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
Weekday Masses 28th - 31st May, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Friday: 9.30am Ulverstone
Next Weekend 1st & 2nd June, 2019
Saturday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
6:00pm Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5.00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 1st & 2nd June, 2019
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: M Stewart, M Gaffney, H Lim
10:30am J Henderson, J Phillips, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion: Vigil D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P Shelverton
10.30am: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S Arrowsmith
Cleaners 31st May: P Shelverton, E Petts 7th June: M.W.C.
Piety Shop 1st June: R Baker 2nd June: P Piccolo
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: J & S Willoughby
Ministers of Communion: E Reilly, M McKenzie, K McKenzie, M O’Halloran
Cleaners: M Mott Flowers: C Stingel Hospitality: S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator: E Nickols Readers: M Murray, J Barker
Ministers of Communion: T Clayton, J Garnsey Liturgy: Pine Road
Setting Up: A Landers Care of Church: M Bowles, J Reynolds
Latrobe:
Reader: S Ritchie Minister of Communion: B Ritchie Procession of Gifts: Parishioner
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, G Gigliotti Ministers of Communion: J & D Peterson Cleaners: V Youd
Readings This Week: Sixth Sunday of Easter – Year C
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
After coming to some inner quiet in the way I know works
best for me, I read today’s Gospel slowly and prayerfully.
The text lends
itself to being broken down into short sections.
I may find it easier to stop
and ponder after each one, asking myself: ‘What does this mean for me?
How does
it apply to my own life?’
St Ignatius encourages us to ponder short phrases of
Scripture and mull them over as we would a boiled sweet.
With this in mind, I
may find myself reflecting on the Lord’s 'word'.
What does this mean for me?
Is
it only the words that came from his lips, or is it also his actions, his
relationships … or even the whole of creation...?
In what ways do I keep his
word and show others my love for the Lord?
I spend time telling the Lord what
is in my heart, and asking for his help.
Perhaps I find the lines concerning
his gift of peace to me comforting and reassuring.
Once again I stop and
consider whether my own life reflects the peace and love the Lord has given me.
I pray for all those who never experience this calm and peace, or who refuse to
accept his love.
In time, I thank the Lord in my own words for the insights he
has given me during this prayer, and conclude with a 'Glory be ...
Readings Next Week: Feast of the Ascension – Year C
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Marie Knight, Allan Stott, Christina Okpon, Robert Luxton, Adrian Drane, Fred Heazlewood, Jason Carr, Thomas & Frances McGeown, Charlotte Milic, John Kelly, David Cole, Rose Stanley & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Joan O’Brien, Marianne Morgan, Chris Allen, Sr Doreen Williams PBVM, Margaret Nolan, Jean Vanier, Heather Mahoney, Cheryl Hicks.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 23rd – 29th May
Jack Choveaux, Bridget Stone, Shirley Keenan, Dianne McMullen, Joseph Mantuano, Ida Penraat, George Batten, Tracie Cox, Joseph Sallese, Lorraine Keen, Dalton Smith, Robert & Frances Roberts, Mary Marlow, Graeme Garland, Pamela Jack, Vera Tolson, Bernard Stubbs, Mary Hyland, Beryl Purton, Rita Beach, Miss Barbara O’Rourke, Nanette O’Brien.
May they Rest in Peace
Weekly Ramblings
This weekend I am helping the people of the West Coast Parish by celebrating Masses for them in the place of Fr Howard who has found the driving to Queenstown from Hobart taxing on his health. Unfortunately as I will be going on Holidays from next weekend we will not be able to provide any other assistance in coming weeks.
Next weekend we will have the children from our Sacramental Preparation program participating in Mass as they receive the Creed as part of their on-going preparation for the Confirmation and Eucharist. Please pray for these children and their families and for us as a community that we will be able to actively support them in this journey.
During the week new data projectors were installed at Devonport. Unfortunately we had just recently replaced globes in both projectors but one of them had failed completely which meant that there was a fair chance the 2nd one would also ‘die’ soon – hence the decision to replace both. Hopefully you will also notice that there is a real difference in the quality of the image on the screen. And if these two have gone then it is highly likely that we will be needing to replace the projector at Ulverstone in the near future – drat!
News about Fr Smiley’s House – he now has a roof so things are moving – but we will soon go into that stage when nothing seems to happen as the fit-out begins. We will keep you informed of this unfolding story.
The Parish Pastoral Team will meet this Wednesday evening to look at some the questions that are facing us as a Parish Community and how we might address them. Although you might find that statement a little cryptic you will also have noticed that there has been no real communication from the PPT in recent times – we are still seeking to find a way to involve more people in our Parish Process. More info next week.
Please take care on the roads and we look forward to seeing you next weekend.
MACKILLOP HILL - Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe.
Monday 27th May 2019 10.30 – 12 noon
Come along and enjoy a lively discussion over morning tea! All welcome!
We look forward to your company at 123 William Street, FORTH.
Phone: 6428 3095 No bookings necessary. Donation appreciated.
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY:
Will be holding a Cake & Craft stall at Sacred Heart Church on Sunday 2nd June. Please support this worthy cause.
ST MARY'S PENGUIN will be having a Soup, Sandwich and Sweets night after the 6:00pm Mass on Saturday 22nd June. Everyone is invited. People are asked if they can bring a plate of sandwiches to share, or a sweet. We would also like to ask for a couple of volunteers to make a pot of soup as well. Any help will be much appreciated. The white board will be in the church foyer and it would be great if people could let us know what they are likely to bring. That way we won't get all the same sort of sandwiches, or desserts. Please come along and join us to socialise and share a meal in the warmth of our church hall. Feel free to invite a friend. For info contact Yvonne on 64291353.
