Błogosławiony Andrzeju, chlubo polskiego narodu i wielki pokutniku, racz wstawić się za nami, i uprosić nam u Boga tę łaskę, abyśmy gardząc ziemską chwałą i próżnością, ukochali pokorę i pełnieniem dobrych uczynków starali się o żywot wieczny. Przez Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.
The business braintrust in western Massachusetts has decided to build an exclusive community – Paradise One (and no, I won’t link to it). Here’s a quote from their website:
Our vision:
We envision Paradise One as a microcosm of the Northampton / Amherst / Easthampton communities, a mix of gay and straight, older and younger. A place that is especially gay-friendly for the LGBT community who lack real options. Rather than the “gay place” or “old folks home”, we’d like it to be known as the vibrant, beautiful, place where a mix of progressive people choose to live in harmony.
Uh, yep.
Sure they go on about the fact that they are open to everyone. Does this sound open:
THE COMMUNITY:
Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Transgender & Straight are all welcome at Paradise One. Each member of our community will have one thing in common: The desire to continue living life to the fullest.
I imagine they would be open to a regular rosary rally in the community room praying for the end of homosexual sodomite abomination? It would certainly help me to live life to the fullest in the way Jesus intended. But then again, their two statements contradict eachother. How can it be gay friendly, yet open to everyone.
Perhaps we can persuade Tom Monaghan to buy up the condos? I’m thinking ‘Ave Maria North’. I think rather that Gene Robinson will be “‘blessing'” the place.
Unfortunately, this gay friendly exclusive community (don’t come here if you’re a serious Catholic or otherwise committed Christian) is only a little over an hour from Albany. That means that when the destruction comes I had better not be looking in that direction. I don’t want to end up a pillar of salt like Lot’s wife…
As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;
they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building;
on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.
So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, a person who is on the housetop and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them, and likewise a person in the field must not return to what was left behind.
Remember the wife of Lot.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it. — Luke 17:26-33
As we reflect on this 109th anniversary of the institution of the Polish National Catholic Church let us reflect on the meaning of Church, and let our reflection begin in scripture. The words from 1st Timothy ring true, do they not?
Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the last times some will turn away from the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and demonic instructions
So what is the Church? Is our Church solely defined by the man and bishop, Francis Hodur? Is it defined by any one person?
To this we must say no. We must be careful not to turn from faith in Christ to the glorification of any one man. Instead, we are defined by God and His incarnate revelation to all mankind, His Son Jesus Christ.
No, it is not man who defines us. We must be careful lest we slip into the errors of some of the catholic faithful who engage in the worship of a man, an idolatry of man over God, man over faith.
Again, what is the Church? Our name, the Polish National Catholic Church would lead you to believe that we worship everything Polish. That culture trumps faith.
To this we must say no. We must be careful lest our faith be overcome by the deceit of popular culture or cultural mores. We are catholic —“ universal, calling all mankind to Christ Jesus who is our salvation. No, it is not Polish culture or being Polish, it is rather being Catholic, being Christian.
This Solemnity is a day of celebration in the midst of Lent. On this day we take a moment to offer up our Lenten penance and our mortification for the increase of the one, holy, Catholic Church. Today we offer our temporal struggles so that none will turn away, so that all will be brought to Christ Jesus.
Wisdom teaches us that evil men will come to realize the error of their ways when the Just One shall confront His oppressors. They will say:
“This is he whom once we held as a laughingstock and as a type for mockery, fools that we were! His life we accounted madness, and his death dishonored. See how he is accounted among the sons of God; how his lot is with the saints!
Remember that it is He Himself that the world laughs at, now more than ever. And we, joined to Him, in this Holy Catholic Church, some since their baptism as children, others who have come here as adults to be renewed in the Catholic faith, are mocked as well.
We are one with Him, mocked and scorned with Him. As members of His Body then we are called to confront His oppressors.
You are the branches of the one true vine. Bear your fruit for the increase of the faith in the world. Stand up for the Christ even in the face of derision.
The world has it wrong. To the world Christ is either just another nice guy or as Wisdom explains, one seen as a madman who died a death of dishonor.
But Jesus tells us the truth:
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.
Apart from Him we can do nothing.
