Spirituality in the Pub, last Wednesday, Veneto Club, Bulleen, was a giant dose of déjà vu which means, I believe, “we’ve been there before”.
Met lots of catholics I’ve known as Parishioners over the past 50 years. One bloke was an altar server at the first Mass I presided over in mid 1960! There were 200 there.
The theme under discussion was “Roles for lay and ordained people in the 21st century”.
Some there claimed I was rabbiting about the same things close to my heart when I was assistant priest in Heidelberg, Ashburton, East Kew and Ivanhoe between 1960 and 1970.
That was reassuring. Some even suggested that the message they got from me, and my like-minded colleagues, influenced their lives for the better. That was reassuring, too.
I drove home with a warm feeling. I did have one qualm. All the 200 have lived the last 50 years in suburbia. I’ve done only 10 there, 4 fulltime army, 37 in South Melbourne which is anything but suburbia.
So, I was a little concerned that my address may have been inappropriate, with its references to murder and mayhem, for a middle class audience.
I’ll have to leave that for others to judge. They won’t invite me back if I was “off colour”.
There were even more at a funeral on the same day – about 400, in fact. A working class man, David, aged 40, had succumbed to life’s pressures.
He had been in care for some childhood years, one of 10 siblings, but had, miraculously, gotten a trade, married and raised 3 children. The family had a house of its own.
The other siblings had struggled and battled just to survive. We buried one other brother late last year. David’s siblings asked me to state at the funeral that he had succeeded in his main aim of giving his 3 children the security and opportunity he never had.
They also asked me to tell the 400 mourners “No-one is to feel guilt over David’s death.” It was like a public confession and absolution.
Funerals, I believe, need that element of forgiveness and reconciliation. Funerals are like Lent – opportunities for “cleaning house” and starting a “bran nue dae”.
As we left the church for the cemetery, another local man approached to say his own brother, Mark, also aged 40 had been found dead that day and I should be ready to make arrangements for that funeral of yet another man I’ve known to struggle since we met in 1973. Rest in peace comrades.
RJM
Spirituality in the Pub, last Wednesday, Veneto Club, Bulleen, was a giant dose of déjà vu which means, I believe, “we’ve been there before”.
Met lots of catholics I’ve known as Parishioners over the past 50 years. One bloke was an altar server at the first Mass I presided over in mid 1960! There were 200 there.
The theme under discussion was “Roles for lay and ordained people in the 21st century”.
Some there claimed I was rabbiting about the same things close to my heart when I was assistant priest in Heidelberg, Ashburton, East Kew and Ivanhoe between 1960 and 1970.
That was reassuring. Some even suggested that the message they got from me, and my like-minded colleagues, influenced their lives for the better. That was reassuring, too.
I drove home with a warm feeling. I did have one qualm. All the 200 have lived the last 50 years in suburbia. I’ve done only 10 there, 4 fulltime army, 37 in South Melbourne which is anything but suburbia.
So, I was a little concerned that my address may have been inappropriate, with its references to murder and mayhem, for a middle class audience.
I’ll have to leave that for others to judge. They won’t invite me back if I was “off colour”.
There were even more at a funeral on the same day – about 400, in fact. A working class man, David, aged 40, had succumbed to life’s pressures.
He had been in care for some childhood years, one of 10 siblings, but had, miraculously, gotten a trade, married and raised 3 children. The family had a house of its own.
The other siblings had struggled and battled just to survive. We buried one other brother late last year. David’s siblings asked me to state at the funeral that he had succeeded in his main aim of giving his 3 children the security and opportunity he never had.
They also asked me to tell the 400 mourners “No-one is to feel guilt over David’s death.” It was like a public confession and absolution.
Funerals, I believe, need that element of forgiveness and reconciliation. Funerals are like Lent – opportunities for “cleaning house” and starting a “bran nue dae”.
As we left the church for the cemetery, another local man approached to say his own brother, Mark, also aged 40 had been found dead that day and I should be ready to make arrangements for that funeral of yet another man I’ve known to struggle since we met in 1973. Rest in peace comrades.
RJM
Fr. Bob, I live in N.Q. and suburbia, we are listening, we find you relevent and engaging. My family a part of the new middle class, the C.U.B’s (Cashed up Bogans). Tradies who 50 yrs ago would have been working class now, enjoying a new more affluent life. We don’t forget our working class roots, but are committed to giving our kids a better life than we and our parents had, with education and intense work ethic. I can identify with David’s life ambition and hope I am as successful as he was in achieving that for my childen. RIP David.
Brooke, thanks for that.Cashed up bogans are all good as far as I’m concerned…salt of the earth.BobMaguire.
Sadly I didn’t leave the SIP last night with the same warm feeling that you did. I was disappointed in your response to my question relating to celibacy. I couldn’t understand what you were trying to say, was it that if priests worked 24/7 and kept busy they wouldn’t stray from the straight and narrow because they were so occupied or was it that if we invite them round for a cuppa and a game of cards they won’t go searching for intimacy on the internet or elsewhere.If that is all celibacy is then why is it held in such high regard particularly when it comes to that all important “ontological change” that separates you blokes from the rest of us and gives you the right to celebrate Eucharist.
Celibacy is a state initiated by men to separate the “educated incharge men” from the rabble. Unfortunately it has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus, who assures us that we are all equal in the eyes of God and therefore we all are priests in our church.
This was an aspect of change hinted at by Vatican 11,and we all hoped would occur. They ran out of courage.
P.S. Bob now he is really startin to piss this little black sheep off Peter Kennedy on his own website ” why bother praying to a non existant God ” – with priests like this no wonder the Church is unable to attract the young…..
Anthony, I know what you mean.Peter will be suffering from post trauma stress,like a war vet.I stood beside him,ever so fleetingly,at Melb.booklaunch.I agree with him in principle,not in procedural practice.bobmaguire.
G’day Bob,not upto speed with twitter – but follow on your webpage. Not sure what MacKillop rights are – but supported Peter and Co. at St Marys. In retrospect I think I did so wrongly. Please check out his web page of St Marys in Exile – doubting the existence of JC himself, the virgin birth, etc. he now seems to vilify the Catholic church at any given opportunity. Ex priests preside over the “mass”. Your fight my dear comrade was done with dignity, honour and fidelity…..Peter’s unfortunately has rapidly deteriorated into one anti Catholic tirade after another….and for him to compare his struggle to that of Mary MacKillops is the ultimate insult to us all. Anthony…ya mate from Cairns.