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
Assistant Priest: Fr Paschal Okpon
Mob: 0438 562 731
paschalokpon@yahoo.com
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
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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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 – Monday evenings 7pm – 9:30pm Community Room Ulverstone
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 27th February – 2nd March
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Ministry Rosters 3rd & 4th March, 2018
Devonport: 
10:30am: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S
Arrowsmith
Cleaners. 2nd March: M.W.C. 9th March: M & R Youd
Piety Shop 3rd
March: L Murfet 4th March: T Omogbai-Musa
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Port Sorell:
Readings this week – Second Sunday of Lent – Year B
First Reading: Genesis 22: 1-2. 9-13. 15-18
Second Reading: Romans 8:31-34
Gospel: Mark 9:2-10
PREGO REFLECTION:
As I come to my place of prayer, I remember that God gazes
on me with great compassion, mercy and love.
I begin slowly, taking time to
come to stillness in the presence of God, in whatever way is right for me.
I
ask the Holy Spirit to help me as I pray.
I do not rush.
When I am ready, I
read the words of the Gospel.
I may like to imagine being led up the mountain
by Jesus, with the apostles.
What is it like for us to be alone with Jesus?
As
Jesus reveals the glory that is his as the Son of God, I listen to Peter’s reaction.
How do I respond to Jesus?
I share with him.
I hear the voice say, “This is my
Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.”
What does the Lord Jesus want me to know and
understand as I listen to him today?
Perhaps I ask him.
As I come back to my
daily life from my place of prayer, how am I called to respond to others?
For
what grace do I need to pray?
Towards the end of my time of prayer, I take a
few moments to notice how I am thinking and feeling now.
I share with the Lord.
I end my prayer slowly, giving thanks. Our Father ......
Readings
next week – Third Sunday of Lent – Year B
First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17
Second
Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
Gospel: John
2:13-25
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Nina Griffiths, Joy Kiely, Judy Carpenter,
Vic
Slavin, Rex Bates, Phil Tuckett, David Welch & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Desmond
Peters, Henry Arnold, Judy Carpenter, Beatrice Zuluaga, Narelle Ravaillion, Arch
Jago, Francis
Young Valerie
McKenna.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs
about this time: 21st – 27th February
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome
and congratulate ….
Many
happy returns Fr Phil on your Birthday.
Weekly
Ramblings
Many thanks to all those who participated in our Prayer and
Reflection Day last Saturday. I had the opportunity to thank Sharon Brewer, our
facilitator, from the National Centre for Evangelisation at two Masses for her
contribution to the day. As she mentioned at the start of the day it wasn’t a
place where we would get all the answers but it might be the opportunity for
all of us to reflect on what our contribution to the next stage would look
like.
Hopefully by next weekend the Leadership Team will have had
the chance to complete a review of all the material collected on the day and
there will be a report at the Bus Stops in our Mass Centres. There will be one
or two outcomes that will be looked at almost immediately (at least as soon
after Easter as can be arranged) and that included training for Lectors and
Hospitality Ministers. By Hospitality we are not talking about people making a
cuppa (important as that is) but also involves Greeters and Eucharistic
Ministers – it will be a case of coming along and finding out why – more
details later.
Another major area for us in coming weeks is the formation
of a new Parish Pastoral Team (formerly the PPC). Please see details below.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
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 27th February – 2nd March
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
12noon Devonport
Next Weekend 3rd & 4th March Saturday Mass: 9:00am Ulverstone
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 3rd & 4th March, 2018
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: M Kelly, B Paul, R Baker 10:30am: J
Phillips, P Piccolo, K Pearce
Ministers of Communion: Vigil:
D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P Shelverton
10:30am: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S
Arrowsmith
Cleaners. 2nd March: M.W.C. 9th March: M & R Youd
Piety Shop 3rd
March: L Murfet 4th March: T Omogbai-Musa
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: D Prior
Ministers of Communion: M Byrne, D Griffin, K Foster, R
Locket
Cleaners: K.S.C. Hospitality: M & K McKenzie
Penguin:
Greeters: J Garnsey, P Lade Commentator: E Nickols Readers: A Guest, J Barker
Ministers of
Communion: J
Garnsey, P Lade Liturgy: Pine Road Setting Up: A Landers
Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols
Latrobe:
Reader: M Eden Minister of Communion: H Lim Procession of gifts: Parishioners
Port Sorell:
Readers: P Anderson, E Holloway Minister of Communion: T Jeffries
Clean/Flowers/Prepare: V Youd
Readings this week – Second Sunday of Lent – Year B
First Reading: Genesis 22: 1-2. 9-13. 15-18
Second Reading: Romans 8:31-34
Gospel: Mark 9:2-10
PREGO REFLECTION:
As I come to my place of prayer, I remember that God gazes
on me with great compassion, mercy and love.
