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 11th – 14th August
2015
Tuesday: 9:30am - Penguin … St Clare
Wednesday: 9:30am - Latrobe
Thursday: 10:30am
- Eliza Purton Home
12noon
- Devonport
Friday: 9:30am
- Ulverstone … St Maximilian Mary Kolbe
Saturday: 9.00am - Ulverstone … Feast of the Assumption
Saturday: 9.00am - Ulverstone … Feast of the Assumption
9.30am - Devonport
Next Weekend 15th & 16th August, 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 15th & 16th August, 2015
Devonport:
Readers Vigil: V Riley, A Stegmann
10:30am: F Sly, J Tuxworth, K Pearce
Ministers of Communion: Vigil:
T Muir, M Davies, M
Gerrand, T Bird, S Innes
10:30am: C Schrader, R Beaton, B & N Mulcahy, L Hollister
Cleaners 14th August:
B Bailey, A Harrison,
M Greenhill 21st August: K.S.C.
Piety Shop 15th August:
R McBain 16th August: O McGinley Flowers: A O’Connor
Ulverstone:
Reader: R Locket Ministers of
Communion: E Reilly, M & K McKenzie, M O’Halloran
Cleaners: M Swain, M
Bryan Flowers: M Bryan Hospitality: B O’Rourke
Penguin:
Greeters: J & T Kiely Commentator: Readers: Y Downes, T Clayton
Procession: M & D Hiscutt Ministers of Communion: E Nickols
Liturgy: Penguin Setting Up: E Nickols Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols
Latrobe:
Reader: H Lim Ministers of
Communion: Z Smith,
M Mackey Procession: I Campbell Music: Jenny
Port Sorell:
Readers: G Duff, T Jeffries Ministers of Communion: L Post Cleaners/Flowers/Prepare: G Bellchambers, M Gillard
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Veronica Sylvester, Shirley Ryan, Kath Smith, Marie Knight,
Joy Carter, Shirley Stafford, Dean Frerk, Alan Cruse, Fr Terry Southerwood & …
Let us pray
for those who have died recently:
Ina Nichols, Yvonne Harvey, Tadeusz Poludniak, Merlene Bargamento, Donald
Barry, Nolene Toms, Kora Pembleton and Judith Poga.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time:
4th
August – 11th August:
Thomas Hays, David Covington, Mary
Ellen Sherriff, Sydney Dooley, John Fennell,
Pauline Taylor, Ellen & Stan Woodhouse, Terry O’Rourke, Janice Nielsen, Dorothy Smith, Kevin Breen, Ken Bowles, Stephen French, Jean Stuart, Eric Maynard, Sarah Dickson,
Esme Woodcock, Jim Burns and Corrie Webb.
Pauline Taylor, Ellen & Stan Woodhouse, Terry O’Rourke, Janice Nielsen, Dorothy Smith, Kevin Breen, Ken Bowles, Stephen French, Jean Stuart, Eric Maynard, Sarah Dickson,
Esme Woodcock, Jim Burns and Corrie Webb.
May they rest in peace
Scripture Readings this week - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
First Reading:1 Kings 19:4-8
Responsorial Psalm:
(R.) Taste and see the
goodness of the Lord.
Second Reading: Ephesians 4:30–5:2
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the living bread from heaven, says the Lord; whoever
eats this bread will live for ever. Alleluia!
GOSPEL: John 6:41-51
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY'S GOSPEL:
Having quietened myself and entered gently into this time
of prayer, I now read the text. I try to enter the scene. I am with Jesus, in
the synagogue of Capernaum, as he stands to address these words to the crowd -
and to me. I listen as Jesus says many things that are somehow beyond me. I
read them again, slowly.
Do his words fill me with joy and consolation or am I
tempted to question his meaning and allow complaints to arise in my mind? How
does it feel to be one of those drawn by the Father? What is it like to desire
that living bread when feeling, at times, so spiritually drained that I wonder
whether I have the stamina to complete the journey... or even the desire to
continue it?
I talk to Christ, the Bread of Life, about my journey (in
whatever form it is taking). Perhaps I would like to thank God for it and
reaffirm myself to it. Perhaps I might ask him to help me trust him even more
as he accompanies me at every step.
