Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Mob: 0417 279 437; mike.delaney@aohtas.org.au
Assistant Priest:
Fr Alexander Obiorah
Mob: 0447 478 297; alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk
Postal Address:
Parish Office:
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: mikedelaney.podomatic.com
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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Weekday Masses 29th March - 2nd April Mass Times
Next Weekend 2nd & 3rd April
Tuesday: 9:30am - Penguin Saturday: 9:00am Ulverstone
Wednesday: 9:30am - Latrobe Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin & Dport
Thursday: 12noon - Devonport Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
Friday: 9:30am - Ulverstone 9:00am Ulverstone 9:30am - Devonport 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.
Legion of Mary:
Sacred
Heart Church Community Room, Ulverstone, Wednesdays, 11am
Prayer Groups:
Charismatic Renewal
Devonport (Emmaus House) - Thursdays commencing 7.30pm
Christian Meditation:
Devonport, Emmaus House - Wednesdays 7pm.
Ministry Rosters 2nd & 3rd April, 2016
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: M Gaffney, M Gerrand, H Lim
10:30am A Hughes, T Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion: Vigil D Peters,
M Heazlewood,
S Innes, M Gerrand, P Shelverton, M Kenney
S
Fletcher
Cleaners 1st April: M.W.C. 8th April: P Shelverton, E Petts
Piety Shop 2nd April: R McBain 3rd April: P Piccolo Flowers: M O’Brien-Evans
Ulverstone:
Reader: E Cox
Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, J
Landford
Cleaners: B&V
McCall, G Doyle Flowers: M Bryan
Hospitality: B O’Rourke, S McGrath
Penguin:
Greeters: S Ewing, J Garnsey Commentator: E Nickols Readers: M Murray, R Fifita
Procession: S Ewing, J Barker Ministers of Communion: M Hiscutt, J Garnsey
Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J Setting Up: S Ewing Care of Church: M Bowles, M Owen
Port Sorell:
Readers: D Leaman, T Jeffires Ministers of Communion: L Post
Clean/Flowers/Prepare/ B
Lee, A Holloway
Your prayers are asked for the sick: Connie Fulton, Thomas McGeown, Lorna Jones, Geraldine Roden, Joy Carter, Kath Smith &...
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Graham Nicholson,
June Bennett, Bernard Gillon, Kevin
Sheedy, Lauren Crowe,
Maisie Gadsby, Bryn Peden, Glen Halley Snr, Thomas Beard
and Fr Elio Proietto,
Maisie Gadsby, Bryn Peden, Glen Halley Snr, Thomas Beard
and Fr Elio Proietto,
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 23rd – 29th March
Eva Rogers, Peter Bolster, Doreen
Alderson, Robert Charlton, Mary Marshall,
Paul Banim & John Hoye. Also Jamie Fahey,
Billy & Kate Last, Hedley & Enid Stubbs, Arch & Corrie Webb, Joseph & Anne Charlesworth and
relatives & friends.
May they Rest in Peace
Readings This Week; Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord
First Reading: Acts 10:34, 37-43
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-4
Gospel: John 20: 1-9
PREGO ON TODAY'S GOSPEL:
I try and make time in this busy season to come and to
spend time with my Risen Lord. When I have become still I slowly read this
passage a couple of times. What strikes me in this text? Perhaps I can enter
into some of the feelings the disciples manifest. Mary of Magdala comes sad,
alone, fearful in the dark of the early morning. Why? As she runs towards the
group’s leader what are her thoughts, fears, hopes? Or is she lost in grief?
Peter and John (presumably) run to the tomb? Why the haste? Can I identify with
Peter or with John? When I reach the tomb and see that it’s empty, how do I
feel? Puzzled? Fearful? Angry? Full of grief? Daring to hope? Can I enter the
empty tomb? Or do I feel the stone is still there? I stay with the feelings and
thoughts that arise in me, remembering that I have journeyed with Jesus to this
place. I remain there and then speak to the Lord about all that I experience.
Perhaps I can unite with him in a prayer of joy and praise for his triumph over
death. Or maybe I pray for understanding and a deepening of my faith in the
resurrection. I end with a prayer of love and gratitude to the Father who has
raised up his Son.
Readings Next Week; Second Sunday of Easter
First Reading: Acts 5:12-16
Second Reading: Apocalypse 1:9-13. 17-19
Gospel: John 20: 19- 31
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
Happy Resurrection Day!! In the Northern Hemisphere it would be very obvious that this is the time of new life with Spring beginning and new growth all around – here we will probably have had some showers and cooler days and, hopefully, some time for a little reflection and then time for families.
