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Month: May 2008

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Christian Witness, PNCC

Testing the Call to Priesthood – Weekend of Spiritual Discernment

Attention Young Men and Teenagers

Do you have any idea how God goes about calling men and boys to serve as priests in the Church? Do you believe the Lord is calling you? Are you not sure if you are being called to the priesthood in the Polish National Catholic Church? Do you know of any others of the same age who are thinking the same way as you are?

Our church needs more priests to minister to her people and to help our church thrive and grow.

The P.N.C.C. is trying to bring together young men whom God may be calling. We know that God would not call our church into being without continually calling men to serve as priests. Prime Bishop Robert M. Nemkovich and the Board of Savonarola Theological Seminary are reaching out to males from the ages of 15 through 25 who are members of this church. Please read the following:

On June 20-22, 2008, our Church will bring together males from the ages of 15 through 25 who are members of the Polish National Catholic Church for a “Weekend of Spiritual Discernment.” What does that term mean? We are trying to assemble are create peer groups (boys and men of similar ages) for both those who believe they are being called to the priesthood and those who think they may be called but are not sure. We will then help them test their calling, that is, spiritually discern, whether or not they are truly being called to the Priesthood of Christ in the Polish National Catholic Church.

The Weekend for Spiritual Discernment will start with registration and room assignment from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Friday, June 20, at the seminary of the Polish National Catholic Church: Savonarola Theological Seminary, 1031 Cedar Avenue, Scranton, PA. Supper will be served at the seminaly at 6:00 p.m., then the opening session and an introduction to the seminary program for the priesthood will begin at 7:00 p.m., followed by a service in the seminary chapel and fellowship.

On Saturday, June 21, Holy Mass will be offered at the seminary chapel at 8:00 a.m., followed by breakfast. Sessions on spiritual discernment for vocations to the priesthood, Jerome Savonarola and Bishop Francis Hodur, the life and ministries of priests in the P.N.C.C., the highlights of the origin and development of St. Stanislaus Cathedral Parish and the P.N.C.C. will be offered throughout the day and evening. These will be interactive sessions with an emphasis on discussions and plenty of time for questions and answers. Discernment (or figuring out what God wants us to do) occurs primarily through prayer and the asking of questions. Lunch and supper will be provided and the evening will conclude with fellowship and prayer.

The weekend will conclude with Holy Mass at St. Stanislaus Cathedral on Sunday, June 22, followed by breakfast and the closing session. Names, addresses, e-mails and phone numbers will be exchanged with the hope of establishing a collegial community of teenagers and young men who someday may be interested in enrolling in the seminary for education and training to become priests. The Prime Bishop, bishops and clergy who participate in the Weekend of Spiritual Discernment will become part of a network of support and encouragement for the young men and boys who may aspire to become priests.

The Weekend of Spiritual Discernment is being sponsored by the Seminary Board and organized by Bishop Anthony Kopka. Members of the board who will be presenting the sessions are: Seminary Rector, Prime Bishop Robert Nemkovich; Seminary Vice Rector, Father Czeslaw Kuliczkowski; Seminary Professor, Bishop Anthony Mikovsky; and Bishop Kopka. Father Ramzi Musallam, a more recent seminary alumnus, will also present a session.

The Office of the Prime Bishop will provide financial assistance for males between the ages of 15 and 25 (inclusive) who are members of the P.N.C.C. to participate in the Weekend for Spiritual Discernment. The P.N.C.C. will cover the costs of meal and lodging at the seminary, however, participants must bring their own bedding or sleeping bags. The P.N.C.C. will also provide grants up to $200 for one-way air travel and for one-way mileage (40.5¢) over 50 miles. Parishes, dioceses and church organizations are asked to help finance the balance of expenses for travel for those they support and encourage to consider sacred vocations.

Dress is sort of “business casual,” in other words, participants are expected to wear long pants, collared shirts and dress or casual shoes, not sneakers or open footwear. Again, please pack bedding or sleeping bags (pillows are available); also bring personal toiletry, towels and soap. The Polish National Union of America will provide materials needed for the sessions.

To register for the weekend of Spiritual Discernment and to inquire about the financial grants for travel, please contact no later than June 13:

Bishop Anthony Kopka
275 York St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 377-9901 or (203) 913-0543

Homilies,

Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus said to his disciples:—¨
—Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’—¨
will enter the kingdom of heaven,—¨
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.—

These words, from God, call us to forcefully acknowledge the true source of our life, the thing that sets us apart and makes us a people of God. That thing is lived faith in Jesus Christ. As St. Paul tells us:

They are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption in Christ Jesus,—¨
whom God set forth as an expiation, —¨
through faith, by his blood.—¨
For we consider that a person is justified by faith

St. Paul begins by recounting the fact that all have sinned. Even the saints sinned. Paul himself was tortured by temptation to sin, even after he received the revelation of Christ and put his old ways behind him. The presence of sin and temptation to sin is a constant, and without our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus we would be without hope.

