Category: Fr Rory Writes

Most important that we become communities of faith. 

After the great celebrations for the Jubilee and all the goodness, help and support, I had to come back down to earth with a bang.  So the focus has to come back on what is truly important to the life of our future.  The meeting at Our Lady of Ransom, the attendance was very good, the only big question surrounded the age profile of those present.

Fr Kevin’s presentation for our future was well prepared and laid out as the guiding principles for this.  It did not lend much opportunity for discussion and how we might work together to bring it to fruition.  I am sure all of this is to be tackled in the coming times.  The age profile of those in attendance, particularly what they would say to the children who are now raising children, and seldom attend church was most on their agenda.  So they did not find it very     helpful.

We will be able to download the material and it is vital to give this great care and attention.  The fact is we have been doing some very good work.   I brought our “Welcome Card” to the meetings attention.  It is excellent but now we must express the same welcome to the catholic communities of St George and St Wilfrid.  The focus is spot on and ready for purpose.  Clarifying the role of our children’s liturgy and welcome to new members needs to be done.  The foundations are ready to be put in place.  Speaking for a moment to Bob Waters has been very helpful.  His focus was on Pope Francis as he renewed the call for a Synodal approach in the decisions that are facing the church in our time.  Returning to our very successful celebrations for my Jubilee in the music and verse, this supports us on our  journey of faith:-

“We come to share our story,

We come to break the bread, The divine bread that has come down from heaven.

We came to know our rising from the dead”.

When God’s glory is revealed, our joy will be full.

“Superb” was my immediate response on the day.  I was overwhelmed and more conscious as the day was going on, my failure to give sufficient recognition and thanks to those who were contributing to the day.  The music was a blast from the past, the Irish dancing from early days and a new contribution from the Indian community.

One name stands out among many, Sandra, but a great big thank you to so many to make it such a great day.  Please God, it will provide inspiration for the challenges ahead, and I think a good return to the music; without a colossal amount of work would be nice to see on the horizon.

Grace and Peace

A heart felt thank you for all your care and kindness over the years

Father, Son and Holy Spirit                                                      Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

I deeply appreciate all the care and kindness over all the years that I have been here, and these celebrations are the icing on the cake. 

Please God, over the years to come, this will provide us with a source of strength and the grace to persevere through the trials of life.

No Cross No Crown, so may we all continue to persevere until we enter Our Fathers house. Our true home kept for us in heaven.

“On the horizon a Golden Jubilee”

When God’s glory is revealed, then our joy will be full. 

On my journey of life this has always had a fixed and most important focus for my faith.   A focus when many times the hard reality of trials and tribulations left be living with all my weaknesses, faults and failures as a parish priest.  Triumph by the power of Him who loves us. 

For many, this is much more embodied in the words “pie in the sky when we die”.  When I reflect upon this response I can understand those who would more honestly continue to reflect this as being more authentic.  It is not what they find in the world of religion we bring to them.  It is a real challenge.  Our call to be disciples was fundamental to the message we received from Fr Seamus Ryan, with other very important contributions from professors while we were at the seminary.   Leaving us with an anchor that is important.  Confronted with the present situation, so far from our hopes and aspirations the challenge remains.  This has received powerful expressions for me in the music and verse:-

“We come to share our story,

  We come to break the bread, The divine bread that has come down from heaven.

  We came to know our rising from the dead”.

Truthfully and sincerely this is what I find in our parish community.  I am privileged to be here and look forward to working together.   Let us continue.

As we continue to live to listen to hope and to pray.

Our deanery meetings as we knew them have come to an end.  At the last meeting of the priests, a presentation on the new order was unfolded in preparation for the year to come.  An amount of work went into its preparation and in the same way that our own parish council has been very diligent, we must be prepared to do what is necessary for our churches to survive.  This story is taking place all over our diocese and was well reflected at our celebration for the jubilarians in our diocese.  When this situation was beginning, this statement came to my attention; a plan is useless,   planning is all important.  For our two communities this is being really, really well recognised and planning is in  progress.  Real efforts are taking place and I see this so well reflected in the hard work that is being undertaken to  celebrate my Golden Jubilee.  I am extremely grateful.

Pope Francis began the process, as he expressed the need for a Synod to update and structure which was initiated by the Second Vatican Council.  This updated the liturgy and other aspects of the life of the church.  Over the last couple of years we have responded to this and so we are ready to progress.  As this happens initially, saplings in their early stages are fragile.

Last Sunday we returned to one of the original initiatives “Name Sunday”.  The buzz was good, and the response was better.   A sign of willingness to engage.   Suggested initiatives by the parish council are excellent and the focus of    developing different ministries begin to emerge.  An early example will be the ministry of welcome and the ministry of the eucharist.  Keeping a focus upon the R.C.I.A. is truly a guiding light waiting to be discovered and developed after all these years.  We were beginning to work with this many years ago, but a plan renew was introduced.

