Period December 2006 – February 2007

MEETING PLACE

Chapter meetings are held at St. Joseph's Convent, 16 York Street, South Perth. Meetings are held each 3rd. Sunday,commencing at 2.00pm sharp.

December - There will be no Chapter this month. As usual our meeting instead will take the form of a social gathering, which will be a BBQ held on Sunday 17 December - 11.30am, details from our Secretary. Oblates and friends are requested to bring their own meat and salad, whilst the Chapter will supply wine and soft drinks.

January - There will be no Chapter meeting this month.

February - Chapter meeting to be held on Sunday, 18 February. Discussion on Rule 58 & discussion on the Gospel of the day – Lk.6:27-38. Oblates please note, that this will include our Annual General Meeting during which the election of the President and Committee members for the ensuing twelve months will occur.

PRAYER LIST

Please remember all our sick oblates – in particular Pat Cockett & Michael Kent. Also Adrienne Byrne - for full recovery, without the need for further surgery. Prayers requested for Rhod’s mother and Mike McGovern's mother. Also and always, continue to pray for our parent community in New Norcia. Please pray for the repose of the souls of Tom Gollop and Fr. Anthony's mother who have both passed away since our last issue, also Paulene Tibbits's father who died suddenly in a tragic accident. Would you please remember all our deceased oblates.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The oblates offer their condolences to Fr. Anthony on the death of his mother, who passed away last August. The sudden death of Tom Gollop caught all of us unawares. Tom, who at 94, was the only surviving foundation member of our Chapter and very much a father figure to us all, died on 30 August last. His funeral was held at Corpus Christi Church, Mosman Park, Friday 8 September. A large roll-up of oblates was in evidence and Mass was concelebrated with Fr. Abbot,Fr. Anthony and Fr. David down from New Norcia. In addition, Tom was farewelled by a large group of the Knights of the Southern Cross, of which Tom had been a member for 50 some years. Our congratulations to Trevor McCaul from Brisbane, who was received as an oblate novice on 27 September. The ceremony was carried out by Fr. Bernard Nolan on behalf of the Abbot of New Norcia, at St. Catherine's Church, Wishart Qld. Trevor has entered the oblature through the Internet correspondence programme.

EULOGY – TOM GOLLOP

Given by oblate Tony Smurthwaite at the Requiem Mass 8 September 2006.

Tom Gollop - A 'Man for all Seasons'. - Mar.27, 1912 – Aug.30, 2006

Dear friends, I have been asked by the family, Fr. Anthony Lovis OSB and other friends, to share with you some reflections and anecdotes about our dear Tom.

I do so with pleasure. I trust that I will be able to convey enough of Tom’s gentleness, geniality, generosity of spirit, good humour, groundedness and genuine good heartedness. As Tom’s beloved soul-mate and wife, Irene was very much a part of Tom’s life, so she is included in my narrative.

Although I came to know Tom and Irene as Benedictine oblates of New Norcia, I am confident that Tom was really a “Man for all Seasons”. Very much like his name-sake and fellow Londoner and oblate, St. Thomas More, Tom displayed kindness, civility and competence, no matter what the activity or the path he walked. That is - whether Tom was being a family man, a host, a friend, a businessman, a scientist, a scholar, a parishioner, a Knight of the Southern Cross, or an opera buff.

Tom was born in Uxbridge on March 27 1912, in north-east London in the county of Essex. He and Irene married in 1937. Their love of classical music drew them together. When war came two years later, Tom joined the army and Irene, the Intelligence Corps, where her fluency in French, German and Italian were very much in demand. Tom’s skills with optics and mathematics were used by the Eighth Army in Egypt, to equip its gunners with the means of shooting down flying enemy aircraft. They had to be able to predict where the aircraft was going to be in a certain time-frame and therefore the point of aim needed to be ahead of the target.

Tom would relate to me (with his usual chuckles), how, by the time he had deciphered the US Army’s training manual and had helped re-assemble a shell-aiming optical sight (as the equipment had been dropped from a crane on to the wharf ) the war in North Africa was almost over.

After the war, Tom returned to England, where their son Christopher was born on August 15, 1945 and in 1948 the family emigrated to Perth, Western Australia. Subsequently they fostered Michael, who initially became a teacher, later a marine archaeologist and is now based in Fremantle.

