2nd April, 2023

Adamstown Parish Newsletter

Weekend of Sat 1st & Sun 2nd April 2023 

Volume 23.   Number 12

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ADAMSTOWN LOTTO

The next draw in the Adamstown Lotto takes place this Monday 3rd April in the Community Centre for a Jackpot of €15,000. Do buy a ticket and be in with a chance – it could be your lucky day! Please leave tickets back in Cullen’s by 8pm on draw night.

COLÁISTE ABBÁIN NEWS

A huge congratulations to Mr. Walsh and the 2nd year basketball team who have qualified for the South East final beating St. Augustine’s, Dungarvan during the week.

Date & Time to be announced.

THE SHAMROCK VINTAGE CLUB –

 Pat Byrne Memorial Road Run

The Shamrock Vintage Club will hold its Pat Byrne Memorial Road Run this Sunday 2nd April. Starting at 1.00pm from the Hall Car Park in Adamstown. Registration from 11.30am.

All proceeds in aid of the upkeep of Adamstown Cemetery. The Route will take in the following townslands:

The Leap, Chapel, Tomfarney, Colnacon, Rathurtin, Ballagh, Templenacrow, Coleman’s Cross, Moore’s Cross, Robinstown, Ray’s Cross, Franklin’s Cross, Raheen, Templeshelin, Misterin, Tomgarrow, The Barracks and back to Adamstown, a distance of 16 miles, for refreshments in Adamstown Community Centre. All vehicles must be insured and drivers hold a valid driving licence.

Do come out and support this worthy fundraiser.

Cemetery Committee Notice -: Road Run:

We ask for the support and good will of the whole parish and all who have a family grave in Adamstown Cemetery in making this once off event a great success.

Those driving in the Road Run will have tea & scones in the Community Centre before the start of the drive & soup, sandwiches & confectionery on return. We would appreciate help on the day with catering also food items.

Your donations towards the upkeep of our Cemetery will be very much appreciated.

ADAMSTOWN GAA CLUB

U-7 Boys Academy 2023

Starting Wednesday 5th April at Newbawn Sports Ground 6.30pm – 7.30pm. Looking forward to seeing all the familiar faces back at the pitch with any new members welcome – Please contact Colin on 087 7725471 for more info.

Well done to Harry Kent & Daniel Payne who represented their Club in the crossbar challenge at half time in the Wexford v’s Carlow football match on Saturday evening last at Chadwicks Wexford Park.

TRÓCAIRE BOXES

Please remember to bring back you Trócaire Box during Holy Week – Thank You.

PRETZELS – The Easter Connection

When thinking of the Vatican library, we think of large dusty tomes, written in Greek and Latin from medieval times and before, documenting the serious topics of theology and philosophy. Who would have thought that included in these important annals is the earliest picture and description of a food we might eat today in a coffee shop or trendy snack bar? Yes, the humble pretzel has its origins as an official food of Lent.

Given the strict Lenten fasts of days of yore, when the taking of meat, dairy products and eggs were forbidden, the pretzel was a simple food that adhered to these strict rules of the holy season preceding the great celebration of Easter. Many stories and legends abound, detailing the origins of the pretzel, one being a seventh century Italian, who prepared the Lenten bread with the bare minimum ingredients of flour, water and a pinch of salt. The dough was rolled in strips and each strip was folded and shaped into what looked like crossed arms, as a reminder to his fellow monks that Lent was a time of prayer and the pose of a prayerful monk was that with arms folded across the chest. The little pretzels were called bracellae, which means ‘little arms’ in Latin.

The Germans adopted the word for their breaded collation and called them ‘pretzel’, which mutated thereafter into the name we know them today.

Pretzels were considered a sign of good fortune and spiritual wholeness, possibly due to the three holes in a pretzel that came to represent the three Persons of the Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the prayer book used by Catherine of Cleves in 1440, there is a depiction of Saint Bartholomew surrounded by pretzels.

They were also used as the treasure in the very early version of the modern day ‘Easter Egg Hunt’, when parents would hide pretzels on Easter morning and the children would have to scout for them. The Swiss adopted the pretzel as a marriage symbol – tying the knot, as it were – and the bride and groom would pull the pretzel apart, much like the wishbone tradition.  The pretzel has been the symbol of the German bakers and guilds since the fourteenth century.

German and Swiss immigrants to the United States brought with them their native pretzel, making them one of the most popular and recognisable snacks the world over. In 2002, former American President, George W Bush, famously passed out, having choked on a pretzel, after which he said, “When you’re eating pretzels, chew before you swallow. Listen to your mother”

Good advice, and not just for pretzel-eating.

