29 March 2024

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Parish of the Assumption

Area Code: 057 Tel: 93 21587 - 93 22415 Fax: 93 51510
www.tullamoreparish.ie  
E-mail Parish Secretary:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

4th Sunday of Advent ~ 20th December 2020

Fr. Joseph Gallaghar P.P
Rt Rev Sean Heaney CC VG
Fr Kevin Fleming SSC
Fr. Luke Ohiemi C.C.
Fr. Fergal Cummins C.C.
Sr. Genny Hassey
Sr. Margaret Burke  

GET IN TOUCH

St Mary’s Parish Centre, Benburb St, Tullamore

Phone: 0579321587

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Web: www.tullamoreparish.ie

Office Hours: Mon-Fri 8.30am-5pm; Sat 2.00pm to 4.00pm to book Holy Mass tickets, weddings, baptisms, certs, etc;  

Priest available for emergencies 24 hours daily.

Parish Support Services:  Bereavement Listening, etc.  For appointment, ph 0579326604, Monday-Thursday 9.30am-1.00pm; Wednesday & Thursday 6.00-8.00pm.


WEEKEND MASSES

Church of the Assumption: (Vigil) 4.00 & 6.00pm Sunday 7.00am, 9.00am, 11.00am & 1.00pm

Durrow:  Sunday 11.30am

Tickets are required for all weekend Masses.  Please call in to the Parish Centre.

WEEKDAY MASSES

Monday-Friday 7.45am & 10.00am

Saturday 10.00am 

First Friday 7.45am & 10.00am

You can join us on the webcam www.tullamoreparish.ie

CONFESSIONS

Saturday 2.00-3.00pm in Day Chapel


CHRISTMAS MASSES

At Christmas time many people want to come to Mass. This year presents an enormous challenge because of the restricted numbers we can safely have in our churches. We are putting on as many extra Masses as we can to accommodate as many people as possible.  

For our Christmas Masses tickets are essential, with them people will know the Mass they can go to and which zone in the Church they can go to. 

The demand for tickets far exceeds the space available and all tickets have now been given out. 

Only those with tickets can be admitted.

The 10.00am Mass on St. Stephen’s Day is a shared Mass and for families of those being remembered.  

For those who cannot get to Mass on Christmas eve or Christmas Day, there is the possibility of coming the following weekend or sometime during the 12 days of the Christmas period.  All the Christmas Masses will be carried on webcam and perhaps families could light a candle and participate together in the Mass at home.

It is a strange and difficult situation for everyone and we ask for your co-operation and understanding at this time. 

All Christmas Eve and Day Masses will be offered for the intentions of those on our Christmas Mass Bouquet list.

We thank you for your support during this trying year and we wish you every good health, peace and blessing this Christmas.


SUNDAYS OF ADVENT

Today Sunday 20th, at 6pm, there will be a prayer service of hope around the theme of “The shortest day the longest night” remembering all who have died and those living with suicide bereavement and those who may find Christmas lonely and difficult.


POINSETTIAS FOR THE CHURCH

If you would like to donate a poinsettia to decorate the church for Christmas, please leave into the Sacristy.


CHRISTMAS CONFESSIONS

Confessions available today, 2.00-4.00pm; Monday after 10.00am Mass; Tuesday & Wednesday 5.00-7.00pm.


EXTRACTS FROM CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM BISHOP DEENIHAN

Full Message can be found on our Parish Website

…This year, that joyful Christmas celebration and that sense of light and hope is needed more than ever.   Many will understandably feel that 2020 will be a year best forgotten and fewer will face the New Year with the apprehension they may usually have on New Year’s Eve.  

For me, the image from last March of Pope Francis praying alone in the vastness of an empty St. Peter’s Square, enveloped by darkness and rain, was a powerful and striking image of a fearful and weeping world. In many ways, it typifies the past year.   Those who lost family members to the virus and those who were bereaved during the pandemic have walked in that darkness and shed those tears this year.   The consoling and supportive rituals that we are familiar with, both religious and social, were not possible and separation from family and social contacts caused distress, loneliness, and isolation.   The prospect of a vaccine is indeed encouraging news, allowing us to look forward to once again to being able to visit one another, renewing social contacts, restoring the possibility of visiting the sick and elderly both in hospitals and in nursing homes and offering some hope to those whose livelihoods have been adversely affected.  The emerging danger of the virus, public health advice, and subsequent regulations meant that our coming to adore Him has been very much restricted.   Many of us were torn between trying to protect life and health and practicing our faith.  Who would have thought this time last year that we would not have been able to attend Mass and the Sacraments for almost half the year and under severe restrictions for another four months?  

