The Barras

July 15, 2007 in Pormpuraaw by brnathan | 1 comment

My first Barra

I think I can safely count on one hand the number of times that I’ve been fishing. In fact the times I did it would have been best described as fish feeding. When it came to fishing it made more sense to me to go out the the river, dump in some bait, and pick up some fish and chips from the local on the way home. But I’m no longer a virgin fisherman, I caught my very first fish, this little Barra. Unfortunately he was under the allowed ‘keeping’ size so he got to live another day. One of the girls I worked with at Pormpuraaw and her husband took me out on their tinny to do some barra hunting and croc spotting. Frankie, the RN I work with, told me the secret to fishing up a good barra, you have to whinge about how tedious fishing is. She got the catch of the day, a whopping 850 cm. Mine (pictured) was not much to speak of, but made me feel like I’d achieved something that day. Frankie and her husband are also the ones who netted some great crabs I got to be spoilt on. They were also exceptionally kind enough to share some of the Frankie’s catch with me, I’m so looking forward to that one. I feel so blessed to have meet the kindness of such people.

The Crocs

July 15, 2007 in Pormpuraaw by brnathan | No comments

Pormpuraaw Croc

They don’t post crocidile warning signs for nothing. One of the ‘attractions‘ at Pormpuraaw is the crocidile farm. There are also a number of these babies which hang out on the banks and in the waters of Pormpuraaw. The one pictured here is a small sample. Myself and one of the other RNs saw a fella much bigger, we reckon it was easily 17 ft. We were both glad that he was one other other side of the river and there was a large drop between us and the water. One of the other RNs and her husband took me fishing and we saw this fella along with a number of others. So I can safely say now that those warning signs are not just to make the place look colourful. So if you are in the water, beware, and remember what they say – never smile at a crocodile.  

The Taipan

July 10, 2007 in General, Pormpuraaw by brnathan | 1 comment

Baby Taipan

The Taipan is said to be Australia’s largest, fastest moving and the world’s most deadliest snake, I was only inches from it. One of the fellows I was working with noticed this little guy wandering around our driveway. I went and grabbed my camera and the guy thought I was nuts getting up close and personal for this picture. He said it was venomous but I had not realised how so until I Wikipediad ‘Taipan’ and found out.

See the entries on Taipans at, The Reptile Park, Bushman Films and of course in Wikipedia. Note in the Wikipedia entry that the snake was named from a word used by the Wik-Mungkan Aboriginal people of the Cape York Peninsula; the Mungkan people are one of the groups in Pormpuraaw.  

Discernment Reflections Again

July 7, 2007 in Discernment, On Calling and Vocation by brnathan | No comments

I finally finished the three discernment reflections I had to submit in application to attend the Diocesan Discernment Conference coming up later in the month. I have posted links to two of them; one on The Nature of the Priesthood and the other on The Nature of God. The other I referred to in the last post is a Life Sketch and I decided that it ended up a little too personal to put on such a public forum.

I found each of the exercises suprisingly challenging, but very rewarding. It was interesting to read over them when I had finished and was surprised at some of my thoughts. It will be even more interesting to read over them in a few weeks, years time. I found myself starting and stopping these reflections on several occasions – they just never seemed to end up looking like how I meant them too. In the end the pressure was on as the date to get them in was well passed and the powers that be needed them ASAP. So in the end I was pushed to make a decision and, well there they are. You are welcome to have a look and comment on them here or send me an email if you think it is particularly personal, or if you want to accuse me of being a heritic and burn me at the stake. In the end I went with what felt right to me and not what I think people want to hear. I particularly got a lot out of my Life Sketch, I’m sure the psychologist will have fun with that one for ages.

Oh, and just a side, I was given two large yummy crabs last night. The joys of being by the beach. I’m off to eat them now for dinner.

Discernment Reflections

July 4, 2007 in Discernment, On Calling and Vocation by brnathan | No comments

At the moment I’m supposed to be preparing three reflections for the Diocesan Discernment Conference later in the month. I have to say it is quite the challenge. One is a Life Sketch, how does one put down in a few pages how one’s life has been shaped toward inquiring for Ordination. What do the Examining Chaplains want to know? The exercise has been quite useful and I might even finish it this side of a thesis. In doing this exercise I have learnt not only how the various parts of my life have lead me to be the person who now offers for discernment, but it has also reminded me of just how unworthy I am to be called a servnt of God. That is to say, that my life has been less than ideal. There are a number of things I’m neither pleased about nor proud of. However, it does remind me that God calls people just as they are. I guess that is the message I would like the Examining Chaplains to know; that despite how human I am, for all my frailties and faults, it is God who calls me to serve.

