Ash Wednesday Mass Times
Posted on 01. Mar, 2014 in Liturgy
Holy Trinity Church 7:30am, 10:00am, 7:30pm
Sacred Heart Church – Rock 6pm
Ashes will be distributed at the end of the Mass
Eucharistic Adoration
Posted on 27. Apr, 2013 in Liturgy, NEWS, Parish News
Understood simply, Eucharistic Adoration is adoring or honouring the Eucharistic Presence of Christ. In a deeper sense, it involves “the contemplation of the Mystery of Christ truly present before us”. To continue reading click on the link: Eucharistic Adoration Explained
Posted with BlogsyHoly Week & Easter Ceremonies
Posted on 23. Mar, 2013 in Liturgy, Parish News
Holy Thursday
- Chrism Mass – Armagh Cathedral – 11am
- Mass of the Lord’s Supper
Holy Trinity – 7.30pm
Rock – 7:30pm - Night Prayer 10pm
Good Friday
- 10am – Morning Prayer
- 3pm – Reading of the Passion
- 7.30pm – Stations of the Cross
- 10pm – Night Prayer
Holy Saturday
- 10am Morning Prayer
- Holy Trinity Easter Vigil – 9pm
- Rock Easter Vigil – 9pm
Easter Sunday
- Holy Trinity Mass times as usual
- Slatequarry – 10am
St. Patrick – Apostle of Ireland
Posted on 16. Mar, 2013 in Liturgy, Parish News
Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Patrick. We give thanks to God for his work in Ireland. Through his apostolic activity he was able to bring the Catholic Faith to our ancestors. He was a man of great humility and trust in the Lord. He understood that the fruit his work was due to God’s grace. He brought the message of redemption, the healing of sin, the hope of eternal life. He brought the certainty and the security of knowing that we can belong to God’s Holy People, the Mystical Body of Christ, the Catholic Church. Thanks to his heroic generosity, the Word of God and Seven Sacraments became essential to life of Irish men and women throughout the ages and throughout the world.
It probably seems a given that Patrick should have returned to the land of his captivity. He was a slave, and surely treated as one. He was ripped from his family and home, from his culture and brought to a foreign land that seemed so very far away. As a Roman, he was use to the town centred and empire structured society. He was brought up according the customs of the Romans. He was raised in the faith of Christ.
As a young man, his life was transformed. The unimaginable had taken place. His world had ended. He was now among a barbarian people, considered to be a threat to the empire. A people that had a different language and customs. A people that was rural and worshiped in a way unknown to him.
During his time of captivity he found company in the Person of Christ through prayer. He was able to go beyond the harshness of his situation and enter into that inner sanctuary where he could commune with the Lord God. It filled him with enthusiasm and hope.
Eventually, he escaped. Now he was at last free. And then he heard that haunting call, that summons, “The voice of the Irish”. Why should he go back? Why should he risk it all. He understood that God was calling him. So he set out on a mission to bring the Good News of Salvation to the land of his captivity. In a sublime act of generosity he would risk death for the sake of the Lord and the people to whom he was to go.
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Posted on 23. Dec, 2012 in Liturgy, Parish News
Thoughts on Advent by Pope Benedict
“Presence”
Advent, this powerful liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are hints that God is giving us, signs of the attention he has for each one of us.
—Homily at First Vespers of Advent, November 28, 2009
“Waiting”
The question is: Is the humanity of our time still waiting for a Savior? One has the feeling that many consider God as foreign to their own interests. Apparently, they do not need him. They live as though he did not exist and, worse still, as though he were an “obstacle” to remove in order to fulfill themselves. Even among believers—we are sure of it—some let themselves be attracted by enticing dreams and distracted by misleading doctrines that suggest deceptive shortcuts to happiness. Yet, despite its contradictions, worries and tragedies, and perhaps precisely because of them, humanity today seeks a path of renewal, of salvation, it seeks a Savior and awaits, sometimes unconsciously, the coming of the Savior who renews the world and our life, the coming of Christ, the one true Redeemer of man and of the whole of man.
—Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience December 20, 2006
“Preparation”
Christmas is a privileged opportunity to meditate on the meaning and value of our existence. The approach of this Solemnity helps us on the one hand to reflect on the drama of history in which people, injured by sin, are perennially in search of happiness and of a fulfilling sense of life and death; and on the other, it urges us to meditate on the merciful kindness of God who came to man to communicate to him directly the Truth that saves, and to enable him to partake in his friendship and his life. Therefore let us prepare ourselves for Christmas with humility and simplicity, making ourselves ready to receive as a gift the light, joy and peace that shine from this mystery.
—General Audience, December 17, 2008
“Sign”
God’s sign is his humility. God’s sign is that he makes himself small; he becomes a child; he lets us touch him and he asks for our love. How we would prefer a different sign, an imposing, irresistible sign of God’s power and greatness! But his sign summons us to faith and love, and thus it gives us hope: this is what God is like. He has power, he is Goodness itself. He invites us to become like him. Yes indeed, we become like God if we allow ourselves to be shaped by this sign; if we ourselves learn humility and hence true greatness; if we renounce violence and use only the weapons of truth and love.
—Homily at Mass for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, December 24, 2009
“Changing”
Only if people change will the world change; and in order to change, people need the light that comes from God, the light which so unexpectedly [on the night of Christmas] entered into our night.
—Homily at Mass for the Solemnity,of the Nativity of the Lord, December 25, 2008
Listen to this Advent Reflection by Archbishop Robert Schwietz.