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 17th – 20th September, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: No Mass
Thursday: 10:30am Karingal … St Januarius
Friday: 11:00am Mt St Vincent … Sts Andrew Kim Tae-gôn, Paul Chông Ha-sang & companions
Next Weekend 21st & 22nd September Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Devonport
6:00pm Penguin
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
MINISTRY ROSTERS 21st & 22nd SEPTEMBER, 2019
Devonport:
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Port Sorell:
Readings this Week: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
I take time to come to inner stillness, trusting that I am in the presence of a loving, compassionate God who accepts me exactly as I am.
When ready, I turn prayerfully to the text, perhaps imagining myself standing with the ‘sinners’ who have come to seek out Jesus.
I watch and listen, noticing anything that touches me.
How do I feel?
Both parables describe the joy as the lost are found: the joy of the shepherd; of the whole community; and finally of heaven itself.
I ponder ... (and I may like to notice how this joy is depicted by the artist on the back page).
If I can, I allow myself to be the object of God’s joy for a while, and simply rest in his gaze.
What are the things that bring me most joy in my life?
To whom would I like to bring joy myself?
I share my thoughts and feelings with the Lord.
Before I end my prayer, I call to mind anyone whom I would specially like God to seek out and bring home, and lift them up to him now.
As I gently bring my prayer to a close, I give thanks to the Lord who rejoices in forgiving.
Glory be ...
Readings Next Week: 25th Sunday
in Ordinary Time – Year C
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Adrian Drane, Frank McDonald, Pam Lynd, David Cole & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Eva Gulosino, 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, Alberto Floresta Snr
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 12th – 18th September
Silvano Paladin, John Kopplemann, Fausta Farrow, John Hill, Jan Deeka, Cyril Scattergood, Cyril Smith, Sybil O’Connor, John Hall, Molly Page, Melba Robertson, Dorothy Crawford, Evelyn Murray, Denise Sproule, Leonard Payne, Patrick Laird, Margaret Scanlan, Iris Bird, Shirley Ranson, Aubrey Sheridan.
May the souls of the
faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
CONGRATULATIONS
Fr Paschal
on your 2nd Anniversary of Ordination to the Priesthood
Saturday 15th September.
On Wednesday Fr Paschal, and all the other priests of the Archdiocese, will join us for our 2nd Pastoral Conference for 2019. One of the key topics will be looking at the impact the law passed this week in State Parliament concerning mandatory reporting by clergy and how that effects the sanctity of the seal of the Sacrament of Reconciliation – this item was on the agenda before it was known when the law would be before Parliament.
I believe wholeheartedly in mandatory reporting so I am looking forward with interest to the presentation by Fr John Doherty, a canon lawyer from Sydney, who will present an outline of how to address possible situations involving child sexual abuse revealed in the confessional.
Next Saturday, 21st, we will be at the Church of the Apostles, Launceston (at 11am) for the Ordination to the Diaconate of Steven Smith and Chathura Silva. There is an open invitation to everyone who wishes to attend this great event in the life of these two men – and a great moment for the Archdiocese as well.
As mentioned last weekend we will again have a focus on Prayer during the month of October. Last year the focus was on the Plenary 2020 process – this year we will be looking at a variety of Prayer types and will be inviting parishioners to consider participating in a style of prayer that might be different from your normal prayer. More information will be available next weekend with dates, times and places made available so that you might choose where you can participate.
MACKILLOP
HILL:
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.
SACRED
HEART CHURCH CLEANING ROSTER:
COLUMBAN CALENDARS:
LAST TWO WEEKS TO PURCHASE YOUR $10.00 GRAND FINAL FOOTY MARGIN
TICKETS:
Can you help support this great fundraiser?? We still have $10.00
tickets available!! If you have already
purchased your $10.00 ticket you may consider buying another one (or two)!! The winners of the $10 tickets will
receive $500.00 each (x2 prizes),
and the holder of the ticket with the numbers either side of the winning number
$100.00 each. The $10.00 tickets are available from
Devonport, Ulverstone and Port Sorell Mass Centres or by phoning the Parish
Office 6424:2783. Weekly $2 tickets are still available
FOOTY
MARGIN RESULTS: Qualifying Final Collingwood defeated Geelong by 10 points.
Winners; Anne Fisher, Rainie Allford.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
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/
CARMELITE
WEEKEND RETREAT: Theme: True Mindfulness: ‘Putting on the Mind
of Christ’. Carmelite
Friar, Fr Gerard Moran, ocd will be the Retreat Director at the Emmanuel
Centre, Launceston. Friday 18th – 20th October. Cost of the weekend $220
includes all meals and accommodation. Bookings are essential to Helen 6344:6382
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
JOB VACANCY:
Christ is Everyman and Everywoman
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
Many of the early Christian mystics saw Jesus as a dynamic
and living (“interactive”) union of human and divine in one person. They saw
Christ as the living icon of the eternal union of matter and Spirit in all of creation.
Jesus was fully human, just as he was fully divine at the same time. Dualistic
thinkers find that impossible to process, so they usually just choose one side
or the other.
Many who call themselves conservative seem to believe that
Jesus is fully divine and we are barely human. Liberals and many non-believers
seem to believe that Jesus is only human, and the divine isn’t necessary. Both
sides are missing the major point of putting divine and human together! They
both lack the proper skill set of the contemplative mind.
Matter and Spirit must be recognized as inseparable in
Christ before we have the courage and insight to acknowledge and honor the same
in ourselves and in the entire universe. Jesus is the Archetype of Everything.
One of my favorite Orthodox scholars, Olivier Clément
(1921–2009), helps explain early Eastern Christianity’s understanding of Christ
with some profound statements of his own:
The whole of humanity, “forms, so to speak, a single living
being.” In Christ we form a single body, we are all “members of one another.”
For the one flesh of humanity and of the earth “brought into contact” in Christ
“with the fire” of his divinity, is henceforward secretly and sacramentally
deified. [2]
Unfortunately, at the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE), this
view—the single, unified nature of Christ—was rejected for the “orthodox”
belief, held to this day by most Christian denominations, that emphasizes two
distinct natures in Jesus instead of one new synthesis. Sometimes what seems
like orthodoxy is, in fact, a well-hidden and well disguised heresy!
Perhaps quantum physics can help us reclaim what we’ve lost
because our dualistic minds couldn’t understand or experience the living
paradox that Jesus represents. Now science is confirming there is no clear
division between matter and spirit. Everything is interpenetrating. As
Franciscan scientist and theologian Ilia Delio says, “We are in the universe
and the universe is in us.”
[1] Olivier Clément, The Roots of Christian Mysticism (New
City Press: 2013), 47.
[2] Ibid., 46.
The Scent of Humility
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
According to Isaac the Syrian, a famous 7th Century bishop and theologian, a person who’s genuinely humble gives off a certain scent that other people will sense and that even animals will pick up, so that wild animals, including snakes, will fall under its spell and never harm that person.
Here’s his logic: A humble person, he believes, has recovered the smell of paradise and in the presence of such a person one does not feel judged and has nothing to fear, and this holds true even for animals. They feel safe around a humble person and are drawn to him or her. No wonder people like Francis of Assisi could talk to birds and befriend wolves.
But, beautiful as this all sounds, is this a pious fairytale or is it a rich, archetypal metaphor? I like to think it’s the latter, this is a rich metaphor, and perhaps even something more. Humility, indeed, does have a smell, the smell of the earth, of the soil, and of paradise.
