Annual Mass for the Faithful Departed (Online this year)

            Designed by Ronan McDermott

 

  May our parish dead rest in peace 

in spe resurrectionis 

(in the hope of the Resurrection)

Saggart, Rathcoole, Brittas

Newcastle 

Ash Wednesday in Rome

Pope Francis celebrated Mass today at 5 p.m. in the basilica of Santa Sabina. It can be viewed on YouTube here, beginning c.15 minutes into the recording, since the Mass was preceded by a Lenten Station that took place in the nearby church of Saint Anselm.

The homily begins thus (read the full text here) :  

We begin the Lenten Season by receiving ashes: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return (cf. Gen 3:19). The dust sprinkled on our heads brings us back to earth; it reminds us that we are dust and to dust we shall return. We are weak, frail and mortal. Centuries and millennia pass and we come and go; before the immensity of galaxies and space, we are nothing. We are dust in the universe. Yet we are dust loved by God. It pleased the Lord to gather that dust in his hands and to breathe into it the breath of life (cf. Gen 2:7). We are thus a dust that is precious, destined for eternal life. We are the dust of the earth, upon which God has poured out his heaven, the dust that contains his dreams. We are God’s hope, his treasure and his glory.

Ashes are thus a reminder of the direction of our existence: a passage from dust to life. We are dust, earth, clay, but if we allow ourselves to be shaped by the hands of God, we become something wondrous. More often than not, though, especially at times of difficulty and loneliness, we only see our dust! But the Lord encourages us: in his eyes, our littleness is of infinite value. So let us take heart: we were born to be loved; we were born to be children of God.

Thoughts on Spring Flowers

Images like this make us think of nature reviving in spring and the annual life-cycle starting anew. Fruit trees and bushes will soon show the first signs of budding and flowering, and all the bedding plants throw out new shoots. May we, from child to grandparent, enjoy many moments of tranquil reflection in our gardens, as well as in Rathcoole park, this year.

And Thoughts on Lent, beginning Wednesday 26th. There is the garden of the soul, our own inner garden, where seedlings like new initiatives / good intentions / wishes to help others in some way etc. all take root and spring up from. Don't we all want our deeds to bear fruit both for ourselves and others? (These very words are being typed out by a volunteer trying to use the few skills he has as a form of service to the parish. If there is someone out there reading this that has skills to produce better flowers and fruits in this 'plot' of a webpage, please come forward.)  Everything we give our full thought, attention and effort to is a kind of garden, where we see to it that our work blossoms as best it can for the common good.

The first person to see Jesus on Easter Sunday morning was Mary Magdalene (John 20. 11-16). She took Jesus risen from the dead to be the gardener. What a nice combination (brief and mistaken) between the ordinary workman and the most extraordinary person of all!

Read about a new parish initiative for Lent and Easter this year in the Newsletter for Sunday 23rd : House Masses.

For Some Lenten Reflection

Sunday next is the first Sunday of Lent. We have entered into the annual 40-day period of preparation leading to the great feast of Easter which falls this year on Sunday 21st April. When the writer was in school long ago, the emphasis was on what one ought not to do during that period, e.g. eat chocolate until the big break-out with the Easter egg on Easter Sunday. The emphasis today is less on denying oneself certain things than on doing things for others, e.g. the Trócaire Lenten campaign which asks us to do what we can for the poor. The purpose of the practices of 'fast and abstinence' of old was, of course, to bring people to reflect on the fundamentals of life, fundamental in the sense of talking about life's great questions -- why we're here, what we should do while we're here, and where we're destined to go in the end. Pausing for thought or reflection like this is in itself a deep and religious thing; it can come about at expected moments and from expected sources or at and from unexpected ones.  The first kind come from, say, the Pope or (Arch)bishop, while the second are those which, shall we say, cross one's path -- you find them rather than they, so to speak, seeking you out.

