Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
To be a vibrant Catholic Community
unified in its commitment
to growing disciples for Christ
Parish Priest: Fr
Priest in Residence: Fr Phil McCormack Mob: 0437 521 257
Postal Address: PO Box 362
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street
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
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 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.
Weekday Masses 14th – 17th February, 2017 Next Weekend 18th & 19th February, 2017
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin… Saints Cyril & Methodius Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Devonport
Thursday: 10:30am Karingal Sunday
Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
7:00pm
Penguin CCR Healing Mass 9:00am Ulverstone
Friday 11:00am Mt St
Vincent 10:30am Devonport 11:00am Sheffield 5:00pm Latrobe
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 18th & 19th February, 2017
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: A McIntyre, M Williams, C Kiely-Hoye
10:30am J
Phillips, K Pearce, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion: Vigil
T Muir, M
Davies, M Gerrand, M Kenney, D Peters, J Heatley
10.30am: B & N
Mulcahy, L Hollister, K Hull, S Samarakkody, R Batepola
Cleaners 17th
Feb: K.S.C. 24th Feb: M & R Youd
Piety Shop 18th
Feb: R McBain 19th Feb: P Piccolo Flowers: M Breen
Ulverstone:
Reader: D Prior Ministers of Communion: M Byrne, D Griffin, K Foster, R Locket
Cleaners: V
Ferguson, E Cox Flowers: G Doyle Hospitality:
M & K McKenzie
Penguin:
Greeters: A Landers, P Ravaillion Commentator: E Nickols
Readers: Y Downes, J Barker Ministers of
Communion: T
Clayton, M Murray Liturgy: Pine Road Setting Up: A Landers Care of Church: M Bowles, J Reynolds
Latrobe:
Reader: S Ritchie Minister of Communion: B Ritchie, I Campbell Procession of gifts: M Clarke
Port Sorell:
Readers: D Leaman, T Jeffries Ministers of Communion: G Duff Clean/Flow/Prepare: G Bellchambers, M Gillard
Readings this Week 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
First Reading: Sirach 15:15-20
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Gospel: Matthew 5:17-37
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
I come to my place of prayer, and maybe I choose to sit, in
my imagination, at the feet of Jesus, with the disciples.
I tell him that I wish to hear, to understand, to receive his teaching.
When I am ready, I slowly read this passage a couple of times.
God’s law is a law of love.
Can I see it in these words?
Perhaps I ask the Lord to deepen my genuine love for him and my true concern for others so as to follow his call.
Jesus is encouraging me to ‘go deeper’.
He completes the Law but he also goes beyond it.
In what ways do I feel that he is asking me to respond?
As I ponder the teaching of Jesus, I may be able to bring to mind times when I felt the Spirit move me to be more forgiving, to treat others with more respect, or to act with greater integrity.
I give thanks for this insight and pray to be even more aware of these promptings of the Spirit, perhaps through the words or example of others.
I may pray for my neighbourhood or country, that Jesus’ values of the kingdom will permeate all we do. I give thanks for all those who remain true to these values.
I tell him that I wish to hear, to understand, to receive his teaching.
When I am ready, I slowly read this passage a couple of times.
God’s law is a law of love.
Can I see it in these words?
Perhaps I ask the Lord to deepen my genuine love for him and my true concern for others so as to follow his call.
Jesus is encouraging me to ‘go deeper’.
He completes the Law but he also goes beyond it.
In what ways do I feel that he is asking me to respond?
As I ponder the teaching of Jesus, I may be able to bring to mind times when I felt the Spirit move me to be more forgiving, to treat others with more respect, or to act with greater integrity.
I give thanks for this insight and pray to be even more aware of these promptings of the Spirit, perhaps through the words or example of others.
I may pray for my neighbourhood or country, that Jesus’ values of the kingdom will permeate all we do. I give thanks for all those who remain true to these values.
Readings Next Week 7th Sunday in Ordinary
Time (Year A)
First Reading Leviticus
19:1-2, 17-18
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians
3:16-23
Gospel: Matthew 5:38-48
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Sr Joy Hanrahan, David Welch, Connie Fulton & ...,
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Aileen Reynolds, Willhelm &
Annenaka Kramer, Nell Nettlefold, Joy
Griffiths, Ivan Bourke, Angela Lester, Joanne Nash-Lade, Val Palmer.
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 8th – 14th
February
Harold Hawkes, Andrew Cooper, Charles Holliday, Sheryl
Allen, Sharon Fellows-Glover, Ethel Kelcey, Colleen Cameron, Christopher
Cabalzar, Rita Wescombe, Mary Hunniford, Douglas Howard, Cesar S Cortes Snr, Jacqueline
Chisholm & Michael Ravaillion.
