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 10th - 13th July
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Ministry Rosters 14th & 15th July, 2018
Devonport: 
Cleaners: 13th July: B Paul, D Atkins, V Riley 20th July: K.S.C.
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Port Sorell:
Readings this week – Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
Am I looking forward to this quiet time with the Lord, or am I
praying because I feel I must ... or …? Whatever it is, I tell the Lord about
it and ask him to open my mind and heart to him.
Slowly, several times, I read
the text above.
I probably recognise many of the phrases used, but there may be
others which haven’t struck me until today.
I spend as much time as I can with
these.
Jesus is returning home with his disciples.
Maybe that brings to mind an
occasion when I returned to the place where I grew up.
What was it like?
Did I
also come back with friends?
What did I hope for myself?
For them?
I try to
imagine what the synagogue was like ... what people wore, the tone of their
voice, the look in their eyes.
What do I see?
What do I hear?
Maybe I am
sitting with them and take part in the conversation.
What do I say?
What does
Jesus’s voice tell me about his feelings at that time: resignation, surprise,
amazement, hurt, sadness or ...?
Perhaps I spend a few moments reflecting on
the way I judge and treat people around me, including those who don’t seem to
‘tick all the expected boxes’: ethnic origin, profession, marital status etc.
I
speak to the Lord about it; I ask him for what I believe my needs are today.
When the time comes, taking my time, I thank the Lord for being with me and
conclude my prayer with a slow sign of the cross.
Readings next week – Fifteenth
Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Let us pray for those whose anniversary
occurs about this time: 4th – 10th July
May they Rest in Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
As the School Holidays start I hope that the children,
families and staff have a chance to make the most of this time to enjoy a well-earned
break – it isn’t quite into the ‘flu’ season but having a chance to stop now
might make the next term a little less difficult.
It is perhaps one of the most difficult thing for many of
us – to actually have a break that allows us to be refreshed and be renewed. I
was listening to a reflection recently that reminded me that the Sabbath rest
was something that God gave to his people so that they might be able to enjoy
the rest of their life with enthusiasm and energy – maybe I should listen more
closely as well.
At the Council of Priests Meeting last Tuesday we looked at
some of the ways Parishes are preparing for the Plenary 2020. This weekend we
have included the Plenary Prayer in the Bulletin and I would encourage people
to pray the prayer regularly. In the next few weeks we will be looking at some
further steps we might take to create a listening process so that issues which
we believe might impact the Church and our country into the future might be
shared with the wider Church community.
The next stage of our Sacramental Preparation program for
children and families will be held on Saturday 28th July – please
pray for the children and their families as they continue their journey.
Please
take care on the roads and I look forward to seeing you next weekend.
NATIONAL
ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER
SUNDAY CELEBRATION 8TH JULY
Today marks the day that all Catholics from all over Australia
come together to celebrate and acknowledge the Traditional Owners who have
walked upon and cared for this land for thousands of years and acknowledge the
continued deep spiritual attachment and relationship of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peoples to this country and commit ourselves to the ongoing
journey of Reconciliation.
Holy Father, God of Love,
CARE
& CONCERN:
It was decided at a recent gathering that the Bereavement
Group (Siloam) would now take the form of a social group. The group will meet on the second Tuesday of
each month at MacKillop Hill, Forth for afternoon tea. The group decided also to extend an
invitation to other parishioners who might like to come along, particularly
those who do not have the opportunity for social activity, those whose
spouses/partners are now in residential care etc. Transport can be provided.
LUNCH:
SEMINARIANS
SUPPORT DINNER 2018:
FROM THE
PARISH PASTORAL TEAM:
Please take the opportunity to talk to your Parish Pastoral
Team: Felicity Sly (Chair), Fr Mike Delaney, Fr Paschal Okpon, Jenny Garnsey,
Carol Seager, Mandy Eden, Glenys Lee Archer, Mike Hendrey, Christine Miller and
the Leadership Team: John Lee Archer and Grainne Hendrey.
FOOTY
TICKETS:
Round 14 (Friday 29th June) Western Bulldogs by 2 points.
Congratulations to the following winners; Declan Dalton-Smith, …………………. For a little bit of fun why not help support
our Parish fundraiser and buy a footy margin ticket (or two) $2.00. There are
three prizes of $100.00 each week.
