Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Parish Priest: Fr Mike Delaney mob: 0417 279 437;
email: mike.delaney@catholicpriest.org.au
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 Mass Times: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
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 30th March – 4th April, 2015
Monday: 11:00am
Devonport (Funeral - Peter Bolster)
7:00pm
Devonport (Reconciliation)
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday:9:30am Latrobe
7:00pm
Ulverstone (Reconciliation)
Thursday: As Per Easter Ceremonies Timetable below
Friday: As Per Easter Ceremonies Timetable below
Next
Weekend 4th & 5th April, 2015
As per Easter
Ceremonies Timetable below
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 commencing 7.30pm
Christian Meditation - Devonport, Emmaus House Wednesdays 7pm.
HOLY WEEK & EASTER CEREMONIES 2015
DEVONPORT: Our Lady of Lourdes Church
Holy Thursday: Mass of the Lord’s Supper 7.30pm
(Adoration till 9pm followed by Evening Prayer of the Church)
Good Friday: Commemoration of the Passion 3.00pm
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 10.30am
PORT SORELL: St Joseph’s Mass Centre
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross 10.00am
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 8.30am
LATROBE: St Patrick’s Church
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross 11.00am
Easter Sunday Easter Mass 10.00am
SHEFFIELD: Holy Cross Church
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross 11.00am
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 11.30am
ULVERSTONE: Sacred Heart Church
Good Friday: Commemoration of the Passion 3.00pm
Holy Saturday: Easter Vigil 7.00pm
PENGUIN: St Mary’s Church
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross 11.00am
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 8.30am
RECONCILIATION: Monday 30th March OLOL D’port 7.00pm
RECONCILIATION: Wednesday 1st April SHC U’stone 7.00pm
Ministry Rosters 4th & 5th
April 2015
Devonport:
Easter
Readers: Holy Thursday: – M. Knight, K. Pearce
Good
Friday: H. Lim, M. Knight
Gospel
(John) N . – M. Gerrand, C. – Congregation, O. – C. Kiely-Hoye
Ministers of Communion: 10.30am: B Peters, F Sly, J Carter,
E Petts, B Schrader
Cleaners 3rd April: M.W.C. 10thApril: M & L Tippett & A Berryman
Piety Shop 5th
April: M Doyle
Ulverstone:
Easter Vigil
Mass: Cleaners: V Ferguson, E Cox Hospitality: T Good Team
Flowers: P Mapley
Penguin:
Greeters: A Landers, P Ravaillion Commentator: Y Downes
Readers: M Kenney, J Barker
Procession: A Landers, A Hyland Ministers of Communion: T Clayton,
E Nickols
Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J Setting Up: T Clayton Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols
Port Sorell:
Readers: P Anderson Ministers of Communion: L Post Clean/ Flowers /Prepare K Hampton
Latrobe:
Reader: P Cotterell Ministers of Communion: I Campbell, B Ritchie Procession: Cotterell Family Music: Hermie
& Co
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Robert Windebank, Baby
Jai, Marlene Mary Xuereb, Reg Hinkley, Betty Weeks, Adrian Brennan, Kath Smith, Shirley
White & ...
Let us pray for those who
have died recently:
Peter Bolster,
Mary McMaster, Nola Bengtell, Marion Sage, Frank
Fitzpatrick,Leonie Heron and Barbara Moncrieff.
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time:
25th March – 31st March: Doreen Alderson, Robert Charlton, Mary Marshall, Horace
Byrne, Eileen Murfet, Beris McCarthy, Fred Harrison. Also John Hoye, Nancye & Tony Callinan, Gaudencio Floro
and deceased relatives and friends of Knight, Sheridan
and Bourke families.
May they rest in peace
Readings This Week; Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord
First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7
Responsorial Psalm: (R.) My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Second Reading: Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel Acclamation:
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ King of endless glory!
Christ became obedient for us even to death dying on the
cross.
Therefore God raised him on high and
gave him a name above all other names.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ King of endless glory!
