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 6.30pm 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 6.30pm Community Room Ulverstone
Weekday Masses 10th - 13th September, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 10:30am Eliza Purton Nursing Home
12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
MINISTRY ROSTERS 14th & 15th SEPTEMBER, 2019
Readers: Vigil: A McIntyre, M Williams, C Kiely-Hoye
10:30am A
Hughes, T Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Reader: Minister of Communion: Procession of
Gifts:
Port Sorell:
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
Readings Next Week: 24th Sunday
in Ordinary Time – Year C
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Frank McDonald, 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:
Bernadine Manshanden, Tom Jones, Piotr Solecki, Peggy Creed, Sr Aileen Larkin, Ron Peters, Julie Clarke-Traill, Helen McLennan, Terry Casey, Adrian Sullivan, John Kelly, Janine Jones, Mark Jones, Alberto Floresta Snr, Pat Elliott, Barbara Devlin, Jack McMahon, Shirley Bourke, John Doherty, Peggy O’Leary
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 5th – 11th September
Gwendoline Jessup, Robert Adkins, Terence Doody, Mary Davey, Fransicka Bondy, Edward McCarthy, John Smith, Joan Scully, Jenny Richards, Roma Magee, Fabrizio Zolati, Cameron McLaren, Russell Foster, Fr Tom Bresnehan, Joan Williams, Rodney O’Rourke, Anna Leary, David Windridge, Margaret Wesley.
May
the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen
Weekly
Ramblings
During the week Fr Smiley headed
off to Kings Meadows Parish where he will be celebrating Masses whilst Fr Des
Hulm MSC is on holidays. He is due back here at the end of the month and,
hopefully, might be able to move into his unit – it’s been a long time coming.
Take care on the roads and in your homes,
ANNUAL ROSARY PILGRIMAGE 2019
The Mersey Leven Parish is holding its 17th Annual Rosary Pilgrimage around the 6 churches and mass centres of the Parish on Sunday 6th of October. All parishioners, families and friends are encouraged to join us as we pray for world peace, for the consecration of Australia and of Russia, for the conversion of sinners and for the Salvation of souls. You may either join us in the bus or take your own car, or come to the church near you whichever is convenient for you. Bus is available but booking is essential as seats are quickly running out. Itinerary will be posted at the foyer in all churches. For further details and bookings, please contact Hermie 0414 416 661.
THURSDAY 12th September – Eyes down 7:30pm. Callers Merv Tippett & Alan Luxton.
FOOTY MARGIN RESULTS: NO FOOTY LAST WEEKEND.
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
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.
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.
NEW EVANGELIZATION SUMMIT - GLOBAL SUMMIT
Day will be held on Saturday 5th October, 8am-4.30pm, in the Murphy Room, Diocesan Centre, Tower Road. It’s an international event that will inspire thousands of Catholics to be engaged in the New Evangelization. The annual NES was held earlier this year in Ottawa, Canada. It will be video-streamed to host sites globally on October 5th. Hear great ideas about evangelisation, and discuss them with locals. Speakers: Cardinal Gerald Lacroix, Fr James Mallon, Michelle Moran, Michele Thompson, Fr Jon Bielawski, and Michael Dopp.
Register by October 1st: Christine Wood on 6208-6236 or christine.wood@aohtas.org.au. Cost: free. Information: https://www.newevangelization.ca/
ST VINCENT PALLOTTI SCHOLARSHIP TRUST
The St Vincent Pallotti Scholarship Trust offers scholarships to enable lay people to further their understanding and skills in leadership/ministry or a specialised activity, such as promoting faith enhancement, social justice and pastoral care. More information and Applications Forms
are available on our website http://www. pallottine.org.au/scholarships/st vincent pallotti scholarship for lay ministry.html - Closing Date 18 October 2019
ENCOUNTER MYANMAR
Still two places left on an enlightening journey with the Executive Director of Palms Australia. Travelling November 16-29.
Enquire via email palms@palms.org.au or call 02 9560 5333.
SPECIAL SCREENINGS OF “UNPLANNED” THE MOVIE
AT VILLAGE CINEMA, EASTLANDS, 16TH & 25TH SEPT, 7PM.
This movie was screened in the USA earlier this year and had great success in changing people’s hearts about abortion. “Unplanned” depicts the inspiring true story of one woman’s journey of transformation. Abby Johnson wanted to help women as a Planned Parenthood clinic director. She was involved in more than 22,000 abortions, counselled countless women about their reproductive choices, and fought to enact pro-abortion legislation... Until the day she saw something that changed everything.
Purchase your tickets online this weekend to see this real story.
