Pastor's Desk: Ascension Sunday
Ascension Sunday
Welcome everyone to our Eucharistic celebration on this feast of Ascension Sunday. Today, we recall Christ’s ascension to his eternal glory in heaven and we pray in hope that where he went, we too will follow. The disciples were not disheartened by the physical departure of the Lord; in fact we see they were ready for the mission that lay ahead of them. On that first Pentecost, they would go out into the streets and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to all who would listen.
Communications Sunday
That mission of proclaiming Jesus as Lord is still the mission of those who are his followers today. That is why 44 years ago, The Feast of the Ascension was also designated Communications Sunday by the Holy Father. In his message for this year’s Communications Sunday, Pope Benedict stresses that modern forms of media, such as the internet, should be utilised by all who wish to spread the Word of God.
Down through the ages the Church was always an early adopter of new media forms; we think of the detailed and beautifully crafted handwritten manuscripts of the monastic tradition; the printing press when typed books could be produced; more recently in radio and television the Church has been to the fore utilising them as a means for the Gospel message. Yet, the Church was slow to use the internet and create a presence in cyberspace. That thankfully has now changed. The Vatican has made itself present via its website and YouTube channel.
Our own parish has also been very much to the fore in adopting modern means of communication; we have our beautifully produced parish Newsletter, Trinity News, which is the envy of the diocese! We have our Radio Link for the sick and housebound to listen to Mass from the parish church. More recently, we have our parish website, holytrinityparish.ie which conveys to parishioners and the world all that is happening in our community of faith and provides a place of information for those preparing for the Sacraments of Baptism, First Eucharist, Confirmation and Marriage. We are very fortunate to have our site maintained and updated by parish volunteers who have the technical know-how and vision to ensure Holy Trinity Parish is always present to those who wish to find out who we are and what we are about. Here are some stats for the parish website:
| Typical day | Last month | Year to date |
| 20-30 visits | 482 visits | 2479 visits |
| 50-70 page views | 1226 page views | 6472 page views |
Have a look at the website and let us know what you think should be added. More pages are to come, especially from all the parish groups that are active and also a history page to show our journey over the years.
Consultation exercise re: Sunday Mass schedule for July, August and September
On behalf of the Parish Team and the Parish Pastoral Council I extend our thanks to all who participated in the consultation exercise last Sunday and to those who assisted with the distribution and collection of the ballot papers. As parishioners know, we will be down to two priests in the parish for July, one priest for the month of August and two priests for the majority of September, all things going well.
The results of the consultation have been counted and verified by members of the PPC Executive Committee and are as follows:
| Votes to Remove 9.30am | Votes to Remove 11.00am | Votes to Remove 12.30pm | Votes to Remove 5.30pm | Totals | |
| At 6.30 Mass | 50 | 11 | 16 | 90 | 167 |
| At 9.30 Mass | 6 | 28 | 15 | 75 | 124 |
| At 11.00 Mass | 64 | 23 | 14 | 124 | 225 |
| At 12.30 Mass | 45 | 24 | 3 | 49 | 121 |
| At 5.30 Mass | 50 | 29 | 11 | 21 | 111 |
| Totals | 215 | 115 | 59 | 359 | 748 |
| 29% | 15% | 8% | 48% |
As can be seen from the table above a clear majority opted for removing the 5.30pm Sunday evening Mass for the three months. This arrangement will become effective from Sunday 4th July.
Have a great week.
Fr. Eoin
May 15, 2010
Posted in: Pastor's Desk
