Welcome
This week we extend a cead mile failte to Fr. Charlie Kiely and hope he will be very happy with us.
Deaths
We remember in our prayers Finbarr Walker, West View. South Douglas Rd., and
Michael Mulcahy, Fr. Matthew Rd. We extend our sympathy to their families. May they rest in peace.
Summer Youth Festival
Knock Shrine 27th – 30th July 2006. Youth 2000 will be teaming up with Knock Youth Ministry to offer a Summer Youth Festival at Knock Shrine on the above dates. The festival will consist of talks, prayer, sharing, games and crack and promises to be a great opportunity for young people from all over Ireland to explore their Catholic Faith and make many new friends. See Notice Board or website www.youth2000.ie
St. Claude La Colombiere
The relics of St. Claude will be brought from France and will be venerated in the North Cathedral, Cork, from 2pm on Thurs. 13th to 12 noon, Fri. 14th July. St. Claude is not a household name. He was born in France and joined the Jesuits and ordained priest in 1669. His first assignment was to be spiritual director to a convent in Paray-le-Morial in France. One of the sisters there, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, was receiving private revelations about the Sacred Heart. It was Claude who became convinced that her visions of Christ were real. He made St. Margaret Mary?s experiences known to the world. They both promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart throughout Europe, Ireland and all over the world. Devotion to the Sacred Heart is very special to the Irish people. Against this background Bishop Buckley has written a letter regarding the visit of the relics of St. Claude to the Cathedral. A limited number of copies is available in the Sacristy.
He died in 1682. Pope John Paul 11 canonised Claude la Colombiere in 1992.
A new way of living
God formed us to be imperishableat least that is what the Book of Wisdom tells us. Today we can wonder a bit about death and about life as we read from the Book of Wisdom and from Marks Gospel
So many people today simply do not believe in God at all, much less in a God who cares about us. For these people, life is simply a passing experience and then the person dies and that is the end. And even though we Christians believe in life eternal and a life in the world to come, often our actions reflect that we have accepted many of the values of our present culture.
The Gospels invite us to a completely different way of living. We are reminded over and over that God will actually give us the strength to live in another way if we only call on him. In todays Gospel, Jairus is desperate because his daughter is dying. He pleads with the Lord to give his daughters life back to her. The woman with the hemorrhages also was hoping for life. Both of these women received life.
All of us know that people still die. Even when a large group of devout people pray for a miracle for a particular person, generally the person dies. In the Gospel, Jesus does not cure everyone who is dying. The miracles of restoring physical life, both in the time of Jesus and now, seem to be realities that point to a another realm of being. The great danger, according to the Gospel, is not losing ones physical life but losing ones soul.
The Book of Wisdom is clear that God did not create people so that they would die and death would be the end. Rather God created people to live for ever. We can and we do die physically. Even the people restored to life in the Scriptures eventually die a physical death. Jesus, as a prophet, as Son of God, as our Master, teaches clearly in the New Testament that there is life after death. He does not teach as a philosopher nor does He give us a handbook. Jesus teaches as the rabbis of His time taught: with stories, with metaphors, with parables. He teaches that the most important reality of this life is spiritual, that the way we live now determines how we shall live in the world to come.
So today we can look at our own lives: Are we alive spiritually? Are we seeking to live spiritual lives? Do we really live for the Kingdom, the life of the world to come? Are we willing to live as the Master teaches us?
Let us renew our faith in Him and allow His word to form us!