| Sunday
18th January
2nd
Sunday of the Year
Answering
God’s Call
The disciples asked
Jesus 'where do you live?' He replied
'come and see'. One of the most beautiful
truths of our faith is found in the
promise that Jesus made to us "where
two or three are gathered in my name
I am there with them." It is
an answer for us to the question that
the disciples asked. Jesus lives in
our community with one another because
of our baptism. He lives in every
married couple because of the sacrament
they share. He lives in every home
because of the love that bonds us
to one another as parents with children,
as sisters and brothers. The significance
of our parish is that it is not merely
a place where we worship but is a
real presence of Christ in our world.
We will only see him in all these
special places in so far as we answer
his call to love God with our whole
heart and to love one another as he
loves us.
Fr. Johnny
Doherty, C.Ss.R.
First Reading
Samuel 3: 3-10, 19
The Lord then came and stood by, calling
as he had done before, “Samuel!
Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak
Lord, your servant is listening.”
Second Reading
1 Corinthians 6: 13-15, 17-20
Your bodies are members making up
the body of Christ.
Gospel John
1: 35-42
John’s disciples asked Jesus,
“Where do you live?” He
answered, “Come and see”.
What questions would we ask Jesus
and how important would they be to
our lives?
Weekly
Offering: €1,502; Development
Collection: €1,135. Thank you
for your generosity.
Parish Council
Meeting of the Parish Council on Monday,
26th January at 8 pm in Bocan Old
School. All members please attend.
Whist
1st: James McConalogue, Cashel
2nd: James McLaughlin, Cashel
3rd: Nellie Carlin, Castlefin
Tickets
Batty Houten,Culdaff, Bridgid Edwards,Castlefin
Ernie McLucas, Carn.
Other Winners
John Duffy, Derry, Eamon Donaghy,
Effishmore, Patricia Harkin, Culdaff,
Margaret McGiloway, Malin, Mickey
o’Donnell, Carn, Dolores O’Donnell,
Carn
Whist every
Friday at 8.45pm in Bocan Hall. Snowball
: €140 for 179 or more.
Growing
Old
When the signs of age begin to mark
my body
[and still more when they touch my
mind];
when the ill that is to diminish me
or carry me
off strikes from without
or is born within me;
when the painful moment comes in which
I
suddenly waken
to the fact that I am ill or growing
old;
and above all at the last moment
when I feel I am losing hold of myself
and am absolutely passive in the hands
of the great unknown forces that have
formed me;
in all those dark moments, O God,
grant that I may understand that it
is you
[provided only my faith is strong
enough]
who are painfully parting the fibers
of my being
in order to penetrate to the very
marrow of my substance
and bear me away within yourself.
- Teilhard de Chardin.
Serenity
House
Active Retirement Group –
evening o dancing in Caiseal Mara
Hotel, Moville on 30th January from
9 pm – midnight. Music by Ed
Sweeney and there will be raffle prizes
on offer. Admission is €5.
Moville and District Mental
Health Assoc – Social
in Caiseal Mara, Moville Sunday 18
January from 3 pm – 7 pm. Afternoon
tea will be served and admission is
€5.
Chess Club – in Serenity House
on Thursday 29 January at 3.30 pm.
More information from 9382945.
Active Retirement Meeting
– in Serenity House
on Wednesday 21 January at 7.30 pm.
The guest speaker is Dermott Curran
from the Citizens Advice.
Chiropodist in Serenity House on 30
January at 9.30 am. Appointments to
086 0666 538 / 9360363.
Classes- the following
classes will resume the week beginning
26 January: oil-painting, knitting/crochet,
patchwork. More details from 9382945.
I.D.O.L
Inishowen Development Partnership
is currently recruiting participants
for its new project: I.D.O.L. This
project aims to provide ICT skills
to older people living in rural areas
in Inishowen by offering them free
training in their own home. Initially
the content is for beginners and includes
basic computer operations, letter
writing , e-mail and mobile phone
usage etc. 6 people per group, 2 hours
per week.
If you are aged 55+
and are interested then contact Sinead
McDaid on 086 8216 306 / 9362218.
The
Deep End – Howls of Protest
This is something
you may not want to hear. Even with
faith in God it takes some getting
used to. Its what Paul says in today’s
Second Reading: ‘you are not
your own’ [1 Cor 6:19]. You
don’t have the final say over
what you can and can’t do.
I can almost hear
howls of protest from those who claim
total ownership over themselves, from
those who claim the ‘right’
to do whatever they wish provided
its not illegal, from those who claim
the ‘right’ to end their
life at a time and a manner of their
choosing – and generally from
anybody who doesn’t like being
told what to do. And that covers a
lot of people.
But isn’t it
basic to our faith that we belong
to God and are happy with that? Isn’t
that what baptism is about: acknowledging
God’s ownership of us?
We didn’t make
ourselves, cause ourselves to be born,
give ourselves life in any way whatsoever.
So how can we possibly claim ownership
over something we had no hand or act
in making? We have been given as a
gift unto ourselves – a gift
for purpose not whimsy, for freedom
not licence, forever not just for
a day.
But suppose, for
the sake of argument, that God’s
word in Scripture were to tell us
that God couldn’t care less
what we did here; that god couldn’t
be bothered whether we wiped ourselves
off the face of the earth, for that
matter, how would we feel?
I can almost hear howls of protest.
Fr Tom
Cahill SVD
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