All Saints - 1st of November

This Sunday coincides with the feast of All Saints, the 1st of November. The Gospel reading is tuned to that, taken from Matthew 5:1-12, the account of the Beatitudes. One would expect that it would be easy enough to write a reflection about this feast day, or concerning this Gospel, but I must confess that I have read the text a few times and nothing in particular jumps out at me, and I don't feel like just making something up without my heart being in it...

The past week has been quite busy. Last weekend, as regular readers of the blog might remember, was filled with the Youth 2000 retreat in Kilkenny. It meant as usual a busy time and not a lot of sleep, but also a shower of graces and blessings. It was the first time a Y2k retreat was held in Kilkenny, and it worked all out very well, and there was a good gathering of young people!

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Youth Mass in St. Mary's Pope's Quay in Cork

The Dominican Novices in Cork are organizing a monthly youth mass. For anybody in Cork, or Ireland, have a look at the flyers below:

What do you want me to do for you? Master, let me receive my sight.

Well, as mentioned, the next few days are going to be busy as I will be travelling to Kilkenny this afternoon for a Youth 2000 retreat. So I will just write a very short reflection on the Gospel of this coming Sunday, which is from Mark 10:46-52, as I found that there is maybe an interesting reflection on the cause of events.

Jesus is going around the area of Jericho, and as usual it seems that great crows of people are assembling around him, "a great multitude" (Mar 10:46 RSV) was following him. Then there is this blind man Bartimaeus who is begging at the side of the road. He clearly has heard something about Jesus, even though we do not know for sure what, but possibly that he was a healer and helped people. As soon as he hears that Jesus is passing by, he start to cry out to Him: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Mar 10:47 RSV).

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No reflection last weekend

Just a quick note for regular readers of this blog... as our internet connection went down on Friday, and might still be down, I wasn't able to post a reflection on the Gospel of last weekend. Hopefully it will all work again soon and I will continue!

However, coming weekend might be a difficulty as well, as I will be traveling to the Youth 2000 Retreat in Kilkenny on Friday afternoon, but God willing I put something short together before that!

Dominican Pilgrimage to Knock

Yesterday was the annual Dominican pilgrimage to the Knock Shrine, which is Irelands National Marian Shrine in country Mayo. The weather was very nice, against the odds, and thousands of pilgrims come to celebrate the day with the Dominicans coming from every corner of the country. Some pictures of the event can be seen below (kindly put up by Fr. Gerard Dunne OP):

The apparition chapel.

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Jesus looking upon him loved him

The Gospel this week comes from Mark 10:17-30. I think it is a lovely passage, even though it might challenge us a bit. The young man runs up to Jesus and kneels before Him... obviously he was very eager to do whatever would please Him. He was possibly moved by love for Jesus, stirred by a urge from within to draw closer to Him, wanted to be with Him for eternity as he asks "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Mar 10:17 RSV)

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Expressing myself...

After trying to write my reflection of the Gospel yesterday evening I again felt the disappointment of being unable to express what I really want to say. In preparation I often read the passage a few times in the say before and ponder the Word. Some idea about the Gospel passage then starts to form, and I get exited at the prospect...

However, then when I start writing I seems easy enough to start, to set the scene, and to try to put situate the Gospel and top prepare the way for the real point I want to convey. However, then when it actually comes to the point I want to make suddenly everything seems fail, and at the end I most of the times walk away being disappointed in the final result... another example was last week when I didn't really get to a point at all.

That was part of reflection yesterday evening when the all the students in the house came together to do a Holy Hour. What is it I want to share, and how to share it?

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Jesus taking a firm stand

This weeks Gospel is from Mark 10:2-16. On reading it, it seems a difficult gospel to comment on, and as I don't have time to write a reflection tomorrow I will leave it short.

As so often, the "Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" (Mar 10:2 RSV). Divorce is, or at least can be off-course, a very sensitive issue. It is very easy to take a hard-line on the matter but because marriage is something that is so the core of somebodies live, it can turn somebodies life completely upside down when difficulties arise. So I will continue with caution, I guess writing to the multitude and not at specific individual cases, as I do belief it is very important that the multitude understands the sacredness of marriage, and through deeper reflection might come to a deeper experience and depth of its truth.

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