Readings Next Week: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Proverbs 9:1-6 Second Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20
Gospel: John 6:51-58
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
Many thanks to all those who helped make the celebration of
the Sacraments for our young parishioners such a success last weekend – there
is an extra page included with the newsletter this weekend with a report of the
Parish Sacramental Program. A special thanks to Belinda Chapman, our Parish
Sacramental Co-ordinator, for the marvellous work she does all year and for her
team of helpers who assist in making this, and all the sacraments, a special
time for all involved.
This week is Catholic Education Week and we will be
showcasing our Parish Schools at Masses with young people from the various
schools helping our celebrations during the weekend. There will also be a
blessing of teachers at the end of the Prayers of the Faithful at all Masses –
please remember all those who are involved in Catholic Education this week and
pray that they will be blessed and fulfilled in their work and play.
Preparations are continuing for my Ordination Anniversary
Celebration. Please remember that on Sunday 23rd August there will
only be the one Mass in the Parish - 11am at St Brendan Shaw College. There
will be the two Vigil Masses as usual.
Until next
week, please take care on the roads and in your homes.
CATHOLIC
EDUCATION WEEK: Is an annual state-wide event in the Archdiocese
of Hobart that promotes the distinctive Vision and Mission of Catholic Schools
throughout Tasmania. It is a special opportunity for all Catholic Ministries to
share the great things they are doing with their School, Parish and the wider
communities.
___________________________________
CWL- DEVONPORT: meeting Wednesday 12th August Emmaus House Devonport at 2pm.CWL - ULVERSTONE: meeting Friday 14th August at Community Room Ulverstone at 2pm.
___________________________________
ST BRENDAN SHAW
COLLEGE PRESENTS DISNEY - THE LITTLE MERMAID JR:
Shows: Thursday
13th – 7:30pm, Friday 14th – 7:30pm and Saturday 15th
August – 2pm & 7:30pm at the Devonport Entertainment Centre – Prices Adults $20, Concession $18, student
$15. Tickets on sale now! Bookings at the theatre or on-line at www.decc.net.au or phone 6420:2900
___________________________________
SPEAKING IN
ULVERSTONE – FR. PATRICK MCINERNEY:
Fr Patrick McInerney is a Columban missionary priest,
Director of the Columban Mission Institute and the Coordinator of
its Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations. He will be speaking
on Building a culture of peace and understanding in a multi-religious
Australia with Q & A afterwards.
Fr Patrick has 20 years of experience as a missionary
to Pakistan plus 15 years of involvement in interfaith in
Australia. He lectures in Islam and Interreligious Dialogue at
the Catholic Institute of Sydney and is a member of the Australian
Catholic Council for Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations.
Where and When: Monday August 17 at 7.30pm at the
Sacred Heart Catholic Church Community Room. Cuppa Afterwards. For more information, please ring
Richard from the Tasmanian Catholic Justice and Peace Commission on 0457834630.
___________________________________
FOOTY POINTS MARGIN TICKETS: Round 17 – Richmond won by 18 points:
Winners; Julie
McBain, Shaun McBain, Howard Smith
___________________________________
Thursday
Nights OLOL Hall D’port. Eyes down 7.30pm
Callers
13th August Tony Ryan
& Alan Luxton.
NEWS
FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
WORLD YOUTH DAY 2016 LAUNCH: ALL youth & young adults (15-35
years) are invited to the official launch of the Tasmanian Pilgrimage to World
Youth Day Krakow, Poland! Whether you are planning on coming to WYD16 or not,
we need you to help us celebrate with some Polish food, Polish dancing, soccer,
music, prayer and all your WYD info as we open registrations to join the
Tasmanian WYD16 pilgrimage. Also joining us is talented young musician from
Melbourne, Genevieve Bryant to help lift our celebrations. Don’t miss it! Saturday
22nd August, 10.30am – 3.30pm at St. Aloysius College, Huntingfield. Make sure
to register at: www.cymtas.org.au
THE CARMEL SHOP - CARMELITE MONASTERY: 7 Cambridge Street West Launceston
is open on Wednesdays between 11a.m. - 4p.m.
We stock a range of religious items suitable for Baptism, First
Eucharist, Weddings, and Birthday gifts etc. We also stock Bibles, Prayer
books, Catholic literature, Crucifixes, candles, medals, Rosary beads etc. The shop operates for the benefit of the
Sisters at the Monastery.
