Difficult Word
Today we have another strange reading from Paul (Eph 4:30-5:2). He warns the Ephesians not ‘to grieve the Holy Spirit of God’ by bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander and malice. Instead they should be kind, tender-hearted and forgiving. That’s fine. But then he describes Christ’s giving himself up for us, i.e. surrendering to death, as a ‘fragrant offering and sacrifice to God’. I find it difficult to grasp that Paul should consider the Spirit upset by human malice yet the Father pleased by the Son’s death in facing up to that malice. Why does malice aggrieve the Holy Spirit if not because of the damage it does to both victim and perpetrator? Why then does the suffering it inflicts on God’s Son not aggrieve that Spirit too? At least, if it does, Paul doesn’t say so. Reading Paul one way gives the impression that the Father was pleased with both the suffering and the love that enable Jesus to face his suffering and death. Reading him another way gives the impression, intended or not, that the Father wanted his Son to suffer on our behalf – hence the fragrance of the sacrifice. However, this seriously compromises God’s compassionate nature as revealed in the parable of the prodigal son. Then reading Paul a third way gives the impression that the fragrance is in Paul’s nostrils not the Father’s. If true, this simplifies matters. It’s Paul’s view of Jesus’ suffering and death, not God’s. Scripture at times can be really difficult to understand, and the word of God it contains difficult to hear.
Fr. Tom Cahill SVD
Questions people ask
I did a weekend programme called the Enneagram which I found very helpful in understanding myself and others. But now somebody tells me it is against our religion as it comes from a non-Christian source.
I also found the Enneagram very enlightening. The fact that it originated among Sufi (Islamic) mystics does not make it bad or dangerous. The Old testament writers used pagan sources for their stories of creation and the flood. Jewish religious feasts were developed on the foundation of earlier pagan festivals. Similarly, Christians took the pagan celebration of mid-winter as the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Saint Patrick referred the pagan fire of Spring to the rising of Christ. God’s presence in not confined to Christians!
Fr. Silvester O’Flynn
Pray for the deceased
Recently Deceased: Eoin McDonagh, (Wed 10.30), Jimmy Reynolds (Tues 7.30pm Foulkstown), Jim Nolan, Joe Purcell, Dunmore
Months Mind: Joan Cody (Sat 7.00)
Anniversaries: Mary Coogan (Sat 6.15), Denis Treacy (Sun 10.00), Catherine Bourke (Sun 10.30), James & Mary Brennan (Sun 11.00), Gabriel Warde (Sun 12.00), Elizabeth Foley (Sun 12.30), Ellen McEvoy (Mon 9.30), Clare Mahon, Joe Delaney, Walter Kavanagh, Catherine Burke, Maurice Maher & Eileen Grace, (Thurs 10.30), Martin Doran,
Intentions for next weekend: Patrick McDonald (Sat 6.15), Eddie Kelly (Sat 7.00), Margaret Shanahan (Sun 12.00), Fintan Wallace (Sun 12.30), Patrick Morris (Tues 9.30), Daisy Quinn
Divine Mercy
There will be an hour of Prayer and Adoration in St. Mary’s Cathedral on Sunday August 9th from 3pm - 4pm.
Church Gate Collection
The annual church gate collection in aid of the Irish Cancer Society will take place next weekend the 15th & 16th Aug outside all massed.
Assumption of Our Lady
Next Saturday, 15th August is the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven. This is a holy day of obligation for all able bodied Catholics. Beginning with the Vigil Masses on Friday evening masses in our parish will follow the usual weekend timetable.
Today we have another strange reading from Paul (Eph 4:30-5:2). He warns the Ephesians not ‘to grieve the Holy Spirit of God’ by bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander and malice. Instead they should be kind, tender-hearted and forgiving. That’s fine. But then he describes Christ’s giving himself up for us, i.e. surrendering to death, as a ‘fragrant offering and sacrifice to God’. I find it difficult to grasp that Paul should consider the Spirit upset by human malice yet the Father pleased by the Son’s death in facing up to that malice. Why does malice aggrieve the Holy Spirit if not because of the damage it does to both victim and perpetrator? Why then does the suffering it inflicts on God’s Son not aggrieve that Spirit too? At least, if it does, Paul doesn’t say so. Reading Paul one way gives the impression that the Father was pleased with both the suffering and the love that enable Jesus to face his suffering and death. Reading him another way gives the impression, intended or not, that the Father wanted his Son to suffer on our behalf – hence the fragrance of the sacrifice. However, this seriously compromises God’s compassionate nature as revealed in the parable of the prodigal son. Then reading Paul a third way gives the impression that the fragrance is in Paul’s nostrils not the Father’s. If true, this simplifies matters. It’s Paul’s view of Jesus’ suffering and death, not God’s. Scripture at times can be really difficult to understand, and the word of God it contains difficult to hear.
