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Year: 2008

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Christian Witness, PNCC

Service and witness

From The Republican: Kitchen’s fare said ‘fantastic’

WESTFIELD – Robert Cyran enjoys being at Our Community Table – also known as the Westfield Soup Kitchen – to eat turkey with strangers on the last Thursday of November.

“This is the day when you wanna be thankful for whatever you have; I am thankful for my health, good patience, and peace of mind,” said the Westfield resident who has been going to the 101 Meadow St. facility for “three straight years.”

A traditional Thanksgiving table was set for about 60 diners at the former Hotel Westfield on Thanksgiving Day, said Edward J. Fournier, who coordinates the volunteers and the meal’s preparation.

The menu featured mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots, turnips, cranberries, pies, rolls, and “six big carved turkeys,” said Fournier.

“Meals have been delicious – just fantastic,” pronounced Cyran.

The group that prepares free meals for needy people six days a week was ready to provide the holiday dinner for anyone who showed up, Fournier said.

“I don’t know yet how many people would come during the day, but we’ve got plenty of food,” he said. “We are going to do seconds and everything else.”

So far, the supply of donated foods has not slowed for Our Community Table.

“We are thankful for the opportunity for the workers at this kitchen, that they have the opportunity to help, because there may have been times when they were ministered, too,” said the Very Rev. Joseph Soltysiak of St. Joseph’s Polish National Catholic Church. “And now they have the opportunity to minister.”

The volunteers included Susan Tremblay, who went to help serve along with her sons, Nathan, 13, and Trey, 15.

The Tremblays volunteer regularly at the soup kitchen, said Nathan.

“I do drinks and serve them,” he said. “I usually come here on Mondays and holidays.”

The decorations for the event were made by Southwick students, said Fournier.

The Samaritan Inn homeless shelter on Free Street served a Thanksgiving Day meal for about 30 people.

“That’s our usual attendance,” said Peter C. Gillis, executive director.

He also noted that the shelter’s contributors have been generous.

“We are struggling just like everybody else, but we are all set with our food supplies,” he said.

Christian Witness, PNCC, Political,

Your prayers and support needed in the case of Andrzej Nowakowski

Your prayers are requested for Vivian and Andrzej Nowakowski and their family. Also of your charity, please drop a note to Senators Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman requesting their intervention in the case.

From the New Britain Herald: Andrzej’s case up for review

The case of a city man imprisoned for listing prior convictions on a green card renewal application is being reviewed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

He could be freed. The review is a victory for his family, including a wife who has spent thousands of dollars and much of her time in court, writing letters, seeking help from officials and otherwise worrying since his April 23 arrest by immigration officials.

Andrzej Nowakowski, 43, of New Britain, who came to America from Poland when he was 9 years old, has a criminal history for drug convictions. As a chronic pain patient, he became addicted to oxycodone.

There was never talk of deportation when he pleaded guilty, served his time, kicked his addiction and was working and taking care of his ailing father-in-law and wife, Vivian, who needs a kidney transplant.

Health officials listed Andrzej as her caregiver on the kidney transplant list. She will lose her place on the list without a caregiver at home, which could kill her, and no one else would be as well suited to the job. Health professionals familiar with the case cite Andrzej’s experience and the couple’s shared immunity to germs.

—My whole family needs me,— Andrzej said during a phone interview Friday from the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., where he is being held. —I need to be out there for the sake of my wife. She needs me out there. I am really concerned about her health and the health of my in-laws. I will do anything to get her healthy. But they want to deport me.—

Andrzej said he still has chronic pain in his back, but he has learned to live with it.

—I don’t want to do any drugs,— he said. —My wife’s life is on the line.—

Nowakowski’s son, David Lombardo —” Andrzej raised him as his own after Vivian’s prior marriage —” is a corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps in California, awaiting an April deployment to Iraq after training other marines how to fight and survive in the field.

Although Andrzej respects the fact that —my son is a patriot,— he said what the country is doing to him and his wife is wrong.

