Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Parish Priest: Fr
Mob: 0417 279 437; mdelaney@netspace.net.au
Assistant Priest: Fr Alexander Obiorah
Mob: 0447 478 297; alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk
Mob: 0447 478 297; alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk
Postal Address: PO Box 362
Parish Office:
90 Stewart Street
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Mary Davies
Pastoral Council Chair: Mary Davies
Parish Mass Times: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
Weekly Homily Podcast: podomatic.com/mikedelaney
Parish Magazine: mlcathparishnewsletter.blogspot.com.au
Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.
Weekday Masses 21st – 24th July
2015
Tuesday: 9:30am - Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am - Latrobe ... St Mary Magdalene
Thursday: 12noon - Devonport
Friday: 9:30am -
Ulverstone
Next Weekend
25th & 26th July, 2015
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin & Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
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.
Ministry Rosters 25th & 26th July, 2015
Devonport:
Readers - Vigil: P Douglas, T Douglas, M Knight
10:30am: A Hughes, T Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion:
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil: M Heazlewood, B&I Suckling, G Lee-Archer, M Kelly, T Muir 10:30am: G Taylor, M Sherriff, T&S Ryan, M&B Peters
Cleaners 24th July: K.S.C. 31st July: M & L Tippett, A Berryman
Piety Shop 25th July: H Thompson 26th July: K Hull
Flowers: M Knight, B Naiker
Ulverstone:
Reader: E Cox
Ulverstone:
Reader: E Cox
Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, J Landford
Cleaners: G & M Seen, C Roberts
Cleaners: G & M Seen, C Roberts
Flowers: C Mapley Hospitality: T Good Team
Penguin:
Greeters: G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator: E Nickols
Penguin:
Greeters: G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator: E Nickols
Readers: J Barker, A Landers Procession: Y & R Downes
Ministers of Communion: M Hiscutt, M Murray
Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J Setting Up: S Ewing
Care of Church: Y & R Downes
Latrobe:
Reader: M Chan
Latrobe:
Reader: M Chan
Ministers of Communion: I Campbell, M Mackey
Procession: J Hyde Music: Hermie
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, E Holloway
Readers: M Badcock, E Holloway
Ministers of Communion: P Anderson Cleaners/Flowers/Prepare: A Holloway, B Lee
Your prayers are asked for the sick: Lorraine Duncan, Alan Cruse, Fr Terry Southerwood, Yvonne Harvey, Shirley Stafford, Maryanne Doherty & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
John Mason, Gerard Frost, Mick Nolan, Kora Pembleton, Sr Gwen Dooley, Winnie Ransley, Paul Mulcahy, Judith Poga, Denis Shelverton, Terry Charlesworth, Leslie Constable, Kath Bennett, Anne Morton, Moira Rhodes and Fr Paul Campbell ofm.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 15th – 21st July:
Lawrence Corbett, Janice Dyson, Michelle Sherriff, Allen Menzie, Susanne & William Dooley, Greta Cooper, Suzanne Grimshaw, Teresa Askew, Deda Burgess, Marlene Willett, Ronald Buxton, Brian Innes, Brian O’Neill and Frances Gerrand. Also Norma & John Ellings.
May they rest in peace
Scripture Readings this week - 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
First Reading: Jeremiah 23:1-6Responsorial Psalm:
(R.) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall
want.
Second Reading: Ephesians 2:13-18
Gospel Acclamation:
Gospel Acclamation:
Alleluia, alleluia!
My sheep listen to my voice, says the Lord; I know them,
and they follow me. Alleluia!
GOSPEL: Mark 6:30-34
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY'S GOSPEL:
I hear the words of Jesus inviting me to come away from my work cares and concerns so that I may rest for a while in his company. If I choose perhaps I too take myself off to a lonely place to pray.
I read the passage slowly, pausing from to time and using my whole imagination to take in the sights, sounds and emotions of the scene that is unfolding? What do I see and hear?
What do I imagine the apostles said to Jesus when they told him what they had done? In what way does Jesus listen and respond to them?
When the apostles and Jesus see the crowds, that have followed them to their quiet place, how does this change the mood of their reunion? In contrast, what is the mood of the crowd?
I read the passage again and this time I place myself fully in the scene, maybe as an apostle or as one of the crowd. I tell Jesus what I have done or perhaps I ask him to teach me. I listen to what he has to say to me.
