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 5th – 8th Nov, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am
Ulverstone
10:00am Meercroft
7:00pm Devonport … Annual Mass of Remembrance
Next Weekend 9th & 10th November
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 9th & 10th NOVEMBER, 2019
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Port Sorell:
When I am ready, I turn prayerfully to the text.
Perhaps I
imagine myself present in the scene as a bystander, or as Zacchaeus himself. What
can I see and hear around me ...?
I take my time.
Presently, I allow Jesus to
seek my gaze … How does he look at me …?
Might he be calling me to him with the
same urgency with which he calls Zaccheus, eager for me to share in his mission
… to come to my house?
I ponder … and speak to the Lord about this as I would
to a close friend, listening as well as sharing my own thoughts and feelings.
Zacchaeus’s
initial curiosity to see Jesus leads to a much deeper encounter that enables
him to respond from his heart.
I reflect on this, pondering how Jesus himself
might feel as he hears the joyful response of one who had seemed to be lost ...
In time, I may feel drawn to ask: Is Jesus inviting me to help him show others
what God is like, in a deeper, fuller way?
I ask him to guide me, remembering
that the Lord is always with me, and I do nothing in my own strength.
When I am
ready, I end my prayer with a slow sign of the cross.
Glory be ...
Readings Next Week: 32nd Sunday
in Ordinary Time – Year C
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Let us pray for
those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 31st October – 6th November
May the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
Destiny Davis daughter of Allan &
Amy,
Weekly Ramblings
The next stage of our Plenary 2020 process started this
week with the meetings at MacKillop Hill on Wednesday evening and at the Parish
House on Thursday morning. As well as these meetings continuing during this
coming week there is a meeting at the Parish House on Wednesday evening at 7pm.
We will be looking at the 1st of the themes – ‘Missionary & Evangelising’.
If you would to join in this journey we would ask that you download and read
the relevant material by going to https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/themes/missionary/
If you don’t have access to the internet we can provide you with a hard copy –
please let us know.
Next Friday, 8th Nov, at 7pm at Our Lady of Lourdes we will
be celebrating a Mass of Remembrance for all those have died in the past twelve
months. I would like to extend an invitation to all Parishioners who have lost
family members either here or elsewhere to join us in remembering their loved
ones at this Mass. After Mass there will be supper in the Foyer.
On Monday, 11th Nov, at 11am at Our Lady of Lourdes we will
be celebrating a Mass on Remembrance Day as we recall all those who have given
their lives in service of our Nation in any of the conflicts that our Country
has been involved in during our history – all welcome.
As we have done over the past few years we will be making
available an Advent Reflection Booklet for personal reflection during this
sacred time. This book will be available shortly and will cover the period from
the beginning of Advent through to the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (12th
January).
For those
of you have been wondering about Fr Phil and his living arrangements – he has
moved out of his tent and is now firmly installed in his unit which is unit
1/88 Stewart Street, Devonport. Congratulations and thanks for the journey lol!
Take care on the roads and in your homes,
SACRED HEART CHURCH ROSTERS:
CCR PRAYER GROUP:
ST MARY’S CHURCH PENGUIN:
Come
along and join parishioners for a BBQ at St Mary's Church Penguin on Saturday
November 9th following the 6:00pm Mass. Sausages, hamburgers and
chicken burgers provided, but we ask you
to please bring a salad and/or sweet dish and please invite a friend. A
great way to relax and
chat with fellow parishioners. Inquiries Yvonne 6429:1353.
HEALING MASS:
Catholic Charismatic Renewal are sponsoring a Healing Mass
at St Mary’s Church Penguin on Thursday 21st November commencing at 6.30pm
(Please note early start).
I
wish to thank Parishioners of our Parish who prayed for me when I unexpectedly
became ill. I
am now recovering and sincerely thank you. Peter
Sylvester
THURSDAY 7th November, Eyes down 7:30pm. Callers Rod Clark & Tony Ryan
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
THE WAY TO
ST JAMES PILGRIMAGE 2020:
For further details and to register go to: www.waytostjames.com.au or visit us
on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/waytostjamescygnet/
IMMACULATA MISSION SCHOOL 2020
Amazon Synod
Final Document
You can find the final document by clicking here - you will need to click the translate button at the top of the page as the original document is in Spanish. The final translated document will be available shortly.
Married Priests; Pope to Reopen Women Deacons Commission
You can find the original article at https://www.ncronline.org/news/earthbeat/amazon-synod-calls-married-priests-pope-reopen-women-deacons-commission
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican gathering of Catholic bishops from the Amazon has called on Pope Francis to allow for the priestly ordination of married men on a regional basis in order to address a lack of ministers across the nine-nation region.
And after the 185 male voting members at the month long Synod of Bishops said in their final document that the idea of ordaining women as deacons had been "very present" during their discussions, Francis announced he will be summoning his commission on the issue back to work, and adding new members to its ranks.
"I am going to take up the challenge … that you have put forward, that women be heard," the pontiff said in spontaneous remarks after close of the synod's business Oct. 26.
The dual announcements regarding possible new openings for Catholic ministry came at the end of an Oct. 6-27 gathering that focused on the serious environmental threats facing both the Amazon Basin and the people who have protected and called it home for centuries.
In the final document, released shortly after the pope's remarks Oct. 26, the bishops put forth a series of proposals to address both the rain-forest and its people, including defining ecological sin and calling for the church across the Amazon to divest its finances from extractive industries that harm the planet.
The proposals are part of a 33-page text that was the fruit of intense discussion among the prelates and 80 lay auditors at the synod gathering, and an extraordinary level of outside attention and criticism during the month long process.
Setting forth the proposed definition of "ecological sin," the synod participants describe it in the original Spanish text as “an action or omission against God, against others, the community and the environment."
"It is a sin against future generations and manifests itself in acts and habits of pollution and destruction of the environmental harmony, transgressions against the principles of interdependence and the breaking of solidarity networks among creatures and against the virtue of justice," they state.
Although the discussions leading to the final document of the synod took place behind closed doors, it is known that the synod bishops — primarily from the Amazon, but also from other regions of the world — submitted hundreds of proposed amendments to the first version of the text.
Several unconfirmed reports said the first draft, presented at the synod Oct. 21, had been subject to some 800 amendments, an extraordinarily high number.
In past synods, changes to draft texts have sometimes come about in an effort to ensure the documents pass the vote threshold for their approval, which is two-thirds of the synod members present at the time of the tally.
Voting on the 2019 document took place late Oct. 26, with the prelates giving each paragraph of the text a simple yes or no. All of the 120 paragraphs of the document were adopted by the assembly with the required two-thirds: 120 members of the 181 present for the voting.
The closest margin came on the paragraph calling on Francis to consider priestly ordination of married men, which received 128 yes votes and 41 no votes. The second closest came on the paragraph dealing with the discussion on women deacons, which received 137 yes votes and 30 no votes.
'Right of community' to Eucharist
Ministry of married men and women emerged as key topics early in the synod, with many of the participants focusing on the need for the church to find a way to be more present in the Amazon's rural, hard-to-traverse areas.
Before bringing up the issue of married priests, the synod final text makes a number of references to the importance of the Eucharist in Catholic life. It cites Second Vatican Council documents as well as John Paul II's 2003 encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, which states: "The church draws her life from the Eucharist."
"There is a right of the community to the celebration, which derives from the essence of the Eucharist and its place in the economy of salvation," says the synod text.
Continuing to their request of Francis, the bishops suggest the pope allow for current married permanent deacons to be ordained as priests, in order to "sustain the life of the Christian community through the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the Sacraments in the most remote areas of the Amazon region."
Possible candidates for the married priesthood, the bishops say, should "have a fruitful diaconate [and] … receive adequate formation for the presbyterate, while having a legitimately constituted and stable family."
In the area of women's ministry, the final text says that the synod bishops recognize the "ministeriality" that Jesus entrusted to women.
The document also notes that Francis' study commission on women deacons, which the pope created in 2016 following a request from the umbrella group representing the world's Catholic sisters and nuns, did not come to a final conclusion on the matter.
The pontiff gave a report from the commission back to the umbrella group, known as the International Union of Superiors General, in May. The report has not been released publicly.
The commission, the synod document says, "came to a partial result on what the reality of the women's diaconate was like during the first centuries of the church and its implications today."
"We would like to share our experiences and reflections with the Commission and look forward to its results," says the text.
"I am going to try to reconvene this [commission] with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and appoint new people in this commission and take up the challenge," the pope promised the synod bishops.
"What is said in the document falls short of what the woman is; in the transmission of faith, in the preservation of culture," said the pontiff.
In a section of the final document prior to the focus on women's "ministeriality," the synod bishops say they consider it "urgent" for the church to "promote and confer ministries for men and women in an equitable manner."
"It is the Church of baptized men and women that we must strengthen by promoting ministeriality and, above all, the awareness of baptismal dignity," they state.
The synod members also make a point to note that a bishop has wide authority in his diocese to entrust any person, man or woman, with ecclesial responsibilities.
"In the absence of priests in the community, the Bishop may entrust, for a specific period of time, the exercise of pastoral care of the community to a person not invested with the priestly character who is a member of the community," they state.
"The Bishop may constitute this ministry on behalf of the Christian community with an official mandate through a ritual act so that the person responsible for the community may also be recognized at the civil and local levels," they continue.
'A frantic race toward death'
The synod document unfolds over five chapters, plus a brief introduction and conclusion. The text takes as its own the formal title of the synod — "The Amazon: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology" — with the latter four chapters each covering new paths for pastoral, cultural, ecological, and synodal conversion.
At the opening of the text the bishops say that all the participants of the synod expressed "a keen awareness of the dramatic situation of destruction affecting the Amazon," whether in the loss of territory for indigenous people to industrial development or the ruin of the biome itself.
"The Amazon rainforest is a 'biological heart' for our increasingly threatened land," they say. "It is on a frantic race toward death. It requires radical changes as a matter of urgency, a new direction to save it."
In chapter four, the bishops expand on ecological matters, stating it is necessary to respond to "an unprecedented socio-environmental crisis" confronting the planet. They call for international solidarity in recognizing "the central role" the Amazon plays in the global effort to limit climate change — what they identify as "above all" the greatest threat to life in the region.
"Faced with the pressing situation of the planet and the Amazon, integral ecology is not a path that the Church can choose for the future in this territory, it is the only possible way, because there is no other viable path to save the region," they say.
The bishops also speak movingly of activists in the Amazon who have risked their lives to call attention to the ecological crisis, saying environmental destruction there "is accompanied by the shedding of innocent blood and the criminalization of the defenders of the Amazon."
They continue later to call the protection of human rights a duty, and not an option, for Christians.
"The human being is created in the image and likeness of God the Creator, and its dignity is inviolable," say the bishops. "Therefore the defense and promotion of human rights is not merely a political duty or a social task, but also and above all a requirement of faith."
In some of the most forthright and political language of the text, the prelates say that in the face of the "prevailing destructive and extractive development model" they need to make clear: "Where do we stand? On whose side are we on? What perspective do we assume? How do we convey the political and ethical dimension of our word of faith and life?"
Answering one of their own questions, the bishops write, "We denounce the violation of human rights and extractivist destruction." In the same breath, they call for the church in the Amazon to join and support divestment campaigns from companies engaged in socio-ecological damage, and simultaneously advocate "for a radical energy transition and the search for alternatives."
The document does not specify how the bishops might determine from which companies to divest, and whether it would join the fossil fuel divestment campaign that has led roughly 150 Catholic institutions to wean their finances from coal, oil and natural gas. Of that group, only one from the Amazon region, the Diocese of the Holy Spirit of Umuarama, in Paraná, Brazil, has divested.
While humanity once held a "friendly" demeanor toward nature, the bishops decry that has been lost to "a voracious and predatory attitude" that squeezes to exhaustion every natural resource. They join in solidarity with the Amazonian people requesting states cease viewing the biome as "an inexhaustible pantry," and to implement sustainable development models that are inclusive and empowering of local communities.
The bishops also suggest the establishment of a global fund to repair "ecological debt" that other countries have incurred with the Amazon.
Among other recommendations:
Development of "common home" training programs in parishes to raise awareness about the state of environmental problems;
Creation of special ministers in the Catholic Church that would be charged with caring for the environment "at the parish level and in each ecclesiastical jurisdiction," and with promoting Francis' 2015 encyclical Laudato Si';
Adoption of responsible habits around diet, energy and consumption to change consumer culture.
At a press briefing about the synod document late Oct. 26, Cardinal Michael Czerny said the images this summer of the Amazon rainforest burning has awakened in people an awareness that current ways of living are unsustainable.
"The ecological crisis is so deep that if we don't change, we won't make it," said Czerny, one of the synod's organizers.
The Oct. 26 document from the synod is not expected to be the final word on the Catholic Church's ministry across the Amazon region. In his remarks closing the synod's business, Francis said he was hoping to follow the bishops' text with his own document, likely to take the form of an apostolic exhortation, by the end of the year.
The pontiff also appeared to address the criticism the Amazon synod has drawn from more conservative quarters in the church, referencing what he termed "elite Catholics" who concentrate on "tiny things" but forget bigger issues.
"They think they are with God, but are not brave enough to understand humanity," said Francis, paraphrasing the early 20th century French writer Charles Péguy.
[Joshua J. McElwee is NCR Vatican correspondent. His email address is jmcelwee@ncronline.org. Brian Roewe is an NCR staff writer. His email address is broewe@ncronline.org.]
A Bigger God
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
Our predestination to glory is prior by nature to any notion of sin. —John Duns Scotus [1]
The Franciscan School, led by such teachers as Duns Scotus, refused to see the Incarnation and its finale on the cross as a mere reaction to human failure. God was much more than a problem solver. Instead, Franciscans claimed that the cross was a freely chosen revelation of Love on God’s part. In so doing, they reversed the engines of almost all world religion up to that point, which assumed humans had to spill blood to get to a distant and demanding God. On the cross, Franciscans believed, God was “spilling blood” to reach out to us! [2] This is a sea change in consciousness. Instead of being a theological transaction, the crucifixion was a dramatic demonstration of God’s outpouring love, meant to utterly shock the heart and mind and turn it back toward trust and love of the Creator.
