Welcome to the Winter Edition of our Victorian Newsletter

Greetings everyone. As you keep warm this winter, we hope you’ll enjoy the stories, news and updates from our members throughout Victoria. In this edition, we bring you a special article from Fr. Andy Hamilton SJ on the upcoming federal election. Andy reminds us to reflect on what matters and how our vote might help make a better Australia.

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Thoughts on Democracy

Andrew Hamilton SJ CLC Ecclesiastical Assistant

At a time when political parties and our society can so easily be paralysed by self-interest, it is helpful to raise our eyes to all the people and relationships that form us as a nation.

What matters is how government can serve the good of all Australians, especially the most vulnerable. Elections prompt us to take an interest in the people who are neglected in our society. We can ask how we can best share our common wealth so they can be included in society, and so how we shall hand on a better world to our children.

Underlying the promises, economic nostrums and slogans that decorate election campaigns lie real human beings, their welfare, and their relationships with one another and with the natural environment. These are the things that matter.

When we allow our minds to muse on all the people who matter, we can be overwhelmed by their number and variety and by the extent to which relationships essential to human flourishing are fractured.

At election times, when our political representatives seek feedback from us about what matters to us, we can focus on one or two excluded groups that touch our hearts most deeply– asylum seekers and the mentally ill, for example. We can study their needs, and write to our local candidates or visit their offices, asking them how they plan to address them. Similarly with other issues like the environment.

When we vote, of course, we can be discouraged by how little difference our vote makes. We may live in an electorate in which one party has a 30 per cent majority, or in one in which none of the candidates seems to take seriously the people and relationships that matter to us.

Email vic.exco@gmail.com Web: www.clcvictoria.com

ABN 78 933 416 295 Inc. Reg No A0029889G (Vic)

In democratic theory, elections are times when citizens take personal responsibility for the directions that their nation will take. Voting is an almost sacred act in which we express our allegiance to our country and have an active role in its government.

This Australian election campaign, like many others throughout the democratic world, has been notable for a pervasive undertow of apathy and alienation. Many people believe that the political dysfunction and its consequences are so intractable in Australia that they cannot be alleviated by the casting of votes and by election results.

This disengagement is understandable. But, as in the rest of life, apathy and alienation generally come from the bad spirit. While recognising the gravity of the situation, we respond to it best by asking whether we can help in some small way to make a better Australia.

Any good response begins with taking time to think about what matters. And when it comes to thinking, five minutes can seem a long time!

SAVE THE DATE Saturday 30 July 2016 St Ignatius Feast Day Pub Night at The Pump House Hotel 128 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy VIC

Speaker: Patrick O’Sullivan SJ & CLC elders Topic: 40 years - Journeying within CLC

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But even so the integrity and care with which we vote do make a difference. They help shift the public mood from discouragement to a sense of possibility. They also keep us and the way we speak about the election focused on what matters.

Geelong Big Day Out - Christian &

Muslim-Interfaith dialogue

Jane Phelan

The Gentleness & Giftedness of Two Men Steeped

in Gods Love. Fr. Andy Hamilton SJ & Shaykh

Mohammehad Ramzan, Imam of Geelong, sat

quietly as each spoke. One man listened deeply &

the other talked deeply. Listening &

comprehending brings new understanding. Each

man talks of a Merciful God, who loves us even

though we fail. Sitting in a circle of forty people I

thought, how can we be so close & yet far away

on some questions & answers of our Holy books.

Maybe when all said & done, we will push

through our differences to bear witness to a

Merciful God.

The Imam brought his family and mosque

members to be with us. Christians & Muslims had

a meal together as friends do. We prayed together

as friends do. Much gratitude to Andy Hamilton SJ

& Shaykh Mohammhad Ramzam & your

giftedness - it helps.

