Sunday Newsletter
Masses Today
6.30: (Vigil): Patrick Tyrrell, (Anniv).
11.00: Fr. Pearse O'Mahoney, (Anniv).
6.30: Michael Rabbitte, late of Cross St. (Anniv).
- Masses for Sunday, November 1st: 6.30 (Vigil): Peter & Bridie Berry; 11.00: John McGrath & Rory Kavanagh; 6.30: Sarah & Frank Duggan.
- COLLECTION LAST SUNDAY: €1,625.00.
- RECENTLY DECEASED: Please remember in your prayers the late Patsy Glynn, Beach Court, whose funeral Mass were celebrated in the Augustinian here on Wednesday last. Patsy had been ill for a short time only. He is survived by his wife Esther, and his children, Anna, Catherine, David and Gerald. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.
- BAPTISM TODAY: We will welcome into the Church this morning during the 11.00 Mass little Mary Anne McGivern, daughter of James and Monica (Durkin) from Claregalway. Congratulations, and have a lovely day.
- LITURGY MEETING: There was obviously some confusion about our Liturgy Meeting on Tuesday night last. Apologies to those who were not confused and actually attended! Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 18th at 7.30.
- BANK HOLIDAY: Since tomorrow, Monday October 26th, is a Bank Holiday, there will be no 8.30 Mass in the Church, and the Priory Office will remain closed all day.
- CEMETERY SUNDAY: We will celebrate Cemetery Sunday at Forthill on Sunday week next, November 8th with Mass in the Oratory at 12.30. Graves will be blessed after the Mass.
- NOVEMBER DEAD LIST: The traditional November Dead List envelopes and writing paper are now available at the back of the Church, and in the magazine rack. Simply fill out your list and bring it in to Gearoidin in the Priory Mass Office.
- ALL SOULS' NIGHT: We will hold our annual All Souls Commemoration Service on Monday night, November 2nd in St. Nicholas' at 7.30. (see page across) Our people who died during the last 12 months will be commemorated during that Service. We will carry in procession the little white crosses, bearing their names, as we did last year.
As I Was Saying...
There are a number of different aspects to the row about politicians' pay and expenses. The most obvious element was the public anger generated. However, there is another element that has not received the attention it merits.
Those politicians who applied for outrageous expenses claimed that what they did was within the rules. "There is nothing wrong with what I have done, it is perfectly legal." For the last 30 years our society has been dominated by an emphasis on personal choice. 'You can do what you want, provided it is within the law.' There are two strands to this 'philosophy': the first is social liberalism which says, "Let people live their personal lives as they want," and the second is market liberalism, which says, "Let people buy whatsoever they wish". These 'freedoms' experienced very few legal constraints.
Harvard philosopher, Michael Sandel, questions this way of thinking: 'These philosophies are failing us because they are not grounded by a concept of the good, an understanding of what it means to be a good society.' Some of the good things in life are corrupted if turned into commodities. The use of market forces is not neutral. It's not enough to think about efficiency. We have also to decide how to value the goods in question. Health, education, national defence, criminal justice, environmental protection and so on - these are moral and political questions too, not merely economic ones. To decide them democratically, we have to debate the moral meaning of these goods and the value vested in them by society.
A good example of market norms eroding non-market values involves the case of blood donation. The sociologist Richard Titmuss compared the United States system, which permitted the buying and selling of blood for transfusion, with the system in the UK which banned financial incentives and relied wholly on donated blood. Titmuss found that, rather than improve the quality and supply of blood, the commercialisation of blood led to shortages, inefficiencies and a greater incidence of contaminated blood. Putting a price on blood turned what had been a gift into a commodity. It changed the norms associated with blood donation. Once blood is bought and sold, people are less likely to feel a moral obligation to give it out of altruism.
The best companies and associations in our society have long recognised that what matters is creating the right ethos, the right moral milieu, so that, regardless of what the law says, certain ways of behaving are just not acceptable. The realisation may be dawning that we need this for society as a whole, not just for politicians and bankers. Sixty years ago this year, T.S. Eliot in his 'The Idea of a Christian Society' described his own vision:
It would be a society in which the natural end of the person, --that is, virtue and well-being in community,-- is acknowledged for all, and the supernatural end --that is, beatitude,-- is acknowledged for those who have the eyes to see it.
There is far more to society than market forces and economic efficiency. Pointing out these deeper values is the responsibility of every Christian at this time!
