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 18th – 21st August
2015
Tuesday: 9:30am - Penguin FEAST DAY MASS
Wednesday: 9:30am - Latrobe
Thursday: 10.30am – Karingal ...St Bernard
7:00pm
– Ulverstone … Anniversary Mass
Friday: 11:00am – Mt St Vincents ...St Pius X
Next Weekend
22nd & 23rd August, 2015
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin & Devonport
Sunday Mass: 11:00am St Brendan Shaw College - Fr Mike's 40th Anniversary of Priesthood Mass
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 22nd & 23rd
August, 2015
Devonport:
Readers
Vigil: M Gaffney, M
Gerrand, H Lim
ONLY MASS THIS SUNDAY – MASS AT ST BRENDAN SHAW COLLEGE – 11AM
Cleaners 21st August:
K.S.C. 28st August: K Hull, F Stevens, M Chan
Piety Shop 22nd August:
H Thompson Flowers: M Breen, S Fletcher
Penguin:
Greeters: A Landers, P Ravaillion Commentator: J Barker
Readers:
M & D
Hiscutt
Procession: A Landers Ministers of Communion: S Ewing, J Garnsey
Liturgy: Sulpur Creek J Setting Up: S Ewing Care of Church: G Hills-Eade, T Clayton
Ulverstone: ONLY MASS THIS SUNDAY – MASS AT ST BRENDAN SHAW COLLEGE – 11AM
Cleaners: M Swain, M
Bryan Flowers:
Latrobe: ONLY MASS THIS
SUNDAY – MASS AT ST BRENDAN SHAW COLLEGE – 11AM
Port Sorell: ONLY MASS THIS SUNDAY – MASS AT
ST BRENDAN SHAW COLLEGE – 11AM
Readings Next Week: 21st Sunday in
Ordinary Time
First Reading: Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18 Second Reading: Ephesians 5:21-32 Gospel: John 6:60-69
Betty Broadbent, Anne Shelverton, Veronica Sylvester, Shirley
Ryan, Kath Smith, Marie Knight, Joy Carter, Shirley Stafford, Anna Leary, Dean Frerk, Geraldine
Roden, Fr Terry Southerwood & …
Let us pray
for those who have died recently:
Philomena O'Kane, Dallas Cordwell, Bozena Pogorzelski, Mark Gatt, Lyn Howard, Ina Nichols, Yvonne Harvey, Tadeusz
Poludniak, Carol Smith, Merlene
Bargamento, Donald Barry, Nolene Toms and Kora Pembleton
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 12th
– 18th August
Athol Wright, Kenneth Rowe, David
Covington, Tom Hyland, Trevor Hudson, Rita & Cyril Speers, Darlene Haigh, Lionel Rosevear, Beverley Graham
and also Kath Last, Hedley Stubbs, Len Burton and Jenny Wright.
May they rest in peace
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
Last weekend I managed to ‘mess up’ and completely forgot
about Mass for the celebration of the feast day of St Mary MacKillop – my
apologies to all who gathered at SHC, Ulverstone.
This weekend we celebrate the Feast Day of the Penguin
Community – another sign of old age as I didn’t note it in last weekend
newsletter nor mention it at Mass last Saturday night. We have been able to
organise a cuppa after Mass this Saturday and Mass will be celebrated at St
Mary’s Penguin on Tuesday at 9.30am and will be followed by Morning Tea for all
who attend. My apologies for not remembering the date – I had a bad remembering
week last week!!
This time 40 years ago I was completing my pre-ordination
retreat and marvelling at the life that was before me and wondering about what
direction God’s (and the Archbishop’s) plan would lead me. As with all of us
life has been very different from what we might have thought it would be like
but I can only say that I am happy to have been able to play a little part in
God’s plan in our Archdiocese.
Wednesday, 20th August, 1975 in Hobart was a wet
and wild night with the Tasman Bridge out of action and people travelling from
the Eastern Shore via ferry or through Bridgewater yet the Cathedral was packed
and I was overwhelmed by the support I received then and in the years since –
so to all who read this and who have been part of my journey I am gratefully
appreciative and you too will be a special part of these next days as I
celebrate my 40 years of priesthood.
