In his homily on the occasion of his Presentation on the 3rd of May 2003, Archbishop Martin made the comment “The Church in Dublin is not just its Bishops and priests. It is a Church of many charisms, and services and gifts”.

That phrase can be taken and applied to the community in Knocklyon. The Community in Knocklyon is not just the priests and those who sit on committees. It is a community of many groups, many people, each with their own talents, gifts, concerns and needs.

During Participation Week, we spoke of arriving in a vibrant and active parish. We acknowledged that and expressed our appreciation for all that had been achieved. None of this has been achieved lightly or sprung-up over night. No! A tremendous amount of time and effort has been put in by many, many people to achieve this. And it is something that you can be very proud of.

There can be however a downside to success. We can become complacent. With so much good work being done for us, we can be tempted to think ‘Sure things are great, there is no need for me to get involved’. We may be tempted to forget that in some cases this work has been achieved by a few over a long period of time. We can forget that other people can get tired, run out of new ideas, lose their enthusiasm to some degree or another. Sometimes we forget that for some things to happen it requires a lot of participation from a lot of people, maybe over a prolonged period or maybe for just as few hours.

During this summer we experienced this very thing. A very successful and enjoyable event of Parish Week - The Talent Show - had to be abandoned because of a lack of adults to supervise the event. To say that this caused some disappointment to the children would be an under-statement.

Elsewhere in this magazine, there is an article from the Connect Group. This group of people - your neighbours - have worked very hard to raise awareness and educate us in the whole area of drug abuse. They have worked hard, very, very hard for the last ten years in trying to help us and our children. They have played their part but the need for the work of this group is still there if not even more pressing. A walk around Knocklyon during the summer months would have shown the number of teenagers who are members of our community and this testifies to the need for awareness of the dangers of drugs not to mention the number of young children attending our primary schools. Read Connect’s article - please. These are just two examples of what is happening or has happened.

There is no question on the vibrancy of this community in Knocklyon. But we cannot afford to sit on our laurels for what has been achieved. For any community to continue to flourish and grow, active involvement is needed.

New faces, new ideas, identification of needs not being met, possible new ways of improving what is already being done - all these are needed. And so we are appealing to you to consider offering you talents, your gifts, your voice, your time to your community.

The Parish Forum which meets monthly is one way of finding out what is happening and provides you with an opportunity to express your ideas. That is just one. There are many more ways.

It is your parish, your community and your involvement could be what is required to make this community an even better on. Please think about it

Fr Paddy