We remember at this time of year our loved ones who have left us. They lived out their vocation as best they could and, in doing so, contributed a small but inestimably valuable part to mankind's onward progress -- in Christian terms, the building up of the mystical body of Christ. We will remember them in particular on Sunday, the Feast of All Souls, and throughout the month, in particular at the annual Masses for the Dead taking place in Newcastle and Rathcoole on Fridays 14th and 21st respectively.
Each person, lay or clerical, has an unfathomably rich and mysterious life-story or vocaton. We focused in our last post on vocations to the diocesan priesthood yesterday and today. The photo of the Clonliffe students in 1960 showed our own John Jacob (died 8th March this year). Martin Tierney was ordained in the same year as Fr John (1964). From Clare, he served in the diocese of Dublin. He can be seen on the very right, fourth row from the front (with glasses). He wrote several books, two of them in his final years: No Second Chance: Reflections of a Dublin Priest (Columba Press, 2010) and Battling the Storm: A Cancer Patient's Diary (written as a series for the Irish Catholic newspaper in 2009, published by Veritas after his death in May 2010, aged 71).
