MEMORIALS THIS WEEK Wednesday 15th St. Bonaventure, Priest and Doctor of the Church.  Thursday 16th Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

RECENT BAPTISMS Aoife Rose O' Sullivan, 17 Rosewood Green.  Jennifer Louise Masih, 12A O'Mahony Avenue.

STATION MASS for Dangan, Cripple and Danganmore will be held on Friday 17th July at 8p.m. at Martin and Margaret Hodge's.

LECTIO DIVINA When we pray with Scriptures we are not trying to develop our intellectual faculties, rather, we listen to the Gospel message with the 'ear of the heart' We need to slow down in order to enter that secret place where such love, such joy, await to embrace us.  Next Meeting 7th September.

CROIS NA LEANBH ANNUAL COMMEMORATION will take place on Thursday July 16th at 8p.m., all welcome, prominent speaker

CEMETERY MASS will be celebrated at St. Mary's Cemetery, Spring Lane on Monday 13th July at 7.30p.m. for all those buried there during the Great Famine and all who have been interred there since.

STAGE STARS SUMMER CAMP 5 - 12 yrs Gaggin Hall 20 -24 July Limited Places avaflable Contact Pam Golden 087 2465118

BANDON AND SURROUNDING AREAS LADIES FOOTBALL CLUB Training will take place on Monday Nights at 8.00 to 9.00pm startingl3th July U-16 Will train with Adults until further notice.  New members welcome.  U-12 to U-14's will commence training on Monday August 24th 7-00 to 8-00 pm.

COPE FOUNDATION meeting Monday 13th July at 7.30p.m. at The Munster Arms Hotel, Everyone Welcome.

CUMANN SEANCHAIS NA BANNDAN Wednesday 15th July.  A visit to Dunmanway including Model School and St. Mary's Guide Tommy Collins.  Leave St. Patrick's car park, Bandon at 7.00p.m. sharp or meet at the Heritage Centre, Main St., Dunmanway at 7.30p.m. New members welcome to join on the evening.

BANDON SHOW & FRIENDS OF BANDON COMMUNITY HOSPITAL Monster Country & Western Bam Dance Steak Barbeque at the Showgrounds Castlebemard, Bandon, on Saturday July 25th at 9.00 p.m. Music by Colm Cronin Disco to follow.  Special Prize for Best Dressed Country & Western Couple.  Tickets :E20.00 Avaflable at O' Farrell's Newsagents, Hickey's Newsagents and Nyhan's Bar.

BANDON TIDY TOWNS WORK NIGHTS Meet at 7pm every Tuesday at Hartes car park. (weather permitting) More volunteers most welcome "Many hands make light work'.

I recall an occasion when I was on mission in Africa.  Our compound was near a border and an invading army, said to be liberating, was quickly approaching.  Our local Bishop gave an order that we were to leave at once!  We did not have time to decide what to take and what to leave behind.  After several months, we returned.  Our house was empty.  In my room only a little earthenware jar stood in the middle of an empty floor!  I learned a lesson, even if at a cost, that the gift of life is infinitely precious.

It was Jesus' desire to send his disciples on mission empty-handed, to live in total dependence on their hosts.  He forbade superfluities- take nothing - except a staff; do not carry two tunics.  Such a state of total emptiness can confer real freedom on a person.

The society in which we live, on the contrary, gives the impression that if only we possessed this or that object of our desires we would be happy.  The advertising world is always a step ahead and constantly proposes something bigger and better to make for happiness.  Thomas Merton writing in 1965 has this to say about greed: 'The great sin, the source of all other sins, is idolatry.  Never has it been greater, more prevalent than now.  It is almost completely unrecognised - precisely because it is so overwhelmingly total.  It takes in everything.  There is nothing else left.  Fetishism of power, machines, possessions, medicines, sports, clothes etc all kept going by greed for money and power' (The Intimate Merton, p294).

I believe that we, as Christians, can indeed be grateful for this recession.  We can make it a recession from material things.  It is a time for taking stock, for re-evaluating and re-discovering true values.  Saints like Elizabeth of the Trinity were always conscious of the abiding presence of the Trinity in her soul. This amazing fact is true for each baptised Christian. "Lord, you who are present in the depths of my heart, allow me to meet you in the depths of my heart"