A reminder about the events: Thursday (20th)
Mass at 7pm at SHC, Ulverstone followed by supper. Sunday (23rd)
Mass at 11am at St Brendan Shaw College followed by shared lunch – ONLY MASS ON SUNDAY 23RD.
Monday (24th) Mass at 11am at OLOL with lunch for the Clergy following
Mass. All Parishioners are welcome to attend these Masses.
FR MIKE’S 40TH CELEBRATIONS
In each of the Mass Centres this
weekend there is a list inviting you to indicate what you might be able to bring
to assist with the luncheon following the Mass at St Brendan-Shaw College on
Sunday 23rd August. As has been mentioned by Fr Mike in recent weeks there will
only be the one Mass on that Sunday – 11am – and this will be followed by lunch
at the College. This is a special occasion for the Parish (and Fr Mike) so you
are encouraged to join us for this special celebration and make it a great
Parish event.
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.
MacKillop Hill Spirituality Centre
Phone:
6428 3095 Email: mackillophill.forth@sosj.org.au
Spirituality in the Coffee
Shoppe. Monday 24th August 10.30 – 12 noon
Come along … share your issues and enjoy a lively discussion
over morning tea!
YOUTH & FAMILY GROUP:
Would you like to be involved in a church-based youth/family group? Join Fr Alexander, Danny and Felicity at Emmaus House on Saturday, August 29th at 5 pm. At this informal meeting we will get suggestions on when and how we would like to meet. There will be games, a biscuit and a drink available. This first get-together will be finished by 5.50 and you are invited to join us at 6pm mass. If you would like further details or are unable to attend, but would like to make suggestions, please contact Felicity on 0418 301 573 or fsly@internode.on.net.
Would you like to be involved in a church-based youth/family group? Join Fr Alexander, Danny and Felicity at Emmaus House on Saturday, August 29th at 5 pm. At this informal meeting we will get suggestions on when and how we would like to meet. There will be games, a biscuit and a drink available. This first get-together will be finished by 5.50 and you are invited to join us at 6pm mass. If you would like further details or are unable to attend, but would like to make suggestions, please contact Felicity on 0418 301 573 or fsly@internode.on.net.
FOOTY POINTS MARGIN TICKETS: Round 18 – Adelaide won by 36 points:
Winners; Terry Bird,
Elma Lynd & Julie McBain
Callers 27th August Merv
Tippett & Bruce Peters
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
WORLD YOUTH DAY LAUNCH EVENT – LAST CHANCE TO
REGISTER!
Next Saturday 22nd August, young people from around the
state will come together at St. Aloysius College, Huntingfield from 10.30am –
3.30pm for a fantastic celebration of faith, fun, friendship and all things
WYD16 Krakow! Polish Food, Dancing, Soccer, Pilgrimage, Prayer, Special Musical
Guest Genevieve Bryant from Melbourne, & Giveaways (including 2 x $500 WYD
vouchers). We will be officially launching the Tasmanian Pilgrimage to WYD16
and opening registrations. ALL young people (15 – 35) are welcome (whether you
are coming to WYD or not!). But you MUST REGISTER by Monday 17th August.
Register at: www.cymtas.org.au/wydlaunch
______________________________
AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC YOUTH FESTIVAL (ACYF) – EARLY
BIRD REGISTRATION CLOSING
The second ACYF is being held in Adelaide 3rd – 5th
December. It is expected 3000 young people will come together for three days of
national and international speakers, interactive expos, amusements, concerts
and more to celebrate the vitality of our young Australian Church. Early Bird
Registrations are closing NEXT WEEK, Thursday 20th August. Please contact your
parish ACYF coordinator, or Rachelle Smith: 0400 045 368 or rachelle.smith@aohtas.org.au for more information and to
register.
______________________________
MARYKNOLL RETREAT AND SPIRITUALITY CENTRE
Margaret Silf, internationally renowned author and speaker
about Ignatian Spirituality, will present two days at Maryknoll, Blackmans Bay
on Monday September 28th and Tuesday September 29th. For details about costs,
times, enrolling, content etc contact Margaret Henderson RSM on 0418 366 923 or
on mm.henderson@bigpond.com
Also in the Mersey Leven Parish
at MacKillop Hill on Thursday October 1st at 10:00am & 7:00pm.
