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 - in recess until 7th February
Legion of Mary: Wednesdays 11am Sacred Heart Church Community Room, Ulverstone
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – 6:30pm Mondays, 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 - in recess until 7th February
Benediction with Adoration Devonport: First Friday each month - commences at 10am and concludes with Mass - in recess until 7th February
Legion of Mary: Wednesdays 11am Sacred Heart Church Community Room, Ulverstone
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – 6:30pm Mondays, Community Room, Ulverstone
Weekday Masses 4th – 7th February, 2020
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe … St Agatha
Thursday: 12noon Devonport … St Paul Miki and companions
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
12noon
Devonport
Next Weekend 8th & 9th February, 2020
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
6:00pm Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
MINISTRY ROSTERS 8th & 9th February, 2020
Devonport:
Readers:
Vigil: V Riley, A
Stegmann, G Hendrey
10:30am: J Henderson, J Phillips, P Piccolo
10:30am: J Henderson, J Phillips, P Piccolo
Ministers of
Communion: Vigil
B, B & Beau Windebank, T Bird
10.30am: S Riley, M Sherriff, R Beaton, D
& M Barrientos, G Keating
Cleaners: 14th Feb: K.S.C. 21st Feb: P Shelverton, E Petts
Piety Shop: 8th Feb: H Thompson 9th Feb: K Hull
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: D Prior Flowers: C Stingel Hospitality:
M Byrne, G Doyle
Ministers of
Communion: M Mott,
W Bajzelj, J Jones, T Leary
Penguin:
Greeters J Garnsey Commentator: E Nickols Readers: S Coleman, M Murray
Ministers of
Communion: J
Garnsey, T Clayton Liturgy: Pine Road
Setting Up: A Landers Care of Church: M Bowles, J Reynolds
Setting Up: A Landers Care of Church: M Bowles, J Reynolds
Latrobe:
Reader: M Williams Minister of Communion: I Campbell Procession of Gifts: Parishioner
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, G Gigliotti Ministers of Communion: J & D Peterson
Cleaners: A Hynes
Readings this Week:
The Presentation of the Lord
First Reading: Malachi 3: 1-4
Second Reading: Hebrews 2: 14-18
Gospel: Luke 2: 22-40
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
I make myself comfortable in my place of prayer, recognizing that I am in
the presence of a welcoming and loving God.
I ask the Holy Spirit to help me pray, to have an open mind and heart.
When I am ready, I read the text slowly and carefully, noticing where it speaks to me most strongly, where it touches my heart.
When I am ready, I read the text slowly and carefully, noticing where it speaks to me most strongly, where it touches my heart.
If it helps, in my mind’s eye, I might like to place myself in the scene.
I notice that Joseph and Mary attend the Temple in accordance with the Law
of the Lord.
What is my own attitude towards rules and regulations?
Maybe there are times when I have felt challenged by them?
I ponder…
I see Simeon’s faith and trust as he waits patiently and quietly, listening to
the Spirit, full of hope that he will set eyes on ‘the Christ of the Lord’.
To whom do I myself listen about important things in my own life?
I sense Simeon’s delight and joy as he takes the child Jesus into his arms.
How would I feel, welcoming and holding Jesus in this way?
How do I respond when I realise my own prayers have been answered?
In what way can I be a light to those who have not yet come to know Jesus?
As I slowly bring my prayer to a close, I talk to God about how I feel now,
in my own words, just as one good friend speaks to another.
Readings Next Week:
5th
Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
First Reading: Isaiah
58: 7 -10
Second
Reading: 1
Corinthians 2: 1 -5
Gospel: Matthew
5: 13- 16
Your prayers are asked for
the sick: Pat Barker, Paul Richardson, Elke Cavichiolo, Margaret Becker, Erin
Kyriazis, Philip Smith, & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Stan Adkins, Janice Walker, Tony Brown, Patrick Berry, Terence Myers, Gwen Conn, Len Charve, Fr Ray Brain, Dennis Kelly, Michael Nasiukiewicz, Pat Wells, David McManamy, Ray Emmerton, Susan Scharvi, Pat Sainsbury, Marjorie Frampton, Ray Khan, Carmel Leonard, Lope Zenarosa, Marjorie Frampton, & …
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 30th January – 4th February, 2020
Nicola Tenaglia, Ruby Grubb,
Jason Pullen, Clifford Smith, Josie Williamson, Coral Hankey,
Lance Cox, Gavin Davey, Lachlan
Berwick, Desmond Hanson, Frank Meagher, Mick Groves,
Pamela Haslock, Joan Nolan, Basil
Cassidy, Darrell Smith, Betty Hodgson.
