St. Oliver’s Parish Newsletter – 4th Sunday of Lent

PARISH INFORMATION

Priests of the Parish:  Fr. Michael Hegarty I.C.    Fr. James Pollock I.C.

Tel:  6125679      E Mail stoliver@eircom.net

Sister:  Sr. Mary Muckley     Tel: 6125235

Parish Office:  Open Monday – Friday 9.00 a.m. – 4.30 p.m.

Parish Website:www.stoliverspc.org

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/stoliverspc

Society of St. Vincent de Paul Helpline 052 – 6123878

Local Safeguarding Representatives:  Margaret Waters 086-8917440 Fiona Stanley 087-9340382

Bereavement Support:  Tel 6125679

 

Masses for Weekend

Saturday    7.30 p.m.   Brendan Terry (Anniv)

Sunday       9.00 a.m.   Margaret (Peggy) English & John & Mary English (Anniv)

                   12 Noon    Sean Doyle (Anniv)

Masses for St. Patrick’s Day

Monday    7.30 p.m.   Ann Pyke (Months Mind)

Tuesday   9.00 a.m.   Margaret & Patrick O’Sullivan & David & Ellen Clancy (Anniv)

                 12 Noon    Peggy O’ Mahony (Anniv)

 

The Parents Council of the Presentation Secondary School, Clonmel will hold a Church Gate Collection on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th March.

 

Passion Accounts  The Passion of our Lord according to the Gospels with Facilitator: Dr. Michael Mullins, D.D. at St. John’s Pastoral Centre, Waterford on Thursday 19th and 26th March at 7.30 p.m. Donation €5 including light refreshments.

 

Ministers of the Eucharist  A meeting will take place in the Parish Centre on Monday 23rd March at 7.30 p.m.

 

Holy Week, a journey of Life, Death & Resurrection  A morning of reflection through prayer, reflection & music will take place at St. John’s Pastoral Centre, Waterford on Saturday 28th March from 10 a.m. to 12 Noon. Facilitator: Antoinette Dilworth rsj.

 

Mothers’ Day  We pray for all mothers – living and dead.

 

Welcome into our Christian Community  Aoife Megan Landy who was baptised last weekend.

 

Eucharistic Ministers Rota  for April – June ’15 is now available in the Sacristy in the church.

 

Collection last weekend

Envelopes  –  €688.90     Notes and Coin  –   €474.10           Thank You

 

The Permanent Diaconate

Bishop Lee in introducing the Permanent Diaconate some years ago wrote:

“The Permanent Diaconate is a distinct ministry of service and deacons will work in partnership with priests and those entrusted with lay ministry. The ministry of the deacon is usually exercised on a voluntary part time basis (…) and is not in any way an alternative to priestly ministry or to lay ministry”.

Let us pray for vocations to priesthood, permanent diaconate, religious life, and lay ministry.

 

4th Sunday of Lent

We pause today to reflect on our Lenten journey to date and our connection to the earth and life around us. The Carmina Gadelica is a collection of ancient Celtic prayers collected in the highlands and islands off the coast of Scotland in the last decades of the nineteenth century by Alexander Carmichael. It is believed that the spirituality of these prayers was influenced by the nature and beauty of the great monastic settlement founded by St. Columba on Iona.

There is no plant in the ground, but is full of His virtue,

there is no form in the strand, but is full of His blessing.

 

There is no life in the sea, there is no creature in the river,

there is naught in the firmament, but proclaims His goodness.

 

There is no bird on the wing, there is no star in the sky,

there is nothing beneath the sun, but proclaim his goodness.

 

St. Patrick’s Day – Tuesday 17th March

St. Patrick was born very probably in the early years of the fifth century in the Roman colony of Britain. He was taken captive at the age of sixteen and brought to Ireland where he was sold as a slave. He tended herds on Slemish Mountain for six years. His captivity had a very positive effect on his spiritual life. He prayed many times each day, his faith growing stronger and his love and reverence for God increasing.

He escaped back home at the age of twenty-two. It was obvious to him that God was calling him to return to convert the Irish. The voice of the Irish was calling him to come and walk among them once more. He studied probably in France, returned to Ireland as a Bishop c. 457-61, or as early as 432 according to another tradition.

His mission was not immediately greatly successful but eventually he would make a tremendous number of converts. Two writings survive: the Letter to Coroticus, a protest to the soldiers of a British prince who had killed some converts and sold others as slaves, and his Confession, written near the end of his life, showing him as one living by the faith he preached and allowing Christ to direct his whole life. He died in 491, though again other dates have been suggested, 480 or as early as 461.

 

Message of Pope Francis for Lent (Continued)

“Where is your brother?” (Gen 4:9) – Parishes and Communities

“In the second place, every Christian community is called to go out of itself and to be engaged in the life of the greater society of which it is a part, especially with the poor and those who are far away. The Church is missionary by her very nature; she is not self-enclosed but sent out to every nation and people.

Her mission is to bear patient witness to the One who desires to draw all creation and every man and woman to the Father. Her mission is to bring to all a love which cannot remain silent. The Church follows Jesus Christ along the paths that lead to every man and woman, to the very ends of the earth (cf. Acts 1:8). In each of our neighbours, then, we must see a brother and sister for whom Christ died and rose again. What we ourselves have received, we have received for them as well. Similarly, all that our brothers and sisters possess is a gift for the Church and for all humanity.

Dear brothers and sisters, how greatly I desire that all those places where the Church is present, especially our parishes and our communities, may become islands of mercy in the midst of the sea of indifference!”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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