Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
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.
Give us the grace to see your face in one another
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 13th - 16th November
NO MASSES – Priest Retreat
Weekend Masses 17th & 18th November
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
6:00pm Devonport
10:30am: B & N Mulcahy, K Hull
23rd Nov: K.S.C.
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Port Sorell:
Readings this week –Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
I note my thoughts and my mood. I hand them over to the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit
to help me. When ready, I read the Gospel slowly, a number of times.
I may want
to focus on Jesus’s teaching about the behaviour of the scribes.
I note how his
teaching stirs me.
Does it attract or challenge me?
How does Jesus want his
followers to live in the world …?
How does he want me to live in the world
today?
I speak to Jesus openly about what comes to mind.
Perhaps I feel drawn
to sit with Jesus as he watches people in the treasury.
I may want to ask him
to help me notice what he notices … hear him teach the disciples about a new
way of seeing the world …
What is his tone of voice; how does he look?
Perhaps
I imagine him speaking directly to me, telling me about his way.
I allow myself
to rest awhile in his loving presence.
Whatever my response to the Gospel, I
entrust my thoughts and feelings openly to the Lord.
I end my prayer slowly,
giving thanks. Glory be to the Father ...
Readings next week –Thirty-Third
Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Lionel
Faustino, Marg Stewart & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Audrey
Glover, Fr
Peter Nicholls, Ken Sutton, Peter Smith Jnr
Let us pray for those whose anniversary
occurs about this time: 8th – 14th November
Nicole Fairbrother, Damian Matthews, Ken Lowry, Harril
Watson, Jessie Hope, Shirley Winkler, Finbarr Kennedy, Ronald Garnsey, James
William Monaghan, James McLagan, Margaret Kenney, Catherine Fraser, James
Monaghan, Olive Purton and deceased relatives and friends of the Cunningham
family.
Weekly
Ramblings
Last Monday I concelebrated the Funeral Mass for the late
Fr Peter Nicholls. It was wonderful that members of our Parish were able to
assist at the altar, with the Prayers of Intercession and the Procession of the
Gifts. As a Parish we will be celebrating a Memorial Mass on 30th
November – recalling an ancient tradition of the Church still celebrated in
some cultures of Month’s Mind – a Mass celebrated about a month after a
person’s death. The Mass will be at OLOL and will commence at 7.00pm followed
by a supper in the foyer of the Church.
Next week Fr Paschal and I will be joining almost 20 other
priests and deacons of the Archdiocese at our Annual Retreat which will be held
at Maryknoll Retreat Centre, Blackmans Bay. We will return home on Friday
afternoon – unfortunately this means that there will not be any Masses on
weekdays this week. Please pray for us as we gather to be renewed in our
vocation – I know we are fortunate to have this opportunity and value this time
to be challenged to go deeper in my relationship with the Lord.
Hopefully we will have Advent material available next
weekend. The reflection booklets are similar to those we had last Advent – they
are designed more for personal reflection rather than as a group activity
although some people did use them within a group setting. However you want to
use them I encourage people to make use of this resource so that our Advent
Season will be fruitful.
FROM THE
PARISH PASTORAL TEAM (FELICITY SLY – CHAIR):
CARE & CONCERN:
The final gathering for the year of the social group will
be held Tuesday 13th November at the café Riverview Nursery,
Forth Road Don, starting at 2pm. We would be pleased to welcome parishioners
who do not have the opportunity for social activity, including those whose
spouses/partners are in residential care etc. Transport can be
provided. To advise of your attendance, or 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.
LITURGY
PLANNING FOR ADVENT:
HEALING MASS:
CHRISTMAS PARTY – ULVERSTONE:
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
Bryan Stevenson (b. 1959) is a lawyer, social justice
activist, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and the National Memorial
for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. [1] In his book Just Mercy,
Stevenson describes how being in touch with our own humanity and need for mercy
helps give us the compassion needed for restorative justice. He is a real
contemporary hero for many of us at the Center for Action and Contemplation.
