Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
OUR VISION
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
Finance Officer: Anne Fisher
Finance Officer: Anne Fisher
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.
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.
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.
and to recognise Jesus, our companion on the road.
Give us the courage to tell our stories and to speak boldly of your truth.
Give us ears to listen humbly to each other
and a discerning heart to hear what you are saying.
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.
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.
St Mary MacKillop, pray for us.
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 7th - 10th August
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
12noon Devonport
Thursday: 10:30am Eliza Purton Nursing Home
12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Ministry Rosters 11th & 12th August,
2018
Devonport: 
Reader/s: M & K McKenzie Ministers of Communion: E Reilly, M McKenzie, K McKenzie, M O’Halloran
Readings this week –Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
Readings next week –Nineteenth Sunday
in Ordinary Time (Year B)
First Reading: 1 Kings 19:4-8 
Deborah Leary, Madeleine Simpson, Edgar Nool, Mary Webb, Kasia Hoffler, Rosalinda Grimes, Rose Kirk-Patrick & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Caterina Girdauskas, Molly Snare, Sr Eily Sheehy, Sr Cecily Kirkham, Sr Luke McMahon SSJ, Valentine Daug, Lyell Willcox
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 1st – 7th August
Dorothy Smeaton, Jean Fox, Jack O’Rourke, Nancy Padman, Tadeusz Poludniak, Shirley Fraser, Helena Rimmelzwaan, Nancy Bynon, Thomas Hays, Mary Ellen Sherriff, Sydney Dooley, John Fennell, Pauline Taylor, Ellen & Stan Woodhouse, Terry O’Rourke, Lorna Jones, Janice Doreen Nielson
May they Rest in Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
In two weeks the young people who have been preparing to
receive the Sacraments of Initiation will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation
with Archbishop Julian at the 6.00pm Mass at Devonport and the 9.00am Mass at
Ulverstone. As a community of faith we celebrate with them and I invite all
Parishioners to continue to pray that they will grow in their faith and deepen
their relationship with Jesus. Reminder: there will be a rehearsal for the
celebration of the Sacrament on Sunday 12th at Sacred Heart Church commencing
at 2pm.
The Church in Australia will be holding a Plenary Council
in 2020 – and as a part of the preparation process we have included the Prayer
for the Plenary in the Bulletin in recent weeks. I would like to invite
everyone to join me at Marist College Burnie on Saturday 1st September from
10am-12noon for a presentation organised by the Burnie-Wynyard Parish. The
presenter/s will be members of the National Working Party explaining something
more of the process and helping us understand how we can participate in the
listening process in preparation for the Plenary.
Next Wednesday (8th) we celebrate the Feast of St Mary of
the Cross MacKillop. As well as the normal Wednesday Mass at Latrobe there will
also be Mass at midday at Our Lady of Lourdes – this is a special opportunity
to thank God for the wonderful religious who have been faithful servants of God
as we honour God and give thanks for our 1st Australian Saint.
CARE &
CONCERN The next gathering of the social
group for afternoon tea will be held on Tuesday, 14th August at 2.00 pm at
MacKillop Hill, Forth. We would be very
pleased to welcome parishioners who do not have the opportunity for social
activity, including 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 64241183 / 0447 241 182, Margaret McKenzie 64251414 / 0419
392 937 or Toni Muir 64245296 / 0438 245 296.
For catering purposes we would appreciate your advising of your
attendance to any of the above numbers.
MACKILLOP
HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE St Mary MacKillop’s Feast Day, Wed
8th August. You are invited to celebrate this special occasion by joining us for
afternoon tea between 2.30pm-5pm.
MOUNT ZION
PRAY GROUP
wish to apologise for
postponement of the advertised talk by the Lee-Archer’s last Monday, it will be
rescheduled as soon as possible. Mike Gaffney
FROM THE
PARISH PASTORAL TEAM (FELICITY SLY – CHAIR)
Round 19 (Friday 27th July) Winner: Essendon by 43 points.
Congratulations to the following winners; Pauline Cooper, Charlie's Angels.
For some fun why not help support our Parish fundraiser and
buy a footy 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 9th August –Tony Ryan & Terry Bird.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
Our church at Karoola is
celebrating 120 years of support to our Catholic community on Sunday the 2nd of
September, with Mass at 11am followed by a light luncheon in the Karoola hall.
We invite all with present or past connections to our parish to join us.
Let Your Life Speak
God’s image within each of us is inherent and irrevocable.
