Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
To be a vibrant Catholic Community
unified in its commitment
to growing disciples for Christ
Parish Priest: Fr Mike Delaney
Mob: 0417 279 437
Mob: 0417 279 437
Priest in Residence: Fr Phil McCormack
Mob: 0437 521 257
Mob: 0437 521 257
Postal Address: PO Box 362
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160
Email: merseyleven@aohtas.org.au
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.
Parish
Calendar
Weekday Masses 24th – 27th October, 2017
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Readings next week – Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
First Reading: Exodus 22:20-26
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
This weekend is Mission Sunday – envelopes are available to
support the work of Catholic Missions (as mentioned below). All support and prayer is greatly
appreciated.
It was a great celebration at St Paul’s Bridgewater last
Tuesday evening for the ordination to the Diaconate of Br Cris Mendoza – and it
was pleasing to see a number of ML Parishioners in the congregation. I know
Deacon Cris appreciated our being there and supporting him on this special
occasion. During his words of thanks at the end of the Mass he told us that it
has been a journey of over 25 years to get to this time and he thanked God and
the people who supported him during this time. Bro Cris will commence working
in the Parish from this coming Monday and Fr Smiley will be back after his
holidays – so that will be great.
The Parish Forum (Next Step) is being planned for the 3rd
December to be held in the Community Room at Sacred Heart Church – from 2-4pm.
This will be an opportunity for us to focus on how we might better contribute
to the life of our parish to help make it a “vibrant catholic community”
through ministry and service roles. We want to celebrate what is being done and
see if there are any ways we can enhance and build on what we have to make it
even better. All are welcome to come to this Next Step on our journey.
There are some changes being made to recreation areas for
the children at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School which will effect some
parking in the Schools grounds after this weekend. Details of the changes and
more information are available on the Notice Board in the foyer.
A reminder that Sacred Heart School have their Fair next
weekend. Steven has been asking if Parishioners are able to assist by making
cakes for the Fair – please contact him if you can help (0411 522 630). Raffle
tickets will be on sale at Mass this weekend in Ulverstone – your support is
appreciated.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE:
Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe - Monday 23rd October, 10:30am – 12noon Come along … share your issues and enjoy a lively discussion over morning tea! Phone: 6428:3095 email: mackillophill.forth@sosj.org.au
AUSTRALIAN CHURCH WOMEN: will host an ecumenical service at Wesley Vale Community Church Friday 27th October at 1:30 pm. All welcome. A plate please. Enquiries – Kath Pearce 6424:6504
KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS: next meeting Sunday 29th October, Parish Hall Devonport starting at 4pm.
SACRED HEART SCHOOL FAIR: is fast approaching and will be held on 29th October. Sacred Heart School are asking for help with making cakes, slices and biscuits for the fair. The School will provide packaging, so all that is required is a list of the ingredients be supplied with the cake, slice or biscuits. These items can be left at Sacred Heart School on Saturday 28th or early Sunday morning 29th (Fair day). If you are able to assist please contact Steven Smith 0411 522 630 or Claire Kelly 0400 042 435.
CARE AND CONCERN:
“Siloam” is the name of a group which meets under the banner of Care and Concern. We focus on aspects of grief and loss often experienced following the death of a loved one by offering the opportunity simply to share and talk about where we are at this time.
The next meeting will be Tuesday 24th October - 2.00 pm at MacKillop Hill, 123 William Street, Forth. Anyone is welcome to join us. If you require transport please phone Marg McKenzie 6425:1414.
NOVEMBER REMEMBRANCE BOOKS:
November is the month we remember in a special way all those who have died. Should you wish anyone to be remembered, write the names of those to be prayed for on the outside of an envelope and place the clearly marked envelope in the collection basket at Mass or deliver to the Parish Office by Thursday 26th October.
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY: The Auxiliary will be holding a Cake and Craft stall after 9am Mass Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone on Sunday 5th November.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm! Callers for Thursday 26th October – Rod Clark & Merv Tippett
5 STEPS TO A HEALTHY WORK ENVIRONMENT AT YOUR PARISH
Taken from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can find the original of the blog here
A healthy work environment should be a high priority for parish pastors and leaders. As a leader, you want to ensure you’re creating the best possible space for your team to work well and effectively, and sometimes it’s hard to know why that isn’t happening. Here are 5 things you can do to help ensure your culture is healthy.
1. Cast Vision
Without clear vision, it’s impossible for your team to be unified, which is a perfect environment for frustration to flourish, rivalries to develop, and silo ministries to spring up. Clearly communicate where your team is going, how you’re going to get there, and your core values so that everyone is headed in the same direction. Then, do it again. Do it as often as you can.
2. Encourage Everyone
Even good leaders, even great leaders can highly underestimate the power of encouragement. Even if you aren’t a leader on your staff team, your encouragement can still make a significant impact. Encouraging a positive culture will create a much more motivated, kind, and collaborative workplace.
3. Celebrate Success & Failure
It is actually easy to overlook success, especially if you’re entrepreneurial. But every success needs to be named and celebrated, because what gets celebrated gets repeated.
