Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
To be a vibrant Catholic Community
unified in its commitment
to growing disciples for Christ
Postal Address: PO Box 362
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 8383 Fax: 6423 5160
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)
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,
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
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
Weekday Masses 15th - 19th May, 2017
Monday: 2:00pm Devonport
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Thursday: 10:00am Karingal
7:00pm Penguin ... CCR Healing Mass
Friday: 11:00am Mt St Vincent
Ministry Rosters 20th & 21st May, 2017
Devonport:
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Port Sorell:
Readings this week – Fifth Sunday of Easter
Prego Reflection:
As I prepare to pray, I take a few moments to come to quiet
before the Lord who knows me and loves me.
What mood am I in?
I try to put
aside any distractions and place my concerns into God’s hands for this time.
I do not rush.
When ready, I read these words slowly, prayerfully, several times
over.
Perhaps I imagine Jesus speaking to me personally.
What is his tone of
voice?
How does he look?
I notice what stirs in me.
Maybe I sense the total
intimacy between Jesus and the Father, hearing Jesus’ gentle encouragement to trust
completely in both Father and Son.
When my own heart is troubled, am I able to
trust in this way … or am I more like Thomas, and inclined to ask questions?
I
ponder ... and allow myself to rest awhile in Jesus’s assurance that a place
has already been prepared for me, and for all those whom I love, in God’s own
home.
Jesus tells his friends that he himself is the Way … not just the way to
the Father, but to a whole Way of Life.
Who or what helps me to trust in him as
the Way, even in times of struggle and anxiety?
I speak freely with the Lord,
and ask him to help deepen my trust in him.
In time I speak out my gratitude
and gently take my leave ...
In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit.
Readings next week – Sixth Sunday of
Easter
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Victoria Webb, Victor Slavin, Elaine Milic, David Welch &
…,
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Elaine Milic, Ivan
Walsh, Beverley Cloney, Beverley O'Connor,
Clare Kuhnle, Margaret Cameron, Alfred Grieve, Susan
Reilly, George
Archer, John Munro, Ila Breen, Glen Graham.
May they rest in peace
Lord, Protect the lives, we pray,
Of those who have given us the gift of life.
May our mothers know from day to day
the deepening joy that comes from your presence.
We cannot pay our debts for all the love that we have received;
But you, Lord, will not forget their due reward.
Bless our mothers both on earth and in heaven.
Amen
Happy Mother’s Day to all our
mother’s here on earth and in Heaven xx
Weekly
Ramblings
I’d like to start today by wishing all mothers a Happy and
Blessed Mother’s Day – on behalf of the Parish I hope you have a great day.
This week the Parish Pastoral Council met to discuss how we
might continue to bring my Vision for the Parish to life and some members will
be meeting again this coming week to explore future options. I will be speaking
at the final two Mass Centres this weekend to explain the process so far –
thanks to everyone who has been part of the conversation and sharing.
Last Tuesday evening we completed our 2nd Alpha Program (we
will be having as celebratory meal together this Tuesday). At this gathering we
will have an opportunity to discuss how or when we might be able to run
programs in the near future.
In three weeks’ time we will be gathering as a whole of
Parish Community to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost at Devonport (4th June at
11am). The list inviting people to indicate if they can assist by provision of
mains or desserts is actually available this weekend – apologies for not having
it all available last week. I invite everyone to make this Pentecost Mass a
real opportunity for us to gather as one Community to celebrate our common
faith and unity in the Mersey Leven Parish. Another important part of the
celebration is the music – there will be a rehearsal for musicians and singers
on Sunday 28th May at 2pm in Our Lady of Lourdes. Support from members of the
Parish for the other ministries on the day as Lectors, wardens, greeters and
Special Ministers of the Eucharist will be sought over the next week or so.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
ST VINCENT DE PAUL COLLECTION:
FATIMA
100 YEARS:
A Pilgrim Statue of Fatima will be visiting parishes
throughout Tasmania to commemorate the centenary of Our Lady’s appearances
at Fatima in 1917.
Our programme is as
follows:-
3:15 pm - Finish with Benediction. Refreshments
to follow.
KARINGAL
MASS:
CCR HEALING
MASS;
CARE AND CONCERN: “Siloam” is the name of a group
which meets under the banner of Care and Concern. “Siloam” focusses on aspects
of grief and loss often experienced following the death of a loved one. The
Siloam image (John 9:7) suggests healing and refreshment. Our group “Siloam”
takes its inspiration from John 9:1-41 – Jesus anointed the man’s eyes with the
clay, saying ‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam’ so he went and washed and came
back seeing.
THE SISTERS
OF ST JOSEPH:
ASSIST A
STUDENT:
FOOTY
TICKETS: Round 7 (5th May) footy
margin 23 – winners; Lyndon Bramich, Agnes Bonis, Jan Horton.
