Feast of the Epiphany (2020)

Mersey Leven Catholic Parish

OUR VISION

To be a vibrant Catholic Community 

unified in its commitment 

to growing disciples for Christ 

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

Mersey Leven Catholic Parish Weekly Newsletter: mlcathparish.blogspot.com.au

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.

Parish Office re-opens Tuesday 28^th January, 2020

         

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.

Parish Prayer

Heavenly Father,

We thank you for gathering us together 
and calling us to serve as your disciples.

You have charged us through Your Son, Jesus, with the great mission

  of evangelising and witnessing your love to the world.

Send your Holy Spirit to guide us as we discern your will

 for the spiritual renewal of our parish.

Give us strength, courage, and clear vision 
as we use our gifts to serve you.

We entrust our parish family to the care of Mary, our mother,

and ask for her intercession and guidance 
as we strive to bear witness

 to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.

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 - 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 – In Recess until Mon 13th January. For information: Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068

Weekday Masses 7th - 10th January 2020

Tuesday:         9:30am Penguin 
Wednesday:   9:30am Latrobe
Thursday        12noon Devonport

Friday:           9:30am Ulverstone
                                                                                                                       

Next Weekend 11th - 12th January 2020  

Saturday Vigil:  6:00pm Devonport 
                        6:00pm Penguin - LWwC
Sunday Mass:    8:30am Port Sorell - LWwC
                        9:00am Ulverstone
                      10:30am Devonport - LWwC
                      11:00am Sheffield
                       5:00pm Latrobe

                            

Devonport Friday Adoration:  Recommences 7^th February, 2020

Devonport:  Benediction (1^st Friday of the Month) - Recommences 7^th February, 2020

                             

Parish Office Closed until Tuesday 28^th January, 2020

OLOL Piety Shop will be closed for month of January

                          

Readings This Week: The Epiphany of the Lord

First Reading: Isaiah 60:1-6

Second Reading:  Ephesians 3:2-3,5-6

Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12

PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:

It may be that the hectic days around Christmas are now over, or perhaps the past few days have been quiet and reflective. 

However I feel, I take a few moments to put aside all that prevents me from being close to the Lord. 

I trust he is with me, always ready to speak to me in this time of prayer. 

I read the familiar text, trying to imagine the scene ... the different characters speaking to each other, sharing information. 

I see the different ways God is speaking to them: through a star; through prophets; in a dream. 

I ponder. 

When have I been aware of God speaking to me? 

Maybe it was through a person sharing an important piece of news? 

Perhaps I can see now how much this changed my outlook on life, even if I did not realise it at the time? 

I tell the Lord about all this in my own words, and give thanks. 

The wise men, the chief priests and the scribes freely shared what they knew, unaware of the trap Herod was setting for them. 

If it helps, I imagine myself telling the story for the first time as if to a small child. 

I notice the anxiety in their eyes: what will happen to these people? 

Will Herod manage to find Jesus and harm him? 

Then I see the relief on their face as they learn God has spoken to the wise men in a dream, and told them not to tell the evil king what they know. 

Once again, I look at my own life, and perhaps remember times when I have kept quiet about something that I felt might harm someone else. 

What happened? 

How did I sense it was better not to share what I knew? 

In what way did God speak to me then? 

When the time comes to conclude my prayer, I thank the Lord for being with me and for guiding my steps in a ‘different way’.

Readings Next Week: The Baptism of the Lord - Year A

First Reading: Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7

Second Reading: Acts 10: 34-38

Gospel: Matthew 3: 13-17

                              

Your prayers are asked for the sick:  Chris Fielding, Margaret Becker, Erin Kyriazis, Philip Smith, Frank McDonald & …

Let us pray for those who have died recently: Lope Zenarosa, Marjorie Frampton, Ray Khan, Carmel Leonard, Geoff Ranson, David Handyside, Austin Fagan

Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 2nd - 8th January

Nicola Tenaglia, Roy Beechey, Cavell Robertson, Joshua Delaney, Elizabeth Delaney, Tess Landers, Ellen Fay, Alfred Harrison, Virginia Miller, Nancy Bramich, Catherine Gibbons, Graham Hollister, Agnes & William Marshall, Ronald Bramich

May they Rest in Peace

                               

Weekly Ramblings

Last Sunday, 29th, was six years since I started my appointment as PP of the Parish. I remember that my arrival was at the end of an interesting few days for me. I had celebrated Mass as PP of Central Tasmania (New Norfolk) on the Friday before leaving for the West Coast where I celebrated Masses at Queenstown on Saturday evening, Zeehan and Strahan on Sunday morning and completing my five years as PP there. I then drove to Latrobe to celebrate the evening Mass and begin my new role in the Mersey Leven Parish.

