Aughaval Group of Parishes

  Latest notices Tues 8 April - Castlebar Easter Vestry, 7.30pm in the church (Christ Church)  Wed 9 April    - Midweek Lenten Holy Communion , 10.30am  in St Mary's Westport    - Lenten  Online Prayer and Bible Reading , 8pm    https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82781900766?pwd=b2YEVeJHqhnprNxoLHjd5sqg492wbn.1    - Mark Drama Workshop  for Palm Sunday, with food from 6pm in the Rectory. Please let Kenn ( +353 85 715 4139)  know if you plan to come along.             Final Confirmation preparation - Friday 11th April, 7.45pm in the Rectory, Westport   Lent, Holy Week and Easter  Palm Sunday, 13 April (also, Eve of Palm Sunday, 7pm in Turlough COI Parish Church) : The Liturgy of the Passion, with  The Mark Drama  which   is being organised by Kenn McLaughlin, Castlebar Parish, with others from across the parishes.  If you are interested in getting involved in this ‘low...

  The Light of the World William Holman Hunt ( 1827–1910) Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons John 8:12-20 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” Then the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.” Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.” Then they said to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. I...

  The story from John's gospel best known as 'The Woman caught in Adultery' (John 8: 1-11)  teaches us so much about how gracious God is and reminds us that "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that through him the world might be saved" (John 3: 17). On an individual and personal level, as Fr Patrick van der Vorst puts it, "When the Lord looks at us He sees the complete picture, not just isolated flaws or mistakes. He does not dwell on a few dark moments but embraces the fulness of our journey.  The Lord understands that our lives are not defined by a single chapter but are an unfolding story, still being written, full of the potential for redemption and renewal." (See Christian Art , below.) Christ and the Sinner, by Andrey Mironov Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30518018 Today's gospel reading     John  8: 1-11 At that time: Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came a...

Parents and grandparents:  The next Sunday Club is on 6th April, starting at 12 noon in the Holy Trinity service in St Mary’s Westport, and moving next door to Carrowbeg House. As previously advertised.  Please c ontact Steffi or Shirley for more information.  Numbers available via email: aughaval@tuam.anglican.org.  You're welcome! Sunday Club Team, Paul, Steffi and Shirley October 2024

  The appointed gospel reading for the Service of Holy Communion on 5th April 2025. The taking of Christ, by Caravaggio, 1602 John 7 :40-52 When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, ‘This is really the prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Messiah.’  But some asked, ‘Surely the Messiah  does not come from Galilee, does he? Has not the scripture said that the Messiah  is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?’ So there was a division in the crowd because of him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why did you not arrest him?’ The police answered, ‘Never has anyone spoken like this!’ Then the Pharisees replied, ‘Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law...

This weekend’s services: Sat, Turlough at 7pm, Evening Prayer  Tea/coffee after the 12 noon Westport service  is in Carrowbeg House,  beside St Mary’s and thanks to St Mary’s  Sun, Castlebar at 10am, Morning Prayer  Sun, Westport (in St Mary’s) at 12 noon, Morning Prayer  Sun, Dugort Achill at 3pm, Evening Prayer  Services will be led by Diocesan Reader Eamon Smith and Parish Reader Barbara Sheppard.  You’re welcome!

  Dundrum Bay, Co. Down Today’s gospel    John 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30  After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish  to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. Now the Jewish festival of Booths  was near.  But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were  in secret. Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah?  Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiah  comes, no one will know where he is from.’  Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, ‘You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.’...

  Why believe in Jesus? Today's gospel invites us to examine our faith - what and who we believe in and why. Today's gospel      John 5:31-47 [Jesus said]  ‘If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent. ‘You search the scri...

  ‘April is Autism Awareness Month’ Banner at Carrowbeg House, St Mary’s  Westport, like Castlebar, is taking seriously its commitment to actively catering for people with autism and neurodivergence issues. This commitment manifested itself recently, for example, on St Patrick’s Day, with a designated quiet area (along the bottom of James Street) in the parade. This practical demonstration of consideration seems to have been greatly appreciated by those directly concerned and affected. Well done and thank you to those behind this positive change and expression of care.

  The Resurrection of Christ Contemporary Greek icon, by Surgun100, own work Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8724640 Wed 2nd April, 10.30am: Midweek Holy Communion, followed by coffee in the Clew Bay Hotel. This week Canon Andrea Wills will preside. You're welcome! Today's gospel      John 5:17-30 But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gi...

  Midweek Holy Communion in Lent  Midweek Holy Communion, which usually takes place in Holy Trinity Church, Westport, will be at 10.30 a.m. again on Wed 2nd April, in St Mary's Church Westport.  Canon Andrea Wills will preside and this short and intimate service will be followed by tea/coffee in the Clew Bay Hotel.  Everyone is welcome!

  Stand up! Take up your mat and walk! Unknown author - Codex Egberti, Fol 36v  Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8096757 John 5:1-3; 5-16 After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew  Beth-zatha,  which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed.  One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man w...

  Today's gospel invites us to consider if we need to see in order to believe, or if like the official in this story we are able to take Jesus at his word, and be blessed. (See John 20:29.) Healing the royal official's son   by Joseph-Marie Vien, 1752. Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36944886 Today's gospel reading: John 4:43-54 When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honour in the prophet’s own country). When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival. Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine.  Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum.When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. T...

    God says,  'As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.' (Isaiah 66:13) The Gospel Reading      Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32 Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he told them this parable: Then Jesus said,  ‘There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. H...