This is the resource material I had collected for the third of the three sub-parts to Theme 6, and it is a loose grouping because there will be a degree of overlap with the other two sub-parts.

It should be useful for choosing people to interview and lines of inquiry for research, and providing common language to talk about these ideas.

NB. I have not repeated the relevant material from the pre-requisite reading list which you can find here 
​
Open to Reform: Changes in structure and paradigm, at parish, diocese, national and world-wide levels

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/be-open-to-the-surprises-of-the-holy-spirit-pope-francis-advises-78992?platform=hootsuite 28 Apr 2016
Pope Francis asked Mass-goers at the Santa Marta chapel April 28 how the Church responds when faced with something new, and perhaps never done before, clarifying that this is “not worldly newness, like fashions and clothes, but the newness and surprises of the Spirit, because the Spirit always surprises us.”
The answer, he said, is “by meeting, listening, discussing and praying before the final decision.” This is the same method the Church has used since the beginning, and is how she answers resistance based on assertions such as “it was never done this way,” or “you must do it like this.”
This process of gathering to speak and pray about an issue is “the so-called synodality of the Church, in which the communion of the Church is expressed,” Francis observed, noting that it is the Holy Spirit who creates this communion.
“What does the Lord ask of us? Docility to the Spirit. What does the Lord ask us? Not to be afraid, when we see that it’s the Spirit who calls us,” he said.

Tweet from @DisabilityJ  (Disability&Jesus) 10 July 2016
https://twitter.com/DisabilityJ/status/752028684559720448/photo/1
The biggest lesson that I learned on the journey is that all of us are created in His image, that is all of us, equally without exception or qualification. There is a huge movement of the Holy Spirit through the wider Church right now, at the heart of which is the message of inclusion.

https://www.hprweb.com/2016/08/the-church-just-did-for-movements-what-she-did-for-religious-in-1978-only-better/
1 Aug 2016  Fr Matthew Schneider LC
An introduction to Iuvenescit Ecclesia
The deeper theology in Iuvenescit Ecclesia gives it a much higher starting point than Mutae Relationes when it gets to the practical elements. Charisms are not just seen as useful for the Church, but seen as something fundamental to our nature and something which cannot be independent from the hierarchy by nature, rather than do something which, for practical reasons, cannot separate itself.

The gist of the Welcome to Country address at Proclaim 2016:
Uncle Neil Evers a direct descendant of the Guringai clan that lived in this area (Chatswood) gave the Welcome to Country address.
I draw upon and acknowledge the strength and courage of the traditional custodians of this land. The word that we use for 'Welcome to Country' means 'Come Together'. Welcome to Country is a rite of showing respect to the custodians of country, whether you were going through their land or to their land. Otherwise it would be like going into someone's house uninvited. If you have seen a map of the Aboriginal language groups of Australia, you would know that there were at least 350 language groups. Each one represented a different country. Everyone knew the boundaries of each country, because they were clearly marked. You only went in with permission and with respect to the rules of the country you were in. This wasn't political correctness, but age old tradition. Imagine how it was before European colonisation, with everything crystal clear, an abundance of wildlife, with designated hunting, gathering and hunting grounds. They didn't own the land, they were custodians of it. When we 'come together' we can be strong, we can make a difference. The more we learn, the more we understand. On behalf of them, elders and custodians past and present, I welcome you to this beautiful country.

https://catholicmissionarydisciples.com/news/without-accountability-we-will-not-grow
Approx Feb 2018
'Having worked in the Catholic Church for many years now, I know many of the dysfunctions which are part of the internal culture of Catholic parishes, dioceses, and ministries. It is no secret that many are not healthy places. There is mistrust, lack of clarity in mission, church politics, infighting, fighting for power, etc. In other words, sinners run the Church! Furthermore, there is a culture of management - not mission. There is little vision for growth, but maintenance of decline. There is little transformation and a lot of status quo.
Even with all of this, we see a lack of leaders, who know what to do about it and want to change. There are numerous reasons, some of which I will lay out here:
•Seminaries (and grad schools) aren't forming leaders for the modern parish
•Pastoral training rarely helps our leaders understand real evangelisation and discipleship
•Change is hard, and all of us like comfort
•Lack of openness to 'experimentation' and new movements
•Culture of teaching (good), but with little evangelising (bad)
•Stopping after we make converts – so we fail to raise up missionary disciples
•We don't change, because to do so means we have to admit we haven't always operated the right way'

Tweets about content from DR18 (Divine Renovation Conference 2018, and @FJMallon
Three advice to Bishops: 1) Period of Christendom has long been over. We need to change the model of running a parish;
2) Find and invest in the 16% of priests who are on fire for the mission; 3) Change the structure of the diocese to support the mission.
Fr. James Mallon on the question of moving priests every 4-6 years: 'if the diocese were to hire a consulting group to come up with a plan to ensure that the organisation would never reach their goals, this would be the strategy they would come up with.'
Some slide decks from presentations on Communications and Groups at DR18
https://app.box.com/s/268r9zlbhqqpifxmz7ckm30g4fwon9qx
https://app.box.com/s/heudqq8w4vlpnerc88i7ekgmc4zn93p4 
​
https://careynieuwhof.com/some-thoughts-on-why-megachurch-pastors-keep-falling/
Feb 2019 Carey Nieuwhof
Billy Graham was certainly a leader who finished well. Most people in church leadership are aware of the Billy Graham rule: never meet alone with a member of the opposite sex…The Billy Graham rule actually had four aspects. Billy and a few of his colleagues got together in 1948 in Modesto California after seeing other evangelists become entangled in affairs, greed and running down local churches.
•Financial integrity…so that Billy Graham and his team would not raise money themselves at crusades.
•Sexual integrity…so they wouldn’t fall victim to affairs or impropriety.
•Respect for local churches…so they would build up local churches, rather than compete with them.
•A commitment to accuracy in reporting…so they would not exaggerate how many people attended or how ‘successful’ their ministry was.
You can read Billy Graham’s own description of the Modesto Manifesto here.

Gideon Goosen
https://www.booktopia.com.au/saving-catholics-gideon-goosen/prod9780648232469.html
This is an interactive workbook bringing together historical, theological, sociological, and experiential insights to illuminate the main issues surrounding reform. Taking a measured approach by looking at both the positives and the negatives arising from the experience of Catholics, Goosen examines such things as what reform actually is; the need for reform, and psychological attitudes and resistance towards reform. He tackles thorny subjects like clericalism head-on and addresses the abuse of power in the church. He also seeks out signs of hope--following the example of Pope Francis--and explores possible strategies for the future.

'The family is the basis in the Lord's plan, and all the forces of evil aim to demolish it. Uphold your families and guard them against the grudges of the Evil One by the presence of God'
St Charbel

'Dare to do something completely different', Sr Margaret Purcell sm

Ken Fish, speaking at Servants of Jesus (video and audio), on 'The Anatomy of an Awakening' on 22 Jul 2019 speaking about the prophet Daniel's links to the return of the exiles and the rise of the prophet Haggai, and how a radical turn around can take place in a short amount of time. An awakening is more than a revival, more like God pressing the reset button. Unless there is preparation and follow-up, a revival can fade very quickly, like a flash in the pan.
https://movies.toxicwap.com.ng/watch?v=ReO92EfwSEg

Submission of the Australian Council of Catholic Clergy to the Plenary Council
https://www.clergy.asn.au/the-chairmans-word/submission-to-plenary-council/
This is well worth reading and considering.

Part of the script, transcribed and edited from 'Brexit: the uncivil war', telemovie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit:_The_Uncivil_War
The vision wasn't flawed.....it's people that are flawed.
and they ruined it.
I said the entire Downing Street There is a systems failure
operating system needed overhauling.
in this country and across the West.
You were pushed out, once again.
You reset. And that's all I did.
We're languishing, we're drifting without a vision or a purpose.
when there's a systems failure?
And what do you do usually……I reset.
And what did they do?
What did all of you do? ...... You rebooted
the same operating system,
the same tired, old politics
and self-serving, small-thinking
of short-termism, the virus, it infects.
Yes, yes, don't think that I don't
but that's what the system does,
know I'm as bad as the rest of them,
But I was hoping, just praying,
..to actually happen, for someone
that someone, anyone,
with a minimalist amount of... of imagination or vision
could see that there was the
opportunity for something to...
to step in and do something...
..to just.....to make a change to...
 
When the nation ceases to put the highest value on the home, it will not be long before it ceases to put a value on a person. Soon a man will begin to be valued because of what he can do for a revolutionary class, and then comes communism.
When men and women reach appoint where they are no longer interested in watching a seed they planted grow, or caring for its flower; when they are more concerned about increasing dollars in their bank accounts than obeying the primitive impulse to increase and multiply then know ye that a night has dawned when a thing is more important than a person and Hic facet (Here lies) must be inscribed on the tombstone of democracy.
Beyond and behind all the schemes and blueprints of politics and economics there is nothing more fundamental to the revival of true democracy than the restoration of the family.
​Venerable Fulton J Sheen 1948
 
.............................................................................................

The next blog-post in this cycle will be background reading resources for the Topics of Controversy pertinent to theme 6: Open to Conversion, Renewal and Reform.
#PlenaryCouncil #PlenaryCouncilTheme6

​At the very end of the cycle I will put it all together in a printer friendly PDF.

This is the resource material I had collected for the second of the three sub-parts to Theme 6, and it is a loose grouping because there will be a degree of overlap with the other two sub-parts.

It should be useful for choosing people to interview and lines of inquiry for research, and providing common language to talk about these ideas.

NB. I have not repeated the relevant material from the pre-requisite reading list which you can find here 

Open to Renewal: Corporate/parish conversion, movements of grace

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/this-rare-successful-australian-manufacturing-company-has-a-daily-monastic-prayer-hour/news-story/7023d67f59d00cf0cca001ce17f05e88
18 May 2016  BAC Systems, Glendenning NSW.
Chapel, daily 'monastic break' for workers
Mr Walter Bachmann: Well worthy of follow up visit and interview

http://www.uscatholic.org/articles/201402/five-habits-highly-effective-parishes-28521
also March 2014 issue of U.S. Catholic Vol 79 no. 3 p12-17
Making a good first impression
Metrics matter
Faith formation is a family affair
Plucking people from the pews
Communicate the right message
“Change is never easy, but done in small doses and in baby steps, it can be done,” Fr Tom Sweetser S.J. of Milwaukee adds. “Every parish can do it. We now have permission from the Pope to think big and then carry changes out in small, creative ways. The little details will keep adding up until suddenly, the entire parish operation has a new focus.”

https://canadiancatholic.net/why-urgent-imperfect-evangelization-best-kind
17 June 2016 Josh Canning
Powerful parable about doing something now rather than taking a long time trying to perfect it first: 'Soup kitchens don’t wait for the best ingredients, they just feed people. Field hospitals don’t wait for the best medical supplies, they just treat people!'

