Jim Cogley’s Reflections: Tues 21st April – Mon 27th April 2026
You can tune in to live broadcasts usually daily at 10am or recordings by going to Our Lady’s Island Webcam
For ordering books at lowest prices go to jimcogley.com
Tues 21st April – Doggy Lessons
I once read that if you have a dog, you will always have lots to write about because they can be such great teachers and are an endless source of amusement (and sometimes pain). Just last Sunday my 70lb companion accidentally hit the side of my leg at breakneck speed, almost causing it to snap and leaving me in considerable pain on crutches, and barely able to walk for days to come. That aside I am still intrigued at the whisper of Spirit that seemed to come out of the blue last December ‘to get myself a dog’. With a very varied and busy lifestyle with a lot of travel I never believed that it would be possible to have one without being unfair to the animal. Because Corky was so providential I now find that this dog dovetailes perfectly with all my activities and adds something very unique. It feels as if I have been entrusted with the care of a very special soul. I honestly believe that she has come into my life as a gift from above with a lot of important lessons for me to learn. These, I am sure will be ongoing but while the more recent ones are still fresh and have a wider significance, I will share a few of them this week.
Wed 22nd April – Relationship – The Heart Access
Having experienced something of falling in love with this new dog in my life, and that connection being mutual, I find myself reflecting on my relationship with the Lord in a much richer light. One lady said that seeing the love between us moved her to tears and awakened for her a real sense of God’s love. It is precisely because of the quality of the relationship that everything is possible. Corky literally has access to my heart and there is nothing I would not want her to have. This may sound ‘soft’ to some but remember Psalm 23 was written out of King David’s relationship with his sheep. Should anything happen to Corky it would cause me a lot of grief as it did when she reacted to a loud sound and ran into a car. Thankfully she was not injured, and it was probably a blessing in disguise. It is this real sense of God’s open heart that wants to withhold no good thing that makes me identify with Corky as I think she knows that I have only her welfare at heart and as long as she is mine she also has the best of what is mine.
Thurs 23rd April – Discipline as Love
If you give a dog your heart they give you theirs but ten times over; not just with affection, but also with respect. I have never taught my animal not to come into my bedroom, but she never has. Nor have I taught her not to jump up on couches or armchairs, but she never does. I have taught her discipline in many other areas to suit her new surroundings and when she gives the paw to avoid what’s asked I refuse her ‘pawmasing’ and insist she complies. The level of respect she then commands for being obedient is phenomenal. Discipline is short-term pain but long-term gain and it is administered totally for her good. Here I apply this principle to the spiritual journey that being a disciple entails discipline and when I feel the discipline of the Lord, I also know that it is for my good and the benefit of others.
Fri 24th April – Freedom – The Essence of Love
Returning to Corky’s former home and chatting to the woman who once cared for her I remarked, ‘That dog you gave me is exceptional, she is a top-class animal, you know it and so do I. People rarely want to part with a really good dog so how come you were willing to give her away?’ Her reply nearly blew me away! She said, ‘Corky is very much a people’s dog and has a big heart. She is lively and has a larger-than-life personality. She needs more space and freedom than I can offer her here and so I must put aside my own needs and feelings and seek what is best for her. I am delighted that she has found someone who can love her and offer all the space and freedom that she needs to express who she is.’ What a profound expression of the essence of love. How many parents need to hear that in relation to their long-suffering children and how many spouses need to hear it in relation to their partners who feel trapped by their neediness? Only with freedom can love truly to flourish, otherwise it is just enslavement.
Sat 25th April – Rise & Shine
I think that the Lord has a sense of humour. I always said that I could never cope with a needy female and now he lands me with one with four legs! As a night owl I am not at my best in the mornings. For years I have sensed the Lord asking me to give him more time in prayer and reflection from around 7am. Generally, I have to admit, sleep has won out. Now the patter of tiny feet outside my bedroom door almost always at 7pm means I have no option but to get up and let Corky out. By the time she has done her ablutions I am fully awake and am now slowly incorporating that all important time as part of my daily spiritual discipline. In the past, I wanted to do so but while the spirit was willing the flesh was weak and tiredness got the better of me. Now it feels as if it’s being done for me and is pure gift.
