Reek Sunday 2016

Homily Notes of Archbishop Charles J Brown for the Annual Croagh Patrick Pilgrimage

The path of Christian faith is still alive in Ireland in 2016. Perhaps at ...times we are tempted to be downcast, to keep our eyes down and our heads down. Even physically, many of us, and I include myself in this, have our heads literally down as we read our smart phones and type and text. But Jesus Christ is saying to each of us today: “sursum corda” – hearts up! – Archbishop Brown

Homily Notes:

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains, from where shall come my help? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, from the dawn of history, human beings have been fascinated by mountains. There is something intangibly mystical, attractive and enchanting about the high places, something profoundly renewing about just being in the mountains. The American naturalist, John Muir, the father of the American National Park system, famously gave advice to his contemporaries about finding peace: “Climb the mountains” he wrote, “and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”

For Catholic Christians, the mountains are something more than a place of beauty and refreshment and renewal. The mountains are places where we come in contact with the mystery of God: in the Old Testament, it is on the Mountain of Sinai that Moses encounters the unspeakable majesty of God and receives the Ten Commandments. In the New Testament, on the new Mountain, the Mountain of the Beatitudes, the disciples of Jesus receive from him the new law of love.

Pope Francis sends blessing to Limerick Synod - CatholicIreland.net

The historic synod getting underway in the diocese of Limerick this week received an important papal boost on Monday when an official blessing from Pope Francis was presented to the Bishop of Limerick by the Papal Nuncio to Ireland.

Pope Francis’ blessing was handed over to Bishop Brendan Leahy, who convoked the Synod in late 2014, by Archbishop Charles John Brown on a visit to Limerick four days ahead of the commencement of the Synod.
The Papal Blessing was sent by the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on behalf of the Pope.

It states:

“The Holy Father was pleased to be informed of the celebration of the Diocesan Synod and has asked me to assure the participants of his spiritual closeness during these days of community prayer, deliberation and discernment.”

“His Holiness invites those present to deepen their faith in Jesus Christ and his Church in the light of God’s mercy: “the bridge that connects God and man, opening hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness” (Misericordiae Vultus, 2). He trusts that all will be attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit through personal and liturgical prayer to better discern God’s will in the life of the local Church.”

“With these sentiments and entrusting the people of the Diocese of Limerick to the maternal intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, his Holiness willingly imparts his Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of peace and joy in the Lord.”

[Full text of Pope Francis message HERE, photos HERE]

Bishop Leahy mentioned the Synod to Pope Francis during a brief audience with the Pontiff in Rome two weeks ago.

Dr Leahy described the Papal blessing as a wonderfully encouraging acknowledgement of the importance of the work that will take place during the Synod.

“There could not have been a better start for us to Synod Week than to receive this Papal Blessing. I took the opportunity when I met Pope Francis two weeks ago to tell him of the Synod and, as in the previous occasions when I referenced Limerick to him, his eyes lit up. It’s clear that he has an affinity for Limerick.”

“It’s an honour to have the Papal Nuncio with us in Limerick again this week but that he has come bearing such a gift as an Apostolic Blessing from His Holiness ahead of our Synod will really imbue a greater sense of purpose and vigour in all of us as we approach this hugely important gathering.”

“Save for Pope John Paul II’s visit to Limerick in 1979, this is probably the most important moment for the Church in this diocese since the last Synod, all of 80 years ago.”

Bishop Leahy said he looked forward to the outcome of the deliberations, the proposals for change that will come to me, and “all the more so that we have Pope Francis personal pledge of his spiritual support for us at this pivotal time.”

Synod Week, which runs this weeks, involves a range of celebrations and events across the diocese of Limerick.

It will culminate in the key gathering of almost 400 delegates, three quarters of them lay, at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick from Friday through to Sunday.

The three-day gathering will see delegates consider over 100 proposals across six separate themes to help map out the future of the Church and how it serves in Limerick.

The proposals and themes have emerged out of a lengthy and detailed engagement with over 5,000 people covering all demographics from across the diocese in 2015.

Irish Times Interview with the papal nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown

The papal nuncio on Catholic challenges

In his first Irish interview, the nuncio talks about the Catholic Church’s response to sexual abuse allegations and other challenges, past and present.

