The Prayer and Spirituality Commission in conjunction with the Parish of Drumcree (Portadown) are delighted to present an Exhibition on Prayer and Spirituality at the Drumcree Pastoral Centre, Portadown for this weekend and the Third Week of Advent, after Masses and by arrangement with the parish.

To mark the beginning of Advent yesterday, Archbishop Eamon Martin launched a specially commissioned Advent calendar. The first day of Advent heralds the beginning of the Catholic Church’s new year.

Archbishop Eamon said, “I am delighted to launch our new Advent calendar which each day up to Christmas Eve will reveal Advent information and prayer resources by clicking on a virtual numerical door in our online calendar.  For many years we have provided online resources to assist with our Advent preparations, but this year we offer the faithful our novel online calendar for this purpose.

“Why is the Advent calendar useful?  Preparation does not happen at once but over time.  The season of Advent is a time of spiritual preparation for the Lord’s coming at Christmas.  Advent also prepares us for the second coming of Christ at the end of time.  As Christians, we must always be prepared for the coming of the Lord as reflected in today’s Gospel reading at Mass, ‘You must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do no not expect’ [Mt 24:37-44].  Taken together then, each day of Advent amounts to a period of time which allows us to journey and reflect on ‘the joy of the Gospel’.

Archbishop Eamon continued, “As we begin our Catholic new year, I invite everyone during the Advent season to visit and to enjoy the information provided on our online calendar, which will provide details on:

–         Mass readings of the day;

–         Pope Francis’s new Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), published on 26 November last, will be promoted using excerpts from it;

–         Advent videos: blessing of the crib in the home, blessing of the advent wreath in the home, prayer when lighting the lights on the Christmas tree, family table prayer;

–         Advent music;

–         information on saints during the Advent such as Saint Nicholas on 6 December;

–         video and text reflections from Pope Francis and Irish bishops (The Creed, The Liturgy etc)

–         family prayers (mother and child, children, grandparents, parents and godparents);

–         prayers for the season: for families in need, for those suffering neglect and violence, for Irish emigrants, for those in prison, for those who are sick, for those in difficulty;

–         Tweets from individuals, parishes, Irish Church agencies and from the Vatican;

–         resources for Advent and Christmas from Veritas;

–         Trócaire Global Gifts for 2013 information campaign;

–         Crosscare’s Dublin Food Bank appeal;

–         work of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul; and

–         Christmas messages from Irish bishops in preparation for the Nativity of our Lord.

Archbishop Eamon concluded, “As Advent is the season of preparation for the coming of our Lord, I encourage the faithful, notwithstanding our hectic schedule over the coming weeks, to make time to pray – alone and with loved ones – and by so doing to draw nearer to Christ.”

The online Advent calendar can be accessed here: http://www.catholicbishops.ie/advent-calendar/

Pope Francis has called for an Extraordinary Synod to take place at the Vatican between 5-19 October 2014.

Around 150 Synod Fathers will take part in the meeting to discuss the “pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelization” and how best to re-propose the centrality of matrimony and the transmission of faith in the home within the proclamation of the Gospel in our contemporary society.

Please see on the link below, a paper from the Synod of Bishops, regarding the meeting of the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops due to be held in Rome, 5th-19th October 2014 on the theme Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelisation.

The Secretariat has asked that the Document be shared immediately as widely as possible to deaneries and parishes so that input from local sources can be received regarding the themes and responses to the questionnaire, as well as any helpful statistics, for the preparation of the Instrumentum laboris.

Download the document here.

Click here to read the statement from the Irish Bishops conference.

You can forward your responses to [email protected] for inclusion or complete the form below.

Towards Healing is a new counselling and support service for survivors of Institutional, Clerical and Religious abuse, funded by the Catholic Church.

If you have suffered in this way, Towards Healing will provide services to you no matter where you are currently living.

http://www.towardshealing.ie

Towards healing currently provide the following services

Telephone Helpline

Free access to a helpline staffed by experienced Telephone Counsellors. This operates on Mondays – Thursdays 11am – 8pm, and on Fridays from 11am to 6pm. The number is Freephone 1800 303416 (Rep. of Ireland) and Freephone 0800 0963315 (Northern Ireland and UK). We also have a mobile number for texting purposes for our hearing impaired service users only:  085-8022859

Face to face psychotherapy

Contact with accredited psychotherapists in your area for face to face psychotherapy, with the fees arising being paid directly to your psychotherapist by Towards Healing.

Immediate family members

Provision for psychotherapy for spouses/partners, parents and children of survivors of Clerical/Religious abuse.

