050 :
02 Oct 2011

God as a verb! Peter Ryan on the Catholica Forum started it by suggesting Eucharist is a verb, not a noun. It's a valuable tool for meditating on the central Sacrament in Catholic practise. John Chuchman in today's lead reflection extends the same tool today for this exploration of the Divine itself. How does considering "God as a verb" help in our understanding of this Mystery at the heart of Life? [more]

049 :
11 Sep 2011

Where have all the Young People Gone? It's a question that everyone, from parents, to teachers, to bishops have been asking for decades: "where have all the young people gone?" John Chuchman picks up some answers given by young people themselves at a recent conference in September. It's a conversation many who are parents in the Catholica community are often asking themselves. For many it is THE question of what has happened to their children that has brought them to questioning the wisdom of the Church leaders who have no experience whatsoever of the responsibilities of bringing up children through to adulthood. What would you say in response to John based on your experiences? [more]

048 :
11 Sep 2011

Real Transformation: Learning from the Gesthemane events in our lives... On this somber day as our world still grapples with the collective pain we endured on the 11th September ten years ago John Chuchman explores the question of transformation or metanoia in our lives. It might be almost a counterpoint question to his reflection but, dare we ask: is real transformation or metanoia possible without a gesthemane, calvary or 911 experience in our lives? How do we learn from the gesthemane moments in our lives and effect real transformation in our spirit? Gesthemane-type moments well up in us feelings of anger, revenge, depression and even indifference — we want to "move on" and forget the pain. How do we turn these experiences inside out so that they become a source of growth to us? This is not just about terrorists driving aeroplanes into buildings. It's about all the experiences of unexpected events that turn our lives on their heads. [more]

047 :
04 Sep 2011

Where two or three are gathered... Since the first human crawled out of the first womb our deep drive has been for one of domination. Today we still find many in the world whose religious drive seems to be one of domination — trying to prove their God, or their religious rules, are superior to everyone elses. Jesus came into the world and taught a different lesson. As John Chuchman writes in today's reflection "Jesus replaced rules and regulations with Love." Given the conflicts we see around the world, and even within our families and church, it seems to be taking a while for the message to get through! [more]

046 :
28 Aug 2011

What is MY Divine Destiny? What I should do? After six weeks exploring different aspects of our relationship with the Divine, John Chuchman today comes to the ultimate, and personal, questions: What is MY Divine Destiny? What I should do? As Christians, or Catholics, are we called upon to boss everyone else around, or are we called upon to bear witness. To "bear witness" to the insights and modelling of how to live, and die to self, like Christ? John Chuchman argues that ultimately it all comes down to witnessing God's love in the world, whatever the question! ...ed [more]

045 :
21 Aug 2011

Freedom... Why do those who have taken over the institutional Catholic agenda so much want to control everyone and restrict their freedom? It's a question I think we might be exploring more in commentaries this coming week. John Chuchman provides a wonderful opening reflection on the liberating and creative results that come out of freedom, especially as seen in what was witnessed in the results of the Second Vatican Council. Christ promised us freedom and John argues "Freedom is a condition for life in abundance". ...ed [more]

044 :
14 Aug 2011

Authority in Community... John Chuchman poses a tough question in this shorter reflection today. Tougher especially for those of us brought up in an ethos where the first commandment had seemingly been superceded by one requiring our unquestioning obedience to earthly authority. Human beings though are fallible. Would the present scandals in institutional Catholicism have been uncovered if we had all followed authority blindly? How do we discern authority through our community? John offers for our reflection: "obedience to human authority must always be guarded and prudent, never absolute. It cannot be absolute." What do you think about this matter? How do you believe we discern authority in community? ...ed [more]

043 :
07 Aug 2011

The Authority of Conscience... With all the criticism of the institution today — and its takeover by a tiny remnant of the community who process their insecurities through authority figures and dogma — it is easy to lose a sense of personal hope. This connected series of reflections from John Chuchman is looking at what is essentially the BIG question in all of our lives — our "Divine Destiny" — what's each of our lives leading to, Alfie? Today John extends his reflection from last week on the place of conscience in our lives: "The authority of a person's conscience is absolute. Even God knocks on the door of the conscience and asks for admission."! ...ed [more]

