Morena – Good morning,
Thanks to the stories we gather from our Passionist Family Groups which from time to time we tell with memories that are alive and tuned for laughter, care, love and forgiveness. It is appreciated how we all get in behind to support and encourage our faith communities.
This work and example, is a recipe for showing us that there are in fact as St Paul (says in Ch 13 of Corinthians ) “a variety of gifts” that each person brings of their faith, love and service to these small gatherings. The challenge is always not what suits me. Rather, how do we bring Jesus to others. This is evident in the gospel this coming Sunday – the story of the ‘loaves and fishes’ where Andrew brings a small boy to Jesus who shares his barley loaves and fish.
To some, this may seem a silly miracle without much meaning and I guess, if you see it as a miracle then there are elements of the story missed and I believe misunderstood. Jesus sees the need and the crowd approaching. Philip is someone we can relate to “it’s hopeless we can’t feed these people” but, his brother Andrew has faith in Jesus and seeks a solution. This bringing people to Jesus is what we are all called to be. It’s not the building we gather in but ‘the people’, we gather with. How do we recognise their gifts? How can we encourage them to share these?
Scripture commentator, William Barclay suggests, that it is the modelling of Jesus that leads the people to share. They came on a long journey and would have come with their own provisions and here is a miracle that they end up sharing what they have and there is more than enough to go round. This has often been an experience with our Passionist Family Groups and most ‘pot luck dinners’ and weekends away that I shared in or have been a part of. When the meal is finished there are always left overs. People share, and on our weekends people have to take food home as there are so much left over.
I can remember the quote from John Kennedy, ‘this is the first time in human history that we have the resources to feed the world yet, two thirds go hungry. Why? Because we have not learned to share.”
So, as we enter this week let us continue on the journey of seeking out others and where we can share and support our community and beyond. To add to this read some stories from our PFG’s across the ditch and look to our NZ people sharing theirs.
Reports and Stories from Australia PFG’s – Thanks to the PFGM National Team in Australia for allowing us to share these wonderful stories.
New Venue for our PFGM Pizza Night Function – Montmorency, Victoria
Many members in our Family Group have been through the process of downsizing in recent years and, as a result, we have fewer venues on offer for the ever popular “in home” activities. With this in mind, we decided to run our June Pizza Night in the Parish House. Our Saturday evening activities usually begin at 7pm to accommodate those attending Mass, so it seemed obvious to invite the 6pm Mass congregation to join in the fun. Our members brought along desserts and beverages having no idea whether anyone would
take up our offer. We were delighted when our numbers swelled to twice the
original acceptances and a very lively evening of eating, drinking, chatter and
laughter ensued. We had a moment or two of panic as to whether there would be
enough wine but being well and truly familiar with the story of The Feeding of the
Five Thousand (or maybe even The Marriage Feast of Cana) we should have had
more faith. Marie and Gerard Wood of St Francis Xavier – Montmorency Community
of Risen Christ Parish
Jesus the Good Shepherd Parish, East Lake Mcquarie NSW
Our Family Group continues to gather mainly for lunches now, as this suits everyone. We like to celebrate our ‘Zero’ birthdays with a cake and card signed by everyone. In May this year we celebrated John Andrew’s 80th and Julie Baines’ 60th birthdays at Belmont 16’ Sailing Club. In March we attended the Premier’s Gala Concert (Seniors’ Concert) at the Aware Super Theatre at Darling Harbour in Sydney. We incorporated this concert with a three-night midweek getaway stay in Sydney. There were 18 of us and we had a great time with warm weather.
Our Family Groups started at St Francis Xavier, Belmont in February 1991 and many members are still part of our groups from that first beginning. We have two groups that both do their own planning and activities but support Parish functions whenever the opportunity comes around.
Our children have all grown up and now have families of their own. So, our groups have evolved and aged. It is very different from when we first began with so many children involved. They were certainly fun times with all the activities we got up to. Lots of children were going to Mass
in those days, especially our children in Family Groups. We had approximately 150 children in our 8 groups. Both adults and children made new friends in our Parish through interaction with our Family Groups.Fr Peter McGrath and Mary Ingham would come to our Diocese every year for Leaders’ meetings. Fr Peter, with his effervescent personality and ‘you can do anything you put your mind to’ attitude, was invigorating. Together with Mary’s patience, love and encouragement, they were a great team. Family Groups have evolved to enjoy more sedate-type gatherings. (However, we still have plenty of life left in us!) We share a feeling of belonging to our Parish Family and gratitude to Fr Peter for what he started and nurtured for so many years. – John & Pauline McGrath
I think these stories illustrate how a Family Group has been an intrinsic part of all our lives.