Mark 14:1 – 15:47
PREGO
REFLECTION FOR PROCESSIONAL GOSPEL:
I ask for the grace to feel the excitement that comes with
hope. I imagine John as an old man recalling his memories of this day. He
misses some of the details, giving me the opportunity to fill in the story for
myself.
Would I have been one of those already in Jerusalem? ...Am
I one of the cynical ones remaining outside the joy... or am I quietly with
Jesus? How do I feel about what is happening?
What expression do I see on Jesus’ face as he arrives and
needs to find a suitable animal for his entrance? What do I hear him say (maybe
to John) who later wrote about it? What is the tone of his voice?
As I begin Holy Week, I ask for the grace really to
encounter and walk alongside the humble Christ.
I end my prayer slowly.........Glory be.........
Readings Next Week: Sunday of the Resurrection
First Reading: Acts 10:34, 37-43
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-4
Gospel: John 20:1-9
Congratulations to Errin McDonough and Travis Cruse
on their Wedding
Saturday 28th March, 2015 at St Patrick’s Church Latrobe.
To combat the variable weather patterns
affecting farmers in Vinsen’s village, a local community program supported by
Caritas Australia, is teaching farmers how to terrace land and grow sustainable
crops for life – regardless of the changing weather.
Please donate to Project Compassion 2015 and help farmers
in Peru grow and harvest sustainable crops, providing their families with food
for life.
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
Last weekend someone asked me if I was upset by what people were currently doing in the Parish – I’m sorry if anyone has that impression because it is not what I am hoping to project in my weekly ramblings. I would hope that everyone notices that our congregations, allowing for some exceptions, have a decidedly aged looked about us. If there is going to be a Parish in the future we need to look at why we are not attracting people to come and celebrate with us the wonderful mystery of God’s love and life made real in the life, death and resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
From the time of the Second Vatican Council there have been
efforts to Evangelise and build Parishes – some have been successful and others
less so. But my hope is that we haven’t given up because we have tried
everything we can think of. The New Evangelism that Pope John Paul II
proclaimed, Benedict pursued and Francis is encouraging us to embrace gives us
many opportunities to look at new ways of living the Gospel – some of our
current practices might have to change but none of this will happen overnight.
It will begin to happen because of prayerful reflection on
our vocation as disciples and will find witness in a number of different forms
and styles – no one style or form of prayer will provide the complete answer
but together our Parish can come alive – and it won’t happen next week but will
be a long term journey that might take several years. I ask you to pray for our
Parish that we might become a more vibrant witness to God in our community and
our world.
We have our Lenten Reconciliation Services on Monday and
Wednesday this week; our Holy Week Liturgies starting at OLOL on Thursday
evening and continuing through Good Friday, the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday.
I pray that as many parishioners as possible can join us during the ceremonies
this week.
CARITAS AUSTRALIA has called on all supporters of Project
Compassion to add something extra this week to aid the people of Vanuatu
effected by the recent Cyclone – please be generous.
Until next week, please take care on the roads and in your
homes.
KNIGHTS OF
THE SOUTHERN CROSS: Please note change of venue for
the meeting this Sunday 29th March, Emmaus House, Devonport commencing at
6:00pm with a shared tea. All men welcome.
EASTER
VIGIL CHOIR: There will be practice for all who are participating
at the Easter Vigil on Tuesday 31st March 7.00 pm at Sacred Heart
Church Ulverstone.
GOOD FRIDAY COLLECTION 2015
The annual collection for the support of the Church in the
Holy Land takes place on Good Friday. This collection promotes the missionary
work of the Church in the Holy Land by providing welfare assistance to local
Christians in areas such as health, education, employment and housing.
Parishes, schools, orphanages and medical centres throughout the Holy Land also
rely on assistance from the Good Friday collection. The collection is also used
to maintain 74 churches and shrines associated with the life of Jesus. Last
year, Australian Catholics donated $1.3million to this cause, despite tough
economic times, natural disasters and increasing cost of living which put a
strain on family budgets and financial resources. Your generosity is greatly
appreciated.
Please remember the Christians of the Holy Land again this
Good Friday. Please also pray that peace and harmony will become a reality in
the birthplace of Jesus, the ‘Prince of Peace’.
