This conundrum has often puzzled me. The general Gospel story is that Jesus and the apostles went by boat to a deserted spot on the shores of Lake Galilee, and a huge crowd travelling on foot got there before them.

It doesn’t make sense to me for two reasons,
firstly, going by foot has to be slower than going by boat
secondly, there’s this sense of surprise about Jesus seeing this big crowd, and surely a crowd that big would have been visible from the boat a long way off from the shore.

The Gospel for this coming Sunday, the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A, is one such account, this time from Matthew 14:13-21.

It is a more condensed account than some of the other accounts, and one thing struck me immediately. In this account of St Matthew, there is no preaching and teaching from Jesus. Something weird is going on.

As I plodded through the Greek to English trans-literation (thank you biblehub.com) I found a second weird thing, Matt 14:14 doesn’t actually say Jesus stepped ashore, it uses ‘exelthon’ a Greek verb that is usually translated as ‘to go out’ ‘to come out’ and in other New Testament places the same verb gets translated as ‘came out’, ‘came forth’, ‘went out’, ‘went forth’. Using ‘stepped ashore’ really isn’t a very good translation.

Later on in that same verse, it says that Jesus healed their sick. No one travelling with a sick person can go at speed. You have to go at their pace if they are limping or injured. You need more rest stops if they are in pain, and often more toilet stops and clean-up stops as well. Which also begs the question, why take your sick on such an arduous journey of many hours?

So it is time to have a look at what has been happening in this Gospel prior to Matt 14:13. We do know that the catalyst for this journey undertaken by Jesus and the Apostles was the news of St John the Baptist’s death.

After all the parables in Matt 13, Jesus had left the district and paid a visit to Nazareth, and in the first part of Matt 14 we have an account of the death of St John the Baptist. Therefore the lakeside towns had not seen Jesus for a little while.

What we do know is that the disciples of St John the Baptist got the news to Jesus, and by extension to those disciples of Jesus who had previously been disciples of John. Jesus and John were blood relatives, cousins, and several of the apostles would have looked upon John as a spiritual father. Due to these close connections, it is likely that this news got to Jesus before it got to the rest of the district, possibly by some of John’s disciples travelling in haste.

This put Jesus and those apostles into an official period of mourning, which is a week in length and known as shiva. During this time of shiva mourners are not expected to do much more than exist, but they do expect condolence visits from friends and relatives, and the visitors are expected to bring the food.

The news must have hit the apostolic company hard, and it seems like Jesus wasted no time in getting them off to a lonely spot where they could have some privacy to work through the initial waves of grief. They pack their travelling gear and they pack provisions and off they go. It seems reasonable that they park Peter’s boat and then head deep into the hills to sit shiva together.

Meanwhile, back in the lakeside towns of Galilee, the news of the death of St John the Baptist breaks. In their lifetime, a true prophet has been killed, one whom many of them had met, and all of them had heard of. It is shocking. In their bereft-ness, they want to try and make sense of this with Jesus. He’s not at home. Neither are the apostles, nor their travel gear. Peter’s boat isn’t moored in its usual place, but everyone knows what Peter’s boat looks like. It isn’t long before sailors and fishermen bring in the news of where Peter’s boat is now. The crowds aren’t stupid, they can put 2 and 2 together, and deduce that they are sitting shiva privately. But at some point shiva will end, and Jesus and the apostles will return to the boat, however there’s no guarantee that they are going to go back home.

But they will return to the boat, and the crowds can make educated guesses about when shiva will end. They could get themselves and their sick ones to that lonely place by then. And they need the reassurance that God is still in control. So travel plans are made, and off on foot they go. Plenty of them may have even camped out waiting for Jesus to reappear. Just like people get to places early to watch New Year’s Eve fireworks or Boxing Day sales. Some wish to offer condolence, some want their sick ones healed, some want reassurance.

Chances are that it took a little bit longer than expected for Jesus and the apostles to re-emerge. Likely too that the foot-travellers’ provisions were close to empty. We know that the apostles’ provisions were empty, because if they filled twelve baskets full of scraps, it stands to reason they were empty to begin with. It is another reason that the shiva concept makes sense. If they had just arrived, those baskets would have been full, not empty but for 5 loaves and 2 fish. The actual word used for these baskets is ‘kophinous’, the kind of baskets to carry kosher food that travellers used.

In this scenario, the timing makes sense, the size of the crowd makes sense, the coming forth of Jesus from seclusion makes sense, the absence of teaching and preaching makes sense, and the filling of the baskets makes sense.

This was a ministry time of presence to the people, listening to their fears, their grief and anxiety, and healing those sick ones who had made the difficult journey.

But there’s no food!

And food is definitely a part of shiva! Visitors are encouraged to bring food that is crowd pleasing and which can easily be served and shared, and to avoid food that requires work on the part of the mourners.

The 7 days of shiva might be closing for Jesus and the apostles, but it is likely that it is still within shiva for the crowd – assuming that Jesus got the news of St John the Baptist’s death at least half a day, and maybe up to 2 days before the crowd did.

God provides the food, through the miracle. Bread that is easy to serve and easy to share. What a thought! That through this miracle God the Father is sitting shiva together with His people over the death of St John the Baptist, and thereby consoling them in an extraordinary way. What a memorable wake for the prophet who heralded Jesus!

If you are in grief right now, let that truth sink in. Jesus knew how to mourn, and he fully entered into the process, it is OK to grieve, and He mourns with you, and He will provide for you.

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P.S. Remember. This is according to St Matthew’s account. The accounts in the other Gospels have different contexts and different purposes.

Why do You talk to them in parables?

This is a question the disciples put to Jesus in the 13th Chapter of St Matthew’s Gospel. Many of us still ask that question.

Part of the answer is that human beings were made to love puzzles. We find in ancient cultures deep appreciation for the riddle, and in biblical cultures appreciation for teaching through use of mashal or allegory. Consider the modern equivalent, the meme, which we all like trying to decode, even if we don’t always succeed at it.

A good parable is something that you chew over, and look at from different angles, with a group of friends or relatives, sharing insights and arguing over meaning and interpretation. They are, in essence, discussion starters.

But St Matthew’s Gospel provides us with a reasonable answer to why Jesus used parables, and why after a period of public ministry without parables He started using them almost exclusively.

The beginning of Chapter 13 says, ‘that same day, Jesus left the house and sat by the lakeside, but such large crowds gathered round Him that He got into a boat and sat there. The people all stood on the shore, and He told them many things in parables’.

So what happened earlier that day?

Chapter 12 has Jesus curing a blind and dumb demoniac and then He gets accused of being Beelzebul, and then the scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign (none of the previous healings and miracles are enough for them, they want to set the conditions for a sign they will accept, God has to dance to their tune first before they will consider dancing to His), and then family members demand words with Him, so it hasn’t exactly been a good day for Jesus. For all His efforts up to this point don’t seem to be bearing the fruits of repentance He has been looking for, otherwise He would not in Chapter 11 have called down reproaches upon the Galilean towns where most of His miracles had been worked.

In order for any of us to get closer to God in our lives, something has to change. If we do the same things, how can we expect different outcomes? Yet frequently our response is, ‘I don’t want to change’, ‘I don’t need to change’, ‘there’s nothing in my life that needs changing’, ‘I am quite content as I am thanks, quit trying to upset my equilibrium’, ‘the person sitting over there needs more change than I do’. And this seems to be exactly what Jesus was facing, crowds of people happy to see miracles happen, and happy to listen to good teaching, and happy to continue doing so, (Jesus had very high entertainment value), but very few allowing that teaching to transform the way they were living.

So we see Jesus in that post lunch / siesta time go and sit by the lakeside, letting prayer and natural beauty do their work in freeing Him from the frustrations of the morning. It is a time of pause. It is a time of re-set. It is time to try a different approach to the hearts of His listeners.

The easy to understand stuff, the sermon on the mount, the miracles and healings, haven’t born the expected levels of fruit. Something different is needed, something that engages hearts and minds more, something that requires some personal effort.

As Jesus sits on the lakeside, gradually the crowd gathers behind Him, and an expectancy grows. This time when Jesus preaches, it is different. This time He begins to use parables.

The first parable, the sower and the seed, is very instructive.

What is the purpose of sowing seed? To get a good harvest. And where is that good harvest?

It isn’t in those who aren’t paying attention (seed on the path).

It isn’t in those who get excited about what Jesus is saying, and then do nothing much about it (seed on rocky ground with little depth) or fall away very quickly.

It isn’t in those who make a start, and good progress, and then give up halfway through the process (seed among thorns).

It is in those who go through the whole process of transformation, in those who wrestle with the words of Jesus until they come to understanding, and then let that understanding change the way they live.

And how do you get to that sort of harvest? By using parables.

Because those who aren’t interested won’t bother.
 
Because those who want quick and easy answers will give up without much of a struggle.

Because those who will give it a go, and attempt to come to understanding, but who fail to reach full understanding because the cost of change is beyond them, will sooner or later give up.

Because those who patiently work at understanding, and who persevere at it, until the understanding fully comes and who then change their lives accordingly, they are the kind of disciples you really want. And using parables is an efficient way of finding them. These are the ones who make mature commitment to discipleship, and the process takes time, it isn’t quick.

Parables are how you find disciples from among the crowds.

There are at least two implications for us:

Firstly, that if the word of God is not challenging us nor changing us, then we haven’t understood it properly. Jesus really wants to see fruits of repentance in us. Why? Because change is the gateway to the kingdom of God and our greatest happiness. ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand’ is what both Jesus and John the Baptist preached.

Secondly, if you issue a call to action, the ones you want aren’t in the first wave of responders, nor in the second wave of responders, the ones you really want are in the third wave of responders, on them alone can you build something that will last.

Knowing how to sift true from false prophecy is something that everyone needs. It may be easier to understand if some case studies are used.

This need came to my attention through a friend who had been sent an unsolicited prophetic word by an email. The friend had no idea where the prophet had obtained the email address from. However, it was a lengthy piece, and it spoke into all the hopes and frustrations this friend was experiencing, ie it was exactly what the friend wanted to be true.

Thankfully the friend had the courage to share it with me.

The very first thing after reading the prophetic word and ascertaining that it contained nothing specifically pertaining to the life of this friend, ie there was nothing in it that couldn’t easily be applied to the life of just about anyone else (warning flag 1) was to search the internet for what could be learned about the prophet.

The website had a pleasant feel, and a link to what must be a very inspiring conversion story, and some very basic Christian teaching without any perceived denominational biases. But it did contain a few things that gave me significant pause; a few very general prophetic words that were undated, no contact information or details, and no affiliation with any faith community.

