Marley Grange Parish is currently recruiting a Parish Secretary. This role is offered initially on a one year fixed term / part-time basis, Monday – Friday, 9am to 1pm.

The duties include:

1. Providing an administrative service to Marley Grange Parish
2. Managing the parish office with the effective use of up-to-date office systems
3. Receiving members of the public and dealing with enquiries
4. Recording and managing parish records.

• The successful candidate will have at least 5 years clerical / administrative experience.
• Up-to-date computer skills including Microsoft word and excel with some database experience. Microsoft publisher would also be desirable.
• Highly developed interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate effectively and work as part of a team.

Letters of application with an up to date curriculum vitae should be emailed to Ashling Keane on ashling.keane@dublindiocese.ie.

The closing date for completed applications is 5pm on Tuesday 31^st October 2017. See Job description below.

The above contains the main outline of duties. However it is inevitable that tasks may arise which may not fall within the remit of the above list of main duties.  Staff members are therefore required to respond with a flexible approach when ad hoc tasks arise which are not specifically covered in their job description. Should an additional responsibility become a regular part of a staff member’s job, the Job Description will be amended to reflect this.

There are two websites providing comprehensive information and resources for this great event:

http://www.worldmeeting2018.ie

http://www.amoris.ie

The link below will take you directly to an animation video

New Church Car Park

The original church car park was completed in 1984 at the time of Church construction. It was a simple bitmac surface with no drainage or markings and with 3 landscaped islands, one of which contained the sole lighting column. The new church car park was designed to cater for:

• Church and Parish Centre : church ceremonies, weddings, funerals, recitals, social events, etc
• Divine Word National School: the greater use of cars has created a need for ordered drop-off/pick-up of pupils adjacent to the school.

Accordingly, there are competing requirements in terms of layout and operation, while activities can extend into the hours of darkness. There are 3 vehicular entrances to the car park, the dominant one being from Marley Rise. Further, there are 4 pedestrian entrances. Recognising these constraints, the over-riding objective in the design of the new car park was to create a safe environment for all users at all times of the day, given a reasonable expectation of good user behaviour. Following detailed site surveys, a number of potential layouts were developed. The chosen design consists of a herringbone layout with one-way clockwise traffic movement. Critical to the design is the creation of safe pedestrian paths or refuges, the main one being a raised path running the length of the car park. In short, the design intent was all about ‘bringing order to the chaos’. The completed car park delivers the following:

• A proper traffic management system with fully lined car park.
• 40 lined car park spaces with 2 disabled spaces.
• Designated coloured pedestrian routes for church and school users
• Surface water drainage connected to the Council system
• Public lighting
• A site for St Joseph’s Bell

In ensuring the safe use of the facility, there are a number of important rules for drivers as follows:

• Follow the direction arrows at all times – no short-circuiting
• Use designated parking spaces only – no parking on hatched areas or paths
• Always drive in to spaces and reverse out
• Yield right of way to pedestrians at all times
• Observe the speed limit of 5 kph at all times

Similarly, pedestrians should:

• Use the designated pedestrian paths only
• Observe normal ‘Rules of the Road’ at crossings and vehicle conflict points
• Ensure that children are supervised and guided safely to their destination

In conclusion, the new car park is a private Parish Community facility to be used at the individual user’s risk. Please respect the facility and other users.

World Meeting of Families, August 2018

Continued consideration of the Diocesan review of the work of PPC’s

Child safeguarding

Week of Guided Prayer [March 2017]

Lenten Retreat

Newsletter

Correspondence

Parish Pastoral Programme 2016/7  [see link below]

Deanery report

Report from Mount Merrion parish on assistance to refugees

Long term look at the Mass schedule – can it be sustained?

pastoral-programme-16-17

On March 13th 2015 Pope Francis announced an Extraordinary Jubilee, a Holy Year of Mercy to commence on December 8th 2015.

Dear brothers and sisters, I have often thought of how the Church may render more clear her mission to be a witness to mercy; and we have to make this journey. It is a journey which begins with spiritual conversion. Therefore, I have decided to announce an Extraordinary Jubilee which has at its centre the mercy of God. It will be a Holy Year of Mercy. We want to live in the light of the word of the Lord: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (cf. Lk 6:36). And this especially applies to confessors! So much mercy!

This Holy Year will commence on the next Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and will conclude on Sunday, 20 November 2016, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe and living face of the Father’s mercy. I entrust the organization of this Jubilee to the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, in order that it may come to life as a new step on the Church’s journey in her mission to bring the Gospel of mercy to each person.

