6th May 2018 - There is something about Mary

On this weeks programme John and Shane explore thoughts and devotions around the month of May and Marian devotion with a vox pop from around the world from Totus2us and with a reflection from Mary Keating. In addition we have our regular reflection on the Sunday gospel, saints of the week and other liturgical odds & ends.

You can listen to the podcast of this weeks full programme HERE.

There is something about Mary

May is the month of Mary but what does that mean to people? On this weeks programme we looked around for some ordinary, every day thoughts and reflections from people to share about this woman who has been remembered for over 2000 years, depicted in more art than any other human and to whom many have such an intimate relationship.

First up we have some reflections from a website called Totus2us. It is a website and series of podcasts online which describes itself as giving voice to faith, hope and love from all around the world, especially among St John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI & Pope Francis's 'dearest young people'. Dedicated to Our Lady, Totus2us wants to highlight what's good, true and beautiful, to help us to pray and not be afraid to follow Jesus Christ. There are voices from 125 countries so far on over 40 audio Totus2us podcasts. Every day someone new from around the world tells us something about what Our Lady means to them. So on SS102fm this morning we put together a medley/vox pop of some of the reflections shared by Totus2us.

Secondly SS102fm friend Mary Keating joins us to share her thoughts and reflections on Mary as Mother prompted by the new feast day put into the liturgical calendar by Pope Francis on the Monday after Pentecost Sunday. The Blessed Virgin Mary is so much the image of mother, from the very moment of her yes to the angel taking the risk of an unplanned pregnancy up to a mothers role to the handing on of faith to children up to the time of our death when she is praying and accompanying us into that final journey.

You can listen to Mary's reflection excerpted from the main programme podcast HERE.




Gospel - John 15: 9-17

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Reflections on this weeks gospel:

Word on Fire
Sunday Reflections
Centre for Liturgy
English Dominican

Liturgical odds & ends

Liturgy of the Hours - Psalter week 2; 6th week of Easter

Saints of the Week

May 7th - Apparition of the Holy Cross over Jerusalem
May 8th - Bl John Sullivan SJ
May 9th - Bl Karolina Gerhardinger
May 10th - St Comgall - depending where you are, it could also be the Ascension of the Lord (see below)
May 11th - St Criotin of Macreddin
May 12th - St Pancras

Liturgical jigs & reels

The Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord celebrates the day on which Jesus Christ, 40 days after His rising from the dead, ascended bodily into heaven. This feast which has been traditionally celebrated on the 40th day after Easter Sunday which is always a Thursday.  However, the actual day of celebration can vary from country to country and even from diocese to diocese. In Ireland, the UK, South Africa, Australia and parts of the USA,  the various Catholic Bishops’ Conferences, in accordance with canon law, petitioned the Holy See to allow the celebration to be transferred to the following Sunday. In other places, the solemnity is still celebrated on the Thursday. 

The celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13th is not celebrated this year as the Sunday/Ascension takes precedence.

Muintearas Iosa - 40 years young

Forty years of Muintearas Íosa and the depth of spirituality, fun and friendship that has been indelible to this Limerick Diocese youth ministry group has been marked with a wonderful and nostalgic coming together.

In a special gatherings this year to mark this notable anniversary of an organisation that sailed a thousand friendships, life-long memories and even marriages, over 200 members past and present of the group gathered at St. Munchin’s College recently.

The event was a trip down memory lane, a renewal of friendships, a renewal of faith and loads of laughter as friends old and new celebrated the movement founded by Fr. Micheál Liston in 1978.

The then ‘younger’ Limerick priest had brought a group of Limerick people from their late teens and their early 20s down to the Irish language house Bru na Graige for a weekend to further their faith in a fun environment. And such was the success that they were not willing to wait another year for a second gathering but, instead, regrouped at a location in Limerick. The rest, as they say, is history.

A ‘Limerick’ home for Muintearas was found at the old Good Shepherd Centre at Boland’s Meadow in Foynes. Over the past 40 years Muintearas Íosa has had, on average, six gatherings annually attended by young people from across the diocese in locations from Bru na Graige, on the Dingle Peninsula to Foynes and Roscrea in Tipperary to St. Munchin’s College itself.

Weekends have also been hosted in Dublin, Cork and further afield, attracting not just young people from the diocese but from across the island and beyond.

And Muintearas is still going as strong as ever, evidenced by the recent event when 80 young people stayed-over at the Limerick Diocesan Centre for their Easter gathering.

Congratulating Muintearas on its longevity and ongoing success, Bishop Brendan Leahy said: 

“Muintearas really is a great movement and to see it going so well today, all those years later speaks volumes about it. There’s such a sense of joy from it, incredible energy and it’s very heartening so see young people committed to something that has a lot going on but, ultimately, faith at its core.

“It’s a sharing not only of that faith but the common ground among young people of the deeper dimension of life in general. On their weekends they reflect on everyday things happening in their lives, they’ll go on hikes, have sing-songs, have some down-time with what they call their ‘uair cuin’, their quiet hour of contemplation and meditation and then they will have Mass, prayer and, typically, spend the night singing, chatting and, above all laughing.

“We have some married couples today who met for the first time at Muintearas, we have people who made friendships decades ago who still meet up with their families every year and now we are onto second generation Muintearas members, sons and daughters of parents who also went to Muintearas Íosa events.”

He continued: “Father Micheál Liston and co have adopted a very appropriate theme of the ‘three fires’ - failte (welcome), foghlaim (learning) agus gui (prayer) for Muintearas and this encapsulates it perfectly. Micheál Liston and the many other doyens of this organisation along the way over the years have certainly lit a fire and that flame is clearly going to burn long into the future based on the energy and enthusiasm we saw for the organisation at the recent gathering.”

Fr. Liston reminded those in attendance at the celebration that Muintearas is Irish for the spirit of extended family and friendship and that’s exactly what they have developed over the years. “The Muintearas achieved a way of doing things that gave evidence on our weekends to this great idea that being a Christian is about being part of a family. Muintearas is an extended family. Our Muintearas is accessible to everyone and our gatherings enables us celebrate the joy and friendship we have had in a glorious mixture of our ordinary humanity and the work of the Holy Spirit.”

Calling for Volunteers for the World Meeting of Families 2018

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