The three catholic parish of Lucan comprising St. Mary’s, St. Patrick’s, and Divine Mercy are now formally in partnership. This new partnership arrangement is to foster greater co-operation and mutual support across the parishes. The Archbishop has now formalised such partnerships across the 200 parishes that make up the diocese of Dublin.
The falling number of priests poses great challenges, but also offers great opportunities. Lay people in the parishes are being invited to take on a range of ministries and tasks where a priest is not essential. This includes the preparation of families for Baptism, working with families at the time of bereavement, conducting prayer services in the home of the deceased and leading the graveside or crematorium prayers. Administrative tasks can also be delegated.
One of the challenges facing the parishes is providing preparation for the Sacraments of First Penance, Communion and Confirmation. While in the catholic schools the religious education programme is taught as part of the curriculum, this is not the case for children attending non-catholic schools. The diocese has introduced a pilot programme across several parish partnerships, and the Lucan partnership has been invited to participate. This programme is to formulate a diocesan policy and a code of best practice to be implemented in all the parishes, to ensure that young people have adequate preparation for the Sacraments.
A local committee has been formed across the three parishes and we look forward to taking the project forward.
Parish Catechist
In order to ensure that all our ministries are well prepared for, the partnership has engaged the services of a parish catechist.
Schools
Cathy Burke is a catechist with a background in voluntary parish work, in education and diocesan support work. Cathy will be organising and facilitating structures and opportunities for engagement in faith formation and faith education within the parish partnership. She comes highly recommended and we look forward to welcoming her aboard: she commences her role on July 1st.
Parents with children for the Sacraments of First Holy Communion & Confirmation in 2024 are required to Register online before the end of the School year.
St. Mary’s: www.lucanparish.com
St. Patrick’s: www.stpatrickslucan.ie
Divine mercy will open registration soon
And the paper they were signing said they’d never fight again
And when the papers all were signed and a million copies made
They all joined hands and bowed their heads and grateful prayers were prayed
And the people in the streets below were dancing round and round
And guns and swords and uniforms were scattered on the ground
Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war
We all have dreams and aspirations, and these five verses reflect on our long sought-after dream of peace among the people of our common planetary home. Promises are made, treaties and agreements signed, hands shaken and elbows grasped against a background of national flags, ready made for television news. Until the next time. Promises made, promises ignored, distrust sown. The never-ending request for more sophisticated weaponry echoes round our houses as the international insecurity is spoken of again and again. Alliances are made, only to be broken with the first light of dawn. It is somewhat ironic that on arrival in a foreign country the Pope is often greeted with an armed guard. Since 1945 there has scarcely been a week go by when war was not being waged somewhere on this earth. Our respect for the prince of peace wears thin with the passing years. The current G7 talks have taken place at the rebuilt city of Hiroshima in Japan, the site in August 1945 of mankind’s first nuclear outrage. We can only hope and pray that our strangest dream is reality as the build-up continues on the plains of Eastern Europe threatening further conflict and loss of life.
Peace Prayer
St. Francis of Assisi, Peace Prayer
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Fr. Paddy Byrne – P.P. Abbeyleix, Diocese of Kildare & Leighlin