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
Weekly Homily Podcast: mikedelaney.podomatic.com
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
Devonport Friday Adoration:
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)
Devonport Friday Adoration:
Devonport: Benediction (1st Friday of the Month)
Prayer Groups: Charismatic Renewal
Weekday Masses 12th - 15th February, 2019
Monday: 12noon Devonport ... Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 10:30am Eliza Purton … Sts Cyril & Methodius
12noon Devonport
7:00pm Penguin … Healing Mass
Friday: 11:00am Mt St Vincent
Next Weekend 16th & 17th February, 2019
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Ministry Rosters 16th & 17th February, 2019
Devonport: 
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil:
T Muir, M Davies, D Peters, J
Heatley
10:30am: B & N Mulcahy, K Hull
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Port Sorell:
Readings this Week:
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
Readings Next Week:
Sixth Sunday in
Ordinary Time – Year C
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Hilario Visorro & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Odik Rabino
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time:
8th – 14th
February
May they Rest in Peace
All being well Fr Paschal arrives home this weekend after
his travels to World
Youth Day and a short visit with relatives in the USA – I
expect he is going to be
jet-lagged for a day or two but I hope not too badly.
Welcome Home.
This Monday, 11th, is the Feast of Our Lady of
Lourdes. There is a Morning
Tea after the 10:30am Mass this Sunday and there
will be midday Mass on
Monday at Devonport. All parishioners are invited to
come to this Mass and
celebrate this Feast Day.
This weekend the Lenten Books are available for parishioners
to buy/look
at/take & pay later. As mentioned last weekend the Brisbane
Book –
Compassion – is best used for
Group discussion material whilst the
Woollongong Book – Trust – is more suited for personal reflection. Both are
excellent resources
and I highly recommend them.
There are a number of Discussion groups already organised
and some details
are included here – this list is not exhaustive as we have not
been able to
confirm with some possible leaders the timing of their gatherings.
There are
sign-up sheets in the foyer and you can sign up either this weekend
or in the
next week or so:
Mon 4th March 7pm Devonport – John & Glenys Lee-Archer;
126 Steele Street
Many happy returns Les Enniss on your 98th Birthday. God bless you on your special day and may it be filled with love, laughter, family, friends and wonderful memories.
God of wisdom and might, Bless all teachers, staff and children as they begin a new school year.
Give them strength and grace, wisdom and knowledge and peace to their hearts. We ask this prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
HEALING MASS:
MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE:
We are looking for a Volunteer to assist us in the garden at
123 William Street from time to time. Frequency
negotiable. If you interested and would like further information please phone
Sr Margaret 6428:3095 or 0418 367 769.
ULVERSTONE LUNCH:
All welcome to BYO (or purchase ) luncheon at Pedro’s
Ulverstone on Sunday 17th February, 12noon – 12:30pm. We will be sitting
outside Pedro’s at the outdoor tables. We hope to see you there!
PLENARY COUNCIL 2020:
You are invited to a follow-up gathering to develop our
responses to the question: What is God asking of us in Australia at this time? Thursday
28th February, 2019 10am – 11:30am at Parish House, Stewart Street, Devonport.
Contact Clare Kiely-Hoye 6428:2760
WORLD DAY OF PRAYER:
LENTEN PROGRAM 2019:
You are welcome to join a weekly Lenten Program for six
weeks beginning Thursday 7th March 10am – 11:30am at Parish House, 90
Stewart Street, Devonport. For more information contact Clare
Kiely-Hoye 0418 100 402.
FOOTY TICKETS:
The 2019 AFL footy season starts Friday
22nd March. Once again Mersey Leven Parish will be selling
footy margin tickets at OLOL Church Devonport, Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone
and St Joseph’s Mass Centre Port Sorell.
The footy margin is for the Friday
night game each week.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall,
Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
NEWS FROM
ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
Our Lady of Mercy Deloraine past pupils will have a re-union lunch at the “Deloraine Hotel”, (near train/bridge) Friday 22nd February, 12noon for 12.30pm. For more information please phone Mary Owen 6435: 4406
Our Priority is Love
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
Brian McLaren, a dear friend and fellow public theologian,
shares my concern and hope that Christianity can evolve. In his book The Great
Spiritual Migration, he writes:
For centuries, Christians have presented God as a Supreme
Being who showers blessings upon insiders who share certain beliefs and proper
institutional affiliation, but who punishes outsiders with eternal conscious
torment. Yet Jesus revealed God as one who “eats with sinners,” welcomes
outsiders in, and forgives even while being rejected, tortured, and killed.
