Jim Cogley’s Reflections: Tues 4 Aug – Mon 10 Aug 2026

On Wednesday next there will be a special healing mass in Lady’s Island at 3pm where we will have a visit and blessing of the relic of St Brigid. This bone fragment is a first class relic that has a remarkable story of how it providentially found its way back to her birthplace after 1500 years having travelled from Faughart in Dundalk, to Kildare, then to Downpatrick, next to Portugal, then back to Ireland, later during the Famine to Canada and finally back to Faughart via Lady’s Island. Hear the full account and meet the person living in Faughart who is now the custodian of the relic.

You can tune in to live broadcasts usually daily at 10am or recordings by going to Our Ladys Island Webcam

Tues Aug 4 – Ego Trips & Trip-ups

Until the Middle-ages people were convinced that the earth was the centre of the universe and everything else revolved around us. It was Copernicus who proved that the earth revolved around the Sun and not the other way round. Then it was Galileo who suffered at the hands of the religious authorities of his time when he used his telescope to demonstrate astronomical facts but in doing so was challenging the status quo. As with the macrocosm so it is with the microcosm. Every newborn child believes that he or she is the centre of everything, and the world revolves around him or her. This is a totally ego-centric existence that of necessity needs to give way to something greater. Whether this happens depends on the degree of love that the child receives at every stage of its development in order to see the world beyond itself.

Wed Aug 5 – ‘It wasn’t me’, or was it?

As full-blown adults we all have had the experience of acting out of character with our adult self and reacting or behaving in a childish manner. When this happens, it feels as if our normal lives have been tripped up or even sabotaged. As we journey through life none of us are afforded a totally free passage. We make the transition from child to teenager to adult usually by leaving parts of ourselves behind. These are the parts that have been so wounded, rejected and neglected as to be deemed unfit to bring with us into adult life. While they have been conveniently left lying in oblivion they are like sleeping dogs that sooner or later will get hungry and wake up. When they do, we discover pockets of acute egocentricity in ourselves that are quite at variance with what we deem ourselves to be.

Thurs Aug 6 – Reactions as Teachers

It is our spontaneous unrehearsed reactions that have so much to teach us about ourselves. That is, provided we listen to them and not blame the person who has triggered the reaction. We relate and respond from our adult selves while our reactions are rooted much earlier. In a reaction we descend into a pocket of unlived emotional life and so the energy that is released can be utterly out of proportion to what has been said or done. We may blame the one who pulled the trigger, but it is the cartridge in the gun that causes the explosion. In that explosion all rationale is blown out of the water, and we are incapable of reason. So also, our grip on adult perspective is lost because we are now viewing reality through a different lens. Reactions can be our great teacher because they are always putting us in touch with our deeper selves and those parts that have not yet been integrated.

Fri Aug 7 – Ego loving Persona

Just because we get older doesn’t mean that we become less egocentric or more mature. Egocentricity often masquerades behind carefully cultivated personas. The persona can appear quite impressive and admirable, it can wear a white coat, be successful and professional, it can be beautiful and talented, but it cannot be real. It is simply the face that we put on to meet the faces that we meet. At the deepest level my world, my relationships and everything else revolves around me. I may work in smugness thinking I am doing a good job, I may retire in satisfaction at what I have achieved, but it is still possible that I have never begun the journey towards my true self. To have gone through life with the persona still intact also means that the ego is still in charge and a long and lonely journey back home to my true self still awaits.

Sat Aug 8 – The Call of Destiny

Fr Richard Rohr once said that the Christian life ‘is a series of crippling humiliations’. Needless to say, being humiliated is the last thing that we want. Yet in terms of our soul journey something painful is necessary to burst our bubble of illusion that all is well in my world. This is the fundamental ego stance, that in relation to others my life is pretty good, I live up to a set of moral values and others see me as honest and forthright. At some point a distant drum may sound and my world, once so secure, is turned upside down. Someone close to me dies, a marriage breaks down, a business goes to the wall, or a health issue arises. Some unexpected visitor arrives and invites me to travel down a road that previously I never knew existed. This is my destiny path that without a severe trip up from somewhere I would never have embarked on. 

