6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

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 

mike.delaney@aohtas.org.au

Assistant Priest: Fr Paschal Okpon

Mob: 0438 562 731

paschalokpon@yahoo.com

Priest in Residence:  Fr Phil McCormack  
Mob: 0437 521 257

pmccormack43@bigpond.com

Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport 7310

Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street, Devonport 7310 

(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

Mersey Leven Catholic Parish Weekly Newsletter: mlcathparish.blogspot.com.au

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.

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,

We thank you for gathering us together 
and calling us to serve as your disciples.

You have charged us through Your Son, Jesus, with the great mission

  of evangelising and witnessing your love to the world.

Send your Holy Spirit to guide us as we discern your will

 for the spiritual renewal of our parish.

Give us strength, courage, and clear vision 
as we use our gifts to serve you.

We entrust our parish family to the care of Mary, our mother,

and ask for her intercession and guidance 
as we strive to bear witness

 to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.

Amen.

                                                                   

Weekday Masses 13th - 16th  February, 2018                                        

Tuesday:      9:30am Penguin                                                           

Wednesday:  9:30am Latrobe …Ash Wednesday 

                12noon Devonport  

                7:00pm Ulverstone          

Thursday:   10:30am Karingal                                                          Friday:      11:00am Mt St Vincent 

Next Weekend 17th & 18th February, 2018

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 17th & 18th February, 2018

Devonport:

Readers: Vigil:  A McIntyre, M Williams, C Kiely-Hoye 10:30am: A Hughes, T Barrientos, P Piccolo   

Ministers of Communion: Vigil:  T Muir, M Davies, M Gerrand, D Peters, J Heatley

10:30am: B & N Mulcahy, L Hollister, K Hull

Cleaners. 16th Feb: P Shelverton, E Petts   23rd Feb: B Paul, D Atkins, V Riley

Piety Shop 17^th Feb:  H Thompson   18^th Feb: K Hull   Lawns Presbytery (Feb): M Tippett

Ulverstone:

Reader/s: A & F Pisano    Ministers of Communion: M Mott, M Fennell, J Jones, T Leary

Cleaners:  B & V McCall, G Doyle   Hospitality: Filipino Community   

Penguin:

Greeters: S Ewing, J Garnsey   Commentator: J Barker         Readers:  J Garnsey, A Landers 

Ministers of Communion: E Nickols, S Ewing   Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J   Setting Up:  T Clayton

Care of Church: M Bowles, J Reynolds

Latrobe:

Reader: M Chan   Minister of Communion: Z Smith   Procession of gifts: Parishioners

Port Sorell:

Readers:   P Anderson, T Jeffries   Minister of Communion:  V Duff   

Clean/Flowers/Prepare:  G Bellchambers, M Gillard

                                                                                                                                                        

                                                 Readings this week – 6^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B

First Reading: Leviticus 13:1-2. 44-46

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 

  Gospel: Mark 1:40-45

PREGO REFLECTION:

I take time to come to a sense of stillness and become aware of the silence within me. 
I allow myself to become receptive to God’s presence and loving gaze. 
When I am ready, I slowly read the Gospel several times with an open mind and heart. 
I notice what words and images touch and move me. 
I may like to enter the scene and use my imagination to encounter the Lord. 
As I visualise the scene, maybe I find myself being the leper: fearful, isolated from my community and desolate, pleading to the Lord for healing. 
Or maybe I am Jesus, full of pity and compassion for the outcast ... or possibly a bystander, watching the scene unfold. 
After sitting with the text a while, or allowing my imagination to wander freely, how do I feel now? 
Do I relate to the sense of being an outsider, of being rejected? 
I share with the Lord. 
Can I allow Jesus to reach out and touch me, heal me? 
I consider how Jesus was someone who lived on the margins of his society, who can really understand what it feels like to be rejected. 
In trust, I pray and ‘plead for’ the outcast and marginalised in my life, in my community, in our world. 
I ponder how I might reach out to my suffering sisters and brothers, to share with them God’s compassion, love and blessings in their trials. 
When I am ready, I bring my prayer time to an end slowly.

Readings next week – First Sunday of Lent – Year B

First Reading: Genesis 9:8-15 

Second Reading: 1 Peter 3: 18-22

   Gospel: Mark 1:12-15

                                                                                                                                                                       

Your prayers are asked for the sick:

Joy Kiely, Judy Carpenter, Vic Slavin, Rex Bates, Phil Tuckett, David Welch & …

Let us pray for those who have died recently: 

Beatrice Zuluaga, Dorothy Corbett, Arch Jago, Francis Young, Valerie McKenna, Graham Gregson, Josefina-Daguman Montiel

Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 7^th – 13^th February

Verna Crabtree, Lawrence McGuire, Harold Hawkes, Andrew Cooper, Aileen Reynolds, Charles Holliday, Sheryl Allen, Sharon Fellows-Glover, Ethel Kelcey, Colleen Cameron, Christopher Cabalzar, Rita Wescombe, Mary Hunniford, Douglas Howard, Cesar S Cortes Snr and Lyell Byrne. Also Thomas Kelly.           

