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.
|
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 6th – 9th March
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Next Weekend 10th & 11th March
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin & Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
MERSEY LEVEN CATHOLIC PARISH
Holy Week & Easter Ceremonies 2018
HOLY THURSDAY: Mass of the Lord's Supper
Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone - 7.30pm
GOOD FRIDAY MORNING - STATIONS OF THE CROSS
St Joseph's Mass Centre, Port Sorell - 10.00am
St Mary's Church, Penguin - 11.00am
Holy Cross Church, Sheffield - 11.00am
ST Patrick's Church, Latrobe - 11.00am
GOOD FRIDAY: Commemoration of the Passion
Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone - 3.00pm
Our Lady of Lourdes, Devonport - 3.00pm
EASTER VIGIL:
Our Lady of Lourdes, Devonport - 7.00pm
EASTER SUNDAY:
St Joseph's Mass Centre, Port Sorell - 8.00am
St Mary's Church, Penguin - 8.00am
St Patrick's Church, Latrobe - 8.00am
Our Lady of Lourdes, Devonport - 9.30am
Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone - 9.30am
Holy Cross Church, Sheffield - 9.30am
RECONCILIATION:
Monday 26th March – Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Devonport 7pm
Wednesday 28th March – Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone – 7pm
Ministry Rosters 10th & 11th March, 2018
10:30am: S Riley, M Sherriff, R Beaton, D
& M Barrientos
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Greeters: Fefita Family Commentator: Readers: Fefita Family
Port Sorell:
Readers: V Duff, G Duff Minister of Communion: P Anderson
Clean/Flowers/Prepare: V Youd
Readings this 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
PREGO REFLECTION:
I take time to settle gently into prayer, becoming aware of
being in God’s presence.
I read the text slowly a couple of times.
Perhaps I
can imagine the scene: the noise of the animals, the smells, the shouting of
the traders and the jostling of the crowds.
I watch Jesus.
How do I feel when
he reacts with anger, and chaos ensues?
Why is this? I speak to him of my
reactions.
What different questions do I ask Jesus, and how does he reply?
I
pause and consider the journey ahead of Jesus – how he is willing to suffer and
die to be true to his Father.
The true temple is the body of Christ. What does
this mean to me, and how can I be part of it?
‘Zeal for your house will devour
me’ – perhaps, as I gently end my prayer, I can ask for the gift of his Spirit,
so that I may work with greater fervour for his kingdom.
Readings next week – Third Sunday of Lent – Year B
First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-6, 19-23
Second Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10
Gospel: John 3:14-21
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Nina Griffiths, Joy Kiely, Vic Slavin, Rex Bates, Phil
Tuckett, David Welch & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Rose
Ackerly, Neil Beamish, Joan Mansour, Colin McKay, Philomina
Mathew, Desmond Peters, Joseph Thi, Henry
Arnold, Judy Carpenter, Beatrice Zuluaga, Narelle
Ravaillion, Arch Jago, Francis
Young
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs
about this time: 28th February – 6th March
Thomas
Beard, Michael Sturgess, Eileen Costello, Darryle Webb, Aileen Hill, Sr Jodie
Hynes, Glen Halley Snr, Pat Chisholm, Pauline
Lamprey, Romualdo Bibera Snr and Barbara Moncrieff.
May they Rest in
Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
Another month has disappeared and I have no idea where it
has gone. But I really do know – there have been meetings and events happening
around the place and each one seems to happen sooner rather than later. But
today is a little frustrating because we have no internet or phones so
apologies to anyone who has been trying to call us (Thursday anyway).
I’m not sure whether we will have material out this weekend
from the Prayer and Reflection Day because our Team Meetings are now on Friday
afternoon and so we have not gone any further than some work done last Friday
on next stages. So far we have to do some work on two areas that have been
highlighted in our Forums and Gatherings thus far – these meetings will be held
just after Easter both sessions starting at 2.30pm: on 15th April there will be
an Introduction to Hospitality Ministry and on 22nd April there will be a
gathering for Lectors. There will be much more info in coming weeks about both
of these events – please note the dates.
Recently I came across a new podcast – Audio Divina – by Fr
Frank Moloney SDB. I am more than happy to help anyone with a Smart Phone to
find it in the App Store or on Google Play – I would highly recommend it as an
excellent preparation for the Sunday Gospel by an outstanding Australian
Scripture Scholar.
