Holy Week

Our Holy Week services begin on Palm Sunday, 1st April and run through until Good Friday, 6th April. We had congregations of up to forty for our week night services last year, and will hope to exceed those numbers this year. This Holy Week we follow Saint Matthew’s telling of the story of Jesus from the entry into Jerusalem until the glorious moment on that first Easter morning. Our services will be as follows:

Palm Sunday 7 pm Seir Kieran
Monday 8 pm Roskelton
Tuesday 8 pm Annatrim
Wednesday 8 pm Borris in Ossory
Maundy Thursday 8 pm Mountrath

Good Friday

Our services on Good Friday begin at 10 am with the Stations of the Cross from Roskelton to The Hollow. At 2 pm we keep the Last Hour in Mountrath, a service of bible reading, hymns and quietness.  On Good Friday at 8pm we gather in Lacca for a dramatised reading of the Passion story with all the old favourite hymns, ‘The Old Rugged Cross’, ‘Nearer, my God, to thee’, etc.

Easter Eve: Our celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ begins at Annatrim on Saturday, 7th April, Easter Eve at 8.15 pm when as the sun sets we gather for the Easter Vigil and the First Communion of Easter Day.  As part of our service we shall decorate a cross with flowers, acknowledging the new life for us that came through Jesus’ death on the cross.

Easter Day

Easter morning begins early with the dawn service at Seir Kieran, the founding place of Ossory diocese and the most ancient Christian site in Cashel and Ossory. Our service starts at 6.15 when we shall light the Easter Fire on the monastic site where Saint Ciaran, a contemporary of Saint Patrick, lit the Easter fire sixteen centuries ago. The services continue at 8am with Holy Communion at Borris in Ossory and then Holy Communion at 9.30 at Roskelton, 10.30 at Lacca and 11.30 at Mountrath.