By
now you will have noticed that Paschal has been around during these past few
days – I apologise for not mentioning last weekend that he would be here for
the Ceremonies of Holy Week and Easter. He heads back to the Seminary early
this coming week for further studies.
Next
week I will be in Melbourne for two days concluding my work with ReVenture and
Industrial Chaplaincy after almost 39 years (I resigned from the Board at the
end of 2015) - I am attending one last strategy day and Dinner.
I
will be meeting with some people about Parish Programs both in Melbourne and
Hobart (the following week) to see if there are things we can do here to assist
our faith formation and ‘up-skilling’.
Thanks
to all those people who have pledged to assist me in my weight loss
campaign/fun(d)raising effort for WYD. There are more pledge forms available
this weekend for those who missed out in the rush last week – I’m not
mentioning my weight loss/gain each week because I don’t want to spoil the
surprise at the end (!!) - but my starting weight was an unhealthy 102.7kgs and
this is not the ABC Northern Tasmania radio station!!
Next
weekend we hope to have photos & some bio details for the 5 people from the
Parish who are heading off to WYD and some details for fundraising efforts that
will be held in the Parish over the coming months.
I
would also like to express my welcome to Samantha McGrath, Nicholas Saltmarsh
and Tina Badcock after their journey into our Catholic Community at the Easter
Vigil – may they continue to grow in faith and the love of the Lord and be
supported by our Parish Community as they continue their journey.
Until next week
take care in your homes and on the roads
congratulate and welcome
Nicholas Saltmarsh,
Samantha McGrath,
who were baptised at the Easter Vigil, and
Tina Badcock,
who was received into the Church,
to our parish family.
We are called to continue with our prayers
and support for them
as they commence
full sacramental participation
in the life of the church.
The month of April has again been allocated to our Parish
to assist with Grans Van on the four Sunday evenings in that month. Help is
required as follows, (a) cooking a stew (b) assisting with the food
distribution (c) driving the van. Help with (b) and (c) would take about two
hours of your time.
If you are able to assist with any of the above please
contact Lyn Otley 6424:4736 or Shirley Ryan 6424:1508.
MEN ALIVE:
Next session Friday 1st April 9:00am at Emmaus House.
All men welcome. Enquiries Tony Ryan 6424:1508
DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY 3rd APRIL:
Would parishioners who will be participating in the Divine
Mercy Chaplet at 10:30am please remember to bring a plate of food to share –
Thank you!
ST VINCENT
DE PAUL:
will be holding their Button
Day on Friday 8th April. If anyone has an hour or two to
spare it would be much appreciated. Please contact Marie.
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY:
Lucky Shamrocks were drawn on 17th March and all
winners have been notified.
Callers for Thursday 31st
March Merv Tippett & Tony Ryan
FOOTY TICKETS:
Its AFL footy season again and we are selling footy margin tickets. Buy a ticket (or two!) $2.00 each – three prizes of $100.00 every week -You need to be in it to win it!!
If you want a weekly ticket and miss out at Church, please contact the Parish Office (and if you pay for the year upfront) we can make sure you get a weekly ticket.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
SISTERS OF ST
JOSEPH SESQUICENTENARY
The Sisters of St Joseph invite you to join us in
joy and thanksgiving as we celebrate 150 years since our foundation 19th
March 1866 at Penola, South Australia. We
have forged strong links with the people of this parish over many years
establishing schools in Forth 1889, Ulverstone 1889, Devonport 1891 and accepting
Pastoral Care of Penguin Parish in 1986.
We remember the many people who have been part of this journey with us. Together
let us continue to “listen to the heartbeat of the world” responding in faith and trust as did our
patron, Joseph and our Founders, Mary MacKillop and Julian Tenison Woods.
THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO PROGRAM – AIRS 27th
MARCH 2016
This week on The Journey Bishop Peter Ingham presents his
Easter Message; Sr Hilda Scott OSB asks us to “Claim the Risen Lord;” Trish
McCarthy reflects on the “Joy of a Spirit Filled Life” and Fr Dave Callaghan
MGL reminds us that “Jesus Is the Answer.”
Go to www.jcr.org.au or www.itunes.jcr.org.au where you can listen anytime or subscribe to weekly shows
Mersey
Leven Parish Team would like to thank
all
those who helped with the preparation
of
all Easter Liturgies.
