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
Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Benediction with Adoration Devonport: First Friday each month - commences at 10am and concludes with Mass
Legion of Mary: Wednesdays 11am Sacred Heart Church Community Room, Ulverstone
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – Mondays 7pm Community Room Ulverstone
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 - commences at 10am and concludes with Mass
Benediction with Adoration Devonport: First Friday each month - commences at 10am and concludes with Mass
Legion of Mary: Wednesdays 11am Sacred Heart Church Community Room, Ulverstone
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – Mondays 7pm Community Room Ulverstone
Holy Week & Easter
Ceremonies 2019
Monday 15th 7:00pm Reconciliation
Service – Devonport
Ministry Rosters 20th & 21st April, 2019
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Port Sorell:
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Christiana Okpon, Robert
Luxton, Adrian Drane, Fred Heazlewood, Thomas
& Frances McGeown, Charlotte Milic, Jason Carr, John Kelly, David Cole, Rose Stanley & …
Let us pray for those who have died
recently:
Let us pray for
those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 11th – 17th April
Mersey
Leven Parish Community welcome and congratulate …..
Weekly
Ramblings
Today you will find in our
bulletin a complete list of all the
ceremonies and activities of Holy Week and Easter. Holy Thursday, Good Friday
and the Easter Vigil are the high point of our Liturgical celebrations so I
would like to encourage all parishioners to be part of these celebrations –
they are not Mass Centre celebrations but they truly are the whole Parish
celebrating the Passion, Death and Resurrection of our Saviour.
On Tuesday night Fr Paschal and I
will join with many of the priests of the Archdiocese to gather with our
Archbishop in the Cathedral to Renew our Priestly Commitment at the Chrism Mass.
This year, with some much tension surrounding the situation in Meander Valley,
standing with our Archbishop will be a great opportunity for us to both commit
ourselves to the Priesthood but also be a support to him in his ministry.
Our 24 Hours of Prayer at OLOL
from 6pm Wednesday evening – part of the Devonport Churches Easter Services –
is an exciting time for us to join with members of the local Christian
community as we prepare for the Easter Event. This living out of the prayer of
Jesus – ‘May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me
and I am in you’ (Jn 17:21) – becomes a sign to others of what it means to be the
Body of Christ. I invite you all to join me in being part of this great moment
in the life of the Christian Community.
Please take care 
PALM SUNDAY ECUMENICAL SERVICE – PORT SORELL:
PROJECT COMPASSION –
GIVE LENT 100%
Living with a disability was challenging
for Nguyet. Yet, since featuring in Project Compassion 2017 Nguyet has
successfully built her own business, a dream that has become a reality with the
support of Caritas Australia. Connected to the world in new ways, Nguyet has
become independent, an important member of her community and has great hope for
her future. Please donate to Project Compassion 2019 and give children living with
disabilities in Vietnam the opportunity for education and inclusion in their
community.
GOOD FRIDAY COLLECTION:
MT ST
VINCENT AUXILIARY: will be
holding a cake and craft stall on Wednesday
17th April at Mt St Vincent Home starting at 9am. All
welcome to come along and support this fundraiser!
EASTER
VIGIL – SACRED HEART CHURCH:
DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY & NOVENA:
HEALING MASS:
SACRED HEART CHURCH ROSTERS:
FOOTY
MARGIN RESULTS:
Round 3 (Friday 5th April) Essendon won by 18
points. Congratulations to the following winners; Jan Horton, Rosemary Guest,
Robyn Wright.
******* NO BINGO THURSDAY 18th APRIL – HOLY THURSDAY *******
Beginner's Mind
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
I’d like to offer some spiritual advice so that you can read Scripture the way that Jesus did and use it for good purposes.
Offer a prayer for guidance from the Holy Spirit before you make your interpretation of an important text. With an open heart and mind, seek the attitude of a beginner and learner. Pray as long as it takes to feel any certitudes loosen.
Once you have attained some degree of openness, try to move to a position of detachment from your own egoic will and its goals and desires—to be correct, to be secure, to stay with the familiar. This might take some time, but without such freedom from your own need for control, you will invariably make a text say what you need and want it to say.
Then you must listen for a deeper voice than your own, which you will know because it will never shame or frighten you, but rather strengthen you, even when it is challenging you. If it is God’s voice, it will take away your illusions and your violence so completely and so naturally that you can barely identify with such previous feelings! I call this God’s replacement therapy. God does not ask and expect you to do anything new until God has first made it desirable and possible for you to do it. Grace cannot easily operate under coercion, duress, shame, or guilt.
