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Month: May 2009

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The far right can’t get it right

It’s an older story, back from March of this year. I came across it because it has been making its way through the Polish Press in the U.S. of late. Note that the BNP is Britain’s far right political party.

From Lancaster Unity (also here): BNP use POLISH plane in campaign poster despite plans to ban East European migrants

The British National Party was ridiculed last night for fronting its anti-immigration campaign with a picture of a Polish Spitfire.

Its poster for the European elections, for which its manifesto includes a ban on Eastern European migrant workers, shows the Second World War plane above the slogan ‘Battle for Britain’. But Air Force history experts have identified that the aircraft was actually flown by the RAF’s 303 Squadron —“ made up of expatriate Poles rescued from France shortly before Nazi occupation.

BNP party chiefs defended their use of the image and insisted they knew all about the background. But John Hemming, MP for Yardley, Birmingham, ridiculed this claim. He also condemned the far-Right party for using the image of Polish heroism in a campaign that includes stemming immigration from Poland.

He said: ‘The BNP often get confused and this happens because they haven’t done their research. This is just another example of them getting it wrong. They have a policy to send Polish people back to Poland —“ yet they are fronting their latest campaign using this plane. It is absurd to make claims about Englishness and Britishness fronted by this image. It’s obvious they just picked an image at random and they are really clutching at straws if they say this was deliberate.’

The 303 Squadron was the most effective Polish squadron during the Second World War. During the Battle of Britain Polish pilots shot down 203 Luftwaffe aircraft which stood for 12 per cent of total German losses in the battle.

A Royal Air Force museum spokesman said: ‘The Spitfire in the poster can be identified as belonging to 303 Squadron of the Polish Air Force by the code letters ‘RF’ painted in front of the RAF roundel. 303 Squadron operated Spitfires from Northolt, Kirton- in-Lindsey, Coltishall and other RAF stations in the UK between 1941 and 1945 after flying Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain.’

No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron-song

I cannot say how proud I am to have been privileged to help form and lead No. 303 squadron and later to lead such a magnificent fighting force as the Polish Wing. There formed within me in those days an admiration, respect and genuine affection for these really remarkable men which I have never lost. I formed friendship that are as firm as they were those twenty-five years ago and this I find most gratifying. We who were privileged to fly and fight with them will never forget and Britain must never forget how much she owes to the loyalty indomitable spirit and sacrifice of those Polish fliers. They were our staunchest Allies in our darkest days; may they always be remembered as such! — Group Captain John A. Kent DFC, AFC, Virtuti Militari.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

CNN – Autumn of Change, The New Poland

A huge retrospective on the fall of Communism led by Poland’s Solidarity revolution. Stories include:

Blog: Poles thrive in new Europe

Starting tomorrow, June 1st, CNN will present a week of programming focused on the changes in Poland over the past 20 years.

PNCC

More on St. John’s Cathedral

From the Rt. Rev. Sylvester Bigaj, Bishop of the Canadian Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church

Dear Brothers and Sisters.

I would like to express my joy on the return of St. John the Baptist Cathedral Parish in Toronto, Ontario, into the community of Polish National Catholic Church. Through prayer and our faith in God together we will heal the wounds of the past and eliminate any differences and prejudice.

Jesus Christ expects a testimony of faith from all of us. The future of evangelization is joined with the testimony of unity that the Church gives to us. The sign of that shared testimony is brotherly cooperation. Its ramification is the need for the unity of all believers in our Church. That is why all who believe in God, despite our differences, need to seek peace, try to grow closer together and strive jointly to the source of light eternal.

Brothers and Sisters, it is the message I give to you.

I ask you to give, in Jesus Christ, a shared testimony to the world.

Has it been: a mistake to meet halfway “… your brother has something against you” (Matthew 5:23) and seek reconciliation? Is it completely wrong to commit yourself to overcome narrow mindedness and obstinacy so you will be open to something positive and valuable for everyone?

Let’s put our attention to these important words of St Paul’s Letter to the Galatians: “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another” (Galatians 5:13-15). This excerpt refers deeply to our times. Unfortunately, ‘biting’ and ‘devouring’ sometimes takes place in the Church today as an expression of misunderstood freedom. Is it perhaps not surprising that we also are not by all means better than the Galatians? That we are tempted in the same way? That we have to learn how to use our freedom all over again? That we must teach ourselves again the most important priority of our lives — Love?

Dear Beloved!

I am asking you as your Bishop to pray fervently and genuinely for our Polish National Catholic Church. Pray for one another, for those who left and for those who came back. Our Church faces new and difficult tasks. Pray for unity, forgiveness and reconciliation. Our unity will bring us strength and prosperity towards a future filled with optimism.

Let us pray together:

Give us, Lord, Your Spirit of perception to be able to acquire Cognition and Wisdom.
Give us ears of those humble and modest to be able to seek Your Cognition and Wisdom.
Lead our Polish National Catholic Church to a triumph by uniting us all in one Body. Amen.

As published in God’s Field, Volume 87, No. 10, May 19, 2009.