God’s likeness is our unique expression of that image, inviting our full and
conscious participation. Vocation is one way in which we discover and grow into
our “True Self.” I’m not speaking so much about education, career, or
livelihood, though in some cases they might overlap. In general, it is a Larger
Life that somehow calls us forward (vocatio means “a call or summons” in
Latin), more than we call it to us. We do not know its name yet, so how can we
call it? If we engineer the process too much, we often mistake a security-based
occupation for our soul’s vocation.
[1] Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the
Voice of Vocation (Jossey-Bass: 2000), 2-3.
STANDING ON NEW BORDERS
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
A particularly powerful Gospel story recounts Jesus meeting with a Syro-Phoenician woman. Central to that story is where their encounter takes place. It takes place on the borders of Samaria. For Jesus, Samaria was a foreign territory, both in terms of ethnicity and religion. In his encounter with this woman, he is standing at the edges, the borders, of how he then understood himself religiously.
I believe that this is where we are standing today as Christians, on new borders in terms of relating to other religions, not least to our Islamic brothers and sisters. The single most important agenda item for our churches for the next fifty years will be the issue of relating to other religions, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Indigenous Religions in the Americas and Africa, and various forms, old and new, of Paganism and New Age. Simply stated, if all the violence stemming from religious extremism hasn’t woken us yet then we are dangerously asleep. We have no choice. The world has become one village, one community, one family, and unless we begin to understand and accept each other more deeply we will never be a world at peace.
Moreover for us, as Christians, the threat of hatred and violence coming from other religions isn’t the main reason we are called to understand non-Christian believers more compassionately. The deeper reason is that the God we honor calls us to do that. Our God calls us to recognize and welcome all sincere believers into our hearts as brothers and sisters in faith. Jesus makes this abundantly clear most everywhere in his message, and at times makes it uncomfortably explicit: Who are my brothers and sisters? It is those who hear the word of God and keep it. … It is not necessarily those who say Lord, Lord, who enter the Kingdom of Heaven but those who do the will of God on earth. Who can deny that many non-Christians do the will of God here on earth?
But what about the extremism, violence, and perverse expressions of religion we frequently see in other religions? Can we really consider these religions as true, given the awful things done in their name?
All religions are to be judged, as Huston Smith submits, by their highest expressions and their saints, not by their perversions. This is true too for Christianity. We hope that others will judge us not by our darkest moments or by the worst acts ever done by Christians in the name of religion, but rather by all the good Christians have done in history and by our saints. We owe that same understanding to other religions, and all of them in their essence and in their best expressions call us to what’s one, good, true, and beautiful – and all of them have produced great saints.
But what of Christ’s uniqueness? What about Christ’s claim that he is the (only) way, truth, and life and that nobody can come to God except through him?
Throughout its 2000-year history, Christian theology has never backed away from the truth and exclusivity of that claim, save for a number of individual theologians whose views have not been accepted by the churches. So how can we view the truth of other religions in the light of Christ’s claim that he is the only way to the Father?
Christian theology (certainly this is true for Roman Catholic theology) has always accepted and proactively taught that the Mystery of Christ is much larger than what can be observed in the visible, historical enfolding of Christianity and the Christian churches in history. Christ is larger than our churches and operates too outside of our churches. He is still telling the church what Jesus once told his mother: “I must be about my Father’s business.”
Formerly we expressed this by affirming that the Body of Christ, the full body of believers, has both a visible and invisible element. In explicit, baptized believers we see the visible Body of Christ. However at the same time we acknowledge that there are countless others who for all kinds of inculpable reasons have not been explicitly baptized and do not profess an explicit faith in Christ, but who by the goodness of their hearts and actions must be considered as kin to us in the faith.
This may come as a surprise to some but, in fact, the dogmatic teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is that sincere persons in other religions can be saved without becoming Christians, and to teach the contrary is heresy. This is predicated on an understanding of the God whom we worship as Christians. The God whom Jesus incarnated wills the salvation of all people and is not indifferent to the sincere faith of billions of people throughout thousands of years. We dishonor our faith when we teach anything different. All of us are God’s children.
There is in the end only one God and that God is the Father of all of us – and that means all of us, irrespective of religion.