Jesus associated God more with gracious parental tenderness than strict
authoritarian toughness. He preached that God was to be found in self-giving
service rather than self-asserting domination. What would it mean for
Christians to let Jesus and his message lead them to a new vision of God? What
would it mean for Christians to understand, experience, and embody God as the
loving, healing, reconciling Spirit in whom all creatures live, move, and have
their being?
For centuries, Christianity has presented itself as an
“organized religion”—a change-averse institution or set of institutions that
protects and promotes a timeless system of beliefs that were handed down fully
formed in the past. Yet Christianity’s actual history is a story of change and
adaptation. We Christians have repeatedly adapted our message, methods, and
mission to the contours of our time [for example, the Second Vatican Council
within Catholicism]. What might happen if we understood the core Christian
ethos as creative, constructive, and forward-leaning—as an “organizing
religion” that challenges all institutions (including its own) [as Jesus did]
to learn, grow, and mature toward a deepening, enduring vision of
reconciliation with God, self, neighbor, enemy, and creation? . . .
If such a migration is possible, how would we describe that
way of life toward which we are moving?
If we are to be truly Christian, it makes sense to turn to
Jesus for the answer.
Of the many radical things said and done by Jesus, his
unflinching emphasis on love was the most radical of all. Love was the greatest
commandment . . . his prime directive—love for God, for self, for neighbor, for
stranger, for alien, for outsider, for outcast, and even for enemy, as he
himself modeled. The new commandment of love [John 13:34] meant that neither
beliefs nor words, neither taboos, systems, structures nor the labels that
enshrined them mattered most. Love decentered everything else; love relativized
everything else; love took priority over everything else—everything.
Brian McLaren, The Great Spiritual Migration: How the
World’s Largest Religion Is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian (Convergent:
2016), 2-3, 42.
Ecumenism - the Path Forward
This list is taken from the Archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
I was very blessed during my theological formation to have had the privilege of taking classes from two very renowned Catholic scholars, Avery Dulles and Raymond E. Brown. The former was an ecclesiologist whose books often became textbooks which were prescribed reading in seminaries and theology schools. The latter was a scripture scholar whose scholarship stands out, almost singularly, still nearly 30 years after his death. Nobody questions the scholarship, the personal integrity, or the faith-commitment of these men.
They were in different theological disciplines but what they shared, beyond the high respect of scholars and church persons everywhere, was a passion for ecumenism and a capacity to form deep friendships and invite warm dialogue across every kind of denominational and inter-religious line. Their books are studied not just in Roman Catholic circles, but in theological schools and seminaries in Protestant, Evangelical, Mormon, and Jewish seminaries as well. Both were deeply respected for their openness, friendship, and graciousness towards those who held religious views different than their own. Indeed, Raymond Brown spent of his most productive years teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York, even as he, a Sulpician priest, more than anything else cherished his Roman Catholic identity and priesthood. After losing his own father and mother, he spoke of the Roman Catholic Church and his Sulpician community as “the family that still remains for me.”
And what these two shared in their vision for ecumenism was this: The path towards Christian unity, the road that will eventually bring all sincere Christians together into one community, around one altar, is not the way of somehow winning the other over to our own particular denomination, of getting others to admit that they are wrong and that we are right and of them returning to the true flock, namely, our particular denomination. In their view, that’s not the route forward, practically or theologically. The path forward needs to be, as Avery Dulles puts it, the path of “progressive convergence”. What is this path?
It begins with the honest admission by each of us that none of us, no one denomination, has the full truth, incarnates the full expression of church, and is fully faithful to the Gospel. We are all deficient in some ways and each of us in some ways is selective in terms of which parts of the Gospels we value and incarnate and which parts we ignore. And so the path forward is the path of conversion, personal and ecclesial, of admitting our selectiveness, of recognizing and valuing what other churches have incarnated, of reading scripture more deeply in search of what we have ignored and absented ourselves from, and of individually and collectively trying to live lives that are truer to Jesus Christ. By doing this, by each of us and each church living the Gospel more fully, we will “progressively converge”, that is, as we grow closer to Christ we will grow closer to each other and thus “progressively converge” around Christ and, as we do that, we will eventually find ourselves around one common altar and will see each other as part of the same community.