St. Paul tells us that God’s answer to his prayer that temptation leave him was: “My grace is sufficient for you.” In like manner we have God’s grace. Like Paul we must not stop at having grace, but rather we must respond to grace, we must act upon it.

By God’s grace we are not left orphaned and alone, left out on an open sea, to be buffeted all the day and night, with no hope of ever reaching the shore. By this gift of grace we have all that we need to respond in the way that guarantees everlasting life.

Faith then is the wise person’s response to God’s grace, to God calling us to Himself. Faith is the entry way to a transformative existence, an existence that makes all that Jesus Christ said and did real and powerful in our lives, and in the life of the world. Faith is the acknowledgment of God as our Father, His will as our will, and heaven as our home.

Brothers and sisters,

We are called to transformation, to being the actual and present people of God in this world. To do so we need to consciously understand Jesus Christ as reality.

Christ is real and alive. Jesus is in heaven and is among us. Unfortunately, in our Western way of thinking, in our conditioning at school and at work, we tend to look at things as — things. It is very easy to fall into that way of thinking when we consider Jesus, Holy Scripture, and the Holy Church. We tend to view Jesus, Scripture, and the Church as something outside of us, rather than as something that is part of us, part of our very being.

We might be tempted to look at Jesus as far removed, as no longer existing in our realm. After all, we saw Him ascend to the Father. We may see Him as removed from our reality, up there, rather than as the One who lives in and walks with us.

We might be tempted to see Holy Scripture as a nice piece of writing, interesting stories and poetry, and a sort of treatise best left to historical analysis and philosophical inquiry.

We might be tempted to look upon the Holy Church as an out-of-touch corporation, governed by committees and men in funny looking clothes.

That is what Moses cautioned against. When he said:

—Take these words of mine into your heart and soul.
Bind them at your wrist as a sign,
and let them be a pendant on your forehead.—¨

…he meant to tell us that we must keep the reality of God ever before us. To this day Orthodox Jews wear Tefillin so that the Word of God becomes part of them, so that it is attached to them and is ever before them.

The Tefillin are symbolic of what must occur in our lives, as part of the new and everlasting covenant. In the new covenant Jesus lives with us, transforms us into His body, the Church, and teaches us through Holy Scripture. Our response in faith is our transformation; into people who do something vital, that is the work of God. We are to live and act as people of God, making what we know real and apparent to the world.

My friends,

Our faith response makes us free, from sin, from disbelief, and most of all from apartness from God. We become new men and new women, people who live as if Jesus Christ were standing right next to them — because He is. By our act of faith we are regenerated and by that faith we live new lives. In those new lives we bear witness, to our families, to our co-workers, to our club members, to the world.

Moses said:

—I set before you here, this day, a blessing and a curse—

The blessing is making the choice for God, being regenerated, being transformed into people who actively live and do what God wills and teaches. The curse is living in captivity to the world and to our base selves, to living as if God is far off and apart from us, something that doesn’t see or hear, and may not even exist.

The choice, the regeneration, the transformation, our being called by the grace of God, and our response in faith, are the keys. Those who grab hold of those keys and live in and with God, who really live as children of the Father, and who do so actively, will be the ones who hear Jesus say:

You are the wise one who listen[ed] to these words of mine and act[ed] on them. You built your house on rock.

Amen.

Fathers, PNCC

May 31 – St. Ignatius from the Epistle to the Magnesians

Study, therefore, to be established in the doctrines of the Lord and the apostles, that so all things, whatsoever you do, may prosper both in the flesh and spirit; in faith and love; in the Son, and in the Father, and in the Spirit; in the beginning and in the end; with your most admirable bishop, and the well-compacted spiritual crown of your presbytery, and the deacons who are according to God. Be subject to the bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ to the Father, according to the flesh, and the apostles to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit; that so there may be a union both fleshly and spiritual.

Knowing as I do that you are full of God, I have but briefly exhorted you. Be mindful of me in your prayers, that I may attain to God; and of the Church which is in Syria, whence I am not worthy to derive my name: for I stand in need of your united prayer in God, and your love, that the Church which is in Syria may be deemed worthy of being refreshed by your Church. — Chapter 13 and 14.

