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Month: October 2009

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Poetry

October 31 – Snowy field by Maria Konopnicka

Spring comes: the flowers learn their colored shapes
I look at them, but back at me there gapes
Emptiness, white and endless.

And Summer comes to where the gold crops stand;
But I still see, as plain as on my own hand,
Emptiness, white and endless.

And death will come to dim my human sight.
My eyes, inside the tomb, will watch with fright
Emptiness, white and endless.

At midnight, from my coffin, I shall go
Thoughtfully toward the distant fields that show
Emptiness, white and endless.

Translated by Jerzy Peterkiewicz and Burns Singer

No.3260 A snowy field and a blue sky by Tomo Yun

I wiosna przyjdzie, i kwiat rozwinie,
A z moich oczu nigdy nie zginie
     Bezbrzeżne, białe pole…

I lato przyjdzie, i kłos zadzwoni,
A w moich oczach wciąż jak na dłoni
     Bezbrzeżne, białe pole…

I życie przejdzie, i śmierć zamroczy,
Ale ja w trumnie otworzę oczy
     W bezbrzeżne, białe pole…

I przyjdzie północ, i z grobu wstanę,
I zwrócę kroki me zadumane
     W bezbrzeżne, białe pole…

Poetry

October 30 – Military Sonnet by Stefan Florian Garczyński

With signal of attack each separate line
Like two black clouds ere bursts the thunder peal
Advance,—” each moment closer yet they steal,
Thirsty for blood, the battle’s crimson wine.
With manes outshaken at the second sign
The horses snort, glance proudly,—” bold with ire,
Strike with their hoofs,—” raise dust with sparks of fire,
As though the coming victory they divine.
March! march! the third sign giv’n; what billows rise!
The sea itself is not more tempest-tost
With horse and rider;—” earth in smoke is lost.
A clash of arms! friends mingle in the host
With foes. Who conquers? from the turmoil fled,
The vanquished leave the victors with the dead!

Translation from Poets and Poetry of Poland A Collection of Polish Verse, Including a Short Account of the History of Polish Poetry, with Sixty Biographical Sketches of Poland’s Poets and Specimens of Their Composition by Paul Soboleski

The Charge at Rokitna by Stanislaw Kaczor-Batowski

Znak do natarcia dany —” wtem dwa ciała żywe
Jak dwie chmury, nim grzmot z nich śmiertelny wystrzeli,
Wolno sig posuwają na wietrznej topieli;
Coraz bliżej nadchodzą krwi i mordów chciwe.
I znak drugi uderza —” i koń wstrząsnął grzywę
I parsknął —” okiem strzelił —” i żywiej i śmielej
Kopytem dziarskim ziemie pod nogami dzieli,
Jakby wiedział że niesie wyroki szczęśliwe.
Marsz , marsz ! trzeci raz słychać —” patrz —” na skrzydłach fali
Nie tak ku niebu morze miota się z otchłani
Jak jeździec, jak koń pędzi —” ziemia się tumani. —”
Krzyk okropny —” szczęk broni —” znani i nieznani
Mieszają się —” kto wygrał? —” Nie rozpoznać w dali
Tamci pierzchli —” z trupami zwycięzcy zostali!

Poetry

October 29 – What One Likes by Tomasz Kajetan Węgierski

Let the toper his empty glass fill,
And the gambler throw his dice with skill;
Let the huntsman gallop his steed at will,
And the warrior other warriors kill;
Let the courtier buzz in the palace gate,
The usurer eat the youth’s estate;
The lawyer pillage and prose and prate,
And rob even beggars, with looks sedate;
The monk may leave his sandals where
They tell strange tales,—”I nothing care,
If of this world’s follies I get my share;
Let each just as he likes —” that’s fair.

Translation from Poets and Poetry of Poland A Collection of Polish Verse, Including a Short Account of the History of Polish Poetry, with Sixty Biographical Sketches of Poland’s Poets and Specimens of Their Composition by Paul Soboleski

Niechaj się opój kieliszkiem bawi,
Szuler przy kartach niechaj czas trawi,
Jeździec na koniu niech się uwija,
Żołnierz na wojnie niech drugich zbija,
Dworak w pałacach niech piętą kręci,
Lichwiarz niech piątki, soboty święci,
Jurysta niechaj z swych kratek gada,
Ksiądz niechaj zdziera, choćby i dziada,
Mnich niech po domach sandały gubi:
Bo tak najlepiej, jak kto co lubi.

Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

Landowski’s Christ the Redeemer to be refinished

From 9News and other sources: Rio’s Christ the Redeemer to get upgrade

The [Roman] Catholic Church has announced plans to raise $US3.5 million ($A3.81 million) for a major upgrade of Christ the Redeemer, the iconic giant statue of Jesus with outstretched arms that overlooks Rio de Janeiro.

