Month: June 2009

PNCC, ,

A dialog on the Revised Common Lectionary

From Beliefnet: More on the Lectionary

It may seem a parochial concern, but the comments on the Revised Common Lectionary post last week have been very intriguing. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the comments of two members of the Consultation on Common Texts, especially. That’s the ecumenical group that puts together the RCL…

When ensues is a wonderful discussion on the RCL. The PNCC is part of the CCT and is represented at its meetings.

Media, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , , ,

Videos from CNN’s Autumn of Change: Poland

Lights, camera … Poland
CNN’s Fred Pleitgen visits a Polish film school that has produced some of the world’s greatest filmmakers.

Polish economy going strong
CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen on the state of the Polish economy, which is faring much better than its neighbors.

Polish cuisine comeback
After the collapse of communism, Polish people also opted for fast food restaurants, but they are going back to their roots.

Birthplace of Solidarity
CNN’s Fred Pleitgen visits the town where Poland’s uprising against communism began.

Poland’s free media
Poland’s media has flourished since the fall of communism. CNN’s Fionnuala Sweeney reports.

Catholic Poland
Fred Pleitgen reports on the power and influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political,

Take Action: Tell the Appropriations Sub-Committees No Military Aid to Israel

picasso-peaceI’ve just sent letters to Members of Congress on the Appropriations Subcommittee that deals with foreign aid letting them know I oppose the President’s request for $2.7755 billion in military aid to Israel for FY2010. Israel routinely violates the U.S. Arms Export Control Act and Foreign Assistance Act by using U.S. weapons to commit human rights violations against Palestinians. Join me in taking action to oppose more military aid going to Israel by clicking here.

Thanks to the Young Fogey for pointing to this.

Poetry

June 3 – We children want to laugh by Tadeusz Kubiak

We, the children, want to laugh,
We, the children, want to play,
On the streets, in city parks
Gdansk, Krakow, Warsaw …
We want to sing merrily.
We want to dance joyfully
In the woods, among the green trees,
Where orange colored butterflies..
Where the wings of butterflies are rainbow,
Where Scouts sing around bonfires…
We want armfuls of flowers
For parents and loved ones.
We children are like children,
Sometimes unruly, sometimes defiant,
But we want the moonlight,
On nights that are never cloudy…
We want no days without sunshine,
No work without joy.
We want the earth to sing
To be filled with love.

Translation by Dcn. Jim

Joyful children

My, dzieci, chcemy się śmiać,
My, dzieci, chcemy się bawić,
Na ulicach i w parkach miast
Gdańska, Krakowa, Warszawy…
My chcemy wesoło śpiewać.
My chcemy wesoło tańczyć
W lasach, gdzie zielone drzewa,
Gdzie motyle w kolorze pomarańczy…
Gdzie motyle o skrzydłach jak tęcza,
Gdzie harcerski śpiew nad ogniskiem…
My chcemy kwiatów naręcza
Przynieść rodzicom i bliskim.
My jesteśmy dzieci jak dzieci,
Czasem krnąbrne, czasem czupurne,
Ale chcemy, by księżyc świecił,
A noce nie były pochmurne…
Chcemy, by nie było dnia bez słońca,
Pracy bez pięknej radości.
Chcemy, by ziemia śpiewająca
Pełna była dobrej miłości.

Poetry

June 2 – To the Cicada by Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski

Thou, whose voice in the grove’s silence is heard aloft,
While thou drinkest the tear-drops of the heavenly dews,
Thy sweet music, Cicada,
In thine ecstasy, pouring forth.

Come, come, Summer on light wheels is advacing fast,
While the hastening suns move, be they hail’d but chid
For their tarrying too long,
When the frosts of the winter flee.

As days dawn in their joy, so they depart in haste,—“
So flee, speedily flee; speedily speeds our bliss,
Too short are its abidings,—“
But grief lingeringly dwells with man.

Translation by James J. Mertz

cykada

Quæ populeâ fumma fedens comâ;
Cæli roriferis ebria lacrymis,
Et te voce, CICADA,
Et mutum recreas nemus.

Poſt longas hicmes, dum nimium brevis;
Æftas fe lenibus præcipitat rotis,
Feſtinos, age, lento
Soles excipe jurgio.

Ut fe quæque dies attulit optima;
Sic fe quæque rapit: milla fuit fatiß
Unquam longa voluptas:
Longus fæpius eſt dolor.