And sometimes you might also want to celebrate failure, too.
At least celebrate honest mistakes and miscalculations you can learn from. What gets recognized in this way won’t get repeated.
4. Listen to Wise Advisors
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is refusing the advice of others, assuming they don’t understand the organization or know what’s best. This is easy to do, as all organizations are unique, but don’t fall into this easy trap. Fresh eyes are full of creativity and can infuse fresh life into your parish. Figure out who the wise people are around you and listen to them. If you do it as a leader, it will permeate the whole leadership of your parish.
5. Keep an Open Mind
Challenge the way you see people, positions, and new ideas. Staff who know they’re seen for their actual work and potential will do better work with a better attitude than those stuck in dead end jobs, knowing they’ll never see a promotion or a fresh opportunity. Stay open to everyone’s new ideas too. That openness will preserve your healthy environment.
CLOSE THE DISTANCE NOT THE GATE
Nobel-prizing winning author, Toni Morrison, assessing the times, asks this question: “Why should we want to know a stranger when it is easier to estrange another? Why should we want to close the distance when we can close the gate?” Except this isn’t a question, it’s a judgment.
It’s a negative judgment on both our society and our churches. Where are our hearts really at? Are we trying more to close the distance between us and what’s foreign, or are we into closing gates to keep strangers estranged?
In fairness, it might be pointed out that this has always been a struggle. There hasn’t been a golden age within which people wholeheartedly welcomed the stranger. There have been golden individuals and even golden communities who were welcoming, but never society or church as a whole.
Much as this issue is so front and center in our politics today, as countries everywhere struggle with their immigration policies and with what to do with millions of refugees and migrants wanting to enter their country, I want to take Morrison’s challenge, to close the distance rather than close the gate, to our churches: Are we inviting in the stranger? Or, are we content to let the estranged remain outside?
There is a challenging motif within Jesus’ parable of the over-generous vineyard owner which can easily be missed because of the overall lesson within the story. It concerns the question that the vineyard owner asks the last group of workers, those who will work for only one hour. Unlike the first group, he doesn’t ask them: “Do you want to work in my vineyard?” Rather he asks them: “Why aren’t you working?” Their answer: “Because no one has hired us!” Notice they don’t answer by saying that their non-employment is because they are lazy, incompetent, or disinterested. Neither does the vineyard owner’s question imply that. They aren’t working simply because no one has given them the invitation to work!
Sadly, I believe this is the case for so many people who are seemingly cold or indifferent to religion and our churches. Nobody has invited them in! And that was true too at the time of Jesus. Whole groups of people were seen as being indifferent and hostile to religion and were deemed simply as sinners. This included prostitutes, tax collectors, foreigners, and criminals. Jesus invited them in and many of them responded with a sincerity, contrition, and devotion that shamed those who considered themselves true believers. For the so-called sinners, all that stood between them and entry into the kingdom was a genuine invitation.
Why aren’t you practicing a faith? No one has invited us!
Just in my own, admittedly limited, pastoral experience, I have seen a number of individuals who from childhood to early or late mid-life were indifferent to, and even somewhat paranoid about, religion and church. It was a world from which they had always felt excluded. But, thanks to some gracious person or fortunate circumstance, at a moment, they felt invited in and they gave themselves over to their new religious family with a disarming warmth, fervor, and gratitude, often taking a fierce pride in their new identity. Witnessing this several times, I now understand why the prostitutes and tax collectors, more than the church people at the time, believed in Jesus. He was the first religious person to truly invite them in.
Sadly, too, there’s a reverse side to this is where, all too often, in all religious sincerity, we not only don’t invite certain others in, we positively close the gates on them. We see that, for example, a number of times in the Gospels where those around Jesus block others from having access to him, as is the case in that rather colorful story where some people are trying to bring a paralytic to Jesus but are blocked by the crowds surrounding him and consequently have to make a hole in the roof in order to lower the paralytic into Jesus’ presence.
Too frequently, unknowingly, sincerely, but blindly, we are that crowd around Jesus, blocking access to him by our presence. This is an occupational danger especially for all of us who are in ministry. We so easily, in all sincerity, in the name of Christ, in the name of orthodox theology, and in the name of sound pastoral practice set ourselves up as gatekeepers, as guardians of our churches, through whom others must pass in order to have access to God. We need to more clearly remember that Christ is the gatekeeper, and the only gatekeeper, and we need to refresh ourselves on what that means by looking at why Jesus chased the moneychangers out of the temple in John’s Gospel. They, the moneychangers, had set themselves up as a medium through which people has to pass in order to offer workshop to God. Jesus would have none of it.
Our mission as disciples of Jesus is not to be gatekeepers. We need instead to work at closing the distance rather than closing the gate.
Contemplation in Action: Week 2
Thy Kingdom Come
The Balancing Point
A Hidden Wholeness
Electric Circuits
From Being Driven to
Being Drawn
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
Amen.
Parish
Calendar
24th Oct: 2pm Care & Concern Bereavement meeting - MacKillop
Hill.