BINGO - Thursday Nights
OLOL Hall, Devonport.
Eyes down 7.30pm! Callers for Thursday 18th
May – Rod Clark & Alan Luxton
The Divine Alchemy
I’ve invited Cynthia Bourgeault, one of CAC’s core faculty members, to explore Jesus’ teachings over the next two weeks, drawing from her rich understanding of the ancient Wisdom Tradition, today she ties the dynamic outpouring of Trinity to Jesus’ path of self-emptying.
The Trinitarian mystery has immediate implications for us as
we try to live Jesus’ path. All too often our attempts at self-emptying feel
isolated and pointless. They seem like dead ends, with no real connection to
the world at large or even to our own best intentions. Even Jesus’ crucifixion
seems in some sense to be a waste. Why should a good and wise man who could
have been a teacher of many die meaninglessly on a cross? Often our own small
acts of heroism and sacrifice seem pointless as well—except that the Trinity
assures us no act of kenosis is ever isolated, no matter how meaningless it
looks, no matter how disconnected, no matter how unproductive in terms of
reward and gain. Through the Trinity all kenosis is a tiny hologram of
perichoresis. It belongs to that great relational field of “the divine
exchange” and connects us instantly with the whole of God, allowing divine love
to become manifest in some new and profound dimension. As Raimon Panikkar
beautifully expresses it, “I am one with the source insofar as I act as a
source by making everything I have received flow again—just like Jesus.” [1]
Jesus’ teaching assures us as we move toward center along
this very reckless and in some ways abundant and extravagant path—not “storing
it all up” as in the classic ascetic traditions of attaining being, but
“throwing it all away”—that divine love is infinite and immediate and will
always come to us if we don’t cling. This is a powerful statement, so simple
and yet so radical.
This is a kind of sacred alchemy. As we practice in daily
life—in our acts of compassion, kindness, and self-emptying, both at the level
of our doing and even more at the level of our being—something is catalyzed.
Subtle qualities of divine love essential to the well-being of this planet are
released through our actions and flow out into the world as miracle, healing,
and hope.
The template for the divine alchemy is imprinted in our
soul: the Trinitarian impulse which is both the icon of divine reality within
us and the means by which that reality brings itself to fullness. As we learn
not to harden and brace even in the face of what appears to be ultimate
darkness, but to let all things flow in that great river of kenosis and
perichoresis, we come to know—and finally become—the river itself, which
circulates through all things as the hidden dynamism of love. This, I believe,
is the path that Jesus taught and walked, the path he calls us to.
References:
DESPAIR AS WEAKNESS RATHER THAN SIN
This article is by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original article can be found here
Classically, both in the world and in our churches, we have seen despair as the ultimate, unforgivable sin. The simple notion was that neither God, nor anyone else, can save you if you simply give up, despair, make yourself impossible to reach. Most often in the popular mind this was applied to suicide. To die by your own hand was seen as despair, as putting yourself outside of God’s mercy.
But understanding despair in this way is wrong and misguided, however sincere our intent. What’s despair? How might it be understood?
The common dictionary definition invariably runs something like this: Despair means to no longer have any hope or belief that a situation will improve or change. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which sees despair as a sin against the First Commandment, defines it this way: “By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God’s goodness, to his justice – for the Lord is faithful to his promises – and to his mercy.”
But there’s something absolutely critical to be distinguished here: There are two reasons why someone might cease to hope for personal salvation from God and give up hope in having his or sins forgiven. It can be that the person doubts the goodness and mercy of God or, and I believe that this is normally the case, the person is too crushed, too weak, too broken inside, to believe that he or she is lovable and redeemable. But being so beaten and crushed in spirit so as to believe that nothing further can exist for you except pain and darkness is normally not an indication of sin but more a symptom of having been fatally victimized by circumstance, of having to undergo, in the poignant words of Fantine in Les Miserables, storms that you cannot weather.
And before positing such a person outside of God’s mercy, we need to ask ourselves: What kind of God would condemn a person who is so crushed by the circumstances of her life so as to be unable to believe that she is loveable? What kind of God would condemn someone for her brokenness? Such a God would certainly be utterly foreign to Jesus who incarnated and revealed God’s love as being preferential for the weak, the crushed, the broken-hearted, for those despairing of mercy. To believe and teach that God withholds mercy from those who are most broken in spirit betrays a profound misunderstanding of the nature and mercy of God who sends Jesus into the world, not for the healthy but for those who need a physician.
