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New blog post: April 17 – The Breath of Love by Rafael María de Mendive http://tinyurl.com/c2daw8 [#] 7:46pm | via Twitter
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New blog post: April 18 – Lightning flashes over the Tatras by Janko MatíºŁ¡ka http://tinyurl.com/d3jnqp [#] 9:41pm | via Twitter
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Lightning flashes over the Tatras,
the thunder pounds wildly.
Let them pause, brothers,
they will surely disappear,
the Slovaks will revive,This Slovakia of ours
has slept until now,
But the thunder and lightning
will wake it up.Firs are still growing
in the direction of KriváŁˆ.
Who feels like a Slovak,
let him hold a sabre
and stand among us.Slovakia is rising,
tearing off its shackles.
Hey, dear family,
the hour has struck,
Our Slavic mother lives.
Translation from the authors of the Wikipedia article: Nad Tatrou sa blí½ska
Nad Tatrou sa blí½ska,
hromy divo bijíº.
Zastavme ich, bratia,
veÄ sa ony stratia,
Slováci oŁ¾ijíº.To Slovensko naŁ¡e
posiaľ tvrdo spalo,
ale blesky hromu
vzbudzujíº ho k tomu,
aby sa prebralo.EŁ¡te jedle rastíº
na krivánskej strane.
Kto jak Slovák cíti,
nech sa Ł¡able chytí
a medzi nás stane.UŁ¾ Slovensko vstáva
putá si strháva.
Hej, rodina milá,
hodina odbila,
Ł¾ije matka Sláva.
At the kiss of the breath the flowers pour out
Their abundance of fragrance
With gentle candor;
And the woods, the land, the breeze and the heavens,
Filled with fragrance, life and joy,
Exhale perfumes of peace and love.And the first essence exhaled
By the modest flower
Is pure and holy;
As innocent as the pure tear
Sparkling in the eye of chaste beauty
At the first kiss of the breath of love.The simple maid, gentle and innocent.
Who sees on her brow
The glow of modesty.
Sighs and longs to be inspired,
And in divine dreams to pour
The first essence of the breath of love.And in sweet deliriums to behold
Life and the hours temptingly
Roll by without sorrow,
As the lucid waves of the clear river
Roll quietly in the summer nights
At the light breath of the kiss of love.The bird allures us with its bright feathers;
The sea with its foam;
The flowers with their odor;
The earth with her brilliant and beautiful pomp,
And the sky with its clouds and bright stars,
Celestial torches of peace and love.But what would become of their chaste delights,
Their pure tears.
Their eternal radiance.
If the pure wings of the breath of love
Were never to come in rapid circles
Lightly to shed their sweet sighs?The oceans and stars would horrible seem,
And the sad complaints
Of the birds and the flowers;
And faint would seem the gentle caresses
That fill the soul with affable delights,
And hardly feel the breath of love.The world allures us with a thousand seraphs
And its rich gardens
Of angelical fragrance;
And while we feel its sweet aroma
The joys of the soul give us poetry,
And eternally say to us : “Life is love!”
Translation by Ernest S. Green and Miss H. Von Lowenfels
Al beso del aura derraman las flores
Sus copas de olores
Con suave candor;
Y llenos de aroma, de vida y consuelo,
El bosque, la tierra, la brisa y el cielo.
Exhalan perfumes de paz y de amor.Y es pura y es santa la esencia primera
Que vierte hechicera
La tímida flor;
Como es inocente la lágrima pura
Que brilla en los ojos de casta hermosura
Al beso primero del auro de amor.La cándida niña, donosa, inocente,
Que mira en su frente
Brillar el pudor;
Suspira y ansia sentirse inspirada,
Y en sueños divinos verter perfumada
La esencia primera del aura de amor.Y en dulces delirios mirar seductoras
La vida y las horas
Rodar sin dolor,
Cual ruedan sencillas en noches de estío
Las ondas ligeras del diáfano rio
Al leve suspiro del aura de amor.El ave nos brinda sus nítidas plumas,
El mar sus espumas,
Las flores su olor;
La tierra sus galas brillantes y bellas,
Y el cielo sus nubes y blancas estrellas.
Antorchas divinas de paz y de amor.Empero, ¿qué fueran sus castas dulzuras,
Sus lágrimas puras.
Su eterno fulgor
Si nunca vinieran en rápidos giros
Vertiendo ligeras sus dulces suspiros
Las cándidas alas del aura de amor?..Horrible nos fueran los mares y estrellas,
Las tristes querellas
Del ave y la flor;
Y lánguidas fueran las suaves caricias,
Que llenan el alma de afables delicias.
Apenas sentimos el beso de amor.El mundo nos brinda sus mil serafines.