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 7th - 10th August
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
12noon Devonport
Thursday: 10:30am Eliza Purton Nursing Home
12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
10:30am Meercroft
Weekend Masses 11th & 12th August, 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 11th & 12th August,
2018
Devonport:
Readers Vigil: A McIntyre, M Williams, C Kiely-Hoye
10:30am: F Sly, J Tuxworth, T Omogbai-Musa
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil: B&B Windebank, T Bird, R Baker,
Beau Windebank
10:30am: S Riley, M Sherriff, R Beaton, D
Barrientos, M Barrientos
Cleaners: 10th Aug: M & L Tippett, A Berryman 17th Aug: K.S.C.
Piety Shop: 11th
Aug: H Thompson 12th Aug: K Hull
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: M & K McKenzie Ministers of Communion: E Reilly, M McKenzie, K McKenzie, M O’Halloran
Cleaners: M Mott Flowers: G Doyle Hospitality: S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters: G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator: E Nickols Readers: J Barker, T Clayton
Ministers of
Communion: T
Clayton, E Nickols Liturgy: S.C. C Setting Up: F Aichberger
Care of Church: M Bowles, M Owens
Latrobe:
Reader: M Eden Minister of Communion: Z Smith Procession of
Gifts: M Clarke
Port Sorell:
Readers: G Bellchambers, P Anderson Minister of Communion: B Lee
Readings this week –Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
First Reading: Exodus 16:2-4. 12-15
Second Reading: Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
Gospel: John 6:24-35
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
I quieten
down and try to become still, better to allow the Word of God to enter my
heart.
If it helps, I might like to begin this time of prayer by going with the
people to look for Jesus.
Who is this Jesus I am seeking?
And why do I seek
him?
I pause to ponder.
Perhaps I am going with a particular hunger or longing
of my own.
Am I able to identify it?
I try to entrust my whole self to Jesus,
who knows my hungers and thirsts, be they physical, spiritual, psychological …
I return to the text.
Perhaps I notice how Jesus wants to show the people that
God has always provided for them throughout their history.
Where do I notice
God’s goodness towards me?
For what can I be thankful … today ... this week ...
this year...?
Just as Jesus feeds the crowds, I ponder the ways in which he
feeds me.
As I bring my prayer to a close, I let the other people leave while I
remain alone with the Lord.
I speak freely from the heart and listen
attentively to him.
In conclusion, I take a moment to ask God to help me feed
others through my own words and deeds. Our Father...
Readings next week –Nineteenth Sunday
in Ordinary Time (Year B)
First Reading: 1 Kings 19:4-8
Second Reading: Ephesians 4:30 - 5:2
Gospel: John
6:41-52
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Deborah Leary, Madeleine Simpson, Edgar Nool, Mary Webb, Kasia Hoffler, Rosalinda Grimes, Rose Kirk-Patrick & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Caterina Girdauskas, Molly Snare, Sr Eily Sheehy, Sr Cecily Kirkham, Sr Luke McMahon SSJ, Valentine Daug, Lyell Willcox
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 1st – 7th August
Dorothy Smeaton, Jean Fox, Jack O’Rourke, Nancy Padman, Tadeusz Poludniak, Shirley Fraser, Helena Rimmelzwaan, Nancy Bynon, Thomas Hays, Mary Ellen Sherriff, Sydney Dooley, John Fennell, Pauline Taylor, Ellen & Stan Woodhouse, Terry O’Rourke, Lorna Jones, Janice Doreen Nielson
May they Rest in Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
In two weeks the young people who have been preparing to
receive the Sacraments of Initiation will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation
with Archbishop Julian at the 6.00pm Mass at Devonport and the 9.00am Mass at
Ulverstone. As a community of faith we celebrate with them and I invite all
Parishioners to continue to pray that they will grow in their faith and deepen
their relationship with Jesus. Reminder: there will be a rehearsal for the
celebration of the Sacrament on Sunday 12th at Sacred Heart Church commencing
at 2pm.
The Church in Australia will be holding a Plenary Council
in 2020 – and as a part of the preparation process we have included the Prayer
for the Plenary in the Bulletin in recent weeks. I would like to invite
everyone to join me at Marist College Burnie on Saturday 1st September from
10am-12noon for a presentation organised by the Burnie-Wynyard Parish. The
presenter/s will be members of the National Working Party explaining something
more of the process and helping us understand how we can participate in the
listening process in preparation for the Plenary.
Next Wednesday (8th) we celebrate the Feast of St Mary of
the Cross MacKillop. As well as the normal Wednesday Mass at Latrobe there will
also be Mass at midday at Our Lady of Lourdes – this is a special opportunity
to thank God for the wonderful religious who have been faithful servants of God
as we honour God and give thanks for our 1st Australian Saint.