It is so unusual for a prophetic word to be undated (warning flag 2). No address, no social media links, no email address, no contact form where you would expect it to be (ie an easily visible Contact page), but given bit by bit under a ‘please support this ministry’ sub-page that begins by asking for donations (warning flag 3). There is no indication on the website that the prophet is part of a faith community, in leadership of a faith community, or anything other than a lone ranger. Ideally a prophet should have a regular small group to which he/she is personally accountable, and should also be under some form of leadership to whom he/she is also accountable. Otherwise there are none of the normal and natural checks and balances that come from community life where people are invested in you enough to ask the odd quiet question if you are looking like going off the rails, or when your walk doesn’t match your talk. (major warning flag 4).

If something is exactly what you want to hear, (eg in order for the destiny God has for you to unfold, don’t let anyone box you in to their mindsets) and it doesn’t contain any invitation to transformation that leads to a deeper relationship with God, that should put up a warning flag too. It is a hallmark of the Gospel accounts that Jesus always invited people to the next level of relationship with Him, requiring either a change of heart or a change of life.

There were enough warning flags to safely dismiss and delete that email.

Around the internet at present there is a set of major ‘doom and gloom’ prophecies going around. The prophet is not a regular prophet, but is in leadership with a Christian community, and has had some vivid dreams that were felt to be prophetic for a national and global scale.

Can God call anybody to deliver a message? Yes, He can, for example the prophet Amos. However, it is more usual for an important wake-up call kind of message to be given to someone who is mature in the prophetic gifting and widely recognised as such, with a reasonable track record for accuracy.

There is also a difference between a Jonah-like warning message that invites to repentance and a Daniel-like message declaring that God’s judgement on bad behaviour is going to manifest in specific ways. Neither are certain; the former can be mitigated or even avoided by repentance (Ninevah); the latter can be mitigated by intercession (2 Sam 24). But even the most dire of messages warning of austere times to come contain an inkling of hope, that after punishment and exile that there would be restoration and return (Jeremiah).

However if the prophet reveals that his/her consumption of news media is greater than his/her consumption of God’s word in scripture, then extra caution is required.

Many years back this lesson was given to me. It happened like this. The community I was a member of at that time was receiving lots of apocalyptic sounding prophecy. It somehow happened that I was able to have a chat to one of the most accredited prophets in that community about all this apocalyptic stuff. His response was that many in the community had been reading the same spiritual/devotional literature that contained that kind of language. The ideas you consume eventually come out again, and often get processed in dreams and can be expressed in prophecy. And that was what had been happening in that community situation. You can see it too in less mature prophets who drink in what a lot of other prophets are releasing online. Sometime down the track, all of that prophetic soup will emerge in a very generic prophecy (and very sincerely given) that is a reasonable summary of the main flavours of the soup.

Such known human weaknesses do make it less clear to discern whether God is telling everyone the same message (in which case, Pay Attention!!!), or whether everyone has collectively gone off on a non-God inspired tangent. For this reason, keep aware of times of the liturgical year that various messages arise.

Sometimes they are collective wishful thinking born of deep desire to see God act in powerful ways, as what often happens as Easter, Pentecost and Christmas draw near or something related to the Jewish liturgical calendar. You see this big crescendo of expectation, and then as the special date passes, there is a lull until someone comes out with a statement that the date was still very important, and we will find out why in due time things didn’t manifest in the natural and there’s even bigger and better things coming in a month or 3 months’ time. Yes, it is easy to become cynical, but we do have to fight against that lest we dismiss a true message from God. That’s why growing in discernment is so important and so necessary.

Discernment can take time. And it is easy for us to get it wrong.

Just recently I have had to sadly acknowledge that someone I had on my short list of trusted online prophets was no longer worthy of being on that list. When the messages are exactly what you want to hear, and those messages get picked up and promoted by others and there are online followers in the order of tens of thousands, then of course you are biased towards the messages being true prophecy. But slowly some question marks began to arise. The first question marks happened when some of my cautionary comments that had logical merit were rejected out of hand. The second question marks began when there were more lists of how to do this or how to respond to that, which were all just human thoughts. The third set of question marks began when ‘sign up for my online course’ appeared at the end of prophetic messages, and it was an almost seamless segue. The final question marks were due to the disclosure by way of sharing personal background that this was, despite friendships and recognition from other prophets in good standing, very much a lone ranger ministry although it was couched in pioneer terminology. So I went back and took a more detailed look at the associated website, and the lack of accountable relationships became apparent.

It is like this, as far as possible there should be no conflict of interest between the ministry of a prophet and the way a prophet earns a living. The whole ‘God showed me how to deal with issue X in a whole new and effective way, but you need to pay $$ before I will share it with you’ thing flies in the face of ‘you received without charge, give without charge’ Matt 10:8. At the same time, a labourer is worthy of his hire, so there is no objection to a Donate/Give page. But when the prophet’s main source of income is online mentoring courses or similar, how can the prayers and natural desires for a good sign-up rate not transmute consciously or unconsciously into the prophetic messages, particularly when those messages are squarely aimed at hidden and forgotten ones who have a big destiny in God’s plan? Isn’t this what we all long to hear when we feel that life has passed us by, thus making us very vulnerable and susceptible to exploitation?

Then again, some things are presented as prophecy, when in fact all they are is teaching or preaching on some topic of the life of faith. Weigh it for what it is, not what it purports to be.

In this age of prophets with some celebrity status, it is well to remember that popularity is not a guarantee of accuracy. In the time of Jeremiah there were plenty of prophets announcing times of prosperity ahead, and only Jeremiah repeating God’s warning that the punishment of exile for their sins was coming. Of course the people of that time wanted to listen to the other prophets who spoke what they wanted to hear, and of course they wanted to shut Jeremiah up by any means necessary.

There will be times of restoration and refreshing, just as there will be times of trial and testing, therefore the maxim, ‘test everything, and hold onto what is good’ has to be our guide, as well as frequent prayers for guidance and discernment.

Why is the accountability thing so important? Because a true prophet is going to have enough humility to mistrust his/her own judgement, and be open to correction and submission/obedience to leadership. Even the best of prophets don’t get it 100% right every time (1 Cor 13:9). Obedience to lawful human authority despite what the prophet believes God has told him/her is the ultimate test of legitimacy. If it is of God it will come to pass, despite setbacks, delays and misunderstandings. Any prophet who thinks that everything they receive is always 100% from God is deluding themselves, and a big danger to themselves and others. Do you know what the worst punishment is from God? To be let drift into error. Because unless someone intercedes for you, there’s no way out. (read St John of Avila’s ‘Listen Daughter’ a.k.a. ‘Audi Filia’ for the best ever explanation of this.) Even Moses had his father-in-law Jethro as someone willing to speak truth into his life.

Now should a prophet make a grand prediction, and it doesn’t come to pass, eg a major share market crash during the visit of a specified world leader, then said prophet is automatically and completely discredited.

Particularly when it comes to dreams and visions, it can be crucial to separate the raw material of the prophecy from the interpretation of the prophecy. Quite often the raw material is correct, but the interpretation is incorrect or immature (ie the prophet has only grasped the first layer of the interpretation and not yet the underlying layers of interpretation.) In essence they are similar to parables. With time and diligent prayer, usually the full meaning comes to light.

Sometimes a prophecy (particularly to a community) is an invitation to go deeper, and the ‘more’ that God intended doesn’t happen because the response to the prophecy was mismanaged. For example, someone in that community who has been growing in the prophetic gifting shares that God has shown a vision of angels, surrounding the prayer meeting, who are waiting to be sent on assignment. Responding with a call to those at the prayer meeting to present their petitions to God is level 1. If you took that word seriously you would them get the prophet back and ask if there were any angels left, and if so, how many? (level 2) and if the answer wasn’t zero, you should then either get the people to petition some more, or better yet, ask the community to pray for wisdom in order to petition according to God’s desires (level 3) and delegate a leader to question the prophet about any details not disclosed in the initial message (ask if the angels were all the same size?, were they perhaps in groups?, was there anything to distinguish the groups eg colour, what they were holding?) which might give clues to the How to pray. If there is any sense that this might be a more significant word than first ascertained, then and there, or soon afterwards, get the prophet to have a go at drawing what they saw in as much detail as possible, and then share both the verbal and drawn parts with leadership and other prophets to pray over, discuss and ask further questions. After all, if it was God’s intention to lead the group into prolonged and specific intercession for local political leaders and business leaders, or for the bringing down of some stronghold that was preventing the conversion of the region, and everyone prayed for those they knew in personal, financial or family stress, then that was a comparatively poor outcome.

Some prophecies don’t find fulfilment for a year or several years, some don’t find fulfilment in our lifetimes. Because of this, some interpretations take a while to become clear. For example, St Catherine Laboure was convinced that much needed funds would appear if an area was dug down to a certain level. Everyone else thought she was crazy to keep insisting upon it. Yet in the years ahead, that area was the place where her body was buried, and not too long after a very sizable donation was anonymously placed on her tomb.

Care should be exercised when reading prophecies from years past and seeing in them relevance for today. That can indeed happen. However it is also possible that the mindset with which you read it today prejudices you into believing that it is solely about the current times. For example the pandemic situation the world has recently found itself in has seen a lot of re-evaluation of past prophecies. Many of them read like they were written for us today, and some of the phrases that were glossed over back then, now seem to carry increased meaning (eg A great shaking happening among the nations, and peoples locked down by a spirit of fear). ‘Lockdown’ carries a whole new level of meaning now that it didn’t pre-Covid19, as does ‘lawlessness’ in the wake of the George Floyd riots. Yet there is no guarantee that this is the only era it was meant for, or even if it was the primary era it was meant for.

We do know that God never takes back or revokes His gifts, and that He always invites us to grow. The intended life cycle of a prophet is that as they grow in experience, they also grow in holiness, and weightier and more important prophetic words can be given through them. However this doesn’t always happen; what started out relatively pure can become increasingly sullied with human frailty and error; or what started out pure can go through a wilderness period away from the moral life and then re-emerge stronger than ever after a sincere conversion. Sometimes there will be only a single season of profound revelation, and then no more, if that is God’s plan for them. St Bernadette is an example of this; and saw herself as a broom that was used by God for a while, and then put away. Always the revelation is firstly for the prophet, and then for others. If the prophet is growing in response to the revelation, and growing in holiness and in moral character, it is an indication that what they are receiving is God inspired.

If God is trying to get a message across, He will use more than one messenger, and probably from diverse sources. Therefore, if a message is of a personal nature, it will confirm something He has already called you to do, or in time to come it will be confirmed via other sources. So never change your life on the strength of a single unconfirmed word. Write it down, store it somewhere, refer back to it every 3-6 months, it may make more sense then. If it doesn’t, and there haven’t been any confirmations of it, you can safely forget all about it.

These are only general guidelines born of experience for sifting out the questionable. For every general guideline there are exceptions, because God is not limited and He sometimes chooses to use the unusual or discredited to get our attention and loosen our pre-conceived ideas.

Here are some scriptural reminders that the gift of prophecy is a good gift from God, and needed, and worth the effort of time in discernment and interpretation:

1 Thess 5:19-21 Never try to suppress the Spirit or treat the gift of prophecy with contempt: think before you do anything – hold on to what is good.

