This was an online seminar which took place on Saturday 11 Sep 2021.

Some people are called by God to write in various ways, and for different purposes. When they partner with Him, His message finds a positive response in many hearts.

But as Jennifer Eivaz discusses in the seminar, it requires discipline and skill, wisdom, prayer and hard work, to co-operate with such a calling from God.

At times, in order to bring hope and healing to many, God calls people to write about the darkest and most vulnerable chapters of their lives.

If any of this is striking a chord with you, then may these 10 pages of notes be of assistance to you. 

​The Instrumentum Laboris (working document) for the first session of the Australian Plenary Council was released on 25 Feb 2021, and I eventually finished reading it sometime in mid-March.

You can read it yourself:
https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/instrumentum-laboris/

It wasn’t an easy read, despite it being beautifully presented. Penitential, it was. Firstly it takes a very long time to set the scene and give a situational analysis of the Church in Australia. Many times I wondered if the document would ever get to the point. Secondly it uses lots of ambiguous language that feels like it was written by a combination of church bureaucrats and school teachers. It would be easy to decode for them, but not for me. I longed for some footnotes that gave situational examples to aid understanding.

In particular I longed for concrete and contextual explanation of this passage from 166:

“Not infrequently, Catholics and their family members find themselves in an uneasy situation regarding particular Church teachings or disciplines, not because they identify any less as Catholic, and not because their attachment to Christ has grown “lukewarm” (Rev 3:16), but because of shifts in cultural norms and expectations that they once relied on to support their Catholic faith. Very often, however, this tension between people’s lived experience and the teachings of the Church reaches the point where people withdraw from parishes or communities, and no longer identify as Catholic.”

Is this about going to Mass on Sundays, cohabitation, same sex attraction, blended families, or about some, all or even more than this? How do you even begin to discuss this passage without knowing what the original catalyst for the passage was? How do you begin to frame questions that ask, ‘prove to me how attachment to Christ hasn’t grown lukewarm despite being out of synch with Church teachings, disciplines and practices…by what other means can you show strong attachment to Jesus Christ (John 12:26, James 2:17-18)?’?

I admit I was struggling to reconcile the somewhat rosy view the Working Document paints compared to what I am seeing in the pews. Then Philippa Martyr’s article came up while I was trying unsuccessfully to find any online commentary on the Working Document which wasn’t a clone of the official press release. It is well worth a read:
https://gaudiumetspes22.com/2021/03/05/stranded-under-the-southern-cross-news-from-a-shrinking-church/

I found it a more accurate analysis of the Catholic Church in Australia 2021.

In particular I found her imagery of a carapace to be valuable, viz:

“I tend to see the Church in Australia as consisting of the ‘real Church’ and an unpleasant outer structure that I call The Carapace. The Carapace is like The Borg in Star Trek, if it helps. It attaches itself to the real Church and feeds off it. Its principal purpose is to employ people, and its mission is to protect the Church’s assets at all costs.”

What bothers me greatly is that the Instrumentum Laboris seems to be written by the carapace, and the vast majority of the delegates for the Plenary Council sessions will come from the carapace.

What else bothers me is that God seems to be a minor stakeholder among many instead of the One and Only opinion that matters.

Why else would there be so much virtue signaling about sexual abuse, indigenous issues, women in leadership issues, ecology, etc? I’m not saying that they aren’t important, just that they pale into insignificance against the urgency of saving souls from eternities in hell. Dealing with these things of necessity will be part of that primary mission, for the salvation of the people in these minorities, but they should never overshadow that primary mission.

Which matters to God the most?

What matters to God the most?

I put it to you that growth in relationship to Him (holiness), family (His plan that predates Scripture), and bringing people into relationship with Him (mission) and co-operating in expressing His love to others (service: which is the natural overflow of increase in holiness and mission) are what matter most to God.

On everything but service we are not doing well at all, and even our service is usually human powered service rather than Holy Spirit empowered service.

My view from the pew looks like this:

Everything starts from Holy Spirit inspired preaching. But for Holy Spirit inspired preaching to happen lots of prayer, study of scripture and sacred tradition, openness to the charismatic workings of the Holy Spirit and surrender to the workings of the Holy Spirit are necessary; and the preacher has to be able to effectively use the language and language idioms of those he is preaching to.

It is ‘hymns, hospitality and homilies’ or ‘music, ministry and message’ that either engages a newcomer and keeps them returning or turns them off for good. Generally we are mediocre when it comes to hymns and hospitality with the occasional flash of brilliance, but where we consistently fall down is in homilies.

When was the last time a homily encouraged you to pray?
When was the last time a homily invited you to go to confession? (and made it available)
When was the last time a homily opened your eyes to how good and great God is?
When was the last time a homily made you want to know Jesus better?
When was the last time a homily kept you awake and hanging on every word?
When was the last time a homily contained anything memorable that wasn’t a pre-prepared joke?

Every day I pray that God will use the words of the homilist that day to touch hearts. Often I wonder if God hears me because even I can only decode on average 3 words out of 5 from our overseas-born priests, and the most common question when Mass is over is ‘What did he say?’.

But a preacher doesn’t have to be in a pulpit. We pew dwellers are just as bad because we talk far more about parish politics, weather and medical ailments than we ever do (if we ever do) about Jesus, about inspiration we have found in Gospel passages, answers to prayers, and about living out the vocations we have been called to.

There is such laser focus on encouraging priestly vocations that you could be forgiven for thinking that vocations to family life, religious vocations, career vocations and vocations to special non-ordained ministries aren’t important at all. Yet apart from a very few exceptions to the rule, priestly vocations grow in strong families and in devotionally vibrant parishes.

When was the last time you saw any parish-based initiatives for encouraging and supporting marriages and families?

Did you know that Australia has no (nil, nada, ziltch, zero) Retrouvaille ministry/weekends for marriages in crisis?

Schools. Shudder. They are supposed to be places where the Catholic faith is taught and flourishes. Yet they are places where those who do teach the demanding parts of the Gospel are persecuted in various subtle and non-subtle ways. But these days no one in the parish knows anyone with children at the local Catholic primary school, and vice versa, and about the only person who visits both places is the parish priest and any assistant priest. What we actually have are non-government schools. At what point do we call a halt to the massive investment in schools that don’t evangelise, barely catechize and consistently churn out students indistinguishable from atheists and agnostics?

Families with faith have been choosing not to send their children to Catholic schools, many have chosen to home-school, some have chosen Christian schools, and the rest are sending their children to state schools partly because the cost/benefit analysis has swung the other way. In times past parents were willing to pay the extra cost of the Catholic school because it helped support the development of faith in their children.

The view from the pew can look very different from the view of the carapace.

An example may be useful…
In recent years the St Vincent de Paul Society went through a centralization process, and created regional hubs for furniture and other items. The people managing the hubs were happy. Some of the people in the local outlets were happy ‘it’s great, we refer them to the hub’. But those who knew how things worked pre-hub, and the people in need were not happy. Locally there used to be a room where furniture could be stored on a temporary basis. For the hubs to work, they were told rooms like these had to be stopped. The thing is, those rooms enabled society members to respond quickly when needs became manifest. With a hub, you have to send requests up, wait for decisions, and for action to be sent down, and sometimes have to follow-up the requests, all of which means many days, if not weeks, before needs get met. As for the person in need who had enough trouble asking for help the first time, now they have to travel to the hub to get help; and ask for help a second time. How many of them don’t take the extra step? For some the transport costs alone would be prohibitive. For others it was so hard to admit they needed help, it would be a long time before they attempted to admit it again. Or they would seek other alternatives with quicker responses to their urgent emergencies.

Even more seriously, the local outlet loses the opportunity to begin a relationship of accompaniment with that person in need, and the probability of needy people falling through the cracks increases. But the hub managers will only see the turnover of furniture and other items, and fluctuation in staffing levels, and never record or quantify these other losses, and will assume everything is going great guns.

Thankfully there have been moves towards decentralization again.

There are very good reasons why the Church values the principle of subsidiarity, and why any moves towards adding bureaucratic layers for co-ordination of smaller entities has to carefully make sure that the principle of subsidiarity is not violated.

Pope Francis has encouraged leaders to take on the smell of the sheep, to take time to be with those on the fringes and on the front lines. It is the only way to find out what is really going on.

An example may be useful…
A person serving at the diocesan curia has responsibilities for parish support. Most of this person’s time is spent liaising with parish staff and with parish members who voluntarily take on co-ordination roles. The parish support team puts together a Lenten discussion group programme, sends it out to the parishes. Some groups will meet every year regardless. Other groups will only form if there is active encouragement from the pulpit, and some recruitment and engagement of group leaders. Some parishioners will use the contents of the programme privately.

The parish support team will know how many programmes got sent out, and have a rough idea how many groups formed and how many participated. But they don’t usually get information on how many programmes were thrown out because they were still on the display table several weeks later, nor information about why parishioners left them there, nor information about why groups didn’t form, nor why anyone gave up part way through (individually or group). The only way you get that information is by talking incognito (without them knowing what your role is) with people in the pews whom you have never met before and truly listening to what they have to say, even if it isn’t what you want to hear. (eg. “I picked it up, but I put it back when I saw you needed to download stuff. I’m not that good with computers, and there’s no one at home who is any better at it than me, no one who could help me if I got myself into computer trouble.”)

Can you see how from a curial vantage point everything could look rosy, and better than last year? And yet from a pew dweller’s view point it could look very different indeed?

That’s why I am so worried that the Instrumentum Laboris seems to be written by the carapace, and the vast majority of the delegates for the Plenary Council sessions will come from the carapace who haven’t taken on the smell of the sheep.

A few passages from the Instrumentum Laboris caught my eye:

Passage 74 page 27
Rather, Pope Francis, echoing the thoughts of his predecessors since the Second Vatican Council, insists that an authentically Gospel-inspired renewal of the Church flows from a renewed encounter with Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit and gives rise to a ‘pastoral conversion’ of the entire Church, a renewal that is expressed in a ‘missionary option’ or ‘missionary impulse’ for making the saving love of God known in every place.

