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: Felicity Sly
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 5th - 8th June
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin … St Boniface
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone … The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
10:30am Meercroft
Weekend
Masses 9th & 10th June, 2018
Saturday
Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Ministry Rosters 9th & 10th June, 2018
Devonport: 
Cleaners. 8th June: K.S.C. 15th June: P & T Douglas
Ulverstone:
Latrobe:
Penguin:
Greeters: J Garnsey, A Ravaillion Commentator: E Nickols Readers: Fifita Family
Port Sorell:
How has my
spirit been moved since I last made time to pray?
With an open and willing
heart, I bring my concerns and deepest desires before God.
I allow myself to
slow down and become aware of the present moment, in whatever way suits me
best.
I read the Gospel slowly.
Using my imagination I place myself within the
scene.
I may choose to be sitting at table with Jesus and his followers ... or
perhaps as an observer looking with a curious and open heart at all that
unfolds.
It may help to see Jesus looking deeply into my eyes, saying “This is
my body ... This is my blood”.
What does he mean?
What is Jesus lovingly
offering me?
How is my life transformed by Jesus?
When I see that Jesus pours
himself out for everyone, even those who would betray him, how might I follow
his example?
I imagine myself sitting close to Jesus, I share with him all that
I have been pondering.
Slowly I finish my prayer, saying Glory be to the Father
...
Readings next week – Tenth Sunday in
Ordinary Time (Year B)
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Mary Webb & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Let us pray for those whose anniversary
occurs about this time: 30th May - 5th June
May they
Rest in Peace
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome
and congratulate ….
Weekly
Ramblings
Fr Phil
returns on Monday after being at George Town for the past three weekends. Fr Ed
Zammit, the PP of George Town, has been on holidays and Fr Phil has been
covering for him.
On Tuesday
I will be heading off to the Divine Renovation Conference in Halifax, Canada
and then some in-service at the Church of the Nativity in Baltimore, USA. I
will be away from Tuesday 5th and will return on Friday 22nd
June. I will be accompanied by John & Glenys Lee-Archer – travel costs for
John and I are paid by the Parish (see explanation following) whilst Glenys is
travelling privately. Fr Shammi Perera and Jane McKeown from the Cathedral
Parish are also travelling to the DR Conference and the Church of the Nativity
and will be joining 36 other Australians who are going to Halifax and 16 who
are then going onto Baltimore. When I came back after visiting these Parishes
in 2016 I came back with lots of ideas but struggled because not everyone could
easily understand why I was so enthusiastic. This time having people with me
who have shared in the experience will make sharing ideas when we get back a
little less fraught with the danger of misunderstandings.
A little
background to how all this is possible. Since I turned 65 two years ago my
stipend has been paid into an account which was set up to allow us (priests
and/or parishioners) to attend conferences, to allow the Parish to purchase
Advent or Lenten materials for the Parish (even if we didn’t recover all the
costs), arrange retreats or in-service events without effecting the Parish
Budget. It also means that if something were to happen to me then the Parish
would be able to immediately pay the stipend of a new priest without any change
to our budget.
Next
weekend the Youth Group, with Fr Paschal, will be holding their Holy Spirit
sessions in their Youth Alpha Program. They will meet on the evening of the 9th
for the 1st session and then at MacKillop Hill for the Saturday
sessions. They will have support for their gathering from the Palavra Viva
Evangelisation Team based at the Emmanuel Centre in Launceston. Please pray for
our young people as they continue their faith journey and grow in their
relationship with Jesus.
Our Parish
Pastoral Team met for the 2nd time last weekend and there are a
number of issues that we will be addressing in coming weeks. Hopefully I am not
getting too far ahead of myself but one issue that concerns me and continually
raises it head in conversations on all levels is the question of how we
communicate information in and throughout the Parish. I’m not sure how to best
address this question because I don’t think that there is one simple answer but
I am inviting people to think about how we might look at this question. I know
it will be some weeks before you might be actually address the issue with me
but if you wish please drop me a line at the Parish Office, by email or by
whatever means you are comfortable using.
Please
take care on the roads and I look forward to seeing you when I get back.
