Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Parish Priest: Fr Mike Delaney mob: 0417 279 437;
email: mike.delaney@catholicpriest.org.au
Assistant Priests:
Fr Alexander Obiorah Mob: 0447 478 297; alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk
Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport 7310
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street, Devonport 7310
Office Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday 10am-3pm
Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160
FaceBook: Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Weekly Newsletter: mlcathparish.blogspot.com.au
Weekly Homily Podcast: podomatic.com/mikedelaney
Parish Magazine: mlcathparishnewsletter.blogspot.com.au
Secretary: Annie Davies/Anne Fisher Pastoral Council Chair: Mary Davies
Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.
Weekday
Masses 20th - 23rd January, 2015
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe... St Agnes
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
12noon Devonport
Next
Weekend 24th & 25th January, 2015
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin & Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell 9am Ulverstone,
10:30am Devonport, 11am Sheffield
5pm Latrobe
Eucharistic
Adoration:
Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with
Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Devonport: Benediction with Adoration - first Friday of
each month.
Prayer
Groups:
Charismatic Renewal
- Devonport (Emmaus House)
Thursdays - 7:30pm -
Recommencing 5th February, 2015
Christian Meditation -
Devonport, Emmaus House - Wednesdays 7pm. Recommencing 4th February,
2015
Your prayers are asked for the sick: Helen Williams, Shanon Breaden, Shirley White, Tom Knaap, Kath Smith, Peg Leary, Betty Weeks, Graeme McGill & ...
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Roy Beechey, Virginia Miller, Max Anderson, Emily Duggan, Vonda Parker, Br Gerald Shiel (Former principal of St Brendan College), Audrey Cassidy and Fr Tom Garvey.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: Heather Hall, Kerry Berwick, Brian Matthews, Patricia
Lewis, Joan Summers, Jean Von Schill, Josephine Last, Doris Williams, Bernard
Mack, Margaret Lockett, Joan Garnsey, John Bilyk and Danielle Natoli.
FIRST READING
RESPONSORIAL PSALM (R.) Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
SECOND READING 1 Corinthians (6:13-15. 17-20)
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION
Alleluia, alleluia! We have found the Messiah: Jesus Christ, who brings
us truth and grace. Alleluia!
GOSPEL John 1:35-42
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
I choose my place of prayer and make myself comfortable.
I take time to become still and then ask for a sense of the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit. After reading the passage I might be able to
allow my imagination to take over so that I am personally caught up in the
action.
Before we can follow anyone we need to be prepared, not
only to look but to really see.
In my own life, what have I seen clearly in Jesus?
What do I particularly want now?
What is it like for me just to stay with Jesus in prayer?
Am I often too busy to respond to “Come and see”?
Although Andrew was the one to introduce Jesus to Peter he
has to move into the background. Which is my part? Can I accept it gracefully
or do I envy different roles?
Jesus looked hard at Peter. Can I let Jesus look hard at me
and tell me how I can contribute to building the kingdom?
I talk to Jesus about my struggles and desires ... and
conclude with a slow “Our Father”...
First Reading
Second Reading
Gospel: Mark 1:14-20
There will be Mass on Monday 26th at both Our Lady of Lourdes
ROSTERS - ULVERSTONE
New rosters are available today at the table in the foyer.
All volunteers are invited to collect a copy today.
OUR LADY OF LOURDES
As mentioned last weekend there will be a blessing of all
volunteers who support the Devonport Community at Masses on 7th/8th Feb
(followed by a cuppa in the foyer). On
the actual day (11th) there will be Mass at midday followed by a counter meal
at Molly Malone's for everyone who is interested.
RETURN THANKS
I would
like to thank all for your prayers and good wishes during my recent Illness,
John
Kirkpatrick
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS
With the rapid approach of the new School Year our Parish
Sacramental program for children and families preparing for the Sacraments of Reconciliation,
Confirmation and First Eucharist will shortly be commencing for 2015. As per
last year the program will be run as a day session for each Sacrament involving
the child and (hopefully) a parent or at least an grandparent. The program
works because the child and parent build a link and a wonderful opportunity to
share a special time together as they explore what each of the Sacraments mean
and what impact it has on their lives. Further details will be available in
coming weeks.
As I returned from visiting the M C Hospital this week I
mentioned to Fr Alexander that I had just anointed a person who had been
diagnosed with cancer. After chatting about the increase in cancer patients I
checked our Book where we record the names of those who have been anointed I
found that, since Fr Alexander arrived, I have anointed 10 people - the
majority with cancer. Some have asked for their names to be added to our list
of sick whilst others have asked simply that they be remembered in prayer. You
will notice that there are 'dots' at the end of the list of those who have asked
for prayers above - they represent the people who don't wish to be mentioned
but for whom we pray - please continue to keep them in your prayers.
Please note that there are several events occurring in
coming weeks including the Devonport Community Feast Day - over several days
commencing on the weekend 7th/8th Feb and then on the 11th Feb including a
blessing of all volunteers who support the Devonport Community; the Open House
(1st for 2015) at Devonport on Friday 6th Feb; blessing of Staff at our Schools
at all Masses on the 7th/8th Feb.
