First Sunday of Advent (Year A)

Mersey Leven Catholic Parish

To be a vibrant Catholic Community

unified in its commitment

to growing disciples for Christ

Parish Priest:  Fr Mike Delaney Mob: 0417 279 437; 
mike.delaney@aohtas.org.au

Assistant Priest: Fr Alexander Obiorah Mob: 0447 478 297; 
alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk

Resident Seminarian: Br Cris Mendoza Mob: 0408 389 216

chris_mendoza2080@yahoo.com

Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport

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

Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher 
Pastoral Council Chair:  Jenny Garnsey

Mersey Leven Catholic Parish Weekly Newsletter: mlcathparish.blogspot.com.au

Parish Mass Times: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au

Weekly Homily Podcast: mikedelaney.podomatic.com   

Parish Prayer

Heavenly Father,

We thank you for gathering us together 
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.

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

 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.

Weekday Masses 29th November - 2nd December, 2016                               

Tuesday:       9:30am Penguin

Wednesday:    9:30am Latrobe ... St Andrew

Thursday:       12noon Devonport

 Friday:         9.30am Ulverstone

                  12noon Devonport

Mass Times Next Weekend 3rd & 4th December, 2016

Saturday Mass:    9:00am Ulverstone ... St Francis Xavier

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 3rd & 4th December, 2016

Devonport:

Readers: Vigil: V Riley, A Stegmann, M Knight 10:30am E Petts, K Douglas

Ministers of Communion: Vigil

D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P Shelverton, M Kenney

10.30am: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S Arrowsmith, S Samarakkody, R Batepola

Cleaners 2nd Dec: M.W.C. 9th Dec: B Bailey, A Harrison, M Greenhill

Piety Shop 3^rd Dec:  L Murfet 4^th Dec: D French Flowers: M O’Brien-Evans

Ulverstone:

Readers: A & F Pisano 

Ministers of Communion:  M Murray, J Pisarskis, C Harvey, P Grech

Cleaners: M McKenzie, M Singh, N Pearce Flowers: C Stingel Hospitality:  K Foster

Penguin:  

Greeters: Fifita Family Commentator:       Readers:  T Clayton, J Barker

Ministers of Communion: E Nickols, M Murray Liturgy: Penguin Setting Up: E Nickols

Care of Church: M Bowles, J Reynolds

Port Sorell:  

Readers:   M Badcock, G Duff       Ministers of Communion:  P Anderson       Clean/Flow/Prepare:  B Lee, A Holloway

                                                                                                                                

Readings this Week: First Sunday of Advent – Year A

First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5 

Second Reading:   Romans 13:11-14 

Gospel: Matthew 24:37-44

PREGO REFLECTION:

As I begin Advent, I may like to try to set aside at least some time each day to let the deeper desires of my heart surface in the presence of God. I do not need long spaces of time and it may help me to remember that “prayer is the lifting of the mind and heart to God”. For however long or short a time I have, I can make this part of my day. I ask God’s Spirit within me to gift me an inner stillness of mind and heart amid the rush of Christmas preparations. To what do I need to wake up - or stay awake - today? I may want to be able to ponder, to be awake to the deeper meaning of my life. Perhaps I need to be more noticing of those around me...or the troubles of our world. I speak to the Lord... Am I ready for what ever happens, knowing that, deep down within me, I am aware that God has been, is, and always will be with me in my daily life? I allow myself time to be in his presence. I end my prayer quietly, perhaps sharing my needs, perhaps telling him how much I am longing for his renewed coming into my heart.

Readings Next Week: Second Sunday of Advent – Year A

First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10

Second Reading:   Romans 15:4-9 

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12

Your prayers are asked for the sick:  David Welch & ....

Let us pray for those who have died recently:

Bernadette Maquire, Jim Suckling, James McLagan, Katrina Wilson, Doreen Traill, Damian Matthews, Nicole Fairbrother, Heath Hendricks, Aurora Barker, Tom Knight & Maurice Evans.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time:  23^rd – 29^th  November   
Georgina Colliver, Molly Coventry, Harry Wilson, Rita Pompili, Gwen Thorp, Muriel Peterson, Stanley Hennessy, James Lowry and members of Ulverstone Presidium.

