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Year: 2006

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Of holy memory

Please remember during the month of November:

Andrzej and Emilia, Józef and Rozalia, Louis A. and Bernice, Walenty and Maria, Jan and Marianna, Marcin and Marianna, Louis T. and Rita, Sister Mary Agnese, Agnes and Joseph, Angeline, John, Walenty, Walerka, Francis and Mary, Ludwis, Anthony and Laura, Mary Grace, Joseph, and Chester

Wieczny odpoczynek racz im dać Panie, a światłość wiekuista niechaj im świeci. Amen.

Niech odpoczywają w pokoju. Amen.

Witaj, Królowo Nieba (Hail, Thou Queen of the Heavens)

[audio:https://www.konicki.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/Witaj_Krolowo_Nieba.MP3]
Current Events, Political

How does this impact us?

From the NY Times in Medic Tends a Fallen Marine, With Skill, Prayer and Anger

…

Inside the wire, First Lt. Scott R. Burlison, the company commander, gathered the group and told them that Lance Corporal Smith was alive and in surgery. He was critical, but stable. They hoped to fly him to Germany.

Doc had scrubbed himself clean. A big marine stepped forward with a small Bible, and the platoon huddled. He began with Psalm 91, verses 5 and 11…

Read the story and you will see the anger and frustration our soldiers have to deal with. They will come back wounded in very many ways.

Recently there has been a lot of discussion surrounding mounting budget deficits. Certainly a concern, but couple those deficits with the typical neglect our servicemen and women face after the fight.

The crippled, the sick, the angry, and the insane will be welcomed home warmly only to be presented with a check that will bounce when they seek to cash it.

From the pit of hell they are crying out for God’s mercy. May God have mercy on us all.

You shall not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day,

For God commands the angels to guard you in all your ways.

Poland - Polish - Polonia

The Long Walk

The BCC’s Tim Whewell uncovers new documentary evidence that solves the mystery of a dramatic escape from a Soviet Gulag by a Polish Calvary officer, Sławomir Rawicz, along with other Polish officers. Mr. Rawicz’s book The Long Walk has been in continuous print since 1956. The voracity of his account has frequently been questioned. Listen to the BBC’s radio story.

What I liked best about the story is the fact that the truth of Poles’ imprisonment in Soviet gulags is acknowledged. Something the West is painfully unaware of. To get an accurate recounting of the ordeal of the gulags check out A Forgotten Odyssey.

Homilies

Solemnity of All Saints

They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:

—Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb.—

That is what the saints proclaimed;
That is what we are afraid to proclaim, and thereby be acknowledged and notorious Christians;
But, that is what we must proclaim, for there is no other choice.

…and the elder will say of us who have witnessed the reality of Christ ever present —“ our salvation:

—These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.—

You and I must…
We must confess Jesus as our God and as the world’s salvation.
We must bring all to Him and His Holy Church.
We must witness, washing our robes in the Blood of Christ, and as He promises, we will be counted among the blessed, the saints of God.

Jesus told us:

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.

It is our duty, our work, and our struggle.

Saints of God, intercede for us! Pray for us that we may persevere in, teach, and defend the Holy Faith.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, Saints and Martyrs

October 31 – Bl. Grzymislawa (Błg. Grzymisławy)

Daj, o wielki Boże, zrozumieć Twym wiernym, że uszczęśliwienie ludzkości może przyjść do skutku tylko u stopni Twoich ołtarzy, że prawdziwe zjednoczenie umysłów i serc dokonać się może tylko w Sercu Jezusa, a żywe Serce Jezusa to Najśw. Sakrament, któremu cześć i chwała na wieki wieków. Amen.

Historical note and anecdote: Bl. Grzymisława was the wife of Leszek the White who, according to a rather famous anecdote, once explained to the Pope that Polish knights could not participate in his Crusade because there was no mead to be had in Palestine.

