Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Mob: 0417 279 437; mdelaney@netspace.net.au
Assistant Priest:
Fr Alexander Obiorah
Mob: 0447 478 297; alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk
Seminarian: Paschal OkponMob: 0447 478 297; alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk
Mob: 0438 562 731; paschalokpon@yahoo.com.au
Postal Address: PO Box 362
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160
Email: mlcathparish-dsl@keypoint.com.au
Email: mlcathparish-dsl@keypoint.com.au
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
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Baptism: Parents are asked to contact the Parish Office to make arrangements for attending a Baptismal Preparation Session and booking a Baptism date.
Reconciliation, Confirmation and Eucharist: Are received following a Family–centred, Parish-based, School-supported Preparation Program.
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults: prepares adults for reception into the Catholic community.
Marriage: arrangements are made by contacting one of our priests - couples attend a Pre-marriage Program
Anointing of the Sick: please contact one of our priests
Reconciliation: Ulverstone - Fridays (10am - 10:30am)
Devonport - Saturday (5:15pm– 5.45pm)
Penguin - Saturday (5:15pm - 5:45pm)
Care and Concern: If you are aware of anyone who is in need of assistance and has given permission to be contacted by Care and Concern, please phone the Parish Office.
Weekday Masses 1st - 4th December, 2015
Tuesday: 9:30am - Penguin
Thursday: 12noon - Devonport
Friday: 9:30am
– Ulverstone
9:30am –
Devonport
Saturday: NO 1st STAURDAY MASS THIS MONTH
Next Weekend 5th & 6th December, 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.
DO YOU LONG FOR SOME SPACE AND STILLNESS IN YOUR LIFE AT THIS TIME OF THE YEAR? 30 minutes of silent prayer could change the rest of your week! There is opportunity for this each Wednesday evening at 7pm at 88 Stewart Street, Devonport. Why not come along and meditate with a small group of people and see what happens? For further information see www.wccm.org or talk with Sr Carmel.
Ministry Rosters 5th & 6th December, 2015
Devonport:
 Readers
Vigil: V Riley, A
Stegman
10:30am: J Phillips, K Pearce, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion –
Vigil: M Doyle, M Heazlewood, S Innes, M
Gerrand,
P Shelverton, M Kenney
10:30am: B Peters, F Sly, J Carter, E Petts
Cleaners 4th
December: M.W.C.
11th December: P & T Douglas
Piety Shop 5th
December: R Baker
6th December: O McGinley Flowers: M O’Brien-Evans
Ulverstone:
Reader: E Standring
Ministers of Communion: B Deacon, J Allen, G Douglas, K Reilly
Cleaners: K Bourke Flowers: A Miller Hospitality: B O’Rourke
Penguin:
Greeters: J & T Kiely Commentator: Reader: M
Murray, R Fifita
Procession: Y & R Downes Ministers of Communion: T Clayton, M Hiscutt
Liturgy: Penguin Setting Up: E Nickols Care of Church: G Hills-Eade, T Clayton
Latrobe:
Reader: Ministers of Communion: Procession: Music:
Port Sorell:
Readers: L Post, P Anderson Ministers of
Communion: T Jeffries Cleaners/Flowers/Prepare:
B Lee, A
Holloway
Readings this Week: First Sunday of Advent - Year C
First Reading: Jeremiah 33:14-16
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2
Gospel: Luke 21:25-28, 34-36
PREGO REFLECTION:
This can seem a daunting passage. I read it slowly and ask
the Spirit to help me receive God’s Word. Maybe I imagine Christ coming in power
and glory and ponder; he is also the Jesus in the cloud of the Transfiguration
or the Ascension. He comes in strength and calms the earth’s catastrophes.
Perhaps I can recall the Lord’s help in times of anguish or distress in my
life…. and can give thanks for hidden strength, or for the support of a friend,
or my community….. Or maybe I pray not to be hardened by the cares of life… I
bring to mind those coping with all kinds of suffering, or I look at the
troubled parts of the world and hold them before the Lord. At this Advent time,
I speak to the Lord of my need and that of the whole world, for Jesus our Saviour. As I prepare for his coming I ask him to keep me in joyful
hope, sure that he will come. I end quietly with an act of
faith: ”O God, I firmly believe the truths that you have revealed...You are
Truth itself and can neither deceive nor be deceived.”
Readings next Week: Second Sunday of Advent - Year C
First Reading: Baruch 5:1-9
Second Reading: Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
Gospel: Luke 3:1-6
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Lorraine Duncan, Margaret
Charlesworth, Kath Pearce, Robyn Pitt, Terry Reid, Betty Broadbent, Archer Singleton, Geraldine Roden,
Joy Carter, Guy D’Hondt & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Iolanthe Hannavy, Joe Stolp, June Barnard, Emily
Triffett,
Jack Armsby, Anne Shelverton, Pat Harris and Greg McNamara.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 25th
November – 1st December
Molly Coventry, Harry Wilson, Rita Pompili, Gwen Thorp,
James Lowry, Muriel Peterson, Stanley Hennessy, Allan Morley, Cyril Knaggs, Arthur
Cooke, Terence Murphy, Noreen Johnson, Cecilia Rootes and Neville Tyrrell.
May they Rest in Peace
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
Big things are happening this coming week within the
Archdiocese. On Sunday at the Cathedral
Archbishop Julian is launching his Plan for the Diocese and copies will be
available next weekend. Next Friday, 4th, Rev Anthony Onyirioha will be
ordained a priest for the Archdiocese. We pray that both events will provide
renewed hope for the Church in Tasmania.
