Hail Holy Queen - Salve Regina

The prayer Hail Holy Queen which we pray after the Rosary is a most ancient prayer and beautiful. We declare that Mary the Mother of Jesus is "Holy" is "Queen" "Mother of all "Mercy" (Jesus).
She is a "hope". We cry to Mary because before Mary's "Fiat" and the beginning of the work of our Redemption we were indeed "poor banished children of "Eve" (hawah-mother of all living) and in some ways we still are because we can no longer meet our creator face to face as "Eve" did in the garden. Today we meet our God and creator only with the eyes of faith. The Sin of Origins (of our first parents) deprived for us the experience of visual and "face to face" intimacy (He walked with Adam in the cool of the garden) with Him. As we live on this earth (Garden of Eden?) and it is His joy and ours that we do so, we are deprived of the same intimacy of our "Father" as you and I have the visible and tangible intimacy with our own fathers. As you and I have an intimacy with your/my children.
We sigh and are sad because of this barrier that prohibits us from embracing our Heavenly Father as we embrace our own living children.
"This Valley of Tears" is the earth and our life as we live them.
My own life is strewn with tears and  sorrow and loss and often feel like they could fill a valley with my tears (poetically). So collectively the tears of the human beings in our daily lives fill a whole valley and form an river and fill and top up the ocean.
"Turn then most gracious advocate thine eyes of Mercy towards us" A new title for Our Blessed Mother. Remember Jesus on the Cross gave her to us as "our Mother" so we can turn to "our Mother" as we turn to our human mother for advocacy, for comfort, support, for intimate needs, so we turn to our heavenly mother for comfort for our soul’s needs, to help us to carry that heavy cross  like my own deeply regretted two decisions which changed the trajectory of my life.
"And after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb....Jesus"
And in this exile/banishment from the embrace and vision of my own true Father, we ask, "Mum, when we come to the end of this journey, would you take me by the hand and introduce me to your Son who gave you to me and who bought for me this new and intimate relationship with Our Father/my Father?
I believe wholly completely and totally that I receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of my Lord Jesus when I receive the Eucharist and as I said in the past if I close my eyes I can see the beauty of the light of my Lord Jesus of the Transfiguration. But it is only through the imagination and not the visual.
We are meant to be perfect as Our heavenly Father is perfect, but the reality is that we are not and whilst we remain on this earth we can and do fail the ideal. None of us is sinless. We all sin and fall far short of the glory of God. However, for this and for the reason of His great love for us, He has left for us the remedy for this  our inclination towards failing the ideal.
Yes Jesus has conquered the Sin of World, but this knowledge has to be taken on board, acquired and made one's own and again the reality is that we are human beings who are frail and like St Paul says, I want to do good things but I fail.
The prayer "Hail Holy Queen" has written within it a most marvellous catechesis and if it could be "delivered" it would open the eyes of the soul. Within this catechesis, is the story of God, creation, sin, redemption and return to Our Father.
To the best of our knowledge we seek Christ in His integrity, unbroken just as His mother and Father gave Him to us. This is what the journey is all about. Finding the Total and Whole and Complete Christ in His divine essence.
That we  should love our enemy is a given. That we get hurt with our enemy's arrows, is also a given and in our labour to forgive is when we grow deeper in the dimension of the Cross and in the finding Christ in His integrity. And Our Holy Queen leads us in that.

Christmas Wishes

Dear friends I wish for you a happy and Holy Christmas and a New Year filled with graces.
Thank you for your love and support of me personally, and the work that I do.
God Bless
Anne

Woman Dies following Abortion.

A report in the Age (one of our daily newspapers) yesterday, December 21, reported that the woman who had had a late term  abortion earlier this year had died on Sunday 18th December. It is alleged that the abortionist "Dr Schulberg" performed the late term abortion whilst she was very ill and the abortion left her fighting for life as she was rushed to one of our hospitals Box Hill Hospital. This fight ended with her death.
This abortion was performed at the abortion clinic generally known for late term abortions formerly known as the Croydon Day Clinic, but now operated by the Marie Stopes International group and Dr Schulberg, an abortionist there, is being investigated by the Medical Practitioners Board. He has been previously been found guilty of professional misconduct, and also guilty of inapropriately prescribing painkillers.  This is also the facility where the anaethestist Dr James Peters is alleged to have infected over 50 women with Hepatitis C during 2008-9.
I wonder if the sisterhood and those who called for liberal abortion laws will lose any sleep over this. I wonder if those parliamentarians and feminists who pushed through laws for abortion to full term can sleep well.  This comes several weeks after the "accidental?" abortion of twin boys at 32 weeks because one of the babies had congenital heart disease.  I wonder if anyone at the Marie Stopes International will lose sleep over the death of this woman and her child before her.
We have opened up the Pandora's Box, or even the gates of hell,  and they will refuse to be shut. 
This will not be the only death because of abortion they will continue. And how interesting that it did not make blaring headlines. I looked through another of our "daily" papers today The Herald Sun, and guess what nothing.  Not important topic. Just a million adds for Christmas shopping and the Cricket team nominations....Wow, Australians have priorties right havent we?
And of course we have those who say that abortion does no harm either physically, mentally or emotionally.  I wonder how the family whose wife and mother died will feel?
Like the politicians we have, who are self serving, we get what we deserve, and the worst thing that God can do is to leave us to our own devices and ways,  then we know that we are in trouble.
I feel drained, sad, almost helpless that with all the information available, still women will resort to abortion to "fix" what appears to be a problem, a child, where indeed it would have been the remedy and the blessing.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/woman-dies-after-abortion-clinic-visit-20111220-1p414.html

Gethsemane

For a whole week I visited a  very distant inlaw relative in hospital. She had had a massive heart attack and two strokes and was not expected to survive.  Very elderly, a concentration camp survivor who had no children and whose spouse had predeceased her and very few friends left.


As I called in after work day in and day out, I couldn't move or shake my thoughts away from Gethsemane. I kept thinking about Gethsemane, as I always do when someone is in the last moments/hours. I don't know why but I do.  Hooked up to tubes and machines and in a strong delirium and thrashing about it was hard to watch.


I could hear her recollections of events of WWII and abuse and her tormenting noises. She called her "daughter" though none existed. (or maybe she did) and calling her husband. And of course she didn't recognise me or any of the few who called to see her.  And I reflected on her words during the delirium, of things we knew nothing about. Of her reliving incidents. And all I could do was sit and wait and hold her hand (she held so tight) sometimes late into the night and talking with her and telling her "stuff" and still I kept thinking about Gethsemane.  The waiting and the watching.  I am not sad that she has gone because she had wanted to go to her husband. But still the waiting..