I begin slowly, taking time to come to stillness in the presence of God, in whatever way is right for me.
I ask the Holy Spirit to help me as I pray.
I do not rush.
When I am ready, I read the words of the Gospel.
I may like to imagine being led up the mountain by Jesus, with the apostles.
What is it like for us to be alone with Jesus?
As Jesus reveals the glory that is his as the Son of God, I listen to Peter’s reaction.
How do I respond to Jesus?
I share with him.
I hear the voice say, “This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.”
What does the Lord Jesus want me to know and understand as I listen to him today?
Perhaps I ask him.
As I come back to my daily life from my place of prayer, how am I called to respond to others?
For what grace do I need to pray?
Towards the end of my time of prayer, I take a few moments to notice how I am thinking and feeling now.
I share with the Lord. I end my prayer slowly, giving thanks. Our Father ......
I begin slowly, taking time to come to stillness in the presence of God, in whatever way is right for me.
I ask the Holy Spirit to help me as I pray.
I do not rush.
When I am ready, I read the words of the Gospel.
I may like to imagine being led up the mountain by Jesus, with the apostles.
What is it like for us to be alone with Jesus?
As Jesus reveals the glory that is his as the Son of God, I listen to Peter’s reaction.
How do I respond to Jesus?
I share with him.
I hear the voice say, “This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.”
What does the Lord Jesus want me to know and understand as I listen to him today?
Perhaps I ask him.
As I come back to my daily life from my place of prayer, how am I called to respond to others?
For what grace do I need to pray?
Towards the end of my time of prayer, I take a few moments to notice how I am thinking and feeling now.
I share with the Lord. I end my prayer slowly, giving thanks. Our Father ......
Readings
next week – Third Sunday of Lent – Year B
First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17
Second
Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
Gospel: John
2:13-25
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Nina Griffiths, Joy Kiely, Judy Carpenter,
Vic
Slavin, Rex Bates, Phil Tuckett, David Welch & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Desmond
Peters, Henry Arnold, Judy Carpenter, Beatrice Zuluaga, Narelle Ravaillion, Arch
Jago, Francis
Young Valerie
McKenna.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs
about this time: 21st – 27th February
Lisa
Natoli, Collin Morgan, Michael Duggan, Max Watson, Rita Sullivan, Kristine
Morgan, Thea Nicholas, Glen Clark, Reginald
Alderson, Irene Kilby, Richard O’Neill, Mary Mann. Also Nancy Kelly.
May they Rest in
Peace
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome
and congratulate ….
Hollie Cox
Daughter of Josh & Angela on her
Baptism this weekend.
Many
happy returns Fr Phil on your Birthday.
May
God bless you on your special day!
Weekly
Ramblings
Many thanks to all those who participated in our Prayer and
Reflection Day last Saturday. I had the opportunity to thank Sharon Brewer, our
facilitator, from the National Centre for Evangelisation at two Masses for her
contribution to the day. As she mentioned at the start of the day it wasn’t a
place where we would get all the answers but it might be the opportunity for
all of us to reflect on what our contribution to the next stage would look
like.
Hopefully by next weekend the Leadership Team will have had
the chance to complete a review of all the material collected on the day and
there will be a report at the Bus Stops in our Mass Centres. There will be one
or two outcomes that will be looked at almost immediately (at least as soon
after Easter as can be arranged) and that included training for Lectors and
Hospitality Ministers. By Hospitality we are not talking about people making a
cuppa (important as that is) but also involves Greeters and Eucharistic
Ministers – it will be a case of coming along and finding out why – more
details later.