Happy and Healthy would be two words I would use to
describe the celebration of the Feast of Christ the King last weekend at Sacred
Heart Ulverstone – it was a great time for us as a Parish to celebrate as one
large community - the music and singing was great and the participation by
every area of our Parish Community was terrific. Many thanks to everyone who
helped make the day so special - at least for me - as I dream that this might
be what we have every weekend.
As we enter into the Season of Advent I would like to
challenge all of us to remember that this is a time of preparation and not just
a time of celebration – everyone around us will be rushing around us to going
to end of year parties etc. - please take time to reflect on the reason for the
season.
Going forward a few months will see us celebrating the
feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and last Sunday I asked if there might be a group
of people who would be willing to take on the role of ensuring this event and
our two annual Parish Celebrations are well prepared. I said I was more than
willing to be knocked over in the rush to volunteer to help but so far I’ve
hardly had a bump – please help us build our Parish Community by assisting in
this role.
So please take care
on the roads and in your homes
MacKillop
Hill Spirituality Centre:
Advent Celebration 2015 “Go out and tell the Good News ……. Peace be to all peoples”
Thursday 3rd December 7:30pm – 9 pm Donation $15.
Bookings essential MacKillop Hill Phone 6428:3095 Email:
rsjforth@bigpond.net.au
VINNIES CHRISTMAS APPEAL:
The Vinnies Christmas appeal will be taking place this
weekend 28th & 29th November.
Your
donation this Christmas can help Vinnies restore hope to the people who need it
most.
MERSEY LEVEN ROSARY GROUP: will conduct an Hour of Grace at
Our Lady of Lourdes Church Tuesday 8th December (Feast of
the Immaculate Conception). This year Mass will be at 11:30am followed
by the Hour of Grace from 12noon – 1pm. This day is the starting day of our
Popes “Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy” so please come along and join us.
CHRISTMAS PARTY FOR SENIORS – ULVERSTONE:
Christmas Party for seniors will be held on Tuesday
December 8th at 1.45pm. Come along for some entertainment, a
cuppa and a chat. We hope to see you there!!
 
ST MARY'S CHURCH PENGUIN: All welcome to help with the gardens at the
Church Saturday 12th December 9am - midday for a pre-Christmas spruce
up. Please bring some gardening tools with you. Also we will be having a BBQ after Mass on Saturday
12th December. All welcome. Please bring a salad or dessert to share.
Thursday Nights
OLOL Hall D’port.
Eyes down 7.30pm. Callers 3rd December
Jon Halley & Alan Luxton.
FIRST PREPARATION EVENING: WORLD YOUTH DAY 2016:
If you are at all interested in joining the Tasmanian
Pilgrimage to World Youth Day 2016 Krakow be sure to come and join us at this
first preparation evening to kick-start what will be an awesome experience.
This is an important step in your pilgrimage, even if you are not sure you can
make it to WYD yet. You have the chance to meet other pilgrims, your pilgrimage
team, get up-to-date information, discern, and start your preparation. Details:
Wednesday 9th December, 6pm – 9pm at Launceston Parish Centre. You must
register to come to this evening by this Monday 30th November.
Register online at: www.surveymonkey.com/r/WYD16prep.
Find all your information on WYD16 at: www.wydtas.org.au
CHRISTMAS MASS TIMES
2015
OUR LADY OF
Christmas Eve 6.00pm Children’s Mass
8.00pm Vigil Mass
Christmas Day 10.30am Mass
ST PATRICK’S,
Christmas Day 9.30am Mass
HOLY CROSS HIGH, STREET, SHEFFIELD
Christmas Day 11.00am Mass
ST JOSEPH’S MASS
CENTRE,
Christmas Day 8.00am Mass
SACRED
Christmas Eve 6.00pm Children’s Mass
Christmas Day 9.00am Mass
Christmas Eve 8.00pm Vigil Mass
RECONCILIATION: will be celebrated in preparation for Christmas, at Sacred Heart Church Monday 14th
December, at 7.00pm & Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Devonport on Wednesday 16th
December at 7:00pm
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.
“Use technology to solve real problems and serve people, helping them have more dignity,
less suffering and healthier lives.”
(Par 112)
Saint of the Week – St Francis Xavier, co-patron saint of missions (Dec 3)
 Jesus asked, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?”
(Matthew 16:26a). The words were repeated to a young teacher of philosophy who had a
highly promising career in academics.
Francis Xavier, 24 at the time, and living and teaching in Paris, did not heed these words at
once. They came from a good friend, Ignatius of Loyola, whose tireless persuasion finally
won the young man to Christ. Francis then made the spiritual exercises under the direction of
Ignatius, and in 1534 joined his little community, the infant Society of Jesus. Together at
Montmartre they vowed poverty, chastity and apostolic service according to the directions of
the pope.
From Venice, where he was ordained a priest in 1537, Francis Xavier went on to Lisbon and
from there sailed to the East Indies, landing at Goa, on the west coast of India. For the next 10
years he labored to bring the faith to such widely scattered peoples as the Hindus, the
Malayans and the Japanese. He spent much of that time in India, and served as provincial of
the newly established Jesuit province of India.
Wherever he went, he lived with the poorest people, sharing their food and rough
accommodations. He spent countless hours ministering to the sick and the poor, particularly
to lepers. Very often he had no time to sleep or even to say his breviary but, as we know from
his letters, he was filled always with joy.
Francis went through the islands of Malaysia, then up to Japan. He learned enough Japanese
to preach to simple folk, to instruct and to baptize, and to establish missions for those who
were to follow him. From Japan he had dreams of going to China, but this plan was never
realised. Before reaching the mainland he died. His remains are enshrined in the Church of
Good Jesus in Goa. 
