- The collection last Sunday was €1,065.00.
- The collection today is for Trócaire. In theory, this collection is exclusively for those who have not taken Trócaire boxes to their homes. But I don't know how a collection like that would work in practice!
Events This Week
- EASTER LITURGY MEETING: We would love to have a meeting in connection with the Easter Liturgy on tomorrow night, Monday, at 8.00. We will concentrate especially on the Easter Vigil. If you think you could help in any way at all, please come along. It is an extremely complex service and there will be no shortage of roles! So 8.00 on Monday night, 29th of March, in the front room.
- HUNGER AWARENESS CAMPAIGN: This group will meet in the Priory dining room for a 'working session' on Monday night at 8.00.
- LOURDES PILGRIMAGE (A): The Galway Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes will take place this year from the 1st to the 6th July. It will be led by the bishop. All-in fare will be €610. Special arrangements and accommodation will be provided for the sick and the invalided near the Grotto at a reduced price of €470. For more information on the latter facility, contact Fr. Martin Moran at Merlin Park Hospital (757631). All bookings through Fahy Travel, Bridge St. (594747)
- LOURDES PILGRIMAGE (B): This year the parish here will once again sponsor one person to travel on the above pilgrimage. The person will be advanced in years and someone for whom the cost of the pilgrimage would otherwise be a considerable financial burden. If anyone can think of someone qualifying under the above criteria, pass the name on to me and I will approach them discretely. I would really welcome a few names being submitted.
AS I WAS SAYING...
So the ban on smoking in the workplace comes into effect tomorrow. Who could have foreseen this development twenty years ago, or even ten? It would have been political suicide. But now, according to all the available polls, the ban has widespread support, even among smokers! (Talk about turkeys voting for Christmas!).
So what lies behind such a revolution in social attitudes? After all, we are regularly told that we are still recovering from over a century of hectoring by an excessively 'nanny Church'. No area of life was safe from her prying ecclesiastical eyes. So are we exchanging one nanny for another? If we are to judge by the two Smoke Police I heard explaining the workings of the new law during the week, it would certainly seem so. 'Is it true that an Irish trucker driver smoking in his cab in Lithuania is open to arrest for breaking the law?' Pat Kenny asked the Smoke Police. 'That is so', replied the poe-faced enforcer! This sort of stuff brings the law into disrepute even before the law is brought in!
The obvious reason for the new law enjoying such a widespread consensus is no doubt related to health. The lethal consequences of smoking have been known and accepted for almost half a century now. (By everyone except the tobacco companies, that is.) Of course when it was established that passive smoking was also damaging, obvious questions were posed. If damage was confined to the smoker alone, then a strong case could be made for the libertarian principle, 'freedom of choice': 'it's my own life and whether I shorten it or not through smoking is a decision for me to make.'
A case could even be made that the passive smoker had made a free choice to position himself beside the smoker. Population density didn't actually require such proximity! However, when the passive smoker is there because of work requirements, we are dealing with a different issue. The libertarian argument has gone out.
Despite all this healthy talk, I still enjoy a mischief maker stinging our earnest Minister for Health in the backside. Moore McDowell, a UCD economist played that role admirably this week. He opposes the measure, not because of any craving for nicotine, but because he doesn't believe the State should intrude so comprehensively into the life of the citizen. After all, anything over 12 units of alcohol a week is bad for the body. It is so obvious that over-consumption of alcohol is detrimental to the health of the wider community. Why not issue ration books? Present your book at the pub counter and have it stamped for every drink! If you exceed 12 units within any 7 days, the publican must refuse you! And as for cream buns......
But smoking costs the health services millions of Euro annually, he was told. "95% of all spending on health takes place in the three weeks before death" he retorted. Doctors don't actually save life. The really successful ones sometimes alter the cause and the timing of death! Previous generations, he argued, shunned pleasure in order to live upright, moral lives. And the rewards were believed to be eternal. Now the state is asking us to shun pleasure for healthy lives! And the rewards are known to be temporal! The previous generations struck the better bargain. After all, most of us now must wait until the next life before we experience a decent whiff of smoke!
