IrishReflection
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Not Incantation but Trust: A St Patrick’s Eve Reflection
A gentle reflection for St Patrick’s Eve: moving beyond incantations toward trust, shaped by Irish fields, shifting light, and the quiet truth that Christ walks every path with us. Continue reading
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“At Evening, God Has Spoken”: A Vespers Hymn on Psalm 110 (76 76 D)
110 has long been one of the traditional psalms of Sunday Vespers. My new hymn, At Evening, God Has Spoken, reflects on that ancient text through the quiet landscapes of the Irish midlands—heathered hills, the Barrow’s waters, and the stillness of evening prayer—resting in Christ our High King through the night. Continue reading
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One Faith, One Hope, One Lord: A Hymn for Unity
The hymn prayerfully calls for unity in the Church, invoking the Holy Spirit to heal divisions and reaffirm faith in Christ. Continue reading
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The muted blue
I found myself shaping these lines in the crisp hush of early frost, walking toward the station as the birds lifted their chorus into the pale blue morning. The early frost along the lane,The breath that clouds the morning air;The jays cry out their sharp refrain,And rooks rise ragged from their lair.Blue tits dart quick… Continue reading
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The hum of lines
I wrote a poem this week called The Hum of Lines. It is not a bright poem. It sits in the quiet room. It listens to the machine. It hears the slow, steady movement of blood through borrowed pathways. Dialysis has a soundscape. The hum of the pump. The soft alarms. The rhythm that is… Continue reading
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A Quiet House, A Returning Train
Today I found myself writing two small Common Metre poems—companions to one another. Andrew was in Dublin for a course, and the house felt different in his absence. Not lonely exactly. Just altered. Softer around the edges. The Sunday light lay still. The cats took up their posts. The kettle hummed. Pancakes became a small,… Continue reading
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In the Thin Place of Forty Days
Rooted in the landscape, spirituality, and imaginative tradition of the Irish midlands, the text interweaves the great biblical “forty” journeys—the flood, the exodus, Sinai, the wilderness, and the risen Christ’s forty days—with the sacred geography of Kildare and its surrounding boglands. Drawing on Celtic Christian imagery and the rhythms of creation, it invites worshippers to… Continue reading
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Rule. Dawn. Praise.
This hymn and stained-glass image are inspired by Chapter 13 of the Rule of Our Holy Father Saint Benedict, in which he sets forth the reverent ordering of the Divine Office at Lauds on ordinary days. Rooted in the rhythm of psalmody, canticle, Gospel praise, and litany, the work reflects Saint Benedict’s vision of a… Continue reading
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Silence. Suffering. Steadfastness.
A day of uneasy memory, quiet courage, and layered history. On 30 January, NeuroDivine holds space for complexity, conscience, and the land’s long remembering—and offers a new hymn rooted in Leinster’s fields for those who honour your servant Charles with tenderness rather than triumph. Continue reading
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Brigid. Pat. Sarah.
From Brigid’s fire to today’s Church, a hymn of gratitude and hope, attentive to calling and the Spirit’s movement in an Irish Church still becoming Continue reading
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Faith. Truth. Welcome.
With the twelve bells of St Patrick’s overhead, I offer this hymn as a prayer for Ballymena: for its people, its churches, and Christ’s light in the valley we call home. Continue reading
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Hidden. Humble. Everywhere.
Celebrating those who proclaim the Word with care—parish readers, musicians, writers, and the everyday saints who let Scripture breathe in our lives. A new hymn, inspired by the Book of Kells, now on NeuroDivine.blog Continue reading
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Andrew. Richard. Niamh.
Home woven in three strands: partner, creatures, grace Some prayers begin in silence. Others begin in the small, ordinary movements of a home—the click of the kettle, the soft thump of paws on the stairs, the familiar presence of the person who shares your days. This new hymn grew out of that kind of holiness:… Continue reading
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Rooted. Gathered. Blessed.
NeuroDivine has always been about recognising the sacred woven through our whole selves—our minds, our bodies, our ways of sensing and moving through the world. It’s a space where difference becomes a doorway, where the textures of neurodivergent experience are met with gentleness, dignity, and grace. This hymn grew from the ancient devotion of Tantum… Continue reading
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Midnight Garden Diplomacy
Three shapes in the dark, a brief standoff, before the night exhaled again. Continue reading
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Stillness. Integrity. Listening.
In a world that often rewards noise and speed, Foyle’s War offers something gentler: a detective who listens, a rhythm that honours silence, and a story that trusts the weight of small truths. This reflection explores how moral clarity and quiet courage can shape a life—and a liturgy. Continue reading
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