We wish everyone a very safe and happy Easter.
THE UNDERSTANDING AND COMPASSION OF GOOD FRIDAY
From an article by Fr Ron Rolheiser. The original can be found here
As Jesus is being crucified he utters these words: “Forgive them, they know not what they do.” It is not easy to say these words and it is perhaps even more difficult to grasp them in their depth. What does it mean, really mean, to understand and forgive a violent action against you?
There are various approaches here: For example, in a tragic note, shared countless times on Social Media, a man who lost his wife in the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015 wrote these words, addressed to those who killed his wife:
“On Friday evening you stole the life of an exceptional person, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you will not have my hatred. I don’t know who you are and I don’t want to know, you are dead souls. If this God for whom you kill blindly made us in his image, every bullet in the body of my wife is a wound in his heart. So no, I will not give you the satisfaction of hating you. You want it, but to respond to hatred with anger would be to give in to the same ignorance that made you what you are. … We are only two, my son and I, but we are more powerful than all the world’s armies… every day of his life this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom.”
While this response is wonderfully heroic and virtuous, it does not, I believe, go deep enough in its understanding and compassion. Virtuous as it is, it still carries a note of moral separateness, of a certain superiority. Further still, it lacks all admission of being itself somehow complicit in the unfortunate circumstances of culture and history that helped bring about this horrible act because it avoids the question: Why do you hate me? It is a very positive and helpful note in its refusal of hatred; but, I fear, it may have exactly the opposite effect upon those whom it accuses. It will further enflame their hatred.
Contrast this with the letter the Trappist Abbott, Christian de Cherge, wrote to his family, just before he, himself, was killed by Islamic terrorists. He writes:
“If it should happen one day—and it could be today—that I become a victim of the terrorism which now seems ready to encompass all the foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church, my family, to remember that my life was given to God and to this country. I ask them to accept that the One Master of all life was not a stranger to this brutal departure. … I ask them to be able to associate such a death with the many other deaths that were just as violent, but forgotten through indifference and anonymity. … I have lived long enough to know that I share in the evil which seems, alas, to prevail in the world, even in that which would strike me blindly. I should like, when the time comes, to have a clear space which would allow me to beg forgiveness of God and of all my fellow human beings, and at the same time to forgive with all my heart the one who would strike me down. … I do not see, in fact, how I could rejoice if this people I love were to be accused indiscriminately of my murder. It would be to pay too dearly for what will, perhaps, be called “the grace of martyrdom,” to owe it to an Algerian, whoever he may be, especially if he says he is acting in fidelity to what he believes to be Islam. I know the scorn with which Algerians as a whole can be regarded. I know also the caricature of Islam which a certain kind of Islamism encourages. It is too easy to give oneself a good conscience by identifying this religious way with the fundamentalist ideologies of the extremists. … This is what I shall be able to do, if God wills—immerse my gaze in that of the Father, to contemplate with him his children of Islam just as he sees them, all shining with the glory of Christ, the fruit of his Passion, filled with the Gift of the Spirit, whose secret joy will always be to establish communion and to refashion the likeness, delighting in the differences. … And you also, the friend of my final moment, [my executioner], who would not be aware of what you were doing. Yes, for you also I wish this “thank you”—and this adieu—to commend you to the God whose face I see in yours. And may we find each other, happy ‘good thieves,’ in Paradise, if it pleases God, the Father of us both. Amen.
Ah, to have grace and compassion to hope to have a drink one day with our enemies in heaven, laughing together at our former misguided hatred, under the loving gaze of the same God!
Alternative
Orthodoxy: Week 2
This is a collation of the daily emails posted by Fr Richard Rohr. You can subscribe to the emails here
Cosmos
Instead of Churchiness
Once
you are in an authority position in any institution, your job is to preserve
that institution, and your freedom to live and speak the full truth becomes
limited. Francis taught us to live on the edge of the church, rather than
managing the institution. We were not intended to be parish priests. Francis
himself refused priesthood, and most of the original friars were laymen rather
than clerics. This position offered the Franciscans structural freedom. We were
to always occupy the position of "minority" in this world. (The M in
OFM stands for minorum, Ordo Fratrum Minorum.) Francis wanted us to live a life
on the edge of the inside--not at the center or at the top, but not outside
throwing rocks, either. This unique position offers structural freedom and hopefully
spiritual freedom too.
