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
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street , Devonport 7310
(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
Year of Mercy Blogspot: mlcpyom.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.
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PARISH
OFFICE WILL RE-OPEN ON WEDNESDAY 27TH JANUARY, 2016
Weekday Masses 29th Dec - 2nd Jan, 2016 Next Weekend 2nd & 3rd January
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin Saturday
Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin/Devonport
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Sunday
Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
9:00am Ulverstone
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone & Devonport 10:30am
Devonport
Saturday: 9:00am Ulverstone 11:00am
Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Eucharistic
Adoration:
Devonport: Recommences 8th January, 2016.
Devonport: Benediction - Recommence first Friday of
February, 2016.
Prayer Groups:
Charismatic Renewal - Devonport (Emmaus House) Thursdays
- 7:30pm - Recommencing 4th February, 2016
Christian Meditation - Devonport, Emmaus House -
Wednesdays 7pm. Recommencing 3rd February, 2016
OLOL Piety Shop will be closed
until 30th January, 2016
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Valentin Daug, Debbie Morris, Denise Payne, Hugh Hiscutt,
Margaret Charlesworth, Geraldine Roden, Joy Carter & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Fr Peter McGrath OFM, Greg Williams, Robert Pratt, Marie Williams, Guy d’Hondt, Louise
Hanlon, Joan Stewart, Sr Augustine Healy, Ludy Broomhall, Shane Rogers, Cooper
Morgan, Robyn Pitt, Iolanthe Hannavy, Lorraine Duncan and Pat Haines.
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 23rd – 30th
December
Glen Clark, Gwenda Stones, Wallace Malone, Max Anderson,
Margaret Waddle, Maria Duggan,
Eileen Burrows, Jean Matthews, Kathleen Sheehan, Brian Salter, Grant Dell,
Mavis Wise, Thelma Batt, Melville Williams, Win Casey and Barbara George. Also Emily Duggan, Kate &
Billy Last,
Hedley & Enid Stubbs, Arch & Corrie Webb, Madeline & Henry Castles and relatives and friends of
the Clark family.
May they rest in peace
First Reading
Second Reading
Gospel: Luke 2:22-40
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
At last I find a few moments to myself after the hectic
days around Christmas.
I try to come to some inner quiet in the way which works
best for me.
I read the familiar story several times.
I hear the voices, I see
the Temple, the doctors, the young Jesus.
What strikes me most in the scene?
- Am I able to feel for Mary and Joseph, amazed at what they witness, their little boy, so grown up, so poised?
- Perhaps what strikes me most is the fully human Jesus replying to his anxious parents as a typical adolescent would: “What’s all the fuss?”
I spend some time reflecting on this or any other aspect of the
story which draws me. Maybe I bring to mind events in my own life with my own
or my friends’ children, or my nephews and nieces.
I tell the Lord how I feel.
I picture in my own mind the holy family’s return to normality, Jesus growing
in wisdom under Mary and Joseph’s authority.
Once again, I turn to the Lord,
placing into his hands all those families where this is not the case, where
children and parents are in constant conflict.
I also entrust to him the
children who have no parents able to guide them as they grow up.
At the end of
my prayer time, I slowly take my leave, thanking the Lord for these precious
moments spent together and, if I am moved to do so, I also turn to Mary who
“stored all these things in her heart”:
Hail Mary, full of grace...
Readings
First Reading
Second Reading
Gospel: Matthew 2: 1-12
WEEKLY RAMBLINGS
Many thanks to all those people who contributed in so many
ways to make our Christmas Celebrations so successful. By the time Christmas
lunch was being prepared at the Parish House Fr Alex and I had celebrated 9
Masses between us which meant that quite a fair number of people had assisted
us in making it all happen. Again, Thank You.
We received a Christmas card from Fr Jim McMahon late in
the week – written by one of his niece’s – wishing all his friends in the
Parish a Happy and Holy Christmas – and so I pass on these wishes to all.
At present out internet is down and so we are not
able to load the Newsletter to the web or do any of the other things that I
normally do with my homily etc over the weekend. Hopefully we will be able to
get back on line asap – once there are some technicians back at work.
