the creator. I could spend hours trying to describe God but to truly understand God we need to have a personal relationship with Him. I firmly believe God is love. My understanding of God as love may be different to your understanding. Neither understanding is wrong for understanding of God is based on our personal relationship with God.

When we celebrate the Sacred Heart of Jesus we are celebrating God as love as the heart is a symbol of love. But why is it the Sacred Heart of Jesus, not the Sacred Heart of God? Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, he is God. I imagine the feast day is The Sacred Heart of Jesus as Jesus was God who was born to this world. He lived on the earth as human, he had a heart.

Words are all we have

 When my friend went missing a person whom I had only met was very kind and supportive to me. Our paths continued to cross for a number of weeks after I first turned to him, due to my job. And the support continued throughout. During my last trip up there, knowing it was the end of my work up there, I gave him a thank you card. The day after I gave it to him he mentioned that he had read it that morning. I told him that the words I wrote seemed inadequate and that I would never truly be able to express how grateful I was to him for his support. He made reference to the Bee Gees song, 'Words' and how words are all we have. Instantly this got me thinking. 

Are words really all we have to express how grateful we are to people in our lives? We express our thanks with gifts or maybe buying someone coffee or lunch etc. The best way to thank a friend for their support is to spend time with them I think, actions speak louder than words. Thinking of how grateful I was and still am to this person for his support, words and a couple of small gifts (not forgetting the sultanas) are only a token of my appreciation. My time on Lough Derg was overshadowed with sadness as my friend went missing and was found deceased weeks later. Without his support and even his humour I would not have got through my time on Lough Derg so well. He showed such kindness to me, a stranger. He is a perfect example of living out the Gospel message, 'I was a stranger and you welcomed me' (Mt 25:35). I really hope and pray that he knows just how grateful I am for his support. I will never stop saying thank you because I feel words are inadequate.

My point. Yes, sometimes words are all that we have. Let us use our words wisely and do not be afraid to say thank you and to really mean it. To us our words might seem inadequate but essentially words are all we have. Trust that our words are enough. Say thank you by your actions too. 

Is the Holy Spirit really there??

 A few weeks ago I sent my blog entry 'Storms of Life' to my Parish Priest. I explained to him that this was not my planned next entry but that the Holy Spirit led me to write it. And when the Holy Spirit leads I have to follow. He commented that I would be busy if I was to keep up with the Holy Spirit. That comment left me pondering. The following morning as I was driving home from Mass I was suddenly struck by a thought/ a question. Why does the Holy Spirit lead some people and not others? I was specifically thinking of a friend who had gone missing a week earlier. This friend had God in her life yet the Holy Spirit did not lead her to safety when she needed it most.

As I sat more and more with this question I realised that the Holy Spirit IS constantly at work in every persons life. It is at the door knocking, waiting to to  come in. We have to let the Holy Spirit in. There is only so much that the Holy Spirit can do in our lives 'behind the scenes'. In order for the Holy Spirit to fully work for us we need to accept it into our lives, we have to open the door that the Holy Spirit is knocking at. At times in our lives we just cannot hear the Knock, we cannot recognise the Holy Spirit trying to work. We can be too distracted with life, finding life too difficult to recognise the Holy Spirit. But as I teach the Confirmation children the Holy Spirit is always there trying to guide us but is not always successful. 

That day in Lady's Island when I was inspired to put pen to paper and write 'Storms of Life' I was able to hear. But I am sure there have been times when I have not recognised the Holy Spirit trying to guide me. There is only so far that the Holy Spirit can guide without us recognising. We need to recognise for the Holy Spirit to fully guide. I feel that is what happened with my friend. The Holy Spirit had done all that it could to guide her but she could not see, she could not hear. It was not a case that the Holy Spirit was not with her. If it seems that the Holy Spirit has not worked in a person's life it is not for lack of trying. At times a person can be so blinded by hurt, anger, etc that they cannot recognise the knock, the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always at work. Are you willing to hear? 

Trusting God with our lives can be a very difficult task. This is what we are doing when we let the Holy Spirit in, we are trusting. 

Lough Derg

 A friend contacted me a while ago telling me that Lough Derg was looking for help with school retreats. She was unable to help due to work commitments. But she thought of me due to my experience of delivering school retreats. She sent me off to think about it.

