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Thursday |
Sep-30 |
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There's a story told about Mahatma Gandhi who had a visit from a woman who was at her wits end because of the bad behaviour of her young son. The final straw came when he started to smoke before his tenth birthday. "Please, Gandhi, tell him to stop his bad behaviour, be respectful to his mother and give up smoking." "Tell him to come back in two weeks and we'll see," said Gandhi. Disappointed the mother left with her son. Two weeks later they returned and Gandhi put his hand on the boy's head and gently said: "I want you to stop your bad behaviour, to be a good son to your mother and to stop smoking." "I will", said the boy, his eyes lighting up at being spoken to by his hero. The woman was delighted but couldn't resist taking Gandhi aside to ask, "Why did you not do that on our visit two weeks ago. Why did we have to wait?" "Because, two weeks ago, I myself was a smoker." Are we over generous with advice and suggestions but do not practice what we preach?
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Wednesday |
Sep-29 |
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The following reflection was read during a Mass to mark the new school year in Ballincollig Community School yesterday
If there was ever a time to dare, to make a difference, to embark on something worth doing, it is now. Not for any grand cause but for something that tugs at your heart, something that is worth your aspiration, something that is your dream. You owe it to yourself, to make your days count. Have fun. Dig deep. Stretch. Dream big. Know though, that things worth doing seldom come easy. There will be times when you want to turn around, pack it up and call quits. Those times tell you that you are pushing yourself and that you are not afraid to learn by trying. Persist. With an idea, determination and the right tools, you can do great things. Let your instincts, your intellect and your heart guide you. Trust. Believe in the incredible power of the human mind of doing something that makes a difference. Next year, the start of something new brings the hope of something great. Anything is possible because there is only one you. You will pass this way but once so do it right. |
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Sunday |
Sep-26 |
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The following reflection is by Fr.Tom Cahill
The Beano comic book for children used to sell in its early days for 2D. That's two pennies in old currency. Recently an edition of the first annual, from 1939, sold for $4,264. It was one of only 11 copies believed to be in existence. Just goes to show that what seems of little value today may be quite valuable tomorrow. It's good to prize things now, rather than regret later, perhaps.
That's certainly true of the rich man in today's Gospel (Luke 16:19-31). He didn't put much value on Lazarus at his doorstep begging each day. Later, when he sees how important Lazarus is, he comes to realise the error of his ways. But it's too late. This is not an easy parable to accept. It touches on things dark and deep: the condition of serious sinners after death. While he may not have harmed Lazarus during his lifetime, the rich man's heartless indifference to his plight was evil enough to land him in what we would call hell.
This is an unsettling parable. It's uncompromising in what it says. It poses too many problems to go into here, but it should stop me in my tracks. It's intended to. It forces me to ask questions I may not want to ask, questions that have little interest, immediacy, or value for me today, perhaps. But what about tomorrow? Certainly, one of those questions must be: do I take seriously the consequences of what I do, and don't do?
Is the thought of eternal damnation in any way for me like The Beano? Comical.  |
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Sunday |
Sep-19 |
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The following reflection is by Tom Cahill
Somebody described a diamond as a lump of coal that did well under pressure. Not so for dandelion seeds. Under pressure, recently, they caused problems. A train travelling from Halifax, West Yorkshire to King's Cross, London, had its engines clogged by drifting dandelion seeds. These spindly, puffy parachutes blocked the air filters in four of its five engines. The mighty machine could only inch ignominiously into King's Cross
station.
Even more troublesome were the grains of fine ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallaji volcano. Consisting of pulverised rock and glass, such ash can wreak havoc on planes. Sandblasting windscreens, they effectively 'blind' pilots. They pit fuselages, damage landing lights, and clog sensors making air speed indicators unreliable. Being charged particles, they disrupt radio communication and even cause power failure. None of these pitted pellets of rock and glass is more than 2 millimetres in diameter. As the song says: little things mean a lot.