042 :
31 Jul 2011

What is our sense of conscience today? With all the criticism of the institution today — and its takeover by a tiny remnant of the community who process their insecurities through authority figures and dogma — it is easy to lose a sense of personal hope. This connected series of reflections from John Chuchman is looking at what is essentially the BIG question in all of our lives — our "Divine Destiny" — what's each of our lives leading to, Alfie? Today John reflects on that thing which, in their wisdom, some insightful church leaders long ago accorded a place of primacy — our conscience. Besides being a reflection on what conscience is, this commentary is insightful into the wisdom as to why it ought be accorded a place of primacy in our lives. ...ed [more]

041 :
24 Jul 2011

What is our sense of church today? With all the criticism of the institution today — and its takeover by a tiny remnant of the community who process their insecurities through authority figures and dogma — it is easy to lose a sense of personal hope. This connected series of reflections from John Chuchman is looking at what is essentially the BIG question in all of our lives — our "Divine Destiny" — what's each of our lives leading to, Alfie? It's not only in Ireland that many have lost hope in our earthly ecclesial leaders as reflected a few days ago in the address given by the Prime Minister of Ireland. Today's reflection invites us to think about our sense of community or church. In a bottom-line sense we all remain connected through the Spirit and through Jesus whatever the sins and shortcomings of our earthly authority figures. ...ed [more]

040 :
17 Jul 2011

What is our Divine Destiny? Today we begin a connected series of reflections from John Chuchman looking at what is essentially the BIG question of all of our lives — our "Divine Destiny" — what's each of our lives leading to, Alfie? Today's reflection is the introduction to a series that over coming weeks will pose questions about Church, Conscience, Authority of Conscience, Authority in Community, Freedom, and end with a summation reflection on Christian Destiny. ...ed [more]

039 :
10 Jul 2011

God; for me, The Universal Poet! Having now met and spent a bit of time with John Chuchman at the American Catholic Council gathering in Detroit, my wife and I came away enchanted with the man. He's as beautiful in person as he comes across in all his commentaries. We love him so much we're going to try and bring him out to Australia for a series of workshops. He sometimes calls himself "Poetman" and in today's reflection he draws attention to the poetry of God. ...ed [more]

038 :
15 May 2011

Seeking a New Direction • In some ways John Chuchman's reflection today might be considered a circular argument. He's taken some words from the editor of Catholica and from Timothy Radcliffe OP published in yesterday's email and reformatted them to view them through a slightly different face of the prism. It's a reflection basically on what is ultimately important and may be valuable as we seek to discern a change in orientation here at Catholica. ...ed ...ed [more]

037 :
17 Apr 2011

Time, Timelessness and Thoughtlessness More serendipity today: when I awoke this morning I must have mulling on "the problem of Christ" and wrote on the forum: "Christ has been called 'the great iconoclast' — the smasher of symbols. In a sense I think his ultimate iconoclastic act was in breaking open this prison of time we are all imprisoned within. That's what the resurrection is all about. That's also what the theological concept of 'incarnation' is all about." [LINK: The "problem" with Christ] An hour later when I came to choose a commentary from John Chuchman for today the first one I came across was all about the meaning of time, timelessness ... and thoughtlessness. This all adds up for much to reflect on this Palm Sunday. ...ed [more]

036 :
02 Apr 2011

Some thoughts on Sexual Morality, Part 8: What John Chuchman writes today in this final reflection in his mini-series on Sexual Morality gels in so well with the ideas the late Dr Patricia Brennan was outlining in her rebroadcast conversation with Stephen Crittenden on the ABC's Radio National [LINK]. Sexual morality is not so much determined by what people do with the erogenous zones and genital parts, it is far more determined by what is going on in the minds and emotions of the participants. When considerations of power over another, or using another for one's own gratification without giving anything in return, enter the equation instead of mutual self-giving that's when serious considerations of immorality enter the equation. [more]

035 :
20 Mar 2011

Some thoughts on Sexual Morality, Part 7: Marriage ... what a difficult business it is for most – how to manage and nurture a relationship through an entire lifetime? John Chuchman offers a few new ideas today. They're actually pretty ancient ideas — and drawn from our own tradition. What he's presenting are ideas about how to successfully choose the right partner and start off on the right foot. Some of the principles he's discussing also have application in thinking about our entire approach to our relationship even when we've been trying to live it for years or even decades. Are these ideas you would feel comfortable sharing with your children — or are you more inclined to try and enrol them in "True Love Waits"? [more]

