Trócaire Lenten Campaign 2012

Trócaire boxes can be brought back to Sacred Heart Church at the end of Lent.

Wednesday: This Evening - Catholicism Series on Our Lady

Our Lady of Guadalupe

This evening, Wednesday March 7th 2012, at 8.15pm we will have the screening of the episode of the Catholicism Series on the Blessed Virgin Mary. For details and clip from the episode, see previous post.

Message from Trócaire in preparation for 3rd Sunday of Lent

“I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come.” Genesis 9:9

This third Sunday in Lent we remember Betty and Joel, the parents of little Daniel on the Trocaire box. They have been through many traumatic events in their thirty years of married life. By sticking together, even after they were forcibly separated, Joel and Betty are creating a future for Daniel. Their covenant to each other, before God, is bearing rich fruit. For more information on the Lenten campaign visit www.trocaire.org/lent or call 1850 408 408.

Catholicism Series this Week: The Blessed Virgin Mary

The Annunciation painted by Blessed Fra Angelico (1395-1455)

This week's screening of the Catholicism Series, on Wednesday, March 7th 2012, at 8.15pm at sacred Heart Church will be the episode on Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary. The episode is titled 'Our Tainted Nature's Solitary Boast: Mary'.

In this episode we get to savour many of the great works of art depicting Mary. Fr Robert Barron discusses the Annunciation, as well as the doctrines of Mary's Immaculate Conception and Assumption into Heaven. He visits Lourdes and tells the story of Our Lady's appearances to Saint Bernadette, and we also learn the story of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego. Fr Robert explains how Mary is Mother of the Church and Mother of the New Covenant.

Again, we travel the world to experience the sights and sounds of the living faith and this week we will find ourselves in Lourdes, Madrid, Rome, Paris, Chartres, Ephesus and Guadalupe.

Each episode can be understood without needing to have seen the previous episodes. This episode lasts 49 minutes.

Here is a clip from this week's episode:

Here is the list of the remaining dates and episodes:

Week 4: Wednesday, 14th March 2012: The Church

Week 5: Wednesday, 21^st March 2012: The Saints

Week 6: Wednesday, 28^th March 2012: Prayer

Parish Announcements for Sunday, March 4th 2012

2nd Sunday of Lent

·        Trócaire boxes are available at the Church doors. Please take one for your home and family.

·    Application forms for attendance at the final Mass of the Eucharistic Congress (Croke Park, Sunday June 17^th) are available in the sacristy.

·     Boxes with the new parish weekly envelopes for Laurel Park, Ros Geal, Gort Gréine, and Corrach Buí are available in the sacristy.

Anyone from outside the parish and who comes to Mass here who would like to make the offertory donation in this way, please call to the sacristy for a box of envelopes.

·    This coming Wednesday, March 7^th 2012 at 8.15pm, we will have the screening of the episode on the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Catholicism Series with Fr Robert Barron. All are welcome. See post above.

·        Your donations to the collection for the Missionaries of Africa (the White Fathers) came to €1,500. Sincere thanks for your contributions.

·        Galway Diocesan Pastoral Centre will host a talk by the writer John Waters at Árus de Brún, Newtownsmith this Tuesday, March 6^th 2012at 7.30pm.

·     Table quiz in aid of Fr Seán Murphy’s Salesian Missions and poverty relief in Africa in the Westwood Hotel on Tuesday March 13^th 2012 at 8.30pm. Table of four €40 with concessions for students, €5 each. Organizer: Tom Murphy, 27 Upper Newcastle. Phone 091-522125.

Mass intentions for the week ahead 4th March 2012

Saturday 3rd March  11.00 am  John Collins (Months Mind Mass)
Vigil Mass  6.30 pm  Mary Murphy

Sunday 4th March
9.30 am     Intention free
11am         Intention free
12.15 pm  Deceased members of the Dolan family.
6.30 pm    Intention free

Monday 5th March
10am  Gerard McDonagh
Tuesday 6th March
10am  For all the Sick and William Powell
Wednesday 7th March
10am  Intention free
Thursday 8th March
10am  Gerry and Mary Bridget Morkan
Friday 9th March
10am  Intention free

Saturday 10th March
Vigil Mass   6.30 pm  Bridget and Peter Coyne

Sunday 11th March
9.30 am  1. Kate O'Brien and O'Brien and Corley families deceased
              2. Bertie Brody
11am      Mary Kelly (Months Mind Mass)
12.15 pm  1. Nonie and Michael O'Flaherty
                 2. Dorothy Ridgard (Months Mind Mass)
6.30 pm  Intention free
11am     

Vocations Workshop for Diocesan Priesthood this Saturday March 3rd 2012

Mons. Malachy and Fr Hugh are always happy to talk to anybody discerning a vocation. Please pray that those young men God is calling to priesthood may be given the courage and joy they need to respond to this call. Priests are needed to work in the vineyard of the Lord as part of the New Evangelisation.