      May they Rest in Peace

WEEKLY RAMBLINGS:

Last weekend our celebration of the Feast of Christ the King was a great success and I have to express my sincere thanks to all those who worked to make it a great celebration, especially the musicians and choir.  I had some really terrific comments from visitors from interstate who were present for the Mass about the singing and the great feeling of welcome that they experienced.

Thanks also to the Knights of the Southern Cross for their help in the cooking and for all those who helped in the kitchen before and after the meal to keep food on the tables and for the cleaning up and clearing away at the end of the day. 

A special thanks to all who were there to make it a very special day for the launch of our Parish Vision. You will notice that the Vision has been added to the information heading of the newsletter and we, Fr Alex, Br Cris and I, will commenting on the Vision in our homilies and reflections in the weeks of Advent as we seek to embed it into our Parish ‘DNA’. You can access my homily - where I introduced the Vision - by clicking here for the spoken version or here for the written version.

Thanks also to those who helped with the Supper after our Mass of Remembrance on Wednesday evening at OLOL. Without the support of these wonderful people events such as supper after the Mass would not be possible – so thank you.

These next few weeks see many celebrations for our Schools and community organisations so life will be a little hectic – please take a little time each day to be mindful of Advent as a time for preparation to celebrate the Birth of Our Saviour and not simply a crazy time of racing from one thing to another.

Please take care on the roads and in your homes,

ADVENT PRAYER

Our heavenly Father, as once again we prepare for Christmas,

 help us to find time in our busy lives for quiet and thought and prayer:

That we may reflect upon the wonder of your love and allow the story of the Saviour's birth to penetrate our hearts and minds.

 So may our joy be deeper, our worship more real,

 And our lives worthier of all that you have done for us through the coming of your Son,

Jesus Christ the Lord.

 Amen.

Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome and congratulate ….

Tess Gotowski daughter of Daniel & Megan

who is being baptised this weekend.

KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS: The next meeting of the Knights of the Southern Cross will be held this Sunday 27th November, Community Room, Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone commencing with a shared meal at 6pm. Any interested men are invited to come along.

CATHOLIC CHARISMATIC PRAYER GROUP:  will be holding their Christmas party in the Community Room, Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone on Thursday 1^st December at 6:30pm. All welcome! Contact Celestine Whiteley 6424:2043, or Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068.

VINNIES 2016 CHRISTMAS APPEAL:

Parish Collection Weekend will be held Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th December.  Our Christmas Appeal is focused on ‘Rebuilding Strength’ and making a real difference to the lives of the thousands of Tasmanians that we assist. 

Your generosity to Vinnies had helped so many people in the past, and as we gear up for our 2016 Christmas Appeal Weekend Collection we again call upon your kindness and generosity to help us assist with the needs of struggling families throughout Tasmania. Donations may be placed in our appeal envelopes which will then be forwarded onto our office for receipting.  Once again thank you.

SOLEMNITY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION:

Thursday 8^th December the Church celebrates the Solemnity of our Blessed Mother, Mary. You are invited to join us for a Holy hour commencing at 10:50am at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Devonport and concluding with Benediction. Following the midday Mass the rosary will be recited.

ULVERSTONE CHRISTMAS PARTY FOR SENIORS:

The 2016 Ulverstone Christmas Party for seniors will be held on the afternoon of Thursday 8^th December at 1.45pm in the Community Room, Sacred Heart Church. We hope that people who have previously contributed with cooking, or other assistance, will continue that in 2016. Maybe you would like to do floral table decorations? Or delivering invitations to people unable to be handed theirs? Or wrapping little gifts? There are loads of little jobs, both before, and on the day, and all help will be very much appreciated. Most people who have attended before should have their invitation by now. If you do not have yours, or you have not attended the function before, but would like to this year, please approach Joanne Rodgers or Debbie Rimmelzwaan. We particularly welcome new parish members and hope you will come along for some entertainment, a cuppa and a chat.