FLOWERS OLOL
CHURCH: Urgent – Are you able to help? We are
desperately in need of volunteers for the flower roster at OLOL Church and
especially for Easter! If you are able to assist on the flower roster please
contact the Parish Office 6424:2783 as soon as possible?
DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY & NOVENA:
The Novena starts on Good Friday and continues for nine
days (it takes about 20 to 30 minutes), starting 10am at Sacred Heart Church
and in Devonport at Emmaus House (next door to the Parish Office) at 6:30pm
(Sat. may differ). A special Mass will be held on Mercy Sunday at Sacred Heart
Church at 9am followed by a short devotion and morning tea. For those who
cannot make it to the Novena there are leaflets in Mass Centres so you can say
it at home or with friends. Further information please phone Bruce Peters
6421:0607.
HOLY SATURDAY EASTER VIGIL (SATURDAY 4TH
APRIL) – SACRED HEART CHURCH:
After Mass there will be supper in the Community Room. Could
parishioners please bring a plate of food to share?
BAPTISMAL PREPARATION SESSION: Tuesday 7th
April, 7:30pm at Parish House, 90 Stewart Street, Devonport. This session is for families who are
thinking of baptism, have booked a baptism, wanting to know more about baptism
or for those who are expecting a child.
SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM:
Congratulations to the 38 children in our parish family who
received the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time during the week.
We continue to pray for the children as they prepare for
Confirmation and First Eucharist.
Some dates coming up worth noting for all parishioners are:
Presentation of the Lord’s Prayer – at all masses or liturgies on
the weekend of 2nd / 3rd May.
Presentation of the Creed – at all masses or liturgies on
the weekend of 23rd / 24th May.
Children’s Mass – The Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes,
Sunday 24th May, 10.30am. This is for
all children in the parish, not just those preparing for the Sacraments. It is
also Pentecost Sunday.
Confirmation and First Eucharist Masses (with Archbishop
Porteous) Saturday 1st August, Devonport, 6pm and Sunday 2nd August,
Ulverstone, 9am.
CWL ULVERSTONE: Next meeting Friday 10th April
2pm Sacred Heart Church Community Room.
BINGO - No Bingo 2nd April – EASTER BREAK – Recommences Thurs 9th
April.
FOOTY POINTS MARGIN TICKETS:
AFL Footy is about to start and once again we will be selling points margin tickets each week for $2.00 There are three $100 winners every week. The first roster game for the footy point’s margin ticket will be Thursday 2nd April (Richmond v Carlton), then all tickets for the rest of the season will be on Friday night’s game.
Make sure you buy a ticket (or two) as you need to be in it to win it!!
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
OLD VIRGILIANS LUNCHEON:
The next Old Virgilians lunch will be held at the Austins
Ferry campus commencing at 12noon Tuesday 31st March. Two course meal
with drinks provided. All Old Virgilians invited. Please notify Peter Imlach
6246:7287 or 0417 032 614.
COMMISSIONING MASS: St Vincent de Paul Society
Commissioning of Mrs Toni Muir as State President is to be held on Saturday
11th April, 2.00pm at St Finn Barrs Church Invermay Launceston.
Members of Mersey Leven Parish are warmly invited to join in the Mass and
Blessing of the extension to State Office. Transport can be arranged – please
contact Toni directly on 6424:5296 or 0438 245 296.
ST TERESA OF AVILA: PRAYER FRIENDSHIP WITH JESUS: Launceston Parish Pastoral Centre,
44 Margaret Street, Launceston from 7pm-8pm, Wednesday 15th April and Thursday
16th April. An opportunity to share a cuppa and chat
afterwards. Ring Sandra Walkling 6331 4991 for bookings.
SET A FIRE DOWN IN MY SOUL!
For all young adults in Mersey Leven Parish, you are
invited to FIRE, a weekend retreat, held at Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone.
Speakers include: Archbishop Julian Porteous, Sisters of the Immaculata and
special guest, Sam Clear. When? Friday, 17 April (6.30pm Gathering for a 7pm
start) to Sunday, 19 April. Cost?
