Sunday Newsletter
Masses Today
6.30: Anne Marie Gavin, (Anniv).11.00 Annie Duggan; Bridie and Edward Mayne, (RIP).
6.30: Michael Burke, (Anniv).
- Masses Sunday, December 28th: 11.00: Rita & Michael Moten.
- COLLECTION LAST SUNDAY: €2015.00.
- COMMUNION TO THE SICK: We will take Holy Communion to the sick and the house-bound on Tuesday morning next, the morning before Christmas Eve. If you are aware of anyone in your neighbourhood in the parish of St. Augustine who is house-bound, please contact us.
- THE CHRISTMAS AMNESTY: Don't forget the two Penitential Services pending this week: Monday night at 7.30 and Christmas Eve at 4.30. Experience tells us that these are the times most suitable for people generally. Would you please inform your friends. These services have grown steadily in popularity over the years. Both services will last about 45 minutes.
- MASS OF GIVING LAST SUNDAY: Thanks to all who contributed to the 'Giving Tree' this year. (Over €1,000 was donated in cash alone, no counting vouchers). Four charities in the city, together with over 30 individuals, were the beneficiaries. Thanks to Bernadette O'Rourke and Mary Taylor, all gifts were sorted and distributed by Thursday evening last. Again, thank you all for your great generosity.
- NATIVITY MASS: Today of course is the one we waited for! The first part of our 11.00 Mass (Liturgy of the Word) will be presented in pageant form by the children who frequent this Mass every Sunday. They have rehearsed tirelessly and they now have all of their lines off. This promises to be a great celebration. Incidentally, the congregation will have a part to play in the proceedings. But more of that anon!
- GENTLEMAN IN RED: A surprise guest is confidently expected to make an appearance in the Priory after Mass today. Please treat him with the deference and respect old age deserves!
- CHRISTMAS DUES: If you haven't yet got your Christmas Dues envelope... well, all is not lost! Just convey your deep sense of disappointment to us and we will quickly make good the omission!
As I Was Saying...
Today is children's day in the Augustinian, a wonderful day. To the child, Christmas is magic. And Christmas provides so much material to feed the youthful imagination: darkness: twinkling lights, snow-filled scenes, glowing cribs, and stories of a portly, jolly figure whose generosity and mobility knows no bounds. This is all grist to the many mills of the infant imagination. Just watch their eyes pop as they greet Santa in the Priory this morning! Christmas provides children with memories that will sustain them for a lifetime. We should be conscious of this reality: we adults create Christmas for children. It is an awesome responsibility. The children's Mass is an effort to live up to that responsibility from a religious perspective.
In the context of Christmas today, a few obvious questions arise: has consumerism (though itself now diminished) diminished Christmas? If toys are available every day, how special is Christmas Day? How much of our giving is motivated by our guilt? Do we secretly fear that our children will measure our love by the size of the presents we shower on them? Without wishing to be a spoil-sport, I do believe these questions merit some attention!
Obviously, Christmas is not the preserve of children only. The whole family is drawn into the preparations. It is a fabulous festival in that everyone makes a special effort to make it to their own 'Bethlehem' for Christmas Day at least. But the festival makes high demands, especially on those who provide and prepare the fare. Christmas as we celebrate it today was the creation of our middle class Victorians ancestors. Of course the Victorians had servants in abundance, so the preparation of the Christmas dinner was no big deal. The Christmas dinner remains as part of their legacy. The servants, however, have gone! So the greater part of the burden tends to fall on two shoulders!
Christmas tends to idealise the nuclear family. However, there are many people in Ireland today for whom the traditional nuclear family is no longer a reality. Many find themselves in second relationships of varying degrees of 'irregularity'. At the more extreme end of the scale are those without a roof over their heads. All of these may feel excluded to one extent or another from the feast. It is rather ironic that the homeless should feel excluded from the birthday of one who was born homeless!
Christmas is such a busy time; so many people to be catered for, so many chores to be done. And the coming week will be the busiest of all. Yet, despite the current financial 'melt-down', it can be such a marvellous time, such a happy time. People are at their most generous, at their most humane. And I don't mean that materially. Generosity of spirit is in the air around Christmas. That is entirely appropriate since the event we are commemorating merits such a response: the generosity of God in sending his Son as a vulnerable baby, born to a couple of homeless paupers who were bonded together in a seemingly 'irregular union'. That baby would grow up to show us how to live, how to love, and how to die. No one like him ever appeared before, or since. Have a lovely Christmas.
-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.
- CAROL SERVICE: The annual Carol Service in St. Nicholas' Church will be held this afternoon, Sunday December 21st at 4.00. This is the 'Mother of all Carol Services', with the gowned Mayor and Corporation members present. As you know, this is always a crowded and very enjoyable service, so you will need to get there about 20 minutes beforehand if you wish to get a seat.
Farewell Dinner for Patrick Towers
As announced here last week, The Rev'd Patrick Towers will retire as Rector of St. Nicholas's Collegiate Church on his 65th birthday, January 31st, 2009. In order to show our appreciation of his friendship and support during his tenure as Rector, the Parish of St. Augustine's will host a Farewell Dinner for Patrick and his wife Anne at the Ardilaun Hotel on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 7.30, a mere two weeks from Friday next. The idea is that this function should 'double' as a Parish Christmas Party also. With the many demands on people in these difficult times, it makes no sense to organise two festive functions at the same time of year for the same constituency. So this single function will kill two birds with the one stone, but the primary target should be obvious.
We 'guesstimated' 150 guests. But the hotel will need to know precise numbers well in advance. The only way of organising this properly is to have it as an all-ticket affair. We are in the process of printing the tickets. In the meantime, we will book a ticket for you if you give us your name. You will find some people after Mass in the Church this morning who will take your name. While the function is subsidised by the Parish to a small extent, we will still be asking guests to contribute €40 each to defray costs. We are very conscious of the fact that €40 (€80 per couple) is a very considerable sum. But if we went any lower, we would have to downgrade to buffet status. Given our age profile, I don't think that would be a good idea. Bear in mind that most weddings now cost €70!
CHRISTMAS VARIES
"There are lots of Christmases. There's the quiet one, which seems to occur for most people every year, and yet always seems to be spoken of as if it arrived as a mighty surprise: 'Wasn't it a very quite Christmas this year?', 'Oh indeed sure it's over before you know it, after all the preparation.'
Then of course there's the child's Christmas, and not quiet at all, but a Christmas of glistening eyes, and lit faces, and hopes, and excitement that turns to tiredness and crying, and overeating that satiates or sickens children of all ages.
There's the drinking Christmas too, excuse for some, tiring round for others, 'habitually cited as exhausting and rarely as satisfying,' as an American writer put it.
There's the homecoming Christmas too which touches in its way the Christmas that God began. At this time above all, Christ achieves some sign of his promise to the world."
-the late Fr. Tom Waldron.
CHRISTMAS SCRAPS
- PARISH CALENDAR: A Parish Calendar, complete with all relevant parish information, is available in the Church after all Masses this weekend. (It wasn't ready in time for inclusion in the 'dues package' that I sent to your homes last week by post). In addition, you will find there, clearly marked, all the relevant information to be found on any traditional Catholic calendar. It will be available in the Priory Office during Christmas week. This is available free of charge.
- AUGUSTINIAN CHOIR CD: The Augustinian Choir CD, conducted with great flourish and panache by il Maistro himself, called 'To Sing is to Pray Twice', is available after the 11.00 Mass this Sunday morning at the very modest price of €15 each, (2 for €25). This ideal Christmas gift, which I am reliably assured travels very well, is available throughout the week in the Priory Office.