Current Events, Perspective, Political

If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed

On the torture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, from an interview with Ron Suskind (see Spiegel Online in “The President Knows more than He Lets on”)

SPIEGEL ONLINE: With waterboarding, the prisoner is made to feel as though he is drowing, even if he isn’t really at risk of dying. There are reports that Mohammed was a kind of unoffical record-holder when it came to waterboarding.

Suskind: With extraordinary minutes passing he earned a sort of grudging respect from interrogators. The thing they did with Mohammed is that we had captured his children, a boy and a girl, age 7 and 9. And at the darkest moment we threatened grievous injury to his children if he did not cooperate. His response was quite clear: “That’s fine. You can do what you want to my children, and they will find a better place with Allah.”

A dark omen indeed and people say faith doesn’t matter.

As in the case of the Fox News correspondents captured by Palestinian terrorists —“ sure we’ll convert to Islam, who cares. I don’t think Khalid Shaikh Mohammed would say anything similar. I can’t say I’m so courageous, but God, please grant me the grace of final perseverance.

What I found interesting in the interview is that the torturers actually became like the tortured. They came within inches of adopting the Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s methods. Talk about a screwed up psyche after this experience (see the Milgram experiment) —“ all brought to you by the Bush administration.

Current Events, Political

Somebody has to have a conscience

On the Israeli cabinet’s inclusion of the far right Israel Beiteinu Party in the ruling coalition (From XINHUA Online: Israeli parliament okays inclusion of extreme-right party)

…

Shortly after the cabinet’s approval of Israel Beiteinu’s entry into coalition, Israeli Science, Technology, Culture, and Sports Minister Ophir Pines-Paz announced his resignation from the government in protest of the decision.

Speaking at a press conference held on Monday, Pines-Paz said that there had been no other option left to him in the wake of the cabinet vote, adding that he had fought as hard as he could against Lieberman’s inclusion in the government and had resigned for reasons of conscience.

Pines-Paz, a member of the left-wing Labor Party, was the only cabinet member to vote against the inclusion of Lieberman. He also revealed at the conference that he would ran for the leadership of the Labor Party in later elections, adding that Labor’s leadership should be replaced.

…

Lieberman, 48, has long taken a tough line towards the Palestinians as well as Israel’s own Arab minority.

Lieberman’s hawkish policy can also be seen from his attitude towards Iran, an Islamic country that had sworn the wipe-off of Israel from Middle East map.

Last Monday, shortly after signing the entry agreement with Olmert, Lieberman said that “the big issue now is the Iranian threat, and I don’t want to think about what would happen in a year or two if we don’t deal with it now.”

Lieberman has also called for stripping Israeli Arabs of their citizenship, executing lawmakers for talking to Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and bombing Palestinian population centers, which made him one of Israel’s most divisive figures.

Let’s see, in Israel calling for the execution of lawmakers and the bombing of population centers makes you divisive. In other places I think it makes you criminally insane, a terrorist, or a mass murderer.

Everything Else

This week’s iPod shuffle (a little late)

Fr. Jim Tucker is still away and it looks like he has no Internet access so he can do his weekly call out for an iPod shuffle. I wanted to get at this before the weekend, but time got away from me. So here’s my shuffle for the week ahead:

  1. Mississippi Queen —“ Bachman-Turner Overdrive, The All Time Greatest Hits
  2. Biegnij razem ze mną —“ Kora and Maanam, The Best Of Kora & Maanam
  3. Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again) – Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash Artist’s Choice
  4. Barka —“ ks. Bogdan Skowroński, Witaj Panie
  5. Tenerife – Urszula, Udar
  6. Sorry —“ Iryna Bilyk (Ірина Білик), Kraina (Країна)
  7. Already Gone —“ Eagles, The Eagles – Their Greatest Hits
  8. Ten Years Gone —“ Led Zepplin, Physical Graffiti
  9. Nobody Does Me —“ Diane Schuur, Pure Schuur
  10. Highway Patrolman —“ Bruce Spingsteen, Johnny Cash Artist’s Choice

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