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 29th October – 1st November, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
12noon Devonport
Next Weekend 2nd & 3rd November
Saturday 9:30am Ulverstone
Vigil: 6:00pm Devonport
6:00pm Penguin
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
MINISTRY ROSTERS 2nd & 3rd NOVEMBER, 2019
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: M Stewart, M Gaffney, H Lim
10:30am A Hughes, T Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion: Vigil D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P Shelverton
10.30am: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S Arrowsmith, K & K Maynard
Cleaners 1st Nov: M.W.C. 8th Nov: M & R Youd
Piety Shop 2nd Nov: A Berryman 3rd Nov: K Hull
Mowing of lawns at Presbytery – November:
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: S Lawrence
Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, M Barry
Cleaners: M McKenzie, M Singh, N Pearce Flowers: M Bryan
Hospitality: K Foster
Penguin:
Greeters P Ravallion, P Lade Commentator: A Landers Readers: Y Downes, M Murray
Ministers of Communion: T Clayton, S Coleman Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J Setting Up: S Ewing
Care of Church: S Coleman, M Owen
Latrobe:
Reader: Ministers of Communion: Procession of Gifts:
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, G Gigliotti Ministers of Communion: J & D Peterson Cleaners: G Richey
Readings This Week: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
As I
come to pray the Gospel, I still myself, ready and eager to hear its familiar
teaching. Perhaps there is a phrase I have not ‘heard’ before?
If so, I stay
with it for a while.
I may be drawn to imagine the people Jesus is speaking to.
Do I know any of them?
Am I one of them on occasion?
Now I turn my attention
more closely to the Pharisee and the tax collector.
Perhaps their different
body language and ways of addressing God help me to understand them.
How do I
address God myself when I pray?
What does my own body language say about the
way I relate to him?
I listen again to the Pharisee, and ponder whether I
sometimes compare myself favourably to others, as he does.
Where are the places
in which I think I am due thanks from others, or from God?
Do I feel offended
when I am overlooked?
The humble tax collector behaves very differently.
I may like
to consider how important humility is in my own life ... and in society itself.
I look into my heart for anything that closes me off from God and from others,
and ask for any grace I need.
I end by asking God to help me to be humble and
to show me his way of seeing others and myself as I truly am.
Glory be to the
Father …
Readings Next 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
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
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, Michelle Gibson, Sr Martina Roberts, Danny Reardon, Glenn Harris
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 24th – 30th October
Patrick Clarke, Esma Mibus, David Murray, Paul McNamara, Brenda Wyatt, Bridget Monaghan, Lawrence McGuire, Kenneth Sutton, Margaret Doody, Bernard Marshall
Weekly Ramblings
Last weekend two parishioners and a brother priest (Fr
Chris Toms of Melbourne) died with 24 hours. The funeral Masses for Fay Bugg
and Peter (Mike) Horniblow were celebrated on Thursday and Friday and for Fr
Chris will be next Thursday. We pray for the repose of the souls of these three
people and all who have died recently.
On Saturday Fr Frank Gibson celebrated 50 years of
priesthood (his anniversary was the 20th) and this Sunday we celebrate 60 years
of Marriage for Ann & Ben Ketelaar – both occasions of great joy.
This week Sr Marg Chandler and Clare Kiely-Hoye will be
leading the first of three sessions looking at the themes of Plenary 2020 – please
contact them if you are intending to participate in these sessions. Another
series of gathering will begin the following week looking at each of the 6
themes. Details of all these gatherings are on the Noticeboards and with the
Newsletter this weekend.
The health and safety of parishioners volunteering in our
Parish is a priority. If anyone slips, falls or hurts themselves in any way
whatever please contact the Parish Office ASAP irrespective if you consider it
minor or not worth worrying about. The next person to fall or trip on the same
hazard might suffer a more serious injury and because we did nothing about the
problem we are legally at fault for failure of care. Please help us provide the
best duty of care possible by reporting all incidents ASAP.
Take care on the roads and in your homes
Sister Stan Mumuni is at the forefront of the Church’s work in reaching out to children in need in Ghana. As the director of the Nazareth Home for God’s Children, Sister Stan works endlessly to provide education, healthcare and a safe home for children rescued from life-threatening situations.
In line with traditional beliefs, in parts of Ghana, children born with a disability, or whose mother passes during childbirth, are considered to be ‘spirit children’ and thus at risk of being harmed or killed. The Church in Ghana is dedicated to protecting these children and educating families to ensure every child has a chance to live a full life. The Nazareth Home for
God’s Children is among the pioneers in this crucial mission.
Today you have the opportunity to personally partner with the Church in Ghana and offer monthly support to this essential work. All gifts will be directed to life-saving projects for children in need. Your one-off gift today is also very much appreciated and will make a great difference to those in need.
Freecall: 1800 257 296
Plenary Council 2020 - Next Stage
The submissions to the Plenary Council have now been organised into six (6) key themes.
We are inviting parishioners to participate in the next step, Listening and Discernment of these themes, to discover where God’s Spirit is leading the People of God in Australia at this time.
We have organised three different times to enable as many people as possible to take part in this process. Following the Sessions our responses will be sent to the Plenary Council Committee.
MacKillop Hill (3 Sessions) – Wednesdays: 10.30am – 12noon
30th October; 6th & 20th November.
Please indicate your attendance so that we can provide sufficient material for each session.
MacKillop Hill: 123 William Street. Ph. 6428:3095 M. 0418 367 769.
Parish House (3 Sessions) – Thursdays: 10.00 – 11.30am
31st October 7th & 14th November.
Please contact Clare Kiely-Hoye (M. 0418 100 402) to book a seat by 28th October and to ensure we can provide sufficient material for each session.
Parish House, 90 Stewart Street, Devonport.
Parish House (6 Sessions) – Wednesdays: 7.00 – 8.30pm
6th, 20th & 27th November; 4th December; 5th & 12th February 2020
Each session will look at a different theme. The 1st Session will be on the theme Missionary & Evangelising.
All the material can be accessed from the Plenary Council website - https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/themes/. Please contact the Parish House (Ph. 6424:2783 or E: merseyleven@aohtas.org.au) to indicate your attendance. Also, let the Office know if you need a hard copy of the material for each session.
Congratulations to Ann & Ben Ketelaar as they celebrate 60 years of Marriage. May the Lord continue to bless you both.
MacKillop Hill Spirituality Centre
Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe Monday 28th Oct 10:30-12pm.
Come along and enjoy a lively discussion over morning tea. All welcome.
123 William St, Forth. No booking necessary. Donation appreciated. Ph. 6428 3095
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY:
Mt St Vincent Auxiliary will be holding a Craft, Cake and small Christmas gifts stall Sunday 3rd November after 9am Mass in the Community Room, Sacred Heart Church. Bring a friend or two AND your spare change and buy some goodies to help support this great fundraiser.
THURSDAY 31st October Eyes down 7:30pm. Callers Tony Ryan & Rod Clark
A Profoundly Rewarding Mission: Working in Education, Health and Trades? Assist to reduce poverty in overseas communities by sharing your skills. Mutual development assured! There are five places left on Palms Australia’s January 4th – 12th Orientation Course. You must apply now for a position beginning any time in 2020.
Call or text 0422 4PALMS (M-F). palms.org.au
THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO PROGRAM – AIRS 3 November 2019:
This week on the Journey, Fr Mark Debattista joins us on the show for his reflection on the Gospel. We hear from Mother Hilda and her piece on ‘Cicada’ as well as Byron and Francine Pirola, the experts in relationships with everything you need to know about ‘Couple Projects’. We have lots in store in this week’s show, you won’t want to miss it! Go to WWW.jcr.org.au or www.itunes.jcr.org.au and to ensure that you never miss a show it can be sent to you each week as a podcast via email – for free
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/
When The Amazon Meets The Tiber
What to Expect from the First ‘Territorial’ Synod
By Austen Ivereigh
The opening days of the Amazon Synod have been marked by the familiar polar tensions at the heart of the Catholic Church: between center and periphery, universal and local; between the demands of the law and the pastoral needs of a particular people. But now there is something new, something that is tilting the balance in favor of the peripheral, the local, and the particular.
You could see it happening in the gentle battle over liturgical space in the run-up to the synod’s opening. On October 4 in the Vatican Gardens and on the following night at a church not far from St Peter’s, dozens of indigenous leaders and church workers led offerings and prayers, using objects and forms of worship from the region: a canoe, a mandorla, the image of a pregnant woman, as well as placards of Amazon martyrs such as Sr. Dorothy Stang. It was joyful, generous, and unmistakably Amazonian: the faithful People of God speaking and praying and dancing in their own way.
Yet at the big papal Mass in St Peter’s the next morning, Amazonia was all but banished. If the pope in his zinger homily hadn’t invoked the Holy Spirit to “renew the paths of the Church in Amazonia, so that the fire of mission will continue to burn,” you would have had no idea the synod was even taking place. Indigenous leaders sat at the front and brought up the gifts but were silent: there were no intercessions for the region, no readings in an Amerindian language, and almost everything was Italian and solemn. The center was back in charge.
But not for long. The next morning the Amazonian people were in St. Peter’s Basilica with Pope Francis, along with the canoe and the martyrs and Our Lady of the Amazon. In a remarkable move, unprecedented at previous synods, the pope processed from the Basilica with the indigenous peoples, in their midst—el pastor con su pueblo—as they joyfully chanted, “The sons and daughters of the Forest, we praise you, Lord.”
As they left St. Peter’s and crossed the square to the synod hall, I thought of Jeremy Irons in Roland Joffé’s film The Mission, the Jesuit who walks with his people into a hail of colonialist bullets. There had been no shortage of rhetorical bullets in the run-up to the synod: superannuated cardinals telling Amazonian Catholics they were heretics for proposing to ordain married men; a panel of traditionalists (Cardinal Burke in the front row) claiming the synod would not “civilize the savages” but would instead “make the civilized savages”; and an EWTN-owned news outlet reporting that the ceremony in the Vatican Gardens—in which native peoples honored God’s creation—was an essentially pagan, pantheistic affair. In his speech opening the synod, the pope spoke of his pain at overhearing someone at the previous day’s Mass mock the feather headdress of the leader who brought the gifts to the altar. “Tell me,” the pope asked the 300-odd participants, “what difference is there between wearing feathers on your head and the three-cornered hat used by some officials in our curial departments?”
In that opening address Francis was clear about where he and the synod would stand. They would look at the Amazon region with the eyes of disciples and missionaries, respectful of the ancestral wisdom and culture of its peoples, and rejecting any approach that was colonialist, ideological, or exploitative. They would not try to “discipline” the locals. For whenever the church has had this mindset, Francis warned, it has failed utterly to evangelize. The Jesuit pope reminded the synod’s participants of the ill-fated sixteenth-century missions of the Jesuits Roberto Di Nobili, SJ, and Matteo Ricci, SJ, whose bold attempts at inculturation, in India and China respectively, were quashed by the pettiness and colonialist mindsets of church leaders at the time. Without being planted in the local culture, the Gospel cannot take root: “homogenizing centralism,” said Francis, is the enemy of “the authenticity of the culture of the peoples.” This synod would go the other way. “We come to contemplate, to understand, to serve the peoples.”
What matters, then, is the people of Amazonia, and especially the 3 million or so indigenous gathered in 390 peoples who, for the first time, are the central concern of a synod. It is their welfare, their pastoral needs, that are at the heart of this gathering, as well as the natural world to which they are deeply, symbiotically connected. Both are threatened with destruction as never before. This life-or-death urgency demands, in turn, that the church examine the nature of its presence, how it can be embedded and inculturated, how it can it stand with, and promote the life of, its peoples in an area where one “regional vicariate” might be the size of half of Italy yet have just a handful of priests.