Whenever we read the story of Gethsemane we hear Jesus ask Peter, James and John to wait and watch with Him (Mt 26:38) but they don't.  They drift into a doze under some heavy emotional weight.
Jesus, I presume, had hoped that they might have stayed with him a while and accompanied him, and supported him  in that hour of his "aloneness" but somehow they couldn't.  There was a sense of heaviness which stopped this from happening.  They couldn't be present to Him and for Him because they had a sense of dread of the unspeakable.  Something which they could not name but would surely happen.  They couldn't stay awake and pray because they might have been "prayed out" and when someone is prayed out someone else has to take over probably like the Cyrene,  I think Sula felt like this, so I prayed for her daily as I sat by her bedside.
Ostensibly it appears that the apostles let Jesus down and abandoned Him and perhaps it could be said that they did, but when we stand and hold the hand of a dying person, whenever we wait an hour and another hour with someone to turn the corner or to go. Whenever, we spend hours sponging the dry lips and dry tongue of someone who can't ,then we wait awhile, as asked.  Whenever we close the eyes and catch the last gasp of breath of a human being who is leaving for home, then we fulfill the request of Jesus to wait awhile.
The friends of Jesus can be harshly judged for "sleeping" and yet we know how hard it is to wait and wait especially when we reach a place where we feel we cannot go further, and then we have to allow others to carry us while we sleep.


I suspect that the friends of Jesus reached a stage where they couldn't pray or help anymore.  They just drifted.  It has been said that the wine helped the sleeping. Perhaps.  It helped to dull the aching pain of something different with that night. Ominous.   The beginning of the separation from their loved one ...Jesus.
Whenever, we can wait an hour praying, sighing, or holding a frail hand or sponge a brow or lips, then we are doing this for Jesus, We stand in for Peter, James and John, who couldn't at that moment stand a while with Him  "whatever you do for the least of my friends you do for me" (Mt 25:31-46).


As I reflected on the life of Shula and the sufferings she endured it was a quiet privilege to "watch and wait" and hold her hand and give her drink,  and  then she left quietly not to disturb...when I was asleep. 

Late Term Abortion 32 week twin babies dead.

"Mum's Twin heartbreak" Major headline in our daily newspaper the Herald Sun November 24, 2011.
This the story of 32 week old in utero twins aborted "accidently" at the Royal Women's Hospital the largest women's Hospital in  Victoria.  "Mums Twin Heartbreak"
As the story unfolded through the papers and media outlets it transpired that one of the infants was diagnosed with congenital heart defect and would need many operations if he survived at all and the "advice" was to abort him.  In the process of the abortion of the child with the defect the healthy one was mistakenly aborted and then the one with the heart defect was also terminated via a caesarean section.
In all of this I have to ask WHY?   Not that the accident happend, but why it needed to happen at all?
Why was the encouragement to abort the child with heart defect?  Why not let him live and have the operations which would be needed? and if he died naturally, at least hold him, love him, nurture him for the time available, and name him and give him a burial worthy of the new human being?  Why at 32 weeks abort him because he had a heart defect?  How is it possible for parents (possibly on medical advice)  determine that it's better for their baby to die because he is ill?  What's happened to the idea that we love our own unto death?  Whats happened to the idea that a mother and father protect their child against all attacks and not agree to anything else?
And the mistake which took the life of the "healthy" infant?  what can be said about that?
This dear friends is what happens with our new abortion laws.  Abortion legal to 40 weeks.
It will never happen many said. It will never happen that older babies will be terminated.
Three older in utero babies dead through abortion in 5 weeks reported in our daily papers.   And It will never happen..?
And I suspect that the reason this made the headlines is because the "healthy" baby was terminated and it's going to be a massive compensation/investigation headliner.
I have been speaking about legalisation of "infanticide" since our new infamous abortion laws  of 1998 and since then we have seen over 50 late term abortions (that we know of) of infants who were viable but aborted and some were born alive but were not helped and eventually succumbed to lonely unattended death.
And we call ourselves a civilised society?
This last reported abortion for foetal abnormality (the second one.  I have attended to another mother, in the last four weeks who aborted at 14 weeks old for foetal abnormality or so she was told)  happened because of the eugenic mentality which has become deeply rooted in our society and  which Hitler and Sanger and others would have been proud of.
We punish "homicide" we punish all types of intentional and even unintentional killing as illegal.  Yet "infanticide" is legal and a "right" because the pro abortion lobby and feminist cabal declared that this is a right of women.  And sadly they got what they wanted and we stand by and watch and read what we read in the news yesterday "Mum's Twin Heartbreak."   Will this be last late term abortion? NO there will be many more as more and more our society becomes desensitised to death of intants and to our own sense of helplessness in the face of such horror and such devaluing of human life.
Lord Please help us we cant do it anymore. You need your help.

The Herald Sun, November 24th, 2011
heraldsun.com.au.

The Touch of the Master's Hand

 

Author:  Unknown.

T’was battered , scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth the while
To waste his time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile.
“What am I bid, good people,” he cried,
“Who’ll start the bidding for me?
One dollar? …Now do I hear two?
To dollars…now who males it three?”
Three dollars once…three dollars twice,
Going for three….”  But no!
From the room far back a greybearded man
Came forward and picked up the bow.
Then wiping the dust from the old violin
And tightening up the strings
He played a melody pure and sweet
As sweet as the angels sing.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low
Said, “What now am I bid for the old violin?”
As he held it aloft with its bow.
“One thousand?” said he. “Two thousand?
And now two thousand and who makes it three?
Three thousand once, three thousand twice….
And going and gone” said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
“We don’t quite understand…
What changed its worth?”  Swift came the reply,
“The touch of the Master’s hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune,
All battered and torn with sin
Is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd
Much like the old violin.
A mess of pottage, a glass of wine,
A game, a he travels on,
He’s going once, he is going twice,
He is going and almost gone.
But the master comes and the foolish crowd
Can never quite understand
The worth of a soul, the change that was wrought
By the touch of the Master’s hand.

---

[1] Kelsey, M. Ressurection.  Release from Oppression.  ( New York: Paulist Press, 1985).

Woman the Secret of God.

" Acknowledged in its fullness, this is the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved.  That is why, at this moment when the human race is undergoing a deep transformation, women imbued with a spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling”  (Council’s message  to women  at closing of Vatican II).

How prophetic has been this clarion call to women. This reminder that to them is given the call to help humanity to recover from its malaise leading to a new falling.  Again woman has been asked for a “fiat”
And sadly, the loudest noise that is mostly heard from the feminine both and out of the church is the voice of dissent, and disobedience. And No.

The late Blessed Pope John Paul II exhorted and believed in woman’s genius.  “Feminine genius” he called it. He believed that woman was created to be the glue which held humanity together.  He believed that woman (issah) was not lesser because she was “taken out of man” (issh) but more refined and sacred because she emerged from within man rather than from “soil”.

This Holy Father Blessed John Paul II, always believed that and a taught that the true strength, the mystery of the woman, is best seen when she sees herself as part of a  complimentarity with the  man   and recognizes  her own self as “different” but “equal” to the man.  The softer Imago Dei.  An Imago which loves so deeply and endures so long that it becomes transformative.

The culture of death (a John Paul II quote) which has flourished over the past 50 years has done so because “woman” was first seduced with words which sounded like liberation from former past  ties and then  she  slowly forgot her uniqueness, worth and design.  Helpmate, woman, mother of living, leading to loss of her understanding of her being.   These voices of distraction, with stealth, have burrowed deeply into the thought and psyche of the feminine genius thus changing her blueprint for life, into one that again says NO to life and in doing so re introduced “death.”

