My mother died when I was four and half. That had a lot to do with making me the kind of person I am today. It made me more self-sufficient and independent. My father’s mother reared us. She was a great woman of prayer. My father believed religion was women’s business. He had no objection to it, but he saw it as women’s job to drag him into heaven.......
( For more: download full text in Pdf format here)

Sr. Marie Ryan
I’m the eldest in my family, with three brothers. Born in West Cork, I went to primary school there. Even though it was my mother who taught us prayers and prepared us for the sacraments, my Dad had a deep relationship with God. I remember him – out in the field – standing when he’d hear the Angelus bell from the nearby Church and praying quietly. He wasn’t preaching or teaching. Just practicing what he believed in. That profoundly affected me...............
(For more: download full text in Pdf format here)