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Month: September 2009

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PNCC

On St. Casimir’s near Rochester, NY

An interesting and well balanced post from Interstate Catholic in St. Casimir’s PNCC is looking for new members:

There it was in City Newspaper. In the worship section.

An invitation to attend St. Casimir’s National Catholic Church in Irondequoit. Many Polish National Catholic Churches now refer to themselves just as National Catholic Churches, wanting people to know that the church invites all people to their masses and not just Polish people. Just a reminder, the Polish National Catholic Church is not in communion with Rome. But as they say, the dialogue continues.

With Roman Catholic Churches consolidating and closing, The Polish National Catholic Church has found new life and increased attendance where they are located, mostly from former Roman Catholics who are fed up with church governance. The PNCC writes on their website that it is the people of the parish who own the property and make the decisions for the parish…

The writer has a couple of nice photos including one of the old parish in Rochester’s inner city.

Just as an FYI, the Rev. Marek Gnidzinski was recently appointed Administrator of St. Casmir’s. The parish had been staffed by the Rev. Deacon Richard Golaszewski who was temporarily assigned as its administrator.

The former pastor, the Rev. Kenneth Strawhand (who is somewhat known in the Continuum and who is currently serving in an ACC parish in Richmond, VA), is on an indefinite leave of absence/sabbatical from ministry in the PNCC per his LinkedIn page.

Perspective,

The world, Europe, Chrstianity, and the creation of greatness

A recommended read from The Brussels Journal: Europe and Human Accomplishment with salient points about freedom, individualism, and Christianity. It’s a lengthy piece but worth the read. An excerpt follows:

…

Western culture has by and large enjoyed the benefits of greater political freedom and more individualism as opposed to the common emphasis on consensus and traditionalism. Purpose and autonomy are intertwined with another defining cultural characteristic of European civilization, individualism…

Christianity played an important part in this, too. As Murray writes, —It was a theology that empowered the individual acting as an individual as no other philosophy or religion had ever done before. The potentially revolutionary message was realized more completely in one part of Christendom, the Catholic West, than in the Orthodox East…

The Enlightenment’s passionate commitment to reason was close to religious, yet after Freud, Nietzsche and others with similar messages, the belief in man as a rational being took a body blow. It became fashionable in Europe at the turn of the twentieth century to see humans as unwittingly acting out neuroses and subconscious drives. God was mostly dead among the European creative elites at this time. Such beliefs undermined the belief of the creative elites that their lives had purpose or that their talents could be efficacious. Murray believes that the twentieth century witnessed a decline in per capita accomplishment, as intellectuals rejected religion. He expects that almost no art from the second half of this century will be remembered 200 years from now. It’s a challenge for democratic societies to keep up standards of excellence when there is an obsession with making everyone equal. He has noticed that young Europeans no longer take pride in their scientific and artistic legacy; attempts to point this out to them will typically be met with pessimism and a sense that European civilization is evil and cursed. The decline of accomplishment in Europe, once the homeland par excellence of geniuses, was in all likelihood initially caused by loss of self-confidence and a sense of purpose.

Maybe belief in a higher purpose is necessary for the creation of true greatness. Achievements that outlast the lifespan of a single human being are generated out of respect for something greater than the individual. Many Europeans no longer experience themselves as part of a wider community with a past worth preserving and a future worth fighting for, which is perhaps why they see no point in reproducing themselves. Europe in the past believed in itself, its culture, its nations and above all its religion and produced Michelangelo, Descartes and Newton. Europe at the turn of the twenty-first century believes in virtually nothing of lasting value and so produces virtually nothing of lasting value. It remains to be seen whether this trend can be reversed.

Perspective,

Oh yeah, and about that…

From NCR: Is Catholic-Orthodox Unity in Sight?

The Catholic Archbishop of Moscow has given a remarkably upbeat assessment of relations with the Orthodox Church, saying unity between Catholics and Orthodox could be achieved —within a few months.—

In an interview today in Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, Archbishop Paolo Pezzi said the miracle of reunification —is possible, indeed it has never been so close.— The archbishop added that Catholic-Orthodox reunification, the end of the historic schism that has divided them for a millennium, and spiritual communion between the two churches —could happen soon, within a few months.—

…Now the path to rapprochement is at its peak, and the third millennium of the Church could begin as a sign of unity.— He said there were —no formal obstacles— but that —everything depends on a real desire for communion.—

On the part of the Catholic Church, he added, —the desire is very much alive.—

Archbishop Pezzi, 49, whose proper title is Metropolitan Archbishop of the Mother of God Archdiocese in Moscow, said that now there are —no real obstacles— on the path towards full communion and reunification. On issues of modernity, Catholics and Orthodox Christians feel the same way, he said: —Nothing separates us on bioethics, the family, and the protection of life.—

Also on matters of doctrine, the two churches are essentially in agreement. —There remains the question of papal primacy,— Archbishop Pezzi acknowledged, —and this will be a concern at the next meeting of the Catholic-Orthodox Commission. But to me, it doesn’t seem impossible to reach an agreement.—…

This is the sort of well meaning ecumenical drivel that just wastes time. Of course the Archbishop doesn’t see a problem because he’s only looking at one side of whole issue, his own. Unless the Roman Church has decided to change the pronouncements of Vatican I on the scope and role of the pope, let’s say in the next few months, it isn’t happening. It doesn’t seem impossible to reach an agreement? I’d like some of the vodka he’s drinking.

