Wisdom whispers - foolishness shouts
You can't use hoses for gardens in Melbourne. Water restrictions because we haven't unlimited supplies of the precious stuff. It runs out.
Not in the long run, it doesn't. In a few thousand years the polar caps will reappear and whoever's around can water the lawn with impunity (or whoever else has evolved to keep humans company).
Talking about hoses. Maybe the Aussie media should observe restrictions. There's not an unlimited amount of wisdom around. You need wisdom to deal with the deluge of information/misinformation bombarding Aussie homes.
Ben Cousins, magnificent Eagle, asthmatic, takes drugs. All hell breaks loose. The media has a field day. Silly me looks for a wisdom viewpoint. Hundreds of locals are drug, not just users, but dependents. Have been for 30 years. Cousins' talent is jeopardised. Hundreds of locals' talents are obliterated. Cousins, thank God, will be supported and helped. Not so easy, drugs can kill the soul or put it to sleep for 30 years.
Wisdom asks us all to restrict the flow, the torrent of sensory perception that drowns the soul.
There are books galore about this dilemma. Some are mentioned and need updating in the list of books on my blog page.
Australia is mad on sport. Better than the military industry in country X or the blood diamond industry in country Y or the sex tourism or organ harvesting in country Z!
Like the XYZ occupations that gobble up the minds and hearts and bodies of the employees (the employers are spiritual zombies long before their employees!), Aussie sport looks good but, unfortunately, is a shallow occupation.
Read the lives and times of retired sports persons, including Ian Thorpe. 'I'm stuck in a time warp. I haven't grown up, except the legs and shoulders. I'm breathless with excitement on the edge of the next stage of my evolution' - that's Ian's Wisdom period. Sports persons of Australia! We salute you! We need you.
However we have a greater need for a wise programme of communication, care and concern for the thousands of very talented locals, mainly public housing tenants, so their unrevealed talents can see the light of day and contribute to an Aussie civil society. After 200 white years, we still have a choice. It took XYZ 3-500 years to fall so low on the wisdom scale.
My foundation is a 'Mickey Mouse', bring your own, and do it yourself, social capital investment. For churchgoers, it's a 'corporal work of mercy'. Whatever. It's me 'pulling in' not 'showing off'.
Bob.
PS: Digital Wisdom: Affirm brain on-line before opening mouth.com

St. Joseph's, Collingwood will be having another 'Opera in the Church', on Tuesday 24 April,
2007. Make a note of the date. Further details will be supplied shortly.

Further information about the performance at St. Ignatius Church, Richmond can be obtained from the Parish, telephone 8420 6789.

Maria Forde will lead a tour to Ireland in September 2007. Maria led our Ash Wednesday Para liturgy which was a wonderful experience of spirituality and music.
The tour will go for 14 days, journeying ancient roads to discover the stunning natural beauty and fascinating cultural and spiritual history of this mysterious island. Further details can be obtained through Chris at Emerald Travel on 9670 9696 or from Maria's website www.mariaforde.com

This R & B choir will perform for one night only at Gasworks Theatre at 7 pm on 31 March. Group founder, Jerome Phillips said the choir aimed to touch people with their upbeat, street savvy sounds. 'Seeing people of all walks of life, all cultures and all age groups come together through our style of music and have a really good time, is very satisfying. With my heritage being African-American, I have been around this type of music since I was a small boy and it has greatly influenced my life in a very positive way.'
Tickets [$15; $10 (conc.)] are available from South Port Uniting church office 9690 1188 or www.southport.unitingchurch.or.au

Fr Stan Fortuna from South Bronx, USA, an internationally renowned rap music artist, with a radical commitment to the poor and needy, will perform for one night only in Melbourne. The concert is on Friday 30 March at 7.30 pm at St. John the Evangelist Hall, corner Punt Road and Albert Streets, East Melbourne. Free Admission. The concert is part of the World Youth Day National Active program.

You are welcome to attend a reunion for past students of Kilbride, Albert Park and St. Joseph's, Port Melbourne on this Sunday, 25 March at 1 .30 pm at the Kilbride Centre, 52 Beaconsfield Pde, Albert Park. The reunion will include the launch of the book, 'Shaped by wind & Sea', stories of both schools, at 2.30pm.