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholics-who-actually-read-the-bible-one-womans-online-ministry-43848?platform=hootsuite  21 Dec 2016 Mary Farrow
About Jenna Guizar, creative director of 'Blessed is She', an online ministry of accompaniment to women based on shared Scripture reflections. This collaborative ministry is still thriving, visit @blessedisshe_ on Instagram.

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/the-new-normal-pentecostalism-overtakes-anglicanism-in-sydney/10096616 
26 Aug 2016 Paul Oslington
Reflection upon why Pentecostals are now more numerous than Anglicans, by attendance, in Australia:
An important difference is that Pentecostal ministers are also taught the leadership skills needed to grow churches. The commitment to further develop their skills is a marker of the contemporary Pentecostal ministry… The Sydney Anglican commitment to evangelism seems to me to be often undermined by an excessive and unhealthy need for church authorities to control the whole process… The thing that has struck me most about Pentecostal church meetings is that they are designed for attenders (including the leaders) to "do business with God." By contrast Sydney Anglican meetings are designed to transfer knowledge about God, which attendees will act upon later, perhaps in their daily quiet times… Pentecostal churches are full of wounded people, and churches are seen as hospitals for sinners.

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Catholic-Parishes-Essential-Practices/dp/1594714177
In 2012 and 2013, Bill Simon and his team studied 244 Catholic parishes to determine what made them exceptional. The study found that all of the parishes shared four foundational practices that led to a profound sense of belonging within their parish communities and a deepening commitment to discipleship:

• Share leadership by using clergy and lay staff with the best talents and skills to direct the community
• Foster spiritual maturity and plan for discipleship by offering a variety of formation programs and ministry opportunities to reach parishioners at differing points in their lives
• Excel on Sundays by dedicating significant time, energy, and money to liturgical celebrations that parishioners and visitors find welcoming
• Intentionally evangelize by challenging insiders to look outward and providing service programs, social events, global mission opportunities, and pastoral care at key sacramental moments that focus on inviting outsiders to deeper relationship with Christ and the Church.

 
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/a-priests-stunning-theory-on-why-juarez-is-less-dangerous-now-71916?platform=hootsuite 
22 Nov 2016 Barbara Bustamante
“When a parish adores God day and night, the city is transformed,” Fr. Patrico Hileman said, a priest responsible for establishing Perpetual Adoration chapels in Latin America.

https://tonymorganlive.com/2017/03/28/large-church-letting-staff-lead/?utm_campaign=The%20Unstuck%20Church&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=50539746&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8jJtHFetkEBDeTdVDRe_Yz72PUbCwPpZvEzbHiMzWscgxXWNRZNB7xI-JkZCgM5Z_vioskn762j74OWFmHD6vQjB30Kg&_hsmi=50939794 28 Mar 2017 Tony Morgan
The challenge is this: control is the enemy of growth. Healthy, growing churches have a framework of accountability that empowers the pastor and paid staff to engage ministry unhindered. In other churches, holding on to a structure of many boards and committees is connected to a desire for lay people to be involved in the ministry. Particularly in traditional denominations, the level of engagement by lay people is measured by the number of people serving on boards and committees. The reality is rarely are any of those boards and committees engaging in actual ministry. Instead, their sole purpose is to govern the activity of staff and ministry teams. I’m a strong proponent of engaging lay people. I’d much rather that happen by equipping volunteers to do ministry rather than to attend committee meetings to talk about ministry.

https://careynieuwhof.com/9-signs-your-church-is-ready-to-reach-unchurched-people/?utm_content=bufferf9fef&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer 
approx. Aug 2017  Carey Nieuwhof
•Your main services engage teenagers
•People who attend your church actually know unchurched people
•Your attenders are prepared to be non-judgmental
•You're good with questions
•You're honest about your struggles
•You have easy, obvious, strategic and helpful steps for new people
•You've dumped all your assumptions
•Your 'outreach' isn't just a program
•You are flexible and adaptable

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2016/documents/papa-francesco_20160319_pont-comm-america-latina.html
19 Mar 2016 Pope Francis
Often we have given in to the temptation of thinking that committed lay people are those dedicated to the works of the Church and/or the matters of the parish or the diocese, and we have reflected little on how to accompany baptized people in their public and daily life; on how in their daily activities, with the responsibilities they have, they are committed as Christians in public life. Without realizing it, we have generated a lay elite, believing that committed lay people are only those who work in the matters “of priests”, and we have forgotten, overlooked, the believers who very often burn out their hope in the daily struggle to live the faith. These are the situations that clericalism fails to notice, because it is more concerned with dominating spaces than with generating initiatives. Therefore we must recognize that lay people — through their reality, through their identity, for they are immersed in the heart of social, public and political life, participate in cultural forms that are constantly generated — need new forms of organization and of celebration of the faith. The current pace is so different (I do not say better or worse) than what we were living 30 years ago! “This challenges us to imagine innovative spaces and possibilities for prayer and communion which are more attractive and meaningful for city dwellers” (Evangelii Gaudium, n. 73). It is illogical and therefore impossible to think that we as pastors should have the monopoly on solutions for the multitude of challenges that contemporary life presents us. On the contrary, we must be on the side of our people, accompanying them in their search and encouraging the imagination capable of responding to the current set of problems. We must do this by discerning with our people and never for our people or without our people.

Ed. This is a major point. Consider how frequently we hold up as an ideal anyone who dedicates their whole life to ministry: priest, pastor, preacher, evangelist, religious. Just how often do we hold up the example of holy lay people taking God with them as they go about their daily work? https://www.thykingdomcome.global/resources/day-3-thanks-faith-frontline-emergency-service-workers-power-prayer-work 

https://careynieuwhof.com/9-fresh-approaches-to-innovation-that-could-blow-your-mind/
Nov 2017 Carey Nieuwhof
If there’s one thing the church needs today, it’s more innovation in our methods.
The mission never changes, but frankly, the methods have to.
•Build your future around a product, not a person
•100x thinking
•Fly by instruments, ie you need to trust the data
•Crowd source ideas
•Identify your real competitor
•Create your own opposition before someone else does
•Test voraciously
•Rethink motivation
•Embrace failure

https://www.visionroom.com/4-must-haves-weekly-staff-meetings/
Nov 2017 Sam Rainer III
Prayer: Scripture for the upcoming week:
Ministry stories from the previous week:
Thank you cards to write

https://careynieuwhof.com/how-to-a-lose-first-time-guest-in-10-minutes-or-less/
Jun 2018 Carey Nieuwhof
•Have a bad online presence
•Make parking frustrating
•Under-greet guests
•Over-greet guests
•Make kids check-in complicated
•Keep your facility tired and dirty
•Confuse them

https://careynieuwhof.com/7-ways-to-build-teams-of-great-leaders-when-you-feel-like-you-have-no-awesome-people/
July 2018 Carey Nieuwhof
Start where you are
Look for the best leaders you can find
Look beyond your official structure
Resist the temptation to buy leaders
Cast a clear and compelling vision
Embrace excellence more than inclusion
Pray for more leaders

Inspiring Tweet from @frpatrickop 23 Dec 2018
About 20 years ago, my home parish, St. Clement of Rome, in suburban St. Louis started a Eucharistic Adoration chapel. It’s clearly been a fruitful chapel. (Image with 20 vocations, a mix of priestly and religious, all from the same parish in those years).

https://catholicherald.co.uk/dailyherald/2019/04/25/the-west-can-learn-a-lot-from-hungarys-pro-family-policies/ 
25 Apr 2019  C.C. Pecknold
“After we won the election in 2010 with a two-thirds majority, we decided to build a family-friendly country and to strengthen families raising children. We thought the opposition would be a partner in this, but since then there have been very few decisions in the field of family policy that they’ve supported. So if we had always taken the opposition’s opinion into account, Hungary would now be on the brink of collapse. There wouldn’t be such a comprehensive family-support system, a family-friendly tax system, a housing program, 800,000 new jobs, and many opportunities to create a balance between life and work. The socialists have driven our country into deep crisis before, and they would do it again. "

National Day of Prayer and Fasting, page on Australian revivals
https://www.nationaldayofprayer.org.au/revival/ 
Each of these events is worth studying.
There was a short lived Facebook report of a north-west NSW town that did the National Day of Prayer and Fasting as an inter-denominational event, and all of the participating churches reported a big upswing in attendances of new people afterwards.
This organisation may be able to recall which town it was, and which year it was (2017, 2018 or 2019)

In Patti Gallagher Mansfield's golden jubilee edition of 'As By A New Pentecost', in pages 23-25 she talks about a small parish in Czechoslovakia that had experienced the full spectrum of charismatic gifts as recorded in 1 Cor 12-14 for several centuries, and which St John XXIII visited while he was still a bishop. This parish inspired him, and as a consequence also inspired Vatican II. It is worthy of much greater study, even though the place was almost wiped out by the Nazis in 1938.
https://www.amazon.com/New-Pentecost-Patti-Gallagher-Mansfield/dp/1619565110

Instagram post @romawaterman around 7 Aug 2019
A week ago I had a strange dream that I feel was from the Lord. In the dream I had been asked to take a workshop to preach on something at a gathering. I could choose the topic. All the workshops running were packed. When it came to my turn it was also packed. The Lord put it on my heart to talk about the importance of family.
I began to share how I felt the Lord was highlighting that we needed to get back to the focus of investing in to our families. That all our preaching, travelling the world, our church meetings, and mandates… if our families were not integral to our call, the main focus of our lives, the most important part of our ministry – we were not truly fulfilling the call of God on our lives. I shared that we needed to get back to ministering to our kids first – before anything else!
At the end of the session, everyone had quietly left the room. No one was interested in knowing about that. Some people said 'Oh we already know that', and they were looking for another workshop where they could learn about receiving signs and wonders in their ministries.
I woke in the middle of the night and my heart was pounding. It was an awful feeling to share what's on your heart but no one wanted to hear it, but the fact that people did not find this topic as important as the miraculous and mystical made my heart physically hurt!
Even if you think you know it. How are your kids doing? Do they need you around more? Is it time for a shift?
Learn your rhythm- what God has called you to doesn't have to look the same as everyone else. Travelling slower doesn't mean less productivity. We are in this for the long haul, this is not a sprint – do now what will reveal a blessing later, whether you are 65 or 25.