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY: will be
holding a craft and cake stall on Sunday 10th June after 9:00am Mass
Sacred Heart Church Community Room. Bring a friend or two and your spare change and buy some goodies to
help support this great fundraiser!
FOOTY
TICKETS:
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Expressions of interest are called for
someone to join our cleaning team at Sacred Heart School.
THANK YOU!
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
This week on the Journey, the Gospel of Mark is reflected on
by Fr Mike Delaney, Sr Hilda from the Abby questions whether we are “Too Quick
to Judge?” with her Wisdom from the Abby, and Fr Dave Callaghan asks us to
focus on “What’s At Our Core?” In his God spot, The Call. Our music this
week is a vibrant selection that we keep you smiling all day. We bring this all
together to create a show about faith, hope, love and life. Go to www.jcr.org.au
or www.itunes.jcr.org.au
where you can listen anytime and subscribe to weekly shows by email.
CELEBRATING 70 YEARS OF CARMEL IN TASMANIA – To mark the arrival of the first
Carmelites in Tasmania from Adelaide in 1948, all are warmly invited to join
the Carmelite Community for a Sung Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated by
Archbishop Porteous on Saturday 9th June 2018 at 9am at the
Carmelite Monastery, 7 Cambridge Street, Launceston. Mass will be
followed by morning tea.
ST VINCENT PALLOTTI SCHOLARSHIP: APPLICATIONS NOW
OPEN
While my religious order is far from perfect, I appreciate
how Franciscanism has in so many subtle ways honored and embraced the feminine
side of things. One scholar rightly says that St. Francis “without having a
specific feminist program . . . contributed to the feminizing of Christianity.”
[1] French historian André Vauchez, in his critical biography of Francis, adds
that this integration of the feminine “constitutes a fundamental turning point
in the history of Western spirituality.” [2] I think they are both onto
something, which creates the distinctiveness and even the heart of the
Franciscan path. In so many ways, we were not like the classic pattern of
religious orders.
Recently a student I’d taught decades ago made this comment to me: “It’s been more than twenty years since I took your class and I’ve forgotten most everything you taught. What I do remember from your class is that we’re supposed to always try not to make God look stupid.”
I hope that’s true. I hope that’s something people take away from my lectures and writings because I believe that the first task of any Christian apologetics is to rescue God from stupidity, arbitrariness, narrowness, legalism, rigidity, tribalism, and everything else that’s bad but gets associated with God. A healthy theology of God must underwrite all our apologetics and pastoral practices. Anything we do in the name of God should reflect God.
It’s no accident that atheism, anti-clericalism, and the many diatribes leveled against the church and religion today can always point to some bad theology or church practice on which to base their skepticism and anger. Atheism is always a parasite, feeding off bad religion. So too is much of the negativity towards the churches which is so common today. An anti-church attitude feeds on bad religion and so we who believe in God and church should be examining ourselves more than defending ourselves.
Moreover more important than the criticism of atheists are the many people who have been hurt by their churches. A huge number of persons today no longer go to church or have a very strained relationship to their churches because what they’ve met in their churches doesn’t speak well of God.
I say this in sympathy. It’s not easy to do God adequately, let alone well. But we must try, and so all of our sacramental and pastoral practices need to reflect a healthy theology of God, that is, reflect the God whom Jesus incarnated and revealed. What did Jesus reveal about God?
First, that God has no favorites and that there must be full equality among races, among rich and poor, among slave and free, and among male and female. No one person, race, gender, or nation is more favored than others by God. Nobody is first. All are privileged.
Next, Jesus taught that God is especially compassionate and understanding towards the weak and towards sinners. Jesus scandalized his religious contemporaries by sitting down with public sinners without first asking them to repent. He welcomed everyone in ways that often offended the religious propriety of the time and he sometimes went against the religious sensitivity of his contemporaries, as we see from his conversation with the Samaritan woman or when he grants a healing to the daughter of a Syro-Phoenician woman. Moreover he asks us to be compassionate in the same way and immediately spells out what that means by telling us the God loves sinners and saints in exactly the same way. God does not have preferential love for the virtuous.