Cost $25 Bookings necessary -
Email: mackillophill.forth@sosj.org.au or Phone: 6428 3095
_______________________________________
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
________________________________
PREGNANCY COUNSELLING AND SUPPORT
Are you
interested in providing support for women who are suffering as a result of
pregnancy or pregnancy loss? Would you like to find out more about becoming a
volunteer counsellor or joining our “Home Help” team? Do you feel you could
make a positive contribution to a Pro-life service on a Management Board? To
learn more about our us and the services we provide please visit us at: www.pcstas.org.au or
contact our office on: 6224 2290 - 10 am to 2 pm Weekdays
_________________________________
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.
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.
“Protect
clean, safe drinking water and don't privatise it with market-based fees for
the poor.”
Paras
27-29, 164
__________________________________
Saint of the Week – St John Eudes, priest (August
19)
St John Eudes was born in 1601, in the village of
Ri, in Normandy, France. After completing his studies at the Jesuit College in
Caen, he entered the Congregation of the Oratory of France, founded in 1611 by
Cardinal de Bérulle. Accepted by the founder himself on March 25, 1623, John
Eudes was ordained to the priesthood on December 20, 1625.
He recognised the pressing need for
contributing to a reform of the clergy, and founding a seminary at Caen
appeared to him as indispensable. To do so, he left the Oratory and, on March
25, 1643, with a few other priests, founded a congregation dedicated to the
spiritual and doctrinal formation of priests and candidates to the priesthood,
while pursuing the work of parish missions. Other seminaries were soon added to
the one at Caen. Thus, the Congregation of Jesus and Mary was born.
A man of accomplishments, he also founded the
Order of Our Lady of Charity to provide haven and assistance to women and young
girls mistreated by life.
Through his many writings, he helped spread
the spiritual teaching of his masters who were members of de Bérulle's Oratory,
while giving it his own personal touch to the point where he came to be
regarded as a spiritual master in his own right.
He died on August 19, 1680, and was canonised
by Pope Pius XI on May 31, 1925.
___________________________________________
A EUCHARISTIC PRAYER OVER AN AWAKENING WORLD
An article written by Fr Ron Rolheiser. The original can be found here
On the Feast of the Transfiguration in 1923, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin found himself alone at sunrise in the Ordos desert in China, watching the sun spread its orange and red light across the horizon. He was deeply moved, humanly and religiously. What he most wanted to do in response was to celebrate mass, to somehow consecrate the whole world to God. But he had no altar, no bread, and no wine. So he resolved to make the world itself his altar and what was happening in the world the bread and the wine for his mass. Here, in paraphrase, is the prayer he prayed over the world, awakening to the sun that morning in China.
O God, since I have neither bread, nor wine, nor altar, I will raise myself beyond these symbols and make the whole earth my altar and on it will offer to you all the labors and sufferings of the world.
As the rising sun moves as a sheet of fire across the horizon the earth wakes, trembles, and begins its daily tasks. I will place on my paten, O God, the harvest to be won by this renewal of labor. Into my chalice I will pour all the sap which is to be pressed out this day from the earth’s fruits. My paten and my chalice are the depths of a soul laid widely open to all the forces which in a moment will rise up from every corner of the earth and converge upon the Spirit.
Grant me, Lord, to remember and make mystically present all those whom the light is now awakening to this new day. As I call these to mind, I remember first those who have shared life with me: family, community, friends, and colleagues. And I remember as well, more vaguely but all-inclusively, the whole of humanity, living and dead, and, not least, the physical earth itself, as I stand before you, O God, as a piece of this earth, as that place where the earth opens and closes to you.
And so, O God, over every living thing which is to spring up, to grow, to flower, to ripen during this day, I say again the words: “This is my body.” And over every death-force which waits in readiness to corrode, to wither, to cut down, I speak again your words which express the supreme mystery of faith: “This is my blood.” On my paten, I hold all who will live this day in vitality, the young, the strong, the healthy, the joy-filled; and in my chalice, I hold all that will be crushed and broken today as that vitality draws its life. I offer you on this all-embracing altar everything that is in our world, everything that is rising and everything that is dying, and ask you to bless it.