Please take care on the roads and I look forward
to seeing you next weekend.
CARE &
CONCERN The next gathering of the social
group for afternoon tea will be held on Tuesday, 14th August at 2.00 pm at
MacKillop Hill, Forth. We would be very
pleased to welcome parishioners who do not have the opportunity for social
activity, including 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 64241183 / 0447 241 182, Margaret McKenzie 64251414 / 0419
392 937 or Toni Muir 64245296 / 0438 245 296.
For catering purposes we would appreciate your advising of your
attendance to any of the above numbers.
MACKILLOP
HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE St Mary MacKillop’s Feast Day, Wed
8th August. You are invited to celebrate this special occasion by joining us for
afternoon tea between 2.30pm-5pm.
Ph. 0418
367 769 E: rsjforth@bigpond.net.au
MOUNT ZION
PRAY GROUP
wish to apologise for
postponement of the advertised talk by the Lee-Archer’s last Monday, it will be
rescheduled as soon as possible. Mike Gaffney
FROM THE
PARISH PASTORAL TEAM (FELICITY SLY – CHAIR)
Thank you to the Parishioners who
have submitted their details to this email address: merseyleven@aohtas.org.au.
If you have not yet done so, can you please email the Parish Office and use the
subject: Parishioner Contact Details and include your name and the names of
others who will share your email (such as your spouse, children, housemates);
your address; and your mobile and/or landline numbers. Your information will be
kept private, and not be shared without your permission. Thanks also to people
who have taken the time to speak with Parish Pastoral Team (PPT) members. These
have been passed on to the PPT, and we are using this feedback to inform our
discussions. Please talk to us, we want to hear from you: both good and bad!
A reminder that your PPT are:
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 19 (Friday 27th July) Winner: Essendon by 43 points.
Congratulations to the following winners; Pauline Cooper, Charlie's Angels.
For some fun why not help support our Parish fundraiser and
buy a footy 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 9th August –Tony Ryan & Terry Bird.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
Our church at Karoola is
celebrating 120 years of support to our Catholic community on Sunday the 2nd of
September, with Mass at 11am followed by a light luncheon in the Karoola hall.
We invite all with present or past connections to our parish to join us.
Contacts for catering purposes Ph.
Billee Parry 63954173 or Dallas Mahnken 63954274.
Let Your Life Speak
This article is taken from the Daily Email from the Center for Action and Contemplation via Fr Richard Rohr OFM. If you would like to receive these daily emails please click here.
God’s image within each of us is inherent and irrevocable.
God’s likeness is our unique expression of that image, inviting our full and
conscious participation. Vocation is one way in which we discover and grow into
our “True Self.” I’m not speaking so much about education, career, or
livelihood, though in some cases they might overlap. In general, it is a Larger
Life that somehow calls us forward (vocatio means “a call or summons” in
Latin), more than we call it to us. We do not know its name yet, so how can we
call it? If we engineer the process too much, we often mistake a security-based
occupation for our soul’s vocation.
Parker Palmer, a Quaker teacher and activist whom I deeply
trust, reflects on his own “further journey”:
[There are] moments when it is clear—if I have the eyes to
see—that the life I am living is not the same as the life that wants to live in
me. In those moments I sometimes catch a glimpse of my true life, a life hidden
like the river beneath the ice. And . . . I wonder: What am I meant to do? Who
am I meant to be?
I was in my early thirties when I began, literally, to wake
up to questions about my vocation. By all appearances, things were going well,
but the soul does not put much stock in appearances. Seeking a path more
purposeful than accumulating wealth, holding power, winning at competition, or
securing a career, I had started to understand that it is indeed possible to
live a life other than one’s own. . . .
Then I ran across the old Quaker saying, “Let your life
speak.” I found those words encouraging, and I thought I understood what they
meant: “Let the highest truths and values guide you. Live up to those demanding
standards in everything you do.” . . .
So I lined up the loftiest ideals I could find and set out
to achieve them. The results were rarely admirable, often laughable, and
sometimes grotesque. But always they were unreal, a distortion of my true
self—as must be the case when one lives from the outside in, not the inside
out. I had simply found a “noble” way to live a life that was not my own, a
life spent imitating heroes instead of listening to my heart.
