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Our Christmas wish

My family and I offer up a prayer this year for your intention. As we gather about the Vigil table, and partake in wigilia_potrawy_554the opłatek, we share with you wishes for peace, health, prosperity, and that our Lord may grant you every blessing and good thing.

We recall all who suffer, because of war, injustice, unemployment, under employment, and poverty. We remember all those who are far from family and friends, from home and those they love, migrant workers, the homeless, and the exploited.

May this Christmas day mark the beginning of our efforts to care for, support, and defend all in need.

We beg the Father for all these things, in the name of His Son and our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you,
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.
“If you take away from the midst of you the yoke,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
And the LORD will guide you continually,
and satisfy your desire with good things,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters fail not.” — Isaiah 58:6-11.

Christian Witness, Poland - Polish - Polonia

A Buffalo News profile of Father Anzelm Chałupka

From the Buffalo News: The Rev. Anzelm Chalupka: An unconventional clergyman

When the Rev. Anzelm Chalupka landed at Corpus Christi Church in January 2004, he was determined to understand his new city. Along the way, he helped resurrect one historic church, and gave energy to a very tired East Side neighborhood. At age 39, he is like fresh air.

Fr. Chałupka, along with Fr. Marek and Brother Peter, is getting it done in a hard scrabble neighborhood many, including the Franciscans, had given up on. May the Lord bless his work and his outreach.

Christian Witness, Perspective, ,

Communing the President

An newly ordained Episcopal priest offers his first Sunday, Rite I, service and communes the President of the United States. From Scribere Orare Est: How the President of the United States Showed Up for my First Sunday Mass

Today I celebrated my first Sunday mass.

My first mass ever was celebrated this past Wednesday at 7:15 AM. Bethany got up extra early to be there, as did the rector and a handful of others. It was deeply meaningful.

But today was my first Sunday mass. And, to make it even better, it was at the 8:00 AM, Rite I liturgy, a liturgy that has been a deeply meaningful part of my own spiritual journey. Our senior warden is a regular at the service and when I saw him yesterday he gave me some good advice. —First,— he said, —Wait a couple seconds after the end of the prelude before you begin. Second, take your time. Don’t rush. Let the service be as it should.— I heard, marked, and inwardly digested his advice, pondering them in my heart as I got ready this morning. I was a little nervous, but primarily excited.

As I was putting on my cassock in my office, I heard another priest come in from outside. I poked my head out the door. —Good Morning!— I called out to our Associate for Worship and Pastoral Care.

She smiled, —Good morning. How do you feel?—

—A little nervous,— I admitted.

—Well, have you heard the news?— she asked.

I was a little confused. I thought for a moment, wondering what the news could be, and then said, —No, I don’t think I have.—

She smiled broadly, —The President of the United States is going to be in the congregation.—

I sputtered, —The President, like George W. Bush??—

She smiled, —Yep…—

Christian Witness, Perspective,

The Christianity that scares

lion-and-mouse…people, and many, many Christians. From Huw Raphael: More like this…

One of our issues, drawing on Huw’s citation of a quote on the vast differences between God and humanity, is that we think of ourselves as the mouse in the fable of the Lion and the Mouse. We think that we can somehow return the King’s favor, that the King just might need us, not for His reasons, but to save Him. Our overwrought sense of confidence leads us down paths we shouldn’t tread. We stop relying on Him and His word, and rely on what we devise — because God needs us to make things right. In our imperfection we go to instinct — our natural instinct being the creation of barriers.

I recently read Fr. Ray Blake’s Pelagianism: I hate it. In it he states:

Pelagianism denies the action of Grace in the world, man is saved by his own goodness and efforts, rather than by God.

It is what we do, rather than what God does that matters, therefore the value of the sacraments is the psychological effect they have in our lives, rather than the direct intervention of God. It denies the power of Grace…: Pelagians above all would deny the role of the Holy Spirit, of His act of sanctification. Wherever there is attempt to place man at the heart of the faith, there we should expect to find Pelagianism.

Pelagianism expects Man to be strong rather God’s grace to be powerful. Catholicism, or as we could call it, mainstream Christianity, acknowledges mankind is weak and wholly dependant on those things God gives him…

Yep, and me too. Pelagianism means we are the deciders. When I look at my Church, the PNCC, I see the Church that believes in the overwhelming power of God, given through the gift of sanctifying grace. Believing that we must say: ‘To whom shall the power of the sacraments be denied?’

When we receive the gifts of God, through the sacraments, we face God’s power to change even the hardest of hearts. Grace moves in and reorients us. When a Church believes that; the barriers are broken down. Whatever our positions may be, our stands, we are whittled down and we are drawn closer to the people we should be. God makes change happen. That change is for everyone. In Him we are made more human, more genuine, and the headstrong, Pelagian mouse in us dies. We learn our need, for God, and for each other. We learn, as Huw says, that Christ takes us beyond [division].

