Apple Month

August has always been "apple month" for me. Coming to the end of summer and getting ready to head back to school the apples had to be picked from the three trees in the garden and put in buckets for cooking or eating. Mum would bake tarts or make jam or apple jelly and we'd do our best not to bite into a cooking apple by mistake - too sour!

The phrase "apple in someone's eye" always sounded a bit odd to me so I looked it up today. Apparently you can find it in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and it means "something that is especially beloved and precious". So when I come across these phrases in the scriptures, they now begin to make more sense:

Psalm 17:8-9

⁷ Show the wonder of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.

⁸ Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wing.

and

Proverbs 7

¹ My son, keep my words
and store up my commands within you.

² Keep my commands and you will live;
guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.

In other words, if we hold the words and the teachings of God as precious and valuable in our sight, we will be his pride and joy and "especially beloved" in His eyes.

The Road To Hell

...is not to Maynooth, but rather one that is paved with good intentions. I really wanted to use this blog last year as a place to reflect on the journey. Here, one year on - little has been posted and instead I was too busy "doing" rather than "pondering".

Perhaps this year as the Spiritual Month begins in a week's time, I will resolve to keep a better record of the ordinary (and not-so-ordinary) goings-on inside a seminary.