But how? How can a spiritual quality give off a physical scent?
Well, we’re psychosomatic, creatures of both body and soul. Thus, in us, the physical and the spiritual are so much part of one and the same substance that it’s impossible to separate them out from each other. To say that we’re body and soul is like saying sugar is white and sweet and that whiteness and sweetness can never be put into separate piles. They’re both inside the sugar. We’re one substance, inseparable, body and soul, and so we’re always both physical and spiritual. So, in fact, we do feel physical things spiritually, just as we smell spiritual things through our physical senses. If this is true, and it is, then, yes, humility does give off a scent that can be sensed physically and Isaac the Syrian’s concept is more than just a metaphor.
But it’s also a metaphor: The word humility takes its root in the Latin word, humus, meaning soil, ground, and earth. If one goes with this definition then the most humble person you know is the most-earthy and most-grounded person you know. To be humble is to have one’s feet firmly planted on the ground, to be in touch with the earth, and to carry the smell of the earth. Further still, to be humble is to take one’s rightful place as a piece of the earth and not as someone or something separate from it.
The renowned mystic and scientist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, expressed this sometimes in his prayers. During the years when, as paleontologist, he worked for long stretches in the isolated deserts of China he would sometimes compose prayers to God in a form he called, A Mass for the World. Speaking to God, as a priest, he would identify his voice with that of the earth itself, as that place within physical creation where the earth itself, the soil of the earth, could open itself and speak to God. As a priest, he didn’t speak for the earth; he spoke as the earth, giving it voice, in words to this effect:
Lord, God, I stand before you as a microcosm of the earth itself, to give it voice: See in my openness, the world’s openness, in my infidelity, the world’s infidelity; in my sincerity, the world’s sincerity, in my hypocrisy, the world’s hypocrisy; in my generosity, the world’s generosity in my attentiveness, the world’s attentiveness, in my distraction, the world’s distraction; in my desire to praise you, the world’s desire to praise you, and in my self-preoccupation, the world’s forgetfulness of you. For I am of the earth, a piece of earth, and the earth opens or closes to you through my body, my soul, and my voice.
This is humility, an expression of genuine humility. Humility should never be confused, as it often is, with a wounded self-image, with an excessive reticence, with timidity and fear, or with an overly sensitive self-awareness. Too common is the notion that a humble person is one who is self-effacing to a fault, who deflects praise (even when it’s deserved), who is too shy to trust opening himself or herself in intimacy, or who is so fearful or self-conscious and worried about being shamed so as to never step forward and offer his or her gifts to the community. These can make for a gentle and self-effacing person, but because we are denigrating ourselves when to deny our own giftedness, our humility is false, and deep-down we know it, and so this often makes for someone who nurses some not-so-hidden angers and is prone to being passive aggressive.
The most humble person you know is the person who’s the most-grounded, that is, the person who knows she’s not the center of the earth but also knows that she isn’t a second-rate piece of dirt either. And that person will give off a scent that carries both the fragrance of paradise (of divine gift) as well as the smell of the earth.
"All-In" For Rebuilt 2020
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
One of the hardest things to do when beginning a parish rebuilding process is to imagine the vision clearly and concretely. There are so many things that just can’t be grasped through the written word or digital channels. The feel of a place when you walk in. The warmth that comes from a gracious welcome. The practical details of how a program works. And, most importantly, the energy that comes from vibrant community and worship.
Conferences helped us see the vision when we began our own journey of rebuilding. Experiencing Saddleback Church and North Point Church firsthand, among others, made concrete the vision we had read so much about.
And that’s why we host our own conference. We want to open up our campus to share our vision, what we’ve learned and what we know works when it comes to leading and growing a healthy parish.
Rebuilt 2020 is your opportunity to be inspired, equipped, and encouraged in the work of rebuilding your parish. The conference will consist of four keynotes delivered by myself and my associate, Tom Corcoran, as well as Curtis Martin, founder of FOCUS, and Jeff Henderson, Lead Pastor of Gwinnett Church of North Point Ministries, one of the fastest-growing churches in the country. There will also be the opportunity to choose from dozens of breakout sessions, which we have totally revamped from our last conference in 2018.
What makes Rebuilt different?
It’s Offered by People Who Work in a Parish.
The conference is planned and executed entirely by Nativity staff members and member-ministers, not church consultants. We know what it means to be in the trenches of a Catholic parish day-in and day-out. We understand the most current challenges of working in a local parish, and we want you to know you aren’t alone. We want our conference to reflect that experience, not just book-knowledge.
It’s for Everyone.
This conference is for anyone who wants to make church matter at their local parish. It’s not just for pastors, or catechists, or liturgists – everyone will benefit. In fact, the best way to experience the conference is with your whole team. That way, you can each go to separate breakouts and share what you learned with each other. And, the best way to generate momentum while rebuilding is to get everyone on board.
It’s Got New Content.
While the principles of Rebuilt are unchanging, the application is always evolving. This year, we’ve reworked all our breakout sessions to reflect what we’ve learned since the last conference. Breakouts cover all areas of church life (sacramental prep, small groups, missions, kids and student ministry, money, music, you name it). Everything we talk about we actually do. It will be practical as well as inspiring.
It’s a Great Bargain.
Register early and enjoy deep discounts. Plan now and you can probably find great deals on Southwest to BWI and we are in the process of working out some group discounts at local hotels. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks are included in the registration fee. All that means you really can bring your whole team.
Rebuilt 2020 will be transformative for your parish team and we can’t wait to see you there. Registration opens on Monday, September 16th at RebuiltConference.com.
How to be Grateful
‘Gratitude, being nearly the greatest of human duties, is also nearly the most difficult,’ wrote G.K. Chesterton. Luckily, St Ignatius is on hand to help us to cultivate gratitude, so that our hearts may be disposed ‘to receive more, to appreciate more, to love and be loved more.’ Sarah Broscombe views gratitude through psychological, spiritual and Ignatian lenses, helping us to see how and why growing in gratitude is a priority as well as a joy. You can find this and many other articles on the Thinking Faith website by clicking here [Sarah Broscombe is a freelance trainer, facilitator, retreat guide and coach, from the UK but now mainly working internationally. Her connection with the Jesuits began in 2002 in the field of social justice, then international development, and is now in the fields of leadership and spirituality.]
Virtually every language has words for it, and all the world religions encourage it.[1] Positive psychology is researching its sources, attributes and impact, and popular psychology is extolling its virtues. Gratitude, long understood as a spiritual heavyweight, is now known to be a psychological heavyweight, too. But why? What is it? Why is it important? And how can we use St Ignatius Loyola’s insights to cultivate gratitude in our lives?
What is gratitude?
The science of gratitude that has emerged within positive psychology provides us with useful definitions, distinct from the more generic ‘thankfulness’. Gratitude is ‘an acknowledgment that we have received something of value from others’,[2] ‘a compound of admiration and joy’,[3] ‘a felt sense of wonder, thankfulness and appreciation for life’.[4] ‘An individual experiences the emotion of gratitude… when they affirm that something good has happened to them and they recognise that someone else is largely responsible’.[5] The etymology of gratitude shares with grace (from the Latin root, gratus) the sense of unmerited favour and intentional benevolence. My working definition of gratitude, therefore, is: ‘appreciation of unearned favour, intentionally given’.