May the
souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
Weekly Ramblings
This week has been a little hectic as the Office fired up for 2020 with the backlog of accounts and everything that builds up over a break were dealt with – or being dealt with. Other activities will recommence in the coming weeks with some listed below.
At the end of last week I received notification that we
would be visited by members of the Catholic Professional Standards Ltd
(midyear) to access how the Parish is implementing the National Catholic
Safeguarding Standards (NCSS). Some steps have already been undertaken but
there is still quite some way to go before we are fully compliant.
Towards the end of last year I mentioned (here) that we
would need to ensure that parishioners who come in contact with children in
their ministry roles in the Parish would need to have any required
documentation checked and recorded in the Parish. A meeting is to be held with
Tassie Strafkos (Archdiocesan Manager: Governance, Risk & Compliance - GRC)
to ensure the necessary steps are in place for the Audit after which
information will be provided and training will occur. Watch this space for
further details.
Our Sacramental Preparation Program for children in Grade 3
and above wishing to prepare for the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation
and Eucharist will commence shortly. Meetings will be held on Monday, 24th February at 7pm at OLOL Church and on Tuesday, 25th February at 7pm
at Sacred Heart Church. If you know of children who are in Grade 3 or older who
wish to be part of this program please get them to contact the Parish Office
for enrolment forms.
On Tuesday, 11th February, we will be
celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes with Mass at midday at Devonport.
Following Mass parishioners are invited to come to lunch at the Parish House –
please bring a plate to share.
Materials for Lenten Discussion Groups (Brisbane
Archdiocese) and personal reflection (Wollongong Diocese) have arrived and will
be available from next weekend. Both sets of materials are on sale at $6 each.
We will be approaching leaders of discussion groups from past years re their
availability to lead groups in 2020 and details will also be available next
weekend.
Take care on the roads and in your homes,
PRAYER FOR
RAIN & RELIEF FROM BUSHFIRES
We continue our Prayer for Rain and Relief at Presbyterian
Church, Edward Street, Devonport on Tuesday, 4th February at 7pm.
Over 40 people have gathered each week from a variety of denominations – this
is another opportunity for the Churches in Devonport to show their unity as we
pray together for Rain and Relief for all suffering from the bushfires and drought.
PLENARY 2020
The submissions to the Plenary Council have now been
organised into six (6) key themes. These themes are – Missionary &
Evangelising; Inclusive, Participatory & Synodal; Prayerful &
Eucharistic; Humble, Healing & Merciful; A Joyful, Hope-filled &
Servant Community; and Open to Conversion, Renewal & Reform.
We are inviting parishioners to participate in the last two
Listening and Discernment gatherings to discover where God’s
Spirit is leading the People of God in Australia at this time.
Wednesday
evenings: 7:00pm –
8:30pm, 90 Stewart Street, Devonport
5th February – A Joyful, Hope-filled & Servant Community
12th February – Open to Conversion, Renewal & Reform
LITURGY PREPARATION GROUP:
All interested in assisting in the preparation of our
Lenten liturgies are welcome to meet at ‘Parish House’ Sunday 9th February
at 2pm. Transport from Penguin can be provided. For further
information, please contact Peter on 0437 921 366. All welcome.
2020 LENTEN PROGRAM:
You are invited to join a Lenten
Group on six Thursdays beginning 27th February at the Parish House Devonport
from 10am – 11:30am. Booklets available at first meeting.