I would like to use this opportunity to thank all the parishioners of Mersey Leven Parish for giving me the opportunity to experience parish life among you. I really enjoyed this brief time I have spent in the parish. The great experiences I have had will help me so much in my priestly training. I will remember you in my prayers. Please keep me in your prayers as I continue on my journey towards priesthood that I may have the grace to live up to my call. Love to you all and may Almighty God bless you all. Amen!
Paschal Okpon
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. In the document, 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. This
will be the final week on this document. In the New Year, we will begin offering reflections
from the Pope relating to the Year of Mercy, which began on December 8.
“Create neighbourhood networks and improvement programs. Create welcoming spaces that
help people connect and trust each other. Do something nice for your community.”
(Pars 148-150, 152, 219, 232)
Saint of the Week – St Thomas Becket (Dec 29)
St Thomas Becket, born in London, England, on December 21, 1118, was the Archbishop of
Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170 by King Henry II’s knights. The king had
ordered his murder for refusing to give the monarchy power over the church. Becket’s death
made him into a martyr to followers of the Catholic Church, and Pope Alexander canonised
him in 1173.
There is a parish named after this saint in the Sydney Archdiocese.
“Australia must take stock of its human rights performance...”
- Bishop Vincent Long, Chairman of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, in
a tweet to mark Human Rights Day (December 10). The Bishop went on to say, in the
full statement released on the ACBC Media Blog, that there were “certain groups in
Australia and in our region whose rights have been undermined – often over many
years.”
Most of the memes we feature are designed to provoke a smile or some laughter. This one,
however, is more about giving us something to think about. It also is timely, considering we
have just entered the Year of Mercy.
THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS:
CONNECTING THE DOTS BETWEEN THE CRIB AND THE CROSS
Christmas 2015
The Gospel stories about the birth of Jesus are not a simple retelling of the events that took place then, at the stable in Bethlehem. In his commentaries on the birth of Jesus, the renowned scripture scholar, Raymond Brown, highlights that these narratives were written long after Jesus had already been crucified and had risen from the dead and that they are colored by what his death and resurrection mean. At one level, they are as much stories about Jesus’ passion and death as they are about his birth. When the Gospel writers looked back at the birth of Jesus through the prism of the resurrection they saw in his birth already the pattern for both his active ministry and his death and resurrection: God comes into the world and some believe and accept him and others hate and reject him. For some, his person gives meaning, for others it causes confusion and anger. There is an adult message about Christ in Christmas and the meaning of Christmas is to be understood as much by looking at the cross as by looking at the crib. Hardly the stuff of our Christmas lights, carols, cribs, and Santa.
And yet, these too have their place. Karl Rahner, not naïve to what Raymond Brown asserts, argues that, even so, Christmas is still about happiness and the simple joy of children captures the meaning of Christmas more accurately than any adult cynicism. At Christmas, Rahner contends, God gives us a special permission to be happy: “Do not be afraid to be happy, for ever since I [God] wept, joy is the standard of living that is really more suitable than the anxiety and grief of those who think they have no hope. … I no longer go away from the world, even if you do not see me now. … I am there. It is Christmas. Light the candles. They have more right to exist than all the darkness. It is Christmas. Christmas that last forever.” At Christmas, the crib trumps the cross, even as the cross does not fully disappear.
How do the cross and the crib fit together? Does Calvary cast a permanent shadow on Bethlehem? Should Christmas disturb us more than console us? Is our simple joy at Christmas somehow missing the real point?
No. Joy is the meaning of Christmas. Our carols have it right. At Christmas, God gives us a special permission to be happy, though that must be carefully understood. There is no innate contradiction between joy and suffering, between being happy and undergoing all the pain that life hands us. Joy is not to be identified with pleasure and with the absence of suffering in our lives. Genuine joy is a constant that remains with us throughout all of our experiences in life, including our pain and suffering. Jesus promised us “a joy that no one can take away from you”. Clearly that means something that doesn’t disappear because we get sick, have a loved one die, are betrayed by a spouse, lose our job, are rejected by a friend, are subject to physical pain, or are enduring emotional distress. None of us will escape pain and suffering. Joy must be able to co-exist with these. Indeed it is meant to grow deeper through the experiences of pain and suffering. We are meant to be women and men of joy, even as we live in pain. That’s a coloring, taken from their understanding of Jesus’ death and resurrection, which the Gospel writers insert into their narratives about his birth.
