Once a wave lifts near the shore-line there is no turning back.

With immense power it rolls forward till its crest breaks with noise and spray on the beach. In an instant its strength is lost as a maze of white foam spreads across the sand, only to be sucked back for the cycle to be repeated. Again and again.

Recently we reset our clocks in the UK, going back from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time. A quick turn of a clock knob and the job was done. If only all such re-setting, re-adjustment, re-arrangement were that easy.

Day by day we live our lives within a familiar routine of time and place. Without asking too many questions, we get by, one step at a time; that is until something extraordinary happens that jolts our comfort zone. Something happens that demands we pay attention to the question, the unavoidable challenge of confrontation. I am sure that, with a few moments of reflection, you could think of a number of such occasions in your own lives.

Although we might be surprised by such intrusions, they can, nevertheless, be of benefit in resetting our own clock, making us look again.

For many the calling of the Council by John XXIII was one such moment and we each reacted in our own way. One thing is for sure, try as some might, there can be no turning back. Circumstances call us in a new direction, realigning our personal SatNav and we move on.

It was recently reported that Francis has indicated a change in the Church position on nuclear weapons. Joshua McElwee writing in the National Catholic Reporter noted that ^{'Pope Francis has openly denounced the continuing possession of nuclear weapons by various world governments, in what appears to be a departure from the Roman Catholic Church's prior acceptance of the Cold War-era global system of nuclear deterrence and mutually assured destruction'. The full report can be found at the NCR website www.ncronline.org}

^{Those who have written of their Christian experience note many occasions when the direction changed, not slowly but with an immediacy, the shock of the new. Some call it 'a conversion experience'. And it is not necessarily a one-off happening. Our openness, our sensitivity is part of our growth and can refresh faith, time and again, if we are willing to respond.}

The re-setting of the clock that we are currently experiencing spreads across all aspects of our life in these early years of the 21st century. The politics of the West are in turmoil. The mass migration from the coasts of North Africa over dangerous Mediterranean waters to the EU continues. The current ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people from northern Myanmar is yet another human tragedy on a huge scale. The increased warming of our planet through our own carelessness and greed, threatens our continued existence on this small earth. Everywhere we look, change challenges us and demands a response.

The Christian Church has not remained untouched by this tsunami of change and has responded with varying degrees of success. After many months and years of asking, the Irish bishops have now agreed to meet with the Association of Catholic Priests to discuss the crisis that is sweeping through the Church in that Island prior to the planned visit next year of Pope Francis. This will take place prior to the World Meeting of Families due in August next year.

'The ACP is happy to inform members that a meeting is being arranged between representatives of the ACP and the Irish Episcopal Conference, represented by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin and Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, President of the Irish Episcopal Conference.

Re-setting the clock when people need better to understand change, demands a willingness to listen, to appreciate another point of view. Within the Church, whatever our differences, our lives are (or should be) centred on the example of the Christ, Jesus the Nazarene whose teaching was a radical jolt to norms of his time.

Our journey continues, with stops and starts, hesitancy and over-reaction, following open motorways and being drawn into cul-de-sacs. We share our story with others, we listen to their passage of joy, love, and struggle with pain.

With Advent hovering at the door, we await, with baited breath, the decision of the English and Welsh bishops on the Translation of the Missal after the recent Motu Proprio issued on the matter by Pope Francis. Yet another example where listening and talking to the whole community would have saved much heartache.