Words of Wisdom – The Outer Spiritual Disciplines
During November, Bulletin Notes is presenting a series of quotes on some of the spiritual
disciplines. Last month, we highlighted four inward disciplines (meditation, prayer, fasting
and study). This week, we begin focusing on the corporate disciplines, with the first of them
being confession. Other corporate disciplines include Worship, Guidance and Celebration.
Meme of the Week
OUR MUSLIM BROTHERS AND SISTERS
An Article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original can be found here
This is not a good time to be a Muslim in the Western world. As the violence perpetrated by radical Islamic groups such as ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Boko Haram becomes more and more prevalent, huge numbers of people are becoming paranoid about and even openly hostile towards the Islam religion, seeing all Muslims as a threat. Popular opinion more and more blames the Moslem religion itself for that violence, suggesting that there is something inherent in Islam itself that’s responsible for this kind of violence. That equation needs to be challenged, both in the name of truth and in the name of what’s best in us as Christians.
First of all, it’s untrue: Painting all Muslims with the same brush is like painting all Christians with the same brush, akin to looking at most the depraved man who calls himself a Christian and saying: “That’s Christians for you! They’re all the same!” Second, it’s also unfair: Islamic militants no more speak for Islam than Hitler speaks for Christianity (and that comparison isn’t idly chosen). Finally, such an equation misleads our sympathy: The first victim of Islamic terrorism is Islam itself, namely, authentic God-fearing Muslims are the first victims of this violence.
When we look at the history of any terrorist Islamic group such as ISIS or Al-Qaeda, we see that it first establishes itself by terrorizing and killing thousands of its own people, honest, God-fearing Muslims. And it goes on killing them. ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram have killed thousands more Muslims than they have killed Christians or persons of any other religion. While their ultimate target may well be the secularized, Christian West, but more immediately their real war is against true Islam.
Moreover the victims of Islamic terrorists are not just the thousands of moderate Muslims who have been direct victims of their violence and killings, but also all other Muslims who are now painted with the same brush and negatively judged in both their religiosity and their sincerity. Whenever Islamic terrorists perpetrate an act of violence, its victims are not just those who die, are injured, or who lose loved ones, it’s also all true Muslims, particularly those living in the West because they are now viewed through the eyes of suspicion, fear, and hatred.
But the Muslim religion is not to blame here. There is nothing inherent in either the Koran or in Islam itself that morally or religiously undergirds this kind of violence. We would holler “unfair” if someone were to say that what happened during the Inquisition is inherent in the Gospels. We owe Islam the same judgement. One of the great students of World Religions, the renowned Houston Smith, submits that we should always judge a religion by its best expressions, by its saints and graced-history rather than by its psychopaths and aberrations. I hope that others offer us, Christians, this courtesy. Hitler was somehow a product of the Christian West, as was Mother Teresa. Houston Smith’s point is that the latter, not the former, is a truer basis for judging Christianity. We owe our Islamic brothers and sisters the same courtesy.
And that’s more a recognition of the truth than a courtesy. The word “Islam/Muslim” has its origins in the word “peace”, and that connotation, along with the concept of “surrender to God”, constitutes the essence of what it means to be a Muslim. And for more than 90% of Muslims in the world, that is exactly what it means to be a Muslim, namely, to be a man or woman of peace who has surrendered to God and who now tries to live a life that is centered on faith, prayer, responsibility, and hospitality. Any interpretation of Islam by a radicalized group that gives divine sanction to terrorist violence is false and belies Islam. Islamic extremists don’t speak for God, Mohammed, Islam, or for what it means to surrender in faith, but only for a self-serving ideology, and true Muslims are, in the end, the real victims of that.
Terrorist attacks, like the recent ones in Paris and Mali, call for more, not less, sympathy for true Muslims. It’s time to establish a greater solidarity with Islam, notwithstanding extremist terrorism. We are both part of the same family: We have the same God, suffer the same anxieties, are subject to the same mortality, and will share the same heaven. Muslims more than ever need our understanding, sympathy, support, and fellowship in faith.
Christian de Cherge, the Trappist monk who was martyred by Islamic terrorists in Algeria in 1996, wrote a remarkable letter to his family on France shortly before he died. Well aware that he had a good chance of being killed by Islamic terrorists, he shared with his family that, should this happen, they should know that he had already forgiven his killers and that he foresaw himself and them, his killers, in the same heaven, playing together under God’s gaze, a gaze that lovingly takes in all of God’s children, Muslims no less than Christians.
SCIENCE Week 2
Taken from the weekly email series by Fr Richard Rohr. You can sign up for the emails here
Open to Resurrection
According to Sister Ilia Delio, Sir Isaac Newton's
(1643-1727) mechanistic view of the then-known universe was based on law and
order. There was certainty, predictability, and a hierarchy of control. God was
separate and above the world. For centuries, we thought the world was what
scientists call a "closed system." God put everything in motion and
then left the world to run on its own. A closed system is self-contained and
self-maintained. It has little complexity, little exchange with the
environment, and proceeds in the direction of increasing disorder. [1]
"Disorder" may seem to fit with the way things are
going today. Pope Francis writes in Laudato Si' about the problems of
pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity, shortages of clean water,
wars, the breakdown of society, and global inequality. However, all of this is
due largely to the impact of humans and our ignorance of who we are and how
creation works. Our world is actually an open system, sensitive to its
environment, which explains why we humans have had such a deleterious effect
upon it. But this open system also means we can have a positive influence.
