麻豆约拍

Good morning.
A recent re-location of our Church organ
revealed three windows hidden from interior view for more than sixty years.
The Mothers鈥� Union have already dedicated one new commission
to mark their 60th anniversary.
A second will depict the familiar Eucharistic atonement image
of a pelican pecking its breast to feed her young.
But to continue the feminine spiritual theme the third window
will link our young parish on the north coast of Co Down
to a much older one on the south, the parish of Kilbroney

Kil is the Irish for Church and broney denotes Bronagh
making Kilbroney Bronagh鈥檚 Church.
A sixth century Christian woman remembered annually on the 2nd of April,
Bronagh built a church,
founded a community of prayer and became its abbess.
To denote her authority,
Bronagh may well carry her abbess鈥檚 staff in our new window.
Her other hand, almost certainly,
will need to clutch the ancient Bronagh鈥檚 Bell
a relic of the original church which lay concealed among its ruins for centuries.

As to the face of the saint, we have one clue to go on.
An early Martyrology describes her as 鈥淏ronagh beoda鈥�.
Where in Gaelic bronagh means mournful, beoda, by contrast, means lively.
Which makes the implication of bronagh beoda,
that this celebrated woman of prayer
was of a much cheerier and more dynamic temperament
than her name might suggest.
All of which we hope will give the message,
that the ministry of intercession, is as vital today as it鈥檚 always been.

Our Father keep us praying, keep us pleading,
that the transforming power of your Spirit
might course afresh through the body of Christ
and bring new life to your Church. Amen