Positive psychology also gives us a helpful distinction between ‘state gratitude’ (an emotional state of gratefulness) and ‘trait gratitude’ (a disposition that makes gratitude relatively easy). We can see both types of gratitude right through the Christian scriptures and spiritual writing; for example, the Psalms are full of moments of state gratitude: ‘What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?’[6] This poem by G.K. Chesterton gives a vivid expression of trait gratitude:
Here dies another day
During which I have had eyes, ears, hands
And the great world round me;
And with tomorrow begins another.
Why am I allowed two?[7]
Measures have been developed to help researchers understand and explore the origins and impacts of both state and trait gratitude. This is important for psychological research because the correlations between life satisfaction, mental wellbeing and gratitude are so strong. Evidence is also emerging that if gratitude is instrumentalised, i.e. you cultivate it because you want happiness as payback, the demonstrable benefits may not occur.[8]
Why is it important?
Why be grateful? The scientific and spiritual answers to this question are complementary.
In brief, positive psychology evidences that ‘gratitude is important to the good life’; it has the ‘potential to enhance happiness’ and is one of the strongest predictors of subjective wellbeing.[9] Brother David Steindl-Rast’s hugely successful TED talk on gratitude[10] summarises this succinctly: ‘If you want to be happy, be grateful’. The positive impact on relationships is also demonstrable. Because gratitude recognises a gift received, it is intrinsically relational, and thus ‘prosocial’. Gratitude is about both me and ‘the other’, to whom I am receptive and appreciative. In brief:
Highly grateful people, compared to their less grateful counterparts, tend to experience positive emotions more often, enjoy greater satisfaction with life and more hope, and experience less depression, anxiety, and envy. They tend to score higher in prosociality and be more empathic, forgiving, helpful, and supportive as well as less focused on materialistic pursuits, compared to their less grateful counterparts.[11]
Gratitude helps us in quite practical ways. Where the psalmist is ‘cast down … and disquieted’, he uses remembering deliberately to invigorate his own gratitude: ‘These things I remember as I pour out my soul...’[12] Samuel does the same, on behalf of Israel, raising an Ebenezer stone to aid remembering.[13] Gratitude is a virtue – but Ignatius approaches it from a different perspective, focusing less on benefits and virtuous practice, and more on the logic of gratitude.
Is there a distinctly Ignatian understanding of gratitude?
In the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola, gratitude is not just beneficial to us, it is the only logical response to the grace of God.
There is a logic of gratitude that grows through the Exercises, a dynamic of grace building upon grace. Ignatius does not begin the Exercises with his great call to trait gratitude, the Contemplation to Attain Love – he ends with it. First, we need to see clearly and in true perspective. We begin by seeing ourselves in the context of creation, of the Fall, and of the decision by the Trinity to enter into our ensnared world and set it free. We then walk with Jesus step by step, through birth, life, agony, death and resurrection. The daily drip-feeding of state gratitude with the Examen culminates in the trait gratitude of the Contemplation to Attain Love. So gratitude is the fruit of all that we have experienced. We do not create it; it is brought to birth through our encounter with Jesus. We also do not force it. Ignatius urges us throughout the Exercises to be honest about our desires and our responses. He notes that we do not always desire the best, and that sometimes we need to pray for the desire for the desire. Tell the truth, and then pray for the grace you need: this is the process. Gratitude is perspective. When I see myself contextualised in the whole of salvation history, my response will be ‘the cry of wonder’. There is a natural welling-up of gratitude and love, which is intended to last, to make us people of gratitude at a deeper level.
For all Christians, there is a distinctive quality to their gratitude: belief in God as the giver. In a secular worldview, gratitude may be a response to a series of gifts from random ‘others’. For Christians, our lens is our ongoing relationship with God, the architect of salvation. Our root gratitude is to the One who has given, who gives now, and who can be utterly trusted to keep on giving. As Michael Ivens SJ explains, ‘Gratitude for the past… leads to trust for the future.’[14] Ignatius structures the Contemplation to Attain Love to reflect this past, present and future engagement with grace in my life and in the whole world, coming personally and intentionally from God.
There is broad agreement that gratitude is good for you, and that it’s linked to happiness. But where the science of gratitude seeks to understand gratitude, Ignatius wants us to orient ourselves through it. Where positive psychology notes that ‘gratitude has good outcomes’, for Ignatius it is much stronger than that: more like, ‘if you see God’s world and your life as they really are, gratitude will well up in you’. All agree that ‘if you want to be happy, be grateful’, but for Ignatius it’s fundamental: gratitude is the only disposition that makes sense.
What about ingratitude?
In 1542, Ignatius wrote in a letter that ingratitude is, ‘the cause, beginning, and origin of all evils and sins.’[15] People whose upbringing, character, temperament or inculturation are conducive to trait gratitude may be baffled by trait ingratitude, and unable to understand why gratitude does not come easily and naturally to everyone. But Jesus healed ten lepers[16] – it was not the majority that came back to express their gratitude, but the minority, the one. Fluency in gratitude is a gift; perhaps a rare one.
If trait gratitude does not come easily to you by character or habit, that is not abnormal. Eyesight is an apt metaphor – some eyes naturally see the world with gratitude. Some of us need to put on glasses, to choose this lens, because it is not intuitive in our way of seeing. Just as gift is a received thing, gratitude sometimes comes as a grace. We may need to pray for it. Furthermore, for many of us, ingratitude carries some precious and distinctive insights into our own habits of thought. Curiosity is more useful here than self-blame. It is worth considering whether the ingratitude in question is ‘state ingratitude’ or ‘trait ingratitude’. For ‘ingratitude’ is surely not one condition, but several.
Certainly, the ingratitude of entitlement, dissatisfaction, forgetfulness and sloth are dangerous. Sloth/acedia[17] is a refusal of the gift of each day; all the things you should care for have lost their savour. The spiritual response to such a state is to cultivate diligence. Entitlement (‘I deserve all the goods that I experience’) is certainly the antithesis of humility – ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men.’[18] Forgetfulness is the great sin threaded right through the history of Israel, and is prime territory for ingratitude. Dissatisfaction (‘it’s not enough’) may spring from materialism and lead to envy.
It seems to me that the case of the nine lepers is different. Often, our momentary state of ingratitude comes from simply not noticing, and from the inattention that comes with stress or hurry. Ignatius places more emphasis on the Examen than on any other form of prayer. The Examen cultivates in us habits of remembering, of paying attention, and of noticing the fine grain of our experience. It can be a profound antidote to accidental ingratitude.
We may also find ourselves, or others, in a state of ingratitude for good reason. A truthful impulse of ingratitude may be pointing us towards some disjunct that merits attention. Ingratitude is logical, for example, as a response to instrumentalised generosity. Conditional gifts, or love, or relationships, may trigger a less-than-wholehearted gratitude in us that is connected to the giver as well as to the ‘ungrateful’ one. Because ingratitude is often considered the worst of sins,[19] the temptation is to make it taboo, deny it altogether, or focus on self-blame. When we bring curiosity to it, we may find simply that our expectations were mismatched with the reality, or that we have an incident out of perspective.
I suspect that truthful ingratitude is more useful than forced, dutiful gratitude. Whatever the source of our ingratitude, de Mello reminds us, ‘be grateful for your sins: they are carriers of grace’.[20]
How can I cultivate gratitude in my life?
All schools of thought agree that gratitude is an unequivocal good, and that we can grow in gratitude. This can happen in three ways – behaviour (adopting gratitude practices), mindset (cultivating a different attitude) and receptiveness (praying for the grace of gratitude). Whilst the science of gratitude focuses on practices, we may also find prayer vital.