These past 6 years have been both challenging and interesting. I have worked with 4 priests (Frs Augustine, Alex, Smiley and Paschal) and four students have spent time here as part of their Pastoral placement (Steven Smith, Paschal Okpon, Crisanto Mendoza and Kanishka Perera).  Two of these students have been ordained priests (Paschal and Crisanto) and Steven Smith is a Deacon and likely to be ordained later this year and we will watch and pray that Kanishka will also continue on his path to priesthood.

As well as working with these men I have been blessed to have had the support of you, the faithful parishioners, who have seen people like me come and go, with our ideas and dreams, our gifts and foibles, and still you are the faithful people of God. I am constantly thanking God for your faithfulness and love of the Church despite all the challenges that have been part of our story over these past few years and pray with and for you as you continue your journey of faith.

I saw the cartoon that can be found on the noticeboards throughout the Parish this weekend during this past week where Pope Francis is inviting us to have ‘2020 Vision’. As we move towards the first stage of the Plenary 2020 my prayer is that we will have a vision that allows us to respect the past and all that is good about our Church and her traditions but still have the confidence and the courage to look for new ways to make the message known in our community today.   

Wishing you all a great New Year and, please, take care on the roads and in your homes, 

                               

Sinulog Festival - 2020

Sinulog Festival in honour of the Holy Child Jesus, Senor Santo Niño, will be celebrated on Sunday 19^th January at the 10:30am Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church. As a Parish everyone is invited to join with our Filipino sisters and brothers for the Mass and Luncheon which follows in the parish hall. Please bring a plate to share. Everyone is most welcome!

Masses at Nursing Homes

During January the normal monthly Masses celebrated at Nursing Homes in the Parish are suspended – however the normal visits for Holy Communion continue on a regular basis.

                              

Letter From Rome

Pope Francis begins the most important year of his pontificate

Curia reform, new cardinals and trips to unexpected places will shape pope's 2020 by Robert Mickens, Rome. January 2, 2020

This article is from the La-Croix International website - you can access the site here but complete access is via paid subscription 

Anno Domini MMXX

When the history of Pope Francis' time as Bishop of Rome is finally ritten, there is a good chance that the Year of Our Lord 2020 will be recorded as the most important of his entire pontificate.

Some are wondering whether it may actually be his last.

The pope's recent decisions to "retire" the powerful Italian churchman Angelo Sodano as dean of the College of Cardinals and to make Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines head one of the most powerful Vatican offices – Propaganda Fide – are being read as signs that Francis is beginning to prepare for the election of his successor on the Chair of Peter.

The 83-year-old Jesuit pope will also be issuing two major documents in 2020, and probably a few others. He'll continue to travel the globe, possibly going to places where his predecessors had hoped to visit but were denied entry. And there's no doubt he will add more men to the illustrious red-hatted group from which will emerge the next Bishop of Rome.

So any way one looks at this new calendar year, it will almost certainly prove to be pivotal.

The Synod paves the way to reform

Pope Francis is to publish at least two extremely important documents already in the initial weeks of 2020.

The first of these texts is an apostolic exhortation on last October's special assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region. Francis has already hinted that he will endorse a number of changes in pastoral practice that the Synod participants proposed to him.

One of these is the priestly ordination of the viri probati (married men of proven virtue), specifically those who are already permanent deacons. Another is the establishment of a new papal commission to study the possibility of instituting the diaconate and other ministries for women. And a third is the compilation of a new liturgical rite to incorporate cultural elements particular to the native peoples of the Amazon.

This highly anticipated post-synodal apostolic exhortation is likely to open up other avenues for reform, as well. So its importance should not be underestimated.

As argued before, the Oct. 6-27 Synod gathering at the Vatican marked a turning point for the emergence of a truly global Church.

It is one that is still struggling to break free from residual elements from the Tridentine era (especially clericalism) that continue to be an obstacle to the full implementation of the teachings and vision of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

Observers believe the forthcoming exhortation could be published as early as mid- to late-January.