3pm
Parish Finance Meeting – Parish House
29th Oct: Sacred Heart School Fair, Ulverstone
4pm Knights of the Southern Cross meeting – Parish
Hall
31st Oct: Deanery
Meeting - Launceston
1st Nov: (All Saints Day):
9:30am
Mass Latrobe;
12noon
Mass Devonport;
7pm
Mass Ulverstone
2nd Nov: (All Souls Day):
12noon
Mass Devonport;
7pm
Mass Ulverstone
3rd Nov: 6:30pm Open House – Devonport
8th Nov: 6:30pm Parish Pastoral Team Meeting – Parish
House
13th-17th
Nov: Diocesan Retreat – Maryknoll
26th Nov: 11am Whole of Parish Mass - Ulverstone.
3rd Dec: 2-4pm Parish Forum - Ulverstone
Weekday Masses 24th – 27th October, 2017
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am
Ulverstone Next Weekend 28th & 29th October, 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
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: M Gaffney, M Gerrand, H Lim 10:30am: A Hughes, T Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion: Vigil:
B O’Connor, R Beaton, K Brown, B Windebank, J Heatley, T
Bird
10.30am: K Hull, L Hollister, F Sly, E Petts, S Riley, S
Arrowsmith
Cleaners. 27th Oct: M & L Tippett, A Berryman 3rd Nov: M.W.C.
Piety Shop 28th Oct:
R McBain 29th October: P Piccolo
Mowing of Lawns Parish House - October: Steve Berryman
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: D Prior
Ministers of
Communion: M Byrne, D Griffin, K Foster, R Locket
Cleaners: M Mott Flowers: M Webb Hospitality:
M McLaren
Penguin:
Greeters: G & N Pearce Commentator: E Nickols
Readers: J Garnsey, Y Downes Ministers of
Communion: A Guest,
J Barker Liturgy: Pine Road
Setting Up: A Landers Care of Church: J & T Kiely
Latrobe:
Reader: S Ritchie Ministers of Communion: I Campbell, B Ritchie Procession: Parishioners
Port Sorell:
Readers: G Bellchambers, G Duff Ministers of Communion: B Lee Cleaners/Flowers/Prep: A Holloway, B Lee
Readings this week – Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
First Reading: Isaiah 45:1. 4-6
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 22:15-21
PREGO REFLECTION:
I may like to begin my prayer time by becoming aware of my
surroundings and everything around me: the sounds ... the patterns of light ...
the scents and smells ... the warmth or coolness ... God’s creation. I become
still and slowly read the Gospel text several times.
I ask God to speak to me
through today’s reading.
It could help my prayer to imagine being in the scene
with Jesus.
Who am I ...?
One of the Pharisees or their disciples ... one of
Jesus’s disciples ... one of the crowd … or simply myself …?
I accompany and
speak to the characters.
What do I notice about Jesus?
Perhaps his presence,
his clarity of thinking and wisdom … or maybe another quality speaks to me? How
do I feel in the presence of a courageous, challenging Jesus?
I speak to him,
perhaps telling him about the pressures on me to ‘do the right thing’ ... the
blindness, the worldly fears and worries that prevent me from giving to God what
belongs to God.
He knows, he understands; I listen to him.
When I am ready to
take my leave, I do so slowly and prayerfully.
I thank the Lord for His
presence with me today.
Readings next week – Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
First Reading: Exodus 22:20-26
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Ruth Munro, Matthew Gough, Allan Pearson, Rosemary Harcourt-Spencer,
Dolor Hewison, Romeo Gayo, Margaret Kenney, Victoria Webb, David Welch, Dawn
Stevens & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Bruce Beard, John Novaski,
Viv Crocker, Peter McCormick, Josefina Turnbull, Betty Lewis, Beverley
Ravanelli, Vern Cazaly, Agnes Bonis, Joyce Landford, Jack Corcoran and Joe Sly.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 18th-24th October
Freda
Jackson, Vonda Bryan, Frances Roberts, Robert Grantham, Kathleen Kelly, Betty
Wells, Margaret Williams, Paul McNamara, Hilda Peters, Francis McQueen, Jedd
Carroll-Anderson, Patrick Clarke, Paul McNamara and Esma Mibus.
May they
rest in peace
Weekly
Ramblings
This weekend is Mission Sunday – envelopes are available to
support the work of Catholic Missions (as mentioned below). All support and prayer is greatly
appreciated.
It was a great celebration at St Paul’s Bridgewater last
Tuesday evening for the ordination to the Diaconate of Br Cris Mendoza – and it
was pleasing to see a number of ML Parishioners in the congregation. I know
Deacon Cris appreciated our being there and supporting him on this special
occasion. During his words of thanks at the end of the Mass he told us that it
has been a journey of over 25 years to get to this time and he thanked God and
the people who supported him during this time. Bro Cris will commence working
in the Parish from this coming Monday and Fr Smiley will be back after his
holidays – so that will be great.
The Parish Forum (Next Step) is being planned for the 3rd
December to be held in the Community Room at Sacred Heart Church – from 2-4pm.
This will be an opportunity for us to focus on how we might better contribute
to the life of our parish to help make it a “vibrant catholic community”
through ministry and service roles. We want to celebrate what is being done and
see if there are any ways we can enhance and build on what we have to make it
even better. All are welcome to come to this Next Step on our journey.
There are some changes being made to recreation areas for
the children at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School which will effect some
parking in the Schools grounds after this weekend. Details of the changes and
more information are available on the Notice Board in the foyer.
A reminder that Sacred Heart School have their Fair next
weekend. Steven has been asking if Parishioners are able to assist by making
cakes for the Fair – please contact him if you can help (0411 522 630). Raffle
tickets will be on sale at Mass this weekend in Ulverstone – your support is
appreciated.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE:
Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe - Monday 23rd October, 10:30am – 12noon Come along … share your issues and enjoy a lively discussion over morning tea! Phone: 6428:3095 email: mackillophill.forth@sosj.org.au
AUSTRALIAN CHURCH WOMEN: will host an ecumenical service at Wesley Vale Community Church Friday 27th October at 1:30 pm. All welcome. A plate please. Enquiries – Kath Pearce 6424:6504
KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS: next meeting Sunday 29th October, Parish Hall Devonport starting at 4pm.
SACRED HEART SCHOOL FAIR: is fast approaching and will be held on 29th October. Sacred Heart School are asking for help with making cakes, slices and biscuits for the fair. The School will provide packaging, so all that is required is a list of the ingredients be supplied with the cake, slice or biscuits. These items can be left at Sacred Heart School on Saturday 28th or early Sunday morning 29th (Fair day). If you are able to assist please contact Steven Smith 0411 522 630 or Claire Kelly 0400 042 435.
CARE AND CONCERN:
“Siloam” is the name of a group which meets under the banner of Care and Concern. We focus on aspects of grief and loss often experienced following the death of a loved one by offering the opportunity simply to share and talk about where we are at this time.
The next meeting will be Tuesday 24th October - 2.00 pm at MacKillop Hill, 123 William Street, Forth. Anyone is welcome to join us. If you require transport please phone Marg McKenzie 6425:1414.
NOVEMBER REMEMBRANCE BOOKS:
November is the month we remember in a special way all those who have died. Should you wish anyone to be remembered, write the names of those to be prayed for on the outside of an envelope and place the clearly marked envelope in the collection basket at Mass or deliver to the Parish Office by Thursday 26th October.
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY: The Auxiliary will be holding a Cake and Craft stall after 9am Mass Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone on Sunday 5th November.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm! Callers for Thursday 26th October – Rod Clark & Merv Tippett
5 STEPS TO A HEALTHY WORK ENVIRONMENT AT YOUR PARISH
Taken from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can find the original of the blog here
A healthy work environment should be a high priority for parish pastors and leaders. As a leader, you want to ensure you’re creating the best possible space for your team to work well and effectively, and sometimes it’s hard to know why that isn’t happening. Here are 5 things you can do to help ensure your culture is healthy.
1. Cast Vision
Without clear vision, it’s impossible for your team to be unified, which is a perfect environment for frustration to flourish, rivalries to develop, and silo ministries to spring up. Clearly communicate where your team is going, how you’re going to get there, and your core values so that everyone is headed in the same direction. Then, do it again. Do it as often as you can.
2. Encourage Everyone
Even good leaders, even great leaders can highly underestimate the power of encouragement. Even if you aren’t a leader on your staff team, your encouragement can still make a significant impact. Encouraging a positive culture will create a much more motivated, kind, and collaborative workplace.
3. Celebrate Success & Failure
It is actually easy to overlook success, especially if you’re entrepreneurial. But every success needs to be named and celebrated, because what gets celebrated gets repeated.
And sometimes you might also want to celebrate failure, too.
At least celebrate honest mistakes and miscalculations you can learn from. What gets recognized in this way won’t get repeated.
4. Listen to Wise Advisors
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is refusing the advice of others, assuming they don’t understand the organization or know what’s best. This is easy to do, as all organizations are unique, but don’t fall into this easy trap. Fresh eyes are full of creativity and can infuse fresh life into your parish. Figure out who the wise people are around you and listen to them. If you do it as a leader, it will permeate the whole leadership of your parish.
5. Keep an Open Mind
Challenge the way you see people, positions, and new ideas. Staff who know they’re seen for their actual work and potential will do better work with a better attitude than those stuck in dead end jobs, knowing they’ll never see a promotion or a fresh opportunity. Stay open to everyone’s new ideas too. That openness will preserve your healthy environment.
CLOSE THE DISTANCE NOT THE GATE
Nobel-prizing winning author, Toni Morrison, assessing the times, asks this question: “Why should we want to know a stranger when it is easier to estrange another? Why should we want to close the distance when we can close the gate?” Except this isn’t a question, it’s a judgment.
It’s a negative judgment on both our society and our churches. Where are our hearts really at? Are we trying more to close the distance between us and what’s foreign, or are we into closing gates to keep strangers estranged?
In fairness, it might be pointed out that this has always been a struggle. There hasn’t been a golden age within which people wholeheartedly welcomed the stranger. There have been golden individuals and even golden communities who were welcoming, but never society or church as a whole.
