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 1st – 5th
September, 2015
Tuesday: 9:30am - Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am - Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon
- Devonport … St Gregory the Great
Friday: 9:30am – Devonport
Saturday: 9:00am -
Ulverstone
Next Weekend
5th & 6th September, 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 5th & 6th
September, 2015
Devonport:
Readers
Vigil: M Kelly, B
Paul, R Baker 10:30am:
E Petts, K Douglas
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil: M Doyle, M
Heazlewood, S Innes, M Gerrand,
P Shelverton, M Kenny
Cleaners 4th
September: M.W.C.11th September: P & T Douglas
Piety Shop 5th
September: H Thompson 6th September: P Piccolo Flowers: M O’Brien-Evans
Ulverstone:
Reader: K McKenzie Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, J
Landford
Cleaners: Flowers: E Beard Hospitality: S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters: G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator: E Nickols Readers: M Murray, J Barker
Procession: Y & R Downes Ministers of Communion: A Guest, T Clayton
Liturgy: Pine Road Setting Up: A Landers Care of Church: M Bowles, M Owen
Latrobe:
Reader: S Ritchie Ministers of Communion: M Kavic, B Ritchie Procession: I Campbell Music: Hermie
Port Sorell:
Readers: L Post, P Anderson Ministers of
Communion: T
Jeffries Cleaners/Flowers/Prepare: B Lee, A Holloway
Readings This Week: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8; James 1:17-8, 21-2, 27: and Mark 7:1-8, 14-5, 21-3
PREGO Reflection on the Gospel
It may help to read the passage a few times to get a sense
of the action. I try to imagine a group of people who know how things should be
done. I notice how they look at those who act differently. I listen to their
comments and even note the tone of voice. Now I replay the scene concentrating
on the response of Jesus’.
I consider the attitude of Jesus. What seems important to
him? What would he want to say to me?
I take time to speak about what matters to me about
tradition but also my desires to be a true follower. Do I cling to things which
no longer have meaning? What do I find myself saying to Jesus . . . .?
It may feel appropriate to conclude with a Glory be to the
Father...
Readings Next Week: 23rd Sunday in
Ordinary Time
First Reading: Isaiah 35:4-7; Second Reading: James 2:1-5; Gospel: Mark 7:31-37
_____________________________
Your prayers are
asked for the sick:
Joanne Haigh, Lizzy Knox, 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:
Patrick Niall McKee, Kevin Court, Patrick Tunchun, Phil O’Kane, Dallas Cordwell,
Bozena Pogorzelski, Allan Cruse, Tony Hyde, Mark Gatt, Lyn Howard, Ina Nichols, Yvonne Harvey, Tadeusz
Poludniak.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 26th
August – 1st September
Catherine McLennan, Michael
Cassidy, Jack Page, Robert Lee, Rita Stokes, Robert Sheehan, Ruth Healey,
Margaret Newell, Laurance Kelcey, Margaret Hayes, Theodore Clarke, Maxine
Milton, Rose & Henry Forbes, Audrey, Allan, Tory and Phyllis Enniss, Mary
Barrett, Vera Cox and David Covington.
May they rest in peace
“Church
without frontiers, Mother to all”
The
Holy Father, Pope Francis, in his message for the 101st World Day of Migrants
and Refugees, 2015, has chosen the theme “Church without frontiers, Mother to
all”. It is part of our Christian mandate from Jesus Christ to care for others
and in particular the most vulnerable. He wishes us to go beyond ourselves, to
live an authentic Christian life, and show compassion and solidarity to those
at the furthest fringes of society.
In
particular, Pope Francis has identified migrants and refugees to be in need of
our special attention and care, as they are our brothers and sisters ….. “Who are trying to escape difficult living conditions and dangers
of every kind.” The Holy Father mentions
that, “from the beginning, the Church has been a mother with a
heart open to the whole world, and has been without borders.”
We
need to continue this tradition and welcome our brothers and sisters who are in
most need of our assistance, in particular, those who have come from distant
lands seeking a better life. Whilst the plight of refugees is often present and
visible on our television screens, let us not forget the difficulties faced by
the many migrants who have come to call Australia home. Often their hardships
are not evident, but nonetheless still present.
(See Below for the Complete Statement by Pope Francis and Bishop Vincent Long for World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2015)
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
Thank
you to everyone for helping to make my 40th Anniversary of Priestly
Ordination such a wonderful expression of life and love and, especially, the
grace of God. Contrary to everyone’s thoughts I am now firmly convinced that I
am only able to manage two days of celebrations – by Monday I was totally exhausted.
If I were to try and mention all who were important to these days I would miss
many, so, in the inimitable words of a former Principal of a College in Hobart,
thank you – you know who you are!
A
special congratulations to Fr Alex this week as he celebrates 10 years of
Priesthood – may the Lord continue to bless him and gift him for his next …
years of priesthood.
This
week we celebrate Refugee and Migrant Sunday – and we remember all those who
have come to our Country in recent times as we give thanks for their
contribution to our communities in so many and wonderfully varied ways. I would
also like to pray that our Political Leaders might see that not everyone who
seeks a new and safer life has the opportunity to walk up to an office in their
country and ask for a visa – sometimes they have to step out and take a risk
and they shouldn’t be penalised for that.