The issue is one of agency. The synod is a test of the church’s ability to implement the vision of Laudato si’ in a region that almost daily dramatizes that encyclical’s call to conversion. Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ—a key drafter of Laudato si’ who will also be drawing up the final document on which the synod will vote on October 26—told Commonweal that because “the Amazon region exemplifies the inextricable connection between the social and natural environments, the fate of people there and of their natural surroundings” there could be “no more concrete manner than this [synod] to lift Laudato si’ off the page and put it into action.”
Most Amazonian native peoples live not in parishes but in remote village-size communities with strong social structures.
This is the first ever “territorial” synod. More than 80,000 people were consulted in preparation for it. The bishops who make up the overwhelming majority of its 185 voting members are there not because their national bishops’ conferences chose them as delegates, but because their dioceses are in Amazonia. The bishops may be from nine different nations (there are fifty-eight Brazilians, fourteen Colombians, twelve Bolivians, eleven Peruvians, seven Ecuadorians, seven Venezuelans, plus four from the Antilles) and speak four different languages, but they have far more in common with one another than with many members of their own national conferences. (“The bishops in the south,” a Brazilian Amazonian bishop lamented to me, “haven’t got a clue what we face. I have much more in common with a Peruvian or Bolivian Amazonian bishop.”) Meanwhile, the other voting delegates—fifteen elected by the missionary religious orders, thirty-three chosen by the pope—are either embedded in the area or deeply sympathetic to it. That leaves just thirteen heads of curial departments as jokers in the pack.
This doesn’t mean, of course, that there is automatically a consensus; most bishops agree on the challenges—the working document captures them brilliantly—but most have not arrived in Rome with a list of solutions. Yet my informal soundings of Amazonian bishops and those who know them well suggest that around two-thirds of them are wholly supportive of the synod and its proposals for the ordination of elders and some kind of recognition of women’s ministries. Bishop Erwin Krautler, the retired bishop of Xingú, confirmed that two-thirds figure on Wednesday, and argued there was no choice but to ordain married elders if the church wants a stable, autochthonous clergy in the region.
The other third are said to be more tentative, waiting to see what emerges. There is even a small rump of conservative resistance, centered in the Brazilian archdiocese of Belém do Pará. While his rhetoric is a long way from the astonishing attacks on the synod—“Heretical! Pantheistic!”—of Cardinals Burke, Müller and Brandmüller, Dom Taveira Corrêa and his auxiliaries have been less than enthusiastic participants in the pre-synod consultation process, with the archbishop complaining about the need for “more evangelism and less ecologism.”
Yet it is precisely evangelization—the spread and deepening of Catholic life and spirituality—that this synod is designed to improve. Most Amazonian native peoples live not in parishes but in remote village-size communities with strong social structures. Religious life is entrusted to the community’s leaders; they are likely to be the catechists and “animators” of the local church. A missionary priest might pass through once or twice a year, to celebrate Mass and hear confessions, which is a cause for great celebration. But the rest of the time, in their gathering round the Word alone, the Catholic Amazonians look indistinguishable from Evangelicals. All too often priests arrive to find that the whole village leadership has succumbed to what a synod father has described as “the dizzying proliferation of Pentecostal churches.” Nowadays these are likely to be powerful megachurches that proselytize aggressively and preach a version of the Prosperity Gospel.
The threat from the Pentecostals is a delicate subject. Few talk about it openly at the synod, because to do so is considered politically incorrect. The European missionary priest who spelled the problem out to me asked not to be identified by name or nationality.
“The indigenous Catholic communities in the Amazon today are among the best reflections of the first Christian communities in the Acts of the Apostles,” he told me. “It’s natural for them to share, and no one ever goes hungry. People hunt and fish for what their people need, but no more. But all that changes when the Pentecostalists come in. What happens is that soon everything gets sold: the wood, the fish, and so on, to get money, because prosperity is seen as a gift of God—and of course the pastors get their share. It’s really sad. The communities cease to be communitarian. Their mentality becomes one of accumulation and exploitation. I saw it happen over and over.”
That’s why, the missionary said, the question of ministries is so important, because only when the Catholic Church and its sacraments are embedded in the lives of the communities can their way of life and the environment on which they depend be conserved and promoted. “That’s why the ordination of elders matters,” he told me. “On this depends not just the future of the church but of Amazonia itself.”
It is possible to allow diversity in its structures and disciplines for the sake of inculturating the Gospel.
“Everything is connected,” as Pope Francis famously says in Laudato si’. The defense of the natural world of the Amazon depends on the conservation of a communitarian indigenous culture, which in turn depends on embedding the sacramental life and inculturated liturgy of the Catholic Church in the life of the native peoples. At present there is a disjuncture. The Eucharist is at the heart of the Catholic community, but in Amazonia it cannot be at the center of community life.
The authority to celebrate the sacraments lies outside the authority structure of the community. “There are communities where they don’t take a decision for a year because they’re waiting for the priest to come,” says the missionary. “But when the priest comes he’s often in a hurry, and that leaves a bad feeling. In Amazonia they have a different sense of time; it might take you a week to go to the nearest town. You have to forget your watch to be completely present among them. That’s what so hard when you’re applying a modern European model of sacramental life to what is much more like the early Christian communities.”
Hence the proposal for the ordination of elders, which is essentially modeled on the early church, where priests were generally chosen from the community not as young men who were then sent off to be trained, but as respected, mature men with families and professions who had an eye for the welfare of the community. The synod’s working document carefully restricts itself to noting that the people of the Amazon are asking for the ordination of elders and the recognition of female ministries. But a document with a more detailed proposal is likely to be introduced at the synod to assist the discussion. It will urge the “community presbyters” model associated with South African bishop Fritz Lobinger and developed in Latin America by the Brazilian diocesan priest-theologian Antonio José Almeida, whose book Procuram-Se Padres (“Wanted: Priests”) distils the best thinking on the topic.
The community presbyters would be fully priests, but of a different kind, complementing seminary-trained celibates. Their faculties would be restricted to their community or area. If married and employed, they would not give up their wives or their work, but ideally be part of a small team who would take turns presiding at the Eucharist. They would not be sent away from their communities for training, but they would receive sufficient formation to carry out their duties. They would look, ideally, like the epískopo profiled by Paul in his First Letter to Timothy (3:7): the husband of just one wife, austere in lifestyle, sober in habits, with a track record of good governance of his own household, and respected in the community.
In many of the remote communities, church life is run by women. To recognize their ministries, Almeida believes that the first step is to open up the non-ordained minor orders of acolyte and lector to women. This can be done by amending the term in the Code of Canon Law (230) from viri laici to Christifedeles laici et laicae. There is strong support for this among the delegates, and also for women deacons. “We talk a lot about giving women more value, but we need something concrete,” said Bishop Kräutler, “I am referring to the female diaconate, and I say: Why not?”
If these proposals achieve consensus in the synod—and my guess is that at least some of them will—Francis will accept the arguments for implementing them as pastorally compelling. Although he has made it clear that he will not end the discipline of mandatory celibacy for the western Church, he is clearly open to exceptions for pastoral need. The genius of this synod is that the usual argument against change in the church has been neutralized: what matters in the discernment of the synod is not the imperative of universal consistency, but the pastoral welfare of the People of God in the forests of the Amazon. That means that the need of the Amazonian peoples for access to the sacraments and the 24/7 presence of the church will not be sacrificed in order to assuage European and American conservatives who are allergic to change.
Indeed, the fruit of the Amazon synod may well be permanent protection for the church from “homogenizing centralism.” There is talk of creating a special Amazonian Rite, along the lines of the church’s nineteen other rites or special structures, almost all of which allow some form of married priesthood. In a new book titled Perspectivas de sinodalidad: Hacia una Iglesia con rostro amazónico, Mauricio López, executive secretary of the church’s pan-Amazon network, REPAM, which organized the synod, says he foresees a new “pan-Amazon ecclesial and episcopal structure” to emerge, independent of the national bishops’ conferences, but sitting under the pan-Latin-American episcopal council, CELAM. The idea of an Amazonian bishops’ conference was first floated at a bishops’ meeting in Iquitos, Peru, in 1971.
Such a body would, of course, be a powerful witness in the defense of the Amazonian peoples, raising its voice against the plunder of the region by extractivist industries, and against the destruction of native cultures by technocrats. But for the church, too, it would be a sign: that it is possible to allow diversity in its structures and disciplines for the sake of inculturating the Gospel. As Cardinal Czerny put it to Commonweal: “The present-day challenges for the church and for the world are generally huge and quite unprecedented. It would be odd to expect the church to respond successfully by sticking only to the tried-and-true.
When
Proposed Amazonian rite centered on Christ
VATICAN CITY — At a synod briefing Oct. 24, Delio Siticonatzi Camaiteri, a member of the Ashaninka people and a professor from Peru, said that fears about the proposal are unwarranted because indigenous people seek unity and not division.
"Do we (want to) have our own rites? Yes, we do! But those rites must be incorporated with what is central, which is Jesus Christ. There is nothing else to argue about on this issue! The center that is uniting us in this synod is Jesus Christ," he said.
Throughout the synod, members discussed the possibility of incorporating local traditions and cultural elements in the liturgy. While there are nearly two dozen different rites in the Catholic Church, those critical of the proposal fear that it would introduce so-called pagan elements into the liturgy.
Speaking to journalists at the briefing, Siticonatzi said that he noticed those present seemed "a bit uncomfortable" and did not "understand what the Amazon truly needs" when it comes to establishing a new rite.
“We have our own world view, our way of looking at the world that surrounds us. And nature brings God closer to us. Our culture brings the face of God closer to us, in our life," he said.
Nevertheless, he added, there are many who are "doubtful of this reality that we are looking for as indigenous people."
"Do not harden your hearts! Soften your hearts; that is what Jesus invites us to do," he said. "We live together. We all believe in one God! At the end of it all, we are going to be united."
Mexican Father Eleazar Lopez Hernandez, a member of the Zapotec community and an expert on indigenous theology, told journalists that like the members of other rites in the Catholic Church, the churches in Latin America also "need to be able to express our faith within our own framework."
"This is what the Amazonian rite is based on," Lopez said. "We can no longer continue living within frameworks that are foreign to our people. This is alienation."
The Mexican theologian said that discussions regarding the creation of an Amazonian rite were "encouraged" by a principle formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas: "(Quidquid) recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur" ("Whatever is received is received in the manner of the receiver").
"Our peoples had their own religious experiences, they had theologies that gave meaning to their lives," he said. "When the Christian perspective arrived, they received it within those frameworks."
When it comes to the liturgy, he continued, Christians have a responsibility to know the difference between "what is substantial in the Christian perspective and what is secondary, what is cultural."
"Pope Francis told us that it isn't right to think of the Christian perspective, the life of the church, through a monotonous and monocultural expression," Lopez said. "The church is plural. We have to take back the original diversity of the churches; united in one faith but with distinct theological and liturgical expressions."
A TAle of Two Synods
Putting the people of God first, 14 years later
What a difference prioritizing the people of God makes!
At this writing, a majority of the small group reports from the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon are discussing ordaining married men and women deacons.
Ten of 12 small groups discussed married priests while seven of 12 reference female deacons with four recommending ordination and three others suggesting the need for further study. According to Bishop Derek Byrne of the Diocese of Primavera do Leste-Paranatinga, Brazil, among the synod's 185 prelates there is "substantial support" for ordaining women deacons.
Small groups are where the actual work of the synod happens, with bishops, lay auditors and theological experts meeting together in individual language groups to discuss synod preparatory documents and speeches, and decide on proposals to send to the pope, who makes the final decisions.
Catholic sacramental identity and a deep respect for indigenous culture lie beneath this encouraging push for opening ordination. According to a Google translation of one of the reports posted by the Vatican, Portuguese group A advocated ordaining indigenous married men as priests and indigenous women to the diaconate, "to ensure the sacraments that accompany and sustain the Christian life of the community." This group also emphasized the necessity of inculturated formation by and for both women and men.