While I disagree with the Irish Times description of this interview being the "first Irish interview" (for example SS102fm has already interviewed the papal nuncio  here as has the Irish Catholic!) you can read the summary of the interview and watch the video HERE.

First Irish shrine to ‘Our Lady Un-doer of Knots’ in Moyross

The Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles Brown, will concelebrate Mass in Corpus Christi Church in Moyross in Limerick on Sunday with Bishop Brendan Leahy where the two prelates will dedicate a shrine to Our Lady Un-doer of Knots.

According to parish priest, Fr Tony O’Riordan, “This will be one of the first, if not the first, shrine to Our Lady Un-doer of Knots in Ireland.”
Our Lady Un-doer of Knots is a favourite devotion of Pope Francis and one that is gaining in popularity in Ireland and elsewhere.

Noting that a prominent theme in Pope Francis’ papacy is that the renewal of the Church must be connected to a move to the ‘outskirts of the city’, Fr O’Riordan said the shrine was a call to renew efforts “to improve the quality of life and opportunities for the people of Moyross, especially our children and young people”.

He added, “The Gospel call is to make the rhetoric of justice and fairness real in the lives of those blighted by injustice.”

The devotion to Mary Un-doer of Knots has become more popular ever since Pope Francis encouraged the devotion in Argentina, and then spoke about it during his first year as Pope

.
Continue reading from Catholic Ireland.net.

You can learn more about the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under this title HERE.

Reflection by Pope Francis on Mary as Our Lady Un-doer of Knots.

The Irish Catholic - A conference discussing "Pope Francis and the Future of the Catholic Church"

On October 4th the Irish Catholic in association with Trocaire hosted a conference at the Red Cow Hotel in Dublin looking at "Pope Francis and the future of the Catholic Church in Ireland". It was an interesting conference with presentations from: Austen Iveragh (papal biographer), Eamonn Meehan (Director of Trocaire), Fr Tom Norris, Baroness Nuala O Loin, Mark Patrick Hederman (Abbot, Glenstal Abbey), Breda O'Brien (journalist) and David Quinn (Iona Institute).

The conference was live streamed on iCatholic and videos of the talks have now been made available.




Archbishop Charles Brown, Papal Nuncio to Ireland, address to the Conference - Pope Francis and the Future of the Church in Ireland

This Conference was hosted by The Irish Catholic and sponsored by Trócaire.

4th August 2013 - "Rio in Dublin", Youth2000 Summer festival 2013 and part 2 of the interview with Archbishop Brown the Papal Nuncio

On this weeks programme John speaks to Maura Garrihy about "Rio in Dublin" and the up coming Youth2000 festival in Roscrea. We also have part two of our interview with Archbishop Brown the Papal Nuncio.

On the blog this week we give you our regular liturgical odds and ends as well as some links to help you with reflections on this weeks Sunday gospel as we didn't get time to fit it into this weeks on air programme.

You can listen to the podcast of this weeks programme HERE.
 
"Rio in Dublin" and Youth2000 Summer Festival 2013
 
Maura Garrihy joins John on this weeks programme to tell us about the experience of "Rio in Dublin" and the forthcoming Youth2000 Summer festival which is being held in Mount St Joseph in Roscrea this year
 
Rio in Dublin
 

From The Irish Catholic:

 
Nearly 500 young Catholics took part in the Rio in Dublin weekend festival running in parallel with the World Youth Day (WYD) celebrations in Brazil.
Organised by the Dublin diocese and hosted by the Capuchin Community on Church Street, the festival began on Friday with a social immersion programme by Magis Ireland, the Jesuit Young Adult Ministry, which dealt with issues like homelessness and the plight of refugees and asylum seekers.
 
On Saturday, about 400 young people gathered from four locations - St Andrew’s Church, Westland Row, Heuston Station, St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral and Gardiner St - to walk in pilgrimage to the Church Street Friary where they were welcomed with music and dance led by Brazilian community.

A programme of prayer, reflections, music and live links to Rio continued through the night on Saturday until the WYD Mass on Sunday. Two hundred people stayed overnight attending workshops on prayer, music, adoration, Taize and a dawn outdoor candlelight prayer. Music was provided by TeenSpirit, Elation Ministries, the Dublin Gospel Choir and the Brazilian community.
After Morning Prayer on Sunday there was catechesis led by Capuchin Community and a concelebrated Mass led by Fr Paul Thornton with a full church of 450 people.