The path to unity then lies not in converting each other over, but in each of us living the Gospel more faithfully so as to grow closer to each other in Christ. This doesn’t mean that we do not take our divisions seriously, that we simplistically assert that all denominations are equal, or that we justify our divisions today by pointing to divisions that already existed in the New Testament churches. Rather we must all begin by each of us admitting that do not possess the full truth and that we are in fact far from being fully faithful.
Given that starting point, Raymond E. Brown then gives this challenge to all the churches: “recognition of the range of New Testament ecclesiological diversity makes the claim of any church to be absolutely faithful to the Scriptures much more complex. We are faithful but in our own specific way; and both ecumenics and biblical studies should make us aware that there are other ways of being faithful to which we do not do justice. … In short, a frank study of the New Testament ecclesiologies should convince every Christian community that it is neglecting part of the New Testament witness. … I contend that in a divided Christianity, instead of reading the Bible to assure ourselves that we are right, we would do better to read it to discover where we have not been listening. As we Christians of different churches try to give hearing to the previously muffled voices, our views of the church will grow larger; and we will come closer to sharing common views. Then the Bible will be doing for us what Jesus did in his time, namely, convincing those who have ears to hear that all is not right, for God is asking of them more than they thought.”
Indeed: God is asking more of us than we think.
Guest Post from Tom Corcoran
- Little Kids & Church: What Works For Us
Two weeks ago my pastor, Father Michael White, posted a blog which underscored the value we place on programs for infants and toddlers that parents can use while they’re attending Mass.
Within hours his Twitter account lit up with dozens of responses, mostly negative. Fr. Michael acknowledges that he could have done a better job of making his points. And, moving forward, we’re not interested in stirring further debate. But, we are interested in the topic.
To begin, here is what we are not saying:
We are not saying that parents who choose to keep their babies with them at Mass are making a bad choice. In fact, it might be the perfect choice for them and their family. Here at our parish we always respect that choice.
Here is what we are saying:
First, as a parish, we want everyone to have a loving relationship with the living Lord. That’s why we exist. At Nativity our kids programs are intended to serve this purpose.
Second, we believe that the best way for a child to grow in their relationship with Jesus is to have parents who are growing in their relationship with Jesus. We have created children’s programs to help parents who are looking for help to more fully engage in the Eucharist.
Third, we believe that children come to know Jesus in age appropriate ways. In raising children, there is a progression. Mass defies comparisons, of course, to other life experiences. Notwithstanding, our programs are grounded in this conviction.
Our All Stars program is for ages 6 weeks to 6 years old. We offer dedicated spaces for each age, but this is definitely not babysitting. We call it play, worship, learn. Obviously, this is going to look different for infants than for toddlers, but basically, they experience a gathering time, followed by worship music and a faith based message from the weekend gospel. As they progress through the program they are introduced to more and more elements of the Mass itself.
I have seen the positive impact this has made on my own children and their easy transition to Mass when my wife and I think they’re ready.
Fourth, we believe that children grow in faith when they are connected to a community. Our children’s programs give families an opportunity to develop friends in faith, so that they are not all alone when it comes to their child’s faith formation.
Along with All Stars, and our Children’s Liturgy of the Word for older children, we also have a dedicated seating area for parents with small kids where they can see and hear everything. The flip side of the people who choose to keep their little kids with them, are the parents who feel they have no other options. We know of many stories of people who stop going to church because it becomes an uncomfortable experience for them. Take a look at some feedback from our parishioner Josh:
I just wanted to thank everyone at the church for being so welcoming and friendly to our family. For us, the barrier Nativity has removed is the frustration we’ve experienced with having three children attend Mass with us. We had taken many months off from attending any church because we had become so frustrated, continually trying to keep our children quiet or occupied, while getting nothing out of it at all, except irritated with one another.
Thanks to Nativity, my wife and I can now sit as a couple for an hour, worship, sing, receive communion in a prayerful, thoughtful way, and renew our spirits just to make it through another crazy week! Now, we look forward to every Sunday.
It makes us happy that our kids program works for Josh, his family, and many others.
Tom is Pastoral Associate at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland. In his twenty plus years of parish ministry he has held a variety of roles including Director of Children’s Ministry. Tom and his wife Mia are parents to seven children, ages 17 to 4, and are joyfully active in their homeschool community.