There is also a great little video clip about the 2018
Rebuilt Conference (Church of the Nativity, Baltimore) - https://vimeo.com/256234913 - which I
found very helpful because even though it is advertising their conference it
also expressing what a changing parish is called to be and encouraging people
to keep on doing something.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
Third Sunday of Lent - 4th March 2018
Bayan is a young Syrian girl in Jordan who struggled to overcome the trauma of living in a conflict zone, facing the prospect of missing out on school. With Caritas Australia’s support, Bayan is excelling in her studies, with ambitions to become an ophthalmologist.
Please donate to Project Compassion 2018 and help equip young people to succeed in the future, bringing stability to vulnerable youth, providing just futures for others like Bayan. You can donate through Parish boxes and envelopes by phoning 1800 024 413 or visiting www.caritas.org.au/projectcompassion.
MacKillop Hill Spirituality Centre
Margaret Silf
May 2018
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.
Following the 9:30am Mass at St Patrick’s Church on Wednesday 14th March, parishioners are warmly welcomed for a tour of St Patrick’s School, followed by morning tea in the school hall. If you would like to attend, please indicate on the registration form at the back of St Patrick’s Church or phone the school on 6426:1626 for catering purposes. Hope to see you there!
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) Payments can be made in cash to the Parish Office or Direct Deposit into Parish Account (you will need to contact the Parish Office to arrange). 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 8th March Rod Clark & Terry Bird.
Diary Dates
9th March: Stations of the Cross 7pm OLOL Church and Sacred Heart Church.
16th March: Stations of the Cross 7pm OLOL Church and Sacred Heart Church.
16th March: Ordination to Priesthood of Brother Cris – Cebu, Philippines (10pm our time)
17th March: St Patrick’s Church Feast Day – see celebration above
15th April: Introduction to Hospitality Ministry
22nd April: Refresher Training for Lectors
OUR ACHE FOR EARTHLY IMMORTALITY
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
We share the world with more than seven and a half billion people and each of us has the irrepressible, innate sense that we are special and uniquely destined. This isn’t surprising since each one of us is indeed unique and special. But how does one feel special among seven and half billion others?
We try to stand out. Generally we don’t succeed, and so, as Allan Jones puts it, “We nurse within our hearts the hope that we are different, that we are special, that we are extraordinary. We long for the assurance that our birth was no accident, that a god had a hand in our coming to be, that we exist by divine fiat. We ache for a cure for the ultimate disease of mortality. Our madness comes when the pressure is too great and we fabricate a vital lie to cover up the fact that we are mediocre, accidental, mortal. We fail to see the glory of the Good News. The vital lie is unnecessary because all the things we truly long for have been freely given us.”
All of us know what those words mean: We sense that we are extraordinary, precious, and significant, irrespective of our practical fortunes in life. Deep down we have the feeling that we are uniquely loved and specially called to a life of meaning and significance. We know too, though more in faith than in feeling, that we are precious not on the basis of what we accomplish but rather on the basis of having been created and loved by God.
But this intuition, however deep in our souls, invariably wilts in the face of trying to live a life that’s unique and special in a world in which billions of others are also trying to do the same thing. And so we can be overwhelmed by a sense of our own mediocrity, anonymity, and mortality and begin to fear that we’re not precious but are merely another-among-many, nobody special, one of billions, living among billions. When we feel like this, we are tempted to believe that we are precious and unique only when we accomplish something which precisely sets us apart and ensures that we will be remembered. For most of us, the task of our lives then becomes that of guaranteeing our own preciousness, meaning, and immortality because, at the end of the day, we believe that this is contingent upon our own accomplishments, on creating our own specialness.
And so we struggle to be content with ordinary lives of anonymity, hidden in God. Rather we try to stand out, to leave a mark, to accomplish something extraordinary, and so ensure that we will be recognized and remembered. Few things impede our peace and happiness as does this effort. We set for ourselves the impossible, frustrating task of assuring for ourselves something which only God can give us, significance and immortality. Ordinary life then never seems enough for us, and we live restless, competitive, driven lives. Why isn’t ordinary life enough for us? Why do our lives always seem too small and not exciting enough? Why do we habitually feel dissatisfied at not being special?