Amen. Amen. What we all need more than anything is a deeper encounter with Jesus, and a deeper encounter with the Holy Spirit. Without that, nothing, but nothing changes for the better. We can’t make it happen, that is up to God Himself. But we can make the conditions and environment more conducive for those encounters to happen. Things like encouraging private individual prayer, corporate prayer (prayer meetings, public devotions, liturgy), scripture study, reconciling strained relationships, forgiveness of wrongs done to us, getting to know each other better so as to grow in unity, self-discipline, generosity to others, encouraging more frequent visits to the sacrament of penance, and asking God (individually and corporately) to grant us these precious encounters.

Passage 123 page 41
Submissions to the Council also raised what Pope Francis, among others, has identified as the danger of an unhealthy culture of clericalism within the priesthood and in the wider Church. At its most extreme, this has been identified as a significant factor in the sexual abuse crisis in the Church. It can also undermine the mission that belongs to the entire Church and discourage the exercise of gifts within it. Some fundamental questions arise in light of this concern: What are the causes of such a culture of clericalism? What are the theological, structural, psychological or spiritual influences that can contribute to it and how might the Church better equip its clergy and laity for mission today and for increasing co-responsibility in the decades to come?

Clericalism encourages an ‘us and them’ mentality, with ‘us’ being far superior to ‘them’. Sadly our seminaries are still full of it. We have seminarians visiting parishes on placement and making the assumption that no one in the parishes knows how to use incense properly except for them. That assumption most certainly gets up the noses of parishioners who have been serving at the altar and using incense for decades. Then there’s the practice of getting 2nd year seminarians and above to always wear soutanes at Mass, even if they are sitting in the congregation. That’s visibly making an ‘us’ and ‘them’ distinction well before the vocational discernment process has scarcely begun. It is very difficult to get to ‘we’ and ‘team’, albeit with different gifts and vocational callings, if from the ‘get go’ seminarians are treated as heroic and special. For the mission of the Church to proceed, ie the making of disciples of Jesus, clerics can’t do it without laity, and laity can’t do it without clerics. We vitally need each other. It is one of those ‘both/and’ things. Mutual respect will get us much further in that mission than clericalism.

Passage 131 page 43
There is not a well-developed understanding and practice of the Church as a community of missionary disciples. The Plenary Council offers the Church in Australia an opportunity to consider carefully, and prayerfully, what steps must be taken to awaken this awareness of the missionary vocation of every Catholic, for all the baptised are called equally to live and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

This is true. Although there are sub-groups within parishes that have this awareness eg catechists. Vatican II speaks eloquently of the universal call to holiness and the universal call to mission and so have subsequent papal documents. Encouraging us pew dwellers to read these texts is one thing, helping us to understand how to respond in our own lives is quite another since most of us have no idea what that looks like, nor what it feels like. A possible way forward is gathering and sharing testimonies of how God has used pew dwellers to make disciples, with particular emphasis on how pew dwellers came to understand what God was calling them to do, and how that mission developed over time.

Not everyone is going to be called to be an evangelist (nor to the same evangelistic mission field eg family, co-workers, young people, PSTD sufferers etc); not everyone is going to have a calling to specific works of mercy; not everyone is going to have a calling to accompany people through the RCIA process. So there needs to be intentionality about gathering a wide range of stories, and in presenting them with an openness to the multiplicity of God’s callings. It is really easy to unconsciously fall into the trap of ‘God has called me to be a preacher, it is so wonderful and exciting, therefore God is calling everyone to be preachers’, thereby putting unnecessary burdens/guilt on listeners who may be called to very different missions.

Passage 135 page 44
Underpinning such renewal of practices and methods within dioceses, parishes, migrant communities and movements must be the renewal of sacramental life and prayer among all Catholics for it is the encounter with Christ in the midst of the Church that rekindles hope and makes genuine renewal possible. This is seen in the Emmaus story in Luke’s Gospel (24:13-35) where, in the midst of the disciples’ difficulties and even disillusionment, the faith of the followers of Jesus is restored and a new future opened for them by this encounter.

Without prayer and the sacraments, there is no fuel for mission. We can’t give what we don’t have. What we most need to give are God’s love and access to Jesus. Prayer and the sacraments give us access to the infilling of God’s love, and to experiential encounters with Jesus. We haven’t done a good job of proclaiming this truth about prayer and the sacraments, by and large it has been a well-kept secret, when it should have been ‘shout it from the rooftops’ stuff. Again one of the best ways to renew sacramental life and prayer is to gather testimonies from pew dwellers who are living as missionary disciples. We need to share with each other what a difference prayer (personal and communal) and the sacraments (baptism, penance, eucharist, confirmation, anointing of the sick, marriage, holy orders) make in our lives. It is good news, in fact it is great news. All of them make a big impact. But again, sensitivity is needed, because some people feel and experience lots and some people feel and experience little even when God’s grace is just as active in both. It is all too easy for a focus on feelings and experiences to get us chasing them rather than God, and for this focus to make those who barely feel or experience anything to rate themselves as second class citizens of the kingdom of God. For this reason it is always wise to focus more on the fruits eg growth in patience, generosity, peace, trust, improvement in relationships etc.

Passage 197 page 67
It is this assurance that should encourage us and empower us to speak and act with that parrhesia, that boldness and courage, which are a gift of the Holy Spirit: We need the Spirit’s prompting, lest we be paralyzed by fear and excessive caution, lest we grow used to keeping within safe bounds. Let us remember that closed spaces grow musty and unhealthy. When the Apostles were tempted to let themselves be crippled by danger and threats, they joined in prayer to implore parrhesia: “And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to Your servants to speak Your Word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29). As a result, “when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

It is my dearest desire that when the delegates gather for both of the sessions of the Plenary Council that they dedicate somewhere between a half day and a full day as representatives of the faith communities of Australia to imploring this parrhesia for Australia – and that they do so before they start any discussion of the Working Document. What this needs to be is heartfelt spontaneous prayer ebbing and flowing as the Holy Spirit prompts. Apart from an introduction and a conclusion, it needs to be totally unscripted. It needs to be allowing God to dredge up from the depths of our soul’s expressions of our personal, corporate and national desire for Him and for the dynamic action of the Holy Spirit in our midst, in words, songs, groans and anything else He inspires. It needs to include our leaders begging pardon of God for the ways we have failed Him personally and corporately, to include confessing our failures and our shortcomings, and asking God to step in, to take control, to take leadership and give us sure guidance and the courage to respond with an active Yes to everything He wants us to do.

Without this, nothing else will really matter.

Come Holy Spirit, Come!,
and through this Plenary Council
make of this nation Australia
the promised great south land
in complete synch with You.
Amen.

...........................................................................
​
​A printer friendly version is available below, 6 x A4 pages:

On the evening of 16 September our family piled into the local independent cinema to watch the movie 'Unplanned'. It was the only local showing of the movie, made possible by the Fan Force website (it is something similar to crowd funding for special interest movies to prove to the cinema that there are enough movie patrons to make a showing worthwhile).
 
I had followed the build up to the movie, and its release in the United States through Instagram, and the buzz had been very positive. I had been especially impressed from comments made by people working in abortion clinics about how realistically and sensitively abortion workers had been portrayed. Also noted were the comments from mothers that it was safe to bring children of high school age to the movie.
 
Apart from knowing that it was the story of how a former Planned Parenthood clinic director had an experience that changed her into an incredibly effective pro-life activist, and that it had been one of the fruits of the 40 Days for Life campaigns, I really didn't know the details of the story.
 
Before the movie started we were warned that the first 15 minutes of the movie would be the toughest part of the movie to watch. There is some truth to that if you are only counting scenes where there is depiction of blood, but not if you are counting moments of moral horror.
 
I am grateful for the opportunity to have seen the movie for many reasons.
•to understand the many good yet misguided motivations of those who work in the abortion industry
•to begin to understand how horrendous a chemical abortion (RU486) actually is
•to rejoice in this modern day Damascus Road conversion experience and the story of God's grace, providence and bigger-than-could-have-been-imagined plans
•to be reminded that God does answer long term 'will it ever happen?' prayers in a spectacular manner
•to see the background of the story that I had experienced in real time at broad-brush level through the 40 Days for Life emails during the post World Youth Day 2008 campaigns
•to add another layer of determination and commitment to eradicating abortion from our world
 
I have no reservations about recommending the movie to anyone:
https://www.amazon.com/Unplanned-Ashley-Bratcher/dp/B07VGKNQLV
 
At the first opportunity after the movie, I read the book which was the source for the screen play. The book is even better than the movie, but I am glad I saw the movie first; and the movie is very faithful to the book.
https://www.amazon.com/Unplanned-Dramatic-Planned-Parenthood-Eye-Opening/dp/1414396546
 
Since then I have watched the two Journey Home episodes that interviewed Abby Johnson about part of her story that the movie and book do not touch upon, ie her conversion to Catholicism. The first one is from 2014 soon after the release of the book, and the other is from 2019 not long before the movie was released. Both are worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khSiL9pwLhU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItYF1jJ4tLg
 
Her website is worth browsing:
http://www.abbyjohnson.org/
 
Abby Johnson has a subsequent book of compiled stories from former abortion workers. I have yet to read further than the first 10% of it, but that has been enough to get it onto my purchasing wish list.
https://www.amazon.com/Walls-Are-Talking-Abortion-Workers/dp/162164250X
 
This latter book is one of the fruits of Abby's ministry to those who want to leave the abortion industry. The 2019 Journey Home episode talks about how that ministry came to be.
​Here is the website for it:
https://abortionworker.com/
 
For another redemption story of God's mercy following the experience of abortion:
https://chnetwork.org/story/a-fathers-forgiveness/
This story depicts how much coercion plays a part in abortion.
 
Something that strikes me about these stories is how often women are put in the role of Pontius Pilate, faced with an innocent life that influential people and the crowd are insisting receive the death penalty; and yet the greater guilt is found with those who put the women in this role. What of the boyfriends, husbands, sexual opportunists and sexual predators who have been either active or passive in this coercion? What of their souls? Is there anyone calling them to redemption and conversion?
 
Dear God, please may we soon see abortion as illegal and unthinkable as slavery. Amen.

In recent weeks our family has experienced the death and funeral of Betty Olive Cavanagh nee Hunt, 9 Feb 1931 - 20 Jun 2018. Having promised many people that I would make her obituary available online, that is what I hope to do in this blog-post, as well as add in some photographs, some extra written material, and downloadable links to her funeral booklet, prayer card and a video-clip of her speaking about her life. 

