Clonmacnois Parish Newsletter
Sunday 2nd Aug 2009 -18 B
Tel (090) 9674125 Fax (090) 9674267
Mass times: Shannonbridge: Weekend, 8pm (Sat), & 12 noon, Sun;
Weekdays, 10am. Clonfanlough – Sunday, 10.30am
Shannonbridge
Masses: Each day @ 10am; Adoration of First Fri until 5pm.
Last Sunday's Offertory collection: €205. Sat eve, €829. Many Thanks.
Church Cleaners: K.Price, C.Curley, P.Anderson
Eucharistic ministers: Group 2
Readers for next Weekend: Group 1, D.Finnerty, P.Corbett
Altar Servers for this week: Megan, Andrea
Mass on next Sun for the late Kieran Hynes

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Clonfanlough
Mass on First Fri @ 7pm
Last Sunday's Offertory collection: €258. Many Thanks
Church Cleaners: B.Maleney, H.Hynes
Readers for next Sunday: D.Norton
Altar Servers for next Sunday: Group B
Eucharistic minister for next Sunday: A.Rohan

Blessing of Graves In Glebe on Mon 3rd Aug @ 7.pm
Questions people askQ. What was the manna from heaven? A. It was the food provided by God for the Israelites during the Exodus. The name means ‘What is this?’ It was described as white, powdery stuff, like hoarfrost. There were three important points about it. It was a gift from God: it demanded trusting God’s promise because people were instructed to gather only sufficient for each day: and it satisfied every taste as ‘it transformed itself into whatever each eater wished’ (Wis 16:21). The Gospel of John regards the manna as foreshadowing the Bread of Life offered by Jesus – a wonderful gift of God, taken on trust in Jesus’ words, and responding to every need. (Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM )
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Diocesan Pilgrimages
Knock: Sun 6th Sept; Pattern Day Clonmacnois: Sun 13th Sept
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We welcome into the Christian Community Ellen Parker, daughter of Tommy & Dympna, Carrowkeel, who was baptised last weekend.
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Fr John Killeen will celebrate Mass for his Golden Jubilee on Sun 9th Aug @ 4pm in Shannonbridge Church.
Refreshments afterwards in the Hall. All welcome.
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Shannonbridge Library will be closed for the month of August.
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Youth 2000 plan to have their Summer Festival at Clonmacnois from 13th - 16th August. The theme will be 'Know that the Living God is among you'. Visit www.youth2000.ie or call 01-6753690
They are also looking for volunteers to host some of the priests & religious, who will be attending the Festival.
They also seek helpers on site for a variety of tasks.
Bishop Frank Caggiano from Brooklyn Diocese will be the main speaker. He is considered to be inspirational.
For more info call 086-3025442 or 01-6753690.
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Strange but true
“The only difference between a saint and a sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future”





Believe it or not!!
I read this piece recently. I cannot vouch for its veracity, but it is very interesting.
‘How It Used To BeNext time you are washing your hands and complain because the watertemperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used tobe..Here are some facts about the 1500s:Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath inMay and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were startingto smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour.Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the househad the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons andmen, then the women and finally the children-last of all the babies. Bythen the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it-hencethe saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."Houses had thatched roofs -- thick straw -- piled high, with no woodunderneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all thedogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. Whenit rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip andfall off the roof -- hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This poseda real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings couldreally mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and asheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy bedscame into existence.The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt,hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that wouldget slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) onthe floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they keptadding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all startslipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway --hence, a "thresh hold."In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle thatalways hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added thingsto the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. Theywould eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get coldovernight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had foodin it that had been there for quite a while -- hence the rhyme, "peasporridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine daysold."Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. Itwas a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They wouldcut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chewthe fat."Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acidcontent caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing leadpoisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for thenext 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers, a piece ofwood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers were madefrom stale bread, which was so old and hard that they could be used forquite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times wormsand mould got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy,mouldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom ofthe loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "uppercrust."Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination wouldsometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along theroad would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They werelaid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family wouldgather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wakeup-hence the custom of holding a "wake."In England local folks started running out of places to bury people. Sothey would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" andreuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins werefound to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they hadbeen burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string onthe wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through theground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in thegraveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell;thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "deadringer."And that's the truth...and whoever said that History was boring?’!