The great cloud of Irish witnesses

Today we honour all the Irish saints including the many who are known to God alone in The Feast of All Saints of Ireland (Féile Naomh uile na hÉireann).  On my daily walks in the surrounding countryside I sometimes think of the people who lived and worked on this land down the centuries. From the early monks to the Cistercians who established Duiske Abbey in Graignamanagh in 1204 to those who toiled on the land and in the homestead and provided for others.  Many faced hardships, oppression and persecution that we can hardly imagine. For them, the Mass was central and some risked and gave their lives for it.

Ireland has a proud tradition of saints and monastic founders. Almost every parish has a local saint and an associated holy well or church ruin.  It is hard to believe that there is more than one local Irish saint for every day of the year.  Ranging from the early missionary period associated with Saint Patrick and those who came after him – notably Brigid and Colmcille amongst a host of others – to the martyrs and holy persons of later centuries we have a high density of sainthood per square kilometre!

Lamps lit and hearts awake

Sunday 8 November 2026

Lectio Divina:

Wisdom 6:12-16 Psalm 63 (62) 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Matthew 25:1-13

Meditatio:

‘Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.’ (Matthew 25:13)

Commentary:

Life itself is not complicated. More often than not, we are the ones who complicate it.

Among the many insights offered by the world's spiritual traditions are two simple but profound practices: mindfulness and faithful living. While these terms are often associated with Buddhism, they also lie close to the heart of the Jewish and Christian tradition. Scripture repeatedly calls us to attentiveness before God and loving action towards others.

The Book of Wisdom speaks of wisdom as something living and active, waiting to be discovered by those who seek it with an open heart. "She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her" (Wisdom 6:13). God is not distant or hidden. The challenge is not God's absence but our inattentiveness. We become distracted by the noise around us and lose touch with the presence already at work within us.

Seeing Cana through Eucharistic eyes

In common with many first-millennium Christian writers, St Peter Chrysologus (c. 380-450), Archbishop of Ravenna and Doctor of the Church, did not leave a systematic treatise on the Eucharist in the way later theologians would. Nevertheless, his sermons contain significant Eucharistic teaching. He belongs to the great patristic era often described as the ‘Golden Age of the Fathers’ (fourth and fifth centuries). Like his contemporary St Leo the Great, Chrysologus understood the Eucharist as a true sacramental participation in Christ's Body and Blood.

One of his most striking Eucharistic passages comes from a sermon reflecting on the Epiphany, the Baptism of the Lord, and the wedding feast at Cana:

More than a symbol

St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310-367), best known as a defender of the divinity of Christ against Arianism, also left an important witness to the Eucharist. He belongs to the generation of Nicene Fathers who defended the orthodox faith in the decades following the first Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.).  St Hilary’s most famous Eucharistic text appears in De Trinitate (On the Trinity), Book VIII. One of his strongest statements reads:

For if in truth the Word has been made flesh and we in very truth receive the Word made flesh as food from the Lord, are we not bound to believe that He abides in us naturally, Who, born as a man, has assumed the nature of our flesh now inseparable from Himself, and has conjoined the nature of His own flesh to the nature of the eternal Godhead in the sacrament by which His flesh is communicated to us?  (De Trinitate, VIII, 13).  

Praying for the faithful departed at Mass

 

Today, across the Roman Catholic Church, the memorial of ‘All Souls’ – or Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed - is commemorated.  

Early roots
Although some have suggested that Christians built on earlier, pagan, rites of prayer for the dead, the practice of prayers and special masses for the dead developed independently of those practices and should not be confused with them.

Although the theology and liturgical shape of the day have developed over the centuries, there is evidence of prayer for the dead and of offering the Eucharistic sacrifice for them, from the fourth century, if not earlier. Their inclusion within the Eucharistic liturgy itself probably dates to the fourth century. In a work attributed to St Cyril of Jerusalem (Mystagogical Catechesis 5.9), we read:

The saints and the Eucharist

Something that strikes me again and again is the witness of the Saints from the earliest times. Their lives were what might be termed ‘eucharistic’; they lived the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.  They managed, by grace, to turn their lives around and remain anchored in Christ.  In recent centuries, there are hundreds of officially canonised saints and unknown numbers of others who found their daily or weekly sustenance in the Eucharist.  Their approach and thinking was informed by scripture and tradition.  They accepted in trust what was given and received about the Eucharist.  For some, the Eucharist was a particularly emphasised practice or focus of devotion as we see with the many ‘Apostles of the Eucharist’ such as St Peter Julian Eymard, founder the Blessed Sacrament congregation.

Reverencing the body

The Executive Office of the President of the United States
 (Wikimedia Commons) 

I was at a funeral in my local parish church earlier in the week.  Funerals are very special moments in the life of any Irish community. This seems to transcend the rural/urban as well as social class divides.  People from all walks of life turn up – family, extended family, friends, neighbours, work colleagues and more besides.  ‘Paying our respects’ are deeply imbedded in Irish culture so much so that if is sometimes said ‘here in Ireland we do death well’. It is true.  The sense of solidarity, companionship and support at times of bereavement are strong. 

