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
Priest in Residence: Fr Phil McCormack Mob: 0437 521 257
Postal Address: PO Box 362
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Jenny Garnsey
Parish Mass times for the Month: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
Weekly Homily Podcast: mikedelaney.podomatic.com
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 sick or in need of assistance in the Parish please visit them. Then, if they are willing and give permission, could you please pass on their names to the Parish Office. We have a group of parishioners who are part of the Care and Concern Group who are willing and able to provide some backup and support to them. Unfortunately, because of privacy issues, the Parish Office is not able to give out details unless prior permission has been given.
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Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.
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.
Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon,
concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Benediction with Adoration Devonport:
- first Friday of each month.
Legion of Mary: Wednesdays 11am Sacred Heart Church
Community Room, Ulverstone
Christian Meditation: Devonport, Emmaus House - Wednesdays
7pm.
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – Devonport
Emmaus House – Thursdays 7pm. Meetings with Adoration and Benediction are held
each Second Thursday of the month in OLOL Church, commencing at 7pm.
Weekday Masses 28th February – 3rd March, 2017 Next Weekend 4th & 5th March, 2017
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin Saturday: 9:00am Ulverstone
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe ... Ash Wednesday Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
12noon Devonport ... Ash Wednesday Devonport
7:00pm Ulverstone ... Ash Wednesday 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
Ministry Rosters 4th & 5th March, 2017
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: V Riley, A Stegmann, M Stewart 10:30am E
Petts, K Douglas
Ministers of
Communion: Vigil
D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P
Shelverton, M Kenny
10.30am: F Sly, E
Petts, K Hull, S Arrowsmith, S Samarakkody, R Batepola
Cleaners 3rd
March: M.W.C 10th March: M & L Tippett, A Berryman
Piety Shop 4th
March: R Baker 5th March: P Piccolo No flowers during Lent
Ulverstone:
Reader: S Lawrence
Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, C
McGrath
Cleaners: G & M
Seen, C Roberts Hospitality:
S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters: S Ewing, J Garnsey Commentator: Y Downes Readers: M Murray, T Clayton
Ministers of
Communion: J
Garnsey, S Ewing Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J Setting Up: S Ewing
Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols
Latrobe:
Reader: H Lim Minister of
Communion: M Eden,
M O’Brien-Evans Procession of gifts: Parishioners
Port Sorell:
Readers: P Anderson, L Post Ministers of
Communion: T Jeffries Clean/Flow/Prepare: V Youd
Readings this week 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
First Reading: Isaiah 49:14-15
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
As I come to my place of prayer, I remember that God loves
me and welcomes me.
I become still in whatever way seems right for me today.
However long or short a time I have, I do not rush.
When I am ready, I read the Gospel slowly, noticing … and perhaps pausing ... whenever a word or a phrase particularly strikes me.
I share what I am thinking and feeling with our Lord.
Perhaps I reflect: what takes my time and energies? … Or … what am I worrying about today?
I allow the Lord to listen to my concerns.
What has he to say to me?
Maybe I ponder: what would I like to be free from in order to have the freedom to “set my heart on his kingdom first”?
I ask the Lord for whatever grace I need.
I end my prayer with gratitude … Our Father...
I become still in whatever way seems right for me today.
However long or short a time I have, I do not rush.
When I am ready, I read the Gospel slowly, noticing … and perhaps pausing ... whenever a word or a phrase particularly strikes me.
I share what I am thinking and feeling with our Lord.
Perhaps I reflect: what takes my time and energies? … Or … what am I worrying about today?
I allow the Lord to listen to my concerns.
What has he to say to me?
Maybe I ponder: what would I like to be free from in order to have the freedom to “set my heart on his kingdom first”?
I ask the Lord for whatever grace I need.
I end my prayer with gratitude … Our Father...
Readings next week First Sunday of
Lent
Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19
Gospel: Matthew
4:1-11
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Sr Joy Hanrahan, Willhelm Kramer,
David Welch, Connie Fulton & …,
Let us pray
for those who have died recently: Ingeborg Schleich, Aileen Reynolds, Annenaka Kramer,
Nell Nettlefold, Joy Griffiths, Bill Masterton, Terri-Anne Horne.
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 22nd – 28th
February
Collin Morgan, Michael Duggan, Rita Sullivan, Laurence
Duggan, Kristine Morgan, Thea Nicholas, Glen Clark,
Reginald Alderson, Irene
Kilby, Richard O’Neill, Mary Mann, Thomas Beard.
May
they rest in peace
Weekly
Ramblings
This weekend is Project Compassion
Sunday – envelopes and Project Compassion Boxes are available and I would
encourage all parishioners to take the material with you. Each week there will
be material included in the newsletter which highlights the theme for that
week.
