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
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.
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Weekday
Masses 1st – 4th May
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
12noon Port Sorell (Feast Day)
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe … St Athanasius
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
12noon Devonport
Weekend Masses 5th & 6th May, 2018
Ministry Rosters 5th & 6th May, 2018
Devonport: 
Ministers of Communion: Vigil:
D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir,
M Gerrand, P Shelverton
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Readings this week – Fifth Sunday of Easter
PREGO REFLECTION:
I take time to
become still. What do I hope for from my prayer today?
In time I read the text
prayerfully, several times.
Jesus is inviting me to a relationship where he and
I are intimately connected; where we feel completely at home with one another.
I ponder this.
What strikes me?
Perhaps I rest my gaze on a branch joined to a
strong stem or trunk, and imagine myself connected to God in the same way.
How
do I feel?
Sometimes dead wood needs cutting away to make room for new growth.
There may have been a time when something in my own life has been ‘pruned’ in
some way, perhaps causing me pain.
How do I feel about this now?
Has new fruit
perhaps resulted from it?
I speak to the Lord from my heart about this, as one
friend to another.
Might there be other areas of my life … perhaps my church …
my work … my community … where new growth will only be enabled if something
else is cut away first?
I ask the Lord to show me, and help me respond with
courage and trust.
As I end my prayer, I speak out my thanks. Glory be ...
Readings next week – Sixth Sunday of
Easter
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Mary Webb, Sr Janet Sexton & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Edwin
Fisher, Bernie Mason, Lexie Weedon, Laurie Fox
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs
about this time: 25th April – 1st May
May they Rest in Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
Another month has disappeared and I have no idea where it
has gone. Although I do know that quite a lot has happened in this time
including Holy Week and Easter as well as the Priests Plenary and now Anzac
Day.
There has also been the two Sessions reflecting on the
Ministry of Hospitality and Lector and I am grateful to all those generous
people who were able to be at those gatherings. I also appreciate all those who
offered their apologies for the gatherings. Over the next few weeks there will
be more information available about follow-up gatherings or conversations.
Fr Paschal’s group of young people are joining through the
Youth Alpha Program and are finding it interesting and encouraging them to make
a deeper faith response. Please lift them up in your prayers as they continue
their journey of faith.
Next Friday (4th May) is our next Open House
Gathering – during the winter months we gather in the Community Room at
Ulverstone. We get so few opportunities to meet socially as a Parish so I
extend an invitation to all of you to come and join me and fellow parishioners
in this time of simply being together in friendship. You are welcome to come at
any time from 6.30pm and all food and drink are provided.
Date Reminder: Our whole of Parish Mass for the Feast of
Pentecost will be at 11am at Our Lady of Lourdes on Sunday, 20th
May. Please note that this will be the only Mass in the Parish on Pentecost
Sunday. Further details next weekend.
Please
take care on the roads and we look forward to seeing you next weekend.
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome
and congratulate ….
Many
happy returns Glad Mulcahy
KNIGHTS OF
THE SOUTHERN CROSS MEETING: this
Sunday 29th April at the Parish Hall, Devonport commencing at 4pm. No meal.
Interested men are invited to attend.
MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE
SPIRITUALITY
IN THE COFFEE SHOPPE -
Monday 30th April, 10.30am – 12 noon. A great
opportunity over a cup of tea or coffee to share the joys and struggles of
faith and life. See you there! No booking necessary!
LEGION OF MARY: All Parishioners are invited to the Legion of Mary
annual Acias (Consecration to Our Lady) at Sacred Heart Church, Alexandra Road
Ulverstone Sunday 6th
May at 2pm with benediction, followed by afternoon tea in the
Community Room.
CATHOLIC
CHARISMATIC RENEWAL TASMANIA – HEALING MASS: St Mary’s Catholic Church Penguin Thursday
10th May starting at 7.00 pm with Fr Alexander Obiorah
and Fr Paschal Okpon as the celebrants. All
denominations are welcome to come and celebrate the liturgy in a vibrant and
dynamic way using charismatic praise and worship, with the gift of tongues,
prophecy, healing and anointing with blessed oil. After Mass, teams will be
available for individual prayer. Please bring a friend and a plate for supper
to share in the Hall. Contacts: Celestine 6424:2043, Michael 0447 018 068 at
Devonport or Tom 6425:2442 at Ulverstone.
MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE
MARGARET SILF One of the most renowned and accessible spirituality writers of our time
returns to Tasmania in May 2018. She
will be presenting 2 sessions at Sacred Heart Church Community Room,
Ulverstone– come to one or both!
Ulverstone
Thursday 24th May, 7pm – 9pm - “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 10.30am – 12.30pm - “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.
Book now! Phone 6428:3095
or email: rsjforth@bigpond.net.au. Cost $20.00 per session.
FOOTY
TICKETS:
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
TASMANIAN CATHOLIC YOUTH
FESTIVAL:
Growing in Love's Likeness
All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the
Lord, are being transformed into the same image that we reflect. This is the
work of the Lord who is Spirit. —2 Corinthians 3:18
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality
for the Two Halves of Life (Jossey-Bass: 2011), 153-154.
Information technology and social media aren’t my mother tongue. I’m a digital immigrant. I wasn’t born into the world of information technology but migrated into it, piece-meal. I first lived in some foreign territories.
I was nine years old before I lived with electricity. I had seen it before; but neither our home, our school, nor our neighbors had electricity. Electricity, when I first saw it, was a huge revelation. And while I grew up with radio, I was fourteen before our family got its first television set. Again, this was a revelation – and manna for my adolescent hunger for connection to the larger world. Electricity and television quickly became a mother tongue, one lit our home and other brought the big world into it. But the phone was still foreign. I was seventeen when I left home and our family had never had a phone.
The phone wasn’t much to master, but it would be a goodly number of years before I mastered much in the brave new world of information technology: Computers, the internet, websites, mobile phones, smart phones, television and movie access through the internet, cloud storage, social media, virtual assistants, and the world of myriad apps. It’s been a journey! I was thirty-eight when I first used a VCR, forty-two before I first owned a computer, fifty before I first accessed the web and used email, fifty-eight when I owned my first mobile phone, the same age when I first set up a website, sixty-two before I first texted, and sixty-five before I joined Facebook. With email, texting, and Facebook being all I can handle, I still do not have either an Instagram or Twitter account. I’m the only person in my immediate religious community who still prays the office of the church out of a book rather than off a mobile device.
I protest that paper has soul while digital devices do not. The responses I get are not particularly sympathetic. But it’s for reasons of soul that I much prefer to have a book in my hand than a kindle device. I’m not against information technology; mainly it’s just that I’m not very good at it. I struggle with the language. It’s hard to master a new language as an adult and I envy the young who can speak this language well.
What’s to be said about the revolution in information technology? Is it good or bad?
Obviously, it has many positives: It’s making us the most informed people ever in the history of this world. Information is power and the internet and social media have leveled the playing field in terms of access to information and this is serving well the developing nations in the world. Moreover it’s creating one global village out of the whole world. We now know all of our neighbors, not just those who live nearby. We’re the best-informed and best-connected people ever.
But all of this also has a pejorative underbelly: We talk to each other less than we text each other. We have many virtual friends but not always many real friends. We watch nature on a screen more than we ever physically touch it. We spend more time looking at device in our hands than actually engaging others face to face. I walk through an airport or basically any other public space and I see the majority of people staring at their phones. Is this a good thing? Does it foster for friendship and community or is it their substitute? It’s too early to tell. The initial generations who lived through the industrial revolution did not have any way of knowing what the effects of this would be long-range. The technological revolution, I believe, is just as radical as the industrial revolution and we are its initial generation. At this time we have no way of knowing where this will ultimately take us, for good or bad.
But one negative that seems already evident is that the revolution within information technology we are living through is destroying the few remaining remnants we still retain in terms of keeping “Sabbath” in our lives. The 13th century mystic, Rumi, once lamented: “I have lived too long where I can be reached.” That’s infinitely truer of us today than it was for those living in the 13th century. Thanks to the electronic devices we carry around with us we can be reached all the time – and, too often, let ourselves be reached all time. The result is that now we no longer have any time apart from what we regularly do. Our family times, our recreational times, our vacation periods, and even our prayer times are constantly rendered regular time by our “being reached”. My fear is that while we are going to be the most informed people ever we may well end up the least contemplative people ever.
But I’m an outsider on this, a digital immigrant. I need to bow to the judgments of those who speak this language as their mother tongue.
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
Amen.
