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 7th - 10th May, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Next Weekend 11th & 12th May, 2019
Saturday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin (LWwC)
6:00pm Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 11th & 12th May, 2019
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: V Riley, A Stegman, G Hendrey
10:30am F Sly, J Tuxworth, T Omogbai-Musa
Ministers of Communion: Vigil B & B Windebank, T Bird, R Baker, Beau Windebank
10.30am: S Riley, M Sherriff, R Beaton, D Barrientos, M Barrientos
Cleaners 10th May: K.S.C. 17th May: P & T Douglas
Piety Shop 11th May: L Murfet 12th May: K Hull
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: S Lawrence Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, M Barry
Cleaners: K.S.C. Flowers: G Doyle Hospitality: Filipino Community
Penguin:
Greeters P Ravallion, P Lade Commentator: E Nickols
Readers: A Landers, J Garnsey
Ministers of Communion: P Lade, S Coleman Liturgy: Penguin
Setting Up: E Nickols Care of Church: G Hills-Eade, T Clayton
Latrobe:
Reader: M Chan Minister of Communion: M Eden Procession of Gifts: Parishioner
Port Sorell:
Readers: G Bellchambers, P Anderson Ministers of Communion: T Jefferies
Cleaners: A Hynes
Readings Next Week: Third Sunday of Easter – Year C
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
I come to my place of prayer, quieting my mind and spirit.
I breathe gently, reminding myself that I am in the presence of my risen Lord.
I rest here as long as I am comfortable. Turning to the Gospel, I read it
slowly. It is long but very vivid. Maybe I can imagine the scene. What parts
draw my attention? Do I identify with Peter...? In what way …? Sitting with the
disciples, what feelings arise as I contemplate this appearance of Jesus?
Perhaps I am drawn by Jesus's gentleness, his thoughtfulness, his humanity. Or,
seeing echoes of earlier stories, I may be struck by his non-judgmental
acceptance of his doubting disciples. I speak to the Lord of how I feel. I turn
to look at my own life. Can I see the risen Jesus in my work, my neighbours and
surroundings? Maybe I shall try to be more aware this week. I end my prayer
with a slow ‘Glory be...
Readings Next Week: Fourth Sunday of
Easter – Year C
Gospel: John 10:27-30
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Christina Okpon, Pauline Marshall, 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:
Margaret Nolan, Heather Mahoney,Myra Goss, Bernard Wendt, Ian Wright.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 2nd – 8th May
Mary Edmunds, Robert Cooper, Edith Doyle, Fr Dan McMahon, Audrey Enniss, Donald Breen, Beverley Cloney, Robert Charlesworth, Leonard Field, Kathleen Bryan, Jean Clarke, Kathleen Mack, Edward McCormack, Pim Schneiders & Catherine Williams.
May they Rest in Peace
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome and congratulate
Winnie Aylett & Violet Jago
On their Baptism this weekend.
Congratulations
Zillah & Tom Jones
Wishing
more love, joy and happiness for both of you.
Many
happy returns Glad Mulcahy on your 101st Birthday!
Weekly
Ramblings
During the week I attended a meeting that had been
organised by the Lay Liturgical Leaders and, as well as looking at how they
might develop and strengthen their own ministry, we looked at how they might be
able to support us as a Parish during this time when Fr Paschal is away and
whilst I am on holidays. You will notice in the Mass times in the Newsletter
each week which Centre will have a Lay Led Liturgy the next weekend – there is
also info on the Parish Calendar in each Mass Centre. Having Lay Led Liturgies
with Communion are also to assist Fr Phil so that he, even though he is
(re)tired), can continue to support us by celebrating 2 Masses each a weekend.
For your information these are the names of our Lay
Liturgical Leaders – Mandy Eden, Jenny Garnsey, Clare Kiely-Hoye, Anne Landers,
Elizabeth Nickols, Maureen O’Halloran & Yvonne Rhodes. These faithful
women, together with other wonderful men and women over the years, have been
serving the Parish for many years and for their help I am immensely grateful.
Realising that this is a special ministry I ask that you continue to pray for
these Lay Liturgical Ministers as they provide an incredible service within our
Parish.
One of the great works of St Vincent de Paul is the Support
a Student Program which a number of members of our Parish have been supporting
over the years. We are inviting parishioners to take a leaflet today and join
this effort to break the cycle of poverty by assisting a young person to gain
an education. It you are not able to find a leaflet in your Mass Centre then
please feel free to contact the St V de P State Offices on 03 6333 0822 to help
this work of the Society.
Please take care on the roads and we look forward to seeing you next weekend.
