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 8th - 11th May
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Thursday: 10.30am Eliza Purton 12noon Devonport Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Weekend Masses 12th & 13th May, 2018
Saturday Mass: 9:30am Ulverstone Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin 6:00pm Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
Ministry Rosters 12th & 13th May, 2018
Devonport: 
10:30: S Riley, M Sherriff, R Beaton, D
Barrientos, M Barrientos
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Port Sorell:
Readings this week – Sixth Sunday of Easter
PREGO REFLECTION:
Readings next week – The Ascension
of the Lord
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Mary Webb, Fr John Williams & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Sr Janet Sexton, Moya Hickey, Maureen
Roach, Edwin
Fisher, Bernie Mason, Lexie Weedon
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs
about this time: 2nd – 8th May
May they Rest in Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
Fr Paschal and his team and
the Youth Group are meeting each Sunday evening from 5pm in the Parish House.
Part of their time together includes a shared meal and after many years of
Footy Margins tickets being used for ‘stuff’ around the Parish some of the
monies is now being used to support Youth. Hopefully, more will need to be used
as others become involved.
Please
take care on the roads and we look forward to seeing you next weekend.
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome
and congratulate ….
Noah Morgan
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 this 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!
GRAN’S VAN:
Gran’s
Van co-ordinator Shirley Ryan wishes to thank all those Mersey Leven
Parishioners especially the younger ones, who most generously assisted with
Gran’s Van on the Sunday evenings during April. Your support once again enabled
us to provide quality meals to those in need in our community.
FOOTY
TICKETS:
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
TASMANIAN CATHOLIC YOUTH
FESTIVAL:
KENOSIS
RETREAT: Kenosis
mean self-emptying and refers to God, putting his divinity aside to come
amongst us as a human being. In this retreat we will explore who we are so as
to accept ourselves and truly be in a position to empty ourselves for others.” Date:
June 15th – 17th 2018, Presenter: Fr Ray Sanchez C.P. Venue: Maryknoll House of
Prayer Blackman’s Bay. For further information please call Anne on 0407 704 539
or email journallingretreat@iinet.net.au
RACHEL’S
VINEYARD –
Do not continue to live in shame, fear or numbness. Rachel’s Vineyard is a safe
place to renew, rebuild and redeem hearts broken by abortion through our
supportive, confidential and non-judgemental weekend retreats. Next retreat Aug
31st – Sept 2nd 2018. For more information please contact Anne Sherston on the
confidential phone line 0478 599 241 or email rachelsvineyardtas@aapt.net.au
NATIONAL
FAMILIES WEEK - FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT AT GATEWAY CHURCH:
Free Family Event - 5 pm Kids Activities and BBQ 6 pm Movie
– COCO - Contact Cheryl Jones Phone 64241636 Email info@gatewaycommunitycare.net.au
Website gatewaycommunitycare.net.au
Human Development in Scripture
This reflection is taken from the daily emails from Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe and receive the emails by clicking here
It is helpful for us to know about the whole arc of life and
where it is leading. Walter Brueggemann, one of my favorite scripture scholars,
brilliantly connects the development of the Hebrew Scriptures with the
development of human consciousness. [1] Brueggemann identifies different stages
in the three major parts of the Hebrew Scriptures: the Torah, the Prophets, and
the Wisdom literature.
A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, disc 2
(Franciscan Media: 2004), CD.
This article is copies form the website of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original page here
Cardinal Francis George was once asked what he thought of the radical pacifism of people like Dorothy Day and Daniel Berrigan, prophetic figures who believed in absolute nonviolence. How can this be practical, he was asked, it’s utterly naïve to believe that we can live without police and without soldiers. This was his reply: The world needs pacifists in the same way as it needs vowed celibates: They’re not practical. They’re out of place in this world. But they point to the eschatological world, the world of heaven, a world within which there will be no guns, where relational exclusivities will not exist as they exist now, where family will not be based on biology, blood, or marriage, where there will be no poor people, and where everything will belong to everyone.
