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Christian Witness, PNCC, , , ,

Prayers in Preparation for Holy Synod – the Next 8 Days

shining dove with rays on a dark golden background

  1. Sunday, 9/21 – Holy Spirit, keep before our Holy Synod the wisdom and love
 that has been revealed in Jesus Christ. Help our Holy Church to become more and more like Him in word and deed.
  2. Monday, 9/22 – Holy Spirit, give Your gift of wisdom
 to those You have called to lead Your Holy Church. Guide them in leading our Holy Synod.
  3. Tuesday, 9/23 – Holy Spirit, Guide our Holy Synod so that its work may result in the growth of Your Holy Church. May many be brought to holiness, truth, and joy by its work.
  4. Wednesday, 9/24 – Holy Spirit, guide our Holy Synod and fill its delegates minds and hearts with your wisdom.
  5. Thursday, 9/25 – Holy Spirit, guide our Holy Synod in the way of Christ. Keep us ever faithful to Scripture and Holy Tradition and assist us in rejecting all that is contrary.
  6. Friday, 9/26 – Holy Spirit, may everything done at Holy Synod begin with Your inspiration, and continue with Your help. Grant that its work always finds its origin in You, and through Your help reach completion.
  7. Saturday, 9/27 – Holy Spirit, I know You hear my words and will show understanding to my hopes and needs. Guide our Holy Synod in doing Your work and help it to reach all of Your goals for us.
  8. Sunday, 9/28 – Father, without You we can do nothing. 
Send forth Your Holy Spirit and help our Holy Synod to know what is right 
and to eagerly do Your will.

Oh God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit instructed the hearts of the faithful, Grant, that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Christian Witness, PNCC, Work, , , , ,

Happy Labor Day

labor-day-eight-hours

Almighty and everlasting God, by Whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified, receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before Thee for all estates of men and women who labor and seek justice for workers, that each in their vocation, ministry, and labor may truly and godly serve our society to Thy greater glory and his own sanctification and salvation. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Christian Witness, Saints and Martyrs, ,

Pray for Christians in Iraq

They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be a time for you to bear testimony. Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives. — Luke 21:11-19

Let us pray for the Christians of and in Iraq. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ, members of the body of Christ, our family.

Lord God, Father Almighty, grant by Your strong arm that Your Church in Iraq may be saved and preserved from every evil. Grant also that it may remain steadfast and persevere in faith before the evils of the enemy. If called to martyrdom, may Your Church show forth strong witness; for You preserve our lives even if we lose them in the eyes of the world. May we too be strengthened to serve you in imitation of the courage of the Holy Martyrs of Iraq. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

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O God, Who rules the world from everlasting to everlasting; speak to our hearts when courage fails, and we faint for fear. Keep us resolute and steadfast in the things that cannot be shaken, abounding in hope and knowing that our labor is not in vain in Thee. Restore our faith in Thine eternal purpose: renew in us that love which never fails; and make us lift up our eyes to behold, beyond the things which are seen and temporal, the things which are unseen and eternal. We ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Christian Witness, Events,

Invocation at Schenectady County Human Rights Commission Breakfast

Friends at the Schenectady County Human Rights Commission invited me to deliver the invocation at its 31st Annual Awards breakfast on Friday, May 23rd. I offered the following prayer:

Lord, You have called all of us to a path of freedom and justice; a restoration of relationships and the recognition of each person’s human dignity.

Enter into our hearts and minds and enflame our souls to see in each person another self. Grant that we may look past outward appearance to the essential relationships that prevail in Your kingdom. Help us to be more human. Restore and reconcile all relationships and enable us to take up our calling to restore a global human community, a single family fashioned in Your image.

Help us today to recognize and bless all those who have labored so diligently to establish a new equality of participation in our community and across the globe. Bless the work of all who labor to end the sources of human conflict — race, class, wealth, gender, servitude, forced labor, wage theft, military opposition, indebtedness, imprisonment, coercion, despair, anxiety, self-centeredness, alienation, anxiety, greed, separation, prejudice, and injustice— so that we may rise above our baser selves. Fashion us into images of Your Divinity and justice.

Finally grant us a freedom that surpasses personal autonomy and help us to recognize our continuing dependence on You as our Creator and Your call to see each other as another self through lives committed to knowing, loving and serving You and each other. Amen

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Christian Witness, DNKK, PNCC, ,

Our Shepherds

1UEWF00ZOur Holy Church has been specially blessed with dedicated, hard working, and faithful shepherds in our Bishops. Please remember them in your prayers – Prime Bishop Anthony, Our Diocesan Bishop Bernard, Diocesan Bishops Paul, Stanley, and John. Bishop Roald in Norway, Bishop Wiktor in Poland, Our retired Prime Bishops John and Robert, and Retired Bishops Thomas, Anthony, and Thaddeus.

O God, the pastor and ruler of all the faithful, mercifully look upon Thy servants, Anthony, Bernard, Paul, Stanley, John, Roald, Wiktor, John, Robert, Thomas, Anthony, and Thaddeus, whom Thou has been pleased to set as Bishops in Thy Church; grant them we beseech Thee, to be in word and conversation wholesome examples to the people committed to their charge, that they with them may attain everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Christian Witness, Events, PNCC, Political, , , , , ,

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.

Christian Witness, PNCC, , ,

Ś+P Rev. E. Louis Czechowski

238Rev. śp. E. Louis Czechowski, Sr., 80, of Bethlehem, died Monday, December 2, 2013 in Alexandria Manor, Nazareth.

Born November 11, 1933 in Reading, he was a son of the late śp. Louis Chester and śp. Anna A. (Thader) Czechowski. He was a school teacher in the Saucon Valley School District and was a former Rector of Our Lords Ascension P.N.C.C., Bethlehem. Survivors: Two sons, E. Lou Czechowski and his wife, Mary Ann of Macungie and Eric Czechowski of Kernersville, NC; his friend, Alan Beasley; and numerous family members in the Reading area.

A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at 3 p.m. on Friday, December 6, in St. Stephens P.N.C.C., 20 St. Stephens Church Lane, Reading. Interment will be in the parish cemetery. The Ashton Funeral Home, Easton is handling the arrangements.

Contributions: St. Stephens Polish National Catholic Church, Reading.

Eternal rest grant unto your servant and priest, śp. E. Louis, and may the perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.

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