A reminder that Ash Wednesday and
Good Friday are days of Fast and Abstinence. The law of fasting binds those who
have completed their eighteenth year, until the beginning of their sixtieth
year; but the law of abstinence (no meat) applies to everyone over the age of
fourteen.
Each week I upload the newsletter
to the internet - mlcparish.blogspot.com.au – and I usually add some extra
articles that provide an opportunity for deeper reading and reflection. Last
weekend and this I have included an extract from a blog by Fr Val Farrell, a
retired priest friend from England. Both are reflections on Lent and are well
worth reading. For anyone else wanting to read his reflections you can go to
evalfarrell.blogspot.com.au – he has some quite wonderful reflections and
thoughts.
On Tuesday evening those who
completed the 1st Alpha Program will be gathering for a celebratory meal in the
Community Room at Ulverstone. This will also be the first meeting of
Parishioners who are joining us for the 2nd Season of Alpha – still in the
starting phase of the program which we hope will be in full swing later in the
year.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes, 
Ps – Happy birthday to the Old fella!
Dear Friends,
I invite you to join with us in preparation for Project
Compassion 2017.
Our theme this year is “Love your neighbour”.
The six stories we share with you
for the six weeks of Lent reveal some of the ways lives can be transformed when
we follow Jesus’ instruction to “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Matt.
22:39). The call of Jesus shakes us out of preoccupation with ourselves. Christ
asks us to acknowledge in our lives that we are all members of the one human
family. Each one of us is equally worthy of respect and compassion.
In Project Compassion 2017 we will demonstrate how love for
our neighbours can transform lives. When mutual respect is fostered,
communities become stronger and more resilient. This can only lead to a better
future for our world, the world that Pope Francis has recently called “our
common home”.
For more than 50 years, Caritas Australia has been
privileged to work together with our neighbours – our most vulnerable sisters
and brothers in First Australian communities and in many other countries.
Working with our partner agencies in those communities, we have developed the
strength to combat poverty, promote justice and uphold the dignity of every
person.
“To love God and neighbour is not something abstract,
but profoundly concrete: it means seeing in every person the face of the Lord
to be served, to serve him concretely. And you are, dear brothers and sisters,
the face of Jesus” –
Pope Francis, 2013
Thank you for supporting
Caritas Australia this Lenten Season.
My blessings to you all
My blessings to you all
KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS: meeting this Sunday 26th
February from 6.30pm. This will be a members and partners get-together and
dinner at the Lucas Hotel Latrobe – all welcome!
MACKILLOP HILL
Spirituality
in the Coffee Shoppe: Monday 27th February, 10.30 – 12
noon. Don’t
miss an interesting discussion over morning tea! 123 William Street, FORTH. Phone:
6428:3095 No bookings necessary.
MACKILLOP
HILL LIBRARY:
Library opening hours 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday.
LENTEN PROGRAM 2017:
A Lenten Program is planned to begin Thursday
2nd March starting at 10am until 11:30am at Emmaus House, 88 Stewart Street
Devonport. We will meet for six weeks finishing on 6th April. If you
would like to join the group contact Clare Kiely-Hoye 6428:2760
WORLD DAY OF PRAYER:
Christian Reformed Church, Penguin: Friday 3rd March at
10am. Everyone Welcome!
Salvation Army William Street Devonport: Friday March 3rd
at 1.30 pm. All welcome. A plate please.
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY will be holding a
garage sale early April. The auxiliary would be very grateful for any donations
which can be dropped off at 2/16 Jermyn Street, Ulverstone or phone 6425:1712.
SACRED HEART CHURCH ROSTER:
If you are
interested in being a reader, minister of communion or able to help with church
cleaning, flowers or hospitality please phone the Parish Office on 6424:2783 or contact
Barbara O’Rourke.
cleaning, flowers or hospitality please phone the Parish Office on 6424:2783 or contact
Barbara O’Rourke.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall,
Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers for Thursday 2nd
March Jon Halley & Merv Tippett
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE
THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO
PROGRAM:
This week The Journey Catholic Radio program will bring you
the weekly Gospel reflection from our very own Fr Graham Schmitzer. We
have Bruce Downes, The Catholic Guy encouraging us to be listening to God’s
call, and Francine Pirola in SMART loving giving us great tips for choosing to
love. This is woven together with some wonderful Christian music and
you’ve got a show that is all about faith, hope love and life. Go to www.jcr.org.au or www.itunes.jcr.org.au where you
can listen anytime and subscribe to weekly shows by email.
