Being in Cobh is an experience. One minute, the sky looks like a jewel box full of Oriental golds, oranges, and blues. The next minute, fog rolls in off the Atlantic and one is wrapoed in a grey blanket. Wait a bit, and the wind begins to howl, and a storm equal to the worst on the plains of Missouri rips through the quiet town. Last night, we had wind, rain and hail. One recalls King Lear and his identity with the chaos of his kingdom and that of the elements. Then, the sky clears and Venus, the harbinger of love graces the eastern sky. And, Cobh is just Cobh again...

Notes from the monastery

And I John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. DR

from Revelation 21:2

"Do you not see, that I can keep you here or send you out? Your way is martyrdom for My Bride, the Church" 19-10-12

More Melozzo da Forlì Angels

I saw these years ago in Rome........

Angels we have heard on high...

These are all frescos...........

The original church was destroyed in the 18th century....

Your Guardian Angel

We underestimate and under-use our Guardian Angels.

Here is St. Bernard on my angel and his angel, and your angels: "For he is a domestic, a familiar in the palace, having no fear of meeting with a repulse, and daily seeing the 'Face of the Father'".

Goodness. My angel goes back and forth into the House of God, into the Beatific Vision. If I ask this servant, who knows and loves His Master, and to whom His Master listens, how can I doubt that my prayers will be answered?

A servant of love goes to Love and asks for love. Ask your angel for a Christmas present of love.

December 19th, O Antiphon

 December 19th

O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum,

super quem continebunt reges os suum,

quem Gentes deprecabuntur:

veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.

O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;

before you kings will shut their mouths,

to you the nations will make their prayer:

Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.