Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Parish Priest: Fr Mike Delaney
Mob: 0417 279 437
mike.delaney@aohtas.org.au
Assistant Priest: Fr Paschal Okpon
Mob: 0438 562 731
paschalokpon@yahoo.com
Priest in Residence: Fr Phil McCormack
Mob: 0437 521 257
pmccormack43@bigpond.com
Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport 7310
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street, Devonport 7310
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160
Email: merseyleven@aohtas.org.au
Secretary: Annie Davies
Finance Officer: Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Felicity Sly
Mob: 0418 301 573
fsly@internode.on.net
Mob: 0417 279 437
mike.delaney@aohtas.org.au
Assistant Priest: Fr Paschal Okpon
Mob: 0438 562 731
paschalokpon@yahoo.com
Priest in Residence: Fr Phil McCormack
Mob: 0437 521 257
pmccormack43@bigpond.com
Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport 7310
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street, Devonport 7310
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160
Email: merseyleven@aohtas.org.au
Secretary: Annie Davies
Finance Officer: Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Felicity Sly
Mob: 0418 301 573
fsly@internode.on.net
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 30th July - 2nd August,
2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
9:30am Devonport ... Fr Phil Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Thursday: 12noon Devonport Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone 12noon Devonport
Next Weekend 3rd & 4th August, 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 3rd & 4th August, 2019
Devonport:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Port Sorell:
Readings this Week: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
I sit
comfortably, yet alert, and ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
As I slowly
read the passage, I may find it helpful to picture myself sitting alongside the
praying figure of Jesus.
I pray with him, and then listen to his teaching about
the loving compassion of the Father.
I think of times when I have been shown
love, whether felt directly from God or indirectly through others.
What does
God’s parental concern say to me about how much I am loved and held in his
care?
I may naturally be inclined to think of my own parents.
What was my
childhood like?
Perhaps some experiences of limited human love have prevented
me from trusting God’s fatherly/motherly love.
It may be enough, just now, to
simply say I hope to believe ever more deeply that God’s love for me is far
greater than human love.
I share honestly with the Lord, confident that he is
close by, listening with great compassion.
Readings Next Week: 18th
Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Norie Capulong, David Cole, Shelley Sing, Joy Carter, Marie Knight, Allan Stott, Christiana Okpon, Robert Luxton, Adrian Drane, Fred Heazlewood, Jason Carr, Thomas & Frances McGeown, Charlotte Milic, John Kelly, Peter Sylvester, Des Dalton & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
John Doherty, Tagling Saili, Naning Camocamo, Cres Novel, Restituto Carcuevas, Bruce Bellchambers, Lita Santos, Carlene Vickers, George Armstrong, Rita Huber, Denis Parsissons
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 25th – 31st July
Peter Kelly, Joyce Cornick, Michael Campbell, Barry Stuart, Lola Rutherford, Joseph Hiscutt, Andrea Wright, Dorothy Hawkes, Mary Beaumont, Nita Anthony, Enis Lord, Vicky Bennett, Eileen King, Shirley Mooney, Molly Walsh, John Brown, Helga Walker, Terence Maskell, Kathleen Bellchambers and Peggy Kelly.
May
the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen
Weekly
Ramblings
On Tuesday of this week Fr Phil will be celebrating 48
years of Priesthood at a Mass celebrated at Our Lady of Lourdes at 9:30am.
Anyone and everyone is invited to join him for this special occasion. Don’t forget
to ask him the story, and if you don’t ask he will tell you anyway!!
At a meeting in Hobart on Tuesday Steven Smith and Chatura
Silva were accepted for Ordination to the Diaconate which will be celebrated on
Saturday morning 21st September at the Church of the Apostles,
Launceston. There will be more details about this celebration in coming weeks.
Sadly, we said goodbye to Fr Alex Obiorah last weekend as
he headed back to Nigeria to take up an appointment in his home Diocese of
Onitsha. His place in the Circular Head Parish will be taken by Fr Christopher
Kasturi who has been working in the Launceston Parish for the past few years.
Many years ago, there was a Diaconate Ordination at Our
Lady of Lourdes Church and a young seminarian came and stayed for that event.
On Tuesday it was announced that Fr Shane Mackinlay, the seminarian from back
then, has been appointed the new Bishop of Sandhurst and will take up his
appointment following his Episcopal ordination in October – congratulations
Shane and best wishes for the future.
This week I will be in Melbourne gathering with some of the
fellows who entered Corpus Christi Seminary in 1969 – 50 years ago. Some I have
been able to keep in contact with over the years but many, especially those who
left the Seminary in the first few years, I have not seen for 45+ years so it
will be an interesting gathering. I will be returning on Friday morning and
immediately be involved in a selection panel for Deputy Principal Positions at
some of our Catholic Schools in the NW and West Coast region.
Due to my meeting and other commitments next Friday, 2nd
Aug, there will not be Exposition and Benediction at OLOL. There will, however,
be the normal Adoration followed by Mass at 12 Noon.
MACKILLOP
HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE:
ST MARY OF
THE CROSS MACKILLOP:
THE
SACRAMENT OF THE PRESENT MOMENT is the theme for this year's gathering
for Catholic Charismatic Renewal at the Emmanuel Centre, Launceston on the
weekend of September 13th – 15th A warm invitation
to all to come and be refreshed. Live-in or day registrations
available. Closing date 30th August. Enquiries Christine
Smith 0422 832 712, Lyn Dresden 0408 385 360
BINGO THURSDAY 1st August – Eyes down 7:30pm.
FOOTY
MARGIN RESULTS: 
Discovering
Global Mission: How can our skills create better opportunities for
disadvantaged people? Communities in Timor Leste, PNG, Samoa, Kiribati and
Kenya seek volunteers to build local capacity. These assignments are not quick
fixes. Find out how teacher Helena
Charlesworth assisted communities in four countries over 25 years, and how
sharing your skills can immerse you in a world of deep cultural discovery.
Qualified medics, teachers, tradies, business and admins are always required.
Palms Meet & Greet: Sunday August 18th at 2pm Anvers Chocolate Café LATROBE.
Past
scholars of Our Lady of Mercy College Deloraine are invited to a reunion lunch
at Pedro’s Restaurant, Ulverstone on Friday 30th August, 12 noon for
12.30 p.m. (Please note change of month!) Phone: Vivienne Williams: 64 370878.
The Creeds
This article is taken from the Daily Email sent by Fr Richard Rohr OFM from the Center for Action and Contemplation. You can subscribe to receive the email by clicking here
. . . Born of the Virgin Mary,
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and
earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by
the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was
crucified, died, and was buried; he descended into hell; . . .
But have you ever noticed the huge leap the creed makes
between “born of the Virgin Mary” and “suffered under Pontius Pilate”? A single
comma connects the two statements, and falling into that yawning gap, as if it
were a mere detail, is everything Jesus said and did between his birth and his
death! Called the “Great Comma,” the gap certainly invites some serious
questions. Did all the things Jesus said and did in those years not count for
much? Were they nothing to “believe” in? Was it only his birth and death that
mattered? Does the gap in some way explain Christianity’s often dismal record
of imitating Jesus’ life and teaching?