Let’s hear from our Kiwi groups. Sharing some of your Passionist Family Group stories.
Please email Paul Traynor paulus663@gmail.com – let your words tell us your stories.
These simple and true stories of the spirit and down to earthiness of Passionist Family Groups. Our Motto – “A Family for All”.
Have a good week – God go with you
Nga Mihi,
Paul
Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B, 28 July 2024.
Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing gets wasted
O God, protector of those who hope in you, without whom nothing has firm foundation, nothing is holy, bestow in abundance your mercy upon us and grant that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may use the good things that pass in such a way as to hold fast even now to those that ever endure.
LECTIONARY READINGS
First reading; 2 Kings 4:42-44
Responsorial psalm: Ps 144(145):10-11, 15-18
Second reading: Ephesians 4:1-6
Gospel: John 6:1-15
Link to readings -click here
The readings this week focus on the generosity of the Lord who feeds his children ‘till they want no more’, both physically and spiritually. In the First Reading, Elisha, the man of God, feeds 100 people with only 20 barley loaves. Despite the misgivings of Elisha’s servant, everyone is fed and there are some left over. This story is of course the precursor of the feeding of the 5000, which is today’s Gospel. Despite Philip and Andrew’s doubts, five loaves and two fish feed everyone, and yet 12 baskets are still left over.
The Psalm continues the same theme of God feeding his creatures, using the image of God opening his hands to give his people the spiritual or physical food they desire. In the Second Reading, Paul reminds us that we must preserve unity and peace as we are all part of one Body, sustained by one faith in God the Father of all.
This week then, I might pray that all those who hunger for food and for God may be satisfied. I also ask the Lord to help me give generously when I come across people in need, and to find ways of working towards greater unity and peace.
Reflection (Joan Borysanko)
Every day bring a choice: to practice stress or to practice peace. I believe that we all crave serenity in our day to day life. But keeping this vibe of peace is hard to do sometimes when we are faced with the challenges of life.
Inner balance and calm come from a calm, settled and non-reactive mind. As we quieten our inner chatter, we naturally fall into a greater space of inner stability. Anything that we give our attention and focus to, will expand. The more we worry and over-think our troubles and challenges, the stronger we are making them and the more we will continue to experience them. So we should shift our focus on what is working, rather than what is not working. On what we love, instead of what we don’t love, on the present moment, rather than worrying about the past or future, or on fear.
May our eyes be blessed so we can only see goodness.
May our words be blessed so we can only speak kindness
May our hearts be blessed so we can only feel compassion
May our soul be blessed so we can only radiate love
Reflection (Eckhart Tolle)“Be at least as interested in what goes on inside you as what happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence”
(Eckhart Tolle)
“Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will look after itself; each day has enough problems of its own” (Matthew 6:34)
Reminder: 5 Aims and Goals
- share & celebrate life & faith
- support one another (especially in need)
- reaching out to & include others
- build community/extended family
- show and give example to children
Formation: Another paper from Fr. Brian Traynor CP
Contextual theology…Part 3
Several years ago, I began reading some of Margaret Wheatley’s books and articles on leadership and organisations. She consistently refers to ‘Chaos Theory’ and the Quantum world. As I began to read various articles and books on these subjects, other sciences such as ‘Superstring Theory’ revealed themselves. I became fascinated by ‘strange attractors’ and ‘translocation’ experiences, not just those that I read about from the world of science, but the stories of the people I know and work with. I began to read recent works on Quantum theology, evolution and spirituality as well as tuning in to ‘nature’ documentaries. What did it all mean?
As I came across various mind-blowing realities about the universe, a sense of awe and spiritual connectedness was growing. Now and again ‘the penny dropped’. At the same time as this search has been going on, I witnessed the gradual feeling of disconnection between religion and life among so many committed Christian believers, and the seeming irrelevance among the young of so much of our Catholic tradition and practice. Yet among these same people is a deep hunger to ‘connect’. They are searching for a spirituality that tapped into this experience. recognised that I needed the space and time to contemplate these things and to be open to where this search might take me.
From the seventeenth century until the 1960’s, scientists commonly believed that the universe was eternal and that it was governed by unchanging laws. Scientists such as Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton, and thinkers like Descartes, believed these unchanging laws reflected God’s eternal nature. Both the nature of an omnipotent ‘emperor like’ God and the universe itself, were considered to be fixed and unchanging.