In the Franciscan view, God did not need to be paid in order to love and forgive God’s own creation. Love cannot be bought by some “necessary sacrifice”; if it could, it would not and could not work its transformative effects. Duns Scotus and his followers were committed to protecting the absolute freedom to love in God. If forgiveness needs to be bought or paid for, then it is not authentic forgiveness at all. Love and forgiveness must be freely given or they do not accomplish their deeply transformative healing. Self-serving love does not change the heart. It must be free and undeserved love or transformation does not happen. (Think about that and you will know it is true!)
I’m not sure many Christians recognize the dangers of penal substitutionary atonement theory. Perhaps the underlying assumptions were never made clear, even though thinking people throughout the ages were often repelled by such a crass notion of God. This theory has become a nail in the coffin of belief for many sincere, thoughtful individuals today. Some Christians just repress their misgiving because they think it implies a complete loss of faith. But I would wager that for every person who voices doubt, many more quietly walk away from a religion that has come to seem irrational, mythological, and deeply unsatisfying to the heart and soul. And these are usually not “bad” people!
Christianity can do so much better, and doing so will not diminish Jesus in the least. In fact, it will allow Jesus to take on a universal and humanly appealing dimension. The cross cannot be an arbitrary and bloody sacrifice triggered by a sin that was once committed by one man and one woman under a tree between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Frankly, that idea reduces any notion of a universal or truly “catholic” revelation to one planet, at the edge of one solar system, in a universe comprised of billions of galaxies with trillions of solar systems. A religion based on required sacrifices is just not glorious or hopeful enough or even befitting the marvelous creation. To those who cling to Anselm’s understanding, I would say, as J. B. Phillips wrote many years ago, “Your God is too small.” [3]
[1] John Duns Scotus, Ordinatio III, dist. 7, q. 3. See Four Questions on Mary, tr. Allan B. Wolter (Franciscan Institute: 2000), 23.
[2] See Mary Beth Ingham, Scotus for Dunces (Franciscan Institute: 2003), 75-77.
[3] J. B. Phillips, Your God Is Too Small (Macmillan: 1954).
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe (Convergent: 2019), 143-145.
The Frustrating Struggle For Humility
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
It’s hard to be humble, not because we don’t have more than enough deficiencies to merit humility, but rather because there’s crafty mechanism inside of us that normally doesn’t let us go to the place of humility. Simply put, as we try to be self-effacing, humble, and non-hypocritical, variably we take pride in that and then, feeling smug about it, we become judgmental of others.
Jesus gave us a wonderful parable on this but mostly we miss its lesson. We’re all familiar with the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. Jesus tells the story of two men standing before God in prayer. The first man, a devout Pharisee, is a man who took the pursuit of virtue seriously and he thanks God that he’s devout and moral and also thanks God that he’s not as amoral as the Publican who is in the temple with him. The second man, a Publican, recognizes (honestly and without any rationalization) that he is amoral, that he is a sinner, and, within that recognition, humbly asks God to forgive him for his weaknesses. We know how Jesus assessed the two men. The Pharisee didn’t really pray while the Publican did. Moreover the parable highlights the internal blindness of the Pharisee in a way that’s impossible not to see. Everyone hearing this story cannot help but see his lack of humility.
What’s challenging however is to examine our own reaction to the story. We instantly see the difference between false pride and genuine humility. We see how arrogant it is for the Pharisee to say: “Thank God, I am not like that man!” But, but then, I would venture to guess that 98% of us hearing that story spontaneously nurse this feeling: “Thank God, I’m not like that Pharisee!” And, in doing that, we are him! Exactly like him, we’re brimming over with our own sense of virtue and, because of that, begin judging others. Our prayer is in fact usually the opposite of the Publican’s prayer. We are not praying out of our own sinfulness, but rather praying: “I thank you, God, that I’m not as blind to self and as judgmental as so many other people are!” It’s hard to be the Publican. Our very virtue and humility invariably coil back upon themselves and make us proud and judgmental.
What’s the answer? How do we break the vicious circle? There’s only one way and the Publican shows us that way. How? He prays out of his own sinfulness, for real. He’s a sinner and he honestly admits it. For our part, when we speak of ourselves as sinners mostly we don’t really mean it! We admit that we have our weaknesses and that sometimes we do sin, but then, like the Pharisee, we’re immediately thankful that we don’t have the weaknesses and sins of others. Mostly we think this way: “Admittedly, I have my faults, but at least I’m not as ignorant and self-serving as that colleague of mine!” “For all of my shortcomings, I still thank God that I’m not as narcissistic as my boss!” “I may not have much religious faith, but at least I’m not as hypocritical as so many of those church people!” “I may be a bit of a mess, but thank God I don’t have Jack’s faults!” Pride is forever sneaking around our defenses and keeping genuine humility at bay.
But there’s one instance when it can’t do that and that is when we are genuinely acknowledging our own sinfulness. When we are truly standing inside of our own sinfulness, like the Publican, then we judge no one – not even our own selves. As a Roman Catholic priest who has been hearing confessions for some 47 years, I can say without hesitation that people are at their very best when they are honestly confessing their own shortcomings. When we are genuinely standing inside the recognition of our own sin, we judge no one. In that space we never think: “Thank God, I don’t have Jack’s faults!” We know that our own suffice. Our prayer then becomes honest and, according to Jesus, it’s then that it’s heard in heaven.
And it’s precisely our sinfulness that we must existentially recognize and stand within. Our other weaknesses, our congenital and personal inadequacies, can be helpful in making us humble, but, since we aren’t personally or morally responsible for them, recognizing them doesn’t do the same thing for us as does recognizing our own sinfulness. We aren’t responsible for physical or psychological DNA. We aren’t responsible for our ethnicity or color. We aren’t responsible for the kind of family, neighborhood, and culture we were raised in. And we aren’t responsible for what happened to us in the playpen and on the playground when we were little. Yet all of these deeply impact both our weaknesses and our strengths. But since we aren’t responsible for these, ultimately we don’t have to be humble about them.
But we do have to be humble about our own sin.
Three Reasons To Skip The Rebuilt Conference
(And Why They're Wrong!)
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
This week our early bird registration for our amazing church conference in April comes to a close. In talking to church leaders I’ve heard incredible excitement about Rebuilt 2020. I’ve also heard push back from others. Take a look…
1) “I’ve already attended a Rebuilt Conference in the past.”
We know what it’s like to work in a parish. The idea that “Sunday is always coming” isn’t just an idea, it’s a reality that weighs on us daily. Sometimes, we let our ministry become entirely driven by that pressure without lifting our heads up out of the weeds to take a fresh look at the big picture.
Rebuilt 2020 is not about repeating content you’ve heard before. It’s about refreshing and renewing you and your team, as well as equipping and inspiring you for fresh efforts and new initiatives.
You’ve been to a Rebuilt Conference before? Great! Encouragement isn’t just a one-time thing. Renewal and rebuilding aren’t one and done exercises. What you’re doing in your parish is a long term effort. Come again, bring your team or bring new people from your parish who want to learn more and grow. We promise, you won’t be disappointed.
Rebuilt 2020 will have keynotes from two new speakers (Curtis Martin, founder of FOCUS, and Jeff Henderson, lead pastor of Gwinnett Church, one of the fastest-growing churches in the country). Nearly all breakouts have been updated to fit today’s context, culture, and technology, and lots of new speakers. Great music, great food, what’s not to want to come back for.
2) “I thought it was only for priests.”
We get this a lot. People seem to think that a church conference is only for priests. Rebuilt 2020 is absolutely for them. But, we’re also for anyone who has a passion to rebuild their parish. Rebuilt is for your parish staff, your parish leadership, your Pastoral Council, your Financial Council, your youth group members, parents, school administrators, and more! God is calling all of us to reach the unchurched.
We’ve found that the more people a parish brings to the conference, the more they take home to their parish. By bringing a variety of staff, clergy, and parish leaders, you can attend a variety of breakout sessions and immediately put your new knowledge to use by sharing with the rest of your group. Plus, when more leaders in your parish catch your vision, it makes implementation and change exponentially easier. That can happen when you bring your team to the conference.
3) “My parish doesn’t plan that far in advance, besides we can’t afford it anyway.”
We understand that times are hard for many parishes – and we aren’t just talking about a lack of funds. It feels like parish staff are busier than ever before and there are fewer volunteer ministers to pick up the slack. However, we consider Rebuilt 2020 to be an investment in your parish. By investing your time and resources into this conference, there will be fruitful return, in many ways, including potentially, financially. In view of our recently published book, ChurchMoney, there will be special breakouts devoted to giving and stewardship.
If you register by October 31st, you’ll get a discounted registration price of $199 (and it even includes lunch, snacks and drinks). This price is only available until October 31st so now is the time to register.
The Remarkable Story of Thomas Stephens SJ
The First English Jesuit in India
October 2019 is the 400th anniversary of the death of Thomas Stephens SJ, a translator and writer who authored several works including the Kristapurana for which he is best known. This powerful text is much more than an imaginative retelling of the biblical narrative, says Michael Barnes SJ, who celebrates Stephens’ pastoral and literary gifts. Fr Michael Barnes SJ is Professor of Interreligious Relations at the University of Roehampton. This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website where you can find a wide range of articles by clicking here
Fr Thomas Stephens SJ, the 400th anniversary of whose death is celebrated this year, was a remarkable linguist and translator, pastoral priest and accomplished poet. A recent journal article refers to him as the ‘Shakespeare of India’.[i] An unlikely comparison – but not entirely fanciful.
Stephens did not set out to be a poet. His first work was a grammar (in Portuguese) of the Konkani language, his second a treatise on Christian faith, written in Konkani. Towards the end of his life he published an epic version of the Old and New Testaments in Marathi, the Kristapurana.[ii] This is the work for which he is famous. His poetry may not be in the same class as Shakespeare or Robert Southwell, but today he is known in Maharashtra as the father of Maratha Christian literature.
From Wiltshire to India
No mean achievement for a country boy from middle England. Let’s begin in the tiny hamlet of Bushton, just south of what is now Royal Wootton Bassett in north Wiltshire, where Stephens was born in 1549, the second son of Thomas and Jane Stephens. Thomas senior was a successful merchant who held the lease of Bushton Manor. There isn’t a church in the village. The nearest is about a mile away, in the village of Clyffe Pypard, half way up the Ridgeway escarpment which commands magnificent views of the bare, gently undulating countryside. Possibly Stephens was baptised here – though it’s more likely to have been in the chapel attached to the Manor.
His elder brother, Richard, studied at Oxford, joined the newly founded seminary at Douai, and worked as professor of theology until his death in 1586. Thomas did his schooling at Winchester, after which he traipsed round the country in the company of a larger than life character called Thomas Pounde, a sometime courtier of Queen Elizabeth, whose main purpose in life seems to have been introducing suitable young men (and himself) to the Society of Jesus.
Pounde and Stephens were much taken by the radical commitment expected of recruits to the new Society as well as by the letters written by far-flung missionaries that were circulating round Europe at the time. They resolved to go to Rome together but, on the eve of their departure, Pounde was betrayed and arrested. Stephens escaped and travelled to Rome alone, where he joined the Society of Jesus along with six other Englishmen, among them the Oxford-educated Henry Garnet, William Weston and Robert Persons.
In 1577, Edmund Campion wrote to Persons from Prague: ‘You are seven; I congratulate you; I wish you were seventy times seven. Considering the goodness of the cause, the number is small.’[iii] Campion was, of course, referring to the needs of the English mission. And given that it was such a priority for English Jesuits at that precise moment it might seem strange that Stephens had other ideas. But his desire to dedicate himself to a very different mission made itself plain early on. Even apart from the powerful attraction of the letters of the likes of Francis Xavier, he would have been well aware that the Formula of the Institute in only its third paragraph speaks about members of the Society being ready to go wherever the Supreme Pontiff sees fit, ‘whether he sends us to the Turks or other infidels, even to the land they call India’.[iv]
By the time he set out from Lisbon on 4 April 1579, the Society had shifted its missionary focus from the radical dispersal which Ignatius originally envisaged to the routine of educational institutions, the work for which the Society soon became famous. Stephens clung to the original ideal, no more taken by the prospect of the settled life of the schoolteacher than he felt committed to resisting persecution back in his native land.
The humanism of a strange new world
He landed in Goa on 24 October 1579 - one of 43 Jesuits to arrive that year. This epic journey with its privations and dangers is vividly described in a long letter to his father. His communications, whether to his family or to members of the Society, reveal something of his character. He comes across as keenly observant, blessed with an enquiring mind and a natural curiosity, thoughtful and clear-sighted in his judgements, yet also fascinated by the strange and unexpected.
He is, for instance, struck by the exotic flora of this new world. The letter to his father finishes: ‘Hitherto I have not seen trees here whose like I have seen in Europe, the vine excepted, which, nevertheless here is to no purpose, so that all the wines are brought out from Portugal.’[v] And his growing interest in language and translation comes through in a letter to his brother Richard, written in late 1583. ‘Many are the languages of these places. Their pronunciation is not disagreeable, and their structure is allied to Greek and Latin. The phrases and constructions are of a wonderful kind.’[vi]
At the Roman College Stephens was schooled both in Thomistic thought and in the humanist values of the Renaissance. What held them together was no theory of intercultural dynamics but a language, Latin, that opened up access to literature of all kinds and, perhaps as significant, modes of using language of all kinds, from syllogistic reasoning to the tropes of classical rhetoric and poetry. Stephens knew that Sanskrit was connected to Marathi and Konkani as Latin was to Italian; the one was the linguistic and cultural key to the other.
The typically Jesuit approach to Christian mission came out of this humanist education. Ignatius expected his Jesuits to be learned, but also to be able to communicate their learning. The two are interdependent, two sides of the one coin, a dialogue that begins with the desire to understand and finds itself rooted in the heart. This was what inspired the likes of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) who developed an extraordinary dialogue with the Chinese world and Roberto de Nobili (1577-1656) who lived for some fifty years among the Brahmins of Madurai.
The India Stephens encountered was, of course, the centre of Portuguese power. The enclave of Goa was founded as a trading centre by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1510. Within less than a century it was marked by a series of impressive buildings, not least the Bom Jesus, started in 1594 and, after his canonisation in 1622, the place where St Francis Xavier’s body was finally laid to rest. Like all the religious who came to Goa, the Jesuits received a stipend from the Portuguese. Without financial support they could not have operated at all, yet there was always a risk their freedom of movement would be subject to imperial diktat.
