Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Postal Address: PO Box 362
Parish Office:90 Stewart Street , Devonport 7310
Parish Office:
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Jenny Garnsey
Pastoral Council Chair: Jenny Garnsey
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
Parish Prayer
Heavenly Father,
We thank you for gathering us together
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
You have charged us through Your Son, Jesus, with the great mission
of evangelising and witnessing your love to the world.
Send your Holy Spirit to guide us as we discern your will
for the spiritual renewal of our parish.
Give us strength, courage, and clear vision
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
We entrust our parish family to the care of Mary, our mother,
and ask for her intercession and guidance
as we strive to bear witness
as we strive to bear witness
to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.
Amen.
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 4th - 7th October, 2016
Tuesday: 9:30am
Penguin … St Francis of Assisi
Wednesday: No Mass
Thursday: 12noon
Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone… Our Lady of the Rosary
12noon Devonport
Mass Times Next Weekend 8th & 9th October,
2016
Saturday: 10:00am Ulverstone - Memorial Mass Late Mr Tod Brett Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am
Ulverstone
10:30am
Devonport
11:00am
Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
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
Christian Meditation:
Devonport, Emmaus House - Wednesdays 7pm.
Prayer Group:
Charismatic Renewal
Devonport, Emmaus House - Thursdays 7.00pm
Meetings, with Adoration and Benediction are held each
Second Thursday of the Month in OLOL Church, commencing at 7.00 pm
Ministry Rosters 8th & 9th October, 2016
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: A McIntyre, M Williams, C Kiely-Hoye
10:30am F Sly, J Tuxworth
10:30am F Sly, J Tuxworth
Ministers of Communion: Vigil B & B
Windebank,
T Bird, J Kelly, R Baker, Beau Windebank
T Bird, J Kelly, R Baker, Beau Windebank
D & M Barrientos
Cleaners 7th Oct: M.W.C. 14th Oct: P Shelverton, E Petts
Piety Shop 8th Oct: L Murfet 9th Oct:
D French
Flowers: M O’Brien-Evans
Flowers: M O’Brien-Evans
Ulverstone:
Readers: E Cox
Ministers of
Communion:
E Reilly, M
& K McKenzie, M O’Halloran
Cleaners: B & V
McCall, G Doyle Flowers: M Bryan Hospitality:
B O’Rourke, S McGrath
Penguin:
Greeters: A Landers, P Ravaillion Readers: M & D Hiscutt
Ministers of
Communion: J
Barker, E Nickols Liturgy: Penguin Setting Up: E Nickols
Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, E Holloway Ministers of
Communion: P
Anderson, B Lee Clean/Flow/Prepare: V Youd
Readings this Week: 27th Sunday in
Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 1:6-8. 13-14
Gospel: Luke 17:5-10
PREGO
REFLECTION:
I come to my place of prayer and quietly become aware that
I am in God’s presence. Conscious of my limits, I ask God to strengthen my
faith in his love and care.
I try to remain peacefully with this conviction as long as I can.
Perhaps I ask to see that my faith, however small and weak, has enabled me to face life or help others – often in ways that have little to do with my efforts or relying on my own power.
I may spend some time in gratitude to the Lord for his gift of faith to me and for the example and support of others who have helped my faith grow.
I may also ask God, on behalf of others I know, to sow the seed of faith in their hearts. Or maybe I turn to the second paragraph.
What strikes me in the text?
Moving beyond the situation of servants of that time, can I reflect on whether I expect any privileges or special attention?
Am I honoured to serve others?
I contemplate Christ, Servant and Saviour… and my friend.
I remain in silence or speak to him from my heart.
As always I end my prayer slowly with gratitude and trust.
I try to remain peacefully with this conviction as long as I can.
Perhaps I ask to see that my faith, however small and weak, has enabled me to face life or help others – often in ways that have little to do with my efforts or relying on my own power.
I may spend some time in gratitude to the Lord for his gift of faith to me and for the example and support of others who have helped my faith grow.
I may also ask God, on behalf of others I know, to sow the seed of faith in their hearts. Or maybe I turn to the second paragraph.
What strikes me in the text?
Moving beyond the situation of servants of that time, can I reflect on whether I expect any privileges or special attention?
Am I honoured to serve others?
I contemplate Christ, Servant and Saviour… and my friend.
I remain in silence or speak to him from my heart.
As always I end my prayer slowly with gratitude and trust.
