Herbert O’Driscoll, Author at Faith Tides

The Rafah Crossing

Herbert O’Driscoll — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 14:37:55 +0000

Jan. 12, 2024 Night after night on our television screens, we see the Rafah Crossing between southern Gaza and northern Egypt. The area is teeming with desperate people trying to escape from Gaza, weaving and dodging through the long line of trucks crossing the border into Gaza with their desperately needed supplies. Families do their […]

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The road to Notch Hill

Herbert O’Driscoll — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 14:02:52 +0000

We usually drive far more highways than we do roads. Roads are intimate and local. Roads meander. Roads pause for things. They run under deep groves of trees and let the shadows play on their surfaces. Roads go down by small rivers, even streams. Really intimate and quiet roads sometimes give way to a stream […]

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A journey like no other

Herbert O’Driscoll — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 20:26:55 +0000

This article first appeared in the April 2014 issue of the Anglican Journal. You are exhausted and surrounded by an almost palpable fear. You feel a wave of sadness because of all places, you associate this house, here in Bethany, with warmth, security and friendship. You recall the last week or two, the shocking intensity […]

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The visit

Herbert O’Driscoll — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:05:13 +0000

Suppertime in the residence, the corridors relatively quiet. This is the hour between the coming and going of visitors. The staff are under less pressure; people’s movements and voices are less tense. Along the wide and cheerfully lit corridors some people are sitting in chairs. Four very elderly folk eat slowly and deliberately, gazing out […]

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The executive

Herbert O’Driscoll — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 19:10:22 +0000

Over the last few years, we have gotten to know and respect one another. I think — and certainly hope — that this has become mutual. He lives in a world very different to mine. His skills are very different. All his adult life, he has had a real gift for the intricacies of business […]

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A child’s Christmas

Herbert O’Driscoll — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 19:04:34 +0000

The word “Christmas” is more than a mere word. In the world of music, a chord is composed of notes, but it is infinitely richer than any one of those notes. Some words are like that. They are far more than a mere word. Christmas is such a word. We have only to hear it […]

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“Tusitala” — “Teller of Tales”

Herbert O’Driscoll — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 14:09:57 +0000

Not that many years ago (says he defensively), I was assembling some material for a pilgrimage I had been asked to lead. I had decided to share some beautiful prayers, other than those that people knew from church worship. Among them, I chose one composed by Robert Louis Stevenson. Now in my later years, the […]

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Lost treasure

Herbert O’Driscoll — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 23:27:02 +0000

A tiny incident — a snatch of conversation heard in a city restaurant across an adjoining table. It’s a spot in which you see a fair number of older people. They come out of low-rise condos and apartments for a morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea. Most of the time, I notice they […]

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In all places and at all times

Herbert O’Driscoll — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 17:10:06 +0000

A friend told me that his son, who works with the United Nations in the Middle East, is frequently asked, “Where do you pray,” meaning “where do you worship?” In both cases, it is natural to think immediately of a place, a building or a community, and to name it. Yet recently, I found myself […]

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Wind and fire

Herbert O’Driscoll — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 12:37:14 +0000

Some things can be told only as a story. Someone offers a story and we listen. But we know it is pointless to ask questions because the narrator — in this case a young Syrian professional who has identified with the Christian movement in its infancy — knows nothing we do not know. As Luke […]

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