When I am ready I slowly close my prayer with a sign of the cross.
Readings Next Week: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: 2 Kings 4:42-44 Second Reading: Ephesians 4:1-6 Gospel: John 6:1-15
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
This
Monday, 20th July, all the
priests of the Archdiocese, who are available, will gather at Holy Spirit
Church, Sandy Bay, to con-celebrate Mass with Fr Denis Allen as he celebrates 50
years of Priesthood. The Devonport Parish was one of the first Parishes that Fr
Denis worked as a Priest and so it will be a great occasion for me as a current
priest of the Parish to be able to celebrate this special time with him.
Next
Sunday afternoon the children who are part of our Sacramental program will have
their final gathering before they gather as part of our community to celebrate
the Sacrament of Confirmation and receive the Blessed Lord in the Eucharist for
the first time on the weekend of the 1st/2nd August. We
ask that you continue to keep these children and their families in your prayers
over these coming weeks.
At
the Parish Pastoral Council Meeting on Wednesday evening another of the
recommendations from the Parish Pastoral Plan was discussed – this was the
recommendation that we gather at least twice a year as a Parish Community for
the celebration of the Sunday Mass. It was suggested that the first occasion be
about the time of my 40th Anniversary of Ordination – my anniversary
is the 20th August but the Sunday Mass would be celebrated on Sunday
23rd August at 11am at St Brendan-Shaw College. This means that
there will only be one Mass on Sunday 23rd August – the Vigil Masses
at Penguin and Devonport will be as usual.
More
details will be made available in coming weeks about what else is planned for that
day. I recognise that there might be some difficulties for some people but I
would like to hope that on special occasions we might be able to take the opportunity
to gather to celebrate our unity as one Parish. I have to admit that (as many
of you know) I enjoy a celebration so there will be a Mass on the 20th
at Sacred Heart Ulverstone at 7pm followed by Supper and Mass at 11am on Monday
24th at 11am at OLOL for the Clergy of the Archdiocese and any and
all parishioners are also invited to that Mass.
Also,
a reminder that the August Open House is coming up shortly (7th
August) and will be held in the Community Room at Ulverstone from 7pm – more
details in the next few newsletters.
Until
next week, please take care on the roads and in your homes.
Welcome and congratulations to
Aria Edward, Nash Chisholm and Jet & Nate Cowling
who were baptised recently
and Leo Clarke who was baptised this weekend.
PETER’S PENCE COLLECTION – This Sunday:
Peters Pence, is the name traditionally given to an annual
contribution or tribute (originally of a penny from each householder holding
land of a certain value) paid to the Holy See. While regular contributions go
to the local parish or diocese, the Peter's Pence collection goes directly to
Rome.
“Peter’s Pence’ is the most characteristic expression of
the participation of all the faithful in the Bishop of Rome’s charitable
initiatives in favour of the universal Church. The gesture has not only a
practical value, but also a strong symbolic one, as a sign of communion with
the Pope and attention to the needs of one’s brothers; and therefore your
service possesses a refined ecclesial character.”
Envelopes for Peter’s Pence collection will be
available
at all Mass Centres this weekend!
GOLDEN JUBILEE:
Fr Denis Allen celebrates the 50th anniversary of his
ordination on 23rd July. To mark the occasion, a concelebrated
Mass will be held at Holy Spirit Church, Sandy Bay, at 11 am on Monday 20 July.
All welcome.
_______________________________________________
MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE WILLIAM ST, FORTH
GETTING MORE OUT OF THE SUNDAY GOSPEL:
An invitation to explore ways of tuning in to what
the Gospel is inviting you to be. Each Sunday’s Gospel speaks to each of us in
a different way. What is the Gospel
saying to you?
Presented by Richard and Belinda Chapman. Thursday 23rd July, 7.30pm – 9.00pm. Cost: $15.00/Donation
SPIRITUALITY IN THE COFFEE SHOPPE:
Monday
27th July 10.30am – 12 noon. Come along … share your
issues and enjoy a lively discussion over morning tea!
ST MARY MACKILLOP FEAST DAY LUNCHEON FRIDAY 7TH AUGUST:
Celebrate this special
day at MacKillop Hill.
Cost $10.00 for soup, sandwich and sweets.
12.00 noon start
Bookings necessary by 4th August to help with
catering.
