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 19th – 22nd Nov, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
5:00pm Latrobe
MINISTRY ROSTERS 23rd & 24th NOVEMBER, 2019
Devonport: 
Piety Shop 23rd Nov: L Murfet 24th Nov: P Piccolo
Ulverstone:
M O’Halloran
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Port Sorell:
Readings this Week: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Malachi 3:19-20
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
The disciples are told that the fine things they value will be
destroyed.
I take time to notice what I value and hold dear in my life.
Perhaps
some things that I value are more precious than others?
What do I treasure
most?
What does Jesus say to me about it, or them?
I share with the Lord, who
will help me to choose that which is of greatest worth.
Is there anything to
let go of?
What am I prepared to lose in order to keep that which is most
precious to me?
I ask for what ever grace I need.
I end my prayer, offering all
that I have and am to God.
Our Father...
Readings Next Week: Our Lord Jesus
Christ King of the Universe
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Margaret Becker, Marilyn Bielleman, Tony Kiely, Brenda Paul, Erin Kyriazis, Carmel Leonard, Philip Smith, David Cole, Frank McDonald & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Sandie Vanbrugh, Paddy Pocock, Murray Hay, Gerald Eeles, Peter Imlach, Fr Chris Toms, Fay Bugg, Peter Horniblow.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 14th – 20th November
Olive Purton, Terrence Smith, Freda Morgan, Joe Stolp, Margaret Clarke, Terry Matthews, Denis McCormack, Karen Farr, Keiran Hofer, Edith Collis, Marie Kristovskis, Maisie McLaren, David Cooper, James and Janet Dunlop
May the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
Weekly Ramblings
I am
writing this week’s Ramblings from the Emmanuel Retreat Centre at Newstead part
way through the Annual Clergy Retreat. The changing face of the Clergy in
Tasmania finds only 20 priests (including our Archbishop) gathered for this
time of reflection and prayer. I can remember back to the early days of my
priesthood when there were two Retreats each year and both would have 30 or so
men at them but today is a different time and …
This week
there will be further gatherings looking at the Plenary 2020 Themes. At MacKillop
Hill on Wednesday from 10.30am – 12noon – contact Sr Margaret for any further
information if you need it. There is also a gathering at the Parish House on
Wednesday evening from 7.00-8.30pm on the Theme ‘Inclusive, Participatory
& Synodal'. You can get the relevant information for this session by
going to https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/themes/inclusive/
There are
still copies of the Diocese of Wollongong Advent Reflection Booklet available
this weekend – please get your copy today. If you can’t get a find a copy at
your Mass Centre please contact me asap and I’ll arrange to get more copies but
I will only be ordering what is needed so please make sure you let me know.
As we come
to the end of the Liturgical Year I would like to encourage parishioners – if
you haven’t already done so – to obtain a copy of the Columban Calendar. It
provides important and valuable information about the Church’s Year, the Feast
Days and the Celebrations. If you can’t find a copy please contact the Parish
Office and we will get a copy to you.
Take care on the roads and in your homes,
HEALING MASS:
Catholic Charismatic Renewal are sponsoring a Healing Mass
at St Mary’s Church Penguin on Thursday 21st November commencing at 6:30pm
(Please note early start).
LITURGY PREPARATION FOR ADVENT:
MACKILLOP HILL
SPIRITUALITY CENTRE:
Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe: Monday 25th November 10:30am – 12pm. Last coffee shop for 2019 so come and enjoy morning tea, invite a friend - let’s celebrate all that we have received from one another this year!! Everyone welcome! We look forward to your company at 123 William Street, Forth. No booking necessary. Phone 6428:3095
CHRIST THE KING:
PIETY SHOP OLOL CHURCH:
A variety of Christmas Cards are now available and 2020
Columban Calendars also.
CHRISTMAS PARTY – ULVERSTONE:
RSVP 1st December to Juliet Smith 6425:5854,
Debbie Rimmelzwaan 6425:1384,
Elizabeth Cox 0400 179 297.
ADVENT GATHERING 2019:
‘The wilderness and the dry land shall rejoice, the desert shall rejoice and blossom abundantly” Isaiah 35:1
CHRISTMAS PLAY - SACRED HEART CHURCH CHRISTMAS EVE
MASS:
‘CALLING ALL CHILDREN’ would you like to take part in the
nativity play at the 6pm Christmas Eve Mass at Sacred Heart Church? You are
very welcome to come along to practise during 9am Mass at Sacred Heart Church on
Sunday 8th, 15th, and 22nd December. If you
would like more information please phone Charlie Vella 0417 307 781.
THURSDAY 21st November, Eyes down 7:30pm. Callers Tony Ryan & Brendan O’Connor
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
THE WAY TO
ST JAMES PILGRIMAGE 2020:
PRO
ORANTIBUS DAY: On
Thursday 21st November, Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, the Church celebrates a special day of prayer in honour of her
contemplative nuns and monks, called Pro Orantibus Day (“For Those Who
Pray”). All are warmly invited to join the Carmelite nuns
for a special Sung Mass on this day at 7.30am at the Carmelite Monastery, 7
Cambridge St. Please pray for the Sisters and for the gift of vocations to
their Carmel.
A new website has recently been launched for our Tasmanian
Carmel, which includes information about the Sister’s life of prayer, work for
sale, ways people can be more closely associated with the Community, prayer
requests and vocations. Please visit the site at https://launcestoncarmel.com and share
the link with family and friends who may like to learn more about Carmel.
IMMACULATA MISSION SCHOOL 2020
Letter From Rome
Three cheers for the pope's opponents
Nasty attacks have only emboldened Francis in his efforts toward Church reform
Robert Mickens, Rome. November 15, 2019. This article is from the La-Croix International website - you can access the site here but complete access is via paid subscription
Pope Francis has punted once again.
In the six and half years he's been Bishop of Rome, he has never returned to his native Argentina. And just when it appeared that the long-awaited homecoming would take place in 2020, Francis poured cold water on the idea.
"It was decided to leave Argentina and Uruguay for later," he said, according to a Nov. 13 report by the Argentine news agency Telám.
The pope said a trip back home to Buenos Aires and other parts of the country would be "a little difficult" due to commitments he's already made for the upcoming year.
Commitments to visit other countries?
Vatican officials have not announced any firm travel plans for 2020 up till now.Just this week they said Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, intend to make a joint visit to South Sudan.
But that will happen only "if the political situation in the country permits the creation of a transitional government of national unity in the coming 100 days.
"Where will Francis go in 2020?
The Spanish news site Religión Digital also reported in the past few days that the pope has planned another trip for next year – Oceania. But Australians and New Zealanders should not get their hopes up. Francis' destination is Papua New Guinea, as well as Timor Leste."
And who knows? Perhaps Indonesia," he reportedly said.
Meanwhile, Catholics in Hungary are hoping the pope will be visiting their country next year when Budapest hosts the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) in September 2020. But, again, it's not clear what the odds are on that happening.
The last time a pope attended a gathering of this type (that was not held in Rome) was back in 1997 when John Paul II went to Wrocław in his native Poland for the 46th IEC.
But more to the point: the long-awaited papal visit to Argentina is still just a dream. While many people will be disappointed by this, it is actually good news for those who love Pope Francis and are hoping he will be Bishop of Rome for many more years to come.
A one-way ticket home
Good news, that is, if a theory I published more than a year go is anywhere close to being in the realm of reality – namely, that when he returns to Buenos Aires it will mark the end of his pontificate.
"We'll all know when Francis has decided that it's time to leave the stage when he discloses plans for the next papal trip to Argentina. It will be, for him, a one-way ticket back home," I wrote.