If your understanding of Scripture leads you to experience any or several of the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)—I think you can trust that this interpretation is from the Spirit, from the deeper stream of wisdom.
As you read, if you sense any negative or punitive emotions like morose delight, feelings of superiority, self-satisfaction, arrogant dualistic certitude, desire for revenge, need for victory, or a spirit of dismissal or exclusion, you must trust that this is not Jesus’ hermeneutic at work, but your own ego still steering the ship.
Remember the temptation of Jesus in the desert (Matthew 4:3-10). Three temptations to the misuse of power are listed: economic, religious, and political. Even Jesus must face these subtle disguises before he begins his public ministry. Only when he has found freedom from his own egoic need for power can Jesus teach with true inner authority and speak truth to the oppressive powers of his time.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, What Do We Do with the Bible? (CAC Publishing: 2018), 52-54.
The Rebuilt Road Show
Why We're Bringing Rebuilt To You
This article is taken from the weekly blog written by Fr Michael White - Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Timonium, Maryland. You can find the blog here
Rebuilt is all about awakening the faithful, reaching the lost, and making church matter. The books led us to develop and host the Rebuilt Conference, a two day event of amazing music and messages inspiring and equipping a 1,000 church leaders from hundreds of different parishes. Last April we hosted our second Rebuilt Conference, the first in our new church. It was an incredible experience but one we knew we would struggle to repeat on an annual basis. The decision was made to host it instead every other year. But we knew we wanted to maintain the momentum and interest we’d built. That’s when the idea of Rebuilt “on the road” was born.
The road show is a one-day version of our Rebuilt Conference. This spring we will offer four programs all on the East Coast: Boston, Baltimore, Suburban New York, and Boca Raton. It’s meant to be an accessible and affordable opportunity for parishes in the region to bring their leadership teams together for reflection and renewal, without making a big commitment of time or money.
The Rebuilt Road Show will be informative and instructional, as we take a fresh look at parish renewal. Participants will be hearing from both me and Tom Corcoran, as well as members of our team as we help you reflect on what your parish really looks like, what’s going on, and what needs to change.
Through engaging exercises we’ll help you think creatively about leading your parish forward and provide tools you can use to guide your church through change. We’ll help you set SMART goals: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Most of all we will inspire you to rebuild, and we’ll have a lot of fun too. Your parish team will love it.
The Letter of Paul To The Philippians
This article is taken from the thinkingfaith.org website. You can find the original article here
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. In 2009 Peter Edmonds SJ explored the context and content of one of Paul’s shortest but most appealing epistles. He is a tutor in biblical studies at Campion Hall, University of Oxford.
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).
The people to whom he was writing inhabited a city in the north of modern Greece. Though situated in Greece, it was a city with a very Roman atmosphere. Many of those who lived there enjoyed the privileges of Roman citizenship, and it was a place where former soldiers of the Roman legions settled. It is probably no accident that Paul emphasised the Roman circumstances of his imprisonment. He mentions the imperial guard in describing his imprisonment (1:13) and the ‘household of Caesar’ in his conclusion (4:22). Many think his prison was in Rome itself. However, the distance between Philippi and Rome was surely too great to permit the easy communication implied in this letter, so it is more likely that he was writing from Caesarea, the Palestinian city where the Roman governor had his headquarters. We know from the Acts of the Apostles that Paul was imprisoned there (Acts 23:35). Other experts prefer Ephesus as the scene of his imprisonment, although the evidence for this is weaker.
Paul spoke in generous terms of the Philippian Christians. They were people whom he loved and longed for, his joy and his crown (4:1). He wanted this love to overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight, so that in the day of the Lord they might be pure and blameless (1:9-10). So why did Paul write this letter? In general terms, he wrote for the same reason that he wrote his other letters: to build up the faith of his converts, to remind them of his ways in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 4:17). A letter was a substitute for a personal visit, or for the visit of one of his assistants like Timothy or Titus. Such visits were needed to deal with problems that were inevitable with recent converts in Philippi as elsewhere. They were young in their Christian commitment and they needed help and even warnings about the dangers they ran of infidelity and sinfulness in their enthusiasm for a new faith.