The trauma of violence
As an Englishman Stephens was already an outsider in this Portuguese world, and like de Nobili he appears to have experienced a degree of ambivalence towards colonial power and the dilemmas it raised for the missionary. But whereas de Nobili quickly moved outside the area subject to Portuguese control, Stephens spent the rest of his life there. Soon after his ordination he was sent to Rachol, the most important mission-centre in Salcete, some 25 kilometres to the south, and an area of particular concern for the Portuguese in their efforts to establish control of the Goa hinterland.
He responded naturally to Ignatius’s concern that, wherever necessary, Jesuits should learn to address local people in the local vernacular. Yet he also knew that something more was at stake than mere ease of communication. Adapting the Gospel to the local language had the deeper purpose of entering into the spirit of a culture, valuing it as a place where the Spirit was already at work in the world. It took a particularly traumatic event to make him see that the fabric of human culture is always fragile and sometimes needs to be protected from unthinking violence.
The Salcete mission, situated on the very edge of the Portuguese enclave and always subject to internal conflicts and shifting loyalties, was never easy. According to Georg Schurhammer, the Salcete population, scattered over 55 villages, amounted to about 80,000; scores of temples were dedicated to Santery, the cobra-goddess, a form of the fearsome Durga.[vii] In 1560 there were about 100 Christians; by the end of the decade over a thousand. A remarkable growth, but this rapid expansion was achieved in no small measure by force, with the destruction of Hindu temples.
Almost inevitably there was a violent reaction and in 1583 four Jesuits, led by Rudolph Acquaviva, and 48 native Christians were attacked and violently hacked to death at a small outpost called Cuncolim. Today the site of the massacre is covered by an innocuous little chapel. Another chapel, a couple of hundred yards away, covers the ‘well’ – more a damp pit – where the dismembered bodies were dumped. Stephens, recently installed in the ‘college’ or Jesuit community in Rachol, was caught in the aftermath. It fell to him to recover the bodies – one of them a fellow-novice from Roman days – and then go about the painful business of rebuilding the community’s work.
When I visited the spot with a group of Jesuits I was struck by the simplicity of the site. There was no great monument proclaiming what had happened. I did, however, notice a more recent memorial to another massacre set up in a garden on the other side of the dividing wall. It made for sober reading.
This memorial is dedicated to the bravery and valour of the chieftains of Cuncolim who stood against the Portuguese and were treacherously massacred when attending peace talks at the Assolna fort in July 1583.
Some dozen names are listed, a tangible reminder of the ‘other side’ of history. Acquaviva had come to Cuncolim with his companions to mediate in a bitter conflict that had broken out over the desecration of the local temple. Instead they were violently killed – and their deaths led subsequently to a further terrible act of vengeance. The memorial acts as a reminder that it wasn’t just Catholics who suffered violence at that time. Religious difference is never the whole story in inter-communal conflict. The economic and political consequences of disruption of the cultural status quo are often equally significant.
One pertinent comment comes from the Jesuit historian Teutonio de Souza. He criticises recourse to binary thinking, such as the assumption that the ‘pagans’ were implicated in ‘the work of the devil’ while those who supported the missionaries were doing ‘God’s work’.[viii] The truth is always more complex. This was something Stephens came to know through painful experience.
The patience of conversion
However this tragic episode is to be dissected, it was, says Schurhammer, a ‘major disaster’.[ix] By strange chance, two months later came a letter from Stephens’ brother Richard, telling him of the martyrdom of Edmund Campion and his companions at Tyburn. In his reply, written just four years after his arrival in India, 24 October 1583, Stephens gives a graphic description of what happened in Cuncolim. He then passes on a happier story about the strength of faith of a Brahmin boy who was imprisoned by his family yet resisted all attempts to make him give up his Christian faith.
The story is not a pious aside, intended to counter the traumas of Tyburn and Cuncolim. Stephens is touched by the movements of divine providence in the middle of terrible experiences of suffering. The world the brothers share is going through a period of darkness but Thomas consoles himself with an example of patient goodness.[x] The process of conversion takes time and its own form of heroic perseverance; unnecessary pressure leads only to obstinacy – and risks further violence.
Another historian, Ananya Chakravarti, author of an insightful analysis of Stephens’ life and mission, draws attention to his ‘willingness to impute reasonable motivations and sentiments to the people of his adopted land’. His awareness of the seeds of violence built up in him not resentment but a remarkable capacity for empathy, which enabled him to identify with the local culture and its people.[xi]
Pastoral care and catechesis
Stephens spent most of his 40 years on the Indian mission in Salcete. The first half was dedicated to pastoral work, for the ‘salvation of souls’, as Ignatius decreed in the first Formula. He was clearly a wise and sensitive priest. The labour of administration came less easily to him. He was conscious that simply keeping control of the mission would lead to an encounter with the people that was superficial and took little account of his people’s loyalty to their customs and patterns of behaviour.
The Kristapurana was the fruit of long years of prayerful study, preaching and pastoral work. He was aware that brahmin converts were concerned their new-found faith lacked the cultural and liturgical structures they had been so used to. So he began to think in terms of an accompaniment to the catechism, a story to be recited and prayed, raising questions and opening up elucidations of the truth of the Gospel.
Once he had mastered Sanskrit, and produced his grammar of Konkani, Stephens was more and more captivated by the language of the Marathi saints which, according to a modern history, he described as, ‘a jewel among pebbles, like a sapphire among jewels, like the jasmine among blossoms, and the musk among all perfumes, the peacock among birds.’[xii]
He became convinced that no better language could be imagined for communicating the truth of the Gospel. Three editions of the Kristapurana were published, in 1616, 1649 and 1654. A scholarly edition was produced in Mangalore by Joseph Saldanha in 1907 and English speakers are indebted to the more recent translation by Nelson Falcao published in 2012.[xiii] What was Stephens seeking to convey through this great text? And does it have anything to teach a modern audience, some four hundred years later?
Rooting faith in the heart
As a work of catechesis, the not-so-remote model is St Francis Xavier himself – and further back, of course, the convictions of St Ignatius. Xavier learned enough of the local language to produce simple summaries which he repeated to people. More importantly, in the spirit of the Spiritual Exercises, he taught them how to pray. In centring the words of faith round the life of Christ they would come to understand – and relish – its deeper truth. In a letter to the General, from 1601, Stephens writes about ‘the little chapels which Fr Provincial ordered to be erected in remote villages. Here the children can gather to study their catechism and the people can stop to pray when passing by.’[xiv]
By focusing his efforts on the instruction of children he hoped to found a new type of community, far removed from the old rivalries which had proved so destructive. Not that the text is a purely liturgical accompaniment, a vehicle for devotional assimilation of Christian truth. Cut in to the story are occasional questions from an enquiring Brahmin or ‘an intelligent person’, which enable the teacher to develop further the meaning of what has been recounted in the narrative.
There is, in other words, more to the Kristapurana than an imaginative retelling of the biblical narrative. Apart from the obvious influence of the Spiritual Exercises, we should not forget the one text that Ignatius allows his retreatant – The Imitation of Christ. Stephens’ novice-director, Fabio de Fabi, refers in his directory to the ‘hidden power‘ of the Exercises, ‘grounded as they are in the teaching of the saints, the truth of scripture, and long experience’.[xv] In good Ignatian fashion, the Kristapurana seeks to bring the powers of the soul and all the senses into a single whole-hearted response to the love of God poured out for humankind in Christ. This is no nod in the direction of ‘popular religion’; it is a sophisticated and highly effective catechesis.
The puranic style of story-telling
If the content is very much the Gospel story, the form or style in which it is recounted comes from the cultural world of Stephens’ brahmin converts. The word purana, literally ‘old’ or ‘ancient’, may be translated as ‘account of past history’.[xvi] It refers to a genre of Hindu literature which in its classical form is held to deal with topics such as creation, destruction and re-creation, the genealogy of gods and ancient sages, and the rule of kings and heroes. Puranas are lengthy stories associated with various theistic forms, avatars – literally ‘descents’ – or manifestations of Bhagavan, the ‘Blessed Lord’. Compared with the ancient Vedic hymns and the philosophical texts of the Upanisads, these are the most tangible expressions of the great movement of bhakti religion, with its seminal literary form in the Bhagavad Gita, the ‘song of the Lord’ the best-known and most beloved of Hindu scriptures.
Bhakti means ‘participation’ and may be loosely translated as ‘loyalty’ – with connotations of the divine grace that inspires all forms of heartfelt love. In their written form the puranas represent the imaginative ordering of exemplary stories. Their origins, however, lie not with the artifice of a writer but with the sutas or bards who were responsible for the oral recitation that gathered a community together. The form of semi-liturgical performance is still to be found all over India as the familiar stories are sung and recited in villages, temples and more formal settings.
Stephens used the form to exhort his audience to lead good and honest lives in imitation of Jesus Christ. But it would not have escaped his attention that the ritual which is inseparable from myths and legends has a certain political or social dimension. Sutas were often employed at court to celebrate ancient lineages and trace royal descent by linking the deeds of ancestors and heroes to the world of the gods. In terms of form the Kristapurana has such a religious and political purpose: the validation of the religious pedigree of the Christian community. The story proclaims who these people are.
The demands of justice
The first part of the text, about a third of the whole, is less the story of Israel than a single lengthy meditation on the coming of Christ as Saviour into a world darkened by sin. It is remarkably full, beginning with the rebellion of the angels and ending with predictions of the coming of Christ from Jewish prophets and Roman sybils alike. The second part, the Gospel narrative, begins with an invocation to God to inspire the teacher to speak worthily of the mystery of divine revelation before moving on to what Ignatius would call the ‘history’ of the Incarnation and the birth of Jesus.
I offer here just a couple of examples which may give something of the flavour of Stephens’ story-telling while at the same time pointing us in the direction of one of the major theological themes that emerges from this type of ‘puranic catechesis’.
When the three ‘rulers, kings of the East’ turn up (no mere wise men here), they are accompanied by elephants and chariots, massive umbrellas, flags and banners, war drums and the sound of trumpets. No wonder Herod was put out. ‘As if struck by a whip, or as the moon loses lustre, the king lost his demeanour and his lotus face faded. As if turned to a stone statue he could not utter a single word.’[xvii]
The kings meanwhile, with their pomp and magnificent array find their way to Bethlehem and the poor cowshed where the child lies on his mother’s lap. The encounter is movingly described and what they see of the humble surroundings of this king provokes something of a conversion as they remember how they have just promised Herod to report back on the whereabouts of the child. The next day they talk to each other about the dream they have had. They praise and worship the child and take their leave, sending the army back to their own country by ‘another way’ while they themselves disappear wordlessly off the scene.
It’s as if they had never been there. The streets of the city are silent and Herod blusters on about their finding nothing and having to return home ‘full of shame’. Inwardly, of course, he is consumed with envy, hatred and a desire for vengeance. He realises he has been deceived and eventually his anger bursts out. ‘Great flames rose into his insides [and] his brows were knit with knots. He shouted wildly and loudly in the palace and walked about like a mad man.’[xviii] The slaughter of the innocents is told in graphic detail. Jeremiah’s prophecy – ‘in Rama a voice is heard; Rachel weeping for her children’ – is quoted, but it is impossible not to imagine something of the dreadful events of Cuncolim playing on Stephens’ mind. There is, however, a sequel.
Having given a brief account of Herod’s further crimes and pondered on the sins of those who think they can ignore God’s justice, Stephens the suta is interrupted by a Brahmin. ‘Strange indeed’, he says, ‘is the story of that king. You have told a narrative of great moral value. So what punishment to such a king was given, to that unfortunate one by God? Tell us that, then we will understand.’[xix] The disease that afflicts Herod is described in gory detail and is not for faint European hearts. But it would have been pretty normal fare for an audience familiar with the grisly fate meted out to malign monsters.
This takes us back to the comment by the Jesuit historian. If there is one theme that underlies all Indian religion it is that of cosmic justice, the dilemmas of pursuing dharma, the cause of right, in a less than perfect world. In the Epic and Puranic literature this theme is played out as an endless battle between the personalised forces of good and evil. Very often it is the god-figure appearing in human or animal form who uses his superior powers, often gained through acts of asceticism, to overcome the wiles of the demon. This is the basic framework with which Stephens works. But he does more than set up a binary opposition, as becomes clear when he turns to my second example, Stephens’ magnificent rendering of the Temptations of Jesus.
Inside the hollow dome of the sky, the servants of Lucifer were talking. ‘Who is that dwelling, dressed like an ascetic, in the forest? … He is definitely the enemy. Now let us alert our king.’
While they were talking, the messengers said to Lucifer; ‘O King, why are you still sitting quietly? … We have seen a wonderful thing, a man has come suddenly leaping from the town of Nazareth.
‘We have seen him from far off but we dared not go close to him. His name alone is terror for all the devils.’
Upon hearing this, Lucifer trembled with great anger, as if fire was stirred up by sprinkling ghee on it.
Or like a cobra when it is put in a bamboo box … great wrath provoked him; from his nose, mouth, ears and out of all the organs, fireballs rushed and showered forth.
As a fierce rocket, when it is burst, it shakes a lot and looks as if there is no end to its fire … in the same way the fierce tormentor was greatly wrathful. At the place of hell, on the throne of fire he raged upon the chains as he shouted.[xx]
This Lucifer dominates the minor demons and they follow him because of their ‘pride and vanity’. But when he comes close to Jesus he covers up his ‘ghastly appearance’ and takes the form of an old man. This is Stephens’ version not of classical Hinduism but of a very Ignatian theme.
Discerning the dark side of human nature
Ignatius knew from his own experience that ‘the enemy of our human nature’ is a master of disguise; the evil spirit often appears as an ‘angel of light’, producing a counterfeit sense of well-being, disguising the morally dubious as the entirely plausible. What we take for peace and contentment may turn out on closer inspection to be a self-interested satisfaction or a lazy complacency. As Stephens tells the story, it is Jesus who beats the devil at his own game, allowing himself to get close to the demon in order to destroy him ‘stealthily’. This gives Stephens the opportunity to introduce a familiar patristic image:
As a fisherman puts bait of flesh in the mouth of fish, and when the hook is seized, he draws it up and takes his life, so the Lord whose wisdom is deep, allowed his human form to be carried, to vanquish the wicked one by the power of his Divine Nature.[xxi]
The theological motif of the divine entering deep into a world terrorised by the demonic runs through much of Stephens’ narrative. What he describes so vividly is the redeeming action of the Trinitarian God who, in Ignatius’s meditation on the Incarnation, looks down ‘over the vast extent and circuit of the earth with its many and various races’.[xxii] Stephens himself would have contemplated the rituals and devotions of the people of Salcete as well as its recent history and found there many resonances that would build up his form of ‘puranic exegesis’. But that is not to say he would have failed to spot areas of discord, where his Christian faith jarred with what he found in the local religious culture.
