Sunday Newsletter
Masses Today
6.30: Paddy Melia, (Anniv).11.00 Monica Duggan, (Anniv); Noreen and Cyril Duncan (grandson, recently deceased).
6.30: Kenneth Owen, (Anniv).
- Masses Sunday, November 30th: 6.30: Thomas & Josephine McNamara (Lombard St.); Sean & Rosetta Keogh; William & Joan Kelleher.
- ANNIVERSARY: Remember in your prayers the late Myles Lee, whose anniversary occurs this weekend.
- COLLECTION LAST SUNDAY: €2,045.00.
- ADVENT PROGRAMME: The first session of three in our Advent Programme begins on Wednesday night next, November 26th at 8.00pm in the Priory here. This webbased programme is run by the Augustinian Retreat House at Orlagh in Dublin. What happens is as follows: a local parish group will gather and listen via broadband to a 30 minute talk on some scriptural topic. The group will then discuss the content of the talk for another 30 minutes. The group will then participate for another 30 minutes in a Q & A session with the presenters via a telephone conference. The topic for this Advent is: "Foolishness or Wisdom - Paul's journey to faith in Jesus." We already have all the technical requirements for taking up on this: a computer, broadband access, a projector and a phone line. So, we assemble in the Priory here for 8.00pm and we will throw in the ball.
- FEAST OF ST NICHOLAS: We will celebrate the Feast of St Nicholas in St. Nicholas' Church on Friday night week, December 5th at 7.30pm. This will be a full 'Sit-Down Meal' with places limited to 150, the Augustinians getting 90 tickets and St. Nick's people with a mere 60! The charge is €25 per person and tickets are already available and selling like Howth herrings on Good Friday! They are sold in both Churches on a "first-come-first-served" basis.
- RTE PROGRAMME TONIGHT: A 25-minute documentary, called "Going Home" is going out on RTE 1 tonight at 11.30. It explores the experience of relatives caring for a family member dying at home. Featuring in the film is the late Margaret Conneely and her daughter Mairead. Margaret died on September 4, 2005. RIP
As I Was Saying...
By the time this recession is over (or has started!), every man, woman and child in the country will be an economist.
Residents in the Augustinian Priory here in Galway have a unique vantage point from which to monitor the growing crisis: the dole queue, that infallible barometer of the nation's health, grows longer by the week. This visual impression was confirmed by the figures published by the CSO on Friday. Ireland's official unemployment rate increased from 5.4% to 6.3% in the past three months. The latest Quarterly National Household Survey shows that 160,600 people are now officially out of work.
Not surprisingly, the largest decline has been in the construction sector, where the total number of workers has fallen by 25,900 (9.1%) in the last 12 months.
The crisis has, apparently, both an international and a domestic dimension. There was plenty of analysis and expectation of last weekend's G20 summit. A 'second attempt' was made here to address the domestic crisis in the revamped budget this week.
In both cases, one is left wondering if cosmetic considerations were foremost in the minds of our politicians? If your car is having engine trouble, is it wise to take it out and simply have it re-sprayed? Have they the ability to recognise the need to modernise international financial institutions, to find a way out of an economic hole in which we all now find ourselves?
Economic health and wealth are common themes throughout the Bible. Lending money at interest is condemned regularly, but it must have been very common. Jesus, for instance, has a great deal to say about our attitude to money and riches. But, for him, our attitude to money is merely a symptom of our attitude to many other things and can betray our weaknesses.
At the time of Jesus, according to the Dominican Boniface Ramsey, the Roman Empire had already begun the process of disintegration. There seems to have been a tremendous misuse of wealth. The middle classes were effectively destroyed and left with virtually nothing. The Early Church Fathers recognised that it wasn't wealth itself which was the problem. The consensus of the Church Fathers is that wealth of itself is not a bad thing as long as it is properly used.
Our elected leaders must work diligently to restore confidence, and a more financially secure future. English journalist, Sean O'Grady, writing in the Independent this week, suggests that the Chancellor there "seems to believe our economy will soon enjoy the greatest comeback since Lazarus". He then adds: "He obviously believes in miracles: the world hasn't changed that much." Miracles, including economic ones, surely, like any other miracle, require not only faith, but an element of putting right or restoring something that was previously wrong.
