February 2021

THE SOUL IS A LONELY HUNTER: Mid Century American Short Stories
Presenter: Elizabeth Guy BA Dip Ed, Diploma in Art History, Masters, Hons., PhD in Poetry & Politics
When: 4 Wednesday mornings, 10am – 12noon, February 3, 10, 17, 24
Where: Level 5, 141 Harrington Street, Sydney
Cost: $150/person (Including summary notes)

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

During my sabbatical in Merton’s hermitage, the world, my own issues and hurts, all my goals and desires gradually dissolved and fell into proper perspective. God became obvious and ever present. (Sunday)

The contemplative life is not, and cannot be, a mere withdrawal, a pure negation, a turning of one’s back on the world with its sufferings, its crises, its confusions and its errors. —Thomas Merton (Monday)

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Mid Century American Short Stories

 Starts Wednesday 3 Feb
This course explores the preoccupations of four mid-20^th century American short story writers: William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor and Ernest Hemingway. In particular we will read, examine and discuss the way these writers represent spiritual isolation, desire for redemption and hunger for true connection. These giants of American Literature hold in their cross hairs a landscape driven by uncertainty and estrangement.

Concluding with Francis' Fratelli Tutti

  Starts Thursday 4 Feb
This course will consider the development of Catholic social teaching from both a historical and theological perspective.  It will begin with the attempts by Catholic thinkers and pastoral leaders to respond to the injustices of industrialization in nineteenth-century Europe.  It will then consider

Crises & dimensions, thinking & willing

Starts Thursday 4 February
In Unit I we focused on some general principles underlying the development of a healthy spirituality. In Unit II we will focus more on particular concrete facets of spirituality. Walker Percy, the American essayist, wrote: “It is pilgrims we are, wayfarers on a journey, and not pigs, not angels.” (Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins: Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World, Avon Books, 1978, 104.)

Pilgrims frequently come to crossroads, choices must be made – sometimes without much knowledge of what the consequences might be.

  Starts Tuesday 2 March

We often hear the phrase ‘follow your conscience’. But what exactly does the word ‘conscience’ mean? How does ‘follow your conscience’ differ from ‘anything goes?’ How important is the role of ‘conscience’ - in the eyes of the Church and, more importantly, in the eyes of God? How can we understand the ‘primacy of conscience’ and the way it relates to the ‘primacy of truth’?

By Michael Whelan SM

Three months before he died on 7 March 1274, St Thomas Aquinas had an extraordinary “experience” while celebrating Mass. As a result of this “experience”, St Thomas refused to do any further work on the Summa Theologica – his major life project. The English Dominican Thomistic scholar, Brian Davies, tells us that Aquinas’ secretary, Reginald of Piperno, begged him to return to the writing. St Thomas replied: "Reginald, I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me" (Brian Davies, The Thought of Thomas Aquinas, Oxford University Press, 1993, 9).

Notes by Michael Whelan SM

•“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:

‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’

 Notes by Michael Whelan SM

 “I will be with you!” [Exodus 3:12] This is not only a promise, it is an expression of the very nature of God. To be God is to be with! Jesus enfleshes this same promise and the Divine Nature: “And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time” (Matthew 28:20).

We are made in the image and likeness of the One whose nature it is to be with. It is also our nature to be with. We are at our best when that “being with” is embraced generously and allowed to shape our lives. We thrive in constructive and life-giving relationships, we wither in the absence of such relationships. “Relationship is written into the very nature of human beings. As the Bible sees human beings, you cannot think about them, without recognizing that they are, as it were, made for relationship” (Aelred Squire, Asking the Fathers, SPCK, 1972, 20).

Gospel Notes by Michael Whelan SM

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter). (John 1:35-42 – NRSV)