..............................................................................................
The next blog-post in this cycle will be background reading resources for the sub theme 'Open to Reform'
#PlenaryCouncil #PlenaryCouncilTheme6

​At the very end of the cycle I will put it all together in a printer friendly PDF.

This is the resource material I had collected for the first of the three sub-parts to Theme 6, and it is a loose grouping because there will be a degree of overlap with the other two sub-parts.

It should be useful for choosing people to interview and lines of inquiry for research, and providing common language to talk about these ideas.

NB. I have not repeated the relevant material from the pre-requisite reading list which you can find here
​.
Open to Conversion: Individual conversion and outreach to individuals

https://usml.edu/seven-marks-of-a-new-evangelist/ Fr Robert Barron 19 Feb 2015
In love with Jesus Christ:
Passion and enthusiasm:
Knowledge of the story of Israel
Understand the culture:
The heart of a missionary:
Knowledge of the traditions of the Church:
Adept at using the new media

https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/from-new-york-with-love-a-charism-of-life/
21 Jan 2016
Reflection on the Sisters of Life visit to Sydney Dec 2015
“So what a great time, in their teens and entering university, to be posing that question to the Lord: ‘What did you make me for? What is my call to love?’
“They were very open and very receptive to that thought.”

http://catholicleader.com.au/people/how-a-cathedral-pulled-this-young-man-out-of-depression  25 Jan 2016
Australian conversion story, worthy of follow-up

3 Feb 2016 Aurora, Maitland Newcastle Diocese
'Missionary of Mercy on his way to the Hunter'.
Online article no longer available.
This Missionary should be interviewed.

https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/02/24/mercy-bus-run-by-former-stand-up-comedian-tours-the-north/#.Vs66vR_3wxM.twitter 24 Feb 2016
Double-decker bus being used as a reach out to lapsed Catholics in the Diocese of Salford.
Fr Frankie Mulgrew. Worthy of follow-up/interview

Tweet from Peter Kreeft @ProfessorKreeft 5 May 2016
'Nothing else can ever cure our sick world except saints, and saints are never made except by prayer.'

http://catholicleader.com.au/people/son-of-a-preacher-man-returns-home-to-the-catholic-church 10 May 2016 
Australian conversion story of Protestant pastor

https://www.goodsams.org.au/article/vague-wanting/ Feb 2016 Sr Patty Fawkner sgs
“Do you want God?” The retreat director’s question to me.
“I vaguely want God,” I replied somewhat evasively.
It was a moment of clarity – yes, a moment of conversion.
Did I want God? Did I?
My prayer was raw, not even “God, help me to want you”, but a more primal “God, help me to want to want you”.
Who was this retreat director? He should be interviewed.

https://www.faithandleadership.com/makoto-fujimura-function-art
9 May 2011 Interview with Makoto Fujimura
The arts are fundamentally connected with the realities that God has created in the universe, as well as in communities of His people. Look at everything from the Genesis account of Adam being asked to name the animals to passages in Revelation that are full of images… All those things are the language of the arts… The reason that we need the arts is not so we can have more artists in the church, but for the sake of the gospel. The arts are a cup that will carry the water of life to the thirsty. It’s not the water itself; it’s the vessel. What we are doing in the church today is we are just picking up water with our bare hands and trying to carry it to the thirsty. We can still do it, but the effect is minimized by not fully utilizing what God has given us.

http://catholicleader.com.au/wyd-2016/krakow-2016-what-happens-after-world-youth-day
24 June 2016
In 2014, Archbishop Anthony Fisher explored the effectiveness of events like World Youth Day and the Australian Catholic Youth Festival, writing that “in the long run, (their) effectiveness … depends hugely on the formation that is offered in advance of attendance and the follow-up that occurs afterwards: what opportunities there are for sharing, evangelising, worshipping, leading and serving for those who will go and for those who return on fire with faith”…. When those opportunities are available, pilgrims are able to integrate their “mountain top’” experience of WYD with the way they live out their faith in their everyday life.
Does Archbishop Fisher have empirical data on this that he could share with us?

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/mamaneedscoffee/2016/07/making-disciples
28 July 2016 Jenny Uebbing
Personal reflection and an introduction to the thoughts of Jason Everett on Youth Ministry
'My faithful attendance every Sunday night at 7 pm did not, for all the boxes and boxes of pizza consumed and all the ice breakers performed, ensure a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church. Did not, as best as I can remember, communicate a single meaningful thing to me about the faith. And now, 15 or so years removed from the experience, I know of 2 other former members of that youth group who are still practicing Catholics. Out of 35 of us. That isn’t good enough…. What saved me, is what brought me to my senses and brought me home, finally, coaxing me back through the church doors not just in a physical return, but a whole-hearted spiritual and emotional return, was a relationship with a mentor, a FOCUS missionary who invested in me and believed that I deserved to have a personal relationship with Jesus and with my faith.'

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/the-catholic-church-desperately-needs-artists-48643   17 Dec 2016 Mary Farrow
“Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savour life and to dream of the future. That is why the beauty of created things can never fully satisfy. It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God…” wrote Pope John Paul II in his 1999 Letter to Artists.
This article talks about recent initiatives of Catholic creatives.

https://thosecatholicmen.com/articles/how-mens-and-family-ministry-can-save-youth-ministry-from-itself/  
10 Oct 2016 Jason Craig
While poor catechesis and soft morality do perpetuate the problem, it is the decline in the family that usually precedes the decline in faith. No, it’s not an “either/or” issue, but we at least need to understand that the health of the family and the health of faith are inseparable. Like a DNA strand, “family and faith are the invisible double helix of society – two spirals that when linked to one another can effectively reproduce, but whose strength and momentum depend on one another” (Eberstadt).
I wanted to reach those young people. I really did have a heart for them. But it took a while to learn that if I really loved young people and wanted to reach them, I had to reach their parents.
Question arising: Could the presence of the married couple, 'in loco parentis' in the Antioch movement account for some of its success?

http://catholicleader.com.au/news/missionary-of-mercy-took-on-the-burdens-of-nsws-far-flung-faithful-and-will-do-it-again-in-2017  23 Nov 2016  Emilie Ng
Fr Richard Shortall SJ and Sydney Ukranian-Catholic priest Fr Simon Cjuk, were commissioned by Pope Francis as Missionaries of Mercy, and expected to be “a living sign of the Father’s welcome to all those in search of His forgiveness” with a special focus on being confessors. Fr Shortall has finished an exhausting mission to lift the burdens of people in regional Australian communities. Living out of a motor home that ran off the water and electricity of churches, the Jesuit priest spent the past nine months visiting 30 communities in Maitland-Newcastle diocese to bring God’s mercy as a commissioned Missionary of Mercy. “I believed that for us as Australians, in that part of the country, the emphasis would be on allowing people or giving people the opportunity to sit down with me and to tell their stories,” he said. Like the inside of a confessional, all of Fr Shortall’s conversations were private, and some, but not all, turned into the Sacrament of Penance. “Some people have come along to me and said specifically that they wanted to celebrate the sacrament and they’d been enabled to speak about matters which have been sitting in their hearts for years and years and they’ve been just too frightened to mention them in the sacrament in churches.” In his nine months as a Missionary of Mercy, Fr Shortall has recognised the power of spiritual conversation for the broken.“ And as people have told their stories, many of them have said, ‘I’m sorry I’m laying this burden on you’,” he said. “So part of my work has been the burden of carrying the stories.”

https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/06/thanks-for-everything-pope-francis 
June 2017  James Zacchaeus
A deep insight into how the narrow way of truth can lead to joy; and how compromise on the truth about marriage helps no one

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/how-catholic-culture-can-thrive-on-the-internet-89699?platform=hootsuite  23 Jun 2017 Kevin J. Jones
On the internet, success is hard to predict. The success of a ChurchPop post about how all the apostles died and where one can find their remains today was surprising. That was by far ChurchPop’s most successful content across all languages. Another unexpected success? A collection of pictures of beautiful churches.  “The conversion stories are the stories that bring us the most attention.”

https://brandonvogt.com/fr-ed-thompson-prodigal-priest-and-father-of-mercy/
approx. July 2017  Brandon Vogt
The amazing impact of a priest rehabilitated from alcoholism. His ministry was far more fruitful in his final years because he could directly relate to the brokenness of others and their need for mercy.

https://www.amazon.com/Walking-Road-God-everything-streets/dp/1940209331
Father Lawrence Carney travels the country, walking the city streets in his cassock, carrying a crucifix, praying the Rosary and seeking lost souls. In his debut work, he writes of the many people he meets, the conversations that unfold and the divine appointments arranged for a priest who lives his life entirely for the salvation of souls. He also reveals his dream of a new order of priests, clerics and brothers, who walk and pray in cities around the United States in an effort to regain what has been lost.

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/08/23/how-cajun-country-old-ambulance-and-1200-frog-legs-led-me-back-confessional 23 Aug 2017  Sonja Livingston
https://twitter.com/i/status/902599392527568896 
Meet the priest who bought an ambulance on eBay and turned it into a mobile confessional, but it is also about the writer's wrestle with returning to the sacrament of penance, and about how Fr Michael Champagne and his team's witness sowed fruitful seeds.

https://catholicherald.co.uk/issues/march-2nd-2018/how-social-media-is-leading-millennials-to-rome/#.WpiQtn2kTBg.twitter  1 Mar 2018 Dan Hitchens
In a sense, both Byrd and Reezay followed the same path that has been trodden by innumerable others over the past 20 centuries: someone hears the Gospel from a persuasive preacher or a Catholic apologist, or comes to know Catholics personally and is able to explore the faith. But now those things take place over the internet. Andrew Sullivan urged religious leaders to realise that “the greatest threat to faith today is not hedonism but distraction” – the endless updates which prevent us from focusing on the one thing necessary.

https://catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2018/04/06/i-first-read-humanae-vitae-as-a-protestant-its-truthfulness-made-me-weep/  6 Apr 2018 Luma Simms
"When I read it for the first time, while I was still a Protestant... I was moved to tears." "It was Humanae Vitae that succinctly described my dignity as a human being, that as a woman I was not a second-class citizen to man."

https://churchpop.com/2018/05/25/the-amazing-humanities-dept-that-got-shut-down-after-too-many-students-converted-to-catholicism/  25 May 2018 ChurchPop Editor
Three professors, Dr. Dennis Quinn, Dr. John Senior, and Dr. Frank Nelick, ran a program called the Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas from 1970 to 1979.  A “great books” program that started with the ancient Greeks and led students on a journey up to the present, the motto was Nascantur in Admiratione, translated “Let Them Be Born in Wonder.” “Students weren’t allowed to take notes, although the professors didn’t mind if they knitted,” Dana Lorelle wrote about the program. “They taught students the state song of Kansas, took them star gazing, spoke Latin out loud and introduced the freshmen and sophomores to classic literature and poetry. […] “The professors, noticing that the students had no skill in formal ballroom dancing, organized an annual waltz. They took students to Ireland and Greece. They told stories, required the students to memorize poems and spoke of callings rather than careers.” The program grew super fast, from 20 students in 1970 to 140 in 1971, and 186 in 1972. But then the conversions started happening. By one estimate, over the 10 year course of the program, more than 100 students decided to join the Catholic Church…As to why the program led so many young people to the Church, Archbishop Coakley has said, “You put people in touch with the true, the beautiful and the good and let the Holy Spirit work.”