LEGION OF MARY: All
Parishioners are invited to the Legion of Mary annual Acias (Consecration to
Our Lady) at Sacred Heart Church, Alexandra Road Ulverstone Sunday 19th May at 2pm
with benediction, followed by afternoon tea in the Community Room.
GRAN’S VAN co-ordinators, Shirley and Tony Ryan, wish to thank all those Mersey
Leven Parishioners who assisted with Gran’s Van on the Sunday evenings in April. This support enabled our Parish, along with
other churches, to provide quality meals to those in need in our community.
FOOTY
MARGIN RESULTS: 
BINGO
THURSDAY 9th May – Eyes down 7:30pm.
NEWS FROM
ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
Putting on the Mind of Christ
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
Guest writer and CAC
faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault continues exploring Jesus as a wisdom
teacher.
A well-known Southern Baptist theologian quips that the
whole of his Sunday school training could be summed up in one sentence
(delivered with a broad Texas drawl): “Jesus is nice, and he wants us to be
nice, too.” Many of us have grown up with Jesus all our lives. We know a few of
the parables, like those about the good Samaritan or the prodigal son. Some
people can even quote a few of the beatitudes. Most everyone can stumble
through the Lord’s Prayer.
But what did Jesus actually teach? How often do you hear his
teaching assessed as a whole? When it comes to spiritual teachers from other
traditions, it seems right and fair to ask what kind of path they’re on. What
does the Dalai Lama teach? What did Krishnamurti teach? But we never ask this
question about Jesus. Why not? When we actually get below the surface of his
teaching, we find there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye. And it
doesn’t have much to do with being “nice.”
Jim Marion’s book Putting on the Mind of Christ addresses
this misunderstanding. [1] His title is a statement in itself. “Putting on the
mind of Christ” is a direct reference to St. Paul’s powerful injunction in
Philippians 2:5: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” The
words call us up short as to what we are actually supposed to be doing on this
path: not just admiring Jesus, but acquiring his consciousness.
For the better part of the past sixteen hundred years
Christianity has put a lot more emphasis on the things we know about Jesus. The
word “orthodox” has come to mean having the correct beliefs. Along with the
overt requirement to learn what these beliefs are and agree with them comes a
subliminal message: that the appropriate way to relate to Jesus is through a
series of beliefs. In fundamentalist Christianity, this message tends to get
even more accentuated, to the point where faith appears to be a matter of
signing on the dotted lines to a set of creedal statements. Belief in Jesus is
indistinguishable from belief about him.
This certainly wasn’t how it was done in the early
church—nor can it be if we are really seeking to come into a living
relationship with this wisdom master. Jim Marion’s book returns us to the
central challenge Christianity ought to be handing us. Indeed, how do we put on
the mind of Christ? How do we see through his eyes? How do we feel through his
heart? How do we learn to respond to the world with that same wholeness and
healing love? That’s what Christian orthodoxy really is all about. It’s not
about right belief; it’s about right practice.
[1] See Jim Marion, Putting on the Mind of Christ: The Inner
Work of Christian Spirituality (Hampton Roads Publishing Company: 2000; 2nd
ed., 2011).
Beyond Mysticism
This article is taken from the Archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article and many other by clicking here
“I’m a practicing mystic!” A woman said that in one of my classes some years ago and it raised lots of eyebrows. I was teaching a class in mysticism and asked the students why the topic of mysticism interested them. Their responses varied: Some were simply intrigued with the concept; others were spiritual directors who wanted more insight into what constitutes mystical experience; and a number of others were taking the course because their faculty advisor asked them to. But one woman answered: “Because I’m a practicing mystic!”
Can someone be a practicing mystic? Yes, providing both terms, practicing and mystic, are understood properly.
What does it mean to be a mystic? In the popular mind, mysticism is most often associated with extraordinary and paranormal religious experience, namely, visions, revelations, apparitions, and the like. Sometimes in fact this is the case, as is true of some great mystics like Julian of Norwich and Theresa of Avila, but these are exceptions. That’s not the norm. Normally mystical experience is ordinary; no visions, no apparitions, no ecstasies, just everyday experience – but with a difference.
Ruth Burrows, the renowned British Carmelite, defines mysticism this way: Mystical experience is being touched by God at a level deeper than words, thought, imagination, and feeling. We have a mystical experience when we know ourselves and our world with clarity, even if just for a second. That can involve something extraordinary, like a vision or apparition, but normally it doesn’t. Normally a mystical experience is not a moment where an angel or some spirit appears to you or something paranormal happens to you. A mystical moment is extraordinary, but extraordinary because of its unique lucidity and clarity, extraordinary because for that moment we are extraordinarily centered, and extraordinary because in that moment we sense, beyond words and imagination, in some dark, unconscious, and inchoate way, what mystics call the indelible memory of God’s kiss on our soul, the primordial memory of once having experienced perfect love inside God’s womb before birth. Bernard Lonergan, using a different terminology, calls this the brand of the first principles on our soul, that is, the innate imprint of the transcendental properties of God, Oneness, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, inside us.
