Uncategorized – Monasterboice Parish

Parish Arrangements for Holy Week & Easter 2023

March 25, 2023March 25, 2023Fr. Paddy

Holy Week is the culmination of Lent, and brings us to the highlight of the Christian Year – Easter! The Easter season begins with the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus and continues for the next 50 days, until the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. The color of the Easter season is white, representing Christ’s victory over death. The music is filled with joyful alleluias.

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, when we read the Passion of Jesus (The long Gospel!). The Gospel will be proclaimed – in parts – at all Masses in the Parish this weekend. There will also be devotions (Adoration & Benediction) held at 7.30pm that night in The Church of The Nativity of Our Lady, Fieldstown.

Confessions will be held throughout Holy Week;
After any Mass.
Monday 3rd – from 7.30 – 8pm in The Church of The Immaculate Conception, Tenure.
Holy Thursday, 6th April – from after Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper in The Church of The Nativity of Our Lady, Fieldstown until Night Prayer at 10pm.
Good Friday, 7th April – from 3-4pm in The Church of The Immaculate Conception, Tenure and from after the Stations of the Cross in The Church of The Nativity of Our Lady, Fieldstown.
Holy Saturday, 8th April – from 12noon -1pm in The Church of The Immaculate Conception, Tenure.

On Wednesday 5th April (Spy Wednesday), Archbishop Eamon, along with the clergy of the diocese, will celebrate the Chrism Mass in The Cathedral, at 7pm. All are welcome. In particular, an invitation to attend is extended to families with children who will make Confirmation this year. The Mass is also available via webcam at http://www.armaghparish.net
The Chrism Mass reminds us of our oneness in Christ through Baptism and its holy anointing, made possible by the ministry of the archbishop and his priests. The Chrism Mass is also a key moment in which the unity of the archbishop with his priests (together, they form the presbyterate) is manifested and renewed. During the liturgy, the entire assembly is called to renew its baptismal promises; deacons and priests also renew their vow of obedience to the local (arch)bishop and their commitment to serve God’s people. At the end of the Chrism Mass, the Holy Oils are blessed for use in the coming year. These are:

Oil of the Sick
Oil of Catechumens
Sacred Chrism

Whenever the Holy Oils are used in a diocese, the ministry of the bishop who consecrated them is symbolically present.

POPE FRANCIS WASHES THE FEEET OF IMMIGRANTS IN 2016

Thursday 6th April, Holy Thursday, sees the Mass of The Last Supper, with the traditional symbolism of The Washing of The Feet. The Altar is stripped after the Mass, the Blessed Sacrament reserved in another placed, and the Church enters into the period of writing for The Resurrection. Mass will be celebrated in The Church of The Nativity of Our Lady, Fieldstown, at 8pm, with Night Prayer at 10pm.

Good Friday, 7th April, is a most solemn day. It is a day of mourning, fast and abstinence. The Celebration of The Lord’s Passion will take place at 3pm in The Church of The Immaculate Conception, Tenure. Stations of the Cross will be prayed at 8pm in The Church of The Nativity of Our Lady, Fieldstown.

The Easter Vigil will take place on Holy Saturday, 8th April at 9pm, in The Church of The Immaculate Conception, Tenure. With its full and symbolic liturgy, this Mass is one of the most important celebrated in the life of the Parish. All are welcome.

Easter Sunday begins with the Dawn Mass outside of The Church of The Nativity of Our Lady, Fieldstown, at 5.45am, and is always a special celebration. The usual Sunday Masses follow.

The Lord is Risen! Alleluia!

The Chosen – for Lent

March 4, 2023Fr. Paddy

The Chosen, the first multi-season show about Jesus’s life, hopes to take you deeper into gospel stories by retelling and expounding on the character and intentions of Jesus and those who knew Him.

Monasterboice Parish is watching the First Season as a Lenten exercise – every Sunday evening during Lent at 6pm, in Drumshallon Forge. All Welcome.

As the biggest crowdfunded project in TV history, The Chosen is the first-ever multi-season show about the life of Jesus. This series allows viewers to see the life of Jesus through the eyes of those that knew Him. Follow the transformations of His followers through the ministry of Jesus as He journeys to change the world.

The Chosen is as well made and entertaining as many network dramas.

Rather than merely reciting Jesus’s greatest hits, Jenkins and his writers linger with characters in their daily lives—marital and professional conflicts, financial struggles, campfire gatherings. When the audience sees climactic moments from the Gospels, such as Jesus’s miraculous healing of a leper, the events register as disruptions of the status quo.

