General

The worst thing that can befall anyone is that they be judged by God to be cursed on account of their unrepented mortal sins and be condemned for eternity to the pits of Hell. Our bishops rarely, if ever, mention Hell. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that: 1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend … Read More

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW Processing the Baby Jesus to the crib on Christmas Morning – Our family Christmas procession, 16 years apart. The Reason for the SeasonJust over a year ago, I was browsing through some old family videos from when our children were small. I remember writing about one in particular. You see, back in 2005, when our youngest child was just three years old, we decided to give Santa Clause the boot from our house. Over the years, … Read More

The Manchester Bombing On Monday 22nd May 2017 at approximately 10.30 in the evening, just after a concert in the Manchester Arena by the American singer Ariana Grande, a suicide bomber detonated a home made explosive device killing himself and twenty two other people and injuring over one hundred others. The ISIS organisation claimed responsibility for the attack. I ask your prayers for all involved in this horrible tragedy. It is somewhat easy to be dispassionate about this event because … Read More

No Mass in the Diocese As I write this article, we are just leaving a week whereby two of our national newspapers reported that an Irish diocese would not be celebrating Holy Mass on Tuesday 25th April 2017 because the bishop was holding a meeting with the priests of his diocese and because he also wanted to prepare the laity for a future wherein Holy Mass may not be available every day by holding lay led liturgies. The lay led … Read More

Pray for VocationsThe brother of the young eighteen year old American lady, whom I wrote about recently, arrived for a visit with our family on New Year’s day to join his sister. His name is Joe and he is in his early twenties. Joe feels a certain call to serve God as a priest but he not certain about this just yet. Please pray to help him to discern if indeed he is called to serve God as a priest. … Read More

The Season of AdventAs we enter the season of Advent, where we look forward not only to the coming of Christ’s birthday, but also to His second coming, we are reminded that this is a time of preparation. Primarily, preparation of our souls so that we are ready to meet Christ if he should choose to come at this time and so that we are in a state of perpetual readiness for our own death. I tell my children that … Read More

The Killing of Terminally ill ChildrenIn my last article, I mentioned the importance of precision in the use of language, so as to avoid confusion. Today I want to take a quick break from Pope Pius XII’s allocution to midwives in order to emphasise the same point about language with regard to something more current in Irish society. There are some in Ireland today who favour putting terminally sick children to death if they are not yet born, and if … Read More

I realise that things have been very quiet on this site of late and that I haven’t posted anything since November 13th last year. It has been a busy time with two conferences, one in Kerry in December and one in Cork at the beginning of this month. I hope to upload that particular talk in the near future. This talk seems to some to be a little controversial because I am asking questions, and hoping that all those involved … Read More

The mini conference on Saturday 1st October featuring Olivia Connolly, Anthony Murphy and myself had to be moved from the Leopardstown Venue due to unforseen circumstances. The talk will now be held in the St John Vianney Church Hall, Ardlea Road, Dublin 5 Beginning at 2.00pm with the recitation of the Most Holy Rosary.  Followed by Olivia Connolly speaking about the new age Earth Movement which is infiltrating parishes and schools. Anthony Murphy will speak about building a Catholic resistance … Read More

This talk was broadcast on Radio Maria Ireland on Friday 2nd September 2016 It continues to look at the fact that Irish people no longer desire to marry young. it looks at the address of Pope Pius XII in 1947 to Women titled “Papal Directives for the Woman of Today:” You can get a transcript HERE You can listen to the show HERE This talk stresses the importance of the Traditional Catholic Family. It calls into question the tactics of … Read More

Unfortunately I have had to close both my shop in Knock and my online shop due to a lack of business and also because I want to concentrate on promoting the Traditional Catholic Family through Legio Sanctae Familiae – The Legion of the Holy Family If you would like to make a donation to this work please contact me using the ‘get in touch’ link and I will send on the necessary details. Many thanks to everyone who purchased some … Read More

I am leaving today for the Rome Life Forum conference, organised by Voice of the Family The programme is as follows FRIDAY 6th MAY 8.00 Holy Mass (St Peter’s Basilica, altar of St Pius X) 8.45 Registration and coffee at Hotel Columbus 9.30 Introduction 9.45 Prof. Roberto de Mattei (Lepanto Foundation) – The Current Crisis in the Context of Church History 10.45 Matthew McCusker (Voice of the Family) – Aftermath of the Synod on the Family: The Apostolic Exhortation 11.40 … Read More

Last week, I had the great grace of making a private retreat in St Joseph de Claival Abbey in France where my spiritual director, a benedictine monk, resides.  I had the good fortune to attend Latin Mass every day and to sit in the choir loft for many of the daily Divine offices of the Community which are sung in Latin in the Traditional Gregorian chant. I arrived home to a family ravaged by a severe bout of winter flu … Read More

Here in Ireland, I write a column on marriage for a Catholic fortnightly paper called ‘The Catholic Voice’.  I am hoping to make all of these articles available on the website and I managed to post another three today.  You can download those posted so far in .pdf format from the ‘marriage articles’ link at the top of the page. I have also managed to put a few more sacred art pictures up for sale.  These are available as photographic … Read More

I haven’t been updating the blog in recent months as I have been working away in the background to get the shop up and running. My computer skills are good, but I have never put a shop online before and so I have had to learn the basics. I had to close the retail shop in Knock due to the seasonal nature of the pilgrimage season but I will be offering a small but growing range of Catholic Art prints … Read More

Second Day: Fruits of Peace and Patience. – Hymn: – Veni Creator – Let us prostrate ourselves before the majesty of the most Holy Trinity, and uniting our dispositions with those of our blessed Lady and the holy apostles in the upper room at Jerusalem, let us say one Our Father and one Hail Mary, to obtain, by the merits of Jesus ascended, the fruits of the Holy Ghost – peace and patience. Our Father…      Hail Mary… O sweetest and … Read More

This article was first published in February 2014.  It looks at Dei Verbum in the light of St Paul’s sometimes difficult teachings on Marriage.  It is available to download as a pdf from the Marriage Articles page. Marriage a gift from God – The Church’s Understanding through Scripture Marriage in Scripture Christ, in the Gospels, laid down the essential foundations for marriage without which marriages cannot validly take place. Marriage must be between one man and one woman, they must … Read More

This article was first published in January 2014 and continues to look at the Catholic understanding of Marriage through Sacred Scripture. This article can be downloaded from the Marriage Articles Section   Marriage a gift from God – The Church’s Understanding through Scripture We have seen how Christ dispensed with the concession permitting divorce which was given by Moses. We also know that Moses gave this concession on account of the hardness of men’s hearts. Does this mean that with … Read More

Finally I have a little time to update the blog.  I have been operating a little shop near the Catholic Shrine in Knock since last August.  Initially I was located in a temporary premises a little bit away from the actual shrine and it was clear to me that not many people passed this way.  Fortunately, since November last year, I have relocated to another premises which is across the road from the original parish church of St John the … Read More

This article was first published in January 2014 and it looks at what is essential for a valid marriage through the eyes of Scripture. Marriage a gift from God – The Church’s Understanding through Scripture Christ nullified the concession of Moses So far, we have seen that a false notion of marriage has become prevalent throughout western society even amongst Catholics. We have seen in the Gospels how Jesus, in both Matthew 5:31-32 and in Luke 16:18, nullified the concession, … Read More