[1] See The Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for
Peace and Justice, https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/.
Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and
Redemption (Spiegel and Gau: 2015), 289-291.
This is an article from the archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
When is our life fulfilled? At what point in our lives do we say: “That’s it! That’s the climax! Nothing I can do from now on will outdo this. I’ve given what I have to give.”
When can we say this? After we’ve reached the peak of our physical health and strength? After giving birth to a child? After successfully raising our children? After we’ve published a best-seller? After we’re famous? After we’ve won a major championship? After we’re celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of our marriage? After we’ve found a soulmate? After we’re at peace after a long struggle with grief? When is it finally done? When has our growth reached its furthest place?
The medieval mystic, John of the Cross, says we reach this point in our lives when we have grown to what he calls “our deepest center”. But he doesn’t conceive of this the way we commonly picture it, namely, as the deepest center inside our soul. Rather, for John, our deepest center is the optimum point of our human growth, that is, the deepest maturity we can grow to before we begin to die. If this is true, then for a flower, its deepest center, its ultimate point of growth, would be not its bloom but the giving of its seed as it dies. That’s its further point of growth, its ultimate accomplishment.
What’s our ultimate point of growth? I suspect that we tend to think of this in terms of some concrete, positive accomplishment, like a successful career or some athletic, intellectual, or artistic achievement that’s brought us satisfaction, recognition, and popularity. Or, looked at from the point of view of depth of meaning, we might answer the question differently by saying that our ultimate achievement was a life-giving marriage, or being a good parent, or living a life that served others.
When, like a flower, do we give off our seed? Henri Nouwen suggests that people will answer this very differently: “For some it is when they are enjoying the full light of popularity; for others, when they have been totally forgotten; for some, when they have reached the peak of their strength; for others, when they feel powerless and weak; for some it is when their creativity is in full bloom, for others, when they have lost all confidence in their potential.”
When did Jesus give off his seed, the fullness of his spirit? For Jesus, it wasn’t immediately after his miracles when the crowds stood in awe, and it wasn’t after he had just walked on water, and it wasn’t when his popularity reached the point where his contemporaries wanted to make him king that he felt he had accomplished his purpose in life and that people began to be touched in their souls by his spirit. None of these. When did Jesus have nothing further to achieve?
It’s worth quoting Henri Nouwen again, in answering this question: “We know one thing, however, for the Son of Man the wheel stopped when he had lost everything: his power to speak and to heal, his sense of success and influence, his disciples and friends – even his God. When he was nailed against a tree, robbed of all human dignity, he knew that he had aged enough, and said: ‘It is fulfilled’” (John 19, 30).
“It is fulfilled!” The Greek word here is Tetelesti. This was an expression used by artists to signify that a work was completely finished and that nothing more could be added to it. It was also used to express that something was complete. For example, Tetelesti was stamped on a document of charges against a criminal after he had served his full prison sentence; it was used by banks when a debt had been repaid; it was used by a servant to inform his master that a work had been completed; and it was used by athletes when, tired and exhausted, they successfully crossed the finish line in a race.
It is finished! A flower dies to give off its seed so it’s appropriate that these were Jesus’ last words. On the cross, faithful to the end, to his God, to his word, to the love he preached, and to his own integrity, he stopped living and began dying, and that’s when he gave off his seed and that’s when his spirit began to permeate the world. He had reached his deepest center, his life was fulfilled.
When does our living stop and our dying begin? When do we move from being in bloom to giving off our seed? Superficially, of course, it’s when our health, strength, popularity, and attractiveness begin to wane and we start to fade out, into the margins, and eventually into the sunset. But when this is seen in the light of Jesus’ life, we see that in our fading out, like a flower long past its bloom, we begin to give off something of more value than the attractiveness of the bloom. That’s when we can say: “It is fulfilled!”
