From the weekend of September 4th/5th a revised Mass Schedule has been introduced in the Parish of Ballaghaderreen. This will include Masses celebrated in The Cathedral, Monasteraden, Derrinacartha and Brusna.
The Season of Creation has a special significance for the Catholic Church, particularly since Pope Francis established 1 September as an annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
The Season of Creation or Creation Time, is marked throughout the Christian world from 1 September to 4 October (Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi) and celebrates the joy of creation as well as encouraging awareness-raising initiatives to protect the natural environment.
The theme for the Season of Creation 2021 is ‘Restoring Our Common Home’. During this season we are asked to join together to celebrate creation and protect our common home through prayer, reflection and action.
The global Christian family is called to awaken to the urgent need to heal our relationships with creation and with each other and to encourage our parish communities to do the same, “for we know that things can change!” (Laudato Si’, 13).
This year we celebrate this season mindful of the fact that our world continues to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic as well as a devastating climate and biodiversity crisis. We look towards two UN Conferences in the Autumn, COP15 (on Biodiversity, due to take place in China) and COP24 (on climate change, Glasgow) in the hope that world leaders take the urgent action that is needed to Restore Our Common Home. Catholics are urged to sign the “Healthy Planet Healthy People” petition as a key action for this year’s Season of Creation. This petition has been endorsed by the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development in the hope that millions of Catholics will raise their voices in the public sphere to help Restore Our Common Home in the run up to these vital UN Conferences.
The following resources are offered for use in dioceses, parishes and in the home, during the Season of Creation 2021:
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This year we will be sharing a series of podcasts to highlight different themes relating to the Season of Creation and its theme Restoring Our Common Home, as well as looking at some of the science and theology behind climate change and climate justice.
These podcasts will be available from 1 September.
“We need to strengthen the conviction that we are one single human family.”“The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish.” “Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last 200 years.” “We are not God. The Earth was here before us and was given to us.” “The idea of infinite or unlimited growth, which proves so attractive to economists, financiers and experts in technology … is based on the lie that there is an infinite supply of the earth’s goods, and this leads to the planet being squeezed dry at every limit.” “Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start. Click here for resources on the Care of Creation from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
There are a selection of images available for use in parishes and dioceses for the Season of Creation. These can be downloaded for sharing on websites and social media. More visuals will be added over the course of the next few weeks so do check the album for the most recent visuals.
Click here for the images.
Audio: Click here to listen to ‘A Prayer for Our Earth’ from Laudato Si’.
A prayer for our earth from Laudato Si’
All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace.
Amen.
A Christian prayer in union with creation
Father, we praise you with all your creatures.
They came forth from your all-powerful hand; they are yours, filled with your presence and your tender love.
Praise be to you!
Son of God, Jesus,
through you all things were made.
You were formed in the womb of Mary our Mother, you became part of this earth, and you gazed upon this world with human eyes.
Today you are alive in every creature
in your risen glory.
Praise be to you!
Holy Spirit, by your light
You guide this world towards the Father’s love and accompany creation as it groans in travail.
You also dwell in our hearts
and you inspire us to do what is good.
Praise be to you!
Triune Lord, wondrous community of infinite love, teach us to contemplate you in the beauty of the universe, for all things speak of you.
Awaken our praise and thankfulness
for every being that you have made.
Give us the grace to feel profoundly joined to everything that is.
God of love, show us our place in this world as channels of your love for all the creatures of this earth, for not one of them is forgotten in your sight.
Enlighten those who possess power and money that they may avoid the sin of indifference, that they may love the common good, advance the weak, and care for this world in which we live.
The poor and the earth are crying out.
O Lord, seize us with your power and light, help us to protect all life, to prepare for a better future, for the coming of your Kingdom of justice, peace, love and beauty.
Praise be to you!
Amen.
