Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
To be a vibrant Catholic Community unified in its commitment to growing disciples for Christ
Resident Seminarian: Br Cris Mendoza Mob: 0408 389 216
chris_mendoza2080@yahoo.com
Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport
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 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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Please note: no Adoration for the month of January at Devonport
Weekday Masses 27th - 30th December Mass Times Next Weekend 31st Dec 2016/ 1st Jan,
2017
Monday: 10:00am Devonport Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Tuesday: 9:30am
Penguin Devonport
Wednesday: 9:30am
Latrobe Sunday
Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
Thursday: 12noon
Devonport 9:00am
Ulverstone
Friday: 9:30am
Ulverstone 10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Your prayers are asked for the sick: Iris Wilson, John Lee- Archer, Helen Willis, David Welch & ....
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Cyprian Ibeke, Joan Matthews, Jenny Edwards, Mark Marshall, Anthony Bird, Martin Xavier, Udofia John Okpon
Let us pray for those whose
anniversary occurs about this time: 21st
– 27th December
Amy Batt, Greg Williams, Laurance Kelcey, Austin Florian, Emily Duggan, Eileen McIver, Michael Quillerat, Neil Hensby, Fr John Wall, Gwenda
Stones, Cavell Robertson, Wallace Malone, Maria Duggan, Mary Burrows, Margaret
Waddle and Max Anderson. Also Madeline Castles, Hedley & Enid Stubbs, Corrie & Arch Webb, Noreen
& Len Burton, Frank Duggan, John Fennell, Glen Clark, Gregory & Damian
Matthews, Bruce Smith, Ismael Minoza, Reg & Margaret Watson, Ruby &
Charles Desire, Jean & Cedric Davey, Genaro & Jeffrey Visorro, Robert
Patrick King, Fortunato & Asuncion Carcuevas, Kathryn & Frank McLennan,
Beatrice Matilda John McGuire, Jim Lowry, Alex, Winifred, Ken & Michael Lohrey, Bruce Ravaillion,
Kevin & Doyle Robertson and deceased relatives and friends of the
Cunningham, Febey, Coad, Desire, Davey, Watson, Clark, Windridge, Reynolds, Fennell,
Lowry, Lohrey, Finch, Butler, Sheridan, Bourke & Knight family.
May they Rest in Peace
Readings Next Week: Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God
The Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord - Year A
First Reading: Numbers 6:22-27
Second Reading: Galatians 4:4-7
Gospel: Luke 2:16-21
Weekly Ramblings:
On behalf of all the
Parish Team I would like to wish you all a Happy and Holy Christmas Time.
I pray that all of
you will enjoy the absolute best time possible and that you will have a chance
to experience all that this Christmas time has to offer – JOY as we remember
the birth of our Saviour; LOVE as we enjoy the company of family and friends;
PEACE as we share the promise that God lives amongst us, and HOPE as we trust
that the promises God made can be fulfilled.
I pray also for
those for whom this year has had its difficulties and sadness, that the message
of the Angels given to the shepherds - ‘Do
not be afraid. Listen, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the
whole people. Today in the town of David a saviour has been born to you; he is
Christ the Lord’ – will be the opportunity for you also to know that God is
with you and brings you the promise of everlasting joy in his presence.
Finally to the
Children – thank you for making the Celebration of Christmas something ever new
and wonderful. We thank you for your life and your presence in our lives for
you remind us that God’s message is always being told anew and, when seen with
fresh eyes, is always something that can reawaken our hearts. So from me to all
of you – thank you.
And as we come to
this weekend we also say farewell to Br Cris as he returns to his community at
Bridgewater Brighton Parish – the Parish House will never be the same again.
May God bless you and keep you safe!
SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM:
Families with children in Grade 3 or above are invited to participate in our family-centred, parish-based and school-supported Sacramental Program to prepare to celebrate the sacraments of RECONCILIATION, CONFIRMATION AND EUCHARIST in 2017. Information Sessions to explain the preparation program will be held on: Monday 20th February 7.00pm at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Stewart Street, Devonport and Tuesday 21st February 7.00pm at Sacred Heart Church, Alexandra Road, Ulverstone.
For further information, or any questions please contact Fr Mike on 6424:2783 or mike.delaney@aohtas.org.au
During
the year many people have been involved in serving others in ministries too
numerous to name.