Blessed John Paul II who used this term “culture of death” often,  saw clearly   that the health of the feminine and the  health of society are a mirror image of one another.  He wrote and spoke to and with women and most specifically and beautifully in Letter to Women (1995) and Muglieris Dignitatem, On the Dignity & Vocation of Women. He reflected on the strength and importance of woman and her role.  Not as an afterthought of God, but as the final most creative and mysterious act.  He spoke to and with  women and addressed the challenges which faced them and warned prophetically of the assault against their “feminine” being by their very own “sisters” with ideologies destructive to their design. 

Woman’s genius is tied to the male “role” which  is to enhance, refine and make whole his  own role  of  continuing the generative act with her,  because   without her he again resorts to the company of beasts (Gn:2:20-24)  not  of his “kind” and who  are unable to share and generate  life with him.  The beast cannot be his “helpmate” but only one “like” him can o fulfil this role.   With her he is tied to the mystery called “life.”  They together understand the God who created them   male and female and who designed woman, to be the one who would be able to unite herself to him and be in communion with him. To complete him.    Very unlike the beast.

Understanding the fecundity of woman correctly is important because, even beasts and nature are designed to reproduce and continue “life” but woman is different.  She “hears” and understands that within that new creation she carries, begins a new tree, a new life, a new history, the same as the one begun when love overflowed from God and began the eternal generation of “Adam”.

While woman in turn would also be recipient of something special from man (his generative gift)  in his role as “man,” it is she who must return time and again to unite with him in order that the “rib” (Gen.2:22) forms again the “whole man.”  Not “rib” less man, but when the “rib” (woman) is reunited with the “man” he man is whole.   The man of the first creation, without the “rib” (woman)  is  helpless and alone. 

However, whilst woman needs to return Adam so as to re create, it was always in her design that she would be the one to carry forward that creation.  Her receptive nature implies this. So does the curse after the sin (Gen.3:16).    So always woman was to be the one who would co operate with Adam and God so that eternal and physical generation of a new creature would happen.

It is of little wonder that the “serpent” chose “woman” to tempt (Gen 3:5) because it is she who is his enemy and he knew it.  And it is “She” who must crush his head and bring him to heel to honour her God, her feminine and her child.   The very aspect of her which cooperates with God and man to bring forth a new child, the serpent set out to corrupt.  Hence he again had to convince woman to abort her child   and she again is listening to his voice.

The elements of the earth are used to form “man” while “woman “is drawn out more refined because God had already “breathed” into Adam when He removed the “Rib.”   He is the heaviness of earth she is the mystery of “life” and together they form the new creation heading through time and with the New “Adam”, Jesus,  towards eternity to fill the paradise left bereft by the fall of some of the angels.  How ingenious of God. 

International Grief Conference -Melbourne Victoria 2011

Hello friends,
Had a really heavy but very interesting and exciting week this week.  I had the opportunity to attend an international grief conference here in Melbourne (2 full days-phew exhausting) listening to speakers on the topic of grief. 
Dr Colin Murray Parkes (UK).,Dr Irwin Sandler,Dr Carol Wogrin, Dr Cecilia L W Chan,
Dr Simon Shimshon Rubin, Dr Ruth Malkinson, Dr Kenneth Doka, Dr. Therese Rando.What an array of speakers and ways of speaking the message.  It was held in beautiful surroundings and the topics and themes were marvellous. 
These international researchers and speakers on the issue of grief and management, of mourning, meaning of bereavement help us to understand better the grief  in our society, that is all manner of grief, and help us with ideas on how to bring some help to sufferers.
It was marvellously attended, I would have said over 300 attendees.
All the speakers were excellent each brought to listeners their style and knowledge and words, but not one word about abortion and yet there was not one speaker's lecture that could not be fitted to the abortion grief, or what I already do with my "girls"
However I think that for me the most moving moment came at the end of Dr Ruth Malkinson's presentation when she finished with the words and recording Jewish prayer sung at the time of death of a loved one. And slide showed words.  This was also prayed at my Father in Laws death years ago.
"Merciful God in Heaven, grant perfect repose to the soul of.......who has passed to his eternal habitation; and in whose memory, the members of his family pledge charity. May he be under thy divine wings among the holy and pure who shine bright as the sky; may his place of rest be in paradise. Merciful one, O keep his soul forever alive under thy protective wings.  The Lord being his heritage may he rest in peace; and let us say, Amen.
 At the conclusion of the word Amen...there was a palpable silence, and a tear, and then applause.
Each  of the speakers brought an element of religion and an appreciation of the importance of the spiritual in each human being and this really made me happy because if this starts at the "top" of the hierarchy of "grief experts" then perhaps those who study "grief"might also begin to see that grief without God is so much harder to bear.
Thank you to Fr Ray for making it possible for me to attend this conference.

Salt of the Earth Mtt. 5:13

This week this term “salt of the earth” seemed to have floated past my ears and past my vision so often that I had to stop and listen or see if it was trying to say something to me.  I looked it up.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its taste, what can make it salty again? It   is good for nothing and can only be thrown out to be trampled under people’s feet.”

It seems that salt is so important that it holds the earth or makes the earth better, but if it loses its flavour then it’s useless and suitable for throwing out.

What does this mean?

 Well to start with, salt is a white sandy type of substance which is found both in sea water and on land and is a substance which is required by both human species and the animal species as part of their life and diet.   For us human people who cook and preserve we need salt to flavour and to preserve at least olives, and peperoni and aubergines and sardines etc. Salt is a preservative which prevents undesirable things happening to what we are trying to preserve.  flavour our food.  Imagine trying to eat pasta and meatballs without putting salt in the boiling water which cooks the pasta. Not an option!  And I am sure it has many other uses. So Salt is naturally available and a very much needed substance.

So it must be important and Jesus must have known this because he used a known and valuable substance in order to make a point.   That was his style. His parables clearly show this.  He used what his listeners understood, wheat, flour, vineyard, wine, water, labour, so it should not come as a surprise that he used salt to explain a very important point and it must have been a very important point because salt was once considered more precious than gold. A golden lesson!!!

So what was Jesus saying and why was it speaking to me “salt of the earth” this week?

The only thing that I can think of is that as a believer in Him and a lover of Him I have to endure. I have to help make the way of the other better.  . I have to be stable and not run after other voices. I have to “flavour” those who come into or are in my life.  I have to be that “thing” which makes my life and the life of others in my care have “Taste”  and those who come into that life know, experience, feel that taste. Otherwise if this is not I what I do then all the words and works are tasteless and useless.

It’s a hard saying

Jerusalem Bible.  

Diakonia-Service-Charisms

Diakonia a Greek word for “service” especially to one’s community of brothers and sisters.  Within a community God will manifest His many gifts, giving or even enhancing to some or to each their own special talent.  Within a community the donation of gifts by the Holy Spirit is done so that all may benefit from the special charism, (1Cor. 14:4-6) but more especially so that pride may not be found in its members.

The Holy Spirit distributes His gifts where He will so that the whole body may be served for the good of all (1Cor. 12:7). Therefore the gifts distributed to an individual is not particular to that individual or for that individual’s benefit or profit but to be at the service of the brothers and sisters.  The people do not choose gifts but it is the Spirit who chooses the recipient of the gift.
Because the Church is the “body of Christ” and its individual members are part of this whole “body” so too the gifts are for the “whole body” and all the “parts” (or members) are to be concerned for each other (1Cor.12: 25).
The guiding principle of the charisms is the action that the gifts will accomplish for and on behalf of the body, that is, that all may be done for the upbuilding, maintenance and edification of all within the living organism the “body of Christ.”