Thank you for all your Best Wishes for my 80th Birthday. I am so lucky to be in such a friendly caring Parish. Colleen Stingel
BINGO THURSDAY 30th May – Eyes down 7:30pm. Callers Rod Clark & Graeme Rigney
FOOTY MARGIN RESULTS:
Round 9 (Friday 17th May) West Coast Eagles won by 16 points. Congratulations to the following winners; MLCP, Sr Carmel Jones.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE
WALK WITH CHRIST – Hobart City, Sunday 23rd June 1:15pm to 3:00 pm. Celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ by walking with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament through the city of Hobart. Be at St Joseph's Church (Harrington St) by 1.15 pm, and walk with us to St Mary's Cathedral for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction concluding at 3:00pm. There will be a 'cuppa' afterwards. If you can't do the walk come to the Cathedral at 2:00pm for prayer and Adoration. Experience our rich Catholic heritage in solidarity with Catholics all over the world and through the ages, by bearing public witness to our Lord and Saviour. Can't join us in person? Prayer intentions written in the 'Book of Life' in your parish will be taken in the procession and presented at the Cathedral.
THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO PROGRAM – AIRS 26 May 2019
This week on the Journey, our Gospel is John 14:23-29 encourages our belief in the Lord. Mother Hilda shares her Wisdom from the Abbey with reminder of the great companionship that was Guido and Pope St John XXIII, Marilyn Rodrigues, The Peaceful Parent, talks openly about Testing Our Faith and Trish McCarthy urges us to Look Deeper in her Milk and Honey God spot. We are truly lucky to have some wonderfully talented Christian Music artists on our show. Go to www.jcr.org.au or www.itunes.jcr.org.au where you can listen anytime and subscribe to weekly shows by email.
Help Palms Achieve a World Free of Poverty
Share your skills with a community organisation in Asia or the Pacific to contribute to sustainable solutions to poverty. Our community partners have requested teachers, nurses, tradies and more to work alongside a local counterpart in 2020. We welcome all those who envision volunteering their skills overseas in the next few years to join our next training course, starting in Sydney on July 6th. Visit palms.org.au or call Palms now on 02 9560 5333 for more details
Upgrading Our Operating System
Guest writer and CAC faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault continues exploring Jesus as a wisdom teacher.
I would like to reflect on this idea of Jesus as a master of consciousness from a slightly different angle with the help of a contemporary computer metaphor: We come into existence with a certain operating system already installed. We can make the choice to upgrade.
Our pre-installed binary system runs on the power of “either/or.” I call it the “egoic operating system.” This dualistic “binary operator” is built right into the structure of the human brain.
The egoic operating system is a way of making sense of the world by dividing the field into subject and object, inside and outside. It perceives through differentiation. One of the most important tasks of early childhood is to learn how to run the operating system.
By the time she was one and a half, my granddaughter could already sing along with the Sesame Street jingle, “One of these things is not like the other,” and pick out the cat from among three dogs.
When we become aware of our identity using this egoic operating system, we experience ourselves as persons with unique qualities and attributes. When we introduce ourselves, we usually begin by listing these characteristics: “I am a Pisces, a six on the Enneagram, a person who loves the ocean, an Episcopalian, a priest.” Of course, that same list also makes other people separate from me; they are outside, and I’m inside. I experience myself as a distinct and fixed point of identity that “has” particular qualities and life experiences, and these things make me who I am.
But this sense of identity is a mirage, an illusion. There is no such self that’s separated from everything else, that has insides and outsides, that has experiences. All these impressions are simply a function of an operating system that has to divide the world up into bits and pieces in order to perceive it. Like the great wisdom teachers of all spiritual traditions, Jesus calls us beyond the illusion: “Hey, you can upgrade your operating system, and life is going to look a whole lot different when you do it.”
The binary operating system does have some real importance; it’s not a mistake. It enables us to perform basic cognitive tasks. But most people get stuck in it and rely on the egoic operating system to create a sense of identity. We walk through our lives perceiving, reacting to, and attempting to negotiate the world “out there.” A system based in duality can’t possibly perceive oneness; it can’t create anything beyond itself. So, the drama of the “separate self” goes on and on.
But we do have the capacity, if we so choose, to shift to a whole different basis of perception. We come into this life with another untapped operating system, a nondual way of perceiving the world, and we can learn to steer by it, understand through it, and ultimately discover our deepest sense of identity within it.
Adapted from Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 33-35.
Where Is Home?
During the years that I served as a Religious Superior for a province of Oblate Priests and Brothers in Western Canada, I tried to keep my foot inside the academic world by doing some adjunct teaching at the University of Saskatchewan. It was always a once-a-week, night course, advertised as a primer on Christian theology, and drew a variety of students.
One of the assigned readings for that course was Christopher de Vinck’s book, Only the Heart Knows How to Find Them: Precious Memories for a Faithless Time. The book is a series of autobiographical essays most of which focus on his home life and his relationship to his wife and children. The essays describing his relationship to his wife don’t overplay the romantic, but are wonderfully heart-warming and set sex into a context of marriage, safety, and fidelity.
At the end of the semester a young woman, 30 years old, said this to me as she handed in her term paper, a reflection on de Vinck’s book: “This is the best book I’ve ever read. I didn’t have a lot of moral guidance growing up and so I wasn’t always careful with my heart and was pretty free and existential about sex. I’ve basically slept my way through two Canadian provinces; but now I know that what I really want is what his man (de Vinck) has. I’m looking for the marriage bed!” Her eyes teared as she shared this.
I’m looking for the marriage bed! That’s a great image for what the heart calls home.
At the end of the day, what is home? Is it an ethnic identity, a gender, a citizenship, a house somewhere, the place where we were born, or is it a place in the heart?
It’s a place in the heart and the image of the marriage bed situates it well. Home is where you are comfortable, physically, psychologically, and morally. Home is where you feel safe. Home is where your heart doesn’t feel out of place, compromised, violated, denigrated, trivialized, or pushed aside (even if it is sometimes taken for granted). Home is a place which you don’t have go away from to be yourself. Home is where you can be fully yourself without the need to posture that you are anything other than who you are. Home is where you are at ease.