Thank you all for living out your Baptismal commitment in a way that inspires us all.
Our prayer as we celebrate Christ’s birth is that we may all continue to grow in faith, hope and love.
Merry Christmas everyone from Fathers Mike & Alex, Brother Cris, Annie, Anne & Digna.
Ecstatic Dance
Taken from the daily email series by Fr Richard Rohr PFM. You can subscribe to receive the emails here
In order to fully participate in the sacred dance, our
hearts, minds, and bodies must all be present and open. Too often in the
Western world, the body is neglected or even denied. As a contemplative
practice and way of learning how to embody Trinity’s flow, I invite you to
actually dance—in the privacy of your home or with a group. (Tip: You might
search for African dance or Five Rhythms gatherings near you.)
Here’s a simple practice you can do alone or with others.
Choose a favorite or new piece of music—classical, folk, contemporary; anything
that calls you to move!—and find a place in which you can listen and move
uninhibitedly, barefooted if possible.
Allow your body to lead, following the invitation of the
music. Let mind take a back seat and tune in to the sensations of each part of
your body. There are no right or wrong moves. Just listen to the music, and
your body will respond.
Feel your feet connect with the ground. Limbs and joints
turn and bend as they will. Swing and sway head, shoulders, hips. Sink deep
into your body—every part of it. Be your animal self.
Remember to breathe. Inhale and exhale, in and out,
receiving and letting go. Fill and empty your lungs again and again.
Dance until you are pleasantly tired and gradually slow your
movements. Continue moving in smaller, gentler ways. Keep breathing deeply.
Stretch each part of your body: legs, arms, back, toes, neck.
Finally, come to a seated position and rest in stillness for
several minutes of silence.
INCARNATION – GOD IS WITH US
Taken from an article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original article can be found here
For many of us, I suspect, it gets harder each year to capture the mood of Christmas. About the only thing that still warms are hearts are memories, memories of younger, more naïve, days when the lights and carols, Christmas trees and gifts, still excited us. But we’re adult now and so too, it seems, is our world. Much of our joy in anticipating Christmas is blunted by many things, not least by the commercialism that today is characterized by excess. By late October we already see Christmas decorations, Santa is around in November, and December greets us with series of Christmas parties which exhaust us long before December 25th. So how can we rally some spirit for Christmas day?
It’s not easy, and commercialism and excess are not our only obstacles. More serious are the times. Can we, amid the many cruelties of this year, warm up to a season of tinsel and festivity? Can we continue to romanticize the pilgrimage of one poor couple searching for shelter two thousand years ago amidst the plight of the millions of refugees today who are journeying without even a stable as a refuge? Does it mean anything to speak of peace after various elections this year polarized our nations and left millions unable to speak civilly to their neighbors? Where exactly is the peace and goodwill in our world today?
Closer to home, there are our own personal tragedies: the death of loved ones, lost marriages, lost families, lost health, lost jobs, lost time, tiredness, frustration. How do we celebrate the birth of a redeemer in a world which looks shockingly unredeemed and with hearts that mostly feel heavy and fatigued? The Christmas story is not easily made credible. How do we maintain the belief that God came down from heaven, took on human flesh, conquered all suffering, and altered the course of human history?
This isn’t easy to believe amidst all the evidence that seems to contradict it, but its credibility is contingent upon it being properly understood. Christmas is not a magical event, a Cinderella story without midnight. Rather its very centre speaks of humiliation, pain, and forced fleeing which is not unlike that being experienced by millions of refugees and victims of injustice on our planet today. The Christmas story mirrors the struggle that’s being experienced within our own world and within our own tired hearts.
Incarnation is not yet the resurrection. Flesh in Jesus, as in us, is human, vulnerable, weak, incomplete, needy, painfully full of limit, suffering. Christmas celebrates Christ’s birth into these things, not his removal of them. Christ redeems limit, evil, sin and pain. But they are not abolished. Given that truth, we can celebrate at Christ’s birth without in any way denying or trivializing the real evil in our world and the real pain in our lives. Christmas is a challenge to celebrate while still in pain.
