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 17th – 21st March, 2015
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin, 12noon Latrobe (Feast of St Patrick)
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 11:00am Mt
St Vincent
Next
Weekend 21st & 22nd March, 2015
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin & Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield (LWC),
5:00pm 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 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
Ministry Rosters 21st & 22nd March,
2015
Devonport:
Readers:
Vigil: M Kelly, B Paul, R Baker
10.30am: J Phillips, P Piccolo, K Pearce
Ministers of Communion: Vigil M
Heazlewood,
B & J Suckling, G Lee-Archer, M Kelly, T Muir
10.30am: G Taylor, M Sherriff, T & S Ryan,
M & B Peters
M & B Peters
Cleaners 20th March: K.S.C.
27th
March: G & R
O’Rourke, M & R Youd
Piety Shop 21st March: H Thompson
22nd March: D French
Ulverstone:
Reader: E Cox
Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, J
Landford
Cleaners: Knights of
the Southern Cross Hospitality: S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters: G & N Pearce Commentator: E Nickols
Readers: M & D Hiscutt Procession: A Landers, A Hyland
Ministers of Communion: J Barker, A Guest
Liturgy: Pine Road Setting Up: A Landers
Care of Church: M Bowles, A Hyland
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, G Duff
Ministers of Communion: D Leaman, B Lee Clean /Prepare A Hynes
Latrobe:
Reader: S Ritchie Ministers of Communion: M Mackey, P Marlow Procession: J Hyde & Co Music: Hermie & Co
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Baby Jai, Nola Bengtell, Marlene
Urem, Betty Weeks, Peter
Bolster, Adrian Brennan, Frank Fitzpatrick, Yvonne
Harvey, Margaret Hoult, Emma Newton, Michele Nickols, Valerie
& Tom Nicolson, Kath Smith, Candida
Tenaglia, Shirley White, Eva Zvatora & ...
Let us pray for those who
have died recently:
Melissa Tadman, Leonie Heron, David Gibbens, Barbara Moncrieff, Sr Jodie Hynes, Fr James Sayers, Shirley Brereton, Bèla Vaszocz,Leigh Martin, Lisa Roach, Dorothy Leary, Ted Dolliver, Stan Tibble and also: Fortunato & Asuncion Carcuevas, Pelagio & Felomina Makiputin, Rengel Gelacio.
Melissa Tadman, Leonie Heron, David Gibbens, Barbara Moncrieff, Sr Jodie Hynes, Fr James Sayers, Shirley Brereton, Bèla Vaszocz,Leigh Martin, Lisa Roach, Dorothy Leary, Ted Dolliver, Stan Tibble and also: Fortunato & Asuncion Carcuevas, Pelagio & Felomina Makiputin, Rengel Gelacio.
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time:
11th March – 17th March:
Ken Bates, Max Fulton, Bob McCormack, Beautrice Hacking,
Ernest Collings, Amaya Stevens, Edna Chatwin, Nancye & Tony Callinan, Terence
Murphy, Henry Lizotte, Stan Nelson, Norris Castles, Mavis Jarvis, Bernie &
Frances O’Sullivan, Adeline Munro, John Smink, Archbishop Guilford Young and
Maurice Kelly.
May they rest in peace
_______________________________________________________________________
Readings This Week; Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year B
First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16. 19-23
Responsorial Psalm: (R.) Let
my tongue be silenced, if ever I forget you!
Second Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10
Gospel Acclamation: Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!
God loved the world so much, he gave us his only Son that
all who believe in him might have eternal life. Glory and praise to you, Lord
Jesus Christ!
Gospel: John 3:14-21
________________________________________________________________________
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY'S GOSPEL:
Nicodemus meets Jesus in secret under cover of darkness. I
choose my time and place of prayer in order to meet Jesus in the secret place
of my heart.
I read over this passage slowly, listening in to this
conversation. Perhaps I ask for the grace to hear this message as if it is
spoken directly to me. As I listen I allow key words and phrases to wash over
me like waves on the shore. Pondering on these words, I ask Jesus to teach and
enlighten me...
