LAY MSC NEWSLETTER, MARCH 2018

FROM THE DIRECTOR

Greetings to all through this first newsletter for 2018.  I pray that it will be a year of blessings for all of us.

Some of you would be aware that during the last ten years I have been producing booklets on aspects of the history of the Australian Missionaries of the Sacred Heat.  I have focussed on biographies of some remarkable MSC as well as on special areas of ministry.

This year I plan to write a history of the Lay MSC in Australia.  The movement began in 1971 through the ministry of Michael Fallon in Sydney and myself in Canberra.  We had become aware of the original vision of our Founder to have a lay branch of our congregation which he called a Third Order.  It had lapsed following his death in 1907.

In the 1970s Michael had several groups of young people in Sydney, mainly university students, while I had one group in Canberra consisting generally of parents of Daramalan students.  Our Provincial Chapter of 1980 gave official endorsement to the movement.  Gradually groups were formed in other cities where there was an MSC community.

While I have the assistance of much archival material, it would help me considerably to make a more interesting story if existing groups could provide me with some personal recollections of significant events and programs that occurred over the years.  If that could be discussed and a report sent to me by May 31 I would be most grateful.

Meantime Fred Stubenraugh and the Lay and Professed MSC Council are attempting to extend the Lay MSC outreach.  A report on this occurs elsewhere in this newsletter.

God’s blessings to you all.

Jim Littleton MSC

 

SYMPOSIUM

Fred Stubenrauch

At the General Assembly of the Laity of the Chevalier in Sao Paulo, Brazil in July 2017 the General Guiding Principles and Statutes of the Laity of the Chevalier Family were officially approved by those present.

They are a great step forward in the development of the worldwide organisation of the laity of the Chevalier Family.

There are certain implications for the organisation of groups of Lay people associated with OLSH and MSC in the various countries.

The members of the MSC Lay and Professed Council and the OLSH Leadership Team have begun discussing those implications and it has been proposed to hold a symposium of members of the Council and others to give thought to a way forward.

I must confess that it is my idea to hold such a meeting and I came up with the word symposium after which thought I should check its meaning!!

Doctor Google gave me the following: Symposium.

a conference or meeting to discuss a particular subject.

 a drinking party or convivial discussion, especially as held in ancient Greece after a banquet (and notable as the title of a work by Plato).

Could I point out that the former is the idea I had in mind!!

The minutes of the symposium follow and also a letter from the International Council, some of the information in it is repeated in the minutes.

I would be grateful if you would send any comments on these articles or ideas for the agenda for future meetings.

Best wishes to all!

Fred

LAITY OF THE CHEVALIER FAMILY, MARCH 4th, ST MARY'S TOWERS

Present:

Fred Stubenrauch, Sue Stubenrauch, Paul Compton, Katherine Tonini, Aidan Johnson, Alison McKenzie, Phil Fitzgerald, Ancilla White, Therese Poulton, Ellenmary Lomman, Terie McNamara, Claudette Hiosan, Jenny Missen, Judith Carroll, Jan Clark,Christine Sivewright, Marian England, Irene Crittenden, Dain Inglis, Steve Dives, Maureen Maher, Gemma Farrugia.

Apologies: Sarah Beer, Alex Ying, Jim Littleton, Martha Johnson

The group met for Mass with the SMT parish followed by morning tea with parishioners. They then gathered at Heartworks at 10:30 am.

Record of the meeting

The gathering began with each person introducing themselves to the group.

Reflection:      Ancilla  presented a reflection titled, “New Wineskins”. Something new cannot be constrained by older structures and methods. It is time to look at things differently.

Jenny Missen generously agreed to prepare a record of the meeting.

 

1. 1. Why are we here?

            To help guide the Australian Province of MSC, OLSH, MSC Sisters and wider Chevalier family in a response to the “Guidelines” document approved by the General assembly of the Laity of the Chevalier Family, July 2018.

 

 (“Guidelines” refers to the document “General Guiding Principles and Statutes of the Laity of the Chevalier Family”)

The MSC sisters had been contacted and while they were unable to be present, we include them in our considerations.

2. 2. We next considered Jules Chevalier’s vision of professed and lay people involved in the mission of bringing God’s Love to the world.

            We referred to the paper presented by Hans Kwakman MSC in Sao Paulo July 2017. Jules Chevalier was very insistent on the inclusion of the laity in the mission. The original vision of Fr Chevalier is outlined in the quote from Fr Ramiére, ‘In case the Vatican is not prepared to include secular priests or laity in these Constitutions, then the MSC Congregation will in no way differ from “one hundred and one” already existing congregations’

Fr Denis Murphy MSC was quoted as stating that at times the laity are even more essential than the professed. “Reading his early publications, about the nature and mission of his Society, I have the strong impression that (Fr. Chevalier) would have found it unthinkable, or perhaps even impractical, to speak of changing the world and its values without involving laity, for they were the ones more intimately immersed in that world. Religious priests, brothers, sisters, together with secular priests, had an essential role to play, and Father Chevalier stressed that. But if Christ’s mission was to be continued in the world on all levels of society, the role of the laity was at least equally as essential and at times even more essential

There was discussion highlighting the various aspects of Fr Kwakman’s talk, including the need for a change in the model from one in which the Professed are the centre to a way for Lay to be part of the formation of the “congregation” in a more formal way.

3. 3. The International Council

            Alison gave us an outline of her role as General Secretary of the International Council for the Lay Branch of the Chevalier family and their work to date.

The International Council currently consists of Alison, Rita Cleuren (Belgium) and Doris Machado (Brazil) accompanied by Fr Hans Kwakman. In the future the Council will be joined by people from each continent.

Rita, Doris and Alison are learning to work together via email. There have been trials with Skype and conference calls but this mode has so far been unsuccessful. So for now, email is the way to go and, of course there will be a need to meet face to face some time. This will take place in July in Issoudun with Fr Kwakman, and members of the Tri- Generalate.

The group invites all to contribute to the agenda for that meeting.

Currently, the trio is developing an accurate email database of those associated with the lay branch of the Chevalier Family.

The Imprimatur – international logo – will be located on any communication that comes from the International Council.

All documents need to be translated into German, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, English and French. This all takes a long time.

There is also a need to enact one of the key requests from Brazil – to find ways to become financially autonomous. Requests have been sent to countries to support the international and national councils

We need to articulate a family identity, what does lay spirituality look like? We know that Jules Chevalier’s vision is lived out in our lives both professed and lay. How can we be autonomous but still linked?

This articulation will also have to take into account cultural differences and also  the tradition of MSC, OLSH, and MSC sisters as these are all different     

4. 4. Reading the Guidelines

 

            Each person present spent time individually reading the Guidelines followed by opportunity to talk to a companion.

 

5. 5. LUNCH - We had a wonderful lunch provided by the SMT kitchen staff and laid out for us by Heartworks (Gemma, Aidan and Kathryn)

6. 6. Background of the Guidelines

 

            After a gathering of Lay and Professed of the Chevalier Family in Santo Domingo in 2009 the European Committee was asked to develop the guidelines. After worldwide consultation comments were taken to the gathering in Brazil for consideration.

Some comments offered from the people present at the symposium:

We are MSC and OLSH if our life is committed to loving other people.

We need to reach out and let more people know about the charism.

We want to determine how to describe the culture in lay people terms.

The guidelines allow us to begin the process of moving us towards articulating what is at centre of our charism.

We want to catch the beauty of our charism to empower the laity to be confident and empowered to recognise, live and pass on/share the charism.

We need to work out a formula to cover all the viewpoints of all the groups.

Will the Lay and Professed Council and the OLSH Leadership Group still exist? Yes, because the National Council has a different role at this stage.

There was discussion around the sameness and differences of the groups. The conclusion is that there are many, many ways of implementing the mission, from individual to group. We have the same charism and we are all interested and need to be represented.

 

7. 7. Where to from here?

 

            We need to develop a National Council. How does that happen? It was decided that a steering committee would propose a model and membership.

It is envisaged that the National Council will be inaugurated sometime in 2019 at a date to be set by the steering committee

Alison proposed that we nominate members to form a steering committee with broad based representatives from OLSH and MSC and Heartworks with limited tenure of around a year to develop make up of the National Council.

We nominated:

Fred Stubenrauch as Chair
Paul Compton
Ellenmary Lomman
Marian England
Paul Stinson
Aidan Johnson
Jenny Missen
Therese Poulton

We also need to consider how we can be self-sufficient financially – a financial structure with $1000 to $1500 per year would be needed to support the International Council. Once formed, the National Council would also need to be financially self-sufficient.

It was decided that the steering committee will meet on Sunday 8^th April at St Mary’s Towers.

Meeting closed 3:00 pm with the prayer God without Borders, a prayer said each day at the gathering in Brazil.

 

Update on the work of the International Council

Membership of the Council

Thus far, the International Council has three members: Alison McKenzie, Doris Machado dos Santos and Rita Cleuren. We are aware that the membership ultimately needs to be five people, one from each continent. The expansion of membership to include a representative from the Asian region or North America and possibly Africa will be discussed at our first face-to-face gathering.  We are primarily communicating by email and, so far, that is satisfactory.

Issoudun Meeting

We have scheduled a face-to-face Council meeting in Issoudun from 12^th – 16^th July, 2018. The participants will be myself, Doris accompanied by her husband Ranulfo, Rita Cleuren, Paula as a translator, Fr Hans as the Accompanier of the laity and Sr Merle, as a representative of the Tri-generalate.  We have begun the planning for the first Council meeting and welcome suggestions for the Agenda for that meeting.

Communication

We have refined the Data Base that the European Committee has used to communicate with the laity of the Chevalier Family over the years. We have a relatively accurate list of the key members and their accompanying religious. The next step is to try to get a contact person for each National Council. We intend to communicate regularly with the Laity through letters and newsletters.

We have translated the logo developed for the Brazil Gathering into all the languages and we intend to use that logo as a sign of authentic communication from the Council. We have also had the Guiding Principles translated into the languages of the family and we are very grateful to the translators for their on-going work. The final edited copy of the Guiding Principles with the logo has been sent out through the data base.

Progress towards self- funding

The Australian Province is in the process of opening an account for the lay movement that will be managed and audited by the Australian Province. The Trigeneralates have each contributed 1,000.00 Eu to that account and the European and Brazilian organising committees have transferred the residue of funds from the Brazil Conference into the fund. We intend sending a request to those countries who may be able to afford it to assist in building up the capital in that account. At this stage, the major cost is in bringing the Council members together, but my feeling is that face-to-face fellowship and meeting is essential if we are to progress in the implementation of the Guiding Principles.

 

Request for Information

 

We would like to have a report from each country on their progress towards the implementation of the Guiding Principles before the meeting of the International Council in July. We are not expecting that countries will have fully implemented the principles, but we would like to hear briefly how you are beginning the process.

Due Date: 23^rd May to:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Could you comment on the following:

Name and contact for your National Council:

• Have you communicated or met together with groups of the Chevalier Family beyond your own group? Can you give some details.

• Have you begun to discern how you will form a National Council in your country? Can you give some details.

• Have you considered how you will appoint a chair of that Council who will have voting rights at the next General Assembly? Can you give details.

• Have you begun to consider how you will fund your National Council and the International Council? Can you give details.

• Can you attach a newsletter of general Communication that you have sent to the laity in your country?

Note: a brief comment is all that is required, but if you wish, you can comment more fully.  Write in your own language and we will have your replies translated in time for our meeting in July.

 

 

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE FIFTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME.

 

15^th Sunday of the Year

July 15^th, 2018

Suggested formula for recognition of indigenous people and their land.

(Any of these can also be recited by all in the congregation)

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we are now gathered,

(the ……)  and recognise that it continues to be sacred to them.

We hail them: as guardians of the earth and of all things that grow and breed in the soil; as trustees of the waters – [the seas, the streams and rivers, the ponds and the lakes] - and the rich variety of life in those waters.

We thank them for passing this heritage to every people since the Dreamtime.

We acknowledge the wrongs done to them by newcomers to this land and we seek to be partners with them in righting these wrongs and in living together in peace and harmony.

As we do this, we must also acknowledge the loss of their hunting grounds,

the destruction of their ceremonial places and sacred sites, 

and the great loss of life from all kinds of violence and disease,

and that  the land was never given away.

or

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand

We pay our respects to them for their care of the land

May we walk gently and respectfully upon the land

that was never given away.

or

We acknowledge the …………………….people the first inhabitants of this land.

We honour them for their care of the land

on which we gather today, and with them,

and as we pray for justice and their constitutional recognition

may we also be mindful that the land has never been given away.

 

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero,

and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

Kahlil Gibran, from The Garden of the Prophet

       

Readings

Reading 1 Amos  7:12-15

Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14

1. R. (8) Let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.

Reading II Ephesians  1:3-14 or 1:3-10

Gospel Mark 6:7-13

Penitential Rite

• Jesus, you sent your disciples to preach the peace of God’s reign to the nations: Jesus, have mercy.
• Jesus, you call us to be your disciples who incarnate love and compassion: Christ, have mercy.
• Jesus, you send us to be signs of God’s presence with all people and within all creation: Jesus, have mercy.

 

Opening Prayer

Ever loving and challenging God,

you have set us free

by the life, death and rising of Jesus Christ, your Son.

May his life and message inspire us

to voice his truth and bring his freedom

to everyone on this earth.

Prayer over the Gifts

Ever loving and challenging God

you give us your own Son Jesus

in these signs of bread and wine.

Help us to be to the world today

a message of hope and justice.

As the bread is broken for us,

may we be read to give ourselves for others;

to bring food to the hungry

and love and truth to the comfortable.

 

Prayer after Communion

Ever loving and challenging God,

you have given us yourself

in Christ Jesus, your Son.

May we see that the life and love you give us

become powerful in our sharing

with our sisters and brothers.

General Intercessions

Presider: We are all called to make the Good News known. Let us all pray with one another and for each other that we may respond to God’s call according to the grace he gives each of us. Let us say:  Here we are……send us so that love and faithfulness meet.

 

1. We pray for peace: for peace among the nations; for peace between neighbours; for peace within families and communities; for peace within our hearts … we pray, Here we are……send us so that love and faithfulness meet.

2. We pray for the church: for the mission of the church in the world; for all those who work as missionaries; for the strength to continue the work of service in all that Jesus came to do … we pray, Here we are……send us so that love and faithfulness meet.

 

3. We pray for all who raise their voices against injustice: may we support those who have the courage to speak promote the humanity of their sisters and brothers and find the strength in ourselves to be prophetic in our lives according to our baptism….we pray, Here we are……send us so that love and faithfulness meet.

 

4. We pray for those who do not know Christ and his Gospel: may we continue to see and find them inspiring examples of faith, goodness and humanity … we pray, Here we are……send us so that love and faithfulness meet.

 

5. We pray for those who lack confidence or courage in their calling: give to all the courage to raise their voices wherever people are dehumanized and so make Christ present….we pray, Here we are……send us so that love and faithfulness meet.

 

6. We pray for those who most need our support: for those who are hungry and those who struggle with eating too much; for those without a home and seeking asylum; for those who have lost their jobs and those unable to work; for those in prison and those imprisoned by anxiety, addiction or abuse; for all who are suffering today … we pray, Here we are……send us so that love and faithfulness meet.

7. We pray for those who serve at all levels of government in our country and those in other nations: may leaders, public servants and all people of influence be inspired and dedicated to serve the common good….we pray, Here we are……send us so that love and faithfulness meet.

8. We pray for countries where there is oppression, war, violence: may those affected be assisted to find protection, healing and compassion… we pray, Here we are……send us so that love and faithfulness meet.

 

Concluding Prayer:  Ever loving God, you call us to follow Jesus, your Son, and to pray in his name for the needs of all people of this world. May we become willing to voice his truth and bring his freedom to everyone on this earth.

Further Resources

Send us your Spirit, Loving God,

The Spirit of Truth,

To open our eyes and ears:

To see where we are afraid to look,

To hear you in voices

That offend our sensitive ears.

We seek you in the spectacular and extraordinary,

And you come to us poor,

Hungry, thirsty, naked,

Diseased, in prison, alone,

And as the least of our brothers and sisters.

Teach us to see you, hear you, touch you, know you,

Where you really are,

And not where we would like you to be.

Fr Ted Kennedy (adapted for gender inclusivity)

‘The Almighty conceived the cactus plant. If God would choose a plant to represent (him), I think (he) would choose of all plants the cactus. The cactus has all the blessings (he) tried, but mostly failed, to give to (man). Let me tell you how. It has humility, but it is not submissive. It grows where no other plant will grow. It does not complain when the sun bakes its back or the wind tears it from the cliff or drowns it in the dry sand of the desert or when it is thirsty. When the rains come it stores water for the hard times to come. In good times and bad it will still flower. It protects itself from danger, but it harms no other plant. It adapts perfectly to almost any environment. It has patience and enjoys solitude. In Mexico there is a cactus that flowers only once every hundred years and at night. This is saintliness of an extraordinary kind, would you not agree? The cactus has properties that heal the wounds of (men) and from it come potions that can make (man) touch the face of God or stare into the mouth of hell. It is the plant of patience and solitude, love and madness, ugliness and beauty, toughness and gentleness. Of all plants, surely God made the cactus in his own image?’

(Bryce Courtenay The Power of One.  pp. 154 – 155)

 

God's Spirit (Leadership Conference of Women Religious Prayer)

In this time of pain and promise,

we call on God’s Spirit to bless

the leadership of LCWR, of our

Congregation, and all women religious

who strive to live the gospel in these

uncertain times.

We call on the Spirit of God to reveal

the way forward that is faithful to God’s

dream for us and our lives together.

May all who are called to engage

in prayer and conversation come to

the table with hearts that are open,

transparent, and faith-filled. May their

reflection be marked by a deep listening

to the voice of the Spirit at work in

our world.

May the holy ones who have gone

before us inspire us by their courage

and wisdom and affirm that we are

not alone.

May we continue to faithfully live the

questions of our time and witness to

the people of God that we are women

at home with mystery and filled with

fierce hope for our shared future.

Amen.

Sr. Chris Koellhoffer, IHM

Hypocrisy is not the hobgoblin of enslavable minds so much as it is the hallmark of their would-be slave masters.

Rick Gaber

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-face for the urge to rule it.

1. H. L. Mencken- (1880-1956) American Journalist, Editor, Essayist,

Humanity's most valuable assets have been the non-conformists. Were it not for the non-conformists, he who refuses to be satisfied to go along with the continuance of things as they are, and insists upon attempting to find new ways of bettering things, the world would have known little progress, indeed.

Josiah William Gitt- (1884-1973)  

Government, when it is examined, turns out to be nothing more nor less than a group of fallible men with the political force to act as though they were infallible.

Robert LeFevre, in his essay, Aggression is Wrong

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Voltaire François Marie Arouet (1694-1778)

‘The greatest mystery to us is not the most distant person, but the one next to us.’

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Eyes are vocal,

tears have tongues,

And there are words

not made with lungs.

Richard Crashaw, 1613-1649, English Poet

The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always a tomorrow. Today I am blessed.

Maya Angelou, American Author, Poet and Actress

Philosophy should always know that indifference is a militant thing. It batters down the walls of cities and murders the women and children amid the flames and the purloining of altar vessels. When it goes away it leaves smoking ruins, where lie citizens bayonetted through the throat. It is not a children's pastime like mere highway robbery.’

Stephen Crane

I will be harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject i do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present.

William Lloyd Garrison (1805 - 1879)

'If, while there is yet time, we turn to Justice and obey her, if we trust Liberty and follow her, the dangers that now threaten must disappear, the forces that now menace will turn to agencies of elevation. Think of the powers now wasted; of the infinite fields of knowledge yet to be explored; of the possibilities of which the wondrous inventions of this century give us but a hint. with want destroyed, with greed changed to noble passions, with the fraternity that is born of equality taking the place of the jealousy and fear that now array men against each other, with mental power loosened by conditions which give to the humblest comfort and leisure; who shall measure the heights to which our civilisation may soar?

Henry George 1839 - 1897

One of the world's greatest problems is the impossibility of any person searching for the truth on any subject when they believe they already have it.’

Dave Wilbur

 

It was for this world that Christ had died; the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater glory lay around the death. It was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or a civilization—it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt.

Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory

The gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social; no holiness but social holiness.

John Wesley, from the preface to Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739)

Everywhere and at all times of greatest trial [people] have appeared, prophets and saints who cherished their freedom, who preached the One God and who with [God's] help brought the people to a reversal of their downward course. Man is free, to be sure, but without the true God he is defenseless against the principle of evil.... We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience.

Sophie Scholl, and her co-resisters in The White Rose, a nonviolent student movement against the Nazis.

When two elephants struggle, it is the grass that suffers.

East African Proverb

Indifference to injustice is more insidious than the injustice itself.

Dr. Cornel West

None of us dared to go forward to help the injured as they writhed. ... I was cowering behind a layer of other people whom I hoped would absorb bullets; the notebook in my hand was stained with perspiration from fear.... Finally, some unlikely saviors emerged — the rickshaw drivers.

Nicholas D. Kristof, on witnessing the Tiananmen Square massacre from his New York Times op-ed, ‘Bullets Over Beijing’ (June 3, 2009).

On Israel, North Korea, United States of America….

Politically speaking, tribal nationalism always insists that its own people is surrounded by ‘a world of enemies’, ‘one against all’, that a fundamental difference exists between this people and all others. It claims its people to be unique, individual, incompatible with all others, and denies theoretically the very possibility of a common mankind long before it is used to destroy the humanity of man.