034 :
13 Mar 2011

Some thoughts on Sexual Morality, Part 6: John Chuchman in today's commentary begins to cut into the difficult territory of making moral judgments about sexual acts and relationships. Many mature adults today have difficulties with the moral teaching that associated with morality with acts rather than had a focus on the attitudes of mind behind the acts. John attempts here to take the discussion back to where the morality ought be focused. It is perhaps an opening to a much wider conversation rather than a commentary that might be read as definitive in its own right. [more]

033 :
06 Mar 2011

Some thoughts on Sexual Morality, Part 5: It is purely co-incidence or God-incidence that the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was celebrated in Sydney last night and this weekend we have had two lead commentaries dealing with homosexuality. Today's offering from John Chuchman is the fifth in his series and was not especialy taken out of order to fit with yesterday's commentary or the events in Sydney last night. John makes the point, and powerfully, that all sexual acts and behaviours take place within a moral context. Sexual acts are neither right nor wrong within themselves. The moral context is given by the intent and the nature of the relationship in which the acts take place. [more]

032 :
27 Feb 2011

Some thoughts on Sexual Morality, Part 4: We human beings have lived on planet earth for hundreds of thousands of years and been copulating for just as long*. We still know so little about ourselves. We are still learning. John Chuchman's reflection today is intimately linked to this idea that we still have so much to learn about our own sexuality and the moral codes we need that will sustain and nurture our relationships. The old codes are no longer working. The Catholic Hierarchy have lost themselves pandering to a small minority and have become utterly remote from the vast majority in their flocks today. We need to dialogue amongst ourselves. As John writes: "Dialogue is an indispensable step along the path of human self-realization". [more]

031 :
20 Feb 2011

Some thoughts on Sexual Morality, Part 3: John Chuchman's reflection on sexual morality today has a focus on presenting an alternative to the emphasis the Magisterium puts on the meaning and ethics of human sexuality. He argues the Magisterium's one-size-fits-all sexual morality ignores the complexity of history, culture, gender, and all the socio-economic variables that impact human and sexual relationships. [more]

030 :
13 Feb 2011

Some thoughts on Sexual Morality, Part 2: John Chuchman's reflection on sexual morality cuts to a bottom line insight of Jesus and, indeed, all the major religions as they interpret 'the Golden Rule'. At the bottom line of all of our discussions, all of our thinking about our sexuality, we have to learn to respect ourselves, and to respect others. Everything else flows out of that. [more]

029 :
06 Feb 2011

Some thoughts on Sexual Morality, Part 1: Over the next few weeks we're embarking on an experiment on little more than a whim and a prayer. Tom McMahon, our regular Wednesday commentator suggested we look a little more deeply at human sexuality. As mentioned last Sunday, John Chuchman has long been pondering the subject and had already prepared a series of reflections on sexual morality. What John writes may assist us, and Tom, in forging the direction for our discussion. In this first reflection, John is pondering the question of how we discern the Will of God? It is a question that applies to all the moral decisions we make in life not just ones concerning sexual morality. It is a good general starting point for our exploration. [more]

028 :
30 Jan 2011

Spirituality-Sexuality... Tom McMahon's commentary last Thursday [LINK] triggered a discussion which is ongoing on the challenges we have in discussing issues of sexuality with candor, honesty and openness. John Chuchman has long been pondering the difficulties and in direct response to Tom's commentary and the discussion on our forum [LINK] sent us a lengthy series of reflections on spirituality, sexuality and sexual morality. This is the first of those commentaries. [more]

027 :
19 Dec 2010

Coming to full personhood through love... Here's a wonderful reflection from John Chuchman that cuts somewhere to the heart of our universal spiritual quest. We all yearn to love, and be loved. As John says: "At our deepest core, there seems to be an inviolable truth that attracts, heals, inspires and unites." [more]

026 :
12 Dec 2010

We all seek something... Whatever our disenchantments and disagreements might be with the institutional church, we are all still on a personal journey seeking meaning and ultimate fulfilment in our lives. John Chuchman's short reflection today tries to encapsulate something of the universals of what we all seek. His thoughts provide much useful fodder for quiet reflection on what each of us seeks out of life. [more]