It is at the beginning of the second chapter of the letter that Paul makes a blunt reference to certain deficiencies that had come to light in their lives together. We meet new terms like ‘selfish ambition’, ‘conceit’, ‘own interest’ (2:3-4). Obviously arrogance and pride were spoiling the atmosphere of their common life; they were no longer of the same mind, having the same love (2: 2). Later on, Paul will name some of those who were at odds with each other; they were two women called Euodia and Syntyche (4:2).
In general, Paul found answers to the pastoral problems in his communities through theology and through Christ in particular. He finds an answer to the arrogance and disunity in Philippi by an appeal to the career of Christ. The six verses in which he describes this are the verses from Philippians most familiar to the practising Catholic, since they are read out every Palm Sunday in the Catholic liturgy of the day (2:6-11). They are often referred to as the ‘kenosis hymn’. Kenosisis the Greek word which means ‘emptying’, and the emptying with which we are concerned here is the emptying of Christ; not just in his incarnation as the Son of God in refusing to hold on to his divine status, but, in obedience, accepting the human condition and dying the death of a slave in enduring the cross of the crucifixion. This is the content of the first half of the ‘hymn’; the three verses of the second half describe God’s response. Because of his impoverishment in his earthly life, God raised him up, gave him a name above every other name, so that he now receives the worship of every creature whether found on earth, below it or above it. Paul applies to the exalted Christ the titles given to God by the prophet Isaiah centuries before (Isaiah 45:23). This then was the Christ to whom the Philippians bent their knees in worship, and if only they would allow this truth to control their heart and being, the arrogance, pride, conceit and quarrelsomeness that was rotting the Christian community in Philippi would find no root among them. In Philippians, Paul is offering a much more colourful and poetic version of the gospel which he had received and passed on to the Corinthians, namely that ‘Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures’ (1 Corinthians 15:3-5).
This passage about the downward and upward paths that marked the career of Christ is the part of Philippians that the Church has made much use of in her liturgy, but it was just one part of Paul’s pastoral strategy for dealing with the deficiencies of the Philippi community. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, ‘Be imitators of me as I am of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 11:1) and he repeats this in this letter, ‘Join in imitating me’ (3:17). In the third chapter, Paul shows how his own life history was an imitation of that of Christ in its downward and upward path. He lists his credentials as a member of the people of Israel. He was a Jew, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, as to righteousness under the law, blameless (3:5-6). But he had come to regard all this as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord (3:8). He went as far as describing it all as rubbish. It was as if he had been in a race in pursuit of Christians whom he believed were betraying their heritage as members of Israel, but he had been pursued and captured by Christ. His only ambition now was to know Christ and the power of his resurrection (3:10). If his Philippian converts had the mind of Paul as well as that of Christ, they could not think of doing anything from selfish ambition (2:3).
This passage about Paul’s own life history is read on the 5th Sunday of Lent in the third year of the Sunday lectionary cycle. Paul offers two more examples of people who have shared the downward and upward path of Christ in this letter, which are never proclaimed on a Sunday. The first is Timothy. He was one of Paul’s pastoral assistants, a co-author of the letter (1:1). He had sent him as his delegate to Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 3:2) and to Corinth (1 Corinthians 4:17). He had, like a son accompanying his father, ‘slaved’ with Paul in the service of the gospel (2:22). Christ ‘emptied himself, taking the form of a slave’ (2:7). The second example is Epaphroditus who is mentioned only in this letter. He was a go-between between Paul and the Philippians (4:18). His kenosis, his emptying, had come about through the sickness which had almost killed him, but thankfully he had recovered, so that he could continue to serve the needs of the gospel. ‘He came close to death for the work of Christ’ (2:25-30).
But the letter is more than a treatise dealing with a single issue. We may pick out at least two other matters to which Paul directs his attention, perhaps less smoothly than he might have, so much so that some scholarly opinion sees the letter in its present form as a combination of three original ones. The first forces Paul to issue a warning against ‘evil workers, those who mutilate the flesh’ (3:2). This seems to refer to critics of Paul who were telling the Philippians that in order to become true Christians, they had to become Jews first, through accepting circumcision and other observances of the Jewish Law. This was the agenda that had dominated the Letter of Paul to the Galatians. It is as if the ‘false brethren who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 2:4) were now on their way to, or indeed had already arrived in, Philippi. The first argument that Paul had used against them in Galatians had been his own grace story (Galatians 1:13-24); he tells this story again in Philippians. ‘Whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ’ (3:7). He went on to sum up the teaching that dominates Galatians in a single verse: ‘that I may gain Christ. . . , not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ’ (3:9). To seek salvation through any other way is to deny the value of the cross of Christ and to remove its offence (Galatians 5:11). It is to be earth bound and to refuse to live up to the heavenly call to be citizens of heaven (3:20). Proud though the Philippians might be to be citizens of Rome; their destiny was heavenly citizenship.
