Congratulations to Cabra West Parish on receiving our latest award!
The Dublin parish has been celebrating Creation Time since 2008 by including ‘Care for the Earth’ in sermons, prayers of the faithful, hymns and communion reflections as well as including items in the parish newsletter.
Each year children in the local national schools create posters on the theme of Creation Time, which are displayed in the church, and Creation Time is concluded with a Blessing of Pets and Animals on the Sunday nearest the Feast of St Francis.
On the practical side, an area of wasteland beside the priests’ houses has been transformed into a beautiful garden that includes a vegetable patch as well as beautiful trees, flowers and shrubs. This has encouraged parishioners to grow their own fruit and vegetables at home and last autumn Harvest was celebrated with people bringing produce from their own gardens, which was then distributed after the final Eucharist of the day.
Visiting speakers have been invited to address a number of topics at reflection evenings, including ‘Finding the Presence of God in all Creation’, ‘Be the Change’ and ‘Sustainable Farming’.
On receiving the award at his Farewell Mass celebrated by Papal Nuncio His Excellency The Most Rev Charles Brown, Fr John Greene said, “Having a Care for The Earth and Ecology as a priority has been important for the parish team of the parish of The Most Precious Blood, Cabra West since 2008. The aim of the seminars, prayers of the faithful, having a guest speaker at weekend Masses during Creation Time each year was to create a greater awareness of the need to appreciate the beauty of Creation as something to be grateful to God for, and the importance of caring for it. An awareness was also created among the children of the national schools by inviting them to take part in art competitions and prayer services in the schools.
“In 2008 there was a large site belonging to the parish, backing on the priests’ houses, that had been neglected over the years and ended up being a dump. It was decided to turn it into a garden and, by doing so, that it might serve as a motivation to others to value their own little garden and encourage people to grow shrubs and vegetables for themselves, as so many of their own parents had done. The creating of the garden was admired by the people and many good conversations were had over the railing with the people as they passed by. A section of the garden was reserved for the growing of potatoes and vegetables; this section was later turned into a section for gooseberry, raspberry and blackberry bushes.”
Fr Greene has since returned to Chile where he worked previously as a missionary. He is confident, however, that Care for the Earth will continue to be a priority in Cabra West, especially with the added inspiration and motivation of Pope Francis’s recent encyclical Laudato Si.
To read more about Cabra West Parish’s eco-friendly initiatives, click here.