Two texts in the 'expected' category are Pope Francis's 'Message for Lent 2019' as well as sermon for Ash Wednesday here, and Archbishop Martin's reflection on Lent focusing on the sacrament of Baptism. A text in the 'unexpected' category is a poem by the 17th century Anglican clergyman Robert Herrick which this writer has long known about but not read closely for some considerable time. The subject of Lent has made him look it up again.  'It is a fast to dole / Thy sheaf of wheat / And meat / Unto the hungry soul.'

See, again, this week's newsletter for more good advice from Pope Francis.  He recommends fasting from things like grudges and bitterness and (I like this) : Fast from worries and have trust in God.

Whatever sources it springs from, may the reflection they awaken in you be for your inner enrichment over the season of Lent and beyond. 

Feast of St Francis, 4th October

Working in the garden with my trusty helper-supervisor

Tomorrow is the feast-day of St Francis. In thinking of him we all, no doubt, think also of nature, the Creator, and those most humble, serviceable and faithful of creatures, the animals we know -- whether on a farm in the country or in our suburban homes. Why these creatures 'speak' to us so powerfully must be because, unlike us, they do not have language. We speak to them while they can never reply except in their own unique non-verbal way -- which can, of course, express so much, be it bark, miaow . . . and all the other sounds they use to communicate their feelings. Human beings are just higher animals, we say, only to come up against some very complex questions: 'How are we "higher" exactly?  In what way are we different? What use have we made of language? What does our thought arrive at?'  These are the questions that are somewhere in my head as I (in the photo above) stroke the little head of my cat who has very kindly come out to help (and supervise) me in the garden.

The Blessing of Animals takes place on Sunday the 7th of October on the steps of the Presbytery at Holy Redeemer. Fr Dan [Nguyen] will begin the service at 3pm and we welcome all creatures great and small, furred, finned and feathered to join us in a celebration of the life of St. Francis of Assisi and our animal companions.  

This invitation can be found here in the newsletter (30th September) for the parish of the Holy Redeemer, Bray. We don't (yet!) have such a blessing ceremony in our parish. So, instead or in the meantime, let this corner here be where we think of and ask their Creator's blessing on all our animal friends, those wordless companions with us on life's long, sometimes joyful, sometimes weary road.

Readers are welcome to send in their own pet story or photo.
(PS  Photos of the Pets/Animals Blessing in Balbriggan Parish here.)

Sacramental High Points

Outside Tuam Cathedral, 23rd June
Rev. John Regan, Fr Gerard Quirke and Mr Donal McMahon 

Children embark on their preparation for First Holy Communion in September and, after a year of following the Do This in Memory programme in the schools and at Mass on Sundays, they reach their goal in May with the reception of the sacrament. Older children prepare in a similar way for Confirmation and receive that sacrament towards the end of the school year. Weddings, too, take place more frequently as the summer months approach. Finally, there is the far less common sacrament of ordination. In this case we have mature men studying hard over several years in the national seminary of Maynooth or in the Irish College in Rome, all the while discerning whether this is indeed the right road for them. At the end of the academic year, they are ordained in their parishes all over Ireland -- or in the cathedrals, as was the case with our own Seamus McEntee on 3 June 2014 in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral (let's recall the joyful occasion here). Robert Smyth from Knocklyon who studied in Maynooth and in Rome was ordained priest for the Dublin diocese on Friday, 29th June, in the Pro-Cathedral (read Archbishop Martin's homily here)..

Beyond our parishes but involving two people from them, the photo above shows Fr Gerard Quirke outside St Jarlath's Cathedral,Tuam, following his ordination on Sunday 3rd June as a priest of the Tuam diocese. On the left is John Regan who was ordained priest for the Pallottine order in St Mary's Westport on Sunday, 23rd June. On the right is Donal McMahon of Saggart who taught Gerard and John during their first and his final two years in Maynooth (2011-1013). They then proceeded to their studies of Theology, when they were taught by Fr Michael Shortall.

Holy Week 2018

Church of St Cross Hospital, Winchester

The timetable for Masses and ceremonies during Holy Week can be read here.