Another major area for us in coming weeks is the formation
of a new Parish Pastoral Team (formerly the PPC). Please see details below.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,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. It 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 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.
Realising the vision
– ‘Unified’…
Composition of the
Parish Pastoral Team (PPT).
Process of selection
of the PPT:
Project Compassion
Second Sunday
of Lent
Rattanak in Cambodia contracted polio as a child and also
became deaf. The Deaf Development Program, supported by Caritas Australia,
helped him become a barber and he is now supporting himself, his wife and baby.
Please donate to Project Compassion 2018 and help deaf
youth in Cambodia to build a just future, and live in communities that uphold
everyone’s dignity.
A Just Future starts with your support! You can donate
through Parish boxes and envelopes by phoning 1800 024 413 or visiting www.caritas.org.au/projectcompassion.
KNIGHTS OF
THE SOUTHERN CROSS MEETING: THIS SUNDAY 25th February at 4pm in the Community
Room Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone. Any men who are interested in joining
this group are invited to come along.
MacKillop
Hill Spirituality Centre
WORLD DAY
OF PRAYER:
St John’s Anglican Church Devonport (enquiries phone Kath 6424:6504) and
Uniting Church Ulverstone on Friday 2nd March at 1.30 pm.
All welcome. A plate please.
FOOTY TICKETS:
GRAN’S VAN
Thursday
Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport. Eyes down
7.30pm!
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
YEAR OF
YOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO ST PATRICK’S COLEBROOK
THE JOURNEY
CATHOLIC RADIO PROGRAM – AIRS 25 February
Affirmations
All of creation and each of us have received original
blessing. Yet we have been conditioned to focus on the negative in ourselves
and others. Think of a negative phrase you have said aloud or thought to
yourself that stems from a sense of shame rather than your inherent dignity.
Richard Rohr, Sermon on the Mount (Franciscan Media: 1991),
CD
Writing in the first person is always a risk, but the subject matter of this column is best done, I feel, through personal testimony. In a world where chastity and celibacy are seen as naïve and to be pitied and where there’s a general skepticism that anyone is actually living them out, personal testimony is perhaps the most effective protest.
What’s to be said for celibacy and chastity, whether these are lived out in a vowed religious context or are simply the given situation of anyone who is going through life celibate? Here’s my story:
At the age of seventeen, I made the decision to become a priest and enter a religious order, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. That decision involved committing myself to celibacy for life. Strange as this may sound, since I was only seventeen, I didn’t make that decision naively or out of some passing fancy. I intuited pretty accurately the cost, so much so that I virtually everything inside me strongly resisted the call. Anything but that! While I was drawn to ministry the accompanying vow of celibacy was a massive stumbling block. I didn’t want to live as a celibate. Who does? Indeed nobody should. But the inner call was so strong that, despite its downside, when I finished high school I gave a reluctant but solid assent and entered a religious congregation. Now, looking back on it more than fifty years later, I see it still as the purest, most unselfish decision I’ve ever made.
I’ve been in religious life now for more than fifty years and have served as a priest for more than forty-five of those years and, all told, celibacy has served me well, just as I can honestly say that I have served it in essential fidelity. Celibacy has its upside: Beyond the inner work it forced me to do in terms of my relationship to God, to others, and to myself (often painful work done in restlessness and prayer and on occasion with the help of a counsellor) celibacy also afforded me a privileged availability for the ministry. If you move through this life as a priest and missionary, celibacy can be a friend.
But it isn’t always a friend. For me, celibacy has always been the hardest struggle within religious life and ministry, a habitual emotional crucifixion, as it should be. There have been seasons – days, weeks, months, and sometimes many months – when most everything inside of me screamed against it, when because of falling in love, or dealing with an obsession, or dealing with the one-sided energy within a male congregation, or when I was overcome with the fact I will never have children, or, when the simple, raw physical and emotional power of sexuality left me restlessness and frustrated enough that the man inside of me wanted to take back what the priest inside of me had once vowed. Celibacy will have you sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane sometimes. It goes against some of the deepest, innate, God-given instincts and energies within you and so it doesn’t allow itself to be dealt with lightly.
