Feast of St. Flannan, December 18th, 2024
St. Flannan’s College
On this the feast of our Patron, St. Flannan we embark on a brief virtual pilgrimage journey in our minds to where it all began in Killaloe way back in those early days of Christianity in Ireland.
On a real trip there recently, it was interesting to see that the bridge over the Shannon, downstream from Lough Derg is almost complete. It felt like such a historical moment to be able to be there before it opens officially. The impressive new bridge will link Killaloe with Balllina, two distinct towns, two separate ecclesiastical jurisdictions even.
Looking from the centre of the bridge as the Shannon waters flow the mind is brought in spate towards Friars Island, the monastery of St. Molua, or Lua and his star pupil St. Flannan, the first bishop of the diocese of Killaloe.
A bridge is a great metaphor for so many things. A link, a joining of, an outreach from one place to another. At our most fundamental we long in our hearts for unity, wholeness, the oneness of things.
The saints, great people gone before us, on whose giant shoulders we stand are a bridge between us and the roots of the great apostolic Church, the source of our faith that leads us back to Jesus, our Lord and Saviour whom we long for during this Advent Season. The example and inspiration of great saints, like St. Flannan enable us to make that link, to cross that bridge to relationship with the Lord.
I’m a great fan of Thomas Merton and I read an Advent reflection of his last week. It runs:
Our task is to seek and find Christ in our world as it is, and not as it might be. The fact that the world is other than it might be does not alter the truth that Christ is present in it and that his plan has been neither frustrated nor changed: indeed, all will be done according to his will. Our Advent is a celebration of this hope. What is uncertain is not the “coming” of Christ but our own reception of him, our own response to him, our readiness and capacity to “go forth to meet him”. We must be willing to see him and acclaim him, even at the very moment when our whole life’s work and all its meaning seem to collapse.
THOMAS MERTON
FROM SEASONS OF CELEBRATION (FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX, 1965)
As we continue the pilgrim way to Christmas in these Advent days on this feast of St. Flannan my prayer is that both
- our diligent preparation and
- our contemplation of the gifts and prayerful charism of our patron
would be a bridge towards this great hope of the coming of Christ. And may we greet Him with what Merton calls ‘a worthy reception’ and that it would bring light to our souls and lives in our studies, at school, at home and in our ministries around the diocese of Killaloe during the great Jubilee of Hope, 2025.
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