Likewise this too betrays a profound misunderstanding of human nature and the human heart. Why would a person deem herself so unlovable that she voluntarily and hopelessly excludes herself from the circle of life? It can only be because of a deep, profound wound to the soul (which no doubt is not self-inflicted). Obviously, unless it is a case of some clinical illness, this person has been deeply wounded and has never had an experience of unconditional love or indeed of faithful human love. We are facile and naïve when, because we ourselves have been undeservedly loved, we cannot understand how someone else can be so crushed and broken so as to believe himself or herself to be, in essence, unlovable. To paraphrase a painful question in the song, The Rose: Are love, and heaven, really only for the lucky and strong? Our common understanding of despair, secular and religious, would seem to think so.
But, nobody goes to hell out of weakness, out of a broken heart, out of a crushed spirit, out of the misfortune and unfairness of never having had the sense of being truly loved. Hell is for the strong, for those with a spirit so arrogant that it cannot be crushed or broken, and so is unable to surrender. Hell is never a bitter surprise waiting for a happy person, and neither is it the sad fulfillment of the expectation of someone who is too broken to believe that he or she is worthy to be part of the circle of life.
We owe it to God to be more empathic. We also owe this to those who are broken of heart and of spirit. Moreover, we have a Christian doctrine, expressed inside of our very creed that challenges us to know better: He descended into hell. What Jesus revealed in his life and in his death is that there’s no place inside of tragedy, brokenness, sadness, or resignation, into which God cannot and will not descend and breathe out peace.
God is all-understanding. That’s why we’re assured that “a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” You can bet your life on that. You can bet your faith on that. And you can also live in deeper empathy and deeper consolation because of that.
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
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
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – meetings will be held on Monday evenings in the Community Room, Ulverstone at 7pm.
Weekday Masses 15th - 19th May, 2017
Monday: 2:00pm Devonport
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Thursday: 10:00am Karingal
7:00pm Penguin ... CCR Healing Mass
7:00pm Penguin ... CCR Healing Mass
Friday: 11:00am Mt St Vincent
Next Weekend 20th & 21st May, 2017
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield 5:00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 20th & 21st May, 2017
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: P Douglas, T Douglas, M Knight 10:30am A
Hughes, T Barrientos
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 19th
May: B Paul, D
Atkins, V Riley 26th May: K.S.C.
Piety Shop 20th
May: H Thompson 21st May: O McGinley
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: B O’Rourke
Ministers of Communion: M Murray, J Pisarskis, C Harvey, P
Grech
Cleaners: V
Ferguson, E Cox Flowers: C Stingel Hospitality: T Good Team
Penguin:
Greeters: G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator: Y Downes Readers: J Garnsey, A Guest
Ministers of
Communion: T
Clayton, M Murray Liturgy: Penguin
Setting Up: T Clayton Care of Church: G Hills-Eade, T Clayton
Latrobe:
Reader: H Lim Ministers of Communion: P Marlow, Z Smith Procession of
Gifts: M Clarke
Port Sorell:
Readers: D Leaman, T Jeffries Ministers of Communion: G Duff Cleaners/Flowers/Prep: A Hynes
Readings this week – Fifth Sunday of Easter
First Reading: Acts 6: 1-7
Second Reading: 1 Peter 2: 4-9
Gospel: John 14: 1-12
Prego Reflection:
As I prepare to pray, I take a few moments to come to quiet
before the Lord who knows me and loves me.
What mood am I in?
I try to put aside any distractions and place my concerns into God’s hands for this time.
I do not rush.
When ready, I read these words slowly, prayerfully, several times over.
Perhaps I imagine Jesus speaking to me personally.
What is his tone of voice?
How does he look?
I notice what stirs in me.
Maybe I sense the total intimacy between Jesus and the Father, hearing Jesus’ gentle encouragement to trust completely in both Father and Son.
When my own heart is troubled, am I able to trust in this way … or am I more like Thomas, and inclined to ask questions?
I ponder ... and allow myself to rest awhile in Jesus’s assurance that a place has already been prepared for me, and for all those whom I love, in God’s own home.
Jesus tells his friends that he himself is the Way … not just the way to the Father, but to a whole Way of Life.
Who or what helps me to trust in him as the Way, even in times of struggle and anxiety?
I speak freely with the Lord, and ask him to help deepen my trust in him.
In time I speak out my gratitude and gently take my leave ...
In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
What mood am I in?
I try to put aside any distractions and place my concerns into God’s hands for this time.
I do not rush.
When ready, I read these words slowly, prayerfully, several times over.
Perhaps I imagine Jesus speaking to me personally.
What is his tone of voice?
How does he look?
I notice what stirs in me.
Maybe I sense the total intimacy between Jesus and the Father, hearing Jesus’ gentle encouragement to trust completely in both Father and Son.
When my own heart is troubled, am I able to trust in this way … or am I more like Thomas, and inclined to ask questions?
I ponder ... and allow myself to rest awhile in Jesus’s assurance that a place has already been prepared for me, and for all those whom I love, in God’s own home.