The second reflection is The Nature of God. Well another mammoth task to get down to 1 – 1/2 pages. Who or what is God. In doing this reflection it dawned on me how the more we try to describe the nature of God, the more we are limited by our human ability to communicate the Divine. We have draw on points of reference that we as humans can relate to. However, in so doing, we already limit our ability to describe which is in essence a spiritual encounter with the Divine. It also dawned on me that we spend far too much time feebly communicating the Divine and not enough time experiencing the Divine. It is like what I tell students when they ask me do I believe in God. I can tell them of my experiences of God but I cannot give them my experiences. What they need to do is seek out their own personal relationship with God.

The final reflection is on The Nature of the Priesthood. One I’m finding a lot easier. However, the difficulty for me seems to lie in how is a Priest different from a Religous. For there are a lot of similarities. Notwhithstanding the reality that both stem from the same aim, that is, to live in a more purposeful way our Baptismal vows to live as Discples of Christ. What then is different, perhaps its in the leadership of the Church, the taking on of the repsonsibility to pass on the traditions and mysteries of the faith.

I’m sure when I finally get these done I’ll have something more useful to say about them. In the mean time, I’m enjoying the sun and warmth here in Pormpuraaw. It won’t be long before I’m back in cooler Brisbane, but I’m looking forward to spending some time with Br Ghislain from Taize when he comes to do some school visits.

Schola Cantorum at St John’s Cathedral

July 4, 2007 in Gregorian Chant by brnathan | No comments

Schola Cantorum, the Gregorian Chant Choir I have mentioned previously, will be singing at the morning Mass at St John’s Anglican Cathedral on Sunday the 22nd July at 9 am. If you have not heard Gregorian Chant in its rightful context, the liturgy of the Church, then this will be your opportunity to do so. With some practice before hand, and a lot of God’s Grace, I might even get to join Schola for my first Mass. I’m busily learning the various parts of the Eucharist at the moment in preparation.

Off again to Pormpuraaw

June 22, 2007 in Nursing, Pormpuraaw by brnathan | 1 comment

A few days early, but I’m off again to Pormpuraaw. It seems a little weird driving two days back from Charters Towers only to do my washing and get on a plane to fly back up FNQ. My head feels as though it is still spinning from my time at ASSG. Usually I need at least a week to process my trip to Souls. It will be a challenge to rush straight from that into another three weeks of nursing. Though I am looking forward to my time at Pormpuraaw. Just driving back into Brisbane city trafic the other day reminded me of how much I’m beginning to dislike the busyness of suburban – city life and how much I enjoy the slower pace of places like Charters Towers and Pormpuraaw. I like them because they give time to think and to be. Something which seems to be sadly lacking of opportunity in the ‘big smoke’.

Does the Divinci Code shatter faith?

June 22, 2007 in Belief, Davinci Code, Encountering God, Faith, General by brnathan | 3 comments

Recently I sat through a viewing of The Divinci Code; an interesting drama and mystery, but not more. I’ve actually not been all that interested in viewing it, but did so out of interest and because the person I was viewing it with was interested in watching it with me. What I’m intrigued about is how readily some people are to accept Hollywood dramas regarding religious content and matters of faith yet quick to dismiss the reality of a personal experience of the Divine. That is, it seems to be that movies such as the Divinci Code take questionable material and some how sell it as fact and people will believe it; perhaps because they need to, perhaps it helps them to ignore the reality of a personal faith, perhaps it offers an easy way out for them to not do their own soul searching about what it is they believe in.

What is more interesting to me, is that people assume that because of the Church’s sometimes dubious and roller coaster past that when ever something comes along ‘putting down the Church’ people are quick to dismiss the reality of a lived faith with God. The trouble with this is that it assumes a shallow understanding of faith and belief in the Divine. It assumes that those who have a faith and belief in the Divine do so only because of the human existance of the Church, and not the lived experience of a personal encounter with God.

I would be the first to admit that if I relied on the frailty and sometimes unworthiness of the Church I would have no faith or belief at all. As some who know something about me know I like many people have more excuses to distrust and dismiss the Church than reasons to believe in the Church. Fortunately for me, my faith and belief in the Divine does not rely on the humanity of the Church alone, for all it’s frailties, faults and positivities. My faith is based on a living encounter with the Divine in my life.

