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 27th – 30th August, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin … St Monica
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe … St Augustine
Thursday: 12noon Devonport … The Passion of St John the Baptist
Friday: 9:30am
Ulverstone
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
MINISTRY ROSTERS 31st AUGUST – 1st SEPTEMBER, 2019
Devonport:
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Port Sorell:
Readings this Week: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Isaiah 66: 18-21
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
Readings Next Week: 22nd Sunday
in Ordinary Time – Year C
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Pam Lynd, David Cole, Norie Capulong, Shelley Sing, Joy Carter, Marie Knight, Allan Stott, Christiana Okpon, Peter Sylvester, Des Dalton & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Terry Casey, Adrian Sullivan, Ron Peters, Janine Jones, John Kelly, Alberto Floresta Snr, Pat Elliott, Mark Jones, Barbara Devlin, Jack McMahon, Shirley Bourke, John Doherty, Peggy O’Leary
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 22nd – 28th August, 2019
Patricia Smith, Bernard Hensby, Jean Flight, Vincenzo De Santis, Lyn Chessell, Niall McKee, Len Burton, Joseph Hawkes, Natasha Gowans, Michael Cassidy, Jack Page, Robert Lee
May
the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen
Mersey Leven Parish would like to congratulate Tony &
Shirley Ryan
Weekly
Ramblings
Next weekend these same children will be celebrating their
First Communion – please continue to pray with and for them in the days and
weeks ahead. There is no one First Eucharist Mass – the children will be
attending the Mass which best suits their family.
This weekend we celebrate Migrant & Refugee Sunday. The
theme this year is – ‘It’s Not Just About Migrants’. There are a series of
questions that the document is asking us to reflect on – How is God encouraging
and inviting us? Who are we becoming? What kind of society are we preparing for
those who come after us?
None of these are easy questions but as we prepare for
Plenary 2020 we need to look at these and similar questions if we are to be
faithful witnesses of the Gospel into the future. You can find the complete Kit
for 2019 by going to https://www.acmro.catholic.org.au/
On the Church Noticeboard today there is a copy of the
statement from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference concerning Cardinal
Pell.
Take care on the roads and in your homes,
Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe: Monday 26th August, 10:30am – 12
noon. Join us for a chat on topics of interest to YOU over a cuppa!
Phone: 6428:3095 Email: rsjforth@bigpond.net.au
THURSDAY 29th August – Eyes down 7:30pm. Callers Merv
Tippett & Tony Ryan
FOOTY
MARGIN RESULTS: Round 21 (Friday 16th August) Sydney
won by 53 points. Congratulations to the following winners; Kerry Good, Robyn Bramich, Dale Jenkins.
GRAND FINAL FOOTY MARGIN TICKETS:
$10.00 tickets are now selling – hurry and get yours today! The winner of the $10 tickets will
receive $500.00 and the holder of
the ticket with the number either side of the winning number $100.00. The $10.00 tickets are available from Devonport, Ulverstone and Port
Sorell Mass Centres or by phoning the Parish Office 6424:2783 The weekly $2.00
footy margin tickets will be sold (as normal) during the finals.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
International Pro-Life Filmmaker to speak on the cultural
impact of Euthanasia: August 29
Kevin Dunn – International Pro- Life Filmmaker, will speak
on the topic of Living, Dying and the Power of Presence, using clips
from his documentaries about how euthanasia laws are affecting the culture
of The Netherlands, Belgium, USA and Canada and what we can do to stem the
tide. The talk will take place from 7-9pm on Thursday August 29 at Legana
Christian Church, 1 Gerrard Close, Legana. For more information about the event
please contact Ben Smith on 6208 6036 or ben.smith@aohtas.org.au. For more
information on Kevin see: www.kevindunn.info
SICK AND AGED PRIEST FUND APPEAL: The Fund was established to
ensure that all diocesan priests incardinated into the Archdiocese of Hobart
would receive adequate accommodation, health care and support needed in their
retirement, or should they become ill. Retirement expenses are currently met by
the Sick and Aged Priest Fund via donations and bequests, and by priests
themselves. There are no federal or state government grants to support clergy
in retirement. The Sick and Aged Priest Fund helps to meet the following
needs of our diocesan priests:
· A modest monthly
allowance
DOMINICAN ANNIVERSARY:
Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic Charity that supports suffering and persecuted Christians. Currently over 200 million Christians worldwide cannot freely exercise their faith; Christians are persecuted, discriminated against or oppressed in more than 40 countries. The primary work of Aid to the Church in Need is focussed on providing spiritual and pastoral support to keep the Catholic faith alive. We support projects at the request of bishops and religious superiors who have nowhere else to turn. We invite you to stay informed by receiving news from the suffering Church. Visit www.aidtochurch.org and click ‘subscribe’. If you prefer to receive our newsletter via post, call 1800 101 201 during business hours to arrange.
One United Dynamic Nature
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
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that
has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. —1 Corinthians 3:11
While the Christian faith is living and evolving, its foundation is still
Jesus, the Christ. Such a firm clear centrepiece will allow us—indeed demand of
us—that we move outward from there. But the pieces of the Rubik’s Cube that we
must forever untangle anew are all firmly in place. The forever union of matter
and spirit, of human and divine, of God with Creation, is revealed in human
history as Jesus, and in the cosmos as Christ.
This pretty much makes any attempts at exclusion virtually
impossible. Such wholeness at the heart of the universe is known by other names
in various religions and fields of study, as we’ll see later this year.
