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Home / 2019 / August / 25

Day: August 25 2019

Presider’s Page for 25 August (Ordinary Time 21)

August 25 2019 Editor's Choice, Liturgy, Presider's Page

Our God is a gracious God, who throws open the doors to the Kingdom to all of humanity. We gather to worship this compassionate king

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7 comments
ACP Statement: ACP Disappointed Over Women’s Issues in the Synod
October 8 2024
Sean O'Conaill
Bound right now to strict secrecy the participants in the ongoing second and final session of the universal synod on synodality are, ironically, discussing 'transparency and accountability' - while the long-term magisterial practice of secrecy (i.e. deliberate non-transparency) in relation to clerical child sexual abuse has never been traced to its source, and apparently never will be. That the sacrament of ordination does not in itself guarantee the integrity of those who receive it is so starkly obvious that we can only wonder why that revelation too is not tabled for synodal discussion. Teaching us emphatically that holiness should not automatically be ascribed to the ordained, this is by far the most effective teaching of Irish Catholic bishops in my lifetime - equivalent in importance to Vatican II itself. During that council a battle royal took place between bishops and theologians who differed over that very subject of holiness. With one side taking the view that the evangelical counsels (i.e. of 'poverty, celibacy and obedience') are essential to holiness and the other side dissenting on that, the document Lumen Gentium became ambivalent by incorporating both points of view, in sections five and six respectively. So easily recognisable in that epic disagreement is the dispute between the apostles themselves on the road to Jerusalem that all of us who are merely baptised (i.e. the non-ordained) should take great comfort that we are obviously not thereby disadvantaged when it comes to the grace of God - and for the insight that promotion in the church's hierarchy is not necessarily a spiritual advantage either. Why progress on Ireland's synodal pathway should be under some sort of suspension, while we wait endlessly for not-very-much to emerge from these ongoing and non-transparent conversations in Rome, is therefore profoundly mysterious. Does canon law stipulate that the absence of just two bishops in Rome for a month must automatically immobilise everybody else? The late Samuel Beckett must be watching this with amusement. The ACP could be putting on 'Waiting for Godot' while we wait for synodality - so triumphantly heralded in 2021 - to happen sometime.
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ACP Statement: ACP Disappointed Over Women’s Issues in the Synod
October 8 2024
Soline Humbert
Peadar, you may find some of the information you seek on this site which has a lot of useful links. https://www.womendeacons.org/
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ACP Statement: ACP Disappointed Over Women’s Issues in the Synod
October 8 2024
Peadar O Callaghan
Though I am not a member of the ACP I respect its right to express its collective opinion on any subject. But as no one seems to have access to the unpublished two reports you mention, I would be grateful if any member of your association, or visitor to this webpage, could point me, for my own information and research. where I might come across any one of the following: Historical evidence where women were ordained as deacons in the Latin/Roman Church at any period. So far I nave not come across any evidence in the world of Syriac Christianity in the works of Sebastian Brock (Singer of the Word of God – Ephrem the Syrian and his Significance in Late Antiquity, 2020) and in Françoise Briquel Chatonnet and Muriel Debié (The Syriac World – In Search of a Forgotten Christianity, 2023). But I keep searching other material. Artistic representations of women deacons either in wall paintings, pottery or mosaic assisting at Mass or other liturgies. Texts of sermons delivered by female deacons. Or any other historical fragments i.e. legends, prayers, lyrics, miracles etc. regarding the ordination or lives of women deacons. Thanking you in anticipation.
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13 Oct 2024 – 28th Sunday (Year B) – Prisoners Sunday
October 13 2024
Thara Benedicta
Key Message: Are we imparting wisdom to our future generations? Homily: On a prison ministry Sunday, a priest quoted this statement from another priest who was working for the prisoners: "The jailer of a certain prison said, "None can change a prisoner's heart. Only a nun can transform his heart". The work of our priests and nuns in the prison ministry is appreciated by the society. The takeaway from the first reading: King Solomon explains how he got Wisdom: “I called on God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.” Calling on God should be our first step in life. God’s wisdom will be much higher than people’s wisdom. But sometimes we do finally turn to God for help when all other sources are exhausted. Let us look for God’s source before beginning an activity or making a decision, instead of making the decision without waiting on God in a hurry, and when the boat sinks, calling to God for help. Our wisest decision would be to call Jesus first before stepping up for any decision. To whom do we make our first call? The takeaway from the second reading: The word of God is a two edged sword. It pierces the one who teaches and the one to whom it reaches. I have heard a few testimonials that their life is transformed as they prepare for preaching the Word of God. So when we preach, we are actually preaching for ourselves too. What does the word "sword" mean here? The Word of God pierces in our hearts. For example the question of our