St. Patrick’s Day Mass Times 2010
| Tuesday 16th March: | 7.30 pm (Vigil Mass) |
| Wednesday 17th March: | 9.30 am 11.00 am 12.30 pm |
| There is no evening Mass on St. Patrick’s Day. | |
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Pastor’s Desk: 4th Sunday of Lent
Welcome everyone and a particularly warm welcome to the mothers and grandmothers in our congregation this Sunday as today is Mother’s Day! I hope you all have a great day and enjoy what I am sure is a rare opportunity to put your feet up and be pampered!! Happy Mother’s Day!
The Prodigal Son
Being Mother’s Day I suppose it is a bit ironic that the central characters in our Gospel today are three men. We see Jesus at his teaching best this Sunday; about two thousand years ago, Jesus uttered this story as a way of showing the ability of people to be selfish and debauched, uncaring and closed while also able to be humble, contrite and ultimately loving and forgiving. It is a masterful parable and one that has come down through the centuries to us today and still has the ability to speak to us as though it was written for our time. In the younger son we see the arrogance of youth; he wants his inheritance now. There is no recognition of the work the father has put in to building it up so that there is something to be shared between his two sons. The son squanders the money and pride prevents his returning home. Eventually he comes to his senses and decides to be a slave for his father rather than for strangers. The elder son exhibits selfishness also in refusing to celebrate his younger brother’s return. He wants retribution because he stayed and did his duty. The one who is an example to us all is the father who shows to both sons a great parental love; a love that is unconditional and is shared equally between them. Jesus wants us to see in the father, a glimpse of the love that God has for us and which is manifested in the sending of His Son to us. Let us take the example of the father in the story for our behaviour and attitude to others.
St. Patrick’s Day
Wednesday is the great feast of the Apostle to Ireland, Patrick. His own life story is told in his Confessions and it is an amazing story of fear, pain, forgiveness and love. Patrick first arrives in Ireland after being rounded up in a slave-capturing expedition to possibly modern France or Wales. He is 16 years old and sold to look after sheep in Ulster. The pain of separation from his Christian family is felt everyday but his faith in God sustains him till he gets the courage to run away from his captors. At home he joins the priesthood as his father did and also his grandfather who was a permanent deacon. Upon ordination he wants to be a missionary, to bring the Word of God to those who have never heard it and he chooses Ireland of all places; the people who treated him so shamefully. Patrick was an extraordinarily gifted preacher and our celebration of him this week is proof of his abilities in spreading the faith. In all our celebrations let us remember the man and not the myth.
Have a great week
Fr. Eoin
March 13, 2010
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Pastor’s Desk: 3rd Sunday of Lent
Welcome everyone to our Eucharist on this the 3rd Sunday of Lent. It can be around now that our enthusiasm and vigour for our Lenten observance can begin to wane! How are you doing? If you have caved in, then do not despair because you can start afresh this week and continue to the great festival of Easter. Lent is about trial and effort and none of us want to give up after falling at the first fence.
Our Gospel today sees Jesus hearing about the cruelty inflicted on a group of Galileans by Pontius Pilate; he had their blood mingled with that of the animal sacrifices. This showed Pilate’s contempt for the faith of the people and a total disregard for the people themselves. At the time of Jesus it was common among the Jews to see personal misfortune and tragedy as an affliction from God for some sin committed by the person themselves or their ancestors. Of course, the opposite also applied; a person for whom all was going well was obviously being blessed by God and was being rewarded. Jesus turns this thinking on its head when he challenges his hearers about the Galileans, “Do you suppose these Galileans who suffered like that were greater sinners than any other Galileans? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”
Jesus then goes on to tell them the parable of the fig tree which does not produce its fruit for three years. The owner wants to cut it down but the vineyard keeper says he will make a special effort to encourage it to produce fruit this year and then, if there is still nothing, cut it down. The message to us is clear. The tranquility or turmoil of our lives is not an indicator of our standing with God; it boils down to the fruits of Christian living we are producing. Lent is a chance to balance the books in that regard.
Faith Commitment
We welcome especially today the boys and girls who will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation this April. Today at the Family Mass they will make their Faith Commitment in preparation for the Sacrament. They will come forward with a list of the things they intend to do between now and April 30th that will show they are followers of Christ. This is, if you like, the fruits by which we will know them. We wish them every success in living them out.
First Penance
This is also a special week for the girls and boys celebrating their First Eucharist in May. On Monday and Tuesday evenings at 8.00pm, Fr. Gary, Fr. Donald and I will celebrate First Penance with them. Many of you will remember it as First Confession and it may or may not be a happy memory, but the way we celebrate it today is truly a time of sensing the joy of God’s forgiveness. We congratulate the boys and girls as they receive another of the Seven Sacraments of the Church.
Have a great week.
Fr. Eoin
March 6, 2010
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Pastor’s Desk: 2nd Sunday of Lent
Welcome everyone. Our Readings today tell of the faithfulness of God and his desire to be close to his people of faith. In the first reading we see Abram (who later has his name changed to Abraham, our father in faith) being offered a special relationship with God. This relationship or Covenant will be sealed with the sacrifice of animals and birds. Abram is a wandering Aramean with no homeland or descendants but God offers him land and as many descendants as the stars in the sky. We are part of the descendants of Abram. The Lord’s promise has been fulfilled.
