Thursday 28 February 2013

2nd Sunday of Lent

Reflection written by Bishop David Walker

We are on a journey, a journey from the womb to the tomb and beyond. As Paul reminds us in our second reading we are citizens of heaven put on this planet for a short while that we may come to know God, to believe that God is the one true God and to worship God and no other.

In the reading from the Book of Genesis we note that over 4000 years ago Abraham, then known as Abram, for himself and for you and me, entered into a covenantal relationship with God. Abraham promised that God would be his only God and that he and his descendants would only worship God and no other. God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the stars in heaven. True to God’s promise you and I are part of the countless descendants of Abraham, our father in faith. Have we, the descendants of Abraham, been true to our promise? Do we worship only God or do other lesser gods such as money,
fame, power, body image, popularity, distract us from our part of the bargain.

Our Gospel reminds us that on their journey to Jerusalem and the Cross, the disciples needed to be reminded of the majesty of God. Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John so that they may see (that is, to know in their hearts and their souls) that Jesus is the Son of God and that they may listen (hear with the ears of the hearts and souls) to Jesus. Jesus can transfigure us if we only have the eyes to see and the ears to listen.

On our journey through life do we need to be reminded that Jesus is our Lord and God? Do we need to see with the eyes of our soul, to listen with the ears of our souls and to believe? Do we need to take time during this Lenten period to put the busy-ness of our lives to one side, to quieten the noise in which we live and to listen for the words of Jesus as our Father commands us?

Abraham listened to God with the ears of his soul and saw God with the eyes of his soul and believed. We, and the billions of citizens of heaven who come to know and believe in God, Father, Son and Spirit, are the fruits of that belief. Like Abraham, our father in faith, like Peter, James and John and like the billions
of fellow citizens of heaven may we stand humbly before our God see, listen and worship God with all our hearts and all our souls and all our might.

Sunday 17 February 2013

First Sunday of Lent

Reflection written by Bishop David Walker

As we have heard many times the Season of Lent is a time of preparation. We prepare by prayer, good works and fasting. What are we preparing for? Only the celebration of the second greatest miracle that you and I will ever encounter, the resurrection of Jesus. The first greatest miracle was God taking on our humanity so we may call God, Abba, Father. As people of faith through the grace of God we celebrate what we profess. We profess that Jesus the living Word died, was buried, went into our graves took us by the hand and led us to eternal life. Now that is something to celebrate.

In the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses is making his farewell speech to his people in which he tells them to offer the first fruits of the harvest to the Lord our God and then to celebrate. Jesus is the first fruit of the harvest of the Lord. Through the Paschal Mystery we witness the offering of those first fruits to the Father and then we celebrate.

Any good celebration takes time and hard to work to prepare. To properly celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord we must prepare. How? By prayer, by fasting and by good works, that is how. In our Gospel we are reminded that Jesus prepared for his ministry by fasting in the desert. While he was in the desert when he was "famished" Jesus was tempted by the devil. When he was at his lowest, Jesus was tempted with power over nature, "turn these stones into bread", over people, "worship me and I will give you dominion over all nations" and over God, "jump and God will send angels to protect you." How did Jesus meet these temptations? He prayed, "One does not live on bread alone", "Worship the Lord your God and serve only God" and "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."

Life can be a struggle. When we are "famished" we are tempted. We are tempted by power over nature. Do we use more than we need? We are tempted by power over people. Do we impose our will on others? We are tempted by power over God. Do we tell God what we expect out of life, what God can do, indeed must do, for us? How do we meet those temptations? In the extract taken from Paul's Letter to the Romans, we "confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord and believe" and God will save us.

As we prepare for the miracle that is Easter may we place ourselves, our lives, our successes, our failures before the Lord our God. We are the first fruits of the harvest of the Word who is on our lips and in our hearts. Let us place those first fruits before the Lord our God and let's celebrate.

Thursday 14 February 2013

Ash Wednesday Reflection

By Jack Chui

This Lent, I found a fantastic reflection series written by Bishop David Walker from my parent's diocese of Broken Bay (in Sydney's north). I plan to take STAY cell group through the Sunday Reading reflections.
This is the one for Ash Wednesday and I'll post the other guides for each Sunday when the time comes. A copy of the whole reflection (Lectio Divina) Lenten series can be found here: http://www.dbb.org.au/_uploads/_ckpg/files/lectio/Lectio_Lent13_WEB.pdf

Readings for Ash Wednesday (Joel 2:12-18, 2Cor 5:20-6:2, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18)
http://www.universalis.com/20130213/mass.htm

Ash Wednesday
Some of the most fertile and rich soil comes from ashes. Out of these ashes, signs of our mortal nature, comes something else. Once we recognise our own responsibility for wrongdoing, once we acknowledge our mortal and dusty nature, the ashes also become a sign of fertility.

If we are truly repentant, and truly cleansed, and open to the reality of God around us, then we are also fertile, ready to give growth to greatness.

Out of seven years’ worth of ashes on the island of Madeira came one of the finest wines of the time. There is no way the wine could have been produced without the burning, without the ashes. In fact, it was the burning that cleared the ground in the first place.

Ash Wednesday and Lent are, likewise, the burning and cleaning of our Christian lives. We enter a time for confession, for penitence, for realisation of our earthly nature. But this is also a fertile day, a time for self-examination and self-preparation. Today is getting us ready for something.

