March Mona Newsletter

___________________Timahoe News___________________

Table Quiz

Don’t forget that Timahoe Community Council are now holding a monthly Table Quiz in Kelly’s Bar, Timahoe, on the last Friday of the month at 9 p.m. The two quizzes run to date have been very enjoyable affairs and the night is a great opportunity to get out and meet your friends. See you all there on Friday 31st March.


Timahoe Parents Council

At the recent AGM of Tiamhoe Parents Council a new committee was elected as follows:
Paddy Maher, Clare Kelly, Anna Burke, Evelyn Dwyer, Patricia Kelly, Bridget Carroll and Geraldine Cox.
We thank the outgoing committee for all their hard work during the year & wish the new committee every success with their work in the coming year


Don’t forget that you can order a compost bin from Kildare Co. Co. through the Tir Na Mona office, phone Morna at 870210 to arrange for group delivery.


The Priest Today.
Irish life and Irish society has undergone vast changes in the past twenty or so years. In fact the changes in the past decade could be said to be more significant than during the entire century which has just gone out. The priest and the role of the priest has come into that fast changing mould also.When I was ordained nearly forty years ago the Church was perceived as a Church of certitude. The priest as a minister of that type of Church was expected to be a dispenser of certitudes.All that has changed and today the Church is seen as a struggling and searching Church (not unlike the early centuries of Christianity), and the priest is now faced with ever increasing challenges to meet the new situation. As a priest today I find many of the changes very refreshing even if very demanding.

The priesthood remains the same; a call from God to service and commitment to bringing the message of Christ to the world of 2000 A.D. Everything is questioned and challenged today. This can be a healthy and purifying experience. It can also make great demands on ones spirtiual and physical resourses.

The priest has to try to be in the midst of the people. To be a facilitator; to be one who encourages and hints at ways rather than demanding or insisting on certain procedures. This means the priest has to try to listen and learn each day where people are at and take it from there. For those of us priests who were trained in the Church of certainties this can be very demanding. The priest today needs a lot of support - not cheap popularity, but the support that will affirm his efforts even if these efforts fall very short of people’s expectations.

The power - house of the priest is his prayer- life. If the priest is too busy to pray then he is too busy. We all need each other . We are a community of believers. Each one’s belief is helped or hindered by each other’s. God grant we will all be a help and a lighAt (even if dimly burning) to each other on the daily road through life.

Pat Ramsbottom

 


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