This Evening: Catholicism Series – The Eucharist

This evening, Wednesday February 29th 2012, at 8.15pm, we will have the screening of our second episode of the Catholicism series with Fr Robert Barron at Sacred Heart Church.

You do not need to have been at the first episode to fully benefit from this episode. Each episode stands on its own.

In this year of the Eucharistic Congress, this can be a part of our parish reflection on this Sacrament that is the source and summit of the Christian life.

In this episode we will witness Mass being celebrated in many countries. Fr Robert will take us through the parts of the Mass, explaining their meaning, and he will reflect on the meaning of Christ's Real Presence in the Eucharist.

Why not treat the Leap Year Day as a bonus, and give yourself the time for a little faith formation this evening?

Here, again, is the trailer for this evening's episode:

Next week (Wed, March 7th 2012): Episode on Our Lady.

Notice Received

Foyer of Light, Charity & Love

5 day silent Retreat.                 Theme: “ If you but knew the gift of God...” 

Preached by Fr. Kilian Byrne.   Apr.9^th to 15^th 2012    Cost €380

Venue: Esker Retreat Centre, Athenry, Co. Galway

For further information Contact: Helen : 086 1678027, or  Mai: 041 9819074

John Waters to speak at Diocesan Pastoral Centre

Photo from Irish Catholic website, www.irishcatholic.ie

From Galway Diocesan Pastoral Centre:

John Waters (Journalist, Editor and Magazine Columnist) will launch a new series of monthly talks addressing current needs and issues in society taking place on the FIRST TUESDAY of every month in the Diocesan Pastoral Centre, Newtownsmith beginning on Tuesday 6th March at 7:30pm. Contact 091-565066 for more information.

Message from Trócaire

“May the Lord be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.”

Psalms 9:9

This second Sunday in Lent we think of Daniel, the little boy on the Trocaire box. Even though he has been through the trauma of civil war, he wants to continue his education so that he might, one day, serve his community as a doctor. Our solidarity with Daniel blesses us with hope for a bright future in Uganda where there has been a dark past. For more information on the Lenten campaign visit www.trocaire.org/lent or call 1850 408 408.

Screening of the Catholicism Series at Sacred Heart Church

Last Wednesday's evening's screening of the first episode of the Catholicism series was very well  received and those who attended were very impressed. Here's another series promotion clip:

The screenings continue during the Wednesdays of Lent at 8.15pm.

Here is the list of topics for the episodes in the weeks ahead:

Week 2:  Wednesday, 29th February 2012: The Eucharist

Week 3:  Wednesday, 7th March 2012: Mary

Week 4: Wednesday, 14th March 2012: The Church

Week 5: Wednesday, 21^st March 2012: The Saints

Week 6: Wednesday, 28^th March 2012: Prayer

Week 2: The Eucharist

Word Made Flesh, True Bread of Heaven:

The Mystery of the Liturgy and the Eucharist

In this year of the Eucharistic Congress in Ireland, our video series is meant to help us deepen our faith in the Eucharist and this episode is specifically about the Mass. Fr Robert Barron takes us through the different parts of the Mass so that we can fully appreciate the meaning of each part. He also explains the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. We get a sense of just how much the Eucharist unites us with Christ as well as with our brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world as we visit Paris, Calcutta, Uganda, New York, the Philippines, Chartres, Mexico, Lourdes, Chicago, Athens, Rome and Orvieto, and we’ll see Mass being celebrated in many of these places.

A trailer for this week's episode can be seen here:

Join us at Sacred Heart Church for this important reflection on the Eucharist this Wednesday, 29th February 2012 at 8.15pm.

Parish Announcements for Sunday, February 26th 2012

First Sunday of Lent

• Today we welcome Fr Ian Buckmaster of the Missionaries of Africa (the White Fathers). His order has this year’s permission in the diocese to make the mission appeal. We ask you to be generous to the work of the White Fathers in spreading the Gospel in 22 countries of Africa from the Sahara down to South Africa. The collection will take place together with the parish offertory collection.

