top of page
Writer's pictureProfiles in Catholicism
Feb 18, 202221 min read

Ireland Issues and Challenges

Updated: Aug 20



A Message from the Editor


I was fortunate to have visited Belfast many years ago and I still remember

Kelly's Cellars where I had the best time of my life. It is the best bar that I have ever been to, and the people were the friendliest people that I have ever met. I miss Belfast and hope that I may have an opportunity to visit there again.


A Quote to Remember


“He touched on the spirit of gratitude and hard work.” by Pope Francis


Prayers


St. Patrick’s Prayer


May the Strength of God pilot us.

May the Power of God preserve us.

May the Wisdom of God instruct us.

May the Hand of God protect us.

May the Way of God direct us.

May the Shield of God defend us.

May the Host of God guard us

Against the snares of the evil ones,

Against temptations of the world.

May Christ be with us!

May Christ be before us!

May Christ be in us,

Christ be over all!

May Thy Salvation, Lord,

Always be ours, This day, O Lord, and evermore.

Amen.


Prayer for a Murdered Dominican Priest


Good and Gracious God, It is with heartful sadness, we ask you to bless the family of Father young Dominican priest, Father Ngoc Thanh, who was devoted to serving ethnic groups in Vietnam’s Central Highlands has been killed in a knife attack. An informed source from Kontum Diocese said Dominican Father Joseph Tran Ngoc Thanh, who provided pastoral care for Sa Loong Sub parish in Kon Tum province, was stabbed many times while he was hearing confessions in the church on Jan. 29. The violence of this act, we bring to you, dear Lord, to beg all that suffer from this tragedy may be healed. Help us to heal from the wounds of violence inflicted on a priest of God. The source said Father Thanh died hours after being hospitalized He was 40 years old. by Eileen Quinn Knight, Ph.D. Profiles in Catholicism


Prayer for the murdered Anglican Priest Father William Siraj

Lord God,

Please console the family and friends of Father William Siraj,

and keep him in your eternal blessed embrace, Please help bring his murderer to Justice.

by Sarah Lyon Profiles in Catholicism


Prayer for the Children of Nigeria


Oh Lord, the children in Nigeria are starving to death.

We join together with all Catholics, with all Christians,

with all people of faith.

Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists.

All who pray to you. The One God,

Lord of all humanity.

We pray that these innocent children

will have the sustenance, food, medicine, care

so that they may grow and flourish and help their communities

and all whom they may see who also will need the help that they need now.

We pray that the religious peoples of the world may come together to provide food

for these children,

and that the nations of the world may unite to send them what they need

to survive

and thrive.

And together we pray Amen. Let it be so!

by Dr. Eugene Fisher Profiles in Catholicism


Remembering Bahram Dehqan


We remember Bahram Dehqani-Tafti who died on 6 May 1980, at the age of just 24, the only son of the first ethnic Iranian Anglican bishop; he was ambushed as he drove home from work, and shot dead.


O God, we remember Bahram, and give thanks for his life.

We also think of all who are intent on violence and murder, knowing that the dimension of hatred and the measure of sinfulness can be found in human nature.


Enlarge our love of others, that love divine which has no bounds, so that we may be set free from hatred towards our persecutors.


May your love bring patience, forbearance, courage, loyalty, humility, generosity and gentleness of heart; may your love in Jesus Christ teach us how to prepare ourselves to face our own day of death.

Amen

by Harvey Richardson Profiles in Catholicism


Prayer for Rayan Oram


Dear God, Please welcome Rayan Oram

into Your eternal loving embrace

and console his family.

Also bless al those who worked so diligently to free him from the well,

by Gordon Nary Profiles in Catholicism


A prayer for those suffering from leprosy


“From Isolation to Community”


In the history of salvation, Lord, there were moments when illness Signified your displeasure – but there were moments, too, when an Illness was an opportunity for people of faith to ask for your help, Freely given, giving rise to thanksgiving and praise and the Knowledge that Israel was where your presence was signposted, Magnified and announced to the nations of the world, just as you Chose a heart under which to be conceived, making, literally, a holy Woman a place to begin again the beginning of entering our history.


As you walked among us, Lord, coming out of the family life in which You grew and saw and understood our needs and how to speak to us, Grasping the words and signs, the signs that opened upon the words And the words which opened up the signs – you healed, time and Time again, all who came to you asking, again and again, to help our Helplessness that prompts you to take us beyond the frontier of our Own efforts to the door of eternal life, drawing us into faith through Love of loving to heal us beyond the ills which bring us to our knees.


Now we know, Lord, more and more of us than ever before, the Loneliness and isolation of illness, blighting family life, friendships, Company, work and the willingness and ability to go out to others, Challenging us to draw upon you in new ways, to be present, to be in Contact, to be in the presence of each other, drawing back into life Those drawn to death, abandoned, alone, unspeakably treated, left in Silence and still, still we need to hear the cry that arises out of the Reports, telling of all the people pinned, mercilessly, to greedy gains.


Oh how deeply, Lord, you understand how the heart is hidden and has To be opened by a surgical word, a word unlike any other word, a Word, or a word-event, speaking to us from the past’s account of your Passing and, like an opening crack, bringing more light than can be Contained by one life and spilling, ever so liberally, upon one and Countless more, calling us out of our own shelters to see and to act, With you, for others, innumerable others, bringing your healing Again and again, to this generation’s diseases and contagious silence.

Bring us, Lord, again and again, into the company of your Church, Again and again, to show us, again and again, the face of your Father’s love, so obscured by disfiguring sins that often we cannot See where you are or who can make you present – but we believe that the Church is for the undoing of sinners, turning us into saints, saving Us from our self-seeking and that you are bringing a new beginning Of openness and honesty, healing and hope and that her witness is Welcome, hope, wonder and joy over the God who loves loving us!


Inspire us, Lord, in all the ways that your grace can run through the Natural world, connecting and leaping, rising up and suffusing us and, Through us, throughout all the amazing gifts you give to bring Inventiveness, imagination, creativity, to all whom we care for, to all That we do, to all that we seek to bring about for the good of all, Especially for the good of the poor, the disabled, the disadvantaged, The stranded, the stuck, the sinking, those lost in camps or hidden in Dumps and dreadful pits, that the light of the your love be with us all.

by Francis Etheredge author of 11 books – go through the portal to a world of writing: https://www.hprweb.com/author/francis-etheredge/


Prayer for the healers of the sick


They are the carers and the healers that are dedicated to help the sick, they are the compassionate with the love that eases pain, hey Lord bring comfort and they cure the afflicted, and the wounded, they are the Good Samaritans that save the strangers by the wayside they are the parents that love their children and are by their side Lord making you present with acts of care and love, they and millions more that restore to health and cure the sick as You did Lord of life and goodness. You are love that never ends. by Father Shay Cullen Profiles in Catholicism


Ireland Interviews

General Interviews


Ireland Articles/Commentaries

General Articles/Commentaries

Featured Report

Featured Report

Please support one of our organizations, colleagues, and friends who need help


Book Reviews/Commentaries/Excerpts

Film Reviews/Commentaries

Television Reviews/Commentaries

Music Reviews, Commentaries, and Announcements

Feasting with the Saint

Videos


Tír na nÓg ft. Oonagh


The Irish Wedding Song


Lady of Knock


The Irish Blessing


Mo Ghile Mear


Hail Mary, Gentle Woman

Comments

bottom of page