How To Be Grateful
This article was sourced from the ThinkingFaith.org website. The complete article can be read here
‘Gratitude, being nearly the greatest of human duties, is also nearly the most difficult,’ wrote G.K. Chesterton. Luckily, St Ignatius is on hand to help us to cultivate gratitude, so that our hearts may be disposed ‘to receive more, to appreciate more, to love and be loved more.’ Sarah Broscombe views gratitude through psychological, spiritual and Ignatian lenses, helping us to see how and why growing in gratitude is a priority as well as a joy. Sarah Broscombe is a freelance trainer, facilitator, retreat guide and coach, from the UK but now mainly working internationally. Her connection with the Jesuits began in 2002 in the field of social justice, then international development, and is now in the fields of leadership and spirituality.
Virtually every language has words for it, and all the world religions encourage it.[1] Positive psychology is researching its sources, attributes and impact, and popular psychology is extolling its virtues. Gratitude, long understood as a spiritual heavyweight, is now known to be a psychological heavyweight, too. But why? What is it? Why is it important? And how can we use St Ignatius Loyola’s insights to cultivate gratitude in our lives?
Weekday Masses 12th - 15th February, 2019
Monday: 12noon Devonport ... Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 10:30am Eliza Purton … Sts Cyril & Methodius
12noon Devonport
7:00pm Penguin … Healing Mass
Friday: 11:00am Mt St Vincent
Next Weekend 16th & 17th February, 2019
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 16th & 17th February, 2019
Devonport:
Readers Vigil: V Riley, A Stegmann, 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: 15th Feb: M & R Youd
22nd Feb: M & L Tippett, A Berryman
Mowing Presbytery
- Feb: Merv
Tippett
Piety Shop: 16th Feb:
L Murfet 17th Feb: P Piccolo
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: A & F Pisano
Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, M Barry Cleaners: K.S.C.
Flowers: C Stingel Hospitality:
Filipino Community
Penguin:
Greeters G & N Pearce Commentator:
E Nickols Readers: Y Downes, T Clayton
Ministers of
Communion: M
Hiscutt, P Lade Liturgy: S.C. J
Setting Up: T Clayton Care of Church: M Bowles, J Reynolds
Latrobe:
Reader: M Chan Minister of
Communion: I
Campbell Procession of
Gifts: Parishioner
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, T Jeffries Ministers of Communion: G Gigliotti Cleaners: V Youd
Readings this Week:
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Gospel: Luke 5:1-11
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
I take time to read this passage slowly and prayerfully,
conscious that the Lord is here right now, desiring my company, wherever I may
be. Perhaps I am inspired to place myself in the scene … watching how Jesus
talks to the crowds … noticing his invitation to Simon Peter … his words of
reassurance and affirmation … the response that he inspires. What particularly
touches me here today? Jesus uses Peter’s everyday skills to do something
unexpected and remarkable … made possible because Peter trusts his invitation.
I ponder the ways in which God can use my ordinary gifts to do extraordinary
things. Might God be inviting me, like Peter, to launch out into ‘deeper
water’, even if at first I think there might be no purpose ...? I speak to the
Lord as to a trusted friend, and listen for his response. Is there anything I
need to let go of to help me follow Jesus with greater freedom? I ask for any
help I need. When I am ready, I end my prayer in gratitude: Glory be ...
Readings Next Week:
Sixth Sunday in
Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Jeremiah 17: 5-8
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20
Gospel: Luke
6:17. 20-26
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Uleen Castles, Pam Shepheard, David Cole, Joy Carter, Joan Carter, John Otenasek, Christina
Okpon, Rose Stanley,
Hilario Visorro & ….
Hilario Visorro & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Ethan
Maine, Jim Bleasel, Bettye Cox, Norris Binns, Mike Yard (brother of Fr Terry), Ray Grant, Ernesto
Magallanes Jr,
Odik Rabino
Odik Rabino
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time:
8th – 14th
February
Harold Hawkes, Andrew
Cooper, Aileen Reynolds, Charles Holliday, Sheryl Allen, Nicola Tenaglia, Sharon
Fellows-Glover, Ethel Kelcey, Colleen Cameron, Christopher Cabalzar,
Rita Wescombe, Mary Hunniford, Douglas Howard, Jacqueline Chisholm,
Michael Ravaillion, John Maguire, Paul Oakford.
