Sunday Newsletter
Masses Today
6.30: Deceased members of the Sisodia family, (Anniv).
11.00: Michael Naughton, (Anniv).
6.30: Andy McGinley, (Anniv)
- Masses for Sunday, March 8th: 6.30: (Vigil) Brendan O'Donnell; 11.00: Ellen & Eddie Reynolds; 6.30: Sadie & Walter Joyce.
- COLLECTION LAST SUNDAY: €1,445.00.
- FIRST FRIDAY: Next Friday is the first Friday of the month. Communion calls to the sick and the housebound will begin at the usual time of 11.30. As always, we would welcome information on parishioners who are housebound and not receiving First Friday Communion calls. Just pass their names on to one of the priests and we will be in a position to establish whether they would like a priest to call or not. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed after the 11.00 Mass until the Church closes at 7.00.
- GENERAL MEETING: Over 50 people attended our Annual General Meeting in the Church here on Monday night last. The purpose of the meeting was to impart information, to listen to suggestions and to explore new direction that the Church and Parish might profitably take. Cathal Cunningham reported on the Financial situation, both on the Augustinian Project (Renovation fund) and the weekly envelope collection.
- AUGUSTINIAN PROJECT: We are on target to clear the €2.3 Augustinian Project debt in 2.5 years time. This was the target we set ourselves in 2005.
- ENVELOPE COLLECTION: In February 2007 we introduced the weekly envelope collection. It was a wonderful success, boosting the collection from €63,427 in 2007 to €82,452. This is an increase of €22,125 or 35%. In addition, we can expect a tax return of at least €3,000 when the accounts are finalised for the year.
- PRIORY OFFICE: The Priory Office is far too small for our purposes. We tried to expand it by opening a door into the Children's Liturgy Room. (The children would move elsewhere). City Hall refused Permission and we have appealed this to An Bord Pleanala. Fr. Niall reported on this to the meeting, and we await the outcome. I will inform you further on the meeting as time goes on!
As I Was Saying...
The term 'Generation X' was coined in 1964 by British sociologist Jane Deverson. She conducted a study into 'British teenagers and their lifestyle.' The study revealed a generation who "slept together before they are married, don't believe in God, dislike the Queen, and don't respect parents!" This generation produced the pop culture of the 80's and 90's.
Then came the millennial's of Generation Y, born between 1977 and 1989. Some sociologists describe 'Generation Y' as 'voracious consumers of goods, including the electronic media'. In fact they are projected to spend 23 years of their lives online! It would not be too wide of the mark to describe this generation as 'creatures of consumerism'.
This sketchy and very generalised background may give some context to the frightening antics of College students in the city this week. Frightening for older people, at least. A letter to a local paper stressed this factor:
I am a resident of the city centre and many of my older neighbours are afraid to leave their homes during this week. The students of this town just seem to have the run of the place, drinking illegally on the streets, breaking glass, and damaging cars and people's homes.
We have all indulged to excess as students. But scarcity of resources, rather than any moral superiority, curbed our indulgence. However, there was something uniquely excessive about this year's doings. The fact that 25 students were arrested during the first two days reflects that uniqueness. In former years, the arrest of two or three students during Rag Week would have raised eyebrows. But twenty-five in two days!
I really have no problem with students puking up their bootlaces as long as they are in safe hands. But an unsettling element was quite evident during this year's carry-on: the intimidation of old people, especially elderly women. And it's not that vulnerable women merely 'felt' intimidated. They were actively and vulgarly intimidated as they went about their daily business. Drunken louts, both male and female, hurled obscene taunts at their frightened targets. And all in the name of great fun!
Rag Week purports to be a charity fundraiser. One of the beneficiaries is Console, the suicide prevention group. Ironically, the latest report on suicide in the West of Ireland states: "Many factors contribute to suicide. However alcohol is clearly playing a major role, particularly among the young."