Shocking to us too is the fact that Jesus never defends himself when attacked. Moreover he is critical of those who, whatever their sincerity, try to block access to him. He surrenders himself to die rather than defend himself. He never meets hatred with hatred and dies loving and forgiving those who are killing him.
Jesus is also clear that it’s not necessarily those who explicitly profess God and religion who are his true followers, but rather those, irrespective of their explicit faith or church practice, who do the will of God on earth.
Finally, and centrally, Jesus is clear that his message is, first of all, good news for the poor, that any preaching in his name that isn’t good news for the poor is not his gospel.
We need to keep these things in mind even as we recognize the validity and importance of the ongoing debates among and within our churches about whom and what makes for true discipleship and true sacrament. It is important to ask what makes for a true sacrament and what conditions make for a valid and licit minister of a sacrament. It is important too to ask who should be admitted to the Eucharist and it is important to set forth certain norms be followed in preparation for baptism, Eucharist, and marriage.
Difficult pastoral questions arise around these issues, among other issues, and this is not suggesting that they should always be resolved in a way that most immediately and simplistically reflects God’s universal will for salvation and God’s infinite understanding and mercy. Admittedly, sometimes the long-term benefit of living a hard truth can override the short-range need to more quickly take away the pain and the heartache. But, even so, a theology of God that reflects the compassion and mercy of God should always be reflected in every pastoral decision we make. Otherwise we make God look stupid – arbitrary, tribal, cruel, and antithetical to church practice.
Marilynne Robinson says Christianity is too great a narrative to be underwritten by any lesser tale and that should forbid in particular its being subordinated to narrowness, legalism, and lack of compassion.
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)
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 5th - 8th June
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin … St Boniface
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone … The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
10:30am Meercroft
Weekend
Masses 9th & 10th June, 2018
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 9th & 10th June, 2018
Devonport:
Readers Vigil: M Gaffney, H Lim, R Baker 10:30am: F Sly, J Tuxworth, T Omogbai-Musa
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil: B, B & B Windebank, T Bird, R
Baker
10:30: S Riley, M Sherriff, R Beaton, D
& M Barrientos
Cleaners. 8th June: K.S.C. 15th June: P & T Douglas
Piety Shop 9th June: H Thompson 10th June: D French
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: M & K McKenzie
Ministers of Communion:
P Steyn, E Cox, C
Singline, M Barry
Cleaners: K.S.C Flowers: C Stingel
Hospitality: M & K McKenzie
Latrobe:
Reader: M Chan Ministers of Communion: Z Smith Procession
of Gifts: Parishioner
Penguin:
Greeters: J Garnsey, A Ravaillion Commentator: E Nickols Readers: Fifita Family
Ministers of
Communion: J
Garnsey, J Barker Liturgy: SC J Setting Up: T Clayton Care of Church: J & T Kiely
Port Sorell:
Readers: V Duff, G Duff Minister of Communion: P Anderson Clean/Flowers/Prepare: G Bellchambers, M Gillard
Readings this week – The Body and Blood of Christ (Year B)
First Reading: Exodus 24: 3-8
Second Reading: Hebrews 9:11-15
Gospel: Mark 14:12-16. 22-26
PREGO REFLECTION:
As I prepare to pray, I ponder on how I feel.
How has my spirit been moved since I last made time to pray?
With an open and willing heart, I bring my concerns and deepest desires before God.
I allow myself to slow down and become aware of the present moment, in whatever way suits me best.
I read the Gospel slowly.
Using my imagination I place myself within the scene.
I may choose to be sitting at table with Jesus and his followers ... or perhaps as an observer looking with a curious and open heart at all that unfolds.
It may help to see Jesus looking deeply into my eyes, saying “This is my body ... This is my blood”.
What does he mean?
What is Jesus lovingly offering me?
How is my life transformed by Jesus?
When I see that Jesus pours himself out for everyone, even those who would betray him, how might I follow his example?
I imagine myself sitting close to Jesus, I share with him all that I have been pondering.
Slowly I finish my prayer, saying Glory be to the Father ...
How has my spirit been moved since I last made time to pray?
With an open and willing heart, I bring my concerns and deepest desires before God.
I allow myself to slow down and become aware of the present moment, in whatever way suits me best.
