OSSORY TIMES Sharing the Life of Our Diocese Retreats & Parish Evenings • PARISH GROUPS • FIRST COMMUNION & CONFIRMATION PARENTS • NURSING HOMES • and MUCH MORE
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April 2019 – Issue 20 OSSORY ADULT FAITH DEVELOPMENT OSSORY TIMES Sharing the life of our Diocese Retreats & Parish Evenings • PARISH GROUPS • FIRST COMMUNION & CONFIRMATION PARENTS • NURSING HOMES • AND MUCH MORE... ... a chance to take time to come to pray together. A time ofTo bookstillness please contactand reflection Ossory Adult Faith Development Office 056-7753624 or email [email protected] APRIL 2019 OSSORY TIMES Editorial Welcome to the latest edition of the Ossory Times. inthisissue The Easter message, which we proclaim in these Editorial ........................................................ 1 days, is one of great hope. Death has been Pastoral Area Gatherings........................... 2 overcome - his resurrection is for us a beacon of Suicide ....................................................... 10 hope. Where he has gone we are to follow. We believe, then, in a God who offers us welcome Ossory Priests' Retreat .............................. 12 into eternal life. What good news that is for us. But Morality Matters ........................................ 14 this good news was hewn in hard days; that first Journeying with God and Illness ............. 16 journey to Easter was difficult and painful - but it was necessary and its fruits bear life today. Celebrating Confirmation ........................ 18 Our Lady of Fatima ................................... 19 Our Church today is making a journey. We Reading God's Word ................................ 20 know that it is changing; necessitated changes responding to the reality that lies before us, and Sharing together the journey of Lent ...... 24 like those who encountered the empty tomb we Post Primary Religion Advisors................. 26 can chose to be downcast or to see the endless Naomh Bríd, Ferrybank ............................ 27 possibilities that lie in front of us. Throughout Lent, Bishop Dermot has held many conversations in St Mary’s Cathedral Restoration Fund ... 28 all parts of our Diocese exploring with people Congregational Chapter ......................... 31 exciting possibilities for the Church in Ossory into the future - parishes and people working together Catholic Schools' Week ........................... 32 to continue to bring our faith to life. Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist ... 36 Canon Law Matter .................................... 40 As the pages of this edition testify we have reason for great hope. It is wonderful to see so many Pioneer Total Abstinence Association .... 43 people come forward to serve as extraordinary Black Abbey Novena .............................. 44 Ministers of the Eucharist; to be Ministers of the The Vocation to Encourage ..................... 46 Word, to populate our Parish Councils and Finance Committees and do so much more in The Cross of Healy .................................... 49 our parishes. If Lent has taught us anything in Billy's Tea Rooms ....................................... 50 Ossory it is how fortunate we are to have so many Quiz Pages ................................................ 51 people, young and not os young - and all ages in between - engaged in these conversations, preparing for ministry and handing on the faith to others. This edition of the Ossory Reflections on our Pastoral Area Gatherings Times, then, offers some insight into the Page 2 energy for faith we have in Ossory. This too is reason for great hope. I would like to wish you and your family a very blessed Easter. May the message of the risen Lord inspire a hope that can never be dulled. As always we hope you enjoy this publication. Comments, suggestions and contributions are most welcome for future editions. Articles or advertisements for upcoming events or of recent events, can be sent to: Rev. Dr Dermot Ryan Ossory Adult Faith Development St Kieran's College, College Road, Kilkenny Tel 056 7753624 Email [email protected] Web www.ossory.ie Catholic Schools' Week PAGE 1 Page 32 OSSORY TIMES APRIL 2019 Bishop Dermot Farrell addresses pastoral areas in Ossory. PAGE 2 APRIL 2019 OSSORY TIMES ... an opportunity for priests and people to be part of a conversation about the future of their parishes ... Reflections on our Pastoral Area Gatherings Gemma Mulligan, Pastoral Coordinator - recognising the workload and unrealistic demands being placed on them. There is In November 2018 at a conference so much happening in parishes all across for clergy and laity, action steps were the diocese and that was evident from identified by way of response to the the feedback as part of the format of the changing nature of the Church in Ossory. meetings. Great discussions took place Moving into Pastoral Areas was one and while there is sadness and perhaps