Telephone queries welcome: Joan 6312:5441
Laudato
Si': On the Care of Our Common Home
Pope Francis' Encyclical Laudato Si': On the 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.
“Promote green construction with energy efficient homes and buildings.”
Saint of the Week – St Jane Frances de Chantal (July 12)
St Jane Frances was born in Dijon, France on 28 January 1572. The mother of six children (three died shortly after they were born), she was widowed at the age of 28. She met St Francis de Sales when he preached at the Sainte Chapelle in Dijon and was inspired to start a religious order for women, the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary.
Words of Wisdom - A focus on self-control
This week, we continue our series of Biblical quotes on self-control. We hope you find them useful and consider sharing them with your parishioners.
“Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.” – 1 Corinthians 9:25
Meme of the week
This meme offers a different take on the feeding of the crowds with five loaves and two fishes.
AN OBITUARY FOR A SUICIDE
An article by Fr Ron Rolheiser. The original article can be found here
The more things change, the more they stay the same. That axiom still
holds true for our understanding of suicide. Despite all the advances in our
understanding, there are still a number of stigmas around suicide, one of which
pertains to how we write the obituary of a loved one who dies in this way. In
writing an obituary we still cannot bring ourselves to write the word, suicide: He
died by his own hand. We still turn to euphemisms: He died
expectantly. Her sudden death brings great sadness.
Suicide, in many cases, perhaps in most cases, is the result of a
disease, the emotional and psychological equivalent of cancer, stroke, or heart
attack. If that is true, and it is, why then, when I loved one dies of suicide,
might we not write this kind of an obituary?
We are sad to report the death of J__ D__ who died after a long and
courageous struggle with emotional cancer. Jane, as you know, was born into
this world with a tortured sensitivity, a gift and an affliction she grappled
with from her earliest youth. She found comfort and peace at times, but was
never able to fully extricate herself from some inner chaos which was always
partially hidden to those around her and which medicine could not cure,
counsellors could not quiet, and our affection and solicitousness could not
adequately soothe. In the end, despite her courage and our best efforts to help
her, the disease was incurable. Her temperament was both her blessing and her
curse. She was a gentle person, not given to ego and unhealthy self-assertion,
always overly-anxious not to hurt others or to claim too much space for
herself. But her self-effacement was part of her disease as well. No amount of
encouragement was able to ultimately take away this inchoate constriction that
somehow deprived her of her full freedom. In the end, she died, against her
will; but her life, lived with such sensitivity, was a precious gift to all who
knew her, even as it sometimes brought anxiety and heartbreak to those around
her. Given the sad circumstance of her death, she, with her extraordinary
sensitivity, would be the last person who would want us to feel guilty and
second-guess ourselves about what we might have done to help prevent her death.
When a disease is terminal, all the love and concern in the world can still not
bring a cure. But she died inside of our love even as we feel frustrated that
our love could not do more to help her. She lives now, still, inside our love
and affection, and, God-willing, inside a peace and security that so much
eluded her in this life. In lieu of flowers please make donations to the Mental
Health Association.
Or perhaps, in another situation, it might read like this:
We are sad to report the death of J__ D__ who died expectantly of an
emotional heart attack. His death came as shock since those closest to him had
no reason to suspect that he suffered from dangerously high emotional
cholesterol or that he carried inside him some congenital heart disease that
had not yet manifested itself clearly and had not been medically or
psychologically diagnosed. In the face of this, understandably, we find
ourselves questioning ourselves as to why we were not more alert or attentive
to his person and his health and why we did not pick up on any symptoms
manifesting themselves in his situation. Sometimes a potentially fatal disease
can lurk beneath the surface and remain unobserved until it is too late. Such
is the nature, often times, of deadly heart attacks and strokes. While his
death leaves us feeling raw, struggling for understanding, at loss to explain
how this could happen, and needing to resist the temptation project a certain
anger at him for keeping for keeping his disease so private and hidden, we can
also understand that much of his disease was hidden from him too and that the
anatomy of this particular kind of death has within itself a particularly
pernicious pathology which demands of its victim precisely this propensity to
hide what he is undergoing from those closest to him. And this asks for our
understanding: Everyone’s life is its own mystery, and not always open to
outside understanding. Moreover, emotional heart attacks and strokes, like
their biological equivalents, are not willed and claim their victim against his
or her will. J__ was a gentle soul who wished no one any harm and tried to do
no one any harm. He, no doubt, is as grieved as we are that his unwanted death
has caused so much pain. But, no doubt too, he asks for our continued love and
affection and, especially, for our understanding. In lieu of flowers, please
make a donation to your local mental health association.
