In The Palm Of His Hand

Cushendun

Layd Cushendall

On His Own Hand Engraved

All you who stand on harboured land
Or who labour on the waves
Are palmed in the Holy Master's hand
From cradle to the grave.

And even when that moment comes
When breath is spent and done
He moves to draw you to Himself
The race complete and run.

A pearl of price inestimable
A crown of gilded tones
That bears the blood of martyrs
Within its rubied stones

Awaits the servants of the Lord
Who work and toil in pain
But great will be their victory
Endless joy their gain.

The mystery of life and love
Holds key to a kingdom bright
Its channels ever opening to
God's eternal light.

All you who stand on harboured land
Or who labour on the waves
Take heed of Him who has your name
On his own hand engraved.

I have carved you on the palm of my hand. Isaiah 49:16

Poem Of Praise

Cushendun

St Mary's Cushendall

Mass Rock Inis Pollain Cushendun

Two traditions: Cushendall

Glendun

Layd Churchyard Cushendall

Cushendall Bay

Inis Pollain

Poem of Praise

To praise is to fly towards Him who made us
To liberate our spirit wings
And all that binds our minds
And nails us down
As creatures forlorn

To praise is to raise our thoughts
To new terrain
From where we see beyond what blinds
To the beauty of the grain
Hidden under bark in darkness
Waiting for the craftsman's plane.

To praise is to fly towards Him who made us
To repose in the life within
To amplify and glorify
To raise the voice and sing.

Clonard Solemn Novena - Pictures

http://www.clonard.com/

From 7am to 11pm, ten sessions each day

Colourful

Beautiful

Banners and bunting

Evening sun

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart of Mary

Sacred Heart Parish Belfast

Our Lady of Vladimir
( courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Christ The Merciful
Wikimedia Byzantine Icons

Sacred Heart Poem

None such as us
Is outside his love
None falls so far
Into the abyss
To be beyond his reach

With heart open
And mercy all-encompassing
He inclines towards us in readiness
Responding to the faintest
Hint of light
The least crack
In the cold stone wall of denial

And then
With power indisputable
He transforms
Bit by bit
Rendering grace upon grace

Changing the wastelands of men's souls
Into manageable, arable pastures
Fit for paradise.

His Sacred Heart

It was neither a petal-strewn path
Nor a mountain track that brought me here.
It was neither a blinding blizzard nor blistering sun,
It was neither the dawn chorus nor the curlew’s call,
It was neither the rocky shore nor the open fields,
It was neither the ancient woodlands
Nor the city throngs,
It was neither the boisterous sea
Nor the soughing wind.
No, dear Lord, it was none of these.
For it was love in its wholeness that brought me here
And love and love alone that keeps me here
Where there is shelter and peacefulness,
Light through the night hours
And food for the soul.

Pope Benedict has declared a “Year for Priests” beginning on June 19^th the Feast of the Sacred Heart. With the announcement of this Year for Priests, the Pope has declared St. John Vianney the Universal Patron of Priests on the occasion of the 150^th anniversary of the death of the Cure d’Ars.

The story of Mary is a sorrowful mystery and a joyful mystery that ends in glory. No human being will ever be called to do what Mary did – yet her uniqueness does not alienate but rather it draws us to her heart and the heart of her Son as we follow the worldly path she once walked, carrying Christ's light with us and in us wherever we go.

The beauty of Mary is that of pure goodness. In iconic writings her arms hold the baby Jesus in such a tender embrace that we are at once convinced of her motherliness as she looks attentively towards us with tender eyes of love and mercy. The enormity of the truth that we are her children can be difficult to take in at first - and Mary's greatest desire as our Mother is to pour upon us the graces given her by God.

She is that flower most fair, that sweetness and tenderness whose life and virtues we strive to imitate, the immaculate heart whose purity knows no blemish or stain. Through the pain and darkness of Calvary Mary stood steadfast as a rock alongside her suffering Son and accepted from him in his dying breath the gift of all of us – adopting us as her own, as sisters and brothers in Him. And we, too, turn to Mary as heaven's gift and advocate, our proven hope in adversity, the bright star of the heavens and motherly source of solace and joy.