I’m aware of brief moments in my life when I have truly encountered a moment (even if for a nano second of time) of being in the presence of the Divine. In small, miniscule ways; through looking into the eyes of a dying person, washing the feet of a woman with infected sores, seeing a baby born, watching a person make their first Communion or Confirmation, being a part of a football team who pray together (not to win but to give thanks to God and intercession for their loved ones), seeing a person survive tremendous abuse, I see that there is a God who is alive and who does carry us when we most need it. There are times too when it is much harder to express; but moments when, for a blink of the eye, I see and touch the presence of God. This is from where comes my faith and belief in the Divine, not some man made Church which seems to agree or disagree at the drop of a hat.

The Church is falable, despite how much we might try and make it not so. We are human, trying to interpret and express an encounter with the Divine. And we can do this only in so far as our human language and frailty can allow. Let us give thanks to God that our faith and belief in the Divine does not need to depend on the humanity of the Church, rather let us give thanks that our faith and belief is derived solely from a personal encounter with God.

One of the difficulties of helping people today to understand this (that faith is a lived real experience and not something we get from simply reading words on from an ancient manuscript) is that we cannot give them our ‘God experiences’. They need to discover this for themselves. The trouble too is that it requires that people be willing to be open and vulnerable to the presence of God in their lives. Often people can be to content to be wrapped up in their own sense of self and self-righteousness to bother to look at how God is speaking to them today. They dismiss that a personal experience of God can be real and lived and encountered, often doing so by finding the path of least resistance in attacking the humanity of the Church rather than encounterting the Divinity of God.

No, the Divinci Code cannot shatter my faith. My faith and belief in the Divine is not reliant on humanity but rather the Divinity of God and the reality of the Graces that God gives in my life. The moments of encounter with the Divine in the simple acts of being in the human world. The Church will fail us, as surely as we will fail the Church and God on more occassions than one. But it is important to know that God will never fail us and the Divine will continue to exist within the world for all of us. We simply need to open our hearts and minds, the be vulnerable, trusting, and open enough to take off our blinkers and see that God not only exists but God calls us into a relationship with the Divine.

Leave movies like the Divinci Code on the shelf of the video store. Or at least remember what they are, Hollywood selling it’s latest blockbuster. Take time to find your own ‘God experience’ allow God to become real and lived in your life. For it is here you will discover what is true faith and belief.

Leaving ASSG

June 19, 2007 in School Visits by brnathan | No comments

It seems to become increasingly harder each year; leaving All Souls that is. I’m constantly blessed with the way in which the students of ASSG welcome us and take time to befriend us. The way they take us into their community and share their lives with us is overwhelming. Being a smaller school it has been easier over the years to get to know students more closely than in larger schools. I guess that’s why leaving seems to be getting that little bit harder each year. It was particularly so this year as a number of the year 12 students will finish school this year and I’ll miss seeing them next year. We did have an opportunity to have a small service of blessing and annointing for some of those who we have come to know well and will leave this year.

Over the course of the last 10 days we have had opportunity to laugh, play and eat with the students, as well as challenge them and stretch their minds in the classroom. I was all too aware that some of the things we asked of students was hard for them. However, I appreciated the effort they put in stepping up to the challenges thrown to them. I was also particularly appreciative of the efforts of a group of students who braved the cold and wet to join us each morning at 6.30 am for a Eucharist service. I think these are exemplars of why I appreciate coming to ASSG; that is the student’s ability and willingness to try and to be a part of things. They are genuine down to earth people who will make an effort if and when asked. I’m already looking forward to 2008.  

Prayer Beads at ASSG

June 15, 2007 in Prayer Beads, School Visits by brnathan | 1 comment

Following from the account of making Holding Crosses with the students in year 12 we found that making Anglican Rosary or Prayer Beads with the students in year year 11 was also a success. Again I was wanting to do something meaningful with the students which gave them something concrete to take away with them. Initially I was unsure how they would receive the idea of making a set of Rosary Beads. But again, to my surprise, the students were quite receptive. The students seemed to enjoy making their set of Prayer Beads. It was certainly a challenge to fit making 30+ Prayer Beads into a 50 minute session (twice). But fun nonetheless.

After making the Prayer Beads we had a session on the history and symbolism of prayer beads, as well as giving them some simple short prayers to use with their Prayer Beads. A few of the students came up to me later to tell me that they had tried using the simple prayers with their Beads. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that a number of students were wearing their Beads on their arms and wrists around school.

It is the first time I’ve tried doing a session on Prayer Beads in this context. In the past I’ve usually done them with groups that have requested to do the Prayer Bead workshop. Feedback from students, and some staff and parents were very positive and there were also requests from junior students to make sure they got to make them in year 11 too. I’m pleased that we had the opportunity to have some fun, make something practical students could keep, and give them a brief insight into one way of learning how to pray.

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