Another matter with which Paul had to deal in this letter, was to express gratitude for the support that he had received from the Philippians, in particular the gifts they had sent which he had received from Epaphroditus (4:18). When he wrote to the Thessalonians, he had proudly reported that because he had toiled night and day, he had never been any burden on them (1 Thessalonians 2:9). There is no such claim in this letter. These people, his ‘joy and his crown’ (4:1) had looked after him and his needs. His only duty was to thank them for it, and this he does towards the end of the letter when he informs them that no church had shared with him in giving and receiving as much as they had (4:15). In writing to the Corinthians, he again referred to the wealth of their generosity and their abundant joy despite their extreme poverty (2 Corinthians 8:2).
No treatment of Philippians can omit reference to this spirit of joy that pervades the letter. When the Church wants to stress the joy of its gospel message in mid-Advent, it is this letter that she quotes, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice’ (4:4). This takes up a theme of the first paragraph of the letter, that Paul prays ‘with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you’ (1:4). And Paul can say all this despite his previous experience of Philippi which he writes of in the first of his letters: of how ‘he had suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Phillippi’ (1 Thessalonians 2:2). In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke reports the form this shameful treatment took, when he was beaten and thrown into jail, but this now all belongs to the past (Acts 16:19-34). Paul in this letter is ‘forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead’ (3:13).
Paul was confident that ‘the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ’ (1:6). Meanwhile, ‘whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pleasing. . . think about these things’, wrote Paul as he neared the end of the letter (4:9). In this Pauline year, inaugurated by Benedict XVI last June, may we rediscover this letter that Paul wrote from prison to his first converts in Europe. May its words constitute a pathway to Christ that many will tread and through them be led to a mature understanding and joyful acceptance of the gospel of Christ in our own day.
Holy Week & Easter
Ceremonies 2019
Monday 15th 7:00pm Reconciliation
Service – Devonport
Tuesday 16th 9:30am Mass
– Penguin
7:00pm Mass of the Chrism – Cathedral
Wednesday 17th 9:30am Mass
– Latrobe
6:00pm Start 24 Hours of Prayer – Devonport
7:00pm Reconciliation Service – Ulverstone
Thursday 18th 6:00pm End
24 Hours of Prayer – Devonport
7:00pm Devonport Churches Easter Service – paranaple
Centre
9:00pm Mass of the Lord’s Supper – Devonport
Friday 19th 10:00am Stations of the Cross – Port Sorell
11:00am Stations of the Cross – Penguin
11:00am Stations of the Cross – Sheffield
11:00am Stations of the Cross – Latrobe
3:00pm Commemoration of the Passion – Devonport
3:00pm Commemoration of the Passion – Ulverstone
Saturday 20th 7:00pm Easter
Vigil – Ulverstone
Sunday 21st 8:00am Easter
Mass – Port Sorell
Easter Sunday 8:00am Easter
Mass – Penguin
8:00am Easter Mass – Latrobe
9:30am Easter Mass – Devonport
9:30am Easter Mass – Ulverstone
9:30am Easter Mass – Sheffield
Ministry Rosters 20th & 21st April, 2019
Devonport:
Readers 9:30am: A Hughes, E Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion: 9:30am: B & N Mulcahy, K Hull
Cleaners: 19th April: M & R Youd 26th April: M & L Tippett, A Berryman
Piety Shop: 21st April: T Omogbai-musa Mowing of Presby. Lawns: S Berryman
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: E Cox Ministers of
Communion: E
Reilly, M & K McKenzie, M O’Halloran
Cleaners: K.S.C. Flowers: M Byrne Hospitality: M Byrne, G Doyle
Penguin:
Greeters P Ravallion, A Landers Commentator:
E Nickols Readers:
Easter Liturgy
Ministers of
Communion: T Clayton,
P Lade Liturgy: Easter Liturgy
Setting Up: F Aichberger Care of Church: Y & R Downes
Latrobe:
Reader: M Eden Minister of
Communion: M
Mackey Procession of Gifts: M Clarke
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, L Post Ministers of Communion: G Gigliotti Cleaners: C & J Howard
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Christiana Okpon, Robert
Luxton, Adrian Drane, Fred Heazlewood, Thomas
& Frances McGeown, Charlotte Milic, Jason Carr, John Kelly, David Cole, Rose Stanley & …
Let us pray for those who have died
recently:
Andrew
Kirkpatrick, Rose Kirkpatrick, Myra Goss, Pat Mapley, Rita
Dawkins, Bernard Wednt
Let us pray for
those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 11th – 17th April
Patricia
Winzinberg, Ferruccio Candotti, Beatrice Ntuka, Jonathan Martinez, James
Flight, Gillian Ibell, Glen Graham, Daphne Walker, Mondo DiPietro, Valma
Lowry, Sandy Cowling, Kathleen Smith, Harold Cornelius, Ila Breen, Geraldine
Harris, Kate Morris, Raymond Breen, Betty Davis, William Newland. Also
deceased relatives and friends of Marshall, Speers, Hawes, Willis and Pilkington families.
