Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
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
Weekday Masses 15th – 18th September,
2015
Tuesday: 9:30am - Penguin … Our Lady of Sorrows
Wednesday: 9:30am - Latrobe … Sts Cornelius & Cyprian
Thursday: 10:30am
- Karingal
Friday: 11:00am
- Mt St Vincent
Next Weekend
19th & 20th 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 19th & 20th
September, 2015
Readers
Vigil: V Riley, A
Stegmann 10:30am: A Hughes, T Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil: T Muir, M
Davies, M Gerrand,
T Bird, S Innes
10:30am: R Beaton, B & N Mulcahy, L Hollister
Cleaners 18th
September: F Sly, M
Hansen, R McBain
25th September: P Shelverton, E Petts
Piety Shop 19th
September: R McBain 20th
September: K Hull Flowers: M
Breen, S Fletcher
Ulverstone:
Reader: F Pisano
Ministers of
Communion: E
Standring, M Fennell, L Hay,
T Leary
Cleaners: B & V McCall, G Doyle Flowers: M Webb Hospitality: T Good Team
Penguin:
Greeters: G & N Pearce Commentator: Y Downes Readers:
Y Downes, T
Clayton
Procession: M & D Hiscutt Ministers of Communion: S Ewing, J Garnsey
Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J Setting Up: S Ewing Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols
Latrobe:
Reader: S Ritchie Ministers of
Communion: Z Smith, B Ritchie
Procession: J Hyde Music: Jenny
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, L Post Ministers of
Communion: E Holloway
Cleaners/Flowers/Prepare: B Lee, A Holloway
Readings this week:24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Isaiah 50:5-9 Second Reading: James 2:14-18 Gospel: Mark 8:27-35
PREGO
REFLECTION:
As I ask the Lord to help me become fully present to him, I
focus my attention on how I am, in this moment, in this place. I take time to
become still, open to what the Lord wants to share with me today.
When I am ready, I slowly read the words of the passage
several times.
Perhaps I imagine myself walking beside Jesus on the road,
hearing different voices answer his question, ‘Who do people say that I am?’
I take a moment to ponder these responses.
Then I might imagine Jesus turning directly to me, and
gently asking: ’But you … who do you say I am?’
I allow myself to stay prayerfully with this question. Do I
find myself responding eagerly and confidently, like Peter … Or do I feel
challenged … or unsure … or doubtful …?
Whatever my response, I try to share it honestly with the
Lord, trusting in his unfailing love for me..
Being a follower of Jesus entails making sacrifices and
changing the way I lead my life.
Can I see my life in a different way, as a follower of
Jesus?
In what way do I feel called to take up my cross today for
his sake?
When the time comes, I ask for strength and courage,
perhaps praying with Richard of Chichester that I might ‘See you Lord more
clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day’.
Readings Next Week: 25th Sunday in
Ordinary Time
First Reading: Wisdom 2:12, 17-20 Second Reading: James 3:16-4:3
Gospel: Mark 9:30-37
Christopher Ockwell, Josephine
Murray, Reg Hinkley, Noreen Burton,
Joanne Haigh, Lizzy Knox, Betty Broadbent, Harry
Cartwright,
Shirley Stafford & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Joan Collins, Terry McKenna, Dulcie McCormack, Bill Calder,
Ron Finch, Kevin Court, Godfrey Matthews, Patrick Tunchon, Phil O’Kane, Dallas
Cordwell,
Allan Cruse, Tony Hyde, Mark Gatt and Lyn Howard.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 9th
– 15th September
Roma Magee, Fabrizio Zolati,
Cameron McLaren, Russell Foster, Joan Williams,
Rodney O’Rourke, David Windridge, Silvano Paladin,
John Kopplemann, John Hill,
Jan Deeka, Cyril Scattergood, Sybil O’Connor and Jean Mochrie.
May they rest in Peace
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
Greetings from
King Island where it has been wet and windy for much of the week - but I am
relaxing, and reading!!
One of the Books
I'm reading is Doubling Groups 2.0 by Josh Hunt. In the book he repeats the
story of a father who offered his two sons the option of $1 per week for 52
weeks or 1 cent the first week, 2 cents the second and doubling each week for
the 52 weeks. One son quickly chose the $1 leaving the other with his 1 cent
doubling. The first person to email me with the best option will win a Cherry
Ripe.