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
TASMANIA WORLD YOUTH DAY PILGRIMAGE TO PANAMA:
SOLEMNITY OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL: will be celebrated with a sung Mass
at the Carmelite Monastery, 7 Cambridge St., Launceston on Monday 16th July at
9:30am. Archbishop Julian Porteous will be the celebrant and homilist. Mass
will be followed by morning tea. All are welcome to join the Carmelite Nuns for
this celebration. A Novena of Masses and Prayers will be offered in preparation
from 7th – 15th July. Intentions may be sent to Mother Teresa Benedicta at the
Monastery.
OLMC DELORAINE RE-UNION LUNCH: for past pupils on Friday 27th
July at Pier 01 Ulverstone, 12 noon for 12:30pm start. For enquiries please phone Mary Owen
6435:4406. 
Zita Omogbai-Musa for Friday 6th
July.
PLENARY COUNCIL PRAYER
Come, Holy Spirit
of Pentecost.
Come, Holy Spirit
of the great South Land.
Our Lady Help of
Christians, pray for us.
It is an entirely relational universe. If, at any time, we try to stop this life flow moving through us, with us, and in us, we fall into the true state of sin (and it is much more a state than a momentary behavior). What we call “sins” cannot really separate us from God, because Divine Love is unilateral and unconditional and is not dependent on our receiving it. Rather it is our lonely and fearful illusion of separateness that makes us do sinful and selfish things. Try to make that switch in your understanding, and it will send you on a much more authentic spiritual path.
Love must flow both toward us and out from us, or we do not experience or enjoy its full effects. The Law of Flow is simple, and Jesus states it in many different formulations, such as “Happy are the merciful; they shall have mercy shown to them” (Matthew 5:7).
Sin is a refusal of mutuality and a closing down into separateness. In his classic book, The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis has a ghostly soul in hell shouting out, “I don’t want help. I want to be left alone.” [1] Whenever we refuse mutuality toward anything, whenever we won’t allow our deep inner-connectedness to guide us, whenever we’re not attuned to both receiving and giving, you could say that the Holy Spirit is existentially (but not essentially) absent from our lives.
Toxic, psychopathic, or sociopathic people cannot maintain or sustain relationships. They run from connection and commitment. Usually they are loners in a foundational way or they at least make interactions with them very difficult.
I once met a psychiatrist who said something to me that initially I thought was an overstatement: “Richard, at the end of your life, you’ll realize that every mentally ill person you’ve ever worked with is basically lonely.”
“Oh, come on, that’s a little glib, isn’t it?” I replied.
“Oh, I admit, there are surely physiological reasons for much mental illness, but loneliness might just be what activates it. Every case of nonphysiologically-based mental illness stems from a person who has been separated, cut off, living alone, and has forgotten how to relate in one way or another.” I still wonder if that might be true.
That’s probably why God created the sexual drive—the instinct for personal intimacy and mutual giving of delight—to be so strong in most humans. (Sexuality is a much broader experience than genital intercourse for the purpose of reproduction.) When you allow yourself to be separated from self and others you become sick, toxic, and can do some very evil things—and not even think of them as evil.
If God is absolute relatedness, then any notion of salvation is simply the readiness, the capacity, and the willingness to stay in relationship (which almost always involves forgiveness). When the French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote, “Hell is other people,” he was, at least momentarily, in hell himself.
We—not you alone, nor me alone, but we—are intrinsically like the Trinity, living in an absolute relatedness of self-emptying and infilling.
This is love. Outside of this flow and communion, we all die very quickly.
[1] C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce: A Dream (HarperCollins: 2001, ©1946), 59.
[2] See Richard Rohr’s meditations on Gender and Sexuality, week 1 and week 2, and Gate of the Temple: Spirituality and Sexuality, disc 1 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 1991, 2006, 2009), CD, MP3 download.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, with Mike Morrell, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016), 45-47, 56-57.
REAL MIRACLES
This article is taken from the archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
Ralph Waldo Emerson calls the stars in the night sky “envoys of beauty, lighting the universe with their admonishing smile” and submits that if they appeared for a single night only every thousand years, we’d be on our knees in worship and would cherish the memory for the rest of our lives. But since they come out every night, the miracle goes mostly unnoticed. We watch television instead.
But, their beauty notwithstanding, shining stars are not the most prominent miracle which goes unnoticed. The greatest miracles have to do with gratuity, with love, with unfreezing a soul, with forgiveness. Our great poverty is that these go mostly unnoticed. There are much more astonishing things than the stars for which to be down on our knees in gratitude and there are more profound things to cherish in memory than a starlit night.
