On his October 15 posting from Rome, Archbishop Dew noted that there had been vigorous arguments in the small group discussions taking place this week.

"The arguments are very strong as to whether this should be about doctrine and truth, or about mercy and compassion for those who struggle or for whom life is difficult," he said.

But the Archbishop of Wellington stated that doctrine is not being done away with.

"We are saying that the Church needs to be warm and welcoming - showing the mercy and kindness of Jesus."

Archbishop Dew also noted another bishop referring to the parable of the wheat and the weeds and saying that we need to admit we are all in this together.

"Sometimes we are the wheat and sometimes we are the weeds, but whatever happens, life will be full of both," Archbishop Dew said.

He also observed that some synod members only want to use scripture passages that support their own arguments.

In his October 16 posting, Archbishop Dew mentioned media portrayals of the competing factions at the synod, and admitted there is some truth in these.

"[But] it seems to me the majority [at the synod] are very aware of the need for the Church to reach out in new ways to many who do struggle," he wrote.

"I am sure that the mission of Pope Francis - even though some don't like it - is to make the Church a place of love and welcome, a community where people know they are accepted and cared for."

Archbishop Dew was sure this would come through when the small group discussions were to be reported back.

The blog is being updated daily with Archbishop Dew's postings on the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference website.

Sources

• Archbishop Dew synod blog
• Archbishop Dew synod blog
• Image: NZ Catholic

By gathering for scripture services, people will gain new experiences with new and familiar forms of praying together, says Wilmer.

"I am convinced that these new and familiar forms of prayer will carry and strengthen us just as they have done over the past weeks," he says.

"Gradually and very carefully, we can get back to celebrating the Eucharist at our own discretion," he wrote in a letter he sent last week to Catholics of his diocese in the north of Germany.

Wilmer, who is the former international superior general of the Priests of the Sacred Heart ("Dehonians"), underlined the need for extreme caution to those planning public church gatherings or celebrations.

His diocese of Hildesheim is one of the last of Germany's twenty-seven Catholic dioceses to end a liturgical lockdown that went into effect on 16 March.

During the lockdown Wilmer made headlines in a widely-published interview by expressing his "uneasiness" about live-streamed Masses and what he called an unhealthy "fixation on the Eucharist."

"At the moment people are behaving as if their entire faith will break down if they cannot go to Mass and receive communion," he said in the interview.

There have always been times when people could not celebrate the Eucharistic, but belief in God did not cease just because of that.

"Of course it is important, but the reaction of some of the faithful (to the coronavirus crisis) is to overestimate the Eucharist (and behave as if) there was nothing else," he said.

The Second Vatican Council said the Lord is not only present in the Eucharist. He is also present in the Scriptures and the Bible, Wilmer says.

"We should take seriously Christ's words, 'Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst'."

While he has nothing against people praying together "over the internet and with the help of the modern media", Wilmer does not think having a Eucharistic celebration in this way is appropriate.

He acknowledges, however, that Catholics miss being together and worshiping as a community more than anything.

"No-one believes alone. Our faith is based on community. Someone or some others are with me on the way. We need others. We human beings are ordered towards our fellow human beings and that is what has been taken from us at the moment," he says.

Reflecting on the past couple of months, he says: "It has never been so important to be alone together."

Source

• La Croix
• Image: Christian Post
• Image: The Christian Post

Mass readings are also delivered every day, thanks to a partnership with the Marist Messenger.

The site delivers inspirational stories through video and word from Catholics for whom the Bible is an important part of their faith. Among those sharing their thoughts are the Catholic Bishops.

New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference President, Bishop Patrick Dunn, says "Scripture is so much a part of my life I feel I would be pretty empty without this daily time spent reflecting on the Word of God."

Cardinal Dew says that the Scriptures keep him going even in difficult times, they comfort and motivate him. "The Scriptures have certainly changed me and are a focus for my life."

"The site is all about addressing some of the barriers people might have to reading the Bible, including some of the hard questions," Stephen Opie, Bible Society Programme Director says. "We want to help provide easy access to Sacred Scripture and provide Catholics with the tools and inspiration they need to make the Bible an important part of their daily life."