May
they rest in peace
Weekly
Ramblings
During this past week we have had the 1st meeting of the
Parish Pastoral Council for 2017 and early next week we will have the 1st
meeting of the Parish Finance Committee. Both these groups play an important
role in the life of our Parish and there have been numerous people over the
years who have contributed greatly to the life of the Parish by their
commitment and generosity. I can only express my sincere thanks to all of them
and pray that as we move into the future we will continue to build on their
efforts.
As I’ve mentioned in previous Ramblings I would like to
have a small group of people – involving some PPC and Finance committee members
but not exclusively – to help me in a more direct role by assisting me with
activities and processes in the Parish.
If such a group were formed then the role of both the PPC and Finance
Committees would become more strategic and involve longer term planning so that
the Parish Vision would be more dynamic and capable of influencing all our
Parish decisions.
As we enter into a new School Year we are getting ready to
run our Sacramental Program. We have included a weekly note in the Newsletter
as well as sending information to schools – if you know a family with a child
who is in Gr 3 or older please invite them to contact the Parish Office ASAP so
that we can send the information to them.
This also raises the question – what support are we giving
these children and their families during and post the Sacramental period so
that they want to be part of our Parish Community? This is an important
question that all of us need to be reflecting on as we go forward into this
year.
This weekend we have the 1st Edition of the
Catholic Standard. As well as news from throughout the Archdiocese there is
also a copy of the Open Letter to all Tasmanians that Archbishop Julian had
printed in all the Daily newspapers earlier in the week. If you haven’t already
seen or read the letter please make sure that you take a copy of the Catholic
Standard with you today. You can also access a copy of the letter here: http://hobart.catholic.org.au/media/news/open-letter-people-tasmania
Last weekend in the Back to School comment we extended a
welcome back to all staff and pupils at the schools within the Parish and said
that we would tell you this weekend how many schools there are. There are 4
Catholic Schools, 27 State Education Department Schools/Colleges, 3 Christian
Schools and a number of early learning and special needs facilities – I have no
idea how many students and staff this entails but it is a considerable number
of people. So we pray for them and their work during this coming year and we
will bless all who join us at Mass this weekend.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
HEALING MASS 2017
Catholic Charismatic Renewal, are sponsoring a HEALING MASS
at St Mary’s Catholic Church Penguin on Thursday 16th February commencing
at 7.00pm. All denominations are welcome to come and celebrate the
liturgy in a vibrant and dynamic way using charismatic praise and worship, with
the gifts of tongues, prophecy, and healing. After Mass teams will be available
for individual prayer. Please bring a friend and a plate for supper and
fellowship in the adjacent hall. Please
note early start at 7.00 pm.
If you wish to know more or require transport, please
contact Celestine Whiteley 6424:2043, Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068, Tom Knaap
6425:2442.
LITURGY PLANNING FOR LENT:
All are welcome to participate in our parish's liturgical
planning for Lent. We will meet at Emmaus House on Sunday 19th February
at 2.30 pm. For further information call Peter on 0437 921 366.
LENTEN PROGRAM 2017:
A Lenten Program is planned to begin on 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
SACRAMENTAL
PROGRAM:
Families with
children in Grade 3 or above are warmly invited to participate in our
Sacramental Program to prepare to celebrate the sacraments of RECONCILIATION,
CONFIRMATION and EUCHARIST this year.
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 or
Tuesday 21st February
7.00pm at Sacred Heart Church, Alexandra Road,
Ulverstone
For further information please contact the
Parish Office 6424:2783
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS MEETINGS:
88 Stewart
Street, Devonport, every Sunday at 2:00pm
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall,
Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers for Thursday 16th
February Jon Halley & Alan Luxton.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE
ARCHDIOCESE
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.
EMBITTERED MORALIZING
An article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original article can be found here
One of the dangers inherent in trying to live out a life of Christian fidelity is that we are prone to become embittered moralizers, older brothers of the prodigal son, angry and jealous at God’s over-generous mercy, bitter because persons who wander and stray can so easily access the heavenly banquet table.
But this isn’t unique to faithful church-goers. It’s part of the universal struggle to age without bitterness and anger. We spend the first-half of our lives wrestling with the sixth commandment and spend the last-half of our lives wrestling with the fifth commandment: Thou shalt not kill! Long before anyone is shot by a gun, he is shot by a word, and before he is shot by a word, he is shot by a thought. We all think murderous thoughts: Who does he think he is? And it becomes harder and harder not to think them as we age.