The Belgium spirituality writer, Benoit Standaert, suggests that the greatest miracle is “that the freely given exists, that there is love that makes whole and that embraces what has been lost, that chooses what had been rejected, that forgives what has been found guilty beyond appeal, that unites what had seemingly been torn apart forever.”
The greatest miracle is that there’s redemption for all that’s wrong with us. There’s redemption from all we’ve failed to live up to because of our inadequacies. There’s redemption from our wounds, from all that’s left us physically, emotionally, and spiritually limping and cold. There’s redemption from injustice, from the unfairness we suffer ourselves and from the hurt which we inflict knowingly or unknowingly on others. There’s redemption from our mistakes, our moral failures, our infidelities, our sins. There’s redemption from relationships gone sour, from marriages, families, and friendships that have been torn apart by misunderstanding, hatred, selfishness, and violence. There’s redemption from suicide and murder. Nothing falls outside the scope of God’s power to forgive, to resurrect and make new, fresh, innocent, and joyful again.
Our lives, to a greater or lesser extent, all end up incomplete, broken, unfairly ripped away from us, and causing hurt to others because of our weaknesses, infidelities, sin, and malice; and still, ultimately, it can all wash clean again. There’s redemption, new life after all the ways we’ve gone wrong in this world. And that redemption comes through forgiveness.
Forgiveness is the greatest miracle, the pan-ultimate miracle, which, along with everlasting life, is the real meaning of the resurrection of Jesus. There’s nothing more godlike, or miraculous, than a moment of reconciliation, a moment of forgiveness.
It’s for this reason that when the Gospels write up the resurrection of Jesus their emphasis, again and again, is on forgiveness. Indeed, Luke’s Gospel does not distinguish the announcement of the resurrection from the announcement of the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness and resurrection are inextricably linked. Likewise, in the Gospel of John, in Jesus’ first resurrection appearance to the assembled community (with them all hiding behind locked doors in fear) he gives them the power to forgive sins. The message of the resurrection is that a dead body can be raised again from its grave. But this isn’t just true for our physical bodies, which die, but it’s also true, especially, for hearts that are frozen and dead from disappointment, bitterness, anger, separation, and hatred. The miracle of the resurrection is as much about raising deadened souls to new life as it is about raising dead bodies to new life.
Despite being nearly overwhelmed by new inventions today, machines and gadgets that do everything including talking to us, in truth, we see very little that’s genuinely new, that’s not the norm. Sure, we see new innovations every day coming at us so rapidly that we have trouble coping with the changes they are bringing about. But, in the end, these innovations don’t genuinely surprise us, at least not at a deep level, at the level of the soul, morally. They’re simply more of what we already have, extensions of ordinary life, nothing really surprising.
But when you see a woman forgive another person who has genuinely hurt her, you are seeing something that’s not normal, that’s surprising. You are seeing something that is not simply another instance of how things naturally unfold. Likewise, when you see warmth and love break through to a man who has long been captive of a bitter and angry heart, you are seeing something that’s not just another instance of normal life, of ordinary unfolding. You’re seeing newness, redemption, resurrection, forgiveness. Forgiveness is the only thing that’s new on our planet, everything else is just more of the same.
And so, in the words of Benoit Standaert: “Whenever we strive to bring a little more peace through justice here on earth and, in whatever form, change sadness into happiness, heal broken hearts, or assist the sick and the weak, we arrive directly at God, the God of the resurrection.”
Forgiveness is the most astonishing miracle we will ever see or experience this side of eternity. It, alone, makes for the possibility of heaven – and happiness.
VISION: 3 STEPS TO MAKING IT STICK
This is taken from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can read the original blog here
Painting a clear and compelling vision is key to any renewal. If you get your vision right, you will empower and equip your advocates, educate your bystanders and disarm your critics. Vision helps you start, maintain and continuously expand the growth of your parish. It helps you overcome supposedly insurmountable obstacles and will get you from the unsatisfying status quo to where you could and should be because it is where God wants you to be.
However, vision doesn’t stick without constant care and attention. Here are 3 areas you can focus on:
1. Reduce Complexity
Your vision statement should be two to three sentences, not paragraphs. If it is too complicated to embrace, nothing will change. Here’s our vision statement: “Make Church matter by growing disciples among unchurched Catholics in North Baltimore and influencing and equipping other churches to do the same.”
Following this vision, we have focused our attention on our weekend experience and we stopped doing lots of things that we used to do that didn’t have anything to do with our vision.
