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In our first reading, Moses conveys a great sense of pride and delight\u00a0about the wisdom and discernment of the people of Israel, when they follow\u00a0the law and customs which formed the framework of their community. A similar\u00a0sense of delight and pride, in the different church communities, is evident in the\u00a0feedback about what is important to us, what we are afraid of losing, and what\u00a0we hope to see in our new parish. It is also present in the ways we celebrate our\u00a0liturgies, the different customs we adopt, the cultural traditions we include and\u00a0how we use our church buildings. All these things help give us a sense of who we\u00a0are and a framework for our faith community.
\nJesus, in Mark\u2019s gospel, challenges us to go beyond these external expressions of\u00a0our religion. If we are to respond to the call to live \u201cpure, unspoilt religion, in the\u00a0eyes of God\u201d, each of us individually and in our communities need to examine\u00a0our hearts and acknowledge what negative motives shape our attitudes and our\u00a0actions. When we can discern and face the darkness within, and allow God\u2019s\u00a0spirit to transform us, our actions will become an expression of the conversion\u00a0of our hearts to God and to God\u2019s ways. Then we may, as parishioners of\u00a0Wellington South reach out as \u201cjoyful disciples\u201d and come \u201cto the help of\u00a0orphans and widows when they need it\u201d and keep ourselves \u201cuncontaminated
\nby the world\u201d. Reaching out to those in need transforms us and when we allow\u00a0that \u201cwonderful \u2018chemistry\u2019 of the Gospel\u201d to happen within us we will discover,\u00a0as Donagh O\u2019Shea puts it, \u201cthe kind of \u2018chemistry\u2019 that can turn bad stuff into\u00a0\u00a0good, curses into blessings, suffering into prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charting the Course Discernment – Week 6: \u00a0Checking our Bearings<\/strong> Some of the feedback has shown that some of us are left feeling that the leadership is\u00a0stalling in getting on with the real business of decision making\u2014sorting out Mass times,\u00a0office space, finances, and the practical things that our Community runs on.<\/p>\n Some are hurting\u2014some frustrated that our feelings are not being acknowledged.<\/p>\n Some\u00a0merely bored by the entire thing. Some feel angry that we are even facing this change.<\/p>\n This process is not to discern if we will change. It will happen.<\/p>\n This process of sharing, praying, and reflecting is about all of us being the architects\u00a0of WHAT our new parish will be, HOW we will participate, HOW our four church communities will stand in solidarity with one another.<\/p>\n This Charting the Course Discernment is an invitation to be open to HEAR God calling\u00a0us\u2014to raise our voices in prayer and trust. So that in a few weeks time our voice,\u00a0together with the Holy Spirit, will be there when the Transition Team makes the decisions\u00a0about those practical things and writes the new parish plan to take us forward.<\/p>\n Today we invite you to do nothing more than to join with one another in gratitude as\u00a0we hold all we have and all we hope for in prayer, so that unlike the Pharisees in today\u2019s \u00a0Gospel we focus on the God-given things.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reflecting on this week\u2019s Scriptures In our first reading, Moses conveys a great sense of pride and delight\u00a0about the wisdom and discernment of the people of Israel, when they follow\u00a0the Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":642,"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions\/642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOver the last five weeks most of us have given of our hearts, sharing our fears and our\u00a0hopes most generously. We thank you for that.<\/p>\n