Monday 16th Sept., Village Cinemas, Launceston at 7pm
Wednesday 25th Sept., Village Cinemas, Launceston at 7pm
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
If we are humble and honest, Christians must acknowledge
that most of our churches and leaders have not consistently read the Gospels in
a contemplative way or with “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). Without
contemplative consciousness, we severely limit the Holy Spirit’s capacity for
inspiration and guidance. We had arguments to win, logic to uphold, and
denominational distinctions to maintain, after all. Without the contemplative
mind, humans—even Christians—revel in dualisms and do not understand the
dynamic unity between seeming opposites. The Jesus Paradox (i.e., Jesus being
at once God and human) was meant to teach and exemplify this union. [1] The
separate self fears and denies paradoxes—which is to deny our own self, which
is always filled with seeming contradictions.
“Unless the single grain of wheat dies” we see everything as
a mirror of our separate and small selves, rather than whole. As Jesus put it,
we “will not yield a rich harvest” (John 12:24). We are unable to comprehend
that Christ is our wholeness (see 1 Corinthians 1:30)—set forth for all to
imagine, trust, imitate, and comprehend. He is the Exemplar of Reconciled
Humanity, the Stand-In for all of us. At this wondrous level, Christianity is
hardly a separate religion but simply an organic and hopeful message about the
nature of Reality.
I believe the world—and the West in particular—is
experiencing a rapid evolution of consciousness in recent centuries. Only in
the past few decades have Western Christians even had the capacity to think
nondually! While mystics throughout history have recognized the power of Christ
to overcome dualisms, dichotomies, and divisions, many Christians are just now
realizing what this means. As Augustine said, we are being offered something
“forever ancient and forever new.” It is revolutionary because it is so
traditional and yet so hidden. This traditional teaching can still create a
revolution of mind and heart—and history itself.
As Amos Smith writes: “My core truth about Jesus isn’t
rooted in mainstream Christian tradition. It’s rooted in Jesus’ essence. It’s
about the deep stillness of silent prayer and a theology big enough to give
that blessed stillness words.” [1]
Jesus has always been so much bigger than our ideas about
him, our readiness to surrender to him, and our ability to love and allow what
he clearly loves and allows in creation. He is the microcosm of the macrocosm.
He is the Great Coincidence of Opposites as St. Bonaventure taught. Only the
Jesus Paradox gives us the permission and freedom to finally and fully love the
paradox that everything already and always will be.
[1] Amos Smith, Healing the Divide: Recovering
Christianity’s Mystic Roots (Resource Publications: 2013), 223.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, “Afterword” in Amos Smith,
Healing the Divide: Recovering Christianity’s Mystic Roots (Resource
Publications: 2013), 238-239.
Late Migrations
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
Jesus says that if we follow him, the cross, pain, will find us.
That message is chronically misunderstood. Maybe we would understand it better if Jesus had worded it this way: The more sensitive you become, the more pain will seep into your life. We catch the connection then. Sensitive person suffer more deeply, just as they also drink in more deeply the joys and beauties of life. Pain enters them more deeply for the same reason that meaning does. They’re open to it. The calloused (by definition) are spared of both, deep pain and deep joy.
With this as a backdrop I would like to introduce readers to a new book by Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations – A Natural History of Love and Loss.
This book manifests a rare sensitivity. Some people are gifted intellectually, others artistically, others romantically, and still others emotionally. Renkl is gifted with all of these; particularly with an emotional intelligence which she combines with the refined aesthetics of an artist and then further combines those two with the skill of a gifted, natural writer. It makes for a good package. Content is only part of the gift of this book. Beyond its message, it’s a great piece of writing and a nice piece of art as well.
It’s also a book about faith, though Renkl does not express this very explicitly. She writes primarily as a naturalist, an urban Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, someone who admires nature, spends a lot of time with it, understands well its prodigal character and its innate cruelties, and understands too how those cruelties (where, within nature, life can seem cheap and easily taken) are connected to the deepest forces undergirding all life, including our own. She shares a certain complexity of character with the great paleontologist, mystic, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who was fond of saying that he was born with two incurable loves, a natural love of the pagan world and all its beauties and an equally strong love for the mystical, the other world, that is, the God behind this world. However, unlike Teilhard who is very explicit about his sense of God and the centrality of faith, Renkl’s faith is more inchoate, though clearly manifest in her understanding of nature and in how she intuits the finger of God working inside the stories she shares.
The book is a compilation of short essays, alternating between wonderfully aesthetic descriptions of the life of the birds she feeds and the gardens she tends to equally sensitive descriptions of her own life and that of her family, particularly in terms of loss and grief as inextricably intertwined with love. A few examples:
On our shortcomings in life: “Human beings are creatures made for joy. Against all evidence, we tell ourselves that grief and loneliness and despair are tragedies, unwelcome variations from the pleasure and calm and safety that in the right way of the world would form the firm ground of our being.”
On the lessons to be learned from observing nature: “Every day the world is teaching me what I need to know to be in the world.”
On how sentimentality makes for a one-sided compassion: “The story of one drowned Syrian boy washed up in the surf keeps us awake at night with grief. The story of four million refugees streaming out of Syria seems more like a math problem.”