It is hard to lose loved ones to suicide, but we should not also lose
the truth and warmth of their mystery and their memory.
LIFELINE ON 13 11 14
____________________________________
Mystics and Non-Dual Thinkers: Week
2
A series of reflections taken from a daily email from Fr Richard Rohr. You can subscribe to the email here
Understanding the Mystics
Contemplatively
As we begin our second week of
introducing the mystics and non-dual thinkers who have had the most influence
on my lineage, I feel some caveats are in order. As our brother Jim Finley
says, it's really not too useful to skim the mystics. It is far better to sit
with them and savor them. However, in these few weeks I can only touch on each
mystic. I hope that small taste will stimulate your hunger, and that you will
treat yourself to spending more time with the teacher(s) who most intrigues
you. You may find a friend for life!
Can seeing with the eyes of mystics
really have relevance for our busy modern world? I think it is not only
relevant but absolutely necessary to change our levels of consciousness, which
many religious traditions have called growth in holiness or divine union. As
Einstein (who himself might be called a secular mystic) said, "No problem
can be solved by the same consciousness that caused it." Dualistic
thinking has caused many of our personal and global problems; our hope is that
non-dual consciousness can bring healing.
Cynthia Bourgeault tells our Living
School students that the more time spent in contemplation, the clearer the
mystics become. Contemplation teaches the non-dual perspective of the mystics,
so that we can better understand them. It also helps empty us of our
preconceived notions so that we are more ready to receive the next experience
of God. How silly to think that God must or could fit inside our human-made
theologies! Would you respect a God you could understand with your little mind?
Through a regular practice of
contemplation we can awaken to the profound presence of the unitive Spirit,
which then gives us the courage and capacity to face the paradox that
everything is--ourselves included. Higher levels of consciousness always allow
us to include and understand more and more, although much of it is unsayable.
Deeper levels of divine union allow us to forgive and show compassion toward
ever new people, even those we are not naturally attracted to, or even our
enemies.
Mystics have plumbed the depths of
both suffering and love and emerged with compassion for the whole suffering
world and a learned capacity to recognize God within themselves, in others, and
in all things. If we can read with an attitude of simple mindfulness, the
insights the mystics share can equip us with a deep and embracing peace, even
in the presence of the many kinds of limitation and suffering that life offers
us. From such contact with the deep rivers of grace, we can live our lives from
a place of non-judgment, forgiveness, love, and a quiet contentment with the
ordinariness of our lives.
Adapted from What the Mystics Know:
Seven Pathways to Your Deeper Self, pp. ix-x
Julian of Norwich, Part I
Lady Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)
is one of my favorite mystics. I return to her writings again and again, every
few months, and always discover something new. Julian experienced her
"showings," as she called them, all on one night (May 8 or perhaps
May 13, 1373) when she was very sick and near death. As a priest held a
crucifix in front of her, Julian saw Jesus suffering and heard him speaking to
her for some hours. Like all mystics, she realized that what Jesus was saying
about himself he was simultaneously saying about all of reality. That is what
unitive consciousness allows you to see.
This was such a profound experience
that Julian eventually asked the bishop to enclose her in an anchor-hold, built
against the side of St. Julian's Church in Norwich, England. Julian was later
named after that church. We do not know her real name, since she never signed
her writing. Talk about loss of ego! The anchor-hold had a window looking into
the church that allowed Julian to attend Mass in the sanctuary and another
window so she could counsel and pray over people who came to her on the street.
You can still visit it today, as I was once privileged to do. Such anchor-holds
were found all over 13th and 14th century Europe. There, holy people lived in
solitude and contemplation, while still offering council and prayer for others.
Nicholas Von Der Flue illustrates the same pattern in Switzerland.
