Irish Times Notes
Church Of Ireland Notes From ‘The Irish Times’
Saturday 23 May 2015
New Book by the Archdeacon of Tuam
Next Friday evening at 7pm in Matt Molloy’s of Westport a new book by the Ven. Gary Hastings, Archdeacon of Tuam and Rector of the Galway and Oughterard, will be launched by Fr Pat O’Brien.
Entitled Going Up the Holy Mountain (A Spiritual Guidebook), the book is about prayer and meditation as tools to move closer to God in the silence, the gap between words which allows them to make sense, the pause between the musical notes which allows the tune to form. Stations from the Christian tradition are included as guided meditations, in addition to profound meditations on aspects of nature (air, fire, water, stone, soil, light, plants, animals), which walk the user down the many roads towards God.
The book is primarily about a real mountain of rock and scree, Cruach Phádraig, Croagh Patrick, or the Reek, in Co Mayo in the west of Ireland; a very solid mountain with a long pre–Christian and Christian pilgrimage tradition. The origins of the pilgrimage and how it is traditionally done are explained and other ways you might use the mountain as a spiritual resource are suggested.
It can also be about any other mountain, or hill, or special place which was used for pilgrimage – the mountain that stands for our lives, our growing up and maturing, growing old and dying; the mountain that is our spiritual life, growing in spiritual maturity and insight, wisdom and clarity, as we progress towards God. This book is for your own private mountain, the one most accessible to you, even if it’s just in your eye, your heart, your mind.
Today (Saturday) the Church’s Ministry of Healing will hold a one day retreat in the Church of Ireland Theological College and in the evening the first in the 2015 summer ‘Music in Calary Church’ Series will feature a Handful of Singers from Bath – information on the series may be had from [email protected]
Tomorrow (Sunday) Christian Aid will host a Dublin City Walk, guided by Dermot Duggan, beginning at Christ Church cathedral at 11.45am and ending with Evensong in St Patrick’s cathedral at 5pm. Later in St Patrick’s, at 8pm, the final recital in the George Hewson Memorial Series will be given by the cathedral’s assistant organist, David Leigh.
The AGM of the Sunday School Society for Ireland will be held in Church of Ireland House, Dublin, on Monday at 10.30 am.
The Armagh Mothers’ Union Festival Service will be held in St Patrick’s cathedral on Wednesday evening while in Co. Cork there will be a concert in St Martin’s church, Templemartin, presented by Colin Nicholls, the retired organist of St Fin Barre’s cathedral.
On Thursday there will be a lunchtime Healing Service in in St Macartin’s cathedral, Enniskillen. In Dublin, in the Irish Architectural Archive, there will be a lunchtime lecture by Dr Michael O’Neill on the restoration and ecclesiology of St Patrick’s cathedral. This lecture is in the context of the exhibition in the Archive on the 150th anniversary of the Guinness restoration of St Patrick’s cathedral which continues until September.
On Friday at 1pm the Missouri Southern Chamber Singers will sing in St Mary’s cathedral, Limerick. The Archbishop of Dublin will be in Madrid at the invitation of Bishop Carlos Lopez–Lozano, to attend the Synod of the Spanish Episcopal Church. The Archbishop will take part in a round table discussion on Saturday 30 May and give a talk on the main characteristics of the Book of Common Prayer in Church of Ireland.
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’