We also have our regular reflection on this weeks Sunday Gospel and some liturgical odds and ends including the saints of the week.
This weeks programme is available on podcast HERE.
Munster Chernobyl Aid - "Another Journey of Hope"
Mariah Culaty joins us this week to speak about her recent trip to Belarus with Munster Chernobyl Aid. Each year in May between 6 and 10 Arctic trucks head to Belarus visiting and helping various orphanages and hospitals by carrying out humanitarian aid, consisting of clothes, toys, baby equipment, building and medical supplies. The trucks are funded, loaded and driven by volunteer workers from every corner of Ireland.As you can imagine cost for diesel, shipping and insurance are high so endless fundraising is held throughout the year. One in particular is the annual Munster Chernobyl Aid Truck Run. It is held the October Bank Holiday and is organised and run by the volunteers from the charity. Each year the number of trucks, vintage and modern, that attend increase as well as the people who give so generously. All the money raised goes directly into the funding of the Aid and the running of the convoy to Belarus, the remainder of the fundraising goes directly into the Orphanages in Belarus, to try to better the life of others.
This year in particular the charity will be on the search for baby clothes, pampers, sudacream, baby powder, wipes and baby equipment to supply a specific load for the baby medical orphanage of Phinks.
From a 17 year olds perspective; "We should be lucky with what we have, as one memory I have is giving a piece of chocolate to a child and the way their eyes lit up was like an Irish teenager getting an iPhone. It was a great experience and it wont be my last time going".
Munster Chernobyl Aid website and Facebook page
Gospel - Luke 7:36- 8:3
“Multum Dilexit”
Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849)
SHE sat and wept beside His feet; the weight Of sin oppress’d her heart; for all the blame, And the poor malice of the worldly shame, To her was past, extinct, and out of date: Only the sin remain’d,—the leprous state;
She would be melted by the heat of love, By fires far fiercer than are blown to prove And purge the silver are adulterate. She sat and wept, and with her untress’d hair Still wip’d the feet she was so bless’d to touch;
And He wip’d off the soiling of despair From her sweet soul, because she lov’d so much. I am a sinner, full of doubts and fears: Make me a humble thing of love and tears.
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A woman who had lead a sinful life walks into Jesus life, and is real in his presence. Others are shocked that he does not withdraw from this scandal, that he does not seem to know that he should keep himself apart from such a person.
How can he be holy and wise if he lets the sinful touch him?
Where else is God but in our humanity, our brokenness, our blistered feet and fallible lives?
- What would be the point of incarnation if God were only available in the scandal-free zones of who we are?
- What would be the point of forgiveness if we insisted on labelling each other in permanent marker?
"The Lord never tires of forgiving," Pope Francis said on March 17, ... "It is we who tire of asking for forgiveness."
Do you see this woman, or do you see a scandal? ... Do you see the parents bringing a child for Baptism, or do you see a questionable marriage status?
How can we be holy and wise if we only live in scandal free zones?
Jesus saw this unnamed woman.
That was enough for the healing to begin.
Let us choose to see one another as Jesus sees us this week - let that be a path to healing for us all.
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Reflections on this weeks gospel:
Pilgrims Progress
Forgiveness and Gratitude - Working Preacher
Blue Eyed Ennis
Alabaster Extravagance - Rev. Dr. Mary Anderson is senior pastor of Incarnation Lutheran Church in Columbia, SC
Centre for Liturgy
Word on Fire
English Dominicans
Sunday Reflections
Liturgical Odds & Ends
Liturgy of the Hours - Psalter Week 3, 11th Week of Ordinary time
Saints of the Week
June 17th - St Emily de Vialar
June 18th - St Paula of Malaga (martyr)
June 19th - St Romuald of Ravenna
June 20th - Memoria of the Irish Martyrs (1569 - 1794) - the memory of these men and women should never be forgotten and it right that they are named and commemorated:
Seventeen Irish Martyrs, men and women, cleric and lay, put to death for the Catholic faith between 1579 and 1654 were beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992: Dermot Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, hanged 20 June 1584 at Hoggen Green. Conor O’Devany, Bishop of Down and Connor, hanged, drawn and quartered. Patrick O’Loughran, chaplain to the O’Neill family and Maurice McKenraghty, chaplain to the earl of Desmond, both hanged. Also hanged were Dominicans Terence O’Brien and Peter Higgins, Franciscans John Kearney, Patrick O’Healy and Conrad O’Bourke, Augustinian William Tirry, and a Jesuit lay brother, Dominic Collins. Lay people Francis Taylor, Mayor of Dublin, and Margaret Bermingham died of ill treatment: a baker, Matthew Lambert, and a group of sailors, Robert Meyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh were hanged, drawn and quarterd on 5 July 1581. Six Catholics of Irish birth or connection executed for the faith in England had already been beatified in 1929 and 1987: John Roche (alias Neale), John (Terence) Carey, Patrick Salmon, John Cornelius (alias John Conor O’Mahoney), Charles Meehan, Ralph Corby (Corbington).
June 21st - St Aloysius Gonzaga SJ
As per tradition, Limerick's Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes is from June 21st to 25th. You might keep the pilgrims - especially les maladies (the invalids) - in your prayers as we are sure they are keeping many of you in their's as they seek the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes.
June 22nd - St John Fisher and St Thomas Moore
Local Notices
Annual Solemn Novena in honour of Our Mother of Perpetual Help: - continues at the Redemptorist Church, Mount St. Alphonsus, Limerick until Saturday, June 22nd. There are 10 sessions each day, beginning at 7am, and the last at 10.30pm. People can find all the details, and hear and see live all sessions of the novena at www.novena.ie.
Knock: - The NCW Branch of SJYPS invites its members, their families and friends to join them for the society’s national pilgrimage to Knock on Saturday, June 22nd. A coach will leave the Market Yard, NCW at 8am serving Adare church at 8.20am. Details from Mairead Noonan, President (069-62489) or Pat Dalton (069-62306). All are welcome.
Grow Community Mental Health Movement: - Are you: struggling with anxiety or depression? Finding life Difficult? Isolation? Loneliness? Shyness? Do you find it difficult to talk? Support and friendship is one of the cornerstones of Grow and one of the mottos there is “you alone can do it but you can’t do it alone”. Grow meets on Thursdays at 8pm in the ‘Station room’, Desmond Complex, NCW. No introductions are necessary. Just come along. For more information see www.grow.ie
Monastic Weekends: - If you hear the gentle voice of Christ knocking “Do not be afraid”, the Carmelites of Mount Carmel Monastery, New Ross, Co. Wexford, invite such women who are searching to come and visit them for a Monastic Weekend on any of the following dates: June 28th - 30th, July 12th - 14th, August 9th - 11th, September 20th – 22nd, October 18th – 20th. Phone 051-421076.
Thanks for this and the link to my blog.
ReplyDeleteI particularly liked the one from the Limerick Diocesan newsletter and the Alabaster Extravagance one- I remember the 2006 Amish shooting incident and the example of the forgiveness made a big impact on me. Blessings