THE LETTER OF PAUL TO THE PHILIPPIANS
St Paul’s letter to the church of Philippi is best known for its passage on the ‘emptying’ of Christ, but it is also a source of pastoral advice and joyful encouragement to the Philippian Christians. Peter Edmonds SJ explores the context and content of one of Paul’s shortest but most appealing epistles. Peter Edmonds SJ is a tutor in biblical studies at Campion Hall, University of Oxford. The original of this article can be found on the ThinkingFaith.org website by clicking here
Hidden in the New Testament among the thirteen letters attributed to Paul is the letter he wrote to the church of Philippi. It is short, only about four pages in a modern translation, but for many it is the most attractive of his letters, because of its positive picture of Paul, his appreciation of the qualities of the Christian community in Philippi which he was addressing, and the pastoral directives that he offers for the sort of problems that arise in any committed group of people who try to follow Christ.
Paul wrote in unusual circumstances. He was in no quiet study dictating to some secretary, but in prison where the prospect was either execution or release. Yet he was a cheerful prisoner. He had no worries for himself. If he was to be put to death, then he would be with Christ. If he was to be released, then he would be free to continue his evangelical work with the church of Philippi. He tells us all this, and more, at the beginning of his letter (1:19-24). He forgets what lies behind and strains forward to what lies ahead, the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ (3:13-14). Meanwhile, as he writes at the end of the letter, whether he had plenty or was in need, whether well-fed or going hungry, he was content (4:11-12). This sort of language resembles that of the Stoic philosophers of his time, but the difference between Paul and the Stoics was Christ. The Stoics depended on their own resources. But for Paul, ‘living was Christ’ (1:21); he could ‘do all things through him who strengthens him’, namely Christ (4:13). As long as this Christ continued to be proclaimed, then he would rejoice, and he would continue to rejoice (1:18). The reader of the letter soon realises how much Christ means to Paul by noting how frequently the word occurs, three times for example in the first two verses and twice in the last three (1:1-3; 4:21-23).
Continue reading this article on the ThinkingFaith.org website by clicking here
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.
Legion of Mary: Wednesdays 11am Sacred Heart of Church Community Room, Ulverstone
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – Mondays 7pm Community Room Ulverstone
Weekday Masses 13th - 16th November
NO MASSES – Priest Retreat
Weekend Masses 17th & 18th November
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 17th & 18th November,
2018
Devonport:
Readers Vigil: M Kelly, R Baker, B Paul 10:30am: J Henderson, J Phillips, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil: T Muir, M Davies, D Peters, J
Heatley
10:30am: B & N Mulcahy, K Hull
Cleaners: 16th Nov: P Shelverton, E Petts
23rd Nov: K.S.C.
23rd Nov: K.S.C.
Piety Shop: 17th Nov:
A Berryman 18th Nov: O McGinley
Presbytery mowing: N Smith
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: R Locket
Ministers of
Communion: M
Murray, J Pisarskis, C Harvey, P Grech
Cleaners: M Mott Flowers: G Doyle Hospitality: S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters: G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator: Readers: M & D Hiscutt
Ministers of
Communion: J
Barker, M Murray Liturgy: Penguin Setting Up: E Nickols
Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols
Latrobe:
Reader: H Lim Minister of Communion: I Campbell Procession of
Gifts: Parishioner
Port Sorell:
Reader: M Badcock, T Jeffries Ministers of
Communion: G
Gigliotti Cleaners: C & J Howard
Readings this week –Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
First Reading: 1 Kings 17:10-16
Second Reading: Hebrews 9:24-28
Gospel: Mark 12:38-44
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
I prepare to pray by giving myself the space to slow down.
I note my thoughts and my mood. I hand them over to the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to help me. When ready, I read the Gospel slowly, a number of times.
I may want to focus on Jesus’s teaching about the behaviour of the scribes.
I note how his teaching stirs me.
Does it attract or challenge me?
How does Jesus want his followers to live in the world …?
How does he want me to live in the world today?
I speak to Jesus openly about what comes to mind.
Perhaps I feel drawn to sit with Jesus as he watches people in the treasury.
