A new Journey Begins

Following a weekend spent in Dublin, after arriving to begin my official retirement, I set out for my home and to sleep in my own bed for the first time as an officially retired priest. I awoke the following morning to the silence of falling snowflakes. This was the first time I had witnessed snow in decades. It seemed like an apt beginning to a retirement The pure white snowflakes reminded me of a new beginning, a new experience, a reminder of possible difficult travel conditions as I venture out into the cold. It is not only a season of adjustments weather-wise but also personally and psychologically.

Parting Homily thoughts

As I give my final homily at the parish, I reflect on 12 years of a journey with countless people through joys and sorrows, achievements and disasters. I am drawn to something that Fr. Henri Nouwen wrote that captures the complexity of life and moments like this. He wrote: Life is a short in expectation, a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment. There is a quality of sadness that pervades all the moments of our life. It sees that there is no such thing as a clear-cut pure joy, but that even in the most happy moments of our existence, we sense a tinge of sadness. In every satisfaction, there is an awareness of limitations. In every success, there is a fear of jealousy. Behind every smile, there is a tear. In every embrace, there is a loneliness. In every friendship, distance. And in all forms of light, there is a knowledge of surrounding darkness.. but this intimate experience in which every bit of life is touched by a bit of death, can point us beyond the limits of our existence. It can do so by making us look forward in expectation to the day when our hearts will be filled with perfect joy, a joy that no one shall take away from us.”