Fr. Tom Cahill SVD
Questions people ask
I did a weekend programme called the Enneagram which I found very helpful in understanding myself and others. But now somebody tells me it is against our religion as it comes from a non-Christian source.
I also found the Enneagram very enlightening. The fact that it originated among Sufi (Islamic) mystics does not make it bad or dangerous. The Old testament writers used pagan sources for their stories of creation and the flood. Jewish religious feasts were developed on the foundation of earlier pagan festivals. Similarly, Christians took the pagan celebration of mid-winter as the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Saint Patrick referred the pagan fire of Spring to the rising of Christ. God’s presence in not confined to Christians!
Fr. Silvester O’Flynn
Pray for the deceased
Recently Deceased: Eoin McDonagh, (Wed 10.30), Jimmy Reynolds (Tues 7.30pm Foulkstown), Jim Nolan, Joe Purcell, Dunmore
Months Mind: Joan Cody (Sat 7.00)
Anniversaries: Mary Coogan (Sat 6.15), Denis Treacy (Sun 10.00), Catherine Bourke (Sun 10.30), James & Mary Brennan (Sun 11.00), Gabriel Warde (Sun 12.00), Elizabeth Foley (Sun 12.30), Ellen McEvoy (Mon 9.30), Clare Mahon, Joe Delaney, Walter Kavanagh, Catherine Burke, Maurice Maher & Eileen Grace, (Thurs 10.30), Martin Doran,
Intentions for next weekend: Patrick McDonald (Sat 6.15), Eddie Kelly (Sat 7.00), Margaret Shanahan (Sun 12.00), Fintan Wallace (Sun 12.30), Patrick Morris (Tues 9.30), Daisy Quinn
Divine Mercy
There will be an hour of Prayer and Adoration in St. Mary’s Cathedral on Sunday August 9th from 3pm - 4pm.
Church Gate Collection
The annual church gate collection in aid of the Irish Cancer Society will take place next weekend the 15th & 16th Aug outside all massed.
Assumption of Our Lady
Next Saturday, 15th August is the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven. This is a holy day of obligation for all able bodied Catholics. Beginning with the Vigil Masses on Friday evening masses in our parish will follow the usual weekend timetable.
Good Luck to the Cats!
We join in wishing the Kilkenny teams and hurlers all the best this weekend. We especially wish every success to those from our parish involved with the teams.
NUI Certificate in Philosophy
Kilkenny Campus has been offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses for adult students from Kilkenny and the south east for twelve years. The annual Conferring in November last year brought the number of awards granted by NUI Maynooth through its Kilkenny Campus to almost 800 since 1997. The Campus, which is situated at St. Kieran’s College, provides a friendly learning environment for the adult student with excellent library facilities, a new IT room, and plenty of support and encouragement from staff and students. This year we are delighted to offer an NUI Certificate in Philosophy under the auspices of the Dept. of Philosophy at NUI Maynooth. This course is designed to provide participants with the opportunity to develop an understanding of philosophy and to introduce the student to critical thinking in a number of foundational subjects in philosophy: logic, ethics and philosophy of religion. The course typically runs one evening per week over one year (September to May) and costs €1,100.
The closing date for receipt of applications is Tuesday, 1 September 2009.
For further information please contact Kilkenny Campus at:
Telephone: 056 7775910 / 086 2630999.
Email: Kilkenny.Campus@nuim.ie
Or visit or website at: http://kilkenny.nuim.ie
Our Lady’s Island, Wexford
Each day of the pilgrimage season, 15th August to 8th September: Mass at 3.00pm and 8.00pm. Pilgrims are invited to make their own way around the island reflecting on the mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary. For further information contact: Rev. Brendan Nolan P.P. Pilgrimage Director 053 9131167. Email: info@ourladysisland.ie. Website: http://www.ourladysisland.ie/
We join in wishing the Kilkenny teams and hurlers all the best this weekend. We especially wish every success to those from our parish involved with the teams.
