Meeting Notes

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