The Amazon synod stands in stark contrast to the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist held in 2005. One would have thought that synod's focus on the most central reality of Catholic faith would lead bishops to prioritize making Mass and the sacraments available to all Catholics. Yet, despite acknowledging in great detail the worldwide priest shortage, the Eucharist synod ended by doing nothing about it. This essentially deprived millions of Catholics of regular access to the Mass and made widespread closing and clustering of parishes in the U.S. and around the world inevitable.
That the priest shortage was mentioned at all in 2005 was due at least in part to extensive organizing in the U.S., Australia, and elsewhere. I attended the 2005 synod on behalf of FutureChurch and Call To Action and delivered 35,000 petition signatures asking for discussion of married priests and female deacons as one means of addressing the worldwide priest shortage.
A priest shortage, I should add, that is felt most deeply in the global south.
I also presented the results of a survey of over 15,000 priests in 55 U.S. dioceses, showing that 67% of respondents supported open discussion of mandatory celibacy. Moreover, the Australian Council of Priests called for discussion of married priests and women's roles in the church.
Even though the priest shortage dominated the 2005 Eucharist synod agenda and four working groups out of 12 requested further study of a married priesthood, Australian Cardinal George Pell trumpeted that there was a "massive restatement of the importance of the tradition in the Latin church of mandatory celibacy." Pell's statement notwithstanding, support for mandatory celibacy was hardly "massive" since a third of synod deliberators wanted to open a discussion of married priests. Unfortunately, their request did not appear in the final list of propositions although there was some expectation that it would.
In 2005, there was nary a peep about women ministering in the church, let alone reinstating the female diaconate, even though women outnumber men when one includes religious sisters and catechists/lay ministers.
Since 2005, the priest shortage has only deepened. According to statistics from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, from 2005 to 2017, the Catholic population worldwide increased by 17.8% (1.313 billion in 2017 compared to 1.115 billion in 2005) while the number of priests increased by only 2% (414,582 in 2017 compared to 406,411 in 2005).
Fast forward 14 years, and we now have an entirely different perspective from the Amazonian bishops and women leaders serving economically poor but spiritually rich Catholics in their dioceses.
This new perspective comes from pastors who "smell like their sheep" in Pope Francis' now-famous phraseology. As such, they love their people and are deeply concerned about lack of access to the Eucharist and other sacraments.
They also recognize that women are doing the heavy lifting in many parts of the Amazonian church.
Rome-based Jesuit Fr. Antonio Spadaro, the director of the Jesuit journal La Civiltá Cattolica, perhaps summarizes it best:
There was clear talk of the right of the faithful to not remain in a fast from the Eucharist and of the obligation of the pastors to provide bread. But also was expressed a broader and more mature vision of the Church, finally alienated from clericalism, aware of the need to imagine new ecclesial ministries, also for women. It is clear from the testimonies how much the Church of the Pan-Amazon region owes its life to women. It is also understood how the laity already actually have the task of teaching and supporting the ecclesial communities.
In marginalized areas like the Amazon church, women and men work closely together to serve the church. I suspect this may be one key difference between 2005 and 2019. (Another, of course, is Francis, who deeply values consultation with all the people of God.)
In 2005, more synod bishops were from the global north and, I suspect, somewhat removed from the realities of day-to-day pastoral work. They did nothing about the priest shortage.
Today, another generation of bishops — this time pastors who smell like their sheep — are on the verge of prioritizing the sacramental needs of the people of God over esoteric priestly politics.
In 1990, I was blessed to co-found FutureChurch with Fr. Louis Trivison. Our focus on opening ordination to preserve access to the Eucharist grew from our experience of ministering to and with Cleveland's Catholics. For nearly 30 years, FutureChurch has worked to educate and advocate for married priests, women deacons, and the ongoing discussion of ordaining women to the priesthood.
If today's synod and/or Francis support only a married priesthood without restoring the female diaconate, I greatly fear undercutting the faith-filled ministry of Amazonian women that has proven so fruitful to the church.
Yet, the last 30 years have taught me that big changes come with small steps.
I am grateful that women's ministries are on the table at the Amazon synod. I'm even more grateful that women synod experts such as Medical Mission Sr. Birgit Weiler find acceptance at that table. Weiler told Global Sisters Report: "There is not a clerical attitude. There is a lot of freedom of speech and it is a beautiful experience really to discern together."
Spadaro shrewdly recognized the unusual impact of bishops from the periphery — the Pan-Amazonian region — speaking from the heart of Rome: "The periphery speaks from the center with the awareness that its experience is heard as a prophetic voice for the whole Church. And, precisely for this, it is judged by some as disturbing."
The church of the Amazon is speaking prophetically on behalf of indigenous rights, integral ecology, the environment and ordaining married men.
I pray it also petitions Francis to restore the female diaconate to serve God's people.
[St. Joseph Sr. Christine Schenk, an NCR board member, served urban families for 18 years as a nurse midwife before co-founding FutureChurch, where she served for 23 years. Her recent book Crispina and Her Sisters: Women and Authority in Early Christianity (Fortress, 2017) was awarded first place in the history category by the Catholic Press Association. She holds master's degrees in nursing and theology.]
Catholics in the Amazon
LETICIA, COLOMBIAN AMAZON — From the sky, the forest below
spreads like a vast green sea. On the ground, the heat hits like a sucker
punch. In a few hours, I am walking a trail with a native guide from the Jívaro
tribe of Peru amid the lush foliage of the Colombian Amazon, so dense it's
impossible to see more than a foot on either side.
Frogs croak and unseen animals scuttle here and there, but
for hours there is no sign of human settlement. Yet scattered throughout the
greater Amazon basin, an expanse of 2.5 million square miles that stretches
across the territory of nine countries, live some 30 million people.
Coming out of the forest days later, the first ping from my
cell phone, quickly followed by the drone of power saws cutting wood for new
houses and the harsh swishing of a cement mixer creating pavement for a road,
are signals that we have crossed into another kind of Amazon, growing with
newcomers and new technology.
More than 6,000 miles away, at the Amazon synod in Rome,
bishops, clergy and lay people — including indigenous representatives — are
shaping a blueprint for the Catholic future of the region, remote but rich with
God's creation.
The Amazon is home to some 400 native tribes, some whose
populations are nearing extinction as they number fewer than 500 people and
others whose ranks number in the thousands and are thriving. Plant life
includes some 390 billion trees in rich diversity — 16,000 species.
The region also presents a gift of survival to every person
on earth, absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, acting as a brake on
climate change. But it's a gift at risk.
People here are hoping that the synod will recognize that
the more that Amazon residents can control their own resources, and the young
are encouraged to stay and carry on traditions of preserving an ecologically
sound way of life, the greater chance for the Amazon to survive.
Adriana Parenti, who belongs to the Ticuna tribe, typifies
the growing number of Amazon natives who bridge the lives of forest and town.
On foot, then on a single motor scooter, Parenti, her husband and two children
travel every weekday morning from their forest home to this riverine town,
where the youngsters go to school and Parenti serves meals at a small hotel.
In the forest she tends her chacra, a cultivated field where
food and medicinal plants grow and chickens run. Parenti's family wants gear
like cell phones and other goods of modern life, so she maintains the arduous
schedule por la plata, "for the money." Yet she thinks of the forest
as home, a place that is "tranquil," where the brutal noise of
traffic and loud voices give way to bird calls and, at night, the silence of
the rainforest.
As with many Amazon residents interviewed about the synod,
Parenti, who is Catholic, said she had not heard of the Vatican gathering.
Jorge Luna, a 45 year-old, non-Catholic single father of two who teaches
English and Spanish, was likewise unaware of the synod. But he noted: "Any
attention from such high levels is a good thing — this is a forgotten
place."
Changing Perspectives
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
When we look at history, it’s clear that Christianity is an
evolving faith. It only makes sense that early Christians would look for a
logical and meaningful explanation for the “why” of the tragic death of their
religion’s founder. For the early centuries, appeasing an angry, fanatical
Father was not their answer. For the first thousand years, most Christians
believed that the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross—the “price” or the
ransom—was being paid not to God, but to the devil! This made the devil pretty
powerful and God pretty weak, but it gave the people someone to blame for
Jesus’ death. And at least it was not God.
Then, in the eleventh century, Anselm of Canterbury (c.
1033–1109) wrote a paper called Cur Deus Homo? (Why Did God Become Human?)
which might just be the most unfortunately successful piece of theology ever
written. Thinking he could solve the problem of sin inside of the medieval code
of feudal honor and shame, Anselm said, in effect, “Yes, a price did need to be
paid to restore God’s honor, and it needed to be paid to God the Father—by one
who was equally divine.” I imagine Anselm didn’t consider the disastrous
implications of his theory, especially for people who were already afraid or
resentful of God.
In authoritarian and patriarchal cultures, most people were
fully programmed to think this way—working to appease an authority figure who
was angry, punitive, and even violent in “his” reactions. Many still operate
this way, especially if they had an angry, demanding, or abusive parent. People
respond to this kind of God, as sick as it is, because it fits their own story
line.
Unfortunately, for a simple but devastating reason, this
understanding also nullifies any in-depth spiritual journey: Why would you love
or trust or desire to be with such a God?
Protestants accepted the mainline Catholic
position, embracing it with even more fervor. Evangelicals later enshrined it
as one of the “four pillars” of foundational Christian belief, which the
earlier period would have thought strange. Most of us were never told of the
varied history of this theory, even among Protestants. If you came from a “law
and order” culture or a buying and selling culture—which most of us have—it
made perfect sense. The revolutionary character of Jesus and the final and full
Gospel message has still to dawn upon most of the world. It is just too
upending for most peoples’ minds until they have personally undergone the
radical experience of unearned love. And, even then, it takes a lifetime to
sink in.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a
Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe
(Convergent: 2019), 142-143.
The Grace Within Passivity
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
A friend of mine shares this story. She grew up with five siblings and an alcoholic father. The effect of her father’s alcoholism was devastating on her family. Here’s how she tells the story: By the time my father died his alcoholism had destroyed our family. None of us kids could talk to each other anymore. We’d drifted apart to different parts of the country and had nothing to do with each other. My mother was a saint and kept trying through the years to have us reconcile with each other, inviting us to gather for Thanksgiving and Christmas and the like, but it never worked. All her efforts were for nothing. We hated each other. Then as my mother lay dying of cancer, in hospice, bedridden, and eventually in a coma, we, her kids, gathered by her bedside, watching her die, and she, helpless and unable to speak, was able to accomplish what she couldn’t achieve through all those years when she could speak. Watching her die, we reconciled.
We all know similar stories of someone in their dying, when they were too helpless to speak or act, powerfully impacting, more powerfully than they ever did in word or action, those around them, pouring out a grace that blessed their loved ones. Sometimes, of course, this isn’t a question of reconciling a family but of powerfully strengthening their existing unity. Such was the case in a family history shared by Carla Marie Carlson, in her book, Everyday Grace. Her family was already closely-knit, but Carlson shares how her mother’s dying strengthened those family bonds and graced all the others who witnessed her dying: “Those who took the opportunity to be with my Mom during that journey have told me that their lives were forever changed. It was a remarkable time which I will always treasure. Lessons of acceptance and courage were abundant as she struggled with the realities of a dying body. It was dramatic and intense, but yet filled with peace and gratitude.” Most anyone who has ever sat in vigil around a loved one who was dying can share a similar story.
There’s a lesson here and a mystery. The lesson is that we don’t just do important things for each other and impact each other’s lives by what we actively do for each other; we also do life-changing things for each other in what we passively absorb in helplessness. This is the mystery of passivity which we see, paradigmatically, played out in what Jesus did for us.