I read the Gospel slowly.
Using my imagination I place myself within the scene.
I may choose to be sitting at table with Jesus and his followers ... or perhaps as an observer looking with a curious and open heart at all that unfolds.
It may help to see Jesus looking deeply into my eyes, saying “This is my body ... This is my blood”.
What does he mean?
What is Jesus lovingly offering me?
How is my life transformed by Jesus?
When I see that Jesus pours himself out for everyone, even those who would betray him, how might I follow his example?
I imagine myself sitting close to Jesus, I share with him all that I have been pondering.
Slowly I finish my prayer, saying Glory be to the Father ...
Readings next week – Tenth Sunday in
Ordinary Time (Year B)
First Reading: Genesis 3:9-15
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Gospel: Mark
3:20-35
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Mary Webb & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Elizabeth
Perales, Lorraine Clarke, Conrado Nares, Fr John Williams, Epie Howlett,
James
Leith
Let us pray for those whose anniversary
occurs about this time: 30th May - 5th June
Johanna Smink, Lois Dudfield, Noreen Burton, Dorothy Hamilton, June Morris, Cheryl Robinson, Helen Armsby, Sr Josie Berry, Paul Streat, Anthony Venn, Viv Down, Karen Blackaby, Irene Renkowski
May they
Rest in Peace
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome
and congratulate ….
Lucas
Hollingsworth
son of Luke & Aleesha on his
Baptism this weekend
at Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone.
Weekly
Ramblings
Fr Phil
returns on Monday after being at George Town for the past three weekends. Fr Ed
Zammit, the PP of George Town, has been on holidays and Fr Phil has been
covering for him.
On Tuesday
I will be heading off to the Divine Renovation Conference in Halifax, Canada
and then some in-service at the Church of the Nativity in Baltimore, USA. I
will be away from Tuesday 5th and will return on Friday 22nd
June. I will be accompanied by John & Glenys Lee-Archer – travel costs for
John and I are paid by the Parish (see explanation following) whilst Glenys is
travelling privately. Fr Shammi Perera and Jane McKeown from the Cathedral
Parish are also travelling to the DR Conference and the Church of the Nativity
and will be joining 36 other Australians who are going to Halifax and 16 who
are then going onto Baltimore. When I came back after visiting these Parishes
in 2016 I came back with lots of ideas but struggled because not everyone could
easily understand why I was so enthusiastic. This time having people with me
who have shared in the experience will make sharing ideas when we get back a
little less fraught with the danger of misunderstandings.
A little
background to how all this is possible. Since I turned 65 two years ago my
stipend has been paid into an account which was set up to allow us (priests
and/or parishioners) to attend conferences, to allow the Parish to purchase
Advent or Lenten materials for the Parish (even if we didn’t recover all the
costs), arrange retreats or in-service events without effecting the Parish
Budget. It also means that if something were to happen to me then the Parish
would be able to immediately pay the stipend of a new priest without any change
to our budget.
Next
weekend the Youth Group, with Fr Paschal, will be holding their Holy Spirit
sessions in their Youth Alpha Program. They will meet on the evening of the 9th
for the 1st session and then at MacKillop Hill for the Saturday
sessions. They will have support for their gathering from the Palavra Viva
Evangelisation Team based at the Emmanuel Centre in Launceston. Please pray for
our young people as they continue their faith journey and grow in their
relationship with Jesus.
Our Parish
Pastoral Team met for the 2nd time last weekend and there are a
number of issues that we will be addressing in coming weeks. Hopefully I am not
getting too far ahead of myself but one issue that concerns me and continually
raises it head in conversations on all levels is the question of how we
communicate information in and throughout the Parish. I’m not sure how to best
address this question because I don’t think that there is one simple answer but
I am inviting people to think about how we might look at this question. I know
it will be some weeks before you might be actually address the issue with me
but if you wish please drop me a line at the Parish Office, by email or by
whatever means you are comfortable using.
Please
take care on the roads and I look forward to seeing you when I get back.
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY: will be
holding a craft and cake stall on Sunday 10th June after 9:00am Mass
Sacred Heart Church Community Room. Bring a friend or two and your spare change and buy some goodies to
help support this great fundraiser!