Sun Aug 9 – Walking on Water

The first reading this morning is the story of a great man of God called, who, like so many of us, looked for God in the spectacular and the extraordinary. Where he found God was in neither, not in the great storm or the mighty fire, but rather in a gentle whisper.

As we celebrate Mass we ask for the grace of knowing that the great God of the universe wants to whisper in our ear reminding us of his love and encouraging us to remain steadfast on our journey of faith.

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That Gospel story is one that has a huge amount to teach us about what it means to live a life of faith. It begins with Jesus sending the disciples across to the other side of the lake of Galilee while he goes up into the hills to pray. While he is praying they are panicking, a storm has arisen and they fear for their lives.

Had they known that he was praying for them just then would they have been so worried? I don’t think so, I know that I wouldn’t.

Had they realized that they represented the future of the early church and that Jesus had a divine vested interest in their safety would they not have been more at peace? I think that they would.

Had they remembered that their lives were in alignment with Gods will and that it was at Jesus command that they were where they were would they not have felt peaceful and secure even in the midst of the storm? Jesus had said to go to the other side, he didn’t say that there wasn’t going to be any storms.

The storm is an apt metaphor for many times in our lives. A time when we feel so trapped in our past that we think we don’t have a future. Feeling so overwhelmed with burdens in the present that we feel you can’t cope. Or we might feel so crippled with a fear of the future perhaps in relation to our health or the welfare of a loved one that we can’t even get a full nights sleep.

Like the disciples in the storm we so easily get caught up in its urgency and ferocity that we forget the important, that Jesus is praying for our safety and has a vested interest in our survival. As long as we have placed our lives in his care then we can be assured that he cares for us even more than we care for ourselves. That’s the bigger picture and as someone said to me during the week, so many spend so much time watching TV that they have completely lost sight of that bigger picture and increasing the size of the screen makes no difference.

The disciples rowed hard into the night against a strong headwind, as the waves got higher their fears rose higher still. We are told that it was in the fourth watch that things started to happen. I suspect that at that point they were so exhausted that they simply gave up. Giving up trying to save ourselves and surrendering to God and his saving power go hand in hand. In AA the phrase used is ‘let go and let God.’ It was then that Jesus came walking on the water, a visible sign that he was master of the wind and the waves. The intense struggle that so often characterizes our lives does not result in the divine assurance that all will be well. Only surrender brings that about. Inevitably we have to come to the end of our struggle before we give in and then divine grace takes over and we feel as if we are being carried.

As bad as they wanted to see Jesus at that particular time the disciple still cried out in fear. In reply Jesus gave his characteristic response in the face of fear. Courage it is I. As always Peter was the impetuous one who literally jumped in feet first. Lord if it is you bid me to come across the water. Come said Jesus. This is where we see both faith and its counterpart in action. Looking to Jesus, Peter exercised the faith that sustained him above the waves. Looking to the waves he exercised another kind of faith that also had power, this time to sink him. This kind of negative faith we call fear. Where faith can sustain us fear can and will drown us. It is like faith in reverse.

There is a word in English for a sentence that is formed using the letters of a word, it is called an acronym. A useful acronym for understanding FAITH is Fantastic Adventure in Trusting Him. For FEAR it could be Fantasy Experienced As Real. Fear always presents the worst possible scenario. It projects us into the future, deprives us of the strength we need in the here and now and if we don’t deal with it radically will ultimately determine our fate.

So the daily choice for all of us is really very simple:

Have faith in our fears and allow our circumstances to be greater than we are and overwhelm us, or have faith in the Lord and in his power to save and sustain us. Faith looks up while Fear looks down and like Peter, where we choose to look is all important.

Mon Aug 10 – Awakening

We would all love to have an untroubled and carefree passage through life. There may be some who do, but from a soul perspective they may be the unfortunate ones. We don’t like suffering or anything that upsets the applecart of our lives. Yet without some degree of challenge and suffering there can be no real awakening, the soul remains in slumber. The Advent prayer ‘Awake o sleeper and rise from the dead and Christ will give you light’ is one that captures the mystery of spiritual awakening. In those who have had to endure hardship and overcome challenges there is a quality and depth that is quite noticeable. Their conversation is not just non-versation and small talk about the weather and trivialities. The nonessentials of life have been weighed in the balance and found wanting and now what is truly important has come to the fore.