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 19th - 22nd February, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Ministry Rosters 23rd & 24th February, 2019
Devonport:
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Port Sorell:
Readings this Week:
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
Readings Next Week:
Seventh Sunday
in Ordinary Time – Year C
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 & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Sharon Allison, Ethan Maine, Jim Bleasel, Bettye Cox, Norris Binns, Mike Yard (brother of Fr Terry), Ray Grant, Ernesto Magallanes Jr, Odik Rabino
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 15th – 21st February
Venus Martin, Audrey Cabalzar, Lyell Byrne, Nancy Kelly, Geraldine Piper, Leo Castles, Brian Maller, Frederick Breen, Bobby Rothwell, Bill Masterson, Mervyn Burke, Joyce McConnon, Lisa Natoli.
May they Rest in Peace
St Vinnies Bushfire Appeal
envelopes are available today – please be generous in your response to the
needs of those effected by the recent fires as they take steps to restart their
businesses and their lives.
Once again 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 Wollongong Book – Trust – is more suited for personal
reflection. Both are excellent resources and I highly recommend them. Whichever
program you choose to use the season of Lent is an excellent opportunity to
make time to deepen our prayer life through quiet reflection and daily
reading.
We have a number of Discussion
groups already organised and details are included here. If you would like to
host a group – it is not too late (all resources will be supplied) please
contact the Parish Office ASAP. There are sign-up sheets in the foyer inviting
you to give your name, phone number and the group you would like to join – we
will pass on details to the group leader.
Please take care
SACRED HEART CHOIR:
ULVERSTONE LUNCH:
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.
PLENARY COUNCIL 2020:
WORLD DAY OF PRAYER:
LENTEN PROGRAM 2019:
FOOTY TICKETS:
The 2019 AFL footy season starts Friday 22nd March. 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 at any of the Mass Centres please contact the Parish Office 6424:2783.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall,
Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers Thursday 21st February
– Rod Clark & Graeme Rigney.
ATTENTION
PARISH MEN: The Thursday night Bingo team needs
some extra persons to help out with bingo calling. Please give this some
serious thought as the Bingo evening is a major fund-raiser for the whole
parish.
GRAN’S VAN: The month of April has again been
allocated to our Parish to assist with Gran’s Van on the four Sundays in that
month. Help is required as follows, (a)
cooking a stew (meat supplied) (b) assisting with food distribution from the
van (c) driving the van. Helping with (b) and (c) would take about 2 hours of
your time, 6:30pm – 8:30pm. If you are
able to assist on any of the Sundays in April please contact Shirley or Tony
Ryan on 64241508.
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
Vinnies Tasmania 2019
Bushfire Appeal was launched early in February. At this stage, we are
encouraging monetary donations towards this appeal. Monetary donations give us
greater flexibility in meeting the direct needs of the people and businesses
that have been directly affected by the recent devastating bushfires.
We appreciate the support of
the community and the desire to assist at this difficult time. At this stage we
have sufficient donated goods to satisfy the current needs.
Donations can be made by using the envelopes provided, visiting the
Vinnies website www.vinnies.org.au/donate,
phoning 13 18 12 or calling in to any Vinnies shop or Regional Office.
For further information, please contact the St Vincent de Paul Society
State Office on 63 330812.
Sacred Reading
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
Throughout the Gospels, in Jesus’ reading of the Hebrew
Scriptures we see him masterfully connect the dots and discern where the sacred
text is truly heading, beyond the low-level consciousness of a particular
moment, individual, or circumstance. Jesus knows there is a bigger arc to the
story—one that reveals a God who is compassionate and inclusive.
- With the
first reading of the sacred text, listen with your heart’s ear for a phrase or
word that stands out for you.
- During
the second reading, reflect on what touches you, perhaps speaking that response
aloud or writing in a journal.
- After
reading the passage a third time, respond with a prayer or expression of what
you have experienced and ask yourself what this passage calls you to.
- Finally,
after a fourth reading, rest in silence.
