Photo was taken yesterday outside the Lough Church, Cork (Irl)

Members of the Irish Army Defence Forces put on an impressive display, as their colleague and friend, Diarmuid Barry walked out of the church with his wife Julie Gleeson at the Lough Church. Julie is a teacher at Col√°iste Choilm, Ballincollig.

Thought on Sunday – December – 08/12/2013

Our reflection today is by Triona Doherty called ‘The Simple Life.’

John the Baptist certainly grabs our attention, appearing in the desert in his garment of camel hair, eating locusts and wild honey. His language can be cryptic – he addresses the Pharisees and Sadducees as ‘Brood of vipers’, and speaks of trees and axes, winnowing fans and wheat. He is a peculiar mixture of signs and messages, even to the people of the time who were on the lookout for prophetic figures. Nowadays, John would cut an even more eccentric figure.

Sometimes a person’s lifestyle can offer an even more powerful witness than their words. John’s basic diet and dress suggest a lifestyle that is at once simple and radical, one which challenged the norms of the day. It all brings to mind another man who caught our attention with his simple lifestyle earlier this year. As soon as Pope Francis was elected, all the talk was of his modest living quarters as Bishop and his preference for public transport. He has made a point to continue this simple lifestyle as Pope. That a senior clergy man should choose to live a simple and ethical life should hardly come as a shock to the world. Yet there was a powerful witness in his actions.

While we might not be called to the desert life, we are challenged to examine our values and our relationship with material things – an apt message as we enter the most materialistic season of the year. John the Baptist’s message can be summed up by the first word he speaks: repent. The Greek word for ‘repentance’ is metanoia, literally a change of heart.