Telephone 9690 1076
* On next Monday 26 March, from 7.30 - 8 45 pm, Dr John Henley will lead a conversation on Assisted Suicide. Join us for lively conversation on this important ethical issue.
* On Tuesday 27 March a Prayer Day, 'Nurturing conversion' will ask What in me needs emptying so that God can fill?" I0 am - 3pm. Cost $20.00
* An Open Day will be held on 1April from 12 noon to 4 pm
There'll be a Jazz Ensemble, Meditation, Reiki, Shiatsu and Feng Shui Demonstrations, Cooking, Card Making, etc. Eat at the sausage sizzle or have a Devonshire Tea. Please come and help make the day successful and fun!

Recruiting for volunteer cast members and backstage personnel for the 2007 season has begun. The play will be held outdoors at Ruffey Lake Park, Doncaster on 1 & 6 April. Experience is not necessary. For details call the secretary on 5986 8191 or visit www.passionplay.info

To reward or to punish?

Must be getting thin skinned. Was in court last week. Accompanied a bloke I've mentored for 30 years. Yes - 30 years!

Anyway, a few months ago he was pinched for having a tiny amount of "grass" in a cigarette packet in his car.

He'd used all drugs ever invented for 30 years. Drug-free, of own choice, for five years. He works for my least known unit of social activism, Futile Care, and hooks up with the occasional down and out who seems to be now where my man was for so long.

I think he's learned HOPE over the past 30 years.

Anyhow, to make a short story long, a previous acquaintance, jumps into his car, stopped at the lights. Nothing unusual there. My man has been in and out of cars, driven and been driven, for 30 years, usually to go around in ever decreasing circles until...

"Give us a lift to St. Kilda?" Agent Mulder's family address is St. Kilda. He's going on his daily, no! twice daily visit to his mother.

As drug practitioner jumps out at desired destination : "Hey, Mulder, there's a 'smoke' in the packet for you."

The rest, dear reader, is history. We end up in magistrates court. I've loved courts ever since I saw "Justice for All".

I hire a professional to "talk the talk". After all, "possession", no matter by accident or design, is unlawful. We hire a professional to ask the magistrate to exercise discretion, pursue justice with a nod of respect to "the law".

Nah! I don't think any of the professionals in court that day knew there were "others" present.  The magistrate had his computer in front of him to speed up the exercise not of justice ('cos that takes longer - to watch the scales move up and down) but of the blind law.

My man, at this miraculous stage of his life, needed to hear reassurance and a caution about previous acquaintances. That could have helped, especially coming from the chief professional in the room.

All the other professionals would've taken note. Decency would have dazzled the sad, confused courtroom. Courts should reward as well as punish. I've been there when its happened - twice in 47 years.

The names of people involved in this mini-saga are withheld for personal security reasons.

What about Ben Pappas? Found dead in the Melbourne Dockland waters. Very talented at 15 years of age as internationally acclaimed skateboarder.

Sucked in by environment, resorted to drugs to heal the fame. Pinched. Sentenced. Passport taken for 5 years. "Dream shattered", says friend. No more overseas. No more field of dreams. No more Ben Pappas.

Magistrate ruled no passport as punishment. Turned into capital punishment.

Magistrates, all legal professionals, let's fight for the rule of law as the humble servant of "justice for all".

Those metal bracelets with the touch of green (painstakingly added by Kate and Peter Ryan) have all gone. Maybe 300 people are wearing them. Maybe 3 people? It doesn't matter, really. The bracelet itself means Lenten discipline. The touch of green means Lenten 'HOPE'. 'Lent' is a very old English word for 'Springtime'.
Farmers are hoping for rain. Some of us are hoping our kids are learning the best values from us, from school and from the neighbourhood.
Where there was only blackness after bushfires, there is now new green growth.
We all need to grow. Catholics have a collective and individual calling to encourage growth during Lent, first in ourselves, then in our immediate sphere of influence.
Some of us have positions of special responsibility in public life. Business women and men occupy such positions with the added vocation to contribute to the feeling of well being in clients or customers A policeman/woman, a train driver, a bank teller, a postman, all of whom deal directly with others can make a difference in the lives of others. They can make others feel better or worse.
But, so too can the doctor, lawyer or chemist. Professionalism, expected of public servants doesn't exempt them from adding to a client's sense of dignity and importance.
So, too, the cleric running a parish and the lay people assisting him while running the risk of acquiring some of the 'clerical' eccentricities from close association with 'Father'.
Look, this is a long-winded way of saying that, during Lent, ALL of us secular and Sacred, have a chance to purge ourselves of the 'bad' self so that the 'good' self can run on its merits.
The Stations of the Cross can be used from that personal point of view. See yourself in Jesus' place. As a devotional exercise, the stations are unique. Let them be, also, 14 invitations to further grow in personal goodness.
Go, Lent!
I put up a poster from Channel 7's 'Heroes'. The Galilee kids had carefully added the caption: 'This Lent look at yourself in the mirror - you too could be a hero'.
Someone didn't like it. Tossed it in the industrial bin within an hour of its posting. I got it back. I'll try again.

