CONGRATULATIONS to our parishioners Michael Mc Namara, Ballysallagh, Doolin, and Christina Commane, Greyrock, on their wedding in Holy Rosary Church, Doolin. May Our Lady and her Blessed Son grant them long life, health, and happiness.

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PARISH MISSION: I feel so blest, healed, and renewed in my faith after our parish mission, and I am so grateful to Jesus and Mary for the reality and efficacy of their presence in our parish during the past week. While it was not the traditional mission, the parish council wanted to try something new. Jesus is always the God of the new, and the God of the now, stretching us to be open to the new ways and people through whom He is communicating His healing love. It was good to be reminded that Christian wisdom, grace, and healing are not the preserve of the ordained alone, because, as it’s put so well in 1 Corinthians: There are many gifts, but one Holy Spirit, and no one person possesses all the gifts: “the Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each of us for the good of all of us.” I have no doubt that, for those who chose to prioritise giving more time to God and deepening their faith, the mission brought graces, blessings, and healing. Sincere thanks and congratulations to the Parish Council for their trojan work in preparing our parish mission, their first major project. Thank you so much to all involved in whatever capacity.

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Thank you for the offertory last week of euro 1538.

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CENSUS: over the last three weekends, Bishop Michael requested a headcount of all Mass-attenders at all the churches of our diocese, and especially of the under-30’s. This is probably to prepare us for the coming amalgamation and prioritization of churches and parishes, and the scaling down of numbers of Masses being celebrated, due to the extreme shortage of priests available. With that in mind, fair play to those lay people who acted on their baptismal call and stepped up to lead prayers and liturgies during our mission week. This is to become more and more the norm.

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FUND-RAISING: if anyone has any suggestions about fund-raising to cover the considerable costs of Corpus Christi Church, Lisdoonvarna restoration-project, please let the Finance Committee know. We will be bringing you a detailed update of this project shortly.

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MARY MOONEY celebrated a special birthday last week. Congratulations and blessings Mary!

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TO GIVE YOU A GOOD LAUGH: I never claimed to be technical. Last week, I had just typed the newsletter when I pressed some button and the whole thing disappeared. I said a few prayers you would not find in the Roman Missal. I could only recover some of the document and was under pressure to get it printed for you. So apologies for the mistakes last week