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St
Mary’s Church Bocan - 2nd
September 2007—No 39
22nd
Sunday in Ordinary Time.
THE DIVINER - Seamus Heaney
Cut from the green hedge a forked hazel stick
That he held tight by the arms of the V:
Circling the terrain, hunting the pluck
Of water, nervous, but professionally
Unfussed. The pluck came sharp as a sting.
The rod jerked with precise convulsions,
Spring water suddenly broadcasting
Through a green hazel its secret stations.
The bystanders would ask to have a try.
He handed them the rod without a word.
It lay dead in their grasp till, nonchalantly,
He gripped the expectant wrists. The hazel stirred.
Responsorial
Psalm
In your goodness, O God, you prepared a home for the poor.
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If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him.
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Today’s
Readings
First Reading Ecclesiasticus 3: 17-20.28-29
This reading, from the Hebrew wisdom literature, reminds us that humility and wisdom go together;
Second Reading Hebrews 12: 18-19.22-24
Because of Jesus, we are allowed to approach the living God;
Gospel Luke 14: 1.7-14
The gospel parable reminds us of our true identity.
Money
Matters:
Weekly Offering €1,622
Development
Collection, €1,095.
Thank you for your generosity.
Memorial Mass for Sr. Monica Cavanagh, formerly of Glack, Carndonagh, [sister of Tommy Cavanagh] in the Sacred Heart Church, Carndonagh on Saturday, 8th September at 7 pm.
Bocan Community Playgroup will reopen on Monday, 3rd September at 9.15 pm for children already booked. For more information contact Vera on 087 9745381
Bocan Community Defibrillator Group
Please note that there will be a stress awareness talk in the Glengad Community Centre on Monday, 10th September at 8 pm and all are asked to attend. The actual defibrillator course starts on the 11th September in Bocan Hall at 8 pm [it is a 5 week course]. Registration has now commenced. Anyone who has signed up for the course and not yet received their forms should contact 937 9348 and please note that 2 passport sized photos are required.
Sympathy
Our deepest Sympathy to the nephews and niecesof
Margaret Rawdon, Drumaville, Ballyharry
who died in England and whose funeral Mass was here in Bocan.
May she rest in peace.
Inishowen Regional Pioneer
Dinner Dance
In the Lake of Shadows Hotel, Buncrana on Friday, 28th September. Music is by Lorenzo and the Dinner is served at 9 pm. Spot Prizes are available and a good night’s entertainment is assured. Tickets cost €18 and are available form Peggy on 9379304 or Angela on 9379303.
Culdaff Active Retirement Club
The Club reopens on Friday, 7th September at 11.30 am in the Wee Hall, Culdaff. Old and new members are very welcome.
Culdaff Care of the Aged
Meeting on Monday, 3rd September in Bocan Old School at 8.30 pm. All members are asked to attend.
Whist
Anyone interested in beginning a weekly Whist Drive, in Bocan Hall, please attend a short meeting on Wednesday, 5th September at 8 pm in Bocan Hall.
Ladies Badminton
The Ladies Badminton Club reopens this Thursday, 6th September in Bocan Hall. There will be a beginners class for new members or for any lady who used to play and would like to start again, from 7 pm – 9 pm; for all other members 9 pm – 11 pm . For more details contact Michelle Duffy on 087 9704196.
Senior Citizen’s 40th Birthday Party
The Party takes place on Saturday, 15th September at 2.30 pm in Bocan Hall. All senior citizens are welcome to attend. If you intend to go then contact any of the committee members to let them know. They are looking forward to seeing you all there.
Serenity House
Certificate in Preparatory Studies. Application Forms should be returned s soon as possible as the Course will be commencing on September;
Chiropodist - In Serenity House on Tuesday 4th September at 9.30 am. Appointments to 086 0666538/9360363.
Classes – A number of classes including JEB Teacher’s Diploma in ICT Skills & Sage Computerised Accounts 1& 2 as well as crocheting, oil-painting, English quilting will be commencing this autumn. Contact 9382945 for details.
