time for change

This is not the ideal way to break this news, so here goes...

I received a call from the bishop a few days ago asking if I would be willing to accept a new appointment next year to the parishes of North Canterbury. 

There was no pressure from the bishop at all, and he understood that this would be a significant wrench for me. But I said yes. This means that at the end of January I will begin as Parish Priest of the three North Canterbury parishes. (Cheviot, Hanmer Springs and Hawarden, with their seven churches).

I have always had a concern for the rural areas of our diocese. If there were no Mass on a Sunday at Our Lady of VIctories, the people of the parish have a choice of almost sixty Sunday Masses within the city boundaries every Sunday. The people in the rural areas of our diocese are often not as fortunate.

Having said that, the bishop's call last week was a completely unexpected surprise. I have spent twelve years as the Parish Priest of Our Lady of Victories. We have grown together a lot and through much. I will not find it easy to leave the people of this parish. The one year I have been PP of St. Joseph's Darfield has also been a privilege.

But I am a priest of the diocese rather than a particular parish primarily. So I am happy to receive this new and challenging appointment.

Unfortunately (despite an embargo) the news of this change 'leaked' in a couple of other parishes last weekend. As a result my plans for letting you know in good time and personally are not able to happen. I am sorry about that. 

I will be replaced here at Our Lady of Victories by Fr. Michael Pui who is presently Parish Priest of Kaiapoi.  The Assistant priest will be Fr. Paolo Filoiali-i  (presently PP of Hornby). He will continue to reside in Hornby and remain as PP of Hornby.

Fr. Michael has also been appointed as PP of Darfield (also to replace me). This appointment to Darfield is for one year until the new parishes are created (Hornby joining with Sockburn & Darfield joining with Leeston and Lincoln).

I am happy to remain as Parish Priest of Chatham Islands.

Let us pray that this transition for both priests and people happens easily and happily for all.

Blessings

John




Christchurch Diocese Clergy Changes for 2012

To the existing parishes of:

            Kaiapoi       Reverend Denis Nolan   Parish Priest

                             Reverend Augustine Palayal   Assistant Priest

                             (Father Denis will reside in Rangiora,

                              Father Augustine will reside in Kaiapoi)

Rangiora                 Reverend Denis Nolan   Parish Priest

                             Reverend Augustine Palayal   Assistant Priest

                             (Father Denis will reside in Rangiora,

                             Father Augustine will reside in Kaiapoi)

Sockburn                Reverend Michael Pui   Parish Priest

                             Reverend Paulo Filoiali-i   Assistant Priest

                            (Father Paulo will continue as Parish Priest of Hornby and reside in Hornby)

           

North Canterbury     Reverend John C O’Connor   Parish Priest

                             Chatham Islands        

Addington               Reverend John Craddock SM Parish Priest from May 2012

                             Reverend John Jolliffe SM Administrator February–May 2012 

To the new parishes of:

Cathedral               Reverend Christopher Friel   Administrator

                             Reverend Christopher Orr     Assistant Priest

Woolston                Reverend Daniel Doyle   Parish Priest

                        
Mairehau                 Reverend Simon Eccleton   Parish Priest

                             Reverend Job Thyikalamuriyil    Assistant Priest

                                                     (Father Job will reside at Burwood)

New Brighton          Reverend Bryan Parish   Parish Priest

Bryndwr                 Reverend Rick Loughnan   Parish Priest

Timaru and Waimate      Reverend Peter Costello   Parish Priest

                                    Reverend Kevin Foote   Assistant Priest

Opihi                            Reverend Brian Fennessy   Parish Priest

Mackenzie                  Reverend Jim Nicholas   Parish Priest

Please note the new parishes will come into existence by decree on 25 January, 2012.

Fr. Robert Barron in ChCh

A number of the priests of our diocese are on retreat in Christchurch this week.  The retreat is being led by Fr. Robert Barron, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

He will give a lecture in Christchurch on Wednesday night. (details below)

Fr. Barron is well known as a sound and articulate theologian, and communicator of the beauty of the life of Catholic faith.

Have a look at his website www.wordonfire.org

and a couple of youtube clips. The first is the trailer promoting his new TV series "Catholicism"

and an introduction to Jerusalem

and an introduction to the Season of Advent:

Pass this blog-link on to whoever you think might be interested in attending Wednesday evening's Christchurch lecture.