Although The Chosen stays faithful to the broad trajectory of the Christian Bible, it also creates some speculative backstories. Scripture mentions Jesus exorcising a demon from Mary Magdalene as almost a passing detail; The Chosen centers it in a tale that explains her subsequent devotion to Christ.
Jews who collected taxes for Rome were considered traitors, so the show’s writers depict Matthew the tax collector as on the autism spectrum, reasoning that a social outcast might gravitate toward a profitable but thankless job.
The account of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding might be well known, but in the show, the miracle also saves the bride’s working-class parents from embarrassing the groom’s wealthy father.

The Chosen’s Jonathan Roumie plays Jesus as someone you’d actually like to hang out with, projecting divine gravity accented with easygoing warmth. He cracks jokes; he dances at parties. “What The Chosen has done well is give us kind of a robust portrait of a highly relatable Jesus that moves beyond some of the holier-than-thou, untouchable, unapproachable portraits of Jesus in the past,” says Terence Berry, the COO of the Wedgwood Circle, an investment group that finances faith-based media.

A Trailer for The Chosen

Download The Chosen App to watch the entire series for free!

Blessing of The Graves 2022

June 25, 2022August 8, 2022Fr. Paddy

We were delighted to be able to hold all three of the Blessings of the Graves in beautiful summer sunshine. Thanks so much to everyone who prepared for and participated in the liturgies, and all who came from near and far to attend the blessings. Thanks especially to Joe Finnegan who recorded them – they are linked here, and on our parish Facebook Page. Please share with family and friends who weren’t able to attend or who live abroad, and please God, we’ll see you all again in Summer 2023.

Mullery was on Sunday 24th July @ 12noon;

The Blessing of Mullery on 24th July 2022

Ballymakenny was Sunday 31st July @ 12 noon

The Blessing of Ballymakenny on 31st July 2022

Monasterboice was Sunday 7th August @ 12noon (NB Change of Time)

Ascension Sunday/World Day of Prayer for Communications

May 28, 2022Fr. Paddy

“Ascension,” by Giotto, 14th century. (Wikipedia)

The Feast of the Ascension of the Lord: is part of the resurrection. Resurrection emphasises that Jesus has entered a new life and not just that he recovered his previous life.

The ascension emphasises that the risen Jesus is together with the Father, that he shares the place and dignity of the Father. This important feast – in the past celebrated on the 40th day after Easter – reminds ourselves that when Jesus left us he gave us a very important mission.

That mission was and is to continue his loving and redemptive presence in the world. Let us ask him today to help us, together with him, to carry out that huge responsibility in the way he wants.

The Feast of Ascension is celebrated in connection with World Communications Day. We are invited to reflect upon the diversity of media of social communication and how they influence our lives.

Here is a link to the Pope’s Message entitled “Listen!”.

The Holy Father says; ***“Every dialogue, every relationship begins with listening. For this reason, in order to grow, even professionally, as communicators, we need to relearn to listen a lot”***

Easter Triduum in The Parish & Pastoral Area

April 14, 2022April 14, 2022Fr. Paddy

During Holy Week, the Church celebrates the mysteries of salvation accomplished by Christ in the last days of his life on earth, beginning with his messianic entrance into Jerusalem. The Lenten season lasts until the Thursday of this week. The Easter Triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday.

Times are as follows;

Holy Thursday – Mass of The Lord’s Supper

Church of St. Michael, Clogherhead @ 7.30pm
(Adoration at Altar of Repose until Night Prayer at 9.20pm)

Church of The Immaculate Conception, Tenure @ 8pm
(Adoration at Altar of Repose until Night Prayer at 10pm) Confessions available

Church of The Immaculate Conception, Termonfechin @ 7pm
(Adoration at Altar of Repose until Night Prayer at 9.30pm)

Church of St. Colmcille, Togher @ 7pm
(Adoration at Altar of Repose until 9pm)

Good Friday – Celebration of The Lord’s Passion

Church of St. Michael, Clogherhead @ 3pm
Stations of the Cross in The Church of Ss Peter & Paul, Walshestown @ 7pm
(Collection for The Holy Land in both Churches)

Church of The Immaculate Conception, Tenure @ 3pm Confessions 4-5pm
Stations of The Cross in The Church of The Nativity of Our Lady, Fieldstown @ 8pm
Confessions available afterwards

Church of The Immaculate Conception, Termonfechin @ 3pm
Stations of The Cross in The Church of The Assumption, Sandpit @ 7pm

Church of St. Colmcille, Togher @ 3pm
Stations of The Cross in The Church of St. Finian, Dillonstown @ 7pm

Holy Saturday – The Easter Vigil

Church of St. Michael, Clogherhead @ 8.30pm

Church of The Immaculate Conception, Tenure @ 9.30pm

Church of The Immaculate Conception, Termonfechin @ 9pm

Church of St. Colmcille, Togher @ 8.30pm

Easter Sunday – Mass

Church of St. Michael, Clogherhead @ 10am
Church of Ss Peter & Paul, Walshestown @ 11.30am

Dawn Mass outside The Church of The Nativity of Our Lady, Fieldstown @ 5.30am
Church of The Nativity of Our Lady, Fieldstown @ 9.45am
Church of Church of The Immaculate Conception, Tenure @ 11.15am

Church of The Assumption, Sandpit @ 9.30am
Church of The Immaculate Conception, Termonfechin @ 11am

Church of St. Colmcille, Togher @ 10am
Church of St. Finian, Dillonstown @ 11.30am

In conjunction with the Pastoral Councils of our Parishes,
we wish all our parishioners every blessing for Holy Week,
and joy in the Resurrection of The Lord.

