CONGRATULATIONS FR PADDY!

Just a quick note to say congratulations to Dundalk's very own Fr Paddy Rushe on his appearance on RTE 1's 'Seoige and O'Shea' this afternoon.

Fr Paddy was part of a panel talking about Vocations. After the Moyross Friars praying on 'The Late Late' on Friday...What next!?

The Year Of Vocation in the Irish Church runs from 13th April 2008 - 3rd May 2009

Congrats Father Paddy!

JOHN PAUL II NOVENA 2008

Wednesday 2nd April marks the 3rd Anniversary of the passing of Pope John Paul II and to mark this we will be hosting an online Novena to pray for his canonisation. The Novena will run from 25th March - 2nd April.

We invite all those who wish to participate to please do so and to email us with intentions.

The theme of our Novena is "Open Wide the Doors to Christ" and we will provide a meditation from 31st March - 2nd April (Triduum)

Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass in St Peter's Square on 2nd April for the Late John Paul II.

Novena Prayer for the Canonisation of Pope John Paul II

O Blessed Trinity We thank You for having graced the Church with Pope John Paul II and for allowing the tenderness of your Fatherly care, the glory of the cross of Christ, and the splendor of the Holy Spirit, to shine through him. Trusting fully in Your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, he has given us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and has shown us that holiness is the necessary measure of ordinary Christian life and is the way of achieving eternal communion with you. Grant us, by his intercession, and according to Your will, the graces we implore, hoping that he will soon be numbered among your saints. Amen.

Prepare for Easter

HOLY HOUR FOR LENT

Rosary, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament & Stations of the Cross. Saint Nicholas' Church, Dundalk, every Sunday 7.00pm - 8.00pm

All Welcome!

PLEA FOR CHRISTIANS IN HOLY LAND

The prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches has appealed to Catholics throughout the world to support the Christians of the Holy Land.
Cardinal Leonardo Sandri has written to all of the world's Catholic bishops, asking them to demonstrate solidarity with an embattled Christian minority by backing the annual Good Friday collection for the Church in the Holy Land. The cardinal said that he was making this appeal on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI.
The Christians of the Holy Land, Cardinal Sandri said in his letter, "are a priority of the entire Catholic Church." Thus the Good Friday collection has a "special relevance," he said. He urged every Church to participate in the effort.
The continued conflict between Israel and Palestine aggravates existing problems that face the Christians of the region, the cardinal wrote. Facing significant obstacles at home, many of Christians living in the Holy Land-- especially the young and educated-- are leaving their homeland, and thus the remaining Christian community is "deprive of their most important human resources."
"We must seek to safeguard Christianity's historic legacy," Cardinal Sandri wrote, by ensuring the survival of the Christian presence in the land where Jesus lived. He encouraged Catholics to offer generous support to the Good Friday collection, helping the Christians of the Holy Land to see a hopeful future. The purpose of this gesture of solidarity, he said, is "to equip the younger generations to take their place in society in a manner which renders them competent and able to transmit the worth of their Catholic education and formation."

Source: Catholic World News

'Only The Fools Say There Is No God!'

Lourdes By Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Just at the turn of the century, there was a woman married in Paris, just a good, ordinary Catholic girl, to an atheist doctor, Dr. Felix Leseur. He attempted to break down the faith of his wife and she reacted and began studying her faith.

In 1905, she was taken ill and tossed on a bed of constant pain until August 1914. When she was dying, she said to her husband, "Felix, when I am dead, you will become a Catholic and a Dominican priest.""Elizabeth, you know my sentiments. I've sworn hatred of God, I shall live in the hatred and I shall die in it."She repeated her words and passed away. She died in her husband's arms at the early age of 47.

Rummaging through her papers, Felix found her will. She wrote:"In 1905, I asked almighty God to send me sufficient sufferings to purchase your soul. On the day that I die, the price will have been paid. Greater love than this no woman has than she who lay down her life for her husband."Dr. Leseur, the atheist, dismissed her will as the fancies of a pious woman. He decided to write a book against Lourdes. He went down to Lourdes to write against Our Lady.However, as he looked up into the face of the statue of Mary, he received the great gift of faith. So total, so complete was it, that he never had to go through the process of juxtaposition and say, "how will I answer this or that difficulty?"He saw it all. At once.The then reigning pontiff was Benedict XV. Then came World War I. Hearing of the conversion of Dr. Leseur, Pope Benedict XV sent for him. Dr. Leseur went in the company of Fr. Jon Vinnea, orator of Notre Dame. Dr. Leseur recounted his conversion and said that he wanted to become a Dominican priest. Holy Father said, "I forbid you. You must remain in the world and repair the harm which you have done."The Holy Father then talked to Fr. Vinnea and then again to Dr. Leseur and said:"I revoke my decision. Whatever Fr. Vinnea tells you to do, you may do."In the year 1924, during Lent, I, Fulton J. Sheen, made my retreat in the Dominican monastery in Belgium. Four times each day, and 45 minutes in length, I made my retreat under the spiritual guidance of Father Felix Leseur of the Order of Preachers, Catholic Dominican priest, who told me this story. Nota Bene: The cause of Elisabeth Leseur's canonization is proceeding in Rome. Fr. Leseur died a priest in 1950.