FATHER EDWARD ZAMMIT
OFM 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ORDINATION:
Our Lady Star of
the Sea Parish Pastoral Council invites all parishioners to a Thanksgiving Mass
on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Ordination of Father Edward Zammit
OFM Saturday 11th March, 11.00am at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church,
33 Goulburn Street, George Town. A light luncheon will follow in the parish
hall. RSVP would be appreciated to assist with catering to Fr Edward on 63
82 1489 or Mrs Wendy Harrap on 6304:2829 or email Mrs Wendy Fittler - wfittler@bigpond.com.
In keeping with the Franciscan tradition, no gifts please.
YOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO ST
PATRICK’S, COLEBROOK
On the weekend of 18th/19th March, Archbishop Porteous is
leading a Youth Pilgrimage from St John’s Richmond to St Patrick’s Colebrook.
For more information and a copy of the brochure, please contact Helen Smith at
the Archdiocese of Hobart on phone 6208:6223.
on your 80th
(as you keep telling everyone!!)
74th
(really) birthday, Saturday
25th February.
From all at
Mersey Leven Parish xx
OF WINNERS AND LOSERS
Taken from the web archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
Our society tends to divide us up into winners and losers. Sadly, we don’t often reflect on how this affects our relationships with each other, nor on what it means for us as Christians.
What does it mean? In essence, that our relationships with each other tend are too charged with competition and jealousy because we are too infected with the drive to out-do, out-achieve, and out-hustle each other. For example, here are some of slogans that pass for wisdom today: Win! Be the best at something! Show others you’re more talented than they are! Show that you are more sophisticated than others! Don’t apologize for putting yourself first! Don’t be a loser!
These phrases aren’t just innocence axioms cheerleading us to work harder; they’re viruses infecting us so that most everything in our world now conspires with the narcissism within us to push us to achieve, to set ourselves apart from others, to stand out, to be at the top of the class, to be the best athlete, the best dressed, the best looking, the most musically talented, the most popular, the most experienced, the most travelled, the one who knows most about cars, or movies, or history, or sex, or whatever. At all costs we drive ourselves to find something at which we can beat others. At all costs we try to somehow set ourselves apart from and above others. That idea is almost genetically engrained in us now.
And because of that we tend to tend to misjudge others and misjudge our own meaning and purpose. We structure everything too much around achieving and standing out. When we achieve, when we win, when we are better than others at something, our lives seem fuller; our self-image inflates and we feel confident and worthwhile. Conversely, when we cannot stand out, when we’re just another face in the crowd, we struggle to maintain a healthy self-image.
Either way, we are forever struggling with jealousy and dissatisfaction because we cannot help constantly seeing our own lack of talent, beauty, and achievement in relationship to other’s successes. And so we both envy and hate those who are talented, beautiful, powerful, rich, and famous, holding them up for adulation even as we secretly wait for their downfall, like the crowd that praises Jesus on Palm Sunday and then screams for his crucifixion just five days later.
This leaves us in an unhappy place: How do we form community with each other when our very talents and achievement are cause for jealousy and resentment, when they’re sources of envy and weapons of competition? How do we love each other when our competitive spirits make us see each other as rivals?
Community can only happen when we can let the talents and achievements of others enhance our own lives and we can let our own talents and achievements enhance, rather than threaten, others. But we’re generally incapable of this. We’re too infected with competitiveness to allow ourselves to not let the achievements and talents of others threaten us and actualize our own talents in a way so as to enhance the lives of others rather than to let ourselves stand out.
Like our culture, we too tend to divide people into winners and losers, admiring and hating the former, looking down on the latter, constantly sizing each other up, rating each other’s bodies, hair, intelligence, clothing, talents and achievements. But, as we do this, we vacillate between feeling depressed and belittled when others outscore us or inflated and pompous when we appear superior to them.
And this becomes ever more difficult to overcome as we become more obsessed with our need to stand out, be special, to sit above, to make a mark for ourselves. We live in a chronic, inchoate jealousy where the talents of others are perennially perceived as a threat to us. This keeps us both anxious and less than faithful to our Christian faith.
Our Christian faith invites us not to compare ourselves with others, to not make efforts to stand out, and to not let ourselves be threatened by and jealous of other’s gifts. Our faith invites us to join a circle of life with those who believe that there is no need to stand out or be special, and who believe that other people’s gifts are not a threat, but rather something which enriches all lives, our own included.
When we divide people into winners and losers then our talents and gifts become sources of envy and weapons of competition and superiority. This is true not just for individuals but for nations as well.
One of these competitive slogans within our culture tells us: Show me a good loser and I will show you a loser! Well, seen in this light, Jesus was a loser. People were shaking their heads at his death, and there was no championship ring on his finger. He didn’t look good in the world’s eyes. A loser! But, in his underachieving we all achieved salvation. Somewhere there’s a lesson there!
