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Monday, 03 September 2018 15:25

World Meeting of Families in Dublin

By SSS Community of Dublin

 

Our Community here at the Blessed Sacrament Chapel in Dublin has just completed a week of celebration and hospitality. This was occasioned by the World Meeting of Families which took place in Dublin from 22nd to 25th August 2018.

The Organisers of the World Meeting of Families here in Ireland issued a request for Host Families to accommodate delegates from other countries who wished to attend. Our Community offered its availability, and a group of Pilgrims from Zimbabwe were welcomed and accommodated here throughout the days of the Meeting. Having them among us brought home to us the concept of the universality of the Church, and an enriched sense of being members of God’s family, and brothers and sisters of one another, across international and continental boundaries.

In addition to making the facilities of our home available to these guests, our Chapel was also designated the Spiritual Centre for the Filipino Delegates to the Meeting. Arising from this service, we were privileged to have Mass celebrated here by his Eminence Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila. Our Chapel was thronged for this Mass, and Cardinal Tagle and the delegates joined our Community afterward for refreshments. It was wonderful to have Cardinal Tagle and the other Delegates in our midst for the evening, and our Community was very uplifted by the experience.

Dublin 2

The presence of his Holiness Pope Francis here in Dublin during the last two days of the World Meeting of Families has given new heart to the people, who came out in huge numbers to see him at the various venues he visited and to attend his Mass in the Phoenix Park. Despite the challenges of aggressive atheistic secularism, the Irish people have remained loyal to their Faith, and have been much affirmed in this by the events surrounding the World Meeting of Families. We are pleased to have been able to play our own part in the celebrations and have been much enriched by the presence of our guests and visitors.