FOOTY
TICKETS:
Round 10 (Friday 25th May) Collingwood defeated
Western Bulldogs by 35 points. Congratulations to the
following winners; MLCP Office, Pat Coventry and Zoe Smith. (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 7th
June – Merv Tippett & Terry Bird.
Expressions of interest are called for
someone to join our cleaning team at Sacred Heart School.
Hours are from 3pm to 5.30pm each school
day.
Current contract is up until mid-August,
however this may be extended to the end of 2018.
THANK YOU!
What a great response for Margaret
Silf’s presentations last Thursday and Friday! A truly ecumenical gathering bringing
people from Smithton to Poatina!
The
staff of MacKillop Hill Spirituality Centre wish to express sincere
appreciation for the use of Sacred Heart Community Room and to all those people
who generously offered their time and energy preparing the room, welcoming
visitors, attending to the finances, donating, preparing and serving supper and
morning tea. May you be blessed
abundantly!
Sr.
Marg Chandler rsj
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO PROGRAM – AIRS 3rd
June 2018
This week on the Journey, the Gospel of Mark is reflected on
by Fr Mike Delaney, Sr Hilda from the Abby questions whether we are “Too Quick
to Judge?” with her Wisdom from the Abby, and Fr Dave Callaghan asks us to
focus on “What’s At Our Core?” In his God spot, The Call. Our music this
week is a vibrant selection that we keep you smiling all day. We bring this all
together to create a show about faith, hope, love and life. Go to www.jcr.org.au
or www.itunes.jcr.org.au
where you can listen anytime and subscribe to weekly shows by email.
CELEBRATING 70 YEARS OF CARMEL IN TASMANIA – To mark the arrival of the first
Carmelites in Tasmania from Adelaide in 1948, all are warmly invited to join
the Carmelite Community for a Sung Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated by
Archbishop Porteous on Saturday 9th June 2018 at 9am at the
Carmelite Monastery, 7 Cambridge Street, Launceston. Mass will be
followed by morning tea.
ST VINCENT PALLOTTI SCHOLARSHIP: APPLICATIONS NOW
OPEN
The St Vincent Pallotti Scholarship Trust offer
scholarships to enable lay people to further their understanding and skills in
leadership/ministry or a specialised activity, such as promoting faith
enhancement, social justice and pastoral care.
Applications close 23rd July 2018. Details and application: http://www.pallottine.org.au/scholarships/st-vincent-pallotti-scholarship-for-lay-ministry.html
AUDIO
DIVINA
Fr Francis Moloney SDB has a podcast available each week
(arrives each Wednesday if you subscribe) which gives a detailed reflection on
the Gospel for the coming week. We know that not everyone has a smart-phone but
if you have one then go to a Podcast app and search for Audio Divina and then
click subscribe and you will get the download every week. If you have any
trouble or you are not sure what to do please ask a child who will be able to
make it all happen. This is a really great opportunity to prepare for the
weekend by reflecting on the upcoming Gospel.
This reflection is taken from the daily emails from Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe and receive the emails by clicking here
While my religious order is far from perfect, I appreciate
how Franciscanism has in so many subtle ways honored and embraced the feminine
side of things. One scholar rightly says that St. Francis “without having a
specific feminist program . . . contributed to the feminizing of Christianity.”
[1] French historian André Vauchez, in his critical biography of Francis, adds
that this integration of the feminine “constitutes a fundamental turning point
in the history of Western spirituality.” [2] I think they are both onto
something, which creates the distinctiveness and even the heart of the
Franciscan path. In so many ways, we were not like the classic pattern of
religious orders.
St. Clare (1194-1253) is clearly the Franciscans’ archetypal
symbol of the feminine, and yet the very male St. Francis (1182-1226) almost
supernaturally exemplifies it—as a man. In my view, Franciscanism integrated
the feminine element into a very patriarchal and overly masculinized Roman
Church, the harsh male spirituality of the desert, and an overscheduled
spirituality in most monasteries.
Franciscanism integrated the feminine both on the level of
imagination and in practical ways too. It created new “softer” names for roles
and functions, a more familial structure than a hierarchical one. We do not
make our decisions top down, but communally in chapters (as do most communities
now). Francis forbad us to use any titles implying up and down, like prior,
abbot, or superior.