Lenten reading
Denis Blackledge SJ recommends two titles that you might want to have at your fingertips throughout the season of Lent this year: the Archbishop of Canterbury challenges us to make money serve grace; and Denis McBride leads us through a visual meditation on how the Stations of the Cross manifest themselves in today’s world. This article can be found on the Thinking Faith website by clicking hereDethroning Mammon: Making Money Serve Grace
by Justin Welby
The Archbishop of Canterbury has done us all a good and timely service with a carefully crafted little masterpiece. With a foreword by Jean Vanier, who dubs the book ‘beautiful and important’, and whose life and thought are referred to throughout the book, Welby has sculpted six chapters which are shaped mainly by the Gospel and Revelation of St John.
The front cover, a painting by Daniel Bonnell of the finding of the pearl of great price, provides the author with his introduction, based on the parable at Matthew 13:45-46. He then names his six chapters: ‘What we see we value’; ‘What we measure controls us’; ‘What we have we hold’; ‘What we receive we treat as ours’; ‘What we give we gain’; and ‘What we master brings us joy’. The chapters take us, in order, to encounter: Lazarus; Zacchaeus; Mary who anoints Jesus extravagantly; Jesus washing his disciples’ feet; Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus burying Jesus; and finally, the Message to Laodicea and the Fall of Babylon. The chapters are peppered with delightfully fresh insights.
Whilst the book is ideally meant to be used in Lent, either individually or as a group – there are questions dotted throughout to enable discussion – this is a set of prayer material to ponder at any time of the year. And it has a practical aim, stated in its subtitle: to make money serve grace, a challenge to all of its readers!
(Bloomsbury, 2016; 192 pages; ISBN: 9781472929778)
Stations of the Cross – then and now
by Denis McBride
Denis McBride is a true wordsmith, and a new book sets his skill with the written word alongside the superbly chosen work of south German artist Curd Lessig and contemporary photography. All three combine to offer a new way of travelling along the traditional Stations of the Cross in a simple, six-stage format.
Each Station begins with a passage from scripture; follows that with the accompanying painting from Lessig’s ‘Way of the Cross’; and then offers a two-page reflection from McBride on the Station in the light of the scripture and the painting. What is deeply striking, though, is that the reader is subsequently presented with a photograph representing a modern day instance of suffering, then a two-page meditation on that image; and finally a prayer.
What McBride has produced twins ‘then’ with ‘now’. His aim is for the reader both to celebrate the memory of Jesus’s Passion and to become more alert to the passion of so many around us who struggle under the burden of their own cross. Each photo reflects a contemporary parallel of the particular Station of the Cross, and has been selected with great sensitivity. The shooting of Pope John Paul ll, for example, has been chosen to echo the third station, the First Fall of Jesus; and, perhaps most poignantly, the Pietà, the thirteenth station, is paired with the now infamous photo of an aid worker tenderly picking up the small body of a drowned child, Alan Kurdi, from a Turkish shore. The two interpretations of the thirteenth station grace the front cover.
This is a book to ponder and pray, not to read. Whilst it is especially relevant for Lent and Holy Week, it is a book full of insights and blessings to keep in your daily prayer corner for any day or night of the year.
(Redemptorist Publications, 2016; 118 pages; ISBN: 9780852314722)
The Cosmic Christ - Week 2
This article is taken from the daily email series by Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe to these emails by clicking here
The Second Coming of
Christ
Christ is the radiant light of God’s glory and the perfect
copy of God’s nature, sustaining the universe by God’s powerful command.
—Hebrews 1:3, Jerusalem Bible
Christ is not Jesus’ last name. The word Christ is a title,
meaning the Anointed One, which we so consistently applied to Jesus that to us
it became like a name. But a study of Scripture, Tradition, and the experience
of many mystics reveals a much larger, broader, and deeper meaning to “the
Christ.” Frankly, it is a metaphysical concept more than a religious one,
although almost all people today would see it as a religious name for Jesus.
The above passage from Hebrews says that Christ “sustains
the universe.” Christ is a religious concept because it can be used to describe
reality in an archetypal, symbolic, and profound way. But it names the shape of
the universe before it names the individual who typifies that shape, the one we
call Jesus Christ. All of creation first holds God’s anointing (“beloved”
status), and then Jesus brings the message home in a personal way thirteen
billion years later!
