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New blog post: Daily Digest for June 8th http://bit.ly/EjYh9 [#]
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She comes to me in a dream,
Whispering lovingly, Take me …
Not daring to disturb my sleep;
Her hands around my shoulders,
And I know, she is not of this world.She enters into my silence,
I feel, and I hear,
Here to dance with me
A little shy, a little cautious,
And I know, this premonition makes no sense.She comes to me in a dream,
Whispering lovingly, Take me …
Saying, if you awake,
I will return to the vortex of God
And I know, once again, she will never exist.
Translation by Dcn. Jim
Przychodzi do mnie we śnie,
Szemrze miłośnie: Weź mnie…
Snu mi zakłócić nie śmie;
Swoje ręce z moimi plecie,
A ja wiem, że jej wcale nie ma na świecie.Przychodzi w moją ciszę,
I czuję ją, i słyszę,
Jak we mnie się kołysze
Taka trwożna, taka ostrożna,
A ja wiem, że jej nawet przeczuć nie można.Przychodzi do mnie we śnie,
Szemrze miłośnie: Weź mnie…
Mówi, że dla mnie wskrześnie,
Że powróci w ten odmęt boży,
A ja wiem, że już jej nikt nigdy nie stworzy.
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New blog post: Daily Digest for June 7th http://bit.ly/yi0dd [#]
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First reading: Deuteronomy 4:32-34,39-40
Psalm: Ps 33:4-6,9,18-20,22
Epistle: Romans 8:14-17
Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
This is why you must now know,
and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God
in the heavens above and on earth below,
and that there is no other.
We don’t know.
Let’s not try today. Let’s not venture into intricate descriptions of the Holy Trinity, all for the sake of proving how unknowing we are, how limited our grasp of God is.
Often times we spend Trinity Sunday listening to a pastor quote from the stories of saints who had attempted to understand the Holy Trinity. These quaint stories are all part of an effort at explaining what we believe; but is it necessary?
I would rather start by stating the obvious: We are nowhere near understanding God. We cannot know Him through intellectual exercise, through stories, or through complex theological diagrams which attempt to describe His Triune being.
What do we know?
We don’t know God by our power of intellect. We cannot grasp Him on our own or by ourselves. There is little to nothing we can do to explain Him. Yet we do have knowledge of God.
Our knowledge of God comes from His self-revelation. God started with the patriarchs, judges, kings, and prophets, and finally He, Himself, came to us to tell us everything we are to know.
Looking at the process of revelation we find one key element. God doesn’t make Himself complex and unknowable. He reveals Himself, first through the veiled understanding of the patriarchs, judges, kings, and prophets and finally through obvious self-revelation.
What do we know? That God is love! That God desires us! That God is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! That God wishes us to live as the Holy Trinity lives, in love and unity. That God would sacrifice Himself in order to accomplish the loving relationship He desires.
Love, live sacrificially, be one, live in the image of God. That’s what God wants for us. That’s His revelation. That’s what we know. Not complex, not intricate, but rather simple and in simplicity great.
A process.
Reading the Bible is an interesting adventure. I would liken it to trying to pin the tail on God.
Sometimes we see God as a moving and changing target. We want to pin Him down, and find we can’t. We keep missing the target. Looking at scripture we get the notion that somehow God has changed over time. It is not so.
If we believe that God is God, that He is perfection; then we acknowledge that there is no need for change in God. In fact, as Christians, we call God unchanging. One thing about God is that he is consistent. We however are not.
As we read through scripture, as we experience God, we are faced with a process that is, in effect, a development of understanding. As time passes we grow in our understanding of God’s revealed self, what He actually said, what He actually wants of us.
If we were to stop along the path we might see God as the God who demands animal sacrifices. Of course that was what man understood of God, not necessarily what God wanted. We might see God as the God who is mighty in battle, winning victories for His friends. Of course that was what man understood of God, not necessarily what God is.
Over and over God attempted to re-focus His people. When the prophets told the Jews about God’s way, about God’s reality, they stoned them. The prophets were stoned because God’s way infringed upon what and who the people understood God to be. In effect they said, ‘don’t tell me about this love and change of heart stuff, I want to go on sacrificing sheep and charging a hefty fee for it.’
Those who do listen to God, who do accept His word and His self-revelation, hear the truth. Those who listen to God’s self-revelation get beyond what they know and enter into a process of greater-and-greater understanding. It comes down to Jesus’ words (John 14:15):
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.—
In listening we come to know God’s self-revelation and we learn to keep His commandments which demand that we live the life God has modeled for us.
Where are we headed?
We could engage in a great theological debate today. We could try to grasp the Trinity with our minds. Where we need to be headed, however, is the grasp of the Trinity with our hearts. We are called to enter into the process of knowing God more and more through our listening and by the work and effort we put forward.
That work and effort, that journey, leads us to our destination. The work and effort —“ easy: prayer, kindness, living sacrificially, being one, living in the image of God, and living with great love. Our destination – one: Eternal life with God in heaven.
We’re getting there.
We are on that road my friends. We have entered into the faith, and under the guidance of our Holy Polish National Catholic Church we grow ever more aware of God’s reality. Our knowledge of God and our understanding of Him begins here at Holy Mass and from here, from the roots that were planted in our baptism, that knowledge and understanding grows. That knowledge and understanding grows throughout our lives. We start here, hearing God’s word, God’s self-revelation. We start here, receiving Christ into our bodies so as to become more like Him. We start here, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to know, love, and serve God more and more.
Leaving here God’s reality takes shape in our lives. We begin to see Him in the unity we have within our community, our neighborhood, with our co-workers, our families, even those who persecute and hate us for our faith. We see Him in the love we bear, in the sacrifices we make, big and small. God’s reality, His self-revelation takes shape in the lives of all who call themselves Christian — that’s us. No intricate descriptions of the Trinity are necessary if we live the life of the Trinity.