Aging without bitterness and anger is in fact our final struggle, psychologically and spiritually. The great Swiss psychologist, Alice Miller, suggests that the primary task of the second-half of life is that of mourning, mourning our wounds so as not to become bitter and angry. We have to mourn, she says, until our very foundations shake otherwise our ungrieved wounds will forever leave us prone to bitterness, anger, and cold judgments.
At the end of the day there is only one remaining spiritual imperative: We are not meant to die in anger and bitterness. And so, as we age, we can progressively slim our spiritual vocabulary down to one word: Forgive, forgive, forgive. Only forgiveness can save us from bitterness and anger.
Indeed, there are few Gospel texts as sobering as the Gospel story of the Prodigal Son. As good commentaries on this text are quick to point out, the central character of this story is not the prodigal son, but the father, and the central message of the text is his over-generous mercy. He is a father who is trying to get his two sons into his house (his house being an image for heaven). But the younger son is, for a long time, out of the house through weakness, while the older son is just as effectively outside the house through a bitterness and an anger that have soured his fidelity. Unlike the father who is grateful and joyous because his wayward son has come home, the older brother is angry and bitter that the father has not withheld his mercy and that his errant brother was not first punished and made to meet certain conditions before he was welcomed back home.
Now there’s an older brother of this sort in all of us. We see it, for instance, in the fierce resistance many, wonderfully faithful, church-going, Christians express apposite certain people receiving communion at the Eucharist. Granted, there are legitimate ecclesial issues here, to do with public forum and scandal, which need to be sorted out, as the recent Synod on family life tried to do. But that synod also highlighted the resistance that many feel towards persons that they deem unworthy to receive communion at the Eucharist.
Independent of the ecclesial issues coloring this, those of us who struggle with certain others going to communion should still ask ourselves: Why is this bothering me? Why am I angry about someone else going to communion? What’s really the basis for my resistance? What might this be saying about me? Is my heart wide and mellow enough right now to go to heaven, to sit down at the banquet table with everyone?
Do I have the courage and humility to ask myself this question: Am I not akin to the older brother standing outside the house, bitter that someone who seems undeserving is receiving the Father’s love and blessing?
But we need to ask ourselves that with sympathy. We aren’t bad persons; it’s just that a certain bitter moralizing is an occupational hazard for us. Still we need to ask ourselves these hard questions, for our own sake, lest, blind to ourselves, we become the older brother of the prodigal son.
Paradoxical, ironic, strange, but we can be faithful, upright-morally, duty-bound, church-going Christians, preaching the gospel to others and, at the same time, carry inside of ourselves an anger, a bitterness, and an unconscious envy of the amoral which has us standing outside the house of celebration, blocked from entry because we are angry at how wide and indiscriminating is our own God’s embrace.
But that weakness and bi-polarity have already been taken into account. The story of the Prodigal Son ends, not with the father’s joy at the return of his sinful son, but with the father at the door of the house, gently pleading with his older son to give up his bitterness and enter the dance. We don’t know how that story ends, but, given God’s jealous love and infinite patience, there’s little reason to doubt that eventually the older brother entered the house and sat down at table with his prodigal brother.
The Cosmic
Christ -
This article is a collation of the daily emails sent out by Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can susbcribe and receive these emails here
God in All
Things
The day of my spiritual awakening
was the day I saw and knew I saw
all things in God and God in all things.
—Mechtild of
Magdeburg (c. 1212—c. 1282) [1]
Understanding
the Cosmic Christ can change the way we relate to creation, to other religions,
to other people, to ourselves, and to God. Knowing and experiencing the Cosmic
Christ can bring about a major shift in consciousness. Like Saul’s experience
on the road to Damascus (see Acts 9), you won’t be the same after encountering
the Risen Christ.
As with the
Trinity, the Cosmic Christ is present in both Scripture and Tradition and the
concept has been understood by many mystics, though not as a focus of mainline
Christianity. We just didn’t have the eyes to see it. The Cosmic Christ is
about as traditional as you can get, but Christians—including many
preachers—have not had the level of inner experience to know how to communicate
this to people.
The Cosmic
Christ is Divine Presence pervading all of creation since the very beginning.
My father Francis of Assisi intuited this presence and lived his life in
awareness of it. Later, John Duns Scotus (1266-1308) put this intuition into
philosophical form. For Duns Scotus, the Christ Mystery was the blueprint of reality
from the very start (John 1:1). Teilhard de Chardin brought this insight into
our modern world. God’s first “idea” was to become manifest—to pour out divine,
infinite love into finite, visible forms. The “Big Bang” is now our scientific
name for that first idea; and “Christ” is our theological name. Both are about
love and beauty exploding outward in all directions. Creation is indeed the
Body of God! What else could it be, when you think of it?
