Celebrating humanity and Eureka at Saint Paul's, Bakery Hill, #Ballarat - 5.30pm December 3

We are celebrating at Saint Paul's, Bakery Hill in #Ballarat this evening. To-day, December 3, is the day we celebrate...
Posted by Brigid O'Carroll Walsh on Wednesday, 2 December 2015

Humanity and hospitality : would you do this?

QUICK READ: Would you open your home to a refugee? As we (like most houses around where I live) have plenty of room...
Posted by ABC Open on Thursday, 15 October 2015

"Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people" - Pope Francis in Havana, Cuba

Picture below is from The Catholic Sun

Pope Francis’ Homily at Mass in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución

 

 

 

“Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.”

 

Rome, September 20, 2015 (ZENIT.org) Junno Arocho Esteves | 769 hits

Here is a Vatican translation of the Holy Father’s homily during his first Mass at the Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana, Cuba.

* * *

The Gospel shows us Jesus asking a seemingly indiscreet question of his disciples: “What were you discussing along the way?” It is a question which he could also ask each of us today: “What do you talk about every day?” “What are your aspirations?” The Gospel tells us that the disciples “did not answer because on the way they had been arguing about who was the most important”. The disciples were ashamed to tell Jesus what they were talking about. As with the disciples then, we too can be caught up in these same arguments: who is the most important?

Jesus does not press the question. He does not force them to tell him what they were talking about on the way. But the question lingers, not only in the minds of the disciples, but also in their hearts.

Who is the most important? This is a life-long question to which, at different times, we must give an answer. We cannot escape the question; it is written on our hearts. I remember more than once, at family gatherings, children being asked: “Who do you love more, Mommy or Daddy”? It’s like asking them: “Who is the most important for you?” But is this only a game we play with children? The history of humanity has been marked by the way this question is answered.

Jesus is not afraid of people’s questions; he is not afraid of our humanity or the different things we are looking for. On the contrary, he knows the “twists and turns” of the human heart, and, as a good teacher, he is always ready to encourage and support us. As usual, he takes up our searching, our aspirations, and he gives them a new horizon. As usual, he somehow finds an the answer which can pose a new challenge, setting aside the “right answers”, the standard replies we are expected to give. As usual, Jesus sets before us the “logic” of love. A mindset, an approach to life, which is capable of being lived out by all, because it is meant for all.

Far from any kind of elitism, the horizon to which Jesus points us is not for those few privileged souls capable of attaining the heights of knowledge or different levels of spirituality. The horizon to which Jesus points us always has to do with daily life, also here on “our island”, something which can season our daily lives with eternity.

Who is the most important? Jesus is straightforward in his reply: “Whoever wishes to be the first among you must be the last of all, and the servant of all”. Whatever wishes to be great must serve others, not be served by others.

Here lies the great paradox of Jesus. The disciples were arguing about who would have the highest place, who would be chosen for privileges, who would be above the common law, the general norm, in order to stand out in the quest for superiority over others. Who would climb the ladder most quickly to take the jobs which carry certain benefits.

Jesus upsets their “logic”, their mindset, simply by telling them that life is lived authentically in a concrete commitment to our neighbor, that is to say, by serving.

The call to serve involves something special, to which we must be attentive. Serving others chiefly means caring for their vulnerability. Caring for the vulnerable of our families, our society, our people. Theirs are the suffering, fragile and downcast faces which Jesus tells us specifically to look at and which he asks us to love. With a love which takes shape in our actions and decisions. With a love which finds expression in whatever tasks we, as citizens, are called to perform. People of flesh and blood, people with individual lives and stories, and with all their frailty: these are those whom Jesus asks us to protect, to care for, to serve. Being a Christian entails promoting the dignity of our brothers and sisters, fighting for it, living for it. That is why Christians are constantly called to set aside their own wishes and desires, their pursuit of power, and to look instead to those who are most vulnerable.

There is a kind of “service” which truly “serves”, yet we need to be careful not to be tempted by another kind of service, a “service” which is “self-serving”. There is a way to go about serving which is interested in only helping “my people”, “our people”. This service always leaves “your people” outside, and gives rise to a process of exclusion.

All of us are called by virtue of our Christian vocation to that service which truly serves, and to help one another not to be tempted by a “service” which is really “self-serving”. All of us are asked, indeed urged, by Jesus to care for one another out of love. Without looking to one side or the other to see what our neighbor is doing or not doing. Jesus tells us: Whoever would be first among you must be the last, and the servant of all”. He does not say: if your neighbor wants to be first, let him be the servant! We have to be careful to avoid judgmental looks and renew our belief in the transforming look to which Jesus invites us.

This caring for others out of love is not about being servile. Rather, it means putting our brothers and sisters at the center. Service always looks to their faces, touches their flesh, senses their closeness and even, in some cases, “suffers” in trying to help. Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.

God’s holy and faithful people in Cuba is a people with a taste for parties, for friendship, for beautiful things. It is a people which marches with songs of praise. It is a people which has its wounds, like every other people, yet knows how to stand up with open arms, to keep walking in hope, because it has a vocation of grandeur. Today I ask you to care for this vocation of yours, to care for these gifts which God has given you, but above all I invite you to care for and be at the service of the frailty of your brothers and sisters. Do not neglect them for plans which can be seductive, but are unconcerned about the face of the person beside you. We know, we are witnesses of the incomparable power of the resurrection, which “everywhere calls forth the seeds of a new world” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 276, 278).

Let us not forget the Good News we have heard today: the importance of a people, a nation, and the importance of individuals, which is always based on how they seek to serve their vulnerable brothers and sisters. Here we encounter one of the fruits of a true humanity.

“Whoever does not live to serve, does not ‘serve’ to live”

© Copyright 2015 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

(September 20, 2015) © Innovative Media Inc.

