Notebook My summer holidays in Ireland included a visit to a rural pub/restaurant, where a family function was taking place. This event, maybe a christening or possibly a quiet second marriage, was attended by a large number of children, running all over the premises and annoying hoary old celibates like me. Sensing my annoyance, one…
Notebook It can be very hard to involve young married people in the life of the parish. It’s understandable – they haven’t a minute to themselves, between driving their children to GAA training, matches, piano lessons, pony-riding, Comhaltas…you get the picture. Young parents, anxious to give their children every opportunity, seem to be forever on the…
Notebook I think I must be the luckiest priest in Ireland. Luck is the key word there, because through no fault or effort of my own, I was eight years in this parish before Covid-19 struck. This was a powerful help just now. It means I know the place and its people very well (and…
Notebook I’ve always enjoyed reading John B. Keane’s Letters of an Irish Parish Priest (or I did until I became one, anyway). One of the letters frequently received by this fictional pastor came from an anonymous parishioner, who always signed herself ‘One Who Tries To Be A Good Catholic’. This anonymous scribe’s notes were usually…
Notebook Today I completed my 13th Facebook Mass (11 Sundays, Holy Thursday and St Patrick’s Day). As has often been said, it’s a whole new world, and it’s not all bad either. Online Masses show how amazingly adaptable we Catholics can be. Facebook supplies an amazing array of statistics. For each Mass celebrated live…
Notebook I have been live-streaming Sunday Mass onto our parish Facebook page since March 15, so I feel like a hardened cyber-veteran at this stage. But even with nine broadcast Masses under my belt, the Sunday morning liturgical adventure is always preceded by a sleepless Saturday night. Maybe after a year, when this becomes…
Notebook It’s all very ironic, isn’t it? For years, right-minded people, I among them, have condemned the way in which social media was taking over our society. And yet here we are, in a virtual lockdown, utterly impotent but for the same social media. I have been both a denouncer and one deserving of…
Notebook Every church in Ireland has a box-shaped receptacle, of gold or silver, often decorated with precious jewels. In years past this special container was placed in the centre of the ‘high altar’, but now it’s usually on its own, on a separate column or plinth, with its own spotlight, in its own distinct space,…
Notebook A question that arises for priests (outside of cities) concerns Sunday funerals. In particular, priests wonder if it is fair to transform a scheduled Sunday Mass into what becomes in effect a funeral Mass, with burial afterwards, often in the adjoining churchyard or a nearby cemetery. Ireland may well be the only country in…
Notebook My Auntie Mary was the most famous person in our family, but she attained fame in an unusual way. She was my grandmother’s aunt and had died long before I was born. I knew only two salient facts about her: she lived on North Street, Skibbereen. And she died on Christmas Day. What happens…