Until next week, please take care on the roads and in your
homes.
__________________________________________________________
KNIGHTS OF
THE SOUTHERN CROSS: Annual General Meeting this Sunday 30th August, commencing 6pm at Emmaus House, Devonport, with a shared meal. All members and any
interested men are invited to attend. Contact Merv Tippett 6424:1025.
Knights of the Southern Cross NW District Changeover Mass
and Dinner will be held Thursday 3rd
September in Devonport in conjunction with the Midday Mass followed be a
luncheon at the Quality Gateway Inn. The Burnie/Somerset Knights will
also be in attendance. Enquiries phone Merv Tippett, Secretary 64241025.
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY: Annual Father’s Day Cake &
Craft stall, Friday 4th September starting at 8:30am at Mt St Vincent. All
welcome!
HEALING
MASS:
Catholic Charismatic Renewal HEALING MASS St
Mary’s Church Penguin, Thursday 10th September at 7.30pm. Everyone
welcome. Please bring a friend and a plate of food for supper to share. If you
wish to know more or require transport contact Celestine Whiteley 6424:2043,
Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068, Zoe Smith 6426:3073 or Tom Knaap 6425.2442.
MacKillop Hill Spirituality
Centre:
MARGARET SILF, one of the most acclaimed and
loved spiritual writers of our time is returning to Devonport 1st October 10am – 12noon and 7pm – 9pm; Burnie 2nd
October 7pm – 9pm Don’t miss this opportunity…Save the dates!
Book early! Phone 6428:3095 Email: mackillophill.forth@sosj.org.au
FOOTY POINTS MARGIN TICKETS: Round 21 – Port Adelaide won by 22 points:
Winners; Betty Lee,
Charlies Angels, unknown.
Thursday Nights OLOL Hall D’port. Eyes down 7.30pm
Callers 3rd September Jon Halley & Bruce Peters
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
TERESA OF
AVILA: TEACHER AND MYSTIC OF DIVINE FRIENDSHIP:
A weekend retreat on Carmelite
Spirituality at the Emmanuel Centre, Launceston, Friday 11th – 13th
September. Fr. Aloysius Rego OCD Retreat Director. Cost is $170 - includes all
meals and accommodation. Booking essential to Sandra Walkling 6331 4991
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
Congratulations – Fr
Alex
On your 10th
Year of Ordination to the Priesthood
27th August, 2015.
The whole parish is
deeply grateful to you
for your ministry among us.
______________________________________________________________
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 its 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 its place in the Encyclical.
“Be aware that synthetic pesticides and
herbicides will hurt birds and insects that are helpful for agriculture.” (Par 34)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Saint
of the Week – St Gregory the Great, Pope, Doctor
of the Church (Sep 3)
St Gregory, a person
of immense ability, determination and energy, was born in Rome around 540 AD
of a patrician family. The Rome of his day was an outpost of the Byzantine
Empire and had been ruined, impoverished and depopulated during many years of
invasion and war by the barbarian Goths from the north. Finally, it had been
virtually abandoned and left to its own devices by the Emperors, now resident
in Constantinople.
Upon the death of his father, Gregory sold the family home and established a monastery, of which he became a member. Alongside the monastery he built a hospice dedicated to the care of the sick and dying.
When elected Pope in
590 AD, he set about rebuilding both church and civil organisation in Rome.
Among his early tasks was the provision of food and other necessities for the
starving and plague ridden population. He rebuilt the aqueducts supplying fresh
water to the city, and reorganised papal estates in Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia,
Gaul, and North Africa for the efficient and humane production of food. He
negotiated with the powerful and barbarous Lombards in North Italy, eventually
converting them to Roman Catholicism.
He had a profound
impact on the development of church liturgy, especially liturgical music. The
Gregorian chant was named after him. He once said “when you sing, you pray twice". He was also a
prolific writer, upholding the primacy of the Bishop of Rome throughout the
whole Church, defending the Church against schism and heresy, and explaining
and clarifying its teachings. He was eventually proclaimed Doctor of the Church
- one of the few occasions throughout the history of the Church, this
particular honour has been bestowed.
______________________________________________________________
MESSAGE FROM HOLY FATHER POPE FRANCIS
Church without frontiers, Mother to all
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Jesus is “the evangelizer par excellence and the Gospel in person” (Evangelii Gaudium, 209). His solicitude, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalized, invites all of us to care for the frailest and to recognize his suffering countenance, especially in the victims of new forms of poverty and slavery. The Lord says: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me” (Mt 25:35-36). The mission of the Church, herself a pilgrim in the world and the Mother of all, is thus to love Jesus Christ, to adore and love him, particularly in the poorest and most abandoned; among these are certainly migrants and refugees, who are trying to escape difficult living conditions and dangers of every kind. For this reason, the theme for this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees is: Church without frontiers, Mother to all.
The Church opens her arms to welcome all people, without distinction or limits, in order to proclaim that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8,16). After his death and resurrection, Jesus entrusted to the disciples the mission of being his witnesses and proclaiming the Gospel of joy and mercy.
On the day of Pentecost, the disciples left the Upper Room with courage and enthusiasm; the strength of the Holy Spirit overcame their doubts and uncertainties and enabled all to understand the disciples’ preaching in their own language.
