Féile Bhaiste ár dTiarna, 9/10 Eanair 2016
Anniversaries:
Windgap: Members of the Morrissey family, Knockroe.
Tullahought: Jim Kenny, Ballinalinagh, Month’s Mind; Mary and Ned Costelloe, Ballinalinagh.
Mass Times (weekend): Windgap: Saturday, 7.30 p.m. Tullahought: Sunday, 10 a.m.
Windgap: Readers: January: 2, Ann Foley; 9, Rita Phelan; 16, Caoimhe O’Shea; 23, Martin O’Shea; 30, Michelle O’Brien.
Eucharistic Ministers: January: 2, Liz Jackson; 5, Bridget Comerford; 9, Catherine Meagher.
Tullahought: Eucharistic Ministers: January: 10, Mary Walsh; 17, Eileen Grace; 24, Leo Conalty; 31, Patricia Power; February: 7, Mary Walsh; 14.
Windgap: Weekday Mass: Tuesday, 9.30 am
New Year: “May this new year be a year of many blessings where new vision will transform the paralysed places of lonely hearts; where we will discover the hidden beauty of each soul, all who cross our pathways and if we meet with sorrow may we find an inner light to guide us to the bright place in the company of friends and family” (Fr Liam Lawton).
Church Unity Week: 18 – 25 Jan: Each year at this time of year we focus on praying for unity among the different members of the Christian tradition.
Vocations: Like Jesus, you are called God’s beloved. Renew your baptismal commitment and pray for those discerning a call to priesthood or religious life. If you think God is calling you to priesthood, call Fr Willie Purcell Ossory Vocations Director. 056 7770261 or email ossoryvocdir@gmail.com. www.ossory/vocations.
Progressive 25 Cards, Guinan’s, Friday, 15 January, at 9 pm. for Windgap Hurling Club:
World Youth Day 2016, Kracow, Poland, July 2016. Pope Francis will attend. Ossory Diocese is inviting young people (over 18 years) to attend; contact wyd@ossory.ie or Fr Richard Scriven (rscriven2009@gmail.com / 087 2420033) or Derek Dooley (087 938 4242
The Crib: The shepherds, angels and manger are found in Luke’s gospel, the wise men, the star and Herod in Matthew’s – but the crib as we know it is the product of a long process. The animals appear early on in Christian iconography. On the panel of a 4th century Roman sarcophagus now in Milan there is a scene depicting the Christ wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger with the ox at his head and the donkey at his feet.
The Ivory front book cover of the Lorsch Gospel Book (c. 810 AD) shows the child Jesus with Joseph, Mary, the two animals, the angel and the shepherds. The back cover shows the three wise men and Herod and the wise men offering their gifts in Bethlehem.
The tradition of the presence of the animals at the birth of Jesus is found in a 9th cent. Apocryphal gospel, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. The account is clearly indebted to the works of the prophets Isaiah and Habakkuk. In ch. 14 we read
And on the third day after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most blessed Mary went forth out of the cave, and entering a stable, placed the child in the stall, and the ox and the ass adored Him. Then was fulfilled that which was said by Isaiah the prophet, saying: The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib. The very animals, therefore, the ox and the ass, having Him in their midst, incessantly adored Him. Then was fulfilled that which was said by Habakkuk the prophet, saying: Between two animals thou art made manifest.
St. Francis of Assisi is the "father” of the crib as we know it. At Christmas 1223 he created a nativity scene in a cave near Greccio in Italy using people and animals - a living crib (Pope Francis visited Greccio recently). St. Bonaventure in his Life of Francis (1260), wrote:
Now three years before his death it befell that he was minded, at the town of Greccio, to celebrate the memory of the Birth of the Child Jesus, with all the added solemnity that he might, for the kindling of devotion ... he sought and obtained license from the Supreme Pontiff, and then made ready a manger, and bade hay, together with an ox and an ass, be brought unto the spot. The Brethren were called together, the folk assembled, the wood echoed with their voices, and that august night was made radiant and solemn with many bright lights, and with tuneful and sonorous praises. The man of God, filled with tender love, stood before the manger, bathed in tears, and overflowing with joy. Solemn Masses were celebrated over the manger, Francis, the Levite of Christ, chanting the Holy Gospel. Then he preached unto the folk standing round of the Birth of the King in poverty.
There is a alabaster crib in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome made in 1289 by Arnolfo di Cambio. The very colourful Neapolitan cribs date from the 15th century.
Priests of Windgap: William Maher was born in Blackmill St., in Kilkenny, and baptised in St. Canice’s church on 16 April 1811, the youngest, it seems, in a family of six boys. His parents were William Maher & Elizabeth Brian (married 23 June 1797 in St. Mary’s Cathedral). He studied classics in nearby Burrell’s Hall and in September 1833 began to study for the priesthood in Birchfield. After his ordination by Bishop Kinsella in 1838 he was CC Urlingford (1838-1840), Aghaboe (April-Oct. 1840), Clough (1840-42), Camross (1842-43), Castletown (1843-47), Muckalee (1847-54) and Callan (1854-Oct. 1862). He was appointed PP Tullaroan in October 1862. In March 1863 he was transferred to Windgap where he was to spend the next twenty-three years. In 1883 he was appointed Canon of Killamery. It was during his pastorate that the chapel of Tullahought was built, replacing an earlier chapel built about 1817. In this he was greatly assisted by the curate James Brennan about whom more anon. He must have been a good singer as he was chanter at the office and high mass for the month’s mind of Bishop Walsh in Sept. 1872. Fr Maher died after an illness of a few days on 24 April 1886. He is buried in the church of Tullahought but no inscription marks his resting place.
Butlerswood Field Names: Bán Crusha or Bán na Croise means the bawn of the crossroads (a lined chamber was found here); Buaile (cattle-fold, summer pasture), Cnoicín or Criceens (little hill/hills), Leacht na méar (cairn of the fingers), a mound where tradition states robbers cut off a lady’s fingers to remove her rings (O’Kelly), and a well - Tobar an Chuilinn, well of the holly. What field names are in your townland?