Understanding how Jesus was fully human and fully divine at the
same time requires nondual consciousness. That’s probably why it has often been
best taught by mystics who spend much time in deep prayer. For example, let’s
look closely at the Alexandrian Mystics (312–454 CE)—hermits, monks, and nuns
living in the Egyptian desert. Some of these mystics are known as the Desert
Fathers and Mothers. In general, the early Alexandrian school represents the
more mystical and nondual tradition of Christianity, but it never dominated in
the common imperial versions of the Gospel (either Roman or Byzantine), so it
was completely lost by the time of the Protestant Reformation.
This period of early Christianity is largely unknown and of
little interest to most Western Christians today. With the self-sufficiency and
arrogance that has often characterized the West, we have proceeded as if the
first centuries of the Christian church were unimportant or not a part of the
essential Christ Mystery. So, bear with me as I share a bit more historical and
theological nuance than I usually do.
Christian theologian and friend Amos Smith offers some very
helpful context to help us understand these early Christians:
Miaphysite is the non-dual awareness of Christ, who as Cyril
of Alexandria put it, is “at once God and human.” If Jesus is at once God and
human, that means as believers we cannot refer to Jesus as God without
qualifying that: “God in human form.” We also cannot refer to Jesus as human
only without qualifying that: “the human incarnation of God.” The legacy of
Miaphysite theology is only well preserved today in the Oriental Orthodox
Church (not to be confused with Eastern Orthodox). Miaphysite is the crown
jewel of the Alexandrian Mystics. It is the center piece that holds the various
strands of Mystic Christianity together. [1]
I hope I do Amos Smith’s scholarship justice in my brief
summaries the next few days as we continue to explore how the incarnation is
essential to our faith and how we, too, participate in this mystery of creation
embodying the divine.
[1] Amos Smith, Healing the Divide: Recovering
Christianity’s Mystic Roots (Resource Publications: 2013), 242, 253, 258-259.
Imaging Grace
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
Imagine this: A man, entirely careless of all moral and spiritual affairs, lives his life in utter selfishness, pleasure his only pursuit. He lives the high life, never prays, never goes to church, has numerous sexual affairs, and has no concern for anyone but himself. After a long life of this, he’s diagnosed with a terminal illness and, on his deathbed, tearfully repents, makes a sincere confession, receives the Eucharist, and dies inside the blessing of the church and his friends.
Now, if our reaction is, “Well, the lucky fellow! He got to live a life of selfish pleasure and still gets to go to heaven!”, then (according to Piet Fransen, a renowned theologian on Grace) we haven’t yet, at all, understood the workings of grace. To the degree that we still envy the amoral and wish to exclude them from God’s grace, even as we count ourselves in, we are the “Older Brother” of the Prodigal Son, standing outside the Father’s house, heaven, in envy and bitterness.
I teach in a seminary that prepares seminarians for ordination. Recently our professor of Sacramental Theology shared this: He’s been teaching a course on the Sacrament of Reconciliation for more than forty years and only in the last few years have the seminarians asked: “When do we have to refuse giving someone absolution in confession?”
What’s betrayed in this concern? The seminarians asking the question are, no doubt, sincere; they’re not trying to be rigid or hard. Their anxiety is rather about grace and mercy. They’re sincerely anxious about perhaps dispensing God’s mercy too liberally, too cheaply, too indiscriminately, in essence, too unfairly. Their fear is not so much that God’s mercy is limited and that there’s only so much grace to go around. Not that. Their concern is more that by giving out grace so liberally they’re being unfair to those who are practicing faithfully and bearing the heat of the day. Their fear is about fairness, justice, and merit.
What’s at stake here? That grace is not something we merit. After the rich young man in the Gospels turns down Jesus’ invitation to leave everything and follow him, Peter, who watched this encounter and who, unlike the rich young man, hasn’t turned down Jesus’ invitation and has given up everything to follow him, asks Jesus what those who do give up everything are going to get in return. In response, Jesus tells him the parable of the generous land owner and the vineyard workers who all arrive at different times, wherein some work for many hours and some for virtually no time at all, and yet they all receive the same reward, leaving those who worked the full day and bore the heat of the sun bitter with sense of unfairness. But, the vineyard owner (God) points out that there’s no unfairness here since everyone has in fact received an over-generous return.
What’s the deep lesson? Whenever we’re protesting that it isn’t fair that those who aren’t as faithful as we but are still receiving the full mercy and grace of God we are some distance from understanding grace and living fully inside it.
My dental hygienist knows I’m a Catholic priest and likes to ask me questions about religion and church. One day she shared this story: Her mother and father had both, as far as she knew, never attended church. They’d been benign enough about religion, but not interested themselves. She, their daughter, had begun practicing as a Methodist, mainly through the influence of friends. Then her mother died and as they talked about plans for a funeral, her father revealed that her mother had been baptized as a Roman Catholic, though she had not practiced since her middle-school years. He suggested they try to arrange a Roman Catholic funeral for her. Given all those years of absence, it was with some trepidation that they approached a priest at a nearby parish to ask whether they might have a Roman Catholic funeral for her. To their surprise, the priest’s response was non-hesitant, warm, and welcoming: “Of course, we can do this! It will be an honor! And I’ll arrange for a choir and a reception in the parish hall afterwards.”
No price was exacted for her mother’s life-long absence from the church. She was buried with the full rites of the Church … and her father, well, he was so touched by it all, the generosity of the church and the beauty of the liturgy, that he has since decided to become a Roman Catholic.