There are other glaring oversights. The Apostles’ Creed does
not once mention love, service, hope, the “least of the brothers and sisters,”
or even forgiveness—anything that is remotely actionable. The earliest formal
declaration of Christian belief is a vision and philosophy statement with no
mission statement, as it were. Twice we are reminded that God is almighty, yet
nowhere do we hear mention that God is also all-suffering or all-vulnerable
(although it does declare that Jesus “suffered . . . , died, and was buried”).
With its emphasis on theory and theology, but no emphasis on praxis (i.e.,
practice), the creed set Christianity on a course we are still following today.
The Apostles’ Creed, along with the later Nicene Creed, is
an important document of theological summary and history, but when the crowd at
my parish mumbles hurriedly through its recitation each Sunday, I’m struck by
how little usefulness—or even interest—the creed seems to bring as a guide for
people’s daily, practical behavior. I hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.
Both creeds reveal historic Christian assumptions about who
God is and what God is doing. They reaffirm a static and unchanging universe
and a God who is quite remote from almost everything we care about each day.
Furthermore, they don’t show much interest in the realities of Jesus’ own human
life—or ours. Instead, they portray what religious systems tend to want: a God
who looks strong and stable and in control. No “turn the other cheek” Jesus, no
hint of a simple Christ-like lifestyle is found here.
[1] Justin Martyr, First Apology, chapter 14, as quoted in
Rowan Greer, Broken Lights and Mended Lives: Theology and Common Life in the
Early Church (Pennsylvania State University Press: 1986), 13.
Diana Butler Bass, A People’s History of Christianity: The
Other Side of the Story (HarperCollins: 2009), 27-30.
What Does It Mean To Be 'Born Again'?
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
What does it mean to “be born again, to “be born from above”? If you’re an Evangelical or Baptist, you’ve probably already answered that for yourself. However, if you’re a Roman Catholic or a mainline Protestant then the phrase probably isn’t a normal part of your spiritual vocabulary and, indeed, might connote for you a biblical fundamentalism which confuses you.
What does it mean to “be born again”? The expression appears in John’s Gospel in a conversation Jesus has with a man named, Nicodemus. Jesus tells him that he “must be born again from above”. Nicodemus takes this literally and protests that it’s impossible for a grown man to re-enter his mother’s womb so as to be born a second time. So Jesus recasts the phrase metaphorically, telling Nicodemus that one’s second birth, unlike the first, is not from the flesh, but “from water and the Spirit”. Well … that doesn’t clarify things much for Nicodemus, or for us. What does it mean to be born again from above?
Perhaps there are as many answers to that as there are people in the world. Spiritual birth, unlike physical birth, doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone. I have Evangelical friends who share that for them this refers to a particularly powerful affective moment within their lives when, like Mary Magdala in the Garden with Jesus on Easter Sunday, they had a deep personal encounter with Jesus that indelibly affirmed his intimate love for them. In that moment, in their words, “they met Jesus Christ” and “were born again”, even though from their very childhood they had always known about Jesus Christ and been Christians.
Most Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants do not identify “knowing Jesus Christ” with one such personal affective experience. But then they’re left wondering what Jesus meant exactly when he challenges us “to be born again, from above”.
A priest that I know shares this story regarding his understanding of this. His mother, widowed sometime before his ordination, lived in the same parish where he had been assigned to minister. It was a mixed blessing, nice to see her every day in church but she, widowed and alone, began to lean pretty heavily upon him in terms of wanting his time and he, the dutiful son, now had to spend all his free time with his mother, taking her for meals, taking her for drives, and being her one vital contact with the world outside the narrow confines of the seniors’ home within which she lived. During their time together she reminisced a lot and not infrequently complained about being alone and lonely. But one day, on a drive with her, after a period of silence, she said something that surprised him and caught his deeper attention: “I’ve given up on fear!” she said, “I’m no longer afraid of anything. I’ve spent my whole life living in fear. But now, I’ve given up on it because I’ve nothing to lose! I’ve already lost everything, my husband, my youthful body, my health, my place in the world, and much of my pride and dignity. Now I’m free! I’m no longer afraid!”
Her son, who had only been half-listening to her for a long time, now began to listen. He began to spend longer hours with her, recognizing that she had something important to teach him. After a couple of more years, she died. But, by then, she had been able to impart to her son some things that helped him understand his life more deeply. “My mother gave me birth twice; once from below, and once from above,” he says. He now understands something that Nicodemus couldn’t quite grasp.
We all, no doubt, have our own stories.
And what do the biblical scholars teach about this? The Synoptic Gospels, scholars say, tell us that we can only enter the kingdom of God if we become like little children, meaning that we must, in our very way of living, acknowledge our dependence upon God and others. We are not self-sufficient and that means truly recognizing and living out our human dependence upon the gratuitous providence of God. To do that, is to be born from above.
John’s Gospel adds something to this. Raymond E Brown, commenting on John’s Gospel, puts it this way: To be born again from above means we must, at some point in our lives, come to understand that our life comes from beyond this world, from a place and source beyond out mother’s womb, and that deeper life and deeper meaning lie there. And so we must have two births, one that gives us biological life (births us into this world) and another that gives us eschatological life (births us into the world of faith, soul, love, and spirit). And sometimes, as was the case with my friend, it can be your own birth mother who does the major midwifing in that second birth. Nicodemus couldn’t quite get past his instinctual empiricism. In the end, he didn’t get it. Do we?
Our Values: Keep It Simple ... because we're not that smart!
This article is taken from the Blog posted by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Timoneum, Baltimore. You can find the original blog by clicking here
We’re not that smart. We don’t know what to do in every situation and we definitely don’t have all the answers. That’s why, at Nativity, we try to make things as simple as possible, relying on some core values that shape our culture, determine our decisions, and guide our steps.
Every organization operates on some kind of values – whether they know it or not. Values define an organization’s personality and provide clarity about how to behave. Over the next six weeks, we will be using this space to dig into each of Nativity’s core values and what they mean to us. And we’re starting with the most essential core value: simple. Simplicity is accessible. Simplicity is easy to manage. But it takes hard work to find the core, the irreducible minimum, and harder still to maintain it.
Think about it: at a diner you can order from a vast selection of choices. Some of the most successful restaurants, on the other hand, have only a short menu with limited options. Instead of serving many different dishes of diverse cuisines, they focus on their core specialty. They become the best at what they do.
Here at Nativity, we’ve identified six core values that we want to embody in our work as a church. These six are not the only things we value, but, after our profession of faith, they are the most essential. Each points back to our core mission: to love God, love others, and make disciples.
