Presentation to Fr Billy
The date mentioned last week for Fr Billy’s celebration has had to be postponed for a brief period. The reason is that there needs to be time to accept donations for our retired Parish Priest. These will then be presented to Fr Billy on the rescheduled date, which is Friday, 9th December, at 8.00 pm in Nemo Rangers club. A box has been placed at the altar rails where donations can be placed. It will be there through the coming week and next weekend.
Welcome
We welcome the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles from Ardfoyle, Cork to our Parish who have come to promote Mission Awareness at all Masses. The Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles are a group of international women religious dedicated to spreading the Good News through service and witness of their lives. Promoting women and the marginalized is a priority in their apostolate. The OLA Sisters are grateful for all the support over the years in so many ways, and they encourage you to continue in that support. Sr. Mary Usifoh will be speaking during the Masses.
Deaths
We pray for Tony Soden, Ballyphehane, and Mary Downey, Glenview Terrace, who died this week. We sympathise with their families.
Christ the King
Today, the last Sunday of the liturgical year, is when we celebrate Jesus Christ, the Universal King. The end of the liturgical year anticipates the end of time when “the Kingdom of God will come in all its fulness. Then the just will reign with Jesus Christ for ever, glorified in body and soul, and the material universe itself will be transformed. God will be ‘all in all’ in eternal life” (Catechism 1060).
This Sunday’s reading from Luke (23:35-43) takes us to the foot of the cross on Calvary. At the end of Jesus’ journey, over his head, his crime was posted, “Jesus Christ, King of the Jews.” How many took the charge seriously? Did anybody of sane sense really think that he was a threat to Caesar or to public order? The irony of that day was that he was a king, though not in a way that the worldly mind could understand.
Jesus as king was the reversal of the ways usually followed by the royalty of this world. He did not sit on an elevated throne to symbolize his power, but he hung from a cross, too weak to save himself from death.
The task of the Church is to be at the service of the kingdom. But, as Saint Augustine remarked, there are many in the Church who are not in the kingdom while there are many in the kingdom who are not in the Church. The qualities of the reign of God are listed in the Preface of today’s Mass … a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace.
Thy kingdom come…
(Fr Sylvester O’Flynn OFM.Cap.)
Happy 91st Birthday!
We celebrate the opening of the our Church on this day 1931. See website. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the huge renovation that was completed in 2002. We remember with gratitude all those who made it possible with their generosity and organizational skills. We salute Fr Kerry and Fr John O’Donovan who spearheaded the project. To the collectors and donors who have died we say: Mile buiochas. Leaba i measc na naomh go raibh agaibh.