2. Repeat Regularly
The best place to present and constantly repeat your vision is the pulpit. You can even create a whole message series around vision because the Bible is full of great visionaries. Repeat it in all your various forms of communication.
3. Celebrate Systematically
What is celebrated is repeated. We decided to drastically reduce the number of our events during the week, but we still purposefully host others such as our “Cornerstone” leadership dinners which are occasions to celebrate what we have accomplished with some of our key volunteer ministry leaders and to look at what is ahead. We have created a worship night for our ministers as a way to say thank you and provide encouraging spiritual input at the same time. We celebrate our adult catechumens through a short video testimony where they share their stories with the congregation. Their stories in turn inspire the rest of us. Our missionaries in Haiti and Kenya are coming back this weekend and there will be celebration dinners for them. In our “Wins Meeting” on Monday our staff share some of the wins they have witnessed over the last week.
Seeing a vision become a reality requires more than a single burst of energy or creativity. It requires daily attention and commitment, but it is absolutely worth the effort.
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 10th - 13th July
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe … St Benedict
Thursday: 10:30am Eliza Purton
1.30pm Funeral Mass Burnie (Late Caterina Girdauskas) Friday: 9:30am
Ulverstone
10:30am Meercroft Weekend Masses 14th & 15th July, 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 14th & 15th July, 2018
Devonport:
Readers Vigil: A McIntyre, M Williams, C Kiely-Hoye
10:30am: A Hughes, T Barrientos
Ministers of
Communion: Vigil: T Muir, M Davies, D Peters, J
Heatley
10:30am: B & N Mulcahy, K Hull Parish House Mower roster July: B Windebank
Cleaners: 13th July: B Paul, D Atkins, V Riley 20th July: K.S.C.
Piety Shop: 14th July:
R Baker 15th July: D French
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: R Locket
Ministers of Communion: M Murray, J Pisarskis, C Harvey, P
Grech
Cleaners: M McKenzie, M Singh, N Pearce Flowers: C Mapley Hospitality: Filipino Community
Penguin:
Greeters: G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator: Readers: M & D Hiscutt
Ministers of
Communion: T
Clayton, E Nickols Liturgy: SC C Setting Up: F Aichberger
Care of Church: J & T Kiely
Port Sorell:
Readers: D Leaman, G Duff Minister of Communion: V Duff Clean/Flowers/Prepare: A Hynes
Readings this week – Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
First Reading: Ezekiel 2: 2-5
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10
Gospel: Mark 6: 1-6
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
As I come to pray today, I spend a few moments reflecting
on my mood.
Am I looking forward to this quiet time with the Lord, or am I praying because I feel I must ... or …? Whatever it is, I tell the Lord about it and ask him to open my mind and heart to him.
Slowly, several times, I read the text above.
I probably recognise many of the phrases used, but there may be others which haven’t struck me until today.
I spend as much time as I can with these.
Jesus is returning home with his disciples.
Maybe that brings to mind an occasion when I returned to the place where I grew up.
What was it like?
Did I also come back with friends?
What did I hope for myself?
For them?
I try to imagine what the synagogue was like ... what people wore, the tone of their voice, the look in their eyes.
What do I see?
What do I hear?
Maybe I am sitting with them and take part in the conversation.
What do I say?
What does Jesus’s voice tell me about his feelings at that time: resignation, surprise, amazement, hurt, sadness or ...?
Perhaps I spend a few moments reflecting on the way I judge and treat people around me, including those who don’t seem to ‘tick all the expected boxes’: ethnic origin, profession, marital status etc.
I speak to the Lord about it; I ask him for what I believe my needs are today.
When the time comes, taking my time, I thank the Lord for being with me and conclude my prayer with a slow sign of the cross.
Am I looking forward to this quiet time with the Lord, or am I praying because I feel I must ... or …? Whatever it is, I tell the Lord about it and ask him to open my mind and heart to him.
Slowly, several times, I read the text above.
I probably recognise many of the phrases used, but there may be others which haven’t struck me until today.
I spend as much time as I can with these.
Jesus is returning home with his disciples.
Maybe that brings to mind an occasion when I returned to the place where I grew up.
What was it like?
Did I also come back with friends?
What did I hope for myself?
For them?
I try to imagine what the synagogue was like ... what people wore, the tone of their voice, the look in their eyes.
What do I see?
What do I hear?