Jesus tells his friends that he himself is the Way … not just the way to the Father, but to a whole Way of Life.
Who or what helps me to trust in him as the Way, even in times of struggle and anxiety?
I speak freely with the Lord, and ask him to help deepen my trust in him.
In time I speak out my gratitude and gently take my leave ...
In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Readings next week – Sixth Sunday of
Easter
First Reading: Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:15-18
Gospel:
John 14:15-21
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Victoria Webb, Victor Slavin, Elaine Milic, David Welch &
…,
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Elaine Milic, Ivan
Walsh, Beverley Cloney, Beverley O'Connor,
Clare Kuhnle, Margaret Cameron, Alfred Grieve, Susan
Reilly, George
Archer, John Munro, Ila Breen, Glen Graham.
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time:
10th
– 16th May: Joan
Bonner, John Nickols, Anthony Smith, Ernest Wilkins, Norah Lillas, Emily
Reynolds, Ethel Dooley, Audrey Enniss, Marian Hamon, Tas Glover, Sylvia Street, Julia Windridge, Madeline
Castles, Enid Stubbs, Corrie Webb, Julia Chatwin, Keitha Young, Nell Carpenter,
Marie Webber, Joy Griffiths, Joyce, Jim and Beatrice Barry, Arokiasamy, Muriel, Fabian
and Martin Xavier, Ryan Jackson and all Mothers in Heaven.
May they rest in peace
MOTHERS
DAY PRAYER
Lord, Protect the lives, we pray,
Of those who have given us the gift of life.
May our mothers know from day to day
the deepening joy that comes from your presence.
We cannot pay our debts for all the love that we have received;
But you, Lord, will not forget their due reward.
Bless our mothers both on earth and in heaven.
Amen
Amen
Happy Mother’s Day to all our
mother’s here on earth and in Heaven xx
Weekly
Ramblings
I’d like to start today by wishing all mothers a Happy and
Blessed Mother’s Day – on behalf of the Parish I hope you have a great day.
This week the Parish Pastoral Council met to discuss how we
might continue to bring my Vision for the Parish to life and some members will
be meeting again this coming week to explore future options. I will be speaking
at the final two Mass Centres this weekend to explain the process so far –
thanks to everyone who has been part of the conversation and sharing.
Last Tuesday evening we completed our 2nd Alpha Program (we
will be having as celebratory meal together this Tuesday). At this gathering we
will have an opportunity to discuss how or when we might be able to run
programs in the near future.
In three weeks’ time we will be gathering as a whole of
Parish Community to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost at Devonport (4th June at
11am). The list inviting people to indicate if they can assist by provision of
mains or desserts is actually available this weekend – apologies for not having
it all available last week. I invite everyone to make this Pentecost Mass a
real opportunity for us to gather as one Community to celebrate our common
faith and unity in the Mersey Leven Parish. Another important part of the
celebration is the music – there will be a rehearsal for musicians and singers
on Sunday 28th May at 2pm in Our Lady of Lourdes. Support from members of the
Parish for the other ministries on the day as Lectors, wardens, greeters and
Special Ministers of the Eucharist will be sought over the next week or so.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
ST VINCENT DE PAUL COLLECTION:
This weekend the St Vincent de Paul collection will be in
Devonport, Ulverstone, Port Sorell, Latrobe and Penguin to assist the work of
the St Vincent de Paul Society.
FATIMA
100 YEARS:
A Pilgrim Statue of Fatima will be visiting parishes
throughout Tasmania to commemorate the centenary of Our Lady’s appearances
at Fatima in 1917.
The Statue will be at Our Lady of Lourdes
Church, Devonport on Monday 15th May.
Our programme is as
follows:-
1:00 pm - Marian hymn followed by a talk by
Fr. Gerard Ryan CCS
1:30 pm - Rosary and opportunity for the
Sacrament of Reconciliation
2:00 pm
- Mass followed by Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Divine Mercy Chaplet and
prayers for healing
3:15 pm - Finish with Benediction. Refreshments
to follow.
KARINGAL
MASS:
Please join fellow parishioners at
Karingal for Mass on Thursday 18th May at 10am. All welcome for a
cuppa afterwards.
CCR HEALING
MASS;
Catholic Charismatic Renewal are
sponsoring a Healing Mass at St Mary’s
Catholic Church Penguin on Thursday 18th May commencing at 7pm
(please note early start). 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 in the hall afterwards. If you wish to know more or require transport,
please contact Celestine Whiteley 6424:2043, Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068, Zoe
Smith 6426:3073 or Tom Knaap 6425:2442.
