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.
Weekday Masses 15th - 18th December,
2015
Tuesday: 9:30am - Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am - Latrobe
Thursday: 10:30am - Karingal
Friday: 11:00am - Ulverstone
Next Weekend 19th & 20th 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- Now in Recess
Ministry Rosters 19th & 20th December, 2015
 Devonport:
Readers
Vigil: M Kelly, B
Paul, R Baker
10:30am:
F Sly, J Tuxworth, K Von Bibra
Readers
for Christmas Masses. Vigil: 8:30 pm (The readings will be taken
from the Midnight Mass) - Margaret Gerrand, Marie Knight, Clare Kiely-Hoye
Christmas
Day: 10:30 am (Readings from the Dawn Mass).
Mike Gaffney, Felicity Sly,
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
December: F Sly, M
Hansen, R McBain
24th December: K.S.C.
Piety Shop 19th
December: H Thompson
20th December:
D French
Flowers: M Breen, S Fletcher
Ulverstone:
Reader: R Locket Ministers of
Communion: E
Reilly, M & K McKenzie, M O’Halloran
Cleaners: B & V McCall, G Doyle Flowers: M Bryan Hospitality: M Bryan, G Doyle
Penguin:
Greeters: A Landers, P Ravaillion Commentator: J Barker Reader: Y
Downes
Procession: M & D Hiscutt Ministers of Communion: E Nickols, A Guest
Liturgy: Sulphur Creek C Setting Up: M Murray Care of Church: M Bowles, J Reynolds
Latrobe:
Reader: S Ritchie
Ministers of
Communion: B Ritchie, H Lim Procession: M Clarke Music:
Jenny
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, L Post Ministers of
Communion: E Holloway Cleaners/Flowers/Prepare:
B Lee, A
Holloway
Readings This Week: Third Sunday of Advent – Year C
First Reading: Zephaniah 3:14-18 Second Reading: Philippians 4:4-7 Gospel: Luke 3:10-18
PREGO REFLECTION:
As
I come to my prayer, I allow myself to become still in body and mind in the
presence of God. I ask the Holy Spirit to help me to pray. How do I feel as I
come to prayer….? What are my preoccupations….? What do I want to ask of the
Lord today…? Slowly I read the Gospel passage, perhaps several times, noting
anything that appears to stand out for me. As we heard in last week’s gospel,
John has come as “A voice crying the wilderness, prepare a way for the Lord!” I
listen to what he says is needed. What am I asked to be or do to prepare a way
for the Lord in my life, in my community? I may like to ponder the gift of my
baptism, my being made one with Christ by water and the fire of the Holy
Spirit. I share my thoughts and feelings with the Lord. Perhaps I ask for light
to see what God finds in me that is wheat or chaff. I talk with the Lord about
this, remembering always to look less to myself and more to the love of God
whose call to me is “Good News”. I ask for whatever grace I need and end my
prayer giving thanks
Readings Next Week: Fourth Sunday of Advent – Year C
First Reading: Micah 5:1-4 Second Reading: Hebrews 10:5-10 Gospel: Luke 1:39-44
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Valentin Daug, Denise Payne, Hugh Hiscutt, Marie Williams, Margaret Charlesworth, Kath Pearce, Geraldine Roden, Joy Carter & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Joan Stewart, Sr Augustine Healy, Ludy Broomhall, Shane Rogers, Cooper Morgan, Robyn Pitt,Iolanthe Hannavy, Lorraine Duncan, Pat Haines, Joe Stolp, June Barnard & Emily Triffett.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 9th – 15th December
Vera Sherston, John Davis, John Gibbons, Kath & Thomas Last, Paul Rech, Fr Bill Egan, Jim Rogers, Kevin Robertson and Audrey Cassidy. Also David & Rodney Mason and deceased members of the Robertson, Ravaillion & Proctor families.
May they Rest in Peace
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
On Tuesday Pope Francis inaugurated the Jubilee Year of Mercy. This weekend we have included with the newsletter Prayers which might be of some assistance during this coming year.
I have also started a new Blogspot with articles and some resources which you might find useful – the site is mlcpyom.blogspot.com.au (the initials stand for Mersey Leven Catholic Parish Year of Mercy). New articles will be added regularly (sometimes daily depending on where I find them) but I hope they will provide some extra reflection for those able to access them.
Also, people who use either an Android or Apple smartphone/tablet can download a wonderful Year of Mercy App – type mercying into the search bar in App Store or Google Play. The App provides an inspiration to start the day and a reflection for each night.
On Monday (Ulverstone) and Wednesday (Devonport) evening at 7pm we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation - this will be a great opportunity to make a personal start to the Year of Mercy as well as a wonderful preparation for the Feast of Christmas.
