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Presider’s Page for 24 November (Christ the King)
We celebrate the feast of Christ the King today, acclaiming Jesus as our king, the one who died for us and rose triumphant. We offer praise and worship — and ask for the grace to live as worthy citizens of his kingdom of justice, truth, love and peace.
Gerry O’Connor CSsR, ACP Leadership, Weekly Homily for First Sunday in Advent
Video Homily for the 1st Sunday of Advent. The title is ‘Intensity’ – Sunday 1st December 2024 Link to video:
Light after Darkness
Chris McDonnell in his Catholic Times column wonders how life might be changed when we eventually return to the light from the current darkness we find ourselves in.
“… the consequent life in faith of our Christian community will be fundamentally altered by our current experience.
We might resume familiar patterns but we will come to them as changed people. The shock of the new will be unavoidable. Faith will have been tested by experience and the well-worn path we have happily followed will be lost in the stones and bushes of the hedge-row. The real challenge will be to maintain our experience of inter-dependence, the realization that there is such a thing as Society, that we need each other”.
‘Clustering’, ‘Pastoral Units’ et al – A very well kicked can down a familiar road
Roy Donovan commenting, in an article in The Limerick Leader on the clustering of parishes in Limerick diocese into ‘pastoral units’, says “Every possibility should be put on the table. Limerick diocese is operating within the limits – they are doing the best they can within the limits. We would be saying the overall church, all over the world needs to go beyond those limits and needs to open up every possibility including married people and women priests,”.
Séamus Ahearne: What would the world be, once bereft, Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. (Inversnaid by Gerard Manley Hopkins, quoted by Michael Longley)
Weekend 17/18th August-Proverbs 9:1-6 Wisdom is building a house and then erecting a sign, with an invitation for all the ignorant and foolish to come along. The language is strong…
Tony Flannery on his sister Geraldine’s death and funeral
From Tony Flannery’s Blog on Sept 12: http://www.tonyflannery.com/geraldines-death-and-funeral/ Geraldine’s death and Funeral It is now two weeks since my sister Geraldine Flannery succumbed to the debilitating effects of a…
Presider’s Page for 24 November (Christ the King)
We celebrate the feast of Christ the King today, acclaiming Jesus as our king, the one who died for us and rose triumphant. We offer praise and worship — and ask for the grace to live as worthy citizens of his kingdom of justice, truth, love and peace.
Gerry O’Connor CSsR, ACP Leadership, Weekly Homily for First Sunday in Advent
Video Homily for the 1st Sunday of Advent. The title is ‘Intensity’ – Sunday 1st December 2024 Link to video:
Light after Darkness
Chris McDonnell in his Catholic Times column wonders how life might be changed when we eventually return to the light from the current darkness we find ourselves in.
“… the consequent life in faith of our Christian community will be fundamentally altered by our current experience.
We might resume familiar patterns but we will come to them as changed people. The shock of the new will be unavoidable. Faith will have been tested by experience and the well-worn path we have happily followed will be lost in the stones and bushes of the hedge-row. The real challenge will be to maintain our experience of inter-dependence, the realization that there is such a thing as Society, that we need each other”.
‘Clustering’, ‘Pastoral Units’ et al – A very well kicked can down a familiar road
Roy Donovan commenting, in an article in The Limerick Leader on the clustering of parishes in Limerick diocese into ‘pastoral units’, says “Every possibility should be put on the table. Limerick diocese is operating within the limits – they are doing the best they can within the limits. We would be saying the overall church, all over the world needs to go beyond those limits and needs to open up every possibility including married people and women priests,”.
Séamus Ahearne: What would the world be, once bereft, Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. (Inversnaid by Gerard Manley Hopkins, quoted by Michael Longley)
Weekend 17/18th August-Proverbs 9:1-6 Wisdom is building a house and then erecting a sign, with an invitation for all the ignorant and foolish to come along. The language is strong…
Tony Flannery on his sister Geraldine’s death and funeral
From Tony Flannery’s Blog on Sept 12: http://www.tonyflannery.com/geraldines-death-and-funeral/ Geraldine’s death and Funeral It is now two weeks since my sister Geraldine Flannery succumbed to the debilitating effects of a…
Presider’s Page for 24 November (Christ the King)
We celebrate the feast of Christ the King today, acclaiming Jesus as our king, the one who died for us and rose triumphant. We offer praise and worship — and ask for the grace to live as worthy citizens of his kingdom of justice, truth, love and peace.
Gerry O’Connor CSsR, ACP Leadership, Weekly Homily for First Sunday in Advent
Video Homily for the 1st Sunday of Advent. The title is ‘Intensity’ – Sunday 1st December 2024 Link to video:
Light after Darkness
Chris McDonnell in his Catholic Times column wonders how life might be changed when we eventually return to the light from the current darkness we find ourselves in.
“… the consequent life in faith of our Christian community will be fundamentally altered by our current experience.
We might resume familiar patterns but we will come to them as changed people. The shock of the new will be unavoidable. Faith will have been tested by experience and the well-worn path we have happily followed will be lost in the stones and bushes of the hedge-row. The real challenge will be to maintain our experience of inter-dependence, the realization that there is such a thing as Society, that we need each other”.
‘Clustering’, ‘Pastoral Units’ et al – A very well kicked can down a familiar road
Roy Donovan commenting, in an article in The Limerick Leader on the clustering of parishes in Limerick diocese into ‘pastoral units’, says “Every possibility should be put on the table. Limerick diocese is operating within the limits – they are doing the best they can within the limits. We would be saying the overall church, all over the world needs to go beyond those limits and needs to open up every possibility including married people and women priests,”.
