Bishop Greg Homeming OCD 2021 Lenten Talk 4 - Reflections on COVID-19 PART TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE
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- Опубліковано 28 сер 2024
- Bishop Greg Homeming presents his final Lenten Talk for 2021. This talk was recorded on Tuesday 16 March at St Carthage's Cathedral Lismore. In this talk Bishop Greg concludes his reflection on COVID-19, and the implications it has had on all of us. He impresses upon us how the upheaval we all experienced in 2020 is a lesson in how we need to adapt and change in order to fully receive God, and not the other way around.
NOTE: Our main camera failed to record the last 9 minutes of the talk, and our secondary camera did not link directly to Bishop's microphone. We apologise for the resulting poor sound quality. The transcript appears in the comments section.
TRANSCRIPT OF LAST PART OF TALK from 21:13:
There are two moments in my life that have had a big great impact upon me; one I’ve never talked to you about.
One was when I got cancer and I was in hospital for four weeks not knowing what was going to happen. It’s a terrible time but it forced me because I wasn't able to pray. All the drugs, all these things; I wasn't able to [do], and God imposed something on me that I had to find Our Lord in the predicament that I was in.
At least my Carmelite training taught me that, which I learnt more than anyone from St Therese of Lisieux. And for the first time in a hospital bed I listened to St Therese of Lisieux, I as a Discalced Carmelite have read her, I taught her, I studied her; never understood her meaning until I got cancer.
And then I was forced into a situation where in the midst of that, I knew that I had to find trust where I was, rather than trying to re-establish what had been before because I knew physically that was impossible. I knew that I don’t know how long I was going to be sick like this, and I knew that I must find you here, Lord; where are you?
And this in its own way was a turning point for me in my spiritual life.
The next turning point was some years later when I arrived in Lismore to be your Bishop.
I had to find God in the new circumstance that I found myself in, and I knew that I could run from it. But I knew that if I did that I could never be your Bishop. Because I’d always be the Bishop running away from God. I knew that I had to stick through the difficulty until I found God here. And that's what I mean by a situation imposed externally like that because sometimes if you're like me you’re too dumb to recognise what it’s doing inside you. Sometimes, because like me you lack sufficient holiness, you’re not able to be sensitive to what God is doing and respond. And the great mercy of God is when he brings something about, and when that happens if you genuinely want God you will find God and in finding God you have to change and I think for us that for many of us is a lesson that needs to be learned from last year.
What really matters?
Push aside the things that are based in your preference in what you want - the only thing that matters is God. Saint Teresa says if you want anything there is only one thing that is worthy to want, and that is to desire to desire God more. She put it that way because anything else you come up with like ‘ I want to be holy’ or ‘I want to do this’ - it’s about yourself: “I” want to be holy, “I” want to do this, “I” want to be this. And she puts it this way - if you want to want anything want to want God more. Because then in doing that you're effectively placing yourself in God’s hands and part of the struggle we found last year because we couldn't do what we used to do, we couldn't practice our faith as we did, was that we tried to do what we used to do, we tried to have it the way we used to, and some of us as a consequence, I believe, rejected Our Lord.
“I’m coming to you, Body of Christ”
“No I’m not taking You”
And the learning is He comes to me on his terms in the church, He doesn’t come to me on my terms.
That’s the important thing for us to learn because of COVID. Our Lord comes to me as God, and that’s not the way I drafted Him to me but it’s the way He comes to me.
And if I can't receive the way He comes it means I must change otherwise I’m saying you must change the way you come to me. No, He makes it difficult, because sometimes it's the only way that I will change.
And I know that’s true because there have been at least two moments in my life where if I wanted to want God I had to change because he wasn’t coming to me in the way I wanted Him to come.
The first instance because I couldn't receive him in the way I wanted to, because of sickness; in the second instance, because God changed everything. And I had to change as well.
So I think what we’ve learned is God is still there our Lord’s still there in no lesser way, but the invitation is for each of us to grow so as to receive more profoundly, and this is therefore with a deeper spirituality. The deeper spirituality is not grounded in how many prayers we say or the things we do.
It’s grounded in two things -
St John of the Cross says “One moment of perfect love will pierce the heavens in a way that hours of prayer will not”. Because prayer is strengthened by love of God, not love of self.
The other indication is the ability to love with generosity, the generosity we spoke about on the second evening, my neighbour. Because relationship with God and spiritual life and prayer makes it possible for me to be another Christ. And when I hold on to myself, I can only be another me.
And I think that’s in fact spiritually the powerful gift of the last 12 months
And I will simply ponder with you, because as I’ve said I want to keep these to under half an hour, reflect upon your experience, reflect upon what you’ve had to do, reflect upon the discomfort of these circumstances saying “was Jesus there any less?” No, if you look carefully, you’ll probably find he was there even more.
