Here we go again.

Just thought I'd carry on some more.
You may not have had too much regard for John Paul 11. That's ok.
I thought I'd add that video just to get in touch with some of the elements he brought into all our lives. Yes , yours and mine. We can't escape the giant figure of the last century. He certainly was a giant. The strange thing is that he was such an ordinary man. He loved the ordinary things. I suspect that he never really believed the extraordinary things that happened to him.
I spent some time in St Florians Church in Krakow where he was first sent as a young priest. It was being renovated and under scaffolding but you could still get in. I stood at the altar in the crypt of the Cathedral too, at which he said his first Mass. He stood there alone with a server, on that day. His beloved dad had died at home alone while he was working at the quarry, his brother had died from an infection he picked up working at the hospital, his mother and his little sister died when he was a child. He knew loss and death. To his dying day he was sorry that he was not at home when either of his parents died.
This soccer playing actor and poet went into the archbishops house to study in secret for the priesthood. He had to hide from the Nazi's. He never went to the seminary and was ordained in secret. I expect he thought he would serve out his life in quiet parish work but that was not to be.
We often say " it was not to be".
Think about that. What will be will be. There was an song about that years ago too. Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see. Que sera sera.
Who would belive the handsome actorwith the sonorous voice,worker in the stone quarry would change the world! He did too, have no doubt. He brought Communism down. If you don't believe that go and read a reputable biography. He corresponded with Gorbachev 'till the end. He was a man for all seasons.
Its ok if you don't quite get turned on by a dead Pope, or even a live one.
Just think of a life. That's also why I put the video up. We come and then we go. Perhaps we do a little good while we are here. That's the key. Make the place, AND yourself a little better for being here a while.

Gay Byrne, of Irish Radio and T.V. fame, lost all his investments becuse his "friend", who was also his accountant, squandered his clients' money on his mistress. The man took his own life when could no longer conceal his wrongdoing.Gay was in despair. He sat in Donnybrook Church trying to work out how he could go forward. What would he do? His life's savings were gone.
He says that a very strong realisation came to him sitting there,that he must go on.
It was very simple, he says in his autobiography. He realised that this life is it. It is not a rehersal. This is the big performance here and now and we are on stage. Make the best of it. So he sorted out his head and continued on to RTE to present the Late Late Show.
I like to think along these lines.-- The past is history and its gone.-- The future has not yet come.-- This is our here and now. Our moment.
Make the best of it.


Teilhard de Chardin used the beautiful concept of "the scarament of the present moment". This is given as a gift to us. Sometimes, indeed often, it does not seem to be giftlike. Hoever it is ours. Work through it.
What is it saying? Put it in context of the big picture. Remember, its not a rehersal. --This is showtime. ... take it easy, Ger

To Be With
When I was very young there was a famous singer in the American charts called Jim Reeves. One of his songs was “Welcome to my World”. That world of his was not such a good place. Yep, it was the usual, girl gone, future wrecked, dreams dashed, plans shattered,and love lost. Uplifting isn’t it ?
Leave me alone please. I am alright in my own world, thanks very much.
But in counselling that’s what we do. We walk into each others worlds. Sometimes its a sore experience. We get in there and “be” with the person. At least we try. Or at least we should make the effort to try. If we don’t do that how can we counsel?
We Irish often punctuate our conversation with the encouraging expression “I know” peppered through our verbal exchanges. But do we?
Do we know the world of a woman betrayed and going through a separation? Do we know the world of a man faced with redundancy and no prospect of employment in the autumn of his life? Do we know the world of the abuse victim who has had the horror bottled up for thirty years? Do we know the anguish of the Catholic priest who loves both his girlfriend and his ministry? Do we know , ... really?
Let’s bring it closer to home. Do we really know ourselves? Ok, more precisely, do you know you?? Are you sure?? Ok, let’s see, how come you are hurt when someone says something quite bluntly to you, especially when it contains a large grain of truth. But she shouldn’t have said it, at least not that way!
Is that a window into your personal unknown? Are you afraid of a dark place, a closed door or the Eifel Tower? Why?
Your world is a mystery not only to me, but to you too.
I suppose a good healthy sexual relationship is partly an exploration of another’s world. Its physical, spiritual and emotional. Its many other things besides, for example, its healing and expressive. The list goes on. If it is not, then it lacks a quality of” humanness” and moves into another order of being. Into the exploitative. It is, to borrow Mother Teresa’s phrase, something beautiful for God, for Me and for You. It is to be able to say “I love you”, to be “I love you”, to understand “I love You”, to become “I love You” .
To love is to be. Those who have not are in another place, not in my world. Deus caritas est.
And I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. Only to be with You. ...U2