"My bet is that he will announce his retirement there, surrender his white papal cassock and Holy See passport and return to being Padre Jorge among the poor of Buenos Aires."
Making papal resignations 'normal'
Part of the reason for that is because Francis has said his predecessor's decision to step down in 2013 should not be seen as something out of the ordinary. Rather, he said retirement is now something that is normal for popes.
Well, not quite. Benedict XVI was the first pope in half a millennium to voluntarily relinquish the papal office. If retirement is truly to become normal for the popes, then the next resignation cannot be put off for another 500 years.
But Francis could seal the deal if he were to follow Benedict's lead.
And I've always believed that this was his intention.
"Pope Francis will return home eventually, probably in a couple of years from now after he has laid a few more foundation stones for a Church reform project that cannot easily be reversed," I noted in that earlier article many months ago.
He will be 83 in mid-December. And, while he is still keeping up a remarkably busy schedule for a man his age, he is beginning to show signs that time is catching up with him.
A resignation in 2020 or sometime in the following calendar year would have been a good option. And perhaps it still is in his mind. It would, in effect, stretch his pontificate to a length similar to that of the now-retired Benedict – just a month and half short of eight years.
It is unlikely that Pope Francis would step down before completing the reform of the Roman Curia and issuing updated procedures for the election of the Roman Pontiff, including precise protocols for a papal resignation.
But the curial reform should be done sometime in 2020. And the document on the conclave and norms for a resignation are probably already written or being drafted at present.
So the eventual resignation of Pope Francis is certainly in the cards, as they say.
Francis' opponents are helping to extend his pontificate
However, there are things happening right now that suggest all bets are off.
The enemies of the pope – and they include men in the Catholic hierarchy – have increased their attacks. Sure, many of them are "nutters." But certain cardinals and bishops are encouraging them to keep hitting Francis anyway they can.
And like the pope's decision not to return to Argentina right now, this, too, is good news. Because Jorge Mario Bergoglio will not be forced out of office.
Even if he may have thought, early on, that a second consecutive resignation would make a lasting contribution to the institution of the papacy, he surely understands that doing so under attack would be detrimental to everything else he has done up to now.
So let the attacks continue. The Francis haters are obviously too obtuse to understand that their attempts to take down the pope are actually strengthening his resolve to reform the Church.
The Scapegoat Mechanism
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
The scapegoating ritual described in Leviticus 16 offers a
helpful perspective on Jesus’ death. On the “Day of Atonement” the high priest,
Aaron, was instructed to symbolically lay all the sins of the people on one
unfortunate goat, and the people would then beat the animal until it fled into
the desert. It was a vivid symbolic act that helped to unite and free the
children of Israel. Instead of owning their faults, this ritual allowed people
to export them elsewhere—in this case onto an innocent animal.
The image of the scapegoat powerfully mirrors the universal,
but largely unconscious, human need to transfer our guilt onto something or
someone else by singling that other out for unmerited negative treatment.
French philosopher and historian René Girard (1923–2015) demonstrated that the
scapegoat mechanism is foundational for the formation of most social groups and
cultures. We need another group to be
against to form our group! For example, many in the United States scapegoat refugees
who are seeking asylum, falsely accusing them of being criminals. This pattern
is seen in many facets of our society and our private, inner lives—so much so
that we might call it “the sin of the world” (note that “sin” is singular in
John 1:29).
We humans largely hate or blame almost anything else rather
than recognize our own weaknesses and negativity. “She made me do it.” “He is
guilty.” “He deserves it.” “They are the problem.” “They are evil.” We seldom
consciously know that we are scapegoating or projecting. It’s automatic,
ingrained, and unconscious. As Jesus said, people literally “do not know what
they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
We hate our own imperfections in other people, and sadly we
often find the best cover for that projection in religion. God and religion, I
am afraid, have been used to justify most of our violence and to hide from the
shadow parts of ourselves that we would rather not admit. Yet Jesus revealed
the pattern two thousand years ago. “When anyone kills you, they will think they
are doing a holy duty for God,” he said (John 16:2).
The Scriptures call such ignorant hatred and killing “sin,”
and Jesus came precisely to “take away” (John 1:29) our capacity to commit
it—by exposing the lie for all to see. Jesus stood as the fully innocent one
who was condemned by the highest authorities of both “church and state”
(Jerusalem and Rome), an act that should create healthy suspicion about how
wrong even the highest powers can be. Maybe power still does not want us to see
this. Much of Christianity shames individuals for private sins while lauding
public figures in spite of their pride, greed, gluttony, lying, killing, or
narcissism.
As John puts it, “He will show the world how wrong it was
about sin, about who was really in the right, and about true judgment” (John
16:8). This is what Jesus exposes and defeats on the cross. He did not come to
change God’s mind about us. It did not need changing. Jesus came to change our
minds about God—and about ourselves—and about where goodness and evil really
lie.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a
Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe
(Convergent: 2019), 149-151.
Living Out A Vocation
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
What does it mean to have a vocation? The term gets batted around both in religious and secular circles and everyone assumes its meaning is clear. Is it? What’s a vocation?
Karl Jung defined it this way: “A vocation is an irrational factor that destines a man to emancipate himself from the herd and from its well-worn paths.” Frederick Buechner, a famed preacher, says: “A vocation is where your deep gladness meets the world’s hunger.”
David Brooks, a renowned journalist, reflecting on vocation in his recent book, The Second Mountain, gives us these quotes from Jung and Buechner and then writes: A vocation is not something you choose. It chooses you. When you sense it as a possibility in your life you also sense that you don’t have a choice but can only ask yourself: What’s my responsibility here? It’s not a matter of what you expect from life but rather what life expects from you. Moreover, for Brooks, once you have a sense of your vocation it becomes unthinkable to turn away and you realize you would be morally culpable if you did. He quotes William Wordsworth in support of this:
My heart was full; I made no vows, but vows
Were then made for me; bond unknown to me
Was given, that I should be, else sinning greatly.
Brooks suggests that any number of things can help awaken your soul to its vocation: music, drama, art, friendship, being around children, being around beauty, and, paradoxically, being around injustice. To this he adds two further observations: First, that usually we only see and understand all this clearly when we’re older and looking back on life and our choices; and, second, that while the summons to a vocation is a holy thing, something mystical, the way we actually end up living it out is often messy, confusing, and screwed up and generally doesn’t feel very holy at all.
Well, I am older and am looking back on things. Does my vocational story fit these descriptions? Mostly, yes.
As a child growing up in the Roman Catholic subculture of the 1950s and early 1960s, I was part of that generation of Catholics within which every Catholic boy or girl was asked to consider, with considerable gravity, the question: “Do I have a vocation?” But back then mostly that meant: “Am I called to be a priest, a religious brother, or a religious sister?” Marriage and single life were, in fact, also considered vocations, but they took a back seat to what was considered the higher vocation, consecrated religious commitment.
So as a boy growing up in that milieu I did, with all gravity, ask myself that question: “Do I have a vocation to be a priest?” And the answer came to me, not in a flashing insight, or in some generous movement of heart, or in an attraction to a certain way of life. None of these. The answer came to me as hook in my conscience, as something that was being asked of me, as something I couldn’t morally or religiously turn away from. It came to me as an obligation, a responsibility. And initially I fought against and resisted that answer. This wasn’t what I wanted.
But it was what I felt called to. This was something that was being asked of me beyond my own dreams for my life. It was a call. So at the tender age of seventeen I made the decision to enter a religious order, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and train to become a priest. I suspect that few counsellors or psychologists today would put much trust in such a decision, given my age at the time; but, looking back on it now, more than fifty years later, in hindsight, I believe this is the purest and most unselfish decision I’ve ever made in my life.