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 7:30 pm 

@ Christ the King Parish Centre

NOTE NOT THURSDAY (as I blogged earlier) but WEDNESDAY

(the Thursday evening lecture is clergy only).

Advent: Life in God's Gaze

Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, 

the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ 

with righteous deeds at his coming, 

so that, gathered at his right hand, 

they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom. 

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

Revised Collect.  First Sunday of Advent

There is a story told of the holy French priest Jean Vianney (Ćure d’Ars d.1859). He noticed an elderly man who would spend hours in the church before the Blessed Sacrament. 

The ćure was curious about what happened in this man’s prayer. ‘What do you do when you are praying” he asked the man. The old man’s answer has become the classic instruction for contemplative prayer: “I look at Him, and He looks at me.”

The simplicity of the man’s prayer is deeply appealing. So much that is taught and written about prayer serves only to convince us that prayer is a complex project to be mastered.

We forget that prayer is the most natural human activity. 

Prayer is the 'default-setting' for humans. 

Prayer is always God’s action in us. 

Our desire for the divine life within us is the purest prayer we can pray. To sit in silence and stillness before God is the best we can do.

When I think about the ćure’s conversation with the elderly man, I see that he was deeply at home with God; much more at peace with God than I often am. Most times I feel unable to look at God. My guilt and shame renders me more like Adam in the garden who took to cover, unable to return the divine gaze.

But there is hope for me. God does not need me to do anything in my prayer. I simply give God the gift of time, and I sit and kneel. If looking at God is difficult for whatever reason, I need not be concerned. In these moments I simply know that however preoccupied my own vision, God is looking at me with gentle love and mercy. 

God’s gaze on me is the heart of prayer. God does all the work—and I am transformed.

The busyness of pre-Christmas days can be exhausting. How easy it is for us to lose perspective. We forget that God is holding us in love in every moment. 

These Advent days invite us to set moments in the midst of our full lives to remember that God is with us. To know that we are held firmly in God’s vision is the most comforting human experience. In this gaze we do see our sin and weakness. In humble shame we cast our eyes downward. But the God of love continues to look upon us with transforming love. This posture before God is the heart of contemplative prayer.

This week the priests of our diocese are on retreat. Fr. Robert Barron is leading these days of prayer. You might appreciate his website and podcasts with Sunday homilies. 

Pray for your priests, especially in this retreat week.

Check the times for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction in your own parish.  Give God a chance to gaze on you with love. 

+++                        

• Fr. Robert Barron is preaching the priests' retreat for the diocese of Christchurch this week.  Check out his homily for the First Sunday of Advent, and his website.

• Readings for First Sunday of Advent

• Commentary on these readings and Lector preparation guide

• Pope Benedict XVI, homily, First Sunday of Advent 2010

• Our Lady of Victories Liturgy Times (First Week of Advent)

• and lastly the entry from this blog for Advent 2010

http://johncoconnor.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/johnchchnz

http://twitter.com/johnchch

www.olv.co.nz

Retreat

Since 2001, in November of every year, I have led the ordination retreats for the Anglican Diocese of Waikato.

Last night I began with the group who will be ordained this coming weekend.

We are here for "retreat". If you looked up the word in a dictionary you would find it defined as a military expression: 'to move back from the battle'.

At times life can feel like a battle. To step aside from these demands, and move into stillness and silence, is a welcome respite from daily routines and trials.  


A 'retreat' might provide a happy escape from 'ordinary life'.

However we are not here to escape in any sense of the word.


Certainly we are stepping back from our normal daily patterns.  We are here in silence. There is no newspaper or radio or TV. No cell phones or computers for the retreatants. The group will spend these days without talking to anyone except me.

They are taking this dramatic step that they might step into a deeper reality. To do this, they make a decision to avoid any escape into what is less real.

This might initially be a challenging experience. But such a journey into reality with God is always rewarding.  We realise that so many of the concerns, worries, demands and duties of each day are fraught with fantasy and escapism. When we encounter God we discover we have no need of pretense. God is ready to work with us as we are in this moment of reality.

Pray for us on these days.

Christ the King

What image enters your mind when you think of Christ as King?

I find it hard to get beyond the trappings of contemporary royalty: wealth, glamour, and image. I’d have to add the image I have of royals doing little except ‘looking royal’.

This scene is far from the reality of the feast we celebrate today.  Christ is a different kind of king. His palace was the stable of his birth and the simple homes and open roadsides where he slept. His royal court was occupied by the poor and the powerless. Repentant sinners had pride of place in his company. His banquet was the loaves he shared and the cup of his blood outpoured. His throne was a cross. His crown was of thorns.