We have a mystical experience when we are in touch with that part of our soul that was once touched by God, before we were born, that part of our soul that still bears, however unconsciously, the memory of that touch. Henri Nouwen calls this a dark memory of “first love”, of once having been caressed by far gentler hands than we have ever met in this life.
We all have experiences of this to some degree. We all have mystical experiences, though we aren’t all mystics. What’s the difference between having a mystical experience and being a mystic? It’s the difference between having aesthetic experiences and being an artist. All of us have deep aesthetic experiences and are at times deeply moved in our souls by beauty, but only a few persons become great artists, great composers, and great musicians, not necessarily because they have deeper experiences than the rest of us, but because they can give exceptional aesthetic expression to their experience. Aesthetic expression is always according to more or less. Hence anyone can become a practicing artist, even if not a professional one.
The same holds true for mysticism. A mystic is someone who can give meaningful expression to mystical experience, just as an artist is someone who can give proper expression to aesthetic experience. You can be a practicing mystic, akin to a practicing artist or practicing musician. Like a struggling artist, you can struggle to give meaningful, conscious expression to the deep movements you sense within your soul and, like an amateur artist, you will not be the Rembrandt or Picasso of the spiritual life, but your efforts can be immensely helpful to you in clarifying the movements within your own soul and psyche.
How, concretely, practically, might you practice being a mystic? By doing anything that helps you to more consciously get in touch with the deep movements of your soul and by doing things that help you steady and center your soul.
For example, in striving to get in touch with your soul you can be a practicing mystic by journaling, doing spiritual reading, taking spiritual direction, doing various spiritual exercises such as the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, and by prayer of any kind. In terms of centering and steadying your soul you can be a practicing mystic by more consciously and more deliberately giving yourself over to the biblical practice of Sabbath and by doing other soul-centering things like gardening, taking long walks, listening to good music, sharing wine and conversation with family and friends, making love with your spouse, holding a baby, visiting a person who is ill, or even just taking up a hobby that healthily breaks the obsession of your daily concerns.
There are ways of being a practicing mystic, even without taking a formal class on mysticism.
Keeping The Martyrs Alive
St Edmund Campion, St Robert Southwell and Companions are remembered by the Society of Jesus on 1 December, but how does their martyrdom inform our lives as followers of Christ today? ‘Perhaps when questions are resolved and peace is restored the impact of martyrdom becomes weaker’, suggests Fr John O’Connor OP. Fr John is Prior of Blackfriars, Oxford and Secretary of Studies of Blackfriars Hall and Studium.
This article can be found on the ThinkingFaith.org website. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
A couple of years ago I read an article by Nicholas Lash, entitled ‘What Might Martyrdom Mean?’
A good question, that. There is a fairly obvious way of answering it, in high-minded, abstract terms. But perhaps the important question is: what might martyrdom mean to us, what role does it actually play in our lives, in our personal and collective understandings of what it is to be a follower of Christ? Reflecting on the Feast of St Edmund Campion and the English Jesuit Reformation Martyrs, I found myself asking these questions of myself.
Of course, each person’s story will be different, depending on upbringing and circumstance, as well as personal temperament. But I remember once being a little surprised at a non-Christian friend telling me that Catholic churches give great prominence to the martyrs, and so we Catholics must have the spirit of martyrdom in our blood.
I grew up in Ireland in a devout, practising Catholic family, solid in its faith but relaxed in its way, tolerant and at ease with itself. My family was also very moderate in its politics. It was only when reflecting on martyrdom for this feast that it struck me that in spite of the fact that religion and religious identity played a much greater role in my upbringing than politics, it was the political martyrs who were far more prominent in my early years and in the imagination of the general population, than those who had died for their faith. Of course, I knew about St Oliver Plunkett and those who suffered under the penal laws, but at school, even in politically relaxed Galway, it was Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone, Connolly and Pearse who were spoken about more - mainly in history lessons, admittedly - and who were put forward as the key markers in the common story.
I suppose it was because religious persecution had long gone that Oliver Plunkett did not grip the collective imagination as the political martyrs did, for the political questions were still ongoing and not resolved. Perhaps when questions are resolved and peace is restored the impact of martyrdom becomes weaker. In that respect, at least, that it is weaker is a good sign, a sign that we live in peaceable times. But do we not in our forgetfulness end up the poorer for it in certain ways, neglecting large areas of human experience and sources of insight into the sort of creature we are? We become a people living in the present as if yesterday never happened, as if things were always like they are now.