The incarnate God is called Emmanuel, a name which means God-is-with-us. That fact does not mean immediate festive joy. Our world remains wounded, and wars, strikes, selfishness, and bitterness linger. Our hearts too remain wounded. Pain lingers. For a Christian, just as for everyone else, there will be incompleteness, illness, death, senseless hurt, broken dreams, cold, hungry, lonely days of bitterness and a lifetime of inconsummation. Reality can be harsh and Christmas does not ask us to make make-believe. The incarnation does not promise heaven on earth. It promises heaven in heaven. Here, on earth, it promises us something else – God’s presence in our lives. This presence redeems because knowing that God is with us is what ultimately empowers us to give up bitterness, to forgive, and to move beyond cynicism and bitterness. When God is with us then pain and happiness are not mutually exclusive and the agonies and riddles of life do not exclude deep meaning and deep joy.
In the words of Avery Dulles: “The incarnation does not provide us with a ladder by which to escape from the ambiguities of life and scale the heights of heaven. Rather, it enables us to burrow deep into the heart of planet earth and find it shimmering with divinity.” George Orwell prophesied that our world would eventually be taken over by tyranny, torture, double-think, and a broken human spirit. To some extent this is true. We’re a long ways from being whole and happy, still deeply in exile.
However, we need to celebrate Christmas 2016 heartily. Maybe we won’t feel the same excitement we once felt as children when we were excited about tinsel, lights, Christmas carols, and special gifts and special food. Some of that excitement isn’t available to us anymore. But something more important is still available, namely, the sense that God is with us in our lives, in our joys as well as in our shortcomings.
The word was made flesh. That’s an incredible thing, something that should be celebrated with tinsel, lights, and songs of joy. If we understand Christmas, the carols will still flow naturally from our lips.
The Christmas story according to Matthew
Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus might be the first one we read in the New Testament, but it was not the first to have been written. Peter Edmonds SJ thinks about how the gospel’s opening verses were shaped by earlier references to Jesus’s birth and by the books of the Old Testament. The original article can be found by clicking here
Anybody wanting to read the earliest account of the Christmas story could be forgiven for thinking that the beginning of the New Testament would be the best place to start. But there is a problem. Matthew’s Gospel is placed at the beginning of the New Testament, not because it was the first of the New Testament’s books to be written, but because it is the gospel in which we find the most elevated portrait of Jesus, the fullest exposition of his teaching and the only references to the Church in all the gospels. Expert opinion informs us that all the gospels date from a time after the major epistles of Paul were composed, and also that Matthew’s was not the first New Testament gospel to take shape. This honour belongs to Mark. Matthew’s ‘Christmas story’ represents a report that dates from the third generation of Christianity – that is, around the mid-eighties of the first century, many years after the events it describes – and was no doubt shaped by earlier texts. So in order to understand what Matthew is trying to tell us in the opening chapters of the New Testament, we would do well to think about the beginning of his gospel in the context of what we read elsewhere in the bible.
Paul and the Acts of the Apostles
In the letters of Paul, the earliest New Testament writings, there is a single reference to the birth of Jesus Christ. This comes in the Letter to the Galatians, as part of a series of theological arguments that Paul employs to support his message: ‘when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might obtain adoption as children’ (Galatians 4:4-5). This lone mention of the birth of Christ contrasts with Paul’s repeated emphasis on the significance of Christ’s death and resurrection.
We read the fullest reference to these events towards the end of the First Letter to the Corinthians where Paul writes, ‘For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve’ (1 Corinthians 15:3-5). Paul is appealing to the gospel message which he had preached on previous occasions to the Corinthians and to what he himself had been taught, presumably after his conversion which is dated around AD 36. This text brings us back to the first days of Christianity.
This emphasis on the death and resurrection of Christ is also found in the speeches of Peter reported in the Acts of the Apostles, which stress these events as the centre of the Christian message. In his speech on Pentecost day, Peter says, ‘God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified’ (Acts 2:36). Before the High Priest and his Council, Peter says, ‘The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree’ (Acts 5:30). Peter says nothing about the Christmas story. Its proclamation is being reserved for a later stage of the Christian mission.