There’s a dispassionate side to Stephens’ flights of fancy which always come back to Ignatius’s insights into our flawed human nature. So easily we act as if good and evil operate in black and white terms when the truth is they mingle in many shades of grey. It would be surprising if Stephens were not haunted throughout his life by what happened at Cuncolim. And yet this extraordinary text is characterised by a lack of polemic. There are plenty of enemies and they get their comeuppance, but they are simply more or less culpable versions of Satan – and it is the unmasking of Satan, naming evil for what it is in all its shifty greyness, that most concerns Stephens.
The puranic world-view is by no means clear of binary thinking; forces of power and violence are forever coming up against qualities of love and wisdom. The question is how they work together – and Stephens’ answer unsurprisingly lies with the person of Christ. Schooled in the Spiritual Exercises and familiar with Ignatius’s great meditations on Christ the King and the Two Standards, Stephens offers not a translation of Christian faith into Hindu terms, still less a Christian-Hindu synthesis, but something more direct: an exercise in devotional rhetoric designed to appeal to a particular audience.
Scripture and understanding
The Kristapurana provides the people of Salcete with a sense of Christian belonging which does not do violence to their Indian culture. This is what becomes possible when the Word of God is taken seriously as an invitation to ponder the depths of the mystery that God contemplates. In the hands of a master story-teller like Stephens, scripture is not a script to be read and dissected but the place where God’s Word and the promptings of the Spirit are to be discerned. Scripture creates a religious world – and by entering into that world, with all its colour and symbolism, beauty and aesthetic power, one acquires a language which structures and interprets that world.
The story stands on its own merits; its truth does not have to be proved by subtle arguments which exist apart from that story. It speaks for itself, with the occasional addition of well-reasoned commentary – the questions raised by the ‘intelligent person’ (one of his Rachol brahmin converts perhaps?). Let the last word belong to this extraordinarily creative yet mysteriously laconic Englishman. This is what he says by way of self-justification in his introduction.
No efforts whatsoever have been made in this Purana to prove that their sacred book is untrue and false, and our sacred book is true and real. The difference and the distinctness between the two automatically becomes evident to all. The sacred book of the Christians emerges as beautiful of its own accord. … If you read or listen to this sacred book, it would be enough. It will promote proper understanding of everything.[xxiii]
[i] Francs Correa, ‘The “Shakespeare” of the Konkan coast: Fr Thomas Stephens SJ (1549-1619)’, Vidyajyoti, 83 (2019), pp 461-71.
[ii] Kristapurana of Father Thomas Stephens SJ, translated and edited by Nelson Falcao SDB, Kristu Jyoti Publications: Bengaluru; 2012.
[iii] Letter quoted in Philip Caraman, Henry Garnet,1555-1606, and the Gunpowder Plot, Longmans; 1964; p 14.
[iv] Formula of the Institute 3.
[v] Reproduced in Falcao’s edition of the Kristapurana; Appendix 8; pp 1659-1663.
[vi] Ibid Appendix 9, pp 1664-1670.
[vii] Georg Schurhammer, ‘Thomas Stephens 1549-1619’, The Month, April 1955; pp 197-210.
[viii] Teutonio de Souza, ‘Why Cuncolim Martyrs? An historical re-assessment’, in Jesuits in India: a Historical Perspective, Xavier Centre for Historical Research, Goa, 1991.
[ix] Schurhammer, Stephens, p 202.
[x] Falcao, Kristapurana, Appendix 9; pp 1664-1670.
[xi] Ananya Chakravarti, ‘Christ in the Brahmapuri: Thomas Stephens in Salcete’, in The Empire of Apostles: Religion, Accommodatio, and the Imagination of Empire in Early Modern Brazil and India, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2018; pp 178-227.
[xii] Kusumawati Deshpande, A History of Marathi Literature, Pune: Sahitya Academi, 1985; p 21.
[xiii] As well as background material and notes, Falcao presents the text in columns, the Marathi (in Roman script) and his English verse translation facing each other. He also gives us something of the textual tradition, insofar as that can be reconstructed.
[xiv] Falcao, Appendix 10; pp 1671-1673.
[xv] Directory of Father Fabio de Fabi in Martin E Palmer SJ, trans and ed., On Giving the Spiritual Exercises: The Early Jesuit Manuscript Directories and the Official Directory of 1599, St Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources; 1996; p 197.
[xvi] See Friedhelm Hardy, The Religious Culture of India, Oxford: OUP; 1994; p 266.
[xvii] Part Two, Prasanga/Chapter 10; 16-17; p 708.
[xviii] Part Two, Prasanga/Chapter 13; 7; p 749.
[xix] Part Two, Prasanga/Chapter 13; 72-73; p 758.
[xx] Part Two; Prasanga/Chapter 20; 16-30; pp 843-44.
[xxi] Part Two; Prasanga/Chapter 20; 66-67; p 849.
[xxii] Spiritual Exercises 103.
[xxiii] Prose Introduction, p xci.
Weekday Masses 5th – 8th Nov, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 10:30am Eliza Purton
12noon Devonport
12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am
Ulverstone
10:00am Meercroft
10:00am Meercroft
7:00pm Devonport … Annual Mass of Remembrance
Next Weekend 9th & 10th November
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 9th & 10th NOVEMBER, 2019
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: M Kelly, R Baker, B Paul 10:30am
F Sly, J Tuxworth,
T Omogbai-musa
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil B, B & B Windebank, T Bird, R Baker
10.30am: S Riley, M Sherriff, R Beaton, D & M Barrientos,
G Keating
Cleaners 8th Nov: M & R
Youd 15th Nov: M & L Tippett, A Berryman
Piety Shop 9th Nov: H Thompson 10th Nov: D French
Mowing of
lawns at Presbytery – November: Neville Smith
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: B O’Rourke
Ministers of
Communion: B
Deacon, K Reilly, E Stubbs, A Portugal
Cleaners: M Swain, M Bryan Flowers: G Doyle Hospitality:
M & K McKenzie
Penguin:
Greeters Fifita Family Commentator:
E Nickols Readers: Fifita Family
Ministers of
Communion: M
Murray, J Barker Liturgy: Sulphur Creek C Setting Up: T Clayton
Care of
Church: G
Hills-Eade, T Clayton
Latrobe:
Reader: S Ritchie Ministers of
Communion: B Ritchie Procession of Gifts: J Hyde
Port Sorell:
Readers: G Bellchambers, P Anderson Ministers of Communion: T Jeffries Cleaners: G Richey
Readings this Week: 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Wisdom 11:22 – 12:2
Second Reading: Thessalonians 1:11 – 2:2
Gospel: Luke 19:1-10
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
I take time to come to stillness in the way that suits me
best, trusting that I am in the presence of a loving God who welcomes me
exactly as I am.
When I am ready, I turn prayerfully to the text.
Perhaps I imagine myself present in the scene as a bystander, or as Zacchaeus himself. What can I see and hear around me ...?
I take my time.
Presently, I allow Jesus to seek my gaze … How does he look at me …?
Might he be calling me to him with the same urgency with which he calls Zaccheus, eager for me to share in his mission … to come to my house?
I ponder … and speak to the Lord about this as I would to a close friend, listening as well as sharing my own thoughts and feelings.
Zacchaeus’s initial curiosity to see Jesus leads to a much deeper encounter that enables him to respond from his heart.
I reflect on this, pondering how Jesus himself might feel as he hears the joyful response of one who had seemed to be lost ...
In time, I may feel drawn to ask: Is Jesus inviting me to help him show others what God is like, in a deeper, fuller way?
I ask him to guide me, remembering that the Lord is always with me, and I do nothing in my own strength.
When I am ready, I end my prayer with a slow sign of the cross.
When I am ready, I turn prayerfully to the text.
Perhaps I imagine myself present in the scene as a bystander, or as Zacchaeus himself. What can I see and hear around me ...?
I take my time.
Presently, I allow Jesus to seek my gaze … How does he look at me …?
Might he be calling me to him with the same urgency with which he calls Zaccheus, eager for me to share in his mission … to come to my house?
I ponder … and speak to the Lord about this as I would to a close friend, listening as well as sharing my own thoughts and feelings.
Zacchaeus’s initial curiosity to see Jesus leads to a much deeper encounter that enables him to respond from his heart.
I reflect on this, pondering how Jesus himself might feel as he hears the joyful response of one who had seemed to be lost ...
In time, I may feel drawn to ask: Is Jesus inviting me to help him show others what God is like, in a deeper, fuller way?
I ask him to guide me, remembering that the Lord is always with me, and I do nothing in my own strength.
When I am ready, I end my prayer with a slow sign of the cross.
Glory be ...
Readings Next Week: 32nd Sunday
in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: 2
Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14
Second
Reading: 2 Thessalonians
2:16 – 3:5
Gospel: Luke 20:27 -38
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Margaret
Becker, Marilyn Bielleman, Tony Kiely, Brenda Paul, Erin Kyriazis, Carmel
Leonard, Philip Smith, David Cole, Frank McDonald & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Fr Chris Toms, Fay Bugg, Peter Horniblow, Aydan Fry, Joyce Thompson,
Sr Joan Campbell,
Sr Francesca Slevin, Wendy Parker, Brian Reynolds, Dale
Sheean, Bob Hickman
Let us pray for
those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 31st October – 6th November
Cyril Allford, Allan Fay, Tom Knight, Edith McCormack,
Maurice Evans, John Imlach, Jeremy Oakford, Win Casey, Aurora Barker, Kevin Tolson, Annie Hood, Mary Rigney
May the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
Mersey
Leven Parish Community welcome and congratulate …..
Brooke
Bartush daughter of Evan & Allira,
Destiny Davis daughter of Allan & Amy,
Destiny Davis daughter of Allan & Amy,
and
Delilah Brown daughter of Aaron & Alexandra on their Baptisms this weekend.
Weekly Ramblings
The next stage of our Plenary 2020 process started this
week with the meetings at MacKillop Hill on Wednesday evening and at the Parish
House on Thursday morning. As well as these meetings continuing during this
coming week there is a meeting at the Parish House on Wednesday evening at 7pm.
We will be looking at the 1st of the themes – ‘Missionary & Evangelising’.
If you would to join in this journey we would ask that you download and read
the relevant material by going to https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/themes/missionary/
If you don’t have access to the internet we can provide you with a hard copy –
please let us know.
Next Friday, 8th Nov, at 7pm at Our Lady of Lourdes we will
be celebrating a Mass of Remembrance for all those have died in the past twelve
months. I would like to extend an invitation to all Parishioners who have lost
family members either here or elsewhere to join us in remembering their loved
ones at this Mass. After Mass there will be supper in the Foyer.
On Monday, 11th Nov, at 11am at Our Lady of Lourdes we will
be celebrating a Mass on Remembrance Day as we recall all those who have given
their lives in service of our Nation in any of the conflicts that our Country
has been involved in during our history – all welcome.
As we have done over the past few years we will be making
available an Advent Reflection Booklet for personal reflection during this
sacred time. This book will be available shortly and will cover the period from
the beginning of Advent through to the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (12th
January).
For those
of you have been wondering about Fr Phil and his living arrangements – he has
moved out of his tent and is now firmly installed in his unit which is unit
1/88 Stewart Street, Devonport. Congratulations and thanks for the journey lol!
Take care on the roads and in your homes,
SACRED HEART CHURCH ROSTERS:
Rosters are now being prepared for Sacred Heart Church. If
you are interested in taking on a role within the Church or if you are unable
to continue on the roster, or would just like to be an emergency when help is
required, please contact Jo Rodgers 6425:5818/ 0439 064 493 as soon as
possible.
CCR PRAYER GROUP:
Please note: There will be no gathering on Monday 4th November in the
Community Room Ulverstone due to the long weekend.
ST MARY’S CHURCH PENGUIN:
Come
along and join parishioners for a BBQ at St Mary's Church Penguin on Saturday
November 9th following the 6:00pm Mass. Sausages, hamburgers and
chicken burgers provided, but we ask you
to please bring a salad and/or sweet dish and please invite a friend. A
great way to relax and
chat with fellow parishioners. Inquiries Yvonne 6429:1353.
HEALING MASS:
Catholic Charismatic Renewal are sponsoring a Healing Mass
at St Mary’s Church Penguin on Thursday 21st November commencing at 6.30pm
(Please note early start).
All welcome to come and celebrate the liturgy in a vibrant
and dynamic way using charismatic praise and worship, with the gifts of
tongues, prophecy, and healing. After Mass, teams will be available for
individual prayer. Please bring a friend and a plate for supper and fellowship
in the hall.
If you wish to know more or require transport please
contact Celestine Whiteley 6424:2043, Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068, Tom Knaap
6425:2442.
I
wish to thank Parishioners of our Parish who prayed for me when I unexpectedly
became ill. I
am now recovering and sincerely thank you. Peter
Sylvester
TO GIVE AWAY: Electric Piano. For more information please phone Janette
Fielding 0418 144 905
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
THE WAY TO
ST JAMES PILGRIMAGE 2020:
Registrations are now open (early
bird pricing finishes 15th November 2019). Inspired by the famous
Spanish El Camino of St James this two day pilgrim walk will take you through
the scenic & peaceful Huon Valley to a celebration at the Spanish mission
styled Church of St James, nestled in the heart of Cygnet. Through fellowship, reflection, rejoicing and
ritual you will find an opportunity to reconnect with the spiritual dimensions
of your life. The pilgrimage commences
on Saturday 11th January 2020 at 10:30am from the Mountain River
Community Hall and finishes on Sunday 12th January 2020 at approx.
5pm at St James Church, Cygnet in the midst of the wonderful Cygnet Fold
Festival.
