As I write this, it’s still October 1 in the US. Differences in time zones may make skype sessions difficult to schedule, but they’re dead handy for blog posting.

Today–October 1–we arrived at our first milestone: one month ago we hit the tarmac at Dublin Airport to begin our year of service. As we chatted with new old friends following tonight’s ACE Fellowship Mass in Dublin, we marveled at how it seems as though we’ve always been here. Inevitably, there is the occasional and all-too-vivid reminder that we are in fact living in a foreign country, but for the past month, Ireland in general and Wexford in particular have very quickly become home.

Tonight’s Mass was a perfect way to mark the day with the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, patroness of missionaries, ironic considering that she was a cloistered Carmelite nun who, after the age of 15, never left her convent. Considering we are living in the land where I’m pretty sure irony was actually invented, I am perfectly at ease in asking Thérèse’s intercession along with Brigid’s as we continue to find new ways to minister to the lovely people in this lovely country.

Many thanks to the ACErs in Dublin, who never cease to make us feel utterly at home and completely welcome there. Many thanks as well to those of Clonard Parish who have made our transition of the past month so grace-filled. Through the prayers of St. Thérèse and St. Brigid, may each passing month find us continually growing in God’s grace, and in our understanding, appreciation, and love of all things Irish.