The past few days have seen some beautiful sunsets and I took this photo near Mushera Mountain, from the Ballinagree side of the mountain, (Co.Cork)
Today June 9th is the feast day of St. Columcille (More below in Thought)
Thought For The Day
Today (June 9th) we celebrate the feast day of St Columcille sometimes known as St. Columba. He is one of our three most famous Saints, along with St Patrick and Brigid. They get lots of recognition but St. Columcille is often not spoken much about and yet he deserves lots of recognition for the work he did.
Columcille was born in Gartan in Co.Donegal in the year 521. He founded monasteries in Derry, Durrow and Kells. He is the patron saint of Derry. At the age of 44 he left Ireland with 12 companions and founded a monastery in the island of Iona, just off the south west of Scotland. It was here in Iona that the monks wrote everything down and the beautiful Book of Kells was the work of these monks.
Colmcille means “the dove of the Church” and like a dove, Colmcille and the monks went out with a message of peace, with a message of love and with a message of hope. It is well known that he was the first to bring Christianity to Scotland and beyond.
The Columban missionaries were famous for their enthusiasm and energy and they were known to use difficulties and setbacks as stepping stones to new beginnings.
The message of Colmcille is still relevant for our Irish Church, that seems to be very low in morale at the moment and almost on the rocks. Colmcille if he was around today would have been a voice of hope. He would waited for the highest of tides to refloat again and move on. He would have been the first to say stop doing things that don’t work and do things that make sense to people and do it with courage, hope and conviction.
It is no surprise that the Gospel of Jesus calming the storm is used on the feast of St Columcille. We turn to Jesus too today to calm whatever storm we may be going through to calm the storm of someone you know who is going through a difficult time. When we put our trust and faith in Jesus, the storm will calm. We also pray to St Columcille today to send us his blesssings on this special feast day.
