The rainbow covenant

This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,

of the covenant between me and you

and every living creature with you.

Genesis 9:12

One of the most beautiful and wondrous stories of the book of Genesis is Noah’s ark. And yet I feel a great sorrow for those who have spent their lives searching for the remnants of that ark, buried, it is claimed, somewhere in Turkey: for the power of this story is not about the dimensions of the ark, nor of the creatures which populated it. It is about the relationships between humanity and God, between Noah and his God.

Ancient, pre-literate peoples had only their memories and their art to record the events of their day. They also strove to explain the mysteries of life to the generations that followed. They were not scientists is the way we understand that word. Science has a broader meaning: seeking and knowing, then organising that knowledge systematically. What they did was try to make sense of their world. And over many hundreds of years they retold and refined their stories around a thousand fires. It is likely that the Hebrews borrowed and added to the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh flood story which in turn had its origins deep in prehistory. So what we need to understand about the recorded word that makes up our oldest scriptures, is that the purpose of the story has priority. That purpose was explaining the relationship between the Creator and the created, us. From this point of view Noah and his ark is not the story of how the animals were saved, nor even how the earth was repopulated, nor the origin of rainbows! The story is about Noah’s great faith in his God and the covenant that was made between them.

This covenantal relationship is explored and reinvigorated right through the epic tales of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the kings, the prophets right to the person of Jesus. And for us, the church itself remains a sign of that covenant. That covenant is a simple agreement: I will make you my people, I will be your God (Exodus 6:7).

We have entered that season called Lent –  a period of time in the northern hemisphere when days begin to lengthen into spring. In our upside world, our days are shortening in autumn.

It is the season to once again retell our most ancient stories, to show and acknowledge our dependence on God, to turn back to him once again, to change our hearts, to express remorse for our error-filled ways, to renew the very same covenant made with our ancestors in faith.

It doesn’t matter one iota if they find Noah’s ark. Their time would be better spent finding themselves and repairing their relationship with God.

Peter Douglas

HEAD OF SCHOOL SERVICES, NORTH

College and School Support and Expectations 2015

Check out – and print out a copy of MES’s new doc which outlines the mutual arrangements between TCEO and schools and colleges for 2015.

The purpose of the College and School Support and Expectations 2015 document is to:

·      provide schools and colleges with a clear indication of the level of support that can be expected and accessed from Regional and MES Teams.

·      Identify the expectation that schools will link to the TCEO’s strategic direction.

·      Assist schools and colleges and their staff to shape planning for 2015.

·      Emphasise our commitment to support students and staff in their schools and colleges to improve outcomes.

What advice do you have for a new principal?

On Friday our newest colleagues, Christina Gretton, Anita Cunningham and Fran Bearman (John Paul II) were joined by Director John Mula, Sandra Harvey, Séan Gill, Andrew Goelst, Melissa Maguire, Sarah Baillie (HR), Anne Rybak (Finance) and me in discovering ‘Everything I need to know to be a successful principal.’ John presented the 15 Fs of leadership (Michael Fullan); Séan offed 20 tips for the new principal, I provided advice for the brand new principal. We looked at a recent edition (but not latest) of the Principals’ handbook.

What key advice would you offer that you think is critical to early success? Let me know!

REFLECTIONS ON CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP

by Kevin Treston

Group Behaviours

What are common behaviour patterns for interactions among members of school boards, pastoral councils, parish groups, school and hospital Staffs?  It is helpful for group leadership to identify such behaviours in order to be more effective as facilitators.  I would specify the following behaviours as being common to many groups:

Facilitating:        Helping members to achieve he purpose of the group.

Controlling:       Exercising power over others to manage the situation.

Blocking:           Inhibiting the process and diverting its direction.

Manipulating:    Using people and group agenda for personal gain.

Confronting:     Surfacing conflict and dealing with different points of view.

Synergising:      Bringing together various viewpoints into a holistic solution.

When leaders can name what is happening in a group, they may be better able to help a group achieve its goals.  When they are unaware of the dynamics of group behaviour they are powerless to focus its energy towards the achievement of its goals.

