Friday 4 September 2009

Votive Mass of the Holy Ghost

A Votive Mass of the Holy Ghost was offered for Priests this evening in Cill Mhuire, Ballymany, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, to honour the Holy Year for Priests and as a spiritual preparation for the Annual General Assembly of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association.


The Mass was offered by the Reverend Father Desmond Flanagan, O.Carm., who spoke briefly to the congregation about the spirit in which they should attend the General Assembly. He said that we're all inclined to think that our own view is the only correct view but that we should listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost coming through the voices and views of others. He also encouraged anyone who did not attend Mass regularly to do so and he announced the times of Masses in Cill Mhuire. Fr. Flanagan also announced that Bishop Moriarty had granted the Plenary Indulgence for the Holy Year to all who attended this Mass under the usual conditions and the special conditions that he listed.


A full range of traditional latin and vernacular hymns (Hail Redeemer King Divine, Salve Regina, O Salutaris, Tantum Ergo, Soul of My Saviour, Holy God We Praise Thy Name) complimented the common of the Mass (de Angelis).

The congregation was the smallest of any of the Masses organised by St. Conleth's CHA. 35 people sat in the body of the Church and the Celebrant and two servers made a total of 38 present. 6 p.m. on a Friday evening isn't an easy time to attend Mass. After Mass, Holy Water that Fr. Flanagan had blessed in the traditional way was distributed to those who attended.


The Annual General Assembly followed Mass. The next Mass for the Year of Priests will be at 2 p.m. on Hallowe'en (31 October) in Rathangan.

5 comments:

An Auld Dubliner said...

The only thing that I would have preferred to see was the use of the Altar rails. I know the Priest found it hard to climb the steps but I found it hard to kneel on them!

Otherwise, it was a great evening. I don't think you should be disappointed at the turn-out at that time of day. Sorry I couldn't get to your AGM.

Anonymous said...

Do these vestments belong to the Church in Newbridge? They were beautiful. Why aren't they used for the monthly Masses?

Convenor said...

These vestments do not belong to the Church in Newbridge. They aren't used for the monthly Masses because the organisers of the monthly Masses used us only up to a point. Then we were ignored. As with servers, schola, organist, publicity, support in general, we offered them all we had and they took only what suited them.

Anonymous said...

I don't see a table setting out how many 'locals' attended,why not?
Also, I understand one of your servers was from Dublin; I thought this was a local, grass roots organisation?

Convenor said...

You don't see the table because we don't prepare one. From memory, I would have said that 33 out of 35 in the congregation were local people. That's a 94% local attendance.

One of the two servers was from outside the Diocese. We don't object to anyone just because they come from outside the Diocese. We'll work with anyone who will work with us.

We encouraged EDI, LMSI, FSSP, CSP and their hangers on to this Diocese. We did so generously. Often we have had reason to regret our generosity but never a good reason to stop being generous.

Where it gets really strange is when people come from in outside but won't work with the locals. That's not a productive, helpful or grace-filled attitude.

Sure, we're local people doing local things locally for local people but we're also Catholics doing Catholic things for Catholics within the Universal Church.

Why do you people always have to set up false conflicts? Don't you start enough conflicts to satisfy yourselves?