Field Note: Holy Interruptions at Friary of Ross

Field Note No. 001 - The Friary at Sunset Ross Errilly Friary, County Galway

There are moments on the road that feel like they weren’t planned for you so much as whispered in your direction — this was one of them.

The sun was setting slow and sure over the fields of County Galway, casting gold over stone and sky. I wandered into the crumbling walls of the Ross Errilly Friary, the grass damp beneath my sneakers, the silence held between centuries-old arches. Cows grazed nearby, unbothered by time, as if they, too, were permanent residents of this sacred hush.

The sky turned a painter’s palette of color — lavender, rose, tangerine. The crosses stood silhouetted, sharp against the softness, and everything — every stone, every shadow — seemed to exhale.

It was the kind of moment that interrupts your inner monologue. That presses pause on the noise and hands you something better: stillness, reverence, a reminder that beauty isn’t always loud.