Whilst St. Paul does name and number  some gifts and names some as more  superior, e.g. (apostles, prophets, teachers) and those for the spiritual development of humankind (proclamation of the word gifts), he continues by suggesting that even though some charisms may appear superior to others indeed there is one gift which is far more superior than all of them.  LOVE. Which is “a still more excellent way.” (1Cor.12:31)

All charisms are directed towards the service of all others however, LOVE, is directed towards God and neighbour.  LOVE always acts vertically rather than horizontally, that means heavenward, because all ministries are designed to be beacons  directing   those on the journey and the journey must end.  However, when that journey ends all that remains is the love shown, experienced, and shared, along the way. All manner of service ends but Love cannot because Love returns to Love.

Diakonia for me seems to speak of service to the other but Diakonia like Koinonia and Sacrament have a deeper meaning.  The reality of Diakonia (service) is that it is a service carried out in the dimension of the Cross, and for members of the household of God.  There is a dimension to Diakonia, which is not found in any other service industry.
This kind of “service” has the imagery of Jesus with the towel wrapped around his waist washing feet. It is the “master” serving the “slave” This dimension of service can only be found where the “body” has taken the Lord’s word seriously.  It is love in the dimension of or service to the cross.

Whilst the diaconate (deacons) were established for a service to the body, they understood the service to be a command from their Lord.  This service was not a service based on mundane outcomes (even though it could involve mundane outcomes) but a service, which elevated mundane actions to supernatural outcomes.  This service was done because of the “better way” Love.  This service was to be done because “love” was and is the propelling motive, and the fuel propelling love, is Jesus Christ.  To be able to serve “the enemy” is to be of service in the dimension of love.

 Bibliography:

New Revised Standard Version.

Agitation of the Spirit

Where there is an agitation, a ceaselessness of the spirit, then it is a soul restless, looking and not finding its entry point into its own being.  It is lost.

As it begins its own journey back home, it begins to seek the entry, the door.  Its yearning is to encounter its own essence “its own God imprint.”  Unable to find this it continues in its hyperactivity and agitation. 

In the aging we are called to slow down in order to find the doorway back into “Eden” which has been barred by the angels with the flaming swords (Gen3:24) ”life” has forbidden our vision of paradise, just tentatively teased, this so that all that was needed for the journey could be accomplished without the anguish of what was lost “in the beginning.”  But aging calls to slowly disengage from the outer world works  so that the inner tunes may be more easily heard. So that the centre of the soul may be more easily found and recognised.  In this place of divine abode, the moment of this soul’s birth is seen.  The glory which it possessed from all eternity is now truly seen and accepted “The Kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk1:15) this is now finally understood. In silence steeped in love this becomes possible. Love has carried the vision along.

Life is lived so that the development of divine manners, lost in those dim eons may be relearned. So perhaps it could be said that at the end of life we may not find ourselves strangers and homeless in what should be our natural homeland, because the necessary manners meant for heaven have not been learnt and are missing.

Nothing of the old order or journey’s effects are lost but retained and re organised in a different manner. Indeed preserved are the important things which grace purifies. Re-established grace, together with all its valuable gifts lead to ascension; Life with its purification is raised higher into Grace of God and ultimate union with Him.

God's Shabbat

On the Seventh Day God ceased from work and drew breath” Ex 31.17

What an interesting and dramatic thought.  In the Genesis account it says that on the 7^th day God rested but then in Exodus 31:17  we read that He “ceased”  and then He drew breath.

There is a sense of inhaling, deep breath, resting, labour, sigh, joy.  To stop, cease from all and Be.

Imagine the silence, echo of that silence, emptiness, yet the welling of something from deep within.

He ceased from His labours and drew breath. He closed His eyes and heard the murmur of creation.  He could hear an through time an echo of all the blessings, pleadings, joy, laughter, sorrows, and prayers of every creature He had ever created. That through “Adam” He would generate.   He heard an echoe of creation in travail,  in awe, in joy.   He heard the dawn break through the darkness.  He heard the light crown the day.  He heard the winds caress the trees and the waters shimmering over pearls.

On the seventh day He ceased from His labours and drew breath and in the silence between the  breath, He heard the stream of creation parade in all  its glory. In the silence of breathlessness He heard  the footsteps of Man. In the silence of the seventh day He heard an echo of need and said “Let there be light” and there was “Let there be Life and there was.”  On the 7^th day He ceased from His labours and drew breath and saw His work transformed from His heart and vision into concrete reality.  On the seventh day He ceased from His labours and remembered Shabbat.

The day to stand and hear the stillness and in the Act of stillness to Hear Him and worship Him. On the seventh day He ceased from His labours and drew breath and returned to the centre of His being for there was no more to do.  No more originals needed. He has created the works of His hand.

 It was  now Shabbat.

What & Who is a Prophet.

What started out as a discussion amongst friends slowly progressed into hot words over the topic of what is a prophet.  Some amongst the friends thought that a prophet is someone like the prophets of the Old Testament but now that we are in New Testament times there is no more need for prophets because Jesus has spoken all that there is to be said. Then there are those who  think that prophets and prophecy are for the “thin brained” (whatever that means)!!!!  It turned into an interesting discussion to say the least.

My understanding is that a prophet is someone called by God to be His spokesman.
A prophet would probably never choose such a career because it’s both thankless and not very financial.  A prophet’s life is one who always speaks about what is wrong in “the day” and how God sees the society. Indeed A prophet sees with the eyes of God and speaks about all the “woes! To thee”
As I pondered more and more about this “career” called prophet, I thought about the prophets of  old and those of our day. Do we have any? And if so who are they?  Do we recognise them as prophets or as some “troublemakers” or “idiots” who just don’t know when to stay silent? Or even some doom and gloom merchants.  I think probably all of the above, but the real prophets of the “day” remain very clearly visible yet almost invisible.  Visible because they are very loudly speaking contra societal mores yet invisible because no one really sees them as prophets.  Maybe that’s a good thing because the life expectancy of the prophets of the Old period wasn’t that good.

Does our society actually speak about prophets and prophecy? Except maybe those on the loony fringe?

I remember recently speaking with someone who definitely is a prophet of doom, the world is surely about to collapse in  a heap, and when this starts I tend to wander (glazed eyed look) because if the world is going to collapse into a heap then there is not much we can do about it but collapse, and we  with it.  But I did though, start thinking about prophets of our days and our times and the things that they spoke/speak , propheies about  is happening and tried to warn us against,   and looking back into our recent history we can see that there were voices of warning but  we did not listen and hence we are where we are.

Actually it was talk about the “London riots” which set us off on this stimulating and highly (lol) “intellectual debate” What were the riots about?  The damage? The pain? The result? The reasons for riots? And of course over lattes and sometimes a cointreau or three various thoughts and ideas exchanged

The Most oft mentioned prophet of our era appeared to be the Dalai Lama, followed by Ghandi, followed by Mother Teresa (surprise, surprise) followed by John Lennon of all people! (I think his song imagine had something to do with it) followed by Bob Geldof.....I listened  stunned.  I couldn’t believe  that we are such good friends  (sharing our cointreaus) and thought worlds apart.  Maybe it was the cointreau that did dull my brain but I could not believe or could not see where their answers and ideas were coming from.

