St Columba’s Long Tower Annual Novena

“A wee space apart” was Reverend Gerard Mongan’s beautiful description of the forthcoming St Columba’s Long Tower Annual Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

This year, the Novena, which takes place on the nine Sundays before Christmas at 6.00pm, is taking as its theme ‘Year of Vocations to Diocesan Priesthood’.

The Novena’s opening speaker, on October 22, will be Bishop Phonsie Cullinan, who is Bishop of Waterford and Lismore and Chair of the Irish Bishops’ Council for the Year of Vocations. 

In the weeks following, there will be a host of familiar and famous guest speakers including: former BBC correspondent Martina Purdy and former barrister Elaine Kelly (October 29); Aoife O’Neill, Youth Co-ordinator in Termonbacca (November 5);  Fr John Joe Duffy, Parish Priest in Creeshlough (November 12); and Séanan Zaltron née Cregan, Apostolate of Prayer for Priests.

Dana will speak on November 26, followed by Fr Pat Hagan, Derry Diocesan Vocations Director (December 3); and Fr Stephen Ward, CC Long Tower (December 10).

The Novena will close on December 17 with the ‘Mary, Mother of Priests’ Christmas Reflection with Carols by Candlelight.

Speaking to Derry Now, Fr Mongan the Novena speakers were picked with the theme of vocations in mind.

“We are trying to nurture seeds and talk about faith in today’s times,” he said. “All of the speakers are involved in that at the coalface.

“We have Fr John Joe Duffy, for example, who served the people of Creeslough after last year’s terrible tragedy. He will reflect on being a priest in today’s world and serving people caught up in such events and how you relate that to faith and God in these times?

“I would encourage people to come along to the Novena, even if it is a wee bit of time out from the Christmas shopping or the Christmas frenzy.

“It will be a wee space apart to pray, to reflect and to just experience the healing the world needs at this time, families need and our hurting world needs. It is very much a Healing Novena as well. 

“On the theme of vocations, it is about how we reach out or sow the seeds of faith, which will encourage men and women to pursue a vocation in priesthood or religious life in today’s world.

“Our wonderful speakers are just the people who might encourage that and maybe light the flame again,” said Fr Mongan.
The Long Tower is a historical parish dating back to 546 AD and St Columba’s monastery.

It is currently celebrating the 240th anniversary of the beginning of the Long Tower as we know it today from 1783.