Pew Sheet – 19th January 2025

The Rector writes ‘I meant to remind you all to chalk your Epiphany blessing on your door posts last week but I forgot so I have included the Epiphany Blessing in the middle pages this week.  I have also included that wonderful T.S. Eliot poem about the Magi. 

The interviews for a replacement Vicar for our Link parish of Perton is taking place at the moment.  This would be a good time to remember all our friends in the parish and pray that the right person will be appointed and that our link will continue to flourish.   Here is a special prayer originally written for our Carrigaline and Perton link but has now been adapted for use throughout the linked diocese of Lichfield and CCR

Loving God,  Thank you for our brothers and sisters in your Church around the world;

Thank you for the developing friendship between the church families of:

The Dioceses of Lichfield and of Cork, Cloyne & Ross

Lord Jesus, you are the vine; may we remain rooted in you,

each congregation a branch, linked to each other in you.

Holy Spirit, flow through us, enabling our friendship to flourish,

as we learn about and from each other;

and commit ourselves to pray for each other.

May we enjoy fruit as you grow your Church

and Kingdom in and through us all.

We ask this for your glory, Amen.

Olna Trotter is our Link Liaison so speak to her for any updates.’ 

As you all know, 6th January is the feast of the Epiphany and this season of Epiphany-tide continues until the feast of Candlemas on 2nd February.

During this time of year we try to remember how these three wise men travelled from afar to see and bring gifts to the new born baby Jesus.

The special Epiphany Blessing is a lovely way to ’mark’ this time of year too! The Bishop introduced me to it about 10 years ago when he came to celebrate Epiphany with our parish school. We have continued on this tradition since then.  I have with me some  special chalk for you to bring home if you would like and you could write on your own front doors!

What you would write is  ‘20 + C + M + B + 25’  above the door, on the frame.

The 20 & 25 numbers stand for this year (2025) ;

and the C, M, B letters stand for the 3 wise men,

the ‘Magi’ ( Casper, Melchior, and Balthasar) 

and also those letters stand for

Christus Mansionem Benedicat’,   which in Latin means “May Christ Bless this House”  

As you are writing the words on your doorframe, you could say this little prayer together :

May all who come to our home this year rejoice to find Christ living among us; and may we seek and serve, in everyone we meet, that same Jesus who is Lord, forever and ever. Amen.’

Journey of the Magi   1927 by T. S. Eliot (1888–1965)

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.’
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins,
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Dates for your Diary

Wednesday 22nd January  

7:30pm Ecumenical Service for the Week of Prayer for

Christian Unity, St Mary’s Church

Thursday 23rd January

5-6:30pm Confirmation Classes begin in the Parish Hall.

Saturday 25th January 

8pm  The New Year’s Ball  Canon McCrea Hall 25euros

ALSO  CDYC  Fota behind the scenes outing

Sunday 26th January 

7pm  Songs of Praise in St Factna’s Cathedral, Roscarberry

The Rector will present her selection of favourite hymns.

February 

Sunday 2nd Candlemas

9:30/11am Services as normal

5pm Service of Wholeness and Healing St Mary’s Church

5th 8pm First of the Zoom online talks ‘The Music of our Praise – the wonderful world of music for worship’. (continuing on Wednesdays 12th & 19th)

15th  7:30-9pm Youth Club in the Parish Hall

22nd  CDYC Inflata Bounce and Airtastic

Confirmation classes

The Confirmation Classes begin this Thursday January 23rd. They will be held in the Parish Hall each Thursday from 5pm until 6:30pm.  Candidates will need to get in touch with the Rector urgently as it won’t be possible to join in the classes once they’ve begun.

DIOCESAN MAGAZINE

If anyone would like to subscribe to the diocesan magazine please let Rowland Newenham know. Subscription for 2025 is €35, or €30 for an online emailed pdf copy.  You may hand your subscription to one of the churchwardens, you may post your subscription to Rowland Newenham, Cooleens, Church Road, Carrigaline P43 FR88, you may pay by Revolut @rowlandnewenham, or you may  pay online to Rowland Newenham. 

IBAN IE14 BOFI 9029 7916 8630 62
BIC: BOFIIE2D … PLEASE PLACE YOUR NAME IN THE REFERENCE LINE OF THE PAYMENT

 The New Year’s Ball 

25th January   

8pm  Canon McCrea Hall 

St Mary’s School, Waterpark

Tickets : 25 euro 

Tickets are now for sale for the Ball and we hope that everyone will support this exciting event.  

Please contact Hilary Warren Perry,  Maggie Newnham,  Livy Riordan,  Hazel Fleury

or Olna Trotter for tickets.

Please contact Joy Keefe 087-2559844 if you would like to be part of the Flower or Bell Rota in St Mary’s Church. Newcomers welcome!  

Random Notes CDLXXIX

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (née Byron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852), also known as Ada Lovelace, was an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation.

We’ll come back to that in a minute.

While preparing material for a BIS sampler day for second year students, I did some background research on notable women in computing. There are a lot of these, far more that popular history gives credit to. Ada Lovelace is notable for being the first.

The mid 19th century saw three notable historic figures in the history of computing. There was George Boole, professor of mathematics and inventor of symbolic logic, right here in Cork, in UCC. There was also Charles Babbage, the first person to make a serious effort at building a mechanical computer using Victorian technology. But in some ways the most interesting was Ada Lovelace.

Mindful of her father Lord Byron’s mental instability, Ada’s mother took the trouble to educate her daughter in the sciences. By the age of eighteen, Ada had turned out to be an accomplished mathematician.

She met Babbage at a social event and took a keen interest in his work. She was also excellent at languages and translated an Italian paper about the Analytical Engine, supplementing it with a set of seven “notes.”

The seventh note was to all intents and purposes a computer program. Thus Ada Lovelace is generally credited with being the world’s first computer programmer.

But her vision went far beyond programming and more than anyone else at the time, she grasped the greater potential of computers. She wrote:

“[The Analytical Engine] might act upon other things besides number, were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine… Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.”

And there you have it. In this one quote, a talented young woman from 175 years ago anticipated digital media and possibly artificial intelligence.

An extraordinary intellectual accomplishment!

SJFW

Categories Parish Notices | Tags: | Posted on January 20, 2025

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