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PETER'S WHEREABOUTS FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS:

 

MEETINGS COMING UP:

Ash Wednesday

On Ash Wednesday, Tenison Woods Centre staff took the opportunity to worship with staff and students at Sacred Heart, Ulverstone. Father Mike Delaney presided, while Grade 5/6 B provided readers. Here's a picture of TCEO staff along with Andrea Williams, an AO at Sacred Heart, and Michelle Wootton!

Walk the path of repentance: 

Archbishop Julian's Lenten letter

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The Lenten period of forty days each year is a time for each of us to engage in a process of spiritual renewal. It is above all a “time of grace” (2 Cor 6:2) but to receive this grace we need to walk a particular path. That path is the path of repentance.

We know that we all need spiritual renewal. We need to constantly seek to deepen and enrich our faith lest it become stale and our hearts become cold.

The Lenten period provides the opportunity for spiritual renewal. It helps to remind us of the finitude of our lives and focus on what is most important. The ashes we place on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday are a graphic reminder of the shortness of our lives and the fragility of our existence. As this is done we are exhorted to, “turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel”.

The call to repentance is a key element of the Christian life. Repentance involves being sorry for having offended God and the resolve to amend one’s life in order to avoid occasions of sin. It should be the outcome of a regular examination of conscience, where we take the time to pause from our busy daily lives and examine our actions recognising our sin. As Christians we are called to ongoing conversion fostered by a spirit of repentance.

Repentance is a central theme in the preaching of St John the Baptist, Jesus himself, St Peter and St Paul. St John the Baptist, heralding the coming of Christ, urged people to be baptised in the Jordan River as a sign of their desire to reform their lives (Mt 3:2). Jesus began his preaching with the message – “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is close at hand” (Mt 4:17). On Pentecost day when St Peter was asked by his hearers what they should do in response to his message he unhesitatingly said, “You must repent of your sins and be baptised” (Acts 2:38). And St Paul in his letter to the Romans declared “We are dead to sin, so how can we continue to live in it” (Rom 6:2).

Repentance is inextricably tied to the proclamation of the Gospel yet it is probably one of the hardest messages for us to hear and respond to. We must be careful to never forget the reality of sin in human life. This is not something that can be glossed over. We are not perfect beings. The redemptive work of God in Christ only makes sense when we are able to confront the reality of our sinfulness. Sin separates us from God. But Jesus came to redeem us from sin and restore our relationship with God.

Dealing with sin
We need to acknowledge the fact of sin in our life. We need to be able to say, “I am a sinner”. Yet, many find it hard to identify as a sinner and resist the idea of coming before God in humility and asking for forgiveness. Sin is a reality in every person’s life. St John is very blunt about this: “If we say we have no sin in us, we are deceiving ourselves and refusing to admit the truth” (1 Jn 1:8).

Even if we do accept that we have sinned there is the tendency to minimise its seriousness. We readily make excuses for ourselves. We blame others or particular circumstances as the cause for our sin. It is tempting to forget our failings.

When we sin we are marked by what we have done, even if we dismiss its seriousness or try to move on from what we did. The effect of sin can be likened to the carrying of a backpack, where every time we sin a rock is placed in this backpack; small rocks for small sins, big rocks for big sins. Gradually as sins mount the weight becomes greater. As we committed sins they become part of our history and part of us. We cannot ignore that they have occurred. What is important is that we deal with them.

We can only properly deal with our sin through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is the sacrament that liberates from sin; without it we cannot leave our sins behind and move on into full relationship with Christ. If we do not seek God’s forgiveness and healing in the Sacrament of Reconciliation we simply become more and more burdened by the baggage of sin.  It is only Christ who can heal us and liberate us from this burden of sin.

This is why Jesus took on human flesh and was made man, so that he could offer himself as a sacrifice to God for our sins and allow us to be reconciled with God the Father. When we look up at the cross we can hear the Lord pleading on our behalf – "Father forgive him/forgive her ". And when we look up at the Cross we can think – Jesus has done this because of my sins. Our prayer gazing up on the crucified Christ can be: “Jesus, you did this for me”. You endured all this for me, because of my sins.

The path of repentance
Each of us needs to walk the path of repentance and so find forgiveness. This path is the path to freedom, to healing and to new life in God’s Holy Spirit.