This weekend we
celebrate with the community at Sheffield their Feast Day (Monday 14th). As we
have been doing it this year the Sunday Mass is part one of the celebration but
there will also be Mass on Monday at 11am followed by lunch in a local eatery.
This is the last
of the Church Feast Days for 2015 - thanks to all those who have made that
special effort to come along on the actual Feast day to celebrate these special
moments in the life of our Parish. (And thanks to Fr Alex who has been the
celebrant for many of them because I've managed to be away for more than half
of them!!)
ST VINCENT DE PAUL
COLLECTION:
This weekend in Devonport, Ulverstone,
Port Sorell, Latrobe and Penguin to assist the work of the St Vincent de Paul
Society.
KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTHERN
CROSS:
All parishioners are invited to
join the Knights of the Southern Cross in our 9th National Prayer
Crusade to pray for an increase in the number of Catholics willing to serve the
Church in the priesthood, diaconate and religious life, (including service as
Catholic Chaplains in the Australian Defence Force). Parishioners are asked to say this
special Crusade prayer each day of the week between Sunday 13th and
Saturday 19th September.
Heavenly Father,
You know the
faith, courage and generosity of your people throughout Australia including
the men and women serving at home and overseas
with the Australian Defence Force.
Please provide
your people in Australia with sufficient Priests, Deacons and Religious to meet
their needs and be with them always as they endeavour to meet the challenges of
their daily lives.
We ask this
through Jesus Christ, Your Son.
Amen.
CWL
DEVONPORT: will meet on Wednesday
16th September at 2.00 pm. Please note change of date!
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
We are currently seeking donations of the following items
for our School Fair: craft items, pots, plants, books, DVDs and items for the garage
sale. All items can be dropped into the School Office or we can organise pick
up. We also require hay or straw bales for use as seating on the day. If you
know of anyone that may be able to assist, please ask them contact us on 6425:2680
or corey.mcgrath@gmail.com
NOVEMBER REMEMBRANCE BOOKS:
November is the month we remember
in a special way all those who have died. Should you wish anyone to be
remembered, write the names of those to be prayed for on the outside of an
envelope and place the clearly marked envelope in the collection basket at Mass
or deliver to the Parish Office by Thursday 22nd October.
COLUMBAN CALENDARS:
The 2016 Columban Art Calendar is now available from the
Piety Shop's at OLOL Church and Sacred Heart Church for $9.00. When you
purchase the calendar, you are participating in God's Mission
Ordinary
$2.00 footy margin tickets will be sold (as normal) during the Finals.
GRAND
FINAL TICKETS:
The $10.00 tickets are nearly all gone!! The few we have left are only
available from Devonport and Ulverstone or by phoning the Parish Office 6424:2783 or
Mary Webb 6425 2781.
Round 23 – Richmond won by 41 points: Winners; Z Jones, B Dickson, M
Vanderfeen.
Callers 17th September Rod
Clark & Merv Tippett.
A sincere thank you to all
parishioners for your prayers, thoughts and kindness expressed to me during my
recent illness. I am now well on the road to recovery. Once again many thanks …
Shirley Ryan
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
STATE CONFERENCE – SACRAMENTS:
The Office of Formation in Faith invites you to a
State Conference - A day of formation for all involved in Christian Initiation,
including: Parish Sacrament, RCIA, & Baptism teams Priests, Teachers,
Catechists, Parishioners, Families particularly focusing on the sacramental
journey of older children. With keynote speaker Fr Elio Capra sdb. Saturday
19th September 2015. Pastoral Centre (near Church of
the Apostles) 44 Margaret Street, Launceston 10:00am – 3:30pm to register, or
for any queries, please contact Ben Brooks: Email: ben.brooks@aohtas.org.au
Phone: 6208 6235 Mob: 0418 126434
SICK & RETIRED PRIESTS FUND – SUNDAY 20th
SEPTEMBER:
The Fund began in January 1948 and was set up to ensure
that all diocesan priests incardinated into the Archdiocese of Hobart would
receive adequate material and financial care when they retire or should a
priest become sick. Each year an annual appeal is launched throughout the
Archdiocese of Hobart, so that the Sick and Aged Priest’s Fund, can continue to
provide material and financial assistance to all sick and retired priests. At
the present moment we have a total of fourteen priests who are no longer involved
in active ministry due to health and ageing issues. The Sick and Aged Priest’s
Fund supports these priests, meeting some of their medical, accommodation and
other incidental expenses. Your ongoing care and generosity towards our
sick and aged priests is gratefully appreciated.