2 Peter 1:19b-20 You will be right to depend on prophecy and take it as a lamp for lighting a way through the dark until the dawn comes and the morning star rises in your minds. At the same time, we must be most careful to remember that the interpretation of scriptural prophecy is never a matter for the individual.

I Cor 14:3 The man who prophesies does talk to other people, to their improvement, their encouragement and their consolation.

1 Cor 14:32 Prophets can always control their prophetic spirits, since God is not a God of disorder but of peace.
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For more detailed guidance on prophecy, interpretation and discernment, please read the attached document, particularly pages 11-16 and pages 18-20.

Recently (July 9) the liturgical calendar had an optional memorial celebration for St Augustine Zhao Rong and companions, martyrs. Since the name didn’t ring any bells for me, I thought I should find out a bit more.

Other ‘and companions’ memorials have grown in our collective consciousness over the years. For some reason, it seems to take time for us to start celebrating them with gusto. To now not celebrate St Charles Llwanga and companions, St Paul Miki and companions, St Andrew Kim Taegon and companions, St Andrew Dun Lac and companions would be unthinkable. St Lawrence Ruiz and companions and St Christopher Magallanes and companions are still finding their place in our hearts, but have made recognizable in-roads.

St Augustine Zhao Rong and companions were canonized on 1 Oct 2000 by St John Paul II. Most of our missals and lives of the saints books were published prior to that date, which means that there is little printed information around, and all that we have are internet stories that don’t reference primary source documents.

Unlike some of the other ‘and companions’ lists, the 119 who died as martyrs in China didn’t die on the same day, nor during the same persecution. However they are representative of many more who died as martyrs in China between 1648 and 1930.

This comes from the Roman Martyrology
“In China, in Sichuan province, remembrance of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, priest and martyr, who, infuriating the persecution, because of his faith in Christ was thrown into prison, where he found a glorious death during winter.”

We can take that as fact.

It doesn’t help that there are several dates of remembrance for St Augustine Zhao Rong (27 January, 21 March, 9 July, 28 September) nor that he is also known as St Augustine Tchao, St Augustin Rong Zhao and St Augustinus Zhao.

He heads the list of martyr companions because he is the first native Chinese priest with a provable record of martyrdom.

There are two stories circulating about the internet concerning St Augustine Zhao Rong. One of them just doesn’t add up, or doesn’t add up yet, and the other is more plausible.

The first one goes something like this:
Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who accompanied Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse of the Paris Foreign Mission Society to his martyrdom in Beijing. Not long after his baptism, Augustine was ordained as a diocesan priest. He was martyred in 1815.

St Augustine Zhao Rong was martyred very early in 1815, the actual date is unknown, only that it was in the coldest part of the year before spring began.

St John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse was martyred 14 September 1815 in Sichuan province. This province is in south western China, but closer to the middle of China than to the Chinese border. Sichuan is a long way from Beijing.

The bishop had been arrested (prior to becoming a bishop in 1798) way back in 1784/85, and imprisoned for six months, and sent to Beijing. But this is well after 1781, the year when St Augustine Zhao Rong was ordained.

So the story doesn’t add up, unless Fr Dufresse had another, earlier imprisonment that hasn’t yet made it into the history books.

In all likelihood there is another of the 119 companions for whom this account is true, and it just got copied/translated down in the wrong place under the wrong name.

The second story is far more plausible, and it goes like this:
St Augustine Zhao Rong was born in 1746 in Wuchuan, China, into a pagan family. When he was 20 years old, he got a job serving in a country prison. When a religious persecution began in 1772, many Christians were arrested and Zhao Rong was appointed to guard them. Among the Catholic prisoners was their missionary, Martinus Moye, (or Mei), who preached the gospel to all his fellow prisoners. Many were converted. Zhao Rong also listened and was intrigued.

Later Mei was released from prison and Zhao Rong left to visit him and continue their discussions of Christianity. In 1776 he received his baptism and confirmation on August 28 and the name Augustine. He continued to grow in faith and became a good helper to both Mei and Matthew Lou. Mei noticed his firm belief and decided to teach him Latin, and he also explained the Bible to him. In 1779, there was a famine and plague in Sichuan. Augustine was sent there to help, and he baptized many dying infants.

Having completed the necessary theological studies, he was ordained a priest on 10 May 1781.

He distinguished himself as a preacher, since his words moved tears to listeners with the story of the passion of Jesus. It is said that when he visited a Christian community he spent three days with them, emphasizing the basics of the faith, viz the 10 commandments, the 7 cardinal sins, the sacrament of penance, the holy Eucharist and the sufferings of Jesus and sharing the scriptures with them. Father Augustine was sent to the western part of Sichuan, to assist in the conversion of the native peoples of that mountainous region.

Augustine would have had a working relationship with Bishop Dufresse, since he was the bishop of Sichuan province from around 1800 until his 1815 martyrdom, which is why Augustine formed part of the 12 companions beatified by Pope Leo XIII with Bishop Dufresse in 1900.

When the fresh persecution broke out, Augustine was arrested and had to endure terrible torture. He was returned to prison, but by then he was in his late 60s and already ill, he died in prison. By the time the death sentence issued by the mandarin was confirmed by the emperor, Augustine was already dead.


Hopefully in the years to come, the primary documents relating to the life and martyrdom of St Augustine Zhao Rong will come to light, and be correctly translated. In the meantime, this feast day of his and the other martyrs of China is an encouragement to us and a reminder to pray for the peoples of China and to give thanks for all those who have sacrificed their lives spreading the Gospel to them.
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St Augustine Zhao Rong and companions, pray for us.

Felix Anthony Seady 19 Jan 1918 – 14 Jun 2020

Many locals would remember Felix Seady. He went to his eternal reward on 14 June 2020 at the age of 102 years, 4 months and 26 days. Up until his 100th birthday he was in extraordinary health, but dementia was beginning to kick in, so soon afterwards they moved into aged care to be closer to family. His funeral took place at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Randwick, and it is likely that he was buried at Botany.
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In this blog post I want to bring together as much information about Felix as possible, because not everything stays online for ever. To that end I will include copies of online records below to assist in preserving them. 

Felix was born in South Africa during the final year of WW1, and when WW2 arrived he enlisted and served as a Sapper Sergeant. This involved handling explosives. He spent time in a German Stalag as a prisoner of war. In 1945 when the prisoners were to be marched to a new location, together with another p.o.w., an escape plan was hatched. It was daring, but it worked.

(He wrote about this amazing experience for a local newspaper, see below for the text and for the link)

The following year he married Sadah, and they had almost 74 years together with a wedding anniversary in August 1946. After the war Felix studied and attained an Engineering Certificate and a Technical Teachers Certificate. Sometime between 1946 and 1963 they came to Australia. In 1968 they became Australian citizens. According to the electoral roll, Felix worked as a teacher, and they moved around a fair bit, from Fairy Meadow (1963, 1968) to Carlingford (1977) and Normanhurst (1977) before retiring on the Central Coast.
​
They had children. There is a Mark Seady with the same residential address who took citizenship with them in 1968 (probable son) and a Jennifer Ann Seady with the same residential address on one of the 1977 electoral rolls (probable daughter). 

Here they are, on their way into vigil Mass on 26 Apr 2015, still dressed up after some Anzac Day related activities.

In retirement they began a long association with the local bowling club, resulting in Felix becoming a life member, and he was also active in veteran's activities becoming a life patron of Zone 5 RSL.
​
Every year, without fail, even if it meant getting a taxi, Felix would go to Mass on his birthday in thanksgiving to God for the gift of life. Every Saturday vigil, he and Sadah were at church greeting everyone like long lost and much loved relatives. Their love and joy was so infectious that just being near them felt like being at a good party. They danced through life far more than they walked through it. Cheerfulness and gratitude were hallmarks of their lives. In deference to age and fragilty, they would discreetly slip out of Mass after Communion, so that they wouldn't get caught in the post-Mass crush through the exit door.

Here they are at morning Mass on Felix's 100th birthday, 19 Jan 2018.

They were human, too. Often they would go to a local club for a meal, and order two meals. One for them to share there and then, and the other to take home. But there would normally be some gentle bickering about which meal they would share first. In conversation, sometimes Felix would say something and Sadah would roll her eyes, and vice versa.

As a parish and as a family we were privileged to have known them both, and to experience the grace of the sacrament of marriage flowing out through them to everyone they came in contact with.

Our hearts go out to Sadah in her grief, and we ask that God may grant Felix the depths of His mercy. Amen.

........................................................................................

http://www.centralcoastnews.net/2018/02/12/bowling-club-celebrates-members-100th-birthday/
POSTED BY: CENTRAL COAST NEWSPAPERS FEBRUARY 12, 2018
More than 60 people gathered at the Woy Woy Bowling Club on Sunday, February 4, for a lunch to celebrate the 100th birthday of long-term club member, Mr Felix Seady.
Mr Seady and his wife, Sada, had a great day with his many friends and family members.
The event started with a rousing rendition of the South African national anthem, followed by speeches from good friends Mr Mick Dunks, Mr John Orme and Mr Jim Cassidy.
It was announced that Mr Seady had been made a life member of the Woy Woy Men’s Bowling Club and he was presented with a plaque to mark the occasion.
He was also presented with a copy of a newspaper published on his birthday back in 1918.
Felix and Sada arrived at the club by trike, courtesy of club member Scott Bollom.
SOURCE:
Media release, 6 Feb 2018
Ken Dixon, Woy Woy Men’s Bowling Club

https://www.facebook.com/10NewsFirstSyd/posts/felix-and-sadah-seady-are-about-to-celebrate-their-73rd-wedding-anniversarybig-t/10157132542825259/
16 August 2019
Felix and Sadah Seady are about to celebrate their 73rd wedding anniversary.
“Big time!” laughs Felix, who is 101-years-young, and almost always holding his 96 -year -old wife’s hand. And their secret to a long and very happy life together may astound you. It’s not all wedded bliss – and that’s the key.
(There was a Channel 10 News Item on them, only accessible via Facebook, Ali Donaldson reporter)
 