Meadow Meaning – A Reflection by Brother Richard Hendrick OFM Cap
Shhhhh…
Look…
Listen…
Even
the blades of grass
Even
the flowers
you dare to call
weeds
Even
the light fast lives
of tiny buzzing
beings
hear the call of Divine
love
and give them
selves totally to
grow towards the
light.
And what of
you?
Forest Faith – a reflection by Brother Richard Hendrick Ofm Cap
When the edges of my mind fray,
and the golden sacred thread
seems pulled, gathered, caught
upon the briar of my broken being,
and my hearthome holds too much
behind its ancient doors
so there is no breathing space at all,
I take myself to the woods.
For there I become not young,
but small again and feel the rising
ocean tides of sap lull me at last
into the deep greening rest of soul
only the old tall ones know
the sky touchers, earth drinkers
we call in our dull infant speech, simply Trees.
So I place my foot upon the winding path
and dew the way with tears and sometimes even blood,
until their windleaf song sounds soul deep, and slows and halts me long enough
to feel their verdant canopy of calm,
and I greet them then,
as the keepers of the way they are;
the blessed Beech and noble Holly,
the Oak and Ash and Thorn,
grey brown brothers and sisters
of the branching dance of being.
Their familiar oldness a reminder
of my passing place
in all this; they leaflean down
to teach me once again the way of prayer
as being and being as prayer,
allowing the holy breath to play along my spine as within their trunked tallness
while standing through the shifting seasons
they grow slowly, imperceptibly, always,
until flower and fruiting follow in their turn,
then the seeming fall, asleep asunder for awhile,
as my life now flutters, cast upon the winds
lost in wildness, a wintered leaf, dry and brittle,
but here in their stately shadows
daring to read the scripture of their state,
and hear their prophecy proclaimed in stillness; that old roots dig deep and deeper still, that branches bend so not to break and that there is a joy in storms when yielded to.
So for a while I breathe the sylvan air
and greet the great and green,
these guardians of natural grace,
and then when I have walked long enough to become reminded, rewilded and rehomed in heart, I bow in thanks
and leave the woods to plant their sainted seeds throughout my world and life;
to feel a forest grow within
and make the faith feathered one
a home.
ENDS
These resources have been prepared by the Catholic Communications Office, the Bishops’ Council for Justice and Peace, the Laudato Si’ Working Group, Trócaire, and the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. We are also grateful to Brother Richard Hendrick OFm Cap for his beautiful reflections on the natural world. Please note that the resources will be updated regularly so do please check back in with this page from time to time.
First Holy Communion and Confirmation – Autumn 2021
During the past number of days, a number of bishops have issued statements in relation to the celebration of the Sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confirmation in their dioceses. I have been contacted by some media organisations asking for clarification around the celebration of the Sacraments in the Diocese of Achonry. On the 24thFebruary this year I issued a statement saying:
‘In consultation with the Priests’ Council, I have decided to postpone the celebration of the Sacraments of Confirmation, First Penance and First Holy Communion in Achonry Diocese until the Autumn. My hope is that this will give our schools and families more time for the preparation of the children and it will enable families to gather in a safer way to celebrate the Sacraments when the majority of us are vaccinated and restrictions have eased.
I emphasise the reason for this decision is to bring clarity at this early stage for all concerned and to enable the children have a meaningful and memorable celebration with their families, friends, and parish community when it is safer to do so. I thank the families, teachers, parishioners, and priests for all they are doing to prepare the children for the Sacraments during this difficult year. All of the above is, of course, subject to public health advice.’
Following on from this, Confirmations are due to start in the diocese on the 12th of September 2021. As I understand parishes have postponed First Communion Ceremonies until September also, therefore the celebration of these Sacraments in August was never planned for our diocese. As the vaccination programme continues, we look forward to celebrating the Sacraments with our children and their families in a safe and meaningful way from mid-September onwards.
In the meantime, may we continue to keep vigilant around the virus so that we can emerge out of this difficult time safe and well.