Well after cointreau no 3 with shredded strawberry bits over ice (no I am not a drinker..Just a cointreau lover) my tongue loosened and I think I let it rip.

“What about Pius XII who guided the church through the war years and protected and helped Jewish people through various and hidden way, and today is whilst there are some who still say he did not “do enough” he is rated amongst Scholars and Hebrew knowledgeable as “Righteous amongst the nations” a title of honour given to those gentiles who helped Jews during the holocaust. He spoke out against the Nazi Regime.
And after the war continued to guide the church through the turmoil which follows any war and the destabilisation effect which a war has.

What about Paul VI who wrote the magnificent paper Humane Vitae (1968) as a response to the cultural changes of the fifties and sixties, the drug culture, the loose sex and throw away bra culture,  the feminist revolution, and the introduction of the “pill” which would serve to change forever our understanding and honour of sexuality, feminity and masculinity. 

This Modern Prophet Paul VI stood against all even those within the church and said NO to contraception because it is NO to God and to life and would eventually lead to loss of respect between men and women and the use of each other’s bodies as objects rather than what God had intended them to be.

The words Paul VI spoke, so prophetic, we have the fruit today just in one biblical generation, 40 years, visible for all to see, listen to this  from 40 years ago   “It is also to be feared that the man growing used to the employment of anti conceptive practices, may finally lose respect for the woman and no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium , may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment , and no longer his respected and beloved companion.” (HV17)

This document was spoken and delivered by a prophet of our day and like the prophets of old we also didn’t listen or change and looking around society we see abuse of sexuality, abortion in holocaust dimensions, homosexuality not only practices by demanded as a right to be legal and defined as marriage. Sexual abuse and exploitation of children  pandemic, demand for abortion and its implementation, leading to demand to euthanasia. Where  the rights of a bush rat more important than a child in the womb or a disabled human........All this why?  Because I think we refused to listen to a prophet speaking the words we needed to hear, and when God speaks through His prophets and as long as the prophets do their job well and still the people do not respond then God acts, and generally that is done in a way which leaves humanity to slowly disintegrate until it is ready to call out for help and to Listen.  We are not quite there yet.

Blessed John Paul II another great prophet one who is/was of our own time. Many of us have spoken and heard him speak to young and old about Hope, Love, faith, and Holiness. Especially Holiness of the Body. 

As he looked back over the past 50 years he saw the change in how the body was/is perceived and wrote the magnificent works like Love and Responsibility Veritatis Splendour, Theology of the Body, Dives Misericordia, Ecclesia Eucharestia, Fids et Ratio, redemptoris Hominis, Pastores Dabo Vobus, Dominus Iesus, Familiaris Consortio, Letter to Families, Letter to Women, Muglieris Dignitatum, and list continues a mile long.  And the greatest thing amongst all of his works is His recognition and expression and speaking about the human being and the holiness of the human person when understood well. So holy is the human body understood well that God Himself in Jesus took it also.

This modern “Prophet” saw that the malaise of humanity was its spiritual loss, spiritual apathy resulting in abandonment of all its understanding about holiness, humane behaviour, humanity, love, holy sexuality, respect, honour.  The very things which make us different from the beastly creation.  With what seemed like rapid fire speed “things” had changed and in the change a new and fraudulent type of humanity emerged.  He spoke and wrote against the imposter.

John Paul II travelled, spoke, gave formerly unknown and  unparalleled audiences, teachings, and hope especially to the young, whom he saw as the hope of  the church, society and future.
This was a Prophet in our time and in our day.  And I was privileged to be at several of his audiences.
God always sends us the people needed for the times we live in.
Paul VI...to try and stem the sexual revolution emerging from the acceptance of contraception.

John XXIII  a prophet  to Bring the Church as a whole into the NOW time so that Gods gifts could be understood with a Spirit speaking the language of Now, however, sabotaging the Holy Spirit’s work which would have come as a result of Vat II has cost the saboteurs and the church and the flock dearly.

The documents of Vatican II understood in their proper intent are magnificent and will one day be fully discovered, perhaps by the generation that God is preparing to bring out of the modern “Egypt”.

John Paul II a magnificent prophet  who wrote more on the holiness of the body than all the other Popes throughout history, in order to try and restore the human being as it was “in the beginning”

Because in the beginning it was not as it is now.  “in the beginning it was not so”  He spoke of being able to return the young to that place of the beginning.  His hope for the new exodus out of the new “Egypt” was the young, and the new charisms emerging which would support and encourage the family. .His gift of Prophecy was for a return to holiness, to family, to respect and love of body as God had intended in the beginning.
And then Benedict XVI...a newer prophet but the prophet most needed for these times. A prophet to steer the Church through the miasma of suffering due to sins committed by those who held a place of honour, trust and respect.

This prophet who speaks with humility and great apology , and stand there humbly with his hand tied just like Jesus in front of Pilate , for the sins of his brothers, has the courage to call again for trust, where perhaps trust is hard to give.  Slowly, with words, actions, meetings, hard decisions, he is speaking again the words which are needed to be spoken and could not be spoken because of the sins of the church.

By the sins of some members of the church, satan, the father of lies attempted to silence the voice of the church on matters of faith and morals, Benedict XVI emerges and asks forgiveness for sins committed.  Slowly this prophet, again with the young (over a million in Madrid) is saying forgive us “our trespasses” but I believe in you.  You pick up the cross and carry it onwards.  I trust in you. We have prophets of the type of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Hosea, Zechariah.

They just have a modern name, and we have to listen to them otherwise like the prophet Jeremiah who was known as the prophet of “woe”  we may just also hear the same “Woe”

Abortion Question....What do you do Anne?