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.
Protect biodiversity, especially wild forests, wetlands, coastal areas, mangrove swamps.
(Par 39)
Saint of the Week – St Januarius, bishop, martyr (Sep 19)
St Januarius was born in Italy and was bishop of Benevento during a time of persecution by the Emperor Diocletion. The-then Bishop Januarius went to visit two deacons and two laymen in prison. He was also imprisoned along with his deacon and lector. They were thrown to the wild beasts, but when the animals did not attack them, they were beheaded. What is believed to be St Januarius' blood is kept in Naples, as a relic. It liquefies and bubbles when exposed in the cathedral. Scientists have not been able to explain this miracle to date. There has been much written about this phenomenon, including an article in The Catholic Herald earlier this year.
St Januarius lived and died around 305 AD. He is now the patron saint for blood banks and of
Naples, where he is known as St Gennaro.
Words of Wisdom - A focus on leadership
This week, we continue our series of quotes on leadership. It is such an important aspect of
church life – we hope this will inspire some of the people in your community to step up and
fulfil their potential as servant leaders.
To access this image, click on this link or the image above
Meme of the week
For those of you who like coffee, or can’t get by without a cup, this will strike a chord.
STOP MAKING EXCUSES
- Our context is different.
It is certainly true that your parish context is different that ours. But, there are also striking similarities. Perhaps the most important one is that most of the people in both our communities don’t go to church and that number is growing. Every healthy growing church in this country is achieving health and growth in exactly that context.
- We just don’t have the right people.
The first time we visited Saddleback Church I was most impressed by the quality of their staff and the deep bench strength they had assembled. Actually I wasn’t impressed, I was jealous. If I had such talent, so I reasoned, I could be another Saddleback too. What I failed to recognize is that my number one job as a leader is to assemble a great team. The reason my team wasn’t great was because I hadn’t led them there, or because they just weren’t the right people and I wasn’t willing to do anything about it.
- We don’t have the money.
Nativity is not a “rich parish” whose wealth funded our strategy of church growth. The money didn’t fund our church growth it followed it. It always does. If you’re waiting for money before you start reaching people you are going to have a very long wait.
- We could never get away with that.
This is an excuse people who don’t want to lead use all the time. Instead of making the hard choices and stepping forth with conviction and courage they just sit back and blame others for their lack of progress. “We could never do that, our people would never put up with it…the Diocese wouldn’t like it…our Senior Citizens would be up in arms.” Excuses. If you are going to grow a healthy church all those things will happen, and more too. You will be attacked, you will be misunderstood, you will be criticized. Leaders do it anyway.
- We’re not in a growing community.
It is true that there are some, perhaps even many, growing churches in this country. They’re in growing communities, so probably their growth is automatic. It is also true that there are churches in communities that are actively dying, and the congregation is inevitably dying too. The former don’t really deserve our admiration, nor the latter our commendation. But most churches in this country are in more or less stable communities which have plenty of people who are not going to church. In my community of Timonium, which is not growing in population (and will never grow because it is built out), there are tens of thousands of people who are not going to church. There is no excuse for our parish not to grow.
As Carey Nieuwhof writes, the leaders who make the most excuses make the least progress. The leaders who make the most progress make the fewest excuses.
Orthopraxy
A series of reflections taken from a daily email from Fr Richard Rohr. You can subscribe to the email here
The Perennial Tradition
This week we enter into the next element of my wisdom
lineage, orthopraxy. Orthopraxy, right practice, is usually distinguished from
orthodoxy, doctrinal correctness. The importance of orthopraxy was first taught
to me by the Franciscans, who of course learned it from our father, Saint
Francis, who learned it from Jesus. However, orthopraxy was taught much earlier
in world history by much of Buddhism and Hinduism. This week I will give a
general and Franciscan introduction to orthopraxy, then we will spend two weeks
on Buddhism and two weeks on Hinduism.