Here is the obituary as printed in her funeral booklet. The family decided to print it rather than speak it, because a) we wanted to do her life justice b) many people find it hard to hear all that is said in a spoken eulogy and c) people can read it (and re-read it) at their own pace.

Obituary
​Betty Olive Cavanagh 9 Feb 1931 – 20 Jun 2018

Betty entered our world as the eldest daughter of Joseph Bede Hunt and Enid Noble in 1931. Her father at the time of her birth was a shunter with the NSW Railways. Bede's father was a blacksmith at Moorilda near Bathurst and Enid's father was an engine driver at Cowra.
​
When Betty was born, her parents were living at Enfield near the railway marshalling yards, very close to Enid's parents who were also by that stage living at Enfield. Bede then got a move to Bathurst, and for some reason Betty remained in the care of her maternal grandparents and maternal aunts and uncles. Perhaps the reason was that they didn't want to be parted from her, and all of us can relate to that! Perhaps there were concerns about the rates of tuberculosis in Bathurst. 

Siblings Elaine and Bill followed, but they always lived with their parents. Bede received moves to Cootamundra, Narrandera and Belmont, and eventually back to Enfield, where the family made their home at Lidcombe.

At school with the nuns Betty was happy. With the Children of Mary sodality she received good spiritual formation and a devotion to St Maria Goretti.

Betty left school at age 15 and began work as a mail delivery person at Hodgson & Co. at Ashfield. From there she moved into admin, working firstly on a half-ledger and later on a full ledger, being promoted regularly until she was looking after the ledger accounts for a single commercial traveller and entrusted with face to face over the counter interactions with customers.
​
It was in this 'front of house' role that she was noticed by Robert Cavanagh (a.k.a. Toby) as he came in to deliver the mail. She was not interested, but he had seen how special she was and he was persistent. Upon discovering that she liked to go swimming, he made sure that he tagged along the next time she went to the pool with her relatives. Their first official date was soon after 'chicken in a basket' was a menu option and they had that and went to a movie, had a memorable day together and from then on the relationship blossomed. Toby won over Betty's
siblings and her Noble relatives, but her mother was a different story. Enid wanted someone with more prospects for her daughter. 

Love found a way, and they were married on 2 Jun 1956, and after their honeymoon they lived with Toby's Mum and siblings at Summer Hill. Their son Paul arrived around 9 months later, and their daughter Maria around 5 years after that.
​
It was in 1961 that Toby and Betty came to live in Umina Beach, and Toby began operating the first Woolworths store in the area. 50 years later Betty was given the honour of cutting the ribbon to open the new Woolworths store at Umina Beach.

Back in 1961 they attended Sunday Mass at the cinema at Ettalong until the Sacred Heart Church at Umina was opened in 1964.

In the mid-late 1960s Toby was working at the (then new) shopping centre at Grace Bros, Top Ryde until he was head-hunted by Jim Dickson to run and hopefully eventually own the mixed business in West Street, Umina. Such were the desires of this young family until ill health and the discovery of digestive tract cancer reduced his life span, coming to a close on St Valentine's Day 1969 after multiple surgeries and an extended stay in Hornsby hospital. This left Betty a widow with 2 growing children dependent on her, and the loss of their dream of building their own home.

She did not know how she was going to cope with the responsibilities that now rested solely on her shoulders. Benefactors like Dr Frank O'Brien assisted with the expenses of school fees, and the family stayed in rented accommodation until the owners wanted to sell the property, and then they moved into a holiday cottage at Umina Beach owned by Bede and Enid, where Enid's sister Madge was living at the time. Enid expected and received regular rent payments.

Somehow she survived the acquisition by her children of all sorts of pets including Labradors and guinea pigs, but never cats – felines and Betty shared a mutual dislike. She survived the challenges of children with broken bones, appendicitis and eye operations. She survived their teenage years with associated romantic heartaches and watching a business venture crumble as the great recession of mid-late 1980's hit. How? By lots of prayer, the support of extended family, and offering up of each new difficulty as an act of mortification for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
​
Sometime between 1968 and 1969, when Fr Michael McCarthy was around, she got roped into becoming the sacristan at Sacred Heart Umina, setting up vestments and vessels for regular Masses and funerals and doing copious amounts of ironing of sacred linens. He bailed her up against one of the walls of the school and said that the couple who had been setting up for Mass (presumably at the cinema) were getting on in years, and she was much younger. Even after the Sacred Heart Umina property was sold in 2007, she continued to assist in the preparations for Saturday morning and Saturday vigil Mass, and to take home linen corporals and purifiers to wash and iron right up to the weekend before her palliative radiation treatment started. This meant that she served at Sacred Heart, Umina Beach from soon after it opened until it closed. 

She narrowly survived the calcification of a stent intended to temporarily fix an issue with the bladder back in 1993, losing one kidney in the process that was probably malfunctioning all through her life. Maybe it was this scare that made her so obedient to following her doctors' instructions, or maybe she just loved to imitate the obedience of Jesus.

Truthfulness was another virtue – but only supplied when the answer to the questions people asked her required it. Working out the right question to ask, now that was the hard part.
​
The evidence of the power of her prayers with God is impressive. God decided to answer the lengthy prayers of a mother concerned about the happiness of her son at the same time as He decided to answer the lengthy prayers of a lassie
seeking a good and holy husband in a way that a sequel to the Book of Tobit could be written. Then when the family wanted to put on a special celebration for her 75th birthday, she didn't want that at all, she prayed, and lo and behold a spot opened up for her to have a gall bladder operation requiring that her birthday be spent in hospital – a story to rival St Scholastica's. You noticed that stubborn streak did you? Good.

Her happiest days in later life came with the arrival of her two grandsons, and the affection between them was profound and mutual. Going on pilgrimage to Rome, the Holy Land and Medjugorje with them during the Holy Year of 2000 was another highlight. Further joys came with regular get-togethers with her siblings and their spouses, and when her brother Bill and his wife Cecilia moved to Ettalong around 2009.

Betty supported her children Paul and Maria with her prayers, presence and practical help when they both went through surgery and further treatment to remove cancer – thankfully not at the same time, but a few years apart.

Because she knew the One in whom she trusted, her first recourse when any need presented itself to her was to take it to prayer. If there was a situation she wasn't happy with, she didn't add her opinions to the mix, instead she took them all in prayer to the One she knew could fix any situation. This made her an
unparalleled mother-in-law. This same quality made her the confidante of many, even of complete strangers who would sit next to her on the bench while she waited for the rest of the family to complete their grocery shopping.

Her other special ministry was liturgical in nature. Daily missal in hand and with clear voice she would take her part in saying the Entrance and Communion antiphons at Mass and in making sure the Lamb of God prayers were begun at the right time. She was the go-to-gal for anyone unsure of which set of Proper prayers or set of readings was the correct one for that day's Mass. With unfailing patience she got everyone who turned to her for help onto the right page. Each morning she took part in the Morning Prayer of the Church, and frequently joined in the
communal recitation of the Rosary after daily Mass.

We thought she would be with us for much longer since her father lived till 94 and her mother to 101, but after 49 years of widowhood God decided that it was time to prepare her for the longed for reunion with her dear ones in heaven. This took the form of an aggressively growing oral cancer, paired with the double whammy of advanced age and lone kidney.

It took these difficult final weeks when her strength was fading to uncover just how good and patient a listener she must have been for her many friends over the years because a pattern became apparent that most of them had the 'gift of the gab'.

Her lifetime of 'offering it up for the holy souls' and understanding of the value of 'acts of mortification' bore fruit in the way she gently accepted the increasing bad news about her health and squarely faced all the medical tests and treatments recommended, as well as her increasingly larger dependence on nursing assistance. 

Keeping records neatly was something she excelled at. In her diary she would note down the time of day and priest for each Mass she attended – even the 'Mass For You At Home' broadcasts early on Sunday mornings, and times of phone calls and medical appointments, all in her trademark capital letters. Cousins and nieces and nephews were never forgotten, she kept in contact with them and never missed sending a birthday card. She enjoyed reading, especially about the lives of holy people, and doing puzzles, always solving the ones at the back of her TV Week magazine.

Up until 31 May 2018, the diocesan patronal feast day of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, she was at morning Mass every day, but from then on the decline in her health began in earnest. 

She loved to pray the ‘Stay with me’ prayer of St Padre Pio, and this was answered in a wonderful way in her last days, as her last three Holy Communions were given with 1/4 of a host, the last 1/4 consumed by her son Paul a few hours after she very gently breathed her last, as she wished, at home in her sleep.

May God grant her a merciful judgment and an extraordinary reward. Amen.

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Her friend, Beverley, wanted to say something at Betty's funeral, so I promised her that I would put it online instead:

A voice rings out in the Church. It is the voice of Betty Cavanagh. She is saying the Entrance Antiphon Prayer as Father is walking in to our Church for Morning Mass. We join her but only a few have a missal. Betty also says the Lamb of God prayer after the Lord's Prayer and I join her in the Communion Antiphon. She is my mentor and my friend. For ten years she has been guiding me along God's path. There is so much she knows about the Church Year and often she would turn around to see if I had the right page. Her seat, in front of me is empty now, and I miss her, especially our hug.
My dear friend, au revoir.
Beverley.

​..............................................................................................

​The homily at her funeral, which I have no hope of doing justice too, was given by a former parish priest, Dr John Hill, and he spoke about how only the strong are able to be meek, and how only the strong are able to forgive, and how those that the world doesn't give a second glance to are most precious in the eyes of God - because their whole intent is on pleasing Him.

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Some year's back, the parish priest at the time devised a form for parishioners to fill in so that the parish had a record of their wishes for readings, hymns, internment, funeral options etc, and the back page had a biographical section.

Betty filled out the front page, and the back page, but could never decide which readings and hymns she wanted.

We found that back page after her death, and include it here because it is in her own handwriting and in her own words:

So what did we end up choosing for her funeral readings and hymns? and Why?

The first reading from the prophet Micah, about the simple things needed for us to please God, had been a family favourite and reminded us of the direct simplicity of Betty's relationship with God.

The psalm, Psalm 94(95), is the one Betty prayed every morning in the Prayers of the Church, a.k.a. the Divine Office.

The second reading from St Paul's letter to the Philippians was for the feast day of St Romauld, 19 June, and was read for Betty at her last Holy Communion, when it felt so completely apt for that moment.

The Gospel from St Luke is about the holy people in the Temple who waited for the Messiah, particularly the woman who was widowed young and spent the rest of her days serving God.