I invite you to practice lectio divina with Jesus’ own
reading of Scripture in the synagogue:
Celibacy - A Personal Apologia
This article is taken from the Archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
As a vowed, religious celibate I’m very conscious that today celibacy, whether lived out in a religious commitment or in other circumstances, is suspect, under siege, and is offering too little by way of a helpful apologia to its critics.
Do I believe in the value of consecrated celibacy? The only real answer I can give must come from my own life. What’s my response to a culture that, for the most part, believes celibacy is both a naiveté and a dualism that stands against the goodness of sexuality, renders its adherents less than fully human, and lies at the root of the clerical sexual abuse crisis within the Roman Catholic Church? What might I say in its defense?
First, that celibacy isn’t a basis for pedophilia? Virtually all empirical studies indicate that pedophilia is a diagnosis not linked to celibacy. But then let me acknowledge its downside: Celibacy is not the normal state for anyone. When God made the first man and woman, God said: “It is not good for the human being to be alone.” That isn’t just a statement about the constitutive place of community within our lives (though it is that); it’s a clear reference to sexuality, its fundamental goodness, and its God-intended place in our lives. From that it flows that to be a celibate, particularly to choose to be one, comes fraught with real dangers. Celibacy can, and sometimes does, lead to an unhealthy sense of one’s sexual and relational self and to a coldness that’s often judgmental. It can too, understandably, lead to an unhealthy sexual preoccupation within the celibate and it provides access to certain forms of intimacy within which a dangerous betrayal of trust can occur. Less recognized, but a huge danger, is that it can be a vehicle for selfishness. Simply put, without the conscriptive demands that come with marriage and child-raising there’s the ever-present danger that a celibate can, unconsciously, arrange his life too much to suit his own needs.
Thus celibacy is not for everyone; indeed it’s not for the many. It contains an inherent abnormality. Consecrated celibacy is not simply a different lifestyle. It’s anomalous, in terms of the unique sacrifice it asks of you, where, like Abraham going up the mountain to sacrifice Isaac, you’re asked to sacrifice what’s most precious to you. As Thomas Merton, speaking of his own celibacy, once said: The absence of woman is a fault in my chastity. But, for the celibate as for Abraham, that can have a rich purpose and contain its own potential for generativity.
As well, I believe that consecrated celibacy, like music or religion, needs to be judged by its best expressions and not by its aberrations. Celibacy should not be judged by those who have not given it a wholesome expression but by the many wonderful women and men, saints of the past and present, who have given it a wholesome and generative expression. One could name numerous saints of the past or wonderfully healthy and generative persons from our own generation as examples where vowed celibacy has made for a wholesome, happy life that inspires others: Mother Teresa, Jean Vanier, Oscar Romero, Raymond E. Brown, and Helen Prejean, to name just a few. Personally, I know many very generative, vowed celibates whose wholesomeness I envy and who make celibacy credible – and attractive.
Like marriage, though in a different way, celibacy offers a rich potential for intimacy and generativity. As a vowed celibate I am grateful for a vocation which has brought me intimately into the world of so many people. When I left home at a young age to enter the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, I confess, I didn’t want celibacy. Nobody should. I wanted to be a missionary and a priest and celibacy presented itself as the stumbling block. But once inside religious life, almost immediately, I loved the life, though not the celibacy part. Twice I delayed taking final vows, unsure about celibacy. Eventually I made the decision, a hard leap of trust, and took the vow for life. Full disclosure, celibacy has been for me singularly the hardest part of my more than fifty years in religious life … but, but, at the same time, it has helped create a special kind of entry into the world and into others’ lives that has wonderfully enriched my ministry.
The natural God-given desire for sexual intimacy, for exclusivity in affection, for the marriage bed, for children, for grandchildren, doesn’t leave you, and it shouldn’t. But celibacy has helped bring into my life a rich, consistent, deep intimacy. Reflecting on my celibate vocation, all I may legitimately feel is gratitude.