One wonders what the effect would have been had the priest refused that funeral, asking how they could justify a church funeral when, for all these years, they weren’t interested in the church. One wonders too how many people find this story comforting rather than discomforting, given a strong ecclesial ethos today wherein many of us nurse the fear that we are handing out grace and mercy too cheaply.
But grace and mercy are never given out cheaply since love is never merited.
Our Values: Commitment
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
Some social commentators have derided the downfall of commitment in our society, especially among young people. They point to lower rates of marriage (and higher rates of divorce) along with other social tendencies. In our fast-paced, ever-changing culture, remembering the value of commitment is increasingly important.
We’re in the fifth week of a series of blog posts all about our staff values here at Nativity and how each serves our mission. If you haven’t been keeping up, links to each post are at the bottom of this page.
This week, we’re looking at our fifth value: commitment.
We define commitment as dedication to the greater good. Commitment is often avoided because it is viewed as restrictive. If, however, viewed as a pledge to the greater good and higher purpose, it can be liberating. Commitment can also be a powerful tool in building effectiveness and success. Basically, we look for three levels of commitment from our staff.
Career Commitment
What is true about our staff at Nativity is probably true of many parish staff: most of our staff did not study to be church employees and have no background in parish work – for that matter, neither did I. Rather, many of our current staff had successful professional careers in law, communications, information technology, education, and finance among other fields. Each came to Nativity out of love for the Church and a commitment to serve others. They use their education, formation, and professional background to serve our mission, and that commitment gives our team both breadth and depth. While there will inevitably be personnel transitions, we look for and enjoy long term commitment from our staff. This kind of commitment is all too rare in church world and weakens parishes where it is absent.
Personal Commitment
One of the most daunting aspects of building a staff at church is asking people to work weekends. Nobody wants to do it, and it is not an easy commitment to make. We ask all of our professional and pastoral staff to work at least some part of, if not the whole weekend. All staff must work certain weekends of the year (like “Kick-Off Sunday” and “Stewardship Sunday”). It amazes us how many parishes we talk to do not have this requirement. The commitment to work weekends is a game-changer for any parish because we are primarily a weekend exercise. Honoring this commitment means rearranging family commitments and even being creative about family and personal time. It’s a sacrifice for sure.
Missional Commitment
The most important commitment our staff makes is to our mission: to love God, love others, and make disciples. This commitment must be at the forefront of all we do and the choices we make, even how we budget and spend money, use our facilities, approach long and short term planning.
Without commitment, a parish staff is at best dysfunctional and underperforming. With commitment, it can soar.
A Timeless Magnificat
You can read this article on the ThinkingFaith.org website by clicking here
Through Mary we receive and understand the grace of God in a special way - ‘we see the truth of God’s promises fulfilled’. How can we be attentive to this all year round? Rev. Dr. James Hanvey SJ lectures in Systematic Theology at Heythrop College, University of London and is Superior of the Jesuit Community at Mount Street, Central London.
‘May is Mary’s month.’ So begins Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, The May Magnificat. As usual with Hopkins, when we think we are in the realm of popular piety he springs a question, presents a metaphor or throws in a step-change rhythm that arrests us. In The May Magnificat, after the opening statement he asks ‘and I/Muse at that and wonder why?’ Why May? Why Mary?
Hopkins goes on to answer his question by drawing deep natural and supernatural connections between Mary, the mother of the Lord of Life and the renewal of life in spring. May is not only the month of Mary but of the Church. For Hopkins, there is an intimate and necessary connection between Mary, the Church and the Holy Spirit: indeed, the Spirit is the vital ground of all things renewed in Christ, for the Spirit is ‘the Lord and Giver of Life.’ The natural liturgy of the seasons and the liturgy of Christian worship seem to come together in directing us to the abundance of life, both in nature and in grace. [1]
Hopkins is a poet whose work is a form of experimental masterclass in the life, work and expression of the Holy Spirit: the dynamic artistry of grace at work in all that is human; the very life of all creative things, their unique and distinctive energies and their deep koinonia. This converges in Mary who exemplifies the action of grace in a human life. It is a mothering action which both brings us to birth, ‘And makes, O marvellous!/New Nazareths in us’. In this sense, she never ceases to incarnate Christ in us because being ‘full of grace’, ‘she shall yet conceive/Him, morning, noon, and eve.’[2] In Mary we see that grace is endlessly creative and recreative and this is the life – that capacity for new beginnings – that Hannah Arendt calls our ‘natality’, though for her it remained a purely human, this-worldly, capacity. Hopkins might remind Arendt that, in fact, Mary shows us that to be truly a human capacity, natality is and must be a graced reality. It is not just an endlessly creative resistance to the inevitable destructions of history, matter and human corruption. ‘Natality’ springs from the divine life within us that constantly ‘mothers’ us into the new life of grace. This ‘natality’ also has a face – it is precisely the way which Christ comes alive in us without diminishing of our own uniqueness. Redeemed in Christ we are coming to our fulfilment, coming to be who we are – who God has created us to be. We become transparent to Him in this world, just like Mary:
who;
This one work has to do,
Let all God’s glory through,
God’s glory which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.[3]
In other words, May is the month when, with Mary, we celebrate the work of grace in us and in the world. Through Mary and in her we see the truth of God’s promises fulfilled.