It may surprise you to learn that I, a Catholic, include
Buddhism and Hinduism in my wisdom lineage. Yet, like so many other pieces of
my faith heritage, this too is a return to what has been lost. St. Vincent of
Lerin, in the year 434, was the first to define the word "catholic."
His definition, called the "Vincentian Canon," was used by scholars
for much of the first millennium of Christianity. It became a way to discern
the true belief of the Church. Vincent's in-house principle was amazingly
simple and clear and yet almost shockingly impossible: "Now in the
Catholic Church itself we take the greatest care to hold that which has been
believed everywhere, always and by all. That is truly and properly 'catholic,'
as is shown by the very force and meaning of the word, which comprehends
everything almost universally." In other words, if it is true, then it has
to be true everywhere and all the time, or it is not true!
Most of history has been content with cultural truth,
denominational truth, national truth, scientific truth, rational truth, factual
truth, personal truth, etc. These are all needed and helpful, but the job of
true religion is to detach from them, use them in the largest possible
synthesis, and find the Big Truth that is beyond any of these smaller tribal
truths.
Jesus'
metaphor for this Big Truth beyond our little truths was the "Reign of
God" or the "Kingdom of God." Or we might say "in the light
of eternity" or "in the final analysis" or "in the eyes of
God." But these are all ways of moving away from tribal thinking and
looking out at life from eyes other than and larger than our own. It is hard
work. This larger and constantly recurring wisdom has been called the Perennial
Tradition or the Perennial Philosophy. No one group owns this content, but most
of us own parts of it, and for me the goal is to honor and include as many
parts as I can, so that I can be truly catholic. We see this same inclusivity
in Jesus to an amazing degree. I see this as the clearest indication that one
practices "the true religion." A true religion is precisely one that
can teach you how to recognize and honor God everywhere, and not just inside
your own group symbols.
References:
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, "The Eight Core Principles," Radical Grace, Vol. 25,
No. 4 (Center for Action and Contemplation: Fall 2012), 27-28.
Adapted from
Richard Rohr's Lineage.
Transformative Education
What we see in many of the Eastern religions is not an
emphasis upon verbal orthodoxy, but instead an emphasis upon practices and
lifestyles that, if you do them (not think about them, but do them), your
consciousness will gradually change. The Center for Action and Contemplation
sums this up in our Eighth Core Principle: We don't think ourselves into a new
way of living; we live ourselves into a new way of thinking.
Here at the CAC we want to emphasize the importance of
praxis over theory, of orthopraxy over orthodoxy. We are not saying that theory
and orthodoxy are not important; like Saint Francis, we feel that what is ours
to do has more to do with our practical engagements, and the way we live our
daily lives than making verbal assent to this or that idea. In fact, my life's
work in many ways has been trying to move heady doctrines and dogmas to the
level of actual experience.
In the last fifty years, education theory has come to
recognize that listening to lectures and reading are among the least effective
forms of learning. They are highly passive, individualistic, do not necessarily
integrate head with heart or body, but leave both the ego (and the shadow self)
in their well-defended positions, virtually untouched. As long as our ego self
is in the driver's seat, nothing really new or challenging is going to happen.
Remember our ego is committed to not changing, and is highly defensive by its
very nature. And our shadow self entirely relies upon delusion and denial. Only
the world of practical relationships exposes both of these.
The form of
education which most changes people in lasting ways has to touch them at a
broader level than the thinking, reading mind can do. Some call it integrative
education, transformative education, or even lifestyle education. Somehow we
need to engage in hands-on experience, emotional risk-taking, moving outside of
our comfort zones, with different people than our usual flattering friends. We
need some expanded level of spiritual seeing or nothing really changes at a
cellular or emotional level. Within minutes or hours of entertaining a new
idea, we quickly return to our old friends, our assured roles, our familiar
neural grooves, our ego patterns of response, and we are back to business as
usual. It is as if we never read the latest book or listened to the most recent
lecture or sermon. It is merely another consumer object which we can now add to
our repertoire and résumé. "Done that!" instead of "Let it be
done unto me."
