Parish of Coolmeen – Cranny

The Coolmeen-Cranny 2015 Parish Accounts have been completed by our parish finance committee. The summary is as follows:

• Income 2015                                    €31,994.85
• Expenditure 2015                           €38,669.83                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  These figures do not include the contributions made by parishioners to Trócaire, Mission Sunday and the Lourdes Fund. These collections came to a total of €2,312 and went directly to these organisations.

To access the details of our 2015 parish accounts, please click on this link Coolmeen-Cranny Parish Accounts 2015

We thank all the members of our parish for your extremely generous and unfailing support for our parish. We also thank the members of our parish finance committee for their diligent work in taking care of our parish finances.

The members of our parish finance committee are: Christy O’Connor (Chairman); Susan King (Secretary); Antoinette Quinlivan; Catherine Corry and Fr Albert McDonnell.

illaloe Diocesan Holy Year Pilgrimage to Rome

1 August – 6 August 2016

Pope Francis has called an extraordinary Jubilee that is to have the mercy of God at its heart. In the Pope’s words ‘It shall be a Holy Year of Mercy. We want to live this Year in the light of the Lord’s words: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (cf. Lk 6:36)”’

This Holy Year will begin on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (8 December, 2015) and will end on 20 November, 2016, the Feast of Christ the King. During this time the Holy Doors in St Peter’s Basilica and the other Papal Basilicas, which are usually bricked-up, will be opened.

Pope Francis adds that the Holy Year is ‘a new stage in the journey of the Church on its mission to bring to every person the Gospel of mercy. I am convinced that the whole Church will find in this Jubilee the joy needed to rediscover and make fruitful the mercy of God, with which all of us are called to give consolation to every man and woman of our time.’

The Diocese of Killaloe is organising a pilgrimage to Rome during the Holy Year from 1 August to 6 August 2016. Accommodation will be at the Pontifical Irish College in the city centre. There will be an opportunity to attend a liturgy with Pope Francis and to walk through the holy doors in all four Papal Basilicas. The pilgrimage is being organised by Kieran Troy and a guide will be available through-out. Attached please find a copy of the itinerary and booking form. For further information Telephone 057 9355050 (mornings only) or e mail info@culturalconnections.eu

NEW ITINERARY aug 1-6      general insurance declaration 2016     BOOKING FORM 2016

Holy Week and Easter in Coolmeen-Cranny 2016

Monday 14 March 

• St Benedict’s Church, Coolmeen –  Service of Reconciliation  -7pm

Tuesday, 22 March

• St Mary’s Church, Cranny – Service of Reconciliation – 7pm

Palm Sunday, 20 March

• St Benedict’s Church, Coolmeen – Blessing of Palm (in front of the Church) followed by procession  to the Church and celebration of Mass – 9.30am

Holy Thursday, 24 March 

• St Mary’s Church, Cranny – Mass of the Lord’s Supper – 7pm
• After Mass the Church will remain open until 10.30pm to allow people to pray at the altar of repose

Good Friday, 25 March ,

• St Benedict’s Church, Coolmeen  – The Lord’s Passion – 3pm
• The cemetery, Cranny – Stations of the Cross – 8pm

Holy Saturday, 26 March

• St Mary’s Church Cranny – Easter Vigil – 7.30pm
• Our celebration of the Easter vigil will begin with the blessing of the Easter  fire followed by a candle lit procession to the Church where we will continue the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord

Easter Sunday 27 March

• St Benedict’s Church, Coolmeen – Easter Mass  – 9.45am

For details of the Holy Week and Easter ceremonies in Kildysart please click here

The feast of our national patron, St Patrick will be celebrated on Thursday, 17 March. It is a Holy Day of obligation. The vigil Mass will be celebrated  on Wednesday in St Mary’s Church, Cranny at 7pm. On the morning of the feast, Mass will be celebrated in St Benedict’s Church, Coolmeen at 9.45am, and in St Michael’s Church, Kildysart at 11am.

Christ with me, Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me,

Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ in breadth, Christ in length,

Christ in height,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,

 Christ in every eye that sees me,

 Christ in every ear that hears me.

(Prayer in the tradition of St Patrick)

The Holy Year of Mercy in Our Parishes: To help us prepare for Easter to celebrate this Holy Year of Mercy we have invited three speakers to reflect with us on the final three Friday of Lent:

Friday, 4 March,  8pm St Michael’s Church, Kildysart – Fr Billy Swan, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford ‘Mercy and Joy’;

Friday 11 March, 7pm St Benedict’s Church, Coolmeen – Ms Cora Guinnane, Clarecastle ‘Hope and Compassion – A story of mercy for our time’;

Friday 18 March,  7pm St Mary’s Church, Cranny – Fr Vincent Sherlock, Kilmovee, Co Mayo ‘The splinters that we carry, finding peace in the shadow of Calvary’.