I thought of that recently as I was conducting a workshop on religious life for a group of young people who were discerning whether or not to enter vowed religious life. My task was not to try to persuade them to join a religious community but to help them understand what that life, should they join it, would entail. That meant, of course, long discussions on the three vows that people take to be in religious life: poverty, chastity, and obedience (classically termed “the Evangelical Counsels”).
What’s to be said about poverty, chastity, and obedience in a world that, for the most part, places its hope in material riches, generally identifies chastity with frigidity, and values individual freedom above all else?
Well, no doubt, poverty, chastity, and obedience are seen as radically counter-cultural; but that’s mostly because they are generally not very well understood (sometimes even by those who are living them out). For the most part they are seen as a drastic renunciation, the sacrificing of a full life, the unnatural denial of one’s sexuality, and the adolescent signing over of one’s freedom and creativity. But that’s a misunderstanding.
Poverty, chastity, and obedience are not a missing out on riches, sexuality, and freedom. They are rather a genuine, rich, modality of riches, sexuality, and freedom.
The vow of poverty isn’t primarily about living with cheaper things, not having a dishwasher and doing your own housework. It’s also not about renouncing the kinds of riches that can make for the full flourishing of life. A life of voluntary poverty is a lived way of saying that all material possessions are gift, that the world belongs to everyone, that nobody owns a country, and that nobody’s needs are first. It’s a vow against consumerism and tribalism, and it brings its own wonderful riches in terms of meaning and in the happiness and joy of a shared life.
Likewise for the vow of chastity: Properly understood, it is not a missing out on the joys of sexuality. It’s a rich modality of sexuality itself, given that being sexual means more than having sex. Sexuality is a beautiful, God-given drive within us for lots of things: community, friendship, togetherness, wholeness, family, play, altruism, enjoyment, delight, creativity, genital consummation, and for everything that takes us beyond our aloneness and makes us generative. And so the very real joys that are found in community, friendship, and service of others are not a second-rate substitute for sex. They bring their own sexual flourishing in terms of leading us out of our aloneness.
The same holds true for obedience. Properly understood, it’s not a missing out on real freedom. Rather it’s a rich modality of freedom itself, one practiced by Jesus (who repeatedly says: “I do nothing on my own. I do only the Father’s will.”) Obedience, as a religious vow, is not an immature sacrificing of one’s freedom and adulthood. It’s rather a radical submitting of one’s human ego (with all its wounds, desires, lusts, private ambitions, and envies) to something and Someone higher than oneself, as seen in the human and religious commitments in persons from Jesus, to Teilhard de Chardin, to Dag Hammarskjold, to Simone Weil, to Mother Teresa, to Jean Vanier, to Daniel Berrigan. In each of these we see a person who walked this earth in a freedom we can only envy but clearly too in a freedom that’s predicated on a genuflecting of one’s individual will to something higher than itself.
Our thoughts and our feelings are strongly influenced by the cultural software within which we find ourselves. Thus, given how our culture understands riches, sex, and freedom today, this may well be the most difficult time in many centuries to make the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and live them out. Small wonder religious communities are not over-flooded with applications. But because it is more difficult than ever, it is also more important than ever that a number of women and men choose, voluntarily, to prophetically live out these vows.
And their seeming sacrifice will be amply rewarded because, paradoxically, poverty brings its own riches, chastity brings its own flourishing, and obedience provides us with the deepest of all human freedoms.
