Dear parishioners,

Just a reminder to all, our parish is still up and running, thank God.  I am available to you whenever you need.  Please stay in touch.

Fr. Declan

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• Mass is being offered daily from the Oratory at Preston Hill every day.

• Sunday Mass from Preston Hill is being celebrated at 11am on Youtube:

If you wish to join me you can Like and subscribe to: https://www.youtube.com/chanel/UCMaC1cpFBS-qQ8JGKYPvkOw

• If you wish to have an anniversary Mass offered on Sunday on Youtube, or daily, please contact 01-8412647.

This Sunday we remember:

Gerard Mackin, Nicky and Bridget Crowe and Bro. Peter Black.

Thanks

Thanks to all who have dropped in donations, Easter offerings and weekly envelopes to the church or parochial house and by standing order and/or bank transfer.  Your support is very much appreciated.

If you wish to contribute to the church by bank transfer, you can e-mail your request to the Parish at www.sjparish.ie and we will contact you

Vocations Sunday

This Sunday, 3^rd May we are asked to pray for Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life.

For information regarding Diocesan priesthood, please contact Fr. Declan (01-8412647) or Fr. Shane Crombie (057-9322244).  “Vocations are born in prayer and only in prayer can they persevere and bear fruit” Pope Francis.  “Dear young people do not bury your talents, the gifts God has given you. Do not be afraid to dream great things.”  Pope Francis.

Knock Shrine

View the Dublin Diocesan Pilgrimage to Knock virtually on-line this Sunday commencing at 2:30pm.  Go to www.knockshrine.ie

Trócaire Boxes

We would appreciate if you could keep Trócaire Boxes at home until public mass resumes in our Churches.

Act of Spiritual Communion

Although unable to receive Jesus in Holy Communion, parishioners are invited during the time of Holy Communion to make an Act of Spiritual Communion using the following words:

My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Mot Holy Sacrament.  I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul.  Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.  I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You.  Never permit me to be separated from You.  Amen.

Something to think about ….

“Quite often I am invited to go and speak in churches and other places about Faith and life and I have often said that I cannot imagine a world without the Eucharist.  Never did I think that I would know such a world.  Now I live in it and, like so many of you I suspect, I find it so very hard.   Things I had taken for granted – the opportunity to go to Mass, to join in with others in worship, to rejoice in the real presence of the Lord, have all been taken away.  It will only be for a short time.

So, I have a question for each of my readers.  When these days are past and your life becomes gradually ‘normal’ again, how will you have changed?  Will your priorities be different?  Will you, like me, acknowledge the need to hear and respond to that call to ‘be still and know that I am God’? As we look at clearer skies, lower levels of pollution, will we contemplate our use of the world’s resources, as Pope Francis asked us to in Laudate Si?  As we contemplate our individual responses to the calls for help which have emerged from those who have less than we do, those who cannot do what they want to do, those who are lonely and isolated, will we resolve to live differently in the future?

As the Jesuit priest poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote:

‘The world is charged with the grandeur of God’.   He went on….: ‘Generations have trod, have trod, have trod, And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell:  the soil is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.’

And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs –  Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.’

When our lives go back to normal, when we can go to Mass again, when life gets busy again, may we remember what we have learned during these strange days and may we always know that, as we learn again every Easter, we are called to eternal life, not just life here on earth. May we have the courage and the grace to live again as we really should.”

Nuala O’Loan – The View – The Irish Catholic, April 2020

Creating a May Altar in your Home

Many people create a small altar in their home during the month of May.

The altar is traditionally dedicated to Mary, the mother of God as May is the Marian month when Catholics give special praise and honour to Jesus’ mother Mary, gifted to us as our mother too. May is also the first month of summer, so altars which are created during this time are adorned with flowers that bloom at this time of year and with particular prayers, or items of devotion such as rosary beads to decorate this special space and to express our love and honour to Mary in our home. Items to include on your altar:

• Statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary • Candle • Flowers • Bible • Crucifix • Rosary Beads

These days of isolation are an opportunity for families to set aside some time together each evening to pray a decade of the Rosary or the Angelus.  We encourage parents with children attending our Catholic schools to support their children’s faith in the home by erecting a May Altar.

“The treasury of Mary’s heart also contains the experiences of every family, which she cherishes. For this reason, she can help us to understand the challenges our families face, and to hear the message God wishes to communicate through the life of our families.”

Amoris Laetitia, n.30

The Sunday Newsletter can be found on the Parish Website (sjparish.ie)