Passionist Spirituality Institute

I haven’t written anything here in the past two weeks as my spare time has been taken up with preparations for our Passionist Institute which begins this evening at the Emmaus Retreat Centre, near Swords, Dublin. We have just over forty participants, laypeople and Passionists, from various parts of our Province. I will be giving [...]

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The Summer of 1958

In its online catalogue, the National Library of Scotland gives a short excerpt from a video of the first Lourdes Day Rally of the Diocese of Galloway held at Fatima House, Coodham in 1958. Coodham was a Passionist Retreat House from about 1946 until 1988. After the Passionists sold the property, it was allowed [...]

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Mother of Holy Hope

Today in the Passionist Calendar we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady, Mother of Holy Hope. The origin of the devotion among the Passionists is an image of Mary holding the child Jesus who has a cross in his hand, recalling the teaching of Saint Paul of the Cross that ‘the whole life of Jesus [...]

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A Very Ecclesiastical Turn of Mind

Going through some papers today, I came across a note I had taken a few months ago when I spent a day reading at the archives of the Scots College in Rome. In a letter presenting a new student to the Rector of the College in 1877, a diocesan official wrote: He has unquestionably [...]

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Saint Thérèse: Compare and Contrast

An exercise we were often given in school was to compare and contrast two pieces of writing. Why not try this yourself with these two accounts of the forthcoming visit of the relics of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux to Her Majesty’s Prison, Wormwood Scrubs. For inmates at London’s Wormwood Scrubs prison praying for redemption, help [...]

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Saint Maria Goretti

The Canonisation of Saint Maria Goretti was the first canonisation to be held in Saint Peter’s Square, attended by more than half a million people. The photograph shows Pope Pius XII celebrating Maria’s canonisation. Assunta Goretti, who watched the ceremony from above the Piazza, was the first mother to be present at her daughter’s canonisation. [...]

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New Passionist Deacon

Fr John Auram (left) with other young Passionists at the Young Passionists Meeting before the World Youth Day in 2008
Congratulations to Father John Auram C.P. who was ordained to the Diaconate today at Saint Paul the Apostle Parish, Endeavour Hills, Melbourne. Father John, who is from Papua New Guinea, is a member of the Province [...]

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