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Adjusting our lives to God’s will! |
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Dear <<First Name>>
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It has been little over a week since we celebrated the solemnity of St Joseph, one of the three principal patrons of our Community!
Living at the hand of the Lord is what Joseph teaches us, or put in another way, living by Providence. This trusting confidence in the provision of God and the submission of our actions and our service to God’s leading has formed our Community from its very beginning. It is challenging and at times crucifying, but there is also joy in being like a child before our heavenly Father, learning to seek and obey his will for us in the concrete reality of our lives.
A Canonical visit for the Community
The Community has just had it’s annual canonical visit, which was undertaken by Duane Stallard, who was mandated to carry out the visit by the General Council of the Beatitudes Community, of which he is a member as General Assistant of the Lay Branch. Duane, who travelled from France to be with us took part in the men’s retreat run by the Community last weekend, during which he gave a beautiful exhortation on Saint Joseph. I loved it so much I decided to share it with you. I hope it speaks to you and encourages you to take this great Saint as your spiritual father as so many Saints and sinners have done! |
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Here is the transcription of part of Duane’s talk:
“All paternity finds its roots in God the Father. St Joseph had the vocation to be foster father of God, of Jesus. He found his resources in the fatherhood of God in heaven. He had that anointing on him to carry out that role of protector of the Child Jesus, of the Holy Family. As head of the Holy Family he continues today to be patron and protector of the Universal Church. The Holy Family doesn’t stop at the time of the biblical text! It’s the same family. The church is the body of Christ and we are part of the mystical body of Christ. This body has a mother and a foster father. St Joseph continues to protect Christ his adopted son, the Son of the Father, by protecting and providing for the Church, and for each one of us.
We are all subjects of the Church and of the kingdom of Heaven, thanks to our baptism. Thanks to baptism we are rooted in Christ, we are planted in love, planted in Christ, with all God’s holy people and we are able to grasp this mystery which is beyond all human knowledge. Joseph had the understanding to welcome the mystery of God in His plan of salvation for all mankind.
He was poor. He was simply a man. But he had the capacity to adapt. Joseph the Just; he was just and he had the ability to be adjusted to will of God. He was poor in spirit in the Holy Family. Think of the Nativity: Jesus was born in a stable; think of the Presentation: Jesus, being the first born had to be redeemed. The Redeemer had to be redeemed! Joseph presented the offering of two turtle doves, the offering of the poor. Normally it was an animal from the flock, a lamb or a kid, but they were poor.
But this poverty is not poverty in spirit. We can be rich and be poor in spirit. We need rich people who are generous and not attached to what they have. They are poor in spirit! We can be poor materially, but rich because we hang on to the little we have. To be poor in spirit is to be detached and abandoned to God in trust and confidence in this loving Father, thanks to the Holy Spirit who has been poured into our hearts.
This poverty of spirit has two pillars; humility and faith. This humility is in simply being aware of our littleness, our limits, our humanity, our weakness, our inclination to sin. We are aware that we need God.
Faith is gift of the Holy Spirit that helps and enables us to turn towards God in our poverty and weakness. It’s a gift. Being humble and having faith helps us to live in that poverty of spirit that St Joseph lived. St Joseph was poor. He had faith and poverty of spirit. He was able to welcome into his home Mary, the Mother of God and Jesus, the Son of God. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom heaven is theirs.” St Joseph lived this. He is a model of the first beatitude. He was poor in spirit and the kingdom of heaven was there in the presence of the Child Jesus and Mary, in this confidence that God calls us to live at all times, to trust him in everything, in that total abandonment, as St Therese of Lisieux says, “All is grace.”. Even in difficult moments and the trials we are called to go through, God is there also. It’s all about trusting him, turning to him.
All those trials St Joseph went through: he had to get out of Bethlehem and go to Egypt, in a country foreign to him and settle down there. Then he was called again in a dream to go back to Nazareth. God writes in crooked ways! He goes forward and leads his people in ways that are not always how we imagine, but he leads and that’s what is important.
We are called always to have that open heart to accept the Lord to come into our lives and to continually renew us in that faith. It’s not that I get up in the morning, I live out my day, or I convert and its done. No, faith is a decision we have to make every morning when we get up. Off we go, we walk with Christ in faith. Christ is important to my heart, through faith, so that I can be planted in his love. It’s a merciful love, not a love of this world. It’s a love that is paternal and also maternal and unconditional. It surpasses all kinds of love. It goes down to the deepest part of the darkest place, penetrates walls, breaks down all resistance so that we have that opportunity to turn back to him. Lent is a great time to let that unconditional love of God penetrate our lives, our resistances, those dark areas in us, what we like to hide in the corner, what we don’t want to show anyone else, what we have trouble taking to confession… His love wants to come there and bring his light and transform it.
St Joseph participated in that work of God that renews all of creation and calls us to holiness and makes us God’s holy people. He helped in that plan of redemption with the Virgin Mary. He is continuing to help in the Church that is the mission of Jesus that continues in this world, and we are a part of it. Each one of us has a role to play. Each one of us has a place in that continuing mission of Jesus, which is the Church in the world, here in New Zealand, here in Christchurch, in Leithfield.
I remember last time I was here, something that came to me: New Zealand - to have a New Zeal for this land! We need a New Zeal for this Land! May God give us a new zeal for this land, this land here in Leithfield, this land here in the South Island, that he renew us through the intercession of St Joseph, who provides, who takes care of all of our needs, both spiritual and material, until the last detail, because he is the father of the Holy Family, which is the Church, and he takes care of the family which is the Church and will continue until the end of time, until Christ comes in glory.