Then, “The Day of Pentecost came”.

My heart and my soul belong to this event.  So I consistently return to the lighting of the first candle of each new year in Christ …… the candle of Hope.  This is so well focused in the prayer “Come down, O Love Divine, seek thou this soul of mine, and visit it with thine own ardour glowing”.

As I become more aware of the reality that the church is now facing, so I acknowledge a deep sadness in me.  I quickly return to that first candle, the candle that will never go out “the candle of Hope”.  With so much focus upon the great lack of priests and the consequences to the decisions that are made i.e. the effects upon the borders of the diocese in Ireland.  Its effects upon all the parishes of our diocese are now very real and are in place.

We had the first meeting in the new order of things, and it highlights the challenge of life that is to come.  For more   courage I go back to the home that I grew up in, and the words that come to my mind from there  “isn’t that          providence Maura”, so underpinning it with more hope.  Among my many weaknesses is cowardice; always aware that I am very bad at dealing with conflict.  Now we will have to get on with it, and with the help of God, it will come to fruition.  I am truly grateful for all the work that is being done.  It is great credit to our parish; hidden irony.  So the weeks and months to come are so important that we bear fruit and please God much fruit.  So let us send out with as much confidence as we can and a big, big thank you for all the work that is going into “my” I hoped “our” Jubilee Event.

Next Sunday we celebrate the Great Feast of Pentecost

“Pour forth we beseech thee O Lord thy grace, into our hearts that we to whom the incarnation of Christ was made known by the message of an angel”.

I continue to return to the seed that has to be sown, then the saplings start to grow; cultivation plays such an important part.   A time comes when that participation becomes a critical part as in the natural order of our lives,     nourishment plays an essential part.  To stop or to neglect to nourish a body has a large effect, sometimes critical.  We have reached the second stage in our plans for baptism, and from this all the ministries must flow and continue to  develop and grow.  When we were in the seminary the R.C.I.A. process was continually brought to our attention.  Unfortunately all our parishes were not prepared for it, and maybe parish priests not prepared to listen.

Please God, after a lot of work I have persons within our parish community and with the help of the parish council, we are beginning to respond to the great challenge that is before us.  Bob Waters highlighted the importance of the

challenge that Pope Francis was introducing when he introduced the Synod.  Our work with baptism preparation is the key step into our response to the work that Bishop Richard has established with a plan for the diocese.

A focus for our prayer.

Back on the road again to give our attention to this special and important time of our year.

The Ascension of Our Divine Lord into Heaven, and the out pouring of the Holy Spirit at the Great Feast of Pentecost, provides us with the power of the Holy Spirit to help us to bear true witness to our faith. 

Almighty and ever living God, you raised up your son, Jesus Christ, when we afflicted Him with all our sins so having Him crucified.  Now that you have raised Him to life, and life of the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon us, so that we may receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self control.  Help us to   become more responsible as the people of God, growing in the ministries of the church at this time.  Through your Holy Spirit we may become communities of faith, growing in the ministries.  At the present time we are especially  focused upon the ministry of welcome, and ministries of the eucharist, equally aware of ministry of the word, ministry of music; of formation, of social care and action.

Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

The Parish Council Meeting on Tuesday evening went very well; please God, it is preparing us as well as possible for our future.  At the heart of this is the need to become communities of faith.  In order to do this the ministries of the church are most important.  We will establish a structure to develop these ministries.  Clearly this calls for a syllabus and a time frame to be established, so that all can play a full part in the life and liturgy of the church. 

I just received a letter from Bishop Richard confirming that Fr Kevin Dring has been appointed as Moderator of the Moderated Parish for the communities currently making up the Eastbourne and St Leonards Deanery.  I know you will join with him in continuing to develop the Pastoral Plan across the communities involved.

Just a lovely, lovely hour on a Saturday morning with Adoration and Veneration of the Blessed Sacrament,

and available to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a time of grace and peace. 

Time is flying by, but thanks be to God for Holy Week and Easter.  It is a loss to see the Garden of Remembrance  installed at the Altar sliding away.   So our greatest care is the Ascension with Jesus returning to His true place in our Fathers House in Heaven.  As these signs and symbols of a great season move on, it is essential that we focus upon this time; the most important time in the whole year.  The words of Jesus; ‘It is good for you that I should go back to the father,  because when I go I will send you the Holy Spirit’.  Good preparation to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, must be the most important thing for all of us.

Then down the road is my Golden Jubilee year.  I look forward to its celebration.  The date chosen has been the second Sunday in July, which is the 14th.  Most important to it will be our return to the sponsored walk which got off again to a good start last year.  As we have two churches making up our parish community it is essential that both should celebrate the occasion and have a positive energetic experience.  An experience of grace, good stories to tell, an achievement to remember and so the emphasis is on all that can be done together now that in the near future there will be a real shortage of priests.  God willing I am hoping to soldier on for a time.