Jesus repeats words and themes: God’s deep and enduring
love for the world, an invitation to eternal life; he speaks of the importance
of belief (four times), light overcoming darkness. To which of these themes am
I drawn? Does this Gospel shed light and life on the situations I face in my life
today? I speak to the Lord about these things that concern me in the knowledge
that he will listen with a loving heart. Am I aware of a tendency in me to
prefer darkness to light? If I feel burdened, am I able to open my heart to
Jesus and hear him tell me that he was sent into the world not to condemn me
but to save me? As I bring my time of prayer to a close I recall the most
important themes towards which I felt drawn. Perhaps I finish my prayer asking
for the grace to live my life in such a way that all I do is done in God.
Readings Next Week: Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year B
_________________________________________________________
OUR LENTEN LITURGY IN 2015:
The entire Christian community is invited to live this
period of forty days as a pilgrimage of repentance, conversion and renewal. In
the Bible, the number forty is rich in symbolism. It recalls Israel’s journey
in the desert, a time of expectation, purification and closeness to the Lord,
but also a time of temptation and testing. It also evokes Jesus’ own sojourn in
the desert at the beginning of his public ministry, a time of profound
closeness to the Father in prayer, but also of confrontation with the mystery
of evil. The Church’s Lenten discipline is meant to help deepen our life of
faith and our imitation of Christ in his paschal mystery. In these forty days
may we draw nearer to the Lord by meditating on his word and example, and
conquer the desert of our spiritual aridity, selfishness and materialism.
Our words, actions and music in the liturgy lead us ever
deeper into the paschal mystery this Lent:
• After the introduction, Mass begins
with the priest greeting from the rear of the church and then proceeds while
Kyrie Eleison or Lord have mercy is sung. On the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sundays of
Lent, the Rite of Sprinkling (Asperges) may take place during the singing of
the Kyrie. The name ‘Asperges’ comes from the first word in the 9th verse of
Psalm 51 in the Latin translation, the Vulgate.
• By the use
of violet/purple vestments. Violet recalls suffering, mourning, simplicity and
austerity.
• By having
moments of silence before and after the readings and after the homily RGIRM
(2007) 45.
• At the breaking of the bread (the
Fraction Rite) there will be a short narrative before intoning the Lamb of God
• By the
absence of flowers due to the penitential nature of the season.
• The congregation leaves the church
after the singing of a brief final hymn, then following the celebrant in
respectful silence.
• There is
no Gloria or Alleluia verse (replaced by a Gospel acclamation).
• Images are
veiled immediately before the 5th Sunday of Lent in accordance with local
custom.
• On the 4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare
Sunday) flowers are permitted as well as music (eg music – that is musical
instruments – being played during preparation of the gifts, or during the
communion procession). Rose vestments may be worn on this Sunday.
Sarita was struggling to grow enough food for her family on her tiny farm
plot. In 2007, with the assistance of a
program run by Caritas Nepal, she started a fish-raising business with 11
others. Now, they have a life-long
source of food and income.
Please donate to Project Compassion 2015 and help people in
rural Nepal create a life-long source of food and income to benefit entire
communities.
_____________________________________________________
WEEKLY RAMBLINGS:
Recently I noticed a young woman at Mass but didn’t have a
chance to speak to her until she came to a weekday Mass at Latrobe. She told me
that she was a nurse on holidays from NSW but was heading off two days later to
work in an Ebola Hospital in Sierra Leone for 3 months. I promised that I would
ask the parish to remember her in our prayers – her name is Anne Marie and so I
hold her up for your prayerful support.
This weekend the children who are preparing for the
Sacraments and their families are working through material for the Sacrament of
Reconciliation. They will celebrate the Sacrament on either Monday 23rd
or Tuesday 24th March – we wish them well and will be praying for
them in these next weeks.
The Parish Lenten Reconciliation Services will be at
Devonport on Monday 30th March and Ulverstone on Wednesday 1st
April – please keep note of these dates in your diary.
Last week I mentioned the Book ‘Rebuilt: Awakening the
Faithful, Reaching the Lost, and Making Church Matter’. The authors, Fr Michael
White and Tom Corcoran, spoke at the National Proclaim Conference in Sydney
last year and their Presentations can be found on the following website - http://www.proclaimconference.com.au/resources#faqnoanchor
– their talks are Making Church Matter and Moving Members from Consumers to
Contributors. As I mentioned in my homily last weekend they are asking their
Parish to look at who they are with different eyes and reading their story, and
listening to them, our story is not that different. I would ask that anyone and
everyone who looks at our parish and honestly sees what we look like to go
online and listen to these two talks or go to http://www.churchnativity.tv/media.php?pageID=96
where you will find message series which show how their weekly program runs, or
go to http://churchnativity.churchonline.org/
at 8.30am on Monday morning and watch their Sunday 5.30pm Mass live.