Contact Clare Kiely-Hoye 0418
100 402
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
Marriage Masses for the Renewal Of Vows - will be
celebrated by Archbishop Julian Porteous on Sunday 16th February, 2020 at St
Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart at 10.30am and on Sunday 23rd February, 2020 at Church
of the Apostles, Launceston at 10.30am. Couples celebrating Catholic Marriage
milestones including couples in the early years of marriage (1st, 5th and 10th anniversaries) are invited to RSVP to the Office of Life,
Marriage and Family by emailing ben.smith@aohtas.org.au
or on 6208 6036. Catholic married couples will receive a special
acknowledgement from Archbishop Julian on the day.
THURSDAY 6th February – Eyes down 7:30pm. Callers Rod Clark & Brendan O’Connor
Letter From Rome
An Italian Bishop Goes Rogue And Blows The Whistle
Doing what no other bishop in Italy has ever done, Giovanni Nardini reported a group of priest-pedophiles to civil authorities by Robert Mickens, Rome. January 30, 2020
This article is from the La-Croix International website - you can access the site here but complete access is via paid subscription
More cracks are appearing in the teetering edifice of Italy's once invincible Catholic hierarchy.
For the first time ever, it seems, a bishop has gone to the country's civil authorities to denounce priests and religious brothers accused of sexually abusing minors. And by doing so, he's broken ranks with the men who lead Italy's other 225 dioceses.
His name is Bishop Giovanni Nerbini.
The chrism oil from his episcopal ordination was barely dry when Nerbini, who is bishop of the Diocese of Prato just 16 miles (25.5 km) north of Florence, contacted police in late December to report abuse allegations against nine members of a controversial religious community called the Disciples of the Annunciation.
The bishop took the action on his own initiative since – amazingly – neither the State of Italy nor the Vatican requires clerics to report sexual abuse to civil authorities.
Unprecedented action
Nerbini's retired predecessor, Bishop Franco Agostinelli, had already learned of the alleged abuse early last summer, but he reported it only to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which opened an administrative penal process.
It is not clear what prompted Bishop Nerbini to go to the cops in Tuscany.
But it seems he did so shortly after the Vatican's Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life informed him in a Dec. 16 letter that it had suppressed the Disciples of the Annunciation.
The group was set up in the Diocese of Prato in 2005 and recognized canonically as an association of the faithful in 2010.
But just three years later, diocesan officials had launched the first of two investigations into the religious community. The Vatican would mandate the second investigation in 2018.
During neither of these periods of "canonical visitation" was there ever a hint of sex abuse. At least, that's what Church authorities are claiming.
The Vatican congregation listed other reasons for suppressing the group.
These included (but were not limited to) a dwindling number of members, defiance of diocesan authority and "serious perplexities about the founder's style of governance and his suitability for this role".
In simpler terms, the Vatican-led investigation found that the group was like a cult run by a charismatic leader.
Strange things happening in a strange religious communityThe man who founded the Disciples of the Annunciation is Gilioli Gigli, a 73-year-old priest and former member of another obscure religious order in Verona.
He went to Prato sometime in the early 2000s and in January 2005 established his fledgling new community with the express permission of the bishop at the time, Gastone Simoni, now close to 83 years old.
Don Gigli gathered young men from various parts of the world into his group.
The charism of his new community was to "incarnate the 'Here I am, Lord' that the Virgin Mary spoke to the Archangel Gabriel" at the Annunciation.
Members would profess a fourth vow in addition to those of poverty, chastity and obedience – the vow of abandonment to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Their apostolate was to guide young people in serious vocational discernment, "form and save the family of today, ever in greater crisis", and "sustain and help religious and diocesan priests faithfully live their vocation".
The Disciples of the Annunciation thrived early on, but it did not take long before members started leaving. The community was in crisis, prompting diocesan authorities and, eventually, the Vatican to step in.
An alleged abuse victim steps forward
Again, there was never any mention of sexual abuse of minors. Until last spring.
That's when a man in his 20s told a priest that various members of the Disciples had sexually abused him and one of his brothers between 2008 and 2016 when they were still minors.
The priest advised the man to report the alleged assault to Bishop Agostinelli. He did not do so until June.
But by that time Pope Francis had already accepted the bishop's resignation and had named Giovanni Nerbini – still just a parish priest – as the new leader of Prato diocese.
Nonetheless, Agostinelli sent the abuse allegations to the Vatican's doctrinal office, which is standard protocol.
