Earthquake Memorial (Bishop Barry Jones)

Prayer of Bishop Barry Jones concluding the ‘two-minute silence’ at today’s (Ash Wednesday) memorial service in Hagley Park today on this first anniversary of last year’s tragic earthquake. 

O God whose mercies are without number,

and whose treasure and goodness is infinite,

graciously increase the faith of your people

that all may grasp and rightly understand

by whose love they have been created.

Your Son Jesus has taught us

to open our hearts to you in sincere prayer,

today after one year, 

we commend to your love and mercy

all those whose lives have been changed forever

by the earthquake of 22 February 2011.

We commend to your mercy

those who lost their lives in that terrible time.

We remember too,

those who were evacuated in great stress 

from city rest homes

and who have since departed this life

Grieving and distraught families, friends and workmates

entered thereby into a time of sadness, 

loneliness and heartbreak.

Have mercy on them all O God.

We commend also to you those living survivors

who bear wounds and scars and injuries 

both visible and invisible

from the earthquakes which have continued to oppress us.

May their trust and confidence in you never fail,

but rather grow to be strong and life-giving

for themselves and for those close to them.

Your Son Jesus 

showed himself to be the physician of souls.

May those burdened by fear, anxiety, 

worry and hopelessness,

know your healing hand.

Many of our people Lord carry painful memories

of building and structures falling,

and persons being crushed and trapped.

Have mercy on them and grant them peace.

We pray in Jesus’ name

Amen

Ash Wednesday

Tonight I celebrated a Vigil Mass for Ash Wednesday at Hanmer Springs. Our parishes continue this journey into Lent tomorrow with Masses and Services at Cheviot Rest Home, Waiau, Culverden, Amberley and Cheviot.  You can view the full timetable on the newsletter at this link.

Fr. Robert Barron (who preached the retreat for the priests of the Christchurch diocese in November of last year) gives a good introduction to the season of Lent in the youtube clip below.

And a prayer from the Preface II of Lent from the Third Edition of the Roman Missal:

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,

always and everywhere to give you thanks,

Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.

For you have given your children a sacred time

for the renewing and purifying of their hearts,

that, freed from disordered affections,

that may so deal with the things of this passing world

as to hold rather to the things that eternally endure.

And so, with all the Angels and Saints,

we praise you, as without end we acclaim:

Holy, Holy Holy Lord God of hosts...

a new thing

During the week the priests of our diocese met in regional groups. We do this a few times each year. I am now part of the Christchurch North region including the priests of the parishes of Burnside, Papanui, Bryndwyr, Kaiapoi and Rangiora, and myself from the Hurunui parishes of Cheviot, Hawarden and Hanmer Springs.

The meetings begin with prayer and continue with reflection and discussion of matters concerning the parishes, the regions and the diocese. In a couple of weeks one priest from each region will meet with the bishop at the Council of Priests meeting.

Half of the priests at our meeting (including myself) are new to the 'northern' region due to changing parishes in the last few weeks. Most are affected directly by parish amalgamations. Several priests and their parishes are dealing with the loss of their churches due to the effects of earthquakes. All of us spend time every day with people who suffer loss of family members, homes or businesses in the earthquakes.


As we approach the first anniversary of the most tragic February 22nd quake, we are deeply aware of those who suffer the complex effects and the tragic losses of the earthquakes. We pray especially this week for those who lost their lives twelve months ago. May they rest in peace. We pray too for those who are most burdened by the losses and anxieties of these months. May they know God's love and our support.


In the midst of all of this turmoil and transition, the scriptures of today speak strongly. Listen again:

Thus says the Lord:

Remember not the events of the past,

the things of long ago consider not;

see, I am doing something new. 

Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

(Isaiah 43) today's First Reading

They were all astounded

and glorified God, saying:

"we have never seen anything like this."

Mark 2

One of the passages we reflected on at our meetings was from Pope Benedict's introduction to "YOUCAT" (the youth catechism). You will get a sense of the power and practical attractiveness of this re-presentation of the Catholic faith at this link.

