On his journey back to Ireland, he passed through Maredsous, Belgium – a young and dynamic monastery founded 9 years before (in 1872) by Benedictine monks from the Abbey of Beuron, Germany. He wished very much to join the community there. But his archbishop in Ireland refused his request to do so and appointed him as curate at Dundrum, a parish in the south of Dublin. After a year, he was appointed Professor of Metaphysics at Holy Cross College at Clonliffe, the diocesan seminary for Dublin where Marmion himself had studied. For the next four years (1882–1886) he embarked on the education and spiritual direction of others, including his appointment as chaplain to a nearby convent.