Lent in Time of Lockdown

• You will find Pope Francis's Message for Lent here.
• See our diocesan resources for prayer and reflection here and here.
  
• IN OUR PARISH  Fr Colin will be holding a Lenten Holy Hour (online) in Saggart Church every Friday from 3 to 4 pm. Further information here.
  

We will all be looking for places of refreshment as we continue to make our slow way through Lockdown 3. One such place is our own Rathcoole Park (see photo below). There we can let our thoughts flow while enjoying the view of the birds, the distant mountains and even, glimpsed through the trees on the horizon, the spire of Saggart church. The poet-priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) might come to mind (especially to young people preparing for this year's Leaving Certificate!) as someone who thought deeply about the natural world. When I see a chaffinch in the back garden, for instance, I remember his reference in Pied Beauty to "finches' wings". He dedicates a poem about another bird, the kestrel (far rarer than the chaffinch!), to "Christ Our Lord": The Windhover. As regards our Lenten theme here, one of his final poems (written in Dublin) has as subtitle, The Comfort of the Resurrection. So let your thoughts wander freely and see where they take you.

At various moments and in various places over the period of Lent and in the company of those we find ourselves placed among (providentially? -- there's a theme for meditation!), may we rise above our trying circumstances (be "[brought] out of ourselves", in the Pope's words) to a higher plane of serenity and peace.

You might like to read another issue of our occasional newsletter containing the names of those who died in January as well as some material on Saggart church:  J4 Newsletter.

 

• Message from Archbishop Farrell to Parents of Children due to receive the sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confirmation this year: see YouTube video here.
  

"Thank You" to our outgoing Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and "Welcome" to our incoming Archbishop Dermot Farrell

Photo: John McElroy, Irish Independent, 2.2.2021  

"Hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches is no easy matter. There is no infallible way.  But there is a clear way, a tried and trusted way. That way is a way with each other – slí le chéile.  The Church of the future, the living Church of the future, will [have to] be a synodal church, or it will not be at all. [. . . ] It is an illusion to envisage a plan of evangelisation which is carried out only by clergy while the rest of the faithful are merely onlookers. The mission of the Church, the work of God, is not just the responsibility of a group of professionals; it is the call and responsibility of every baptised person whose active participation in the mission of the Church is to be considered indispensable and necessary (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, Ch. 2). [. . .] In this light, leadership in the Church is not about telling people what to do; rather it is about promoting co-responsibility and overcoming the mindset which runs the risk of relegating the baptised to a subordinate role, effectively keeping them on the edges of Church life. That is what we mean by a synodal Church—a church on the way with each other. The very first place synodality is expressed is at parish level. If it doesn’t happen in the parish, it will not happen at all!"

(From Archbishop Farrell's homily at Mass of Installation, St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, 2 February 2021. The full text of the homily may be read here.)