Weekly Bulletin 4th October 2020

Today is the 27 Sunday in Ordinary Time: Jesus says to the chief priests and elders in today’s gospel “the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit” (Matthew 21:43). It seems that on a superficial reading of this Gospel that the Christian Church is to “replace” the Jewish people. But that is not the case. This parable from Jesus is targeting the Jerusalem leadership and not the Jewish people as a whole. Even though the Gospel was written over two thousand years ago, it unfortunately has been misused throughout history as a justification for Christians to persecute Jews. Over the centuries some members of the Church incited hatred against the Jewish people. In Limerick city on 11th January 1904 Fr John Creagh preached a sermon against the Jews.  Fr. Creagh’s anti-Semitic sermon, accused the Jews of deicide, usury, ritual murder, corruption, and being in league with the Freemasons. The sermon, printed in the press, led to assaults on the Jewish population in that city. It is important to recognise that the Gospels were written at a time when there was great animosity and friction between the Jews and the newly founded Christian Church. The friction was like a bitter feuding within a family. The hostility between these two groups were written anachronistically into the Gospel story especially in Matthew and John. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD and only two groups were left; the Pharisees and the followers of Jesus Christ. If we glance at the Acts of the Apostles we see how difficult the relations were between these two groups. Matthew and John wrote the story of Jesus and in their account included the difficulties their communities were facing from the established Jewish authorities at that particular time. If we were writing a Gospel today we would need to mention the coronavirus! Christians owe a huge debt of gratitude and love to our forbears in the faith as we read about them in the Hebrew Scriptures. The heroes of the faith were Jewish. We owe our faith to the Jewish community. Jesus was a Jew. He was steeped in the Jewish Scriptures. Three of his first sentences he speaks in Matthew’s Gospel comes directly out of the Book of Deuteronomy. He celebrated the Jewish feasts. He underlined the importance of the great Jewish Prayer the “Shema” (Mark 12:28) and was often invited to dine with the Pharisees. There was also an inscription over him “This is the King of the Jews.”(Matthew 27:37).  The difficulties that we read in the Gospels that the Christians had with the Jews is more about polemics than historical fact. Last year on November 13 during his weekly audience Pope Francis declared:” But today the habit of persecuting Jews is beginning to be reborn,” he said. “Brothers and sisters: this is neither human nor Christian; the Jews are our brothers and sisters and must not be persecuted! Understood?”

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Feasts of the Week: Wednesday: Our Lady of the Rosary: Today is the anniversary of the decisive victory of the combined fleet of the Holy League of 1571 over the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto. Pope Pius V established this feast day to commemorate the victory. Friday:  St. John Henry Newman: (1801-1890) Canonised last year on the 13 October. We celebrate his feast day today because on this day he was brought into the Catholic Church by Passionist priest Blessed Dominic Barberi C.P.

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Family Rosary Crusade against Covid during October – you are encouraged to pray the Rosary, or even a decade of the Rosary, each day during the month of October. Pray for your own family and loved ones and for all those whose health or livelihood is being seriously impacted by the coronavirus crisis

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Graan Draw   We regret that our Annual Graan Dinner Dance is cancelled this year because of current circumstances. However we have our usual annual draw. Tickets are now available at the monastery. The first prize will be £5000, second prize is £1000 and a further five prizes of £100 each. The draw will take place on the 8th December 2020. More than ever we need your help to sell the tickets. We are unable to sell our tickets at our usual locations throughout Fermanagh because of Covid 19 regulations. Help us by taking a few books and sell them to your family. We thank you.

Thank you:  We appreciate your contribution to the upkeep of the Graan during these stringent times. Many of you have sent in your donations anonymously and we are so grateful for your kindness. Thanks also for the generous Church collections. A special word of thanks also to our ushers, ministers of the Eucharist and all who help sanitise the seats of the Church after each Mass. Thank you for your very real commitment to these new procedures – we know it is not an easy task!

DUTY FOR THE WEEK:  Sun & Mon No Duty. Monday (5th )  evening Mass @ 7pm  – Charles. Tues (6^th Oct) – Arthur.  Wed 7th – Charles. Thurs 8^th Oct – Arthur.    Fri 9^th Oct – Charles .   Sat 10^th Oct –  Charles.  

Shop Opening Hours: Mon to Sat: 9.30am – 7.30pm. Sunday – 9.30am – 5pm. Telephone 028 66322272.

Guild Mass Cards: We have a wide selection of cards including a new section of Christmas Mass bouquets. We value your support. Please visit our website to see our new range of Christmas Mass Bouquet cards.