I may want to ask him to help me notice what he notices … hear him teach the disciples about a new way of seeing the world …
What is his tone of voice; how does he look?
Perhaps I imagine him speaking directly to me, telling me about his way.
I allow myself to rest awhile in his loving presence.
Whatever my response to the Gospel, I entrust my thoughts and feelings openly to the Lord.
I end my prayer slowly, giving thanks. Glory be to the Father ...
I note my thoughts and my mood. I hand them over to the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to help me. When ready, I read the Gospel slowly, a number of times.
I may want to focus on Jesus’s teaching about the behaviour of the scribes.
I note how his teaching stirs me.
Does it attract or challenge me?
How does Jesus want his followers to live in the world …?
How does he want me to live in the world today?
I speak to Jesus openly about what comes to mind.
Perhaps I feel drawn to sit with Jesus as he watches people in the treasury.
I may want to ask him to help me notice what he notices … hear him teach the disciples about a new way of seeing the world …
What is his tone of voice; how does he look?
Perhaps I imagine him speaking directly to me, telling me about his way.
I allow myself to rest awhile in his loving presence.
Whatever my response to the Gospel, I entrust my thoughts and feelings openly to the Lord.
I end my prayer slowly, giving thanks. Glory be to the Father ...
Readings next week –Thirty-Third
Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
First Reading: Daniel 12:1-3
Second Reading: Hebrews 10:11-14. 18
Gospel: Mark
13:24-32
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Lionel
Faustino, Marg Stewart & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Audrey
Glover, Fr
Peter Nicholls, Ken Sutton, Peter Smith Jnr
Let us pray for those whose anniversary
occurs about this time: 8th – 14th November
Nicole Fairbrother, Damian Matthews, Ken Lowry, Harril
Watson, Jessie Hope, Shirley Winkler, Finbarr Kennedy, Ronald Garnsey, James
William Monaghan, James McLagan, Margaret Kenney, Catherine Fraser, James
Monaghan, Olive Purton and deceased relatives and friends of the Cunningham
family.
Weekly
Ramblings
This weekend we are celebrating Armistice or Remembrance
Day – 100 years since the cessation of fighting in World War I. Sadly there
have been times when it has seemed as if we haven’t learnt that much about
living as a community in the world in the past 100 years. Inspite of this we
continue to pray for peace in our times in the hope that leaders and people
will think less about ideology and more about the needs of our ‘neighbour’ –
whomever he or she may be. Lest We Forget.
Last Monday I concelebrated the Funeral Mass for the late
Fr Peter Nicholls. It was wonderful that members of our Parish were able to
assist at the altar, with the Prayers of Intercession and the Procession of the
Gifts. As a Parish we will be celebrating a Memorial Mass on 30th
November – recalling an ancient tradition of the Church still celebrated in
some cultures of Month’s Mind – a Mass celebrated about a month after a
person’s death. The Mass will be at OLOL and will commence at 7.00pm followed
by a supper in the foyer of the Church.
Next week Fr Paschal and I will be joining almost 20 other
priests and deacons of the Archdiocese at our Annual Retreat which will be held
at Maryknoll Retreat Centre, Blackmans Bay. We will return home on Friday
afternoon – unfortunately this means that there will not be any Masses on
weekdays this week. Please pray for us as we gather to be renewed in our
vocation – I know we are fortunate to have this opportunity and value this time
to be challenged to go deeper in my relationship with the Lord.
Hopefully we will have Advent material available next
weekend. The reflection booklets are similar to those we had last Advent – they
are designed more for personal reflection rather than as a group activity
although some people did use them within a group setting. However you want to
use them I encourage people to make use of this resource so that our Advent
Season will be fruitful.
Please
take care on the roads and I look forward to seeing you next weekend.
