It was cold and windy but so awesome!
We had a rather extraordinary weekend here at home which included a quick visit from our friend Flan volunteering out in Cork as well a short excursion to the infamous “Hook Lighthouse” about 40 minutes away from where we live. The lighthouse is over 800 years old and is apparently the oldest lighthouse in Europe. So that was pretty legit. It was a wonderfully miserable Irish day which made it absolutely perfect for a visit to the Hook. God Bless our friend Ruaíri for taking us!
13th Century Norman Lighthouse
We were also blessed with another huge display of overwhelming generosity when one of our fellow parishioners invited us to use her house with all of the sports channels so that we could watch the Superbowl which started at about 11:30pm for us. We might have been up until the wee hours of the morning but it was definitely a good time.
After a pretty fun weekend, it’s back to work for us. Carolyn and I have been working with the Family Liturgy Group at Clonard Parish since September and have recently been joined by Jessica who will take over next year. Besides attending rehearsals, singing along on Sundays and helping lead the Children’s Liturgy of the Word, we’ve also had the opportunity to share some of our musical experience with them and have taught some new Mass parts and Responsorial Psalms that the group were very eager to adopt. The children soak up everything like sponges and so after many requests, the four of us put our heads together and came up with a large list of songs that we’d eventually like to teach the group. We were able to cut it down to a top ten list, at least for this first year, and so tonight Carolyn and I will meet with the adult members of the Family Liturgy Group to present them with loads of new music which we hope they will enjoy!
On Wednesday night Jessica will help coordinate the last Confirmation preparation session for the Kennedy Park sixth class and on Friday we will head up to Dublin to celebrate Mass and a meal with the Notre Dame and ACE communities there. We will also continue to work throughout the week in preparation for our second workshop for parish and school musicians which will take place on Sunday afternoon out at the Ballyvaloo Retreat Centre about 25 minutes from where we live.
Please keep us and our parish community in your prayers. You are certainly in ours!