May they Rest in Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
All being well Fr Paschal arrives home this weekend after
his travels to World
Youth Day and a short visit with relatives in the USA – I
expect he is going to be
jet-lagged for a day or two but I hope not too badly.
Welcome Home.
This Monday, 11th, is the Feast of Our Lady of
Lourdes. There is a Morning
Tea after the 10:30am Mass this Sunday and there
will be midday Mass on
Monday at Devonport. All parishioners are invited to
come to this Mass and
celebrate this Feast Day.
This weekend the Lenten Books are available for parishioners
to buy/look
at/take & pay later. As mentioned last weekend the Brisbane
Book –
Compassion – is best used for
Group discussion material whilst the
Woollongong Book – Trust – is more suited for personal reflection. Both are
excellent resources
and I highly recommend them.
There are a number of Discussion groups already organised
and some details
are included here – this list is not exhaustive as we have not
been able to
confirm with some possible leaders the timing of their gatherings.
There are
sign-up sheets in the foyer and you can sign up either this weekend
or in the
next week or so:
Mon 4th March 7pm Devonport – John & Glenys Lee-Archer;
126 Steele Street
Tues 5th March 10am Penguin – Elizabeth Nickols; various homes in
Penguin
Tues 5th March 10.30am Port Sorell – Various Leaders; St Joseph’s
Mass Centre
Thurs 7th March 10am Devonport – Clare Kiely-Hoye; Parish House, 90
Stewart Street
Thurs 7th March 7pm Devonport – Fr Mike; Parish House, 90 Stewart
Street
Please take care
Give them strength and grace, wisdom and knowledge and peace to their hearts. We ask this prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
ULVERSTONE LUNCH:
PLENARY COUNCIL 2020:
FOOTY TICKETS:
SACRED HEART CHOIR:
The season of singing has come! We are seeking new and old
members for the choir, so please come and join the chorus and help us make a
joyful sound!! Thursday evenings at the Church starting at 7pm.
HEALING MASS:
Catholic Charismatic Renewal are sponsoring a HEALING MASS
at St Mary’s Catholic Church Penguin on Thursday 14th February commencing
at 7pm. All denominations are welcome to come and celebrate the
liturgy. After Mass, teams will be available for individual prayer. Please
bring a friend and a plate for supper 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.
MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE:
Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe: Our 2019 gatherings commence Monday
25th February 10.30am-12 noon.
We look forward to your company and contribution to our lively
discussions.
We are looking for a Volunteer to assist us in the garden at
123 William Street from time to time. Frequency
negotiable. If you interested and would like further information please phone
Sr Margaret 6428:3095 or 0418 367 769.
All welcome to BYO (or purchase ) luncheon at Pedro’s
Ulverstone on Sunday 17th February, 12noon – 12:30pm. We will be sitting
outside Pedro’s at the outdoor tables. We hope to see you there!
PLENARY COUNCIL 2020:
You are invited to a follow-up gathering to develop our
responses to the question: What is God asking of us in Australia at this time? Thursday
28th February, 2019 10am – 11:30am at Parish House, Stewart Street, Devonport.
Contact Clare Kiely-Hoye 6428:2760
WORLD DAY OF PRAYER:
Friday 1st March 10am Penguin Uniting Church. Various other centres will be announced next week. All welcome.
LENTEN PROGRAM 2019:
You are welcome to join a weekly Lenten Program for six
weeks beginning Thursday 7th March 10am – 11:30am at Parish House, 90
Stewart Street, Devonport. For more information contact Clare
Kiely-Hoye 0418 100 402.
FOOTY TICKETS:
The 2019 AFL footy season starts Friday
22nd March. Once again Mersey Leven Parish will be selling
footy margin tickets at OLOL Church Devonport, Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone
and St Joseph’s Mass Centre Port Sorell.
The footy margin is for the Friday
night game each week.
For regular participants (or anyone
new who would like to join) you can purchase your tickets for the year for $54 (all
games and finals) plus $10 for the grand final ticket (total $64) Payments can
be made in cash to the Parish Office or Direct Deposit into Parish Account (you
will need to contact the Parish Office to arrange). People who choose this
option will be given their tickets for the whole season.
If you are able to assist with
selling tickets regularly at any of the Mass Centres please contact the Parish
Office on 6424:2783.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall,
Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers Thursday 14th February
– Tony Ryan & Terry Bird.
