Glad Tidings Volume 2 2014
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News from the Kilmore Diocesan Pastoral Centre Summer 2014 edition. Just send us in an article and some photos Editorial: Seán Coll and we’ll take it from there. Director of the Kilmore As Bishop O’Reilly indicated in his foreword to the first Diocesan Pastoral Centre edition, the maintenance and upkeep of The Hague Building, which is home to most of the activities of the Welcome to the second Diocesan Pastoral Centre, are significant costs. We edition of Glad Tidings. hope to embark on a series of fund-raising initiatives over the coming months and we would appreciate First of all, a word of thanks to those who took the your support of these. However, I would reiterate time to contact us here in the Centre with their Bishop Leo’s appeal for donations towards the upkeep comments and observations on the first edition which of the building and the continued provision of was published in the Spring. We appreciated getting services. the feedback and we have factored some of your recommendations into this edition. Please do not hesitate to contact Fr. Enda or myself if you would like to suggest activities or programmes The principal purpose of Glad Tidings is to bring which the Centre could organise in the future or, people closer to the heart of pastoral developments in indeed, if you have any suggestions regarding the the diocese and to what this Pastoral Centre is about. format and content of the newsletter. We will most A secondary purpose is to provide people with food certainly welcome hearing your views and considering for thought in their ongoing experience of diocese, them. parish, and daily life. We also want to share information on pastoral developments nationally as The next edition of Glad Tidings will be published and well because they impact on what we do locally. circulated to parishes in mid-November, D.V. There has been a lot of activity in the Diocesan In the meantime, all of us here in the Centre wish you Pastoral Centre over recent months which we have a safe, restful, enjoyable, and prayerful summer. captured in this issue. While the Summer months tend to be quiet, we have been planning a number of Would you like to volunteer in the Centre? events for Autumn and Winter which, we hope, will be of interest and benefit. These are featured throughout this edition. Probably the most significant event over the coming months will be our Diocesan Assembly which takes place on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 October, the outcomes of which will shape Volunteering is a great practical way of helping out. pastoral strategy in Kilmore in the challenging years From time to time throughout the year, there may be that lie ahead. Another significant event will be the some events in the Diocesan Pastoral Centre which ordination of Andy Brady and Damian Kivlihan to the would require volunteers to help with car-parking, Permanent Diaconate on Sunday 5 October next. stewarding, and hospitality. If you would like to register your interest in taking on an occasional If your parish or church organisation has had a special volunteer role in the Centre, please contact Seán Coll event, we would be happy to feature it in a future on 049 4375004 extension 102. Your help would be appreciated. Reflection by Fr. Enda Murphy Diocesan Director of Pastoral Services and Youth Ministry The good weather of mid June brought a smile to most faces while it lasted and gave farmers a great chance to gather in their hay and silage. A burst of sunshine can change our attitude and lift our spirits, moving us from darkness of mood to lightness of heart. There is no doubt that Pope Francis continues to be a great burst of sunshine in our church, with his winning smile and easy to relate to words, but most of all he bears the light to people by his concrete actions. Sometimes we might get the idea that the church in Ireland is in a perpetual state of winter, with dark clouds never far from the horizon. But each of us is called to let our light shine. A Christian with a smile on her face is a thousand times more effective at bringing the joy of the Gospel to the neighbourhood than a lot of sermons could ever be. Such brightness and joy doesn’t seek to deny the difficulties or to ignore the shadows but it does see the context against which all these shadows are placed and that context is the risen Christ. If we lose sight of him, forget about him or just don’t talk about him then in short order the darkness engulfs us and we lose our way. The Diocesan Assembly which takes place in October is a chance for the whole diocese to let that light of Christ shine out brightly for all our people. It will do this by acknowledging the difficulties that exist but will respond by seeking to chart a positive way forward which puts the joyful Gospel of the risen Lord at the centre of all our activity. In the meantime perhaps we can each bring that sunburst of joy into our own lives and the lives of those around us and in this way we will be starting to fulfil the vision Pope Francis has given to us all in Evangelii gaudium: The Gospel offers us the chance to live life on a higher plane, but with no less intensity: “Life grows by being given away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed, those who enjoy life most are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of communicating life to others”. When the Church summons Christians to take up the task of evangelization, she is simply pointing to the source of authentic personal fulfilment. For “here we discover a profound law of reality: that life is attained and matures in the measure that it is offered up in order to give life to others. This is certainly what mission means”. Consequently, an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral! Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that “delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow… And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the good news not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ”. (EG n. 10) So evangelizing is something delightful and comforting! It’s not a chore or an annoying work that we have to do. No, the adjectives to describe it are positive and enlivening. Let’s hope we can catch some of that sunburst and brighten up not only our Church but our country too. American Choir to sing in the Cathedral The choir of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Atlanta, Georgia, will perform at the 7:30p.m. Mass in the Cathedral of SS. Patrick and Felim in Cavan on Saturday 4 October next as part of its 10 day “Celebration of Celtic Spirituality” pilgrimage. Donal P. Noonan is the Shrine Director of Music and the pilgrimage also takes in the Boyne Valley, Tara and Slane, Armagh, Downpatrick, Belfast, Knock, Galway, Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, Clonmacnois, Dublin, Glendalough and Kilcock. Cavan is the home of Fr. Thomas O’Reilly, a former Pastor of the Shrine from 1861 until his untimely death at the age of 41 in 1872. He is regarded as an Irish-American hero, and is famous for his heroic action in saving the city of Atlanta from destruction by Union General William T. Sherman during the American Civil War. His parents are buried in the cemetery behind the former church dedicated to Mary Immaculate in Virginia – now the Ramor Theatre. For more information on the Shrine and the life of Fr. O’Reilly, log onto www.catholicshrineatlanta.org KILMORE DIOCESAN ASSEMBLY 2014 - UPDATE Plans are well advanced for the forthcoming Kilmore Diocesan Assembly which will take place in St. Patrick’s College, Cavan on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 October 2014. The theme of this year’s Assembly is taken from three key words used by Pope Francis in his first homily after his election which he has repeated many times since: ‘Walking Together … Building the Kingdom … Professing our Faith’. The purpose of the 2014 Assembly is to gather the sensus fidelium or the views of the people in the diocese on how to address three key pastoral challenges – youth, celebration of sacraments and people on the margins of the church. The Assembly will seek to offer broad directions for the diocese which the Diocesan Pastoral Council will then develop into a more detailed pastoral strategy. The programme for the Assembly has now been agreed by the Assembly Steering Committee as follows: Saturday 25 October 2014 9:15a.m. Registration 10:30a.m. Welcome – Prayer – Setting the Scene 11:00a.m. Summary of Listening Survey Outcomes 11:15a.m. Small Circle Discussion on the Listening Survey Outcomes 11:45a.m. Sacramental Practice & Modern Culture – Dr. Michael Drumm (Diocese of Elphin and Executive Chairperson of the Irish Catholic Schools Partnership Trust) 12:15p.m. Small Circle Discussion on Sacramental Practice & Modern Culture 1:00p.m. Open Forum 1:30p.m. Lunch 3:00p.m. Reaching Out to Youth – Clogher Don Oige Youth Ministry Team 3:30p.m.