Praedicate Evangelium

The second major document that Pope Francis will be issuing in 2020 is the constitution on the reformed structure and role of the Church's central offices at the Vatican, known as the Roman Curia.

The final draft of the constitution, which has been named Praedicate Evangelium,is currently being tidied up after the inclusion of suggestions submitted by bishop conferences, other Church leaders and theologians. The finished product is likely to contain items that were never part of the earlier drafts that the (formerly C9, now C6) Council of Cardinals compiled in consultation with Curia officials.

Almost everyone agrees that reforming the Roman Curia has been one of the major projects and objectives of Francis' pontificate. The Argentine pope has slowly and patiently directed the process of reform. And in an important address just before Christmas to members of the Curia, he said:

"In discussing a change that is grounded mainly in fidelity to the depositum fidei and the Tradition, today I would like to speak once more of the implementation of the reform of the Roman Curia and to reaffirm that this reform has never presumed to act as if nothing had preceded it.

"On the contrary, an effort was made to enhance the good elements deriving from the complex history of the Curia.

"There is a need to respect history in order to build a future that has solid roots and can thus prove fruitful.

"Appealing to memory is not the same as being anchored in self-preservation, but instead to evoke the life and vitality of an ongoing process.

"Memory is not static, but dynamic. By its very nature, it implies movement. Nor is tradition static; it too is dynamic, as that great man [Gustav Mahler, taking up a metaphor used by Jean Jaurès] used to say: tradition is the guarantee of the future and not a container of ashes."

Some Vatican watchers are saying Praedicate Evangelium will be released on Feb. 22, the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. But no matter when it is finally published, the new constitution on the Roman Curia will be the most significant act of governance to date in this pontificate.

Fresh leadership at home and abroad

The constitution will be followed, eventually, with the publication of a new set of statutes and regulation for the daily operation of Vatican offices. And, most noticeably, it will be marked by a major and widespread leadership shake-up.

Nine cardinals who currently head key Vatican offices are already beyond the normal retirement age of 75 and a tenth, who recently completed five years in post, will reach the resignation age in June. It is expected that they will all be replaced at some point not too long after Praedicate Evangelium is published.

Here are their names and the offices of the upcoming retiring cardinals: Marc Ouellet (Bishops), Giuseppe Versaldi (Education), Beniamino Stella (Clergy), Luis Ladaria (Doctrine of the Faith), Leonardo Sandri (Eastern Churches), Mauro Piacenza (Apostolic Penitentiary), Gianfranco Ravasi (Culture), Angelo Comastri (Archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica), Giuseppe Bertello (Governor of Vatican City State) and Robert Sarah (Divine Worship).

Pope Francis will also make some key appointment to a number of leading dioceses around the world. The archdioceses of Manila (Philippines), Atlanta (USA) and Caracas (Venezuela) – for instance – are currently vacant.

And men who are already past retirement age – 18 of them cardinals – continue to lead other important sees. And, beginning with Vienna's Christoph Schönborn in a few weeks time, nine more cardinals will turn 75 over the course of 2020.

While the pope will ask some of them to continue in their ministry for another year or so, he is expected replace others. It would behoove him to seize the opportunity these anniversaries offer for making a change of leadership.

New cardinals and the rule of the next conclave

There are now 124 cardinals under the age of 80 and eligible to participate in a conclave to elect the next pope. That is four more than the 120 ceiling set by Paul VI and confirmed by Francis' most recent predecessors.

Should there be no deaths among the electors, their number will not return to 120 until next November 12 when Cardinal Donald Wuerl, retired Archbishop of Washington, marks his 80thbirthday.

The fact that other cardinal-electors do not begin to "age out" until March 2021 (five more will reach 80 from then until Nov. 2021), would suggest that there will be no consistory during 2020. But, in fact, that is not a sure bet.

Pope Francis has yet to issue updated legislation and norms to be followed once the Apostolic See is vacant and a new Bishop of Rome is to be elected. The need for an update in the form of an apostolic constitution is urgent since there are currently no norms or protocols for the resignation of a pope.

Additionally, certain changes forthcoming in the structure and functions of the Roman Curia will also have to be included in the new constitution. One of them will likely concern the Apostolic Camerlengo, the official who serves as caretaker administrator when the Apostolic See is vacant.

The pope freely appoints the Camerlengo (currently Cardinal Kevin Farrell). But in the draft of Praedicate Evangelium, it is stated that the Camerlengo is "an office that is assumed by the cardinal who is coordinator of the Council for the Economy".