On nature’s beauty and its cruelty: “Inside the nest box, the baby birds are safe from the hawks, sheltered from the wind, protected from the sharp eye of the crow and the terrible tongue of the red-bellied woodpecker. [But …] Inside the nest box, the baby birds are powerless, vulnerable to the fury of the pitched summer sun, of the house sparrow’s beak. Bounded on all sides by their sheltering home, they are a meal the rat snake eats at its leisure.”
On taking care of our aging loved ones until they die: “The end of caregiving is freedom. The end of caregiving is [also] grief.”
On responding to a woman who insinuated that she, Renkl, was a coward because she much feared the loss of loved ones: “It occurred to me to wonder if she had ever, even once, loved anyone enough to fear the possibility of loss, but that thought was as ugly as her own, and in any case she was not wrong.”
Richard Rohr suggests that we are forever dealing with the twin truths of great suffering and great love. During the course of this book, Renkl shares how her mother, a woman who could in certain areas of her life exhibit extraordinary energy and zest, would sometimes suffer through periods of paralyzing depression and how she herself is not immune to that same experience. There’s a logic to that since, as Jesus says, sensitive persons drink in things very deeply, both suffering and love and the former can paralyze you in grief, even as the latter can give you extraordinary energy and zest.
This book deserves to be read.
Praying the Mass
The Mass was ‘a primary locus of St Ignatius’s spiritual life’, and the founder of the Society of Jesus wrote often about his spiritual experiences during Mass. Newly-ordained priest, Kensy Joseph SJ, draws on those accounts to reflect on what it means to ‘pray’ the Mass. Kensy Joseph SJ was ordained to the priesthood in June 2018 by Bishop Nicholas Hudson. You can find this article and many others on the Thinking Faith website by clicking here
‘After ordination, you’ll spend the first few years learning to “say” the Mass. After that, you can start to “pray” it.’
This advice came from a Jesuit priest supervising one of my ‘dry’ (practice) Masses a few weeks before my ordination. Right now, I’m still learning to ‘say’ the Mass: navigating the various prayers and options in the missal; adjusting vocabulary, tone and volume depending on the church or chapel I’m celebrating Mass in and the community I’m celebrating for; staying aware of my surroundings (and not knocking anything over!), etc. But ‘praying’ the Mass — what an intriguing experience to look forward to!
Growing up, Mass was something I ‘went to’ (or, often, ‘was made to go to’!), ‘attended’ or ‘heard’. The priest ‘said’ or ‘celebrated’ the Mass. In my mother tongue, Malayalam, the corresponding term could be translated as ‘reciting’, ‘chanting’ or even ‘singing’ the Mass. But I’d never heard of praying the Mass. Prayer, I thought, was something one did on one’s own, or with a group. One could pray with Scripture, or pray the rosary or other devotions. Prayer could be internalised and quiet, as it might be in one’s room or at silent Adoration. Alternatively, it could be externalised and vocal, as at a prayer meeting.
Formerly, when I thought about prayer, I was thinking about personal (or private) prayer, which is usually distinguished from liturgical (or public) prayer.[i] In the New Testament, leitourgia refers to a sacrificial offering (Phil 2:17) or some kind of ministry of service (2 Cor 9:12), especially priestly ministry (Luke 1:23; Heb 8:6). Liturgical prayer is a memorial of Christ the High Priest’s sacrificial self-offering; it is ‘the prayer of Christ through the church for the world’.[ii] Essentially, liturgical prayer unites the prayer of the Christian community with the prayer of Christ himself. The Mass is liturgical prayer par excellence.[iii]
Of course, I did (and still do!) engage in personal prayer during Mass – I suspect that I would not have been a candidate for ordination if I had never had an experience of God at Mass! The Mass itself provides many opportunities for this: when the priest says ‘let us acknowledge our sins’ or ‘let us pray’, for example, or during the Eucharistic Prayer. I might engage in mini-lectio divina and dwell prayerfully on some aspect of the readings, or the homily. However, praying the Mass seems to call for something more comprehensive, to which I think St Ignatius Loyola alludes when he describes his experience of the Mass.
St Ignatius and the Mass
St Ignatius was no stranger to praying during Mass. He acquired the habit, during his conversion and the deepening of his spiritual life at Manresa, of reading an account of the Passion during Mass and finding consolation in it.[iv] However, he was not insensitive to the divine mystery present at Mass: he describes a spiritual experience he had, during this period, of the Real Presence in the Eucharist:
… hearing mass one day, as the body of the Lord was being raised, he saw with his interior eyes some things like white rays which were coming from above. And although after so long a time he cannot properly explain this, still what he saw clearly with his understanding was to see how Jesus Christ Our Lord was present in that most holy sacrament.[v]
This, and other spiritual consolations experienced at Mass, must have cemented the significance of the Mass and the Eucharist for St Ignatius. He and his companions made their first formal commitment to fellowship in service of the Lord at Montmartre in 1534. The promise was made at Mass celebrated by Pierre Favre, at that time the only one of the group who was ordained. To this day, every member of the Society pronounces his vows to our triune God at the moment of communion, in the sacramental presence of Christ.