Happy and healthy Franciscans seem to present a combination
of lightness of heart and firmness of foot at the same time. By this I mean
that they do not take themselves so seriously, as upward-bound men often do;
they often serve with quiet conviction and personal freedom as many mature
women do.
I see this synthesis of both lightness and firmness as a
more “feminine” approach to spirituality, beautifully exemplified in both Clare
and Francis in different ways. It is a rare combination, so much so that it
might seem a kind of holy foolishness. Androgyny is invariably a threatening
Third Force if we are over-identified with one side or the other.
Clare asks from the papacy that she be allowed to found her
community on her privately conceived and untested ground that she calls a
“privilege of poverty.” Then she waits patiently on her deathbed for the papal
bull to arrive. She knows she will win, even though there was no precedent for
women’s religious communities without dowries or patronage systems being able
to sustain themselves.
As to Francis, he twirls around like a top at a crossroads
to discern which way God wants him to go, and then sets off with utter
confidence in the direction where he finally lands. Neither of these ways are
classic Catholic means of discernment, decision-making, or discovering God’s
will. Yet I believe the lightness of heart comes from contact with deep
feminine intuition and with consciousness itself; the firmness of foot emerges
when that feminine principle integrates with the mature masculine soul and
moves forward with confidence into the outer world. These are just my
interpretations, and you might well see it differently.
[1] Jacques Dalarun, Francis of Assisi and the Feminine
(Franciscan Institute: 2006), 127-154.
[2] André Vauchez, Francis of Assisi: The Life and Afterlife
of a Medieval Saint (Yale University Press: 2012), 324-336.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative
Way of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014), 119-120, 123-124.
MERCY, TRUTH, AND PASTORAL PRACTICE
This article is taken from the archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
Recently a student I’d taught decades ago made this comment to me: “It’s been more than twenty years since I took your class and I’ve forgotten most everything you taught. What I do remember from your class is that we’re supposed to always try not to make God look stupid.”
I hope that’s true. I hope that’s something people take away from my lectures and writings because I believe that the first task of any Christian apologetics is to rescue God from stupidity, arbitrariness, narrowness, legalism, rigidity, tribalism, and everything else that’s bad but gets associated with God. A healthy theology of God must underwrite all our apologetics and pastoral practices. Anything we do in the name of God should reflect God.
It’s no accident that atheism, anti-clericalism, and the many diatribes leveled against the church and religion today can always point to some bad theology or church practice on which to base their skepticism and anger. Atheism is always a parasite, feeding off bad religion. So too is much of the negativity towards the churches which is so common today. An anti-church attitude feeds on bad religion and so we who believe in God and church should be examining ourselves more than defending ourselves.
Moreover more important than the criticism of atheists are the many people who have been hurt by their churches. A huge number of persons today no longer go to church or have a very strained relationship to their churches because what they’ve met in their churches doesn’t speak well of God.
I say this in sympathy. It’s not easy to do God adequately, let alone well. But we must try, and so all of our sacramental and pastoral practices need to reflect a healthy theology of God, that is, reflect the God whom Jesus incarnated and revealed. What did Jesus reveal about God?
First, that God has no favorites and that there must be full equality among races, among rich and poor, among slave and free, and among male and female. No one person, race, gender, or nation is more favored than others by God. Nobody is first. All are privileged.
Next, Jesus taught that God is especially compassionate and understanding towards the weak and towards sinners. Jesus scandalized his religious contemporaries by sitting down with public sinners without first asking them to repent. He welcomed everyone in ways that often offended the religious propriety of the time and he sometimes went against the religious sensitivity of his contemporaries, as we see from his conversation with the Samaritan woman or when he grants a healing to the daughter of a Syro-Phoenician woman. Moreover he asks us to be compassionate in the same way and immediately spells out what that means by telling us the God loves sinners and saints in exactly the same way. God does not have preferential love for the virtuous.
