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.
Weekday Masses 31st October - 3rd November, 2017
Tuesday: NO Mass
Ministry Rosters 4th & 5th November, 2017
Piety Shop 4th Nov:
H Thompson 5th Nov: P Piccolo
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
PREGO REFLECTION:
With love, and aware of my own desire to be closer to God,
I find some time to step aside from the busyness of my thoughts and of daily
life.
It might help my prayer to light a candle or to listen to music … or
perhaps to the sound of silence or nature around me.
Eventually I become still
and settle in silence before God.
I read the Gospel slowly and try to picture
the scene unfolding.
Why do the Pharisees want to disconcert Jesus?
What is it
about his teaching and approach that they find such a threat?
Can I understand
their fears?
I read the Gospel again.
Perhaps I imagine seeing Jesus looking
deeply into the hearts of the Pharisees and sharing with them the truth of the
greatest commandment.
Now I imagine it is me asking Jesus this question.
I see
Jesus looking deeply into the centre of my being, seeing me as I truly am.
How
do I respond to his words to me: ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your
heart, soul and mind …’?
Can I love God in this way?
I ponder if there is
something in my life that holds me back from loving God like this.
I talk to
Jesus about it, trusting that he will understand.
I ask Jesus: who is my
neighbour?
With whom does God want me to share his love?
I listen.
I slowly end
my prayer asking for the grace to love as Jesus loved ... and with Jesus I say,
‘Our Father …’
Readings next week Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year A
First Reading: Malachi 1:14- 2:2. 8-10
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9. 13
Gospel: Matthew
23:1-12
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 25th
– 31st October
Weekly
Ramblings
This weekend I’m starting my Ramblings with a little ad.
Over the next six months we are looking at forming a new style of Parish
Pastoral Team. I invite you to pray that we can discern the right people to be
part of this process. Over the next two weeks more information will be provided
as we invite all parishioners to assist us in the process of -
Two special events will be
happening during this coming week.
- On Thursday evening we will be
celebrating our Annual Mass of Remembrance for those who have died during
the past twelve months. This is an opportunity for us to pray for all
those who were special and dear to us. The Mass is at 7.00pm at Sacred
Heart Church, Ulverstone.
- Then on Friday evening we will
have our final Open House for 2017. It starts at 6.30pm and continues
until … and is held at the Parish House in Devonport. All food and drinks
are supplied – ALL WELCOME.
The Parish has a new email address – merseyleven@aohtas.org.au. The
‘aohtas’ is short for Archdiocese of Hobart, Tasmania so the address should be
easy to remember. Could you please remove the previous address from your email
client – or just ring or send a letter as you normally do!!!
Thank you for supporting this year’s Catholic Mission
Church Appeal through your kind gifts and prayers – for joining in Jesus’
life-giving mission supporting women and children’s health in Uganda and around
the world. Your generosity makes it possible for local missionaries like Sister
Mary Goretti to provide essential services for women and children in their time
of need. We invite you to consider partnering with us through a regular monthly
gift and continuing your support of this life-giving work of mission. Freecall:
1800 257 296 catholicmission.org.au/uganda
KNIGHTS OF
THE SOUTHERN CROSS: meeting this Sunday 29th October, Parish Hall Devonport
starting 4pm.
OLOL
READERS ROSTER: will be available at OLOL Church sacristy
from Saturday 4th November.
MT ST
VINCENT AUXILIARY:
The Auxiliary will be holding a Cake and Craft stall after
9am Mass Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone Sunday 5th November.
DAME ENID LYONS TRUST FUNDRAISING FILM NIGHT: CMAX Devonport Thursday 9th November:
Film “Murder on the Orient Express” 7pm. Food and refreshments 6:15pm. Cost $20
per ticket. Tickets available from Toni Muir, Mary Davies, Maureen Clarke or
Devonport City Council. History of Dame Enid Lyons Trust on noticeboard plus
film flyer.
- Wednesday 29th November
2017: St Brendan-Shaw College Year 12 Graduation Mass and Dinner.