Once he was ordained, St Ignatius postponed the celebration of his first Mass for a year in order to prepare himself spiritually.[vi] This Mass was celebrated in the Chapel of the Nativity of the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome on Christmas night, 1538.
The Mass would continue to be a primary locus of St Ignatius’s spiritual life. We can see this in his Spiritual Diary of 1544, where he engages in a process of discernment about the manner in which the infant Jesuit order was to live in poverty.[vii] Almost every entry in the diary begins with a description of the consolations received at Mass, characteristically in the gift of tears.[viii] The entirety of his first entry (2 February 1544) reads:
Great devotion during mass, with tears, with increased trust in Our Lady, and more inclined both then and during the whole day to choose complete poverty.
Unsurprisingly, he commended daily participation in Mass for members of the Society of Jesus, especially those in formation.[ix] (Jesuits in formation were to spend an additional hour each day in personal prayer and making the twice-daily examen.) That St Ignatius saw the Mass as the focal point of the spiritual life of Jesuits could be inferred from the fact that while he did not prescribe fixed periods of prayer for formed Jesuits, he continued to encourage frequent participation at Mass.[x]
This suggests that St Ignatius’s ideal is the harmonic unity of personal prayer and liturgical prayer at Mass. The Mass does not replace personal prayer (particularly the examen); but neither is it simply a ritualisation of personal prayer. Rather, the Mass, uniquely the prayer of Christ, is what both feeds our prayer as individuals and as community, and draws the two together: the ‘source and summit’ of Christian life.
[i] For a quick introduction, see Dcn. Anthony Curran, Two Paths of Prayer on the Westminster diocese website: https://rcdow.org.uk/news/the-two-paths-of-prayer/ . The terminology for what I am calling personal prayer is varied. In spirituality works it is often referred to as devotional prayer; but this might mislead the reader into thinking that it is limited to traditional devotions such as the rosary, chaplets etc. Calling it non-liturgical prayer defines it by what it is not, rather than what it is. The term private prayer can also be misleading, though technically correct, in that, for instance, a Taizé prayer session in a church or chapel would fall into this category. In the end, personal prayer seems the least problematic; I would remind the reader that this does include communal prayers such as the rosary.
[ii] ibid.
[iii] Other liturgical prayers include: the rites of celebration of the sacraments, the Divine Office and other rites and blessings established by the Church.
[iv] St Ignatius of Loyola, ‘Autobiography’ [§20]. There are many translations of St Ignatius’s autobiography available; I recommend the translation by Joseph Munitiz and Philip Endean (eds.), Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings (Penguin Classics: 1996).
[v] ibid., §29.
[vi] ibid., §96.
[vii] The specific question was whether Jesuit churches were to have fixed incomes, e.g. rents, rather than relying solely on alms. The ‘Spiritual Diary’ is also translated in Munitiz and Endean.
[viii] See St Ignatius’ ‘Spiritual Exercises’ [§316]: ‘Similarly, I use the word ‘consolation’ when one sheds tears that lead to love of one’s Lord, whether these arise from grief over one’s sins, or over the Passion of Christ our Lord, or over other things expressly directed towards His service and praise.’ (translated in Munitiz and Endean)
[ix] ‘Constitutions’ [§342] in John W. Padberg SJ (ed.), The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms: A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts (The Institute of Jesuit Sources: St Louis, 1996).
[x] ‘Constitutions’ [§584].
Weekday Masses 10th - 13th September, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 10:30am Eliza Purton Nursing Home
12noon Devonport
Thursday: 10:30am Eliza Purton Nursing Home
12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
Next Weekend 14th - 15th 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
MINISTRY ROSTERS 14th & 15th SEPTEMBER, 2019
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: A McIntyre, M Williams, C Kiely-Hoye
10:30am A
Hughes, T Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil T Muir, M Davies, D Peters, J Heatley, K & K Maynard
10.30am: B & N Mulcahy, K Hull
Cleaners 13th Sept: M&L
Tippett, A Berryman 20th Sept: K.S.C.
Piety Shop 14th Sept: Helen
Thompson 15th Sept: P Piccolo
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: B O’Rourke
Ministers of
Communion: M
Murray, J Pisarskis, C Harvey, P Grech
Cleaners: M Swain, M Bryan Flowers: M Byrne Hospitality:
Filipino Community
Penguin:
Greeters Fifita Family Commentator:
E Nickols Readers: Fifita Family
Ministers of
Communion: J
Barker, M Hiscutt Liturgy: Sulphur Creek C
Setting Up: A Landers Care of Church: Y & E Downes
Latrobe:
Reader: Minister of Communion: Procession of
Gifts:
Port Sorell:
Readers: L Post, T Jefferies Ministers of Communion: L Post Cleaners: A Hynes
Readings This Week: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Wisdom 9: 13-18
Second Reading: Philemon 9-10, 12-17
Gospel: Luke 14:25-33
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
I move gently into prayer, asking that the Holy Spirit
might help me open myself to an encounter with the living Word.
