packing

I am only one person living in a couple of rooms. Yet packing is a nightmare. I cannot imagine how an entire family moves.

A couple of weeks ago a family of new parishioners who had just made a move gave me advice. They said "throw out throw out throw out."  So I ordered a skip.  But it is hard to throw out. 'I just might need this one day'...

One of the time consuming (time wasting) pleasures of clearing up and packing is discovering bits and pieces that have many memories. Today I discovered a little stash of significant letters dating back 30 years. I sit back and savour. An hour or two passes easily and no packing is done.

And I also discovered a cd. Do you remember this?

When I moved to Sockburn, Encarta was the best resource I had. It was given as a part of the start-up package to every PC purchaser.

How quickly everything has changed.  Even Wikipedia (the online informal encyclopaedia makes Encarta look like a pre-school reader.

Just another reminder of how much everything has changed in the years I have been at Sockburn.

Now, this blogging is a distraction.  Back to the packing.

St. John Neumann

A couple of years ago while on retreat in Philadelphia, I visited the shrine of St. John Neumann. Today, January 5, we celebrated his feast day.

His life ended suddenly in 1852 when he was just 49 and bishop of Philadelphia.

In many ways he thought that he was unsuited for the role of bishop of a large diocese with a sophisticated Catholic population.

Despite the limitations he saw in himself, it is evident that God found in him a powerful instrument. 

He is considered to be the founder of the Catholic school system in the United States. In New Zealand we know him as the founder of the "forty hours devotion" and even more as the writer of the catechism that paved the way for the Baltimore (or penny) catechism.

I am aware of some of the times when i have been called to do what I did not consider I was able to do. God has bridged the gap.  And in these days I am aware of a challenge on the horizon that I am not sure I am up to. I trust that, as God did with Neumann, God will make all he calls me to possible.

You may know the great hymn of St. John Henry Newman (Note not to be confused with St. John Neumann): Lead Kindly Light.   The words of this prayer were very significant for me in the months leading up to my ordination 26 years ago.  This hymn is my prayer especially in these weeks.

Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom, lead Thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on!

Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene; one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou shouldst lead me on;

I loved to choose and see my path; but now lead Thou me on!

I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,

Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on.

O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till the night is gone,

And with the morn those angel faces smile, which I

Have loved long since, and lost awhile!

blog links

Some people have been asking to read the 2010 Holy Land Pilgrimage blog once again.  I have linked to this from the 'Galilee sunrise' image to the right.  You can also access at this link:

http://www.olvpilgrimage.blogspot.com

The sabbatical blog (2010) is available by tapping the trees image on the homepage or at this link:

http://www.johnoconnor2010.blogspot.com

The brochure for the Holy Land 2012 pilgrimage can be found at:  http://www.olv.co.nz/Pilgrimage.html

There are still places available on this pilgrimage. Contact Mike and Suzanne Doolan at 

03 342 9905   or    mike.doolan@clear.net.nz

think of the love

Now here is a great motivation and inspiration for prayer, directly from the first reading of today's Mass.

"Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God's children."   1 John 3:1

Take a break to remain with this single verse.  Set a few moments to do nothing but think of the love that God has lavished on you, by letting you be called a 'child of God'.

The rest of the readings of Mass and the Office of Readings from the Prayer of the Church for today help to deepen our appreciation of this deep and personal love.

"You are God’s chosen race, his saints; he loves you, and you should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same. Over all these clothes, to keep them together and complete them, put on love. And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, because it is for this that you were called together as parts of one body. Always be thankful.

"Let the message of Christ, in all its richness, find a home with you. Teach each other, and advise each other, in all wisdom. With gratitude in your hearts sing psalms and hymns and inspired songs to God.     
Colossans 3 (Scripture reading from Office of Readings for 3 January 2012)

You might like to set some time today to pray with this thought.  Don't use energy, perhaps escape the family, the phone, (and please God, the earthquakes) for a few moments to sit under a tree with a cuppa. Simply relax, and "think of the love..."

earthquakes

After a day of quakes, following a shakey night, we are driven to prayer before heading to bed.

You might find the Collect prayer, from the Revised Missal's Mass "in time of earthquake" a good way to place yourself and those you love into God's care before sleep.

O God, who set the earth on its firm foundation,

spare those who are fearful

and show favour to those who implore you,

so that, with all dangers of earthquake entirely gone,

we may continue to experience your mercy

and serve you in thankfulness,

safe under your protection.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

Amen

Christmas: story or reality ?

Many people think of the events of the first Christmas as a story. "The Christmas story." While some stories convey the truth (or at least 'a' truth), many other stories are fiction and told to entertain or encourage, to captivate, or to confuse.

And then there are true stories that are the accounts of an historical event or of a brave hero.

The reality of the Incarnation is not any of the above. The birth of Jesus is not a story that we can dismiss as fiction. Nor is it simply a true account that we can file alongside other facts of history.

The account of the Incarnation of the Son of God is a reality. This reality is as vivid to the person of faith today as to the shepherds and Magi two thousand years ago. The Incarnation is a living reality, since, unlike other figures of history who are dead and buried, Jesus is fully alive today.