Working on Lough Derg was my friend's dream but I was not quite sure that it was mine. In 2024 I was in Lough Derg briefly for an interview. In the short time I was there I noticed that there was no phone signal. This made sense considering Lough Derg is a small island. I was not sure I would be comfortable with that. But that was a bridge I could cross if I got offered the job. I did not get the job in 2024 but Lough Derg stayed in my heart. Here I was almost two years later with an opportunity to work on Lough Derg crossing my path again. I was still unsure though, I did not want to be totally cut off from the world. The more I thought about it the more it appealed to me. My friend passed on my details and as the saying goes, 'the rest is history'. 

My first retreat was on March 20th. When I arrived in the village and was shown where I was staying I went out towards the Island. There was a mix up with the boat. While I waited for it I decided to sit on the pier and take in the lovely view of the island. I felt so at peace, at home. I literally had ten minutes on the island, not long but long enough to experience the pure peacefulness of it. I decided to go for a small walk on the lakeshore before returning to my accommodation. It was lovely, the island was visible along a lot of my walk. At one point I even found a spot to sit and bask in the peacefulness.

On Friday morning I was both anxious and relaxed going over to the island. But everybody was lovely. The retreat went very well and I really enjoyed it. I travelled back to the mainland with the school. Because the weather was so nice I decided to sit on the pier and pray, I was not ready to leave the peacefulness of the place I was in. While I sat looking over at the island I was surprised as I welled up and tears started to fall. But these were tears of joy, gladness. I felt so blessed to be where I was. One retreat done and Lough Derg was already leaving it's mark. Before starting in Lough Derg I already had a strong relationship with God. Lough Derg was validating this relationship. I just felt something really special as I sat on the pier that afternoon. Loved, cherished, in communion with God. At the end of my first stint working on Lough Derg I had the opportunity to stay on the island. I was blown away by the peacefulness I felt and was looking forward to my next stay before I even left. Lough Derg is truly a blessed place. 

Now if I was offered a job on Lough Derg I would immediately accept if I didn't have a job I really liked. After the experience I had I would not say no to working there. And as it happened I was one of a few who actually had phone signal on the island, limited but I knew where to go. But I didn't look for it much. The night I stayed I was happy to just be present. 

Thank you Lough Derg. Thank you God. 

Storms of Life

 Today in Ireland storm Dave was forecasted. This morning I was in Wexford, down in Lady's Island. Despite the fact that it was very windy and there was intermittent rain I was going walking. I put on my wet trousers, my hiking shoes, my heavy rain jacket and my hat and away I went. For the first part of my walk I was walking against the high winds, even some of the birds were struggling to get airborne. I stopped at one point to let the flock of birds that came out of nowhere to fly over and I was lucky I was strongly rooted. But then I turned a corner and the wind was comfortably on my back, much easier to walk. When I was coming towards the end of the path I decided that I would turn around and walk the path again. This time going back on what I had already walked. 

The first thing I was struck by when I walked back was the wind. From this side it felt so much stronger. As I fought the winds I thought of how this was a bit like the storms of life. When we are going through the challenges of life, the storms, it can really feel like a struggle. Sometimes it can feel impossible to get through it, a fight, like the wind I was trying to get through today. But like stormy weather the storms of life too will pass. We need to apply the same strategies we would for moving through stormy weather, slow and steady. I wore my heavy coat not because it was overly cold. I wore it to help me negotiate through the wind. I thought of that along my walk and how the coat acted a bit like a shield against the wind. What supports can you use in life that will help you through the struggles and the storms? At a few points of my walk I felt like running. However, I knew running against such strong winds would not have been wise. Even if I was strong enough to run against that wind it would not have been long before I returned to walking pace and the effort needed to run into the wind could have forced me to a complete stop. And so it is in life. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. We need to pace ourselves in order to get to the end. When we are in the thick of our storms we just want to get through them. But we cannot rush through the storms either. To rush through them can be more damaging. Just like the wind today would have been if I rushed through it. The body needs time to process. We need to give our body's the time and care they need to do this.

