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.
Proclaiming the Magnificat
In our second reflection on Mary, we move from the Annunciation to the Magnificat — from the question she asked before her yes, to the proclamation she made after it. Mary proclaims the Magnificat in someone else's house, in the early weeks of a pregnancy she...
Pope Leo XIV’s First Encyclical Will Address AI and Human Dignity
Pope Leo XIV will personally present his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, at the Vatican's Synod Hall on 25 May. The document takes as its subject the protection of human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence, and its publication has been anticipated...
A Call That Would Not Be Ignored
The women in this piece, first published in the Irish Catholic, entered OLA mission across seven decades, on two continents, in circumstances that had little in common except one thing.Ardfoyle Convent c.1945Frances Geary grew up in a house full of noise and people,...
How Can This Be?
For the remaining Fridays of May, this month that is given over to Our Lady, we will reflect with Mary through three moments in Scripture where her life meets uncertainty, truth, and grief. At the Annunciation, Mary hears words she could not have prepared herself to...
Our 150th Jubilee Celebration at Ardfoyle
Irish Province Celebration – 1876–2026 On 1 May, we gathered at Ardfoyle to celebrate the congregation's 150th Jubilee with Mass and lunch shared among our Sisters, SMA brothers, families, friends, and supporters. One hundred and fifty years since Fr Augustine Planque...
Approaching Our150th Jubilee
This Friday 1 May, our Foundation Day, we will gather at Ardfoyle with family, friends, and Sisters from near and far, to celebrate one hundred and fifty years of OLA mission. The significance of this occasion lies in the distance travelled, the years counted,...
The OLA in Dromantine’s 100-Year History
Last weekend, members of our leadership team attended Mass at Dromantine to mark 100 years of the SMA's presence there. The OLA connection to Dromantine goes back almost as far. In late 1926, four OLA sisters were sent to Newry to undertake domestic work at the SMA...
A Shared History, Told at Home
Last Saturday, Ardfoyle became a place of return. A return to history, and a shared story, as part of our 150th Jubilee celebrations. We were delighted to welcome our Archivist, Lochlann Unger, who led a rich and engaging presentation tracing the intertwined...
A Small Corner of a Widening War
The war in the Middle East has widened. Iran is now part of it, and the region that was already exhausted has lurched further into uncertainty. Sr Paoula Mourad is from Lebanon. She has been in Ireland for several months now, working on the OLA Justice Desk, and she...
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