This afternoon the seventh Annual Latin Mass Pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Brigid of Kildare took place. The procession to and from St. Brigid's Well, Tully, Co. Kildare, took place as usual at 12.30 p.m. After the procession, at 2.30 p.m., Revd. Fr. Desmond Flanagan, Ord. Carm., celebrated Mass in the Gregorian Rite in the Parish Church of St. Brigid, Kildare Town. Three servers and a congregation of forty four were also in attendance.
In his sermon, Fr. Flanagan said that we are extremely lucky in this Country to have so many associations with the Faith everywhere we look. Kildare is a great centre of the Faith in Ireland but is neglected today. St. Brigid is perhaps our greatest native Saint who founded a great ecclesiastical city in Kildare that she ruled with St. Conleth as Bishop. Her glorious example of sanctity and religious life spread throughout Ireland. The Irish missionaries brought the great tradition of religious life begun by St. Brigid to the rest of Europe and later to the whole world.
Another fine heritage we have from St. Brigid is the sanctuary lamp. It was she who began the perpetual flame of Kildare to signify the presence of God who is always with us. Every time that we come into a Church and see the flame of the Sanctuary lamp, we know that Jesus Christ, True God and True Man is really, truely and substantially present in the Tabernacle under the appearance of bread. What a glorious gift to countless generations of Catholics this is. How many of us have been consoled in this vale of tears by the sight of St. Brigid's lamp ever-burning before the Blessed Sacrament? This is another gift of St. Brigid to the Church and another great example for us, that of devotion to the True Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
Ireland was indeed the Island of ancient Saints and Scholars but is is still so today? St. Brigid was a sterling Saint, a woman of Faith and a woman of prayer but she also was a woman who lived the Faith by her example of charity towards her neighbour. He said that the Faith was very much in decline today but that the answer is in our own hands. If each of us in our own lives lives is able to live truely Christian lives not just on pilgrimage and not just on a Sunday morning but seven days a week, we would have made a great start towards bringing our Country back to the Faith.
After Mass, Fr. Flanagan gave Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in the traditional form. Adoremus in Aeternum Sanctissimum Sacramentum!
St. Brigid of Kildare, pray for us!
Some parts of the Church look beautiful but I don't understand why it isn't all like that
ReplyDeleteI was delighted to be able to get down to Kildare today. The day was magnificent. Thank God for keeping back the snow until later. The Mass and ceremonies were beautiful. Thank God for great Priests like Father F. More power and many years to him! I would have liked to see more people at the Mass. There were more in previous years. It is too great a privilege to neglect the chance to go to a Latin Mass in Kildare for St. Brigid. Well done for remembering so much of the homily. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the 'side view' is along the line of the original Church. You can see the windows of the original Sanctuary wall beyond.
ReplyDeleteThe orientation was changed by the addition of a new wing, changing it from a single rectangular plan to a 'T' plan, with the 'Sanctuary' moved into the crossing, the Tabernacle moved into a little hall through an opening under organ.
It's not to my taste but it was clearly to the taste of the late Fr. Séan Swayne, a Priest of the Diocese, Director of the Irish Liturgy Centre, Secretary of the Irish Bishops' Liturgy Commission, Editor of 'Liturgy', lecturer in Liturgy at St. Patrick's College, Carlow, and member of the National Advisory Committee on Sacred Art and Architecture.
He once wrote (The Furrow, September, 1976) "Money spent on churches is money spent towards the building of a caring community; it is money spent, therefore, on the poor." Ahem.
God bless you!
It was a wonderful day. It was marvellous to have everyone united again. The pictures of the church are fantastic. Thank you so much for all you do! Thanks be to St. Brigid.
ReplyDeleteWhy was one of the servers in a white robe and not in cassock and surplice?
ReplyDeleteJSB
Thank God indeed for the good day, good company and the Latin Mass in Kildare. Father's sermon was great and he preached without any notes. It was just what we needed for the beginning of Lent. If we had more Latin Masses like this one it would be a better country. I don't like what they did to the church either. You can't find the tabernacle at all. Father preached about the little red light but the little red light is in the main church and the tabernacle is down a little hallway. If the Latin Mass was back again I think the sense of reverence would be brought back into the church.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a very impressive number after 7 years. I hear that you had over 200 in the first few years.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures. 44 may not impress but even 10 just men were enough for God to save a city!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. Really liked the Padres sermon. Any shots of the procession?
ReplyDeleteI can confirm the excellent turn out in the first few years. It is a great pity that they could not be maintained. Some fine shots of the Mass but its a pity about the setting.
ReplyDeleteI dont think I like the church the way its layed out but the Mass looks really beautiful. Mark F
ReplyDeleteReally spectacular pictures. Is this Church near the site of the Church of St. Brigid? PLEASE tell me that this is not what has become of the original Church.
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