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism p.227

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become victims of the darkness.   Justice William O. Douglas

The whole drift of our law is toward the absolute prohibition of all ideas that diverge in the slightest form from the accepted platitudes, and behind that drift of law there is a far more potent force of growing custom, and under that custom there is a natural philosophy which erects conformity into the noblest of virtues and the free functioning of personality into a capital crime against society.

1. H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American Journalist, Editor, Essayist, Linguist, Lexicographer.

For Justice in our Hearts and in our World

Oh God, each day you bring us new possibilities for the proclamation of your peace and justice. Not limited to our human imagination, in every age you go beyond our thoughts and invite us to deeper insight into the wisdom of your loving.

This day we confess our failure to gather our life together in peace, to carve laws more in keeping with your mercy, to build up our society in justice and harmony. Too often fear, greed, and pride have led us to forget the presence of the poor and the widowed, the orphan and the stranger. Countless homeless people wander our streets while we pursue our own security.

Stir up your Spirit in our midst. Speak your voice of caring to governments and every human gathering so that our life in this world will reflect the gospel commitment to tend the wounded and set the captives free.

We ask this through Christ and the Holy Spirit, with you, One God, forever and ever. Amen

Prayer adapted from Edward Gabriele Act Justly, Love Tenderly, Walk Humbly.

 

The only theology worth doing is that which inspires and transforms lives, that which empowers us to participate in creating, liberating, and blessing the world. This is a basic tenet of feminist liberation theology and it is also Anglicanism at its best.

Rev Carter Heyward, Female Episcopalian priest

In the Spirit which draws us into honest engagement with one another, including those who may be very different from us in various ways, God calls us to wake up and learn how to love and respect one another, period.

Rev Carter Heyward

Love is a choice - not simply, or necessarily, a rational choice, but rather a willingness to be present to others without pretense or guile.

Rev Carter Heyward

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, ‘I love you’ to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

George Carlin, comedian

I am only one,

but I am one.

I cannot do everything,

but I can do something.

And because I cannot do everything,

I will not refuse to do

the something that I can do.

What I can do,

I should do.

And what I should do,

by the grace of God, I will do.

Edward Everett Hale

 

Reflections on the readings…

Just recently, during NAIDOC week, there were many programs on radio and television of how First People women had influenced communities and influencing change in our society. In particular, an elderly woman, I cannot recall here name, danced outside the High Court of Australia after the Wik Decision. She said she was on fire and had to dance in response.  Where lies had predominated and a people held down, she responded with her beautiful dance on the forecourt of the High Court of Australia. She represented a people often estranged, marginalised, neglected and said here we are-with our bodies, our stories, our culture, our history.

Last week Jesus was made to feel a stranger in his home town and expelled from the synagogue, as Amos today is expelled from the sanctuary. Today, the disciples are called to make their home amongst strangers. Amos has just delivered an eloquent call for social justice. He condemned those who try to please God with ‘worship’ whilst their lifestyles were based on dishonesty and oppression of the poor. Amaziah was used to prophets who told people what they want to hear and makes it clear that Amos is not welcome and must take his message elsewhere. He does not stop because he is responding to God’s call to prophecy. Amos not silenced by this rejection.

The biblical narratives do one thing.  They disrupt conventional assumptions.  They use a different vocabulary and emphasise certain words - justice, trust, risk, invitation, and journey.  They are bold and anything but conventional.  There is the unmistakable feel that when faithful read and interpreted that ‘a prophet has been among us.’   God’s messengers, in all their guises, even that rejected local boy from Nazareth, are disrupting our assumptions and certitudes.  Through the sending of the disciples story, we are invited to do God’s work within the authentic outline of our own personality and history and capacities and opportunities.  It is an invitation ‘to say’ and ‘to do’ as only each of us can- ‘It’s me here.’ 

Organisations and nations need those who will speak truth to power. Leadership must be held accountable to the standards of God’s Reign – justice, peace, equality, compassion, good management, and the good of the people and the planet. Often, leaders get co-opted into the agendas of special interest groups.  It can be a risky to speak truth where lies predominate and where injustice goes unchecked. It can be difficult to stir up the flames of caring and compassion when people are apathetic or indifferent. But we, like Amos and the disciples, are called into the minefields of ministry: to speak to and serve people we would not normally associate with. Amos could have stayed with his sheep and sycamores rather than take on religious elites to confront injustices.  It would have been safer and less risky. He had to speak a harsh truth to an educated and sophisticated regime which was not inclined to take notice of him or his message.  It is like going to meet politicians who are not always ready to listen and take notice.  With Amos there is no silence or smooth talk when it comes to social injustice and doing God’s will. Prosperity and wealth co-mingled with social Here was a place of prosperity and wealth but rife with social inequity, injustice and immorality. We saw how Amaziah represented a religion closely linked to state power – the kind that would support political decisions in its favour; wave flags and bless troops on their way to war and preach ‘God is on our side.’ How dare anyone bring up the ‘Frontier Wars’ in Australia when we should talk up ANZAC Day? For Amaziah, religion implied loyalty to the status quo and dissent was betrayal. Amaziah was about smoothing things out whereas Amos spoke out against a peace and security only a privileged few enjoyed and called them to account for their silence, negligence and mistreatment of poor people. 

To crush the voice of hope, prophets need to be silenced when vested interests are threatened. Amos was faithful to his God-given task as God calls people from all walks of life to confront abuse, injustice and hunger. The new foreign interference laws (in Australia) are clearly attempts to silence people and avoid exposure of illegal activity.  These laws threaten whistle blowers and media freedom. Anyone who exposes illegal government activity can be considered criminal. Doctors, nurses and other employees have been threatened when they drew attention to the abuse of children and adults in hell holes such as Nauru and Manus Island.  The prophet, the whistle  blower , calls us to hope in another reality-the reality that would not say invading another country is liberation; that would not say that confrontation and bullying is dialogue; and that would not proclaim war as right just.

In Mark, Jesus stresses that following him involves radical simplicity. He also tells them that they are not responsible for how people respond to them if people will listen to them or receive them. We may find this comforting when our pleas for justice seem to fall on deaf ears. It is a lesson in realism and common sense. The Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, Love Makes a Way, Jesus Loves Refugees and many other organisations know the meaning of this. The disciples’ mission was to target the ordinary people – especially those who tended to be ‘written off’. The holiness one is called to is spelled out in love and justice - not a sterile and disengaged morality. What a challenge to those especially in the churches who refuse to include all their brothers and sisters because of sexual orientation, ethnicity, and of course gender (women).

Gospel simplicity draws our attention to the danger of accumulated ‘baggage’ (our history, our experiences, our prejudices) that threatens the mission of the reign of God. Organisations dependent on funding for services and education may find it difficult to raise their voices in times of injustice and inequality. Travelling light makes possible what the Psalm looks forward to - where justice and peace shall kiss. We must make it happen – in our community. However, fear can also lead to paralysis and threaten our following. We can ferociously cling to whatever paralyses us: fear of terrorism that justifies the use of violence; or fear of asylum seekers who might want to harm us and threaten our life style that justifies detention and abuse; fear of people from other ethnic, cultural or religious groups that justifies preventing them from expanding with schools and places of worship; fear of invasion that causes us to arm ourselves with more and more weapons and threatening peace; fear that women might win control over their lives and claim their unique power; fear of gay and lesbian people who might undermine certain traditions. This is baggage that can destroy us and separate us from one another. It prevents us from being welcoming and hospitable in our communities.

Mark’s narrative is action-oriented and heart-centred. Jesus and his followers are always on the move. Mere belief is not enough – the gospel needs to be lived as we work to deconstruct an unjust world and introduce a new world through the person of Jesus. His healings, casting out of demons and forgiveness of sins are seen as actions with deeper meanings. They were not just about alleviating personal suffering but exposing the oppressive nature of the prevailing political and religious power systems. In the face of government and corporate brutality towards vulnerable people, compassion must be our ‘protest’ and hospitality our ‘resistance’. Profoundly significant in the discipleship community in Mark are the stories of stories of women, who though still nameless, are almost always models of authentic discipleship. Like Jesus, they assertively break boundaries, defy social codes and are attuned to the liberation of the reign of God.

We cannot distance ourselves from the radical nature of Jesus call to us in Mark’s gospel or the message of Amos.  The challenges are very relevant to us. We call ourselves Christian and participate in an economy that accepts 48,000 children dying each day while a minority enjoy prosperity. We accept subtle social codes of ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ when it comes to people who are outsiders, different or even enemies. We can accept the continual voicelessness of women in the church assembly and inequality in the marketplace. We overlook over 60 years of violence against the Palestinian people and call it justifiable defense when they resist. We ignore the low lying countries and islands in Pacific that are harshly affected by climate change. We ignore the people of Papua who continue to suffer violations, hunger, abuse and denial of independence.  We still do not listen to the Indigenous Australians or acknowledge their dispossession of land and culture. We still accept as normal, paradigms of power and clerical entitlement in the church rather than Jesus’ definition of service. Mark does not allow us to distance ourselves from radical nature of the gospel. We must proclaim God's word even in the midst of violence - go where there is oppression and injustice and be the word of God there.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says, ‘Many are called, but few are chosen.’ A modern spin on this is offered by the poet Lee Carroll Pieper, ‘Many are called but most are frozen in corporate or collective cold, these are the stalled who choose not to be chosen except to be bought and sold.’ Mark will not permit us to sit back and remain passive. We can only know Jesus by committing ourselves to active discipleship and following him—on the way of the cross, which is ultimately the way of resurrection.

 

SPIRITUALITY OF THE HEART - SOME DESCRIPTIONS.

“A Spirituality of the Heart is a way of being in the world. It is a journey to be travelled with others. It is an energy that sustains and moves us, a dance in which we are participating. It is a way of being in the world, in relationship to self, others and God: a way of coming to rest within ourselves, at our deepest centre”                        James Maher MSC

 

“Spirituality of the Heart is first and foremost something to be lived rather than understood. It demands that I first overcome divisions in my own thinking that create a sense of separation from self, from others, from God. This same separateness divides the body from the spirit, the human from the divine. It is no wonder we struggle to embody the mystery of God’s incarnation in Jesus, in our own lives and in actions”

                                    Chris Chaplin MSC

“It is a missionary spirituality that is without limits - everywhere - at every level of society. Religious, diocesan priests and laity are called to share this spirituality. The laity are indispensable to carry our spirituality of the heart.”

Jules Chevalier

SPIRITUALITY OF THE HEART: spirituality for everyone

Fr Jules Chevalier MSC firmly believed that Devotion to the Sacred Heart was the solution to all the world’s problems. His invocation, “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved – Forever” captures a key aspect of Chevalier’s spirituality and of his vision.

While each of the words in this invocation invite commentary I will focus on the word “everywhere”.  It is clear that Chevalier understood “everywhere” in its geographical and social dimensions. So, not only would the devotion spread to every place on earth but it would also find a home into every strata of society from home to work place to religious communities, presbyteries etc – that is, this devotion was for everyone, everywhere.

In order to achieve this vision Chevalier understood that lay people as well as religious and clerics needed to be included in the society that he founded. Lay people then, are invited to discover ways to live this spirituality in their day to day lives and not simply in that aspect of their life that may be connected to the men and women religious who claim Chevalier as their founder. Just as religious men and women strive to find ways to express and live this spirituality in community so lay men and women need to strive to find ways to live and give expression to this spirituality in their life as single or married people in their homes, work places and beyond.

The key aspects of this spirituality will be similar for everyone. It begins with a journey to one’s own heart; in this we recognize the need we all have for quiet, still awareness, to be in touch with our inner self. In this inner journey we pay attention to the multitude of feelings and thoughts that are known only in solitude.  In that place we intentionally open ourselves to the compassionate, loving heart of Jesus.

So spiritualty of the heart has this contemplative dimension. It also invites us to make the journey outwards from our own heart, to the hearts of others. And once again, in every person we meet, in whatever situation we find ourselves, we open ourselves to the abiding presence of the compassionate, loving heart of Jesus.

Spirituality of the heart invites us to make the inner journey to our own heart and the outer journey to the hearts of others in the belief that it is there that we encounter the compassionate, loving heart of Jesus. As we live this spirituality we become ever more sensitized to this compassionate, loving presence that manifests itself everywhere, in all dimensions of life. Living a spirituality of the heart gives witness and expression to this presence.

It is spirituality for everyone, everywhere.

P. Fitzgerald November 2015

 

Spirituality of the Heart – A Description

The quality that most describes an MSC is kindness. The MSC Constitutions describe and prescribe the MSC way: the Spirit of our society is one of love and kindness, humility and simplicity.

Jules Chevalier, Le Sacre Coeur

A Spirituality of the Heart is foundationally about love – not a soft sentimental love but a love which challenges and yet comforts … that is courageous and yet humble … that is hopeful and yet not blind to the problems of our world. It is a love that is strong and determined but does not crush the bruised reed … that is faithful and generous. Like Christ, it is compassionate, tender and merciful.

Fr Bob Irwin msc  (2004)

‘To live,’ wrote Antoine de Saint-Exupery ‘ is to be slowly born.’ The fact is that coming to be fully alive is the task of a lifetime. There’s so much in each of us that we’ve never touched, so much beauty we’re steeped in that we’ve overlooked. Consciousness is what lifts the ordinary to the sublime.

The ordinary is what reveals to us little by little, inch by inch, the holiness of life – we wait for retreats, liturgies, grand gatherings to take us to God, and indeed they can and do; yet God is with us all the while – most especially in the routine parts of life, the dull parts of the day, which are the gifts of space – time for consciousness and reflection, time to continue being slowly born.

From: Joan Chittister osb – Listen with the Heart – Sacred Moments in Everyday Life  (2003)

 

Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Rumi

Your beauty should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

1 Peter 3: 3 – 4

I used to think that holiness meant keeping the rules. Now I know that it means knowing the self. When I really know myself, I know what I must do to be the best I can become. Then, it becomes impossible for me to judge another. Holiness lies more in forgiving the other than in not sinning. ₍₁₎

It is one thing to forgive for the sake of civility. It is another to forgive from the heart. Civility urges us to maintain the connections we have for the sake of our own advantage. The heart urges us to go beyond the hurt to the place where freedom lies and learning happens and trust is possible again.₍₂₎

From Joan Chittister osb (1) Becoming Fully Human – The Greatest Glory of God (2005) and (2) God’s Tender Mercy  - Reflections on Forgiveness (2010)

 

The Church mystics of ancient times knew that we only become whole, and radically holy, when we learn to integrate our spiritual, transcendent self with our personal, human and fleshly self. Their exceptional and rounded balance of expression and description of centred holiness, their freedom in the use of sensuous images and physical feelings regarding union with God, all combine to delight us with a sense of embodied wisdom, love and power.

From: Daniel O’Leary Travelling Light – Your Journey to Wholeness (2001)

HUMAN RIGHTS FILM: BORDER POLITICS,WITH JULIAN BURNSIDE

BORDER POLITICS

Australia, 2018, 94 minutes, Colour.

Julian Burnside.

Directed by Judy Rymer.

With the worldwide movements of peoples travelling the world, migrants, refugees, those fleeing from persecution, there has been both a greater consciousness about the plight of those searching for another home as well as a hardening of consciousness against these migrants and refugees, a self-protective attitude and politics from countries in Europe, the United States, and, though with far fewer numbers, Australia.

Prominent Australian lawyer, Julian Burnside, worked in commercial law until he was asked around the year 2000 to become involved in social justice cases. The experience of politicians claiming that migrants were throwing babies overboard from the ship Tampa, and this later proven to be false, led him to a new career in legal cases about border protection and border policies. In this documentary, he is at the centre, speaking to camera, his observations and challenges, visiting several countries around the world to examine their attitudes towards migrants and refugees, sympathetic welcome as well as harsh closing of borders, the construction of fences and walls.

In many ways, this film is preaching to the converted. It will reinforce the views and feelings of those who believe in advocacy for people in need, for empathy and compassion for those who suffer. Many will not find anything new in what Burnside is offering but rather an expansion of consciousness, widening of horizons, literally in his visits to other countries. Those who are not converted will probably have their stances reinforced, more sympathetic to those countries who put up the barriers, the president of Hungary, demonstrations in Poland, and the internment of refugees on Nauru and Manus Island.

Many audiences will be familiar with some of the countries and their reactions – although, it is very sobering to look at the extensive wall cutting off Mexico from the United States and some draconian legislation which separates parents who lived for a long time in the US and their deportation to Mexico, having minimal contact with their children, for short times with only the possibility of finger touching through the barriers. This certainly extends the consciousness about human hardheartedness.

By comparison, Burnside visits the Greek island of Levros, just across from Turkey, receiving thousands of Syrian refugees, and, on the whole, welcoming them, the contrast between three camps on the island, two in the midst of the people who go out of their way for the newcomers and one a wired compound, established by the Greek government, which confines the refugees.

Perhaps most challenging is Burnside’s visit to Jordan, the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have come across from Syria, the reaction of the King, the population, enabling the refugees to find homes, however temporary, amongst the Jordanian people, the possibility of work, of earning one’s keep, of some temporary peace before returning, it is hoped, to homes and properties in Syria.

What most of the attention is on the present, one of the features of the film is to highlight the millions of children around the world who are not getting the education that they need and deserve – and pondering what are the consequences for the coming years for them as adults without this basic education and how they will cope.

At the beginning of the film Burnside highlights the Golden Rule, asking people to think of how they would wish to be treated in the same situations as the refugees. And one of the words that recurs throughout the film is ‘decency’, the kind of human decency that should be exercised to people in need.

This kind of documentary is always sobering. It is an opportunity to reinforce more compassionate attitudes towards those in need and, even if it is unlikely, to challenge those who think they must take hard and harsh stances.

LITURGY NOTES, St JOHN THE BAPTIST

Birth of John Baptist

June 24 2018

Suggested formula for recognition of indigenous people and their land.

(Any of these can also be recited by all in the congregation)

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand

We pay our respects to them for their care of the land

May we walk gently and respectfully upon the land

that was never given away.

or

I acknowledge the living culture of the ……..people,

the traditional custodians of the land we stand on,

and pay tribute to the unique role they play in the life of this region.

or

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we are now gathered,

(the ……)  and recognise that it continues to be sacred to them.

We hail them: as guardians of the earth and of all things that grow and breed in the soil; as trustees of the waters – [the seas, the streams and rivers, the ponds and the lakes] - and the rich variety of life in those waters.

We thank them for passing this heritage to every people since the Dreamtime.

We acknowledge the wrongs done to them by newcomers to this land and we seek to be partners with them in righting these wrongs and in living together in peace and harmony.

or

We acknowledge the …………………….people the first inhabitants of this land.

We honour them for their care of the land

on which we gather today, and with them,

and as we pray for justice and their constitutional recognition

may we also be mindful that the land has never been given away.

 

 

Readings

First Reading: Is 49:1-6

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15

Second Reading: Acts 13:22-26

Gospel Reading: Lk 1:57-66, 80

 

Penitential Rite

• You probe us and you know us and understand our deepest thoughts. Jesus, have mercy.

• You formed our innermost being and we are wonderfully made. Christ, have mercy.

 

• You knew before we were formed and fashioned us from the depths of the earth. Jesus, have mercy.

 

Opening Prayer

God of the Prophets,

we joyfully celebrate today

the birth of John the Baptist,

your prophet who announced a new era

and prepared the way for your Son.

Help us to proclaim the message of Jesus

in the new language demanded by our time.

Give us the courage to leave our old ways

and to open to today’s people

the new road to the future which you offer us.

 

Prayers of the Faithful

Introduction: Let us pray to God, who has placed guides on our road leading us home, and let us say: God of the Prophets, give us your peace with justice.

1. For the Church of Jesus Christ, that the Spirit of Christ may inspire our leaders with prophetic zeal to lead people to true Christian freedom rather than fleeing from the individual and national responsibilities of freedom, we pray: God of the Prophets, give us your peace with justice.

2. For the governments of the world who provide extra benefits for the wealthy and cut social programmes for the poor, we pray: God of the Prophets, give us your peace with justice.

 

3. For peace throughout the world may we focus always on love and renewal of minds and hearts rather than aggression, defense and security, we pray: God of the Prophets, give us your peace with justice.

4. For all gathered here that we may hear the voice of God in the clamor of the cities as it comes to us through the poor, the broken, the stranger, the Indigenous person, the child and the homeless, we pray: God of the Prophets, give us your peace with justice.

 

5. For those who witness to Christ through their commitment to peace and justice in their ordinary lives and in the public area or in the public arena, we pray: God of the Prophets, give us your peace with justice.

 

6. For all people who have been victims of torture around the world that their physical and emotional scars will be gradually healed and their torturers have their eyes opened to the humanity of those they tortured, we pray: God of the Prophets, give us your peace with justice.

7. For all who strive for peace with justice will not be disillusioned when they are not heard, vilified, rejected, hated or vilified but find hope in the solidarity with one another, we pray: God of the Prophets, give us your peace with justice.

8. For those whose blindness prevents them seeing the face of the Risen Jesus in the faces of the suffering poor; of seeing living souls in the charred bodies of people killed in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan; of the nameless and un-mourned people who have died crossing the seas seeking peace and freedom, we pray: God of the Prophets, give us your peace with justice.

9. For those whose task is to teach and guide that they do so with gentleness and kindness of Jesus rather than by the use of power and threats, we pray: God of the Prophets, give us your peace with justice.

• For the world of today, that it may not turn a deaf ear to the voices of the prophets who plead for peace and justice for all, we pray: God of the Prophets, give us your peace with justice.

 

Concluding Prayer: God, you know us as we are. You have formed and called us even before we were born. May we be faithful and courageous witnesses to Jesus as we serve one another with compassion and love.