And I’ve never looked back. I’ve never seriously considered leaving that commitment, even though every kind of unsettling emotion, obsession, restlessness, depression, and self-pity have at times haunted and tormented me. I’ve never regretted the decision. I know this is what I’ve been called to do and I’m happy enough with the way it’s turned out. It’s brought me life and helped me serve others. And given my personal idiosyncrasies, wounds, and weaknesses, I doubt I would have found as deep a path into life and community as this vocation afforded me, though that admittedly can be self-serving.
I share my personal story here only because it might be helpful in illustrating the concept of a vocation. But religious life and priesthood are merely one vocation. There are countless others, equally as holy and important. One’s vocation can be to be an artist, a farmer, a writer, a doctor, a parent, a wife, a teacher, a salesman, or countless other things. The vocation chooses you and makes the vows for you – and those vows put you at that place in the world where you’re best placed to serve others and to find happiness.
Clutter & Dirt
The Secret Enemies Of The Church
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
Often, parish leaders have a major weakness when it comes to keeping their church campus and space attractive for guests.
It’s the same problem you have with your house: when you spend so much time in a place, you become blind to its flaws and imperfections.
You stop noticing:
- the dead shrubs along the parking lot
- the ever-growing collection of brochures and CDs in your lobby for programs you aren’t even sure exist anymore
- the crowded bulletin board advertising dozens of events competing for attention and dollars
- the multitude of unused, broken, dirty toys in your kids cry space or nursery
- the used Kleenex stuffed into the pew pockets
- the dying floral arrangement left over from Friday’s funeral
You might not notice, but your guests do, its all among the first things they notice.
There’s dirt. And then there is clutter. Wikipedia defines clutter as “a confusing or disorderly state or collection, visual pollution.” Dirt makes your guests uncomfortable and tells them not only are they not important to you, but the place also isn’t important to you either. Clutter, on the other hand, is different, it is an insidious enemy of the good, it is ruthlessly invasive, and ultimately counterproductive to your mission and ministry.
There is no excuse for a dirty church. None. If your church is dirty, stop every else you’re doing and start cleaning. But after you tackle the dirt deal with the clutter.
Here’s three reasons you should ruthlessly eliminate clutter from your church:
1) Clutter makes people uncomfortable.
Like dirt, cluttered spaces actually make people feel uncomfortable. Scientists have demonstrated that clutter can trigger the release of the stress hormone cortisol, which can increase tension and anxiety. Clutter makes it difficult to relax. There are just too many visual stimuli vying for your attention.
Attending a new church for the first time can already be stressful, especially if you are not a church person. You wonder whether you are welcome, whether you stand out, and whether you will be asked to do something with which you are uncomfortable. Clutter can only make this worse.
2) Clutter crowds out your message.
Clutter competes for the attention of your guests. If you are trying to preach about the evils of greed but there are still stewardship cards in the pews from last week, your guests might get mixed messages. Even positive messages like brochures to sign up for a new children’s ministry can crowd out the message of the weekend if you are making a pitch from the pulpit for people to become hospitality ministers.
Not only can clutter distract from your message, but it might also actually work against it. Clutter signals to your guests that you are unorganized and unprepared. If you don’t have your house in order, then why would someone listen to you?
3) Clutter looks like no one is in charge.
Clutter is inevitably made up of objects that have withstood seasons or even years of reluctantly refusing to be thrown out or properly stored. My favorites are the multiplication of chairs in a sanctuary that aren’t ever really used anymore, the clutter that inevitably accompanies most music ministry (even when it is in plain sight), and the best of all: lifeless Christmas poinsettias still adorning the altar in February. It just looks like nobody is in charge or cares very much.
Here’s an idea: Invite someone who is not a member of your parish to walk with you through your campus and ask them to tell you what they see. It might be eye-opening. Our Rebuilt team can even do this for you. We’ll come to your parish and observe everything that happens on a typical weekend. At the end of the weekend, we’ll offer some thoughts and recommendations about the things outsiders might notice about your parish.
For more information, check out the Rebuilt Parish website:
Covered In Holiness: The El Salvador Martyrs
Monsignor Peter Magee was serving in the Vatican Embassy in El Salvador in November 1989, when six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter were killed. Thirty years on, he recalls the social and political climate in El Salvador at the time, and his own vivid memories of visiting the site of the murders. ‘That moment had a profound impact on me and on my understanding of being a priest.’ Mgr Peter Magee, a former Vatican diplomat, is parish priest of St Mary Star of the Sea, Largs and Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Millport. This article is adapted from a homily delivered in October 2019. This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website where you can find a wide range of articles by clicking here
Pope Francis declared October 2019 to be an Extraordinary Mission Month, and invited us during that time to treasure and imitate the witness of those who have gone before us. He mentioned especially the martyrs, confessors of the faith and missionary saints. The martyr is persecuted and killed for the faith; the confessor is persecuted but is not killed; and the saint is the missionary who has sustained the daily grind of fidelity to the truth and to virtue in the midst of life’s trials.
This focus on great missionaries prompted me to reflect on a very personal experience, which dates back to 30 years ago this 16 November.
My first mission as a papal diplomat was to El Salvador in Central America. It was 1988 when I arrived, at the age of 30. The country had been in the news for years because of its vicious civil war. By the time the war ended in the early 1990s, some 170,000 people had been killed out of a population of about 6 million.
The country was deeply polarised along political lines (extreme right government and military versus extreme left communist guerrilla forces) and along economic lines (a very rich minority and a very poor majority). The polarisation had its roots in the country’s history, but it was made worse by the Cold War. The Sandinista communist revolution had taken place in Nicaragua, another Central American country, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Because of this, because also of the presence of Cuba to the immediate south of the USA, and because of other political developments in the region, the US government pumped huge amounts of money into El Salvador. The aim was to ensure that the communists would not take hold there. You could say it was a matter of national security for the USA. At the same time, the USSR was supporting its own associates in the region.
When I arrived in 1988, some halting steps towards a peace process had taken place, but both sides still seemed to have ‘fire in their belly’ to try and prevail and defeat the other. Living in the capital of San Salvador, signs of insecurity were all the more visible because of the omnipresence of the security forces. At night, you would hear bombs exploding, or exchanges of gunfire, usually in the distance. I remember especially the deep ‘thud’ I would feel in the building where I stayed when the guerrilla forces would bomb the power plants feeding electricity to the city. Blackouts were frequent, and the poorest suffered most from them. We lived in the diplomatic area of the city; the government and army were quick to make sure the power was restored there as soon as possible!
While I don’t recall there being a night curfew, it was obvious that people lived in a permanent state of low-intensity panic since, relatively early in the evenings, very few were out and about. I recall once hearing confessions in a parish church on the edge of the diplomatic zone, San José de la Montaña, when a bomb exploded at a nearby bank. I could feel the heat of it come right into the confessional, positioned at the door of the church, with people running panic-stricken towards the sanctuary. Thankfully, no-one was hurt in the church. Outside, I don’t know.
Incidents like this were frequent, as were casualties. I used to meet with the young people in the parish in the early evening. By 7pm they were always anxiously looking at their watches to get home. In other words, there was a climate of fear inside the cities and even more fear in the rural areas where the poorest were often the victims of the violence of both sides of the war.