NEWS FROM
ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
Marriage Mass for the Renewal of Vows - will be celebrated
by Archbishop Julian Porteous on Sunday 17th February, 2019 at
Church of the Apostles, Launceston at 10.30am. Couples celebrating
Catholic Marriage milestones including couples in the early years of marriage
(1st, 5th and 10th anniversaries) are invited
to RSVP to the Office of Life, Marriage and Family by emailing ben.smith@aohtas.org.au or on 6208
6036. Catholic married couples will receive a special acknowledgement from
Archbishop Julian on the day.
Our Lady of Mercy Deloraine past pupils will have a re-union lunch at the “Deloraine Hotel”, (near train/bridge) Friday 22nd February, 12noon for 12.30pm. For more information please phone Mary Owen 6435: 4406
Our Priority is Love
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
Brian McLaren, a dear friend and fellow public theologian,
shares my concern and hope that Christianity can evolve. In his book The Great
Spiritual Migration, he writes:
For centuries, Christianity has been presented as a system
of beliefs. That system of beliefs has supported a wide range of unintended
consequences, from colonialism to environmental destruction, subordination of
women to stigmatization of LGBT people, anti-Semitism to Islamophobia, clergy
pedophilia to white privilege. What would it mean for Christians to rediscover
their faith not as a problematic system of beliefs, but as a just and generous
way of life, rooted in contemplation and expressed in compassion, that makes
amends for its mistakes and is dedicated to beloved community for all? Could
Christians migrate from defining their faith as a system of beliefs to
expressing it as a loving way of life? . . .
For centuries, Christians have presented God as a Supreme
Being who showers blessings upon insiders who share certain beliefs and proper
institutional affiliation, but who punishes outsiders with eternal conscious
torment. Yet Jesus revealed God as one who “eats with sinners,” welcomes
outsiders in, and forgives even while being rejected, tortured, and killed.
Jesus associated God more with gracious parental tenderness than strict
authoritarian toughness. He preached that God was to be found in self-giving
service rather than self-asserting domination. What would it mean for
Christians to let Jesus and his message lead them to a new vision of God? What
would it mean for Christians to understand, experience, and embody God as the
loving, healing, reconciling Spirit in whom all creatures live, move, and have
their being?
For centuries, Christianity has presented itself as an
“organized religion”—a change-averse institution or set of institutions that
protects and promotes a timeless system of beliefs that were handed down fully
formed in the past. Yet Christianity’s actual history is a story of change and
adaptation. We Christians have repeatedly adapted our message, methods, and
mission to the contours of our time [for example, the Second Vatican Council
within Catholicism]. What might happen if we understood the core Christian
ethos as creative, constructive, and forward-leaning—as an “organizing
religion” that challenges all institutions (including its own) [as Jesus did]
to learn, grow, and mature toward a deepening, enduring vision of
reconciliation with God, self, neighbor, enemy, and creation? . . .
If such a migration is possible, how would we describe that
way of life toward which we are moving?
If we are to be truly Christian, it makes sense to turn to
Jesus for the answer.
Of the many radical things said and done by Jesus, his
unflinching emphasis on love was the most radical of all. Love was the greatest
commandment . . . his prime directive—love for God, for self, for neighbor, for
stranger, for alien, for outsider, for outcast, and even for enemy, as he
himself modeled. The new commandment of love [John 13:34] meant that neither
beliefs nor words, neither taboos, systems, structures nor the labels that
enshrined them mattered most. Love decentered everything else; love relativized
everything else; love took priority over everything else—everything.
Brian McLaren, The Great Spiritual Migration: How the
World’s Largest Religion Is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian (Convergent:
2016), 2-3, 42.
Ecumenism - the Path Forward
This list is taken from the Archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
I was very blessed during my theological formation to have had the privilege of taking classes from two very renowned Catholic scholars, Avery Dulles and Raymond E. Brown. The former was an ecclesiologist whose books often became textbooks which were prescribed reading in seminaries and theology schools. The latter was a scripture scholar whose scholarship stands out, almost singularly, still nearly 30 years after his death. Nobody questions the scholarship, the personal integrity, or the faith-commitment of these men.