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 8th - 11th May
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Thursday: 10.30am Eliza Purton 12noon Devonport Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Weekend Masses 12th & 13th 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 12th & 13th May, 2018
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil M Gaffney, H Lim 10:30am: F Sly, J Tuxworth, T Omogbai-Musa
Ministers of Communion: Vigil:
B&B Windebank, T Bird, R Baker, Beau Windebank
10:30: S Riley, M Sherriff, R Beaton, D
Barrientos, M Barrientos
Cleaners. 11th May: B Paul, D Atkins, V Riley 18th May: M & R Youd
Piety Shop 12th May:
H Thompson 13th May: T Omogbai-Musa
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: R Locket
Ministers of Communion: M Mott, W Bajzelj, J Jones, T Leary
Cleaners: M Mott Flowers: M Swain Hospitality: M McLaren
Penguin:
Greeters: Fifita Family Commentator: E Nickols Readers: Fifita Family
Ministers of
Communion: S Ewing,
P Lade Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J Setting Up: S Ewing
Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols
Latrobe:
Reader: H Lim Ministers of Communion: Z Smith Procession of Gifts:
Port Sorell:
Readers:
M Badcock, E Holloway Minister of Communion: B Lee Clean/Flowers/Prepare:
A Holloway, B Lee
Readings this 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
PREGO REFLECTION:
As I come to pray, I reflect on my mood: am I joyful, sad,
dutiful ... or …? With every breath I take, I become conscious of God’s love
for me. What are my deepest desires as I settle down to pray? I tell the Lord.
In time, I read the familiar passage slowly, several times. Maybe I stop at a
particular phrase which I had not ‘heard’ properly before, or which takes a
different meaning for me today. Perhaps I imagine Jesus is addressing me
personally. Where are we? What is his voice like? As I listen to him telling me
that he has chosen me to be his friend, what emotions come to the surface? Maybe
I am drawn to reflect on the love I bear for those who are dear to me: men,
women, children … those for whom I’d like to feel I’d be prepared to lay down
my life. I tell the Lord about them. When I realise that Jesus is also speaking
in the same way to others, even those I might consider ‘bad people’ ...
‘enemies’ ... how does that make me feel? In what ways can I begin to love my
enemies as Jesus loved them? Finally, before I conclude my prayer, I ask the
Lord for the grace truly to appreciate the love others have for me and to reach
out to them in love too. My God loves me, his love will never end ...
Readings next week – The Ascension
of the Lord
First Reading: Acts 1:1-11
Second Reading: Ephesians 4:1-13
Gospel: Mark 16:15-20
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Mary Webb, Fr John Williams & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Sr Janet Sexton, Moya Hickey, Maureen
Roach, Edwin
Fisher, Bernie Mason, Lexie Weedon
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs
about this time: 2nd – 8th May
Mary
Edmunds, Robert Cooper, Fr Dan McMahon, Beverley Cloney, Donald Breen, Robert
Charlesworth, Audrey Enniss, Leonard Field, Kathleen Bryan, Jean Clare, Kathleen Mack, Edward McCormack and Pim Schneiders. Also Eileen Murdoch, Noreen
Burton, Aimon Murdoch and Bill Marsterson.
May they Rest in Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
We are moving towards the
end of our Eastertide with the Feast of the Ascension next weekend and the
Feast of Pentecost on Sunday 20th. As has been our Parish practice
over these past four years there will only be the one Mass on Pentecost Sunday
– 11am at Our Lady of Lourdes, Devonport. The Mass will be followed by a meal
in the Parish Hall. Today we have lists inviting people to add their name if
they are able to assist with a main or dessert to help with catering.
One of the major themes of
our Parish Vision is the call to be a vibrant Catholic Community and this
special Feast Day, traditionally called the birthday of the Church, is an
opportunity for us to gather to strive to deepen and grow our sense of
Community. A warm invitation is extended to all Parishioners to be part of this
celebration – Sunday, 20th May at 11am at Our Lady of Lourdes –
Devonport.
Fr Paschal and his team and
the Youth Group are meeting each Sunday evening from 5pm in the Parish House.
Part of their time together includes a shared meal and after many years of
Footy Margins tickets being used for ‘stuff’ around the Parish some of the
monies is now being used to support Youth. Hopefully, more will need to be used
as others become involved.
Please
take care on the roads and we look forward to seeing you next weekend.
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome
and congratulate ….
