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Fathers of Saint Joseph – Meeting Notes Date:  Saturday, 10 January 2026 Location:  St. Mary’s, Pope’s Quay, Cork (T23 P8ER) Merisi da Caravaggio, M. (1602). The Taking of Christ . Oil on canvas, 133.5 × 169.5 cm. On indefinite loan to the National Gallery of Ireland from the Jesuit Community, Dublin. National Gallery of Ireland. Available at:   https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/highlights-collection/taking-christ-michelangelo-merisi-da-caravaggio  **(Accessed: 1

Movie of the Month – Rediscovering the Sacred Through Cinema Our culture often encourages us to focus only on what is new, leaving the past behind. Many Catholics feel distant from today’s film industry, which can seem disconnected from the faith, leading to the sense that cinema is no longer a place where God can be encountered. Yet the history of cinema, especially in earlier decades, offers a rich tradition of Catholic storytelling that speaks quietly and deeply to the hea

Date:  Saturday, 22nd November 2025 Location:  St. Mary’s Pope’s Quay, Cork, T23 P8ER Context We began our meeting with a time of Eucharistic Adoration. This helped us settle into silence and prepare our hearts before the reflection. Reflection Reading Book:   LEAD: The Four Marks of Fatherly Greatness  – Devin Schadt Pillar 1:  Listening to Discern Your Mission (Embracing Silence) Reading 40:   The Kingdom of Noise  (page 117) El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) (c.1605) Sai

Date:  Saturday, 13th December 2025 Location:  St. Mary’s, Pope’s Quay, Cork, T23 P8ER Context This was our last meeting of the year. We began with Adoration, followed by our group discussion. After the meeting, many of us stayed for Mass. Later, a few of us went for coffee in the city with two Dominican priests who supported our group throughout the year. We finished the gathering at the recently opened Emmaus coffee shop. Reflection Reading Book:   LEAD: The Four Marks of F

Date:  Saturday, 8th November 2025 Location:  St. Mary’s Pope’s Quay, Cork, T23 P8ER Context We began our meeting with a time of adoration, grounding ourselves in silence and prayer before entering into our reflection. Return of the Prodigal Son, Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1668–1669. Oil on canvas. The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Source: https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/digital-collection/43413?lng=en Reflection Reading Book:   LEAD: The Four Marks of Fatherly Greatnes

Fathers of Saint Joseph – Meeting Notes Date:  Saturday, 25th October 2025 Location:  St. Mary’s, Pope’s Quay, Cork, T23 P8ER Context We have returned to our regular meeting format. As usual, we began with a time of adoration before moving into our reflections. Carlo Crivelli, “ Saints Peter and Paul ”, probably 1470s, egg tempera on wood (93.3 × 47 cm), collection of the The National Gallery, London (Acc. No. NG3923) Reflection Reading Book:   LEAD: The Four Marks of Fatherl

Date:  Saturday, 11th October 2025 Location:  St. Mary’s, Pope’s Quay, Cork, T23 P8ER Context We resumed our meetings at the Dominican Church at St. Mary’s, Pope’s Quay, in Cork City. The morning began with a time of quiet adoration before moving into our reflection. Reflection Reading Book:   LEAD: The Four Marks of Fatherly Greatness  by Devin Schadt Pillar II:   Embrace Your Essence [Embracing Woman] Reading 65:   Agony and Ecstasy “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galile

Date:  Saturday, 20th September 2025 Location:  St Joseph’s SMA Church, Blackrock, Cork Context We continue to gather at St Joseph’s SMA Church. While the church itself is closed for works, the parish kindly arranged Mass in the church kitchen. Chairs were lined up, creating an intimate setting where we were close to both priest and assembly. The Gospel of the day was the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8:4–15) source: Vatican News . It speaks about the Word of God falling on diff

Fathers of Saint Joseph – Meeting Notes Date:  Saturday, 6th September 2025 Location:  St Joseph’s SMA Church, Blackrock, Cork Circle of Mauricio García. The Virgin of Mercy with Three Saints, mid–18th century. Oil on canvas, 37 5/8 x 26 5/8 in. (95.6 x 67.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1941, Frank L. Babbott Fund, 41.1275.181. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum) Context We continue to gather at the SMA Church. Although the church is closed for work, it remains a fitting plac

Fathers of Saint Joseph – Meeting Notes (by Willie Hayes) Date:  Saturday, 16th August 2025 Location:  St Joseph’s SMA Church, Blackrock, Cork (James Tissot, The Sermon of the Beatitudes (La sermon des béatitudes) , 1886–1896, opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, Brooklyn Museum, accession no. 00.159.124; accessed August 26, 2025, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/en-GB/objects/13418 .) Reflection Reading Book:   LEAD: The Four Marks of Fatherly Greatness   by De

Fathers of Saint Joseph – Meeting Notes Date:  Saturday, 2nd August 2025 Location:  St Joseph’s SMA Church, Blackrock, Cork Photo by Marcelo Bastos, 25th May 2025 Summer Meeting Format For the summer months, our group is gathering at St Joseph’s SMA Church instead of our usual location at St Mary’s Dominican Church. The format is slightly different: at SMA, we begin with Mass and follow it with our group discussion. Although unintended, at least for me, the Scripture readings

Fathers of Saint Joseph – Meeting Notes Date:  Saturday, 19th July Location:  St Joseph’s SMA Church, Blackrock, Cork “The Sermon on the Mount” by Carl Heinrich Bloch – Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons We gathered on the third Saturday of the month, as usual, after the 7:15am Mass. This time, five of us met in the church’s kitchen for our reflection and conversation. It was a joy to welcome back one of the fathers who had been away for several weeks due to recovery from a

Fathers of Saint Joseph – Meeting Reflection Saturday, 5th July 2025 As we gathered in SMA Parish, Blackrock Road, Cork, after the Mass, enjoying coffee and scones generously provided by a fellow father of the group, we shared a time of fellowship and reflection rooted in Scripture and fatherhood. This week, we continued our journey through the book LEAD: The Four Marks of Fatherly Greatness with a reflection on Reading 170: The Two Conditions of Mercy , from Pillar IV – Dis