Sus ricos jardines
De angélico olor;
Y en tanto sentimos su dulce armonía,
Los goces del alma nos dan poesía,
Y eternos nos dicen : ” ¡la vida es amor! “
From CNA: Georgetown students react to White House request to cover Jesus’ name
Georgetown University’s decision to comply with a White House request to cover up the —IHS— monogram representing Jesus’ name at President Obama’s speech on Wednesday is drawing fire from the Cardinal Newman Society and Georgetown students, who are charging the university with —sacrificing— its —Catholic and Jesuit identity.—
Reports surfaced today from attendees at President Obama’s speech on the economy that the White House asked Georgetown University to cover up several emblems, including an IHS monogram above the president’s head during his speech at the Jesuit university.
Although President Obama focused his speech on his administration’s plans to spur economic growth, some in attendance noticed that the IHS monogram—”an early 3rd century abbreviation for the name of Jesus—”was covered up for the speech.
CNA attempted to confirm the report with Georgetown officials, but no one available for comment before press time.
However, Julie Green Bataille, associate vice president for communications at the university, told CNSNews.com that the covering up of Jesus’ name was prompted by —logistical arrangements for yesterday’s event.— According to Bataille, —Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage.—
She said the —signage and symbols— were covered up because —the pipe and drape wasn’t high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross— and that it seemed more —respectful to have them covered— so that viewers wouldn’t see them —out of context…—
Frankly I do not blame the Obama Administration. They are being true to who they are and to what they represent. If they believe they have the savior on-hand why bring up the name of the other One.
I could say that the real fault lies with the Administration at Georgetown. By covering the name of Jesus they are not being true to who they are. But, is that so?
As Christians we hope that other Christians will be true to who they are. We feel a great sense of disappointment when our brothers and sisters fall short of our expectation. We hope and wish that Christians in academia, in politics, in ordinary life will set an example in relation to the immutability of their Christian faith. When they do not meet our expectation, as in this case, we are left to sort out who is being true to their beliefs. We point to the martyrs who chose death over denying Jesus, and we are left to wonder.
Our conclusion does not yield blame. Our conclusion must free itself of expectation, of false notion. The early Christians had a system of codes so that they would know their fellow travelers. We need to re-establish the outward marker, the sign by which we will know. Intellectual faith, the faith of the academics, has its place, but that doesn’t make one a Christian. The sign on the wall does not make one a Christian. Hanging a cross in the classroom doesn’t make one a Christian. What we do (or don’t do), for all to see, makes it so.
It is easy to quote scripture in relation to what has been done. This scripture is key:
“So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” — Matthew 10:32-33
What does our doing and not doing say? This scripture is the measuring stick. I do not think that our Lord will count the number of Ph.D.’s we have obtained, or the number of books and scholarly articles on our C.V. Here is the test. Did you acknowledge Me before
From the Stratford Star: Prayer vigil April 26 for Blue Star Families
The Blue Star Mothers and Families of Stratford Inc. will hold its fourth annual prayer vigil service honoring the men and women of the U.S. military Sunday, April 26, at 4 at St. Joseph’s of Stratford National Catholic Church, 1300 Stratford Road.
The theme for the vigil is —Wake Up the Pride,— and will include patriotic songs and religious hymns, interfaith prayers, a candlelight ceremony, and brief addresses by state and local officials.
The ceremony is open to the public.
Mothers and fathers, spouses and children of local military personnel will be recognized during the prayer vigil in the church, then will be received at a coffee and cake fellowship in the parish hall.
The Blue Star Mothers and Families of Stratford was founded in 2003 by mothers who had children serving overseas as a support group for the families of servicemen and servicewomen. It is not affiliated with the Blue Star Mothers of America.
Among its activities, the Blue Star Mothers and Families of Stratford Inc. collects goods to send to soldiers overseas. The organization also maintains an honor board on the green of the Stratford Town Hall that bears the names of those who are currently serving from the town and some nearby communities.
This is the third time this annual vigil has taken place at St. Joseph’s of Stratford National Catholic Church. Several mothers from the parish are active in the Blue Star Mothers and Families of Stratford.
More information may be obtained from Kathy M. Sullivan at (203) 377-0676.
From the Charleston Daily Mail: W.Va. priest lived as pauper but left princely estate
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A priest who spent his retirement years in Cedar Grove led a pauper’s life but had secret assets totaling more than $1.5 million, officials from the Sheriff’s Tax Department said.
Chief Tax Deputy Allen Bleigh and members of the tax department are currently handling the estate of Father Anthony Wojtus, a priest who ended up in the Kanawha Valley in 1997.
Wojtus died in June 2007 at the age of 77, leaving behind no known family or will. The county was appointed as estate administrator in July 2007.
He was a Polish immigrant and survivor of Auschwitz, one of the Nazi concentration camps during World War II, according to a 2005 newspaper story.