In Laudato
Si' Pope Francis writes:
For all our
limitations, gestures of generosity, solidarity and care cannot but well up
within us, since we were made for love. [2]
Given the complexity of the ecological crisis and its
multiple causes, we need to realize that the solutions will not emerge from
just one way of interpreting and transforming reality. Respect must also be
shown for the various cultural riches of different peoples, their art and
poetry, their interior life and spirituality. If we are truly concerned to
develop an ecology capable of remedying the damage we have done, no branch of
the sciences and no form of wisdom can be left out, and that includes religion
and the language particular to it. [3, emphasis mine]
The rich Christian symbol of resurrection may be especially
relevant here. Resurrection is a universal pattern of the undoing of death. The
three Abrahamic religions, each in their own way, define God as the one
"who brings the dead to life and calls into being what does not
exist" (Romans 4:17). The pattern of incarnation, death, and resurrection
revealed in "the Christ Mystery" was true long before Jesus of
Nazareth, from the very birth and death of the stars to the entire circle of
life on this planet. [4] At a recent CAC conference, Ilia Delio said, "The
resurrection recapitulates the whole evolutionary emergent creation as a forward
movement to become something new, a new heaven and a new earth. What took place
in Christ is intended for the whole cosmos, union and transformation in the
divine embrace of love!" [5] Delio also says, "The resurrection of
Jesus undergirds the fact that life creates the universe, not the other way
round. Every act of physical death is an act of new life in the universe. The
resurrection of Jesus speaks to us of this new life." [6]
Joanna Macy, an expert in systems theory and deep ecology,
writes, "Dangers to their survival move living systems to evolve. When
feedback tells them--and continues to tell them--that their old forms and
behaviors have become dysfunctional, they respond by changing." [7] Will
we hear the cry of the earth and her inhabitants and respond by changing? Pope
Francis again: "Our goal is not to amass information or to satisfy
curiosity, but rather to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is
happening to the world into our own personal suffering and thus to discover
what each of us can do about it." [8] Will we hear the cry of our own
deepest heart and respond in ways to help bring about resurrection, which is
always a radical change from the engines of death?
References:
[1] Ilia
Delio explored these concepts at The Francis Factor: How Saint Francis and Pope
Francis are changing the world (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2015), MP4
video. Coming soon to CAC's bookstore!
[2] Pope
Francis, Laudato Si',
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html,
58.
[3] Ibid.,
45-46.
[4] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass:
2013), 77.
[5] Ilia
Delio, unpublished CONSPIRE 2014 conference.
[6] Delio,
The Francis Factor.
[7] Joanna
Macy and Molly Young Brown, Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our
Lives, Our World (New Society Publishers: 1998), 44.
[8] Pope
Francis, Laudato Si', 18.
The Great Turning
I have set before you life and death, therefore choose life.
-- Deuteronomy 30:19
Eco-philosopher, Earth elder, friend, and spiritual activist
Joanna Macy, now in her eighties, has been promoting a transition from the
Industrial Growth Society to a Life-sustaining Society for most of her life.
She calls it the Great Turning, a revolution of great urgency: "While the
agricultural revolution took centuries, and the industrial revolution took
generations, this ecological revolution has to happen within a matter of a few
years." She is hopeful as she sees individuals and groups participating in
"1) actions to slow the damage to Earth and its beings; 2) analysis of
structural causes and creation of structural alternatives; and 3) a fundamental
shift in worldview and values." [1, emphasis mine]
Macy
understands that the third type of action--essentially, a new way of seeing--is
"the most basic dimension of the Great Turning." Macy goes on to
describe how this different consciousness is a wheel hub at the very core of
the shift that is taking place. How do these transformative insights and
experiences come about? Macy explains:
They arise
as grief for our world, giving the lie to old paradigm notions of the essential
separateness of the isolated, competitive ego.
Or they may
arise from our glad response to breakthroughs in scientific thought, to the new
lens on reality provided by quantum theory, astrophysics, and general living
systems theory--as we see, with a sigh of relief, that the reductionism and
materialism which shaped the worldview of the Industrial Growth Society are about
as useful as the abacus in understanding the nature of the universe.
Or we may find ourselves moved by the wisdom traditions of
native peoples and mystical voices in our own religions, hearkening to their
teachings as to some half-forgotten song that reminds us again that our world
is a sacred whole in which we have a sacred mission. [2]
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), a Germanic Renaissance
woman, was doing this 800 years ago. In her book Scivias she writes, "You
understand so little of what is around you because you do not use what is
within you." Somehow she already understood what science has found:
"The macrocosm is mirrored in the microcosm." [3] Science is finding
that the world is an integrated whole rather than separated parts. We are all
holons, which are simultaneously a whole and yet a part of a larger whole. This
is moving us from a medieval, mechanistic, Newtonian view of the universe to a
holistic/ecological view. [4] Nothing is static, and if you try to construct an
unchangeable or independent universe for yourself, you will be moving against
the now obvious divine plan and direction.
References:
[1] Joanna
Macy and Molly Young Brown, Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives,
Our World (New Society Publishers: 1998), 17.
[2] Ibid.,
21.
[3] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, unpublished "Rhine" talks (2015).
[4] Ilia
Delio explored this concept at CAC's CONSPIRE 2014 conference.
Interconnection
The world is
not a problem to be solved; it is a living being to which we belong. The world
is part of our own self and we are a part of its suffering wholeness. Until we
go to the root of our image of separateness, there can be no healing. And the
deepest part of our separateness from creation lies in our forgetfulness of its
sacred nature, which is also our own sacred nature. --Llewellyn
Vaughan-Lee [1]
Thomas Berry writes, "If there is no spirituality in
the Earth, then there is no spirituality in ourselves." We have forgotten
that Nature was our first Bible, a mirror and reflection of our Creator. (You
can read more about this in my meditations for January 18-24, 2015.) [1] Berry continues: "Many earlier peoples
saw in . . . natural phenomena a world beyond ephemeral appearance, an abiding
world, a world imaged forth in the wonders of the sun and clouds by day and the
stars and planets by night, a world that enfolded the human in some profound
manner. This other world was guardian, teacher, healer--the source from which
humans were born, nourished, protected, guided, and the destiny to which we
returned." [2]
Karl Jaspers calls the primal connection that the first
people had with the universe Pre-Axial Consciousness. [3] David Suzuki finds
this Pre-Axial Consciousness among aboriginal people today as well.