The
early Franciscans said the first Bible was not the written Bible, but creation
itself, the cosmos. "Ever since the creation of the world, God's eternal
power and divinity--however invisible--have become visible for the mind to see
in all the things that God has made" (Romans 1:20). This is surely true;
but you have to sit still in it for a while, observe it, and love it without
trying to rearrange it by thinking you can fully understand it. This
combination of observation along with love--not with resistance, judgment,
analysis, or labeling--just observation with love and reverence, is probably
the best definition of contemplation I can give. You simply participate in what
one Carmelite described as a long loving look at the real.
For
Francis, nature itself was a mirror for the soul, for self, and for God. Clare
uses the word mirror more than any other metaphor for what is happening between
God and soul. The job of church and theology is to help us look in the mirror
that is already present. All this "mirroring" eventually effects a
complete change in consciousness. Thomas of Celano, Francis' first biographer,
writes that Francis would "rejoice in all the works of the Lord and saw
behind them things pleasant to behold--their life giving reason and cause. In
beautiful things he saw Beauty Itself, and all things were to him good."
[1] This mirroring flows naturally back and forth from the natural world to the
soul. All things find themselves in and through one another. Once that flow
begins, it never stops. You're home, you're healed, you're saved--already in
this world.
That's
the kind of salvation that so many of us perhaps expected, but only in the next
world--and only for a few it seems--if we follow our own criteria. Meanwhile,
we live unhappily and with a sense of scarcity in this world, hoping for some
victory later. I believe the victory is now, or it isn't much of a victory; if
you don't have it now, you won't know how to live it later, or to even desire
it.
Either
this world is the very "Body of God" or we have little evidence of
God at all. "Transactional" theories of a later salvation--instead of
transformation now--have come to mean less and less to most people. Yet those
whose livelihood depends on this theory continue to keep many sincere seekers
codependent on such a message and even their precise formulation of it. Such
codependency only works among people who do not know how to pray and see for
themselves. Salvation is not something you arbitrarily believe in. You only
believe in it because you first of all see it. Francis, a living contemplative,
walked the roads of Italy in the 13th century shouting, "The whole world
is our cloister!" By narrowing the scope of salvation to words, theories, and
select groups, we have led many people not to pay any attention to the miracles
that are all around them all the time here and now.
References:
[1]
Thomas of Celano, "Second Life of St. Francis," Saint Francis of
Assisi: Omnibus of Sources (Franciscan Press: 1991), 494-5.
Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Center
for Action and Contemplation: 2012), disc 3 (CD, MP3 download);
and
In the Footsteps of Francis: Awakening to Creation (Center for Action and
Contemplation: 2010), CD, MP3 download
The
Positive in the Negative
We
must bear patiently not being good . . . and not being thought good.
--St.
Francis of Assisi
Whoever
is willing to serenely bear the trial of being displeasing to herself, that
person is a pleasant place of shelter for Jesus.
--St.
Thérèse of Lisieux
In
these shocking quotes, Francis and Thérèse are trying to teach us to let go of
that deep but deceptive human need to "think well of one's self."
That is the ego talking, they would say. Only someone who has surrendered their
separateness and their superiority can do this, of course. Anyone who has
radically "accepted being accepted" already thinks well of
themselves. Their positive and secure self-image is a divine gift totally given
from the beginning and never self-constructed. It is quite stable and needs no
fanfare.
In
a world where imperfection seems to be everywhere, the humble and the honest
have a huge head start in spiritual matters and can readily find God in their
most ordinary of lives. "To the poor in spirit the kingdom of heaven
already belongs" (Matthew 5:3), Jesus says in his emphatic opening line of
the Sermon on the Mount.
One
thing we all have in common is that we all "sin" (Romans 5:12),
transgress, fall into our imperfections, and make mistakes. There are no
exceptions to this. We are also sinned against as the victims of others'
failure and our own social milieu. Augustine called this "original
sin." But that does not mean we are bad at the core, which is the way it
has unfortunately been misinterpreted for much of Christian history.
You
must first remember who you are! You must start with the positive and not with
a problem, or you never get beyond a kind of negative problem solving. Your
core, your deepest DNA, is divine; it is the Spirit of Love implanted within
you by your Creator at the first moment of your creation (Romans 5:5, 8:11,
14-16 and throughout). We must know that we begin with "original
blessing" as Matthew Fox and others have put it. Augustine was just trying
to describe the inevitability of sin in an imperfect world (so we would not be
surprised). Unfortunately this poorly named and misunderstood negative notion
dominated the next 1500 years of Christianity. The word "sin" implies
culpability, and that was never Augustine's point. In fact, his meaning was
quite the opposite: we all carry the wounds of our parents and ancestors, which
good therapists all know is true. Your sins are not just your own.