Why our need to leave a mark? Why does our own situation often feel so suffocating? Why can’t we more easily embrace each other as sisters and brothers and rejoice in each other’s gifts and each other’s existence? Why the perennial feeling that the other is a rival? Why the need for masks, for pretense, to project a certain image about ourselves?
The answer: We do all of these things to try to set ourselves apart because we are trying to give ourselves something that only God can give us, significance and immortality.
Scripture tells us that “faith alone saves.” That simple line reveals the secret: Only God gives eternal life. Preciousness, meaning, significance and immortality are free gifts from God and we would be a whole lot more restful, peaceful, humble, grateful, happy, and less competitive if we could believe that. A humble, ordinary life, shared with billions of others, would then contain enough to give us a sense of our preciousness, meaning, and significance.
Thomas Merton, on one of his less restless days wrote: “It is enough to be, in an ordinary human mode, with one’s hunger and sleep, one’s cold and warmth, rising and going to bed. Putting on blankets and taking them off, making coffee and then drinking it. Defrosting the refrigerator, reading, meditating, working, praying. I live as my Fathers have lived on this earth, until eventually I die. Amen. There is no need to make an assertion of my life, especially so about it as mine, though doubtless it is not somebody else’s. I must learn to live so as to gradually forget program and artifice.”
Ordinary life is enough. There isn’t any need to make an assertion with our lives. Our preciousness and meaning lie within the preciousness and meaning of life itself, not in having to accomplish something special.
The Christ Hymn
I invite you
to take all this heady information and experience it at the heart level through
music, poetry, and art. Living School alumni Alana Levandoski and Julie Ann
Stevens creatively rendered “The Christ Hymn” from Colossians 1:15-20 (Common
English Bible):
“The Christ Hymn,” from the album Behold, I Make All Things
New, was composed by Alana Levandoski, alanalevandoski.com. Paintings by Julie
Ann Stevens, julieannstevens.com. Poetry contributions were written by Malcolm
Guite, Scott Cairns, Joel McKerrow, and Luci Shaw.
5 IDEAS TO TAKE YOUR CHURCH ANNOUNCEMENTS TO THE NEXT LEVEL
This is taken from the blog by Fr Michael White, pastor of the Church of the Nativity. You can find the original blog here
Your parish relies on many forms of communication to get the word out about what you want your parishioners to know and what you want them to do. These include your bulletin, bulletin boards, signage, web site and, increasingly, social media. But, consider the oldest, old school communication you use: the announcements at Mass.
We use to give little or no thought to this element of the weekend experience: whatever the celebrant felt like announcing often determined what they would be Mass to Mass and weekend to weekend. Now we call the announcements the most discussed element of the whole weekend experience. Why? What changed? We figured out they’re an important opportunity and then we figured out how to take advantage of that opportunity.
We call our announcements “Endnotes,” they come after the prayer after communion, and they’re given not by the celebrant but by a rotating (and small) circle of staff.
Here are five ideas that form our announcements.
1. Remind People Who You Are.
One of the first things we found helpful for announcements was to remind people of who we were, both as individuals and as a church. A rotation of staff members making the announcements allows the congregation to get to know them.
It’s also helpful to remind congregants or introduce newcomers to who you are as a church. This can also be very simply accomplished. For instance, we often say: “We want to be a church people who don’t like church…like. If that’s you, welcome. We’re glad you’re here.”
2. Highlight What God is Doing Through the Church.
Limit your announcements to church-wide announcements that are either open to everyone or of interest to them. If you want them to do something be as clear as you can be about how they can fulfill your request. But always yoke your request to the higher purposes of the church.
3. Not More Information/Alternate Sources of Information
A lot of information in the announcements can confuse people. And when they’re confused, they tend to do nothing at all. The most important announcement is always your website address (where, hopefully, all the most current information is available) or the existence of your lobby information desk.
4. Incorporate Visuals.
We almost always include B-roll of programs we’re highlighting or events we’ve hosted. Photos of happy parishioners serving in volunteer ministry, for instance, shown on a weekend we’re asking for more ministers, can be the most compelling argument of all.
5. Prepare and Practice.
Make sure what you’re going to say is carefully scripted, and those making the announcements are well rehearsed. Humor is great in the announcements, but you’re going to have a hard time pulling it off (and run the risk of saying something you’ll regret) without practice.