This is a different way of thinking for most of us. The
three Synoptic Gospels are largely talking about Jesus, the historical figure
who healed and taught and lived in human history; whereas John’s Gospel
presents the trans-historical “Christ” (which is why so very few stories in
John coincide with Matthew, Mark, and Luke). This Christ is frequently making
universal “I AM” statements and claims (see John 6:35, 48; 8:12, 24, 58; 10:9,
11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1), mirroring the unspeakable name of the Holy One in
Exodus 3:14. This is very different than the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Among the four Gospels, we have both Jesus and Christ.
Paul also never met the historical Jesus and hardly ever
quotes Jesus directly. In almost all of Paul’s preaching and writing, he is
referring to the Eternal Christ Mystery or the Risen Christ rather than Jesus
of Nazareth before his death and resurrection. The Risen Christ is the only
Jesus that Paul ever knew! This makes Paul a fitting mediator for the rest of
us, since the Omnipresent Risen Christ is the only Jesus we will ever know as
well (see 2 Corinthians 5:16-17).
Jesus’ historical transformation (“resurrected flesh”)
allows us more easily to experience the Presence that has always been available
since the beginning of time, a Presence unlimited by space or time, which is
the promise and “guarantee” of our own transformation (see 1 Corinthians
15:1-53). In Jesus the Timeless Christ became time bound, so we could enjoy the
personal gaze, as it were (see 1 John 1-2).
Whenever the material and the spiritual coincide, there is
the Christ. Jesus fully accepted that human-divine identity and walked it into
history. Henceforth, the Christ “comes again” whenever we are able to see the
spiritual and the material coexisting, in any moment, in any event, and in any
person. All matter reveals Spirit, and Spirit needs matter to “show itself”! I
believe "the Second Coming of Christ" happens whenever and wherever
we allow this to be utterly true for us. This is how God continually breaks
into history—even before the first Stone Age, humans stood in awe and wonder,
gazing at the stars.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Cosmic Christ, disc 1 (CAC:
2009), CD, MP3 download.
Bigger than
Christianity
The “Christ Mystery” is much bigger than Christianity as an
organized religion. If we don’t understand this, Christians will have little
ability to make friends with, build bridges to, understand, or respect other
religions or the planet. Jesus did not come to create a country club or a tribe
of people who could say, “We’re in and you’re out. We’ve got the truth and you
don’t.” Jesus came to reveal something that was true everywhere, for everyone,
and all the time.
Many Christians have a very limited understanding of Jesus’
historical or social message, and almost no understanding of the Cosmic
Christ—even though it is taught clearly in Scripture (see John 1, Colossians 1,
Ephesians 1, 1 John 1, Hebrews 1:1). Christ is often taught at the very
beginning of Paul’s and other New Testament authors’ writings, yet we still
missed it. But you can't see what you were never told to look for. Once you do
see the shape and meaning of this cosmic mystery of Divine Incarnation, you’ll
be able to see that the Presence is everywhere—and the archetypal Jesus will
not be such an anomaly, accident, or surprise.
God is saving everything and everybody, it is all God’s
emerging victory, until, as Paul says, “God will be all in all” (1 Corinthians
15:28). If Christ is truly the “savior of the world” (see John 4:42), then
God’s shape, form, meaning, and message are all far bigger than any single
religion. Talking to the intellectual Athenians, Paul is wise enough to say:
“God is not far from any of us. It is in him [sic] that we live and move and
have our very being” (Acts 17:28).
St. Augustine writes that through love we come to be in “the
frame of the body of Christ” so that in the end “there shall be one Christ,
loving himself.” [1] You are chosen in Christ (see Ephesians 1:4), and the
purpose of being chosen is to let everyone else know that they too are chosen!
We are not making a triumphal statement about the Christian religion here, but
we are making a triumphal statement about the nature of Divine Love—which will
finally win the day!
Loving both Jesus and the Christ is essential to a
Christian’s growth and transformation. You might begin with one or the other,
but eventually you should be drawn to love both. Too many Christians have
started and stopped with Jesus, never coming to know the Universal Christ. Many
who are not Christian have started with the Christ by some other name—after
all, there is only One God, One Love. I have met Hindus and Jews who live
happily and fruitfully inside this hidden Christ Mystery, and I have met many
Roman Catholics and Protestants who are running away from any notion of an
all-pervading, loving Presence. Their stinginess and exclusivity gives it away.
You can have the right words and not the right experience,
whereas if you enjoy the right experience, the right words are of much less
importance. God did not become Incarnate Love in the universe to create “word
police” and debating societies.
References:
[1] St. Augustine of Hippo, “Homily X,” section 3, St.
Augustine: Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, ed. Philip Schaff (Christian Classica Ethereal
Library),
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf107.iv.xiii.html.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, &
Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (CAC: 2010), MP3 download;
The Cosmic Christ, discs 1 & 2 (CAC: 2009), CD, MP3
download; and
Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
(Franciscan Media: 2014), 225.