- 22nd January 2018:
St Brendan-Shaw College Office opens.
- 1st February 2018:
Term 1 commences for years 7, 11 & 12 (Years 8, 9 & 10 commence 2nd
February) - St Brendan-Shaw College.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall,
Devonport.
Eyes down 7.30pm!
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
STAR OF THE SEA CATHOLIC COLLEGE 60th ANNIVERSARY:
ACOLYTE FORMATION & TRAINING – 6:30pm November 6th,
13th & 20th.
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
Amen.
Weekday Masses 31st October - 3rd November, 2017
Tuesday: NO Mass
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe … All Saints
12noon Devonport
7:00pm Ulverstone
Thursday: 12noon Devonport … All Souls
7:00pm Ulverstone
Friday: 9:30am
Ulverstone
5:00pm Latrobe
Next Weekend 4th & 5th November, 2017
Saturday Mass: 9:30am Ulverstone
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
Ministry Rosters 4th & 5th November, 2017
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: V Riley, A Stegmann, M Stewart 10:30am: E Petts, K Douglas, B Suckling
Ministers of Communion: Vigil:
D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P Shelverton
10.30am: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S Arrowsmith, S Samarakkody,
R Batepola
Cleaners. 3rd Nov: M.W.C. 10th Nov: K.S.C.
Piety Shop 4th Nov:
H Thompson 5th Nov: P Piccolo
Mowing of Lawns Parish House - October: O McGinley
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: R Locket
Ministers of
Communion: M Murray, J Pisarskis, C Harvey, P Grech
Cleaners: B & V McCall, G Doyle Flowers: C Mapley Hospitality:
T Good Team
Penguin:
Greeters: G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator:
Readers: M & D Hiscutt Ministers of Communion: E Nickols, T Clayton Liturgy: Penguin
Setting Up: E Nickols Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols
Latrobe:
Reader: H Lim Ministers of Communion: M Eden, Z Smith Procession: Parishioners
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
PREGO REFLECTION:
With love, and aware of my own desire to be closer to God,
I find some time to step aside from the busyness of my thoughts and of daily
life.
It might help my prayer to light a candle or to listen to music … or perhaps to the sound of silence or nature around me.
Eventually I become still and settle in silence before God.
I read the Gospel slowly and try to picture the scene unfolding.
Why do the Pharisees want to disconcert Jesus?
What is it about his teaching and approach that they find such a threat?
Can I understand their fears?
I read the Gospel again.
Perhaps I imagine seeing Jesus looking deeply into the hearts of the Pharisees and sharing with them the truth of the greatest commandment.
Now I imagine it is me asking Jesus this question.
I see Jesus looking deeply into the centre of my being, seeing me as I truly am.
How do I respond to his words to me: ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind …’?
Can I love God in this way?
I ponder if there is something in my life that holds me back from loving God like this.
I talk to Jesus about it, trusting that he will understand.
I ask Jesus: who is my neighbour?
With whom does God want me to share his love?
I listen.
I slowly end my prayer asking for the grace to love as Jesus loved ... and with Jesus I say, ‘Our Father …’
It might help my prayer to light a candle or to listen to music … or perhaps to the sound of silence or nature around me.
Eventually I become still and settle in silence before God.
I read the Gospel slowly and try to picture the scene unfolding.
Why do the Pharisees want to disconcert Jesus?
What is it about his teaching and approach that they find such a threat?
Can I understand their fears?
I read the Gospel again.
Perhaps I imagine seeing Jesus looking deeply into the hearts of the Pharisees and sharing with them the truth of the greatest commandment.
Now I imagine it is me asking Jesus this question.
I see Jesus looking deeply into the centre of my being, seeing me as I truly am.
How do I respond to his words to me: ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind …’?
Can I love God in this way?
I ponder if there is something in my life that holds me back from loving God like this.
I talk to Jesus about it, trusting that he will understand.
I ask Jesus: who is my neighbour?
With whom does God want me to share his love?
I listen.