References:
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, "The Eight Core Principles," Radical Grace, Vol. 25,
No. 4 (Center for Action and Contemplation: Fall 2012), 43-44.
Every Viewpoint Is a View from One Point
The genuinely new or different is always a threat to the
small self. Unless there is something strong enough to rearrange our worldview,
call our assumptions into question, and also engage our heart and body
("at the cellular level," as I like to call it), we will seldom move
to new interior or exterior places. God has a hard time getting us to join
Abraham and Sarah in "leaving your country and your family for a new land
that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1-2). Yet that is our foundational
paradigm for the journey of faith.
The Dalai Lama said it well: "Every change of mind is
first of all a change of heart." I would add: "Every change of heart
is soon a change of mind." This is the urgently needed work of mature
spirituality. Perhaps this seems strange coming from someone who writes and
talks as much as I do, but my experience as a teacher has led me to this
conclusion.
Many folks over the years, even very good-willed people, have read
and listened to my presentations of the Gospel yet have actually done very
little--in terms of lifestyle changes, economic or political rearrangements, or
naming their own ego or shadow selves. After all, "Isn't church about believing
ideas to be true or false? Isn't religion about attending services?" Most
people just listen to my ideas and judge them to be true or false. They either
"like" or "don't like" them. But thinking about ideas or
making judgments about what is moral or immoral seldom leads to a radically new
consciousness. Transformative education is not asking you to believe or
disbelieve in any doctrines or dogmas. Rather it is challenging you to
"Try this!" Then you will know something to be true or false for yourself.
So I will
continue to encourage you to try something new: change sides, move outside your
comfort zone, make some new contacts, let go of your usual role and attractive
self-image, walk instead of drive, make a friend from another race or class,
visit new neighborhoods, go to the jail or to the border, attend another church
service, etc. Then you can live yourself into new ways of thinking, which then
seem so right and necessary that you wonder how you could have ever thought in
any other way. Without new experiences, new thinking is difficult and rare.
After a new experience, new thinking and behavior comes naturally and even
becomes necessary.
References:
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, "The Eight Core Principles," Radical Grace, Vol. 25,
No. 4 (Center for Action and Contemplation: Fall 2012), 44-45 (PDF).
Reverse Mission
Jesus, perhaps disappointingly, gives no abstract theory of
social justice. Instead, Jesus makes his life a concrete parable about how to
live in this world. He demands of his first followers that they be living
witnesses to a simple life on the edge of the dominant consciousness. Once you
are at the visible center of any group, or once you are at the top of anything,
you have too much to prove and too much to protect. Growth or real change is
unlikely. You will be a defender of the status quo--which appears to be working
for you.
Every great spiritual teacher has warned against this complacency. The
only free positions in this world are at the bottom and at the edges of things.
Everywhere else, there is too much to maintain--an image to promote and a fear
of losing it all--which ends up controlling your whole life.
An overly protected life--a life focused on thinking more
than experiencing--does not know deeply or broadly. Jesus did not call us to
the poor and to the pain only to be helpful; he called us to be in solidarity
with the real and for own transformation. It is often only after the fact we
realize that they helped us in ways we never knew we needed. This is sometimes
called "reverse mission." The ones we think we are "saving"
end up saving us, and in the process, redefine the very meaning of salvation!
Only near the poor, close to "the tears of things"
as the Roman poet Virgil puts it, in solidarity with suffering, can we
understand ourselves, love one another well, imitate Jesus, and live his full Gospel.
The view from the top of anything is distorted by misperception, illusions,
fear of falling, and a radical disconnection from the heart. You cannot risk
staying there long. As Thomas Merton said, "People may spend their whole
lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top,
that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall."
I believe
that, in the end, there are really only two "cauldrons of
transformation": great love and great suffering. And they are indeed
cauldrons, big stew pots of warming, boiling, mixing, and flavoring! Our lives
of contemplation are a gradual, chosen, and eventual free fall into both of
these cauldrons. There is no softer or more honest way to say it. Love and
suffering are indeed the ordinary paths of transformation, and contemplative
prayer is the best way to sustain the fruits of great love and great suffering
over the long haul and into deep time. Otherwise you invariably narrow down
again into business as usual.