One of many features on the website is that of Catholic leaders answering timeless questions such as: "Can I find answers to life's questions in the Bible?"

One of the many contributors says in the video response, "I will find answers. It may not be the answer I wanted to hear, it might be something different. I read the Bible not just with my brain, but with my heart and with my faith. And when you use those three things together, then God will really reach out and give you answers."

The Word website has been developed by Bible Society New Zealand as a tool to help Catholics in their daily reading and reflection on the Holy Scriptures and is already drawing the attention of other Bible Societies around the world.

To date, 21 Bishops and Priests have been interviewed, and new videos and stories have been uploaded onto the site regularly.

Look at the website

Source

• Supplied: New Zealand Bible Society
• Image: lifeteen.com

In addition, the Bible is key to your Christian growth, a primary way of connecting with God and it helps people live a Godly life, says Tak, who reads the Bible daily.

For him personally the Bible feeds his spirit and strenghtens his walk with God. "The Bible helps me know God and his ways," says Tak who is a supporter of Bible Month 2018.

Starting 1 July, Bible Month 2018, is a time to focus on the Bible and its centrality to your Christian faith/walk. BSNZ's key message is, the Bible really is good for life. The organisation has created a range of Good for Life tools, which help people engage with the Bible.

"The Bible is good not just for the tough times but for all of life," says BSNZ Programme Director Stephen Opie. "When you're lonely, broken or disappointed, the Bible should be there. And when you're joyful, content and at peace, the Bible should be there. The Bible needs to be in and through our day to day walk with God."

Bible Month tools include three compelling two-minute testimony videos of a Christian medical doctor, a young mum dealing with loss and a Kiwi soldier who served in Afghanistan. All three kiwis have been inspired to share about how the Bible has helped them in their lives.

In addition, there is an Essentials Bible Reading Challenge, sermon notes, wall posters and small group resources. Our latest publication, The Field Guide to the Bible already on its second-print run, helps young people make sense of what can sometimes be thought of as a complicated book.

For more information and to download free resources go to www.biblemonth.nz or just call us on 0800 424 253 for further details.

Supplied: The Bible Society

I suppose it's okay to do that, if I'm reading Scripture as parable and letting the Holy Spirit connect the words with my life.

However, if my literal understanding of a story is wrong, it can lead to error.

Take for example, the woman at the well.

She is generally regarded as a woman who likes men.

Five husbands?

Wow!

And that's why other women despise her, forcing her to go to the well by herself.

Then along comes Jesus to correct her wanton ways.

Isn't that the general understanding?

Well, here's another view.

This woman was barren.

If a woman could not bear children, she was thought to be cursed by God.

Other women would shun her, lest they too, be cursed, and her husband would be mocked.

If this Samaritan woman had children, they would be at the well with her, helping her draw and carry water.

That's what children did.

Besides, a mother would not leave her children alone while she walked from the town to the well.

So this woman had no family.

And yes, she probably did come to the well in the heat of the day, to avoid other women who shouted insults.

And the five husbands?

Note they are called husbands, not men-friends or lovers.

If a wife was not fertile, her husband could divorce her.

It was a very simple process.

This suggests that this woman had been rejected five times.

Imagine how she felt!

And the current man who was not her husband?

He was probably being cautious.

He knew the woman's story, and while he didn't doubt his own ability, a child would have to begin before he made the commitment.

That would be practical.

So there she was at the well, no doubt believing she was cursed by God.

After all, there had to be some reason why she was a failure.

Then along comes this Jew who asks her for water.

The rest of this story is the longest conversation Jesus has with anyone in the gospels.

He not only tells her about herself, he also talks about himself.

This Samaritan woman is the first person to whom he confides that he is the Messiah. Then he bids her to go and tell.

What effect that had!

We can picture the change.

She forgets the goatskin bags she intended to fill from the well, and runs to the town, shouting at anyone who will listen.

That's what happens when we encounter Jesus. We get the living water he mentioned. It fills the heart and overflows.

