St. Gabriel's - News

It has been a busy time since Christmas here at The Graan. We have just finished our Novena of Hope when we had to begin Holy Week Services. We would particularly like to thank our fellow Passionists who helped us out during the Novena. Aidan, Gary and Terence were most helpful. Also to Anthony O Leary who will be with us in Holy Week. We appreciate the help very much and in fact couldn't survive without it.

Martin Coffey was with us for our Annual Provincial Visitation. It was a prayerful and thought provoking Visitation, for which we were most grateful. It came very soon after the visit from Michael O Hanlon and helped to clarify many of the issues raised in earlier conversations. We thank Martin for his kind direction during Visitation.

We've had three meetings with people who are interested in the idea of a Lay Passionist Group. There is a keen interest in the group, though there would be very little consensus as to what direction such a group would take. People are committed to different levels of participation. However it is most consoling to see so many people being willing to help us think through what it is to be a Passionist in the modern world. The last meeting which was held on the 10th March tried to communicate the spirit of St Paul of the Cross to the group. We used the film narrated by Martin Sheen as a starting point of the discussion.

We also have many Prayer Groups meeting each week and there is a Youth 2000 meeting every Friday night. On one Saturday a month a group of

Young Adults come in to spend a day in prayer and discussion. The number varies from 10 to 19 depending on availability. It has been very helpful for all of us and a good spirit has grown among the group. They are also very helpful in making suggestions about Church Services etc. and will go on a weekend retreat shortly.

At the start of the year The Graan received a complete facelift. First of all the long awaited Lift was installed and is now in working order much to the delight of the Community and indeed the people who use the Prayer Room. It received universal approval. Because of the work, the rest of the house had to be redecorated. Thankfully it was done with a minimum of disturbance and everything is looking quite refreshed now.

We also had to paint the Church. Picking colours was, as always, a huge problem but our advisory group helped us. The Church is now completely re-decorated.

The Novena of Hope was as always a good success. It seems a little trite to continue talking about crowds, because the organising committee always insist the hope given to those most in need of it, is the only criterion of success. However it is most encouraging to see the absolutely outstanding attendance at every single Service of the Novena. This year we tried to push the boundaries out a little. It will take another few weeks to assess the precise impact of the Novena. Thanks be to God though for so many good people. The speakers were Jarlath Burns, Tony Campbell, Dr Paddy Walsh, Archdeacon Pringle, Aidan Troy, Gary Donegan, John Pridmore and Brian.

Victor and Oswald look after the many prayer groups and Victor had a massive Healing Mass in honour of St Pio, just before the Novena.

Most of the Community look forward to being in Larne after Easter for our Assembly. We will have to close down The Graan for the two days and we will do our best to explain to our loyal people why we have to do this - one of the reasons for the Assembly in the first place.

All of the Community are well, though we have had our share of minor illnesses. Tom Devitt has been very low for some months now in The Graan Abbey Nursing Home. We thought he wouldn't be able to survive early February, but thankfully he made a reasonable recovery. He is still quite ill.