Big Day Out at Geelong was held on 15 May at the Wesley Centre. Organised by the Geelong group, explored the place of

mercy in the traditions and the way it is embodied in the religious practices of Islam and Christianity

Thoughts on Democracy (cont…)

Andrew Hamilton SJ

Elections offer us a choice between candidates and parties. The poverty and compromise that this choice offers can make us despondent. But as is the case in every choice we make, elections also offer us a choice between hope and despair.

The good spirit always awakens hope. This is not a cheery optimism that things will turn out ok but the hope against hope in the Spirit who stirs in each hu-man heart and in each encounter we have with one another and with our world.

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Big Day Out at Geelong Interfaith Dialogue

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Geelong Big Day Out - the aftermath!

Following the very successful CLC Muslim/Christian interfaith conversation at the Wesley Centre on Saturday May 15, the Shaykh’s community was confronted with a fire at the Geelong Mosque 48 hours after our event. Through the generosity mostly of CLC individuals and a contribution from CLC Vic funds, $600 has been raised for their rebuilding appeal. Members of the Geelong group are planning to meet with Shaykh Mohammad soon to offer our gift to their community and our CLC support.

This year, CLC Australia turns 40!! Across the regions, CLC members will be celebrating its 40th birthday in various ways. A reminder to all that here in Victoria, we will be celebrating it on two occasions, firstly at our Pub Night on 30 July and then in more depth at our Anglecrest weekend on 4-6 November. Email vic.exco@gmail.com for more details. To commemorate our birthday, CLC Australia has produced a lovely badge as memento. Get one for yourself and a few more for your friends. It's a great way to introduce and share about CLC. You can get them at any CLC events for $5 a badge or email vic.exco@gmail.com.

National Assembly 7-10 July

Please pray for the nominated candidates and all delegates who will be gathering in Sydney from July 7th—10th, to discern and decide the National Executive Council (NEXCO) for the next four years. Victorian delegates to the assembly will be represented by Trish Collier, Noreen Nichol-son and Lisa Beer. Veronica Hendriks will attend as a member of NEXCO. The theme of the Assembly is: “From our Roots to the Frontiers - Australia”; Isaiah 11:1 “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.”

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2016 CLC-Jesuit Tertianship Retreat

Project

Noreen Nicholson

This successful 20+ years collaborative project

between the Jesuit community and CLC

continued across Australia from 26 April

concluding 21May. 273 receivers were touched

by the Spirit through the First Spiritual Exercises

delivered by nine dynamic Tertians from

Germany, Italy, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia,

Jamaica, Brazil and Oregon USA, supported by

CLC.

Victoria hosted two retreats in regional areas

Geelong

The Pastoral Cluster (incorporating the Parishes

of Holy Family Bell Park, Holy Spirit Manifold

Heights and Saints Peter & Paul's West Geelong)

welcomed Fr. Albert Tan from Malaysia.

To encourage people to attend, Peter Webb from

CLC Geelong spoke at the masses prior to the

commencement of the retreat with great

success. 35 people signed up for the retreat

experience. In addition to presiding over the

retreat Fr. Albert assisted in the parish and

offered spiritual direction to those retreatants

who requested it.

A post retreat group has formed praying The

Program for Life over five weeks under the

guidance of Peter Webb. The five week program

was written by a CLC National Team this year

specifically to fill the need for retreatants who

wanted 'more'. It has been very well received by

the parishes.

Bendigo

St. Therese's Parish Kennington in the Diocese of

Sandhurst welcomed Fr. Trieu Nguyen SJ, a

Vietnamese born priest from Germany. The

parish had a very small number enrol initially

but when Fr. Trieu arrived in the parish on

Saturday he spoke at all of the masses with the

result 48 people by Tuesday were inspired by the

Spirit to sign up for the retreat! There has been a

potential group leader identified to explore the

possibility of a group praying The Program for

Life five week program, post retreat.

