Mission News

Tomorrow, June 4th, is the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Bishop Joseph Shanahan. In our June issue of Africa Magazine, Sr Chinyeaka C. Ezeani MSHR writes about this remarkable missionary who founded the congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary in 1924. He was also instrumental in the foundation of St. Patrick’s Missionary Society founded by Fr Pat Whitney in 1932. “Whenever history speaks of the great Irish Missionary Movement of the 20th Century, the nam

Cemetery Sunday took place in St Patrick's, Kiltegan this morning, May 2nd. The Mass and blessing were recorded and can be viewed at the following link: Cemetery Sunday May 2021

Our Cemetery Sunday Mass will be celebrated online this year. It will be on the 2nd of May at 11am (Irish Time) and will be live-streamed on https://www.mcnmedia.tv/camera/st-patricks-missionary-society. Please note: A password will not be needed. It will be removed at 10.45am. The Mass will be recorded and available for viewing on the Society’s Youtube Channel (click here for link) until the 10th of May.

“Christ is Risen, Alleluia” is today’s message – a message to be proclaimed throughout the ages. On this, ‘the Feast of feasts’, ‘the great Sunday’ the church sings out the Good News to all the world. The daily liturgy over the next fifty days, up to Pentecost Sunday will constantly come back to this bedrock of our faith. We can never exhaust the significance, implications and relevance of Jesus Christ rising from the dead. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is pointl

For St Augustine tonight’s vigil celebration, always celebrated when darkness has fallen, is ‘the mother of all vigils”. We celebrate the foundation of our faith and hope in Jesus Christ – His victory over death. This year our parish celebrations and participation will obviously be limited. However, the elements we use in the church celebration to convey the profound meaning of this feast are still around us. Light and darkness, fire and water, words (scripture) and music can

Over the past year we have been forced to face sickness and death as we never would have imagined. Every family has its own story of loved ones, friends and acquaintances dying alone or being sick for long periods without visits. We have been tested to the limit. Please God we can get inspiration from our celebration today. Jesus, an innocent man, facing his unjust death could see beyond the evil around him and knew that goodness would come from his own goodness. New life wou

From Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday, here in St Patrick’s, Kiltegan, we will remember, especially, the intentions of our benefactors, families and friends, in all our ceremonies and prayers during these sacred days. Life is not easy for many people. Everybody has their own cross to bear. Nobody is spared from carrying a cross of one kind or another. However, we can look to the future with confidence. The message of Easter tells us that God, in the face of all our burdens, anx

This evening we begin the celebration of the Easter Triduum, three days when we recall the central elements of our faith, the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. This evening we recall the institution of the Eucharist, the sacrament which keeps our faith and that of our Christian communities alive. Because of the pandemic the celebrations are obviously curtailed and attendance at Mass will not be easy. However, St John in his gospel reminds us that on Holy Thursday ni

Today, Palm Sunday, we welcome Jesus, into our hearts and homes. A great crowd who had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel.’ (John 12:12-13) To Jesus, the True Light, who illumines the darkness and brings us hope during difficult times. Hosanna to the Son of David! To Jesus, the Great Healer, who

Twenty-one years ago, Africa Magazine featured the Stations of Cross from Lodwar Cathedral, Kenya, in the April 2000 issue. The Stations were commissioned by St Patrick’s Missionaries working in the area in the late 1990s for the cathedral. An American Notre Dame Sister, Sr Janet Mullin and a team of young Kenyan art students agreed to help. The Stations were to reflect the life and environment of the Turkana people with faces, dress and places being authentically Turkana. Th