The Gospel of Mark
When in due course the first written gospel appeared – that of Mark, usually dated AD 65-70, a decade or so after the undisputed letters of St Paul – we look in vain for any report of the infancy and birth of Jesus. Mark begins with a quotation of three Old Testament passages which refer to the exodus of God’s people from Egypt (Exodus 23:20), their exile in Babylon (Isaiah 40:3) and their return from exile (Malachi 3:1). Mark is telling us how, in Jesus, God continues his past activity on behalf of his people. The evangelist, after introducing John the Baptist and reporting his preaching activity, then brings the adult Jesus onto his stage, as a man who comes from Nazareth to be baptised by John. At his baptism a voice from heaven pronounces Jesus as his Son; Jesus is then driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit and tested by Satan. There, ‘he was with the wild beasts and the angels waited on him’. Then he began his ministry. He announced, ‘The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’ (Mark 1:1-15)
The Gospel of Matthew
We can surmise that the gospel attributed to Mark became known and valued in places other than its initial destination, which may have been Rome in the time of the Emperor Nero or Syria in the tense years before the Jewish revolt of AD 70. It reflected the needs and interests of a persecuted community and was less obviously relevant to those for whom Matthew is reckoned to be writing, who may well have been a group of former members of a synagogue in the cosmopolitan city of Antioch, a group struggling to establish its identity as God’s special people after expulsion from their community. So, the person whom we know as Matthew rewrote Mark’s Gospel in ways more appropriate for that community’s need – in worship, the instruction of their converts and defence against their critics. He does this as a ‘scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven . . . who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’ (Matthew 13:52).
In this new gospel account, the main points of Mark’s beginning are not only kept but expanded. Matthew tells us more about John the Baptist, and about the baptism of Jesus and his testing by Satan in the wilderness (Matthew 3:1-4:12). But before this, Matthew inserts four sections about the origin and background of Jesus. We learn about Jesus’s ancestry (1:1-17). We learn about his birth and how he came to be born (1:18-25). We learn about his reception by foreigners and his rejection by the leaders of his own people (2:1-12). We learn about the drama of his early years, how he escaped death, went into exile in Egypt and how finally he came to be in Nazareth (2:13-23).
The Generations (Matthew 1:1-17)
The first section is a genealogical table. It is introduced by an announcement that Jesus is Son of David and Son of Abraham. There may well be two Old Testament passages implied by these two titles. The first is God’s promise to King David through the prophet Nathan that God ‘would establish the throne of his kingdom for ever’ (2 Samuel 7:13). The second is the promise that God makes to Abraham that, ‘in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’ (Genesis 12:3). This beginning suggests that the community of Matthew was a mixed one of Jew and Gentile – Jesus belonged to both.
There follows a list of the ancestors of Jesus. At first sight, this is the sort of list that we find in various places in the Old Testament. We read about the ancestors of Abraham in Genesis (11:10-32) and of David in the book of Ruth (4:18-22). We might think that such a list has little to tell us, but it repays careful reading. It gives us an insight into how God works in unexpected and surprising ways. Among the royal ancestors of Jesus are bad kings as well as good kings. Some are known to us from the Old Testament, others are quite unknown. Some are first-born in the family but others are junior siblings. There are only five women in the list, but their stories are well worth exploring. Moreover, the list falls neatly into three groups of fourteen, and fourteen is the sum of the letters in Hebrew that make up David’s name.
Somehow God overcomes many obstacles to bring about the birth of Jesus. This is surely a God of mystery. It is this God who speaks from heaven and proclaims Jesus as his beloved Son (Matthew 3:17). He is the God whom Jesus will later acknowledge as his Father, ‘Lord of heaven and earth’ (11:25).
Joseph (Matthew 1:18-25)
If the genealogy instructs us as to who Jesus is, the next section informs us how he came to be born. Again, this is a mysterious birth, because Jesus did not have a human father; as the angel informed Joseph when Mary was found to be with child, ‘the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit’. We first meet this creative Holy Spirit in the second verse of the bible where we learn that ‘the spirit of God swept over the face of the waters’ (Genesis 1:2), and we frequently encounter this Spirit in the prophets. Ezekiel, for example, looks forward to the time when God would put a new Spirit within his people as an agent of renewal (Ezekiel 36:26).