Had the manager in today's Gospel (Luke 16:1-13) known that, he might have been more careful with his employer's property. Caught in the mire of cheating, he sinks deeper into scheming and theft. Anyone crooked enough to go along with his dishonest ruse could hardly be relied upon to come to his help at a later date. Why should they? Honour among thieves? I doubt it. When life's worries weigh us down, let's remember the lump of coal. Pressure transformed it. It can transform us too. We're already halfway there when we remember, if not the diamond then, the pearl of great price we carry within us: God's Holy Spirit.
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Thursday |
Sep-16 |
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'Team means Together Everyone Achieves More!' ~Author Unknown
There's a story told of a horse pull event at a county fair. In one event one horse pulled 3,500kgs and another 4,000 kgs. Together they would be expected to pull 7,500 kgs. However, when they were paired together, the two horses were able to pull a total weight of 15,000kgs. It is called the principle of synergy. More can be done through team effort than can be accomplished by each individual member. In order for the principle of synergy to work, there has to be teamwork. We depend so much on teamwork and without it we fail to make progress. The Junior Cert results came out yesterday. The results were impressive and positive. As the results were shared and given out there was a great sense of team and that they had achieved something significant and important. In every community be it school, parish, leisure place or work a sense of team is vitally important. Even when it comes to faith matters it's an impossible journey on our own but sharing our faith journey with others makes life meaningful, purposeful and gives it a definite sense of direction. |
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Sunday |
Sep-12 |
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The reflection today is by Tom Cahill
You've heard of black tea, green tea, herbal tea, and high tea. Well now there's philosophical tea. A new fad is sweeping La France. There, children as young as eight are acquiring a taste for philosophical tea. Difficult though it may be to swallow at this remove, nevertheless, many parents in France want their children to cut their metaphysical "munchers" on heavy issues over light refreshments. Children, they believe, should be encouraged to debate life's mysteries from the time they discover the words 'what' and 'why' to give them an early handle on a complex world. The tea parties are held in cafés, public libraries and homes. Cakes and fruit juices feature prominently to sweeten debates drizzled with Descartes, sprinkled with Socrates, or piquant with Plato. No more than ten kiddies form a party. They vote on the topic of choice for the day and plunge into profundity with a vengeance.
Our brat in today's Gospel reading (Luke 15:1-32) aka the prodigal son also plunges into profundity but not by choice. He isn't interested in insight, or in grappling with life's mysteries. All he wants are life's pleasures. He gets them, such as they are, and surprise! surprise! ends up more miserable than he was before he had them.
Had he developed a taste for philosophical tea he might have fared better. Had he used his head to wise up he would have fared better. We are blessed with the most complex organ in the universe. It's called a brain. Surprising how long it takes for some to find it.  |
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Sunday |
Sep-05 |
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The following reflection by Tom Cahill
You hear them in the street, on buses and on trains: mobile phone conversations. They can be annoying; for two reasons at least. First, some users of phones seem to think it necessary to shout into them presumably because of the distance between themselves and those at the other end. Second, you get only a 'halfalogue' one side of the conversation.
Scientists at Cornell University, New York, claim that hearing only one half of a conversation is more draining on one's attention than hearing all of it. They experimented with students who were given concentration exercises while hearing one or two speakers on mobile phones. Their conclusion: people are less able to divert their attention from a half-heard conversation than from a fully heard one.
Half of anything rarely satisfies. It can even be irksome. It's the whole hog or nothing. The same can be said for half-hearted effort. Take today's Gospel reading for example (Luke 14:25-33). It ends on a note that could be sombre, or joyful, depending on the generosity of one's response to it: "None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions." What a prospect! You can't follow Jesus half-heartedly. It's total commitment, or no commitment. To put flesh on that, it means there can be no Jesus-free zones in my life; that nothing in life is more important than the values he holds out to me. Therefore, I don't sacrifice these, ever, for anything else. I wonder how many of us get that part of the conversation.  |
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