And our communion with you will not be complete, will not be Christian, if, together with the gains which this new day brings, we do not also accept, in our own name and in the name of the world, those processes, hidden or manifest, of enfeeblement, of aging, and of death, which unceasingly consume the universe, to its salvation or its condemnation. Lord, God, we deliver ourselves up with abandon to those fearful forces of dissolution which, we blindly believe, will this cause our narrow egos to be replaced by your divine presence. We gather into a single prayer both our delight in what we have and our thirst for what we lack.
Lord, lock us into the deepest depths of your heart; and then, holding us there, burn us, purify us, set us on fire, sublimate us, till we become utterly what you would have us to be, through the annihilation of all selfishness inside us. Amen.
For Teilhard this, of course, was not to be confused with the celebration of the Eucharist in a church, rather he saw it as a “prolongation” or “extension” of the Eucharist, where the Body and Blood of Christ becomes incarnate in a wider bread and wine, namely, in the entire physical world which manifests the mystery of God’s flesh shining through all that is.
Teilhard was an ordained, Roman Catholic, priest, covenanted by his ordination to say mass for the world, to place bread on a paten and wine in a chalice and offer them to God for the world. We too, all of us Christians, by our baptism, are made priests and, like Teilhard, are covenanted to say mass for the world, that is, to offer up on our own metaphorical patens and chalices, bread and wine for the world, in whatever form this might take on a given day. There are many ways of doing this, but you might want to try this: Some morning as the sun is lighting-up the horizon, let its red and golden fire enflame your heart and your empathy so as to make you stretch out your hands and pray Teilhard’s Eucharistic prayer over an awakening world.
______________________________________________
Mystics and Non-Dual Thinkers: Week 3
A series of reflections taken from a daily email from Fr Richard Rohr. You can subscribe to the email here
Teresa of Ávila, Part I: Early Years
In April of 2014, the Carmelites were kind enough to invite
me on a pilgrimage to visit the sites in France of Thérèse of Lisieux and in
Spain of Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross. The reflections for this and
next week are in part the fruit of that wonderful time.
Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) was a very active contemplative.
I like to say that she and John of the Cross were part of the "final
supernova" of non-dual, mystical consciousness in the 16th century, before
it all but disappeared for five hundred years in the wake of the Protestant
Reformation, the enlightenment, and the invention of the printing press. [1]
Mirabai Starr, in Saint Teresa of Ávila: Passionate Mystic,
explains why Teresa is still so relevant to us today: "What can Teresa of
Ávila offer us five hundred years after her death? Teresa models the living
balance between action and contemplation, serving others and developing an
interior life, engaging in passionate human relationships and surrendering to
the divine mystery. She was an ecstatic mystic and a skillful administrator, a
fool of God and an insightful psychotherapist, a penitent when she needed to be
and an epicurean when she could be. . . . Teresa of Ávila was fully, deeply,
unapologetically herself." [2]
Perhaps Teresa's greatest weakness--which was also an
"effective political weapon," as Starr describes--was her desire to
be liked. When she was sent to a convent at the age of 16, Teresa found that
her extroverted and social personality was right at home. The Carmelite convent
of the Incarnation, as many convents of the time, was full of young women,
Starr writes, "whose families didn't know what else to do with them."
Life in the convent was austere, but there was ample opportunity to interact
socially with people from outside the monastery. Everyone adored the charming
and attractive Teresa, including male visitors. Teresa fell in love over and
over again. [3]
Teresa's attachment to the admiration and affection of
others troubled her so much that she became physically ill and had to leave the
convent. Physicians and a medicine woman (curandera) were mystified, and their
treatments left her in worse condition. During this time, Teresa's uncle gave
her a copy of The Third Spiritual Alphabet by Francisco de Osuna, a Franciscan.