 

Prayer over the Gifts

God of the Prophets,
you gave John the Baptist the eyes of faith
needed to recognize the Christ.

Give us eyes to recognie Christ, your Son,
in the bread and wine offered and shared.

May Jesus become visible in us
and that in this way we may build roads
that lead to you, our living God.

 

Prayer after Communion

God of the Prophets,
Jesus, your Son, has been with us again
in our words and in our very being.
Change our hearts,
place on our lips words of faith and courage
and let our deeds speak without fear
the language of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Deliver Us

Deliver us, God of the Prophets, from every evil
and liberate us from our pride that keeps us
from showing the true face of your Son.
Make your Church attentive
to the voice of your Spirit
speaking through prophets in our day;
make us attentive to the signs of the times
and to the needs and aspirations of people.
Help us to prepare with joy and hope
for the full coming among us
of Christ Jesus, our Savior. R/ For the kingdom ....

 

Parish NoticesJune 26 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug TraffickingJune 26 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

‘This is a day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable. This is an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable. It is long overdue that a day be dedicated to remembering and supporting the many victims and survivors of torture around the world.’

• former Secretary-General Kofi Annan

June 29 Solemnity of Peter and Paul

Torture may include:

• systematic beatings
• being deprived of sleep for several days
• being subjected to electric shock
• being submerged head first in foul water
• being confined to mental hospital on other than medical grounds
• being given sophisticated drugs
• starvation
• exposure to extreme temperatures
• electric shock treatment
• live burials ...

Victims of torture are often caught up in government suppression of dissent, they are not charged with any criminal offence and they may be the wives or young children of suspects. They suffer, physically and mentally, long after release.

 

Effects of torture may include:

• serious injury and/or paralyses
• destroyed minds
• emotional scars
• death
• disappearance - a terrible form of torture for those left behind ...

                  

Further Resources

When grace comes first and touches the mind, prayer is enjoyable and devout. It is like a morning rain shower. Prayer is laborious when hour heart is far away from your prayer, and God is far away from your heart. Your heart is faraway from you if it is preoccupied with unimportant concerns, lukewarm in religious fervor, or immersed in carnal desires. God is away from your hear when he withdraws grace, postpones his presence, or exercises the patience of the petitioner.

Peter of Celle, quoted in Essential Monastic Wisdom, by Hugh Feiss

Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That's our problem.

Howard Zinn, Failure to Quit

‘For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the system of 'brainwashing under freedom' to which we are subjected and in which all too often we serve as unwilling instruments.

Noam Chomsky

‘With numbing regularity good people were seen to knuckle under the demands of authority and perform actions that were callous and severe. Men who are in everyday life responsible and decent were seduced by the trappings of authority, by the control of their perceptions, and by the uncritical acceptance of the experimenter's definition of the situation, into performing harsh acts. A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority.

Stanley Milgram, 1965

[Stanley Milgram was a psychologist who performed a series of experiments that proved conclusively that obedience to authority was so ingrained in the average US citizen they were prepared to cause lethal harm to others when instructed by authority figures to do so. All those who took part were first asked if they would be capable of killing or inflicting severe pain on their fellow human beings. 100% replied categorically 'no'. http://tinyurl.com/cm6xq]

Peace is preferable to hostility, generosity to revenge, preservation of life to its destruction, production to destruction, rues and tranquility to threats and fear.

Jose Miguez Bonino

 

The church… cannot be content to play the part of a nurse looking after the casualties of the system. It must play an active part both in challenging the present unjust structures and in pioneering alternatives.

Donal Dorr

 

We can move in the direction of justice, but if our personal relationships don’t become more human, we haven’t moved in the direction of the reign of God and, in the long run, we will discover that our point of arrival is just another form of tyranny.

Arturo Paoli

 

Scripture contains a subversive theme: God’s kingdom calls into question all our institutional values, including those of the church.

Jacque Ellul

 

In the final analysis, we cannot please everyone. We have to take sides.

Jacque Ellul

 

[F]or us us the Bible is our main weapon. It has shown us the way. Perhaps those who call themselves Christians but who are really only Christians in theory, won’t understand why we give the Bible the meaning we do. But that’s because they haven’t lived as we have.... I can assure you that any one of my community, even though he’s illiterate and has to have it read to him and translated into his language, can learn many lessons from it, because he has no difficulty understanding what reality is and what the difference is between the paradise up above, in Heaven, and the reality of our people here on Earth.

Rigoberta Menchu, I, Rigoberta: An Indian Woman in Guatemala

 

There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal as human beings, to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise: if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death.

Bertrand Russell, in 1961 on behalf of the 12 most eminent scientists in the world.

 

We thirst for it, fret about it, hoard and share it. In a very personal way, we come to understand why water is so crucial in the desert; why rivers and springs and cisterns determine Bedouin migratory patterns and settled population centers. We stand in awe of the effort it took to secure water through history, groping our way down huge water tunnels, dropping stones in cisterns to determine depth…. Old imagery takes on new meaning: 'As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.'

Joyce Hollyday, Fire, Wind, and Water

 

Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible.

William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

It's too bad that one has to conceive of sports as being the only arena where risks are, for all of life is risk exercise. That's the only way to live more freely, and more interestingly.

William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. Only reverence can restrain violence - reverence for human life and the environment.

William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

The woman most in need of liberation is the woman in every man and the man in every woman.

William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.
William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

If your heart is full of fear, you won't seek truth; you'll seek security.

If a heart is full of love, it will have a limbering effect on the mind.

William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

 

The thesis I want to post on the door of our cathedral are the following:

• Kindness and generosity are the characteristics of Christ
• One cannot kill for Jesus
• The new Jerusalem is not real estate
• Jesus did not teach capitalism
• The free market is not the ‘good news’
• Punishment does not save
• The word of God is not a book
• One honest person can impact more than a multitude
• Comfort is not our birthright.

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Some reflections on John the Baptist……John is a saint for our time. He took nothing for granted and asked questions. We have in recent times been victims of lies by our governments, multinational corporations and churches where the pornography of politeness has been endorsed. We have been so much the victims of lies by the official church, the media, financial institutions, and politicians. The lies batter peoples dignity, hopes, psychological and physical health that sometimes lead to suicide. People’s lives and hopes are being shattered here and on places such as Nauru and Manus Island, not to mention the forgotten Rohingya people and the people of West Papua  John reminds us that the Reign would suffer violence and the violent bear it away. We will miss the gospel if we miss John's urgent cry, ‘Repent! The Reign of God is near!’ He lived simply. Dressed scantily. His food might be ‘throwaway’. However, today rather than being in the desert today he would be in solidarity with the street people or close to First Australian community. He deliberately embraced a prophetic life-style. He taught that dignity cannot be bought and dignity is not the same as status.  

Like many people (even those not recognised by the Church), John the Baptist did not get his dignity by conforming to the status quo, or politically correct expectations living publicly what he believed privately.  Many good Christians today are unwilling to make waves, stand up or take a risk. They want to be accepted, to be loved by family, friends and colleagues rather than be unpopular, rejected, hated and scorned during times of widespread injustice.  So the voices remain silent!! 

Those that do risk raising their voices, risk looking foolish. They are the ones of whom the Bible speaks when it says, ‘Look, I am sending my messengers to talk right into your face. They are getting the road ready.’ 

Today we celebrate John’s birth. He is the only saint whose birth is celebrated as a solemn feast.  He stands apart from society.  Standing apart, and being on the margins, enabled him to gain insights that allowed him to judge and critique society. Social transformation and renewal only come from the grassroots, from the margins. He is like a Nelson Mandela, Dorothy Day, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn who refused to be fooled by the spin which denies evil exists around us and pretends there is peace when no peace exists. 

The gospel today focuses on the naming ceremony. Names reveal a person’s essential character or destiny. John (Yehohanan) means ‘God is gracious and has compassion.’ The angel Gabriel’s announcement reveals that God had planned John’s mission even before he was conceived. Describing John’s mission (Lk 3:1-20), Luke specifically recounts John’s command that the newly baptised are to reflect divine compassion in their own lives: ‘Whoever has two tunics should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise’” (Lk 3:11). John’s preaching rings of Leviticus, ‘Be compassionate, for I am compassionate, says the LORD!’ Isaiah's words in the first reading apply to John: ‘The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me….he formed me in the womb to be his servant’. His birth signals the beginning of a new era in the God-human relationship which is characterised by grace and not law. It will be an era to be characterised by grace and not law. 

The French philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre, once wrote that when people come into the world they come without a purpose, and by exercising their freedom they choose a purpose for their lives. The scriptures suggest otherwise. God has a purpose for people before they are born. The challenge is to discover this purpose and be faithful to its demands. It could involve walking to a different drumbeat to other people. John lived apart from normal human contact not to avoid people or issues but to see them more clearly.  

Pope Francis describes the prophet ‘…. someone who listens to the words of God, who reads the spirit of the times, and who knows how to move forward towards the future. True prophets hold within themselves three different moments: past, present, and future. They keep the promise of God alive, they see the suffering of their people, and they bring us the strength to look ahead.’

It is in reading the signs of the times and urging changes to a society’s trajectory back to the way of God that the prophet is often chastised and berated. People get stuck in their ways, especially if they have a comfortable life, and do not appreciate being challenged to change their personal worldview. This has occurred often when discussing the Israel/Palestine conflict, climate change, or asylum seekers and refugees. I am sure some of you have had this experience.

John made baptism a revolutionary commitment. He did not seek ‘celebrity’ or ‘popularity’.  ‘I must decrease, and He must increase.’  Alarmed and amazed at his preaching, the crowds asked, ‘What are we to do then?’ And John told them, ‘The one with two shirts must share with the one who has none, and the one with food must do the same.’ Some tax agents, then as now extorting money from the poor to give to the rich, came to John and asked, ‘What are we supposed to do?’ John said, ‘No graft, no grease, no gravy.’ Some soldiers (actually policing occupied territory, like Israeli soldiers in the West Bank; US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan or police in the streets of their own cities) came to him and asked, ‘What are we to do?’ And John said, ‘Don't bully people; no police brutality, no rubber bullets, no false charges, no bribes allowed, no false arrests, no torture.’ Though Luke calls this good news, many of John's listeners saw it as bad news. The same applies to us today. For those who do not share, for those who worship consumer capitalism, for those who remain silent in the face of injustice - John is the man at the mike.

John came to shift the gears that drive the world. He shouted repentance, change of heart. ‘Who do you really suppose I am?’ John asked. He could be asking us what we call what is happening in society and church? what we imagine the future to be? We might, like John, think we are unfit to until the sandals of liberation and let it walk amongst us; the task has been given to us. Jesus is ‘the human future. John's neighbours wanted to prevent John being given the name and identity God wanted. They objected to ‘John’ as a name claiming that what a child becomes must be determined by his family and lineage.  Their dream of a future for this child was limited by his family background. Yet, God's dream for us exceeds anything that has even been in our family background. Here I think of the hymn of some decades ago by Carey Landry: ‘The dream I have today, my Lord, is only a shadow of your dreams for me.’ Would Dorothy Day, Mary McKillop, William Sloane Coffin, Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King, Jr, etc., or any of the many women who entered religious life to teach or nurse have seen themselves picketing in order to stop another women’s prison being opened, or stop human trafficking, or condemn with their bodies the brutal treatment of asylum seekers and the poor. I wonder how many of them would see themselves as being a part of God’s dream.

When the child is named John ‘God is gracious’; the message of liberation has been sent. Isaiah speaks of comfort for the people, and a strengthening for us all. The valleys of poverty shall be lifted up. The mountains of privilege made low. The uneven ground of social injustice will be leveled. The rough places of violence and deceit made plain and exposed. This will reveal God’s ongoing presence among all people. People need no longer be trapped in downward cycles of: selfishness, vengeance, betrayed loyalties, compromised principles, materialism and all the other habits that seem to have relentless power over the world. 

Something new is happening. Jesus will establish new family ties that have nothing to do with family, tribe, village or nation.  The gospel will be for all, regardless of blood or national ties.

We are not locked into the inevitable. What has been does not have to continue that way. God whispers a new name to us by breaking old ways and giving us a new way of life. We can be different from what has gone before us, we can give new meaning to our world through the message we are called to proclaim. John did, he was a voice of hope and change to a despairing people. Where are we?

John's witness continues to be crucial for us. He lived up to his name. Listening to God’s word and growing in the Spirit, John witnessed to Jesus, the one who was not only close to God’s heart, but was God’s heart. We all have a spark of divinity within us. It is planted in each of us. It gives us our name and our mission.

Amidst what is happened in our countries, the fear, division, self-centredness and greed, we might ask ourselves ‘What can one person do?’ Today’s readings provide an answer. Listen deep within oneself and hear God speaking our name. Be faithful to it and be God’s love in the world. Let us be on earth the heart of God. We may think that our efforts will be in vain. But like the servant in Isaiah, like John, let us place your trust in God, for it’s God’s love shared that transforms the world.

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME, 2018

 

11^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

June 17, 2018

Suggested formula for recognition of indigenous people and their land.

(Any of these can also be recited by all in the congregation)

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand

We pay our respects to them for their care of the land

May we walk gently and respectfully upon the land

that was never given away.

or

I acknowledge the living culture of the ……..people,

the traditional custodians of the land we stand on,

and pay tribute to the unique role they play in the life of this region.

or

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we are now gathered,

(the ……)  and recognise that it continues to be sacred to them.

We hail them: as guardians of the earth and of all things that grow and breed in the soil; as trustees of the waters – [the seas, the streams and rivers, the ponds and the lakes] - and the rich variety of life in those waters.

We thank them for passing this heritage to every people since the Dreamtime.

We acknowledge the wrongs done to them by newcomers to this land and we seek to be partners with them in righting these wrongs and in living together in peace and harmony.

or

We acknowledge the …………………….people the first inhabitants of this land.

We honour them for their care of the land

on which we gather today, and with them,

and as we pray for justice and their constitutional recognition

may we also be mindful that the land has never been given away.

  

 

 

Readings

Reading 1 Ez 17:22–24

Responsorial Psalm Ps 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16;

Reading 2 2 Cor 5:6-10

Gospel Mk 4:26-34

Penitential Rite

Christ Jesus, you provide each of us space to grow in our faith: Jesus, have mercy.

Christ Jesus, you give your Church opportunities to grow in unity and a spirit of service: Christ, have mercy.

Christ Jesus, you give our world the time to grow in peace with justice: Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

O God, patient One,

may we learn to accept

that all true growth comes from you

and that we can only plant the seed,

and you make it bloom into a mighty tree

that lets us give shelter to all.

May we not try to impose

your truth and justice and peace

on a Church and a world

not yet disposed to welcome them.

or

O God,

at whose bidding the seed will spout

and the shoot grow to full stature,

hear the prayer of your gathered people.

Make us trust in your hidden ways,

that we may pray with confidence

and wait upon the reign now growing in our midst.

General Intercessions

Introduction: The tiny seed needs time to become a plant and it is God who give it the power to grow. Let us pray to God and say: R/.May the reign of God finally come.

      For Pope Francis, and those who exercise leadership and ministry in the church that they may lead God people in the way of peace with justice and a deep compassion for all that expresses the love in the heart of God, let us pray: R/.May the reign of God finally come.

      That asylum seekers, migrants and refugees will find a welcome befitting their dignity as human beings as they seek a safe place to rebuild their lives, let us pray: R/.May the reign of God finally come.

      That migrants, refugees, international students and foreign workers may be afforded respect and dignity and justice in this land, let us pray: R/.May the reign of God finally come.

      That political leaders, legislators and public servants may enhance laws that promote a true welcome and protection for refugee and migrant people , let us pray: R/.May the reign of God finally come.

      That those who have died in the attempt to seek safety and protection in this country, as well as those who come to this country as seasonal workers and who have been denied the protection of fair wages and conditions and also died may have justice and live in the loving presence of God, let us pray: R/.May the reign of God finally come.

      That the tiny spark of faith in the hearts of all may lead towards embracing people, particularly those who are most disadvantaged, let us pray: R/.May the reign of God finally come.

      That the timid seed of peace may grow again into a flourishing effort of dialogue and understanding, that our world may see the end of wars, terrorism and civil strife, especially on the Korean peninsula as well as the Middle East, let us pray: R/.May the reign of God finally come.

      That the seeds of hope may be sown among all people who are discouraged as they seek work and a living and just wage, let us pray: R/.May the reign of God finally come.

      That educators in may implant into the hearts of young people the seeds of generosity and service, let us pray: R/.May the reign of God finally come.

      That all who are gathering in this congregation may continue to sow the seeds of the Good News despite indifference and hostility, let us pray: R/.May the reign of God finally come.

Concluding Prayer: Ever-loving and faithful God, hear our prayer so that our hearts may be there for one another as we work to build a world of compassion, justice and peace.

Prayer over the Gifts

O God,

we bring before you our gifts

that have grown from tiny seeds.

By the power of your Spirit

they will become Jesus present among us.

Let the seed of his life and message

bear fruit among us,

and make us the body of Christ to the world.

 

Prayer after Communion

O God,

you have sown among us in this Eucharist

the seed of all that is good and true,

Jesus your Son.

Give us the hope and the courage

that we can be one in a community

where justice, truth, and freedom will prevail.

This Week

June 16 International Day of the African Child

June 17 National Refugee Week begins Sunday 14th June to Saturday 23rd June

#WithRefugees is the 2018 theme for Refugee Week 2018 in Australia. More than ever a global movement is needed to demand the safety and rights of refugees are protected. It is the responsibility of our Government, and each one of us to ensure people forced to flee from their homes can live with dignity and with hope. A ‘Refugee’ is a person; boy, girl, woman or man. Not a label, but a human being with a beating heart. The refugee experience can be prolonged or it can be fleeting. Today there are more refugees than ever, and only by standing together #WithRefugees can we begin to change this.

We have the opportunity this week to recognise and better understand the courage and contribution of refugees. Hearing their stories reminds us that these powerful people are defined by so much more than their past. People who today are making many valuable contributions to Australian society and who show immense courage and resilience.

When history looks back will it be to see them standing alone or will it see we were standing #WithRefugees’.

Resources:

Refugee Council https://www.refugeeweek.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Refugee-Week-2018-Resource-Kit.pdf

Australian Catholic Migration and Refugee Office resources https://www.acmro.catholic.org.au/resources/migrant-refugee-kit/booklet/856-migrant-and-refugee-kit-2018/file (August)

June 17 World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

Further Resources

May the God of Surprises delight you, inviting you to accept gifts not yet imagined.

May the God of Transformation call you, opening you to continual renewal.

May the God of Justice confront you, daring you to see the world through God’s eyes.

May the God of Abundance affirm you, nudging you towards deeper trust.

May the God of Embrace hold you, encircling you in the hearth of God’s home.

May the God of Hopefulness bless you, encouraging you with the fruits of faith.

May the God of Welcoming invite you, drawing you nearer to the fullness of God’s expression in you.

May God Who is Present be with you, awakening you to God in all things, all people, and all moments.

May God be with you.

Amen.

http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/19916/may-the-god-of-surprises-delight-you#sthash.89uQRk3X.dpuf

 

To be the heart of God in our world

Blessed are you peacemakers,

who say no to war as a means to peace.

Blessed are you peacemakers,

who are committed to disarm weapons of mass destruction.

Blessed are you peacemakers,

who wage peace at heroic personal cost.

Blessed are you peacemakers,

who challenge and confront judges, courts & prisons.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who help those who are hurting.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who befriend perfect strangers.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who open doors for acting justly,

loving tenderly and walking humbly with God

and all people of good will.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who welcome, encourage and inspire.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who offer hope and healing.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who care and comfort.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who help find answers.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who provide stability not insanity.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who help restore faith and love.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who delight in creation, art & creativity.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who see the good in others.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who never give up.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who give and give and give.

Fr. Paul Milanowski Grand Rapids, Michigan

 

Secret of the Seed by Jan Richardson

Blessing that Holds a Nest in Its Branches

The emptiness
that you have been holding
for such a long season now

that ache in your chest
that goes with you
night and day
in your sleeping,
your rising:

think of this
not as a mere hollow,
the void left from
the life that has leached out
of you.

Think of it like this:
as the space being prepared
for the seed.
Think of it
as your earth that dreams
of the branches
the seed contains,
and of the nest
the branches will hold.

http://paintedprayerbook.com/2012/06/12/secret-of-the-seed/#.T9ikNJj3Dw4

 

Our Small Difference

by John Laar Sacredise January 16, 2015

We may not be able to confront queens,

or challenge presidents;

We may not have the capacity to divert resources,

or uplift communities;

We may not have the voice to silence the noise of war,

or the words to negotiate peace between armies;

But, as we follow you, O Christ, we are able to do something.

And so, we pray that you would inspire us

to commit to and act on

the small difference we can make:

May we bring peace

through small acts of gentleness

and reconciliation;

May we bring wealth

through small contributions

and collaborations;

May we bring safety

through small acts of consideration

and acceptance;

May we bring wholeness

through small acts of care

and service.

And in the small ways, O God,

may our small difference make a big contribution

to your saving work in our world.

Amen.

Patient Trust (Prayer of Teilhard de Chardin)

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/8078/prayer-of-theilhard-de-chardin#sthash.9TBsc11u.dpuf

The Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, 2

Life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives. They are lights of hope. Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him we also need lights close by—people who shine with his light and so guide us along our way.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, 49

People say, ‘What good can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?’ They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time. We can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes.

Dorothy Day, Loaves and Fishes

‘The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?’

Dorothy Day

‘Don't worry about being effective. Just concentrate on being faithful to the truth.’

Dorothy Day

‘I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.’

Dorothy Day

‘What we would like to do is change the world--make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute--the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words--we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend.’