For further details and to register go to: www.waytostjames.com.au or visit us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/waytostjamescygnet/
For further details and to register go to: www.waytostjames.com.au or visit us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/waytostjamescygnet/
IMMACULATA MISSION SCHOOL 2020
What is it: A ten-day live-in formation school for young people,
with talks on the faith from awesome speakers, daily Mass and prayer,
Eucharistic Adoration, praise and worship, fun and fellowship and
lots more!
When: 1-10 January, 2020 Where: The
Glennie School, Toowoomba QLD Who: 15-35 year olds
Special guest
speaker: Dr Ralph Martin (USA), Professor of
Sacred Theology, international speaker on evangelisation and the spiritual
life. Dr Martin is a consulter to the Pontifical Council for the New
Evangelisation. Other guest speakers: Archbishop Julian Porteous,
Vince Fitzwilliams, James Parker, Jess Leach, Paul Elarde, Sisters of the
Immaculata and more.
How much: $390 (cost includes all accommodation, food, speakers and
activities) before 18th November, $450 after 18th November.
For more info or to register: www.sistersoftheimmaculata.org.au/ims or
0406 372 608
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican gathering of Catholic bishops from the Amazon has called on Pope Francis to allow for the priestly ordination of married men on a regional basis in order to address a lack of ministers across the nine-nation region.
And after the 185 male voting members at the month long Synod of Bishops said in their final document that the idea of ordaining women as deacons had been "very present" during their discussions, Francis announced he will be summoning his commission on the issue back to work, and adding new members to its ranks.
"I am going to take up the challenge … that you have put forward, that women be heard," the pontiff said in spontaneous remarks after close of the synod's business Oct. 26.
The dual announcements regarding possible new openings for Catholic ministry came at the end of an Oct. 6-27 gathering that focused on the serious environmental threats facing both the Amazon Basin and the people who have protected and called it home for centuries.
In the final document, released shortly after the pope's remarks Oct. 26, the bishops put forth a series of proposals to address both the rain-forest and its people, including defining ecological sin and calling for the church across the Amazon to divest its finances from extractive industries that harm the planet.
The proposals are part of a 33-page text that was the fruit of intense discussion among the prelates and 80 lay auditors at the synod gathering, and an extraordinary level of outside attention and criticism during the month long process.
Setting forth the proposed definition of "ecological sin," the synod participants describe it in the original Spanish text as “an action or omission against God, against others, the community and the environment."
"It is a sin against future generations and manifests itself in acts and habits of pollution and destruction of the environmental harmony, transgressions against the principles of interdependence and the breaking of solidarity networks among creatures and against the virtue of justice," they state.
Although the discussions leading to the final document of the synod took place behind closed doors, it is known that the synod bishops — primarily from the Amazon, but also from other regions of the world — submitted hundreds of proposed amendments to the first version of the text.
Several unconfirmed reports said the first draft, presented at the synod Oct. 21, had been subject to some 800 amendments, an extraordinarily high number.
In past synods, changes to draft texts have sometimes come about in an effort to ensure the documents pass the vote threshold for their approval, which is two-thirds of the synod members present at the time of the tally.
Voting on the 2019 document took place late Oct. 26, with the prelates giving each paragraph of the text a simple yes or no. All of the 120 paragraphs of the document were adopted by the assembly with the required two-thirds: 120 members of the 181 present for the voting.
The closest margin came on the paragraph calling on Francis to consider priestly ordination of married men, which received 128 yes votes and 41 no votes. The second closest came on the paragraph dealing with the discussion on women deacons, which received 137 yes votes and 30 no votes.
'Right of community' to Eucharist
Ministry of married men and women emerged as key topics early in the synod, with many of the participants focusing on the need for the church to find a way to be more present in the Amazon's rural, hard-to-traverse areas.
Before bringing up the issue of married priests, the synod final text makes a number of references to the importance of the Eucharist in Catholic life. It cites Second Vatican Council documents as well as John Paul II's 2003 encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, which states: "The church draws her life from the Eucharist."
"There is a right of the community to the celebration, which derives from the essence of the Eucharist and its place in the economy of salvation," says the synod text.
Continuing to their request of Francis, the bishops suggest the pope allow for current married permanent deacons to be ordained as priests, in order to "sustain the life of the Christian community through the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the Sacraments in the most remote areas of the Amazon region."
Possible candidates for the married priesthood, the bishops say, should "have a fruitful diaconate [and] … receive adequate formation for the presbyterate, while having a legitimately constituted and stable family."
In the area of women's ministry, the final text says that the synod bishops recognize the "ministeriality" that Jesus entrusted to women.
The document also notes that Francis' study commission on women deacons, which the pope created in 2016 following a request from the umbrella group representing the world's Catholic sisters and nuns, did not come to a final conclusion on the matter.
The pontiff gave a report from the commission back to the umbrella group, known as the International Union of Superiors General, in May. The report has not been released publicly.
The commission, the synod document says, "came to a partial result on what the reality of the women's diaconate was like during the first centuries of the church and its implications today."
"We would like to share our experiences and reflections with the Commission and look forward to its results," says the text.
"I am going to try to reconvene this [commission] with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and appoint new people in this commission and take up the challenge," the pope promised the synod bishops.
"What is said in the document falls short of what the woman is; in the transmission of faith, in the preservation of culture," said the pontiff.
In a section of the final document prior to the focus on women's "ministeriality," the synod bishops say they consider it "urgent" for the church to "promote and confer ministries for men and women in an equitable manner."
"It is the Church of baptized men and women that we must strengthen by promoting ministeriality and, above all, the awareness of baptismal dignity," they state.
The synod members also make a point to note that a bishop has wide authority in his diocese to entrust any person, man or woman, with ecclesial responsibilities.
"In the absence of priests in the community, the Bishop may entrust, for a specific period of time, the exercise of pastoral care of the community to a person not invested with the priestly character who is a member of the community," they state.
"The Bishop may constitute this ministry on behalf of the Christian community with an official mandate through a ritual act so that the person responsible for the community may also be recognized at the civil and local levels," they continue.
'A frantic race toward death'
The synod document unfolds over five chapters, plus a brief introduction and conclusion. The text takes as its own the formal title of the synod — "The Amazon: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology" — with the latter four chapters each covering new paths for pastoral, cultural, ecological, and synodal conversion.
At the opening of the text the bishops say that all the participants of the synod expressed "a keen awareness of the dramatic situation of destruction affecting the Amazon," whether in the loss of territory for indigenous people to industrial development or the ruin of the biome itself.
"The Amazon rainforest is a 'biological heart' for our increasingly threatened land," they say. "It is on a frantic race toward death. It requires radical changes as a matter of urgency, a new direction to save it."
In chapter four, the bishops expand on ecological matters, stating it is necessary to respond to "an unprecedented socio-environmental crisis" confronting the planet. They call for international solidarity in recognizing "the central role" the Amazon plays in the global effort to limit climate change — what they identify as "above all" the greatest threat to life in the region.
"Faced with the pressing situation of the planet and the Amazon, integral ecology is not a path that the Church can choose for the future in this territory, it is the only possible way, because there is no other viable path to save the region," they say.
The bishops also speak movingly of activists in the Amazon who have risked their lives to call attention to the ecological crisis, saying environmental destruction there "is accompanied by the shedding of innocent blood and the criminalization of the defenders of the Amazon."
They continue later to call the protection of human rights a duty, and not an option, for Christians.
"The human being is created in the image and likeness of God the Creator, and its dignity is inviolable," say the bishops. "Therefore the defense and promotion of human rights is not merely a political duty or a social task, but also and above all a requirement of faith."
In some of the most forthright and political language of the text, the prelates say that in the face of the "prevailing destructive and extractive development model" they need to make clear: "Where do we stand? On whose side are we on? What perspective do we assume? How do we convey the political and ethical dimension of our word of faith and life?"
Answering one of their own questions, the bishops write, "We denounce the violation of human rights and extractivist destruction." In the same breath, they call for the church in the Amazon to join and support divestment campaigns from companies engaged in socio-ecological damage, and simultaneously advocate "for a radical energy transition and the search for alternatives."
The document does not specify how the bishops might determine from which companies to divest, and whether it would join the fossil fuel divestment campaign that has led roughly 150 Catholic institutions to wean their finances from coal, oil and natural gas. Of that group, only one from the Amazon region, the Diocese of the Holy Spirit of Umuarama, in Paraná, Brazil, has divested.
While humanity once held a "friendly" demeanor toward nature, the bishops decry that has been lost to "a voracious and predatory attitude" that squeezes to exhaustion every natural resource. They join in solidarity with the Amazonian people requesting states cease viewing the biome as "an inexhaustible pantry," and to implement sustainable development models that are inclusive and empowering of local communities.
The bishops also suggest the establishment of a global fund to repair "ecological debt" that other countries have incurred with the Amazon.
Among other recommendations:
Development of "common home" training programs in parishes to raise awareness about the state of environmental problems;
Creation of special ministers in the Catholic Church that would be charged with caring for the environment "at the parish level and in each ecclesiastical jurisdiction," and with promoting Francis' 2015 encyclical Laudato Si';
Adoption of responsible habits around diet, energy and consumption to change consumer culture.
At a press briefing about the synod document late Oct. 26, Cardinal Michael Czerny said the images this summer of the Amazon rainforest burning has awakened in people an awareness that current ways of living are unsustainable.
"The ecological crisis is so deep that if we don't change, we won't make it," said Czerny, one of the synod's organizers.
The Oct. 26 document from the synod is not expected to be the final word on the Catholic Church's ministry across the Amazon region. In his remarks closing the synod's business, Francis said he was hoping to follow the bishops' text with his own document, likely to take the form of an apostolic exhortation, by the end of the year.
The pontiff also appeared to address the criticism the Amazon synod has drawn from more conservative quarters in the church, referencing what he termed "elite Catholics" who concentrate on "tiny things" but forget bigger issues.
"They think they are with God, but are not brave enough to understand humanity," said Francis, paraphrasing the early 20th century French writer Charles Péguy.
[Joshua J. McElwee is NCR Vatican correspondent. His email address is jmcelwee@ncronline.org. Brian Roewe is an NCR staff writer. His email address is broewe@ncronline.org.]
Our predestination to glory is prior by nature to any notion of sin. —John Duns Scotus [1]
The Franciscan School, led by such teachers as Duns Scotus, refused to see the Incarnation and its finale on the cross as a mere reaction to human failure. God was much more than a problem solver. Instead, Franciscans claimed that the cross was a freely chosen revelation of Love on God’s part. In so doing, they reversed the engines of almost all world religion up to that point, which assumed humans had to spill blood to get to a distant and demanding God. On the cross, Franciscans believed, God was “spilling blood” to reach out to us! [2] This is a sea change in consciousness. Instead of being a theological transaction, the crucifixion was a dramatic demonstration of God’s outpouring love, meant to utterly shock the heart and mind and turn it back toward trust and love of the Creator.
In the Franciscan view, God did not need to be paid in order to love and forgive God’s own creation. Love cannot be bought by some “necessary sacrifice”; if it could, it would not and could not work its transformative effects. Duns Scotus and his followers were committed to protecting the absolute freedom to love in God. If forgiveness needs to be bought or paid for, then it is not authentic forgiveness at all. Love and forgiveness must be freely given or they do not accomplish their deeply transformative healing. Self-serving love does not change the heart. It must be free and undeserved love or transformation does not happen. (Think about that and you will know it is true!)
I’m not sure many Christians recognize the dangers of penal substitutionary atonement theory. Perhaps the underlying assumptions were never made clear, even though thinking people throughout the ages were often repelled by such a crass notion of God. This theory has become a nail in the coffin of belief for many sincere, thoughtful individuals today. Some Christians just repress their misgiving because they think it implies a complete loss of faith. But I would wager that for every person who voices doubt, many more quietly walk away from a religion that has come to seem irrational, mythological, and deeply unsatisfying to the heart and soul. And these are usually not “bad” people!
Christianity can do so much better, and doing so will not diminish Jesus in the least. In fact, it will allow Jesus to take on a universal and humanly appealing dimension. The cross cannot be an arbitrary and bloody sacrifice triggered by a sin that was once committed by one man and one woman under a tree between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Frankly, that idea reduces any notion of a universal or truly “catholic” revelation to one planet, at the edge of one solar system, in a universe comprised of billions of galaxies with trillions of solar systems. A religion based on required sacrifices is just not glorious or hopeful enough or even befitting the marvelous creation. To those who cling to Anselm’s understanding, I would say, as J. B. Phillips wrote many years ago, “Your God is too small.” [3]
[1] John Duns Scotus, Ordinatio III, dist. 7, q. 3. See Four Questions on Mary, tr. Allan B. Wolter (Franciscan Institute: 2000), 23.
[2] See Mary Beth Ingham, Scotus for Dunces (Franciscan Institute: 2003), 75-77.
[3] J. B. Phillips, Your God Is Too Small (Macmillan: 1954).
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe (Convergent: 2019), 143-145.
Amazon Synod
Final Document
You can find the final document by clicking here - you will need to click the translate button at the top of the page as the original document is in Spanish. The final translated document will be available shortly.
Married Priests; Pope to Reopen Women Deacons Commission
You can find the original article at https://www.ncronline.org/news/earthbeat/amazon-synod-calls-married-priests-pope-reopen-women-deacons-commissionVATICAN CITY — The Vatican gathering of Catholic bishops from the Amazon has called on Pope Francis to allow for the priestly ordination of married men on a regional basis in order to address a lack of ministers across the nine-nation region.
And after the 185 male voting members at the month long Synod of Bishops said in their final document that the idea of ordaining women as deacons had been "very present" during their discussions, Francis announced he will be summoning his commission on the issue back to work, and adding new members to its ranks.
"I am going to take up the challenge … that you have put forward, that women be heard," the pontiff said in spontaneous remarks after close of the synod's business Oct. 26.
The dual announcements regarding possible new openings for Catholic ministry came at the end of an Oct. 6-27 gathering that focused on the serious environmental threats facing both the Amazon Basin and the people who have protected and called it home for centuries.
In the final document, released shortly after the pope's remarks Oct. 26, the bishops put forth a series of proposals to address both the rain-forest and its people, including defining ecological sin and calling for the church across the Amazon to divest its finances from extractive industries that harm the planet.
The proposals are part of a 33-page text that was the fruit of intense discussion among the prelates and 80 lay auditors at the synod gathering, and an extraordinary level of outside attention and criticism during the month long process.
