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Month: February 2014

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Labor-Religion Coalition Announces Moral Mondays

Throughout the month of March, clergy, community, and labor allies will come together to call for a faithful New York State budget that values every member of society, prioritizes the common good, and lifts the burdens of poverty. Our many faiths call us to reject tax breaks for the wealthy and demand a budget that serves the people.

screenshotIn Albany- March 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 at 12 PM – Gather at the War Room on the 2nd floor of the NYS Capitol for a vigil led by clergy and faith leaders as well as those directly impacted by cuts to education and the social safety net as well as reductions in wage theft enforcement. More details at the Coalition’s Facebook page here.

In NYC – March 3, 10, 17, 24 at 11 AM – Gather in silence at the lobby of the Millenium UN Plaza Hotel, 44th St. and First Ave, proceed to the governor’s office at to protest and to pray.

Additional events are shaping up for Binghamton, Rochester and other New York cities starting March 10th. For more information or for help setting up a Moral Monday event near you, please contact Joy Perkett.

Christian Witness, PNCC, , ,

Angels in our midst

From the Villages News: Villages Public Safety captain works ‘Sunday miracle’ at church

Capt. Gail Lazenby of the Villages Public Safety Department worked a “Sunday miracle” when he recently saved a life at his church.

“God does that. He puts the right person at the right place. And Gail was that person,” said Father Mark Niznik of St. Paul Parish in Belleview.

Gail-LazenbyIt was Sunday Mass on Feb. 9 when a parishioner fell ill.

Lazenby, who is studying to be a deacon and was wearing his robes in church, heard the man’s wife call out, “We are having some difficulty here.”

That’s when Lazenby stepped into action, said Father Mark who had missed church that morning due to illness.

“Gail did what comes so naturally to him,” said Villager Evan Richards, who worships at St. Paul Parish.

He witnessed Lazenby start chest compressions and call out for the church’s automated external defibrillator.
Lazenby had personally paid for the AED.

“He said, there might be a need for it some day. He was right,” said Father Mark. “It was our Sunday miracle.”

Lazenby, a resident of the Village of Belle Aire, is set to retire at the end of the month from the Villages Public Safety Department.

He was much more modest about the “Sunday miracle.”

“It’s part of what I do,” he said.

The man was transported to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville that Sunday. He is now recovering at home.

Thanks be to God for the angels among us and of course our prayers for the health and healing of the individual who fell ill.

Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia

Congratulations Olympic Athletes

Congratulations to all Olympic Athletes. Our Holy Church has always honored and supported amateur athletics as an expression of the Lord’s blessing to humanity. We see this during our youth events like KURS and CONVO, the annual YMSofR Track and Field Meet, and our annual Bowling Tournament.

In John 3:16 we read that God loved His creation so much He sent His Son to bring redemption and the offer of salvation through his death. In Genesis 1:31 God pronounces His creation “very good.” St. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 4:4: “everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.”

Let us give thanks for all who compete honestly and faithfully at every level.

Kamil Stoch of Poland shows off his historic red and white Polish aviation checkerboard roundel on his ski helmet at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia. Stoch has won two gold medals for Poland in ski-jumping.
Kamil Stoch of Poland shows off his historic red and white Polish aviation checkerboard roundel on his ski helmet at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia. Stoch has won two gold medals for Poland in ski-jumping.
Phil Kessel had a trick for Team USA as they beat Slovenia, 5-1. Slovenia's Marcel Rodman scored with 17.6 seconds left in the game, denying U.S. goalie Ryan Miller a shutout. Miller, who went to Michigan State and was a Hobey Baker Award winner, made 17 saves in his Sochi debut.
Phil Kessel had a trick for Team USA as they beat Slovenia, 5-1. Slovenia’s Marcel Rodman scored with 17.6 seconds left in the game, denying U.S. goalie Ryan Miller a shutout. Miller, who went to Michigan State and was a Hobey Baker Award winner, made 17 saves in his Sochi debut.

Credit R.J. Rolak.

Christian Witness, Homilies,

Reflection for Sexagesima Sunday

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How can I even
consider these things?

But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles.

Prime Bishop Anthony, writing in God’s Field, discusses the Pre-Lenten season. He says:

“If we examine the Gospel of these three Pre-Lenten Sundays we will see that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is asking us to search beyond the normal rules of right and wrong. He asks us to go beyond even our actions to examine our motivations.”

He goes on to say:

“During the Pre-Lenten season the Church calls us to consider these words of our Lord and through them to examine our lives and our motivation. And especially we are called to take a deeper and deeper look into all things that we do as Christians and as members of Christ’ s Church. We must measure ourselves, not only by a few commandments, but on the whole Gospel of love, which has been given to us by Jesus Christ.”

Over these Sunday’s we are asked the impossible. We are challenged at the deepest possible level. Why do we do what we do?

Often times we live off instinct. It could be as simple as driving to work, to the store, or to church. We go on autopilot. The lights, the traffic, the streets, even the potholes are known to us. Sometimes we arrive and we don’t even remember how we got there.

This can happen in other areas of our life, even in prayer and charity. In prayer we recite the words. In charity we put the same amount in the envelope. Jesus is calling us to do something far more serious – to live beyond rote and instinct.

Author Jodi Picoult in her book Mercy says: “If God wanted us to act on instinct, we wouldn’t have the power of reason.”

This Pre-Lent we are called to live consciously. It is not just consideration of the words we pray or how often we pray – but asking ourselves – Why do I pray? It is not just thoughts of how often or how much I give – But why do I give at all? Jesus is giving us a deep and serious challenge. Are we “perfect, just as our heavenly Father is perfect?”