On Wednesday evening we had the final Pastoral Council Meeting for the year and early in the new year we will be inviting parishioners to nominate new members to be part of this important group in our Parish life. Next Tuesday we have our final Finance Meeting and we will also be seeking new members for this group in the new year. Notwithstanding all that I would like to express my sincere thanks to all who have been contributed to these two groups during this past twelve months.
I know that these next two weeks will become even busier but, again, I hope that we can all find time to spend a little time each day to reflect on the reason for the season.
So please take care
on the roads and in your homes
 
We would
like to wish Barry McCall
a very
happy 80th Birthday this Sunday.
May God
bless you Barry on your special day!
KARINGAL MASS: Thursday 17th December at 10am. Please
join us for a ‘cuppa’ after Mass. All Welcome!
EMPTY CRIB:
The empty crib gives opportunity to place non-perishable
gifts of food for distribution by St Vincent de Paul Society through the
Christmas Hampers gifted to people less fortunate in our community. Your
contribution of food for gifts will be most welcome and appreciated.
Thursday Nights
OLOL Hall D’port. Eyes down 7.30pm.
Callers 17th
December All Callers.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
STAR WARS
EPISODE VII – LAST CHANCE FOR TICKETS!
Catholic Youth Ministry’s special fundraising screening of
the brand new and highly anticipated Star Wars Episode VII: The Force
Awakens is happening this week! Please get all your friends and family
together to join us on Opening Night of the film, Thursday 17th
December at Village Cinemas at either Launceston or Eastlands (take your
pick!). Funds raised will support our young Tasmanians headed to World Youth
Day 2016 Krakow. Tickets are $30 and include small popcorn and 600ml drink.
There will be give-aways and a prize for the best-dressed! So come dressed for
the occasion. You must pre-purchase your tickets. Book your tickets online
ASAP (if you haven’t already) at: www.trybooking.com/JHYV
or contact Rachelle on 0400 045 368.
CHRISTMAS MASS TIMES
2015
OUR
LADY OF LOURDES DEVONPORT
Christmas Eve 6.00pm
Children’s Mass
8.00pm Vigil Mass
Christmas Day 10.30am
Mass
ST
PATRICK’S, LATROBE
Christmas Day 9.30am Mass
HOLY
CROSS SHEFFIELD
Christmas Day 11.00am
Mass
ST JOSEPH’S MASS CENTRE, PORT SORELL
Christmas Day 8.00am
Mass
SACRED
HEART ULVERSTONE
Christmas Eve 6.00pm Children’s Mass
Christmas
Day 9.00am Mass
ST
MARY’S PENGUIN
Christmas Eve 8.00pm
Vigil Mass
RECONCILIATION: Monday 14th Dec 7.00pm Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone
Wednewsday 16th Dec 7.00pm Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Devonport
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.
“Business is a noble vocation. Create jobs that allow for personal growth, stability, living out
one's values.” (Pars 124-128)
Saint of the Week – St John of the Cross (Dec 14)
Born in Spain in 1542, John learned the importance of self-sacrificing love from his parents.
His father gave up wealth, status, and comfort when he married a weaver's daughter and was
disowned by his noble family. After his father died, his mother kept the destitute family
together as they wandered homeless in search of work.
When the family finally found work, John still went hungry in the middle of the wealthiest
city in Spain. At 14, he took a job caring for hospital patients who suffered from incurable
diseases and madness. It was out of this poverty and suffering that John learned to search for
beauty and happiness not in the world, but in God.
After John joined the Carmelite order, Saint Teresa of Avila asked him to help her reform
movement. John supported her belief that the order should return to its life of prayer. But
many Carmelites felt threatened by this reform, and some members of John's own order
kidnapped him. He was locked in a cell 3m by 2m and beaten three times a week by the
monks. There was only one tiny window high up near the ceiling. Yet in that unbearable
dark, cold, and desolation, his love and faith were like fire and light. He had nothing left but
God -- and God brought John his greatest joys in that tiny cell.
After nine months, John escaped by unscrewing the lock on his door and creeping past the
guard. Taking only the mystical poetry he had written in his cell, he climbed out a window
using a rope made of strips of blankets. With no idea where he was, he followed a dog to
civilisation. He hid from pursuers in a convent infirmary where he read his poetry to the
nuns. From then on his life was devoted to sharing and explaining his experience of God's
love.
His life of poverty and persecution could have produced a bitter cynic. Instead it gave birth to
a compassionate mystic, who lived by the beliefs that "Who has ever seen people persuaded
to love God by harshness?" and "Where there is no love, put love -- and you will find love."
John left us many books of practical advice on spiritual growth and prayer that are just as
relevant today as they were then. These books include: Ascent of Mount Carmel , Dark Night of
the Soul and A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom Christ .
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). Last week, we began focussing on the corporate disciplines, starting with
confession and worship. This week, we highlight the corporate discipline of Guidance. (The
final discipline will be celebration.)