Matthew concludes this paragraph with the ‘Emmanuel’ quotation from Isaiah (7:14). This child would be ‘God with us’, which prepares us for the promise of the Risen Christ at the end of the gospel that he would be with his disciples, ‘always, to the end of the age’ (28:20). His name would be Jesus, because ‘he would save his people from their sins’. Readers familiar with the stories of the birth of Ishmael, son of Hagar, and of Isaac, son of Sarah (Genesis 16-18), and of Samson (Judges 13), will enjoy recognising how the annunciation by the angel to Joseph follows a similar pattern to these ancient traditions. Here is a typical Matthew text replete with doctrinal material for the catechist eager to explain the significance of this Christ.
The Wise Men (Matthew 2:1-12)
Matthew’s third section is perhaps more familiar to us from its use on the Feast of the Epiphany rather than at Christmas. It combines a search for the ‘king of the Jews’ by wise men ‘from the East’, their joy at their arrival ‘at the house’ and their worship of the child. All this is in contrast to the lack of interest of the ‘chief priests and the scribes’ who, despite their learning and knowledge of the scriptures, took no action. The reader knows that Herod, despite his smooth words, has no intention of meeting and paying homage to a rival king.
We can easily read this paragraph as an anticipation of the Passion story. There are parallels to be drawn. The inscription on the cross on which Jesus died reads, ‘King of the Jews’ (Matthew 27:37). Herod called for a secret meeting with the wise men (2:7); the chief priests ‘conspired’ to arrest Jesus (26:4). There are contrasts, too. The light of a star brought the wise men to Jesus, but on Calvary there would be darkness. The wise men worshipped Jesus (2:2,11); on Calvary, the leaders of his own people mocked him (27:41-43), yet the Gentile centurion and his companions confessed him to be ‘God’s Son’ (27:54). As in the previous paragraph, Matthew includes words from scripture, combining quotations from Micah (5:2-3) about his birthplace in Bethlehem and 2 Samuel (5:2) about his role as shepherd. Both of these texts link Jesus with King David of old.
Egypt and Nazareth (Matthew 2:13-23)
The fourth and concluding section of Matthew’s infancy story falls into three parts. In the first (2:13-15), Joseph takes the child Jesus and his mother to Egypt. The attentive reader remembers how another Joseph who dreamed also went down to Egypt (Genesis 39:1). The prophet Hosea provided a convenient text about God calling his son out of Egypt (11:1).
In the second part (2:16-18), Herod attempts to kill the child whom the wise men had worshipped. In a narrative that resembles the plotting of the Pharaoh to kill the infant Moses (Exodus 1:16), Herod fails. A quotation from the prophet Jeremiah reassures us that all this was known to God (Jeremiah 31:15). If Matthew presumes that his reader is familiar with the rest of this chapter of Jeremiah, he wants us to share the optimism and hope that marks this chapter as a whole. For God, the massacre of the holy innocents was not the end of the story.
In the third part (2:19-23), we arrive at Nazareth, the village from which, according to Mark, Jesus set out to seek John the Baptist (Mark 1:9). Once more, Joseph whom we have met already as a ‘righteous man’ (1:19), is obedient to the voice of an angel. He takes the child and his mother and brings them not to the land of Israel, but to Galilee, in the north where Archelaus, a nasty son of Herod, had no jurisdiction. This was where the public ministry of Jesus would begin. It would be the place where the people of Isaiah’s prophecy, ‘who sat in darkness’, would see a great light (4:16). As for Jesus himself, he would be called a Nazarene. Like Samson in the Book of Judges, he would be a Nazarite consecrated to God (Judges 16:17).
At this point, Matthew resumes his story along lines parallel to Mark, with his expanded versions of the mission of John the Baptist, the baptism of Jesus and the temptations that followed. His readers are now ready to listen to his account of the mission of Jesus. They have been admitted to Matthew’s theological workshop in which they have learnt about a God who is living and true, about a Jesus who saves his people from their sins and who is Emmanuel, ‘God with us’, about Joseph who has proved himself righteous in applying the law of God and obedient to the mission given to him.
Matthew’s Gospel is proclaimed on most Sundays in Year A of the three-year lectionary cycle. May these four paragraphs of Matthew’s ‘infancy narrative’ prove a sound foundation for us to hear the message of this gospel and understand it, so that, in the words of Jesus concluding his parable teaching, we may bear fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, others thirtyfold (Matthew 13:23).
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