Maybe I am sitting with them and take part in the conversation.
What do I say?
What does Jesus’s voice tell me about his feelings at that time: resignation, surprise, amazement, hurt, sadness or ...?
Perhaps I spend a few moments reflecting on the way I judge and treat people around me, including those who don’t seem to ‘tick all the expected boxes’: ethnic origin, profession, marital status etc.
I speak to the Lord about it; I ask him for what I believe my needs are today.
When the time comes, taking my time, I thank the Lord for being with me and conclude my prayer with a slow sign of the cross.
Readings next week – Fifteenth
Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
First Reading: Amos 7: 12-15
Second Reading: Ephesians 1: 3-14
Gospel: Mark
6: 7-13
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Madeleine Simpson, Edgar Nool, Mary Webb, Kasia Hoffler,
Rosalinda Grimes,
Rose Kirk-Patrick & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Caterina Girdauskas, Sr Luke McMahon SSJ, Lyell Willcox, Kath Jamieson, Dawn
Beamish, Mary Binks, Mary Halligan, Elaine Holloway-Sheppard, Helen Cooper.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary
occurs about this time: 4th – 10th July
Ruby Desire, Marcella Rech, Marjorie Parsissons, Donald
Barry, Jean Dynan, Melody Hicks, Margaret McCormack, Geoffrey Jamieson, Judith Polga,
Patrick Milnes, Lorraine Brown, Gwen McCormack, Elaine Winkel, Harry Mochrie, Patrick
Kelcey & Imelda Cameron.
May they Rest in Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
As the School Holidays start I hope that the children,
families and staff have a chance to make the most of this time to enjoy a well-earned
break – it isn’t quite into the ‘flu’ season but having a chance to stop now
might make the next term a little less difficult.
It is perhaps one of the most difficult thing for many of
us – to actually have a break that allows us to be refreshed and be renewed. I
was listening to a reflection recently that reminded me that the Sabbath rest
was something that God gave to his people so that they might be able to enjoy
the rest of their life with enthusiasm and energy – maybe I should listen more
closely as well.
At the Council of Priests Meeting last Tuesday we looked at
some of the ways Parishes are preparing for the Plenary 2020. This weekend we
have included the Plenary Prayer in the Bulletin and I would encourage people
to pray the prayer regularly. In the next few weeks we will be looking at some
further steps we might take to create a listening process so that issues which
we believe might impact the Church and our country into the future might be
shared with the wider Church community.
The next stage of our Sacramental Preparation program for
children and families will be held on Saturday 28th July – please
pray for the children and their families as they continue their journey.
Please
take care on the roads and I look forward to seeing you next weekend.
NATIONAL
ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER
SUNDAY CELEBRATION 8TH JULY
Today marks the day that all Catholics from all over Australia
come together to celebrate and acknowledge the Traditional Owners who have
walked upon and cared for this land for thousands of years and acknowledge the
continued deep spiritual attachment and relationship of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peoples to this country and commit ourselves to the ongoing
journey of Reconciliation.
Holy Father, God of Love,
You are the Creator of this land and
of all good things.
Our hope is in you because you gave
your son Jesus to reconcile the world to you.
We pray for your strength and grace
to forgive, accept and love one another,
As you love us and forgive and
accept us in the sacrifice of your Son.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
CARE
& CONCERN:
It was decided at a recent gathering that the Bereavement
Group (Siloam) would now take the form of a social group. The group will meet on the second Tuesday of
each month at MacKillop Hill, Forth for afternoon tea. The group decided also to extend an
invitation to other parishioners who might like to come along, particularly
those who do not have the opportunity for social activity, those whose
spouses/partners are now in residential care etc. Transport can be provided.
If you would like to find out more, please contact Mary
Davies 6424:1183 / 0447 241 182, Margaret McKenzie 6425:1414 / 0419 392 937 or
Toni Muir 6424:5296 / 0438 245 296.
For catering purposes we would appreciate your advising of
your attendance to any of the above numbers.
LUNCH:
THIS Sunday 8th July at the Lighthouse Hotel, Ulverstone
12noon -12:20pm. All welcome.
