How to be 'Church in the Modern World'?

As the church seeking to discern what God is doing, we want to be responsive to what God is up to, to learn, to grow, to change.  Seeking and discovering God’s will for our church’s ministry and mission, then, is not a quick fix for a problem we may be experiencing but an essential and ongoing spiritual practice. 

Biblically and theologically we see God’s world as represented in every community/environment, and any changes taking place within this social and cultural context need to be a matter of interest to a congregation.  (a) What is God doing? (faith and discernment) and (b) What does God want to do? (wisdom and planning).

A touch of home

Vatican II Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity (AG 2). Therefore, every local church and diocese is to be both mission sending and mission receiving. The local churches of the “global South” used to be considered the “missions,” and now they are the most vital centers for mission sending. And the Catholic Church in North America and Europe, which used to see  itself only as mission sending, is now in great need of what Pope John Paul II called “re-evangelization.” 

Joy of the Gospel

More recently, Pope Francis in The Joy of the Gospel (EG) has described the church as “a community of missionary disciples” (24), as women and men who have personally experienced God's love, salvation, and justice, and who then want and need to share that with others. “Such a community has an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of its own experience of the power of the Father's infinite mercy” (24).

Jesus taught us about God's love, which embraces all people, including the “impure” lepers and tax collectors, which calls us to treat everyone as our neighbor and brother or sister, including our enemies, and which requires all of us as sinners to turn from our old ways to the new life of God. Jesus Christ was God's love, forgiveness, salvation, healing, justice, and compassion, and he reestablished the right relationship with God through his life, death, and resurrection. Jesus embodied the mission of  God's mercy, and we Christians need to continue to do the same. People today search and yearn.

 Schroeder, Roger P.. What Is the Mission of the Church?: A Guide for Catholics--Revised and Expanded Edition (Kindle Locations 173-177). Orbis Books. Kindle Edition.

The Table of Fellowship

Stanley River Parish is a parish in the Brisbane Northern Rivers Deanery and the Archdiocese of Brisbane.  Ours is a parish in which you can truly belong! Whether you are just beginning to explore Catholicism or have been Catholic all of your life; whether you have stayed on the fringes of parish life in the past or are already involved in ministry; Stanley River Parish is a parish that values you. As a community, we care for one another, knowing that through our ministry we perceive Christ’s presence among us. With the support of one another as Church, we serve those most in need in our community and world, through direct service, collections of food, clothing, and gifts, and through monetary contributions in mission, as we help to contribute to the reign of God in our world. Fr Dantus Thottathil MCBS   Parish Priest

THE AUSTRALIAN  CHURCH LOOKS OUTWARD.

A Pope who is not afraid of open discussion and even dissent in the Churchby Fr Noel Connolly SSC, Plenary Council Facilitation Team

Pope Francis is an unusual Pope who is bringing real change to the Church by encouraging open discussion  and refusing to silence dissent. In fact, he has said, “Open and fraternal debate makes theological and pastoral thought grow…. That doesn’t frighten me. What’s more, I look for it.”
Many people would like to see him clarify matters and crack down on dissent, but Francis is patient and wants people to speak their minds because he believes in a synodal church. He trusts that the Holy Spirit  will guide us in the right direction.

• Vatican II in Lumen Gentium (n. 37) tells us everyone is “permitted and sometimes even obliged to express their opinion on those things which concern the good of the Church”. Pope Francis believes in the sensus fidelium, or the sense of the faithful, as an important part of the teaching authority of the Church.
• This is a new approach to what it means to be Church. Lay people have not always been encouraged to speak up and we clergy have not always appreciated our responsibility to invite the sensus fidelium and to  listen humbly.
• We all have much to learn and it may be a little messy and hurtful in the process. Consulting, speaking up,  listening, discerning are all skills and they take time.
• Open-mindedness is essential because “we cannot dialogue with people if we already know all   the answers to their problems”.
• Most important things take time to emerge, but if we give ourselves boldly, humbly and trustingly to the process, it will bear fruit at the right time.

 Sr Mary Fermio RSJ and Sr Audrey Thomson RSJ

The same Vatican II document, Gaudium et Spes, states that “the Church seeks but a solitary goal: to carry  forward the work of Christ Himself under the lead of the Spirit”.

How is the church to do this? “To carry out this task, the Church has always had the duty of scrutinising the  signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel. We must, therefore, recognise and  understand the world in which we live, its expectations, its longings and its often dramatic characteristics.”(GS, 4)

Discerning the Sensus Fidelium ......Ormond Rush

 Pope Francis’ calls for “a listening church, a synodal church,”  at all levels of church life.1 The Holy Spirit, he says, must be given breathing room  to bring forth such a church. The Spirit’s instrument for interpreting divine revelation is the sensus fidei, a “sense of the faith”, or better, a sense for the faith. It is capacity which the Spirit gives, along with the gift of faith, to a every baptized believer and to the church as a whole.

An encounter with Noah!

The Dove of Noah

(By Charles Mackay)

Hope on her wings, and God her guide

The dove of Noah soared,

Far through the dim unfathomed space,

Where the shoreless ocean roared.

But ah! she found no valley green,

No resting place, no track,

Until the wandering  ark received

The weary wanderer back.

So we on Life's tempetous sea,

Beset by grief and pain,

May seek the solace here below,

But ah! the search is vain

A resting place for weary one;

is only found above;

The ark to which the soul returns

Is the Almighty's love.

Dawning

Dawning

Bengaluru the sky map said, a place  I have never heard of.
Harder still   to imagine, for  it is far from my experience.
But from skies above  a new found anchor for discernment.
A  short while ago we were  in the dark midst of night.
There was beauty as we ascended from  the sparkling lights below.
With extravagant speed we have journeyed eastward,
and  now  a golden dawn has sprung upon us
revealing the wonderful spectre of earth’s beauty.

And just as quickly the dark night veil returns.
A fleeting glimpse of day but still a treasure.
Going to the higher point gives us a wonderful gift,
the gift of perspective, which enables us
 to see beyond the narrow confines of everyday endeavour
A rediscovery of a ‘Galilean wisdom.
“Jesus went up the hill, there he was joined by his disciples.
Then he began to speak and this is what he taught them”

Insight into the land below.

Bengaluru (also called Bangalore) is the capital of India's southern Karnataka state. The center of India's high-tech industry, the city is also known for its parks and nightlife. By Cubbon Park, Vidhana Soudha is a Neo-Dravidian legislative building. Former royal residences include 19th-century Bangalore Palace, modeled after England’s Windsor Castle, and Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace, an 18th-century teak structure.

Area: 709 km²

Elevation: 920 m

Population: 12.34 million (2017)

Local time: Friday 10:06 am

Weather: 26 °C, Wind E at 16 km/h, 29% Humidit