I get some interesting questions in the most interesting of places and interesting times. Today was one of those.  My bank teller noted the name "Victims of Abortion" and asked what does that mean and what do I do? And so the explanation of my work. At One point I used PAS (Post abortion syndrome) and she looked dazed, and being conscious of those behind me and long queues I suggested she looked at my blog (gave her details) and I would put an explanation there for her, so here it is. I hope it helps her and I am going in next week to check if she is OK and not on a busy day.
Post abortion Syndrome (though I dont reallay like to use this term anymore) or grief, pain, regret, depression, weeping is the response following an abortion. Some would say that no one experiences these feelings anymore but my experience is that they do especially women and the men issue has not even been looked at.
If I were to put a spiritual slant on this I would say that rightly understood post abortion grief is "normal" because it acknowledges that something big happened and affected her badly. However, it can also  be seen as a gift Mercy, forgivenss and hope for healing after such a horror as the intentional death of a very small infant.
Abortion suffering can be a promise from the Father of Life that the one designed by Him and given as a gift to the world would not pass by unnoticed.  It is a gift of Mercy for the mother and father of the infant and perhaps even for society which permits as normal this "right" of woman to have her child within her womb killed legally. This suffering when attended to well means Mercy.
When this grief comes it is a gift which the baby gives to the parents who took it to die. However, it has now changed its consitution.  Without the abortion the child would have been born into Life, with all its failures and success joys and sorrows.  So important is that new life that new structures would have had to be arranged in order to accommodate this new creation.  However, because of the abortion the child is still born but born into  the sorrow of its parents and society.And the gift returned to God unopend.
And  another thing abortion does not negate the conception. The cocneption of a new life happened.  Abortion negates the birth according to the laws as we know them. However, it cannot negate its birth. Its birth is through violence.
An abortion gives birth to a child in such a way that it cannot exist in earthly life but certainly and assuredly exists in eternal life.  However, though the child was not born into the normal of this earthly life it does leave behind a memory of its its existence but a memory filled with pain and regret  rather than joy.
It has been suggested that there are studies which show that mothers retain cells of each of her children at the base of her brain stem, so if this this is so, how can she ever forget?  Even if she wanted to. So a memory of this infant that might have been is will be kept as a memorial to a refused grace.  An image of grace refused.
In remembering the broken body of her infant the response is pain and deep within this pain is the seed of sorrow leading to repentance. 
Remembering the refused grace (gift of a child) can, when seen well, become the turning point to change.  The Regret..a moment of deep sorrow.. a beginning of the journey to the understanding of the enormity of what was done.
The most profound sorrow begins when responsibilty is taken for the abortion, and her/his part in that action and from onwards there can be two roads which can be travelled one of hope and healing, love and Mercy the other of despair and hopelessness.
I have said that there are two roads, one which is filled with  forgiveness, light and hope the other with despair. substance abuse, suicide, psysical/psychical abuse, abandonment, loss of love. The other also has pain in the rememberance of what was done but with belief that there is a God of Mercy then healing is given.
Abortion means many losses, of sons, daughters, future fathers and mothers, their children, whole generations never to be born because a child dies.  Loss of charisms, vocations, all vocations, medical, teaching, priests, parenting, nurses.garners, plumbers, authors, musicians  etc. 
Abortion means loss of integrity within our society.  What does it say about a society which legalises abortion of early developed infants and infanticide of later term abortions.  Remember a late term abortion abortion, more than abortion, it means legalised infanticide, because it is an infant who with help can survive who  is killed because it is unwanted.
Abortion means loss of childhood/innocence  of the young, hearing that infants in the womb can be disposed of and fears that their own survival might be in jeopardy. 
Abortion of 13 year old young girl means she lives the rest of her life as she procedes through it more and more, as she matures, that she was responsible for the death of her son or daughter.  How does she cope with this?
Abortion means that a society which insists and demands and legislates for abortion legislates to terminate its future citizens...legally...and we dare to judge despots of the past and call this a society  jus and righteous?
We live in a society so desperate for the Mercy of God because of our great sins. We need Church. We need prayers and those to intercede for us. We need he 10 righteous people of Abraham to intercede for us. We need parents to learn to love the "unplanned pregnancy" this could the the greatest gift for their lives and in their lives.
We need priests to stop being social workers and be soul workers and use their prophetic gift to speak out against this infliction of pain.
God is always Mercy and offering Mercy but it needs to be accepted and this I think is where the problem lies.  The acceptance of Mercy would mean a change of heart and this is where the problem might  more deeply lie.
Woman is not designed to take her infant to die. Woman is designed to protect it at all costs.
Abortion is the laceration of the "feminine genius" and its is this "feminine genius" which has to be found again, strengthened if we are to continue as a society immersed in our Father's heart. 

Pornography

In a very recent article (Herald Sun, Friday 9, Sept) Ms Susie O'Brien wrote that  "Porn and violence do not have a Place in our Children's lives" 
Reading this heading I thought "for once we can agree on something" Yes we can agree that pornography has no place in the life of children.  Agreed.
However, then Ms O'Brien went and spoiled it all for me by  beginning with "There's nothing wrong with pornography when it's enjoyed by consenting adults"  she continued with "hell I dont mind a bit myself on the right occassion"  After this I knew that Ms O'Brien and I parted company.  I understand that Ms O'Brien was commenting on the new book by Melinda Takard Reist  and Abigal Bray called Big Porn Inc but still what Ms O'Brien said  was that pornography is OK as long as you know what you are doing.
And the porn business is surely growing with newer and newer victims and purveyors of this kind of show and newer victims  being used.
What is Pornography?
Pornography is the using of sexuality or the reproductive faculties in order to excite or in-lust its viewers.  And to do this via the medium of movie,video, game and using, little children, older children, men, women, animals.
Pornography demeans and  makes bestial sexuality, a great gift which is used for creation of another human being and for the enjoyment and love between a husband and wife.  Pornography does nothing to strengthen and increase love between husband wife indeed it leads to loss of respect between them and their intimacy and humanity.  Often pornography leads to violence and shows violence and sado masochism and the debasing of woman/man or child.  It leads to bestial sexuality and dishonouring the body of those involved and those who view.
Pornography desensitises human beings and slowly permits sexual perversions of unimaginable dimensions.
It has been said that pornography is "victimless" Rubbish. Victimless? 
Does that mean that those "acting in the porn situations love their jobs?"  Ask a child if it loves being "touched" Ask a young woman if she loved being in the situation  used and abused.  If she feels loved and honoured and respected.  Ask a young man/boy doing his thing if he feels honoured for being a man of honour and respect.  
"Victimless?"  the only individuals calling this "victimsless" are those making millions upon millions of dollars out of the humiliation/wounding of some for those  saying "hell I dont mind a bit myself sometime"
Wherever you find pornography and its "actors" you will always find sexual abuse, incest, abortion, exploitation, violence, degradation, substance abuse, emotional, physical abuse. 
That momentary "excitement, lust" for someone who can say "hell I can enjoy some of it sometime" has meant that a woman, man,girl, boy,  child or even beast have been abused in order for the viewer to be excited.  Has it been worth it?
"Victimless"   Yeah right!
How does pornography dehumanise its victims? when intimacy meant for love and creation are reduced to voyeurism.  When intimate parts of the body are used with a sense use and abuse and violence.  When sexuality means that anaother human being is seen as less the human and his/her dignity totally removed.
Both victims and viewer are dehumanised. Both lose. Because they lose their innocence. They lose their sense of thier "Imago Dei" They lose their sense of being "human"
I wonder how those who would say "hell I dont mind a bit of that myself" would feel  at others looking at their children in the way that he/she is looking at those "actors" in the porn movie?  I wonder..
Pornography is the brutalisation of innocence and it's no wonder that the oversexualisation of children has reached the dimensions we have today.  It's no wonder that abortions have reached the dimensions we have today.  It's no wonder we have identity crisis with the young that we have today.  It's no wonder we have confused sexuality as we have today.  It's no wonder we have the open and wanton lust we see today without restriction and without care for the sacred development of children and the young.
Today pornography is not the domain for backyard, back alley, sleezy workers and sleezy business people in dingy rooms, but produced and luxurious surrounds and viewed in homes, in marriages, in schools, in houses of prayer.  It's there for all to see.
We act scandalised when we hear of paedophile groups, why?  pornography is openly available.  We as a society have said "hell I enjoy a bit of it sometimes" what did we expect?  Were we foolish enough to believe that it would remain secret? and not slowly infiltrate in all domains of life?  What idiocy to think that.
Pornography is not "victimless" but its victims are preborns, post borns, young children, teenagers, men, women, and even beasts.  And who benefits?  Those who take your money and in the process destroy that image of you that is human, created just a little lower than the angels.