Cleaning and repairing the 78-year-old statue will take four to six months, Rio de Janeiro Archbishop Ornani Tempesta told reporters on Wednesday.

…

RedentorThe 30-metre tall stone and cement Christ the Redeemer stands on an eight-metre high pedestal on top of Mount Corcovado, overlooking the metropolis of around 10 million people.

It was designed by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, who ceded all the rights to the monument to the Catholic Church.

A French sculptor of Polish origin, Paul Landowski, sculpted the statue. It was inaugurated in 1931 after five years of work.

Classified as a historic monument since 1973, some 1.8 million visitors stop by to see the stature [sic] every year.

PNCC, ,

The PNCC in Springfield and Westfield, MA

From CBS3 Springfield: Roman Catholic Alternative

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield announced this summer that 19 Catholic Churches are closing leaving many fighting to keep their places of worship open or looking for another church. We found local Catholic churches that are not part of the Roman Catholic diocese but are Catholic and run their church democratically.

Laurie Costello, member of National Catholic Church, says, “We came from the Roman Catholic Church and we just weren’t happy with the way things ran.”

Laurie Costello and her family changed churches 5 years ago when the Springfield Diocese closed the Roman Catholic school she grew up in.

Costello says, “We did fight to keep it open and we came to find out that no matter what you were going to do it has been decided.”

But at St. Joseph’s National Catholic Church in Westfield parishioners claim that would never happen to their church because they don’t answer to the Springfield Diocese or the Vatican.

Costello says, “The parish won’t close unless we vote on it.”

Susan Teehan, a life-long member of St. Joseph’s says, “The church is a democratic church. We own the property, the buildings.”

Teehan’s grandparents helped found St. Joseph’s 80 years ago. She’s been going to mass here since she was a little girl.

Teehan says, “I think other people feel they come to Sunday Mass and they leave and they have no voice in the church whereas we feel as if we are an important part of the church.”

Father Sr. Joseph Soltysiak says, “The people of this church have very much a say in the affairs that go on.”

Father Sr. Joseph Soltysiak has been the priest at St. Joseph’s for more than 15 years. He says everyone gets one vote, including him. But it’s very much a Catholic church.

Father Sr. Soltysiak says, “We are a very high church. We are a Catholic Church. Our main method of worship is the Holy Mass Eucharist.”

The National Catholic Church was founded in Pennsylvania in the late 1800’s by Polish-Americans who broke away from the Roman Catholic Church partly because of disputes over who owned church property. Currently, there are 8 churches in Massachusetts and have 25-thousand members in the United States. It used to be called the Polish National Catholic Church until recently. They changed the name to welcome all people.

Father Sr. Soltysiak says, “The majority of people coming here and who become part of our family are people who left their Catholic faith and they can find it again here but not under the jurisdiction of Rome.”

That’s exactly what Laurie Costello and her family did and they found a new religious home.

There are differences between the National Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church. One of the most obvious is the priests can marry. Father Joe has several kids. One of them is also priest.

…

The National Catholic Churches in Western Mass are in Chicopee, Northampton, South Deerfield, Ware and Westfield.

Christian Witness, Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

Ś + P Sister Ludwika Sofja Andrzejewska

From the Albany Times Union: A life of giving comes to an end (or really has not ended, has just changed)

She was known as Sister Andy, a tiny former cloistered nun with a big heart for helping others

GUILDERLAND– Sister Ludwika Sofja Andrzejewska was so tiny, her feet never touched the ground when she sat in a pew and prayed.

It was her heart that reached to heaven.

Sister Andy, as she was known, who died Sunday at the age of 101, was remembered as a towering force for prayer and goodness who touched the hearts of many on both sides of the Atlantic.

A sister in the Society of the Sacred Heart religious order for 70 years, she spent three decades as a cloistered nun, walled off from society, until her order relaxed its rules in 1970.

She was for 25 years at Kenwood, where a community of Sacred Heart nuns lived on the grounds of Doane Stuart School’s former site. She worked in the infirmary caring for ailing sisters. On Tuesday, she was buried in a cemetery at Kenwood.

“She was a happy, little woman, a fairy godmother to so many,” recalled Sister Joan Gannon, who lives with 30 other Sisters of the Sacred Heart at Teresian House. As their group at Kenwood died off and grew infirm, they moved to the nursing home. Of the 50 who relocated since 2006, about 30 are still living. Roughly one-third are in their 90s.

After a funeral service for Sister Andy in the Infant of Prague Chapel at Teresian House, most of the 20 nuns who swapped stories about their friend used wheelchairs or walkers.

Sister Andy, who stood 4-feet-8, relished her role as imp.

She took yoga classes while in her 90s and liked to raise her walker overhead in jubilation. “She could reach her knees to her chin,” a nun said, to general laughter. It was a short lift.