An Australian Catholic University National (ACU National) doctoral student seeks Catholics of Maltese or Polish descent for a study on Catholic education in Melbourne in the 1950's and 1960's. Christine Creaser seeks Maltese and Polish Catholics who were either born outside Australia or were born to immigrant parents, and who are willing to be interviewed about their experiences at Catholic schools in the Melbourne Archdiocese in the 1950's and 1960's. Interviewees would be required to take part in an hour-long taped interview and may keep a copy of the interview. Details: Christine on 0417 058 211 or email ccreaser@netcall.com.au or ACU National Associate Professor Kath Engebretson on 9963 3292 or email k.engebretson@patrick.acu.edu.au

It' s 'Lent' in the Catholic religious world for forty days and nights. Funny number, that forty, because the Jews and Muslims, as well as the Catholics have a go at 'forty days and nights' on a yearly basis. I mention Lent in an 'inclusive' sense. I reckon it could do all of us, clergy very much included, a bit of good and not a lot of harm.
Jews, Muslims, Christians just know there' s something gnawing away at our religious gut. I believe it' s spirituality trying to get out. Jews, Muslims, Christians are all, in principle OK. In collective practice, however, they' re not OK. Religion socialises them. It should enable them to exert clout in favour of OK things.
Something' s gone wrong for Jews, Muslims and Christians because the more they get together the easier targets they become for mad rabbis, muftis and priests. Remember I' m writing as a member, in good standing, of the clerical caste. There' s nothing wrong with the institutional synagogue, mosque or church.
What' s wrong is with us individually. Bad Judaism, bad Islam, bad Christianity boils down to a bad/sad/rabbi/mufti/imam, priest/minister.
Anyway, Lent will take care of the religious toxins so the essential spirituality can be distilled - all within 40 days and nights - then enjoyed for 325 other days and nights.
By the way, vandals poured out of a $1.5 million house opposite our church to excite themselves by tampering with our magnetic sign. It was between weddings, so guests and photographers abounded. So it's all on film. They changed the wording from 'Lent; random acts of senseless kindness' to 'Lent: Kiss by xxxx'.
They probably filmed their exploit and posted it on YouTube.
I' ve changed it to 'Lent: Can't help . . . . . Don' t harm.'

This is your chance to buy a picture by one of Australia's leading artists.
Viewing times for Tuesday & Wednesday are 11 am - 6 pm at the Blue Door Gallery, 189 Park
Street, South Melbourne.
On Thursday the Art will be shown in the Church from 2 pm and the Auction will begin at 6 pm.

A young girl from Echuca who will be studying at ACU, Victoria Pde, and working in South Melbourne urgently requires accommodation as her original housing arrangements have fallen through. If you are able to assist please contact Gerard Herrick, phone: 5480 2353, fax: 5482 2759 or mobile: 0419 442 195

Classes for instruction in the Sacrament of Reconciliation will begin on Wednesday 7 March. The classes will be conducted by our Parish Catechist Sue Kidd and they will be held in the Emmaus Room between 4.30 pm and 5.30 pm. Subsequent sessions will be on 14, 21, & 28 March. Reconciliation will be held on 3 April at 7.30 pm

1st Eucharist - 17 June
Classes for instruction in the Sacrament of Eucharist will begin on Wednesday 16 May, and will be held in the Emmaus room between 4.30 pm and 5.30 pm.

Confirmation - 26 August
Classes for instruction in the Sacrament of Confirmation will begin on Wednesday 18 July, and will be held in the Emmaus room between 4.30-5.30 pm.

For further information please do not hesitate to ring Sue Kidd on 9646 2686. Please leave a message.

Project Compassion envelopes and boxes are still available. Please take either home with you. Your donation to Caritas/Project Compassion will allow many communities to gain food, security and become self reliant, enabling them to look forward to the future with hope.

We urgently need help with the arranging of altar flowers. It would be on a rostered basis, and can be done either on a Friday or a Saturday. If you can help or would like some more information please contact Margaret Buzza on 9686 5434.