In Jesus,
this eternal omnipresence had a precise, concrete, and personal referent. God’s
presence became more obvious and believable in the world. But this apparition
only appeared in the last ten seconds of December 31, as it were—scaling the
universe’s entire history to a single year. Was God saying nothing and doing
nothing for 13.8 billion years? Our code word for that infinite saying and
doing was the “Eternal Christ.” (See John 1:1-5, Colossians 1:15-20, Ephesians
1:9-12 if you think this is some new idea.)
Vague belief
and spiritual intuition became specific and concrete and personal in Jesus—with
a “face” that we could “hear, see, and touch” (1 John 1:1). The formless now
had a personal form, according to Christian belief.
But it seems
we so fell in love with this personal interface with Jesus that we forgot about
the Eternal Christ, the Body of God, which is all of creation, which is really
the “First Bible.” Jesus and Christ are not exactly the same. In the early
Christian era, only a few Eastern Fathers (such as Origen of Alexandria and
Maximus the Confessor) cared to notice that the Christ was clearly historically
older, larger, and different than Jesus himself. They mystically saw that Jesus
is the union of human and divine in space and time, and the Christ is the
eternal union of matter and Spirit from the beginning of time.
When we
believe in Jesus Christ, we’re believing in something much bigger than just the
historical incarnation that we call Jesus. Jesus is just the visible map. The
entire sweep of the meaning of the Anointed One, the Christ, includes us and
includes all of creation since the beginning of time. Revelation was
geological, physical, and nature-based before it was ever personal and fully
relational (see Romans 1:20).
References:
[1] Sue
Woodruff, Meditations with Mechtild of Magdeburg (Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co.,
1982), 46.
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, 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), 185,
210, 222.
The
Blueprint
Let’s begin
in the beginning with the prologue to John’s Gospel (John 1:1-11). Older
Catholics may remember that this was recited in Latin at the end of every mass
prior to Vatican II. This prologue is not talking about Jesus; it’s talking
about Christ. I’m going to give you, as I often do, my own translation, but I
think a fair one. Instead of “Word,” which is taken from Greek philosophy’s
Logos, I’m going to substitute the word “Blueprint,” because it’s really the
same meaning. Logos is the inner blueprint.
In the
beginning was the Blueprint, and the Blueprint was with God, and the Blueprint
was God. . . . And all things came to be through this inner plan. The inner
reality of God was about to become manifest in the outer world as the Cosmic
Christ.
No one thing
came to be except through this Blueprint and plan. All that came to be had life
in him. Now it’s become personalized: him. This great universal Christ mystery
since the beginning of time now becomes specific in the body and the person of
Jesus. The blueprint has become personified and visible as a human being (the
particular gender is not significant here).
And that
life was the light of humanity. John is describing a bigger life, a bigger
light, from which we all draw. This is Consciousness—a pre-existent form that
is the eternal or one light. This great light or consciousness is the source of
our little piece of light, as it were. You can also substitute the word Love.
It all began with a cosmic act of Love.
This
Light/Life/Love shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.
“The visible galaxies we see strewn across space are nothing more than strings
of luminous flotsam drifting on an invisible sea of dark matter,” writes
astrophysicist Adam Frank. [1] Franciscan Sister Ilia Delio explains:
“Scientists speculate that dark energy comprises about 73 percent of the total
mass-energy of the universe and accelerates expansion of the universe.” [2]
Somehow the universe is an interplay between light and darkness.
This
Blueprint was the true light that enlightens all human beings who have come
into the world. So, the true light, Consciousness, or Love itself precedes and
connects and feeds all of our smaller lights and attractions.
He was in
the world that had its very being through him. But the world did not know him.
In the same way, for the last 2,000 years, we have not understood the Cosmic
Christ. We fell in love with the symbol instead of what Jesus fully
represented. To love “Jesus, the Christ” is to love both the symbol and
everything that he stands for—which is precisely everything. This lays a
wonderful foundation for both a new consciousness and a new cosmology—and a
very new notion of religion itself.
References:
[1] Adam
Frank, The Constant Fire: Beyond the Science vs. Religion Debate (University of
California Press: 2009), 155.
[2] Ilia
Delio, The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love
(Orbis Books: 2013), 24.
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See
(CAC: 2010), MP3 download.
