2nd October 2016 27th Sunday of the Year Day for Life

Parish Team Clergy Fr. John Gilligan Moderator St Mary’s Parochial House Saggart. Tel: 4589209 Mobile: 087-4103239 Fr. Aidan Kieran CC 1 The Glebe Peamount Road Newcastle. Tel: 4589230 Mob: 087-6397744 Fr. Aloysius Zuribo C.C. 2 Carrigmore Place Saggart, Co. Dublin Tel. 01-4589209 Fr. Michael Shortall PC 87 Beechwood Lawns Rathcoole Tel: 4587187 Mob: 087 -2861765 Fr. Michael McGowan PC 7 St. Patrick’s Crescent, Rathcoole Tel: 4589210

Parish Pastoral Worker Ms. Breda Carroll c/o 01-4589209 Parish Secretary Martina Hopkins The Parish Office St. Mary’s Parochial House Opening Hours: 9.30-1.30 Monday to Thursday Tel: 4589209 [email protected]

Parish Social Evening - Farewell Fr. Enda Thursday 6th October at 8.00pm St. Mary’s GAA Hall, Saggart Invitation and Appeal for Sandwiches/Cakes The Pastoral Parish Councils of Saggart Rathcoole Brittas and Newcastle extend an invitation to all parishioners to a Farewell Social for Fr Enda Cunningham in St Mary’s GAA Hall, Saggart at 8pm on Thursday 6th October. We would be very grateful if parishioners could provide sandwiches, cakes etc. These can be dropped into St Mary’s Hall from 4pm. Saturday Vigil Mass Rathcooole Time Change 6.00pm (from Sat. November 5th) The time of the Saturday Evening Vigil Mass in Rathcoole will change to 6.00pm with effect from Saturday November 5th. This change is necessary because of Fr. John Gilligan’s duties in relation to the Permanent Diaconate Programme of the Dublin Archdiocese. The change will mean that on a Saturday evening, when Fr. John is required to be present at the Diaconate Programme, it will be possible for one priest to cover both the 6pm Mass in Rathcoole and the 7pm Mass in Newcastle if necessary. Also, as part of this change, a priest will be available for confession every Saturday from 5pm to 5.45pm in Rathcoole. Alliance of the Two Hearts Mass Rathcoole - Friday 7th October - 8.00pm On Friday 7th October the monthly Alliance of the Two Hearts Mass will be celebrated in Holy Family Church, Rathcoole at 8.00pm. Followed by Confessions and Rosary. All welcome. Please note the change of time.

Items for Newsletter

St. Vincent De Paul Clothing Appeal This weekend, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul will distribute clothing bags at Masses. If you wish to donate second hand clothes in good condition to the society, please bring the clothes, in the provided bag, the weekend [email protected] of 8th/9th October. Thank you for your generous support of or this worthy initiative.

Items for Junction 4 should be sent to the Parish Office or emailed to the addresses given below. Many thanks.

[email protected]

Mass Schedule Saggart: Sunday: 9 am & 11.30 am Weekday: 9.30 am Rathcoole: Saturday Vigil: 6.30 p.m. Sunday: 10 am & 12.00 pm Weekday: 9.30 am Saturday: 10.00 am Brittas: Sunday: 10.30 am Newcastle: Saturday Vigil: 7.00 p.m. Sunday: 10.30 am Weekday: 10.00am Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri. Confession Saggart: Friday after 9.30am Mass Rathcoole: Saturday after 10.00am Mass Newcastle: Saturday after 7.00pm Mass Baptism Saggart 1st, 2nd and 3rd Sundays 12.30pm Rathcoole 1st and 3rd Saturday 4.00pm Newcastle 4th Sunday 12.30pm Please contact the Parish Office Marriage Please contact the Parish Office

The Kube Commercials and St. Mary’s GAA Clubs invite you to ‘The Kube’, Friday 7th October, Citywest Hotel. Doors open 7.30pm, ‘Kube’ starts 8.15pm. Have you got what it takes to beat ‘The Kube’?

Please Give Blood The Blood Transfusion Service asks you to please give blood on Tuesday October 4th in St. Mary’s NS Saggart, 5.00pm - 8.30pm.

Archbishop Eamon Martin (Armagh) Message for ‘Day for Life’ 1 October 2016 Pope Francis often speaks about the need for a ‘revolution of tenderness’ to melt the ‘hardness of heart’ that is so prevalent in today’s world. Nowadays the way of tenderness is indeed counter-cultural and revolutionary. It is perhaps the only way to confront inhumanity and cruelty, to bridge the great divide which greed has created between the rich and the poor, and to expose the pervasive ‘throwaway culture’ which surrounds us. The ‘revolution of tenderness’ challenges us to show real sensitivity and active concern for everyone and everything, and protect the wonder of life in our common home. As Pope Francis puts it: ‘everything is connected’. This includes the way we care for the environment; how we care for one another; how we welcome and accept those with different needs and abilities, refugees, the elderly, the unborn, the forgotten and the abandoned; how we acknowledge the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities (see Laudato Si’ #117). These days as I listen to repeated calls for repeal of the Eighth Amendment in the Constitution of Ireland, I cannot help observing one of the great contradictions of our age: that, at the same time as society is developing a more urgent sense of the need to care for our planet and other creatures, many seem determined to remove the right to life of unborn human beings. The Eighth Amendment reads as follows: “The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right”. It is therefore fundamentally a declaration of tenderness and love for the equal right to life of both a mother and her unborn child. It is an undertaking to respect, defend and vindicate that right here in Ireland. This amendment is precious and wonderful – it places as the very foundations and substructure of our laws a clear conviction that all human life is worth cherishing. Demands to quash and abolish this amendment go against the Good News that the life of every person is sacred and inviolable, irrespective of the stage or state of that life – from the first moment of conception until the moment of natural death. This is the most fundamental of all moral principles. It is the basis upon which every human right we enjoy as persons is predicated and upon which our very freedom and dignity as a person rests. It admits of no exceptions. To deliberately and intentionally take the life of an innocent person, whatever their state or stage of life, is always gravely morally wrong. From a moral point of view, there is therefore no such thing as ‘limited’ abortion. The medical prognosis for the life of a child in the womb, or the extent of that child’s disabilities, is no more morally relevant than it is when considering an adult who faces the diagnosis of a life-limiting condition. Today I call on all those who believe in a better future for humanity to preserve the dignity and sanctity of human life in all its stages and conditions, as an affirmation of our human capacity for tenderness and love. We must not forget of course that some mothers and fathers experience profound anguish when faced with a crisis in pregnancy. Tenderness also compels us to reach out to them. That is why I wish to repeat today the call for our politicians to provide every possible service and support to women, parents and families who are faced with severe difficulties and crises in pregnancy. This must include a commitment to providing comprehensive peri-natal hospice services for women and their families responding to a diagnosis of life-limiting disability for their unborn child. On October 1 1979 in Limerick, Pope Saint John Paul II said, “May Ireland never weaken in her witness, before Europe and before the whole world, to the dignity and sacredness of all human life, from conception until death” (1 October 1979). That remains my prayer on this Day for Life for 2016. I invite all to pray so as to deepen our wonder at the gift of life.