CARE AND CONCERN: “Siloam” is the name of a group
which meets under the banner of Care and Concern. “Siloam” focusses on aspects
of grief and loss often experienced following the death of a loved one. The
Siloam image (John 9:7) suggests healing and refreshment. Our group “Siloam”
takes its inspiration from John 9:1-41 – Jesus anointed the man’s eyes with the
clay, saying ‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam’ so he went and washed and came
back seeing.
The next meeting will be Tuesday 23rd May at 2.00 pm. Please
note change of venue to Mackillop Hill, 123 William Street, Forth.
Warmly invite Mersey Leven Parishioners to celebrate with
them the 130th anniversary of the arrival of the first Sisters of St Joseph in
Westbury on 24 May 1887. You are invited to Holy Trinity Church,
Westbury on Wednesday, 24 May 2017 at 1pm for Prayer and Afternoon Tea.
ASSIST A
STUDENT:
Pamphlets are available at the rear of the Church to allow
you to take the opportunity to become a donor towards this program. 100% of
your donation goes to the student’s education for one year. Your student may be
from a secondary or post-secondary institution. The cost is $70. You will
receive a certificate with the students name country and course of study.
St Vincent de Paul encourages participation in this program
as it reflects the mission statement of the Society – Serve the Poor with the
love, respect, justice, hope and joy.
FOOTY
TICKETS: Round 7 (5th May) footy
margin 23 – winners; Lyndon Bramich, Agnes Bonis, Jan Horton.
BINGO - Thursday Nights
OLOL Hall, Devonport.
Eyes down 7.30pm! Callers for Thursday 18th May – Rod Clark & Alan Luxton
OLOL Hall, Devonport.
Eyes down 7.30pm! Callers for Thursday 18th May – Rod Clark & Alan Luxton
The Divine Alchemy
This article is taken from the daily email from Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe to these emails here
I’ve invited Cynthia Bourgeault, one of CAC’s core faculty members, to explore Jesus’ teachings over the next two weeks, drawing from her rich understanding of the ancient Wisdom Tradition, today she ties the dynamic outpouring of Trinity to Jesus’ path of self-emptying.
The Trinitarian mystery has immediate implications for us as
we try to live Jesus’ path. All too often our attempts at self-emptying feel
isolated and pointless. They seem like dead ends, with no real connection to
the world at large or even to our own best intentions. Even Jesus’ crucifixion
seems in some sense to be a waste. Why should a good and wise man who could
have been a teacher of many die meaninglessly on a cross? Often our own small
acts of heroism and sacrifice seem pointless as well—except that the Trinity
assures us no act of kenosis is ever isolated, no matter how meaningless it
looks, no matter how disconnected, no matter how unproductive in terms of
reward and gain. Through the Trinity all kenosis is a tiny hologram of
perichoresis. It belongs to that great relational field of “the divine
exchange” and connects us instantly with the whole of God, allowing divine love
to become manifest in some new and profound dimension. As Raimon Panikkar
beautifully expresses it, “I am one with the source insofar as I act as a
source by making everything I have received flow again—just like Jesus.” [1]
Jesus’ teaching assures us as we move toward center along this very reckless and in some ways abundant and extravagant path—not “storing it all up” as in the classic ascetic traditions of attaining being, but “throwing it all away”—that divine love is infinite and immediate and will always come to us if we don’t cling. This is a powerful statement, so simple and yet so radical.
This is a kind of sacred alchemy. As we practice in daily life—in our acts of compassion, kindness, and self-emptying, both at the level of our doing and even more at the level of our being—something is catalyzed. Subtle qualities of divine love essential to the well-being of this planet are released through our actions and flow out into the world as miracle, healing, and hope.
The template for the divine alchemy is imprinted in our soul: the Trinitarian impulse which is both the icon of divine reality within us and the means by which that reality brings itself to fullness. As we learn not to harden and brace even in the face of what appears to be ultimate darkness, but to let all things flow in that great river of kenosis and perichoresis, we come to know—and finally become—the river itself, which circulates through all things as the hidden dynamism of love. This, I believe, is the path that Jesus taught and walked, the path he calls us to.
References:
[1] Raimon Panikkar, Christophany (Orbis Books: 2004), 116.
Adapted from Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus:
Transforming Heart and Mind—A New Perspective on Christ and His Message
(Shambhala: 2008), 72-74.
DESPAIR AS WEAKNESS RATHER THAN SIN
Classically, both in the world and in our churches, we have seen despair as the ultimate, unforgivable sin. The simple notion was that neither God, nor anyone else, can save you if you simply give up, despair, make yourself impossible to reach. Most often in the popular mind this was applied to suicide. To die by your own hand was seen as despair, as putting yourself outside of God’s mercy.
But understanding despair in this way is wrong and misguided, however sincere our intent. What’s despair? How might it be understood?