That being said though, something else also needs to be said, something too little understood today: Celibacy can also be very generative because sexuality is about more than having sex. Just before creating the sexes, God said: It is not good for the man to be alone! That’s true for every person who will ever walk this earth. Sexuality is given to us to take us beyond our aloneness; but many things do that for us and full sexual intimacy is only one of them.
Perhaps the single, biggest misunderstanding about sex today is the belief that deep friendship, warm companionship, faith community, and non-genital forms of intimacy are only a substitute, some second-best compensation, for sex rather than a rich, generative modality of sex itself. These aren’t a consolation prize for missing the real thing. They are, just as is having sex, one rich aspect of the real thing.
Recently, I phoned a priest on the 60th anniversary of his ordination. Eighty-five years old now, he had this to say: “There were some rough times, all of my classmates left the ministry and I had my temptations too. But I stayed and, now, looking back, I am pretty happy with the way my life turned out.”
Looking back on own life and my commitment to celibacy I can say something similar. Celibacy has made for some tough seasons and remains, as Merton once put it, the deep anguish within chastity. But celibacy has also provided me with a life rich in friendship, rich in community, rich in companionship, rich in family of every kind, and rich in opportunity to be present to others. I will die without children, my life, like everyone’s, an incomplete, never-fully-consummate symphony. But looking back on it all, I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. Celibacy can be a very life-giving way of being sexual, of creating family, and of being happy.
KNIGHTS OF
THE SOUTHERN CROSS MEETING: THIS SUNDAY 25th February at 4pm in the Community
Room Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone. Any men who are interested in joining
this group are invited to come along.
MacKillop
Hill Spirituality Centre
Spirituality in
the Coffee Shop Monday 26th February 10:30am -12pm
Come and discuss the issues that matter to you! Morning tea & good company! No booking necessary!
MARGARET SILF
One of the most renowned and accessible spirituality writers of our time
returns to Tasmania in May 2018. She will be presenting 2hr sessions – come to
one or both! Bookings open.
Devonport Thursday 24th
May – “The Stories that Shape Us “ -
reflecting on the precious gift of imagination which enables us to shape
stories and narratives in our search for meaning and understanding in our
lives. Some are life-giving, some
control and seduce us and others endure and grow as we grow.
Ulverstone Friday 25th
May – “Born
to Fly” – how we, too, like the caterpillar’s metamorphosis, are in the
process of transformation –invited to be co-creators of a different kind of
future for humanity.
WORLD DAY
OF PRAYER:
St John’s Anglican Church Devonport (enquiries phone Kath 6424:6504) and
Uniting Church Ulverstone on Friday 2nd March at 1.30 pm.
All welcome. A plate please.
FOOTY TICKETS:
The 2018 AFL footy season starts Friday
23rd March. Once again Mersey Leven Parish will be selling
footy margin tickets at OLOL Church Devonport, Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone
and St Joseph’s Mass Centre Port Sorell. The footy margin is for the Friday night game each week.
For regular participants (or anyone
new who would like to join) you can purchase your tickets for the year for $54 (all
games and finals) plus $10 for the grand final ticket (total $64) by contacting
the Parish Office. People who choose this option will be given their tickets
for the whole season. Anyone able to assist with selling tickets
regularly at any of the Mass Centres is asked to please contact the Parish
Office on 6424:2783.
GRAN’S VAN
The month
of APRIL has again been allocated to Mersey Leven Parish to assist with
Gran’s Van on the five Sundays in that month.
Help is required as follows; (a)
cooking a stew, (meat will be supplied), (b) assisting with the food
distribution, (c) driving the van. Helping with (b) and (c) would take about
two hours of your time, 6:30pm to 8:30pm. If you are able to assist with any of
the above please contact Shirley or Tony Ryan 6424:1508.
Thursday
Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport. Eyes down
7.30pm!