Humble
honesty about our positive core, and a compassionate recognition that none of
us completely lives out of our full identity, is the most truthful form of
spirituality. The pull back that creates longing and desire and movement
forward--like an extended rubber band--creates both inherent capability and
negative capability. We all find our lives eventually dragged into opposition,
problems, or "the negative" (sin, failure, betrayal, gossip, fear,
hurt, disease, etc.), and especially the ultimate negation: death itself. What
I love about healthy Christianity is its utter realism. Both divine election
and death in many forms are presented as the school of life. The Divine Life we
have been blessed with, which is actually Love Itself, is big enough to include
all failure and death. The genius of the Christian explanation is that it
includes the problem in the solution: the cross of failure becomes the catapult
toward transformation. Our sins can even become "happy faults," as we
sing on Holy Saturday.
We
might also call this pull-back or negative capability vulnerability or
woundability. The vulnerable person has every reason to keep growing through
everything that happens to them. The overly guarded and self-protected person
is scratched and dented by all "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,"
whereas the malleable, bendable, flexible, woundable person is almost
indestructible. Their wounds are always allowed to be their teachers instead of
their defeat.
It
is crucial that we understand Jesus was never upset with sinners; he was only
upset with people who did not think they were sinners! How marvelous that our
God-image is a wonderfully wounded and vulnerable man. This is a most unlikely
image for God, unless we are able to comprehend that God is telling us
something about the God Self--which is almost incomprehensible: God is also
vulnerable.
Reference:
Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
(Franciscan Media: 2014), 101-106, 111-112.
Everything
Belongs
Like
Jesus, St. Francis did not go down the self-protective and exclusionary track.
They both knew what they were for--and who they were--not just what they were
against. That is the heart of the matter. Jesus and Francis had a genius for
not eliminating or punishing the so-called negative side of the world, but
incorporating it and using it. Francis, merely imitating Jesus, goes to the
edge of town and to the bottom of society; he kisses the leper, loves the poor,
and wears patches on the outside of his habit so everyone will know that this
is what he's like on the inside. Francis doesn't hide from his shadow side, but
weeps over it and welcomes it as his teacher.
The
history of almost every religion begins with one massive misperception; it
begins by making a fatal distinction between the sacred and the profane.
Low-level religions put all their emphasis on creating sacred places, sacred
time, and sacred actions. While I fully appreciate the need for this, it
unfortunately leaves the majority of life "un-sacred." I remember
reading about an Irish missionary's attempt to teach the Masai people about the
Catholic Sacraments. The missionary said that a sacrament is a physical
encounter or event in which you experience Grace or the Holy. The people were
then confused and disappointed when they were told there were only seven such
moments (and all of these just happened to revolve around a priest). One Masai
elder raised his hand and said, "We would have thought, Father, there
would be at least seven thousand such moments, not just seven."
In
authentic mystical moments, any clear distinction between sacred and profane
quickly falls apart. One henceforth knows that all of the world is sacred
because most of the time such moments happen in secular settings. For examples,
look at the lives of Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Elijah, Mary, and Jesus. Our
Franciscan official motto is Deus Meus et Omnia--"My God and all
things." Once you recognize the Christ as the universal truth of matter
and spirit working together as one, then everything is holy. Once you surrender
to this Christ mystery in your oh-so-ordinary self and body, you begin to see
it every other ordinary place too. The principle is this: "Like knows like." As St.
Bonaventure, the philosophical interpreter of Francis, said (quoting Alan of
Lille), "Christ is the one whose center is everywhere and whose
circumference is nowhere." [1]
You
don't have to go to sacred places to pray or wait for holy days for good things
to happen. You can pray always, and everything that happens is potentially
sacred if you allow it to be. Once we can accept that God is in all situations,
and that God can and will use even bad situations for good, then everything
becomes an occasion for good and an occasion for God. "This is the day
Yahweh has made memorable, let us rejoice and be glad in it!" (Psalm
118:24).
Your
task is to find the good, the true, and the beautiful in everything, even and
most especially the problematic. The bad is never strong enough to counteract
the good. You can most easily learn this through some form of contemplative
practice. Within contemplation you must learn to trust your Vital Center over
all the passing jerks and snags of emotions and obsessive thinking. [2] Once
you know you have such a strong and loving soul, which is also the Indwelling
Spirit, you are no longer pulled to and fro with every passing feeling. You
have achieved a peace that nothing else can give you, and that no one can take
from you (John 14:27).