We would like to congratulate a number or our students attending the Theology and Lifelong Education course in Dromantine, who Graduated in Mater Dei Institute on 15th November. This course is run in conjunction with the Office of Pastoral Renewal and Family Ministry (Armagh Diocese), Mater Dei Institiute (Dublin), Edgehill College (Belfast) and the SMA Fathers, (Dromantine, Newry).

Five of them were able to attend the Conferring and receive their Diploma’s from Prof. Brian MacCraith, who is the president of Dublin City University.  The conferring ceremony was preceded by a Mass of Thanksgiving, which was celebrated by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

In the photo’s are: Kate Acton, Spencer Cusack, Maura Melia, Peadar McMahon and James Woods. Also in the photo is Dr. PJ Sexton, Head of Theology and Lifelong Eduction in Mater Dei.

Press Release – Monday 18 November 2013 – Immediate

Attn: Newsdesks, Photodesks and Religious Affairs Correspondents

Gardaí and PSNI joint meeting with priests of Armagh concerning their personal safety and recent burglaries

On foot of a number of recent break-ins of priests’ houses, other parish properties in the Archdiocese of Armagh and elsewhere, representatives of crime prevention offices of both An Garda Siochana and the Police Service of Northern Ireland have recently met with a large gathering of priests and bishops from the Archdiocese of Armagh.  The purpose of this briefing was to discuss the personal safety of priests and to inform them of best practice concerning the security of money which has been received from the local parish collections at Mass.

Cardinal Brady said, “At this time I am particularly conscious that many elderly people in our community, as well as our priests, feel vulnerable about their personal safety.  I ask parishioners to remain vigilant concerning suspicious activity in and around parish properties.  Any concerns should be reported to the police immediately.”

ENDS

• Cardinal Seán Brady is Archbishop of Armagh

For media contact: Catholic Communications Office Maynooth: Martin Long 00353 (0) 86 172 7678 and Brenda Drumm 00353 (0) 87 310 4444

On Saturday 23 November at 4 p.m. Cardinal Séan Brady will ordain Maciej Zacharek to the Diaconate in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh.  This will be the first seminarian to be ordained from Redemptoris Mater House of Formation, a new institution of the Archdiocese of Armagh, located in Dundalk.  Maciej is 32 years old and originally comes from Wygoda, Poland.  He is the youngest child of Władysław and Daniela and has three older brothers.  He started his formation to the priesthood in the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Washington D.C., but was asked to come to Ireland to help start the new House of Formation in Dundalk, by Cardinal Wuerl of Washington.  He has recently completed a License in Theology at Maynooth working under Bishop Leahy and is currently starting a Doctorate in Theology there.

The House of Formation was founded in 2012 by Cardinal Brady to form priests for the New Evangelisation who are both diocesan and missionary.  These vocations come from the Neocatechumenal Way and will be ordained as priests of the Archdiocese of Armagh. The Neocatechumenal Way has been present at the parish level in Ireland for the last 32 years and has been in the Archdiocese of Armagh for 10 years.  This charism that was born after Vatican II, aims at helping parishioners discover more deeply the treasures of their Baptism and to live as Christians in today’s society.  One of the fruits of the deepening of the Baptismal graces has been a flourishing of vocations to the priesthood. Blessed John Paul II, who opened the first of these new seminaries in 1988, gave it the name Mother of our Redeemer (Redemptoris Mater in Latin), his favourite title of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There are now 100 such Redemptoris Mater seminaries and Houses of Formation throughout the world and almost 2,000 priests worldwide have been ordained for different dioceses from them.

The seminarians live in Dundalk with Fr. Giuseppe Pollio and Fr. Neil Xavier O’Donoghue, who are responsible for their formation.  The young men travel to Maynooth for their philosophical and theological studies. A particular characteristic of the House of Formation is its internationality, apart from Maciej, there are 9 other seminarians of seven nationalities. Seven men are studying philosophy: Bartlomiej Kleczynski (22 years old) from Glogow, Poland; Callum Young (22) from London; Carlos Esteban (29) from Madrid, Spain; James Norney (20) from Belfast; Juan Jesus Gonzalez (21) from Jabugo, Spain; Stefano Colleluoli (20) from Atri, Italy and Tobia Roson (19) from Udine, Italy.  The other two are studying theology: Jorge Roberto Yandun (29) from Quito, Ecuador and Joseph Rodriguez (27) from Dallas, U.S.A. When, please God, they will be ordained, they will be incardinated into the Archdiocese of Armagh and serve in the parishes of the Archdiocese, they will also be available, at the discretion of the Archbishop of Armagh, to serve as missionaries, both in other parts of Ireland and internationally, thus allowing the Archdiocese to have a new missionary thrust answering the Holy Father’s call for the New Evangelisation.

