Mass Intentions for the Week Ahead.
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Helping Haiti.
There are many ways you can help the victims of the recent tragic earthquake in Haiti.
A. Forwarding money to The Haiti Fund,
The Chaplaincy,
NUI, Galway.
Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Haiti Fund’.
A/C 42084476 Sort Code: 90-40-18 (Bank of Ireland NUI, Galway)
B. Leave an envelope into the safe at the back of our church (beside St. Anthony's Shrine) clearly marked Haiti.
C. Come to the Table Quiz organised by The Cathedral Social Committee in The Westwood Hotel on Tuesday next, February 2nd, at 8PM. Tables of four are €40. More information can be had from Tom Murphy 091- 522125.
D. Visit these charities online and make your donation:
http://www.trocaire.org/
http://www.concern.net/
http://www.goal.ie/
http://www.redcross.ie/
Woops!
It has been pointed out that we advertised a 9 AM Mass in The Cathedral while we were away at the Annual Priest's Conference. There was only an 11AM and 6PM available, so we're sorry for any inconvenience.
Latin Mass News.
Latin Mass: Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora Diocese: Saturday, 13 February – 12 noon Mass, Garrison Chapel of St. Patrick, Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa, Renmore, Galway. Celebrant: Rev Father John Loftus.
Contact: John Heneghan, Tel.: 086-8530810
http://www.latinmassireland.org/
Praying for Peace in The Six Counties.
Four Church Leaders urge parties to reach a settlement
The Leaders of Ireland's four main churches have urged all the political parties to "redouble their efforts to reach a settlement" concerning devolution of policing and justice powers. See full text of joint statement below.
In summary: Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop Alan Harper, Presbyterian Moderator Dr Stafford Carson and Methodist President Rev Donald Ker have put on record their "admiration for the commitment of all parties engaged in the talks to resolve the issues surrounding the devolution of policing and justice powers to the NI Assembly."
The Church Leaders state their belief that "the people of Northern Ireland expect their representatives to ensure that agreement is reached," and that "there is an overwhelming desire throughout Northern Ireland for continued political progress and for the peace process to be sustained."
In conclusion the leaders assure all the participants of their continued prayers.
Catholic Schools Week is this week.
Address by Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, at the launch of Catholic Schools Week and the inauguration of Catholic Schools Partnership, in the Emmaus Centre, Swords, Co Dublin
- Cardinal Brady sets out possible guiding principles for agreement about future models of provision and management, and suggests that:
(i) While promoting and defending the rights of faith based education, we, as a Church, should not create the impression that no room exists for mutual collaboration and sharing with other religious and secular approaches to education on the basis of our shared humanism;
(ii) Parents have a right to have their children educated in accordance with their philosophical and religious convictions;
(iii) The Catholic Church is open to diversity of provision but parents who want Catholic schools have to be treated as fairly and on the same basis as others.
- The new Catholic Schools Partnership represents a timely and forward-looking initiative between the Conference of Religious of Ireland and the Irish Bishops’ Conference in their mutual service of Catholic Education.
- There is no such thing as a value-free school. Catholic schools are the supreme example of lay leadership in the Church.
- The values of a particular system of education are fundamental to it and to its effectiveness. Time and time again research confirms that ‘Ethos adds value’ to a school. [In the Catholic context this is] in terms of the complete development of the person.
- The presumption that the Catholic Church wants to control as many schools as it can, irrespective of parental demands, is increasingly seen to be unfounded ... this proposition ignores the rights of parents and children to a faith based education.
- Most young people attending Catholic schools today have a very positive experience of the Catholic ethos and atmosphere of their school.
A special feature is available on www.catholicbishops.ie to mark Catholic Schools Week 2010. The feature includes resources for Catholic Schools Week which are intended for all those working in partnership in the school community i.e. the school, the parish and the home. The resources, which have been produced for primary and post-primary schools in English, Irish and Polish language versions, are designed to be used with:
• Students in the classroom
• Staff members
• Parents
• Members of Boards of Management/Governors
• The wider parish community
A special video interview with Fr Michael Drumm introducing the new Catholic School Partnership is also available on www
.catholicbishops.ie. Fr Drumm addresses: the purpose of Catholic education and its contribution to the common good; the key roles of parents and teachers; the voluntary nature and involvement of priests and laity in the Catholic education system; the changing landscape of the Irish education scene; and, challenges facing Catholic education provision in Ireland.
Young Pioneer Summer Youth Camp.
The Pioneer Youth Weekend for 12-17-year-olds has been a highlight on the Pioneer calendar since 1998. This year it takes place in Gormanston College Co. Meath from the 2nd - 4th of July. The event is organised by the Meath Diocesan Youth Committee PTAA.