May they Rest in Peace

                                                                                                                                                         

                    Many happy returns Les Enniss on your 97^th Birthday.

                                    Enjoy your special day!

                                                                                     

God of wisdom and might,

Bless all teachers, staff and children as they begin a new school year.
Give them strength and grace, wisdom and knowledge and peace to their hearts. We ask this prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

                                                                                                                                                

Weekly Ramblings

This coming week we will commence our Lenten Season and so this weekend is Project Compassion Sunday. Materials are available – envelopes or Project Compassion Boxes – and everyone is encouraged to take one or both and make use of them during this Lenten Season.

On the Notice Board in our Mass Centres today there is a reminder from Archbishop Julian regarding the Lenten Fast – please take a moment to read the requirements for both Fast and Abstinence during Lent.

The Australian Bishops have asked all parishioners to join with them in three (3) days of fasting from Ash Wednesday through Friday (14^th-16^th) in sorrow for child sexual abuse and for the healing of victims. They invite us also to pray because although we cannot undo the past, with God’s help, we can make the future better. There is a letter from Archbishop Julian and a Letter from the Australian Bishops with further links to prayers and other activities that you might be able to use during these three days. The link can also be accessed by typing in the following address into your web browser: https://www.catholic.org.au/fastingandreparation

As part of our Parish Lenten activities, as well as the Lenten Discussion Groups, we will again be celebrating the Stations of the Cross each Friday evening at 7pm at Our Lady of Lourdes and Sacred Heart Churches and everyone is invited to join us for these times of prayer and reflection on the Way of the Cross.

Last but by no means least: Our day of Reflection and Prayer next Saturday, 17^th at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School from 9.30am. All parishioners are asked to bring their own lunch – morning and afternoon tea will be provided. This is an important NEXT STEP in our journey and I am encouraging all parishioners to be part of this day. I am really looking forward to the day and all the benefits that will flow from it.

Please take care on the roads and in your homes,

                                                                                                                                         

Project Compassion Sunday 11^th February

 

Please take home a Project Compassion box and/or a set of donation envelopes and support Caritas Australia this Lenten season themed “A Just Future”. You will be empowering young people to build a just future for themselves, their families and their communities.

A Just Future starts with your support! You can donate through Parish Boxes and envelopes, or by phoning 1800 024 413 or visiting www.caritas.org.au/projectcompassion.

 

                                                                                                                                                

LENTEN LITURGY PREPARATION:
All are welcome to attend a Lenten Liturgy Preparation at Parish House, 90 Stewart Street Devonport this Sunday 11^th February at 2:30 pm. For further information please call Peter on 0437 921 366.

                                                                                                              

LENTEN PROGRAM 2018

It is not too late to be part of our Lenten program.   The groups will be operating but there is room for more groups - see the noticeboard for list of groups.

We would like to offer some other times and locations, particularly at Ulverstone, Latrobe and Sheffield. Please contact John Lee-Archer (0419523867 or john.leearcher@gmail.com ) or Fr Mike, if you are willing to host a group.  We will give you all the resources you need. Please contact John if you would like to be part of a group. If the times listed above are not suitable we will look at options to suit your needs.

Please contact John or Fr Mike if you have any questions or concerns.

                                                                                                                                       

             

Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport.  Eyes down 7.30pm!

           Callers for Thursday 15^th February – Rod Clark & Graeme Rigney.

                                                                                                      

NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:

YEAR OF YOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO ST PATRICK’S COLEBROOK

On the weekend of 3^rd/4^th March, Archbishop Porteous is leading a Year of Youth Pilgrimage from St John’s Richmond to St Patrick’s Colebrook. The pilgrimage involves camping overnight ad is open to all young people up to the age of 35. Youth under the age of 18 will require a guardian for the duration of the pilgrimage. For more information please contact Tomasz at youth@aohtas.org.au or 6208:6038

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

14^th Feb:        Ash Wednesday - Mass Times: 9:30am Latrobe, 12noon Devonport, 7pm Ulverstone

16^th Feb:         Stations of the Cross - 7pm OLOL Devonport, 7pm Sacred Heart Ulverstone.