But, of course, our faith can never be confined to a church building on a weekend.  Our faith is something more.  It forms us, influences us and it is something that we practice and display in several ways.  During the past few months, a new focus on the family home as a ‘Domestic Church’ has emerged, where families pray together at home and where the faith is practiced and handed on from one generation to the next.  Webcams and broadcast services became a lifeline and helped people to pray.  But our faith is sacramental too!  It needs the support and nourishment of the Sacraments. The current virtual manifestation and celebration of faith must be temporary.

May your Christmas be holy and joyful and may the new year bring hope and happiness, a renewal of friendships and social contacts, and the freedom to worship joyfully and safely.


SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

Contact the Parish Secretary to arrange Baptism.


SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE

To book the Church for weddings, contact the Parish Secretary.


NB:  NOTICES FOR THE BULLETIN MUST BE IN THE PARISH CENTRE BY 9.30AM WEDNESDAY.

Only notices from parish groups, non-profit making organisations & clubs included


PARISH COLLECTIONS

Plate:  Tullamore €1265; Durrow €111

Envelopes €3257

Thank you for your continued support.


PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR FIONA PENDER, OUR PARISHONER WHO HAS BEEN MISSING SINCE 22nd AUGUST 1996


MASS INTENTIONS

Mon 21      7.45 Daniel, Mary, Ann, Maura, Donal, Paddy & James Beatty

10.00 Margaret & John Talbot & Mai & Jim Doody

Tues 22     7.45  Kevin Moran 

10.00  Bridie, Noel, Declan, Alan & baby Josh Kelly 

Wed 23      7.45 Hubert & Margaret Collins, Spollenstown

               10.00  Keane & Prenderville Families

Thurs 24 10.00 Liam Duffy, Moylena

Sat 26        4.00 Rody, Mary & Mary B Molloy

                 6.00  Anne Tobin, 1st Ann

Gertie Hoey, 1st Ann

Sun 27       9.00 Jim Roche, Church Rd, Tom Hynes, Daingean Rd

                11.00 Katie Walsh, 1st Ann

                  1.00  Michael Kelly, Chancery Lane, Mon Mem

Shared Mass Sat 26, 10am: Tommy & Jamie McDonald; John O’Brien; Bridie Brennan; Kathleen & Stephen Grennan; Mary & Joe Corcoran; Patsy & Ciss Gorman & Frances Walsh; John Duncan; James & Teresa Doyle; May Cunningham; Maureen Lawless, Maryann & Jim Kelly; Michael Moran; John Brady; Hensey Family & Fedelm Lane; John, Josephine & Elizabeth Hayes & Cuskelly Family; Hayden, Allen & Darrah Families; Chris, Paddy & Noeleen Bracken; Sr Pius Clarke


DEATHS

We offer our sympathy to the families of Thomas Carroll, Joe Hume, Sr Redempta Horan, Brendan Flanagan, Patrick Flanagan & Frances Nolan.


BAPTISMS

Welcome to God’s family Scarlett Rose Kerrigan, Lucy Kathleen Gorman & Emily Jane Connolly who were baptised recently.


COMMUNITY NOTICES

MABS: Helpline 0761 07 2000 Mon to Fri 9am - 8pm.

ALONE: COVID support line for older people.  Ph 0818 222 024, 8am-8pm daily.

AA: Offaly House, Offaly St, Mon, Wed, Thur, Sat &  Sun 8.15pm, Tues, Wed, Fri & Sun, 1pm.

TULLAMORE RAPE CRISIS CENTRE:  Opening times Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm, Ph 0579322500; Freephone  800323232; 

TARA:  Happy Christmas to all members of TARA.  Hopefully we will be able to get together soon.