https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/central-coast/news/2018/01/bowling-club-celebrate-100-year-old-ex-serviceman/
Bowling club to celebrate 100-year-old ex-serviceman
JANUARY 18, 2018
Woy Woy Bowling Club is holding a special celebration in honour of local man, Mr Felix Seady, from 12pm on Sunday, February 4.
Mr Seady has been a member of the club for over 20 years and has just recently celebrated his 100th birthday.
Mr Seady is a World War II veteran who escaped a German prisoner-of-war camp.
Following his escape, he was able to pass along vital intelligence to the British Forces which saw him receive a special mention from King George VI.
Member for Robertson Ms Lucy Wicks is seeking a special congratulation for Mr Seady from the Queen.
Mr Seady has reflected on his long life in a letter to the Peninsula News.
“I was born in a small town, Uitenhage, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, just inland near Port Elizabeth on the January 19, 1918.
“When the Second World War was declared I joined a unit of the South African Engineers named the 2nd Field Company.
“We were trained in the use of explosives, particularly land mines, used to destroy tanks and heavy vehicles.
“We were shipped to Egypt and became involved in desert warfare immediately.
“On my birthday in 1942, I had a narrow escape from being blown up by a German Springer Mine.
“This mine is buried deeper. It fires a charge into the base of the mine which blasts it out of the ground like a missile that explodes above the ground, killing everyone nearby,” Mr Seady recalled.
“In my case, the secondary fuse failed. My guardian angel must have been sitting on it.
“One of our major operations was the capture of a fortress town called Bardia, on the coast near Tibruk.
“It was very similar to the famous Tobruk with minefields and barbed wire etc.
“I was in command of one team of 12 sappers.
“My title was Sapper Sergeant,” he continued.
“We went in before dawn under a barrage of artillery, occasionally a shell would land short. It was hair raising.
“We destroyed the mines with an explosive mat and cleared the barbed wire with four explosive torpedos.
“We made these ourselves, using a four-inch water pipe stuffed with TNT explosive, four meters long.
“They were called Bangalore Torpedos.
“They were pushed through the barbed wire, about two metres apart and detonated.
“The barbed wire was actually disintegrated.
“Our tanks and trucks poured through the gaps and within two days the enemy surrendered.
“I was honoured by the British King for my participation in this action and awarded a Mention in Dispatches.
“We were in a defence line at Gazala, just west of Tobruk, when Rommel attacked us by going deep into the desert.
“I was left behind with six Sappers to destroy the pass at the top of the defence line.
“Unfortunately, once we had done that, the Rommel tanks had cut off our escape route and we were the only prisoners-of-war of our company, housed at Stalag IV in Germany, just south of Hamburg.
“We were privileged to witness the 1000 bomber raids over Germany.
“The American Airforce by day and the RAF by night.
“It was difficult to realise that 1000 bombers occupied the sky from horizon to horizon and it went on without stop for 24 hours.
“Of course, the daylight bombers were spectacular with their vapour trails.
“These bombers certainly caused the German Army to put an end to the conflict,” Mr Seady said.
Mr Seady also reflected on his time imprisoned at Scheissen Block.
“Our toilet at Stalag IV consisted of a concrete tank about 20 metres by 10 metres by four metres high.
“The top was covered with wood with rows of rectangular holes for us to use.
“No roof nor walls.
“The contents of this concrete tank were pumped by hand into a tank on wheels drawn by a cow.
“The odorous and messy operation was done by a squad of five Russian POW’s.
“The contents were sprayed outside the Stalag on a vegetable farm
“The vegetables seemed to thrive on the organic fertilizer.
“Our food was a soup and the vegetables were from the farm.
“Very tasty,” he joked.
“Early in 1945, we heard that we were going to be moved northwards to the Baltic Coast.
“What’s more, there would be no transport. We would be walking.
“That was the final straw.
“Another South African POW was a good friend said to me, that we must escape on the march and I agreed.
“It would be dangerous because we would be shot if we failed.
“Then God stepped in with a better plan.
“The Stalag consisted of three compounds each housing a few thousand POW’s.
“We were to be evacuated one compound a day.
“We were in number three compound and would be the last.
“We watched the evacuation of compounds one and two.
“After these were completed, the dogs were brought in during the evening into compounds one and two and checked for escapees, then again checked the next morning,” Mr Seady said.
“When night fell, we dug a small trench under the single fence between compounds two and three.
“We slid through easily, being sleek and thin.
“We filled in the evacuation and smoothed over the earth.
“We then dug a small trench under a selected bungalow; the bungalows were two feet above the ground to prevent tunnelling.
“Then our secret weapon, anti-lice powder.
“The Germans gave us this vile smelling powder to kill body lice, which was bearable.
“Most POWS never used the powder, they preferred the lice so there was plenty of lice powder available.
“We sprinkled copious amounts of lice powder under the bungalow.
“When they brought the dogs in, the dogs would not go under into the lice powder as we lay in our shallow trench in the middle under the bungalow.
“The same happened the next morning with the dogs.
“We laid the powder under the bungalow until that night.
“Then we set out westwards toward the invasion forces.
“We were lucky to come across a storehouse with some food and we never moved in the day until we noticed some British tanks on the road.
“We called to them in English and they responded.
“We came out of hiding, with our hands in the air.
“They made such a fuss of us and radioed for a transport.
“We told them there were no German armoured vehicles in the area and we were then transported in a jeep to a nearby airport, and then flown to England.
“After a few weeks we were flown to South Africa in an old Dakota.
“It took five days, then home,” Mr Seady recalled.
“The army gave me leave, pending demobilisation, and I slowly returned to normal.
“On demobilisation, I went back to work for the South African Railways, who had kept my job open, but with a difference.
“I had been promoted as a draughtsman in the Chief Engineers Head Office in Pretoria.
“I continued my studies, part time at night at the Technical College and eventually obtained an Engineering Diploma and a Technical Teachers Certificate.
“I had applied for a grant to attend University, but to no avail.
“The National Party won the 1948 elections and South African ex-servicemen were not the flavour of the decade.
“Even before the Nationals got in, we received no help whatsoever.
“So ended my war experiences, which played a major part in my life.
“So many of us went to war, experienced traumatic episodes and came back quite different people.
“I still keep up membership in ex-service organisations and enjoy our regular get togethers where we share memories of those times.
“Writing this account was mainly for my family, but it has made me realise that fellow ex-servicemen would also enjoy sharing this narrative,” Mr Seady concluded.
SOURCE:
Media release, 12 Jan 2018
Anne Jenkins, Woy Woy Bowling Club

Towards a new paradigm for conferences
Something has been niggling at me for at least the last 10 years when it comes to conferences of all kinds, be they professional, community or church based. The prevailing model is that you get a well-known speaker, or group of them, and then get lots of people to listen to them. Up until the advent of YouTube and Livestream the prevailing model made sense. Now it no longer makes sense. Why gather a group of people together if you are only going to provide something they could access on YouTube?

Far too often we gather people together to listen to a well-known speaker, and the vast majority of people arrive and leave without ever making a meaningful connection with any other attendee or leader or member of the organizing team. Follow up beyond a feedback form is non-existent. As long as they came, and either paid for entry or gave a donation or offering, purchased books and merchandise related to the conference and thereby enhanced the reputations of the speakers and the organization putting on the conference (and their social media followings), that is considered success. Positive testimonials, healings and conversions would be a bonus.

This is a consumer driven model, not a participative or collaborative model.

It is definitely not tapping into the wisdom and experience of the people present, nor permitting connections to be made that could move careers, ministries and relationship networks to a whole new level.

This has to change, even though there are many vested interests that will resist such change.

And the change has to be well beyond the addition of a few discussion groups into the conference mix.

I believe that the Divine Renovation team are thinking along these lines, because when the DR20 conference had to be foregone due to the coronavirus pandemic, they didn’t rush out to replace it with pre-recorded video since they had been planning more ‘hands on’ experiences than guest speakers.

So here is my vision for how a conference could be very different:

At the time of registering for the conference, participants would need to fill out a reasonably detailed survey. The survey would require answers to where participants
* feel that God is most active in their lives (to get an idea where charisms might be, and there would be long lists to choose from),
* experience burdens or callings (eg Pro-life, mental health, evangelization, prison ministry, helping people with addictions, helping people in domestic violence situations, youth ministry, ministry to the homeless, political activism, etc)
* have creative, artistic and musical talents
* write about a project or ministry that is on their heart, but currently unattainable due to lack of funding, co-workers and prayer partners
* and provide their top 5 themes from the Gallup StrengthsFinder questionnaire

Each part of that survey will assist in the planning of the conference, and in developing groups with the greatest numbers of shared interests and experiences. If there is enough prayer in the preparation and planning parts of the conference, the groups will fall into place with the Holy Spirit’s fingerprints all over it.  
 
The conference facility would need therefore to have a large room where all participants can gather, as well as at least 6 smaller rooms for groups to meet in.

Each day of the conference participants will get the opportunity in groups to interact and collaborate with people with whom they have shared interests, callings or abilities.

As far as possible such a conference would be open to all age groups, and the more inter-generational the better.

The conference would start on a Monday, in time for lunch for those who have top 5 themes in the Influencing domain and in time for 5pm Mass for other participants. Day 2/Tuesday would be devoted to charisms, Day3/Wednesday to burdens and callings, Day 4/Thursday is a combined creative day and lectio divina day, Day 5/Friday is a vision day (or start up day), and Day 6/Saturday a half day to pause and reflect on the whole week, with time alone and with opportunities for free ranging conversation and swapping of contact details.

The idea is to have some basic structure to each day, and yet have plenty of opportunity for God to move as He wills.

A live-in location for the conference would be best, however a blend of live-in and 9am-10pm participants sleeping at home is possible if they live within an hour’s travel of the venue and have sufficient stamina.

The timetable for the full days would be something like this:
7.00am Morning Prayer, followed by personal prayer
7.40am Rosary
8.00am Breakfast
9.00am Praise & Worship, with outline of the vision/plan for the day
9.30am Break into groups, give more specific vision/plan for the day, and get to know each other
10.40am Morning Tea
11.00am Seeking God, what does He want to do with us, say to us today; praying for each other
12.00pm Mass
1.15pm Lunch
2.30pm Major work of the day
5.30pm Evening Prayer
6.00pm Dinner
7.00pm Team meeting
7.30pm Night session
9.30pm or 10pm Night Prayer and end of the day

Day 1 Monday
After lunch, special sessions with those who have top 5 themes in the influencing domain, because these people will be called on to lead at least one group during the conference. These special sessions will provide a vision for how we want the leadership of the groups to function during the conference, and a bit of additional leadership training. Before the others arrive to register, we will pray over these leaders asking God to help them.

Then the conference begins in earnest with 5pm Mass followed by 6pm Dinner and the first Night Session at 7.30pm. The Night Session will start with Praise & Worship, a short keynote talk of encouragement, followed by housekeeping information and guidelines for how prophetic words and words of knowledge are to be discerned, and only released when permission from the discernment team is given. That way there can be a small team of people assisting in the interpretation and praying about the best way to act upon and release the messages. As far as possible we need to avoid and discourage undiscerned messages of personal prophecy. In groups, the group leader will facilitate group discernment procedures. At the end of the Night Session participants break up into groups of around 4 people and pray for each other. Night Prayer ends the day.

Day 2 Tuesday
This Day is foundational, because the more the charisms of the Holy Spirit are activated in us, the easier it will be to co-operate with His leadings and promptings throughout the conference.

Today we want to group those who have similar charisms, so that they can share their experiences and learn from each other.