Oh, and one other thing: don’t try and sell anything in your announcements. That’s not the message you want to send them off with.
Discernment in the New Testament
The writings of Ignatius of Loyola are not the only texts to which we can turn as we seek to understand and practise discernment. The authors of the New Testament, as they sought to explore what it meant for God to have revealed himself in Christ, had plenty to say about how we can discover where God is, and is not, at work in our lives. Nicholas King SJ identifies certain passages that can aid our Lenten study of discernment. Nicholas King SJ is a Tutor and Fellow in New Testament Studies at Campion Hall, University of Oxford.
The pope is currently asking the Church to do something at which he and his Ignatian brothers and sisters are well-practised, namely to ‘discern’ or to listen where God is wanting to take us; and he is quite clear that this is no longer a matter of looking up the rule-books or consulting the list of previous papal utterances. The world needs something else from the Church today. That ‘something else’ is Ignatian discernment, to discover where the Spirit is leading; and it is not a magic formula. For what we have to remember is that self-deception is a constant danger in the area of spiritual discernment (which is why we should always have Ignatius Loyola’s Rules for the Discernment of Spirits ready to hand).
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith website - you can read the complete article here
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 6th – 9th March
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Next Weekend 10th & 11th March
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin & Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield 5:00pm Latrobe
MERSEY LEVEN CATHOLIC PARISH
Holy Week & Easter Ceremonies 2018
Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone - 7.30pmGOOD FRIDAY MORNING - STATIONS OF THE CROSS
St Joseph's Mass Centre, Port Sorell - 10.00am
St Mary's Church, Penguin - 11.00am
Holy Cross Church, Sheffield - 11.00am
ST Patrick's Church, Latrobe - 11.00am
GOOD FRIDAY: Commemoration of the Passion
Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone - 3.00pm
Our Lady of Lourdes, Devonport - 3.00pm
EASTER VIGIL:
Our Lady of Lourdes, Devonport - 7.00pm
EASTER SUNDAY:
St Joseph's Mass Centre, Port Sorell - 8.00am
St Mary's Church, Penguin - 8.00am
St Patrick's Church, Latrobe - 8.00am
Our Lady of Lourdes, Devonport - 9.30am
Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone - 9.30am
Holy Cross Church, Sheffield - 9.30am
RECONCILIATION:
Monday 26th March – Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Devonport 7pm
Wednesday 28th March – Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone – 7pm
Ministry Rosters 10th & 11th March, 2018
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: M Gaffney, H Lim 10:30am: F Sly, P
Piccolo, K Pearce
Ministers of Communion: Vigil:
B, B & B Windebank, T Bird, J Kelly, R Baker
10:30am: S Riley, M Sherriff, R Beaton, D & M Barrientos
Cleaners. 9th March: M & R Youd 16th March: K.S.C. Parish House Mower Roster: Tony Ryan.
Piety Shop 10th March:
R McBain 11th March: O McGinley
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: R Locket Ministers of Communion: M Murray, J Pisarskis, C Harvey, P
Grech
Cleaners: V Ferguson, E Cox Hospitality: M Byrne, G Doyle
Penguin:
Greeters: Fefita Family Commentator: Readers: Fefita Family
Ministers of
Communion: T
Clayton, M Hiscutt Liturgy: Penguin Setting Up: E Nickols
Care of Church: G Hills-Eade, T Clayton
Port Sorell:
Readers: V Duff, G Duff Minister of Communion: P Anderson
Clean/Flowers/Prepare: V Youd
Readings this 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
PREGO REFLECTION:
I take time to settle gently into prayer, becoming aware of
being in God’s presence.
I read the text slowly a couple of times.
Perhaps I
can imagine the scene: the noise of the animals, the smells, the shouting of
the traders and the jostling of the crowds.
I watch Jesus.
How do I feel when
he reacts with anger, and chaos ensues?
Why is this? I speak to him of my
reactions.
What different questions do I ask Jesus, and how does he reply?
I
pause and consider the journey ahead of Jesus – how he is willing to suffer and
die to be true to his Father.
The true temple is the body of Christ. What does
this mean to me, and how can I be part of it?