As Christians, we say that Jesus gave his life for us and that he gave his death for us, but we tend to think of this as one and the same thing. It’s not. Jesus gave his life for us through his activity; he gave his death for us through his passivity. These were two separate movements. Like the woman described earlier who tried for years to have her children reconcile with each through her activity, through her words and actions, and then eventually accomplished that through the helplessness and passivity of her deathbed, so too with Jesus. For three years he tried in every way to make us understand love, reconciliation, and faith, without full effect. Then, in less than 24 hours, in his helplessness, when he couldn’t speak, in his dying, we got the lesson. Both Jesus and his mother were able, in their helplessness and passivity, to give the world something that they were unable to give as effectively in their power and activity.
Unfortunately, this is not something our present culture, with its emphasis on health, productivity, achievement, and power very much understands. We no longer much understand or value the powerful grace that is given off by someone dying of a terminal illness; nor the powerful grace present in a person with a disability, or indeed the grace that’s present in our own physical and personal disabilities. Nor do we much understand what we are giving to our families, friends, and colleagues when we, in powerlessness, have to absorb neglect, slights, and misunderstanding. When a culture begins to talk about euthanasia it is an infallible indication that we no longer understand the grace within passivity.
In his writings, Henri Nouwen makes a distinction between what he terms our “achievements” and our “fruitfulness”. Achievements stem more directly from our activities: What have we positively accomplished? What have we actively done for others? And our achievements stop when we are no longer active. Fruitfulness, on the other hand, goes far beyond what we have actively accomplished and is sourced as much by what we have passively absorbed as by what we actively produced. The family described above reconciled not because of their mother’s achievements, but because of her fruitfulness. Such is the mystery of passivity.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, in his spiritual classic, The Divine Milieu, tells us that we are meant to help the world through both our activities and our passivities, through both what we actively give and through what we passively absorb.
The Unchurched
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
Recently, the Pew Research Center released an update to an ongoing study of religious identification and engagement among Americans. The results should sound familiar at this point: an increase in the number of people identifying as unaffiliated with any particular religion, increasingly infrequent church attendance, and declining religiosity among younger generations.
Data like this should be cause for concern. But there is a larger story that we miss if we just focus on those facts.
In my travels across the country speaking and meeting with parish leaders, I have found time and again that many churches are geared towards insiders. Music that is stuck in the particular decade preferred by a majority of current attendees, preaching that is tone-deaf and only confirms the opinions of the congregation, and programming dominated by the social interests of insiders are just a few examples. All this is done with the positive intention of keeping afloat and, in some cases, in spite of a lack of resources and support.
The data underscores that this strategy just isn’t working. The churched are no more engaged now than they were a decade ago and, meanwhile, the population considering themselves unchurched has continued to rise astronomically.
Is there another way?
There are parishes that are growing because their communities are growing. They’re growing automatically, despite national trends, lucky them. But then there are others who, against all odds, are intentionally growing.
They’re growing not because they are watering down the Gospel, pandering to a majority, or merely entertaining the masses. Neither are they leading the charge to an idealized version of the past. Instead, these churches focus on one important project: reaching the unchurched and making them disciples.
Here’s the basic question that changes everything in parish culture: Are you a church that wants to reach the unchurched? In view of your current music, message, ministries, programs, and services, can you honestly answer “yes”?
- Are current parishioners encouraged to look beyond their own preferences to what might be attractive to the unchurched?
- Are they equipped to invite the unchurched?
- Are first-time guests prioritized? In what ways?
- Are they greeted? If they chose to identify themselves as newcomers, how can they do that?
- Is the language used at your church accessible to outsiders?
- Do you include printed or projected responses and lyrics to make it easy for them to follow along with your service?
- Are first-time guests pressured to participate in ways that are uncomfortable to them?
- Do you welcome new guests from the Altar?
Decline isn’t inevitable. The data shows that “unaffiliated” doesn’t necessarily mean hostile to religion. In fact, nearly three-quarters of the unaffiliated believe in a higher power of some kind, even if it is not the God described in the Bible. If we prioritize introducing them to the living Lord by being a church they actually want to attend, we can reverse trends and start growing.
The Spirituality of Rest
Whether you are looking forward to putting your feet up or preparing for an action-packed adventure, the benefits of a good holiday are invaluable, says Gerald O’Mahony SJ. Slowing down and gearing up can both be ways of following God’s will if they lead us towards consolation. Gerald O’Mahony SJ is a writer and spiritual director.
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website where you can find a wide range of articles by clicking here
I have been asked to explore the biblical, Ignatian and other foundations of a healthy and positive approach to rest and holidays, encouraging readers to really make the most of whatever break they may be intending to take. One thought that comes to mind is that many people will be reading this as they try to find courage and focus to keep going at their daily work with a holiday on the horizon. But perhaps best to start at the beginning.
The Bible starts with the story of creation, and after six days of work God had a rest, we are told. God is pictured as setting us an example, and sure enough the liturgical and legal week thereupon consisted of six days of work and one day of rest called the Sabbath. So far as the Old Testament is concerned it is proper to have one day of rest to every six days of work.
One Old Testament practice of rest and recreation gets a mention in the gospels: the parents of Jesus are said to go up to Jerusalem for certain feasts and they go as pilgrims in caravans, the women in one camp, the men in another. As in all pilgrimages the world over there is socialising and diversion and change from normal routines. Coming to Jesus himself, the most obvious rest break he took was to sail away with the twelve to find a lonely place so that they could be by themselves for a change. We know that it did not work out, because instead of getting a rest from the crowds they had been dealing with, they found an even bigger multitude waiting for them on the shore. However, Jesus clearly thought that going away for a break was a good plan in itself. Another appealing habit of Jesus seems to have been to escape to Bethany when life got fraught, to the house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus.
The Sabbath day was moved to Sunday, but continued to be a day of rest for Christians. The Gospel of Mark is the first one to detail what Christians know as Holy Week, starting from late on Palm Sunday and ending on Easter Sunday morning. Sunday became the holy day, the day the disciples rested from work; Sunday was the climax of the week of re-creation, so God’s day of rest was observed on that day. As Christianity moved on into the early Middle Ages, many more days, about 40 in all, were designated as Holy Days, on which employers were directed to let their employees have a rest day. Once the ‘weekend’ idea took over, most of these privileged feast days were demoted again, being remembered simply as Days of Devotion – but they had served their purpose with poor people.
Now, to Ignatius and the Spiritual Exercises: what does Ignatius say about rest and holidays? One obvious thing is the fact that he places a space between the ‘weeks’ of the Exercises themselves, and also that he tempers the amount asked of the exercitant according to how busy he has kept them and their age and state of health. The thrust of the whole 30 days is to leave the exercitant in consolation, and consolation is more restful than desolation, every time.
I am fond of mathematics, and once I devised a mathematical way of talking about consolation and desolation.
Picture a scale from 0 to 10:
0 1 2 3 4 (5) 6 7 8 9 10
On the scale, numbers zero to three represent moods of depression, from absolute zero to number one getting better, to number two better still, to number three nearly normal.
Four, five and six represent consolation.
Seven, eight, nine and ten represent working too hard, number ten being the worst, breaking point. These seven-to-ten states may be either manic or panic.
The best place of all to be is Number Five, which I call the Still Point. If I am depressed, take steps to improve up towards Five. If I am working too hard, or getting carried away in some enterprise that is unreal or manic, then the thing to do is to stop, relax and slow down. Take a holiday.
Of course it follows that there are two kinds of desolation, but only one kind of consolation. My numbers zero to three are depression, but they are desolation. My numbers seven to ten are veering towards panic over a task too great or over some manic scheme that has lost touch with reality. Seven to ten are also moods or states of desolation, but the way down to Number Five is the opposite of the way up out of depression.
The Still Point is difficult to hold, but anyone working towards it, either from up or down, is in a place of safety. To find the will of God for me, the best strategy is not to work myself to the bone and do without holidays or rest, but to aim sensitively at reaching Number Five, the Still Point.
A gospel emphasis to bear in mind is that merit has its drawbacks. The elder brother of the Prodigal Son had slaved away in his father’s field year after year, only to find that his father made more of a fuss of his wastrel young brother – the father’s desires being equated by Jesus, the storyteller, to what matters most to God. Merit was not everything. Again, the 99 sheep in another story had been good as gold, never straying at all, when back comes the shepherd making a great fuss of the lost one, calling on his friends and relations to rejoice over the find. The 99 must have felt cheated, but then, merit is not everything. Yet again, the labourers in the vineyard who had toiled all twelve hours of the day felt cheated that those who had only clocked on in the last hour received the same wage as they did. Merit was not everything. The Pharisee who had ticked all the boxes, praying at the front of the temple and telling God how he had fasted and given alms, would have been astonished to know that in Jesus’s eyes the one who went away from the temple justified was the one who did not justify himself, the sinful tax-collector. Merit is not everything. It is better by far to step back a little and reflect on what it is that God really wants.
Another set of gospel images can help us not to set too much store by success in work or success in business. It is not flattering, but it is very valuable to bear in mind as the bottom line. Consider: there are two sides to a lot of the images used by Jesus. For example, there are sheep, and there are shepherds. Now I may be a poor specimen as a shepherd, but I am still loved as one of God’s flock of sheep. I may be a poor ‘light of the world’, but God’s light still shines on me. I may be a poor servant of God, but I am still God’s beloved child. I may be less than rock-like, but God is still a rock for me. I may be a poor collector of ‘coins’ (people with God’s image stamped on them), but I am still a precious coin myself with God’s image on me. I may not be a great guide, but Jesus continues to show me the way to go. And so on – I could name several more paired images. All it needs is a firm faith to cling on to the basic gift of God, in which one is passive, and just to do one’s best with the active, apostolic side.
Take the strange tale told in Chapter 17 of Matthew’s Gospel, about the time when the tax gatherers of the temple asked Peter whether his Master paid the temple tax or not. Peter said, ‘Of course he does’, but then went to ask Jesus if he did in fact pay. What it then comes to is Jesus saying that he and Peter, as children of God, do not have to pay taxes to God. But still he told Peter to go fishing and raise the money for them both as a voluntary contribution. The story of Adam and Eve had been interpreted to mean that work was a tax or burden imposed by God (see Genesis 3:17-19). Jesus here in Matthew’s Gospel is now saying that God does not impose taxes on his own children, so therefore work is a voluntary contribution asked of a child of God, and no longer a tax.
Holidays can of course involve hard work themselves, but let it be something-different-from-work hard work. People deciding to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela have to have stamina. All sorts of sports and pastimes, such as skiing, involve exercise or skill. My own favourite holiday over the years was to hire a four-berth yacht in Maldon for a week and sail with three companions down the River Blackwater, out to sea, along the coast and in to visit various other rivers. It took skill and good luck, but it was completely different from anything else in my life (except that dealing with tides and winds was ultimately an object lesson in discernment!).
There are of course major obstacles that can stand in the way of taking rest, or of enjoying a holiday. What if one is poor, scarcely able to make ends meet? What if one is homeless, unable to do anything but beg on the streets? What if you are married with three small children – you can perhaps afford a holiday, but a fortnight at the seaside may be more work than being at home, and more of the same? What if one is a millionaire, able to afford a luxury holiday anytime? Is that all right by God? The questions posed in this paragraph should not, I think, be allowed to spoil whatever holiday my readers may be planning. Enjoy the break, then come back refreshed ready to cope with awkward questions. So it seems to me.
References
Gerald O’Mahony SJ, Praying St Mark’s Gospel (Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1999).
Gerald O’Mahony SJ, The Two-Edged Gospel: Gift and Invitation (Gracewing, 2005).
Gerald O’Mahony SJ, Finding the Still Point (Eagle Publishing Limited, 2007).