Poetry,

May 31 – Let the Holy Spirit unite us by Rev. Piotr Kleszcz

Let the Holy Spirit unite us,
Because everyone is my sister and brother.

Open our hearts to the breath of the Spirit
Would that all the faithful listen to God.

Open our hearts to God’s gifts,
Would that everyone sing to His glory.

Open our hearts to God’s Light,
Would that what is good in us never be extinguished.

Translation by Dcn. Jim

Duch Święty niech jednoczy nas,
Bo każdy człowiek to siostra i brat.

Otwórzmy serca na tchnienie Ducha,
By każdy wiarą mógł Boga posłuchać.

Otwórzmy serca na Boże dary,
By każdy śpiewał dziś dla Jego chwały.

Otwórzmy serca na Boże Światło,
By to co dobre w nas nigdy nie zgasło.

Homilies

Solemnity of Pentecost

First reading: Acts 2:1-11
Psalm: Ps 104:1,24,29-31,34
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13
Gospel: John 15:26-27; John 16:12-15

“When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father,
he will testify to me.
And you also testify,
because you have been with me from the beginning.—

Brothers and sisters,

Truth be told:

We testify to the truth. Make no mistake, as Christians we testify to the truth. The Church has received the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit lives in each of us, each one who is a member of the Church. The Spirit is not just a feeling or a warm and fuzzy idea. The Spirit is God, living among us and in us prompting us to proclaim the truth of the Gospel.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, God is truth, God is perfection. Therefore, those in whom the Spirit dwells cannot speak falsehood, lies, deceit, but only the truth.

You and I, members of the Holy Polish National Catholic Church, are recipients of God’s Spirit, of God’s truth. We testify to the truth because to live in God, to live in the power of His Spirit, is to be a bearer of the truth.

The truth received:

The truth we have received is contained in the Holy Scripture and the Tradition of the Holy Church. That truth, established and codified by the undivided Church in the first thousand years of the Christian era is not, I repeat, is not, something we can change. We have a received truth. This is a truth we must proclaim and a truth we must protect.

Being human, and being sinful, we are all aware of the fact that we make mistakes. When we make those mistakes we feel pangs of conscience, a distance from God. Our human weaknesses are easy to project. We see ourselves in a certain way, and therefore everything on earth must carry the same characteristics we possess. We take our human weakness and project our brokenness onto everything we see, sometimes even on the Holy Church. We think: If we are human, the Church must be human. That is a fallacy. Yes, the Church is made up of broken humans, but it is, in and of itself, the dwelling place of God among us. The Church, an institution created by God and guided by the Holy Spirit, is not an institution of human brokenness, but an institution of God’s truth on earth, the place we come to heal human brokenness. The Church is the receiver of the truth and the bearer of the truth, and as such we can rely on its infallibility, its pronouncements, its ways, its teachings, and its healing power.

Unfortunately, some of the Christian bodies in the world have given in to the notion that the Church is just as human as the people who inhabit the Church. They see the Church as something that they can change, adapt, and correct to suit their whims, their desires, a body as malleable as they are. Of course we know that’s not true. Rather the Church stands as the bastion of God’s truth in a world that is constantly spinning and changing. This is received truth, truth the Holy Church protects because it is the truth of God. The Church protects the received truth because it is the rock of faith on which we can find protection from the storms of the world, the fashions of the times.

The uncomfortable truth:

Received truth, infallible truth, is tough.

None of us liked hearing that we were wrong. Even when we were three or four years old and our parents, or an aunt or uncle, told us we were wrong. When we are corrected we aren’t necessarily moved to thoughts of gratitude. The correction we received as small children only seemed worse as we got older. The poor clergy, teachers, parents, spouses, and bosses we’ve encountered, who had to deliver the uncomfortable message, had to put up with our thinking we were right, with our rebellion. The truth, even in human interactions, is very uncomfortable.

Then there’s the Church, standing as the only bastion of pure truth in the world. We look at what the Church says and teaches and sometimes we feel uncomfortable. Our gay friends can’t get ‘married,’ our wives and daughters can’t be priests; yes, what we did the other night was wrong; right, I do have to show Christ’s love to that homeless person and that immigrant; no, I can’t have it my way. We all want the Burger King solution, to have it our way, yet there is no plain Jesus without the fixins’ When we profess faith in Christ and live in the institution He created and infused with the Holy Spirit we have to take the whole deal, fixins’ and all.

I’m picturing the kids who asked their older brother to eat the pickle off their McDonald’s hamburger, because they didn’t care for it. Well my friends, we’ve got to eat it all.

This is the real discomfort that comes from our encounter with Christ and His Church. We cannot have it our way —“ it has to be His way. It is tough. The truth the Church teaches challenges are perceived notions and the al;leged truth created out of human weakness and desires.

Jesus gave the Spirit for a reason:

If Jesus had ascended without sending the Holy Spirit we would have been abandoned, with only words and stories to go on. Instead He sent the Spirit, the Spirit of power and truth.