"Aboriginal people do not believe they end at their skin or fingertips.
The earth as mother is real to them, and their history, culture and purpose are
embodied in the land. The aboriginal sense of the interconnection of everything
in the world is also readily demonstrable and irrefutable scientifically."
[4]
Indeed, the new quantum physics reveals, as Ilia Delio says,
that "matter is not composed of basic building blocks but complicated webs
of relations. . . . Interconnectedness lies at the core of all that
exists." [5] Interbeing should make total sense to you if you are a
Trinitarian Christian, but most Christians never made the connection.
Roughly before 800 B.C., most people connected with God and
reality through myth, poetry, dance, music, fertility, and nature offerings.
They felt their inherent belonging in the web of this physical world as they
actively participated in the cycles of the moon, seasons, planting, and
harvest. They lived in what was still a naturally enchanted universe. This was
what St. Augustine and St. Gregory spoke of as the pre-existent "church
that existed since Abel" who was "considered righteous by God"
(Hebrews 11:4). Owen Barfield called this innocent state "original
participation." This long lasting category of people might be much larger
and surely older than any organized religion today. [6]
Living in human-made environments, disconnected from the
natural world, we have forgotten the intrinsic, basic connection of respect
between ourselves and the world. As Pope Francis writes, "The created
things of this world are not free of ownership: 'For they are yours, O Lord,
who love the living' (Wisdom 11:26). This is the basis for our conviction that,
as part of the universe, called into being by one Father, all of us are linked
by unseen bonds and together form a kind of universal family, a sublime
communion which fills us with a sacred affectionate and humble respect."
[7]
References:
[1]
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, ed., Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth (The Golden
Sufi Center: 2013), 1.
[2] Ibid.,
Thomas Berry, 15.
[3] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass:
2013), 112.
[4] David
Suzuki, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature (Greystone Books:
1999), viii.
[5] Ilia
Delio, The Francis Factor: How St. Francis and Pope Francis are changing the
world (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2015), MP4 video. Coming soon to
the CAC bookstore!
[6] Adapted
from Rohr, Immortal Diamond, 112.
[7] Pope
Francis, Laudato Si',
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html,
89.
The Body of God
In the fourth century, St. Augustine said that "the
church consists in the state of communion of the whole world." Wherever we
are connected, in right relationship--you might say "in love"--there
is the Christ, the Body of God, and there is the church, the temple, and the
mosque. But Christians sadly whittled that Great Mystery down into something
small, exclusive, and manageable. The church became a Catholic, Orthodox, or
Protestant private club, and not necessarily formed by people who were "in
communion" with anything else, usually not with the natural world, with
non-Christians, or even with other Christians outside their own denomination.
It became a very tiny salvation, hardly worthy of the name. God was not
magnanimous or victorious at all, despite our many songs repeating again and
again "How great is our God" and "Our God reigns." [1] The
operative word in these songs is "our" and not really
"God."
In a letter to a man who had lost his young son to polio,
Albert Einstein writes, "A human being is part of the whole called by us
'the universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his
thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical
illusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion
is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish the delusion but to try to
overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind."
[2]
Our very suffering now, our condensed presence on this
common nest that we have largely fouled, may soon be the one thing that we
finally share in common. It might well be the one thing that will bring us
together politically and religiously. The earth and its life systems, on which
we all entirely depend, might soon become the very thing that will convert us
to a simple lifestyle, to necessary community, and to an inherent and universal
sense of reverence for the Holy. We all breathe the same air and drink the same
water. There are no Jewish, Christian, or Muslim versions of these universal
elements. This earth itself is indeed the very Body of God. [3] In fact, it is
the only one we know of! Creation is the "first Bible," which is
asserted by the Bible itself (Romans 1:19-20, Wisdom 13:1-9, Job 12:7-10).
References:
[1] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, "Creation as the Body of God," Spiritual Ecology:
The Cry of the Earth, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, ed. (The Golden Sufi Center:
2013), 239.
[2] Albert
Einstein in a letter to Robert S. Marcus (1950).
[3] Rohr,
Spiritual Ecology, 239-240.
Quantum Entanglement
Just as different ways of interpreting scripture and various
types of truth (e.g., literal vs. mythic) are valuable for different purposes,
so scientific theories have different applications while seeming to be
paradoxical and irreconcilable. For example, we have the Newtonian theory of
gravity, Einstein's theory of relativity, and quantum theory. Physicists know
that each of them is true, yet they don't fit together and each is limited and
partial. Newtonian mechanics can't model or predict the behavior of massive or
quickly moving objects. Relativity does this well, but doesn't apply to very,
very small things. Quantum mechanics succeeds on the micro level. But we don't
yet have an adequate theory for understanding very small, very energetic, very
massive phenomenon, such as black holes. Scientists are still in search of a
unified theory of the universe.
Perhaps the term "quantum entanglement" names
something that we have long intuited, but science has only recently observed.
Here is the principle in layperson's terms: in the world of quantum physics, it
appears that one particle of any entangled pair "knows" what is
happening to another paired particle--even though there is no known means for
such information to be communicated between the particles, which are separated
by sometimes very large distances. Could this be what is happening when we
"pray" for somebody?