Ideally there would be a group for prophets, a group for intercessors, a group for evangelists, a group for those with the gift of discernment, a group for those with the gift of healing, a group for those whose charism doesn’t fall into these categories, and a group for those who have no idea what their charism is.

In the introduction part of the day, participants would be invited to share how they experience that charism (eg an urgency to stop and pray for a particular person or situation, tingling and warmth in the hands, dreams, changes in senses of smell etc), a story about a good outcome from the operation of that charism, and a challenge they are experiencing with regard to that charism.

Obviously if several people are experiencing the same challenge, then this is a sign that dealing with it is on God’s agenda. Before the next session starts do a bit of research, consultation and prayer for resources and wisdom on this challenge. This topic will then become the first thing the group does in the main afternoon session.

Then after Morning Tea each group spends time seeking God for what He wants them to do as a group. After a time of seeking such guidance, group members share any impressions they have received. There should be enough, ‘I felt that too’, to chart a course of action. Otherwise start with the first impression, give it ago, if it feels anointed continue with it; if not, try the next impression. Some groups may feel like God wants them to lead them in a time of repentance, or to seek God’s mind about a particular topic, or to pray for a particular group of people, or to just rest in stillness before Him for a while.

The main thing is to get a bit of consensus about what God wants to do with the group in the main session, (at least to start with) and then to pray for each other for deeper releases of the charism they already share. What to do is one thing, how to do it is another, so until the main session starts everyone should be seeking God individually for specifics. For example, if the general impression is to pray for Japan, is it for the leaders of Japan, is it for protection against natural disasters in Japan etc and how to pray, eg in song, in tongues, with the Rosary, with a map of the country etc. Where you start in the main session may not be where you end up, allow God to lead you step by step. It is OK for the leader to ask for feedback from time to time, eg should we go deeper here, or do you feel that the Holy Spirit is changing our direction? Is the anointing as strong as when we started? Or has it lifted? Remember to follow good spiritual hygiene principles before and after the main session.

At the after dinner team meeting, group leaders give a brief account of the day. Are there any common threads between the various groups? If so, then go deeper with that in the ministry part of the night session. Otherwise the night session will be a full on ‘whatever you want to do with us God’ prayer meeting, expecting God to give people practice in the various charisms.

For the group of people with less common charisms, the group times of the day should be very similar, just needing extra levels of open heartedness to listen to the experiences of others that are so very different from your own.

For the group of people who have no idea what their charism is, they will have more of an input day than a collaborative day. For them, bring in guest speakers who describe their own experiences with charisms, and growing in them. Some of the day should be one-on-one conversations about how group members have experienced God’s guidance in the past; from those conversations some nascent charisms might be recognized. If so, pray for them to become more manifest. By dinner time everyone in this group should be better equipped to recognize and respond to charisms, and have had a time before the end of the main afternoon session where everyone prayed for the release of God’s charisms within each other for the welfare of the church.

(For a conference made up of people mature in the use of the charisms, you could add a similar day breaking into groups of those with similar offices, viz, apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. We say people have an office if there is general recognition that a person has been used by God consistently in this area for several years, and with much fruitfulness.)

Day 3 Wednesday
This day is designed to bring people with similar burdens, callings and ministries together. The purpose is for mutual support and encouragement, the improvement of relationships between people with similar God-given passions, and the sharing of ideas. If at the end of the day people have been helped to avoid common pitfalls, if solutions to common issues have been shared, if a bigger vision for what God is doing in this ministry area is received, if mutual collaboration begins between ministries, then the day has been a success.

The break up of these groups will be determined by the answers to the registration questionnaire. Likely groups would be pro-life, youth ministry, ministry to the poor/disadvantaged; less likely but still possible groups could be catechists, prison ministry, drug & alcohol rehabilitation, social media apostles/evangelists, protection of religious freedom activists etc. The emphasis is on the burden of the heart more than where someone is currently in mission. For example, if someone goes to state schools as a catechist every week, but God wakes them up on a regular basis to pray for those tempted to suicide, then that person should be in a group with people sharing a passion for mental health rather than with the catechists.

The first group session of the day begins with prayer, and then time for group members to get to know each other through introducing themselves, how this calling or prayer burden first manifested itself in their lives, a story about a good outcome from this ministry, and the sharing of a challenge arising from the calling, prayer burden or ministry. Only if time permits, group members can share how they have dealt with some of the challenges the others are currently facing.

If there appears to be commonality among the challenges, then we see God’s hand in bringing people together with a common challenge, and the group leader in the break goes to seek out wisdom and resources through research and consultation with team members. This will be the first topic for the main session in the afternoon, and a videoclip for discussion starting, or role play, or bringing in an expert speaker, may be the way to start it off, but then collectively pray for God’s wisdom for the challenging situation, and share any impressions, ideas and scripture quotations that come. It could be as basic as producing a budget, or as nuanced as exploring ways of setting boundaries and saying no to those who are demanding more than can be given.

The second group session is about seeking what God wants to do with the group. So this will involve prayer. It could very well be that God would like to give the group a time of restful, soaking prayer to refresh and bring healing in this session, as a prelude to what He wants to do with them in the main session. It may become a time of collective repentance for the occasions that we failed to respond to His promptings, and/or failed to serve the people sent to us. If group members agree, it could also be about sharing solutions to challenges, and respectfully learning from each other. At the end of this session there should be general agreement as to how the main session will start. Before the session ends, pray for each other and for each other’s ministries.

The main afternoon session will start by dealing with all the things that arose from the previous group sessions. But this should take up no more than one third of the main session. Then the rest of the session is turned over to God, letting Him direct what happens next, with the group leader facilitating group discernment. It is likely that the various groups will be led into times of intercession for those for whom God has already given them a burden (eg youth, those who don’t know God, those bound in addictions etc). It is also likely that the various groups will be led to seek God for fresh vision and fresh strategies for their ministries, and for the deeper release of charisms with which to serve in those ministries. If a time of repenting for obstacles placed in the way of unity between ministries begins, flow with it. Allow God to share his heart with you, and to broaden your vision for what He wants to accomplish through you. Begin and end this time with proper spiritual hygiene practices, since the possibility of intense spiritual warfare is high. If God wants to use your group in prayer to help bring down spiritual strongholds that are holding back His floodgates of grace, do not resist and do not be afraid.

The group leader’s debrief after dinner is again crucial. If in the debrief and sharing you find that many of the main sessions prayed for the nation, or were led to pray for financial help to be released, then the night session should devote time to praying for these things as a whole conference body. On the other hand, if groups were led to pray for boldness, or for those in political leadership, then do more of that. So the night session starts off as a prayer meeting and covers those areas that came up as themes in the groups, and if time permits at the end, there will be a time of sharing of good outcomes from various ministries. To make that happen each group leader will go and invite the person who shared the best story in the group to share it with everyone, so that the evening ends with collective praise and thanksgiving to God.

There will be a group for those who have less common callings, for whom there aren’t enough to have a specific group for those callings. With extra patience and openness of heart to each other, there is every possibility that their group may be led by God in deep and amazing ways. Be on the lookout for any indication of being drawn together into new multidimensional or multidisciplinary forms of ministry. For example, it might be discovered on sharing, that while each has their own calling, many of those callings may have a ‘calling within a calling’ such as an interest in First Nations peoples or a tug towards South East QLD.

Then there will be a group for those who don’t yet think they have a calling, a prayer burden or a ministry. For them, at the first group session they will introduce themselves and share a bit about either the context for the strongest spiritual experience of their lives or about what they have seen God do in their lives recently, and then share something about what they are currently struggling with, be it having a regular prayer time or a fracturing relationship or a health battle etc. At the second session there will be input to help them understand how a calling, prayer burden or ministry begins to manifest itself. Group members will then recall and share about the top three intercessory prayers in their lives, about the kinds of charities that they give more willingly to, and why, and about the type of injustice that spurs them most to action. From the time of sharing in the first two sessions it might be possible to see patterns emerging in individuals and in the group. If so, work with that. The main session will be about asking God to reveal more of His plan for each of the group members, and lingering in prayer waiting upon Him to speak directly to each heart. Pray for each other, and over each other, and if all else fails use the remaining time to pray against the injustices shared and for any top 3 intercessions that some of the group members had in common.

Day 4 Thursday
By now conversations at break times and during meals should be well beyond small talk. Today is creative lectio divina day. For today everyone gets a copy of the Gospel passage for the coming Sunday, and groups are made up of people with similar creative gifts. So there will be a good of musicians (vocalists, song writers, those who can play musical instruments), there will be a group of artists/illustrators, there will be a group of wordsmiths (writers, bloggers, poets), there will be a group of dramatists (actors, playwrights, dancers), a group of digital artists (photographers, videographers, meme makers), a group of cooks/chefs, and if there are any who declare they have no creative talents, they will make up the intercessors for the day. Comedians can choose whether they prefer wordsmiths or dramatists. If perchance there are potters, sculptors, wood workers, people who create scenes with Lego, or anything else ‘hands on’ (eg knitters and those who can make amazing things come out of sewing machines) then they can form a group too – if they have brought their equipment with them.

For the first session of the day, group members share about the creative talent God has given them, and what they have been doing with it (eg hobby, volunteer, career, ministry), and a blessing they feel when they use that creative talent and a challenge they face (burn out, barriers to success, rejection, finding the time to practice/hone skills etc). Pray for each other.

The second session of the day is where each group seeks God and prays through the Gospel passage in a lectio divina way. Group members share what struck them afresh about this Gospel passage. Then members talk about how they could convey that message through the medium of their creative talent, and whether they want (or feel called) to do that solo, or in collaboration with others. It is time to brainstorm, and to help each other develop the initial ideas they have been given. The cooks will each be given an amount, say $20, to go shopping for ingredients with, in order to produce Gospel inspired nibbles to be enjoyed at the night session. By the end of this session everyone should have a plan for what they will be creating in the afternoon session.

In the afternoon session the intercessors will be praying while the creatives produce what they can in the time available, together with a written explanation if necessary (eg for art, instrumental music, nibbles).

Then in preparation for the night session, the creative work that can be displayed will be arranged around the room. Creative work that requires performance will go onto whatever stage-type arrangements can be made, like a variety concert, and the nibbles provide a celebratory feast afterwards. Those with computer/technical skills will be called on to help set things up for viewing where necessary, or to help get them printed. It should be an absolutely amazing night seeing the Gospel coming alive and depicted in so many various ways and mediums. Of course, someone will need to fill the role of M.C. for the night, and someone else will need to schedule the various performances into some semblance of order.