FROM THE
PARISH PASTORAL TEAM (FELICITY SLY – CHAIR):
The Parish Pastoral Team have discussed the role of the
Finance Committee, and have noted that one of its roles has been to act also as
a Maintenance Committee. We feel that the maintenance needs of each Mass Centre
would be better met if a local parishioner, or parishioners, would take
responsibility to notify the Parish office of identified needs in their
community. Is this a role you would be willing to perform? If so, can you
please phone or email your name and Mass community to the Parish office. The Liturgy
team are meeting on Sunday 18th November at 2 pm to organise our
Advent Season. Please let Fr Mike or Peter Douglas know if you have something
to share but are not able to attend the meeting. We are truly blessed to be
gifted with talented people who make our liturgies so special. Please also
remember to let Fr Mike or the Parish Office know how you would like to
celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. I am unable to celebrate with you as
that weekend we have an Annual get-together of the Shirley Clan in memory of
our parents. God bless you all.
CARE & CONCERN:
The final gathering for the year of the social group will
be held Tuesday 13th November at the café Riverview Nursery,
Forth Road Don, starting at 2pm. We would be pleased to welcome parishioners
who do not have the opportunity for social activity, including those whose
spouses/partners are in residential care etc. Transport can be
provided. To advise of your attendance, or 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.
LITURGY
PLANNING FOR ADVENT:
There will be a meeting Sunday 18th November
at 2pm at the Parish House to plan/confirm plans for the Advent Season.
Liturgy planners from each Mass Centre are encouraged to be at this meeting so
that details can be made available during the following week. Please contact
either Fr Mike or Peter Douglas if there are any enquiries.
HEALING MASS:
Catholic Charismatic Renewal are sponsoring a HEALING MASS
at St Mary’s Catholic Church Penguin on Thursday 29th November 2018
commencing at 7pm. All denominations are welcome to come and celebrate the
liturgy in a vibrant and dynamic way using charismatic praise and worship with the
gifts of tongues, prophecy, healing and anointing with blessed oil. After Mass,
teams will be available for individual prayer. Please bring a friend and a
plate for supper and fellowship in the hall. If you wish to know more or
require transport please contact Celestine Whiteley 6424:2043, Michael Gaffney
0447 018 068 or Tom Knaap 6425:2442.
CHRISTMAS PARTY – ULVERSTONE:
‘Come one – come all’ to our annual Christmas Party on Tuesday
4th December starting at 1:45pm at Sacred Heart Church Community
Room Ulverstone. We hope you will join us for some light entertainment,
a cuppa and a chat. Once again we are asking for assistance with cooking. RSVP
2nd December to Juliet Smith 6425:5854, Debbie Rimmelzwaan
6425:1384, Elizabeth Cox 0400 179 297.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers Thursday 15th
November, Rod Clark & Alan Luxton
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
The
Missionary Sisters of Service are celebrating! Now in their 75th year, the first of their official 75th anniversary events will be
held on Bruny Island on Sunday 25 November when a permanent memorial to their
“beginnings” will be blessed and dedicated at St Brendan’s Church, Alonnah. All
interested people are invited to attend any or all events on that day: light
lunch (12:30pm), the blessing and dedication (2:30pm), Mass (3pm) and afternoon
tea (4pm). A bus ($20pp payable in cash on the day) will leave St Aloysius
Catholic College car park, Huntingfield, at 9:30am sharp and return about
6-6:15pm. Further information contact Sr Lorraine
Groves MSS lorrainegrovesmss@gmail.com,
6245 3737 or 0409 172 741
WOUNDED HEALERS
This article is taken from the Daily Emails from Fr Richard Rohr OFM and the Center for Action and Contemplation. You can subscribe to receive the emails here
Bryan Stevenson (b. 1959) is a lawyer, social justice
activist, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and the National Memorial
for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. [1] In his book Just Mercy,
Stevenson describes how being in touch with our own humanity and need for mercy
helps give us the compassion needed for restorative justice. He is a real
contemporary hero for many of us at the Center for Action and Contemplation.