But, then, what happens when future ages try to appropriate events far from what they have personally known, generations who have never experienced religious persecution and who have only known stable democracy? Can we manage to do it without distorting the reality we are trying to do justice to? In asking this sort of hard question I hope to be like one of those priests who say in confession, ‘If you’re honest about it, you stand at least some chance of overcoming it’. If we realise the problem, then even if we are in error, the error does not go the whole way down.
The poet and Anglican priest, R.S. Thomas, asks this sort of question in a poem addressed to Christ. How are the ideas, concepts and stories that make sense at one time and in one context to make sense to future generations?
You chose the natural timber
to die on – that the natural
Man should be saved. What bough,
then, will need to be crossed
and what body crucified
upon them for salvation
to be won for the astronauts
venturing in their air-conditioned
capsules?
He ends, not with an answer, but a question:
They are planning their new conurbations
a little nearer the stars,
incinerated by day - and by night
glacial; but will there be room there
for a garden for the Judas
of the future to make his way through
to give you his irradiated kiss?[1]
The poem reminds us of how distance in time and circumstance can bring about a change in how we see ourselves and the world. We have met wood and trees and gardens, but even we, far from our perhaps outer space successors, have to make an effort with the context of Christ’s day. And so the challenge of keeping the memory of the martyrs alive and active in our hearts and minds is not something we ought to take for granted, but is something we need to work at.
And the challenge is this: how are we to keep alive and active in our hearts and minds what those such as the great sons of the Society of Jesus - Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell, Alexander Briant, Henry Walpole, Thomas Garnet, Edmund Arrowsmith, Henry Morse, Philip Evans, David Lewis and Nicholas Owen, the maker of priest hiding holes, plus another 16 beati - witnessed to? How do we do so as people who are honest about the fact that we are products of our age, grateful for the many advantages of our time, whilst not being forgetful that it was not always thus and so, and, who knows, might not be like that in ages yet to come?
Edmund Campion was a man with the whole world at his feet, who took the Oath of Supremacy, acknowledging the monarch as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and who had the honour of welcoming Queen Elizabeth to the University of Oxford two years later. Yet he sacrificed all that and so much more. Having rejected the Oath of Supremacy and become a Catholic priest of the Society of Jesus, he returned to England. After his subsequent arrest he found himself imprisoned for several months, put on the rack and executed at Tyburn on the grounds of plotting sedition against the throne; yet he viewed himself as both a loyal subject, properly understood, and a faithful disciple of Christ.
For him, to uphold the integrity of the Church in relation to the earthly Kingdom was to uphold the integrity and dignity of both. And this was worth his life. For this was to uphold the integrity of the message of Christ, the message that must never be subject to man’s control.
And so we come to Christ and to another question. If the cost and reality of martyrdom risks drifting to the peripheries of our minds in comfortable times, do we not also risk doing the same when it comes to what Jesus Christ suffered for us on the cross? We may have put aside the over-emphasis on suffering that past generations succumbed to, and rightly so; and we may be at peace and live in a spirit of respect for our Christian brothers and sisters with whom we are not in full communion, and, for that matter, those who adhere to other faiths and none, again rightly so.
But perhaps we need to see in the rights and privileges we enjoy, not an occasion for complacent acquiescence that sits uneasily with martyrdom. Perhaps we need to see in the martyrs an opening up of the possibility of a deeper understanding of what peace and freedom are, that peace and freedom are not inevitable, but often come at a cost. This is a cost paid first and foremost by a God who loves us so much that he died for us on the cross, but is also paid by his followers who are prepared to follow in his steps, to offer up their lives to uphold the peace and freedom of their own consciences and so to protect the peace and freedom of ours.
In times of concord, at least some of us risk forgetting the martyrs in the sense that really matters, but in so doing we risk forgetting the cost that has been paid for our peace and freedom and so risk devaluing the peace and freedom we enjoy. We thank God for the grace of Edmund Campion and his brother martyrs, and let us celebrate our peace and our freedom with something of the gratitude that they deserve.
This article is adapted from a homily delivered at Campion Hall, University of Oxford on the Feast of St Edmund Campion, 2011.
[1] R. S. Thomas, ‘What Then?’, Mass for Hard Times (Bloodaxe Books, 1992).