-Dick Lyng.
THE LATE MARY MAHONEY
Mary, from Ballybrit, died suddenly in her sleep on Thursday night last. She was a great friend of the Augustinian all her life. Many of you will be familiar with her from her attendance the 10.00 Mass every day. It was her usual practice to come into the Priory for a cup of tea and a chat (but especially the chat!) afterwards. Mary could talk for Ireland! She had a great sense of fun and the capacity to absorb whatever slings and arrows were thrown at her in fun.
She enjoyed company, and she was herself great company. She loved a party as much as any man or woman I ever knew. She was a regular feature at the Summer Barbecue and, invariably, she was among the last to leave.
The highlight of her year was the Galway Races. She was actually a very shrewd judge of horses and she was very generous with her tips (in every sense!), all of which may be explained by the fact that she lived beside the racecourse in Ballybrit. Her generosity was legendary. Only last week, for no obvious reason, she arrived at the Augustinian with a beautiful new pullover for myself. In fact the last sighting we had of her was on Thursday last as she emerged from The Newstand on Middle Street. She had just purchased some Scratch Cards there for Nora, a patron of the Augustinian who is often down on her luck!
Mary's husband died many years ago. Her daughter Margaret was buried from the Augustinian about five years ago. Mary's body will be brought to the Augustinian on Monday night at 7.00. She will be buried in Bohermore after her Funeral Mass at 11.00 on Tuesday. She will be greatly missed.
HOLY WEEK AND EASTER, 2004
CONFESSIONS: Thursday: 11.00-12.30; 4.00-6.00 Friday: 11.00-12.00 ; 6.30-8.00 Saturday: 11.00-1.00; 2.30-3.30; 5.00-6.00 PENITENTIAL SERVICES: Wednesday: 8.00 Saturday: 4.00 EASTER SERVICES: Holy Thursday: 8.00: Mass of the Lord' s Supper 9.00-11.00: Eucharistic Adoration Good Friday: 12.00: Stations of the Cross. 3.00: The Lord's Passion. 8.00: Galway Gospel Singers. Holy Saturday: 9.00: Easter Vigil. Easter Sunday: Usual Sunday programme.
Ecclesiastical Time Warp
A still feudal Church struggles to meet the modern world as the modern world merges with post-modern currents of thought that threaten religious belief as we know it. We may not have reason to be afraid, but we have abundant reason to be anxious. And as history makes clear, where anxiety dwells, imagination shrivels, denial thrives, and control becomes obsessive. An anxious Church bureaucracy displays precisely these characteristics: denial, legalism, controlling power and fearfilled secrecy.
-Donald Cozzens, Sacred Silence, Page 6.
COMING EVENTS AT SUAIMHNEAS, BALLYLOUGHAUN ROAD, RENMORE.
Phone 091-753515.
Wednesday March 31st, 8:00pm - 9:30pm: Preparing for Seder Meal Celebration on April 7th. Scriptural background and Eucharist overtones of Jewish Passover. Facilitators: Srs. Mary Glennon and Judith Kirwan. (€5:00) Wednesday April 7th, 8:00 pm -10:00pm: Celebration of Seder Meal (Passover) Cost: €5:00 Saturday, April 3rd, 2:00pm-4:30pm: Reflection and Relaxation for Wheelchair Users, Carers and Helpers. All welcome. Cost: €5:00 Afternoon tea provided. Saturday April l0th, 10:30am-4:30pm: Day of Prayer on the Easter theme. Facilitator: Rev. Pat Murray. Cost: €25:00.
"Quote, Unquote........ "
- "Mirrors should think longer before they reflect." -Jean Cocteau.
- "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." -Thomas Edison.
- "Beware the conversationalist who adds 'in other words'. He is merely starting afresh." -Robert Morley.
- "There is no cure for birth and death, save to enjoy the interval." -George Santayana.
- "The young always have the same problem - how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another." -Quentin Crisp.
- "The world degenerates and grows worse every day. The calamities inflicted on Adam were light in comparison with those inflicted on us." -Martin Luther.
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