May
they Rest in Peace
Mersey
Leven Parish Community welcome and congratulate …..
Blayke Munro
on his Baptism
this weekend at Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone.
Weekly
Ramblings
Today you will find in our
bulletin a complete list of all the
ceremonies and activities of Holy Week and Easter. Holy Thursday, Good Friday
and the Easter Vigil are the high point of our Liturgical celebrations so I
would like to encourage all parishioners to be part of these celebrations –
they are not Mass Centre celebrations but they truly are the whole Parish
celebrating the Passion, Death and Resurrection of our Saviour.
On Tuesday night Fr Paschal and I
will join with many of the priests of the Archdiocese to gather with our
Archbishop in the Cathedral to Renew our Priestly Commitment at the Chrism Mass.
This year, with some much tension surrounding the situation in Meander Valley,
standing with our Archbishop will be a great opportunity for us to both commit
ourselves to the Priesthood but also be a support to him in his ministry.
Our 24 Hours of Prayer at OLOL
from 6pm Wednesday evening – part of the Devonport Churches Easter Services –
is an exciting time for us to join with members of the local Christian
community as we prepare for the Easter Event. This living out of the prayer of
Jesus – ‘May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me
and I am in you’ (Jn 17:21) – becomes a sign to others of what it means to be the
Body of Christ. I invite you all to join me in being part of this great moment
in the life of the Christian Community.
Please take care
PALM SUNDAY ECUMENICAL SERVICE – PORT SORELL:
The Christian Churches of Port Sorell and Wesley Vale have
combined to organise an Ecumenical Prayer Service for Palm Sunday. We hope this
will be the beginning of greater cooperation for combined prayer and praise of
the various Christian traditions. Time: 5 - 6pm, Sunday 14th April
Venue: Banksia Centre, Rice St Port Sorell
You are invited to turn up for some singing, prayer and
scripture reflections. Following the service we plan a “finger-food” supper
with tea and coffee. Please bring a small plate to share. There is no need to
register. If you require further information contact Giuseppe Gigliotti on 0419
684 134 or gigli@comcen.com.au
PROJECT COMPASSION –
GIVE LENT 100%
LIVES CHANGE WHEN WE
ALL GIVE 100%
Living with a disability was challenging
for Nguyet. Yet, since featuring in Project Compassion 2017 Nguyet has
successfully built her own business, a dream that has become a reality with the
support of Caritas Australia. Connected to the world in new ways, Nguyet has
become independent, an important member of her community and has great hope for
her future. Please donate to Project Compassion 2019 and give children living with
disabilities in Vietnam the opportunity for education and inclusion in their
community.
GOOD FRIDAY COLLECTION:
The Good Friday Collection promotes
the missionary work of the Church in the Holy Land by providing welfare
assistance to local Christians in areas such as health, education, employment and
housing. Parishes, schools, orphanages and medical centres throughout the Holy
Land also rely on assistance from the Good Friday collection. The collection is
also used to maintain over 70 churches and shrines associated with the life of
Jesus. Last year, Australian Catholics donated $1.4 million to this cause,
despite tough economic times, rural droughts and increasing cost of living
which put a strain on family budgets and financial resources.
Your generosity is greatly
appreciated. Please remember the Christians of the Holy Land again on the Good
Friday. Please also pray that peace and harmony will become a reality in the
birthplace of Jesus, the ‘Prince of Peace’.
MT ST
VINCENT AUXILIARY: will be
holding a cake and craft stall on Wednesday
17th April at Mt St Vincent Home starting at 9am. All
welcome to come along and support this fundraiser!