No doubt some Dawkins-esque anthropologist will theorise that the pagan rites of spring get ‘baptised’ by Marian devotions. Underneath the Christian veneer lie the primeval fertility cults and mother goddesses, and Mary somehow absorbs them all. One of the great features of all religions is that they hold collective memories and customs. There is nothing wrong with that. In religious practices, traditions and customs, we must expect to find these ancient memories because they are usually marking the great foundation rhythms of human life, its meaning, place and purpose. Often overlooked by anthropological rationalism and the symbolically impoverished de-mythologising is an appreciation of the way in which religion can not only carry the rhythms and memory of a pagan past but change them, transposing them into a new key of understanding. It is always a distortion to place Christianity within the secular category of religion and tie it to the methodologies and understanding of the social sciences. Of course, Christianity like any other social reality can and must be studied, and we need a variety of disciplines and approaches to do this well. Yet this should never be allowed to suppress the challenge that Christian revelation and self-understanding presents to the presuppositions of these approaches and the methodological theistic neutrality which they claim to inhabit and make normative.
At the heart of Christianity is a shocking claim: that it is not a purely human creation; it is not the result of some great founding insight or a gradually developed system of integrated beliefs about the vast energies and forces of the cosmos, in which the human person is both subject and agent. Christianity lives from the action of the Holy Spirit and person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God whose life, death and Resurrection redeems us from the futility of an existence without or against God and the distortion in our way of knowing and being that this state brings about. It reveals to us the inexhaustible love of the Father and allows us already to participate in the eternal life of the Triune God, even in our finite and temporal existence. In other words, the Christian life lives in a world already under the reign of God, ‘charged with the Grandeur of God’, which is not just the transcendence of the divine but the glory of the personal love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the world of grace and all the different forms and possibilities of its action. So, how might someone who does not inhabit this world, with its new possibilities and God-given way of understanding and acting, gain some insight into it?
I suggest that they might consider the way in which the Christian faith constantly returns to contemplate Mary of Nazareth, the Mother of God. In her they will see both the scandal and originality of the Christian life and reality. It is a vision of an incarnate God, constantly active in his loving and saving self-gift; a personal God who calls us into a free relationship with him, and only in that relationship is our freedom fully realised. Here is that reversal of the Kingdom, celebrated in Mary’s Magnificat: where the ‘yes’ is not an act of subjection or subservice, but a self-gift of loving service which lives in the transcendence of God’s own self-gift; it is the way in which we choose to live beyond ourselves, not for ourselves, ‘but for him.’ In this sense, Mary is also the stumbling block for all the atheistic secularisms and their values which can sometimes creep into even Christian life and ways of thinking. Mary, who always draws us into the life of her Son, also keeps us open to the mystery that is God’s redemption and sanctification of the human and created order. In this way we can discover the constantly new beginning, the natality of the Spirit which allows us to announce our Magnificat not only in May but in every time and season.
[1] The traditional dedication of May to Mary and the encouragement given to use it as a month of Marian devotions was promoted by Paul VI is an encyclical, Mense Maio in 1965. In this he was endorsing a long tradition in the Catholic Church. Although obviously popular throughout the Church’s life the current tradition of dedicating May to Our Lady was taken up by the Society of Jesus in the 16th century. It was especially promoted in the Roman College of the Society of Jesus and the Marian congregations founded in 1563 by the Belgian Jesuit, Jan Leuens. These congregations – more commonly known as Sodalities – were mainly designed for students and laity. They offered a ‘rule’ of life which sought to integrate prayer, regular attendance at the sacraments, the practice of the virtues and service of the poor and sick. They grew very rapidly and were a means of building up the life of the laity according to the Tridentine reforms. They continued with considerable vitality and effect up until Vatican II, after which they developed into Christian Life Communities.
[2] Gerald Manley Hopkins, The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we Breathe, 59-62.
[3] Ibid., 28-33
Weekday Masses 27th – 30th August, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin … St Monica
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe … St Augustine
Thursday: 12noon Devonport … The Passion of St John the Baptist
Thursday: 12noon Devonport … The Passion of St John the Baptist
Friday: 9:30am
Ulverstone
2:00pm Tandara
Next Weekend 31st Aug – 1st Sept, 2019
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
5:00pm Latrobe
MINISTRY ROSTERS 31st AUGUST – 1st SEPTEMBER, 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 & K Maynard, K Hull, S
Arrowsmith
Cleaners 30th
Aug: M & R
Youd 6th Sept: M.W.C.
Piety Shop 31st August: L Murfet 1st Sept: D French
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: R Locket
Ministers of
Communion: E
Reilly, M & K McKenzie, M O’Halloran
Cleaners: M McKenzie, M Singh, N Pearce Flowers: G Doyle Hospitality:
S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters J Garnsey, S Ewing Commentator:
J Barker Readers: M & D Hiscutt
Ministers of
Communion: M
Murray, E Nickols Liturgy: Penguin
Setting Up: E Nickols Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols
Latrobe:
Reader: Kurt Adkins Minister of
Communion: I
Campbell Procession of
Gifts: M Clarke
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, G Gigliotti Ministers of Communion: J & D Peterson Cleaners: A Hynes
Readings this Week: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Isaiah 66: 18-21
Second Reading: Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13
Gospel: Luke 13: 22-30
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
In order to be more present for my
time of prayer, I allow my mind and body to settle in the way that works best
for me. It may help to have a focal point such as a candle or an object from
nature that reminds me of the essence of God in all things.
I ask for the courage and grace to
listen with an open heart to the message of the Gospel.
Slowly I read the text.
What do I
notice on my initial reading?
I slowly read it again, and this time imagine
being part of the crowd, listening to Jesus teach.
Do I notice anything
different?
What is Jesus’s intention for the
people he teaches?
What does he want them to become
aware of?
What does Jesus want to teach me
about his way, his truth and his life?