Bookings and enquiries for all
of the above
Phone: 6428 3095 Email: mackillophill.forth@sosj.org.au
_________________________________________
CATHOLIC CHARISMATIC RENEWAL STATE CONFERENCE 2015:
Is being conducted at the Emmanuel Retreat Centre, 123
Abbott St, Launceston 7:30 pm Friday
7th August to 1.00 pm Sunday 9th August. The theme “Expectant Faith is not believing
God can – it is knowing He Will”.
Guest presenters: Fr Mark Freeman VG, Fr Graeme Howard, Fr Alexander Obiorah and Maureen O’Halloran. Application
forms with details including accommodation and daily attendance costs are
included on Church notice boards. Please contact Celestine Whiteley on 6424:2043
if you wish to attend.
SACRED HEART CHURCH ROSTERS:
Rosters are now being prepared.
Please let Barbara O’Rourke 6428:2723 know as soon as possible if you are
interested in taking on a role within the Church or if you are unable to
continue on the roster.
FOOTY POINTS MARGIN TICKETS:
Round
15 – Richmond by 30 points Winners; Gwen Doyle, M Jackson, Charlies Angels.
Thursday Nights OLOL Hall D’port. Eyes down 7.30pm
Callers 23rd
July Jon Halley & Merv Tippett
WORLD YOUTH DAY 2016, KRAKOW:
Applications are Opening Soon – will you be joining us for the
biggest youth event in the world? CYM will be holding an official launch
(including the opening of applications to join us on this life-changing
experience) on Saturday 22nd August. There will be special guests, polish
culture, giveaways and heaps of fun to be had! All Welcome. Put the date in
your diary, more information will follow next week. In the meantime make sure
you have registered your interest in joining the Tasmanian Pilgrimage to World
Youth Day 2016 at: www.surveymonkey.com/r/WYD16Interest
Laudato Si':
On the Care of Our Common Home
Pope Francis' Encyclical Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home is a call for global action as
well as an appeal for deep inner conversion.
He points to numerous ways world organisations, nations and communities must move
forward and the way individuals -- believers and people of good will -- should see, think, feel
and act.
Each week, we offer one of the Pope's suggestions, with the paragraph numbers to indicate
their place in the Encyclical.
“Reduce, reuse, recycle. Preserve resources, use them more efficiently, moderate
consumption and limit use of non-renewable resources.”
Pars 22, 192
Saint of the Week – St Martha (July 29)
No doubt Martha was an active sort of person. On one occasion (see Luke 10:38-42) she
prepares the meal for Jesus and possibly his fellow guests and forthrightly states the obvious:
All hands should pitch in to help with the dinner.
Yet, as biblical scholar Father John McKenzie points out, she need not be rated as an
“unrecollected activist.” The evangelist is emphasising what our Lord said on several
occasions about the primacy of the spiritual: “... Do not worry about your life, what you will
eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear…. But seek first the kingdom [of God]
and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:25b, 33a); “One does not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4b);
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” (Matthew 5:6a).
Martha’s great glory is her simple and strong statement of faith in Jesus after her brother’s
death. “Jesus told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he
dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’
She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world’.” (John 11:25-27)
This week, we begin a series of Biblical quotes
on self-control. We hope you find them useful.
Here’s a meme that puts John the Baptist in a different light.
______________________________________________
HEALING – A THEORY
An article by Fr Ron Rolheiser. The original article can be found here
All of us live with some wounds,
bad habits, addictions, and temperamental flaws that are so deeply engrained
and long-standing that it seems like they are part of our genetic make-up. And
so we tend to give into a certain quiet despair in terms of ever being healed
of them.
Experience teaches us this. There’s
the realization at some point in our lives that the wounds and flaws which pull
us down cannot be simply be turned off like a water-tap. Willpower and good
resolutions alone are not up to the task. What good is it to make a resolution
never to be angry again? Our anger will invariably return. What good is it to
make a resolution to give up some addictive habit, however small or big? We
will soon enough again be overcome by its lure. And what good does it do to try
to change some temperamental flaw we’ve inherited in our genes or inhaled in
the air of our childhood? All the good resolutions and positive thinking in the
world normally don’t change our make-up.
So what do we do? Just live with
our wounds and flaws and the unhappiness and pettiness that this brings into
our lives? Or, can we heal? How do we weed-out our weaknesses?