The common dictionary definition invariably runs something like this: Despair means to no longer have any hope or belief that a situation will improve or change. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which sees despair as a sin against the First Commandment, defines it this way: “By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God’s goodness, to his justice – for the Lord is faithful to his promises – and to his mercy.”
But there’s something absolutely critical to be distinguished here: There are two reasons why someone might cease to hope for personal salvation from God and give up hope in having his or sins forgiven. It can be that the person doubts the goodness and mercy of God or, and I believe that this is normally the case, the person is too crushed, too weak, too broken inside, to believe that he or she is lovable and redeemable. But being so beaten and crushed in spirit so as to believe that nothing further can exist for you except pain and darkness is normally not an indication of sin but more a symptom of having been fatally victimized by circumstance, of having to undergo, in the poignant words of Fantine in Les Miserables, storms that you cannot weather.
And before positing such a person outside of God’s mercy, we need to ask ourselves: What kind of God would condemn a person who is so crushed by the circumstances of her life so as to be unable to believe that she is loveable? What kind of God would condemn someone for her brokenness? Such a God would certainly be utterly foreign to Jesus who incarnated and revealed God’s love as being preferential for the weak, the crushed, the broken-hearted, for those despairing of mercy. To believe and teach that God withholds mercy from those who are most broken in spirit betrays a profound misunderstanding of the nature and mercy of God who sends Jesus into the world, not for the healthy but for those who need a physician.
Likewise this too betrays a profound misunderstanding of human nature and the human heart. Why would a person deem herself so unlovable that she voluntarily and hopelessly excludes herself from the circle of life? It can only be because of a deep, profound wound to the soul (which no doubt is not self-inflicted). Obviously, unless it is a case of some clinical illness, this person has been deeply wounded and has never had an experience of unconditional love or indeed of faithful human love. We are facile and naïve when, because we ourselves have been undeservedly loved, we cannot understand how someone else can be so crushed and broken so as to believe himself or herself to be, in essence, unlovable. To paraphrase a painful question in the song, The Rose: Are love, and heaven, really only for the lucky and strong? Our common understanding of despair, secular and religious, would seem to think so.
But, nobody goes to hell out of weakness, out of a broken heart, out of a crushed spirit, out of the misfortune and unfairness of never having had the sense of being truly loved. Hell is for the strong, for those with a spirit so arrogant that it cannot be crushed or broken, and so is unable to surrender. Hell is never a bitter surprise waiting for a happy person, and neither is it the sad fulfillment of the expectation of someone who is too broken to believe that he or she is worthy to be part of the circle of life.
We owe it to God to be more empathic. We also owe this to those who are broken of heart and of spirit. Moreover, we have a Christian doctrine, expressed inside of our very creed that challenges us to know better: He descended into hell. What Jesus revealed in his life and in his death is that there’s no place inside of tragedy, brokenness, sadness, or resignation, into which God cannot and will not descend and breathe out peace.
God is all-understanding. That’s why we’re assured that “a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” You can bet your life on that. You can bet your faith on that. And you can also live in deeper empathy and deeper consolation because of that.
A Timeless Magnificat
The month of the Church’s traditional Marian devotions has to come to an end, but James Hanvey SJ suggests that our particular contemplation of the Mother of God should not be limited just to May. Through Mary we receive and understand the grace of God in a special way - ‘we see the truth of God’s promises fulfilled’. How can we be attentive to this all year round?
‘May is Mary’s month.’ So begins Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, The May Magnificat. As usual with Hopkins, when we think we are in the realm of popular piety he springs a question, presents a metaphor or throws in a step-change rhythm that arrests us. In The May Magnificat, after the opening statement he asks ‘and I/Muse at that and wonder why?’ Why May? Why Mary?
Hopkins goes on to answer his question by drawing deep natural and supernatural connections between Mary, the mother of the Lord of Life and the renewal of life in spring. May is not only the month of Mary but of the Church. For Hopkins, there is an intimate and necessary connection between Mary, the Church and the Holy Spirit: indeed, the Spirit is the vital ground of all things renewed in Christ, for the Spirit is ‘the Lord and Giver of Life.’ The natural liturgy of the seasons and the liturgy of Christian worship seem to come together in directing us to the abundance of life, both in nature and in grace.