Callers for Thursday 1st
March Tony Ryan & Graeme Rigney.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
YEAR OF
YOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO ST PATRICK’S COLEBROOK
On the weekend of 3rd/4th March, Archbishop
Porteous is leading a Year of Youth Pilgrimage from St John’s Richmond to St
Patrick’s Colebrook. For more information please contact Tomasz at youth@aohtas.org.au or 6208:6038
THE JOURNEY
CATHOLIC RADIO PROGRAM – AIRS 25 February
In this special time of Lent, we find ourselves
being encouraged to Surrender our troubles, anguish and joy to Our
Lord. This week on the Journey, Fr Graham Schmitzer shares the
Gospel reflection the Diocese of Wollongong Lenten program, Trish McCarthy
reminds us of Self Care in her Milk and Honey segment, Sr Hilda Scott with her
Wisdom from the Abbey gently talks about A memory. Our Music this week is
a small collection of some of the music on our Lenten CD. And, that is Journey
Catholic Radio, an inspiring and up lifting show about faith, hope, love and
life. Go to www.jcr.org.au or www.itunes.jcr.org.au where you can
listen anytime and subscribe to weekly shows by email.
Affirmations
This article has been collated from the daily email series from the Center for Action and Contemplation and Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe and receive the emails by clicking here
All of creation and each of us have received original
blessing. Yet we have been conditioned to focus on the negative in ourselves
and others. Think of a negative phrase you have said aloud or thought to
yourself that stems from a sense of shame rather than your inherent dignity.
Turn it
upside down and say, in first person, present tense, an affirmation of your
God-given value. For example:
I am
unlovable. . . . I am infinitely loved.
I don’t have
enough. . . . I have everything I need.
I am stupid.
. . . I have the mind of Christ.
I am worthless. . . . I am precious in God’s eyes, I am
honored, and God loves me.
Repeat the positive statement aloud, slowly, with intention
and trust, several times. Then rest silently in the awareness that you are
already and forever, without any effort or achievement on your part, a beloved
and blessed child of God.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, A Spring Within Us: A Book of
Daily Meditations (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2016), 110-111.
For Further Study:
Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming an
Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart (Jossey-Bass: 2003)
John Dear, The Beatitudes of Peace: Meditations on the
Beatitudes (Twenty-Third Publications: 2016)
Eknath Easwaran, Original Goodness: On the Beatitudes of the
Sermon on the Mount (Nilgiri Press: 1996)
Richard Rohr with John Bookser Feister, Jesus’ Plan for a
New World: The Sermon on the Mount (Franciscan Media: 1996)
Richard Rohr, Sermon on the Mount (Franciscan Media: 1991),
CD
CELIBACY REVISITED
This article has been taken from the Archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
Writing in the first person is always a risk, but the subject matter of this column is best done, I feel, through personal testimony. In a world where chastity and celibacy are seen as naïve and to be pitied and where there’s a general skepticism that anyone is actually living them out, personal testimony is perhaps the most effective protest.
What’s to be said for celibacy and chastity, whether these are lived out in a vowed religious context or are simply the given situation of anyone who is going through life celibate? Here’s my story:
At the age of seventeen, I made the decision to become a priest and enter a religious order, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. That decision involved committing myself to celibacy for life. Strange as this may sound, since I was only seventeen, I didn’t make that decision naively or out of some passing fancy. I intuited pretty accurately the cost, so much so that I virtually everything inside me strongly resisted the call. Anything but that! While I was drawn to ministry the accompanying vow of celibacy was a massive stumbling block. I didn’t want to live as a celibate. Who does? Indeed nobody should. But the inner call was so strong that, despite its downside, when I finished high school I gave a reluctant but solid assent and entered a religious congregation. Now, looking back on it more than fifty years later, I see it still as the purest, most unselfish decision I’ve ever made.
I’ve been in religious life now for more than fifty years and have served as a priest for more than forty-five of those years and, all told, celibacy has served me well, just as I can honestly say that I have served it in essential fidelity. Celibacy has its upside: Beyond the inner work it forced me to do in terms of my relationship to God, to others, and to myself (often painful work done in restlessness and prayer and on occasion with the help of a counsellor) celibacy also afforded me a privileged availability for the ministry. If you move through this life as a priest and missionary, celibacy can be a friend.
But it isn’t always a friend. For me, celibacy has always been the hardest struggle within religious life and ministry, a habitual emotional crucifixion, as it should be. There have been seasons – days, weeks, months, and sometimes many months – when most everything inside of me screamed against it, when because of falling in love, or dealing with an obsession, or dealing with the one-sided energy within a male congregation, or when I was overcome with the fact I will never have children, or, when the simple, raw physical and emotional power of sexuality left me restlessness and frustrated enough that the man inside of me wanted to take back what the priest inside of me had once vowed. Celibacy will have you sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane sometimes. It goes against some of the deepest, innate, God-given instincts and energies within you and so it doesn’t allow itself to be dealt with lightly.
