Ethos - Clongowes Wood College - Page 4

Be Glad to be Sad!

13th May 2020

Last Friday, the well-leaked news that this year’s Leaving Cert. was to be cancelled made it a unique day in the annals of the DES – and in the life of Rhetoric’20. Amid all the media frenzy and the rumours – a final (?!) and definitive (?!) Plan C brought to an end the agony…read article

They’re Closing the Churches!

5th May 2020

It is just over 50 days since the anti-covid-19 strategy brought about the closure of places of gathering. After the initial shock, people began to improvise – and everywhere there was surprise at how well this was succeeding. There was joy at values, for so long forgotten [or taken for granted] – were now coming…read article

Lockdown – Cabin Fever – and a Lost Child

29th April 2020

One hears a lot these days about people, unable to put up with the current anti-covid lockdown – wanting to leave their “prison-space” and head away beyond the imposed 2 kms from home. There is a well-known story of two men fleeing their fear-imposed lockdown. It is told in last Sunday’s Gospel in  St Luke’s…read article

Living in Lockdown

21st April 2020

They all lived together and shared everything in common ……. [Acts 2:44] The first reading of last Sunday’s Mass describes the first Christians – after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost – living together and  sharing everything in common – and recognized as associates of Christ [Acts 4:13] Future generations reading that line…read article

Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia!

14th April 2020

My Little Friend Anne Marie’s Alleluia! I first met little Anne Marie on this very Easter Monday – 8th April 1985. I was on my first of nearly 20 visits to Lourdes with the Irish Children’s Pilgrimage. She was about 10 or 11 – and, like others with Down’s Syndrome, she was affectionate, tactile, generous…read article

When Will Our Freedom Return?

7th April 2020

The other day I saw in a newspaper a photograph of a very busy Grafton Street – it looked a scene from the shop-till-you-drop Christmas shopping madness.  There was a caption underneath with the following three questions: When can we expect normality to return ? When our freedom returns, will it be by degrees –…read article

Do You Have a Favourite Tree?

1st April 2020

A strange question, perhaps – but I hope it may make you think back for a moment and see that special tree in your mind’s eye. I am lucky that – even in these times of lockdown – I don’t have to go very far to actually see mine! I pass it several times a…read article

Two Hearts Beating as One

27th March 2020

Some years ago I spent a few weeks helping out in a parish in the middle of Paris. One morning I switched on to Radio Notre-Dame the station run by the Archdiocese.  The speaker asked a question: “Why do we all love to go to a night club?” He had my attention right away. He…read article

Message from Fr Sheil SJ

24th March 2020

Rest – read – work/walk – show love – be at peace – pray!   I came across those ten words the other day – in a church notice in Normandy – in a parish on the WWII Landing Beaches. Lion s/mer was liberated by the Royal Ulster Rifles in June 1944 – which gives…read article

The First Day of Lent

2nd March 2020

Dust you are and unto dust, you shall return. Ecclesiastes 3:20   Last Wednesday, the school community joined together for the annual Ash Wednesday service in the Boys’ Chapel. This marked the first day of Lent, the six weeks of fasting and prayer preceding Easter. The service was led by Fr. Michael Sheil SJ who…read article

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