What it is that God wants..

Think of God’s mercy, my brothers, and worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God. Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around you, but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do.

Romans 12:1 – 2

Crikey. What is the perfect thing to do? It would be interesting to have a flow chart or a checklist to ensure that at all times, in all situations, we did the perfect thing. The tumultuousness of adolescence would dissipate, our homes, schools and workplaces would all be places of peace and tranquility. Indeed, in such a world there would only be accidents - where events happen only by chance without apparent or deliberate cause.  Yet part of being human means that we sometimes choose - not necessarily the wrong thing – but the easier path. It may still produce good, but would it be ‘what it is that God wants’?

Yet it is precisely that easier path that Paul is challenging us to avoid, for the easier option is, according to Paul, modelled on the world around us, and we are called to model ourselves on our new minds. It is accomplished by discernment.

Catholic Bogger Mary Jane Fox suggests that there are seven practical principles for discerning God’s will in our lives:

1. ·      Love God – put God first in your life, trust him, believe!
2. ·      Listen to the Holy Spirit – be open the Spirit’s guidance, be available.
3. ·      Get rid of obstacles – get rid of your unrepented sins
4. ·      Get rid of unforgiveness – forgive others, let our grudges go.
5. ·      Make it a habit – make choosing good a habit and cultivate it.
6. ·      Be prudent – we must use our reason, intelligence and practical wisdom.
7. ·      Listen when you pray – don’t do all the talking. LISTEN!

Needless to say even with these clear principles we may not reach the heart and mind of God, but we would certainly be on the right track. But if you could, this discernment itself would be utterly and totally transformative, and in the end, this is what we are indeed looking for.

Peter

Peter's whereabouts for the next 2 weeks

Meetings coming up

Please forward any agenda items for meetings (with some indication of time required and context) to Carole at carole.goodwin@catholic.tas.edu.au 

Education – a Cognitive/Affective/Social nexus rather than linear models for development

Below is an excerpt from one of the readings for Graduate Certificate in Theology. Titled Ramifications of the New Values Education for Teacher Education by Terry Lovat, R Toomey, N Clement, R Crotty, and T Nielsen (2009, p. 15).  It has interesting implications for challenging our current beliefs about how human beings learn… Do we value thinking above feelings and social interactions? 

What do you think?  I would be interested in your reflections and insights – let’s start a conversation!

Thanks, Bobbi-Jo

AROUND THE SCHOOLS

From St Brigid's

From St Brendan-Shaw College

From Sacred Heart, Launceston

From Stella Maris

From Star of the Sea

From St Peter Chanel

From Our Lady of Mercy

From Our Lady of Lourdes

From St Patrick's College

From St Patrick's Latrobe

For you created my inmost being

How rich are the depths of God – how deep his wisdom and knowledge – and how impossible to penetrate his motives or understand his methods! Who could ever know the mind of the Lord? Who could ever be his counsellor? Who could ever give him anything or lend him anything? All that exists comes from him; all is by him and for him. To him be glory for ever! Amen.

Roman 11:33 – 36

In another age, the inexplicable was considered miraculous, and just as likely, it would be termed a mystery. Science has, to a large degree, been able to quantify, measure and explain a great number of life’s mysteries. We do, however, have a deeper understanding of the defining myths that help us make sense of the world we live in, of our relationship with the divine, of our desire to be generative and sustainable.

Our great thinkers have also explored the relationship between ontology and epistemology to give us words, ideas and concepts on which to hang our understanding. In all humanity has not wasted its time. From the very beginning our experience in and of the world has affected the wqy we think about it. And many, many have wondered if their conclusions led closer to the mind of God himself.

We have been here such a brief time, even so, our philosophers, our prophets, our kings, our teachers, our storytellers have explored and re-explored, told their stories, pronounced their prophecies – but in the end, they know so little about the one who loves us, who created us and drew us into being. The psalmist who wrote Ps 139 was one of humanity’s most privileged members, for to him the God about whom so many wanted to understand, revealed himself so beautifully, so majestically, so poetically. Will we ever know the mind of God? I’m not sure we will. But we will be ever blessed in knowing his love for us. And maybe that’s quite enough.

Psalm 139

¹ You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

Peter

Peter's whereabouts for the next 2 weeks

Meetings coming up

Please forward any agenda items for meetings (with some indication of time required and context) to Carole at carole.goodwin@catholic.tas.edu.au 

From St Joseph's, Queenstown

Book Week at St Joseph's, Queenstown

CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK

Random photos from Catholic Education Week.

Thanks, Mary-Anne Johnson!



Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Newstead

Archbishop visits St Anthony's Riverside

At St Brendan-Shaw College for Mass

Archbishop visits Sacred Heart, Ulverstone

TCEC awards at Sacred Heart, Ulverstone