I slowly end my prayer asking for the grace to love as Jesus loved ... and with Jesus I say, ‘Our Father …’
Readings next week Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year A
First Reading: Malachi 1:14- 2:2. 8-10
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9. 13
Gospel: Matthew
23:1-12
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Joseph Kiely, Matthew Gough, Allan Pearson,
Romeo Gayo, Margaret Kenney, Victoria Webb, David Welch, Dawn Stevens
& …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Rosalinda Reyes, Bruce
Beard, Neville Parker, Efren Menalabag, John Novaski, Viv Crocker, Peter McCormick, Josefina Turnbull, Betty
Lewis, Beverley Ravanelli, Vern Cazaly.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 25th
– 31st October
David
Murray, Paul McNamara, Brenda Wyatt, Lawrence McGuire, Margaret Doody, Bernard
P. Marshall,
Cyril
Allford and Dorothy Newland.
May they rest in peace
Weekly
Ramblings
This weekend I’m starting my Ramblings with a little ad.
Over the next six months we are looking at forming a new style of Parish
Pastoral Team. I invite you to pray that we can discern the right people to be
part of this process. Over the next two weeks more information will be provided
as we invite all parishioners to assist us in the process of -
Forming a Parish Pastoral Team (PPT) for Mersey Leven
Mersey Leven Parish is a vibrant Catholic community,
unified in its commitment to making disciples for Christ.
The Parish Pastoral Team (PPT) serves the parish and its
people by exercising a leadership role in the realisation of the parish
vision.
The PPT is responsible for setting directions for the
parish, and then supporting, encouraging and enabling our Parishioners in making things happen.
Members of the PPT are people who want to be ‘on the bus’. They are passionate about our vision, and
are willing and able to be active participants in a team which leads and
supports others on the journey.
Two special events will be
happening during this coming week.
- On Thursday evening we will be
celebrating our Annual Mass of Remembrance for those who have died during
the past twelve months. This is an opportunity for us to pray for all
those who were special and dear to us. The Mass is at 7.00pm at Sacred
Heart Church, Ulverstone.
- Then on Friday evening we will
have our final Open House for 2017. It starts at 6.30pm and continues
until … and is held at the Parish House in Devonport. All food and drinks
are supplied – ALL WELCOME.
The Parish has a new email address – merseyleven@aohtas.org.au. The
‘aohtas’ is short for Archdiocese of Hobart, Tasmania so the address should be
easy to remember. Could you please remove the previous address from your email
client – or just ring or send a letter as you normally do!!!
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
Thank you for supporting this year’s Catholic Mission
Church Appeal through your kind gifts and prayers – for joining in Jesus’
life-giving mission supporting women and children’s health in Uganda and around
the world. Your generosity makes it possible for local missionaries like Sister
Mary Goretti to provide essential services for women and children in their time
of need. We invite you to consider partnering with us through a regular monthly
gift and continuing your support of this life-giving work of mission. Freecall:
1800 257 296 catholicmission.org.au/uganda
KNIGHTS OF
THE SOUTHERN CROSS: meeting this Sunday 29th October, Parish Hall Devonport
starting 4pm.
OLOL
READERS ROSTER: will be available at OLOL Church sacristy
from Saturday 4th November.
MT ST
VINCENT AUXILIARY:
The Auxiliary will be holding a Cake and Craft stall after
9am Mass Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone Sunday 5th November.
DAME ENID LYONS TRUST FUNDRAISING FILM NIGHT: CMAX Devonport Thursday 9th November:
Film “Murder on the Orient Express” 7pm. Food and refreshments 6:15pm. Cost $20
per ticket. Tickets available from Toni Muir, Mary Davies, Maureen Clarke or
Devonport City Council. History of Dame Enid Lyons Trust on noticeboard plus
film flyer.
- Wednesday 29th November 2017: St Brendan-Shaw College Year 12 Graduation Mass and Dinner.
- 22nd January 2018: St Brendan-Shaw College Office opens.