Osuna was one of the few examples we have of people who still taught the older
contemplative tradition in the 16th century. Even though Ignatius of Loyola
taught the use of the mind in this era, and did it quite well, it was not the
older tradition of relativizing and compartmentalizing the tyranny of the
thinking mind. From Osuna, Teresa learned about contemplative prayer and how "to
think without thinking" (no pensar nada es pensarlo todo). This became the
foundation of her spiritual practice.
While Teresa's prayer life blossomed, her health declined
even more, until everyone but her father believed she had died. It seemed a
miracle when she recovered. But it was a long and painful journey back to
health. Teresa could not control her arms and legs for eight months, and it
took two more years for her to even crawl.
References:
[1] Adapted
from Richard Rohr,
Following
the Mystics Through the Narrow Gate . . . Seeing God in All Things (Center for
Action and Contemplation: 2010), (CD, DVD, MP3 download).
[2] Mirabai
Starr, Saint Teresa of Ávila: Passionate Mystic (Sounds True: 2013),
xvii-xviii.
[3] Ibid.,
6, 9.
Teresa of Ávila, Part II: Conversion
Teresa eventually returned to the convent, but she fell back
into superficial socializing and neglected the discipline of contemplative
prayer. Mirabai Starr says that though Teresa used the excuse of her poor
health "a more hidden reason was that she did not feel worthy to engage in
intimate dialogue with the Friend. . . . Perhaps even deeper lay the sense that
if she truly surrendered to the inner void, she might never return to ordinary
consciousness." [1] Teresa left the convent to care for her dying father,
but remained detached from his experience and her own feelings. For almost two
decades she kept her heart walled off spiritually and emotionally.
When Teresa was about forty, she experienced a sudden
conversion while walking by an image of Christ tied to the pillar. Twenty years
of indifference ended dramatically, followed by many trials, stages, and
eventually moments of unitive encounter where Teresa felt lifted out of herself
and enjoying God's presence. She begged God not to give her such favors in
public.
One of Teresa's mystical experiences was captured in marble
by Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. In this "unabashedly sensual
image" Carol Flinders sees "the nun swooning blissfully backward
while a clearly delighted androgynous angel plunges a flaming sword into her,
leaving her on fire with love for God." [2] James Finley describes the
golden arrow being continually thrust into Teresa's heart and then pulled out.
He says, "In the sexual imagery of this golden arrow, all that is outside
goes inside and all that is inside is pulled outside until the distinction
between outside and inside no longer applies. You can no longer find the place
where you stop and God begins. You can no longer find the place where God stops
and you begin. Nor are you inclined to try." [3]
After some time, the raptures ended. When her friends asked
about it, Teresa responded that she'd found a better way to pray. She no longer
needed ecstasies; yet, as Flinders writes, "she remained grateful always
for having had them because they had given her the detachment that her work
would require--detachment from all things, including the admiration and
affection of others she had always needed so desperately. She would never again
look outside herself for joy or security because she had found the source of
all joy and security within. . . . One cannot break attachments by force,
Teresa discovered; they are the expression of an inner hunger. When that hunger
is assuaged, attachments will fall away with almost no effort on our
part." [4]
In the last twenty years of her life, in spite of poor
health, and with the help of her friend and fellow mystic, John of the Cross,
Teresa reformed the Carmelite Order, taking it back to its origins of
simplicity, poverty, and contemplative prayer. She traveled by carriage all
over Spain, founding seventeen Discalced (Barefoot) Carmelite houses. She wrote
several great spiritual classics along with poetry and hundreds of letters. She
thus managed to function as a spiritual teacher, even though as a woman she was
forbidden to preach or even comment on Scripture. Thankfully, she avoided being
burned at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition for being of Jewish origin (or
of a converso family), and for practicing mental and contemplative prayer, and
experiencing raptures--all of which were unmediated by the official priesthood.
In the end, Teresa was canonized in 1622 and declared the first woman Doctor of
the Church in 1970.
References:
[1] Mirabai
Starr, Saint Teresa of Ávila (Sounds True: 2013), 13.
[2] Carol
Lee Flinders, Enduring Grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics (Harper
San Francisco: 1993), 10-11.
[3] James
Finley, Following the Mystics Through the Narrow Gate . . . Seeing God in All
Things (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2010), (CD, DVD, MP3 download).