Meanwhile, the 65-year-old Nerbini, who had been working in a parish and serving as vicar general of another Tuscan diocese (Fiesole), was finally ordained to the episcopate.
That was on June 30. But it was not until Sept. 7 when he was officially installed as Agostinelli's successor.
Bishop Giovanni: parish priest and late vocation
Nerbini has an interesting background. Tuscan born and raised, he was a schoolteacher for the first sixteen years of his professional life. He then entered the seminary in 1989 at age 35.
When he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Fiesole in 1995 he was just a few weeks shy of his 41st birthday.
They call that a late vocation.His entire 24 years of priestly ministry has been parish work, though he was also given extra duties as diocesan vicar general in 2015.
And people say "Don Giovanni" has not lost the parish priest's common touch. At his installation in Prato he said, "I know my place here – it is to be in the middle with the priests and people of this diocese."
The newly installed Bishop Giovanni wasted no time on the case against the Disciples of the Annunciation.
He met with the alleged victims and the accused, discovering and verifying more information.
He also made sure the canonical investigation, which Church authorities maintain were unrelated to the abuse allegations, was proceeding expediently.
Few people knew of his decision to report the abuse claims to the civil authorities.That came to light on Jan. 29 after local magistrates announced they were investigating nine members of the suppressed religious community – among them, five priests, including the founder.
Bishop Nerbini called a televised press conference the same day and confirmed that he was the one that contacted the civil authorities.
He had done so several weeks earlier.
The Church will fully cooperate with Italian authorities
The bishop said the magistrates had concluded the first phase of their investigation and pledged the Church's full cooperation in the ongoing probe.
"I will not hide my pain and my deep concern and I'd like to hope that the accusations are not true," he told reporters.
"But I want to say clearly that the primary interest of the Church of Prato is to find out the truth. For this reason, I hope the magistrates, in the interests of everyone, are able to complete their investigation as soon as possible," Nerbini said.
These two short statements, which seem so normal and right, were like a thunderclap.
At least in Italy where the established institutions of Catholicism and even the wider society have been extremely hesitant to open a public conversation over sexual abuse, whether that be at the hands of priests, teachers, coaches, physicians or close relatives.
The culture of omertà (a strict silence) as a way to deal with unspeakable or shameful things still has a powerful influence on the collective Italian mentality.
Last year at the San Remo music festival, a wildly popular event that is televised over a number of days each February, organizers rejected one of the groups that had auditioned for the competition.
The song they were to present was about a little girl who was sexually abused by an older man.
San Remo's producers categorically denied that the rejection was because of the topic of the song. They said it was due to the quality of the artists.
But their decision generated heated debate and it made many people in the country squirm.
Italians – especially those who wear the Roman collar – just don't talk about such things.
At least they didn't used to.
What's at stake
Bishop Nerbini may have opened a whole new chapter on this front. And some of his confreres in the episcopacy must be scared to death at the prospect.
Because, for many of them, death is exactly what's at stake.
Death to clerical privilege and immunity. Death to the silence that protects the perpetrators. Death to the mystique of the sacred, which too many clerics still cultivate and wield as a holy power to control others.
Giovanni Nerbini has gone rogue and broken the longstanding policy of bishops in Italy to allow no one but themselves to investigate crimes inside the Church.
Hopefully, more existing bishops will break ranks as he has done. And, hopefully, Pope Francis will appoint some more new bishops that will do the same.
An Embarrassing Silence
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 I first learned contemplation in my Franciscan
novitiate, I was taught a practice of silent, wordless prayer. Over the
decades, I have learned there are many paths to contemplation, a myriad of ways
to access nondual consciousness. (The Saturday practices in the Daily
Meditations are our own attempts to help spread the good news of contemplation
in many forms.) Regardless how we practice—with stillness, breath, observation,
chanting, walking, dancing, calm conversation—contemplation calls the ordinary thinking
mind into question. We gradually come to recognize that this thing we call
“thinking” does not enable us to love God and love others. We need a different
operating system, and it both begins with and leads to silence.