Shocking to us too is the fact that Jesus never defends himself when attacked. Moreover he is critical of those who, whatever their sincerity, try to block access to him. He surrenders himself to die rather than defend himself. He never meets hatred with hatred and dies loving and forgiving those who are killing him.
Jesus is also clear that it’s not necessarily those who explicitly profess God and religion who are his true followers, but rather those, irrespective of their explicit faith or church practice, who do the will of God on earth.
Finally, and centrally, Jesus is clear that his message is, first of all, good news for the poor, that any preaching in his name that isn’t good news for the poor is not his gospel.
We need to keep these things in mind even as we recognize the validity and importance of the ongoing debates among and within our churches about whom and what makes for true discipleship and true sacrament. It is important to ask what makes for a true sacrament and what conditions make for a valid and licit minister of a sacrament. It is important too to ask who should be admitted to the Eucharist and it is important to set forth certain norms be followed in preparation for baptism, Eucharist, and marriage.
Difficult pastoral questions arise around these issues, among other issues, and this is not suggesting that they should always be resolved in a way that most immediately and simplistically reflects God’s universal will for salvation and God’s infinite understanding and mercy. Admittedly, sometimes the long-term benefit of living a hard truth can override the short-range need to more quickly take away the pain and the heartache. But, even so, a theology of God that reflects the compassion and mercy of God should always be reflected in every pastoral decision we make. Otherwise we make God look stupid – arbitrary, tribal, cruel, and antithetical to church practice.
Marilynne Robinson says Christianity is too great a narrative to be underwritten by any lesser tale and that should forbid in particular its being subordinated to narrowness, legalism, and lack of compassion.
5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO MAKE YOUR CHURCH MORE ATTRACTIVE TO THE UNCHURCHED (THAT COST NOTHING).
This article comes from the weekly blog of Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can find the original blog here
When it comes to some of the great big problems many parishes face these days, sometimes the simplest answers are the most helpful. And often the cheapest. Off the top of my head I can think of dozens of things our parish does that makes us more attractive to the unchurched. And they cost us nothing. Anyway, here are five.
1. Stop Fighting, Stop Gossiping, Stop Complaining
In-fighting, gossip, and complaint have killed more churches than any moral failure or financial malfeasance. But before they kill a church, they make it really unattractive.
It’s hard to convince the world of God’s love when we’re constantly fighting. If this is your parish there is absolutely no mystery as to why you’re not growing.
2. Kill Your “Churchy-Church” Culture
Every parish has it’s own culture, which is fine. But oftentimes that culture is designed for churchpeople. We use church words that outsiders don’t understand and local customs that they don’t know. So much of what goes on just underscores that the newcomer doesn’t belong…and reinforces for them why they don’t want to belong. Here’s the thing: if someone has to learn a code to join your church, you won’t have many people joining.
3. Invite People To Embrace With Your Mission, Not Your Methods
The reason change is so difficult in many churches is because members fall in love with methods, not with mission: the style of liturgy or music, the architecture of the building, the personal appeal of the pastor, a particular approach to preaching. Those are all methods that can, and sometimes should, change. The mission is to love God, love others, and make disciples and that’s what parishioners should be embracing and advancing.
4. Overstate Your Vision
Vision is critical to health and growth, and many parishes leaders simply don’t have one. You must develop and clearly articulate your vision. But, even that is not enough. You’ve got to communicate it, over and over again because people are slow to learn it and quick to forget it. The best way to get people excited about your church is to get them excited about your vision for your church.
5. Give Expression to Energy, Excitement, and Enthusiasm
It’s really interesting, even amazing, how low energy many church communities seem, how unenthusiastic they appear, how little enthusiasm is evidenced for what is going on. Imagine going to a football game where everyone looked disengaged. To grow a healthy church, to attract the unchurched, to be the kind of Church Christ told us to be, this must change.
This article comes from the weekly blog of Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can find the original blog here
When it comes to some of the great big problems many parishes face these days, sometimes the simplest answers are the most helpful. And often the cheapest. Off the top of my head I can think of dozens of things our parish does that makes us more attractive to the unchurched. And they cost us nothing. Anyway, here are five.
1. Stop Fighting, Stop Gossiping, Stop Complaining
In-fighting, gossip, and complaint have killed more churches than any moral failure or financial malfeasance. But before they kill a church, they make it really unattractive.