‘Edmundus Campianus Oxoniensis’ by Gerard Kilroy on Thinking Faith
Weekday Masses 7th - 10th May, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 10.30am Eliza Purton Nursing Home
12noon Devonport
12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Next Weekend 11th & 12th May, 2019
Saturday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin (LWwC)
6:00pm Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 11th & 12th May, 2019
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: V Riley, A Stegman, G Hendrey
10:30am F Sly, J Tuxworth, T Omogbai-Musa
Ministers of Communion: Vigil B & B Windebank, T Bird, R Baker, Beau Windebank
10.30am: S Riley, M Sherriff, R Beaton, D Barrientos, M Barrientos
Cleaners 10th May: K.S.C. 17th May: P & T Douglas
Piety Shop 11th May: L Murfet 12th May: K Hull
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: S Lawrence Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, M Barry
Cleaners: K.S.C. Flowers: G Doyle Hospitality: Filipino Community
Penguin:
Greeters P Ravallion, P Lade Commentator: E Nickols
Readers: A Landers, J Garnsey
Ministers of Communion: P Lade, S Coleman Liturgy: Penguin
Setting Up: E Nickols Care of Church: G Hills-Eade, T Clayton
Latrobe:
Reader: M Chan Minister of Communion: M Eden Procession of Gifts: Parishioner
Port Sorell:
Readers: G Bellchambers, P Anderson Ministers of Communion: T Jefferies
Cleaners: A Hynes
Readings Next Week: Third Sunday of Easter – Year C
First Reading: Acts 5:27 – 32, 40 -41
Second Reading: Apocalypse 5:11 - 14
Gospel: John 21: 1 - 19
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
I come to my place of prayer, quieting my mind and spirit.
I breathe gently, reminding myself that I am in the presence of my risen Lord.
I rest here as long as I am comfortable. Turning to the Gospel, I read it
slowly. It is long but very vivid. Maybe I can imagine the scene. What parts
draw my attention? Do I identify with Peter...? In what way …? Sitting with the
disciples, what feelings arise as I contemplate this appearance of Jesus?
Perhaps I am drawn by Jesus's gentleness, his thoughtfulness, his humanity. Or,
seeing echoes of earlier stories, I may be struck by his non-judgmental
acceptance of his doubting disciples. I speak to the Lord of how I feel. I turn
to look at my own life. Can I see the risen Jesus in my work, my neighbours and
surroundings? Maybe I shall try to be more aware this week. I end my prayer
with a slow ‘Glory be...
Readings Next Week: Fourth Sunday of
Easter – Year C
First
Reading: Acts 13:14 – 43-52
Second
Reading: Apocalypse 7:9 – 14-17
Gospel: John 10:27-30
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Christina Okpon, Pauline Marshall, 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:
Margaret Nolan, Heather Mahoney,Myra Goss, Bernard Wendt, Ian Wright.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 2nd – 8th May
Mary Edmunds, Robert Cooper, Edith Doyle, Fr Dan McMahon, Audrey Enniss, Donald Breen, Beverley Cloney, Robert Charlesworth, Leonard Field, Kathleen Bryan, Jean Clarke, Kathleen Mack, Edward McCormack, Pim Schneiders & Catherine Williams.
May they Rest in Peace
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome and congratulate
Winnie Aylett & Violet Jago
On their Baptism this weekend.
Congratulations
Zillah & Tom Jones
On the occasion of your 66th Wedding
Anniversary.
Wishing
more love, joy and happiness for both of you.
Many
happy returns Glad Mulcahy on your 101st Birthday!
God
bless you on your special day and may it be filled with love.
Weekly
Ramblings
During the week I attended a meeting that had been
organised by the Lay Liturgical Leaders and, as well as looking at how they
might develop and strengthen their own ministry, we looked at how they might be
able to support us as a Parish during this time when Fr Paschal is away and
whilst I am on holidays. You will notice in the Mass times in the Newsletter
each week which Centre will have a Lay Led Liturgy the next weekend – there is
also info on the Parish Calendar in each Mass Centre. Having Lay Led Liturgies
with Communion are also to assist Fr Phil so that he, even though he is
(re)tired), can continue to support us by celebrating 2 Masses each a weekend.
For your information these are the names of our Lay
Liturgical Leaders – Mandy Eden, Jenny Garnsey, Clare Kiely-Hoye, Anne Landers,
Elizabeth Nickols, Maureen O’Halloran & Yvonne Rhodes. These faithful
women, together with other wonderful men and women over the years, have been
serving the Parish for many years and for their help I am immensely grateful.
Realising that this is a special ministry I ask that you continue to pray for
these Lay Liturgical Ministers as they provide an incredible service within our
Parish.
One of the great works of St Vincent de Paul is the Support
a Student Program which a number of members of our Parish have been supporting
over the years. We are inviting parishioners to take a leaflet today and join
this effort to break the cycle of poverty by assisting a young person to gain
an education. It you are not able to find a leaflet in your Mass Centre then
please feel free to contact the St V de P State Offices on 03 6333 0822 to help
this work of the Society.
Please take care on the roads and we look forward to seeing you next weekend.