In the Gospel, Peter, James and John are brought up a mountain by Jesus where he is transfigured in their sight. He lets His glory be seen as the Son of God. Peter’s reaction is to say, “Let’s build three tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah”. He doesn’t want to leave this wonderful experience of the closeness of God. It is a very natural and understandable reaction. But Jesus leads them down the mountain on the road that will lead to Jerusalem and His death on the cross.
The message for us is that we need those moments of basking in the presence of God in order to face the challenges that life will throw at us. These moments are to be seized. But if we are not people of prayer, if we do not give Jesus time in our week, then we are facing the challenges life throws at us alone and we will feel downtrodden. Let’s take the opportunity of Lent to have transfiguration moments in our own lives.
holytrinityparish.ie
Our parish website has a new domain name and it is holytrinityparish.ie. The website is a project of the Parish Pastoral Council. The site continues to grow and more sections will be added over time. We want it to be a one-stop-shop for all parish activities and information. Please take the time to have a look at it and do send on your thoughts as to what we could add to it to improve it as a source of information. Coming soon will be a Family Mass Group page and also a history of the parish. If your parish group wishes to be included then get in touch. We will have the formal launch of the website a little later on in the year on World Communications Sunday. You can leave public comments in the Guestbook, or email the website team directly at
Register with the Parish
For the last four years the parish at Christmas and Easter has printed and distributed a pack with the timetable of services for the particular seasons to all households within the parish boundary. That has meant an increase from 3000 homes to 6000 homes in that time. The amount of printing and effort to assemble and distribute the packs is too much. We intend from this Easter to deliver directly to those who are registered with the parish, i.e. those who give to the Family Offering by envelope or standing order and those who give to the Dues. If you are not registered yet please contact the parish office to be included for this Easter.
Have a great week.
Fr. Eoin
February 27, 2010
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Pastor’s Desk: 1st Sunday of Lent
Welcome everyone. We gather for the first time since we began the season of Lent on Wednesday with the marking of blessed ashes on our foreheads. Those ashes are a powerful symbol as they say to each of us who wore them, and everyone who saw us that day, we are on a journey of rediscovery. What are we rediscovering? Well firstly, our relationship with Jesus Christ. You might say you never lost it but the truth of it all is that we can have so much to deal with in our lives that the person of Jesus Christ gets pushed out. It’s a bit like my experience since moving house; I know that there are important things to me somewhere in my house but I just haven’t been able to put my hand on them since the upheaval of the move! Likewise, Jesus is part of my life but he can sometimes get pushed back while I deal with immediate concerns. Lent is about repositioning Jesus to a more central position in my daily life. Our Gospel today shows us how Jesus suffered temptation in the desert but did not succumb. He understands our nature and wants us to learn from him and lean on him. Let us not waste these next 40 days.
Vatican Meeting
The meeting in Rome of the Irish bishops with Pope Benedict was something we prayed about at our Masses last Sunday. I must admit, I was disappointed on Tuesday evening with what was coming out from the deliberations and, in particular, that the survivors of abuse were left feeling let down again by the authorities in the Church. I felt much better when Archbishop Martin related his understanding of the meeting and what had been achieved when he met the media on Wednesday: you can read a note from the Archbishop in the panel below. We are on a long and difficult road of renewal for our church and it requires all our prayers to see it through.
RCIA
The above letters stand for the “Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults” which is about welcoming into the Catholic Church and preparing for sacraments, adults who have been members of other churches/faiths and none, or those Catholics who never received the sacraments of Communion or Confirmation. Over the past three years, our parish has had the great joy of welcoming a new adult member each year and this year is no exception. I ask your prayers for Mary Noonan who is being prepared by our RCIA Group for membership of our faith community. Mary will receive the Sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Communion as a member of our parish at the Easter Vigil Mass on April 3rd. Our thanks go the RCIA group who are preparing Mary for this great step in her life.
Have a great week
Fr. Eoin
Note on Rome Meeting
On Monday and Tuesday last (15th and 16th February) Pope Benedict XVI met with the Diocesan bishops of Ireland. Ten senior Vatican Officials also attended the meeting.
The idea of such a meeting was broached by Pope Benedict when he met with Cardinal Brady and me in December last. On that occasion the Pope expressed his regret, outrage, betrayal and shame on what had been chronicled in the Murphy Report. He also announced that he intended to write a pastoral letter to the Church in Ireland.
The aim of this week’s meeting was to listen to the Irish Bishops and to the reactions they had garnered from survivors and from Catholic faithful to the tragic events of abuse which were chronicled in the Murphy Report and to the “failure of the Irish Church authorities for many years to act effectively in dealing with such abuse”. It was recognised that in addition to the terrible harm done to survivors, this failure had damaged “the Church’s spiritual and moral credibility”.
Pope Benedict challenged the bishops to address the problems of the past with determination and resolve.
Texts which had been given to various bishops from survivors’ groups and individual survivors were given to Pope Benedict. Before going to Rome I met with various survivors and I had also read carefully the reactions sent to me by Parish Pastoral Councils and by thousands of individuals.
Pope Benedict is now working on his promised Pastoral Letter. This Letter will not be a systematic examination of events, but a pastoral reflection of the Pope, whose office in the Church is to confirm and strengthen the local Churches. The Letter will be one of many steps to be taken in the months and years to come especially within the Irish Church.
+Diarmuid Martin
Archbishop of Dublin
February 20, 2010
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