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ESKER HEALING MISSION NOVEMBER 14TH -18TH 10AM & 8PM DAILY
The Esker Healing Mission will take place from Monday Nov. 14th to Friday Nov. 18th, at 10am and 8pm, daily. Spread the Word. Spread the Joy. 
Esker Events until November 30th 2022
UPCOMING EVENTS UNTIL THE REDEMPTORISTS DEPART NOV 30TH
Candle light Mass for the dead on 9th November at 8pm
FINAL FAREWLL HEALING MISSION – 14TH – 18TH NOVEMBER 10am & 8pm daily.
PLEASE NOTE: There will be no 8am Mass during the Healing Mission November 14th -18th inclusive.
Monday – Saturday 8am & 10am. The 10am Mass each day will be streamed.
Sunday 8am & 11am.
When you cannot receive Communion…An Act of Spiritual Communion
The Chapel of the Benedictine Nuns in Kylemore: photo S. Devitt
When you cannot actually receive Holy Communion, you can make a prayer of Spiritual Communion: you can express the longing that is in you to be united completely with Christ. We can say a prayer of Spiritual Communion, such as this one by St. Alphonsus, founder of the Redemptorists: it’s in his ‘Visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament’:
AN ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION: From Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, by St. Alphonsus Liguori:
My Jesus, I believe that you are truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I love you above all things, and I desire to possess you within my soul. Since I am unable now to receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace you as being already there, and unite myself wholly to you: never permit me to be separated from you.
A Íosa, creidim go bhfuil tú I láthair go fíor san Naoimh Shacramint. Gráim thú ós cionne chuile nidh faoin spéir, agus is mian liom go mbeifeá agam istigh I m’anam. Cé nach féidir liom thú a ghlacadh anois go sacraimintiúil, ar a laighead tar chugam go spioradálta isteach i mo chroí. Fáiltím romhat mar go bhfuilir ann cheanna féin, agus aontaím mé féin leat go h-iomlán. Ná lig dom go brách a bheith scartha Uait. AMEN.
There is a beautiful song on YouTube, ‘There is a longing in my heart, O Lord…’. Listen to it here, and watch the words on screen.
A song that many young people love, ‘All of me loves all of you’ by John Legend, is his own composition to his bride for his wedding day, some few years ago. So many of the words can speak of the Eucharist, as well – words of self-giving, and of mutual love. I often use it with young people, after Holy Communion. ‘I give my all to you, you give your all to me…’ ’All of me loves all of you, all of you loves all of me.’ John Legend produced and played the lead part in ‘Jesus Christ, Superstar’, the show, about two years ago.
Wherever you are, and however you are, you can always walk in the presence of the Lord Jesus. He is the Vine, and we are the Branches… and we are all ‘one person in Christ’! He is within. At any time of day or night, you can go into the room of your heart, close the door, and be with your heavenly Father in that place. God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves.
Séamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
St. Gerard Majella Feast day is Sunday October 16th 2022
St. Gerard’s Feast day is October 16th. St. Gerard is so much part of Esker and of the Esker story. Countless couples have come for the blessing of St. Gerard’s relic, for over one hundred years. Names of Redemptorists like Fr. Tom Creagh, Fr. Sean Foley, and others, are associated with the blessing of the saint’s relic. So many come back to give thanks for the birth of a baby, when they had practically given up hope of conceiving.
We give thanks for St. Gerard’s work, still: he is Patron of Mothers and of expectant Mothers – he is patron of families. Join us for these three evenings of reflection and prayer, in his honour.
St Gerard Majella, pray for us all, at this time.
Coping with Anxiety: a prayer for any time
St. Francis de Sales, bishop of Geneva in the late 1500′s, was a man of great compassion and gentleness of spirit. Amongst his writings, we find this prayer that has helped many people over the ages: it may help you in this anxious time: copy it for yourself. 
“Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then. Put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginings.”
St. Francis de Sales
(Copy for yourself or others)
‘Gospel Reflection’ – ‘Lectio Divina’ –
'St Mary of the Mountains' - an image very sacred to St. Alphonsus, and to every Redemptorist: she holds the Child in one arm, and the Book of the Scriptures in the other, and she is 'pondering these things in her heart'.
Known also as ‘Lectio Divina’, this reflection together on the Word of God for the following Sunday, helps us to go deeper into the Word, and to hear how it speaks to any one of us. Tell your friends.
We ponder, we weigh, the Word made flesh who dwells among us to the end of time.
A Redemptorist Ireland Website