To facilitate people taking time off over Christmas, the entire set of Christmas Presiders Page has now been published, up to and including New Years Day.

We celebrate the feast of Christ the King today, acclaiming Jesus as our king, the one who died for us and rose triumphant. We offer praise and worship — and ask for the grace to live as worthy citizens of his kingdom of justice, truth, love and peace.

Today’s liturgy gives a preview of the events we will celebrate between Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday: the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. These events are also the focus of this and every Sunday celebration. We ask for God’s help in understanding their significance.

Faced with the 'lucky bag' of glossy advertising material about the world meeting of families regularly reaching most parochial houses, Seamus Ahearne pens a few thoughts, and hopes, about this upcoming event.
"We need the messed up, chaotic struggle of most ordinary and real families to be centre stage. We have to reflect the life of the family in Ireland and not some idealised version."
"I don’t dismiss or undermine anything of the mighty work being done in preparation. I am concerned that it can reflect something of what we see daily."

The text of a lecture given by Gabriel Daly OSA to a "We are Church" event on Monday, 15 January 2018.
Our sincere thanks to Gabriel and to Colm Holmes of 'We are Church Ireland' for providing the text.

Correspondence from and to the Kildare & Leighin Council of Priests concerning the ACP information Card issued at the recent AGM.
The card outlines rights priests have in civil and canon law and are taken from “Guidelines for the Care and Management of Respondents (i.e. priests) Standard 4” as outlined by the National Board for Safeguarding Children.

Seamus Ahearne reports of an interesting dialogue he had recently about the state of church and liturgy and sacraments.
"Much of Liturgy has evolved from the Monasteries. It has grown fat with the accretions of history. It has become something to endure or admire or look at. Despite all the changes of language; it can still be so passive as a Celebration. ......
The psychological reality is that there are too many words hurled at us. Any real psychology of praying is absent. There is no space for quiet; for sharing; for being still.....
Someone has to shout stop and strip off the accretions and reduce the Mass to its essentials and make space for God to speak and for us to be part of it. It is all noise and fuss and rush."

Seamus Ahearne reflects on the reality of pastoral ministry and care in a 'disadvantaged' parish;
"more work and different work is essential in a Deis (band 1) parish. Our Church is outside of the building. Our Liturgy has to happen on the hoof. The preparation for the special occasions needs more energy and more imagination. It has to be gentle, real and kindly. The domestic Church is the only church we now have."

There is an interesting letter in this week’s The Tablet from the retired bishop of Portsmouth, Crispian Hollis.
It confirms the worst suspicions about the lack of attention that was paid by bishops when the ‘new missal’ was being foisted on us.

Pádraig McCarthy pays tribute to the late Ronan Drury

Ronan Drury, editor of The Furrow since 1977, died on 16 November 2017, at the age of 93. His funeral Mass took place on Monday 20 November in the College …