They also looked after Paddy during school holidays. He would later stay with them when he came to Perth, to get a break from his surveying fieldwork. Tom worked as an optician in a large firm in England. In WA he became a partner in the optometrist firm 'Dannell and Gollop'. He travelled widely, often visiting remote towns in the north-west, where his expertise was greatly appreciated.

Tom and Irene joined Fr. Albert Lynch’s Applecross parish. A renowned church musician and composer, Fr. Albert frequently visited New Norcia and he became a Benedictine oblate. This association led him to name his parish church after St. Benedict. Subsequently, Abbot Gregory Gomez OSB was granted permission by Archbishop Prendiville to establish Benedictine oblates in the Archdiocese.On the 30 September 1958 in St. Benedict’s Applecross, the Perth Chapter of St. Gregory was formed. Tom was appointed Sub-Prior and Irene Treasurer.

Thus, with due ceremony, began Tom and Irene’s journey together as Benedictine oblates. Over the next four and half decades, they graciously and quietly showed in their lives, how to follow Christ, using the down-to-earth guidance of St. Benedict. We remember with special fondness how they welcomed us into their home in Salvado Street, Cottesloe and how they encouraged us to find God in our work and prayer, as well as in the ordinary events of our lives.

Tom and Irene were delightful people who - 'simply walked the talk' and as elders of a praying community, they led by example rather than merely by precept. Delight and sheer joy were their touchstones. Tom often said that the three letters in the word joy stood for Jesus, Others, You. In every way Tom was a Christian gentleman. Moreover, Tom was a fully human person who kept deep and meaningful contacts with the world outside of himself. He and Irene pursued many and varied interests.

They were especially knowledgeable about opera and classical music. He and Irene attended many performances and Tom wrote newspaper reviews about them. He was also an astute investor in shares and properties and a generous supporter of charities. His intellect, his scholarship and command of the English language, allied to his early mastery of computers, enabled Tom to collaborate with Fr. David Barry OSB to produce the oblate manual.

Twenty years later, this publication stands as a testimonial to their wonderful partnership and it can still be used as a guide to Benedictine spirituality for lay people. Tom acted as novice adviser for many years and was the first editor of the chapter’s newsletter. In addition, Tom wrote, but did not finalise - a 'Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict'. Despite these accomplishments, Tom never did big-note himself or push his views; instead he stood back and encouraged other people to make contributions. One of his close friends described him thus - 'Tom was gently wise in his humility'.

Tom was great at listening. He would always listen to us with compassion and empathy when we confided in him and through sharing his wisdom, he would help you overcome your difficulties. However, he would not tolerate grumbling. Tom would also whole-heartedly share in your happiness. Invariably he would ask about your family and took an interest in your children. In turn, Tom was delighted to tell you about his children and their families and in return, to hear from you, news about them .

Tom’s gift of happiness sprang from his ability to enjoy a good hearty laugh or simply to chuckle away over a pun or a throw-away remark. He could find humour by looking at things and events in an unusual way. His fondness for the goons owed a lot to this whimsical turn of mind. Thus, when viewed through Tom’s eyes, the life saver's orange/red and yellow flags on Cottesloe beach, became evidence of an invasion by Spaniards, as these flags (and caps) look like the Spanish flag minus the black emblem of the royal coat of arms. According to Tom, this 'scenario of conquest' was being repeated between the flags on every beach in Australia. Our surfing icons were in foreign hands!

Or, when an electrical storm fused his valiant BBC computer and he lost half of the oblate manual, Tom spun a yarn that, because the Holy Spirit is pure energy – much as electricity is - then the lightning strike and fusion with the consequent loss of text, meant that the Holy Spirit did not like what Tom had written - so he just started over again.