Readings next Week: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: 2 Kings 5:14-17
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 2:8-13
Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 2:8-13
Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Victor Slavin, Gayle Chapman, Frank
Post & ...
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Mely Pybus, Pauline Jackson, Tod Brett, Olive Rundle, Joan
McCarthy, Haydee Diaz, Onil Francisco, Warren Milfull, Jack McLaren and
Ken Gillard.
Ken Gillard.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time:
28th September – 4th October - Lila Bramich, Adam Hugen, Stephen Harris, George Farrow, Mary Forth, Peter Kirkpatrick, Irene Marston, Allan Clarke,
Reg Kelly, Audrey Abblitt, Denny Sproule, Evelyn Murray and Linda Engaling.
28th September – 4th October - Lila Bramich, Adam Hugen, Stephen Harris, George Farrow, Mary Forth, Peter Kirkpatrick, Irene Marston, Allan Clarke,
Reg Kelly, Audrey Abblitt, Denny Sproule, Evelyn Murray and Linda Engaling.
May they Rest in Peace
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
As I mentioned last weekend (albeit before the event) the
celebration of the ordination to the Diaconate of Paschal Okpon was a great day
for him personally and for the Parish and Archdiocese and if you were in any
doubt check out the front page of the Catholic Standard this weekend – the
smile tells it all!
A reminder that we will commence a pilot Alpha Program this
coming Friday – 7th October commencing at 6.30pm with
a meal in the OLOL Hall. The meal is an integral part of the
program so, if you are coming, please come prepared to share in the whole
experience. Again, we will be testing the waters but I am hoping that we might
be able to use the program as a means of reaching out to our community as we
witness to the Gospel in our lives.
As we did for the last Parish Pastoral Council there will be
prayer from 5.15pm – 6.15pm for the success of the program. This is an extra
time as there is always time of Prayer before the Blessed Sacrament on Fridays
in the Church from 10am – midday. Please feel free to come to either time of
prayer to pray for the needs of the Parish.
This week there is a Council of Priests Meeting in Hobart on
Tuesday (for me) and the October Pastoral Conference (for both of us) on
Wednesday so there will not be Mass at Latrobe next Wednesday morning.
Please
take care on the roads and in your homes,
ST VINCENT DE PAUL COLLECTION: Next weekend in Devonport,
Ulverstone, Port Sorell, Latrobe and Penguin to assist the work of the St
Vincent de Paul Society.
MACKILLOP HILL LIBRARY
Want something to read?? Make sure you pick up the
monthly library handout from your church foyer this weekend. Instructions on the sheet tell you how to
access the library catalogue online.
Library opening hours 9 – 5 Monday to Friday.
15th ANNUAL ROSARY PILGRIMAGE:
Mersey Leven Rosary Committee invite all parishioners to
the annual Rosary Pilgrimage on Sunday 16th October. We
will be visiting all six Mass Centres. If you wish to participate there will be
a free bus leaving Our Lady of Lourdes carpark at 8:50am. Bookings essential as
seats are limited so Contact Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068 for a seat. Venues
and times are on Church Noticeboards. Those of you wishing to have lunch at 14
Laura Street, Latrobe or tea at Ulverstone are requested to bring a shared
meal. Thank you!
NOVEMBER REMEMBRANCE BOOKS:
November is the month we remember in a special way all
those who have died. Should you wish anyone to be remembered, write the names
of those to be prayed for on the outside of an envelope and place the clearly
marked envelope in the collection basket at Mass or deliver to the Parish
Office by Tuesday 25th October.
Callers for Thursday 6th
October – Jon Halley & Rod Clark
FOOTY POINTS MARGIN
TICKETS: margin 37 points. Winners; I Breen,
S Jones.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for
news, information and details of other Parishes.
THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO PROGRAM – AIRS 9 OCTOBER
2016:
Next week on The Journey Catholic Radio program Sr Hilda
Scott OSB asks us to “Walk in the Footsteps of Jesus.” We hear from Pete
Gilmore in his segment Living the Gospel, Bruce Downes The Catholic Guy and Sam
Clear in Walking the Walk speaks about “Pain and Suffering in God’s Plan.” Go
to www.jcr.org.au or www.itunes.jcr.org.au where you can listen anytime
and subscribe to weekly shows by email.