Dorothy Day

‘Those who cannot see Christ in the poor are atheists indeed.’

Dorothy Day

‘The Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.’

Dorothy Day

Whoever is on a journey towards God goes from one beginning to another beginning. Will you be among those who dare to tell themselves: ‘Begin again! Leave discouragement behind! Let your soul live!’

Brother Roger of Taize

O God,

Help us to hear the word and put it into practice.
Let us hear again the challenge of the great prophets.
Let us do what is right and love with enthusiasm.

Sophia – Wisdom: Help us to hear the word and put it into practice.
Help us to discern the way of peace.
Help us to discern the way of right action.

God of heaven and earth: Help us to hear the word and put it into practice.
Let us hear again the stories of our ancestors in faith.
Let us create new stories today – stories of faith in action.

God of peace and justice: Help us to hear the word and put it into practice.
Help us to listen to the world and the cries of those in need.
Help us to respond in solidarity with all those in need.

Holy Spirit: Help us to hear the word and put it into practice.
Fill us with an enthusiasm and joy for what is right and good.
Fill us with virtue that we might do what is good for all.

Dear God,

make us unexpected agents of change

for the world around us.

Remind us that faith is not

remaining content with the way things are,

but catching your vision of the way things can be.

Give us courage in the present.

Empower us to speak

when the odds appear against us.

And grant that we may see

the surprising results that can come about

when unexpected people bring about

unexpected transformation.

Amen

The Seed

Adapted from author: Novoneel Chakraborty

Once upon a time, there was a seed and because it was only a seed, nobody noticed it. Thus, the seed had a sense of inferiority, and gave no importance to its existence. Then one day, a wind picked him up and threw him mercilessly on an open field under the sweltering sun. He was confused. Why would the wind do such a thing? But instead of any logical answers, he was provided with rain (in addition to sunlight); sometimes in drizzles and sometimes in torrents. Meanwhile time flew by and years later he saw a traveler sitting by his side. ‘Thank you God for this. I really needed some rest,’ he heard the traveler say. ‘What are you talking about?’ The seed promptly asked. He thought the man was making fun of him. Sure, he had witnessed many people sitting by his side - more so in recent years - but no one ever spoke to him like that. ‘Who is speaking?’ The man was said.

‘It is me. The seed.’ ‘The seed?’ The man looked at the giant tree. ‘Are you kidding me? You are no seed. You are a tree. A goliath of a tree!’ ‘Really?’ ‘Yes! Why else do you think people come here?’ ‘What do they come here for anyway?’ ‘To feel your shade! Don't tell me you didn't know you had grown over time.’ A moment passed before the traveler's words struck the chord of realization with him. The seed, now a Redwood tree, thought and smiled for the first time in his life. The years of relentless tortures by the sun and the rain finally made sense to him. ‘Oh! That means I'm not a tiny- flimsy seed anymore! I wasn't destined to die unnoticed but was actually born to be of service to others. Wow! Now that's a life worth living, I am important, I have a value!’

In Jeremiah 1:5 we read, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you,’ Isn’t that beautiful, before you were formed in the womb, God had a plan for your life. Before you were born, God loved you and gave your life purpose. Troubles have come into your life, they weren’t accidents, God needed to teach you something so he gave you specific problems to overcome and they would help you to grow in faith and maturity. When you were immature you only thought about yourself. As you matured you began to think about others. You went from the small seed, one among many, in a barren field of the secular world and the Holy Spirit picked you up and blew you into a field of faith, your church. There you became the giant Redwood God had planned you to be. Through your deeply imbedded roots in the church you absorbed the word and doctrine you needed to have in order to grow in the fertile field of the Church.

You now radiate God’s love and the fulfillment of his purpose to yourself and others. You have now become the giant Redwood who took in the word of God through your roots and that nourishing has made you a large tree, a more committed Christian who lives in a forest of believers. The world may have viewed you as just one insignificant seed but God never viewed you that way. You see you didn’t know what purpose he had in mind for you. You see He needed to gradually teach you some lessons. Some were painful, some joyful but each one was in God’s purpose for your life. Maybe you’re still searching for that purpose but rest assured, If God had a plan for a mustard seed, how much greater is God’s plan for you?

Reflection on the readings

It seems that Ezekiel and Jesus are looking at low expectations. The prophets admitted that very few people listened to them and even fewer were prepared to change their lives. It is clear that God is not into ‘numbers’ as God seems content to work with a few courageous people. God does not lose sleep over the many who do not take that step. God in the words of Ezekiel says, ‘I (Yahweh) will take from the crest of the cedar, from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot, and plant it on a high and lofty mountain; on the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it.’ This small shoot (small group of people) will grow into a faith - the old tree could never produce. The only hope for meaningful change demands the destruction of old institutions and the opportunity to start from scratch. But to achieve the future God intended for them the people had to be willing to start small. Some people, if not many, must have thought that Jesus was wasting his time preaching to people when many who heard him would not remember anything he said. Some might recall a few things. But, one or two people would change their behavior. This might not justify the effort involved. However, if one accept the apparent wasteful of farmers or gardeners, then we must accept the wasteful preaching of Jesus.

Fr. Karl Rahner bemoaned the fate of those parts of the world where Christians are in the majority. Wherever Christianity becomes socially acceptable, it can lose the ability to bring about the changes Jesus intended his followers to implant in the world around them. And those who commit to carrying on Jesus’ ministry can be regarded as ‘radicals’ even by fellow Christians.

The imperceptible growth of the seed in today’s gospel reminds of the time when I worked as a psychologist. I had the belief then that whatever is fast does not last. Growth was slow, tedious, long, often painful yet very real.  It sometimes took months and years though some people expected a ‘fix’ in very short frames. This was not the kind of work for anyone expecting quick results.  But the incremental changes in people was worth waiting for as people came to accept themselves, value their strengths, humbly accept their weaknesses, but at the heart of it – their dignity and beauty. This often enabled them to be open to greater service of others. The ‘seed’ would become ‘productive’ once what is hidden has been disclosed, once what is secret has been revealed. This was evident as people who embraced themselves became witnesses to others, allowing God’s presence to be revealed through their agency. As these people often saw very little change, the gospel tells how God works through unexpected means for unexpected results. And the point of the gospel is that building God’s reign, doing life differently with others in solidarity comes through the agency of ordinary people.

For Paul, life in Christ represents a new creation whose goal is the reconciliation of all humanity to God. This is the beginning of our justice and peace work. All the readings exhibit the unexpected and dramatic nature of God’s activity. God’s reign comes through agents of change, ordinary people, that (outwardly at least) appear inconsistent with the surprising outcome. We have seen people who may appear as the mustard seed (something seemingly incapable of producing great results), who by their presence, despite who they are, bring about God’s reign.  

This year, the assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero will be canonised along with Pope Paul Vl. It is important for us to recover a fundamental truth by asking a question. Is it our duty to evangelise and be holy or is it our duty to work for a better world by opposing exploitation and injustice. Often the work of justice has been considered as optional – not for everyone but the preference of a few people. This view is not tenable.

Paul VI’s Populorum Progressio or ‘On the progress of peoples’ in 1967 pointed out the discernible convergence between evangelisation and work for justice. The recognition of Oscar Romero as a martyr brings these two together – evangelisation and justice go hand in hand. These two trajectories have finally merged in the church. The recognition that Romero was killed out of hatred for social justice means that he was also killed out of hatred for the faith. This has and still makes many conservative people in the church, including leaders, uncomfortable. There appears to be a misreading of the gospel. It was okay to recognise Romero for his holy life but did not want his ministry for the poor and challenging human rights abuses to be seen as a vindication of the central truth of liberation theology: that Christians, the Church, cannot avert their eyes or be silent before the struggle for justice. A choice must be made where we stand, sit and who we sit with.

 

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE TENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

 

Tenth Sunday of the Year

June 10, 2018

Suggested formula for recognition of indigenous people and their land.

(Any of these can also be recited by all in the congregation)

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand

We pay our respects to them for their care of the land

May we walk gently and respectfully upon the land.

or

I acknowledge the living culture of the ……..people,

the traditional custodians of the land we stand on,

and pay tribute to the unique role they play in the life of this region.

or

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we are now gathered,

(the ……)  and recognise that it continues to be sacred to them.

We hail them: as guardians of the earth and of all things that grow and breed in the soil; as trustees of the waters – [the seas, the streams and rivers, the ponds and the lakes] - and the rich variety of life in those waters.

We thank them for passing this heritage to every people since the Dreamtime.

We acknowledge the wrongs done to them by newcomers to this land and we seek to be partners with them in righting these wrongs and in living together in peace and harmony.

or

We acknowledge the …………………….people the first inhabitants of this land.

We honour them for their care of the land

on which we gather today, and with them,

pray for justice and their constitutional recognition.

Scripture Readings

Genesis 3:9-15 A story of the origin of broken relationships

Psalm 130 With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption

2 Cor inthians 4:13–5:1 Despite suffering, Paul proclaims his faith

Mark 3:20-35 Jesus encounters conflict and challenge to his authority

Prayers/Penitential Rite

Introduction
The arc to redemption is not without conflict, suffering, division or challenge. Its meaning is premised on mercy overcoming what is incomplete or fractured. This has been borne out throughout history, including in Jesus’ own life. When we encounter darkness or failure, we know this is not the last word. By God’s unending love and mercy, and we are called to extend it to others.

Penitential Rite

• Christ Jesus, You were challenged by religious authorities and your own family: Jesus, have mercy.
• Christ Jesus, You exercised your authority by the power of the Spirit: Christ, have mercy.
• Christ Jesus, You said that those who do God’s will are your family: Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

Ever-loving God,

there are no boundaries to your love made flesh

in the person of Jesus your Son.

Raise us beyond the limits imposed by our world

so that we may be free to love all people and creation

as Christ Jesus teaches.

or

Ever-loving God,

in Jesus your beloved Son and our redeemer,

you have overcome the power of evil.

Sustain your people in their struggle with all that is contrary

to life, well-being, justice and peace

as they hear your life-giving word. 

Fashion us, who are gathered, into a household of people

committed to following your way

as we share in the victory of the cross.

Prayer over the Gifts

Ever-loving God,

look we love on our offerings and our service.

May the gifts we bring help us to grow

in love and compassion as Christ’s disciples.

 

Prayer after Communion

Ever-loving God,

through this sharing of bread and wine, the body and blood of Jesus,

you have offered us your healing love and strength.

May we go from here strengthened

that keeps us on the way that leads to you, to live and peace.

Prayer of the Faithful

Presider: Let us pray, brothers and sisters, for all people suffering because of broken relationships. The response is, Show us your healing love, O God.

·         For the whole church, that it may collectively strive to make God’s love and mercy real to all people, we pray, Show us your healing love, O God.

·         For the Church, that it may, like Jesus, show mercy and compassion to all people who are grieving, suffering and feel powerless or voice in the church and in society, we pray, Show us your healing love, O God.

·         For the people of the Korean peninsula who have not known peace for many decades that those in power listen to their needs and pleas and seek the peace that ushers in the well-being of all, we pray, Show us your healing love, O God.

·         For the people of Iran who continue live with severe sanctions imposed by the United States that result in the deaths of countless innocent children, women and men, especially those who are most vulnerable, we pray, Show us your healing love, O God.

·         For the peoples in Africa who in various ways suffer from foreign interference in their lives and economies, we pray, pray, Show us your healing love, O God.

·         For people known to us and unknown who are overcome by discouragement or guilt and cannot believe that they are loved and forgiven, we pray, Show us your healing love, O God.

·         For people who too easily condemn and judge others; and for those who are unjustly vilified or condemned, we pray, Show us your healing love, O God.

·         For people who are in prison, for those who are out of prison, those who work in prisons, those who volunteer in prison ministry, and all those who work for humane policies and conditions, we pray, Show us your healing love, O God.

·         For people who are dedicated to attaining justice for people who are unjustly accused and those who stand in solidarity with people who suffer any kind of oppression, we pray, Show us your healing love, O God.

·         For a growing spirit of hospitality within the church and the broader community where strangers are warmly received and their gifts welcomed, we pray, Show us your healing love, O God.

Presider God of mercy, help us to remember your loving presence in the darkest moments of our lives. Show us how to extend your loving mercy to all whom we encounter, especially those we consider unworthy.

Further Resources

Gentle, renewing Creator,

in your love, you teach us

to care for all of your creation.

When the mountain streams and mighty rivers

become too dirty to drink,

when garbage fills the deep trenches of the ocean floor,

when the air itself becomes a poisonous brew,

 we cry out to you.

We cry out for all who sleep in doorways,

for all whose waking moments are filled with danger,

for all who have no money, jo job, no prospects.

We cry out for all whose bodies are filled with pain,

for all whose minds are clouded with grief or despair,

for all whose days are a blue of fatigue.

We cry out to you in our own pain, too,

begging for healing, for protection, for peace.

Aloud and in silence, we bring our prayers,

our trust, our desire for the healing of the world

‘They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.’

Eugene Debs, Socialist candidate for president, June 16, 1918 - The speech led to Debs's being stripped of his citizenship and sent to jail for 10 years. 

‘One death is a tragedy, but a million deaths are a statistic.’  

Josef Stalin (1879-1953)

‘If I were the president, I could stop terrorist attacks against the United States in a few days. Permanently. I would first apologize to all the widows and orphans, the tortured and impoverished, and all the many millions of other victims of American imperialism. Then I would announce, in all sincerity, to every corner of the world, that America's global interventions have come to an end, and inform Israel that it is no longer the 51st state of the USA but now -- oddly enough -- a foreign country. would then reduce the military budget by at least 90% and use the savings to pay reparations to the victims. There would be more than enough money. One year's military budget of 330 billion dollars is equal to more than $18,000 an hour for every hour since Jesus Christ was born. That's what I'd do on my first three days in the White House. On the fourth day, I'd be assassinated.’  

William Blum, author of ‘Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II,’ and ‘Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower’

‘Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.’

Henry David Thoreau:

‘You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free’

Clarence Darrow:

‘The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don't agree with’

Eleanor Holmes Norton:

‘When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered’

Dorothy Thompson:

‘None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free’

Goethe

 

‘The Lord God called to the man and asked him, ‘Where are you?’’ (Genesis 3: 9)
Let us pose this question to ourselves in terms of our relationship with God. One can add other themes or issues or use those below:  
On racism… ‘Where are you?’
On care for creation. . . ‘Where are you?’

On immigration… ‘Where are you?’

On tax cuts and welfare for the poor…‘Where are you?’
On asylum seekers and refugees… ‘Where are you?’

On nonviolence… ‘Where are you?’
On our relationship with the First Peoples of our country…‘Where are you?’

On the treatment of ethnic minorities…‘Where are you?’
On the suppression and oppression of indigenous peoples…‘Where are you?’

On nuclear weapons and military industry…‘Where are you?’
On life and dignity of the human person…’Where are you?’
On the common good…‘Where are you?’
On treatment of people who are gender diverse…‘Where are you?’

On the poor and vulnerable…‘Where are you?’
In the pursuit of justice and peace… ‘Where are you?’

On standing in solidarity with our global family…‘Where are you?’

Where are you?
Adapted from Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director of Social Justice Ministries    Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, NC

Reflections on the readings

This week’s readings are about matters of the heart – the unseen way in which God is reshaping our lives and our world. There is something in them that challenges the propensity in many to want immediate, tangible, demonstrable results for their efforts. It is like if we cannot see something happening, then it is not happening. In a recent excellent article ‘Why Cynicism is the new naiveté’ (https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/richard-glover-on-the-rise-of-the-new-cynicism-20180522-h10dyj.html), Richard Glover wrote of the cynicism that sees only greed in people, only corruption in institutions, and systems being stacked. He used examples such as the recent royal wedding the change in attitude by an Australian politician to oppose the live export of animals to the Middle East. The Royal Commission into Institution Sexual Abuse of Children and the banking royal commission can cause us to despair as we see so many people in authority lose their moral compass. The point that Glover makes is that there is room for cynicism but the problem is that it has no boundaries. ‘People are so cynical they are unable to spot anything other than self-interest, manipulation and conspiracy.’ Cynicism, he says, is becoming the new naiveté where we lose the ability to see the good from the bad because we see the world in completely bleak terms. People are unable to spot anything other than self-interest, manipulation and conspiracy. Things are not entirely good but neither are they entirely bad. A further point, Glover makes is that the cynicism robs us of volition and the desire to improve things, to work to transform systems. If all politicians are bad then there is no point in troubling oneself to vote for good ones. If all institutions are corrupt, then what else is to be done by to retreat from them. It is a retreat into passivity. Cynicism can seem so terribly smart. But, when given its head, it sure can lead to some dumb places. Cynicism is not the same as the blasphemy that Jesus opposes in his opponents.

This is where the gospel is instructive. Jesus confronted what is termed ‘unholy’ and ‘unclean’ spirits that can capture and twist the human heart. Jesus came to heal people and relationships and make space for all that is good in life. Jesus came to liberate and free people from the ‘demons’ or ‘spirits’ that hold them back from creating a new community. But, alternative or countercultural communities threaten the old order, as did the early Christians in their home-churches challenge the inequalities of Roman society by their embrace of all who came to them as sisters and brothers. Whistle-blowers in the church and society are distrusted because of the ‘demons’ they expose such as patriarchy, inequality, sexism, fear, over-concern with image and greed. Jesus challenged the old ways and was accused of blasphemy. Imagine telling desperate people that their sins were forgiven. Imagine offering himself as an image of God. Imagine encouraging people to abandon tradition ways of thinking about God and embrace their own experiences. Imagine interpreting the scriptures in new and challenging ways that caused discomfort and outrage of the religious leaders. Imagine telling people that the Holy Spirit is a spirit of welcome, embrace and inclusion for foreigners and for strangers, for people in trouble; and for new ideas and new hope.  Imagine saying that when his family came to take him away, saying, ‘Whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, my mother’. In this sweeping gesture Jesus took in all those around him. Should not those two major protectors of social order – the family and the synagogue -have been the insiders? We see in his simply and sweeping gesture how this is turned upside down. Jesus offers us a place in the inner circle but becoming part of this circle involves dropping all claim to importance based on race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, profession, economic status, etc. There is little room for the cynicism that prevents us from seeing the good and the evil around us, or from letting new revelation upending us. In 2016, Pope Francis said, we are called to give up ‘all motives of personal pride, of careerism or hunger for power … becoming humble instruments of salvation worked by Jesus’ own sacrifice.’ When we do that, we will stop resembling the children who try to blot out reality by closing their eyes and covering their ears. Only then will we be able to hear the Jesus call us brother, sister, mother, friend.

Jesus is going for deep change…..and we are to be part of that. His ‘exorcisms’ are to serve not only individuals but also social institutions that create the diseases he is healing. Jesus was only pointing out the obvious in the gospel the threats when we become ‘house divided against itself.’ These days various social institutions have been shaken by revelations of sexual abuse, gender inequity, financial corruption. These movements are seeking to exorcise not just sexual abuse but a whole system of gender privilege rife throughout the structure of our society. They seek deep, systemic change, just as Jesus did in his day. Social inequality versus preferential treatment for the big-end of town in the form of corporations, banks and other financial institutions has been exposed. The churches have not been immune from revelations of kinds of abuse from which it has remained largely silent or gone into hiding or denial or minimisation of the abuses. Membership could be affected! Funding could be cut! Yet in the midst of this call for change, much of the church has remained largely silent. Never comfortable talking about sexual matters, and fearful that truth telling might jeopardize membership and funding, churches are prone to deny sexual misconduct or to minimize it with platitudes about forgiveness.

Henri Nouwen, in his beautiful book, The Wounded Healer, says that a Christian community is ‘a healing community not because wounds and pains are alleviated but because wounds and pains become openings or occasions for a new vision. . . . The wound which causes us to suffer now, will be revealed to us later as the place where God intimated his new creation.’ Wounds like cracks, to quote Leonard Cohen, when acknowledged, can provide a source for healing and light. A broken body can lead to new life. The church is called to follow Jesus in saying, ‘This is my body broken for you.’ For by his wounds we are healed—and by our own wounds as well.

It seems that Jesus is pointing us to the need to retrieve an image of God that is based on connection if we are repair relationships in our broken world. We could say that it by developing a spirituality of the heart – a heart of flesh. Clearly, the Feast of the Sacred Heart celebrated on Friday points to this. It is this heart of flesh that can enable relationships to flourish. It is a way of relating, being and taking responsibility. It is a way of looking from the underside, the forgotten side, the unheard side. It is a way of living that stops us from climbing pyramids; from being competition to forming more and more circles of solidarity, cooperation, interdependency. It is a realisation that we, despite our differences, are all linked; that we have a fundamental connectedness as sisters and brothers. This is the view that engages compassionately with this world through respect for otherness, equality, mutuality, interdependence and care.  These turn our world upside down.

Injustice in our world occurs when we are constantly called to give our allegiance to what does not bring justice, life and equality. Despite the abundance in our world to provide for all people, we still give our allegiance to consumerism, materialism, selfish corruption, and weaponry to destroy. Despite the fact that security and peace are found in collaboration, mutual understanding, creative resource sharing, and acceptance of differences, we give allegiance to divisive exclusivity, factionalism, stereotyping, blaming, self-protectiveness, and power games. We continue to fall for the same temptations to power, wealth, and lust that have always tempted humanity, in spite of the ongoing suffering that this causes. To hear the challenging call to work for justice, we must begin by shifting our allegiance to God’s Reign; to refuse to buy into the values that the world offers so that justice, peace and love can gain ground. We face many challenges each day in our relationships, in our homes and our neighbourhoods – to fidelity, mutual support, care, interest, learning understand and to listen to each other rather than separate ourselves from those who are different. In our faith communities, we shy away from Gospel inclusivity and love in favour of exclusivity, legalism, hypocrisy and judgment of others. This week the call of God to Adam, ‘where are you?’ is being asked of us in the light of all these issues.

