Timetable for monthly devotions
MEANWHILE, preparations are continuing for the monthly Padre Pio /St. Pio Devotions 2020 at Castleisland parish church.
The parish office has issued a time-table for the benefit of devotees of St. Pio for the coming season of novenas which got under way on Tuesday night at the Church of Saints Stephen and John.
After its spectacularly successful opening night, the novena will continue on the first Tuesday of every month and will finish on Tuesday. June 2nd.
The season will then break until mid autumn and will resume on the first Tuesday, September 1st.
Devotions commence at 7.30pm sharp with rosary followed by mass and personal witness.
On opening night it was standing room only and even that was at a premium as people from all over the county and well beyond converged on the church for the 7:30pm start.
And yes, there were people on crutches and walking aids of all sorts ambling their way down Church Street or up from Garvey’s SuperValu car park and all with Padre Pio and his glove uppermost on their minds.
Fr. Mossie Brick opened the petitions box and asked his vast audience for prayers and good thoughts for a woman going to Cork for tests next week and for people with various illnesses whose personal circumstances found their way into the box.
There was a rosary which featured people from all strands of the parish.
Guest of honour on the night was Fr. Bryan Shortall who gave a comprehensive run down on the life and times of the man of the moment, Francesco Forgione to Padre Pio to St. Pio.
Speaking to RTÉ Southern Editor, Paschal Sheehy, Fr. Shortall, from the
Capuchin Friary in Dublin, compared the crowd’s desire to see and be blessed by the saint’s glove as the religious equivalent to wanting the jerseys of the likes of Roy Keane, Christy Ring or Cristiano Ronaldo or Larry Mullen’s drumsticks.
“In a religious sense, the Padre Pio mitten is one such way of people connecting to Christ, primarily through the intercession of a saint,” he said.
The parish choir graced the event with its delightful aural gift and local, yellow vested volunteers marshaled the crowds with safety as their guidelines.
A chorus of coughing provided a backdrop to the entire evening and this prompted Fr. Brick to advise his congregation to forego the traditional ‘ peace be with you’ handshake for a thumbs up in the direction of your fellow, temporary pew or isle dwellers.
Then, with infinite patience, Fr. Brick stood at the top of the church and greeted and blessed wave after wave of devotees with the glove once worn by the saint up to the time of his death on September 23rd 1968.
If the ceremony started promptly at 7:30pm it continued until the last person was blessed and that took until midnight – such was the enthusiasm of the flock for the initiative of its relatively recently arrived shepherd, Fr. Brick.
Meanwhile, the new shrine to St. Pio in the Church of Saints Stephen and John is open to the public every day. It includes a relic and petitions box.