I Am Said I (Huruma)

In the beginning Gay was happy Before the word Became the name Of the most vulnerable On the earth Hidden Silent Reviled The repressed Oppressed voice Burned like a fire In the bones Until it could No longer be Contained Restrained It cried out EQUALITY And gained it ii And having come To this Will you not now Hear another Silenced voice? The one to whom EQUALITY Of life May be denied Will you not now Stand up and shout For them? Or is EQUALITY Just for those Who can shout The loudest And not for those Who cannot shout At all?

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I am A fish filleted Once Too often Gutted Boneless Meat Bound Tied up For roasting The consummation I have prayed for Too easily Romanticized Be careful What you pray for

Second Sunday of Advent On my way back from giving a retreat one winter's day, I stood in Maam Valley admiring the mountains, pondering the words of the Prophet Isaiah -  Let every valley be filled in,  every mountain and hill be laid low. (Isaiah 40) - and I thought, what a sad prophecy. It didn't make sense to me to think of such majesty being lowered, filled in; majesty that speaks so clearly of the Beauty and Majesty of God. Then I understood that the levelling and the filling in are about making it easier for God and His people to meet. The simplyfying of religion, making it less complicated.  It is done by  making a straight highway for our God  - preceding verse from Isaiah 40. Among recent developments that I love most in Ireland  are the motorways that make travel quicker, easier and less stressful - the M6 to Galway in particular. Some complain that it has made travel boring but not for me! I have found in it a symbol and a parale...

A bitter bracing day  Is what I need To snap me out Of apathy A perfect Winter’s day Bright sunshine and cold Beautiful colours of evening  Birds singing like Springtime  Going inside to solitude The cell of my heart With a thirst and a hunger To attend to There’s a tightening about me Hopeless of change But  a memory  Of old blessedness stirs To give hope to the waiting I trust it has a reason.

I had gone through a very difficult meeting and, feeling bruised and sorry, I sat in the back garden in Belgrano letting the sun warm me. Tommy, who was about three years old, stood watching from a distance and when he felt it was safe he approached and started chatting. I have no Spanish and he no English, so it was a childlike conversation that drew me out of myself. He opened his little book to show me a picture of the Annunciation and I wished its joy would happen for me then. But it did not and I was not up to it. Later in the evening I was praying the sorrowful mysteries when the Angelus bell rang and it struck me that I was experiencing a collision of sorrow with joy - that the joy of Annunciation was trying to break into my sorrow. And I chose to accept this strange mingling. It has happened many times since that, while praying the sorrowful mysteries, the Angelus bell rang. The Angel of the Lord is always declaring the Good News and we are asked to receive it. ...

A Guided Meditation by Eamonn Monson sac Click On The Image To Download And Listen

I came across a painting the other day by Fray Juan Bautista Maino called The Adoration of the Shepherds and a detail shows one of the shepherds (though it might be St. Joseph) lifting the right hand of the baby Jesus and kissing it. It strikes me that this is the purpose of our Advent and Christmas - to arrive at a point where Jesus is born for us again, born within us and we are called to come to Jesus and express our love for him in such a gesture. John the Baptist goes into the desert for clarity and focus. The desert is a place of simplicity where we have nothing but the essentials to deal with and focus on. With this focus on the essentials John is able to recognise Jesus when he appears. Yesterday I celebrated a Christmas Mass with a group of special needs adults from St. John Of God Carmona services, an experience whch brought me face to face with the essential meaning of life in all its simplicity. When I arrived in the hall I went to greet each person - 30 ...