077 :
20 May 2012

The Parable of the Loving Father Today's reflection by John Chuchman sits beautifully with a number of the conversations on our forum at the moment exploring the nature of this myster we try to condense into the word "God" and the relationship we are called into with this One who was referred to by Jesus as his "Father". In particular, as well as John's commentary, I draw your attention to a post by Enda on our forum exploring the spirituality of Edmund Rice on a similar theme [See: "The emphasis is on Christ-ian": LINK]. [more]

076 :
13 May 2012

Why is this meal different? A break today from the normal style of reflection layout from John Chuchman. Instead a joint reflection, perhaps appropriate for Mothers' Day, pointedly asking when the women were excluded from the Last Supper. No, it's actually a deeper question than that asking why the Catholic Eucharist is becoming so divorced from its roots in the Jewish Passover? The commentary is a joint effort from Sr M. Charlene Ozanick CSSF and John Chuchman. [more]

075 :
06 May 2012

A reflection on the meaning of Compassion... Is compassion merely charity, pit and sympathy of does it go beyond that? That's the essential question John Chuchman poses in today's reflection. What does Jesus offer as insights into the meaning of compassion? [more]

074 :
29 Apr 2012

Daring to be Truly Catholic... Today's refection from John Chuchman sits well with this Sunday's readings which we have been discussion on the Catholica Forum HERE. What defines "authentic Catholicism" today? How do we find what John labels as "personal authenticity" or what the editor has labeled as "personal integrity" in the forum discussion? [more]

073 :
15 Apr 2012

Is God more present in us or in the Eucharist? John Chuchman wrote very little of his reflection today. In fact all he wrote was the question: "How did we come to believe and/or behave as though God is more present in the bread and wine than in each and every one of us?". The rest of the reflection are the responses he received from his readers. [more]

072 :
08 Apr 2012

Do This... I went searching this morning for a commentary from John Chuchman that might somehow be connected to the Easter Message. I found one entitled "Do This..." from his book "Spirituality & Spiritual Growth beyond Hierarchical Church" and started doing the layout but then we had discovered ew had already published it on 14th November 2010. If I had forgotten we'd run this before chances are many of you have also. It's worth a second look... [BMC, Editor] [more]

071 :
01 Apr 2012

Competing Voices... John Chuchman today gives voice to a common concern one hears expressed in communities where people feel increasingly disenfranchised from their church or faith community: should we speak up or remain silent; should we stay or leave? It's a good discussion point. What thoughts do you have? [more]

070 :
25 Mar 2012

In Each and Every Moment, the Unknown... John Chuchman's... reflection today is about the need to be constantly aware of the limitations of our own points of view. Left unchecked, our personal projections based on the accumulation of all our past experiences, instead of simply being useful become rigid, blocking us from learning what is available to learn in the Now. [more]

069 :
11 Mar 2012

Metanoia: How much work do we have to do? How much choice do we have in any transformation we want to undertake? We can open ourselves up to metanoia and conversion but how much can we drive the process and how much do we leave to the Spirit that builds universes? These questions are at the heart of this reflection from John Chuchman... [more]

068 :
04 Mar 2012

Let's just Be the Church we want Church to be! Following John Chuchman's reflection today you may feel "I wish it were as easy as that". It's difficult leaving behind what for many of us has been a lifetime of understandings, belief and good memories. Is it a bit like what a young person feels life leaving home? We have a treasure of very positive memories of home but there's also a sense of relief to be out from under the constant scrutiny of mum and dad. John is essentially arguing that we just leave behind all the oppression of the hierarchs and the games they play of trying to constantly please their temporal bosses and let's just Be the Church we want the Church to be! [more]

067 :
26 Feb 2012

The Catholic Hierarchy is at war with the majority of us in the pews! John Chuchman's reflection today is principally focused to goings on in the United States but could as easily be applied in any country in the developed world today. Have some hierarchical fringe in the Church declared some sort of war on the great majority of ordinary pew-sitters in the church, or who once sat in the church? Are the old crusader's banners coming out again? [more]

066 :
19 Feb 2012

Ponderings of a fellow traveler on Life's Journey 7: The Triune God of Love: We started this series from John Chuchman back in the middle of December and this is the last of this series of ponderings. We have added a "series navigation" line to the top and bottom of each Pondering as you might like today to go back and tackle the whole series as a set of connected reflections on this theme of the religious quest as a search for the ultimate in love. [more]

065 :
12 Feb 2012

Ponderings of a fellow traveler on Life's Journey 6: The Mystery of God as Love: John Chuchman's reflection today perhaps fits especially well with the sort of questions Tom McMahon poses in his new Sunday series on Mythology. Love is a "mystery" we find difficult to explain with words, so also is this entity we trying and condense into expressions like "God" or "the Spirit". These "mysteries" of the Divine and Love seem inextricably linked. [more]

064 :
05 Feb 2012

Ponderings of a fellow traveler on Life's Journey 5: Being in Love: There was an article in Zenit yesterday [LINK] asking if it is possible to make the Church's message "brilliant and attractice". Some argued in response that it's no longer possible [LINK]. What John could be thought of as doing in this series is trying to make the Jesus' message "brilliant and attractive". All of us engaged in the process of "pondering" — asking ourselves questions about what it all means; what our own lives mean; how we might better live our lives; or simply "be happy"? These are the sort of questions John Chuchman has been pondering in this series. The connecting central word in last week's ponder, this one today and the two to come in the word "love". [more]