Jesuit priest George Lemaitre first proposed the idea of a ‘primeval atom’ in 1927 suggesting, as did the early Egyptians, that the universe began like a Cosmic Egg exploding at the moment of creation. Lemaitre predicted an expanding universe. British astronomer Fred Hoyle ridiculed this idea and referred to it with scorn as the ‘Big Bang’ theory. Modern cosmology proposes that the universe indeed began with a flaring of light from a point smaller than the head of a pin.
This cosmology also proposes that life (everything that has ever been or will exist), as well as time and space was contained in that flaring, and that everything has been evolving from that ‘Big Bang’ moment.
The mechanistic view of the science that developed during the past three hundred years, virtually eliminated God from nature and set about explaining life in terms of physics and chemistry. In 2000, the first draft of the human genome was published. This was a long-held dream among biologists that they believed would solve the clues of life. The first surprise was that there were as few as 25,000 genes, one thousand fewer than a sea urchin and 13,000 thousand fewer than rice! Knowing the programme of a human organism did not explain everything about how it grows and behaves.
Evolutionary biologist Jean Baptist Lamarck was born in the middle of the eighteenth century and he proposed, along with Charles Darwin that adaptations by animals and plants could be passed on to their offspring. This meant that animals could inherit habits. From the 1940’s this view of Darwinism was consistently rejected. Richard Dawkins has been one modern outspoken critic of Lamarck. However, in the past decade, such opposition has reduced in intensity as scientists have looked for explanations to support evidence of inherited characteristics. Some, for example, have proposed that a portion of ‘memory’ is expressed through quantum fields.
We are becoming increasingly aware that we are not just part of the earth community. We are in communion with the universe, or as some cosmologists say, we are the universe in human form! Younger generations are being given new information, so they know that the ‘world’ was not created in seven days. Sadly, as mentioned in last week’s reflection, because they have little appreciation for myths, in throwing out tradition such as the Genesis story, they are left with nothing but supposed facts.
Many Generation Y’s are ‘spiritual’ young men and women. They display signs that they do not want to focus on the materialism of former generations, despite the fact that materialism surrounds them. Our current generations do have a myth, though mostly we fail to appreciate it.
Brian Swimme refers to it as ‘the myth of consumerism’. It is deeply embedded and has terrible consequences. In his book, The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos’, Swimme, makes the point that ‘consumerism’ is the dominant world faith or religion of our present age. It is how children are initiated into the world. He suggests that, “the cave has been replaced by the television set, and the chant has been replaced by advertisements, whose aim is to make people feel unhappy with what they presently have!” He suggests that it is advertisements that give children their basic meaning in the world. “They learn that humans go to work to earn money to buy stuff and the Earth is what provides the stuff. If consumerism is the new religion, advertisements are the sermons”.
It is important that we keep searching for a language that speaks more truly of the Christian experience in the light of what is being called ‘The New Story’. Much of our Catholic ritual and prayer is expressed in atonement or redemptive language and this is becoming less relevant to people’s experience. It cannot be a matter of either/or. The new story does not replace the old. It builds on it, and our language has to consider this, especially during a time of transition.
It could be said that the Passionist charism emerged almost fourteen billion years ago, in the initial second of the birth of the Universe. It was articulated in the eighteenth century by Paul Danei (St Paul of the Cross) in a particular form that spoke to the spirituality of his day. Now, it is as relevant as ever, but it needs new expression in the light of the different understanding we have of life, death and rebirth. Relevant language must consider this time of transition. It is a wonderful connection that Thomas Berry, who has contributed so much to the new way of seeing our place in the Universe story, was a Passionist.
Modern cosmological discoveries shatter nearly everything upon which the modern age was built, because we have discovered that the Universe came into existence 13,750 billion years ago. It is biased toward complexity and communion. Is there a direction or purpose to this evolution? Some say ‘no’.
However, looking into the development of species there does seem to be a direction. Some scientists think that the Universe has been aiming for a ‘place’ where it could reflect upon itself and this may give humans new insight into the meaning of their lives because we can self-reflect and humans, of all species have the capacity for awe. Can we comprehend that it has taken almost 13.8 billion years for us to be here alive at this time? Our amazement and awareness invites the question, ‘What does it mean to be human?’
Coral reefs constitute one per cent of ocean space but are home to twenty-five per cent of its fish. Today one third of the world’s reefs have been destroyed, largely by the pollution from pesticides that have leaked into the sea. But reefs have not always been built by corals! Initially this was done by algae, next by sponges, then clams. Coral has taken over since the period referred to as the Cretaceous extinction, which saw the demise of the dinosaurs. In this same period, animals such as rhinoceros developed into a form with similarities to some of the dinosaurs, such as having a tank like protective body. Giraffes and camels stretched their necks as other forms of dinosaurs had done, to reach high vegetation.