Here are a few ways we’ve tried to keep it simple in our ministry:
Simple Strategy
Our strategy is to grow wider as a church and deeper as disciples by embracing three strategic anchors: welcoming outsiders, shaping a clear discipleship path, and creating an exceptional weekend experience. These strategies are straightforward, understandable and aim at clear outcomes.
Simple Steps
Many churches inundate parishioners with requests, programs, events, fundraisers, and the multiplication of ministries. The sheer number of options paralyze rather than mobilize people. When people don’t know what to do, they tend to do nothing. At Nativity we have developed 5 steps, and only 5, that we want everyone to (eventually) take: Serve (in ministry or mission), Tithe (or give to your place of worship), Engage (in small groups), Practice (prayer & the Sacraments), Share (your faith, by investing in and inviting the unchurched).
Simple Communication/Lack of Clutter
‘Churchy’ language can sometimes be obscure and unintelligible to unchurched people and make guests feel like outsiders. Whenever possible, we use language that sounds familiar to our guests. We’re consistent in what we announce in the announcements (and what we don’t), what’s included on our website and in social media (and what’s not). A simple look also applies to our campus facilities. Our spaces are clearly marked and laid out, clean, and free of clutter. There is almost an austerity to them that we believe is less “clubby” and more accessible.
These are a few examples of how we strive for simplicity. Check out the blog again next week for the second value: adaptable.
Will The Real Ignatius Please Stand Up?
As the Society of Jesus prepares to celebrate the feast of its founder on 31 July, Ron Darwen SJ explores two different portrayals of St Ignatius of Loyola, and describes how the Jesuits' first General continues to accompany them on their spiritual journeys, as they strive to follow his example. Ron Darwen SJ joined the Jesuits in 1949 and has been Novice Master, Tertian Master and is now based in Birmingham where he is involved in giving the Spiritual Exercises. You can find the original of this article and many other topics at the ThinkingFaith.org website by clicking here
On the 31st of July the Church celebrates the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, one of the founding fathers of the Society of Jesus and its first Superior General. Earlier this year the Jesuits held a General Congregation, the 35th in their history, at which they elected Fr Adolfo Nicolás of the Japanese Province to replace the out-going and much loved Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach as their new General and latest successor to Ignatius.
After that election, the Congregation took some time to reflect about the role of the Society in today's world. The Congregation was trying to "rediscover its charism", "reaffirm its mission today" and examine "the governance needed for the service of its universal mission". What, I wonder, would Ignatius have made of their conclusions? Would he have felt at home in their discussions? And would he have been able to recognize “the Jesuit” they described?
Knowing the Mind of Ignatius
The answer to those questions depends on what you think he was like. And that is problematic, since the picture we have of Ignatius has changed significantly over the years. If you were to put that question to a Jesuit novice or to a member of the Christian Life Communities, likely as not they would describe a man who could “find God in all things”, who developed a way of following God’s will in everyday life, someone who used his imagination in his prayer and who liked nothing better than to converse with people about “the things of God”. But that is actually quite a contemporary view of the man and very far from the Ignatius I was introduced to when I entered Jesuit life.
Of course it is not at all surprising that each generation has a different slant on an admittedly complex character. To some extent we probably all see in Ignatius things that are important to us. But the founder’s character has, on occasion, been the victim of rather less innocent attempts to mould Jesuit identity. A few years ago, the late Irish Jesuit, Joe Veale wrote of the interpretations of Ignatius' life. Most of our popular images, he points out, go back to the first official biographies, written towards the end of the sixteenth century by Pedro de Ribadeneira and Gian Pietro Maffei. But there is a source which pre-dates them, an Autobiography consisting of the personal reminiscences of Ignatius dictated to, and written up by, an early Jesuit companion, Gonsalves da Camara. This narrative has to be the seminal portrayal of the personality of Ignatius.
Not everyone appreciated the picture of Ignatius which emerged from da Camara’s pen. In 1567, Francis Borgia, the Jesuits’ third General, recalled all the copies of the Autobiography so as to clear the way for Ribadeneira's "true" account of the founder’s life:
The Provincials are to make a good job of gathering in what Fr Louis Gonsalves [da Camara] wrote, or any other writing about the life of our Father, and they are to keep them and not permit them to be read or to be circulated among our people or others. For being an imperfect thing, it is not appropriate that it cause problems.
The instruction seems to have worked. Some months later Ribadeneira, answering a query from Ignatius’ friend and companion Jerome Nadal, comments that:
the gathering in of Fr Louis Gonsalves writings about the life of our Father did not originate with me, but from the fathers who remembered our Father. And it seemed a good idea to his paternity so that when what is written gets published it should not appear that there be divergence or contradiction or that the work not have as much authority as what was written almost from the mouth of the Father. This although very faithful in substance is short on the details of some things and in relating of times by then well past, his memory was failing him owing to his old age.
The Autobiography duly fell into oblivion. It is true that the Bollandists included a Latin translation in the 1731 Acta Sanctorum but the original Spanish remained unedited until the first edition of Ignatian biographica in 1904. However you read these goings-on, two things are for sure. First, the image of the founder mattered then, just as it does now. Second, Ignatius’ own self-understanding, as it was handed on to his spiritual sons in the Autobiography, was to be marginalised and effectively lost for centuries to the great impoverishment of the Society at large and its spirituality in particular.
Ignatius, Man of Action
So how did that crucial depiction of Ignatius as it appears in the work of Ribadeneira impact on the identity and mission of Jesuits? Like any historian, Ribadeneira had his own preoccupations, many of them dictated by the age and culture in which he lived. His biography of Ignatius appeared in the aftermath of the Council of Trent, and so is marked decisively by the ethos of the Counter-Reformation and its aggressive stance towards Protestantism. It is not surprising to find that Ribadeneira’s Ignatius is a great soldier saint. Spinning such an image hardly required a huge amount of invention. There was already much in the life of Ignatius to suggest a penchant for swash-buckling derring-do. His upbringing had been that of a minor aristocrat and his almost exaggerated sense of chivalry got him into hot water in Pamplona, famously resulting in his leg being shattered by an enemy cannon-ball. Was such a man not destined to take his place among the great reformers of the Church’s history? Certainly, such a re-telling of his life was to forge a powerful myth, that of a kind of clerical Errol Flynn, and generations of young Jesuits would be inspired (and, one imagines, occasionally brow-beaten) by fervorinos from their novice masters exhorting them to imitate the heroic knight. Joe Veale, remarks:
The St Ignatius we inherited from the 19th Century was stern, more than a little inhuman, a soldier, militant, militaristic, a martinet expecting prompt unquestioning execution, the proposer of blind obedience, not greatly given to feeling or affection, rational, a man of ruthless will-power, hard in endurance, of a sensibility (if it were there at all) under stern control, heroic. That was when he was not a superhuman, Olympian figure, just this side of apotheosis, remote among baroque clouds and shafts of light and gambolling cherubs.