Eucharist: believing in order to understand

Living during the period immediately preceding the great scholastic works of Aquinas, Bonaventure and others, St Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033-1109), helped defend and deepen the Church's understanding of the Eucharist at a crucial moment in history. Yet, he lived after the controversy surrounding a certain Berengar of Tours (c. 999-1088) whose teachings raised serious questions about how Christ is present in the Eucharist and prompted the Church to articulate its doctrine with greater precision. 

For Anselm, faith receives what reason can never fully understand.  His distinctive contribution was not a detailed Eucharistic treatise but the theological method encapsulated in his famous phrase fides quaerens intellectum ‘faith seeking understanding’.  Though he did not in a specific reference to the Eucharist, his famous phrase from the Proslogium is worth repeating:

A disciple's charter

Sunday 1 November 2026

Lectio Divina:*

Revelation 7:2-4 Psalm 24 (23) 1 John 3:1-3 Matthew 5:1-12

(See also Luke 6:20-23)

Meditatio:

‘Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’ (Matthew 5:12)

Commentary:

Religion often gets a bad name. It is accused of spreading gloom, fear or a spirit of killjoy, and many today contrast religion with spirituality as if they were opposites—religion = bad, spirituality = good. The phrase ‘I’m not religious but I am spiritual’ is now commonplace, sometimes spoken with a hint of self‑protection, as if being ‘religious’ were old‑fashioned, reactionary or faintly embarrassing.

What would a scientist find?

The mechanics of the transformation that occurs at every Mass have been the subject of controversy since at least the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Although Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic Christians use different terms and theological language to explain the change that takes place, it seems clear to me from what I have read, seen and heard that they share the same essential conviction: the bread and wine taken, blessed and offered in the Eucharist become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. What was once ordinary food is no longer ordinary food. The belief that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist and that a real transformation takes place is consistent with what Christians believed, taught and practised from apostolic times onwards.

At the time of the Reformation, this ancient consensus was fractured, even though the original disputes arose largely in other areas of doctrine, particularly the nature of salvation, the role of Scripture and the authority of the Pope.

A sacrament of divine love

Two great saints of the thirteenth century, St Thomas Aquinas the Dominican and St Bonaventure the Franciscan theologian and bishop, provided different but complementary insights into the Eucharist. St Thomas Aquinas is especially known for his explanation of how Christ is truly present in the sacrament, while St Bonaventure is particularly remembered for helping believers to understand why Christ remains present among us: because, in his great love, he desires to unite himself ever more closely to those whom he loves.

The Eucharist is, above all, the sacrament of Christ's presence with us, transforming us and drawing us toward the heavenly communion for which we were created. St Bonaventure teaches that at the Last Supper Christ gave his Body and Blood as food and drink (Lignum Vitae 30), leaving the Church a lasting memorial of his saving love.

Is Mass boring?

St Thomas Aquinas taught that, in heaven, we will never exhaust the mystery and beauty of God [Summa Theologiae q12 a6]. That is a delightful thought. We may think of heaven, therefore, is not a static existence but an eternal participation in the inexhaustible richness of divine truth and love.

In the Eucharist we receive a foretaste of heaven as we join the heavenly assembly.  Could anything be more true, beautiful and better than the Mass on this side of eternity?

Not only is life always (for me, at least) interesting and exciting, if sometimes challenging and painful, but we can also look forward in Christian hope to an eternity of ever-deeper wonder, joy, and communion with God. As St Paul writes:

What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Standing with angels

 

St Gregory of Nazianzus(329-390), a close friend of St Basil the Great [see Yet another early witness to the Eucharist], is known in the East as Gregory the Theologian.  After studying with Basil in Athens, they returned to their native Cappadocia (now Eastern Turkey) to serve the Lord. It was during the time of the Arian heresy which refused the full divinity of Christ, Gregory was reluctantly consecrated bishop of Sasima, a small Cappadocian town. Following the death of his father, the bishop of Nazianzus, he briefly overseed that church. 

Later he became Archbishop of Constantinople, the most prestigious see in the East and second only to Rome in honour. He played a leading role at the First Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D. which completed the creed that we commonly call the Nicene Creed, often recited at the Sunday Eucharist by Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

What does the word Eucharist mean?

The Greek noun εὐχαριστία (eucharistia) comes from two words:

eu (εὖ), meaning 'well' or 'good';

charis (χάρις), meaning 'grace', 'favour', 'gratitude', or 'thanks'.

Together, they convey the meaning of grateful thanksgiving for God's gifts.

The psalmist declares (Ps 116):

A thanksgiving cup I will raise; I will call on the Lord's name.

To participate in Mass is to participate in a feast of joy. Behind the grey walls of distraction, doubt, and discouragement, there is the joy of the risen Christ, who comes to us under the appearances of bread and wine.

It is well to be here. We are truly blessed.