Clear skies and low humility
In some respects the journey from childhood tends to be one where we eventually realise that we’re not it, that there are actually more people to be considered than us. In short, the world doesn’t revolve around you. Mind you, there are some people who never fully make the transition – but that’s another story. In fact it’s more than a gospel story, it’s a parable of our lives.
In considering our place in the scheme of things, we tend to play safe on public occasions. But, we have all made the honest mistake of sitting where we are not supposed to. It’s not that we demean ourselves, or put ourselves down. Instead, we simply understand that we’re not the big deal we thought we were. While pride makes us artificial, humility makes us real.
People who are happy in themselves rarely see the need to self-promote or to seek attention, power, or exaltation over other people. We see it all around us, in politics, in sports and entertainment, in our workplaces, in the home and yes – in Church. It’s just possible that if you take a seat where ‘someone’ always sits – you will be abruptly reminded. Today, the Master reminds us that without humility, there can be no humanity. That we come nearest to the great when we are great in humility ‘the greater you are, the more you should behave humbly….[first reading].
Tom Cox
Today’s Psalm
Svetlana, daughter of Josef Stalin, the Russian dictator, found redemption in the psalms of suffering. She was deeply depressed and thinking of imitating her mother’s suicide, when a friend introduced her to the psalms. There she found the words that expressed all her pain, anxiety, rejection, despair and worthlessness: but it was pain seen in the larger context of a God who liberates and redeems.
Jeremiah rejected and thrown into a a deep, muddy well. The responding psalm echoes his plight. I waited, I waited on the Lord…he drew me from the deadly pit, from the miry clay.
The psalmist describes how God stooped down to him and heard his cry. In the light of the incarnation we can see the literal fulfilment of how God stooped down. Jesus entered into the miry clay of rejection, the baptismal well of suffering. Total confidence in God puts a new song into the mouth of the psalmist…praise of our God. His final prayer of trust is familiar to us in another translation:
O God, come to our aid,
O Lord make haste to help us.
Fr Silvester O’Flynn
Life’s like that
The little girl inherited her mother’s stubbornness, and there was often a flare-up, when the little one stomped her foot, and just refused to do what she was told. One day, it had gone too far, so the mother decided to get the better of her in some other way. She put a stool in the corner, and told her daughter to sit down there, and stay until her dad came home. She refused to sit, despite all the threats. Eventually, in frustration, the mother put her hand on the child’s head and pushed her down until she was sitting on the stool. Shortly after that, the dad came in, saw her sitting n the stool, and asked ‘Well, what are you doing over there?’ To which he got the teeth-clenched answer ‘Outside, I‘m sitting down, but inside I’m standing up!’
A holy tension
It would be interesting to see how many non Christians identify the Gospel text today as sacred, if it were displayed alongside other contemporary writings. Who knows, some might even think it was Al Quaida rather than words spoken by Jesus, the Prince of Peace. It doesn’t quite fit in, does it, with the image of the love of God the Father Jesus brought before us? Read it again to get the shock of what is being said.
It speaks of opposites, of black and white when increasingly we think of grey, nothing ruled in or out. But Jesus comes not only to bless the world but also to change it. It is a work of transformation so searing it is like fire burning away the old so that something unmistakably new can begin. We are not to be a people or Church of complacency and conformity, but a church that dares to be a source of division and misunderstanding for the sake of justice.
Anyhow, disagreement and frustration with each other comes easy to us. We are divided. That’s true in all families, communities and churches. In this world, there’s no life together without a shadow. In faith circles alone, we argue about God, Jesus , church, morality, worship, spirituality, justice, discipleship. It creates a holy tension, which however uncomfortable is good. We need to carry all together for Christ.
Tom Cox
Mass with Healing Service in Termonbacca on Tuesday, 21st August at 8 pm. All welcome.
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