Hymn-wise, 'Gentle woman, quiet light' is as good a description of Betty as it is of Our Lady, as she definitely tried to live out her consecration to the Mother of Jesus each day, and that became the opening hymn.

Betty loved the hymn Panis Angelicus, especially when Lyn Dwyer sang it, so that was an obvious choice for Holy Communion, and was followed by a favourite of many, Soul of my Saviour, as the post-Communion hymn.

Betty liked that at Nina's funeral on 30 May 2018, a good friend of hers, they had the Salve Regina (Latin version of the Hail Holy Queen) as the last hymn, and we liked it too. It is also the anthem to Our Lady that closes Night Prayer for people around the world, and what the priests of our diocese sing as their final farewell to one of their own.

Here's a copy of the funeral booklet, if you would like to read them in full:​

And if you would like to hear Betty talking about her life in the interview her grandson did with her back on 7 May 2018 soon after the medical news confirmed that the cancer was stage 4 and inoperable, it takes about 18 minutes: 

After all that, there's a chance you might like to have a prayer card to put in your bible, missal, prayer book etc, to remember her by. So here's a downloadable version:  

Because it could be many weeks until the evening session is transcribed, it seems like a good idea to not hold up sharing the testimonies until the rest of the 2 hours' worth of transcriptions are done. These are the testimonies given prior to the evening plenary session at the 2016 Divine Renovation Conference #DR16 together with the update given on the development of Divine Renovation Ministries and information on how to support it.

Music lyrics:
'In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord we come. Our God saves. Our God saves. There is hope in Your name.'
'I believe in the Son, I believe in the Risen One, I believe I overcome by the power of His blood. Let my song join the one that never ends. Because He lives.'

Testimonies
Fr James Mallon (FJM): God our Father, we thank You and bless You for these days together. Lord we thank You for the life You give us, the life You pour into us each day. Lord we pray that we may continue to experience the resurrected life of Jesus this night. We pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 'I am alive because He lives' and that's something we've been witnessing these days, especially in our testimonies. People have said, you know, the talks have been good and all that, but those testimonies are…. – and I absolutely 100% agree. It's absolutely amazing, and I'd like to invite Mike to come up. Let's give Mike a welcome. (clapping)

FJM: So Mike, tell us, where were you spiritually 4 years ago?

Mike: 4 years ago I wouldn't be anywhere close to a conference like this. Just to back up a bit, I was raised in the United Church, we went to church maybe an hour a week, but that was it, like church meant nothing besides that. So as I grew up, I maybe left the church a bit, until I was a little older and I met this nice Catholic girl. And eventually, not only did I marry a very beautiful girl, I married into a very Catholic family, very Catholic. So I was around it, but it didn't mean anything to me.

FJM: So what happened?

M: Well I can remember. I think I was sitting right out there probably about 3 years ago, and you mentioned this Alpha course, and I'm thinking, 'O yeah, there's no way I'm doing that. Like, no way.

FJM: Ok, ok, so even before that, how did you end up in a pew of a church to begin with?

M: Well, when I became married, my wife, it was very important for her to take the kids to church, and her and my daughter used to go all the time. But it wasn't until my daughter was just a little girl, big curls and all that, and I can remember her saying to me, 'Daddy, I really wish you would go to church with us.' I'm hooked. So you got me in the pew. Mind you, when I was here I was probably looking at the watch to see when the hour was up. So that was basically it. But then, as I said, I was over there, I heard about Alpha and I never thought I would take it, but my lovely wife was nice enough to sign me up. So, like a coup was like hitting. So when I went to Alpha, at first it was great, the people were nice, the talks were good, food was good, but that's all it was. And then the big weekend away, great. And I can remember being a little freaked out, and all these people were praying over each other, and I'm thinking, you know, 'I could probably use the prayers, but there's no way I'm going up there. I'm not putting myself out there'. So I can remember leaving and I can remember driving home with my wife saying, 'You know, I don’t think I'm ever going to have a relationship with God.' But that week I just had this feeling like I needed to be prayed with, and I was kind of, I was almost beating myself up because I didn't go, but lo and behold Alpha comes around that week and they're doing the prayer ministry again. And I decide, I'm sitting there, 'Do I go up? Do I not?' And after what seemed like a while I said, 'Yes, I'm going to do up', and you know, I had a lot of pain and hurt inside, and I went up, and I just felt this, like immense, just peace flow right through me, as if God's love was just flowing right through me. And it was at that moment I knew that I was going to have a relationship with Jesus.

FJM: What difference has Jesus made in your life?

M: Well let me see, ah, after taking Alpha I've been on team I think 5 times. I'm in a connect group. I'm involved in the youth ministry. I'm speaking here, which honestly I would never… I would have bet the firm that this would have never happened to me. So I really thank God because I think I was at a time in my life where I really did need His love, and I just feel blessed.

FJM: Chris, come on up. I'm going to ask Chris to come up. Where were you spiritually 7 months ago?

Christopher: Not very far. I went to church for the first time in 30 years last summer. I had a lot of questions and absolutely no answers. A good friend answered every question I'd asked her with 'You have to go to Alpha' and finally – I didn't even tell her – I just went. The first face I saw was Mike's wife, ironically. I started out a skeptic and kind of grew from there.

FJM: So what happened on Alpha?

C: The big point for me was the weekend. A few weeks in I was still skeptical and growing and I started feeling something, I didn't really know what it was. And on the weekend away I heard about all these people having these amazing experiences and the leader said to me, right before the big moment, 'Have a good snack, you're going to need your strength'. And I looked at her like she was crazy and then I realised, I wanted to have an experience, and I was really scared that I wasn't going to.

FJM: So you're on the Holy Spirit weekend, and what was it that happens?

C: So we got to the moment we were calling the Holy Spirit to fill people up, and I just started shaking. I was, I didn't know what I was feeling. I can't even explain it, and the girl beside me from my group kept elbowing me, 'You have to go and get prayed over', ''Give me a minute'.

FM: That's not in the Alpha training, to elbow the guests. You'll have to take note of that name Ron.

C: I'm not giving names. And I get ready to go up and I was walking up and I only saw one face I recognised, and it was Mike. I didn't really know him well, but I just made a beeline.

FJM: This guy was doing the prayer? (pointing back to Mike)

C: Scary thought, but yeah.

FJM: So tell us what happened? Obviously I knew that, right? I knew that. Do you know what I didn't know? I found out 2 days ago, that his prayer partner was Alan, Laurie's boyfriend, from this morning. He was the other prayer partner that prayed over Chris. So what happened?

C: It's interesting. I got up there and I was a mess. I was a mess and I'm surprised Mike hasn't mentioned it yet. I was leaned over and there was a puddle of tears on the floor underneath my face. And it's funny, they asked me if I wanted to be prayed over, and I thought I knew and I said it, and then all of a sudden Mike started to pray for something else entirely – which is how I knew there was something going on because he had no idea what I needed, but He knew what I needed.

FJM: What difference has Jesus made in your life?

C: I'm still working on that. It's early for me, but it's more this parish and this family and these people. I think I needed that, that feeling, that community, that open arms. I really needed that.

FJM: We're going to have another testimony, a different kind of testimony. Where's Lee? Come on up. This is pastor Lee Kricher, and he is from a particular city in the US that is the envy of many Canadians these days. The Sidney that now lights Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia.

LK: I'm pastor of Amplify Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I would like to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you for Sidney Crosby. Thank you for sharing Sidney Crosby. (a professional ice hockey player).

FJM: So tell us Lee, what has brought you here from Pittsburgh to a conference here in a Catholic church in Halifax?

LK: Well, I mean, 6 months ago we had Matt Maher at our church. He wrote the song we just sang. In our church we have 600 evangelicals lifting our hands singing, 'Because He Lives I'm alive' and here 600 evangelical Catholics with their hands up in the air doing the same. And so the idea of us worshipping together makes so much sense but also because of our goal of changed lives. As we've been seeing all week long here, and making a difference in our community for Jesus Christ. Learning together and learning from one another makes all the sense in the world. So I found out about the conference. Our church in 2003 was on its last legs. We were under 200 people. The average age was well over 50, and we were one of the fastest dying churches in the city. And we had to make a decision whether we were going to close our doors or to try and do something we had lost the ability to do, and that was re-connect with the next generation. And so because of our commitment to not lose our faith to our children and our grandchildren, we made a lot of changes that are so similar to what you heard about in Divine Renovation.

FJM: And the incredible thing for me is when we start to get some feedback from evangelical pastors about the book. I thought this was a Catholic problem only, and I've found out it's not. It's really a human problem, isn't it?

LK: Yes, very much so. We made some dramatic changes. Some people stayed; some people left. But this many years later, our average attendance – we have 3 campuses – we have about 1800 people. And what's most exciting (clapping), what's most exciting is that every generation is well represented again in our church. So I'm very blessed about that and having been called upon by other pastors saying, 'We need to re-connect with the next generation'. And so I was recently with a Catholic collaborative in Pittsburgh, 5 different parishes. I'll be with Parish Catalyst in September in Los Angeles, and I thought one reason to come is I need to understand better the context of church revitalisation and renewal, from a great place to learn it from, but I also found… I just talked to our board of directors and to my associate senior pastor, I said, there's some things we're going to be working on learning here at the conference. So it's been absolutely amazing.

I think of when we started our journey, one inspiration was in a story from Exodus, of when Moses sent out the 12 scouts, and all of them saw the exact same opportunities and the exact same obstacles, but 10 of them came back saying, 'We can't do this', 'We can't'. And we had a bunch of 'we can't' people in our church. And they were saying, well, we're not in the bible belt where people just roll out of bed and there's a 1000 people in the church automatically. We're in the North East U.S., churches are dying. We're not even in the fast growing part of town in the northern suburbs. We're in the eastern suburbs where there's no growth, and you know, we don’t have a great music band like this – so we don't have that to attract people. We're not like a Catholic church where people automatically come because there's… I say that because every reason is as crazy as the next, and you can pile them all up as to why we can't do it. But there is a man named Caleb. Joshua had the same attitude. And Caleb said, 'We can', 'We can enter', and you know what? What's funny is the 10 never entered. Caleb and Joshua did. So the ones who said 'We can' and the ones who said 'We can't' both ended up being right. So I would just say, don't be quick to say 'We can't', and the main reason we came is I'm attracted to Caleb types, and that's also who you are Fr Mallon. (clapping)

FJM: Lee has a book being published by Harper Collins on 2 August called 'For a New Generation: a practical guide for revitalising your church' and I was privileged to read it a few months ago and it's a fantastic book. I highly recommend it. But as you were talking Lee, especially with your work in working with other pastors in different churches and helping… And thank you, by the way, for desiring to impart wisdom into Catholic parishes and to helping us, thank you so much. And I just had a sense that we should pray for this man. So Let's stand together for a moment. Let's just extend a hand of prayer.