The Feast of our Lady of Lourdes (Thursday, 11 February) was chosen as the annual day of prayer for and with the sick by Pope John Paul II in 1992.
We will celebrate the feast day with Mass and the anointing of the sick in St Mary’s Church, Cranny on Thursday, 11 February at 7.00pm.
All members of our parish are welcome to attend the Mass and anybody suffering from an illness or old age is welcome to receive the sacrament of the sick.

Wednesday 10 February is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

Mass including the blessing and distribution of ashed will be celebrated in St Mary’s Church, Cranny on Ash Wednesday at 9.30am and in St Michael’s Church, Kildysart at 8pm.

In his message for Lent Pope Francis reminds us that

‘God’s mercy transforms human hearts; it enables us, through the experience of a faithful love, to become merciful in turn. In an ever new miracle, divine mercy shines forth in our lives, inspiring each of us to love our neighbour and to devote ourselves to what the Church’s tradition calls the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. These works remind us that faith finds expression in concrete everyday actions meant to help our neighbours in body and spirit: by feeding, visiting, comforting and instructing them. On such things will we be judged. For this reason, I expressed my hope that “the Christian people may reflect on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy; this will be a way to reawaken our conscience, too often grown dull in the face of poverty, and to enter more deeply into the heart of the Gospel where the poor have a special experience of God’s mercy” (ibid., 15). For in the poor, the flesh of Christ “becomes visible in the flesh of the tortured, the crushed, the scourged, the malnourished, and the exiled… to be acknowledged, touched, and cared for by us” (ibid.).’

Wednesday next is the feast of the epiphany of the Lord (Little Christmas Day).

In Kildysart and Cranny Coolmeen parishes we will have the following Mass schedule.

• Vigil Mass (Tuesday 6 January) St Benedict’s Church, Coolmeen 7pm
• St Mary’s Church, Cranny Wednesday, 9.45am
• St Michael’s Church, Kildysart Wednesday, 11am

The Feast of the Epiphany (the word means “manifestation”) celebrates the making known of God the Son as a human being in   Jesus Christ. The feast commemorates the visit of the Three Kings (the Magi) to the Baby Jesus and the revelation Jesus’ birth beyond the Jewish world. The Kings brought gifts of gold (for a king), frankincense (for worship) and myrrh (for embalming, since Christ was to die for us). In Italy and other countries children receive gifts on this day. Traditionally in Ireland, the day was known as ‘Nollaig na mBan’ as it was the day when women celebrated Christmas

During the year which is coming to an end, the following celebrations took place in our parish:

• Baptisms                                        5
• First Holy Communion          2
• Confirmation                              9
• Marriages                                      5
• Funerals                                        8

We pray that the Lord will always be present to us in the special and in the ordinary moments of our lives

Ruby with her parents on her baptism day.

Charlie with his parents and his sisters Ciara, Emma and Rachel on his baptism day.

Cillian Martin Brooks with his parents on his bartism day.

Amy Lena Quinn with her parents Sheila and Seamus on her baptism day.

Cillian Patrick Nourmoyle with his parents Patrick and Michelle and sisters Rachel and Chloe on his baptism day.

We welcome Cillian Patrick Normoyle into the Christian family. Charlie was baptised in St Benedict’s Church, Coolmeen on Sunday, 13 December 2015. We congratulate his parents Michelle and  Patrick, Newbridge and pray God’s blessing on the family.

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We welcome Amy Lena Quinn into the Christian family. Amy was baptised in St Mary’s Church, Cranny on Sunday, 29 November 2015. We congratulate his parents Sheila and Seamus, Boloughera and pray God’s blessing on the family.

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We welcome Cillian Martin Brooks into the Christian family. Cillian was baptised in St Mary’s Church, Cranny on Sunday, 4 October 2015. We congratulate his parents Laura and Jamie, Sheesive and pray God’s blessing on the family.

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We welcome Ruby Ellen McMahon into the Christian family. Ruby was baptised in St Mary’s Church, Cranny on Saturday, 2 May 2015. We congratulate her parents Sharon and David, Boloughera and pray God’s blessing on the family.

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We welcome Charlie Matthew Hanrahan into the Christian family. Charlie was baptised in St Benedict’s Church, Coolmeen on Saturday, 3 January 2015. We congratulate his parents Ann-Marie and Kieran, Erribul and pray God’s blessing on the family.

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For baptisms in Coolmeen-Cranny in 2014 and previous years please click here