Fathers, PNCC

May 30 – St. Ignatius from the Epistle to the Magnesians

Be not deceived with strange doctrines, nor with old fables, which are unprofitable. For if we still live according to the Jewish law, we acknowledge that we have not received grace. For the divinest prophets lived according to Christ Jesus. On this account also they were persecuted, being inspired by His grace to fully convince the unbelieving that there is one God, who has manifested Himself by Jesus Christ His Son, who is His eternal Word, not proceeding forth from silence, and who in all things pleased Him that sent Him.

If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death—” whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master… — Chapter 8 and 9a

Christian Witness,

Pope Shenouda III’s New Book

From Christian NewsWire: Pope Shenouda III’s New Book, Have You Seen the One I Love, Portrays the Soul’s Quest for Jesus Christ

On May 20, 2008, Have You Seen the One I Love, an exegetical book on the Song of Songs (Song of Solomon) by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, will be released for sale to the general public. Pope Shenouda draws upon his many years of contemplation as a monk in the ancient desert of Scetis, Egypt to develop his commentary on the human soul as found in the Song of Songs. The book is a translation and transcription of a lecture series given by Pope Shenouda in the 1970s. In contrast to many modern authors who seek to paint the Song of Songs as a book of sensuality and physical intimacy, Pope Shenouda captures the true spiritual essence of the Song of Songs, drawing upon the wisdom and writings of the early Church fathers. Pope Shenouda explains that the Song of Songs is a meditation of the human soul while she searches for her Beloved, mirroring the spiritual love of Jesus Christ for His Church. It is only with an understanding of our spirituality that we may embark on our voyage leading to our Lord.

Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria is the 117th Pope of Alexandria and the Patriarch of the Holy Apostolic See of Saint Mark the Evangelist of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

[AMAZONPRODUCT=1419697056]

Fathers, PNCC

May 29 – St. Ignatius from the Epistle to the Magnesians

Since therefore I have, in the persons before mentioned, beheld the whole multitude of you in faith and love, I exhort you to study to do all things with a divine harmony, while your bishop presides in the place of God, and your presbyters in the place of the assembly of the apostles, along with your deacons, who are most dear to me, and are entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed. Do all then, imitating the same divine conduct, pay respect to one another, and let no one look upon his neighbour after the flesh, but continually love each other in Jesus Christ. Let nothing exist among you that may divide you; but be united with your bishop, and those that preside over you, as a type and evidence of your immortality.

As therefore the Lord did nothing without the Father, being united to Him, neither by Himself nor by the apostles, so neither do anything without the bishop and presbyters. Neither endeavour that anything appear reasonable and proper to yourselves apart; but being come together into the same place, let there be one prayer, one supplication, one mind, one hope, in love and in joy undefiled. There is one Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is more excellent. Therefore run together as into one temple of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from one Father, and is with and has gone to one. — Chapter Six and Seven.

Everything Else,

Cute site

A friend sent me a link to a site called Birth Verse. You put in your birth date and are given a biblical verse where the chapter and verse are the month and day of your birth.

I ended up with the following from Proverbs (NIV):

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
and he who wins souls is wise.

Unfortunately the RSV isn’t quite as happy as the NIV:

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
but lawlessness takes away lives.

Thankfully the Douay-Rheims backs up the NIV:

The fruit of the just man is a tree of life:
and he that gaineth souls, is wise.

Current Events, Perspective, Political

Monasticism and the new (old) world order

Yesterday I picked up a link from the Young Fogey which led me to a lengthy article at Rod Dreher’s site.

Mr. Dreher writes:

“The Crisis of Our Age” proclaimed [Pitirim] Sorokin’s view that the West was in a terminal crisis, but that its resolution, however shocking and traumatic, would not mean the End, as is often thought, but only the transition to a new and very different phase of that civilization. “Crisis” is a summation of Sorokin’s cyclical theory of social development. He believed that civilizations cycle through three basic states, based on the dominant view of the nature of truth within that civilization…

The article is one in a series of many I have been reading lately that choose to see the future, the mid-term future, as a period of marked change in the social order. This change will be brought about by a collapse of the current order brought about by global or regional traumas, or economic factors that evidence the inability of government and markets to maintain the status quo.

There are all sorts of reasons for this, and I ascribe much of the problem, the impending breakdowns, to the breakdown in core societal components – family, reproduction (having children), and community. These components were the building blocks for the outward successes of the last hundred or so years. We enjoyed the outward successes all the while distancing ourselves from those core components, hating God, home, and country because they got in the way – they required hard work and commitment to something outside ourselves. We replaced something we saw as the drudgery–cum–slavery of our parents and grandparents lives with an idealism (all must be made equal and free – in the sense of the world) that takes little work beyond a few donations and some sloganeering now and then.