Certainly there is common causes on social and political fronts, but at a core level one Church must prevail if counter claims to being The One True Church are to be resolved. Commonality on social and political issues cannot be used to whitewash or nullify major disagreements on the identity of the Church, the Church’s doctrines and so forth…

From my perspective the Archbishop needs to think long and hard about the things that separate the Churches and cease the publicly available wishful thinking. We all hope and pray — but this isn’t it. It will take very real and very painstaking work and in the end someone will have to say they were wrong.

Poetry

September 14 – The Exaltation of the Cross by Adam of St. Victor

Hail, O Cross! tree of life! noble and noted!
Banner, throne, altar to Jesus devoted!

Cross! to unholy-
Men both death and terror,
To Christians- truly
Art thou virtue’s mirror.
Safety, victory, all-divine!
Thou, when he hurried
Against Maxentius’ horde;
Thou, when he carried
By Danube’s shores the sword,
Glory wast to Constantine!

Chosroes and his son
Through thee were overthrown.
For Heraclius fighting:
Well may Christians glory
In this tree’s true story.
In such balms delighting!

Length and breadth, Cross! blending
With height, depth, far-reaching,
Thou, four ways extending,
Precious truths thus teaching,
Savest earth’s four quarters.
Balm with true health gifted!
On the Cross-scales lifted,
Christ was there extended,
As the price expended
To redeem death’s charters.

The Cross the balance is to weigh our right.
Our Monarch’s scepter and His rod of might;
The sign of Heaven’s own victory in the fight,
Our strength in war and glory’s palm-branch bright!

Ladder! raft! upbearing
Hearts through grief despairing!
Their last plank, when drowning!
Thou Christ’s beauty sharest,
Since His limbs thou barest;
Cross! the crown kings crowning.

Through thee, Cross! with blessings freighted!
Cross, by Christ’s blood consecrated!
May the grace of God most high
Deathless joys to us supply! Amen.

Translation from: The liturgical poetry of Adam of St. Victor; from the text of Gauthier. With translations in the original meters and short explanatory notes by Digby S. Wrangham

Glorification of the Holy Cross by Adam Elsheimer

Salve, Crux, arbor vitae praeclara,
Vexillum Christi, thronus et ara!

O Crux profanis
Terror et ruina,
Tu Christianis
Virtus es divina,
Salus et victoria!
Tu properantis
Contra Maxentium,
Tu praeliantis
Juxta Danubium,
Constantini gloria!

Favens Heraclio,
Perdis cum filio
Chosroen profanum.
In hoc salutari
Ligno gloriari
Decet Christianum.

Crucis longum, latum,
Sublime, profundum,
Sanctis propalatum,
Quadrum salvat mundum
Sub quadri figura.
Medicina vera,
Christus in statera
Crucis est distractus,
Pretiumque factus
Solvit mortis jura.

Crux est nostrae libra justitiae,
Sceptrum regis, virga potentiae,
Crux coelestis signum victoriae,
Belli robur et palma gloriae!

Tu scala, tu ratis,
Tu, Crux, desperatis
Tabula suprema;
Tu de membris Christi
Decorem taxisti,
Regum diadema!

Per te nobis, Crux beata,
Crux cruore consecrata,
Sempiterna gaudia
Det superna gratia! Amen.

Poetry

September 13 – Let Brotherly Love Continue by Zhou Gong

1-

The masses of cherry blossom
Are gleaming—”a gorgeous show.
And the wagtail upon the hillside
Is hurrying to and fro.

2-

There are no men equal to brothers.
When troubles and cares invade,
Friends sigh to show their compassion,
But offer no further aid.

3-

In the dreaded moments of mourning
Your brothers will share your pain ;
Should you fly from your home an outcast,
Will bring you back safe again.

4-

Though quarrels within the household
Arise to disturb our peace ;
Let insult from outside threaten,
We unite, and all discords cease.

5-

In the days of rest and enjoyment,—”
With disorder and death at end,—”
(Though fools deny it) a brother
Surpasses the dearest friend.

