austraLasia #3240
MANILA: 6 July 2013 --The Bishops of the Philippines are holding their one hundred and seventh plenary assembly, in two locations between 1-8 July. They began with four days of retreat at the Betania Retreat House, Tagaytay City, and then moved to Pius XII in Manila for the more formal business and pastoral meeting, many of them also attending another event as indicated below.
The association of a retreat with one of the annual meetings for the Filipino Bishops is a long-standing custom. This year the retreat was preached by the Salesian Fr Frank Moloney, former Provincial of the Australia-Pacific Province, now returned to academic life at Australian Catholic University. Taking the Year of Faith as a starting point, Fr Moloney developed six sessions across the period of the retreat.
Two were dedicated to “The Word in the Church’s Life and Mission,” a reflection on the sometimes ambiguous history of the role of the Word in the life of the Church, culminating in Vatican II (especially Sacrosanctum Concilium and Dei Verbum), and the post-Conciliar Magisterium, especially Benedict XVI’s Verbum Domini. Challenging the Bishops he used the words of St Jerome, cited by Benedict XVI: “When we approach the Mystery, if a crumb falls to the ground we are troubled. Yet when we are listening to the Word of God, and God’s word and Christ’s flesh are being poured into our ears, we pay no heed” (Verbum Domini 56).
Two further sessions took up the theme of “The Word in Jesus of Nazareth.” These sessions faced the challenge of looking through the theological storytelling of the Four Gospels to discover what Jesus of Nazareth thought he was doing (with a focus on the parables and the Kingdom), and who he thought he was in his relationships with God and with his fellow Jews (Son and Son of Man). This challenging day closed with the exhortation from 1 John 2:6: “He who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”
The final sessions were a biblical meditation on Mark 8:14-9:29, a reflection on “The Word in authentic sequela Christi.” This section of Mark tells of Jesus’ attempts to lead his disciples away from their partial sight (paradigmatically portrayed in the miracle of 8:22-26) into a following of the Son of Man, with all that entails (see 8:34-9:1). It also tells of the continued mediocrity and failure of the disciples, and Jesus’ never-failing presence to them in their failure (see 9:1-14). Fr Moloney closed his reflections: “Jesus never fails the failing disciple. This does not mean that failure does not matter; it means that God’s and his love for us matters even more than our failure.”
On return to Parañaque, on Friday, 5 July, Fr Moloney addressed all the students at the Don Bosco Study Centre on contemporary New Testament studies, and the role of the Word of God in the life of the Church, using Dei Verbum and Verbum Domini as his point of reference.
On Saturday, 6 July, a large gathering of Filipino Theologians and Bishops, accompanied by Priests and theological students from the Manila area (over 600), has taken place at the San Carlos Seminary Auditorium, Makati City, for a day dedicated to Theology Today: Perspectives – Principles – Criteria. The event, taking place as this item goes to press, involves three notable speakers: Rev. Fr. Francis Moloney, SDB, former Dean of the Catholic University of America (Listening to the Word of God), Rev. Fr. Jose Antonio Aureada, OP, of the University of Santo Tomas (Giving an Account of the Truth), and His Eminence Luis Antonio Tagle, DD, of the Archdiocese of Manila (Abiding in Communion with the Church). Deans of studies, professors, theology students and seminarians and religious brothers and sisters throughout the country were invited to this national event.
Bishops, and seminarians, ponder The Word
MANILA: 6 July 2013 --The Bishops of the Philippines are holding their one hundred and seventh plenary assembly, in two locations between 1-8 July. They began with four days of retreat at the Betania Retreat House, Tagaytay City, and then moved to Pius XII in Manila for the more formal business and pastoral meeting, many of them also attending another event as indicated below.
The association of a retreat with one of the annual meetings for the Filipino Bishops is a long-standing custom. This year the retreat was preached by the Salesian Fr Frank Moloney, former Provincial of the Australia-Pacific Province, now returned to academic life at Australian Catholic University. Taking the Year of Faith as a starting point, Fr Moloney developed six sessions across the period of the retreat.
Two were dedicated to “The Word in the Church’s Life and Mission,” a reflection on the sometimes ambiguous history of the role of the Word in the life of the Church, culminating in Vatican II (especially Sacrosanctum Concilium and Dei Verbum), and the post-Conciliar Magisterium, especially Benedict XVI’s Verbum Domini. Challenging the Bishops he used the words of St Jerome, cited by Benedict XVI: “When we approach the Mystery, if a crumb falls to the ground we are troubled. Yet when we are listening to the Word of God, and God’s word and Christ’s flesh are being poured into our ears, we pay no heed” (Verbum Domini 56).
Two further sessions took up the theme of “The Word in Jesus of Nazareth.” These sessions faced the challenge of looking through the theological storytelling of the Four Gospels to discover what Jesus of Nazareth thought he was doing (with a focus on the parables and the Kingdom), and who he thought he was in his relationships with God and with his fellow Jews (Son and Son of Man). This challenging day closed with the exhortation from 1 John 2:6: “He who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”
The final sessions were a biblical meditation on Mark 8:14-9:29, a reflection on “The Word in authentic sequela Christi.” This section of Mark tells of Jesus’ attempts to lead his disciples away from their partial sight (paradigmatically portrayed in the miracle of 8:22-26) into a following of the Son of Man, with all that entails (see 8:34-9:1). It also tells of the continued mediocrity and failure of the disciples, and Jesus’ never-failing presence to them in their failure (see 9:1-14). Fr Moloney closed his reflections: “Jesus never fails the failing disciple. This does not mean that failure does not matter; it means that God’s and his love for us matters even more than our failure.”
On return to Parañaque, on Friday, 5 July, Fr Moloney addressed all the students at the Don Bosco Study Centre on contemporary New Testament studies, and the role of the Word of God in the life of the Church, using Dei Verbum and Verbum Domini as his point of reference.
On Saturday, 6 July, a large gathering of Filipino Theologians and Bishops, accompanied by Priests and theological students from the Manila area (over 600), has taken place at the San Carlos Seminary Auditorium, Makati City, for a day dedicated to Theology Today: Perspectives – Principles – Criteria. The event, taking place as this item goes to press, involves three notable speakers: Rev. Fr. Francis Moloney, SDB, former Dean of the Catholic University of America (Listening to the Word of God), Rev. Fr. Jose Antonio Aureada, OP, of the University of Santo Tomas (Giving an Account of the Truth), and His Eminence Luis Antonio Tagle, DD, of the Archdiocese of Manila (Abiding in Communion with the Church). Deans of studies, professors, theology students and seminarians and religious brothers and sisters throughout the country were invited to this national event.