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Baptism: Arrangements are made by contacting Parish Office. Parents attend a Baptismal Preparation Session organised with a Priest.
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 name to the Parish Office. We have a group of parishioners who are part of a Care and Concern Group who are willing to provide some backup and support to them.
Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Benediction with Adoration Devonport: First Friday each month.
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – Mondays 7pm Community Room Ulverstone
Weekday
Masses 1st – 4th May
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
12noon Port Sorell (Feast Day)
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe … St Athanasius
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
12noon Devonport
Weekend Masses 5th & 6th May, 2018
Saturday
Mass: 9:30am Ulverstone
Saturday
Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
6:00pm Devonport
Sunday
Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am
Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am
Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 5th & 6th May, 2018
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil M Kelly, B Paul, R Baker
10:30am: J Phillips, P Piccolo, J Henderson
Ministers of Communion: Vigil:
D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir,
M Gerrand, P Shelverton
10:30: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S
Arrowsmith
Cleaners. 4th May: M.W.C. 11th May: B Paul, D Atkins, V Riley
Piety Shop 5th May:
R McBain 6th May: D French
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: D Prior Ministers of Communion: B Deacon, K Reilly
Cleaners: M Mott Flowers: G Doyle Hospitality: S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters: G & N Pearce Commentator: Y Downes Readers: M & D Hiscutt
Ministers of
Communion: T
Clayton, E Nickols Liturgy: Penguin Setting Up: E Nickols Care of Church: J & T Kiely
Latrobe:
Reader: S Ritchie Ministers of Communion: B Ritchie Procession of
Gifts: M Clarke
Readings this week – Fifth Sunday of Easter
First Reading: Acts 9:26-31
Second Reading: 1 John 3:18-24
Gospel: John 15:1-8
PREGO REFLECTION:
If I can, I may like to pray near a window or outside
today, open to God’s presence in the natural world around me.
I take time to become still. What do I hope for from my prayer today?
In time I read the text prayerfully, several times.
Jesus is inviting me to a relationship where he and I are intimately connected; where we feel completely at home with one another.
I ponder this.
What strikes me?
Perhaps I rest my gaze on a branch joined to a strong stem or trunk, and imagine myself connected to God in the same way.
How do I feel?
Sometimes dead wood needs cutting away to make room for new growth.
There may have been a time when something in my own life has been ‘pruned’ in some way, perhaps causing me pain.
How do I feel about this now?
Has new fruit perhaps resulted from it?
I speak to the Lord from my heart about this, as one friend to another.
Might there be other areas of my life … perhaps my church … my work … my community … where new growth will only be enabled if something else is cut away first?
I ask the Lord to show me, and help me respond with courage and trust.
As I end my prayer, I speak out my thanks. Glory be ...
I take time to become still. What do I hope for from my prayer today?
In time I read the text prayerfully, several times.
Jesus is inviting me to a relationship where he and I are intimately connected; where we feel completely at home with one another.
I ponder this.
What strikes me?
Perhaps I rest my gaze on a branch joined to a strong stem or trunk, and imagine myself connected to God in the same way.
How do I feel?
Sometimes dead wood needs cutting away to make room for new growth.
There may have been a time when something in my own life has been ‘pruned’ in some way, perhaps causing me pain.
How do I feel about this now?
Has new fruit perhaps resulted from it?
I speak to the Lord from my heart about this, as one friend to another.
Might there be other areas of my life … perhaps my church … my work … my community … where new growth will only be enabled if something else is cut away first?
I ask the Lord to show me, and help me respond with courage and trust.
As I end my prayer, I speak out my thanks. Glory be ...
Readings next week – Sixth Sunday of
Easter
First Reading: Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Second Reading: 1 John 4:7-10
Gospel: John
17:11-19
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Mary Webb, Sr Janet Sexton & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Edwin
Fisher, Bernie Mason, Lexie Weedon, Laurie Fox
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs
about this time: 25th April – 1st May
Courtney
Bryan, Rita McQueen, Ellen Lynch, Ronald Allison, Delia Soden, Ron Batten,
Cedric Davey, Maureen
Beechey, Frances Hunt, Beverley O’Connor, Mark McCormack, David O’Rourke, Mary
Scolyer, Brian
McCormick, Michael Harvey, Michael Pankiv, Matthew Keen, Margaret Cameron,
William Cloney, Catherine
Johnson, Julie Horniblow, Aileen Harris, Nell Kelleher, Doris Coad, Peter Rae
& Clare Kuhnle.