In this messy situation, there were some who tried to speak out, to speak reason. Among these were the Jesuits who worked at the University of Central America in San Salvador. The rector of the university was a Fr Ignacio Ellacuría, whom I am going to call Fr Ignatius. He had a typical Basque appearance, ascetic and somewhat severe. But he was a kind and warm man, at least to me personally; his warmth became passionate and even fiery when exposing and defending his ideas and the poor at whose service he was putting his considerable intelligence. At that time, the Jesuits throughout the whole world were placing an emphasis on social justice as an important contemporary expression of living out the gospel. Fr Ignatius was passionate about ending the polarisation in El Salvador, restoring the balance that comes from practical justice, such as equal opportunities for everyone in education and health, equality before the law, etc.
However, he was perceived by many in Salvadoran society, and even in the Church, as a supporter of the left-wing guerrilla forces simply because he tried to speak up for the poor and broker a rapprochement between the two sides in the war. He tried to present the legitimacy of certain aspects of the left-wing ideology to the whole of Salvadoran society. He likewise condemned unequivocally the illegitimate use of violence by either side. His main passion was to educate. Education, combined with working for peace, would be the centre-piece of any strategy to lift the poor out of injustice and misery and bring harmony to the whole of Salvadoran society.
I don’t think there is any doubt that the leftists used Fr Ignatius, without scruples, for their own ends. It suited them to sell their position as being supported by the prestigious Jesuits. For their part, the right-wing establishment and their media outlets poisoned the minds of ordinary Salvadorans with propaganda against Fr Ignatius, the Jesuits and their entire apostolate in the country. I remember well hearing many wealthy Salvadorans at diplomatic receptions speak ignobly of these men, without reflecting, without informing themselves and without any temperance in their hateful speech. I frankly felt more appalled by that than by anything the Jesuits were accused of doing.
On 16 November 1989, the leftist guerrillas (FMLN) launched a major attack on the capital city, San Salvador, advancing in from the north of the city, where the diplomatic community and the wealthy lived. The Salvadoran army was taken by surprise and was incandescent because of it. It was also furious because the attack on the diplomatic area could have caused major problems internationally for the country.
Late on 16 November (I always remember it because it is the feast of St Margaret of Scotland), a rapid-reaction battalion of the Salvadoran army was dispatched to the University of Central America. Their mission was to kill Fr Ignatius whom, without any proof or even reasonable conjecture, they considered as the mastermind behind the latest military attack. The orders given were also that no witnesses should be left alive.
And so, Fr Ignatius, five other Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter, were all shot in cold blood just outside their residence at the university. The soldiers used an AK-47, a Russian-made gun, among other weapons to give the impression that it was in fact the guerrilla who had done the deed.
Early on the morning of 17 November, as we were finishing breakfast, the front doorbell rang and in came the Archbishop of San Salvador and the Provincial of the Jesuits. They were as white as sheets, trembling with both anger and fear. They could barely tell us what had happened (at this point, we in the Vatican Embassy did not yet know of the massacre, although at Mass earlier that morning, we had to take refuge behind the altar because bullets were coming in through the windows of our chapel). We went with them in the car to the university.
It was an experience I will never forget. The sight of the carnage and the need to wretch.
There was something else, though. While I could feel the terror of the moment (I wondered if I myself might be shot, too, at some point in the ensuing days if a persecution of the Church was underway), I also felt something that I can only describe as holiness. Not holiness as a moral or spiritual state, but a holiness ‘out there’ in front of me, covering the slain and covering those of us there. If I can put it this way, it was an ‘objective’ holiness, something I touched as if touching the breeze or as if I were being touched by it. On reflection, I think it fair to say that we were touched by God in that horrible, terrifying place and time, because those who had been slain had been slain for putting the gospel into practice. They had quite simply imitated Christ the Lord to the end. I think it must have been how Mary and John, and the others, felt at the foot of the cross. A senseless, violent death, yet one which breathed forth the life-giving holiness of God. That ‘holiness out there’ remained present in the ensuing days. The funeral, with the six coffins side-by-side in the university chapel, only intensified the experience. Only God could bring something so holy out of something so horrible.
That moment had a profound impact on me and on my understanding of being a priest. Preaching the gospel can never be about kowtowing to ideological or political perspectives, or any other perspectives for that matter. In El Salvador, I was often myself told that I was left-wing because I used to say Mass for the poor on weekends. When I was in Cuba eight years later, I was considered a right-wing nutter because I did exactly the same thing. As Dom Helder Camara once said: ‘when I feed the poor, I am a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, I am a communist.’
As Jesus said, wisdom is proved by her children. The gospel is proved by the fruits of holiness and truth that it gives, not by the applause or the mockery resulting from the narrow and filtering minds of those who only want you to say what they want to hear.
Fr Ignatius was a missionary martyr, even if not as yet proclaimed as such by the Church. Pope Francis asks us to treasure and imitate such people. I certainly treasure Fr Ignatius. Whether or not I am imitating him is something for another day.
Missionary life is not something for somewhere else, for some other time, for some other people. It’s not a series of concepts and precepts. It’s about the true meaning of life itself and, for some, of death itself. The challenge is for you and for me. Am I prepared to stand up for Christ no matter how mocked or praised I am? Am I myself among those who filter the message of the truth to suit my own preferences? If San Salvador can be the holy ground of mission for Christ, why cannot the place where I, or you, live? And who are these missionaries to be? If not you, then who? If not here, then where? If not now, then when?
Weekday Masses 19th – 22nd Nov, 2019
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am
Latrobe Thursday 10:30am Karingal … The Presentation of Blessed Virgin Mary
6:30pm Penguin ... Healing Mass
Friday: 11:00am Mt St
Vincent … St Cecilia Next Weekend 23rd & 24th November
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Devonport
6:00pm Penguin
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
5:00pm Latrobe
MINISTRY ROSTERS 23rd & 24th NOVEMBER, 2019
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: V Riley, A Stegmann, G Hendrey 10:30am E
Petts, K Pearce, O McGinley
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil M Heazlewood, G Lee-Archer, P Shelverton, J Kelly
10.30am: M
Sherriff, T & S Ryan, D & M Barrientos
Cleaners 22nd Nov: K.S.C. 29th Nov: P & T Douglas
Piety Shop 23rd Nov: L Murfet 24th Nov: P Piccolo
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: J & S Willoughby
Ministers of
Communion: E
Reilly, M & K McKenzie,
M O’Halloran
M O’Halloran
Flowers: M Byrne Hospitality:
S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters P Ravallion, P Lade Commentator:
J Barker Readers: T Clayton, A Landers
Ministers of
Communion: P Lade,
S Coleman Liturgy: Penguin Setting Up: E Nickols
Care of
Church: Y & R
Downes
Latrobe:
Reader: H Lim Ministers of Communion: M Mackey Procession of
Gifts: Parishioner
Port Sorell:
Readers: G Duff, P Anderson Ministers of Communion: P Anderson Cleaners: G Richey
First Reading: Malachi 3:19-20
Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
Gospel: Luke 21:5-19
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
After coming to stillness in the presence of God, in
whatever way seems best for me, I read this Gospel slowly, noticing its impact
on me.
The disciples are told that the fine things they value will be destroyed.
I take time to notice what I value and hold dear in my life.
Perhaps some things that I value are more precious than others?
What do I treasure most?
What does Jesus say to me about it, or them?
I share with the Lord, who will help me to choose that which is of greatest worth.
Is there anything to let go of?
What am I prepared to lose in order to keep that which is most precious to me?
I ask for what ever grace I need.
I end my prayer, offering all that I have and am to God.
Our Father...
The disciples are told that the fine things they value will be destroyed.
I take time to notice what I value and hold dear in my life.
Perhaps some things that I value are more precious than others?