[4]
Flinders, Enduring Grace (Harper San Francisco: 1993), 171-172.
Teresa of Ávila, Part III: The Interior Castle
As you will see in her writings, Teresa of Ávila was quite
astute psychologically. Her mystical masterpiece, The Interior Castle, written
in only two months' time when she was sixty-two, describes the stages of
spiritual growth with amazing insight. The Prologue explains how reluctant she
was to write another book. Her health, never good, was growing progressively
worse. Mirabai Starr beautifully describes how Teresa turned to God for help
and the vision that ensued. "'Beloved,' she prayed, 'I have no idea what
to say here. If you want me to do this thing, you're going to have to speak
through me.'" [1] Apparently, God did.
Teresa received a vision of a crystal castle inside the
human soul, with God, the Beloved, at its center. Starr writes: "The
journey to union with the Beloved is a journey home to the center of ourselves.
. . . The human soul is so glorious that God himself chooses it as his dwelling
place. The path to God, then, leads us on a journey of self-discovery. To know
the self is to know God." [2] This is exactly the connection that C.G.
Jung found so lacking in the 20th century Swiss Calvinism in which he was
raised. (Jung's father and five uncles were all Protestant ministers.) This led
to his major criticism of Christianity: it was all external and intellectual;
there was no inherent connection between God and the soul. It is a shame Jung
never read Teresa!
Teresa believed that God is ever alluring and inviting us
home and that our longing for God is the core motivation of our beings. Through
contemplative prayer, the soul moves through seven mansions or dwellings of the
interior castle, ever drawing closer to the center:
1. In the
first dwelling, the soul becomes aware that there is a castle to be explored
and discovers her own longing for God. Monstrous creatures distract and tempt.
Teresa saw that the soul's only hope, as Starr says, "is to cultivate a
discipline of humility and self-knowledge . . . to recognize her own
limitations and praise the greatness of God" through the practice of
prayer. [3] The soul moves beyond rote prayer to intimate conversation with
God.
2. In the
second dwelling, the soul learns to recognize God's quiet voice amid the noise
of the world. God's voice comes through the words of teachers, friends, and
sacred texts.
3. Prayer
begins to feel dry and empty, a test of humility. Starr explains: "If the
soul can quit trying to figure God out with her mind and concentrate on feeling
him with her heart, if she can learn to surrender her personal will to the
inscrutable will of the Beloved, she will progress to the fourth dwelling."
[4]
4. Here the
senses and mind are stilled in what Teresa names the Prayer of Quiet. Up until
now, the soul has been striving through conscious effort, but in the fourth
dwelling, the soul begins to experience someone else as the Doer as God takes
over.
5. In the
fifth dwelling, the soul and God become engaged to marry in what Teresa calls
the Prayer of Union. Starr writes: "Here, the faculties are totally
suspended. When the soul emerges from this state, she [knows] that 'she was in
God and God was in her.'" [5] Teresa uses the metaphor of a silkworm,
spinning a cocoon in which to die, to illustrate how it is only by dying to our
False Self that we can be transformed and fly to God.
6. God and
soul fall more deeply in love and come to know each other through time together
in solitude. This love is felt as a deep wound, an unbearable longing, physical
ache, and even betrayal. Yet there is also joy and ecstasy, for the wounding
comes from God.
7. At the
center of the castle, the innermost dwelling, the soul finds union with the
Beloved. Starr beautifully describes this experience: "Like rain falling
into an infinite sea, all boundaries between the soul and God melt. Union, by
definition, transcends the subject-object distinction. There is no longer any lover
left to enjoy her Beloved. There is only love." [6]
Before death and ultimate union, the soul must let ego bring
it back to the ordinary world, to the seeming separateness of individual life.
But there is a lasting transformation: "The soul who has dissolved into
God reemerges with a vibrant wakefulness." [7] There is now a permanent
place of peace from which the soul can approach day-to-day tasks and
responsibilities. The soul knows the Beloved lives inside and will never leave.
References:
[1] Mirabai
Starr, trans., The Interior Castle, (Riverhead Books: 2003), 21.