This Ignatius, who survives in the popular imagination of many Catholics today for whom the Jesuits are something like a spiritual SAS, the Pope’s shock troops, was pre-eminently a doer. And surprising as it may seem, I have to admit that it was this Ignatius that led me to enter the Jesuit Novitiate in Roehampton 1949. I had been brought up in Preston in the heart of Catholic Lancashire, a descendant of St Edmund Arrowsmith, and a member of the Gerard family – John being the only Jesuit to have escaped from the Tower of London. The blood of the martyrs flowed through my veins, and I was privileged to be accepted as a Jesuit novice. As a descendant of one of the forty martyrs, I thought I would give my life to the conversion of England, teaching for the rest of my days in one of "our schools" with Ignatius as guide and mentor.
Ignatius, Mystical Master
That said, the Ignatius I have come to know since then tells a different story and that shift echoes a general change in the way Jesuits understand themselves. It is above all the rediscovery of the Autobiography which has put the Society back in touch with Ignatius, the man of prayer, someone with an extraordinary capacity for sensitivity to his interior life, keenly aware of the motions of the spirits, good and bad, able to taste the sweetness of the Trinity even in the most challenging of environments, and gifted with a visionary insight which created and responded to a wealth of apostolic opportunities aimed at helping others to experience Jesus Christ as he had. Joe Veale again:
There we see a man of feeling often given to tears; a spirit of soaring imagination; a dreamer with sensitive self awareness, attentive to the subtle movements of his sensibility; a man of strong affectivity with a gift for friendship and affection; a companionable person.
It has been one of the great privileges of my Jesuit life, straddling the Vatican Council and enjoying the great rediscovery of Jesuit identity which followed it, to see just what a potent agent of ecclesial transformation this Ignatius could be. As a novice in the old days, I had made the Spiritual Exercises along with thirty companions. The novice master would give us five talks a day and for me the experience was dominated by the vision of a large red notebook in which I wrote down every word that came from his mouth, hardly a transformative process! But years later I was to make the Spiritual Exercises the way Ignatius himself intended them to be given: “one to one”. Having a guide or director to accompany you on a daily basis, helping you to articulate, explain and discern your prayer is quite a different prospect, and it was thus that I learned what Ignatius was actually trying to do for people: introduce them to how God speaks directly to the heart.
Ignatius as mystic is probably the Ignatius most members of the Society know best these days. The last thirty years have seen a tremendous growth in the giving of his Spiritual Exercises and now spirituality is something that practically every Jesuit can talk about in some form or other. Although not always adept in the arts of “communal discernment”, Jesuits know deep down that Ignatius’ true genius lay in the way he handed his destiny over to those mysterious but profound experiences in which he knew God to be calling him. It is a daunting challenge to follow in those footsteps, in some ways rather more testing than trying to keep up with the militant Ignatius of the Counter Reformation in his camouflage and flak-jacket. Brian O'Leary observes:
Ignatius the mystic has replaced Ignatius the soldier saint. For reasons that are part historically well grounded, and in part politically correct, references to Ignatius' soldierly background and mentality are very rare nowadays. Everything that Ignatius did and wrote is traced back to his mystical experiences on Manresa, at La Storta and in Rome. Hence the strong interest in the Autobiography and the Spiritual Journal . As always there is truth in both, that he was both a doer and a mystic. The challenge of his life to present day Jesuits has been to hold together a spirituality that does justice to both. Today's Jesuit should have a foot in both camps.
Having a foot in both camps is no mean feat (if you’ll pardon the pun). In fact, if there is a new challenge emerging for Jesuits in the early years of this new century it seems to be precisely that of deepening the integration of prayer and action. That, in any case, is, my reading of the latest General Congregation.
General Congregation 35
No doubt had Ignatius paid an impromptu visit to the Congregation as it sat in Rome, he would have identified strongly with this group of priests and brothers, active in the life of the Church, as they discussed their mission, trying to work out what they ought to be doing. Ignatius the doer would have felt very much at home. But I think he would also have been keen to point out that doing was not enough. He would want them to say something about the subtle and tricky business of identity, about deep motivation and drive, about what makes the Jesuit heart beat that little bit faster, about what Hopkins calls the “dearest, freshness, deep-down things”.
Perusing the decrees, I’ve got a feeling his spirit was there. The first document responds to just those questions: what are Jesuits all about in today's world? How do they see themselves in the Church? What makes them tick? And so it takes up the question of fundamental Jesuit identity and offers a poetic image in its title, "A fire that kindles other fires". Jim Corkery, an Irish Jesuit who helped to write this Decree, wrote recently:
At a time when people frequently admire what Jesuits do, although without knowing why we do it, it is important to indicate that none of our Jesuit schools and universities, nor any of our pastoral, social or spirituality centres, not even the Jesuit Refugee Service is understandable unless the ‘polarity’ of being with Christ and at the same time being active in the world is expressed and made visible in them. Living ‘polarities’ is central to Jesuit identity. [...] Ideally Jesuits live out of an awesome grace that tilts us towards seeing the world with the eyes of Christ, loving it with his heart and serving it with his compassion. It is not a matter of meeting needs, doing good, acting justly alone. Nor is it a matter of having faith, praying, living contemplatively, alone. Rather it is a matter of doing both together.
Ignatius, I cannot help but feel, would have been enchanted to read those words. They seem to sum up for me who he really was: mystic and militant, or, as Nadal put it: a contemplative in action. A hundred years after Ignatius's death, a Belgian Jesuit, suggesting an epitaph for his grave stone, grappled with the same notion. It is in Latin and not easy to translate, but I will have a go:
Non coerceri a maximo, contineri tamen a minimo, divinum est.
(Not to be daunted or held back by the greatest challenge and yet to be concerned with the nitty-gritty, that is the path to holiness.)
Ignatius had an uncanny feel for the big picture. He could see the wood for the trees and at the same time realised the importance of the trees. William Blake's words could well have come from Ignatius: "if you would do good, you must do it in minute particulars". Ignatius the man of vision, the man of order, could do both at once. That is what modern Jesuits still try to do.
Weekday Masses 30th July - 2nd August,
2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
9:30am Devonport ... Fr Phil Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Thursday: 12noon Devonport Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone 12noon Devonport
Next Weekend 3rd & 4th August, 2019
9:30am Devonport ... Fr Phil Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Thursday: 12noon Devonport Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone 12noon Devonport
Next Weekend 3rd & 4th August, 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
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 3rd & 4th August, 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, K & K
Maynard
Cleaners 2nd
Aug: M.W.C. 9th Aug: P Shelverton, E Petts
Piety Shop 3rd
August: L Murfet 4th August: T Omogbai-Musa
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: A & F Pisano
Ministers of
Communion: P
Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, M Barry
Cleaners: M Mott Flowers: M Byrne Hospitality:
K Foster
Penguin:
Greeters: G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator:
E Nickols Readers: J Barker, K Fraser
Ministers of
Communion: M
Murray, S Coleman Liturgy: Penguin
Setting Up: E Nickols Care of Church: Y & R Downes
Latrobe:
Reader: M Eden Minister of Communion: H Lim Procession of
Gifts: Parishioner
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, G Gigliotti Ministers of Communion: J & D Peterson
Cleaners: C & J Howard
Readings this Week: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Genesis 18:20-32
Second Reading: Colossians 2:12-14
Gospel: Luke 11:1-13
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
I choose a ‘certain place’ and go to it to pray.
