PARISH BULLETIN St Kieran Catholic Church in Campbeltown and Islay 14 th April 2019

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1 PARISH BULLETIN St Kieran Catholic Church in Campbeltown and Islay 14 th April 2019 Passion Sunday St. Kieran s Tuesday & Wednesday Holy Mass am Holy Thursday Mass and the Lord s Supper 7.00 pm Watching with the Lord until Night Prayer at 9.00 pm Good Friday Commemoration of the Lord s Passion 3.00 pm Stations of the Cross 6.30 pm Holy Saturday Visit the Lord s Tomb all day Blessing of Easter Food 4.00 pm The Easter Vigil 9.00 pm Resurrection Sunday Holy Mass am Sacrament of Reconciliation: Holy Thursday pm, Good Friday pm Islay (St. Columba s, Bridgend): Good Friday 19 th April Stations and Adoration of the Cross, 3.00 pm Easter Sunday 21 st April Holy Mass and blessing of Easter Water, 4.00 pm Psalm response My God, my God, why have you forsaken me. Gospel acclamation Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory! Christ was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross. But God raised him high and gave him the name which is above all names. Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory! Communion Antiphon Father, if this chalice cannot pass without my drinking it, your will be done. A Parish of the R.C. Diocese of Argyll and the Isles; Charitable Trust, a registered Scottish Charity, SC Parish Priest: Fr. A. Wood, St. Kieran s, Campbeltown; Tel campbeltown@rcdai.org.uk

2 Invest just five minutes a day, and your faith will deepen and grow a day at a time. Monday, Apr 15, 2019 MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK Oil of gladness In the Hebrew Bible, we read of kings, priests, and prophets being anointed by the pouring of oil on them. In the Catholic tradition, oils are used in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick. We also use oil to bless altars and other objects. But why? Its purpose is to recognize the presence of the Holy in the person or thing anointed. To be anointed is to be set apart as special, cleansed, healed, and strengthened. Reflect on how you've been marked as belonging to God and called to share in the holy mission of Christ. TODAY'S READINGS: Isaiah 42:1-7; John 12:1-11. Mary brought a pound of very costly perfumed ointment, pure nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus." Tuesday, Apr 16, 2019 TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK Don t fail to find God One of the lessons of Holy Week is that God draws grace and goodness out of any situation even one that to us looks like a complete failure. God uses all of what is every person s strength and weakness, every experience, encounter, accident, war or act of kindness, natural beauty or disaster to make visible God s love and sustaining presence in the world. The psalmist put it this way: For darkness is as light to God. The message of Holy Week is one for the entire year. Make a habit of looking for the ways God redeems our failures. See how grace abounds. TODAY'S READINGS: Isaiah 49:1-6; John 13:21-33, I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. Wednesday, Apr 17, 2019 WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK Suffer the servant Holy Week highlights the Servant Songs found in the Book of Isaiah. These are lyrical poems written about a servant whom God calls to leadership but the people abuse. The servant sacrifices himself for the sake of the people and is vindicated by God. The traditional Jewish interpretation is that the servant is a metaphor for the Israelites. Christians see the servant as a prefiguring of Jesus and the servant s suffering foretelling the Passion of Christ. Perhaps both are true. In these sacred days let your heart be filled with reverence for the suffering servant. TODAY'S READINGS: Isaiah 50:4-9a; Matthew 26: I have not