- 1st February 2018: Term 1 commences for years 7, 11 & 12 (Years 8, 9 & 10 commence 2nd February) - St Brendan-Shaw College.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall,
Devonport.
Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers for Thursday 2nd November
– Tony Ryan & Graeme Rigney.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
STAR OF THE SEA CATHOLIC COLLEGE 60th ANNIVERSARY:
Star of the Sea Catholic College, George Town, is
celebrating its 60th Anniversary this year. To celebrate, the school is holding
a Cocktail Evening at 7:30pm for past staff and students on Friday 10th
November, a Family Fun Day from 12 - 4pm on Saturday 11th November, and a Mass
of Thanksgiving at 11:00am on Sunday 12th November. Star of the Sea warmly
welcomes past staff, students and families to any of the events. For more
information, please contact the College on 6382:1242 or search for
the Star of the Sea 60th Anniversary Facebook page.
ACOLYTE FORMATION & TRAINING – 6:30pm November 6th,
13th & 20th.
The Acolyte is instituted for service at the altar, to
assist the priest and deacon and, if needed, distribute Holy Communion to the
faithful both inside and outside the celebration of the Mass. Responding to a
large number of enquiries the Liturgy Office will offer a program of training
and formation to prospective and presently serving Acolytes in November. The
program for the Southern parishes will be offered over 3 sessions at St Mary’s
Cathedral Parish Centre and will provide pastoral, spiritual and liturgical
guidelines, and practical training. Those completing the course of instruction
and petitioning for institution as acolytes will be asked to provide evidence
of baptism and a signed note of endorsement by their Parish Priest. Register your interest at liturgy@aohtas.org.au
<mailto:liturgy@aohtas.org.au Enquiries: 03 6208:6034
DATES FOR
YOUR DIARY
3rd Nov: 6:30pm Open House – Devonport
13th- 17th
Nov: Diocesan Retreat – Maryknoll
26th Nov: 11am Whole of Parish Mass - Ulverstone.
3rd Dec: 2-4pm Parish Forum – Ulverstone
KATHLEEN DOWLING SINGH, RIP
Taken from an article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original article can be found here
No community should botch its deaths. That’s a wise statement from Mircea Eliade and apropos in the face of the death two weeks ago of Kathleen Dowling Singh. Kathleen was a hospice worker, a psychotherapist, and a very deep and influential spiritual writer.
She is known and deeply respected among those who write and teach in the area of spirituality on the strength of three major books: The Grace in Living; The Grace in Aging, and The Grace in Dying. Interestingly, she worked backwards in writing this trilogy, beginning with dying, moving on to aging, and finally offering a reflection on living. And she did this because her grounding insights were taken from her experience as a hospice worker, attending to terminally ill patients. From what she learned from being with and observing the dying taught her a lot about what it means to age and, ultimately, what it means of live. Her books try to highlight the deep grace that’s inherent in each of these stages in our lives: living, aging, dying.
I want to highlight here particularly the insights from her initial book, The Grace in Dying. Outside of scripture and some classical mystics, I have not found as deep a spiritual understanding of what God and nature intend in the process we go through in dying, particularly as is seen in someone who dies from old age or a terminal illness.
Singh encapsulates her thesis in one poignant line: The process of death is exquisitely calibrated to bring us into the realm of spirit. There’s a wisdom in the death process. Here’s how it works:
During our whole lives our self-consciousness radically limits our awareness, effectively closing off from our awareness much of the realm of spirit. But that’s not how we were born. As a baby, we are wonderfully open and aware, except, lacking self-consciousness, an ego, we aren’t aware of what we are aware. A baby is luminous, but a baby can’t think. In order to think it needs to form an ego, become self-aware, and, according to Singh, the formation of that ego, the condition for self-awareness, is predicated on each of us making four massive mental contractions, each of which closes off some of our awareness of the world of spirit.
