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Something to celebrate and a new experiment…
Dear Friends,
I am the bearer of both good news and sad news today. The good news is that our long time Wednesday commentator, Peregrinus, is in the fortunate position of moving into a new employment position which is quite prestigious and more-than-probably a far better utilisation of his talents in the affairs of our nation. The sad news is that at least temporarily (and I suspect the workload in his new role might make this more or less permanent) we are going to lose the significant contribution he has made over a long period of time to our affairs. He has asked for leave-of-absence for at least four weeks and he'll be in a position to review his on-going commitment at that point. Pere has long enjoyed his commitment to our community and previously made a long commitment to the CathNews discussion board. I'd like to publicly extend the thanks I have already extended to him privately for the enormous contribution he has made to the Catholica community. With 81 commentaries he does in fact now hold the record for the most commentaries — even my total is now only 77 (under either my own name or my pen name, Tom Scott). From the feedback I have received over a very long period of time now, I know that many, many people appreciate the incisiveness of Pere's insights into so many matters over such a wide spectrum of subjects. In particular, I know that many have long appreciated Pere's ability to "go to the source" and "get the facts" when contentious matters have arisen in our discussions.
Peregrinus first joined our community when he was still resident in Ireland and he was migrating to this country with his Australian-born wife and he came to the CNDB seeking to make some contacts in his new country. He is a man of prodigious talent and to me it is an enormous thrill to see people in his own profession recognising that and him now graduating to a significant position of responsibility in the wider Australian community. Welcome to Awstraya, "Paddy Pere". We're enormously proud to have you in our community and in our nation. I sincerely hope your new responsibilities do leave you at least some time to share some of your wisdom and insights with us from time to time. We wish you every best wish in your new position.
An invitation…
At present there are one or two gaps opening up in our line-up of commentators and I extend an open invitation to anyone who would like to contribute commentaries to do so. In the coming weeks I have a few new initiatives in the pipeline but they're not quite ready yet so I'm particularly looking to fill a few niches here and there over the coming three or four weeks.
The Spirituality of Thomas Merton…
I was going to fill one of the gaps by re-running a series by Dr Patrick Collins we ran last year on The Spirituality of Thomas Merton. I've now decided to run that on Wednesdays in place of Pere's commentary.
 It is not quite a straight re-run though. The Catholica community has about doubled in size since we first ran it so it will indeed be a new experience for many readers. Secondly though, it was Patrick's suggestion a week or so ago for us to adopt a more "positive" outlook in suggesting change (rather than simply criticising the existing situation) that has prompted this new focus on the search for new ways of understanding or expressing how spiritual hopes. The Spirituality of Thomas Merton is a good place to start. Dr Collins is an international expert on Merton and it is valuable having him as our guide through this series. Each week I'm going to endeavour to write a "discussion starter" and post it in our forum based on the material in Patrick's commentary for that day. Hopefully this approach will provide plenty to stimulate conversation and thought amongst those who read these commentaries the first time around. One of the beaut things I find about Thomas Merton is that one needs to visit and re-visit his thoughts many times over. Like the words of Jesus himself, the words of Thomas Merton are "never dead, they are never boring — we need to say them constantly in prayer to dig out the depths of their meaning. Their meaning changes and grows as we meet new challenges and experiences in our own lives."*
Is "sainthood" reserved for priests, nuns and contemplatives or how do we aspire to it through the ordinary highways and biways of life?
 In today's commentary Dr Collins introduces the series and some of the grounding ideas in Merton's Spirituality. I will be taking up one of these ideas in my own mini-contribution in our forum. It's a question that has long intrigued me. We are not all called to be monks, contemplatives and mystics. We are all called to be "saints" though. How in the dickens does one "become like God" in the tough and tumble of secular life? Does one have to become some goody-two-shoes, suckhole, nerd or can "ordinary people" aspire to sainthood in the ordinary highways and biways of life? <Read Patrick's commentary> | <Read the discussion starter in our forum>
*A line from the video script I wrote for The Great Jubilee video.
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