Bleigh and employees of the tax department have put in hundreds of hours since his death, trying to uncover all the assets of the estate and see if there was anyone who could take it over.
The estate included one home and one residence used as a chapel, known as St. Anthony’s Retreat. Both properties are located on Alexander Street in Cedar Grove. However, judging by the condition of the properties, Bleigh said no one expected to find what they did.
“At the time, no one knew that there was an estate of the magnitude there is,” Bleigh said. “The house he lived in was appalling…”
I have friends with relatives in Poland who survived the Nazi German concentration camps. Like this priest, they horde things, live frugally, do all they can to protect what little they have — the psychological consequences of all they endured.
From what I read in the comments to this story this was a fine priest who served his people with great grace and charity.
This article notes that he continued to offer the Tridentine Rite Holy Mass in his private chapel and in 1993 was suspended by his diocese for ministering to those who wished to attend that Rite of the Holy Mass. It appears that workers in the diocese refer to him as “eccentric” and a “loner.” He was likely a priest more attuned to the thinking of the Bishop of Rome than his own bishop.
Offer a prayer for him this evening:
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and may the perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.
Wieczne odpoczynek racz mu dać Panie, a światłość wiekuista niechaj mu świeci.
Niech odpoczywa w pokoju, Amen.
Réquiem ætérnam dona eis, Dómine, et lux perpétua líºceat eis.
Requiéscant in pace. Amen.
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New blog post: The Haunted Manor (Straszny Dwor) in San Francisco, CA http://tinyurl.com/dgtbv9 [#] 5:36pm | via Twitter
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New blog post: Polish immigrant priest and Auschwitz survivor leaves $1.5 million estate http://tinyurl.com/c8eazf [#] 4:16pm | via Twitter
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New blog post: Prayer vigil for Blue Star families http://tinyurl.com/crn2qj [#] 4:23pm | via Twitter
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The Pocket Opera presents The Haunted Manor (Straszny Dwor) by Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819 Minsk -1872 Warsaw) in a new translation with lyrics in English.
A NEW TRANSLATION of a buoyant and colorful comedy, by a composer revered in Poland as second only to Chopin.
“It is hard to think of a more prodigiously tuneful opera after Mozart than The Haunted Manor” wrote one critic. Greatly beloved in Poland where it is often performed, and where it is considered the quintessential Polish opera, comparable to The Bartered Bride, the quintessential Czech opera, yet it is practically unknown elsewhere. Pocket Opera, nudged by a matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, comes to the rescue!
Two young soldiers, in a characteristically Polish burst of patriotic fervor, make a vow to remain single in order to be instantly available in case of need – a not unlikely prospect, considering their homeland’s turbulent history and its precarious location, sandwiched between two powerful and aggressive neighbors, Russia to the East, Prussia to the West.
This causes great consternation among the unmarried ladies in a land largely depleted of eligible men, due to decades of losses on the battlefield. Despite the somber background, a lively, exuberant, romantic comedy emerges, with a parade of colorful characters and a sparkling, ever flowing stream of dancelike melodies – the mazurka, the polonaise, the krakoviak . . .
How does the haunted manor come into play? Come and find out!
Costumes and props on-loan from the Polish Arts and Culture Foundation and Łowiczanie Polish Folk Ensemble. Łowiczanie will perform in the opera. Singers include Patrycja Poluchowicz and Dalyte Kodzis. Rehearsal space for the Pocket Opera partially subsidized by The Polish Club Inc. (San Francisco).
Performances:
- Sunday, April 19th, 2:00 PM at the Legion of Honor – Florence Gould Theatre at the CPLH, San Francisco, CA
- Sunday, April 26th, 2:00 PM at the Legion of Honor – Florence Gould Theatre at the CPLH, San Francisco, CA
- Saturday, May 9th, 2:00 PM at the Julia Morgan Theater – Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, Berkeley, CA
Philip Lowery from Pocket Opera will be interviewed by Zbigniew Stanczyk, “Studio Poland,” to air this coming Sunday, April 19th at 2pm on San Francisco’s KUSF (90.3 FM on your radio dial, or listen online).
Premiering Sunday, April 19 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network
Based up the true story of Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker in the early 1940s who is credited with saving the lives of 2,500 Jewish children during World War II.
During the war Irena Sendler was able to move women in and out of the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto disguised as nurses working for the Warsaw’s Health Department. With the ruse of containing the spread of Typhus and Spotted Fever, Ms. Sendler and her fellow “nurses” were actually sneaking children out (with the consent of the Jewish parents) of the Ghetto by sedating them and hiding them inside boxes, suitcases and coffins as a way of saving them from deportation to German death camps. Once the children were snuck out they were given new identities and placed with Polish families or in convents to protect them. Ms. Sendler kept a record of all the children’s birth names and where they were placed hidden so once the war was over the children could be reunited with their families.