Keeping it simple.
Leaving here today we will be strengthened. We will walk away with another aspect of our knowledge of God strengthened. Another door will have been opened to us, showing us the way to live in unity, live in love, live like God. If we keep it simple, if we focus on what God has said, what He has taught, the messages He has revealed, we will have joy. We will have knowledge that surpasses quaint stories and theological treatises.
Keeping it real and alive.
I began with a quote from today’s reading from the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 4:39):
This is why you must now know,
and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God
in the heavens above and on earth below,
and that there is no other.
That is as simple as it gets. If we live in the reality that God is God, that there is none other, and that life’s requirement is to know and love Him more and more, then we will have life. Loving and knowing Him means to live life as real Christians, as a people alive and active in the reality God has taught.
We must move beyond the notion that God’s revelation is God showing up and saying: ‘This is how it is!— only to walk away. Then He would have treated us as slaves, only to follow and obey. Rather, He let us know how it is so that we might be His brothers and sisters, so that we might live in His body, so that we would live the life of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; a life of prayer, kindness, sacrifice, unity, and great love (John 15:15).
“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
Amen.
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New blog post: Daily Digest for June 6th http://bit.ly/1623JI [#]
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New blog post: June 6 – The imprisioned songbird by Mato Kosyk http://bit.ly/19m4iQ [#]
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Listened to 27 songs.
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New blog post: June 7 – The Athanasian Creed by St. Athanasius of Alexandria http://bit.ly/EmWxJ [#]
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Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone does keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.
For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Ghost uncreated. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible,and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.
The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet they are not three eternals, but one Eternal.
As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one Uncreated, and one Incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three almighties, but one Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three gods, but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not three lords, but one Lord.
For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge each Person by Himself to be both God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say that there are three gods or three lords.
The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
So there is one Father, not three fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Ghost, not three holy ghosts.
And in this Trinity none is before or after another; none is greater or less than another; but all three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
He therefore that will be saved must think thus of the Trinity.
Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man; God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man, of the substance of his mother, born in the world; perfect God and perfect man, of a rational soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father, as touching his godhead; and inferior to the Father, as touching His manhood; who although He is God and man, yet he is not two, but one Christ; one, not by conversion of the godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God; one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ; who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At His coming all men will rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.
A bird was caught in nature free,
Put in a cage, locked up to see.
Forced he was to sing to all
From his new den so dark, so small.The bird, alas, was struck with grief.
He hung his head, found no relief.
The Błotka thus they took from him,
Estranged him from his friends by whim.When chirping he in truth did weep,
Entranced in loneliness so steep.
His heart was wont to break, I fear,
When singing of his Błotka dear.I am just like this lonely bird,
Away in foreign lands unheard.
Oh yes, I lost Lusatia dear;
My heaven’s charm is no more here.
Translation from the Mato Kosyk website (from Sorbian)
Spěwarik bu lapjony
a do klětki zawrěty,
nuzkany bu k spewanju
w snadnem smojtem domcyku.PtaŁ¡ack pak se tuŁ¾aŁ¡o,
głowka jomu wisaŁ¡o;
Błotka su jom wezeli,
z towariŁ¡kow wunjasli.Z tsikotom jan płakaŁ¡o
samotniwe ptaŁ¡acko;
złamas co se wutŁ¡obka,
gaŁ¾ won spewa na Błotka.Ja som ak to ptaŁ¡acko
w cuzej zemi daloko,
ow ja zgubich ŁuŁ¾ycu,
mojog njebja kŁ¡asotu.
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New blog post: Daily Digest for June 5th http://bit.ly/19RgTK [#]
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New blog post: June 5 – Hymn to Thetis and Neoptolemus by Heliodorus http://bit.ly/y0B2b [#]
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New blog post: Capital Area Armenian Festival http://bit.ly/NlRpk [#]
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New blog post: Rededication of the Statue of Madame Marie Skłodowska Curie in Cleveland, Ohio http://bit.ly/g6WVt [#]
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Listened to 12 songs.
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Dedication of Sculpture of Madame Marie Skłodowska Curie in the Polish Cultural Garden, corner of St. Clair and East Boulevard, Cleveland, on Sunday, June 7th at 3pm. The featured speaker will be Marie Siemionow, M.D., Ph.D.
Marie Siemionow, was awarded her medical degree by the Poznan Medical Academy in 1974, after which she completed her residency in orthopedics, and then earned a Ph. D. in microsurgery. Since 1995 she has been Director of Plastic Surgery Research and Head of Microsurgery Training in the Plastic Surgery Department of Cleveland Clinic.
In 2005, she was awarded a faculty appointment as Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Most recently, she received an honorary academic appointment as Professor of Surgery at the Medical University in Poznan, Poland.
Dr. Siemionow is the first U.S. physician to receive Institutional Review Board approval for facial transplantation surgery.
The bronze bust of Maria Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934), acclaimed scientist and a pioneer in researching radioactive substances, co-discoverer of radium and polonium, and Nobel Prize winner in physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911 —” was donated in 1949 by the American Polish Women’s Club. The Curie bust is the work of Frank L. Jirouch, and was originally dedicated on June 5, 1949.
The Cleveland Cultural Gardens is a unique American landscape located in Cleveland. It is composed of 23 sections that represent the cultural backgrounds of Cleveland’s diverse population.
The Alliance of Poles
From the great folks at St. Peter’s. I encourage all to attend. St. Peter’s is a wonderful parish filled with warm and inviting people, and their food is fantastic!
