Preparations for Saint Kieran's Day celebrations in Offaly parish

AFTER two years of anxieties and restrictions, it is with great joy that the Seir Kieran parish community invites all of their parishioners and friends to take part in their celebration of Saint Kieran's Day, in Clareen on Saturday March 5th.

Proceedings will begin with Holy Mass at 11 am, for which the girls and boys of the school's Confirmation class have been helping to prepare a beautiful liturgy. For those with family members who are away, it will be live-streamed on the SeirKieranParish Facebook page. This will be followed by a pilgrim walk - to Saint Kieran's Well, to the Bush and to the Monastic Site - with the schoolchildren again using their talents and creativity to show the spiritual significance of these landmarks.

In this way, the parish community will be carrying on a tradition of honouring Saint Kieran that has been dearly held through each generation for 1,600 years, and that still resonates throughout Ossory and further afield. This was best expressed by Bishop Brownrigg, the then Bishop of Ossory, in his pastoral letter of January 1900:

"This little parish has claims on us, which no other parish in the whole Diocese can put forward. It was there the faith was first preached in Ossory. It was in the grateful soil of Seir Kieran that was first deposited the little seed of Gospel truth."

And today, as we emerge from the covid pandemic, we are thankful to be able to gather freely, in faith and love, to the praise and glory of God's name. You are cordially invited to join them on March 5th in the footsteps of Saint Kieran; and afterwards for tea and refreshments in the Parish Hall.

On the following day, Sunday March 6th, Bishop Denis Nulty will be present for 11am Mass to administer the sacrament of Confirmation. This too will be a special occasion for the parish, and especially for the Confirmation Class themselves, their parents and teachers.