This woman couldn't contain the good news.

She talked about Jesus from one end of the town to another and aroused such curiosity that this Jew was welcomed to preach to the Samaritans.

It's an amazing story of increase.

We don't know the Samaritan woman's name, but spiritually, she had extraordinary fertility.

• Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

In a new book titled "Not in God's Name", Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks attempts to explain why religion and violence so often go hand in glove.

The explanation lies in religion's dual nature, posited a review of the book in The Telegraph.

The three great monotheisms - Judaism, Islam and Christianity - are spiritual belief systems that encourage prayer, charity and forgiveness.

But, writes Sacks, they are also tribal identities whose "noble sentiments have often been confined to fellow believers, or at least potential fellow believers".

Once a religion becomes an identity and builds a community, conflict will ensue.

Under Christian rule, Jews were either persecuted or allowed to live in sufferance until they converted; under Muslim rule, Jews and Christians were tolerated at various times, but treated as secondary subjects with restricted rights to worship.

The religious paradox is that while prophets and saints preach worldly detachment, the most successful religions have been attached to earthly powers.

In Sacks's words, religions have often lusted after "power, territory and glory, things that are secular, even profane".

The review states that it is all too easy to think that serving God means making everyone else worship as you worship.

At its most extreme, this becomes what Sacks calls "altruistic evil: evil committed in a sacred cause, in the name of high ideals".

For Sacks, only a subtle reading of scripture can save religion.

He interprets the sibling rivalries in Genesis as a model for competition between Jews, Christians and Muslims.

God might have chosen Isaac, writes Sacks, but his brother Ishmael joined him to bury their father Abraham; Jacob might have stolen Isaac's blessing from Esau, but the hairier brother is also blessed; Judah tried to kill his brother Joseph, but is forgiven.

This is Sacks's "theology of the Other": keep your own faith and identity, but acknowledge the stranger as your brother.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• Image: BBC

Yet Easter often appears as the poor relation of Christmas.

Whether you believe or not, there is something about Christmas that manages to touch everyone. But without Easter there would be no Christmas.

In many ways, Easter makes more demands upon us.

The empty tomb is not like the manger: if we go there we do not find the beautiful, serene mother with her newborn baby, an adoring and gently protective father, and heaven and earth somehow caught in a silent moment of adoration.

At the empty tomb there is, well, an absence, not a presence. So, Easter really invites us into something utterly new.

It is rather frightening because it transgresses all our ways of thinking, what we know - or think we know - about the world and how we live in it.

We get used to ‘knowing' in a particular way. We are uneasy with things we can't master or that don't match our categories.

We're always trying to fit things into time, space, matter; even when we encounter something utterly new like ‘dark matter' or particles that we know only by their traces, we want to fit them in to some familiar conceptual framework.

But the resurrection of Christ cannot be fitted in like that.

It is not something that we can master; it is only something we can receive. Continue reading.

Source: ThinkingFaith

Image: EPM

Jesus showed us that way throughout his whole life on earth, but this way becomes particularly clear and calls to us most profoundly in the events of Holy Week, not only by Jesus's words, however striking they are, but by his actions and what he suffered, beyond words.

Those events invite us to enter upon this way interiorly, through the words, actions and silences of the liturgy.

Through that liturgy we make a commitment of faith to know Jesus more clearly, as individuals, but also as pilgrims together.

We are drawn into ancient traditions of contemplating these events.

It is a way of humility in obedience and commitment to the Father

We begin with the Palm Sunday procession, to re-enact the journey of Jesus with his disciples and those who followed him from Bethany to Jerusalem (Mt 21:1-11).

We follow him as our king, but one riding on a donkey in humility and in obedience to the Father's word through the prophet Zechariah (Zec 9:9).

As we proceed into the Mass the readings prepare us to focus on this obedience.

From the Third Servant Song of Second Isaiah (Is 50:4-7), we hear that the Servant has been given,

‘a disciple's tongue...Each morning [the Lord] wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple.' Continue reading.