LEGION OF MARY: All
Parishioners are invited to the Legion of Mary annual Acias (Consecration to
Our Lady) at Sacred Heart Church, Alexandra Road Ulverstone Sunday 19th May at 2pm
with benediction, followed by afternoon tea in the Community Room.
GRAN’S VAN co-ordinators, Shirley and Tony Ryan, wish to thank all those Mersey
Leven Parishioners who assisted with Gran’s Van on the Sunday evenings in April. This support enabled our Parish, along with
other churches, to provide quality meals to those in need in our community.
FOOTY
MARGIN RESULTS:
Round 6 (Friday 26th April) Port Adelaide won by
16 points. Congratulations to the following winners; Shane Willoughby,
Nathaniel Burrows & Toni Muir.
BINGO
THURSDAY 9th May – Eyes down 7:30pm.
Callers
Merv Tippett & Rod Clark
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.
Putting on the Mind of Christ
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
Guest writer and CAC
faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault continues exploring Jesus as a wisdom
teacher.
A well-known Southern Baptist theologian quips that the
whole of his Sunday school training could be summed up in one sentence
(delivered with a broad Texas drawl): “Jesus is nice, and he wants us to be
nice, too.” Many of us have grown up with Jesus all our lives. We know a few of
the parables, like those about the good Samaritan or the prodigal son. Some
people can even quote a few of the beatitudes. Most everyone can stumble
through the Lord’s Prayer.
But what did Jesus actually teach? How often do you hear his
teaching assessed as a whole? When it comes to spiritual teachers from other
traditions, it seems right and fair to ask what kind of path they’re on. What
does the Dalai Lama teach? What did Krishnamurti teach? But we never ask this
question about Jesus. Why not? When we actually get below the surface of his
teaching, we find there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye. And it
doesn’t have much to do with being “nice.”
Jim Marion’s book Putting on the Mind of Christ addresses
this misunderstanding. [1] His title is a statement in itself. “Putting on the
mind of Christ” is a direct reference to St. Paul’s powerful injunction in
Philippians 2:5: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” The
words call us up short as to what we are actually supposed to be doing on this
path: not just admiring Jesus, but acquiring his consciousness.
For the better part of the past sixteen hundred years
Christianity has put a lot more emphasis on the things we know about Jesus. The
word “orthodox” has come to mean having the correct beliefs. Along with the
overt requirement to learn what these beliefs are and agree with them comes a
subliminal message: that the appropriate way to relate to Jesus is through a
series of beliefs. In fundamentalist Christianity, this message tends to get
even more accentuated, to the point where faith appears to be a matter of
signing on the dotted lines to a set of creedal statements. Belief in Jesus is
indistinguishable from belief about him.
This certainly wasn’t how it was done in the early
church—nor can it be if we are really seeking to come into a living
relationship with this wisdom master. Jim Marion’s book returns us to the
central challenge Christianity ought to be handing us. Indeed, how do we put on
the mind of Christ? How do we see through his eyes? How do we feel through his
heart? How do we learn to respond to the world with that same wholeness and
healing love? That’s what Christian orthodoxy really is all about. It’s not
about right belief; it’s about right practice.
[1] See Jim Marion, Putting on the Mind of Christ: The Inner
Work of Christian Spirituality (Hampton Roads Publishing Company: 2000; 2nd
ed., 2011).
Adapted from Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus:
Transforming Heart and Mind—A New Perspective on Christ and His Message
(Shambhala: 2008), 28-29.
Beyond Mysticism
This article is taken from the Archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article and many other by clicking here
“I’m a practicing mystic!” A woman said that in one of my classes some years ago and it raised lots of eyebrows. I was teaching a class in mysticism and asked the students why the topic of mysticism interested them. Their responses varied: Some were simply intrigued with the concept; others were spiritual directors who wanted more insight into what constitutes mystical experience; and a number of others were taking the course because their faculty advisor asked them to. But one woman answered: “Because I’m a practicing mystic!”
Can someone be a practicing mystic? Yes, providing both terms, practicing and mystic, are understood properly.
What does it mean to be a mystic? In the popular mind, mysticism is most often associated with extraordinary and paranormal religious experience, namely, visions, revelations, apparitions, and the like. Sometimes in fact this is the case, as is true of some great mystics like Julian of Norwich and Theresa of Avila, but these are exceptions. That’s not the norm. Normally mystical experience is ordinary; no visions, no apparitions, no ecstasies, just everyday experience – but with a difference.