My years of struggling against inequality, abusive power,
poverty, oppression, and injustice had finally revealed something to me about
myself. Being close to suffering, death, executions, and cruel punishments
didn’t just illuminate the brokenness of others; in moments of anguish and
heartbreak, it also exposed my own brokenness. You can’t effectively fight
abusive power, poverty, inequality, illness, oppression, or injustice and not
be broken by it. . . .
I guess I’d always known but never fully considered that
being broken is what makes us human. We all have our reasons. Sometimes we’re
fractured by the choices we make; sometimes we’re shattered by things we would
never have chosen. But our brokenness is also the source of our common
humanity, the basis for our shared search for comfort, meaning, and healing.
Our shared vulnerability and imperfection nurtures and sustains our capacity
for compassion.
We have a choice. We can embrace our humanness, which means
embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for
healing. Or we can deny our brokenness, forswear compassion, and, as a result,
deny our own humanity. . . .
So many of us have become afraid and angry. We’ve become so
fearful and vengeful that we’ve thrown away children, discarded the disabled,
and sanctioned the imprisonment of the sick and the weak—not because they are a
threat to public safety or beyond rehabilitation but because we think it makes
us seem tough, less broken. I thought of the victims of violent crime and the
survivors of murdered loved ones, and how we’ve pressured them to recycle their
pain and anguish and give it back to the offenders we prosecute. I thought of
the many ways we’ve legalized vengeful and cruel punishments, how we’ve allowed
our victimization to justify the victimization of others. We’ve submitted to
the harsh instinct to crush those among us whose brokenness is most visible.
But simply punishing the broken—walking away from them or
hiding them from sight—only ensures that they remain broken and we do, too.
There is no wholeness outside of our reciprocal humanity. . . .
Embracing our brokenness creates a need for mercy. . . . I
began thinking about what would happen if we all just acknowledged our
brokenness, if we owned up to our weaknesses, our deficits, our biases, our
fears. Maybe if we did, we wouldn’t want to kill the broken among us who have
killed others. Maybe we would look harder for solutions to caring for the
disabled, the abused, the neglected, and the traumatized. . . . We could no
longer take pride in mass incarceration, in executing people, in our deliberate
indifference to the most vulnerable.
[1] See The Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for
Peace and Justice, https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/.
Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and
Redemption (Spiegel and Gau: 2015), 289-291.
WHEN IS OUR LIFE FULFILLED?
This is an article from the archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
When is our life fulfilled? At what point in our lives do we say: “That’s it! That’s the climax! Nothing I can do from now on will outdo this. I’ve given what I have to give.”
When can we say this? After we’ve reached the peak of our physical health and strength? After giving birth to a child? After successfully raising our children? After we’ve published a best-seller? After we’re famous? After we’ve won a major championship? After we’re celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of our marriage? After we’ve found a soulmate? After we’re at peace after a long struggle with grief? When is it finally done? When has our growth reached its furthest place?
The medieval mystic, John of the Cross, says we reach this point in our lives when we have grown to what he calls “our deepest center”. But he doesn’t conceive of this the way we commonly picture it, namely, as the deepest center inside our soul. Rather, for John, our deepest center is the optimum point of our human growth, that is, the deepest maturity we can grow to before we begin to die. If this is true, then for a flower, its deepest center, its ultimate point of growth, would be not its bloom but the giving of its seed as it dies. That’s its further point of growth, its ultimate accomplishment.
What’s our ultimate point of growth? I suspect that we tend to think of this in terms of some concrete, positive accomplishment, like a successful career or some athletic, intellectual, or artistic achievement that’s brought us satisfaction, recognition, and popularity. Or, looked at from the point of view of depth of meaning, we might answer the question differently by saying that our ultimate achievement was a life-giving marriage, or being a good parent, or living a life that served others.
When, like a flower, do we give off our seed? Henri Nouwen suggests that people will answer this very differently: “For some it is when they are enjoying the full light of popularity; for others, when they have been totally forgotten; for some, when they have reached the peak of their strength; for others, when they feel powerless and weak; for some it is when their creativity is in full bloom, for others, when they have lost all confidence in their potential.”