That being said though, something else also needs to be said, something too little understood today: Celibacy can also be very generative because sexuality is about more than having sex. Just before creating the sexes, God said: It is not good for the man to be alone! That’s true for every person who will ever walk this earth. Sexuality is given to us to take us beyond our aloneness; but many things do that for us and full sexual intimacy is only one of them.
Perhaps the single, biggest misunderstanding about sex today is the belief that deep friendship, warm companionship, faith community, and non-genital forms of intimacy are only a substitute, some second-best compensation, for sex rather than a rich, generative modality of sex itself. These aren’t a consolation prize for missing the real thing. They are, just as is having sex, one rich aspect of the real thing.
Recently, I phoned a priest on the 60th anniversary of his ordination. Eighty-five years old now, he had this to say: “There were some rough times, all of my classmates left the ministry and I had my temptations too. But I stayed and, now, looking back, I am pretty happy with the way my life turned out.”
Looking back on own life and my commitment to celibacy I can say something similar. Celibacy has made for some tough seasons and remains, as Merton once put it, the deep anguish within chastity. But celibacy has also provided me with a life rich in friendship, rich in community, rich in companionship, rich in family of every kind, and rich in opportunity to be present to others. I will die without children, my life, like everyone’s, an incomplete, never-fully-consummate symphony. But looking back on it all, I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. Celibacy can be a very life-giving way of being sexual, of creating family, and of being happy.
LENT 2018
This is taken from the blog by Fr Michael White, pastor of the Church of the Nativity. You can find the original blog here
Lent is an annual season of preparation for Easter. The faithful and those new to faith are encouraged to greater attention to the word of God as they grow more deeply as disciples of Christ. Renewed efforts in prayer, penance, and giving nobly characterize this season. At Nativity there are a wealth of opportunities to observe Lent and we invite you and your family to join us.
Confessions
A good confession is an indispensible component of any Lenten spiritual journey. Here at Nativity we have plenty of opportunities, each offering multiple confessors.
3-5pm Saturdays
3-9pm Good Friday
3-9pm Monday March 19, The Archdiocesan Day of Reconciliation
Daily Devotional
Sign up for our Worship Fully Daily Devotional email – delivered straight to your inbox each morning. Visit churchnativity.com/prayer to sign up.
Eucharistic Adoration
Quiet prayer before the Lord can be exceptionally powerful prayer as well. We’re adding Adoration on Sunday mornings to make it easy and convenient to stop by before or after Mass. Adoration is in the Chapel.
9am-1:00pm Sundays
9am-5:30pm First Fridays
Fasting and Abstinence
Good Friday is a day of fasting and abstinence (from meat). When fasting, only one full meal is taken as well as two smaller ones. Fridays during Lent are days of abstinence from meat. Additionally the Church encourages the faithful to take up a daily penance, such as abstinence from some food or drink.
Giving and Tithing
Parish Giving: When you invest in what matters to God, you strengthen your relationship with him. Our giving makes it possible for people to hear the Good News of God’s love. It also helps us provide, through our Ministry partners, critical care to the poor and those in need. To get started, go to our give website and select the giving option that works best for you.
Archbishop’s Annual Appeal: Together in Mission we can make a difference in the lives of many. Join us this Lent in support the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal and make a positive impact on our city and community.
Lenten Message Series
Jesus said, “Blessed is he who takes no offense.” But we do, often over little things and sometimes over everything. Of course it slows us down and can wear us out, but it can be a stumbling block in our professional life and deeply damaging in our relationships. The Bible actually has quite a lot to teach us on the topic as we’ll see in our new series for the season of Lent. If you’ve been thinking of inviting an unchurched friend to church, this series will be the perfect opportunity.
Join us at all weekend Masses, through March 18.
To catch up on past messages check out our Messages page.
Lenten Service and Ministry
Sign up to serve at Nativity this Lent, go to our Ministry page to sign up and start serving.
Mass
The source and summit of our Lenten observance will be the Eucharist. Consider committing to coming more often.