MERCY MEMORIAL:

Catholic Women’s League, shocked by Tasmania’s abortion law, wondered how to respond in this Year of Mercy. They decided with the approval of Archbishop Porteous, to erect a memorial to honour children lost to us by abortion. It will be placed at the cemetery of St John’s Church Richmond, in granite and marble depicting a baby partly covered by a shawl. This will provide a quiet place where people of all faiths or none can visit to find healing and peace. The cost is $20,000. Donations are sought and can be given to Kath Pearce 6424:6504. Alternatively cheques payable to Catholic Women’s League Tasmania may be sent to Mrs Jan Lawler 65 Main Road, Sorell 7172. With some donations already received the fund is on the way.

Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport.  Eyes down 7.30pm!

Callers for Thursday 1^st December – Jon Halley & Tony Ryan

NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:

Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au  for news, information and details of other Parishes.

TRINITY WEEKEND:

Young adults (18-35) are invited to gather with Fr Richard Ross at Holy Trinity, Westbury next weekend for some time of prayer, reflection and socialising in the light of the Trinity. Commencing at 12noon on Saturday 3rd December, concluding by 12noon on Sunday 4th December. Cost $10. BYO tent or inflatable mattress/sleeping bag and find a space on the floor. BYO lunch for Saturday. Dinner will be shared self-catering at our own expense with several options available. Come check it out and see where the Spirit takes you! Further info: www.facebook.com/trinitywestbury or email rpeross@gmail.com

THE IMMACULATA MISSION SCHOOL: This is an opportunity to go deeper in faith and to encounter the love of God through prayer and the sacraments, to live in community and make new friends, to learn about the faith from fantastic speakers - and to start your year in the best way possible. When: 1-10th January, 2017 Where: Launceston Church Grammar School, Launceston Tasmania Who is it for: 16-35 year olds How much: $360 early-bird, or $410 after 16th November.
To register: http://www.sistersoftheimmaculata.org.au/ims-2017 "The IMS gave me an insight into how being a Christian gives life to people. Everyone at the school was kind, friendly and compassionate and were filled with a sense of purpose, especially the Sisters. Their actions have inspired me to pray more and to look into my faith more." Max (Tasmania)

THE WAY TO ST JAMES PILGRIMAGE – 6/7 JANUARY:

Following the highly successful inaugural pilgrimage, registrations are open for the second pilgrimage, to coincide with the Cygnet Folk Festival. The pilgrimage commences on Friday 6 January 2017 from Mountain River, overnight Ranelagh, and finishes on Saturday 7 January at St James Church, Cygnet, for a concluding ceremony.

Numbers are limited, so please register soon! (Registration is essential.) Full details can be found at www.waytostjames.com.au

THE DANGERS IN BEING A WARRIOR PROPHET

From a posting by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original article can be found here

A prophet makes a vow of love, not of alienation. Daniel Berrigan wrote those words and they need to be highlighted today when a lot of very sincere, committed, religious people self-define as cultural warriors, as prophets at war with secular culture.

This is the stance of many seminarians, clergy, bishops, and whole denominations of Christians today. It is a virtual mantra within in the “Religious Right” and in many Roman Catholic seminaries. In this outlook, secular culture is seen as a negative force that’s threatening our faith, morals, religious liberties, and churches. Secular culture is viewed as, for the main part, being anti-Christian, anti-ecclesial, and anti-clerical and its political correctness is seen to protect everyone except Christians. More worrisome for these cultural warriors is what they see as the “slippery slope” wherein they see our culture as sliding ever further away from our Judeo-Christian roots. In the face of this, they believe, the churches must be highly vigilant, defensive, and in a warrior stance.

Partly they’re correct. There are voices and movements within secular culture that do threaten some essentials within our faith and moral lives, as is seen in the issue of abortion, and there is the danger of the “slippery slope”. But the real picture is far more nuanced than this defensiveness merits. Secularity, for all its narcissism, false freedoms, and superficiality, also carries many key Christian values that challenge to us to live more deeply our own principles.  Moreover the issues on which they challenge us are not minor ones. Secular culture, in its best expressions, is a powerful challenge to everyone in the world to be more sensitive and more moral in the face of economic inequality, human rights violations, war, racism, sexism, and the ravaging of Mother Nature for short-term gain. The voice of God is also inside secular culture.