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20).

Christian Witness, Perspective, Saints and Martyrs

Drop your other shoe

By now almost everyone has heard of the Iraqi shoe throwing incident. The day after the incident I came arcoss an article through Christian NewsWire: Iraqi Christians Remain Under Siege

A press release issued last week from the USCIRF states: “Although there has been some reduction in violence in Iraq since the Commission’s last report on the country in May 2007, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom remains seriously concerned about severe violations of religious freedom there. The situation is dire for Iraq’s smallest religious minorities, including ChaldoAssyrian Christians, other Christians, Sabean Mandaeans, and Yazidis, who face a threat to their very existence in the country.

…

Although it is difficult to state how many Iraqi Christians are in the country, the number in 2003, prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein, was around 550,000. Violence targeting Christians has caused many to leave the country. Church leaders in Iraq conservatively estimate that almost 75,000 Christians live outside Iraq in Syria, Jordan or in the West and that another 75,000 have fled to northern Iraq. That means less than 400,000 Christians remain in mainland Iraq. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated that at least 2 million Iraqis have fled the country since 2003 and another 2 million are displaced inside the country, mostly in northern Iraq.

Some say that in the past few years almost 500 Iraqi Christians, including pastors and priests, have been murdered because of their faith. Even more Christians have been killed in attacks, fighting or kidnapping for money. Approximately 2,000 families (a total of 10,000 Christians) fled the northern city of Mosul two months ago due to terrorism. The violence resulted in an estimated 25 to 40 Christian deaths. Hundreds remain homeless…

My first thought was — shouldn’t they be the ones throwing shoes? As I reflected on that I thought, no, they have dropped the other shoe (Matthew 5:39). In witness to Christ they travel shoeless, as He did. They are rejected, and without aid, except from Christians and others who are of good will. They are the new martyrs and confessors. For all of our President’s professed Christian certainty, he has cast these sheep before wolves.

Caesar never understood those who would not throw shoes, slap faces, or take an eye-for-an-eye. So let’s reflect on what is essential in our witness. It is those who rely on God, not on shoes, or weapons, or the works of men. Our vindication is from God.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia

On heaven and forgiveness

Two great articles from John Guzlowski: Christmas and Forgiveness

A while ago, I gave a talk to a high school class about my parents and their experiences under the Nazis. I talked about my father’s four years in Buchenwald and my mothers two and half years in various slave labor camps in Germany.

During the Q & A after my talk, a young man asked me a question. I’m sure it was in part sparked by the Christmas season, the talk that you hear at this time of year about —Peace on Earth and Good Will to all Men.— He asked me whether or not I forgave the Germans for what they did to my parents.

The question stopped me. I haven’t thought about it before…

…and

Heaven

When our daughter Lillian was about five years old, she started thinking about the natural end of all the things she knew. She started thinking about dying and death.

I don’t know why she did, but she did, and it made her sad and worried. She didn’t want to lose her mother and me and her grandparents to death, and she was frightened that she would.

Because she was a bright kid and a problem solver, she tried to think of a solution, some way around death, and the solution she thought out was her own personal vision of heaven.

Heaven, she figured, would be a place where she and her parents and all the people she loved would live in some perfect place, interacting with all her favorite characters from all her favorite books.

It sounded great, and I used to love to hear her talk about it. She and Linda and I would be in the same perfect place as the characters in Laura Ingalls Wilder and C. S. Lewis. We would have lunch in a park with Laura and Lucy and Edmund and Susie and Peter and Aslan, the compassionate, kind, loving God of this Heaven…

Consider these two posts and their relationship, one to the other. Does God forgive, and to what extent? Beyond metaphysical and theological ramblings can we see a God Whose love is the ultimate victor? Who accepts all who present themselves? Who cannot help but run after those who purposefully turn away from Him in an everlasting series of overtures?

Our forgiveness is limited and human. Our concept of heaven too adult. We need more of the heaven of Laura and Lucy and Edmund and Susie and Peter and Aslan and less of our prosaic vision[less] concept. Perhaps Saint Exupéry was right:

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to have to explain things to them always and forever. — The Little Prince, Chapter 1.

Something to ponder as we approach our celebration of the Incarnation.

Christian Witness, Media, PNCC,

Sacred Heart of Jesus-Holy Cross supporting the NY Mills community

From the Utica Observer Dispatch: N.Y. Mills’ Holiday on Main Street draws revelers to park

The faces of children and adults were aglow Sunday during the ninth annual Holiday on Main Street activities, which included a tree lighting, bonfire and other activities.