Divine
Incarnation took the form of an Indwelling Presence in every human soul and
surely all creatures in some rudimentary way. Ironically, our human freedom
gives us the ability to stop such a train and refuse to jump on board our own
life. Angels, animals, trees, water, and yes, bread and wine seem to fully
accept and enjoy their wondrous fate. Only humans resist and deny their core
identities. And so we people can cause great havoc, and thus must be somehow
boundaried and contained. But the only way we ourselves can refuse to jump onto
the train of life is by any negative game of exclusion or unlove--even of
ourselves. If you read the Gospel texts carefully, you will see that the only
people Jesus seems to "exclude" are those who are excluding others.
Exclusion might be described as the core sin. Don't waste any time rejecting,
excluding, eliminating, or punishing anyone or anything else. Everything
belongs, including you.
References:
[1]
Alan of Lille, Regulae Theologicae, Reg.
7, as quoted by Bonaventure, translated by Ewert Cousins, The Soul's Journey
into God, Classics of Western Spirituality (Paulist Press: 1978), 100.
[2]
For more on how to move beyond emotional and mental addictions, see Michael A.
Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself (New Harbinger Publications:
2007).
Adapted
from Richard Rohr, Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Center
for Action and Contemplation: 2012), disc 1 (CD, MP3 download);
Eager
to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014), 10;
and
"Franciscan Mysticism," an unpublished talk, April 12, 2012.
Turning
toward the Good
Christianity
is not a moral matter; it's a mystical matter. Yet we turned the Gospel into
"Monday washing day" and neglected the other days--e.g.,
"Thursday baking day" and "Sunday feasting day." Humans
seem to prefer the six stone cold jars of water for ritual purification to the
ecstatic wine of a wedding feast (John 2:1-10). The ego pattern never changes.
The mystical mind is the non-dual, spacious, non-counting mind. The ordinary
dualistic mind is consumed by counting and measuring how moral I am or you are.
It weighs everything up and down--mostly down. The dualistic mind moves toward
quick resolution and too easy closure. It is very judgmental. That's why all great
spiritual teachers say, "Do not judge." Franciscanism is nothing
other than what Francis calls in his Testament "the marrow of the
Gospel"--which is love, always choosing the positive over the negative.
Dan
O'Grady, a psychologist and Living School student, told me recently that our
negative and critical thoughts are like Velcro, they stick and hold; whereas
our positive and joyful thoughts are like Teflon, they slide away. We have to
deliberately choose to hold onto positive thoughts before they "imprint."
Observing my own habits of thought and in counseling others I see this to be
profoundly true. The implications are enormous for individuals and for society.
Neuroscience
can now demonstrate the brain indeed has a negative bias; the brain prefers to
constellate around fearful, negative, or problematic situations. In fact, when
a loving, positive, or unproblematic thing comes your way, you have to savor it
consciously for at least fifteen seconds before it can harbor and store itself
in your "implicit memory;" otherwise it doesn't stick. We must indeed
savor the good in order to significantly change our regular attitudes and
moods. And we need to strictly monitor all the "Velcro" negative
thoughts.
Anything
which the dualistic mind doesn't understand, it quickly names as wrong,
dangerous, sinful, or heretical. The dualistic mind is responsible for most of
the disputes, wars, and violence on earth. The dualistic mind sees most
opposition as highly justified and necessary, because it judges one side to be
superior and one side to be inferior. It always takes sides! The non-dual,
contemplative mind abides in God, the Ultimate Positive. It wants the good, the
true, and the beautiful so much that it's willing to leave the field of the
moment open and to hold onto all parts of it, the seemingly good and the
seemingly negative, and waits for them to fully show themselves.
In
some ways, the Gospel of love is so hard to live because it is so very simple.
We strangely assume that God has to be complicated. The mind seems to insist on
making everything complicated. It wants a job to keep busy. The mind is so
biased toward fear and negativity that the common way we try to get control is
to descend into some dualistic, right-or-wrong system of morality. We find the
perfect excuse for avoiding the wedding banquet that is right in front of us
(Luke 14:15f), a reason to not sit at the table with "both good and
bad" (Matthew 22:10). We would rather slouch in the corner and criticize,
all the while feeling moral and superior.
Franciscanism
is sometimes called an alternative orthodoxy because it invites us all to sit
at God's One Abundant Table, while much of the Christian tradition has set a
scarce table for very few. The Church too often assumed that people were very
simple and so we had to make the laws complex to protect them from themselves.