There are various lessons couched inside that concept of home, not least, as this young woman came to realize, some valuable insights apposite how we think about love and sex. Some of what’s at stake here is captured in the popular notion of longing for a soulmate. The trouble though is that generally we tend to think of a soulmate in very charged romantic terms. But, as de Vinck’s books illustrates, finding a soulmate has more to do with finding the moral comfort and psychological safety of a monogamous marriage bed than it has to do with the stuff of romantic novels. In terms of our sexuality, what lies deepest inside our erotic longings is the desire to find someone to take us home. Any sex from which you have to go home is still something which is not delivering what you most long for and is, at best, a temporary tonic which leaves you searching still for something further and more real.
The phrase, I’m looking for the marriage bed, also contains some insights vis-a-vis discerning among the various kinds of love, infatuation, and attractions we fall into. Most people are by nature temperamentally promiscuous, meaning that we experience strong feelings of attraction, infatuation, and love for all kinds of others, irrespective of the fact that often what we are attracted to in another is not something we could ever be at home with. We can fall in love with a lot of different kinds of people, but what kind of love makes for a marriage and a home? Marriage and home are predicated on the kind of love that takes you home, on the kind of love that gives you the sense that with this person you can be at home and can build a home.
And, obviously, this concept doesn’t just apply to a husband and wife in marriage. It’s an image for what constitutes home – for everyone, married and celibate alike. The marriage bed is a metaphor for what puts one’s psychological and moral center at ease.
T.S. Eliot once wrote: Home is where we start from. It’s also where we want to end up. At birth our parents bring us home. That’s where we start from and where we are at ease until puberty drives us out in search of another home. Lots of pitfalls potentially await us in that search, but if we listen to that deep counsel inside us, that irrepressible longing to get home again, then like the wise magi who followed a special star to the manger, we too will find the marriage bed – or, at least, we won’t be looking for it at all the wrong places.
Augustine's Thinking Faith
Anthony Meredith SJ (who teaches Theology at Heythrop College, University of London) explores the life and works of the man who left a great legacy to the Church in the form of his seminal writings and the theological vision he expressed in them. You can read this article and many others on the ThinkingFaith.org website by clicking here
The extraordinary man whose feast we keep on August 28, died on that day in 430 in the city of Hippo, as the Vandals were besieging the city of which he had been bishop for nearly 35 years. Augustine’s biographer, Possidius, tells us that as he died he consoled himself, not as we might expect with some words from his favourite New Testament writer, Saint Paul, but instead with a sentence from a third century Greek philosopher, Plotinus: ‘One that sets great store by wood or stones, or…. by mortality among mortals cannot yet be the Sage, whose estimate of death must be that it is better than life in the body’ [Ennead 1:4:7].
Augustine’s faith was essentially a thinking faith, endeavouring to bring together the belief of his heart and the abilities of his mind. This is well illustrated by the fact that his favourite verse from scripture was a [mis]quotation from Isaiah 7:9, ‘If you do not believe, then you will not understand.’ Faith seeks understanding: faith first, understanding afterwards. This is the leitmotif of his 15-book work, On the Trinity, and is especially prominent towards the end of book 7.
We are better informed about Augustine than about any other figure in the ancient world, and this is above all because he did something which no other ancient writer, with the possible exception of the great orator and letter writer Cicero, ever did: he wrote an autobiography. The Greeks abhorred autobiography; however, Augustine’s Confessions, composed between 397 and 400, began a trend that surfaced above all in Rousseau and later in John Henry Newman with his Apologia pro vita sua.
‘Confessions’
In Confessions, which is a wonderful mixture of self-exploration and praise of God - the word confession, as the present pope indicated years ago, is a fusion of both ideas – we are brought face to face with the author. We learn of his indifferent father, Patrick; of his very strong-minded mother, Monica; of his brother, Navigius; of his youthful lusts and misbehaviour; of his unnamed mistress and the son she bore him; of his superb education in rhetoric; of his mental problems; of his five year residence (383-388) in Italy; of his intellectual conversion with the help of Plotinus and of his moral conversion with the help of Saint Paul; and of his baptism by Saint Ambrose on Easter Day 387.
What must strike the reader about this amazing work is its linguistic, rhetorical force. Through the memorable character of his prose, Augustine was able to powerfully express his theological vision. Towards the very beginning of book 1 of Confessions, Augustine writes: ’Thou hast made us, O Lord, for thyself and our heart is restless till it rest in thee’. In book 8, he asks of God: ‘Give me chastity, but not yet.’ A prayer repeated three times in book 10 is particularly notable: ‘Give what you command and command what you will.’ This particular line caused great upset to the British writer, Pelagius and began a debate which would continue for decades. Pelagius thought it quite possible to be morally upright without being religious - a view which Augustine did not share.
During the course of his episcopacy Augustine delivered a very large number of sermons – 500 at a conservative estimate – which were taken down by shorthand writers or note-takers across his diocese. Like his writings, his sermons fuse together his powers of rhetoric and his theological vision. A particularly striking vision is delivered in sermon 341, which deals with the three modes of the presence of the Word of God: he is present with the Father from all eternity, he is present in Christ to whose human nature he was united at the Incarnation, but he is also present in his body, which is the church, at the same time his bride.
If we add to the above more than 150 sermons on the psalms, 124 homilies on the fourth gospel and his 250 or so letters, presumably either dictated or written, we gain a glimpse of Augustine's extraordinary industry and versatility. Consider also his pastoral care for the faithful of his diocese - in another sermon [340], Augustine tells his hearers that he is responsible for them as their bishop, but at the same time is a Christian with them - and we gain some insight into the energy and minute care which characterise this remarkable man.
But our amazement is increased when we recall the other literary works Augustine produced, as distinct from the administrative activities he fulfilled. To the 35 years of his episcopacy belong; 1] his controversy with Pelagius and his successors on the vital subject of grace and freedom, to which is allied his advocacy of the doctrine of original sin; 2] his 15-volume work On the Trinity, written over a period of some 15 years; 3] his debate with the Donatists until their official condemnation by the state in 411, regarding the holiness of the clergy and other members of the Church, and 4] last, but not least, his masterly City of God, written over a period of some 13 years, a work which endeavours to account for the sack of Rome by the Goths in the summer of 410 and to answer the charge made by the pagans that the fall of the city was the result of its abandonment of its traditional religion and gods.