Even through practices full of sounds and words,
contemplation helps us access a foundational silence, a deep, interior openness
to Presence. One of our faculty members, Barbara Holmes, writes: “An
ontological silence can occupy the heart of cacophony, the interiority of
celebratory worship. . . . Silence [is] the source of all being. . . . Silence
is the sea that we swim in.” [1] And yet we’re often oblivious to it. Thus, the
need for practice.
In my book The Naked Now, I call non-silence “dualistic
thinking,” where everything is separated into opposites, like good and bad,
life and death. In the West, we even believe that is what it means to be
educated—to be very good at dualistic thinking. Join the debate club! But both
Jesus and Buddha would call that judgmental thinking (Matthew 7:1-5), and they
strongly warn us against it.
Dualistic thinking is operative almost all of the time now.
It is when we choose or prefer one side and then call the other side of the
equation false, wrong, heresy, or untrue. But what we judge as wrong is often
something to which we have not yet been exposed or that somehow threatens our
ego. The dualistic mind splits the moment and forbids the dark side, the
mysterious, the paradoxical. This is the common level of conversation that we
experience in much of religion and politics and even every day conversation. It
lacks humility and patience—and is the opposite of contemplation.
In contemplative practice, the Holy Spirit frees us from
taking sides and allows us to remain content long enough to let it teach, broaden,
and enrich us in the partial darkness of every situation. We need to practice
for many years and make many mistakes in the meantime to learn how to do this.
Paul rather beautifully describes this kind of thinking: “Pray with gratitude
and the peace of Christ, which is beyond knowledge or understanding (what I
would call “the making of distinctions”), will guard both your mind and your
heart in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). Teachers of contemplation show us
how to stand guard and not let our emotions and obsessive thoughts control us.
When we’re thinking nondualistically, with this guarded mind
and heart, we will feel powerless for a moment, stunned into an embarrassing
and welcoming silence. Then we will discover what is ours to do.
[1] Barbara A. Holmes, Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative
Practices of the Black Church, 2nd edition (Fortress Press: 2017), 20-22.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Silent Compassion: Finding God in
Contemplation (Franciscan Media: 2014), 10-11.
On Self-Hatred And Guilt
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
Recently on the popular television program, Saturday Night Live, a comedian made a rather colorful wisecrack in response to an answer that Nancy Pelosi had given to a journalist who had accused her of hating the President. Pelosi had stated that, as a Roman Catholic, she hates no one – and this prompted the comedian to make this quip: “As a Catholic, I know there’s always one person you hate – yourself.”
I’m not someone who’s easily upset by religious jokes. Humor is supposed to have an edge and comedians play an important archetypal role here, that of the “Court Jester” whose task it is to deflate whatever’s pompous. Religion is often fair game. Indeed, I appreciated the wit in this wisecrack. Still, something bothers me about this particular wisecrack because it plays into a certain stereotype that’s, unfortunately, very common today wherein people from all kinds of religious backgrounds (this is not specific to Roman Catholics) blame their religious upbringing for the struggles they have with self-hatred and guilt feelings.
How true is this? Is our religious upbringing the root cause of our struggles with self-hatred and guilt feelings?
Obviously our religious upbringing does play some role here, but it’s far too simplistic (and not particularly helpful) to blame all of this, or even most of it, on our religious upbringing. Psychologists and anthropologists assure us that the issue of self-hatred and free-floating guilt is infinitely more complex, especially since we see it playing out in people of every kind of religious background as well as in people who have no religious background at all. Struggles with self-hatred and guilt is not a particularly Roman Catholic phenomenon, Protestant phenomenon, Evangelical phenomenon, Jewish phenomenon, or Moslem phenomenon; it’s a universal phenomenon that makes itself felt in most every sensitive person. Moreover that struggle is not always unhealthy.
Any morally sensitive person, unlike someone who’s morally calloused, will constantly be self-assessing, often anxious as to whether she’s being selfish rather than good, and perennially worrying that some of her words and actions may have hurt others and damaged her relationship with God. To experience this kind of anxiety is precisely to be struggling with feelings of self-hatred and guilt; but, at one level, this is in fact healthy. When we’re anxiously self-assessing, there’s far less danger that we will take others, take the gift of life, or the take the goodness of God for granted. Moral sensitivity is a virtue and, like aesthetic sensitivity, it keeps you healthily fearful lest in ignorance and insensitivity you paint a moustache on the Mona Lisa.