Christian prophecy must account for that. Secular culture is not the anti-Christ. It ultimately comes out of Judeo-Christian roots and has inextricably embedded within its core many central values of Judeo-Christianity. We need then to be careful, as cultural warriors, to not blindly be fighting truth, justice, the poor, equality, and the integrity of creation. Too often, in a black-and-white approach, we end up having God fighting God.

A prophet has to be characterized first of all by love, by empathy for the very persons he or she is challenging.  Moreover, as Gustavo Gutierrez teaches, our words of challenge must come more out of our gratitude than out of our anger, no matter how justified the anger. Being angry, being in someone else’s face, shredding those who don’t agree with us with hate-filled rhetoric, and winning bitter arguments, admittedly, might be politically effective sometimes. But all of these are counter-productive long term because they harden hearts rather than soften them. True conversion can never come about by coercion, physical or intellectual. Hearts only change when they’re touched by love.

All of us know this from experience.  We can only truly accept a strong challenge to clean up something in our lives if we first know that this challenge is coming to us because someone loves us, and loves us enough to care for us in this deep way. This alone can soften our hearts. Every other kind of challenge only works to harden hearts. So before we can effectively speak a prophetic challenge to our culture we must first let the people we are trying to win over know that we love them, and love them enough to care about them in this deep way. Too often this is not the case. Our culture doesn’t sense or believe that we love it, which, I believe, more than any other factor renders so much of our prophetic challenge useless and even counter-productive today.

Our prophecy must mirror that of Jesus: As he approached the city of Jerusalem shortly before his death, knowing that it inhabitants, in all good conscience, were going to kill him, he wept over it. But his tears were not for himself, that he was right and they were wrong and that his death would make that clear. His tears were for them, for the very ones who opposed him, who would kill him and then fall flat on their faces. There was no glee that they would fall, only empathy, sadness, love, for them, not for himself.

Father Larry Rosebaugh OMI, one of my Oblate confreres who spent his priesthood fighting for the peace and justice and was shot to death in Guatemala, shares in his autobiography how on the night before his first arrest for civil disobedience he spent the entire night in prayer and in the morning as he walked out to do the non-violent act that would lead to his arrest, was told by Daniel Berrigan: “If you can’t do this without getting angry at the people who oppose you, don’t do it! This has to be an act of love.”

Prophecy has to be an act of love; otherwise it’s merely alienation.

                                    

Alive with love: the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was promoted by St Claude La Colombière and St Margaret Mary Alacoque. James Hanvey SJ explains why this devotion will always be central to the life of the Church and why it is the foundation of our intimacy with Christ. ‘Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, has a heart… With him it is always personal.’ The original of this article can be found here

The first time I visited Paray-le-Monial I arrived in late morning and it was raining. We had travelled through the French countryside from Ars. It was poor part of France at the time of the Curé, and even today the landscape appeared austere. The small town of Paray-le-Monial had a quiet, understated charm. Like Ars, it was a place of pilgrimage but somehow remained unspoiled.