Weekday Masses 29th October – 1st November, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
12noon Devonport
12noon Devonport
Next Weekend 2nd & 3rd November
Saturday 9:30am Ulverstone
Vigil: 6:00pm Devonport
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 2nd & 3rd NOVEMBER, 2019
Devonport: Readers: Vigil: M Stewart, M Gaffney, H Lim 10:30am A Hughes, T Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion: Vigil D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P Shelverton
10.30am: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S Arrowsmith, K & K Maynard
Cleaners 1st Nov: M.W.C. 8th Nov: M & R Youd
Piety Shop 2nd Nov: A Berryman 3rd Nov: K Hull
Mowing of lawns at Presbytery – November:
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: S Lawrence
Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, M Barry
Cleaners: M McKenzie, M Singh, N Pearce Flowers: M Bryan
Hospitality: K Foster
Penguin:
Greeters P Ravallion, P Lade Commentator: A Landers Readers: Y Downes, M Murray
Ministers of Communion: T Clayton, S Coleman Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J Setting Up: S Ewing
Care of Church: S Coleman, M Owen
Latrobe:
Reader: Ministers of Communion: Procession of Gifts:
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, G Gigliotti Ministers of Communion: J & D Peterson Cleaners: G Richey
Readings This Week: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Sirach 35:12-14, 16-19,
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 4: 6-8
Gospel: Luke 18: 9-14
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
As I
come to pray the Gospel, I still myself, ready and eager to hear its familiar
teaching. Perhaps there is a phrase I have not ‘heard’ before?
If so, I stay
with it for a while.
I may be drawn to imagine the people Jesus is speaking to.
Do I know any of them?
Am I one of them on occasion?
Now I turn my attention
more closely to the Pharisee and the tax collector.
Perhaps their different
body language and ways of addressing God help me to understand them.
How do I
address God myself when I pray?
What does my own body language say about the
way I relate to him?
I listen again to the Pharisee, and ponder whether I
sometimes compare myself favourably to others, as he does.
Where are the places
in which I think I am due thanks from others, or from God?
Do I feel offended
when I am overlooked?
The humble tax collector behaves very differently.
I may like
to consider how important humility is in my own life ... and in society itself.
I look into my heart for anything that closes me off from God and from others,
and ask for any grace I need.
I end by asking God to help me to be humble and
to show me his way of seeing others and myself as I truly am.
Glory be to the
Father …
Readings Next 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
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
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, Michelle Gibson, Sr Martina Roberts, Danny Reardon, Glenn Harris
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 24th – 30th October
Patrick Clarke, Esma Mibus, David Murray, Paul McNamara, Brenda Wyatt, Bridget Monaghan, Lawrence McGuire, Kenneth Sutton, Margaret Doody, Bernard Marshall
Weekly Ramblings
In every community we have the highs and lows, the good and
the bad, and I am only privy to part of the story but here are some of the
things that have happened to me this week. I know that there are many more and
we hold them all in our prayers.
Last weekend two parishioners and a brother priest (Fr
Chris Toms of Melbourne) died with 24 hours. The funeral Masses for Fay Bugg
and Peter (Mike) Horniblow were celebrated on Thursday and Friday and for Fr
Chris will be next Thursday. We pray for the repose of the souls of these three
people and all who have died recently.
On Saturday Fr Frank Gibson celebrated 50 years of
priesthood (his anniversary was the 20th) and this Sunday we celebrate 60 years
of Marriage for Ann & Ben Ketelaar – both occasions of great joy.
This week Sr Marg Chandler and Clare Kiely-Hoye will be
leading the first of three sessions looking at the themes of Plenary 2020 – please
contact them if you are intending to participate in these sessions. Another
series of gathering will begin the following week looking at each of the 6
themes. Details of all these gatherings are on the Noticeboards and with the
Newsletter this weekend.
The health and safety of parishioners volunteering in our
Parish is a priority. If anyone slips, falls or hurts themselves in any way
whatever please contact the Parish Office ASAP irrespective if you consider it
minor or not worth worrying about. The next person to fall or trip on the same
hazard might suffer a more serious injury and because we did nothing about the
problem we are legally at fault for failure of care. Please help us provide the
best duty of care possible by reporting all incidents ASAP.
Take care on the roads and in your homes
Sister Stan Mumuni is at the forefront of the Church’s work in reaching out to children in need in Ghana. As the director of the Nazareth Home for God’s Children, Sister Stan works endlessly to provide education, healthcare and a safe home for children rescued from life-threatening situations.
In line with traditional beliefs, in parts of Ghana, children born with a disability, or whose mother passes during childbirth, are considered to be ‘spirit children’ and thus at risk of being harmed or killed. The Church in Ghana is dedicated to protecting these children and educating families to ensure every child has a chance to live a full life. The Nazareth Home for
God’s Children is among the pioneers in this crucial mission.
Today you have the opportunity to personally partner with the Church in Ghana and offer monthly support to this essential work. All gifts will be directed to life-saving projects for children in need. Your one-off gift today is also very much appreciated and will make a great difference to those in need.
Freecall: 1800 257 296
Plenary Council 2020 - Next Stage
The submissions to the Plenary Council have now been organised into six (6) key themes.
We are inviting parishioners to participate in the next step, Listening and Discernment of these themes, to discover where God’s Spirit is leading the People of God in Australia at this time.
We have organised three different times to enable as many people as possible to take part in this process. Following the Sessions our responses will be sent to the Plenary Council Committee.
MacKillop Hill (3 Sessions) – Wednesdays: 10.30am – 12noon
30th October; 6th & 20th November.
Please indicate your attendance so that we can provide sufficient material for each session.
MacKillop Hill: 123 William Street. Ph. 6428:3095 M. 0418 367 769.
Parish House (3 Sessions) – Thursdays: 10.00 – 11.30am
31st October 7th & 14th November.
Please contact Clare Kiely-Hoye (M. 0418 100 402) to book a seat by 28th October and to ensure we can provide sufficient material for each session.
Parish House, 90 Stewart Street, Devonport.
Parish House (6 Sessions) – Wednesdays: 7.00 – 8.30pm
6th, 20th & 27th November; 4th December; 5th & 12th February 2020
Each session will look at a different theme. The 1st Session will be on the theme Missionary & Evangelising.
All the material can be accessed from the Plenary Council website - https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/themes/. Please contact the Parish House (Ph. 6424:2783 or E: merseyleven@aohtas.org.au) to indicate your attendance. Also, let the Office know if you need a hard copy of the material for each session.
MacKillop Hill Spirituality Centre
Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe Monday 28th Oct 10:30-12pm.
Come along and enjoy a lively discussion over morning tea. All welcome.
123 William St, Forth. No booking necessary. Donation appreciated. Ph. 6428 3095
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY:
Mt St Vincent Auxiliary will be holding a Craft, Cake and small Christmas gifts stall Sunday 3rd November after 9am Mass in the Community Room, Sacred Heart Church. Bring a friend or two AND your spare change and buy some goodies to help support this great fundraiser.
THURSDAY 31st October Eyes down 7:30pm. Callers Tony Ryan & Rod Clark
A Profoundly Rewarding Mission: Working in Education, Health and Trades? Assist to reduce poverty in overseas communities by sharing your skills. Mutual development assured! There are five places left on Palms Australia’s January 4th – 12th Orientation Course. You must apply now for a position beginning any time in 2020.
Call or text 0422 4PALMS (M-F). palms.org.au
THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO PROGRAM – AIRS 3 November 2019:
This week on the Journey, Fr Mark Debattista joins us on the show for his reflection on the Gospel. We hear from Mother Hilda and her piece on ‘Cicada’ as well as Byron and Francine Pirola, the experts in relationships with everything you need to know about ‘Couple Projects’. We have lots in store in this week’s show, you won’t want to miss it! Go to WWW.jcr.org.au or www.itunes.jcr.org.au and to ensure that you never miss a show it can be sent to you each week as a podcast via email – for free
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/
When The Amazon Meets The Tiber
What to Expect from the First ‘Territorial’ Synod
By Austen Ivereigh
The opening days of the Amazon Synod have been marked by the familiar polar tensions at the heart of the Catholic Church: between center and periphery, universal and local; between the demands of the law and the pastoral needs of a particular people. But now there is something new, something that is tilting the balance in favor of the peripheral, the local, and the particular.
You could see it happening in the gentle battle over liturgical space in the run-up to the synod’s opening. On October 4 in the Vatican Gardens and on the following night at a church not far from St Peter’s, dozens of indigenous leaders and church workers led offerings and prayers, using objects and forms of worship from the region: a canoe, a mandorla, the image of a pregnant woman, as well as placards of Amazon martyrs such as Sr. Dorothy Stang. It was joyful, generous, and unmistakably Amazonian: the faithful People of God speaking and praying and dancing in their own way.
Yet at the big papal Mass in St Peter’s the next morning, Amazonia was all but banished. If the pope in his zinger homily hadn’t invoked the Holy Spirit to “renew the paths of the Church in Amazonia, so that the fire of mission will continue to burn,” you would have had no idea the synod was even taking place. Indigenous leaders sat at the front and brought up the gifts but were silent: there were no intercessions for the region, no readings in an Amerindian language, and almost everything was Italian and solemn. The center was back in charge.
But not for long. The next morning the Amazonian people were in St. Peter’s Basilica with Pope Francis, along with the canoe and the martyrs and Our Lady of the Amazon. In a remarkable move, unprecedented at previous synods, the pope processed from the Basilica with the indigenous peoples, in their midst—el pastor con su pueblo—as they joyfully chanted, “The sons and daughters of the Forest, we praise you, Lord.”
As they left St. Peter’s and crossed the square to the synod hall, I thought of Jeremy Irons in Roland Joffé’s film The Mission, the Jesuit who walks with his people into a hail of colonialist bullets. There had been no shortage of rhetorical bullets in the run-up to the synod: superannuated cardinals telling Amazonian Catholics they were heretics for proposing to ordain married men; a panel of traditionalists (Cardinal Burke in the front row) claiming the synod would not “civilize the savages” but would instead “make the civilized savages”; and an EWTN-owned news outlet reporting that the ceremony in the Vatican Gardens—in which native peoples honored God’s creation—was an essentially pagan, pantheistic affair. In his speech opening the synod, the pope spoke of his pain at overhearing someone at the previous day’s Mass mock the feather headdress of the leader who brought the gifts to the altar. “Tell me,” the pope asked the 300-odd participants, “what difference is there between wearing feathers on your head and the three-cornered hat used by some officials in our curial departments?”
In that opening address Francis was clear about where he and the synod would stand. They would look at the Amazon region with the eyes of disciples and missionaries, respectful of the ancestral wisdom and culture of its peoples, and rejecting any approach that was colonialist, ideological, or exploitative. They would not try to “discipline” the locals. For whenever the church has had this mindset, Francis warned, it has failed utterly to evangelize. The Jesuit pope reminded the synod’s participants of the ill-fated sixteenth-century missions of the Jesuits Roberto Di Nobili, SJ, and Matteo Ricci, SJ, whose bold attempts at inculturation, in India and China respectively, were quashed by the pettiness and colonialist mindsets of church leaders at the time. Without being planted in the local culture, the Gospel cannot take root: “homogenizing centralism,” said Francis, is the enemy of “the authenticity of the culture of the peoples.” This synod would go the other way. “We come to contemplate, to understand, to serve the peoples.”
What matters, then, is the people of Amazonia, and especially the 3 million or so indigenous gathered in 390 peoples who, for the first time, are the central concern of a synod. It is their welfare, their pastoral needs, that are at the heart of this gathering, as well as the natural world to which they are deeply, symbiotically connected. Both are threatened with destruction as never before. This life-or-death urgency demands, in turn, that the church examine the nature of its presence, how it can be embedded and inculturated, how it can it stand with, and promote the life of, its peoples in an area where one “regional vicariate” might be the size of half of Italy yet have just a handful of priests.
The issue is one of agency. The synod is a test of the church’s ability to implement the vision of Laudato si’ in a region that almost daily dramatizes that encyclical’s call to conversion. Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ—a key drafter of Laudato si’ who will also be drawing up the final document on which the synod will vote on October 26—told Commonweal that because “the Amazon region exemplifies the inextricable connection between the social and natural environments, the fate of people there and of their natural surroundings” there could be “no more concrete manner than this [synod] to lift Laudato si’ off the page and put it into action.”