In his retirement at Wearne Hostel, Tom mostly read stories by PG Wodehouse. He and I shared this love of stories about a pre-war world which included the exploits of Bertie Wooster, Jeeves his butler and Edwin the boy scout. I had been sent by my son in France, a copy of a bi-lingual (French/English) translation of some of Wodehouse’s stories. I gave Tom a photocopy and we compared notes about how the French linquists struggled to cope with Wodehouse’s idioms, nick-names and wonderfully inventive adverbial clauses. Allow me to read an extract from 'Jeeves takes control' - Bertie, as the hero of the tale, sets the scene - 'It was one of those still evenings you get in summer, when you can hear a snail clear its throat a mile away. ……the sun was sinking over the hills and the gnats were fooling about all over the place and everything smelled rather topping - what with the falling dew and so on - when suddenly I heard my name called.' The speaker, Edwin the boy scout, who in his eagerness to get up-to-date with his quota of good deeds, unwittingly wrecked Bertie’s gallant attempt to obey his fiancee’s instructions. Edwin is therefore considered a real trouble maker of the first order.

Tom’s unfailing high spirits, courtesy and steadfastness stood him well during the lonely years after Irene died. His love for her and for their extended family was very evident whenever we were able to catch up with him on visits at Wearne Hostel. His courage in the face of failing health, enabled him to stride down the corridors with his Zimmer frame on his way to playing host over a pot of tea for two and biscuits.

Tom went to God on the 30 August 2006 aged 94 years. We admired and loved him. We will miss his wisdom and gentleness and especially, the sound of his marvellous voice.
We hope that this tribute to Tom eases a little of the grief and pain, that physical separation from a loved one brings to us all. We know that he is with Irene in heaven. I imagine them finding out at first hand, how their favourite classical composers created their masterpieces and their humming a few bars in harmony with Caruso and Maria Callas. May the angels lead Tom into Paradise and may Tom’s gentle soul be at peace for all eternity.

Amen.
I thank you for your patience and attentiveness.

A TIME TO SHOW THE WAY

By Cormac Murphy-O'Connor from 'The Tablet' Aug 2006.

Contrary to reports of empty churches and a society that appears to be losing its faith, the current revival of an interest in religion has never been greater as people listen afresh.

Two years ago, I was invited to participate in a public debate commemorating 250 years of the founding of the Royal Society of Arts. Before me, there were four short speeches by people most eminent in their fields - a scientist, a humanist, an astronomer and to celebrate progress in business, the chief executive of Starbucks! When my turn came, I too, spoke of the benefits that had been achieved in science and technology, but then went on to say something else. What an extraordinary thing that the questions which the Enlightenment had sought to answer had now come back to haunt our world. We are all Green now, because we realise that we are stewards of this earth and cannot ravage it because it was given to us. Progress has enabled us to provide enough food for all and yet a quarter of the world is starving, while another quarter lives in super-abundance. We are able to probe the processes of life and experiment in cloning and other forms of genetic engineering. But who is to decide what is a human being - or is this just an irrelevance? What astonished me, was how eager people were to hear another voice, another approach, that seemed to indicate the deepest quest of the human heart for meaning and for hope. Our society seems to be losing its faith in 'no-faith'. What is in decline, properly speaking, is the certainty of uncertainty. In Britain, people are less and less wedded to an avowedly agnostic or atheist position. Young people in particular, would increasingly define themselves as 'spiritual' but not 'religious'. They are interested in faith and are believers in some sort of God. Many practise a kind of prayer or meditation, which is principally experiential.

We should be cautious about describing this as a religious revival, but it would be safe to describe it as a revival of the religious sense, or at least as a revival of an interest in religion. In Europe, the young now seek out courses in religion and spirituality in a way that has not been seen in my lifetime. There is a growing popularity of retreats and meditation. All of this affirms the place of the soul - a belief in the infinite value of human love. There are the beginnings of a search for transcendence, by which I mean a recognition of the possibility, that life is much more than we can physically see, touch or hear.
It is quite clear to me that you cannot separate religion and life, nor can you suppress people's yearning for joy and hope. Nearly 30 years ago I chose as my episcopal motto those very words - Gaudium et Spes - Joy and Hope. Those words are in fact the beginning of the Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. 'The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and the hopes, the griefs and anxieties of Christ. Indeed nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts.'