NOTE :  NEW CEREMONY

Holy Saturday      Rathcoole, 2 p.m.    All Welcome!
Blessing of Polish Community's Easter Baskets

Masses on St Patrick's Day

St Patrick Preaching the Gospel to Laoghaire, King of Ireland

Mass Times for St Patrick's Day

Friday (Vigil)           7 p.m.          Rathcoole        

Saturday 17th         9 a.m.         Saggart

                                 10 a.m.          Newcastle                  

                                 12 noon         Rathcoole

The photo above is of the meeting between St Patrick and King Laoghaire in the royal court of Tara (Teamair). The saint is preaching the Gospel to the king and his courtiers, holding up the shamrock, symbol of the Trinity, in his right hand.  This is the scene as depicted in a stained-glass window to be found in Sts Peter and Paul's church, Athlone, designed by Richard King of the Harry Clarke Studios which continued Clarke's work after his death in 1931. The photo is reproduced here by kind permission of the authors of the website Roaringwater Journal.

For more reading on Harry Clarke, see here and, for his illustrations for Ireland's Memorial Records 1914-1918 (published in eight volumes, 1919) giving information on 49,435 men killed in WWI, see here.  Vol 5 (K-McG) has been digitized by TCD and may be browsed  here. If you scroll down to the name McCann, Joseph William (p.282), you will find the following record for one of our parishioners, 

Reg. No. 52825,  Corporal Royal Engineers; d. Gallipoli 23 August 1915; b. Saggart, Co. Dublin, aged 26

Let us then remember on St Patrick's day all Irish people at home and abroad, both living and dead -- and that includes this young parishioner the Harry Clarke window has led us to. Joseph McCann lies far away today in the Portianos Military Cemetery on the Aegean island of Lemnos (see here  Note that in this Commonwealth War Graves Commission record his address is given as Keating's Park, Rathcoole).

Remembrance Masses 2017

The annual Masses to remember those who died during the past year will take place on the following dates in November::

Saggart/R'coole/Brittas    St Mary's,  Friday 3rd, 7.30 pm

Newcastle Lyons           St Finian's,  Saturday 25th, 7.00 pm  

Family members of the deceased have received invitations.     All parishioners are also very welcome to attend, to offer our support to those who have been bereaved this year and to pray for our own deceased loved ones from earlier years.

Please see the Newsletter for times of Mass for the feast of All Saints, 1st November.

Beannachtai Lá Fhéile Pádraig

Cover of an old prize-book,
St Patrick's College, Maynooth

The above is a very traditional representation of St Patrick. Every Sunday in St Mary's we gaze up at him in his bishop's robes in the stained-glass window above the altar, between St Brigid and St Colmcille. Next Friday is his day, then, and we (especially those called after him) will think of him in many different ways, each of us conjuring up our own images and associations. The fact that there are so many schools, colleges, hospitals (e.g. St Patrick's), streets (e.g. our own St Patrick's Crescent, Rathcoole) and even towns (e.g. Patrickswell) called after him shows just how deeply influenced Ireland has been by this British-born propagator of the faith who, back in Britain after six years' captivity in Ireland, heard as in a dream the haunting voice of the Irish calling him to come, this time voluntarily, and walk among them once more.

One lasting association for me. Many years ago, my wife and I found ourselves abroad (in London) on St Patrick's day. As it happened, evening drew on without our having done anything to mark the day, even (mea culpa, because of an all-day meeting for me) going to Mass. We decided to go to a production of Hamlet. It looked like the day was thus going to end on a Shakespearean note far removed from St Patrick and Ireland. The first act unrolls and scene five arrives. Hamlet sees his father's ghost and, after rejoining his friends, tries to conceal what has happened, while apologizing to Horatio for his mysteriousness. Horatio reassures him, saying, 'There's no offence, my lord' but Hamlet disagrees: 'Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, / And much offence too.'  (The ghost has come from purgatory and the saint is invoked here because of his connection, known far and wide in medieval times, with St Patrick's Purgatory, Lough Derg, Co. Donegal.)

So, against all expectations and quite unintentionally, we did mark St Patrick's Day that year after all!

Please see the Newsletter 12.3 for times of Masses and details of the local parade.