$20 (includes Friday night, light supper; Saturday, main meals; and Sunday,
morning tea).
Evangelii
Gaudium
“We can
no longer trust in the unseen hand and invisible forces of the market. Growth
in justice requires more than economic growth...it requires decisions,
programs, mechanisms and processes specifically geared to a better distribution
of income, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of
the poor which goes beyond simple welfare mentality.”
Par 204 from Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis, Nov.
24, 2013
Saint of the Week – St
Benedict the African (April 3)
“St Benedict held important posts in the Franciscan Order and gracefully
adjusted to other work when his terms of office were up.
His parents were
slaves brought from Africa to Messina, Sicily. Freed at 18, St Benedict did
farm work for a wage and soon saved enough to buy a pair of oxen. He was very
proud of those animals. In time he joined a group of hermits around Palermo and
was eventually recognized as their leader. Because these hermits followed the
Rule of St. Francis, Pope Pius IV ordered them to join the First Order.
St Benedict was
eventually novice master and then guardian of the friars in Palermo— positions
rarely held in those days by a brother. In fact, St Benedict was forced to
accept his election as guardian. And when his term ended he happily returned to
his work in the friary kitchen.
St Benedict corrected
the friars with humility and charity. Once he corrected a novice and assigned
him a penance only to learn that the novice was not the guilty party. St Benedict
immediately knelt down before the novice and asked his pardon.
In later life St Benedict
was not possessive of the few things he used. He never referred to them as ‘mine’
but always called them ‘ours.’ His gifts for prayer and the guidance of souls
earned him throughout Sicily a reputation for holiness. Following the example
of St Francis, St Benedict kept seven 40-day fasts throughout the year; he also
slept only a few hours each night.
After St Benedict’s death, King Philip III of Spain
paid for a special tomb for this holy friar. Canonised in 1807, he is honored
as a patron saint by African-Americans.
Words of Wisdom –Pope Francis, during a
recent interview to mark the second anniversary of his election.
“During the vote I was praying the rosary, I
usually pray three rosaries daily, and I felt great peace, almost to the point
of insentience. The very same when everything was resolved, and for me this was
a sign that God wanted it, great peace. From that day to this I have not lost
it. It is 'something inside’ it is like a gift. I do not know what happened
next. They made [me] stand up. They asked me if I agreed. I said yes. I do not
know if they made me swear on something, I forget. I was at peace.”
Meme of the week –
Two images this
week – one serious and powerful in its simplicity; the other, a little more
tongue-in-cheek.
EUTHANASIA AND PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED DEATH
An article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original can be found at http://ronrolheiser.com/euthanasia-and-physician-assisted-death/#.VRUBVvmUeNE
Raissa Maritain, the philosopher and spiritual writer, died some months after suffering a stroke. During those months she lay in a hospital bed, unable to speak. After her death, her husband, the renowned philosopher, Jacques Maritain, in preparing her journals for publication, wrote these words:
“At a moment when everything collapsed for both of us, and which as followed by four agonizing months, Raissa was walled in herself by a sudden attack of aphasia. Whatever progress she made during several weeks by sheer force of intelligence and will, all deep communication remained cut off. And subsequently, after a relapse, she could barely articulate words. In the supreme battle in which she was engaged, no one on earth could help her, myself no more than anyone else. She preserved the peace of her soul, her full lucidity, her humor, her concern for her friends, the fear of being a trouble to others, and her marvelous smile and the extraordinary light of her wonderful eyes. To everyone who came near her, she invariably gave (and with what astonishing silent generosity during her last two days, when she could only breathe out her love) some sort of impalpable gift which emanated from the mystery in which she was enclosed.”
The emphasis on the last sentence is my own and I highlight it because, I believe, it has something important to say in an age where, more and more, we are coming to believe that euthanasia and various forms of physician-assisted suicide are the humane and compassionate answer to terminal illness.
