Parish Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30:Thomas Lenihan(Anniv) Bowling Green.
12.00: Nora Duggan (Anniv).
6.30: Pascal Ayers.(Months Mind).

AS I WAS SAYING.....

THE WAY WE WERE: Candlemas Day fell on a Sunday that year, as well as a lot of snow My joy at trudging through the snow to Mass was tempered by the job that only a mother could invent. She entrusted me with two candles to be brought to Mass for the blessing to be imparted by the priest during the ceremonies. I was then to bring them back to the house after Mass to kept safely for the coming year.

I received dire warnings that the candles were of the superior 65% wax type and I was to be sure to bring them home safely. Being a member of the choir posed a theological problem for me:could the power of the priest's blessing carry all the way up to the organ gallery?I decided that the blessing would hardly work at that distance and I gave the candles to non-singing pal of mine to deposit in the basket up at the altar rails.

After Mass came the panic, as my friend was nowhere to be seen . In my wisdom, I decided to go after my friend and now the drifting snow did not appear so friendly as I made my way out the unfamiliar road out of town. I wasn't even too sure where he lived and with the massgoers by now dispersed I turned my steps homeward. Back through the Church grounds I went and took the shortcut through the convent grounds. I met a kindly priest, who solved my theological scruples. He brought me up to the altar rails where there baskets of candles and told me to take my pick. I explained how candles were of different qualities to the bemused curate. as I picked out the candles of the deepest yellow. They passed muster at home anyway.

Mass-servers aren't of the same quality nowadays. In our time, we had to learn all the Latin responses. It wasn't enough to know them-you had to have speed control as well, so that you rattled off the responses in the same rhythm as the different priests. You started as an apprentice at Suday Mass when you would be kept in the middle with the veterans on each side of you. They performed all the important tasks, like ringing the bell, going up with the cruets at the offertory, or carrying the paten at Communion. A beginner was lucky if he got to go around before the Communion to turn the cloth over the Communion rails.

Be sure that there would be plenty of experienced altar boys at the Mass, who would spot any liturgical blunders made by the new boys. Lighting candles was a very skilled job-you carried a long rod with a taper holder on top. Every now and then you would encounter a stubborn candle that would refuse to light and you just knew that hundreds of eyes were watching your predicament.

Around the first of November there were records to be made. A Plenary indulgence was to be gained for the Holy Souls by visiting the Church and saying a prescribed amount of prayers. Our understanding was that we were releasing a soul with each visit. There would be great milling around the door of the Church as boys and girls shot in and out to save souls. Extraordinary records were claimed, but we just knew the claimant didn't play fairly.

-Anon

By the way.......

Hunger Awareness Campaign.

Regrettably, this group has been inactive for the last number of months. This is not too surprising really, given that it was Summer and a lot of other Church re- lated work occupied most of us since the move to St. Nicholas' was begun.

The problem of World Hunger, particularly in Africa, enjoyed no such holiday. Indeed, the news from that Continent continues to disimprove. We read daily of the painful problems in Niger, Ethiopia and elsewhere. Men, Women and particularly Children are still dying in their thousands. Sometimes it seems totally hopeless.

But it is not and we can help. The Summer also brought to the fore once again some of the leading Rock Stars who caused huge publicity to be centred on the problem. Bob Geldof was in the vanguard of that effort and it was nice to see him named as Person of the Year at a recent TV presentation.

Our own humble efforts earlier this year succeeded in reaching the target we had set ourselves and a small water scheme was completed in Southern Ethiopia with our contribu- tion of €11,000. Trocaire were thrilled and very thankful.

It is hoped to convene a meeting in the near future and this is just to give you a chance to consider joining our group. The meeting will be flagged here soon.

-Cathal Cunningham.

The Harvest Moon

The flame-red moon, the harvest moon,
Rolls along the hills, gently bouncing,
A vast balloon,
Till it takes off, and sinks upward
To lie on the bottom of the sky, like a gold doubloon.
The harvest moon has come,
Booming softly through heaven, like a bassoon.
And the earth replies all night, like a deep drum.

So people can't sleep,
So they go out where elms and oak trees keep
A kneeling vigil, in a religious hush.
The harvest moon has come!

And all the moonlit cows and all the sheep
Stare up at her petrified, while she swells
Filling heaven, as if red hot, and sailing
Closer and closer like the end of the world.

Till the gold fields of stiff wheat
Cry `We are ripe, reap us!' and the rivers
Sweat from the melting hills.

Ted Hughes

IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH

Watching Alzheimer's progress..your loved one as a child, hoping he wasn't aware of his incapabilities. Following, to protect him from harm when he wandered, treating him with respect and dignity as an adult even though regression to childhood had taken place.

He started to find it difficult to complete words, sentences. At night, he'd be in and out of bed, going here, going there. I'd coax him back, he'd be out again within seconds, forgetting he was just out, he was by the way going to milk a cow, going to work, to visit someone...some nights and many of them were like this, he would get aggressive and agitated at me for stopping him. I found it very exhausting. However with the love I had for him I coped. Sometimes my tiredness and frustration showed in quiet reprimand of the same question asked of me over and over again. Having to repeat an answer, sorry afterwards remembering that he had forgotten he had just asked.

Usually by the "end" we mean death, but in a way the "end" came at the beginning when John became ill. I lost him then and have been grieving since, the loneliness is hard to explain, then grief stricken when he died last year.

-Taken from Alzheimer's-Stories of Caring.

The little collection of touching stories is available at the Mass Office in Ozanam House.