Reference:
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Dancing Standing Still: Healing the World from a Place of Prayer
(Paulist Press: 2014), 48, 52-53.
Knowing in a "Cellular" Way
One of the earliest accounts of Saint Francis, the
"Legend of Perugia," quotes him as telling the first friars that
"You only know as much as you do." His emphasis on action, practice,
and lifestyle was foundational and revolutionary for its time and at the heart
of Franciscan alternative orthodoxy ("heterodoxy"). For Francis and
Clare, Jesus became someone to actually imitate and not just to worship.
Up to this point, most of Christian spirituality was based
in desert asceticism, monastic discipline, theories of prayer, or academic
theology, which itself was often founded in "correct belief" or
liturgy, but not in a kind of practical Christianity that could be lived in the
streets of the world. Many rightly say Francis emphasized an imitation and love
of the humanity of Jesus, and not just the worshiping of his divinity. That is
a major shift.
Those who have analyzed the writings of Francis have noted
that he uses the word doing rather than understanding at a ratio of 175 times
to 5. Heart is used 42 times to 1 use of mind. Love is used 23 times as opposed
to 12 uses of truth. Mercy is used 26 times while intellect is used only 1
time. This is a very new perspective that is clearly different from (and an
antidote to) the verbally argumentative Christianity of his time, and from the
highly academic theology that would hold sway from then on. Francis took prayer
on the road and into the activity of life itself, which is why the Franciscans
popularized the portable, small psalter that we still call the breviary (brevis
or short handbook).
Francis and
Clare's approach has been called a "performative spirituality" which
means that things are only found to be true in the doing of them. At the level
of idea, issues will be forever argued about, because thinking is invariably
dualistic. Francis wanted us to know things in an almost "cellular"
and energetic way, and not just in our heads. This knowing is a kind of
"muscle memory" which only comes from practice.
References:
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
(Franciscan Media: 2014), 81-82, 93.
Imitating Jesus Is More Important than Worshiping Jesus
For Saint Francis, if Jesus himself was humble and poor,
then the pure and simple imitation of Jesus became his life's agenda. In fact,
he often did it in an almost slavishly literal way. Francis was a
fundamentalist not about doctrinal Scriptures, but about lifestyle Scriptures.
For example,"Take nothing for your journey," "Eat what is set
before you," "Work for your wages," "Wear no shoes."
This is still revolutionary thinking for most Christians, although for Francis
it was the very "marrow of the Gospel," to use his own phrase.
"When we are weak, we are strong" (2 Corinthians
12:10) might have been the motto of the early Franciscans. In chapter nine of
his First Rule, Francis wrote, "They should be glad to live among social
outcasts." Biblically, they reflected the primitive and practical
Christianity found in the Letter of James and the heart-based mysticism of the
Eastern Church. Most male Franciscans eventually became clericalized and proper
churchmen, but we did not begin that way.
The more radical forms of Christianity have never thrived
for very long, starting with Pentecost itself and the first "sharing of
all things in common" (Acts 2:44-45), the desert fathers and mothers, and
the early Celtic monastics; continuing through groups like the Waldensians, the
Beguines and Beghards, the Bruderhof, the Amish, and many others; down to the
Catholic workers and the Sant'Egidio Community in our own time. In the
Franciscan emphasis on orthopraxy (simplicity, nonviolence, living among the
poor, love of creation) and in our thought (a nonviolent atonement theory,
univocity of all being, freedom of conscience, contemplative prayer), we
Franciscans found ourselves indeed brothers in the minority class and
"poor daughters" of Clare on the invisible edge of the Church, which
is exactly where Francis wanted us to be and surely how Clare and Francis
radically lived.
It is only in the late twentieth and early twenty-first
centuries that we find this alternative orthodoxy again being rediscovered,
honored, and recognized as perhaps the more important shape of and witness to
orthodoxy itself. As Pope Paul VI said, "The world will no longer believe
teachers unless they are first of all witnesses."