JOURNALING PRAYER RETREAT – FR RAY SANCHEZ: will be running a two day live in
retreat at Maryknoll House of Prayer 15th & 16th October. This is the most precious gift you can give
yourself. If you wish to enquire about attending please phone Anne on 0407 704 539
or email: journallingretreat@iinet.net.au
CARMELITE WEEKEND RETREAT: Emmanuel Centre from Friday
21st - Sunday 23rd October. Cost of weekend $170.00 which includes accommodation
and meals. Call Sandra on 6331:4991 for bookings.
SESQUICENTENARY (150 YRS) PRESENTATION SISTERS IN
TASMANIA: We
invite all Alumni from our Presentation Schools and all our other friends to
celebrate with us - Saturday 29 October, St Mary’s Cathedral, 11.00am Eucharist of
Thanksgiving and after, to join us for Lunch in St Peter’s Hall. RSVP 10
October essential for catering: Please contact Sr Gabrielle Morgan: gabrielle.morgan@gmail.com Ph. 0407 868 381
A DIRECTED RETREAT AND INDIVIDUAL DAYS OF REFLECTION:
in preparation for the Christmas Season celebrating the
birth of Jesus, will be run at Maryknoll from the 5th – 13th November
2016. Participants may come for the entire retreat or for
individual days, with the option to live in or be a day visitor. For
further information or a copy of the retreat brochure please contact Sr
Margaret Henderson 0418 366 923 or mm.henderson@bigpond.com.
CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES, LAUNCESTON SESQUICENTENARY:
25th – 27th November 2016 the Launceston Parish will be
celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Opening and Blessing of the Church of
the Apostles. The celebrations begin with the Sesquicentenary Dinner at the
Tailrace Centre, Riverside on Friday 25th November at 7.00pm. The dinner will include the launch of Mike
Dunphy’s Commemorative Book, I have loved O Lord the Beauty of thy House. Tickets are $40 and must be pre-purchased
through the Parish Office. Open Day Saturday 26th November 11.00am –
5.00pm. An Historical Display (which
includes a Commemoration of the Archbishop Guilford Young Centenary) will be
held in the Pastoral Centre with refreshments available. In the Church a Promenade of Music will be
presented with performances each half hour commencing at 2.00pm. Between the items four treasures of the
Church of the Apostles will be highlighted for those present. On Sunday 27th
November at 10.30am Archbishop Julian Porteous will be the celebrant of the
Mass of Solemn Dedication of the Church.
This will be followed by a shared lunch in Presentation Hall at Sacred
Heart School. All parishioners, friends and families associated in any way with
this magnificent Church are warmly invited to join in any or all of these
celebrations. Please contact the
Launceston Parish Office (phone: 6331:4377 or email: apostle@bigpond.com) for more information and to register your interest in
these events.
SOFTWARE, MORAL FORMATTING, AND LIVING IN SIN
While I was doing graduate studies in Belgium, I lived at the American College in Leuven. On staff there at the time, in the housekeeping and maintenance department, was a wonderfully colorful woman whose energy brought oxygen into a room but whose history of marriage somewhat paralleled that of the Samaritan woman in John’s Gospel. None of us knew for sure how often she’d been married and the man she was living with at the time was not her husband.
One day an Archbishop was visiting the College and there was a formal reception line of which she was part. The Archbishop would shake each person’s hand and engage him or her in a brief exchange. When he came to her, she gave him her name and told him what she did at the college. He shook her hand and, by way of greeting and conversation, asked her: “Are you married?” She wasn’t quite prepared for that question. She stammered a bit and replied: “Yes, no, well, kind of.” Then, breaking into a grin, said: “Actually, your Grace, I’m living in sin!” To his credit, the Archbishop grinned as well. He got what she was saying, not just her words, but too the nuance that her grin conveyed.
Living in sin. Acts that are inherently disordered. What’s Catholic moral theology trying to say with this kind of concept when so many people today, including many Roman Catholics, find such concepts unintelligible and offensive?
To the credit of classical Roman Catholic moral teaching, these concepts have an intelligibility and a palatability inside a certain moral framework within which their proper meaning and nuance is predicated on the overall system. In a simpler language, they make sense within that system. In today’s language, classical Roman Catholic moral theology might be compared to a highly specialized software; indeed one which was honed, nuanced, and upgraded through centuries so that, as a system, it has smooth internal coherence. The problem, though, is that today so much of our culture and so many of our churches no longer use, nor understand how to use, that software. As a consequence, its formatting and language are misunderstood and can appear offensive. Not everyone, like the Archbishop just described, has a sense of humor about this.
So what’s to be done? How do we move forward? Do we simply abandon a lot of classical moral teachings because so many people today are taking offense at its concepts and language?