In addition retreats were held in the following areas:

Northern Territory Darwin - Rohan Tulloch SJ

South Australia Whyalla - Holger Adler SJ Murray Bridge - Jun Nakai SJ

Queensland Innisfail - Fabrizio Fabrisi SJ Mt. Isa - Carlos Viana SJ

Western Australia Bunbury - Eric Watson SJ

New South Wales Dapto - Marlito Ocon SJ

Some of the graces shared in the evaluation of

the retreats:

'It is the first time I have felt loved in the Catholic

Church

'Challenging and empowering, a rollercoaster

ride'

' Learned to to listen more and talk less'

'This retreat is a wonderful resource for anyone

who wants to deepen their relationship with God

in the hustle and bustle of daily life. I would

encourage anyone to do it especially those who

think they don't have the time. They are the very

people who need to do it'.

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Chasing Asylum

Meg Atkins

I recently attended a fundraising screening of the new documentary film 'Chasing Asylum' which included a Q&A with the director Eva Orner. I was connected through a friend that has worked on the 'I Came By Boat' campaign.

www.iamaboatperson.org.au/i-came-by-boat

It is a profoundly moving film about the treatment of asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru, and I would urge all CLC members to see it.

CHASING ASYLUM exposes the real impact of Australia’s offshore detention policies and explores how 'The Lucky Country' became a country where leaders choose detention over compassion and governments deprive the desperate of their basic human rights.

The film features never before seen footage from inside Australia’s offshore detention camps, revealing the personal impact of sending those in search of a safe home to languish in limbo.

CHASING ASYLUM explores the mental, physical and fiscal consequences of Australia’s decision to lock away families in unsanitary conditions hidden from media scrutiny, destroying their lives under the pretext of saving them."

Members from the Parkville group have since attended screenings and there is the opportunity to host screenings in your community if CLC members are interested. More information is available on the website link below: http://www.chasingasylum.com.au/

CLC - Victoria Region, National and World: One Body

Anita Mueller

Many of us CLCers meet fortnightly within our local groups where we have made friends that transcend beyond one’s ‘usual friendship circles’. One may forget that we are part of a world wide community. Below is some information that can be found on the National CLC website to remind us of how our local group connects to the wider CLC community. How blessed we are!

Christian Life Community (CLC) The Christian Life Community is an international association of Christians: men and women, adults and young people, of all social conditions, who want to follow Jesus Christ more closely and work with Him for the building of the Kingdom. Members make up small groups, which are part of larger communities organised regionally and nationally, all forming ONE World Community. The CLC is present in all five continents, in more than sixty countries. The charism and spirituality of CLC are Ignatian. Thus, the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius are

both the specific source of our charism and the characteristic instrument of CLC spirituality. The CLC way of life is shaped by the features of Ignatian Christology: austere and simple, in solidarity with the poor and the outcasts of society, integrating contemplation and action, in all things living lives of love and service within the Church, always in a spirit of discernment.

Where We Are

CLC is a Lay Ignatian Community with 60 recognised national communities and 16 others moving towards incorporation. The total number of adult members is 25,000, about two thirds of whom are women. This number does not include adult pre-communities. In some countries there are a number of 'CLC' groups among high

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school/college students. These too are not included in the above figure because CLC is to be understood as a discerned personal vocation. CLC is organised by Regional Teams: Africa, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, & the Middle East. Two Publications of Particular Interest

The bulletin "Projects", is published four times per year. It serves as a link between the World ExCo and each national community. Generally, Victoria Region Exco will circulate the Projects via email to all Victorian Members. However, If you wish to be included in the mailing list, you may contact World CLC directly via email. Progressio is the journal of the Christian Life Community that has been published since 1968. Progressio integrates the World CLC through reflections on our spirituality and provides a forum for experiences of the CLC way of life in different dimensions: Spiritual, Communitarian, Apostolic and Personal. Progressio is published twice yearly, including thematic material on our spirituality and formation. Again, if you wish to be included in the mailing list, you may contact World CLC directly via email. World CLC Day each year – why do we get together?? Every year on March 25th - the feast of the Annunciation - Christian Life Community