What do I treasure most?
What does Jesus say to me about it, or them?
I share with the Lord, who will help me to choose that which is of greatest worth.
Is there anything to let go of?
What am I prepared to lose in order to keep that which is most precious to me?
I ask for what ever grace I need.
I end my prayer, offering all that I have and am to God.
Our Father...
Readings Next Week: Our Lord Jesus
Christ King of the Universe
First Reading: 2
Samuel 5: 1-3
Second
Reading: Colossians
1:12-20
Gospel: Luke 23:35-43
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Margaret Becker, Marilyn Bielleman, Tony Kiely, Brenda Paul, Erin Kyriazis, Carmel Leonard, Philip Smith, David Cole, Frank McDonald & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Sandie Vanbrugh, Paddy Pocock, Murray Hay, Gerald Eeles, Peter Imlach, Fr Chris Toms, Fay Bugg, Peter Horniblow.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 14th – 20th November
Olive Purton, Terrence Smith, Freda Morgan, Joe Stolp, Margaret Clarke, Terry Matthews, Denis McCormack, Karen Farr, Keiran Hofer, Edith Collis, Marie Kristovskis, Maisie McLaren, David Cooper, James and Janet Dunlop
May the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
Weekly Ramblings
I am
writing this week’s Ramblings from the Emmanuel Retreat Centre at Newstead part
way through the Annual Clergy Retreat. The changing face of the Clergy in
Tasmania finds only 20 priests (including our Archbishop) gathered for this
time of reflection and prayer. I can remember back to the early days of my
priesthood when there were two Retreats each year and both would have 30 or so
men at them but today is a different time and …
This week
there will be further gatherings looking at the Plenary 2020 Themes. At MacKillop
Hill on Wednesday from 10.30am – 12noon – contact Sr Margaret for any further
information if you need it. There is also a gathering at the Parish House on
Wednesday evening from 7.00-8.30pm on the Theme ‘Inclusive, Participatory
& Synodal'. You can get the relevant information for this session by
going to https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/themes/inclusive/
There are
still copies of the Diocese of Wollongong Advent Reflection Booklet available
this weekend – please get your copy today. If you can’t get a find a copy at
your Mass Centre please contact me asap and I’ll arrange to get more copies but
I will only be ordering what is needed so please make sure you let me know.
As we come
to the end of the Liturgical Year I would like to encourage parishioners – if
you haven’t already done so – to obtain a copy of the Columban Calendar. It
provides important and valuable information about the Church’s Year, the Feast
Days and the Celebrations. If you can’t find a copy please contact the Parish
Office and we will get a copy to you.
Take care on the roads and in your homes,
HEALING MASS:
Catholic Charismatic Renewal are sponsoring a Healing Mass
at St Mary’s Church Penguin on Thursday 21st November commencing at 6:30pm
(Please note early start).
All welcome to come and celebrate the liturgy in a vibrant
and dynamic way using charismatic praise and worship, with the gifts of
tongues, prophecy, and healing. After Mass, teams will be available for
individual prayer. Please bring a friend and a plate for supper and fellowship
in the hall.
If you wish to know more or require transport please
contact Celestine Whiteley 6424:2043, Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068, Tom Knaap
6425:2442.
LITURGY PREPARATION FOR ADVENT:
The Liturgy Preparation Group will meet Saturday 23rd November at 2pm, Parish House Devonport. All are welcome. For further information contact Peter Douglas 0437 921 366.
PLENARY 2020: Session 3
MacKillop Hill Wednesday 20th November 10:30am -12noon 123
William Street, Forth. Phone 6428:3095
/ 0418 367 769
Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe: Monday 25th November 10:30am – 12pm. Last coffee shop for 2019 so come and enjoy morning tea, invite a friend - let’s celebrate all that we have received from one another this year!! Everyone welcome! We look forward to your company at 123 William Street, Forth. No booking necessary. Phone 6428:3095
Everyone is invited to join morning tea after 9am Mass at
Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone on 24 November to celebrate the Feast of Christ
the King. Parishioners are requested to please bring a plate to
share. Come and join the fun.
A variety of Christmas Cards are now available and 2020
Columban Calendars also.
CHRISTMAS PARTY – ULVERSTONE:
‘Come one – come all’ to our annual Christmas Party on Tuesday 3rd December starting at 1:45pm at Sacred Heart Church Community Room Ulverstone. We hope you will join us for some light entertainment, a cuppa and a chat.
RSVP 1st December to Juliet Smith 6425:5854,
Debbie Rimmelzwaan 6425:1384,
Elizabeth Cox 0400 179 297.
Elizabeth Cox 0400 179 297.
ADVENT GATHERING 2019:
‘The wilderness and the dry land shall rejoice, the desert shall rejoice and blossom abundantly” Isaiah 35:1
We are invited to create a more joyful, more hope filled and servant Church.
Date: 5th December, 10am – 11:30am Parish House, Devonport.
Contact Clare Kiely-Hoye 0418 100 402
‘CALLING ALL CHILDREN’ would you like to take part in the
nativity play at the 6pm Christmas Eve Mass at Sacred Heart Church? You are
very welcome to come along to practise during 9am Mass at Sacred Heart Church on
Sunday 8th, 15th, and 22nd December. If you
would like more information please phone Charlie Vella 0417 307 781.
THURSDAY 21st November, Eyes down 7:30pm. Callers Tony Ryan & Brendan O’Connor
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
THE WAY TO
ST JAMES PILGRIMAGE 2020:
Registrations are now open (early
bird pricing finishes 15th November 2019). Inspired by the famous
Spanish El Camino of St James this two day pilgrim walk will take you through
the scenic & peaceful Huon Valley to a celebration at the Spanish mission
styled Church of St James, nestled in the heart of Cygnet. Through fellowship, reflection, rejoicing and
ritual you will find an opportunity to reconnect with the spiritual dimensions
of your life. The pilgrimage commences
on Saturday 11th January 2020 at 10:30am from the Mountain River
Community Hall and finishes on Sunday 12th January 2020 at approx.
5pm at St James Church, Cygnet in the midst of the wonderful Cygnet Fold
Festival. For further details and to register go to: www.waytostjames.com.au or visit us
on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/waytostjamescygnet/
PRO
ORANTIBUS DAY: On
Thursday 21st November, Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, the Church celebrates a special day of prayer in honour of her
contemplative nuns and monks, called Pro Orantibus Day (“For Those Who
Pray”). All are warmly invited to join the Carmelite nuns
for a special Sung Mass on this day at 7.30am at the Carmelite Monastery, 7
Cambridge St. Please pray for the Sisters and for the gift of vocations to
their Carmel.
A new website has recently been launched for our Tasmanian
Carmel, which includes information about the Sister’s life of prayer, work for
sale, ways people can be more closely associated with the Community, prayer
requests and vocations. Please visit the site at https://launcestoncarmel.com and share
the link with family and friends who may like to learn more about Carmel.
IMMACULATA MISSION SCHOOL 2020
What is it: A ten-day live-in formation school for young people,
with talks on the faith from awesome speakers, daily Mass and prayer,
Eucharistic Adoration, praise and worship, fun and fellowship and
lots more!
When: 1-10 January, 2020 Where: The Glennie School,
Toowoomba QLD Who: 15-35
year olds
Special guest
speaker: Dr Ralph Martin (USA), Professor of
Sacred Theology, international speaker on evangelisation and the spiritual
life. Dr Martin is a consulter to the Pontifical Council for the New
Evangelisation. Other guest speakers: Archbishop Julian Porteous,
Vince Fitzwilliams, James Parker, Jess Leach, Paul Elarde, Sisters of the
Immaculata and more.