May they Rest in Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
Another month has disappeared and I have no idea where it
has gone. Although I do know that quite a lot has happened in this time
including Holy Week and Easter as well as the Priests Plenary and now Anzac
Day.
There has also been the two Sessions reflecting on the
Ministry of Hospitality and Lector and I am grateful to all those generous
people who were able to be at those gatherings. I also appreciate all those who
offered their apologies for the gatherings. Over the next few weeks there will
be more information available about follow-up gatherings or conversations.
Fr Paschal’s group of young people are joining through the
Youth Alpha Program and are finding it interesting and encouraging them to make
a deeper faith response. Please lift them up in your prayers as they continue
their journey of faith.
Next Friday (4th May) is our next Open House
Gathering – during the winter months we gather in the Community Room at
Ulverstone. We get so few opportunities to meet socially as a Parish so I
extend an invitation to all of you to come and join me and fellow parishioners
in this time of simply being together in friendship. You are welcome to come at
any time from 6.30pm and all food and drink are provided.
Date Reminder: Our whole of Parish Mass for the Feast of
Pentecost will be at 11am at Our Lady of Lourdes on Sunday, 20th
May. Please note that this will be the only Mass in the Parish on Pentecost
Sunday. Further details next weekend.
Please
take care on the roads and we look forward to seeing you next weekend.
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome
and congratulate ….
James Douglas
Son of John & Sarah on his
Baptism this weekend.
Many
happy returns Glad Mulcahy
on
the occasion of your 100th Birthday,
Wednesday
2nd May, 2018.
May
the lord continue to bless you with his love.
KNIGHTS OF
THE SOUTHERN CROSS MEETING: this
Sunday 29th April at the Parish Hall, Devonport commencing at 4pm. No meal.
Interested men are invited to attend.
MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE
SPIRITUALITY
IN THE COFFEE SHOPPE -
Monday 30th April, 10.30am – 12 noon. A great
opportunity over a cup of tea or coffee to share the joys and struggles of
faith and life. See you there! No booking necessary!
LEGION OF MARY: All Parishioners are invited to the Legion of Mary
annual Acias (Consecration to Our Lady) at Sacred Heart Church, Alexandra Road
Ulverstone Sunday 6th
May at 2pm with benediction, followed by afternoon tea in the
Community Room.
CATHOLIC
CHARISMATIC RENEWAL TASMANIA – HEALING MASS: St Mary’s Catholic Church Penguin Thursday
10th May starting at 7.00 pm with Fr Alexander Obiorah
and Fr Paschal Okpon as the celebrants. All
denominations are welcome to come and celebrate the liturgy in a vibrant and
dynamic way using charismatic praise and worship, with the gift of tongues,
prophecy, healing and anointing with blessed oil. After Mass, teams will be
available for individual prayer. Please bring a friend and a plate for supper
to share in the Hall. Contacts: Celestine 6424:2043, Michael 0447 018 068 at
Devonport or Tom 6425:2442 at Ulverstone.
MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE
MARGARET SILF One of the most renowned and accessible spirituality writers of our time
returns to Tasmania in May 2018. She
will be presenting 2 sessions at Sacred Heart Church Community Room,
Ulverstone– come to one or both!
Ulverstone
Thursday 24th May, 7pm – 9pm - “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 10.30am – 12.30pm - “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.
Book now! Phone 6428:3095
or email: rsjforth@bigpond.net.au. Cost $20.00 per session.
FOOTY
TICKETS:
Round 5 (Friday 20th April) Adelaide defeated Sydney
Swans by 10 points. Congratulations to the following winners; Annie Davies,
……….? ……….? (Remember to check your tickets!)
There are still plenty of tickets to be sold at Devonport
and Ulverstone each week, so for a little bit of fun why not help support our
Parish fundraiser and buy a footy margin ticket (or two) $2.00 each. There are
three prizes of $100.00 each week. You’ve got to be in it to win it!!