That man in that job right now is Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the Archbishop of Munich and member of pope's C6 advisory body.

Francis also has the freedom to change the number of cardinal-electors, as other popes have done over the centuries, since the College of Cardinals is of purely human invention. The question is whether this pope will actually do so.

Even if he does not, there is nothing to stop him from exceeding the limit once more, just as John Paul II did on a few other occasions.

Flying the friendly and not-so-friendly skies

The late Polish pope was known as a globetrotter, making more than 100 pastoral journeys to some 129 different countries in his nearly 27 years as Bishop of Rome.

By contrast, Francis has made 32 foreign trips, visiting almost 50 countries in his nearly seven-years-long pontificate. In 2015 the Argentine pope was the first ever to visit an active war zone (Central African Republic) and last year he was the first pope in modern history to visit the Arabian Peninsula (United Arab Emirates).

There are two other countries Francis is longing to visit, both of which eluded John Paul. They are China and Russia. Perhaps 2020 will be the year that a Roman Pontiff will finally be able to travel to these long coveted destinations.

A momentous year ahead

Pope Francis began this New Year by apologizing for losing his patience. It is perhaps an auspicious sign.

First of all, because it showed that the pope has the humility to publicly admit his faults and say he's sorry. But, secondly, it showed that, beneath a seemingly unguarded display of irritation, there is also a sense of urgency and restfulness within Francis.

That may be very good news for those who have been eagerly waiting concrete structural reforms to match the change of the mentality and ethos the Argentine pope has so effectively brought to the Church.

No one can read the future, but the Year of Our Lord 2020 looks like it could be one of the most crucial and important for the recent history of Roman Catholicism.

                                

The Unnamable One

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 only people that Jesus seemed to exclude were precisely those who refused to know they were ordinary sinners like everyone else. The only thing he excluded was exclusion itself.

Think about what this means for everything we sense and know about God. After the Incarnation of Jesus, we could more easily imagine a give-and-take God, a relational God, a forgiving God. Revelations of Christ—the union of matter and spirit, human and divine—were already seen and honored in the deities of Native religions, the Atman of Hinduism, the teachings of Buddhism, and the Prophets of Judaism.

Christians had a very good model and messenger in Jesus, but many non-Christians actually came to the “banquet” more easily, as Jesus often says in his parables of the resented and resisted banquet (Matthew 22:1-10; Luke 14:7-24), where “the wedding hall was filled with guests, both good and bad alike” (Matthew 22:10). What are we to do with such divine irresponsibility and largesse?

Why would a God worthy of the name God not care about all of the children? (Read Wisdom 11:23–12:2 for a humdinger of a Scripture in this regard.) Does God really have favorites among God’s children? What an unhappy family that would create—and indeed, it has created. The inclusion of the Hebrew Scriptures in the Christian canon ought to have served as a structural and definitive statement about Christianity’s movement toward radical inclusivity. How did we miss that?

Remember what God said to Moses: “I AM Who I AM” (Exodus 3:14). God is clearly not tied to a name, nor does God seem to want us to tie the Divinity to any one name. This is why, in Judaism, God’s statement to Moses became the unspeakable and unnamable God. We must practice profound humility in regard to God, who gives us not a name, but pure presence—no handle that could allow us to think we “know” who God is or have him or her as our private possession.

The Christ is always way too much for us, larger than any one era, culture, empire, or religion. Its radical inclusivity is a threat to power and arrogance. Jesus by himself has usually been limited by the evolution of human consciousness in these first two thousand years. His reputation has been held captive by culture, nationalism, and much of Christianity’s white, bourgeois, and Eurocentric worldview. Up to now, we have not been carrying history too well, because “there stood among us one we did not recognize . . . one who came after me, because he existed before me” (John 1:26, 30). He came with darker skin, from the underclass, a male body with a female soul, from an often-hated religion, living on the very cusp between East and West. No one owns him, and no one ever will.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe (Convergent Books: 2019), 5, 34-35.

                              

The Best Ten Books That Found Me In 2019

This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here 

There’s a Latin axiom which argues that there’s no accounting for taste, de gustibus non est disputandum. I reference it as to preamble to my annual list of the ten books I most enjoyed this past year because, admittedly, taste is somewhat subjective. I chose these particular books because they’re the ones that spoke most deeply to me. Perhaps they won’t speak to you in the same way. Fair enough. There’s no accounting for taste.