There are many approaches to
healing: Psychology tells us that good counselling and therapy can help cure us
of our wounds, flaws, and addictions. Therapy and counselling can bring us to a
better self-understanding and that can help us change our behavior. But
psychology also admits that this has its limitations. Knowing why we do
something doesn’t always empower us to change our behavior. Sociology too has
insights to contribute: There is, as Parker Palmer puts it, the therapy of a
public life. Healthy interaction with family, friends, community, and church
can be a wonderfully steadying thing in our lives and help take us beyond our
lonely wounds and our congenital missteps.
Various Recovery (12-Step) programs
also contribute something valuable: These programs are predicated on the
premise that self-understanding and willpower by themselves are often powerless
to actually change our behavior. A
higher power is needed, and that higher power is found in ritual, communal
support, radical honesty, admittance of our helplessness, and a turning over of
ourselves to a Someone or Something beyond us that can do for us what we cannot
do for ourselves. Recovery programs are invaluable, but they too aren’t the
answer to all of our problems.
Finally, not least, there are
various theories and practices of healing that ground themselves in
spirituality. These range from emphasizing church-going itself as a healing, to
emphasizing the sacrament of reconciliation, to recommending prayer and
meditation, to counseling various ascetical practices, to sending people off to
holy sites, to letting oneself be prayed-over by some group or faith-healer, to
undergoing long periods of spiritual guidance under a trained director.
There’s value in all of these and
perhaps the full healing of a temperamental flaw, a bad habit, an addiction, or
a deep wound depends upon drawing water from each of these wells. However,
beyond this simple listing, I would like to offer an insight from the great
mystic, John of the Cross vis-à-vis coming to psychological, moral, and
spiritual healing.
In his last book, The Living Flame
of Love, John proposes a theory of, and a process for, healing. In essence, it
runs this way: For John, we heal of our wounds, moral flaws, addictions, and
bad habits by growing our virtues to the point where we become mature enough in
our humanity so that there’s no more room left in our lives for the old
behaviors that used to drag us down. In short, we get rid of the coldness,
bitterness, and pettiness in our hearts by lighting inside our hearts enough
warm fires to burn out the coldness and bitterness. The algebra works this way:
The more we grow in maturity, generativity, and generosity, the more our old
wounds, bad habits, temperamental flaws, and addictions will disappear because
our deeper maturity will no longer leave room for them in our lives. Positive
growth of our hearts, like a vigorous plant, eventually chokes-out the weeds.
If you went to John of the Cross and asked him to help you deal with a certain
bad habit in your life, his focus wouldn’t be on how to weed-out that habit.
Instead the focus would be on growing your virtues: What are you doing well?
What are your best qualities? What goodness in you needs to be fanned fan into
fuller flame?
By growing what’s positive in us,
we eventually become big-hearted enough so that there’s no room left for our
former bad habits. The path to healing is to water our virtues so that these
virtues themselves will be the fire that burns out the festering wounds,
addictions, bad habits, and temperamental flaws that have, for far too long,
plagued our lives and kept us wallowing in weakness and pettiness rather than
walking in maturity, generosity, and generativity.
_________________________________________
Non-Duality
A series of email reflection posted by Fr Richard Rohr. You can subscribe here.
A
Different Consciousness
Now we are moving into the next
major section of my lineage: non-dual thinkers of all religions. All the great
religions at the higher or more mature levels teach a different consciousness,
which we call the contemplative mind, the non-dual mind, or the mind of Christ.
The levels of spiritual development begin with dualistic, exclusionary,
either/or thinking and become increasingly non-dual, allowing for a deeper,
broader, wiser, more inclusive and loving way of seeing. Non-dualistic thinking
presumes you have first mastered dualistic clarity, but also found it
insufficient for the really big issues like love, suffering, death, sexuality,
God, and any notion of infinity. In short, we need both to see fully and with
freedom.
Though life itself may move us to
deeper levels of non-dual knowing, there are some powerful practices, images,
and experiences that can serve as catalysts for unitive consciousness. We'll
explore many of these, from different traditions and teachers, in the coming
weeks. For example, the foundational Christian doctrine of the Trinity, if
actually encountered and meditated upon, is made to order to break down the
binary system of the mind--God is three and one at the same time! The Trinity
makes us patient before Mystery and humbles our dualistic minds. Even though
the doctrine of the Trinity was at the very center of Christian faith, most of
us did not allow it to change our consciousness.