Lord God, we praise You and we thank You Lord. We thank You for the many manifestations of the life that You wish to give us. And Lord how You move in our midst through the hearts of leaders to lead renewal of Your churches to reach the next generation. Lord, I thank You for Lee. I thank You for his family. Lord we ask that You continue to pour Your Spirit upon him, to continue to anoint him in his ministry. Lord we thank You that You have given him a heart to help other pastors. We thank You for the work that he is doing and we ask that You go before him Lord, and to prepare the way for that work for Your kingdom. And Lee, I'm going to give you a good Catholic blessing here, ok? And we ask that You bless him in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. (hugs and clapping)

FJM: You notice how I snuck that one in? (laughter). We have our ways, you know. I want to take a few minutes, before we launch in tonight, to give you a little update on where we are. The reason we had this conference was because we were simply overwhelmed by incoming stuff. Honest to goodness, we never imagined we…., we had no clue. We just thought we'd write a book and let the book do the work. We didn't realise it would cause us even more work. (laughter) And at first it was really cool, it was like, great, we said Yes to everyone and all of this, and then we realised very quickly that wasn't going to work. We actually talked among our staff team. We found out about a year ago, that adding up everyone's time in any given week, responding to other churches was the equivalent of between 1 and 2 full-time jobs. It was almost a half-time job to say No to people. And in a sense if you've got a plate of French fries and one person wants one French fry, it's no big deal, yeah, no problem. But when 200 people want just one French fry, we've got a bit of a problem unless we've got a steady flow of French fries coming through. So I talked this morning about sustainability. And you know I've been down that path. We've been down the path of working out of models of ministry that are unsustainable, and it's not life giving. It will never, as God is my witness, and as I am free to do so, I will never consciously lead like that again.

And so we really do believe that God is calling us to help other churches – not entirely sure what that means. We know that this conference this year was a part of it. We're thinking there might be…People are saying, is there going to be a DR17? No, there's not! If there were, we're already 6 months behind. But there might be a DR18, we're not sure. But we have a website, we have podcasts that we do that are very, very helpful to people, we have videos, we are looking to build other resources. We have launched a Divine Renovation Coaching Network where we invest heavily in other churches and other pastors. We have an interning program. We've got vacancies for that. We are looking at ways to do this. But, the one thing is that in a sense we are launching a ministry in answer to what we believe is God's call.

And tonight we debated whether we should do this or not, but I decided to model for you here what I do with my own parishioners when it comes to making an 'Ask'. And it is simply to give people the freedom to respond to God's call, but not to any other human motive. We know that many of you have invested tremendously to come here, tremendously, you've already made great sacrifices and your presence here is already an enormous support of our ministry, and we thank you for that. And we know that you are praying for us. But we also believe that there may be some people here tonight who might say, you know, we might want to help you, give you a leg up, to launch this ministry so that you can continue to help other churches like us, so that you might be able to provide some staffing and resources behind this so you can get it going. And for that reason we did put envelopes in the pews. Some of you probably already spotted them. And we're just going to take a few minutes and please, please, please hear me say this: we know you have sacrificed greatly to be here, and I fully hope that if it's not the time for that, that you have complete freedom to do so. And if you do feel that you would like to support us in anyway whatsoever, there are envelopes there. We can issue a tax receipt for donations from the U.S. and Canada, as it says on the envelopes. U.S. donations are to be made out to Renewal Ministries, they are able to pass that through so that you can get your tax receipt and it's all legitimate. Canadian donations to John Paul II Media – it's on the envelope. And if you think that you might be able to partner with us beyond a one time offering, we're just going to ask that you give us your email address and we'll be in touch to talk about that. So again, please, no obligation, we know that every single person has made sacrifices to be here and that you are supporting us in that way and with your prayers. But we're going to take a few minutes just for some music, and in about 2 minutes from now some of the ushers will just pass the basket. Ok? Thank you so much.

(instrumental music)
……………………………………………………………
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from these testimonies for me is the reminder of just how difficult it is for a person (particularly blokes) to get the courage to ask someone else to pray over them for the first time. The next biggest takeaway is the importance of the loving friendly environment that Alpha provides to give people the gentle pace, enough time and space for God's grace to begin to open their hearts sufficiently to let Him in.

And the biggest action point? Particularly in the light of the recent graffiti attack (Halifax Easter 2018), a reminder that we need to pray for ministries like this because spiritual attack and spiritual obstacles are intense for those at the leading edge of what God is doing. I am reminded of the spiritual insight of the desert fathers, and the image of a single demon stationed outside a city, and a whole legion of demons besieging a monastery.
​
P.S. The exchange of wisdom and experience and support between the churches, within and without denominational lines, is something we all need to open our hearts wider to.

Because this testimony of Laurie's contains so many important things, it deserves its own blog-post. This was the testimony given prior to the morning plenary session at the 2016 Divine Renovation Conference #DR16.

​As usual, this is an imperfect transcription.

Music lyrics:
'Jesus, let Your kingdom come here, King of heaven, come now.'
'O our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth…We behold…Your Name is a light in the darkness'.

Testimony
Fr James Mallon (FJM): We want to take a few minutes this morning to introduce to you another parishioner. Let's give Laurie some welcome. Where were you 5 years ago?

Laurie* (L): I was not on any spiritual journey 5 years ago. I was a cradle Catholic and had fallen away from my faith in my early 20s.    (*The spelling of this name could be incorrect. If so, my apologies.)

FJM: So how come you are now standing in front of 600 people? We had 2000 views on Livestream from yesterday morning. So there's a lot of people watching out there as well. Let's give them a wave. (they wave to the viewers) So that didn't make you nervous at all?

L: I'd do anything for Fr James. That's true.

FJM: So what happened? What was the beginning of your journey?

L: I had a very tragic marriage that ended in divorce. I am the mother of 2 beautiful children, a son 17 and a daughter 12. I'd done all the secular things to try and heal from my divorce. I went to counselling and I sought other relationships. None of these things worked. I actually woke up one morning at my boyfriend's home and I walked into the living room and I was hit so quick that I knew that I had to find God. I ended the relationship from that moment and I went on a search for God, and the only place I really knew to find God was in the church. I didn't really want to come back to the Catholic Church because I was divorced. I could never reconcile being divorced and Catholic. So I sought out a couple of non-denominationals and they were very nice, but didn't seem right to me. So I spoke to a co-worker and said, 'You know, this church search is not going so well' and her parents were members of this parish, and she said, 'You know, you should really try St Benedicts', they have a young progressive priest'. That was 5 years ago.

FJM: I was reacting to being called a progressive. We aim to be very traditional here, you know like apostolic traditional right?

L: So I decided to come to Mass one day. I could not tell you what happened that day except for when I came into this church I was given a huge sense of peace and just sat in the pew and sobbed my eyes out. I did that for about 2 months. I did not reach out to anyone in the parish, I came in and left. And finally I knew God wanted me to do this for my children – and I really, really had no idea how to do this. The only minister my children knew was the Prime Minister. So anyways, this is when I reached out to someone and asked about how to get my daughter baptised. This came with huge shame and guilt because I never baptised my daughter. So someone from the baptismal committee called me and she loved me on that phone. She did not judge me, she was just so full of joy and said, 'I cannot wait to tell Fr James this story' and we made arrangements to meet, and of course I was scared to death to meet a priest. And again, praise the Lord, Fr James was the same, he just loved me, he did not judge me, he gave me 3 directions, and he said, 'Laurie, I want you to start taking the kids to Mass (1), put your son in youth group (2) and your daughter in catechism class (3), (at that point he was 12 and she was 8), and I promise you God will do the rest': and, He has.

FJM: So what was the next step after that?

L: So my children received the sacraments, and during that year my daughter was baptised and my son received his first Holy Communion, they did it together. That was very special. My son joined the youth group and he as well was loved by the youth ministers and had a powerful experience of the Holy Spirit through a youth minister. And we just became active members in the parish, and the parish just loved us. Eventually, due to a lot of talk about Alpha in the parish and the encouragement of my priest, I did take Alpha and had a powerful experience of the Holy Spirit on the retreat weekend, and again the profound thing for me during my Alpha experience was being loved by the table helper. My table host was pretty cool, (Ron Huntley), but the table helper loved me, and that just made me want to come back.

FJM: So after Alpha, what kind of impact did that have on your life?

L: Well Jesus became my Lord and King, I gave my life to Christ, and I want to share that. My family saw complete transformation in me, including my brother who was away from his faith, both my parents were away from the church as well. So I prayed that the Lord would help me evangelise my family, and eventually my mother did take Alpha, and she had a profound experience as well, on the weekend away, and at the Holy Spirit retreat.

FJM: And what's your mum's name?

L: My mum's name is Gail*.

FJM: Is she here today? Gail, get up here. (clapping) Come and stand beside your daughter, Gail.

L: So yes my mum eventually went on to serve on Sushi Alpha and both my parents (my Dad's not here today) are active members of St Benedict's.

FJM: That's an Alpha we run in a Sushi restaurant, in case you were wondering.

L: And so my so is quite an invitational disciple, he has invited my father to prayer breakfasts, his father – who is not a Christian – to prayer breakfasts. He even brought his father to Mass on Easter, which was very healing for our family. He invited my brother to a men's prayer breakfast where there was a very profound witness shared at that prayer breakfast, and it started to stir things into my brother's life, and he started to ask me questions, and praise God he texted me in September and said, 'I just went to Mass these last 2 Sundays'. So I tried to act really cool, I went 'Cool', but I was jumping up and down in my kitchen, ecstatic, praising God. The kids thought I was crazy. And so he returned to his faith. And since then my niece, who is 10, was baptised in January, and she just had her first Holy Communion. I'm a godmother for the first time, and my son is a godfather.