So, here are the authors and the books that spoke to me most deeply during this past year …

Bernardo Olivera, How Far to Follow? The Martyrs of Atlas. This book helps tell the inside story of the Trappist monks who were martyred by Islamic extremists in Algeria in 1996. Similar to the movie, Of Gods and Men, it focuses on the deep struggles these men underwent in making the decision not to leave their monastery and, instead, face martyrdom.

Donald Senior, Raymond E. Brown and the Catholic Biblical Renewal. Well-researched and well-written, this is a biography of the renowned scripture scholar, Raymond E. Brown, who stood out both for his scholarship and for his exemplary discipleship and priesthood. The book is more of an intellectual history of Brown than a chronicle of his life. It’s interesting too because, by sharing Brown’s intellectual history, Senior also highlights the particular theological and ecclesial struggles of Brown’s generation. For many of us this will be hauntingly familiar.

Rachel Held Evans: This past year, scanning book reviews, I discovered the writings of Rachel Held Evans. I cite three of her works here that spoke to me very deeply: Searching for Sunday, Loving, Leaving, and Finding Church; Inspired, Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again; and A Year of Biblical Womanhood. Rachel grew up a cradle Evangelical with a deep and solid faith, but adulthood brought its own challenges, particularly for someone of her courage and honesty. These books chronicle Rachel’s struggle with her religious mother-tongue, her falling out of her faith story, and her particular way of finding her way back in. Her story articulates the struggle of millions. It’s an invaluable read, irrespective of one’s religious mother-tongue. She’s also an exceptionally gifted writer. Sadly, she died in May at the age of 37. We lost a needed religious voice, but what she left us can help many a person sort through his or her religious struggles.

Jean Bosco Rutagengwa, Love Prevails, One Couple’s Story of Faith and Survival in the Rwandan Genocide.  Someone once said that if you want to understand the tragedy of the Second World War you can read a thousand books about it and watch a thousand hours of film – or you can read the Diary of Anne Frank. This is such a “diary”, written inside the horrors of the Rwandan Genocide.

Robert Ellsberg, A Living Gospel, Reading God’s Story in Holy Lives. The lives of the saints are our living gospel and Robert Ellsberg is the foremost hagiographer in the English language today. This, wonderfully readable, book teaches us both what hagiography is and why it’s important.

Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations, A Natural History of Love and Loss. This is a unique kind of book, a poetics of sorts on love, nature, adoration, family life, death, dying, and human resiliency. This is a piece of art.

Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ. This book will challenge you and will, with a sound scriptural theology, challenge mainline theology in its popular conception of both the intent and the scope of the incarnation. An important read.

Ruth Burrows, Before the Living God. This is Ruth Burrows’ autobiography. I first read it thirty-two years ago. It moved me then and it moved me even more thirty-two years later. In her story, you will better understand your own story and the movement of God in your life.

David Brooks, The Second Mountain, The Quest for a Moral Life. Brooks’ Second Mountain very much corresponds to what spiritual writers like Richard Rohr call the Second-Half of Life. Drawing upon his own story and creatively mixing secular and religious perspectives, Brooks lays out a challenging vision of what it means to mature, to move from being the hungry child to becoming the blessing adult. An excellent read.

Mary Jo Leddy, Why Are We Here, A Meditation on Canada. Not least, a book from a Canadian. Mary Jo Leddy, the Founder and Director of Romero House for refugees in Toronto has always been a prophetic voice. In this book, she submits that every country has its “original sin”, some primal fault in its origins that now taints its present. For Canada, she argues, it was how it treated its indigenous peoples as it formed itself into a nation. Canada is not unique in having such an “original sin”. Every country has it.  Everyone should read this book.

I apologize that this year’s list, again, does not include any novels.

                           

The Top Ten At Nativity: An Amazing Decade

This article is taken from the Blog posted by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Timoneum, Baltimore. You can find the original blog by clicking here

This week brings the decade to a close, and that brings reflection on what has passed. Such reflection is especially worthwhile for us at Nativity because this has been such a consequential period. While I could easily fill many lists with the important reasons for such unprecedented health and growth at our parish, here are perhaps the top ten, in no particular order.

1. Committing to Year-Round Message Series

Back at the beginning of the decade, we had experimented with “message series” (taking successive weekends to preach on the same theme). But beginning in 2010-2011 we started adding series until, in not so many years, we were offering them year-round. More than any other single decision, this one helped to unite the congregation through one consistent message.