‘Zeal for your house will devour
me’ – perhaps, as I gently end my prayer, I can ask for the gift of his Spirit,
so that I may work with greater fervour for his kingdom.
Readings next week – Third Sunday of Lent – Year B
First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-6, 19-23
Second Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10
Gospel: John 3:14-21
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Nina Griffiths, Joy Kiely, Vic Slavin, Rex Bates, Phil
Tuckett, David Welch & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Rose
Ackerly, Neil Beamish, Joan Mansour, Colin McKay, Philomina
Mathew, Desmond Peters, Joseph Thi, Henry
Arnold, Judy Carpenter, Beatrice Zuluaga, Narelle
Ravaillion, Arch Jago, Francis
Young
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs
about this time: 28th February – 6th March
Thomas
Beard, Michael Sturgess, Eileen Costello, Darryle Webb, Aileen Hill, Sr Jodie
Hynes, Glen Halley Snr, Pat Chisholm, Pauline
Lamprey, Romualdo Bibera Snr and Barbara Moncrieff.
May they Rest in
Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
Another month has disappeared and I have no idea where it
has gone. But I really do know – there have been meetings and events happening
around the place and each one seems to happen sooner rather than later. But
today is a little frustrating because we have no internet or phones so
apologies to anyone who has been trying to call us (Thursday anyway).
I’m not sure whether we will have material out this weekend
from the Prayer and Reflection Day because our Team Meetings are now on Friday
afternoon and so we have not gone any further than some work done last Friday
on next stages. So far we have to do some work on two areas that have been
highlighted in our Forums and Gatherings thus far – these meetings will be held
just after Easter both sessions starting at 2.30pm: on 15th April there will be
an Introduction to Hospitality Ministry and on 22nd April there will be a
gathering for Lectors. There will be much more info in coming weeks about both
of these events – please note the dates.
Recently I came across a new podcast – Audio Divina – by Fr
Frank Moloney SDB. I am more than happy to help anyone with a Smart Phone to
find it in the App Store or on Google Play – I would highly recommend it as an
excellent preparation for the Sunday Gospel by an outstanding Australian
Scripture Scholar.
There is also a great little video clip about the 2018
Rebuilt Conference (Church of the Nativity, Baltimore) - https://vimeo.com/256234913 - which I
found very helpful because even though it is advertising their conference it
also expressing what a changing parish is called to be and encouraging people
to keep on doing something.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
Third Sunday of Lent - 4th March 2018
Bayan is a young Syrian girl in Jordan who struggled to overcome the trauma of living in a conflict zone, facing the prospect of missing out on school. With Caritas Australia’s support, Bayan is excelling in her studies, with ambitions to become an ophthalmologist.
Please donate to Project Compassion 2018 and help equip young people to succeed in the future, bringing stability to vulnerable youth, providing just futures for others like Bayan. You can donate through Parish boxes and envelopes by phoning 1800 024 413 or visiting www.caritas.org.au/projectcompassion.
MacKillop Hill Spirituality Centre
Margaret Silf
May 2018
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.
Following the 9:30am Mass at St Patrick’s Church on Wednesday 14th March, parishioners are warmly welcomed for a tour of St Patrick’s School, followed by morning tea in the school hall. If you would like to attend, please indicate on the registration form at the back of St Patrick’s Church or phone the school on 6426:1626 for catering purposes. Hope to see you there!
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) Payments can be made in cash to the Parish Office or Direct Deposit into Parish Account (you will need to contact the Parish Office to arrange). 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 8th March Rod Clark & Terry Bird.
Diary Dates
9th March: Stations of the Cross 7pm OLOL Church and Sacred Heart Church.
16th March: Stations of the Cross 7pm OLOL Church and Sacred Heart Church.
16th March: Ordination to Priesthood of Brother Cris – Cebu, Philippines (10pm our time)
17th March: St Patrick’s Church Feast Day – see celebration above
15th April: Introduction to Hospitality Ministry
22nd April: Refresher Training for Lectors
OUR ACHE FOR EARTHLY IMMORTALITY
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
We share the world with more than seven and a half billion people and each of us has the irrepressible, innate sense that we are special and uniquely destined. This isn’t surprising since each one of us is indeed unique and special. But how does one feel special among seven and half billion others?