Celibacy isn’t for everyone. It excludes you from the normal; it seems brutally unfair at times; it’s fraught with dangers ranging from serious betrayal of trust to living a selfish life; and it’s a fault in your very chastity – but, if lived out in fidelity, it can be wonderfully generative and does not exclude you from either real intimacy or real happiness.
Reflections on the Eucharist
James Hanvey SJ, Master of Campion Hall, University of Oxford, ponders the sacred mystery in which we participate through the simple gifts of bread and wine. It all began on that one night in an upper room in Jerusalem…
O Christ, that is what you have done for us:
In a crumb of bread the whole mystery is
(Patrick Kavanagh, The Great Hunger, VI)
If baptism is the great sacrament that brings us to life in Christ, the Mass or the Eucharist is the beating, living heart of the Church, from which that life is nourished, refreshed and renewed each day.
In the Manresa Jesuit Centre for Spirituality in Dublin is a collection of stained glass windows by the Irish artist Evie Hone (1894-1955). Her work in stained glass is one of the most distinguished aspects of her art. There is a fine example of it, depicting the crucifixion, in the great east window of Eton College Chapel. The windows in Manresa, which are on a much smaller scale, were taken from the chapel in the Jesuit house at Rahan, Tullamore.
They are a series of densely coloured, vivid scenes from the life of Christ and also of Mary. One shows Jesus, with the bread and the cup, gathered with his disciples at the Last Supper. To encounter the sacraments through the image and metaphor of a stained glass window is not a bad way of coming to think and reflect upon their mysteries. This is especially true of the Mass or the Eucharist. The stained glass not only arranges shape and colour to capture a particular scene, it is somehow ‘alive’ or dynamic as it mediates the light upon which it depends. We never quite see it the same way twice; depending on the light, its intensity or angle, something we hadn’t seen before, or noticed in that way before, is given to us. The play of light on the colours and forms of the glass is infinite; so too is the way we come to reflect upon the reality and the meaning of the Eucharist. Sometimes, we can see the whole in its radiance and beauty, at others we focus on a part that we see in a new or deeper way. The light not only makes the coloured glass and shapes visible, but the light itself become visible and active: ‘For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light’ (Psalms 36:9).
You can read the complete article here
Followers Fish
This article is taken from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Timonium, Marylands. You can find the original article here
When Jesus called the first apostles, who were fishermen, he didn’t promise to make them smarter, healthier or wealthier; He didn’t promise to make them more popular or better looking. Interestingly, Jesus didn’t even promise the apostles that if they followed him that he would make them holier.
Jesus told his first followers that if they followed him, they would become fishers of men. He would teach them how to use the same skill, patience and determination they used as professional fisherman to bring people into a relationship with him.
It is an interesting fact that of Jesus’ twelve apostles were fishermen. Rather than choosing religious professionals or scholars and theologians to carry on his mission Jesus chose hardworking uneducated blue-collar guys. Perhaps, in part, to show, that what he was asking them to do, anybody can do too.
So the metaphor of fishing is aptly applied to our efforts to share our faith in Christ. Just as the Church has traditionally been sometimes compared to a boat (and why, the front of our new building suggests the bow of a ship).
Of course we’re talking about evangelization, not a word historically given a lot of play in the average Catholic parish.
Evangelization was the province of missionaries, who devoted the whole of their lives to selfless and sometimes heroic service, spreading the Gospel. Once a year or so, one of them would visit to raise money for their mission, telling exotic tales of far away adventures (and perhaps unintentionally underscoring that the work of evangelization belongs to very special class of people).
Evangelization doesn’t require some kind of lifetime commitment, or even a change in life style. Our mission field isn’t only on the other side of the planet; it is in our own backyard. It is in our workplaces, our schools, in our own families. We have opportunities all around us, all the time, to bring people to Christ.
Unfortunately, since we don’t have a history of it, we tend to think of sharing our faith, to the extent that we think of it at all, as unnecessary, impolite, inappropriate.
Over the course of this series, we’re underscoring two truths:
First, the most loving way to love others is to share Christ with them.