2. Focusing on “Next Steps”

Over the course of the decade we have consistently preached about next steps in discipleship: Serve (in ministry or mission), Tithe or give, Engage (in small groups), Practice (prayer and Sacraments), Share (your faith). Inviting people to take these steps has changed the culture of the parish from consumerism to a community that is growing, serving, and giving.

3. Building Amazing Kids and Student Programs

Investment in kids and student programs has increased attendance and commitment on the part of parents and grandparents, which also translates into giving and serving. But more importantly, watching the commitment of the young people themselves to grow in faith is life-changing for the parish.

4. Consistent Stewardship Messages

Getting rid of fundraisers and focusing on a simple message of “giving in your place of worship as an act of worship” has transformed our finances. While we limped into the decade financially unstable, we find ourselves robust and well equipped for the future.

5. Moving Christmas to the Cow Palace

We first made the decision to hold Christmas Eve off campus 15 years ago. But in the last decade, we moved to a bigger venue, which meant a bigger commitment to this annual project. We came to say that “Christmas Eve is a paradigm for everything.” Through this exercise, we have continued to learn and grow as a bigger church. At the same time, the event has been attractional for new members.

6. Rebuilt: The Books

Long planned, much discussed, with countless re-writes, Rebuilt was finally published in 2013, and became, in the words of our publisher, a “phenomenon” in Catholic publishing. It is fair to say, without any fear of overstatement, that the book has changed the conversation in the Catholic Church in this country and in many other places, becoming a source of hope and help to thousands of parishes. For our own parish, it has been a game-changing validation of what we do. The original has now been followed by 4 more, translated into almost a dozen different languages.

7. Rebuilt: The Conference & The Association

We developed a church conference called “Matter” which we hosted for several years, limited in size and scope due to space limitations. In 2017 we suspended the conference because of construction on our campus that made it simply impossible to host. But in 2018, with our new facility opened, having learned a lot about conferences, we rebranded and relaunched our conference as Rebuilt. It was a big event and an amazing one too. We will be repeating the Conference (with all new material) in 2020 and every other year moving forward. 

In the past couple of years we have worked to get our “Association” of churches up and running, more challenging than the Conference but with all the potential to be just as rewarding, as we help grow healthy churches. The two exercises go together, one going “wide” and the other “deep,” they are the incarnation of one of our goals as a parish, to be a “teaching church.”

8. Special Events

While fundraisers, seasonal programs and other out of the ordinary events can create sideways energy for a congregation, (and lead to fatigue for a parish staff) the carefully positioned special event can be refreshing and energizing.

Special events can be stand-alone, like Easter Sunday Mass in 2014 at SECU Arena at Towson University, or our 50th Anniversary celebration in 2018. Annual special events include “Kick-Off Weekend” in September, Stewardship Sunday in November, Small Groups Launch Weekend, Ministry Weekend, and others. Some of our International Mission Trips have been special when we have celebrated them.

Our Advent “Giving” Programs have, throughout the decade, been very special events each year. From the “Advent Conspiracy” that kicked off the decade in 2011 to the Rec Center Project this year, we have undertaken amazing projects, some literally game-changers for our Mission Partners, providing inspiration and a powerful sense of purpose for the parish.

9. The Vision Campaign

Planning began in 2013 with an official launch in 2014, the Vision Campaign was an experience none of us involved in it will ever forget. In three phases, over the course of 5 years, it was amazing and spectacular and extremely successful, raising all the money needed for construction and allowing us to complete the work debt-free.

10. The Building Project for the New Church

Probably the most obvious accomplishment of the last decade is the most recent one, the construction of the new church. It is a beautiful building for sure, but it is more. It is the incarnation of much of what we’ve been talking about when it comes to building or rebuilding healthy parishes. It is the laboratory for our parish to continue to learn and grow moving forward. And it is a compelling platform for us to assist other parishes.

Cheers to an amazing decade!

Thanks to all of you who helped make it happen.

                            

A Wise Man

‘I had brought a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes – enough for a king’s burial. But here was a king already buried, if you know what I mean. Not in the jewelled courts of Jerusalem. Not in the palaces. But in a hovel fit only for stinking cattle.’ Rob Marsh SJ gives voice to the musings of one of the magi whose visit to the manger shapes our Epiphany prayer. Rob Marsh SJ is a tutor in spirituality at Campion Hall, University of Oxford.