How much: $390 (cost includes all accommodation, food, speakers and
activities) before 18th November, $450 after 18th November.
For more info or to register: www.sistersoftheimmaculata.org.au/ims or
0406 372 608
Letter From Rome
Three cheers for the pope's opponents
Nasty attacks have only emboldened Francis in his efforts toward Church reform
Robert Mickens, Rome. November 15, 2019. This article is from the La-Croix International website - you can access the site here but complete access is via paid subscription
Pope Francis has punted once again.
In the six and half years he's been Bishop of Rome, he has never returned to his native Argentina. And just when it appeared that the long-awaited homecoming would take place in 2020, Francis poured cold water on the idea.
"It was decided to leave Argentina and Uruguay for later," he said, according to a Nov. 13 report by the Argentine news agency Telám.
The pope said a trip back home to Buenos Aires and other parts of the country would be "a little difficult" due to commitments he's already made for the upcoming year.
Commitments to visit other countries?
Vatican officials have not announced any firm travel plans for 2020 up till now.Just this week they said Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, intend to make a joint visit to South Sudan.
But that will happen only "if the political situation in the country permits the creation of a transitional government of national unity in the coming 100 days.
"Where will Francis go in 2020?
The Spanish news site Religión Digital also reported in the past few days that the pope has planned another trip for next year – Oceania. But Australians and New Zealanders should not get their hopes up. Francis' destination is Papua New Guinea, as well as Timor Leste."
And who knows? Perhaps Indonesia," he reportedly said.
Meanwhile, Catholics in Hungary are hoping the pope will be visiting their country next year when Budapest hosts the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) in September 2020. But, again, it's not clear what the odds are on that happening.
The last time a pope attended a gathering of this type (that was not held in Rome) was back in 1997 when John Paul II went to Wrocław in his native Poland for the 46th IEC.
But more to the point: the long-awaited papal visit to Argentina is still just a dream. While many people will be disappointed by this, it is actually good news for those who love Pope Francis and are hoping he will be Bishop of Rome for many more years to come.
A one-way ticket home
Good news, that is, if a theory I published more than a year go is anywhere close to being in the realm of reality – namely, that when he returns to Buenos Aires it will mark the end of his pontificate.
"We'll all know when Francis has decided that it's time to leave the stage when he discloses plans for the next papal trip to Argentina. It will be, for him, a one-way ticket back home," I wrote.
"My bet is that he will announce his retirement there, surrender his white papal cassock and Holy See passport and return to being Padre Jorge among the poor of Buenos Aires."
Making papal resignations 'normal'
Part of the reason for that is because Francis has said his predecessor's decision to step down in 2013 should not be seen as something out of the ordinary. Rather, he said retirement is now something that is normal for popes.
Well, not quite. Benedict XVI was the first pope in half a millennium to voluntarily relinquish the papal office. If retirement is truly to become normal for the popes, then the next resignation cannot be put off for another 500 years.
But Francis could seal the deal if he were to follow Benedict's lead.
And I've always believed that this was his intention.
"Pope Francis will return home eventually, probably in a couple of years from now after he has laid a few more foundation stones for a Church reform project that cannot easily be reversed," I noted in that earlier article many months ago.
He will be 83 in mid-December. And, while he is still keeping up a remarkably busy schedule for a man his age, he is beginning to show signs that time is catching up with him.
A resignation in 2020 or sometime in the following calendar year would have been a good option. And perhaps it still is in his mind. It would, in effect, stretch his pontificate to a length similar to that of the now-retired Benedict – just a month and half short of eight years.
It is unlikely that Pope Francis would step down before completing the reform of the Roman Curia and issuing updated procedures for the election of the Roman Pontiff, including precise protocols for a papal resignation.
But the curial reform should be done sometime in 2020. And the document on the conclave and norms for a resignation are probably already written or being drafted at present.
So the eventual resignation of Pope Francis is certainly in the cards, as they say.
Francis' opponents are helping to extend his pontificate
However, there are things happening right now that suggest all bets are off.
The enemies of the pope – and they include men in the Catholic hierarchy – have increased their attacks. Sure, many of them are "nutters." But certain cardinals and bishops are encouraging them to keep hitting Francis anyway they can.
And like the pope's decision not to return to Argentina right now, this, too, is good news. Because Jorge Mario Bergoglio will not be forced out of office.
Even if he may have thought, early on, that a second consecutive resignation would make a lasting contribution to the institution of the papacy, he surely understands that doing so under attack would be detrimental to everything else he has done up to now.
So let the attacks continue. The Francis haters are obviously too obtuse to understand that their attempts to take down the pope are actually strengthening his resolve to reform the Church.
The Scapegoat Mechanism
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
The scapegoating ritual described in Leviticus 16 offers a
helpful perspective on Jesus’ death. On the “Day of Atonement” the high priest,
Aaron, was instructed to symbolically lay all the sins of the people on one
unfortunate goat, and the people would then beat the animal until it fled into
the desert. It was a vivid symbolic act that helped to unite and free the
children of Israel. Instead of owning their faults, this ritual allowed people
to export them elsewhere—in this case onto an innocent animal.
The image of the scapegoat powerfully mirrors the universal,
but largely unconscious, human need to transfer our guilt onto something or
someone else by singling that other out for unmerited negative treatment.
French philosopher and historian René Girard (1923–2015) demonstrated that the
scapegoat mechanism is foundational for the formation of most social groups and
cultures. We need another group to be
against to form our group! For example, many in the United States scapegoat refugees
who are seeking asylum, falsely accusing them of being criminals. This pattern
is seen in many facets of our society and our private, inner lives—so much so
that we might call it “the sin of the world” (note that “sin” is singular in
John 1:29).
We humans largely hate or blame almost anything else rather
than recognize our own weaknesses and negativity. “She made me do it.” “He is
guilty.” “He deserves it.” “They are the problem.” “They are evil.” We seldom
consciously know that we are scapegoating or projecting. It’s automatic,
ingrained, and unconscious. As Jesus said, people literally “do not know what
they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
We hate our own imperfections in other people, and sadly we
often find the best cover for that projection in religion. God and religion, I
am afraid, have been used to justify most of our violence and to hide from the
shadow parts of ourselves that we would rather not admit. Yet Jesus revealed
the pattern two thousand years ago. “When anyone kills you, they will think they
are doing a holy duty for God,” he said (John 16:2).
The Scriptures call such ignorant hatred and killing “sin,”
and Jesus came precisely to “take away” (John 1:29) our capacity to commit
it—by exposing the lie for all to see. Jesus stood as the fully innocent one
who was condemned by the highest authorities of both “church and state”
(Jerusalem and Rome), an act that should create healthy suspicion about how
wrong even the highest powers can be. Maybe power still does not want us to see
this. Much of Christianity shames individuals for private sins while lauding
public figures in spite of their pride, greed, gluttony, lying, killing, or
narcissism.
As John puts it, “He will show the world how wrong it was
about sin, about who was really in the right, and about true judgment” (John
16:8). This is what Jesus exposes and defeats on the cross. He did not come to
change God’s mind about us. It did not need changing. Jesus came to change our
minds about God—and about ourselves—and about where goodness and evil really
lie.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a
Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe
(Convergent: 2019), 149-151.
Living Out A Vocation
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
What does it mean to have a vocation? The term gets batted around both in religious and secular circles and everyone assumes its meaning is clear. Is it? What’s a vocation?
Karl Jung defined it this way: “A vocation is an irrational factor that destines a man to emancipate himself from the herd and from its well-worn paths.” Frederick Buechner, a famed preacher, says: “A vocation is where your deep gladness meets the world’s hunger.”