When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple there whom He loved, he said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son." Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother". And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
(John 19:36-37)

Clonard Solemn Novena Our Lady Of Perpetual Help

http://www.clonard.com/

I was sick and you visited me

Clonard Monastery in west Belfast is home to the Redemptorists and is famous for its annual Solemn Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. This year the starting date is 17th June 2009 and lasting nine days, the annual novena draws large crowds to each of ten daily sessions with the first starting at 7a.m.

An American Redemptorist , Fr. Matthew Meighan, first brought the Novena to Belfast in the middle of the Second World War, while chaplain to the American forces.

A web cam facility means that most services are available for viewing on line which has proved to be a God-send to the sick and house-bound. Petitions can also be posted on the website where recordings of homilies will be available throughout the nine days.

Novena prayer

Mother of Perpetual Help,
with the greatest confidence
we come before your holy picture
to be inspired by the example of your life.

We think of you at that moment when,
full of faith and trust,
you accepted God's call
to be the mother of his Son.
Help us, your children,
to accept with joy our own calling in life.

When you learned that your cousin Elizabeth was in need
you immediately went to serve her
and offer your help.
Help us, like you,
to be concerned for others.

We think of you, Mother,
at the foot of the cross.
Your heart must have bled
to see your Son in agony.

But your joy was great
when he rose from the dead,
victorious over the powers of evil.

Mother of Sorrows,
help us through the trials and
disappointments of life.
Help us not to lose heart.

May we share with you and your Son
the joy of having courageously faced up
to all the challenges of life.
Amen.

Faith Of Our Fathers

I always find at this time of year my mind drifts back to my teenage years and the memory I have of our home and the two pictures that hung on the living-room wall.

One was of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the other was of the Sacred Heart with a space underneath the picture for all the family names, and a little red light that glowed day and night. We also had a wall plaque on which was inscribed in bold lettering: The family that prays together stays together. This was eventually removed by my parents since it was the focal point for many visitors and was, it had to be said, misleading.

The family that once prayed together no longer did so - our evening assembly on our knees on the linoleum floor for the praying of the rosary became a thing of the past. But my parents' love for us was unconditional and while we stayed together in many senses of the word they realised a stage had come when we no longer willingly or sincerely prayed together.

The other pictures remain to this day as a testament to the faith of two who were steadfast enough to accept change, secure in the knowledge that their trust in the Sacred Heart and devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help would be enough to see them through many challenging and difficult times.

Corpus Christi

O Hidden God, devoutly I adore Thee

Photos courtesy of Google images

Corpus Christi Prayer

Corpus Christi, nourish me
For your body is food indeed
Bread of life.

Corpus Christi, flood my soul
Cleanse me of all sin,
In streams of mercy and love
Engulf me.

Corpus Christi,
Direct my steps
For Your way leads to truth -
There is no other.

Corpus Christi, live in me,
Animate me
That I might live always in You.

Corpus Christi Poem

No longer bread, no longer wine,
His body and His blood
Through sacrifice are mine.
Without such nourishment
My soul would be
A wasting headland
Above a raging sea,
A rootless acreage
With neither leaf nor tree.

http://www.cinews.ie/article.php?artid=6111

Sacred Heart Novena starts 11th June

http://sacredspace.ie/

Remembering In Prayer

I am always reminded of a dear departed friend wherever I see laburnum grow. I've often heard people talk of flowers and scents that trigger memories that lie dormant in our minds, never quite put away for good, ever ready to be resurrected at a moment's notice.

Who knows what flower or scent we will be remembered by. It may be comforting to think we will be remembered at all - and remembered fondly, just as we remember others now, but what's more important is that we remember them in prayer.

Maybe that is the purpose of these triggers – maybe it is a way of ensuring that souls no longer with us will never be forgotten.

