Fr La’s weekly ‘Pause and Ponder’ from along the Pilgrim Path at Lough Derg. This week’s reflection – Back where it Began

On Station Island for the weeks ahead, I become again a pilgrim.

Here near Saints Island, where it all began, I think

on the thousands who have been and gone before me.

The pier near Pilgrim Patrick became a boating place only in Famine times.

From 1600 the boats rowed out from this site at Portcreevy –

“the branchy harbour” – where the ancient path came down to the shore.

Before that again, as long as the monastery lasted,

the path led onward to the causeway of stones and timbers

across to Saints Island. From there the monks were their boatmen,

rowing their fasted guests to the Purgatory Island farthest from the shore.

The timbers and the monks are long since gone. The stones remain,

a tribute to their engineering – and their imagination. 

And I pause and ponder on what is yet to come.

Fr La Flynn, Prior

7 June 2021