New Study into Effects of Abortion shows increased mental health problems 81%

In a new study released this month in the British Journal of Psychiatry, abortion, that famous "right" fought for by the sisterhood for so many years and "celebrated with champagne" when open abortion to 40 weeks was legalised, has now been found to  have increased self destructive behaviours in statistical figures previously unacknowledged at least publicly.

"Largest ever study finds abortion increases risk of severe mental health problems by 81%" and goes on to outline findings. 

This very large study using 877,181 participants out of which 161,831 had had abortions was stringent in its methodology.  In a meta analysis of 22 prior studies,  leaving out all possible confounding variables, eg past mental health issues, and using very strong inclusion criteria, that is prior studies to be included, (eg size of prior study) and prior history of participants, this makes Dr Priscilla Coleman's study the most comprehensive and detailed study showing staggering results into the damage which abortion does to women.  And this  further calls into serious question the American Psychological Association's own position that no deleterious effect  is experience by an adult women having single abortion. This in itself because most abortion are not done by "adult woman" but by teenagers as young as 12years of age and upwards.  The "single" adult woman is the career woman or one night stand "woman"  and these too are long term effected by their abortion experience.

This study further finds that there has been a coverup by those who should have known better.  That the political nature of "right to abortion" hard fought for by the pro choice, pro abortion lobbies, have seriously let down those whom they were supposed to care for..women.

Imagine some of these figures.in this study abortion  is associated with 34% increased risk of anxiety disorders.  37% greater risk of depression, 110% greater risk of alcohol abuse, a whopping 220% greater risk of marijuana use and abuse (and what about other substances like Ice, Meth, cocaine etc) and a whopping 155% greater risk of attempting suicide.Imagine over all the creased mental health issues of women  10% are directly..linked to abortion...50,000,000 abortions yearly...means  5,000,000 serious mental health issues attributed to abortion, and we wonder why society is in pain. These are extremely disturbing and upsetting results and its nothing new to me. I have seen all these expressions of distress following abortion for the last 15 years, and have endured mockery and derision and cyber-abuse by pro abortion lobbyist.

Today we have a seriously hurt women and society, as we continue to abort babies in the millions we also abort the peace of their mothers.  We women were NOT meant to abort (kill) our babies, there is something deeply embedded within us that cannot allow that to happen and not affect our behaviour and understanding of who we are. Our femininity is tied to being able to carry an infant in our wombs and bring it to full life, and not to take it to be killed.  We grieve unintentional death of our infants (miscarriage/stillbirth) yet women taken their babies to die at the behest of another or even their own design and its supposed to be OK?  that is not our design and mandate.   And in this understanding then we self harm, self mutilate.

This study can be found in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Source: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/largest-ever-study-finds-abortion-increases-risk-of-severe-mental-health-pr/

Grief A Universal Experience

This week I was able to attend a day seminar of "grief" and as part of my ongoing personal development  (OPDs-as a requirement of belonging to the ACA) and understanding of grief.  I try to attend these seminars at least twice a year.  I enjoyed this seminar because I didnt have to give a talk. I didnt have to prepare. I didnt have to make sure powerpoints were suitable, I just sat and listened to another who has been involved in "griefmatters"  many many more years than I have. 
Dr Jeoffrey Glassock Phd did a beauthful job on grief and what it actually is, the various types of grief, the various ways which people manage their grief and the differences between the gender (male and female) and their expressions of grief.
We looked at the nature of disenfranchised grief (the grief which exists and at times very deeply but cannot be openly expressed because of societal taboos, e.g. abortion, suicide, death of a homosexual partner, death  of pet etc.  Disenfranchised grief, first posited by Porf. Kenneth Doka is valuable because it puts a "voice" where none or silence  existed.
Indeed the whole seminar with lecture plus interaction was good and it was good to meet other "griefworkers" and what amazed me was the fact that many attendees agreed that abortion grief exists (when I mentioned what I do) but no one seems to know much about it and are flailing in the dark.

The presenter spoke very very briefly about abortion grief and how he came to encounter it and how he handled it, and  the way it was handled I would have said  was a more earlier model  of handling this type of grief. Much has happened since those years ago when he encountered it and much more work and writings are avalible. Including my own book Redeeming Grief: Abortion and its Pain details on my website www.victimsofabortion.com.au :   whilst Dr Glassock managed the situation I would not have handled it the same.  I believe he left several issues undealt with  and not finished.
I did try and speak with him but he seemed "surrounded" so in the end I could not be bothered.
And until we come to understand that abortion, suicide, grief, sexual abuse grief even adoption grief are different and what lies behind the difference in this grief, then we are going to get well intentioned people, and well inentioned counsellours but misunderstood grief and not a real secure way of handling the grief.
However I will continue to go these seminars because it means that I get a chance to network with other psychologists and counsellors and we can share experience of our respective work. Me post abortion and they help me understand grief better.
I did though meet someone who was "pro choice" thanks very much. 
OK ...I hope she felt better.

Forgiveness a Visble sign of Mercy

to forgive someone does not mean to excuse the harm done. No,  it does not and it cannot ever mean that . Understanding forgiveness at this level means to rob forgiveness of its essence and power. To choose to forgive someone is in fact a decision leading to something exquisite..  It is a decision to sever the connection which that "act" of betrayal has meant. It means the removal of permission to keep on rewounding. (memory) It means the the videotape has been destroyed and cannot be watched again. 
Rewatching a harm done with glasses of hatred, rage, condemnation simply keeps rewinding the tape and the wounding re commences time after time. Forgiveness means NO I will not go back there. I refuse and in doing so take back my authority and permission.
 To forgive is to become unbound from the chain of that committed sin. It means withdrawing permission from the abuser to keep re abusing and beginning on a journey of healing and the experience of radical Mercy."In Him we have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses (Eph 1:7)
Forgiveness is reconciliation not necessarily with the abuser but reconciliation and a reclaiming of my "original me"  the "I" who was not wounded. Reconciling and reclaiming  this "I" in order that the wounded "me" is no longer needed or feels betrayed.  The memory remains but the pain will not. In this we have he images of Jesus post ressurrection where he showed the scars of his torture but the pain was not.  The "I" pre torture was seen but the torture no longer had effect because the post torture Jesus was radically new yet somehow the same.
Forgiveness leads not only to the healing of "my being" but begins the processes of not seeing another human (who sinned) as a monster but as a tragic and terrible sinner.
I'm reminded of Jesus who endured what he endured in order to give both the victim and the perpertrator a chance for a new beginning. He endured so that the murderer, rapist, terrorist, abortionist, the adulterer, the thief, child abuser, would have someone to intercede for them up until the last.
The Victim shares his/her pain with Jesus and together they complete suffering for salvation
(Col 1:24)

Solitude

In our hyped and racy society the word "solitude" seems to  mock. We have such a strong urge for noise that any moment "snatched" in solitude is at best thought of as abnormal or "waste of time".  How strange our society has moved into noise "mode" and silence is no longer thought of as "golden" but as an aberration.
This word "solitude" touched me recently. Let me explain;
Some days ago after a harrowing day in my office (post abortion grief counsellour)I decided I needed some solitude and I wandered out and meandered around the area of my office and towards the Catholic Cathedral nearby.  It was probably about 2.45pm.  As I entered quietly (as you do) I left the clamour of the busy streets and entered into a grace filled space.  I dont know why, but thats all I could think of.
As I moved forward to the front, towards the altar, I seemed to feel a sense of contradiction. One part of me wanted to run outside into the noise again and another part had an urge to sit down right on the floor right in front of the altar.  this feeling was so strong that I had to fight the urge to do it.
I continued to look around the cathedral as it seemed so quiet and there was a lady sitting quietly praying with eyes closed. Seeing her,I think reassured me.