God longs to bring us into the fullness of his own life. However, we are sinners. We are fragile and imperfect. We are far from God. In order that the power and love of God can transform us, we must follow the path of growing in a humble and contrite heart and through repentance allow God’s grace to purify us and raise us up in holiness of life.

The experience of St Symeon the New Theologian is worth recounting. Symeon as a young man aged in his twenties worked in the public service in Constantinople in the early part of the tenth century. He had sought spiritual advice from a wise and holy monk, also named Symeon, from the monastery of Studion near Constantinople. The old monk taught him the practice of saying many times over, “God be merciful to me a sinner”. Young Symeon took the advice and after work in his room prayed this prayer every night, sometimes going through the whole night. One night he had a special experience of God. He describes it using the third person in the following words,

One day, as he stood and recited “God, have mercy on me a sinner” uttering it with his mind rather than his mouth, suddenly a flood of divine radiance appeared from above and filled the room….He saw nothing but light all around him and did not know whether he was standing on the ground.1

This experience had a profound effect upon him and shaped his life’s journey from this time on. He had had a direct experience of the presence of God and he attributed this to his practice of acknowledging his sinfulness and invoking the mercy of God. He understood that one must enter the depths of one’s sinfulness before God in a deep spirit of sorrow. He realised that God will be moved by such a person and pour forth his grace upon them.

St Symeon is regarded as one of the greatest mystics of the Eastern Church and his mystical poetry focussed as it is on the gift of the Holy Spirit is a treasure of the Church. His message is an important one. The path to holiness is discovered by walking the path of repentance. The more we can say with utter conviction – and with tears as St Symeon would propose – “God be merciful to me a sinner”, the more our heart is laid open and receptive to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

Taking the path of repentance
When we do not approach Christ in the Sacrament of Penance we remain caught up in our sin. We resign ourselves to mediocrity. We continue through life crippled and defeated. In this the devil has won a victory over us and he can lock us off from hope and change.

We must remember that God is Mercy. He is patiently waiting for us to seek forgiveness and, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, when we seek His forgiveness He pours out His mercy upon us. Mercy heals the soul. Mercy breathes new hope and life into us. The experience of mercy reinvigorates our spirit. The heart of Jesus is mercy, not condemnation. In the heart of Jesus is a desire to forgive and so revive our spirits. In the heart of Jesus lives the desire that we change and grow and come to holiness and human flourishing.

The message we proclaim in speaking of repentance is that God is a God of Mercy, of life and salvation. The proclamation of the call to repentance focuses ultimately not on the ugliness of our own sin, but of the freedom and new life that comes with repentance.

24 Hours for the Lord
Following the success of the initiative entitled “24 Hours for the Lord” held last year during Lent, the Holy Father has again asked that dioceses support this event.  It  involves a period of 24 hours of Eucharistic Adoration during which the Sacrament of Reconciliation is available, beginning on Friday evening  March 13 and concluding with the evening Vigil Mass on Saturday 14 March. It will take place in St Mary’s Cathedral in Hobart.

This year it is under the theme: God rich in Mercy (Eph 2:4). The Pope will preside at a penitential celebration in St Peter’s Basilica on Friday evening. On many occasions he has highlighted how important reconciliation is for every Catholic. In his Lenten Pastoral Letter this year the Pope said, “How greatly I desire that all those places where the Church is present may become islands of mercy in the midst of the sea of indifference!”

This Lent, let each of us walk the path of repentance. Let each of us come before the Lord with humble hearts and confess our sins.

Archbishop Julian Porteous.

Archbishop Julian's Lenten video message

1. This description is found in his book Discourses (Disc. 22.2–4). Pope Benedict spoke of the significance of the spiritual experience of St Simeon in a Wednesday audience, September 16, 2009.

From Larmenier:

From St Brigid's:

 

From St Finn Barr's:

From Our Lady of Lourdes:

From St Joseph's Queenstown:

From St Thomas More's:

  

From St Patrick's Latrobe:

From St Peter Chanel:

From Sacred Heart - Ulverstone:

From St Anthony's:

From Our Lady of Mercy:

From Marist Regional College:

From Stella Maris:

From St Brendan Shaw College:

From Sacred Heart - Launceston:

St Joseph's - Rosebery:

From St Patrick's College - Launceston:

From Star of the Sea: