Fr La’s weekly ‘Pause and Ponder’ from along the Pilgrim Path at Lough Derg. This week’s reflection is called ‘Day of New Beginning’.

Day of New Beginning

Here is where it all began: Saints Island,

an out-of-the-way corner of God’s creation,

at this furthest point along the Path.

Here Davog found a place where he could be at home

with himself and with his God. 

The first of January was a day sacred to his memory. 

On the island, outlines of enclosures reveal all that remains

of the monastery that for a thousand years

recalled St Davog as its founding father,

where generations of pilgrims found hospitality

on their journey to St Patrick’s Purgatory.

At the end of the Path, near a cross of shining steel,

stones in the water mark the beginning of a causeway

that once carried a wooden bridge across to the island.  

We pause and ponder here,

and hope for safe crossing on our pilgrim way

into a new year and a new beginning.

Fr La Flynn

January 2021