I sit comfortably, yet alert, and ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
As I slowly read the passage, I may find it helpful to picture myself sitting alongside the praying figure of Jesus.
I pray with him, and then listen to his teaching about the loving compassion of the Father.
I think of times when I have been shown love, whether felt directly from God or indirectly through others.
What does God’s parental concern say to me about how much I am loved and held in his care?
I may naturally be inclined to think of my own parents.
What was my childhood like?
Perhaps some experiences of limited human love have prevented me from trusting God’s fatherly/motherly love.
It may be enough, just now, to simply say I hope to believe ever more deeply that God’s love for me is far greater than human love.
I share honestly with the Lord, confident that he is close by, listening with great compassion.
I sit comfortably, yet alert, and ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
As I slowly read the passage, I may find it helpful to picture myself sitting alongside the praying figure of Jesus.
I pray with him, and then listen to his teaching about the loving compassion of the Father.
I think of times when I have been shown love, whether felt directly from God or indirectly through others.
What does God’s parental concern say to me about how much I am loved and held in his care?
I may naturally be inclined to think of my own parents.
What was my childhood like?
Perhaps some experiences of limited human love have prevented me from trusting God’s fatherly/motherly love.
It may be enough, just now, to simply say I hope to believe ever more deeply that God’s love for me is far greater than human love.
I share honestly with the Lord, confident that he is close by, listening with great compassion.
Readings Next Week: 18th
Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Ecclesiastes
1:2, 2:21-23
Second
Reading: Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Norie Capulong, David Cole, Shelley Sing, Joy Carter, Marie Knight, Allan Stott, Christiana Okpon, Robert Luxton, Adrian Drane, Fred Heazlewood, Jason Carr, Thomas & Frances McGeown, Charlotte Milic, John Kelly, Peter Sylvester, Des Dalton & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
John Doherty, Tagling Saili, Naning Camocamo, Cres Novel, Restituto Carcuevas, Bruce Bellchambers, Lita Santos, Carlene Vickers, George Armstrong, Rita Huber, Denis Parsissons
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 25th – 31st July
Peter Kelly, Joyce Cornick, Michael Campbell, Barry Stuart, Lola Rutherford, Joseph Hiscutt, Andrea Wright, Dorothy Hawkes, Mary Beaumont, Nita Anthony, Enis Lord, Vicky Bennett, Eileen King, Shirley Mooney, Molly Walsh, John Brown, Helga Walker, Terence Maskell, Kathleen Bellchambers and Peggy Kelly.
May
the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
Weekly
Ramblings
Over these past few weeks there have been some momentous
events in the Archdiocese and beyond that have been worthy of celebration and
will be opportunities for celebration. These include the ordination to the
Priesthood last Friday (19th) of Rev Ben Brooks who will take up an
appointment in the Launceston parish within the next few weeks.
On Tuesday of this week Fr Phil will be celebrating 48
years of Priesthood at a Mass celebrated at Our Lady of Lourdes at 9:30am.
Anyone and everyone is invited to join him for this special occasion. Don’t forget
to ask him the story, and if you don’t ask he will tell you anyway!!
Sadly, we said goodbye to Fr Alex Obiorah last weekend as
he headed back to Nigeria to take up an appointment in his home Diocese of
Onitsha. His place in the Circular Head Parish will be taken by Fr Christopher
Kasturi who has been working in the Launceston Parish for the past few years.
Many years ago, there was a Diaconate Ordination at Our
Lady of Lourdes Church and a young seminarian came and stayed for that event.
On Tuesday it was announced that Fr Shane Mackinlay, the seminarian from back
then, has been appointed the new Bishop of Sandhurst and will take up his
appointment following his Episcopal ordination in October – congratulations
Shane and best wishes for the future.
This week I will be in Melbourne gathering with some of the
fellows who entered Corpus Christi Seminary in 1969 – 50 years ago. Some I have
been able to keep in contact with over the years but many, especially those who
left the Seminary in the first few years, I have not seen for 45+ years so it
will be an interesting gathering. I will be returning on Friday morning and
immediately be involved in a selection panel for Deputy Principal Positions at
some of our Catholic Schools in the NW and West Coast region.
Due to my meeting and other commitments next Friday, 2nd
Aug, there will not be Exposition and Benediction at OLOL. There will, however,
be the normal Adoration followed by Mass at 12 Noon.
Take care on the roads and in your homes,
MACKILLOP
HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE:
Could the person who left a
Tartan scarf at the Coffee Shop on Monday please phone 6428:3095 to arrange
collection?
ST MARY OF
THE CROSS MACKILLOP:
The Mersey-Leven Branch of the Knights of the Southern
Cross invite all to celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop,
co-founder of the Sisters of St Joseph, Patroness of Australia and of the
Knights of the Southern Cross. Many of
us will have received our early days of education from the “Brown Joeys.”
The Mass will held at Our Lady of Lourdes Thursday 8th
August at 12noon. Contact Giuseppe Gigliotti 0419 684 134 if you have any
questions.
THE
SACRAMENT OF THE PRESENT MOMENT is the theme for this year's gathering
for Catholic Charismatic Renewal at the Emmanuel Centre, Launceston on the
weekend of September 13th – 15th A warm invitation
to all to come and be refreshed. Live-in or day registrations
available. Closing date 30th August. Enquiries Christine
Smith 0422 832 712, Lyn Dresden 0408 385 360
BINGO THURSDAY 1st August – Eyes down 7:30pm.
Callers Tony Ryan & Alan Luxton
FOOTY
MARGIN RESULTS:
Round 18 (Friday 19th July) Essendon won by 21 points.
Congratulations to the following winners: Bev Brakey, Giuseppe Gigliotti, Robyn Bramich.
NEWS FROM
ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
Discovering
Global Mission: How can our skills create better opportunities for
disadvantaged people? Communities in Timor Leste, PNG, Samoa, Kiribati and
Kenya seek volunteers to build local capacity. These assignments are not quick
fixes. Find out how teacher Helena
Charlesworth assisted communities in four countries over 25 years, and how
sharing your skills can immerse you in a world of deep cultural discovery.
Qualified medics, teachers, tradies, business and admins are always required.
Palms Meet & Greet: Sunday August 18th at 2pm Anvers Chocolate Café LATROBE.
Palms Meet & Greet: Sunday August 18th at 2pm Anvers Chocolate Café LATROBE.
