Episode Transcript
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Over the past five weeks
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we've heard from people across Centacare and the Archdiocesan services
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respond to insights and questions raised by the gospel
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and Jesus about how to
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clear the clutter for clarity, how we can prioritise what's important
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not what society tells us is important.
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Today I'm joined by Sr Maeve Heaney
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at the oratory in the Holy Spirit Seminary.
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Maeve, as we approach Holy Week,
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what's important to you about that week?
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Thank you Paul, great question.
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For me, Holy Week is a time of internal
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and where possible external space, the main
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invitation that I feel is to slow down and make space
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to listen, and what I would call accompany.
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The main focus of my prayer tends to be the person of Jesus
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as he walks to His end and
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I have to say I feel as though
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the slowing down and the making space Jesus does that as well.
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Like He tends to speak less and act more.
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It's as if
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He realises that He's spoken, that people don't understand Him,
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and they need to see His life in action rather than just His words.
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So He spends more time in prayer,
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He seeks to have moments with His own, with His own friends,
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He brings them with Him in the hope that they will understand.
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We see His struggles
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in prayer we see Him struggling with prayer, which I think is a real gift.
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We see the women who loved Him stay close
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and they live that as connection which I think is also another gift.
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So I think there's so much to watch and learn from and accompany.
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And I understand in the process that Jesus' invitation
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or attempt is to walk with His friends,
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to share His hopes, His dreams one of the most poignant
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gospel readings for me is the one where He says I call you friends,
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I don't call you servants, I call you friends.
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So I think for me it's about,
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how do I accompany this person?
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This man, the humanity of this man God,
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this walk to His end.
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And how can I stay as close as possible to Him?
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So Maeve, how do you experience that?
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Well, for me I think it's
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for me it's a life of prayer kind of thing, so I feel as though
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when we learn to listen to the suffering of Jesus in prayer,
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in the gospels,
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it also attunes you to listen to suffering elsewhere.
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Yesterday a friend of mine who I hadn't heard from
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for ages actually at work
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called me and asked to chat
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and I realised it's because she has cancer,
she has chemotherapy, and she heard that I had it.
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So I think it attunes you
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to kind of the what's going on beneath the surface, the spaces we don't talk about.
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Because the body of Christ, like Jesus,
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yes, He went to His resurrection and we celebrate,
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we will celebrate the resurrection
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but the body of Christ is real
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and the suffering of Jesus in His members is real.
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Therefore, it's a living thing,
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so learning to listen to Jesus in prayer
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attunes me, I feel, to listening to underneath the surface,
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what people might be living inside
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and really engaging then with the needs of the world
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and being drawn into those needs.
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Yeah, and the needs in the world
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as they manifest in the people next to us
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because sometimes we can look at the world, and the world is suffering let's face it,
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it's hard to watch the news these days.
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So to that,
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and to try and have hope in the midst of that disaster or those disasters
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but also yeah the people next to us who can look okay,
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but often aren't.
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In reality often aren't.
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Well, I hope that you
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are able to engage in that Holy Week experience
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and to engage and walk and accompany Jesus
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and engage them with the needs of the people beside you,
the needs in your own heart
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and discover yourself and others as beloved of God.
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Thanks again.