Placing myself in the scene, I ask
Jesus my own question about the kingdom.
What am I being called to do?
I ask Jesus for whatever I need in
order to be true to his kingdom values.
I finish my prayer by slowly
praying
Our Father...
Readings Next Week: 22nd Sunday
in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Sirach
3:17-20, 28-29
Second
Reading: Hebrews 12: 18-19, 22-24
Gospel: Luke 14:1,
7-14
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Pam Lynd, David Cole, Norie Capulong, Shelley Sing, Joy Carter, Marie Knight, Allan Stott, Christiana Okpon, Peter Sylvester, Des Dalton & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Terry Casey, Adrian Sullivan, Ron Peters, Janine Jones, John Kelly, Alberto Floresta Snr, Pat Elliott, Mark Jones, Barbara Devlin, Jack McMahon, Shirley Bourke, John Doherty, Peggy O’Leary
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 22nd – 28th August, 2019
Patricia Smith, Bernard Hensby, Jean Flight, Vincenzo De Santis, Lyn Chessell, Niall McKee, Len Burton, Joseph Hawkes, Natasha Gowans, Michael Cassidy, Jack Page, Robert Lee
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
Mersey Leven Parish would like to congratulate Tony &
Shirley Ryan
on the occasion of their 50th
Wedding Anniversary.
We
wish you both love, laughter and happy memories now and always.
Weekly
Ramblings
Thank you to all those who helped make the celebrations for
the Confirmations last weekend so successful. A very special thankyou to the
children who came to Our Lady of Lourdes on Saturday evening (with their
teachers as musicians) to help with the music and singing – you’re help was
greatly appreciated. At the same time I would like to also extend my grateful
thanks to all our musicians who help us with our liturgy each and every week –
you really are appreciated.
Next weekend these same children will be celebrating their
First Communion – please continue to pray with and for them in the days and
weeks ahead. There is no one First Eucharist Mass – the children will be
attending the Mass which best suits their family.
This weekend we celebrate Migrant & Refugee Sunday. The
theme this year is – ‘It’s Not Just About Migrants’. There are a series of
questions that the document is asking us to reflect on – How is God encouraging
and inviting us? Who are we becoming? What kind of society are we preparing for
those who come after us?
None of these are easy questions but as we prepare for
Plenary 2020 we need to look at these and similar questions if we are to be
faithful witnesses of the Gospel into the future. You can find the complete Kit
for 2019 by going to https://www.acmro.catholic.org.au/
On the Church Noticeboard today there is a copy of the
statement from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference concerning Cardinal
Pell.
Take care on the roads and in your homes,
MACKILLOP
HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE:
Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe: Monday 26th August, 10:30am – 12 noon. Join us for a chat on topics of interest to YOU over a cuppa!
Phone: 6428:3095 Email: rsjforth@bigpond.net.au
Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe: Monday 26th August, 10:30am – 12 noon. Join us for a chat on topics of interest to YOU over a cuppa!
Phone: 6428:3095 Email: rsjforth@bigpond.net.au
THURSDAY 29th August – Eyes down 7:30pm. Callers Merv
Tippett & Tony Ryan
FOOTY
MARGIN RESULTS: Round 21 (Friday 16th August) Sydney
won by 53 points. Congratulations to the following winners; Kerry Good, Robyn Bramich, Dale Jenkins.
GRAND FINAL FOOTY MARGIN TICKETS:
$10.00 tickets are now selling – hurry and get yours today! The winner of the $10 tickets will
receive $500.00 and the holder of
the ticket with the number either side of the winning number $100.00. The $10.00 tickets are available from Devonport, Ulverstone and Port
Sorell Mass Centres or by phoning the Parish Office 6424:2783 The weekly $2.00
footy margin tickets will be sold (as normal) during the finals.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
International Pro-Life Filmmaker to speak on the cultural
impact of Euthanasia: August 29
Kevin Dunn – International Pro- Life Filmmaker, will speak
on the topic of Living, Dying and the Power of Presence, using clips
from his documentaries about how euthanasia laws are affecting the culture
of The Netherlands, Belgium, USA and Canada and what we can do to stem the
tide. The talk will take place from 7-9pm on Thursday August 29 at Legana
Christian Church, 1 Gerrard Close, Legana. For more information about the event
please contact Ben Smith on 6208 6036 or ben.smith@aohtas.org.au. For more
information on Kevin see: www.kevindunn.info
SICK AND AGED PRIEST FUND APPEAL: The Fund was established to
ensure that all diocesan priests incardinated into the Archdiocese of Hobart
would receive adequate accommodation, health care and support needed in their
retirement, or should they become ill. Retirement expenses are currently met by
the Sick and Aged Priest Fund via donations and bequests, and by priests
themselves. There are no federal or state government grants to support clergy
in retirement. The Sick and Aged Priest Fund helps to meet the following
needs of our diocesan priests:
· A modest monthly
allowance
· Nursing home and
hostel care for frail priests
· Assistance in
transitioning to retirement
· Assistance with out
of pocket medical and dental expenses
· Assistance with board
and lodging expenses
· Motor vehicle costs.
Please support our diocesan priests
through the Sick and Aged Priest Fund Appeal during September. Your donation
can be placed in an envelope which will be available from all Mass Centres
early September.
DOMINICAN ANNIVERSARY:
60 years ago the Dominican Sisters arrived in Hobart, to
bring Catholic Education for girls to the Northern Suburbs. Dominican
Anniversary will be celebrated with a special Mass on Sunday, September
15th at 10 am at St John’s Glenorchy. Morning tea will follow. All
friends, old scholars and associates of the Dominicans are warmly invited to
attend.
Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic Charity that supports suffering and persecuted Christians. Currently over 200 million Christians worldwide cannot freely exercise their faith; Christians are persecuted, discriminated against or oppressed in more than 40 countries. The primary work of Aid to the Church in Need is focussed on providing spiritual and pastoral support to keep the Catholic faith alive. We support projects at the request of bishops and religious superiors who have nowhere else to turn. We invite you to stay informed by receiving news from the suffering Church. Visit www.aidtochurch.org and click ‘subscribe’. If you prefer to receive our newsletter via post, call 1800 101 201 during business hours to arrange.
One United Dynamic Nature
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
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that
has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. —1 Corinthians 3:11
While the Christian faith is living and evolving, its foundation is still
Jesus, the Christ. Such a firm clear centrepiece will allow us—indeed demand of
us—that we move outward from there. But the pieces of the Rubik’s Cube that we
must forever untangle anew are all firmly in place. The forever union of matter
and spirit, of human and divine, of God with Creation, is revealed in human
history as Jesus, and in the cosmos as Christ.
This pretty much makes any attempts at exclusion virtually
impossible. Such wholeness at the heart of the universe is known by other names
in various religions and fields of study, as we’ll see later this year.
Understanding how Jesus was fully human and fully divine at the
same time requires nondual consciousness. That’s probably why it has often been
best taught by mystics who spend much time in deep prayer. For example, let’s
look closely at the Alexandrian Mystics (312–454 CE)—hermits, monks, and nuns
living in the Egyptian desert. Some of these mystics are known as the Desert
Fathers and Mothers. In general, the early Alexandrian school represents the
more mystical and nondual tradition of Christianity, but it never dominated in
the common imperial versions of the Gospel (either Roman or Byzantine), so it
was completely lost by the time of the Protestant Reformation.
This period of early Christianity is largely unknown and of
little interest to most Western Christians today. With the self-sufficiency and
arrogance that has often characterized the West, we have proceeded as if the
first centuries of the Christian church were unimportant or not a part of the
essential Christ Mystery. So, bear with me as I share a bit more historical and
theological nuance than I usually do.
Christian theologian and friend Amos Smith offers some very
helpful context to help us understand these early Christians:
The Alexandrian Mystics were predominantly Miaphysite (one
united dynamic nature in both Jesus and in us). Jesus is the Great Includer and
we are the endlessly included. They were also hesychasts [practicing a form of
contemplative prayer that focused on clearing the mind of all thoughts and
sensory distractions]. These monks and monk-bishops predate the split between
Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy (1054). They also predate the Oriental
Orthodox split that eventually followed the Council of Chalcedon (451), so they
rightfully belong to the early Church universal. . .
Miaphysite is the non-dual awareness of Christ, who as Cyril
of Alexandria put it, is “at once God and human.” If Jesus is at once God and
human, that means as believers we cannot refer to Jesus as God without
qualifying that: “God in human form.” We also cannot refer to Jesus as human
only without qualifying that: “the human incarnation of God.” The legacy of
Miaphysite theology is only well preserved today in the Oriental Orthodox
Church (not to be confused with Eastern Orthodox). Miaphysite is the crown
jewel of the Alexandrian Mystics. It is the center piece that holds the various
strands of Mystic Christianity together. [1]
I hope I do Amos Smith’s scholarship justice in my brief
summaries the next few days as we continue to explore how the incarnation is
essential to our faith and how we, too, participate in this mystery of creation
embodying the divine.
[1] Amos Smith, Healing the Divide: Recovering
Christianity’s Mystic Roots (Resource Publications: 2013), 242, 253, 258-259.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, “Desert Christianity and the
Eastern Fathers of the Church,” the Mendicant, vol. 5, no. 2 (Center for Action
and Contemplation: 2015), 1.
Imaging Grace
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
Imagine this: A man, entirely careless of all moral and spiritual affairs, lives his life in utter selfishness, pleasure his only pursuit. He lives the high life, never prays, never goes to church, has numerous sexual affairs, and has no concern for anyone but himself. After a long life of this, he’s diagnosed with a terminal illness and, on his deathbed, tearfully repents, makes a sincere confession, receives the Eucharist, and dies inside the blessing of the church and his friends.
Now, if our reaction is, “Well, the lucky fellow! He got to live a life of selfish pleasure and still gets to go to heaven!”, then (according to Piet Fransen, a renowned theologian on Grace) we haven’t yet, at all, understood the workings of grace. To the degree that we still envy the amoral and wish to exclude them from God’s grace, even as we count ourselves in, we are the “Older Brother” of the Prodigal Son, standing outside the Father’s house, heaven, in envy and bitterness.
I teach in a seminary that prepares seminarians for ordination. Recently our professor of Sacramental Theology shared this: He’s been teaching a course on the Sacrament of Reconciliation for more than forty years and only in the last few years have the seminarians asked: “When do we have to refuse giving someone absolution in confession?”
What’s betrayed in this concern? The seminarians asking the question are, no doubt, sincere; they’re not trying to be rigid or hard. Their anxiety is rather about grace and mercy. They’re sincerely anxious about perhaps dispensing God’s mercy too liberally, too cheaply, too indiscriminately, in essence, too unfairly. Their fear is not so much that God’s mercy is limited and that there’s only so much grace to go around. Not that. Their concern is more that by giving out grace so liberally they’re being unfair to those who are practicing faithfully and bearing the heat of the day. Their fear is about fairness, justice, and merit.