Love Is the
Nature of Being
Francis of
Assisi understood that the entire circle of life had a Great Lover at the
center. [1] For the Franciscan School, before God is the divine Logos (rational
pattern), God is Infinite and Absolute Friendship (Trinity), that is, Eternal
Outpouring (Love). Love is the very nature of Being itself. God is not a Being,
who occasionally decides to love, but God is “the one in whom we live, and move
and have our being” (Acts 17:28) as Paul says to the intellectual people of
Athens.
God is Being
Itself, and by reason of the Trinity, Being is described as Love.
For us, the
Trinity must be the absolute beginning point—and ending point too. Outpouring
Love is the inherent shape of the universe, and only when we love do we fully
and truthfully exist in this universe and move toward our full purpose. As the Book of Revelation says, the Christ
who came forth from the Trinity is both the Alpha and the Omega point of all history
(1:8, 21:6, 22:13). This is not a religious statement as much as a metaphysical
and cosmic statement which gives the whole universe meaning and direction and
goal! God’s purposes are social, cosmic, and universal, and not just for a
small group of so-called insiders. If hope is not a Big Hope, I do not think
small hope is very possible.
Love is the
very meaning of Creation. Many of the Fathers and Mothers of the Church, along with many of the saints and
mystics throughout history, said that God created because, frankly, God needed something
to love and something that could love God freely in return. I imagine if you
have children you’ve experienced this. When you welcomed your child into this
world, your fondest desire, perhaps at an unconscious level, was just to love
this little one in every way possible. Hidden behind that is the deep desire
that “someday my child will love me back in the same way that I have loved him
or her.” There’s nothing wrong with that. Of course, the very way you love your
children becomes their empowerment to love you back.
Franciscan
Philippe Yates puts this in cosmic terms:
At the heart of Scotus’ theology was the
doctrine of the primacy of Christ. God is absolutely free and therefore if he
[sic] creates it is because he wants to create. He wants to create in order to
reveal and communicate his goodness and love to another. Because God loves, he
wills that his creation should also be infused by love.
St. Paul
tells us that Christ was the “first-born of all creation” [see Colossians
1:15], and Scotus’ theology makes sense of this affirmation. The incarnation in
Scotus’ theology is the whole purpose of creation. Christ is the masterpiece of
love in the midst of a creation designed for love, not a divine plumber come to
fix the mess of original sin. [2]
In other
words, we settled for Plan B, or Jesus as a mere problem solver after we messed
up. The Good News is that the Christ is Plan A from the very beginning, and
Jesus came along much later to make it all visible and loveable and attractive.
Salvation is a historical, social, and universal notion, which is made very
clear already by the Jewish prophets. But we made Jesus very small and then the
good news of salvation became very small too.
References:
[1] Richard
Rohr, “Foreword,” Mirabai Starr, St. Francis of Assisi: Brother of Creation
(Sounds True: 2013), viii.
[2] Philippe
Yates, “The Theology of John Duns Scotus,”
http://www.franciscans.org.uk/userfiles/pdf/Franciscan%20January%202006/Articles/The%20Theology%20of%20John%20Duns%20Scotus.pdf.
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
(Franciscan Media: 2014), 182;
Abstract to
Personal
This diagram
is an attempt to show the big picture of our growing, evolving understanding of
God and the various forms God takes to reveal the mystery to us.
At the top
of the hourglass are ideas of God too big for the human mind to grasp. We start
with the Trinity, with God as love and relationship. Creation happens in,
through, and for the pre-existent Christ, the second person of the Trinity.
He is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were
created all things in heaven and on earth. —Colossians 1:15-16
This grew
into the notion of the eternal wisdom that was eventually going to leap “down”
from heaven, into the human and time-limited realm. The eternal wisdom was
personified as Sophia, the divine feminine, as we see in the Book of Proverbs
and the Book of Wisdom. It is a compassionate abstraction of Divine Reality,
but not yet personable and personal.
She deploys
her strength from one end of the earth to the other, ordering all things for
good. —Wisdom 8:1, Jerusalem Bible
In the Book
of Daniel, the pre-existent Christ moves toward greater personification with
the notion of the “son of man,” the phrase Jesus most frequently uses to
identify himself.
And I saw,
coming on the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man. —Daniel 7:13
This is an
archetypal, prototypal figure of a corporate personality, one who sums up the
whole. Jesus of Nazareth is the microcosm of the macrocosm.