I am confident that the whole Church, which is in such need of mercy for we are sinners, will be able to find in this Jubilee the joy of rediscovering and rendering fruitful God’s mercy, with which we are all called to give comfort to every man and every woman of our time. Do not forget that God forgives all, and God forgives always. Let us never tire of asking forgiveness. Let us henceforth entrust this Year to the Mother of Mercy, that she turn her gaze upon us and watch over our journey: our penitential journey, our year-long journey with an open heart, to receive the indulgence of God, to receive the mercy of God.
The Jubilee Year will begin with the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, through which pilgrims are invited to enter. To enable the participation of everbody in this Jubilee of Mercy, Holy Doors will be opened in the Cathedrals in every Diocese in the world and in specially designated places.

We will announce the locations of the Holy Doors in this Diocese as soon as they come to hand.

The official website of the Jubilee of Mercy is:  http://www.iubilaeummisericordiae.va

Pope Francis has published a prayer written especially for the Year of Mercy:

Lord Jesus Christ,
you have taught us to be merciful like the heavenly Father,
and have told us that whoever sees you sees Him.
Show us your face and we will be saved.
Your loving gaze freed Zacchaeus and Matthew from being enslaved by money;
the adulteress and Magdalene from seeking happiness only in created things;
made Peter weep after his betrayal,
and assured Paradise to the repentant thief.
Let us hear, as if addressed to each one of us, the words that you spoke to the Samaritan woman:
“If you knew the gift of God!”

You are the visible face of the invisible Father,
of the God who manifests his power above all by forgiveness and mercy:
let the Church be your visible face in the world, its Lord risen and glorified.
You willed that your ministers would also be clothed in weakness
in order that they may feel compassion for those in ignorance and error:
let everyone who approaches them feel sought after, loved, and forgiven by God.

Send your Spirit and consecrate every one of us with its anointing,
so that the Jubilee of Mercy may be a year of grace from the Lord,
and your Church, with renewed enthusiasm, may bring good news to the poor,
proclaim liberty to captives and the oppressed,
and restore sight to the blind.

We ask this of you, Lord Jesus, through the intercession of Mary, Mother of
Mercy; you who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and
ever.
Amen.

The installation  of a webcam in our church in 2015 fulfilled a long-held ambition of the Parish Pastoral Council. For many years Mass has been broadcast from this church over the Parish Radio; this remains in place and continues to be of great service. The radio, however has a limited range whereas the webcam, streamed through the parish website, can be accessed anywhere in the world via the internet. 

Being able to see the Mass and other services live is obviously much appreciated by parishioners who are ill or housebound and who are such an important part of our Eucharistic Community. It is also a lovely connection with home for parishioners living abroad.

Installing the camera and connecting it to the internet, with all its associated technical requirements, was a costly undertaking that was funded entirely by a parishioner to whom we extend our sincerest thanks for such great generosity.     

We hope you enjoy our services wherever in the world you may be.

Training is available in the use of the defibrillator. Volunteers are needed and should contact the Parish Secretary, Mary Molloy. It would be helpful if anyone who is already trained made this known to the parish office.

The availability of a defibrillator in places where large numbers of people gather has proven to be a life-saver.

We are most grateful to Marley Grange Residents Association for this initiative.

(These extracts are courtesy of the Fraternity of Mary Immaculate Queen – Ireland, Hampton, Gracepark Road, Dublin 9. www.fratmiq.com)

Consecrated life is a gift to the Church, it is born of the Church, it grows in the Church, and it is entirely directed to the Church. For this reason, precisely as a gift to the Church, it is not an isolated or marginal reality, but deeply a part of her. It is at the heart of the Church, a decisive element of her mission, in as much as it expresses the deepest nature of the Christian vocation and the yearning of the Church as the Bride for union with her sole Spouse. Thus, “it belongs…absolutely to the life and holiness” of the Church (Lumen Gentium, 44).

In this letter, I wish to speak not only to consecrated persons, but also to the laity, who share with them the same ideals, spirit and mission… I urge you, as laity, to live this Year for Consecrated Life as a grace which can make you more aware of the gift you yourselves have received. […] Celebrate it with your entire “family”, so that you can grow and respond together to the promptings of the Spirit in society today.