Admittedly it’s a huge problem, with a lot of sincere people weighing-in very differently on the issue, as was seen at the recent Synod in Rome on Marriage and Family Life. How do we hold authentic Christian moral ground and, at the same time, properly account for the actual, existential reality of millions and millions of people, including many of our own families and children? How do we name the moral reality of people who are living in situations that, while clearly life-giving, are not in line with Christian principles? How do we name the moral reality of so many of our own children and loved ones who are living with partners to whom they are not married, but are drawing life from that relationship? How do we name the moral situation of a gay couple whose relationship is clearly life-giving? And how do we name the moral situation of the Samaritan woman and the woman I mentioned earlier who, while irregular in terms of the Church’s teaching on marriage, bring life, joy, and oxygen into a room? Are they living in sin? Does their situation include some intrinsic evil?
We need a new software within moral theology to answer those questions, or at least to format them in a language that our culture understands and can be challenged by. And it won’t be a simple or easy task, as the tensions and polarizations within our churches and at our dinner tables highlight. The task is to hold our moral ground, challenge a culture which no longer understands or accepts our former way of understanding these things, and yet, at the same time, not bend the truth to the times, nor the Gospel to the world, even as we better name the moral situation within which so much of our world and so many of our loved ones find themselves.
The truth sets us free, but God often works through crooked lines. I’m a student of classical moral theology and truly believe in its principles, even as I am daily humbled and challenged by the love, grace, faith, and wonderful oxygen I see flowing out of people whose situations are “irregular”. How can the good be bad? At this stage in time, along with many of the rest of you, I suspect, I am forced to stay with the ambiguity, to live the question.
We need a new software, a new way of morally formatting things, a new way of holding truth in empathy, a new way of holding the essential within the existential.
Rites of Passage
Though
initiation was forgotten in the West for a long time, more and more people are
rediscovering its power as a catalyst to help us pass from life to death and
back to life again--dying to the false self so the True Self can live fully.
Rites of passage take many forms, but they often include periods of solitude,
fasting, rituals to symbolize letting go and dying, and council (sacred
dialogue with a guide and other initiates). Initiation frequently takes place
in nature, whether deep wilderness or a retreat setting.
Rites are
not to be entered into lightly. It is important to be psychologically stable
first before having your familiar, egoic identity shaken. I encourage you to
find a trustworthy spiritual teacher to guide you through this experience when
you are ready. There are now many groups offering structured rites of passage
or vision quests for men and women. Here are a few you may wish to explore:
• School of Lost Borders
• Animas Valley Institute (founded by
Bill Plotkin)
• Red Bird Foundation (founded by
Paula D'Arcy; for women)
• Illuman (for men)
A special
invitation to men: This November I'm speaking at Illuman's conference, Drawing
from a Deep Well. Together we'll explore the paradox of transformation and soul
work in the beautiful high desert of New Mexico. Bring your empty
container--open heart, mind, and body--and draw from the well that has no end.
You can learn more at illuman.org
For Further
Study:
Richard
Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation
Richard
Rohr, Beloved Sons Series: How Men Change (CD, MP3 download, DVD)
Richard
Rohr, Beloved Sons Series: Men and Grief (CD, MP3 download
5 REASONS SMALL GROUPS MATTER
Taken from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity. You can find the original blog here
At Nativity we’re hosting our annual Small Groups Launch, when we make a parish wide push to get parishioners who have been hesitating into a group. Here are just five of the reasons why small groups matter to any church.
1. Small Groups Are an Easy Way to Start Rebuilding
Plenty of studies indicate that the number one reason why people lose interest in church isn’t that they are lazy, or have lost faith in God. It’s because they don’t feel like they belong to church and they don’t feel like they’re being fed there.
Small groups are an effective place to turn that around, and in the process really rebuild your parish culture. We’ve been doing small groups now for over ten years, and I can honestly say this has been one of the keys to the growth and healthy transformation of our parish.
2. Small Groups Build One Church
Small groups rally the diverse elements of your congregation around a common message and purpose. Small groups can be catalysts for conversations that take place between people who come from completely different backgrounds. We have groups just for men, women, young adults, elderly adults, mixed couples, moms. But they’re all having the same conversation.
3. Small Groups Grow Faith in a Circle
On Sunday people sit in rows; in small groups people sit in circles. It’s where a big church (or any size church) gets small, up close and personal. Healthy spiritual growth is a deeply relational process.
