As this Encourager originally WENT to print my thoughts were with the team for MW52 as they continued their training. I am excited that my hope for an influx of candidates for MW52 was realized and it was wonderful to see that the new 2 day programme was so well received.

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We are living in a world where people are suffering feelings of anxiety, financial strife and homelessness, but following the success of HOPE 25, we as Christians know that ultimately the unconditional love given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ is what keeps us looking to a future of peace, hope and love for our neighbours and ourselves through God’s unconditional love and care. I would like to finish with this prayer which was on Facebook recently:
God of mercy, look with compassion on all who are affected by the present conflicts. Grant insight to hardened hearts, comfort to the fearful, protection to those in danger, and hope to those who are despairing, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

De Colores

Lorraine Phillips

As I write to you today the world we live in can seem as though it is in a constant state of stress as people suffer through wars, natural disasters, climate change, cost of living crisis, homelessness and violence. However, we as Christians know the Hope we have in our loving God who, once He had created the world, looked back and declared that it was ‘Good’.

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During Lent this year we have been encouraged through Hope 25 that we need to remember that the love of our awesome God never fails us. He is there watching over us especially in times of great difficulties. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to intercede for us, and the Holy Spirit to be our guide and comforter, to live within us. To teach us to be loving, caring people, to love our neighbours, to care for the environment, the homeless, and those who are feeling unloved. May the love of Christ shine through us by the way we live our lives and share that love with others.
We look forward to the MW52 weekend 29-31 August 25. Graham Eagleton as Lay Director is getting his team together ready for commissioning 3rd May at Glenrock. The program for this weekend will be a bit different. We will be trialing a 2-day weekend this year, starting Friday night and ending Sunday evening. We have stepped out in Faith and Hope in a way to encourage people to attend and in an attempt to make it affordable for everyone. We still have a vacancy on Secretariat, as we need an applications coordinator to receive all Cursillo application forms.
Please continue to pray for new candidates and also for your Secretariat as we continue to work in Hope and Love.
De Colores, Lorraine Phillips

When I lived in the UK, every city I visited usually had some type of tourist experience based on the history of the area.

The one in Canterbury told the story of the pilgrims who would come to see the shrine of Thomas Beckett and it used Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem “The Canterbury Tales” to tell the story. A feature of the experience were the smells in each room to really help you feel like you were there in the late fourteen hundreds.

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As we approach Christmas and prepare for services and celebrations, we will be making everything as beautiful as we can, ignoring the real down-to-earth history and its smells. Smelly BO, musky animals, and manure. This is the environment God chooses to be born into. The exact opposite of what any human king would choose.

When the heir to the throne is born, they are surrounded by the best doctors in the most comfortable palace. The Christ Child is born among the animals and laid in a feed trough. Our nativity scenes make it look rustic, beautiful but lack the authentic sights, sounds and smells.

When the human heir to the throne is born the elite nobles are the first to be told, with the information trickling out and down the social layers of society. Jesus’ birth is announced to the shepherds on the hillside. Again, our beautiful scene has rustic shepherds on a hill, watching their sheep, visited by angels with the wonderful message. The reality is, these shepherds are the poorest of the poor, not trusted to give evidence in a trial, unwashed, and scared out of their wits at the sight of these angels.

When you start a new job or new project one of the best pieces of advice is “start how you mean to
finish”. This is exactly what God does here. God wants the full human experience; not a comfortable
cushy life.

God puts the socially excluded first. God came into our world, smells and all, to know what being
human really feels like. This Christmas as we look at all the beautiful nativity scenes, take a moment to
imagine all the sights, sounds, and smells.
De Colores,

Fr Mark Cooper

3

One of my favourite stories is St Francis and the wolf. A wolf is terrorising the town of Gubbio and when St Francis hears of it, he goes there to tame the wolf. When he meets the wolf, he arranges a peace by promising the wolf if he stops, the people of the town will make sure he doesn’t go hungry.
The townsfolk agree and from then on, the wolf roams freely throughout the town, well-fed by the residents. When the wolf finally dies, he is mourned by every person in the town.

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I love this story for a few reasons. The logical way of resolving the problem of the wolf
is to hunt him down and kill him. St Francis’ way is conflict resolution. Both sides have
to want to repair the relationship and both sides have to give something up. The
ending that would have happened if the village hunted down the wolf would have been
cheering his death. The ending we get, though, is sorrow at the wolf’s death.
Conflict resolution is never easy.
We will often put ourselves in the initial role of the villagers; “I’ve done nothing wrong, it is all the
other person’s fault”. Can we open ourselves to the possibility both of us need to change?
Maybe this relationship can be salvaged?
We can’t make the other person come to the table, but I never want to be the one who is the
obstacle to reconciliation. I don’t have to give up everything. I don’t have to let the other person
walk all over me, but I do want to be sitting at the table with an open mind and a listening ear.
De Colores,
Fr Mark Cooper

Is the Easter story too familiar for us to be surprised?
I love going to see Shakespeare’s plays and I have seen my favourites many times. Secretly, when I go and see Romeo and Juliet, I think to myself “I wonder if the director will surprise us and change the ending?” Of course they never do. For many of us the Easter story is so well known that there is no surprise anymore for the resurrection. I sometimes think it would be interesting to change the ending and see if anyone notices.