Help for Ukraine

March 26, 2022Fr. Paddy

A special collection for the People of Ukraine will taken up at all Masses in Ireland this weekend.

People are also invited to support the charitable initiatives of Aid to the Church in Need, the Jesuit Refugee Service, and Trócaire, which is currently responding to the crisis through its partners Caritas Ukraine and Caritas Poland which have a strong presence in the region and can use resources strategically to the greatest effect.

A fundraising ‘bring and buy’ is being organised by PPC members & others in Drumshallon Forge on Sunday 27th from 2.30 to 5.30, all proceeds going to The Irish Red Cross Ukraine Fund – please lend your support.

Christmas Blessings

December 28, 2021December 28, 2021Fr. Paddy

Happy Christmas!

Hope you enjoyed this special time of the year – despite the difficulties in the country and the world at this time.

Fr. Paddy used a reflection at his Christmas Masses, and some people have asked for it to be shared;

A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE INCARNATION

The Incarnation is no mystery, Jesus. You make it easy to understand.
Because you walked our earth, we are to see the face of the Divine in every person we meet:

the friend who betrayed;
the family gathered for a meal;
the mother on welfare;
the man on death row;
the server in the store;
the teenage thug on the corner;
those society tells me are different from me, and my enemy
and trains me to treat that way.

Every time I love, the mystery of the Incarnation happens.
Every time I love, I birth you on earth, Jesus.

I fall on my knees and beg you, Jesus, deepen my living of the Incarnation.

Slightly adapted from ‘Prayers for A New Millennium’, by Mary L .Kownacki

Fr. Paddy also acknowledged all those who helped in the parish throughout the year;

I think of all those who have helped keep our parish going this year; You, our Parishioners; Our Sacristans; The Parish Pastoral Council; The Parish Finance Committee; The Covid-19 Committee; Stewards; Ministers of the Word & Eucharist; our Secretaries; and all those who helped in any way. I am so grateful for your support.

So, on behalf of all, may you and your families experience the many blessings of Christmas and have a joyous and grace-filled new year!

Even the Pope goes to Confession…

December 21, 2021December 21, 2021Fr. Paddy

Yes, Pope Francis went to Confession, publicly, in St. Peter’s Basilica, after leading a penitential service.

The Holy Father said the Christian way begins with taking a step backward, with removing oneself from the centre to make room for God.

This same criterion, this same outlook, applied to confession, can provoke a revolution in the life of each person: I am no longer at the centre of the sacrament of penance, humiliated with my list of sins — perhaps always the same ones — to be told with difficulty to the priest.

At the centre is the encounter with God who welcomes, embraces, forgives, raises up.

“One does not go to confession,” the Pope explained, “as chastised people who must humble themselves, but as children who run to receive the Father’s embrace.

And the Father lifts us up in every situation, He forgives our every sin. Hear this well: God always forgives! Do you understand? God always forgives!” One is not going to a judge to settle accounts, but “to Jesus who loves me and heals me”.

Confessions for Christmas

Tuesday 21st – 7-8pm, Church of The Immaculate Conception, Tenure

Thursday 23rd – 7-8pm, Church of our Lady of The Nativity, Fieldstown

Friday 24th – 1-2pm, Church of The Immaculate Conception, Tenure

Our Lady of Fieldstown

November 27, 2021Fr. Paddy

Last year (2020) during Lockdown, it was suggested at a Parish Pastoral Council Meeting, that we should explore erecting a Shrine to Our Lady on the outside of the Church in Fieldstown.

Very quickly the idea took momentum, and through the stalwart work of Enda Fahy, and his son, Gavin, the base and arch of the Shrine were constructed. Margaret Fahy, Clare Murphy and Emily Halpin painted the wall, prepared the flowers and helped by Teresa Mulroy, our Sacristan, prepared the Shrine for the arrival of the new statue.

Eventually, after Mass on Sunday, 31st October, the shrine and statue were blessed and dedicated, and Mary Brennan penned a lovely poem for the occasion, from which we got the name, Our Lady of Fieldstown.

Thanks to everyone whose vision, hard work, and support brought this special project to completion. We now have a lovely shrine which we hope will inspire many to turn to Our Lady for help and protection – especially in these difficult times.