Second, sharing our faith is a crucial part of growing deeper in our faith.
That’s why followers fish.
Weekday Masses 19th - 22nd February, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Thursday: 10:30am Karingal
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Next Weekend 23rd & 24th February, 2019
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell 9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 23rd & 24th February, 2019
Devonport:
Readers Vigil: M Kelly, R Baker, B Paul 10:30am: A Hughes, T Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil: M Heazlewood, G Lee-Archer, M
Kelly, P Shelverton
10:30am: M Sherriff, T & S Ryan, D
Barrientos, M Barrientos
Cleaners: 22nd Feb: M & L Tippett, A Berryman 1st March: M.W.C. Mowing Presbytery - Feb: Merv Tippett
Piety Shop: 23rd Feb:
A Berryman 24th Feb: O McGinley
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: E Cox Ministers of
Communion: B
Deacon, K Reilly, E Stubbs Cleaners:
V Ferguson, E Cox Flowers: M Bryan Hospitality: K Foster
Penguin:
Greeters G Hills-Eade. B Eade Commentator:
J Barker Readers: A Landers, E Nickols
Ministers of
Communion: M
Murray, T Clayton Liturgy: S.C. C
Setting Up: F Aichberger Care of Church: T Kiely, M Owen
Latrobe:
Reader: M Eden Minister of
Communion: M
Mackey Procession of Gifts: M
Clarke
Port Sorell:
Readers: G & V Duff Ministers of Communion: G Bellchambers Cleaners: V Youd
Readings this 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
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
After spending some moments coming to greater inner quiet,
I read the text slowly, perhaps more than once. What is my reaction? If – given
my own circumstances – I find this text challenging, I ask the Lord to help me
see the true meaning of the words before me. It may help to imagine myself in
the scene, listening to Jesus’s words. What is the tone of his voice? When he
speaks to his disciples, perhaps he also looks at me. What do I see in his
eyes: warning, threat, love, compassion or…? How do I feel? I try to engage him
in a conversation. What questions do I ask? What comments do I make? It could
be that one of the situations he mentions applies to me at the moment. I spend
time listening to his answers. As I bring my prayer to a close, I reflect on
what I do 'on account of the Son of Man'. I give thanks for what he does for
me. If I feel able to, I determine to place an even greater trust in the Lord.
Readings Next Week:
Seventh Sunday
in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: 1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:45-49
Gospel: Luke
6:27-38
Uleen Castles, Pam Shepheard, David Cole, Joy Carter, Joan Carter, John Otenasek, Christina Okpon, Rose Stanley, Hilario Visorro & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Sharon Allison, Ethan Maine, Jim Bleasel, Bettye Cox, Norris Binns, Mike Yard (brother of Fr Terry), Ray Grant, Ernesto Magallanes Jr, Odik Rabino
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 15th – 21st February
Venus Martin, Audrey Cabalzar, Lyell Byrne, Nancy Kelly, Geraldine Piper, Leo Castles, Brian Maller, Frederick Breen, Bobby Rothwell, Bill Masterson, Mervyn Burke, Joyce McConnon, Lisa Natoli.
May they Rest in Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
This week has been a little
different with all three priests being in residence – not something that had
happened this year – but great for the company and to be back to normal –
whatever that is.
St Vinnies Bushfire Appeal
envelopes are available today – please be generous in your response to the
needs of those effected by the recent fires as they take steps to restart their
businesses and their lives.
Once again 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 Wollongong Book – Trust – is more suited for personal
reflection. Both are excellent resources and I highly recommend them. Whichever
program you choose to use the season of Lent is an excellent opportunity to
make time to deepen our prayer life through quiet reflection and daily
reading.
We have a number of Discussion
groups already organised and details are included here. If you would like to
host a group – it is not too late (all resources will be supplied) please
contact the Parish Office ASAP. There are sign-up sheets in the foyer inviting
you to give your name, phone number and the group you would like to join – we
will pass on details to the group leader.