They were in different theological disciplines but what they shared, beyond the high respect of scholars and church persons everywhere, was a passion for ecumenism and a capacity to form deep friendships and invite warm dialogue across every kind of denominational and inter-religious line. Their books are studied not just in Roman Catholic circles, but in theological schools and seminaries in Protestant, Evangelical, Mormon, and Jewish seminaries as well. Both were deeply respected for their openness, friendship, and graciousness towards those who held religious views different than their own. Indeed, Raymond Brown spent of his most productive years teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York, even as he, a Sulpician priest, more than anything else cherished his Roman Catholic identity and priesthood. After losing his own father and mother, he spoke of the Roman Catholic Church and his Sulpician community as “the family that still remains for me.”
And what these two shared in their vision for ecumenism was this: The path towards Christian unity, the road that will eventually bring all sincere Christians together into one community, around one altar, is not the way of somehow winning the other over to our own particular denomination, of getting others to admit that they are wrong and that we are right and of them returning to the true flock, namely, our particular denomination. In their view, that’s not the route forward, practically or theologically. The path forward needs to be, as Avery Dulles puts it, the path of “progressive convergence”. What is this path?
It begins with the honest admission by each of us that none of us, no one denomination, has the full truth, incarnates the full expression of church, and is fully faithful to the Gospel. We are all deficient in some ways and each of us in some ways is selective in terms of which parts of the Gospels we value and incarnate and which parts we ignore. And so the path forward is the path of conversion, personal and ecclesial, of admitting our selectiveness, of recognizing and valuing what other churches have incarnated, of reading scripture more deeply in search of what we have ignored and absented ourselves from, and of individually and collectively trying to live lives that are truer to Jesus Christ. By doing this, by each of us and each church living the Gospel more fully, we will “progressively converge”, that is, as we grow closer to Christ we will grow closer to each other and thus “progressively converge” around Christ and, as we do that, we will eventually find ourselves around one common altar and will see each other as part of the same community.
The path to unity then lies not in converting each other over, but in each of us living the Gospel more faithfully so as to grow closer to each other in Christ. This doesn’t mean that we do not take our divisions seriously, that we simplistically assert that all denominations are equal, or that we justify our divisions today by pointing to divisions that already existed in the New Testament churches. Rather we must all begin by each of us admitting that do not possess the full truth and that we are in fact far from being fully faithful.
Given that starting point, Raymond E. Brown then gives this challenge to all the churches: “recognition of the range of New Testament ecclesiological diversity makes the claim of any church to be absolutely faithful to the Scriptures much more complex. We are faithful but in our own specific way; and both ecumenics and biblical studies should make us aware that there are other ways of being faithful to which we do not do justice. … In short, a frank study of the New Testament ecclesiologies should convince every Christian community that it is neglecting part of the New Testament witness. … I contend that in a divided Christianity, instead of reading the Bible to assure ourselves that we are right, we would do better to read it to discover where we have not been listening. As we Christians of different churches try to give hearing to the previously muffled voices, our views of the church will grow larger; and we will come closer to sharing common views. Then the Bible will be doing for us what Jesus did in his time, namely, convincing those who have ears to hear that all is not right, for God is asking of them more than they thought.”
Indeed: God is asking more of us than we think.
Guest Post from Tom Corcoran
- Little Kids & Church: What Works For Us
Two weeks ago my pastor, Father Michael White, posted a blog which underscored the value we place on programs for infants and toddlers that parents can use while they’re attending Mass.
Within hours his Twitter account lit up with dozens of responses, mostly negative. Fr. Michael acknowledges that he could have done a better job of making his points. And, moving forward, we’re not interested in stirring further debate. But, we are interested in the topic.
To begin, here is what we are not saying:
We are not saying that parents who choose to keep their babies with them at Mass are making a bad choice. In fact, it might be the perfect choice for them and their family. Here at our parish we always respect that choice.
Here is what we are saying:
First, as a parish, we want everyone to have a loving relationship with the living Lord. That’s why we exist. At Nativity our kids programs are intended to serve this purpose.
Second, we believe that the best way for a child to grow in their relationship with Jesus is to have parents who are growing in their relationship with Jesus. We have created children’s programs to help parents who are looking for help to more fully engage in the Eucharist.
Third, we believe that children come to know Jesus in age appropriate ways. In raising children, there is a progression. Mass defies comparisons, of course, to other life experiences. Notwithstanding, our programs are grounded in this conviction.