Past
scholars of Our Lady of Mercy College Deloraine are invited to a reunion lunch
at Pedro’s Restaurant, Ulverstone on Friday 30th August, 12 noon for
12.30 p.m. (Please note change of month!) Phone: Vivienne Williams: 64 370878.
The Creeds
This article is taken from the Daily Email sent by Fr Richard Rohr OFM from the Center for Action and Contemplation. You can subscribe to receive the email by clicking here 
. . . Born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, . . .
—The Apostles’ Creed
If you worship in one of the liturgical Christian
traditions, you probably know the opening words of the Apostles’ Creed by
heart:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and
earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by
the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was
crucified, died, and was buried; he descended into hell; . . .
But have you ever noticed the huge leap the creed makes
between “born of the Virgin Mary” and “suffered under Pontius Pilate”? A single
comma connects the two statements, and falling into that yawning gap, as if it
were a mere detail, is everything Jesus said and did between his birth and his
death! Called the “Great Comma,” the gap certainly invites some serious
questions. Did all the things Jesus said and did in those years not count for
much? Were they nothing to “believe” in? Was it only his birth and death that
mattered? Does the gap in some way explain Christianity’s often dismal record
of imitating Jesus’ life and teaching?
There are other glaring oversights. The Apostles’ Creed does
not once mention love, service, hope, the “least of the brothers and sisters,”
or even forgiveness—anything that is remotely actionable. The earliest formal
declaration of Christian belief is a vision and philosophy statement with no
mission statement, as it were. Twice we are reminded that God is almighty, yet
nowhere do we hear mention that God is also all-suffering or all-vulnerable
(although it does declare that Jesus “suffered . . . , died, and was buried”).
With its emphasis on theory and theology, but no emphasis on praxis (i.e.,
practice), the creed set Christianity on a course we are still following today.
The Apostles’ Creed, along with the later Nicene Creed, is
an important document of theological summary and history, but when the crowd at
my parish mumbles hurriedly through its recitation each Sunday, I’m struck by
how little usefulness—or even interest—the creed seems to bring as a guide for
people’s daily, practical behavior. I hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.
Both creeds reveal historic Christian assumptions about who
God is and what God is doing. They reaffirm a static and unchanging universe
and a God who is quite remote from almost everything we care about each day.
Furthermore, they don’t show much interest in the realities of Jesus’ own human
life—or ours. Instead, they portray what religious systems tend to want: a God
who looks strong and stable and in control. No “turn the other cheek” Jesus, no
hint of a simple Christ-like lifestyle is found here.
[1] Justin Martyr, First Apology, chapter 14, as quoted in
Rowan Greer, Broken Lights and Mended Lives: Theology and Common Life in the
Early Church (Pennsylvania State University Press: 1986), 13.
Diana Butler Bass, A People’s History of Christianity: The
Other Side of the Story (HarperCollins: 2009), 27-30.
What Does It Mean To Be 'Born Again'?
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
What does it mean to “be born again, to “be born from above”? If you’re an Evangelical or Baptist, you’ve probably already answered that for yourself. However, if you’re a Roman Catholic or a mainline Protestant then the phrase probably isn’t a normal part of your spiritual vocabulary and, indeed, might connote for you a biblical fundamentalism which confuses you.
What does it mean to “be born again”? The expression appears in John’s Gospel in a conversation Jesus has with a man named, Nicodemus. Jesus tells him that he “must be born again from above”. Nicodemus takes this literally and protests that it’s impossible for a grown man to re-enter his mother’s womb so as to be born a second time. So Jesus recasts the phrase metaphorically, telling Nicodemus that one’s second birth, unlike the first, is not from the flesh, but “from water and the Spirit”. Well … that doesn’t clarify things much for Nicodemus, or for us. What does it mean to be born again from above?
Perhaps there are as many answers to that as there are people in the world. Spiritual birth, unlike physical birth, doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone. I have Evangelical friends who share that for them this refers to a particularly powerful affective moment within their lives when, like Mary Magdala in the Garden with Jesus on Easter Sunday, they had a deep personal encounter with Jesus that indelibly affirmed his intimate love for them. In that moment, in their words, “they met Jesus Christ” and “were born again”, even though from their very childhood they had always known about Jesus Christ and been Christians.
Most Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants do not identify “knowing Jesus Christ” with one such personal affective experience. But then they’re left wondering what Jesus meant exactly when he challenges us “to be born again, from above”.
A priest that I know shares this story regarding his understanding of this. His mother, widowed sometime before his ordination, lived in the same parish where he had been assigned to minister. It was a mixed blessing, nice to see her every day in church but she, widowed and alone, began to lean pretty heavily upon him in terms of wanting his time and he, the dutiful son, now had to spend all his free time with his mother, taking her for meals, taking her for drives, and being her one vital contact with the world outside the narrow confines of the seniors’ home within which she lived. During their time together she reminisced a lot and not infrequently complained about being alone and lonely. But one day, on a drive with her, after a period of silence, she said something that surprised him and caught his deeper attention: “I’ve given up on fear!” she said, “I’m no longer afraid of anything. I’ve spent my whole life living in fear. But now, I’ve given up on it because I’ve nothing to lose! I’ve already lost everything, my husband, my youthful body, my health, my place in the world, and much of my pride and dignity. Now I’m free! I’m no longer afraid!”
Her son, who had only been half-listening to her for a long time, now began to listen. He began to spend longer hours with her, recognizing that she had something important to teach him. After a couple of more years, she died. But, by then, she had been able to impart to her son some things that helped him understand his life more deeply. “My mother gave me birth twice; once from below, and once from above,” he says. He now understands something that Nicodemus couldn’t quite grasp.
We all, no doubt, have our own stories.
And what do the biblical scholars teach about this? The Synoptic Gospels, scholars say, tell us that we can only enter the kingdom of God if we become like little children, meaning that we must, in our very way of living, acknowledge our dependence upon God and others. We are not self-sufficient and that means truly recognizing and living out our human dependence upon the gratuitous providence of God. To do that, is to be born from above.
John’s Gospel adds something to this. Raymond E Brown, commenting on John’s Gospel, puts it this way: To be born again from above means we must, at some point in our lives, come to understand that our life comes from beyond this world, from a place and source beyond out mother’s womb, and that deeper life and deeper meaning lie there. And so we must have two births, one that gives us biological life (births us into this world) and another that gives us eschatological life (births us into the world of faith, soul, love, and spirit). And sometimes, as was the case with my friend, it can be your own birth mother who does the major midwifing in that second birth. Nicodemus couldn’t quite get past his instinctual empiricism. In the end, he didn’t get it. Do we?
Our Values: Keep It Simple ... because we're not that smart!
This article is taken from the Blog posted by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Timoneum, Baltimore. You can find the original blog by clicking here
We’re not that smart. We don’t know what to do in every situation and we definitely don’t have all the answers. That’s why, at Nativity, we try to make things as simple as possible, relying on some core values that shape our culture, determine our decisions, and guide our steps.
