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FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT 2025
We have arrived at the Lenten season. We have come through the darkness of winter and now we are emerging into brighter days and longer evenings. In nature we are witnessing the bursting forth of new life. Soon there will be a flourishing of colour – daffodils, crocuses and cherry blossoms. The gardens are being readied to radiate their beauty, even if it’s an almost lifeless shrub slowly coming back to life after the winter harshness. Spring lambs will soon be jumping on farmlands and hillsides. Gerald Manley Hopkins says, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God..” And so it is and will be. The beauty and grandeur appear almost unnoticed. Spring is a timely reminder of how beautiful change can be. Just look at nature! Let us also appreciate what “change” can do in our lives.
The late Pope Benedict said, “Life is not just a succession of events or experiences. It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices. It is for this that we exercise our freedom. It is in this – in truth and in goodness and in beauty that we find our true joy and happiness. Our life originates as a loving plan of God.”
Many of us received the blessed ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday. Seems strange in a world obsessed with facial beauty oils and creams – in the hope of keeping us young and wrinkle free – that we should place something as dirty as ashes on our forehead! However, the sign of the cross marked on our foreheads with ashes represents an inner desire to cleanse our hearts and souls from all that keeps us from living in God’s ways and from being the person He calls us to be. It’s a recognition of our need for God’s graces at all times. Who of us can say that we do not need God’s mercy or that we do not need to change some attitude or behaviour so that we are better human beings, better followers of Christ? Lent comes from a word which means “springtime” and we often speak about a spring cleaning. Now is the acceptable time for us as God’s people to do some inner ‘spring cleaning’ – to renew our faith in God, to deepen our prayer, to grow in reverence for Christ in the Eucharist, to seek forgiveness, to be more caring, kinder and compassionate, to have a deeper sense of justice for the needy and poor in our midst, to reach out in charity to those with little. Above all, this is our time – LENT – to become more Christ-like in all that we do, to allow God’s life deepen in our hearts. The prophet Micah says: “He has shown you, O mortal one, what is good. And what does the lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” St. Catherine of Sienna said: “Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.” In the prayer of Henri Nouwen we pray, “Lord, make this Lenten Season different from the other ones. Let me find you again. Amen.” May we each find God anew this Lenten journey.
Fr. Tony
NOVENA OF GRACE
We begin our NOVENA OF GRACE this Shrove Tuesday, 4th MARCH, with MASSES at 10.00am and 7.00pm each day from 4th – 12th MARCH. Our Novena coincides with the beginning of LENT (next WEDNESDAY – ASH WEDNESDAY). Our novena is being directed by Father John Walsh, a Dominican form Dominick Street. Fr. John is well respected as a Retreat and Novena of Grace director. We look forward to his time with us for our Novena of Grace. Since we are celebrating the 90th anniversary of the dedication and opening of our Church, we urge and invite as many parishioners and visitors to attend our Novena this year. In this week’s Newsletter, you’ll find the lovely, reflective themes which Fr. John has put together for our time of prayer and celebration. (PLEASE NOTE: There is no 9.00am mass during the Novena).
Fr. Tony
CONFIRMATION – SAINT DAMIAN’S SCHOOL
CONGRATULATIONS to the sixth class from St. Damian’s School who received the Sacrament of Confirmation yesterday, 1st March. We pray for them that God’s Holy Spirit will guide them wisely in their future lives and may the young people be filled with moral and spiritual courage, wisdom and perception to always seek what is right, just and acceptable in the eyes of God and may they have the courage to resist all that is evil, dark and destructive of their God-given dignity and beautiful humanity. GOD BLESS THEM ALL.
SAINT JOHN BOSCO ICON
Sincere thanks to all parishioners and visitors who attended the special mass last Sunday, 2nd February to give thanksgiving to God for the pastoral ministry of the Salesians in our parish for fifty years since 1975. The celebration was a very joyful occasion and we are delighted to have officially blessed the Icon of St. John Bosco to honour the Salesians. The stained glass icon is over at the statues of St. Anthony and St. Ann. Now we can pray to St. John Bosco for all children and the youth of our parish as St. John Bosco is patron saint of youth. We were delighted that the Provincial, Fr. Eunan McDonnell was the main celebrant of the mass, along with other Salesians, Fr. Tom, Fr. Dan, Fr. Pat and Fr. Martin and myself with our Deacon, Rev. Jimmy Fennell assisting. Thanks sincerely to Karen, our sacristan for preparing the booklet and the prayer card. Thanks also to Colette and her team for providing the lovely tea/coffee and cakes in our Parish Centre after the mass. Many people commented on the lovely spirit in our Church for the occasion, so thanks to all who helped out in any way at the mass last Sunday. Thanks to Dave and our choir for the uplifting music for the occasion.