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“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, there they saw the body of Jesus.” Luke 24.1-3 (altered)
Put yourself in the shoes of those women on that first Easter morning, making their way to the tomb as the sun rises and finding the stone rolled away. There is a mix of emotions. Relief that there is no need to find someone to roll that stone away and fear that something horrible has happened. As they look into the tomb there before them are two men in dazzling white with a message “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” How did they process this message? Did it sink in slowly? Did they discuss what this could possibly mean? Howsoever they came to their conclusion it spurred them to tell the apostles who didn’t believe them; thinking this an idle tale.
We know how foolish this makes the apostles look but that is only because the story is so familiar to us. We have celebrated many Easters, and have been making the connection between Jesus’ teaching about his death and resurrection every time we read it.
This Easter, try to come at the reading afresh. Walk down to the tomb with the women who are not really sure how they will fulfil their task. Look nervously into the place where Jesus was laid mere days before. Listen to the dazzling white men as they tell you that Jesus is risen. Race to the apostles only to be disbelieved. Then as you leave your church, look for glimpses of Jesus breaking into our world, bringing the good news that the kingdom of God is near, so near you can almost reach out and touch it.
De Colores,
Fr Mark Cooper

In the Victorian times, fairy tales and Shakespearean plays were edited to take the more risqué parts out. I often think that over time our portrayal of angels has received the same treatment.

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Our images of angels in art and story are often of a beautiful ethereal winged female figure or strong armoured winged male figure.
This strikes me as contradictory to biblical encounters with angels. Invariably the first words out of their mouth to the person they are sent is “Do not be afraid”. This might be for one of two reasons. They might look so terrifying that they need to reassure the person that they need not fear, or they know the next words out of their mouth will strike fear into the person’s very soul. Maybe it is a combination of the two.
The angel that the shepherds on the hillside encounter that first Christmas day starts with the, now very common, “Do not be afraid” and then tells them of the birth of the Messiah nearby in a manger.
This encounter is unconventional up for many reasons. A manger is no place for the Son of God to be born and shepherds are the last people to hear important news yet this is how Jesus starts his life on earth. It really is a matter of “Start how you mean to proceed”.

Jesus whole life then is one of subverting human expectations and favouring those that society pushes aside as worth less than the rest. Jesus constantly calls for justice for the weak and for us to beware of putting our trust in positions of power and privilege. His teachings are full of warnings that in the Kingdom the first will be last, and the last, first.

As we approach Christmas when we celebrate that birth that the shepherds from the hills came to witness we need to be mindful that we are the new angels of our community bringing the message that a baby born over two thousand years ago came to bring peace and justice for all.
De Colores

FROM OUR
DIOCESAN SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
Fr MARK COOPER

1 Timothy 4.14 Paul encourages Timothy to not neglect the gift that is in him.

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Cursillo encourages us to use our gifts in the 4th day, but this is tricky. What are my gifts? Are they really good enough? Doubt can undermine our self esteem so that we dare not use them.
How often do we look at someone so obviously gifted that we wished we were them? It is so easy to devalue and dismiss the gifts we have as being inadequate and not up to the task. Even really talented people have been known to doubt their own talent and suffer from insecurity that can lead to bouts of depression.
In the days before the internet and global communications, people didn’t have the best and most talented people in the world to compare themselves to. The best
singer in the village was celebrated for their gifts. They were the best and everyone appreciated them.
All gifts come from God and we are given the gifts that are needed for the mission and service we are called to. When we compare ourselves to other people we can start to doubt that God has given us what is really needed for the task.
I love the saying, “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” God created us, as we are. God has given us our gifts and talents. God has a place for us in the community and expects us to exercise our gifts and talents.
Of course, we do need to look for opportunities to improve our gifts. Even members of Symphony Orchestras didn’t start out with that amount of skill. Using our gifts
regularly, looking for workshops to improve, and feed back on how we are going, can improve our skill and give us more

confidence.
If anyone makes you feel like your gifts aren’t good enough, remember St Paul’s
illustration of the body. All the parts of the body are needed and none can be
excluded without compromising the body.
De Colores
Fr Mark Cooper