So, when the storms of life are raging, remember, you will get through them just like we get through stormy weather. Some storms take longer to get through than others but that is okay. Pace yourself in each storm of life and it will end. Arm yourself with the supports to help you through the storms. Slow and steady is the key, just like getting through stormy weather.

Lenten Commitment

 Yesterday, 18th February 2026, we started our Lenten journey with Ash Wednesday. As I was flicking through Facebook yesterday I noticed a news report video. As it was a priest who posted the video it caught my attention. The video interviewed people about they were doing for Lent. Instantly I thought of the Gospel passage which is proclaimed each year on Ash Wednesday from St Matthew. (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18) It is no coincidence that this particular passage is read on Ash Wednesday as we begin our Lenten journey. This passage tells us that we should not parade our good deeds in order to attract attention to ourselves. We should pray in secret, behind closed doors, where the prayer is just between us and God. We do not pray so that other people can see us pray. We pray to be in relationship with God. St Matthew also says that when we fast we do not do it with a gloomy face so that everybody knows that we are fasting. Again, our fasting is between us and God. 

As Christians, during the Lenten season we are called to fast, to give and to pray in order to prepare for Easter and to grow closer to God. What we decide to do for Lent is between us and God. The Gospel for Ash Wednesday reminds us of this. We go not give up sweets, chocolate, social media etc to look good to others or to get their approval. It is nobody's business but God's what we decide to do for Lent. I understand that some people may need support to carry out their Lenten commitments. If a person needs support it is fine to tell others what they are fasting from or what they are taking up. But as Christians we should not parade our actions in front of others as we hear in St Matthew's Gospel. The best support on our Lenten journey is God. So if you are struggling to keep your Lenten commitments talk to God, ask Him for help. 

This year I also think of Pope Leo's message at the start of Lent. Pope Leo invites us to ask the Lord to grant us true conversion of heart. This Lenten season let us accept Pope Leo's invitation and use our words kindly. Let us not speak bad of others or put them down. And let us show God's love to all that we meet. Don't get all caught up in giving up the material things. Be more concerned with giving up the bad words we use towards others. But don't look for praise for being kind. Remember, being kind with our words and our actions helps us to grow closer to God. 

The Sign of the Cross

 I was at Mass in Knock last weekend. I could not help but notice one of the Ministers of Holy Communion taking great care blessing herself after she received the Eucharist. The reverence that she used when blessing herself was lovely. It left me pondering. So often at Mass I see people quickly blessing themselves by making the sign of the Cross after receiving Holy Communion. More often than not they do it in a rushed manner. But why the rush? Why do people not bless themselves with care and purpose? 

When we bless ourselves, making the sign of the Cross, we say, 'In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.' We bless ourselves as a sign of reverence and for protection. We do it in the name of the Trinity, three persons in one. We are asking the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to be with us and protect us. I do feel that care should be taken when blessing ourselves. It should be an intentional act not a rushed action done out of habit. If you ever notice how the priest gives the final blessing at Mass he does it with care and purpose. Or the Bishop making the sign of the cross as he blesses the congregation as he processes after Mass, it is done slowly. Why shouldn't we do the same when we bless ourselves with the sign of the Cross? We do not need to rush it. Afterall, it is a prayer, calling on the Trinity to protect and stay with us. Blessing ourselves is a sign of our relationship with God. Slow down and do it with reverence. As you bless yourself think of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And 'Amen' as bringing the three together. Think of how blessing yourself with the Sign of the Cross unites you with God. In a world where we are always rushing, let us slow down with this simple act. Whether you are doing it at the start or end of Mass, after receiving the Eucharist or as you pass a Church, don't rush it, bless yourself with intention. 

I remember seeing a video on TikTok a while ago where the poster was telling people how to bless themselves. He said that 'The Son', the second action, should be at your belly button. That is very low and I disagree. However, as I write this and think about it, he had a point. When we bless ourselves we are making the sign of the Cross, so forehead down to stomach makes sense, the long part of the Cross. But I would say the top of the stomach. Personally I try go to the bottom of the breast bone. You are still making the sign of the Cross this way as you come back up to your shoulders for the 'Holy Spirit'. If we go to the centre of the chest the shape is not a Cross as the chest is more in line with the shoulders. If we bless ourselves with intention we will notice how we do it and be more aware of making a Cross.