Most Amazonian native peoples live not in parishes but in remote village-size communities with strong social structures.
This is the first ever “territorial” synod. More than 80,000 people were consulted in preparation for it. The bishops who make up the overwhelming majority of its 185 voting members are there not because their national bishops’ conferences chose them as delegates, but because their dioceses are in Amazonia. The bishops may be from nine different nations (there are fifty-eight Brazilians, fourteen Colombians, twelve Bolivians, eleven Peruvians, seven Ecuadorians, seven Venezuelans, plus four from the Antilles) and speak four different languages, but they have far more in common with one another than with many members of their own national conferences. (“The bishops in the south,” a Brazilian Amazonian bishop lamented to me, “haven’t got a clue what we face. I have much more in common with a Peruvian or Bolivian Amazonian bishop.”) Meanwhile, the other voting delegates—fifteen elected by the missionary religious orders, thirty-three chosen by the pope—are either embedded in the area or deeply sympathetic to it. That leaves just thirteen heads of curial departments as jokers in the pack.
This doesn’t mean, of course, that there is automatically a consensus; most bishops agree on the challenges—the working document captures them brilliantly—but most have not arrived in Rome with a list of solutions. Yet my informal soundings of Amazonian bishops and those who know them well suggest that around two-thirds of them are wholly supportive of the synod and its proposals for the ordination of elders and some kind of recognition of women’s ministries. Bishop Erwin Krautler, the retired bishop of Xingú, confirmed that two-thirds figure on Wednesday, and argued there was no choice but to ordain married elders if the church wants a stable, autochthonous clergy in the region.
The other third are said to be more tentative, waiting to see what emerges. There is even a small rump of conservative resistance, centered in the Brazilian archdiocese of Belém do Pará. While his rhetoric is a long way from the astonishing attacks on the synod—“Heretical! Pantheistic!”—of Cardinals Burke, Müller and Brandmüller, Dom Taveira Corrêa and his auxiliaries have been less than enthusiastic participants in the pre-synod consultation process, with the archbishop complaining about the need for “more evangelism and less ecologism.”
Yet it is precisely evangelization—the spread and deepening of Catholic life and spirituality—that this synod is designed to improve. Most Amazonian native peoples live not in parishes but in remote village-size communities with strong social structures. Religious life is entrusted to the community’s leaders; they are likely to be the catechists and “animators” of the local church. A missionary priest might pass through once or twice a year, to celebrate Mass and hear confessions, which is a cause for great celebration. But the rest of the time, in their gathering round the Word alone, the Catholic Amazonians look indistinguishable from Evangelicals. All too often priests arrive to find that the whole village leadership has succumbed to what a synod father has described as “the dizzying proliferation of Pentecostal churches.” Nowadays these are likely to be powerful megachurches that proselytize aggressively and preach a version of the Prosperity Gospel.
The threat from the Pentecostals is a delicate subject. Few talk about it openly at the synod, because to do so is considered politically incorrect. The European missionary priest who spelled the problem out to me asked not to be identified by name or nationality.
“The indigenous Catholic communities in the Amazon today are among the best reflections of the first Christian communities in the Acts of the Apostles,” he told me. “It’s natural for them to share, and no one ever goes hungry. People hunt and fish for what their people need, but no more. But all that changes when the Pentecostalists come in. What happens is that soon everything gets sold: the wood, the fish, and so on, to get money, because prosperity is seen as a gift of God—and of course the pastors get their share. It’s really sad. The communities cease to be communitarian. Their mentality becomes one of accumulation and exploitation. I saw it happen over and over.”
That’s why, the missionary said, the question of ministries is so important, because only when the Catholic Church and its sacraments are embedded in the lives of the communities can their way of life and the environment on which they depend be conserved and promoted. “That’s why the ordination of elders matters,” he told me. “On this depends not just the future of the church but of Amazonia itself.”
It is possible to allow diversity in its structures and disciplines for the sake of inculturating the Gospel.
“Everything is connected,” as Pope Francis famously says in Laudato si’. The defense of the natural world of the Amazon depends on the conservation of a communitarian indigenous culture, which in turn depends on embedding the sacramental life and inculturated liturgy of the Catholic Church in the life of the native peoples. At present there is a disjuncture. The Eucharist is at the heart of the Catholic community, but in Amazonia it cannot be at the center of community life.
The authority to celebrate the sacraments lies outside the authority structure of the community. “There are communities where they don’t take a decision for a year because they’re waiting for the priest to come,” says the missionary. “But when the priest comes he’s often in a hurry, and that leaves a bad feeling. In Amazonia they have a different sense of time; it might take you a week to go to the nearest town. You have to forget your watch to be completely present among them. That’s what so hard when you’re applying a modern European model of sacramental life to what is much more like the early Christian communities.”
Hence the proposal for the ordination of elders, which is essentially modeled on the early church, where priests were generally chosen from the community not as young men who were then sent off to be trained, but as respected, mature men with families and professions who had an eye for the welfare of the community. The synod’s working document carefully restricts itself to noting that the people of the Amazon are asking for the ordination of elders and the recognition of female ministries. But a document with a more detailed proposal is likely to be introduced at the synod to assist the discussion. It will urge the “community presbyters” model associated with South African bishop Fritz Lobinger and developed in Latin America by the Brazilian diocesan priest-theologian Antonio José Almeida, whose book Procuram-Se Padres (“Wanted: Priests”) distils the best thinking on the topic.
The community presbyters would be fully priests, but of a different kind, complementing seminary-trained celibates. Their faculties would be restricted to their community or area. If married and employed, they would not give up their wives or their work, but ideally be part of a small team who would take turns presiding at the Eucharist. They would not be sent away from their communities for training, but they would receive sufficient formation to carry out their duties. They would look, ideally, like the epískopo profiled by Paul in his First Letter to Timothy (3:7): the husband of just one wife, austere in lifestyle, sober in habits, with a track record of good governance of his own household, and respected in the community.
In many of the remote communities, church life is run by women. To recognize their ministries, Almeida believes that the first step is to open up the non-ordained minor orders of acolyte and lector to women. This can be done by amending the term in the Code of Canon Law (230) from viri laici to Christifedeles laici et laicae. There is strong support for this among the delegates, and also for women deacons. “We talk a lot about giving women more value, but we need something concrete,” said Bishop Kräutler, “I am referring to the female diaconate, and I say: Why not?”
If these proposals achieve consensus in the synod—and my guess is that at least some of them will—Francis will accept the arguments for implementing them as pastorally compelling. Although he has made it clear that he will not end the discipline of mandatory celibacy for the western Church, he is clearly open to exceptions for pastoral need. The genius of this synod is that the usual argument against change in the church has been neutralized: what matters in the discernment of the synod is not the imperative of universal consistency, but the pastoral welfare of the People of God in the forests of the Amazon. That means that the need of the Amazonian peoples for access to the sacraments and the 24/7 presence of the church will not be sacrificed in order to assuage European and American conservatives who are allergic to change.
Indeed, the fruit of the Amazon synod may well be permanent protection for the church from “homogenizing centralism.” There is talk of creating a special Amazonian Rite, along the lines of the church’s nineteen other rites or special structures, almost all of which allow some form of married priesthood. In a new book titled Perspectivas de sinodalidad: Hacia una Iglesia con rostro amazónico, Mauricio López, executive secretary of the church’s pan-Amazon network, REPAM, which organized the synod, says he foresees a new “pan-Amazon ecclesial and episcopal structure” to emerge, independent of the national bishops’ conferences, but sitting under the pan-Latin-American episcopal council, CELAM. The idea of an Amazonian bishops’ conference was first floated at a bishops’ meeting in Iquitos, Peru, in 1971.
Such a body would, of course, be a powerful witness in the defense of the Amazonian peoples, raising its voice against the plunder of the region by extractivist industries, and against the destruction of native cultures by technocrats. But for the church, too, it would be a sign: that it is possible to allow diversity in its structures and disciplines for the sake of inculturating the Gospel. As Cardinal Czerny put it to Commonweal: “The present-day challenges for the church and for the world are generally huge and quite unprecedented. It would be odd to expect the church to respond successfully by sticking only to the tried-and-true.
When
Proposed Amazonian rite centered on Christ
VATICAN CITY — At a synod briefing Oct. 24, Delio Siticonatzi Camaiteri, a member of the Ashaninka people and a professor from Peru, said that fears about the proposal are unwarranted because indigenous people seek unity and not division.
"Do we (want to) have our own rites? Yes, we do! But those rites must be incorporated with what is central, which is Jesus Christ. There is nothing else to argue about on this issue! The center that is uniting us in this synod is Jesus Christ," he said.
Throughout the synod, members discussed the possibility of incorporating local traditions and cultural elements in the liturgy. While there are nearly two dozen different rites in the Catholic Church, those critical of the proposal fear that it would introduce so-called pagan elements into the liturgy.
Speaking to journalists at the briefing, Siticonatzi said that he noticed those present seemed "a bit uncomfortable" and did not "understand what the Amazon truly needs" when it comes to establishing a new rite.
“We have our own world view, our way of looking at the world that surrounds us. And nature brings God closer to us. Our culture brings the face of God closer to us, in our life," he said.
Nevertheless, he added, there are many who are "doubtful of this reality that we are looking for as indigenous people."
"Do not harden your hearts! Soften your hearts; that is what Jesus invites us to do," he said. "We live together. We all believe in one God! At the end of it all, we are going to be united."
Mexican Father Eleazar Lopez Hernandez, a member of the Zapotec community and an expert on indigenous theology, told journalists that like the members of other rites in the Catholic Church, the churches in Latin America also "need to be able to express our faith within our own framework."
"This is what the Amazonian rite is based on," Lopez said. "We can no longer continue living within frameworks that are foreign to our people. This is alienation."
The Mexican theologian said that discussions regarding the creation of an Amazonian rite were "encouraged" by a principle formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas: "(Quidquid) recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur" ("Whatever is received is received in the manner of the receiver").
"Our peoples had their own religious experiences, they had theologies that gave meaning to their lives," he said. "When the Christian perspective arrived, they received it within those frameworks."
When it comes to the liturgy, he continued, Christians have a responsibility to know the difference between "what is substantial in the Christian perspective and what is secondary, what is cultural."
"Pope Francis told us that it isn't right to think of the Christian perspective, the life of the church, through a monotonous and monocultural expression," Lopez said. "The church is plural. We have to take back the original diversity of the churches; united in one faith but with distinct theological and liturgical expressions."
A TAle of Two Synods
Putting the people of God first, 14 years later
What a difference prioritizing the people of God makes!
At this writing, a majority of the small group reports from the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon are discussing ordaining married men and women deacons.
Ten of 12 small groups discussed married priests while seven of 12 reference female deacons with four recommending ordination and three others suggesting the need for further study. According to Bishop Derek Byrne of the Diocese of Primavera do Leste-Paranatinga, Brazil, among the synod's 185 prelates there is "substantial support" for ordaining women deacons.
Small groups are where the actual work of the synod happens, with bishops, lay auditors and theological experts meeting together in individual language groups to discuss synod preparatory documents and speeches, and decide on proposals to send to the pope, who makes the final decisions.
Catholic sacramental identity and a deep respect for indigenous culture lie beneath this encouraging push for opening ordination. According to a Google translation of one of the reports posted by the Vatican, Portuguese group A advocated ordaining indigenous married men as priests and indigenous women to the diaconate, "to ensure the sacraments that accompany and sustain the Christian life of the community." This group also emphasized the necessity of inculturated formation by and for both women and men.