CLC Victoria celebrates mass with Fr. Andy Hamilton SJ on World CLC Day

celebrates World CLC Day. We are reminded that CLC-Australia is part of a larger lay apostolic body of over 25,000 members around the world hence celebrating World CLC Day at around the date of the feast of the Annunciation. Reflection: Have you experienced CLC in another country, whether it be at an Assembly or just on travels throughout the world, which led you to connect with an international CLC Group? Be sure to share your experience with others around you. This year, the World CLC Executive Council in its publication Projects (#163), entitled "World CLC Day: Breathing Space" encourages us to "take a breather" to enter the mystery by pausing, breathing - in and out - to create space to stop, reflect, and discern. We are then asked to join Mary in making our "fiat" - "let it be" - and accept the invitation to serve with greater intentionality and focus, more deeply committed to our vocation in CLC. Happy World CLC Day to all from CLC-VIC Regional ExCo! Useful Websites: Christian Life Community Victoria - www.clcvictoria.com/ Christian Life Community Australia - clcaustralia.org.au/ World CLC - www.cvx-clc.net/

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An Exam of Childhood

Susie Hii

Looking back my child hood was a deprived one,

although it was in many ways; also rich with wonder, awe, simplicity and the mystery of God.

As children we are simple, innocent, accepting of

faith without questioning. Our adult minds like

to complicate things, intellectualise and understand that which is beyond understanding

God, who is a Mystery.

Memories of the spiritual wealth of my

childhood come to me as consolation during periods of desolation in my adult life, which

sometimes seems like an eternal dark night. As

children we don’t think of death, but we learn

what ever prayer we are taught.

As a child, one of the prayers I offered was the

prayer to St Joseph ‘Patron saint of a happy

death’. As I remember it, the prayer goes

something like this. ‘O great St Joseph, patron

saint of a happy death, pray for us and obtain for us the grace that we may die a happy death, as

thou didst in the arms of Jesus and Mary, that we

may receive Jesus before we a die.’ By this time I had received Holy Communion but it did not

occur to me I was receiving Jesus the Christ.

At the time, stories of apparitions of Our Lady to

Lucia, Francis and Jacinta at Fatima and to St

Bernadette, at Lourdes left a deep impression. Like people of any age, it was the extra ordinary,

that appealed to me. To me, receiving Jesus was

seeing him or Mary in apparitions. It was what I

wanted, so much.

So I stared at the sun, hoping to see the sun do

tricks like at Fatima. But my natural instinct stopped me from looking at the sun directly; just

as we cannot see God’s face and live. After a

while, my hopes of seeing apparitions waned,

and I gave in to seeing them in dreams. So I added to St Joseph’s prayer, ‘That we may

receive Jesus before we die or in our dreams.’

Over a long period of time I had two dreams. The

first dream: Our Lady is standing on the roof of a

Methodist Church opposite our house, handing me rose. Looking back, perhaps it was one of the

roses that St Theresa promised to shower upon

the earth after her death? Mary was telling me to look for the ordinary things of life as St Therese

did, not in spectacular, extraordinary

phenomena. A few years later, St Therese

became my favourite saint and heroine.

In the second of the dreams, I saw Jesus wearing

a long flowing cloak, walking with his back to me

into the clouds. Seeing Jesus back could mean

that he had turned his back on me, or it could

mean that Jesus has been with me and is walking away temporarily.

As a child, I did not question why I saw only

Jesus’ back, I was happy to see him, back or

front, even if only in a dream.

In 2014, an article by Ron Rolheiser, ‘Faith means that God is with us’, reminded me of this dream and provided an explanation for seeing God’s back. In the book of Exodus (33:20-23), God said to Moses, ‘You cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.’

Image courtesy of pray.com/

Madonna

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God says that Moses will see his back as he passed by him. We see God’s back because we cannot

see God’s face and live, and it could be easier to see God’s presence in our past than in the present.

