Parish Notices Sunday 23rd June 2019

The Rector writes ‘ The Charity bags at the back of the Churches are getting full so I plan to drop off stuff next week.   If you have anything at home that you’d forgotten to bring along to Church this morning, just drop it to the Rectory over the next couple of days. As you know, along with the Simon Community, Penny Dinners & Women’s Refuge bags at the back of the church, there is also a  bag for items for those living in Direct Provision Centre on the Kinsale Road. They currently need summery Pyjamas for children, swimwear for the children (who go to holiday clubs) and as always they need Feminine Hygiene Products (tampons, pads, panty-liners). All these items should be new.   The last contact I had in the DP Centre now thankfully has her ‘papers’ (after 6 long years!) and is now living in Carlow but she has put me in touch with someone who used to assist her in distributing the items we brought into the centre so once again, the items will be going directly to someone trustworthy.     As I’ve mentioned before,  each Adult in the DP centre receives just  21.60 per week which as you can imagine doesn’t leave much left over after the essentials so thank you all for your kindness & support’

You are Invited to a Summer Coffee and Tea Day at Trevor & Millie Kingston’s home, in Aid of the Irish Cancer Society.  

Saturday 13th July 11 am to 6 pm. Oakfield House, Ballinrea South, Carrigaline,  Co. Cork.   P43 D827. Trevor 086 8167325 / Millie 086 8091443 We would love your support, thank you!

Theological Book Club’s chosen book for the Summer is ‘The Great Spiritual Migration’ by Brian D. McLaren. We will be meeting to discuss it in the Rectory at 8pm on Monday 30th September so you have plenty of time left to buy it and inwardly digest it before then!

24th June      Littlies + One 10-12 Parish Hall

25th June       6th Class Graduation Service 12 noon  St Mary’s Church

26th June      Holy Communion 10:30am St Mary’s Church

28th June      CAMEO Monkstown Bay Sailing Club 10:30am

29th June Holiday Club Art Day for Junior Leaders in Parish Hall  12 till 4pm.

30th June United Service 11:15am St John’s Church

 Service of Wholeness & Healing 7pm St Mary’s Church

13th July Summer Tea/Coffee Day  11am till 6pm

Trevor & Millie Kingston’s home in aid of Irish Cancer Society. 

22nd – 26th July     THE ADVENTURE CRUISE Holiday Club 10-1pm St Mary’s School. Forms now available from Parish Office

Random Notes CCLXXIV

“The Outline of Literature”, edited by John Drinkwater gives an interesting account of how books evolved from earliest times to today’s format.

“Presently, man began to write with a stylus on baked clay tablets. Specimens of these books were discovered by Sir Henry Layard in Chaldea. One of them is now in the British museum and is an account of the Flood. It was inscribed around the year 4000BC and is probably the oldest existing example of  writing.

Egyptian literature is next to the Chaldean in antiquity. The Egyptian books were written on papyrus, which was made from the pith of a reed which grew in the Nile valley, with pens made from the stalks of grasses, or from canes and bamboos. The oldest Egyptian book of which we know, “The Book of the Dead”, was written at the time the Great Pyramid was built.

Another Egyptian book was, “The Precepts of Ptah-Hotep”. Ptah-Hotep was born in Memphis and lived about the year 3550BC.

Hundreds of years before the beginning of European literature, books had been written in China, on tablets made from bamboo fibre. Sometimes the tablets were scratched with a sharp stylus, and others, the words were painted with Indian ink. The Chinese also wrote books on silk. Paper was manufactured in China abut 100BC. The Chinese began to print on solid blocks soon after the birth of Christ, and were printing from movable type three centuries before the invention of printing in Europe.

In the third century AD, books began to change their form. Instead of being continuous rolls, the pages were folded and stitched and bound together in wooden boards, which were generally ornamented. During the Dark Ages, when few new books were written, it was in the monasteries that books found their only safe lodgings, and willing hands to copy them. The monks illuminated borders and letters remains things of beauty and delight. There were many kinds of illumination in the Middle Ages. The art was patronised by Alfred the Great and was practised in different parts of England. Happily, many examples of these beautiful manuscripts have been preserved.”

(While John Drinkwater obviously admired these manuscripts, one medieval Puritan did not. He complained “they pay attention only to the thinness of the skin and the elegance of the letter. They use them less for reading than for show.”). There’s always one!

MMPC

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