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Month: June 2014

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Reflection for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2014

April12_Nurture-1024x790

Jesus is our
hope and way of life

If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God.

This past Friday, at 1am, police were called to our neighborhood. 28-year old Angel Carrion was dead. Killed by a gunshot wound to the chest.

If you read the various news stories you will see different views of what happened. Time Warner News talks about loud parties at the residence, all night partying, mysterious middle-aged figures in black cars, children in the midst of adults doing adult things. Police there all the time. They paint a picture of broken families, broken lives.

WTEN shows a different side of the story. Angel was a father of three, a friend, someone who was brother to those who weren’t even his family. Angel’s childhood friend Jorge said, “He was a good friend. He was a good father. He helped out the community. Nobody is perfect in this world, but he didn’t deserve this.” Other neighbors noted their worry for the children who live here. One neighbor said: “For the kids, it’s going to be scary for them, too, knowing there’s a shooting right up the road.”

We began this year dedicating it to the theme of family. In my annual report I said: “…we do not just come to church to have our needs met. No family exists just to serve one or a few members. The same for the Church – our family of faith is about all its members and our relationship with the head of the family – Jesus. We belong to His family. Our family of faith does not exist to just meet individual needs. We exist to meet the needs of our fellow family members and a world that badly needs to know Jesus.”

Angel and his family, this neighborhood, its children are part of that world that needs to know Jesus. They know Him through us. In us they should see faith in Jesus’ saving power. In us they should see the joy that comes from a life that takes all the good we, and men like Angel do, to the next level through unity with Jesus. Jesus died for all. To free all from sin. As Angel’s friend Jorge said, “Nobody is perfect in this world.” In all of our imperfection the world has to know that Jesus is there for us, to save us, to raise us up. He is in this neighborhood, calling us to reject sin and grab His promises – life without end even in tragedy.

In Jesus we are bound together – parishioners, Angel, his family, this neighborhood – a bond so strong that no sin, even murder, even tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword can harm us. In this bond, in the life we have in Jesus, let us offer hope to our neighborhood and all who so need Him Who is our hope and new way of life.

Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , , , ,

Martin Scorsese Presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema

Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema – A screening series of restored classic Polish films touring the U.S. and Canada, which opened at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York in February 2014.

The Masterpieces will be shown at the Cinema Arts Centre, at 423 Park Avenue, Huntington, NY from June 18th through July 23rd. More Masterpieces to come on July 9th, 13th, 16th and 23rd. Titles to be announced.

Organized and curated by Martin Scorsese, one of the most recognized and respected filmmakers in the world, the series is the largest presentation of restored Polish cinema to date.

21 Films you might not know

Martin Scorsese has personally selected 21 Polish films that have been an inspiration and influence.

30+ Theaters across North America

Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema is an unprecedented cultural event. Polish cinema has never been showcased in North America on such a scale. The best in classic Polish film will be shown in cities in the U.S. and Canada throughout 2014, beginning with a special premiere presentation in New York City on February 5th.

Pristine quality

Films in the series will be presented in the highest possible quality thanks to extensive digital picture and audio restoration. Dirt, scratches and other ravages of time have been removed, while preserving the integrity and beauty of the original films.

Christian Witness, Homilies,

Reflection for the Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi 2014

Eucharistic-Adoration

I am not an
object!

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

In any good relationship we see the other person for who they are – first and foremost a human being. We look beyond appearance, beyond the externals, beyond our personal desires and wants (what we can take from or get from that person) and recognize their value. We treat that person with respect and honor and want to be with them. We want to be with them because they offer their humanity and respect in return for the humanity and respect we offer.

As Christians we easily see the sin of turning others into objects. We also know the problems inherent in pursuing things as solutions to problems or as an end in themselves.

During the 8 days that began Thursday, June 19th we particularly honor and commemorate Jesus’ gift of His body and blood in the Eucharist. Our minds and hearts are called to adore Jesus in this precious gift. However, we must be very careful to keep the reality of Jesus before us.

When the Church was new, the Apostles and all those who knew Jesus, who lived and ministered alongside Him, who were taught by Him, recognized His reality.

