Fr Jim's (old) Blog

Yesterday I went to my friend Eric's Lutheran church where he is pastor. It was great to see him in action again presiding at a service which has the same liturgical format as a Catholic Mass, but a little more informal. The most touching thing is that he doesn't preside from a presider's chair at the front, but its in the front row with his wife and small daughters. It makes  me think about our married deacons and how we can make space for them to worship with their families as well as minster at the altar. Eric is a great preacher. He preached on the feeding of the 5000 and referred to the the common idea that God invites our cooperation in his work. But he did it so well. He made the scripture account alive, painting a picture of the scene and emphasising that Jesus didn't push the disciples out of the way saying "step aside, I've got this covered I' m going to do a miracle". He told them to "give the people something to eat yourself", ...

For some people a flight is a time to watch films, read a novel, or sleep. But I discovered another opportunity on my three and half hour flight from Omaha to Seattle: a mini retreat. The last two days at Creighton were a rush: final classes, final essays due, then, even before we'd finished those we were packing down kitchens and common rooms, people were packing their bags, and then started leaving. Some of them rushing and running down the hallway to get to a flight on time. There wasn't much of a sense of closure or finality. So the time on the plane was time to, as we say at Creighton, "gather the graces", that is, to reflect on all that has happened, to see God's hand in it all, and to give thanks. I felt a rush of sadness as the plane taxied toward the runway, wishing I could stay just one more day. But there's nothing there to stay for. The people who make the experience have already dispersed. The experience of Creighton is a confluence of people ...

 One of my classes this term has been The Spirituality of Social Concern. It overlaps with other courses on Catholic social teaching which I've done previously, but it goes further, in that it looks at the spirituality which underpins and animates the rich heritage of the Church's social justice teaching. The Church is more known for its teaching against abortion and divorce, but for more than 120 years there have been official statements by popes, councils and conferences of bishops on economic, political, social, racial and environmental issues. The Second Vatican Council reinvigorated the Church's sense of its place in the world, being an agent of the Kingdom of God, to be used by God for the transformation of the world, not as a refuge from the world. Fr Rutilio Grande SJ In the 1960s the bishops of Latin America got together and made a bold statement that the majority of the peoples of Latin America were poor and oppressed, and that from now on the Church woul...

One of the things I love about being here in Omaha is the opportunity to go to Mass and sit & kneel in the pews, rather than be up front presiding, much as I enjoy that too. I think we all, when visiting a new parish, can tend to praise or criticise the way Mass is done there, be it the music, the homily, the proclaimers of the Word, the priest or other people in the congregation. Indeed, sometimes these are the reasons people change parishes or make decisions about which Mass they'll go to. It's particularly easy as a priest to be critical of other priests' ways of preaching and presiding at Mass, perhaps as a chef might critique other people's cooking. On weekdays I usually go to the 5pm (there's 7am and midday as well) and on Sundays I go to 10.30am. You never know which priest you're going to have, because there is a whole community of Jesuit priests here who take turns, each with their own unique style.  So it's easy here to be distracted by the...

As you can imagine, I have a few books to read. These are my books for my four subjects this term: Discernment and Spiritual Direction last term, and Contemplation and Social Justice this term. Fortunately the three large books on Christian Spirituality are recommended, not required so I will only use some chapters. The rest, yep, cover to cover. I'm going to have some heavy bags coming back....

Each weekend here is needed for writing the papers which are due the following week. But the weekend between the first and second terms was completely free, so my room mate ( a US term meaning flat mate) and I headed out country for the weekend to go camping. I wasn't quite sure what we were going to. Remember that Nebraska is flat and Iowa is even flatter, so magnificent mountains weren't on the cards. One of my classmates cautioned us to not get trampled by a cow.  But what we did find was Hitchcock Nature Centre in Iowa, which was a small national park with some low hills and nice wooded areas. It's also part of a north-south bird migration corridor, so there was plenty of bird life, and even observation towers where serious twitchers go to survey the numbers of particular birds at key migration seasons. This was unlike my usual multi-day distance treks. We found a little campsite to pitch the tents, and unlike most Australia national parks in summer could make a fir...

It's the Fourth of July, US independence day. It's big deal here in the US. American's don't really need an excuse to wave the flag, but it is also a public holiday, and it is just wonderful to have a day off from classes, after all weekend was spent writing the end of term papers. There's still reading to be done for class tomorrow, but I was able to go and do some of it in a hammock. I also appreciated the irony of the organist who played God Save the Queen before Mass. I don't think many people noticed... I'm looking forward to the fireworks tonight, which unlike Sydney's NYE show I just wandered down to last year and I stood closer to any fireworks I've ever seen before, feeling the percussion of each firework go off. I've been inviting my classmates to come watch the display with tonight, but a couple of my classmates from Africa told me they don't like fireworks. Why not? Because the sound reminds them of gunfire from back home, ...