Noah Morgan
son of Heath &Jacinta on his
Baptism this weekend.
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 this 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.
GRAN’S VAN:
Gran’s
Van co-ordinator Shirley Ryan wishes to thank all those Mersey Leven
Parishioners especially the younger ones, who most generously assisted with
Gran’s Van on the Sunday evenings during April. Your support once again enabled
us to provide quality meals to those in need in our community.
FOOTY
TICKETS:
Round 6 (Friday 27th April) Western Bulldogs defeated
Carlton by 21 points. Congratulations to the following winners; Winnie Stolp,
Lyn & Michelle Rose, Shingle Shed, (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 10th
May – Tony Ryan & Terry Bird
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
KENOSIS
RETREAT: Kenosis
mean self-emptying and refers to God, putting his divinity aside to come
amongst us as a human being. In this retreat we will explore who we are so as
to accept ourselves and truly be in a position to empty ourselves for others.” Date:
June 15th – 17th 2018, Presenter: Fr Ray Sanchez C.P. Venue: Maryknoll House of
Prayer Blackman’s Bay. For further information please call Anne on 0407 704 539
or email journallingretreat@iinet.net.au
RACHEL’S
VINEYARD –
Do not continue to live in shame, fear or numbness. Rachel’s Vineyard is a safe
place to renew, rebuild and redeem hearts broken by abortion through our
supportive, confidential and non-judgemental weekend retreats. Next retreat Aug
31st – Sept 2nd 2018. For more information please contact Anne Sherston on the
confidential phone line 0478 599 241 or email rachelsvineyardtas@aapt.net.au
NATIONAL
FAMILIES WEEK - FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT AT GATEWAY CHURCH:
Free Family Event - 5 pm Kids Activities and BBQ 6 pm Movie
– COCO - Contact Cheryl Jones Phone 64241636 Email info@gatewaycommunitycare.net.au
Website gatewaycommunitycare.net.au
Human Development in Scripture
This reflection is taken from the daily emails from Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe and receive the emails by clicking here
It is helpful for us to know about the whole arc of life and
where it is leading. Walter Brueggemann, one of my favorite scripture scholars,
brilliantly connects the development of the Hebrew Scriptures with the
development of human consciousness. [1] Brueggemann identifies different stages
in the three major parts of the Hebrew Scriptures: the Torah, the Prophets, and
the Wisdom literature.
The Torah, or the first five books, correspond, Brueggemann
says, to the good and necessary “first half of life.” This is the period in
which the people of Israel were given their identity through law, tradition,
structure, certitude, group ritual, clarity, and chosenness. It’s helpful and
easiest for children if they can begin in this way. Ideally, you first learn
you are beloved by being mirrored in the loving gaze of your parents and those
around you. You realize you are special and life is good—and thus you feel
“safe.” Loving people help you form a healthy ego structure and boundaries.
The Prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures then introduce the
necessary suffering, “stumbling stones,” and failures that initiate you into
the second half of life. Prophetic thinking is the capacity for healthy
self-criticism, the ability to recognize your own dark side, as the prophets
did for Israel. Without facing their own failures, suffering, and shadow, most
people never move beyond narcissism and group thinking. Healthy self-criticism
helps you realize you are not that good, and your group is not the only chosen
people. It begins to break down either/or, dualistic thinking as you realize
all things are both good and bad. This makes idolatry of anything and war
against anybody much less likely. The prophets do not have much good to say
about Israel, and thus seem to have all been killed (Matthew 23:31-32). Thus
the “charism” of prophecy in its deepest sense has never been much sought after
by most Christian groups.
The leaven of self-criticism, added to the certainty of your
own specialness, will allow you to move to the third section of the Hebrew
Scriptures: the Wisdom Literature (many of the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, the Song
of Songs, Wisdom, and the Book of Job). Here you discover the language of
mystery and paradox. This is what the second half of life is supposed to feel
like. You are strong enough now to hold together contradictions in yourself,
others, and the universe. And you can do so with compassion, forgiveness, and
patience. You realize that your chosenness is for the sake of letting others
know they are chosen too!