Her room at Kenwood resembled a warehouse with stacks of boxes. She was constantly gathering clothing and other items to ship to her relatives in her native Poland. The clicking of knitting needles echoed down the hall as she knitted and crocheted acres of baby booties and clothing for great-grandnieces in the old country.

Born in the farming village of Katy on July 13, 1908, she came from hearty peasant stock. She has sisters in their 90s who are still living. She emigrated to the U.S. in 1934 and taught at Sacred Heart schools in Nebraska, Illinois and Missouri.

“Her heart was always rooted in Poland,” said Mira Lechowicz, who met Sister Andy in 1995 when she taught yoga at Kenwood. They spoke Polish. “What a beautiful spirit she was. She was pure love.”

In recent weeks as Lechowicz as she came to visit, Sister Andy told Lechowicz she was going home to Jesus. She spoke low and in Polish: “Jezu ufam Tobie,” (“Jesus, I trust in you.”)

On Saturday, the day before she died, Sister Andy told Sister Gannon she was ready. Sister Andy took to her bed and declined a nightgown. She crossed her arms over her bare chest beneath the bed covers and showed no fear. She indicated she wanted to leave the world in the state in which she entered it as an infant, Sister Gannon said.

She recounted that Sister Andy lifted her arms and said, in English: “Here I am, Jesus, come take me.”

To You, O Lord, we commend the soul of Your handmaid, Ludwika; open the gates of paradise to her and help us who remain to comfort one another with the assurance of our faith. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Wieczne odpoczynek racz jej dać Panie, a światłość wiekuista niechaj jej świeci.
Niech odpoczywają w pokoju, Amen.

Her obituary: Sr. Ludwika Sofja Andrzejewska

Sister Ludwika Sofja Andrzejewska, religious of the Sacred Heart, died peacefully at Teresian House on Sunday evening, October 25, 2009. Born in 1908, in Katy, Poland, “Sister Andy” was the daughter of Walenty Andrzejewska and Franciszka Majchrsak. She had four sisters and four brothers as well as five half-sisters and brothers. She entered the Society of the Sacred Heart on November 1, 1931 in Zbilitowska Gora and after making her first vows there, came to the United States as a missionary. She made her final vows at Barat College of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest, Ill. on February 2, 1940. During her many years of ministry, Sister Andy was a homemaker for her religious of the Sacred Heart sisters and the children in Sacred Heart schools in Omaha, Neb., Lake Forest, Ill., St. Joseph, Mo. and Chicago, Ill. She was known for her sewing and her knitting, and kept the little shops both at Duchesne Academy in Omaha and at Kenwood in Albany full of delightful home made articles. Sister Andy came to Albany in 1982 and was an aid in the infirmary for as long as she was able. In 2007 she joined the community at Teresian House where she was an active participant until very recently. Her tiny four foot, eight inch frame was packed with energy and determination. She was fun loving and beloved by all who knew her including, most recently, the staff and residents of Carmel Gardens at Teresian House. During her active years she worked earnestly to get donations of goods and money to send to her beloved family and friends in Poland, particularly after World War II. Sister Andy remained close to her family in spite of the geographical separation and after 1970, when cloister was lifted for the religious of the Sacred Heart, she went a few times to visit them. Some of them, in turn, were able to visit her. She is survived by a sister and by many nieces and nephews, grand and great-grandnieces and nephews and her religious family who will sorely miss her.

Poetry

October 28 – Song I from Sybil by Jan Paweł Woronicz

Oracle of Hesperian lands! fame crowns thy brow
Of vast and sacred groves, all-powerful abbess thou!
To whilom lost and scattered Trojan bands, once more
Hast shown the welcome headland of safe fortified shore.
Later, with wonderful mysteries hast led apace
To glory grand and great their ever-conquering race.
Now having forsaken Cumaean rock renowned
Thou hast on Vistula’s shores a shining temple found!
Let me in my song praise of thy new abode proclaim,
And praise of the people long extinct—”and of their name!

Translation from Poets and Poetry of Poland A Collection of Polish Verse, Including a Short Account of the History of Polish Poetry, with Sixty Biographical Sketches of Poland’s Poets and Specimens of Their Composition by Paul Soboleski

Świątynia Sybilli w Puławach (The Temple of Sybil in Puławy, Poland)
Świątynia Sybilli w Puławach (The Temple of Sybil in Puławy, Poland)

O ty! sławna wyrocznio Hesperyyskich kraiów,
I wielo władna Xieni poświęconych gaiów!
Ty co niegdyś zbłąkanym rozproszeńcom Troi,
Ukazawszy przylądek warowney ostoi,
Późniey twoich taiemnic szanownemi składy,
Przywodziłaś do sławy ród ich światowłady,
A teraz opuściwszy Kumeyską iaskinię
W nadbrzeżu adwiślańskiem znayduiesz świątynię,
Pozwól mi twe siedliska nowe uczcić pieniem,
I pamięć zgaszonego narodu z imieniem

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