Much as this issue is so front and center in our politics today, as countries everywhere struggle with their immigration policies and with what to do with millions of refugees and migrants wanting to enter their country, I want to take Morrison’s challenge, to close the distance rather than close the gate, to our churches: Are we inviting in the stranger? Or, are we content to let the estranged remain outside?
There is a challenging motif within Jesus’ parable of the over-generous vineyard owner which can easily be missed because of the overall lesson within the story. It concerns the question that the vineyard owner asks the last group of workers, those who will work for only one hour. Unlike the first group, he doesn’t ask them: “Do you want to work in my vineyard?” Rather he asks them: “Why aren’t you working?” Their answer: “Because no one has hired us!” Notice they don’t answer by saying that their non-employment is because they are lazy, incompetent, or disinterested. Neither does the vineyard owner’s question imply that. They aren’t working simply because no one has given them the invitation to work!
Sadly, I believe this is the case for so many people who are seemingly cold or indifferent to religion and our churches. Nobody has invited them in! And that was true too at the time of Jesus. Whole groups of people were seen as being indifferent and hostile to religion and were deemed simply as sinners. This included prostitutes, tax collectors, foreigners, and criminals. Jesus invited them in and many of them responded with a sincerity, contrition, and devotion that shamed those who considered themselves true believers. For the so-called sinners, all that stood between them and entry into the kingdom was a genuine invitation.
Why aren’t you practicing a faith? No one has invited us!
Just in my own, admittedly limited, pastoral experience, I have seen a number of individuals who from childhood to early or late mid-life were indifferent to, and even somewhat paranoid about, religion and church. It was a world from which they had always felt excluded. But, thanks to some gracious person or fortunate circumstance, at a moment, they felt invited in and they gave themselves over to their new religious family with a disarming warmth, fervor, and gratitude, often taking a fierce pride in their new identity. Witnessing this several times, I now understand why the prostitutes and tax collectors, more than the church people at the time, believed in Jesus. He was the first religious person to truly invite them in.
Sadly, too, there’s a reverse side to this is where, all too often, in all religious sincerity, we not only don’t invite certain others in, we positively close the gates on them. We see that, for example, a number of times in the Gospels where those around Jesus block others from having access to him, as is the case in that rather colorful story where some people are trying to bring a paralytic to Jesus but are blocked by the crowds surrounding him and consequently have to make a hole in the roof in order to lower the paralytic into Jesus’ presence.
Too frequently, unknowingly, sincerely, but blindly, we are that crowd around Jesus, blocking access to him by our presence. This is an occupational danger especially for all of us who are in ministry. We so easily, in all sincerity, in the name of Christ, in the name of orthodox theology, and in the name of sound pastoral practice set ourselves up as gatekeepers, as guardians of our churches, through whom others must pass in order to have access to God. We need to more clearly remember that Christ is the gatekeeper, and the only gatekeeper, and we need to refresh ourselves on what that means by looking at why Jesus chased the moneychangers out of the temple in John’s Gospel. They, the moneychangers, had set themselves up as a medium through which people has to pass in order to offer workshop to God. Jesus would have none of it.
Our mission as disciples of Jesus is not to be gatekeepers. We need instead to work at closing the distance rather than closing the gate.
Contemplation in Action: Week 2
This is the 2nd part of the article by Fr Richard Rohr OFM. The 1st part appeared on the 26th Sunday of the Year. You can subscribe to receive the daily email by clicking here
Thy Kingdom Come
Shane Claiborne is a young friend of mine and a living
example of the integration of action and contemplation. Shane is a founding
partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner-city Philadelphia that
has helped birth and connect radical faith communities around the world. These
“new monastic” communities seek to follow Jesus, to rediscover the spirit of
the early Church, and to embody the Kingdom of God on earth. [1] Today, I’d
like to give you a taste of his thoughts on contemplation in action:
There’s something powerful that happens when we can connect
our faith with the pain of our world. We are concerned not just with going to
heaven when we die, but with bringing God’s kingdom down here. That means
figuring out how we can be a part of the restoration of our world. As we look
at our neighborhood, what does it mean for us to pray the Lord’s Prayer, that
God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven? We pray and act for that every
day because we believe that God’s kingdom is coming and we want it to come.
There’s a movement in the church to marry action and
contemplation, to connect orthodoxy and orthopraxis. We’re not throwing out the
things we believe, but we’re also focusing on practices that work out those
beliefs. In the past few decades Christianity has primarily been about what we
believe. But in Jesus we see an invitation to join our actions with a movement
rather than ideas and doctrine.
I’m hopeful because people have grown tired of a Christianity
that can say what it believes on paper but doesn’t have anything to show with
our lives. Ideologies and doctrines aren’t easy things to love. That’s why I
think we need to lift up examples of people who have joined their faith and
action, folks like Francis and Clare of Assisi. Mother Teresa has also been a
hero of mine.
What I love about Mother Teresa is that her life was her
witness. She wasn’t a champion of unborn children because she wore a t-shirt
that said “Abortion Is Murder,” but because she welcomed mothers and children.
In essence, she said, “If you can’t raise your child, we’ll do it together.”
