This is the view from the Killarney Lake Hotel which I took during the week, looking across at the beautiful lakes of Killarney, Co.Kerry

(Due to the summer break the website is currently running on a daily photo update and an updated Thought For The Week. All the other bits and pieces will return as normal at the start of September)

Thought For The Week

‘Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it or work around it.’ ~Michael Jordan

JK Rowling is one of the world’s bestselling children’s authors. She has written all the Harry Potter books. But it wasn’t an easy journey at first. Her first book is called ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’. It was rejected by twelve different publishing companies. But one small publisher called Bloomsbury decided to give the book a go. The reason the editor Barry Cunningham took the book on, was that he had given the first chapter to his eight-year-old daughter to have a read and she loved it. It was enough for him to print it and the book simply became an international best seller. I am sure the other publishing companies must have had huge regrets afterwards on why they rejected the book.

JK Rowling went through lots of rejection, but it was her inner strength and her belief in her own work that kept her going and gave her the confidence not to give up. Jesus in our Gospel stories also talked about rejection, about negativity in our world and about difficult times we all go through. In the middle of all of this he says we will find an inner strength that will get us through the difficulties and challenges that we will have to face.

It is our firm belief that our faith and believing in something gives us this inner strength and is sometimes called resilience. It gives us the hope and the courage to keep going, when perhaps it might be easier to give up. The author JK Rowling could so easily have given up, but she kept going because she believed in what she was about. Jesus also encourages us to keep going and to believe in what we are about. It’s not easy when life is tough and difficult, but we all have an inner strength to keep us going. We are invited to believe in this inner strength and it will keep us going when it matters most.

Thought For The Week is updated each Monday