Writers can choose whether to read out their short story, poem, limerick, blog post, or article, or whether to print it and display it instead. It may even be deemed worthwhile for all of the displays to be photographed and uploaded onto a computer, and then projected onto a big screen while the artist/creator explains his/her work. If that is done, then you would need schedule a few displays followed by a few performances, and then a very short time for conversation and continue with that pattern until all of the creative individuals and groups had presented. No performance or display explanation should exceed 5 minutes. At the end, the intercessors should be called up to take a bow, because they were the powerhouse of prayer calling down God’s creative inspiration upon everyone and obtaining the grace of creative flow. Then God Himself should get a big clap for the gift of His Word and for the wide diversity of creative talents He has bestowed upon His people.

Day 5 Friday
This is Dare to Dream day, or Vision day, or Start-Up day. For today people will need to be able to set up their own computer technology in working groups. In preparation for today the team will have needed to contacted diocesan leaders, business people (eg lawyers and accountants), local political leaders and others who have links with entrepreneurs and large donors. These people are to receive invitations to the night session. The more that come, the better.

By now there should be a good level of trust and working relationships between the conference participants. The more there is of that, the more fruitful the day will be.
 
The first session of the day is the ‘Pitch it to me’ session. Anyone who wishes to pitch a project to the group has to notify the team the night before and be given some cardboard to write out the essence of the pitch upon. People can give multiple pitches if the ideas or projects are significantly different. Each person gets no more than 2 minutes to pitch their idea or project to the entire group. But they have to be ‘big’, ie they need to be well beyond the scope of one person to achieve (funding $10K+, require an ongoing team of at least 4 people, and prayer partners). Effective pitches generally present a community need and a solution to that need.
 
Some of the pitches will be pre-existing dreams that currently seem too far out of reach, others will have arisen out of the experiences of the conference. Catholic hospices, family-friendly retreat centres, initiating a new faculty at a Catholic university (eg Australian Catholic history), a project to translate a classic spirituality text into English, setting up a travelling troupe of dramatists to perform Passion plays are examples of possible pitches.

In the break between sessions, the cardboard pitches are set up around the room. Each person is given two red sticky dots and a green one. The red dots are to vote for pitches that you think are particularly worthwhile, and the green dot is to indicate which pitch you would actively like to work on. At the start of the second session, people go and place their dots. During this time of milling around, you can ask clarifying questions of the people who gave pitches.

The more dots a pitch receives, the more likely it is that a working group for that pitch will be formed. Hopefully this process of ranking pitches will take no more than 30 minutes, less if at all possible. The number of working groups will be determined by the number of smaller rooms for those groups to meet in, with one room set aside for those who have no passion for any of the selected working groups.

Once the top ranking pitches are chosen, people gravitate to the one they wish to work on and form working groups. The rest of the session is spent in the smaller rooms doing introductions, and learning about each other’s skills and professions. Each group will require someone with themes in the influencing domain if those giving the selected pitches do not already have an influencing theme. If any working groups discover that they don’t have all the domains covered, then they need to find someone who has themes in that domain to join them.

The main session for each working group begins with prayer, followed by a more detailed pitch from the pitch-giver. Group members ask questions. Then the group decides what needs to be done to improve the pitch, and works on that. Each group will get 7 minutes at the night session to deliver a better pitch, and 3 minutes to answer questions from the floor about the pitch.

Statistics, business plans, research, graphics, budget size, possible locations, any limitations via legislation and government regulations, staffing, legal and privacy restrictions considered, plans for how to attract both funding and clients/those in need of the project will all be required in preparing the better pitch. Also needed will be information about why this project is different to others already in existence, and whether or not it could be co-partnered or grafted onto an existing entity/ministry.

Since the 3 hours for the main session isn’t a lot of time for work like this, the group leader/s need to quickly set tasks for each member. They work as hard as possible for 30 minutes on those tasks, then the group reassembles and reports, and then refines what is needed, and sends members away for another 30 minutes. After the second re-group they will need to decide whether more information is needed, or whether the group has enough to begin preparing the presentation, or to let a few pursue more fact finding and the rest begin work on how to present the upgraded pitch. Allow enough time to practice the presentation. Prepare a handful of contact cards to give away to any invited guest who shows interest in the project.

Pitch-givers are encouraged to let the original vision for the project grow, be enhanced, and even be diverted. For example, a pitch might begin as a scheme to find employment for young people, but during the work the group discovers plenty of similar schemes for that age group, however there is almost nothing for the over 50s, and they decide to keep the basics of the idea and project but change the age group for whom it is targeted.

Remember to do due diligence. Contact actual people for whom you have the vision or project. Ask them whether it would actually help them, or whether they have more pressing needs. For example, the initial project may be to improve ramp access for wheelchairs and walkers at the local cathedral, but you may find that while that would be well, good and appreciated, what they really need is trained people to help them fill out National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) paperwork.

Groups may decide to continue working between dinner and the start of the evening session.

Simplicity of presentation is better than complexity. Include what the need is, what the vision is to meet that need, why that vision is unique, and then detail that vision with plans and rationales for those plans. Don’t forget to include estimated budgets for the whole project, for each section of a project, or year 1, year 2 etc budget projections. If time permits outline the risks you are aware of, and your plans to deal with those risks. Make the vision as compelling as possible.

The night session begins with prayer, and the introduction of the invited guests. Then the detailed pitch sessions and associated Q&A begins. It would be better to have a random order of the presentations instead of a lowest initial interest to highest initial interest order. When the detailed pitch sessions are over it is time for a celebration to begin, and for invited guests to mingle and ask further questions about the pitches that most interested them. At the end of the evening, conclude with prayer asking God to bring into being those projects that most align with His will.

For those who ended up in the group without a selected pitch, they will do a similar skills and professions introduction to each other that will be led by a group leader. As part of that introduction, people will also include what topic would have motivated them to take part in a working group. Should there be any group members who have the same motivation, they will work together for the rest of the day. The rest get divided up into smaller groups that have all the theme domains covered, and then get to choose which of the non-selected pitches they would like to work on. Before the end of the main session, each smaller group presents a pitch to each other. Of them, the one considered by the group to be the best pitch will be presented as a ‘wild card’ pitch at the night session.

Day 6 Saturday
This is the final day, which finishes with Mass and lunch. The primary task of this day is to provide a time of prayerful reflection upon the experiences of the week. So after the morning praise & worship there are only two sessions.

For the first session everyone gets a small exercise book to take with them and to write down what they want to remember from the whole conference. Of primacy would be everything that they felt God speaking to their hearts. Questions that people may want to answer in this time are: What did I hear? What did I learn? What touched my heart? Where was God for me in the experiences of the week? What is challenging me? What questions do I have that I need to follow up on? What do I feel God is inviting me to do as a response to the experiences of this week?

For the second session everyone returns to the main room. This is a time to mingle with the purpose of going up and saying a personal thank you to those who helped you during the week, and for saying words of encouragement to those in whom you see great potential, or whom you have seen grow throughout the week. It is also a time to swap contact details with those you would like to keep in contact with. At the end of the session we gather for 5 minutes to stand and pray for the person next to us, that what God has done in them during this week and begun in them would be brought to perfect fulfilment.
​
www.societyofsaints.net   
Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 19 Jun 2020  

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On Pentecost Sunday 2020 the Reports from the Plenary Council’s six Writing and Discernment Groups were released. I have read Philippa Martyr’s and Fr John Miechels’s commentaries on these Reports. Both commentaries are well worth reading. But they do make a person reluctant to read the Reports themselves.

But read them I sadly must.

Before I do that, I wish to outline the lens from which I am approaching these documents.

From the start I thought that the process was flawed, because we know what God wants us to do – it has been outlined in Novo Millennio Ineunte and in Evangelii Gaudium. The question is how to do it authentically in an Australian context.

While the phases of the Plenary Council up till now have had paperwork reminding us to ‘Listen to what the Spirit is saying’ and ‘What do you think God is calling us to do’, in practice people have been answering very different questions, viz ‘What do you think the Church ought to be doing?’, ‘What would you like to see change in the Church?’, ‘What could we actually, concretely do, towards these themes at diocesan, deanery and parish level?’. Notably absent has been any question about what God wants me to do to contribute, and likewise absent any consideration about where all these mythical people and unlimited resources who are going to make it happen are going to come from (and how to motivate them). In practice people have been told, ‘This Plenary Council is your chance to change things, speak up for what you want, the more vocal you are, the more likely something will happen’.

In such a climate, consensus is not a reliable indicator of the will of the Holy Spirit.

Further absent, and most disturbing, is how often God’s action is left out of the deliberations: it’s a kind of, ‘He can join in if He wants to’ mentality, instead of seeking His input, guidance and power first and foremost. How strange it is when we say we are guided by the Holy Spirit, and then act as though only more committees and layers of hierarchy are needed to achieve anything.

God’s will and purposes have not changed. Always He calls us back to the original blueprint. Even before the Bible existed, family was the foundation of God’s plan. The Bible is the story of the family of Abraham, and it contains the accumulated wisdom about how God wants that family to live in fulness of life. As the family goes, so goes the Church. Where do we get the power to live as members of the family of God? From the Holy Spirit. A new evangelisation is not possible unless there is a new Pentecost, and there is no Pentecost without the Holy Spirit.

Thus for me, Scripture, Family and the Holy Spirit are the non-negotiable essential keys for discovering what God wants us to do in this Great Southern Land of the Holy Spirit. However none of them were referenced in the titles of the 6 Themes of the Plenary Council, and this continues to disturb me greatly.

So as I read (plough through) the 6 Reports, I am going to tally up any references to Scripture, Family and the Holy Spirit, and if I come across any ideas worth pursuing, I will list them.

Obviously it was not an easy task for the Writing and Discernment Groups because they had so many answers to the wrong questions to sift through.

Scripture references are counted when they occur in the body of the text (not in the footnotes) and are recognisable quotations (not cf.’s). Family has to be specifically referenced, references to parts of families eg women, children, elderly etc do not count. All too often we do not view families holistically, which is strange if we believe that each family is a domestic church, and when there is plenty of evidence in the Scripture for God entrusting specific ministries to specific families in perpetuity. Recently during the pandemic lockdown without the usual institutional church structures, we had to live church as domestic churches and began to rediscover this ancient reality. Both ‘Spirit’ and ‘Holy Spirit’ are counted.

Please take these as ‘about right’ numbers and not as exact tallies. Your own tally is likely to be different to mine, but definitely similar.

Theme 1: Missionary and Evangelising
Scripture references: 23
Family references: 6.5
Holy Spirit references: 10
(from page 6) The renewal of our world begins with personal renewal of our lives lived according to the Gospel which invites us to a personal encounter with Jesus, who offers us the gift of God’s love.
(from page 12) For our sacramental initiation to bear fruit, our journey will be one of growing in our relationship with Jesus, the community of His followers and our wider society. This growth is facilitated through the family, the school and the parish community.
(Prioritised Question 6) Given the importance of the family for the missionary and evangelising activity of the Church, how can we best promote a Catholic vision of marriage and family?