Consumerism, greed and self-centeredness have surely contributed to the mess outlined above, and indeed to the economic morass in which we now find ourselves. The drunken kids are not entirely to blame. These are our own chickens coming home to roost! Is it time now to move to a new spirit? Can we foster a culture or civilization of service, a civic generation?
Some years ago, the Nobel Prize-winner Albert Schweitzer, already famous as a Scripture scholar and musician, became a medical doctor and served in Gabon, West Africa. He once addressed a group of students in the United States: "I do not know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will really be happy are those who have sought and found how to serve." So far, we have failed to convey this message. We must try much harder!
-Dick Lyng
Trócaire Campaign
- Trócaire's Lenten campaign this year is about 26 million people worldwide who have been forced to abandon their homes because of armed conflict and violence. People such as Khalid and his family, who appear on this year's Trócaire box, are forced from their homes in terrifying circumstances losing their land, their livelihoods, and their own family members. As Christians, we are challenged this Lent to open our eyes to the pain of these displaced peoples. We are called, like the Good Samaritan, to go to the help of those in dire need.
- One very effective way of doing this is by taking home the Trócaire box (available this morning at the back of the church) and bringing it back to the Church (full!) on Easter morning.
- Another way of helping in Trocaire's Lenten campaign is to take part in the 24 hour Fast next weekend, Saturday- Sunday March 6th/7th. I will try to meet with some young people (12-26 years) after Mass this morning and sound you out on suggestions you may have on organising this fast. We will give it a try.
Lenten Programme
We will begin our Lenten Programme on Tuesday week, March 10th. What happens is as follows: we will gather and listen via broadband to a 30 minute talk on some aspect of Mark's Gospel (see below for details). 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 programme is as follows:
Module 1: Tues 10th March: What is a Gospel? Why did Mark Write?
Module 2: Tues 24th March: Jesus and the Kingdom Metaphor and Meaning
Module 3: Tues 7th April: Jesus and the Disciples
The Generation Key
Silent Generation: Those born before 1945
Baby Boomers: those born between 1946 and 1961
Generation X: Those born between 1962 and 1976
Generation Y: Those born between 1977 and 1989.
But why are 'Y' so called?
Generation whY !
Various Lenten Offerings
CROI NUA
The Sacred Heart Fathers, Taylor's Hill are offering a Lenten Lecture Series, called 'A Passion for Life' Wednesdays 8p.m.-10.p.m.
March 11th - Mr. John Lonergan
March 18th - Dr. Helen Greally
March 25th - Mr. Padraig Ó Ceidigh
DIOCESAN PASTORAL CENTRE
Monday, March 2nd, 7.30:
Bishop Martin Drennan
"The Gospel of St. Mark".
Monday, March 9th: Fr. Peter McVerry
"The Radical Call of Community"
Monday, March 23rd: Mrs Mary Trench, Tuam Diocese
"Her own Faith Journey"
March 30th: Pauline Logue Collins, Ph.D.Theology
"Wisdom from the Margins"
FASTING IN HISTORY
It is very difficult to appreciate fully the importance of the liturgical calendar for late medieval people. There was, in the first place, no alternative, secular reckoning of time: legal deeds, anniversaries, birthdays were reckoned by the religious festivals on which they occurred, rents and leases fell due at Lady Day, Lammas, or Michaelmas. The seasonal observances of the liturgical calendar affected everyone. No one could marry during the four weeks of Advent or the six weeks of Lent.
In addition to Lent, fasting was obligatory on the ember days, that is, the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays after the feast of St Lucy (13 December), Ash Wednesday, Whit Sunday, and Holy Cross Day (14 September). There was also an obligation to fast on the vigils of the feasts of the twelve Apostles, the vigils of Christmas Day, Whit Sunday, the Assumption of Our Lady (15 August), the Nativity of St John the Baptist (24 June), the feast of St Laurence (10 August), and the feast of All Saints (1 November).
There were therefore almost seventy days in the year when adults were obliged to fast, the bulk of them in spring for the great fast of Lent, but the rest spread more or less evenly through the rest of the year.
-Eamon Duffy, "The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580." P.40.