Our All Stars program is for ages 6 weeks to 6 years old. We offer dedicated spaces for each age, but this is definitely not babysitting. We call it play, worship, learn. Obviously, this is going to look different for infants than for toddlers, but basically, they experience a gathering time, followed by worship music and a faith based message from the weekend gospel. As they progress through the program they are introduced to more and more elements of the Mass itself.
I have seen the positive impact this has made on my own children and their easy transition to Mass when my wife and I think they’re ready.
Fourth, we believe that children grow in faith when they are connected to a community. Our children’s programs give families an opportunity to develop friends in faith, so that they are not all alone when it comes to their child’s faith formation.
Along with All Stars, and our Children’s Liturgy of the Word for older children, we also have a dedicated seating area for parents with small kids where they can see and hear everything. The flip side of the people who choose to keep their little kids with them, are the parents who feel they have no other options. We know of many stories of people who stop going to church because it becomes an uncomfortable experience for them. Take a look at some feedback from our parishioner Josh:
I just wanted to thank everyone at the church for being so welcoming and friendly to our family. For us, the barrier Nativity has removed is the frustration we’ve experienced with having three children attend Mass with us. We had taken many months off from attending any church because we had become so frustrated, continually trying to keep our children quiet or occupied, while getting nothing out of it at all, except irritated with one another.
Thanks to Nativity, my wife and I can now sit as a couple for an hour, worship, sing, receive communion in a prayerful, thoughtful way, and renew our spirits just to make it through another crazy week! Now, we look forward to every Sunday.
It makes us happy that our kids program works for Josh, his family, and many others.
Tom is Pastoral Associate at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland. In his twenty plus years of parish ministry he has held a variety of roles including Director of Children’s Ministry. Tom and his wife Mia are parents to seven children, ages 17 to 4, and are joyfully active in their homeschool community.
How To Be Grateful
This article was sourced from the ThinkingFaith.org website. The complete article can be read here
‘Gratitude, being nearly the greatest of human duties, is also nearly the most difficult,’ wrote G.K. Chesterton. Luckily, St Ignatius is on hand to help us to cultivate gratitude, so that our hearts may be disposed ‘to receive more, to appreciate more, to love and be loved more.’ Sarah Broscombe views gratitude through psychological, spiritual and Ignatian lenses, helping us to see how and why growing in gratitude is a priority as well as a joy. Sarah Broscombe is a freelance trainer, facilitator, retreat guide and coach, from the UK but now mainly working internationally. Her connection with the Jesuits began in 2002 in the field of social justice, then international development, and is now in the fields of leadership and spirituality.
Virtually every language has words for it, and all the world religions encourage it.[1] Positive psychology is researching its sources, attributes and impact, and popular psychology is extolling its virtues. Gratitude, long understood as a spiritual heavyweight, is now known to be a psychological heavyweight, too. But why? What is it? Why is it important? And how can we use St Ignatius Loyola’s insights to cultivate gratitude in our lives?
What is gratitude?
The science of gratitude that has emerged within positive psychology provides us with useful definitions, distinct from the more generic ‘thankfulness’. Gratitude is ‘an acknowledgment that we have received something of value from others’,[2] ‘a compound of admiration and joy’,[3] ‘a felt sense of wonder, thankfulness and appreciation for life’.[4] ‘An individual experiences the emotion of gratitude… when they affirm that something good has happened to them and they recognise that someone else is largely responsible’.[5] The etymology of gratitude shares with grace (from the Latin root, gratus) the sense of unmerited favour and intentional benevolence. My working definition of gratitude, therefore, is: ‘appreciation of unearned favour, intentionally given’.
To continue reading this article click here
The science of gratitude that has emerged within positive psychology provides us with useful definitions, distinct from the more generic ‘thankfulness’. Gratitude is ‘an acknowledgment that we have received something of value from others’,[2] ‘a compound of admiration and joy’,[3] ‘a felt sense of wonder, thankfulness and appreciation for life’.[4] ‘An individual experiences the emotion of gratitude… when they affirm that something good has happened to them and they recognise that someone else is largely responsible’.[5] The etymology of gratitude shares with grace (from the Latin root, gratus) the sense of unmerited favour and intentional benevolence. My working definition of gratitude, therefore, is: ‘appreciation of unearned favour, intentionally given’.
To continue reading this article click here
No comments:
Post a Comment