Sunday Newsletter
Masses Today
6.30: Gerry Lennon (Whitehall), (Anniv).11.00 Bridget, Raymond & Edward Moloney, (RIP).
6.30: Gerry Ward, Jack and Bridget Ward, (Anniv).
- Masses Sunday, December 14th: 6.30: Margaret Conneely; 11.00: Tim & Bella Murray; John Joyce; 6.30: Pascal Seary.
- RECENTLY DECEASED: Pray for the late Denis (Donnchadh) Manning, Wellpark Grove, who died on Wednesday last. He is survived by his wife Nora, and five children. His brother Sean Manning is President of St. Mary's College in Galway. His funeral Mass was celebrated here in the Augustinian on Saturday last, followed by burial in Rahoon cemetery. May he rest in peace.
- COLLECTION LAST SUNDAY: €1,422.00.
- FEAST ON MONDAY: Monday next, December 8th, is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and a Church Holiday. Times of Masses here: 8.30, 11.00, 1.10, and 6.30. Please note that there is no longer a Mass at 10.00 on Holy Days.
- NEW ENVELOPES TODAY: We will be distributing the new sets of weekly collection envelopes after all Masses today. Since we introduced this system, our collections have increased by almost one third. We appeal to those who are not yet in the scheme to sign up. There is a considerable 'tax kick-back' to the Church at the end of each year. For ease of organisation, two lists of names will be posted on the board beside the new envelope boxes. Opposite your name will be written your number. Please ensure that you retain your old number going into the new year. Otherwise, there will be desperate confusion. We will do the distribution at the end of the Mass. Please don't rush off without your envelope (even if the roast is in the oven!) Thank you for your patience and your generosity.
- ADVENT PROGRAMME: The final session of our Advent programme on the conversion of St. Paul will be held on Wednesday night next, December 10th at 7.45. All who attended found it to be a worthwhile experience. You are not too late yet!
As I Was Saying...
The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) was established in 2001 as a statutory organisation responsible for key areas of broadcasting services in Ireland. One of its functions is to ensure that materials submitted comply with legislation regarding advertising directed 'towards a religious end.'
As I understand it, this seems to prohibit all advertising that would be judged to promote a religious viewpoint. For a start, the logic of this ban escapes me.
You may recall that the BCI fell foul of the bishops on this score last year. Veritas is of course an agency of the Irish Catholic Bishops. Among other activities, it promotes religious literature and devotional material. In the run-up to Christmas last year, it decided to get a slice of the 'consumer action': the agency placed a seemingly innocuous radio advertisement for a Christmas Crib with RTE. RTE got back to the good bishops saying, "Drop the word 'crib' or this advert won't pass muster with the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland."
Understandably, the bishops were hopping mad. They issued a statement last year, which read in part:
Whether it is in the editing of a Veritas advertisement, or a ban on the Nativity play; or, by discontinuing the placement of a crib in a hospital foyer, we are asking Christians to reflect on - and protect - what is the true spirit of Advent and Christmas, namely: a time to reflect on our life journey and to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. All this is both an affront to Christians and an insult to common sense.
Wouldn't you think that the politicians, the BCI and the RTE people would have got their act together this year. But not a bit of it. Just read the script of the ad they found unacceptable this year. This was their THIRD attempt to meet the requirements':
"Cake and crackers, Santa and stockings, turkey and tinsel, Mistletoe and mince pies, and presents and puddings. Christmas: aren't we forgetting something? This Christmas, why not give a gift that means more? Veritas has a range of different and thoughtful gifts, for children and adults alike. From books and music to candles and artwork, there is something for everyone to enjoy and treasure. So to give a gift that means more, drop into your local Veritas shop or log on to www.veritas.ie"
That may seem harmless to you and me. But not to our friends in the BCI. They deemed that the following three lines were "offensive to the legislation": "Christmas: aren't we forgetting something?"; "Why not give a gift that means more?"; and "So to give a gift that means more" These three lines were judged to be hostile to the Common Good! This is the judgment of a crowd who allowed a 'comedian' to degrade the disabled and Travellers!!
This "Ban Christmas" edict stuff normally emanates from some crackpot, jumped-up, post-polytechnic subdepartment of a local authority in the UK, with a semi-developed notion of political correctness. But now, two years in succession, this stuff has come from an Irish state agency, financed by the Irish tax-payer. Those BCI fellows should be sent packing immediately. They are no longer a bad joke!