Some of this, of course, is unhealthy. As Freud taught us, our conscience doesn’t tell us what’s right and what’s wrong, it only tells us how we feel about our actions. And when we have guilt feelings about what we have just done or left undone those feelings are, no doubt, often powerfully influenced by the social and moral standards that have been put into us as children by our parents, our teachers, our culture, and our religious upbringing. Our religious and moral upbringing does leave us struggling with some false guilt.
But, that being admitted, there are deeper causes as to why we struggle with self-hatred and free-floating guilt and why we just never quite feel good enough.
If we could review our lives in a video, we would see the countless times we were in, every kind of way, told that we’re not good, not adequate, not loveable, not valued, not precious. We would see the countless times we were shamed in our enthusiasm; and this, I submit, more than any other factor, lies at the root of our self-hatred, our free-floating feelings of guilt, and the bitterness we so frequently feel towards others.
It starts in the highchair when, as toddlers, in our blind energy, we eat too enthusiastically and are told not to eat like a pig. Likewise, as toddlers, full of food and zest, we shout and throw some food on the floor and are told to stop it, to shut up, that our natural energies aren’t healthy. Then, as a preschooler, we are often further shamed in our enthusiasm. Eventually things move on to the playground, the classroom, and into our family circles where our uniqueness and preciousness are not often sufficiently recognized or valued, where we’re frequently ignored, put down, treated unfairly, bullied, made aware of our inferiorities and failures, and, in ways subtle and not-so-subtle, told that we’re not good enough. This sets us up for the rejections we absorb in adulthood, for the jealousies we feel when the lives of others look so much richer than our own, for the unexpressed bitterness we nurse because of our own inadequacies, and for the guilt we feel because of our own betrayals.
It isn’t primarily because of our religious training that we hate ourselves and are haunted by a lot of free-floating guilt.
Yes, most of us Catholics do hate ourselves. Sadly, would it were otherwise, so too does everyone else.
4 Habits To Build A Culture Of Small Groups In Your Parish
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
We are fast approaching the end of January, the time of year when the new resolutions and routines we started are beginning to seem just a little bit tedious. Maybe you just started noticing a little dust on the new exercise bike you got for Christmas or your wallet is feeling a little lighter even though you promised you wouldn’t buy lunch at work.
Nothing sustains motivation better than accountability. And a great place for accountability is a parish small group. It transforms a personal quest into a shared one. That’s why small groups are a cornerstone of parish life at Nativity. This weekend, “Small Group Launch Weekend,” as we wrap up a month-long series about ‘Habits,’ parishioners will have the opportunity to learn more about our small group program and sign up to join one for Lent. Check out the Concourse after Mass.
Our small groups are successful because they are not just one program among many but because they are built into the very fabric of our parish. They are, simply, a part of our culture. And it’s built on habits. Small Groups….
1. Get everyone moving in the same direction
We learned early on that small groups can be a powerful uniting force within the parish. While we organize small groups by demographic (men, women, couples, young adults), every group uses the same materials and discusses the same topics (almost always matching my weekend message). This sets up a pattern by which small group members hear the message on Sunday, have a chance to digest, and then discuss with others. In the process we’re all growing in the same direction. The importance of this dynamic cannot be overstated in the life of the parish.
2. Form the basis for student and kid’s programs
For small groups to be embedded into the culture of your parish, they need to be built into ministries across ages and life stages. All the benefits of adult small groups – community, accountability, faith sharing – apply to students and kids, too. Try dedicating a part of your regular student ministry to small groups and see what happens.
3. Meet outside the church building
Our small groups meet outside of our church building whenever possible. Not only does this reduce the strain on your time and physical resources but it also allows conversation to happen in an environment that is more comfortable and neutral. This lowers people’s natural defenses. It also empowers group leaders, teaching them that we are called to share our faith outside the church building.
We even host online small groups, which meet each week via video chat. This enables our members who travel often or are seasonally away, like college students or military members, to participate. While we will never completely move away from in-person small groups, we have to continue adapting to what technology enables us to do.