I take a deep
breath and make a very slow sign of the cross, then take my time to imagine the
Gospel scene.
If it helps, I place myself among the great crowds accompanying
Jesus.
What is it like to be part of the throng … walking with the Lord?
I
watch Jesus turn and speak.
What do I notice about his face, his eyes, his
voice?
Is he speaking to me?
How do I feel about what he is saying?
I pause to
notice what is going on within me … Jesus speaks of wisdom as a requirement for
discipleship.
Perhaps I can think of times when I haven’t been single-minded in
my own pursuit of ‘the intentions of God’ (First Reading).
Are there any
‘possessions’ getting in the way of my relationship with the Lord now?
I spend
some moments in the Lord’s company, confident and hopeful that the One who
calls me will give me what I need to be a true disciple.
I may be limited
myself, but the Holy Spirit, who desires to guide me toward the fullness of
truth, is not.
Glory be …
Readings Next Week: 24th Sunday
in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Exodus
32:7-11, 13-14
Second
Reading: Timothy 1:12-17
Gospel: Luke 15:1-32
Frank McDonald, 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:
Bernadine Manshanden, Tom Jones, Piotr Solecki, Peggy Creed, Sr Aileen Larkin, Ron Peters, Julie Clarke-Traill, Helen McLennan, Terry Casey, Adrian Sullivan, John Kelly, Janine Jones, Mark Jones, Alberto Floresta Snr, Pat Elliott, Barbara Devlin, Jack McMahon, Shirley Bourke, John Doherty, Peggy O’Leary
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 5th – 11th September
Gwendoline Jessup, Robert Adkins, Terence Doody, Mary Davey, Fransicka Bondy, Edward McCarthy, John Smith, Joan Scully, Jenny Richards, Roma Magee, Fabrizio Zolati, Cameron McLaren, Russell Foster, Fr Tom Bresnehan, Joan Williams, Rodney O’Rourke, Anna Leary, David Windridge, Margaret Wesley.
May
the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen
Weekly
Ramblings
During the week Fr Smiley headed
off to Kings Meadows Parish where he will be celebrating Masses whilst Fr Des
Hulm MSC is on holidays. He is due back here at the end of the month and,
hopefully, might be able to move into his unit – it’s been a long time coming.
As I’ve mentioned frequently in my
homilies over the past few years Prayer is an important part of the foundation
blocks of our Parish – as well as being an essential part of the life of every
Christian. We will be using the Month of October to once again focus our
attention of Prayer in our lives. Last year it was part of our Plenary 2020
preparation process – this year we will be looking at various aspects of our
Community and intentionally praying for those needs during the month. There
will be more details over the next two weekends.
On Saturday, 21st September, Steven
Smith and Chathura Silva will be ordained to the Diaconate at the Church of the
Apostles, Launceston at 11am. Steven will be known to many of you as he has
been part of our Parish during two appointments – one a brief Holy Week Easter
visit as well as a longer Pastoral Placement during 2017. If you are able to
attend would you be so kind as to contact Mrs Michele Boucher on 03 6208 6225
or michele.boucher@aohtas.org.au.
Take care on the roads and in your homes, ANNUAL ROSARY PILGRIMAGE 2019
The Mersey Leven Parish is holding its 17th Annual Rosary Pilgrimage around the 6 churches and mass centres of the Parish on Sunday 6th of October. All parishioners, families and friends are encouraged to join us as we pray for world peace, for the consecration of Australia and of Russia, for the conversion of sinners and for the Salvation of souls. You may either join us in the bus or take your own car, or come to the church near you whichever is convenient for you. Bus is available but booking is essential as seats are quickly running out. Itinerary will be posted at the foyer in all churches. For further details and bookings, please contact Hermie 0414 416 661.
FOOTY MARGIN RESULTS: NO FOOTY LAST WEEKEND.
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
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.
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.
Day will be held on Saturday 5th October, 8am-4.30pm, in the Murphy Room, Diocesan Centre, Tower Road. It’s an international event that will inspire thousands of Catholics to be engaged in the New Evangelization. The annual NES was held earlier this year in Ottawa, Canada. It will be video-streamed to host sites globally on October 5th. Hear great ideas about evangelisation, and discuss them with locals. Speakers: Cardinal Gerald Lacroix, Fr James Mallon, Michelle Moran, Michele Thompson, Fr Jon Bielawski, and Michael Dopp.