Right from the start, that document asks us to refuse any attempt to divorce our spiritual life from day-to-day encounters with men and women and their joys and hopes, their griefs and anxieties. Occasionally, in the history of Christian belief, people have thought that 'real' religion or 'real' spiritual life is confined to those occasions when we, as it were, leave the world behind. Genuine spiritual ecstasy is probably quite rare, I suspect, but the saint is someone who can't wait to get back to spreading the Good News. To do that effectively, we have to be fully committed to our culture, we need to be able to converse with all our brothers and sisters, those who share our faith and those who don't, even those who don't want to. We should commit ourselves to improving this world rather than despising it. We are not outside or above our culture. We are part of it and it is the context for our Christian life. One of the biggest challenges facing us, the contemporary Church, is to find the language and the contexts in which people can listen anew to what we have to offer. That challenge is formidable and may be simply described in the form of a question - how do we offer what is truly life-saving but not easy to a society in which the values of consumer comfort and consumer choice are all-pervasive? Consumerism has the power to make Christian teaching unintelligible, not so much in theory as in practice. There seems no room in it for our teaching on sacrifice or the redemptive value of suffering, which opens our hearts to God and each other. I am reminded of a marvellous document published by Pope John XXIII in 1961, which has a lot to say about a Christian attitude to our culture and to our world - the encyclical letter Mater et Magistra. This is how he spoke of the Church - 'Mother and Teacher of all nations - such is the Catholic Church in the mind of her Founder, Jesus Christ, to hold the world in an embrace of love ... To her was entrusted the twofold task of giving life to her children and of teaching them and guiding them - both as individuals and as nations - with maternal care.'

I find that a very bold but encouraging image of the Church. As a bishop I have always felt particularly responsible for making sure that is how people experience the Catholic Church, not only as the teacher of dogmas, but also, perhaps even more, as a loving mother who loves me and who, because she loves me, wants me to go the right way through life - that is the kind of teacher the Church is and can be and I have been so grateful for it in my own life. Christianity looks beyond this world, but our hearts and minds are firmly rooted in the concerns of all our fellow men and women. Just as we do not look down on God's created universe, we are in no position to sneer in a cynical way at our culture. This is the image the Church is surely meant to portray in her teaching and in her actions. In all of this, I feel the Church has a great deal to offer and the challenge is - will we be brave enough to make the most of what we have and which our society is so desperately in need of receiving?

I think there are three experiences that could help people on their journey to finding God in and through our Catholic life - the experiences of family, silence and contemplation.

A special family

I was luckier than I realised as I grew up, my parents were convinced believers who passed on to me a series of values that introduced me to a larger family, the Catholic Church. But what I now realise was important, is that it was personal, it was sustained and it was a positive experience. Many will come 'past the church door', so to speak and may feel curious or even inwardly recognise that here they may find what they need, but the welcome they receive needs to be personal, sustained and positive. People should not have the impression that the faith of the Church is a private thing.

Exactly 20 years ago, a team in the Vatican considered the reasons why people say they are attracted to 'sects'. These included - a quest for belonging, a search for answers, a search for wholeness, a search for cultural identity, a need to be recognised and feel special, a search for transcendence, need of spiritual guidance, need of vision, participation and involvement in a series of extraordinary recruitment techniques that appeal to people at the level of their perceived needs. I find it strange and sad that people need to go elsewhere for any of those things. That means we, as a Church, have treasures we are not using. As the Vatican's reflection on New Age stressed, 'The simplest, the most obvious and the most urgent measure to be taken, which might also be the most effective, would be to make the most of the riches of the Christian spiritual heritage.'

I often try to put myself into the mind of a person who is wondering about stepping into a church either for the first time or after a very long time away. I wonder if the people inside would make me feel welcome and at ease, or whether there would be any welcome at all. Whether it is a casual visitor or a serious seeker, people need to feel part of the family or they will certainly not stay. When they stay, they must continue to feel welcome, or it will all seem like a sham, a trick to get them to join our club! That is hard, as Jesus knew, which is why He told the parable about the 99 good sheep the shepherd knew He didn't have to worry about and the one about the son who felt ignored by his father and particularly offended when his brother came home from wasting his life.

Silence

In 2005, and again this year, the BBC set up an encounter between typical modern 'spiritual searchers' and a very traditional expression of religion. The first set of programmes was called The Monastery. This year, four young women joined the community of Poor Clares in Arundel for a similar series of programmes entitled The Convent.

The biggest shock for the young men and women taking part in these programmes was their introduction to the world of silence - not any old silence, but contemplative silence. 'Listen, my son' are the first words of the Rule of St Benedict and this was the first thing the monks and nuns tried to impress on their visitors. It was not easy for these young men and women at the beginning, but over the weeks they did, in fact, learn to listen more deeply.