Some churches have a formal beauty. They are places that you can explore and admire; one might stay for a few moments of prayer but they’re not really ‘home’. The ancient basilica was quite different; it invited you to pray. It was not difficult to see how Paray-le-Monial was a sanctuaire. Both the convent in which Margaret Mary Alacoque lived and the house of the Jesuit community of Claude La Colombière had a modesty and uncluttered quality – interesting but not distracting. Of course, both saints would have appreciated this simplicity; they would not have wanted anything to obscure the centre of their own life and devotion, the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The image of the Sacred Heart can be found in many of our churches. Once it was a familiar feature of many Catholic homes, as were the prayers and practices that went with it: the offering, the first Friday novena[1], the hope and consolations of the 12 promises,[2] the acts of reparation. Fashions in devotions change as they do in everything else. The Church, however, has a faith-memory; it can keep important truths and insights alive and renew them. The form and imagery may change, but devotion to the Sacred Heart remains always central in the Church’s own life and heart. This should not surprise us. The devotion is more than a series of prayers and practices. It is something experienced and contemplated. It is nothing less than our participation in the redemptive love of God made real in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. As Pope Benedict XVI writes,In the Heart of Jesus, the centre of Christianity is set before us. It expresses everything, all that is genuinely new and revolutionary in the new covenant. This heart calls to our heart. It invites us to step forth out of the futile attempt of self-preservation and, by joining in the task of love, by handing ourselves over to him and with him, to discover the fullness of love which alone is eternity and which alone sustains the world.[3]

Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is a real person. He has a heart. This is the most challenging and consoling thing about him. In him we find the infinite and eternal God who chooses us and offers us a share in the Triune life. In all its material, historical and physical density, the ‘him’ is the reality we cannot escape, erase or deny. Jesus is not a myth like one of the Greek gods taking on human or animal shape, nor is he some cipher for a philosophical idea of the transcendent that every human may recognise though it makes no further demand upon us. Jesus’s reality and the claim that it entails shocks and resists all attempts to construct the category into which he will fit. The person of Jesus haunts and pushes us beyond our limits into new realms of thinking and existing. With him we always have to begin anew. With Jesus it is always personal; we always have to begin in either response to or refusal of the encounter. We cannot slip or evade the personal relationship that his person requires of us. This is the meaning of the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is always a personal, affective, devotional relation with the whole of Jesus, contained in the image of his heart alive with love.

We cannot look upon the wounded heart of Jesus without encountering a love that is so completely human. The humanity of Christ is before us in all its vulnerability and strength. The image of the Sacred Heart offers a deep intimacy and like all such relationships we may long for it but it can frighten us. To be so exposed and so committed and, of course, so vulnerable. Yet, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is also a waiting heart. In it we can experience something of the patient, generous love of God which will not coerce or threaten us. The love in the heart of Christ seeks only our love, and what good is a love that is not freely given?  The heart of Jesus creates the sacred, personal space for that deeply hidden and intensely personal exchange of ‘heart to heart’ – cor ad cor loquitur. 

From our own experience with others we know that this intimacy can be fleeting even when we desire it. Often it can take many years of sharing and coming to know each other in the course of all life’s twists and turns. True intimacy only really happens when we trust someone; it is a resting in them, an ‘at-homeness.’ So it is with Jesus. The Sacred Heart – his heart – is the unchanging guarantee of a love that waits for us, that makes a home for us, for all that we are and all that we carry. His heart is a sanctuary for us.

The heart of Christ is an open heart. All can find their place in it for all have a place in it.  There are no limits to the love of God that we discover in the heart of God’s Son. When we allow ourselves to be drawn to that love, we find that we are also drawn beyond ourselves to a greater, deeper love, especially those whose own heart is wounded. Then we begin to understand the beauty and mystery of the Sacred Heart that is itself wounded. The wound is infinite because Jesus’s love is infinite. It is also the mark of truth. This heart is no symbol of a false love. That it carries the wound of love – a love that knows the depths of betrayal and rejection – means that it also carries our truth as well as God’s truth. We see here the consequences of our sin and that calls us into a greater truth. It also creates in us a greater freedom. Unless we recognise this truth we cannot change; we always remain in our illusions and self-justifications, minimising the consequences and protecting our interests. That is how systems as well as individuals perpetuate and inflict suffering, whether it is on other persons or nature and natural life itself. In the wound of the Sacred Heart we see our own hardness of heart; we have to confront our solipsistic indifference. Yet Christ, too, does expose his heart not to crush us with just guilt but to heal our own woundedness and show us that sacrifice is not only the cost but also the gift of love. Devotion to the Sacred Heart is the school of such a free, courageous and responsive love; we learn again how to love, how to give without seeking return, how to grow beyond ourselves.