From the beginning, the Church has been a mother with a heart open to the whole world, and has been without borders. This mission has continued for two thousand years. But even in the first centuries, the missionary proclamation spoke of the universal motherhood of the Church, which was then developed in the writings of the Fathers and taken up by the Second Vatican Council. The Council Fathers spokeof Ecclesia Mater to explain the Church’s nature. She begets sons and daughters and “takes them in and embraces them with her love and in her heart” (Lumen Gentium, 14).
The Church without frontiers, Mother to all, spreads throughout the world a culture of acceptance and solidarity, in which no one is seen as useless, out of place or disposable. When living out this motherhood effectively, the Christian community nourishes, guides and indicates the way, accompanying all with patience, and drawing close to them through prayer and works of mercy. Today this takes on a particular significance. In fact, in an age of such vast movements of migration, large numbers of people are leaving their homelands, with a suitcase full of fears and desires, to undertake a hopeful and dangerous trip in search of more humane living conditions.
Often, however, such migration gives rise to suspicion and hostility, even in ecclesial communities, prior to any knowledge of the migrants’ lives or their stories of persecution and destitution. In such cases, suspicion and prejudice conflict with the biblical commandment of welcoming with respect and solidarity the stranger in need.
On the other hand, we sense in our conscience the call to touch human misery, and to put into practice the commandment of love that Jesus left us when he identified himself with the stranger, with the one who suffers, with all the innocent victims of violence and exploitation. Because of the weakness of our nature, However, “we are tempted to be that kind of Christian who keeps the Lord’s wounds at arm’s length” (Evangelii Gaudium, 270). The courage born of faith, hope and love enables us to reduce the distances that separate us from human misery. Jesus Christ is always waiting to be recognized in migrants and refugees, in displaced persons and in exiles, and through them he calls us to share our resources, and occasionally to give up something of our acquired riches. Pope Paul VI spoke of this when he said that “the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more generously at the service of others” (Octogesima Adveniens, 23).
The multicultural character of society today, for that matter, encourages the Church to take on new commitments of solidarity, communion and evangelization. Migration movements, in fact, call us to deepen and strengthen the values needed to guarantee peaceful coexistence between persons and cultures.
Achieving mere tolerance that respects diversity and ways of sharing between different backgrounds and cultures is not sufficient. This is precisely where the Church contributes to overcoming frontiers and encouraging the “moving away from attitudes of defensiveness and fear, indifference and marginalization … towards attitudes based on a culture of encounter, the only culture capable of building a better, more just and fraternal world” (Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2014).
Migration movements, however, are on such a scale that only a systematic and active cooperation between States and international organizations can be capable of regulating and managing such movements effectively. For migration affects everyone, not only because of the extent of the phenomenon, but also because of “the social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it raises, and the dramatic challenges it poses to nations and the international community” (Caritas in Veritate, 62).
At the international level, frequent debates take place regarding the appropriateness, methods and required norms to deal with the phenomenon of migration. There are agencies and organizations on the international, national and local level which work strenuously to serve those seeking a better life through migration. Notwithstanding their generous and laudable efforts, a more decisive and constructive action is required, one which relies on a universal network of cooperation, based on safeguarding the dignity and centrality of every human person. This will lead to greater effectiveness in the fight against the shameful and criminal trafficking of human beings, the violation of fundamental rights, and all forms of violence, oppression and enslavement. Working together, however, requires reciprocity, joint-action, openness and trust, in the knowledge that “no country can singlehandedly face the difficulties associated with this phenomenon, which is now so widespread that it affects every continent in the twofold movement of immigration and emigration” (Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2014).
It is necessary to respond to the globalization of migration with the globalization of charity and cooperation, in such a way as to make the conditions of migrants more humane. At the same time, greater efforts are needed to guarantee the easing of conditions, often brought about by war or famine, which compel whole peoples to leave their native countries.
Solidarity with migrants and refugees must be accompanied by the courage and creativity necessary to develop, on a world-wide level, a more just and equitable financial and economic order, as well as an increasing commitment to peace, the indispensable condition for all authentic progress.
Dear migrants and refugees! You have a special place in the heart of the Church, and you help her to enlarge her heart and to manifest her motherhood towards the entire human family. Do not lose your faith and hope! Let us think of the Holy Family during the flight in Egypt: Just as the maternal heart of the Blessed Virgin and the kind heart of Saint Joseph kept alive the confidence that God would never abandon them, so in you may the same hope in the Lord never be wanting. I entrust you to their protection and I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 3 September 2014
FRANCISCUS
______________________________________________________
MESSAGE FROM BISHOP VINCENT LONG
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Holy Father, Pope Francis, in his message for the 101st World Day of Migrants and Refugees, 2015, has chosen the theme “Church without frontiers, Mother to all”. It is part of our Christian mandate from Jesus Christ to care for others and in particular the most vulnerable (c.f. Mt 7:12 and 25:35-36). The Holy Father, wishing to draw attention to and remind us of this, has chosen this theme. He wishes us to go beyond ourselves, to live an authentic Christian life, and show compassion and solidarity to those at the furthest fringes of society. In particular, Pope Francis has identified migrants and refugees to be in need of our special attention and care, as they are our brothers and sisters “who are trying to escape difficult living conditions and dangers of every kind.” (Message, 2015).