John Donne puts it brilliantly: "There is in every miracle a silent chiding of the world, and a tacit reprehension of them who require or who need miracles."
Surely the future will not be guaranteed until we first recognise the errors of the past. We must accept some responsibility for the situation we are in. Only then can we work towards a kind of restoration which not only needs traditional faith but a certain secular repentance. Until this happens, that dole queue on Augustine St. will continue to grow.
-Dick Lyng
Advent & Christmas
- CHILDREN'S CHRISTMAS MASS: This will be held on Sunday December 21st, four clear weeks from today. You will recall that the Liturgy of the Word on that day is always presented in pageant form. Of all the Christmas liturgical events, this is the one that demands most preparation. (It is always the most enjoyable also). A script must be produced, suitable costumes created, and about twenty aspiring actors engaged. We need shepherds, sheep, singing angels, and at least three wise men. All of these children must then be put through their paces, again, and again, and again. So auditioning for the various roles begins this morning after the 11.00 Mass. Pat Lally and her able assistants will take charge of auditions and rehearsals. The best of luck to all.
- JESSE TREE: This exercise will begin on Sunday next, November 30th, the First Sunday of Advent. It will continue through the four Sundays of Advent. As usual, it will be carried out by the children. They will withdraw as usual from the church to their own Liturgy Room, where they will prepare the various symbols for the Jesse Tree. They will return to the Church after the homily, and bring the 'tree decorations' forward in the Offertory Procession. As they are decorating the tree, they will explain to the congregation the meaning of the individual symbols. We will follow the same pattern for the four Sundays of Advent. (We would welcome adult volunteers to supervise this exercise).
- ICONS FOR ADVENT: We will display six icons in the Church here for the first week of Advent, beginning on Sunday next. Each of the icons will have an Advent-related theme, like the Baptist icon (below, right). Most icons are painted using egg tempera on specially prepared wooden panels. Gold leaf is frequently used for halos and background areas. Icons may also incorporate elaborate tin, bronze or silver exterior facades that are usually highly embellished. A regular aspect of icon painting is to varnish over the image with drying oil. The majority of hand-painted icons exhibit some degree of surface varnish. They are, consequently, highly delicate objects with a strong sacramental significance in the Eastern Churches. They will be displayed in strategic locations around the body of the Church. The overall display should be an appropriate visual preparation of the Church for Advent and Christmas.
- SPECIAL NEEDS MASS: On Sunday next, November 30th, a special Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Drennan in Bearna Church at 3.30. This Liturgy is intended as a celebration for people with a learning disability, their friends and families. The Mass will be followed by a party in the Galway Bay Hotel at 5.00pm. Live music, eating and drinking! Admission €10 or €20 per family. All welcome.
Happenings
- PANTOMIME: "The Pursuit of the Yummy Mummy" is the Panto being staged this year by our neighbours in the Taibhdhearc. The show (as Gaeilge) commences next Wednesday in the Black Box and runs to the following Sunday, with matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Plenty of thrills for all the family (and the dog too!). The show is directed by our own Eamonn Draper. The shady tourist guide in the Valley of Kings is played by Gerry Ferguson.
- AN TAISCE: Will hold their Annual Lunch on Sunday, November 23rd at the Ardilaun Hotel, followed by Donal Taheny's wonderful slide show. Admission: €25. All are welcome.
- SERVICE WITH A SMILE: Are you finding it more difficult to shop and cook for yourself? Perhaps you have an elderly relative, neighbour or friend that is unable to cook for themselves and would love a meal delivered daily? Community catering is a meal service provided by Cope, with a friendly hello that suits the lifestyle choices of Galway's older people. This facility is run on a non-profit basis as a community service. The service can be temporary, in order to assist you to recover from a recent illness or can become long term - the choice is yours. You can avail of the meals service a few days per week or have a meal delivered each day. Drivers very badly needed - can you manage to deliver one day a week or get a friend to do an area every second week with you. More information simply give Geraldine or Fiona a call on 091- 700 800
- VIATORES CHRISTI: Viatores Christi, founded in 1960, recruits, prepares and sends lay missionary workers to work in areas of need overseas. They welcome people from all backgrounds. They will hold an Information Night in Unit 9, Westside Business Centre, at 7.00 on Thursday, December 4th. They would love to hear from you.