Julian felt the need to go apart
and reflect on her profound experiences. It took her twenty years to find a
language that the larger Church could understand, and then it took us over 600
years to finally take her seriously. People like Julian don't want to engage in
oppositional thinking, and they don't need to prove they're right, so they
often become hermits. They go apart to find a way to experience their truth in
a healing, transformative way. Julian first wrote a short text about the
showings, but feeling it did not do her experience justice, she rewrote it as a
longer text, entitled Revelations of Divine Love (this is the first book by a
woman written in what we now call English). Julian's interpretation is unlike
the religious views common for most of history up to her time. It is not based
in sin, shame, guilt, or fear of God or hell. Instead, it is full of delight,
freedom, intimacy, and cosmic hope.
Our modern sensibilities may see
parts of Julian's vision as gory, such as the blood flowing down Jesus' face,
but to Julian it was simply God's outflowing love. Mystics tend to understand
all things symbolically much more than the rest of humanity. She saw the flow
as the love that first flows between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
(Deus ad intra). This is the love that, if we allow it, flows from God through
us to others and back to God (Deus ad extra). This is the love that enabled the
risen Jesus to return to his physical body, now unlimited by space or time,
without any regret or recrimination--while still, proudly, carrying his wounds.
"Our wounds are our glory," as Julian puts it. This is the utterly
counter-intuitive message of the risen Jesus, and Julian got it!
Whether our wounds are caused by
others or by our own mistakes, Julian frames it all as grace, saying,
"First the fall, and then the recovery from the fall, and both are the
mercy of God." Julian's showings helped her to understand that it is in
falling down that we learn almost everything that matters spiritually. Humans
come to full consciousness precisely by shadowboxing, facing their own
contradictions, and making friends with their own mistakes and failings. As
Lady Julian put it in her Middle English, "Sin is behovely!" No
wonder it took us 600 years of largely dualistic thinking to begin to take her
seriously.
Adapted from Following the Mystics
Through the Narrow Gate, disc 7 (CD, DVD, MP3 download);
Intimacy: The Divine Ambush, disc 7
(CD, MP3 download);
Immortal Diamond: The Search For
Our True Self, p. 85;
Things Hidden: Scripture as
Spirituality, p. 39;
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for
the Two Halves of Life, pp. xx, 136
Julian of Norwich, Part II
The place which God takes in our
soul he will never vacate, for in us is his home of homes, and it is the
greatest delight for him to dwell there. . . . The soul who contemplates this
is made like the one who is contemplated. --Julian of Norwich, Showings
On that day, you will know that you
are in me and I am in you. --John 14:20
"That day" that John
refers to has been a long time in coming, yet it has been the enduring message
of every great religion in history. It is the Perennial Tradition. Divine and
thus universal union is still the core message and promise--the whole goal and
the entire point of all religion.
Lady Julian of Norwich uses the
idea of "oneing" to describe divine union. In Chapter 53 of
Revelations of Divine Love, she writes, "The soul is preciously knitted to
Him in its making by a knot so subtle and so mighty that it is oned into God.
In this oneing, it is made endlessly holy. Furthermore, He wants us to know
that all the souls which are one day to be saved in heaven without end are knit
in this same knot and united in this same union, and made holy in this one
identical holiness."
In Showings Julian says, "By
myself I am nothing at all, but in general, I AM the oneing of love. For it is
in this oneing that the life of all people exists" (Chapter 9). She
continues: "The love of God creates in us such a oneing that when it is
truly seen, no person can separate themselves from another person"
(Chapter 65), and "In the sight of God all humans are oned, and one person
is all people and all people are in one person" (Chapter 51).
This is not some 21st century leap
of logic. This is not pantheism or mere "New Age" optimism. This is
the whole point. It was, indeed, supposed to usher in a new age--and it still
can and will. Radical union is the recurring experience of the saints and mystics
of all religions. Our job is not to first discover it, but only to retrieve
what has been re-discovered--and enjoyed, again and again--by those who desire
and seek God and love. When you think you have "discovered" it, you
will be just like Jacob "when he awoke from his sleep" and shouted
"You were here all the time, and I never knew it!" (Genesis 28:16).
As John said in his Letter, "I do not write to you because you do not know
the truth, I am writing to you here because you know it already" (1 John
2:21). I can only convince you of spiritual things because your soul already
knows what is true, and that is why I believe and trust Julian's showings too.