The review could be a correction to that, and could take place at any time.

But immigration officials won’t let Andrzej out if they see him as a danger to the community —” he has no record of violence —” or as a flight risk.

Letting her husband out to care for her is a safe bet, Vivian said, because —if he does anything to screw it up, I will deport him myself.—

Jokes aside, Vivian said, —He would never skip. Where would he skip?—

Lombardo, who was home for a Thanksgiving visit to his parents’ High Street home with his fiancee, Jennifer Ramirez, noted that Andrzej was co-owner of an area family business and always paid off his car payments and taxes. —It is not like he is some drug addict with no money. He has paid his taxes, supported his family and supported his community,— Lombardo said.

Immigration officials also take into consideration such things as —disciplinary problems while incarcerated,— which does not apply to his father.

—While incarcerated he has never caused any problems,— Lombardo said. —He has been in this country for 35 years. He has done his time [for the past crimes]. None of this applies.—

Ramirez choked back tears as she explained the situation and vouched for the integrity of her soon-to-be father-in-law.

—Everyone is guilty of temptation,— she said. —This is a man who married a woman, regardless of her sickness, knowing that they couldn’t have kids, and raised David as his own. He is a good-hearted man.—

Vivian walked across the carpeted living room and hugged Jennifer.

—I want the whole family together for Christmas,— Vivian said.

She has been depressed during the fight for her husband’s freedom, especially since learning Aug. 29 she’d lost an appeal on his behalf. In addition to missing her husband and being faced with her own death, she has had to deal with the deteriorating health of her father, who was recently hospitalized for his severe heart and kidney problems.

Seeing her son and Ramirez on Thanksgiving cheered her up.

While Vivian is resigned that her fate and that of her husband —is in God’s hands,— her son hopes the officials reviewing his father’s case are able to see it for what it is.

—I am looking at this optimistically,— said Lombardo, adding that he could not believe his father had been arrested in the first place.

—He is her life partner,— he said, and will be caring for his mother and for her father at home.

A Homeland Security source in Washington, D.C., who spoke anonymously because he wasn’t authorized to comment on the case, suggested earlier this month that Vivian needs somebody to —carry the spear for her,— even after letters of support were sent from New Britain’s Common Council, the city’s legislative delegation and U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District.

Sources said Donald Kent, then assistant secretary of the office of legal affairs for the department, never got the materials and wasn’t the right person to receive them. Officials at the congressman’s office, however, believed his letter had merely failed to change the status of Andrzej’s deportation order.

Kent has since resigned and been replaced.

Vivian needs someone such as U.S. Sens. Chris Dodd or Joseph Lieberman, both Connecticut Democrats, Murphy or someone at the federal level to fight for her behind the scenes, the Homeland Security source said.

Immigration officials are human beings too, and can have compassion, the source said.

…

Now that her son is by her side, she has drawn renewed strength and faith in God, she said.

The family attends the Polish National Catholic Church of the Transfiguration and Our Savior.

—People with no compassion haven’t lived a hard-enough life,— Lombardo said.

Lombardo is leaving today, but plans to return at Christmas.

Christian Witness, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Ecumenical charity in Poland

From the English section of Polish Radio: Christmas Candle Campaign launched

The annual national Christmas candle campaign launches today at all churches and denominations in Poland.

For 14 years now, the Polish Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches have joined in a fund-raising campaign for children, selling special candles which are traditionally lit at the table on Christmas Eve.

This year the organizers are also drawing special attention to the problem of “euro-orphans” —“ children whose parents have gone to work abroad.

Also, part of the proceeds this year will be going towards helping children in Africa.

The program’s principal sponsor is Caritas.