Sun 26th April – Listening to God
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me.
Finding someone who is a good listener is extremely difficult and the fact of having two ears is certainly no guarantee. Shown is a symbol of listening that looks like an ear. However, if you look closer you will notice how the inner fold is shaped like a fetus. This is meant to say that when we truly listen something new is born. Someone said recently that ‘It was only when I found someone to listen that I came to hear what was going on in myself.’ Very few of us really listen and when we think we do its more with the intention of speaking. Try telling someone about your few days holidays in the Canaries and I guarantee that within two minutes you will be hearing about theirs from five years ago. Just try to really listen to someone and put aside your own story and see how difficult it is. As a young student I heard a sermon on listening that changed my life. It convinced me that the most important thing I could ever do in life was to learn to listen to the voice of God.
We had a retreat master who gave a short talk on the importance of listening to God as the one who had a lot more important things to say than us than we to Him. The fact that we were endowed with two ears and one mouth was itself an indication that we should be listening twice as much as we were talking in prayer. He suggested changing our prayer pattern from, ‘Listen Lord your servant is speaking’, to ‘Speak Lord your servant is listening.’ Those words made sense and became like a guiding principle.
That night, quite late, as I prepared for bed, I did not say my usual prayers but instead listened in silence. I was surprised by a still small voice that, with a compelling authority, said: ‘Go to number 65’, in a certain housing estate where I knew there was a lot of student accommodation. This seemed in direct contradiction to the rules of the time that forbade seminarians to be outside the gates after 7pm. What voice should I obey? My response was that ‘I was there to follow the Lord before any man made rules,’ so I quickly dressed and carefully made my way unnoticed past a night watchman while he was filling his pipe. Feeling somewhat foolish, I rang the door of number 65 to be greeted by a distraught student in floods of tears. She was in deep trouble and had decided to end her life. Just being there as a listening ear and a supportive, even providential presence, gave her a sense of being cared for and that her life was for living and not for ending.
From that point on I set my heart towards listening to the whispers of Spirit and had a deep realization that doing so would be far more formative than mindless adherence to seminary rules. While such whispers were not an everyday occurrence, they were always immensely significant.
So often I have heard many saying ‘I can never hear God speak to me’ and I usually reply, ‘And you never will’. The secret is not to rely on your own ability to hear but to trust in God’s ability to speak, no matter how deaf you might think you are. Just surrender and be willing to do His will and leave it to Him to get through to you. It also works best when we reduce the noise level and give some time for inner quiet.
Over the years I have followed that principle, and it has never let me down. Once while at a funeral of a man in Kilmore Quay, his distraught wife was there whom I had never before seen in church. They had lived in the UK, and I thought she may have been of Protestant background or none. As people were coming for Communion, she seemed the only one not coming. A strong whisper said, ‘Go down and bring her Communion.’ At one level it was against all the rules, yet it seemed the most compassionate thing to do, so I went down and asked her if she would like to receive, and she said ‘Yes’. Sometime later she told me that while she had never gone to church, she had always prayed that one day she might belong in a faith community. ‘That moment when I first received at my greatest grief was when God’s love touched my heart, and I knew my prayer was answered. I knew then that I belonged, and I also knew where I wanted to belong.’ That was the beginning of her journey of faith, even if she was not starting from where she was supposed to. And it all began with a whisper that apparently broke the rules but truly led her into the fullness of life.
Mon 27th April – Reconnections
As we journey through life we tend to leave behind those parts of ourselves that were too painful, problematic or that we couldn’t handle. Healing always involved revisiting those bits of ourselves that while always part of us were never allowed to belong. Events usually happen in later life to awaken those emotions that we thought were carefully locked away in our unconscious. An example was when I was eighteen and going to Maynooth. I had a lovely sheepdog for seven years since she was a pup and she was trained to perfection. Going away meant I had to give her away to another farm and the hurt went deep as we had been inseparable. At the time I had no idea as to how to deal with such painful emotions except to bury them and get on with what I had to do. During my first week with Corky, it was those buried emotions that came flooding back and it felt as if I were back again at 18 and reconnecting with all those emotions left behind that I never knew were even there.