This week’s image draws upon Matthew 18:19-20
Meme of the week
Twelve-Step Spirituality: Week 2
Taken from a series of emails by Fr Richard Rohr. You can signup for the emails here
Step 1: Admitting Our Powerlessness
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives
had become unmanageable --Step 1 of the Twelve Steps
The very first step of the Twelve Step program is our
admission that we have come to the end of ourselves. Once again we see the
truth of the paschal mystery: life comes out of death. In the case of
alcoholics, it's not just the death of their ego's belief in their human
ability to manage their drinking; their physical death is literally imminent.
As Bill Wilson describes his own story, "My weary and despairing wife was
informed that . . . she would soon have to give me over to the undertaker or
the asylum." [1]
The Big Book says that when Alcoholics Anonymous began in the
1930's, doctors largely thought that "most chronic alcoholics are
doomed." [2] Moreover, "an illness of this sort--and we have come to
believe it an illness--involves those about us in a way no other human sickness
can. All are sorry for a person with cancer, and no one is angry or hurt. But
not so with the alcoholic illness, for with it there goes annihilation of all
the things worthwhile in life. It engulfs all whose lives touch the sufferer's.
It brings misunderstanding, fierce resentment, financial insecurity, disgusted
friends and employers, warped lives of blameless children, sad spouses and
parents--anyone can increase the list." [3]
For all of us, whether addicted to alcohol or something
else, unless there is a person, situation, event, idea, conflict, or
relationship that you cannot "manage," you will never find the True
Manager. God or Life ensures you have numerous opportunities to encounter your
powerlessness. Self-made people, and all heroic spiritualities, will try to
manufacture an even stronger self by willpower and determination--to put them
back in charge and seeming control. This pushy response does not normally
create loving people; rather, it produces people in ever deeper need of
control. Eventually the game is unsustainable. [4] As English poet W. H. Auden
put it in "Apropos of Many Things": "We would rather be ruined
than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the
present and let our illusions die." [5]
Fortunately this was not the choice made by the honest,
humble, and newly sober friend who came to help Bill W. at his lowest point.
Bill explains:
My friend sat before me, and he made the pointblank
declaration that God had done for him what he could not do for himself. His
human will had failed. Doctors had pronounced him incurable. Society was about
to lock him up. Like myself, he had admitted complete defeat. Then he had, in
effect, been raised from the dead, suddenly taken from the scrap heap to a
level of life better than the best he had ever known!
Had this power originated in him? Obviously it had not.
There had been no more power in him than there was in me at that minute; and
this was none at all. . . .
I saw that my friend was much more than inwardly
reorganized. He was on a different footing. His roots grasped a new soil. [6]
It is just as Jesus, St. Francis, John of the Cross, and
Thérèse of Lisieux teach us: there is incredible power in powerlessness! The
quickest ticket to heaven, enlightenment, or salvation is a willingness to face
our own smallness and incapacity. Our conscious need for mercy is our only real
boarding pass. The ego does not like that very much, but the soul fully
understands. [7]
References:
[1]
"J," A Simple Program: A Contemporary Translation of the Book
"Alcoholics Anonymous" (Hyperion: 1996), 7. A Simple Program is a
gender-neutral translation of the original Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.
[2] Ibid.,
xxii.
[3] Ibid.,
17.
[4] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
(Franciscan Media: 2011), 3-4.
[5] As
quoted in ibid., 6.
[6] A Simple
Program, 10-11.
[7] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
(Franciscan Media: 2014), 107.
Step 2: Trusting a Higher Power
We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could
restore us to sanity. --Step 2 of the Twelve Steps
You have probably heard it said that most of our problems
tend to be psychological, but our solutions are always spiritual. Alcoholics
Anonymous insists this is especially true for chronic alcoholics: they are
"100 percent hopeless, apart from divine help" as one doctor put it
in the Big Book. [1] It is "an illness which only a spiritual experience
will conquer." [2]
Alcoholics Anonymous is very clear that "a vital spiritual
experience" is necessary for recovery. Carl Jung used that term when he
told one of his patients that it was his only hope: "Here and there, once
in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. .
. . Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the
lives of these people are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set
of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them." [3]
This is what I call "an identity transplant," or
as Paul describes it, "I live no longer, not I, but Christ lives in
me" (Galatians 2:20). Your life is no longer about you. You are about
Life! This unitive encounter is the "cure" for our inherent
selfishness and separateness.
A.A. is careful to point out that this "spiritual
experience" is not always "sudden and spectacular" as it was in
Bill Wilson's case. "Most of our experiences are what the psychologist
William James calls the 'educational variety,' because they develop slowly over
a period of time. . . . With few exceptions, our members find that [over time]
they have tapped an unexpected inner resource which they presently identify
with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves." [4]
Step 2 is the necessary longing, delaying, and backsliding
that invariably precedes the full leap of faith. The statement wisely uses an
active verb to describe the movement: came to believe. The surrender of faith
does not happen in one moment, but is an extended journey, a trust walk, a
gradual letting go, unlearning, and handing over. No one does it on the first
or even second try. Desire and longing must be significantly deepened and
broadened.