Every organization operates on some kind of values – whether they know it or not. Values define an organization’s personality and provide clarity about how to behave. Over the next six weeks, we will be using this space to dig into each of Nativity’s core values and what they mean to us. And we’re starting with the most essential core value: simple. Simplicity is accessible. Simplicity is easy to manage. But it takes hard work to find the core, the irreducible minimum, and harder still to maintain it.
Think about it: at a diner you can order from a vast selection of choices. Some of the most successful restaurants, on the other hand, have only a short menu with limited options. Instead of serving many different dishes of diverse cuisines, they focus on their core specialty. They become the best at what they do.
Here at Nativity, we’ve identified six core values that we want to embody in our work as a church. These six are not the only things we value, but, after our profession of faith, they are the most essential. Each points back to our core mission: to love God, love others, and make disciples.
Here are a few ways we’ve tried to keep it simple in our ministry:
Simple Strategy
Our strategy is to grow wider as a church and deeper as disciples by embracing three strategic anchors: welcoming outsiders, shaping a clear discipleship path, and creating an exceptional weekend experience. These strategies are straightforward, understandable and aim at clear outcomes.
Simple Steps
Many churches inundate parishioners with requests, programs, events, fundraisers, and the multiplication of ministries. The sheer number of options paralyze rather than mobilize people. When people don’t know what to do, they tend to do nothing. At Nativity we have developed 5 steps, and only 5, that we want everyone to (eventually) take: Serve (in ministry or mission), Tithe (or give to your place of worship), Engage (in small groups), Practice (prayer & the Sacraments), Share (your faith, by investing in and inviting the unchurched).
Simple Communication/Lack of Clutter
‘Churchy’ language can sometimes be obscure and unintelligible to unchurched people and make guests feel like outsiders. Whenever possible, we use language that sounds familiar to our guests. We’re consistent in what we announce in the announcements (and what we don’t), what’s included on our website and in social media (and what’s not). A simple look also applies to our campus facilities. Our spaces are clearly marked and laid out, clean, and free of clutter. There is almost an austerity to them that we believe is less “clubby” and more accessible.
These are a few examples of how we strive for simplicity. Check out the blog again next week for the second value: adaptable.
Will The Real Ignatius Please Stand Up?
As the Society of Jesus prepares to celebrate the feast of its founder on 31 July, Ron Darwen SJ explores two different portrayals of St Ignatius of Loyola, and describes how the Jesuits' first General continues to accompany them on their spiritual journeys, as they strive to follow his example. Ron Darwen SJ joined the Jesuits in 1949 and has been Novice Master, Tertian Master and is now based in Birmingham where he is involved in giving the Spiritual Exercises. You can find the original of this article and many other topics at the ThinkingFaith.org website by clicking here
On the 31st of July the Church celebrates the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, one of the founding fathers of the Society of Jesus and its first Superior General. Earlier this year the Jesuits held a General Congregation, the 35th in their history, at which they elected Fr Adolfo Nicolás of the Japanese Province to replace the out-going and much loved Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach as their new General and latest successor to Ignatius.
After that election, the Congregation took some time to reflect about the role of the Society in today's world. The Congregation was trying to "rediscover its charism", "reaffirm its mission today" and examine "the governance needed for the service of its universal mission". What, I wonder, would Ignatius have made of their conclusions? Would he have felt at home in their discussions? And would he have been able to recognize “the Jesuit” they described?
Knowing the Mind of Ignatius
The answer to those questions depends on what you think he was like. And that is problematic, since the picture we have of Ignatius has changed significantly over the years. If you were to put that question to a Jesuit novice or to a member of the Christian Life Communities, likely as not they would describe a man who could “find God in all things”, who developed a way of following God’s will in everyday life, someone who used his imagination in his prayer and who liked nothing better than to converse with people about “the things of God”. But that is actually quite a contemporary view of the man and very far from the Ignatius I was introduced to when I entered Jesuit life.
Of course it is not at all surprising that each generation has a different slant on an admittedly complex character. To some extent we probably all see in Ignatius things that are important to us. But the founder’s character has, on occasion, been the victim of rather less innocent attempts to mould Jesuit identity. A few years ago, the late Irish Jesuit, Joe Veale wrote of the interpretations of Ignatius' life. Most of our popular images, he points out, go back to the first official biographies, written towards the end of the sixteenth century by Pedro de Ribadeneira and Gian Pietro Maffei. But there is a source which pre-dates them, an Autobiography consisting of the personal reminiscences of Ignatius dictated to, and written up by, an early Jesuit companion, Gonsalves da Camara. This narrative has to be the seminal portrayal of the personality of Ignatius.
Not everyone appreciated the picture of Ignatius which emerged from da Camara’s pen. In 1567, Francis Borgia, the Jesuits’ third General, recalled all the copies of the Autobiography so as to clear the way for Ribadeneira's "true" account of the founder’s life:
The Provincials are to make a good job of gathering in what Fr Louis Gonsalves [da Camara] wrote, or any other writing about the life of our Father, and they are to keep them and not permit them to be read or to be circulated among our people or others. For being an imperfect thing, it is not appropriate that it cause problems.
The instruction seems to have worked. Some months later Ribadeneira, answering a query from Ignatius’ friend and companion Jerome Nadal, comments that:
the gathering in of Fr Louis Gonsalves writings about the life of our Father did not originate with me, but from the fathers who remembered our Father. And it seemed a good idea to his paternity so that when what is written gets published it should not appear that there be divergence or contradiction or that the work not have as much authority as what was written almost from the mouth of the Father. This although very faithful in substance is short on the details of some things and in relating of times by then well past, his memory was failing him owing to his old age.
The Autobiography duly fell into oblivion. It is true that the Bollandists included a Latin translation in the 1731 Acta Sanctorum but the original Spanish remained unedited until the first edition of Ignatian biographica in 1904. However you read these goings-on, two things are for sure. First, the image of the founder mattered then, just as it does now. Second, Ignatius’ own self-understanding, as it was handed on to his spiritual sons in the Autobiography, was to be marginalised and effectively lost for centuries to the great impoverishment of the Society at large and its spirituality in particular.