The Holy Father mentions that, “from the beginning, the Church has been a mother with a heart open to the whole world, and has been without borders.” (Message, 2015). We need to continue this tradition and welcome our brothers and sisters who are in most need of our assistance, in particular, those who have come from distant lands seeking a better life. Whilst the plight of refugees is often present and visible on our television screens, let us not forget the difficulties faced by the many migrants who have come to call Australia home. Often their hardships are not evident, but nonetheless still present.
In this message, I would like to draw your attention to the on-going conflict in the Middle East and the issues closer to home faced by asylum seekers, as well as the often-unseen difficulties faced by migrants in our communities.
Over the past year, we have seen on our television screens, our Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East continue to suffer the ruthless barbarity of extremism under ISIS. Many men, women and children are being forced to flee from their homes for fear of their lives. We have constantly seen the atrocities at the hand of ISIS, which can often lead us to question human solidarity (care for our neighbour), and not to mention sometimes our faith. How can it be, that fellow human beings can inflict such acts of torture and barbarity on one another? It is precisely now that the message of the Gospels needs to be proclaimed from all corners of the world and in every state of life. The Holy Father, quoting the Message for 100th World Day of Migrants 2014, says, “this is precisely where the Church contributes to overcoming frontiers and encouraging the ‘moving away from attitudes of defensiveness and fear, indifference and marginalisation…towards attitudes based on a culture of encounter, the only culture capable of building a better, more just and fraternal world’”. (Pope Francis, Message 2014).
As a result of on-going conflicts in the Middle East, UNHCR estimates that there are now over 2 million refugees in the region, as well as over 7 million internally displaced persons. (Population of Concern to UNHCR, UNHCR Global Appeal Update 2015). An increase in conflict in this region will inevitably result in an increase of our brothers and sisters seeking safety and asylum. This is a time to heed the Holy Father’s words and once again show Christian solidarity to those in need. Where migrants and refugees are concerned, the Church and her various agencies ought to avoid offering charitable services alone; they are also called to promote real integration in a society where all are active members and responsible for one another’s welfare, generously offering a creative contribution and rightfully sharing in the same rights and duties. (Pope Benedict, Message 2013).
Pope Francis says, “the courage born of faith, hope and love, enables us to reduce the distances that separate us from human misery. Jesus Christ is always waiting to be recognised in migrants and refugees, in displaced persons and in exiles, and through them he calls us to share our resources, and occasionally to give up something of our acquired riches.” (Pope Francis, Message, 2015).
This is an important opportunity for solidarity and to welcome these persecuted peoples into our own home, Australia. As a refugee myself, along with several members of my family, seeking shelter and security, Australia has always been generous. It is now again the time to show the same kind of generosity that was shown to the Vietnamese refugees 40 years ago, to our Middle Eastern brethren as well as those in our Asia-Pacific Region seeking asylum from separate, but no less important, conflicts.
Fear of the unknown, a true and real fear, can often unnecessarily guide our decision- making. It is time to turn to our Christian roots, with ever more trust in God, and move beyond fear towards charity and express solidarity with those who suffer. The Holy Father, ever attentive to the failings of the human nature notes that, “Often, however, such migration gives rise to suspicion and hostility, even in ecclesial communities, prior to any knowledge of the migrants’ lives or their stories of persecution and destitution. In such cases, suspicion and prejudice conflict with the biblical commandment of welcoming with respect and solidarity the stranger in need.” (Message, 2015).
Closer to home, migrants too in our local and parish communities can sometimes be looked upon with suspicion. Migrants in our communities often go through challenges
and difficulties that are unseen, but are no less real and difficult. Simple things, which many of us either growing up or living in Australia for a long time, often forget or simply don’t notice, can be a challenge for new migrants. Things such as language, culture or customs can bring about hardship and anxiety. It is precisely here, in these everyday situations, that Christ is calling us to move beyond ourselves, and express solidarity to our fellow brothers and sisters. To lend a helping hand, just saying hello or even just a simple smile. This is the beginning of ‘encounter’. From here we can move together in solidarity. Many of us may never change the world, but let us not forget that we can change the world around us.
I understand that often this is not such an easy thing to express. How often, due to the weakness in our nature, can we “be tempted to be that kind of Christian who keeps the Lord’s wounds at arm’s length” (Evangelii Gaudium, 270). The call to be a catholic, a radical and counter cultural call, at its deepest core, urges us not to stand on the sides but to become involved in bringing about a more just society. So I would call upon parishes, and most importantly, individuals to look at the little opportunities in our own lives where Christ is calling us to express charity and solidarity to migrants and refugees.
Included in this Kit is the life of the Blessed Bishop John Baptist Scalabrini, whom Pope St John Paul II defined as the “Father of Migrants and Refugees” and offered to the veneration and intercession of the entire Church. Blessed Scalabrini dedicated his life in the service of migrants from Europe to the Americas. He identified the unique pastoral care necessary for these communities, the difficulties and realities faced, as well as the pastoral sensitivities required when providing assistance. I would encourage all reading this Kit, but in particular my brother Bishops and fellow Priests, Religious Sisters and Brothers and all who offer pastoral care to migrants and refugees to read his life and encourage his devotion and pray through his intercession in their Dioceses and Parishes, in particular during Migrant and Refugee Sunday. Through the intercession of Blessed Scalabrini, I would hope that we may achieve a fruitful pastoral service of communion.
