Thanks

Thanks to all who contribute to Ceremonies and Masses in both churches throughout the year

A special word of thanks to Ministers of the Word, Ministers of the Eucharist, Organists, Choirs, Children’s Liturgy leaders and helpers, collectors, sacristans, flower Societies and all who look after the cleaning of the Churches.

• 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 Youtube, or daily, please contact 01-8412647.

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RIP

Please pray for all those who have died during the week:  Desmond Kirk (Stamullen), Brendan Andrews (Julianstown), Esther Meighan (Grangerath, Drogheda and formerly Gormanston). We offer our condolences to all the bereaved.

First Holy Communion

First Holy Communion Ceremonies have been postponed owing to the Government guidelines on the Coronavirus.  These Ceremonies will be rescheduled when it is safe and practical to do so.

We remember the children in our prayers, and I will be offering prayers for all our Frist Communicants in my Sunday Mass at 11 am on 26^th April.

Easter

Thanks to all who dropped Easter Offerings and other Alms into us over the last few weeks.  It was very much appreciated. Thanks also, to all those who contribute by standing order.

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.

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Pope Francis was asked about how he is experiencing the Cofid-19 Pandemic:

My major concern – at least what comes through my prayer – is how to accompany and be closer to the people of God.  Hence the live streaming of the 7 am Mass [I celebrate each morning] which many people follow and appreciate.  Hence, too, the step-up in activities of the office of papal charities, attending to the sick and hungry.  I’m living this as a time of great uncertainty.  It’s a time for inventing, for creativity.

Pope Francis was asked about how he understands the mission of the Church in the context of the pandemic:

The creativity of the Christian needs to show forth in opening up new horizons, opening windows, opening transcendence towards God and towards people, and in creating new ways of being at home.  It’s not easy to be confined to your house.  What comes to my mind is a verse from the Aeneid, in the midst of defeat: the counsel is not to give up, but save yourself for better times, for in those times remembering what has happened will help us.  Take care of yourselves for a future that will come.  And remembering in that future what has happened will do you good.  Take care of the now, for the sake of tomorrow.  Always creatively, with a simple creativity, capable of inventing something new each day.

When asked about the response being made by Governments, Pope Francis said:

It’s true a number of governments have taken exemplary measures to defend the population on the basis of clear priorities.  But we’re realising that all our thinking, like it or not, has been shaped around the economy.  It’s a culture of euthanasia, either legal or covert in which the elderly are given medication but only up to a point.  A photo appeared the other day of a parking lot in Las Vegas where they had been put in quarantine, and the hotels were empty.  But the homeless cannot go to a hotel.  That is the throwaway culture in practice.

Would the future economy be more human?  Pope Francis responded:

Who now speaks of the fires in Australia, or remembers that 18 months ago a boat could cross the North Pole because the glaciers had all melted?  Who speak now of the floods?  I don’t know if these are the revenge of nature, but they are certainly nature’s responses.  We have a selective memory.  This crisis is affecting us all, rich and poor alike, and putting a spotlight on hypocrisy.  I am worried by the hypocrisy of certain political personalities who speak of facing up to the crisis, of the problem of hunger in the world, but who in the meantime manufacture weapons.  This is a time to be converted from this kind of functional hypocrisy.  It’s a time for integrity.  Either we are coherent with our beliefs of we lose everything.  This is the opportunity for conversion.

Trócaire Boxes

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

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