Hopkins is a poet whose work is a form of experimental masterclass in the life, work and expression of the Holy Spirit: the dynamic artistry of grace at work in all that is human; the very life of all creative things, their unique and distinctive energies and their deep koinonia. This converges in Mary who exemplifies the action of grace in a human life. It is a mothering action which both brings us to birth, ‘And makes, O marvellous!/New Nazareths in us’. In this sense, she never ceases to incarnate Christ in us because being ‘full of grace’, ‘she shall yet conceive/Him, morning, noon, and eve.’ In Mary we see that grace is endlessly creative and recreative and this is the life – that capacity for new beginnings – that Hannah Arendt calls our ‘natality’, though for her it remained a purely human, this-worldly, capacity. Hopkins might remind Arendt that, in fact, Mary shows us that to be truly a human capacity, natality is and must be a graced reality. It is not just an endlessly creative resistance to the inevitable destructions of history, matter and human corruption. ‘Natality’ springs from the divine life within us that constantly ‘mothers’ us into the new life of grace. This ‘natality’ also has a face – it is precisely the way which Christ comes alive in us without diminishing of our own uniqueness. Redeemed in Christ we are coming to our fulfilment, coming to be who we are – who God has created us to be. We become transparent to Him in this world, just like Mary:
The month of the Church’s traditional Marian devotions has to come to an end, but James Hanvey SJ suggests that our particular contemplation of the Mother of God should not be limited just to May. Through Mary we receive and understand the grace of God in a special way - ‘we see the truth of God’s promises fulfilled’. How can we be attentive to this all year round?
‘May is Mary’s month.’ So begins Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, The May Magnificat. As usual with Hopkins, when we think we are in the realm of popular piety he springs a question, presents a metaphor or throws in a step-change rhythm that arrests us. In The May Magnificat, after the opening statement he asks ‘and I/Muse at that and wonder why?’ Why May? Why Mary?
Hopkins goes on to answer his question by drawing deep natural and supernatural connections between Mary, the mother of the Lord of Life and the renewal of life in spring. May is not only the month of Mary but of the Church. For Hopkins, there is an intimate and necessary connection between Mary, the Church and the Holy Spirit: indeed, the Spirit is the vital ground of all things renewed in Christ, for the Spirit is ‘the Lord and Giver of Life.’ The natural liturgy of the seasons and the liturgy of Christian worship seem to come together in directing us to the abundance of life, both in nature and in grace.
Hopkins is a poet whose work is a form of experimental masterclass in the life, work and expression of the Holy Spirit: the dynamic artistry of grace at work in all that is human; the very life of all creative things, their unique and distinctive energies and their deep koinonia. This converges in Mary who exemplifies the action of grace in a human life. It is a mothering action which both brings us to birth, ‘And makes, O marvellous!/New Nazareths in us’. In this sense, she never ceases to incarnate Christ in us because being ‘full of grace’, ‘she shall yet conceive/Him, morning, noon, and eve.’ In Mary we see that grace is endlessly creative and recreative and this is the life – that capacity for new beginnings – that Hannah Arendt calls our ‘natality’, though for her it remained a purely human, this-worldly, capacity. Hopkins might remind Arendt that, in fact, Mary shows us that to be truly a human capacity, natality is and must be a graced reality. It is not just an endlessly creative resistance to the inevitable destructions of history, matter and human corruption. ‘Natality’ springs from the divine life within us that constantly ‘mothers’ us into the new life of grace. This ‘natality’ also has a face – it is precisely the way which Christ comes alive in us without diminishing of our own uniqueness. Redeemed in Christ we are coming to our fulfilment, coming to be who we are – who God has created us to be. We become transparent to Him in this world, just like Mary:
who;
This one work has to do,
Let all God’s glory through,
God’s glory which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.
In other words, May is the month when, with Mary, we celebrate the work of grace in us and in the world. Through Mary and in her we see the truth of God’s promises fulfilled.
No doubt some Dawkins-esque anthropologist will theorise that the pagan rites of spring get ‘baptised’ by Marian devotions. Underneath the Christian veneer lie the primeval fertility cults and mother goddesses, and Mary somehow absorbs them all. One of the great features of all religions is that they hold collective memories and customs. There is nothing wrong with that. In religious practices, traditions and customs, we must expect to find these ancient memories because they are usually marking the great foundation rhythms of human life, its meaning, place and purpose. Often overlooked by anthropological rationalism and the symbolically impoverished de-mythologising is an appreciation of the way in which religion can not only carry the rhythms and memory of a pagan past but change them, transposing them into a new key of understanding. It is always a distortion to place Christianity within the secular category of religion and tie it to the methodologies and understanding of the social sciences. Of course, Christianity like any other social reality can and must be studied, and we need a variety of disciplines and approaches to do this well. Yet this should never be allowed to suppress the challenge that Christian revelation and self-understanding presents to the presuppositions of these approaches and the methodological theistic neutrality which they claim to inhabit and make normative.
At the heart of Christianity is a shocking claim: that it is not a purely human creation; it is not the result of some great founding insight or a gradually developed system of integrated beliefs about the vast energies and forces of the cosmos, in which the human person is both subject and agent. Christianity lives from the action of the Holy Spirit and person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God whose life, death and Resurrection redeems us from the futility of an existence without or against God and the distortion in our way of knowing and being that this state brings about. It reveals to us the inexhaustible love of the Father and allows us already to participate in the eternal life of the Triune God, even in our finite and temporal existence. In other words, the Christian life lives in a world already under the reign of God, ‘charged with the Grandeur of God’, which is not just the transcendence of the divine but the glory of the personal love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the world of grace and all the different forms and possibilities of its action. So, how might someone who does not inhabit this world, with its new possibilities and God-given way of understanding and acting, gain some insight into it?