The glamour of earthly wealth and success distract us from the potential of our present reality.  Politicians embrace their perks. Our sporting heroes win again. 

However the reality of our lives has another dimension. 

There is suffering in our streets. Our neighbours lose their jobs.  Many of us are fully occupied with survival following earthquakes, sickness or surgery. Anxiety continues to take the edge off any moments of joy we might enjoy. Our loved ones are aging and dying. We are grieving. In the midst of our own reality we have difficulty relating to the royalty we see in magazines.

Perhaps the greatest deception of our time is the voice that tells us that we will find happiness when we are free from human needs. We fall victim to this lie when we believe that finding a new job, falling in love or a lotto win will bring the life we seek. 

Jesus is our saviour precisely because he shows us a different way. 

In Christ, the King descends the royal mountain and meets me in my debt. My suffering becomes a haven of divine company. Here I realise that I am happiest when I choose God before any human satisfaction.  My need for success, power, wealth and health fades when I realise that the ultimate King delights in my company.

In prayer I seek not to escape my present reality but to seek God in the midst of my struggle.   

In 1925 Pope Pius XI spoke strongly against secularism. The secular wave both then and now promotes worldly achievement and wealth as the ultimate human success.  Following the difficult years of World War I, the 1920’s brought renewed hope. This new age appeared to herald prosperity.

However there was a sinister, powerful and pervasive element in this new ‘vision’. The hope promised by flourishing ideologies was no longer an eternal life gifted by God. Instead anyone who shouted loud enough into the vacuum became a saviour. These ideologies promoted worldly structures as the only real hope for the people. 

In the opening days of 1925 Mussolini powered his way into position as dictator of Italy.  He promised a kingdom better than any before.  In July 1925 Hitler published "Mein Kampf".  This autobiographical manifesto outlined his plans for a new world that would bring salvation for all those whom he considered to be deserving.

In December 1925 Pope Pius XI closed the 1925 Holy Year by issuing an encyclical letter announcing a new feast of Christ the King. This letter was a powerful reminder that human persons are not created to rule the earth as dictators as of right, but to serve.  Our maker is our monarch.

The pope was speaking from the heart of Catholic (and therefore human) truth: it is of the nature of the human person to be subject to God. Indeed the problem Adam and Eve had in the garden was that they grasped at the role of God. They attempted to dominate and control what did not belong to them. While this sin may have been original at the time it is now the oldest and most serious failing of all. 

With tragic consequences we reject the beauty of human existence and grasp at the divine role. After all our work we end up like the newborn baby in the pilot’s seat of the 747.  The passengers are ready for the journey but there is no way this thing is going to move until we find a real pilot!

Pius XI speaks to this directly by reminding us of the method that brings all we seek:

“When once people recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony. Our Lord's regal office invests the human authority of princes and rulers with a religious significance; it ennobles the citizen's duty of obedience. (par.19)

Eighty-six years after our first celebration of the feast of Christ the King it is timely to consider if we have made any progress. 

I can see many signs of hope, perhaps more now than could be seen in the middle years of last century. However our progress feels like a battle when secularism continues to be promoted as the default position for the human person.

One who embraces a life of faith, lives a life of subjection to Christ and prays with the faith community every Sabbath is today considered to be a bit odd.  The truth is that religious belief and practice is our default setting. We are made for God and cannot live without God.

As we celebrate this feast of faith we acknowledge that, by the generosity of God, we are the subjects of Christ the King.


Life in this Kingdom (both eternally and present) frees us from having to make divine decisions: we can let God be God and relax into the natural human position of being loved by God and led by him. We are as helpless and as erratic as sheep. But our shepherd  King will carry us.

Here the teaching of Pius XI is of one voice with Benedict XVI. There are no surprises in that since both popes (and all between) know that human health and happiness, liberty, discipline, peace and harmony comes when we live as servants and subjects of Christ our King.    

+++

Sunday Mass Readings for the Feast

Fr. Robert Barron will preach the Clergy Retreat for the priests of Christchurch Diocese in a couple of weeks. Listen to his homily for the feast of Christ the King. In this homily Fr. Barron reflects on the Revised Order of the Mass.


Lector's Notes 2011  


Christ the King in art

   

Cathedral Update

Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament

update November 18 2011

Tap this link for newsletter.

hope

the garden

One of life’s little satisfactions is to spend time in the garden. Yes, sitting under a tree with a book is pleasurable. But just as satisfying is being down on hands and knees with a fork and shears, weeding and pruning, planting and watering.

