A few words from Fr Joe……………
Last Monday I believe was called “Blue Monday”, to reflect that it is just about the most depressing day in the whole year! It was the third Monday in January, with all of last month’s pay check long since spent, all the joy of Christmas gatherings, bright lights and holidays fading from the memory and of course it comes during a cold, wet, miserable few days.
Well I’m happy to say there were a number of things that really lifted my spirits on Monday and the days since. The first of these uplifting moments was attending the Prayer for Christian Unity Week, hosted by the Carmelite Sisters in Kilmacud. They had invited the Secretary General of AMRI, Gerard Gallagher to speak on the theme of ‘Hope’. Gerard was once upon a time a fellow seminarian with me in Maynooth, he left in favour of marriage and has worked his entire professional career for church related groups, especially with young people. His current role is to work with the Religious of Ireland, older and younger members, and to assist them with governance and oversight of their work, encouraging the religious and advocating for their work at home and abroad. It was a joy to hear him speak with such obvious regard and respect for the religious and to bring a huge sense of hope for the future. Congregations of Religious may be smaller in number but they still have a huge impact in the prayer and social ministries of the Church.
Then I watched, and was very impressed, by some of the work done for Catholic Schools week by our local schools. Prayer, letters of Gratitude, Grandparents Day and many more activities reflected the serious intent of our young people to grow in faith and to know and love God day by day.
On another evening, I attended a Finance Committee meeting and found two new members, parishioners with exceptional talent, stepping forward and taking on a role in an essential part of what it takes to make our parishes work. Hopefully their example will encourage others to volunteer.
And lastly, I bumped into two ladies who have regenerated a baptismal team, under the guidance of their Parish Pastoral Council and intend to offer great support to the families with young children who are coming to begin their faith journey. Many ministry teams would benefit from a little regeneration and new members and it’s just brilliant to see the seeds of new growth.
I could go on, there were many more marvellous moments in parish ministry this past week, all of these aspects of the life and ministries in our Trinity of Faith partnership of parishes really do affirm our common mission to carry on the work of the local church and to do it together, and always with a smile. No Blue Mondays here!