Setting forth the proposed definition of "ecological sin," the synod participants describe it in the original Spanish text as “an action or omission against God, against others, the community and the environment."
"It is a sin against future generations and manifests itself in acts and habits of pollution and destruction of the environmental harmony, transgressions against the principles of interdependence and the breaking of solidarity networks among creatures and against the virtue of justice," they state.
Although the discussions leading to the final document of the synod took place behind closed doors, it is known that the synod bishops — primarily from the Amazon, but also from other regions of the world — submitted hundreds of proposed amendments to the first version of the text.
Several unconfirmed reports said the first draft, presented at the synod Oct. 21, had been subject to some 800 amendments, an extraordinarily high number.
In past synods, changes to draft texts have sometimes come about in an effort to ensure the documents pass the vote threshold for their approval, which is two-thirds of the synod members present at the time of the tally.
Voting on the 2019 document took place late Oct. 26, with the prelates giving each paragraph of the text a simple yes or no. All of the 120 paragraphs of the document were adopted by the assembly with the required two-thirds: 120 members of the 181 present for the voting.
The closest margin came on the paragraph calling on Francis to consider priestly ordination of married men, which received 128 yes votes and 41 no votes. The second closest came on the paragraph dealing with the discussion on women deacons, which received 137 yes votes and 30 no votes.
'Right of community' to Eucharist
Ministry of married men and women emerged as key topics early in the synod, with many of the participants focusing on the need for the church to find a way to be more present in the Amazon's rural, hard-to-traverse areas.
Before bringing up the issue of married priests, the synod final text makes a number of references to the importance of the Eucharist in Catholic life. It cites Second Vatican Council documents as well as John Paul II's 2003 encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, which states: "The church draws her life from the Eucharist."
"There is a right of the community to the celebration, which derives from the essence of the Eucharist and its place in the economy of salvation," says the synod text.
Continuing to their request of Francis, the bishops suggest the pope allow for current married permanent deacons to be ordained as priests, in order to "sustain the life of the Christian community through the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the Sacraments in the most remote areas of the Amazon region."
Possible candidates for the married priesthood, the bishops say, should "have a fruitful diaconate [and] … receive adequate formation for the presbyterate, while having a legitimately constituted and stable family."
In the area of women's ministry, the final text says that the synod bishops recognize the "ministeriality" that Jesus entrusted to women.
The document also notes that Francis' study commission on women deacons, which the pope created in 2016 following a request from the umbrella group representing the world's Catholic sisters and nuns, did not come to a final conclusion on the matter.
The pontiff gave a report from the commission back to the umbrella group, known as the International Union of Superiors General, in May. The report has not been released publicly.
The commission, the synod document says, "came to a partial result on what the reality of the women's diaconate was like during the first centuries of the church and its implications today."
"We would like to share our experiences and reflections with the Commission and look forward to its results," says the text.
"I am going to try to reconvene this [commission] with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and appoint new people in this commission and take up the challenge," the pope promised the synod bishops.
"What is said in the document falls short of what the woman is; in the transmission of faith, in the preservation of culture," said the pontiff.
In a section of the final document prior to the focus on women's "ministeriality," the synod bishops say they consider it "urgent" for the church to "promote and confer ministries for men and women in an equitable manner."
"It is the Church of baptized men and women that we must strengthen by promoting ministeriality and, above all, the awareness of baptismal dignity," they state.
The synod members also make a point to note that a bishop has wide authority in his diocese to entrust any person, man or woman, with ecclesial responsibilities.
"In the absence of priests in the community, the Bishop may entrust, for a specific period of time, the exercise of pastoral care of the community to a person not invested with the priestly character who is a member of the community," they state.
"The Bishop may constitute this ministry on behalf of the Christian community with an official mandate through a ritual act so that the person responsible for the community may also be recognized at the civil and local levels," they continue.
'A frantic race toward death'
The synod document unfolds over five chapters, plus a brief introduction and conclusion. The text takes as its own the formal title of the synod — "The Amazon: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology" — with the latter four chapters each covering new paths for pastoral, cultural, ecological, and synodal conversion.
At the opening of the text the bishops say that all the participants of the synod expressed "a keen awareness of the dramatic situation of destruction affecting the Amazon," whether in the loss of territory for indigenous people to industrial development or the ruin of the biome itself.
"The Amazon rainforest is a 'biological heart' for our increasingly threatened land," they say. "It is on a frantic race toward death. It requires radical changes as a matter of urgency, a new direction to save it."
In chapter four, the bishops expand on ecological matters, stating it is necessary to respond to "an unprecedented socio-environmental crisis" confronting the planet. They call for international solidarity in recognizing "the central role" the Amazon plays in the global effort to limit climate change — what they identify as "above all" the greatest threat to life in the region.
"Faced with the pressing situation of the planet and the Amazon, integral ecology is not a path that the Church can choose for the future in this territory, it is the only possible way, because there is no other viable path to save the region," they say.
The bishops also speak movingly of activists in the Amazon who have risked their lives to call attention to the ecological crisis, saying environmental destruction there "is accompanied by the shedding of innocent blood and the criminalization of the defenders of the Amazon."
They continue later to call the protection of human rights a duty, and not an option, for Christians.
"The human being is created in the image and likeness of God the Creator, and its dignity is inviolable," say the bishops. "Therefore the defense and promotion of human rights is not merely a political duty or a social task, but also and above all a requirement of faith."
In some of the most forthright and political language of the text, the prelates say that in the face of the "prevailing destructive and extractive development model" they need to make clear: "Where do we stand? On whose side are we on? What perspective do we assume? How do we convey the political and ethical dimension of our word of faith and life?"
Answering one of their own questions, the bishops write, "We denounce the violation of human rights and extractivist destruction." In the same breath, they call for the church in the Amazon to join and support divestment campaigns from companies engaged in socio-ecological damage, and simultaneously advocate "for a radical energy transition and the search for alternatives."
The document does not specify how the bishops might determine from which companies to divest, and whether it would join the fossil fuel divestment campaign that has led roughly 150 Catholic institutions to wean their finances from coal, oil and natural gas. Of that group, only one from the Amazon region, the Diocese of the Holy Spirit of Umuarama, in Paraná, Brazil, has divested.
While humanity once held a "friendly" demeanor toward nature, the bishops decry that has been lost to "a voracious and predatory attitude" that squeezes to exhaustion every natural resource. They join in solidarity with the Amazonian people requesting states cease viewing the biome as "an inexhaustible pantry," and to implement sustainable development models that are inclusive and empowering of local communities.
The bishops also suggest the establishment of a global fund to repair "ecological debt" that other countries have incurred with the Amazon.
Among other recommendations:
Development of "common home" training programs in parishes to raise awareness about the state of environmental problems;
Creation of special ministers in the Catholic Church that would be charged with caring for the environment "at the parish level and in each ecclesiastical jurisdiction," and with promoting Francis' 2015 encyclical Laudato Si';
Adoption of responsible habits around diet, energy and consumption to change consumer culture.
At a press briefing about the synod document late Oct. 26, Cardinal Michael Czerny said the images this summer of the Amazon rainforest burning has awakened in people an awareness that current ways of living are unsustainable.
"The ecological crisis is so deep that if we don't change, we won't make it," said Czerny, one of the synod's organizers.
The Oct. 26 document from the synod is not expected to be the final word on the Catholic Church's ministry across the Amazon region. In his remarks closing the synod's business, Francis said he was hoping to follow the bishops' text with his own document, likely to take the form of an apostolic exhortation, by the end of the year.
The pontiff also appeared to address the criticism the Amazon synod has drawn from more conservative quarters in the church, referencing what he termed "elite Catholics" who concentrate on "tiny things" but forget bigger issues.
"They think they are with God, but are not brave enough to understand humanity," said Francis, paraphrasing the early 20th century French writer Charles Péguy.
[Joshua J. McElwee is NCR Vatican correspondent. His email address is jmcelwee@ncronline.org. Brian Roewe is an NCR staff writer. His email address is broewe@ncronline.org.]
A Bigger God
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 
Our predestination to glory is prior by nature to any notion of sin. —John Duns Scotus [1]
The Franciscan School, led by such teachers as Duns Scotus, refused to see the Incarnation and its finale on the cross as a mere reaction to human failure. God was much more than a problem solver. Instead, Franciscans claimed that the cross was a freely chosen revelation of Love on God’s part. In so doing, they reversed the engines of almost all world religion up to that point, which assumed humans had to spill blood to get to a distant and demanding God. On the cross, Franciscans believed, God was “spilling blood” to reach out to us! [2] This is a sea change in consciousness. Instead of being a theological transaction, the crucifixion was a dramatic demonstration of God’s outpouring love, meant to utterly shock the heart and mind and turn it back toward trust and love of the Creator.
In the Franciscan view, God did not need to be paid in order to love and forgive God’s own creation. Love cannot be bought by some “necessary sacrifice”; if it could, it would not and could not work its transformative effects. Duns Scotus and his followers were committed to protecting the absolute freedom to love in God. If forgiveness needs to be bought or paid for, then it is not authentic forgiveness at all. Love and forgiveness must be freely given or they do not accomplish their deeply transformative healing. Self-serving love does not change the heart. It must be free and undeserved love or transformation does not happen. (Think about that and you will know it is true!)
I’m not sure many Christians recognize the dangers of penal substitutionary atonement theory. Perhaps the underlying assumptions were never made clear, even though thinking people throughout the ages were often repelled by such a crass notion of God. This theory has become a nail in the coffin of belief for many sincere, thoughtful individuals today. Some Christians just repress their misgiving because they think it implies a complete loss of faith. But I would wager that for every person who voices doubt, many more quietly walk away from a religion that has come to seem irrational, mythological, and deeply unsatisfying to the heart and soul. And these are usually not “bad” people!
Christianity can do so much better, and doing so will not diminish Jesus in the least. In fact, it will allow Jesus to take on a universal and humanly appealing dimension. The cross cannot be an arbitrary and bloody sacrifice triggered by a sin that was once committed by one man and one woman under a tree between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Frankly, that idea reduces any notion of a universal or truly “catholic” revelation to one planet, at the edge of one solar system, in a universe comprised of billions of galaxies with trillions of solar systems. A religion based on required sacrifices is just not glorious or hopeful enough or even befitting the marvelous creation. To those who cling to Anselm’s understanding, I would say, as J. B. Phillips wrote many years ago, “Your God is too small.” [3]
[1] John Duns Scotus, Ordinatio III, dist. 7, q. 3. See Four Questions on Mary, tr. Allan B. Wolter (Franciscan Institute: 2000), 23.
[2] See Mary Beth Ingham, Scotus for Dunces (Franciscan Institute: 2003), 75-77.
[3] J. B. Phillips, Your God Is Too Small (Macmillan: 1954).
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe (Convergent: 2019), 143-145.
The Frustrating Struggle For Humility
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
It’s hard to be humble, not because we don’t have more than enough deficiencies to merit humility, but rather because there’s crafty mechanism inside of us that normally doesn’t let us go to the place of humility. Simply put, as we try to be self-effacing, humble, and non-hypocritical, variably we take pride in that and then, feeling smug about it, we become judgmental of others.
Jesus gave us a wonderful parable on this but mostly we miss its lesson. We’re all familiar with the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. Jesus tells the story of two men standing before God in prayer. The first man, a devout Pharisee, is a man who took the pursuit of virtue seriously and he thanks God that he’s devout and moral and also thanks God that he’s not as amoral as the Publican who is in the temple with him. The second man, a Publican, recognizes (honestly and without any rationalization) that he is amoral, that he is a sinner, and, within that recognition, humbly asks God to forgive him for his weaknesses. We know how Jesus assessed the two men. The Pharisee didn’t really pray while the Publican did. Moreover the parable highlights the internal blindness of the Pharisee in a way that’s impossible not to see. Everyone hearing this story cannot help but see his lack of humility.
What’s challenging however is to examine our own reaction to the story. We instantly see the difference between false pride and genuine humility. We see how arrogant it is for the Pharisee to say: “Thank God, I am not like that man!” But, but then, I would venture to guess that 98% of us hearing that story spontaneously nurse this feeling: “Thank God, I’m not like that Pharisee!” And, in doing that, we are him! Exactly like him, we’re brimming over with our own sense of virtue and, because of that, begin judging others. Our prayer is in fact usually the opposite of the Publican’s prayer. We are not praying out of our own sinfulness, but rather praying: “I thank you, God, that I’m not as blind to self and as judgmental as so many other people are!” It’s hard to be the Publican. Our very virtue and humility invariably coil back upon themselves and make us proud and judgmental.
What’s the answer? How do we break the vicious circle? There’s only one way and the Publican shows us that way. How? He prays out of his own sinfulness, for real. He’s a sinner and he honestly admits it. For our part, when we speak of ourselves as sinners mostly we don’t really mean it! We admit that we have our weaknesses and that sometimes we do sin, but then, like the Pharisee, we’re immediately thankful that we don’t have the weaknesses and sins of others. Mostly we think this way: “Admittedly, I have my faults, but at least I’m not as ignorant and self-serving as that colleague of mine!” “For all of my shortcomings, I still thank God that I’m not as narcissistic as my boss!” “I may not have much religious faith, but at least I’m not as hypocritical as so many of those church people!” “I may be a bit of a mess, but thank God I don’t have Jack’s faults!” Pride is forever sneaking around our defenses and keeping genuine humility at bay.
But there’s one instance when it can’t do that and that is when we are genuinely acknowledging our own sinfulness. When we are truly standing inside of our own sinfulness, like the Publican, then we judge no one – not even our own selves. As a Roman Catholic priest who has been hearing confessions for some 47 years, I can say without hesitation that people are at their very best when they are honestly confessing their own shortcomings. When we are genuinely standing inside the recognition of our own sin, we judge no one. In that space we never think: “Thank God, I don’t have Jack’s faults!” We know that our own suffice. Our prayer then becomes honest and, according to Jesus, it’s then that it’s heard in heaven.