I call this classic pattern of spiritual transformation
“order-disorder-reorder.” Paul calls it “the foolishness of the cross” (see 1
Corinthians 1:18-25). There is no nonstop flight from order to reorder. We have
to go through a period of disruption and disordering. What we first call
“order” is almost always too small and too self-serving. The nexus point, the
crossover moment, is one that neither conservatives nor liberals like or even
understand. It will always feel like folly.
Reherences:
[1] See Walter Brueggemann and Tod Linafelt, An Introduction
to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination, 2nd ed. (Westminster
John Knox Press: 2012, ©2003).
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality
for the Two Halves of Life (Jossey-Bass: 2011), vii;
The Two Major Tasks of the Spiritual Life (Center for Action
and Contemplation: 2004), CD, MP3 download; and
A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, disc 2
(Franciscan Media: 2004), CD.
POVERTY, CHASTITY, AND OBEDIENCE IN A SECULAR AGE
This article is copies form the website of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original page here
Cardinal Francis George was once asked what he thought of the radical pacifism of people like Dorothy Day and Daniel Berrigan, prophetic figures who believed in absolute nonviolence. How can this be practical, he was asked, it’s utterly naïve to believe that we can live without police and without soldiers. This was his reply: The world needs pacifists in the same way as it needs vowed celibates: They’re not practical. They’re out of place in this world. But they point to the eschatological world, the world of heaven, a world within which there will be no guns, where relational exclusivities will not exist as they exist now, where family will not be based on biology, blood, or marriage, where there will be no poor people, and where everything will belong to everyone.
I thought of that recently as I was conducting a workshop on religious life for a group of young people who were discerning whether or not to enter vowed religious life. My task was not to try to persuade them to join a religious community but to help them understand what that life, should they join it, would entail. That meant, of course, long discussions on the three vows that people take to be in religious life: poverty, chastity, and obedience (classically termed “the Evangelical Counsels”).
What’s to be said about poverty, chastity, and obedience in a world that, for the most part, places its hope in material riches, generally identifies chastity with frigidity, and values individual freedom above all else?
Well, no doubt, poverty, chastity, and obedience are seen as radically counter-cultural; but that’s mostly because they are generally not very well understood (sometimes even by those who are living them out). For the most part they are seen as a drastic renunciation, the sacrificing of a full life, the unnatural denial of one’s sexuality, and the adolescent signing over of one’s freedom and creativity. But that’s a misunderstanding.
Poverty, chastity, and obedience are not a missing out on riches, sexuality, and freedom. They are rather a genuine, rich, modality of riches, sexuality, and freedom.
The vow of poverty isn’t primarily about living with cheaper things, not having a dishwasher and doing your own housework. It’s also not about renouncing the kinds of riches that can make for the full flourishing of life. A life of voluntary poverty is a lived way of saying that all material possessions are gift, that the world belongs to everyone, that nobody owns a country, and that nobody’s needs are first. It’s a vow against consumerism and tribalism, and it brings its own wonderful riches in terms of meaning and in the happiness and joy of a shared life.
Likewise for the vow of chastity: Properly understood, it is not a missing out on the joys of sexuality. It’s a rich modality of sexuality itself, given that being sexual means more than having sex. Sexuality is a beautiful, God-given drive within us for lots of things: community, friendship, togetherness, wholeness, family, play, altruism, enjoyment, delight, creativity, genital consummation, and for everything that takes us beyond our aloneness and makes us generative. And so the very real joys that are found in community, friendship, and service of others are not a second-rate substitute for sex. They bring their own sexual flourishing in terms of leading us out of our aloneness.