Ruth Burrows, the renowned British Carmelite, defines mysticism this way: Mystical experience is being touched by God at a level deeper than words, thought, imagination, and feeling. We have a mystical experience when we know ourselves and our world with clarity, even if just for a second. That can involve something extraordinary, like a vision or apparition, but normally it doesn’t. Normally a mystical experience is not a moment where an angel or some spirit appears to you or something paranormal happens to you. A mystical moment is extraordinary, but extraordinary because of its unique lucidity and clarity, extraordinary because for that moment we are extraordinarily centered, and extraordinary because in that moment we sense, beyond words and imagination, in some dark, unconscious, and inchoate way, what mystics call the indelible memory of God’s kiss on our soul, the primordial memory of once having experienced perfect love inside God’s womb before birth. Bernard Lonergan, using a different terminology, calls this the brand of the first principles on our soul, that is, the innate imprint of the transcendental properties of God, Oneness, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, inside us.
We have a mystical experience when we are in touch with that part of our soul that was once touched by God, before we were born, that part of our soul that still bears, however unconsciously, the memory of that touch. Henri Nouwen calls this a dark memory of “first love”, of once having been caressed by far gentler hands than we have ever met in this life.
We all have experiences of this to some degree. We all have mystical experiences, though we aren’t all mystics. What’s the difference between having a mystical experience and being a mystic? It’s the difference between having aesthetic experiences and being an artist. All of us have deep aesthetic experiences and are at times deeply moved in our souls by beauty, but only a few persons become great artists, great composers, and great musicians, not necessarily because they have deeper experiences than the rest of us, but because they can give exceptional aesthetic expression to their experience. Aesthetic expression is always according to more or less. Hence anyone can become a practicing artist, even if not a professional one.
The same holds true for mysticism. A mystic is someone who can give meaningful expression to mystical experience, just as an artist is someone who can give proper expression to aesthetic experience. You can be a practicing mystic, akin to a practicing artist or practicing musician. Like a struggling artist, you can struggle to give meaningful, conscious expression to the deep movements you sense within your soul and, like an amateur artist, you will not be the Rembrandt or Picasso of the spiritual life, but your efforts can be immensely helpful to you in clarifying the movements within your own soul and psyche.
How, concretely, practically, might you practice being a mystic? By doing anything that helps you to more consciously get in touch with the deep movements of your soul and by doing things that help you steady and center your soul.
For example, in striving to get in touch with your soul you can be a practicing mystic by journaling, doing spiritual reading, taking spiritual direction, doing various spiritual exercises such as the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, and by prayer of any kind. In terms of centering and steadying your soul you can be a practicing mystic by more consciously and more deliberately giving yourself over to the biblical practice of Sabbath and by doing other soul-centering things like gardening, taking long walks, listening to good music, sharing wine and conversation with family and friends, making love with your spouse, holding a baby, visiting a person who is ill, or even just taking up a hobby that healthily breaks the obsession of your daily concerns.
There are ways of being a practicing mystic, even without taking a formal class on mysticism.
Keeping The Martyrs Alive
St Edmund Campion, St Robert Southwell and Companions are remembered by the Society of Jesus on 1 December, but how does their martyrdom inform our lives as followers of Christ today? ‘Perhaps when questions are resolved and peace is restored the impact of martyrdom becomes weaker’, suggests Fr John O’Connor OP. Fr John is Prior of Blackfriars, Oxford and Secretary of Studies of Blackfriars Hall and Studium.
This article can be found on the ThinkingFaith.org website. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
A couple of years ago I read an article by Nicholas Lash, entitled ‘What Might Martyrdom Mean?’
A good question, that. There is a fairly obvious way of answering it, in high-minded, abstract terms. But perhaps the important question is: what might martyrdom mean to us, what role does it actually play in our lives, in our personal and collective understandings of what it is to be a follower of Christ? Reflecting on the Feast of St Edmund Campion and the English Jesuit Reformation Martyrs, I found myself asking these questions of myself.
Of course, each person’s story will be different, depending on upbringing and circumstance, as well as personal temperament. But I remember once being a little surprised at a non-Christian friend telling me that Catholic churches give great prominence to the martyrs, and so we Catholics must have the spirit of martyrdom in our blood.
I grew up in Ireland in a devout, practising Catholic family, solid in its faith but relaxed in its way, tolerant and at ease with itself. My family was also very moderate in its politics. It was only when reflecting on martyrdom for this feast that it struck me that in spite of the fact that religion and religious identity played a much greater role in my upbringing than politics, it was the political martyrs who were far more prominent in my early years and in the imagination of the general population, than those who had died for their faith. Of course, I knew about St Oliver Plunkett and those who suffered under the penal laws, but at school, even in politically relaxed Galway, it was Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone, Connolly and Pearse who were spoken about more - mainly in history lessons, admittedly - and who were put forward as the key markers in the common story.