What’s at stake here? That grace is not something we merit. After the rich young man in the Gospels turns down Jesus’ invitation to leave everything and follow him, Peter, who watched this encounter and who, unlike the rich young man, hasn’t turned down Jesus’ invitation and has given up everything to follow him, asks Jesus what those who do give up everything are going to get in return. In response, Jesus tells him the parable of the generous land owner and the vineyard workers who all arrive at different times, wherein some work for many hours and some for virtually no time at all, and yet they all receive the same reward, leaving those who worked the full day and bore the heat of the sun bitter with sense of unfairness. But, the vineyard owner (God) points out that there’s no unfairness here since everyone has in fact received an over-generous return.
What’s the deep lesson? Whenever we’re protesting that it isn’t fair that those who aren’t as faithful as we but are still receiving the full mercy and grace of God we are some distance from understanding grace and living fully inside it.
My dental hygienist knows I’m a Catholic priest and likes to ask me questions about religion and church. One day she shared this story: Her mother and father had both, as far as she knew, never attended church. They’d been benign enough about religion, but not interested themselves. She, their daughter, had begun practicing as a Methodist, mainly through the influence of friends. Then her mother died and as they talked about plans for a funeral, her father revealed that her mother had been baptized as a Roman Catholic, though she had not practiced since her middle-school years. He suggested they try to arrange a Roman Catholic funeral for her. Given all those years of absence, it was with some trepidation that they approached a priest at a nearby parish to ask whether they might have a Roman Catholic funeral for her. To their surprise, the priest’s response was non-hesitant, warm, and welcoming: “Of course, we can do this! It will be an honor! And I’ll arrange for a choir and a reception in the parish hall afterwards.”
No price was exacted for her mother’s life-long absence from the church. She was buried with the full rites of the Church … and her father, well, he was so touched by it all, the generosity of the church and the beauty of the liturgy, that he has since decided to become a Roman Catholic.
One wonders what the effect would have been had the priest refused that funeral, asking how they could justify a church funeral when, for all these years, they weren’t interested in the church. One wonders too how many people find this story comforting rather than discomforting, given a strong ecclesial ethos today wherein many of us nurse the fear that we are handing out grace and mercy too cheaply.
But grace and mercy are never given out cheaply since love is never merited.
Our Values: Commitment
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
Some social commentators have derided the downfall of commitment in our society, especially among young people. They point to lower rates of marriage (and higher rates of divorce) along with other social tendencies. In our fast-paced, ever-changing culture, remembering the value of commitment is increasingly important.
We’re in the fifth week of a series of blog posts all about our staff values here at Nativity and how each serves our mission. If you haven’t been keeping up, links to each post are at the bottom of this page.
This week, we’re looking at our fifth value: commitment.
We define commitment as dedication to the greater good. Commitment is often avoided because it is viewed as restrictive. If, however, viewed as a pledge to the greater good and higher purpose, it can be liberating. Commitment can also be a powerful tool in building effectiveness and success. Basically, we look for three levels of commitment from our staff.
Career Commitment
What is true about our staff at Nativity is probably true of many parish staff: most of our staff did not study to be church employees and have no background in parish work – for that matter, neither did I. Rather, many of our current staff had successful professional careers in law, communications, information technology, education, and finance among other fields. Each came to Nativity out of love for the Church and a commitment to serve others. They use their education, formation, and professional background to serve our mission, and that commitment gives our team both breadth and depth. While there will inevitably be personnel transitions, we look for and enjoy long term commitment from our staff. This kind of commitment is all too rare in church world and weakens parishes where it is absent.
Personal Commitment
One of the most daunting aspects of building a staff at church is asking people to work weekends. Nobody wants to do it, and it is not an easy commitment to make. We ask all of our professional and pastoral staff to work at least some part of, if not the whole weekend. All staff must work certain weekends of the year (like “Kick-Off Sunday” and “Stewardship Sunday”). It amazes us how many parishes we talk to do not have this requirement. The commitment to work weekends is a game-changer for any parish because we are primarily a weekend exercise. Honoring this commitment means rearranging family commitments and even being creative about family and personal time. It’s a sacrifice for sure.
Missional Commitment
The most important commitment our staff makes is to our mission: to love God, love others, and make disciples. This commitment must be at the forefront of all we do and the choices we make, even how we budget and spend money, use our facilities, approach long and short term planning.
Without commitment, a parish staff is at best dysfunctional and underperforming. With commitment, it can soar.
A Timeless Magnificat
You can read this article on the ThinkingFaith.org website by clicking here
Through Mary we receive and understand the grace of God in a special way - ‘we see the truth of God’s promises fulfilled’. How can we be attentive to this all year round? Rev. Dr. James Hanvey SJ lectures in Systematic Theology at Heythrop College, University of London and is Superior of the Jesuit Community at Mount Street, Central London.
‘May is Mary’s month.’ So begins Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, The May Magnificat. As usual with Hopkins, when we think we are in the realm of popular piety he springs a question, presents a metaphor or throws in a step-change rhythm that arrests us. In The May Magnificat, after the opening statement he asks ‘and I/Muse at that and wonder why?’ Why May? Why Mary?