The case for euthanasia generally revolves around these premises: Suffering devalues human life and euthanasia alleviates that suffering and the ravages of the body and mind that come with that suffering so as to provide a terminally ill person “death with dignity” and death with less suffering. As well, it is argued, that once an illness has so debilitated a person so as to leave him or her in a virtual vegetative state, what is the logic for keeping such a person alive? Once dignity and usefulness are gone, why continue to live?
What’s to be said in response to this? The logic for euthanasia, compassionate in so far as it goes, doesn’t go far enough to consider a number of deeper issues. Dignity and usefulness are huge terms with more dimensions than first meet the eye. In a recent article in AMERICA magazine, Jessica Keating highlights some of those deeper issues as she argues against the logic of those who have lauded Brittany Maynard’s (the young woman who captured national attention last year by choosing assisted suicide in the face of a terminal illness) decision to take her own life as “courageous”, “sensible”, and “admirable”. Keating concedes that, had she not made that decision, Maynard would no doubt have suffered greatly and would in all likelihood eventually been rendered unproductive and unattractive. But, Keating argues, “she would have been present in a web of relationships. Even if she had fallen unconscious, she likely would have been read to, washed, dressed and kissed. She would have been gently caressed, held and wept over. She would simply have been loved to the end.”
That’s half the argument against euthanasia. The other half reads this way: Not only would she have been loved to the end, but, perhaps more importantly, she would have been actively emitting love until the end. From her ravaged, silent, mostly-unconscious body would have emanated an intangible, but particularly powerful, nurture and love, akin to the powerful life-giving grace that emanated from Jesus broken, naked body on the cross.
We too seldom make this important distinction: We believe that Jesus saved us through his life and through his death, as if these were the same thing. But they are very different: Jesus gave his life for us through his activity, his usefulness, through what he could actively do for us. But he gave his death for us through his passivity, through his helplessness, through the humiliation of his body in death. Jesus gave us his greatest gift precisely during those hours when he couldn’t do anything active for us.
And this isn’t something simply metaphorical and intangible. Anyone of us who have sat at the bedside of a dying loved one have experienced that in that person’s helplessness and pain he or she is giving us something that he or she couldn’t give us during his or her active life. From that person’s helplessness and pain emanates a power to draw us together as family, a power to intuit and understand deeper things, a deeper appreciation of life, and especially a much deeper recognition of that person’s life and spirit. And this, impalpable gift, as Maritain says, emanates from the mystery of pain, non-utility, and dying in which he or she is enclosed.
In our dying bodies we can give our loved ones something we cannot fully give them when we are healthy and active. Euthanasia is partially blind to the mystery of how love is given.
Eucharist
An email posted by Fr Richard Rohr on 23rd March 2015
T. S. Elliot said in the Four Quartets, "[Human]kind
cannot bear very much reality." What humans often prefer are highly
contrived ways of avoiding the real, the concrete, the physical. We fabricate
artificial realities instead, one of which, I'm sad to say, is religion itself.
So Jesus brought all of our fancy thinking down to earth, to one concrete place
of incarnation--this bread and this cup of wine! "Eat it here, and then
see it everywhere," he seems to be saying. If it's too idealized and
pretty, if it's somewhere floating around up in the air, it's probably not the
Gospel. We come back, again and again, to this marvelous touchstone of
orthodoxy, the Eucharist. The first physical incarnation in the body of Jesus
is now continued in space and time in ordinary food.
Eucharist is presence encountering presence--mutuality,
vulnerability. There is nothing to prove, to protect, or to sell. It feels so
empty, naked, and harmless, that all you can do is be present. The Eucharist is
telling us that God is the food and all we have to do is provide the hunger. Somehow
we have to make sure that each day we are hungry, that there's room inside of
us for another presence. If you are filled with your own opinions, ideas,
righteousness, superiority, or sufficiency, you are a world unto yourself and
there is no room for "another." Despite all our attempts to define
who is worthy and who is not worthy to receive communion, our only ticket or
prerequisite for coming to Eucharist is hunger. And most often sinners are
hungrier than "saints."
When I hand out the bread I love to say to the assembly,
"You become what you eat. Come and eat who you are!"
Adapted from Eucharist as Touchstone (CD, MP3 download)