Theme 2: Inclusive, Participatory and Synodal
Scripture references: 16
Family references: 4
Holy Spirit references: 7
(from pages 6 & 10 ) Inclusion recognises that every person is a doorway into the mystery that is the Body of Christ.
(from page 9) Our society has become increasingly indifferent, sometimes even hostile, to family life in all its stages, and to those who make family a priority. At each stage of the growth of their children, families experience unique joys but also struggles which, if left unattended, can lead to disengagement and rift, both with each other but also the Church.
(from page 16) Catholics must tirelessly and fearlessly affirm the unique dignity of each and every child, and the inestimable value of the labours of every parent.

Theme 3: Prayerful and Eucharistic
Scripture references: 15
Family references: 6.5
Holy Spirit references: 11
(from page 7) The family is the usual birthplace of faith and the Church recognises that parents are the first and foremost educators of their children (Gravissimus Educationis
(from page 12) When we are formed in the Gospel, God’s people recognise Jesus in daily life.
(from Proposals for Change 1b) Equip each of our Church communities and organisations to support the creation of small communities of faith and life, centred on prayer with Scripture and sharing heart to heart. Encourage these small communities to gather regularly for the development of faith, the sharing of life over a meal and for spiritual nourishment.
(Are not families also small communities?)

Theme 4: Humble, Healing and Merciful
Scripture references: 13
Family references: 1.5
Holy Spirit references: 5
(from page 11) We are invited to witness the wounds of Jesus in those who have been wounded by the Church.
(from page 12) God is asking us to recognise it is restoration to the family of God that brings true wholeness, and that all the faithful have a role to play in the healing of the wounded.
(from page 12) We cannot separate Christ from the wounded: “just as you did it to one of the least of my family, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).

Theme 5: Joyful, Hope-filled Servant Community
Scripture references: 3
Family references: 5.5
Holy Spirit references: 1
(from page 5) Australia is a land that prizes freedom, equality and egalitarianism, a ‘fair go’ and mateship. However, mental illness, sickness, loneliness, family or financial pressures afflict many Australians.
(from page 8) “the joy of love experienced by families is also the joy of the Church.” (Amoris Laetitia)
(from Challenge 1, page 11) Particular attention should be given to the reasons why so many young people and their families are absent from our parishes, and how schools and parishes might address this concern.

Theme 6: Open to Conversion, Renewal and Reform
Scripture references: 5
Family references: 3.5
Holy Spirit references: 3
(from page 5) “...if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be ‘the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters.’” (Evangelii Gaudium 28)
(from page 11) The consultation highlights the importance of a personal encounter with Christ as the basis of the life of faith, and the need for a supportive and faith-enriching Church community in which to deepen and live out our Catholic identity. Catholics sense a call for greater integration of faith and life, for discerning ways of discipleship — at home and at work, online and in local communities.
(from Question 2a on page 15) How can the structures and ministries of the local churches reach out and be more connected to today’s Catholics in their family life, communities, workplaces, culture and leisure?

                         - - -    - - -   - - -  

If we believe that the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, and the goal of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit (St Seraphim of Sarov), then is it not exceedingly strange that the charisms of the Holy Spirit were not referenced in any of the Theme Reports? How can we possibly do the work of the Kingdom of God without prophecy, healing, intercession, discernment of spirits, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, miracles, deliverance, signs & wonders, and those with anointings from the Holy Spirit to preach, teach and evangelise? Working out how to make room for them in normal parish life, and normal family life, is what we need. Because without God all of our efforts will be fruitless, and utter wastes of time.

It is said that where you have been under the greatest attack from the evil one is the very place to expect the greatest victories. All aspects of family life, from conception to the grave, have been under extreme attack. Is not this where we should no longer be on the defensive, but positively placing our resources to assist the growth of families as domestic churches and households of grace?

And neither can happen without returning to the Scriptures and sincerely studying how God relates to families, and how to co-operate with the Holy Spirit.
  
To focus on family, on the Holy Spirit, and about what God has to say about them in the Plenary Council deliberations, with those two aforementioned papal documents for guidance, now that would be truly worthwhile.

#plenarycouncil  #plenarycouncil2020

As we look to Pentecost in just a few days’ time, it seems like a good idea to do a general reflection about the last 10 weeks of living under lockdown conditions. It will serve as a reminder to how thing were, prior to Pentecost 2020 and prior to the new normal.

These thoughts are in no particular order.

One of the good things that has emerged is the online Pilgrimage to Pentecost, under the auspices of the Sydney Archdiocese, with 6 weeks’ worth of talks from international and Australian speakers about the Holy Spirit and a pre Pentecost novena of prayer to join in with. At last look, something like 80 countries have joined in this online pilgrimage.

Similarly, the Ark and Dove retreat centre, has been hosting a 7 day series of online talks, modelled on the Life in the Spirit seminars in preparation for Pentecost. If only all the parts had English subtitles, and vice versa for those joining in with Spanish and Portuguese backgrounds. At least it reminds us how international the Church is.

An overarching theme of the last 10 weeks has been rest. There has been extra time to dedicate to prayer, and an opportunity to slow down. Not having to be anywhere at a designated time, except for regular medical appointments, has been a strange experience for someone used to getting up and getting along to morning Mass. What a weird thing it has been to be without routine! But a circuit breaker was certainly much needed.

Thankfully there were already a few places offering daily Mass online prior to lockdown, and as each day passed the number of places multiplied. A combination of daily online Masses, spiritual communions, and the Liturgy of the Hours has been getting me through. It is ‘the Mass that matters’ after all, and a fresh opportunity to appreciate that truth.

We were able to take part in the Easter Triduum because St Mary’s Cathedral livestreamed it all, including Tenebrae, and put it on YouTube as well. It was a very big and additional blessing for the 3pm Good Friday Commemoration of the Passion and the 10.30am Easter Sunday Mass to be broadcast from the Cathedral on national television.

As the weeks passed, so did the patterns of online Masses, going from a combination of Sydney based and EWTN, to adventures all over the world. St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, North Sydney/Lavender Bay, St Patrick’s Church Hill and Hornsby Cathedral became the baseline, and Leeds Cathedral, Toronto, St Bernadette’s in South Africa, Walsingham, the Capuchin Franciscans of Oxford, Berala, Cronulla, Hunters Hill and Penshurst the icing on the cake. Also worthy of mention are the Divine Retreat Centre at Somersby, Melton VIC, Blackburn North VIC, Glendalough WA, and Seven Hills NSW.

My fluency in Latin responses has vastly increased, both said and sung, and I even found myself at a ridgy-dij Tridentine Mass which I found more disconcerting than I ever believed possible.

On the other hand, it has been really nice to be able to fast forward until the Mass procession begins, and to exit if the sound/picture quality is poor, or if the recessional hymn is being massacred. Likewise, if the Eucharistic prayer is going too fast, to be able to use the pause button has been helpful, or if an interruption happens, or to allow time for a spiritual communion prayer if the online Mass doesn’t put it on screen or pray it out loud. We will miss the easy access to so many wonderful homilists.

But for all that life has been in a state of limbo. An image, not mine, has seemed pertinent, that of a hen sitting on eggs to hatch, but in order for that to happen, the eggs keep getting turned, so that the warmth is evenly distributed; ie progress is happening despite feeling in a state of suspended animation, disconcertion and continual flux. It has been a battle to get through the must-do’s of each day, very rarely has anything more than the must-do’s been achieved. Without the routine, it has been much easier to fall into late nights and associated insomnia.

For creative types, writers, artists, illustrators, playwrights etc, it has been even worse. They have been in creative limbo. Part of this is the absence of all the usual things that would normally spark creative ideas; chatting with peers, visiting art galleries, libraries and other places of cultural interest, coffee shops, travel etc. Part of it is the body playing catch-up, since for most creatives it is either boom or bust, ie working round the clock for impossible deadlines, or having no paid projects at all. However the hope is that this time of fallowness will yield abundant creativity in the new normal – when it arrives. 

One of the most distressing things of this lockdown period was how long it took for official parish communications to begin. For us it was something like 3-4 weeks of silence, not even weekly parish bulletins were being put online. We had no idea who was sick, who had died. We had no information about how to deposit moneys into parish bank accounts. Diocesan levels of communication weren’t much better, with only a few very short videoclips released via social media. At least we had internet for online Masses, but many parishioners don’t, and some of them don’t even have televisions to catch the weekly televised Mass For You At Home on Sunday mornings at 6am.

I am still trying to process the anger levels that the non-communication produced, and irritation that we were in this position while many other nearby parishes were in a much better position because they already had email lists, Facebook pages, and well-known bank deposit instructions. If I felt this, how many others did?

As with many others, this lockdown time has increased appreciation for the littler things; for listening to the birds, haircuts, getting out of the house to do shopping and banking, communication from family and friends. It has been a wake-up call to see just how many social interactions, community and cultural activities we have taken for granted.

Every so often an article in the news or via social media has indicated that there has been enough boredom for people to be able to break away from addictions and strong attachments in their lives. I’ve seen diehard football supporters so disgusted by the vehement push to restart sporting competition that they are no longer interested. I am guessing that coffee shops might be a bit nonplussed by those who no longer need a daily fix of cappuccino. Others are now over binge-watching on streaming services. Who knows what other good things might have been happening for those overly reliant on gambling and alcohol?

Pope Francis’ leadership in prayer has been inspiring. Firstly his vigil of prayer seeking an end to the pandemic. (I’ve recently seen a graph showing how the Italian daily death toll began reducing after this prayer vigil). Secondly his daily rosary, to which he has invited everyone to join in. Then there was a global day of prayer and self denial for people with any faith in a deity. Now he is inviting everyone to share in a rosary on Saturday 30th May as part of a renewed entrustment of our world to the intercession of the mother of Jesus. What a beautiful thing, to be united in prayer all over the world with the Pope and with Mary, on the day before Pentecost, reminiscent of that first Pentecost visitation of the Holy Spirit.

As the pandemic has worn on, and death tolls in various countries have been incomprehensible, there has been a wave of bishop’s conferences in various countries either consecrating their nations to the heart of Mary for the first time, or renewing those consecrations and entrustments to the mother of Jesus. The USA and Canada did it on the same day, May 1st. Australia did it on May 25th.

One thing that has been a surprise is the very slow weakening of the lockdown restrictions. Why I had the notion in my head that there would be an explosively fast return to normality I don’t know, but it was there. It seems such a shame that by the time things go from 10 people, to 20 people, to 50 people, and eventually to normal Mass sized congregations that we will have lost the sense of celebration that it should command.

So we find ourselves waiting for whatever the new is, and hoping that there actually is a new at the end of this weird season of lockdown.

The most difficult thing at the moment is our suspicion that our parish administration may have not learned anything valuable from this time, and that we will be hitting our heads against the same ‘brick walls’ as before. Most of us laity have been sampling the best of what is on offer online, but I doubt that our clergy have been watching each other’s Masses except for the brief time they were on the lookout for ideas to set up their own online Masses.