Jesus comes
forth from the Father into the world to say, “This is what God is doing. Look
at me. I’m what God is doing. And I’m the whole process, from beginning to
end.” Jesus reveals the whole pattern of creation and human history in
condensed form. Perhaps he is best seen as a Map! Because of Jesus’ life,
death, and resurrection, we know ahead of time that the final chapter is always
resurrection. Though so much of life is filled with suffering, disappointment,
disillusionment, absurdity, and dying, God will turn all of our crucifixions
into resurrections. Look at it in Jesus, believe it in Jesus, admire it in
Jesus, love it in Jesus, and let it take shape in your own soul. This is how
the Christian movement was supposed to give hope to all of history. And it
still can.
References:
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See
(CAC: 2010), MP3 download; and
The Cosmic
Christ, disc 2 (CAC: 2009), CD, MP3 download.
Heaven and
Earth Are One
After the
microcosmic moment of Jesus, human and divine in time, the hourglass diagram
begins expanding again.
Jesus was
not born as the Christ. A transfiguration, a morphing, a realization had to
take place, even in Jesus, before he became the Anointed One in which
everything else cohered and held together (see Colossians, Ephesians, and the
prologue to John’s Gospel). The resurrected Jesus is the Christ. The Risen
Christ is Jesus but also bigger and beyond Jesus’ individual form and lifetime.
My
systematics professor used to say that if the Resurrection had been filmed, it
probably would not have shown a man stepping out of the tomb holding a flag, as
most Christian art illustrates. The camera probably would have recorded a huge
flash of light. The Risen Christ is Jesus released from all space/time
restrictions. He is beyond space; he is beyond time. He includes all of the
spiritual and the physical world, reconciled within himself.
Next on our
diagram of the Cosmic Christ is the Ascension. In the story of Christ’s
ascension as told in Acts (1:9-11), angels appear next to the disciples as they
gaze after the rising figure. The angels ask, “Why are you standing here
staring up into heaven?” Most of Christianity has been doing just that,
straining to find the historical Jesus “up there.” Where did he go? We’ve been
obsessed with the question because we think the universe is divided into
separate levels—heaven and earth. But it is one universe and all within it is
transmuted and transformed by the glory of God. The whole point of the
Incarnation and Risen Body is that the Christ is here—and always was! But now
we have a story that allows us to imagine it just might be true.
Jesus didn’t
go anywhere. He became the universal omnipresent Body of Christ. That’s why the
final book of the Bible promises us a new heaven and a new earth. (Revelation
21:1), not an escape from earth. We focused on “going” to heaven instead of
living on earth as Jesus did—which makes heaven and earth one. It is heaven all
the way to heaven. What you choose now is exactly what you choose to be
forever. God will not disappoint you.
Reference:
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See
(CAC: 2010), MP3 download.
You are the
Body of Christ
Christ is
the eternal amalgam of matter and spirit as one. They hold and reveal one
another. Wherever the human and the divine coexist, we have the Christ.
Wherever the material and the spiritual coincide, we have the Christ. That includes
the material world, the natural world, the animal world (including humans), and
moves all the way to the elemental world, symbolized by bread and wine. The
Eucharist offers Christians the message in condensed form so we can struggle
with it in a very concrete way. You cannot think about such a universal truth
logically; you can only slowly digest it! “Eat it and know who you are,” St.
Augustine said. [1] You are what you drink and eat, as any good nutritionist
will tell you.
Only slowly
does the truth become believable. Finally the Body of Christ is not out there
or over there; it’s in you—it’s here and now and everywhere. The goal is then
to move beyond yourself and recognize that what’s true in you is true in all
others too. This was supposed to be a political and social revolution. But we
wasted centuries arguing about whether it was true at all! The orthodox
insistence on “Real Presence” is merely taking the Mystery of Incarnation to
its natural and full and very good conclusion. Here I am quite happy to be
fully Catholic. “There is only Christ, he is everything, and he is in
everything,” Paul shouts (see Colossians 3:11). This is not pantheism; it is
the much more subtle and subversive panentheism, or God in all things.
The widest
part at the bottom of the hourglass I call the ever-expanding Christ Mystery.
To put it forthrightly, YOU are “the second coming of Christ”!
You and I
are living here in this ever-expanding universe. You and I are a part of this
Christ Mystery without any choice on our part. We just are, whether we like it
or not. It’s nothing we have to consciously believe. It’s first of all
announcing an objective truth. But if we consciously
take this
mystery as our worldview, it will create immense joy and peace. It gives us
significance and a sense of belonging as part of God’s Great Work. We are no
longer alienated from God, others, or the universe. Everything belongs. And it
is pure, undeserved gift from the very beginning.