The same holds true for obedience. Properly understood, it’s not a missing out on real freedom. Rather it’s a rich modality of freedom itself, one practiced by Jesus (who repeatedly says: “I do nothing on my own. I do only the Father’s will.”) Obedience, as a religious vow, is not an immature sacrificing of one’s freedom and adulthood. It’s rather a radical submitting of one’s human ego (with all its wounds, desires, lusts, private ambitions, and envies) to something and Someone higher than oneself, as seen in the human and religious commitments in persons from Jesus, to Teilhard de Chardin, to Dag Hammarskjold, to Simone Weil, to Mother Teresa, to Jean Vanier, to Daniel Berrigan. In each of these we see a person who walked this earth in a freedom we can only envy but clearly too in a freedom that’s predicated on a genuflecting of one’s individual will to something higher than itself.
Our thoughts and our feelings are strongly influenced by the cultural software within which we find ourselves. Thus, given how our culture understands riches, sex, and freedom today, this may well be the most difficult time in many centuries to make the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and live them out. Small wonder religious communities are not over-flooded with applications. But because it is more difficult than ever, it is also more important than ever that a number of women and men choose, voluntarily, to prophetically live out these vows.
And their seeming sacrifice will be amply rewarded because, paradoxically, poverty brings its own riches, chastity brings its own flourishing, and obedience provides us with the deepest of all human freedoms.
MINISTRY WEEKEND
We say as a parish that our goal is… every member a minister (and if Nativity is where you typically go to church, you are a member). And this weekend is a very special weekend for us, as we welcome commitments from members to join us as ministers.
A minister is kind of like a volunteer in that they freely give up some of their time to serve without pay, on behalf of some good cause. However, we use the word minister because it is a biblical word. In the Old Testament those who serve in the Temple and in the New Testament those who serve in the Church are called ministers, and their service is called ministry.
Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians:
And he gave some as apostles,
others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors,
to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-12
According to the Bible my job isn’t the ministry of the parish but rather equipping you for the work of ministry.
Over the last few years, we’ve tried to simplify this to make it easy to understand and entirely accessible. So, we talk about four different categories of Ministry Teams.
One is Hospitality: our Parking Team, Greeters, Host Team and Café Team. Our Hospitality Ministers create layers of welcome and acceptance that shape the experience of “radical hospitality” we’re after.
Next is Operations: our Ops Ministers are environmental architects. They’re creating the irresistible environment that we think is essential to attracting the unchurched. This also includes our tech team and camera crews. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a technical person, we’ll train you and it isn’t as hard as it looks. I couldn’t do it, but many of you could.
Then there’s Children’s Ministry: Children’s ministry includes working directly with children from 6 weeks to ten years old, but there are also behind the scenes roles you can serve in too.
And our Student Ministry: these programs serve Middle and High School students at a critical juncture in their lives. Like Children’s ministry there are opportunities to serve behind the scenes or work directly with students.
In all these ministries, we are not asking for a huge time commitment. In many roles we’re looking for two hours, once or twice a month. Our schedulers and ministry leaders work hard to accommodate people’s busy and complicated schedules. And because of the sheer number of people in ministry here, no one is ever “stuck.”
At the end of all Masses this weekend we’ll invite members to come forward and make a commitment to serve. We’re looking for hundreds of new ministers.
I am often asked, “How do you get so many parishioners to serve?” Well, we’ve cracked the code on that. We ask them.
We say as a parish that our goal is… every member a minister (and if Nativity is where you typically go to church, you are a member). And this weekend is a very special weekend for us, as we welcome commitments from members to join us as ministers.
A minister is kind of like a volunteer in that they freely give up some of their time to serve without pay, on behalf of some good cause. However, we use the word minister because it is a biblical word. In the Old Testament those who serve in the Temple and in the New Testament those who serve in the Church are called ministers, and their service is called ministry.
Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians:
And he gave some as apostles,
others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors,
to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-12
According to the Bible my job isn’t the ministry of the parish but rather equipping you for the work of ministry.