FJM: Speaking of your son – well he's here. He's supposed to be at school, but he's here. We're not going to tell them. Come up here.

L: So my dad, who is a very devoted husband, came back to church with my mum, and so they attend Mass every week and it's just awesome.

FJM: Gail, can I just ask you, what difference has Jesus made in your life?

G. Well I feel it helped me understand my relationship with Jesus, and also He is the light in my life.

FJM to L's son: The first time I met you, you were about that height (double that now). What difference has Jesus made in your life? This guy had a job interview a few months ago and he invited the lady interviewing him to come to church. And she came. What difference has Jesus made in your life?

L's son: Well, I had let anxiety and fear stop me from following Christ, and when I threw that all away and got on my knees I really felt I had a purpose to be a missionary disciple, and I let that run my life now. It's amazing how I've changed. (clapping)

L: So when I completed Alpha I knew God was calling me to apply for an annulment. This as many know, is a very painful process but to me it was so healing. The Lord brought so much healing to my life through that, and then the boyfriend that I talked about before, when I woke up at his home, we always maintained contact and we'd bump into each other once in a while. So we happened to have this conversation, and he was struggling with some things related to his father having dementia, and he was asking me questions and I said, 'You should really think about taking Alpha, you might get your answers there'. And there just so happened to be an Alpha Come and See the next week, and it was just perfect timing. And I asked him to come, and he did, and he took the Alpha course – and he as well had a profound experience of the Holy Spirit on the weekend away, and again the helpers and the people on that team just loved him and just showered him with non-judgment and love, and he as well has returned to his faith. He was just confirmed this Easter.

FJM: And just to be clear. This is the boyfriend you dumped, and now you've got him back. Alan*, come up. Alan, what difference has Jesus made in your life?

A: Oooh, big question. Calm. A lot of glory, and He has let me realise that if anybody is going to bring you through anything – it's Jesus.

FJM: You know, the remarkable thing is that 4.5 years ago (family photo on screen) not one single member of this family was connected to church, and now they are all not just connected, they're living as disciples, as missionary disciples. It is an amazing grace and it doesn't stop there. Laurie, tell us a bit about what the Lord (we talked yesterday about passion and vision). What did the Lord put on your heart?

L: When I was applying for my annulment, I really wanted to know what the Catholic church said about me being divorced. So I was on the internet and I came across this beautiful website called divorcedcatholic.com , and I saw a ministry there called Journey of Hope (now called Recovering from Divorce). It is a Catholic cased ministry for divorced Catholics and there's a book on there, and I thought, 'Oooh, that looks interesting'. I applied to get the devotionals from that ministry to my emails. And those devotionals are written by people who have taken this program. So I was getting them for about a year. They were very, very powerful, very healing. This was all around the time I was going through my annulment, and a year later one of the parish staff, she saw the ministry on another church website and she said and asked me, 'Laurie, would you do this?' And I said, 'Absolutely!'. God has healed me of my deep pain of losing my marriage and He wants to use me to help others, and that is my mission.

FJM: And what has happened since then?

L: So the ministry was launched at St Benedict's 3 years ago, God provided the perfect person to help me launch it. We will be finishing our 3rd year next weekend, and through this program people who have taken it have become leaders in the ministry, and it has been a profound healing for the women who have taken the program. Also some of the women who have come were disconnected from the church, and last year in particular, 4 of the women who were disconnected from the church came to take the ministry, received some profound healing, went on to take Alpha, and one of them actually was just on our Alpha team.

FJM: What's your vision? What's your hope? Your desire for this ministry?

L: First, that the Lord will raise up male leaders, so we can have a group for men. Secondly, I would love the ministry to be offered in the community, because for a lot of people coming to the church is scary, so I would love for that to happen. And also that perhaps some leaders here would have it on their heart to take that ministry home.

FJM: Thank you so much to you Laurie, and to all of your family, thank you.
……………………………………………………………………….

There are many important things to notice about this testimony.
Firstly, it is the action of the Holy Spirit that initiates it. The first action was the desire which came out of left field of a desire to find God. It was His work again that gave Laurie the restlessness in other places and the huge sense of peace in the pew at St Benedict's. His action again was in the urging to bring her children to the sacraments and to take the step to do Alpha.

What we don't have in this testimony is the story of how this grace was won for Laurie. Was it the answer to the prayers of a deceased holy grandmother? Did someone meet Laurie and commit themselves to praying for her? Was it the general prayers of the parishioners of St Benedict's praying for people to come and do the Alpha course? Maybe it was all of the above, and more.

Secondly we have a series of moments of truth, which could have gone badly wrong, but in this case were extremely positive.

Laurie had to get up the courage to find someone to ask about the process of getting her daughter baptised. The person she spoke to is unnamed, but this person was obviously approachable and helpful, and followed through and obtained contact details from Laurie and got them to the right person on the baptismal committee. This sounds like it may have bypassed the parish office, and if so, it was probably a good save because the average parish office receptionist is trying to juggle many things at once. However, the first point of contact for many people is the parish office, so any time invested in choosing warm, friendly people with hearts filled with the Holy Spirit's love in these positions is well spent. (NB. When you pray for your priests, remember to pray for the parish staff as well).

The baptismal committee member may have been given a brief description of Laurie from the person passing on her contact details. Every bit helps. Certainly it made a difference that the baptismal committee member could choose a time to phone when she wasn't stressed and had prior experience welcoming people into the baptismal program. It made a difference that this person chose to build a relationship with Laurie in preference to just giving her details about what to do and where to go for the program. It made a difference that this person was excited about what God had done in Laurie's life to bring her to this point, and that she was sure the priest would share this excitement – setting things up for a positive priestly interview. At the end of this conversation Laurie felt wanted and loved, and not like a number to be processed through a conveyor belt.

Fr Mallon was in to building relationships too, and listened to Laurie's journey. She was met with joy, welcome and genuine interest. Did you notice that he gave her three 'easy to remember' achievable goals? He didn't bring up annulments, he didn't bring up Alpha. He set her up for success knowing that if she could achieve these three things, she would give God the time and space to do the rest. At no point did she get the feeling that the priest was itching to get back to tasks he considered more important.

Laurie's whole story illustrates one of God's maxims, 'You just love them, and leave Me to do the business of converting them'.

Another thing to ponder is how long this conversion process took. It takes time to get from 'I need to find God' to 'I need to check out a church this Sunday'. It takes time to shop around for a church. It takes time to get up the courage to enter the doors of a Catholic church. It takes time to go from being a passive church attender to asking a question. It takes time to go through catechism classes, to go through an Alpha program, and it definitely takes time to go through an annulment process. So when God sends us someone it is right and just to acknowledge the workings of grace in his/her life that have preceded this new step along the journey of faith. Can this process be hurried along? Probably not. Although it would have been interesting if someone had noticed Laurie crying during her season of tears at Mass and did more than just pray for her from a distance.

Pope Francis has spoken about how we need to learn the art of accompaniment. The table helper at Alpha is one example of how to do this, and the daily inspirations emails from the divorcedcatholic.com website is another. Those daily inspiration emails filled a need that the parish at that time was unable to fill; they put Laurie in connection with others on the same journey of healing from the wounds of divorce.

Did you notice that St Benedict's had several options for outreach to people happening outside the church walls? The sushi restaurant; Alpha: prayer breakfasts, and hopefully the ministry to divorced persons too. Each was meeting people where they were at, and in non-threatening and non-scary locations.

Another lesson we can learn is to not despise small beginnings. If that first phone call from the baptismal committee member had not gone well, a whole family could have missed out on the transformation Jesus brings into people' lives.

May God bless and protect Laurie and her whole family as they seek to live out all that God has called them to be and to do.
St Benedict, pray for them. Amen.

.............................................................................................
Lest you think that a ministry to divorced people is an optional extra, these excerpts from Wendy Alec's 'Visions from Heaven' Part 3, from the chapter entitled 'The Minister' will hopefully make you rethink that.

'There is no wound on Earth as terrible as a wound inflicted by a husband on a wife, or a wife on her husband. The marriage covenant is eternal. By rejecting the wife of your youth, you gouged your own entire body in such a manner that it was almost impossible to recover. My children who suffer the most are those who reject their spouse and then they themselves feel that they experience no pain. Divorce has become commonplace in My Body. There are many, many of My children who walk at this time literally gouged and bleeding from the wounds of separation, divorce and rejection. I long to heal them. You felt little pain as a result of rejecting your wife on Earth, and yet your wounds were even more desperate than your wife's. You were the one whose wounds were so desperate that they led to an early death.'

The 50th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) was celebrated on Saturday 18 February 2017, and all of 2017 is considered to be a year of jubilee. #ccrgoldrenjubilee2017 should help you find some of those celebrations. As with any special anniversary, it is a time to look back, a time to give thanks, and a time to look forward.
 
I was able to attend celebrations over the weekend of 17-19 February 2017 in Parramatta Diocese and to watch and listen to all the sessions video recorded at the con-current celebrations at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, where the Renewal started. Those video sessions are no longer free, but are available at www.somethinglikereal.com/ordermedia . From both I will stitch together a history from all the memories that were shared.
 
To find the real start, we need to go back to the late 1890s and Pope Leo XIII and Blessed Elena Guerra. Blessed Elena wrote several letters to Pope Leo XIII asking him to promote devotion to the Holy Spirit. Accordingly in 1895 he wrote Provida Matris, in which he recommended to Catholics special prayers at the Feast of Pentecost, for the Reunion of Christendom. In 1897 he wrote Divinum Illud Munus (On the Holy Spirit) talking about the role of the Holy Spirit in the Divine Economy and calling for a novena of prayer preceding Pentecost and attaching indulgences to that novena. (Ed. It is well worth a read.) Sadly these two requests didn't get a lot of response world-wide. Next he was asked to have the Veni Sancte Spiritus (the sequence for Pentecost) sung as he processed in for the first Mass of the 20th century. This he did. Soon after the Pentecostal revival began in 1906. As a Church if we had responded in 1897 we would perhaps be celebrating the 120th anniversary of the Renewal.
 