SEMINARIANS
SUPPORT DINNER 2018:
The 2018 Archdiocese/Parishes Seminarian Support Dinner is
being coordinated by the Knights of the Southern Cross together with the valued
support of Guilford Young College. The dinner represents a wonderful
opportunity to gather as a single community of faith to enjoy each other’s
company while also allowing us as a Catholic community to contribute much
needed funds to support our Seminarians. Your attendance in support to the 2018
Archdiocese/Parishes Seminarian Support Dinner would be most welcomed. The
event is being held on Thursday 16th August 2018 commencing 6.30pm, Guilford
Young College – Hobart Campus. The cost for the dinner is $60.00 per person and
will include a complimentary drink upon arrival followed by canapés and a
four-course meal. To secure your ticket, please speak to Fr Mike or Fr Paschal.
If you have any queries please contact the Dinner Co-ordinator Mr Les Gardner
6229:0103
FROM THE
PARISH PASTORAL TEAM:
Your Parish Pastoral Team (PPT) met on Sunday and reflected
on some leadership statements from scripture and from laity. From this
reflection we are working on understanding what God is calling us to do. Prayer
is an important part of our meetings. We ask that you keep the PPT in your
prayers, praying that we utilise the gifts of the Holy Spirit (Wisdom,
Understanding, Judgement, Courage, Knowledge, Reverence, and Wonder and Awe) in
our discussions. Glenys, John and Fr Mike shared their thoughts on their recent
journey, and for each of them, it was the people they met that made the
greatest impact: from the person whose ministry was to be available to provide
First Aid if required, to the person who showed them to an available seat,
through to those who were leading the Mass. Every person is important to the
ministry.
Please take the opportunity to talk to your Parish Pastoral
Team: Felicity Sly (Chair), Fr Mike Delaney, Fr Paschal Okpon, Jenny Garnsey,
Carol Seager, Mandy Eden, Glenys Lee Archer, Mike Hendrey, Christine Miller and
the Leadership Team: John Lee Archer and Grainne Hendrey.
FOOTY TICKETS:
Round 14 (Friday 29th June) Western Bulldogs by 2 points.
Congratulations to the following winners; Declan Dalton-Smith, …………………. For a little bit of fun why not help support
our Parish fundraiser and buy a footy margin ticket (or two) $2.00. 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 12th
July – Tony Ryan & Merv Tippett
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
TASMANIA WORLD YOUTH DAY PILGRIMAGE TO PANAMA:
Tasmania is going to Panama! Millions of young people, eighteen
days, two countries one faith… The Archdiocese has just finished developing
Tasmania’s pilgrimage to Panama and applications for the pilgrimage are
officially open! We invite all young adults between the ages of 18-35 to
consider what will surely be a once in a lifetime opportunity. The pilgrimage
will include time in both Costa Rica and Panama City and will give you the
opportunity to grow in your relationship with God and others. All the details
of the pilgrimage including: cost, itinerary, registration, dates, highlights
etc. can be found at hobart.catholic.org.au (click on WYD link) or if you have
any questions, please email Tomasz at youth@aohtas.org.au
SOLEMNITY OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL: will be celebrated with a sung Mass
at the Carmelite Monastery, 7 Cambridge St., Launceston on Monday 16th July at
9:30am. Archbishop Julian Porteous will be the celebrant and homilist. Mass
will be followed by morning tea. All are welcome to join the Carmelite Nuns for
this celebration. A Novena of Masses and Prayers will be offered in preparation
from 7th – 15th July. Intentions may be sent to Mother Teresa Benedicta at the
Monastery.
OLMC DELORAINE RE-UNION LUNCH: for past pupils on Friday 27th
July at Pier 01 Ulverstone, 12 noon for 12:30pm start. For enquiries please phone Mary Owen
6435:4406.
Zita Omogbai-Musa for Friday 6th
July.
May you feel the love and joy that God
gives you.
PLENARY COUNCIL PRAYER
Come, Holy Spirit
of Pentecost.
Come, Holy Spirit
of the great South Land.
O God, bless and
unite all your people in Australia and guide us on the pilgrim way of the Plenary
Council.
Give us the grace
to see your face in one another and to recognise Jesus, our companion on the
road.
Give us ears to
listen humbly to each other and a discerning heart to hear what you are saying.
Lead your Church
into a hope-filled future, that we may live the joy of the Gospel.
Through Jesus
Christ our Lord, bread for the journey from age to age. Amen
Our Lady Help of
Christians, pray for us.
St Mary MacKillop,
pray for us.
