Weekly Bulletin 12th April 2020 – Easter Sunday

Sunday 12^th April 2020        Easter Sunday

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Today is Easter Sunday: Today is the greatest feast in the Church’s calendar. Jesus by his Death and Resurrection has destroyed sin and death. The Resurrection is like having a door opened and what has poured out of that door will never be stopped. This door cannot be closed. Jesus is the “first born from the dead”. He goes before us and we follow after him. In our baptism/confirmation we are born anew in the waters of life. This life frees us from fear, from insecurity, from meaninglessness, and from the powers of sin, evil, injustice and death itself! That is what we believe when we proclaim our Creed at Mass. However during these days of “lock-down” because of the coronavirus pandemic these words may sound hollow and empty. We are hassled, bored, weary, impatient and the words of Psalm 13 are ever so true “How long Lord?” How long have we to put up with this Lord?  But when we look at the life of Jesus it is a life of two parts. In the first part of the Gospel Jesus is in charge of his life – he teaches, he heals, he blesses, he feeds, he reaches out to the forgotten and the marginalised. He is active.  In the last part of his life he is the passive victim. Things are been done to Him. He is arrested, he is charged, he is scourged, he is crowned with thorns, he is mocked, and he is crucified. He is a passive victim.  The word “passive” of course has everything to do with the word “Passion”. I guess many of us are experiencing in these “lock-down” days, feelings of unease at our inactivity and dormancy. Can we take those feelings and share them with Jesus who trod the path for us in his suffering and death? Pope Francis keeps reminding us that these days are days when we need to learn from the natural world and come to deeper conversion in our faith. In an interview for the English Catholic magazine “The Tablet” he said: “Today I believe we have to slow down our rate of production and consumption (Laudato Si’, 191) and to learn to understand and contemplate the natural world. We need to reconnect with our real surroundings…. This is the opportunity for conversion. Where we are living now is a place of metanoia (conversion) and we have a chance to begin. So let’s not let it slip from us, and let’s move ahead”  The Resurrection tells us that death and sin do not have the last word. Yes, there is pain, darkness still in our world. Yet St. Augustine who lived during the time of the breakdown of the Roman Empire was able to cry out to his fellow Christians: “We are an Easter people and alleluia is our song” 

Renoir a wonderful French painter for the last 20 years of his life – his most productive years – suffered terribly from arthritis. His hands were twisted. His wrists, his arms and his spine was ravaged by the disease. He could not even stand as he worked. One of his students said to him: “Why do you go and torture yourself like this?” Renoir looked at the canvas on which he was working and replied: “The pain passes but the beauty remains!” May the beauty of our faith in the Risen Christ sustain you and your loved ones during these difficult and strange days! 

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All the community here at the Graan send Easter greetings to everyone and especially to all who, in the days before the “lock-down” faithfully attend the Graan every weekend. We do miss you ! It is strange for many of us not to be celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation as we do every week for those who come to receive the mercy and forgiveness of the Risen Lord.   We have celebrated quietly and reverently the Holy Week ceremonies in our little community chapel….and we prayed for you and for your families. We especially remembered those who died from the coronavirus, those who are suffering from it and especially for all those doctors and nurses who by their skill and dedication are working to relieve it. Of course we will do our part by staying at home, keeping our distance and washing our hands! We are conscious also of those of nervous disposition whose anxiety levels have grown higher because of this pandemic. May the Risen Lord whose first gift to His frightened apostles was “peace” – be blessed with that gift also. 

Finally I want to say a big thank you for all the support we have received during these days. For your phone calls, emails, post and for your good wishes. We will continue to pray for each other until we are gathered once more in our little chapel to celebrate the wonderful presence of the Risen Lord in our midst who disappoints all our fears and fulfils all our hopes!     Father Charles.

Standing Order Form See Link HERE. Please note if you complete a form please return it to your own bank.

The Church here at The Graan will remain open from 9.30am – 4pm each day for private prayer.

The shop & Monastery will remain closed until further notice. You can ring the monastery or email us at thegraan@btconnect.com if you have any enquiries or if you need cards sent out in the post we will gladly do so. You can ring the Monastery from 10am – 2pm each day.

Guild Mass Cards: We have Deceased, Mass Bouquets, Get Well, Birthday, Special Occasion, Thinking of You & Exam Mass Bouquets which cost £2 / €2.50 each.

The Anniversary Masses for Saturday Vigil & Sunday will be celebrated privately by the priests here.

A note from the World Wide Web

We fell asleep in one world and woke up in another

Suddenly Disney is out of magic. Paris is no longer romantic

New York doesn’t stand up any more

The Chinese wall is no longer a fortress and Mecca is empty

Hugs and Kisses suddenly become weapons and not visiting parents and friends becomes an act of love

Suddenly you realise that power, beauty and money are worthless, and can’t get you the oxygen you are fighting for

The world continues its life and it is beautiful. It only puts humans in cages

I think it is sending us a message – “You are not necessary”

The air, earth, water and sky without you are fine

When you come back remember that you are my guests – not my masters”