St. Gabriel's Retreat, The Graan
The Autumn months have been busy for us. There was a surprisingly large turnout for Confessions at the beginning of November. Fr Anthony O Leary was with us for the week and without his assistance we could not have coped. At the time of writing the build up for the Christmas period has already begun. The first week in December has been much busier than usual. We requested the people to come as early as possible for Christmas because with four priests, it would simply be impossible to satisfy the demand. Once again Fr Anthony will be with us for a few days before Christmas and Fr Arthur Mc Cann has kindly offered to help too.
Fr Victor returned from a visit to Botswana last month. He couldn't be there for the Golden Jubilee Celebrations in December because of the Apostolate at The Graan, so he went earlier. He enjoyed it very much and was impressed with the great work being done there. At the moment the long awaited Lift for the Community in The Graan is being installed. When the house was built 10 years ago, provision was made for a Lift Shaft in the present building. This made our work much easier now. It also reduced the cost greatly. A door has been broken down from the top corridor leading directly into the upstairs
Prayer Room. This means the Lift will
facilitate not just the members of our Community but all those who wish
to go to Prayer Meetings and are unable to use stairs. It means that our
Prayer Apostolate will now be available to a much wider range of people.
Most of the difficult work has been done and the actual installation of
the Lift should be completed before Christmas. It
is at times like this that we think of the late Fr Jerome. He would have
appreciated the Lift and indeed we will miss him greatly as we approach
Christmas.
We had the Second Annual Harvest Festival in The Graan in the first week of October. The altar was specially decorated by the Young Adult Group and provided a holistic Liturgy for the 10.30 and 12 noon Masses. There was a huge offering of food and gifts for the poor which the St Vincent de Paul have distributed in the locality. As well, the collection for the poor at home and abroad raised £2,715. This will be a great help to the local St Vincent de Paul helping the poor at Christmas, and to Concern and GOAL in their Third World work.
One of the most appreciated Liturgies we had was the special Service for the Bereaved at the beginning of November. The reaction of many of the bereaved families was most heartening, and they especially appreciated the emphasis being on the living rather than on the deceased.
The usual mad rush happened in November this year when we had our Car Draw and Dinner Dance. It was extremely hard work as it always is. In all £37,000 Stg and €8,000 was taken in and when all expenses are paid there should be enough funds raised to install the Lift. The remainder will be supplied by our Graan Lotto which has been a great success again this year.
The Dinner Dance tickets were all sold out well in advance of the event itself. 350 people were in attendance in the local Killyhelvin Hotel and it was a very successful community building night. Fr Arthur McCann pulled out the winning ticket which went to a local and deserving lady Mary Monaghan of Cornagrade.
The Graan Shop has been busy with souvenirs and Religious gifts for Christmas. Among the best-sellers this year are Fr Brian's new book 'Reflections From The Heart' which has already sold out its first printing and once again 'Give Up Yer Aul Sins' now in Video, DVD and CD - has been best-seller throughout Ireland and natural enough in this locality too.
Frs.
Brian, Marius, Oswald, Br Mark & Fr Victor
send their best regards to all our brethren at home and abroad. We send
particular good wishes to those who visited us during the year. We will
be remembering each and every one during our Christmas Masses. We look
forward to seeing you in 2003, which we hope will be a fruitful and happy
year for all of us.
December 2002 - Index
Synod of Congregation in Korea
Meeting Lay Passionist Association
St. Paul of the Cross - Man of Prayer by Fr. Frank Keevins
First meeting of Former Passionists
Senior/Retired Religious Initiative
Obituary:
Bro. Malachy Daly C.P. 1916-2002
Fr. Patrick Wilson C.P. 1907-2002
Fr. Celestine Butterly C.P. 1916-2002