LOURDES JUBILEE 1858 - 2008

Bernadette Soubirous was born on Monday January 7th 1844, the first child of Francois and Louise. She was baptised in the parish church of Lourdes. When Bernadette was only a few months old, her mother had an accident and could not nurse her. At this time it was usual to breast feed babies for at least two years. So Bernadette went to live with her foster mother in Bartres. She had six brothers and two sisters, five of the brothers died before they were ten.
Her father was a miller. He ran the Boly Mill, but tended to give the product away to the poor instead of selling it, eventually the family were reduced to poverty and had to move into the cachot (an abandoned prison cell). Bernadette nearly died of cholera when she was eleven years old.
When she was thirteen her parents sent her back to Bartres. Shortly after her fourteenth birthday, Bernadette returned to Lourdes and began to prepare for her First Holy Communion. Bernadette still could not read or write and didn't even speak French, only patois.
Bernadette - 1866
It was on February 11th 1858 that Bernadette and her two sisters were out gathering firewood. Bernadette was left behind as her sisters crossed a small stream because she did not want to get ill again. She heard a sound like a storm and looking across the stream she saw the apparition for the first time in a grotto at the foot of rock called Massabielle. She saw a lady dressed in white with a blue sash and a yellow rose on each foot. The lady did not speak, but made the sign of the cross. The vision disappeared suddenly.
Bernadette's Family Home
The lady did not speak until the third time she appeared to Bernadette. She asked Bernadette if she would like to meet her there every day for a fortnight, Bernadette said she would. She told Bernadette to tell the priests to have a chapel built there. Then she told her to drink at the spring. Not seeing one, she went to drink from the stream. The lady told Bernadette that the spring wasn't there, but pointed to a pool of muddy water. Bernadette scraped at the muddy ground and eventually fresh water appeared. She drank some and the vision disappeared.
Bernadette returned every day for a fortnight and on all but two occasions, the vision appeared. The lady insisted many times that the priests must build a chapel there, and that Bernadette must wash in the spring and that she must pray for sinners. During the fortnight the lady told Bernadette three secrets.
Many times Bernadette asked the lady who she was, but she would only smile. Eventually the lady said "Que soy era Immaculada Conceptiou" - I am The Immaculate Conception. When asked by the priest if she knew what that meant, Bernadette did not. The phrase had only been applied to Mary four years before and would only be known amongst the clergy, so it was very improbable that an illiterate poor French girl would have heard it. Thus the local priest came to believe Bernadette's story and later Church investigations have confirmed the apparitions as genuine. There have been numerous miraculous healings reported related to the shrine and especially the water of the spring.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared 11th February (Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes) as the Day of Prayer for the Sick.

11th February 2008 also marks the 150th Anniversary of the apparitions at Lourdes. To mark this special occasion there will be a Mass of Thanksgiving in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dundalk at 7.30pm today.

CURSILLO FOUNDER DIES AGED 90

Eduardo Bonnin, founder of the Catholic lay Cursillo movement, died Wednesday at age 90.
A note on the movement's Web site asked for prayers for the founder, who was born May 4, 1917.
"Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I send this message with a heart full of Christ's mercy and joy, to inform you of the passing to eternal life of our beloved friend, Eduardo Bonnin, founder of the Cursillos of Christianity, Feb. 6, 2008, in Mallorca," Victor Lugo, national executive director, wrote on the site.
The national secretariat of the movement in Spain, in a notice on its Web site, stated that "with his death, one of the pioneers of the work of the Cursillos of Christianity, is lost. It was in this parcel of the Church where the Lord planted him and to this place, he gave his effort, his dreams, his time and all of his life."
Laypeople's role
The Cursillos of Christianity began in Spain, on the island of Mallorca, between the years of 1940 and 1949. "Numerous laymen and some priests, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, discovered very clearly the fact that laymen too, in virtue of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, perform an active role in evangelization," the national secretariat site explained.
The movement spread throughout all of Spain and from there to the Americas and beyond. Cursillo was brought to Dundalk in 1987 by the late Fr J B Duffy.
A wake is under way today and will continue through Feb. 9. The funeral will be celebrated Feb. 12 by Bishop Jesús Murgui of Mallorca.
The secretariat statement continued, "Eduardo has always been for us someone important, but beginning now, in our prayers we can ask him to intercede for us before the Father, so that we can continue with his work of evangelizing the world and making as many as possible have the joy of knowing that God loves them. If he did everything that he did on earth, what won't he do now that he's in heaven?"
The statement concluded by thanking Bonnin for his work, "Thank you, Eduardo, for making our lives better, for making us happier and because many of our lives would not have the light of the Gospel if you had not been here."