Therefore learn to respond and allow yourself to be crafted by the love of Christ, not by the way you would have loved.
And again I’ll end now with another saying from St John of the Cross,
“In the evening of life we will be tested in love”
Learn then about how God wants to be loved, not the way we want to love.
The last 12 months in terms of spiritual life has been characterised by that simple statement
“I haven't been able to love my neighbour, my God, Jesus Christ or myself the way I want to love.
That’s because the Lord wants me to learn to love Him the way He wants to be loved.
[recites Glory Be]
So thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
Lord，I will love you the way you want to be loved. Help me to love you in this way, not in the way I want to love you.
In God's love.
Thank you very much for the transcript, i realy appreciated. Gbu🙏
I appreciate your thoughtfulness in providing the transcript. It made such a difference to my better understanding of Bishop Greg's last Lenten talk. Very profound. Very heartfelt.
Bishop Greg reveals his private feelings in order to help us to learn what is God's will vis-a-vis what is our own will. Thank you for the clarity!
In God's love.
Thank you very much Bishop for your inspiring sharing. My family listen to your homily for the weekly mass all the way from Singapore.
Just listening to you makes me holier. God bless you
I have been eagerly looking forward to this final Lenten talk of Bishop Greg's. Understand the last bit
Is garbled and why, but not digitally savvy enough to activate the subbing text.
Yes, during Covit I realized my way of praying had to change, and having followed Ignatian spirituality till 2018, I was led to look for God in the most unlikely of places, and so I have found Him.
I don't know how Bishop Greg's talk panned out, so I have to imagine how it ended!
God has a sense of humour, doesn't He?
Thank you, people of Lismore, for this Lenten series! It is spot on for the condition we find ourselves in, during post Covit!
In God's love!
Thank you - the transcript is now available for you to experience the last 10 minutes of the talk.
Dear Bishop Greg I hear you from Goa in India. Your homilies really help me to be a better person so that I get closer to God . The fact that he is very much there for me when I pray in solitude and in difficult times. God Bless You for all the good deeds you do for humanity all over the world. Thanks You once again for spreading the message of peace and harmony
thank you so much for your talks and homelies. They have helped me to grow in my faith and my prayer. You are right. The covid 19 restrictions can be an opportunity to change. They made me look for spiritual food and so I discovered the treasures the universal church has to offer. One of it is the spiritual communion, me living in France praying with the faithful all over the world.
Great testimony! Merci beaucoup. 😀🙏
Glory to God.. Amen 🙏😇🙏
Dia duit. Beautiful. Thanks. Learning to love others under much greater stressors having to carry on. Endeavored to keep reminding myself The Most Holy Trinity indwells, rely more on spiritual communions with livestreams Masses/blessings from all over world. Pope had a daily stream and others had previously taped Masses for the homebound. Mea culpa, from USA Illinois. And hope Aussies have Dry Milk available. Here it's in the baking aisle at grocers.
Dear bishop Greg, I listen with open heart your homilies, they help me a lot in my spiritual life. Your brother, Enrique Castro
Oh my I’m gonna
Thank you once again for these talks. For reminding us to ask the Lord where are you in this situation. Listening from PNG. Third bad Covid19 spike in Papua New Guinea. Please say a pray for the people of this country and medical front liners .
The Covit has made me realize of the New way of praying and evangelization is thru the media. It is so much more effective and it spread like fire to the whole world in seconds!! The media is so clear and effective for this new generation.to understand. Praise God!!!
Peace be with everyone esp. Bishop Greg. TQ for the transcript, and the talks and all the ppl involved. Always learn somethg from Bishop. Blessed week ahead. May God bless Lismore Diocese
Hi Bishop Greg, I have enjoyed the 4 sessions all the way here in Goa, India'.
The 4th talk was garbled after the 22nd minute. Wish there is a way it can be edited. I would love to listen to it again and again till it becomes a part of my life.
Thank you - the transcript is now available for you to experience the last 10 minutes of the talk.
@@LismoreDioceseAU thank you so much.
It's a petty that I lost focus on this talk especially in the last ten minutes before the end. Seems a trouble w/ the speaker. But surely we should find Jesus in every single breath we take and growing in love with Jesus..
Thank you Bishop Greg Homeming..🙏
Thank you - the transcript is now available for you to experience the last 10 minutes of the talk.
@@LismoreDioceseAU Yu
Thank you so much for the transcript. It provided an added advantage for me because I can read it over and over again and take notes.
Thank you, BP. Greg. Your homilies and other Utube talks are very enlightening. But the most helpful for me at the moment is to ask myself: "Where are you, God, in this event/happening?" rather than surmising God’s reason why.
Thank you for your inspiring talks this Lent. A lovely lesson but found it difficult towards the end as something happened with the sound effects. Nevertheless, managed to get the gist and all worth reflecting on. God bless and Happy Easter.