All-Inclusive,
All-Pervading
Human beings are programmed to love all other living beings.
We fall in love with persons and creatures, not so much with concepts or
energies. We need “interface.” And so the Word or the Blueprint became
flesh—one humble human, a Jewish Nazarene, called Jesus. Though it seems he was
not particularly attractive, and many people despised and rejected him (see
Isaiah 53:2-3 or Mark 3:21), Jesus in his full humanity was still alluring. We
can relate to his suffering, his kindness, his friendship, his constant
inclusivity.
Jesus is the microcosmic moment of the macrocosm, the
Christ. Whatever we say about the Christ pertains to the whole universe. Christ
holds everything together. He is the ultimate transcendence brought to earth
and the ultimate inclusion of everything in God’s plan. In Christ everything is
reconciled in heaven and on earth (see Colossians 1:15-20).
Christ is the name for the very shape and meaning of the
universe. Jesus reveals this wonderful message in human form, showing us the
full meaning of our own lives—in a way that we could love and admire.
By recognizing and honoring the Christ, I'm not downplaying
Jesus. Quite the contrary, Jesus Christ is Jesus a hundred times over! But now
Jesus can no longer be used as the mascot for our little club or to justify
racism, imperialism, punitive behavior, or any form of shaming and exclusion.
When we say that we believe in both Jesus and Christ, we are precisely
including everything: the historical Jesus, plus all of creation, and ourselves
too. “He is everything and he is in everything” (Colossians 3:11 JB), and “when
he is fully revealed—and he is your life—you too will be revealed in all your
glory with him” (3:4 JB).
When we understand this, matter itself becomes a holy thing.
We worship God by walking with love and respect on this planet and with all
other creatures. What a simple,
universal, and wholehearted religion this would be! If this sounds like “the
two great commandments” to you (see Mark 12:30-31), you’re right. This is truly
“All Saints’ Day”!
References:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, &
Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (CAC: 2010), MP3 download; and
The Cosmic Christ, disc 1 (CAC: 2009), CD, MP3 download.
One Great Act of
Giving Birth
Humanity alone is called to assist God. Humankind is called
to co-create. —Hildegard of Bingen [1]
For of his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
—John 1:16, NASB
The Greek word here for “fullness” is pleroma, which Paul
also uses in his writings (see Ephesians 1:23, 3:19; Colossians 2:9) to
describe a historical unfolding. It is an early hint of what we now call
evolutionary development, the idea that history, humanity, and yes, even God
are somehow growing and coming to a divine fullness. And we are always in on
the deal. What hope and meaning this gives to all life!
In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul writes: “From the
beginning until now, the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one
great act of giving birth” (Romans 8:22, JB). This view of creation is very
feminine, by the way; maybe that is why men historically were so opposed to it.
Just that line should be enough to justify the theory of evolution for
Christians. Wouldn’t it make sense that God would give such autonomy and
freedom and grace to creation to continue self-creating, just as any mother or
father desires for their children?
Creation did not happen once by a flick of the divine hand
and now it's slowly winding down toward Armageddon and tragic Apocalypse (which
is the hopeless universe inside of which many fundamentalists live). Creation
is in fact a life-generating process that’s still happening and winding up! We
now know the universe is still expanding—and at an ever faster rate, which
means that we are a part of creating God’s future. That is what Love always
does for all that it loves (see Romans 8:28, in fact most of Romans 8). What a
different future than one of a threatening courtroom scene or an eternal
torture chamber for the bad guys (as if we are not bad guys too!).
Humanity is creation come to consciousness and freedom
(although many humans are still quite unconscious). Animals “know,” even bread
and wine “know” what they are, but we humans also know that we know, and that
is a huge leap forward. The French Jesuit geologist and paleontologist, Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), shared these inspired words: “‘The world is
still being created, and it is Christ who is reaching his fulfillment in it.’
When I heard and understood that saying, I looked around and I saw, as though
in an ecstasy, that through all nature I was immersed in God.” [2] That was
full consciousness!
The common Christian understanding that Jesus came to save
us by a cosmic evacuation plan is really very individualistic, petty, and even
egocentric. It demands no solidarity with anything except oneself. We whittled
the great Good News down into what Jesus could do for us personally and
privately, rather than God inviting us to participate in God’s universal
creative work.
Instead of believing that Jesus came to personally fulfill
you privately, how about trusting that you are here to fulfill Christ? To take
your small but wonderful part in what Thomas Merton calls “The General Dance.”
[3] That more than enough fulfills you without even trying to “get fulfilled.”
You are a part of this movement of an ever-growing Cosmic Christ that is coming
to be in this “one great act of giving birth.”