Ignatius, Man of Action
So how did that crucial depiction of Ignatius as it appears in the work of Ribadeneira impact on the identity and mission of Jesuits? Like any historian, Ribadeneira had his own preoccupations, many of them dictated by the age and culture in which he lived. His biography of Ignatius appeared in the aftermath of the Council of Trent, and so is marked decisively by the ethos of the Counter-Reformation and its aggressive stance towards Protestantism. It is not surprising to find that Ribadeneira’s Ignatius is a great soldier saint. Spinning such an image hardly required a huge amount of invention. There was already much in the life of Ignatius to suggest a penchant for swash-buckling derring-do. His upbringing had been that of a minor aristocrat and his almost exaggerated sense of chivalry got him into hot water in Pamplona, famously resulting in his leg being shattered by an enemy cannon-ball. Was such a man not destined to take his place among the great reformers of the Church’s history? Certainly, such a re-telling of his life was to forge a powerful myth, that of a kind of clerical Errol Flynn, and generations of young Jesuits would be inspired (and, one imagines, occasionally brow-beaten) by fervorinos from their novice masters exhorting them to imitate the heroic knight. Joe Veale, remarks:
The St Ignatius we inherited from the 19th Century was stern, more than a little inhuman, a soldier, militant, militaristic, a martinet expecting prompt unquestioning execution, the proposer of blind obedience, not greatly given to feeling or affection, rational, a man of ruthless will-power, hard in endurance, of a sensibility (if it were there at all) under stern control, heroic. That was when he was not a superhuman, Olympian figure, just this side of apotheosis, remote among baroque clouds and shafts of light and gambolling cherubs.
This Ignatius, who survives in the popular imagination of many Catholics today for whom the Jesuits are something like a spiritual SAS, the Pope’s shock troops, was pre-eminently a doer. And surprising as it may seem, I have to admit that it was this Ignatius that led me to enter the Jesuit Novitiate in Roehampton 1949. I had been brought up in Preston in the heart of Catholic Lancashire, a descendant of St Edmund Arrowsmith, and a member of the Gerard family – John being the only Jesuit to have escaped from the Tower of London. The blood of the martyrs flowed through my veins, and I was privileged to be accepted as a Jesuit novice. As a descendant of one of the forty martyrs, I thought I would give my life to the conversion of England, teaching for the rest of my days in one of "our schools" with Ignatius as guide and mentor.
Ignatius, Mystical Master
That said, the Ignatius I have come to know since then tells a different story and that shift echoes a general change in the way Jesuits understand themselves. It is above all the rediscovery of the Autobiography which has put the Society back in touch with Ignatius, the man of prayer, someone with an extraordinary capacity for sensitivity to his interior life, keenly aware of the motions of the spirits, good and bad, able to taste the sweetness of the Trinity even in the most challenging of environments, and gifted with a visionary insight which created and responded to a wealth of apostolic opportunities aimed at helping others to experience Jesus Christ as he had. Joe Veale again:
There we see a man of feeling often given to tears; a spirit of soaring imagination; a dreamer with sensitive self awareness, attentive to the subtle movements of his sensibility; a man of strong affectivity with a gift for friendship and affection; a companionable person.
It has been one of the great privileges of my Jesuit life, straddling the Vatican Council and enjoying the great rediscovery of Jesuit identity which followed it, to see just what a potent agent of ecclesial transformation this Ignatius could be. As a novice in the old days, I had made the Spiritual Exercises along with thirty companions. The novice master would give us five talks a day and for me the experience was dominated by the vision of a large red notebook in which I wrote down every word that came from his mouth, hardly a transformative process! But years later I was to make the Spiritual Exercises the way Ignatius himself intended them to be given: “one to one”. Having a guide or director to accompany you on a daily basis, helping you to articulate, explain and discern your prayer is quite a different prospect, and it was thus that I learned what Ignatius was actually trying to do for people: introduce them to how God speaks directly to the heart.
Ignatius as mystic is probably the Ignatius most members of the Society know best these days. The last thirty years have seen a tremendous growth in the giving of his Spiritual Exercises and now spirituality is something that practically every Jesuit can talk about in some form or other. Although not always adept in the arts of “communal discernment”, Jesuits know deep down that Ignatius’ true genius lay in the way he handed his destiny over to those mysterious but profound experiences in which he knew God to be calling him. It is a daunting challenge to follow in those footsteps, in some ways rather more testing than trying to keep up with the militant Ignatius of the Counter Reformation in his camouflage and flak-jacket. Brian O'Leary observes:
Ignatius the mystic has replaced Ignatius the soldier saint. For reasons that are part historically well grounded, and in part politically correct, references to Ignatius' soldierly background and mentality are very rare nowadays. Everything that Ignatius did and wrote is traced back to his mystical experiences on Manresa, at La Storta and in Rome. Hence the strong interest in the Autobiography and the Spiritual Journal . As always there is truth in both, that he was both a doer and a mystic. The challenge of his life to present day Jesuits has been to hold together a spirituality that does justice to both. Today's Jesuit should have a foot in both camps.
Having a foot in both camps is no mean feat (if you’ll pardon the pun). In fact, if there is a new challenge emerging for Jesuits in the early years of this new century it seems to be precisely that of deepening the integration of prayer and action. That, in any case, is, my reading of the latest General Congregation.
General Congregation 35
No doubt had Ignatius paid an impromptu visit to the Congregation as it sat in Rome, he would have identified strongly with this group of priests and brothers, active in the life of the Church, as they discussed their mission, trying to work out what they ought to be doing. Ignatius the doer would have felt very much at home. But I think he would also have been keen to point out that doing was not enough. He would want them to say something about the subtle and tricky business of identity, about deep motivation and drive, about what makes the Jesuit heart beat that little bit faster, about what Hopkins calls the “dearest, freshness, deep-down things”.
Perusing the decrees, I’ve got a feeling his spirit was there. The first document responds to just those questions: what are Jesuits all about in today's world? How do they see themselves in the Church? What makes them tick? And so it takes up the question of fundamental Jesuit identity and offers a poetic image in its title, "A fire that kindles other fires". Jim Corkery, an Irish Jesuit who helped to write this Decree, wrote recently:
At a time when people frequently admire what Jesuits do, although without knowing why we do it, it is important to indicate that none of our Jesuit schools and universities, nor any of our pastoral, social or spirituality centres, not even the Jesuit Refugee Service is understandable unless the ‘polarity’ of being with Christ and at the same time being active in the world is expressed and made visible in them. Living ‘polarities’ is central to Jesuit identity. [...] Ideally Jesuits live out of an awesome grace that tilts us towards seeing the world with the eyes of Christ, loving it with his heart and serving it with his compassion. It is not a matter of meeting needs, doing good, acting justly alone. Nor is it a matter of having faith, praying, living contemplatively, alone. Rather it is a matter of doing both together.
Ignatius, I cannot help but feel, would have been enchanted to read those words. They seem to sum up for me who he really was: mystic and militant, or, as Nadal put it: a contemplative in action. A hundred years after Ignatius's death, a Belgian Jesuit, suggesting an epitaph for his grave stone, grappled with the same notion. It is in Latin and not easy to translate, but I will have a go:
Non coerceri a maximo, contineri tamen a minimo, divinum est.
(Not to be daunted or held back by the greatest challenge and yet to be concerned with the nitty-gritty, that is the path to holiness.)
Ignatius had an uncanny feel for the big picture. He could see the wood for the trees and at the same time realised the importance of the trees. William Blake's words could well have come from Ignatius: "if you would do good, you must do it in minute particulars". Ignatius the man of vision, the man of order, could do both at once. That is what modern Jesuits still try to do.
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