PARISH NEWSLETTER 23 Dec (4th Sunday of Advent)

St. Matthew’s Ballyfermot

CHRISTMAS DAY CHALLENGE (If you could manage it, there’s a lot of winners in it!)

NOTE: This is only for girls and boys who are over 15yrs, three months and two days old. Everybody else should be just let get on with munching on reindeer cakes and guzzling drinking chocolate! However this is for the rest of us! It might be entitled: ‘How to avoid your house on Christmas Day becoming like a scene from Albert Square or a bad day in Fair City!’ By the time you are reading this, Christmas fever will be at its height. Yet one more race to the shops. Last minute change of plans causing stress to soar...someone not coming home, or somebody you did not expect, and in many ways you could do without, on the way.... A lot of doors were closed in Bethlehem that night. How about your own door? Oh right. Very good. And tell me, what about the door to your heart? Speaking of your heart, how is it? No I don’t mean the valves or it’s beat. Well maybe I do mean it’s beat. Does it beat freely with love? Would it be a good seat for the Prince of Peace? Is there any irregularity or blockage? Could such an irregularity or blockage be caused by anger resentment or bitterness? Do we not yet know that such feelings are the road to no town and not many country places. Surely it’s not a secret any more that forgiveness, even though it can be really difficult, is the sure way to deep peace. Don’t forget to breathe! A couple of glasses of water can make a huge difference. Everywhere you go there’s Christmas music, from Chris’s ‘Driving home from Christmas’ to Michael Buble’s ‘Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas’. Indeed there’s still a few places where you might hear ‘Away in a Manger’ or ‘Silent Night’. Are you personally in any real danger of discovering that real Christmas joy is found in giving rather than receiving? (... mind that phone does’nt cause trouble!) There is one thing worse than soggy sprouts and that’s sprouts like bullets, or is there? Here’s a question for you: which would you prefer to be saying on Christmas Night, (a) those sprouts were awful or (b) hopefully we’ll get good news from the doctors in the morning? One more question, will you be the one who blows up, the one who burns bridges this Christmas, or will you be the one that calms, distracts, soothes, will you be the messenger of peace? Why not be a real rebel this Christmas and whisper, well I really mean, stage whisper, the name of Jesus, whose birthday it is. You could do it covertly behind your hand, as you pass the cranberry. Better still why not go completely mad and hop up on the chair ( be careful of the wonky hip and mind the new knee), and shout out, good and loud, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!! I pray that you, and all those you carry in your heart, may be protected from all darkness and pain and may you know his love, joy and peace this Christmas! Oops nearly forgot....I will be celebrating Mass, the greatest prayer in the world at Midnight, yes Midnight, on Christmas Eve AND 11.30 pm on New Years Eve. I would just love that you could join me.

J MC DONALD.

St. Matthew’s Newsletter—Dec 23 2018—4th Sunday of Advent

Mon 24/12 Mt 1: 1- 25 ‘You must name him Jesus because he is the one who will save his people from their sins’ Tue 25/12 Lk 2: 1-14 THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ‘And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger’. Wed 26/12 Mt 10: 17-22 ST. STEPHEN, FIRST MARTYR ‘the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you’. Thu 27/12 Jn 20: 2-8 ST. JOHN, APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST ‘They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first;’ Fri 28/12 Mt 2: 13-18 THE HOLY INNOCENTS, MARTYRS‘ ...he had all the male children killed who were two years old or under....’ Sat 29/12 Lk 2: 22-35 ST. THOMAS BECKETT, BISHOP AND MARTYR ‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace, just as you promised;’

MASS INTENTIONS

Tom Canavan Jojel Carino James Coady Martin Cuffe Christopher Cullen Eddie Deans Jimmy Deans Maura Deegan Eileen Dempsey Mary Doyle Anastasia Fanning Tony Fanning George Green Jane Green Mary Griffiths William Griffiths Jnr. William Griffiths Snr. Elizabeth Hickey Michael Hickey Mary Hopkins Brian Kavanagh Anne Kelly Jacqueline Kelly William Kershaw Bridget Lowry John Lowry Carmel Matthews Yvonne McArdle Freddie McGarry Marie McLoughlin Billy Merriman Kathleen Merriman Michael O'Gorman Jnr. Michael O'Gorman Snr. Malachy O'Leary Anne Peppard John Ward Jason Williams Mary Wilson

Families

Begley Deering Doyle Hunt McGrattan Moules O'Flaherty O'Leary Walsh Wilson

GOSPEL READINGS FOR THE WEEK

OUR ONE GREAT ACT OF FIDELITY (WAITING FOR CHRIST IN THE EUCHARIST)

RONALD ROLHEISER DOUBLEDAY NEW YORK 2011 Pp 139

Great book. Beautiful book. A book on the Mass by the renowned spiritual writer, and yes whilst it is about the Eucharist it is of course unsurprisingly about life. Rolheiser always has a freshness to his writing. It has really deepened my understanding and indeed my approach to the Mass. You will not regret any effort you give this.

BOOK OF THE WEEK

The incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus is part God and part man. Nor is he a mixture of the divine and the human. Jesus became truly man while remaining truly God: he is true God and true man.

FAITH MOMENT

There will be NO Newsletter

next Sunday Dec 30.

Christmas & New Year

WE ARE HOPING TO SEE YOU IN ST. MATTHEW’S FOR CHRISTMAS MASS

CHRISTMAS EVE

5.30pm for families and kids from 9-90! Come early there’ll be a few there

8.00pm Christmas Mass for adults who need to get home early

12.00 Christmas Mass at Midnight as it was when we were growing up

CHRISTMAS DAY: 9.00am and 12 noon.

ST. STEPHEN’S DAY: 10.00am Masses as usual: Fri, Sat, Sun. NEW YEARS EVE NIGHT: 11.30pm NEW YEARS DAY 11.00am MARY THE MOTHER OF GOD, MASS OFFERED FOR WORLD PEACE

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 2ND CHURCH CLOSED

Wishing you a Very Happy, Peaceful Christmas

and a Blessed New Year