-Dick Lyng
Christmas Programme
| CHRISTMAS MASSES: | |
|---|---|
| First Mass of Christmas: | 12.00 Midnight Christmas Eve |
| Christmas Day Mass: | 11.00 |
| CONFESSIONS: | |
| Monday, 22nd: | 12.00-12.45; 3.30-5.30. |
| Tuesday, 23rd: | 11.30-12.30; 3.30-5.30. |
| Wednesday 24th: | 11.30-12.30; 2.30-4.00. |
| PENITENTIAL SERVICES: | |
| Monday, 22nd: | 7.30 |
| Wednesday 24th: | 4.30 |
Please Note: During the week following Christmas, there will be just one Mass daily in the Augustinian: 11.00. On most days, the Priory Office will open for a brief period after that Mass.
- MASS OF GIVING SUNDAY NEXT: The Giving Trees have been in place for some time now. If you haven't already done so, pick a label off the tree. Purchase the item named there and bring it back to the Church on or before Sunday next for the Mass of Giving. The gifts will then be distributed to the needy in good time for Christmas.
- CHILDREN'S SUNDAY: This will be held on Sunday December 21st, when the Liturgy of the Word will be presented in pageant form, or a Nativity Play. Work is well advanced on this project. Children will remain back after the 11.00 Mass today for another brief rehearsal.
- CHRISTMAS DUES: The Christmas Dues envelopes will be winging their way towards your homes this week. Greet them as you would a long-lost friend!
- TREE OF REMEMBRANCE: In remembrance of our loved ones during the Christmas Season, a Tree of Remembrance is being placed inside the gates of the New Cemetery and Rahoon. All are welcome to bring along a red ribbon to tie to the tree in memory of those who have gone before us.
- MASS OF REMEMBRANCE: On Sunday next, December 14th the annual Mass for those babies who died at or around birth will be celebrated in UCG Chapel at 6.00.
Crosby's Poetic Flight
Evelyn Waugh, the novelist, had a deep hatred of the poet Stephen Spender. Many believed that this hatred was born of a professional jealousy, akin to the way the pigeon regards the helicopter. 'To see Spender fumbling with our rich and delicate language', wrote Waugh, 'is to experience all the horror of seeing a Ming vase in the hands of a chimpanzee.' These weighty matters came to mind as I attended the launch of Fr. Ned Crosby's latest book of poetry, 'Windows', on Thursday. When it comes to language, Ned is no chimpanzee, in either prose or poetry.
The writing of poetry is a tedious business, apparently. Oscar Wilde confirmed this: 'I was working on the proof of one of my poems all morning' he wrote, 'and I took out a single comma. In the afternoon I put it back in!'
I first met Ned Crosby over 20 years ago in his 'Tigeen' up at Hillside. He was living in conditions far from ideal. We sat in a kitchen furnished only with an electric kettle and the works of Robert Browning. I concluded that poetry has a priority in his rather chaotic life.
Ned's personality, such as it is, is a strange hybrid of an optimist and a pessimist. He expects the best from the worst, and the worst from the best. George Bernard Shaw said that the optimist and pessimist are both essential to society. The optimist invented the airplane, he said, and the pessimist the parachute. I suspect that, in his days in Hillside, the electric kettle was the Ned's airplane and Browning's poetry his parachute.
Ned Crosby is a priest of the Galway diocese. He has worked in Ireland and in Peru. But, he has always found himself working with those on the margins. To many, he was the only parachute to hand. His poetry is the product of those 'marginalised' experiences, and many of his poems reflect that deep compassion for the troubled human being, be they prisoner, priest or pauper. These poems are 'Pastoral Poem', in the sense that they are the poems of a compassionate pastor.
What then of the relationship between the priest and the poet, between ritual and poetic rigour, between liturgy and literature, between the chalice and the inkwell. Some say that, since religion has failed the modern world, the poet is the only true priest left in civil society. The Nigerian writer Ben Okri is one:
If you want to know what is happening in an age or in a nation, find out what is happening to the writers, the town-criers. For they are the harbingers of impending earthquakes in the spirit of the times. Are the writers sleeping? Then the age is in a dangerous dream.
Seamus Heaney has demurred, however. He has written of the poet and the priest being 'Ministers of the Word', without rivalry or rancour, because 'Poetry is a ratification of the impulse towards transcendence.' It questions, but it affirms too.
Ned Crosby has questioned and affirmed all his life. Through his patient presence by their side, he has persuaded the doubtful of their human dignity. For poet or priest, there is no higher calling. Ned, may you continue to persuade.
-Dick Lyng.