Holy Week Ceremonies
We appeal to all to make a special effort to join with our local Christian Community in celebrating Holy Week. We have a wide range of celebrations at various times in our parish and we invite you to come along.
We particularly invite all to the Solemn Easter Vigil on Saturday evening. This should be the highlight of the year for those who believe that Christ died for our sins and rose again to save us from eternal damnation.
Chrism Mass
The annual Chrism Mass will be celebrated at St. Mary’s Cathedral on Wednesday, 31st April at 7.30pm. Sacred Oils, for use in the diocese during the coming year, will be consecrated during the liturgy. Bishop Séamus invites all to attend.
At this Mass, the priests of the diocese gather and renew their priestly vows. To mark the current Year of the Priest, Frs. Dan, Roderick and Liam invite you to come along and join with them in prayer. The sacred music for the occasion will be provided by the St. Patrick’s Adult Folk Choir and the St. Fiacre’s Folk Choir.
Mass for Lent
Thanks to all who attended the extra 6.15pm Mass at St. Fiacre’s Church during Lent. Please note there will not be a 6.15pm Mass on Wednesday to enable priests and people attend the Chrism Mass at the cathedral. See the timetable printed on the front for our full Easter ceremonies.
Eucharistic Adoration
Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Patrick’s Church every Friday (except Good Friday) from 10.00am until 1.00pm and from 4.00pm until 9.00pm. On Holy Thursday after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at St. Patrick’s Church the Blessed Sacrament will be on the altar of Repose in the Nun’s Chapel until 10pm. All adorers are welcome.
New adorers urgently needed. Contact Grace on 056 777 0472.
New Parish Envelopes
New Parish Contribution Envelopes will be distributed in the coming weeks. We are grateful to all who use these envelopes or Standing Orders to contribute to the income of the parish and the priests. These are the chief sources of income for the parish and its priests. If you are new to the parish, or haven’t received envelopes in the past and would like to receive them now, then please contact any of the priests or the Parish Office. Once again, thanks to all who support us and our work.
Parish Centre Hours
The Parish Centre will be closed on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Weekend including the Bank Holiday. Groups that use our facilities on these days are asked to take note. The priests can always be contacted by dialling 056 776 4400 and following the auto prompts.
Pope’s Pastoral Letter
Quote from the Holy Father’s recent letter to the Catholics of Ireland: ‘I now invite all of you to devote your Friday penances, for a period of one year, between now and Easter 2011, to pray for an outpouring of God’s mercy and the Holy Spirit’s gifts of holiness and strength upon the Church in your country. I ask you to offer up your fasting, your prayer, your reading of Scripture and your works of mercy in order to obtain the grace of healing and renewal for the Church in Ireland. I encourage you to discover anew the Sacrament of Reconciliation and to avail yourselves more frequently of the transforming power of its grace. Particular attention should also be given to Eucharistic adoration.’
As part of our parish response to the Holy Father’s request, it is proposed that every Friday in St. Fiacre’s Church, we will have an hour of exposition after Mass from 11.00am to 12.00 noon. We invite anyone who wishes to pray for healing and renewal for the Church in Ireland to join us.
Also, at each Mass on Friday, the Pope’s prayer for Ireland will be read.
More next week on when this devotion will start.
Envelope Distributors
The new boxes of parish envelopes are currently being distributed. We need a distributor in Larchfield. All it entails is dropping envelope boxes into houses in this area. Please contact Fr. Liam if you think you can help. Thanks.
First Friday
As the First Friday of April is Good Friday Fr. Dan will make his calls on Wednesday 30th March. Fr. Liam will make his calls on Thursday, 1st April. Fr. Roderick has visited already.
Online in Touch?
Who would think that the Internet is threatening the jury system! Well, it seems it is, according to England’s most senior judge. The more people use the Internet, and the more people who use it, the fewer there are who get their information by listening. You go down the tubes and YouTube takes your place. So, sitting down for a long listen, concentrating on what’s being said to evaluate its content may well become an art-form alien to a gadget-groping generation. What, then, to make of today’s first reading? The Lord has given me the tongue of a teacher … to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens my ear. Use the Internet to get that sustaining word across? Well, it would get it out for sure, but across is another matter entirely. Getting something across means getting it in. It means entering someone’s mind with a thought, a value, an understanding, perhaps even a vision and leaving it there. It means penetrating someone’s heart to lay a gift of life-giving inspiration, of uplifting hope, of reassurance of one’s worth before God, but above all to lay down his gift of shared love. That’s what a teacher’s tongue can do, coming from the hand of God. That’s what an ear can hear and a mind can comprehend when open to the Teacher’s word. The question is: can that be done online? Should liturgy be in cyberspace, not sacred space? Would a virtual reality Palm Sunday skirt a real life Golgotha? The jury needn’t be out too long on that. Fr Tom Cahill SVD
Pray for Our Deceased Friends
Recently Deceased: Betty Healy, S.O.S & Coon; James Tynan, Kells Road; Kitty O’Neill, 34 O’Loughlin Road; Nancy Gleeson, Thurles.
