Courage

This Friday the Church remembers Martin Luther. Our theme is courage and in his day, Luther had courage coming out of every pore in his body. I am Catholic, but I can absolutely appreciate and celebrate Luther's commitment to truth, to his faith, and to the guidance of his spiritual director.

He asked questions that no one else would dear, he challenged the state, the Church, those with with the power and the finance to back up whatever course of action they wanted to take. Luther challenged injustice, corruption, and the "Do what I say not what I do" attitude.

He not only spoke up, he added his intellectual expertise, his influence, and his prayer to make some sense from what he saw.

Courage is not necessarily about putting ones life on the line, indeed it rarely is, so I wonder why we struggle so hard to avoid being accountable ourselves to our own values and beliefs, why we find it so much easier to go along with the crowd as a follower of other followers, rather than a leader or follow a leader. One thing that can help is prayer. To hold before God and with God, the questions that cause us to prickle, that move us to discomfort.

I think there are many similarities to Julian Assange, in some respects he is putting a mirror to Governments and asks the tough questions -we have seen the result.



"All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired"
Martin L

Teaching Religious Education

This is a joy!

Today I had 11S (Year 11 is 14-15years of age) and as you can see in the Titles we look at relationships.
One task is to answer a series of questions that help reflect on our many relationships. While some finished early through a quick mind and writing speed, I'm sure some whizzed through with one word answers. However there were a group who seriously considered what these questions were asking about their relationships.

I admired their investment in their future, as friends: parents; partners; spouses; siblings; and girl friends.

They seemed to realise that relationships are it!
When these aren't gong well, nothing else has the same spark or energy, taste or joy.

One great movie to watch is, Life as a House. this is a tough story of families and the individuals making sense of their place in life and with each other. It is about forgiveness, stress, life, desperation, and redemption, about healing and about death. It is about the legacy we leave our family and our relationships, and while you are still breathing, you have a chance to make things better.

Another great movie for relationships is 'Uncle Buck' and Simon Birch.

We watch a movie clip from such as it is easy to see different points of view and the affect our behaviour and thinking has in relationships.

You get out what you put in. I try to give every chance to learn, to take an idea that has been shown to make a real impact on life and especially relationships, and translate this into class.

When you see it 'happen', the opportunity taken up, it makes teaching religious education a wonderful joy, not that what I planned worked, but than another person has seen the beauty and potential power within themselves and experienced the richness of their life!

Keep laughing
Pa Richard

The right time to celebrate

When is the right time to celebrate?

Seems obvious does'nt it but you might be surprised with the worry and anxiety a number of people experience when wondering, "Should we celebrate this or that"? How big should we go? Is it worthy?

While some celebrations require a lot of planning, people will decide them selves if oyu let them.

We have just been to a farewell barbecue of a Parish Priest who has served in this parish for about 8 years and people were asked to bring a plate with the BBQ and tea/coffee/juice supplied. Well people just kept turning up over a period of time until the speeches and gifts were giving. As it was held on school grounds there were playgrounds and plenty of room for all.

The invitation was for anyone involved in the school or parish and surrounding parishes.

Because all brought something, there was more than enough and for more than just one helping too!

So to answer my question, as Jesus himself showed, anytime is the right time to celebrate when it brings people together, all walks of life, to contribute, and to share, to belong.

The other aspect was that no alcohol was needed for a wonderful warmth and open spirit to be present.

It reminds me of a Maori proverb (whakatauki) "Ko tau rourou, ko taku rourou, ka ora ai te iwi". With your basket and my basket the people will be satisfied.

For as Jesus said, "where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there"

God bless

Pa Richard

Halberg Awards and Jesus

Murray Halberg in 1962 attended a sports writers’ dinner in Toronto, proceeds from which went to Canadian children with a disability.  Halberg was so impressed and moved by this that when he returned home he suggested to his employers, New Zealand Breweries, that a similar function be organised in New Zealand.  From that suggestion grew The Murray Halberg Trust for Crippled Children.  


In 1963 and in each subsequent year the Trust has organised the Sports Awards.  Previously, under Fairbairn’s reign, the trophy had been presented to the winner at a formal gathering attended by politicians and civic dignitaries.  The Trust adopted the Canadian idea of the dinner with the dual purpose of raising funds and of publicly recognising the leading sportsmen and women of New Zealand.  

In 1987 the Awards were changed in format to include categories and in recognition of Sir Murray’s contribution, the overall trophy for the sports person or team of the year is now known as ‘The Halberg Award’.
Today the Westpac Halberg Awards of New Zealand are accepted as this country’s premier sporting awards, which recognise teams as well as individual sports men and women.(from
the Westpac Halberg site) 

With the New Zealand Football team (The All Whites) winning a number of the awards and especially the Supreme award, a number of people have expressed disappointment and derision of the people and status of the award.


This to me is extremely sad and a sign of a community or country that has become more exclusive of an 'in crowd' than inclusive and celebratory of the achievement of all people.


It seems the 'big boys' or 'old boys' network and other individuals of NZ's more traditional sports such as Rugby, Hockey, and Netball are not able to recognise when a team achieves significant international acclaim outside of what we are used to. A number of sports and media "leaders" and long time commentators seemed to spit the dummy!


Given that the panel of selectors is probably more representative of a wider variety of sports and is probably more democratic (they no longer meet around a table for hours with wine and cheese influencing  others towards their view), I think it is a fairer assessment.


Jesus was executed because the crowd with the power did not like him insisting that everyone could and should participate equally in society, they didn't want him pronouncing that some people's illness or gender, religion, status, or occupation should be viewed as less valuable. 

In some ways the All Whites experience moved the hearts of people, it is said we cheers for the under dog but back the top dog. In this case we backed and cheered for the under dog. You know, history is full of examples we celebrate similar to the All Whites; the NZ Tall Blacks journey to 4th place in the World Champs, the are countless monuments to the fallen of our nation and in every country - who gave their best and did not return, movies have been made about 'The Alamo', 'The 300' a tale from over 1000 years ago, they didn't win either, but the achievement and spirit shown was of greater worth to those who remember. Or the walker who made it into the stadium, not first, not even third, struggling to the finish line to greater cheers than the winner!

Jesus criteria for salvation was to love one another. And unlike the Westpac Halberg Awards, JC was not comparing different sports with the same criteria open to subjectivity.  (How can a first place in a teams competition with no more than 4-6 countries playing seriously compare to an individual sport competing regularly on a global scale?). He was comparing people against his belief in his Fathers words that all were created in God's image.


Yes I'm a football fan and I celebrate - but I would have celebrated any sport that had won because all finalists were deserving. 

Lets challenge ourselves to celebrate every success, to accept when our team doesn't win, we don't get the mark we wanted or the job we deserved. 


I congratulate Ricky Herbert for his acceptance speech, claiming that NZ is blessed with many great codes (sports) and that he will wear a rugby jersey this year to support what he called "Another great code" (rugby).


The greatest battle is always with oneself, go the All Whites, Go the All Blacks, Go the rowers and shot putters, go the cyclists and yes, go the Black caps in India!


God Bless
Pa Richard