When did Jesus give off his seed, the fullness of his spirit? For Jesus, it wasn’t immediately after his miracles when the crowds stood in awe, and it wasn’t after he had just walked on water, and it wasn’t when his popularity reached the point where his contemporaries wanted to make him king that he felt he had accomplished his purpose in life and that people began to be touched in their souls by his spirit. None of these. When did Jesus have nothing further to achieve?
It’s worth quoting Henri Nouwen again, in answering this question: “We know one thing, however, for the Son of Man the wheel stopped when he had lost everything: his power to speak and to heal, his sense of success and influence, his disciples and friends – even his God. When he was nailed against a tree, robbed of all human dignity, he knew that he had aged enough, and said: ‘It is fulfilled’” (John 19, 30).
“It is fulfilled!” The Greek word here is Tetelesti. This was an expression used by artists to signify that a work was completely finished and that nothing more could be added to it. It was also used to express that something was complete. For example, Tetelesti was stamped on a document of charges against a criminal after he had served his full prison sentence; it was used by banks when a debt had been repaid; it was used by a servant to inform his master that a work had been completed; and it was used by athletes when, tired and exhausted, they successfully crossed the finish line in a race.
It is finished! A flower dies to give off its seed so it’s appropriate that these were Jesus’ last words. On the cross, faithful to the end, to his God, to his word, to the love he preached, and to his own integrity, he stopped living and began dying, and that’s when he gave off his seed and that’s when his spirit began to permeate the world. He had reached his deepest center, his life was fulfilled.
When does our living stop and our dying begin? When do we move from being in bloom to giving off our seed? Superficially, of course, it’s when our health, strength, popularity, and attractiveness begin to wane and we start to fade out, into the margins, and eventually into the sunset. But when this is seen in the light of Jesus’ life, we see that in our fading out, like a flower long past its bloom, we begin to give off something of more value than the attractiveness of the bloom. That’s when we can say: “It is fulfilled!”
THE LETTER OF PAUL TO THE PHILIPPIANS
St Paul’s letter to the church of Philippi is best known for its passage on the ‘emptying’ of Christ, but it is also a source of pastoral advice and joyful encouragement to the Philippian Christians. Peter Edmonds SJ explores the context and content of one of Paul’s shortest but most appealing epistles. Peter Edmonds SJ is a tutor in biblical studies at Campion Hall, University of Oxford. The original of this article can be found on the ThinkingFaith.org website by clicking here
Hidden in the New Testament among the thirteen letters attributed to Paul is the letter he wrote to the church of Philippi. It is short, only about four pages in a modern translation, but for many it is the most attractive of his letters, because of its positive picture of Paul, his appreciation of the qualities of the Christian community in Philippi which he was addressing, and the pastoral directives that he offers for the sort of problems that arise in any committed group of people who try to follow Christ.
Paul wrote in unusual circumstances. He was in no quiet study dictating to some secretary, but in prison where the prospect was either execution or release. Yet he was a cheerful prisoner. He had no worries for himself. If he was to be put to death, then he would be with Christ. If he was to be released, then he would be free to continue his evangelical work with the church of Philippi. He tells us all this, and more, at the beginning of his letter (1:19-24). He forgets what lies behind and strains forward to what lies ahead, the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ (3:13-14). Meanwhile, as he writes at the end of the letter, whether he had plenty or was in need, whether well-fed or going hungry, he was content (4:11-12). This sort of language resembles that of the Stoic philosophers of his time, but the difference between Paul and the Stoics was Christ. The Stoics depended on their own resources. But for Paul, ‘living was Christ’ (1:21); he could ‘do all things through him who strengthens him’, namely Christ (4:13). As long as this Christ continued to be proclaimed, then he would rejoice, and he would continue to rejoice (1:18). The reader of the letter soon realises how much Christ means to Paul by noting how frequently the word occurs, three times for example in the first two verses and twice in the last three (1:1-3; 4:21-23).
Continue reading this article on the ThinkingFaith.org website by clicking here
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