Mission News

The third Sunday of Advent is slightly special. The Advent Sundays usually stress repentance and conversion, but the 3rd Sunday is all about joy and happiness at the Lord’s coming. The colour of the vestments can be different at Mass – rose, and also the rose candle on the advent wreath is lit. There were a lot of ‘religious’ people around in Jesus’ time but the only one he took seriously was John the Baptist. And this Sunday John, speaking to various professions, tells us th

"Walking the path of the Willow" ... the road to renewable energy at St Patrick's Kiltegan Continuing our exploration in journeying towards an ecological awakening, we travelled to the beautiful home of St. Patrick’s Missionary Society, just outside of the village of Kiltegan in County Wicklow. Responding to Pope Francis’ “challenge to protect our common home” encapsulated in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si, the Fathers at St. Patrick’s Kiltegan tried to find ways of producing

President Higgins presented the annual Presidential Distinguished Service Awards to recipients for 2020 and 2021 on Thursday 2nd December 2021. Fr Kevin O'Hara, SPS was nominated for an Award in 2020 for his peace, reconciliation and development work in Nigeria. The presentation of Fr. Kevin’s Award was deferred until Thursday, 2nd December 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions last year. As Fr. Kevin did not travel home for the Award Ceremony at Áras an Uachtaráin, his sister An

Today’s gospel puts before us John the Baptist as a model to follow in genuinely welcoming Jesus into our lives. John is in the middle of the story. On one side we have, named, the emperor in faraway Rome, his ‘national’ representative in Judea, his local reps in the regions and the chief priests. The great political and religious figures are there. Then we have John – who is not attracted to any of them, but lives in the remote edges of the desert. No greater contrast! The R

Each week, during the season of Advent, AMRI (Association of Leaders of Missionaries & Religious of Ireland) will provide a snapshot of the ways that member congregations of AMRI are living out Pope Francis 2015 Encyclical, Laudato Si. “We will explore the concept of an integral ecological journey – animating how we understand the interconnectedness between ourselves, our ‘common home’ and humanity. Episode 1 (video link below) features a 15 minute short film narrated by Fr B

November 28th, 2021 Today is the First Sunday of Advent. This day marks the beginning of the Church year. The first Sunday of Advent gives us the opportunity to centre our thoughts on hope. It's a time to remember the hope God offers to our world, and that He has given it to us through Jesus. As we prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus’ arrival as a gift to all humanity; let’s stir up in our hearts and homes a sense of anticipation. We light the candle of Hope today and we pr

Misean Cara have announced St Mary Magdalen Parish, Riwoto, South Sudan as one of the two winners of the individual Climate Action Awards! Congratulations to Fr Tim Galvin, Sr Mary and everyone at St. Mary Magdalen Parish, Riwoto. It is a fitting acknowledgement of all the work the parish are doing at community grassroots level on climate action. “I’ve come to understand how we are so dependent on Earth, for everything, food, medicines,” says Fr. Tim Galvin, Parish Priest of

November 2nd is the feast of All Souls, when we remember all those who have gone before us ‘marked with the sign of faith’. However, we can say that in the popular faith of the people the whole month of November is a time when we feel a particular closeness to our dead relatives and friends. Our tradition is to remember them by name and so we have the custom of the ‘dead list’ in many parishes. We write down on paper the names of our loved ones who we wish to be in eternal pe

Today, November 1st, the feast of All Saints is a distinctive day in our Catholic list of feast days. The Church has a very precise process, called canonisation through which it feels confident to say that somebody has lived a life in tune with the will of God and has now reached the kingdom of heaven. However the Church knows too that we can’t limit the number of people who have reached eternal happiness in continuation of their holy Christian lives. They are people known to

Today we mark World Mission Sunday. It’s a celebration that owes its origin to Jesus’ famous last command to go to the ends of the earth sharing His Gospel. Right from the first moment the Christian faith was concerned with everyone – not just with our own inner circle. Our faith inspires us to connect with other people. If the recent pandemic has taught us anything it is that we are all interdependent. We share the same space, breath the same air, touch the same door handles