An ecumenical prayer service and concert kicked-off this year’s campaign. The concert and service was held on November 30th at St. Mary Magdalene Orthodox Church in Warsaw. Bishops Henryk Hozer and Tadeusz Pikus of the Roman Catholic Church, Bishops Ryszard Bogusz and Ryszard Borski of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland and Bishop JERZY Pańkowski of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Poland represented their respective denominations. The children’s choir —žŚwiatełko— from St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Parish in Siedlcach, the choir from Ascension of the Lord Evangelical-Augsburgian Parish in Warsaw, and the Choir from the host parish, St. Mary Magdalene’s each performed.

Fathers, PNCC

December 2 – St. Ambrose of Milan from the Letters of St. Ambrose

Wherefore in every act, but especially in the search after a Bishop, by whose model the life of all is formed, malignity ought to be absent, that by a composed and peaceful exercise of judgment he may be preferred to all who is to be chosen from all and who may heal all. For a gentle-minded man is the physician of the heart, of that whereof our Lord also in the Gospel has professed Himself a Physician, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”

He is the good Physician, Who has taken upon Him our infirmities, Who has healed our sicknesses, and yet He, as it is written, “glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest,” but He that said unto Him, even the Father, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee,” as He saith also in another place, “Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck.” And as He was to be the type of all priests, He took upon Him our flesh, that in the days of His flesh, “He might offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto” God the Father, “and though He were the Son” of God, “might even learn obedience from the things He suffered,” in order to teach us, that He might become to us the Author of salvation. Finally, having accomplished His sufferings, and being Himself made perfect, He gave health to all, He bore the sin of all.

Thus He Himself chose Aaron the High Priest, that human ambition might not sway the choice, but the grace of God; no voluntary offering, nor taking upon himself, but a heavenly call, that he might offer gifts for sins, who could have compassion on sinners “for that he himself also,” it is written, “is compassed with infirmity.” A man should not take this honour to himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron; so also Christ did not assume but received His priesthood. — To the church of Vercellae, paragraphs 46-48.

LifeStream

Daily Digest for 2008-12-01

googlereader (feed #5) 3:43am Shared a link on Google Reader.

Dig unearths Stone Age sculptures
blog (feed #1) 11:25am December 1 – St. Ambrose of Milan from the Letters of St. Ambrose
twitter (feed #4) 11:25am Posted a tweet on Twitter.

New blog post: December 1 – St. Ambrose of Milan from the Letters of St. Ambrose http://tinyurl.com/5mx8zz
imdb (feed #6) 12:22pm Added 18 movies on IMDB (My Movies). (Show Details)
blog (feed #1) 2:01pm December 2 – St. Ambrose of Milan from the Letters of St. Ambrose
Fathers, PNCC

December 1 – St. Ambrose of Milan from the Letters of St. Ambrose

I am overcome by grief that the Church of the Lord, which is among you, has still no Bishop, and alone in all the regions of Liguria and Aemilia, of Venetia and the adjacent parts of Italy, stands in need of those ministrations which other Churches were wont to ask at her hands, and, what causes me still more shame, the contention which causes this delay is ascribed to me. For as long as there are dissensions among you, how can either we determine anything, or you make your election, or any man accept the election, so as to undertake among men who are at variance an office difficult to bear the weight of, even among those that agree?

If the Lord has said, “If two of you shall agree as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven: For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in, the midst of them;” how much less, when many are assembled in the name of the Lord, where all agree together in their petitions, how much less ought we in any wise to doubt that there the Lord Jesus will be present to inspire their will and grant their petition, to preside over the ordination and confer the grace?

Make yourselves therefore worthy that Christ should stand in the midst of you; for wheresoever is peace there is Christ, for Christ is “Peace;” wheresoever is righteousness there is Christ, for Christ is “Righteousness.” Let Him stand in the midst of you, that you may see Him, that it be not said to you also, “There standeth One among you, Whom ye know not.” The Jews saw Him not, for they believed not on Him; we behold Him by devotion, and see Him by faith.

Let Him therefore stand in the midst of you, that you may have the “heavens” which “declare the glory of God,” opened to you; that you may do His will and work His works. The heavens are opened to him who sees Jesus, as they were opened to Stephen, when he said, “Behold I see the heavens opened, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” Jesus stood as an intercessor, He stood, as being eager to assist His soldier Stephen in his combat; He stood as being prepared to crown His martyr.