Made for Love
This reflection is taken from the daily emails from Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe to receive these emails by clicking here
It is an entirely relational universe. If, at any time, we try to stop this life flow moving through us, with us, and in us, we fall into the true state of sin (and it is much more a state than a momentary behavior). What we call “sins” cannot really separate us from God, because Divine Love is unilateral and unconditional and is not dependent on our receiving it. Rather it is our lonely and fearful illusion of separateness that makes us do sinful and selfish things. Try to make that switch in your understanding, and it will send you on a much more authentic spiritual path.
Love must flow both toward us and out from us, or we do not experience or enjoy its full effects. The Law of Flow is simple, and Jesus states it in many different formulations, such as “Happy are the merciful; they shall have mercy shown to them” (Matthew 5:7).
Sin is a refusal of mutuality and a closing down into separateness. In his classic book, The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis has a ghostly soul in hell shouting out, “I don’t want help. I want to be left alone.” [1] Whenever we refuse mutuality toward anything, whenever we won’t allow our deep inner-connectedness to guide us, whenever we’re not attuned to both receiving and giving, you could say that the Holy Spirit is existentially (but not essentially) absent from our lives.
Toxic, psychopathic, or sociopathic people cannot maintain or sustain relationships. They run from connection and commitment. Usually they are loners in a foundational way or they at least make interactions with them very difficult.
I once met a psychiatrist who said something to me that initially I thought was an overstatement: “Richard, at the end of your life, you’ll realize that every mentally ill person you’ve ever worked with is basically lonely.”
“Oh, come on, that’s a little glib, isn’t it?” I replied.
“Oh, I admit, there are surely physiological reasons for much mental illness, but loneliness might just be what activates it. Every case of nonphysiologically-based mental illness stems from a person who has been separated, cut off, living alone, and has forgotten how to relate in one way or another.” I still wonder if that might be true.
That’s probably why God created the sexual drive—the instinct for personal intimacy and mutual giving of delight—to be so strong in most humans. (Sexuality is a much broader experience than genital intercourse for the purpose of reproduction.) When you allow yourself to be separated from self and others you become sick, toxic, and can do some very evil things—and not even think of them as evil.
If God is absolute relatedness, then any notion of salvation is simply the readiness, the capacity, and the willingness to stay in relationship (which almost always involves forgiveness). When the French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote, “Hell is other people,” he was, at least momentarily, in hell himself.
We—not you alone, nor me alone, but we—are intrinsically like the Trinity, living in an absolute relatedness of self-emptying and infilling.
This is love. Outside of this flow and communion, we all die very quickly.
[1] C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce: A Dream (HarperCollins: 2001, ©1946), 59.
[2] See Richard Rohr’s meditations on Gender and Sexuality, week 1 and week 2, and Gate of the Temple: Spirituality and Sexuality, disc 1 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 1991, 2006, 2009), CD, MP3 download.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, with Mike Morrell, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016), 45-47, 56-57.
REAL MIRACLES
This article is taken from the archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
Ralph Waldo Emerson calls the stars in the night sky “envoys of beauty, lighting the universe with their admonishing smile” and submits that if they appeared for a single night only every thousand years, we’d be on our knees in worship and would cherish the memory for the rest of our lives. But since they come out every night, the miracle goes mostly unnoticed. We watch television instead.
But, their beauty notwithstanding, shining stars are not the most prominent miracle which goes unnoticed. The greatest miracles have to do with gratuity, with love, with unfreezing a soul, with forgiveness. Our great poverty is that these go mostly unnoticed. There are much more astonishing things than the stars for which to be down on our knees in gratitude and there are more profound things to cherish in memory than a starlit night.
The Belgium spirituality writer, Benoit Standaert, suggests that the greatest miracle is “that the freely given exists, that there is love that makes whole and that embraces what has been lost, that chooses what had been rejected, that forgives what has been found guilty beyond appeal, that unites what had seemingly been torn apart forever.”
The greatest miracle is that there’s redemption for all that’s wrong with us. There’s redemption from all we’ve failed to live up to because of our inadequacies. There’s redemption from our wounds, from all that’s left us physically, emotionally, and spiritually limping and cold. There’s redemption from injustice, from the unfairness we suffer ourselves and from the hurt which we inflict knowingly or unknowingly on others. There’s redemption from our mistakes, our moral failures, our infidelities, our sins. There’s redemption from relationships gone sour, from marriages, families, and friendships that have been torn apart by misunderstanding, hatred, selfishness, and violence. There’s redemption from suicide and murder. Nothing falls outside the scope of God’s power to forgive, to resurrect and make new, fresh, innocent, and joyful again.