I suppose it was because religious persecution had long gone that Oliver Plunkett did not grip the collective imagination as the political martyrs did, for the political questions were still ongoing and not resolved. Perhaps when questions are resolved and peace is restored the impact of martyrdom becomes weaker. In that respect, at least, that it is weaker is a good sign, a sign that we live in peaceable times. But do we not in our forgetfulness end up the poorer for it in certain ways, neglecting large areas of human experience and sources of insight into the sort of creature we are? We become a people living in the present as if yesterday never happened, as if things were always like they are now.
But, then, what happens when future ages try to appropriate events far from what they have personally known, generations who have never experienced religious persecution and who have only known stable democracy? Can we manage to do it without distorting the reality we are trying to do justice to? In asking this sort of hard question I hope to be like one of those priests who say in confession, ‘If you’re honest about it, you stand at least some chance of overcoming it’. If we realise the problem, then even if we are in error, the error does not go the whole way down.
The poet and Anglican priest, R.S. Thomas, asks this sort of question in a poem addressed to Christ. How are the ideas, concepts and stories that make sense at one time and in one context to make sense to future generations?
You chose the natural timber
to die on – that the natural
Man should be saved. What bough,
then, will need to be crossed
and what body crucified
upon them for salvation
to be won for the astronauts
venturing in their air-conditioned
capsules?
He ends, not with an answer, but a question:
They are planning their new conurbations
a little nearer the stars,
incinerated by day - and by night
glacial; but will there be room there
for a garden for the Judas
of the future to make his way through
to give you his irradiated kiss?[1]
The poem reminds us of how distance in time and circumstance can bring about a change in how we see ourselves and the world. We have met wood and trees and gardens, but even we, far from our perhaps outer space successors, have to make an effort with the context of Christ’s day. And so the challenge of keeping the memory of the martyrs alive and active in our hearts and minds is not something we ought to take for granted, but is something we need to work at.
And the challenge is this: how are we to keep alive and active in our hearts and minds what those such as the great sons of the Society of Jesus - Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell, Alexander Briant, Henry Walpole, Thomas Garnet, Edmund Arrowsmith, Henry Morse, Philip Evans, David Lewis and Nicholas Owen, the maker of priest hiding holes, plus another 16 beati - witnessed to? How do we do so as people who are honest about the fact that we are products of our age, grateful for the many advantages of our time, whilst not being forgetful that it was not always thus and so, and, who knows, might not be like that in ages yet to come?
Edmund Campion was a man with the whole world at his feet, who took the Oath of Supremacy, acknowledging the monarch as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and who had the honour of welcoming Queen Elizabeth to the University of Oxford two years later. Yet he sacrificed all that and so much more. Having rejected the Oath of Supremacy and become a Catholic priest of the Society of Jesus, he returned to England. After his subsequent arrest he found himself imprisoned for several months, put on the rack and executed at Tyburn on the grounds of plotting sedition against the throne; yet he viewed himself as both a loyal subject, properly understood, and a faithful disciple of Christ.
For him, to uphold the integrity of the Church in relation to the earthly Kingdom was to uphold the integrity and dignity of both. And this was worth his life. For this was to uphold the integrity of the message of Christ, the message that must never be subject to man’s control.
And so we come to Christ and to another question. If the cost and reality of martyrdom risks drifting to the peripheries of our minds in comfortable times, do we not also risk doing the same when it comes to what Jesus Christ suffered for us on the cross? We may have put aside the over-emphasis on suffering that past generations succumbed to, and rightly so; and we may be at peace and live in a spirit of respect for our Christian brothers and sisters with whom we are not in full communion, and, for that matter, those who adhere to other faiths and none, again rightly so.
But perhaps we need to see in the rights and privileges we enjoy, not an occasion for complacent acquiescence that sits uneasily with martyrdom. Perhaps we need to see in the martyrs an opening up of the possibility of a deeper understanding of what peace and freedom are, that peace and freedom are not inevitable, but often come at a cost. This is a cost paid first and foremost by a God who loves us so much that he died for us on the cross, but is also paid by his followers who are prepared to follow in his steps, to offer up their lives to uphold the peace and freedom of their own consciences and so to protect the peace and freedom of ours.
In times of concord, at least some of us risk forgetting the martyrs in the sense that really matters, but in so doing we risk forgetting the cost that has been paid for our peace and freedom and so risk devaluing the peace and freedom we enjoy. We thank God for the grace of Edmund Campion and his brother martyrs, and let us celebrate our peace and our freedom with something of the gratitude that they deserve.
This article is adapted from a homily delivered at Campion Hall, University of Oxford on the Feast of St Edmund Campion, 2011.
[1] R. S. Thomas, ‘What Then?’, Mass for Hard Times (Bloodaxe Books, 1992).
‘Edmundus Campianus Oxoniensis’ by Gerard Kilroy on Thinking Faith
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