This can seem like too much. But Paul tells says, ‘we do not lose heart’ (4:16) because God’s process of drawing life and bringing often seems hidden and not obvious. We cannot use the usual signs of progress and measures of success used by corporate standards. Against these standards then our service and ministry in justice, peacemaking, public advocacy can seem to be failures. We are reminded that the things that matter, the changes of the heart, come slowly and imperceptibly. It could seem that the world is going to hell or that we have run into a brick wall. Our work can be discouraging. I am often asked if I have had any successes and my response usually is uncertainty. But how could one live with oneself if one was not engaged even when things are discouraging, when there are obstacles, when there brick walls and even blatant opposition. We need to believe that we are participating in the hidden processes of God that extend to more and more people.

For people who are directly involves in social justice ministry or those who work in the community in any way, the outcomes we seek are not the ones that come about. But we are not being asked to be primarily effective, even if this desirable. We are being asked to be faithful. Thomas Merton said: ‘Do not depend on the hope of results . . .you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. . . .you gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people . . . .In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.’

LITURGY NOTES FOR CORPUS CHRISTI 2018

 

The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

[Corpus Christi]

June 3, 2018

Suggested formula for recognition of indigenous people and their land.

(Any of these can also be recited by all in the congregation)

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand

We pay our respects to them for their care of the land

May we walk gently and respectfully upon the land.

or

I acknowledge the living culture of the ……..people,

the traditional custodians of the land we stand on,

and pay tribute to the unique role they play in the life of this region.

or

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we are now gathered,

(the ……)  and recognise that it continues to be sacred to them.

We hail them: as guardians of the earth and of all things that grow and breed in the soil; as trustees of the waters – [the seas, the streams and rivers, the ponds and the lakes] - and the rich variety of life in those waters.

We thank them for passing this heritage to every people since the Dreamtime.

We acknowledge the wrongs done to them by newcomers to this land and we seek to be partners with them in righting these wrongs and in living together in peace and harmony.

or

We acknowledge the …………………….people the first inhabitants of this land.

We honour them for their care of the land

on which we gather today, and with them,

pray for justice and their constitutional recognition.

Only the Truth is Revolutionary

If there is hunger anywhere in the world,

 then our celebration of the Eucharist

 is incomplete everywhere in the world.

Pedro Arrupe SJ, former Jesuit superior general

None of us have the right to avert our gaze

William Sloan Coffin – 1924-2006

     

    

Readings:

Reading 1 Ex 24:3-8

Responsorial Psalm Ps 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18

Reading II Heb 9:11-15

Gospel Mk 14:12-16, 22-26

Penitential Rite

1.      Nurturing God, you bring together people of every nation, culture and language. Jesus, have mercy.

2.      Nurturing God, you breathe your Spirit into people of every age and gather them as one.  Christ, have mercy. 

3.       Nurturing God, with might hand and outstretched arm, you lead your people along the paths of time.  Jesus, have mercy.

Alternative Penitential Rite

1. Jesus, in the Eucharist you give yourself for us to share. Jesus, have mercy.
2. Jesus, in the Eucharist you invite us to become with you food and drink for the life of the world. Christ, have mercy.
3. Jesus, in the Eucharist you give us the strength to live the way you lived for God and others. Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

Life-giving God,

Christ Jesus,

calls us to be your body

for the life of the world.

Nourish us with your word of life,

give us the food and drink you offer,

that we may become more like you

and live not for ourselves

but for you and for the people around us

so that the world may recognise

that you  live in us.

Opening Prayer [Alternative]

Life-giving God,

Christ Jesus,

lives among us

in the sacrament of his body and blood. 

May we offer you our willingness

to make present in our world the love shown to us

through lives poured out in service

so that all may experience the peace of God’s reign. 

Prayer over the Gifts

Life-giving God,

our offerings will become for us a sign of solidarity.

May Jesus, your Son, keep us together

in friendship, peace and a common concern

for love and justice among us

and in the world.

Prayer after Communion

Life-giving God,

as we share Jesus’ life

and receive his body and blood in the Eucharist,

may we work to build that new world

where your peace will be revealed

in people of every race, language and way of life

who gather to share in the one eternal banquet.

Prayers of the Faithful

Introduction: Jesus Christ satisfies our hunger and journeys with us in our deserts. We pray in response: Nurturing God, hear us.

·         We pray for our church for our church, hungry for community and shared responsibility, that we may be tolerant of one another and respectful of legitimate diversity, we pray: Nurturing God, hear us.

·         We pray for Pope Francis and that his ministry of gathering people in solidarity by reminding them of the mercy and compassion of God will be increasingly established among us and the wider world, we pray: Nurturing God, hear us.

·         We pray for our country, which has more than others and abundance of resources, that it may be responsible in the aid it offers to the people of Asia and Oceania so that they may continue along the road of economic development and human dignity, we pray: Nurturing God, hear us.

·         We pray for all Christian communities that their sharing in the Eucharist will deepen their responsibility towards people who are homeless, living with disability and sickness, or living in prisons and detention centres, we pray: Nurturing God, hear us.

·         We pray for those of us who suffer persecution or hunger for freedom, justice and peace, that we may be strengthened and not lose courage by our solidarity with one another, we pray: Nurturing God, hear us.

·         We pray that our hearts be ignited with the fire of God’s love so that we may be awakened by a renewed commitment to work in partnership with all, we pray: Nurturing God, hear us.

·         We pray that all the communities within the Church will be more and more a beacon of compassion for the global family, and continue to share in the joys, hopes, griefs and anxieties of people living in poverty, we pray: Nurturing God, hear us.

·         We pray that our brothers and sisters around the world who are affected by earthquakes, intense heat, droughts, storms and floods find relief and support so that they may look to the future with hope, we pray: Nurturing God, hear us.

·         We pray for the 200 million children of the world who are undernourished and for the 11 million children who will die of hunger this year, we pray: Nurturing God, hear us.

Concluding Prayer: Life-giving God, Jesus shared himself to strengthen us. Help us to share all that we are and all that we have to complete the Eucharist that we share together

Nothing in the world is more dangerous

than a sincere ignorance

and conscientious stupidity.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are called to practice Eucharist as a practice of awareness.  When Jesus broke and shared the bread with his disciples, he said, ‘Eat this.  This is my flesh.’  He knew that if his disciples would eat one piece of bread full of awareness, knowing what they do, they would have real life.  In their daily lives, they may have eaten their bread in forgetfulness, so the bread was not bread at all; it was a ghost.  In our daily lives, we may see the people around us, but if we lack mindfulness, they are just phantoms, not real people, and we ourselves are also ghosts.  Being aware of what we do and who we are we become real persons.  When we are real persons, we see real people around us; life is present in all its richness.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk and peace activist.

One way to define violence is to see it as the act of forgetting or ignoring who we are – brothers and sisters of one another, each one of us a child of God. Violence occurs in those moments when we forget and deny our basic identity as God’s children, when we treat each other as if we were worthless instead of priceless, when we cling to our own selfish desires, possessions and security.

John Dear, Disarming the Heart

Men love their ideas more than their lives. And the more preposterous the idea, the more eager they are to die for it. And to kill for it.  

Edward Abbey

If it's natural to kill, how come men have to go into training to learn how?   

Joan Baez

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

Eleanor Roosevelt

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.

Ernest Hemmingway

The Place Where We Are Right

Yehuda Amichai

From the place where we are right

Flowers will never grow

In the spring.

The place where we are right

Is hard and trampled

Like a yard.

But doubts and loves

Dig up the world

Like a mole, a plow.

And a whisper will be heard in the place

Where the ruined

House once stood.

[I]n such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.

Albert Camus

The pioneers of a warless world are the youth

that refuse military service.

Albert Einstein

If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago.     

Sir George Porter, The Observer, 26 August 1973

For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

Maj-Gen Smedley Butler, USMC . Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, War Is A Racket;

I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, ‘Mother, what was war?

Eve Merriam

I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,

Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.

Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.

Kahlil Gibran The Prophet , On Freedom

In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

Mark Twain, Notebook, 1935

Such as it is, the press has become the greatest power within the Western World, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and judiciary. One would like to ask: by whom has it been elected, and to whom is it responsible?’

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

He who allows oppression, shares the crime.

Erasmus Darwin

If the innocent honest [Man] must quietly quit all [he] has for Peace sake, to [him] who will lay violent hands upon it, I desire it may be considered what kind of Peace there will be in the World, which consists only in Violence and Rapine; and which is to be maintained only for the benefit of Robbers and Oppressors.

John Locke  (1632-1704) English philosopher and political theorist. Second Treatise of Civil Government [1690], #228 (Lasslet Edition, Cambridge University Press, 1960), p. 465

Speak the truth in a thousand places.  It is the silence that kills.

St Catherine of Siena

The choice we face is broader than politics, deeper than charity. It is whether we see the world chiefly as property to be controlled, defined by walls and fences that must be built ever higher, ever thicker, ever tougher; or made up chiefly of an open weave of compassion and connection.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director of the Shalom Center, from his essay ‘The Sukkah of Shalom.’

Teresa's Prayer

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world.

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.

Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

attributed to St. Teresa of Avila

Anyone who tells you that 'It Can't Happen Here' is whistling past the graveyard of history. There is no 'house rule' that bars tyranny coming to America. History is replete with republics whose people grew complacent and descended into imperial butchery and chaos.

Mike Vanderboegh (1953-   ) Alabama Minuteman

Do you wish to honour the Body of Christ?

Do not despise him when he is naked.

Do not honour him here in the church building with silks,

only to neglect him outside,

when he is suffering from cold and nakedness.

For he who said 'This is my Body'

is the same who said 'You saw me, a hungry man, and you did not give me to eat.'

Feed the hungry and then come and decorate the table.

The Temple of your afflicted brother's body is more precious than this Temple (the church).

The Body of Christ becomes for you an altar.

It is more holy than the altar of stone on which you celebrate the holy sacrifice.

You are able to contemplate this altar everywhere, in the street and in the open squares.

St. John Chrysostom

The table fellowship of Christians implies obligations.  It is our daily bread that we eat, not my own.  We share our bread.  Thus we are firmly bound to one another not only in the spirit but in our whole physical being.  The one bread that is given to our fellowship links us together in a firm covenant.  No one dares go hungry as long as another has bread, and anyone who breaks this fellowship of the physical life also breaks the fellowship of the Spirit.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Because God is

the creator, redeemer, lover of the world,

God’s own honor is at stake in human happiness.

Wherever human beings are violated, diminished,

or have their life drained away,

God’s glory is dimmed and dishonored.

Wherever human beings are quickened to fuller and richer life,

God’s glory is enhanced.

A community of justice and peace (thriving among human beings)

and God’s glory increase in direct and not inverse proportion.

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is, p. 14

What are less than human conditions? The material poverty of those who lack the bare necessities of life, and the moral poverty of those who are crushed under the weight of their own self-love; oppressive political structures resulting from the abuse of ownership or the improper exercise of power, from the exploitation of the worker or unjust transactions. What are truly human conditions? The rise from poverty to the acquisition of life's necessities; the elimination of social ills; broadening the horizons of knowledge; acquiring refinement and culture. From there one can go on to acquire a growing awareness of other people's dignity, a taste for the spirit of poverty, an active interest in the common good, and a desire for peace.   

Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, #21

Prayer for Peace

We pray for those leaders of our communities,

our church, our country and our world,

that they may make decisions that are in accord

with God’s commandments that bring life, justice and peace.

For those who have died by actions of violence,

that they may be raised with Christ who died for them

and that they may know the unending life and glory

of the kingdom of peace and light.

For those who have survived violence,

that they will be sheltered in the compassion

of God and our community and that, feeling the compassion of Jesus,

they may find healing and hope.

For those who commit acts of violence against others,

that their hearts may be moved by Christ’s grace,

and that they may be transformed

by the Spirit of love.

For ourselves, that we will work together to end violence
and bring life, peace and security to our world.
Pax Christi UK

People are calling for a voice

Give us, O God of Justice, 

churches that will be more courageous then cautious;

that will not merely ‘comfort the afflicted’

but ‘afflict the comfortable’;

that will not only love the world

but also demand justice;

that will not remain silent

when people are calling for a voice;

that will not pass by on the other side

when wounded humanity is waiting to be healed;

that will not only call us to worship

but also send us out to witness;

that will follow Christ even

when the way points to a Cross.

To this end we offer ourselves in the name of him

who loved us and gave himself for us.

© Christian Conference of ASIA [adapted for gender inclusivity]

Creator of the world we share

Generous, loving God we ask you

to give us today our daily bread

Creator of the world we share

Give us today our daily bread

As we store the crops

And fill the barns

Stack the shelves

Pile high the tins

And wander the aisles

Of supermarket choice

Show us how to see the world

Through the eyes of the hungry

Teach us how to share with all

Our daily bread.

© Linda Jones

Living source of all life

God, living source of all life

Creator of the mountain streams and river valleys

Freshwater lakes and vast oceans

We are sorry for the times

We have not cared enough for your creation

When we have wasted what you have given

We remember today with anger and sorrow

The women who walk miles each day for water

The growing deserts where once the land was fertile

We praise you for the glories of your world

For the new trees planted on desolate hillsides

For the child splashing happily under the water pump

Teach us respect for your creation

Teach us not to take more than we need

And to share what we have

For the earth is yours

And all that is in it

© Linda Jones

Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth; justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance. Faith-based charity provides crumbs from the table; faith-based justice offers a place at the table.

Bill Moyers, Television journalist and social commentator

We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.

Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, former US president

You’re really something, do you know that? And in spite of whatever may happen in your day, you are going to stay that way: trying and giving and living life in the best way you know how. So keep your spirits up, and keep things in perspective. It’s going to be okay.
Ceal Carson

It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.

Wendell Berry, American Author, Poet and Farmer

When you give of yourself something new comes in to being... the world expands, a bit of goodness is brought forth and a small miracle occurs. You must never underestimate this miracle. Too many good people think they have to become Mother Teresa or Albert Schweitzer, or even Santa Claus, and perform great acts if they are to be givers. They don't see the simple openings of the heart that can be practiced anywhere with almost anyone.

Kent Nerburn, American Author, Sculptor and Editor

Acting upon my principles became incompatible with my role in the military. By putting my weapon down, I chose to reassert myself as a human being.

Camilo Mejia, conscientious objector sentenced to prison for his stance against the Iraq War 21 May 2004

He who fights against monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process. And when you stare persistently into an abyss, the abyss also stares into you.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), German philosopher, classical scholar, critic of culture

The global security agenda promoted by the US administration is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle. Violating rights at home, turning a blind eye to abuses abroad, and using pre-emptive military force where and when it chooses has damaged justice and freedom, and made the world a more dangerous place.

Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International 27 May 2004

I don't believe in charity.

I believe in solidarity.

Charity is so vertical.

It goes from the top to the bottom.

Solidarity is horizontal.

It respects the other person

and learns from the other.

I have a lot to learn

from other people.

Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan social justice activist

Violence may murder the murderer, but it doesn't murder murder. Violence may murder the liar, but it doesn't murder lies; it doesn't establish truth.... Violence may go to the point of murdering the hater, but it doesn't murder hate. It may increase hate. It is always a descending spiral leading nowhere. This is the ultimate weakness of violence: It multiplies evil and violence in the universe. It doesn't solve any problems.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Whoever hears the message of the crucifixion of Christ in such a way that the cry of the crucified has become inaudible in it, hears not the Gospel but rather a myth.

Johann Baptist Metz

In spirituality, what is inward is to become outward, visible and audible. When we learn to share pain and joy with others everyday life is hallowed because our desires and fears begin to radiate in it. Our lives and experiences are not casual items to be discarded but treasures worthy of being remembered, reflected upon, lamented and named.

Dorothee Soelle in Against the Wind

Just as the [man] who thinks only of this world does everything possible to make life here easier and better, so must we, too, who believe in the eternal Kingdom, risk everything in order to receive a great reward there. Just as those who believe in National Socialism tell themselves that their struggle is for survival, so must we, too, convince ourselves that our struggle is for the eternal Kingdom. But with this difference: we need no rifles or pistols for our battle, but instead, spiritual weapons – and the foremost among these is prayer... Through prayer, we continually implore new grace from God, since without God’s help and grace it would be impossible for us to preserve the Faith and be true to His commandments.

Franz Jägerstätter, 1907-1943 executed by the Nazis.

Love In All Its Forms

Sarah Thebarge Patheos May 21, 2018

On Saturday morning as I was putting on scrubs and clogs and pulling my hair up in a ponytail, preparing for another long shift at the urgent care where I practice medicine part-time,  I watched clips of the royal wedding. The ceremony had already taken place, since the U.K. is nine hours ahead of California.

I teared up at Prince Harry and Meghan’s irrepressible smiles and loving glances and palpable joy.  The carriage, the tiara, the hand-picked bouquet, the spring sunlight streaming through stain glassed windows.  It was all just. so. beautiful. It did my heart good to experience such a stunning expression of love.

But the love Meghan Markle was experiencing on Saturday was quite different from the love I experienced that day.

As Meghan was taking a horse-drawn carriage ride with her new husband, I was walking to work.

As she was drinking champagne, I was asking a barista for ‘a coffee as big as my head’ (I’d worked a 13-hour shift the day before, and I was still really tired.)

As Meghan was changing into a stunning white Stella McCartney evening gown, I was donning a starched white coat.

As she was dancing in satin heels, patients were vomiting on my clogs.

As she was eating lemon elderberry wedding cake, I was administering Amoxicillin and Ibuprofen.

As dignitaries from around the world were watching her elegant wedding, I, meanwhile, was on my hands and knees playing with a 2-year-old on the floor of the exam room, trying to get him to trust me enough to fix the laceration on his face.

As she was kissing her prince, I was holding the hand of an incredibly ill patient, praying for the ambulance to arrive before I had to start doing mouth-to-mouth.

The other clip of the royal wedding I watched while I was getting ready for work that morning was Bishop Michael Curry’s stirring sermon about love.  (You can watch the full 13-minute sermon here.)

In his message, Bishop Curry quoted Martin Luther King, Jr. ‘We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love, and when we do that we will make of this old world a new world. For love is the only way.’

Love is the only way.

Love, I realized as I was locking up the clinic on Saturday evening, looks like a lot of things.

Sometimes love is beautiful and soaring and sophisticated.

Sometimes love wears a gown and heels and dances with a prince.

Sometimes love is celebrated with hundreds or thousands or millions of people.

Sometimes love eats lemon elderberry cake and washes it down with champagne.

And sometimes love is hard and messy and menial.

Sometimes love wears clogs and scrubs and scurries back and forth between sick patients.

Sometimes love goes unwitnessed and unseen and unacknowledged.  Sometimes love gets blood in its hair and vomit on its shoes.

Sometimes it gives Amoxicillin and Ibuprofen as merciful sacraments for the suffering.

Yes, love looks like a lot of things.

And love, in all its forms, is the only way.

Whether it’s high or low, glamorous or grueling, in plain sight or behind closed doors, it’s love — in all its forms, in all its ways, in each heart and in every corner of the planet we share — it’s love and only love that saves the world.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/sarahthebarge/2018/05/love-in-all-its-forms/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=FBCP-PRX&utm_content=sarahthebarge

Imagining a World Where Love is the Way (HT Bishop Curry)

Morgan Guyton Patheos May 19, 2018

In his sermon at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry invites all of us to ‘imagine a world where love is the way.’ So I thought I would take a minute to do that. I will say that my first instinct sadly is to dismiss it as an overly flimsy concept reserved for a shallow Beatles song, a fake, feel-good, liberal ‘revolution.’

But a world where love is the way is actually a lot harder and more complex than a world where my team wins everything since we claim to be the team on love’s side.

A world where love is the way is a world where empathy is not a zero sum game.

It’s a world in which disagreements are not resolved through the categorically invalidating ad hominem attacks of postmodernity.

It’s a world where nobody gets shot because somebody else was feeling afraid, where nobody gets mocked for crying, and where nobody’s feelings are more or less important than anyone else’s.

It’s a world where the goal is not to make our enemies shut up and disappear but to sit at a table together and see each other fully.

A world where love is the way doesn’t dismiss nuance, nor does it use ‘nuance’ to wave away uncomfortable truths.

It doesn’t oversimplify the parties in one historical conflict as being identical to the parties in any other historical conflict.

It doesn’t tell people that their humanity can be explained away by academic theories or sacred texts.

It doesn’t apply labels to entire populations universally like terrorist or imperialist though it does recognize the existence of systemic realities like white supremacy, patriarchy, and colonialism that cannot be adjudicated individualistically.

It doesn’t see suicide bombs as any more or less tragic than missiles from F-15’s, though it does recognize the reality of power differentials. In a world where love is the way, nobody is dehumanized and nobody is shielded from facing the truth.

A world where love is the way does not have gated communities or walls to shut one group of people out so that another group of people can deny them as neighbors.

It doesn’t marginalize suffering but allows the widest possible community to absorb and shoulder it together. In this kind of world, no one ever says, ‘I am not my brother’s keeper.’ No one tries to write anyone else out of the story.

In a world where love is the way, every story matters and stories that haven’t mattered are prioritized as a result.