Séamus Ahearne: What would the world be, once bereft, Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. (Inversnaid by Gerard Manley Hopkins, quoted by Michael Longley)
Weekend 17/18th August-Proverbs 9:1-6 Wisdom is building a house and then erecting a sign, with an invitation for all the ignorant and foolish to come along. The language is strong…
Tony Flannery on his sister Geraldine’s death and funeral
From Tony Flannery’s Blog on Sept 12: http://www.tonyflannery.com/geraldines-death-and-funeral/ Geraldine’s death and Funeral It is now two weeks since my sister Geraldine Flannery succumbed to the debilitating effects of a…
No time to die (as ministers of Christ)
Moonshine:
I am worried. No one loves me. Everyone is avoiding me. All my usual companions along the Tolka, have postponed their mornings. I take off in the dark. Sometimes the heron appears but continues to be ever so aloof. It is shy. The waters gurgle in salute and are quite playful. The ducks are asleep. But miracle of miracles – the swans have returned. The ma and da have appeared with some of the cygnets. I recall Máire (photographer) telling her story of watching the parents taking the babies off the island for their launch (months back) onto the pond. She automatically blessed herself. I found myself rather moved when I got the first glimpse of the returnees. And then I saw the sliver of a moon as it was falling asleep; its eyes shut as I smiled goodbye. The Weeping Willow is always a thing of beauty as it waves at me. It has a sensitive and warm welcome for a chat. It is like the half-door of my childhood. ‘Stop a while. And linger,’ it seems to say.
Communions and Confirmations:
The First Communions and the Confirmations are completed. (The backlog is cleared). We are in awe at the work done by the school staff in such a short time. The children were magnificent. It had a lovely sense of occasion and there was a gentle quietness around the celebrations. Even the adults. The restricted numbers made it much better and more reverent. None of us could get over how good the children were. If there wasn’t a First Communion; there would still need to be something to mark the innocence, curiosity, spontaneity and joy of this time in the lives of the children. We felt quite inadequate at the prospect of those sacramental occasions being taken out of schools. Theoretically, it is the right thing. Practically, it is worrying. Let me whisper – I think the children knew more than most of the adults present! They had a sense of the divine.
Church, Diocese, Parish reassessed:
There has to be a fundamental reassessment of parish life. The Covid shut-down has changed everything. Liturgy has become different and needs to adapt. The preached homily is hardly now the appropriate medium of faith-reflection. The stuffy Collects have to be dumped. The ridiculous Prefaces have to be discarded. So much is riddled with royalist terms which are irritating and useless. The God of the ordinary has got lost, and we have to be very creative as we try to discover the new incarnation. That incarnation has to be grounded in the reality of the life of our Community. Pious waffle won’t pass muster any longer. Many have got used to not being present in church and realise that they don’t miss it. It is quite noticeable that we have lost quite a number of people who have aged by more than two years during Covid. We have aged too and the weight of years is telling on the joints and on the mind. It is shocking also the number who have slipped into dementia. We miss the homely part of our ministry – dropping into the houses. That has had to stop. It is a new world for us all.
The Disconnect between Fingers and Mind:
I had a problem last week. My fingers wrote an article. While I was out, one of my helpers (fixing an electric problem) turned off the electricity. The computer died and the article went missing. The article was recovered but I couldn’t open it. My computer advisors were unable to do anything either. It was gone. My fingers don’t communicate with my head. I couldn’t recall what those fingers had written. It was obviously utterly forgettable. (I got the obvious message!) I had to begin again. The new article didn’t bear much resemblance to the previous one, I believe. That may have been just as well.
Words, Words, Words (Hamlet)
As we cleared the accumulated Communions, Confirmations and Baptisms, I was thinking. Where do we now find the words for the demands of every day? New words. New images. New colours for the canvas, as we struggle to paint for the exhibition in the Gallery of faith. We dredge the innards to find those little hints to stir the juices. The unrelenting arrival of funerals teases our minds to ensure that every person is painted suitably and respected. Our ministry is demanding but it does keep us alert and awake. It is pressured. We can never simply repeat by rote what we did before. We can never lead the Eucharist as we did yesteryear.
Today is new. The talking Scriptures and the God of today, asks more of us. The incarnation occurs anew every day. The Community present, bring their new day too and the colour of their experience. Thomas Gray’s Elegy has that well known line: “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert’s air.” In the world of God – that line is very wrong. No flower blushes unseen or wastes its sweetness. As ministers, we need to commit to that view and show that we believe it. Our life is challenging. I think Covid is a catalyst for change and for adventure into real sacramental living and imaginative thinking. ”A terrible beauty is born.”’ It may be too much for some of us.
Young Indi
She is going to school – her kind of school. She has become very independent. I think her ma is jealous. The young one wants to meet and play with lots of other people. A very new world is opening up for her too. She delights in it. She has also found her voice and there is a torrent of muddled words pouring out.
She hasn’t reached the age of the First Communicants but she is very alert and excited by every day and each new discovery. She is on an adventure of discovery. This little one and all the little ones tell us adults – to wake up and look around. They see so much. We take the revelations of the day for granted. Michelangelo’s line has to apply: “I’m still learning.”
This young lady will shortly be christened. I may need a hose. For the adults, it will be a blessed occasion. They can recall the miracle of those little ones – Gracie and Indi. They can recall the excitement and commitment of their own pilgrimage in life and their new homes. They too have to be aware of the awesomeness of the moment and the pioneering work they will do in the great journey into the unknown with the children. It is mystery unfolding. It is Eucharist.
Seamus Ahearne osa
PS ‘With a sorrowful heart…’ by Tomas Halik in The Tablet 2nd October 2021 is a very serious reflection on the reform needed now in the church.