Therefore we must, as members of His Body, and as branches pruned to bear much fruit, proclaim the truth. And the truth is this: Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. There is no other. Not Mohammed’s way, not Buddha’s way, not Hindu or Shinto, or Tao. Jesus alone is the way, the truth and the life —“ and all must come to Him.
The Church founded by Christ, of which we are its members, is this:
It is us praying to God, through Christ ever present in the Eucharist before us. It is us proclaiming His name above every other name. It is us bowing and kneeling before His majesty and humility. It is us remaining in Him, grafted onto Him at baptism. It is us mocked and scorned for our faith because they mock and scorn Him. It is a faith from which Bishop Hodur and so many others would not run. It is the faith of the saints and martyrs. It is the faith given to us in Christ and kept alive in us by the Holy Spirit.
So today we rejoice. I rejoice. You and I are here. We have come up to the house of the Lord. Not the Jerusalem of stone, but the new and eternal Jerusalem. We have come to the city of light standing on a hill.
Let all the tribes come here, let the world come, for all are welcome in the house of the Lord. Welcome to wash away sinfulness and pride, welcome to repent, welcome to put on clean robes washed in the Blood of the Lamb. Welcome in His Church.
Bush: Port Deal Collapse Sends Bad Message from the AP:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush said Friday he was troubled by the political storm that forced the reversal of a deal allowing a company in Dubai to take over take over operations of six American ports, saying it sent a bad message to U.S. allies in the Middle East.
Bush said the United States needs moderate allies in the Arab world, like the United Arab Emirates, to win the global war on terrorism.
…
“I’m concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East,” the president said. “In order to win the war on terror we have got to strengthen our friendships and relationships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East.”
No Mr. President, we need honest allies who share our core values. We do not need allies that say one thing when facing west and another when facing east. Those types of ‘allies’ are simply pandering for their own benefit.
John Luke at the BLOGCORNER Preacher has a post on one man’s story of the Holocaust and its biblical implications. The post is entitled: Telling the Story.
I link to John Luke and I enjoy reading his posts. They offer good insight and are edifying.
Unfortunately in this post he states that among others —Poles willingly went along with and enabled the mass slaughter.—
I’ve made a comment on his post in this regard to point out the error, and I will let that suffice. I certainly hope he will modify his comments.
By the way, for those seeking good documentation of Poland’s efforts in World War II (the third larged Allied Army in Europe) you might wish to contact Mr. Frank Milewski, President of the The Polish American Congress Holocaust Documentation Committee, 177 Kent St., Brooklyn, NY 11222, (718) 349-9689 or (718) 263-2700.
You may also wish to check out the memories of Michael Preisler, a Polish Christian and Auschwitz survivor (Auschwitz Prisoner No. 22213) who told his story: Polish Survivor Remembers Auschwitz Death March and Days of the Red Snow.
See Also: The History of Poland: The Second World War
The Cost:
The Poles are the people who really lost the war.
Over half a million fighting men and women, and 6 million civilians (or 22% of the total population) died. About 50% of these were Polish Christians and 50% were Polish Jews. Approximately 5,384,000, or 89.9% of Polish war losses (Jews and Gentiles) were the victims of prisons, death camps, raids, executions, annihilation of ghettos, epidemics, starvation, excessive work and ill treatment.
So many Poles were sent to concentration camps that virtually every family had someone close to them who had been tortured or murdered there.
There were one million war orphans and over half a million invalids.
The country lost 38% of its national assets (Britain lost 0.8%, France lost 1.5%). Half the country was swallowed up by the Soviet Union including the two great cultural centres of Lwow and Wilno.
Many Poles could not return to the country for which they has fought because they belonged to the “wrong” political group or came from eastern Poland and had thus become Soviet citizens. Others were arrested, tortured and imprisoned by the Soviet authorities for belonging to the Home Army.
Although “victors” they were not allowed to partake in victory celebrations.
O Boże, który św. Jana wielką zapaliłeś miłością bliźniego, i uczyniłeś go założycielem zakonu, mającego pieczę o chorych, za przyczyną tegoż Jana świętego zapal i w nas ogień Twej miłości, abyśmy dla cierpiących bliźnich ofiarne mieli serce, a pozbywszy się grzechów swoich zasłużyli sobie na żywot wieczny. Amen.