Register by October 1st: Christine Wood on 6208-6236 or christine.wood@aohtas.org.au. Cost: free. Information: https://www.newevangelization.ca/
The St Vincent Pallotti Scholarship Trust offers scholarships to enable lay people to further their understanding and skills in leadership/ministry or a specialised activity, such as promoting faith enhancement, social justice and pastoral care. More information and Applications Forms
are available on our website http://www. pallottine.org.au/scholarships/st vincent pallotti scholarship for lay ministry.html - Closing Date 18 October 2019
ENCOUNTER MYANMAR
Still two places left on an enlightening journey with the Executive Director of Palms Australia. Travelling November 16-29.
Enquire via email palms@palms.org.au or call 02 9560 5333.
SPECIAL SCREENINGS OF “UNPLANNED” THE MOVIE
AT VILLAGE CINEMA, EASTLANDS, 16TH & 25TH SEPT, 7PM.
This movie was screened in the USA earlier this year and had great success in changing people’s hearts about abortion. “Unplanned” depicts the inspiring true story of one woman’s journey of transformation. Abby Johnson wanted to help women as a Planned Parenthood clinic director. She was involved in more than 22,000 abortions, counselled countless women about their reproductive choices, and fought to enact pro-abortion legislation... Until the day she saw something that changed everything.
Purchase your tickets online this weekend to see this real story.
Monday 16th Sept., Village Cinemas, Launceston at 7pm
Wednesday 25th Sept., Village Cinemas, Launceston at 7pm
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
If we are humble and honest, Christians must acknowledge
that most of our churches and leaders have not consistently read the Gospels in
a contemplative way or with “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). Without
contemplative consciousness, we severely limit the Holy Spirit’s capacity for
inspiration and guidance. We had arguments to win, logic to uphold, and
denominational distinctions to maintain, after all. Without the contemplative
mind, humans—even Christians—revel in dualisms and do not understand the
dynamic unity between seeming opposites. The Jesus Paradox (i.e., Jesus being
at once God and human) was meant to teach and exemplify this union. [1] The
separate self fears and denies paradoxes—which is to deny our own self, which
is always filled with seeming contradictions.
“Unless the single grain of wheat dies” we see everything as
a mirror of our separate and small selves, rather than whole. As Jesus put it,
we “will not yield a rich harvest” (John 12:24). We are unable to comprehend
that Christ is our wholeness (see 1 Corinthians 1:30)—set forth for all to
imagine, trust, imitate, and comprehend. He is the Exemplar of Reconciled
Humanity, the Stand-In for all of us. At this wondrous level, Christianity is
hardly a separate religion but simply an organic and hopeful message about the
nature of Reality.
I believe the world—and the West in particular—is
experiencing a rapid evolution of consciousness in recent centuries. Only in
the past few decades have Western Christians even had the capacity to think
nondually! While mystics throughout history have recognized the power of Christ
to overcome dualisms, dichotomies, and divisions, many Christians are just now
realizing what this means. As Augustine said, we are being offered something
“forever ancient and forever new.” It is revolutionary because it is so
traditional and yet so hidden. This traditional teaching can still create a
revolution of mind and heart—and history itself.
As Amos Smith writes: “My core truth about Jesus isn’t
rooted in mainstream Christian tradition. It’s rooted in Jesus’ essence. It’s
about the deep stillness of silent prayer and a theology big enough to give
that blessed stillness words.” [1]
Jesus has always been so much bigger than our ideas about
him, our readiness to surrender to him, and our ability to love and allow what
he clearly loves and allows in creation. He is the microcosm of the macrocosm.
He is the Great Coincidence of Opposites as St. Bonaventure taught. Only the
Jesus Paradox gives us the permission and freedom to finally and fully love the
paradox that everything already and always will be.
[1] Amos Smith, Healing the Divide: Recovering
Christianity’s Mystic Roots (Resource Publications: 2013), 223.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, “Afterword” in Amos Smith,
Healing the Divide: Recovering Christianity’s Mystic Roots (Resource
Publications: 2013), 238-239.
Late Migrations
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
Jesus says that if we follow him, the cross, pain, will find us.
That message is chronically misunderstood. Maybe we would understand it better if Jesus had worded it this way: The more sensitive you become, the more pain will seep into your life. We catch the connection then. Sensitive person suffer more deeply, just as they also drink in more deeply the joys and beauties of life. Pain enters them more deeply for the same reason that meaning does. They’re open to it. The calloused (by definition) are spared of both, deep pain and deep joy.
With this as a backdrop I would like to introduce readers to a new book by Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations – A Natural History of Love and Loss.
This book manifests a rare sensitivity. Some people are gifted intellectually, others artistically, others romantically, and still others emotionally. Renkl is gifted with all of these; particularly with an emotional intelligence which she combines with the refined aesthetics of an artist and then further combines those two with the skill of a gifted, natural writer. It makes for a good package. Content is only part of the gift of this book. Beyond its message, it’s a great piece of writing and a nice piece of art as well.