Lord Jesus, "Why are you so afraid?" Jesus was sleeping in the boat, the disciples woke him up frightened of the storm – Mark 4:35-41). Jesus calmed the storm and said, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” This question makes us stop and think, "Why am I afraid? Any way Jesus is there to take care". It speaks to our inner man. Though this word of God was recorded, it is still speaking to us. God our loving Father first initiated the habit of recording - writing a diary. He asked Moses to record all the miracles of God to free Israelites. Now we have memories of God’s mercies during the life of Moses in the Deuteronomy chapter. Actually, if we record all the blessings that God showers on us every day, each one of us will also have our own Deuteronomy chapter. God is abundantly showering His blessings and mercies in each one of our lives. Let us author our own Deuteronomy chapter!! The takeaway from Gospel reading: In the Gospel reading we can see two different personalities. 1. Jesus calls the rich person, “Leave everything and follow me”. The rich person is happy in following all of God’s commandments but is not able to leave his rich possessions and to follow Jesus. Since He had received an explicit divine call from Jesus to leave everything and follow Jesus, and he had not said ‘YES’ to Jesus, he would have regretted missing the divine call. 2. When Jesus called His disciples, they left everything and followed Him. The Apostle Matthew was also quite rich, but he did not have to rethink about leaving everything and following our Lord Jesus Christ. It did not matter to them to leave everything for the sake of following our Lord Jesus Christ – This is the beauty of the vocation of our priests and nuns. We are able to witness the promise with persecutions in the life of religious, as mentioned by our Lord Jesus, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions.” So, the persecution for the religious is also a promise provided by our Lord Jesus. When we think about the peaceful life of Saint Paul in the last two years of his life in prison, we can also recall the pain and hardships of Saint Paul in the earlier years in prison. As Saint Paul writes in the letter to the Romans 8:35-37, – When we undergo the promised persecutions, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Actually when we undergo persecution we need to be joyful for we are more than a conqueror on earth. We will be rewarded by God. He will do the justice for our sake. Was there any saint in the huge list of saints who did not undergo any kind of persecutions? Aren’t our tears stored in a bottle a reminder in Heaven for the pains we have undergone for Him? Tips for implementing the Takeaways: 1. Vanity of vanities: In the first reading King Solomon exalts wisdom more than wealth, fame, thrones, priceless gems, beauty and even health. All good things come along with wisdom. In the final stages of his life, King Solomon said, “Vanity of vanities; All is vanity other than loving God and serving Him alone”. King Solomon, with his wisdom, had the best of every luxury in his life. Kings and queens gave presents to King Solomon just to hear his words of wisdom. Queen Sheba was astonished at the grandeur of his palace, his staircase leading to the Holy place, the uniforms of his servants, his gardens, his dining table and so on and on. With the blessing of wisdom from God, he had made everything beautiful for himself. But finally, nothing gave him satisfaction. He felt only a big emptiness in his heart. If we live to satisfy ourselves then it is like travelling a long road and when we reach the destination, we realise that we have chosen the wrong destination. Let us choose the correct destination now and march towards it. 2. One of the religious said, “I have left everything for our Lord Jesus. But why are people talking bad about me?” Today’s Gospel reveals that this kind of persecution is also a promise. Little Thérèse of the Child Jesus also underwent similar experiences. Our Lord Jesus also experienced it. People said about our Lord Jesus, that He was chasing away devils with the help of the leader of devils. Our Lord even recalled this with a painful heart to His disciples when He was preparing them - before their first preaching ministry. So our Lord is telling us in advance, that you will be facing similar persecutions in your ministry. Then how can we expect people to talk good about us? Aren’t we the followers of our Lord Jesus? 3. Mathew 24:35, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” God’s words are ever living. They always have life in them. We have seen Jesus quoting the scriptures when dealing with the devil’s temptations. When the devil tempts us, we too can follow the same methodology – by quoting the promises of God from the Bible. When the devil tempts us with a feeling of self-pity, we can win over by confessing, – “Jesus showed that God is my Father. Jesus gave His own mother as my mother. He is my elder brother. God has allocated a guardian angel to take care of me. I am part of God’s family.” When the devil tempts us with feelings of discouragement – we can boldly confess, “I can do all these things through Christ who strengthens me”. Jesus did not feel self-pity or depressed when He was tempted. He understood that God would take care of Him and boldly quoted the word of God. Likewise we can also combat the devil’s temptation with the word of God. 4. We should long for wisdom more than health and wealth. 5. One of the prisoners confessed "My father raped by my sister. So I killed my father." Prisoners are not created by God, they are created by us. Wisdom is scarce in today's society. Our Governments should focus on imparting wisdom through our education system. Let us focus on imparting wisdom to your future church!!
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