Recovery Haven Cancer Support House operates through Level 5
As we enter another extended period of lockdown and restrictions, people are understandably incredibly anxious, worried and finding it more difficult to cope. This is particularly true for the more vulnerable in society – among them, cancer patients, their families and carers.
At Recovery Haven Kerry, we want to reassure you that we are still here for you. While taking every precaution advised, we are here to offer emotional support and practical help to those affected by cancer, their families or carers. While much of our group and therapy work is currently on hold due to Covid 19, we are still offering phone support, counselling and a range of online classes (Stretch and balance, yoga, pilates, stress management, mindfulness, look good feel better programme, men’s support group and Cancer Thrive and Survive 6 -week self-management programme) throughout Level 5. So, if you or someone you know is in need of support contact us now on 0667192122, email: reception@recoveryhavenkerry.com
Candlemas
Parishioners may leave candles for blessing at the back of Keel and Kiltallagh church. Candles will be blessed for Candlemas on 2nd February.
Parish envelopes
While there are no Masses in our churches you may drop your Parish envelopes or Mass Intentions to:
- Helena’s Local XL shop in Castlemaine, to a secure box
- Every Saturday at Keel Church between 3pm – 4.30pm
- Post Box outside the Parish Office V93 X293 or
- Fr Danny’s house at 18 Ballyoughtragh Heights, Milltown
Churches will remain open for private prayer
When visiting our churches:
- Please sanitise your hands on entering and leaving the church
- Keep a safe distance from others who may be in the church
- Wear a mask whilst in the church
Parish Office is closed to the public while we in Level 5.
However, we will be working behind closed doors should you wish to contact us.
Out to the Margins
Using two bold and surprising images, Jesus lets us know what he thinks of and expects from his followers. They don’t need to be always thinking about their own interests, their own prestige, their own power. Even though they are a small group in the midst of the huge Roman Empire, they need to be the ‘salt’ and the ‘light’ that the world needs.
“You are the salt of the world”. The simple people of Galilee spontaneously catch on to Jesus’ language. Everyone knows what salt is good for: above all giving food flavour and conserving it from spoiling. In the same way, Jesus’ disciples need to contribute to helping people savour life without ending up spoiled.
“You are the light of the world”. Without the sun’s light, the world stays dark and we can’t find our way or enjoy life in the midst of darkness. Jesus’ disciples can carry the light that we need to find our way, to probe the deepest meaning of life, to walk with hope.
These metaphors have in common something quite vital. If it stays isolated in a shaker, salt doesn’t do anything. Only when it enters into contact with food and dissolves in the food can it give flavour to what we eat. The same thing happens with light. If it stays closed up and hidden away, it can’t enlighten anyone. Only when it is in the middle of the dark can it illuminate and guide. A Church isolated from the world can be neither salt nor light.
Pope Francis has seen that the Church today lives closed in on herself, paralyzed by fear, and all too distant from problems and sufferings, thus keeping it from giving flavour to modern life and from offering the true light of the Gospel. The Pope’s response has been immediate: “We need to go out to the fringes”.
Francis insists over and over: “I prefer a Church that is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the centre and then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures”.
The Pope’s call is directed to all Christians: “We can’t calmly stay inside our churches with passive hope. The Gospels always invite us to run the risk of meeting face to face with the other”. He wants to introduce into the Church the ‘culture of encounter’, convinced that what our Church needs today is the capacity to heal wounds and to warm hearts.
| Castlemaine Parish Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time 30th/31st January 2021 |
Listen to the Prophets…..
God sends His prophets all the time: When Abraham Lincoln, proclaimed the freedom of all the slaves in the United States on January 1, 1863, his was that of a prophet. When Lincoln’s contemporary, Susan B. Anthony pioneered the suffrage movement that eventually led to the passage of the 19th Amendment (1920) and gave women the right to vote, hers was the voice of a prophet. When Pope Leo XIII delivered his encyclical entitled On the Condition of the Working Man and called upon Christians to attend to unjust labour laws and practices, his was the voice of a prophet. Similarly, when Cardinal Leo-Josef Suenens of Belgium stood up at the end of the first session of Vatican II and urged the Council to examine not only the mystery of the Church in itself, but also the Church’s relationship to and responsibility for the world at large, his was the voice of a prophet. Rachel Carson’s book entitled Silent Spring (1962) was prophetic in that it summoned the world to an awareness of the dangers of environmental pollution. When Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu drew the world’s attention to the dangers and injustices of apartheid, his was the voice of a prophet as were so many others in this century alone, e.g., Dorothy Day, St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa), Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Teilhard de Chardin, Leonardo Boff, Jon Sobrino and the Latin American Bishops who raised their voices first at Medellin, Colombia (1968) and then at Puebla, Mexico (1979) to affirm the Church as “an instrument of liberation, an agent of social justice and a defender of the poor and the oppressed.”
These prophets tried to bring the reality of the sacred into every sphere of the human experience. In today’s liturgical readings, we are called upon to allow the prophetic messages of Moses, Paul, and Jesus to penetrate our consciences and claim them for God. Moreover, we are challenged to continue to listen to the prophets among us, and to exercise the ministry of prophecy for our contemporaries in our words, works and manner of living. (Patricia Datchuck Sánchez).
Parish Residence: 18 Ballyoughtragh Heights, Milltown
Rev. Conor Bradley (087) 3664057
Parish Office: open Wed. & Fri 9:30-12:30 066-9767312
Email: castlemaine@dioceseofkerry.ie
Website: www.castlemaine.com
Safeguarding Children: Contact No (087) 6362780
Reminder:
All Masses will be celebrated without a congregation due to COVID-19 Government Restrictions
Mass is broadcast on 106fm and all Weekend Masses will continue to be streamed online via www.milltownlistryparish.com
Baptism: We welcome into our Christian community Lucas Sean Cleary, Curraghmore West, Firies
| Masses & intentions online | ||
| Sat. Jan. 30th | 7:30 p.m. | Catherine Corcoran, Boolteens East |
| Sun. Jan. 31st | 11:15 a.m. | |
| Tue. Feb. 2nd | 7:00 p.m. | Candlemas |
| Wed. Feb. 3rd | 9:00 a.m. | |
| Fri. Feb. 4th | 7:00 p.m. | First Friday Mass |
| Sat. Feb. 5th | 7:30 p.m. | Mary McKenna, Whitegate, Keel |
Priest on duty this weekendFr Kevin Sullivan 087 6277638