It’s also a book about faith, though Renkl does not express this very explicitly. She writes primarily as a naturalist, an urban Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, someone who admires nature, spends a lot of time with it, understands well its prodigal character and its innate cruelties, and understands too how those cruelties (where, within nature, life can seem cheap and easily taken) are connected to the deepest forces undergirding all life, including our own. She shares a certain complexity of character with the great paleontologist, mystic, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who was fond of saying that he was born with two incurable loves, a natural love of the pagan world and all its beauties and an equally strong love for the mystical, the other world, that is, the God behind this world. However, unlike Teilhard who is very explicit about his sense of God and the centrality of faith, Renkl’s faith is more inchoate, though clearly manifest in her understanding of nature and in how she intuits the finger of God working inside the stories she shares.
The book is a compilation of short essays, alternating between wonderfully aesthetic descriptions of the life of the birds she feeds and the gardens she tends to equally sensitive descriptions of her own life and that of her family, particularly in terms of loss and grief as inextricably intertwined with love. A few examples:
On our shortcomings in life: “Human beings are creatures made for joy. Against all evidence, we tell ourselves that grief and loneliness and despair are tragedies, unwelcome variations from the pleasure and calm and safety that in the right way of the world would form the firm ground of our being.”
On the lessons to be learned from observing nature: “Every day the world is teaching me what I need to know to be in the world.”
On how sentimentality makes for a one-sided compassion: “The story of one drowned Syrian boy washed up in the surf keeps us awake at night with grief. The story of four million refugees streaming out of Syria seems more like a math problem.”
On nature’s beauty and its cruelty: “Inside the nest box, the baby birds are safe from the hawks, sheltered from the wind, protected from the sharp eye of the crow and the terrible tongue of the red-bellied woodpecker. [But …] Inside the nest box, the baby birds are powerless, vulnerable to the fury of the pitched summer sun, of the house sparrow’s beak. Bounded on all sides by their sheltering home, they are a meal the rat snake eats at its leisure.”
On taking care of our aging loved ones until they die: “The end of caregiving is freedom. The end of caregiving is [also] grief.”
On responding to a woman who insinuated that she, Renkl, was a coward because she much feared the loss of loved ones: “It occurred to me to wonder if she had ever, even once, loved anyone enough to fear the possibility of loss, but that thought was as ugly as her own, and in any case she was not wrong.”
Richard Rohr suggests that we are forever dealing with the twin truths of great suffering and great love. During the course of this book, Renkl shares how her mother, a woman who could in certain areas of her life exhibit extraordinary energy and zest, would sometimes suffer through periods of paralyzing depression and how she herself is not immune to that same experience. There’s a logic to that since, as Jesus says, sensitive persons drink in things very deeply, both suffering and love and the former can paralyze you in grief, even as the latter can give you extraordinary energy and zest.
This book deserves to be read.
Praying the Mass
The Mass was ‘a primary locus of St Ignatius’s spiritual life’, and the founder of the Society of Jesus wrote often about his spiritual experiences during Mass. Newly-ordained priest, Kensy Joseph SJ, draws on those accounts to reflect on what it means to ‘pray’ the Mass. Kensy Joseph SJ was ordained to the priesthood in June 2018 by Bishop Nicholas Hudson. You can find this article and many others on the Thinking Faith website by clicking here
‘After ordination, you’ll spend the first few years learning to “say” the Mass. After that, you can start to “pray” it.’
This advice came from a Jesuit priest supervising one of my ‘dry’ (practice) Masses a few weeks before my ordination. Right now, I’m still learning to ‘say’ the Mass: navigating the various prayers and options in the missal; adjusting vocabulary, tone and volume depending on the church or chapel I’m celebrating Mass in and the community I’m celebrating for; staying aware of my surroundings (and not knocking anything over!), etc. But ‘praying’ the Mass — what an intriguing experience to look forward to!
Growing up, Mass was something I ‘went to’ (or, often, ‘was made to go to’!), ‘attended’ or ‘heard’. The priest ‘said’ or ‘celebrated’ the Mass. In my mother tongue, Malayalam, the corresponding term could be translated as ‘reciting’, ‘chanting’ or even ‘singing’ the Mass. But I’d never heard of praying the Mass. Prayer, I thought, was something one did on one’s own, or with a group. One could pray with Scripture, or pray the rosary or other devotions. Prayer could be internalised and quiet, as it might be in one’s room or at silent Adoration. Alternatively, it could be externalised and vocal, as at a prayer meeting.
Formerly, when I thought about prayer, I was thinking about personal (or private) prayer, which is usually distinguished from liturgical (or public) prayer.[i] In the New Testament, leitourgia refers to a sacrificial offering (Phil 2:17) or some kind of ministry of service (2 Cor 9:12), especially priestly ministry (Luke 1:23; Heb 8:6). Liturgical prayer is a memorial of Christ the High Priest’s sacrificial self-offering; it is ‘the prayer of Christ through the church for the world’.[ii] Essentially, liturgical prayer unites the prayer of the Christian community with the prayer of Christ himself. The Mass is liturgical prayer par excellence.[iii]
Of course, I did (and still do!) engage in personal prayer during Mass – I suspect that I would not have been a candidate for ordination if I had never had an experience of God at Mass! The Mass itself provides many opportunities for this: when the priest says ‘let us acknowledge our sins’ or ‘let us pray’, for example, or during the Eucharistic Prayer. I might engage in mini-lectio divina and dwell prayerfully on some aspect of the readings, or the homily. However, praying the Mass seems to call for something more comprehensive, to which I think St Ignatius Loyola alludes when he describes his experience of the Mass.