Cardinal Brady will celebrate Mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral Armagh on Sunday 17th November at 11am for the people of the Philippines.

We the people of the Archdiocese of Armagh join our prayers with Pope Francis and the rest of the world, as we pray for the people of the Philippines.

Loving Lord, we come to you trusting in your mercy
and knowing that your steadfast love endures forever.
Look with mercy on those who have been harmed
or displaced by this disaster.
Grant them your strength to meet the days ahead.
Allow those who are affected to experience your peace
which passes all understanding and new hope in the resurrection.
Move those who are able to give aid,
that we may be your hands and heart on the earth.
Be with all who offer your assistance;
may your Spirit uphold them.
To you we face and join hands for the challenges ahead.
Give us the assurance of your presence
even in this time so that we can cling to your promise of hope
and life shown us through the personal sacrifices of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, Amen

 “The Philippines is a country close to the hearts of many Irish people, not least through the work of Irish missionary priests, religious and lay people. The large Filipino community in Ireland has a special place in our parishes” – Cardinal Brady

Information note, Super Typhoon Haiyan, Philippines

The Trustees of Trócaire have agreed that Sunday’s special church collection should be shared with the Philippines, given the enormous tragedy that has befallen the country.

 “I wish to express my closeness to the people of the Philippines and of that region. Unfortunately there are many victims and the damage is enormous. We pray now in silence … for our brothers and sisters, and we will seek to also send concrete help,” Pope Francis told thousands of pilgrims after his weekly Angelus from his window over St. Peter’s Square.

We remember the Philippines, Vietnam and the entire region hit by Typhoon Haiyan. Please be generous with prayers and concrete help.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) November 11, 2013

Here is some background information:

• Super Typhoon Haiyan (local name “Yolanda”) made landfall on Friday morning, 8 November, on the southern tip of the Eastern Visayas island of Samar as a Category 5 super typhoon with 195 mph winds. The typhoon travelled west through Samar, Leyte, Cebu, Panay and Palawan Islands before exiting the Philippines on Saturday.

• The damage from Haiyan is catastrophic. The city of Tacloban in Leyte was particularly hard-hit, with widespread destruction and loss of life reported. Caritas Philippines estimate that over 10,000 people have been killed and 600,000 have been displaced from their homes. Tacloban city is without power, water and food.

• The United Nations estimate that almost 10 million people have been affected.

• This is a major humanitarian crisis and Trócaire is responding with our Caritas partners – we have already committed €100,000 to support their work. We are also supporting the work of Irish missionaries in the affected regions. The International Caritas Network is putting together an international team to support the effort and a Trócaire staff member is part of that team. The public have been making donations in person at our centres in Dublin, Cork and Belfast and online at www.trocaire.org.

• Trócaire’s partner, Catholic Relief Services (USA) has sent rapid assessment teams to the typhoon-hit regions. Eight thousand tarpaulins are currently being distributed to provide temporary shelter for survivors. Agencies working on the ground are also assessing water and sanitation needs to prevent the spread of water-bourne diseases, which will be one of the immediate threats to survivors. Irish public donations will be used to provide water, food, shelter and medicines to those who are most affected.

• According to Fr. Edwin Gariguez of Caritas Philippines: “It’s a great catastrophe, our emergency planning is underway. It’s the strongest and biggest storm that has hit the country. It’s hit an area already devastated by an earthquake. It’s a really big calamity.”

Archbishop Charles J.Brown, Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Cardinal William Levada*, Ms Elaine Mahon, Veritas and Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh pictured at a Year of Faith event today on the Catechism of the Catholic Church in Saint Patrick’s College Maynooth, Co Kildare.

Cardinal Levada is an American Cardinal who served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from May 2005 – June 2012. Originally from Long Beach, California, he served as Archbishop of Portland (Oregon) and Archbishop of San Francisco.

The Prayer and Spirituality Commission presented “The Art and Practice of Daily Prayer” at the Synod Hall, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh from Tuesday 1 October – Thursday 3 October.

The exhibition was open from 10.00 am to 9.00 pm each day and explored ways for us as people and families to deepen our love for God in this Year of Faith.

It also included display of icons by the irish iconographers group and the story of prayer in irish families over the years using beads and images. At various times there was teachings and prayer to experience.

Approximately 900 people attended over the three days including school groups.

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