David Brooks, a renowned journalist, reflecting on vocation in his recent book, The Second Mountain, gives us these quotes from Jung and Buechner and then writes: A vocation is not something you choose. It chooses you. When you sense it as a possibility in your life you also sense that you don’t have a choice but can only ask yourself: What’s my responsibility here? It’s not a matter of what you expect from life but rather what life expects from you. Moreover, for Brooks, once you have a sense of your vocation it becomes unthinkable to turn away and you realize you would be morally culpable if you did. He quotes William Wordsworth in support of this:
My heart was full; I made no vows, but vows
Were then made for me; bond unknown to me
Was given, that I should be, else sinning greatly.
Brooks suggests that any number of things can help awaken your soul to its vocation: music, drama, art, friendship, being around children, being around beauty, and, paradoxically, being around injustice. To this he adds two further observations: First, that usually we only see and understand all this clearly when we’re older and looking back on life and our choices; and, second, that while the summons to a vocation is a holy thing, something mystical, the way we actually end up living it out is often messy, confusing, and screwed up and generally doesn’t feel very holy at all.
Well, I am older and am looking back on things. Does my vocational story fit these descriptions? Mostly, yes.
As a child growing up in the Roman Catholic subculture of the 1950s and early 1960s, I was part of that generation of Catholics within which every Catholic boy or girl was asked to consider, with considerable gravity, the question: “Do I have a vocation?” But back then mostly that meant: “Am I called to be a priest, a religious brother, or a religious sister?” Marriage and single life were, in fact, also considered vocations, but they took a back seat to what was considered the higher vocation, consecrated religious commitment.
So as a boy growing up in that milieu I did, with all gravity, ask myself that question: “Do I have a vocation to be a priest?” And the answer came to me, not in a flashing insight, or in some generous movement of heart, or in an attraction to a certain way of life. None of these. The answer came to me as hook in my conscience, as something that was being asked of me, as something I couldn’t morally or religiously turn away from. It came to me as an obligation, a responsibility. And initially I fought against and resisted that answer. This wasn’t what I wanted.
But it was what I felt called to. This was something that was being asked of me beyond my own dreams for my life. It was a call. So at the tender age of seventeen I made the decision to enter a religious order, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and train to become a priest. I suspect that few counsellors or psychologists today would put much trust in such a decision, given my age at the time; but, looking back on it now, more than fifty years later, in hindsight, I believe this is the purest and most unselfish decision I’ve ever made in my life.
And I’ve never looked back. I’ve never seriously considered leaving that commitment, even though every kind of unsettling emotion, obsession, restlessness, depression, and self-pity have at times haunted and tormented me. I’ve never regretted the decision. I know this is what I’ve been called to do and I’m happy enough with the way it’s turned out. It’s brought me life and helped me serve others. And given my personal idiosyncrasies, wounds, and weaknesses, I doubt I would have found as deep a path into life and community as this vocation afforded me, though that admittedly can be self-serving.
I share my personal story here only because it might be helpful in illustrating the concept of a vocation. But religious life and priesthood are merely one vocation. There are countless others, equally as holy and important. One’s vocation can be to be an artist, a farmer, a writer, a doctor, a parent, a wife, a teacher, a salesman, or countless other things. The vocation chooses you and makes the vows for you – and those vows put you at that place in the world where you’re best placed to serve others and to find happiness.
Clutter & Dirt
The Secret Enemies Of The Church
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
Often, parish leaders have a major weakness when it comes to keeping their church campus and space attractive for guests.
It’s the same problem you have with your house: when you spend so much time in a place, you become blind to its flaws and imperfections.
You stop noticing:
- the dead shrubs along the parking lot
- the ever-growing collection of brochures and CDs in your lobby for programs you aren’t even sure exist anymore
- the crowded bulletin board advertising dozens of events competing for attention and dollars
- the multitude of unused, broken, dirty toys in your kids cry space or nursery
- the used Kleenex stuffed into the pew pockets
- the dying floral arrangement left over from Friday’s funeral
You might not notice, but your guests do, its all among the first things they notice.
There’s dirt. And then there is clutter. Wikipedia defines clutter as “a confusing or disorderly state or collection, visual pollution.” Dirt makes your guests uncomfortable and tells them not only are they not important to you, but the place also isn’t important to you either. Clutter, on the other hand, is different, it is an insidious enemy of the good, it is ruthlessly invasive, and ultimately counterproductive to your mission and ministry.
There is no excuse for a dirty church. None. If your church is dirty, stop every else you’re doing and start cleaning. But after you tackle the dirt deal with the clutter.
Here’s three reasons you should ruthlessly eliminate clutter from your church:
1) Clutter makes people uncomfortable.
Like dirt, cluttered spaces actually make people feel uncomfortable. Scientists have demonstrated that clutter can trigger the release of the stress hormone cortisol, which can increase tension and anxiety. Clutter makes it difficult to relax. There are just too many visual stimuli vying for your attention.
Attending a new church for the first time can already be stressful, especially if you are not a church person. You wonder whether you are welcome, whether you stand out, and whether you will be asked to do something with which you are uncomfortable. Clutter can only make this worse.
2) Clutter crowds out your message.
Clutter competes for the attention of your guests. If you are trying to preach about the evils of greed but there are still stewardship cards in the pews from last week, your guests might get mixed messages. Even positive messages like brochures to sign up for a new children’s ministry can crowd out the message of the weekend if you are making a pitch from the pulpit for people to become hospitality ministers.
Not only can clutter distract from your message, but it might also actually work against it. Clutter signals to your guests that you are unorganized and unprepared. If you don’t have your house in order, then why would someone listen to you?
3) Clutter looks like no one is in charge.
Clutter is inevitably made up of objects that have withstood seasons or even years of reluctantly refusing to be thrown out or properly stored. My favorites are the multiplication of chairs in a sanctuary that aren’t ever really used anymore, the clutter that inevitably accompanies most music ministry (even when it is in plain sight), and the best of all: lifeless Christmas poinsettias still adorning the altar in February. It just looks like nobody is in charge or cares very much.
Here’s an idea: Invite someone who is not a member of your parish to walk with you through your campus and ask them to tell you what they see. It might be eye-opening. Our Rebuilt team can even do this for you. We’ll come to your parish and observe everything that happens on a typical weekend. At the end of the weekend, we’ll offer some thoughts and recommendations about the things outsiders might notice about your parish.
For more information, check out the Rebuilt Parish website:
Covered In Holiness: The El Salvador Martyrs
Monsignor Peter Magee was serving in the Vatican Embassy in El Salvador in November 1989, when six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter were killed. Thirty years on, he recalls the social and political climate in El Salvador at the time, and his own vivid memories of visiting the site of the murders. ‘That moment had a profound impact on me and on my understanding of being a priest.’ Mgr Peter Magee, a former Vatican diplomat, is parish priest of St Mary Star of the Sea, Largs and Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Millport. This article is adapted from a homily delivered in October 2019. This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website where you can find a wide range of articles by clicking here
Pope Francis declared October 2019 to be an Extraordinary Mission Month, and invited us during that time to treasure and imitate the witness of those who have gone before us. He mentioned especially the martyrs, confessors of the faith and missionary saints. The martyr is persecuted and killed for the faith; the confessor is persecuted but is not killed; and the saint is the missionary who has sustained the daily grind of fidelity to the truth and to virtue in the midst of life’s trials.
This focus on great missionaries prompted me to reflect on a very personal experience, which dates back to 30 years ago this 16 November.
