The OLA Blog
Stories, reflections, and updates from our mission and community life. Here we share reflections, insights and experiences, believing that the simple act of sharing can inspire, connect, and open hearts.
The Discipline of Speech
Scripture: James 3:1–12 “The tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.” (James 3:5) Words shape the world we inhabit. In his message for Lent 2026, Pope Leo XIV names a form of fasting that is often overlooked: abstaining from words that offend and...
A Word from Pope Leo XIV and What It Met in Us
Our Plenary Council in Rome is coming to a close, and undoubtedtly, the highlight of these two weeks was last weekend when our Sisters were received at the Vatican by Pope Leo XIV, together with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. They entered that audience as...
Fasting as Reordering Desire
Scripture: Isaiah 58:6–9 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice…?” (Is 58:6) Fasting can easily become reduction: less food, fewer comforts, smaller habits, but scripture widens the meaning. Through the prophet Isaiah, God challenges a...
Listening as the Beginning of Renewal
Scripture: Exodus 3:1–12 “I have observed the misery of my people… I have heard their cry.” (Ex 3:7) Lent begins with attention. In his 2026 message, Pope Leo XIV places listening at the heart of renewal. Before fasting, before repentance, before action, there is...
Message of the Holy Father Leo XIV for Lent 2026
Message of the Holy Father Dear brothers and sisters, Lent is a time in which the Church, guided by a sense of maternal care, invites us to place the mystery of God back in the center of our lives, in order to find renewal in our faith and keep our hearts from being...
RIP Sr Katherine Donovan OLA
On the afternoon of Friday, the 30th January 2026, OLA Sisters, the Staff, Katherine’s cousins, relatives, friends and neighbours gathered to thanks for the life of Sr. Katherine Donovan, remembering her with love and to commend her soul into God’s eternal care. Sr....
Peace Begins with Dignity: St Bakhita’s Day 2026
St Josephine Bakhita understood what it is to be treated as property. Kidnapped as a child and sold into slavery, she lived through years of degradation that tried to erase her personhood. Her feast day exists because we refuse to look away from what was done to her,...
St Brigid: Presence Across Centuries
St Brigid of Kildare belongs to a time when faith was carried on foot, tested by weather, hunger, kinship, and land. The Ireland she knew was still finding its Christian language, still learning how belief might live among fields, hearths, and shared labour. It was a...
RIP Sr Mary Barron OLA
On Tuesday 20th January 2026, OLA Sisters, joined by Mary’s brother Michael and her sister Alice, her nephews and nieces, relatives and friends, and the Infirmary Staff gathered in Ardfoyle Chapel to thank God, for the life of Sr. Mary Barron, to bid farewell and to...
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