17^th Feb:         Parish Reflection Day - 9:30am – 4:30pm Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School

19^th Feb:         Sacramental Program Introduction Meeting - 7pm Our Lady of Lourdes Church

                    Devonport

20^th Feb:         Sacramental Program Introduction Meeting - 7pm Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone

FAITH AND SUPERSTITION 

This article is from the archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here 

The power of a subordinate clause, one nuance within a sentence and everything takes on a different meaning.

That’s the case in a recent brilliant, but provocative, novel, The Ninth Hour, by Nina McDermott. She tells a story which, among other things, focuses on a group of nuns in Brooklyn who work with the poor. Times are hard, people are needy, and the nuns, who work mostly in home care for the poor, appear utterly selfless in their dedication. Nothing, it seems, can deflect them from their mission to give their all, their every of ounce of energy, to help the poor. And on this score, McDermott gives them their due. As well, for anyone familiar with what goes on inside of a religious community, McDermott’s portrayal of these nuns is both nuanced and accurate. Nuns aren’t all of a kind. Each has her own unique history, temperament, and personality.  Some are wonderfully warm and gracious, others nurse their own wounds and aren’t always evident paradigms of God’s love and mercy. And that’s case with the nuns that McDermott describes here. But, quirks of individual personality aside, as a community, the nuns she describes serve the poor and their overall witness is beyond reproach.

But then, after telling this story of faith and dedication and reflecting on how today there are few groups of nuns who still live so radical a commitment, McDermott, through the voice her narrator, introduces the subversive subordinate clause: “The holy nuns who sailed through the house when we were young were a dying breed even then. … The call to sanctity and self-sacrifice, the delusion and superstition it required, faded from the world even then.”

Wow! The delusion and the superstition it required. As if this kind of radical self-sacrifice can only be the product of false fear. As if whole generations of Christian self-sacrifice, vowed celibacy, and single-minded dedication can be dismissed, post-factum, as ultimately predicated on delusion and superstition.

How true is that?

I grew up in the world McDermott is describing, where nuns were like that, and where a powerful Catholic ethos supported them and declared what they were doing was anything but delusion and superstition. Admittedly that was another time and much of that ethos has not stood the test of time and has, indeed, to a large part succumbed to the raw power of secularity. And so McDermott is right, partially. Some of that selflessness was based upon an unhealthy fear of hell fire and God’s anger. To an extent too it was based on a notion of faith that believed that God does not really want us to flourish much here on earth but that our lives are meant to be mostly a somber preparation for the next world. Perhaps this isn’t exactly delusion and superstition, but it is bad theology and it did help underwrite some of the religious life in the world McDermott describes and in the Catholic world of my youth.

But there was also something else undergirding this ethos, and I inhaled it deeply in my youth and in a way that branded my soul for good, like nothing else I have ever breathed in in this world.  Notwithstanding some false fears, there was inside of that a biblical faith, a raw mandate, that taught that your own comfort, your own desires, and even your own legitimate longings for human flourishing, sexuality, marriage, children, freedom, and having what everyone else has, are subject to a higher purpose, and you may be asked to sacrifice them all, your legitimate longings, to serve God and others. It was a faith that believed you were born with a God-given vocation and that your life was not your own.

I saw this first in my own parents who believed that faith made those demands upon them, who accepted that, and who consequently had the moral authority to ask this of others. I saw it too in the Ursuline Nuns who taught me in school, women with full red blood flowing through their veins but who sacrificed these longings to come into the public schools in our remote rural areas and teach us. I saw it too in the little prairie community that nurtured me in my youth, a whole community who, by and large, lived out this selflessness.

Today I live in a world that prizes sophistication above all else, but where as a whole society we’re no longer sure what’s “fake news” as opposed to what we can believe in and trust. In this unsteady world the faith of my youth, of my parents, of the nuns who sacrificed their dreams to teach me, and of the nuns whom Nina McDermott describes in The Ninth Hour, can look very much like delusion and superstition. Sometimes it is delusion, admittedly; but sometimes it isn’t, and in my case the faith my parents gave me, with its belief that your life and your sexuality are not your own, is, I believe, the truest, most non-superstitious thing of all.

                              

PASTORS, TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR SCHEDULE

From the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can find the blog here

Let us go out to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose I have come.  Mark 1:38

A really pivotal scene unfolds at the end of the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel. After an intense day of preaching and teaching the crowds and healing the sick, Jesus goes off by himself to a deserted place for prayer. Peter and the others seek him out and urge him to return to the village. “Everyone is looking for you!” Peter pleads. The expectation about how he should spend his time and who he should be serving is clear.