Mon 4th Mar 7pm
Devonport – John & Glenys Lee-Archer; 126
Steele Street
Tues 5th Mar 10am
Penguin – Elizabeth Nickols; various places
Tues 5th Mar 2.00pm
Devonport – Shirley & Tony Ryan; 162 Nicholls Street.
Wed 13th Mar 7.00pm
Ulverstone – Marie Byrne; 7/9 Alexander Rd
Thurs 7th Mar 10am
Devonport – Clare Kiely-Hoye; Parish House, 90 Stewart
Street
Thurs 7th Mar 1.00pm
Port Sorell – Various Leaders; St Joseph’s Mass Centre
Thurs 7th Mar 7pm
Devonport – Fr Mike; Parish House, 90 Stewart Street
Please take care
SACRED HEART CHOIR:
The season of singing is here! 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.
ULVERSTONE LUNCH:
All
welcome to BYO (or purchase) lunch 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!
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.
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. All welcome.
Friday 8th March 10:30am Sheffield Bible Chapel.
Shared lunch – 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. 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 at any of the Mass Centres please contact the Parish Office 6424:2783.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall,
Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers Thursday 21st February
– Rod Clark & Graeme Rigney.
ATTENTION
PARISH MEN: The Thursday night Bingo team needs
some extra persons to help out with bingo calling. Please give this some
serious thought as the Bingo evening is a major fund-raiser for the whole
parish.
Contact Merv Tippett (6424 1025) or Tony Ryan (6424 1508 if
you are interested.
GRAN’S VAN: The month of April has again been
allocated to our Parish to assist with Gran’s Van on the four Sundays in that
month. Help is required as follows, (a)
cooking a stew (meat supplied) (b) assisting with food distribution from the
van (c) driving the van. Helping with (b) and (c) would take about 2 hours of
your time, 6:30pm – 8:30pm. If you are
able to assist on any of the Sundays in April please contact Shirley or Tony
Ryan on 64241508.
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
Vinnies Tasmania 2019
Bushfire Appeal was launched early in February. At this stage, we are
encouraging monetary donations towards this appeal. Monetary donations give us
greater flexibility in meeting the direct needs of the people and businesses
that have been directly affected by the recent devastating bushfires.
We appreciate the support of
the community and the desire to assist at this difficult time. At this stage we
have sufficient donated goods to satisfy the current needs.
Donations can be made by using the envelopes provided, visiting the
Vinnies website www.vinnies.org.au/donate,
phoning 13 18 12 or calling in to any Vinnies shop or Regional Office.
For further information, please contact the St Vincent de Paul Society
State Office on 63 330812.
Sacred Reading
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
Throughout the Gospels, in Jesus’ reading of the Hebrew
Scriptures we see him masterfully connect the dots and discern where the sacred
text is truly heading, beyond the low-level consciousness of a particular
moment, individual, or circumstance. Jesus knows there is a bigger arc to the
story—one that reveals a God who is compassionate and inclusive.
The Spirit teaches any faithful person to read Scripture
(and the very experiences of life) with a gaze of love. Contemplative practice helps
us develop a third eye that reads between the lines and finds the thread always
moving toward inclusivity, mercy, and justice.
The practice of lectio divina is a contemplative way to read
short passages of sacred text and discover meanings running deeper than the
literal layer.
- With the first reading of the sacred text, listen with your heart’s ear for a phrase or word that stands out for you.
- During the second reading, reflect on what touches you, perhaps speaking that response aloud or writing in a journal.
- After reading the passage a third time, respond with a prayer or expression of what you have experienced and ask yourself what this passage calls you to.
- Finally, after a fourth reading, rest in silence.
I invite you to practice lectio divina with Jesus’ own
reading of Scripture in the synagogue:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and
he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the Sabbath day. And he stood
up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He
opened the book and found the place where it was written,
The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me,
because he
has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent
me to proclaim release to the captives
and
recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at
liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and gave
it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue
were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing.” —Luke 4:16-21
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Hierarchy of Truths: Jesus’ Use
of Scripture (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2014), CD, MP3 download.