That’s the kind of embodiment that comes as we seek to marry our beliefs to our
actions. As Brian McLaren says, “It’s not just are we pro-life or pro-choice,
but how are we pro-active?” Are we willing to take responsibility for our
ideologies? In my neighborhood that means we’ve got to care for a
fourteen-year-old girl and her child together.
Mother Teresa’s message was, “Calcutta is everywhere, if we
only have eyes to see.” Pray that God would help us see our own Calcutta: the
pain, poverty, loneliness, and ostracizing that happens all over. Each of us
encounters situations that demand both prayer and activism. Pray that God would
give us the eyes to see the pain of our neighborhoods.
References:
[1] For more about Shane Claiborne see his books The
Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical (Zondervan: 2006) and
Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals (Zondervan: 2008) and visit
thesimpleway.org/about/.
Adapted from Shane Claiborne, When Action Meets
Contemplation, disc 1 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2010), MP3
download.
The Balancing Point
Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the
world. —Archimedes
Archimedes (c. 287–c. 212 BC), a Greek philosopher and
mathematician, noticed that if a lever was balanced in the correct place, on
the correct fulcrum, it could move proportionally much greater weight than the
force applied. Archimedes imagined a fixed point, the fulcrum, in space. If the
Earth rested on the short end of a lever, close to the fulcrum, and Archimedes
was pulling down on the other extremely long end of the lever, then
theoretically his small weight would be multiplied enough to move the world.
The fixed point is our place to stand. It is a contemplative
stance: steady, centered, poised, and rooted. To be contemplative, we have to
have a slight distance from the world—we have to allow time for withdrawal from
business as usual, for meditation, for going into what Jesus calls “our private
room” (Matthew 6:6). However, in order for this not to become escapism, we have
to remain quite close to the world at the same time, loving it, feeling its
pain and its joy as our pain and our joy. So the fulcrum, that balancing point,
must be in the real world.
True contemplation, all the great masters say, is really
quite down to earth and practical and does not require life in a monastery. It
is, however, an utterly different way of receiving the moment, and therefore
all of life. In order to have the capacity to “move the world,” we ironically
need some distancing and detachment from the diversionary nature and delusions
of mass culture and false self. Contemplation builds on the hard ground of
reality—as it is—without ideology, denial, or fantasy.
Some degree of inner experience is necessary for true
spiritual authority, but we need some form of outer validation, too. We need to
be taken seriously as competent and committed individuals and not just “inner”
people. Could this perhaps be what Jesus means by being both “wise as serpents
and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16)? God offers us quiet, contemplative
eyes, but God also calls us to prophetic and critical involvement in the pain
and sufferings of our world—both at the same time. This is so obvious in the
life and ministry of Jesus that I wonder why it has not been taught as an
essential part of Christianity.
And so the cycle of life and prayer begins. And you are
never sure which is feeding which, or whether it is action or contemplation
that comes first. They live through one another, and neither of them can exist
healthily by themselves. But finally you will have both your lever (your action
or delivery system) and your prayerful place to stand. From there, you can move
your bit of the world, because you are being moved yourself inside a Much
Larger Flow and Dance.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Dancing Standing Still: Healing
the World from a Place of Prayer (Paulist Press: 2014), 5-8.
A Hidden Wholeness
Charles Péguy (1873–1914), French poet and essayist, wrote
with great insight that “everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics.”
[1] Everything new and creative in this world puts together things that don’t
look like they go together at all but always have been connected at a deeper
level. Spirituality’s goal is to get people to that deeper level, to the
unified field or nondual thinking, where God alone can hold contradictions and
paradox.
When people ask me which is the more important, action or
contemplation, I know it is an impossible question to answer because they are
eternally united in one embrace, two sides of one coin. So I say that action is
not the important word, nor is contemplation; and is the important word! How do
you put the two together? I am seventy-four now and I’m still working on it!
The dance of action and contemplation is an art form that will take your entire
life to master. Like Moses at the burning bush, many of us begin with a
mystical moment and end with social action or what looks like politics. But it
also works in the other direction. Some start by diving into the pain of the
world and that drives them toward their need for God.
Unfortunately, too often Christianity has focused on one or
the other. But there are some masterful teachers who emphasize the integration
of action and contemplation. One of these was John Main (1926–1982), a
Benedictine monk. He taught the necessary fixed point, the place to stand,
which for him was the stability of the mantra and the disciplined practice of
twice-daily formal meditation. And from that daily practice flowed action. [2]
Though he didn’t talk directly about social or political
issues, Main drew attention to our basic distractibility and superficiality. In
this he was a prophet, seeing to the depth of things. He spoke from a place of
critical distance from the illusions of this world, and in that way his words
have weight and substance.
People like John Main and Thomas Merton continue to have a
tremendous impact—even though each was just a single human being—because their
vision was both radically critical of consumer culture and also in love with
God and the world. They overcame the seeming tension and found underneath it a
unified field. Merton called this the “hidden wholeness” [3] and it is what
Lady Julian of Norwich saw when she looked at a single hazelnut and understood,
“It is all that is made.” [4] She is either delusional or seeing what most of
us do not see. Mystics always see in wholes.
