Not to be taken for granted

Bees at work while the summer lasts     

It occurred to me, while at Mass last Sunday, that the kneelers were in lots of use with people in and out and up and down. In many Roman Catholic churches, the pews are positioned closely enough that people often need to step onto or over the kneelers when passing along a row – this even in spite of churches being far from packed in most places in Ireland, at least. 

Now, kneelers do not clean themselves and neither do aisle passages, seats, access porches, sanctuary carpets, altar covers, chalice palls, purificators, corporals or lavabo towels.  The bills for insurance, heating, light and water do not automatically pay themselves from year to year and church buildings need to be maintained and renovated.  The holding of a Mass necessitates that someone opens the church, puts out the required vestments or other items, lights the altar candles, switches on the microphones,

The care of souls

While visiting a church in a nearby parish earlier today, I spotted a little shiny laminated card tucked away in a small corner of a noticeboard with the inscription, “The holiness of a priest is built by his community that prays, loves and supports him”.  The phrase caught my attention.  I am not sure of its prevenance.  The saying is true in a wider sense that all of us travel to God together with others and our growth is helped (or hindered) by the prayers, love and support of those around us.  Of course, this in no way diminishes our own personal responsibility for our decisions and actions.

The idea of praying for our local parish priest is an excellent one. Too often, we take so much for granted: that there will always be a priest to baptise infants (or adults as the  case may be), that a priest is on hand to celebrate mass every Sunday, that a priest is on hand to hear confessions or be a sounding board in times of difficulty and that a priest will be there to accompany us on our final journey. None of this can be taken for granted as the age-profile of priests shifts and as vocations to the priesthood have collapsed over a sustained period of decades.

Sunday matters - an update

 

A recent family visit to Toronto offered a welcome opportunity to experience the celebration of Mass in a truly cosmopolitan and culturally diverse setting. Canada, like every nation, faces serious challenges, and the behaviour of its closest neighbour does not always make life easier. Yet Canada remains a striking example of how an extraordinary diversity of cultures can live, work, and worship together in relative harmony.