a of the proposals and another stage of fear element in all of this, the future is not consultation about this began during without hope. Lent 2019. Bishop Dermot has visited the 14 proposed Pastoral Areas and met with There is a clear understanding that how the Parish Pastoral Councils and Finance we are as a Church in Ossory at this time Committees from all of these Parishes. is not something we can continue into the future. The meetings were an opportunity for priests and people to be part of a We are in a time of great change in our conversation about the future of their Church, our parishes today look different parishes and how best parishes can work from the ones many of us grew up in and together in new ways. the ones we are most familiar with. This time of change that we are experiencing The meetings for me gave a glimpse once as a family in Ossory diocese is difficult more into the faith life of those who live in but it can also be a time of great hope Ossory. Those who came to the gatherings for us all. Our parishes might begin to look expressed their strong faith, their love for different but this is a time of beginning their Parish and their hope for the future. not of the end. A time for opportunities It was recognised that the decisions that and growth. are made now, and the structures we put in place, are the foundations for what is to Bishop Dermot has said, “This time of come. The moments of great importance reduced numbers may well afford us an in our parishes were discussed and were opportunity to be creative and reimagine similar in all meetings. People shared their the Institutional Church. We have not appreciation and concern for their priests been abandoned by God. God's will is PAGE 3 OSSORY TIMES APRIL 2019 PAGE 4 APRIL 2019 OSSORY TIMES to be found in this situation. Let us not gathering. The evening was made up of look back to our own experience of the discussions, some of it robust. The issues church of our youth but look ahead to facing the Diocesewere not new to us. the church in which we will minister and We were all members of Parish Pastoral worship in the years ahead’’ Councils or Finance Committees, some of us were also on the Middle Deanery Bishop Dermot is inviting all the baptised committee.Declining numbers of priests, into a process where we will walk together, fewer numbers going to mass and how to understanding that all of us have a shape the future of our Diocese were all responsibility to carry out the mission discussed. of the Church, the work of God. We understand that the Holy Spirit is leading At the meeting the Bishop listened, and this process and as we continue to pray he understood the concerns but for me for vocations we also pray for leaders two things stood out. and we pray that all of us will recognise 1. When a question was asked it was the responsibility that each of us has by answered but answered with a virtue of our baptism to participate fully in reasoned answer and an answer that the life of our parishes and the mission of could be justified. It showed thought, the Church. consideration and taking on board what had clearly come up in other In his Pastoral Letter Bishop Dermot says meetings that had already taken that ‘good things happen when people place walk and talk together. We inspire each 2. Secondly and possibly most other; we carry each other’s burdens.” importantly, there are decisions that This Lent we came together as a diocese need to be made, the Diocese is to find new ways in how we can work being consulted and decisions are better together as the people of God in being made Ossory. We listened to each other, heard each other’s stories. We walked together On the face if it may appear that a and talked together and I know that crisis is looming. If I’m honest I don’t good things will happen. necessarily agree. What is presented to us is an opportunity. Things that may Alan Burke, St John's Parish have seemed impossible twenty years ago may become our new reality: a lay- And we know that in all things God works led liturgy, with a greater role in running for the good of those who love him, the clustered areas and a level of who have been called according to his involvement that previously would have purpose (Romans 8:28). been unheard of. We as lay people have been given an opportunity and a direct I recently went to a meeting in St Patrick's invitation from the Bishop to get involved. Parish Centre. A dark (it was before the clocks changed), wet Monday night. The This is an opportunity to change, not to four city Parishes had gathered together just change what we do but how we meet Bishop Ferrell. We had gathered think. It is a time for personal reflection to discuss the proposed clustering of also. What church do we wish to be a the city parishes together. I personally part of? We all need to come together to didn’t have any expectation of what embrace this change that is coming and we would discuss.