4. Focus on life change
Small groups give people the opportunity to respond to the conversation started in the weekend message. Conversation leads to conversion. That’s why our small groups aim at nothing less than life change.
Check out parishioner’s comments on this Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/churchnativity where members are sharing their own stories of the impact small groups have had on their lives.
Alfred Delp: Committed To Christ
Seventy-five years ago, a German Jesuit priest was executed as a traitor in Berlin for his continued and outspoken resistance to the Nazi regime. Michael Holman SJ introduces us to Alfred Delp, a man of remarkable faith and courage, whose radical commitment to following Christ even in life-threatening circumstances challenges us to hear and respond to the call of Christ in our own time.
Michael Holman SJ is Principal of Heythrop College and a former Provincial of the British Jesuits.
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website where you can find a wide range of articles by clicking here
Last summer I got to know someone, albeit very much at second or third hand, who made a profound impression on me. This was one of those encounters which shook me to the foundation; one of those encounters which made me think a good deal about the way in which I go about living my life as a follower of Christ in our country today.
Let me first set the scene. In July, I had gone up to Liverpool to make my retreat at the Jesuit Spirituality Centre, Loyola Hall, in the suburb of Rainhill. We Jesuits make an eight-day silent retreat each year. We are, as one of our founder’s closest followers put it, ‘contemplatives in action’. So listening to God’s call in our lives and responding generously is what we are all about and this time of silence is one way of attuning ourselves to God’s voice amidst the many voices that shout all around us.
In the early days of that retreat, I was very much taken with something that a woman whom I admire very much had written many years ago, but they are words which apply just as much today.
‘Faith in Jesus is very, very rare’
Ruth Burrows is a Carmelite sister, a follower of Teresa of Avila, who lives in their convent in Quidenham, in Norfolk. She had written that ‘faith in Jesus is very, very rare’, by which I took her to mean not so much the intellectual assent to a God and to Jesus as the Son of God, but the kind of faith which allows Jesus, and the Gospel of Jesus, to take hold of our lives. That is the faith that Ruth Burrows says is ‘very, very rare’. For too many of us, faith, like much else in life, is compromised.
It was with those challenging words ringing in my ears that during my retreat I met someone. Now that someone has been dead for sixty-five years now, but so vivid was the story that I read that it became something of a personal encounter. You’ll probably know from your own experience how that can happen. I like reading biographies of other Jesuits, I like reading about what it was that gave them life. So I picked up this biography of a man whose name I had heard often but about whom I knew precious little and I was fascinated by what I read.
A modern man
Alfred Delp was born in southern Germany in 1907. He was illegitimate; his parents married not long after he was born. His mother was a Catholic but he was raised a Lutheran, the faith of his father. Later on in life, he wrote that ‘if ever they try and canonise me just tell them I was a brat’. He was wild and independent but it was that spirit which at the age of seventeen or thereabouts led him to decide for himself that he would become a Catholic, and which three years later took him into the Society of Jesus.
His training was much like my own half a century later, with the study of philosophy followed by the study of theology, with a period of three years working in a school in between. The biography included photographs of Delp; I could see him in young people I had known myself, so modern did he look. When working in that school he liked to try things out, to spread his wings, to do things his way and to show he could succeed. All this annoyed his Jesuit headmaster who later became his Provincial! I too was once a headmaster and now I am Provincial, and yes, I have known Jesuits like him. There was much I could relate to in his story.
Alfred Delp was modern in another sense, too. He was very much taken up with the new humanism that was sweeping the Church in the pre-war years, as it would in the years before and after the Second Vatican Council, which he never saw. This humanism we must never lose sight of because it was forged in an age of so much human suffering which gives it a peculiar authority. It stressed the importance of the human person, the individual human person, the uniqueness and dignity of each person and the wonder of each person as God’s creation in God’s own likeness.
In his studies, Alfred became an expert in the social teaching of the Church, that ‘best kept secret’ of our Catholic tradition, and he was doing all this in the mid-thirties when his homeland was in the grip of Hitler and the Nazis. He did all this at a time when the totalitarianism of Russia and his own country emphasised ‘mass-man’ and put the rights and dignity of the individual at the service of the State.