As I continued to walk around where the smaller altars are, I seemed to sense a presence of millions of prayers that have gone up in this place.  An ancient conversation made up of pleas, supplications and thanksgiving.  Like John O'Donohue says "these stones, ever patient, ever still, continue to praise the silence of time" (p108).  This is  exactly how I felt as I looked at the surroundings and ancient stones which built the cathedral.  As I walked slowly around, read inscriptions and names of past history I became caught up in the life that might have been.

 In this cathedral there is such a sense of past and continuity.  It was almost like a revisit of all the anceint times and rituals and ceremonies and feasts celebrated within these walls and I could either see or feel them, though I am not sure which.  I could sense a sacredness in that solitude.
I don't remember praying that day, or even sitting down for any length of time. Just simply spending an indeterminate amount of time captured in memories embedded in these walls.  I didnt even hear when the other person left so that in the end I was really alone "with the alone."
Perhaps I was ready for this moment because of the suffering and grief I had listened to that morning and maybe for a moment I needed to escape from that "normal" into a place where solitude was my most needed companion.
Several further words from John  O'Donohue rang true especially on this day" the secret and the sacred are sisters.   When the secret is not respected, the sacred vanishes" (p109).
I really sensed this, this day.  I could imagine the myriad of secrets shared with the Lord  in this place, yet all these secrets have been maintained because the sacred remained so strong.

John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World. (London: Bantam Press, 1998).

Petition

A petition, inititated by Catholics for Renewal, is doing the rounds of Australian parishes calling for reversal of the Vatican's dcision on the issue of Bishop Morris of Toowoomba.  This petition seems to be splitting  the Church and no doubt designed as such.
This petition seems also to imply that justice has not been done in regard to Bishop Morris, and a very very liberal cache of so called Catholics have joined forces to redress the decision made by the Holy Father. This petition is fuelled by websites and chat rooms etc.leading almost to hysteria. Im reminded of the  hysteria of the rioters in London recently, but later  if you asked some of the rioters what they were rioting about most would not have known the reason, they just joined in because the pack mentality took over.
For my part, with the shortage of priests and available candidates for  office of Bishop why would the Holy Father stand down an already existing Bishop unless there was serious cause?  Because vatican receives 100, or even 1000 letters from disgrntled parishioners? Dont think so.  It doesnt make sense.
There seems to be a litany of complaints re the said Bishop, and many attempts to clarify his beliefs and support of the teachings of the Church  of which he is a pastor. most specifically the suggestion  of priesthood for women (this fuelled I suspect by the feminist brigade within the church) which is difinitively taught that the church has no authority  from Christ Jesus,to ordain women.  So if this is a definitive teaching of the church whats the point of dialogue? If dialogue was what Bishop Morris asked for. 
I hear the word collegiality a lot. What does collegiality mean? 
lack of discourse and dialogue with Vatican?  I understand that Bishops have a direct line to the Vatican and if in good standing have no difficulty in getting through to the Holy Father, and even as in the case of Bishop Morris if there is a difficulty and perhaps even in not good standing, there is ease with which to get to see the Holy Father even apart from the ad limina visits.
As I keep reading more and more about this sad story, I see much disobedience by one who was called to Pastor a flock in accordance with the mind of the Holy Spirit, the Magisterium, instead of working with lay leadership groups to try and circumvent the decision and upstage and destabilise the Church.
It seems to me disobedience (dare we say pride) again is at the very root of this sorry saga.
How tragic and so sad that a beautiful successor to the Apostles has allowed himself to be wounded and waylaid and then to allow others to continue with disobedience and not brought a stop (this would have shown massive humility) to this whole messy story.
We need to pray for him and for sense and saintly thoughts  to slowly come through.  How much satan must be enjoying this rift.
I dont usually like to get involved in church politics as its not beneficial, because I love my church and  many many priest and Bishop friends to bits.  But this mess is causing rifts and wounds and if we look at them we can see "who" is behind the rupture.
And we also need to remind ourselves that "priesthood" is not a job that we can learn to do (Yes there is pastoral/theology study) or have a "right" to, or even can earn,   but before the study is the call from God also heard in Jeremiah 1:4 "before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you:I appointed you a prophet to the nations" consecrated, anointed, appointed,set apart for a particular work. the work of a male priest (to Jeremiah and later Jesus...male)
Yes before the study there is mysterious call implanted in the heart of a man to respond to a call which he doesnt quite understand but he knows he has to answer.
Priesthood is not a job, because if it was  a mere job,of course women could do the job. A job is a job. Priesthood is a soul saver in the like and mind of Jesus Christ.  Priest hood, like motherhood create citizens for God's Kingdom. and in our day both are under enormous attack.
Lets Pray ....
Anne

In one of the many news services received today, one of them said that the Holy Father was very emotional during the Via Crucis at this years  world youth day and I see this as not surprising but joyful.  Imagine his joy at seeing over 1.5 million young who were there to say "Yes Benedetto. We Love you."
in a world which has lost all knowledge of respect and honour, it must have been comforting for him to see these young faces saying"Yes" to Jesus and His (Jesus) own chosen Vicar.
And how interesting! over 1.5 million youth and no riots, but song, dance, and love.  Where love is found there is no need for rioting. 
And as I followed the proceedings of WYD, I loved seeing the torrent of rain which came down on the Holy Father and the pilgrims. Imagine in the middle of such heat over 40deg celsius The Lord sent a little cooling for them. How beautifully thoughtful of our God. 
And imagine this, the torrent of graces poured down in the image of rain.  Perfect.

A thought...

A thought on Good Friday 2011.
During the 3.00pm liturgy of Good Friday, this year, I had unusual experience, unlike any other Good Friday experiences."Were you there when they Crucified my Lord?"sang the choir over and over and during this, I wept and wept. Not just a little tear welling up, or watery eyes but gushing tears of anguish. This continued and continued. I had a sadness unlike any other sadness I have known.  I also heard another person (man whom I did not know) also sobbing loudly. His sobs sounded so anguished.
And later I started thinking about this. "Yes" I was there when they crucified my Lord.  I was there in His very human body. I was a cell in His body. He took me into Gethsemani with Him. He took me into the Sanhedran with Him. He took me into the scourging courtyard with Him. He took me onto the Cross with Him. He took me into death with Him.
Yes I was there and now I have to live out my experience of Gethsemani,scourging,Sanhedran, and death-but I have already been there with Him He has accompanied me through them. I love you Lord.