So we can go to Joseph as a father, he is paternal and knows our needs. We can present it to him and ask his intercession and to help us enter into that poverty of spirit of accepting God’s will in all things, to be adjusted as he was adjusted in all things to the plan God.”
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Duane took his inspiration for the talk from St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. I invite you to meditate on this beautiful passage yourself: Ephesians 3:14-21.
Saint Joseph, Head of the Holy Family and master of the interior life, pray for us!
A few changes ahead...
I would like to use this opportunity to offer a huge ‘Thank you” to Michael Loretz and Thomas Peacock, who have given more than four years of incredible service at the Sanctuary. Thank you to them for taking the risk to embark upon this great adventure with us! And a special thank you to our benefactors who made it possible for them to be employed full time at the Sanctuary over that time.
It is largely thanks to their hard work and dedication that our mission in New Zealand has been established and the Sanctuary has become what it is today. Sadly we are not able to maintain the structures that have been in place and our brothers will be seeking other employment. However, we are not losing them completely and they will still be very much engaged in the mission of the Sanctuary and the life of the Community of the Beatitudes as we enter a new stage of our development. May God in his goodness guide all things by his providence!
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Update on the Memorial of the Unborn and the global Google glitch Since our last update on the 15th December last year, the life-size statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe has arrived after its long journey by sea and land from Peru, where it was lovingly carved for us by a Peruvian artist and sculptor. Thanks to a generous donation a suitable place is being prepared for a small shelter to be built to house the statue. The new road out to the cemetery area and memorial has been completed and a new path laid out with many hours of hard labour and toil. Water has been brought to the site to irrigate the new plantings of cypress and some native species, most of which seem to have survived the worst of the North Canterbury drought. The installation of a carving and archway donated by the John Paul II Centre for Life has been completed and looks lovely in its new setting. A date for the opening of the memorial has been fixed for the 11th May (see the poster below), so the pressure is on to complete the work, which brings me to an unfortunate incident, which stumped our progress somewhat, and will have confused many of you. After our December update more than a hundred of you responded by clicking on the donate button after our appeal for donations to finish the memorial garden. Only a handful of you were able to successfully process your donation due to a glitch in the system. IT WASN”T A SCAM! A technical problem involving Google tightening its policies, which was not communicated to 'Email Octopus', (the service we use for our bulk mailouts) resulted in donations using the donate button being blocked. The problem has now been resolved and we would like to invite those generous people who hit the button and encountered this problem to reconsider making a gift now, and help us meet our deadline of Saturday 11th May. |
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Thanks to your support something beautiful is taking shape that we hope will be a very special place for many to come and pray and remember. TO COMPLETE THE MEMORIAL TO THE UNBORN HERE IS WHAT WE NEED: - A shelter to cover a large crucifix, which will be placed upon a small mound overlooking the site, with an elevated view towards Mt Grey. - Further plantings are planned during autumn to complete the landscaping. We are looking to buy 100 garden trees ($20 each) and the material required to stake the trees and compost the area. You can help us to finish this beautiful project by hitting the donate button above or by heading to our donate page online where you can make your gift by simple bank transfer or credit card. Thank you in advance for your support of this beautiful project. |
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You are important to us!Our benefactors help us in concrete ways to live out our mission and our life of prayer and hospitality. Would you like to become a benefactor of the community of the beatitudes in New Zealand and it’s mission at the Sanctuary of Fourvière? Contact us today to talk about the ways you can help us, or simply click here and choose from the different options. You are important to our mission and our life. We are very grateful for you!
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Upcoming Events and Retreats: On the 19th April, we are hosting a wonderful retreat for families. This will be a great opportunity to get to know other families, for the children to get formation and have fun together and for you parents to reflect and grow in your role as formators in the little seminaries of your families.
There will be sessions of prayer, crafts and games for the children and some great talks too for the parents.
You are invited to book your place early at the St Joseph retreat house for you family if you would like to join us for the weekend (Friday evening to Sunday midday) or you can book for just the Saturday if you'd like to make a day outing of it for the family!
A full schedule of our upcoming events and retreats can be found on our website at beatitudes.nz
Testimonials from our recent retreats:
St Joseph Men's Retreat The presentations were all on topic. All the speakers seemed to know their stuff.
Speakers kept everyone’s attention.
The coverage of St Joseph and his time as the head of the holy family was broad.
The meals were generous and tasty.
Retreat members were lively and dedicated to the weekend.
Music was beautiful as usual. - Rob 8-Day Lectio Retreat: My retreat was wonderful – I am a new man in Christ!! Now to stop the backsliding!! Thanks Sr Clare and all the Beatitudes. - Tim Women’s retreat: I have learnt so much i haven’t really made the connection between Eve and Mary before. Learning that through Mary’s yes we have healing for the wounds left by Eve’s disobedience is so life giving. - Lyn Such a life-changing experience. It left me feeling completely open to God's will, blessed to be who I am, and loved by God and by everyone in my life. Thank you Sr Giovanna Maria and Sr Clare for such an amazing retreat which brought me closer to God. – Beatrice |
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67 Leithfield Rd Leithfield New Zealand, R.D.1 Amberley 7481
R.D.1 Amberley 7481
North Canterbury
Canterbury
7481
New Zealand
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