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/july-web-only/how-to-witness-to-distracted-world-disruptive-witness-noble.html  17 Jul 2018 Alan Noble
How do we bear witness to our faith to people whose default is to avoid reflection and contemplation, the very things that are important to recognize our sin and need for Christ?

Tweet: @MrsSasser  28 Aug 2018
Two years ago, I was saying “do you have any questions?”. Last year I switched to “what questions do you have?” It made a difference. Today I tried “ask me two questions”. And they did! And those ?s led to more ?s. It amazes me that the littlest things have such a big impact!

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/01/22/want-keep-your-kids-catholic-make-your-home-church
22 Jan 2019 Katie Prejean McGrady
Pope Francis recently told a group of parents, “The important thing is to transmit the faith with your life of faith: that they see the love of the spouses, that they see the peace of the house, that they see that Jesus is there.”
The domestic church is not constructed in a day but built up over time, growing with the family through the witness of the parents, the things filling the house and the conversations encouraged and shared. The faith is not simply learned and memorized. It is transmitted. It is experienced. It is witnessed and then loved and then lived. It is in those homes, where faith is visibly lived and loved, that the church becomes a home one would never leave.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/from-a-dumpster-to-the-head-of-a-procession-the-story-of-broken-mary-86289  7 Jun 2019  Mary Farrow
Matthews first spotted what is now known as ‘Broken Mary’ outside of a dumpster at a flower shop, covered in trash and cracked in half. Mortified, he picked up the heavy concrete statue, brought her home and cleaned her up. He had her restored to one piece again, but asked that her chips and scratches be left as they were: “No, she is broken, just like me. We all are broken and in need of repair. She represents the broken,” he told the repairman. After finding Mary, Matthews experienced a profound new devotion to the Mother of God. Matthews connected with Fr. Joshua Caswell, S.J.C., an associate pastor at St. John Cantius in Chicago, because of ‘Broken Mary’, they decided to start organizing a Chicago procession with ‘Broken Mary’ in February.
When Fr. Joshua applied for the permit, a city official saw the title of the event, “Hope for the Broken,” and said: “Oh, I really hope so Father, because we could really use some hope around here in this city,” Eisenberg recalled. Two days later, the permit came through. Eisenberg said that she thinks ‘Broken Mary’ appeals to so many people because brokenness is something to which nearly everyone can relate. “I think that people really resonate with brokenness, there isn’t anyone who can say, ‘Oh well, I’ve reached perfection, I’m not broken, this doesn’t apply to me’,” she said. It also makes holiness seem “attainable,” she added.
Throughout his ministry, Matthews said he has witnessed many people come back to their faith through ‘Broken Mary.’ “It’s just a concrete statue, but where that statue is, Mary is, and where Mary is there’s Christ, and where there’s Christ, there’s God,” Matthews said, “and I’ve seen a lot of people literally cry and empty themselves in front of Mary.”

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-oceania/2019/07/04/bagpipe-playing-australian-bishop-faces-challenges-with-a-joke-and-a-smile/  4 Jul 2019 Ines San Martin
When the issue of the abuse scandals comes up, Bishop Macbeth-Green's demeanour changes completely. The laughter is gone from his eyes, and he says the response to what needs to be done when a victim comes forward is clear: “You have to shut up and listen, talk with them, spend time with them. But you have to be genuine in doing that. You have to do so because you want to, not because you have to or because the judge ordered you to do so.” “When someone is in pain, sometimes, nothing is going to work. But you take on their pain, you’re there, sometimes cry with them,” he said.
“I was a trauma chaplain, and I was called in to talk to victims who’ve suffered the worst people can do to other people, like murder their children,” he said. “But even then, in the right place and at the right time, you have to be able to maintain your sense of humour, because it’s a coping mechanism. Why do you think people in the force sometimes have some of the darkest sense of humour?”
You have to sit with them for however long they need, he said, going back to survivors of clerical sexual abuse: “You sit with them, but you don’t bring your lawyers, you find out what they need and react appropriately.”
“If someone is pastorally sensitive and aware, you know what to say and when to say it, if we allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us,” he said. “There are people you just can’t reach, but you have to give them the privilege of trying to. The difficulty is not passing on their tragedy on another person. Yet seeing what I have seen, if I didn’t have a sense of humour, I’d be in the loony bin or just lying on the floor in a foetal position.”

Broken Bay diocese has released a new program on family called 'At the Heart of the Home', as mentioned on page 25 in the June 2019 issue of Broken Bay News.
https://issuu.com/bbcatholic/docs/june_2019_broken_bay_news
It would be worthwhile following up to see who uses it and what the fruit of it is like.

https://www.imb.org/2019/07/04/church-planting-in-australia/
Matt Sparks, a protestant pastor shares his specific game plan for reaching the souls of Sydney-siders. This is worth a follow-up interview to see how that game plan is going, and whether it has evolved since the article was written.

Blog of a city priest
https://blogofacitypriest.com/2019/03/14/how-to-pray/
We pray because we love God. We have heard a lot about what God is asking of us for the Plenary Council. You know the first question I think God is asking us at this time: do you love me? Not programs and revolutions and regulations but first of all: do you love me?

Laurie Maher, former mayor of Gosford, Catholic, and impetus behind Coast Shelter, would be well worth an interview for his insights on what messages resonate with Central Coast of NSW residents and with those doing life tough.

https://www.amazon.com/You-Found-Millennials-Irreligious-Surprisingly/dp/0830841547 by Rick Richardson
A study of 2000 unchurched people across America reveals that the unchurched are still remarkably open to faith conversations and the church. Even unchurched "nones" and millennials are quite receptive if they are approached in particular ways. In this book you will also find best practices from further research into the top ten percent of churches that most effectively reach the unchurched. People who were previously unchurched share what actually moved them to faith and Christian commitment. And the research shows that churches and organizations can be transformed to become places where conversion growth becomes the new normal.

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The next blog-post in this cycle will be background reading resources for the sub theme 'Open to Renewal'
#PlenaryCouncil #PlenaryCouncilTheme6

​At the very end of the cycle I will put it all together in a printer friendly PDF.

News came through tonight that I didn't make the short list for the Discernment and Writing Group phase of the Plenary Council for Theme 6, Open to Conversion, Renewal and Reform.
 
So it is now time to turn over the preparatory work that I have done to those who will be working on it, and anyone else of goodwill who remains interested and who might be able to make use of it.

This will be a several part process of 'turn over', beginning with the vision/strategy that I had, and with what I considered to be essential pre-requisite reading for those selected for the Theme 6 Discernment and Writing Group. Then over the next few days I will release the resource materials I had collected for the three sub-parts to Theme 6, and for the related topics of controversy, followed by drafted answers to submission questions about the status of women in the church, and women in ministry and leadership.

The starting point has to be research into how God has worked in the past to bring about conversion, renewal and reform, particularly in the Australian context. There are some buttons that God can press to which there is a universal response, but there are other buttons that God can press to which Australian hearts will particularly respond, and others that are more regional in nature (eg what might touch a heart in far north Queensland may have no impact in suburban Adelaide, and vice versa).
 
This is essential work, because without cleansing our lenses to see through God's perspective the relative merits of each Listening phase submission cannot be accurately weighed. We were after all supposed to be listening to what God wanted to happen in Australia, not telling Him what we wanted to happen.
 
Some theoretical examples might make my purpose clearer.
You could say with some justification that truth, beauty and goodness open up the human heart to the things of God. They would be universal buttons.

But are there any patterns of truth, beauty and goodness that particularly open up an Australian heart to the grace of conversion? Are we more responsive to the beauties of nature than other nations are? Do we need our truth laced with humour before we can engage with it? Is there any correlation between generosity in the face of a natural disaster (floods, bushfires) and an increase in conversions in the giving and receiving communities?
 
Some places around the world have particular devotion to the infancy of Jesus (eg The Philippines) or to the youth of Jesus (eg South America). Is there an aspect of the life of Jesus that has particular resonance for Australians? Is our collective imagination more engaged by His parables or by His miracles or by His mercy (we know that the Greeks look for wisdom, and Israel for miracles). When it comes to the Passion of Jesus, are we as Australians more drawn to His Agony, to His Crowning with Thorns or to His carrying of the Cross?
 
We need to study the renewal movements that have been successful in Australia, no matter from which faith denomination, and have a go at determining why they were so successful. Are there any patterns to be found?
 
We also need to study the various movements of reform, in church life, in religious life, and even in secular life. Which ones can we look back on and say, this reform was from God? Are there markers to be found that reveal His fingerprints in the process, which can guide us today in determining whether a movement of reform is from Him or not?
 
Only if this preparatory work is done, (and the Plenary Council is the best excuse we have had in a long time for doing and funding this kind of research), will we be able to find the nuggets of gold in the piles upon piles of submissions to the Listening phase.
 
If we can discern the patterns that God has used consistently in Australian history, then we have a chance of bringing ourselves into alignment with those patterns and seeing the greatest outpouring of grace that our nation has ever seen.
 
If the prophetic voices of our times are worthy of belief, then we stand at a turning point in history, where every expectation is for the biggest outpouring of the Holy Spirit that there has ever been. It is no accident that the Plenary Council is happening at this time in the place called The Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. If so, then our challenge is to prepare the Australian church for it by discovering anew how to be open to conversion, renewal and reform as individuals, movements, parishes, dioceses and nationally.
 
Each country has a distinct purpose and destiny in God's plan of salvation for humanity; a plan that was set in motion millennia and centuries ago, and which is still unfolding. There are clues to this plan scattered throughout the history and religious experience of our nation. In the Discernment and Writing Group for Theme 6 is the best opportunity we have ever had to go digging for those clues and bring them together, and use them as the filtering lens with which to sift through the response data from the Listening phase of the Plenary Council.
 
