Life: Full and Free
When I worked in Indonesia as a missionary, a priest friend one day introduced a Chinese friend of his to me in the following manner: ‘This is so-and-so. He’s not Christian yet, he’s still free’. I couldn’t believe my ears. How could anyone think that being a Christian limited your freedom! Now, my friend may have thought he was being funny or subtle, but if so it was lost to me.
But his words did strike home. I wonder how many people actually think that religion cramps their style. And I also wonder what such people would want to do that they couldn’t do by being a Christian – particularly in the light of today’s Gospel (John 10. 1-10) where Jesus tells us that he has come to bring life in all its fullness. However, it doesn’t come pre-packed. It has to be worked on and worked with. Living as Jesus wants us to, leads to a full life. His Way is a precious gift, not a wearisome burden. It empowers, it doesn’t enslave. But all the talk in the world won’t convince anybody, if we who are on that Way don’t show its fullness in our life through joy, maturity, generosity, courage and hope.
Fr. Tom Cahill SVD
Questions people ask
Every now and then I think I have a vocation from God to be a priest. What should I do about it?
Talk about it to a priest, preferably on who knows you, and pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance. Every diocese and religious order organises Vocation Days to help people to discern their calling. A vocation to priesthood is a grace given to an individual for the service of the church-community. Basic requirements of a genuine vocation to priesthood would include a desire to commit ones life to God and the service of people, a sound faith, regular Mass attendance and prayer, the ability to co-operate with others and being willing to obey authority.
Fr. Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap
Pray for our Deceased
Recently deceased: Ann Treacy, Paulstown. Mary Nolan, Portlaw.
Months Mind: Eamonn O’Toole (Sat 6.15)
Anniversaries: Sr. Ann Holohan (Sat 7.00), Ellen Pattison (Sun 9.30), Josephine O’Neill (Sun 10.00), Michael O’Reilly (Sun 11.00), Michael & Mary Burke (Sun 12.00), Michael Malone (Sun 12.30), Patrick Morris (Fri 9.30), Thomas Fry, Michael Burke, Elizabeth Geoghegan, Adrian Bligh, Billy Nugent, Patrick Delaney, Maisie Keogh, Christina Walsh, Margaret Brennan, Patrick Skehan, Bridget Cantwell, Elizabeth Hennessey, Johnny Cullen, Catherine Cullen, Helen & John Roberts, Tobias Butler
Anniversaries next weekend: James Phelan (Sat 6:15), Michael Brannigan (Months Mind Sat 7:00), Margaret Banahan (Sun 9:30), Michael Gaule (Sun 10:30), Tom & Jim Phelan (Sun 12:00).
Lisbon Treaty
How does it change things?
There will be a talk in the Clubhouse Hotel, Kilkenny on Tuesday April 15th at 8pm. Guest Speaker: Anthony Coughlan. All welcome.
Divine Mercy
In honour of Divine Mercy, there will be an hour of prayer in St. Mary’s Cathedral on Sunday April 13th from 3pm - 4pm. All are welcome.
Vita Ethiopian Challenge
In October 2008 the inaugural trip to visit Vita projects in Ethiopia will take place. This trip is designed to introduce you to the many faces of Ethiopia and the difficulties faced by its people. Its purpose is to challenge your views of the developing world, to promote a better understanding of the work of Vita and to see what can be achieved with your support. This trip will take you to see some of the wonders of ancient Ethiopian civilisations. You will also visit modern developed Ethiopia and be able to compare this with the areas of the country in great need of sustainable livelihoods development which form the major part of this trip...The cost of taking on this challenge is €4750: this includes your flights, accommodation, meals, internal transport and support for the Vita programmes that you will visit. For further information please contact Jenny Douglas in Vita on 01 8820108 or email jenny.douglas@vita.ie
St Patrick’s Parish Draw - April 08 –March 09
The Parish Team, together with the Parish Finance Committee, has decided to continue the Parish Draw for a further twelve months, starting this month. The draw offers us the opportunity of raising a substantial sum of money towards the cost of our new Parish Centre, thereby reducing our borrowing requirement and saving on interest payments. Through the dedicated work of our group of promoters and the generosity of our subscribers, the last three draws have contributed €337,000 to the Parish Centre. In addition , €72,000 has been paid out in prize money, almost all of it locally.
To maximise the income from the draw we are appealing for extra promoters to promote the draw in their neighbourhood, workplace or family. Every draw card that’s filled with ten names is worth €1,200 to the Parish and when saving on interest is taken into account it is nearer to 3,000 in value.
Will you help us to make this year’s draw the most successful to date? In return, you will have two chances of winning €50.00 each month in a draw confined to promoters as well as a free draw on the night of the draw for a small prize, open to all who attend the draw. More important, you will have the satisfaction of helping your community realise the dream of having a Parish Centre worthy of our Parish and its people. The draw takes place on the last Tuesday of the month, starting on the 29th April, and continuing until March next year. The monthly prize fund is €2,000 and subscription is just €10.00 per month. If you can help us by becoming a promoter, please contact the Presbytery at 776 4400 in the next couple of days and we will send you draw cards and further information.
Vocations Sunday
This Sunday is dedicated to praying for and supporting vocations to the priesthood and religious life. We pray in a special way for those men and women from our parish and throughout our country who have felt the call of God to be His ministers but who have to realise this call.
This Sunday also begins a year of prayer for vocations and so, for the coming year special prayers will be offered at all our masses praying for vocations to God’s Church.
Also throughout the year on the newsletter we will publish reflections and articles relating to priesthood which we hope you will find interesting.
If anyone is interested in finding our more about priesthood and religious life they can contact our vocations director, Fr. Paddy Carey (Address on back) or talk to any of the priests.
Priesthood, it’s a different kind of White Collar Job.
StPatrick’s Parish Centre
By now you’ll all be familiar with the development that is taking place on the site adjacent to St. Fiacre’s Church Loughboy. Now that the hoarding has been partially taken down it’s easy to see the size of the development that has been undertaken. There’s so much in one small space, no one can ever accuse us of doing things by half measure. We are developing nine houses for the elderly, a new state-of-the-art parish centre and a new presbytery.
Work is progressing well and, please God we will be ready to move into the centre and houses sometime in the middle to late summer.
Before all that happens though there is a lot of work to be done. We are currently putting in place a charitable trust to oversee the planning and running of the new centre. At this stage we would like to hear once again from groups that may be interested in using the halls and meeting rooms. If your group is one of these then please send your groups/committees details to Fr. Liam at the presbytery. Please give a detailed account of what you do, how many people you cater for, the size of the room/hall you need and a name and contact number.
Please note that we don’t know when the Parish Centre will be ready for use. We are hoping for September or October to start renting rooms for use but it could be later. We will write more on this in the coming weeks. Any suggestions or comments about the hall or any part of our development is welcome. Contact any of the priests for further details.
Our Website
We have published a new website for the parish at www.patricksparish.com and we welcome any feedback that people might have. Each week we publish the newsletter on the web to allow people living away to keep up to date with what’s happening. In the coming weeks we will publish a parish vocations page with advice and further information for those who are considering a vocation to priesthood.
Any comments or suggestions are of course welcome.
Considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life? Want to learn more?
Our Vocations Director: Rev Paddy Carey, Erril Co. Laois 0505 44973
Our Bishop: Most Rev. Seamus Freeman, Sion House, Kilkenny 056 7762448 email: bishop@ossory.ie
Contact any of the priests in our parish.
Or Visit: www.vocations.ie
