Parish Advent Service
The next of our Advent Services will take place in St. Fiacre’s Church on Thursday next (13th) starting at 7:30pm.
The service will incorporate the anointing of the sick and all are welcome to attend.
The following Thursday, 20th December, will be our parish penitential service and an ideal opportunity to seek God’s forgiveness in our build up to Christmas. All welcome.
Christmas Carol Service
The annual Christmas Carol Service featuring the St. Patrick’s Parish Choirs and the St. Patrick’s Brass and Reed Band will be held at St. Joseph’s Church, Foulkstown on next Sunday, 16th December at 4.30pm. Refreshments afterwards in the clubhouse at the Kilkenny Rugby Club. Come and enjoy the Spirit of Christmas in a lovely atmosphere.
Cake Sale for Building Fund
A Cake Sale will follow the Christmas Carol Service on next Sunday. Come along to the Rugby Club immediately after the service and purchase from a wonderful selection of homemade cakes and Christmas treats. Proceeds to the building fund. Donations of cakes and home-bakes will be gratefully received for the sale: Contact Rita 772 1129 or Mary 772 1356 for details.
Questions People Ask
Q. I feel Advent should be a holy season but I always lose the run of myself under the expansion of the commercial and partying side of Christmas. Any advice?
A. Yes, it’s a pity that Advent has been gobbled up by Christmas because the spirituality of Advent is very important. The readings of Advent help us to find Christ in our experience of a spiritual winter, in having to wait on God, or in any terrifying wilderness we have to endure. Maybe less television will give you more time for spiritual reading. Contact a Retreat Centre where there might be something on to suit you. Make a resolution not to become a slave to commercial pressures.
Bishop Freeman Visits Parish
Our new bishop, Most Rev. Séamus Freeman, will be the principal concelebrant at the IWA Mass at St. Fiacre’s Church at 2.30pm on today, 9th December. Fáilte.
Pray for the Deceased
Recently Deceased: Phyllis Doran, St. Martin’s, Birchfield, Waterford Road. Brigid Morrissey, Assumption Place. Michael Geary, Donaraille, Cork. Tommy McCorry, Yorkshire, England.
Months Mind: Sr. Marie Kissane, St. John of God Convent; Henrietta Hyland, Ormonde Road; Paul O’Dwyer (Wed 9.30)
Anniversaries: Michael Fitzmaurice (Sat 6.15), Margaret O’Brien (Sat 7.00), Patricia Fitzpatrick (Sun 9.30), Angela Murphy (Sun 10.00), Kitty Dowling & Members of the Dowling Family (Sun 10.30), Eddie Slattery (Sun 11.00), John & Brigid O’Rourke (Sun 12.00), John Carroll (Sun 12.30), Margaret Doyle, Harry O’Connor, Annie Wall, Eric McGrath, Mary McGrath, James Murray, John Egan, Anne Fogarty, Milo & Ann Fry, Sean Ryan, Kitty Ryan, Michael Nolan, The Nolan Family, The Martin Family.
Mass Intentions for Next Weekend: Rena Brett (Months Mind Sun 12.30); Padraig Butler (Sat 6.15), Dick Lynch (Sat 7.00), Michael Hynes (Sun 9.30), Jayne & Jeffrey Power (Sun 10.00), Joe & Nan Mulhall (Sun 11.00), Patrick Morris (Tues 9.30)
Christmas - The Season to be Jolly
For many people Christmas can be a time of stress and financial strain. Christmas need not be so stressful. It’s easy to have a stress free Christmas if you are organised, stick to a budget and are realistic about your own expectations. St. Canice’s Credit Union and the St. Vincent de Paul Society have come together to give you some practical tips on how to budget and manage your money in the run up to the Christmas Season. See posters on Church notice boards and pamphlets in Church porches for further details.
Pope Benedict’s New Encyclical — Spe Salvi
The Irish Catholic Bishops at their December meeting in Maynooth welcomed the publication of the new Encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, which was published last week.
The bishops noted that the theme of Pope Benedict’s first encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love) was love, while the theme of this encyclical Spe Salvi (Saved by Hope) is hope, which is closely related to faith. These are the three virtues by which we relate to God. Spe Salvi asks the faithful to reflect on the following:
· God has shown his face to us in Christ. Can our encounter with God change our lives so that we know we are redeemed through hope?
· The encyclical tells us that we are definitively loved and whatever happens to us in life, we are awaited by God’s love.
· We hope for eternal life, but eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, rather it is something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality. We can only attempt to grasp the idea that such a moment is life in its full sense.
· Christian hope is not individualistic; it has to do with the building up of the common good in this world while at the same time moving towards the fullness of the hope by which we are saved. We must be concerned not just about our own salvation but ask what we can do in order that others may also be saved.
· Placing our trust in anything other than God will in the end fail to satisfy the human heart and will be destructive of true hope.
· When we try to spare ourselves the effort and pain of pursuing truth, love, and goodness, we drift into a life of emptiness, in which there may be almost no pain, but a dark sensation that life is meaningless. We are healed, not by trying to evade all suffering, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered for us with infinite love.
· Science can contribute greatly to making the world and mankind more human. Yet it can also destroy mankind and the world unless it is steered by forces that lie outside it. On the other hand, we must also acknowledge that modern Christianity, faced with the successes of science in progressively structuring the world, has to a large extent restricted its attention to the individual and his salvation. This can lead to a failure to understand the unlimited horizon of Christian hope.
Full text on Vatican Website: www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals
St. Patrick’s Brass & Reed Band
Annual Christmas Concert
St. Patrick’s Church
Monday, 17th December at 8pm
With: Audrey Larkin, Noel Power, Eugene Dewberry, Traditional Irish Musicians.
Admission Free
Divine Mercy
There will be an hour of adoration and prayer in honour of Divine Mercy in St. Mary’s Cathedral on Sunday December 9th from 3-4pm. All are welcome.
St. Vincent De Paul Society
The local conference of the St. Vincent De Paul Society will take up their annual Christmas Collection at all Masses in Kilkenny City next weekend.
We ask you to be generous in supporting this very worthy local charity.
The members of the Society are called upon especially at Christmas time to help people in need in our community. Your contribution would help greatly.
Sincere thanks to all who have supported this charity throughout the past year.
St. Joseph’s Young Priests Society
The monthly meeting of the St. Patrick’s Branch of the St. Joseph’s Young Priests Society will take place on Friday, 14th December after the 10.30am Mass at St. Fiacre’s Church.
The Society promotes and supports vocations to the priesthood and religious life. New members always welcome.
The next of the parish draws takes place on Tuesday the 18th of December. This is a week early on account of Christmas Day falling on the last Tuesday of the month.
If you would like to be included in our draw then contact any of the promoters or sacristans or priests. The draw costs €10 per month and all the money goes towards the building of the new parish centre.
Thanks to Ted and all the promoters who make the draw such a success. We are grateful for your efforts.
Further progress on our building project will be added soon.
Parish Draw
Because Christmas Day falls on the last Tuesday of the month the December Draw will take place on Tuesday, 18th December in the Presbytery at 8.30pm.
We thank all our subscribers and promoters for your support and loyalty during 2007 and we look forward to your continued support in 2008.