Unless you are one of those people who go on retreat frequently, or a totally anti-social being, your world, like my world, will be just like the one which those young people in The Monastery and The Convent left for 40 days. But most of us have had a chance, perhaps many times, to enter that silent world where contemplative Religious have almost carved out a presence and marked not only space but also time, with what I can only call holiness.

Lived silence can give us space to look at the world around us, at our culture and see what is really there. It can be a real effort to detach ourselves from our busy schedules, but we know how important it is, so if we think of how to bring people closer to believing and belonging, we have to recognise that we, the Church, need to guide and accompany them on their journey.

Contemplation

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith produced a document on meditation several years ago. It keeps coming back to an essential point. Meditative techniques can do all sorts of things, usually good things, to our psychological, mental and bodily state, but unless there is an encounter with the living God, these techniques, worthy and effective as they are, are 'not yet prayer'. I mention this to underline what I already said about silence that is not simply absence of noise but a way to contemplation. Anyone can sit quietly, but religious silence is a search tool that is even better than Google!

It seems to me that people want us not just to speak about spiritual things, but to show them where the source of their thirst can be quenched. They want us not merely to tell them about Christ, but in some sense, to show Him to them. But that could never work unless, as Pope John Paul II emphasised, 'we ourselves had not first contemplated His face'.

If Christianity is the meeting-place of earth and heaven, Jesus is the meeting-place of human and divine life. I think the best spiritual nourishment, is to meet people whose lives have been touched and deeply affected by contemplating Jesus. Nothing can replace that and people will know if what we are offering is second-hand or the real thing. Last year, the Archbishop of Prague, Cardinal Vlk, came to visit me and shared something of his experience during the Communist occupation of his country. He was persecuted as a priest by the authorities and was eventually thrown out of his parish. He was told by the authorities that he couldn't practise as a priest and had to make his own way in the world. He became a window cleaner and worked for 10 years in the city of Prague.

One day he was cleaning windows in one of Prague's busy streets and he could hear German tourists below him window shopping and wondering what they were going to buy. He said, he began to think to himself - 'No one knows who you are. No one knows you are a priest. No one cares about the Gospel that you preach.' Then he went on to say, very beautifully - “It struck me very deeply - this voice within - ‘On the Cross, God is present but hidden' and if Jesus could live and die in this way then so could I.” Several years later the Berlin Wall fell and shortly after that he was made Archbishop.

As we Christians face our modern world, we should not be in any way discouraged. If we are like trout that always swim against the stream, well - that is our natural habitat. We live in our world but are not of it. The whole history of the Church is one of death and resurrection and we have to trust that the Lord will bring about a new outpouring of His Holy Spirit among His people in our countries.

I remember some time ago a young man saying to me with great enthusiasm, 'What we need Bishop, is a new Franciscan revolution!' I replied, 'I totally agree - why don't you start it!'

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor is the Archbishop of Westminster. This is an abridged version of his lecture "Belief and Being in a Faithless World", which was delivered 27 August, in Sydney, Australia.

REFLECTION – SLEEP

Taken from ‘The Oblate’ newsletter of St. John’s Abbey.

“Let us arise then, at last, for the Scripture stirs us up, saying - ‘Now is the hour for us to rise from sleep’”. RB Prol.

Now is the hour for us to rise from sleep. What is this sleep? Let each of us look. Sometimes we do not even realise we are asleep until some noise wakes us. Let each of us check for the sleeping hollows sunk in darkness, closed and bolted cavities of selfishness, sign-posted - 'This I cannot give' - pockets of sadness, darkness and selfishness. Let each of us look. Perhaps it is the sleep of racial prejudice, or jealousy, or ambition. Perhaps it is the sleep of hate. The Spirit of the Risen Lord who dwells within us cries - ‘Now is the hour for us to rise from sleep.’ He calls us to abandon ourselves to Christ. He calls us to love and serve each other. Arise. Fear not. He brings to us the joy and eagerness of wakefulness, a glimpse of the resurrection. If only we could learn to trust that He nudges us to fullness of life and brings us away from darkness and death.

Arise – Now.

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