025 :
05 Dec 2010

Spiritual Lessons learned... In his accompanying email to this commentary, John Chuchman writes by way of introduction: "Though, some may say the attached still smacks of sour grapes re institutional church, that was not my intent. Institutional Church is from whence I came and it has been a vital step in my spiritual growth. I don't deny my past, but neither do I let it trap me. My objective is not to diss the institution, but to share the lessons I am learning in moving beyond it." [more]

024 :
28 Nov 2010

The language of God... Today's reflection from John Chuchman doesn't need an introduction other than to ask: where, when or how will we find a community that takes us back to the Divine insights of Jesus? Does humanity need an 'institution' to do that or will we find, or build, a different structure to help us collectively remember the insights of Jesus in the future? [more]

023 :
14 Nov 2010

What does Communion call us to do? PeterR in the Catholica Forum often reminds us that "Eucharist is a verb, not a noun!" Today's reflection from John Chuchman could be offered as a reflection on that insight of Peter's. What does Communion call us to do? [more]

022 :
31 Oct 2010

Love does not triumph over all? John Chuchman offers a challenging headline for his reflection today: "Love does not triumph over all!" The popular, romantic vision we have is that love does triumph over all. This reflection though needs to be read in a Jesus' context not popular romance. [more]

021 :
24 Oct 2010

Moving Beyond Popular and Superficial Preaching... St Gregory of Nyssa in De beatitudinibus suggested it first that "the goal of a virtuous life is to become life God" (See CCC N.1803 for the full reference). The goal is not to become God but to think and act as God might do if God were the one occupying our minds and bodies. It's an invitation, if you like, to raise ourselves above our reptile emotions and brains. I've chosen today's reflection from John Chuchman because it cuts to the heart of this insight. As two other insightful people, John himself and Meister Eckhart, suggest in this reflection "Jesus' Revelation is about our own Divinity". We're not here to suck up to Jesus, or to God — we're here to emulate their thinking and behaviour in how we present ourselves to the world, and to our enemies, friends and neighbours. ...ed [more]

020 :
17 Oct 2010

A Quality that Turns All of Us into Saints... For a reflection and meditation on this Sunday when we from The Land Down Under celebrate the canonisation of our first saint, I've chosen a piece by our regular Sunday lead commentator, John Chuchman, which reflects perhaps the core quality of what St Mary of the Cross MacKillop stands for. From all that we read of her, she was a woman of deep compassion. In this commentary today John reflects on those qualities of compassion that turn all of us into saints. ...ed [more]

019 :
10 Oct 2010

A Meditation... John Chuchman is a bereavement counsellor. It is in times of loss and when things go wrong in our lives that we often search for meaning. In this two-part commentary today, John begins with a reflection on our human fallibility and ends with a meditation on our finding our wholeness in the Divine — in God. [more]

018 :
05 Oct 2010

A home liturgy... Even as the vast majority give up attendance at formal Sunday liturgies there seems a continuing craving in humankind for ritual and liturgy. John Chuchman offers today what he calls "a simple liturgy". It takes it's format from the Liturgy of the Mass and John offers it as a basis for the drafting of a simple liturgy that might be used in the home. He invites feedback on what sort of liturgies work in home settings and how this suggestion might be enriched. [more]

017 :
19 Sep 2010

WWJS (What would Jesus Say?) As John Chuchman suggests towards the end of today's reflection: it would make a good bumper sticker: "Be the God you want to see in the world!" The attribution though might belong to Jan Phillips whom John has borrowed the core text from (with permission) for today's reflection. It's a reflection on the Mosque proposal near the World Trade Centre but stretches our imagination about what religion is supposed to be about. As the reflection says: "It's not about doctrine. It's a plan for action — an opportunity to be a bigger force for good." [more]

016 :
05 Sep 2010

Male and Female God? We're celebrating Fathers' Day down here in Australia today. John Chuchman's reflection might cause us to pause and wonder what the world might have been like if our image of God was that of a woman? Or, perhaps, as his poetic reflection suggests, we need to perceive of God as representing both male and female? Does God excommunicate women who seek ordination or is that a right reserved for males who think they are God on earth? [more]

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]