015 :
29 Aug 2010

Out from Under the Bushel... Stephen, a member of the Catholica community, has written movingly today of the deep trauma caused by abuse. (See "Are sexual abuse victims whingers?") The deepest damage is not caused by thoughts but by the feelings buried deep down inside of us. We all carry negative feelings around with us like some kind of monkey on our back. Victims of abuse carry them more deeply and traumatically than others. Today's reflection by John Chuchman explores similar territory to what Stephen has been discussing earlier this morning on our forum. This reflection from John sums it up well: "Unless I see myself as that beautiful creation of God I cannot truly Love or be Loved"! Our constant challenge is to climb out from under that bushel of our negative feelings. [more]

014 :
15 Aug 2010

The Return of the Divine Feminine... We published an earlier reflection by John Chuchman entitled "The search for the Divine Feminine" and return to the theme again this Sunday, the Feast of the Assumption. This is a separate reflection written by John on the same theme. [more]

013 :
01 Aug 2010

Bishops' Prayer... John Chuchman engages in a little satire today — some satirical prayers that some of our bishops might seem to be addressing to God at the moment. This reflection sits so well with the breaking news commentary we are running on Catholica today from Allan Patience [LINK]. Where in the dickens did this logic come from that constantly appeasing the remnant sector of the Catholic baptised who confuse the search for truth with some kind of search for certitude from authority figures is the way to bring the "the good news" to ALL of humankind? [more]

012 :
18 Jul 2010

The Search for the Divine Feminine... Like many in recent days John Chuchman has been incensed with the insensitivity coming from the Vatican in equating the quest for the ordination of women as both a sin and a sin on the scale of pedophilia. His blog in recent days [LINK] has featured a string of reflections exploring this controversy. For Catholica readers I have chosen this latest reflection and subtitled it "the search for the Divine Feminine". John's further reflections on this theme can be found at the link above. [more]

011 :
04 Jul 2010

The Nature of Spirituality... Spirituality is far from straightforward and simple. The metaphor of journey comes through in this reflection from John Chuchman today. It does have a destination but we meander around in our life journey to eventually get there. Perhaps the meandering is necessary to "shake off the absolutes" and grow "beyond a faith cast and frozen as dogma in stone"? [more]

010 :
27 Jun 2010

The Church: Must it die to be transformed? John Chuchman's reflection today was written yesterday as a response to reading John L Allen's latest commentary in NCR "A global case for good government in the church" [LINK]. When many of the 86% and those strongly tempted to join them are increasingly asking "did we leave the Church or did it leave us?" John Chuchman's reflection offers much to ponder... [more]

009 :
20 Jun 2010

The Journey... There are many ways of looking at life. Some see life as a breeze. For others it is a constant struggle — like Sisyphus endlessly pushing a huge boulder up a mountain. John Chuchman today invites us to pause and reflect on life as a Journey... [more]

008 :
15 Jun 2010

...to Live the Questions! Religion everywhere today seems to be dividing. One of the major cleavage lines seems to be between those who basically see their faith as a place that provides a bulwark against the incertitudes of life and those who see faith and belief as the place where we learn to live with Mystery and the incertitudes inherent to life. John Chuchman's reflection today explores his own journey to embrace the Mystery of Life. [more]

007 :
06 Jun 2010

Metaphors of God None of us can see, or touch, the Divine. God, we understand in our theologies, is "totally other". The only way we can access the Divine is through metaphor, story and analogy. In today's reflection John Chuchman looks at some of the metaphors we use to describe God and how they have changed for him through time. Pause for a moment on this "Sun" day and reflect quietly for a while on what metaphors you use in your attempts to communicate with very source of your being... [more]

006 :
30 May 2010

We're always standing on Sacred Ground Wherever one looks in the world these days there seems this deep quest for spiritual meaning. John Chuchman in this reflection suggests we don't have to look very far — our human experience is the very "stuff" from which we draw our spirituality. We are always standing on Sacred Ground! [more]

005 :
23 May 2010

Something positive... Today's reflection was actually inspired by something negative — Vince Exley's post on our forum under the heading "Our present Church is utter crap", it led me, the editor of Catholica to wonder what would take the crap out of the Church? (Vince, by the way is no "petulant teenager" in writing that. He's a man in his eighties with a life-long love of his Church and all those things those who are attracted to Catholica are questing after.) I wrote a post on the forum in response to Vince suggesting what we need is a "Church of integrity". In turn that led me to seek out a reflection from John Chuchman today that was overwhelmingly positive in orientation. This is what I found in his latest book "In Search of Spiritual Horizons — Moving beyond religion's secure boundaries". Is what we're seeking "Open Awareness"? [more]

004 :
16 May 2010

Trying to define our spirituality! John Chuchman's reflection this Sunday is again taken from his latest book "In Search of Spiritual Horizons — Moving beyond religion's secure boundaries". It will appeal to many searching for meaning with us here in the Catholica readership. Trying to define, or talk about, our spirituality is like trying to nail jelly to a tree — or as the American's say it "Jello-O". [more]

003 :
09 May 2010

Sometimes, just a simple "Yes"! Our meditation this Sunday comes from John Chuchman's latest book "In Search of Spiritual Horizons — Moving beyond religion's secure boundaries". This particular reflection has been chosen because it fits well with the larger theme we've suggested for discussion this weekend: "Let us brain storm a positive vision of Catholicism" [LINK]. In this meditation John intersects with one point that was raised by Des Farmer in the forum discussion yesterday: developing a personal relationship with God. [more]

002 :
02 May 2010

We—the Body of Christ! Some writers have an ability to bring to focus the thoughts of large groups of people. John Chuchman is one of them. It's some kind of giftedness or grace. Today's commentary for Catholica is a reflection which many will find resonates with the present mood many feel. [more]

001 :
25 Apr 2010

The Urgent and the Vital in Life... It is a pleasure today to introduce John Chuchman as one of our lead writers. For the next five weeks John will be bringing a series of reflections in his verse style. John is a former marketing executive for the Ford Motor Company who gave away the corporate life in the early 1990s to work in the area of grief counselling and spiritual retreats. We begin his series today with a gentle reflection looking at how we prioritize things in our lives. [more]