We did not let the principle
of three undo our dualistic principle of two. We simply "believed" it
to be the nature of God and then shelved it, as we did most doctrines. Only the
mystics tended to relate to God in a Trinitarian way, and often passionately so
(such as Augustine, Bonaventure, Julian of Norwich, and the Cappadocian
Fathers). I am certain that the future of Christian mysticism will be strongly
Trinitarian. An honest Trinitarianism actually opens up interfaith dialogue and
respect, because now we can admit that God is total mystery, both transcendent
and immanent, a flowing God of which Jesus is a part. God is a verb more than a
noun.
If there is indeed one God of all
the earth, then it is this one God who is breaking through in every age and
culture. Monotheists should be the first to recognize that truth is one
(Ephesians 4:4-6) and that God is "all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28).
As Rumi said, "There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the
ground." Different religions use different words to describe essentially
the same change of consciousness that is necessary to see things in their
fullness:
• Many
writers in the early Christian era called the necessary perceptual shift away
from the dualistic, judging, and separate self contemplation.
• Buddhists
called it meditation, sitting, or practicing.
• Hesychastic
Orthodoxy called it prayer of the heart.
• Sufi
Islam called it ecstasy.
• Hasidic
Judaism called it living from the divine spark within.
• Vedantic
Hinduism spoke of it as non-dual knowing or simply breathing.
• Native
religions found it in communion with nature itself or the Great Spirit through
dance, ritual, and sexuality. Owen Barfield called this "original
participation."
Adapted from Contemplative Prayer
(CD, MP3 download);
The Divine Dance: Exploring the
Mystery of Trinity, disc 2 (CD, MP3 download);
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for
the Two Halves of Life, p. 150;
The Naked Now: Learning to See as
the Mystics See, pp. 53-54, 150-151;
Silent Compassion: Finding God in
Contemplation, p. 32
Growing
into Contemplative Seeing
Dualistic thinking is the
well-practiced pattern of knowing most things by comparison. And for some
reason, once you compare or label things (that is, "judge" them), you
almost always conclude that one is good and the other is less good or even bad.
In the first half of life, this provides ego boundaries and clear goals, which
creates a nice clean "provisional personality." But it is not close
to the full picture that we call truth.
Dualistic thinking works only for a
while to get us started, but if we are honest, it stops being helpful in most
real-life situations. It is fine for teenagers to think that there is some
moral or "supernatural" superiority to their chosen baseball team,
their army, their ethnic group, or even their religion or gender; but one hopes
that later in life they learn that such polarity is just an agreed-upon game.
Your frame should grow larger as you move toward the Big Picture in which one
God creates all and loves all, both Dodgers and Yankees, blacks and whites,
Palestinians and Jews, gays and straights, Americans and Afghanis.
Non-dualistic thinking or both-and
thinking is the benchmark of our growth into the second half of life. This more
calm and contemplative seeing does not appear suddenly, but grows almost
unconsciously over many years of conflict, confusion, healing, broadening,
loving, and forgiving reality. It emerges gradually as we learn to
"incorporate the negative," learn from what we used to exclude, or,
as Jesus put it, "forgive our enemies" both within and without.
You no longer need to divide the
field of every moment between up and down, totally right or totally wrong, for
or against. It just is what it is. This inner calm allows you to confront what
must be confronted with even greater clarity and incisiveness. This stance is
not at all passivity. It is, in fact, the essential link between true
contemplation and skillful action. The big difference is that your small and
petty self is now out of the way, and if God wants to use you or love you,
which God always does, God's chances are far better now!
Adapted from Falling Upward: A
Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, pp. 146-148
Letting
Go
I often use the term
"alternative orthodoxy," a phrase I learned from my Franciscan
tradition, having to do with emphasis upon lifestyle itself more than mere verbal
correctness. Francis wanted us to do the Gospel, to live lives that were
simple, loving, joyful, and non-violent. But I believe that the reason we lost
this alternative orthodoxy is because we first lost our alternative, non-dual
consciousness. We read everything inside of a quick and easy conformity with
one "right" side of most questions, which kept us in the world of
words--instead of our own experience--and it usually did not emphasize actual
experience, which some call "orthopraxy." The contemplative mind does
not hide behind words (which are by nature dualistic), but is in immediate
contact with reality, people, and events--as they are--and without an
ideological overlay (having your conclusions before the fact).