The world goes through the First World War, then the events at Fatima in 1917, the Great Depression and the Second World War. Along comes Pope St John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. Here is the prayer prayed before each of its sessions:
 
We stand before you, Holy Spirit,
conscious of our sinfulness,
but aware that we gather in Your name.
Come to us, remain with us,
and enlighten our hearts.
Give us light and strength
to know Your will,
to make it our own,
and to live it in our lives.
Guide us by Your wisdom,
support us by Your power,
for You are God, sharing the glory of Father and Son.
You desire justice for all;
enable us to uphold the rights of others;
do not allow us to be misled by ignorance
or corrupted by fear or favour.
Unite us to Yourself in the bond of love
and keep us faithful to all that is true.
As we gather in Your name, may we temper justice with love,
so that all our discussions and reflections
may be pleasing to You, and earn the reward
promised to good and faithful servants.
We ask this of You who live and reign with the
Father and the Son, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
 
The work of the 2nd Vatican Council was a major movement of grace and stirred up a lot of things and gave the Holy Spirit room to move.
 
In 1966 two professors at the small Catholic university in Pittsburgh got serious about praying daily for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They, too, used that anciently beautiful Pentecost sequence for the purpose. During this time they were given by friends two books to read; The Cross and the Switchblade and They Speak With Other Tongues. Reading them made it easier for them to attend a local Pentecostal prayer meeting in January 1967. Impressed, they returned, sought and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
 
These professors were leading students in a scripture study group. A February retreat had been planned, and a theme chosen, but they decided to change the theme to 'the Holy Spirit'. Participants were encouraged to prepare for this retreat weekend by praying expectantly, reading 'The Cross and the Switchblade' and the first 4 chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. The place they went to was called The Ark and The Dove.
 
During the retreat, at the beginning of each session they sang an ancient hymn to the Holy Spirit, the Veni Creator Spiritus. Early sessions were on Mary, on returning to God in the sacrament of Penance, and on surrendering to God as Lord and Master. Following this two students, David and Patti, proposed that they conclude the weekend with a renewal of baptismal promises. They committed to doing this even if no one else decided to. On the Saturday night of that retreat, there were some birthday celebrations downstairs. But David felt a prompting to go upstairs to the wooden paneled chapel with the box-like tabernacle. There he had a profound experience of God. Patti came into the chapel looking for students to send down to the party, and began to pray. She then had a profound experience of the presence of God that prompted her to surrender herself unconditionally to God with this prayer. "Father, I give my life to you. Whatever You ask of me, I accept. And if it means suffering, I accept that too. Just teach me to follow Jesus and to love as He loves." And she was flooded with an experience of the merciful love of God. Leaving the chapel to find the chaplain to talk about this, she came across two other girls. Patti led these two students into the chapel and began to pray, “Lord, whatever You just did for me, do it for them!” And He did.
 
Many, but not all of the retreatants made their way to the chapel that night and experienced God too. Of those that didn't, fear held them back, either fear of making such a surrender to God or fear of the strange things the others were experiencing. One had felt an inexplicable hatred for Patti the whole weekend, and was only set free to experience God when Patti and the professors prayed for her to be delivered from evil.
 
For more detail about this retreat, read http://www.arlingtonrenewal.org/duquesne-weekend.html
 
These experiences of God, and the charisms that came with it, changed their lives so noticeably that others asked to be prayed for and this work of the Holy Spirit spread rapidly throughout the United States and then to the rest of the world.
 
The students wondered if what they had experienced was Catholic or not, and they found an affirmative answer in the documents of Vatican II, especially Lumen Gentium 12b:
 
'It is not only through the sacraments and the ministries of the Church that the Holy Spirit sanctifies and leads the people of God and enriches it with virtues, but, "allotting his gifts to everyone according as He wills, He distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. By these gifts He makes them fit and ready to undertake the various tasks and offices which contribute toward the renewal and building up of the Church, according to the words of the Apostle: "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for profit". These charisms, whether they be the more outstanding or the more simple and widely diffused, are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation for they are perfectly suited to and useful for the needs of the Church. Extraordinary gifts are not to be sought after, nor are the fruits of apostolic labor to be presumptuously expected from their use; but judgment as to their genuinity and proper use belongs to those who are appointed leaders in the Church, to whose special competence it belongs, not indeed to extinguish the Spirit, but to test all things and hold fast to that which is good.'
 
Bruce Yocum was a university student who heard about the Duquesne experience in March 1967. A friend of his knew Steve Clarke and Ralph Martin. A few months later he met them through the Catholic chaplaincy, and when an opportunity came in February 1968 he was baptized in the Holy Spirit immediately. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the prayer group that started as 8 people in February was 90 people three weeks later and 300 people by May. This formed the nucleus of the covenant community movement.
 
Because these young people knew each other well, they were able to organize quickly on a national and international basis. Bishop Joe McKenney got involved early. Endorsement from the bishops of the United States was obtained in 1969. Cardinal Suenens visited a few years later bringing with him Fr Wilfrid who was slightly depressive. The dramatic change in this priest after he was prayed with, and became joyful, laughing and energetic was proof for the Cardinal that this was the authentic work of the Holy Spirit, 'because only God could make this change'.
 
Alex Reichel, a professor of applied Mathematics at the University of Sydney was in Colorado for a year's sabbatical in the late 1960s when he came across the charismatic renewal and his faith became alive in a new way. Upon his return to Sydney, Alex went to the Archbishop, Cardinal Gilroy, and asked for permission to start up a prayer group on the university campus. The response was, 'Good Luck'. That prayer group started at St Michael's College in City Road.
 
At the time there was a dual science/theology student at the college by the name of Ken Barker. From his rooms he could hear the prayer group noise as he tried to study. He decided that 'if I can't beat them, I'll join them'. Good coffee and lots of hugs won him over. But he never went into the little room where people went in normal, got prayed over, and came out quite different. Yet he kept on going to that prayer meeting. He finished his science degree, and his seminary studies, was ordained and got sent to the United States for another 4 years of study. At this point he thought he was equipped for ministry, but he wasn't. Young people convinced him to attend a charismatic priest's retreat at Hunters Hill. It was there that he learned that he needed to give up self-sufficiency and say to the Lord, 'I can't do it, but yes Lord, You can do it' and to join his Yes to that of Mary's. In this he found the surrender prayer of Blessed Charles de Foucauld very helpful:
 
Father,
I abandon myself into Your hands;
do with me what You will.
Whatever You may do, I thank You:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only Your will be done in me,
and in all Your creatures –
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into Your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to You with all the love of my heart,
for I love You, Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into Your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for You are my Father. Amen.
 
After that retreat, everything changed. A prayer group next to the Cathedral in Canberra began. One day a prophetic word came 'to take the renewal to the heart of the Church'. Not sure how to respond to this, they reasoned that the cathedral was the heart of the local church. So Fr Ken asked if he and the young people could be responsible for one of the weekend Masses at the cathedral. No one wanted to serve the 7pm Sunday night Mass, so they gave him that, and the prayer group happened after that Mass. At one of those 7pm Masses a persistent thought kept coming to him, 'you can call the people forward if you want to'. So at the end of the Mass he decided to ask if anyone wanted to come forward to be prayed over, and 2/3rds of the congregation came forward. Many of them 'went down like ninepins'. When we surrender, the Holy Spirit moves.
 
Four months after Alex Reichel began that initial prayer group, Costandi Bastoli joined. At first there was some reluctance about the need for this experience. 'No, I am a Catholic, I know my theology, I have already received the Holy Spirit through the sacraments'. To which they replied, 'It is not whether you possess the Holy Spirit that matters, but whether the Holy Spirit possesses you. Surrender to Him.' Costandi said Ok, and was then asked to renew his baptismal promises, which he did, and then asked if he wanted to receive a gift from God. 'If He wants to do so, I’ll take it'. 'Relax, and the Holy Spirit will do it'. As he started to praise God he was immersed in God's love and started praying and laughing at the same time. That prayer group outgrew its premises quickly, and moved to a meeting place at Lewisham.
 
In 1973 the first international leaders' conference was held in Rome. Around this time the second in charge at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith met with Steve Clark and Ralph Martin, and on his desk was an issue of the New Covenant magazine. They spoke for an hour.
 
In 1975 another international leaders' conference was held in Rome, which around 10,000 people attended. On the Sunday of the conference, everyone went to the papal Mass with great expectation that Pope Paul VI might say something to the renewal. At the end of Mass he did, 'This renewal is an important chance for the Church.' At the closing Mass of that conference they were permitted to use the papal altar in St Peter's basilica. It was a very powerful time of prayer, praise and worship. However all of the microphones stopped working when it was time to share some prophetic word, and only the microphone at the main altar was working. A message was given about days of darkness and serious trouble coming, but followed by a great age of evangelization and days of glory when we would see people tumbling into the Church.
 
Here http://webjournals.ac.edu.au/ojs/index.php/VMAG/article/view/261/258 are a series of reflections on the first 7 years of the charismatic renewal, written by Keith Ranaghan. It was under his leadership that a very broad-based ecumenical committee prepared and led an ecumenical conference of over 60,000 in Kansas City in 1977. It was there that a message that continues to echo was given, 'Weep and mourn, for the body of My Son is broken'. Many ecumenical initiatives began as a result of that conference.
 
When a mountain river gets a good ways down the mountain it becomes deeper, broader, even more powerful but less violent- which is a good analogy for what happened in the renewal during the 1980s and 1990s. According to Lalith Perera in these years the renewal got organized and became more respectable, but perhaps started seeking official acceptance more than seeking the Holy Spirit. Both manifestations of the Holy Spirit and numbers lessened. Following years of personal crisis from 1996 to 2000, he was invited to a retreat with the Divine Retreat Centre at Potta in India. It was a time of grace for him, because God invited him to surrender to Him more than he had ever before and to relinquish his fears and let God be his security and the director of his life. He was overcome by an urge to cry and heard this, 'Cry, cry for the wasted years you lived and served without really submitting to My plan'. As he cried a new anointing of the power of the Holy Spirit came upon him. From that time everything began to flourish and large numbers started being touched by the Lord. Last year the Lord challenged him to see Him in the obstacles and problems around him. 'If I call you, I will do it for you. Do things My way'. God kept that promise. By sitting at the feet of the Lord and asking Him for the breakthroughs, all obstacles were broken by supernatural means.
 