My first mission as a papal diplomat was to El Salvador in Central America. It was 1988 when I arrived, at the age of 30. The country had been in the news for years because of its vicious civil war. By the time the war ended in the early 1990s, some 170,000 people had been killed out of a population of about 6 million.
The country was deeply polarised along political lines (extreme right government and military versus extreme left communist guerrilla forces) and along economic lines (a very rich minority and a very poor majority). The polarisation had its roots in the country’s history, but it was made worse by the Cold War. The Sandinista communist revolution had taken place in Nicaragua, another Central American country, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Because of this, because also of the presence of Cuba to the immediate south of the USA, and because of other political developments in the region, the US government pumped huge amounts of money into El Salvador. The aim was to ensure that the communists would not take hold there. You could say it was a matter of national security for the USA. At the same time, the USSR was supporting its own associates in the region.
When I arrived in 1988, some halting steps towards a peace process had taken place, but both sides still seemed to have ‘fire in their belly’ to try and prevail and defeat the other. Living in the capital of San Salvador, signs of insecurity were all the more visible because of the omnipresence of the security forces. At night, you would hear bombs exploding, or exchanges of gunfire, usually in the distance. I remember especially the deep ‘thud’ I would feel in the building where I stayed when the guerrilla forces would bomb the power plants feeding electricity to the city. Blackouts were frequent, and the poorest suffered most from them. We lived in the diplomatic area of the city; the government and army were quick to make sure the power was restored there as soon as possible!
While I don’t recall there being a night curfew, it was obvious that people lived in a permanent state of low-intensity panic since, relatively early in the evenings, very few were out and about. I recall once hearing confessions in a parish church on the edge of the diplomatic zone, San José de la Montaña, when a bomb exploded at a nearby bank. I could feel the heat of it come right into the confessional, positioned at the door of the church, with people running panic-stricken towards the sanctuary. Thankfully, no-one was hurt in the church. Outside, I don’t know.
Incidents like this were frequent, as were casualties. I used to meet with the young people in the parish in the early evening. By 7pm they were always anxiously looking at their watches to get home. In other words, there was a climate of fear inside the cities and even more fear in the rural areas where the poorest were often the victims of the violence of both sides of the war.
In this messy situation, there were some who tried to speak out, to speak reason. Among these were the Jesuits who worked at the University of Central America in San Salvador. The rector of the university was a Fr Ignacio Ellacuría, whom I am going to call Fr Ignatius. He had a typical Basque appearance, ascetic and somewhat severe. But he was a kind and warm man, at least to me personally; his warmth became passionate and even fiery when exposing and defending his ideas and the poor at whose service he was putting his considerable intelligence. At that time, the Jesuits throughout the whole world were placing an emphasis on social justice as an important contemporary expression of living out the gospel. Fr Ignatius was passionate about ending the polarisation in El Salvador, restoring the balance that comes from practical justice, such as equal opportunities for everyone in education and health, equality before the law, etc.
However, he was perceived by many in Salvadoran society, and even in the Church, as a supporter of the left-wing guerrilla forces simply because he tried to speak up for the poor and broker a rapprochement between the two sides in the war. He tried to present the legitimacy of certain aspects of the left-wing ideology to the whole of Salvadoran society. He likewise condemned unequivocally the illegitimate use of violence by either side. His main passion was to educate. Education, combined with working for peace, would be the centre-piece of any strategy to lift the poor out of injustice and misery and bring harmony to the whole of Salvadoran society.
I don’t think there is any doubt that the leftists used Fr Ignatius, without scruples, for their own ends. It suited them to sell their position as being supported by the prestigious Jesuits. For their part, the right-wing establishment and their media outlets poisoned the minds of ordinary Salvadorans with propaganda against Fr Ignatius, the Jesuits and their entire apostolate in the country. I remember well hearing many wealthy Salvadorans at diplomatic receptions speak ignobly of these men, without reflecting, without informing themselves and without any temperance in their hateful speech. I frankly felt more appalled by that than by anything the Jesuits were accused of doing.
On 16 November 1989, the leftist guerrillas (FMLN) launched a major attack on the capital city, San Salvador, advancing in from the north of the city, where the diplomatic community and the wealthy lived. The Salvadoran army was taken by surprise and was incandescent because of it. It was also furious because the attack on the diplomatic area could have caused major problems internationally for the country.
Late on 16 November (I always remember it because it is the feast of St Margaret of Scotland), a rapid-reaction battalion of the Salvadoran army was dispatched to the University of Central America. Their mission was to kill Fr Ignatius whom, without any proof or even reasonable conjecture, they considered as the mastermind behind the latest military attack. The orders given were also that no witnesses should be left alive.
And so, Fr Ignatius, five other Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter, were all shot in cold blood just outside their residence at the university. The soldiers used an AK-47, a Russian-made gun, among other weapons to give the impression that it was in fact the guerrilla who had done the deed.
Early on the morning of 17 November, as we were finishing breakfast, the front doorbell rang and in came the Archbishop of San Salvador and the Provincial of the Jesuits. They were as white as sheets, trembling with both anger and fear. They could barely tell us what had happened (at this point, we in the Vatican Embassy did not yet know of the massacre, although at Mass earlier that morning, we had to take refuge behind the altar because bullets were coming in through the windows of our chapel). We went with them in the car to the university.
It was an experience I will never forget. The sight of the carnage and the need to wretch.
There was something else, though. While I could feel the terror of the moment (I wondered if I myself might be shot, too, at some point in the ensuing days if a persecution of the Church was underway), I also felt something that I can only describe as holiness. Not holiness as a moral or spiritual state, but a holiness ‘out there’ in front of me, covering the slain and covering those of us there. If I can put it this way, it was an ‘objective’ holiness, something I touched as if touching the breeze or as if I were being touched by it. On reflection, I think it fair to say that we were touched by God in that horrible, terrifying place and time, because those who had been slain had been slain for putting the gospel into practice. They had quite simply imitated Christ the Lord to the end. I think it must have been how Mary and John, and the others, felt at the foot of the cross. A senseless, violent death, yet one which breathed forth the life-giving holiness of God. That ‘holiness out there’ remained present in the ensuing days. The funeral, with the six coffins side-by-side in the university chapel, only intensified the experience. Only God could bring something so holy out of something so horrible.
That moment had a profound impact on me and on my understanding of being a priest. Preaching the gospel can never be about kowtowing to ideological or political perspectives, or any other perspectives for that matter. In El Salvador, I was often myself told that I was left-wing because I used to say Mass for the poor on weekends. When I was in Cuba eight years later, I was considered a right-wing nutter because I did exactly the same thing. As Dom Helder Camara once said: ‘when I feed the poor, I am a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, I am a communist.’
As Jesus said, wisdom is proved by her children. The gospel is proved by the fruits of holiness and truth that it gives, not by the applause or the mockery resulting from the narrow and filtering minds of those who only want you to say what they want to hear.
Fr Ignatius was a missionary martyr, even if not as yet proclaimed as such by the Church. Pope Francis asks us to treasure and imitate such people. I certainly treasure Fr Ignatius. Whether or not I am imitating him is something for another day.
Missionary life is not something for somewhere else, for some other time, for some other people. It’s not a series of concepts and precepts. It’s about the true meaning of life itself and, for some, of death itself. The challenge is for you and for me. Am I prepared to stand up for Christ no matter how mocked or praised I am? Am I myself among those who filter the message of the truth to suit my own preferences? If San Salvador can be the holy ground of mission for Christ, why cannot the place where I, or you, live? And who are these missionaries to be? If not you, then who? If not here, then where? If not now, then when?
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