4. Small Groups Are a Delivery System for Pastoral Care
At any parish, it just becomes impossible to keep on top of everything happening. Small groups members are empowered to provide ministry to one another. Our small group leaders are essential for communicating and even planning the small-scale pastoral care we want every member to receive. We know that if someone is in a small group they are never alone.
We can think of hundreds of moving stories we’ve heard of beautiful pastoral care in our parish because of small groups.
5. Small Groups Are About Life Change
On Sundays, people listen to the message; in small groups, people talk about the message. Small groups allow the opportunity for the congregation to respond to the conversation started in the homily. This conversation can change people’s minds and hearts. And that can change people’s lives.
Tensions between peace and violence
by Fr Francisco de Roux SJ
An article from the ThinkingFaith.org. website. The original article can be found here
As civil society and faith-based leaders, our work for peace over the last four decades has often made us a target for all armed groups in Colombia, a country experiencing the longest internal armed conflict in the western hemisphere.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, we faced radical opposition when we were working with the poorest, the excluded and the victims in Magdalena Medio. The region, based around the oil town of Barrancabermeja, is known chiefly for the violence that has characterised the battle between guerrillas and paramilitaries for control of this strategic area, rich in natural resources.
Our purpose was to accompany regional communities in a programme of development and peace in the middle of the conflict. But we were often considered suspicious, dangerous and unacceptable - by the paramilitaries, the military, the guerrillas or the local authorities. During our time there, paramilitaries assassinated 24 members of our team, and the guerrillas killed three of our companions.
I remember the day we found Alma Rosa Jaramillo, a courageous woman from our team, an audacious lawyer who was working to support displaced small-scale farmers. First she was kidnapped by the National Liberation Army (ELN) and I spent seven days negotiating with the guerrillas for her release. Then she was captured by the paramilitaries. When we managed to recover Alma Rosa, she was lying in the mud, dead; they had cut off her arms and legs with a chainsaw.
Nevertheless, we kept looking for peace in Magdalena Medio, talking with the guerrillas, the paramilitaries and the army, trying to demonstrate that there was a way to work together, if we took the risk of opening ourselves up to the human dignity present in each and every one of us.
Dignity is the profound virtue that we all share: we matter as individuals, as families – as people. We have seen this dignity in women and men in the countryside who refuse to be displaced, to lose their leaders, to be kidnapped – those who stood unarmed facing those who had the power and the guns.
There, in the Magdalena Medio region, when we were surrounded by violent groups, we discovered that weapons do not guarantee safety. That the only true and sustainable protection comes through trusting people. And that to win trust we have to go through a long process of dialogue and mutual acceptance, and unprecedented individual and societal changes, in the midst of uncertainties.
Last week, another chapter in the history of my country was written. A bilateral ceasefire was agreed between the government and the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrilla. A final peace agreement due to be signed in the next few weeks will, we hope, bring an end to over fifty years of terror and victimisation. Half a century of war that has caused 7 million people – women, children, teenagers, men – to be displaced from their homes. Urban and especially rural communities are desperate and exhausted by the war.
But even peace means division. Because of political interests our president campaigned for his election with the slogan ‘I am the peace and my political opponents are the war’, and this slogan has divided the country. The former president, Alvaro Uribe, now leader of the opposition, has seemed unwilling to accept a peace agreement if he himself is not the author of it. There are also economic interests involved in the prolongation of the war. The military, the cocaine barons and an important group of the ruling class, see their economic power threatened with the end of the armed conflict.
I have the sad foreboding that while this bilateral ceasefire and a future peace agreement might be celebrated in the many countries that have supported our peace negotiations, in Colombia it will lead to fighting in the streets.
However, we know that we have to keep going, to continue, to persist, in the struggle for peace and reconciliation. We have the continuing support of UK aid agency CAFOD and the energy of plenty of women and men who have made a stand for peace. We will see a period where empowered communities will stand up for their rights against the intransigence of the powerful right-wing politicians, business people, landowners, mafia barons, paramilitaries and entrepreneurs of devastating mining companies.
Signing a peace agreement is only the beginning of an extremely challenging process of peacebuilding which, if we are to have sustainable peace, obliges us to enter into a complex and demanding transformation in Colombia.
Father Francisco de Roux was founder and director for 15 years of the Peace and Development Programme of Magdalena Medio, one of the most successful local peacemaking initiatives in Colombia. For many years he has been a leading voice for a negotiated settlement to Colombia's decades-long armed conflict.