Alternative consciousness is
largely letting go of my mind's need to solve problems, to fix people, to fix
myself, to rearrange the moment because it is not to my liking. When that mind
goes, another, non-dualistic mind is already there waiting. We realize it is
actually our natural way of seeing. It's the way we thought as children before
we started judging and analyzing and distinguishing things one from another. As
Helen Luke says, "The coming to consciousness is not a discovery of some
new thing; it is a long and painful return to that which has always been."
You cannot experience the non-dual
mind without letting go of the dualistic mind--at least for a while. For most
people who have thought dualistically for a long period of time, it feels like
dying, it feels like losing, it feels like letting go of control, which is
exactly why Catholic mystics consistently called it "darkness" or
"knowing by darkness."
This is surely why many people do not move to
more mature stages of prayer. They'd rather stay in the mind, which is largely
commenting and arguing between conflicting or competing ideas. Note that I said
you must let go of your dualistic mind at least for a while. You eventually
have to return there to get most ordinary jobs accomplished, but even those you
will now do in a less compulsive or driven way.
Contemplation leads you to have
simple clear eyes, common-sense faith, a combination of humility and quiet
confidence, and a loving energy that makes whatever you say quite compelling.
It also allows you to deal with complex issues with this same simplicity and
forthrightness, as we are now seeing in Pope Francis, for example.
Adapted from Silent Compassion:
Finding God in Contemplation, pp. 65-67,
and The Divine Dance: Exploring the
Mystery of Trinity, disc 2 (CD, MP3 download)
Presence
The contemplative, non-dualistic
mind withholds from labeling things or categorizing them too quickly (i.e.,
judging), so it can come to see them in themselves, apart from the words or
concepts that become their substitutes. Humans tend to think that because they
agree or disagree with the idea of a thing, they have realistically encountered
the thing itself. Not at all true, says the contemplative. It is necessary to
encounter the thing in itself. "Presence" is my word for this encounter,
a different way of knowing and touching the moment. It is a much more
vulnerable position, and leaves us without a full sense of control, which is
why many will not go there.
In some ways, presence is the
"one thing necessary" (Luke 10:42), and perhaps the hardest thing of
all. Just try to keep your heart open, your mind without division or
resistance, and your body not somewhere else. Such simple presence is the
practical, daily task of all mature religion and all spiritual disciplines.
Once you are "present and accounted for," you grow from everything,
even the problematic and difficult things. If your presence is wrong, you will
not recognize the Real Presence even in the Eucharist. The Presence will be
there--it always is--but you won't be. I love to say that it has been much
easier for Jesus to teach bread and wine what it is than to teach humans, who
always resist their deepest and simplest identity.
Ultimate Reality cannot be seen
with any dual operation of the mind, where we eliminate the mysterious, the confusing,
and anything scary, unfamiliar, or outside our comfort zone. Dualistic thinking
is not naked presence to the Presence, but highly controlled and limited
seeing. With such software, we cannot access things like infinity, God, grace,
mercy, and love--the necessary and important things! I would not respect any
God I could figure out with my limited, rational mind. St. Augustine said the
same in the fifth century: "If you understand it, then it is not God"
(Si comprehenderis, non est Deus).
Adapted from The Naked Now:
Learning to See as the Mystics See, pp. 35, 60, 75
The
Christian Contemplative Tradition
Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy
have a long tradition of teaching contemplation or non-dual thinking. It is
very clear in the Desert Fathers and Mothers, in Celtic Christianity, and in
the Eastern Church's Philokalia. Contemplation was taught directly or
indirectly in the monastic history of all the ancient Christian orders (for
example, by Dionysius, John Cassian, and the famous monastery of St. Victor in
Paris) and by those such as Bonaventure, Francisco de Osuna, and the unknown
author of The Cloud of Unknowing.
We know non-dual consciousness was
systematically taught until as late as the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
usually among Benedictines or Cistercians. The early Franciscans benefited from
this ancient understanding, the Rhineland Dominicans beautifully exemplified
it, and the Carmelites gathered it from their ancient history in Palestine at
Mount Carmel. Its final flower, even supernova, of expression was in Teresa of
Ávila and John of the Cross in the sixteenth century, who retaught
contemplation at great cost. Most of our Western mystics exemplified
contemplation, as did Jesus, much more than they actually taught it directly.
Maybe this is part of the reason we lost it, and why good theological teaching
and practice is now so important today.