Scientists don't know how far this phenomenon applies beyond
very rare particles, but quantum entanglement hints at a universe where
everything is in relationship, in communion, and also where that communion can
be resisted ("sin"). Both negative and positive entanglement in the
universe matter, maybe even ultimately matter. Prayer, intercession, healing,
love and hate, heaven and hell, all make sense on a whole new level. Almost all
religions have long pointed to this entanglement. In Paul's letter to the
Romans (14:7) he says quite clearly "the life and death of each of us has
its influence on others." The Apostles' Creed states that we believe in
"the communion of saints." There is apparently a positive inner
connectedness that we can draw upon if we wish.
Ilia Delio says, "If reality is nonlocal, that is, if
things can affect one another despite distance or space-time coordinates, then
nature is not composed of material substances but deeply entangled fields of
energy; the nature of the universe is undivided wholeness." [1] I've often
described this phenomenon as an experiential "force field" or the
Holy Spirit. In Trinitarian theology, the Holy Spirit is foundationally
described as the field of love between the Father and the Son. One stays in
this positive force field whenever one loves, cares, or serves with positive
energy. I know that when people stand in this place, when they rest in love as
their home base, they become quite usable by God, and their lives are filled
with "quantum entanglements" that result in very real healings, forgiveness,
answered prayers, and new freedom for those whom they include in the force
field with them. I have too many examples here to list or to even remember.
Jung called these events "synchronicities"; secular folks call them
coincidences; the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, who taught me, called them
Divine Providence.
On the other end of the spectrum there are people who carry
death wherever they go, toward all those they can pull into their negative
force field. (Is this hell?) I know that when I regress into any kind of
intentional negativity toward anything or anybody, even in my mind, I am
actually hurting and harming them. Etty Hillesum, a young imprisoned Jew in
Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, says straightforwardly, "Each of us moves things
along in the direction of war every time we fail to love." And if so, it
would surely follow that each of us moves things along in the direction of
healing each time we choose to love. Each time it is a conscious choice and a
decision, at least to some degree. Grace and guilt both glide on such waves of
desire and intention.
Consciousness, desire, and intentionality matter. Maybe they
even create and destroy worlds. We cannot afford to harbor hate or hurt or
negativity in any form. We must deliberately choose to be instruments of
peace--first of all in our minds and hearts. Such daring simplicity is quantum
entanglement with the life and death of all things. We largely create both
heaven and hell. God is not "in" heaven nearly as much as God is the
force field that allows us to create heaven through our intentions and actions.
Once quantumly entangled, it seems we are entangled forever, which is why we
gave such finality and urgency to our choices for life (heaven) or death
(hell).
References:
[1] Ilia
Delio, The Francis Factor: How St. Francis and Pope Francis are changing the
world (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2015), MP4 video. Coming soon to
the CAC bookstore!
[2] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, "Quantum Entanglement," The Mendicant, Vol. 4, No.
6 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2014), 1.
Discovering
Our Story
Today we are
realizing that "science and religion are long lost dance partners,"
to use Rob Bell's words. Ilia Delio writes, "Raimon Panikkar said that
when theology is divorced from cosmology, we no longer have a living God, but
an idea of God. God then becomes a thought that can be accepted or rejected
rather than the experience of divine ultimacy. Because theology has not
developed in tandem with science (or science in tandem with theology) since the
Middle Ages, we have an enormous gap between the transcendent dimension of
human existence (the religious dimension) and the meaning of physical reality
as science understands it (the material dimension). This gap underlies our
global problems today, from the environmental crisis to economic disparity and
the denigration of women." [1]
Stephen
Hawking, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, believes humans have an
innate drive to make sense of the world. But, he says:
Up to now,
most scientists have been too occupied with the development of new theories
that describe what the universe is to ask why. On the other hand, the people
whose business it is to ask why, the philosophers [and, I would add,
theologians] have not been able to keep up with the advance of scientific
theory. . . . If we do discover a complete theory [of the universe], it should
in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few
scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary
people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is
that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the
ultimate triumph of human reason--for then we would know the mind of God. [2]
Mary Evelyn
Tucker and Brian Swimme have helped our generation rediscover our common
narrative, our shared cosmology. They write:
Just as we
are realizing the vast expanse of time that distinguishes the evolution of the
universe over some 13.7 billion years, we are recognizing how late is our arrival
in this stupendous process. Just as we are becoming conscious that Earth took
more than 4 billion years to bring forth this abundance of life, it is dawning
on us how quickly we are foreshortening its future flourishing. We need, then,
to step back, to assimilate our cosmological context. If scientific cosmology
gives us an understanding of the origins and unfolding of the universe,
philosophical reflection on scientific cosmology gives us a sense of our place
in the universe. [3]
I regret to say that there has been a massive loss of hope
in Western history, a hope still so grandly evident in people like Julian of
Norwich, Francis of Assisi, and Bonaventure. (Are not the World Wars of
Christian countries a clear sign of this loss? Genocides are surely a symptom
of deep self-loathing and fear.) Bonaventure's God was so much bigger and more
glorious than someone to be afraid of, or the one who punished bad
guys--because his cosmos was itself huge, benevolent, and coherent. Did his big
God beget an equally big and generous cosmos? Or did his big cosmos imply a
very big God? You can start on either side. For many in our time, an initial
reverence for the universe leads them to reverence whoever created this
infinity of Mystery and Beauty. [4] We must now admit that it did not work very
well the other way around. Those focused primarily on talking about God somehow
couldn't see a universe as holy, as big, and as good as the one who supposedly
created it.
May this awe and reverence lead us to care for each other
and our common home quickly, before we run out of time.
References:
[1] Ilia
Delio, The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love
(Orbis Books: 2013), ix.
[2] Stephen
Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, A Brief History of Time (Bantam Dell: 2005), 142.