I would summarise an Ignatian approach to cultivating gratitude into these five steps.
1) Tell the truth. Start from where you are. When gratitude is real, it wells up of its own accord. If you aren’t grateful, what are you? Your desires and reactions, even if they are frustration or dissatisfaction or anger, are the right place to start.
2) Pray for the grace of gratitude in abundance.
3) Pay attention – or, in the words of Frederick Beuchner, ‘listen to your life’.[21] Using the Examen, relish and savour your experience. Recent neuroscientific discoveries corroborate Ignatius’s instinct: due to our brain’s hard-wired negativity bias, negative experiences register instantly, whereas positive experiences generally have to be held in awareness for up to twenty seconds for them to register in emotional memory.[22] In the words of the late Gerry W. Hughes SJ,
Ask yourself every day ‘Has any event today surprised or delighted me?’ More simply expressed, have I enjoyed anything today? Then focus your attention on what you enjoyed, relish it and suck all the enjoyment out of it that you can. It is only by doing this that you will begin to understand the wonder that is already in your life.[23]
Notice where your mind is dwelling. There might be learnings in your experience of ingratitude, too. When we notice what prevents, blunts, dulls, sabotages, hijacks, or sours gratitude for us, we can take action against it.
4) Cultivate a conducive environment. Whatever is conducive to gratitude for you, find it and do it. The science of gratitude researchers note that this will be different for different casts of mind. I find that, for me, gratitude comes in waves. I have days when I know without doubt that I am the most blessed person alive (and I can articulate exactly why, too). Sadly, I also have days when I feel ungrateful, and then stalemate myself with guilt and self-blame. I find Ignatius’s past/present/ future insight of the Contemplatio extremely helpful here. You might find that remembering helps cultivate gratitude; you might find intentionally giving to others more stimulating.
5) Receive. When gratitude comes, don’t rush away. Pay attention to the giver, to the gift and to the impact on your grateful self. Savour and relish this, too.
Gratitude as gift
According to Ignatius’s Contemplation to Attain Love, gratitude disposes the heart to be able to receive more, to appreciate more, to love and be loved more. How utterly relevant to Advent! Gratitude can help us prepare our hearts to receive Christ, and Christmas, and one another more fully. Gratitude enlists your past (remembering) and your present (paying attention) to bless your future. It’s a nursery of trust as well as happiness. We can practise gratitude. But sometimes, by the grace of God, gratitude just happens to us. It arrives, freely, as a gift.
[1] Watkins, van Gelder & Frias, ‘Furthering the Science of Gratitude’ in C.R. Snyder & S.J. Lopez (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology, 2nd ed. (OUP: Oxford, 2011), chapter 41.
[2] R.A. Emmons & A. Mishra, ‘Why Gratitude Enhances Well-Being: What We Know, What We Need to Know’ in Sheldon, Kashdan & Steger (eds.), Designing Positive Psychology: Taking Stock and Moving Forward (OUP: Oxford, 2011), Chapter 16.
[3] Ortony, Clore & Collins, referenced in R.A. Emmons & C.M. Shelton, ‘Gratitude and the Science of Positive Psychology’ in C.R. Snyder & S.J. Lopez (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology (OUP: Oxford, 2001) Chapter 33.
[4] R.A. Emmons & C.M. Shelton, op. cit.
[5] Watkins, van Gelder & Frias, op. cit.
[6] Psalm 116:12
[7] G.K. Chesterton, ‘Evening,’ in Aiden Mackey (ed.) The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Volume X: Collected Poetry, Part I (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1994), p.38.
[8] Carey, Clicque, Leighton & Milton, referenced in Watkins, van Gelder & Frias, op. cit., p.8.
[9] Watkins, van Gelder & Frias, op. cit.
[10] https://www.ted.com/talks/david_steindl_rast_want_to_be_happy_be_grateful
[11] G. Bono, M. Krackauer & J.J. Froh, ‘The Power and Practice of Gratitude’ in Positive Psychology in Practice (Wiley & Sons: New Jersey, 2015), Chapter 33.
[12] Psalm 42: 4-5.
[13] 1 Samuel 7:12.
[14] M. Ivens SJ, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises (Gracewing: Leominster UK, 1998), p.64.
[15] From a letter by Ignatius dated 18 March 1542 quoted in Brian Lehane SJ: http://www.jesuits-chgdet.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Partners_FA09.Sprituality.pdf
[16] Luke 17: 11-19.
[17] Rob Marsh SJ, ‘Sloth’ in Thinking Faith (15 March 2012): https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20120315_2.htm
[18] Luke 18:9-14.
[19] R.A. Emmons & C.M. Shelton (op. cit.) cite Thomas a Kempis, Thomas Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux.
[20] Anthony de Mello SJ, taken from Hearts on Fire; Praying with Jesuits (Institute of Jesuit Sources: Missouri, 1993) p.33.
[21] Frederick Buechner, in both Listening to Your Life and in his second memoir, Now and Then.
[22] Rick Hanson has written extensively on this subject. A brief summary can be found here: https://www.rickhanson.net/train-brain-taking-good-key-points/?highlight=taking%20in%20the%20good
[23] Gerry W. Hughes SJ, ‘There is nothing we can change except ourselves’ (17 November 2014): http://www.jesuit.org.uk/blog/there-nothing-we-can-change-except-ourselves
Weekday Masses 17th – 20th September, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: No Mass
Thursday: 10:30am Karingal … St Januarius
Thursday: 10:30am Karingal … St Januarius
Friday: 11:00am Mt St Vincent … Sts Andrew Kim Tae-gôn, Paul Chông Ha-sang & companions
Next Weekend 21st & 22nd September Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Devonport
6:00pm Penguin
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
5:00pm Latrobe
MINISTRY ROSTERS 21st & 22nd SEPTEMBER, 2019
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: V Riley, A Stegmann, G Hendrey 10:30am E
Petts, K Pearce, O McGinley
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil M Heazlewood, G Lee-Archer, M Kelly, P Shelverton
10.30am: M
Sherriff, T & S Ryan, D & M Barrientos
Cleaners 20th
Sept: K.S.C. 27th Sept: P & T Douglas
Piety Shop 21st
Sept: R Baker 22nd Sept: O McGinley
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: M & K McKenzie
Ministers of
Communion: P
Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, M Barry
Cleaners: M Swain, M Bryan Flowers: C Stingel Hospitality:
K Foster
Penguin:
Greeters J Garnsey, S Ewing Commentator:
J Barker Readers: Y Downes, K Fraser
Ministers of
Communion: J
Garnsey, S Ewing Liturgy: Pine Road
Setting Up: A Landers Care of Church: M Bowles, J Reynolds
Port Sorell:
Readers: G Gigliotti, G Duff Ministers of Communion: G Gigliotti Cleaners: A Hynes
Readings this 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
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
I take time to come to inner stillness, trusting that I am in the presence of a loving, compassionate God who accepts me exactly as I am.
When ready, I turn prayerfully to the text, perhaps imagining myself standing with the ‘sinners’ who have come to seek out Jesus.
I watch and listen, noticing anything that touches me.
How do I feel?
Both parables describe the joy as the lost are found: the joy of the shepherd; of the whole community; and finally of heaven itself.
I ponder ... (and I may like to notice how this joy is depicted by the artist on the back page).
If I can, I allow myself to be the object of God’s joy for a while, and simply rest in his gaze.