In 2014 leaders of the renewal gathered in Bethlehem from 46 nations to seek the Lord and ask Him how He wanted the 50th anniversary in 2017 to be celebrated. One afternoon of that time was set aside specifically for listening to the Lord. It was a downstairs room with no windows. As they began, the electricity stopped. No lights, no air-conditioning. Confusion reigned. They considered abandoning the time of prayer, but those from the Duquesne weekend said no, this reminds us of the water and plumbing problems that weekend at The Ark and The Dove. As soon as the Holy Spirit came, the water came back on again. So they prayed and called out to the Lord. 'We don't have any power, we are helpless'. Someone grabbed a life-sized crucifix off the wall and brought it to the centre of the room, and said 'Look to Jesus', and the lights came back on. God wanted us to acknowledge our weakness and nothingness and to see that He is the power that we are looking for. God is drawn to our brokenness. The Holy Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. Open up to Him and let His Spirit come. To the most needy, He wants to come most. The next day 200 of us went from Bethlehem to the Upper Room in Jerusalem, and had the extraordinary gift of being able to pray there for an hour. Normally groups are only permitted in for a few minutes at a time. At that time these messages came: 'I have given you My Holy Spirit, and I will continue to give you My Holy Spirit again and again. You will receive more if you join your Yes to the Yes of the Blessed Virgin Mary.' The Lord is about order, but not routine. He brings freshness and newness. We need new weapons for new battles, not yesterday's weapons.
 
To mark the 50th anniversary a big Crucifix of the Renewal was commissioned, and unveiled and blessed on 18 February 2017 at The Ark and The Dove. The international director wanted this to happen, but didn't know how to find a sculptor. Soon after placing the project in God's hands, an email arrived from someone in the renewal who was a sculptor…and it went from there.
 
At the anniversary weekend 17-19 February 2017 the international director Michelle Moran spoke about this Cross and also about how Pope Francis has invited members of the renewal to celebrate Pentecost 2017 with him. The ICCRS team have experience with events in St Peter's Square, but Pope Francis wants this gathering at the Circus Maximus in Rome, open to the view of the city, a place from which it would be easy to send forth people to all directions of the compass.
 
The major prophetic word that weekend, given initially on Friday 17 February and repeated on the evening of 18 February was:
 
Psalm 42: Deep calls unto deep. Go deeper. Call to Him from a place of great depth.
Genesis 7: In the second month, and on the 17th day of that month, that very day all the springs of the great deep broke through and the sluices of heaven opened. It rained on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. This is for good, not for destruction, so that the world may be filled with the presence of God as the waters cover the sea.
 
Visit http://www.societyofsaints.net/blog/category/prophecy to read an interpretation of this.
 
At the vigil Mass of that weekend Bishop Zubik impressed upon us that we must be listeners of the Word and not just hearers of it.
 
Other messages and insights from this anniversary weekend were a profound call to unity, and to reconciliation between leaders and prayer groups and communities and other Christians. That we were to link arms in solidarity just like Patti and David did 50 years ago, and that when the curtain goes up we will be surprised who we have linked arms with. When movements of the Holy Spirit have happened before throughout history, eg the Desert Fathers, St Benedict, St Francis of Assisi that grace took form in religious life. The charismatic renewal has been marked by lay leadership and lay participation, and the prayer groups and communities were how this grace has taken form in our time. But in the outpouring God has promised it will take a new form that we have never seen before. For Him to do this we have to be prepared to go where He says, to stop when He says stop, and be utterly responsive to His promptings.
 
Pentecost 2017, if we call out to the Lord persistently from our hearts for the gift of the Holy Spirit as He has asked us to do, will be momentous indeed.
 
Come Holy Spirit!!!
Holy Mother Mary of each New Pentecost, Help of Christians, pray for us
 
 
(For another history, which fills in other details of these 50 years of grace, read: http://www.jeevanjal.org/jeevanjal/origin-ccr.html )

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​On Monday 13 June and Tuesday 14 June 2016, the parish of St Benedict's Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, ran a 2 day conference to share their experiences of successful parish renewal. Using #DR16 will get you an overview of the conference via Twitter or Facebook.
 
I wasn't able to attend in person, but I was able to participate through the Livestream video of the plenary sessions which were uploaded to the internet. http://livestream.com/accounts/6379109
 
It is worthwhile watching them all, there's no question about that. But you will have a greater appreciation if you have read the Divine Renovation book first: https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Renovation-Bringing-Maintenance-Mission/dp/1627850384
 
You will find a lot of references made during the conference to something called Alpha. In essence it is a course run over several weeks which helps people come to a personal decision about who Jesus is. If you know nothing about Alpha, then these links might be helpful:
 
https://catholics.alpha.org/
http://australia.alpha.org/context/catholic
http://alphausa.org/catholic/
 
This Monday 13 Jun 2016 Plenary Part 1 had a few technical difficulties. The best way to see it is through YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb6VuTroUb4
 
Here follows a rough transcript of that Plenary Part 1 and then my own response to it.

Why bother? Not everyone likes getting their information via video, and going through the process of taking notes and typing them up enables the message to take deeper root – and there's no guarantee how long the Livestream option will be available for. Good stuff deserves longevity.
 
This session was entitled 'Vision, Passion, Hope'
 
Fr James Mallon, the parish priest of St Benedict's, began the session by welcoming the international participants to the conference, and those who had come from other Christian communions. As part of that introduction he said that it is good for us to get out of our everyday boxes for a while, and that Unity follows Mission, and not the other way around. Unity is a fruit of the Mission.
 
What is vision? Vision is a picture of the future that produces passion in us. Having a vision is essential for leadership, but it is not enough just to have the vision, you have to communicate that vision to others and you can't communicate the vision without passion.
 
In the account of the feeding of the 5000 by Mark, we see Jesus and the apostles seeking some quiet time only to find when they come ashore a huge crowd. Mark tells us that Jesus was moved with compassion when he saw them. At other key pivotal moments in the life of Jesus we see this happen, before He acted He was moved with compassion. The root of this word refers to the intestines or the guts, 'splankna'.
 
Splankna is the disposition of God towards ourselves. If our parishes are to become the missionary disciple making machines that they are called to be, then it has to start with spankna.
 
If we are not feeling it, we are not going to lead it.
 
The chapter in Divine Renovation called House of Pain was written after listening to many priests. Those who are able to maintain passion have an underlying reality of hope.
 
There are many ways to lose hope:
• been hurt
• fatigue/tired/exhaustion
• disillusioned
• cynical
• contentment
 
Renewal does not come about without pain. Cynicism is wisdom stripped of hope. Our hope is in Jesus, in Him who can restore our hope.
 
Picasso said that good artists copy, and great artists steal. That's what we did, we went looking for things that were working elsewhere and tried them. Some worked for us, others didn't.
 
Renewal has to involve a cultural shift, and culture is composed of the values we hold dear to us.
 
It is possible for parishes of any size and in any location to be healthy.
 
Just like in the battle scene of Braveheart where a warrior can't get his head around the fact that William Wallace isn't 7 foot tall, in these days of the conference may you be underwhelmed by us and overwhelmed by God.
 
Testimonies
 
Flavia told us that 5 years ago her life was empty, she felt lost and without meaning, even though she was going to Mass regularly. In 2010 she signed up to do the Alpha course, as a team member. On the Holy Spirit weekend she experienced God's love in an overwhelming and life changing way. This enabled her to invite God to take control of her life. This almost didn't happen, because 3 weeks into the Alpha course she wanted to quit it completely. Following this powerful encounter with God's love, she had a desire to share His love with others. She became aware of a fire in her heart, and a call to serve, but she had no idea how God wanted that to happen. Things became clearer after Flavia and her husband attended an Alpha conference, and she knew she was called to serve in a prison. So with the support of the parish, that's what she has been doing. The first Alpha in a local prison was run in 2013, and so far 5 have been run for women in prison and 5 have been run for men in prison. Her vision is to bring Christ to all the prisoners in Nova Scotia and a neighbouring state. Her husband isn't here with us at the conference, because he is in Kuwait to bring Alpha there.
 
Flavia has invited hundreds of people to Alpha. One person she invited 7 times before he came.
 
Robert told us that at that time he wasn't really interested in God, and he was experiencing a lot of pain and grief. Flavia said that I would feel peace if I came to Alpha. Finally, Robert decided that he'd either have to try this Alpha thing or leave the parish. 'If I go, will you leave me alone?' Going to Alpha was amazing. I went in with lots of doubts and cynicism. At the Holy Spirit retreat weekend, God introduced Himself to me. My whole life has changed. I used to be sad and depressed, now I am happy, I'm 100% different. I have a relationship with Jesus, which to me is amazing. Now I am leading an Alpha group in a pub.
 
Rosemary and John were attending Mass in the parish, it was routine for them and they weren't involved in the parish. Fear, though, was a part of their lives. After 27 years in the pews trying to stay awake through the homilies, with Fr James around it was easier to stay awake. We started seeing the positive fruits of Alpha in those who had done the course, and we wanted that for ourselves. The weekend away gave us a sense of connectedness and purpose. All the fear I had has been washed away, and the love of God has filled me.
 
……………………………………………………………………
 
My own response
 
It was good news to hear that passion is good, and that it is necessary to bring about the changes God wants in parish life. But to be a lone wolf with passion, that's not going to end well. If you have that 'splankna', then you have to find others who have it too, together you can make things happen.
 
In order to retain both hope and passion in ministry, you need reminders that God is still active even if you can't see the evidence in your patch of the world. That's why some kind of yearly conference is necessary. That's why I get my weekly dose of The Journey Home from EWTN, to hear a conversion story. That's why the quarterly Ave Maria magazine is 'must read' material for me (to subscribe write to PO Box 118, Midland, WA, Australia, around $20 per year for Australians, a bit more for the rest of the world).
 
We need, as the good song says, to be reminded that
 
'God can do it again, and again and again
He's the same God today as he always had been
Yesterday and forever, He's is always the same
There's no reason to doubt, God can do it again.'
 
As much as this session at DR16 gives me hope, I grieve for the many priests in my own region who have lost hope through at least one of the reasons Fr Mallon gave us. Who will bring the fire, the splankna, back to our priests? Without them engaged we can do so very little. We need to pray every day for them, asking the Holy Spirit to work in them.
 
Lots of us need healing. Just about anyone who serves in parish ministry gets hurt and gets hurt badly. Ecclesiasticus 2:1-2 is real. Rarely do those hurting ones find anyone who cares that they are hurting. We need to lift our game in supporting and caring for one another.
 
Alpha, Alpha, Alpha. It is certainly working for them. What would it take for it to work here?