Thirty-fourth Sunday of the year

To the first hearers of Pius XI’s Mass of Christ the King in 1925, it must have been strange, if not ridiculous, to see the institution of a feast dedicated to royalty when all of Christendom was rejecting the very idea of such in favour of the dangerous alternative of democracy. The feast of Christ the King functions, in many ways, as a call to subvert ideologies of domination and, instead, to again place front and foremost in our midst the example of Christ as the only possible ideal of kingship.

It is sometimes in our nature to be reverential and indeed deferential toward authority, as though the concept in its self was as immediate indication of inherent goodness and knowledge. Yet, in the Gospels, it is authority, both spiritual and temporal, that sends Jesus to his fate and shows itself to be neither good nor knowledgeable but only pragmatic and self-serving. In today’s Gospel, Pilate in the typically sympathetic tones of John the Evangelist, questions Jesus’ concept of kingship like the learned disciple at his teacher’s feet. Yet it is his pragmatism and cynicism that wins out on the day to send Jesus to the cross in a rejection of truth that is, paradoxically, an acceptance.

The Jesus of the Gospels rejects all forms of kingship, either from Satan or from human beings. The only kingship and authority he accepts is from the Father and the authority is granted not in any palace or through any crown but on a slab in the middle of a backyard, covered in the mocking briars of a derisory mob. The shameful death that Pilate sends Jesus to is, paradoxically, Jesus’ coronation as True King. For it is only by his acceptance of human life as lived by those whom we place outside it that Jesus is simultaneously subverts and usurps our human vision of kingship.

In the womb of an unmarried teenager, on the cross of a convicted criminal, at the right hand of the Father, and on the altar of the Eucharist, Christ is truly universal and truly king.

Fr Tom Cahill, Intercom

Daily Readings

You can access the daily readings on the parish website:

Parish Sacramental Programme

Special Invitation

The Parents and Children of P4 are invited to our parish church for a time of: Prayer, Reflection and Quiet on Monday 23rd November at 6.30pm. We are looking forward to meeting you all there.

P4 Children and their Parents are also invited to attend the following Masses next weekend:

Saturday Evening - 28th November
Vigil Mass – 6.30pm (Mrs Boylan /Mr O’Hare’s Classes)

Sunday - 29th November
12.00 noon (Mrs McBride/ Mrs McBrien’s Class)

Sacramental Programme – A Word of Thanks

The Parish Team would like to thank P5 Parents and Children who responded to a Special Invitation to a Time of Prayer and Reflection in the Church, followed by Mass on the following Sunday. We pray that God may continue to touch your lives in a special way.

Sincerely, Fr Magill and Parish Team

“The Cry of the Earth”

A pastoral Reflection on Climate Change by The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference. There is a copy of this pastoral letter in the porches.
Anyone requesting further copies please see the Priest after Mass in the Sacristy.

Click here for the website

Apostolic Society Annual Sale of Works

Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service

The next blood transfusion session(s) will be held in
St Michael’s Parish Centre
on Fri, 4th December
from
2pm - 4.30pm
and
5.45pm - 8pm

First Aid Homeopathy

The Remedies Every Home Should Have;
Talk in Falls Library Thursday 26th November 2009
6.30pm – 7.30pm, given by Nicola Hughes, Final year Student, Belfast School of Homeopathy.
Admission Free.

Suffolk Lenadoon Interface Group Christmas Fair

Suffolk Lenadoon Interface Group is running a Christmas Fair on Saturday 12th December from 3-6pm. The event will take place in the front car park of the Stewartstown Road shops and will include a car boot sale, mini market, carol singing and a Santa’s grotto.

Parish Radio

If you are interested please phone
028 9061 8590 or 028 9022 0961.

There are two models available which are marked to receive broadcasts from St Oliver Plunkett Church.

Model 1 costs £25 including VAT and batteries (short range). Model 2 costs £60 and is mains powered – no batteries required. This has a longer range and provides better quality which is more suitable for areas where there are electrical power lines nearby.

Annual Masses for the Dead

Our annual Mass of the Dead will be celebrated on Friday 27th November at 7.30pm, for those who have lost loved ones since this time last year. During the Mass we will remember by name all those who have died in our parish community in the course of the last year.

To symbolise our hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ we invite a member of each family to light a candle in honour of the person who has died.

Mass Times