Please take care on the roads especially over these
next few weeks as people complete their holidays and are busy about returning
to 'normal' - mistakes can easily happen.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INTERIOR AND PRIVATE
An article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. Originally published at http://ronrolheiser.com/the-importance-of-the-interior-and-private/#.VLcu1iuUfAYWe can never be challenged too strongly with regards to being committed to social justice. A key, non-negotiable, summons that comes from Jesus himself is precisely the challenge to reach out to the poor, to the excluded, to those whom society deems expendable.
Therefore the huge, global issues of justice should preoccupy us. Can we be good Christians or even decent human beings without letting the daily news baptize us? The majority of the world still lives in hunger, thousands are dying of Ebola and other such illnesses, countless lives are torn apart by war and violence, and we are still, as a world, a long ways from dealing realistically with racism, sexism, abortion, and the integrity of physical creation. These are major moral issues and we may not escape into our own private world and simply ignore them.
However, precisely because they are so mammoth and important, we can get the impression that the other moral issues we have to deal with, issues of private morality, are not as important. It’s all too easy to conclude that, given the mega-problems in our world, it doesn’t matter much how we live in the deeper recesses of our private worlds.
Our private, little moral concerns can look pretty petty when weighed against the problems of the world as a whole. Do we really believe that God cares much whether or not we say our morning prayers, gossip about a colleague, nurse a grudge or two, or are less than fully honest in our sexual lives? Does God really care about these things?
Yes. God cares because we care. Large, global issues notwithstanding, issues of personal integrity are generally what make or break our happiness, not to mention our character and our intimate relationships. In the end, they aren’t petty concerns at all. They shape the big things. Social morality is simply a reflection of private morality. What we see in the global picture is simply a magnification of the human heart.
When ego, greed, lust, and selfishness are not dealt with inside the private recesses of the heart, it’s naive to think that they will be dealt with at a global level. How are we to build a just, loving world, if we cannot, first of all, tame selfishness inside us? There will be no transparency at a global level as long as we continue to think it’s okay to not be transparent in our private lives. The global simply reflects the private. The failure to recognize this is, to my mind, the elephant in the room in terms of our inability to bring justice to the earth.
Social action that does not have private morality as its base is not spirituality, but simple political action, power dealing with power, important in itself, but the not to be confused with real transformation. The kingdom of God doesn’t work that way. It works by conversion and real conversion is an eminently personal act. Carlos Castaneda, the Native American mystic, writes: “I come from Latin America where intellectuals are always talking about political and social revolution and where a lot of bombs are being thrown. But nothing has changed much. It takes little daring to bomb a building, but in order to stop being jealous or to come to internal silence, you have to remake yourself. This is where real reform begins.”
Thomas Merton makes the same point. During the 1960s, when so many intellectuals were involved in various social struggles, Merton was tucked away in a monastery, far (it would seem) from the real battlefronts. Stung by outside criticism of his monastic seclusion, he admitted that to most outsiders it “must seem like small potatoes” to be engaged mainly in a war against one’s private demons. However, he still believed that he was fighting the real battle: that of changing hearts. When you change a heart, he says, you have helped bring about some permanent structural, moral change on this planet. Everything else is simply one power attempting to displace another.
Private morality and all that comes with it – private prayer and the attempt to be honest and transparent in even the smallest and most secret of things – is the core from which all morality takes its root. Jan Walgrave, commenting on the social importance of mysticism, suggests: “You can generate more energy by splitting a single atom than you can by harnessing all the forces of water and wind on earth. That is precisely what Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed did. They split the inner atom of love. Great energy flowed out.” John of the Cross, in teaching about the vital importance of honesty in small things, says: “It makes no difference whether a bird is tied down by a heavy rope or by the slenderest of cords, it can’t fly in either case.”
Private morality is not an unimportant, unaffordable luxury, a soft virtue, something that stands in the way of commitment to social justice. It’s the deep place where the moral atom needs to be split.
Deep Ecumenism
An email posted by Fr Richard Rohr on 9th January 2015
Matthew Fox, surely a prophetic teacher, describes the
importance and value of deep ecumenism in his book One River, Many Wells. He
writes: "From Hinduism we hear: 'Many are the paths of humans, but they
all in the end come to Me.' ... In the Bhagavad Gita, God says: 'I am the
thread that runs through the pearls, as in a necklace.'
"Rumi, the Sufi mystic from the Moslem tradition,
grounds the likeness found in every mystical tradition to the depth of the
experience of the Divine one touches in a particular tradition. Love is the
key.
For those
in love,
Moslem, Christian, and Jew do not
exist....
Why listen
to those who see it another way? --
if they're not in love--their eyes do not exist.
"From the Buddhist tradition, Thich Nhat Hanh speaks of
the centrality of going deep if we are to do inter-faith work when he says:
'Through the practice of deep looking and deep listening, we become free, able
to see the beauty and values in our own and others' traditions.' Yet, to get to
the point of seeing the beauty and value in others' traditions, one must look
and listen deeply into one's own. One must practice some path along the journey
that leads to depth. One must enter the well of mystical experience" (One
River, Many Wells, pp. 16, 18, 22).
And so this year we draw deeply from the mystical, Wisdom
well, from the Christian tradition--which is my own--and from many other faiths
too. Next week we will look more closely at the Wisdom way of knowing, that is
not only intellectual but full hearted and embodied.
No comments:
Post a Comment