What are the things that bring me most joy in my life?
To whom would I like to bring joy myself?
I share my thoughts and feelings with the Lord.
Before I end my prayer, I call to mind anyone whom I would specially like God to seek out and bring home, and lift them up to him now.
As I gently bring my prayer to a close, I give thanks to the Lord who rejoices in forgiving.
Glory be ...
Readings Next Week: 25th Sunday
in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Amos
8: 4-7
Second
Reading: 1 Timothy
2:1-8
Gospel: Luke 16:
1-13
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Adrian Drane, Frank McDonald, Pam Lynd, David Cole & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Eva Gulosino, 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, Alberto Floresta Snr
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 12th – 18th September
Silvano Paladin, John Kopplemann, Fausta Farrow, John Hill, Jan Deeka, Cyril Scattergood, Cyril Smith, Sybil O’Connor, John Hall, Molly Page, Melba Robertson, Dorothy Crawford, Evelyn Murray, Denise Sproule, Leonard Payne, Patrick Laird, Margaret Scanlan, Iris Bird, Shirley Ranson, Aubrey Sheridan.
May the souls of the
faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
CONGRATULATIONS
Fr Paschal
on your 2nd Anniversary of Ordination to the Priesthood
Saturday 15th September.
Saturday 15th September.
Mersey
Leven Parish is deeply grateful to you for your ministry amongst us.
Weekly
Ramblings
On Tuesday I will be in Hobart for the Council of Priests
and Consultors Meetings – groups of priests who assist Archbishop Julian as we
look at some of the issues facing the Church at this time. Tuesday, 17th is also the 6th Anniversary of Archbishop Julian’s Installation as
Archbishop of Hobart – so it will be an opportunity to pray with and for him
and his ministry.
On Wednesday Fr Paschal, and all the other priests of the Archdiocese, will join us for our 2nd Pastoral Conference for 2019. One of the key topics will be looking at the impact the law passed this week in State Parliament concerning mandatory reporting by clergy and how that effects the sanctity of the seal of the Sacrament of Reconciliation – this item was on the agenda before it was known when the law would be before Parliament.
I believe wholeheartedly in mandatory reporting so I am looking forward with interest to the presentation by Fr John Doherty, a canon lawyer from Sydney, who will present an outline of how to address possible situations involving child sexual abuse revealed in the confessional.
Next Saturday, 21st, we will be at the Church of the Apostles, Launceston (at 11am) for the Ordination to the Diaconate of Steven Smith and Chathura Silva. There is an open invitation to everyone who wishes to attend this great event in the life of these two men – and a great moment for the Archdiocese as well.
As mentioned last weekend we will again have a focus on Prayer during the month of October. Last year the focus was on the Plenary 2020 process – this year we will be looking at a variety of Prayer types and will be inviting parishioners to consider participating in a style of prayer that might be different from your normal prayer. More information will be available next weekend with dates, times and places made available so that you might choose where you can participate.
I believe wholeheartedly in mandatory reporting so I am looking forward with interest to the presentation by Fr John Doherty, a canon lawyer from Sydney, who will present an outline of how to address possible situations involving child sexual abuse revealed in the confessional.
Next Saturday, 21st, we will be at the Church of the Apostles, Launceston (at 11am) for the Ordination to the Diaconate of Steven Smith and Chathura Silva. There is an open invitation to everyone who wishes to attend this great event in the life of these two men – and a great moment for the Archdiocese as well.
As mentioned last weekend we will again have a focus on Prayer during the month of October. Last year the focus was on the Plenary 2020 process – this year we will be looking at a variety of Prayer types and will be inviting parishioners to consider participating in a style of prayer that might be different from your normal prayer. More information will be available next weekend with dates, times and places made available so that you might choose where you can participate.
Take care
on the roads and in your homes,
MACKILLOP
HILL:
Spirituality in the
Coffee Shoppe:
Monday 23rd September, 10:30am – 12 noon. Come along and enjoy a
lively discussion over morning tea! All
welcome! We look forward to your company
at 123 William Street, FORTH. Phone: 6428:3095. No bookings necessary. Donation
appreciated.
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.
SACRED
HEART CHURCH CLEANING ROSTER:
We urgently need more people to
help with the weekly cleaning of the Church. If you are able to assist please
contact Joanne Rodgers 6425:5818/ 0439 064 493 as soon as possible.
COLUMBAN CALENDARS:
2020 Columban Art Calendars are now available from the
Piety Shop's at OLOL Church and Sacred Heart Church for $10.00. By purchasing a calendar, you are
participating in God's Mission and assisting Columbans in meeting the needs of
the poor.
BINGO - THURSDAY 19th September –
Eyes down 7:30pm. Callers Tony Ryan
& Brendan O’Connor
LAST TWO WEEKS TO PURCHASE YOUR $10.00 GRAND FINAL FOOTY MARGIN
TICKETS:
Can you help support this great fundraiser?? We still have $10.00
tickets available!! If you have already
purchased your $10.00 ticket you may consider buying another one (or two)!! The winners of the $10 tickets will
receive $500.00 each (x2 prizes),
and the holder of the ticket with the numbers either side of the winning number
$100.00 each. The $10.00 tickets are available from
Devonport, Ulverstone and Port Sorell Mass Centres or by phoning the Parish
Office 6424:2783. Weekly $2 tickets are still available
YOU NEED TO BE IN IT TO WIN IT!!
FOOTY
MARGIN RESULTS: Qualifying Final Collingwood defeated Geelong by 10 points.
Winners; Anne Fisher, Rainie Allford.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
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/
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/
CARMELITE
WEEKEND RETREAT: Theme: True Mindfulness: ‘Putting on the Mind
of Christ’. Carmelite
Friar, Fr Gerard Moran, ocd will be the Retreat Director at the Emmanuel
Centre, Launceston. Friday 18th – 20th October. Cost of the weekend $220
includes all meals and accommodation. Bookings are essential to Helen 6344:6382
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
JOB VACANCY:
Communications
Officer - the
position is either part time or full time and flexible hours are offered. The
Archdiocese is seeking an employee with a high degree of understanding of the
beliefs and teachings of the Catholic faith, and a commitment to promoting
Catholic beliefs and teachings through media, to join its Media and
Communications Unit in Hobart. Details of the position can be found by going to
https://www.hobart.catholic.org.au/jobs/communication-officer
Christ is Everyman and Everywoman
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
Many of the early Christian mystics saw Jesus as a dynamic
and living (“interactive”) union of human and divine in one person. They saw
Christ as the living icon of the eternal union of matter and Spirit in all of creation.
Jesus was fully human, just as he was fully divine at the same time. Dualistic
thinkers find that impossible to process, so they usually just choose one side
or the other.
Many who call themselves conservative seem to believe that
Jesus is fully divine and we are barely human. Liberals and many non-believers
seem to believe that Jesus is only human, and the divine isn’t necessary. Both
sides are missing the major point of putting divine and human together! They
both lack the proper skill set of the contemplative mind.
Matter and Spirit must be recognized as inseparable in
Christ before we have the courage and insight to acknowledge and honor the same
in ourselves and in the entire universe. Jesus is the Archetype of Everything.