Over the last few years, we’ve tried to simplify this to make it easy to understand and entirely accessible. So, we talk about four different categories of Ministry Teams.
One is Hospitality: our Parking Team, Greeters, Host Team and Café Team. Our Hospitality Ministers create layers of welcome and acceptance that shape the experience of “radical hospitality” we’re after.
Next is Operations: our Ops Ministers are environmental architects. They’re creating the irresistible environment that we think is essential to attracting the unchurched. This also includes our tech team and camera crews. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a technical person, we’ll train you and it isn’t as hard as it looks. I couldn’t do it, but many of you could.
Then there’s Children’s Ministry: Children’s ministry includes working directly with children from 6 weeks to ten years old, but there are also behind the scenes roles you can serve in too.
And our Student Ministry: these programs serve Middle and High School students at a critical juncture in their lives. Like Children’s ministry there are opportunities to serve behind the scenes or work directly with students.
In all these ministries, we are not asking for a huge time commitment. In many roles we’re looking for two hours, once or twice a month. Our schedulers and ministry leaders work hard to accommodate people’s busy and complicated schedules. And because of the sheer number of people in ministry here, no one is ever “stuck.”
At the end of all Masses this weekend we’ll invite members to come forward and make a commitment to serve. We’re looking for hundreds of new ministers.
I am often asked, “How do you get so many parishioners to serve?” Well, we’ve cracked the code on that. We ask them.
Why a ‘New’ Commandment?
After examining how Jesus understood and talked about the Ten Commandments, Jack Mahoney turns his attention to the ‘new’ commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples, which we find in John’s Gospel. What was new about what Jesus was asking with his instruction to ‘love one another ... as I have loved you’? Jack Mahoney SJ is Emeritus Professor of Moral and Social Theology in the University of London, and a regular writer for Thinking Faith.
The discourse of Jesus at the Last Supper as presented in John’s Gospel has enthralled readers, and yet also mystified them. Like other discourses of Jesus in the fourth gospel, the text contains puzzling breaks, interruptions and repetitions. Of several explanations proposed for the strange structure, Raymond Brown adopts the comparatively simple one of postulating that it was edited twice by the evangelist and then reworked by another person in the Johannine community. One result is that sometimes two versions of the same unit are printed side by side in slightly different settings aimed at meeting different situations, a practice of doubling passages rather than preferring one with which we are familiar in the Pentateuch. Brown notes that ‘what is said in the Last Discourse in xiv 1-31 is largely said all over again in xvi 4-33’. And Perkins suggests that the discourse material ‘appears to have been expanded during the editing of the Gospel, and may well represent different situations in the later history of the Johannine community’.
You can find the complete article on the thinkingfaith.org website by clicking here
After examining how Jesus understood and talked about the Ten Commandments, Jack Mahoney turns his attention to the ‘new’ commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples, which we find in John’s Gospel. What was new about what Jesus was asking with his instruction to ‘love one another ... as I have loved you’? Jack Mahoney SJ is Emeritus Professor of Moral and Social Theology in the University of London, and a regular writer for Thinking Faith.
The discourse of Jesus at the Last Supper as presented in John’s Gospel has enthralled readers, and yet also mystified them. Like other discourses of Jesus in the fourth gospel, the text contains puzzling breaks, interruptions and repetitions. Of several explanations proposed for the strange structure, Raymond Brown adopts the comparatively simple one of postulating that it was edited twice by the evangelist and then reworked by another person in the Johannine community. One result is that sometimes two versions of the same unit are printed side by side in slightly different settings aimed at meeting different situations, a practice of doubling passages rather than preferring one with which we are familiar in the Pentateuch. Brown notes that ‘what is said in the Last Discourse in xiv 1-31 is largely said all over again in xvi 4-33’. And Perkins suggests that the discourse material ‘appears to have been expanded during the editing of the Gospel, and may well represent different situations in the later history of the Johannine community’.
You can find the complete article on the thinkingfaith.org website by clicking here
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