Thank you - the transcript is now available for you to experience the last 10 minutes of the talk.
I've enjoyed all the previous talks, but unfortunately this last talk, something happened to the sound system from 22nd minute of the talk. Please fix it. 21/08/23 2:21pm
TRANSCRIPT OF LAST PART OF TALK from 21:13:
There are two moments in my life that have had a big great impact upon me; one I’ve never talked to you about.
One was when I got cancer and I was in hospital for four weeks not knowing what was going to happen. It’s a terrible time but it forced me because I wasn't able to pray. All the drugs, all these things; I wasn't able to [do], and God imposed something on me that I had to find Our Lord in the predicament that I was in.
At least my Carmelite training taught me that, which I learnt more than anyone from St Therese of Lisieux. And for the first time in a hospital bed I listened to St Therese of Lisieux, I as a Discalced Carmelite have read her, I taught her, I studied her; never understood her meaning until I got cancer.
And then I was forced into a situation where in the midst of that, I knew that I had to find trust where I was, rather than trying to re-establish what had been before because I knew physically that was impossible. I knew that I don’t know how long I was going to be sick like this, and I knew that I must find you here, Lord; where are you?
And this in its own way was a turning point for me in my spiritual life.
The next turning point was some years later when I arrived in Lismore to be your Bishop.
I had to find God in the new circumstance that I found myself in, and I knew that I could run from it. But I knew that if I did that I could never be your Bishop. Because I’d always be the Bishop running away from God. I knew that I had to stick through the difficulty until I found God here. And that's what I mean by a situation imposed externally like that because sometimes if you're like me you’re too dumb to recognise what it’s doing inside you. Sometimes, because like me you lack sufficient holiness, you’re not able to be sensitive to what God is doing and respond. And the great mercy of God is when he brings something about, and when that happens if you genuinely want God you will find God and in finding God you have to change and I think for us that for many of us is a lesson that needs to be learned from last year.
What really matters?
Push aside the things that are based in your preference in what you want - the only thing that matters is God. Saint Teresa says if you want anything there is only one thing that is worthy to want, and that is to desire to desire God more. She put it that way because anything else you come up with like ‘ I want to be holy’ or ‘I want to do this’ - it’s about yourself: “I” want to be holy, “I” want to do this, “I” want to be this. And she puts it this way - if you want to want anything want to want God more. Because then in doing that you're effectively placing yourself in God’s hands and part of the struggle we found last year because we couldn't do what we used to do, we couldn't practice our faith as we did, was that we tried to do what we used to do, we tried to have it the way we used to, and some of us as a consequence, I believe, rejected Our Lord.
“I’m coming to you, Body of Christ”
“No I’m not taking You”
And the learning is He comes to me on his terms in the church, He doesn’t come to me on my terms.
That’s the important thing for us to learn because of COVID. Our Lord comes to me as God, and that’s not the way I drafted Him to me but it’s the way He comes to me.
And if I can't receive the way He comes it means I must change otherwise I’m saying you must change the way you come to me. No, He makes it difficult, because sometimes it's the only way that I will change.
And I know that’s true because there have been at least two moments in my life where if I wanted to want God I had to change because he wasn’t coming to me in the way I wanted Him to come.
The first instance because I couldn't receive him in the way I wanted to, because of sickness; in the second instance, because God changed everything. And I had to change as well.
So I think what we’ve learned is God is still there our Lord’s still there in no lesser way, but the invitation is for each of us to grow so as to receive more profoundly, and this is therefore with a deeper spirituality. The deeper spirituality is not grounded in how many prayers we say or the things we do.
It’s grounded in two things -
St John of the Cross says “One moment of perfect love will pierce the heavens in a way that hours of prayer will not”. Because prayer is strengthened by love of God, not love of self.
The other indication is the ability to love with generosity, the generosity we spoke about on the second evening, my neighbour. Because relationship with God and spiritual life and prayer makes it possible for me to be another Christ. And when I hold on to myself, I can only be another me.
And I think that’s in fact spiritually the powerful gift of the last 12 months
And I will simply ponder with you, because as I’ve said I want to keep these to under half an hour, reflect upon your experience, reflect upon what you’ve had to do, reflect upon the discomfort of these circumstances saying “was Jesus there any less?” No, if you look carefully, you’ll probably find he was there even more.
Therefore learn to respond and allow yourself to be crafted by the love of Christ, not by the way you would have loved.
And again I’ll end now with another saying from St John of the Cross,
“In the evening of life we will be tested in love”
Learn then about how God wants to be loved, not the way we want to love.
The last 12 months in terms of spiritual life has been characterised by that simple statement
“I haven't been able to love my neighbour, my God, Jesus Christ or myself the way I want to love.
That’s because the Lord wants me to learn to love Him the way He wants to be loved.
[recites Glory Be]
So thank you very much.