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers for Thursday 3rd
May – Merv Tippett & Graeme Rigney.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
TASMANIAN CATHOLIC YOUTH
FESTIVAL:
The Tasmanian Catholic Youth Festival will bring a
host of international and local speakers and performers to Tasmania for what is
sure to be two days full of joy and celebration. The festival will include:
plenary sessions, workshops, live music, discussion, expo stalls, prayer
opportunities, night rallies, social justice initiatives, food/drink, and
plenty more. The TCYF will be held on Wednesday 16th May
(Launceston) and Thursday 17th May (Hobart). The event will consist
of a day session (9:30am-4:30pm) followed by a night rally (4:30pm-8pm) on both
days. Youth from high school years 8-12 are invited to attend both the day and
night sessions whilst young adults under the age of 30 are invited to attend
the night rallies. Registration for the event is FREE for all
attendees. More information on the event, schedule, speakers/performers and
registration can be found at the website https://hobart.catholic.org.au/content/tasmanian-catholic-youth-festival-1
Growing in Love's Likeness
This reflection is taken from the daily emails from Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe and receive the emails by clicking here
All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the
Lord, are being transformed into the same image that we reflect. This is the
work of the Lord who is Spirit. —2 Corinthians 3:18
We are created in the image and likeness of God from the
moment of our conception. The Creator gives us our core identity as sons and
daughters of God, “from the beginning” (Ephesians 1:4-5). Throughout our lives
we co-create our unique likeness as we grow and mature. Yes, we have a say in
the process! God creates things with the freedom and permission to continue the
act of creation. (See Romans 8:28-30.) Many people struggle to think this way
without an evolutionary worldview. Religious folks often attribute
transformation entirely to God, and secular folks think it’s all up to them.
But of course, you who read these meditations are nondual thinkers and can say
both/and!
Life gives us opportunities to discover our image and
develop our likeness, often in the form of necessary stumbling and falling.
Throughout it all we are always held inside of Love. Challenges and disruptions
invite us to move from what I call the first half of life to the second half,
from forming and serving the ego to the ego, in fact, serving the soul. With
the guidance of the Spirit and the help of wise mentors and elders, all of
life, including our “false” or small and separate self, can lead us to our True
Self or “who we are hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).
Most of us tend to think about the second half of life in
terms of getting old, dealing with health issues, and letting go of our
physical life. But the transition can happen at any age. Moving to the second
half of life is an experience of falling upward and onward, into a broader and
deeper world, where the soul has found its fullness and we are consciously
connected to the whole.
It is not a loss but somehow a gain. I have met enough
radiant people to know that this paradox is possible! Many have come to their
human fullness, often against all odds, and usually through suffering. They
offer models and goals for humanity, much more than the celebrities and
politicos who get so much of our attention today.
Helen Keller (1880-1968)—an author, pacifist, suffragist,
member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and a woman who was deaf
and blind—was such a model. Once she discovered her own depths, she seems to
have leapt into the second half of life very early, despite considerable
limitations. She became convinced that life was about service to others rather
than protecting or lamenting her supposedly disabled body. Keller’s
Swedenborgian mysticism surely helped her grow and “fall upward” despite—or
maybe because of—her very constricted early experience. Helen had to grow; she
had to go deep and broad. She clearly continued to create herself, even though
she could have so easily complained about how little she had to work with.
Where did God end and where did she begin? It is an impossible question to
answer. Helen and God somehow worked together.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality
for the Two Halves of Life (Jossey-Bass: 2011), 153-154.
THE SHORTCOMINGS OF A DIGITAL IMMIGRANT
This arrticle is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
Information technology and social media aren’t my mother tongue. I’m a digital immigrant. I wasn’t born into the world of information technology but migrated into it, piece-meal. I first lived in some foreign territories.
I was nine years old before I lived with electricity. I had seen it before; but neither our home, our school, nor our neighbors had electricity. Electricity, when I first saw it, was a huge revelation. And while I grew up with radio, I was fourteen before our family got its first television set. Again, this was a revelation – and manna for my adolescent hunger for connection to the larger world. Electricity and television quickly became a mother tongue, one lit our home and other brought the big world into it. But the phone was still foreign. I was seventeen when I left home and our family had never had a phone.
The phone wasn’t much to master, but it would be a goodly number of years before I mastered much in the brave new world of information technology: Computers, the internet, websites, mobile phones, smart phones, television and movie access through the internet, cloud storage, social media, virtual assistants, and the world of myriad apps. It’s been a journey! I was thirty-eight when I first used a VCR, forty-two before I first owned a computer, fifty before I first accessed the web and used email, fifty-eight when I owned my first mobile phone, the same age when I first set up a website, sixty-two before I first texted, and sixty-five before I joined Facebook. With email, texting, and Facebook being all I can handle, I still do not have either an Instagram or Twitter account. I’m the only person in my immediate religious community who still prays the office of the church out of a book rather than off a mobile device.