3 rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me.... My face I did not shield. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 HOLY THURSDAY; EVENING MASS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER The Triduum enchilada Tonight s Mass of the Lord s Supper begins with the Sign of the Cross. Take note of it because you won t see another one for three days until the blessing and dismissal from the Easter Vigil. The reason for this is because the Triduum, the Three Days of Easter, is of one piece. It begins tonight and is carried through Good Friday and on to the Easter Vigil. So Catholics enjoy staying in the zone of celebration for the whole enchilada. Every thought, word, and action is wrapped in the awareness of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Triduum is moving and deeply enriching, so join in fully! TODAY'S READINGS: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. Friday, Apr 19, 2019 FRIDAY OF THE LORD'S PASSION (GOOD FRIDAY); DAY OF ABSTINENCE It is finished and it has just begun We can look high and low but we will not find a Catholic Mass celebrated anywhere on this day. There is a Good Friday service, to be sure, but there is no Mass. However, we will gather in churches throughout the world to hear scripture tell of the trial, death, and burial of Jesus. We will pray the prescribed 10 prayers of intercession. We will walk in procession to venerate the cross. And, on this second of the three sacred days this week that are known as the Triduum, we will receive the Eucharist, consecrated at the Mass of the Last Supper the night before. On this day of prayer and remembrance, do one thing to imitate the love and compassion of Jesus. TODAY'S READINGS: Isaiah 52:13 53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1 19:42. And after this, Joseph of Arimathea... asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.

4 Saturday, Apr 20, 2019 HOLY SATURDAY; EASTER VIGIL A vigil for the ages The Easter Vigil Mass we celebrate today has not always been popular, having been an institution in the early centuries of the church, falling from practice in the Middle Ages, and then re-emerging around Vatican II. Today this mother of all vigils (as Saint Augustine called it) moves people through its intense symbolism of fire, light, dark, incense, and song. The Easter Vigil reminds us that faith isn t just an idea; it is a full-body experience and way of life. Whether or not you attend the Easter Vigil, you can allow your faith to be a full-sensory experience, perceiving God in touch, song, aroma, and beauty. TODAY'S READINGS: Genesis 1:1 2:2; Genesis 22:1-18; Exodus 14:15 15:1; Exodus 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 17-18; Romans 6:3-11; Luke 24:1-12. You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation. Readings for Passion Sunday Procession with palms: Luke 19:28-40 Even the stones must cry out when the glory of the Lord passes by. Isaiah 50:4-7 The servant of the Lord accepts suffering for the sake of the divine Word. Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, Matthew s Crucifixion portrait emerges here: My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Philippians 2:6-11 Jesus is humbled to the point of death on a cross. Luke 22:14-23:56 Jesus is counted among the wicked and is executed as a criminal. Thoughts on the readings Luke 19: some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. There are many things in our lives that we don t understand, many of them become for us conundrums, mysteries: why does it happen? What was their meaning? How to understand them? Sometimes we begin to perceive their meaning after a long time, and

5 sometimes never. Since as Christians we are baptised, certain important dimensions of our life we understand only when we see them in the light of Jesus Christ as when we interpret them through the prism of the word of God, which is in some way His Body. This is the horizon of our existence. We therefore need a living contact with the Holy Scriptures, meditating on the words, images, figures, and the events written there. There are amazing patterns, paradigms of human life, in which are rediscovered and found the light and strength of millions of peoples. Following this way we slowly begin to perceive the wholeness and unity of life, the feeling of fullness and peace. Isaiah 50:4-7 The Lord has given me a disciple s tongue. So that I may know how to reply to the wearied he provides me with speech. Each morning he wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple. The Lord has opened my ear. For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I turn away. Every day God invites us to listen to what He wants to say to us. He develops various stories for us: joyful and sad stories with people we meet, close and distant, stories of community groups and nations struggling with hunger, suffering persecution, enduring conflict, or full of life and enjoying wellbeing. God wants to open our internal ear, so as to more clearly hear the voice and cry of the world, so as to become more sensitive, compassionate open to hear it. Once we have already begun to hear, we will be able to actively and creatively act, come with adequate help for the exhausted, suffering and doubting, capable of sharing joy with those who are doing well and to encourage them to a generous openness of heart. Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, Many dogs have surrounded me, a band of the wicked beset me. They tear holes in my hands and my feet I can count every one of my bones. The text of this psalm gives a very artful description of human feelings when we find ourselves in a situation of conflict, experiencing tension, accusations, physical or psychological persecution. Then everything acquires a dark shade, we perceive threats everywhere, everything inside begins to hurt, ache and nag. Sometimes we can t rise above such situations. It s easy to enter an instinctive level of behaviour and either react aggressively or we close down under a hard shell. This psalm, as with many other biblical texts, which begin with a description of

