MY HOME TOWN - Galway On A Sunny Summer Day

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YOUR GATE STANDS OPEN

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Glencairn Abbey Gates fascinate me. There is something in them like a calling. A thrill runs through my whole being in attentive moments when I'm alert and pass by a gate. It reminds me of the Song of Songs when the Beloved comes to the garden gate - "...my heart was thrilled within me." (Songs 5:4) It's as if every ordinary gate is a prophecy of THE Gate that I must pass through. This morning as I was walking towards the sea I felt the sensation, the thrill as I passed by a particular gate and I found myself asking God for THE Gate, to bring me to it. I don't know what THE Gate is or what it really means in concrete reality. I could guess but I don't know how or when it will reveal itself. Anyway when I got back in home I picked up the Magnificat for morning prayer and was surprised, astonished to read all of the following which I find very consoling: Today your gate stands open, And all who enter in Shall find a Father's...
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The Prayer Of Quiet Gazing

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St. Teresa of Avila has been one of the most significant guides of my spiritual life since I was 17 years old. I began reading her very early in my life as a Pallottine and there are two moments – a dream and a time in prayer - that have connected me to her. In the dream I walked into an old unfamiliar church where I met my father who was already dead at the time. He pointed me to a side altar at the top left-hand side. When I went there I saw St. Teresa’s tomb in front of the altar. It was like the Italian ones with the shape of the body carved in marble; she was sleeping covered with a blanket. Then she stirred and woke up, telling me to stand between her and the altar. “Stay here” she said “and I will take care of you.” The second happened during a charismatic retreat when I was resting in the Spirit, in a state of quiet. A rope ladder came down from heaven and standing beside it was St. Teresa who pointed to the ladder and said to me, “I have given you the means to ascen...
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EYES OF THE BLIND - Memories of Blessing

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God does not see as we see. We look at appearances but God looks at the heart, the interior. ( 1 Samuel 16:6-7 ). In the healing of the blind man God seeks to lead us to the opening of the eyes of our mind, heart and soul so that we learn to see as God sees, that we come to see the presence of God in every circumstance of life, to recognize the blessings that flow from the presence of God, “ that the works of God might be displayed ” (John 9). A central purpose of the miracles of Jesus is to lead us to faith, a deepening of faith which in turn leads us to worship God. That was the purpose of the Exodus from slavery in Egypt – that the people of Israel could be free to worship God. The man cured of his blindness arrived at a point faith, “ The man said, ‘Lord, I believe’, and worshipped him” (John 9:38). The miracles are also of course expressions of the compassionate love that God has for us all, especially anyone in distress. Blessings come to us in many ways – th...
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