Good Morning! I trust and pray that all of you are having a beautiful Monday, regardless of whether or not it includes some Irish sunshine (only kidding, ours only lasted until about halfway through writing this). It’s just Jess and I in the office at the moment, as both Dan and Molly are enjoying their day off.

It’s been difficult to believe that we’ve only been here a little more than a week; the days have seemed full, but never rushed by any means, the connections we’ve made with the people we’ve met have been pleasant and very quickly familiar, and we’ve begun some of our responsibilities at Clonard. Upon completing our opening retreat and orientation at Ballyvaloo last Wednesday, we returned to Wexford to sing at a 3 T’s candlelight vigil (Turning the Tide of Suicide) with the Folk Group. Having lost several friends and extended family to suicide, it was comforting to be there with all who were gathered in commemoration; one of the beautiful moments where the reciprocal nature of ministry is evident. On Friday the Folk Group was part of a prayer service for the most recent Confirmation class as they begin their transition from primary to secondary school, titled “Stepping Out into Secondary School.” It was a good opportunity to not only add our voices in prayer to those of the students, but also to just mingle and chat with them and their families at the post-service (prayer) tea service (social).The four of us, along with Ruairi, also sang at the 7:00 Saturday Vigil Mass this past weekend for the first time – it’ll be another week or so before the parish choirs start back up.

Some of the exciting things we have coming up are preparing for the implementation of the new Mass translations this weekend,  a first visit to Scoil Mhuire this afternoon for myself and Jess, as well as the Teach’s first visit to Dublin on Friday for Mass with the ACE Community. Hopefully by that time Jess will have gotten her visa and no longer be in danger of deportation… but in the meantime, please keep her and all of us in your prayers, and know that you are in ours.

God Bless!

*The title of this post stems from a conversation about Bananas Foster that occurred during the Teach Bhride watching of the Notre Dame “game” last Saturday (quotation marks used for obvious reasons). I now have a more clear understanding of banana liqueurs.

 

Teach Bhride Season 3!