5:30pm Monday-Friday in the Chapel
5:00pm Saturdays
9, 10:30am, 12n, 5:30pm Sundays, in the Church
The Rosary
Our daily Mass is preceded by the recitation of the Rosary, a Biblically based reflection on the mysteries of Christ’s life. If you don’t pray the Rosary and don’t know how, join us.
5:00pm Monday-Friday, in the Chapel.
Small Group Discipleship
Visit our Small Groups page to learn about how joining a small group can have an impact in your life this Lent. We’ve have a great small group program for the season that goes deeper in our weekend message. Give it a try just for Lent and see if small groups are for you.
Stations of the Cross
With the Dedication of our new church we unveiled our beautiful new stations of the Cross. This Lent we’ll finally get a chance to try them out. Come join us for this inspiring devotion. 4:45pm Fridays and 6pm Good Friday.
This is taken from the blog by Fr Michael White, pastor of the Church of the Nativity. You can find the original blog here
Lent is an annual season of preparation for Easter. The faithful and those new to faith are encouraged to greater attention to the word of God as they grow more deeply as disciples of Christ. Renewed efforts in prayer, penance, and giving nobly characterize this season. At Nativity there are a wealth of opportunities to observe Lent and we invite you and your family to join us.
Confessions
A good confession is an indispensible component of any Lenten spiritual journey. Here at Nativity we have plenty of opportunities, each offering multiple confessors.
3-5pm Saturdays
3-9pm Good Friday
3-9pm Monday March 19, The Archdiocesan Day of Reconciliation
Daily Devotional
Sign up for our Worship Fully Daily Devotional email – delivered straight to your inbox each morning. Visit churchnativity.com/prayer to sign up.
Eucharistic Adoration
Quiet prayer before the Lord can be exceptionally powerful prayer as well. We’re adding Adoration on Sunday mornings to make it easy and convenient to stop by before or after Mass. Adoration is in the Chapel.
9am-1:00pm Sundays
9am-5:30pm First Fridays
Fasting and Abstinence
Good Friday is a day of fasting and abstinence (from meat). When fasting, only one full meal is taken as well as two smaller ones. Fridays during Lent are days of abstinence from meat. Additionally the Church encourages the faithful to take up a daily penance, such as abstinence from some food or drink.
Giving and Tithing
Parish Giving: When you invest in what matters to God, you strengthen your relationship with him. Our giving makes it possible for people to hear the Good News of God’s love. It also helps us provide, through our Ministry partners, critical care to the poor and those in need. To get started, go to our give website and select the giving option that works best for you.
Archbishop’s Annual Appeal: Together in Mission we can make a difference in the lives of many. Join us this Lent in support the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal and make a positive impact on our city and community.
Lenten Message Series
Jesus said, “Blessed is he who takes no offense.” But we do, often over little things and sometimes over everything. Of course it slows us down and can wear us out, but it can be a stumbling block in our professional life and deeply damaging in our relationships. The Bible actually has quite a lot to teach us on the topic as we’ll see in our new series for the season of Lent. If you’ve been thinking of inviting an unchurched friend to church, this series will be the perfect opportunity.
Join us at all weekend Masses, through March 18.
To catch up on past messages check out our Messages page.
Lenten Service and Ministry
Sign up to serve at Nativity this Lent, go to our Ministry page to sign up and start serving.
Mass
The source and summit of our Lenten observance will be the Eucharist. Consider committing to coming more often.
5:30pm Monday-Friday in the Chapel
5:00pm Saturdays
9, 10:30am, 12n, 5:30pm Sundays, in the Church
The Rosary
Our daily Mass is preceded by the recitation of the Rosary, a Biblically based reflection on the mysteries of Christ’s life. If you don’t pray the Rosary and don’t know how, join us.
5:00pm Monday-Friday, in the Chapel.
Small Group Discipleship
Visit our Small Groups page to learn about how joining a small group can have an impact in your life this Lent. We’ve have a great small group program for the season that goes deeper in our weekend message. Give it a try just for Lent and see if small groups are for you.
Stations of the Cross
With the Dedication of our new church we unveiled our beautiful new stations of the Cross. This Lent we’ll finally get a chance to try them out. Come join us for this inspiring devotion. 4:45pm Fridays and 6pm Good Friday.