References:
[1] Charles Péguy, Notre Jeunesse (Paris: Cahiers de la
Quinzaine, 1910), 27. Original text: “Tout commence en mystique et finit en
politique.”
[2] John Main, John Main: Essential Writings, ed. Laurence
Freeman (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002).
[3] Thomas Merton, “Hagia Sophia: Dawn.” See Thomas Merton,
In the Dark Before Dawn: New Selected Poems of Thomas Merton, ed. Lynn R. Szabo
(New York: New Directions, 2005), 65.
[4] Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, chapter
5.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Dancing Standing Still: Healing
the World from a Place of Prayer (Paulist Press: 2014), 6, 11.
Electric Circuits
Moses’ experience of the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-6) links
action and contemplation as the very starting place of the Judeo-Christian
tradition. His encounter is surely an inner one, but it immediately drives him
outwardly, as deep inner experience tends to do. It is a transcendent
experience, yet note that it is based in nature rather than a synagogue or
temple. Often it is in the open spaces of the natural world that the inner
world is most obviously recognized, as the Desert Fathers and Mothers and
Celtic Christianity remind us.
Immediately after Moses had his heart-stopping experience,
YHWH said to him: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt.
Now, go! Tell Pharaoh to let my people go” (Exodus 3:7, 10). God gives Moses an
experience of an unnamable Presence, and it has immediate practical—and in this
case socio-political—implications and direction. Rather than invite Moses to
worship or attend a church service, God says, “Go make a difference, Moses!”
The fire burned for him, then in him, and finally through
him.
The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is another example
of inner conversion leading to outer service of others. In Bill Wilson’s
twelfth step, alcoholics learn that they will never really come to appropriate
the power and importance of the first eleven steps until they personally take
it upon themselves to give it away to at least one other person. This necessary
reciprocity is an essential hook from which too many Christians have released
themselves and we all have suffered because of it. In avoiding their need to
pay back, many Christians have lost whatever they might have gained in their
private devotions.
Love is like an electric circuit; it can never flow in just
one direction.
If I have grown at all in my decades as a priest, it’s in
part through this role of being a preacher and teacher. I have had to stand
before crowds for years and describe what I thought I believed, and then I
often had to ask myself, “Do I really believe that myself?” And in my attempt
to communicate it, I usually found that I’d only scratched the surface of my
own understanding. In sharing what you have experienced and learned, you really
own the Gospel message beyond what you ever imagined.
In giving away you are recharged.
Regardless of our different political opinions and values,
we must admit that the tenor of public and even private discourse in America is
often infantile and usually dualistic. Yet many people know of no other way of
thinking. No one told them about the wonderful alternative, a third way beyond
fight or flight. This tells me that Christianity has not been presenting the
Gospel in a way that really changes people. Meditation makes it almost
inevitable that your politics will change, the way you spend your time is going
to be called into question, and any snug socioeconomic perspective will be
slowly taken away from you.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Dancing Standing Still: Healing
the World from a Place of Prayer (Paulist Press: 2014), 12-14, 18.
From Being Driven to
Being Drawn
When I was a young man, I liked ideas and books quite a lot,
and I still read a great deal. But each time I come back from a long hermitage
retreat, I have no desire to read a book for the next few weeks or even months.
For a while I know there is nothing in any book that is going to be better,
more truthful, or more solid than what I have just experienced on the cellular,
heart, and soul level.
If you asked me what it is I know, I would be hard pressed
to tell you. All I know is that there is a deep “okayness” to life—despite all
the contradictions—which has become even more evident in the silence. Even when
much is terrible, seemingly contradictory, unjust, and inconsistent, somehow
sadness and joy are able to coexist at the same time. The negative value of
things no longer cancels out the positive, nor does the positive deny the
negative.
Whatever your personal calling or your delivery system for the
world, it must proceed from a foundational “yes” to life. Your necessary “no”
to injustice and all forms of un-love will actually become even clearer and
more urgent in the silence, but now your work has a chance of being God’s pure
healing instead of impure anger and agenda. You can feel the difference in
people who are working for causes; so many works of social justice have been
undone by people who do all the fighting from their small or angry selves
If your prayer goes deep, your whole view of the world will
change from fear and reaction to deep and positive connection—because you don’t
live inside a fragile and encapsulated self anymore. In meditation, you are
moving from ego consciousness to soul awareness, from being driven by negative
motivations to being drawn from a positive source within.
Through a consistent practice of contemplative prayer you
will find yourself thinking much more in terms of both/and rather than
either/or. This is what enables mystics and saints to forgive, to let go of
hurts, to be compassionate, and even to love their enemies.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Dancing Standing Still: Healing
the World from a Place of Prayer (Paulist Press: 2014), 17-18, 22.
The Great Turning
Contemplation is no fantasy, make-believe, or daydream, but
the flowering of patience and steady perseverance. When we look at the world
today, we may well ask whether it can be transformed on the global or even
personal level. Our hope lies in the fact that an authentic inner life is going
to change the society that we live in, just as we allow it to change us. God
seems to patiently participate with us and kindly invite us into a long-term
process of growth. Love and life are infinite.