The Amazon synod stands in stark contrast to the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist held in 2005. One would have thought that synod's focus on the most central reality of Catholic faith would lead bishops to prioritize making Mass and the sacraments available to all Catholics. Yet, despite acknowledging in great detail the worldwide priest shortage, the Eucharist synod ended by doing nothing about it. This essentially deprived millions of Catholics of regular access to the Mass and made widespread closing and clustering of parishes in the U.S. and around the world inevitable.
That the priest shortage was mentioned at all in 2005 was due at least in part to extensive organizing in the U.S., Australia, and elsewhere. I attended the 2005 synod on behalf of FutureChurch and Call To Action and delivered 35,000 petition signatures asking for discussion of married priests and female deacons as one means of addressing the worldwide priest shortage.
A priest shortage, I should add, that is felt most deeply in the global south.
I also presented the results of a survey of over 15,000 priests in 55 U.S. dioceses, showing that 67% of respondents supported open discussion of mandatory celibacy. Moreover, the Australian Council of Priests called for discussion of married priests and women's roles in the church.
Even though the priest shortage dominated the 2005 Eucharist synod agenda and four working groups out of 12 requested further study of a married priesthood, Australian Cardinal George Pell trumpeted that there was a "massive restatement of the importance of the tradition in the Latin church of mandatory celibacy." Pell's statement notwithstanding, support for mandatory celibacy was hardly "massive" since a third of synod deliberators wanted to open a discussion of married priests. Unfortunately, their request did not appear in the final list of propositions although there was some expectation that it would.
In 2005, there was nary a peep about women ministering in the church, let alone reinstating the female diaconate, even though women outnumber men when one includes religious sisters and catechists/lay ministers.
Since 2005, the priest shortage has only deepened. According to statistics from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, from 2005 to 2017, the Catholic population worldwide increased by 17.8% (1.313 billion in 2017 compared to 1.115 billion in 2005) while the number of priests increased by only 2% (414,582 in 2017 compared to 406,411 in 2005).
Fast forward 14 years, and we now have an entirely different perspective from the Amazonian bishops and women leaders serving economically poor but spiritually rich Catholics in their dioceses.
This new perspective comes from pastors who "smell like their sheep" in Pope Francis' now-famous phraseology. As such, they love their people and are deeply concerned about lack of access to the Eucharist and other sacraments.
They also recognize that women are doing the heavy lifting in many parts of the Amazonian church.
Rome-based Jesuit Fr. Antonio Spadaro, the director of the Jesuit journal La Civiltá Cattolica, perhaps summarizes it best:
There was clear talk of the right of the faithful to not remain in a fast from the Eucharist and of the obligation of the pastors to provide bread. But also was expressed a broader and more mature vision of the Church, finally alienated from clericalism, aware of the need to imagine new ecclesial ministries, also for women. It is clear from the testimonies how much the Church of the Pan-Amazon region owes its life to women. It is also understood how the laity already actually have the task of teaching and supporting the ecclesial communities.
In marginalized areas like the Amazon church, women and men work closely together to serve the church. I suspect this may be one key difference between 2005 and 2019. (Another, of course, is Francis, who deeply values consultation with all the people of God.)
In 2005, more synod bishops were from the global north and, I suspect, somewhat removed from the realities of day-to-day pastoral work. They did nothing about the priest shortage.
Today, another generation of bishops — this time pastors who smell like their sheep — are on the verge of prioritizing the sacramental needs of the people of God over esoteric priestly politics.
In 1990, I was blessed to co-found FutureChurch with Fr. Louis Trivison. Our focus on opening ordination to preserve access to the Eucharist grew from our experience of ministering to and with Cleveland's Catholics. For nearly 30 years, FutureChurch has worked to educate and advocate for married priests, women deacons, and the ongoing discussion of ordaining women to the priesthood.
If today's synod and/or Francis support only a married priesthood without restoring the female diaconate, I greatly fear undercutting the faith-filled ministry of Amazonian women that has proven so fruitful to the church.
Yet, the last 30 years have taught me that big changes come with small steps.
I am grateful that women's ministries are on the table at the Amazon synod. I'm even more grateful that women synod experts such as Medical Mission Sr. Birgit Weiler find acceptance at that table. Weiler told Global Sisters Report: "There is not a clerical attitude. There is a lot of freedom of speech and it is a beautiful experience really to discern together."
Spadaro shrewdly recognized the unusual impact of bishops from the periphery — the Pan-Amazonian region — speaking from the heart of Rome: "The periphery speaks from the center with the awareness that its experience is heard as a prophetic voice for the whole Church. And, precisely for this, it is judged by some as disturbing."
The church of the Amazon is speaking prophetically on behalf of indigenous rights, integral ecology, the environment and ordaining married men.
I pray it also petitions Francis to restore the female diaconate to serve God's people.
[St. Joseph Sr. Christine Schenk, an NCR board member, served urban families for 18 years as a nurse midwife before co-founding FutureChurch, where she served for 23 years. Her recent book Crispina and Her Sisters: Women and Authority in Early Christianity (Fortress, 2017) was awarded first place in the history category by the Catholic Press Association. She holds master's degrees in nursing and theology.]
Catholics in the Amazon
LETICIA, COLOMBIAN AMAZON — From the sky, the forest below
spreads like a vast green sea. On the ground, the heat hits like a sucker
punch. In a few hours, I am walking a trail with a native guide from the Jívaro
tribe of Peru amid the lush foliage of the Colombian Amazon, so dense it's
impossible to see more than a foot on either side.
Frogs croak and unseen animals scuttle here and there, but
for hours there is no sign of human settlement. Yet scattered throughout the
greater Amazon basin, an expanse of 2.5 million square miles that stretches
across the territory of nine countries, live some 30 million people.
Coming out of the forest days later, the first ping from my
cell phone, quickly followed by the drone of power saws cutting wood for new
houses and the harsh swishing of a cement mixer creating pavement for a road,
are signals that we have crossed into another kind of Amazon, growing with
newcomers and new technology.
More than 6,000 miles away, at the Amazon synod in Rome,
bishops, clergy and lay people — including indigenous representatives — are
shaping a blueprint for the Catholic future of the region, remote but rich with
God's creation.
The Amazon is home to some 400 native tribes, some whose
populations are nearing extinction as they number fewer than 500 people and
others whose ranks number in the thousands and are thriving. Plant life
includes some 390 billion trees in rich diversity — 16,000 species.
The region also presents a gift of survival to every person
on earth, absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, acting as a brake on
climate change. But it's a gift at risk.
The year after Colombian peace accords were signed in 2016,
deforestation went up 44% in massive areas formerly controlled by guerrillas,
according to Colombian author Pablo Correa, who writes on science and the
environment for the Bogota newspaper, El Espectador. The region is under threat
from the global appetite for steak and hamburgers — cattle ranching — and
extractive mining.
People here are hoping that the synod will recognize that
the more that Amazon residents can control their own resources, and the young
are encouraged to stay and carry on traditions of preserving an ecologically
sound way of life, the greater chance for the Amazon to survive.
Adriana Parenti, who belongs to the Ticuna tribe, typifies
the growing number of Amazon natives who bridge the lives of forest and town.
On foot, then on a single motor scooter, Parenti, her husband and two children
travel every weekday morning from their forest home to this riverine town,
where the youngsters go to school and Parenti serves meals at a small hotel.
In the forest she tends her chacra, a cultivated field where
food and medicinal plants grow and chickens run. Parenti's family wants gear
like cell phones and other goods of modern life, so she maintains the arduous
schedule por la plata, "for the money." Yet she thinks of the forest
as home, a place that is "tranquil," where the brutal noise of
traffic and loud voices give way to bird calls and, at night, the silence of
the rainforest.
As with many Amazon residents interviewed about the synod,
Parenti, who is Catholic, said she had not heard of the Vatican gathering.
Jorge Luna, a 45 year-old, non-Catholic single father of two who teaches
English and Spanish, was likewise unaware of the synod. But he noted: "Any
attention from such high levels is a good thing — this is a forgotten
place."
Changing Perspectives
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
When we look at history, it’s clear that Christianity is an
evolving faith. It only makes sense that early Christians would look for a
logical and meaningful explanation for the “why” of the tragic death of their
religion’s founder. For the early centuries, appeasing an angry, fanatical
Father was not their answer. For the first thousand years, most Christians
believed that the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross—the “price” or the
ransom—was being paid not to God, but to the devil! This made the devil pretty
powerful and God pretty weak, but it gave the people someone to blame for
Jesus’ death. And at least it was not God.
Then, in the eleventh century, Anselm of Canterbury (c.
1033–1109) wrote a paper called Cur Deus Homo? (Why Did God Become Human?)
which might just be the most unfortunately successful piece of theology ever
written. Thinking he could solve the problem of sin inside of the medieval code
of feudal honor and shame, Anselm said, in effect, “Yes, a price did need to be
paid to restore God’s honor, and it needed to be paid to God the Father—by one
who was equally divine.” I imagine Anselm didn’t consider the disastrous
implications of his theory, especially for people who were already afraid or
resentful of God.
In authoritarian and patriarchal cultures, most people were
fully programmed to think this way—working to appease an authority figure who
was angry, punitive, and even violent in “his” reactions. Many still operate
this way, especially if they had an angry, demanding, or abusive parent. People
respond to this kind of God, as sick as it is, because it fits their own story
line.
Unfortunately, for a simple but devastating reason, this
understanding also nullifies any in-depth spiritual journey: Why would you love
or trust or desire to be with such a God?
Over the next few centuries, Anselm’s honor- and shame-based
way of thinking came to be accepted among Christians, though it met resistance
from some, particularly my own Franciscan school under Bonaventure (1221–1274)
and Duns Scotus (1266–1308).
Protestants accepted the mainline Catholic
position, embracing it with even more fervor. Evangelicals later enshrined it
as one of the “four pillars” of foundational Christian belief, which the
earlier period would have thought strange. Most of us were never told of the
varied history of this theory, even among Protestants. If you came from a “law
and order” culture or a buying and selling culture—which most of us have—it
made perfect sense. The revolutionary character of Jesus and the final and full
Gospel message has still to dawn upon most of the world. It is just too
upending for most peoples’ minds until they have personally undergone the
radical experience of unearned love. And, even then, it takes a lifetime to
sink in.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a
Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe
(Convergent: 2019), 142-143.
The Grace Within Passivity
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
A friend of mine shares this story. She grew up with five siblings and an alcoholic father. The effect of her father’s alcoholism was devastating on her family. Here’s how she tells the story: By the time my father died his alcoholism had destroyed our family. None of us kids could talk to each other anymore. We’d drifted apart to different parts of the country and had nothing to do with each other. My mother was a saint and kept trying through the years to have us reconcile with each other, inviting us to gather for Thanksgiving and Christmas and the like, but it never worked. All her efforts were for nothing. We hated each other. Then as my mother lay dying of cancer, in hospice, bedridden, and eventually in a coma, we, her kids, gathered by her bedside, watching her die, and she, helpless and unable to speak, was able to accomplish what she couldn’t achieve through all those years when she could speak. Watching her die, we reconciled.
We all know similar stories of someone in their dying, when they were too helpless to speak or act, powerfully impacting, more powerfully than they ever did in word or action, those around them, pouring out a grace that blessed their loved ones. Sometimes, of course, this isn’t a question of reconciling a family but of powerfully strengthening their existing unity. Such was the case in a family history shared by Carla Marie Carlson, in her book, Everyday Grace. Her family was already closely-knit, but Carlson shares how her mother’s dying strengthened those family bonds and graced all the others who witnessed her dying: “Those who took the opportunity to be with my Mom during that journey have told me that their lives were forever changed. It was a remarkable time which I will always treasure. Lessons of acceptance and courage were abundant as she struggled with the realities of a dying body. It was dramatic and intense, but yet filled with peace and gratitude.” Most anyone who has ever sat in vigil around a loved one who was dying can share a similar story.
There’s a lesson here and a mystery. The lesson is that we don’t just do important things for each other and impact each other’s lives by what we actively do for each other; we also do life-changing things for each other in what we passively absorb in helplessness. This is the mystery of passivity which we see, paradigmatically, played out in what Jesus did for us.
