3 November 1937 - 15 March 2022

‘O God, come to our aid, O Lord, make haste to help me’ (Psalm 69)

There is no gathering together in prayer without first to call on God and for his help. Without the help of God, life makes no sense at all. That is what our Fr. Senan experienced throughout his whole life. From the very early beginnings in rural Ireland, not far from the Cliffs of Moher, within a very close-knitted-family-setting, Senan knew that without God’s help life would turn from grace into a burden too hard to bear.

We should not be surprised that from this religious Irish Catholic background Fr. Senan chose to become a nurse - a way of life that is at the service of healing. He was only 19 years of age when he went to the north of England for training, not without being interrupted by the quest for monastic life founded on prayer and manual work within a common life. You can say that Fr. Senan was a restless soul in many ways. He went from the North of England to the United States, then to London Richmond where he was responsible for a whole ward at the Star & Garter Hospital…

All this came to a stop when he entered Caldey at the age of 51 in 1988. However, his caring qualities were called upon during his time as the island’s guestmaster to which he responded to very generously for over 18 years.

His cross was vertical and horizontal and he had the natural ability to combine both in his meeting with people. He was able to sit alongside and connect just by being who he was and, of course, he could laugh and what initial barriers the Irish craic broke down. But he was always the true monk and we all knew that his work at the guest house was the way he served his Lord who always came first, but never without his ongoing struggle with worries and fears, though!

His heart went out to many who came to him for advice, for encouragement, and when he was ordained to the priesthood he was in great demand to hear confessions.

Senan was very adamant about the practice of celebrating the sacred mysteries, he couldn’t bear any form of shilly-shalliness. Things had to be ‘just right’!

The celebration of Holy Mass meant everything to him, right to the very end of his life, for just before he passed away he said, ‘I want to stay here at Mass’, and there he was: the Lord took him to the heavenly table.

‘You have prepared a banquet for me in the sight of my foes, You have anointed my head with oil, my cup is overflowing. Surely, goodness and kindness shall follow me all the days of my life, In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell, for ever and ever’ (Psalm 23)