If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact Dermot on 085-7201646 or
dermotfagan at gmail.com.
SUNDAY GOSPEL REFLECTION.
Bishop Drennan will explore the Gospel readings for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary time
(The weekend of Feb 6th & 7).
In the Diocesan Pastoral Centre, Newtownsmith,
Time: 8p.m.
Date: February 1st, 2010.
Kids Corner.
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Don’t forget! Monday is the Feast of St. Brigid, patron saint of our school. If you haven’t got a St. Brigid’s Cross in your home, or will not be making one in school, The Cathedral Bookshop has a good selection, or you can ask mum or dad to buy one online by visiting this link:
http://www.veritas.ie/Feast_of_Saint_Brigid/page.aspx
You’ll find how to make the cross here:
http://www.iol.ie/~scphadr/makecross.html
Saint of the Week.
Feast of St. Brigid of Kildare, Patron of our School, Scoil Bhríde, February 1st.
ARTICLE, COPYRIGHT:
http://www.libraryireland.com/
OF all the Irish saints, Brigid and Colmcille are, next after St. Patrick, the most loved and revered by the people of Ireland.
Like many others of our early saints, Brigid came of a noble family. Her father Dubthach [Duffa] was a distinguished Leinster chief descended from the kings of Ireland. For some reason which we do not know he and his wife lived for a time at Faughart near Dundalk, which was then a part of Ulster: and at Faughart Brigid was born about the year 455. The family must have soon returned however to their own district, for we know that Brigid passed her childhood with her parents in the neighbourhood of Kildare. She was baptised and carefully instructed and trained both in general education and in religion: for her father and mother were Christians. As she grew up, her quiet gentle modest ways pleased all that knew her. At the time of her birth, St. Patrick was in the midst of his glorious career; and some say that while she was still a child she met him, and that when he died she made with her own hands a winding sheet in which his body was laid in the grave; which may have happened, as she was ten or twelve years of age at the time of his death.
When Brigid came of an age to choose her way of life, she resolved to be a nun, to which her parents made no objection. After due preparation she went to a holy bishop of the neighbourhood, who at her request received her and placed a white robe on her shoulders and a white veil over her head. Here she remained for some time in companionship with eight other maidens who had been received with her, and who placed themselves under her guidance. As time went on she became so beloved for her piety and sweetness of disposition that many young women asked to be admitted; so that though she by no means desired that people should be speaking in her praise, the fame of her community began to spread through the country.
This first establishment was conducted strictly under a set of Rules drawn up by Brigid herself: and now, bishops in various parts of Ireland began to apply to her to establish convents in their several districts under the same rules. She was glad of this, and she did what she could to meet their wishes. She visited Longford, Tipperary, Limerick, South Leinster, and Roscommon, one after another; and in all these places she founded convents.
At last the people of her own province of Leinster, considering that they had the best right to her services, sent a number of leading persons to request that she would fix her permanent residence among them. She was probably pleased to go back to live in the place where she had spent her childhood; and she returned to Leinster where she was welcomed with great joy. The Leinster people gave her a piece of land chosen by herself on the edge of a beautiful level grassy plain well known as the Curragh of Kildare. Here, on a low ridge overlooking the plain, she built a little church under the shade of a wide-spreading oak tree, whence it got the name of Kill-dara, the Church of the Oak, or as we now call it, Kildare. This tree continued to flourish long after Brigid's death, and it was regarded with great veneration by the people of the place. A writer of the tenth century—four hundred years after the foundation of the church—tells us that in his time it was a mere branchless withered trunk; but the people had such reverence for it that no one dared to cut or chip it.
We are not quite sure of the exact year of Brigid's settlement here, but it probably occurred about 485, when she was thirty years of age. Hard by the church she also built a dwelling for herself and her community. We are told in the Irish Life of St. Brigid that this first house was built of wood like the houses of the people in general; and the little church under the oak was probably of wood also, like most churches of the time. As the number of applicants for admission continued to increase, both church and dwelling had to be enlarged from time to time; and the wood was replaced by stone and mortar. Such was the respect in which the good abbess was held, that visitors came from all parts of the country to see her and ask her advice and blessing: and many of them settled down in the place, so that a town gradually grew up near the convent, which was the beginning of the town of Kildare.
Feast of the Presentation, Candlemas Day, February 2nd.