We try to stand out. Generally we don’t succeed, and so, as Allan Jones puts it, “We nurse within our hearts the hope that we are different, that we are special, that we are extraordinary. We long for the assurance that our birth was no accident, that a god had a hand in our coming to be, that we exist by divine fiat. We ache for a cure for the ultimate disease of mortality. Our madness comes when the pressure is too great and we fabricate a vital lie to cover up the fact that we are mediocre, accidental, mortal. We fail to see the glory of the Good News. The vital lie is unnecessary because all the things we truly long for have been freely given us.”
All of us know what those words mean: We sense that we are extraordinary, precious, and significant, irrespective of our practical fortunes in life. Deep down we have the feeling that we are uniquely loved and specially called to a life of meaning and significance. We know too, though more in faith than in feeling, that we are precious not on the basis of what we accomplish but rather on the basis of having been created and loved by God.
But this intuition, however deep in our souls, invariably wilts in the face of trying to live a life that’s unique and special in a world in which billions of others are also trying to do the same thing. And so we can be overwhelmed by a sense of our own mediocrity, anonymity, and mortality and begin to fear that we’re not precious but are merely another-among-many, nobody special, one of billions, living among billions. When we feel like this, we are tempted to believe that we are precious and unique only when we accomplish something which precisely sets us apart and ensures that we will be remembered. For most of us, the task of our lives then becomes that of guaranteeing our own preciousness, meaning, and immortality because, at the end of the day, we believe that this is contingent upon our own accomplishments, on creating our own specialness.
And so we struggle to be content with ordinary lives of anonymity, hidden in God. Rather we try to stand out, to leave a mark, to accomplish something extraordinary, and so ensure that we will be recognized and remembered. Few things impede our peace and happiness as does this effort. We set for ourselves the impossible, frustrating task of assuring for ourselves something which only God can give us, significance and immortality. Ordinary life then never seems enough for us, and we live restless, competitive, driven lives. Why isn’t ordinary life enough for us? Why do our lives always seem too small and not exciting enough? Why do we habitually feel dissatisfied at not being special?
Why our need to leave a mark? Why does our own situation often feel so suffocating? Why can’t we more easily embrace each other as sisters and brothers and rejoice in each other’s gifts and each other’s existence? Why the perennial feeling that the other is a rival? Why the need for masks, for pretense, to project a certain image about ourselves?
The answer: We do all of these things to try to set ourselves apart because we are trying to give ourselves something that only God can give us, significance and immortality.
Scripture tells us that “faith alone saves.” That simple line reveals the secret: Only God gives eternal life. Preciousness, meaning, significance and immortality are free gifts from God and we would be a whole lot more restful, peaceful, humble, grateful, happy, and less competitive if we could believe that. A humble, ordinary life, shared with billions of others, would then contain enough to give us a sense of our preciousness, meaning, and significance.
Thomas Merton, on one of his less restless days wrote: “It is enough to be, in an ordinary human mode, with one’s hunger and sleep, one’s cold and warmth, rising and going to bed. Putting on blankets and taking them off, making coffee and then drinking it. Defrosting the refrigerator, reading, meditating, working, praying. I live as my Fathers have lived on this earth, until eventually I die. Amen. There is no need to make an assertion of my life, especially so about it as mine, though doubtless it is not somebody else’s. I must learn to live so as to gradually forget program and artifice.”
Ordinary life is enough. There isn’t any need to make an assertion with our lives. Our preciousness and meaning lie within the preciousness and meaning of life itself, not in having to accomplish something special.
The Christ Hymn
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
I invite you
to take all this heady information and experience it at the heart level through
music, poetry, and art. Living School alumni Alana Levandoski and Julie Ann
Stevens creatively rendered “The Christ Hymn” from Colossians 1:15-20 (Common
English Bible):
The Son is
the image of the invisible God,
the one who
is first over all creation,
Because all
things were created by him:
both in the
heavens and on the earth,
the things
that are visible and the things that are invisible.
Whether they
are thrones or powers,
or rulers or
authorities,
all things
were created through him and for him.
He existed
before all things,
and all
things are held together in him.
He is the
head of the body, the church,
who is the
beginning,
the one who
is firstborn from among the dead
so that he
might occupy the first place in everything.
Because all
the fullness of God was pleased to live in him,
and he
reconciled all things to himself through him—
whether
things on earth or in the heavens.