2015 also marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office (ACMRO), in its present form. To commemorate this milestone and as a pastoral tool, we have included an article on 20 years of teaching on migrant and refugee issues. The timeline looks at migration policy in Australia in conjunction with the response of the Universal Catholic Church and the Catholic Church in Australia. I hope that this timeline graphic can be used as a tool to reinforce the work, advocacy and pastoral care that the Church has strived to provide on a national and international level. The timeline has been included as a central page in the middle of the Kit for it to be detached and placed in the church foyer; an electronic copy will also available on the ACMRO website.
To conclude, I would like to encourage all Dioceses and Parishes to celebrate and commemorate the unique contribution that migrants and refugees have and continue
to provide to our communities. “The Church sees this entire world of suffering and violence through the eyes of Jesus, who was moved with pity at the sight of the crowds wandering as sheep without a shepherd (cf. Mt 9:36). Hope, courage, love and “‘creativity’ in charity” (Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 50) must inspire the necessary human and Christian efforts made to help these brothers and sisters in their suffering” (Pope Benedict, Message 2005). The phenomenon of migration today is a providential opportunity for offering more opportunities to broaden our understanding and vision of the world as well as moving forward together in solidarity towards a better and more just world.
____________________________________________
HUMAN NATURE – IS IT SOMEHOW ALL WRONG?
An article by Fr Ron Rolheiser. The original can be found here
An American humorist was once asked what he loved most in life. This was his reply: I love women best; whiskey next; my neighbor a little; and God hardly at all!
This flashed in my mind recently when, while giving a lecture, a woman asked this question: Why did God build us in one way and then almost all of the time expect us to act in a way contrary to our instincts? I knew what she meant. Our natural instincts and spontaneous desires generally seem at odds with that towards which they are supposedly directed, namely, God and eternal life. A religious perspective, it would seem. calls us to reverse the order described by that American humorist, that is, we’re to love God first, our neighbor just as deeply, and then accord to the human pleasures we are so naturally drawn to a very subordinate role. But that’s not what happens most of the time. Generally we are drawn, and drawn very powerfully, towards the things of this earth: other people, pleasure, beautiful objects, sex, money, comfort. These seemingly have a more-powerful grip on us than do the things of faith and religion.
Doesn’t this then put our natural feelings at odds with how God intended us to feel and act? Why are we, seemingly, built in one way and then called to live in another way?
The question is a good one and, unfortunately, is often answered in a manner that merely deepens the quandary. Often we are simply told that we shouldn’t feel this way, that not putting God and religious things first in our feelings is a religious and moral fault, as if our natural wiring was somehow all wrong and we were responsible for its flaw. But that answer is both simplistic and harmful, it misunderstands God’s design, lays a guilt-trip on us, and has us feeling bipolar vis-à-vis our natural make-up and the demands of faith.
How do we reconcile the seeming incongruity between our natural make-up and God’s intent for us?
We need to understand human instinct and human desire at a deeper level. We might begin with St. Augustine’s memorable phrase: You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. When we analyze our natural makeup, natural instincts, and natural desires more deeply, we see that all of these ultimately are drawing us beyond the more-immediate things and pleasures with which they appear to be obsessed. They are drawing us, persistently and unceasingly, towards God.
Karl Rahner, in trying to explain this, makes a distinction between what we desire explicitly and what we desire implicitly. Our instincts and natural desires draw us towards various explicit things: love for another person, friendship with someone, a piece of art or music, a vacation, a movie, a good meal, a sexual encounter, an achievement that brings us honor, a sporting event, and countless other things that, on the surface at least, would seem to have nothing to do with God and are seemingly drawing our attention away from God. But, as Rahner shows, and as is evident in our experience, in every one of those explicit desires there is present, implicitly, beneath the desire and as the deepest part of that desire, the longing for and pursuit of something deeper. Ultimately we are longing for the depth that grounds every person and object, God. To cite one of Rahner’s more graphic examples, a man obsessed with sexual desire who seeks out a prostitute is, implicitly, seeking the bread of life, irrespective of his crass surface intent.
God didn’t make a mistake in designing human desire. God’s intent is written into very DNA of desire. Ultimately our make-up directs us towards God, no matter how obsessive, earthy, lustful, and pagan a given desire might appear on a given day. Human nature is not at odds with the call of faith, not at all.
Moreover, those powerful instincts within our nature, which can seem so selfish and amoral at times, have their own moral intelligence and purpose, they protect us, make us reach out for what keeps us alive, and, not least, ensure that the human race keeps perpetuating itself. Finally, God also put those earthy instincts in us to pressure us to enjoy life and taste its pleasures – while God, like a loving old grandparent watching her children at play, remains happy just to see her children’s delight in the moment, knowing that there will be time enough ahead when pain and frustration will force those desires to focus on some deeper things.