I protest that paper has soul while digital devices do not. The responses I get are not particularly sympathetic. But it’s for reasons of soul that I much prefer to have a book in my hand than a kindle device. I’m not against information technology; mainly it’s just that I’m not very good at it. I struggle with the language. It’s hard to master a new language as an adult and I envy the young who can speak this language well.
What’s to be said about the revolution in information technology? Is it good or bad?
Obviously, it has many positives: It’s making us the most informed people ever in the history of this world. Information is power and the internet and social media have leveled the playing field in terms of access to information and this is serving well the developing nations in the world. Moreover it’s creating one global village out of the whole world. We now know all of our neighbors, not just those who live nearby. We’re the best-informed and best-connected people ever.
But all of this also has a pejorative underbelly: We talk to each other less than we text each other. We have many virtual friends but not always many real friends. We watch nature on a screen more than we ever physically touch it. We spend more time looking at device in our hands than actually engaging others face to face. I walk through an airport or basically any other public space and I see the majority of people staring at their phones. Is this a good thing? Does it foster for friendship and community or is it their substitute? It’s too early to tell. The initial generations who lived through the industrial revolution did not have any way of knowing what the effects of this would be long-range. The technological revolution, I believe, is just as radical as the industrial revolution and we are its initial generation. At this time we have no way of knowing where this will ultimately take us, for good or bad.
But one negative that seems already evident is that the revolution within information technology we are living through is destroying the few remaining remnants we still retain in terms of keeping “Sabbath” in our lives. The 13th century mystic, Rumi, once lamented: “I have lived too long where I can be reached.” That’s infinitely truer of us today than it was for those living in the 13th century. Thanks to the electronic devices we carry around with us we can be reached all the time – and, too often, let ourselves be reached all time. The result is that now we no longer have any time apart from what we regularly do. Our family times, our recreational times, our vacation periods, and even our prayer times are constantly rendered regular time by our “being reached”. My fear is that while we are going to be the most informed people ever we may well end up the least contemplative people ever.
But I’m an outsider on this, a digital immigrant. I need to bow to the judgments of those who speak this language as their mother tongue.
Peter Canisius: Countering the Reformation in Germany
27 April is the Feast of Saint Peter Canisius. In 1897, Pope Leo XIII issued an encyclical to mark the 300th anniversary of Canisius’s death, in which he referred to the Jesuit as, ‘after Boniface…the second apostle of Germany’. What did he do to earn such a title? Daniel Kearney is a former headmaster at an independent Catholic college. He is currently Head of Religious Studies at Leweston School in Dorset.
Peter Canisius was born in the Netherlands in 1521. Like many characters of his time, he defied his parents’ wishes in order to study theology, and he was initially strongly influenced in that regard by Devotio Moderna, a lay pietistic movement. It was while he studied at the University of Cologne that he met and was directed in retreat by Pierre Favre. He completed the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola and went on to become the eighth member of the Society of Jesus. It was during the three decades after his profession to the Society that he worked for the reestablishment of the Catholic Church in Germany, which had been greatly shaken by the Reformation.
You can read the complete article on the ThinkingFaith.org website by clicking here
27 April is the Feast of Saint Peter Canisius. In 1897, Pope Leo XIII issued an encyclical to mark the 300th anniversary of Canisius’s death, in which he referred to the Jesuit as, ‘after Boniface…the second apostle of Germany’. What did he do to earn such a title? Daniel Kearney is a former headmaster at an independent Catholic college. He is currently Head of Religious Studies at Leweston School in Dorset.
Peter Canisius was born in the Netherlands in 1521. Like many characters of his time, he defied his parents’ wishes in order to study theology, and he was initially strongly influenced in that regard by Devotio Moderna, a lay pietistic movement. It was while he studied at the University of Cologne that he met and was directed in retreat by Pierre Favre. He completed the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola and went on to become the eighth member of the Society of Jesus. It was during the three decades after his profession to the Society that he worked for the reestablishment of the Catholic Church in Germany, which had been greatly shaken by the Reformation.
You can read the complete article on the ThinkingFaith.org website by clicking here
