Father Charles of Mount Argus

I’m in Dublin, preaching at the Novena of Hope in Mount Argus. Saint Paul’s Retreat, Mount Argus is our provincial house. Each year, in May, there is a public novena here in honour of Our Lady, Mother of Holy Hope. The novena is always linked also with the devotion to Blessed Charles (Houben) of Saint [...]

Read Full Post »

Saint Gemma

I haven’t had much time for blogging recently, but I can’t let the Feast of Saint Gemma Galgani go past without some acknowledgement. Gemma died in 1903 without having fulfilled her desire to become a Passionist Contemplative Nun, but she was taken into the cloister after her death when the Nuns founded a monastery in [...]

Read Full Post »

Vocations - Why not?

I was at a meeting of religious a couple of months ago at which the question of vocations in (northern) Europe was being discussed. One participant, a sixty-year old religious priest, asked the question: “Can anyone tell me: is there anywhere that religious life is actually working?” This is a question which someone living in [...]

Read Full Post »

WYD2008 and the Passionists

On Palm Sunday, Pope Benedict handed over the World Youth Day Cross to a delegation of young people so that it could begin its pilgrim journey towards WYD2008 in Sydney, Australia. In his homily, the Holy Father explained the significance of this gesture which launched the period of preparation for the next World Youth Day; [...]

Read Full Post »

Monastery of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, Tarquinia

Today is the anniversary of the foundation of the Monastery of the Presentation in Tarquinia, Italy (-in the eighteenth century, the town was called Corneto). This was the first monastery of the Passionist Contemplative Nuns, founded by Saint Paul of the Cross. The first “Madre presidente” (-Paul never liked the word “superior” for his religious, [...]

Read Full Post »