He brought peace through the blood of his cross.
May these words, images, and music draw us more deeply into
the Mystery of Christ.
“The Christ Hymn,” from the album Behold, I Make All Things
New, was composed by Alana Levandoski, alanalevandoski.com. Paintings by Julie
Ann Stevens, julieannstevens.com. Poetry contributions were written by Malcolm
Guite, Scott Cairns, Joel McKerrow, and Luci Shaw.
For Further Study:
Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis
of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014)
Richard Rohr, Hierarchy of Truths: Jesus’ Use of Scripture
(Center for Action and Contemplation: 2013), CD, MP3 download
Richard Rohr and Rob Bell, In the Beginning. . . (Center for
Action and Contemplation: 2014), CD, MP3 download
5 IDEAS TO TAKE YOUR CHURCH ANNOUNCEMENTS TO THE NEXT LEVEL
This is taken from the blog by Fr Michael White, pastor of the Church of the Nativity. You can find the original blog here
Your parish relies on many forms of communication to get the word out about what you want your parishioners to know and what you want them to do. These include your bulletin, bulletin boards, signage, web site and, increasingly, social media. But, consider the oldest, old school communication you use: the announcements at Mass.
We use to give little or no thought to this element of the weekend experience: whatever the celebrant felt like announcing often determined what they would be Mass to Mass and weekend to weekend. Now we call the announcements the most discussed element of the whole weekend experience. Why? What changed? We figured out they’re an important opportunity and then we figured out how to take advantage of that opportunity.
We call our announcements “Endnotes,” they come after the prayer after communion, and they’re given not by the celebrant but by a rotating (and small) circle of staff.
Here are five ideas that form our announcements.
1. Remind People Who You Are.
One of the first things we found helpful for announcements was to remind people of who we were, both as individuals and as a church. A rotation of staff members making the announcements allows the congregation to get to know them.
It’s also helpful to remind congregants or introduce newcomers to who you are as a church. This can also be very simply accomplished. For instance, we often say: “We want to be a church people who don’t like church…like. If that’s you, welcome. We’re glad you’re here.”
2. Highlight What God is Doing Through the Church.
Limit your announcements to church-wide announcements that are either open to everyone or of interest to them. If you want them to do something be as clear as you can be about how they can fulfill your request. But always yoke your request to the higher purposes of the church.
3. Not More Information/Alternate Sources of Information
A lot of information in the announcements can confuse people. And when they’re confused, they tend to do nothing at all. The most important announcement is always your website address (where, hopefully, all the most current information is available) or the existence of your lobby information desk.
4. Incorporate Visuals.
We almost always include B-roll of programs we’re highlighting or events we’ve hosted. Photos of happy parishioners serving in volunteer ministry, for instance, shown on a weekend we’re asking for more ministers, can be the most compelling argument of all.
5. Prepare and Practice.
Make sure what you’re going to say is carefully scripted, and those making the announcements are well rehearsed. Humor is great in the announcements, but you’re going to have a hard time pulling it off (and run the risk of saying something you’ll regret) without practice.
Oh, and one other thing: don’t try and sell anything in your announcements. That’s not the message you want to send them off with.
Discernment in the New Testament
The writings of Ignatius of Loyola are not the only texts to which we can turn as we seek to understand and practise discernment. The authors of the New Testament, as they sought to explore what it meant for God to have revealed himself in Christ, had plenty to say about how we can discover where God is, and is not, at work in our lives. Nicholas King SJ identifies certain passages that can aid our Lenten study of discernment. Nicholas King SJ is a Tutor and Fellow in New Testament Studies at Campion Hall, University of Oxford.The pope is currently asking the Church to do something at which he and his Ignatian brothers and sisters are well-practised, namely to ‘discern’ or to listen where God is wanting to take us; and he is quite clear that this is no longer a matter of looking up the rule-books or consulting the list of previous papal utterances. The world needs something else from the Church today. That ‘something else’ is Ignatian discernment, to discover where the Spirit is leading; and it is not a magic formula. For what we have to remember is that self-deception is a constant danger in the area of spiritual discernment (which is why we should always have Ignatius Loyola’s Rules for the Discernment of Spirits ready to hand).
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith website - you can read the complete article here
No comments:
Post a Comment