I suggest that they might consider the way in which the Christian faith constantly returns to contemplate Mary of Nazareth, the Mother of God. In her they will see both the scandal and originality of the Christian life and reality. It is a vision of an incarnate God, constantly active in his loving and saving self-gift; a personal God who calls us into a free relationship with him, and only in that relationship is our freedom fully realised. Here is that reversal of the Kingdom, celebrated in Mary’s Magnificat: where the ‘yes’ is not an act of subjection or subservice, but a self-gift of loving service which lives in the transcendence of God’s own self-gift; it is the way in which we choose to live beyond ourselves, not for ourselves, ‘but for him.’ In this sense, Mary is also the stumbling block for all the atheistic secularisms and their values which can sometimes creep into even Christian life and ways of thinking. Mary, who always draws us into the life of her Son, also keeps us open to the mystery that is God’s redemption and sanctification of the human and created order. In this way we can discover the constantly new beginning, the natality of the Spirit which allows us to announce our Magnificat not only in May but in every time and season.
Rev. Dr. James Hanvey SJ lectures in Systematic Theology at Heythrop College, University of London and is Superior of the Jesuit Community at Mount Street, Central London.
In other words, May is the month when, with Mary, we celebrate the work of grace in us and in the world. Through Mary and in her we see the truth of God’s promises fulfilled.
No doubt some Dawkins-esque anthropologist will theorise that the pagan rites of spring get ‘baptised’ by Marian devotions. Underneath the Christian veneer lie the primeval fertility cults and mother goddesses, and Mary somehow absorbs them all. One of the great features of all religions is that they hold collective memories and customs. There is nothing wrong with that. In religious practices, traditions and customs, we must expect to find these ancient memories because they are usually marking the great foundation rhythms of human life, its meaning, place and purpose. Often overlooked by anthropological rationalism and the symbolically impoverished de-mythologising is an appreciation of the way in which religion can not only carry the rhythms and memory of a pagan past but change them, transposing them into a new key of understanding. It is always a distortion to place Christianity within the secular category of religion and tie it to the methodologies and understanding of the social sciences. Of course, Christianity like any other social reality can and must be studied, and we need a variety of disciplines and approaches to do this well. Yet this should never be allowed to suppress the challenge that Christian revelation and self-understanding presents to the presuppositions of these approaches and the methodological theistic neutrality which they claim to inhabit and make normative.
At the heart of Christianity is a shocking claim: that it is not a purely human creation; it is not the result of some great founding insight or a gradually developed system of integrated beliefs about the vast energies and forces of the cosmos, in which the human person is both subject and agent. Christianity lives from the action of the Holy Spirit and person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God whose life, death and Resurrection redeems us from the futility of an existence without or against God and the distortion in our way of knowing and being that this state brings about. It reveals to us the inexhaustible love of the Father and allows us already to participate in the eternal life of the Triune God, even in our finite and temporal existence. In other words, the Christian life lives in a world already under the reign of God, ‘charged with the Grandeur of God’, which is not just the transcendence of the divine but the glory of the personal love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the world of grace and all the different forms and possibilities of its action. So, how might someone who does not inhabit this world, with its new possibilities and God-given way of understanding and acting, gain some insight into it?
I suggest that they might consider the way in which the Christian faith constantly returns to contemplate Mary of Nazareth, the Mother of God. In her they will see both the scandal and originality of the Christian life and reality. It is a vision of an incarnate God, constantly active in his loving and saving self-gift; a personal God who calls us into a free relationship with him, and only in that relationship is our freedom fully realised. Here is that reversal of the Kingdom, celebrated in Mary’s Magnificat: where the ‘yes’ is not an act of subjection or subservice, but a self-gift of loving service which lives in the transcendence of God’s own self-gift; it is the way in which we choose to live beyond ourselves, not for ourselves, ‘but for him.’ In this sense, Mary is also the stumbling block for all the atheistic secularisms and their values which can sometimes creep into even Christian life and ways of thinking. Mary, who always draws us into the life of her Son, also keeps us open to the mystery that is God’s redemption and sanctification of the human and created order. In this way we can discover the constantly new beginning, the natality of the Spirit which allows us to announce our Magnificat not only in May but in every time and season.
Rev. Dr. James Hanvey SJ lectures in Systematic Theology at Heythrop College, University of London and is Superior of the Jesuit Community at Mount Street, Central London.
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