Yet one purpose of the lockdown seems to be to get us to slow down enough, to accumulate enough inner peace and inner silence for God to be able to get His messages through to us. All of us know that even between friends, conditions have to be near perfect for one friends to be able to disclose the deepest secrets of the heart to the other friend – in particular the recipient has to be waiting, open, truly present and unpreoccupied.

How amazing is God to permit this long process, which currently seems far from over, and not yet finished, so that He could speak more directly to our hearts! Until that deep and detailed revelation from Him comes, none of us can move forward with confidence. So we continue to wait, and learn deeper levels of trust.
​
Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.

The sky is not falling…

It is Holy Saturday for real today, even though we have been living in Holy Saturday mode for over 3 weeks. The proclamation of the Resurrection is about to begin, so today is the day to record the positives from this time.

The origin of this extremely contagious and debilitating virus doesn’t matter, but the grace of the pause, of the taste of divine rest, of a time of fallowness does.

Sadly a lot of people aren’t getting the message to slow down, as evidenced by the erratic driving of some people seen when we have ventured out for groceries. What on earth could they possibly be in a hurry to get to?

In reality we are only catching up on all the Sunday-Sabbath rests we have ignored for countless years, and by God’s grace are beginning to get a taste for again. The Christmas Day quiet of suburban streets is lovely to experience.

Nature seems to be getting a bit of a rest too, with smog and pollution levels decreasing.

While it may seem quiet on the surface, there is a lot going on behind closed doors and in the depths of hearts.

The great majority of our usual distractions, football codes, theatre, restaurants, sport, libraries, local pubs, gyms, and even our church activities have closed down. People are having a chance to distance themselves from things that they were previously addicted to. Additionally they are finding that some of those things, like trips to the ice cream parlour or binge watching TV series, just aren’t satisfying them anymore.

In this time of pause, away from the normal bustle and busyness of life, there is evidence that people are reconsidering the whole God question. Those church communities that had existing online outreach, or quickly got their acts together, are reporting massive increases in viewer numbers for online church services. Granted some of these viewer numbers are not from the local area, and some are there because their own congregations don’t have anything online to offer, but many are seekers.

Reports are beginning to come in from those whose lives have been touched through these online ministries, and they include atheists and those with faiths other than Christian.

There is also evidence that the quality of family life is improving. This includes spouses reconnecting with each other. It includes the hearts of parents reconnecting with their children, and vice versa. Around the dinner table at meal times conversation is increasing. People are trying out new recipes, getting the jigsaw puzzles and board games out, and getting small to medium do-it-yourself home improvements done.

Many people have been on steep technology learning curves in order to stay in touch with each other and to be able to work from home. Rethinking is going on about how to run businesses better and clever people have begun re-purposing businesses to include home delivery, online ordering and adjusting product lines. For others rethinking their working lives is a necessity because the jobs they had before are unlikely to return.

The way we learn is changing too. With the aid of materials prepared by teachers and others, lots of parents have been thrown in the deep end of home schooling. The early responses were of gratitude to teachers, ‘I’ll never complain about you again’. But the longer this pause goes on, the more those responses are going to change. Parents will know exactly where their children are struggling and will be asking more perceptive questions of teachers. There will be parents who discover that their children are learning better and faster at home than they did at school. There will be children who discover that learning at their own pace, without the competitive peer pressure, suits them.

We won’t be going back to the normal we knew.

What might the new normal look like?

I think we are going to see a lot of No’s. Of people standing up and saying No, I am not going back to that, and having far less patience for the mediocre they used to put up with.

All of us have sampled online Masses and other church services from places other than our home parish. We’ve heard much better preaching than we have in years, and better choirs and liturgical observance. Far more of us are no longer going to be backward in coming forward and saying, ‘Father, you just have to do better. We need better preaching than this!’

There is likely to be anger, too. Anger at the non-communication from parishes that stopped printing parish bulletins, stopped putting parish bulletins online, and didn’t have existing email and Facebook networks. Our older members, who don’t have technology, will be feeling the most abandoned.

There will be others, I daresay mostly women, who will say ‘No, family really is my priority, I don’t want to go back to a toxic working environment’ and who will pioneer ways to set up cottage industries from home.

There will be families who will say, ‘No, I’m not sending my children back to school, this home-schooling thing is really working for us’. Definitely families will re-evaluate just how many extra-curricular after school activities their children will be involved in, and choose less of them.

There will be people in high pressure jobs who will say, ‘No, I can’t live like that anymore, it is detrimental to both me and my family’.

Hopefully communities, regions and states will take a good long look at where they found themselves to not be self-sufficient, and to take steps to rectify that, especially in manufacturing and production of medical supplies.

Are we ready for the new normal?

Do you remember that interesting prophecy about the three waves?
https://www.openheaven.com/2018/07/10/three-waves-of-a-coming-baby-boom-and-strategies-for-preparation-by-christy-johnston/
Firstly of prodigals, then of babies, and then of more babies.

When the social distancing restrictions are lifted, our churches will be overflowing, due to the number of returning prodigals and seekers. Are we ready to welcome them? Do we have resources in place now to assist an extra 200 to 2000 people who seek baptism and discipleship?

Do it now.

Remember the parable of the 10 bridesmaids, the ones who came with extra oil went with the bridegroom, the rest missed out.

With the lack of other things to do, and more time to improve and restore relationships, you can bet that we will see a physical baby boom from December 2020 onwards. Order your baptismal registers and certificates, baptismal candles etc now. Leave it till Oct/Nov and you won’t be able to get any. Train up extra baptismal preparation teams now, via Skype or other online interfaces if necessary.

Order extra marriage registers and certificates and paperwork too. Cohabiting couples will decide to marry. Marriages made outside the church will seek convalidation.

There will be more couples seeking to straighten out their tangled lives with God, so increase your orders of annulment paperwork too.

Then as the reconciliations with God take place, and healings begin, watch for that second baby boom of miracle babies to previously infertile couples to happen. Yes, you really do need to start ordering baptism related supplies now, and double what you first thought of.

This is the divine reset, back to God’s plan for Himself first, and family second.

The sky isn’t falling, it is about to turn the right way up for the first time in a very long while.
​
Rejoice.  

Vale Sr Margaret Wall rsj
29 Apr 1923 – 9 Dec 2019

The time has finally come to do a fuller obituary for her than was possible last December on Instagram. In the interim a good friend acquired a copy of her funeral book for me, and a copy of her official Josephite obituary, because so many locals were unable to attend her Hunters Hill funeral.

The aim is to put them all together into some kind of coherent whole, and to repare for the many times in her life when her presence went unrecorded.
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This amazing woman was called into eternity on 9 Dec 2019 after a long life.

​She came into the world on 29 Apr 1923 in Toowoomba QLD, to English-born parents, Harry Wall and Elsie Wall nee Roberts. Her parents came to Australia as post World War I immigrants with her elder sister Dorothy. Then the rest of their children, Bill, our Margaret, Marjorie and Joan were all born in Australia. Her father was a Church of England minister, which may be why they moved from time to time. When Margaret was a teenager they moved to NSW.

Margaret’s initial training was as a nurse. As a young woman in country NSW she decided to become a Catholic at Glenn Innes. This took place in November 1948 at St Patrick’s Glen Innes.

That parish had a convent of Josephite nuns, and one of them in particular, Sr Keiran, introduced Margaret to the life of Mary McKillop, the foundress of the order. Not too long after that the call to follow Jesus as a religious came, and she said Yes, and around 3 years after becoming a Catholic entered the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Her family, especially her father, found this very difficult to comprehend.

In 1955 Margaret made her final vows as a Sister of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. It is primarily a teaching order, so after her Profession Margaret needed to retrain to become a teacher. She was assigned as a sub primary teacher, and taught Kindergarten and the lower grades of primary school at various locations, including Penrith, Leichhardt, Lakemba, Rockdale, Lavender Bay, Punchbowl, Guildford, Burwood, Camden and Lidcombe.

Margaret had a keen mind and a life-long love of learning. During 1969-1971 she completed a part-time Diploma of Theology, in 1974 attended the Tiertianship at the Aldgate convent near Adelaide in South Australia, and later did the Emmaus programme at the Baulkham Hills retreat centre and the Crossroads Course in 1990.

For some reason, maybe it was her special affinity with people doing it tough, Margaret transitioned from teaching into social work. She studied for a Diploma in Social Welfare at Milperra College of Advanced Education, and then set up the West Care Pastoral Ministry at St Marys (near Penrith). In this ministry she spent 6 busy and fruitful years, until she was sent to Woy Woy.

Her first visit to Woy Woy parish was a brief one in the 1960s as a teacher in the parish primary school. She returned in 1991 for a much longer stint as a parish associate.

She had her fingers in many pies around the place. She was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of Mary Mac's Place, a ministry to the homeless and disadvantaged through meals and support. She founded the local branch of the Josephite Associates, set up to help non-consecrated-religious share in the charism of St Mary McKillop.

Margaret took part in local University of the Third Age (U3A) activities with gusto.

With her cheery demeanour and her ability to connect with anyone, she accomplished an enormous amount of good, be they homeless, addicted, in pain or of significant influence. Frequently she was called upon to be the way forward when dispute resolution had reached an impasse.

In our two local hospitals she was a familiar sight, taking Holy Communion and her special brand of sunshine to the sick.

Photographs do not do her justice, because they cannot show how she seemed to float or half-waltz her way through life, nor the good humour behind her perennial smiles, and the love which lit up her whole face.
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She was the last of the Josephite nuns in our parish, moving out of the convent into a villa near the private hospital, enabling the convent to become the parish office until the whole parish site was rebuilt.

When declining health took hold around 2005 she reluctantly left the parish and went into aged care at Hunters Hill, firstly hostel accommodation and later nursing home, yet keeping up relationships with her Josephite Associates and other parishioners as long as her mental abilities enabled her. This capacity to make and keep loyal friendships was a hallmark of her life, from Josephite Novitiate through all the different places, communities, ministries and parishes in which she lived.

However her time at Hunters Hill wasn’t truly retirement, but the beginning of a new ministry, joining in a local parish prayer group.

Margaret was an independent thinker, bringing the clarity of a convert to Catholicism to some matters of faith which ‘cradle Catholics’ found confusing, and she embraced the Renewal after Vatican II with joy.

She had the blessing of being able to celebrate her golden jubilee of profession in 2005 and her diamond jubilee of profession in 2015.

For her own enjoyment and reflection Margaret wrote poetry and loved the literary word. She was close to all her siblings, in-laws and relatives and held a special love for her nieces and nephews. All her life she held true to a deep faith and confidence in her loving God and in His providence.

Her funeral took place at St Joseph’s Chapel at Hunters Hill on 16 Dec 2019, and afterwards her body was laid to rest in Macquarie Park Cemetery.

May God have mercy upon her soul, and richly reward all her service to Him and His people.
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We were so blessed to have known her and witnessed her love for God at daily Mass and everywhere else.