In all of these areas, Augustine made a contribution to developing a thinking faith, a legacy which is still with us today. In fact it is sometimes claimed that the major theological differences which separate East and West derive from his influence. Two points in particular are singled out: Augustine’s teaching on the divine unity: and his teaching on original sin. He always challenges us, even if we may not feel completely comfortable with the solutions he proposes. He is easy to portray as an either/or man, whereas he is in fact a both/and one. It is not a question of contemplation or action in this life, but both; not faith or works, but faith and works; or again, not faith or reason, but faith and reason, with the important proviso that we must make sure that first things come first.
But behind our analysis of all his varied positions, there lies a challenging and fascinating question: underneath or beyond Augustine’s concern with the unity of God, the primacy of grace over nature and of religion over morality, the nature of the City of God and of the city of this world, and the importance of the sacraments as distinct from the morality of the clergy, it is possible to isolate a vision of God which holds all these insights together?
Augustine’s Theology
At the centre of Augustine’s attempts to understand the divine nature is the central thought that God is beyond the range of the human mind. In a famous sermon [52], he writes ’If you think you have grasped him, it is not God you have grasped’ - si comprehendis non est Deus. Yet, while always recognising the inevitable mystery of God. Augustine does not let the limitations of the human mind deter him from his pursuit of a greater understanding of God, and there are many examples of this.
In his wrestling with the problem of evil, Augustine does not simply say. ‘It is a mystery’ and leave it at that. In book 7 of the Confessions he relies on the arguments of Plotinus to prove that evil is somehow unreal. In his discussion of divine justice as described in Romans 9, where he wrestles with the intractable problem of divine election, Augustine refuses to measure divine justice by human standards, yet he still asserts that God is just. Unlike other early Christian writers Augustine does not try to fit God into a moral mould derived from human experience. The divine goodness, mercy and power are not to be equated with our own. So, in answer to the question of why some are chosen to have faith and salvation and others are not, Augustine’s answer is effectively that God’s ways are not our ways; he warns against try to imprison God in manmade categories.
Revelation presents us with a God who is both one and three, one God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But three into one will not go. Now Augustine could have said simply, ‘This is a mystery; just accept it and don’t try to understand and master it ‘, but the whole drift of his 15 volume work on the Trinity is a serious attempt to come to terms with this mystery. He argues that as we are made, according to Genesis 1:26, ‘after the image and likeness of God’, we should be able to discover by introspection certain reflections of the divine nature. In book 10 of the work he argues that as we are one, yet also have a threefold character in us – memory, understanding and will – so too there are three persons in God, all equal, but not the same. Another example of Augustine’s thirst for understanding, but acceptance of the mystery that is the object of his faith.
One of the most challenging and at the same time disturbing elements of Augustine’s approach is the emphasis he places upon the condition of the heart as vitally distinct from external action. The emphasis on the heart is central in the writing of Confessions, where the heart is thought of less as the emotional centre of the human being than as the centre of all conscious activity. His consciousness of the inwardness of true religion, as distinct from its external manifestations, finds expression in book 3 of Confessions with the following words with which he addresses God: ‘You were more inward than my most inward part and higher than the highest element within me.’ This sums up a constant element of the thought of Augustine, echoed again in his treatise On Free Will: ‘Do not go outside.’
This aspect of his thought also betrays two of Augustine’s major influences, as it echoes the Pauline understanding of grace and the Plotinian notion of the presence within all of us of the One. For Saint Paul, grace is the freely given and at the same time necessary power, without which salvation is impossible: ‘By grace we are saved’ [Ephesians 2:5]. A favourite verse of Augustine is from 1 Corinthians 4:7: ‘What have you that you have not received?’ Plotinus also has a not dissimilar view, though applied to the ever-presence of the absolute in each one of us, when he writes, ‘All is within. There is no need to search for it outside of yourself.’ [cf Ennead 1:6:8] The influence of this passage on Augustine is particularly marked by his treatment of Luke’s parable of the Prodigal Son in Confessions 1:18:28.
The Sermon on the Mount stresses the importance of inwardness in religion that Augustine describes. Membership of the church as both the body and bride of Christ, important though that is, does not by itself guarantee our ultimate membership of the City of God. Not only are we forever on pilgrimage to the promised home of heaven, a theme insisted upon by Augustine in the City of God, we need to be reminded that the ultimate criterion of membership is not the external demands of membership - true teaching, a moral life and the reception of the sacraments - but we need also to be controlled by the love of God to the contempt of self, rather than the opposite [City of God 14:28].
In Saint Augustine we meet one of the most fascinating figures in the whole history of the church. Together with Jerome, Ambrose and Gregory the Great, he forms the group known as the Latin Fathers. Yet despite his intellectual distinction it is not always easy to find him coherent, as he deals with the deepest mysteries of his faith. How can God be both eternal and yet both create and become part of time? How can we be totally dependent on grace and yet also free? Augustine points us to these mysteries, beyond himself. May he help us on his feast day to be as serious and humble as he was.
Weekday Masses 28th - 31st May, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12 noon Devonport
Friday: 9.30am Ulverstone
Friday: 9.30am Ulverstone
Next Weekend 1st & 2nd June, 2019
Saturday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
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
Readers: Vigil: M Stewart, M Gaffney, H Lim
10:30am J Henderson, J Phillips, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion: Vigil D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P Shelverton
10.30am: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S Arrowsmith
Cleaners 31st May: P Shelverton, E Petts 7th June: M.W.C.