Syria's children - and Syria's people - ARE precious in God's sight

 

Dear Friends,

Like most of you, we are heartbroken by all the news we have seen in recent days as Syrians have been forced to flee their home in search of safety.  What can we say other than our broken old world truly needs our Saviour Jesus?

Today, we have launched a call to our Immigration Minister, urging him to give real and practical assistance to those in need on behalf of all Australians.  In partnership with others working in the asylum seeker and refugee space, we have called on Mr Dutton to both accept an emergency intake of Syrian refugees and to allocate significant financial assistance to the United Nations for their work addressing this global crisis.

We believe that our call echoes the heart of our God, who always hears the cry of the oppressed and who is the author of all peace.

Will you please stand with us, as we call on Mr Dutton and pray that he would have the courage to lead a national response to this tragedy that is marked by compassion, generosity and a profound sense of the value of every single human life?

And would you please take the time to share this email and the petition with those in your world who also have a heart to see God’s justice reign here on earth?

With thanks for your support, as always,

From Kylie, Tim, Justin, Jarrod and all the Common Grace team

Common Grace
http://www.commongrace.org.au/ -=-=-

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Another "NO" added to Tony Abbott's repertoire

Tony Abbott unmoved by Liberal calls for more Syria refugee help #thumbsdown http://t.co/zf9KH92fGA

— Advocacy at St Pauls (@StPaulsVoice) September 5, 2015

Father Constantine's thinking peace: a reflection on the current human condition

What a terrible week we are having in our human family!
So many tears in France, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone etc.
God's children, our flesh and blood, dying of terrorism, violence, man's cruelty, disease and lack of access to basic human needs, etc. 
Has God abandoned us? No, we have abandoned Him and each other; we have forgotten the image of God in each person and have become selfish, self-centred and prejudiced against those of different faith, colour or race, etc.
God cannot help us, we ought to help Him help ourselves; we ought to put Him first and not our egos and our selfish motives.
Bad things will continue to happen when good people remain silent.
Let all good people rise to counter the terrible events of this week by reaching out to others in friendship, love, compassion, acceptance, forgiveness, mercy and tenderness. 
God returns among men and women through those whose lives bear credible witness to God's love and loving kindness. May God help us to become saints. Pray always: ALL WILL BE WELL! ALL WILL BE WELL AND ALL MANNER OF THINGS WILL BE WELL!!!

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights

Today @RACSaustralia is celebrating #HumanRightsDay http://t.co/8LoGGD7kq1 #AsylumSeekers #AusPol pic.twitter.com/O5PecV6Wk7
— RACS (@RACSaustralia) December 10, 2014

Eureka 160 @ St Paul's will be celebrated December 3 - remembering the people of Ballarat then and now

 

Father Constantine Osuchukwu is pleased to welcome you

to a very different celebration of Eureka

- at St Paul's we are celebrating humanity:

the international people of Ballarat 160 years ago

and the multicultural city that Ballarat is to-day.

There will be music, poetry, spirituality - and supper.

This week - on Wednesday December 3 - 

the 160th Anniversary of the Eureka Rebellion

will be commemorated and celebrated in Ballarat.  

Please go here to see all that is happening at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka.

and there is

Commemorating Radical Eureka Events

And this year there is a new - and somewhat different - event 

on the Eureka Calendar - at St Paul's Bakery Hill in Ballarat.
St Paul's is the site of the establishment of the Ballarat Reform League.

Wants, needs and responsibility in the light of the #ACOSS report and what is required of us

I have discovered to-day a blog called The Thin Bread Line whose author is David Mansfield.  He has written here ...

We had family around for lunch the other day.
My three year old grandson went straight to the freezer and helped himself to an ice-cream. Helen intercepted him in time and told him to wait until after lunch, only to have him plead, ‘But Grandma, I NEED it now!’
Whoever invented the refrigerator with the freezer section at the bottom has a lot to answer for.
Of course, we can easily mistake our needs for our wants and justify our wants as our needs and in the process accumulate piles of unnecessary baggage, both around the girth and in the garage(s)!

As I was driving home from preaching at a Sydney church last Sunday I heard on the news about a report just released by ACOSS (Australian Council of Social Services). There are now one in seven Australians living below the poverty line of $400 per week. The statistics are grimmer for children and grimmer still for people from non English speaking backgrounds.
My work brings me into daily contact (mainly via email) with Christian leaders who serve communities in Africa and Asia where people live on less than a dollar a day, where children, in frighteningly large numbers, suffer from water-borne diseases, malnutrition and starvation. Some of these children don’t reach their next birthday.
While the famine in South Sudan deepens, the predictions of another Horn of Africa catastrophe are gathering pace and frequency.

PLEASE READ FURTHER AT THE THIN BREAD LINE

On the death of James Foley, Journalist: on sitting in the extradordinary sadness that we might not diminish our own humanity

The Anglican Parish of Gosford and the rising star of Father Rod Bowers

Father Rod Bowers is a bit of a stand-out within the Anglican Church in Australia.  His fame has grown on social media with his use of the noticeboard at the Anglican Church of Gosford. Father Rod posts pithy sayings on the church noticeboad, photographs them and everyone sees them on Facebook.  Most - but not all - relate to current affairs.  With some of these, Father Rod points out the contrast with the teachings of Jesus.  However, as you can see from the picture above of the current (as this post is written) header on the parish Facebook site, Father Rod has become quite blunt indeed on his assessment of this nation's matters of governance. 

Picture above is from here

Here is the latest noticeboard offering from Father Rod ...

 

(for those who haven't heard what Australia's Prime Minister

has been saying this week - this is a reference to the PM's

talk of TEAM AUSTRALIA)