Unfortunately in 1943 Ms. Sendler’s deception was discovered and she was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo resulting with her feet being broken. She was scheduled to be executed but on the day of her execution she was rescued by “Zegota,” the same underground network she worked with to save the Jewish children. By the end of the war all of the 2,500 children she smuggled out were never betrayed or discovered by the Nazi German occupation forces.
There’s a lot of emphasis on the indicia that mark a denomination of believers as Catholic, even as a Church. Often times it boils down to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and the key phrase toward the end of the Creed – One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic (we Nat’s like to tack on the word “democratic” to the end of One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic in our advertising and websites since it gets our point across). While those key constitutive elements, clearly stated in the Creed, tend to be the agreed markers of the Catholic Church, they loose their efficacy as a definitive statement once a believer gets past the lessons taught in his or her catechism class, or gives up on the theological debates among on-line pundits. What then makes us Catholic?
For me, the Polish National Catholic Church’s focus on the sacramental life brings the reality of Catholicism home and does so each week. The three core sacraments of Penance, the Word, and the Holy Eucharist are central to reinforcing believers’ Catholicism; to making it completely real in their lives. The sacraments present Christ over and over in a reality that sets us free, builds us up, and nourishes us. They do this, not as an exercise, not as jumble of words, but in the doing, in the physical markers that impart forgiveness, educate and enlighten, and feed.
The key to Catholicism is its reality. The Catholic sacraments are not an exercise aimed at mimicry, at pretense, some sort of fantasy re-enacting of a thing done long ago. The sacraments aren’t words for debate or recitation. We’re not passing bread and grape juice (I like it, but it isn’t what Jesus drank) for the sake of being good Christian buddies. The Sacraments are, by definition and by faith, the fullness of Catholic reality.
As the priest or bishop gives penance, and stretches out his hand to impart absolution, we are forgiven. That forgiveness is real and is spoken on behalf of God and the community. The slate is clean and we are free from sin. We are as washed as were the disciples that night in the upper room. We are given the grace necessary to bring about amendment in our lives. As the deacon, priest, or bishop proclaims the Gospel, and teaches, our minds are enlightened. We hear Jesus teaching us, Jesus making the Gospel as real today and it was when He walked the earth. The Gospel is applied to our lives, to our community, to our families, work situations, neighborhoods, and conflicts. We are enlightened and filled with the grace necessary to do as Christ would have us do. As the Holy Eucharist is placed on our tongues (by a bishop, priest, or deacon) we receive the fullness of Jesus Christ. His body, blood, soul and divinity enter us. We take Him and eat Him so that we may be more and more like Him. By the grace of that taking and eating we are transformed into the food we have received — His body.
As National Catholics we gather for Holy Mass. At each Holy Mass we receive these three sacraments — Penance, the Word, and the Holy Eucharist. Our Catholicism is made real and present in our lives — a Catholic reality that is ever proportionate to our sacramental life. Not only are we real, but real in the manner Christ desired. We come to the table clean, instructed by His word, and feed on Him.
I am National Catholic because I abhor unreality and pretense. With my whole heart and soul I desire to be washed clean, to be taught, and to be made one with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I desire the fullness of the sacramental life left to us in the Catholic Church. I desire to be Catholic.
Desiring that fullness I found the National Church, the Church where the sacraments are guarded faithfully, where their reality is accepted. I found a Church that will not, and cannot, change them for the sake of fashion or modern day exigencies.
In a recent forum a Roman Catholic writer suggested that the PNCC should have gone the way of Utrecht, or that it should admit (formerly) Episcopalian/Anglican/etc. priests to Holy Orders. These are obviously the thoughts of someone who thinks the National Church can just go about doing whatever it pleases; one who is confused by the Catholicism of the PNCC — ‘How can you be Catholic if the Pope doesn’t guide you?’ To that writer I would say: The way others have gone is the path away from the Catholic faith. Those who do such things envision a church with all the modern conveniences, modeled on themselves and their interpretations, rather than the Catholic reality of sacraments given us by Jesus Christ. The question the National Church asks, when it comes to the sacraments, when it comes to Orders, when it comes to a believer’s acceptance of the Catholic faith is: “Do you hold the Catholic faith in this regard?” If you hold the Catholic faith, if you are Catholic, then be National Catholic. If you do not hold the Catholic faith, if you only wish to remain where you are, only under a proper Church for the sake of externals, then God bless you, fare thee well, seek Him where you might find Him. Our Lord instructed:
“Not every one who says to me, `Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” — Matthew 7:21.
The sacraments are our guide posts and our strength along the path to doing the will of the Father. I am National Catholic because the sacraments ground me and guide me in my Catholicism. They are the reality of Christ in my life, touching my life, healing my life, regenerating my life, bringing me home to eternal life with Him in heaven.