Here is the meaning of reparation: when we become servants of this love in our families, communities and our world, we become ministers of compassion and agents of healing. We want to return this love; to make amends for what we or others have broken. This is not guilt but recognition and gratitude. The Sacred Heart of Jesus opens the eyes of our hearts. Just as we cannot make Christ into a faceless abstraction so we cannot make anyone we love into a faceless project. We do not see a problem or a threat but only a person, a history; we cannot read a statistic without realising that it is also a story, a life: not a someone or somebody that could be anyone or anybody, but this person who has a name given to him or her by a father, a mother or someone who loved them from the very beginning of their life and did not wish them to be invisible and unknown. Out of this personal relationship and resistance to the impersonal, the work of reparation begins:  whatever is broken we can work to repair; whatever is lost, we can go in search of. Whoever feels humiliated and despised, we can esteem and restore. Whoever is abandoned, used and abused, we can work to bring into the heart of the community with justice and compassion. We can speak the name of those who are forgotten, whose lives are counted as without value, and write their stories in the book of life.

We know that this cannot be done without cost, without enduring commitment or fidelity. But if we have come to know the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we will also know that we have his Spirit too, and ‘nothing is impossible to God.’  For the Sacred Heart of the crucified and risen Christ is a sort of living icon of the Holy Spirit. More than the great rainbow seen by Noah signalling the cosmic covenant and a new beginning, the Spirit is the new and eternal covenant that God’s love for us in Christ does not fail, ‘And hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.’ (Romans 5:5).  

St Jean Eudes thought that the deepest living of the Christian life – we could also say the truly human life – is the mutual indwelling of our heart in the heart of Christ. Although our heart – the love that becomes our very essence – must always be finite, it can, nevertheless, have a limitless capacity for receiving and being transformed by God’s love. St Isaac of Nineveh expresses it beautifully:

And what is a merciful heart? - It is the heart’s burning for the sake of the entire creation, for men, for birds, for animals, for demons, and for every created thing; and by the recollection of them the eyes of a merciful man pour forth abundant tears. From the strong and vehement mercy which grips his heart and from his great compassion, his heart is humbled and he cannot bear to hear or to see any injury or slight sorrow in creation. For this reason he offers up tearful prayer continually even for irrational beasts, for the enemies of the truth, and for those who harm him, that they be protected and receive mercy. And in like manner he even prays for the family of reptiles because of the great compassion that burns without measure in his heart in the likeness of God.

This is a heart that is fully alive. In our hearts the world longs to see the heart of Jesus. In this Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has reminded us that this is our gift; to carry the merciful heart of Jesus in our own heart. It is such a heart, overflowing with compassion, that is the dynamic core of our Christian witness and the mission of the Church.

Before I left Paray-le-Monial I was given an unexpected gift. In Musée de Hieron, not far from the old Jesuit residence, are some works by the 20th century artist Jean-Georges Cornélius. One painting powerfully impressed itself upon me: Jéhovah devient notre père (above). It seemed to sum up so much of what contemporary theology had been trying to express about the reality of the cross at the heart of God’s Trinitarian life. This painting did not use words or sophisticated philosophical theology. It simply showed the crucified Christ held in the arms of the Father; a traditional artistic theme. In a profoundly personal moment between the Father and the Son, the painting caught a delicate heart-consoling, heart-breaking ambivalence in their closeness: the love was evident and palpable but, as for any parent holding a suffering and dying child, the pain of the Father as well as that of the Son was visible. And there was also a gentle, trusting peace. Supported in the Father’s arms the Son was held, lovingly secure. Theirs was not a closed relationship. Even in such profound intimacy and suffering, their love draws us in. We cannot be onlookers or spectators; we are moved not just by empathy but by grace. In their suffering their heart was one. So are we all held close to the Father’s heart.

James Hanvey SJ is Master of Campion Hall, University of Oxford.

[1] In one of the apparitions of St Margaret Mary, Christ spoke: ‘In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.’