Months Mind: Seamus Brennan (Sun 11.00), Jim Horan (Sun 12.30), Tommy McCarthy (Mon 10.30).
Anniversaries: Paddy Tomney (Sat 6.15), Oliver Kelly (Sat 7.00), Chris Kenny (Sun 9.30), Margaret Dunne (Sun 12.00), Ella Cuddihy (Mon 9.30), Bessie, Margaret & May Buckley (Tues 10.30), Mary Delaney (Wed 9.30), Michael Slattery (Thurs 6.15), William Meehan, Mary Grace, Rose Kenny, Michael & Mary Conway, Mary & James Nugent, Michael & Patrick Massey, Bridget Della Maher, Shane O’Neill, James Doheny, Mary Browne, Ellen Audoire.
Anniversaries Next Weekend: Matthew Gleeson (Month’s Mind, Sun 12.00 noon).
Latin Mass at St. Patrick’s Church
Palm Sunday Procession and Sung Latin Mass will be celebrated at St. Patrick’s Church on this Sunday at 4.00pm. All are welcome.
Good Friday Walk
Kilkenny Outreach Group is holding this year’s Good Friday Walk in remembrance of those whose lives have been touched by abuse. The walk will begin at 7.30 pm on Good Friday evening from the outside car park of McDonagh Junction (Site of the old Workhouse) and end in the Chapel of the Mill Hill Community on the Waterford Road. (The old St. Joseph’s Orphanage) A service will be held in the Mill Hill Chapel at 8.20 pm. All are welcome to join this walk or to attend the service.
IPPA Fundraising
The Irish Professional Photographers Association is fundraising for the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland. The money raised in Kilkenny will go to providing isolation facilities for people living with CF in the area should they need hospitalisation. Local participating photographer is Maria of Kilkenny (Oliver’s), High Street. For a donation of €25 to CFAI she will provide a minis portrait session and desk portrait. 100% of fee to charity.
Week of Prayer
A week of continuous prayer will take place in the Methodist Church, William Street, Kilkenny. It begins at 1.00pm on Palm Sunday and run until the morning of Easter Sunday. All are invited to go along and join in prayer.
Co. Kilkenny Horticultural Society
A.G.M., Lecture & Plant Sale
Wednesday, 31st March at 7.30pm sharp
Club House Hotel
The evening will feature a lecture on Summer and Spring Planting by Robert Miller (Horticulturist). There will be refreshments and a raffle on the evening. Free Admission. All are welcome.
Questions people ask
Q. If Jesus was the Son of God how could he be forsaken by God the Father?
A. Since Jesus loved his people to the utmost, he became the victim of sin. In so doing, he suffered the feeling of being forsaken, but in actual fact was not forsaken for one second by the Father ... nobody ever is, even the worst sinner. The sinner might have turned away from God but God does not forsake the sinner. There is always hope. No matter how God-forsaken one might feel, Jesus can be met there because he entered that experience of alienation in Gethsemane and on the cross. Since then it is no longer true that any life is God-forsaken.
Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap
Loughboy Library News
Library Book Club will meet this Thursday April 1st at 10.30am and will be discussing “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” amongst other favourites. All readers welcome.
The Parish Team/Finance Committee wish to thank all who promoted and subscribed to our Parish Draw. The total raised from this years draw is €104,000 which goes towards the cost of our Parish Centre.
Holy Week Timetable in St. Patrick’s Parish
Spy Wednesday
Morning Masses 9.30am 10.30am
No Evening Mass in St. Fiacre's
Holy Thursday
Morning Prayer 10.30am St. Fiacre's
Mass of the Lord’s Supper 6.15pm St. Fiacre's (Families, 6.30pm St. Joseph's, Foulkstown, 8pm St. Patrick's.
Good Friday
Morning Prayer 10.30am St. Fiacre's
Stations & Penitential Service 12 noon St. Patrick's.
The Lord’s Passion 3pm St. Fiacre's, 3pm St. Patrick's
Stations of the Cross 7.30pm St. Joseph's
Taize Prayer Around the Cross 8pmm St. Patrick's
Holy Saturday
Morning Prayer 10.30am St. Fiacre's
Easter Vigil 9.00pm St. Patrick's
Easter Sunday
Masses as per normal Sunday