If we can determine how the Holy Spirit has been active in the past in our nation, and what He is blowing upon in our own era, we will have the greatest chance of actively partnering with Him for this massive outpouring of grace, and the greatest chance of producing the new wineskins to sustain the impact of that grace long term. No one wants to see that grace fruitless because the soil was unprepared (lack of openness) and there was nowhere to store the harvest (lack of wineskin-structure). Without preparation we risk a flash flood. It is better to be like the farmer who, knowing that big rains are coming, prepares as many reservoirs as possible to catch the rain and also takes measures to preserve as much of the top-soil as possible lest it be carried away by the flood rains.
 
With that said, here is my suggested list of people who should be interviewed, and those interviews should be recorded, released on YouTube and preserved for future generations to study and be inspired by.
 
Interview list (my preliminary wish list)
 
Archbishop Porteous, his reflections on which events have had the most lasting positive impact upon souls, and why eg WYD Sydney, Pastoral Training School, Scene, March for Life/ Day of the Unborn Child, iWitness, ACYF, Proclaim Conferences etc.
 
Bishop Macbeth-Green, his reflections upon what he saw God touching people through most during his time at Penrose Park.
 
Shayne Bennett, Emmanuel Community, his reflections upon PTS 1988, the exceptional one at Bathurst before the three communities started holding independent Summer Schools, which Fr George Kosicki visited, as well as his reflections upon the fruit of NET teams and which aspects of the life of Jesus resonate most with Australians.
 
Mother Hilda at Jamberoo Abbey, her reflections upon what the Holy Spirit is using most to engage the hearts of youth and adults.
 
Fr Chris Ryan MGL, his reflections on travelling around Australia with the WYD Cross and the places where he saw most impact and any considerations on why these places responded to grace and other places had far less response.
 
Fr Douglas Harris of Perth and his experiences in promoting Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the fruit he is seeing in the faith communities that are doing this in Australia and elsewhere.
 
Fr Tadeusz Seremet of Carlton. He was at East Gosford for several years and invited many speakers and groups to minister in his parish. His reflections on which of these had the most lasting positive faith impact upon his parishioners would be most valuable.
 
Interviews with the leadership in Australian parishes and faith communities that are part of the Divine Renovation Network. To report on what is working and isn't working in the Australian context.
 
Interview with leadership from Hill Song about what they see initiates Australian hearts having the biggest response to God.
 
There should definitely be several members of the Discernment and Writing Group present at ACYF Perth, 8-10 Dec 2019 to see for themselves what young people are responding to, and to interview many of the presenters for their input on what they see initiating the greatest response to God from young people.
 
Interviews with Church historians from both Catholic and non-Catholic backgrounds; with an emphasis on large group spontaneous responses to God in Australian history (a.k.a. revival). How did they start? What were they preaching about? How long did they continue? What caused them to fade? What long term impact did they have?
 
Interviews with priests who served as Missionaries of Mercy in Australia during the Year of Mercy.
 
Interviews with retired superiors of religious orders resident in Australia. Their reflections upon the stories they heard about events before they joined the order, and their own experiences of what things most caused a renewal and deepening of faith and love in their religious members. Also their reflections upon reform and restructure, the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

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Below is what I consider to be an essential reading list for anyone on the Discernment and Writing Group team for Theme 6
 
Essential Reading List (pre-requisite)
 
No Silver Bullets by Daniel Im
Particularly Chapter 2 on From Output to Input and Chapter 6 on Introducing Change.
We don't need to 'reinvent the wheel', much of the research we need has already been done, even though it is from an American context. One of the take home thoughts from Chapter 2 is that personal daily reading of scripture is guaranteed to produce outcomes of conversion and discipleship.
A take home thought from Chapter 6 is below:
"In our bodies our immune system cannot differentiate between disease causing microorganisms and the cells of a life giving transplant... No wonder change is so hard to implement in our churches. It's like the immune system of our church body knows when we try to transplant foreign ideas. And not only does it detect the new idea, it sees it as bad bacteria, a virus – thus resulting in its rejection…In order to accept the transplant the church's unique personality, history, leadership style and culture must be regarded and the right dosage of change and the areas to which it needs to be applied need to be determined."
 
Tim Keller's masterful article on Leadership and Church Dynamics
https://seniorpastorcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tim-Keller-Size-Dynamics.pdf
How strategy changes with growth. This explains why growth in membership necessitates structural change, otherwise the growth stagnates. It also talks about the discomforts a parish experiences prior to and after a change in structure due to church growth.
 
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire: What happens when God's Spirit invades the Heart of His people
by Jim Cymbala
The story of how God took an almost dead congregation and made it a light to the nations.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Rebuilt-Awakening-Faithful-Reaching-Making/dp/1594713863 by Fr Michael White and Tom Corcoran
Hymns, homilies and hospitality; are the three major things that draw those on the periphery in if they are good and turn them away if they are bad.
For an introduction to 'Rebuilt', read these transcripts from Proclaim 2014 where the authors spoke:
http://www.societyofsaints.net/blog/proclaim-2014-first-half-of-23-august-keynote-speech
http://www.societyofsaints.net/blog/proclaim-2014-second-half-of-23-august-keynote-speech
 
The trends from the 2011 National Church Life Survey as given to Proclaim 2014
http://www.societyofsaints.net/blog/proclaim-2014-first-half-of-22-august-keynote-speech
http://www.societyofsaints.net/blog/proclaim-2014-second-half-of-22-august-keynote-speech
Around 7% of your congregation has a natural talent for evangelisation.
The importance of the role of family in handing on the faith far outranks everything else.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Wrong-World-G-Chesterton/dp/1438279787 
by G.K.Chesterton
His timeless defence of the family and the need to bring it back to primacy in society.
Dave Ahlquist's summary goes like this:
'What's wrong with the world?'
There are four main things wrong with the world: big government, big business, feminism and public education. Why? Because they all undermine the family, which is the basic unit of society, the thing that must be stable for society to be stable, the thing that must be strong for society to be strong, and the thing that is most under attack in our society today.
What's the solution?
It must be to restore the family to its proper place. We need a family-based economy and a family-based social system, where both state and commerce are subordinate to the family.
And chapter 4 of the Chesterton's book contains this gem:
'The future is a blank wall on which every man can write his name as large as he likes; the past I find already covered with illegible scribbles, such as Plato, Isaiah, Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Napoleon. I can make the future as narrow as myself; the past is obliged to be as broad and turbulent as humanity. And the upshot of this modern attitude is really this: that men invent new ideas because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back. Now in history there is no Revolution that is not a Restoration. Among the many things that leave me doubtful about the modern habit of fixing eyes on the future, none is stronger than this: that all the men in history who have really done anything with the future have had their eyes fixed upon the past. I need not mention the Renaissance, the very word proves my case. The originality of Michelangelo and Shakespeare began with the digging up of old vases and manuscripts.'
 
https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Renovation-Apprentice-Learning-Disciple-Making/dp/1593253362
by Fr Simon Lobo
For an introduction to 'Divine Renovation Apprentice' read this transcript from DR18:
http://www.societyofsaints.net/blog/divine-renovation-conference-tuesday-12-june-2018-breakout-session-with-fr-simon-lobo-and-ron-huntley
It contains excellent input on leadership, vision, structure, meetings and culture. Leaders can choose to be bottlenecks or bottle openers, to limit growth or to equip and empower others.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Hero-Maker-Essential-Practices-Exponential/dp/0310536936
by Dave Ferguson and Warren Bird
In Acts, 39 of the 40 miracles the Holy Spirit performs occur outside the church. We need to expect that kind of ratio today. The real power of the Gospel is released as ordinary, Spirit-filled people multiply the Gospel wherever they go, into every part of their communities.
 
John Wimber, Signs Wonders & Church Growth Conference Case Histories 9/12 and 10/12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtxh6edmxHU&list=PLGI42ZL3eqTl3UNmYGzFc_DqGsPF7z4NN&index=11&t=0s   1 hr 51 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iena6tko_i8&list=PLGI42ZL3eqTl3UNmYGzFc_DqGsPF7z4NN&index=12&t=0s    1 hr 38 mins
How Vineyard began, https://www.vineyardchurches.org.uk/articles/how-the-vineyard-began/ (although that isn't the full story as John tells it)
These YouTube clips may or may not contain the segment where John notices a distressed woman at the church. She is heart-broken because with all the strange newcomers to the church everything that she really liked about going to church has disappeared. He agrees with her that things have changed, and that it is hard, and he even cries with her, yet he tells her that Jesus wants to save the lost, and that's what they had been doing, and what she had been praying for.
However these video-clips do contain pastors talking about what happens when they let God be God of their congregations, and also what happens when they resisted His will.
 
http://www.societyofsaints.net/blog/a-new-pentecost-for-a-new-evangelisation
with Fr Dave Pivonka and Dominique Ferry
'You have to keep going in your listening to the Spirit. Because in 1993 they founded something they called the Festival for Young People in France. And it was a success, but in 2003 things were going down and down and down. 10 years later the need was different. The young people were different. They were not ready to abide by the same rules as the ones 10 years before. But the core of what has to be announced is the same. It is the kerygma, because the kerygma has a power in itself.
Understanding what this evangelization is causes me to reflect that perhaps that we should have spoken of the new Pentecost before the new evangelization. It causes me to think of the disciples, who had every advantage. Who taught the disciples how to pray? Jesus. Who taught them how to forgive? Jesus. Who taught them how to heal? Jesus. They had every advantage. They spent time with Jesus. They saw everything that Jesus did, and yet it was not enough. That they needed more than an encounter with Jesus – they needed the Holy Spirit. The disciples were not able to evangelise until they had experienced Pentecost. I believe that we will not be able to evangelise until we experience Pentecost.'
 
https://www.amazon.com/New-Generation-Practical-Revitalizing-Church/dp/0310525225/ref=dp_ob_title_bk by Lee Kricher
Another story about how a parish in major demographic decline turned things around and began to thrive.
He spoke in testimony briefly at DR16:
http://www.societyofsaints.net/blog/divine-renovation-conference-tuesday-14-june-2016-evening-plenary-testimonies
 
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Religious-Rebels-M-Raymond/dp/1933871407
by M.Raymond
The story of the development of the Trappists through three saints, St Robert, St Alberic, and St Stephen Harding with insights into the various changes and reforms that they undertook as well as how they came up with a novel way of governance.
A Kindle version is available.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Forming-Young-Disciples-Ministries/dp/1622824822
by Everett Fritz
How many teens do you think will become lifelong disciples out of your youth ministry?
What did you do differently with those ten that you didn't do with the other teens in your youth ministry?
If we are losing our young people in the Church today, it isn't due to lack of effort.
 
