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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.

Trócaire Special Appeal for East Africa – November 6^th & 7^th November

The Bishops of Ireland have called for a national Church collection on the 6th and 7th of November to support Trócaire in providing life-saving aid to vulnerable communities in East Africa and DRC, where millions of people are being pushed to the edge of starvation.     

Trócaire teams are already responding on the ground, and are ready to provide more life-saving assistance but need more resources.

This Emergency Appeal will replace the SHARE collection next weekend. For more information see www.trocaire.org.

We are delighted to extend a very warm Ballygall welcome to Fr. Paul St. John who has joined our parish.  

Fr. Paul is a member of the Divine Word Missionaries and worked overseas in Mexico before returning to Ireland. 

He has been Chaplain at Mountjoy and also served in the parishes of City Quay and most recently Walkinstown.

We wish him well and hope that he is very happy here.

On behalf of the Parish we would like to thank Fr. Damian most sincerely for all his support over the past seven years. He has been very loyal to our parish and in particular to our 7.25am Mass. He has also given the parish huge support throughout COVID times in all our liturgies. We wish him all the best in Castleknock,. As the saying goes, our loss is their gain. Fr. Damian is also leaving his Diocesan Role in the liturgy office, where he has contributed not only to the enhancement of Liturgy of the Dublin Diocese but also was instrumental in the Liturgical celebrations of the World Meeting of Families and The Papal Visit.

Thank you to all who have donated towards our farewell to Fr. Damian. We will make a presentation to him next Saturday, 21st August, on your behalf.

By now you will be aware that Baptisms have been given the green light to proceed once more. During August we are celebrating twice each Saturday to clear the back log. Numbers are restricted to 8 family members with baby. This enables Parents, God-parents and Grand-parents to attend the celebration. Families are encouraged not to have a large gathering afterwards.

First Holy Communion celebrations were postponed until September and things are looking good to have these much smaller gatherings on Each Saturday during the month. The schools have informed the families of the dates.

Confirmation celebrations were postponed from July and the children will be informed of dates when the children return to school. These will hopefully begin mid September on week evenings with the class of 2020 celebrating the sacrament on the first week and the class of 2021 on the second week following a similar structure as was planned last month.

Weddings are permitted to have 100 guests whereas Funerals are still limited to 50 mourners present. All celebrations can be viewed online.

Sadie wants to thank all the people of Ballygall for their kind wishes on her retirement last week. She was overwhelmed with your thoughtfulness to her. The cards and gifts and well wishes were way more than she could ever imagine. “Please say a big thank you to all the parishioners for their kindness to me”.
She always operated quietly in the background and she retired in the very same way. No Fuss, no pomp, just slipped out the door, the way she wanted it. We wish her well in her retirement and pray that she will have many happy years with her son and family in England and at home when she returns after a well-deserved break.

Sadie Farrelly has informed us of her intention to retire as sacristan. She has been with the parish for almost 40 years as sacristan. The Tin Church where it all began and for over the past 30 years here in our current building. She will finish on Saturday 31^st July. Sadie has always led a quiet lifestyle and wants no fuss as she leaves us. Covid with all its restrictions has aided this and it is with regret that we bid farewell to her over the coming week in a quiet and gentle way respecting her wishes. Thank you, Sadie for your support to Ballygall over the years.

At the moment we are having problems with the webcam. Apologies for that and we will hopefully be back online soon.

Remember we can hold up to 100 for Mass. Not much use to those who are still joining us online but we are praying for you.