[2] 

• I will give them all of the graces necessary for their state of life.
• I will establish peace in their houses.
• I will comfort them in all their afflictions.
• I will be their strength during life and above all during death.
• I will bestow a large blessing upon all their undertakings.
• Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy.
• Tepid souls shall grow fervent.
• Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.
• I will bless every place where a picture of my heart shall be set up and honored.
• I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
• Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out.
• I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who shall receive communion on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.

[3] Joseph Ratzinger, Behold the Pierced One (Ignatius Press, 1986), p.69.

                                               

Forgiveness

This series is taken from the daily email series posted by Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe to the emails by clicking here

Let me clarify that by encouraging you to let go I am not suggesting you do away with all personal boundaries, that you condone injustice or cruelty. Contemplatives are not Pollyannas or blind optimists. Our positivity comes from struggle and prayer, not from denial or repression. Through daily contemplative practice, we exercise the relinquishment of our egoic attachments. From our place of inner authority and freedom, we can speak truth to power with compassion and love.

Forgiveness is an act of letting go. When we forgive we do not forget the harm someone caused or say that it does not matter. But we release bitterness and hatred, freeing ourselves to move on and make choices grounded in our strength rather than victimization. Forgiveness opens our closed hearts to give and receive love fully.

Jack Kornfield offers a wonderful meditative practice of forgiveness:

[Sit] comfortably. Allow your eyes to close and your breath to be natural and easy. Let your body and mind relax. Breathing gently into the area of your heart, let yourself feel all the barriers you have erected and the emotions that you have carried because you have not forgiven—not forgiven yourself, not forgiven others. . . . Let yourself feel the pain of keeping your heart closed. Then, breathing softly, begin asking and extending forgiveness, reciting the following words, letting the images and feelings that come up grow deeper as you repeat them.

Asking Forgiveness of Others

Recite: "There are many ways that I have hurt and harmed others, have betrayed or abandoned them, caused them suffering, knowingly or unknowingly, out of my pain, fear, anger, and confusion." Let yourself remember and visualize the ways you have hurt others. See and feel the pain you have caused out of your own fear and confusion. Feel your own sorrow and regret. Sense that finally you can release this burden and ask for forgiveness. Picture each memory that still burdens your heart. And then to each person in your mind repeat: "I ask for your forgiveness, I ask for your forgiveness."

Offering Forgiveness to Yourself

Recite: "There are many ways that I have hurt and harmed myself. I have betrayed or abandoned myself many times through thought, word, or deed, knowingly and unknowingly." Feel your own precious body and life. Let yourself see the ways you have hurt or harmed yourself. Picture them, remember them. Feel the sorrow you have carried from this and sense that you can release these burdens. Extend forgiveness for each of them, one by one. Repeat to yourself: "For the ways I have hurt myself through action or inaction, out of fear, pain, and confusion, I now extend a full and heartfelt forgiveness. I forgive myself, I forgive myself."

Offering Forgiveness to Those Who Have Hurt or Harmed You

Recite: "There are many ways that I have been harmed by others, abused or abandoned, knowingly or unknowingly, in thought, word, or deed." Let yourself picture and remember these many ways. Feel the sorrow you have carried from this past and sense that you can release this burden of pain by extending forgiveness whenever your heart is ready. Now say to yourself: "I now remember the many ways others have hurt or harmed me, wounded me, out of fear, pain, confusion, and anger. I have carried this pain in my heart too long. To the extent that I am ready, I offer them forgiveness. To those who have caused me harm, I offer my forgiveness, I forgive you."

Let yourself gently repeat these three directions for forgiveness until you feel a release in your heart. For some great pains you may not feel a release but only the burden and the anguish or anger you have held. Touch this softly. Be forgiving of yourself for not being ready to let go and move on. Forgiveness cannot be forced; it cannot be artificial. Simply continue the practice and let the words and images work gradually in their own way. In time you can make the forgiveness meditation a regular part of your life, letting go of the past and opening your heart to each new moment with a wise loving-kindness. [1]

Reference:

[1] Jack Kornfield, “Forgiveness Meditation: A Meditation for the Anniversary of 9/11,” http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/practices/view/21581/forgiveness-meditation.