EASTER
VIGIL – SACRED HEART CHURCH:
Parishioners are invited to bring
a plate of food to share for supper after the Easter Vigil Mass.
DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY & NOVENA:
The first Sunday after Easter (28th April) is celebrated as the Feast of Divine Mercy. This will take place
at the 9am mass at Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone. A novena of the chaplet of
divine mercy will also be conducted at 5pm for nine consecutive days at Our Lady
of Lourdes Church, Devonport commencing Good Friday till Saturday 27 April. The
chaplet lasting about 30 minutes with the theme “Jesus I trust in you”,
promises many graces and all are urged to attend. Contact: Michael Gaffney 0447
018 068
HEALING MASS:
Catholic Charismatic Renewal, are
sponsoring a HEALING MASS with Fr
Paschal Okpon at St Mary’s Catholic Church Penguin on Thursday 2nd May 2019, commencing at 7.00 pm. 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 and fellowship in the hall. If you wish to know more
or require transport please contact Celestine Whiteley 6424:2043 or Michael
Gaffney 0447 018 068
SACRED HEART CHURCH ROSTERS:
Rosters are now being prepared for Sacred Heart Church.
Please let Jo Rodgers (6425:5818/ 0439 064 493) know as soon as possible if
you are interested in taking on a role or if you are unable to continue on the
roster.
FOOTY
MARGIN RESULTS:
Round 3 (Friday 5th April) Essendon won by 18
points. Congratulations to the following winners; Jan Horton, Rosemary Guest,
Robyn Wright.
******* NO BINGO THURSDAY 18th APRIL – HOLY THURSDAY *******
Beginner's Mind
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
I’d like to offer some spiritual advice so that you can read Scripture the way that Jesus did and use it for good purposes.
Offer a prayer for guidance from the Holy Spirit before you make your interpretation of an important text. With an open heart and mind, seek the attitude of a beginner and learner. Pray as long as it takes to feel any certitudes loosen.
Once you have attained some degree of openness, try to move to a position of detachment from your own egoic will and its goals and desires—to be correct, to be secure, to stay with the familiar. This might take some time, but without such freedom from your own need for control, you will invariably make a text say what you need and want it to say.
Then you must listen for a deeper voice than your own, which you will know because it will never shame or frighten you, but rather strengthen you, even when it is challenging you. If it is God’s voice, it will take away your illusions and your violence so completely and so naturally that you can barely identify with such previous feelings! I call this God’s replacement therapy. God does not ask and expect you to do anything new until God has first made it desirable and possible for you to do it. Grace cannot easily operate under coercion, duress, shame, or guilt.
If your understanding of Scripture leads you to experience any or several of the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)—I think you can trust that this interpretation is from the Spirit, from the deeper stream of wisdom.
As you read, if you sense any negative or punitive emotions like morose delight, feelings of superiority, self-satisfaction, arrogant dualistic certitude, desire for revenge, need for victory, or a spirit of dismissal or exclusion, you must trust that this is not Jesus’ hermeneutic at work, but your own ego still steering the ship.
Remember the temptation of Jesus in the desert (Matthew 4:3-10). Three temptations to the misuse of power are listed: economic, religious, and political. Even Jesus must face these subtle disguises before he begins his public ministry. Only when he has found freedom from his own egoic need for power can Jesus teach with true inner authority and speak truth to the oppressive powers of his time.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, What Do We Do with the Bible? (CAC Publishing: 2018), 52-54.
The Rebuilt Road Show
Why We're Bringing Rebuilt To You
This article is taken from the weekly blog written by Fr Michael White - Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Timonium, Maryland. You can find the blog here
Rebuilt is all about awakening the faithful, reaching the lost, and making church matter. The books led us to develop and host the Rebuilt Conference, a two day event of amazing music and messages inspiring and equipping a 1,000 church leaders from hundreds of different parishes. Last April we hosted our second Rebuilt Conference, the first in our new church. It was an incredible experience but one we knew we would struggle to repeat on an annual basis. The decision was made to host it instead every other year. But we knew we wanted to maintain the momentum and interest we’d built. That’s when the idea of Rebuilt “on the road” was born.
The road show is a one-day version of our Rebuilt Conference. This spring we will offer four programs all on the East Coast: Boston, Baltimore, Suburban New York, and Boca Raton. It’s meant to be an accessible and affordable opportunity for parishes in the region to bring their leadership teams together for reflection and renewal, without making a big commitment of time or money.
