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Day: November 23, 2006

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As we close this Thanksgiving Day

We give Thee our most humble and hearty thanks, O God, for blessings without number which we have received from Thee, for all Thy goodness and loving kindness, for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life. And, we beseech Thee, give us that due sense of all Thy mercies, that our hearts may be truly thankful for all things, and that we show forth Thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to Thy service and by walking before Thee in holiness and righteousness all our days. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A General Thanksgiving – from A Book of Devotions and Prayers According to the Use of the Polish National Catholic Church, Published by the Mission Fund of the PNCC, 7th edition, May 1, 1984.

Everything Else, ,

Thanksgiving menu and happenings

I started last night with the prep for my famous stuffing. The recipe for those interested:

Need:

  • 1 bag plan breadcrumbs (do NOT get anything with flavorings, spices, etc. – buy them from your local bakery – I get mine from Freihofer’s)
  • 1 1/2 Tb sage
  • 1 3/4 cup golden raisins (or other dried fruits – this year I used a mixture of golden raisins, dried cherries, and dried cranberries)
  • 5 crisp stalks celery
  • 1 large onion – sweet onion preferred
  • 1 package regular pork sausage (Jimmy Dean works fine, don’t get the hot or sausage with other flavors)
  • 1 1/2 quarts chicken broth
  • 1 stick butter (1/4 lb)

Procedure (one day prior):

Empty the breadcrumbs into a LARGE bowl – and I mean big, you’ll need it.
Bring the chicken broth to a boil and reduce heat to low. Leave it on while you prepare the rest.
Chop up the raw sausage as much as possible and fry. As the sausage fries continue to chop at it with a non-metal spatula. By the end you should have a finely crumbled, nicely browned bunch of sausage. Throw it on top of the breadcrumbs and mix.
Return your frying pan to the heat and melt the butter. Finely chop the celery and onions and mix together. Fry them in the butter until they are translucent. Once cooked, throw them on top of the bread crumbs and sausage and mix.
Thrown in the sage and the dried fruit.
Blend everything together.
Pour the broth over the mixture. Pour slowly and cover the mixture. Stop and stir everything together every so often.
Refrigerate overnight to let the flavors blend.

Bake apart from the turkey in a casserole (400 degrees for about 1/2 hour, till hot through).

Experiment with your own spices and other such things. Good luck.

Our family began arriving at about noon. Everyone pitched in with the prep and the clean-up (for which I am very grateful) and we ate at 2:15.

Today’s menu consisted of turkey, white and sweet mashed potatoes, rutabaga, corn, rolls, apple sauce, zucchini bread, jambalaya (with andouille sausage and shrimp), the stuffing noted above, gravy, cranberries (jellied and whole).

I served a Valpolicella Classico Superiore – Danese before dinner and a Moscato d’Asti – Saracco with dinner.

All-in-all a successful repast.

Current Events, Media

NCR discusses vagantes as —˜alternatives’

A writer for the National Catholic Reporter is attempting to understand vagantes —“ good luck.

Tom Carney has two articles in the current issue. You have to be a subscriber to see —National Catholic church among array of alternatives on left and right— (and no, I won’t subscribe). However his article: Spiritual storm leads priest away from church, back again is available in the on-line archives.

Here are a few excerpts:

It took an emotional and spiritual tempest to lead Fr. Ray McHenry away from the church that had nurtured him and to which he had always been loyal, and an equally turbulent squall to bring him back.

—It was the perfect storm,— said McHenry about the mix of emotions and circumstances that led him to leave the Roman Catholic church [sic] last year. He has now returned — for the same reasons he left.

His story is of a faith journey that included elation with the priesthood, disillusion with an assignment, involvement in a romantic relationship, disenchantment with the church, experimentation with a schismatic church, ending the romantic relationship, and ultimate reunion with the church of his birth.

…

Having entered the seminary at age 44, McHenry was ordained a priest in 2000 for the Des Moines, Iowa, diocese. He left the church three years later to join the left-leaning National Catholic Church of America only to return to the Des Moines diocese after less than a year.

…

… McHenry began to have second thoughts about the church and priesthood. The clergy abuse issue was full-blown, —and there were lots of unhappy Catholics, lots of negativity.—

McHenry wanted to remain a priest, but began looking for an alternative to the church he grew up in, looking especially at —schismatic— Catholic churches. He decided to look into the National Catholic Church of America, established in 1998, with headquarters in Albany, N.Y.

—They have the seven sacraments and apostolic succession,— he said. —It was all there.—

McHenry believed he was OK with the National Catholic church’s theology and practice, including ordination for women, married people and gays, and approval of second and third marriages and family planning. He believed that the National Catholic church was where the Roman Catholic church might be if the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) had been allowed to progress.

He took a leave of absence from the diocese, and after a time left it altogether. He began holding Mass for a group of Council Bluffs dissidents, at first in homes, then in space loaned by a Presbyterian church.

He spoke on the phone a couple of times with the National Catholic Church of America’s primate, Archbishop Richard Roy.

—He was personable,— said McHenry. —I liked what I heard.—

So when he and his female friend traveled to Albany to meet with Roy, he could offer a community in Council Bluffs — though only 15 or 20 members strong — willing to join him as new communicants. McHenry and his friend attended Roy’s Masses and met with National Catholic church members in Albany and Philadelphia.

But his new church was less structured than he expected. It was —Roy and a couple of other priests,— he said. And he saw that in Council Bluffs, he and his congregation would be —out here by ourselves.—

On the return trip, McHenry began asking himself questions. —Is it really a church?— —Is it going to hold together?— And the big question, —Have I done the right thing?—

Fr. McHenry probably should have asked some questions and done some research before he began. Switching churches based on a telephone call is not the way to go. Would you buy a house based on a few calls?

I would imagine that a call to the PNCC and some time in the PNCC seminary would have helped him think this through —“ and the PNCC will not accept anyone without a review, and a period of formation in the seminary.

When Fr. McHenry saw the reality of the National Catholic Church (a bishop and his boyfriend and whatever temporary quarters they can obtain for use as their church), the reality hit home.

To give you a sense, this from the NCC site:

Archbishop Roy … serves as Pastor of Holy Trinity National Catholic Church in Albany, NY, where he makes his home with Brother Stephen K. Peterson, OSJD, his partner since 1975.

Fr. McHenry had the right instincts; he may very well be called to the priesthood and to married life (in a husband-wife relationship). He will not be able to bury that forever, and the damage that burying those instincts does, where no charism of celibacy is given, is evident in so many damaged men.

By-the-way, the NCR must be loosing it if they see churches like these as ‘alternatives’ to the Holy Catholic Faith. I mean their liberal agenda is well know … but vagantes?

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