One of my favorite Orthodox scholars, Olivier Clément
(1921–2009), helps explain early Eastern Christianity’s understanding of Christ
with some profound statements of his own:
How could humanity on earth, enslaved by death, recover its
wholeness? It was necessary to give to dead flesh the ability to share in the
life-giving power of God. He, though he is Life by nature, took a body subject
to decay in order to destroy in it the power of death and transform it into
life. As iron when it is brought in contact with fire immediately begins to
share its colour, so the flesh when it has received the life-giving Word into
itself is set free from corruption. Thus he put on our flesh to set it free
from death. [1]
The whole of humanity, “forms, so to speak, a single living
being.” In Christ we form a single body, we are all “members of one another.”
For the one flesh of humanity and of the earth “brought into contact” in Christ
“with the fire” of his divinity, is henceforward secretly and sacramentally
deified. [2]
Unfortunately, at the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE), this
view—the single, unified nature of Christ—was rejected for the “orthodox”
belief, held to this day by most Christian denominations, that emphasizes two
distinct natures in Jesus instead of one new synthesis. Sometimes what seems
like orthodoxy is, in fact, a well-hidden and well disguised heresy!
Perhaps quantum physics can help us reclaim what we’ve lost
because our dualistic minds couldn’t understand or experience the living
paradox that Jesus represents. Now science is confirming there is no clear
division between matter and spirit. Everything is interpenetrating. As
Franciscan scientist and theologian Ilia Delio says, “We are in the universe
and the universe is in us.”
[1] Olivier Clément, The Roots of Christian Mysticism (New
City Press: 2013), 47.
[2] Ibid., 46.
The Scent of Humility
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
According to Isaac the Syrian, a famous 7th Century bishop and theologian, a person who’s genuinely humble gives off a certain scent that other people will sense and that even animals will pick up, so that wild animals, including snakes, will fall under its spell and never harm that person.
Here’s his logic: A humble person, he believes, has recovered the smell of paradise and in the presence of such a person one does not feel judged and has nothing to fear, and this holds true even for animals. They feel safe around a humble person and are drawn to him or her. No wonder people like Francis of Assisi could talk to birds and befriend wolves.
But, beautiful as this all sounds, is this a pious fairytale or is it a rich, archetypal metaphor? I like to think it’s the latter, this is a rich metaphor, and perhaps even something more. Humility, indeed, does have a smell, the smell of the earth, of the soil, and of paradise.
But how? How can a spiritual quality give off a physical scent?
Well, we’re psychosomatic, creatures of both body and soul. Thus, in us, the physical and the spiritual are so much part of one and the same substance that it’s impossible to separate them out from each other. To say that we’re body and soul is like saying sugar is white and sweet and that whiteness and sweetness can never be put into separate piles. They’re both inside the sugar. We’re one substance, inseparable, body and soul, and so we’re always both physical and spiritual. So, in fact, we do feel physical things spiritually, just as we smell spiritual things through our physical senses. If this is true, and it is, then, yes, humility does give off a scent that can be sensed physically and Isaac the Syrian’s concept is more than just a metaphor.
But it’s also a metaphor: The word humility takes its root in the Latin word, humus, meaning soil, ground, and earth. If one goes with this definition then the most humble person you know is the most-earthy and most-grounded person you know. To be humble is to have one’s feet firmly planted on the ground, to be in touch with the earth, and to carry the smell of the earth. Further still, to be humble is to take one’s rightful place as a piece of the earth and not as someone or something separate from it.
The renowned mystic and scientist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, expressed this sometimes in his prayers. During the years when, as paleontologist, he worked for long stretches in the isolated deserts of China he would sometimes compose prayers to God in a form he called, A Mass for the World. Speaking to God, as a priest, he would identify his voice with that of the earth itself, as that place within physical creation where the earth itself, the soil of the earth, could open itself and speak to God. As a priest, he didn’t speak for the earth; he spoke as the earth, giving it voice, in words to this effect:
Lord, God, I stand before you as a microcosm of the earth itself, to give it voice: See in my openness, the world’s openness, in my infidelity, the world’s infidelity; in my sincerity, the world’s sincerity, in my hypocrisy, the world’s hypocrisy; in my generosity, the world’s generosity in my attentiveness, the world’s attentiveness, in my distraction, the world’s distraction; in my desire to praise you, the world’s desire to praise you, and in my self-preoccupation, the world’s forgetfulness of you. For I am of the earth, a piece of earth, and the earth opens or closes to you through my body, my soul, and my voice.
This is humility, an expression of genuine humility. Humility should never be confused, as it often is, with a wounded self-image, with an excessive reticence, with timidity and fear, or with an overly sensitive self-awareness. Too common is the notion that a humble person is one who is self-effacing to a fault, who deflects praise (even when it’s deserved), who is too shy to trust opening himself or herself in intimacy, or who is so fearful or self-conscious and worried about being shamed so as to never step forward and offer his or her gifts to the community. These can make for a gentle and self-effacing person, but because we are denigrating ourselves when to deny our own giftedness, our humility is false, and deep-down we know it, and so this often makes for someone who nurses some not-so-hidden angers and is prone to being passive aggressive.
The most humble person you know is the person who’s the most-grounded, that is, the person who knows she’s not the center of the earth but also knows that she isn’t a second-rate piece of dirt either. And that person will give off a scent that carries both the fragrance of paradise (of divine gift) as well as the smell of the earth.
"All-In" For Rebuilt 2020
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
One of the hardest things to do when beginning a parish rebuilding process is to imagine the vision clearly and concretely. There are so many things that just can’t be grasped through the written word or digital channels. The feel of a place when you walk in. The warmth that comes from a gracious welcome. The practical details of how a program works. And, most importantly, the energy that comes from vibrant community and worship.
Conferences helped us see the vision when we began our own journey of rebuilding. Experiencing Saddleback Church and North Point Church firsthand, among others, made concrete the vision we had read so much about.
And that’s why we host our own conference. We want to open up our campus to share our vision, what we’ve learned and what we know works when it comes to leading and growing a healthy parish.
Rebuilt 2020 is your opportunity to be inspired, equipped, and encouraged in the work of rebuilding your parish. The conference will consist of four keynotes delivered by myself and my associate, Tom Corcoran, as well as Curtis Martin, founder of FOCUS, and Jeff Henderson, Lead Pastor of Gwinnett Church of North Point Ministries, one of the fastest-growing churches in the country. There will also be the opportunity to choose from dozens of breakout sessions, which we have totally revamped from our last conference in 2018.
What makes Rebuilt different?
It’s Offered by People Who Work in a Parish.
The conference is planned and executed entirely by Nativity staff members and member-ministers, not church consultants. We know what it means to be in the trenches of a Catholic parish day-in and day-out. We understand the most current challenges of working in a local parish, and we want you to know you aren’t alone. We want our conference to reflect that experience, not just book-knowledge.
It’s for Everyone.
This conference is for anyone who wants to make church matter at their local parish. It’s not just for pastors, or catechists, or liturgists – everyone will benefit. In fact, the best way to experience the conference is with your whole team. That way, you can each go to separate breakouts and share what you learned with each other. And, the best way to generate momentum while rebuilding is to get everyone on board.
It’s Got New Content.
While the principles of Rebuilt are unchanging, the application is always evolving. This year, we’ve reworked all our breakout sessions to reflect what we’ve learned since the last conference. Breakouts cover all areas of church life (sacramental prep, small groups, missions, kids and student ministry, money, music, you name it). Everything we talk about we actually do. It will be practical as well as inspiring.
It’s a Great Bargain.
Register early and enjoy deep discounts. Plan now and you can probably find great deals on Southwest to BWI and we are in the process of working out some group discounts at local hotels. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks are included in the registration fee. All that means you really can bring your whole team.