6-

Your board may be spread with dainties,
Your goblets with wine be crowned,
Yet ’tis only with brothers present
That lasting delight is found.

7-

The union of wife and children
Is music made by the lute.
He the concord of brothers added,
This music shall ne’er be mute.

8-

Rejoice in your well ruled household,
Your wife and your children too ;
But neglect not the counsel proffered :
You will find that my words are true.

From: The book of Chinese poetry: being the collection of ballads, sagas, hymns and other pieces known as The Shih Ching, Translation by Clement Francis Romilly Allen

常棣之華、鄂不韡韡。
凡今之人、莫如兄弟。

死喪之威、兄弟孔懷。
原隰裒矣、兄弟求矣。

脊今在原、兄弟急難。
每有良朋、況也永歎。

兄弟鬩于牆、外禦其務。
每有良朋、烝也無戎。

喪亂既平、既安且寧。
雖有兄弟、不如友生。

儐爾籩豆、飲酒之飫。
兄弟既具、和樂且孺。

妻子好合、如鼓瑟琴。
兄弟既翕、和樂且湛。

宜爾室家、樂爾妻帑。
是究是圖、亶其然乎。

LifeStream

Daily Digest for September 12th

twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Daily Digest for September 11th http://bit.ly/3OYAI4 [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 6 – Storm by Adam Mickiewicz http://bit.ly/6c1GQ [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 7 – Solidarity Song by Bertolt Brecht http://bit.ly/1GDX5p [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 8 – Our Lady’s Nativitye by Robert Southwell http://bit.ly/1BvHym [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 11 – Good Morning, Uzbekistan! by Peter Desmond http://bit.ly/YnGpo [deacon_jim]
lastfm (feed #3)
Listened to 2 songs.
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Solemnity of Brotherly Love http://bit.ly/2g7tcI [deacon_jim]
Homilies

Solemnity of Brotherly Love

First reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm: Ps 85:9-14
Epistle: 1 John 4:17-21
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37

The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant…

We are changed

We are a new people, a people of the new covenant, a people born in love. We have been changed in every way imaginable and we are constantly growing into the people God calls us to become. From the moment we were baptized we have been on the road to change, renewal of life, and of dedication to fulfilling the love our Lord has given us.

Jesus’ coming ushered in this new covenant —“ but that was only the beginning. Often we mistake Jesus as a one time event, even an end point. If we think it all ended with Jesus’ ascension we would be wrong. At His ascension Jesus challenged us to take up the life He called us to, the Christian life in which every day is a step forward in the new covenant.

Jesus’ time on earth was not an experiment in magic or some sort of mystical transformation for humanity, it wasn’t some sort of cheep trick aimed at changing man, but was His gift of love by which we were changed and transformed into a people of the new covenant. In the new covenant we learn that we are to live love. Jesus’ coming was the mark in time from which something very special happened… freedom to love truly and rightly.

The old law is no more…

St. Paul often talks about the law as being about sin and death. He strongly stated that by Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection, the marking points for the new covenant, we were freed from the law, freed to live forever in the love of God.

The law given to Moses was a prescription against sin. Like any drug it was meant to be used by people who were already sick. Freedom from the law does not mean that we won’t get sick, literally that we will fall in sin, but that our lives are not defined by sin. In the new covenant our falling is cured by living transformed lives defined by the love Jesus taught.

It starts with Jesus touching us

Last week’s Gospel was a prime example of the kind of love Jesus taught. As you recall a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment was brought to Jesus. First Jesus took him aside, away from the onlookers, and then He did something remarkable —“ Jesus healed by the power of touch and the word.

Jesus spit, touched the man’s tongue, and put His fingers in the man’s ears. He then spoke a word and the man’s ears were opened and he could speak clearly. I’m thinking that if Mary was there she would have been indignant and would have told Jesus to go wash His hands. When we hear that Gospel, and ones similar to it, we sense a definite ick factor. But what Jesus did was a perfect act of love. Jesus touched the man; He laid his hands on Him and made him whole. By loving the man Jesus opened his ears and his life to the message of love.

Jesus touches us to love us. He gave us the sacraments for that very reason, so He could enter into our lives through the hands of his ministers. Jesus wants to be with us and wants to show His love. Then He asks that we take His touch, His love, and share it with the world.

It works when we accept

Back to the ick factor… what if the man got grossed out and ran away? Well, he wouldn’t have been healed, but more so, he wouldn’t have been set free.

The starting point and the path that Jesus offers requires our full cooperation, just like the man cooperated with what Jesus was doing. This is what Bishop Hodur and the Church define as regeneration.