I know the situation in the world can seem dark today. We
are seeing theological regression into fundamentalist religions which believe
all issues can be resolved by an appeal to authority (hierarchy or Scripture)
and so there is no need for an inner life of prayer. In the United States we
have seen the rolling back of a compassionate economic system and the
abandonment of our biblical responsibility for the poor, the sick, and
refugees. Fear and anger seem to rule our politics and our churches. We see
these same things in many parts of the world.
The negative forces are very strong, and the development of
consciousness and love sometimes feels very weak. But a “Great Turning” is also
happening, as believed and described in many ways by such people as Teilhard de
Chardin, Thomas Berry, Joanna Macy, and David Korten. There is a deep
relationship between the inner revolution of prayer and the transformation of
social structures and social consciousness.
The Apostle Paul has a marvelous line: “where sin increased,
grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). In so many places, there are signs
of the Holy Spirit working at all levels of society. The church might well have
done its work as leaven because much of this reform, enlightenment, compassion,
and healing is now happening outside the bounds of organized religion. Only God
gets the credit.
The toothpaste is out of the tube. There are enough people
who know the big picture of Jesus’ thrilling and alluring vision of the reign
of God that this Great Turning cannot be stopped. There are enough people going
on solid inner journeys that it is not merely ideological or theoretical
anymore. This is a positive, nonviolent reformation from the inside, from the
bottom up. The big questions are being answered at a peaceful and foundational
level, with no need to oppose, deny, or reject. I sense the urgency of the Holy
Spirit, with over seven billion humans on the planet. There is so much to love
and so much suffering to share in and heal.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Dancing Standing Still: Healing
the World from a Place of Prayer (Paulist Press: 2014), 100-102.
How to read the Gospel of Luke
The Feast of St Luke occured on 18 October – why do we read the gospel that bears his name? Perhaps it is to make more sense of the readings we hear at Mass; to deepen our knowledge of our Christian faith; or to experience a masterpiece of world literature and to savour its narrative. Peter Edmonds SJ suggests a way for us to approach our encounter with Jesus and his story in Luke’s Gospel.
No matter what our reasons for reading the Gospel of Luke may be, our preparation begins by familiarising ourselves with its author. How might we do this?
The Feast of St Luke occured on 18 October – why do we read the gospel that bears his name? Perhaps it is to make more sense of the readings we hear at Mass; to deepen our knowledge of our Christian faith; or to experience a masterpiece of world literature and to savour its narrative. Peter Edmonds SJ suggests a way for us to approach our encounter with Jesus and his story in Luke’s Gospel.
No matter what our reasons for reading the Gospel of Luke may be, our preparation begins by familiarising ourselves with its author. How might we do this?
We let Paul introduce Luke
One way is to allow Saint Paul to introduce the gospel’s author to us. Three times in letters attributed to him, Paul writes of a person called Luke whom Christian tradition has identified with the author of the gospel which bears this name, and of the Acts of the Apostles, which continues its narrative. The references are few and brief but we can use them to build up a picture of the sort of person Luke could have been. In the Letter to Philemon, the shortest of his letters, Paul refers to Luke as his ‘fellow worker’ (Philemon 1:24). In the Letter to the Colossians, he describes a companion called Luke as ‘the beloved physician’ (Colossians 4:14). In his Second Letter to Timothy, he reports that Luke is the only one to keep him company in his prison confinement (2 Timothy 4:11). From these verses, we may conclude that this Luke was an individual who embodied in himself the virtues of friendship and fellowship, hard work and perseverance, healing and compassion – qualities we look for in a saint. Additionally, as author of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke seems to refer to himself as one who accompanied Paul in his missionary travels. He writes for example: ‘When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia. . . We set sail from Troas. . . One day as we were going to the place of prayer. . .’ (Acts 16:10-17 – emphases added).
You can find the rest of this article by clicking here
One way is to allow Saint Paul to introduce the gospel’s author to us. Three times in letters attributed to him, Paul writes of a person called Luke whom Christian tradition has identified with the author of the gospel which bears this name, and of the Acts of the Apostles, which continues its narrative. The references are few and brief but we can use them to build up a picture of the sort of person Luke could have been. In the Letter to Philemon, the shortest of his letters, Paul refers to Luke as his ‘fellow worker’ (Philemon 1:24). In the Letter to the Colossians, he describes a companion called Luke as ‘the beloved physician’ (Colossians 4:14). In his Second Letter to Timothy, he reports that Luke is the only one to keep him company in his prison confinement (2 Timothy 4:11). From these verses, we may conclude that this Luke was an individual who embodied in himself the virtues of friendship and fellowship, hard work and perseverance, healing and compassion – qualities we look for in a saint. Additionally, as author of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke seems to refer to himself as one who accompanied Paul in his missionary travels. He writes for example: ‘When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia. . . We set sail from Troas. . . One day as we were going to the place of prayer. . .’ (Acts 16:10-17 – emphases added).
You can find the rest of this article by clicking here
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