This text was first preached as a homily to the Jesuit Community of the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, Santa Clara University, in January 1999.

This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website where you can find a wide range of articles by clicking here

I read the words the messenger had brought me: ‘Buried with a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes’. I had almost forgotten him … God knows I’ve tried! Nothing has been quite right since that fool’s errand thirty years ago in my misspent, mystical youth. And now he’s dead, embalmed and buried with my spices, my myrrh.

Oh, the journey didn’t seem so stupid back then. The signs were there … in the heavens, in the cards, in the embers of the fire. And when the three of us met, each on the same quest, well, it seemed beyond doubt that we were to be witnesses to some great event. A new king among the Hebrews certainly, but something more, said our oracles, something much more. We rode so confidently for those two years. Can you imagine it? Two years tramping the ways, staying in fleapits, hiding from bandits, constantly fleeced by merchants with no scruples. Two years building each other up with dreams and visions, and ever more exact calculations of the time and place.

And then things began to go wrong. The complex computation was a little off – not a lot, just that there was the Holy City up ahead, Jerusalem of the mountains, crowned by its golden temple … while the charts said, no, down there to the south a little ways.

We trusted our common sense instead of the signs and ended up face to face with that monster, Herod – as bad as and worse than his reputation – trying to conceal his fear at our naïve declaration of our quest: ‘where is the babe born to be king?’

Fools, we were, but fools laden with gifts and fools who had travelled for years, and yes, fools who knew a threat when we heard it. So we set off quietly, dodged Herod’s spies, and this time followed our star maps, to Bethlehem, some little hole in the middle of nowhere. Ironic, really: so close to the centre of the turning world but enough off axis to throw us all askew.

Well, we reached the town by nightfall, bathed as best we could, dressed in our finest, readied our gifts, and wondered where to go. Determined not to be misled again by common sense, we stuck to the stars and passed the big houses, passed the inns glittering with commerce, passed even the meanest hovel, following our star until we couldn’t be mistaken, though we prayed to the gods we were.

A stable, a cattle barn. No mistake … a baby howling inside and a woman shushing it and a man stroking her hair.

They had to be pushed in there, the other two with their gold and incense. I had to push. And the inner voice that had demanded I carry so much myrrh began to make strange sense. A hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes – enough for a king’s burial. But here was a king already buried, if you know what I mean. Not in the jewelled courts of Jerusalem. Not in the palaces. But in a hovel fit only for stinking cattle. And it was cold. And they looked exhausted, afraid, embarrassed. And we added to that as we knelt to do our part. Melchior with his king’s ransom in gold; Caspar burning his precious incense like it didn’t cost an arm and a leg … and me, with half a tonne of burial spices. All trying to maintain our dignity as we crushed into a shed. Which is not to say that man and woman and tiny babe were not gracious – even when they realised that our greatest gift had been betrayal, the hungry gaze of Herod now upon them. We had made them refugees. What was this little family going to do with the stuff we had brought as they fled furtively across the border to be strangers in a strange land? We never knew. At least until today.

We ourselves had to be furtive as we came home a different way. It seemed we were different, too. Anti-climax? It may have been that. Or the fear of what we had done. But we spoke little except to debate the irony of what we had seen. And when that began to run in the same confused circles we spoke hardly at all. Truth be told, I was relieved at the parting of our ways and the fall of silence. More relieved to reach home again. Familiar. Comfortable. But strange, too. In the stillness I was still moving, at night dreaming of fleeing families.

Of course, I made up a story. I couldn’t tell the stupid truth: oh, yes, we gave away our riches to some poor people in a barn. To be honest I tried to forget. But every year at that time I’d find myself back there wondering, wondering what kind of king is born in a cattle shed and enthroned in a trough. And from time to time I would dream of him, glimpse him growing in obscurity, and wonder whether I dreamed the truth or fancy.

These last few years, the dreams have been more frequent and more puzzling. Maybe he was a king after all. His dream-self spoke of a kingdom, God’s kingdom, as he worked his wonders, lived with the poor, scandalised the powerful, gathered the crowds … but then the dreams ended in blood and pain, and I prayed they were false. But it seems not. Buried with a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes.

But also the rumours: of resurrection, of new life, of a kingdom come. Yet the empires go on. Cruelty goes on. The poor still flee the mighty. And I think I have another journey to make. But where in the world do you go to find the kingdom he promised?