Gathering as a community on the Lord\u2019s Day to celebrate the Eucharist has always been at the heart of our Church.<\/p>\n
However, changes in society – some brought by the Covid19 pandemic – have seen some people\u2019s connect with Sunday Mass weakened.Ireland’s Catholic Bishops have launched material in print and online with which they invite people to reflect on the profound importance of Sunday Mass.<\/p>\n
Welcoming <\/span>Why Sunday Matters<\/strong>, Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildate and Leighlin, said,\u00a0<\/span>\u201cAs we journey through this Jubilee Year of Hope, the Irish Bishops\u2019 Conference invites everyone to. We recognise it not only as an obligation, but also as a precious gift \u2013 the source and summit of our faith.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He continued,\u00a0\u201cThere is no doubt that the COVID pandemic disrupted the long-standing practice of attending Sunday Mass. People were confined to their homes and learned to participate online. New habits took shape, and not everyone has since returned.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOf course, declining attendance at Mass is not new, and it calls for a much broader conversation. The reality is that some no longer feel connected to the Church or to the Sunday assembly. Others are uncertain in their faith and feel unsupported in their searching. Some feel unwelcome, while many have been deeply discouraged or outraged by the abuse scandals.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The pastoral message is designed to spark conversation in every parish about how we can become more welcoming and enrich the celebration of Mass – for ourselves and for others.\u201d<\/p>\n Bishop Nulty concluded,\u00a0\u201cI am grateful to all who helped produce this material, and I encourage everyone to share the message\u00a0Why Sunday Matters<\/strong>. To those who are not currently attending, our heartfelt appeal is that you consider returning to Mass in person, where possible. We miss you, and we look forward to welcoming you back around the table of the Lord, here on holy ground.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gathering as a community on the Lord\u2019s Day to celebrate the Eucharist has always been at the heart of our Church. However, changes in society – some brought by the Covid19 pandemic – have seen some people\u2019s connect with Sunday Mass weakened.Ireland’s Catholic Bishops have launched material in print and online with which they invite … Continue reading Why Sunday Matters<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18525,"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18524\/revisions\/18525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}