With just a month to go until the opening of the 88th National Ploughing Championships (17-19 September), on 15 August, Bishop Denis Nulty, Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin, and members of the Diocesan Ploughing Steering Group gathered on the site of the National Ploughing Championships at Ballintrane, County Carlow, to launch the Kildare & Leighlin Diocesan Stand on the theme, “Digging Deeper – Rooting for Christ”.
As part of this year’s National Ploughing Championships, Bishop Denis Nulty is encouraging people of all faiths to vote for their favourite traditional prayer, and to compose a prayer for the protection of the environment.
Speaking at the launch, Bishop Nulty said, “It is fitting that we are launching our Diocesan Stand on 15 August, The Feast of the Assumption, a Holy Day when people all over Ireland are visiting Holy Wells and other pilgrimage sites associated with Our Lady and taking time to pray some of the well-known and favourite prayers to Mary, our Mother. I expect that many of the prayers prayed today will be submitted in our search for Ireland’s favourite prayer.”
As the Ploughing Championships takes place during the annual Season of Creation, which the Catholic Church marks from 1 September to 4 October, Bishop Nulty continued, “We are all constantly being called to take better care of our common home, the earth, and no group is closer to the earth than those who will attend the ploughing championship. To highlight our close connection with God’s created world I am also inviting people to write a new prayer (no more than 100 words) focusing on the environment and our care and concern for it.”
People can submit their preferences and entries to [email protected] by 10 September. Visitors to the Kildare & Leighlin Diocesan stand will be invited to vote for their favourite traditional prayer from a shortlist of entries. The prayer for the environment will be selected by a guest adjudicator and the winner will receive a €100 ‘One for All’ voucher.
ENDS