When we analyze more deeply God’s design for human nature and understand ourselves more deeply within that design, we realize that, at a level deeper than spontaneous feeling, and at a level deeper than the wisecracks we make about ourselves, we in fact do love God best; love our neighbor quite a bit; and, very happily, love whiskey and the pleasures of life quite a bit as well.
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Mystics and Non-Dual Thinkers: Week 5
A series of reflections taken from a daily email from Fr Richard Rohr. You can subscribe to the email here
Evelyn Underhill
This week we continue exploring the modern mystics who have
had the greatest impact on my own theology and practice. Evelyn Underhill
(1875-1941) was a prolific British writer who is best known for her book
Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual
Consciousness. Through her study of the mystics and even more through her lived
experiences, Underhill emphasized that the mystical state of union with God
produces creative action in the world.
As she puts it, "For [mystics,] contemplation and
action are not opposites, but two interdependent forms of a life that is one--a
life that rushes out to a passionate communion with the true and beautiful,
only that it may draw from this direct experience of Reality a new intensity
wherewith to handle the world of things; and remake it, or at least some little
bit of it, 'nearer to the heart's desire.'" [1] The mystic's heart beats
in union with God's heart, so "the heart's desire" is God's desire.
Evelyn Underhill held the tension between intellect and
intimacy in her longing to be holy. At first she only trusted her intellect and
studied holiness methodically and empirically. She became known as the Anglican
woman who awakened Protestants to the Catholic mystics. As Underhill gradually
opened to the experiences of life, she was led from a disembodied, intellectual
spirituality to an engaged, down-to-earth spirituality. She grew through the
guidance of her spiritual director, through the suffering and devastation of
World War I, and through visiting the poor and serving as a spiritual director
and retreat leader.
Underhill's growth into a more incarnational spirituality is
evident even in her style of writing. Here is a selection from Mysticism, where
she is actually describing--from a safe distance--what she herself most needed
at the time, a "physical sense of the holy":
The mystics find the basis of their method not in logic but
in life: in the existence of a discoverable "real," a spark of true
being, within the seeking subject, which can, in that ineffable experience
which they call the "act of union," fuse itself with and thus
apprehend the reality of the sought Object. In theological language, their
theory of knowledge is that the spirit of man [and woman], itself essentially
divine, is capable of immediate communion with God, the One Reality. [2]
Compare this
to Underhill's later writing where her focus turns to applying spirituality to
ordinary life, thus uniting contemplation and action:
Try to
arrange things so that you can have a reasonable bit of quiet every day and do
not . . . think it selfish . . . . You are obeying God's call and giving Him
[sic] the opportunity to teach you what He wants you to know, and so make you
more useful to Him and to other souls. [3]
Remember God is acting on your soul all the time, whether
you have spiritual sensations or not. [4]
Take the present situation as it is and try to deal with
what it brings you, in a spirit of generosity and love. God is as much in the
difficult home problems as in the times of quiet and prayer. . . . Try
especially to do His will there, deliberately seek opportunities for kindness,
sympathy, and patience. [5]
Here Underhill sounds like Jean Pierre de Caussade and
Thérèse of Lisieux! The contemplative, mystical path is similar across
traditions and ages. It arises from humble childlikeness and leads to the same
place--union with God.
References:
[1] Evelyn
Underhill, Practical Mysticism (E.P. Dutton & Company: 1915), Ch. 10.
[2] Evelyn
Underhill, Mysticism: A Study In the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual
Consciousness (E.P. Dutton & Company: 1911), 24.
[3] The
Letters of Evelyn Underhill (Longmans, Green and Co.: 1951), 141.
[4] Evelyn
Underhill, The Mount of Purification (Longmans, Green and Co.: 1949), 184.
[5] The Letters
of Evelyn Underhill (Longmans, Green and Co.: 1951), 137.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Part I: Everything Is Sacred
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a Jesuit
paleontologist and mystic whose writings were suppressed by Catholic
authorities during his lifetime, but are now bringing science and religion
together and mobilizing Christians to participate with God in the process of
bringing the universe to its fulfillment in Christ. We Franciscans in
particular resonate with Teilhard. I first discovered him in college in the
early 1960's, during the heady years of the Second Vatican Council, and he
filled me with a cosmic, earthy vision for my life.
The Franciscan theologian Bonaventure, building on Paul,
taught us about the primacy of Christ: "For in him were created all things
in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and
for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is
the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, that in all things he himself might be preeminent. For in him all the
fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him,
making peace by the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:15-20).
In the words of Franciscan Sister and scientist Ilia Delio,
"Christ is the purpose of this universe, and as exemplar of creation,
[Christ is] the model of what is intended for this universe, that is, union and
transformation in God. . . . Because the universe has a 'plan,' we can speak of
the evolution of this plan as the unfolding of Christ in the universe, who is
'the mystery hidden from the beginning' (Ephesians 3:9)." [1]
Teilhard writes: "I am not speaking metaphorically when
I say that it is throughout the length and breadth and depth of the world in
movement that man [sic] can attain the experience and vision of his God."
[2] Teilhard also says: "By means of all created things, without exception,
the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us. We imagined [the divine] as
distant and inaccessible, when in fact we live steeped in its burning
layers."