It’s hard to convince the world of God’s love when we’re constantly fighting. If this is your parish there is absolutely no mystery as to why you’re not growing.
2. Kill Your “Churchy-Church” Culture
Every parish has it’s own culture, which is fine. But oftentimes that culture is designed for churchpeople. We use church words that outsiders don’t understand and local customs that they don’t know. So much of what goes on just underscores that the newcomer doesn’t belong…and reinforces for them why they don’t want to belong. Here’s the thing: if someone has to learn a code to join your church, you won’t have many people joining.
3. Invite People To Embrace With Your Mission, Not Your Methods
The reason change is so difficult in many churches is because members fall in love with methods, not with mission: the style of liturgy or music, the architecture of the building, the personal appeal of the pastor, a particular approach to preaching. Those are all methods that can, and sometimes should, change. The mission is to love God, love others, and make disciples and that’s what parishioners should be embracing and advancing.
4. Overstate Your Vision
Vision is critical to health and growth, and many parishes leaders simply don’t have one. You must develop and clearly articulate your vision. But, even that is not enough. You’ve got to communicate it, over and over again because people are slow to learn it and quick to forget it. The best way to get people excited about your church is to get them excited about your vision for your church.
5. Give Expression to Energy, Excitement, and Enthusiasm
It’s really interesting, even amazing, how low energy many church communities seem, how unenthusiastic they appear, how little enthusiasm is evidenced for what is going on. Imagine going to a football game where everyone looked disengaged. To grow a healthy church, to attract the unchurched, to be the kind of Church Christ told us to be, this must change.
Mystagogy and the Synoptic Gospels
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website. You can find the complete article here
The fourth phase of the RCIA goes by the name of Mystagogy. This is a rather obscure term used in early Christianity, best known in the ‘Mystagogical Catecheses’ of Cyril of Jerusalem, where they are in effect baptismal or sacramental homilies. In this article James Crampsey explores some passages in the Synoptic Gospels against the horizon of Mystagogy. James Crampsey SJ is Director of the Lauriston Jesuit Centre in Edinburgh.
I think it was Xavier Léon-Dufour back in 1971 who first pointed out the importance of the Emmaus story for the shaping of our life, prayer and worship. This longest of the narratives of a resurrection appearance appears in Luke 24 and occurs on Easter Sunday, as do all the resurrection appearances in Luke, including the Ascension.
You can see the structure of the Emmaus story as a skeleton for the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. You can see it as an example of the Pastoral Cycle. However, what is most obvious is how the narrative has the shape of the Eucharistic liturgy. The two disciples with sore hearts are the nucleus of the gathering of the community, and provide a narrative version of Jesus’s saying in Matthew 18:20: ‘For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’ And Jesus is among them, even if they do not recognise him. Their sore hearts are what they bring, looking for the steadfast love of God to heal them.
To continue reading this article click here
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website. You can find the complete article here
The fourth phase of the RCIA goes by the name of Mystagogy. This is a rather obscure term used in early Christianity, best known in the ‘Mystagogical Catecheses’ of Cyril of Jerusalem, where they are in effect baptismal or sacramental homilies. In this article James Crampsey explores some passages in the Synoptic Gospels against the horizon of Mystagogy. James Crampsey SJ is Director of the Lauriston Jesuit Centre in Edinburgh.
I think it was Xavier Léon-Dufour back in 1971 who first pointed out the importance of the Emmaus story for the shaping of our life, prayer and worship. This longest of the narratives of a resurrection appearance appears in Luke 24 and occurs on Easter Sunday, as do all the resurrection appearances in Luke, including the Ascension.
You can see the structure of the Emmaus story as a skeleton for the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. You can see it as an example of the Pastoral Cycle. However, what is most obvious is how the narrative has the shape of the Eucharistic liturgy. The two disciples with sore hearts are the nucleus of the gathering of the community, and provide a narrative version of Jesus’s saying in Matthew 18:20: ‘For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’ And Jesus is among them, even if they do not recognise him. Their sore hearts are what they bring, looking for the steadfast love of God to heal them.
To continue reading this article click here
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