Chai Brady
Patricia Heneghan, Gertie Kelly, Fr John McManus PP, Olivia Vaughan, Frankie Dyar, Mariah Kelly visit the WMOF icon in St Patrick's Church, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon over the weekend. A Parish Family Day aimed at highlighting the “importance of families coming together” and to promote the upcoming World Meeting of Families will be held this weekend in Meath.
Organised by the Parish Pastoral Council in Trim, all their neighbouring parishes are invited to take part in their annual Corpus Christi Procession, as well as a picnic.
On Sunday, June 3, people are asked to bring a picnic and sit down on the grounds of St Patrick’s Church: coming together as a family.
Families
Fr Seán Henry said: “It raises awareness of the whole idea of family and the importance of families coming together. It’s bringing to peoples’ attention that the Church itself is a family and the parish is a family of families.”
“People coming to Mass as a family is what we would like to see. When you talk about young people going to Mass, the ones who go tend to come with their families and the children as well.”
The annual procession will take place at 3pm and will be expanded this year to include other parishes in the deanery. The picnic will be held afterwards on the lawn – weather permitting – and local musicians will provide entertainment. Some refreshments will be provided through the pastoral centre on the day.
“I would say awareness is most important, and these events tend to raise awareness of the World Meeting of Families. You’re promoting it, you’re heading it with the World meeting of Families,” Fr Henry said.
“Hopefully if we have weather like we’ve had in recent times, people will sit down and enjoy it,” he added, “it will be very much a homemade event”.
The Diocese of Meath have shown a true commitment to family as a second WMOF family event, reported last week and organised by Kinnegad parish, will take place with Mass on Sunday June 17 starting a 12 noon.
Calling all choirs – music is an integral part of WMOF2018
Music will be an integral part of all liturgical celebrations at WMOF. Organisers are now seeking applications from thousands of choirs across all dioceses in Ireland to participate in the WMOF2018 liturgies.
Choirs of up to 1,000 singers will participate at liturgies on each day of the Pastoral Congress in the RDS and up to 5,000 singers will perform at the Papal Mass in the Phoenix Park.
Many choirs in Ireland will be aware of this opportunity, as the WMOF offices have already shared the details with delegates in each diocese.
Interested parties are asked to apply now as registrations for choirs are closing soon.
Visit our website to learn more how your choir can apply and learn what music has been chosen by the Liturgy Committee to be part of the WMOF liturgical repertoire.
Families from all over the world register for WMOF
Of the over 25,000 people already registered to attend the World Meeting of Families 2018 (WMOF2018) Pastoral Congress, 10,000 are from overseas, with the remaining being registrations from within Ireland. Organisers hope to welcome between 10,000 – 12,000 international visitors to WMOF2018 – this would be the largest international attendance at a World Meeting of Families gathering to date.
Single day tickets for Friday’s programme in the RDS are now booked out, but three-day tickets – which include Friday, or single day tickets for Wednesday or Thursday – are still available at the moment.
Those planning to come to the WMOF2018 family programme in the RDS from August 22-24 should book now, as the organising team believe they will reach capacity for tickets in the RDS before August.
Presently, tickets for the Festival of Families in Croke Park and the Closing Mass in Phoenix Park are not directly available on general release until the completion of consultations with the relevant statutory agencies on capacity, transport, security, safety and other issues. When these tickets become available they will be free. Further details will be released in the coming weeks.
Tickets for the Festival of Families and the Final Mass can be booked now as part of the Congress Registration at: https://www.worldmeeting2018.ie/en/Tickets/Congress-Registration.