6 oppressive situations concludes, nonetheless, in the brilliance of hope, and maybe more in thanksgiving. We don t know exactly what happened to deliver from oppression. We know for sure that a person who persists in repeated prayer ultimately comes to the point of wholehearted thanks to God. Philippians 2:6-11 Christ Jesus did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave and became as men are. God has not shut Himself in the safety of heaven. He wants to come to us, ever more, ever more intensely. For God the ideal is not isolation, but meeting, being with, communion and always more deeply. To achieve this goal His love goes to the extreme, which everyone who thinks more deeply of this must be shocked: to the cross. Do we take this attitude in our approach to others, to the building of community and communion? God knows that by our own strength, from what we have inside us we re not capable of much. This is why in the days of Holy Week He gives us a time of grace. It s worth earnestly asking that this divine dynamism more and more intensely, be experienced through the Spirit of Jesus, constantly penetrating our individual and community life. A Tale About: The hand In a certain school, the teacher asked his students to paint something they wanted to thank God for, what is beautiful, what is good in their

7 lives, simply what they are grateful for. In the class there were a lot of children from a variety of families and backgrounds. The majority had good and happy families, but there was one boy, little Chris, who came from a very unhappy family. Moreover, he was very small, and all the children made fun of him. When the teacher gave the children their task, he had a concern as to whether little Chris would have something to paint. The children were given a lot of time and they painted various things, bringing their pictures to the teacher. The teacher looked at the special things the children had painted, and he saw the things they gave thanks for, houses, parents, toys, a whole variety of things which of course deserved gratitude. Little Chris painted on his sheet of paper a hand, an outstretched hand. The teacher was very surprised and asked the children what was this hand that Chris had painted. When the children saw the picture they said various things. Some said it was the hand of God which helps him or it was a hand of someone else helping him. Then the teacher asked Chris whose hand it was. Chris looked at the teacher and said: This hand is your hand. It is the most important thing that I want to give thanks for. Then the teacher remembered that every day when the lessons finish, he takes little Chris and leads him out of the class so that no one would bother him or make fun of him, leading him to the cloakroom so he can go home. He always took him by the hand. As it turned out, that hand was the most important thing Chris was thankful for. We can t even guess how our smallest, ordinary, and for us unnoticed gestures can mean for someone else the whole world. It s because we don t know the stories of the people we meet. Our one word, one glance, one gesture may lift their lives. Do you constantly try to do such small things?

8 Prayers Please pray for all those who are in need or have asked for our prayers: Willy Robertson, Russell Carroll, and Ken McCoy. Please remember in your prayers Jackie Carlin and all those whose anniversaries occur at his time. News and Events Tea and coffee in the hall after Sunday Mass. Our visitors are most welcome, please come along. Our next Parish gathering: will be to celebrate Easter. The Egg meal will be on Sunday (Octave of Easter) 28 th April at 12 pm. An information sheet is available in the porch for those who can make a contribution. There are some suggestions on the list but add your own if wish. SCIAF Boxes: if you haven t yet brought in your SCIAF box please bring it to Mass on Holy Thursday. Washing of feet: Fr Tony will try to gain volunteers for the washing of feet at the Mass of the Lord s Supper on Holy Thursday, but come prepared! Bishop Brian s visit: Bishop Brian will be celebrating the Masses this weekend during his Parish visit. We welcome him and hope he has a good experience. Easter chicks have arrived and are ready for you to take home and keep for Easter a donation per chick gratefully received. Eggs for painting for the children are available to take and paint. If the children bring them in for the Egg meal on 28 th there will prizes for the best efforts.