Following Jesus may not bring us happiness in this life, but we are challenged to follow him nevertheless. We come together to worship our gracious God and to ask for help in our Christian life this week.
We are challenged by today’s Gospel to stand ready for our Master’s return in glory. We gather to worship God who sustains us all the days of our life, and beyond.
Now that the great feasts of Easter and the Sundays following it are behind us, we return to Ordinary Time and reflect on the challenges to disciples found in the Gospel of Luke. At today’s gathering, we’re challenged us to look carefully at our commitment to our faith. We worship God who gives us the grace we need.
We’re two weeks into the Easter season now, but the Good News of the season continues to reverberate in the Liturgy. Joyfully we worship God who raised our Saviour from the dead.
Even though Easter Week is now behind us, today’s liturgy still overflows with the joy of Jesus’ resurrection. We continue to celebrate that great event for the next six weeks, until Pentecost Sunday on the 20th of May, the fiftieth and final day of Easter.
To facilitate people taking time off over Christmas, the entire set of Christmas Presiders Page has now been published, up to and including New Years Day.
Faced with the ‘lucky bag’ of glossy advertising material about the world meeting of families regularly reaching most parochial houses, Seamus Ahearne pens a few thoughts, and hopes, about this upcoming event.
“We need the messed up, chaotic struggle of most ordinary and real families to be centre stage. We have to reflect the life of the family in Ireland and not some idealised version.”
“I don’t dismiss or undermine anything of the mighty work being done in preparation. I am concerned that it can reflect something of what we see daily.”
The text of a lecture given by Gabriel Daly OSA to a “We are Church” event on Monday, 15 January 2018.
Our sincere thanks to Gabriel and to Colm Holmes of ‘We are Church Ireland’ for providing the text.
Correspondence from and to the Kildare & Leighin Council of Priests concerning the ACP information Card issued at the recent AGM.
The card outlines rights priests have in civil and canon law and are taken from “Guidelines for the Care and Management of Respondents (i.e. priests) Standard 4” as outlined by the National Board for Safeguarding Children.
Seamus Ahearne reports of an interesting dialogue he had recently about the state of church and liturgy and sacraments.
“Much of Liturgy has evolved from the Monasteries. It has grown fat with the accretions of history. It has become something to endure or admire or look at. Despite all the changes of language; it can still be so passive as a Celebration. ……
The psychological reality is that there are too many words hurled at us. Any real psychology of praying is absent. There is no space for quiet; for sharing; for being still…..
Someone has to shout stop and strip off the accretions and reduce the Mass to its essentials and make space for God to speak and for us to be part of it. It is all noise and fuss and rush.”
Seamus Ahearne reflects on the reality of pastoral ministry and care in a ‘disadvantaged’ parish;
“more work and different work is essential in a Deis (band 1) parish. Our Church is outside of the building. Our Liturgy has to happen on the hoof. The preparation for the special occasions needs more energy and more imagination. It has to be gentle, real and kindly. The domestic Church is the only church we now have.”
There is an interesting letter in this week’s The Tablet from the retired bishop of Portsmouth, Crispian Hollis.
It confirms the worst suspicions about the lack of attention that was paid by bishops when the ‘new missal’ was being foisted on us.
Pádraig McCarthy pays tribute to the late Ronan Drury Ronan Drury, editor of The Furrow since 1977, died on 16 November 2017, at the age of 93. His funeral…
Gabriel Daly, on his ninetieth birthday, looks back at tumultuous change in the church.
Our best wishes to Gabriel on his birthday and our thanks for his permission to publish this article.
Thanks as well to Brendan Walsh, Editor of the Tablet, for permission to include this article on our site. It was first published in the 18 November edition of The Tablet.
Report of the 2017 AGM of the Association of Catholic Priests
A copy of an audio cd of our AGM is available from Eist Audio Productions by contacting Eist on 087 2789 390 or by emailing eist@eircom.net.
The ACP is happy to inform members that a meeting is being arranged between representatives of the ACP and the Irish Episcopal Conference, represented by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin and Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, President of the Irish Episcopal Conference.
praytellblog.com reports that New Zealand’s bishops have welcomed Pope Francis’ “Magnum Principium (the great principle)”.
They state “We will be working in collaboration with English speaking Bishops’ Conferences around the world, as we seek to explore prudently and patiently the possibility of an alternative translation of the Roman Missal and the review of other liturgical texts.”
Maurice Taylor, a Scottish bishop who served for many years on the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), welcomes Pope Francis’ decision to change the criteria for liturgical translation.
Our thanks to Bishop Taylor and to Mary Cullen, editor of Open House, for their permission to publish this article.
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?”
We carry a transcript of an interview between Brendan Hoban and radio presenter Monica Morley on ‘Faith Alive’ on Mid West Radio concerning the intervention by Bishop Alphonsus Cullinane in the debate on the HPV vaccine for young girls.
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