There have been a couple of times last summer when I had a God-experience, I think. On a warm

summer evening, when I went for a walk, I had a de ja vu experience, like I was back in my

childhood, with a feeling of being with God. Maybe it was a moment of God that I felt once when I was young, and a moment of God that day.

A few weeks later, in the morning, as I got out of my car, walking to join a group for meditation, that

feeling came over me again. It was a warm day again. Maybe it has to do with the warm weather

which reminds me of home and young days, maybe it was nostalgia not just for childhood, but for the sense of God’s presence that was so abundant in my childhood. It was an experience of God in

the present and in the past at the same time! God is timeless. God was in the past, is in the present

and shall ever be in the future not limited by time.

For the spiritual richness of my childhood, I thank my mother, who inherited her faith from the

British nuns who looked after her and many other children in the children’s home. The best, most enduring gift we can give our children is faith, the nurturing of their innate sense of God.

The seed of faith, the word of God, is best planted in the fertile soil of childhood; so that God may

take root in their hearts and become a foundation of their being, before the pubertal hormones of

teenage years takes over, when our parental influence weakens, while that of their peers and

others strengthens, before the age of reason and the egoic mind gains the upper hand and could potentially edge God out (EGO).

This was echoed by James Martin in The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything, who put the Examen in a new light for me, that it is built on the insight that it is easier to see God in the past than the present moment.

The past is often given a bad rap now. We are often asked by politicians, friends or relatives to forget the past and live in the present moment. It is true that the here and now is where and when we can experience God. So we keep being mindful of God’s presence, or being Godful, in present moments that will become our treasury of memories of past present moments.

Memory is a great gift we can use to remember the God times, the good times. When we do an Examen of our past, our childhood, may we see God’s bountiful mercy and let gratitude wash over us.

Image courtesy of pray.com/ Madonna

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Awakenings

Li The odds were against me ever becoming a Christian. My family was atheist, I lived in a communist society and the religion in that particular region was Islam. When I look at the picture I see the land: so vast, so barren and parched, and so foreign - even for the Chinese. It is strange that any seed could be sowed or even from such a place.

Mustard seeds image courtesy j

acobtutrner21.wordpress.com

I was only 12, the seed came from the air, Hong Kong Christian radio. It was the music that captivated me to begin with. I didn’t know why, but would start weeping while listening to them even though I didn’t understand the Christian terms used in the songs. The jingles, got through to me.

One of them was this: “Someone could be your friend today, but your enemy tomorrow. Today could be bright and shiny; tomorrow stormy. Everything under the sun changes every minute. Only God’s love is ever lasting.”

I had seen plenty of changes. As the Cultural Revolution intensified, the members of the Gang of Four advanced to high positions in the government and the CCP. Manipulating Red Guards, the Gang of Four controlled four areas: intellectual education, basic theories in social sciences, teacher-student relations and school discipline, and party policies regarding intellectuals. Ultimately the Cultural Revolution turned families into enemies, inverted right and wrong.

Nine days into my primary school, Chairman Mao died on 9 September 1976. His death gave

birth to the new political power and consequently the downfall of the Gang of Four (Mao Zedong's fourth wife Jiang Qing (1913-1991), Shanghai Propaganda Department official Zhang Chunqiao (1917-2005), the literary critic Yao Wenyuan (1931-2005) and the Shanghai security guard Wang Hongwen (1935-1992).

Was there really a God who would not change?

Two years later we moved to Nanchang, a city on the Yangtze River. One of the parting gifts my school friends gave me was a popular book on Communism. In this book the author discouraged young people from falling for the western way of life - starting with sunglasses and bellbottomed trousers. He also warned about wearing a cross and he posed this question: “Do you know the meaning of this symbol? Do you know how to pray?”

Then he went on to quote the whole of the Lord’s Prayer. It was certainly not his intention to promote it, but rather to warn against it. For me, this was the discovery of a treasure box. Yes! I started to pray. I thought I really got it when I confided to my friend:

“Do you want to know how to pray?”

She listened while I prayed and then laughed “Will this give me good grades?”