Resident Linda Armstrong attended the event for the first time this year with her grandson Dakota Saxe, 4, of Clinton. The two sat together near the fire Sunday after sledding, seeing the Christmas tree light up in the village gazebo and hearing village trustee Kenneth McCoy read —The Night Before Christmas.—

—This is kind of nice,— she said, smiling.

McCoy said the event took several months to organize and the assistance of several community groups to be successful. The New York Mills Fire Department monitored the bonfire. The fire department’s ladies auxiliary served refreshments, and the local Lion’s Club offered tractor-pulled hayrides around the surrounding streets. The nearby Sacred Heart of Jesus-Holy Cross Polish National Catholic Church also participated, selling refreshments and providing space for musical performances.

The groups performing there and throughout the parks included the New York Mills Jazz Band, the New York Mills Elementary and Junior-Senior High School choral groups, the Sounds of Silver Choral Group and the New York Mills Children’s Bell Ensemble.

…

—Everyone comes together, friends and family,— he said. —And our focus point is really on celebrating the Christmas season.—

Sacred Heart of Jesus-Holy Cross is pastored by the Very Rev. Walter Madej. Father Senior Madej and his parish go to great lengths to support the NY Mills community. Fr. Serior, along with his parish committee worked to support the establishment of a monument to mill workers in Pulaski Park, which adjoins the church. The Rome Arts Hall of Fame notes:

In collaboration with Rev. Walter Madej, Jim [McDermid] created two sculptures which now reside on the corner of Oneida and James Street in Utica. Also with Rev. Madej, Jim created a stainless steel and copper Bell Monument which sits on Main Street in New York Mills as a historical reference to the village’s past and in honor of the mill workers who formed the majority of the village’s earliest population. Jim uses a figurative image in both realistic and abstract ways to express human content.

The dedication of the bell monument, and Fr Senior’s work (read The Bell from the history of NY Mills), resulted in the establishment of the annual NY Mills Bell Festival, now entering its 9th year.

In addition to the festival, Fr. Senior worked with Dr. Richard Chmielewski to establish the White Eagle Medical Bridge to Poland. The program provides Polish hospitals and clinics with much needed training, supplies, and equipment. The group holds an annual charity golf outing to support its work which has included: the shipment of a complete cardiac catheterization laboratory, the establishment of a supply network for rural clinics, and organization of the first emergency medicine congress ever hosted in Poland.

These programs and events are a testimony to Christian charity and the work of Father Senior Madej and all Polish National Catholics in NY Mills. May God bless their work.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Media, Perspective, Political

My rights are greater than your rights…

From ChristianNewsWire: In God We Trust’ to Oppose Attempt to Place Atheist Sign in Washington D.C.

The national advocacy group In God We Trust today pledged to fight any attempt to place a controversial atheist sign in Washington, D.C. The sign attacks religion and that is now on display in Olympia, Washington, Madison, Wisconsin and Springfield, Illinois.

The signs from the Freedom from Religion Foundation reads:

“At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail.
There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.
There is only our natural world.
Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

“In God We Trust will oppose any effort to place these signs in any state capital or in any government location in Washington, D.C.,” promises Bishop Council Nedd, the organization’s chairman. “These signs have nothing in common with a menorah, a nativity scene or a Christmas tree. They are an attempt by anti-religious bigots to equate a belief in God with enslavement and to ridicule the majority of Americans who believe in God.”

“Why do these zealots have the right to post signs on public property attacking their countrymen?” Nedd asks…

Besides the errors in logic in this group’s argument, there is the issue of hypocrisy. Weren’t these the same folks who advocated, all but a few short months ago, regarding pastors’ rights to direct voting from the pulpit, to say whatever they please from the pulpit without government constraint? Groups like this one advocate free speech when it suits their purpose but are quick to quash others rights. Bishop Council Nedd asks, “Why do these zealots have a right…?” For exactly the same reasons you claim to have a right.

Now, do I agree with the “Freedom from Religion” folks? Not at all! At the same time I fully support their right to say whatever they wish, on equal footing with other groups. The Young Fogey often points to the difference between living in a secular state versus a secularist state as in this post. The government is doing as it should – it is treating all groups as equitably as possible. The ‘Freedom from Religion’ folks are secularist, and they have every right to that message.

I am confident enough in my faith and in our Lord and Savior so as to know that His message will prevail. I do not need the government nor ‘In God We Trust’ to defend me, or the message of the Gospel. I do not need to classify rights based on faith because my rights come from my faith. Faith is Christian witness. The victories of the world are fleeting. We await heavenly victory.

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