We form our egos this way: First, early on in a baby’s life, it makes a distinction between what is self and what is other. That’s the first major contraction. Soon afterwards, the baby makes a distinction between living and non-living; a puppy is alive, a stone is not. Sometime after that, a baby makes a distinction between mind and body; a body is solid and physical in a way that the mind is not. Finally, early on too in our lives, we make a distinction between what we can face inside of ourselves and what’s too frightening to face. We separate our own luminosity and complexity from our conscious awareness, forming what’s often called our shadow. Each of these movements effectively shuts off whole realms of reality from our awareness. By doing that, Singh says, we create own fear of death.
Now, and this is Singh’s pregnant insight, the process of aging and dying effectively breaks down these contractions, breaking them down in reverse order of how we formed them, and, with each breakdown, we are more aware again of a wider realm of reality, particularly the realm of spirit. And this culminates in the last moments or seconds before our death in the experience of ecstasy, observable in many terminal patients as they die. As the last contraction that formed our ego is broken, spirit breaks through and we break into ecstasy. As a hospice worker, Singh claims to have seen this many times in her patients.
Elizabeth Kubler Ross, in what has now virtually become the canon on how we understand the stages of dying, suggested that someone diagnosed with a terminal disease will go through five stages before his or her death: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. Singh would agree with that, except that she would add three more stages: A fall into darkness that verges on despair; a resignation that dwarfs our initial acceptance, and an in-breaking of ecstasy. She points out that Jesus went through those exact stages on the cross: a cry of abandonment that sounds like despair, the handing over of his spirit, and the ecstasy that was given him in his death
Singh’s insight is a very consoling one. The process of dying will do for us what a deep life of prayer and selflessness was meant to do for us, namely, break our selfishness and open us to the realm of spirit. God will get us, one way or the other.
We’ve lost a great woman and a great spiritual writer. Her children, writing on Facebook after her death, said simply that their mother would want us all to know that “she was an ordinary person dying an ordinary death.” But the spiritual legacy she left us is far from ordinary.
A Creed for Rebuilders
Let’s end this week on a hopeful note. Let us, as St.
Francis said, begin again. Allow the following creed to inspire your efforts to
rebuild from the bottom up. I invite you to read it as lectio divina. With the
first reading, listen with your heart’s ear for a phrase or word that stands
out for you. During the second reading, reflect on what touches you, perhaps
speaking that response aloud or writing in a journal. After reading the passage
a third time, respond with a prayer or expression of what you have experienced
and what it calls you to. Finally, rest in silence after a fourth reading.
We believe in one Triune God. “There is one Body, one
Spirit, one and the same hope . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
who is Father of all, over all, through all, and within all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).
We believe that our individual lives and our personal growth
are for the sake of the generations to come after and built on the faith and
the bones of those who have gone ahead of us.
We believe that we must build on the positive, on what we
love. Creative and life energies come from belief and from commitment. Critics
must first be believers who have learned how to say an ultimate yes.
We agree to bear the burden and the grace of our past. We
agree to honor what is, including even the broken things of life: ourselves,
church, state, and all institutions. Their dark side is a necessary teacher.
We are committed to building a world of meaning and hope. We
recognize the clear need for prophetic deconstruction of all idolatries that
make the worship of God impossible. True rebuilding must follow this temporary
but necessary un-building.
We believe in a personal universe where the divine image
shines through all created things. It is therefore an “enchanted universe”
where we can always live in reverence and even adoration before the good, the
true, and the beautiful.
Along with St. Paul in Colossians (1:15-20), as Christians,
we believe that Jesus Christ is the clearest image of the unseen God. In him
all things cohere, all opposites are overcome. He is the head of the living
body, the One in whom all things are reconciled and overcome.
Reference:
Jesus: Who Do You Think You Are?
This article, by Fr Nicholas King SJ, is from the ThinkingFaith.com website. You can read the complete article by clicking here
When you know something about where people are coming from, you can understand them a bit better. Matthew starts his version of the Jesus-story with a selective list of Jesus’s ancestors, presumably as a way of advancing the narrative by hint and innuendo. He has a degree of freedom in handling the matter, since at this point he was not following the model laid down for him by Mark’s Gospel; and so we imagine that he is telling us something quite deliberate when he chooses to begin the story with his genealogy.