And it’s precisely our sinfulness that we must existentially recognize and stand within. Our other weaknesses, our congenital and personal inadequacies, can be helpful in making us humble, but, since we aren’t personally or morally responsible for them, recognizing them doesn’t do the same thing for us as does recognizing our own sinfulness. We aren’t responsible for physical or psychological DNA. We aren’t responsible for our ethnicity or color. We aren’t responsible for the kind of family, neighborhood, and culture we were raised in. And we aren’t responsible for what happened to us in the playpen and on the playground when we were little. Yet all of these deeply impact both our weaknesses and our strengths. But since we aren’t responsible for these, ultimately we don’t have to be humble about them.
But we do have to be humble about our own sin.
Three Reasons To Skip The Rebuilt Conference
(And Why They're Wrong!)
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
This week our early bird registration for our amazing church conference in April comes to a close. In talking to church leaders I’ve heard incredible excitement about Rebuilt 2020. I’ve also heard push back from others. Take a look…
1) “I’ve already attended a Rebuilt Conference in the past.”
We know what it’s like to work in a parish. The idea that “Sunday is always coming” isn’t just an idea, it’s a reality that weighs on us daily. Sometimes, we let our ministry become entirely driven by that pressure without lifting our heads up out of the weeds to take a fresh look at the big picture.
Rebuilt 2020 is not about repeating content you’ve heard before. It’s about refreshing and renewing you and your team, as well as equipping and inspiring you for fresh efforts and new initiatives.
You’ve been to a Rebuilt Conference before? Great! Encouragement isn’t just a one-time thing. Renewal and rebuilding aren’t one and done exercises. What you’re doing in your parish is a long term effort. Come again, bring your team or bring new people from your parish who want to learn more and grow. We promise, you won’t be disappointed.
Rebuilt 2020 will have keynotes from two new speakers (Curtis Martin, founder of FOCUS, and Jeff Henderson, lead pastor of Gwinnett Church, one of the fastest-growing churches in the country). Nearly all breakouts have been updated to fit today’s context, culture, and technology, and lots of new speakers. Great music, great food, what’s not to want to come back for.
2) “I thought it was only for priests.”
We get this a lot. People seem to think that a church conference is only for priests. Rebuilt 2020 is absolutely for them. But, we’re also for anyone who has a passion to rebuild their parish. Rebuilt is for your parish staff, your parish leadership, your Pastoral Council, your Financial Council, your youth group members, parents, school administrators, and more! God is calling all of us to reach the unchurched.
We’ve found that the more people a parish brings to the conference, the more they take home to their parish. By bringing a variety of staff, clergy, and parish leaders, you can attend a variety of breakout sessions and immediately put your new knowledge to use by sharing with the rest of your group. Plus, when more leaders in your parish catch your vision, it makes implementation and change exponentially easier. That can happen when you bring your team to the conference.
3) “My parish doesn’t plan that far in advance, besides we can’t afford it anyway.”
We understand that times are hard for many parishes – and we aren’t just talking about a lack of funds. It feels like parish staff are busier than ever before and there are fewer volunteer ministers to pick up the slack. However, we consider Rebuilt 2020 to be an investment in your parish. By investing your time and resources into this conference, there will be fruitful return, in many ways, including potentially, financially. In view of our recently published book, ChurchMoney, there will be special breakouts devoted to giving and stewardship.
If you register by October 31st, you’ll get a discounted registration price of $199 (and it even includes lunch, snacks and drinks). This price is only available until October 31st so now is the time to register.
The Remarkable Story of Thomas Stephens SJ
The First English Jesuit in India
October 2019 is the 400th anniversary of the death of Thomas Stephens SJ, a translator and writer who authored several works including the Kristapurana for which he is best known. This powerful text is much more than an imaginative retelling of the biblical narrative, says Michael Barnes SJ, who celebrates Stephens’ pastoral and literary gifts. Fr Michael Barnes SJ is Professor of Interreligious Relations at the University of Roehampton. This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website where you can find a wide range of articles by clicking here
Fr Thomas Stephens SJ, the 400th anniversary of whose death is celebrated this year, was a remarkable linguist and translator, pastoral priest and accomplished poet. A recent journal article refers to him as the ‘Shakespeare of India’.[i] An unlikely comparison – but not entirely fanciful.
Stephens did not set out to be a poet. His first work was a grammar (in Portuguese) of the Konkani language, his second a treatise on Christian faith, written in Konkani. Towards the end of his life he published an epic version of the Old and New Testaments in Marathi, the Kristapurana.[ii] This is the work for which he is famous. His poetry may not be in the same class as Shakespeare or Robert Southwell, but today he is known in Maharashtra as the father of Maratha Christian literature.
From Wiltshire to India
No mean achievement for a country boy from middle England. Let’s begin in the tiny hamlet of Bushton, just south of what is now Royal Wootton Bassett in north Wiltshire, where Stephens was born in 1549, the second son of Thomas and Jane Stephens. Thomas senior was a successful merchant who held the lease of Bushton Manor. There isn’t a church in the village. The nearest is about a mile away, in the village of Clyffe Pypard, half way up the Ridgeway escarpment which commands magnificent views of the bare, gently undulating countryside. Possibly Stephens was baptised here – though it’s more likely to have been in the chapel attached to the Manor.
His elder brother, Richard, studied at Oxford, joined the newly founded seminary at Douai, and worked as professor of theology until his death in 1586. Thomas did his schooling at Winchester, after which he traipsed round the country in the company of a larger than life character called Thomas Pounde, a sometime courtier of Queen Elizabeth, whose main purpose in life seems to have been introducing suitable young men (and himself) to the Society of Jesus.
Pounde and Stephens were much taken by the radical commitment expected of recruits to the new Society as well as by the letters written by far-flung missionaries that were circulating round Europe at the time. They resolved to go to Rome together but, on the eve of their departure, Pounde was betrayed and arrested. Stephens escaped and travelled to Rome alone, where he joined the Society of Jesus along with six other Englishmen, among them the Oxford-educated Henry Garnet, William Weston and Robert Persons.
In 1577, Edmund Campion wrote to Persons from Prague: ‘You are seven; I congratulate you; I wish you were seventy times seven. Considering the goodness of the cause, the number is small.’[iii] Campion was, of course, referring to the needs of the English mission. And given that it was such a priority for English Jesuits at that precise moment it might seem strange that Stephens had other ideas. But his desire to dedicate himself to a very different mission made itself plain early on. Even apart from the powerful attraction of the letters of the likes of Francis Xavier, he would have been well aware that the Formula of the Institute in only its third paragraph speaks about members of the Society being ready to go wherever the Supreme Pontiff sees fit, ‘whether he sends us to the Turks or other infidels, even to the land they call India’.[iv]
By the time he set out from Lisbon on 4 April 1579, the Society had shifted its missionary focus from the radical dispersal which Ignatius originally envisaged to the routine of educational institutions, the work for which the Society soon became famous. Stephens clung to the original ideal, no more taken by the prospect of the settled life of the schoolteacher than he felt committed to resisting persecution back in his native land.
The humanism of a strange new world
He landed in Goa on 24 October 1579 - one of 43 Jesuits to arrive that year. This epic journey with its privations and dangers is vividly described in a long letter to his father. His communications, whether to his family or to members of the Society, reveal something of his character. He comes across as keenly observant, blessed with an enquiring mind and a natural curiosity, thoughtful and clear-sighted in his judgements, yet also fascinated by the strange and unexpected.
He is, for instance, struck by the exotic flora of this new world. The letter to his father finishes: ‘Hitherto I have not seen trees here whose like I have seen in Europe, the vine excepted, which, nevertheless here is to no purpose, so that all the wines are brought out from Portugal.’[v] And his growing interest in language and translation comes through in a letter to his brother Richard, written in late 1583. ‘Many are the languages of these places. Their pronunciation is not disagreeable, and their structure is allied to Greek and Latin. The phrases and constructions are of a wonderful kind.’[vi]
At the Roman College Stephens was schooled both in Thomistic thought and in the humanist values of the Renaissance. What held them together was no theory of intercultural dynamics but a language, Latin, that opened up access to literature of all kinds and, perhaps as significant, modes of using language of all kinds, from syllogistic reasoning to the tropes of classical rhetoric and poetry. Stephens knew that Sanskrit was connected to Marathi and Konkani as Latin was to Italian; the one was the linguistic and cultural key to the other.
The typically Jesuit approach to Christian mission came out of this humanist education. Ignatius expected his Jesuits to be learned, but also to be able to communicate their learning. The two are interdependent, two sides of the one coin, a dialogue that begins with the desire to understand and finds itself rooted in the heart. This was what inspired the likes of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) who developed an extraordinary dialogue with the Chinese world and Roberto de Nobili (1577-1656) who lived for some fifty years among the Brahmins of Madurai.
The India Stephens encountered was, of course, the centre of Portuguese power. The enclave of Goa was founded as a trading centre by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1510. Within less than a century it was marked by a series of impressive buildings, not least the Bom Jesus, started in 1594 and, after his canonisation in 1622, the place where St Francis Xavier’s body was finally laid to rest. Like all the religious who came to Goa, the Jesuits received a stipend from the Portuguese. Without financial support they could not have operated at all, yet there was always a risk their freedom of movement would be subject to imperial diktat.
The trauma of violence
As an Englishman Stephens was already an outsider in this Portuguese world, and like de Nobili he appears to have experienced a degree of ambivalence towards colonial power and the dilemmas it raised for the missionary. But whereas de Nobili quickly moved outside the area subject to Portuguese control, Stephens spent the rest of his life there. Soon after his ordination he was sent to Rachol, the most important mission-centre in Salcete, some 25 kilometres to the south, and an area of particular concern for the Portuguese in their efforts to establish control of the Goa hinterland.
He responded naturally to Ignatius’s concern that, wherever necessary, Jesuits should learn to address local people in the local vernacular. Yet he also knew that something more was at stake than mere ease of communication. Adapting the Gospel to the local language had the deeper purpose of entering into the spirit of a culture, valuing it as a place where the Spirit was already at work in the world. It took a particularly traumatic event to make him see that the fabric of human culture is always fragile and sometimes needs to be protected from unthinking violence.
The Salcete mission, situated on the very edge of the Portuguese enclave and always subject to internal conflicts and shifting loyalties, was never easy. According to Georg Schurhammer, the Salcete population, scattered over 55 villages, amounted to about 80,000; scores of temples were dedicated to Santery, the cobra-goddess, a form of the fearsome Durga.[vii] In 1560 there were about 100 Christians; by the end of the decade over a thousand. A remarkable growth, but this rapid expansion was achieved in no small measure by force, with the destruction of Hindu temples.
Almost inevitably there was a violent reaction and in 1583 four Jesuits, led by Rudolph Acquaviva, and 48 native Christians were attacked and violently hacked to death at a small outpost called Cuncolim. Today the site of the massacre is covered by an innocuous little chapel. Another chapel, a couple of hundred yards away, covers the ‘well’ – more a damp pit – where the dismembered bodies were dumped. Stephens, recently installed in the ‘college’ or Jesuit community in Rachol, was caught in the aftermath. It fell to him to recover the bodies – one of them a fellow-novice from Roman days – and then go about the painful business of rebuilding the community’s work.
When I visited the spot with a group of Jesuits I was struck by the simplicity of the site. There was no great monument proclaiming what had happened. I did, however, notice a more recent memorial to another massacre set up in a garden on the other side of the dividing wall. It made for sober reading.
This memorial is dedicated to the bravery and valour of the chieftains of Cuncolim who stood against the Portuguese and were treacherously massacred when attending peace talks at the Assolna fort in July 1583.
Some dozen names are listed, a tangible reminder of the ‘other side’ of history. Acquaviva had come to Cuncolim with his companions to mediate in a bitter conflict that had broken out over the desecration of the local temple. Instead they were violently killed – and their deaths led subsequently to a further terrible act of vengeance. The memorial acts as a reminder that it wasn’t just Catholics who suffered violence at that time. Religious difference is never the whole story in inter-communal conflict. The economic and political consequences of disruption of the cultural status quo are often equally significant.
One pertinent comment comes from the Jesuit historian Teutonio de Souza. He criticises recourse to binary thinking, such as the assumption that the ‘pagans’ were implicated in ‘the work of the devil’ while those who supported the missionaries were doing ‘God’s work’.[viii] The truth is always more complex. This was something Stephens came to know through painful experience.
The patience of conversion
However this tragic episode is to be dissected, it was, says Schurhammer, a ‘major disaster’.[ix] By strange chance, two months later came a letter from Stephens’ brother Richard, telling him of the martyrdom of Edmund Campion and his companions at Tyburn. In his reply, written just four years after his arrival in India, 24 October 1583, Stephens gives a graphic description of what happened in Cuncolim. He then passes on a happier story about the strength of faith of a Brahmin boy who was imprisoned by his family yet resisted all attempts to make him give up his Christian faith.
The story is not a pious aside, intended to counter the traumas of Tyburn and Cuncolim. Stephens is touched by the movements of divine providence in the middle of terrible experiences of suffering. The world the brothers share is going through a period of darkness but Thomas consoles himself with an example of patient goodness.[x] The process of conversion takes time and its own form of heroic perseverance; unnecessary pressure leads only to obstinacy – and risks further violence.
Another historian, Ananya Chakravarti, author of an insightful analysis of Stephens’ life and mission, draws attention to his ‘willingness to impute reasonable motivations and sentiments to the people of his adopted land’. His awareness of the seeds of violence built up in him not resentment but a remarkable capacity for empathy, which enabled him to identify with the local culture and its people.[xi]
Pastoral care and catechesis
Stephens spent most of his 40 years on the Indian mission in Salcete. The first half was dedicated to pastoral work, for the ‘salvation of souls’, as Ignatius decreed in the first Formula. He was clearly a wise and sensitive priest. The labour of administration came less easily to him. He was conscious that simply keeping control of the mission would lead to an encounter with the people that was superficial and took little account of his people’s loyalty to their customs and patterns of behaviour.
The Kristapurana was the fruit of long years of prayerful study, preaching and pastoral work. He was aware that brahmin converts were concerned their new-found faith lacked the cultural and liturgical structures they had been so used to. So he began to think in terms of an accompaniment to the catechism, a story to be recited and prayed, raising questions and opening up elucidations of the truth of the Gospel.