Celibacy - A Personal Apologia
This article is taken from the Archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
As a vowed, religious celibate I’m very conscious that today celibacy, whether lived out in a religious commitment or in other circumstances, is suspect, under siege, and is offering too little by way of a helpful apologia to its critics.
Do I believe in the value of consecrated celibacy? The only real answer I can give must come from my own life. What’s my response to a culture that, for the most part, believes celibacy is both a naiveté and a dualism that stands against the goodness of sexuality, renders its adherents less than fully human, and lies at the root of the clerical sexual abuse crisis within the Roman Catholic Church? What might I say in its defense?
First, that celibacy isn’t a basis for pedophilia? Virtually all empirical studies indicate that pedophilia is a diagnosis not linked to celibacy. But then let me acknowledge its downside: Celibacy is not the normal state for anyone. When God made the first man and woman, God said: “It is not good for the human being to be alone.” That isn’t just a statement about the constitutive place of community within our lives (though it is that); it’s a clear reference to sexuality, its fundamental goodness, and its God-intended place in our lives. From that it flows that to be a celibate, particularly to choose to be one, comes fraught with real dangers. Celibacy can, and sometimes does, lead to an unhealthy sense of one’s sexual and relational self and to a coldness that’s often judgmental. It can too, understandably, lead to an unhealthy sexual preoccupation within the celibate and it provides access to certain forms of intimacy within which a dangerous betrayal of trust can occur. Less recognized, but a huge danger, is that it can be a vehicle for selfishness. Simply put, without the conscriptive demands that come with marriage and child-raising there’s the ever-present danger that a celibate can, unconsciously, arrange his life too much to suit his own needs.
Thus celibacy is not for everyone; indeed it’s not for the many. It contains an inherent abnormality. Consecrated celibacy is not simply a different lifestyle. It’s anomalous, in terms of the unique sacrifice it asks of you, where, like Abraham going up the mountain to sacrifice Isaac, you’re asked to sacrifice what’s most precious to you. As Thomas Merton, speaking of his own celibacy, once said: The absence of woman is a fault in my chastity. But, for the celibate as for Abraham, that can have a rich purpose and contain its own potential for generativity.
As well, I believe that consecrated celibacy, like music or religion, needs to be judged by its best expressions and not by its aberrations. Celibacy should not be judged by those who have not given it a wholesome expression but by the many wonderful women and men, saints of the past and present, who have given it a wholesome and generative expression. One could name numerous saints of the past or wonderfully healthy and generative persons from our own generation as examples where vowed celibacy has made for a wholesome, happy life that inspires others: Mother Teresa, Jean Vanier, Oscar Romero, Raymond E. Brown, and Helen Prejean, to name just a few. Personally, I know many very generative, vowed celibates whose wholesomeness I envy and who make celibacy credible – and attractive.
Like marriage, though in a different way, celibacy offers a rich potential for intimacy and generativity. As a vowed celibate I am grateful for a vocation which has brought me intimately into the world of so many people. When I left home at a young age to enter the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, I confess, I didn’t want celibacy. Nobody should. I wanted to be a missionary and a priest and celibacy presented itself as the stumbling block. But once inside religious life, almost immediately, I loved the life, though not the celibacy part. Twice I delayed taking final vows, unsure about celibacy. Eventually I made the decision, a hard leap of trust, and took the vow for life. Full disclosure, celibacy has been for me singularly the hardest part of my more than fifty years in religious life … but, but, at the same time, it has helped create a special kind of entry into the world and into others’ lives that has wonderfully enriched my ministry.
The natural God-given desire for sexual intimacy, for exclusivity in affection, for the marriage bed, for children, for grandchildren, doesn’t leave you, and it shouldn’t. But celibacy has helped bring into my life a rich, consistent, deep intimacy. Reflecting on my celibate vocation, all I may legitimately feel is gratitude.
Celibacy isn’t for everyone. It excludes you from the normal; it seems brutally unfair at times; it’s fraught with dangers ranging from serious betrayal of trust to living a selfish life; and it’s a fault in your very chastity – but, if lived out in fidelity, it can be wonderfully generative and does not exclude you from either real intimacy or real happiness.