Every moment of our lives is to be carried out with consideration. If instinct tells us to do the usual and respond to evils in the usual way, stop and do the unusual: consider whether our reaction, our habits, reflect life in Christ. Every action, thought, and response, every routine, must be one with God’s way. We must consider, think and act to make God’s perfection apparent in every part of our lives.

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for Septuagesima Sunday 2014

spiritual maturity

How mature
am I?

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

St. Paul is telling us that we are the mature followers of Jesus. We are ready to receive the wisdom of God. This is not wisdom as the world or today’s rulers perceive wisdom, but something the immature cannot perceive.

Later Paul recounts that he began addressing us: as babes in Christ. He fed us with milk, not solid food; for we were not ready for it.

We must reflect on our spiritual maturity. Do we still need milk, to be spoon fed, or are we ready for solid food?

We begin at baptism, and our parents and the Holy Church worked diligently to raise us up in the knowledge of God’s mysteries. They worked to bring us from milk to solid food, but can we take that solid food?

This secret and mystery of God is not hocus-pocus. Rather it is the teaching of Jesus who shared with us every secret and mystery of His Heavenly Father. He recounts many of these mysteries in today’s Gospel. Do not hate, don’t even consider it. Reconcile with your enemies. Do not curse or criticize anyone. Do not lust for anything or for any reason. Don’t even consider it. Respect the human dignity of every person. Do not bear grudges against your spouse, but put your spouse first. Value the dignity and sacredness of your relationship.

In all these things – which are mysteries to the worldly – keep the commandments. Do not keep them as merely a law or a requirement, but keep them in a mature way – with love at the center: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is the great mystery. It is the mystery of loving fully and completely as Christians. It is our ability to accept and digest this solid food of love, to be mature followers of Jesus.

When we were immature we had to learn this slowly. We learned in the context of family and we learned in Church. Now we must assess whether we have matured; whether we are eating the solid food of God’s love daily. If we are mature we live the mystery and secret of love at all times and in every circumstance. If we eat the solid food of love we will love even when the world says it is ok not to. Eating this solid food of love we will live forever.

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 2014

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On who can we
rely?

“I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of Spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.”

Paul’s first letter to the church of Corinth provides insight into the life of an early Christian community. Through it we see both the strengths and the weaknesses of Christians in the ancient world. These men and women had accepted the good news of Christ and were now trying to make their baptismal commitment real in their lives. Paul, who had founded the community and continued to look after it as a father, responds both to questions addressed to him and to the situations that existed in this community.

Paul tells the people that he is nothing special or extraordinary. He came as a man in weakness, fear, and trembling. He wants to impress on them two things that they can make applicable in their lives. First, that he had no special gifts other than those he received through the power of the Holy Spirit – that the Holy Spirit is the source of life and direction in the Christian community. Second, that Christians must rely on the power of the Holy Spirit in living out their baptismal commitment.

We are faced with all sorts of competing voices who wish to give us direction in our lives. We must use great care in discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit and commit to following that voice rather than all the others.

The voices of our personal desires (the heart can lead us into sin as easily as it leads us to God), the voices of government, and the voices of whatever is popular at the moment must not influence us. In fact, we must be careful to ignore those voices in favor of sole reliance on the Holy Spirit.

God is not distant and apart from us. God does speak to people through the work of Jesus and the voice of the Holy Spirit. He is fully involved in our lives. God is close to us and is constantly ready to guide and help us in all things. We must grow in our ability to discern His voice, to recognize it more and more.

To hear Him we must grow closer to Him, to know what He is really like. Discernment of His voice comes from knowing God as our Father and friend. The word “discern” itself means to exercise judgment. With discernment, we are always faced with a simple choice: is it God acting or not?

By living in the family of faith, worshiping, praying regularly, and reading scripture we will grow in discernment, hear God’s voice, learn to rely on Him, and better live our baptismal commitment.

Christian Witness, Homilies, , ,

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Presentation

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Let’s use
those candles

“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel.”

Candles are blessed in the Holy Church on February 2nd, the Solemnity of the Presentation of the Lord. These blessed candles remind us of Simeon’s prayer in which he glories in the Lord’s promise. Jesus came to be the light of the world and Simeon recognized this immediately.

Today we bless these candles, those to be used in church over the coming year, and those for each of us to take home.

We keep these blessed candles (Gromnica) in our homes and light them during storms or other danger. We light them when the clergy come to bring Holy Communion to the sick or when the sick are anointed. We light them when someone is dying to light their way to eternity and to recall the fact that they are on their way to the Jesus who will be their eternal light.

A painting by Piotr Stachiewicz shows snow-covered homes in dim light. The people inside their homes are afraid of the hungry wolves on rampage outside their poor village. Mary, the Mother of God, watches over the people on those cold nights with her candle. She wards off the ravenous pack of wolves and protects the people from all harm.

There is much we might fear. It is not only the cold, and it is rarely a pack of wolves, but the wolves of the world, the greed, the anger, the prejudice, the culture of death, and other immorality surrounds our homes. It attacks our children.

The funny thing is that we likely have a lifetime supply of these candles we get in church in our homes. We pick them up; solemnly take them home, and put them in a drawer – just in case.

Since the wolves of the world surround us, since these represent true danger to our eternal souls, let us resolve to use these blessed candles this year. Let us use the blessed candle we receive today, and use up those blessed candles that reside in the drawers in our homes. Put them in a candleholder. Let us gather those we live with and light our blessed candle each day. Let us reflect on the protection the Lord offers, the prayers our Blessed Mother offers for us, and pray in the words of Simeon: mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation. Let us pray that Jesus, the light of the world, would continue to dwell with us, watch over us, and protect us.

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