Reference:
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
(Franciscan Media: 2014), 84-86, 99-100.
GOD’S INEFFABILITY – WHAT’S REVEALED IN JESUS’ EYES?
SEPTEMBER 7, 2015 - Ron Rolheiser, OMI
God, as I understand him, is not very well understood. A colleague of mine, now deceased, was fond of saying that. It’s a wise comment.
Anyone who claims to understand God is deceived because the very first dogma we have about God affirms that God is ineffable. That means that we can know God, but never adequately capture God in a concept. God is unimaginable. God cannot be circumscribed and put into a mental picture of any kind. Thank goodness too. If God could be understood then God would be as limited as we are.
But God is infinite. Infinity, precisely because it’s unlimited, cannot be circumscribed. Hence it cannot be captured in a mental picture. Indeed, we don’t even have a way of picturing God’s gender. God is not a man, not a woman, and not some hybrid, half-man and half-woman. God’s gender, like God’s nature, is intellectually inconceivable. We can’t grasp it and have no language or pronoun for it. God, in a modality beyond the categories of human thought, is somehow perfect masculinity and perfect femininity all at the same time. It’s a mystery beyond us.
But while that mystery cannot be grasped with any rational adequacy, we can know it intimately, and indeed know it so deeply that it’s meant to be the most intimate of all knowledge in our lives. It’s no accident that the bible uses the verb “to know” to connote sexual intimacy. There are different ways of knowing, some more inchoate, intuitive, and intimate than others. We can know God in a radical intimacy, even as we cannot conceptualize God with any adequacy. And that’s also true of all the deep realities in life, we can know them and relate to them intimately, but we can never fully understand them.
So where does that leave us with God? In the best of places! We are not on a blind date, struggling to develop intimacy with a complete stranger, with an unknown person who could be benign or malignant. God may be ineffable, but God’s nature is known. Divine revelation, as seen through nature, as seen through other religions, and especially as seen through Jesus, spells out what’s inside God’s ineffable reality. And what’s revealed there is both comforting beyond all comfort and challenging beyond all challenge. What’s revealed in the beauty of creation, in the compassion that’s the hallmark of all true religion, and in Jesus’ revelation of his Father, takes us beyond a blind date into a trustworthy relationship. Nature, religion, and Jesus conspire together to reveal an Ultimate Reality, a Ground of Being, a Creator and Sustainer of the universe, a God, who is wise, intelligent, prodigal, compassionate, loving, forgiving, patient, good, trustworthy, and beautiful beyond imagination.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, once, in a mystical vision, saw all of this hidden inside the eyes of Jesus. Staring at a painting of Jesus on a church-wall one day, Jesus’ eyes suddenly became transfigured and this what Teilhard saw: “These eyes which at first were so gentle and filled with pity that I thought my mother stood before me, became an instant later, like those of a woman, passionate and filled with the power to subdue, yet at the same time so imperiously pure that under their domination it would have been physically impossible for the emotions to go astray. And then they changed again, and became filled with a noble, virile majesty, similar to that which one sees in the eyes of men of great courage or refinement or strength, but incomparably more lofty to behold and more delightful to submit to. This scintillation of diverse beauties was so complete, so captivating, and also so swift that I felt it touch and penetrate all my powers simultaneously, so that the very core of my being vibrated in response to it, sounding a unique note of expansion and happiness.
Now while I was ardently gazing deep into the pupils of Christ’s eyes, which had become abysses of fiery, fascinating life, suddenly I beheld rising up from the depths of those same eyes what seemed like a cloud , blurring and blending all that variety I have been describing to you. Little by little an extraordinary expression of great intensity, spread over the diverse shades of meaning which the divine eyes revealed, first of all penetrating them and then finally absorbing them all. … And I stood dumbfounded. For this final expression, which had dominated and gathered up into itself all the others, was indecipherable. I simply could not tell whether it denoted an indescribable agony or a superabundance of triumphant joy.”
God cannot be deciphered, circumscribed, or captured in human thought; but, from what can be deciphered, we’re in good, safe hands. We can sleep well at night. God has our back. In the end, both for humanity as a whole and for our own individual lives, all will be well, and all will be well, and every manner of being will be well. God is good.
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