Participating
in Christ allows you to know that “I don’t matter at all, and yet I matter
intensely—at the same time!” That’s the ultimate therapeutic healing. I’m just
a little grain of sand in this giant, giant universe. I’m going to pass in a
little while like everyone else will. But I’m also a child of God. I’m
connected radically, inherently, intrinsically to the Center and to everything
else.
You need
never feel lonely again.
References:
[1]
Paraphrasing Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 272, “On the day of Pentecost, to the
infantes, concerning the sacrament” in The Works of Saint Augustine: A
Translation for the 21st Century, pt. 3, vol. 7, trans. Edmund Hill (New City
Press: 1993), 300-301.
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See
(CAC: 2010), MP3 download.
4 STEPS TO HOSTING A SUCCESSFUL SMALL GROUP LAUNCH
Taken from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor at the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can access the blog here
This weekend we’re hosting our annual “Winter Small Group Launch.” We’ve found this event is a great point of entry for new members to join, new groups to form, and new leaders to step up. Making the most of a launch can go a long way towards building a culture of small groups. Here are five ideas.
Preach It
A successful small group program has to be sold from the pulpit. You can’t just make an announcement in the bulletin and expect a lot of people to sign-up. Your weekend message communicates what matters. It doesn’t need to be an extended commercial, and please don’t rely on guilt. And telling people all about different curriculums and topics they don’t care about taught by names they don’t know won’t help either. Focus on why groups are important and how they can be a value (fellowship, relationship building, support, service, growing in faith).
Keep it Simple
You might be surprised to learn that our Small Group Launch primarily consists of an old fashioned sign up after Mass. Our Small Group Ministry Leaders help newcomers choose the group that’s best for them. They receive a basic guide on everything they need to know…that’s it.
The point is – make it simple. One of the main reasons people avoid groups is they sound too complicated to find their way into: orientations, manuals, pot luck dinners. Make it simple and keep it simple.
Make it the Right Fit
Small Groups reinforce our commitment to “One Church, One Message” while taking into account that everyone has different comfort levels and needs. Some people need to connect with others in their own life situation (moms with kids under 5, retired seniors) while others enjoy relating to different ages for the different perspectives they add to the group. Some people are all about the day and the time, or the location. We find many people are only comfortable in same sex groups. Make sure newcomers find the fit that’s right for them.
Make it a Short-Term Commitment
Every year our winter launch revolves around groups we call “Just For Lent.” That’s what they are: groups that meet once a week during Lent. We invite members who aren’t part of a group to try one out for 6 weeks. Lent is a season when many people are looking for ideas for spiritual growth, and a small group is a good resolution.
Providing short-term groups helps the idea seem less intimidating. Many people are unsure whether they will like it or can manage the time, and so shy away from making a full-on commitment. But more often than not, we have discovered that participants often end up connecting with other people and realizing the added life value and decide to stay on.
The Blessed Virgin Mary Untier of Knots
When he returned to Argentina following his doctoral studies in Germany, Jorge Mario Bergoglio SJ, now Pope Francis, took with him a particular fondness for a Marian devotion that he had encountered in Bavaria. Hedwig Lewis SJ introduces us to the increasingly popular devotion to ‘Mary Untier of Knots’. This article is by Fr Hedwig Lewis SJ, a former principal of St Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad, India, is a writer and the author of psycho-spiritual and professional books. His website is http://joygift.tripod.com
‘Mary Untier of Knots, pray for us’ would be a strange-sounding invocation in the Litany to Our Lady to which we are so accustomed. In fact, devotion to the Blessed Virgin under this title has been common in parts of Germany for centuries. Recently, however, the world’s attention was drawn to it when Vatican Radio revealed that Pope Francis had championed the devotion decades ago in Argentina.
In the 1980s, while doing his doctoral studies in theology in Freiburg, Germany, as a Jesuit priest, Jorge Bergoglio saw a painting in a church in Augsburg entitled ‘Mary Untier of Knots’. He was so impressed by its stark symbolism that he took postcards of the image back with him to his home province of Argentina. He used to enclose copies in every letter he sent out. An Argentinian artist-friend of his made an oil-on-canvas miniature painting of the picture, which was hung in the chapel of Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires where Bergoglio was posted. The college staff was so attracted by it that they persuaded the local pastor to get a larger copy made. This was displayed in the parish church of San José del Talar, in 1996. Eventually, devotion to Mary under the title ‘Untier of Knots’ spread across Latin America.
Shortly after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope, as Benedict XVI, the then-Cardinal Bergoglio presented the German-born pope with a silver chalice engraved with the image of Mary Untier of Knots along with that of Our Lady of Luján, a popular Marian devotion in Argentina.
