Church Notices: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Church Gate collection this Sunday after all masses is for St. Vincent de Paul. Please give as generously as you can.
If any of our parishioners know of a very sick person who would like to travel to Lourdes with the Diocesan Pilgrimage in September, please contact the Parish Office. As a team of doctors and nurses travel with the Pilgrimage it is possible to take people who otherwise would not be able to travel. Fitness to travel is at the discretion of the Chief Medical Officer of the Pilgrimage in consultation with one’s own doctor.
The new rotas for Ministers of the Word and Ministers of the Eucharist are available from the Sacristy porch notice board.
For summer fun activities and events in the area please check out Donaghmede Library as events are ongoing throughout the summer.
Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Ireland would like to thank the Parishioners of Holy Trinity Parish who gave so generously and helped to raise €678.50 at their Church Gate Collection in April.
Trinity News is taking a break for the summer and will return in September.

July 10, 2010 Posted in: Announcements No Comments

July e-Good News

The latest edition of the monthly Year of Evangelisation newsletter e-Good News is now available for download.

July 8, 2010 Posted in: Announcements No Comments

Pastor’s Desk: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week’s article comes from Fr. Tom Cahill, writing for Intercom magazine.

Cross Purpose

Parents can be pushy, a study has found. Not satisfied with their kids’ long school day, many parents muscle their munchkins into an assortment of after-school activities. Counting the hours of a regular school day, of heaped homework, of club commitments and of pursuing hobbies, shows that children can average up to 53 hours of work a week. And all in the name of achievement! Well, for Paul in today’s Second Reading (Gal 6:14-18) nothing short of becoming a new creation fits the bill for achievement. As he says, ‘a new creation is everything’ (v 15). However, his formula for success is not the No. 1 of most people. His is an attitude of boasting of nothing other than the cross of Jesus Christ.

Does he mean that physical, cross-beamed implement of torture used to kill him? Let’s hope not. The cross as a piece of wood has no special significance. What is significant is Jesus’ loving faithfulness to his Father, and his integrity in witnessing to what he believed in, that enabled him to face the horror of the cross. This same love of God and uncompromising commitment to his mission is what fastens Paul to the world and the world to him.

Far from being a catalyst for depression, or the trigger for a spirituality of gloom, the cross – though stark and uncompromising – nevertheless reveals a heart warm with love for God and his creation. Our ‘cross’ will weigh us down if borne with gripe, but will raise us up if borne with grace.

Fr. Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries

July 3, 2010 Posted in: Pastor's Desk No Comments

Pastor’s Desk: 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week’s article comes from Fr. Tom Cahill, writing for Intercom magazine.

Testy Times

It used to be the terrible teens. Now it’s the terrible tots. Crèches in Britain are suspending up to fourteen young children a day, aged five and younger, for physical assault. Incidents where testy tots use violence against classmates and teachers rose six per cent in a year.

I wonder what sort of tots the two disciples were in today’s Gospel reading (Luke 9:51-62). If they weren’t testy as tots they’re certainly testy as adults. Inflated with importance they assume a power to ‘command fire to come down from heaven’ (v. 54) and torch to death the inhabitants of a Samaritan village. Not very Christian that now, is it?

Though close to Jesus physically as his followers they aren’t yet close enough to him spiritually to recognise what sort of person and what sort of messiah he is. It seems there’s baggage blocking the way: religious baggage that inflates their sense of election, of being God’s own people to the exclusion of others; political baggage that expects a freedom-fighter messiah to liberate the Jews from Roman tyranny; and social baggage that cultivates an elitist mentality that seduces them into thinking they can ride rough-shod over people like the Samaritans whom they despise.

Some ancient authorities add, ‘as Elijah did’ to v. 54 about commanding fire from heaven. In response to this hankering for former ways and attitudes Jesus rebukes them. I wonder does he have any such rebuke for us today as we carry our baggage, whether it be personal, social or institutional in these testy and testing times?

Fr. Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries

June 26, 2010 Posted in: Pastor's Desk No Comments

Church Notices: 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

On Tuesday next - 29th June, the Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul we celebrate the 31st anniversary of the death of our first Parish Priest, Fr. Joe Collins with a Remembrance Mass at 10.00am. All are invited to attend.
Next Sunday, the annual PETER’S PENCE Collection will be taken up at all the Masses instead of the SHARE Collection. ‘Peter’s Pence’ goes directly to the Holy Father in Rome for his own personal distribution to world charities and disasters.
A reminder that from this Thursday onwards we will have one Mass daily, Monday to Friday, which will be celebrated at 10.00am. Also, from next Sunday, the 5.30pm Sunday evening Mass will be suspended till October as agreed in our recent consultation with parishioners.
Help is urgently needed for Ministers of the Eucharist, for stewarding, singing and for holding umbrellas at the Communion Stations at the Fingal Cemetery Mass this Sunday. Those able to help should present themselves to the celebrant in the cemetery in good time before the Mass begins. The Mass is at 3.00pm on Sunday 27th June.
On Monday we have Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament from after the 10am till just before the 7.30pm Mass. There will be no exposition during the months of July and August. All are invited to pray before the Lord.
The monthly meeting and Mass for the Padre Pio Prayer Group will take place on Thursday morning at the new time of 10.00am here in the church. All are welcome.
The new rota for Ministers of the Word is available from the Sacristy porch notice board.
Trinity News is taking a break for the summer and will return in September.