This is a bit mind-blowing, and confusing. Perhaps this is why we settle for a Christmas 'story': Mary and Joseph with their newborn child, a donkey and some other well-behaved animals, shepherds and some 'wise men', and they all lived happily ever after... This is a story that does not frighten children at bedtime. This is a safe story.

However the reality of the Incarnation two thousand years ago is a very different event.

Remember the young Jewish woman having to explain to her parents that she was pregnant, and that her child was fathered 'by the Holy Spirit'.  Then there was the inconvenient census requiring them to make a difficult journey, by donkey down to Bethlehem. In that little town there was no room, and the child was born in the barn.

Just a few months after the birth of Jesus, news reached Joseph and Mary of Herod's intention to kill their son. The Magi had deceived Herod and now Herod was desperate enough to have every male under the age of two killed. The only safe option was for Mary and Joseph to flee with the child Jesus to Egypt.

This journey was a significant one. The distance is over 500km. It is through desert and would have taken them at least several months. We know something of this distance from the account of Moses leading the people of Israel from Egypt to their new promised land. It took them forty years (although they did do a bit of travelling in circles and long-term camping on the way). 

We do not know how long Mary, Joseph and Jesus spent in Egypt. After a time they received word that Herod was dead. It was now safe for them to return home and they began the return journey. As they neared their home region they realised that Herod's replacement was as bad as Herod, and they settled instead in Nazareth.


These events make for anything but a safe Christmas story.  The entry of God into human history in Jesus, was as dramatic, and fraught with pain and agony, as the human history that preceeded and followed the event of the incarnation.


A few days ago I blogged T.S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi".  Eliot clearly appreciates the reality beyond the contemporary 'peace and goodwill', 'tinsel and present' reduction of the Christmas event. As the Magi return home after their visit, Eliot has them ponder:

"...were we lead all that way for

Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,

We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,

But had thought they were different; this Birth was

Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death."

Listen to T.S. Eliot reading "Journey of the Magi"

What is my point?

If we reduce the Christmas event to present celebration of family and friends and goodwill to strangers; If we give gifts simply because that is the done thing at Christmas; we will miss the point of God becoming real in the midst of our daily struggles, loneliness and pain. 

And the tragedy of this loss is that we are left as hopeless and helpless orphans for the rest of the year. Yes we have parents and children. We have friends and work, and business and property. But none of these occupations, possessions or relationships can consistently provide us with an adequate reason for living.

Our only constant and reliable justification is found in relationship with God.

So how can we enter this relationship more deeply?

An essential step is to become aware of the reality of our own lives. That is, we must realise that much of what we do and say is a futile attempt to meet our own needs and grasp at a mirage of meaning and satisfaction.

The reality of course is that despite polite outward appearances, every one of us lives with anxiety, tension and contradiction. As St. Paul admits 'at times I find myself doing the very things I do not want to do and not doing the things I do want to do'  (Romans 7:15)


If Christmas is just an old comfortable story, eating and drinking and giving gifts is the only method we have to (even momentarily) anaesthetize our tensions and anxieties. 


However, because we accept the birth of God in Jesus as reality, we have an effective method of living: by facing the reality that is every moment of life, and allowing God to reveal Himself in this unlikely reality. 


We choose this method when we name the ways in which we avoid the reality of our own uncomfortable, unwanted, and perhaps even undeserved  circumstances.


We practice this method whenever we realise that something is inconsistent when we feel horror at Herod's killing of 20 (approx) innocent children, yet we live comfortably with that fact that over 16.000 innocent children were 'legally' killed in New Zealand last year by abortion.


We live this life of God with us when we feel burdened by our personal situation and overwhelmed by our sin. It is this healthy human awareness that reveals our life ripe for encounter with God. 


It is such human weakness, fragility, and honest humility that is human life most resembling a stable.


And we know that (even with every other option available), that God chose a stable in which to Himself physically enter human reality.

+++

http://johncoconnor.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/johnchchnz

http://twitter.com/johnchch

www.olv.co.nz

New Year

Early this morning as I drove to Darfield to celebrate Mass I listened to Hymns for Sunday Morning. 

I was very aware of the morning as the first dawn of the new year. I was also thinking of the significance of the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and the world day of prayer for peace which we mark today.

I am always needing signs from God; signs of encouragement, forgiveness and love. This morning, just after I turned on the radio, one of my favourite hymns played. Was it chance, or did God intend this for me? I knew that this was no coincidence, but rather a sign, from God, for me.

You might like to take a moment to savour the words (Whittier) with the melody (Parry's Repton).

As we begin the new year I pray that all readers of this blog will experience a new year filled with "the beauty of thy peace."

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,

Forgive our foolish ways!

Reclothe us in our rightful mind,

In purer lives Thy service find,

In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard

Beside the Syrian sea

The gracious calling of the Lord,

Let us, like them, without a word

Rise up and follow Thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee!

O calm of hills above,

Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee

The silence of eternity

Interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all

Our words and works that drown

The tender whisper of Thy call,

As noiseless let Thy blessing fall

As fell Thy manna down.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,

Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire

Thy coolness and Thy balm;

Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;

Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,

O still, small voice of calm!