https://www.amazon.com/When-Spirit-Word-Collide-extraordinary-ebook/dp/B013X97GJ2
by Jarrod Cooper
Details of what happened in 2011 when God's power became manifest over groups of people. Including reflections on those experiences; and upon a 1947 Smith Wigglesworth prophecy of three distinct moves of the Holy Spirit. 'When the Word and the Spirit come together, there will be the biggest move of the Holy Spirit that the nation (Britain), and indeed, the world has ever seen.'
 
http://www.ordinariate.org.au/musings/musings-july-2019-edition-33/
Mons Harry Entwistle
Within the Catholic Church of Australia at this time, the bishops have posed the question to the faithful, “What is God asking of us at this time?’ This is not a question asking what the faithful think should be done to ‘fix up’ the Church and make it ‘relevant’ to modern liberal Western society. To attempt to do that is pursuing fool’s gold.
The question is not one about how to enable the Church to survive in our age. It could only do that by ceasing to be Catholic. Nor is it one about finding strategies to revive the Church. Like the raising of Lazarus, revival is restoring someone or something to what it was before, and everyone has their own view about what this should be.
The question is about what GOD wants, and what GOD has always wanted from the creation onwards, is to bring order out of chaos, which is nothing less than resurrection.
God is not asking us in the Ordinariate Church to struggle on as best we can in the hope that we will grow and somehow survive. Neither is He asking us to revive some glorious era of Anglo-Catholicism within the Catholic Church.
He is calling us to the new life of resurrection by finding a new place within the Australian Catholic Church at this time so that we can be faithful to our heritage while being committed to the mission of the Church and its evangelisation of the world.
(my edits)
 
………………………………………………………………………
The next blog-post in this cycle will be background reading resources for the sub theme 'Open to Conversion'
#PlenaryCouncil #PlenaryCouncilTheme 6

At the time of writing, the NSW Parliament is rushing to judgement on legislation that will make abortion legal up until birth.
 
Thankfully people are coming together to protest, to keep vigil, to fast and to pray that this legislation is rejected. May God hear us, and change hearts, minds and votes.
 
Of course, abortion is touted as being about a woman's right to choose.
 
That’s just the issue, choice.
 
No one makes a choice in a vacuum.
 
From the many stories I have read online this past 12 months, the theme has been how frequently a woman is coerced by boyfriend, family and others into the abortion procedure, because it is much easier for everyone else if it all just goes away. I have seen figures that place this coercive pressure at 70% of all abortions.
 
Often the coercion comes in the form of ‘it is either me or the child, you can only have one, if you have the child I will leave you, if you get rid of the child I will stay’ and then in the aftermath, the boyfriend leaves anyway.
 
Or the coercion comes in the form of 'you won't be welcome here anymore if you have this child' or 'don't expect any help from us if you make this selfish choice' or 'if it is a girl get rid of it, I only want to father sons'.
 
And the coercion becomes in some cases life threatening if the powers that be want abortions to cover up rape, incest, child sexual abuse, sex trafficking, and to enable the cash flow to continue with prostitution. Abortion actually enables many of these crimes.
 
That is not choice.
 
Another thing that has come to light in recent years is just how much money is involved in abortion, and this isn't only the pressure to schedule as many abortions as possible, but also the sale of aborted babies bodies and body parts to medical research facilities and drug companies.
 
We have to remember that this 'big business' side of it has a vested interest in abortion, and in coercing and pressuring legislators to be pro-abortion.
 
We have to remember that this 'big business; side of it has a vested interest in late term abortions: they cost more money, they produce more useful body parts, they require Gosnell-like serial killers to perform them.
 
For so many women the pressure to abort is phenomenal, at every step choice is removed. Firstly the rejection by family and friends; then the legislation that prevents pregnancy counselling services from advertising if they don't refer for abortions, and removing funding from any pregnancy help service that doesn't refer for abortions, to preventing pregnant women seeing ultrasound images, and the various sales tactics once a pregnant woman talks to an abortion provider or referring agency; and the removal of pro-life presences outside abortion clinics.
 
Each of those practices is about removing any choice but the choice to abort.
 
If we were really about providing choice, there would be a Bill before Parliament
•to increase the number of Pregnancy Help centres,
•to increase the places a woman can stay safely while she has her child,
•to provide for those women who need financial and moral support with the courageous decision to go through with the pregnancy even if they have been thrown out of their living situation,
•to increase the funding for adoption centres and adoption counselling services
•to increase the funding for domestic violence refuges.
 
That would be providing for real choice.
 
Our choices affect others.
 
An abortion involves nurses and doctors, and this proposed legislation gives none of them an option to conscientiously object.
 
No one should be forced to act contrary to his or her conscience, especially someone who has vowed to protect and serve life through the Hippocratic Oath.
 
That isn't choice either.
 
If you have believed some of the rhetoric about how abortion should be permitted in cases of rape, then I challenge you to read stories from the #unplanned hashtag, read the stories of so many women who found themselves pregnant and in difficult circumstances, yet decided for the life of their unborn children, and how these unplanned children proved to be the greatest joy of their mothers.
 
If you have believed some of the rhetoric about how abortion doesn't have consequences for the mother, I challenge you to go and talk to psychologists. They will tell you that many cycles of destructive behaviour in women have a timeline for inception that coincides with an abortion experience.
 
If you have believed some of the rhetoric that an abortion procedure is anything but violent, I challenge you to watch this short YouTube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=33&v=CFZDhM5Gwhk
 
May God grant the legislators of NSW (and throughout the world) a change of heart and mind and vote on this important issue. May they vote for a culture of life, and not for the culture of death that abortion is a lynch-pin of.
 
Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.

The Plenary Council is a process, and at the moment it is in a very messy stage, as all worthwhile projects have to be at some point. If, like me, you closely followed Archbishop Coleridge's blog during the Synod on the Family, it too went through some very messy stages before the worthwhile stuff was revealed at the end and the Holy Spirit's fingerprints could be seen. So let our concerns lead us to prayer first, trust in God second, and the beginnings of hope.

If you haven't read Bernard Gaynor's Open Letter, here it is:
http://bernardgaynor.com.au/2019/08/02/an-open-letter-to-australias-catholic-bishops/
It is how many faithful and well-catechised people are feeling right now.

At this point I need to disclose where I am coming from.
There was a diocesan synod in 2011-2012 in my diocese, and the involvement of the regular laity was limited to giving answers to a survey. If it has had any long term impact, or changed anything for the better, from my limited perspective I cannot see it. Even the website set up with the synod outcomes is no longer extant. Therefore I am predisposed to look upon synodal processes with distrust.
My own encounter with a group in the listening phase for the Plenary Council was disheartening. Instead of following the group process (writing down individually what we thought the Holy Spirit was asking of the church in Australia, gathering those responses, finding a topic that was shared by the majority, and then discussing this topic in detail), my group leader spent most of the meeting time giving suggestions to us about what we could put on individual submissions, and the vast majority of those suggestions were not in line with church teaching. That's why when the online submission process said, 'Have you been part of a group session?', I couldn't say yes or no, and had to click 'not sure'.
Up until the information on applying for the Discernment and Writing Groups was released, I had decided to give the whole thing a wide berth. But I had a sudden change of heart when reading the application forms, and prepared an application. Apart from a 'yes we have received it' I have heard nothing about the success or failure of that application.

I have perused the final document from the Listening Phase:
https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/FINAL-BOOK-v5-LISTEN-TO-WHAT-THE-SPIRIT-IS-SAYING.pdf   (67.5 MB)
I read the first part closely, especially the methodology and statistics, and the first few of the 14 topics closely and then skimmed through the rest, stopping at places with personal interest to me.

Through a family member in another diocese I have read reports from parish and deanery level from the Listening phase, and together with my own group experience and reading the weekly postings from some parishes in my own deanery, I can say that the Final Document is an accurate reflection of what I had been exposed to. For anyone who knows and loves the teachings of the Church, it is extremely distressing.

However we must remind ourselves that the vast majority of people who submitted responses to the Listening phase were actually answering the question, 'What do I want to ask of the Church in Australia at this time?' or even a more basic 'Take this opportunity to tell the Church leadership what you think'.

The good news is that it should be very easy to spot which group submissions conformed to the guidelines and gave a detailed response to a single topic. Those I would very much like to see.

I know that many people, including Bernard Gaynor, see this final document of the Listening phase as bad news. I see it as an accurate snapshot of where we are, something that we didn't have before, and that is a good thing. Before we had a nebulous understanding that things were bad, but now we know exactly how bad it is, and without an accurate diagnosis there is no hope of prescribing an accurate remedy.

The task then of the next stages of the Plenary Council is to engage with our people where we now know that they are at, assure them that they have been heard and listened to, and gently and lovingly invite them on a communal journey to rediscover God's plan. There is an opportunity for us through the Plenary Council process to have a Nehemiah experience (Some exiles returned to Jerusalem under Nehemiah's leadership, and in the rebuilding of the city they found a copy of the Mosaic Law, the people gathered to hear the Word of God from the Mosaic Law, with the priests and scribes explaining the text as they went. During the process the people discovered how far they were from living as God had asked them, and why they had been exiled, and they wept in repentance and then committed themselves to joyfully living according to God's plan. See Nehemiah Chapter 8 and surrounding chapters).

Yes, the final document of the Listening phase shows that we are in systems failure (think the dreaded blue screen on a computer). When such a systems failure happens, a re-boot rarely solves the problem. Usually what is needed is a complete overhaul, a re-set, where we go back to scratch, to basics, and reinstall the original operating software and drivers. It isn't a pleasant process, but it is the only thing that will get the computer working again.

The task isn't as simple as throwing a lot of good catechesis at people, tempting as that is. People rarely respond well to someone shouting at them that they are wrong and misguided. A sensitive dialogue process is needed, that recognises and acknowledges the good in the desires of our people, and helps them work through and take hold of the good and loosen the grip on the not so good, and invite them to consider alternative ways of going forward with those good desires that are in accordance with the ancient pathways of the good, the true and the beautiful.

The Plenary Council process has the potential to do this, if it is done well, and that can only happen if there is lots of prayer together with lots of people of goodwill. Without the prayer, the goodwill, and the vision for what is possible with the power of the Holy Spirit, then a scandalous disaster will unfold, and I certainly share that concern of Bernard Gaynor's.

But I have hope that what has the potential to be a monumental disaster can instead be the gateway to the greatest spiritual renewal our country has ever seen; that it can be the catalyst for the greatest revival, renewal, awakening of the church, and the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we have ever seen.