There are plenty of ways that I fall short of that kind of world. Creating it would not be nearly as glamorous or emotionally satisfying as getting off on the outrage porn that has saturated everything today. But it’s never too late to engage in the tiny, banal acts of love that are infinitely powerful when they’re all gathered together by the God who is love. In every given moment, we are invited to resist the enemy who makes us all enemies and follow the lead of the savior who is our perfect model of the love that always takes sides and always works to create the best possible world for everyone.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mercynotsacrifice/2018/05/19/imagining-a-world-where-love-is-the-way/

Reflection

Jacopo Tintoretto, and Italian artist, in 1594 completed a masterpiece named ‘The Last Supper’ which hangs, I think, in St Mary Major’s Basilica in Rome.  We are used to the traditional paintings of the Last Supper by other artists where Jesus and the disciples are in sit solemnly. Tintoretto’s piece is full of activity with people busy serving; with servants anxiously looking for a place for themselves; with a cat with its nose in a basket of dishes; and with one servant  seemingly raising his hand to stop another speaking presumably to hear what Jesus is saying. It is a busy scene full of distractions and interruptions. It could be like that for many of us who come to the Eucharist: sometimes attentive and sometimes distracted. The artist suggests that our faith will never be perfect or complete; that our love may falter; our best resolutions and commitments wain over the long haul. We can come frazzled or distracted by others or the everyday issues of our lives: crises, the pain of loss, heartache in family life, or the fear of having to face some perceived danger. The painting reminds us that whatever we bring - our moods, anxieties, concerns, sinfulness, distractions, busyness, heartaches and half-heartedness-Jesus still repeats again and again - ‘take’ and eat; ‘take’ and drink. These are what make up the Body of Christ in the world. It is a call to not forget.  It is important as we celebrate this feast.

The American academic, Henri Giroux, in his book The Violence of Organised Forgetting speaks of America (he could well include Australia) as a place where historical, political and moral forgetting is both wilfully practiced and celebrated. A kind of amnesia is flowing from an assault on critical and rational thinking. The historical legacies of resistance to racism, militarism, privatisation and individualism are being made invisible, forgotten or punished. We are left with an accommodation and passivity that is undermining social solidarity. It is an organised forgetting. Schools, public radio, sections of the media, human rights activists are under siege in many places when they threaten a market-driven society that sees thinking people, dialogue and civic engagement a threat to its power structures.  More and more young people are being denied a significant place in an already weakened social contract where their dreams become nightmares, as they, and people of colour, are caught in a society where their lives are dominated by either market forces and/or the growing police state.

Today’s feast is counterbalance to this. We celebrate God's presence in our lives in the breaking of the Word, the sharing the bread and wine. We receive what we are. The life we receive turns our attention away from self towards others - to a solidarity that Pope Francis reminds us of and calls us to. We are called to become the real presence of Christ and make it flesh by our presence in the world. When the early church met in small home communities they sent a disturbing message to a ‘pagan’ Rome founded on a slave-run economy. Unlike the Romans who knelt before idols and made a the cult of the emperor, the early believers shared life round the Lord’s table, where slaves and masters, men and women, Jews and gentiles sat as equals. It was a feast of the powerless, not the pompous. Jesus anticipated his last supper with many fellowship-meals where the weakest of human beings, the lowliest in human society, the saddest of people, and the worst of sinners were welcome in his comforting, healing and challenging presence. It was in these encounters that God’s reign began to germinate.

The one bread and one cup remind us that we cannot celebrate the Eucharist in isolation from one another - or the cries of the world; that we are called to become the agents of God's justice and mercy in an aching world; and to be a source of healing to renew the face of the earth.

Listening to Jesus and sharing his life is a call to have his concerns about judging others; living simply; giving ourselves for others; championing the outcast; representing the marginalised, the poor and despised. Our participation in the body and blood has more than a symbolic meaning. It is something we are ad something we do. We are of one Body, his Body. ‘This is my Body, this is my Blood!’ It has a material, bodily and tangible dimension.  This reality is often lost in our thought and action. On Friday, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, we again celebrate the love of God made flesh (incarnate) and tangible in Jesus. 

We come together and do an action. The first reading shows how covenants were made sealed in blood. They were to be a communion of lives – people and God. Through Moses, the people heard God’s message: ‘Everything that God has said, we shall do.’ But their faithfulness waned when they forgot that it had something to do with care for the most vulnerable among them.

At the Last Supper, Jesus does something similar to the ancients ‘This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all.’ and he passed it around from which everyone drank. It showed how we become one in Jesus… and one with all people of all times of all places. There are no geographical limitations, no temporal limitations.

In saying, ’This is my body’..., ‘this is my blood’, Jesus was saying, ‘this is my life!’ We are meant to repeat this action to effect social change; replacing systems that thingify or commodify people with one based on giving, serving, relating.

If we are to do what Jesus commanded, we need to distinguish between memory and nostalgia. Nostalgia reflects the desire to go back to a former time in one’s life, e.g., the mystery and beauty of the old Mass, rather than the meaning and call to action that Eucharist is. We are called to remember. Memory is about making present. Nostalgia is about the past that takes us back in time. Memory brings the past into the present and to bring to life what might have been buried in the past. Nostalgia merely reminds us of what Jesus did then. Memory reminds us of what he is doing now. To remember his death directly involves us in his life that brought him to that death.

The Last Supper has implications for all people. It involves us all. Jesus consistently gave himself, especially to the needy and least-favoured in society. His sacrifice was not just about his death on the cross but his whole life. It was a self-gift to humanity. His self-gift to us implicates us as we are called to share what we receive with others. As we receive the body and blood of Christ today in the bread and wine, we commit ourselves to Jesus' way of life.

A word we associate with Eucharist is anamnesis, the Greek word for ‘remembering’. Its opposite is amnesia which is about ‘forgetting’. This concerns the temptation to forget the victims of this world – the poor, unemployed, abused or asylum seekers, people living with mental illness or other disability, gay and lesbian people, people of colour or different social status.  We forget that our enemies are human. Anamnesis seeks to undo the forgetting or amnesia that occurs in society. The German theologian, Johann Baptist Metz speaks of the ‘dangerous memory’ where Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection disrupts the world’s forgetfulness, or the ‘forgetfulness of the forgotten.’  He declared he was on the side of the invisible, the oppressed and exploited, and proclaiming hereby the coming reign of God as the liberating power of unconditional love, which is the core of our belief: God loved us first. Everything about our faith and theology is a footnote to this belief. Our lives are a response to this love.

Pope Francis repeatedly refers to the idea of solidarity stemming from the recognition of being children of God. This recognition is not without responsibility. We are all required to live in solidarity with each other, caring for each other, both rich and poor. As his disciples we are called to share, to close the gaps that divide people. We are called to be instruments of communion. The spirit of the world does not look kindly on a solidarity that confronts ‘the violence of organised forgetting’ where we forget that the other is flesh of my flesh and made in God’s image.

May our celebration be a true anamnesis, a remembering, a consciousness raising as we move from a culture that focuses on our needs and those closest to us towards a culture that is oriented towards those people that Jesus is pointing to every day. As we pray for forgiveness, may we be forgiving. As we pray for our daily bread, may we be mindful of those (now 1 in 9 of the world’s population) who cannot access that daily bread, as we call on God, we cannot commune with Jesus without becoming more passionate and compassionate towards others and expressed in generosity and caring, as we pray for peace, and offer each other the sign of peace, we cannot effect that if we cannot look at each other, recognise each other as a sister or brother, and be prepared to offer a genuine sign of peace and friendship.

People in all places are yearning for the healing touch and reconciling mercy of God in Christ. Our call is to be Christ’s presence, bringing the reign of God to the world today.

 

 

 

LITURGY  NOTES FOR TRINITY SUNDAY

May 27^th 2018

Sorry Day Prayer

Almighty and loving God,

You who created ALL people in your image,

Lead us to seek your compassion

as we listen to the stories of our past.

You gave your only Son, Jesus,

who died and rose again so that sins will be forgiven.

We place before you the pain and

anguish of dispossession of land,

language, lore, culture and

family kinship that Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander peoples have experienced.

We live in faith that all people

will rise from the depths of despair and hopelessness.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Families have endured the pain

and loss of loved ones, through the

separation of children from their families.

We are sorry and ask God’s forgiveness.

Touch the hearts of the broken, homeless

and inflicted and heal their spirits.

In your mercy and compassion

walk with us as we continue our journey

of healing to create a future that is just and equitable.

Lord, you are our hope.

Amen.

© Aboriginal and Islander Commission, National Council of Churches in Australia, 2002

(Any of these can also be recited by all in the congregation)

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand

We pay our respects to them for their care of the land

May we walk gently and respectfully upon the land.

or

I acknowledge the living culture of the ……..people,

the traditional custodians of the land we stand on,

and pay tribute to the unique role they play in the life of this region.

or

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we are now gathered,

(the ……)  and recognise that it continues to be sacred to them.

We hail them: as guardians of the earth and of all things that grow and breed in the soil; as trustees of the waters – [the seas, the streams and rivers, the ponds and the lakes] - and the rich variety of life in those waters.

We thank them for passing this heritage to every people since the Dreamtime.

We acknowledge the wrongs done to them by newcomers to this land and we seek to be partners with them in righting these wrongs and in living together in peace and harmony.

or

We acknowledge the …………………….people the first inhabitants of this land.

We honour them for their care of the land

on which we gather today, and with them,

pray for justice and their constitutional recognition.

.

Peace remains possible. And if peace is possible, it is also a duty! 

Pope Benedict XVI, Message for World Day of Prayer for Peace 2006

Only the truth is revolutionary

None of us have the right to avert our gaze

William Sloan Coffin (1924-2006)

   

Readings

First Reading Deuteronomy 4:32–34, 39–40

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22

Second Reading Romans 8:14–17

Gospel Matthew 28:16–20

Penitential Rite

·         In you, we see the face of God. Jesus, have mercy.

·         In you we see the peace of God bringing healing and reconciliation to our world, Christ, have mercy.

·         In you we see the Spirit poured out on all creation and making all things new, Jesus, have mercy

or

§  Jesus, you revealed to us, God’s  deep care for us. Jesus, have mercy.

§  Jesus, you loved us by laying down your life for us. Christ, have mercy.

§  Jesus, you pour out upon all creation the Spirit of unity, healing and love. Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

God of Communion,

Trinity of Persons, (or Creator God or God, source of all life and love)

you are near to your people

who have been formed in your image,

and close to the world your love continues to bring to life.

Draw us more deeply into your life,

respectful of you

in our sisters and brothers

and all creation.

Prayer over the Gifts

God of Communion,

Trinity of Persons, (or Creator God or God, source of all life and love)

accept the bread and wine we offer

which, through your Spirit, become Jesus,

your creative word among us,

May our sharing in his body and blood

strengthen us in the covenant of love

with you, our brothers and sisters,

and all of creation..

Prayer after Communion

God of Communion,

Trinity of Persons, (or Creator God or God, source of all life and love)

and the sacrament we have shared

help us to recognise your presence and image

echoed in our world

as we struggle for healing and peace for all people.

Deliver Us

Deliver us, God of Communion, from every evil

and grant the peace of Christ today,

which is the work of your Spirit.

In your mercy keep us free from all that obstructs the bonds of humanity.

Protect us from all anxiety and worry and reassure us

that even in the uncertainties of our time

your Spirit leads us forward in joyful hope

toward the coming of Jesus Christ, our brother.

Prayers of the Faithful

Introduction:  Let us pray to the God who loves the world so much and calls to be one human community and work for harmony in creation, our communities and families, and among the nations of the world. We pray in response: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

• We pray for Aboriginal and Torres Islander people: may we appreciate their contribution to our lives and culture and know and experience our empathy in their sufferings and struggles for survival and healing, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

• We pray for a deeper courage within us: may our vision and deep concern for justice emerge from our sense of human interconnectedness and be firm when challenged, tested and persecuted, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

• We pray for all areas of conflict and dissonance in the world: may there be peace where there is war, mutual aid and service where there is competition; and respect and dignity where there is rejection and prejudice, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts

• We pray for harmony within the church and between the churches: may there be cooperative dialogue where there is disagreement and mistrust, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts

• We pray for all people who work to create community in the world: may they build communities that reach beyond political frontiers, ideological, ethnic, cultural, or religious boundaries, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

• We pray for the people of the Pacific region, particularly the people of Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Catheret islands and other parts of the Torres Straits as they live with the effects of global warming and the effects on their livelihoods and homelands, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

• We pray for all people who are alone, isolated, or feel undervalued and unloved in the world: may they come to know the Trinity, the divine community which breaks down all barriers, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

• We pray for all who work to improve care and treatment of people who live with mental and physical disabilities: may God’s loving and healing presence surround all who are suffering in any way and find comfort in the presence of those who care for them, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

• We pray that we recognise that God is in the midst creation and all relationships: may truth continue to emerge in the exchange of stories and solidarity between peoples, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts

• We pray that our government institutions reflect the equality of the Trinity: may the voices of the weak and vulnerable be given more weight than the powerful and the dominant, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts

• We pray for the gift of courage: that we may be open to moving beyond our ordinary activities and hurried disregard and be instruments of God’s love and presence in new situations and with new people, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts

• We pray for all people who feel isolated from God and the human family: that they may experience welcome and acceptance as they encounter the Christian community, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts

• We pray for greater stewardship of the earth’s resources: that we may be good stewards of God’s creation and strive to protect it for future generations, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts

• We pray with grateful hearts for the beauty and wonder of  creation: may we love and respect all that God has made by sharing our gifts with our brothers and sisters in need and protect and nurture all that is fragile and vulnerable on this earth, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

• We pray with thanks for the great diversity of peoples who share this world: may we have a renewed spirit of longing for peace and reconciliation wherever there is conflict, injustice and oppression, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

• We pray for peace: that all will be open to find new pathways to end violence in the Middle East, in Africa and the South China Sea so that all may live in peace and safety, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts

• We pray that as we gaze on the beauty and wonder of creation, we may love and respect all that God has made and given as we share with our sisters and brothers and work to protect and nurture all that is fragile and vulnerable on the earth, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

• We pray that looking upon the huge diversity of the peoples of the world that we may have a renewed spirit of longing for peace and reconciliation wherever there is conflict, injustice and oppression, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

• We pray that all who work to improve care and treatment of people who are physically ill or mentally distressed and that God’s loving and healing presence will surround all who are suffering today, we pray: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

Final Prayer: O God of Communion, Trinity of Persons, you are the foundation and meaning of our lives.  Reawaken within us your life so that we take charge of our lives and passionately reflect the same love for all peoples that you show in the Trinity.

or

Final Prayer: O God of Communion, Trinity of Persons, you have formed us and know the thoughts and motives of our hearts. Fill us with spirit that moves us towards unity where we cast aside our differences, embrace diversity and serve you in each other.

Parish Notices:

June 3 Mabo Day marks the 20^th anniversary (1992) of the High Court judgement when it accepted the claim by Eddie ‘Koiki’ Mabo and other claimants that their people (the Meriam people) had occupied the Islands of Mer for hundreds of years before the arrival of the British. It is a particular day of significance for Torres Strait Islander Australians.

May 27-June 3 Reconciliation Week

June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre, 1989

June 4 International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression

June 5 World Environment Day

June 7: Feast of Corpus Christi

June 10 Myall Creek Massacre, 1838

Further Resources

‘….any talk of peace, must walk’.

Afghan Youth Peace Volunteer

When you pray, move your feet.

African Proverb

Human security is a child, who did not die,

a disease that did not spread,

a job that was not cut,

an ethnic tension that did not explode in violence;

a dissident who was not silenced.

Human security is not a concern with weapons –

it is a concern with human life and dignity.

Pax Christi International

Knowing one's self, finding one's self, and expending one's self for another are intertwined activities. Love of self, love of God, and love of neighbour are interdependent.

Sidney Callahan With All Our Heart and Mind

The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Albert Einstein

Our men . . . have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of 10 up.... Our soldiers have pumped salt water into men to ‘make them talk,’ and have taken prisoners people who held up their hands and peacefully surrendered, and an hour later. . . stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down, as examples to those who found their bullet-loaded corpses.

Philadelphia Ledger newspaper in 1901, from its Manila [Philippines] correspondent during the US war with Spain for the control of the Philippines

The only place you and I disagree . . . is with regard to the bombing. You're so goddamned concerned about the civilians, and I (in contrast) don't give a damn. I don't care. …..I'd rather use the nuclear bomb. . . Does that bother you? I just want you to think big.

Richard Nixon to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on the Watergate tapes

Humanity's most valuable assets have been the non-conformists. Were it not for the non-conformists, he who refuses to be satisfied to go along with the continuance of things as they are, and insists upon attempting to find new ways of bettering things, the world would have known little progress, indeed.

Josiah William Gitt (1884-1973)

An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda, is less inclined to put up a fight, ask questions and be skeptical. That kind of orthodoxy can kill a democracy - or worse.

Bill Moyers

If those who support aggressive war had seen a fraction of what I've seen, if they'd watched children fry to death from Napalm and bleed to death from a cluster bomb, they might not utter the claptrap they do.

John Pilger

The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.

Aldous Huxley

This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life ... A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors... Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same.

George Orwell, 1984

War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.

Karl Kraus (1874-1936)

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

Haile Selassie

Finally, may Christ inflame the desires of all people to break through the barriers which divide them, to strengthen the bonds of mutual love, to learn to understand one another, and to pardon those who have done them wrong. Through Christ’s power and inspiration may all peoples welcome each other to their hearts as brothers and sisters, and may the peace they long for ever flower and ever reign among them.

Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, #171

Finding one’s own voice, however haltingly, imparts the power of the Spirit crying out. The boldness to hear the claim of conscience and follow its deep impulses even in the face of loss; the courage to taste righteous anger and allow it to motivate critical resistance to evil; the willingness to utter the prophetic word--these occurrences inscribe the movement of the Spirit’s compassion into the ambiguity of the world.

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is, p. 126

The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded. It is a doctrine alike of the oldest and of the newest philosophy, that man is one, and that you cannot injure any member, without a sympathetic injury to all the members

Ralph Waldo Emerson. 1844

Another nation is made out to be utterly depraved and fiendish, while one's own nation stands for everything that is good and noble. Every action of the enemy is judged by one standard - every action of oneself by another. Even good deeds by the enemy are considered a sign of particular devilishness, meant to deceive us and the world, while our bad deeds are necessary and justified by our noble goals, which they serve.

Eric Fromm

Whenever a human community resists

its own destruction or works for its own renewal;

when structural changes serve the liberation of oppressed peoples;

when law subverts sexism, racism, poverty, and militarism;

when swords are beaten into ploughshares

or bombs into food for the starving;

when the scores of old injustices are healed;

when enemies are reconciled once violence and domination have ceased; whenever the lies and the raping and the killing stop;

wherever diversity is sustained in koinônia;

wherever justice and peace and freedom gain a transformative foothold–-

there the living presence of powerful, blessing mystery

amid the brokenness of the world is mediated.

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is, p.126

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty and democracy?

Mohandas Gandhi.

Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war in which the folly and wickedness of the government may engage itself? Under what concealment has this power lain hidden, which now for the first time comes forth, with a tremendous and baleful aspect, to trample down and destroy the dearest right of personal liberty? Who will show me any Constitutional injunction which makes it the duty of the American people to surrender everything valuable in life, and even life, itself, whenever the purposes of an ambitious and mischievous government may require it? ... A free government with an uncontrolled power of military conscription is the most ridiculous and abominable contradiction and nonsense that ever entered into the heads of men.

Daniel Webster (1782-1852), US Senator

Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought! Strike against manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder! Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings! Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction!

Helen Keller, to an audience at Carnegie Hall a year before the United States entered World War I.

Power, when shared, is a relationship that enriches everyone. The great rift is not between various human beings and communities. For we all belong together. Rather, the great rift is between care and carelessness, justice and injustice, mercy and mercilessness, compassion and indifference. What divides is not difference but sin, oppression, and injustice. Difference does not destroy creation; rather, it is our sin of allowing oppression and injustice to be perpetrated that destroys. To create a culture of life, we need more than psychology, spirituality and community. We need economics, sustainable agriculture, and a politics of liberation capable of healing our world and restoring the earth to life.’

Jean Zaru, Building a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence in a Context of Oppression, Journal of Religion, Conflict and Peace. no. 2 (Spring 2009)

We must recognize that there can be no justice over the long term without sustainability, and creating a sustainable world will require not only radical change in systems and structures of power but also a radical change in the way we in affluent societies live. It’s time to recognize that if we are serious about the values of equality that we claim to be the core of our politics, we must scale back the level at which we live.

Robert Jensen, professor of journalism

Affirmation of Justice and Peace

I believe in God,

who is love and who has given the earth to all people.

I believe in Jesus Christ,

who came to heal in and through all who work for justice

I believe in the Spirit of God,

who works in and through all who witness to the truth.

I believe in the community of faith,

which is called to be at the service of all people.

I believe in God’s promise to finally destroy the power of sin in us all,

and to establish the kingdom of justice and peace for all humankind.

I believe in human rights,

in the solidarity of all people,

in the power of non-violence.

I do not believe in racism,

in the power that comes from wealth and privilege,

or in any established order that enslaves.

I believe that all women and men are equally human,

that order based on violence and injustice is not order.

I do not believe that war and hunger

are inevitable and peace unattainable.

I believe in the beauty of simplicity,

in love with open hands, in peace on earth.

I do not believe that suffering need be in vain,

that death is the end,

that the disfigurement of our world is what God intended.

I dare to believe,

always and in spite of everything,

in God’s power to transform and transfigure,

fulfilling the promise of a new heaven and a new earth

where justice and peace will flourish.

Source unknown

Display a heart of boundless love for all the world,

in all its height and depth and broad extent,

love unrestrained, without hate or enmity.

Then as you stand or walk, sit or lie,

until overcome with drowsiness,

devote our mind entire to this.