Source: ThinkingFaith

Image: cfcbchurch.com

John Main says, "Language may not be able to lead us into the ultimate communion but it is the atmosphere in which we first draw breath of consciousness."

I have spent more than fifty years acquiring language - a spiritual language, that is, not my native tongue - and suddenly it all seems a facade. It is empty, superfluous, 'white noise'. Don't get me wrong. I find the etymology, the lexicon of religion and spirituality fascinating.

For most of my life, I have listened to those more theologically literate, more erudite, with higher levels of education. I have hungrily devoured their definitions; their explanations; their theology. I have read voraciously. I am deeply indebted, and very grateful, to all who shared with me.

But I was short-changed.

What was offered, while encapsulating the Truth, presented as literal that which can only be revealed through metaphor, allegory, experience, art and silence. Ideas and practices presented as permanent, unchanging, infallible, embedded, I now see are transient, fluid, organic, responsive, reactive.

Consider the latest English translation of the Mass. I always considered the words and actions at the epiclesis and consecration as intrinsic to the transformation from bread and wine to Body and Blood. Those who love the Latin translation of the Mass probably thought the same. But the words keep changing. So the language becomes almost inconsequential, irrelevant. Whatever words we recite; whatever actions we make - it is that which is revealed that is important.

For me, now, that revelation is that God took human form. God is revealed in the actions and attitudes of human beings. God is creative and creator and is revealed in creation. God loves unconditionally and abundantly. I am known. I am loved. I am not alone. And this empowers and inspires me.

Scripture is rich in metaphor, myth, allegory, poetry. We learn about metaphor in English classes at school - but not a whiff is discussed in Religious Education. None of the names we give the divine are literal. God is not an eagle or a nursing mother or our father. These are metaphors to describe the indescribable - a divine presence so 'other' and so 'in-dwelling' that language can only hint at it.

I do not know if I was deliberately shaped, formed or taught in a certain way that kept me obedient, unquestioning, faithful. I do believe, however, that there is now a paradigm shift to acknowledge and name and embrace what has always been true: God is encountered and experienced in an infinite number of ways to ALL people - baptised or not; practising in an institutional church or not; religious or not. Artists, poets, storytellers, dancers, and musicians have always known this. Ecologists, feminists, and peace activists have always known this.

God can be experienced, but not entrapped in ideologies and dogmas. The language for God, and of God, has evolved. 
God can be encountered, but not explained. The language to describe God is now holistic and experiential. 
God exists outside of time and culture and language and is not constrained by these human constructs. The language reflecting God to us is the language of belonging and of relationship.

No-one has a stranglehold on God. Thank God.

And so I begin again …

Liz Pearce, mother of 3 adult children, loves story, dollmaking, writing and silence.

More than two-thirds (68%) of all adults surveyed and 75% of respondents age 66 and up agree that the Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life.

These statistics come from "The State of the Bible," a nationwide study commissioned by New York-based American Bible Society and conducted by California's Barna Research in February and March of this year. Continue reading

This does not make Aquinas a biblical literalist. He argues that the Bible is written in metaphors that render the divine mystery meaningful for finite human minds. We depend on material objects for our knowledge, and therefore we can only speak of God as if God, too, were part of the material world. Biblical language is multilayered, opening itself to mystery the more one allows its meanings to unfold. Aquinas says of scripture that "the manner of its speech transcends every science, because in one and the same sentence, while it describes a fact, it reveals a mystery" (ST I.1.10). Anyone who has ever thrilled to poetry understands this. Profound truths speak to us through ordinary metaphors when we take time to listen and reflect. Indeed, Aquinas insists that we should avoid exalted imagery when we speak about God, in case we are deceived into taking our language too literally. Read more

Sources

• Tina Beattie in The Guardian
• Image: London Lay Dominicans
• See also: Thomas Aquinas, part 2: the mind as soul and Thomas Aquinas, part 1: rediscovering a father of modernity
• Tina Beattie is Professor of Catholic Studies at Roehampton University, London, and a frequent contributor to the Catholic weekly, The Tablet and the online journal, Open Democracy