I might add that their answers may not be our answers but I
strongly believe that their questions are the right questions and deserve to
seriously considered.
Until next week, please take care on the roads and in your
homes.
SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM:
We continue to pray for our Sacramental
Candidates.
Loving God,
Pour out your blessing
upon our children that, during this time of Sacramental preparation,
that they may grow closer
to you, and come to know your special love for them.
May this time of
preparation for the sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and Eucharist
be a time of blessing for
our families and our community.
Unite us all in your great
love.
Amen.
CWL EASTER RAFFLE:
Prize: Easter Basket. Tickets $1.00 each. Buy a ticket (or two) this Sunday 15th March and next Sunday 22nd March. Lucky winner will be drawn on Sunday 29th March.
SPECIAL TALK - THE DEEPER MEANING BEHIND THE DIVINE MERCY DEVOTION:
You are invited to a special evening with Paul and Juliana
Elarde, as they share with you the deeper meaning behind the Divine Mercy
devotion, and how God's mercy has changed their lives at Our Lady of Lourdes Church
Devonport on Thursday 19th March from 6.30pm. For more information
please contact the Sisters of the Immaculata 0406372608.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY: The Annual Button Day is Friday
20th March, if you are able to volunteer an hour of your time to sell
buttons please phone Trish on 6427:7100.
MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE, WILLIAM STREET, FORTH
St Patrick’s Day Luncheon – A light-hearted
celebration! Bring a friend! Enjoy a delicious lunch!
Wear a Shamrock …. Leprechauns welcome! Tuesday
17th March, Cost $12. 12 noon start RSVP 13th March
Bookings essential. Phone Mary Webb 6425:2781 or Office
6428:3095 email rsjforth@bigpond.net.au
ATTENTION ALL MEN!
Join Drasko Disdar for a stimulating discussion on “What
is essential in a Catholic Life?” Saturday 21st March 10am – 12:30pm
followed by lunch (bring your own). Tea & coffee provided. $20 or donation
Phone 6428:3095 - mackillophill.forth@sosj.org.au
SPIRITUALITY IN THE COFFEE SHOPPE: Monday 23rd March 10.30 – 12 noon. Come along….share your issues and enjoy a
lively discussion over morning tea!
Phone: 6428 3095 or Email: mackillophill.forth@sosj.org.au
HOUR OF
PRAYER FOR WORLD PEACE:
All parishioners are invited to an Hour of Prayer for World
Peace before the Blessed Sacrament at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Devonport on
Thursday 26th March. Mass will follow at 12noon. For further details
please phone Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068.
LEGION OF MARY:
Invite members of the Parish to their annual Acias
(Consecration to Our Lady) at Sacred Heart Church, Alexandra Road
Ulverstone, Sunday 22nd April at 2pm with benediction followed by afternoon
tea in the Community Room.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
PALM SUNDAY
PILGRIMAGE – Sunday 29th March
Have you registered for the biggest event in the 2015
calendar yet? Don’t miss the opportunity to come together with hundreds of
fellow Tasmanian Catholics from around the state in faith, hope, witness and
loads of energy and fun as we kick start Holy Week in the best way possible,
celebrate World Youth Day and unite as one Tasmanian Catholic Community! With
pilgrimage walk, festivities in the park, street procession and a vibrant
celebration of Mass there is something for everyone of all ages! Let’s have a
great representation of our parish and be a part of something big. For
all your information and to REGISTER go to: www.cymtas.org.au
FINAL CALL
FOR BUS BOOKINGS (Palm Sunday Pilgrimage)
We really appreciate the effort that those from the
beautiful north west of the state make to travel to be a part of this
Archdiocesan celebration – it isn’t a celebration of our Tasmanian Church
without you!! To try and make it as easy as possible we have a subsidised bus
travelling from Burnie and Devonport to Palm Sunday Pilgrimage and return. Bus
will depart Burnie Yacht Club at 6.00am and Our Lady of Lourdes Church,
Devonport at 6.30am, returning departing Hobart at 4.45pm. Return single ticket
is only $15 or Family Ticket $50. PLEASE BOOK your seat on the bus. You need to
book by no later than THIS WEEK - Friday 20th MARCH. Book at: www.cymtas.org.au. Contact Rachelle Smith:
0400 045 368
ST TERESA OF AVILA: PRAYER FRIENDSHIP WITH JESUS: Two talks to be given by Fr Paul Maunder, Carmelite Friar, to celebrate the Fifth Centenary of the Birth of St Teresa. Held at the 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.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, D’port.
Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers Thursday
19th March Rod Clarke & Bruce
Peters.
Evangelii
Gaudium
“No-one
must say that they cannot be close to the poor because their own lifestyle
demands more attention to other areas. This is an excuse commonly heard in
academic, business or professional, and even ecclesial circles. While it is
quite true that the essential vocation and mission of the lay faithful is to
strive that earthly realities and all human activity may be transformed by the
Gospel, none of us can think we are exempt from concern for the poor and social
justice.”
Par 200 from Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis, Nov.
24, 2013
Saint of the Week –
He is the Patron
Saint of several dioceses across Australia, including Adelaide, Ballarat,
Bathurst, Hobart, Lismore and Melbourne.
As a boy of 14 or so, he was captured during a raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. Ireland at this time was a land of Druids and pagans. He learned the language and practices of the people who held him.
St Patrick's captivity lasted until he was 20, when he escaped after having a dream from God in which he was told to leave Ireland by going to the coast. There he found some sailors who took him back to Britain, where he reunited with his family. He had another dream in which the people of Ireland were calling out to him ‘We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more.’
He began his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained by St Germanus, the Bishop of Auxerre, whom he had studied under for years.
Later, Patrick was ordained a bishop, and was sent to take the Gospel to Ireland. He arrived in Ireland March 25, 433, at Slane. One legend says that he met a chieftain of one of the tribes, who tried to kill Patrick. Patrick converted Dichu, the chieftain, after he was unable to move his arm until he became friendly to Patrick.
Patrick began preaching the Gospel throughout Ireland, converting many. He and his disciples preached and converted thousands and began building churches all over the country. Kings, their families, and entire kingdoms converted to Christianity when hearing Patrick's message.
Words of Wisdom – Blessed
Margaret d’Youville
“All the wealth in the world cannot be
compared with the happiness of living together happily united.”
Cartoon of
the week
As a further
tribute to our Saint of the Week, we share this cartoon, featuring St Patrick
and Medusa on a date!
GOING TO HEAVEN – BY GOOD LUCK OR BY GOD’S GRACE?
An article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original can be found at http://ronrolheiser.com/going-to-heaven-by-good-luck-or-by-gods-grace/#.VQNVn_mUeNE
Eternity has more kinds of rooms than this world does. This is a thought inside the head of Marilynne Robinson’s fictional character, Lila, in Robinson’s recent novel. Lila has reason to think that way, that is, to think outside the box of conventional religious piety because her story is not one that fits piety of any kind.
Lila had been an unwanted orphan, dying from malnutrition and neglect, when at a young age she was taken up by a woman named Dolly, herself a social outcast. Lila spends all the years of her youth with Dolly, traveling with her as the two of them live on the edges of society and hunger, working as agricultural laborers with others like themselves, more slaves than paid workers. Living this way, Lila never learns the social skills needed to function normally in society. Everything in her background, from her abandonment as a child to her life-long marginalization, sets her up to be a loner, someone condemned by circumstance to never find normal companionship, family, intimacy, or grace.
Moreover, Dolly, her surrogate mother, has her own problems, beyond her struggles to feed Lila and herself. When she took up Lila and fled from their hometown, she was fleeing domestic violence. Eventually, years later, the man from whom she was fleeing finds her; but Dolly is no passive victim. She knifes the man to death. Sometime later, she dies, orphaning Lila a second time.