This is known as living here a life divine.

Sean McDonagh, To Care for the Earth, London, Geoffrey Chapman, 1986, p. 145.

A time comes when silence is betrayal. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (Excerpts from a speech on the Vietnam War)

The light which shines in the eye

is really the light of the heart.

The light which fills the heart

is the light of God.

Rumi (Sufi poet)

Come, come, whoever you are,

Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving,

It doesn’t matter.

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Come, come even if you have broken your vows a thousand times.

Come – come yet again, come.

Rumi (Sufi poet)

A Warm, Moist, Salty God

Deep in the forest

I found my God

leaping through the trees,

spinning with the glancing sunlight,

caressing with the breeze.   

There where the grasses

rose and fell

fanning the perfumed air,

I smelt her beauty,

elusive, free,

dancing everywhere.

Deep in the city

I found my God,

weeping in the bar,

prowling beneath the glaring lights,

dodging speeding car.

There where the women

were pimped and raped,

cursing for a light,

I felt her presence,

fierce, deep,

sobbing in the night.

Deep in myself

I found my God

stirring in my guts,

 quickening my middle-age bones,

stilling all my buts.

There where my spirit

had slumbered long,

numbed into a trance,

A moist, warm, salty God

arose,

and beckoned me to Dance.

Edwina Gateley, A Warm, Moist, Salty God: Women journeying towards wisdom, Source Books, 1993

Religion is not 'what one does with one's solitariness.'

Religion is what one does with the presence of God.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, I Asked for Wonder, Crossroads, New York, 1987

The glory of God is a human person fully alive. A human person fully alive is the glory of God.

Saint Irenaus

Because God is the creator, redeemer, lover of the world, God’s own honor is at stake in human happiness. Wherever human beings are violated, diminished, or have their life drained away, God’s glory is dimmed and dishonored. Wherever human beings are quickened to fuller and richer life, God’s glory is enhanced. A community of justice and peace (thriving among human beings) and God’s glory increase in direct and not inverse proportion

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is

The solidarity which binds all people together as members of a common family makes it impossible for wealthy nations to look with indifference upon the hunger, misery and poverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to enjoy even elementary human rights. The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalances persist.

Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, #157

If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.

William Wilberforce, British abolitionist and social reformer (1759-1833)

Give me grace to live my life,

within and without, the way you lived your life, O Christ.

Pedro Arrupe, SJ

It is useless to utter fervent petitions for that Kingdom to be established and that Will be done, unless we are willing to do something about it ourselves. ... We are agents of the Creative Spirit in this world. Real advance in the spiritual life means accepting this vocation with all it involves.

Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life (1936)

I stand before you as a moral being... and as a moral being I feel that I owe it to the suffering slave and the deluded master, to my country and to the world, to do all that I can to overturn a system of complicated crimes, built upon the broken hearts and the prostrate bodies of my countrymen in chains and cemented by the blood, sweat, and tears of my sisters in bonds.

Angelina Grimké, Abolitionist and feminist (1805-1879)

Teach me your Way, O Christ

Christ, teach me your way of treating others

--sinners, children, Pharisees, Pilates and Herods,

and also John the Baptists.

Teach me your way of eating and drinking,

and how to act when I'm tired from work and need rest.

Teach me compassion for the suffering,

the poor, the blind, and the lame.

You who shed tears, show me how to live my deepest emotions.

Above all, I want to learn how you endured your Cross.

Teach me your way of looking at people:

the way you glanced at Peter after his denial, 

the way you touched the heart of the rich young man

and the hearts of your disciples.

I would like to meet you as you really are,

since you change those who really know you.

If only I could hear you speak as when you spoke

in the synagogue of Capernaum

or on the Mount of Beatitudes!

To make peace with an enemy one must work with that enemy, and that enemy becomes one's partner.

Nelson Mandela,

When a person tries to act in accordance with his [or her] conscience, when he tries to speak the truth, when he tries to behave like a citizen, even in conditions where citizenship is degraded, it won't necessarily lead anywhere, but it might....Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance.

Vaclav Havel, poet, playwright and former President of the Czech Republic

Bible texts are best read with a pair of glasses made out of today's newspaper.

Dorothee Sölle, German theologian and writer, from Justice in an Unjust World, by Karen Labacqz.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be ... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

Martin Luther King Jr.

We are called to assist the earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own - indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty, and wonder.

Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist, political activist, and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Prayer for Peace

We pray for those leaders of our communities,

our church, our country and our world,

that they may make decisions that are in accord

with God’s commandments that bring life, justice and peace.

For those who have died by actions of violence,

that they may be raised with Christ who died for them

and that they may know the unending life and glory

of the kingdom of peace and light.

For those who have survived violence,

that they will be sheltered in the compassion

of God and our community and that, feeling the compassion of Jesus,

they may find healing and hope.

For those who commit acts of violence against others,

that their hearts may be moved by Christ’s grace,

and that they may be transformed

by the Spirit of love.

For ourselves, that we will work together to end violence

and bring life, peace and security to our world.

Pax Christi UK

Our common humanity is more important than all the things that divide us.

Mairead Corrigan, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and cofounder of the Community of Peace People in Northern Ireland.

As long as people use tactics to oppress or restrict other people from being free, there is work to be done.

Rosa Parks

‘The solidarity which binds all people together as members of a common family makes it impossible for wealthy nations to look with indifference upon the hunger, misery and poverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to enjoy even elementary human rights. The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalances persist.’

John XXIII, Mater et Magistra 157

The communion of Christians with Jesus has the communion of God as Trinity, namely, the unity of the Son to the Father in the gift of the Holy Spirit, as its model and source, and is itself the means to achieve this communion: united to the Son in the Spirit's bond of love, Christians are united to the Father.

John Paul II, Christifideles Laici, 18

Whenever a human community resists its own destruction or works for its own renewal; when structural changes serve the liberation of oppressed peoples; when law subverts sexism, racism, poverty, and militarism; when swords are beaten into ploughshares or bombs into food for the starving; when the scores of old injustices are healed; when enemies are reconciled once violence and domination have ceased;  whenever the lies and the raping and the killing stop; wherever diversity is sustained in koin?nia; wherever justice and peace and freedom gain a transformative foothold – there the living presence of powerful, blessing mystery amid the brokenness of the world is mediated.

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is, 126

Story

There are many versions of this story built around the question ‘How do you know when the night is over the day has begun?’

It was dusk on the bank of a river that curved from the sea to the mountain. There, perched in the deep bend of a branch of an oak tree, sat a rabbi, and at his feet were students from nations near and far. As the evening slowly reached up from the horizon and spread across the vast expanse of the sky, the rabbi and his students spoke of the great issues of the day. As they did each night, they spoke of issues of the heart, of humanity, and of hope.

The rabbi peered into the distance and turned to his students to ask, ‘Tell me – if you can – how we will know when the night is over and the day has begun?’

The students sat back for a minute and gazed at the horizon and witnessed as the deep blue of evening began to blend with the golden canvas of sunset. And they knew that the rabbi spoke neither of timetables nor of the earth’s rotation on its axis. No, the rabbi spoke of larger things.

After regarding the question for a while, one of the students raised his hand and said, ‘Rabbi, we will know that the night is over and the day has begun when we can see the difference between a goat and a lamb.’

The rabbi shook his head and said, ‘No, you have made a thoughtful effort, but that is not it either.’

The rabbi paused and said, ‘No, that is a good answer, but I don’t think that is it.’

Soon, another student offered her hand and said, ‘Rabbi, I think the night is over and the day has begun when we can see the difference between a fig tree and an olive tree.’

The students seemed confused and were discouraged. Quietly, they gazed upwards where scattered stars and a full moon replaced the sun and brightened the deep dark of the endless sky.

After a moment, a soft voice could be heard from the bank closest to the river. It came from one of the Rabbi’s most reluctant students. Shy and somewhat hesitant, she began, ’Rabbi, I think we will know that the night is over and the day has begun when we can see a rich man and a poor man and hear them say, ‘He is my brother.’’

The student continued, her voice growing stronger.

‘When we see a black woman and a white woman and hear them say, ‘She is my sister.’ It will be then when we know that the night is over and the day has begun.’

The rabbi nodded his head, pleased with the wisdom of his student and said, ‘That is right.’ Masechet Berachot of the Babylonian Talmud.

Reflection on the readings

Today’s feast really is simple. In Jesus, God is not only ‘for us’ but ‘with us’ and - through the presence of the Spirit - ‘within us.’

The writer of Deuteronomy reminds his contemporaries how, throughout their history, God was with them; how God was involved with people and fully invested in their lives. He also exhorted the people to respond by fixing in their hearts a profound sense of who God is for them. Paul also celebrates the God who is ‘for us’; who through whom the Spirit gives new status to people: that of sons and daughters who can call on God knowing that God is not only for us, but with and within us – and everyone else.

This is a feast of relationship and connections. It challenges the many attempts to avoid connection by individualism and thus care and responsibility; when our hurried disregard fails to take us into compassionate responses; when our values need to be looked again in terms of economics. This week the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Dicastery For Promoting Integral Human Development in a document Considerations for an Ethical Discernment Regarding Some Aspects of the Present Economic-Financial System, took aim at the global financial system, and the pursuit of profit at any cost which serve to fuel ‘the inequality so pronounced today.’ What was to have been a response to the 2008 financial crisis that would curb ‘predatory and speculative tendencies ……..the response seems at times like a return to the heights of myopic egoism, limited by an inadequate framework that, excluding the common good, also excludes from its horizons the concern to create and spread wealth, and to eliminate the inequality so pronounced today.’  The document goes on to conclude with hope: ‘In front of the massiveness and pervasiveness of today’s economic-financial systems, we could be tempted to abandon ourselves to cynicism, and to think that with our poor forces we can do very little.……… Every gesture of our liberty, even if it appears fragile and insignificant, if it is really directed towards the authentic good, rests on Him who is the good Lord of history and becomes part of a buoyancy that exceeds our poor forces, uniting indissolubly all the actions of good will in a web that unites heaven and earth, which is a true instrument of the humanization of each person, and the world as a whole. This is all that we need for living well and for nourishing a hope that may be at the height of our dignity as human persons.’

The austerity - trickle-down cruelty - that continues to be imposed on countries is concretised in the collapse of systems, people losing jobs, livelihoods and social security. Do these not suggest that our relationships are ‘out of whack’ when our economic and financial systems and profit at all costs leave many people trapped in long working hours, low paid employment, and increasing job insecurity or even unemployment? Our relationship to creation may also be ‘out of whack’ that with increased effects of climate change, food insecurity, extinction of species, apathy continues. Our concern for oppressed peoples such as the Rohingya or the Palestinians at this time can easily be forgotten by the silence and neglect from one day to the next on our media. Today’s feast must speak to the breakdown of relations as people who seek protection or even rescuing are often responded to by poor fishermen and nations whilst the rich and powerful find excuses to take avoid responsibility.  

God is not seen as a solitary or unrelated person but active and continually connecting with us. ‘It is not good for a person to be alone’ (Genesis) An understanding of the Trinity erodes the monarchical and patriarchal power of monotheism. This contains a vision of a community of women and men in church and society where relationship is fundamental to God and that community is the foundation of God's interaction with the world. This God is not unmoved by what people do to one another but calls us to shared responsibility for one another. In the Book of Deuteronomy we saw the wonder of people proclaiming statements of fact as well as the wonder of God’s closeness to people through history, and clearly assured in the Gospel today.

The beginning of justice or right relationship and care begins with the realisation but it must lead to solidarity based on listening to others. The other should be seen and treated as of equal worth as oneself. Everyone should be responded to and included- not left alone, abandoned or hurt. 

Jesus sends the disciples (and us) with a mission to bring this experience of God to the world; that we are made in God’s image – an image that reflects a relational way of being and living with God and each other - and all creation.  Geographically, this begins in our homes and streets: it includes those who are hurting, neglected, dismissed, overlooked.

Concretely, every time we seek to heal, offer forgiveness, give ourselves for the sake of another, use our ‘gift of ears’ more than the ‘gift of tongues’; embrace those who are unwanted or neglected (often messy and not very clean!); speak the truth fearlessly against injustice or violence and war, hypocrisy, greed and violence or to promote peace and right relationship with all creatures – then we are witnessing to our connection with the God we celebrate today.

The varying presences of God in people tells us that this feast not just about God but about us. It is the feast of people who have been caught up in the embrace of God - whose name is ‘Love’ - and reflect that to one another and seek continue to extend that embrace to ever wider circles of people. This is what people do when they seek to bring hope to people that they do not know, or will never see, and who certainly will never personally thank them. This mission to gather people as one was to people without much preparation, and to people, as the gospel suggests, had their doubts, their questions, uncertainties and fears; people who from time to time wavered in, or even withdrew from, their commitment. Overriding this is the promise: ‘I am with you always’ which comes with the command, ‘Go, make disciples, preach, teach, baptize’ and says to us, ‘I am with you always.’

It is our mission to build up in our corner of God’s world the inclusive patterns suggested by today’s feast or the ‘Beloved Community’ as espoused by Martin Luther King Jr.  It might seem an exaggeration but it is becomes concrete in our work of peace and justice, it becomes concrete when a nation can vote for equality for all its people, it touches on attempts to recognise and acknowledge the first people of this land as sisters and brothers and also their deep connection to their land, their ‘home’, it touches on the way we see people whether they be Rohingya, or of Afghan, Sri Lankan, Burmese and anyone who has had the image of God smudged.  

Our actions for the street person, the drug addict, the homeless person, the annoying person who demands our attention reveal what Jesus tried to do: that this God is not remote. We put skin on God by our interactions, our care, and our justice seeking. For Jesus, God is a part of what we do. It is a way of seeing love in action. This God is not in heaven but in each of us and reflected in what we do. If we want to look for God this is where we must search - God in the liberating practice of people.

We are sent to extend God's work of creating a more humane society. The peace of the Trinity will no longer seem an abstraction when we recognise that God is a community of life and love into which each one of us is drawn. There is no room for spectators in this community. This is what calls us to action and calls us to carry the love and goodness of God everywhere we go.

 

LITURGY NOTES FOR PENTECOST SUNDAY 2018

May 20, 2018

Suggested formula for recognition of indigenous people and their land.

(Any of these can also be recited by all in the congregation)

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand

We pay our respects to them for their care of the land

May we walk gently and respectfully upon the land.

or

I acknowledge the living culture of the ……..people,

the traditional custodians of the land we stand on,

and pay tribute to the unique role they play in the life of this region.

or

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we are now gathered,

(the ……)  and recognise that it continues to be sacred to them.

We hail them: as guardians of the earth and of all things that grow and breed in the soil; as trustees of the waters – [the seas, the streams and rivers, the ponds and the lakes] - and the rich variety of life in those waters.

We thank them for passing this heritage to every people since the Dreamtime.

We acknowledge the wrongs done to them by newcomers to this land and we seek to be partners with them in righting these wrongs and in living together in peace and harmony.

or

We acknowledge the …………………….people the first inhabitants of this land.

We honour them for their care of the land

on which we gather today, and with them,

pray for justice and their constitutional recognition.

Information alone is not enough;

knowledge of injustice bears

the responsibility for direct action.

 

  

  

 

Fire Blessing

May the fire be in your thoughts

making them good and just

may it protect you from all harm

may the fire be in your eyes

may it open your eyes to see what is good in life

may it protect you from speaking against another.

May the fire be in your ears

we pray that you may hear with deep listening

so that you may hear the flow of water

and of all Creation and of the Dreaming.

May you be protected from gossip

and from those things that harm and break down your family.

May the fire be in your arms and hands

so that you may be of service and build up love.

May the fire protect you from all violence.

May the fire be in your whole being, in your legs and feet

enabling you to walk the earth with respect and care

so that you may journey in the ways of goodness and trust

and be protected from walking away from what is true. 

Prayer used by Aboriginal people in the Kimberley region for 1000s of years

First Reading Acts 2:1-11

Responsorial Psalm Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34

Second Reading 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13

Gospel Jn 20:19-23

Penitential Rite

1.       Jesus, you breathe on us the Spirit who can make us understand one another and help us to appreciate and support one another: Jesus, have mercy.

2.      Jesus, you breathe on us the Spirit that unites us in love and makes our loving creative: Christ, have mercy.

3.       Jesus, you breathe on us your Spirit to liberate us from all paralysing fears enabling us to serve with joy: Jesus, have mercy.

or

1.       You send down the fire of your justice and pour out your Spirit on all. Jesus, have mercy.

2.      You send down the rain of your love and your sons and your daughters prophesy. Christ, have mercy.

3.       You send down your Spirit to breathe life into your people where the old dream dreams and the young see visions. Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

God of Wind and Fire,

may the Spirit surprise us

with fire and vigour

to make us young at heart and new again.

Let your Spirit renew our lives

and bring us tenderness and joy,

openness to one another,

and the courage to stand up

for all that is right and just

so that all divisions between peoples

may be dispersed.

Or

God of Wind and Fire,

breathe your life-giving Spirit

on us and on our world

to refresh us and make us new and free.

May we be inflamed

with the fire of your love and freedom

so as to be open to your wisdom and peace and courage.

Prayer over the Gifts

God of Wind and Fire,

as your Spirit comes upon these gifts of bread and wine,

help us to show your healing presence

to all the world

by raising our voices in words of peace.

Or

God of Wind and Fire,

the Spirit has brought us together

around the table of your Son.

May it heal all that divides us

and set us free from hatred

and injustice,

so that, one in heart and mind,

we may give praise to you.

Prayer after Communion

God of Wind and Fire,

we have listened to Jesus speak his word to us

and shared in the bread of life.

May your Spirit put fire in these words,

that they may burn within us

and shake us from indifference

by prompting and urging us

to transform our world.

Or

God of Wind and Fire,

the Holy Spirit has opened our hearts

to understand the Word of your Son.

May it give us the courage

to bring the Good News to the poor,

and set one another free

from all injustice and hardness of heart,

so that we may live in peace with one another.

General Intercessions

Introduction: Let us pray to God to pour out the Spirit on us and on the world.  The response is: God of Wind and Fire, hear our prayer.

1. Pour out your Spirit as living water on the world: May the Spirit come to enlighten and strengthen all those with a political responsibility: that justice and peace may be their daily concern, we pray: God of Wind and Fire, hear our prayer.

2. Pour out your Spirit as inspiration in the world: May justice and the common good be uppermost in the hearts of those all church, government business leaders who make decisions that affect the lives of many people, we pray: God of Wind and Fire, hear our prayer.

3. Pour out your Spirit of courage on the world: May people of vision and deep concern for justice share their vision of human interconnectedness, stand firm in their convictions and find support when they are challenged, tested and persecuted, we pray: God of Wind and Fire, hear our prayer.

4. Pour out your Spirit of wonder on the world: May poets, writers and artists who point us to the beauty of the world around us also point us to the beauty and dignity of each person and to places in need of transformation, we pray: God of Wind and Fire, hear our prayer.

5. Pour out your Spirit as a burning fire on the world: May the Spirit enlighten and convert all those with an economic responsibility so that solidarity and sharing will guide their decisions, we pray: God of Wind and Fire, hear our prayer.

6. Pour out your Spirit as a bond of grace on the world: May the Spirit enlighten and gather together all people who scattered by the events of life and put hope in their hearts to start a new life, we pray: God of Wind and Fire, hear our prayer.

7. Pour out your Spirit as a cry of expectancy in the world: May the Spirit enlighten and guide all who have heard your call to bear witness to your Good News of God’s unconditional love for all, we pray: God of Wind and Fire, hear our prayer.

8. Pour out your Spirit on all closed doors and hearts: May the Spirit unlock hearts that lead to exclusion, racism, ethnic conflict and military rivalry, we pray: God of Wind and Fire, hear our prayer.

9. Pour our your Spirit who people who may be in danger of losing hope: May the Spirit stir in people an awareness of the suffering and cries for liberation and autonomy of the Palestinian people and the people of Papua, we pray: God of Wind and Fire, hear our prayer.

10. Pour out your Spirit on a world that cries out for peace: May your Spirit grant the gift of peace and help us to eliminate war, violence and terrorism, we pray: God of Wind and Fire, hear our prayer.

Concluding Prayer: God of Wind and Fire answer our prayers.  May the Spirit, alive in us, spread your love among all people, today and forever.

Parish Notices

May 24 Foundation of the World Council of Churches in 1948World Oceans Day

May 25 Mary, Help of Christians, Patron of Australia

May 26Feast of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (last Saturday in May)

May 27 National Reconciliation Week begins

                Week of Prayer for Reconciliation begins

Referendum changes articles in Australian Constitution that discriminated against Indigenous people

Further Resources

This Grace That Scorches Us

A Blessing for Pentecost Day

Here’s one thing
you must understand
about this blessing:
it is not
for you alone.

It is stubborn
about this.
Do not even try
to lay hold of it
if you are by yourself,
thinking you can carry it
on your own.

To bear this blessing,
you must first take yourself
to a place where everyone
does not look like you
or think like you,
a place where they do not
believe precisely as you believe,
where their thoughts
and ideas and gestures
are not exact echoes
of your own.

Bring your sorrow.
Bring your grief.
Bring your fear.
Bring your weariness,
your pain,
your disgust at how broken
the world is,
how fractured,
how fragmented
by its fighting,
its wars,
its hungers,
its penchant for power,
its ceaseless repetition
of the history it refuses
to rise above.

I will not tell you
this blessing will fix all that.