Toward the end of the article Mr. Dreher notes

We will know that the transition is well underway, Sorokin says, when the most creative minds turn from engagement with the fields of endeavor that serve sensate ends, and are instead attracted to ideational/idealistic pursuits. We will know the transition is well underway when we see among us new St. Pauls, new St. Augustines — and new St. Benedicts.

Then he quotes from Alasdair MacIntyre’s final lines in “After Virtue”:

A crucial turning point in that earlier history occurred when men and women of good will turned aside from the task of shoring up the Roman imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of that imperium. What they set themselves to achieve instead . . . was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness. If my account of our moral condition is correct, we ought also to conclude that for some time now we too have reached that turning point. . . . This time, however, the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament. We are waiting not for a Godot, but for another —” doubtless quite different —” St. Benedict.

Interestingly I was reading an entry from one of the people I follow on Twitter, Brad Abare and came across his wife’s blog – Jamaica Abare. She writes in Monastic Movements:

I’m not sure why the book Punk Monk resonated so deeply with me, perhaps because it chronicles what God is doing in England which appeals to my perception that the British are a little ahead of the game intellectually. I’m somewhat familiar with the ethos of the new monastic movements that my generation is embracing, but this quote in Punk Monk somehow gives some intellectual girth to what my hear draws me to.

It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who prophesied:

The restoration of the church will surely come from a sort of
new monasticism, which has only in common with the old
an uncompromising attitude of life according to the
Sermon on the Mount in the following of Christ. I believe it
is now to call people together to do this

If the monastic movements of the past were driven by a need to provide an alternative to the compromise in the Church, then how much does our own predicament in the modern church parallel a need for an alternative…

This desire for an alternative is not born out of rebellion against the modern church, but rather a recognition that an organic gathering of people, not simply around weekly services, but around community meals, prayer, and acts of justice and mercy provide greater opportunity to see and be Christ to our hurting neighborhoods and world.

So I wonder, Is the monastic way of life, communally simple and Christocentric, the way forward? Is that the way by which civilization will be maintained and by which the building blocks of the “new world order” will emerge? Is it happening to you, where you live, among your associates? If so, in what manner?

Over the next few weeks I will attempt to explore Bishop Hodur’s take on this subject as spelled out in his epic The Apocalypse of the XXth Century.

Fathers, PNCC

May 28 – St. Ignatius from the Epistle to the Magnesians

Now it becomes you also not to treat your bishop too familiarly on account of his youth, but to yield him all reverence, having respect to the power of God the Father, as I have known even holy presbyters do, not judging rashly, from the manifest youthful appearance [of their bishop], but as being themselves prudent in God, submitting to him, or rather not to him, but to the Father of Jesus Christ, the bishop of us all. It is therefore fitting that you should, after no hypocritical fashion, obey [your bishop], in honour of Him who has willed us [so to do], since he that does not so deceives not [by such conduct] the bishop that is visible, but seeks to mock Him that is invisible. And all such conduct has reference not to man, but to God, who knows all secrets.

It is fitting, then, not only to be called Christians, but to be so in reality: as some indeed give one the title of bishop, but do all things without him. Now such persons seem to me to be not possessed of a good conscience, seeing they are not stedfastly gathered together according to the commandment.

Seeing, then, all things have an end, these two things are simultaneously set before us—” death and life; and every one shall go unto his own place. For as there are two kinds of coins, the one of God, the other of the world, and each of these has its special character stamped upon it, [so is it also here.] The unbelieving are of this world; but the believing have, in love, the character of God the Father by Jesus Christ, by whom, if we are not in readiness to die into His passion, His life is not in us. — Chapter Three through Five.

Fathers, PNCC

May 27 – St. Ignatius from the Epistle to the Magnesians

Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the [Church] blessed in the grace of God the Father, in Jesus Christ our Saviour, in whom I salute the Church which is at Magnesia, near the Mæander, and wish it abundance of happiness in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ.

Having been informed of your godly love, so well-ordered, I rejoiced greatly, and determined to commune with you in the faith of Jesus Christ. For as one who has been thought worthy of the most honorable of all names, in those bonds which I bear about, I commend the Churches, in which I pray for a union both of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, the constant source of our life, and of faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred, but especially of Jesus and the Father, in whom, if we endure all the assaults of the prince of this world, and escape them, we shall enjoy God.

Since, then, I have had the privilege of seeing you, through Damas your most worthy bishop, and through your worthy presbyters Bassus and Apollonius, and through my fellow-servant the deacon Sotio, whose friendship may I ever enjoy, inasmuch as he is subject to the bishop as to the grace of God, and to the presbytery as to the law of Jesus Christ, [I now write to you]. — Greeting through Chapter 2

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