Piety Shop 1st June: R Baker 2nd June: P Piccolo
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: J & S Willoughby
Ministers of Communion: E Reilly, M McKenzie, K McKenzie, M O’Halloran
Cleaners: M Mott Flowers: C Stingel Hospitality: S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator: E Nickols Readers: M Murray, J Barker
Ministers of Communion: T Clayton, J Garnsey Liturgy: Pine Road
Setting Up: A Landers Care of Church: M Bowles, J Reynolds
Latrobe:
Reader: S Ritchie Minister of Communion: B Ritchie Procession of Gifts: Parishioner
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, G Gigliotti Ministers of Communion: J & D Peterson Cleaners: V Youd
Guest writer and CAC faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault continues exploring Jesus as a wisdom teacher.
5.00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 1st & 2nd June, 2019
Devonport: Readers: Vigil: M Stewart, M Gaffney, H Lim
10:30am J Henderson, J Phillips, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion: Vigil D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P Shelverton
10.30am: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S Arrowsmith
Cleaners 31st May: P Shelverton, E Petts 7th June: M.W.C.
Piety Shop 1st June: R Baker 2nd June: P Piccolo
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: J & S Willoughby
Ministers of Communion: E Reilly, M McKenzie, K McKenzie, M O’Halloran
Cleaners: M Mott Flowers: C Stingel Hospitality: S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator: E Nickols Readers: M Murray, J Barker
Ministers of Communion: T Clayton, J Garnsey Liturgy: Pine Road
Setting Up: A Landers Care of Church: M Bowles, J Reynolds
Latrobe:
Reader: S Ritchie Minister of Communion: B Ritchie Procession of Gifts: Parishioner
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, G Gigliotti Ministers of Communion: J & D Peterson Cleaners: V Youd
Readings This Week: Sixth Sunday of Easter – Year C
First Reading: Acts 15:1-2, 22-29
Second Reading: Apocalypse 21:10-14, 22-23
Gospel: John 14:23-29
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
After coming to some inner quiet in the way I know works
best for me, I read today’s Gospel slowly and prayerfully.
The text lends
itself to being broken down into short sections.
I may find it easier to stop
and ponder after each one, asking myself: ‘What does this mean for me?
How does
it apply to my own life?’
St Ignatius encourages us to ponder short phrases of
Scripture and mull them over as we would a boiled sweet.
With this in mind, I
may find myself reflecting on the Lord’s 'word'.
What does this mean for me?
Is
it only the words that came from his lips, or is it also his actions, his
relationships … or even the whole of creation...?
In what ways do I keep his
word and show others my love for the Lord?
I spend time telling the Lord what
is in my heart, and asking for his help.
Perhaps I find the lines concerning
his gift of peace to me comforting and reassuring.
Once again I stop and
consider whether my own life reflects the peace and love the Lord has given me.
I pray for all those who never experience this calm and peace, or who refuse to
accept his love.
In time, I thank the Lord in my own words for the insights he
has given me during this prayer, and conclude with a 'Glory be ...
Readings Next Week: Feast of the Ascension – Year C
First Reading: Acts 1:1-11
Second Reading: Hebrews 9:24-28, 10:19-23
Gospel: Luke 24:46-53
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Marie Knight, Allan Stott, Christina Okpon, Robert Luxton, Adrian Drane, Fred Heazlewood, Jason Carr, Thomas & Frances McGeown, Charlotte Milic, John Kelly, David Cole, Rose Stanley & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Joan O’Brien, Marianne Morgan, Chris Allen, Sr Doreen Williams PBVM, Margaret Nolan, Jean Vanier, Heather Mahoney, Cheryl Hicks.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 23rd – 29th May
Jack Choveaux, Bridget Stone, Shirley Keenan, Dianne McMullen, Joseph Mantuano, Ida Penraat, George Batten, Tracie Cox, Joseph Sallese, Lorraine Keen, Dalton Smith, Robert & Frances Roberts, Mary Marlow, Graeme Garland, Pamela Jack, Vera Tolson, Bernard Stubbs, Mary Hyland, Beryl Purton, Rita Beach, Miss Barbara O’Rourke, Nanette O’Brien.
May they Rest in Peace
Weekly Ramblings
This weekend I am helping the people of the West Coast Parish by celebrating Masses for them in the place of Fr Howard who has found the driving to Queenstown from Hobart taxing on his health. Unfortunately as I will be going on Holidays from next weekend we will not be able to provide any other assistance in coming weeks.
Next weekend we will have the children from our Sacramental Preparation program participating in Mass as they receive the Creed as part of their on-going preparation for the Confirmation and Eucharist. Please pray for these children and their families and for us as a community that we will be able to actively support them in this journey.
During the week new data projectors were installed at Devonport. Unfortunately we had just recently replaced globes in both projectors but one of them had failed completely which meant that there was a fair chance the 2nd one would also ‘die’ soon – hence the decision to replace both. Hopefully you will also notice that there is a real difference in the quality of the image on the screen. And if these two have gone then it is highly likely that we will be needing to replace the projector at Ulverstone in the near future – drat!
News about Fr Smiley’s House – he now has a roof so things are moving – but we will soon go into that stage when nothing seems to happen as the fit-out begins. We will keep you informed of this unfolding story.
The Parish Pastoral Team will meet this Wednesday evening to look at some the questions that are facing us as a Parish Community and how we might address them. Although you might find that statement a little cryptic you will also have noticed that there has been no real communication from the PPT in recent times – we are still seeking to find a way to involve more people in our Parish Process. More info next week.
Please take care on the roads and we look forward to seeing you next weekend.
MACKILLOP HILL - Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe.
Monday 27th May 2019 10.30 – 12 noon
Come along and enjoy a lively discussion over morning tea! All welcome!
We look forward to your company at 123 William Street, FORTH.
Phone: 6428 3095 No bookings necessary. Donation appreciated.
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY:
Will be holding a Cake & Craft stall at Sacred Heart Church on Sunday 2nd June. Please support this worthy cause.
