CLONMACNOIS PARISH NEWSLETTER MARCH 17TH 2017

ST. CIARAN’S, SHANNONBRIDGE

Thursday 16th 8:00p.m. Darren Egan  (Vigil of St. Patrick’s Day)

Sat 18th 10:00a.m.  Communion Service     Sat 18th  8p.m. Gerry Greene

ST. CIARAN’S, CLONFANLOUGH

Fri 17th 10:30a.m. St. Patrick’s Day

Sun 19th 10:30a.m Joe Darcy, Sr. Damien Darcy & dec’d family members

CHURCH COLLECTIONS Offertory March 12th  €1,040 Shrine €195

WED 22ND A Community and Text Alert meeting will be held in Shannonbridge Hall on Wednesday 22nd March at 8:30p.. Please attend.

FRIDAY 17TH Special 10th Anniversary St Patrick's day Prayer Vigil in Cluain Chiarán, Clonmacnois for the renewal of faith life in Clonmacnois and the re-evangelisation of Ireland. Friday 17th March. Mass at 9pm. Adoration and Prayers follow until 2.15am. Contact Dave 085-7746763

Celebrating the 100 Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima, A Pilgrim Statue of  Our Lady of Fatima was blessed by Pope Francis on January 11th. It was  crowned by Archbishop Eamon Martin on 3rd March in Armagh and from there it  is travelling around Ireland. It will be in the in Ss. Peter & Paul's Church, Athlone on Tuesday, 21st Match arriving at 6 p.m. for public  veneration and confessions. Holy Mass commences at 7 p.m. Consecration of  the Homes and Families to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart  of Jesus and enrolement in the brown scapular will take place at the end of  Mass. This will be followed by Holy Hour. All are most welcome. 

From a traditional Connacht prayer to Saint Patrick

A Phádraig atá I bPárthas Mhic Dé inniu, Faigh áras dúinn ann, an áit a bhfeicfimiid thu. [O Blessed Patrick, with the Lord now in His holy place, Win a home for us there to see you face to face]

April 1st/2nd Second National Collection for the World Meeting of Families 2018: Pope Francis has personally chosen Dublin to be the host diocese for the World Meeting of Families from 21st-26th August 2018. Planning for this great national and international celebration of faith is well underway. Hosting this important event requires an enormous amount of planning and funding. In this regard a second national collection (Envelope in Parish Box)will be held on the weekend of 1st and 2nd April 2017. Your support is appreciated.

              A Word in your Ear St Patrick has become fossilised in our folk memory. Trapped by tradition, the most common image is that of an elderly bearded bishop, dressed in flowing green vestments, complete with Roman mitre. Even the snakes still coil around his ankles! He fell victim to the wildly inaccurate imaginings of some 19th century Italian artists. Their work still decorates the walls of many an Irish kitchen. St. Patrick’s Day enjoys a unique festive status throughout the world. People of every creed and colour will assemble this weekend to celebrate the festival. No other saint has such a firm grip on the Irish imagination. Of course this international outpouring has nothing whatsoever to do with Patrick’s beliefs or his holy life. A number of factors have played their part in the evolution of the Patrician myth: emigrants carried his memory, or his myth, wherever they went. Irish missionaries of the late 19th and early 20th century made a significant contribution. Politicians too played their part. 19th century Catholic Nationalists dressed Patrick in green vestments and recruited him for their sectarian team. (Up to this, Patrick’s colour had always been blue). Some Church of Ireland historians responded in kind by claiming Patrick as their own: did not Patrick himself tell us clearly that he came to Ireland at the prompting of his own conscience? No Pope nor Prelate sent him. Therefore, Patrick was a Protestant and, moreover, the Church in Ireland was Protestant from its very foundation! Patrick had his uses! His two letters, his ‘Confessions’ and his ‘Letter against the Soldiers of Coroticus’ are the only two surviving documents from 5th century Ireland or Britain. While the actual manuscripts we have today are 9th century copies, experts tell us that the Latin is 5th century, that both documents were written by the same person, and that his name was Patrick because he tells us so! In fact these documents salvage Patrick the man from Patrick the myth. His two documents merit close attention. We learn here that he came from Britain where his father had been of the official Roman ‘well-to-do’ class. The man who wrote the documents was a courageous, passionate man: “I would not have chosen to speak as harshly as I must,” he says, “but the zeal of God compels me, Christ’s truth urges me, for love of the children on whose behalf I gave up my parents and my homeland.” The bland popular images of the man does him scant justice. In many ways he was a human reflection of the country through which he travelled, which was, as Seosamh Mac Grianna wrote, “fissured by streams and rugged with stones and rocky crags.” Indeed the rugged landscape aptly parallels the man. He built on solid foundations. Just as well! Because, in his wildest dreams, he can never have foreseen the force of the storm that his Church would be called upon to withstand. Enjoy the festival, and don’t forget the saint!

1)Hail, Glorious St. Patrick Hail, glorious St. Patrick, dear saint of our Isle, /On us thy poor children bestow a sweet smile;/And now thou art high in the mansions above,/On Erin’s green valleys look down in thy love./On Erin’s green valleys, on Erin’s green valleys, On Erin’s green valleys look down in thy love.

2)Ever bless and defend the sweet land of our birth,  Where the sham rock still blooms as when thou wert on earth,  And our hearts shall yet burn, wherever we roam,  For God and St. Patrick, and our native home. On Erin’s green valleys….

Dóchas linn Naomh Pádraig  Aspal mór na hÉireann, Ainm oirdearc gléigeal, solas mór an tsaoil é. D'fhill le soiscéal grá dúinn d'ainneoin blianta    i'ngéibheann. Grá mór Mhac na páirte, d'fhuascail cách ón daorbhroid.

Sléibhte, gleannta máighe,

's bailte mór na hÉireann,

Ghlan sé iad go deo dúinn,

míle glóir dár naomh dhil.

Iarrmaid ort, a Phádraig,

guí orainne na Gaela,

Dia linn lá 'gus oíche 's Pádraig Aspal Éireann.