This whole of this article by Nicholas King SJ, a tutor in Biblical Studies at the University of Oxford, can be found by clicking here
DATES FOR
YOUR DIARY
3rd Nov: 6:30pm Open House – Devonport
13th- 17th
Nov: Diocesan Retreat – Maryknoll
26th Nov: 11am Whole of Parish Mass - Ulverstone.
3rd Dec: 2-4pm Parish Forum – Ulverstone
KATHLEEN DOWLING SINGH, RIP
Taken from an article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original article can be found here
No community should botch its deaths. That’s a wise statement from Mircea Eliade and apropos in the face of the death two weeks ago of Kathleen Dowling Singh. Kathleen was a hospice worker, a psychotherapist, and a very deep and influential spiritual writer.
She is known and deeply respected among those who write and teach in the area of spirituality on the strength of three major books: The Grace in Living; The Grace in Aging, and The Grace in Dying. Interestingly, she worked backwards in writing this trilogy, beginning with dying, moving on to aging, and finally offering a reflection on living. And she did this because her grounding insights were taken from her experience as a hospice worker, attending to terminally ill patients. From what she learned from being with and observing the dying taught her a lot about what it means to age and, ultimately, what it means of live. Her books try to highlight the deep grace that’s inherent in each of these stages in our lives: living, aging, dying.
I want to highlight here particularly the insights from her initial book, The Grace in Dying. Outside of scripture and some classical mystics, I have not found as deep a spiritual understanding of what God and nature intend in the process we go through in dying, particularly as is seen in someone who dies from old age or a terminal illness.
Singh encapsulates her thesis in one poignant line: The process of death is exquisitely calibrated to bring us into the realm of spirit. There’s a wisdom in the death process. Here’s how it works:
During our whole lives our self-consciousness radically limits our awareness, effectively closing off from our awareness much of the realm of spirit. But that’s not how we were born. As a baby, we are wonderfully open and aware, except, lacking self-consciousness, an ego, we aren’t aware of what we are aware. A baby is luminous, but a baby can’t think. In order to think it needs to form an ego, become self-aware, and, according to Singh, the formation of that ego, the condition for self-awareness, is predicated on each of us making four massive mental contractions, each of which closes off some of our awareness of the world of spirit.
We form our egos this way: First, early on in a baby’s life, it makes a distinction between what is self and what is other. That’s the first major contraction. Soon afterwards, the baby makes a distinction between living and non-living; a puppy is alive, a stone is not. Sometime after that, a baby makes a distinction between mind and body; a body is solid and physical in a way that the mind is not. Finally, early on too in our lives, we make a distinction between what we can face inside of ourselves and what’s too frightening to face. We separate our own luminosity and complexity from our conscious awareness, forming what’s often called our shadow. Each of these movements effectively shuts off whole realms of reality from our awareness. By doing that, Singh says, we create own fear of death.
Now, and this is Singh’s pregnant insight, the process of aging and dying effectively breaks down these contractions, breaking them down in reverse order of how we formed them, and, with each breakdown, we are more aware again of a wider realm of reality, particularly the realm of spirit. And this culminates in the last moments or seconds before our death in the experience of ecstasy, observable in many terminal patients as they die. As the last contraction that formed our ego is broken, spirit breaks through and we break into ecstasy. As a hospice worker, Singh claims to have seen this many times in her patients.
Elizabeth Kubler Ross, in what has now virtually become the canon on how we understand the stages of dying, suggested that someone diagnosed with a terminal disease will go through five stages before his or her death: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. Singh would agree with that, except that she would add three more stages: A fall into darkness that verges on despair; a resignation that dwarfs our initial acceptance, and an in-breaking of ecstasy. She points out that Jesus went through those exact stages on the cross: a cry of abandonment that sounds like despair, the handing over of his spirit, and the ecstasy that was given him in his death
Singh’s insight is a very consoling one. The process of dying will do for us what a deep life of prayer and selflessness was meant to do for us, namely, break our selfishness and open us to the realm of spirit. God will get us, one way or the other.