ST MARY'S PENGUIN will be having a Soup, Sandwich and Sweets night after the 6:00pm Mass on Saturday 22nd June. Everyone is invited. People are asked if they can bring a plate of sandwiches to share, or a sweet. We would also like to ask for a couple of volunteers to make a pot of soup as well. Any help will be much appreciated. The white board will be in the church foyer and it would be great if people could let us know what they are likely to bring. That way we won't get all the same sort of sandwiches, or desserts. Please come along and join us to socialise and share a meal in the warmth of our church hall. Feel free to invite a friend. For info contact Yvonne on 64291353.
Thank you for all your Best Wishes for my 80th Birthday. I am so lucky to be in such a friendly caring Parish. Colleen Stingel
BINGO THURSDAY 30th May – Eyes down 7:30pm. Callers Rod Clark & Graeme Rigney
FOOTY MARGIN RESULTS:
Round 9 (Friday 17th May) West Coast Eagles won by 16 points. Congratulations to the following winners; MLCP, Sr Carmel Jones.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE
WALK WITH CHRIST – Hobart City, Sunday 23rd June 1:15pm to 3:00 pm. Celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ by walking with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament through the city of Hobart. Be at St Joseph's Church (Harrington St) by 1.15 pm, and walk with us to St Mary's Cathedral for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction concluding at 3:00pm. There will be a 'cuppa' afterwards. If you can't do the walk come to the Cathedral at 2:00pm for prayer and Adoration. Experience our rich Catholic heritage in solidarity with Catholics all over the world and through the ages, by bearing public witness to our Lord and Saviour. Can't join us in person? Prayer intentions written in the 'Book of Life' in your parish will be taken in the procession and presented at the Cathedral.
THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO PROGRAM – AIRS 26 May 2019
This week on the Journey, our Gospel is John 14:23-29 encourages our belief in the Lord. Mother Hilda shares her Wisdom from the Abbey with reminder of the great companionship that was Guido and Pope St John XXIII, Marilyn Rodrigues, The Peaceful Parent, talks openly about Testing Our Faith and Trish McCarthy urges us to Look Deeper in her Milk and Honey God spot. We are truly lucky to have some wonderfully talented Christian Music artists on our show. Go to www.jcr.org.au or www.itunes.jcr.org.au where you can listen anytime and subscribe to weekly shows by email.
Help Palms Achieve a World Free of Poverty
Share your skills with a community organisation in Asia or the Pacific to contribute to sustainable solutions to poverty. Our community partners have requested teachers, nurses, tradies and more to work alongside a local counterpart in 2020. We welcome all those who envision volunteering their skills overseas in the next few years to join our next training course, starting in Sydney on July 6th. Visit palms.org.au or call Palms now on 02 9560 5333 for more details
Upgrading Our Operating System
Guest writer and CAC faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault continues exploring Jesus as a wisdom teacher.
I would like to reflect on this idea of Jesus as a master of consciousness from a slightly different angle with the help of a contemporary computer metaphor: We come into existence with a certain operating system already installed. We can make the choice to upgrade.
Our pre-installed binary system runs on the power of “either/or.” I call it the “egoic operating system.” This dualistic “binary operator” is built right into the structure of the human brain.
The egoic operating system is a way of making sense of the world by dividing the field into subject and object, inside and outside. It perceives through differentiation. One of the most important tasks of early childhood is to learn how to run the operating system.
By the time she was one and a half, my granddaughter could already sing along with the Sesame Street jingle, “One of these things is not like the other,” and pick out the cat from among three dogs.
When we become aware of our identity using this egoic operating system, we experience ourselves as persons with unique qualities and attributes. When we introduce ourselves, we usually begin by listing these characteristics: “I am a Pisces, a six on the Enneagram, a person who loves the ocean, an Episcopalian, a priest.” Of course, that same list also makes other people separate from me; they are outside, and I’m inside. I experience myself as a distinct and fixed point of identity that “has” particular qualities and life experiences, and these things make me who I am.
But this sense of identity is a mirage, an illusion. There is no such self that’s separated from everything else, that has insides and outsides, that has experiences. All these impressions are simply a function of an operating system that has to divide the world up into bits and pieces in order to perceive it. Like the great wisdom teachers of all spiritual traditions, Jesus calls us beyond the illusion: “Hey, you can upgrade your operating system, and life is going to look a whole lot different when you do it.”
The binary operating system does have some real importance; it’s not a mistake. It enables us to perform basic cognitive tasks. But most people get stuck in it and rely on the egoic operating system to create a sense of identity. We walk through our lives perceiving, reacting to, and attempting to negotiate the world “out there.” A system based in duality can’t possibly perceive oneness; it can’t create anything beyond itself. So, the drama of the “separate self” goes on and on.
But we do have the capacity, if we so choose, to shift to a whole different basis of perception. We come into this life with another untapped operating system, a nondual way of perceiving the world, and we can learn to steer by it, understand through it, and ultimately discover our deepest sense of identity within it.
Adapted from Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 33-35.
Where Is Home?
During the years that I served as a Religious Superior for a province of Oblate Priests and Brothers in Western Canada, I tried to keep my foot inside the academic world by doing some adjunct teaching at the University of Saskatchewan. It was always a once-a-week, night course, advertised as a primer on Christian theology, and drew a variety of students.
One of the assigned readings for that course was Christopher de Vinck’s book, Only the Heart Knows How to Find Them: Precious Memories for a Faithless Time. The book is a series of autobiographical essays most of which focus on his home life and his relationship to his wife and children. The essays describing his relationship to his wife don’t overplay the romantic, but are wonderfully heart-warming and set sex into a context of marriage, safety, and fidelity.
At the end of the semester a young woman, 30 years old, said this to me as she handed in her term paper, a reflection on de Vinck’s book: “This is the best book I’ve ever read. I didn’t have a lot of moral guidance growing up and so I wasn’t always careful with my heart and was pretty free and existential about sex. I’ve basically slept my way through two Canadian provinces; but now I know that what I really want is what his man (de Vinck) has. I’m looking for the marriage bed!” Her eyes teared as she shared this.
I’m looking for the marriage bed! That’s a great image for what the heart calls home.