The painting
The original Baroque painting of ‘Mary Untier of Knots’, by Johann George Melchior Schmidtner, dating from around 1700, is found in the church of St Peter am Perlach, in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. It measures six feet in height and almost four feet in width.
The painting depicts Mary suspended between heaven and earth, resplendent with light. The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove is above her head, reminding us that she became Mother of God and full of grace by virtue of the third person of the Trinity. She is dressed resplendently in crimson, and a deep blue mantle representing her glory as Queen of the Universe. A crown of twelve stars adorning her head signifies her Queenship of the Apostles. Her feet crush the head of the serpent indicating her part in the victory over Satan. She is surrounded by angels, signifying her position as Queen of the Angels and Queen of Heaven. In her hands is a knotted white ribbon, which she is serenely untying. Assisting her at the task are two angels: one presents the knots of our lives to her, while another angel presents the ribbon, freed from knots, to us.
The history
A German nobleman, Wolfgang Langenmantel (1568-1637) was distraught when his wife Sophia was planning to divorce him. To save the marriage, Wolfgang sought counsel from Fr Jakob Rem, a Jesuit priest, respected for his wisdom and piety, at the University of Ingolstadt. On his fourth visit there on 28 September 1615, Wolfgang brought his ‘wedding ribbon’ to Fr Rem. In the marriage ceremony of that time and place, the maid-of-honour joined together the arms of the bride and groom with a ribbon to symbolise their union for life. Fr Rem, in a solemn ritual act, raised the ribbon before the image of ‘Our Lady of the Snows’, while at the same time untying its knots one by one. As he smoothed out the ribbon, it became dazzling white. This was taken as confirmation that their prayers were heard. Consequently, the divorce was averted, and Wolfgang remained happily married!
To commemorate the turn of the century in the year 1700, Wolfgang’s grandson, Fr Hieronymus Langenmantel, Canon of St Peter am Perlach, installed a family altar in the church, as was customary then. He commissioned Johann Schmidtner to provide a painting to be placed over the altar. Schmidtner was inspired by the story of Wolfgang and Fr Rem, and so based his painting on that event. The image came to be venerated as Mary Untier of Knots. The painting has survived wars, revolutions and secular opposition, and continues to draw people to it.
Devotion
In the 18th century the devotion to Mary Untier of Knots was localised to Germany. The devotion was augmented during the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster (1986), when victims sought help through the intercession of Mary Untier of Knots. The first chapel to be named ‘Mary Untier of Knots’ was constructed in 1989 in Styria, Austria. The image of Mary Untier of Knots at the main altar of the chapel was created by painter Franz Weiss, using the technique of painting under glass. It differed from the original, because the artist took as his theme the Chernobyl tragedy.
On 8 December 2000, a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary Untier of Knots was inaugurated in Formosa, Argentina. Since 1998, the devotion has been spreading in South America thanks to the booklet Mary, Undoer of Knots Novena, published with ecclesiastical permission by Denis and Dr Suzel Frem Bourgerie. It has been translated into twenty languages. The couple founded the National Sanctuary of the Virgin Mary Untier of Knots in Campinas (Sao Paulo), Brazil, in 2006.
The website ‘Mary Undoer of Knots’ explains that the ‘knots’ Mary can untie,
...are problems and struggles we face for which we do not see any solution… Knots of discord in our family, lack of understanding between parents and children, disrespect, violence, the knots of deep hurts between husband and wife, the absence of peace and joy at home. They are also the knots of anguish and despair of separated couples, the dissolution of the family, the knots of a drug addict son or daughter, sick or separated from home or God, knots of alcoholism, the practice of abortion, depression, unemployment, fear, solitude…
‘Untie the knots’
An inspiring prayer that opens the above-mentioned novena sums up the role of the Virgin Mary Untier of Knots:
Holy Mary, full of God’s presence during the days of your life, you accepted with full humility the Father’s will, and the Devil was never capable to tie you around with his confusion. Once with your son you interceded for our difficulties, and, full of kindness and patience you gave us example of how to untie the knots of our life. And by remaining forever Our Mother, you put in order, and make clearer the ties that link us to the Lord. Holy Mother, Mother of God, and our Mother, to you, who untie with motherly heart the knots of our life, we pray to you to receive in your hands [name of person], and to free him/her of the knots and confusion with which our enemy attacks. Through your grace, your intercession, and your example, deliver us from all evil, Our Lady, and untie the knots that prevent us from being united with God, so that we, free from sin and error, may find Him in all things, may have our hearts placed in Him, and may serve Him always in our brothers and sisters. Amen.
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