[3] Mary
Evelyn Tucker and Brian Swimme, Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in
Peril, Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson, eds.(Trinity University
Press: 2010), 412.
[4] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
(Franciscan Media: 2014), 168-169.
Thinking Faith's ADVENT SERIES
By Karen Eliasen
Any foray into the writings of the prophet Isaiah soon calls attention to a number of confusing issues that hamper a straightforward reading. Already as soon as we try to pinpoint the man behind the name Isaiah we run into trouble, for we meet possibly three different prophets. The first – proto-Isaiah – is active in the 8th century of King Hezekiah’s dicey dealings with the war-mongering Assyrians; the second – deutero-Isaiah – is active in the 6th century of uprooted Exiles despairing among Babylonians and eventually Persians; and the third – trito-Isaiah – is active in the 5th century that sees a self-examining but kingless people returned to Jerusalem. Add to this historical havoc a mix of literary forms whose language is complex and often elusive; some conflicting evaluations of human behaviour, especially of kings; and finally some unsettling images of a God caught in flagrante delicto swinging wildly between the extreme moods of desolation and consolation. After combining all these strong flavours of the book of Isaiah we may find ourselves readily agreeing with Martin Luther’s summary of the prophets: they ‘have a queer way of talking, like people who, instead of proceeding in an orderly manner, ramble off from one thing to the next, so that you cannot make head or tail of them.'[1]
How then can we begin to make head or tail of the remarkable list of names in Isaiah 9:6 that rambles out at us anew every Christmas:[2] ‘and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace?’ If there is one verse in the whole of the Old Testament that begs engagement with the classic ‘who, what, when, where, why and how’ series of questions, then this may well be it – even if we as Christians may have our hardcore convictions about the answers: ‘Jesus!’ of course, and so on from there. But all may not be so obvious. In a recent introduction to the book of Isaiah, writer and critic Peter Ackroyd claims it as ‘a story of universal significance rather than a sample of pre-Christian revelation,’ holding that what is at stake for Isaiah are ‘the central aspirations of humankind.'[3]’ The reality is that not only for Christians but as well for Jews has the book of Isaiah down the centuries been the most oft-cited, and perhaps even the best-loved, of the prophetic books. This eager response across the board suggests that as Christians we might explore more deeply those ‘central aspirations of human kind’ by revisiting that familiar list of names in 9:6 from a broader perspective than we are wont to do.
Of particular interest is the use Jewish liturgy makes of the list of names. Obviously the mainstream Jewish understanding of the verses around ‘a child born’ contrasts sharply with the Christian understanding by applying the reference to the immediate past rather than a messianic future. The Hebrew grammar certainly supports this (the child has already been born, therefore possibly refers to Hezekiah), although this may also be a case of the so-called ‘prophetic past’ by which a particular future is treated as unquestionably guaranteed by referring to it as if it has already happened.[4] But considering this kind of tense quibbling as an end in itself may not be a fruitful way of proceeding, any more than pinpointing three different centuries for Isaiah’s prophetic activities. Rather, bearing in mind that awareness of ‘central human aspirations’ pervading the book of Isaiah across time and place, still stirring us as readers today, we can turn to the Jewish liturgy itself.
In Jewish liturgy, the weekly Saturday readings from the Torah (i.e. from the Five Books of Moses) are accompanied by additional readings taken from the other Biblical books, called the Haftarah readings. Each of the 52 weekly Torah texts has its own prescribed Haftarah accompaniment, and it so happens that the Isaianic list of names is part of a text matched with a reading from Exodus, Ex 18:1-20:23 to be exact. Within these Exodus chapters two important events in the history of Israel take place: firstly, there is a very sober conversation between Moses and his father-in-law Jethro about the practical organisation of what is basically a judiciary for settling disputes amongst the Israelites themselves – bringing law and order to the community. No fireworks and tantrums here, but a great deal of quiet common sense about leadership and judicial teachings. Secondly, there is the giving of the Ten Commandments to the Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai, which takes place in anything but sober circumstances – tensions and fears run high in this fiery encounter between God and people as God spells out his demands. Both events are takes on the creation of a just society and the practice of accountable leadership within such a society – as central as human aspirations can get. But where one take coolly spreads roles of responsibility amongst capable but God-sensitive human beings, the other hotly proclaims God’s sole right to be the one and only everything. Humans may be assured that we are made in God’s image (Gen 1:27), but if there is one thing guaranteed to pique God’s old-style zealous wrath, it is our human habit of taking that assurance to a self-glorifying and greedy extreme. This wrath seems always to be threatening just around the corner – whether people are too far away from or too close to God. The giving of the Ten Commandments, even as it warns people of turning away from God, is hedged with dire warnings of the danger of approaching God too closely: ‘let not the priests or the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest He break out against them’ (Ex 19:24).
These Exodus issues around the creation of a just society and the consequences for that society of the human desire to be and act like God, are reiterated and given further intense and unsettling treatment in the book of Isaiah. Human rulers, the very people commissioned and empowered with keeping law and order, enter and exit the Isaianic stage. Some are Israelite and some foreign, some more powerful than others, some marginally nicer than others, some outright evil; yet none of them seem to have the wherewithal to put into practice a just society as Moses and Jethro have mapped it out, let alone as so fierily proclaimed in the Ten Commandments – although some are looked upon less disapprovingly (Hezekiah and Cyrus come to mind). The interplay between being made in the image of God yet not comparable to him remains an elusive metaphorical paradox well-nigh impossible to live out, even as we get hints along the way. So how are we to answer the question repeatedly hammered home in the book of Isaiah: ‘To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?’ (Isa 40:18)? [5] To whom indeed – what then are we humans as leaders supposed to be like?
