18th February, 2024

Adamstown Parish Newsletter

Weekend of Sat 17th & Sun 18th February 2024 

Volume 24.   Number 7

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ADAMSTOWN LOTTO

The Adamstown Lotto Draw due to take place on Monday last had to be postponed and will now take place this Monday 19th Feb in the Community Centre for a Jackpot of €8,600. Thanks for you continued support.

SHAMROCK VINTAGE CLUB NOTICE

Shamrock Vintage Club will hold the Pat Byrne Memorial Road Run on Sunday April 7th. Registration on the day is from 11.30 with run starting at 1.00pm.  The Club has held this run for 15 years now and has raised over €50,000 for local charities and organisations from it. This year Scoil Naomh Abbáin will benefit from the run. All vehicles are welcome on the day and the school would be very appreciative of all the support it receives.

EXERCISES CLASSES

Adamstown Community Centre classes will start a new four-week term of classes towards the end of February with a new addition of a second Exercise & Wellness class for over 60’s on Thursday mornings. We will also see a healthy eating support group “The Lighten Up Club” for those who’d like to work on creating healthy eating habits that put the focus on women’s health and wellness first allowing weight loss to follow.  There are a few places in Tuesday morning’s women’s strength & conditioning class at 10.00am.

Contact Sarah for more information on 087 0627563 to find out more information or class timetables go to www.exercisetogether.ie.

ADAMSTOWN SHOW NOTICE

Adamstown Show Committee invites everyone to join them for an Ecumenical Service in remembering all those who have gone before us, our family and friends and especially those associated with the show in any way past and present.

We feel privileged to carry on the show, especially as we celebrate our 75th Show this year. The Ecumenical Service will be celebrated on Friday 23rd February in St. Abban’s Church at 7.30pm with refreshments served afterwards in Cullen’s Lounge. Everyone is welcome and please be sure to spread the word.

The 75th Adamstown Show will take place on Saturday 6th July 2024.

ADAMSTOWN SHOW COMMITTEE AGM

Our Annual General Meeting will take place in the Community Centre on Wednesday 21st February at 8pm.

With this being our 75th Show, we need more volunteers than ever to come on board, so whether you can give time to attend a few meetings, the week in the run up to the show or just on show day, we’d love to see you at our AGM.

Everyone is welcome.

ADAMSTOWN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

ASSOCIATION

ACDA are facilitating the training of First Responders and personnel in the use of AED in the Adamstown area.

If you would like to renew your defibrillator training or to be

trained as a First responder, please contact Majella Stafford on 087 2719723 or at adamstown.ms@gmail.com before the 28th February. There will be an information evening for those who sign up on Wednesday 13th March.

Time and venue to be confirmed.

The AED is a valuable resource in our community and its use can help save many lives.

THURSDAY NIGHT CARD GAMES

The Thursday night Card Game continues in the Community each week at 8.30pm Winners on Thursday 15th Feb were:

Micksy & Breda Bolger, Matt O’Neill, John Hanley, Matty Sullivan, Pat Murphy, Tom Wickham, Johnny Nolan, Seamus Joyce.

THE LATE JOHN BRUTON – (Irish Catholic)

John Bruton who was laid to rest on Saturday 10th Feb has been praised as a compassionate statesman and a committed Christian. A regular contributor to The Irish Catholic, here are a selection of his views the defining issues in Ireland over the last decade. Former Taoiseach hits out at Simon Harris over abortion (2018)

It will not be a bright Ireland for the little babies who will have their lives ended before being allowed to see the light of a single Irish day. The repeal of the 8th Amendment sits very uneasily beside the deep and genuine concern expressed in all quarters for the welfare of boys and girls after they have been born, and the strong laws we have passed to protect them. It also sits uneasily beside the expressions of concern about where and how babies who died 50 years ago in Mother and Baby homes were buried. Where and how will the supposedly non ‘viable’ babies who will be aborted in Irish hospitals be buried? What care will Church & State take to ensure that they will be buried with dignity? Or will they be treated as mere hospital waste?

Just what sort of ‘Good Catholics’ were our grandparents (2021)

It was Irish families, not Irish priests as such, who banished unmarried daughters, when they became pregnant.

It is true that Irish society was shaped by strict – and sometimes unforgiving – notions of sexual morality which were inculcated by the Catholic Church. But this was not a particularly Irish, or even Catholic, thing. Victorian morality, and Victorian hypocrisy, was to be found on our neighbouring island, and further afield too. It just survived a decade or so longer here…. It was cash-strapped Irish governments which, in the early years of the State, were content to allow religious orders to take on the responsibility for running reformatories, and other institutions to shelter people, whose families who could not, or sometimes would not, look after them.

