St. Titus, Bishop, (1st Century)
St. Dorothy, Martyr, (303)
St. Amand, Bishop, (679)
From EarthTimes – Report: Majority of Catholic priests in Poland want right to marry
Warsaw (dpa) – Sixty per cent of Roman Catholic priests in overwhelmingly Catholic Poland want the right the marry and have families of their own, according to a survey published by Poland’s respected Tygodnik Powszechny (TP) weekly.
As times change and the social status of and respect for the priesthood declines, more and more priests who feel lonely, isolated and misunderstood are considering leaving the priesthood, according to the weekly, which caters for Poland’s Catholic intelligentsia.
“Not everyone can cope with the fact that at the beginning of the 21st century priests are no longer regarded as the priest they knew in their youth,” Jesuit Father and psychologist Jacek Prusak told TP.
But according to an as yet unpublished study, so far only one third of young priests who quit the priesthood do so for the sake of a woman.
“The main reason (for quitting the priesthood ) are existential problems and ideals,” according to the study’s author Professor Jozef Baniak of Poznan’s Adam Mickiewicz university. “A woman, if she appears, is in the background.”
“First there is an crisis of the priest’s identity and then he looks for someone in whom he can confide his problem,” says Baniak.
Vatican statistics quoted by TP also show more and more Polish priest are deciding to quit. Whereas in 1998, some 32 priests left, in 2004 the figure shot up to 57…
Not news because many Polish R.C. priests are ‘married,’ just not in the legal sense. They have women and children, often provided for out of the coffers of the local parish, or in extreme cases, out of the diocese. Scandal erupts only when a priest leaves to do the right thing – that is he legally marries his wife and supports his wife and children. He stands by her as husband and father.
Unfortunately, far too many choose the easy road. Oh, honey, I can’t marry you. Look at my great job, the cars, the money, the clothes, the vacations, the status. But it’s ok, we’ll be together on certain evenings and every other weekend. Tell the kids I do care.
It’s a total fallacy. It’s playing to a man’s base instincts, have fun, don’t commit.
Choosing to leave the R.C. priesthood in Poland puts one at a severe disadvantage. Start with the family pressure, the social pressures in the local community, and the hint of scandal… The women (those who actually hold these men to a higher standard) are poorly regarded in comparison to those who take it and shut-up. In addition, the financial losses alone are huge – another base instinct that must be fought against if the man wishes to do right.
And, by-the-way, it is not the woman’s fault.
The 57 who left are the honest ones, the ones who take their faith seriously. The others who remain, seeking the right to marry, are simply seeking a normalization of what already exists.
These men are having problems with their identity, as Prof. Baniak points out, not because of an inherent disorder, but because the identity they live in is disordered to their natural calling – marriage, a spouse, and children.
As I’ve said before, celibacy is a gift given to some, not a gift that can be demanded of the Holy Spirit. Once the R.C. Church gets beyond demanding that its men ‘receive’ this gift, perhaps the gift will be given more freely.
Faith you know.
St. Agatha, Martyr, (unknown)
St. Avitus, Bishop, (525)
St. Bertulf, Confessor, (705)
—Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.—
The Holy Church prays the Canticle of Simeon every night, a prayer before we sleep.
Simeon was ready to rest in the Lord. After all, he had lived a long life in hope and expectation.
This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord.
Simeon experienced firsthand what had been promised for ages upon ages. He came to the Temple and met his Messiah, the Christ, Jesus.
Ages before Simeon, Malachi was excited. He was eager with anticipation:
And suddenly there will come to the temple
the LORD whom you seek,
And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.
We are at the opposite end of the spectrum. We are fully aware that Jesus has come as man, that He suffered, died, and rose again. We are aware of His promise —“ eternal life in Him. A promise He gave and a commitment He delivered.
How do we make sense of that difference, the difference between anticipation and fulfillment? The difference between Simeon and St. Paul for example. How do we maintain perspective over the fact that we are living in the age of fulfillment? Paul speaks to the Galatians about the age of fulfillment:
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption.
As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
Today we receive candles to take home with us. We are surrounded by candles to remind us that Jesus Christ is the light. That He is the revelation of God, not just to us, but among us. We, gentiles each one of us, have been made co-heirs and have been adopted into God’s promise. We cry out to God as Father. As heirs we are now the bearers of the light. We are the different ones. As the Jewish people were set apart in the old covenant, we are set apart in the new.
What we have right in our hands and in our hearts is God’s promise fulfilled, God’s light within us. There is no more waiting, excepting for the complete fulfillment of time. We can no longer claim that we are waiting for something to happen. The time is now, the light is among us. It is time for doing.
What do we do with this light?
Have you even encountered one of those relatives or friends who so anticipate receiving a gift that they can’t wait to tell you exactly what they want? Those folks can be annoying. We think of them as presumptive.