For the mystics there is only one Knower, and we just participate.
Adapted from Immortal Diamond: The
Search For the True Self, p. 95;
Intimacy: The Divine Ambush, disc 7
(CD, MP3 download);
Things Hidden: Scripture as
Spirituality, pp. 45-46;
and "The Perennial
Tradition," Oneing, Vol. 1 No. 1, p. 14
Julian of Norwich, Part III
Like most Christian mystics, Julian
of Norwich is very Trinitarian, and as with many others, the dynamic principle
of three invariably produces a fourth on a new level and the triangle becomes a
circle. Many say in different ways that you and I, the Body of Christ,
Creation, the entire universe, are, as it were, the fourth member of the
Blessed Trinity, as we all return to our First and Ultimate Source.
In Chapter 54 of Julian's Showings,
we find what I consider the best description I have read of the union of the
soul inside of the Trinity. Julian says, "God makes no distinction in love
between the blessed soul of Christ and the least soul on this earth." God
can only see Christ in us, it seems, because we are the extended Body of Christ
in space and time; Christ is what God sees and cannot not love and draw back
into the Divine Dance of Love. In Catholic symbolization, this was seen as the
assumption of a feminine human body, Mary, back into the Godhead. (No surprise
that the psychologist C.G. Jung said the doctrine of the Assumption was the
most significant doctrinal development of the modern era!)
Julian continues: "I saw no
difference between God and our substance, but, as it were, all God; and still
my understanding accepted that our substance is in God, that is to say that God
is God, and our substance is a creature in God. For the almighty truth of the
Trinity is our Father, for he made us and keeps us in him. And the deep wisdom
of the Trinity is our Mother, in whom we are enclosed. And the high goodness of
the Trinity is our Lord, and in him we are enclosed and he in us. We are
enclosed in the Father, and we are enclosed in the Son, and we are enclosed in
the Holy Spirit. And the Father is enclosed in us, the Son is enclosed in us,
and the Holy Spirit is enclosed in us, almighty, all wisdom and all goodness,
one God, one Lord" (Showings, 54; emphasis mine).
In addition to Julian, many of the
medieval mystics, especially women, use the language of God flowing out toward
them and through them and back to them (Mechtild of Magdeburg, Hildegard of
Bingen, Teresa of Ávila). For Christians it becomes the objective Trinitarian
flow of God's life in us, through us, with us, for us--and usually in spite of
our conscious ignorance of the same. We are inside that flow; we are that flow
outward and in return. This is surely what John's Gospel means when Jesus says,
"I have come forth to take you back with me" so that "where I am
you also may be" (see John 17).
Julian saw God as both mother and
father, which was quite daring for her time. She called Jesus our "true
Mother" from whom we receive our beginning, our true being, protection,
and love. Even in terms of gender, mystics tend to be unitive and even
androgynous. In Chapter 59 of Showings she writes:
Our highest Father, God Almighty,
who is 'Being,' has always known us and loved us: because of this knowledge,
through his marvellous and deep charity and with the unanimous consent of the
Blessed Trinity, He wanted the Second Person to become our Mother, our Brother,
our Saviour.
It is thus logical that God, being
our Father, be also our Mother. Our Father desires, our Mother operates, and
our good Lord the Holy Ghost confirms; we are thus well advised to love our God
through whom we have our very being. I then saw with complete certainty that
God, before creating us, loved us, and His love never lessened and never will.
In this love he accomplished all his works, and in this love he oriented all
things to our good and in this love our life is eternal.
By this same grace everything is
penetrated, in length, in breadth, in height, and in depth without end
(Ephesians 3:18-19)), and it is all one love!
And surely that is more than enough
to hold your whole life together.
Adapted from Intimacy: The Divine
Ambush, disc 7 (CD, MP3 download),
and Things Hidden: Scripture as
Spirituality, pp. 45-46
The Cloud of Unknowing, Part I
The Cloud of Unknowing is a 14th
century spiritual classic written by an anonymous English monk. Again note the
lack of ego here. But the writer was also anonymous for practical reasons.
Meister Eckhart had just been silenced by the Pope in 1329 for emphasizing
independent study, thinking, and experience, to which this author was also
committed. It took many generations for the Church to affirm the value of
inner, personal experience.
The author of The Cloud wrote in
the language of the common people because the book's purpose is to give
practical guidance for direct experience of God. Education or high social
status is not required, only a sincere longing to encounter God. The author
discourages those who are gossips, the overly scrupulous, and the merely
curious from reading the book. "However," says the writer in the
foreword, "there are some presently engaged in the active life who are
being prepared by grace to grasp the message of this book. I am thinking of
those who feel the mysterious action of the Spirit in their inmost being
stirring them to love. I do not say that they continually feel this stirring,
as experienced contemplatives do, but now and again they taste something of
contemplative love in the very core of their being. Should such folk read this
book, I believe they will be greatly encouraged and reassured."
The author believes that the
spiritual journey demands full self-awareness and honesty, a perpetual
shadow-boxing with our own weaknesses and imperfections. While physical
withdrawal from the world is not essential, letting go of attachments to
people, expectations, and things is. This requires contemplative practice, a
true spiritual discipline. Rather than teaching passivity, the path into the
cloud of unknowing requires active intent, willingness, and practice--knowing
enough to not need to know more, which ironically becomes a kind of endless,
deeper knowing.
Much of our contemplative practice
will feel like failure, but the author encourages "anyone who wants to
become a real contemplative" to "let the wonderful transcendence and
goodness of God teach you humility rather than the thought of your own
sinfulness, for then your humility will be perfect. Attend more to the wholly
otherness of God rather than to your own misery. And remember that those who
are perfectly humble will lack nothing they really need, either spiritually or
materially. God is theirs and [God] is all. Whoever possesses God, as the book
attests, needs nothing else in this life" (Chapter 23, Paragraph 2).
In the cloud, "Thought cannot
comprehend God. And so, I prefer to abandon all I can know, choosing rather to
love him whom I cannot know. Though we cannot fully know him we can love
him" (Chapter 6, Paragraph 2). In the later stages of the journey, of
course, loving becomes its own kind of knowing--the deepest kind of knowing.
The Cloud of Unknowing, Part
II
In his introduction to his
translation, Ira Progoff writes: "The ultimate goal of the work of The
Cloud of Unknowing is union with God, not as God is thought of or imagined to
be, but as God is in [God's] nature. . . . [This] refers to an experience in
which man seems to be transcending himself, but is in fact discovering himself
as he is. He is coming into contact with his own 'naked being,' and, by means
of this, it becomes possible for him to come into contact with God as He
is." [1] (Please excuse the sexist language. As James Finley would say,
"It was before they knew better.") Throughout The Cloud, the author
offers practices to quiet the mind, breaking our attachments to our thoughts
and senses, so we can experience our "naked being," the core of our
own self and of God. Finley reminds us that "We can't make [union with
God] happen, but we can actively choose to be as vulnerable as possible to
opening ourself to what we can't make happen."
Cynthia Bourgeault uses The Cloud
of Unknowing to teach non-dual consciousness in the Living School. She sees the
"bonds that separate" us from our eternal nature as our usual
dualistic way of thinking. In her words, "The price you pay for dividing
the field in order to perceive is this haunting sense of otherness: you're
separate." She emphasizes the power of our attention when it is withdrawn
from its usual subject/object orientation and placed in what the Tibetan
Buddhists call "objectless attention." When we hold our attention in
this way, we gather it as a "field of perceptive energy." Cynthia
says the author of The Cloud "calls this alternative system of
perceptivity love." In the author's words: "God may be reached and
held close by means of love, but by means of thought, never."
Our anonymous author describes the
culminating experience of union with God: "the higher part of the
contemplative life, as it may be had here, takes place altogether in this
darkness and in this cloud of unknowing with a loving stirring blindly
beholding the naked being only of God[self]." It comes down to this, if God
wants to work in your soul, God has to work in secret. If you knew, you would
get puffed up, you would run in fear, you would try to take control of the
process, or you would close down the whole Mystery with your rational mind. We
each must learn to live in the cloud of our own unknowing.
Adapted from Following the Mystics
Through the Narrow Gates, disc 6 (CD, DVD, MP3 download),
and an exclusive teaching within
the Living School program
No comments:
Post a Comment