Month: October 2017

Spiritfest – A positive experience of church

Articles, Reform of the Irish Church
2 Comments

Mary Smiddy, a member of Killeagh-Inch Pastoral Council, was recently involved in a “Spiritfest” which ran the last weekend of September.
Here she gives a report on a very successful event.
“At a time when the church gets much negative publicity I feel that much that is good in our churches and parishes is not acknowledged or recognised. Because of that I would like to share some of our experiences and learning over the Spiritfest weekend.
The event illustrates the vibrancy, excitement and joy that can be found in parishes throughout the country and what is possible with a little planning, preparation and willingness to try something different while remaining true to our faith and traditions.”

ACTA Conference, (the Catholic Church Reform Movement of England and Wales)

ACP News, Pope Francis, Reform of the Irish Church
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Tony Flannery reports on the conference in Birmingham organized by ACTA, the Catholic Church Reform Movement of England and Wales.
The main theme was to reflect on the future of parishes in the context of the rapid decline in numbers of priests available for ministry. 

“Lost in Translation: the English language and the Catholic Mass”: Gerald O’Collins, SJ, with John Wilkins

Liturgy
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A new book book by Gerry O’Collins takes a systematic look at the 2010 English translation of the Roman Missal and the ways it fails to achieve what the Second Vatican Council mandated: the full participation of priest and people.

Pope Francis Corrects Cardinal Sarah on Translation

Articles, Liturgy, Pope Francis
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Paddy Ferry offered the following as comments concerning the latest attempt by Cardinal Sarah to undo reforms to the liturgy and his challenge to the recent decision by Pope Francis granting authority to local conferences of bishops over the translation of liturgical texts.

These comments are carried here as a separate item due to the importance of the issue but also to highlight the opposition Pope Francis faces as he tries to decentralise decision making processes from departments in Rome. 
Also attached is commentary by Fr. Anthony Ruff from his praytellblog.com

Mission Impossible – or is it?

Articles
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Seamus Ahearne gives his thoughts on “mission” informed by his own life experiences.
“I’m a believer:
My Mission here may distract me, out to the byways and highways where the Church is forgotten and where the gibberish of sacred language is irrelevant. But I cannot go out there, unless I am enjoying the living God, where I am. I need to be taking off my shoes, seeing the burning bush, hearing the gentle breeze and finding the teasing- God of the caster-oil plant (Jonah.) I need to be telling people and showing people that God and Church, isn’t like the scarcely remembered version, which is a caricature of the Christ-picture from the Gospels. But I shouldn’t tell anyone, anything, if I am not alive myself. Possibly, the only Mission I have now, is to create some kind of oasis, where the refreshment of God, makes a little sense in the desert of our modern world. I have to do this with total humility and must exude some personal serenity, believing that nothing can ever happen, that is beyond the goodness and love of God. Mission now might just mean: Believing and living as if I/we believe.”

Don’t let life get you down

Articles, Editor's Choice
1 Comment

Seamus Ahearne reflects on life and death, and threats of death, amid all the other day to day happenings in a busy life.
“The brush strokes of nature are also hints and whispers of life. They scatter the colours carelessly. They ask us to notice them and not to forget them. But maybe like nature and autumn, we need to throw around the unruly and incomplete brush strokes in our ministry. The unfinished days; the little celebrations; the Godliness of daily life; the laugher among us; the colours that we cannot take for granted. Possibly nature is talking to us. We too can be so serious (so immersed in the quicksand of problems). What are we doing to God’s world? Is that love song wasted on us?”

A Dialogue of Hope, Critical Thinking for Critical Times

ACP News
6 Comments

Gerry O’Hanlon alerts us to a new publication that intends to spark a real and “constructive engagement and dialogue between secularists and religious believers, in order to imagine an alternative narrative” to one where “conventional economic models have failed, politics is fractured, what it means to be human is contested, and there is a Punch and Judy show of opposition between secularists and believers.”

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