The eight works of mercy
‘In today’s world, hunger, violence and poverty cannot be understood apart from the changes and degradation affecting the environment.’ Pope Francis’ recognition of this led him to introduce an eighth work of mercy in 2016: ‘care for our common home’. Anna Rowlands and Robert Czerny survey the long and living tradition in which this new work of mercy stands. This article, by Anna F. Rowlands (Durham) and Robert E. Czerny (Ottawa), with background research by Rachel Davies and suggestions from Austen Ivereigh, was originally published in Aggiornamenti Sociali (Feb 2018) and available at www.aggiornamentisociali.it.
In his message for the 2016 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Show Mercy to our Common Home, Pope Francis surprised many by introducing an eighth work of mercy: ‘care for our common home’. This new work of mercy would be both corporal and spiritual.
‘Nothing unites us to God more than an act of mercy, for it is by mercy that the Lord forgives our sins and gives us the grace to practise acts of mercy in his name.’
To paraphrase Saint James, ‘we can say that mercy without works is dead … In our rapidly changing and increasingly globalized world, many new forms of poverty are appearing. In response to them, we need to be creative in developing new and practical forms of charitable outreach as concrete expressions of the way of mercy.’
The Christian life involves the practice of the traditional seven corporal and seven spiritual works of mercy. ‘We usually think of the works of mercy individually and in relation to a specific initiative: hospitals for the sick, soup kitchens for the hungry, shelters for the homeless, schools for those to be educated, the confessional and spiritual direction for those needing counsel and forgiveness… But if we look at the works of mercy as a whole, we see that the object of mercy is human life itself and everything it embraces.’
Obviously ‘human life itself and everything it embraces’ includes care for our common home. So let me propose a complement to the two traditional sets of seven: may the works of mercy also include care for our common home.
As a spiritual work of mercy, care for our common home calls for a ‘grateful contemplation of God’s world’ which ‘allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us’. As a corporal work of mercy, care for our common home requires ‘simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness’ and ‘makes itself felt in every action that seeks to build a better world’.[i]
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith website - you can read the complete article here
‘In today’s world, hunger, violence and poverty cannot be understood apart from the changes and degradation affecting the environment.’ Pope Francis’ recognition of this led him to introduce an eighth work of mercy in 2016: ‘care for our common home’. Anna Rowlands and Robert Czerny survey the long and living tradition in which this new work of mercy stands. This article, by Anna F. Rowlands (Durham) and Robert E. Czerny (Ottawa), with background research by Rachel Davies and suggestions from Austen Ivereigh, was originally published in Aggiornamenti Sociali (Feb 2018) and available at www.aggiornamentisociali.it.
In his message for the 2016 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Show Mercy to our Common Home, Pope Francis surprised many by introducing an eighth work of mercy: ‘care for our common home’. This new work of mercy would be both corporal and spiritual.
‘Nothing unites us to God more than an act of mercy, for it is by mercy that the Lord forgives our sins and gives us the grace to practise acts of mercy in his name.’
To paraphrase Saint James, ‘we can say that mercy without works is dead … In our rapidly changing and increasingly globalized world, many new forms of poverty are appearing. In response to them, we need to be creative in developing new and practical forms of charitable outreach as concrete expressions of the way of mercy.’
The Christian life involves the practice of the traditional seven corporal and seven spiritual works of mercy. ‘We usually think of the works of mercy individually and in relation to a specific initiative: hospitals for the sick, soup kitchens for the hungry, shelters for the homeless, schools for those to be educated, the confessional and spiritual direction for those needing counsel and forgiveness… But if we look at the works of mercy as a whole, we see that the object of mercy is human life itself and everything it embraces.’
Obviously ‘human life itself and everything it embraces’ includes care for our common home. So let me propose a complement to the two traditional sets of seven: may the works of mercy also include care for our common home.
As a spiritual work of mercy, care for our common home calls for a ‘grateful contemplation of God’s world’ which ‘allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us’. As a corporal work of mercy, care for our common home requires ‘simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness’ and ‘makes itself felt in every action that seeks to build a better world’.[i]
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith website - you can read the complete article here
