MASS
TIMES
Monday,
8 pm [Month’s Mind
of Mary Ann Doherty, Ballybawn];
Tuesday,
10 am;
Wednesday,
8 pm [Month’s Mind
of Fr Joe Morris—refreshments
will be available in the Hall afterwards];
Thursday, 10 am;
Christmas
Eve Vigil Mass, Thursday,
8 pm;
Christmas
Day: 8.30 am & 11 am.
No Mass
on Saturday Morning.
Confessions
Monday: 7 pm—7.45
pm and after Mass;
Wednesday: 12—1 pm ; 7 pm—7.45
pm and after Mass
Thursday: 12—1 pm.
Penitential
service in St Pius X Church
Moville on Tuesday at 7.30 pm. Everyone
welcome.
This Week’s
Anniversary Mass:
Sunday 11 am: Mary
Harkin, Ballyharry
Next Week
Saturday Vigil 8 pm: Philomena McFeely,
Bunagee.
Weekly
Offering: €1,506; Development
Collection, €800.
Thank
you for your generosity.
N.B. Priest’s Christmas
Collection will be taken up at all
Christmas Masses.
St Vincent
de Paul
A big thank you to everyone for
your generous response to the St
Vincent de Paul Annual Collection.
St Vincent de Paul
- Anyone needing help at this time
can contact members at these numbers:
0864041219; 9367000; 0868174439;
9367218, in complete confidence.
Whist
1st Annie McBride, Carn
2nd: Ernie McLucas, Carn
3rd: Patricia Harkin, Culdaff
Tickets
Roger Mooney, Mickey O’Donnell,
Eamon Donaghey, Paddy McLaughlin
.
Other Winners
James McConalogue, John Doherty,
Betty Houten, Dolores O'Donnell.
Whist resumes on
Friday 8th January at 8.45 pm
Snowball - €70 for 186 or better
Serenity House, Moville
are organising a 6 day trip to Wales
which will take place on
2 May 2010. A saving scheme is being
started for the trip and anyone
wishing to pay into it each week
may do so. Places are limited so
book early to avoid disappointment.
For further information contact
Serenity House on 9382945.
A training course on Depression
will take place in Serenity House,
Moville in February 2010. Anyone
interested please contact Serenity
House on 9382945 for further information.
Serenity House Learning
Centre would like to take
this opportunity to wish all their
patrons a very Happy Christmas and
Peaceful New Year
The Cairn
Christmas Programme
The Story of the First Christmas
told through life-size figures,
voiceover and lighting and sound
effects. Open Daily 4-6pm
Children's Disco on
Sunday 20th from 6-8pm
Hot
Dogs
One Christmas Eve a prosperous business
man was hurrying to a butcher’s
shop before closing time. ‘Buying
your Christmas turkey?’ a
friend asked. ‘No. Hot dogs
,’ he answered.
Then he explained how, in the Depression
, a bank failure suddenly wiped
out his fortune . He faced Christmas
with no job, no money for gifts
and less than a dollar for food.
He and his wife and small daughter
said grace before dinner that year
and then ate hot-dogs – a
whole kennel of them in fact. His
wife had given each frankfurter
toothpicks for legs and broom straws
for tails and whiskers.
Their child was
enchanted and her infectious delight
spread merriment among them all.
After dinner they gave thanks again
for the most loving and festive
time they’d ever had . ‘Now
it’s tradition,’ the
man said. ‘Hot dogs for Christmas
– to remind us of that happy
day when we realised we still had
one another and our God-given sense
of humour.
Painting
Peace
Father Paulo Turturro, parish priest
in Palermo, launched a children’s
competition for a poem or painting
dedicated to peace. There were 120,000
entries, including some from outside
Sicily. The winner was a poem entitled
‘Painting peace’:
I had a box of colours.
There was no red for the blood of
my wounds.
There was no black to paint the
mourning of my loved ones.
I didn’t have yellow for the
world’s jealousies.
I had blue:
I sat and painted Peace.
Turturro used the title Painting
Peace for an organisation he founded
to help the youths of Palermo and
keep them out of the hands of the
Mafia.
The
Deep End – Importance of Being
Little
Fr Tom Cahill SVD
Size matters, even when it’s
small. Take, for example, the Galapagos
Islands. They’re not small
nor a problem but the mosquitoes
brought there by chartered flights
and tourist boats are. Getting its
name from the Spanish for ‘small
fly’, the mosquito is a real
and present danger to the islands’
unique species.
Many mosquitoes carry deadly diseases
such as avian malaria or West Nile
fever . They could endanger even
the Galapagos tortoises, marine
iguanas, sea lions and Darwin’s
famous finches.
But small things can do much good
too. Take for example, bacteria.
A controversial scientist trying
to sequence the human genome [containing
3 billion DNA base pairs] claimed
last August that by the end of this
year artificial life would be produced
in the lab. For some time now he
has been trying to produce bacteria
that would change coal into natural
gas, and algae that would absorb
carbon dioxide and turn it into
hydrocarbon fuels. Small things
can indeed have an enormous impact.
Today’s First Reading [Micah
5:1-4] knows the value of small
things too, for it foretells the
impact that the emergence of a ruler
of Israel from one of Judah’s
little clans [5:2] will have.
Repeatedly God chooses the small
and insignificant in the world's
eyes for very important missions.
Advent is a reminder that we, who
for the most part are small and
insignificant in the world's eyes,
have been chosen for mission too.
When at Christmas we celebrate that
‘ruler’s’ birth
let us be aware that in a very real
sense we celebrate our own –
our birth into greatness.
