Uncategorized

A Week of Prayer to the Holy Spirit for the renewal of the Church in Dublin begins next Sunday May 29 to June 6 – Ascension Sunday through Pentecost to the Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church.

As preparation for this you are invited on Monday, May 23, at 8.30pm to get a flavour of the prayer resources that will be available by connecting to the Red Nuns webcam. The Sisters of the Monastery of St Alphonsus will lead the prayerful reflections with a bonus offering of music from the Dublin Diocesan Music Group.

If you can’t make it for the live presentation, check out the recordings section of the monastery website afterwards, where you will find the resource.

A copy of the prayer booklet is available here.

Palm Sunday
Vigil Mass Saturday 6.30pm, Sunday 10.00am & 11.30am
As we begin holy week with the joyful welcome of Palm Sunday we are invited to bring home blessed palm as a reminder of the welcome we give Our Lord into our hearts.

On Wednesday we celebrate the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness with our Penance Service with the Franciscans at 7.30pm. This helps us prepare for the Easter Triduum, one long celebration from Thursday through to Saturday.

On Holy Thursday we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist at 7.30pm.

On Good Friday we listen to the passion of Jesus and venerate the cross at 3pm.
Also, on Good Friday a day of fast and abstinence, here in Ballygall we will have the Stations of the Cross at 7 30pm. As a grouping of parishes we will have an outdoor way of the cross beginning in The Margaret Aylward centre at 12 noon.

The Triduum concludes with the Mass of the Resurrection on Holy Saturday at 8.30pm.

We invite you to all or some of these celebrations as they form the centre of our faith journey.

Easter Sunday Masses at 10.00am and 11.30 am.

The 7.25 a.m. Mass began on Ash Wednesday and our thanks to those who have spread the word to others from the surrounding parishes about the Mass. It is very encouraging to see many of you come to this early Mass and then head off to work. The 10 a.m. Mass continues as normal and likewise it is encouraging to see extra faces doing something extra this Lent.

You are warmly invited to two Synodal gatherings in March, in the parish of Ballygall
The word ‘synodal’means journeying together and these gatherings will be an opportunity to share and listen to each other’s experience of Church, in an organised, gentle and prayerful environment.

For full details click here.

As part of our steps in relaxing COVID restrictions we are hoping to bring in some changes in our gathering for Eucharist.

The first notable change will begin from Monday 21st February when the procession for Holy Communion will resume once more. We ask that people when coming forward for Holy Communion will keep a distance of 1 metre to ensure safe reception of communion. Holy Communion will continue to be distributed only on the hand for the moment.

We are still not permitted to provide Holy Water on the way in to church.

Hand sanitising and face covering are still required. The seats will no longer be sanitised after Mass. This means that the need for hand sanitising both entering and exiting is even greater.

Seating will continue to be limited to every second row.

At the weekend Masses the stewards will continue with the collections as currently are being done.

For Lent it is our intention to resume the 7.25am Mass.

We are awaiting clarification on the distribution of ashes for Ash Wednesday. 

Although the Government has issued certain guidelines we have been urged to keep in place social distancing in light of the still highly contagious nature of the virus. We are slowly introducing gentle changes over the next few weeks. We will still be continuing the seating system that is in place enabling people to gather safely in the church. After all Masses the church continues to be sanitised.

We are asked to sanitise our hands on the way in and out of church and to wear our masks for the short term. The Sign of Peace a and Offertory procession are still to be omitted and we are asked to continue to receive Holy Communion on the hand. You are invited to join us online in particular if experiencing Covid-like symptoms or are close contacts with others who may have contracted the virus.

The only change that will be evident is during private prayer during the day. The barriers are being extended and people are encouraged to visit the different shrines as normal. Our thanks to our ministers of the Eucharist and stewards who are on hand to help with the organisation of our safe celebration of the Eucharist each day.

It seems that our webcam is not connecting from the parish at the moment. It seems that our service provider has switched their home page and haven’t connected us via the parish website.

Until we get it sorted you can get to join us online for Mass by going to

www.churchmedia.tv and doing a search for Ballygall.

A link that might work is

churchmedia.tv/ballygall-parish-church-our-mother-of-divine-grace-glasnevin 

Apologies and hopefully we will get it sorted ASAP.

Ballygall Abroad

If you would like to greet your family members who are living abroad for our Christmas Services, please leave their names, town / country in the Parish Office. 

We will welcome them through our internet broadcast on Christmas Eve / Christmas Day before each of our Masses begins.

Christmas Eve Mass Schedule.

6.30 p.m. Mass – First Mass of Christmas.

8.30 p.m. – Night Mass

Christmas Morning – Masses at 10.00 a.m. and 11.30 a.m.

St. Stephen’s Day – Masses at 10.00 a.m. and 11.30 a.m.

11.30 Mass update
Thanks to a number of volunteers, who agreed to steward and clean the church after Mass, we are able to inform you that from Sunday (5th December 2021) we will be re-introducing the 11.30 Mass.
People are reminded of the importance of face masks, sanitising and social distancing.

Update on Return to Mass
We are still being urged to be careful despite allowances for full capacity in church.
With this in mind we are continuing to keep the same safety measures at all church services.
Hand sanitising and mask wearing are mandatory for all.
We will continue to keep every second seat empty. We will continue to fill each seat from the main aisle out to the wall to ensure maximum capacity keeping social distance.
Ventilation is paramount. With this in mind some doors will be kept open despite the cold weather. The church will continue to be sanitised after each Mass. The area for private prayer will continue to be only at the back of the church. The church will continue to be open later in the evening to facilitate private prayer.
Thank you to the stewards and volunteers for facilitating this.