I felt deeply hurt. For me this prayer was a longing for a relationship with God, not a magic spell. After this, I kept my faith to myself. For a long time, I used the Lord’s Prayer only until I started to think: “Dear God, could I just talk to you in my own words?”

Jesus wasn’t quite clear in my mind yet, but I felt I was drawing closer to God.

I asked a Catholic priest to show me a Bible. Although he was stern and dark, I could see from the expression on his face that he was delighted to show me his old Bible. It was the first time I had seen the Bible. I sent a letter to the Christian radio station in Hong Kong, asking for one. I waited, but in vain. I wasn’t too surprised. It was usual for overseas mail to be intercepted.

Eventually I attended university where my

focus was on achievement, self-realisation and

11 Western philosophy. My seeking of the Christian faith went on the back burner. Life was good. China was becoming wealthier and its people enjoyed more freedom, but then, on 4 June1989, came the Tian’anmen massacre. You may remember the images of the young student, arms stretched out, holding shopping bags, stopping three tanks, before being dragged away, not seen again.

Image to the right courtesy: Google

As citizens we had been taught that the Communist party was as our mother and father, but when our government started killing students, I thought: “How can a mother and father kill their own child?”

I felt betrayed and lost.

One year later, I graduated and got a job at the medical school, as assistant to the American English-teachers.

This is where God opened new doors through some Christian families. The Ramseys family was very friendly and I was always welcome at their home.

They were a happy family and I realized that they were Christian, because they prayed. They had a teammate, a girl by the name of Shelley, and I asked her a lot of questions about faith. Shelly lent me Christian literature as well as an additional bilingual New Testament. I genuinely wanted to know more, but I wasn’t ready to make a commitment, yet.

Then came that date: October 1991.

I dropped by the Ramsey’s, as usual, and was surprised to find that they had a Chinese baby girl. She was dirty, neglected and miserable looking. They called her Meimei. They had found her by the side of the road in a cardboard box that morning. The Ramsey’s decided to keep her and in no time she became healthy, happy and chubby.

She added a lot of life to the house and we all came to visit her. I liked her a lot. Three months later the authorities took her away and the family was shattered. The girl refused to eat and in desperation the authorities allowed the Ramseys to visit her. I saw their heartbreak and was concerned.

“There are so many orphans. You can easily adopt another one,” I suggested.

But they said: “Meimei is special and there are over 100 people praying for her. She’ll be back.” I was amazed that there were so many people praying for her – people who had never even met her. What makes them care about

her? I wondered.

After a harrowing roller coaster ride with the authorities, stretching over several months, Meimei was back in their arms. Jane asked me to find a Chinese name for the child. She already had something in mind. “How about calling her little sparrow – in Chinese?”

she said.

“Little sparrow is a very ugly name in Chinese,” I said. “You never name a little girl a sparrow. Why sparrow?”

She opened the Bible and showed me the verse from Matthew. ‘Never a sparrow falls to the ground than the Lord’s hand is in it’.

So this was the God who never changes! The True Father who loves unconditionally! At that moment, I decided I wanted to be His child. If he cared about this little sparrow, then he cared about me. After that, I went to the Ramseys and asked: "How do I become a Christian?"

On Easter day in 1992, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior and they held a ceremony to welcome me into the big family. They gave me a Chinese Bible and I joined them for Bible study. It didn’t stop there. Three years later, I went to Wheaton College in USA to study missions and Cross Culture studies.

Then I was finally baptised and went on to do five years of broadcasting for the Far East Broadcasting Company - the same radio station that planted the seed when I was twelve. I met several of the people whose voices I had heard on the radio back then! I now live in Australia where I teach Christian Education in the local school for two years – some children found it intriguing that as a Chinese I talk about Jesus. I recently received a surprising invitation. With the surge of Chinese immigrants in the eastern suburbs, our Parish plans to start a Chinese service, I was asked to help establish a Chinese service and outreach.

I Grew and continue to grow.