In The Artful Ashes, Jan Richardson shared what she discovered when she undertook a project where she learned to draw in charcoal:
Taking up a new medium, entering a different way of working, diving or tiptoeing into a new approach: all of this can be complex, unsettling, disorienting. Launching into the unknown and untried confronts us with what is undeveloped within us. It compels us to see where we are not adept, where we lack skill, where we possess little gracefulness. Yet what may seem like inadequacy – as I felt in my early attempts with charcoal – becomes fantastic fodder for the creative process, and for life. Allowing ourselves to be present to the messiness provides an amazing way to sort through what is essential and to clear a path through the chaos. To borrow the words of the writer of Psalm 51, the psalm for Ash Wednesday, it creates a clean heart within us.
Ash Wednesday beckons us to cross over the threshold into a season that’s all about working through the chaos to discover what is essential. The ashes that lead us into this season remind us where we have come from. They beckon us to consider what is most basic to us, what is elemental, what survives after all that is extraneous is burned away. With its images of ashes and wilderness, Lent challenges us to reflect on what we have filled our lives with, and to see if there are habits, practices, possessions, and ways of being that have accumulated, encroached, invaded, accreted, layer upon layer, becoming a pattern of chaos that threatens to insulate us and dull us to the presence of God.

Have you settled on a Lenten discipline? Are you thinking of making room for silence in your life? What are you thinking about for this Lent? What needs to be added to your life? What could you do without?

Friday 8 February 2013

I Pondered Your Love

By Jean Cheng


Yesterday morning as I said my prayers, 
I came across the Psalm for the day and the line, 
"We ponder your love" (Psalm 48:9) struck me.
I almost brushed past these four words because I couldn't connect with them.
How was I supposed to ponder God's love?
Where would I start? 
What does pondering His love mean?
A new concept, I finally decided to pray,
So I wrote in my prayer journal,
"Father, I don't ponder your love.
Help me to ponder it and be deeply joyful in your love"

Yesterday marked exactly three years since my bf and I met each other.
Three years ago we met in his church.
Three years later,
We were attending daily mass at St Joseph's Church,
Just wanting to give thanks to God, 
Remembering that it isn't just three years of him and I,
But it's been three years of God, him and I: our three-way relationship. ;)

So as I knelt before the altar,
I was ready to enter into all of my usual prayer requests,
When I stopped.
I looked at Jesus, and said,
'Today, I will not ask for anything. 
Today, I am here to thank you.'
Just like that, 
I spent the whole mass in gratitude,
Contemplating all that the Lord has done for me,
Contemplating His great love for me in bringing Marcus into my life.
Contemplating His wisdom in knowing what is best for me,
Even if at times, He has to drag a screaming Jean through it.

It wasn't until after I left mass that I realised something.
Psalm 48: 9 was no longer empty words,
I had just experienced it.
God is funny.
He does answer my daily prayers.
(Just wish He would answer all of them. :P)

Importantly, I've also learnt yesterday that breaking out of my prayer habits 
(i.e., barrage of prayer-requests)
occasionally is not a bad thing.
"If you always do the same thing,
You will always get the same results"
Doing something different yesterday,
Coming to God without a "oh-my-God-please-help-me" spirit,
I experienced something never before.
I pondered His great love for me. :) 


Monday 4 February 2013

Keeping up the Good Fight

By Jack Chui

Another of the backlog of blog posts I was intending to write...

Over the last couple of months, the Catholic Church in Australia has been put on notice with the Federal Government declaring a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse by those in power in the Church. It applies to other Christian churches as well, but headlining the news has been the scandals in Catholic Church.

It pains me to see the reports as they were constantly in the news because I love the Church more than I thought I would. The Church has been a great stronghold and support for me, nurturing my faith, being visible in faith and standing up to a world which doesn't need God.

It is sad to see that some priests/brothers/leaders in the Church have done (allegedly) such horrid things to children when they preach and are supposed to uphold the high moral standards which God intended on this earth. It only takes a few bad apples to really tarnish the Church and make us look like hypocrites.

In times like this, it can be hard to be known as 'Catholic' when our Church has failed to live up to our high moral standards and also to police and prevent wrongdoing from continuing. But to me, it is also a test and a time to stand for our Church, like our father/mother/partner would stand by us when we are facing trials. It reminds me of St. Peter and when he said he wouldn't deny Jesus...

The priests and the Church needs our forgiveness. Just like us, the priests are human and the Church is made up of humans, and so we can fail, and sometimes fail often. While it would be ideal for our priests and Church to be 'perfect', if it were, there would be no need for God's grace to work in the Church and it would become a place for only the 'perfect'. I, like the Church and its priests would not like to be condemned, because God does not condemn me - because of what Jesus had done for me and everyone in the world.

Like the Church, I welcome the Royal Commission because it should help bring justice and improvement to our Church. The Church seems to struggle to resolve some big problems by itself and it is humbling to have outside help being forced on us, as humiliating as it might be. We are the biggest Church and visibly stands up for the highest morals so we would also be the easiest targets.

The bad actions of a few in the Church does not mean that the whole Church is bad - the Church is still and always will be the beautiful Bride of Christ. The Church has withstood larger scandals and threats in the past and is still alive and strong today - 2000 years - few if any organisations have stood for this long. And it will continue as such with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.