Let Him therefore stand in the midst of you, that you may not fear Him when seated on His throne, for seated thereon He will judge, according to the saying of Daniel, “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the books were opened, and the Ancient of days did sit.” And in the 82nd Psalm it is written, “God standeth in the congregation of princes, He decideth among gods.” So then being seated He judges, standing He decides. He judges concerning them that are not perfected, He decides among the gods. Let Him stand for you as a Defender, as the good Shepherd, that cruel wolves may not attack you. — To the church of Vercellae, paragraphs 1,3-6.

Fathers, PNCC

November 30 – St. Augustine from an Epistle cited in the Catena Aurea

For He not only speaks to those in whose hearing He then spake, but even to all who came after them, before our time, and even to us, and to all after us, even to His last coming. but shall that day find all living, or will any man say that He speaks also to the dead, when He says, —Watch, lest when he cometh he find you sleeping?—

Why then does He say to all, what only belongs to those who shall then be alive, if it be not that it belongs to all, as I have said? For that day comes to each man when his day comes for departing from this life such as he is to be, when judged in that day, and for this reason every Christian ought to watch, lest the Advent of the Lord find him unprepared; but that day shall find him unprepared, whom the last day of his life shall find unprepared. — Epistle 199, 3 on the Gospel of St. Mark, verses 32-37.

LifeStream

Daily Digest for 2008-11-29

blog (feed #1) 1:06am A shot at the Fathers
twitter (feed #4) 1:06am Posted a tweet on Twitter.

New blog post: A shot at the Fathers http://tinyurl.com/67uq7r
blog (feed #1) 1:21am November 29 – St. John Chrysostom
twitter (feed #4) 1:21am Posted a tweet on Twitter.

New blog post: November 29 – St. John Chrysostom http://tinyurl.com/5g46v9
blog (feed #1) 5:22am Advent or death
twitter (feed #4) 5:22am Posted a tweet on Twitter.

New blog post: Advent or death http://tinyurl.com/69x39c
blog (feed #1) 5:51am First Sunday of Advent (B)
twitter (feed #4) 5:51am Posted a tweet on Twitter.

New blog post: First Sunday of Advent (B) http://tinyurl.com/62zthv
lastfm (feed #3) 7:20am Scrobbled 17 songs on Last.fm. (Show Details)
blog (feed #1) 2:01pm November 30 – St. Augustine from an Epistle cited in the Catena Aurea
Homilies,

First Sunday of Advent (B)

First reading: Isaiah 63:16-17,19, Isaiah 64:2-7
Psalm: Ps. 80:2-3,15-16,18-19
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Gospel: Mark 13:33-37

we are sinful;—¨
all of us have become like unclean people,—¨
all our good deeds are like polluted rags;—¨
we have all withered like leaves,—¨
and our guilt carries us away like the wind.

Our first reading from Isaiah is key to understanding that we must be people of expectation, but not only.

Isaiah describes his expectation. Isaiah wanted his people to know and experience that expectation. If only they could feel my longing. I know it and feel it. If only they would know it and feel it. He knew that everything was wrong and that his people were a people of rejection. The people were apart from God. Isaiah describes their desolation. They have wandered away. They had shut God out of their hearts and minds. Their hearts had no feel for God and for His ways. In fact they considered God to be a sort of formless concept. Something you might think about from time to time, but life is just too busy, too complex, too short for a far off, distant, formless concept. Isaiah goes on to say of God: we fear you not.

Isaiah wanted his expectation to end. He wanted to experience God first hand. He wanted the people to see God, to experience Him. If he, and the people, could experience God surely they would come back. With those great deeds, the heavens rent and the mountains shaking like jello, everyone would certainly say:

No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you—¨
doing such deeds for those who wait for him.