Today, some thirty years later, “Let your life speak” means
something else to me . . . : “Before you tell your life what you intend to do
with it, listen to what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life
what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you
what truths you embody, what values you represent.” [1]
In other words, your life is not about you. You are about a
larger thing called Life. You are not your own. You are an instance of a
universal and eternal pattern. Life is living itself in you. The myriad forms
of life in the universe are merely parts of the One Life—that many of us call
“God.” You and I don’t have to figure it all out, fix everything, or do life
perfectly by ourselves. All we have to do is participate in this One Life. To
find our unique niche in that Always Larger Life is what we mean by “vocation.”
[1] Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the
Voice of Vocation (Jossey-Bass: 2000), 2-3.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Adam’s Return: The Five Promises
of Male Initiation (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2004), 60, 61.
STANDING ON NEW BORDERS
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
A particularly powerful Gospel story recounts Jesus meeting with a Syro-Phoenician woman. Central to that story is where their encounter takes place. It takes place on the borders of Samaria. For Jesus, Samaria was a foreign territory, both in terms of ethnicity and religion. In his encounter with this woman, he is standing at the edges, the borders, of how he then understood himself religiously.
I believe that this is where we are standing today as Christians, on new borders in terms of relating to other religions, not least to our Islamic brothers and sisters. The single most important agenda item for our churches for the next fifty years will be the issue of relating to other religions, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Indigenous Religions in the Americas and Africa, and various forms, old and new, of Paganism and New Age. Simply stated, if all the violence stemming from religious extremism hasn’t woken us yet then we are dangerously asleep. We have no choice. The world has become one village, one community, one family, and unless we begin to understand and accept each other more deeply we will never be a world at peace.
Moreover for us, as Christians, the threat of hatred and violence coming from other religions isn’t the main reason we are called to understand non-Christian believers more compassionately. The deeper reason is that the God we honor calls us to do that. Our God calls us to recognize and welcome all sincere believers into our hearts as brothers and sisters in faith. Jesus makes this abundantly clear most everywhere in his message, and at times makes it uncomfortably explicit: Who are my brothers and sisters? It is those who hear the word of God and keep it. … It is not necessarily those who say Lord, Lord, who enter the Kingdom of Heaven but those who do the will of God on earth. Who can deny that many non-Christians do the will of God here on earth?
But what about the extremism, violence, and perverse expressions of religion we frequently see in other religions? Can we really consider these religions as true, given the awful things done in their name?
All religions are to be judged, as Huston Smith submits, by their highest expressions and their saints, not by their perversions. This is true too for Christianity. We hope that others will judge us not by our darkest moments or by the worst acts ever done by Christians in the name of religion, but rather by all the good Christians have done in history and by our saints. We owe that same understanding to other religions, and all of them in their essence and in their best expressions call us to what’s one, good, true, and beautiful – and all of them have produced great saints.
But what of Christ’s uniqueness? What about Christ’s claim that he is the (only) way, truth, and life and that nobody can come to God except through him?
Throughout its 2000-year history, Christian theology has never backed away from the truth and exclusivity of that claim, save for a number of individual theologians whose views have not been accepted by the churches. So how can we view the truth of other religions in the light of Christ’s claim that he is the only way to the Father?
Christian theology (certainly this is true for Roman Catholic theology) has always accepted and proactively taught that the Mystery of Christ is much larger than what can be observed in the visible, historical enfolding of Christianity and the Christian churches in history. Christ is larger than our churches and operates too outside of our churches. He is still telling the church what Jesus once told his mother: “I must be about my Father’s business.”
Formerly we expressed this by affirming that the Body of Christ, the full body of believers, has both a visible and invisible element. In explicit, baptized believers we see the visible Body of Christ. However at the same time we acknowledge that there are countless others who for all kinds of inculpable reasons have not been explicitly baptized and do not profess an explicit faith in Christ, but who by the goodness of their hearts and actions must be considered as kin to us in the faith.
This may come as a surprise to some but, in fact, the dogmatic teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is that sincere persons in other religions can be saved without becoming Christians, and to teach the contrary is heresy. This is predicated on an understanding of the God whom we worship as Christians. The God whom Jesus incarnated wills the salvation of all people and is not indifferent to the sincere faith of billions of people throughout thousands of years. We dishonor our faith when we teach anything different. All of us are God’s children.
There is in the end only one God and that God is the Father of all of us – and that means all of us, irrespective of religion.