Jesus and Francis recognized that people are endlessly diverse, complex and
mysterious, and we had best make the law very simple. Just love your neighbor
exactly as you love yourself.
References:
Adapted
from Richard Rohr, The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of Saint Francis
(Sounds True: 2010), disc 4 (CD);
Eager
to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014),
155-157;
and
Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Center for Action and
Contemplation: 2012), disc 3 (CD, MP3 download).
Enoughness
Instead of Never Enough
Most
of us have grown up with a capitalist worldview, which makes a virtue and goal
out of accumulation, consumption, and collecting. Normally we cannot see this
as an unsustainable and unhappy trap because all of our rooms are decorated
with this same color. It is the only obvious story line that our children see.
"I produce therefore I am" and "I consume therefore I am"
might be our answer to Descartes' "I think therefore I am." They are
all terribly mistaken.
This
foundational way of seeing has blinded us, so that we now tend to falsely
assume more is better. The course we are on assures us of a predictable future
of strained individualism, severe competition as the resources dwindle for a
growing population, and surely perpetual war. Our culture ingrains in us the
belief that there isn't enough to go around. This determines much if not most
of our politics. In the USA there is never enough for health care, for
education, for the arts, for basic infrastructure. The only budget that is
never questioned is for war and armaments and military gadgets.
Anything
you need more and more of is not working--as the people in addiction recovery
love to say. That's exactly why we always need more of it. The fact that we
need more and more, and better and better--of almost everything except
love--tells us that we are in a finally unworkable situation. But there is an
alternative worldview, one that has been deemed necessary and important by most
spiritual masters. It isn't a win/lose worldview where only a few win and most
lose. It's a win/win worldview, which alone makes community, justice, and peace
possible.
E.
F. Schumacher said years ago, "Small is beautiful," and many other
wise people have come to know that less stuff invariably leaves room for more
soul. In fact, possessions and soul seem to operate in inverse proportion to
one another. Only through simplicity can we find deep contentment instead of
perpetually striving and living unsatisfied. Simple living is the foundational
social justice teaching of Jesus, Francis, Gandhi, and all hermits, mystics,
prophets, and seers since time immemorial. [1]
The
Franciscan alternative orthodoxy asks us to let go, to recognize that there is
enough to go around and meet everyone's need but not everyone's greed. A worldview
of enoughness will predictably emerge in a person as they move to the level of
naked being instead of thinking that more of anything or more frenetic doing
can fill up our basic restlessness. Francis did not just tolerate or endure
such simplicity, he actually loved it and called it poverty--a word which we
often view as a bad thing. Francis dove into poverty and found his freedom
there. This is hard for most of us to even comprehend. Thank God, people like
Dorothy Day and Wendell Berry have illustrated how this is still possible even
in our modern world.
Francis
was known in his lifetime as the joyful beggar. He communicated happiness,
freedom, humor, and joy to everyone around him. Francis and his followers wore
ropes for belts to indicate they had no money (at the time, leather belts were
used to carry money). Francis wanted people to see that humans could be happy
even without money. I have met some poor people and some homeless people who
prove to me that this can still be true, although I don't think we need to make
it our goal as Francis and Clare did. But we can indeed be happy in mutual
interdependence with nature, with the kindness of others, and with our own hard
work and creativity, while living in the natural rhythms of life.
Francis
knew that just climbing ladders to nowhere would never make us happy nor create
peace and justice on this earth. Too many have to stay at the bottom of the
ladder so I can be at the top. It is a zero sum victory. I suspect simplicity
and a worldview of enoughness will forever be an alternative orthodoxy, if not
downright heretical, in most of the "developing" world.
References:
[1]
For more on simple living see Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way
of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014), chapter 3.
Adapted
from Richard Rohr, The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of Saint Francis
(Sounds True: 2010), discs 1 and 2 (CD).
In a ground-breaking interview in 2013, Pope Francis was asked ‘Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?’ He responds ‘I do not know what might be the most fitting description… I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is a not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.’[i]
Pope Francis has consistently spoken of mercy from the beginning of his papacy. One senses that he has had a deep, personal experience of mercy, which he wants to offer to all of us. In this Jubilee Year of Mercy and particularly in these days of Holy Week we too are being invited to recognise our sinfulness and turn to Jesus who is ‘the face of mercy’.[ii] Francis, deeply rooted in the Spiritual Exercises, knows that acknowledging his own sinfulness is not a sign of defeat or that he is a bad person, but rather it is a gateway into an experience of God’s mercy because he, before all else, is loved by God.