At the end of the day, what is home? Is it an ethnic identity, a gender, a citizenship, a house somewhere, the place where we were born, or is it a place in the heart?
It’s a place in the heart and the image of the marriage bed situates it well. Home is where you are comfortable, physically, psychologically, and morally. Home is where you feel safe. Home is where your heart doesn’t feel out of place, compromised, violated, denigrated, trivialized, or pushed aside (even if it is sometimes taken for granted). Home is a place which you don’t have go away from to be yourself. Home is where you can be fully yourself without the need to posture that you are anything other than who you are. Home is where you are at ease.
There are various lessons couched inside that concept of home, not least, as this young woman came to realize, some valuable insights apposite how we think about love and sex. Some of what’s at stake here is captured in the popular notion of longing for a soulmate. The trouble though is that generally we tend to think of a soulmate in very charged romantic terms. But, as de Vinck’s books illustrates, finding a soulmate has more to do with finding the moral comfort and psychological safety of a monogamous marriage bed than it has to do with the stuff of romantic novels. In terms of our sexuality, what lies deepest inside our erotic longings is the desire to find someone to take us home. Any sex from which you have to go home is still something which is not delivering what you most long for and is, at best, a temporary tonic which leaves you searching still for something further and more real.
The phrase, I’m looking for the marriage bed, also contains some insights vis-a-vis discerning among the various kinds of love, infatuation, and attractions we fall into. Most people are by nature temperamentally promiscuous, meaning that we experience strong feelings of attraction, infatuation, and love for all kinds of others, irrespective of the fact that often what we are attracted to in another is not something we could ever be at home with. We can fall in love with a lot of different kinds of people, but what kind of love makes for a marriage and a home? Marriage and home are predicated on the kind of love that takes you home, on the kind of love that gives you the sense that with this person you can be at home and can build a home.
And, obviously, this concept doesn’t just apply to a husband and wife in marriage. It’s an image for what constitutes home – for everyone, married and celibate alike. The marriage bed is a metaphor for what puts one’s psychological and moral center at ease.
T.S. Eliot once wrote: Home is where we start from. It’s also where we want to end up. At birth our parents bring us home. That’s where we start from and where we are at ease until puberty drives us out in search of another home. Lots of pitfalls potentially await us in that search, but if we listen to that deep counsel inside us, that irrepressible longing to get home again, then like the wise magi who followed a special star to the manger, we too will find the marriage bed – or, at least, we won’t be looking for it at all the wrong places.
Augustine's Thinking Faith
Anthony Meredith SJ (who teaches Theology at Heythrop College, University of London) explores the life and works of the man who left a great legacy to the Church in the form of his seminal writings and the theological vision he expressed in them. You can read this article and many others on the ThinkingFaith.org website by clicking here
The extraordinary man whose feast we keep on August 28, died on that day in 430 in the city of Hippo, as the Vandals were besieging the city of which he had been bishop for nearly 35 years. Augustine’s biographer, Possidius, tells us that as he died he consoled himself, not as we might expect with some words from his favourite New Testament writer, Saint Paul, but instead with a sentence from a third century Greek philosopher, Plotinus: ‘One that sets great store by wood or stones, or…. by mortality among mortals cannot yet be the Sage, whose estimate of death must be that it is better than life in the body’ [Ennead 1:4:7].
Augustine’s faith was essentially a thinking faith, endeavouring to bring together the belief of his heart and the abilities of his mind. This is well illustrated by the fact that his favourite verse from scripture was a [mis]quotation from Isaiah 7:9, ‘If you do not believe, then you will not understand.’ Faith seeks understanding: faith first, understanding afterwards. This is the leitmotif of his 15-book work, On the Trinity, and is especially prominent towards the end of book 7.
We are better informed about Augustine than about any other figure in the ancient world, and this is above all because he did something which no other ancient writer, with the possible exception of the great orator and letter writer Cicero, ever did: he wrote an autobiography. The Greeks abhorred autobiography; however, Augustine’s Confessions, composed between 397 and 400, began a trend that surfaced above all in Rousseau and later in John Henry Newman with his Apologia pro vita sua.
‘Confessions’
In Confessions, which is a wonderful mixture of self-exploration and praise of God - the word confession, as the present pope indicated years ago, is a fusion of both ideas – we are brought face to face with the author. We learn of his indifferent father, Patrick; of his very strong-minded mother, Monica; of his brother, Navigius; of his youthful lusts and misbehaviour; of his unnamed mistress and the son she bore him; of his superb education in rhetoric; of his mental problems; of his five year residence (383-388) in Italy; of his intellectual conversion with the help of Plotinus and of his moral conversion with the help of Saint Paul; and of his baptism by Saint Ambrose on Easter Day 387.
What must strike the reader about this amazing work is its linguistic, rhetorical force. Through the memorable character of his prose, Augustine was able to powerfully express his theological vision. Towards the very beginning of book 1 of Confessions, Augustine writes: ’Thou hast made us, O Lord, for thyself and our heart is restless till it rest in thee’. In book 8, he asks of God: ‘Give me chastity, but not yet.’ A prayer repeated three times in book 10 is particularly notable: ‘Give what you command and command what you will.’ This particular line caused great upset to the British writer, Pelagius and began a debate which would continue for decades. Pelagius thought it quite possible to be morally upright without being religious - a view which Augustine did not share.
During the course of his episcopacy Augustine delivered a very large number of sermons – 500 at a conservative estimate – which were taken down by shorthand writers or note-takers across his diocese. Like his writings, his sermons fuse together his powers of rhetoric and his theological vision. A particularly striking vision is delivered in sermon 341, which deals with the three modes of the presence of the Word of God: he is present with the Father from all eternity, he is present in Christ to whose human nature he was united at the Incarnation, but he is also present in his body, which is the church, at the same time his bride.