[2] Ibid.,
21-22.
[3] Ibid.,
23.
[4] Ibid.,
24.
[5] Ibid.,
25.
[6] Ibid.,
26.
[7] Ibid.,
26.
John of the Cross, Part I: In Prison
John of the Cross (1542-1591) was born in a small town north
of Ávila in Spain. He joined a Carmelite monastery and then studied theology
and philosophy at the university in Salamanaca. After meeting Teresa around
1567, he joined her cause of reforming the Carmelite order and founding the
Discalced Carmelites.
In the Center for Action and Contemplation's recent edition
of Oneing, "Emancipation," Mirabai Starr describes John of the Cross'
experience in prison, the unexpected place where he found freedom:
"In 1577, when St. John of the Cross was thirty-five
years old, he was abducted by his own monastic brothers [who were opposed to
his efforts to reform the Carmelite order] and incarcerated for nine months in
a monastery in Toledo, Spain. It was there, as he languished, that the
caterpillar of his old self dissolved and the butterfly of his authentic being
grew its wings. . . .
"His prison cell, a stone room barely large enough for
his body, had formerly been a latrine. His single robe rotted from his body in
the fetid heat of summer, and in winter he shivered in the rag that remained.
Several times a week, the brothers brought him out to be flogged while they
enjoyed their midday meal. Otherwise, he sat in the darkness, tracking the
stars through the single small window, high up in the wall of his cell. . . .
"Doubt began to infiltrate his psyche and, though he
clung to the life-raft of faith, it began to disintegrate in his hands and he
drifted into despair. Like Jonah in the belly of the fierce fish (an analogy
John later evoked when he wrote the commentary to Dark Night of the Soul), the
imprisoned friar found himself suspended in the void. He was unable to move
toward any kind of hopeful future, or backward to the innocent idealism that
had led to his being swallowed up in this terrible emptiness.
"It was painful enough for him to wonder if God had
given up on him, but the true agony descended when he began to find himself
giving up on God. At last, he simply ran out of energy and let himself down
into the arms of radical unknowingness--which is where the transmutation of the
lead of his agony began to unfold into the gold of mystical poetry. . .
"Like the Bride in the Scripture he loved best--the
Song of Songs--John went 'tracking the sandal-mark' of his Beloved through the
streets and plazas of his ravaged heart and, finding no trace of the One who
'wounded his soul and set it on fire,' converted his yearning into sublime
love-language. It is the fruit of that alchemy that sustained the poet in his
imprisonment and has continued to feed the rest of us for five centuries."
Reference:
Mirabai
Starr, "Exquisite Risk: John of the Cross and the Transformational Power
of Captivity," Emancipation, Oneing Vol. 3 No. 1. (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2015),
59-64.
John of the Cross, Part II: The Dark Night
I came out of the seminary in 1970 thinking that my job was
to have an answer for every question. What I've learned is that not-knowing and
often not even needing to know is--surprise of surprises--a deeper way of
knowing and a deeper falling into compassion. This is surely what the mystics
mean by "death" and why they talk of it with so many metaphors. It is
the essential transitioning. Maybe that is why Jesus praised faith even more
than love; maybe that is why Saint John of the Cross called faith "luminous
darkness." Yes, love is the final goal but ever deeper trust inside of
darkness is the path for getting there.
My good friend Gerald May shed fresh light on the meaning of
John's phrase "the dark night of the soul." He said that God has to
work in the soul in secret and in darkness, because if we fully knew what was
happening, and what Mystery/transformation/God/grace will eventually ask of us,
we would either try to take charge or stop the whole process. No one oversees
his or her own demise willingly, even when it is the false self that is dying.
God has to undo our illusions secretly, as it were, when we are not watching
and not in perfect control, say the mystics. We move forward in ways that we do
not even understand and through the quiet workings of time and grace, as
"Deep calls unto deep" (Psalm 42:8). In other words, Spirit initiates
deep resonance and intimacy with our spirit, as the Endless Divine Yes evokes
an ever-deeper yes in us. That is the whole deal!