Each season brings forth its own fruits, its own blossoms and scents, and so there is in every year a long cycle of reminders, little calling cards of nature, placed here and there, in hedges and on kitchen worktops, on altars and on seashores, in woodlands and on woolens, each having the potential to transport us back in time, to revive a memory from a storeroom of treasure that to an outsider appears worthless but to us who have been blessed through knowing, weaves invisible threads linking the past and the present, earth and heaven.

Church In Need

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me

What a time for Pentecost in Ireland! How we need the Spirit's guidance and love.

The power of the Spirit is manifest in truth and wisdom as well as in love. A divided church is a weaker church, and divided it most certainly is. If it wasn't for the power of the Spirit I think I would despair of the hope of ever achieving Christian unity when I witness so much disunity within the Catholic church itself.

There are no whiter than whites in all of this, as the truth will continue to reveal. The fact is we are all sinners and it is to God we must look, the sinless One, for only He has the power to raise up a fallen world.

I thank God for the Ryan report, for it is indeed a book of truth – a harrowing account that needs to be told, and I pray that all those former residents will obtain justice to alleviate what can only ever be a life marked by pain.

And I pray too that the victims of this awful abuse will come to know God in a most serene way and not confuse His infinite love with the cruelty they received at the hands of those who were His servants in the Church.

As we now are about to enter the month of June, traditionally devoted to the Sacred Heart, I ask you to join with me in praying for the Irish people and the Irish church, for all those in need of prayer and renewal, for all in need of support and love, and for all who cry out for justice and peace.

Pentecost Poems and Prayer

Taize Prayer For Pentecost

http://www.holy-familyparish.com/

Stpetersbasilicaholyspiritwindow.jpg

2nd Sunday

Beautiful God, in
Your wound-bearing self
You are revealed to
Their locked-in selves
As you come among the apostles and
Pray peace on them.

Their eyes and hearts are opened
He who died
Is risen and
Is as he was
God among men-
But with aspect changed
All-Heavenly now,
Tabor–light infused,
Yet he has come to them
Who are at once
Invigorated, empowered, renewed

And when He
Breathes on them
Love's outpouring of
Sweetness,
Light upon light,
They and the Spirit are one.

It was the evening of the first day of the week,and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked because they were afraid of the Jews Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, “Peace be with you.” After saying this, he showed them his hands and his side, and when they saw the Lord the disciples were overjoyed. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. Just as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive people's sins, they are forgiven. If you retain people's sins, they are retained.”

John 20 19-22

Breath Of God

Holy Spirit
Breath of God,
Breathe on me
Live in m
Pray in me

Guide my steps
Fill my heart
And mind and soul
With your wisdom and love
So that at sunrise and sunset
At midday and in the stillness
Of the night
I may praise
And sanctify and glorify
My life in you,
My work in you
My rest in you.

As a flower head turns
Towards the new day's light
May I raise my thoughts towards You
And in precious moments of silent devotion
May I listen and be open
To your grace, your prompting

Ready to forgive when forgiveness
Is called for,
Ready to love for love is the way
Striving
To do the best I can
Each hour
Each day.

If Rivers Rebelled Against Us

If rivers rebelled against us
And forests uprooted their trees
Even if mountains tumbled
And rumbled down into the seas

God would never give up on us
For he loves us more than these.

If every flower stopped blooming
And all blue skies turned grey
Even if beautiful sunsets
Were stolen clean away

God would never give up on us
For he loves us night and day

If darkness covered the land
And enemies camped at our door
And doubts and worries assailed us
And rattled us right to the core

God would never give up on us
For he loves us more and more

And the proof of His love
Is the Advocate, gifted to us from above
The power of the Spirit to heal us
And gather us into God's love.

Prayer To The Holy Spirit

Prayer To The Holy Spirit

O sweet consoler
Live in me
Help me create for you
The finest dwelling place
Let me furnish it as pleases you
And light it with the truth
That comes from heaven

May you find in my soul
A worthy abode
And may I through you be blessed
With companionship
And guidance
So that I may journey safely
Through this life and into the next
To reach that place prepared for me
In the mansions of eternity.