Faith 'will be in the home' - Bishop

If there is going to be a strong faith in the 'new beginning' in the church, it will be in the home and in the culture of the community, Bishop Eamonn Walsh said at Kilcullen's Chruinniú Chríost parish gathering on Sunday.

He said that the role of the parish in future will be to enable each parent and each community to have the 'confidence and knowledge resource' to bring the Word of God themselves to homes and 'to every corner of our towns and villages'.

In a reference to the 'bit of a mess' that the church is in today, he said that there is hope in reflection on the mistakes and difficult times which the beginning church endured in the period after the Ascension.

This was behind the theme of the Chruinniu this year, 'Get into the Boat', he suggested, which relates to the Gospel story about the storm at sea. It was that story in St Luke's Gospel which the pre-Chruinniú gatherings were asked to study. "Our role is to make sure that we get this boat out into the harbour and that we equip our people through the Parish Pastoral Centre to be able to play their part."

The Bishop said that where the church today differs from the early unsettled times before the Pentacost is that it has the Holy Spirit, which offers the ability of seeing life in the way which Jesus wanted.

"OK, we have the Holy Spirit, but how do we get it breathing?" he asked. "There are many ways, such as by taking a few lines of the Word of God, just think about it, reflect and let it breath into our minds and then we're letting the breath of the Holy Spirit colour the way we see life."

Bishop Walsh added that if this isn't done, since nature abhors a vacuum then something else will come in to take its place.



Although numbers were down this year, possibly because the very fine weather prompted family trips elsewhere, a very good crowd of parishioners of all ages took part in the Chruinniú. The march from the Market Square to the mass celebrated in the playing field of Scoil Bhride was followed by a picnic and entertainment from local musicians.



A special presentation was made to Bishop Eamonn, who has led the mass in all three of the events to date. It was a bronze casting of a traditional Irish fishing rowboat.

Brian Byrne.


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