That list in Isaiah 9:6 may well be the most focused and concentrated formulation the Old Testament has to offer for addressing this question directly. Martin Luther, in his honest struggles to make head and tail of the prophets, hits the nail on the head in one of his Christmas sermons on Isaiah 9:6 when he relates the name list directly to the ‘how’ of leadership. After expanding on the customary images of leaders and authorities being carried on their subjects’ shoulders (even the good ones are), Luther observes that Isaiah turns everything around by placing the subjects on the shoulders of this different kind of ruler: ‘Thus, here you see the very definition of the Son, the one who carries his subjects on his shoulders. Those who are not on his shoulder are not under his rule. … So hop on! … This message goes forth into the world … by adding these six names, the prophet explains how the carrying takes place.’[6] That these descriptive terms, ‘Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’, in some concrete way explain the ‘how’ of leadership in a just society may be completely at odds with the significance we moderns in the West give to names. In answer to the question, ‘what’s in a name?’, chances are Shakespeare’s Juliet neatly sums it up for us:
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet;
But the Isaianic mind-set, the ancient Hebrew mind-set, participates in a completely different understanding of the significance of names. It hangs on names an ontological significance that fundamentally links name and existence, a linking that seems to belong to the nature of the Biblical Hebrew language itself. Old Testament scholar John L. McKenzie’s concise observation is helpful here: ‘(Hebrew language) prefers nouns to adjectives, for it does not even like to make the obvious distinction between a substance and its properties.'[7] The series of words in Isaiah 9:6, however we wish to split and splice the grammar and theological meanings, suggests deeply-rooted qualities that are not merely fine-sounding abstract concepts, but are concrete, embodied qualities, drives even, to be lived out. These particular qualities and drives lead to the direct practice of knowledge and power and embodied behaviour in the context of a just society, to walking the talk. Given the conflict between God and human images of God, it is not untoward to ask to whom these qualities and drives then belong – who are they actually naming, the child or God? In a satisfying way, the answer is: both. Although these qualities appear in names definitely given to the child, the naming custom they express is straight out of the Ancient Near East, where Semitic names often consist of phrases or sentences that describe God. Therefore these names do not describe the child as much as they describe the God whom the child’s parents worship. After all else is said and done, worship may be the human act that makes the difference in the creation of a just society, not all the knowledge-posturing or power-mongering with which human leadership is so riddled. The God of the book of Isaiah puts it as bluntly as it can be put: ‘I am the Lord, the Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King’ (Isa 43:15); if any practical gaps need filling in about what the God making this claim is like, in what sort of image we are made, then Isaiah 9:6 is a good place to start exploring.
Any talk of leadership qualities in a faith context is bound to nudge us in the direction of Ignatian spirituality. In his Spiritual Exercises Ignatius describes a meditation which in full is entitled ‘The call of the earthly king is a help towards contemplating the life of the Eternal King.’[8] Its two parts consist of imagining first a human king chosen by God – Ignatius describes such a king as ‘liberal and kind’ – and then imagining the Christ King. In both instances the imagination is pulled into play: how far do we think we can we walk the talk? What is at stake for us? It is a meditation that dovetails smoothly with Exodus and Isaiah as these ancient scriptures explore ‘central aspirations of humankind.’ Human leaders for better or for worse, the messiah-king who embodies fully the desired qualities of a ruler of a just society, God himself as the ultimate one and only responsible for everything that is … to say nothing of thee and me as we ponder the nature of Incarnation at its very best: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Karen Eliasen works in spirituality at St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre, North Wales.
5 THINGS PASTORS SHOULD DO
From the Pastor's Blog by Fr Michael White. The original blog can be found here
Every parishioner can tell you what a pastor should do. Most would be more than happy to do so. And just try and stop some of them. But rarely is there a great deal of unanimity about what those things are. Sometimes there is, in fact, opposing views about what we should be doing. And it’s not just limited to parishioners: I was at a pastor’s conference this week in another part of the country and there was clear division among them about this very question.
It would not be possible to provide any kind of comprehensive answer in the limited space of a blog post, even if I had such an answer. But I would like to suggest any list should include the following. They all fall under the general heading “lead and feed.” I like to say that my job as pastor is all and only about leading and feeding, in the following ways.
1. Lead Prayer and Worship
The fundamental way in which I should be leading is through worship and prayer. This includes both my own prayer as well as a worship leader and celebrant for the congregation. In worship, especially at the Sunday Eucharist, I am most authentically and perfectly serving as pastor by leading parishioners in the service of God.
2. Feed with the Word
Preaching is job number two, and that is all about feeding followers with the Word of God, that subsequently is then the food on which we literally feed at communion. Sharing the Word of God is about forming and shaping disciples as well as introducing the unchurched to Christ and the discipleship path. It is about giving them the steps they need to take for health and growth in discipleship.
3. Lead a Cohesive Leadership Team
The pastor must prioritize his leadership team. First of all I have to cultivate and develop such a team and then I have to invest in them and shape them into a real team who really lead along with me. Finally, I must constantly strengthen them and shape them into a cohesive team that provides unified and solid leadership to the other staff and volunteer leaders too.
4. Feed Through Stewardship
A pastor simply must raise money, this is fundamentally and ultimately his job, others can help him but he’s got to do it. Same for raising up volunteer ministers and getting people involved in the life and leadership of the parish. The pastor is recruiter-in-chief.
5. Lead Strategic Planning
The pastor must be setting the direction and strategy of the parish. He can certainly rely on the good advice of trusted advisors, but he cannot abdicate this responsibility, or, as is more often the case, simply ignore it. If a parish does not have direction and a strategy to move in the right direction, it will go nowhere.
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