The first of the Lough Derg Beds is dedicated to St Brigid. Along with Patrick and Columba / Colmcille, Brigid is honoured as one of Ireland’s Patron saints. A Leinster woman, her origins were in Co Louth at Faughart, her religious formation at Ardagh in Longford, and her great monastic foundation at Kildare – […]

‘With you on your Lenten Journey’ – Week 1, first reflection – At St Brigid’s Bed    Our Lenten pilgrimage begins at St Brigid’s Bed. Many seasoned pilgrims regard St Brigid’s as the toughest test of the Station Prayer. There are few flat stones for our feet and little option about where to kneel, unless […]

Fr La’s weekly ‘Pause and Ponder’ from along the Pilgrim Path at Lough Derg. This week’s reflection is called ‘Banded Gneiss’.   Up at St Davog’s Seat with a group of pilgrims, I cannot resist the obvious pun about these ‘nice rocks’. On St Brendan’s Bed, bare pilgrim feet meet and tread this banded gneiss.  […]

  During Lent in recent years it has been Lough Derg’s practice to offer something on our online platforms for our friends on their Lenten journey.  Last year we shared our Lough Derg Way of the Cross with images from the Harry Clarke windows.  That series is still available on our loughderg.live website. This year […]

Fr La’s weekly ‘Pause and Ponder’ from along the Pilgrim Path at Lough Derg. This week’s reflection is called ‘My Friends the Catkins’.   Fr La reflects, I had been expecting them, awaiting them. I knew their time was near. I saw the first of them today.   And the joy they brought quite took […]

Fr La’s weekly ‘Pause and Ponder’ from along the Pilgrim Path at Lough Derg. This week’s reflection is called ‘Puddles on the Path’. Fr La Reflects Another wet day here at Lough Derg – nothing new in that, I hear you say. But, as happens on the Island when I make the Station in the […]

This week along the Pilrim Path Fr La introduces St Brigid at Lough Derg on her feast day, 1st February 2021.   She sat down there, they say, waiting for a boat to take her over. The wonderful working of the imagination that sees in a boulder the shape of a chair – and then […]

Fr La’s weekly ‘Pause and Ponder’ from along the Pilgrim Path at Lough Derg. This week’s reflection is called ‘Fir Trees First’. Fr La reflects Fir Trees First  A cold, wet start today at Patrick the Pilgrim. I am kitted out for the weather, but the rain is heavy. I pull up the hood and […]

Fr La’s weekly ‘Pause and Ponder’ from along the Pilgrim Path at Lough Derg. This week’s reflection is called ‘Latching on to Lichens’. Latching on to Lichens The snow left several days ago. How come it still survives on one particular group of trees? A closer look reveals the deception and solves the puzzle: Lichen, […]

Fr La’s weekly ‘Pause and Ponder’ from along the Pilgrim Path at Lough Derg. This week’s reflection is called ‘Frosty Lockdown’. Frosty Lockdown The frost has not let go all day, holding nature in cold lockdown. Some sunlight for a time dispelled the gloom, but in the end it did not make much difference. The […]