As Christians, we say that Jesus gave his life for us and that he gave his death for us, but we tend to think of this as one and the same thing. It’s not. Jesus gave his life for us through his activity; he gave his death for us through his passivity. These were two separate movements. Like the woman described earlier who tried for years to have her children reconcile with each through her activity, through her words and actions, and then eventually accomplished that through the helplessness and passivity of her deathbed, so too with Jesus. For three years he tried in every way to make us understand love, reconciliation, and faith, without full effect. Then, in less than 24 hours, in his helplessness, when he couldn’t speak, in his dying, we got the lesson. Both Jesus and his mother were able, in their helplessness and passivity, to give the world something that they were unable to give as effectively in their power and activity.
Unfortunately, this is not something our present culture, with its emphasis on health, productivity, achievement, and power very much understands. We no longer much understand or value the powerful grace that is given off by someone dying of a terminal illness; nor the powerful grace present in a person with a disability, or indeed the grace that’s present in our own physical and personal disabilities. Nor do we much understand what we are giving to our families, friends, and colleagues when we, in powerlessness, have to absorb neglect, slights, and misunderstanding. When a culture begins to talk about euthanasia it is an infallible indication that we no longer understand the grace within passivity.
In his writings, Henri Nouwen makes a distinction between what he terms our “achievements” and our “fruitfulness”. Achievements stem more directly from our activities: What have we positively accomplished? What have we actively done for others? And our achievements stop when we are no longer active. Fruitfulness, on the other hand, goes far beyond what we have actively accomplished and is sourced as much by what we have passively absorbed as by what we actively produced. The family described above reconciled not because of their mother’s achievements, but because of her fruitfulness. Such is the mystery of passivity.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, in his spiritual classic, The Divine Milieu, tells us that we are meant to help the world through both our activities and our passivities, through both what we actively give and through what we passively absorb.
The Unchurched
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
Recently, the Pew Research Center released an update to an ongoing study of religious identification and engagement among Americans. The results should sound familiar at this point: an increase in the number of people identifying as unaffiliated with any particular religion, increasingly infrequent church attendance, and declining religiosity among younger generations.
Data like this should be cause for concern. But there is a larger story that we miss if we just focus on those facts.
In my travels across the country speaking and meeting with parish leaders, I have found time and again that many churches are geared towards insiders. Music that is stuck in the particular decade preferred by a majority of current attendees, preaching that is tone-deaf and only confirms the opinions of the congregation, and programming dominated by the social interests of insiders are just a few examples. All this is done with the positive intention of keeping afloat and, in some cases, in spite of a lack of resources and support.
The data underscores that this strategy just isn’t working. The churched are no more engaged now than they were a decade ago and, meanwhile, the population considering themselves unchurched has continued to rise astronomically.
Is there another way?
There are parishes that are growing because their communities are growing. They’re growing automatically, despite national trends, lucky them. But then there are others who, against all odds, are intentionally growing.
They’re growing not because they are watering down the Gospel, pandering to a majority, or merely entertaining the masses. Neither are they leading the charge to an idealized version of the past. Instead, these churches focus on one important project: reaching the unchurched and making them disciples.
Here’s the basic question that changes everything in parish culture: Are you a church that wants to reach the unchurched? In view of your current music, message, ministries, programs, and services, can you honestly answer “yes”?
- Are current parishioners encouraged to look beyond their own preferences to what might be attractive to the unchurched?
- Are they equipped to invite the unchurched?
- Are first-time guests prioritized? In what ways?
- Are they greeted? If they chose to identify themselves as newcomers, how can they do that?
- Is the language used at your church accessible to outsiders?
- Do you include printed or projected responses and lyrics to make it easy for them to follow along with your service?
- Are first-time guests pressured to participate in ways that are uncomfortable to them?
- Do you welcome new guests from the Altar?
Decline isn’t inevitable. The data shows that “unaffiliated” doesn’t necessarily mean hostile to religion. In fact, nearly three-quarters of the unaffiliated believe in a higher power of some kind, even if it is not the God described in the Bible. If we prioritize introducing them to the living Lord by being a church they actually want to attend, we can reverse trends and start growing.
The Spirituality of Rest
Whether you are looking forward to putting your feet up or preparing for an action-packed adventure, the benefits of a good holiday are invaluable, says Gerald O’Mahony SJ. Slowing down and gearing up can both be ways of following God’s will if they lead us towards consolation. Gerald O’Mahony SJ is a writer and spiritual director.
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website where you can find a wide range of articles by clicking here
I have been asked to explore the biblical, Ignatian and other foundations of a healthy and positive approach to rest and holidays, encouraging readers to really make the most of whatever break they may be intending to take. One thought that comes to mind is that many people will be reading this as they try to find courage and focus to keep going at their daily work with a holiday on the horizon. But perhaps best to start at the beginning.
The Bible starts with the story of creation, and after six days of work God had a rest, we are told. God is pictured as setting us an example, and sure enough the liturgical and legal week thereupon consisted of six days of work and one day of rest called the Sabbath. So far as the Old Testament is concerned it is proper to have one day of rest to every six days of work.
One Old Testament practice of rest and recreation gets a mention in the gospels: the parents of Jesus are said to go up to Jerusalem for certain feasts and they go as pilgrims in caravans, the women in one camp, the men in another. As in all pilgrimages the world over there is socialising and diversion and change from normal routines. Coming to Jesus himself, the most obvious rest break he took was to sail away with the twelve to find a lonely place so that they could be by themselves for a change. We know that it did not work out, because instead of getting a rest from the crowds they had been dealing with, they found an even bigger multitude waiting for them on the shore. However, Jesus clearly thought that going away for a break was a good plan in itself. Another appealing habit of Jesus seems to have been to escape to Bethany when life got fraught, to the house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus.
The Sabbath day was moved to Sunday, but continued to be a day of rest for Christians. The Gospel of Mark is the first one to detail what Christians know as Holy Week, starting from late on Palm Sunday and ending on Easter Sunday morning. Sunday became the holy day, the day the disciples rested from work; Sunday was the climax of the week of re-creation, so God’s day of rest was observed on that day. As Christianity moved on into the early Middle Ages, many more days, about 40 in all, were designated as Holy Days, on which employers were directed to let their employees have a rest day. Once the ‘weekend’ idea took over, most of these privileged feast days were demoted again, being remembered simply as Days of Devotion – but they had served their purpose with poor people.
Now, to Ignatius and the Spiritual Exercises: what does Ignatius say about rest and holidays? One obvious thing is the fact that he places a space between the ‘weeks’ of the Exercises themselves, and also that he tempers the amount asked of the exercitant according to how busy he has kept them and their age and state of health. The thrust of the whole 30 days is to leave the exercitant in consolation, and consolation is more restful than desolation, every time.
I am fond of mathematics, and once I devised a mathematical way of talking about consolation and desolation.
Picture a scale from 0 to 10:
0 1 2 3 4 (5) 6 7 8 9 10
On the scale, numbers zero to three represent moods of depression, from absolute zero to number one getting better, to number two better still, to number three nearly normal.
Four, five and six represent consolation.
Seven, eight, nine and ten represent working too hard, number ten being the worst, breaking point. These seven-to-ten states may be either manic or panic.
The best place of all to be is Number Five, which I call the Still Point. If I am depressed, take steps to improve up towards Five. If I am working too hard, or getting carried away in some enterprise that is unreal or manic, then the thing to do is to stop, relax and slow down. Take a holiday.
Of course it follows that there are two kinds of desolation, but only one kind of consolation. My numbers zero to three are depression, but they are desolation. My numbers seven to ten are veering towards panic over a task too great or over some manic scheme that has lost touch with reality. Seven to ten are also moods or states of desolation, but the way down to Number Five is the opposite of the way up out of depression.
The Still Point is difficult to hold, but anyone working towards it, either from up or down, is in a place of safety. To find the will of God for me, the best strategy is not to work myself to the bone and do without holidays or rest, but to aim sensitively at reaching Number Five, the Still Point.
A gospel emphasis to bear in mind is that merit has its drawbacks. The elder brother of the Prodigal Son had slaved away in his father’s field year after year, only to find that his father made more of a fuss of his wastrel young brother – the father’s desires being equated by Jesus, the storyteller, to what matters most to God. Merit was not everything. Again, the 99 sheep in another story had been good as gold, never straying at all, when back comes the shepherd making a great fuss of the lost one, calling on his friends and relations to rejoice over the find. The 99 must have felt cheated, but then, merit is not everything. Yet again, the labourers in the vineyard who had toiled all twelve hours of the day felt cheated that those who had only clocked on in the last hour received the same wage as they did. Merit was not everything. The Pharisee who had ticked all the boxes, praying at the front of the temple and telling God how he had fasted and given alms, would have been astonished to know that in Jesus’s eyes the one who went away from the temple justified was the one who did not justify himself, the sinful tax-collector. Merit is not everything. It is better by far to step back a little and reflect on what it is that God really wants.
Another set of gospel images can help us not to set too much store by success in work or success in business. It is not flattering, but it is very valuable to bear in mind as the bottom line. Consider: there are two sides to a lot of the images used by Jesus. For example, there are sheep, and there are shepherds. Now I may be a poor specimen as a shepherd, but I am still loved as one of God’s flock of sheep. I may be a poor ‘light of the world’, but God’s light still shines on me. I may be a poor servant of God, but I am still God’s beloved child. I may be less than rock-like, but God is still a rock for me. I may be a poor collector of ‘coins’ (people with God’s image stamped on them), but I am still a precious coin myself with God’s image on me. I may not be a great guide, but Jesus continues to show me the way to go. And so on – I could name several more paired images. All it needs is a firm faith to cling on to the basic gift of God, in which one is passive, and just to do one’s best with the active, apostolic side.
Take the strange tale told in Chapter 17 of Matthew’s Gospel, about the time when the tax gatherers of the temple asked Peter whether his Master paid the temple tax or not. Peter said, ‘Of course he does’, but then went to ask Jesus if he did in fact pay. What it then comes to is Jesus saying that he and Peter, as children of God, do not have to pay taxes to God. But still he told Peter to go fishing and raise the money for them both as a voluntary contribution. The story of Adam and Eve had been interpreted to mean that work was a tax or burden imposed by God (see Genesis 3:17-19). Jesus here in Matthew’s Gospel is now saying that God does not impose taxes on his own children, so therefore work is a voluntary contribution asked of a child of God, and no longer a tax.
Holidays can of course involve hard work themselves, but let it be something-different-from-work hard work. People deciding to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela have to have stamina. All sorts of sports and pastimes, such as skiing, involve exercise or skill. My own favourite holiday over the years was to hire a four-berth yacht in Maldon for a week and sail with three companions down the River Blackwater, out to sea, along the coast and in to visit various other rivers. It took skill and good luck, but it was completely different from anything else in my life (except that dealing with tides and winds was ultimately an object lesson in discernment!).
There are of course major obstacles that can stand in the way of taking rest, or of enjoying a holiday. What if one is poor, scarcely able to make ends meet? What if one is homeless, unable to do anything but beg on the streets? What if you are married with three small children – you can perhaps afford a holiday, but a fortnight at the seaside may be more work than being at home, and more of the same? What if one is a millionaire, able to afford a luxury holiday anytime? Is that all right by God? The questions posed in this paragraph should not, I think, be allowed to spoil whatever holiday my readers may be planning. Enjoy the break, then come back refreshed ready to cope with awkward questions. So it seems to me.
References
Gerald O’Mahony SJ, Praying St Mark’s Gospel (Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1999).
Gerald O’Mahony SJ, The Two-Edged Gospel: Gift and Invitation (Gracewing, 2005).
Gerald O’Mahony SJ, Finding the Still Point (Eagle Publishing Limited, 2007).
No comments:
Post a Comment