ARTICLE COPYRIGHT:
http://www.americancatholic.org/
At the end of the fourth century, a woman named Etheria made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Her journal, discovered in 1887, gives an unprecedented glimpse of liturgical life there. Among the celebrations she describes is the Epiphany (January 6), the observance of Christ’s birth, and the gala procession in honor of his Presentation in the Temple 40 days later—February 15. (Under the Mosaic Law, a woman was ritually “unclean” for 40 days after childbirth, when she was to present herself to the priests and offer sacrifice—her “purification.” Contact with anyone who had brushed against mystery—birth or death—excluded a person from Jewish worship.) This feast emphasizes Jesus’ first appearance in the Temple more than Mary’s purification.
The observance spread throughout the Western Church in the fifth and sixth centuries. Because the Church in the West celebrated Jesus’ birth on December 25, the Presentation was moved to February 2, 40 days after Christmas.
At the beginning of the eighth century, Pope Sergius inaugurated a candlelight procession; at the end of the same century the blessing and distribution of candles which continues to this day became part of the celebration, giving the feast its popular name: Candlemas.
Comment:
In Luke’s account, Jesus was welcomed in the temple by two elderly people, Simeon and the widow Anna. They embody Israel in their patient expectation; they acknowledge the infant Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. Early references to the Roman feast dub it the feast of St. Simeon, the old man who burst into a song of joy which the Church still sings at day’s end.
Quote:
“Christ himself says, ‘I am the light of the world.’ And we are the light, we ourselves, if we receive it from him.... But how do we receive it, how do we make it shine? ...[T]he candle tells us: by burning, and being consumed in the burning. A spark of fire, a ray of love, an inevitable immolation are celebrated over that pure, straight candle, as, pouring forth its gift of light, it exhausts itself in silent sacrifice” (Paul VI).
February 3rd, Feast of St. Blaise.
WE HAVE TWO MASSES for the feast, 10 and 7:30, AND THROATS WILL BE BLESSED AFTER EACH.
ARTICLE COPYRIGHT:
http://www.americancatholic.org/
We know more about the devotion to St. Blaise by Christians around the world than we know about the saint himself. His feast is observed as a holy day in some Eastern Churches. The Council of Oxford, in 1222, prohibited servile labour in England on Blaise’s feast day. The Germans and Slavs hold him in special honour and for decades many have sought the annual St. Blaise blessing for their throats
We know that Bishop Blaise was martyred in his Episcopal city of Sebastea, Armenia, in 316. The legendary Acts of St. Blaise were written 400 years later. According to them Blaise was a good bishop, working hard to encourage the spiritual and physical health of his people. Although the Edict of Toleration (311), granting freedom of worship in the Roman Empire, was already five years old, persecution still raged in Armenia. Blaise was apparently forced to flee to the back country. There he lived as a hermit in solitude and prayer, but made friends with the wild animals. One day a group of hunters seeking wild animals for the amphitheatre stumbled upon Blaise’s cave. They were first surprised and then frightened. The bishop was kneeling in prayer surrounded by patiently waiting wolves, lions and bears.
As the hunters hauled Blaise off to prison, the legend has it, a mother came with her young son who had a fish bone lodged in his throat. At Blaise’s command the child was able to cough up the bone.
Agricolaus, governor of Cappadocia, tried to persuade Blaise to sacrifice to pagan idols. The first time Blaise refused, he was beaten. The next time he was suspended from a tree and his flesh torn with iron combs or rakes. (English wool combers, who used similar iron combs, took Blaise as their patron. They could easily appreciate the agony the saint underwent.) Finally he was beheaded.
Comment:
Four centuries give ample opportunity for fiction to creep in with fact. Who can be sure how accurate Blaise’s biographer was? But biographical details are not essential. Blaise is seen as one more example of the power those have who give themselves entirely to Jesus. As Jesus told his apostles at the Last Supper, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). With faith we can follow the lead of the Church in asking for Blaise’s protection.
AT CROI NUA SPIRITUALITY CENTRE.
Croí Nua Spirituality Centre is run by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and is situated on Rosary Lane in Taylors Hill, opposite the entrance to the Dominican Convent Primary and Secondary School. The no. 2 bus passes by the gate.
091- 520960 or 087- 6833195
Email: croinuacentre at eircom.net
http://www.croinua.com/
MONDAY 1ST FEBRUARY
Feast of St. Bridget
Evening Reflection on Care of the Earth in Croi Nua 8.00-10.00p.m.
WORKSHOP WEDNESDAY 3RD FEBRUARY
8.00-10.00p.m.
‘WHY COME TO MASS?’
WORKSHOP WEDNESDAY 10TH FEBRUARY
8.00-10.00p.m.
‘DEEPENING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHRISTIAN EUCHARIST’.