• Trócaire boxes are available at the Church doors, so please take one for your home and family.

• Boxes with the parish weekly envelopes for Laurel Park, Ros Geal, Gort Gréine and Corrach Buí are available in the sacristy. Anybody from outside the parish who comes to Mass here and would like to make the offertory donations in this way is invited to come to the sacristy for a box of envelopes.

• Application forms for attendance at the final Mass of the Eucharistic Congress in Croke Park, Dublin on Sunday June 17th 2012 are available in the sacristy.

• On this coming Wednesday evening, February 29th, at 8.15pm, we will have the screening of our second episode in the Catholicism series. This episode will be about the Eucharist, and can serve as apt preparation for the Eucharistic Congress for us.

• This coming Friday, March 1st, is the First Friday of the month. The priests of the parish will visit those who are housebound due to illness or old age with Holy Communion.

• We pray for those who have died, and whose funerals took place in Sacred Heart Church during the past week:

- Colie Naughton, Corrib Park

- Kevin Cleary, Cuar na Lus

Mass intentions for the week ahead 26th February 2012

Saturday 25th February 
Vigil Mass   6.30 pm  Mattie Duggan and 2. Owen Sheppard
Sunday 26th February
9.30 am
11am         Intention free
12.15 pm   Patrick and Mary Lawrence and Pat Ward, John Joe Ward and Nan Ward
6.30 pm     Tom and Ethel Whelan.

Monday 27th February
10am  Maria and Thomas Jackson
Tuesday 28th February
10am  For all the Sick
Wednesday 29th February
10am  Bridie Whelan
Thursday 1st March
Ann Bridget Ward
Friday 2nd March
10am  Margaret and Madge Hughes and deceased members of Hughes family.

Saturday 3rd March
                                 11.00 am  John Collins (Months Mind Mass)
Vigil Mass                   6.30 pm  Mary Murphy

Sunday 4th March
9.30 am     Intention free
11am         Intention free
12.15 pm   Deceased members of the Dolan family
6.30 pm    Intention free

Funeral of Kevin Cleary, RIP, Cuar na Lus

Removal to Sacred Heart Church for Funeral Mass on Wednesday, February 22nd 2012 at 11.30am.

Eternal rest, grant to him, Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him.

Ash Wednesday 2012 at Sacred Heart Church

Lent begins this Ash Wednesday, February 22nd 2012. We begin our 40 day penitential preparation for Easter, by being reminded of our mortality.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrates Ash Wednesday Mass each year at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome. He is seen here receiving the ashes from Cardinal Jozef Tomko.

Timetable for Ash Wednesday at Sacred Heart Church

10.00am - Mass

7.30pm - Mass

8.15pm - Screening of the Catholicism series (50 minutes. See post below.)

For Pope Benedict's message for Lent 2012, click here.

Funeral of Colie Naughton, RIP, Corrib Park

Reposing at O'Flaherty's Funeral Parlour, Munster Avenue, on Monday February 20th 2012 from 5.00pm with removal to Sacred Heart Church at 7.00pm. Funeral Mass on Tuesday at 11.00am. Burial after in the New Cemetery, Bohermore.

Jesus said... 'I am the Resurrection and the Life' (John 11:25)

First Episode of the Catholicism Series: Ash Wednesday at 8.15pm

Week 1: The Holy Land and the Story of Jesus

In the first episode of the Catholicism series, Fr Robert Barron travels around the Holy Land tracing the story of Jesus as told in the Bible. Our Catholic faith is rooted in this story, the revelation of God become man. The screening will take place at Sacred Heart Church on Ash Wednesday evening at 8.15pm. This first episode lasts 50 minutes. There is no charge. It will set the tone in terms of the beautiful filming of scenery, providing an inspiring backdrop to Fr Barron's fine teaching on our faith.

This episode will be like a free pilgrimage to the Holy Land for us as we visit the place of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, his public ministry around the Sea of Galilee, and his passion, death, Resurrection in Jerusalem, as well as other locations.

We will have individual trailers for the episodes over the coming weeks. The first is a general introduction to the series with some reference to this first episode:

Parish Announcements for Sunday, February 19th 2012

• Wednesday next, February 22nd 2012 is Ash Wednesday, a day of fast and abstinence. Masses here in Sacred Heart Church will be at 10am and 7.30pm with blessing and distribution of ashes.

• For Lent, we will have the Morning Prayer of the Church before weekday Mass at 9.50am.