Here is the paragraph we pondered:

"This supplement to the catechism does not flatter you; it does not offer easy solutions; it demands a new life on your part; it presents you with the message of the Gospel like the "pearl of great price" (Matthew 13:45) for which everything must be given. And so I ask you: study the catechism with passion and perseverance! Sacrifice your time for this! Study it in the silence of your room, read it with someone else, if you are friends, form groups and study networks, exchange ideas on the internet. In whatever way, remain in dialogue on your faith!

"You must know what you believe; you must know your faith with the same precision with which a programming specialist knows the operating system of a computer; you must know it like a musician knows his piece. Yes, you must be much more deeply rooted in the faith than the generation of your parents, in order to be able to resist forcefully and decisively against the temptations of this time.

"You need divine help, if your faith does not want to dry up like a drop of dew in the sun, if you do not want to succumb to the temptations of consumerism, if you do not want your love to drown in pornography, if you do not want to betray the weak and the victims of abuse and violence.

Pope Benedict is passionate in his encouragement for the church to enter a phase of "New Evangelisation".  The primary goal of this event is to re-present the Catholic faith to those who may have already heard the good news, but have grown weary, lax or even forgotten the beauty of life with Jesus within the Church.

Many people today, both within and outside the church, see the Catholic Church as a "no" religion. Somehow they have picked up the idea that being Catholic is about saying no to everything that is fun and truly good. The reality is that Catholicism is a "YES" faith: a saying YES to all that meets the deepest desires of the human heart.  

Cardinal-elect Timothy Dolan of New York made this point during the week, in his address to the pope and the cardinals gathered in Rome, speaking on the "New Evangelisation."

And this is the heart of the life of our own parishes: how to present anew the life of faith to those who, while still feeling some connection with the Church, have lost something of the passion and vibrancy of life in Christ.


This is the situation we find ourselves in, in the parishes of our diocese: the effects of the earthquakes, the demolition of churches, homes and businesses, the suffering of loss of life and uncertainty about the future, all of these sufferings can have the effect of dulling our vision. We focus on what we have lost and what is past. Yet the scriptures encourage us: "Behold I am doing a new thing, says the Lord, even now it comes to light, can you not see it."


The new evangelisation of Pope Benedict challenges us to think in a new way. To think laterally.  


You may have heard the story of the large lorry that was trapped under a bridge. Not trapped by much...the truck was just a millimeter or so too tall for the underpass. It could not be moved forward or backward. 


The engineers came and considered the possibility of using hydraulics to lift the bridge a bit.  The excavators examined digging out a track in front of or behind the truck.  After several hours a young boy skateboarded onto the scene with the most obvious and effective solution: "why don't they just let a bit of air out of the tires..."


There is another great example of this 'lateral' or 'creative' 'new' thinking in today's gospel - we all know the story, they bring the paralysed man to Jesus on a stretcher. They know that Jesus has the power to heal. But when they get to the house, there are so many people that they cannot get the paralytic man inside. What are they to do? Perhaps they could go in and drag Jesus out through the crowd. maybe they could shout "fire, fire" to quickly disperse the crowd and make room. Not a good idea. What to do...?   


Then a lateral thinker comes up with a remarkable suggestion. Get onto the roof, remove a few tiles, and lower the stretcher down in front of Jesus. Wow!  A new thing, a creative mind, a lateral thinker wins the day. "They were all astounded and glorified God, saying: 'we have never seen anything like this.'"


But this is a tough call isn't it. So much of what we experience in life, particularly through this traumatic year of Christchurch suffering, is instability in all its manifestations.  How impossible it is in the dead of winter, to see the blossom and leaves of the spring and summer.


Imagine the evergreen trees in the garden of Eden looking at the deciduous trees in the autumn. Imagine their 'conversation': "look over there at ash and oak, not looking too good, a bit sick, on the way out..."