To finally surrender ourselves to healing, we have to have
three spaces opened up within us, all at the same time: our opinionated head,
our closed-down heart, and our defensive and defended body. That is the core
work of all spirituality--and it is work. Yet, it is finally the work of
"a Power greater than ourselves." [5] All we can do is keep out of
the way, note and weep over our defensive behaviors, and open our full selves
to God's presence. The Presence that is surely the Highest Power is then
obvious, all embracing, and quickly effective. So it takes us a long time to
come to believe--which is the gradual healing and reconnecting of head, heart,
and body so they operate as one open field. [6] Without this, many, if not
most, people remain religious but not spiritual (which organized religion has
been content with for far too long).
References:
[1]
"J," A Simple Program: A Contemporary Translation of the Book
"Alcoholics Anonymous" (Hyperion: 1996), 40.
[2] Ibid.,
41.
[3] Ibid.,
25-26.
[4] Ibid.,
159-160.
[5] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
(Franciscan Media: 2011), 8.
[6] Ibid.,
15.
Step 3: Turning Over Our Lives
We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to
the care of God as we understood God --Step 3 of the Twelve Steps
Notice that each of the Twelve Steps is expressed in terms
of "we" and "us." There is a real sense of community and
inclusivity in A.A. rather than the hyper-individualism and exclusionary
tendencies that have contributed to making Western Christianity so ineffective.
Atheism is actually a product of Western Christianity, which has promoted a
spirituality of individual advancement--perfectibility, achievement,
performance, and willpower. This is a far cry from the "loser's
script" of the naked, bleeding, crucified Christ. [1] The over-emphasis on
individualism has also presented a toxic version of God as judgmental and
unforgiving. If you ask an atheist to describe the God they do not believe in,
you will probably discover that you don't believe in that God either! How can
we expect people to fall in love with a God who is going to burn them in hell
forever if they mess up? I mean that quite seriously.
It should come as no surprise, then, that about half the
original members of A.A. considered themselves atheists or agnostics before
they began the Twelve Step program. [2] It is exactly the freedom to
"choose your own conception of God" [3], as Bill's friend put it,
that frees even atheists and agnostics to be able to "lay aside prejudice
and express a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves."
[4]
The Big Book describes the spaciousness for a variety of
positive beliefs about a Higher Power:
Much to our relief, we discovered that we did not need to
consider anyone else's conception of God. Our own conception, however
inadequate [I would add that no conception of God is adequate!], was sufficient
to make the approach and to effect a contact with a Higher Power, or God. As
soon as we admitted the possible existence of a Creative Force, a Oneness in
the Universe underlying the totality of things, we began to be possessed of a new
sense of power and direction, provided we took other simple steps. We found
that God does not remain aloof from those who seek God. To us, the Realm of
Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those
who earnestly seek. [5]
Christians should not insist that "my Higher Power is
better than your Higher Power." This is love of self and not love of God.
But it is still good for Christians to know that our Jesus was made to order
for the transformative problems of addiction and human suffering. From the
cross, Jesus draws all suffering people to himself. This God suffers with us.
What humiliated and wounded addict cannot look on the image
of the crucified Jesus and see himself or herself? Who would not rush toward
surrender and communion with such a crucified God, who against all
expectations, shares in our powerlessness, our failure, and our indignity? Who
would not find themselves revealed, renamed, and released inside of such a God?
The suffering creatures of this world have a Being who does
not judge or condemn them or in any way stand aloof from their plight, but a
Being who hangs with them and flows toward and through them in their despair.
And further, this God wants to love and be loved rather than be served (John
15:15). [6]
Giving our life over to such a God is surrendering to Love,
making it easier to say with many Twelve Steppers, "God, I offer myself to
Thee--to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the
bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will . . . and bear witness to those
I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life." [7] Or as Jesus
and Mary simply said, "Thy will be done."
References:
[1] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, How Do We Breathe Under Water?: The Gospel and 12-Step
Spirituality (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2005), CD, DVD, MP3
download.
[2]
"J," A Simple Program: A Contemporary Translation of the Book
"Alcoholics Anonymous" (Hyperion: 1996), 41.
[3] Ibid.,
11.
[4] Ibid.,
43.
[5] Ibid.,
43.
[6] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
(Franciscan Media: 2011), 125-126.
[7] A Simple
Program, 59.