“It was a very powerful and very special event for the Capuchin community,” said Fr Bryan Shortall. “All the friars got involved. Our newly elected Provincial, Br Adrian Curran came for the vigil and concelebrated Mass. We had two former provincials, five friars from Poland and Italy, and Br Oliver, who is in his 80s stayed all night for the vigil!”

“The weekend went great,” said Maura Garrihy, the MC for Rio in Dublin. “Pilgrims came from all over Ireland and from different communities. There was a lot of enthusiasm and excitement, and we really felt we were participating in the WYD programme.

“After the final Mass everyone received a pilgrim pack and we hope that when they return to their parishes they will take the message with them ‘Go make disciples of all nations’,” she said
 
Photos from Rio in Dublin Facebook page HERE.

You can read about plans to follow up on the event HERE.
 

Youth2000 Summer Festival 2013

 

Theme: "Fixing our eyes on Jesus who leads us in our faith"

 

Youth2000 are holding their 2013 summer festival at the Cistercian College at Mount St Joseph Abbey in Roscrea Co Tipperary this year. The festival runs from 15th to 18th August and there is a range of events and workshops being held over the weekend.

Online booking is essential this year for the festival and you can book online for U-18 here and Over-18's here.

One of the main speakers for the festival will be Bishop Frank Caggiano who has just be appointed as bishop of Bridgeport in the USA who was also a speaker at WYD2011 in Madrid and also WYD2013 in Rio de Janario. You can read his catechises at WYD2011 here and WYD2013 here.







Details of the free bus transport to the festival HERE. For people from Limerick and Kerry who wish to attend, details of the bus are:

Kerry/Limerick Bus: Contact 085 7351210 - if you wish to travel on this bus it is essential that you make a booking beforehand.
 

13:00 - Killarney 13:45 - Tralee 14:15 - Listowel 14:25 - Abbeyfeale 14:35 – Newcastle West 14:50 – Rathkeale 15:30 - Limerick 16:30 - Ennis 17:30 - Nenagh 18:00 - Roscrea

Lidl supermarket Horans Niteclub The Square Outside Main Catholic Church (Church of the Assumption) Courtney Lodge Hotel Outside Rathkeale House Southcourt Hotel St Flannan's Entrance Banba Square Cistercian College Roscrea

Interview with Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown (Part 2)
 

This week we have part 2 of our interview with Archbishop Charles Brown. You can listen to part 1 on last weeks programme HERE.

 

Archbishop Brown looks at the challenges of the church in Ireland in particular the challenges of vocation awareness, the need for catechises and solid teaching the basics of the faith. Echoing Pope Francis and our own Bishop Brendan he reflects on the need for us to remember to give people hope in the negative environment presented about faith and the institutional church in particular.
 
He reminds us that we cant be indifferent about our faith and how a true love of faith leads us on a path of joy that leads to eternal life. But that in this modern age despite our many advances we seem to be less sensitive to spiritual realities unlike previous generations. He reflects on how we need to be careful of the influences on our lives and not indiscriminately drink in what is presented to us in media and on internet and most importantly of all to make time to pray in our lives. 


Gospel - Luke 12:13-21

Parable of the Rich Fool

"Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’¹⁴But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’¹⁵And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’¹⁶Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly.¹⁷And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?”¹⁸Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.¹⁹And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”²⁰But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”²¹So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God."

Reflections on this weeks gospel:

Word on Fire
English Dominicans
Sunday Reflections
Centre for Liturgy

Liturgical odds and ends

Liturgy of the Hours - Psalter Week 2, 18th Week in Ordinary time

Saints of the Week

It is what we call a "heavy hitter" week this week on the liturgical calendar with some celestial guides who inspire and encourage us. For SS102fm of course in particular we remember St Mary MacKillop in particular and wish all the Josephite sisters in particular a happy feast day.

