500 people joined St Patrick’s gathering in Co. Derry

Around 500 people poured out of St Patrick’s Church, Dungiven, Co. Derry, last Friday to commemorate the first flame lit by Ireland’s apostle on the Hill of Slane in 433AD. The parish priest, Fr Gerry Sweeney, lit a symbolic fire of faith, hope and love outside the church as hundreds gathered after a week-long Lenten retreat ahead of St Patrick’s Day.

Fr Sweeney recalled how Mary, the Mother of God, opened the door to salvation with her ‘yes’ and how St Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, then opened the door for the Irish.

Bishop Donal McKeown was present and said, “‘Make the Church Great Again’ is not a great theology. The Church will not be renewed when we want to be strong again, but when we learn to let Christ be the one who slakes our thirst.” Bishop McKeown said evangelisation was vital. “If you are not sharing your faith, you have not yet discovered what Jesus offers.”

Former barrister Elaine Kelly, a St Patrick’s Way Pilgrim Guide in Downpatrick, credited her mother’s prayers with her return to Mass after a profound experience in her twenties. “Driving home on the M1 I heard these words interiorly: ‘Elaine, you’re going to have to go back to Mass or you’re going to end up dead.’ And I heard it. I was dead inside from living life in the fast lane. God was offering me another chance. I drove straight to my parish priest who heard my confession and I went to my mother and told her I would go with her to that evening’s Vigil Mass, and I never looked back”.

Fr Sweeney said the parish had broken new ground in its faith church. “The parish is buzzing and the fire is burning.”