Reflections on the Eucharist
James Hanvey SJ, Master of Campion Hall, University of Oxford, ponders the sacred mystery in which we participate through the simple gifts of bread and wine. It all began on that one night in an upper room in Jerusalem…
O Christ, that is what you have done for us:
In a crumb of bread the whole mystery is
(Patrick Kavanagh, The Great Hunger, VI)
If baptism is the great sacrament that brings us to life in Christ, the Mass or the Eucharist is the beating, living heart of the Church, from which that life is nourished, refreshed and renewed each day.
In the Manresa Jesuit Centre for Spirituality in Dublin is a collection of stained glass windows by the Irish artist Evie Hone (1894-1955). Her work in stained glass is one of the most distinguished aspects of her art. There is a fine example of it, depicting the crucifixion, in the great east window of Eton College Chapel. The windows in Manresa, which are on a much smaller scale, were taken from the chapel in the Jesuit house at Rahan, Tullamore.
They are a series of densely coloured, vivid scenes from the life of Christ and also of Mary. One shows Jesus, with the bread and the cup, gathered with his disciples at the Last Supper. To encounter the sacraments through the image and metaphor of a stained glass window is not a bad way of coming to think and reflect upon their mysteries. This is especially true of the Mass or the Eucharist. The stained glass not only arranges shape and colour to capture a particular scene, it is somehow ‘alive’ or dynamic as it mediates the light upon which it depends. We never quite see it the same way twice; depending on the light, its intensity or angle, something we hadn’t seen before, or noticed in that way before, is given to us. The play of light on the colours and forms of the glass is infinite; so too is the way we come to reflect upon the reality and the meaning of the Eucharist. Sometimes, we can see the whole in its radiance and beauty, at others we focus on a part that we see in a new or deeper way. The light not only makes the coloured glass and shapes visible, but the light itself become visible and active: ‘For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light’ (Psalms 36:9).
You can read the complete article here
Followers Fish
This article is taken from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Timonium, Marylands. You can find the original article here
When Jesus called the first apostles, who were fishermen, he didn’t promise to make them smarter, healthier or wealthier; He didn’t promise to make them more popular or better looking. Interestingly, Jesus didn’t even promise the apostles that if they followed him that he would make them holier.
Jesus told his first followers that if they followed him, they would become fishers of men. He would teach them how to use the same skill, patience and determination they used as professional fisherman to bring people into a relationship with him.
It is an interesting fact that of Jesus’ twelve apostles were fishermen. Rather than choosing religious professionals or scholars and theologians to carry on his mission Jesus chose hardworking uneducated blue-collar guys. Perhaps, in part, to show, that what he was asking them to do, anybody can do too.
So the metaphor of fishing is aptly applied to our efforts to share our faith in Christ. Just as the Church has traditionally been sometimes compared to a boat (and why, the front of our new building suggests the bow of a ship).
Of course we’re talking about evangelization, not a word historically given a lot of play in the average Catholic parish.
Evangelization was the province of missionaries, who devoted the whole of their lives to selfless and sometimes heroic service, spreading the Gospel. Once a year or so, one of them would visit to raise money for their mission, telling exotic tales of far away adventures (and perhaps unintentionally underscoring that the work of evangelization belongs to very special class of people).
Evangelization doesn’t require some kind of lifetime commitment, or even a change in life style. Our mission field isn’t only on the other side of the planet; it is in our own backyard. It is in our workplaces, our schools, in our own families. We have opportunities all around us, all the time, to bring people to Christ.
Unfortunately, since we don’t have a history of it, we tend to think of sharing our faith, to the extent that we think of it at all, as unnecessary, impolite, inappropriate.
Over the course of this series, we’re underscoring two truths:
First, the most loving way to love others is to share Christ with them.
Second, sharing our faith is a crucial part of growing deeper in our faith.
That’s why followers fish.
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