We’ve lost a great woman and a great spiritual writer. Her children, writing on Facebook after her death, said simply that their mother would want us all to know that “she was an ordinary person dying an ordinary death.” But the spiritual legacy she left us is far from ordinary.
A Creed for Rebuilders
This is taken from the weekly email series from Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe to recieve the emails here
Let’s end this week on a hopeful note. Let us, as St.
Francis said, begin again. Allow the following creed to inspire your efforts to
rebuild from the bottom up. I invite you to read it as lectio divina. With the
first reading, listen with your heart’s ear for a phrase or word that stands
out for you. During the second reading, reflect on what touches you, perhaps
speaking that response aloud or writing in a journal. After reading the passage
a third time, respond with a prayer or expression of what you have experienced
and what it calls you to. Finally, rest in silence after a fourth reading.
We believe in one Triune God. “There is one Body, one
Spirit, one and the same hope . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
who is Father of all, over all, through all, and within all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).
We believe that we are, first of all, a people, God’s
movement in history.
We believe that our individual lives and our personal growth
are for the sake of the generations to come after and built on the faith and
the bones of those who have gone ahead of us.
We believe that we must build on the positive, on what we
love. Creative and life energies come from belief and from commitment. Critics
must first be believers who have learned how to say an ultimate yes.
We agree to bear the burden and the grace of our past. We
agree to honor what is, including even the broken things of life: ourselves,
church, state, and all institutions. Their dark side is a necessary teacher.
We are committed to building a world of meaning and hope. We
recognize the clear need for prophetic deconstruction of all idolatries that
make the worship of God impossible. True rebuilding must follow this temporary
but necessary un-building.
We believe in a personal universe where the divine image
shines through all created things. It is therefore an “enchanted universe”
where we can always live in reverence and even adoration before the good, the
true, and the beautiful.
Along with St. Paul in Colossians (1:15-20), as Christians,
we believe that Jesus Christ is the clearest image of the unseen God. In him
all things cohere, all opposites are overcome. He is the head of the living
body, the One in whom all things are reconciled and overcome.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr and John Feister, Hope Against
Darkness: The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety
(Franciscan Media: 2002), 181-182.
Jesus: Who Do You Think You Are?
This article, by Fr Nicholas King SJ, is from the ThinkingFaith.com website. You can read the complete article by clicking here
When you know something about where people are coming from, you can understand them a bit better. Matthew starts his version of the Jesus-story with a selective list of Jesus’s ancestors, presumably as a way of advancing the narrative by hint and innuendo. He has a degree of freedom in handling the matter, since at this point he was not following the model laid down for him by Mark’s Gospel; and so we imagine that he is telling us something quite deliberate when he chooses to begin the story with his genealogy.
When you know something about where people are coming from, you can understand them a bit better. Matthew starts his version of the Jesus-story with a selective list of Jesus’s ancestors, presumably as a way of advancing the narrative by hint and innuendo. He has a degree of freedom in handling the matter, since at this point he was not following the model laid down for him by Mark’s Gospel; and so we imagine that he is telling us something quite deliberate when he chooses to begin the story with his genealogy.
It is significant that he starts with Abraham, for Abraham is a foreigner, indeed you might almost call him a Gentile, coming as he does from Ur of the Chaldees; and the last words of Matthew’s Gospel, of course, will be the command to ‘go and make disciples of all the Gentiles’. More than that, however, it was Abraham who was the first to receive the promises of God, and Isaac and Jacob (or Israel) who were part of the working out of those promises. You might observe how rapidly our evangelist gallops over these two, the son whom Abraham so nearly murdered and the grandson who was a trickster even before he was born; but Matthew’s first hearers will not have needed to be told that, for they were brought up (as we perhaps have not been) on the stories of the patriarchs in the book of Genesis.
This whole of this article by Nicholas King SJ, a tutor in Biblical Studies at the University of Oxford, can be found by clicking here
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