Then in the heart of winter the conversation might continue: "poor old alder and robinia - used to look so good, stunning even, but clearly it is all over and they are just a few dead branches." 


But then a miracle happens, and with the spring the buds of new life appear. Even that which looks deadly and death-like is not in fact death.  There is always hope.


Friends, too often our openness to the future action of God is limited by our experiences of the past: 'it has never happened before so it won't happen now.'


Now, more than ever, we, as people of faith, are challenged to open our eyes to see our personal situations, our families, parish, the church and the world, with a new gaze: a vision of faith:

"see, I am doing something new. 

Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"

+++

Readings for Seventh Sunday of the Year

Fr. Robert Barron's reflection for Seventh Sunday

Valentine

Yes, there was a Saint Valentine. In fact it seems there were many early Christian martyrs named Valentine.

But people do not think of these saints when they celebrate St. Valentine's Day. February 14 is a more superficial celebration of 'romantic love', popularised by Medieval artists, Renaissance poets and contemporary commercial entrepreneurs.

This is far from the witness of early Christian Valentines who died as martyrs in love of their God.

I think it was C.S. Lewis who most publically proclaimed that 'love is not a feeling. Love is a decision of the will.'

Unfortunately Valentines day is mostly about a 'feeling' of 'love'.  The problem of this 'feeling' of love, is that if I had to wait for the feeling before I loved, I wouldn't get around to actually loving very often.


Christian love is a decision to love others not because I like them, or because I feel love for them, but because God has first loved me.

When I know I am loved by God, this knowledge wells up irrepressibly, and spills over into each word I speak and every action I carry out.

This love is therefore not hard work. It is simply the natural human response to the deep knowledge that I am already loved.

And when I live this decision to love, more often than not, the feeling of love follows.

Happy Valentine's day!

perception

A blog reader sent me a link today that reminded me of a post I had uploaded in June 2010.  Often these youtube gems do the round once, then surface again a year or two later.


This one is worth repeating.




The metro (underground train) is often the quickest way to get from A to B on the B or A lines in the city of Rome. There is little to be enjoyed about this subway experience apart from the speed of the journey under the busy bus routes above.

Often a busker brightens the journey. I'm not sure if there is some certificate of competence that these musicians need before entertaining the underground travellers. I suspect not. But the commuters are generous to the accordianists and violinists whose music fills the carriages. Every now and then there is some outstanding music and I decide to stay aboard a stop or two longer to savour the sounds.

As I listened to a particularly good violinist on the metro yesterday, I was reminded of the Washington Post experiment a couple of years ago. Joshua Bell is one of the world's outstanding violinists. People pay hundreds of dollars and travel thousands of miles to hear him play.

You might like to take a moment to hear him play before reading on. Just tap this link to hear Bell play a part of the Samuel Barber violin concerto. A tip for listening: just relax, don't think about the music, just let the sound flow over and through you. And if you need some more here is Joshua Bell playing Max Bruch's first Violin Concerto (mid 19c)

Well, now that you have heard him play you can see that he is good! The experiment was for him to dress down (t shirt and jeans) and to play anonymously for rush-hour commuters at a New York metro station.

Watch what happens at this link.

Hardly anyone notices. Many of these same people would have paid over one hundred dollars and given an evening to hear Joshua Bell make music. Here he was, looking pretty ordinary, but still playing with extra-ordinary giftedness, and almost everyone walks past without noticing. In busking mode he makes just $32 dollars in 45 minutes.

There is much material for mulling over here. The Washington Post examines possible reasons for the reaction in a reflective article. You can read this here.

Since re-reading the article I have done my own pondering. My limited perception of reality blinds me to much that is gifted to me in every moment. You can make the applications to your own life.

As for me, whenever I hear the violinists in the metro these days I am listening with new ears. All of my senses have been returned to their default settings - undulled by daily demands and routines.

The fruits of the sense-adjustments are immediate. You might like to try.

lepers & life

I often think that we try to be Catholics today in an "Old Testament" kind of way. 

