MASS INTENTIONS for the week ahead:  

Sat Vigil: Frank & Kathleen Hanily                                                     

Sun 9am: Brendan Smith & Dec’d Family                                                        

Sun 11.30am: Michael & Betty Glynn                                                

Tues 7.30pm: Michael Doherty & Dec’d Family                                   

Thurs 7.30pm: Dec’d members of Daly & Cassidy Families                             

Sat 10am: Angie & Eileen Guinan                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Sat Vigil: Phyllis, Larry & son Martin Geraghty                                              

Sun 9am: Dec’d members of Duignan & Farrelly families                                              

Sun 11.30am: Nicholas Dunne

WEEKDAY MASSES: Mon No Mass, Tues 7.30pm, Wed 9.30am, Thurs 7.30pm, Fri 9.30am, & Sat 10am.   

MINISTERS OF THE WORD for next weekend Masses are: Vigil (Sat Jan 28th) Sr. Carmel 11.30am (Sun Jan 29th) Nancy Dardis

MINISTERS OF THE EUCHARIST for next weekends’ Masses are: Vigil (Sat Jan 28th) Mairead Farrell, Nuala Kiernan, Sinead Mc Evoy, Enda Kelly & Richard Wheelar 11.30am (Sun Jan 29th) Angela Crowcock, Joseph Mc Govern, Carmel King, Dawn Finnegan & Anthony Leavy.    

 ADORATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT: Adoration on Friday commencing after Mass and continuing throughout the day until late.  

COLLECTIONS: Athboy €1063, Rathmore: €135, Rathcairn €217. Many thanks.

FEASTDAYS occurring in the week ahead:                                                                                    

Tues Jan 24^th – St. Francis de Sales

Wed Jan 25^th – The Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle                                         

Thurs Jan 26^th – Ss Timothy & Titus                                                            

Fri Jan 27^th – St. Angela Merici                                                                  

Sat Jan 28^th – St. Thomas Aquinas     

 REST IN PEACE:  Your prayers are requested for Josephine Reilly, Kildalkey (Tommy’s mother) who died during the week. May she rest in peace.                                                                        

BAPTISMAL MEETING: The next Baptismal meeting will take place on Wed Feb 1st 2012 at 8pm in the Old Darnley Lodge Hotel. Bookings for baptisms at this meeting.                                                                                                                                 

MINISTERS OF THE EUCHARIST: We are recruiting new Ministers of the Eucharist. If anyone would like to become a Minister of the Eucharist could you please contact the Parochial House. Training will commence in February.                                                         

ATHBOY COMMUNITY SCHOOL will host a Prayer Service for Christian Unity on Monday 23^rd January at 8pm in the school. All are welcome.                                                 

SOLSTICE ARTS CENTRE is delighted to screen the film “The Way” on Wed Jan 25^th at 7.30pm. Spaces limited. Early booking advised. It is about a man who embarks on a pilgrimage on the Way of St. James or the Camino de Santiago and stars Martin Sheen.

TABLE QUIZ in aid of SOSAD Suicide Counselling & Prevention on Thursday Jan 26^th in Floods Pub at 8.30pm sharp. €40 for team of 4.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

THE 50^TH INTERNATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS 2012 will take place in Dublin from 10^th to 17^th June 2012. Volunteers will have an integral role to play in the success of the Congress. Between two and three thousand volunteers will be needed during the week of the Congress and also to assist in preparations in the months leading up to the Congress. The Congress is recruiting volunteers for a wide range of roles such as administration, data entry, stewards, marketing, transport, meet & greet, multimedia, pastoral preparation and much more! If you would like to get involved please visit the IEC2012 website www.iec2012.ie/volunteer and fill out an online application or request an application form from the Congress office.  Induction training sessions will be held on the 28^th January in the RDS, Dublin. For more information please contact the IEC2012 offices on 01/2349900 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .              

MUSIC IN THE LITURGY                                        

While there are over 800 references to music and its use in the Bible, the Scriptures present only two purposes for music in the church: a) that of worshiping and praising God, and b) that of edifying the saints. In Colossians 3:12-17, God gives a model for communal worship and singing at church: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Music has been at the heart of creation from the beginning of time, and has been the inescapable emotional response of God’s creatures to his goodness. When God laid the foundations of the earth, “all the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:7). And at the end of days, at the wedding feast of the Lamb, the great multitude will sing “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns!” (Revelation 19:6). When King David established the Levitical music ministry in the tabernacle, he appointed 288 singers and musicians “to play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy.” (1 Chronicles 15:16 and 25:7). The purpose of David’s music was to help the people of Israel express the joy of knowing the Lord was their God, and all he had done for them. Liturgical worship and the celebration of Mass are given a more noble form when it is celebrated in song. Through song, prayer is expressed in a more attractive and meaningful way, the mystery of the liturgy is more openly shown, the unity of hearts is more profoundly achieved by the union of voices, minds and more easily raised to heavenly things by the beauty of the sacred rites and the whole celebration more clearly prefigures that heavenly liturgy which is enacted in the holy city of Jerusalem.

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