Feast of St Brigid / Lá Fhéile Bríde

St Brigid in East Window
Saggart Church

The above photo is not a very good one but will have to do until a better one can be found/supplied.  The feast-day of St Brigid prompts us to take a close look at this window that we know so well but never really dwell on.   Seeing it up close, however indistinctly (click to enlarge), we notice that the name is in Latin (S. Brigida). We also notice that she is bearing a branch of  oak leaves, symbolizing the Church of the Oak Tree (Cill Dara).  (Next year we will feature the fine window of St Brigid in Newcastle church.)

There is still a community of sisters in Kildare today, the convent of the Brigidine Sisters called Solas Bhríde.  Read about the community here and about how they are celebrating their founder's feast-day here. The life of the Brigidine convent and school in Mountrath which closed in 2009 is recalled in these photos.

Contrasting with the 19th century window in our parish church is the window in St Mary's, Ballinrobe, created by Harry Clarke in the following century, an account of which can be found here (not easy to read in parts, e.g. on the subject of the oak leaves). 

But what is surely one of the most spectacular (as we have to call it) visual portraits of St Brigid is to be seen in northern Italy, in the early 16th century chapel located in the grounds of the Villa Suardi in Bergamo. In 1524 the Renaissance artist Lorenzo Lotto depicted scenes from the life of St Brigid (as well as St Barbara) in frescoes that should -- in addition to our own homely portrait in Saggart, of course, -- really concentrate our minds on her feast-day. See here for a description of the wonderful frescoes, making sure to to click on the links at the bottom of the page for some really close-up views. (For a general account of the Villa Suardi in a fairly obvious English translation from the original Italian, see here.  Details of the St Brigid fresco are given in the 6th and 5th paragraphs from the end.)

Finally, back to our own excellent art/craft work in Saggart: 

St Brigid's Cross (work of Mervyn Ennis)

Ordinations 2016

When you visit a hotel at this time of year, especially at weekends, you are likely to come on a wedding reception. Or, by a very remote chance, you may come on a celebration of a different, though equally joyful kind, i.e. an evening reception for a priest ordained earlier that day. Ordinations, frequent in the past, are a rare occurrence today, leaving parishioners less and less likely to witness a ceremony that is as solemn, moving and, of course, happy as a wedding. We had the privilege of experiencing what it is to have an ordination in our parishes when Seamus McEntee was ordained on 3 June 2014 in the Pro-Cathedral (see here for a report of the ordination -- the only one for Dublin that year -- and  here for some photos taken after Fr Seamus's Mass of Thanksgiving in Rathcoole, Saturday 7th June).

Nine students who had studied in Maynooth (or done part of their studies there before going to Rome for theology) were ordained for their various dioceses or religious orders during June and July. The photo below shows two of them, Conor McGee (diocese of Meath) and Jaimie Twohig (Pallottine community or SAC, Society of the Catholic Apostolate -- see the website here for Shankill parish which they have charge of). It was taken at a reception in the Clayton Hotel, Cork, following Fr Jaimie's ordination on Saturday 16th July in St Joseph's Church, Little Island. Fr Conor's ordination took place on Sunday 19th June in Tullamore (see here for a report and photo). Also in the photo is Donal McMahon (of this parish), who accompanied Conor and Jaimie for part of their studies in Maynooth.

There were no ordinations to the priesthood for the Dublin diocese this year; there were eight ordinations to the diaconate (on the 4th June -- see Archbishop Martin's homily here). But ordinations to the religious life certainly hit the headlines: on Saturday 9th July in this, the 800th year since the order's foundation, eight Dominicans were ordained priests in St Saviour's Church, Dublin (read a report here).

Feel free to visit Maynooth College over the summer. In the cloisters of St Patrick's House, on the west side of the main quadrangle, you will see photos, ordination year by ordination year, of students going back to the early decades of the 20th century. Though we may not attend many ordinations these days and though very few of us have (as formerly quite a few had) a priest in the family, still we are all very likely, at least, to have a priest in our family tree. Look out for him, then, in his class photo.