In the middle of all that mess, in the middle of an unfaithful people and a God who wouldn’t send flaming bolts and fiery chariots from heaven as a convincing sign, Isaiah recalls we cannot escape God.

O LORD, you are our father;—¨
we are the clay and you the potter:—¨
we are all the work of your hands.

Brothers and sisters.

Let me ask you, can we escape our maker? Artists and craftsman leave their mark on what they make. Do you have grandma’s china at home? Turn it over and you’ll see the makers mark. I have lovely carvings and handcrafted items from all over the world. Each bears its makers mark. We too. Isaiah knew that, and that is our hope. Because of that indelible mark, that longing for God that is built into our very being, no matter our wandering, no matter our distance or the hardness of our hearts, God is near. He calls after us and is willing to welcome us back.

What a wonderful sign and symbol of love! Isaiah started by asking God to come in an amazing, God like, spectacle. Flames, heavens rent, quakes, chariots, angels, and powers. He ends by stating that we are the work of God’s hands. Because we are the work of His hands He is in us.

Even if we separate ourselves through sin, through intentional laziness toward our relationship with God — putting him in the background, or forbid through outright rejection of God, we do not have to wait for the fiery spectacle to come back. All we need know is that we must get back to work.

If we are separate there is a road home, there is the grace of repentance. God loves us so much that He waits with open arms — and those open arms are for everyone:

But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

My friends,

We have every right to be a people of expectation and a people focused on the last things — a people awaiting the consummation of everything in Christ, but that expectation does not outweigh the fact that we must act and we must act urgently. We must repent of our sins, and set to work today. Isaiah wanted the people to see God, to experience Him. We have to make that happen in our own lives and in the lives of others. That is our job.

Jesus notes that the master put his servants in charge and told the gatekeeper to keep watch. The servants had work to do. We are those servants and we have work to do. That work begins here and now — in real and practical ways.

Our world, for all its advancements, is the same world that Isaiah lived in. People don’t recognize God and they don’t acknowledge Him. We live in a world of rejection. People’s hearts are hard and they ignore God. Most of all they turn their backs to Him, piling on excuses for staying away. If they have a concept of God it is a god that is to their liking, that has no requirements, that likes whatever they like, and for the most part can be ignored.

Can that be changed? Of course! God has written Himself into our very being and we are incomplete without Him. That image, that is in all of us, is the image of the real God.

To change the world, to help it in recognizing God, we must first set to examining ourselves: How do we treat each other, our neighbors, the pesky aunt or cousin, the unfriendly cashier at the supermarket or department store? How do we manage our money — are we free of debt? How do we treat the foreigner, the homeless, the prisoner, the drug addict, the ex-con, or the AIDS patient? How does God’s Church act? How do we live as God’s people?

We can run through a lengthy examination of conscience, but that exam is not focused on the past alone. That examination needs to be prospective, forward looking, and encompasses tomorrow and every day thereafter.

What’s so different about us? What’s so great about faith — true faith in God? The greatness of faith can only be shown through us. It won’t come in rent heavens and quaking mountains. It depends on us. That is the real work — making God real in our lives and the lives of others. Showing God to others by our words, looks, hands, actions, and way-of-life so that they might experience Him in their lives. So that they might experience the reality of God — that the seed that is already in them might grow.

Brothers and sisters,

We are His servants and we have a huge obligation — but more so — we have an even greater amount of help. St. Paul tells us:

for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,—¨
that in him you were enriched in every way,—¨
with all discourse and all knowledge,—¨
as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,—¨
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift—¨
as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.—¨

That means you. That means me. We are His servants and we lack nothing. We can do everything He needs us to do. We can bring back the most distant. All of us, together, gathered in the Holy Church, have all the gifts necessary for the work that needs doing. While we wait in expectation, while we reform our lives, while we draw closer to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we work, drawing all into a life of joyful work and expectation. Let us tell the world by our thoughts, words, actions, and work that we await, but not only. Rather that we await and we know. God is in the world. God is among us. God wants all us all to enter into His joy. For He said:

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Amen.

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