Author Archives: livedgospel2013

Educating for the Lived Gospel #120

“Walk as a living Gospel” (Helene de Chappotin)

 
There are many facets to this rich Franciscan saying. Our society can see words as static. Uttered in one moment, recorded, used as evidence of praise or blame – this is not the intent of Helene’s saying. Rather, she means that we should embody the good news of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as we walk through our lives. The bar is set high but such a faith is real – this is the path of integrity. If we each walk as a living Gospel, open to God’s promptings amidst our failings, there is a good news, for each of us, from another.
 
Young people want ideals that are authentic, that live up to some scrutiny. If we provide examples of integrity amidst our failings, we are authentic to ourselves and live up to the scrutiny of (many) young people. The media, which young people can consume so voraciously, can highlight the negative in the world. What better antidote for our young people than to be able to walk and live and speak good news to each of them?
 
Have a great week!
Patrick

Educating for the Lived Gospel #119

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

 

 

As we begin another school year, how do we ‘get our head right’ so that we approach the year with anticipation rather than boredom or dread? One answer is perspective. We are doing God’s work, so it’s not all up to us. We do our bit – God does the rest. I have found that a liberating notion. It is also liberating if, like me, you are a ‘recovering perfectionist’. No need to stress!
Ultimately, it gets down to our relationships with young people. We are educators because we love ministering to young people. We are also privileged to write a line or two of a letter on the hearts of young people ‘not with ink, but by the spirit of the living God’. May that ‘fire you up’! Such enthusiasm will touch the hearts of the young people entrusted to our care – and maybe help them glimpse more of the good in themselves which comes from the source of all good, God.
Wishing each of you a blessed 2014!
Patrick

Christmas 2013

“You must be like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven”

This is never more true at Christmas. Children ‘get’ Christmas in ways from which some of us could learn. They are open to the joy, open to the wonder, open to all around them. Such openness brings closer God’s reign. They are a reflection of God-with-us. Surely that is what Christmas is about!

Educating for the Lived Gospel #118

Before I begin this final reflection for 2013, I must honour the passing of Nelson Mandela. I cannot be sad – at 95, he had to go sometime! Mostly I am grateful for and inspired by his life. Would that we followed his lead! An extraordinary example of doing the utmost with your God-given gifts.
 

‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which means, ‘God is with us.’ (Matt 1:23)

Matthew’s telling of the Christmas story has different emphases. The extraordinary fact of the virgin birth is explained by the child’s divine nature. Yet not in a way that sets him apart. God is with us. This is a God longing to be in relationship with each of us. Do we have the eyes to see God’s daily revelation? Or are we too caught up in doing? Do we long to be in relationship with God? Many of us know the truth behind Augustine’s words: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you’.
Do our young people know, feel, believe that God is with them? Where and how do they find rest? The lives of young people are busy in ways ours weren’t at the same age. Young and old can be busy and distracted at Christmas. We would do well to rest in the knowledge that God is with us. How do we celebrate God with us at Christmas?
Have a blessed Christmas and a great break!
Patrick

 

Educating for the Lived Gospel #117

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luke 2:7)

This Christmas story is very low key. The Saviour is born, but in very humble circumstances. The adult Jesus champions the poor and outcast and is himself born on the outer. For us, Christmas is about family. Yet, this Christmas, how will we follow Jesus’ example and go out to those in need around us? Jesus is born in a feeding trough. This Christmas, how will we follow Jesus’ example and feed others?
Young people can mistake Christmas as a time of ‘getting’ or ‘having’. We need to help them turn toward others, rather than focus on themselves. What can they give – especially to those in need? Who can they feed – physically or metaphorically?
Have a great week!
Patrick

Educating for the Lived Gospel #116

Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. (John 14:23)

As Christians, what we now understand as the Trinity didn’t develop for about another century after the writing of the Gospel of John. But the seeds of an understanding of the Trinity are here. At this point of the Gospel, readers have heard more than once from Jesus that ‘the Father and I are one’. Such mutual in-dwelling is behind this passage. Simply, when we keep God’s word, God is with us. But it is much richer that that. Emphasising God’s relational nature, when we keep God’s word, we become part of the divine in-dwelling. If God is with us or we are with God, it gives us a stable centre for everything else in our lives.
 
The lives of young people can be turbulent – for a variety of reasons. By offering them opportunities for service, for the sacraments, for prayer, we increase the likelihood that they will develop a peaceful centre to which to return. This ground of wholeness, of peace, of goodness… that we call God.
 
Have a great week!
Patrick

Educating for the Lived Gospel #115

So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27)

 
Firstly, we say that, as humans, we are made in God’s image. Surely, amongst many other things, this verse attests to the basic goodness of each person. For each of us this attests, despite our feelings on any given day, that “I am created in God’s image’. The verse also speaks of how men and women are created in God’s image. Women and men have not, nor never will be, the same. But the power and import of this ancient passage seems to have ‘lost out’ for many centuries in any battle against cultural forces. As people of faith, we need to affirm the goodness and dignity of each person.
 
Our task is to ensure that young people hear the message that each of them are good and that we continue to affirm that message by our dealings with them.
 
Have a great week!
Patrick

Blindsided

I sit here

Blinking back tears

Flying home

Over the starkly beautiful

Ochre red country

Of Central Australia

Having experienced

A four day ‘intensive’

In Timor Leste.

While ostensibly

For professional, educational purposes

I have been blindsided

By the depth of

My emotions

Due to my connection

with the Henriques family

over nearly 30 years

I had spoken of this trip

As ‘closing a circle’

But I now realise

It has been much more

There is

an ember

of my reaction

to the atrocities committed

against the people of Timor Leste

my country

partly to blame.

This ember was fanned into flame

As I was given the ‘royal’ treatment

Through the Resistance Museum

The intensity of that flame

Startled me

What had I done?

I’d tried (and still do) to educate and

Raise awareness

But here I was

Finally

In Timor Leste

The tsunami of pain

Which began in 1975

Which touched my life in 1985

Continues to leave

A trail in its wake

The healing and development

Of Timor and its people

Has begun

But it is a slow task

I hope to continue to walk part of that journey

With them

Educating for the Lived Gospel #114

for the Spirit will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. (John 16:13)

 
In the context of his imminent arrest, passion, death and seeming ‘departure’, Jesus is assuring his disciples that the Holy Spirit will always be with them. In this verse, Jesus is speaking of the coming of the Holy Spirit, ‘who will speak whatever he hears’. In reference to this verse, Frank Moloney said that it was as though the Trinity were gathered around the divine kitchen table, thus the Holy Spirit can share the wisdom he has heard. It is a rich, warm, intimate image that has stayed with me. God’s word comes to us in different ways and through different people. Who has touched your heart with God’s word?
As our young people thirst for meaning, may each of us live out God’s calling to us. Living authentically, we can touch the hearts of the young people in our care with God’s word – by our deeds…or our words.
 
Have a great week!
Patrick