(Kevin O’Callaghan – Pioneer Magazine)

CHURCH ALTARS & DECORATION

Thanks to the ladies from Doononey/Rathkyle for looking after the Church and Altars for the month of March. It is now the turn of parishioners from Brocurra for the month of April

CHURCH NOTICES

IN MEMORIAM

Sat 1st – Syl Furlong, Tomgarrow (A)

Also –     Joe Kidd, Oldcourt (A)

Sun 2nd – Johnny Crean, Clonard & Glenour (A)

Also          Maureen & Noel Whitty, Clonroche (A)

Also          Michael & Catherine Barron, Coonogue (A)

Also          Jimmy Roche, Woodview Drive (Month’s Mind)

                 and Jack O’Brien (A)

Sat 8th – Mary & Lisa Furlong, Tomgarrow (A)

Also        Mary McCabe, Rathsilla (A)

Sun 9th – People of the Parish

Monday 3rd April – Margaret Kiely, Glenour (A)

May they rest in peace.

PALM SUNDAY – Sunday 2nd April

Holy Week begins on this Sunday, which joins the foretelling of Christ’s regal triumph and the proclamation of the Passion.

EASTER GARDEN

The Easter Garden will be put up on Good Friday evening at 5pm. Donations of flowers/plants are very welcome.

TAKING OUR BLESSINGS FOR GRANTED

A story is told of Abraham Lincoln.  One day the President summoned to the White House a surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland from the state of Ohio. The major assumed that he was to be commended for some exceptional work. During the conversation Mr. Lincoln asked the major about his widowed mother. She is doing fine, he responded. ‘How do you know asked Lincoln. You haven’t written her. But she has written me. She thinks that you are dead and she is asking that a special effort be made to return your body’ At that the Commander and Chief placed a pen in the young doctor’s hand and ordered him to write a letter letting his mother know that he was alive and well.

We take so many blessings for granted.

It was Shakespeare who worded it more appropriately than ever we could. He wrote: ‘Blow blow thou winter wind.

Thou art not so unkind as man’s ingratitude’

INTRODUCTION  TO BIBLE STUDY

A Six-Week Programme

‘The Word of God is alive and active’, it relates to us and to our lives today.

A six-week programme for beginners and those who want to deepen their understanding of the Bible.

Presented by Fr. Jim Finn.

When:    Tuesdays from 7.30pm – 9.30pm beginning on

April 25th (Note change of date)

Venue:   St. Peter’s Pastoral Centre

To Register: Send a deposit of €5 by April 3rd to

Sr. Stephanie, Conabury House, Newtown Court,

Wexford Y35W6W7

HOLY WEEK IN ST. ABBAN’S CHURCH Mon 3rd April – Penitential Rite at 7.30pmWed 5th – Anointing of the Sick at 3.00pmThurs 6th – Holy ThursdayMass at 7.30pm followed by- Watching before the Blessed Sacrament until 10 pmGood Friday 7th AprilPassion of Our Lord at 3.00pmStations of the Cross at 7.30pmGood Friday is a day of Fast & AbstinenceHoly Saturday 8th AprilVigil Mass at 7.30pmEaster Sunday Mass at 10.30amEaster Monday Mass at 11.00am

 

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK

Lord, we thank you for the joy of sharing in your work.

One sows, another reaps; yet together we rejoice.

Those who have toiled hard and long preparing the ground;

Those who have sown the seeds, often long ago;

Those who have kept vigil watching in prayer;

Those who have collected the harvest at the appointed time.

Together we rejoice and thank you for calling us to share in this work. Amen.

JIMMY O’SHEA R.I.P.

The whole community of Adamstown and surrounds were saddened to hear of the death of Jimmy O’Shea on Friday last. Jimmy was well known and liked far and wide for his kind and gentle manner, and had suffered ill health in recent times. Jimmy will be deeply missed by his wife Betty, daughter Eleanor, sons Seamus, Eamonn, Brendan, Paddy, John, Stephen, Brian and Alan, brother of Peggy, Maurice, Patsy, Johnny, grandchildren, extended family, neighbours and friends to whom we extend our sincere sympathy. Jimmy’s funeral Mass takes place in St. Abban’s Church on Monday April 3rd followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery. May his gentle soul rest in peace.

SYMPATHY

The death occurred on Friday last of Lena Doyle, Raheenkennedy, (née Doyle, Ballyvergin, Adamstown), wife of the late Michael Doyle. We extend our deepest sympathy to her daughters Geraldine, Cora, Mary and son Michael, her sister Marie, sister in law Frances, extended family, neighbours and friends. Her funeral Mass takes place in the Church of St. John Paul 11, Raheen on Monday April 3rd followed by burial in Courthoyle Cemetery.

 May her gentle soul rest in peace.