The presbytery garden is flourishing this week. Irises and Peonies are blooming outside my window. The roses will join the display in a couple of weeks.

Last week I planted a couple of tomato seedlings.  I’m a bit late with those, so (as usual) they will be ready for harvest when the supermarket is selling a dozen tomatoes for three cents.

You have probably heard the story of the proud gardener who was showing off her beds (of flowers) to the fervent Christian. “Isn’t it great what God has done here” the Christian mused.  “What God has done?” the gardener retorted; “you should have seen the mess God had it in before I took over!”

As I look around the garden I see that even after my work, I can do nothing to make the bulbs bloom and the seedlings mature to produce fruit and flowers. Gardeners have to be patient. Yes, we water and weed and fertilise, but the harvest is God’s work.

hope

The gardening image has always been a powerful picture of the heart of hope for me.  Hope is the healthiest human state. We can never be fully satisfied by any possession, project, career or relationship. God has planted in the human heart a quiverring restlessness. Awareness of this inner longing is not a sign of a human flaw.  Instead this is a gift which perpetually propels me into the future, the future that is the eternal fulness of all we can ever hope for.

Looking forward to the new prayers of the Mass

There are many things I hope for. In recent weeks I have been looking forward to the introduction of the complete Roman Missal on the First Sunday of Advent later this month.

Today we heard that the when the printing was completed and the Altar Missal’s delivered, they were discovered to be not up to the appropriate standard.  This means that it will be a few more weeks that we have to wait (as the Missals are reprinted) before we hear the beauty of these revised prayers. 

This little disappointment reminds us that even when projects that are meticulously well planned and executed, they can disappoint us at the last minute. At least with the Missal, we know that the revised texts we have seen online, will be worth waiting for.

First Communion and Baptisms

The celebration of a sacrament is always an experience of hope, as God tangibly, audibly and visibly enters our human lives. Next Sunday at the 10am Mass we celebrate the First Communion and Baptism of a number of parish children.  We pray for them as they experience God with them in these two great sacraments of initiation.

And then we hope as many parishioners as able will join us for refreshments after the Mass.  I hope the weather is fine so that we can do as we have done in recent years and picnic in the presbytery garden.  I might even mow the lawns.

+++

Sunday Readings 13 November 2011

Commentary on the readings for Sunday 13 November

Preparation for Receiving the Third Edition of the Roman Missal

Note: If you are reading this on the Christchurch Diocese website, you can receive these (and other) updates and reflections directly from one of the links below:

http://johncoconnor@blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/johnchchnz
http://twitter.com/johnchch
www.olv.co.nz

Link to this week's parishes' newsletter 
(Our Lady of Victories Sockburn, St. Joseph's Darfield, St Therese of Lisieux Chatham Islands):      

http://www.olv.co.nz/Newsletter_13_November_2011.html

election 2011

In my homily this weekend, I referred to this months general election. 

A Christian will use their votes wisely and well considering not only their own interests, but also the needs of those in our country in greatest need.

More than ever there are life and death issues that must carry more weight in our choice than tax cuts and retirement benefits.

The handout from today's Mass is also available at www.valueyourvote.org.nz

Let me know if you have other election resources that I could share on this blog.

Hearts Aflame 2012

Several times in recent years I have participated in the Hearts Aflame event. This is a remarkable, annual, ten day January gathering of young (18-35) adults, in an atmosphere of sound, fun-filled, life-giving Catholic life.

In recent years I have led sessions at the gathering on Blessed Pope John Paul's Theology of the Body, and Spiritual Hunger. I have been inspired and encouraged by the deep searching faith of the young people who took part in these sessions.

Two things:

• If you know of young people who you think might benefit from this ten-day, intensive, Catholic experience, pass on this link to them. Tell them about Hearts Aflame. The cost ($480.00 plus travel) might be a bit much for the, but you might be in a position to offer to gift them this experience. This would be a life-changing gift for an adult child, grandchild, Godchild, parishioner....

• You might be in a position to support Hearts Aflame directly, helping them to cover their significant expenses. You will find the necessary information after the clips below or at www.heartsaflame.org.nz

All Souls

Pope Benedict XVI on the Feast of All Souls a couple of years ago.

Note that the tomb of Blessed John Paul II is now in the basilica: