'THE AGE FOR LOVE': WHERE IT'S AT

 

Some of you might have concluded by now that my novel 'The Age for Love', a work of fiction, is fictional in fact, but it’s my first priority for this New Year. Incredibly - even for one with such low tolerance for finance and figures - it’s taken a year and nearly a nervous breakdown to obtain the necessary permissions, and part with the necessary cash, for publication of the epigraphs I’ve used throughout the book.

But assuming much forbearance and co-operation from ‘im indoors, the Kindle edition of ‘The Age for Love’ will be published sometime in February. After that, it’s only a matter of time before Random House et al beat a path to my door, wanting to put it in hardback.

NO MENTION OF ABORTION AT CATHOLIC JUSTICE CONFERENCE A SCANDAL (Letter to "NZ Catholic', Jan 2014)

 

In the post-Christmas lull, checking back issues of NZC, I’ve only just read about the Ripples of Justice Conference held in Auckland in October. Bishop Patrick Dunn and keynote speaker Mark Richards of Palmerston North both enumerated social justice issues currently calling us Christians to action, among them child poverty which Bishop Dunn called ‘a scandal’.

 

I hate to say it, but it’s the omission of any mention at a conference on justice of the holocaust of unborn children killed in this country by abortion which scandalises me.

 

Julia du Fresne

COLUMN ON CHRISTIAN MEDITATION: A CAT SET AMONG PIGEONS (Letters published in 'NZ Catholic', Dec 2013)

ALTHOUGH THERE WERE NO COMMENTS on my November NZ Catholic column on Christian Meditation on this blog, with NZC readers it would seem something of a cat set among pigeons. Only very rarely does the paper receive four letters on the same topic (all taking exception) and I’m told there was a fifth – unpublished - describing me as ‘superior and mocking’.

If the cap fits, I guess I have to wear it, and my thanks go to all these correspondents. Here are their contributions:

***

MEDITATION

I was distressed to read Julia du Fresne’s somewhat acerbic dismissal of the practice of Christian Meditation (NZ Catholic, Nov 17).

Certainly, the Carmelite tradition is ancient and praiseworthy, but it does not appeal to everyone, myself included. Personally, I prefer the more simple approach of the Benedictine tradition, into which the current practice, which is promoted by Benedictine priest Laurence Freeman, fits.

The point is that anything that helps a person open his/her heart and life to God is laudable and to be encouraged. In terms of our relationship with God, every person is an individual.

                                                                                Kilian V de Lacy,

Waitangirua, Wellington.

 

MEDITATION 2

How sad that Julia du Fresne, one of your regular contributors, joined meditation ‘to support people wanting deeper prayer’.

Had she gone along to let God within her, have the time to change her and bring her to her total potential, she might still be meditating and encouraging others to give it a go.

Jacqui Driscoll,

Orewa.

***

AND THEN, IN THE DECEMBER ISSUE:

I read Julia du Fresne’s critical description of Christian meditation with disappointment, mostly because she seems to have missed the point of the discipline altogether.

Meditation is not about the repetition of a word. Rather, the repetition of a word is a tool to help the human mind avoid distraction so that attentiveness to God’s presence within can be achieved.

Months before I’d even heard of CM, I had discerned that wordy prayers were somewhat pointlless, given that God already knew my every thought, word and deed. Thankfully, my desire for a way to attend in prayer was answered by the introduction of CM into my parish. I have no expectations at all – it’s not about me. That is the point. It’s not about getting God’s attention but giving God my attention.

If the rather fanciful concept of Hindu monks developing meditation alongside the Desert Fathers and Mothers is just too bizarre, I suggest Julia goes back in the Christian tradition to a man named Jesus, who is frequently reported to have withdrawn to ramain alert and in prayer.

It would be a terrible shame if Julia’s opinion turned even one person away from a form of prayer that focuses solely upon our Creator God, heals wounded souls and brings Jesus’ own brand of love into homes and communities.

Damian Robertson,

Manurewa, Auckland.

MEDITATION II

Julia du Fresne might like to choose a word which is sacred to her, and when sitting quietly just allow that word to gently draw her thoughts back from their roaming into her past, or leaping forward in plans and ideas for her future.

Nothing more than that simple and gentle returning to her chosen prayer word is needed to assist her in ‘leaving self behind’. If she has some beautiful experience during meditation, by all means enjoy it, but don’t try to grasp and possess it.

In giving herself to God in this way morning and evening for 30 minutes she will find it is not during meditation that she receives the fruits of this discipline but, in time, this way of prayer will enrich her whole life. (A deepening understanding and joy in other ways of prayer; for example, praying the Scriptures, is just one of the many fruits you will discover.)

And should Julia choose to attend a meditation group, she will find that it is the shared silent prayer that strengthens fidelity to this daily prayer practice.

This is an ancient Christian way of prayer. It is Christ centred.

May the love and peace of Christ be with Julia always.

Raewyn Blair,

Athenree, Katikati.

 

SUPREME COURT JUDGES INVENT THEIR OWN ANOMALY (Letter to Dom Post, Dec 20 2013)

In ruling that an unborn child isn’t ‘living’ for fear of creating anomalies (Dec 20), the Supreme Court justices have invented an anomaly of their own. Try telling a woman who’s endured the misery of miscarriage that her unborn child of two months’ gestation wasn’t ‘living’. If the child wasn’t ‘living’, why mourn it? Try telling the same thing to a woman who against every natural instinct sees herself forced by circumstance to undergo an abortion. If the child isn’t ‘living’, why go through the trauma of having it killed? Such disregard for the truth, to say nothing of common sense, will serve only to bring the law further into disrepute and accelerate New Zealand’s descent into anarchy.

 

Julia du Fresne

'YOU CAN'T JUST KILL A BABY' (Letter to Dom post, Dec 2013)

It was so refreshing to read your front-page story of the beautiful mother who puts her baby’s life before her own.‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (Jn 1, 5). Isn’t it wonderful how the truth will out? As Mrs Doolabh puts it, ‘You can’t just kill a baby’.  

Julia du Fresne

THE ONE-EYED MAN IS KING (Letter to Dom Post, Dec 17)

The headline ‘Lack of vision in laws over child vulnerability’ (Dec 17) might be described as the understatement of the year, and in earnestly posing the question ‘Will the Vulnerable Children’s Bill ... make a difference for New Zealand’s children?’ academics Cook, D’Souza and Edwards invite a reply not just in the negative but a resounding ‘No’. Media, academia and bureaucracy persist in their failure to see that the most vulnerable children in New Zealand are the unborn, legally and painfully killed by abortion in their thousands every year. One might say that New Zealand is the land described by Erasmus as the country of the blind, where the one-eyed man is king.

 

Julia du Fresne

 

MANDELAMANIA (Letter to Dom Post, Nov 10)

Reg Fowles (Letters, Nov 10) is a brave man, daring to swim against the current of Mandelamania and criticise Nelson Mandela for his leadership of the protest movement in South Africa. I’ll grab hold of his coat-tails and add that while achieving equality of life for millions of people, Mandela also denied life itself to millions more by legislating for abortion on demand. And it’s ironic that conservative politicians like John Key, Jim Bolger and Don McKinnon are lining up to pay tribute to a self-avowed ‘good Communist’ who himself paid tribute to Fidel Castro, Muammar Qaddafi and Yasser Arafat.

Julia du Fresne