But, of course, that is not what children see when they get caught up in the excitement of Christmas and when they look at the Christ-child in the crib. Their joy is still innocent, healthily protected by their naiveté, still awaiting disillusion, but real nonetheless. The naïve joy of a child is real and the temptation to rewrite and recolor it in light of the disillusionment of later years is wrong. What was real was real. The fond memories we have of anticipating and celebrating Christmas as children are not invalidated when Santa has been deconstructed. Christmas invites us still, as John Shea poetically puts it, “to plunge headlong into the pudding.” And despite all the disillusionment within our adult lives, Christmas still offers us, depressed adults, that wonderful invitation.
Even when we no longer believe in Santa, and all the cribs, lights, carols, cards, colorful wrapping-paper, and gifts of Christmas no longer bring the same thrill, the same invitation still remains: Christmas invites us to be happy, and that demands of us an elemental asceticism, a fasting from adult cynicism, a discipline of joy that can hold the cross and the crib together so as to be able to live in a joy that no one, and no tragedy, can take from us. This will allow us, at Christmas, like children, to plunge headlong into the pudding.
Christmas gives, both children and adults, permission to be happy.
Working the
Steps
(Following on from Fr Richard Rohr's previous three articles - collated from his daily emails - I have included the summary emails from the end of the 2nd and 3rd weeks to bring the whole process into persepctive - I hope they have been helpful - Fr Mike)
Coming to
trust and surrender to our Higher Power is the work of a lifetime, even as
mercy flows instantaneously to us. The Twelve Steps require us to both work and
to undergo grace. I invite you to begin wherever you are. It might take you a
day or a month or more to take each step with the support of someone you trust.
Just begin. And each day commit to beginning again.
Remember
that as humans, we are all addicted to our way of thinking. A regular practice
of contemplative prayer is the oil that greases the wheels of transformation.
Include daily meditation as part of your program for whatever addiction you are
facing.
The
following questions, adapted from the Breathing Under Water Companion Journal,
[1] may help you take each of the steps deeper. Take your time in reflecting,
journaling, and sharing with others.
Step 1: When
have you experienced being powerless in your everyday life? How much do you
depend on your own strength and abilities? Name at least one area where you
feel like you might be reaching "the limits of your own fuel supply."
Step 2:
Where do you instinctively make decisions--your head, heart, or gut? Which do
you consider the most trustworthy? Imagine a dialogue with one of these three
areas of your being. What would it tell you about your need to be more open?
Step 3:
Surrender will always feel like dying, and yet it is the necessary path to
liberation. Write about what the word surrender conjures in your mind and
heart. How is this influenced by your personal experiences? How is it
influenced by society's perspective?
Step 4: What
part of you do you not want to see? What are you afraid will happen if you're
honest with yourself? Can you begin to imagine being free of that fear?
Step 5: When
did someone love you in spite of your actions? How did that make you feel? How
did it make you want to be a better person?
Step 6: Are
you more comfortable with acting or waiting? What happens if you approach a
problem from a stance opposite the one you normally prefer?
Step 7: When
have you tried to eliminate a fault, only to have it reappear later? How might
you be more patient with yourself and your faults? How can you begin to see
failure as an opportunity to grow?
Step 8: What
relationships would you like to redo? Write about things you did wrong, things
you might have done differently. What change can you make today?
Step 9: Our
lives are never completely our own. Write about the ways in which some of the
deepest truths of your life have an impact on other people. Reflect on how to
respect their privacy as well as your own as you go through a program of
recovery.
Step 10: Set
aside some time to look calmly and objectively at your life in this present
moment: the good and the bad, the contentment and the stress, the grace and the
struggles. Write about what you observe. If it helps you to stay detached,
write about yourself in the third person, using your name instead of
"I."
Step 11:
Spend some time in meditation, perhaps focusing only on a few words from
Scripture or your favorite name for God. Write about any realizations you have
about the experience.
Step 12: How
can you gently encourage others to begin to explore the hidden depths of their
own lives? Remember that this kind of journey can only be undertaken freely and
willingly.
Reference:
[1] Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water Companion Journal (Franciscan Media: 2015).