In the Gospel according to St. John (John 16:13) Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will guide the members of the Church into truth:

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Jesus further told us that the very reason the Spirit has been sent was sent was so that we, the members of the Church, would know the truth that the worldly cannot receive (John 14:16-17):

And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.

The Spirit was sent so that we would know the truth, so that we would bear the truth, and so that we might witness the truth to the world.

The Spirit is power:

We need power to do what we must do as Christians, to be radical, to be bearers of truths that can be uncomfortable. This isn’t power as the world defines it, access to media, lots of money, big buildings and fancy clothes. Rather it is the power of truth itself.

This is one of the key reasons Christians get into conflict, into trouble when facing down the world. We speak a truth that is as uncomfortable to the world as the truth our parents spoke to us when we did wrong. The: You must love message, and love in a way that is defined by agape.

The truth of love is that it consumes. The truth of agape love is that it is the highest and purest form of love, the love that surpasses all other types of love. It is love that is self-sacrificing, as self-sacrificing as the love Jesus showed for humanity. We call the world to love in such a way as to accept the uncomfortable truth: That to love we must give ourselves up to God, His Church, and each other.

The reason wasn’t once:

The Spirit is a constant. The Spirit repeats the same truth over and over. The Spirit didn’t just show up on Pentecost, hand out the truth and take off. Rather the Spirit lives in the Church, in us, so that we might know the truth and live it powerfully.

The strong driving wind and the tongues of flame were not a one-off event, a long time ago. That wind, those tongues of flame, the power of the Holy Spirit, are in us and are a living constant.

The Spirit bears us up in proclaiming the uncomfortable truth of sacrificial love. The Spirit keeps us from veering into errors born of our wants and desires, transforming us into givers rather than masters who have to have it ‘our way.’ The Spirit keeps us from the fashions of the time and keeps us consistent with the fashion of God.

The Spirit keeps us alive and active, living in God’s way . The Spirit is not the warm fuzzy feeling we get when we think we know better than God, better than God’s way of accomplishing a task. That’s just us feeling good about our ideas. The Spirit is rather the joy we feel when we remain constant and steadfast in proclaiming the received truth, the living the truth, the powerful truth the remains — against all odds, against all fashion.

To know the truth and live it:

To know the Spirit is to know the truth. To be a Christian is to live that truth.

From the moment we were regenerated the gift of Holy Spirit was sealed inside of us (Ephesians. 1:13):

In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

Each of us, who have been sealed in regeneration, has been filled with Holy Spirit, with the truth of God (2 Peter 1:3-4):

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.

The Holy Spirit born inside of us, living in us, working through us, and teaching us through the Holy Church helps us in living the life our Lord and Savior asks us to live. That life is a life lived in power, truth, holiness, and witness.

Make no mistake, as Christians we testify to the truth. Let us thank God for His truth, for His gift of the Holy Spirit, and for the Holy Church. By the Spirit’s presence we are sharers in truth and proclaimers of truth. We are part of the body of Christ, His Church, not just to be members, but to live powerfully in the truth that is without end. Amen.

Christian Witness, PNCC

Reconciliation!

St. John’s Cathedral Parish in Toronto, Ontario, Canada has been reconciled to the Polish National Catholic Church. Praise and thanks to the Holy Spirit who grants us the grace to reconcile in all things.

St. John's Cathedral - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Poetry

May 30 – Various Limericks

There was an Old Man of Vesuvius,
Who studied the works of Vitruvius;
   When the flames burnt his book,
   To drinking he took,
That morbid Old Man of Vesuvius.

By Stanisław Barańczak, translated by Edward Lear

Pewien starzec u stóp Wezuwiusza
zgłębiał trzeci już tom Witruwiusza,
   gdy zalała go lawa;
   “Działa to jak ‘Wełtawa’ “,
rzekł, “Smetany: wzrusza i rozjusza”.

bon061

An epicure, dining at Crewe,
Found quite a large mouse in his stew.
   Said the waiter: “Don’t shout
   And wave it about,
Or the rest will be wanting one, too!”

By Antoni Marianowicz, translated by Edward Lear

Raz na mleku zamówiwszy ryż
gość w tym ryżu znalazł zdechłą mysz.
   Kelner na to rzekł: “Ciszej,
   nie pokazuj pan myszy,
bowiem inni goście zechcą tyż!”

wn018

There was a young lady of Riga,
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger:
   They returned from the ride
   With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger.

By Janusz Minkiewicz, translation unattributed

Zachciało się pewnej niewieście w Skarżysku
przejechać konno na małym tygrysku…
   Przybyli z wyprawy w porządku:
   dama w tygrysim żołądku,
a tygrys z uśmiechem na pysku.

wn024

A young schizophrenic named Struther
When told of the death of his mother,
   Said, “Yes, it’s too bad,
   But I can’t feel too sad.
After all, I still have each other.”

By Grzegorz Gigol, translation unattributed

Schizofrenik, który mieszkał pod Porajem,
w katastrofie samolotu nad Bombajem
   stracił całą rodzinę.
   Nie zmartwiony ni krztynę
rzekł: “To nic, i tak wciąż siebie mam nawzajem!”

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