Hopkins goes on to answer his question by drawing deep natural and supernatural connections between Mary, the mother of the Lord of Life and the renewal of life in spring. May is not only the month of Mary but of the Church. For Hopkins, there is an intimate and necessary connection between Mary, the Church and the Holy Spirit: indeed, the Spirit is the vital ground of all things renewed in Christ, for the Spirit is ‘the Lord and Giver of Life.’ The natural liturgy of the seasons and the liturgy of Christian worship seem to come together in directing us to the abundance of life, both in nature and in grace. [1]
Hopkins is a poet whose work is a form of experimental masterclass in the life, work and expression of the Holy Spirit: the dynamic artistry of grace at work in all that is human; the very life of all creative things, their unique and distinctive energies and their deep koinonia. This converges in Mary who exemplifies the action of grace in a human life. It is a mothering action which both brings us to birth, ‘And makes, O marvellous!/New Nazareths in us’. In this sense, she never ceases to incarnate Christ in us because being ‘full of grace’, ‘she shall yet conceive/Him, morning, noon, and eve.’[2] In Mary we see that grace is endlessly creative and recreative and this is the life – that capacity for new beginnings – that Hannah Arendt calls our ‘natality’, though for her it remained a purely human, this-worldly, capacity. Hopkins might remind Arendt that, in fact, Mary shows us that to be truly a human capacity, natality is and must be a graced reality. It is not just an endlessly creative resistance to the inevitable destructions of history, matter and human corruption. ‘Natality’ springs from the divine life within us that constantly ‘mothers’ us into the new life of grace. This ‘natality’ also has a face – it is precisely the way which Christ comes alive in us without diminishing of our own uniqueness. Redeemed in Christ we are coming to our fulfilment, coming to be who we are – who God has created us to be. We become transparent to Him in this world, just like Mary:
who;
This one work has to do,
Let all God’s glory through,
God’s glory which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.[3]
In other words, May is the month when, with Mary, we celebrate the work of grace in us and in the world. Through Mary and in her we see the truth of God’s promises fulfilled.
No doubt some Dawkins-esque anthropologist will theorise that the pagan rites of spring get ‘baptised’ by Marian devotions. Underneath the Christian veneer lie the primeval fertility cults and mother goddesses, and Mary somehow absorbs them all. One of the great features of all religions is that they hold collective memories and customs. There is nothing wrong with that. In religious practices, traditions and customs, we must expect to find these ancient memories because they are usually marking the great foundation rhythms of human life, its meaning, place and purpose. Often overlooked by anthropological rationalism and the symbolically impoverished de-mythologising is an appreciation of the way in which religion can not only carry the rhythms and memory of a pagan past but change them, transposing them into a new key of understanding. It is always a distortion to place Christianity within the secular category of religion and tie it to the methodologies and understanding of the social sciences. Of course, Christianity like any other social reality can and must be studied, and we need a variety of disciplines and approaches to do this well. Yet this should never be allowed to suppress the challenge that Christian revelation and self-understanding presents to the presuppositions of these approaches and the methodological theistic neutrality which they claim to inhabit and make normative.
At the heart of Christianity is a shocking claim: that it is not a purely human creation; it is not the result of some great founding insight or a gradually developed system of integrated beliefs about the vast energies and forces of the cosmos, in which the human person is both subject and agent. Christianity lives from the action of the Holy Spirit and person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God whose life, death and Resurrection redeems us from the futility of an existence without or against God and the distortion in our way of knowing and being that this state brings about. It reveals to us the inexhaustible love of the Father and allows us already to participate in the eternal life of the Triune God, even in our finite and temporal existence. In other words, the Christian life lives in a world already under the reign of God, ‘charged with the Grandeur of God’, which is not just the transcendence of the divine but the glory of the personal love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the world of grace and all the different forms and possibilities of its action. So, how might someone who does not inhabit this world, with its new possibilities and God-given way of understanding and acting, gain some insight into it?
I suggest that they might consider the way in which the Christian faith constantly returns to contemplate Mary of Nazareth, the Mother of God. In her they will see both the scandal and originality of the Christian life and reality. It is a vision of an incarnate God, constantly active in his loving and saving self-gift; a personal God who calls us into a free relationship with him, and only in that relationship is our freedom fully realised. Here is that reversal of the Kingdom, celebrated in Mary’s Magnificat: where the ‘yes’ is not an act of subjection or subservice, but a self-gift of loving service which lives in the transcendence of God’s own self-gift; it is the way in which we choose to live beyond ourselves, not for ourselves, ‘but for him.’ In this sense, Mary is also the stumbling block for all the atheistic secularisms and their values which can sometimes creep into even Christian life and ways of thinking. Mary, who always draws us into the life of her Son, also keeps us open to the mystery that is God’s redemption and sanctification of the human and created order. In this way we can discover the constantly new beginning, the natality of the Spirit which allows us to announce our Magnificat not only in May but in every time and season.
[1] The traditional dedication of May to Mary and the encouragement given to use it as a month of Marian devotions was promoted by Paul VI is an encyclical, Mense Maio in 1965. In this he was endorsing a long tradition in the Catholic Church. Although obviously popular throughout the Church’s life the current tradition of dedicating May to Our Lady was taken up by the Society of Jesus in the 16th century. It was especially promoted in the Roman College of the Society of Jesus and the Marian congregations founded in 1563 by the Belgian Jesuit, Jan Leuens. These congregations – more commonly known as Sodalities – were mainly designed for students and laity. They offered a ‘rule’ of life which sought to integrate prayer, regular attendance at the sacraments, the practice of the virtues and service of the poor and sick. They grew very rapidly and were a means of building up the life of the laity according to the Tridentine reforms. They continued with considerable vitality and effect up until Vatican II, after which they developed into Christian Life Communities.
[2] Gerald Manley Hopkins, The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we Breathe, 59-62.
[3] Ibid., 28-33
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