Poetry

June 1 – The Merits of Poland from ‘Flis’ by Sebastian Fabian Klonowicz

Poland is rich in green and fertile lands
That in God’s bosom, as it were, seem thrown,
What cares the Pole for ocean or its strands?
     Content, he ploughs his own.

Here Ceres, harvest goddess, wandered by
After she left her own Sicilian plain,
Here fields of rye abound, and bastion high
     Loom up the stacks of grain.

In Poland, high, commodious barns arise,
With harvest bounty amply filled and stored,
Here, for the jolly peasant will suffice
     Of rye, a goodly hoard!

Let who will praise the fertile Asian fields,
The yellow maize of Egypt and the Nile,
Upon our shore the oat abundance yields,
     For many a mile and mile.

Game is abundant, cattle horned abound,
Fat oxen, horses, sheep with lengthy coat,
And heifers graze within the meadows ’round,
     Beside the frisky goat!

Then, who could count the flocks of cackling geese,
The greedy ducks the swan whose whiteness charms,
The chickens, too, whose brood each day increase,
     And travel ’round the farms.

Of dishes rich a great variety
We get, and dainty food the dovecot gives,
How pleasant ’tis the bacon flitch to see
     Suspended ‘neath the eaves!

Then, too, the things we gather in the wood,
God’s bounty to the open-handed Pole,
He who desires to use these gifts of good
     Are welcome to the dole.

Through field and wood flit herds of graceful deer,
On trees the birds sing out their countless lives,
And the industrious bee his honey’d cheer
     Bears homeward to the hives.

As to the fish, a million of them speed
Through pond and lake and river seaward bound,
Nor lack the Poles for anything they need,
     With much abundance crowned.

Hence, I know not why you should grasp for more
My brother Pole, with such productive soil, —
Why should you seek to gather to your store
     Of foreign lands the spoil?

Translation from The Library of Choice Literature and Encyclopædia of Universal Authorship: The Masterpieces of the Standard Writers of All Nations and All Time, Vol. 5, Edited by Ainsworth Rand Spofford and Charles Gibbon

Felix Michael Wygrzywalski - Rybacy ciagnacy siec

Lecz miła Polska na żyznym zagonie
Zasiadła, jako n Boga na łonie.
Może nie wiedzieć Polak co to morze
     Gdy pilnie orze,

Tu Ceres nową osadziła wolą,
Opuściwszy tam Sycilijską rolą.
Tu żyta rodzi niezliczone łaszty,
     Brogi jak baszty.

Tu gumna w szczyrych polach stoją hojne,
Tu wzór bogaty tn żniwa spokojne,
Tu chłopek wesół, bo pewnie ma wszytko
     Kiedy ma żytko.

Niech kto chce chwali Azyą urodną,
Niech chwali Egipt i Nilowę płodną
Socznicę. Polska ma dosyć owszeki
     Choć w brzegach rzeki.

Tu zwierzu dosyć, tu bydło rogate,
Tu woły tuczne i owce kosmate,
Pasą się w łąkach jałowice tłuste.
     I kozy puste.

Stąd ma gospodarz i sprzężą do pługa,
Stąd ma odzieżą pan i dobry sługa,
Stąd mięso świeże, nabiału dostatek,
     W mieszek ostatek.

Gęsi moc wielka w lęgu szczebielliwych,
Kaczek łakomych, łabęci krzykliwych.
W domu obfitość sadowi się wszędzie
     Kurów po grzędzie.

Lecz tez do stołu nie lada potrawy,
I gołębiniec rodzi nam dziurawy.
Połcie też w domu z niemałą pociechą
     Wiszą pod strzechą.

Leśne bogactwa nieoszacowane
Hojnym Polakom od Boga są dane
A kto je sobie chce dobrze uwaźyć,
     Moze ich zazyć.

Po ziemi łanie i sarneczki źartkie,
Po drzewie ptastwo igra sobie wartkie.
Do barci niosą pracowite roje
     Zdobyczy swoje.

Ryb też dostatek prawie dobrej wody
Rodzą jeziora, stawy, rzeki, brody.
Owa Polakom na niczym nie schodzi,
     Wszystko się rodzi.

Chocia Bańskich miast nie mamy, nic o to,
Samo do ręku przychodzi nam złoto.
Za chlebem idą Lachom nie nowina
     Pułkufki wina.