Alfred was ordained priest in 1937 and after a while was sent to be pastor of a church that the Jesuits had responsibility for in Munich. In 1941, the Nazis produced a propaganda film, explaining their policy of euthanasia, the ‘mercy killing’ of the handicapped. From his pulpit he denounced the film. He spoke of the importance of those living with disability, both as individuals and in terms of their significance in the community, and their significance in calling forth the best of human qualities – God-like qualities – in the rest of us.
Perhaps you would expect this kind of protest from a Catholic priest. Living in circumstances such as those, what else would he do? Astonishingly, to many if not to most, things didn’t seem so clear. There came a time when the German bishops wanted to produce a report condemning euthanasia and the disappearance of so many people, among them so many priests. Delp approved of a draft of the document, which was outspoken in its criticism of the regime. But the bishops were divided and feared an all-out assault on the Church. Moreover, Catholics fought in the army of the Reich so some thought this a time for patriotism. As the brave Bishop of Berlin put it, the final version ‘was dry cleaned, the spots removed and all the colour too’.
Towards the end of 1944, Delp was arrested and imprisoned. For two years he had been meeting with like-minded intellectuals, the so-called Kreisau group, planning the future of post-war Germany. He was now suspected of involvement in the assassination attempt on Hitler featured in the recent Tom Cruise movie, Valkyrie. He was charged with treason.
‘God alone suffices’
Friends brought bread and wine to Alfred in prison and he celebrated Mass. He kept the Blessed Sacrament with him always. In his laundry, his friends smuggled in a pen, ink and paper. He wrote a diary and a set of reflections on the Church and on society, which have proven extraordinarily prophetic. Writing of England all those years ago, he talked about it having lost its spirit and soul to materialism. But above all, these writings tell us of his struggle to remain committed to Christ, his temptation to compromise, his struggle to live knowing that ‘God alone suffices’, as Teresa of Avila wrote.
On 8 December, a Jesuit visited him in prison and, handcuffed, with tears pouring down his face, he made his final profession in the Society of Jesus.
In January 1945, he was put on trial. They found no evidence for his complicity in the assassination attempt. But his judge was a fanatic Nazi who hated Christianity, hated the Catholic Church and hated Jesuits above all. Delp was sentenced to death.
On 2 February, aged 37, he was taken to the Plötzensee Prison and that afternoon, in a room that is now a shrine, he was hanged from a meat hook in the ceiling. He was then cremated and his ashes were scattered over human sewage, as was required for traitors. His few possessions were collected together and presented to his mother who kept them under her bed in a suitcase until she died in 1967.
‘His ears were opened, his tongue was released’ (Mk 7:31-37)
‘Faith in Jesus is very, very rare.’ It is granted to some to have their eyes opened and their ears unstopped so that they can read the signs of the times and hear the call of Christ. To even rarer ones is granted what is needed to respond with unspeakable love and generosity.
This kind of generosity is a flame that kindles other fires. Delp inspired heroism in many others. He inspired his secretary who risked her life bringing a pen and ink in his laundry and distributing his letters. He himself had been inspired by another Jesuit priest in Munich, Rupert Mayer, who unlike Delp is now beatified by the Church for his uncompromising resistance.
But what fire does Delp’s flame kindle in us? It makes me wonder the extent to which we are blind to the signs of the times and deaf to the call of Christ. How accustomed to compromise in our own times have we become? To what extent are we beguiled by the prevailing social consensus with the result that we blend in nicely with the countryside, but little more?
It was the assault on life that made Alfred Delp’s mission urgent. In our own times this same assault is considerable too – at the start of life and at the end of life. In an over-commercialised economy with an over-individualised social policy, which has too little concern for its impact on our environment, the unique significance and dignity of each and every human life is being compromised.
Maybe something more radical is being asked of the followers of Christ today? Maybe we need our eyes opened, our ears unstopped and our tongues loosened? Maybe that is the way to our renewal as a Church in Western Europe? Lest it continue to be said about this generation that faith in Jesus is indeed very, very rare.