Let me clarify what I mean.

The people of the Old Testament did believe in one God (the opening of our Catholic Christian creed), but they did not consider God to be personal, present and tangible. 

These people of God knew that if they pleased and appeased God then they could expect to do well: their families would flourish and their harvests would be abundant. Their worship was real, but did not need expect to sense the reality and immanence of God. They did not expect to converse intimately with their God. (This was the domain of the 'elect': the priests and prophets.)  


Tragically much of this is the mind-set and experience of twenty-first century Christians.

So what is different about Christianity?

Let's use today's readings to help us reflect on this.

The Old Testament reading for this Sixth Sunday of the Year is taken from the book of Leviticus.  While this book might seem to the modern reader to contain strange and dated rules, it in fact provides a practical human-behaviour guide  (worship and daily life) for both priests and people.  

Some of today's 13th chapter verses might seem a bit out-of date or unnecessary. But it is necessary in every age for the Church to communicate all that God has revealed as guidelines and boundaries for healthy happy human behaviour. This is what parents do for the children they love.

We now know that 95% of people were then (and are now) naturally immune to leprosy. Two thousand years ago little was known about the disease and people did keep their distance from lepers. Lepers were required (as we hear in the reading) to stay away from uninfected people, to dress in a distinctively dishevelled manner, and to move about calling out "unclean".

Let's jump ahead today's Gospel reading.We know that the people kept their distance from lepers. But Jesus moves beyond the prescriptions and fears of the 'old law' and, "moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, and touched him."  Jesus looks to the heart and knows that a physical disease (or a psychological or intellectual disability) is in fact not a real disease or deformity. 

Instead we are deformed and disabled and diseased when we fail to see the reality of the heart of a person. It is a deformed or disabled heart that should cause us to truly fear. Jesus would of course have noticed the physical state of those who were disfigured by disease. But he knew that this was nothing to fear. This was simply a skin for the deeper divine reality. 


Jesus looked to the heart.

When he did this he could see that there was no disability in the hearts of many of those feared by society. And in many who were considered ideal specimens of humanity, there was much to fear. Their hearts were astray and not at ease. They were truly diseased.

I saw real dis-ease and deformity in the supermarket in Hanmer Springs yesterday. Every cover on the magazine rack featured faces caked in cosmetics and bodies distorted by 'beautification,' extreme dieting and surgery. 

Surely the greatest distortion of the human person comes when we call such 'artificial' men and women "models"? 

It is a serious symptom of our societal disease when we encourage our young people to strive for such pretense. 


The most deadly symptom of our confusion occurs when we consider physical deformity (revealed in in-utero scans), to be grounds for termination of an infant human life.


Today's readings challenges us to recognise what is superficial and artificial in human appearance and behaviour. Following the practice of Jesus we need to follow our deeper attraction to the heart of every human person.

+++

Readings for Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

http://johncoconnor.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/johnchchnz

http://twitter.com/johnchch

www.catholichurunui.co.nz

Requiem

It has been a couple of days of thinking 'Requiems'.  After mentioning the Faure Requiem yesterday I remembered too the great Mozart Requiem (you might recall the movie Amadeus (albeit historically inaccurate?). Then online I found this great youtube clip which shows the four-part-notation (for voice) that (when followed to the note) produces the glorious harmony of voices.

And then the beauty and simplicity of the Gregorian Requiem, still sung in our diocese at priests' funerals.

Both are beautiful. While the Mozart is accessible only to a skilled group of singers, the simple Gregorian melody is easily sung by an average Sunday congregation who are prepared to practice a bit with the youtube aid above. Note that the congregation is only required to sing the antiphon with choir or cantor singing the verse.

Don't be frightened by the Gregorian notation.  While it is strange at first, especially for those who have some musical training, it is actually easier for a congregation of musical novices to follow.  A ten minute training session is enough to get started.

Let me know if your parish or school is willing to attempt this. I am happy to encourage you!