Step 4: Dark Grace
We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of
ourselves -- Step 4 of the Twelve Steps
Moral scrutiny is not to discover how good or bad I am and
regain some moral high ground, but it is to begin some honest "shadow
boxing" which is at the heart of all spiritual awakening. Yes, "the
truth will set you free" as Jesus says (John 8:32); "but first it
will make you miserable," as many others have said. The medieval spiritual
writers called this defeat to the ego compunction: the necessary sadness and
humiliation that come from seeing one's own failures and weaknesses. Without
confidence in a Greater Love, none of us will have the courage to admit our
failures. Self-scrutiny merely becomes neurotic scrupulosity about
non-essential moral issues (Colossians 2:16-23) rather than mature development
of conscience, human love, or social awareness. I know this from years of
hearing Catholic confessions.
Shadow boxing, what Bill Wilson called a "searching and
fearless moral inventory," is for the sake of truth and humility and
generosity of spirit, not vengeance on the self or some kind of victory over
the self. None of us need or expect perfect people around us, but we do want
people who can be up front and honest about their mistakes and limitations and
hopefully grow from them.
Apparently that's what God wants, too: simple honesty and
humility. There is no other way to read Jesus' stories of the prodigal son
(Luke 15:11-32) or the publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14). In each story,
the one who did wrong ends up being right--simply because he is honest about
it. How have we been able to miss that important point? I suspect it is because
the ego wants to think well of itself and deny any shadow material within
itself. Only the soul knows that we grow best in the shadowlands. We are
blinded inside of either total light or total darkness, but "the light shines
on inside the darkness, and it is a light that darkness cannot overcome"
(John 1:5). In darkness we find and ever long for more light. I would call this
dark grace. But most of us have only been taught about light and pretty grace,
and so we miss at least half of our opportunities for encountering both God and
ourselves.
Reference:
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
(Franciscan Media: 2011), 30-33
Step 5: Admitting Our Wrongdoings
We admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being
the exact nature of our wrongs --Step 5 of the Twelve Steps
Almost all religion and cultures that I know of have
believed in one way or another that sin and evil are to be punished, and
retribution is to be demanded of the sinner in this world--and usually the next
world too. Such retributive justice is a dualistic system of reward and
punishment, good guys and bad guys, and makes perfect sense to the ego. I call
it the normal economy of merit or "meritocracy." This system is the
best that prisons, courtrooms, wars, and even most of the church (which should
know better) can do.
The revelation from Jesus' healings and the Twelve Steps,
however, shows that sin and failure are, in fact, the setting and opportunity
for the transformation and enlightenment of the offender. The aim is to return
the person to a useful position in the community. Thus there can be healing on
both sides. Such restorative justice is a mystery that makes sense to the soul
and is entirely an "economy of grace." Jesus and most of the prophets
demonstrated restorative justice, but the term only entered our vocabulary in
the last twenty years. [1] All counting and keeping of ledgers ceases once you
know the Gospel.
As any good therapist will tell you, you cannot heal what
you do not acknowledge, and what you do not consciously acknowledge will remain
in control from within, festering and destroying you and those around you. In
the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says, "If you bring forth that which is within
you, it will save you. If you do not bring it forth, it will destroy you."
[2]
The Big Book applies this passage to the addict: "More
than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He or she is very much the
actor. To the outer world the alcoholic presents a stage character. This is the
one alcoholics like everyone else to see. They want to enjoy a certain
reputation, but know in their heart they don't deserve it. . . . [So] they are
under constant fear and tension--which makes for more drinking." [3] Like
all children, they fear punishment or rejection for their bad behavior, not yet
knowing that God uses our bad behavior to improve us. This is restorative
justice.
All of us are "actors" to some degree. We are all
addicted to our own chosen self-image. An empathic listener or true friend
helps us forgive our own "tragic flaw" by holding it with us and
helping us hand it over to God who can hold everything. I am grateful to have
been trained by some wise seminary professors not to sit on a judgment seat,
but only on the mercy seat when I am listening to people's stories or
confessions. The book of Exodus says God comes to meet Israel at the
"mercy seat," the open horizon above the Ark of the Covenant,
tellingly protected by two angels (25:22). [4] That is where God meets all of
us, and it probably does take a couple of angels to protect this gracious space
from all the opposites of mercy that seek to dwell in the soul.
References:
[1] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
(Franciscan Media: 2011), 38-39.
[2] As
quoted in "J," A Simple Program: A Contemporary Translation of the
Book "Alcoholics Anonymous" (Hyperion: 1996), 68.
[3] Ibid.,
68.
[4] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
(Franciscan Media: 2014), 99.
Step 6: Undergoing God
We were entirely ready to have God remove all of these
defects of character --Step 6 of the Twelve Steps
I like to say that we must "undergo God." Yes, God
is pure and free gift, but there is a necessary undergoing to surrender to this
Momentous Encounter. As others have put it, and it works well in English, to
fully understand is always to stand under and let things have their way with
you. It is strangely a giving up of control to receive a free gift and find a
new kind of "control." Try it and you will believe the paradox for
yourself.
The connection point is perhaps clarified by a statement
from photographer Ansel Adams who would wait days and hours for the perfect
circumstances and ideal light to take his iconic photos. Adams said,
"Chance favors the prepared mind." Gifted people know this to be
true. They look like geniuses to the outsider, and often they are, but there is
a method behind their holy madness. They have learned to wait for and fully
expect what Hungarian psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi brilliantly
calls "flow." It is no surprise that our common metaphors for the
Holy Spirit all honor and point to a kind of flow experience: living water,
blowing wind, descending flames, and alighting doves.
So the waiting, the preparing of the mind for
"chance," the softening of the heart, the deepening of intention and
desire, the readiness to really let go, the recognition that I really do not
want to let go, the actual willingness to change--our readiness is the work of
weeks, months, and years of opening ourselves to God. [1] The key is to be
willing rather than willful. I learned that from Thérèse of Lisieux and my
friend and mentor, now deceased, Gerald May.
Gerald pointed out in his marvelous book, The Dark Night of
the Soul, that you must be willing to endure dark periods of feeling that God
isn't here, that nothing is happening, that God has given up on you. Gerald
makes it very clear that if God wants to work in you, God has to do it
secretly, in darkness. God can't let you know what's going on, because you're
likely to get in the way! You may try to engineer the process yourself and
thereby destroy it; or you may try to stop it altogether because you are afraid
of the immense freedom and spaciousness God is leading you toward. [2] It's
only the wise, broken ones who allow themselves to "undergo God" and
to trustingly "let go and let God."
References:
[1] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
(Franciscan Media: 2011), 54-55.
[2] Adapted
from Richard Rohr, How Do We Breathe Under Water?: The Gospel and 12-Step
Spirituality (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2005), CD, DVD, MP3 download
SENSITIVE TO COMMUNITY, BEYOND OURSELVES
An article by Fr Ron Rolheiser. The original can be found here 
Some years ago I was challenged by a Bishop regarding an article I’d written. We were talking in his office and the tone eventually got a little testy: “How can you write something like that?” he asked. “Because it’s true,” was my blunt reply. He already knew it was true, but now, realizing that, he became more aware of his real agenda: “Yes, I know it’s true, but that doesn’t mean it should be said in that way in a Catholic newspaper like ours. This isn’t a university classroom or the New York Times. It’s a diocesan newspaper and that’s not the best context within which to say something like that. It will confuse a lot of readers.”
I’m not immune to pride and arrogance and so my spontaneous reaction was defensive. Immediately there were certain voices in me saying: “I am only saying what’s true. The truth needs to be spoken. Why are you afraid to hear the truth? Are we really doing people a favor by shielding them from things they’d rather not hear?”
But I’m glad I swallowed my pride, bit my tongue, muttered a half-sincere apology, and walked out of his office without saying any of those things out loud because, after my initial feelings had subsided and I’d had a more sober and prayerful reflection on our conversation, I realized he was right. Having the truth is one thing, speaking it in a place and a manner that’s helpful is quite another. It’s not for nothing that Jesus challenged us to speak our truth in parables because truth, as T.S. Eliot once quipped, cannot always be swallowed whole and the context and tone within which it is spoken generally dictate whether it’s helpful or not to speak it at a given time or to a given person. Simply put, it isn’t always helpful, or charitable, or mature, to throw a truth into someone’s face.
St. Paul says as much in his Epistle to the Romans in words to this effect: We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. (Romans 15, 1) That can come across as patronizing, as if Paul were telling a certain elite to tone down some of their enlightened views and actions for the sake of those who are less enlightened, but that’s not what’s at stake here. Undergirding this kind of admonition is a fundamental distinction that’s critically important in our teaching, preaching, and pastoral practice, namely, the distinction between Catechesis and Theology, the distinction between nurturing and shoring-up someone’s faith as opposed to stretching someone’s faith so as to make it more universally compassionate.
Catechesis is meant to teach doctrine, teach prayers, teach creeds, clarify biblical and church teachings, and give people a solid, orthodox framework within which to understand their Christian faith. Theology, on the other hand, presupposes that those studying it are already catechized, that they already know their creeds and prayers and have a solid, orthodox foundation. Theology’s function, among other things, is then to stretch its students in function of giving them the symbolic tools with which to understand their faith in a way that leaves no dark, hidden corners into which they are afraid to venture for fear of shaking their faith. Catechesis and Theology have different functions and must respect each other since both are needed: Young seedling plants need to be protected and gently nurtured; just as older, mature plants have to be given the wherewithal to live and thrive inside all the environmental challenges in which they find themselves.
Thus the challenge coming to me from the bishop was, in effect, to be more careful with my audience so as to distinguish theology classrooms and academic periodicals from catechetical situations and church newspapers.
It carried too a special challenge to humility and charity, such as was, for example, shown by the scientist-philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Elderly, retired, and in declining health, he still found himself “silenced” by the Vatican in that we has forbidden to publish his theological thoughts. But, rather than reacting with anger and arrogance, he reacted with charity and humility. Writing to his Jesuit Provincial, acknowledges needs beyond his own: “I fully recognize that Rome may have its own reasons for judging that, in its present form, my concept of Christianity may be premature or incomplete and that at the present moment its wider diffusion may therefore be inopportune. … [This letter] is to assure you that, in spite of any apparent evidence to the contrary, I am resolved to remain a child of obedience. Obviously, I cannot abandon my own personal search – that would involve me in an interior catastrophe and in disloyalty to my most cherished vocation; but I have ceased to propagate my ideas and am confining myself to achieving a deeper personal insight into them.”
Recognizing the importance of sensitivity as to where and how we speak the truth, Jesus advises: “Speak your truth in parables.”
JOHN THE BAPTIST- AGENT OF CHANGE
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
Luke 3:4-6
John the Baptist has a brief but incredibly daunting mission in the Gospels: to prepare the way for the Lord. In contemporary terms we would say John’s task was to be a “change agent.”
John preached the necessity of a complete cultural change in the approach to faith and religion if his contemporaries were going to be able to hear and receive the message of Christ (who in turn would change the world forever).
John’s “mission statement” is an important source of prayer and reflection for anyone working in their local parish or faith-based organization seeking to inspire and enact change. Change is a scary word, but it doesn’t have to be a dirty word. Blessed John Henry Newman said: “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
That’s why it’s important we look to holy, faithful leaders who have gone before us, like John the Baptist, to give us a real picture of what and howthis change will look like in our present context. Here are just four that really stick out in Scripture:
Change Requires Leadership
As much as people want change, it just can’t happen until leaders step up to the plate. To be a leader, John was willing to take risks and learn from others. Rick Warren often says, “Every leader is a learner.” John’s style of leadership was steeped in a life of study and prayer with the scriptures, in this case learning from the great prophet Isaiah.
Another thought- that John “hears a voice” implies that he is listening for one. In other words, be a leader who listens.
Change Requires Vision
Vision is a bold word, as it should be. Vision needs to be big enough to inspire people to move. The problem with a vision that is too bold; just one that’s unclear. John’s vision is right to the point, that all will “see the salvation of God.”
Change Requires a Direction
Vision inspires, but people cannot follow if you don’t know where you’re going. John came to make the winding roads straight. For John, repentance and baptism was the way to prepare for Jesus.
In a parish setting, having direction means clearly defining and communicating your strategies to your staff, ministers, or congregation. At Nativity, one example is our “Ministry Standards” that every minister agrees to follow ensuring consistent quality and commitment (even for volunteers). Develop measurable goals and standards for your ministry/program. This also makes it easier to re-evaluate or “change direction” if you get off track.
Change Requires Perseverance
Change is usually slow. Keep the vision in front of you at all times and be prepared for criticism. John is an example of perseverance to the end (Matthew 14). John never saw the full fruit of his mission, but 2,000 years later, we’re still talking about the change he inspires in our church.
The call to rejoice
John Moffatt SJ opens our eyes to the ways in which we might link our human aspirations to our heavenly ones. The original article can be found on the Thinking Faith website cy clicking here
I once heard someone sum up the spirit of the Jewish festivals as: ‘they tried to kill us, we got away, hey, let’s have a party!’ This reminds us of something vital in the text of our faith tradition. When we hear Zephaniah’s call to shout for joy, we are, first and foremost, hearing that ancient spirit of human celebration. It is the voice of a people that had been crushed, but that has now been brought back to life. In a wonderful, gracious moment of history the exiles of Assyria and Babylon return to Jerusalem to make a new beginning, and in that moment of history, they recognise the saving action of God. This experience, the recorded experience of one people and the shared experience of humanity, underpins the call to rejoice that runs through the readings for the third Sunday of Advent. Salvation is being rescued from our enemies, being allowed to live in peace, rejoicing in the freedom to be ourselves before the God who made us.
But when we delve deeper, we find that those texts of rejoicing and return that we read at this time of year are surrounded by texts that speak of war and conflict. They come from a region where city-states and small nations rubbed shoulders with local and aggressive superpowers from Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Persia. As I sit in (comparatively comfortable) Beirut writing this, it feels that not much has changed two-and-a-half millennia on. A violent civil war still rages in Syria, claiming fifty to a hundred lives a day. The refugees on the borders and in the towns struggle to survive as winter comes on. From the Gaza strip this morning, Hamas militants fired twenty more rockets into southern Israel and celebrated blowing up a bus in Tel Aviv, while the Israeli state continues its uncompromising and deadly response in Operation ‘Pillar of Cloud’. Lebanon itself, though reasonably calm, is still feeling the shock-waves from the assassination of its security chief last month. The ‘Party of God’, Hizbullah, committed to the annihilation of Israel and armed for the purpose by Iran and Syria, uses its military muscle to exercise a stranglehold on healthy political growth. Simmering local tensions and rivalries remain unresolved, and there are plenty of guns lying around in case negotiation fails.
