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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.