063 :
30 Jan 2012

Ponderings of a fellow traveler on Life's Journey 4: My Existence in Divine Love: >Back in the 1980's Tina Turner released a song under the title "What's Love Got To Do With It?" [YouTube]. It's a song title burned into the hearts of many. Turner subsequently used the title for a documentary about her life [Wikipedia]. Today's reflection from John Chuchman could be thought of as attempting to provide an answer to that question. Love is claimed to "make the world go around". In the Christian context we see our existence rooted in Divine Love... [more]

062 :
01 Jan 2012

Ponderings of a fellow traveler on Life's Journey 3: Being Human is Questing: John Chuchman's reflection today fits beautifully with a theme that seems to be emerging across the whole of what we do here at Catholica: none of us can own the Divine exclusively. None of us can have an exclusive claim to know "the mind of God"; we are all on a journey of discovery — questing to understand the meaning of our individual lives, and of Life. [more]

061 :
25 Dec 2011

Ponderings of a fellow traveler on Life's Journey 2: A Self-Transcending Child of a Self-Giving God: For the Christmas-New Year period John Chuchman has prepared for us a series of seven connected, short reflections. Essentially, they are exploring the ultimate meaning and objective of our lives with a spiritual or divine context. Life is a love story — a quest for the ultimate in love! [more]

060 :
18 Dec 2011

Ponderings of a fellow traveler on Life's Journey 1: My True Self (and my Creator) Revealed in Action: For the Christmas-New Year period John Chuchman has prepared for us a series of seven connected, short reflections. Essentially, they are exploring the ultimate meaning and objective of our lives with a spiritual or divine context. Life is a love story — a quest for the ultimate in love! [more]

059 :
12 Dec 2011

The Impact of Vatican II... Two commentators in one today: John Chuchman's reflection today is based on a talk Robert Blair Kaiser has given recently on the impact of Vatican II. As they conclude: The hierarchy is busy trying to convince everyone that Vatican II really did not change anything. Those of us who lived before Vatican II know otherwise. [more]

058 :
04 Dec 2011

Transforming My Anger... Life throws up so much that can make us all angry. Perhaps one of the great lessons from the Jesus story is that not even the Son of God escaped circumstances and injustice that would make any person very angry? It is also perhaps an irony today that the institution he gave his name to has become a cause for much anger in the hearts of many people today — think of those reading the newly released reports in Ireland, those protesting in Melbourne today and calling for a government enquiry into the Australian institution's handling of clerical abuse,, and all those whose petitions and needs are ignored by the hierarchy. John Chuchman's reflection today is a self-reflection on how he endeavours to transform his anger through the Spirit. [more]

057 :
27 Nov 2011

The Roman Missal — A Crisis? In place of his usual reflection John Chuchman sent through this plea today on behalf of the Church reform organisation, Call to Action. He also sent through an article by William Slavick entitled "Erasure of Vatican II extends to new Missal—affecting 400 Million!" which we have posted on the Catholica forum HERE. What are your views on the new translation; does it enhance your worship; do you believe it will help bring your children or the lapsi back in the door; or is it another endeavour to appease the vocal remnant minority in our pews? [more]

056 :
13 Nov 2011

God Is... Advent will be upon us in a few weeks. In today's reflection John Chuchman suggests an alternative Advent Ritual to let our light shine... [more]

055 :
06 Nov 2011

God Is... Trying to explain who or what God is continues to be the question that baffles humankind. We've been searching for answers ever since the first human being began to think. John Chuchman tackles that huge question and provides food for our own contemplation in his reflection today. It is a short reflection taken from his book "Spirituality &Spiritual Growth beyond Hierarchical Church". [more]

054 :
30 Oct 2011

A call for unity (again)... Today's layout is a repeat of one we ran a couple of weeks ago. It is only a repeat because of a mistake by the editor who has his mind too busy with a lot of other things and he was running very late with today's commentary as a result of that and did this layout in haste before realising he was repeating the call John Chuchman made a few week's ago. As a writer I am constantly astounded though at the ways in which different layouts often give new meaning to the same words. (Different layouts are also often useful in picking up typographical and grammatical errors.) As I was doing the layout though my mind kept mulling on how all pleas or calls for unity these days are akin to pushing the proverbials up a hill with a pointy stick. There is going to be no "unity" when we have a small remnant element in society who will not allow unity unless we all agree 110% with their point of view. Is the call John makes here about as idealistic as suggesting we go off and have a rational conversation with the religious terrorists who are presently holding the whole of humanity to a king's ransom? ...BMC [more]

053 :
23 Oct 2011

What is This All About? We often use the expression "life is a mystery". Very often there are no simple answers. John Chuchman's reflection today in a sense explores this big mystery of life by asking the question: "What is This All About?". How do we learn to live with mystery and uncertainty when there are no easy answers and certitudes? [more]

052 :
16 Oct 2011

A Call for Unity... Given a number of conversations taking place on the Catholica Forum at the moment John Chuchman's reflection today is a plea for unity. Whatever our differences on our perceptions of truth, John outlines a possible way for a group of people of diverse beliefs to form a sense of community and express a sense of unity. [more]

051 :
09 Oct 2011

Thoughts on the Liturgy Changes... The objections to the new liturgy seem to be almost reaching the cresendo of the objections to Humanae Vitae all those decades ago. Perhaps if so many people hadn't already left the church the noise of objection would be the same? John Chuchman brings us today some thoughts on the changes he came across written by Susan Masiak from St John Fisher University Parish in Michigan. They echo his own objections. What are your thoughts on the changes? [more]