With kind regards and every blessing,
+Paul Dempsey,
Bishop of Achonry.
Last Sunday, as Bishop Paul travelled to Kilkelly for the celebration of Sunday Mass there, he caught up with some walkers from Derry. They were not just walkers, rather pilgrims on their way to Knock Shrine. They walked in steps that have been taken for more than three decades – initially taken in a quest for peace and more recently in thanksgiving for that peace.
He stopped to say hello to a few of them and realised that one of those with whom he stopped was Bishop Donal McKeown, the Bishop of Derry. A chance encounter but a meaningful one.
We continue to pray for peace and to give thanks for progress already made. We journey with the Derry Pilgrims to that Shrine of Knock and lay our petitions for peace and our prayers of gratitude at the feet of “Our Lady of Knock, Queen of Ireland.”
Appointments 2021
Dear friends,
Pope Francis in his homily on Pentecost Sunday reminds us that the Holy Spirit “does not mould isolated individuals, but shapes us into a Church in the wide variety of our charisms, into a unity that is never uniformity.” Since coming to the Diocese last August, I can see how the Spirit has blessed the people, deacons, religious, and priests of our Diocese with a variety of charisms. This is a source of great hope for the life and mission of the Church.
As we “walk together” as a community of disciples in Achonry, we are entering a time of discernment that will help us discover where the Lord is calling us. The fundamental question is: how do we share the Gospel message of Jesus Christ in this changed and changing time? In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis reminds us that: “Pastoral ministry in a missionary key seeks to abandon the complacent attitude that says: ‘We have always done it this way.’ I invite everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of evangelization in their respective communities.” (33) I hope we can be courageous enough to face this challenge posed by Pope Francis to be “bold and creative” in our approach. This is something I will be encouraging in the coming months and years in our Diocese as the Irish Church embarks upon its synodal pathway.
As we reflect upon the bigger questions that face us as a Diocese, there are the day to day needs that require careful attention. The appointment of priests is central to this. As this is my first year as Bishop and conscious of the bigger questions we will need to look at in our planning for the future, I am making the minimum number of clergy changes this year. These changes are as follows:
Fr. Vincent Sherlock PP, Kilmovee, to be PP of Tubbercurry.
Fr. Joseph Gavigan PP, Ballaghaderreen, to be PP of Kilmovee.
Fr. Paul Kivlehan CC, Cathedral Parish, Ballaghaderreen, to be Administrator, Cathedral Parish, Ballaghaderreen.
The appointments begin on the 15th August 2021, the Feast of the Assumption.
I express my deep gratitude to Fr. Vincent, Fr. Joe and Fr. Paul for their service and generosity. I know from my own experience it is not easy to change parish or role. I wish them every blessing and encouragement in their new appointments. I express my thanks to the people of Tubbercurry Parish for their patience in awaiting the appointment of a new Parish Priest. I also thank most sincerely Fr. Peter Gallagher and Fr. Dan O’Mahony for looking after Tubbercurry Parish in the absence of a Parish Priest.
When the new appointments begin in August, we will have one priest per parish. In addition, we have some retired priests and those involved in education who so generously help out and provide cover, for this I am deeply grateful. The Cathedral Parish of Ballaghaderreen will be served by one priest, having had three a few years ago. This will involve changes to schedules that I hope parishioners can understand.
Pope Francis’ in his homily on Pentecost Sunday reminded us that the Spirit protects us “against the temptation to let ourselves be paralyzed by rancour or memories of the past, or by uncertainty or fear about the future.” The present moment is where the Spirit has called us to be. We do not need to be fearful about the future as there are opportunities at this time to renew the life of the Church in Achonry and we know in faith that the Spirit always provides. In the light of this I ask that we continue to encourage and pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life and for the vocation of the lay faithful that we would be generous in responding to the Lord’s call to “go out into the deep” (Lk.5:4).
With kind regards and every blessing,
Bishop Paul Dempsey
Bishop of Achonry