References:
[1] Gabriel Uhlein, Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen
(Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1985), 106.
[2] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “Cosmic Life,” Writings in
Time of War (London: Collins, and New York: Harper and Row, 1968), 60.
[3] Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (Boston:
Shambhala, 2003), chapter 39.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, &
Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (CAC: 2010), MP3 download.
The Pattern of
Evolution
Perhaps the reason it is so hard for us to see the evolution
of the Cosmic Christ in our individual lives and in the arc of history is that
this groaning and this giving birth (see Romans 8:22) proceeds by a process of
losses and gains, and the losses are very real. There is no doubt that history
goes three steps forward and two steps backward, but thank God there always
seems to be a net gain. Even though we continue to see war, racism, classism,
genocide, and ignorance, violence is actually declining. We may be more aware
of the world’s suffering now than ever before, but as compared with previous
periods in history, we are living in a relatively peaceful time. [1]
Historically and to this day, it seems that when a new level
of maturity is found, there is an immediate and strong instinct to pull
backward to the old and familiar. Thankfully, within churches and society at
large there is always a leaven, a critical mass, a few people who carry the
momentum toward greater inclusivity, compassion, and love. This is the Second
Coming of Christ: Christ embodied by people who know that hatred and greed are
always regressive, and who can no longer live fearfully or violently. There are
always some who have touched upon Love and been touched by Love, which is to
touch upon the Christ Mystery. This is the shape of “salvation.”
Teilhard de Chardin writes: “Everything that rises must
converge.” [2] In other words, higher levels of evolution are always a movement
toward greater unity. Along the way there will be differentiation and
complexity, but paradoxically, that increased complexity moves life to a
greater level of unity, until in the end there is only God who is “all in all”
(see 1 Corinthians 15:28). If it isn’t moving toward unity, it is not a higher
level of consciousness.
But along with differentiation and complexity there will
also be an equal pushback, fear, and confusion. We see this in our current
political climate in America and much of the world. The United States has
suffered eight years of nonstop gridlock and opposition to any creative
governance. It mirrors Newton’s Third Law of Motion that “every action elicits
an equal and opposite reaction.” Today many people are reverting to tribal
thinking, denial, fear, and hatred, rather than turning to compassionate, creative
solutions to real challenges of poverty, climate change, and the many worldwide
forms of injustice.
I highly recommend here any of the writings of Thomas Berry,
who in many ways brings Teilhard de Chardin realistically forward because he
has sixty more years of science, and also sixty more years of planetary push
back, to bring to the present conversation. [3] Berry is another prophet in our
times.
References:
[1] If you’re curious to see supporting data for the idea
that earth is less violent, see Steven Pinker and Andrew Mack’s article “The
World Is Not Falling Apart” (Slate: 2014),
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/12/the_world_is_not_falling_apart_the_trend_lines_reveal_an_increasingly_peaceful.html.
[2] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man (Image
Books: 1964), 186.
[3] I highly recommend exploring Thomas Berry’s writings,
such as The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion in the
Twenty-first Century, The Christian Future and the Fate of Earth, and The Great
Work: Our Way into the Future.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, &
Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (CAC: 2010), MP3 download.
A New Cosmology
[The cosmos] is fundamentally and primarily living. [1]
Christ, through his Incarnation, is interior to the world, rooted in the world
even in the very heart of the tiniest atom. [2] Nothing seems to me more vital,
from the point of view of human energy, than the appearance and, eventually,
the systematic cultivation of such a “cosmic sense.” [3] —Pierre Teilhard de
Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry have both helped
me come to my understanding of the Cosmic Christ. As Paul saw Christ as a
single “New Man” (see Ephesians 2:15), as Duns Scotus saw Christ as the Alpha point
of history, so Teilhard saw the same Divine Icon as the Omega point of cosmic
history—he was both the archetypal starting point and the alluring final goal.
The end was therefore already contained in the beginning. History is both
emanating from and also seduced by the same force: Divine Love. But do not
confuse this with any sentimental notion of love. Teilhard uses the word “love”
to describe the cosmic allurement of everything toward everything, a
structural, metaphysical shape to the universe, most visible in the basic laws
of gravity, electro-magnetic fields, and sexual reproduction.
And yet there is a constant price that must be paid to be
faithful to such foundational love. Everything is also fragmented and fighting
this very process of reunification. For Christians, this resistance is
symbolized by the cross. There is a cruciform shape to reality, it seems, and
loss precedes all renewal, emptiness makes way for every new infilling, every
transformation in the universe requires the surrendering of a previous “form.”
Nothing in the human psyche likes this pattern. It is the big fly in the cosmic
ointment!