-Dick Lyng
Gran's Grand Exit
When Granny died three priests were kind enough to turn up for her High Mass. When it came to the Kyrie Eleison they sat down. Their chasubles were lifted over the backs of their chairs. Then they launched (lunged) into the most tuneless, raucous, unforgettably awful Kyrie ever heard, I would say, in the history of the diocese.
In all modesty I admit that at that time I was the most theologically informed member of the family. My professor had explained in graphic detail 'afterdeath procedures' and I had meditated long and gloomily over them. First would be Gran's particular judgement and that would seal her fate. It would be a private affair. Professor had explained that it would be a 'complete x-ray' . The general judgement would come later on when God would have decided that it was time to finish off the world. This would be the 'Giant X-Ray' . Everyone would know everything about everyone else. It would be a bad day for some; a day of calamity and misery. It all came alive when the three good fathers expressed it 'musically' in a chaotic Dies lrae, more painful than Liszt's great chords of doom.
Gran used to be at Mass every morning in the sixth seat from the front on the pulpit side. Every night she said prayers down in the kitchen especially for Peter that he wouldn't be foolish. When she poured lemonade for us she wouldn't stop until some of it came out over the brim and down on the table.
But with God, you never knew. God could know bad things about you that you didn't know yourself. Several times during the Mass words from the last mission rattled in my head: "I must die, I do not know when or how or where; but if I die in mortal sin, I am lost forever."
Gran was a goldmine of decency to all of us and many another. At the funeral I couldn't bear to think any more about my theological 'information'.
All of this is now fifty years ago. Since then I have learned to hope that things might be different:
- That this life is not after all an exam with a giant X-Ray Leaving Cert at the end of it;
- That the judgement of God is positively critical and medicinal and not a judgement for judgement's sake or a settling of old scores;
- That the last judgement story in Matthew is a kind of story to jerk me into actions of loving kindness. I find it hard to read it as a literal map and final resolution of the loving God. I cannot help hoping that nothing will be lost and 'all in the end will be harvest' in the loving kindness of God.
The three 'musical' Fathers have since followed Gran into the loving kindness of God. But Gran would have warned the Lord that under no circumstances were they to be invited to join the choirs of angels.
I remember a sermon phrase from one of the singing culprits at Gran's funeral: "The whole thing is no good at all if only the saints are saved."
-Ned Crosby.
Remembering our Dead
The Commemoration of the Dead at St. Nicholas' on Monday week will will include a 'Procession of Crosses'. The 34 people named below, who died in the course of the last 12 months, will have a candle lighted in their memory and their names inscribed on individual white crosses. If you lost a family member this year, and they are not named below, leave the name at the Church Office in good time for us to have it inscribed on the cross.
Deacy, Frank Canada 08/11/2008
Murphy, Vincent St. Nicholas' Ave. 10/11/2008
O'Halloran, Amby Abbeygate St 11/11/2008
Barrett, John Ballinasloe 28/11/2008
Manning, Denis Wellpark Grove 03/12/2008
Herterich, George Lombard St. 10/12/2008
Boyle, Eileen Dublin 03/01/2009
Molloy, Eamon Woodquay 05/01/2009
Jennings, Patrick Long Walk 18/01/2009
O'Connor, Noreena Newcastle 22/01/2009
Heaney, Tony late Bowling Green 23/01/2009
Cunningham, Eimear Derry City 13/02/2009
Joyce, Michael Credit Union 28/02/2009
O'Connell, Fidelis Kingston 03/03/2009
Walsh, Sean Clareglaway 07/03/2009
Dooley, Johnny Salthill 07/03/2009
Seale, Margaret Highfield Park 05/04/2009
O'Hare, Maura Leighlinbridge 03/06/2009
Carr, Eileen Cross St. 10/06/2009
Kennedy, Kitty Laois 25/07/2009
Flaherty, Padraic Flood St. 01/08/2009
O'Connor, Teresa Crestwood 06/08/2009
Furey, Bridget Brothers of Charity 15/08/2009
Hughes, Cathal Corrib Park 16/08/2009
O'Reilly, Jackie Newcastle 20/08/2009
Hallissey, Eleanor late Market St. 31/08/2009
Kinsella, John Mervue 07/09/2009
Francis, Mattie Tuam 13/09/2009
Curry, Paul Kilcormac 23/09/2009
Lynott, Mae Salthill 30/09/2009
Kelly, Dave Menlo 03/10/2009
Ni Chionna, Helen Dublin 11/10/2009
Glynn, Patsy Beach Court 18/10/2009
Higgins, Brigid P. Sandyvale Lawn 19/10/2009