And Jesus said no.

Jesus didn’t live for the whims of the crowd, he lived for an audience of one. He connected with his heavenly Father on a daily basis and it was God’s plan and purpose that drove Jesus’ actions and agenda.

If you think about it, this is really a pivotal moment. If Jesus had only listened to the crowd, his ministry would have been confined to that one little town of Capernaum. He would have been a big fish for sure, but in a very small pond. But because he lived for an audience of one his mission changed the world.

When I first came to this parish, as a first-time pastor, there were many people who had fixed ideas about what I should be doing. Here’s a short list of some of those expectations:

• stand at the front door and greet parishioners before and after weekend and weekday Masses
• serve as celebrant at all weddings and funerals
• visit every parishioner in the hospital, however brief their stay; be on call 24/7 for “emergencies”
• see anyone who wanted an appointment with me about anything
• be available for unscheduled walk-ins and readily available for telephone calls.
• be the go-to person on staff for all complaints

I accepted these expectations without question, at first. But I did began to question them when I came to realize that in fact I was really only serving about 200 people in my parish in this extensive way. That’s all any pastor has time for if they’re offering total access. And that’s why the average size church in this country is under 200.

At a certain point, I started saying no. And that was difficult because it feels good to give people what they want, and always be the go to guy (and sometimes the hero). It was also especially difficult given the negative reaction a “no” did (and still does) elicit. I’ve had plenty of people get angry with me and accuse me of not doing my job, and that criticism hurts. But I say no anyway, so that I can serve the whole parish, and the larger community, in the ways only I can serve in my role as pastor, which I have come refer to as “leading and feeding.”

By saying no, I’ve given our member ministers the opportunity to serve others by standing at the front door and greeting guests.

                                 

Reading Scripture with the Mind of Christ (Continued)

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

Today I invite you into a contemplative practice with the familiar Eastern Orthodox prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.” Let’s look closely at some of the words:

Lord: While “lord” can connote dominion and hierarchical authority (the Greek, kurios, means “master”), remember the authority with which Jesus taught was an inner authority, born of his awareness that he was God’s own child. And we have inherited this power!

Jesus Christ: Jesus is both human and divine, personal and infinite. “Jesus” was a common name (Joshua in Hebrew); “Christ” means anointed, chosen. We need both to ground us in the ordinary, suffering world and to draw us toward the “heaven” of union.

Sinner: “Sin” is simply that which keeps us from knowing and living out of our True Self. We are forgetful of our inherent belovedness. Don’t think of sin as just individual “nastiness,” which is largely shame-based thinking and in itself does not get you to a good place. Understand this in the context of mystical union rather than moralism.

Mercy: We need the “salvation” of Love to overcome our fear-based disconnection, to return us to wholeness. Abundant, never withheld, restorative grace brings us back into intimacy with self, God, and others. Pope Francis says that mercy is the highest virtue in the hierarchy of Christian truths.

Using this prayer as a focal point, say the words repeatedly until the prayer moves from your head into your heart and you connect with the Presence already praying ceaselessly within.

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.”

Adapted from Richard Rohr, A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2016), 226-227.

For Further Study:

Marcus Borg, Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary (HarperSanFrancisco: 2006)

Richard Rohr, The New Great Themes of Scripture (Franciscan Media: 2003), CD

Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality (Franciscan Media: 2008)

                            

A Short History of Lent

This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website - the complete article can be found here.

As we each find our own ways to mark the season of Lent, we follow in the footsteps of centuries of Christians who have spent time preparing to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. How did the Church's understanding of the forty days of Lent change between the Council of Nicaea in the 4th century and the Second Vatican Council? Church historian Norman Tanner SJ gives a short history of this time of joy and preparation. Norman Tanner SJ teaches Church History at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

The earliest mention of Lent in the history of the Church comes from the council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The council of Nicaea is best known for the profession of faith – the ‘Nicene Creed’ – which is still recited in most parishes every Sunday immediately after the sermon. However, the council also issued twenty canons of a practical nature, dealing with various aspects of church life, and the fifth of these canons speaks of Lent.

The word used for Lent in this fifth canon is tessarakonta (in the original Greek), which means ‘forty’. For the first time in recorded history, we have mention of this period of preparation for Easter as lasting forty days. Much earlier, Christians had introduced Easter Sunday to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. Soon afterwards, a period of two or three days preparation, specially commemorating Christ’s passion and death – the ‘Holy Week’ part of Lent today – had been adopted by various Christian communities. But the first mention of a preparatory period lasting the forty days comes from this fifth canon of Nicaea.

To continue reading this article click here