But it won't be easy. To return to God's operating system will require us to proclaim truths that are very unpalatable to modern ears. It will require outstanding courage to proclaim these truths in love, and may unleash a storm of anger and persecution. We wouldn't collectively be in this systems failure without our own compromises when it has been our turn to proclaim the truth in love. So instead of berating each other, let us pray to God that we and our bishops be given this outstanding courage, and the loving hearts to go with it.

Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.

#PlenaryCouncil  

​In some of the global prophetic word of late there has been talk of God wanting to press the Reset button. What could that mean? And how might it take shape in the #Plenary Council and #PlenaryCouncilTheme6?

Let me take you through some parts of the puzzle that are beginning to make sense to me.

If you have watched the telemovie 'Brexit: the uncivil war' with Benedict Cumberbatch as the lead character of Dominic Cummings, towards the end there is a scene where Dominic is answering the questions of the inquiry tribunal and talking straight into the camera. In it he expresses his profound disappointment that after the Brexit campaign revealed what a systematic failure the government had been, that no one had had the courage to be the change catalyst necessary for a reset and that the same operating system of government had been rebooted.

Under that analogy a reboot tries to get the same modus operandi working again, and a reset goes back and checks that the settings are according to the original instructions, and changes everything back to the maker's original settings.

In the church do we have system failure? Looking at the clergy abuse scandals and how badly we have done in transmitting the faith to the young and to the not-so-young, the answer looks like Yes. And if this is so, then we need a Reset, and not a Reboot, and to do that we need the courage to do some things completely differently from the way we are doing them now.

However the answer to what things need to be done differently lies in the past, in the ancient paths of holiness and the ancient wellsprings of grace.

Chapter 4 of Chesterton's 'What's Wrong With the World' expresses it like this:
'The future is a blank wall on which every man can write his name as large as he likes; the past I find already covered with illegible scribbles, such as Plato, Isaiah, Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Napoleon. I can make the future as narrow as myself; the past is obliged to be as broad and turbulent as humanity. And the upshot of this modern attitude is really this: that men invent new ideas because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back. Now in history there is no Revolution that is not a Restoration. Among the many things that leave me doubtful about the modern habit of fixing eyes on the future, none is stronger than this: that all the men in history who have really done anything with the future have had their eyes fixed upon the past. I need not mention the Renaissance, the very word proves my case. The originality of Michelangelo and Shakespeare began with the digging up of old vases and manuscripts.'

A few years ago the necessity of spiritual renewal spilling out beyond the church walls was brought home to me in an analogy on a Christian television show. It went something like this: On a plane there are crew and passengers. The plane is the era we are living in, the crew are the leaders in government, education, arts & entertainment, religion, family, business and media, the passengers are the rest of us. The passengers could be having the most wonderful prayer meeting on that plane, but there will be no impact upon accomplishing the will of God unless those who can manoeuvre the plane realign its trajectory to the trajectory of God's will.

In other words unless spiritual revival is big enough to permanently change culture for the better in a region, society or era, it will not achieve its divine purpose.

To understand this better, I recommend listening to or watching this talk by Ken Fish on 'The Anatomy of an Awakening': In it he explains how a radical turn around can take place in a short amount of time. An awakening is more than a revival; it is more like God pressing the reset button. Unless there is preparation and follow-up, a revival can fade very quickly, like a flash in the pan. https://movies.toxicwap.com.ng/watch?v=ReO92EfwSEg

Therefore in order to go forward, we need to back and dig deeply into Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition to rediscover models and structures that have been God's plan from the very beginning, and dare to give them a go.

According to the Divine Renovation team, in every diocese 16% of the priestly leadership is daring enough to give new things a go. These are the ones we need to identify and encourage, and give the co-ordinates of the ancient pathways of holiness and the ancient wellsprings of grace to. I know I have at least two pastoral experiments based on Holy Scripture that I am eager to see tested in practice.

In the prevailing culture giving these things a go will take enormous courage. Consider this example: When the people of Israel left the slavery conditions of Egypt under the anointed leadership of Moses, they kept order through the sub-leadership of the elders of tribes and clans. All of those elders were men.

What if instead of the current representative model of parish councils where you try to get a microcosm of the special interest groups of the parish together (youth, school, choir, catechist etc) from whoever volunteers; what if you looked for the people who would qualify as elders, grandfathers with deep roots in the community, men of steadfast faith and prayer, whose adult children are all keeping the faith?

What if it works much better than the existing model? If it is according to the maker's original plan, it likely will be. But it can only get tested if someone is willing to face the backlash that will come from anyone infected with feminism.

Now you can comprehend the amount of courage that will be required if we are serious about discovering God's will and actually doing it. He is more than willing to equip us if we give Him a 'Yes, Lord, whatever you want, I will do my best to do whatever you ask, if You but give me Your help'.

So with this in mind, please pray daily that whatever God wants to do 'Reset in Australia'-wise will happen…and for the necessary courage and fortitude of bishops, priests, religious and laity to enable it to happen.
​
Our Lady, Help of Christians, patroness of Australia, pray for us.

​My son and I have been meandering through the hugely enjoyable 'Knight of the Holy Ghost: A short history of G.K.Chesterton' by Dale Ahlquist. So much of what Chesterton wrote is still so fresh and so relevant to our world today. However it was a few lines from Ahlquist's introduction to Chesterton's 'What's Wrong With The World?' that stopped me in my tracks.

You can find them of pages 73-74 of the paper edition:

'What's wrong with the world?'
There are four main things wrong with the world: big government, big business, feminism and public education. Why? Because they all undermine the family, which is the basic unit of society, the thing that must be stable for society to be stable, the thing that must be strong for society to be strong, and the thing that is most under attack in our society today.

What's the solution?
It must be to restore the family to its proper place. We need a family-based economy and a family-based social system, where both state and commerce are subordinate to the family.

So what does this look like? What could it look like?

A starting point is Abraham. Even further back we recall that in Genesis, marriage and family is God's idea: God's plan. God took Abraham and tested him many times before beginning a family through him that would become a nation: a nation unique in the world, because it is a single family and structured on family.

When Israel left Egypt, the 12 tribes marched tribe by tribe in order. Each tribe had its designated position when they camped. Each tribe was subdivided into clans, and each tribe and clan had a leader who could speak for the whole tribe or for the whole clan. When they went into battle, they went into battle as family groups co-ordinated together these leaders.

It took WW1 for the British to re-discover that the battalions composed of 'pals' from the same region achieved more and had fewer casualties that battalions composed of people who were initially strangers to each other. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06d87pz

Even centuries later at the return from Exile, Nehemiah excluded anyone who could not prove membership of a clan. The vast majority could do this, which is impressive indeed, and shows that descent from a great-grandson of Abraham was a source of pride, value and identity. It also shows the lengths they went to keep meticulous records. All the so called 'boring bits' in scripture listing genealogies upon genealogies proclaims that God is faithful to the promise He made to Abraham, and these are the ongoing witnesses to God's faithfulness to that promise.

This gets even more interesting when it comes to the Levites, where even choirs and gate keepers are according to the membership of a particular family line. Traits and giftings of talent run through family lines like a pulse. Watch a few episodes of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' if you need to be convinced.

Even ancient cultures knew this:
https://www.enhancetv.com.au/video/who-do-you-think-you-are-charlie-teo/50588
In ancient China families had centres for ancestor worship that kept records of family membership. Families that consistently produced outstanding warriors, administrators etc were given plaques of official recognition by the emperor. Charlie Teo is a case study for saying that they still are.

If you are still not convinced that family matters to God, recall the immediate preparation God did in Israel before Jesus began His public ministry. The angel that visited Zechariah before John the Baptist was even conceived had this to prophesy about John's ministry: 'He will bring back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before him to turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the disobedient back to the wisdom that the virtuous have, preparing for the Lord a people fit for Him.' Luke 1:16:17

Which in turn is a reference to Malachi 3:23-24, the last verses of the Old Testament, 'Know that I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before My day comes, that great and terrible day. He shall turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.'

This then, is the kind of preparation for a major move of grace that matters. Restoring family relationships is the key, par excellence, to opening up hearts to receive the Gospel.

Should you need further convincing, recall that the 4th Commandment is to honour your father and your mother. In God's economy it is more important than the 5th Commandment, you shall not kill, and the rest of the 10.

Family matters. Family matters greatly to God.

When you look after what matters to God then blessings flow. Read about the positive impact that pro-family policies are having in Hungary: https://catholicherald.co.uk/dailyherald/2019/04/25/the-west-can-learn-a-lot-from-hungarys-pro-family-policies/
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2019/03/26/hungarian-minister-convinced-pro-family-outcomes-are-linked-to-policy/
https://www.christianpost.com/news/make-families-great-again-hungary-seeing-more-babies-less-abortions-through-pro-family-policies.html

If we are serious about being a Church 'Open to Conversion, Renewal and Reform', then explicitly pro-family initiatives have to be a part of that, especially initiatives that help estranged family members be reconciled with each other.

Yet, at the moment, when it comes to the majority of Plenary Council submissions that fall under the 'Open to Conversion, Renewal and Reform' theme (a.k.a. Theme 6), anything to do with family is barely on the radar.

This is the theme most likely to have to address the child abuse scandals. However the focus has been on its clerical manifestations, when it isn't a church issue as much as it is a family issue. If you go back and look at the origins of a perpetrator's abuse, in many cases the perpetrator was himself or herself abused by a relative, and some in a chain going back generations. Unless with God's grace we are able to out-root the evil at the family level, we cannot hope to remove it from the clergy level.

Family is far more important to God and His purposes than we can even begin to imagine. Chesterton saw that over 100 years ago. Maybe reading 'What's Wrong With The World' will help us begin to comprehend that.
​
#PlenaryCouncil #PlenaryCouncilTheme6

1st Joyful Mystery: The Annunciation
“Hail, [rejoice] full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Lk 1:28). At first sight the term chaire “rejoice”, seems an ordinary greeting, typical in the Greek world, but if this word is interpreted against the background of the biblical tradition it acquires a far deeper meaning. The same term occurs four times in the Greek version of the Old Testament and always as a proclamation of joy in the coming of the Messiah (cf. Zeph 3:14, Joel 2:21; Zech 9:9; Lam 4:21).

The Angel’s greeting to Mary is therefore an invitation to joy, deep joy. It announces an end to the sadness that exists in the world because of life’s limitations, suffering, death, wickedness, to all that seems to block out the light of the divine goodness. It is a greeting that marks the beginning of the Gospel, the Good News.