As James Finley, a core faculty member of CAC's Living
School, says, "The mystic is not someone who says, 'Look what I have
done!' The mystic is one who says, 'Look what love has done to me. There's
nothing left but God's intimate love giving itself to me as me.' That's the
blessedness in poverty: when all in us that is not God dissolves, and we
finally realize that we are already as beautiful as God is beautiful, because
God gave the infinite beauty of God as who we are."
Finley describes God as "the infinity of the
unforeseeable; so we know that [the unforeseeable] is trustworthy, because in
everything, God is trying to move us into Christ consciousness. If we are
absolutely grounded in the absolute love of God that protects us from nothing
even as it sustains us in all things, then we can face all things with courage
and tenderness and touch the hurting places in others and in ourselves with
love." Perhaps this explains the mysterious coexistence of deep suffering
and intense joy in saints like John of the Cross. Otherwise, he and Teresa and most
other mystics would just seem like impossible oddities.
Adapted from
the following by Richard Rohr:
Things
Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality (Franciscan Media: 2007), 39.
Falling
Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life (Jossey-Bass: 2011), 50-51,
117.
James
Finley, Intimacy: The Divine Ambush (Center for Action and Contemplation:
2013), (CD, MP3 download).
John of the Cross, Part III: Humility
John of the Cross understood the true meaning of humility,
which is not self-deprecation or low self-esteem, but a simple acknowledgment
that I am very small, quickly passing, and insignificant as a separate self.
That is just objective truth. Our dignity and sacredness precisely comes from
our connection. With this deep and experienced and inherent connection, John
was free to rest in a union that could not be taken from him.
Mirabai
Starr expresses John's longing in her own beautiful words:
"In the
dark night, says John, the secret essence of the soul that knows the truth is
calling out to God: Beloved, you pray, please remind me again and again that I
am nothing. Strip me of the consolations of my complacent spirituality. Plunge
me into the darkness where I cannot rely on any of my old tricks for
maintaining my separation. Let me give up on trying to convince myself that my
own spiritual deeds are bound to be pleasing to you. Take all my juicy
spiritual feelings, Beloved, and dry them up, and then please light them on
fire. Take my lofty spiritual concepts and plunge them into darkness, and then
burn them. Let me love only you, Beloved. Let me quietly and with unutterable
simplicity just love you." [1]
In the dark night of the soul, the only thing left to do is
to let go of the ego's need for self-importance and validation and simply turn
our attention toward God. There is no need any longer to achieve or manufacture
our union with God. Soft piety and sweet feelings are no longer necessary. God
is much more trustworthy and solid than feelings. We are henceforth able to
give ourselves over to a now natural flow of loving and being loved. What once
seemed impossible and "supernatural" is now enjoyed as both total
gift and yet totally natural to our deepest being.
To John, humility meant accepting our unquenchable thirst
and need for God and acknowledging our emptiness at the same time--they work
together! This is why the contemporary "I am special" and "I
have dignity" eventually falls apart for lack of foundation. This is hard
to say, with so many people today having such low or disguised self-esteem, but
that is precisely what the mystics want to address. I want to offer you here,
through them, an objective (philosophical, theological, metaphysical)
foundation for a positive self-image, which can never be taken from you. It
does not come and go; it is you at your deepest core. This is the ecstasy of
John and Teresa.
Try to imagine John of the Cross as your personal spiritual
director, James Finley says. He would be speaking to you out of a deep place
inside of himself, his own True Self that is already enjoying his foundational
union with God. If you can recognize and trust that connection within him, it
can give you the courage to trust the same lovely and loving place within
yourself. [2] This is exactly what the Eastern religions mean by emphasizing the
need for a guru, a model, a master, a true spiritual teacher. Most often, you
need to see such union in another before you have the courage to imagine it
could also be true for you. Otherwise it is literally "unable to be
imagined" or desired! This explains the Catholic fascination with saints
and the Christian fascination with Jesus as the Ultimate Model of Divine-human
intimacy.
References:
[1] Mirabai
Starr, Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross, (Riverhead Books: 2002),
10.
[2] James
Finley, Intimacy: The Divine Ambush (Center for Action and Contemplation:
2013), (CD, MP3 download).
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