Finally, I'm reminded of the poem Gerard Manley Hopkins (buried in the Jesuit plot in Glasnevin) wrote after attending (or even officiating at?) a wedding.  He wishes happiness for the married couple and then thinks of his own vocation. Read it here.

PS   We wish Fr Jaimie's SAC confrère Brendan McCarrick every happiness and blessing next Sunday 24th July. He will be ordained in Sligo just a week after Jaimie!  Doesn't match the Dominicans but still . . .

Fr Conor McGee,  Fr Jaimie Twohig,  Mr Donal McMahon

Cemetery Masses 2016

Brownstown                           Saturday 11 June, 2 p.m.

Mass in St Finian's Church followed by blessing of graves
Newcastle (Ballynakelly)    Sunday 12 June, 2 p.m.
Mass in cemetery followed by blessing of graves

St Finian's                               Sunday 19 June, 10.30 a.m.

Mass in St Finian's Church followed by blessing of graves

St Mary's, Saggart                Sunday 26 June, 11.30 a.m.

Mass in St Mary's Church followed by blessing of graves
Colmanstown                         Tuesday 28 June, 7.30 p.m.
Mass in St Finian's Church said by Fr Seamus McEntee

Holy Week Timetable 2013

Please find a link below to a list of the Holy Week Ceremonies in Saggart, Rathcoole, Brittas and Newcastle. Brittas and Newcastle are to be found on Page 2. Follow the link below to view the Holy Week Timetable.

Holy Week Timetable 2013 Saggart - Rathcoole - Brittas - Newcastle

All Saints and All Souls

                                     St Mary's Saggart Graveyard

This is being written on Hallowe'en, before the young people come calling to the door.  The day brings back vivid childhood memories for everyone, I'm sure.  We can only do our best to provide some nice memories for the children of today when they 'go round' calling, so that they too, when grown up, will be able to recall with fondness and gratitude the generation of their parents and their neighbours down the road.

One major aspect of Hallowe'en that has changed a lot is the religious one. Priests in the 50s and 60s would talk about the indulgences to be gained by visiting a graveyard and saying the prescribed prayers. The true meaning of all this might well have been lost in the details of the various obligations to be followed, but we can still appreciate the abiding value of what it was all about: the idea of reaching our loved ones through our poor prayers. And so our thoughts this month will be on our family and friends who rest in peace in the earth, both here in Saggart and in other graveyards around the country, as we say for them as well as for ourselves:

I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Emjoy your Summer Holidays

“Dear brothers and sisters,


This Sunday's Gospel passage continues the words of Jesus to the disciples on the value of the person in the eyes of God, and the uselessness of earthly preoccupations. It is not a praise of disconnection. Rather, hearing the reassuring call of Jesus, 'Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom' (Lk 12.32), our hearts open to a hope that illumines and animates concrete existence: we have the certainty that 'the Gospel is not only a communication of things that can be known, but a communication that produces deeds and changes lives. The dark door of time, of the future, is thrown open. Whoever has hope lives differently; he is given a new life' (Spe Salvi, 2). As we read in the section of the Letter to the Hebrews of today's liturgy, Abraham presented himself with a trusting heart in the hope God opened to him: the promise of a land and 'numerous descendants' and leaving 'without knowing where he was to go,' trusting only in God (Heb 11:8-12). And Jesus in today's Gospel -- across three parables -- is illustrated as awaiting the completion of the 'blessed hope,' his coming, in urging us toward an intense life, rich in good works: 'Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy' (Lk 12:33). It is an invitation to use things without selfishness, without thirsting for possession or dominion, but according to the logic of God, the logic of concern for the other, the logic of love: as Romano Guardini summarized it, 'in the form of a relationship: starting from God, in the view of God'....
Today’s Gospel reminds us that by God’s goodness much has been given to us, and much will be required of us. During these quiet days of summer let us thank the Lord for the many blessings we have received and draw ever closer to him in prayer, in fidelity to his commandment of love, and in communion with his Body, the Church!”

--Benedict 16

Sunday Angelus

Castel Gandolfo

8 August 2010

(See http://www.whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/)