In the greeting of the Angel Mary is called “full of grace”. In Greek, the term “grace”, charis, has the same linguistic root as the word “joy”. In this term too the source of Mary’s exultation is further clarified: her joy comes from grace, that is, from being in communion with God, from having such a vital connection with Him, from being the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, totally fashioned by God’s action. Mary is the creature who opened the door to her Creator in a special way, placing herself in His hands without reserve. She lived entirely from and in her relationship with the Lord; she was disposed to listen, alert to recognizing the signs of God in the journey of his people; she was integrated into a history of faith and hope in God’s promises with which the fabric of her life was woven. And she submitted freely to the Word received, to the divine will in the obedience of faith.

Audience 19 Dec 2012

2nd Joyful Mystery: The Visitation
Mary went to see her elderly cousin Elizabeth, whom everyone said was sterile but who instead had reached the sixth month of a pregnancy given to her by God (cf. Lk 1: 36), carrying in her womb the recently conceived Jesus. She was a young girl but she was not afraid, for God was with her, within her.

In a certain way we can say that her journey was - the first "Eucharistic procession" in history. Mary, living Tabernacle of God made flesh, is the Ark of the Covenant in whom the Lord visited and redeemed His people. Jesus' presence filled her with the Holy Spirit.

When she entered Elizabeth's house, her greeting was overflowing with grace: John leapt in his mother's womb, as if he were aware of the coming of the One whom he would one day proclaim to Israel. The children exulted, the mothers exulted. This meeting, imbued with the joy of the Holy Spirit, is expressed in the Canticle of the Magnificat.

Is this not also the joy of the Church, which ceaselessly welcomes Christ in the holy Eucharist and brings Him into the world with the testimony of active charity, steeped in faith and hope? Yes, welcoming Jesus and bringing Him to others is the true joy of Christians!

Address Vatican Gardens 31 May 2005
 
3rd Joyful Mystery: The Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem
God’s sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. Only in their hearts will the shepherds be able to see that this baby fulfils the promise of the prophet Isaiah: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder" (Is 9:5). Exactly the same sign has been given to us.

God’s sign is that He makes Himself small for us. This is how He reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby – defenceless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with His strength. He takes away our fear of His greatness. He asks for our love: so He makes Himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into His feelings, His thoughts and His will – we learn to live with Him and to practise with Him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made Himself small so that we could understand Him, welcome Him, and love Him. He became a child, so that the Word could be grasped by us. In this way God teaches us to love the little ones. In this way He teaches us to love the weak. In this way He teaches us respect for children. The child of Bethlehem directs our gaze towards all children who suffer and are abused in the world, the born and the unborn. In all of these it is the Child of Bethlehem who is crying out to us; it is the God who has become small who appeals to us. Let us ask God to help us do our part so that the dignity of children may be respected. May they all experience the light of love, which mankind needs so much more than the material necessities of life.

Homily Midnight Mass Christmas Eve 2006

4th Joyful Mystery: The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
It is important to note that these two acts — the purification of the mother and the redemption of the son — did not require a visit to the Temple. However, Mary and Joseph wished to fulfil all the prescriptions in Jerusalem. And it is precisely through the prescriptions of the Law, that the principal event is transformed, it becomes the “presentation” of Jesus in the Temple of God, which means the act of offering the Son of the Most High to the Father who sent Him (cf. Lk 1:32, 35).

The words of the Prophet Malachi: “Behold”, says the Lord, “I send My messenger to prepare the way before Me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming... he will purify the sons of Levi.... Then the offering... will be pleasing to the Lord” (3:1, 3, 4) are fulfilled in Jesus because, thanks to the faith of His parents, He was taken to the Temple “immediately”; and in the act of His “presentation”, that is, the “offering” of Him in person to God the Father, the themes of sacrifice and of the priesthood clearly transpire. The Child Jesus, who is presented in the Temple, is the same person who, as an adult, would purify the Temple (cf. Jn 2:13-22; Mk 11:15, 19ff) and above all make Himself the sacrifice and the High Priest of the new Covenant.

The “salvation” that Jesus brought to His people, and which He embodies in Himself, passed through the Cross, through the violent death that He was to vanquish and to transform with the sacrifice of His life through love. This sacrifice was already foretold in the act of the Presentation in the Temple, an act without any doubt motivated by the traditions of the old Covenant, but that was deeply enlivened by the fullness of faith and love.

Homily 2 Feb 2013

5th Joyful Mystery: The Finding of Jesus in the Temple
The first witnesses of Christ's birth, the shepherds, found themselves not only before the Infant Jesus but also a small family: mother, father and newborn son. God had chosen to reveal Himself by being born into a human family and the human family thus became an icon of God because of its interpersonal love and the fruitfulness of this love.

The 12-year-old Jesus stays behind in the Temple in Jerusalem unbeknown to His parents who, surprised and anxious, discover Him three days later conversing with the teachers. Jesus answers His Mother who asks for an explanation that He must "be in His Father's house" that is God's house (cf. Lk 2: 49). In this episode the boy Jesus appears to us full of zeal for God and for the Temple. Let us ask ourselves: from whom did Jesus learn love for His Father's affairs? As Son He certainly had an intimate knowledge of His Father, of God, and a profound and permanent relationship with Him but, in His own culture He had learned prayers and love for the Temple and for the Institutions of Israel from His parents. We may therefore say that Jesus' decision to stay on at the Temple was above all the result of His close relationship with the Father, but it was also a result of the education He had received from Mary and Joseph. Here we can glimpse the authentic meaning of Christian education: it is the fruit of a collaboration between educators and God that must always be sought. The Christian family is aware that children are a gift and a project of God. Therefore it cannot consider that it possesses them; rather, in serving God's plan through them, the family is called to educate them in the greatest freedom, which is precisely that of saying "yes" to God in order to do His will. The Virgin Mary is the perfect example of this "yes". Let us entrust all families to her, praying in particular for their precious educational mission.

Angelus 27 Dec 2009
 
These texts from the speeches of Pope Benedict XVI have been edited from the originals to get them to a size suitable for meditation with the Rosary on First Saturdays.

..............................................................................................
Below is a printer friendly PDF version, 3 x A4 pages in length. 

The next stage of the Australian Plenary Council 2020 https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/ has begun with the release of the 6 themes aggregated from responses across the country. Here they are:

Missionary and evangelising
Inclusive, participatory and synodal
Prayerful and Eucharistic
Humble, healing and merciful
A joyful, hope-filled and servant community
Open to conversion, renewal and reform

It is a significant feat to have found 6 themes, especially since the earlier iterations of the website expected 20 themes.

Of themselves the themes seem innocuous enough. The trouble starts when you look at the quotations grouped on the sub-pages of the website. Many, many of those quotations show how poorly the ancient deposit of faith has been presented to our current generations.

While I can understand the argument that what people actually said has to be acknowledged, it does give the false impression that these things will be discussed. I doubt that those preparing the Plenary Council want it reduced to a lengthy session of catechesis.

I am just as sure that many of these quotations answered the questions, 'What do you think? 'Where do you think the church in Australia needs to change?' and 'What do you want to tell your bishops and those in leadership?' and not the actual question: viz, 'What is the Holy Spirit calling the church in Australia to do?'.

I know that the preparation session I attended was a travesty of what it was designed to be. We were supposed to independently write down our answers to that fundamental question, and then share them. Similar answers were then supposed to be grouped together, and the biggest group (consensus) was to be discussed in depth. The leader of my session didn't do that at all; the leader rattled off a long list of controversial themes and encouraged people to make personal submissions on those themes. Several attendees didn't get a chance to say anything. We were supposed to be listening to the Holy Spirit and to each other, but we really only got to listen to the leader of the session.

I have heard that some places did it properly, and for that I am very grateful.

But I have also read the results from one parish's feedback, around 200 individual responses, and none of them began 'I think the Holy Spirit is calling us to……'; they were all comments on what mattered to them. Of those responses, the biggest consensus was a profound concern for effectively handing on the faith to the young.

That this overriding concern was not a theme of its own is a worry.

It is the very first thing Jesus asked Peter to do if he loved Him, 'Feed my lambs'.

I find that correlation of the sensum fidei rather consoling.

Before I go any further, let us put some matters to rest
•Women priests. If Jesus did not ordain His mother and Mary Magdalene, then He didn't want women ordained as priests. If Jesus didn't do it, then we have no mandate to do it.
•Married priests. This is not a solution to the vocations crisis, nor a solution to the child abuse crisis. It might make the married priest less lonely than the celibate priest, but it places enormous burdens on the wife and children. What happens if he dies? What happens to them, then? What happens if they divorce or one of them is accused of adultery? Your wife is ill and you get a call to visit a dying parishioner – who do you put first? – and how to do live with the consequences?
•Support same sex marriage. It isn't going to happen! God made them male and female and said be fruitful and multiply, He designed our bodies, He created family and marriage.
•Restore the 3rd Rite of Reconciliation. After all the abuses that happened while it was permitted…it isn't going to happen. The 3rd Rite was designed for emergency life and death situations faced by a group of people eg. going into battle, going into a rescue situation where your own life is at risk, sudden situations where there just isn't time to hear the confessions of everyone, with the expectation that if they survived they would make a proper personal confession afterwards. Did you see any of the multitudes coming together prior to Christmas and Easter for the 3rd Rite going to a personal confession in the weeks afterwards? Me neither.

Another worry is this refrain, 'We want more …..', 'We want better……', 'We need to do better at ……..'. It is a worry because at no point did I ever see a 'and I am willing to do the hard work to make it happen'. There's this strange expectation that all I have to do is ask, and someone else will dedicate themselves to making it happen. Call it a consumerist mentality if you will. Perhaps we may have received more quality responses if the question was, 'What is God calling me to do?' rather than 'What is God calling us to do?'

But then what God is calling us to do is already clear: to be missionary disciples of the Gospel. The real question is: how is He calling us to do this effectively in our lives as Australians and as His church in Australia? What we need is to seek His strategies that will engage our Australian culture and bring Australians into a life giving encounter with Jesus. That is the true work of the Plenary Council.

Yet it isn't enough to seek God's will and His strategies, because if we don't also ardently seek His power to accomplish it we are doomed to failure.

To see a theme about growing in responsiveness to the Holy Spirit and about ways of accessing and releasing His charisms for ministry, and learning how to use those precious and powerful charisms in teamwork would have excited me. It is the only thing that really matters. If a gift of preaching gets released multitudes get saved, not just a few hundred. If a gift of discernment of spirits gets released, spiritual battles get won and the rubble is cleared away for many conversions to take place. Without His charisms, without His power, we can achieve nothing. With His charisms, with His power, the whole nation can be converted.

May the Holy Spirit mercifully take control of this whole Plenary Council process. Amen.
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Only with Him in charge do we have any hope of avoiding the numerous pitfalls along the way.