The Year for Consecrated Life concerns not only consecrated persons, but the entire Church. Consequently, I ask the whole Christian people to be increasingly aware of the gift which is the presence of our many consecrated men and women, heirs of the great saints who have written the history of Christianity. What would the Church be without Saint Benedict and Saint Basil, without Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard, without Saint Francis and Saint Dominic?[…].  The list could go on and on…

As Blessed Paul VI pointed out:  “Without this concrete sign there would be a danger that the charity which animates the entire Church would grow cold, that the salvific paradox of the Gospel would be blunted, and that the “salt” of faith would lose its savour in a world undergoing secularization” (Evangelica Testificatio, 3).

The Pope identifies prayer as the source of the fruitfulness of the mission. “Let us cultivate the contemplative dimension, even amid the whirlwind of more urgent and heavy duties. And the more the mission calls you to go out to the margins of existence, let your heart be the more closely united to Christ’s heart, full of mercy and love”. (Rejoice)

Being with Jesus shapes a contemplative approach to history which knows how to see and hear the presence of the Spirit everywhere and, in a special way, how to discern the Spirit’s presence in order to live in time as God’s time. When the insight of faithis lacking, “life itself loses meaning, the faces of brothers and sisters are obscured and it becomes impossible to recognize the face of God in them, historical events remain ambiguous and deprived of hope”. (Rejoice)

Contemplation expands into prophetic aptitude. The prophet is one “whose eye is opened, and who hears and speaks the words of God; […], a person of three times: the promise of the past, the contemplation of the present, the courage to point out the path toward the future.

“Rejoice”, A Letter to Consecrated Men and Women in Preparation for the Year Dedicated to Consecrated Life.

May this Year of Consecrated Life also be an occasion for confessing humbly, with immense confidence in the God who is Love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8), our own weakness and, in it, to experience the Lord’s merciful love.

May this Year likewise be an occasion for bearing vigorous and joyful witness before the world to the holiness and vitality present in so many of those called to follow Jesus in the consecrated life.

I entrust this Year of Consecrated Life to Mary, the Virgin of listening and contemplation, the first disciple of her beloved Son.

Let us look to her, the highly beloved daughter of the Father, endowed with every gift of grace, as the unsurpassed model for all those who follow Christ in love of God and service to their neighbour.

Pope Francis, 21 November 2014, Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Click on the link below for the full text of Pope Francis’ letter.

Year of Consecrated Life

Servite Friar Fr. Bill Mcloughlin, osm writes: 

“If the new motherhood conferred on Mary at Calvary is a gift for all Christians, it has a specific value for those who have completely consecrated their lives to Christ.…They, like John, are called to take the Blessed Virgin Mary to themselves (cf. Jn 19:27), loving her and imitating her in the  radical manner which befits their vocation, and experiencing in return her special motherly love.” (Vita Consecrata 28)

 The Friar Servants of Mary [Servites], founded as one of the five mendicant orders in 1233 by Florentines later called the Seven Holy Founders, retired from the world to live poverty and penance, focussing on preaching the Gospel and honouring Our Lady, with special reference to her Sorrows. 

Pope Francis says “Where there are religious, there is joy!” As the Blessed Virgin, bearer of the Word of God, brings joy when she meets others, her Servants strive to do the same in a range of ministries that have adapted and varied down the centuries. In apostolates ranging from defence of the rainforests to university chaplaincy, we strive to make the“spirituality of communion” present in the Church and the world.

Our care of the sick has a particular focus on those suffering from cancer, for whom Saint Peregrine o.s.m. is a patron and comforter. All these expressions of service remind us that it is not enough to read and preach the Gospel: Jesus is asking us to put it into practice and to live out his words.

 The Pope urges that this year should be an occasion humbly to confess our weakness with confidence in God’s mercy. It is not vocations campaigns which attract others to the religious life, but encountering religious who are happy, living a life which displays the joy and beauty of living the Gospel and following Christ.

(Father Bill, o.s.m. is a Parish Priest, Chaplain to two universities and hospitals in Bath, and Hon. General Secretary of the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary (www.esbvm.org.uk).

It’s a relaxed and informal setting and materials are provided. At the moment 2015 we have commenced a study of  St. Mark’s Gospel. All are welcome.

For further information contact.   Anne Mc Grath  087 2399413                   amtmcgrath@eircom.net

                                                      Helen Keenan Dunne 086 2769985           hkeendunne@live.ie

                                                      Robert Poynton       086 8368768               robertpoynton@gmail.com