Once he had mastered Sanskrit, and produced his grammar of Konkani, Stephens was more and more captivated by the language of the Marathi saints which, according to a modern history, he described as, ‘a jewel among pebbles, like a sapphire among jewels, like the jasmine among blossoms, and the musk among all perfumes, the peacock among birds.’[xii]
He became convinced that no better language could be imagined for communicating the truth of the Gospel. Three editions of the Kristapurana were published, in 1616, 1649 and 1654. A scholarly edition was produced in Mangalore by Joseph Saldanha in 1907 and English speakers are indebted to the more recent translation by Nelson Falcao published in 2012.[xiii] What was Stephens seeking to convey through this great text? And does it have anything to teach a modern audience, some four hundred years later?
Rooting faith in the heart
As a work of catechesis, the not-so-remote model is St Francis Xavier himself – and further back, of course, the convictions of St Ignatius. Xavier learned enough of the local language to produce simple summaries which he repeated to people. More importantly, in the spirit of the Spiritual Exercises, he taught them how to pray. In centring the words of faith round the life of Christ they would come to understand – and relish – its deeper truth. In a letter to the General, from 1601, Stephens writes about ‘the little chapels which Fr Provincial ordered to be erected in remote villages. Here the children can gather to study their catechism and the people can stop to pray when passing by.’[xiv]
By focusing his efforts on the instruction of children he hoped to found a new type of community, far removed from the old rivalries which had proved so destructive. Not that the text is a purely liturgical accompaniment, a vehicle for devotional assimilation of Christian truth. Cut in to the story are occasional questions from an enquiring Brahmin or ‘an intelligent person’, which enable the teacher to develop further the meaning of what has been recounted in the narrative.
There is, in other words, more to the Kristapurana than an imaginative retelling of the biblical narrative. Apart from the obvious influence of the Spiritual Exercises, we should not forget the one text that Ignatius allows his retreatant – The Imitation of Christ. Stephens’ novice-director, Fabio de Fabi, refers in his directory to the ‘hidden power‘ of the Exercises, ‘grounded as they are in the teaching of the saints, the truth of scripture, and long experience’.[xv] In good Ignatian fashion, the Kristapurana seeks to bring the powers of the soul and all the senses into a single whole-hearted response to the love of God poured out for humankind in Christ. This is no nod in the direction of ‘popular religion’; it is a sophisticated and highly effective catechesis.
The puranic style of story-telling
If the content is very much the Gospel story, the form or style in which it is recounted comes from the cultural world of Stephens’ brahmin converts. The word purana, literally ‘old’ or ‘ancient’, may be translated as ‘account of past history’.[xvi] It refers to a genre of Hindu literature which in its classical form is held to deal with topics such as creation, destruction and re-creation, the genealogy of gods and ancient sages, and the rule of kings and heroes. Puranas are lengthy stories associated with various theistic forms, avatars – literally ‘descents’ – or manifestations of Bhagavan, the ‘Blessed Lord’. Compared with the ancient Vedic hymns and the philosophical texts of the Upanisads, these are the most tangible expressions of the great movement of bhakti religion, with its seminal literary form in the Bhagavad Gita, the ‘song of the Lord’ the best-known and most beloved of Hindu scriptures.
Bhakti means ‘participation’ and may be loosely translated as ‘loyalty’ – with connotations of the divine grace that inspires all forms of heartfelt love. In their written form the puranas represent the imaginative ordering of exemplary stories. Their origins, however, lie not with the artifice of a writer but with the sutas or bards who were responsible for the oral recitation that gathered a community together. The form of semi-liturgical performance is still to be found all over India as the familiar stories are sung and recited in villages, temples and more formal settings.
Stephens used the form to exhort his audience to lead good and honest lives in imitation of Jesus Christ. But it would not have escaped his attention that the ritual which is inseparable from myths and legends has a certain political or social dimension. Sutas were often employed at court to celebrate ancient lineages and trace royal descent by linking the deeds of ancestors and heroes to the world of the gods. In terms of form the Kristapurana has such a religious and political purpose: the validation of the religious pedigree of the Christian community. The story proclaims who these people are.
The demands of justice
The first part of the text, about a third of the whole, is less the story of Israel than a single lengthy meditation on the coming of Christ as Saviour into a world darkened by sin. It is remarkably full, beginning with the rebellion of the angels and ending with predictions of the coming of Christ from Jewish prophets and Roman sybils alike. The second part, the Gospel narrative, begins with an invocation to God to inspire the teacher to speak worthily of the mystery of divine revelation before moving on to what Ignatius would call the ‘history’ of the Incarnation and the birth of Jesus.
I offer here just a couple of examples which may give something of the flavour of Stephens’ story-telling while at the same time pointing us in the direction of one of the major theological themes that emerges from this type of ‘puranic catechesis’.
When the three ‘rulers, kings of the East’ turn up (no mere wise men here), they are accompanied by elephants and chariots, massive umbrellas, flags and banners, war drums and the sound of trumpets. No wonder Herod was put out. ‘As if struck by a whip, or as the moon loses lustre, the king lost his demeanour and his lotus face faded. As if turned to a stone statue he could not utter a single word.’[xvii]
The kings meanwhile, with their pomp and magnificent array find their way to Bethlehem and the poor cowshed where the child lies on his mother’s lap. The encounter is movingly described and what they see of the humble surroundings of this king provokes something of a conversion as they remember how they have just promised Herod to report back on the whereabouts of the child. The next day they talk to each other about the dream they have had. They praise and worship the child and take their leave, sending the army back to their own country by ‘another way’ while they themselves disappear wordlessly off the scene.
It’s as if they had never been there. The streets of the city are silent and Herod blusters on about their finding nothing and having to return home ‘full of shame’. Inwardly, of course, he is consumed with envy, hatred and a desire for vengeance. He realises he has been deceived and eventually his anger bursts out. ‘Great flames rose into his insides [and] his brows were knit with knots. He shouted wildly and loudly in the palace and walked about like a mad man.’[xviii] The slaughter of the innocents is told in graphic detail. Jeremiah’s prophecy – ‘in Rama a voice is heard; Rachel weeping for her children’ – is quoted, but it is impossible not to imagine something of the dreadful events of Cuncolim playing on Stephens’ mind. There is, however, a sequel.
Having given a brief account of Herod’s further crimes and pondered on the sins of those who think they can ignore God’s justice, Stephens the suta is interrupted by a Brahmin. ‘Strange indeed’, he says, ‘is the story of that king. You have told a narrative of great moral value. So what punishment to such a king was given, to that unfortunate one by God? Tell us that, then we will understand.’[xix] The disease that afflicts Herod is described in gory detail and is not for faint European hearts. But it would have been pretty normal fare for an audience familiar with the grisly fate meted out to malign monsters.
This takes us back to the comment by the Jesuit historian. If there is one theme that underlies all Indian religion it is that of cosmic justice, the dilemmas of pursuing dharma, the cause of right, in a less than perfect world. In the Epic and Puranic literature this theme is played out as an endless battle between the personalised forces of good and evil. Very often it is the god-figure appearing in human or animal form who uses his superior powers, often gained through acts of asceticism, to overcome the wiles of the demon. This is the basic framework with which Stephens works. But he does more than set up a binary opposition, as becomes clear when he turns to my second example, Stephens’ magnificent rendering of the Temptations of Jesus.
Inside the hollow dome of the sky, the servants of Lucifer were talking. ‘Who is that dwelling, dressed like an ascetic, in the forest? … He is definitely the enemy. Now let us alert our king.’
While they were talking, the messengers said to Lucifer; ‘O King, why are you still sitting quietly? … We have seen a wonderful thing, a man has come suddenly leaping from the town of Nazareth.
‘We have seen him from far off but we dared not go close to him. His name alone is terror for all the devils.’
Upon hearing this, Lucifer trembled with great anger, as if fire was stirred up by sprinkling ghee on it.
Or like a cobra when it is put in a bamboo box … great wrath provoked him; from his nose, mouth, ears and out of all the organs, fireballs rushed and showered forth.
As a fierce rocket, when it is burst, it shakes a lot and looks as if there is no end to its fire … in the same way the fierce tormentor was greatly wrathful. At the place of hell, on the throne of fire he raged upon the chains as he shouted.[xx]
This Lucifer dominates the minor demons and they follow him because of their ‘pride and vanity’. But when he comes close to Jesus he covers up his ‘ghastly appearance’ and takes the form of an old man. This is Stephens’ version not of classical Hinduism but of a very Ignatian theme.
Discerning the dark side of human nature
Ignatius knew from his own experience that ‘the enemy of our human nature’ is a master of disguise; the evil spirit often appears as an ‘angel of light’, producing a counterfeit sense of well-being, disguising the morally dubious as the entirely plausible. What we take for peace and contentment may turn out on closer inspection to be a self-interested satisfaction or a lazy complacency. As Stephens tells the story, it is Jesus who beats the devil at his own game, allowing himself to get close to the demon in order to destroy him ‘stealthily’. This gives Stephens the opportunity to introduce a familiar patristic image:
As a fisherman puts bait of flesh in the mouth of fish, and when the hook is seized, he draws it up and takes his life, so the Lord whose wisdom is deep, allowed his human form to be carried, to vanquish the wicked one by the power of his Divine Nature.[xxi]
The theological motif of the divine entering deep into a world terrorised by the demonic runs through much of Stephens’ narrative. What he describes so vividly is the redeeming action of the Trinitarian God who, in Ignatius’s meditation on the Incarnation, looks down ‘over the vast extent and circuit of the earth with its many and various races’.[xxii] Stephens himself would have contemplated the rituals and devotions of the people of Salcete as well as its recent history and found there many resonances that would build up his form of ‘puranic exegesis’. But that is not to say he would have failed to spot areas of discord, where his Christian faith jarred with what he found in the local religious culture.
There’s a dispassionate side to Stephens’ flights of fancy which always come back to Ignatius’s insights into our flawed human nature. So easily we act as if good and evil operate in black and white terms when the truth is they mingle in many shades of grey. It would be surprising if Stephens were not haunted throughout his life by what happened at Cuncolim. And yet this extraordinary text is characterised by a lack of polemic. There are plenty of enemies and they get their comeuppance, but they are simply more or less culpable versions of Satan – and it is the unmasking of Satan, naming evil for what it is in all its shifty greyness, that most concerns Stephens.
The puranic world-view is by no means clear of binary thinking; forces of power and violence are forever coming up against qualities of love and wisdom. The question is how they work together – and Stephens’ answer unsurprisingly lies with the person of Christ. Schooled in the Spiritual Exercises and familiar with Ignatius’s great meditations on Christ the King and the Two Standards, Stephens offers not a translation of Christian faith into Hindu terms, still less a Christian-Hindu synthesis, but something more direct: an exercise in devotional rhetoric designed to appeal to a particular audience.
Scripture and understanding
The Kristapurana provides the people of Salcete with a sense of Christian belonging which does not do violence to their Indian culture. This is what becomes possible when the Word of God is taken seriously as an invitation to ponder the depths of the mystery that God contemplates. In the hands of a master story-teller like Stephens, scripture is not a script to be read and dissected but the place where God’s Word and the promptings of the Spirit are to be discerned. Scripture creates a religious world – and by entering into that world, with all its colour and symbolism, beauty and aesthetic power, one acquires a language which structures and interprets that world.
The story stands on its own merits; its truth does not have to be proved by subtle arguments which exist apart from that story. It speaks for itself, with the occasional addition of well-reasoned commentary – the questions raised by the ‘intelligent person’ (one of his Rachol brahmin converts perhaps?). Let the last word belong to this extraordinarily creative yet mysteriously laconic Englishman. This is what he says by way of self-justification in his introduction.
No efforts whatsoever have been made in this Purana to prove that their sacred book is untrue and false, and our sacred book is true and real. The difference and the distinctness between the two automatically becomes evident to all. The sacred book of the Christians emerges as beautiful of its own accord. … If you read or listen to this sacred book, it would be enough. It will promote proper understanding of everything.[xxiii]
[i] Francs Correa, ‘The “Shakespeare” of the Konkan coast: Fr Thomas Stephens SJ (1549-1619)’, Vidyajyoti, 83 (2019), pp 461-71.
[ii] Kristapurana of Father Thomas Stephens SJ, translated and edited by Nelson Falcao SDB, Kristu Jyoti Publications: Bengaluru; 2012.
[iii] Letter quoted in Philip Caraman, Henry Garnet,1555-1606, and the Gunpowder Plot, Longmans; 1964; p 14.
[iv] Formula of the Institute 3.
[v] Reproduced in Falcao’s edition of the Kristapurana; Appendix 8; pp 1659-1663.
[vi] Ibid Appendix 9, pp 1664-1670.
[vii] Georg Schurhammer, ‘Thomas Stephens 1549-1619’, The Month, April 1955; pp 197-210.
[viii] Teutonio de Souza, ‘Why Cuncolim Martyrs? An historical re-assessment’, in Jesuits in India: a Historical Perspective, Xavier Centre for Historical Research, Goa, 1991.
[ix] Schurhammer, Stephens, p 202.
[x] Falcao, Kristapurana, Appendix 9; pp 1664-1670.
[xi] Ananya Chakravarti, ‘Christ in the Brahmapuri: Thomas Stephens in Salcete’, in The Empire of Apostles: Religion, Accommodatio, and the Imagination of Empire in Early Modern Brazil and India, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2018; pp 178-227.
[xii] Kusumawati Deshpande, A History of Marathi Literature, Pune: Sahitya Academi, 1985; p 21.
[xiii] As well as background material and notes, Falcao presents the text in columns, the Marathi (in Roman script) and his English verse translation facing each other. He also gives us something of the textual tradition, insofar as that can be reconstructed.
[xiv] Falcao, Appendix 10; pp 1671-1673.
[xv] Directory of Father Fabio de Fabi in Martin E Palmer SJ, trans and ed., On Giving the Spiritual Exercises: The Early Jesuit Manuscript Directories and the Official Directory of 1599, St Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources; 1996; p 197.
[xvi] See Friedhelm Hardy, The Religious Culture of India, Oxford: OUP; 1994; p 266.
[xvii] Part Two, Prasanga/Chapter 10; 16-17; p 708.
[xviii] Part Two, Prasanga/Chapter 13; 7; p 749.
[xix] Part Two, Prasanga/Chapter 13; 72-73; p 758.
[xx] Part Two; Prasanga/Chapter 20; 16-30; pp 843-44.
[xxi] Part Two; Prasanga/Chapter 20; 66-67; p 849.
[xxii] Spiritual Exercises 103.
[xxiii] Prose Introduction, p xci.
