Catholic Schools Week – 25 January to 1 February 2015

Catholic Schools Week has been celebrated in Ireland for the last five years. This annual event calls on Catholic schools to give expression in a special way to a particular aspect of Catholic education. This theme of Catholic Schools Week 2015 is‘Catholic Schools: Called to Serve’.

This call to serve comes from Christ himself. Jesus is called ‘teacher’ on forty-six occasions in the Gospels. It is the title most commonly associated with him by his first followers. So what did Jesus teach? In the villages, hills and valleys of Galilee he taught the people that the reign of God was dawning in their midst. He spoke of the reign of God as healing for the sick, hearing for the deaf, new sight for the blind, freedom for prisoners and good news for the poor.

All Christians are called to serve their brothers and sisters. This year’s theme ‘Catholic Schools: Called to Serve’ lends itself to examine what we understand by service and who it is our schools serve. To serve is an integral element of Jesus’ mission in the Gospels. Education is a platform from which all are called to serve – parents, teachers, students, community and the wider world. In particular, Catholic schools place at the centre of their ethos an identity with the mission of Jesus Christ, who continually calls all who hear his voice to serve. Today at our 11am Family Mass we welcome all parents, teachers, children, and friends from all our parish schools, along with the catholic children from Ranelagh Multi Denominational School. Together we mark in prayer the opening of Catholic Schools Week.  Fr David

We are keen to enrol and train a new group of altar servers over the next few weeks. Those who have recently celebrated their First Communion are particularly welcome. Training for new altar servers will be provided by Josephine Bennett and Lester Barlow, who have both participated in Diocesan child safeguarding training. Parents of children, who would like to become altar servers, are invited to pick up a parental authorisation form from the parish office or the sacristy.

We urgently need volunteers for church cleaning, Web Committee, Youth Initiative Group and drivers for meals on wheels.

Find out ways in which you can be involved more in your parish!

To download a directory of all the Community Organisations and Charities in the Rathmines Area compiled by the Parish and by World Missions Ireland Click Here>>

Read a Guide to this week's Gospel here >>