I Am Said I (Huruma)

AWAKING THE DAWN - Clare Island Lighthouse "Awake my soul, awake lyre and harp! I will awake the dawn!"  (Psalm 58) March 12, 2015 This is pilgrim weather! As it was at the beginning of the Camino, so it is now - lashing rain as I drive past Croagh Patrick which is veiled like Moses, keeping the radiance of yesterday hidden. Glory be to God! Moses and St. Patrick are my unseen companions on the journey. Moses spent a long time on the mountain speaking with God face to face as one speaks with a friend and he didn’t know at first that his face was radiant from the encounter. So intense was the brightness that the people asked him to cover his face with a veil. Only in the presence of God was he able to take off the veil and that is surely how it is - that only in God’s presence can we be fully unveiled. Patrick’s prayer is mine too - I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity, the power of God to hold and lead. Christ behind and before me, within...

A few years ago I celebrated Mass in a school classroom – the group who made their First Holy Communion last year. A lovely experience. After Communion a few of the children knelt down to pray and I noticed the others watching them so I asked, “do you know why these knelt down?” And plenty of answers were given, many of the children having a clear sense of when it is necessary to kneel in prayer – like you kneel down if you are praying for someone who is very sick. One lad put up his hand and said “you would kneel in front of a king!” and with this answer he showed an understanding of who Jesus is and the honour that He deserves, an honour that is His as the Son of God, an interior movement of the Holy Spirit in prayer. I then invited the children to kneel. We all knelt together and, with hands joined and eyes closed, we spent a brief silence listening to Jesus speak His love for us. And we spoke our love for Him! It’s quite a common gesture in the Bible; peopl...