But after the fights of the
Reformation, and after the over-rationalization of the seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century Enlightenment, we all became very defensive and circled the
wagons around our rational arguments. Wanting to prove we were smart and could
win arguments with the new secularism, we religious folks imitated the
rationalists while using pious Christian vocabulary. Our own doctrines (such as
transubstantiation, biblical inerrancy, and papal infallibility) were
henceforth presented in a dualistic, argumentative way. It was no longer
non-dual consciousness, but dualistic thinking about deep Christian beliefs,
which frankly inspires no one and drives many away from Christianity. Most
priests were educated this way until the much needed reforms of Vatican II in
the 1960s. Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was key in reintroducing the contemplative
mind to the Western world. Now it is again taught all over the world under
different names.
Despite the centuries without
systematic teaching of non-dual consciousness, I think many have always come to
the contemplative mind as the fruit of great suffering or great love. These are
the quickest ways to destabilize the self-referential ego. Those transformed by
life and grace find themselves thinking simply, clearly, and in a
non-argumentative way, without recognizing how they got there. They come to
enjoy God, others, and even themselves, and do not need to pick fights in their
minds about everything. It is such a pleasant way to live! Read Philippians
2:1-4 where the non-dual mind is on full display, which then leads to the
inspired and self-emptying hymn of verses 5-11, where Paul tells us that we now
have "the same mind which is in Christ Jesus." I believe the
contemplative, non-dual mind is indeed the mind of Christ. Paul also describes
this in Philippians 4:4-7 and in 1 Corinthians 2 and 3, lest you think this is
not scriptural. Jesus both lived and exemplified this non-dual mind during his
forty days in the desert and his frequent visits to "quiet" and
"lonely" places (e.g., Mark 1:35, Luke 4:42).
Adapted from Silent Compassion:
Finding God in Contemplation, pp. 63-65
Not
Two
We in the West are naturally
educated in dualistic thinking, so much so that we call it
"thinking." We think being able to make distinctions is what it means
to be intelligent or rational. Most of our college professors love to make
distinctions for us and teach us how to do the same. We have lost the older
tradition that there are some things previous to--and even more important
than--the making of distinctions. In fact, the distinguishing of everything
from other things is part of the problem! Distinctions are largely made in the
mind, with words, and that has many positive and necessary aspects. But it also
carries a bit of untruth because you would do well to first see the
similarities and deep identities of things before you make distinctions between
them. I like to say you must always begin with "yes" rather than with
"no."
Even ancient religion saw that its
job was to introduce people to an alternative way of thinking. We now call the
practice of that other way of thinking meditation or contemplation. Contemplation
is meeting reality in its most simple and immediate form. The only way to do
that is to get rid of your mental grids of judging, critiquing, and comparing.
Every major religion, at its more mature levels, is trying to give you some
kind of method to compartmentalize this dualistic mind. You do not fully
process the moment by judging it, analyzing it, differentiating it; you must
use a different processor. You must first respect anything for being exactly
what it is, as it is. Like a clean mirror, you just reflect it back without any
added distortions or filters. Then you can see things in their primal unity, as
both "one" and yet still "distinct." What a miracle this
is! [1]
The East is better at this than we
are, as we'll see in later meditations on Hinduism and Buddhism. Mark Nepo
explains the non-dual brilliance of an ancient Chinese saying, "Not
Two" [2]:
Almost fourteen hundred years ago,
Seng-ts'an, one of the first Chinese sages we know of, offered this brief
retort to those who pestered him for advice--"To reach Accord, just say,
'Not Two!'"
This reply is as pertinent as it is
mysterious. To make sense of it, we need to understand what isn't said: that
everything that divides and separates removes us from what is sacred, and so
weakens our chances for joy.
How can this be? Well, to
understand this, we must open ourselves to an even deeper truth: that
everything--you and I and the people we mistrust and even the things we
fear--everything at heart follows the same beat of life pulsing beneath all the
distractions and preferences we can create.
Once divided from the common beat
of life, we are cut off from the abundance and strength of life, the way an
organ cut out of the body dies. So, to find peace, to live peace, we need to
keep restoring our original Oneness. We need to experience that ancient and
central beat which we share with everything that exists.
References:
[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr,
Silent Compassion: Finding God in Contemplation (Franciscan Media: 2014),
61-62.
[2] Mark Nepo, The Book of
Awakening (Conari Press: 2011), 25-26.
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