NUI Certificate in Philosophy
Kilkenny Campus has been offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses for adult students from Kilkenny and the south east for twelve years. The annual Conferring in November last year brought the number of awards granted by NUI Maynooth through its Kilkenny Campus to almost 800 since 1997. The Campus, which is situated at St. Kieran’s College, provides a friendly learning environment for the adult student with excellent library facilities, a new IT room, and plenty of support and encouragement from staff and students. This year we are delighted to offer an NUI Certificate in Philosophy under the auspices of the Dept. of Philosophy at NUI Maynooth. This course is designed to provide participants with the opportunity to develop an understanding of philosophy and to introduce the student to critical thinking in a number of foundational subjects in philosophy: logic, ethics and philosophy of religion. The course typically runs one evening per week over one year (September to May) and costs €1,100.
The closing date for receipt of applications is Tuesday, 1 September 2009.
For further information please contact Kilkenny Campus at:
Telephone: 056 7775910 / 086 2630999.
Email: Kilkenny.Campus@nuim.ie
Or visit or website at: http://kilkenny.nuim.ie
Our Lady’s Island, Wexford
Each day of the pilgrimage season, 15th August to 8th September: Mass at 3.00pm and 8.00pm. Pilgrims are invited to make their own way around the island reflecting on the mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary. For further information contact: Rev. Brendan Nolan P.P. Pilgrimage Director 053 9131167. Email: info@ourladysisland.ie. Website: http://www.ourladysisland.ie/
Mass Cards & ACN
When people purchase a mass card at our parish office, this is an undertaking that an individual mass will be offered for each card signed. This has proven to be a very popular service so much so that we have now enlisted the help of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) . To date, ACN has received many of the mass intentions requested by parishioners and in turn they make sure that each mass is offered in a timely manner and by a priest in a developing or poor country.
ACN is a Papal Charity, founded by Fr. Werenfried van Straaten to support the Church throughout the world where it is in need or suffering persecution. Today ACN has offices in 17 countries and distributes aid to a further 138 countries around the globe. The charity assists in the support of priests and religious, the formation of novices and seminarians as well as building, education and other material needs of the churches poor.
We have left some leaflets about the work of ACN at the back of our churches and if you would like to support their work then the leaflet gives more information. Likewise you can find our more by visiting www.churchinneed.org.
St. Fiacre’s Well Novena
The annual St. Fiacre's Well novena begins on Saturday 22nd August at 8pm each evening out at the well in Kilfera. The novena will end with mass on the 30th August at the well with mass at 3.30pm. All are welcome to participate both in the novena and in the mass which is always well attended . Prayer at the well is an ancient tradition for the people of St. Patrick’s and Kilkenny city. More details as the time draws nearer.
New Website
Our new website is up and running with just a few minor changes to be made. Have you updated your bookmarks to the new address: www.patricksparish.net (formerly .com). Any suggestions are welcome.
Parish Registration Form
Yes, I would like to register as a parishioner of St. Patrick’s Parish
Name(s) :………………………………………………………………………………..
Address: ………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………….
Contact No: ……………………………………………………..
Email (if any): ……………………………………………………...
Would you like a priest to visit? Yes…….. No:……...
Please fill in the details above and drop it back to us.
New Parishioners
If you are new to our parish then you are welcome among us and we hope that you find St. Patrick’s Parish a happy place to be. If you would like to register with us as a parishioner then fill out the form above, and send it back to us.
Our Parish Shop
In the foyer of our new centre St. Patrick’s parish runs a small shop selling a variety of religious items. If you are looking for rosary beads, medals, religious books, candles etc. then drop in and have a look at what’s on offer. The shop is available on weekdays from 1am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm.
Getting Married Soon?
Please remember you must give at least three month’s notice to the Civil Registrar.
Anniversaries and Newsletter
Please, DO NOT leave anniversary notices or other items into our former house on Ormonde Road. We no longer have access to this premises
Items left at the Parish Office, the Priests’ Houses, St. Patrick’s or St. Fiacre’s Sacristies before Thursday will ensure publication. Thanks.
Latin Mass
The traditional Latin Mass (permitted by Pope Benedict XVI in his Motu Proprio of July 2007) is celebrated at St. Patrick’s Church at 5pm on Sundays.
Please, DO NOT leave anniversary notices or other items into our former house on Ormonde Road. We no longer have access to this premises
Items left at the Parish Office, the Priests’ Houses, St. Patrick’s or St. Fiacre’s Sacristies before Thursday will ensure publication. Thanks.
Latin Mass
The traditional Latin Mass (permitted by Pope Benedict XVI in his Motu Proprio of July 2007) is celebrated at St. Patrick’s Church at 5pm on Sundays.