ANNOUNCING OUR 50TH ANNIVERSARY
This article is taken from the blog by Fr Michael white, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can find the original here
Life magazine famously named 1968 “the year that changed history.” Certainly the multiplication of historic events that year earn it a noted place in the history books. And, among the events of special recognition was the establishment of our parish.
Back then many suburban parishes in this country were bursting at the seams and North Baltimore was no exception. Nativity was carved out of the middle of St. Joseph’s Cockeysville and Immaculate Conception, Towson. The parish started meeting in the gym at Ridgely Road Middle School and plans were quickly developed for the construction of a church building on a 20 acre property the Archdiocese owned across the street from the school.
This was a period of seismic changes not only in society but also in the Church, following the Second Vatican Council’s intention to modernize. Cardinal Lawrence Shehan, the Archbishop at the time, established Nativity as a distinctly different kind of parish, an incarnation of the Council’s teaching.
For one thing, it would not have a school, the Cardinal prudently foreseeing that the whole landscape of Catholic education was changing and the traditional model of parochial or parish based schools staffed by convents full of nuns (who essentially worked for free) was already disappearing.
Another notable difference from the traditional parish culture, was that there would be no fraternal/social programs, like a ladies sodality, Knights of Columbus, or CYO. Instead, youth and adults alike would be invited to participate in ongoing faith formation together with the program of religious education (in place of a school).
The most visible difference would come in the church building itself, one of the first in this area to be built in the modern International style. A single complex would connect religious education classrooms, with the worship space and fellowship areas. The church would have bathrooms (churches didn’t always have bathrooms) and an ample parking lot (also a novelty for most parishes).
Obviously a lot has happened in the ensuing 50 years. Some of the original strategies succeeded and some did not, others have been developed. But what I am so very proud of is the fact that as a parish that continues to be innovative, indeed to lead the way in parish innovation, we are building on the intention and best tradition of those who have gone before us.
We will celebrate our 50th in our beautiful, amazing (debt free) new church. And we do so as we recognize the many other blessings the Lord has graced us with in recent years, really in every measurable way. At the same time we see our reach extend as we seek to support other parishes as they rebuild.
Our celebration will take place the weekend of September 15th and 16th and many fun and festive features are already in the planning stages. Mark your calendars now to celebrate the year that changed everything.
This article is taken from the blog by Fr Michael white, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can find the original here
Life magazine famously named 1968 “the year that changed history.” Certainly the multiplication of historic events that year earn it a noted place in the history books. And, among the events of special recognition was the establishment of our parish.
Back then many suburban parishes in this country were bursting at the seams and North Baltimore was no exception. Nativity was carved out of the middle of St. Joseph’s Cockeysville and Immaculate Conception, Towson. The parish started meeting in the gym at Ridgely Road Middle School and plans were quickly developed for the construction of a church building on a 20 acre property the Archdiocese owned across the street from the school.
This was a period of seismic changes not only in society but also in the Church, following the Second Vatican Council’s intention to modernize. Cardinal Lawrence Shehan, the Archbishop at the time, established Nativity as a distinctly different kind of parish, an incarnation of the Council’s teaching.
For one thing, it would not have a school, the Cardinal prudently foreseeing that the whole landscape of Catholic education was changing and the traditional model of parochial or parish based schools staffed by convents full of nuns (who essentially worked for free) was already disappearing.
Another notable difference from the traditional parish culture, was that there would be no fraternal/social programs, like a ladies sodality, Knights of Columbus, or CYO. Instead, youth and adults alike would be invited to participate in ongoing faith formation together with the program of religious education (in place of a school).
The most visible difference would come in the church building itself, one of the first in this area to be built in the modern International style. A single complex would connect religious education classrooms, with the worship space and fellowship areas. The church would have bathrooms (churches didn’t always have bathrooms) and an ample parking lot (also a novelty for most parishes).
Obviously a lot has happened in the ensuing 50 years. Some of the original strategies succeeded and some did not, others have been developed. But what I am so very proud of is the fact that as a parish that continues to be innovative, indeed to lead the way in parish innovation, we are building on the intention and best tradition of those who have gone before us.
We will celebrate our 50th in our beautiful, amazing (debt free) new church. And we do so as we recognize the many other blessings the Lord has graced us with in recent years, really in every measurable way. At the same time we see our reach extend as we seek to support other parishes as they rebuild.
Our celebration will take place the weekend of September 15th and 16th and many fun and festive features are already in the planning stages. Mark your calendars now to celebrate the year that changed everything.
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