SacredRoutine
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The Parallel Path
Choosing life while letting go The rook lifts up its ancient crywhere morning stirs the land;it echoes Patrick’s travelling prayersstill guarding field and strand.The wren sings from the moss‑soft hedge,a spark of Brigid’s flame;its blessing like the Living Breadthat knows me by my name.The blackcap from the ash and thornpours song like holy wine;a draught… Continue reading
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From the Depths to the Dawn: A Reflection on Grief, Landscape, and Psalm 130
New on NeuroDivine: From the Depths to the Dawn — a hymn and reflection shaped by Psalm 130, grief, the landscapes of Antrim, and the slow movement from sorrow toward morning. Continue reading
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The Echolocation of Grace
After dialysis, the bats over the River Barrow became unexpected signs of grace. In this reflection, Br Michael explores the intersections of chronic illness, Benedictine stability, and neurodivergent faith in the quiet, liminal space of twilight exhaustion. Continue reading
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A new hymn for Trinity Sunday—”O Trinity of earth and light” (DCM)
Celebrate the Three-in-One through the otters and hearth-cats of Kildare. This new Trinity hymn weaves ancient mystery into the sensory rhythms of the Irish landscape. Continue reading
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As Far as I Could Go
After keeping a final night’s vigil for my father, I travelled south for the medical treatment keeping me alive. A reflection on love’s necessary limits. Continue reading
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The Southward Track: A Liturgy of Woven Threads
I was writing the prayers my heart would need before my eyes even knew the shape of the mountain ahead. Continue reading
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A Space for Grace
A quiet Irish café, ancient ruins, and an overflowing cup. Explore how sensory peace becomes a form of sacred hospitality for the neurodivergent soul. Continue reading
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“At Evening, God Has Spoken”: A Vespers Hymn on Psalm 110 (76 76 D)
110 has long been one of the traditional psalms of Sunday Vespers. My new hymn, At Evening, God Has Spoken, reflects on that ancient text through the quiet landscapes of the Irish midlands—heathered hills, the Barrow’s waters, and the stillness of evening prayer—resting in Christ our High King through the night. Continue reading
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A Hymn of Soil, Saint, and Sacrament – “Here the fields of Erin whisper” (87 87 D)
This hymn celebrates Christ’s presence in creation, uniting diverse traditions in peace and reconciliation through Eucharistic imagery and Celtic spirituality. Continue reading
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The hum of lines
I wrote a poem this week called The Hum of Lines. It is not a bright poem. It sits in the quiet room. It listens to the machine. It hears the slow, steady movement of blood through borrowed pathways. Dialysis has a soundscape. The hum of the pump. The soft alarms. The rhythm that is… Continue reading
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Writing a Hymn—and Learning Stabilitas Overnight
This hymn didn’t emerge in a chapel. It came overnight. In silence. In storm. In the unbuilt monastery of the mind. “Wild winds rise fierce across the plain,My refuge be.” The imagery came quickly. But the deeper formation came slowly—as most Benedictine things do. I’m part of a Benedictine community without walls. We are dispersed… Continue reading
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🌿 Morning Reflection for 25 February
Inspired by the appointed readings and psalmody The morning opens gently, the way dawn often does in Ireland—grey first, then slowly revealing colour. The psalms speak of trembling bones, weary eyes, and the long nights when the pillow is wet with tears. Anyone who has ever lain awake listening to the rain on a Kildare… Continue reading
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Divinity in Difference: The Window That Says What We’ve Been Trying to Say
Every now and then, an image comes along that says in colour and light what pages of writing have been circling for years. This stained-glass window feels like that. It gathers the heart of NeuroDivine—the essays, the fiction, the hymns, the poetry—and holds them up to the light with one steady claim: Difference is not… Continue reading
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The Pharmacy of Praise
This morning I wrote a hymn about pill boxes and blister packs—about Sundays spent sorting seven small doorways for the week ahead. It’s personal. Andrew and I both live by the rhythm of medicines, colours divided into morning and evening, lids clicked shut in quiet preparation. Sorting tablets isn’t a small thing in our house;… Continue reading
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Stay with me in the waiting.
There are days when Jeremiah’s cry—“My anguish, my anguish!”—feels less like something from long ago and more like the body’s own truth. In the dialysis unit, with the soft beeping of the machines and the hush of people doing their best to get through another session, you can hear that same ache. Jeremiah speaks of… Continue reading
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The Knot of Grace: A Lorica for the Wired Mind
I wrote the hymn in English first. It came out of lived places. Hospital corridors. Strip lighting. The hum of machines. Motorways. Rain over stone. The strange ache of being surrounded and alone. It wasn’t theory. It was my nervous system on paper. There are days when my brain feels like too much input and… Continue reading
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Word. Refuge. Faith.
“Write Your Word Upon Our Hearts” is a hymn rooted in Deuteronomy 11, Psalm 31, Romans 1 and 3, and Matthew 7, the readings for today (Proper 4) in the Church of Ireland. It prays that God’s Word would be inscribed not only on stone, but within our lives—shaping faith, grounding us in Christ’s righteousness,… Continue reading
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Rule. Dawn. Praise.
This hymn and stained-glass image are inspired by Chapter 13 of the Rule of Our Holy Father Saint Benedict, in which he sets forth the reverent ordering of the Divine Office at Lauds on ordinary days. Rooted in the rhythm of psalmody, canticle, Gospel praise, and litany, the work reflects Saint Benedict’s vision of a… Continue reading
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Holy. Queer. Desire.
For many queer people—especially those of us who are neurodivergent—the search for connection has often unfolded in the margins: in late-night conversations, in coded glances, in apps that both liberate and exhaust us. Our longing has been shaped by secrecy, by rejection, by comparison, and by the fierce hope of finally being seen. This hymn… Continue reading
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A hymn about Grace in humble things — “In quiet parks at break of day” (CM)
The hymn reflects on discovering God’s presence in everyday moments, emphasizing the beauty of ordinary experiences that reveal grace and the gradual manifestation of the Kingdom of God. Continue reading
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