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St
Mary’s Church Bocan - 30th
March 2008
Second
Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday
A poem about
a father’s love for his son
and the realisation he must be allowed
to find his own way
WALKING
AWAY
for Sean
It is eighteen years
ago, almost to the day –
A sunny day with the leaves just turning,
The touch-lines new-ruled –
since I watched you play
Your first game of football, then,
like a satellite
Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting
away
Behind a scatter of
boys. I can see
You walking away from me towards the
school
With the pathos of a half-fledged
thing set free
Into a wilderness, the gait of one
Who finds no path where the path should
be.
That hesitant figure,
eddying away
Like a winged seed loosened from its
parent stem,
Has something I never quite grasp
to convey
About nature’s give-and-take
– the small, the scorching
Ordeals which fire one’s irresolute
clay.
I have had worse partings,
but none that so
Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it
is roughly
Saying what God alone could perfectly
show –
How selfhood begins with a walking
away,
And love is proved in the letting
go.
Cecil Day Lewis 1904-1972
Responsorial
Psalm
Give thanks to the Lord for he is
good, for his love has no end.
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Happy
are those who have not seen
and yet believe. |
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Parish Missal
Readings (Year 1) p 246 & Proper
p 1036
First Reading
Acts of the Apostles 2: 42-47
The whole community remained faithful
to the teaching of the apostles.
Second Reading
Peter 1: 3-9
In his great mercy he has given us
a new birth as his sons by raising
Jesus from the dead.
Gospel John
20: 19-31
Eight days later, Jesus came.
Reflection
The Risen Christ breathes upon the
disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit
for the forgiveness of sins. In so
doing Jesus institutes the sacrament
of penance and extends to his priests
his own ministry of reconciliation.
This gift of forgiveness manifests
the supreme attribute of God: His
mercy. God’s divine mercy is
extended to all irrespective of past
or current sins. His forgiveness comes
to us as a gift and an overwhelming
one at that. When we are contrite
of heart, he allows his justice to
be tempered by his mercy.
Collection
Weekly Offering €2,188
Development Collection, €1,010.
Thank you for your generosity.
Uganda Collection
St Vincent de Paul are taking up their
annual collection this weekend, for
Uganda. Please support this worthy
appeal.
Confirmation
Wednesday, 2nd April at 5 pm by Bishop
Lagan
P.S. Parents of 5th Class
pupils from both schools, meeting
on Monday night at 8.20 pm in Bocan
Hall to organise teas for the Confirmation.
Pioneer Total
Abstinence Assoc.
The recent church-gate collection
for Temperance realised €500.
thanks to all those who supported
and this cause and to those who collected
on the weekend.
Whist
1st – Fr McGonagle;
2nd – James
McConalogue, Cashel; 3rd – John
Duffy Derry.
Tickets: Gerard Doherty,
Ourt; Mary McDermott, Falmore &
Catherine McGilloway, Malin.
Other Winners: -
Dylan Doherty, Gleneely; Seamus Harkin,
Gleneely; Michael O’Donnell,
Ballybeg; Paddy McLaughlin, Gleneely,
& Mary Ellen Ruddy, Culdaff.
Snowball next week: €45 for 187
or more. Whist every Friday night
at 8.45 pm in Bocan Hall.
Care of the
Aged
Meeting on Tuesday night, 1st April
at 8 pm in Bocan Old School. All members
please attend.
Bocan Community
Defibrillator Group
Please note that our new training
equipment is now in place and there
will be a training session on Wednesday,
2nd April at 8 pm in Bocan Hall. We
extend an invitation to any person
both in or out of sport to attend
and perhaps try the system with a
view to training at a further time.
Sponsored
Walk
A sponsored walk is being organised
in aid of St Luke’s Hospital,
Dublin and the ‘Day Care Unit’
of the Oncology Ward in Letterkenny
Hospital. The walk will take place
from Culdaff to Malin via McSheffrey’s
Bridge, on the 18th May at 2 pm. All
welcome to take part. For sponsor
cards ring 9379166.
Derry Diocesan
Pilgrimage to Lourdes
The Pilgrimage tales place from 16th-21st
July 2008. Application forms are available
for any young person aged 14-15 year
old who would like a place on the
Pilgrimage. The Pilgrimage is also
looking for qualified nurses to work
as part of the care team. For more
information contact 048 71 260293.
Serenity
House
The Cancer Support Group will meet
in Serenity House on Monday, 31st
March at 7.30 pm. All welcome.
Could you
be a volunteer and help others?
If you think you can help contact
Sandra on 086 8117157.
Lagging Jackets
and Low Energy Light Bulbs
Care of the Aged Groups in each parish
have a limited supply of these for
those who feel they might benefit
from them. Contact any member of the
Care of the Aged for more details.
More Badminton
Success!
Congratulations to Oliver Ruddy who
recently won the Junior Mixed with
Sharon Knox and the Junior Men's with
Mark McConnell in the Coleraine Badminton
Tournament.
The
Deep End – No Doubt about it
In his book, Sing a New Song, Timothy
Radcliffe, OP states: ‘But if
I speak as someone who knows it all,
untroubled by doubt, then people may
be very impressed by my knowledge,
but they may feel it has little to
do with them.’ Doubt is more
engaging than certainty. Doubt explores.
Certainty can’t. How can you
journey if you’ve already arrived?
Certainty degrades dialogue to monologue.
It proselytizes instead of evangelizes.
It stymies communication by making
it confrontational or by short-circuiting
it altogether.
Thomas, in today’s Gospel [
John 20: 19-31] is a fine example
of the doubter feeling his way to
belief – quite literally: ‘…unless
I put my finger in the mark of the
nails and my hand in his side, I will
not believe’ [v.25].
Thomas was comfortable with his disbelief
because it was sincere. He had a healthy
aversion to accepting the seemingly
preposterous.
Many people, especially those in authority
or those considered to be authorities,
are uneasy with doubt. Doubt, for
them, excludes God's Spirit. It instils
fear instead of the thrill of the
chase. Doubt means weakness not potential
for growth. One wonders if those who
find it difficult to say: ‘I
don’t know’, find it easier
to say: ‘My Lord, and my God!’
Tom Cahill, SVD
Splinters
from the Cross
Little headaches, little heartaches,
Little griefs of every day.
Little trials and vexations
How they throng around our way.
One great cross, immense and heavy
So it seems to our weak will,
Might be borne with resignation
But these small ones kill.
Yet all life is formed of small things.
Little leaves make up the trees,
Many tiny drops of water
Blending, make the mighty seas.
Let us not then by impatience
Mar the beauty of the whole,
But for the love of Jesus bear all
In the silence of the soul.
Asking him for grace sufficient
To sustain us through each loss,
And to treasure each small offering
As a splinter from his Cross.
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