January 25th - February 7th

Welcome back! You must be wondering how your time (through me) in Ireland is going. Please forgive the delay.

Let me share a few snippets of life in Ireland.

+This Friday, you visited Malahide castle with some good companions - Kayla, Andrew, Stacey, Sam, Mary, Molly, and John. God gave us great weather! We stopped at an awesome playground to play with an abundance of energy, then moved on to a historic castle of an old Catholic family in Ireland, took a wandering through forrest and across chasms en route to the..., sea - which was a sign of the infinite and the beach very cathartic as well, but before we got to the sea Our Lady and St. Sylvester graciously provided a church where we all sat with the King in adoration for 10 minutes; we finished in a pub with a nice meal together. All in all, a marvelous day. God is great

+This Saturday you learned more about the relation of art and religion/happiness/morality, especially in view of Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale. In general I am becoming more and more fascinated about how to communicate truth in an interesting and effective way to different people (but of course I first have to draw closer to the Person who is Truth!)

+Also for class, you have moved on to the modernist poet William Carlos Williams (who has surprised me with some decent poems), more Yeats (a closer look at his evolving style, and how he apparently recognizes more difficulties to having the transcendent ideals that he pines for realized), Daniel O'Connel ("the [political] liberator" of Catholics in Ireland - hero or near-Barabbas?), the Irish potato famine, further development of early Church and Church doctrine, and St. Patrick, among other things.

+Both this Sunday and last Sunday, you have been given absolutely jaw-dropping masses at the Sacred Heart church, a 30 minute walk away. Everything was providential and beautiful. God is great

+Last weekend you visited Dublin castle with Andrew. A good day. We had burgers with Stacey, Patricia, and Emily from PLS. Was stopped in the streets by a separated brethren missionary for a Pentecostal church called St. Mark's. We were moved by each other

+You have been becoming better friends with Sandra the faithful. She lent me 2 beautiful Spirito Gentil Cd's (Schubert and Beethoven)! Continuing to learn about charity and beauty, through CL and other providential sources. She also introduced me to some other CL Europeans at the English school.

+You had a good heart to heart talk with Davide, a grad student from CL

+You've spent some free time reading the Bible, John of the Cross, Therese, Benedict, Dubay, Aquinas, and Merton. Learning to read faster :)

+Today you asked an Irish priest for spiritual direction. We will meet Friday after mass.

+I have been blessed to receive communion almost every day, and even to be with the King in adoration a few times per week

+In general you have begun to move beyond the tomb of self in life, placing all hope in Jesus and his infinite love which comprehends all desire, when seen and shared. Many vocational questions are being asked and answered at this time, but of course I am trying to go deeper where I am and to serve my neighbor diligently, as Fr. Nathan proposed for me. I still have a long way to go.

+My friends here are awesome. I can see God's love at work in them, in their different unique ways. God is the greatest

There is of course more to tell, but you'll have to suffer in expectation!
In the mean time I'll do my best to live it up for you.

Much love
Patrick

PS in the playground pic I got down almost immediately bc I didn't want to corrupt the nearby children
PPS I will have some more pics up on facebook very soon!