Scientists can trace species that have evolved independently time and again, from land to sea and back, land to air and back, and note common developments in different species. These developments suggest that life is always searching for a way to be itself. It has a direction. Scientists suggest that life invented sight (eyes) forty separate times. There exists in different animals and birds almost every type of eye, every way of seeing that is imaginable, from the eagle to the worm. It seems the universe was determined to find a way to see itself, just as it found a way to hear itself. Life on earth existed for three and a half million years without eyes. Then five hundred million years ago, a way was found to see. Of course, as non-sighted people know, there is another way of ‘seeing’; and that is with ‘the heart’.
To be continued…..
Pease remember in your thoughts and prayer:
- Please Jenny Epplett, Preston and family after the death of her brother which was very sudden. Also, other family loss and daughter who is in need of support.
- Remember Leanne Hintz daughter of Clair and Ray Hague who died recently from Levin and all the family
- Bernadette Lyon Manning – who broke her wrist and damaged her front teeth is on the mend.
- Robyn Burns (Hill) she is now home and the next part of recuperation begins. She has a long recovery time. She is making good progress.
- Please remember Terry Nelson son of father Gray Nelson and daughter Catherine in your prayers Terry has been diagnosed with brain tumours. .
- Please keep Brian McFlynn in our prayers who is undergoing cancer treatment. Also, his wife Eleanor and their family in your prayers..
- Please keep Paul and Linda Darbyshire in your thoughts and prayer amid new challenges they face. They are in need of prayerful support.
- Please keep in your prayer Tim Bartell’s son, Sam who is currently in hospital. Prayerful support for Sue and Tom and mum Sue.
- Please keep Jocelyn Bryant who is undergoing Chemotherapy also remember her husband Kevin and family, in your thoughts and prayer
- Please keep Christine Geoghegan and family in your thoughts and prayer.
- Please keep Richard Gibbs in your prayer he continues to slowly improve. Remember his wife Sue who has just been a pillar over the past 3 years.
- Please keep Robert van de Pas in your prayers Also Adriana his mother who is supporting him.
- Please remember Preston and Jenny Epplett’s daughter she has just completed her course of chemotherapy
- Please keep Debbi Davidson’s husband Bryan in your prayer
- Please keep Charlie and Maggi in your thoughts and prayer as they support their daughter and her partner
- Please keep David, Victoria and baby in your prayers. There has been some positive progress and it now looks as if this baby will make it to full term.
- Keep in mind all those who are struggling with various aspects of mental health.
- Please remember Martin van der Wetering in your prayers as his health still is causing him grief and discomfort.
- Please remember Phil Drew a former Passionist along with his wife Anne and family
- Please keep in your prayers those who continue to deal with the after effects of droughts on the horn of Africa. Also weather effects on other countries across the planet
- Please keep Bob Buckley in your prayers-
- Keep in prayer the people of Ukraine
- Keep people in Gaza and Israel in your prayer – these acts from both sides have had a horrible effect on the innocent as always.
- Please pray for Dot and Neill Wilson (Invercargill) – their son-in-law Mark married to Dot’s daughter Anita has been diagnosed with aggressive brain tumour, Please keep in mind their daughter Bailey and son Taylor.
- Remember Pat and Rod Carson
- Your own intentions
Humour:
- How do you make Budweiser? Send him to school.
- What is Santa’s favourite state to visit? Ida Ho Ho Ho
- Have you seen those traffic circles or driven around them? Well, they are pointless.
- Why can’t you hear a pterodactyl go to the bathroom? The P is silent.
- What’s a dog’s favorite super hero? Labra-Thor.
- I was walking down the beach when I heard a swimmer yelling for help with a shark circling him. I just laughed….I knew that shark wasn’t going to help him.
- What do you call a rabbit with fleas? Bugs Bunny!
- What do you say when a chicken is looking at salad? Chicken sees a salad.
- What do you call a cow with no legs? Ground beef!
- You are on a horse riding full gallop. Next to you is a giraffe at full gallop, and behind you is a lion on your tail. What do you do? Get off the carousel.
- I had a horse named mayo, and mayo neighed.
- What family does the zebra belong to? Can’t say, none of the families in our neighbourhood owns a zebra.
- What is the cutest creature in the sea? A cuddlefish.