This is, of course, just one troubled corner of the world and there are many others, which find their way into the international news less readily than these. But all of them force the question of what it means to rejoice in the Lord, here in this place, wherever you may be, at this time. The moments of human rejoicing in human history always pass and may well not be present for us now. It seems we are being called to rejoice in spite of what may be going on around us, or within us. But how can we rejoice in the Lord in a way that ignores this life of ours and that of our fellow human beings? Do we really have to detach our human aspirations from our transcendent hope (whatever that means)?
We must here acknowledge one of the charges that has often been laid against our faith: that it appears to teach people to accept their present, real misery for the sake of an obscure future happiness, instead of encouraging them to take action and make things better. It is a form of religion that too comfortably suits the advantage of stratified societies and totalitarian regimes not to arouse suspicion. It is the Epicurean dimension of Christianity that encourages those who seek true peace to stay out of politics and take refuge in the garden.
But such criticism misses the vital centre of Christian discourse, something which it shares with every religious tradition. You might call it the strange desire for God, or perhaps just the strange desire for what lies beyond our limits. It is something that many, though not all, human beings experience. This strange desire is occasionally met with an answer: the silent voice from beyond, a powerful and delightful presence, whose final meaning we never grasp. It passes as if it had never been and yet makes us afterwards look at everything around us with different eyes, and perhaps with different hearts. It is such an encounter that enables us Christians to see in the cross not just the hideous human cruelty and that terrible moment of annihilating failure, but the deeper love, the victory of life and a final overcoming of all that we most fear. It is this that can also free us in our turn to confront the cruelty and failures of history and reveal in our small way, signs of hope.
Here, then, is our key to understanding how it is that we can rejoice, here and now. We have been privileged to glimpse something that helps us see the world aright and to find our true place in it. This we celebrate. As we contemplate the advent of the God-man into our world, not to destroy or abandon it, but to make it new, we are invited to see once more with new eyes and a new heart the world around us. What might we see?
I find a timeless image in Homer’s description of Achilles’s new shield, forged by Hephaestos for him, as he prepares to return to battle and avenge the death of his companion Patroclus. The Iliad itself announces as its theme the pain and suffering brought about by Achilles’s anger and we spend most of the great epic on the battlefield between the Greek camp and Troy, a city under siege, doomed to fall. But strangely on the new shield, yes there are scenes of battle and violence, but there are also scenes of dancing, merrymaking and feasting, pastoral scenes from the hills and fields. As Achilles prepares to go out and massacre Trojans he carries on his shoulders something that reminds us, the listeners, that the world is not, after all, limited to the plains of Troy and that the horrors of battle do not contain the whole truth of the human condition.
This, it seems to me, is what we are invited to recognise as we hear the call to rejoice, not written on the page but echoing in that deep and mysterious silence towards which our eternal longings are directed. We are not asked to separate our human aspirations from heavenly ones – how could we, if we believe in the incarnation and the resurrection of the body? Rather we are invited to recognise that what has its roots in the longings of time finds its answer in eternity. But equally the lessons of eternity are learnt amidst the things of time.
Finally, and most importantly, if we understand that, we will understand what our action in history means and why not all of us can stay in the garden. We have a task to be shared with men and women of good will. That task is to bring to birth those moments of salvation and liberation in our world. For these are the living signs of our hope. It doesn’t have to be complicated. John tells the tax-collectors simply to be honest, and the soldiers to keep the peace with integrity. Be a good boss, a faithful partner, a generous neighbour. Sometimes it will be more, much more, as on the day that Nelson Mandela stepped out and forgave his captors. Such are the sacramental actions that speak to the longings of a suffering humanity and reveal the power and the love that lie beyond. The authors of Gaudium et Spes, witnesses of the horrors of twentieth century Europe, understood this. They knew that there was no credible way back to a dreamy, stratified romanticism about an imagined medieval past. The proclamation of faith cannot bypass the actual joys and sorrows of those around us, in a world of often harsh political, social and economic realities. Authentic worship belongs to the weekday. It is a sign of our lives before God in a world ever-groaning to give birth to his word, not an endless flight from a godless generation.
As I finish, Lebanon is celebrating its independence day and the US celebrates Thanksgiving. ‘They tried to kill us, we escaped, let’s have a party!’ Our celebrations are human and divine.John speaks of the one who is to come carrying a winnowing-fan, bringing fire and judgment. But the one whose coming we delight in also walked our streets, healed our sick and broke bread with sinners. At the heart of our history he carries the cross. In the privileged moments when are eyes and hearts are opened to see the world aright, this changes everything.
John Moffatt SJ
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