But in the place
where you have gathered,
wait.
Watch.
Listen.
Lay aside your inability
to be surprised,
your resistance to what you
do not understand.
See then whether this blessing
turns to flame on your tongue,
sets you to speaking
what you cannot fathom

or opens your ear
to a language
beyond your imagining
that comes as a knowing
in your bones,
a clarity
in your heart
that tells you

this is the reason
we were made:
for this ache
that finally opens us,

for this struggle,
this grace
that scorches us
toward one another
and into
the blazing day.

—Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

‘Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God's new Temple. They are, individually and corporately, places where heaven and earth meet.’

N.T. Wright

‘Dreams grow holy put in action.’

Adelaide Anne Procter

‘If you want to speak to God, tell it to the wind.’

African Proverb, Ghana

‘Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.’

Howard Thurman

‘A sedentary life is the real sin against the Holy Spirit. Only those thoughts that come by walking have any value.’

Friedrich Nietzsche, 19^th century

‘Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.’

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is so important not to let ourselves off the hook or to become apathetic or cynical by telling ourselves that nothing works or makes a difference. Every day, light your small candle.... The inaction and actions of many human beings over a long time contributed to the crises our children face, and it is the action and struggle of many human beings over time that will solve them—with God's help. So every day, light your small candle.

Marian Wright Edelman Guide My Feet

So many people feel so overwhelmed and disempowered by the stresses of modern life that they convince themselves they can't make a difference. So they don't even try. They bury their talents in the ground and let their spirits wither on the vine of life. I hope they will bestir themselves at least to say every day as an anonymous old man did: ‘I don't have the answers, life is not easy, but my heart is in the right place

Marian Wright Edelman, Guide My Feet

Keeping Quiet

Now we will count to twelve

and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth

let's not speak in any language,

let's stop for one second,

and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment

without rush, without engines,

we would all be together

in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea

would not harm whales

and the man gathering salt

would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,

wars with gas, wars with fire,

victory with no survivors,

would put on clean clothes

and walk about with their brothers

in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused

with total inactivity.

Life is what it is about;

I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded

about keeping our lives moving,

and for once could do nothing,

perhaps a huge silence

might interrupt this sadness

of never understanding ourselves

and of threatening ourselves with death.

Perhaps the earth can teach us

as when everything seems dead

and later proves to be alive.

Now I'll count up to twelve

and you keep quiet and I will go.

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), ‘Keeping Quiet’ Extravagaria (translated by Alastair Reid) Jonathan Cape, London, 1972, pp.27-29 (original Estravagario, Editorial Losada, Buenos Aires, 1958)

Prayers for the Earth

For once on the face of the earth let's not speak in any language

Let's stop for one second and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment without rush, without engines.

We would all be together in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea would not harm whales

And the man gathering salt would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, wars with fire,

Victory with no survivors

Would put on clean clothes and walk about with their brothers

in the shade doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused with total inactivity,

Life is what it is about.

I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single minded about keeping our lives moving,

And for once could do nothing,

Perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never

understanding ourselves

And of threatening ourselves with death.

Perhaps the earth can teach us when everything seems dead

and later proves to be alive.

Pablo Neruda Prayers for the Earth

To be a disciple means to put one's feet in the footsteps of Jesus and, in the power of his Spirit, to continue in one's own historical time and place his mission of announcing and signing the coming of the reign of God. Together as church, the community of disciples is in a unique way called to be the instrument of the reign of God in history. Since peace and justice are among the most powerful signs of the reign of God present in this world, it belongs to the essential mission of the church to make these realities more visible in our time, so marked by oppression, violence, injustice and threat of total destruction. Following Jesus on this way may well cost disciples their lives--the servants are not greater than the master. But the community of disciples must go on witnessing throughout the conflicts of history, drawing courage from their memory of Jesus, from their experience of his continuing presence in the Spirit, and for hope in the final victory of the coming reign of God’.

Elizabeth A. Johnson, Consider Jesus: Waves of Renewal in Christology (NY: Crossroad, 1990  p. 77)

It is not only the leaders of nations who build the world of tomorrow. The most obscure and humble people can play a part in bringing about a future of peace and trust

Brother Roger of Taizéfrom open letter ‘To the Wellsprings of Joy’ 2004

Look around and you will see the presence of Christ.

Look around and you will hear the call of God.

Look around and you will know the Power of the Spirit.

Look around and you will be empowered.

Look around and you will be filled with joy.

You will be involved in the struggle for justice and peace.

You will hear the voice of God among the impoverished of the world.

You will hear God speak in the struggle for peace and justice.

You will be led into life and grace.

God dwells in the world.

Prayer for a New Society

All-nourishing God, your children cry for help

Against the violence of our world:

Where children starve for bread and feed on weapons;

Starve for vision and feed on drugs;

Starve for love and feed on videos;

Starve for peace and die murdered in our streets.

Creator God, timeless preserver of resources,

Forgive us for the gifts that we have wasted.

Renew for us what seems beyond redemption;

Call order and beauty to emerge again from chaos.

Convert our destructive power into creative service;

Help us to heal the woundedness of our world.

Liberating God, release us from the demons of violence.

Free us today from the disguised demon of deterrence

That puts guns by our pillows and missiles in our skies.

Free us from all demons that blind and blunt our spirits;

Cleanse us from all justifications for violence and war;

Open our narrowed hearts to the suffering and the poor.

Abiding God, loving renewer of the human spirit,

Unfold our violent fists into peaceful hands:

Stretch our sense of family to include our neighbours;

Stretch our sense of neighbour to include our enemies;

Until our response to you finally respects and embraces

All creation as precious sacraments of your presence.

Hear the prayer of your starving children. Amen.

© Pax Christi USA, 1995

The Place Where We Are Right

From the place where we are right

flowers will never grow

in the spring.

The place where we are right

is hard and trampled

like a yard.

But doubts and loves

dig up the world

like a mole, a plow.

And a whisper will be heard

where the ruined

house once stood.

Yehuda Amichai, The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai, (New York: Harper & Row, 1986)

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

William Faulkner

We have to start teaching ourselves not to be afraid

William Faulkner

On a summer morning / I sat down / on a hillside / to think about God / a worthy pastime. / Near me, I saw / a single cricket; / it was moving the grains of the hillside / this way and that way. / How great was its energy, / how humble its effort. / Let us hope / it will always be like this, / each of us going on / in our inexplicable ways / building the universe.

Mary Oliver, Song of the Builders

…for nonviolence seeks to 'win' not by destroying or even by humiliating the adversary, but by convincing [the adversary] that there is a higher and more certain common good than can be attained by bombs and blood. Nonviolence, ideally speaking, does not try to overcome the adversary by winning over [them], but to turn [them] from an adversary into a collaborator by winning [them] over.’

Thomas Merton, Faith and Violence: Christian Teaching and Christian Practice

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

George Orwell

You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or who says it

Malcolm X

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it

Noam Chomsky

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.

George Orwell

…may Christ inflame the desires of all people to break through the barriers which divide them, to strengthen the bonds of mutual love, to learn to understand one another, and to pardon those who have done them wrong. Through Christ’s power and inspiration may all peoples welcome each other to their hearts as brothers and sisters, and may the peace they long for ever flower and ever reign among them.

Pope John XXIII,Pacem in Terris, #171

Finding one’s own voice, however haltingly, imparts the power of the Spirit crying out. The boldness to hear the claim of conscience and follow its deep impulses even in the face of loss; the courage to taste righteous anger and allow it to motivate critical resistance to evil; the willingness to utter the prophetic word--these occurrences inscribe the movement of the Spirit’s compassion into the ambiguity of the world.

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ,She Who Is, p. 126

The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their ‘vital interests’ are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death: these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the ‘sanctity’ of human life, or the ‘conscience’ of the civilized world.

James Baldwin, The Devil Finds Work [Collected Essays, 1998]

Whenever a human community resists its own destruction or works for its own renewal; when structural changes serve the liberation of oppressed peoples; when law subverts sexism, racism, poverty, and militarism; when swords are beaten into ploughshares or bombs into food for the starving; when the scores of old injustices are healed; when enemies are reconciled once violence and domination have ceased; whenever the lies and the raping and the killing stop; wherever diversity is sustained in koinônia; wherever justice and peace and freedom gain a transformative foothold–-there the living presence of powerful, blessing mystery amid the brokenness of the world is mediated.

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is, p.126

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, defend the rights of those who have nothing. Speak up and judge fairly, and defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Proverbs 31:8-9

I refuse to accept the view that [mankind] is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war, that the bright daybreak of peace and [brotherhood] can never become a reality.

Danielle Wolfe

City Pentecost

Through skyscraper canyons

you come, Holy Spirit,

down lanes and arcades

you come;

from the north, from the south,

from within and without,

like wind

like wind

the roar of Pure Wind

you come

sweeping through

to renew.

In houses of parliament

you come, Holy Spirit,

into lawmaker’s chambers

you come;

from above, from below,

from ally and foe,

as truth

as truth

as the roar of Pure Truth

you come

sweeping through

to renew.

Through grand Gothic arches

you come, Holy Spirit,

to choir and high altar

you come;

from the west, from the east,

from the font and the feast,

like fire

like fire

the roar of Pure Fire

you come

sweeping through

to renew.

Bruce D Prewer, Australian Prayers.  Open Book Publishers

The Grace to Shout

Today we ask the grace to shout when it hurts, even though silence is expected of us,

and to listen when others shout though it be painful to hear;

to object, to protest, when we feel, taste, or observe injustice,

believing that even the unjust and arrogant

are human nonetheless and therefore worthy of strong efforts to reach them.

Take from us, Guiding God, the heart of despair and fill us with courage and understanding.

Give us a self that knows very well when the moment has come to protest.

We ask the grace to be angry when the weakest are the first to be exploited

and the trapped are squeezed for their meagre resources,

when the most deserving are the last to thrive, and the privileged demand more privilege.

Come Holy Spirit. Come! Fill the hearts of your people.

Come Holy Spirit that we may be aware:

Aware of the people around us,

especially the poor and oppressed;

Aware of the children,

the young people,

all the people striving to grow

into their dignity as children of God;

Aware of the world around us,

especially the environment with its plants and animals,

with its land and water,

with its air and space,

with all its mystery;

Aware of the structures of power,

especially those that keep people

poor or powerless or confused or unfree;

Aware of the violence and the threats of violence,

which are not the way of Jesus

Aware of our selves and our bias and stereotypes

and all our unfreedom;

Aware of all the possibilities

for freedom and joy and life.

Come Holy Spirit.

Come!

Fill the hearts of your people.

Give us the freedom to see.

Give us the wisdom and courage to speak.

Amen.

Source Unknown

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Come Holy Spirit, breathe down upon our troubled world.

Shake the tired foundations of our crumbling institutions.

Break the rules that keep you out of all our sacred spaces,

and from the dust and rubble, gather up the seedlings of a new creation.

Come Holy Spirit, enflame once more the dying embers of our weariness.

Shake us out of our complacency. Whisper our names once more,

and scatter your gifts of grace with wild abandon.

Break open the prisons of our inner being,

and let your raging justice be our sign of liberty.

Come Holy Spirit and lead us to places we would rather not go.

Expand the horizons of our limited imaginations.

Awaken in our souls dangerous dreams for a new tomorrow,

and rekindle in our hearts the fire of prophetic enthusiasm.

Come Holy Spirit, whose justice outwits international conspiracy,

whose light outshines religious bigotry,

whose peace can halt our patriarchal hunger for dominance and control,

whose promise invigorates our every effort:

to create a new heaven and a new earth, now and forever. Amen.

Diarmuid O’Murchu msc

The Spirit Who Blows

How can we face the pain and the plight of those who live in the dark?

How can we open the locks that are tied round many a mind and a heart?

How can we liberate people in hope for the new day that dawns on us all?

The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind!

While parliamentarians fail to inspire and financiers convolute;

And the powers from on high are so blind and confused – even Church folk can’t recognise truth!

While systems collapse and things fall apart, a new birth emerges elsewhere.

The future, my friend, is blowing in the wind, the future is blowing

Let’s listen instead to the margins crying out, the voices for too long subdued.

Lets listen instead to our Planet, the Earth, whose story we oft misconstrued.

The wisdom of women ignored and repressed, is haunting our world anew.

So, new hope, my friend, is blowing in the wind, new hope is blowing

How can we reclaim a faith to sustain the prophets that open new ways?

And can we discern the disturbing voice of the Spirit who now recreates?

We need a new heart and a mind open wide – receptive to this hour of grace.

Just listen, my friend, to the vibrating wind, the answer is blowing

The Spirit that broods at creation’s first dawn, unravelling the chaos of life,

Continues to breathe in the birthing and dying, in the longing, the struggle and strife.

For God’s sake don’t tie down the Spirit that blows, reweaving the rhythms of time.

We’re called to befriend what’s blowing in the wind, the Spirit who blows in . . .

Diarmuid O’Murchu msc

Reflections for Pentecost Sunday

Last month the chaplain to the US Congress was sacked by the Speaker when he prayed, ‘…may all members be mindful that the institutions and structures of our great nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle. May their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.’ The Speaker was freaked out by these words spoken in November 2017 during the debate on overhauling the tax system. What was stunning was that the prayer got to the Speaker in the first place.  Where moral accountability seems to have been banned from many parts of the government, including our own, it can be upsetting and fearful to those in power as it shows up in a tamed and caged democracy when a reckless chaplain calls out through prayer for a fairer taxation system. Prayer is a refusal to settle for what is unjust and silence and tacit consensus protects privilege – and the privileged are always the silencers. The very act of prayer is a way to remain courageous because it is an act of resistance against discouragement and defeat. It is a cry in solidarity with those who cry for mercy across the planet to hear the cries of refugees, children, and those wrongfully imprisoned.

This weekend we celebrate 50 days after Easter. Though it marks the birth of the church, it is more interesting and risky than that. It has everything to do with our stormy Mondays and Tuesdays etc. The coming of the Holy Spirit opens up new horizons for us and is the story of God’s commitment to the world. Peter, in his sermon, names places and ways in which God is active or visible in the world ‘today’. It is also a time for turning outward. I read recently that the reference to ‘the gift of tongues’ would be more accurate as ‘the gift of ears’ where it was the surrounding crowd from many places who heard in their own languages. It is what they heard that mattered – not what was said. Often today the church speaks in a foreign language and few are listening and fewer understanding. The expectation is that outsiders will learn our incomprehensible language. An overarching question is whether we discover God in the past (doctrine and dogma) or in the future (beckoning from the horizon). Instead of seeking to ‘talk’ people into our framework, we can find that begin to understand their language by hearing rather than speaking.  We might find that it is among the broken, the poor, the outcast, the stranger, the violated and the enemy, that many crave love rather than morality, healing rather than correction, acceptance rather than judgement, belonging rather than membership. It is in hearing the cry of the poor and disenfranchised, that we hear the invitation of God to be with them. Stevie Wonder, in one of songs says it this way, ‘Would you like to go with me/Down my dead end street/Would you like to come with/To village Ghetto Land’.

The kinds of the people who welcome and accept the Spirit are those who welcome peace, forgiveness. They recognise the divine stalking among them and in creation. In a world riddled with violence and racism and hatred, the Pentecostal vision seems to invite us not to settle for the world as it is but to dream of the world as it could be. The joy of Pentecost is that it gives us a vision and hope for, Martin Luther King dreamed of, a ‘beloved community’ made possible through the work of the Spirit. Can we be open to the disruptive and surprising ways of the Spirit, that empowers us to reach across differences in order to experience radical and insurgent communions?

These events of Pentecost invite us to ponder this question: Will we be vulnerable and willing to experience holy disorientation—as the disciples did during ancient days—in order to announce a new humanity? Will we allow our voices to speak a language of good news that can be heard by all people, especially those who are as vulnerable as the Jews of the diaspora were under the Roman imperial order and as countless people are under American empire today?

Luke (in Acts) shows how the wider world was impacted by the Spirit - in ways that people could hear and understand one another as well as acknowledge God’s all-inclusive love. Diversity became a blessing where people previously maintained and protected their differences behind walls of ethnocentrism. Now, irrespective of ethnic background, nothing was lost by becoming one with all others who understood that God was moving among them. They grew to understand that they had a part in God’s plan and were being given the courage to move that plan forward. The gift of understanding transcends logic and celebrates differences. The community now hears the good news of God’s peace, love and reconciliation irrespective of their background and were never the same.  The Spirit comes over the crowd of people from many lands now gathered in Jerusalem…. and as always there are and will be an endless array of voices, of deep understanding. All speak. And all listen. Hearts and minds are deeply open. The gospel reminds us that the wisdom of Easter is peace spoken and received. The tongues are the voices that speak for God. They are the voices that remind us of the beauty of creation and the need to protect it. They are the voices that remind us that we are all sisters and brothers and bear the image of God. They are the voices that challenge inequality in all its forms. They are the voices that call for peace with justice through forgives and reconciliations. So often we can be preoccupied with the demeanour and the experiences of public voices, yet those who speak for God often come to us from lives of people we might even reject.

In 1938, Albert Camus, speaking to Christians at a monastery, expressed his concern that as preparations for the World War II were underway, the number of victims grew, and as fear spread, the Church seemed unconscionably silent. When it did speak out it was obtuse or abstract.  He said bluntly:

For a long time during those frightful years I waited for a great voice to speak up in [the Church]. I, an unbeliever? Precisely. For I knew that the spirit would be lost if it did not utter a cry of condemnation when faced with force….What the world expects of Christians is that Christians should speak out, loud and clear, and that they should voice their condemnation in such a way that never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could arise in the heart of the simplest person. That they should get away from abstraction and confront the bloodstained face history has taken on today. The grouping we need is a grouping of people resolved to speak out clearly and to pay up personally.

The Holy Spirit is a very political bird. Pentecost openly, directly and publicly encounters the system. Border protection cannot stop the Spirit. Authoritative lines are not only crossed but blown off the spiritual map. Among other things, it signifies public freedom and freedom from fear. We might ask: will our lives be ruled by fear? Will we collaborate in our own oppression and that of people who need our help? Will we allow ourselves to be confined or defined by other ‘authorities or powers’? Will we have the courage to speak out or will fear cause us to remain silent? The locked doors in the gospel are more about a mentality where people duck and weave, lie low, run for cover or look over their shoulders when things get hot.

What begins in an upstairs room is completed when it hits the streets. The Easter message must go public if it is not to lose its power and relevance. The Acts of the Apostles show us people who refuse to be held down by the political or religious authorities. They begin to speak in loud and clear voices no one could doubt the meaning of the message. We did not hear much of that boldness or clarity when a chaplain of the US Congress is fired or an Australian bishop is forced to take early retirement for his bold questioning of churchy ways. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once said that even though we are God’s chosen people, we often behave more like God’s frozen people: frozen in prayer life, in the way we related with one another, speak out against all kinds of injustice. Our mandate during the first Pentecost was to be courageous as Christ was and committed to serve all people unconditionally. From subaltern voices in government and economics come powerful and prophetic words. It is amazing how the narratives of the powerful, comfortable and the vain can gain respectability and traction and concerns about the ‘The Other’ and the outsider (asylum, employment, welfare) are considered distractions from the issues which keep them in power. It runs counter to the revolutionary community politics inaugurated by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost – where the cultural and political differences signified by the notion of ‘different languages’ is broken down; where the impetus comes from those who are seen as insignificant and valueless. Where the Advocate gives voice to the voiceless.

Taking to the streets requires living out the inclusiveness of the Spirit. The lines of nation, race, and culture could not limit this movement. The disciples received the Spirit which prompted them to question injustice; to be mindful of gender and generational gaps; to scrutinise discrimination. Women, men and children were newly valued and formed a praying, believing, serving community where political status did not count. All belonged to Christ; all were to be loved and cherished; all were regarded as worthy witnesses of the Gospel  Each and every one gathered is ‘touched’ and each person hears the other’s native tongue spoken. You don’t have to speak English or French. Use your own language and your own way of being and doing things. When Jesus breathed the Spirit upon the disciples they realised their responsibility to extend healing and forgiveness by becoming agents of the new creation – as we are too. We are empowered to bring forth justice, to transform social policy, to be a life-giving force, to be animated and made aware of the incongruities, inequalities, injustice in our community.

We are reminded that the Spirit is God acting in the world. Jesus’ footprints are still on the earth – they now become ours. We each hear the gospel with our own ears and receive it in our hearts. Each of us has his or her own way of witnessing to it. One might do it by phone when someone is sick, fallen on bad times, needing reassurance. One might decide to take to the street in a rally to free refugees or call for a price on pollution and then continue to agitate in some way. One might decide to remain committed to a difficult neighbour or relative who is demanding or takes us for granted. One might act against any fears they feel.

So Pentecost is less what one says today but more about the very public speech we find ourselves involved in each day; of the actions flowing from a compassionate heart; of choosing to speak even when we were not sure of what to say or what the consequences of that might be. The prophet Joel’s are very heartening as he spoke of a day coming when God would say, ‘I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young people shall see visions, and your old people shall dream dreams.’ This work is not just for leaders, prophets and priests. Everybody gets to speak up for God; because church is the place where the power to speak belongs to all – and it must go out into the ‘streets’, into the world of people.

The Spirit comes in different places, different circumstances and different people with fullness of life and healing. The words filled with Spirit were spoken from the margins of the Roman Empire. They continue to speak from the margins of our world. All in all we are engaging in the practice of justice where lies, cover-ups and denials seem to prevail. All are words to do with life, peace, freedom. The Jesus who comes with the wounds in his hands, feet and side reminds us that the Spirit will take us into those places of suffering in our world and that those places of suffering call forth from us our compassion and touch. And to celebrate the Spirit, to celebrate the power of peace and forgiveness is to become makers of peace and agents of forgiveness in a world so much in need of healing, wholeness and holiness. We become what we celebrate!