That person is a combination of the eagerly anticipating and the knowing. They know that their special day is coming; they know that you will be buying them a gift, they anticipate it and presume it and they want to make sure you get it right. They even assume that they will live until their special day.
That annoying, presumptive person is us. He or she is the ideal Christian.
We all know that our special day is coming, the day when we will be born into eternal life. We also know that God has a gift awaiting us; His Son’s incarnation is proof enough of that. We anticipate heaven and we know we are destined for heaven.
We also know that we will live forever; from our conception in the womb, where God fashions and makes us, to our special day and on into eternity, where every day, every moment will be special.
Malachi and Simeon anticipated the light. Simeon got to see the light. Now we have the light and are to take that light, letting it shine with the full knowledge that we are renewed in Christ Jesus.
Take it home and show it to your grumpy husband or wife, your inpatient friend, your obnoxious co-worker. Show that light knowing what has happened, and use it in the way Jesus asks. Let us live in the light, the light that leads to our new birth into His eternal kingdom.
St. Nicholas Studites, Abbot, (863)
St. Phileas, Bishop and Martyr, (304)
St. Rembert, Bishop, (888)
Sarasota, Florida will be honoring the grandeur of Polish history, arts, cinema, and opera starting February 2nd and running through March 10th in the Sarasota Goes Polish Festival.
The festival was organized in part by Mariusz Brymora, culture and public affairs counselor for the Polish Embassy. It will introduce locals to Polish theater, art and cinema.
A series of concerts, exhibits and lectures will be held through the Sarasota Opera, the Sarasota Film Society, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Selby Public Library and the Sarasota Polish-American Club.
The festival’s capstone event and the inspiration for the festival is the Sarasota Opera’s production of Stanislaw Moniuszko’s “Halka,” the national Polish opera.
This American production of Moniuszko’s “Halka” is the first such production in more than 50 years by a professional American opera company (the Chicago Civic Opera was the last to perform it, in the late 1940s).
St. Blaise of Sebastea, Bishop and Martyr, (316)
St. Laurence of Canterbury, Bishop, (619)
St. Anskar of Hamburg, Bishop, (865)
The Blessing of Throats
Let Us Pray
Almighty and most merciful God, Who hast created all things by the power of Thy Word, and Who, for the salvation of man, hast willed that that same Word, by Whom all things were made should become incarnate; Thou, Who art great and doest wondrous things, awesome and worthy of praise: for the confession of whose faith the glorious Martyr and Bishop Blasius, spurning divers torments, was counted worthy to receive the martyr’s palm: to whom among other gifts Thou didst grant the virtue of healing infirmities of the throat through Thine almighty power; we humbly beseech Thy Majesty that, regarding not our sins, Thou wouldst deign to bless + through his prayers and merits, this creature of wax, sanctifying it and hallowing it through Thy grace: that all who with a lively faith receive its impress upon their throats, may be freed from all aliments of the same, and being restored to health, may show forth in Thy holy Church their thankfulness for Thy benefits, by praising Thy glorious Name, which is worthy of eternal benediction. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
Through the intercession of blessed Blasius, may God free thee from all affections of the throat, and from all other aliments. In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen
Solemnity of the Presentation of our Lord
Martyrs of Ebsdorf, Martyrs, (880)
Adalbald of Ostrevant, Martyr, (652)
Fr. Jim Tucker points to a YouTube of Laetabundus in Sequence for Candlemas. Laetabundus is a Presentation Sequence normally attributed to St. Bernard. I found the English translation from The Dominican Missal in Latin and English, Revised Edition, Blackfriars Publications, Oxford, 1948.
Faithful people,
Sweeten all your song with gladness.
Alleluia.
Matchless maiden
Bringeth forth the Prince of princes:
O! the marvel.
Virgin compasseth a man,
Yea, the angel of the plan:
Star the Dayspring.
Day that sunset shall not close,
Star that light on all bestows,
Ever cloudless.
As the star, light crystalline,
Mary hath a Son divine
In her likeness.
Star that shining grows not dim,
Nor his Mother, bearing him,
Less a maiden.
The great tree of Lebanon
Hyssop’s lowliness puts on
In our valley;
And the Word of God Most High
Self-imprisoned doth lie
In our body.
So Isaias sang of old,
So the Synagogue doth hold,
But the sunrise finds her cold
Hard and blinded.
Of her own she will not mark,
Let her to the gentiles hark;
For the Sybil’s verses dark
Tell of these things.
Make haste, O luckless one,
Give ear to the saints bygone:
Why perish utterly,
O race undone?
He whom thy seers foretell
Born is in Israel:
Mary’s little Son, O mark him well.
Alleluia.