Many of us might be tempted to think that acknowledging sinfulness means that I am ‘good for nothing’, but for Ignatius Loyola, our willingness to take responsibility for our sin is our gateway into everything. Ignatius also understands that in order to see our sinfulness we first need to experience the unconditional love of God through a personal relationship with Jesus. When we know we are loved, then we are freed to begin to see ourselves as sinful persons.
Pope Francis explores this idea in Evangelii Gaudium. He writes: ‘Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.’[iii] He then goes to the heart of this encounter that changes us: ‘Thanks solely to this encounter – or renewed encounter – with God’s love, which blossoms into an enriching friendship, we are liberated from our narrowness and self-absorption… For if we have received the love which restores meaning to our lives, how can we fail to share that love with others?’[iv]
In South Africa, the country in which I live, racism has, once again, become a heated national issue. There are many reasons for this but, significantly, one is that many black people feel that white people have not taken responsibility for what happened in the dark days of apartheid. Sometimes one hears white people saying things like, ‘apartheid ended over twenty years ago, we must just get on with it now!’ One black person recently said rather chillingly to a group: ‘We have been told to forgive white people but they have never asked us for forgiveness.’
Forgiving those who have offended us is a power that lies within every person. That power is often released when the offender takes responsibility for what they have done, confronts it, and asks for forgiveness. In the sacrament of reconciliation, we do just that: confront our sinfulness and ask God for forgiveness. We know that when we honestly and courageously confront our sinfulness, God’s mercy abounds – we experience the freedom that forgiveness brings. Mercy becomes a living reality when we, in turn, use the power of our own experience to live the spiritual work of mercy by forgiving willingly.
In his encyclical, Laudato si’, Pope Francis invites us to enter into a process of recognising ourselves as sinners – individually and collectively – who have sinned against creation and against others. Laudato si’ awakens in us the need to take responsibility for our personal sin which has contributed to the degradation of the environment. It calls us to repentance and, in turn, invites us to live God’s forgiveness willingly. It is living this forgiveness that brings freedom: ‘We are able to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction, and embark on new paths to authentic freedom’.[v]
The pope tells us that, ‘Many things have to change course, but it is human beings above all who need change’.[vi] He goes on to invite us to a new awareness that would enable us to develop new convictions, new attitudes and new forms of life. He says that ‘the ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion’.[vii] It is precisely our own experience of God’s forgiveness that will help us to this new awareness and profound conversion. What we have received we cannot but want to share with others. This is at the very heart of conversion. Francis also encourages us, if we are tempted to believe we cannot live this profound conversion that, ‘We are always capable of going out of ourselves towards the other’.[viii]
Laudato si’ reminds us that, ‘a healthy relationship with creation is one dimension of overall personal conversion, which entails recognising our errors, sins, faults and failures, and leads us to heartfelt repentance and desire to change’.[ix] Our common sense of sin and need for personal conversion, as individuals, unites us with one another. In our individual need for repentance and conversion, we also recognise our collective need.
When assessing the ecological crisis the world faces, Francis says that it is easy for us to think that the problem is not ours but the sin of another: ‘Politics and economics tend to blame each other when it comes to poverty and environmental degradation. It is to be hoped that they can acknowledge their own mistakes and find forms of interaction directed to the common good’.[x]Our willingness to ‘interact’ with others after acknowledging our own sin is symbolic of our awareness of our collective need for action.
The cross of Christ is a sign of God’s willingness to forgive us; it is the ultimate example to us of the spiritual work of mercy to forgive willingly. Perhaps this is one of the biggest challenges of our times because we live in such a fractured world. In Laudato si’, Pope Francis says:
The human person grows more, matures more, and is sanctified more to the extent that he or she enters into relationships, going out from themselves to live in communion with God, with others and with all creatures… Everything is interconnected, and this invites us to develop a spirituality of that global solidarity which flows from the mystery of the Trinity.[xi]
The willingness to forgive – as we are forgiven because we are loved sinners – is therefore not just a spiritual work of mercy or ingredient of conversion, but an integral component of our very participation in the mystery of the Trinity. Our communion with God is expressed in our willingness to commune with each other. This communion is facilitated by our readiness to forgive willingly. There is no better time than Holy Week to contemplate ‘forgiving willingly’ and, with all our will, imitate what we see.