• The Trócaire boxes for Lent this year are now available at the doors of the Church. Please take one for your home and family.

• Something new for Lent – beginning on Ash Wednesday at 8.15pm and continuing at the same time for the Wednesdays of Lent, we will be screening the Catholicism series at Sacred Heart Church. This should help us to deepen and renew our faith this Lent. See post above.

• The parish boxes with the weekly envelopes will be distributed before March 1st.

• The annual Galway Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes will take place from July 1st to 6th 2012, led by Bishop Martin Drennan. Cost €697 includes taxes, transfers, accommodation, coach to and from Shannon airport. Deposit €80 per person. For those with special needs, full fare is €585 and special arrangements and accommodation will be provided. Bookings, all reservations and enquiries to: Fahy Travel Ltd., 3 Bridge Street, Galway. Tel: (091) 594744 or (091) 594747.

• The International Eucharistic Congress committee has allocated 757 tickets to the Galway Diocese for the closing Mass of the Eucharistic Congress in Croke Park, Dublin on Sunday June 17th 2012. If you would like to attend, forms are available in the sacristy of Sacred Heart Church. Application does not guarantee a ticket. Applications will be processed so as to ensure a fair distribution of the tickets throughout the diocese. All applicants will be informed as to whether or not they will receive a ticket. Those allocated a ticket will be asked to contribute €10 to meet the costs of the Eucharistic Congress. The provisional timetable for the day sees the doors opening at Croke Park at 12 noon, with the ceremony starting at 2pm and ending at 5.30pm.

• The Months Mind Mass for Martin McDonagh, Ashe Road, will take place here in Sacred Heart Church on Ash Wednesday Evening at 7.30pm.

• We pray for those who died recently:

- Mary Kelly, Corrib Park

- Sr Alphonsus O’Malley, Presentation Convent, Presentation Road

- Michael Dinnen, Omagh and late of Corrib Park

Consistory: New Cardinals this Saturday

Soon to be Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, a good friend to Ireland

This Saturday, February 18th 2012, Pope Benedict will place the red hat on the heads of 22 new Cardinals. The colour red symbolises readiness to shed one's blood for Christ, to endure martyrdom for the faith if necessary. The office of Cardinal derives from the historical responsibility of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome as the close collaborators of the Pope, and hence the Cardinals are the electors of a Pope. To maintain this bond with Rome, each Cardinal is assigned a titular Church in Rome, where he visits when in the city. For example, the titular Church of Cardinal Sean Brady is the Church of Saints Quirico and Giulitta in the Roman Forum.

The heads of the dicasteries (departments) of the curia, because they closely help the Pope in the exercise of his authority, are usually made Cardinals. Several of these offices have received newly appointed heads recently, and thus many of the new intake this time are of this category. They are: Archbishops Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, João Braz de Aviz (Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life), Manuel Monteiro de Castro (Major Penitentiary), Giuseppe Bertello (President of the Vatican Governorate), Domenico Calcagno (Chairman of the Administration for the Patrimony of the Apostolic See), Giuseppe Versaldi (President of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See), Santos Abril y Castelló (Archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore), Edwin Frederick O'Brien (grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre), Antonio Maria Vegliò (President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People) and Francesco Coccopalmerio (President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts).

Also on the list are eight diocesan Bishops: Archbishops Giuseppe Betori (Archbishop of Florence), George Alencherry (Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church), Thomas Christopher Collins (Archbishop of Toronto), Willem Jocoby Eijk (Archbishop of Utrecht), Rainer Maria Woelki (Archbishop of Berlin), Timothy Michael Dolan (Archbishop of New York) and Dominik Duka (Archbishop of Prague) and Bishop John Tong Hon (Bishop of Hong Kong).

It is a practice also for the Pope to give the red hat to some priests, over eighty years of age, and thus not eligible to vote in a conclave, who have given distinguished service to God and the Church in the field of scholarship. This time, he is naming three of these Cardinals along with a distinguished Archbishop: Fr. Prosper Grech, consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Fr. Karl Josef Becker, professor emeritus of the Pontifical Gregorian University, Msgr. Julien Ries, Professor Emeritus of History of Religions at the Catholic University of Leuven, and Archbishop Lucian Muresan, Major Archbishop of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church.

A nice feature of the day of the Consistory is that the Papal Household is opened up to the public to go in and greet the new Cardinals. Huge crowds of Romans, visiting guests of the new Cardinals, pilgrims and many others, go in for this special occasion.