It was statements such as these, misinterpreted as pantheism
or naturalism, which resulted in Church and Jesuit superiors prohibiting
Teilhard from publishing his works and even banishing him from living in his
French homeland. But they could not make him "abandon my own personal
search," as Teilhard wrote to one of these authorities. "I have
ceased to propagate my ideas and am confining myself to achieving a deeper
personal insight into them. This attitude has been made easier for me by my now
being once more in a position to do first-hand scientific work. . . . You can
count on me unreservedly to work for the kingdom of God, which is the one thing
I keep before my eyes and the one goal to which science leads me." [3] For
Teilhard, there was no dualistic split between science and religion.
Nor was there a split between human work and spirituality.
To explain what he called "the divinization of our activities,"
Teilhard wrote, "By virtue of the Creation and, still more, of the
Incarnation, nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see. On
the contrary, everything is sacred. . . . Try, with God's help, to perceive the
connection--even physical and natural--which binds your labour with the
building of the kingdom of heaven; try to realize that heaven itself smiles
upon you and, through your works, draws you to itself." [4]
References:
[1] Ilia
Delio, O.S.F., Christ In Evolution (Orbis Books: 2008), 8-9.
[2] Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu (Harper Torchbooks: 1960), 36.
[3] Ibid.,
39.
[4] Ibid.,
66.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Part II: Evolving Consciousness
The French Jesuit paleontologist and mystic Pierre Teilhard
de Chardin (1881-1955) viewed evolution as growth in consciousness. Ilia Delio
offers theologian Elizabeth Johnson's perspective that "consciousness is
integral to the whole evolutionary process that culminates in the human spirit.
She writes: 'The law of complexity-consciousness reveals that ever more
intricate physical combinations, as can be traced in the evolution of the
brain, yield ever more powerful forms of spirit. Matter, alive with energy,
evolves to spirit. While distinctive, human intelligence and creativity rise
out of the very nature of the universe, which is itself intelligent and
creative. In other words, human spirit is the cosmos come to
consciousness.'" [1]
Ilia Delio, my friend and fellow teacher, Franciscan Sister
and scientist, has studied Teilhard extensively. She writes:
In Teilhard's view, Christian life is essential to the
progress of evolution. He emphasized that the role of the Christian is to
divinize the world in Jesus Christ, to "christify" the world by our
actions, by immersing ourselves in the world, plunging our hands, we might say
into the soil of the earth and touching the roots of life. . . . The world, he
claimed, is like a crystal lamp illumined from within by the light of Christ.
For those who can see, Christ shines in the diaphanous universe, through the
cosmos, and in matter. He posited a "mysticism of action" in a
universe moved and com-penetrated by God. For him, union with God means not
withdrawal or separation from the activity of the world but a dedicated,
integrated, and sublimated absorption into it. [2]
Teilhard . . . viewed the cosmos on a journey to God in a
process of divinization, which he called Christogenesis. . . . Love is the
force that energizes the process because love permeates the entire cosmos, that
is, the affinity of being with being. Teilhard wrote, "Driven by the
forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world
may come to being." He identifies this energy of love with Christ, the
Omega, saying, "the love of Christ is an energy into which all the chosen
elements of creation are fused without losing their identity." [3]
Teilhard held that the whole of natural evolution is coming
under the influence of Christ, the physical center of the universe, through the
free cooperation of human beings. God evolves the universe and brings it to its
completion through the instrumentality of human beings. Thus we are not called
to relate to God without a world. To love God we must also love what God loves.
We are called to love this created world as God loves it. . . . We are to help
transform this universe in Christ by seeing Christ in the universe and loving
Christ at the heart of the universe. [4]
Inspired by Teilhard, for years I used his complimentary
close in all my letters, "Christ ever greater." This Christ is big
enough to include everyone and everything.
References:
[1] Ilia
Delio, O.S.F., Christ In Evolution (Orbis Books: 2008), 18-19.
[2] Ibid.,
139.
[3] Ibid.,
81.
[4] Ibid.,
81-82.
Simone Weil
Simone Weil (1909-1943), born in Paris to agnostic Jewish
parents, was drawn to the Christian faith around the age of 26. She also had a
deep curiosity and appreciation for many religions, particularly Hinduism and
Buddhism, and saw that each spiritual tradition offered a unique vision of
transcendent wisdom. Yet Simone was cautious of syncretism, writing: "Each
religion is alone true, that is to say, that at the moment we are thinking of
it we must bring as much attention to bear on it as if there were nothing else.
. . . A 'synthesis' of religion implies a lower quality of attention." [1]
Here you see how subtle and penetrating her thought often was!
Although from an affluent family, Simone was sympathetic to
the working class and advocated for workers' rights. As a political activist
she was able to hold the tension of positive and negative of both socialism and
capitalism. Simone died at the young age of 34, perhaps from self-chosen
starvation; perhaps from a lifetime of poor health and, in her last year of
life, tuberculosis; or perhaps, as her first English biographer Richard Rees
writes, she died of love.
In spite of the pain she witnessed and experienced--through
war and sickness--Simone was able to see beauty, and through beauty to see God.