But, by now, Lila is old enough to take care of herself, except, lacking social skills, she still finds herself at the margins of society, ever the loner. Luck, though, is on her side and she is eventually befriended by a Christian minister who takes care of her and eventually marries her. This new world of acceptance, love, family, and religion is radically new to Lila and she struggles mightily to sort it out, especially regarding how love and grace work. One of the problems that bother her, as she listens to her husband’s Christian sermons, is what happens to someone like Dolly, who did so much for her, and yet was a murderer. Is she forgiven? Could she have gone to heaven, even after committing murder? Lila struggles to believe in faith, love, family life, forgiveness, and heaven.
Her thoughts on this, especially on how Dolly might have met her Maker, contain their own important insights into love and grace: “In eternity, people’s lives could be altogether what they were and had been, not just the worst things they ever did, or the best things either. So she decided that she should believe in it, or that she believed in it already. How else could she imagine seeing Dolly again? Never once had she taken her to be dead, plain and simple. If any scoundrel could be pulled into heaven just to make his mother happy, it couldn’t be fair to punish scoundrels who happened to be orphans, or whose mothers didn’t even like them, and who would probably have better excuses for the harm they did than the ones who had somebody caring about them. It couldn’t be fair to punish people for trying to get by, people who were good by their own lights, when it took all the courage they had to be good. … Eternity had more of every kind of room in it than this world did.”
As Christians, we believe that, as part of the Body of Christ, we have been given the power to forgive each other’s sins and that, because of that, indeed a mother’s love can pull her child into heaven. Our love for each other is a powerful vehicle of grace, powerful enough to actually open the gates of heaven. As Gabriel Marcel once put it: To love someone is to, in effect, say: You at least will never die! Human love, even this side of eternity, has that kind of power. That’s also why we pray for loved ones who have died. Our love has the power to reach them, even there.
But, and this was Lila’s quandary: What about those who, like Dolly and herself, are outsiders in this life and who die without anyone much caring about the fact that they’ve gone or where they’ve gone? How do grace and forgiveness work then? Is human love then purely out of the picture and we are left only with the hope that God’s love can fill in where human love is absent?
Yes, God’s love can and does fill in where human love is absent. In fact, scripture assures us that God has a special love, and tenderness, for those who find themselves outside of the circle of human love. So we need not worry about the salvation of those who, like Dolly, died in less-than-ideal circumstances, even as they “took all the courage they had to be good.” Human love, while generally directed towards very specific persons, is also a symphony whose music circles wide and ultimately embraces everyone.
Accepting the Mystery of Suffering
From an email from Fr Richard Rohr posted on 9th March 2015
Mark likely wrote his gospel around 65 to 70 AD, much closer
to the time of Jesus than the other evangelists. He gave us a picture of Jesus
which was very close to the preaching of the apostles, but in a different context
and with a very definite emphasis and intention. Mark began writing shortly
after the great persecution in Rome (64 AD) in which both Peter and Paul had
been martyred. They began to see where Jesus' message finally led people. Until
then, the gentile converts in Rome had experienced largely the glory of Christ,
it seems.
The purpose of Mark's gospel was therefore to remind
Christians, who acknowledged Jesus as the messiah, that Jesus walked a path of
"suffering servanthood." We Christians say glibly that we are
"saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus" but seem to understand
this as some kind of heavenly transaction on his part, instead of an earthly
transformation on his and our part. We need to deeply trust and allow both our
own dyings and our own certain resurrections, just as Jesus did! This is the
full pattern of transformation. If we trust both, we are indestructible. That
is how Jesus "saves" us from meaninglessness, cynicism, hatred, and
violence--which is indeed death.
God is Light, yet this full light is hidden in darkness so
only the sincere seeker finds it. It seems we all must go into darkness to see
the light, which is counter-intuitive for the ego. Our age and culture resists
this language of "descent." We made Christianity, instead, into a
religion of "ascent," where Jesus became a self-help guru instead of
a profound wisdom-guide who really transformed our mind and heart. Reason,
medicine, wealth, technology, and speed (all good in themselves) have allowed
us to avoid the quite normal and ordinary "path of the fall" as the
way to transform the separate and superior self into a much larger identity
that we call God.
Adapted from The Great Themes of Scripture: New Testament,
pp. 35-36 (published by Franciscan Media); and Job and the Mystery of
Suffering, p. 185 (published by Crossroad Publishing Company)
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