CHURCH NOTICES

IN MEMORIAM

Sat 17th – Paddy O’Connor, Newtown (A)

Sun 18th – Alice & Mary Connors, Woodview Drive (A)

Sat 24th – Peg, Jay & Michael Roche, Ballyshannon (A)

Also – John & Elizabeth French & deceased members of the French Family, Oldcourt (A)

Sun 25th – Gillian Bradley, Ballyvergin & Julian Rothwell (A)

Also –         Aidan Hickey, Kellystown (A)

May they rest in peace.

Mass each week morning at 9.30am

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every Thursday from 10.00am – 1.00pm.

READERS OF THE LITURGY

Sat 17th – Anthony McGee. 

 Sun 18th – Kathleen O’Connor.

Sat 24th – Eoghan Greene

Sun 25th – Amelia Swierczynsak

TROCAIRE –        Together for a Just World

Trócaire Boxes are available in the Church Porch; please take one home and by donating help to alleviate poverty in countries like Malawi.

Imagine your children having to get up at 6am and walk to the nearest well to fetch water each day which takes an hour and then walk 4 kilometres to get to school. Some years ago the rains came like clockwork each year, enabling families to plant their crops with certainty. But now, climate change means the rains are completely unpredictable with both drought, cyclones and flooding seriously affecting the crops that they depend on. By donating to Trócaire, you can change the lives of families in Malawi.

WEXFORD PARISH CARE FOR THE EARTH GROUP

The New Zealand bishops asked what the commandment “Thou shall not kill” means when “twenty per cent of the world’s population consumes at a rate that robs the poor nations and future generations of what they need to survive”

(Pope Francis)

INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE – A six-week programme

The word of God is alive and active, it relates to us and to our lives.

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

Presented by – Fr. Jim Finn

Thursdays from 7.30pm – 9.30pm

Beginning on February 29th.

Venue – St. Peter’s Pastoral Centre.

To Register: Ring 087 4475434 or email stephanieob@gmail.com

€10 payable on the first evening.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. (Robert F. Kennedy)

FROM THE BISHOP’S HOUSE – Our Synodal Journey

The continued success of the Synodal journey already begun in our Diocese requires on-going engagement in our parish communities. As part of this journey seven people will all be chosen which will include one Priest and one Religious who will undertake training as facilitators to work with parishes and other groups in the Diocese to continue to develop Synodality in the life and mission of the Church in Ferns. This training will begin in April.

We are also currently preparing two documents one on best practice of synodality in the diocese and the second on How can we imagine the life of the Church in Ireland where people are co-responsible for the Church’s mission in different ways. These documents have to be submitted by March 25th and they will be sent as part of the Irish National Synodal Team to Rome for the Synod meeting in October next.

Our Holy Father, Pope Francis continually reminds us that there can be no Synod without prayer.

Please continue to pray for our Synodal journey.

REFLECTION – Raise Your Head (Totus Tuus Edition 34)

When was the last time you gazed on a full moon or a sky full of stars and said ‘Wow’!   When was the last time you stopped in rapture at a beautiful sunset or rainbow? Do you know the magnificence and complexity of one cell of a living organism? Or when did you last take the time to gaze in awe on your sleeping child? Have we become so familiar with these things or too busy that they no longer amaze us?  This is why the simple gesture of uplifting our heads is so important to recover a sense of awe and wonder. We are increasingly more attentive to what we have made and less of what God has made.  We might marvel at the works of our own hands, but the works of God are a source of even greater amazement.

FORMS OF FRIDAY PENANCE DURING LENT

Abstaining from meat or some food;

Abstaining from alcoholic drink or smoking;

Making a special effort at involvement in family;

Making a special effort to participate in Mass on Fridays

Visiting the Blessed Sacrament;

Making the Stations of the Cross;

Fasting from all food for a longer period of time than usual and perhaps giving what is saved to the needy;

Helping the poor, sick, old or lonely.

OUR MILLENNIUM BELL

You may have noticed over the past few weeks, our Church Bell has decided to give up ringing at allocated times, and is now ringing irregularly on the hour. Mr. Ken Sherry who installed the bell some 23 years ago is replacing 2 coils and the spring, which is badly rusted. These parts are coming from the factory in Belgium and when they arrive, he will fit them.

He also remarked that both these parts usually only last 10-15 years – so we have done quite well.

Hopefully in the near future our bell will resume ringing again as it was intended to.

HUMOUR  (Fr. Dan – Rosbercon)

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending and to have the two as close together as possible.