It was especially joyful for a few of us from mainland Mayo to step foot again on Inishbiggle on 15th February, having been prevented by the weather from sailing on our last attempt at the end of November 2024. While on this occasion it was lashing in Limerick, wet in Westport, and raining cats and dogs in Castlebar, the sun was splitting the clouds gloriously on the approach to beautiful Biggle. Also uplifting was to arrive at the church and on entering to find it looking, if not transfigured, transformed - for example, with its newly-stripped and repolished pews, clean floors, doors, harmonica and walls, and a close-to-spotless vestry into the bargain. Hats off and enormous thanks to the church wardens for the hours of painstaking work - truly a labour of love for this precious and important place of gathering and worship, emanating from a sincere love for God and his people, of all faiths and persuasions. Holy Trinity Inishbiggle conveys the message “Come on in! There’s plenty...
Chalking of the Door Epiphany 2024, at Holy Trinity Church, Westport T here is a wonderful and very old Christian tradition, in which we ask for God’s blessing on our churches and homes by marking the doorpost or lintel with chalk which has been blessed for that purpose. We plan to carry out this simple ceremony in those of our churches in the Aughaval Group which have services this Epiphany weekend (- service times below). The doors are chalked with the initials of the legendary names of the three Magi , or Wisemen - Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar – and the numerals of the New Year, connected with a series of crosses, the plus sign in Mathematics. The initials C, M, and B remind us of the magi who searched for Jesus, the newborn king. The letters also stand for the prayer-request in Latin: Christus Mansionem Benedicat : “May Christ bless this house.” This ye...