If we add to the above more than 150 sermons on the psalms, 124 homilies on the fourth gospel and his 250 or so letters, presumably either dictated or written, we gain a glimpse of Augustine's extraordinary industry and versatility. Consider also his pastoral care for the faithful of his diocese - in another sermon [340], Augustine tells his hearers that he is responsible for them as their bishop, but at the same time is a Christian with them - and we gain some insight into the energy and minute care which characterise this remarkable man.
But our amazement is increased when we recall the other literary works Augustine produced, as distinct from the administrative activities he fulfilled. To the 35 years of his episcopacy belong; 1] his controversy with Pelagius and his successors on the vital subject of grace and freedom, to which is allied his advocacy of the doctrine of original sin; 2] his 15-volume work On the Trinity, written over a period of some 15 years; 3] his debate with the Donatists until their official condemnation by the state in 411, regarding the holiness of the clergy and other members of the Church, and 4] last, but not least, his masterly City of God, written over a period of some 13 years, a work which endeavours to account for the sack of Rome by the Goths in the summer of 410 and to answer the charge made by the pagans that the fall of the city was the result of its abandonment of its traditional religion and gods.
In all of these areas, Augustine made a contribution to developing a thinking faith, a legacy which is still with us today. In fact it is sometimes claimed that the major theological differences which separate East and West derive from his influence. Two points in particular are singled out: Augustine’s teaching on the divine unity: and his teaching on original sin. He always challenges us, even if we may not feel completely comfortable with the solutions he proposes. He is easy to portray as an either/or man, whereas he is in fact a both/and one. It is not a question of contemplation or action in this life, but both; not faith or works, but faith and works; or again, not faith or reason, but faith and reason, with the important proviso that we must make sure that first things come first.
But behind our analysis of all his varied positions, there lies a challenging and fascinating question: underneath or beyond Augustine’s concern with the unity of God, the primacy of grace over nature and of religion over morality, the nature of the City of God and of the city of this world, and the importance of the sacraments as distinct from the morality of the clergy, it is possible to isolate a vision of God which holds all these insights together?
Augustine’s Theology
At the centre of Augustine’s attempts to understand the divine nature is the central thought that God is beyond the range of the human mind. In a famous sermon [52], he writes ’If you think you have grasped him, it is not God you have grasped’ - si comprehendis non est Deus. Yet, while always recognising the inevitable mystery of God. Augustine does not let the limitations of the human mind deter him from his pursuit of a greater understanding of God, and there are many examples of this.
In his wrestling with the problem of evil, Augustine does not simply say. ‘It is a mystery’ and leave it at that. In book 7 of the Confessions he relies on the arguments of Plotinus to prove that evil is somehow unreal. In his discussion of divine justice as described in Romans 9, where he wrestles with the intractable problem of divine election, Augustine refuses to measure divine justice by human standards, yet he still asserts that God is just. Unlike other early Christian writers Augustine does not try to fit God into a moral mould derived from human experience. The divine goodness, mercy and power are not to be equated with our own. So, in answer to the question of why some are chosen to have faith and salvation and others are not, Augustine’s answer is effectively that God’s ways are not our ways; he warns against try to imprison God in manmade categories.
Revelation presents us with a God who is both one and three, one God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But three into one will not go. Now Augustine could have said simply, ‘This is a mystery; just accept it and don’t try to understand and master it ‘, but the whole drift of his 15 volume work on the Trinity is a serious attempt to come to terms with this mystery. He argues that as we are made, according to Genesis 1:26, ‘after the image and likeness of God’, we should be able to discover by introspection certain reflections of the divine nature. In book 10 of the work he argues that as we are one, yet also have a threefold character in us – memory, understanding and will – so too there are three persons in God, all equal, but not the same. Another example of Augustine’s thirst for understanding, but acceptance of the mystery that is the object of his faith.
One of the most challenging and at the same time disturbing elements of Augustine’s approach is the emphasis he places upon the condition of the heart as vitally distinct from external action. The emphasis on the heart is central in the writing of Confessions, where the heart is thought of less as the emotional centre of the human being than as the centre of all conscious activity. His consciousness of the inwardness of true religion, as distinct from its external manifestations, finds expression in book 3 of Confessions with the following words with which he addresses God: ‘You were more inward than my most inward part and higher than the highest element within me.’ This sums up a constant element of the thought of Augustine, echoed again in his treatise On Free Will: ‘Do not go outside.’
This aspect of his thought also betrays two of Augustine’s major influences, as it echoes the Pauline understanding of grace and the Plotinian notion of the presence within all of us of the One. For Saint Paul, grace is the freely given and at the same time necessary power, without which salvation is impossible: ‘By grace we are saved’ [Ephesians 2:5]. A favourite verse of Augustine is from 1 Corinthians 4:7: ‘What have you that you have not received?’ Plotinus also has a not dissimilar view, though applied to the ever-presence of the absolute in each one of us, when he writes, ‘All is within. There is no need to search for it outside of yourself.’ [cf Ennead 1:6:8] The influence of this passage on Augustine is particularly marked by his treatment of Luke’s parable of the Prodigal Son in Confessions 1:18:28.
The Sermon on the Mount stresses the importance of inwardness in religion that Augustine describes. Membership of the church as both the body and bride of Christ, important though that is, does not by itself guarantee our ultimate membership of the City of God. Not only are we forever on pilgrimage to the promised home of heaven, a theme insisted upon by Augustine in the City of God, we need to be reminded that the ultimate criterion of membership is not the external demands of membership - true teaching, a moral life and the reception of the sacraments - but we need also to be controlled by the love of God to the contempt of self, rather than the opposite [City of God 14:28].
In Saint Augustine we meet one of the most fascinating figures in the whole history of the church. Together with Jerome, Ambrose and Gregory the Great, he forms the group known as the Latin Fathers. Yet despite his intellectual distinction it is not always easy to find him coherent, as he deals with the deepest mysteries of his faith. How can God be both eternal and yet both create and become part of time? How can we be totally dependent on grace and yet also free? Augustine points us to these mysteries, beyond himself. May he help us on his feast day to be as serious and humble as he was.
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