It may take us hundreds of years more to move beyond the old
story, the ancient cosmology that viewed matter and spirit, light and dark, you
and me, as separate entities and life and death as total opposites. Christ is
the Living Icon of all Reality and all Reconciliation. His very being says that
matter and Spirit are one! Life and death are one! The Christ Mystery is the
code-breaker for the human dilemma.
Collectively, we’re moving toward the Omega point; but every
time you and I hate, fear, compete, attack, judge, separate—thus avoiding the
necessary letting go—we are resisting the full flow of Love, the energy which
is driving the universe forward. As the central doctrine of the Trinity has
made clear to many of us, there can be no infilling unless there is first of
all a self-emptying. The “Three Persons,” who are the template for all of
reality (see Genesis 1:26-27), can only pour themselves out because they have
agreed to let go, and they can only receive because they have made space for
the other. Self-emptying and infilling in equal measure is the only sustainable
meaning of Love, growth, and Life Itself. [4] If Christ is the human code-breaker,
Trinity is the universal code-breaker.
References:
[1] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Human Energy, tr. J. M.
Cohen (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1969), 23.
[2] Teilhard de Chardin, Science and Christ, tr. René Hague
(New York: Harper & Row, 1968), 36.
[3] Teilhard de Chardin, Human Energy, 130-131.
[4] This is much of the thesis in my most recent book (with
Mike Morrell), The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker:
2016).
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, & Consciousness:
A Reframing of How We See (CAC: 2010), MP3 download.
LENT: TRYING TO BE GOOD
The rub of the ashes simply gets our repentance in first.
Neither "success" nor "failure" does justice to our relationship with God
* Passiflora caerulea: Passion Flower, claimed in some countries to bear the marks of Christ's passion
You may consider the start to this piece a bit "corny". Bear with me.
“Can I come in? he whispered She was nervous. "Just for a minute?" he persisted. Oh, dear! Trying hard to be assertive, she managed to ask, " will you be good?" The classic Bar room quip teetered on his lip, “Good? I’ll be magnificent” but he didn’t risk it.
Soon, it will be Lent, the season when we try to be good. The time for getting the ash upon our foreheads
That holy smudge reminds us of our own basic "Good Intent". The modern incantation goes something like, "Repent and believe the Good News", but the old one sounds better. It seems to recall some hidden dread that exercises a magnetic charm even as it threatens. " Remember man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return". Woman too. How we love to be frightened.
Of course, like watching horror on television, it need only be a passing moment.We can change our minds and soften our intentions as easily as changing channels.
Is there some built-in obsolescence in our promises or was it never more than a seasonal ritual, the kind of thing we do at that time of year?
Lent; promising to be good, while not expecting to be perfect. To err is human. We are bound to slip up now and then. The rub of the ashes simply gets our repentance in first. "Whatever I may do that is wrong, will be just a mistake". Ash Wednesday pleads our defence even before we get to court.
But wait a minute, we're not dealing with manufactured objects coming off an assembly line, we're dealing with God. Not even "dealing", more "relating", to a living God who is, and wants to be, involved in my life. Neither "success" nor "failure" does justice to this relationship. That may be the language of competition, but hardly of love. We must look again at the words of Ash Wednesday'
"Repent and believe the Gospel." Does it seem a bit tame, watered down, less frightening and therefore less likely to bring about change? Maybe, or maybe we need to remember just what Gospel is. Time and time again,Sunday after Sunday, the passage chosen for Gospel reading commences with the words, "Jesus said to his disciples." Often as not, those words are not actually part of the chosen text, but are inserted to remind us where the Gospel belongs, in discipleship. In the hearts of those who, rather than tread again the tired old road of resolution, success, failure, false confidence, equally false despair, prefer to follow Christ.
Calling his first followers, Jesus gave us clear evidence of the results of discipleship. He promised that Simon the fisherman would become Peter the rock. They would each cast their nets in deeper waters and become "fishers of men". That's what discipleship does for people. Following Christ gives Him the chance to change us, to make something of us.
Doesn't it all come down to the same thing in the end? No, for often as not we define good and bad, success and failure, in our own terms, with horizons limited by our vision, or lack of it. Christ can open our eyes to new horizons and take us on journeys we simply did not know about, but only if we are his disciples.
"Believing the Good News" is far from being some holy anesthetic that dulls the pain of trying to be good. So long as we follow him, Christ can deal with our failures and our successes far better than we can. He can make something of us. Better by far we make a new start with Jesus, than that we indulge ourselves in a yearly fantasy about guilt and goodness. "Repent" yes, we should and we must, but we won't if we fail to "believe the Gospel".
The 2nd in reflections on Lent by Fr Val Farrell. you can access his blog here