The Rebuilt Road Show will be informative and instructional, as we take a fresh look at parish renewal. Participants will be hearing from both me and Tom Corcoran, as well as members of our team as we help you reflect on what your parish really looks like, what’s going on, and what needs to change.
Through engaging exercises we’ll help you think creatively about leading your parish forward and provide tools you can use to guide your church through change. We’ll help you set SMART goals: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Most of all we will inspire you to rebuild, and we’ll have a lot of fun too. Your parish team will love it.
The Letter of Paul To The Philippians
This article is taken from the thinkingfaith.org website. You can find the original article here
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. In 2009 Peter Edmonds SJ explored the context and content of one of Paul’s shortest but most appealing epistles. He is a tutor in biblical studies at Campion Hall, University of Oxford.
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).
The people to whom he was writing inhabited a city in the north of modern Greece. Though situated in Greece, it was a city with a very Roman atmosphere. Many of those who lived there enjoyed the privileges of Roman citizenship, and it was a place where former soldiers of the Roman legions settled. It is probably no accident that Paul emphasised the Roman circumstances of his imprisonment. He mentions the imperial guard in describing his imprisonment (1:13) and the ‘household of Caesar’ in his conclusion (4:22). Many think his prison was in Rome itself. However, the distance between Philippi and Rome was surely too great to permit the easy communication implied in this letter, so it is more likely that he was writing from Caesarea, the Palestinian city where the Roman governor had his headquarters. We know from the Acts of the Apostles that Paul was imprisoned there (Acts 23:35). Other experts prefer Ephesus as the scene of his imprisonment, although the evidence for this is weaker.
Paul spoke in generous terms of the Philippian Christians. They were people whom he loved and longed for, his joy and his crown (4:1). He wanted this love to overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight, so that in the day of the Lord they might be pure and blameless (1:9-10). So why did Paul write this letter? In general terms, he wrote for the same reason that he wrote his other letters: to build up the faith of his converts, to remind them of his ways in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 4:17). A letter was a substitute for a personal visit, or for the visit of one of his assistants like Timothy or Titus. Such visits were needed to deal with problems that were inevitable with recent converts in Philippi as elsewhere. They were young in their Christian commitment and they needed help and even warnings about the dangers they ran of infidelity and sinfulness in their enthusiasm for a new faith.
It is at the beginning of the second chapter of the letter that Paul makes a blunt reference to certain deficiencies that had come to light in their lives together. We meet new terms like ‘selfish ambition’, ‘conceit’, ‘own interest’ (2:3-4). Obviously arrogance and pride were spoiling the atmosphere of their common life; they were no longer of the same mind, having the same love (2: 2). Later on, Paul will name some of those who were at odds with each other; they were two women called Euodia and Syntyche (4:2).
In general, Paul found answers to the pastoral problems in his communities through theology and through Christ in particular. He finds an answer to the arrogance and disunity in Philippi by an appeal to the career of Christ. The six verses in which he describes this are the verses from Philippians most familiar to the practising Catholic, since they are read out every Palm Sunday in the Catholic liturgy of the day (2:6-11). They are often referred to as the ‘kenosis hymn’. Kenosisis the Greek word which means ‘emptying’, and the emptying with which we are concerned here is the emptying of Christ; not just in his incarnation as the Son of God in refusing to hold on to his divine status, but, in obedience, accepting the human condition and dying the death of a slave in enduring the cross of the crucifixion. This is the content of the first half of the ‘hymn’; the three verses of the second half describe God’s response. Because of his impoverishment in his earthly life, God raised him up, gave him a name above every other name, so that he now receives the worship of every creature whether found on earth, below it or above it. Paul applies to the exalted Christ the titles given to God by the prophet Isaiah centuries before (Isaiah 45:23). This then was the Christ to whom the Philippians bent their knees in worship, and if only they would allow this truth to control their heart and being, the arrogance, pride, conceit and quarrelsomeness that was rotting the Christian community in Philippi would find no root among them. In Philippians, Paul is offering a much more colourful and poetic version of the gospel which he had received and passed on to the Corinthians, namely that ‘Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures’ (1 Corinthians 15:3-5).