That process begins at baptism and wends its way through our lives till we reach a point where we actively engage the Lord and say yes to Him. Picture the revival meeting or the altar call in your head, people coming up and falling on their knees to accept Jesus. We may not be quite as dramatic —“ but you know what, that’s what we are called to do. We must make the choice; fall on our knees and say: —Yes Lord, I love you and I want to live by the love you taught.—

Be careful of the ick factor and don’t let it get in the way of true faith in our Lord and Savior. He is the one who spit, put His hands on the man’s tongue, put His fingers in his ears, made a mud of spit and dirt and placed it on another man’s eyes, and endured the cross —“ giving us His body and blood to eat and drink. True faith means that accepting Jesus means that we accept His commandment of love which transforms the ick of life into beauty, the commandment that collapses the former law into the love command:

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

That’s not the end

‘Do this, and you will live‘ requires that we do more than accept. We could show up for 10,000 altar calls, to justify ourselves but that will be of no avail. The one acceptance, acceptance of Jesus in our hearts and into our lives, makes us new and puts us on the road to heaven. It is what we do after acceptance that matters, our cooperation in living Jesus’ commandment of love.

I love the way Bishop Hodur stated the work of the Church. The Church is here to accept, help, and love all who seek Christ and abide in her, and if some should chose another path we wish them well and do not disparage them.

Isn’t that Christian love in action? Christian love means that we set aside the ick, the criticism, the disparaging, and every ill thought. Our transformed lives welcome, accept, hold up, love, and care for all. We journey together to heaven and we do not disparage those who seek another path to heaven. We journey together in the process of learning from the Church, taking its guidance as a means for improving the way we love each other —“ and all —“ for who is my neighbor.

If we focus on the Christianity of laws, criticism, ick, or he or she is not good enough, then we cannot claim to be Christians at all, for we will have fallen back into the old ways of the law, trying to change behaviors instead of changing our very identity.

We start in accepting Jesus Christ; we work on changing ourselves so that everything we are says that we live in Christ, loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Let’s get close

The time to get close is now. First, get close to Jesus. If you’ve never consciously done it, say yes to Him and invite Him to change your life, to change your identity. It happened to me at the Mission and Evangelization Workshop in Perth Amboy not that many years ago. We went to a Full Gospel Church to learn about that Church’s ministry. Sitting in the sanctuary and listening to one of their deacon’s describe the power of the Holy Spirit I asked Jesus to change me. The beauty of the moment —“ I’ll never forget it. The change, ask my wife, its on-going and didn’t happen overnight. But I know that the Lord is with me telling me constantly to love, to be transformed.

Next, let’s get close to those around us, here in church, at work, at home, in the neighborhood. Let’s find the people the world calls icky, the people we avoid or are uncomfortable with. It is time to start the process —“ to learn how to love as Jesus loves, to invite as Jesus invites.

This Solemnity marks our difference

Our Church has given us this beautiful Solemnity. Our Church echoes the words of Jesus —“ Come unto me! Pójdź za Mną! That is the call of love that goes forth from every Parish in the Holy Polish National Catholic Church. Come; do not count cost or past transgression. Do not dwell on the ick. We do not abide in hell fire and fear, red devils or criticism. All are welcome to join us —“ to be brothers and sisters living renewed and regenerated lives of love. We believe in God’s goodness – the seed He planted in each of us which takes shape from the moment we come to Him. We are transformed and on the road — becoming the loving people of God. Amen.

Poetry

September 12 – A Sonnet on the Wonders of Love by Jan Andrzej Morsztyn

I nourish love with worry and thinking,
Thinking with memory and covetousness,
I nourish lust with hope and comeliness,
Hope with illusion and useless straying.

I fill my heart with pride and delusion,
Pride with pretended delight and rashness,
I nurture rashness with folly and smugness,
Folly with anger and vile corruption.

I nourish worry with tears and with sighs,
The sighs with fire, fire with the wind indeed,
The wind with shadows, shadows with deceit.

Whoever heard about such enterprise,
That with this care about the others’ greed,
I’m hungry myself ‘midst all these supplies.

Translated by Michael J. Mikoś

Karmię frasunkiem miłość i myśleniem,
Myśl zaś pamięcią i pożądliwością,
Żądzę nadzieją karmię i gładkością.
Nadzieję bajką i próżnym błądzeniem.

Napawam serce pychą z omamieniem.
Pychę zmyślonym weselem z śmiałością.
Śmiałość szaleństwem pasę z wyniosłością.
Szaleństwo gniewem i złym zajątrzeniem.

Karmię frasunek płaczem i wzdychaniem,
Wzdychanie ogniem, Rgień wiatrem prawie,
Wiatr zasię cieniem, a cień oszukaniem.

Kto kiedy słyszał o takowej sprawie,
Że i z tym o głód cudzy się staraniem
Sam przy tej wszytkiej głód ponoszę strawie.

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