EVENTS THIS WEEK
- QUIET TIME: We planned an Advent tape for a 'quiet hour' in the Church. A lot of work has been done on this. Seasonal music, poetry and scripture readings are featured there. Gearóid Lacey has overall responsibility for the project. We had planned to do further recording this week but, due to circumstances beyond his control, Gearóid finds this impossible. (He is going to the States during the week). However, we do have two MiniDiscs with a running time of 40 minutes each. That should be sufficient for our needs. To those people who volunteered to work on the tape again during the coming week, apologies.
- CHRISTMAS MEETING: We held our Liturgy Meeting (in reality a Parish meeting) in preparation for Christmas on Thursday night last. It was reasonably well attended and we managed to draw a lot of strands together. Various people took responsibility for various tasks. We will meet again on Thursday week next, December 5th at 8.00 to review matters.
- JESSE TREE: This exercise will begin on Sunday next, December 1st, and will continue through the four Sundays of Advent. As usual, it will be carried out by the children. However, we will approach the matter differently this year. The children will withdraw from the church the Priory at the beginning of the Mass. While the Liturgy of the Word is being conducted in the Church, the children will be occupied in preparing the items for decorating the Jesse Tree. They will return to the Church after the homily, bring the 'tree decorations' forward in the Offertory Procession and then decorate the tree. We will follow the same pattern for the four Sundays of Advent. (We would welcome adult volunteers to supervise this exercise).
- NATIVITY MASS: The children from St. Pat's School will have their Christmas Mass and Nativity play in the church here on Saturday, December 14th at 6.30.
AS I WAS SAYING...
Changes are now afoot in society, and in our city here, that will have a profound effect on the shape of the city and the Church in 20 years time. These changes will make new demands upon us, both in terms of personnel and in terms of imagination. Different people will react in different ways to these changes. Many will deny the reality outright. ('Our churches are still full' mentality). Others, while conceding the reality, will deny its long-term consequences ('There will be a turn-around in the near future'). Still others will throw up their hands in despair and concede their powerlessness in the face of an inexorable force. This leads to an unhealthy and paralysing fatalism.
However, we do have a responsibility to 'read the signs of the times' as best we can, and to strive to readjust accordingly. As Christians, we believe that this is the world to which we are now called to minister; this is the world that still cries out for the healing touch of Christ. So the central question is: "How can we be realistic and, at the same time, keep our hearts alive with Christian hope?" How can we provide NOW for a healthy future?
Today there are 1,329 parishes in the country. There were 4,666 diocesan priests active in Ireland in 1992. This had declined to 3,051 by 1999, representing a decline of almost 37% in that seven-year period. If that trend continues (and we have no convincing reason to believe that it will not), we are talking (optimistically) about 500 diocesan priests active in Ireland in 2021. With 1,329 parishes still? Obviously, present structures will be totally inadequate and unsuitable to the new reality.
While we do not know what God has in store for us, we do know that he is beside us as a guiding presence. So we face the future with confidence. Mark Patrick Hederman, OSB, has some encouraging observations on the dilemmas we face. We are not powerless when facing the future:
"The future is not something out there that we step into as an already designed space. The future is ourselves as we choose to become, melded with the world as we inherit it and as we choose to arrange it. The future is alive with possibility to the extent that we are open to change."As Church leaders, our first challenge must be to harness the talent and the goodwill that is there in abundance in every parish in the country. The Church is first and foremost a caring community, a community of Christians who will watch out for each other, support each other, recognise their mutual dependence on each other, and their ultimate dependence on God. The community will come alive only if the hidden talents are unveiled.
If handled properly, this crisis could transpire to be a great blessing. As clergy, we thought the whole 'show' was ours to rule and run as we so wished. We created a Church 'in our own image and likeness' and the result was not particularly attractive. Present circumstances are forcing us to do and to view things differently. This, surely, is no bad thing. It is, in fact, a blessing. We should embrace it as such!
-Dick Lyng.
Handel's Messiah
Handel's Messiah will be performed in the Augustinian Church on Saturday December 7th at 8.00pm by the Galway Choral Association and the Kerry Chamber Orchestra. Tickets at €15 (€10 concessions) available in Mulligan's. You would be well advised to secure your tickets early for this one. This same groups staged the same 'show' in the cathedral here last year and they played to a full house! For further information, contact Maureen Rabbitt.
Giving Tree in Church
As and from Sunday next, December 1st, the Giving Tree will be in place in the Church, just outside the sanctuary. We have been in touch with local charities and are in the process of drawing up a list of their needs. These needs will then be written down on individual labels and these labels will then be hanged on the Giving Tree. You will be invited to examine these labels, to take away one with you, and to purchase the item named on it. You will then return the present to the Priory during the week or, preferably, to the Mass of Giving at 11.00 on Sunday December 15th.
Calling all young people......
We will meet after Mass today in the front room with the Teenagers (13-20 years) and young children (4 years to 13 years). We must get your ideas on what we should be doing in the Church for Christmas. Perhaps we could have a Mass for Young People on Sunday December 22nd. Some people suggested that we put a very short 'Nativity Play' together for that Mass? What would you think of that? It would be no more than 10 minutes long and would replace the Homily at the Mass? We will meet after Mass to discuss these and other matters related to the Christmas.
Incidentally, there is a rumour doing the rounds that an old codger with a red coat and a beer-stained white beard will be calling to the Augustinian on some Sunday before Christmas. If I hear any more about this I will inform you immediately!
The Church and Christmas
Before we begin to think of decorating the Church for Advent and Christmas, we need to clean it up after the Harvest and the November Services of Remembrance.
The gadget for grating turnips is still in the sanctuary for the simple reason that it is extremely heavy. It would require the of four strong, fit men to move it safely. The Banners need to be replaced with Advent ones also. This needs to be done before Sunday next. What night?
Table Quiz for Noel Hession
As you will gather from the 'flyer' contained in the missalette this weekend, we have now finalised plans for the benefit Table Quiz for Noel Hession in Ecuador. It will be held on Tuesday, December 3rd at 8.00pm in the Ardilaun Hotel. Please spread the word among your friends (and even your enemies!). Perhaps you might display the poster in a public place? We regard the night as a Social Night for the parish as well as a fund-raiser for Noel.
Christmas Concert
Early last Summer a groups of local singers and musicians got together to form what would eventually be called "The Galway Gospel Choir". As you will gather from the name, their principal interest is in Gospel songs, in 'Spirituals' and in singing for the sheer love of it. They will present an evening of Gospel Songs and Christmas Carols in the Augustinian Church on Friday, December 13th at 8.00pm. No tickets necessary. But a contribution will be welcome at the door on the night.
"Quote, Unquote........ "
- "One would have to have a heart of stone to read the life of Little Nell without laughing." -Oscar Wilde.
- "Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer." -Charles Colton.
- "In baiting the mouse-trap with cheese always leave room for the mouse." -Hector Hugh Munro.
- "The question is this: Is man an ape or an angel? I, my lord, am on the side of the angels." -Benjamin Disraeli.
- "He looked at me as if I were a side-dish he hadn't ordered." -Ring Lardner.
- "Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down." -Robert Frost.
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