All

Sunday 25 October 2026 (Year A)

Lectio Divina:*

Exodus 22:20-26 Psalm 18 (17) 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10 Matthew 22:34-40

(See also Mark 12:13-17 and Luke 20:20-26)

Meditatio:

“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:40)

Commentary:

This Sunday the clocks go back an hour. It also happens to be ‘Bible Sunday’ in many of the churches stemming from the Reformation. Most of what we hear and pray in church is directly taken from the sacred scriptures consisting of at least 66 books written by more than 66 authors at different times and in different contexts over a period of many centuries.  Holding them together is the agreed Canon or index of books which, it was agreed by Christians in the early centuries, is divinely inspired and, therefore forms part of the Word of God.

The next time you read the Bible cover to cover you might like to use a yellow marker and mark over the word ‘all’ (assuming you are reading the Bible in English). You will run out of yellow marker. You will be surprised at how often this word ‘All’ crops up from start to finish:

Given for you

Mahatma Gandhi is quoted as saying:

The political and journalistic world can boast of very few heroes who compare with Father Damien of Molokai. The Catholic Church, on the contrary, counts by the thousands those who, after the example of Fr. Damien, have devoted themselves to the victims of leprosy. It is worthwhile to look for the sources of such heroism [T.N. Jagadisan's 1965 publication Mahatma Gandhi Answers the Challenge of Leprosy]

Who was Father Damien of Molokai?  He was a Belgian Catholic priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who was canonised in 2009.  He voluntarily ministered among people afflicted with leprosy in Hawaii for 16 years until his death in 1889.  He shared their lives, treated their wounds and eventually contracted the disease himself.  He frequently spoke of the Mass and the Eucharist as the source of strength that sustained his mission.

His story reminds me of a TV documentary made at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when, in Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin, the chaplain was filmed in the wards behind curtains talking to God and a person who was dying. 

Resting in God’s presence

I was listening the other day to an interview with Bishop Michael Pham of the Diocese of San Diego on Fr. James Martin SJ's excellent podcast, The Spiritual Life.  Bishop Pham was born in Vietnam and fled the country as a child after the communist takeover in 1975. His family endured a horrendous journey involving overcrowded boats, hunger, separation from family members and time spent in a refugee camp in Malaysia before eventually reaching the United States. Today, Bishop Pham is active in advocating for migrants and refugees. He has accompanied migrants through the legal system and spoken publicly about their God-given dignity.

He has accompanied migrants through the legal system and spoke out publicly about the dignity of migrants.

As is his custom at each interview, Fr Martin asked him how he approaches prayer. The bishop said that he specially values time spent in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament where he rests in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord. It reminded me of the words of Psalm 131:

Remembering those who went before us

St Canice's parish church (RC)
in Kilkenny city

Next month will mark remembrance of the dead especially around the feasts of All Saints and All Souls.  Yesterday evening I attended the annual memorial Mass in Kilkenny on a wet and cold winter’s night.  This is an annual event specially for families of the deceased in Saint Luke’s General Hospital. Staff of the hospital participate in the Mass.

I was struck by the beautiful choir, the care shown in the celebration, the prayers of intercession, the carefully chosen readings and the active participation by the congregation.  It is a privilege to have known those whom we love and who have gone before us. We can be sure that, in every Mass, we are united with the whole Communion of Saints, joining our prayers with those of the Church Triumphant in heaven while also, according to Catholic tradition and doctrine, praying for the souls of the Church Suffering.

The angelic doctor

 

Over the course of the last 10 months and as part of the Bread for the Journey blog series I have drawn on St Thomas Aquinas on many occasions [for example in The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist #1]. The feast of this great saint occurs on 28 January and deserves a short blog in its own right today. Much of our theological thinking has been shaped by his work especially in regards to the Eucharist.

The saint was a 13^th Century Italian Dominican friar, priest, theologian and philosopher.  He is associated with a school of thought often referred to as ‘Thomism’.  A proponent of natural theology, he argued that the existence of God could be known through rational reflection on the created world, drawing on both human reason and insights from Aristotelian philosophy. He also emphasised that faith and reason ultimately complement one another since both have their source in God.

Who will celebrate?: celibacy and the Eucharist

It is well known that the age profile of serving Catholic priests is such that a dwindling and often exhausted clergy are serving multiple churches in administrative areas that might have been served by half a dozen priests 50 years ago.  The arrival of missionary priests from other parts of the globe is helping but nowhere at the scale and pace required to replace priests. Those who have retired have not, in many cases, really retired as they are on call on a regular basis. Things we took for granted in the past such as school chaplains, hospital chaplains and availability of weekday masses are becoming increasingly scarce on the ground.

The question of clerical celibacy has been raised as a possible barrier to recovering priestly vocations. Along the question of women’s ordination which I have explored in earlier blogs this year (Women’s ordination – weighing up the arguments ), these ‘hot button’ issues have been the subject of debate in Ireland and elsewhere. The Synodal process has generated much discussion and many questions, but as yet it remains unclear what practical changes, if any, may emerge regarding these matters.