In the centuries that followed Christians recognized the reality of Jesus in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. When they recalled Him saying: “Do this in remembrance of Me,” they actually heard: “Do this and be one with Me.” For them, the celebration of the Eucharist every Sunday was an active encounter with the reality of Jesus. These Christians were one with Jesus at every moment of His eternity, His earthly life, and His return in glory. They were with Jesus in the past, present, and future. All this was found in the Eucharist. They saw, felt, and lived the reality of Jesus and the promise He gave: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. He was with and in them and they knew it. They realized that by participating in the Eucharist and receiving Holy Communion they were with Him and each other forever.

Later, and for many reasons, the people of the Church stopped seeing the Eucharist as an encounter with the reality of Jesus. Certainly the Church never lost faith in Jesus’s real presence in the signs of bread and wine, but the Eucharist became more an object, a memory limited three days in Jesus’ life. The Body and Blood were adored, but as an object. Our obligation is to take this Solemnity and every Sunday as a call to re-encounter the reality of Jesus who remains with us now and forever.

Christian Witness, Homilies,

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity 2014

Living-Room-Main

Get on the couch
with Us

Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the holy ones greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

If you look at the picture at the top you will see a couch with three seats and the words: “The Living Room.” This is symbolic of our One God and the three Devine Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the real focus of this Solemnity.

If we were to try to explain the nature of God as One in Three Divine Persons we would be wasting our time. Many saints have offered analogies to explain the Trinity. The Councils of the Church have set forth great Creeds that proclaim our understanding of God. We can simply proclaim our belief and understanding of God’s nature in those Creeds and avoid the frustrations of over-thinking. Today, let us stand in faith, accepting God’s revelation of Himself as One and Three Divine Persons, and profess our Creeds with confidence. What has frustrated the minds of others has been given to us by faith.

This Solemnity is about the ‘living room.’ Ecclesiastes 4:7-8 tells us: Again, I saw vanity under the sun: a person who has no one, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.

This reflection and Paul’s words to the Corinthians are about living Godlike lives. We could have the most perfect living room (at least to those looking in from the outside) but if we are alone or apart, if people can only look in, we are not living God’s life.

Ecclesiastes goes on: Two are better than one… though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. This and Paul’s words are practical instruction on what life in God is really about. It is about faith expressed by living as God intends us to live, modeled on His own Divine Life – an eternal, beautiful, peaceful, truthful, rejoicing, and just life lived together. When the Holy Trinity looked at what they had made they declared: “It is not good that the man should be alone.” Jesus did not live alone, but gathered a community of disciples, and of course was always one with the Father and Holy Spirit.

Strength and the best in life come from living together in the living room created by and modeled on God. There are many seats – we must not sit there alone.

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for Pentecost 2014

pentecost

What it takes to
bloom

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.

St. Paul is telling us that God brings each of us to completion, to perfection, to a full blooming of the nature we have in Him through the work and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God sends His Holy Spirit to us exactly for our benefit – not just as individuals – but also as members of the family of His Holy Church. In the Spirit His Church is created and sustained. Its members manifest conversion through faith and contribute the gifts he or she has been given.

A good way to determine how brightly we are blooming in personal faith and as members of the Church is to measure how completely we have given our life over to God’s Holy Spirit. Consider Paul’s message to the Galatians: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.

These verses offer an inspiring, and deeply comforting revelation of how our life, spirit, and actions will bloom when truly “spirit-filled.” It also speaks of the relationship that should bloom within the family of the Church.

Our lives and our Church should “bloom” with the fruit – the “blossom”—or living proof, of the Holy Spirit within us! People should be able to clearly recognize our fruit – in our actions, our words, and our lives.

“Love,” “joy,” “peace,” “gentleness,” and “goodness,” is the food the Holy Spirit gives us so that we can bloom. His goodness, wraps us in His love, comforts us with His peace, and calms us with His gentleness – and together define what true, lasting, and eternally accessible “joy of the Lord” is made up of.

“Longsuffering,” “meekness,” “faith” and “temperance,” are words that describe the characteristics we should display as mature, Spirit-filled Christian believers and most particularly as a Church family alive in the Spirit.

Sometimes we have to struggle when we are wronged or recognize when others are right and our ego needs to take a back seat. The food of the Spirit is sometimes painfully cultivated in us, but to really bloom we must stay committed to attain the best of what God has to offer!

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