August 5th - Dedication of the Basilica of St Mary Major aka the feast of Our Lady of the Snows
August 6th - Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
August 7th - St Sixtus II (pope) and companions
August 8th - St Dominic - founder of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans)
also St Mary (of the Cross) MacKillop. You can find all the posts on SS102fm about Mary MacKillop here.
August 9th - St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)
also St Nathy
also St Felim
It also happens to be the First Friday for August.
August 10th - St Lawrence (Deacon and martyr)

28th July 2013 - Interview with the Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles Brown - Part 1 of 2

On this week's programme, Lorraine, John and Ann are joined by His Excellency, Msgr Charles Brown, Archbishop of Aquileia and Papal Nuncio to Ireland for an interview about his life and work with the church as pastor, curia worker in Rome and now as Papal nuncio.
 
The first part of the interview is broadcast this week with the second part to be broadcast next week. You can listen to the podcast of this week's full programme HERE.
 
Archbishop Charles Brown
 

 
We are joined this week by a special guest, Archbishop Charles Brown who is the current papal nuncio to Ireland representing the Holy See to both the government of the Republic of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church on the island of Ireland.
 
Originally from New York, Archbishop Charles joins Lorraine and John in studio this week. Archbishop Charles shares with us on various parts of his life including his vocation journey; the various roles he has worked in in the Roman curia including his experience of working with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. He explains the role of papal nuncio and outlines some of the challenges facing the church in Ireland today.
 
Despite the challenges facing the church in Ireland, Archbishop Charles' view is that we are beginning to see the light at the end of a dark and stormy two decades and while it is not the case of business as usual, the emergence of a new church in Ireland is underway particularly with the appointment of a new generation of pastoral bishops in the last few years.
 
But despite these "green shoots" one of the main challenges highlighted by the papal nuncio is the stark problem of vocations to religious and priestly life in Ireland and the impact this will have on the church in the future. He shares with us some of his views on the need for renewed prayer as the corner stone for vocations but also the need to be able to encourage men who would consider a vocation in the church.

The archbishop also explains to us the need to challenge what St Maximilian Kolbe, who died at Auschwitz, called the “the spiritual disease of our times as indifferentism . . . that it really doesn’t matter too much what a person believes” in some ways echoing the voice of Pope Benedict.

He also poses the question that Irish Catholics need to ask, why it was that “prior generations were able to pass on their faith in situations of extreme hardship – in times of persecution, famine and even forced emigration – while, in our own time of relative comfort and ease, the faith is not always being handed on”.....“Some would say that this was because prior generations were more ignorant than we are or that they held on to their faith because they had nothing else. I have real problems with that kind of explanation.” and outlines how previous generations were contemplatives in action whilst not being aware of it as it was natural to them in their daily lives where despite not being "theologically literate" or aware, they were more in tune with time and space for God.

Some other interviews the papal nuncio has done:

• Salt + Light
• EWTN

Gospel - Luke 11:1-13

Imagine the scene ....

Petitioner: "Our Father which art in heaven........"
God: "Yes?
Petitioner: Don't interrupt me. I'm praying.
God: But you called me.
Petitioner: Called you? I didn't call you. I'm praying. "Our Father which art in heaven.......
God: There, you did it again.
Petitioner: Did what?
God: Called me. You said, "Our Father which are in heaven." Here I am....what's on your mind?
Petitioner: But I didn't mean anything by it. I was, you know, just saying my prayers for the day. I always say the Lord's Prayer. It makes me feel good, kind of like getting a duty done.
God: All right. Go on. ....

.... from a play by Andy Lund. Continue the reflection HERE


Reflections on this weeks gospel:
 
Word on Fire
English Dominicans
Centre for Liturgy
Blue Eyed Ennis
 
Liturgical odds and ends
 
Liturgy of the Hours - Week 1, 16th week in ordinary time
 
Saints of the Week

July 29th - St Martha
July 30th - St Leopold Mandic
July 31st - St Ignatius of Loyola
August 1st - St Alphonsus Liguroi
August 2nd - St Peter Julian Eymard (First Friday)
August 3rd - St Nicodemus
 
Popes Intentions for August 2013

Parents and Teachers. That parents and teachers may help the new generation to grow in upright conscience and life.

The Church in Africa. That the local Church in Africa, faithfully proclaiming the Gospel, may promote peace and justice

On this weeks programme............

 

 

....Lorraine and John catch up with one busy man at the moment, His Excellency, Monsignor Charles Brown, Archbishop of Aquilea , Papal nuncio to the Republic of Ireland and Dean of the Irish Diplomatic Corps. Tune in on Sunday to hear the interview.