This passage about the downward and upward paths that marked the career of Christ is the part of Philippians that the Church has made much use of in her liturgy, but it was just one part of Paul’s pastoral strategy for dealing with the deficiencies of the Philippi community. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, ‘Be imitators of me as I am of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 11:1) and he repeats this in this letter, ‘Join in imitating me’ (3:17). In the third chapter, Paul shows how his own life history was an imitation of that of Christ in its downward and upward path. He lists his credentials as a member of the people of Israel. He was a Jew, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, as to righteousness under the law, blameless (3:5-6). But he had come to regard all this as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord (3:8). He went as far as describing it all as rubbish. It was as if he had been in a race in pursuit of Christians whom he believed were betraying their heritage as members of Israel, but he had been pursued and captured by Christ. His only ambition now was to know Christ and the power of his resurrection (3:10). If his Philippian converts had the mind of Paul as well as that of Christ, they could not think of doing anything from selfish ambition (2:3).
This passage about Paul’s own life history is read on the 5th Sunday of Lent in the third year of the Sunday lectionary cycle. Paul offers two more examples of people who have shared the downward and upward path of Christ in this letter, which are never proclaimed on a Sunday. The first is Timothy. He was one of Paul’s pastoral assistants, a co-author of the letter (1:1). He had sent him as his delegate to Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 3:2) and to Corinth (1 Corinthians 4:17). He had, like a son accompanying his father, ‘slaved’ with Paul in the service of the gospel (2:22). Christ ‘emptied himself, taking the form of a slave’ (2:7). The second example is Epaphroditus who is mentioned only in this letter. He was a go-between between Paul and the Philippians (4:18). His kenosis, his emptying, had come about through the sickness which had almost killed him, but thankfully he had recovered, so that he could continue to serve the needs of the gospel. ‘He came close to death for the work of Christ’ (2:25-30).
But the letter is more than a treatise dealing with a single issue. We may pick out at least two other matters to which Paul directs his attention, perhaps less smoothly than he might have, so much so that some scholarly opinion sees the letter in its present form as a combination of three original ones. The first forces Paul to issue a warning against ‘evil workers, those who mutilate the flesh’ (3:2). This seems to refer to critics of Paul who were telling the Philippians that in order to become true Christians, they had to become Jews first, through accepting circumcision and other observances of the Jewish Law. This was the agenda that had dominated the Letter of Paul to the Galatians. It is as if the ‘false brethren who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 2:4) were now on their way to, or indeed had already arrived in, Philippi. The first argument that Paul had used against them in Galatians had been his own grace story (Galatians 1:13-24); he tells this story again in Philippians. ‘Whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ’ (3:7). He went on to sum up the teaching that dominates Galatians in a single verse: ‘that I may gain Christ. . . , not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ’ (3:9). To seek salvation through any other way is to deny the value of the cross of Christ and to remove its offence (Galatians 5:11). It is to be earth bound and to refuse to live up to the heavenly call to be citizens of heaven (3:20). Proud though the Philippians might be to be citizens of Rome; their destiny was heavenly citizenship.
Another matter with which Paul had to deal in this letter, was to express gratitude for the support that he had received from the Philippians, in particular the gifts they had sent which he had received from Epaphroditus (4:18). When he wrote to the Thessalonians, he had proudly reported that because he had toiled night and day, he had never been any burden on them (1 Thessalonians 2:9). There is no such claim in this letter. These people, his ‘joy and his crown’ (4:1) had looked after him and his needs. His only duty was to thank them for it, and this he does towards the end of the letter when he informs them that no church had shared with him in giving and receiving as much as they had (4:15). In writing to the Corinthians, he again referred to the wealth of their generosity and their abundant joy despite their extreme poverty (2 Corinthians 8:2).
No treatment of Philippians can omit reference to this spirit of joy that pervades the letter. When the Church wants to stress the joy of its gospel message in mid-Advent, it is this letter that she quotes, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice’ (4:4). This takes up a theme of the first paragraph of the letter, that Paul prays ‘with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you’ (1:4). And Paul can say all this despite his previous experience of Philippi which he writes of in the first of his letters: of how ‘he had suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Phillippi’ (1 Thessalonians 2:2). In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke reports the form this shameful treatment took, when he was beaten and thrown into jail, but this now all belongs to the past (Acts 16:19-34). Paul in this letter is ‘forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead’ (3:13).
Paul was confident that ‘the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ’ (1:6). Meanwhile, ‘whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pleasing. . . think about these things’, wrote Paul as he neared the end of the letter (4:9). In this Pauline year, inaugurated by Benedict XVI last June, may we rediscover this letter that Paul wrote from prison to his first converts in Europe. May its words constitute a pathway to Christ that many will tread and through them be led to a mature understanding and joyful acceptance of the gospel of Christ in our own day.
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