In her words: "In everything which gives us the pure authentic feeling of
beauty there really is the presence of God. There is as it were an incarnation
of God in the world and it is indicated by beauty. The beautiful is the
experimental proof that the incarnation is possible." [2] "The beauty
of the world is Christ's tender smile for us, coming through matter." [3]
Simone understood that suffering, beyond physical and
emotional pain, can be caused by our attachment to expectations. She writes:
"When we are disappointed by a pleasure which we have been expecting and
which comes, the disappointment is because we were expecting the future, and as
soon as it is there it is present. We want the future to be there without
ceasing to be future. This is an absurdity of which eternity alone is the
cure." [4]
Eric Springfield explains how Simone "recognized that
love and goodness did not have to be defeated even by affliction, that even in
the midst of soul-destroying suffering God could be present. . . . [Affliction]
could be a way of giving one's total consent to God, who never refuses [God's]
love to those who wait for it. Affliction could serve to erase the screen of
the self that we erect between us and God and cannot tear down by
ourselves." [5]
In Waiting for God, Simone describes the implications of
mysticism, when the barrier between false self and God disappears and one loves
with God's unconditional, inclusive love:
When a soul has attained a love filling the whole universe
indiscriminately, this love becomes the bird with golden wings that pierces an
opening in the egg of the world. After that, such a soul loves the universe,
not from within but from without; from the dwelling place of the Wisdom of God,
our first-born brother. Such a love does not love beings and things in God, but
from the abode of God. Being close to God it views all beings and things from
there, and its gaze is merged in the gaze of God. [6]
To empty ourselves of our false divinity, to deny ourselves,
to give up being the center of the world in imagination, to discern that all
points in the world are equally centers and that the true center is outside the
world, this is to consent to the rule of mechanical necessity in matter and of
free choice at the center of each soul. Such consent is love. The face of this
love, which is turned toward thinking persons, is the love of our neighbor; the
face turned toward matter is love of the order of the world, or love of the
beauty of the world which is the same thing. [7]
References:
[1] Notebooks
of Simone Weil, Volume 1.
[2] Simone
Weil, translated by Emma Crawford and Mario vonder Ruhr, Gravity and Grace
(Routledge: 2002), 150.
[3] Simone
Weil, translated by Emma Craufurd, Waiting on God (Routledge: 1951), 60.
[4] Weil,
Gravity and Grace, 20.
[5] Eric O.
Springfield, ed., Simone Weil, Modern Spiritual Masters Series (Orbis Books:
1998), 19.
[6] Simone
Weil, translated by Emma Craufurd, Waiting for God (Harper & Row: 1973),
97-98.
[7] Ibid.,
159-160.
Etty Hillesum
I only came to know and appreciate Etty Hillesum
(1914-1943), a Dutch Jewish woman, after 1981 when her journals and letters
were first published. Etty's diaries describe German-occupied Amsterdam from
1941-1943. Though Etty had the opportunity to stay in Amsterdam, she chose to
go to Westerbork concentration camp, to "share her people's fate."
She was transferred to Auschwitz in September 1943 and died that November.
Etty never fully identified as a Christian or religious, but
her personal writing reveals a mystic, someone who had a deep awareness of her
own inner life and her union with others and God. She easily weaves in and out
of prayer, exploring the mundane and ordinary--setting the table, teaching
Russian--the erotic and romantic, and her human longings and fears. We witness
an evolution of faith and growing maturity in her diaries.
Etty struggles with
sexual attractions, emotional neediness, and self-consciousness. Gradually she
becomes able to simply observe herself and those around her without attaching
to desires for particular outcomes, even for her loved ones' safety or her
health.
Etty learned from her teacher and lover, Julius Spier, the
expression "reposing in oneself" and used it to describe her love of
life and equanimity with self and circumstances: "I repose in myself. And
that part of myself, that deepest and richest part in which I repose, is what I
call 'God.' . . . 'As if I were lying in Your arms, oh God, so protected and
sheltered and so steeped in eternity.' As if every breath I take were filled
with it and as if my smallest acts and words had a deeper source and a deeper
meaning. . . . [One's body] can love and hineinhorchen--'hearken unto'--itself
and unto what binds us to life. . . . Truly, my life is one long hearkening
unto myself and unto others, unto God.
And if I say that I hearken, it is really God who hearkens inside me.
The most essential and deepest in the other. God to God" (204).
As powerful as Etty's inner experience of God was, she could
move outward and work for the well-being of the "bundles of human misery,
desperate and unable to face life. And that's when my task begins. It is not
enough simply to proclaim You, God, to commend You to the hearts of others. One
must also clear the path toward You in them, God, and to do that one has to be
a keen judge of the human soul. A trained psychologist. Ties to father and
mother, youthful memories, dreams, guilt feelings, inferiority complexes, and
all the rest block the way. I embark on a slow voyage of exploration with everyone
who comes to me. . . . Sometimes they seem to me like houses with open doors. .
. . I promise that I shall try to find a dwelling and a refuge for You in as
many houses as possible. There are so many empty houses, and I shall prepare
them all for You, the most honored lodger." [2]
References:
[1] Etty
Hillesum, translated by Arnold Pomerans, foreword by Eva Hoffman, An
Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork (Henry Holt and Company: 1996),
204.
[2] Ibid.,
205.
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