Our lives, to a greater or lesser extent, all end up incomplete, broken, unfairly ripped away from us, and causing hurt to others because of our weaknesses, infidelities, sin, and malice; and still, ultimately, it can all wash clean again. There’s redemption, new life after all the ways we’ve gone wrong in this world. And that redemption comes through forgiveness.
Forgiveness is the greatest miracle, the pan-ultimate miracle, which, along with everlasting life, is the real meaning of the resurrection of Jesus. There’s nothing more godlike, or miraculous, than a moment of reconciliation, a moment of forgiveness.
It’s for this reason that when the Gospels write up the resurrection of Jesus their emphasis, again and again, is on forgiveness. Indeed, Luke’s Gospel does not distinguish the announcement of the resurrection from the announcement of the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness and resurrection are inextricably linked. Likewise, in the Gospel of John, in Jesus’ first resurrection appearance to the assembled community (with them all hiding behind locked doors in fear) he gives them the power to forgive sins. The message of the resurrection is that a dead body can be raised again from its grave. But this isn’t just true for our physical bodies, which die, but it’s also true, especially, for hearts that are frozen and dead from disappointment, bitterness, anger, separation, and hatred. The miracle of the resurrection is as much about raising deadened souls to new life as it is about raising dead bodies to new life.
Despite being nearly overwhelmed by new inventions today, machines and gadgets that do everything including talking to us, in truth, we see very little that’s genuinely new, that’s not the norm. Sure, we see new innovations every day coming at us so rapidly that we have trouble coping with the changes they are bringing about. But, in the end, these innovations don’t genuinely surprise us, at least not at a deep level, at the level of the soul, morally. They’re simply more of what we already have, extensions of ordinary life, nothing really surprising.
But when you see a woman forgive another person who has genuinely hurt her, you are seeing something that’s not normal, that’s surprising. You are seeing something that is not simply another instance of how things naturally unfold. Likewise, when you see warmth and love break through to a man who has long been captive of a bitter and angry heart, you are seeing something that’s not just another instance of normal life, of ordinary unfolding. You’re seeing newness, redemption, resurrection, forgiveness. Forgiveness is the only thing that’s new on our planet, everything else is just more of the same.
And so, in the words of Benoit Standaert: “Whenever we strive to bring a little more peace through justice here on earth and, in whatever form, change sadness into happiness, heal broken hearts, or assist the sick and the weak, we arrive directly at God, the God of the resurrection.”
Forgiveness is the most astonishing miracle we will ever see or experience this side of eternity. It, alone, makes for the possibility of heaven – and happiness.
VISION: 3 STEPS TO MAKING IT STICK
This is taken from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can read the original blog here
Painting a clear and compelling vision is key to any renewal. If you get your vision right, you will empower and equip your advocates, educate your bystanders and disarm your critics. Vision helps you start, maintain and continuously expand the growth of your parish. It helps you overcome supposedly insurmountable obstacles and will get you from the unsatisfying status quo to where you could and should be because it is where God wants you to be.
However, vision doesn’t stick without constant care and attention. Here are 3 areas you can focus on:
1. Reduce Complexity
Your vision statement should be two to three sentences, not paragraphs. If it is too complicated to embrace, nothing will change. Here’s our vision statement: “Make Church matter by growing disciples among unchurched Catholics in North Baltimore and influencing and equipping other churches to do the same.”
Following this vision, we have focused our attention on our weekend experience and we stopped doing lots of things that we used to do that didn’t have anything to do with our vision.
2. Repeat Regularly
The best place to present and constantly repeat your vision is the pulpit. You can even create a whole message series around vision because the Bible is full of great visionaries. Repeat it in all your various forms of communication.
3. Celebrate Systematically
What is celebrated is repeated. We decided to drastically reduce the number of our events during the week, but we still purposefully host others such as our “Cornerstone” leadership dinners which are occasions to celebrate what we have accomplished with some of our key volunteer ministry leaders and to look at what is ahead. We have created a worship night for our ministers as a way to say thank you and provide encouraging spiritual input at the same time. We celebrate our adult catechumens through a short video testimony where they share their stories with the congregation. Their stories in turn inspire the rest of us. Our missionaries in Haiti and Kenya are coming back this weekend and there will be celebration dinners for them. In our “Wins Meeting” on Monday our staff share some of the wins they have witnessed over the last week.
Seeing a vision become a reality requires more than a single burst of energy or creativity. It requires daily attention and commitment, but it is absolutely worth the effort.
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