Rebuilt 2020 will be transformative for your parish team and we can’t wait to see you there. Registration opens on Monday, September 16th at RebuiltConference.com.
How to be Grateful
‘Gratitude, being nearly the greatest of human duties, is also nearly the most difficult,’ wrote G.K. Chesterton. Luckily, St Ignatius is on hand to help us to cultivate gratitude, so that our hearts may be disposed ‘to receive more, to appreciate more, to love and be loved more.’ Sarah Broscombe views gratitude through psychological, spiritual and Ignatian lenses, helping us to see how and why growing in gratitude is a priority as well as a joy. You can find this and many other articles on the Thinking Faith website by clicking here [Sarah Broscombe is a freelance trainer, facilitator, retreat guide and coach, from the UK but now mainly working internationally. Her connection with the Jesuits began in 2002 in the field of social justice, then international development, and is now in the fields of leadership and spirituality.]
Virtually every language has words for it, and all the world religions encourage it.[1] Positive psychology is researching its sources, attributes and impact, and popular psychology is extolling its virtues. Gratitude, long understood as a spiritual heavyweight, is now known to be a psychological heavyweight, too. But why? What is it? Why is it important? And how can we use St Ignatius Loyola’s insights to cultivate gratitude in our lives?
What is gratitude?
The science of gratitude that has emerged within positive psychology provides us with useful definitions, distinct from the more generic ‘thankfulness’. Gratitude is ‘an acknowledgment that we have received something of value from others’,[2] ‘a compound of admiration and joy’,[3] ‘a felt sense of wonder, thankfulness and appreciation for life’.[4] ‘An individual experiences the emotion of gratitude… when they affirm that something good has happened to them and they recognise that someone else is largely responsible’.[5] The etymology of gratitude shares with grace (from the Latin root, gratus) the sense of unmerited favour and intentional benevolence. My working definition of gratitude, therefore, is: ‘appreciation of unearned favour, intentionally given’.
Positive psychology also gives us a helpful distinction between ‘state gratitude’ (an emotional state of gratefulness) and ‘trait gratitude’ (a disposition that makes gratitude relatively easy). We can see both types of gratitude right through the Christian scriptures and spiritual writing; for example, the Psalms are full of moments of state gratitude: ‘What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?’[6] This poem by G.K. Chesterton gives a vivid expression of trait gratitude:
Here dies another day
During which I have had eyes, ears, hands
And the great world round me;
And with tomorrow begins another.
Why am I allowed two?[7]
Measures have been developed to help researchers understand and explore the origins and impacts of both state and trait gratitude. This is important for psychological research because the correlations between life satisfaction, mental wellbeing and gratitude are so strong. Evidence is also emerging that if gratitude is instrumentalised, i.e. you cultivate it because you want happiness as payback, the demonstrable benefits may not occur.[8]
Why is it important?
Why be grateful? The scientific and spiritual answers to this question are complementary.
In brief, positive psychology evidences that ‘gratitude is important to the good life’; it has the ‘potential to enhance happiness’ and is one of the strongest predictors of subjective wellbeing.[9] Brother David Steindl-Rast’s hugely successful TED talk on gratitude[10] summarises this succinctly: ‘If you want to be happy, be grateful’. The positive impact on relationships is also demonstrable. Because gratitude recognises a gift received, it is intrinsically relational, and thus ‘prosocial’. Gratitude is about both me and ‘the other’, to whom I am receptive and appreciative. In brief:
Highly grateful people, compared to their less grateful counterparts, tend to experience positive emotions more often, enjoy greater satisfaction with life and more hope, and experience less depression, anxiety, and envy. They tend to score higher in prosociality and be more empathic, forgiving, helpful, and supportive as well as less focused on materialistic pursuits, compared to their less grateful counterparts.[11]
Gratitude helps us in quite practical ways. Where the psalmist is ‘cast down … and disquieted’, he uses remembering deliberately to invigorate his own gratitude: ‘These things I remember as I pour out my soul...’[12] Samuel does the same, on behalf of Israel, raising an Ebenezer stone to aid remembering.[13] Gratitude is a virtue – but Ignatius approaches it from a different perspective, focusing less on benefits and virtuous practice, and more on the logic of gratitude.
Is there a distinctly Ignatian understanding of gratitude?
In the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola, gratitude is not just beneficial to us, it is the only logical response to the grace of God.
There is a logic of gratitude that grows through the Exercises, a dynamic of grace building upon grace. Ignatius does not begin the Exercises with his great call to trait gratitude, the Contemplation to Attain Love – he ends with it. First, we need to see clearly and in true perspective. We begin by seeing ourselves in the context of creation, of the Fall, and of the decision by the Trinity to enter into our ensnared world and set it free. We then walk with Jesus step by step, through birth, life, agony, death and resurrection. The daily drip-feeding of state gratitude with the Examen culminates in the trait gratitude of the Contemplation to Attain Love. So gratitude is the fruit of all that we have experienced. We do not create it; it is brought to birth through our encounter with Jesus. We also do not force it. Ignatius urges us throughout the Exercises to be honest about our desires and our responses. He notes that we do not always desire the best, and that sometimes we need to pray for the desire for the desire. Tell the truth, and then pray for the grace you need: this is the process. Gratitude is perspective. When I see myself contextualised in the whole of salvation history, my response will be ‘the cry of wonder’. There is a natural welling-up of gratitude and love, which is intended to last, to make us people of gratitude at a deeper level.
For all Christians, there is a distinctive quality to their gratitude: belief in God as the giver. In a secular worldview, gratitude may be a response to a series of gifts from random ‘others’. For Christians, our lens is our ongoing relationship with God, the architect of salvation. Our root gratitude is to the One who has given, who gives now, and who can be utterly trusted to keep on giving. As Michael Ivens SJ explains, ‘Gratitude for the past… leads to trust for the future.’[14] Ignatius structures the Contemplation to Attain Love to reflect this past, present and future engagement with grace in my life and in the whole world, coming personally and intentionally from God.
There is broad agreement that gratitude is good for you, and that it’s linked to happiness. But where the science of gratitude seeks to understand gratitude, Ignatius wants us to orient ourselves through it. Where positive psychology notes that ‘gratitude has good outcomes’, for Ignatius it is much stronger than that: more like, ‘if you see God’s world and your life as they really are, gratitude will well up in you’. All agree that ‘if you want to be happy, be grateful’, but for Ignatius it’s fundamental: gratitude is the only disposition that makes sense.
What about ingratitude?
In 1542, Ignatius wrote in a letter that ingratitude is, ‘the cause, beginning, and origin of all evils and sins.’[15] People whose upbringing, character, temperament or inculturation are conducive to trait gratitude may be baffled by trait ingratitude, and unable to understand why gratitude does not come easily and naturally to everyone. But Jesus healed ten lepers[16] – it was not the majority that came back to express their gratitude, but the minority, the one. Fluency in gratitude is a gift; perhaps a rare one.
If trait gratitude does not come easily to you by character or habit, that is not abnormal. Eyesight is an apt metaphor – some eyes naturally see the world with gratitude. Some of us need to put on glasses, to choose this lens, because it is not intuitive in our way of seeing. Just as gift is a received thing, gratitude sometimes comes as a grace. We may need to pray for it. Furthermore, for many of us, ingratitude carries some precious and distinctive insights into our own habits of thought. Curiosity is more useful here than self-blame. It is worth considering whether the ingratitude in question is ‘state ingratitude’ or ‘trait ingratitude’. For ‘ingratitude’ is surely not one condition, but several.
