Through Prayer, Reflection and Planning
On the Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church, Monday 29 May, our parish Community, together with all parish communities in the diocese, completed the Novena to the Holy Spirit for the renewal of the Church in the Archdiocese of Dublin.
Renewed and strengthened by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the gift of courage, we are ready now to take on the radical changes that are necessary for the renewal of a vibrant and sustainable Church.
With the reduction in the number of priests available to serve in the diocese as a whole and in the Parish Partnership of Donnybrook, Booterstown, Merrion Road and Milltown, the Mass times in the parishes will be co-ordinated to provide the best possible support to each parish community.
Fr Fergus will retire as parish priest in mid-September and will be redeployed to pastoral work of the Opus Dei Prelature. This will mean that there will only be one priest full-time in the parish. Fr Fergus will continue to help out in the parish every so often, along with other priests of the Prelature.
The parish pastoral councils are working together in the Parish Partnership Council, comprising nominated representatives from each parish, to develop a pastoral strategy, for the pastoral care of each parish, that is built on the virtue of Hope. In the words of Pope Francis, “To Christians, the future does have a name, and its name is Hope.”
The Building Hope Task Force report states that
“hope orientates Christians towards the future in a way that is neither naïve nor fatalistic. True hope is best experienced when we support each other. For it to flourish, it requires solidarity which expresses itself in life-giving communities. The Church needs to be open to doing things in a different way. Hope, then, is courageous. It is the great hope based upon God’s promises that gives us courage and directs our action in good times and in bad.”
May we continue to pray for the renewal of our Parish and for the work of the Parish Partnership Council as its members continue to work faithfully with courage and discernment on behalf of the parish communitie