St Ignatius and the Mass
St Ignatius was no stranger to praying during Mass. He acquired the habit, during his conversion and the deepening of his spiritual life at Manresa, of reading an account of the Passion during Mass and finding consolation in it.[iv] However, he was not insensitive to the divine mystery present at Mass: he describes a spiritual experience he had, during this period, of the Real Presence in the Eucharist:
… hearing mass one day, as the body of the Lord was being raised, he saw with his interior eyes some things like white rays which were coming from above. And although after so long a time he cannot properly explain this, still what he saw clearly with his understanding was to see how Jesus Christ Our Lord was present in that most holy sacrament.[v]
This, and other spiritual consolations experienced at Mass, must have cemented the significance of the Mass and the Eucharist for St Ignatius. He and his companions made their first formal commitment to fellowship in service of the Lord at Montmartre in 1534. The promise was made at Mass celebrated by Pierre Favre, at that time the only one of the group who was ordained. To this day, every member of the Society pronounces his vows to our triune God at the moment of communion, in the sacramental presence of Christ.
Once he was ordained, St Ignatius postponed the celebration of his first Mass for a year in order to prepare himself spiritually.[vi] This Mass was celebrated in the Chapel of the Nativity of the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome on Christmas night, 1538.
The Mass would continue to be a primary locus of St Ignatius’s spiritual life. We can see this in his Spiritual Diary of 1544, where he engages in a process of discernment about the manner in which the infant Jesuit order was to live in poverty.[vii] Almost every entry in the diary begins with a description of the consolations received at Mass, characteristically in the gift of tears.[viii] The entirety of his first entry (2 February 1544) reads:
Great devotion during mass, with tears, with increased trust in Our Lady, and more inclined both then and during the whole day to choose complete poverty.
Unsurprisingly, he commended daily participation in Mass for members of the Society of Jesus, especially those in formation.[ix] (Jesuits in formation were to spend an additional hour each day in personal prayer and making the twice-daily examen.) That St Ignatius saw the Mass as the focal point of the spiritual life of Jesuits could be inferred from the fact that while he did not prescribe fixed periods of prayer for formed Jesuits, he continued to encourage frequent participation at Mass.[x]
This suggests that St Ignatius’s ideal is the harmonic unity of personal prayer and liturgical prayer at Mass. The Mass does not replace personal prayer (particularly the examen); but neither is it simply a ritualisation of personal prayer. Rather, the Mass, uniquely the prayer of Christ, is what both feeds our prayer as individuals and as community, and draws the two together: the ‘source and summit’ of Christian life.
[i] For a quick introduction, see Dcn. Anthony Curran, Two Paths of Prayer on the Westminster diocese website: https://rcdow.org.uk/news/the-two-paths-of-prayer/ . The terminology for what I am calling personal prayer is varied. In spirituality works it is often referred to as devotional prayer; but this might mislead the reader into thinking that it is limited to traditional devotions such as the rosary, chaplets etc. Calling it non-liturgical prayer defines it by what it is not, rather than what it is. The term private prayer can also be misleading, though technically correct, in that, for instance, a Taizé prayer session in a church or chapel would fall into this category. In the end, personal prayer seems the least problematic; I would remind the reader that this does include communal prayers such as the rosary.
[ii] ibid.
[iii] Other liturgical prayers include: the rites of celebration of the sacraments, the Divine Office and other rites and blessings established by the Church.
[iv] St Ignatius of Loyola, ‘Autobiography’ [§20]. There are many translations of St Ignatius’s autobiography available; I recommend the translation by Joseph Munitiz and Philip Endean (eds.), Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings (Penguin Classics: 1996).
[v] ibid., §29.
[vi] ibid., §96.
[vii] The specific question was whether Jesuit churches were to have fixed incomes, e.g. rents, rather than relying solely on alms. The ‘Spiritual Diary’ is also translated in Munitiz and Endean.
[viii] See St Ignatius’ ‘Spiritual Exercises’ [§316]: ‘Similarly, I use the word ‘consolation’ when one sheds tears that lead to love of one’s Lord, whether these arise from grief over one’s sins, or over the Passion of Christ our Lord, or over other things expressly directed towards His service and praise.’ (translated in Munitiz and Endean)
[ix] ‘Constitutions’ [§342] in John W. Padberg SJ (ed.), The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms: A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts (The Institute of Jesuit Sources: St Louis, 1996).
[x] ‘Constitutions’ [§584].
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