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St
Mary’s Church Bocan - 16th
September 2007—No 41
24th
Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Coal for Mike
Bertolt Brecht, 1898-1956
I have heard that in Ohio
At the beginning of this century
A woman lived in Bidwell
Mary McCoy, widow of a railroad man
Mike McCoy by name, in poverty.
But every night from the thundering trains of the Wheeling Railroad
The brakemen threw a lump of coal
Over the picket fence into the potato patch
Shouting hoarsely in their haste:
For Mike!
And every night when the lump of coal for Mike
Ht the back wall of the shanty
The old woman got up, crept
Drunk with sleep into her dress and hid away the lump of coal
The brakemen’s present to Mike, who was dead but not forgotten.
The reason why she got up so long before daybreak and hid
Their gifts from the sight of the world was so that
The brakemen should not get into trouble
With the Wheeling Railroad.
This poem is dedicated to the comrades
Of the brakeman Mike McCoy
[Whose lungs were too weak to stand
The coal trains of Ohio]
For comradeship.
Charity in action.
Responsorial
Psalm
I will leave this place and go to my father.
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Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son...
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Today’s
Readings
First Reading Exodus 32: 7-11.13-14
Moses intercedes for a people gone astray, and God relents.
Second Reading Timothy 1: 12-17
Paul confesses that he has received God’s mercy.
Gospel Luke 15: 1-32
This Gospel carries the message that God rejoices when sinners repent.
Money
Matters:
Weekly Offering €1,615
Development
Collection, €1,000.
Thank you for your generosity.
Ceili Classes
Classes resume in the Wee Hall, Culdaff every Wednesday night from 9 pm – 11 pm. Admission including tea is €3. beginners welcome- if you can count you can learn ceili dancing!
Samaritans Information Evening on Tuesday, 18th & Thursday, 20th September in 16 Clarendon Street, Derry to recruit new volunteers.
Deaths
Pat Faulkner, Moneydarragh,
has died very peacefully after a short illness. Our deepest sympathy to his nephews, Neilly and John and niece Marian, his grandnephews and grandnieces, Annette and the wider family circle. May his soul rest in the peace of Christ.
Whist
Calling all card players. This Friday at 8.45 pm in Bocan Hall we will attempt to begin a Weekly Whist Drive. Beginners are most welcome. The game will be over at 10.30 pm. Give it a try!
Carndonagh Community School
There will be a meeting on Tuesday, 18th September at 8 pm for parents and pupils of Carndonagh Community School from the Culdaff/Gleneely area in Bocan Old School. The Principal will be in attendance and a large turnout of parents is expected at this meeting.
Coffee Morning in aid of the Foyle Hospice in Carrick’s Bar on Wednesday, 19th September from 11 am – 1 pm. Come along and support this worthy cause.
Bazaar/ Auction/ Car-Boot Sale/Fun-Day
Bocan Hall Committee are organising this for Sunday, 2nd December in Bocan hall at 2 pm. Tables €10. anyone looking to book a table contact Caroline 086 8872073; Angela 087 9028930; Eilish 087 2410589. more details later.
Serenity House
Trip to Knock - Annual Legion of Mary Pilgrimage to Knock on Sunday, 30th Sept. Bus leaving Moville Square at 8 am. Fare €20 [bring your own lunch]. To book contact 9382295 /9382334.
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 as names are now being taken.
Walk & Talk Women’s Group – Tuesday, 18th Sept. at 10.30 am. All women welcome.
ECDL – For 5th & 6th Class Primary School Children on Wednesday, 4 pm – 6 pm in Serenity House [€5 per class]; Second Level Students Class to run on Monday & Thursday evenings from 5 pm – 7 pm [30 weeks @ €5 per week]..contact 9382945 fro more details.
Bocan Youth Club
There will be a registration evening on Monday 17th September from 7.30 pm – 8 pm. If your child would like to join the Youth Club and they are in 2nd-6th Class Primary or 1st Year Secondary and upwards, then please come along and register. The fee is €5 to join. The Youth Club will reopen in the newly refurbished premises at Bocan Hall on Thursday 28th September from 7 pm – 9 pm for 1st Year secondary and upwards and on Friday, 29th September for 2nd -6th Class primary from 6.30pm – 8.30 pm. Please Note: Parents must attend on the night of registration.
Inishowen Gardening Club
Meeting on Monday, 24th September in the Wesley Hall Carndonagh at 8pm. Guest speaker Danny McLaughlin with a talk on ‘Garden Design’. Everyone welcome.
It was you all along
Figuratively speaking, we’ve all taken the wrong bus, made the wrong decision, worshipped the wrong God even. So, we can understand the mistake of this motley band wandering in the desert. Who hasn’t wanted a ‘golden-calf’ – a God they could see, touch and feel? At least they were trying to praise a deity.
And who hasn’t experienced a glimpse of the joy of God when the lost ones are found? If a key or document that is found can prompt such a response, how much more a human life? While some are more comfortable with a God whose ‘wrath …blazes out’ ; we obviously have an involved God. A God who cares.
A God Who is a father – prodigious in giving. Who in some way has been told by western culture [younger son]; ‘I’m taking all my inheritance from you and going to treat you like you were dead.’ Could our churches be like the elder brother, doing the right thing , but with no real heart.
Maybe in the end, we will realise that we were more searched for than searching, more found by God than lost. After our course of life, with all its twist and turns we can say ‘it was you all along that I sought.’
Fr Tom Cox
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