Certainly, the ingratitude of entitlement, dissatisfaction, forgetfulness and sloth are dangerous. Sloth/acedia[17] is a refusal of the gift of each day; all the things you should care for have lost their savour. The spiritual response to such a state is to cultivate diligence. Entitlement (‘I deserve all the goods that I experience’) is certainly the antithesis of humility – ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men.’[18] Forgetfulness is the great sin threaded right through the history of Israel, and is prime territory for ingratitude. Dissatisfaction (‘it’s not enough’) may spring from materialism and lead to envy.
It seems to me that the case of the nine lepers is different. Often, our momentary state of ingratitude comes from simply not noticing, and from the inattention that comes with stress or hurry. Ignatius places more emphasis on the Examen than on any other form of prayer. The Examen cultivates in us habits of remembering, of paying attention, and of noticing the fine grain of our experience. It can be a profound antidote to accidental ingratitude.
We may also find ourselves, or others, in a state of ingratitude for good reason. A truthful impulse of ingratitude may be pointing us towards some disjunct that merits attention. Ingratitude is logical, for example, as a response to instrumentalised generosity. Conditional gifts, or love, or relationships, may trigger a less-than-wholehearted gratitude in us that is connected to the giver as well as to the ‘ungrateful’ one. Because ingratitude is often considered the worst of sins,[19] the temptation is to make it taboo, deny it altogether, or focus on self-blame. When we bring curiosity to it, we may find simply that our expectations were mismatched with the reality, or that we have an incident out of perspective.
I suspect that truthful ingratitude is more useful than forced, dutiful gratitude. Whatever the source of our ingratitude, de Mello reminds us, ‘be grateful for your sins: they are carriers of grace’.[20]
How can I cultivate gratitude in my life?
All schools of thought agree that gratitude is an unequivocal good, and that we can grow in gratitude. This can happen in three ways – behaviour (adopting gratitude practices), mindset (cultivating a different attitude) and receptiveness (praying for the grace of gratitude). Whilst the science of gratitude focuses on practices, we may also find prayer vital.
I would summarise an Ignatian approach to cultivating gratitude into these five steps.
1) Tell the truth. Start from where you are. When gratitude is real, it wells up of its own accord. If you aren’t grateful, what are you? Your desires and reactions, even if they are frustration or dissatisfaction or anger, are the right place to start.
2) Pray for the grace of gratitude in abundance.
3) Pay attention – or, in the words of Frederick Beuchner, ‘listen to your life’.[21] Using the Examen, relish and savour your experience. Recent neuroscientific discoveries corroborate Ignatius’s instinct: due to our brain’s hard-wired negativity bias, negative experiences register instantly, whereas positive experiences generally have to be held in awareness for up to twenty seconds for them to register in emotional memory.[22] In the words of the late Gerry W. Hughes SJ,
Ask yourself every day ‘Has any event today surprised or delighted me?’ More simply expressed, have I enjoyed anything today? Then focus your attention on what you enjoyed, relish it and suck all the enjoyment out of it that you can. It is only by doing this that you will begin to understand the wonder that is already in your life.[23]
Notice where your mind is dwelling. There might be learnings in your experience of ingratitude, too. When we notice what prevents, blunts, dulls, sabotages, hijacks, or sours gratitude for us, we can take action against it.
4) Cultivate a conducive environment. Whatever is conducive to gratitude for you, find it and do it. The science of gratitude researchers note that this will be different for different casts of mind. I find that, for me, gratitude comes in waves. I have days when I know without doubt that I am the most blessed person alive (and I can articulate exactly why, too). Sadly, I also have days when I feel ungrateful, and then stalemate myself with guilt and self-blame. I find Ignatius’s past/present/ future insight of the Contemplatio extremely helpful here. You might find that remembering helps cultivate gratitude; you might find intentionally giving to others more stimulating.
5) Receive. When gratitude comes, don’t rush away. Pay attention to the giver, to the gift and to the impact on your grateful self. Savour and relish this, too.
Gratitude as gift
According to Ignatius’s Contemplation to Attain Love, gratitude disposes the heart to be able to receive more, to appreciate more, to love and be loved more. How utterly relevant to Advent! Gratitude can help us prepare our hearts to receive Christ, and Christmas, and one another more fully. Gratitude enlists your past (remembering) and your present (paying attention) to bless your future. It’s a nursery of trust as well as happiness. We can practise gratitude. But sometimes, by the grace of God, gratitude just happens to us. It arrives, freely, as a gift.
[1] Watkins, van Gelder & Frias, ‘Furthering the Science of Gratitude’ in C.R. Snyder & S.J. Lopez (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology, 2nd ed. (OUP: Oxford, 2011), chapter 41.
[2] R.A. Emmons & A. Mishra, ‘Why Gratitude Enhances Well-Being: What We Know, What We Need to Know’ in Sheldon, Kashdan & Steger (eds.), Designing Positive Psychology: Taking Stock and Moving Forward (OUP: Oxford, 2011), Chapter 16.
[3] Ortony, Clore & Collins, referenced in R.A. Emmons & C.M. Shelton, ‘Gratitude and the Science of Positive Psychology’ in C.R. Snyder & S.J. Lopez (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology (OUP: Oxford, 2001) Chapter 33.
[4] R.A. Emmons & C.M. Shelton, op. cit.
[5] Watkins, van Gelder & Frias, op. cit.
[6] Psalm 116:12
[7] G.K. Chesterton, ‘Evening,’ in Aiden Mackey (ed.) The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Volume X: Collected Poetry, Part I (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1994), p.38.
[8] Carey, Clicque, Leighton & Milton, referenced in Watkins, van Gelder & Frias, op. cit., p.8.
[9] Watkins, van Gelder & Frias, op. cit.
[10] https://www.ted.com/talks/david_steindl_rast_want_to_be_happy_be_grateful
[11] G. Bono, M. Krackauer & J.J. Froh, ‘The Power and Practice of Gratitude’ in Positive Psychology in Practice (Wiley & Sons: New Jersey, 2015), Chapter 33.
[12] Psalm 42: 4-5.
[13] 1 Samuel 7:12.
[14] M. Ivens SJ, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises (Gracewing: Leominster UK, 1998), p.64.
[15] From a letter by Ignatius dated 18 March 1542 quoted in Brian Lehane SJ: http://www.jesuits-chgdet.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Partners_FA09.Sprituality.pdf
[16] Luke 17: 11-19.
[17] Rob Marsh SJ, ‘Sloth’ in Thinking Faith (15 March 2012): https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20120315_2.htm
[18] Luke 18:9-14.
[19] R.A. Emmons & C.M. Shelton (op. cit.) cite Thomas a Kempis, Thomas Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux.
[20] Anthony de Mello SJ, taken from Hearts on Fire; Praying with Jesuits (Institute of Jesuit Sources: Missouri, 1993) p.33.
[21] Frederick Buechner, in both Listening to Your Life and in his second memoir, Now and Then.
[22] Rick Hanson has written extensively on this subject. A brief summary can be found here: https://www.rickhanson.net/train-brain-taking-good-key-points/?highlight=taking%20in%20the%20good
[23] Gerry W. Hughes SJ, ‘There is nothing we can change except ourselves’ (17 November 2014): http://www.jesuit.org.uk/blog/there-nothing-we-can-change-except-ourselves
No comments:
Post a Comment